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| Here's Where's Jordan Entry No. 1 |
Yep...I have reached
seven months here in the mission so far, and it's gone by pretty fast, or
REALLY fast. We're already halfway done
with this transfer! I don't know what's
going to happen next transfer, but I'm most likely going to stay with Elder
Timbas for his last transfer or one of us is transferring, but probably
not. I'm probably going to be here for
four in a half months also. I've already
almost been here for month (May 5), which is crazy! Well, I want to be the first one this week to
wish David a happy birthday on Thursday soooo.....Happy Birthday Bro! Hopefully I beat Kambria and the rest of the
family by saying it to you first - haha.
I was going to wait till next week, but I just felt like giving you a
special boost for the week. What better
present to get for your birthday than a wife, di ba? I also saw your guys's latest pictures that
Dad sent me. You guys look great! Wish I could be there. Oh wait, I will be there, but a little bigger
than the last time you saw me (if Dad uses the Photoshop copy of my head on his
body haha). Speaking of, I love the
cut-out idea! haha I can't wait to see how that'll look in a
couple of weeks. Oh, and of course
Mother's Day is in a few weeks also!
Yay! Mom, I really didn't get any
new information about the call, but I'm probably going to just going to use our
phone and call you guys, or you call, or whatever. I'm also thinking about doing Skype, because
it might be cheaper to just do that at an Internet cafe, but you need a skype
account to do that, di ba? Well, I guess
I should just tell you about the week now - haha.
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| Here's Where's Jordan Entry No. 2 |
The work was....alright this week. We're in a pretty hard area since it's far
away from our house. The area's big, and
sad to say...no one's really progressing except for our children
investigators. Ugh! Saya naman!
It's also hard to find people that are available in their homes and also
not busy. It's hard to be a missionary
sometimes, but I still remember a quote from a speaker at one of my first
devotionals at the MTC: "The mission is not supposed to be a perfect
experience, but a perfect learning experience." I've found that to be very true. I came from an area where we had a lot of
success with baptisms, less actives returning, members working with us,
etc. But here, it's a little
different. I guess I needed to become a
little more humble. We still have a
little bit of success here, but it's still a challenge. One of our investigators, who was living with
a less active, has been coming to church for over seven months and they just
had their wedding on Saturday, so now she is now ready for baptism! She will hopefully be baptized this month.
Even though we had a rough week with the work, my
testimony has grown tremendously this week as I've read the Book of
Mormon. I read all of Third Nephi and
will start the Book of Ether this week.
The Book of Mormon is just amazing.
It's not just a book. It’s
another testament of Jesus Christ and is evidence of the love that God has for
us. There are just so many great things
in there. Mormon prophesies that those
who believe in the Bible will also believe in the Book of Mormon (Mormon 8?)
and Moroni explains why the Book of Mormon was written in the Egyptian language,
"that the Lord may provide a means for translation" (last
chapter of Mormon). The Book of Mormon
is true. Why wouldn't it be? We had a discussion with one tatay about the
Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and he claims that revelation is gone and that
there will be no more of it. I think
people don't pray about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith is because
well...they’re tamad (lazy). Pretty bold to say, but it's true. For many, they have the Bible, and that is
all they will consider. They do not want
more revelations, because that takes too much work to actually read something
and pray about it. I wish they would
simply have a desire to ask God if he loves them and provides revelation on the
Earth today through living prophets and has provided the means for people to
return to him (Bible, Book of Mormon, D&C, PofG). I don't know.
It's just hard to for some to feel the Spirit and understand how much
God truly loves them. God prepares
people for us to teach, but some are more prepared than others. But God has promised that everyone will have
a chance to hear and accept His Gospel.
That's their choice. Our job is
to valiantly work to provide them with opportunities, and share truth by the
Spirit.
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| Here's Where's Jordan Entry No. 3 |
On the other hand, we had a good Priesthood/Relief
Society meeting yesterday. Oh that reminds
me...no Mom I'm not playing the piano in the ward and I don't know who has a
Facebook that they update regularly.
Sorry - haha. So you guys may have seen the video already called, "To
Turn the Hearts" in your Priesthood/Relief Society meetings, but if
you haven't, you should watch it. It's
so awesome! It's about this stake in
Springfield, IL that tries to get all the members to do family history work and
attend the temple regularly. It was
awesome to see the change in the lives of the members who were effected by this
work. Just an awesome experience. It made me think about the people we teach on
our missions who who will go to the temple and be sealed as a family.
We had two CSPs this week (Community Service Projects) in
Mayantoc. The first one was on
Wednesday. We went to a member's house
and shoveled up some dirt and stuff and moved it to another part of their
house. I don't know what it was for, but
we did it for them - haha. I was doing
most of the shoveling with Elder Mora, and it was a really hot morning. I was dripping sweat everywhere and my
flip-flops got so soaked with sweat that I was slipping when I walked. We then had another CSP on Saturday with the
Mayantoc members at their elementary school.
We spent about five hours sweeping up and gathering up all the dead
leaves and burning them. That was also a
very tiring project.
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| Here's Where's Jordan Entry No. 4 |
Now, to answer a few questions. Yes, I am very excited to hear about my
birthday box. There are shoes that I can
buy here for 300 pesos (some I just found this week), so I could maybe do that
until then. As for ankle braces, I have
an ace badge thing, but there's nothing to keep in place...so I would most
likely want my volleyball braces if you can send them. Elder Timbas is great. He helps me a lot with the language, which is
awesome.
Well....I think that just about wraps it up for me. I hope that you all have a great week and
have fun. Mahal ko kayo! ingat!
Elder Jordan Royal
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