My First Letter from the MTC and I'm Doing GREAT!

    Hey I'm so sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile.  Our P-Days are on Fridays, and we didn't get P-Day last week.  The MTC is great!  I absolutely love it!  The first week of the MTC went by incredibly slow.  I feel like I've been here for over two months.  Elder Brown is my companion.  He is from American Samoa.  We have two Samoan elders in our district, and it seems like that all of the Samoans go to the Philippines for their missions.  We have at least 10 of them going there.  Elder Brown is really cool.  He was really quiet with me for the first two days, but we're really close friends now.  He and Elder Tauilili are both in our district.  Four out of the 10 missionaries in our district are foreigners.  Elder Biggs, our District Leader, is from England, and he's the coolest guy from England I've ever met.  He doesn't mind that the sisters in our District (Sisters Sharpe and Ycmat are both from Utah) asked him to say certain words in his accent (like "particularly," Harry Potter spells, or Chronicles of Narnia battle cries).  He thinks that it's funny when I try to talk like a British man.  He says I sound nothing like one, even though I think it sounds pretty good.  Oh well, I guess he would know his accents better than I would.  Elder Palmer is from Canada, and he's a really cool guy, too.  He says certain words pretty weird, too.  Elder Kemmy is from Tennessee, Elder Merrill is from Utah, and Elder Harrison is from Ohio.  I feel like I've known these Elders and Sisters my whole life.  We get along so well, and we just love it.

    As for the language....it's coming, I guess.  We all still have some work to do.  It's stressing us all out.  We had to teach an investigator in Tagalog on Friday, on just our third day of the MTC.  That was really embarrassing!  I've been studying this language like crazy, and I hope it all pays off soon.  The investigators here aren't real, of course, and I can see why.  I don't think the MTC would send in real investigators to missionaries who have only been studying their language for two days.  (Ha.)  I have learned so much in just a week, though.  I know how to get to know someone, pray, bear my testimony, and teach a little bit in Tagalog.  The older Districts that have been here longer than us seem so much older and wiser, just because of how much of the language they know.  I'll be like that in about a month or so (hopefully).  I can’t wait for that day.  We taught the "investigator" four times this week, and each time I was able to understand more.  The first two lessons were mainly focused on how to say certain words without worrying about the investigator's needs.  As soon as we focused more on what would help the investigator more about the gospel, the language became a little easier, and I was able to understand more of their responses.  I felt really overwhelmed with the language yesterday.  I couldn't understand anything that was going on.  I started to feel really discouraged and depressed.  I prayed for comfort, because I really needed to focus more on the positive things.  We went to the temple today, and that blessing of comfort finally came to me.  I recognized that I need to be more patient and just wait for the Lord to bless me with the Gift of Tongues on His own due time.  It was an awesome experience, and I feel a lot more confident.

We think this fairly represents the look on Jordan's face when asked to teach a lesson in Tagalog two days into the MTC

Mommy's nine day wait for a letter was too long . . . .

     I've seen Elder Michael Escobedo (butchered that spelling probably) a lot lately.  He's not in my Zone, but he usually has the same gym time that I do, and we went into the same session at the temple today.  I've seen other Elders from Summer Term at BYU.  I saw Kevin Turek at the MTC bookstore yesterday, which was really random.  It was really cool to talk to him for a few seconds about David and the volleyball team they have up there.  Sounds like you guys are so good that you make other teams forfeit (haha).

    Thank you for all of the Dearelders everyday.  All of the missionaries are pretty jealous that my dad is willing to send pages of letters daily (haha).  Alam ko po na totoo ang Aklat ni Mormon.  Alam ko po na mahalaga ang pangalan.  Alam ko po na buhay si JesuCristo.  Mahal Kita pamiliya!

    Elder Jordan Royal