P-Day on Tuesday

This week has been full of miracles its great! :) Things are getting better with my comp. It is up and down but it's getting better though. I have grown a lot spiritually and with my testimony so that is great. :) We study every morning and I study or clean whenever we have down time cuz I don't want any time to waste. We follow all of the mission rules. Obedience is power and I want to be as spiritually powerful as I can be, cuz if I'm slacking, other people are losing that opportunity to change their lives. 

So this last week we had the coolest thing happen. So Elder Brasher and I were going over to the Van De Grifts to teach the new convert lessons and there was somebody over there selling them a TV named Abi. She was a family friend they saw every once in awhile who is 25. Anyways, so of course Elder Brasher starts trying to teach her like, "Hey, we can teach you" and other little things like that, in a joking way, and she was always saying,"No I'm good." But by the end of when we left she totally opened up and was asking if she could go to church on Sunday and meet with us again. It was insane! She was telling us (Later) how she just saw something in Elder Brasher that she had a strong desire for. Not an attraction but something else, and she didn't know what it was, but she wanted it. Which, as I am sure most of you know, that was the Holy Ghost that she saw in him. She has such a strong desire for it. So she came to church and was only planning on staying for 1 hour and by the end she went to all 3 hours and really opened up during Relief Society and even bore her testimony! It was insane!!! 

So we had another lesson that Sunday night and it was just crazy and we have another lesson on Wednesday. But a little about her, it took a lot of trust for her to open up to us about the fact that she is a lesbian and has a partner currently but wants to be with a man. She was the, "it girl/cheerleader" type person in high school. She had a really rough family life which led her to, after high school, getting into stripping for awhile. So she really has a long ways to go currently as she tries to change. But as long as she continues to see the light and has the desire she will get there. She is fantastic! :)

So 2 funny stories from this week. So we went over to this one guys house (Bill) to see if we could share a message with him and he opens the door a little but like hid himself behind the door, besides his head and upper chest. He told us now was a bad time and to come back later. So we said okay and as we were leaving I looked back and saw through the window, Bills little butt cheeks jiggling as he was walking haha! He opened the door and he was completely naked... What a nut ;)

Story 2, We went over to one of our favorite old ladies, Sister Garbe, and she says to us, "One second. Let me go put my teeth in (dentures)." So she leaves and comes back a minute later and has her dentures in with a huge smile on and says,"How do I look?" Haha. Not only did she put her dentures in, she also put on lots of blush and lipstick haha, It totally made my day ;') She's so great! That's it for the week. Love you all! :)

Jordan's bed and his side of the room

Still crazy!

Family Zone Day

Labor Day fun

First Baptism!

So this week has been super busy and great! But also a lot of work, especially with the baptism. So with Christina Van De Grift she text us Thursday morning and decided she was not going to be baptized. So we talked to her for a little bit and were able to get her to go to the interview tonight with President Lochinger, (mission presidents counselor), and he solved all of her concerns. Thankfully!  So she was good to go! She also has not been drinking coffee at all. She is so super! So Saturday evening we had the baptism of Christina Van De Grift which was super duper sick! I mean spiritual. Anyways, it was a great experience. She is going to be a fantastic member. 

Then that Saturday we went to the Christinas to help build a wheelchair ramp for her husband who has Multiple sclerosis. We had like 10 members of the ward show up to help. It was so fantastic to see the ward work together to help out our investigators/members. :)

So on Thursday we had a special training with President Porter and the assistants and the whole lower half of the mission. It was really good. BUT they gave us these things called Tiwi's, (we got a car part time now). They are a little box that tells you to slow down if you are speeding, tells you if you are driving aggressive and tells the mission if those things happen so they know who is being dumb in the vehicles. So that is fun. ;) We named our Tiwi, Helga, cuz she is the mean, Mom who tells you what you can and can't do. It's like getting a license so you can drive on your own, but still have your Mom with you.... Hahaha ;)

One last thing! So we have this new investigator, Kevin, who is super cool. But he needs help, he has an addiction to Heroin, weed, and tobacco and maybe some other things as well, and is in a rough situation. He is so cool though and really needs help, and he can definitely feel the spirit so strongly! The first time we met him we shared a prayer and he started crying. After our first lesson/first vision lesson with him we shared Joseph Smiths first vision experience and he just started crying. It was such a touching moment. We are hoping to see him Tuesday and extend a baptismal date to him at the end of the lesson.

Other than that this week has still been great! I love you all. Good luck this week :)

Special Missionary Training

Good eats

Loving the work

Love President Porter!

So fun to see Elder Longmire again

Sister Van De Grift before she was baptised

See how happy she is after!

This lady is awesome

She made him laugh so hard

Awesome Letter We Received!

Getting A Car!

