It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Statue of the Savior at Echo Park

            We had a pretty rough week.  But hey, at least it's December, right?  That's always something to be happy about.  Yeah, it was pretty challenging for us.  We were punted a lot (cancelled appointments), so we didn't get to teach as many people as we had hoped.  I did feel the Spirit, though, which always makes a week better.  Even if we did a lot of teaching, if it was accomplished without the spirit, walang kuwenta doon (no point).  Before I forget, I guess I should answer Mom's questions really quick.  No, I don't have the old shoes anymore.  If the older shoes were size 10, then the new ones should fit, but it looks like they changed the design of the shoe, because it’s different and really wide.  Maybe I just have to break them in or something.  I guess I'll just walk around in them around the house.  Hopefully, I'll get the Christmas package for Zone Conference and some other mail, just so it's masaya.  Speaking of Christmas Conference, I really hope that I don't transfer, because I want to be here for Christmas Conference so I can see all of my MTC district.  I'd rater be here than in Cabanatuan for Christmas.  But, whatever happens, happens.  We'll find out on Wednesday if I'm transferring.  I can't believe how fast this transfer went by.  It has been one of the fastest of my entire mission.  Missionaries tell me how much faster the time goes by when you hit your one year mark, and they're right.  Elder Dela Cruz, my ZL in Sta. Ignacia, is done with his mission and departs for home on Wednesday.  We've been in the same zone for seven months, so we got pretty close.  I can't believe how fast that went by.  I guess I just realize that my emails lately have been completely random and out of order, so I will try to fix that right now.

Jordan with (from left) Mak Mak, Hart and Elder Rabino

             Remember that "awesome" investigator (James) I told you about last week who's married to an active member of the Church and always keeps his commitments?  Well, it turns out that we heard that they're not actually married.  "No problem," I thought, "because they can get married and he'll be baptized at the end of month or in January."  So, I thought it was going to work out, but then Sister told us that she's moving to Taiwan for three years to be a care taker.  Ah great.  She's leaving before Christmas.  She told us to come by and give her a blessing before she goes, so we'll see how we can find out about any plans they have for getting married.  We found some pretty interesting families this week like the Capistrano family.  They're really nice and Brother Capistrano is really interested.  The only problem is that they're like living with their relatives in one house, and they have their own house somewhere else that we don't know how to get to, so sometimes they are there, and sometimes they are not.  We also began teaching two people that we found a long time ago and after a couple of visits, we stop visiting them, because they were never home or interested.  We were punted a lot one day, so we decided to go back and try them again.  We were able to teach them (Ruth and Lita) and it went really good.  They had a lot of good questions about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, but the one question that EVERYONE ALWAYS asks is: If Joseph Smith's name isn't written in the Bible, so how's a prophet?  I'm pretty sure EVERY missionary gets asked that question.  I came up with a good answer (I didn't tell them yet, because I was focusing on listening to them) : He's prophesied in the Bible by Isaiah and other prophets, even if it's not his name.  Also, Peter, James, John, Timothy, Andrew, Phillip, Paul, etc., were Apostles of Jesus Christ; yet, they are not mentioned by name in the Old Testament.  In fact, Jesus Christ is not even mentioned by name in the Old Testament.  There are, of course, scriptures that reference Him, but He is not specifically identified.  So, the Jews during the time of Christ were asking the very same kind of question about Him.  Yet, that did not mean He was not the very Son of God. 

            We went to Tarlac this morning to play basketball, so that's why I'm writing this a little late today.  I doubt you guys are awake right now, but if you are, thanks for reading so far haha.  We got brand new jerseys again, so now I have two (one from Sta. Ignacia Zone and one from Tarlac).  I keep forgetting to send you guys pictures of them, but they're pretty sick.  I'm sure I'll get around to it someday.

Jordan with his district, Elder Rabino and (from left) Reyes, Balota, Sharp and Martin

            I do have some sort of a funny story from this week.  We were leaving from a punted appointment when a very protective (and ugly) mother dog came and charged at me as if she was going to attack.  Usually I just scare them off, because the dogs are like that here, but it was a little unexpected, so I was pumped up full of adrenaline about to punch this dog straight in the face when a neighbor yelled at the dog and scared it away.  My heart was pounding after that.  I've had that happen to me a couple of times since I've been here, but haven't ever been bit.  I am always prepared for an aggressive dog, ready to fight to the death.  I guess I could carry the pepper spray with me, but I feel like I would be tempted to use that more for fun on annoying dogs than for my protection (haha).  Well, I guess that's about it for me this week.  I'm hoping that I won't be writing you next week from a different area, but I guess we'll see.  Ingat kayo and be safe.  Mahal Kayo.

            Elder Jordan "Air Mormon" Royal

Tarlac Zone, 12/04/12