Hey y'all! Sorry I haven't been able to do my group email much lately. I apologize. It gets hectic and I don't have much time to email these past few weeks! Things have been going great here though. Our investigator, Jenny, is getting ready for baptism on the 31st of December and has her baptismal interview tomorrow morning. We are super excited for that! It's great seeing how much happier she is with this gospel in her life. She has had a rough past for sure. But I just want you all to try and remember the true meaning of Christmas and try to find some way to serve God this season. I love you all and wish you a merry merry Christmas! :D

Hey Mom! So I got the crappy computer again, so it's harder to email. So I'm just not going to do a group email and try to respond to a couple people. And we have shorter time today as well. P-days are so hectic. I don't like it. I wish we got like 2 more hours haha! But oh well. Well, our mission funds haven't been filled for 3 weeks so we have barely any food this week but we will make it by okay.

We have a new investigator, Jenny, who is on date for the 2nd of January and she looks really promising so far! Super exciting! :) Elder Klingonsmith has been doing a lot better. He was really struggling for awhile but is doing much better. We are both staying here in Kettering so that will be great! I'm excited to keep working here. But if you could put some money in my account if possible that would be great! Unless we get a car at transfers (probably not) I will be biking a lot and will need a new inhaler soon. And possibly a bike too. Also, will you able to look up that nature path stuff?

Things are going real well here though. I'm doing great and loving every bit of it. I really struggle waking up and staying awake during studies these past couple weeks. My companion likes to take forever getting ready for bed. But we have to retire at the same time. So I get like 45 minutes less sleep than usual. So that's hard, but other than that it's good. We have the coolest members here. They are such solid families! But yeah, and I got your Christmas package! :D Thank you :) And I haven't tried on the rain coat you sent me yet but it's pretty sweet! We had record breaking temperatures this week. It was 71 degrees on Saturday. Haha! Supposed to be freezing by weekend though. :( 

Love you!

This week not too much happened but we had interviews this week which was pretty cool. Every 6 weeks we have either zone conference or interviews with President. And this week was interviews and it was pretty good! We get a 10 minute interview with him and Sister Porter, do an area book and planner check and do a 15 minute role play. :) But our mission has these sweet OCM pins that we can earn if we memorize and pass off 17 faith scriptures and 3 other things by past prophets and I earned my pin!!! I'm super excited! They have to order in some more though so I don't have it yet but I'll post a picture when I get it. Can't wait! 
So in this area I am in there is a lot of big long hills and it's been getting colder. So as you can guess, my asthma is really trying to murder me! I have been having to use my inhaler a couple times before lessons cuz I can't really speak cuz my breathing gets so bad. So it's kinda a pain right now. Not to mention my bike isn't looking so good... My first bike I borrowed before I got this one had a problem with a creaking noise when I pedaled and the whole pedal/arm fell off while the zone leader was using it on transfers. My bike I have now has been making those noises lately. So I took it in to the bike shop and they tightened it but said if it starts making the noise again it's going to cost anywhere from 30-70 to fix it. Not to mention I need new tires which are like 30 or so? And my brakes are going out and my front and tail lights have been broken so I had to spend 25 on those today... So I'm not sure this bike will be worth fixing soon and will probably end up talking to the mission office to see if they have a different one I could buy off them.
We have been working with a couple investigators though who aren't doing so good. This area has people to baptize, but it's a hard area to find the right people to teach that will keep commitments. It's just a super nice area so most people are happy and go to church and don't feel any need for change. So one of our investigators, that let us come back, and had a family home evening set up for today, (which would have been so great) dropped us yesterday... So the area is up and down. Haha! Our old investigator, Colton, who took the mushrooms, called randomly and just went off at us and was saying how he wants to come and protest at the church. :I    But yeah, things are good though :)

Hey mom!  So I get like no time to email today... sorry. One of the Computers that we use is like broken... So we kind of have to split the time between us, so this will be short, sorry. I am so glad you had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving at the Walkers home, and at a random persons home that is not a member. It was a referral we knocked on, and their kids who I guess were members invited us in. :) So that was cool! And the GPS will be SO NICE! Thanks for sending it to me. Sadly, our car was taken away though... The other Elders in our area complained that the ward members weren't liking giving them rides to church anymore because they live an hour away from the church building so the MP decided to give them our car. My asthma kills me on the bike in this cold weather too. And its a pretty big area. We have the whole ward to ourselves. It's really hard on bikes, but it will be okay. I will need you to send me a raincoat sometime soon though, a thin one. I got soaked in the rain the other day and it was so cold!

