I Am Going On A "Special Assignment"

April 28, 2014

This week was really good, we had a lot of success, Alex is going to pick a date to be baptized by the end of this week, Bro Sayles our miracle less active has been coming to church and has grown so much. One of the other less active ladies we have been working with came to church for the first time in a lot of years. This has been my most productive and successful area ever. I have not seen a baptism but I have seen so many people become converted and that's what really counts, I love this ward.

Unfortunately I will be getting transferred on Thursday.... I am going on a "special assignment". I will be stepping down as a zone leader to go white wash train in an area that has been struggling for a long time. The ward is called Poquoson. It is up by Yorktown so I might get to see some cool historical sights. It’s another military area as well, it covers part of Langley Air Force Base. It should be fun.

In Preach My Gospel, it talks a lot about finding investigators through family history. All throughout my mission I have never done this. So Elder Pelham and I decided to make it a focus in the zone this transfer. We had all the missionaries go to the local family history center and receive training on the basics and then Saturday we set aside two hours where the whole zone would go around and only talk about family history.

We found a sister, her name was Betty, when we first met her we were talking to someone else about family history. She poked into the conversation and asked if we were talking about family history. Turns out she was talking to a friend ten minutes before about doing it. So we talked with her about the family history center and gave her a flyer for it, and she said to call her soon.  We heard at church the next day that the stake was having a youth family history fireside that night at 7:30. So at 2pm we called her and invited her and she came. She had such a great time! We were a little worried because they started talking about temples and all kinds of things and we hadn't even taught her the first discussion. After the meeting she turns around with a big smile on her face and asks, "When can we meet again?" we will be meeting with her again on Wednesday at the family history center.

Love ya

Jordan

The Power Of Scripture Is Real

April 21, 2014

I did like the package, thank you! Yes, I shared with Elder Pelham and the other 2 missionaries in our apartment, they appreciated it.

Choir went well, we sang He is Risen, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, and I Know that My Redeemer Lives. Then a Young woman sung a song called His Hands. It went well, in between the songs there was a member who read all the scriptures from the Easter story in the New Testament, it was really powerful.

This was a pretty good week, we had a lot of fun. I got to go on exchanges with one of the district leaders in our zone so that was fun. It was a little weird since that area is a biking area and it’s been a while since a biked, it made my legs a little sore.

We are having a lot of success with less actives in the ward, there are quite a few who are starting to come back strong. This week we had four less active families at church for the first time in a while. Working with one of them has really strengthened my testimony of the power of scriptures. This was our miracle find I told you about a few weeks ago. Last week when we met with him he said spiritually he was feeling 1 out of 10 and by the end of the lesson he said he was a 3 out of 10. We committed him to read the scriptures every day. Saturday when we met with him we asked him how his week went. He said that the beginning of the week was rough and that he was having a hard time, then he remembered we told him to read the scriptures, so he did. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday he read and had a super powerful experience every time! He then told us he was feeling a 7 out of 10. The first time he came to church he only stayed for sacrament, this week he stayed all 3 hours. The power of scripture is real, and it is super effective.

We had a good Easter dinner, we got to go over to a super cool family's house. We had honey ham and sour cream and onion mashed potatoes. It tasted a little like pringles but a million times better. They have the coolest little four yr old son. He is in love with that Disney movie Airplanes, so every time we go over he gets all of his plains out and tells us all their names from the movie. Then he runs around with them making airplane noises, it’s pretty fun.

When we see Elder Bednar it will be our entire mission and the entire Richmond VA mission as well.

Love ya 

Jordan

I Have Some Exciting News

April 14, 2014

So I have some exciting news, on May third we get to go up to Richmond, VA to have a meeting with Elder Bednar! That's going to be a real fun experience, I'm excited

This week was pretty good. We had some exchanges this week. We both went up to the Eastern Shore on Wednesday night and spent Thursday and Friday up with our missionaries. The drive up there is like an hour and a half. So that was a fun couple of days. It was weird not being in a city, it reminds me a lot of North Carolina up there. I like missionary work in the city a lot more.

We are having a lot of success with the program the stake instituted, there have been a ton of referrals received in the zone. On a typical week before "Total Contact" there was anywhere from 20 to 30 referrals a week. Now there has been around 110 every week since we started the program. It’s a lot of fun, and there is a lot of success happening in all the wards.

I got roped in to singing in the Choir for Easter, the men sections consists of my companion and myself and hopefully one or two more men if we are lucky. It should be fun.

Things have been going well, we have been really busy with the little things this week, but it’s better than not being busy so I enjoy it.

That's about it, hope you have a great week, love ya

Jordan

We Started On One Street And Prayed...

April 7, 2014

Alex came to both sessions on Saturday and loved it! He is so solid. Hopefully soon his schedule will change. That seems like a crazy week ya’ll had, I’m sorry to hear about Isaac. I hope Kiley gets better as well.

 This week was good, pretty busy we had exchanges and meetings and conference, I’m tired from this week. Conference was amazing this time! I really learned a lot. There were a lot of powerful talks. I felt there was a theme of standing up for what you know to be right no matter what. We got to watch a session with a less active family at their home. That was a pretty big deal they haven't been to church in quite some time. Hopefully this next week they will come, they have saying they will for a few weeks now. 

Here is a way cool story I forgot to tell last week: We were on our way to an appointment and had some extra time so we decided to do a little tracting. We started on one street and prayed and felt we were in the wrong spot. So we went over a few streets and started knocking. The first door we knock is this sweet old lady who tells us that her son used to practice Mormonism. So we start teaching her. Then her son runs into some elders that we live with and tells them that his mom is taking the discussions. He gives the elders his number and tells them to give it to us. So we plan to meet with him but a few days earlier he said he had to work and wouldn't be able to meet. But last minute his boss let him go home a few hours early (which hasn't happened in the 5 or so years he’s worked there) and we get to meet. He’s a super cool guy, served a mission, first black missionary in Alabama. He told us that he recently thought he should come back to church but had been dragging his feet. So we told him to come. For the first time in four years he came to church last week. Pretty awesome. Plus my companion knows 2 of his daughters from a previous area. Small world

Well have a great week, love ya

Jordan