10 More Days to the Philippines!

    Well, I am happy to announce that I only have 10 MORE DAYS LEFT IN THE MTC before departing with my district to the Philippines.  We received our travel plans yesterday, and I can't remember all the times of our departures, but I do know we leave Salt Lake City at about eight at night and land in LA at around 9:30 pm.  Then we fly all the way to South Korea, and then Manilla.  Wow.  What a crazy thought.  It has felt like I would be here forever, but time went by so much faster than I thought it would.  I'm just freaked out for when I land in the Philippines and I won't be able to communicate or understand anyone.  Great.  On the other hand, I'm super excited for it! 


    So, I guess I can tell you about my week.  Tyler left for the mission field on Monday.  I didn't see him, but I hope that he is doing well and that the Lord blesses him with success.  We had a devotional on Tuesday night by Elder Callister of the Seventy.  He spoke in General Conference last month about how the Bible and the Book of Mormon go hand in hand.  Anyway, he gave an awesome talk for our devotional.  He spoke on the Great Apostasy and how to teach it to our investigators, because if they don't believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ needed to be restored, then the First Vision of Joseph Smith was just a good story and that we're just another Christian church.  I learned a lot more about the Great Apostasy.  It's a hard subject to teach investigators about, because we think we might offend someone by leading them to the conclusion their church does not contain the fullness of the Savior’s gospel, with all His power and priesthood authority.  I think that I can comfortably talk about it now. 

    I was able to host the new missionaries that arrived on Wednesday.  All 700 of them.  Yeah that's pretty crazy.  It's probably because they're not having any missionaries come in during Thanksgiving, so they decided to cram all 700 in at once.  It was kind of a dream like moment for me.  I couldn't believe that I had reached this point of my mission, hosting new missionaries much like I was several weeks ago.  Some missionaries were scared or shy, but some of them were totally pumped and excited to arrive.  I thought back to the day when I came and was hosted by Daniel.  Was that really almost two months ago???  That's crazy!  I can see that Daniel is doing well from his emails and wish him the best.  Next week is our last full week here.  It's going to be crazy and sad leaving this wonderful place.  (By the way, I have P-Day on Saturday next week.)

Jordan depicted here on his arrival at the MTC on Sept. 28th, here helped by Elder King.  This week, he got to be a host!

Elder Harrison here illustrates what would happen if a gorilla meets a grizzly bear

    Okay funny story for you.  Elder Brown and I went to teach our progressing investigator on Tuesday.  She invited us into the room and there were two padded chairs for us to sit on.   These chairs are built very weird.  They're kind of like metal rocking chairs.  The metal on the bottom had been broken for awhile.  I went to sit and leaned back, at which point the chair just bent back all the way and I flew backwards and landed on the ground.  Everyone (including me) was just cracking up, because it was hilarious.  Our teacher told us to leave the room and come back when all of us stopped laughing.  We came back and gave a pretty good lesson.  That was pretty funny (haha).

    We had a really good spiritual experience yesterday.  Sister Sharp has had some problems with her leg for the past week.  After our discussion with our teacher, we were all pretty quiet, because the spirit was really strong in the room.  Then I had an impression for all of us to give Sister Sharp a blessing.  She was very grateful and asked me to give the blessing.  So, all eight of us formed the circle and I gave her a blessing.  I did not know that I was going to give the blessing and therefore had no idea what to say.  I just waited for the Spirit to take over and it did.  I can't write what I said, because I don't really remember anything of what I said.  All I know is that I wasn't the one talking.  It was the Spirit.  We sang a lot of hymns together and then we sat there and did Personal Study.  Brother Day just taught us that we need to spend some time doing some deep pondering.  So, I spent the next 20 minutes just thinking about what the Spirit just did through me.  Everyone else was crying before then, but then all of the sudden I began to cry a lot.  It was just an amazing experience for everyone in the room.  Earlier that day, Elder Holland's talk about the boy who was struck by lighting kept going through my head.  "Unexpectedly, lightning will strike (so to speak), and we must be worthy and ready to use our Priesthood."  (It's also a Mormon Message.  You should look it up.)  I had no idea why that message kept coming and coming into my mind all day.  I finally figured out why after I had given the blessing as I was pondering.  I'm so glad that I am worthy and ready to use this gift of the Priesthood that has been given me.

    Well, thank you for all who sent me letters this week.  Very much appreciated.  Thank you Mom for the packages.  And yes, I got everything.  Also a big thanks to Uncle Greg and Aunt Allison for the Family Tie.  When I wear it, I will always think of you all.  Oh, and a special shout out to Brennen Marshal for his mission call to the Baltic Mission speaking Russian.  That's seriously awesome!  I almost screamed when I read that (haha). 

    The next time I write I'll only have two days here.  That will go by incredibly fast.  I hope all is well with everyone here.  Mahal ko tayo!

    Elder Jordan Royal

    P.S.  I'm getting some pictures printed this week, so I should be sending them next week sometime.