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.

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