I'm Not Some Picky Little Kid Any More

April 15, 2013

I hope this pic of me works for what you need. And these are pics of where we live. One is a view from the street, we live behind another house, members can never find it when they pick us up for things. The other is a pic of the front of our house we live in a split home, ours is the one on the right. On the left is a nice old lady named Ida. She calls herself the missionary grandma and will help us out in any way she can. She loves the elders. The other pictures are the inside, it’s really small. We have a front room/kitchen, and a bedroom/study. We also have a bathroom and a washer dryer. It was a lot of food! We had left overs for like 3 days. I might, I eat a lot more normal food than I used. I’m not some picky little kid any more. But don’t worry you still have 18 months to kick Ryan out and make room for me! Time is going by so fast, I can’t believe that in a few weeks I will have been out for 6 months! And that I’m already half way done with training! Time goes by too quick. It’s been a good week, I’m starting to enjoy biking, but it’ll be short lived because of the weather. It is starting to get hot and humid.... it’s only like 85 degrees but wearing a shirt tie and pants combined with the humidity it feels like a lot more than that. But I guess I’ll get used to it. This state is strange, for a few weeks every year all the trees and plants and everything start turning green and releasing pollen. So everything including cars and bikes has a thick coating of yellow pollen on it, it’s the strangest thing I have ever seen. It gets everywhere. Next week I’ll send you pics of how beautiful it looks out here! Everything is so green. And hanging form all the trees are a bunch of silk worms, so every time you walk under a tree it’s like walking thru a spider web, and then you have these little green caterpillar worm things all over you. It’s really strange. This week we had activity zone conference. Which is two zones got together and we had a normal zone conference with lessons and talks and such and then we all went to a park and played soccer and volley ball and ultimate Frisbee. It was really hot but a ton of fun. Well other than that it’s just been a normal week, knocking on doors, riding bikes, talking about the church. I guess I’ll talk to you next week, love ya.

Jordan

Elder Romney

View from the street, apartment in back.

Elder Romney's apartment

Living room/kitchen

bedroom/study

We Watched Conference at a Member's Home

April 8, 2013

We watched conference at a member’s home, our ward mission leader on Saturday, and then the stake President came over, then on Sunday just some members of the ward. It’s weird to have to sit and watch conference in a tie instead of comfy clothes, it made it a lot easier to stay awake. It’s good to hear that Shelli is doing a little better. Preparation days are a little boring in Clayton. In Goldsboro there were three sets of elders so we’d do our shopping and then play basketball at the church. Here in Clayton there is only Elder Melander and I and the church isn’t in our area. Plus since we don’t have a car, shopping takes a little longer. So most of our day is spent walking or riding to a store, and then we clean our apartment and just relax. We found a neat little bike trail that’s paved and goes thru the woods and stuff, so we might go riding around. But other than that there isn’t too much to do. I’ll get a good pic of me this week for you and send it next week, I have super bad helmet hair right now. Oh ya I forgot  I was going to take pictures of the apartment this week, I’ll send them next week as well. Ya our house is hard to find in real life as well, it is behind another house. It didn’t rain that much at all, just the normal NC rain. Not too much happened this week, we have been spending a lot of time with ward members and recent converts, and we had a trainers meeting that took up all of Thursday. And then this week we have an activity zone conference on Thursday. But it’s been nice to be an all bike area, I feel like we pass by so much in a car, so it’s nice to slow down and talk with everyone and take everything in. We had a North Carolina feast this week for dinner. A member brought us fried chicken, baked beans, hush puppies, potato salad, East Carolina BBQ, lemonade, and pecan pie. It was delicious! Well love ya, talk to you next week.

