It's Been Freezing Here!!

January 27, 2014

It’s been freezing here!! On Tuesday night it snowed all night and when we woke up there was a few inches of snow on the ground. We weren't allowed to drive all day Wednesday and half of Thursday, I hate being stuck inside... there is still a little snow and ice on the ground and a member told us that it might snow again on Wednesday as well...  Our investigator Alex got to come to church! He loved it too. He is such an awesome guy. We were eating dinner at a member’s house and his two roommates were there as well. One of them, Winston, sat in on the lesson and liked what he heard. We invited him to church and he came and he loved it. He said, "This is a real church. No flopping around on the floor, no crazy rock band. It’s a little dry but it gives you stuff to think about and do during the week." He is way awesome and committed to be baptized in March. We also had a similar experience with another member and their roommate. We ate dinner with them and then shared a message. We start to turn to a scripture in the Book of Mormon and out of nowhere this member's roommate, "Butch", pulls out a Book of Mormon and asks us what page it’s on. So we share our little message on faith and invite to take the lessons and get baptized and he agreed. It was a really good week, even with all the snow. The temple open house should be fun, I saw pictures of the temple on lds.org and it’s huge! I had forgotten how big it was. That’s awesome the David and Natalie are having another boy, tell them congrats for me.  Well that’s about it, love ya! 

Jordan

The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways

January 20, 2014

This week was a great week for us! We have been teaching an active members young daughter who was preparing for baptism so that's been fun and we got to see her get baptized on Saturday. Our investigator Alex is still doing awesome! He is trying to get work off so he can come to church, that is the only thing stopping him from being baptized. We had an interesting experience this week where we thought we knew where we were going, but we ended up getting lost. And we turn down this street and Elder Matheson all the sudden tells me to stop and pull over because he knows where we are. Apparently back in like September the sisters were teaching this lady and she was pretty interested, but then things happen and they lost contact, and the sisters didn't keep good records so no one had an address or remembered where this lady lived. But Elder Matheson had been there once to give her a blessing so he knew where it was when he saw it. So we talked to her and we started teaching her again this week, so I guess the lord works in mysterious ways. We also ran into this guy and started talking to him about prophets and he tells us he thinks eventually there will be a prophet that will come and most people won’t like him and that the only way to know is if he hears him and prays about it. So we were blown away and thought he had read Preach my Gospel or something because you just don't run into to people every day who think like that. So we told him there was a prophet and he got all excited and we went back to teach him the next day and he wants to be baptized! But he moved to Long Island, NY this weekend... so that's really lame. On the bright side he is only going to be there for a little bit while he sells a house and then wants to move back. This is a pretty good area I really like it here. One thing I don’t like is how cold it is. The picture is me holding a piece of ice that came from the fountain at our apartment complex, you know it’s cold when moving water freezes.... When we were fixing the church last week we went back and changed, so I wasn't in my suit, don't worry. No we didn't get the chance to teach those kids yet, but hopefully this week we can. 

Jordan

This picture is me holding a piece of ice that came from the fountain at our apartment complex, you know its cold when moving water freezes..

17 mile bridge over Chesapeake Bay

This is more of the bridge. that little island is where the bridge goes underwater into the tunnels so ships can drive over it. when aircraft carriers go over they only have something like 1 foot or two between the bottom of them and the tunnels... scary!

These are me on a little pier/rest stop thingy off the bridge in the middle of Chesapeake bay.

It's Been An Eventful Couple Of Days

January 13, 2014

Thanks for the tips on teaching kids, they should have spent a week or so in the MTC teaching you how to do that. I had a fun couple of days this past week. Since I’m a Zone Leader I do exchanges, that is where I go with the District leader or his companion and my companion goes with the other, with the district leaders in my zone. So on Friday afternoon I came up to an area called Eastern Shore, it is the little peninsula that isn't connected to Virginia but is still part of the state. You have to take a 17 mile long bridge across Chesapeake Bay that has two 1 mile tunnels that go under the ocean. I have pictures but I can’t send them this week because I am still stuck up here and my camera cord is back in VA beach. They close the bridge when winds get over 35 mph, and the past two nights there have been "tornado" warnings, so they closed the bridge. There were no funnel clouds or anything just a lot of wind and rain. It’s been interesting up here, they only have a small branch that meet in a small building that’s a little old. On Thursday a pipe broke in the ceiling and the church flooded so they dried it most the way out and were planning on just having sacrament meeting yesterday. But we get there and I guess someone turned the water back on Saturday night and the pipe burst again! So I got to spend 2 hours yesterday with a shop vac sucking up water and tearing dry wall off the ceiling so it would all dry out and the church wouldn't mold. Ya it’s been an eventful couple of days. Luckily today there are no winds so I get to go home now.  Hope everything continues to go well, love ya!

Jordan

I Also Learned What The Hardest Part About My Mission is...

January 6, 2014

This week was pretty good for us, we got to teach our investigator Alex again, coolest guy ever. We introduced the Word of Wisdom and he told us it didn't make sense why we couldn't drink coffee and tea but he said he’d try it anyways. He is so humble and easy to teach! We were out contacting on Friday night and we saw this lady trying to carry a heavy box, so we offered to help her and she declined. So as we were walking away their little dog (it’s called a schnoodle, a schnauzer poodle mix) ran in front of Elder Matheson and he accidentally kicked it. At first nothing happened, then the dog just started going ballistic! It started jumping on him, biting at his ankles and chasing him around the parking lot. And to make things worse they had another Schnoodle that decided to join in. So I'm sitting there in a parking lot really confused at what to do as I watch my companion run from these little dogs and their owner trying to round them up. Eventually everything calms down and the owners apologize and we are on our way. When we get home Elder Matheson saw that he had a little mark on his leg from one of the bites so he calls our mission doctor and she starts freaking out about how he probably has rabies and all kinds of other stuff. So we had to go back to the house to talk to the owners. All worked out, the dogs had shots and the "bite" wasn't even there the next morning. So moral of the story, watch your step. I also learned what the hardest part about a mission is.... teaching kids. It is so hard to keep the attention. We taught a family on Saturday he was a single dad with two twin 8 yr olds, a 10 yr old and a 5 yr old. Hardest lesson ever! But everything worked out I guess, we will see what happens this week. Well have fun a work this week, love ya.

Jordan