Awesome Week

Hey everybody! So this week was pretty good. We had one especially good day on like Wednesday or something where my comp and I just did excellent! Not that these mean much to most but I'll say them anyways cuz they were good haha, So our daily count for Wednesday was: We had 6 lessons taught to investigators with a  member present,  2 member lessons, 4 other lessons to investigators  (No member present), 8 new investigators, and 14 baptismal extentions haha, It was great!

Lets see, so one of our investigators Bob is making lots of progress. I don't know if I have told y'all much about him or not but he is 78, and he smoked from the age 16 till last December when he was rushed to the hospital because of it, so he is off of it now but has horrible breathing problems, he also has bad aching pain all over from arthritis so its a bummer. This week we almost got him to church but he took some laxatives the morning of and was scared he would have to go poop like 4 or 5 times haha! But he is planning on coming the next time and has a baptismal date of August 17! He is taking a bit of work but he is reading and praying all the time and has stopped drinking coffee! He is so cool :) But we did get 3 other members to church, the Van de grifts, they are long term and are making slow progress but are getting there.

Downs of the week though  are we got dropped by Steven Martin who was a 14 year old less active. His mom hates the Book of Mormon and wants him to completely understand the bible first, which is like impossible! Anyways, I want to say one other dropped us as well, but I'm  having a hard time remembering who it is. But one of the cool experiences I had this week is one of the part time missionaries, Elder Scott, was having a hard day so he came over and we shared a message/lesson with him and the spirit was there like crazy! Like it was different than I have ever felt before, Everything got super super quiet and calm, I couldn't hear anything besides us talking and there is always bugs and people upstairs making noise, I was able to focus super well, which rarely ever happens, and it was just crazy, super cool!

So I'm not sure a ton what else happened this week, so yeah, I love and miss you all!

Loving Ohio

This place is LEGIT! I love it :) You are all missing so much green being in Utah, but its definitely different not having mountains, the sunset is so different. Its not quite the amazing sunset without the mountains, but its decent I guess? but we get cool weather here! Its raining constantly and we have had a few flood warnings and 2 tornadoes so far its crazy awesome!!!

                                       

                                                     Investigator Bob and his car

                                                 Elder Brasher eating cheesy grilled cheese

                                                    Telephone pole my comp ran into!

                                                       Pumping up my tires

                                                Helping ward members paint a room

They have this huge tornado warning tower or something that makes tons of noise when there is a tornado that touches ground and our second was last night while elder brasher and I were out, it was fun! :) Wish I got to see it though, that would have been sick.

So one of the investigators we are working with "Bob" is so cool, I love talking to him! He hadn't made progress this whole year till I came, but he still has trouble with coming to church and committing cuz he about dies from not being able to breathe every time he walks more than 15 feet pretty much. Its sad, he started smoking when he was like 16 and didn't stop till he had a near death experience and went the ER last December, and he is in late 70s I think he said. So hopefully we can help him out :) He is my favorite so far though, and he gave us a ride in his sick car!!! It was an old 1963 Dodge Dart :)

Its great here though, I love it! I love letters by the way :) to get the address message my mom on facebook or something, Darlene silotti :) Love and miss you all! Elder Brasher and I get along great! and he is a pretty decent trainer, but he could push me more haha! I guess I am doing really good for a new elder but we will see. Everyone thinks im going to be a trainer right out of my training lol! Yeah right! im learning well, I feel like, it depends on the day mostly.

Here is a picture of a deer the was right outside of our apartment (Mother and 2 deer always in the back yard). I knocked on the door and the deer didn't know what was going on and starting shaking and looked like it was having a seizer it was super funny! And then the telephone pole is the pole that elder brasher ran into while we were biking immediately after waving and saying hi to some people, it was the funniest thing I have ever witnessed!!! :') He waved and said hello and then WHAM went straight into the pole haha, I couldn't stop laughing for the longest time! The 3 people he waved too tried so hard not to laugh though, it was great :')

Jordan's First Week in the Mission 

 So I got to Ohio on Monday! We got up at 3am in order to make our flight haha! It was so early! The airport we landed in is in Kentucky so we hit Kentucky, drove through Indiana, and made it to Ohio. Heck yes!!! All in 45 minutes ;) This place is so gorgeous though! It is so green and there are trees and grass everywhere! But I do miss the mountains... It's so cool though, we have like these fire bug things that light up for a second like shooting stars, super sick! Lets see, my companion is Elder Brasher (WE ARE DISTANT COUSINS!!!) and he is from Utah as well. He has been out for a little more than a year and he is super cool. We get along pretty well :P

Lets see, my first 5 minutes out of my apartment, to go actually do stuff, and some lady pulled up next to us, (I am in a walking/biking area currently) and said we shouldn't be walking around all the time, so I was thinking,"Oh, she is worried for our safety. How nice of her." Then she goes off on how she doesn't like that we go door to door, (we barely do anyways), and to never go to her house and she doesn't like what we are doing and we need to get a job and a life haha! I tried so hard to not laugh at her. It was great! :') The work is a lot of fun and I love it! 

One day we went on an exchange and I was with the zone leader. We went to talk to this one guy who was older and kind of a bum. He was on a bike and was using Kroger grocery bags as gloves haha! He had like 3 teeth... We were talking to him and got an appointment set up for the zone leader with him, then we asked if we could do anything for him and he wanted us to find him a wife lol!!! Specifically his next door neighbor haha. Lets see, what else has happened? We have met a few cool people and we met our leadership standards/goals! We are a little above average on lessons, invitations, people coming to church etc... its great! I guess it's pretty rare for new missionaries to get that. My companion blames it on Greeny Grace haha! So yesterday we went up to talk to a potential investigator and the lady went off on us and we went up to her house haha! She says "I was here yesterday when you were banging on my door! And if I see you on my property again I am calling the local police on you!!!" People are crazy here, I love it. This place is great! I know there is more but I can't think of anything... Love you all! 

 Plane ride to Cincinnati

Provo Temple with Elder Longmire

 Helping a ward member paint 

My new comp Elder Brasher

First And Last Week In The MTC

Hey everybody, I hope everything is going well back home! This first week in the Provo MTC has been amazing! I have the coolest companion in the world and knew we would get along great when during the first ten minutes of class, we were going over rules, and my teacher says how we have to stay together 24/7 except when you are in the bathroom you can just stay outside. So my comp, Elder Longmire, turns to me and says,"You can follow me in if you want, and winks". And well, that first impression was right, we get along great! We are able to have fun while at the same time we both really challenge each other, are open with one another and really know how to get in tune with the spirit.

I have never been able to feel the spirit so strongly as I have felt in the MTC (Missionary Training Center). But at the same time, this place is hard and exhausting! And I'm not going to lie, it's kind of like living in a prison or a military base because we are roomed with 6 people in a super small room and the showers suck! They turn on hot water at 6:30 so when its past 6:30 everyone gets up and showers, and the hot water runs out fast and we get NO water pressure. You literally stand touching the wall to get a few drips of water. It's crazy! So my companion and I usually get up at 6 so we can shower with water pressure and just deal with the cold water. But yeah, I am loving this place! My district is the coolest! I leave Monday morning for Ohio and I can't wait! Love you all :)