As for Christmas present ideas, I'm not sure? Letters are always fantastic! And pictures, I love getting pictures! :) Things with my comp are pretty good. We got along well but he just has no faith in himself or the area and really struggles. He has talked to President and he has to meet with a counselor. But I still love him and we work hard!

Love you! :D

So we had the coolest experience ever this week! We had what's called a mission tour where someone from the 12 or the seventies comes and tours the mission and has a meeting/training for like 8 hours. We had the privelage of Elder Randall K. Bennett of the quorum of the seventy come to our mission and WOW, it was such an amazing experience! He is so powerful. He spoke during conference. He gave the talk "Your next step" which was great! The coolest thing happened though! I was asking him a question about one of our investigators, Tim Gehrke, who has been investigating the church for about a year or so and we can't get him to take his next big step (he's scared) and when I asked the question Elder Randall K. Bennett had me come up in front of the whole southern half of the mission, (233 missionaries I think?), and he had me roleplay a lesson with him, with me as the investigator, Tim, and him as the missionary. HOLY CRAP!!! It was the most amazing thing ever, so powerful. He pretty much gave a commitment/drop lesson to get him to start progressing and he was SOOO bold and loving! I cannot even explain how much Tim (Me) and the whole audience felt the love of Elder Bennett. It was the most amazing experience and so revelatory. I wish I could go back again. 

So one of the cool things about our mission is its the most obedient mission in the world. I'm definitely blessed to be a part of it. And while he was speaking he said, "As a representative of Jesus Christ, he now is wanting me to let you know there is no greater group of missionaries in the world." That was cool! He also said, not to say there aren't other amazing missionaries, just this is the best group. Still insanely cool haha!!!! I will never forget that day. I hope I can be like him someday. :)

Anyways, I think that's about it this week. Love you all!

Well, I got transferred to Kettering Ohio. (4495 Boulder Ridge Drive, Apt. #302, Beaver Creek, Ohio 45440) It's super nice here too and I love it! And my companion is fantastic! His name is Elder Klingonsmith and he is from Rexburg, Idaho. He just got done being trained so he has been out 3 months. So he is pretty new to the mission as well but that doesn't stop him from  being an awesome missionary! We get along pretty well, for the most part. Occasionally we will disagree on a couple things but we get things solved pretty quick. Coolest thing though! HE DOES BALLROOM!!! He was on a competition team! So sick! But yeah, he's pretty awesome.

So one of our investigators, who was on date, Colton, had some crazy experience/revelation type thingy. Haha! He is a super smart guy. Artist and a total hippy but had a desire to get baptized. Then he had some crazy experience where he pretty much "Saw a light spectrum" which he thought was God. He was "Rebirthed/Baptized by God" in his hot tub. He sat on the ground to meditate and "his bum was on fire and the ground was sucking him to the ground trying to make him part of the ground." He was on the ground convulsing and wanted to run outside and hug us while he was naked cuz he was made so pure....... He was either on some serious hallucinogenic drugs or was totally doing something and got possessed by an evil spirit. He was ranting about this experience he had all night for like 30 minutes. It was odd... And we don't think he will be an investigator long. So yeah. Hahahaha! That was a fun experience. Also we parked in someones driveway for a minute while we talked to the neighbor and we turned around and the neighbors were outside and a cop car was pulled up looking inside the "mysterious car." Hahaha! So we walked over and got everything all figured out. 

 

So I would send pictures, but I just found out this computer in my new area doesn't have a spot to put an SD card in, so I'll need to buy a chord to plug in or a converter.

 

It's a pretty decent sized area. Our ward is pretty big too. Well, compared to my last 2 areas. We have about 240 active members. 90% of them are either Doctors or in the Air Force or both. Like literally. Haha! There is an air force base super close. It's a super nice area as well. There are some massive houses! It's crazy! Anyways, love you all!