Hey y'all! :) So this week was awkward and good. It had ups and downs but it's pretty positive for the most part. So lately my comp and I have been having problems, (not saying what), and I emailed President in a weekly email about them and he called us that night and got after my comp and I. It was super awkward and uncomfortable. But things are getting better but there was some trust lost (not saying what side). So that was the bad.

The good though is that Christina, the one getting baptized, well we found out she has problems with coffee and she wasn't willing to stop drinking it because she didn't think she needed to or that it was a sin. So we set up another lesson for 3 days later to talk to her more in depth about the word of wisdom and she comes in and says,"My head hurts like crap guys!" So we asked why and she says to us, "I haven't had coffee in 2 and a half days, that's why" It was so funny, we were so worried she wasn't going to stop drinking it. But as of now we are still good to go this Saturday at 7, so hopefully she is able to stay off the coffee with no other issues :) Super excited!

So we had this cool experience, we found this new lady Rhonda, and she was telling us in our first lesson that the first day we talked to her, she had a dream the night before that was scary. She saw a super bright light (God she thinks) and a heard a whisper, "I know ye not" Then hours later, Elder Brasher and I came up to her and started talking to her. Anyways, so after the first vision part of the lesson (Joseph Smiths vision) there is a picture of what we could imagine his experience to look like and she said that's very similar to the dream in the fact that he was super bright. And she was talking about her dream and past, and felt that the reason he said that to her was she turned her back on him years ago when something bad happened. She seemed super happy and excited to be meeting with us. So we haven't met with her again yet, but we have high hopes! :)

Then 1 funny story ;') So yesterday we were at dinner with some members and Brother Rich and I were talking about working out, (one of his hobbies), and pull ups got brought up, and I said, "Oh I love pull ups!" And his 4 year old daughter says, "I love pull ups too. I wear them to bed every night." Oh my gosh. We just died laughing. It was hilarious :')

Some exciting news! We are going to be getting a car every other week, we will be sharing it with some new Elders in our area. Which is super nice because we won't have to get rides from members constantly. They are starting to get very annoyed with us always asking for rides and I hate it. But we can't bike to the church cuz it takes around 2 hours each way to bike it. So I'm super glad we will partly get a car!

Rocking the back flips

Chopping down a tree for Sister Chiapelli

Dressed for the part

It started pouring rain

The famous 7x7 burger.....delicious!



Baptism Date Set!

So this week is transfers! But, I am staying here in Milford with Elder Brasher, which is good and bad. We are starting to argue more but I guess that means we both have the opportunity to learn right? ;) And it means I don't get a new place, but I wanted a little change so I changed up and moved everything around in the apartment haha, which at first Elder Brasher was (jokingly) freaking out, but I think he is starting to like it. It's just different :)

So the most exciting news of the week is.... CHRISTINA VAN DE GRIFT IS GETTING BAPTISED!!!!!!!!

She is a long term investigator since last October, a few missionaries ago! And when I got here Elder Brasher was debating dropping her and her hubby cuz they were always freaking out and getting upset with us and they weren't progressing. But we changed up our tactics with them and Scott is still struggling but Christina is good to go! YAY! :D  We started our last lesson with her telling us she wasn't ready at all, and then she had a spiritual moment where Jesus spoke to her and said, "Do you trust me?" and she broke down and cried for like 5 whole minutes. It was crazy! So excited! Miracles do really happen! We were praying and fasting for this to happen that lesson.

So other news, Brianna, one of our progressing investigators is doing great and she wants to be baptized and we would have her on date to be baptized, but her Grandma (pretty much her Mom, grew up with her) wants to know for a fact this a great church and that it is right for Brianna, and the way we will know that is when she is ready to be baptized and join our church is well from what she has told us. But she is progressing slowly. But with prayer, study, and fasting we will get them there for sure! (So pray for her ok? :)) But it's hard because now we need to focus more on Wileen (Grandma), which means we can't focus and help Brianna to progress as much sadly. Let's see, time for a funny story maybe??? Okay, I'll give you 2! Lucky people ;)

So first story: So we were over at an investigators house, and they invited us to eat dinner with them, outside (bbq), so we said sure! Anyway, so we were talking a little about Catholics (Amanda was as a kid) and Elder Brasher asks if she knows why it is that they don't believe in sex for reasons other than procreation (having kids) and we get into a tiny conversation. Then Elder Brasher, (not thinking) asks, "So do y'all only have sex for procreation or what?" Are you serious bro?!?! Who asks that! And they just start laughing and Doug responds, "No, for recreation as well" then replies, "What about you guys?" It was so awkward! Haha, super funny though!

