Jordan- I enjoyed looking at the pictures that you sent. Maybe it's just the picture but the picture with you and Annie made you look like a twig and that you are going to blow away. Was that at the end of your time at the MTC when you weren't eating very much because the food tasted gross? Actually wait I just looked at all the pictures again. You have a really skinny neck. (I don't mean this to be offensive. So don't take it that way. I'm sure you wont but I'm just making sure. I'm getting to my point. Don't worry.) I remember when I left that we looked a lot alike and that you were the bigger one, but not by much, and dad always said "John, you better be nice to Jordan or one of these days he's going to get mad and beat you up real bad." You were always the bigger one (size wise not height), but I remember us looking just about the same but I looked a little skinnier because I'm half a foot taller. Have you gotten skinnier or something? Maybe it's because I've gained 20ish pounds on my mission and I'm used to comparing us and being about the same. Well I'm not making any sense. What I'm trying to say is have you gotten skinnier, stayed the same, or is it because I'm 20 pounds heavier that you look a lot skinnier? That is my question that didn't come out very well at the beginning. Hopefully you understood. (If you did then I guess it just didn't make sense to me while I was typing it.
Anyway to the missionary work. It's too bad that I don't get your letters earlier. It looks like from when I received your email last week that it was just a few hours after I sent mine. That means I'm a whole week behind. Oh well what can you do. It's got to be that way for somebody. Crazy how different the church is outside of Utah huh? I thought it was really different too. It takes some getting used to but it's a good experience. It's good to hear that you're learning Spanish pretty quick. They don't have addresses down there? That stinks. It's hard to find addresses out here in the United states with out the grid system that Utah has. I can't imagine how hard it would be if there weren't any addresses at all. You also said that down there you "clap" on peoples houses? What do you do just get outside someones house you just start clapping until they answer the door or something? Or are their doors really flimsy and if you knock on them they'll fall over. You'll have to take some pictures of the scenery and what it looks like down there. You know the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words." Well it sounds like you are having a good time. One piece of advice I have for you is this: REALLY strive to gain as much from your studies as you can. Exercise time in the morning isn't just to keep us healthy, it's to wake us up as well so that we can be awake and gain as much as we can from the scriptures. When you can really learn from the scriptures that's when you will have the spirit with you SOOOO much more and the mission will change from a "doing it because it's your duty" thing to "doing it out of devotion and love for the Lord." Be obedient and learn as much as you can from your trainer, he's been out longer than you and knows more. He probably knows what he's doing so if he makes a suggestion then follow it, unless it's an unrighteous suggestion then don't and if one of your companions does something wrong don't be afraid to tell the mission president, not telling could mean bad bad news for you, the work in that area and for your companion. But I don't think I needed to tell you that. I just thought I'd add that in.
Well you're probably all thinking right now "Finish writing to Jordan and just get on with your letter already! We want to know what you did and how your week went." If you were thinking that then, ok ok hold your horses.
This week was an up and down week. We had a really good zone conference this week and I learned a lot. We talked a lot about talking to people and if we're going to tract then don't be a robot and make it fun. Don't just get up there and say "Hi were missionaries and we talk about Jesus. Want to hear?" We talked about ways to make it worth while and "out of the box" ways to find people. It was a good zone conference and it helped a lot. Then our week was kind of a downer but not too bad. There is still so much to be grateful for but the week wasn't as productive as we would've hoped. I don't want to go into details because the story is long but we teach a kid in a part member family and they live here in Harrington and the wife (the member) doesn't ever answer her phone and she's had to reschedule some appointments so we stop by to talk to her because we can't get ahold of her and then come to find out her husband thinks we stop by too much. The wife called the Relief Society pres and told her her husband had said that then the RS pres called the ward mission leader who in turn told us. We only stopped by if we had a reason. Anyway I'm not going to go into it but it was an interesting experience. Lets just say on a mission you are a lot more humble and have a more tender heart and that's a good thing but it also makes it a lot easier for someone to come on in and tromp all over it.
Well we saw Tim Robinson this week and we taught him about the 10 commandments and we're going to be teaching a stop smoking program to him tomorrow so hopefully all will go well with that. Other than that he's doing well and he is excited to get baptized.
We also gave Renee a church tour and she really liked it. Through a whole bunch of events both in and out of our control she hasn't been able to come to church the two weeks previous to yesterday (Sunday) and we gave her a tour and she was planning on coming but then she had some real bad allergy's and couldn't make it yesterday so we're kind of worried. If she doesn't come next week then I think she'll have kind've hit a wall and it will be tough getting her to come.
I don't know how much I've told you about Rosalie and Clarence. Long story short they have a baptismal date for 9/25/11. They have some Word of Wisdom problems and they aren't married. I think they would get baptized but the challenge is going to be getting Clarence to quit drinking coffee, he's not 100% up top and so he doesn't quite understand why and it's hard to help him understand and he can't remember what he's read so he'll have a hard time gaining a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet so that could be interesting. But the good news is that Rosalie said she wanted to live it and she's all fine up top and they've both now come to church 2 weeks in a row.