New comp Elder Klingonsmith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey everybody! So....... We got our information for transfers and well, I'm leaving.... and Elder Searle is training!!! Elder Searle was such an amazing companion. He will do so great! I am so excited for him. :) Not sure where I am going though, guess we will have to see, but I'm excited! I'm also super sad to leave though. We had a lot of miracles happening in Elwood. Especially this week. I was hoping to stay 1 more transfer. We currently have 6 people on date for baptism and soon to be more, which is AWESOME! The people we currently have on date are Jeff Marlow, Riley Fanning, Bo Hoffman, Angie, Dj, and Skylar Funderburk. And we were going to put the rest of the family on date in the next few lessons. It is good though and I know that Elder Searle will get them all there, and that God wants me somewhere else and has another purpose for me. So I can't wait to find what my purpose is and make it happen or learn what I need to learn and whatever it may be. I'm excited to go. But it also does mean I probably won't respond to most people today cuz I have to hurry emailing time because I've got a lot to do before I leave. But I'll try my best to get back to everybody next week for sure! Love you all! :D

Also! Thank you all very much for all the birthday wishes and packages! They were much appreciated. :D

This week was fun though! We were able to take like 20 minutes after doing some service and have some fun in one of our investigators little go carts in his back yard haha! It was a lot of fun. :) But we had some awesome stuff this week though, we got tons of members out with us, had 7 investigators at church, got 8 on date for baptism (2 dropped though) but the others were looking pretty good. Our investigator back in Milford though, Scott Van De Grift, the one with MS who his wife was baptized.. Yeah, he is baptized now!!!!! It's sooo cool! :D

This week was pretty cool! One of the highlights of the week was that we had zone conference which is an 8 hour training with usually 1 or 2 stakes (1-3 zones per stake). It's led by President and Sister Porter and sometimes Assistants to President or Stake Presidents and they are so spiritual! Sister Porter got a really powerful discussion going with our whole stake on the Sabbath and WOW, the Sabbath is so awesome!!! I really never thought of keeping the Sabbath as very important or very special. I really wish I had. People seriously, its fantastic! The point was brought up that if we live till we are like 80 we have the opportunity to take the sacrament like 2860 times or something similar to that. Which if you are really looking for how you can change in the next week to better prepare yourself for next Sacrament that is 2860 opportunities for the Lord to shape you and tell you what you need to change or work on. BOOM! That's pretty sick, huh? So seriously, think of how important the Sabbath is, what kind of message are you trying to send to your Heavenly Father when you do things?

 

Then something cool! When we have zone conferences they check all the cars and see who keeps them the cleanest and most up to date on fluids and tires etc... for maintenance and the top 3 usually get some kind of a reward. And our car (shared with another set) got 1st place this time! WOOT WOOT! Which means we get put into a raffle out of like 20 or 30 other missionaries for a brand new 2016 Toyota Corolla which would be sweet. :) We currently have a 2011 Corolla.

 

Then our Branch had an awesome Trunk or Treat. SO MANY of our investigators came, it was so sweet. Also one of our new investigators Angie Funderburk and her family came, but Angie does a youth group for kids who have had hard lives and lots of them came. Soo cool! And we get to go share a message with the whole youth group today at 5, cant wait! :D

 

Hope you all have a great week. Love you all!

Food Poisoning

Good morning everybody! This week has been going pretty good. Monday after about 6 I started throwing up and was up till 3 am throwing up 2-4 times an hour so I had to stay in Monday and Tuesday to rest and recover which stinks. I wanted to be out working but I could barely walk up a flight of stairs without passing out, but I was able to get out and work Wednesday which was great! :)

So for our investigator on date!!! Rylee Fanning is a 10 year old girl whose mom is a less active member who is starting to return and wants her daughter to learn more. So we started teaching Rylee last week and had a lesson yesterday at a members house (Jones's) which was so much fun and so spiritual! We were able to commit her to read 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon with her Mom for next time and she is on date for baptism on her birthday which is Nov 27! So exciting! :) Her mom was in tears remembering her baptism and thinking of her daughter being baptized. It was so cool. :) We had a fun time relieving a little bit of Rylee's fear of baptism by demonstrating a baptism with power rangers in a bowl of water and imitation baptizing Elder Searle. It was a lot of fun! :D

