January 16, 2011
FINALLY!!! Some updated information for Elder Jake! Seriously, I've wanted to shoot him! He sent a couple of e-mails from the MTC that were maybe 3 lines long! He had a great time in the MTC and loved it there.
Tuesday I got to talk to him on the phone. He flew out that day and got to call. I had my cell phone with me at the hospital and I started jumping up and down and crying! Everyone there knew I was talking to Jake and they all started crying, too!
He sounded soooooooo good. He loved the MTC and bore his testimony over and over. He said, "The Church is true, Mom. I can't deny that ever. I felt it in my heart and that's how you learn that it is true." What a wonderful moment.
I just got a letter from him when he got to the mission home. He said that they won't be able to use members computers, so he will mostly write letters and not e-mail. We are supposed to use the PO box for letters and packages sent by the post office, but the street address for the packages sent UPS or Fed Ex. Also, it apparently costs the Church extra money if we sent anything else besides a letter in regular envelopes.
I'm excited for regular correspondence and to know where his first area is. As soon as I get that, I'll post some of his letters. As for now, I know he's "lovin' it" and that he is in good hands.
A couple of days before Jessi's wedding, my mission president, Lowell Snow, called me. He is a Seventy now and had just spoken at the MTC. He saw Jake, but said he didn't think I had a son old enough to be at the MTC. He spoke about a sister who was killed in a car accident along with her mother a short time before she was to enter into the MTC. After his talk, the District Leader of the Everett missionaries came up to him and asked if he could talk to one of the Elders. Apparently he was this sister's finace' and was really struggling. President Snow said he spoke to this elder.
While I was on the phone with Jake, I talked to him about the phone call and Jake told me that was one of the elders flying out with him and that the conversation President Snow had with him really touched his heart and helped this elder alot.
This world is so small! We are all connected in ways that we don't even know. It meant the world to me to have President Snow take the time out of his schedule to call me and then to be able to hear my son's voice... those are the good things in life. That's what really matters.
