1 Year down and 1 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First, Royal city is small. The house is gross. Was gross that is. I spent a total of 5 and 1/2 hours cleaning it this past week, four of those hours today. I cleaned the corners, the closet, the carpet, everything. The room is shining. It looks cleaner that anything I have ever seen. I do it because the way it was I'm pretty sure the Holy Ghost couldn't have penetrated all the cob webs.
The lady in our house was very pleased to see that a missionary was finally cleaning the rooms. She said she doubted that any missionary in a number of months had even used the vacuum. Gross. I rearranged the desks and beds and quadrupled the amount of space in our house. I can officially breath again now that all the dust is gone.
Everything in Royal Is going well except that I it's a little weird not knowing everybody and learning the area. But things are good. We should have a few baptisms coming up so we are excited. Tomorrow I will be going to warden on an Exchange. That is going to be righteously fun. and Thursday I'm going to Spokane for a district leader training so I'll be all over the place.
Thanks for everything mom, love you
-Elder Jacobson
PS my companion is from Vera Cruz Mexico and has been out 3 months. his parents live in West Jordan

Dad,
Royal city is doing well. The four other companionship's in the district call me every night which is killing me in relation to writing in my journal everyday.
we have a car but we have to bike most of the day. The car is mostly just used from in and out of town, similar to warden, and going to weekly district meetings.
I'm back in the Spanish Zone, which is really racist against English missionaries sadly, killing our mission unity, not allowing us to reach the goals we set. I talked to the ap's the other day while they drove the transfer van about the "one mission commission" which I coined, and they are in favor. Hope fully we can destroy the sense of superiority in our zone.
(because we aren't even close to being better by the way)

Note from Mom; If anyone can create unity it will be Ben. He has been that way his whole life and he will not give up until it happens and then the mission will explode in baptisms! In my humble opinion of course

Transfer to Royal City!

Well Elder Jacobson is on the move finally and just in time before my green stickers run out on the count down chart! I think he will be OK with the move after some comfort from his sippy cup! Sorry on to his email...

A farewell to la ciudad
Mom,
Thanks for the email. I know a little bit of what you mean as you grow more and more spiritually weary of your calling as RS president, the Lord will support you as you endure to the end of the calling. I felt like that a bit in this area which hasn't been as successful as originally anticipated, as far as baptisms. President Clark told me four weeks ago that I would be staying in Spokane with another native so I had planned on staying. Only this past week I started questioning whether or not I could continue to endure the lack of progressing investigators, the wavering recent converts, and the overwhelming pressures of working in Spokane. I've given everything I've got to these people but not much has come from it. I've killed myself working with the recent converts, but none are as strong as they were, the size of the branch and the recent influx of distraction has debilitated the fulfilment of home teaching, leaving recent converts to allow themselves to fall into apathy as well, despite our daily effort to strengthen them. Basically I was in the midst of the wrestling match but I was falling behind, I would stay forever if I had to, but I was looking for a tag team.
The Lord in his wisdom is changing things in Spokane. The Lord tagged teamed Elder Oliver to take my place in Spokane, and I know that his fresh energy will be able to continue to allow this place to grow. Spokane will certainly be on the ups this summer. As for me, I'm going to Royal City, which is a bit smaller than Warden (Ben's first area), and only an hour away from there. I'm getting a native Mexican companion who has only been out one transfer so I'm "second training," as it is called. I'll be the district leader over there so we'll see how that goes. Elder Cunningham who was in the MTC with me is the new Zone Leader and in our district so I'm pretty excited. I feel I received the experiences in Spokane which I needed most, and now this place is going to explode, and Royal City is just another name for the New Jerusalem if you ask me.
So I leave tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on the work in Spokane as well.
Thanks for your support mom. I love you. Send any letters to the mission home for I do not yet know the address in Royal City.
Farewell Spokane; thanks for the memories, it truly was an honor.
Love you
-Elder Jacobson

Dad,
I'm going to Royal City. also known as royal slope. Don't even bother looking on the map for it I'm pretty sure it can't be found. It's smaller than small and there claim to fame is the apple orchards.
Apparently the work is going incredible out there so I'll try not to mess it up too bad. I'm finally going back to "the zone" where all the Spanish elders are except for us too. It'll be a pretty big change but I'm excited for it. Something I'm really excited for is to go on an exchange in Warden (Ben's first area) because it's in our district! That will be sweeter than sweet.
No body came to church yesterday, as far as investigators, so it was another bummer week, I tried to finish strong but the Lord wants to try me to the very end. So be it, if it's what I need.
I don't hesitate to say I gave this place everything I had. It's a good thing we were in a car otherwise I would have killed myself with physical and spiritual stress. the spiritual stress was enough that I didn't need the physical.
Love you dad.
-Elder Jacobson

Ben and his friends at the Mt. Timpanogas Temple before he left on his mish.