So every week we make goals for the week and currently our goals are something like baptisms and confirmations (0), investigators with a baptismal dates and baptismal extensions (6/14), investigators who attend sacrament meeting (8), investigators with a member present or member in home lessons (7/2), Member and other lessons (5/11), progressing investigators (8), and referrals received and contacted (4/4), new investigators (5) and lessons taught to less actives and church tours (5/1).  These are an example of kind of what we shoot for every week with goals. They vary and whatnot but that's a good week if we can hit those goals. Usually if we hit a goal for 2 weeks in a row we raise it by 1 or 2 and have done pretty good and have raised a couple this transfer because of the grace of God. It's a lot of fun being able to see progress in yourself and others as you always strive to work harder. :)

Oh! And the Jones' are so awesome! They are a great family and are helping so much with a  couple investigators, especially Rylee. :) Also with Jaine and Skylar. So Jaine has had a very rough past. All 3 kids are in different families now and 1 has tried to kill a couple people before and was hooked on different sorts of drugs and he is a less active that is 19 that we work with. He needs help. But their Dad was severely mentally, emotionally, sexually, and physically abusive for years. Now Jaine chooses to be mute, by choice, so teaching her can be a challenge at times. She usually has her sister, Skylar , to help speak for her (Jaine speaks to a few people). But she is an awesome girl, oh and she's 16 and living in a good home now. We are having a family home evening with her family tomorrow which will be good .:)

Our other investigator, Tyler, is having a rough time. His girlfriend, of like 3 years, broke up with him and cheated on him. So now he is getting kicked out of the house cuz he can't pay enough for it (Girlfriends parents house=discount) Then he just lost his job and got his licence suspended for some reason I heard. So he has to move this week and we will see what happens there, but we have a lesson Wednesday so that will be good :) Have a good week y'all.

Demonstrating baptism to Rylee

Dinner with ribs at the Anderson's

Teaching Rylee

Baptism Date Set

 

This Wednesday we had the privilege, as a Muncie Zone, to be able to go and do an endowment session in the new Indianapolis, Indiana temple, which is gorgeous! It was such a spiritual and great experience. Temples are so great! It was about a 1 hour drive from where we are located so its no too far. It was well worth it. We went with the other Elwood missionaries and the Crowders who are legit! They are such a cool couple. Love em. :)

 

Then last Monday we got to go to the worlds biggest ball of paint in Alexandria, Indiana and paint a coat on to the ball, therefore helping break the world record on the biggest ball of paint. It was sick! It started out as a baseball and now weighs almost 5000 lbs. That's insanity!

 

This week was pretty great for missionary work though. We had a huge fast as a whole mission and it works! ;) Miracles everywhere! :D So one of our new investigators, Tyler Adams, (Not sure if I mentioned him in the last email) is SO SOLID! Love that guy. :) He is 22 years old and has a 4 year old kid, Levi. He always believed in God but never went to church really in his life. Maybe 1 or 2 times. And now that he is starting to learn more he is getting super excited and happy to learn more. We have taught him the Restoration and talked a bit about prayer and he text us the next day and said,"I just got done having a nice prayer with Roxy (his dog)" which was the coolest thing to hear! We didn't even ask him if he was praying, so that was legit. Then we also had an awesome church tour with Tyler and he came to church. We extended a baptismal date to him of November 7th, which he tentatively accepted, but we will have to work with him a little more and make it more of a sure yes. But HE'S ON DATE!!!

 

Elder Searle and I are still doing really good. He's great and so obedient and hardworking. I love it! And at the apartment we are able to keep it clean and organized as a companionship which is so nice. I'm not the only one doing ALL of the cleaning by myself! Haha! I'm learning a lot living out on my own. A lot about myself and places where I need to mature and grow. It's fantastic! Also, I cut my own hair on Monday and dyed it on Thursday. I wanted unity with Elder Searle. Hahaha! Just kidding. It was just for fun like usual. It doesn't look too bad though. It turned out better then I thought it would. It's confusing some of the people here so bad. They keep looking at me strange and asking me if there is something different. So many people have only seen me one or two times so they're not sure what's going on. It's hilarious!