We weren't able to see Alan Lavere this week. The appointment we had with him had to be changed and then the rescheduled appointment we couldn't find another male to go with us so we couldn't meet with him because it's just him and his mom.
We did find though that when we applied the principles we learned in Zone Conference that we had some success. When we were tracting we found some potential investigators and a family of 4 who are now new investigators. Their names is the Huff's. The mom had diabetes, cancer and her kidneys, and liver are shutting down so she's been looking for some comfort and we're going to see them tonight. Hopefully all will go well and we'll be able to help them come to know that this is God's church again restored today.
Saturday was a tough day. In a nutshell only one of our appointments held and we were going to help a new family in the ward move in but they got stuck in traffic so they were 1 1/2 hours behind schedule so that made it so we couldn't help them and we wasted an hour getting there, and waiting and getting back so we could change back into our proselyting clothes. It was a bummer of a day but Sunday was a decent day. Church is definitely from God. There is nowhere else that I can feel the spirit that strong, except the temple, and it just uplifts you even when you've been having a hard week.
Mom-You went to a Josh Groban concert? Jealousy. That's awesome. I would love to go to a Josh Groban concert. I'm glad to hear grandma is doing better and that she isn't in too much pain. Pain=no fun. I'm glad to hear you had a fun time at the cabin.
Dad- I realized this last week that I haven't ever really heard about your mission. You say you don't want to repeat what Mom says, I don't really mind, but it would be neat to hear some stories or something like that. Then you wouldn't have to worry about Mom repeating it. Don't think that it needs to be constricted to just spiritual stories or something like that. It can be something you learned that was neat or about some crazy guy mugging you or just anything you feel like. I would like that.
Austin- I don't think Dad lied it was just Jordan and I didn't have much information and Dad said to talk to Austin for information so we just assumed from the information we got. I was pretty sure you wouldn't say just randomly one day "I feel like wearing a University of Utah shirt." Mom only told me a little bit about him singing happy birthday, some elaboration would be nice. Your reading PMG! Hooray! Keep it up.
Natasha- hello. how are you? Are you still having a fun summer?
Shaylee- Why did you go swimming at the Samuelson's pool? Did you have fun? Who is your new teacher for school?
I love you all and I know that God loves us and that there is so much knowledge to be gained from studying the scriptures. I think I'm starting to have a lot better studies. It's really refreshing to be able to learn from the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it can help us with any problems we have. Jesus Christ died for us and he loves us. I'm so thankful that we are given the ability to repent and improve.
Love,
Elder Schouten
P.S.- I sent some pictures.
Just in case you can't tell. :) haha the one with George Bush is just a cut out. The other real guys name is Brother Macomber. He's a mostly less active guy. He comes to church, on average, about 1 1/2 times a month. He's a cool guy though.
The other picture with George Bush, without me, the other guy is my companion, Elder Arnett.
Then finally the other picture is with a family named the Coomers. They are moving and they are a pretty cool family.
Anyway to the missionary work. It's too bad that I don't get your letters earlier. It looks like from when I received your email last week that it was just a few hours after I sent mine. That means I'm a whole week behind. Oh well what can you do. It's got to be that way for somebody. Crazy how different the church is outside of Utah huh? I thought it was really different too. It takes some getting used to but it's a good experience. It's good to hear that you're learning Spanish pretty quick. They don't have addresses down there? That stinks. It's hard to find addresses out here in the United states with out the grid system that Utah has. I can't imagine how hard it would be if there weren't any addresses at all. You also said that down there you "clap" on peoples houses? What do you do just get outside someones house you just start clapping until they answer the door or something? Or are their doors really flimsy and if you knock on them they'll fall over. You'll have to take some pictures of the scenery and what it looks like down there. You know the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words." Well it sounds like you are having a good time. One piece of advice I have for you is this: REALLY strive to gain as much from your studies as you can. Exercise time in the morning isn't just to keep us healthy, it's to wake us up as well so that we can be awake and gain as much as we can from the scriptures. When you can really learn from the scriptures that's when you will have the spirit with you SOOOO much more and the mission will change from a "doing it because it's your duty" thing to "doing it out of devotion and love for the Lord." Be obedient and learn as much as you can from your trainer, he's been out longer than you and knows more. He probably knows what he's doing so if he makes a suggestion then follow it, unless it's an unrighteous suggestion then don't and if one of your companions does something wrong don't be afraid to tell the mission president, not telling could mean bad bad news for you, the work in that area and for your companion. But I don't think I needed to tell you that. I just thought I'd add that in.
