23And it shall come to pass that except this people repent and turn unto the Lord their God, they shall be brought into bondage; and none shall a them, except it be the Lord the Almighty God. 24Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall a unto me I will be b to hear their cries; yea, and I will suffer them that they be smitten by their enemies. 25And except they repent in a and ashes, and cry mightily to the Lord their God, I will not b their prayers, neither will I deliver them out of their afflictions; and thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me.
Being in bondage (v.23) being smitten by their enemies (v. 24) and sackcloth and ashes and God not hearing our prayers (v. 25). I don't know about you but I think that none of those things sound like something I want to go through. OK now I'll get off my soap box. We can't forget God or things will be bad.
Now Jordan for your paragraph. I understood a good share of your testimony in Spanish as well. See I've been blessed with the gift of tongues. I can now speak Spanish... Haha I wish, but I can understand a few of the standard missionary vocabulary words so I got the gist of what you were saying. (No I didn't cheat and use any sort of translator). It sounds like you've had a whole bunch of apostles at the MTC while you've been there. I looks like you made up for the lack that I had. Not a single apostle or anything like that came to the MTC while I was there. I think it was because they had all been there for the new mission president training and were giving the MTC some time before they went back. So long story short we didn't have any sort of big wig come and speak to us. Consider yourself blessed. I'm glad to hear Spanish is coming now. Keep up the good work. How much longer to you have in the MTC?
Now for my week. Angela got baptized!!! It was a great service. We held it in the Dover building because the Harrington building is getting a hardwood floor put in and the varnish stinks real bad so they had to cancel church in Harrington. But it all went well. It was great. There was a good testimony meeting while they, Angela and E. Baker, were changing back into dry clothes. All went really well.
Wes was also confirmed on Sunday as well. That was really cool. We're going to see him tonight (Tuesday).
Also I'm really glad I know how to play piano. It's great to be able to play and not have to sing without accompaniment. I also got to play for the whole priesthood block in church. The Dover ward priesthood is singing in sacrament meeting in a few weeks and they were asking a lady to come out of primary to play for them to practice but I stepped in. It was cool. I now know what it was like for Ashley under the wing of Ms. M. Bahaha. I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near as bad. All I did was play the hymn over and over. I didn't even have to practice beforehand.
Remember me talking about Renee? The lady that was super interested and we gave a bapt. date to and she accepted and then she fell off the face of the earth? Well we got in contact with her last night. It was a really cool story. Well a member in the ward went and pulled some weeds for her last week and saw her and long story short he talked to her and she said she still wants to meet but she got bitten by a spider and had to go to the hospital and she also felt like she had jumped the gun a little bit. So we knew that she still wanted to meet with us but we hadn't been able to see her. So last night (Monday) we were up in Felton (about 15 min. north of us in Harrington) and it was 8:20 and we were trying to think of something productive to do for the last little while. I then had the the thought that we should go stop by Renee back down in Harrington. We didn't want to go back into the apartment because that would've put us in 20 minutes early so we decided to go stop by Renee. So we did and she was there! We were able to talk to her and we set up a time to go see her next Tuesday. It was great. God definitely answered our prayers.
We are also teaching Angela's son Alan, who is 10. He wants to be baptized and we're teaching him. We've taught him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and we're going to see him tonight. He has a bapt. date for the 14th of August. He's a really cool kid and is really in tune with the spirit.
Luck ducks. You all get to be at the cabin. That's a lot of fun. (For future notice when I get home in a year (crazy I'm almost half way huh?) I would like to go to the cabin sometime before I go back to school if that's possible.)
Dad- I'm glad to hear you had a good time a trek. Have fun at the cabin with out me.
Mom- It sounds like you had a lot of awesome things happen to you at trek. God definitely answers our prayers. It may not be in the way that we expect or the way we want but he does ALWAYS answer. The whole story about the girl that had the problem after the women's pull, (you know who I'm talking about and I didn't know if I should put her name in here because you said she doesn't want it publicized and I don't know who all reads these). That is an awesome story. God really does work miracles and the priesthood is such a blessing in all of our lives.
You also had a big trek family. 10 kids? Sounds like your typical Mormon family doesn't it? ha ha he he ho ho
Austin- It's been a minute since you've written me or Jordan apparently. (It's been a minute is the Delaware/Philly way to say it's been a while) Just think how you would feel on a mission when the only correspondence you have with someone is letters and a phone call twice a year. You want to hear from them. Hint hint. (Spiritual side thought for everyone God must feel the same way when we don't pray to him. He wants to hear from us but can't force us to pray to him.) Austin, I also cannot force you to pray to me. He he he I wouldn't want you to pray to me. (Funny ay?) But as I was saying, I can't force you to write to me and neither can Jordan but we like to hear from you every once in a while. (Every once in a while doesn't mean every other month). Have fun at the cabin.
Natasha- Are you having fun at the cabin without me? Probably not. The whole family probably just stays in their beds all day and cries because they want me there so bad right? I hope you have fun there. By the way do you like any sports? You should play basketball.
Shaylee- Have fun at the cabin. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
I love you all and I hope you all do what's right. The church is true. God lives. He loves us. We are so fortunate to know that he is there and that he cares for us. He wants us to be happy, and because he wants us to be happy he sent Jesus Christ to the earth to die for us and to suffer for our sins so that we can find happiness in this life. Joseph Smith was the prophet that God used to restore his gospel again to the earth. The Book of Mormon is true. It is another testament of Jesus Christ. No matter what other people say it is true. I know that. I have prayed and asked God for myself. You can too if you haven't already. It brings such happiness to know that God is there and that he looks out for us. Without Christ all would be lost. I'm so grateful for what he has done for us.
Love,
Elder Schouten.
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