 

Super cool week guys. I love and miss you all and know you're all in my prayers. Have a great week! :P

 



Love This New Area

 

 



So this week was pretty good. I enjoyed it for sure! ;) So let me see if I can remember some cool stuff that happened. So yesterday we had this AWESOME Doctrine of Christ lesson/family home evening with some of our members. They all were participating so much, opening up, and bearing their testimonies and it was just a super spiritual experience that was full of the spirit and smiles. :) Ah! They are just such an amazing family! It was in the Hamilton's home but with the mother and cousins and aunts and whatnot there was 10 people there. Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face then seeing families that are such you know,"That family". The kind that you hope your own family can be like in some way or another. Not too often do you meet families like that but I've met a couple on my mission and they are so great. :)

 

So we have quite a few investigators here in Elwood but they are terrible at keeping commitments. They have a lot of potential just never do anything to increase their faith or come closer to Christ. So we are going to have to teach a few commitment lessons this week and see what happens to help us find who we need to focus on.

 

Funny story: So we were asked last minute to teach sharing time in primary this week. It was about missionary work and the primary president asked the question (to junior primary), "What are some things we can do to help the missionaries?" And one of the little girls raises her and says,"We can help them get dressed!" Hahahahaha! Elder Searle and I just about died trying not to laugh. It was so funny.
 

So I totally ripped my pants the other day... Elder Searle had to take a call, so while he was on the phone I was pulling wheelies in the grass on my bike and wheelied over cuz I leaned back a little too much. So we started riding and I felt like my pants were getting caught on my seat. So I felt them and they were ripped all up the back! Haha! Luckily it just pulled the seams out so it was easy to repair. Thank you to Sister Anderson who repaired them for me! So that was an adventure. ;) But other than that we had another awesome family home evening around a camp fire with a recent convert family and a new investigator. That was a lot of fun! We talked about the Sabbath and then had a cool object lesson with ice cream. :) And Tyler and Levi (investigator and kid) were going to come to church but Levi started puking at 6am so they weren't able to make it sadly. :/

  

Anyways, I've only got 2 more minutes... But  I just wanted to let you know Mom, you are so amazing and I love and care about you SO MUCH!!! I miss you a lot and you have had such an amazing influence on my life. So thank you so much for everything. Being out here on a mission and seeing so many different families makes me realize way more how much of an amazing family I have and how blessed I truly am. Thank you so much Mom! Love you to death!

Loving Elwood Indiana

So I got transferred to the Elwood, Indiana area, and it is legit! It's an older town a little more in poverty and going down hill because most of the business' have moved out and it is hard to find a job here. Also, interesting fact, Elwood actually used to be the headquarters for the KKK awhile ago I guess? Kind of interesting, maybe I'll meet a couple in the group? ;) The area is super cool though! It is very flat, not a ton of trees but there are a lot of corn fields and fields of soy beans. It's cool though. :) My new companion is Elder Searle and he is from Heber City, Utah and is the coolest guy! We were in the same MTC district and we sat next to each other on the plane ride here. He is so set on following all the rules, even the little ones which makes me soooo happy! You have no idea! He is awesome. :) We are in an apartment and its not bad. Smaller than the one before but my companion is really clean and organized which I am so grateful for. We share a car with the other Elders in the branch. Pretty small area though so its easy to get around.

So I'm kinda starting to get to know the people a little bit but not super well. One thing moving into an area is you start teaching these investigators that you know like nothing about but they have been taught for awhile so you don't know what they do or anything but your companion does. So its kind of awkward but gimme another week or two and I'll be good with that. :) But we did find these new investigators that are pretty cool! Their names are Ashley, Donald, and Kazen, who is the son, and they are boyfriend and girlfriend and have dated for 10 years (Just get married already right???) ;)

General conference was fantastic though. I loved it! I was really paying attention and trying to get stuff out of it! Priesthood session was super powerful too. There was a lot of cool messages that I liked a lot. There seemed to be a big focus though on a couple subjects. Faith, being temple worthy, listening to the spirit, and being prepared. I especially loved Elder Holland's talk on women. There's so many mothers that don't really get enough credit like they deserve so I loved that. There may have been one or two others that I missed or forgot but yeah it was great! President Monson was getting kind of sketchy though towards the end of his talk he looked like he was really struggling to keep going and looks pretty ill. Hopefully we won't lose him soon as well.

