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Jordan did not send new pictures this week, but we found this one of him at a
YSA Family Home Evening in Tarlac, January 2013 |
Hello and goodnight.
Sorry that I am writing so late.
President Martino has established a completely new way of reporting
within the mission so we had to spend a lot of time figuring how to do it and,
in the process, received what seemed like a thousand phone calls from
missionaries in our zone asking us how to do them. It's been a pretty crazy week. Elder Dadizon got transferred and now I'm
leading the area after being here for only four weeks. It was very unexpected. Elder Dadizon and I were sure that we would
be companions until the end of the month, but I guess the Lord had other
plans. The good news is that my new
companion is Elder Revillo, my zone leader from Tarlac. (You may remember me writing about him in
earlier letters.) I was pretty stoked
about that, because I really liked working with him in Tarlac. It was a weird transfer, because it was only
four weeks long. There were some new
missionaries that arrived during that time, so President had to shorten the
transfers. (By the way, these funny
transfer dates are related to more missionaries arriving, some at odd times
like this last one, which has pushed around release dates. I have confirmed my release date as October
24, 2013, which means I will have nearly served a 25 month mission. Astig, diba?) We had Zone Leader Council on Tuesday, which
was fun to see all of my batch from the MTC to see how far we've come in the
mission. That's where we talked about
all of the new reporting and stuff. We
had a pull up contest with President Martino before we went to bed and I held
the record for most of the time at 12 . . . until Elder Palmer beat me by one
(13). Darn. I'll win it next time. President Martino's a very strong man for his
age. He was able to do 10. He even did 50 push ups in his white shirt
and tie in front of all of us as he told us to be awake and focused during the
meeting. Pretty awesome.
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| Jordan with Tatay Atchuela in Tarlack, January 2013 |
A lot of the members here were surprised and sad that
Elder Dadizon transferred. He was
assigned to Dingalan Bay (Bongabon Zone: My first zone in the mission.) He had been here for six months, so he had
obviously become very close to a lot of people here. Elder Dadizon and I had a lot of fun during
our time together. We had four baptisms
in the four weeks that we were together.
Even though I still get confused sometimes about the area, I will manage
fine and we will accomplish a lot here.
We have two baptisms planned on March 23rd, Dinera and Gracia
Taruk. They are from a part member
family that Elder Dadizon and I found a couple of weeks ago, and they have been
progressing well since the first lesson.
They are some of the best investigators that we have here. They read everything that we give them,
understand it, prayed about it, and have developed their own testimonies of
it. We met their mom for the first time
on Saturday. She has been a member for
over 20 years, but stopped attending church many years ago. What we did not know is that she has also
been reading the assignments that we have given to her children, even though we
had never met her, and she came to church for the first time in years. She is very excited to be coming back to
church and we were very happy to see when she arrived. That is a great example of the joy that comes
from sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving others with the goal of
bringing them back to Him, right? It is
always a blessing to bring families together.
I love the Rescue Program.
I love being a missionary!
Even though my birthday is still three months away, since
you asked what I would like in a birthday package, here are some ideas. (I'm not really sure what I want to be
totally honest.) Maybe a new pair of
workout shorts would be cool. (That
probably sounds a bit crazy, but it’s the first thing that came to my
mind.) I really don't know what else
besides food, protein, and other goodies that you would want to throw in
there. Hopefully, the package won't get
flooded again, plagued with mold and gross bugs (although that was actually
pretty cool, I must say).
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We can't see Jordan's basketball shorts in this photo (taken in January 2013, Tarlac).
We only know he wants a new pair for his birthday |
I am so happy to here about Brody's Mission call to
Canada Vancouver! That will be awesome
(and cold)! He'll start out there in the
summer, so it shouldn't be too bad. That
is very, very cool. Speaking of
missions, doesn't Brett Dommer enter the MTC this week? That sure was fast. The MTC is awesome. I imagine it is super crowded there now with
the new age change. Here's some
revelation for you about that: While we
were in the MTC, they were building two new apartments (one for Elders and one
for Sisters) on campus. I remember
thinking why they were doing that, since there was only one giant building for
the sisters and it seemed to be more than was needed for the number of
sisters. Then the age change happened,
and two weeks after that, Elder Jefferey R. Holland dedicated the two finished
apartments in time for all of the new missionaries coming in. Pure revelation. Awesome, Right?
Well. I think
that's about it for me this week. I hope
that everyone is enjoying life there.
Ingat kayo. Love you all!
Elder Jordan “Loves But is Also Annoyed With New
Reporting Requirements” Royal
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| I can't remember if we ever posted this family picture from Thanksgiving 2012 . . . but it's worth reposting anyway |
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