Second story: We were talking to Wileen and Brianna about the For Strength of Youth book and gave her one. She looks at it for a second then looks at Brianna and says to her, "These are gonna be your bed time stories from now on!" It was the funniest thing. I was ready to die from laughter. Goodness gracious! :P Wileen is gonna kill me, she cracks me up :D Hope everything is going great, love you all!!! :)

 

Bad Kitty

 

So our email time is going to be split up today because of stuff going on, so I may respond to some of you later today if I have time. Hopefully I can get to everybody! :)

So some missionary work updates, this week we were super busy with stuff and weren't able to talk to very many investigators. Well, not like we are normally able to, so we didn't get too many new investigators. Sadly we did have to drop Bob, one of my favorite old dudes. :( He would never come to church and didn't keep most of the commitments we would leave with him so sadly we aren't going to be teaching him anymore, but we may stop by occasionally. BUT! We do have an awesome investigator right now named Brianna, she is doing really great! She has been an investigator for like 2 1/2 to 3 weeks now? We have taught her a few lessons and are shooting for baptism on August 29th which would be super! We are asking her to pray about it and talk with family because that is one of the things she really worries about is making her family upset. But she has been to church and wants to keep coming and loves everything we teach and believes all of it. She also says she has found a purpose in life and that is so great! :) So hopefully she will accept the baptismal date of the 29th. She lives with her grandma and great grandma who are always arguing about religion and the trinity (Heavenly father, Jesus, and the Spirit being one person not separate), its kinda funny! But for some reason lately I've been really prompted to teaching the Great grandma, so I'm gonna try and focus on her a little bit more too, if we can get her to sit down with us that is. :)

 

So one of the days we were on exchanges, that is where you switch companions for a day, and I was with Elder Ellis in his area and we had a guy come out with us to help teach and he was hilarious!!! He was this big guy 6'5" and was from the Congo Africa. He had a sick accent! But while we were in this old ladies house she had a kitten about 4 months old, super cute, and the cat starts rubbing against his leg (His name is Juvenal) and you look at him and he is kinda worried and you can tell he just looks funky. Then the cat jumps on his lap and starts rubbing against his stomach and he like pushes back against the cat and looks super uncomfortable like he is scared of this little kitty cat haha! :') So we start laughing and ask him what's up. He says, "Man, I eat cat!" So we start laughing and were like, "wait what???" He says,"I eat cats. In the Congo we ate cats, and I'm trying hard right now to not kill the cat." It was so hilarious. Y'all should have seen how uncomfortable he was. :') It made my day! He kept mentioning how the cat was gonna be dinner! Oh dear! Poor cat. :P Anyways, this week was pretty great, love y'all! :)

Playing Settlers

The Zone Leader Elder Ellis

Kitty biting me

MTC District Buddies

Poor Sick Jordan

Hey y'all! So this week wasn't quite as great as last week. It had it's ups and downs for sure. But that's okay! So as for the ups I will try to remember :) So one funny story, on Tuesday we were in an apartment complex that is decently ghetto, everyone is on drugs and is always getting in trouble (from what the neighbors tell me), and we asked a lady if there was anybody she knew who we should share a message with and she points to a scary looking woman and says, "She needs Jesus" haha! So after we got done talking to her, we started to head towards that woman and she see's us walking towards her and takes off and hides in her apartment and won't come out. Her little boy says to us, "I know what you want with my mom". So I say what? and he tells us he can't say... Sadly, I'm pretty sure she thought we were gonna get her in trouble so we will try again later. Another upside to this week is that our family upstairs is fantastic still. Their son got back from his mission in Brazil this week and wants to come out with us lots till he leaves for school which is fantastic!

The downside to this week is I got sick on Saturday morning. We woke up and went running. Then I got back and ran to the toilet and threw up... yucky! So we stayed in for a few hours till I felt a little better. Then we went and mowed a lawn and then started painting at another ladies house and I ran to the toilet and puked again. I was feeling a little bit better again. I really didn't want to eat anything but she offered dinner (hot dogs), but I said yes because I didn't want to be rude. I threw up again, of course, so I had to stay in all Sunday, other than church. But we did get 2 investigators to church so that is great! But I am feeling great now so yay!!!

So here's 2 fun stories that I will show pictures of. I got a hair cut. Nice and short! I had the lady we rent a room from buzz it. Also I tried eating muscles which is disgusting and like an oyster or something. I couldn't swallow it and spit it up haha! We were at a Chinese buffet and I decided to try it and it was nasty! 

So we just had zone conference on Friday and it was so great!!! I learned so much, and I went up to President and asked him when I will get the opportunity to have him come with us to a lesson, and he told me to just give him a call!!! LIKE NO WAY!!! :P I didn't think he would actually be able to. So we are going to try and set up a lesson with some long term investigators who are very difficult to work with. That will be so cool! He is such a genious! He is great :) Well, I guess that's it for now. Love ya'll.

He needs a haircut.

  

Buzzing away.

Looking sharp!

The disgusting muscles he ate and hated.

He went on exchanges with some Elders.