FUNNY STORY TIME! :D So Elder Searle, on our second night, left the keys in the apartment and so we got locked out... BUT, we have a balcony in our back yard, so I decided to climb the balcony and get on the deck to see if our back sliding glass door was unlocked, but NOPE! So when I went to get down, I was hanging off the side and was going to jump and do the whole, jump tuck and roll tactic like many times before (cuz I'm a ninja like that) and well, I failed... I jumped and my foot caught on something on the deck and I fell awkwardly and landed right on my left tail bone/lower back, and the neighbor right below saw me fall off the deck.... AWKWARD!!! :P So yeah, fun fun fun.

The new area is great! I really like it a lot. It's super cool and I like the people too! It's a lot more in poverty than Milford for sure and we've gone into some pretty beat up houses. One of our investigators pretty much has a camping cot and blankets for a bed with no heating, water, or electricity and is about to leave cuz he can't pay rent anymore and whatnot. Rough area! But its good. We are in a branch, not a ward. I barely know anyone cuz I haven't been to church here yet. But there is about as many members here as there were in Milford from what I've heard.  Love you all.

New Comp and New State!!!!

Jordan's new companion is Elder Searle and he is in Indiana now! Yay! 

His new address is: 1775 Antler Ct. Apt. #F3

                                Elwood, IN  46036

He would LOVE letters!

Getting Transferred Tomorrow

Hey y'all! So I'm not gonna write much on this weeks email. Sorry about that. But things have been going alright in the area. We had one day that was fantastic. We taught Scott Van De Grift and it was such an amazing lesson! So one thing with Scott, when I first moved in to the area, you could barely ask him a question without him getting upset or mad at you and tell you off. We went in to this lesson with prayer, fasting, and President Loechinguer (mission presidents counselor) and wow! Miracles happened! He opened up a whole lot and was super close to praying and being put on date. I know he will be there soon enough. I am getting transferred this week though, but am not sure where I am going till tomorrow. But I know Elder Brasher will get Scott there and take care of the area. Love you all!

Here's some fun pics.

Don't look TOO happy!

Got a haircut.

Helping ward member cut down some trees.

New Investigators

Hey whats up y'all!!! :D

Everybody needs to hurry and send my mother Darlene Silotti a message on Facebook. It is currently her birthday today and needs the wishes! ;) But seriously though.... DO IT! :P

Lets see, so currently our area is still not doing super hot, but we are getting a little better I guess? We don't really have any other progressing investigators besides Scott Van De Grift, but we have a couple who are still up and down. Abbi was doing great but has bailed on us a lot this past week or so which is a bummer cuz she could really use a switch around in life and wants a switch up. I just don't know how much she is willing to sacrifice to get that. So hopefully things will work out for her.

So our mission does this thing called 2-2-5ing where if we go to a persons house and they are not home we talk to the 2 neighbors on both sides of the house, and the 5 houses across the street to ask about that person and then introduce ourselves and see if we can get a new investigator. And we were doing that one time this week and this lady answers the door and the first thing she says to us is "Hey! Wanna come do some dishes for me?" Elder Brasher immediately responds, is there another male in the house? I would love to do it!  (Rules are, there has to be another 16+ old male in the house for us to go in) and she just starts laughing and replies "No its okay, I'll do it. Talk to my son" Then she walks in and tells her 17 year old son to come out and talk to us. It was so funny! Their names are Erin (Mom), Kyle (17 year old son), and Iseaha (10?) and we have an appointment with them I think tomorrow? So that will be awesome. We would love to get another family to join the church!

Lets see, so one of our long term investigators we stop by occassionally needed some work on her truck so I asked what it needed work on. She was like,"It needs new intake manifold gaskets. I've got the parts." So I respond,"I've never done it before but that doesn't sound too difficult", so she let me do it cuz nobody else could in a reasonable time. I was excited. Working on cars is great! So I replaced my first exhaust manifold gaskets and it was fantastic! ;) And because of Gods grace, we were able to give her a tour of the church later that night which is the most progress we have made with her so far, and it went pretty well. :) Hopefully we can teach her again soon. She is super busy. Oh! Her name is Tika and she is like 35-40? And she has 3 kids.

I don't think there is anything else this week, so I will talk to y'all later. Love ya!