Mom,
Thanks for the email. Sounds like everything is going well in Utah. Speaking of Utah, one of our recent converts took off to Utah because they heard rumor of work. They up and left quite rapidly because they have been out of work for a while. Too bad you guys don't speak Spanish or you could talk to him. Pity.
So things here are going well. We have a couple of people on date right now, sadly it's not one family. This white guy, who speaks Spanish wants to be baptized but his Mexican wife is coming a little bit slower. We are working hard for them to be baptized together in a couple of weeks. Sadly, one of us will be leaving Spokane most likely next week, we'll find out Saturday what's happening with us. I gotta be straight with you I'm really nervous for this transfer call. We've been labouring in Spokane to have these baptisms, what if they ship me out just before they happen? I have been here for a little while... however, I'm always calmed by the fact that it really doesn't matter where I am, as long as they do get baptized. I know where ever he sends me that it will be right, whether I stay or leave. We'll find out shortly.
So we went for a short little run on Saturday, only two miles, and I wanted to run it under 17 minutes, because when we ran it one day it was 17:45 which was egregiously slow. anyway, 17 minutes is more of a casual run right. Should be a piece of cake (and in all honesty it is a piece of cake). About half way there my companion - who allegedly ran track and was pretty good in his day - started dropping behind. Slowly I began distancing myself from him (still within sight and sound) but he was fading. So I decided to stop and wait for him - after 35 seconds he finally caught up, and I felt the goal of 17 minutes, which was so easily reachable, had fallen out of reach. Well, I continued to try and push him, and we arrived .03 after 17 minutes. Which I'm ashamed of because I should be able to do it in like 14:30... anyway the funny part is that my comp was so tired that he threw up. Anyway, I love you mom, thanks for everything, keep up the good work. I think you could go another year or two as the RS pres right?
-Elder Jacobson
p.s. whom the Lord calls he qualifies

Dad
Kevin and Nina both came to church. They are already married. Kevin wants to be baptized this month but Nina is a bit slower. Luckily her best friend happens to be a very strong member, so she can't hesitate too long can she? Jorge and Gloria flaked on us and I think they got invited to a JW church which they were planning on going to, luckily they didn't end up going due to some last minute confusion. The Lord is truly helping us out. If I work the valley I will move to the valley, but things aren't looking like I'll be going there. If they open it I think my comp would go, but I don't think he has the man power to open it yet so it will probably remain as it is, with a change with my comp or I. We'll find out on Saturday, I'm always so dang nervous about transfer calls. This is eternity we're talking about. Whether I stayed in Spokane for 5 or for 4 transfers. Where will I go, what will I do, what other experiences await me? If you think about it too much you could lose you're mind. Luckily we all trust the Lord and his servants so whatever happens it doesn't really matter. You guys should move out of Utah, you'd be temple workers and hold 3-4 callings besides that. A young couple in our branch work in the temple and they aren't even 30 yet. Our ward mission leader is in the branch presidency at the prison as well, and he is a temple worker, and he owns his own
business which is giant.
I'm not actually suggesting that you move out of Utah, but it's fun to see the differences in responsibilities. Like mom has 1,000,000 women to take care of, but the RS president here only has like 20, but half are recent converts. The Lord will never cease to challenge us. I'm finally learning that life will never be easy, no matter what we do, but we can make it
easier and make it worth it if we follow the Lord. If only people would understand that.
Thanks dad, love you. Keep up the good work. I heard that your mission call will be to Italy.
-Elder Jacobson

Jubilant June

Mother,
Thanks for the email. The blog was really good. You're writing skills have improved (no offense). You must be very proud of your son.
So if you could send me the other camera card back that would be great, the one I have is getting full from a plethora of videos.
Things here are going well, pretty much the same as the last few weeks though people have been progressing better recently towards baptism than the last two months so that's a relief. We are expecting 4-6 baptisms in the month of Jubilant June. Majestic May ended majestically with our bomb investigators attending church on Sunday, This month is going to be great.
People are convinced that I will be leaving, but I do not believe that I have finished my work here. I can see one to two more transfers, though no body believes it.
We are very excited for this month, it truly is the Lords work, and as long as we are doing are best, we can trust that the ddifficulties we have are for our benefit. Though we don't know why we have them, we gotta have the faith that the moments, days, weeks, and years of sorrow will are there for us. It is a time of probation, we expected nothing less. If they are self inflicted difficulties I don't think we can make the same statement, until we have repented. The Lord gives us the difficulties that will make us better later.
Love you mom, keep up the good work.
-Elder Jacobson
Mosiah 26:30
Doctrine and Covenants 58:42

Dad,
It's true, the Lord is pretty much obligated to give us trials otherwise there would have been no purpose of coming to earth. No one expected it to be easy. It's like running a 400 meter hurdle race. We prepared for a long time, and as we waited to start we knew that is was going to be harder than hard. We sat in the blocks of birth when the gun goes off. Sometimes you are running smooth and everything is going good, then you start to get a little tired, but you keep going. Sometimes you hit a hurdle, but it's OK, it just slowed you down a bit. Then you start getting incredibly tired and you want it to be over, but you remember what you trained for and you push harder.
Sometimes you hit a hurdle of greatest trial and fall... but you get up and finish the race, because that's what you came for. After it's over, you want to do it again.

So things here are going good. Pretty much everybody is telling me that I'm getting transferred in two weeks - including the members, but I know something they don't know, so I just smile and say maybe.
All four of our prime investigators came to church (the two couples) so we are really excited for them. June should be there month, and hopefully a few of our lazier investigators will pick it up a bit.
I don't know that I have any good stories right now, there are a lot of little miracle stories.
New mission president is coming at the end of the month so I'll have too start sucking up to this one. Joke, I'm anti suck up. I avoid the appearance of it at all costs.
The only thing new is that All my friends have ceased righting me, except Aaron Burgin, so I'm trying to get the girls my greeny knows to right me, but he's not going with the idea too well. Maybe he feels my writing skills are too much of a threat, that I would steal his potentials.
Love You dad.
-Elder Jacobson
The Conejo
Moroni 10:3-5