Jordan

North Carolina Feast

Eastern North Carolina BBQ

After My Mission I Will Never Eat Them Again

April 1, 2013

I did enjoy the package, thank you! Easter dinner was good, we had ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and blue berry cobbler. I swear that every meal I have eaten out hear has green beans, and I’ve gotten used to eaten everything else but I can’t stomach green beans, it’s so hard to eat them. Don’t worry, I still eat them, but I promise that after my mission I will never eat them again. Our sacrament meeting went well too. We don’t have a choir I don’t think but all the talks went really well. Saturday night we taught a fireside on the atonement to all the recent converts. It went really well. I surprise myself with some of the things I say sometimes. My biggest fear coming out here was not being able to teach well and not being able to know what to say, but it’s gotten so easy for me to just talk and I feel so inspired with all the questions I ask and all the things I say. It’s truly a miracle and a humbling experience that I can teach as well as I do, because I know for a fact it’s not me,  it is all the Lord. Oh sorry, the temple trip went well, it was nice to do a session. It is an extremely small temple. You have to call and make reservations or they won’t let you in. I think it as big as Gila Valley. Ya ya I know I don’t take enough pictures with me in them, I’m sorry. I’m pretty much used to rain every other day now. It’s impossible to bike in the rain, cause it’s just not safe so  we will make a lot of phone calls, and try and set up appointments and rides to places so we can be as productive as we can with no car.  The finding has been pretty slow, people are willing to listen to us but no one cares enough to invite us back or change anything, it gets frustrating but people have their agency and all we can do is keep pressing on being happy. It’s sad to see how close people are to the truth but how missing one point like priesthood authority can make them so lost and so far from the truth. I can’t believe that it’s already April and I’ve already been out for 5 months, time flies! Well I love ya and I’ll talk to ya next week.

Jordan

We Had a Baptism on Saturday!

March 25, 2013

This week has been really good. We had a baptism on Saturday! The other elders had been teaching this older couple for a few months and all we had to do was walk in and set up the program and everything. They are the nicest people. It was neat to see another baptism, it’s really motivating. Training has still been going pretty well, there’s been a couple of frustrating times because I feel like I don’t know a whole lot still, but it all works out.  I’ve been trying to exercise more as well, and with the whole all bike area I’ve already lost a few pounds I put on eating all of that greasy fried southern food every night in Goldsboro. That will be fun to get together with the whole family. We get a meal on Easter Sunday so that should be good. We had an interesting experience last Monday, on the way back to our apartment from emailing, Elder Melander popped a bike tire. Luckily it was right in front of our house. Unfortunately we didn’t have an extra tube to fit his bike. So we went on a nice hike thru the woods to Wal-Mart so we could buy a tire. Turns out we bought the wrong size. Luckily everything worked out and we were back on our bikes the next day. Well that’s about all for this week so I’ll talk to you next week, bye.

Jordan

The Baptism

Our hike through the woods

Our apartment

Raleigh Temple

Clayton Is An All Bike Area

March 18, 2013

Sorry I forgot to tell you about the package. That is stuff that I don’t need and it’s just taking up space. I’ll never wear the boots, there is no need too. The fleece jacket was too small after one wash and the rain coat was huge and didn’t keep me warm. Plus I have the new jacket that is warm and waterproof, and Elder Segundo gave me a jacket as well. So all of that was just wasting space. My new companion is Elder Melander. He is from Idaho Falls. He awesome, we have been doing pretty good this week. Clayton is an all bike area..... So all the weight I put on in Goldsboro eating with members should come off with all this biking. Being a trainer is a little stressful mostly because I’ve only had one example on how to do missionary work so I’m just hoping I’m doing ok. But other than that it’s not bad, I kinda like whitewashing. We have to both learn together so I feel we are working more together than just me training and doing everything.  It’s good that you had fun with Bethanee! So don’t get mad, but this computer is attaching pics slower than the last one.... and we email at a public library so we have a time limit.... soooo you may not get pics. So with the new mission in Chesapeake our president told us the two zones that are changing missions. Goldsboro (where I am) and Kinston. He said whatever elders are in those zones during the June transfer will be going to Chesapeake. So if I’m still here I’m changing missions. Which isn’t a big deal, I could just tell people I served two missions. But I guess we will find out for sure in a few months. Well that’s about it love ya.

Jordan