Well you're probably all thinking right now "Finish writing to Jordan and just get on with your letter already! We want to know what you did and how your week went." If you were thinking that then, ok ok hold your horses.
This week was an up and down week. We had a really good zone conference this week and I learned a lot. We talked a lot about talking to people and if we're going to tract then don't be a robot and make it fun. Don't just get up there and say "Hi were missionaries and we talk about Jesus. Want to hear?" We talked about ways to make it worth while and "out of the box" ways to find people. It was a good zone conference and it helped a lot. Then our week was kind of a downer but not too bad. There is still so much to be grateful for but the week wasn't as productive as we would've hoped. I don't want to go into details because the story is long but we teach a kid in a part member family and they live here in Harrington and the wife (the member) doesn't ever answer her phone and she's had to reschedule some appointments so we stop by to talk to her because we can't get ahold of her and then come to find out her husband thinks we stop by too much. The wife called the Relief Society pres and told her her husband had said that then the RS pres called the ward mission leader who in turn told us. We only stopped by if we had a reason. Anyway I'm not going to go into it but it was an interesting experience. Lets just say on a mission you are a lot more humble and have a more tender heart and that's a good thing but it also makes it a lot easier for someone to come on in and tromp all over it.
We also gave Renee a church tour and she really liked it. Through a whole bunch of events both in and out of our control she hasn't been able to come to church the two weeks previous to yesterday (Sunday) and we gave her a tour and she was planning on coming but then she had some real bad allergy's and couldn't make it yesterday so we're kind of worried. If she doesn't come next week then I think she'll have kind've hit a wall and it will be tough getting her to come.
I don't know how much I've told you about Rosalie and Clarence. Long story short they have a baptismal date for 9/25/11. They have some Word of Wisdom problems and they aren't married. I think they would get baptized but the challenge is going to be getting Clarence to quit drinking coffee, he's not 100% up top and so he doesn't quite understand why and it's hard to help him understand and he can't remember what he's read so he'll have a hard time gaining a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet so that could be interesting. But the good news is that Rosalie said she wanted to live it and she's all fine up top and they've both now come to church 2 weeks in a row.
We weren't able to see Alan Lavere this week. The appointment we had with him had to be changed and then the rescheduled appointment we couldn't find another male to go with us so we couldn't meet with him because it's just him and his mom.
We did find though that when we applied the principles we learned in Zone Conference that we had some success. When we were tracting we found some potential investigators and a family of 4 who are now new investigators. Their names is the Huff's. The mom had diabetes, cancer and her kidneys, and liver are shutting down so she's been looking for some comfort and we're going to see them tonight. Hopefully all will go well and we'll be able to help them come to know that this is God's church again restored today.
Saturday was a tough day. In a nutshell only one of our appointments held and we were going to help a new family in the ward move in but they got stuck in traffic so they were 1 1/2 hours behind schedule so that made it so we couldn't help them and we wasted an hour getting there, and waiting and getting back so we could change back into our proselyting clothes. It was a bummer of a day but Sunday was a decent day. Church is definitely from God. There is nowhere else that I can feel the spirit that strong, except the temple, and it just uplifts you even when you've been having a hard week.
Mom-You went to a Josh Groban concert? Jealousy. That's awesome. I would love to go to a Josh Groban concert. I'm glad to hear grandma is doing better and that she isn't in too much pain. Pain=no fun. I'm glad to hear you had a fun time at the cabin.
Dad- I realized this last week that I haven't ever really heard about your mission. You say you don't want to repeat what Mom says, I don't really mind, but it would be neat to hear some stories or something like that. Then you wouldn't have to worry about Mom repeating it. Don't think that it needs to be constricted to just spiritual stories or something like that. It can be something you learned that was neat or about some crazy guy mugging you or just anything you feel like. I would like that.
Austin- I don't think Dad lied it was just Jordan and I didn't have much information and Dad said to talk to Austin for information so we just assumed from the information we got. I was pretty sure you wouldn't say just randomly one day "I feel like wearing a University of Utah shirt." Mom only told me a little bit about him singing happy birthday, some elaboration would be nice. Your reading PMG! Hooray! Keep it up.
Natasha- hello. how are you? Are you still having a fun summer?
Shaylee- Why did you go swimming at the Samuelson's pool? Did you have fun? Who is your new teacher for school?
I love you all and I know that God loves us and that there is so much knowledge to be gained from studying the scriptures. I think I'm starting to have a lot better studies. It's really refreshing to be able to learn from the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it can help us with any problems we have. Jesus Christ died for us and he loves us. I'm so thankful that we are given the ability to repent and improve.
Love,
Elder Schouten
P.S.- I sent some pictures.
Just in case you can't tell. :) haha the one with George Bush is just a cut out. The other real guys name is Brother Macomber. He's a mostly less active guy. He comes to church, on average, about 1 1/2 times a month. He's a cool guy though.
Then finally the other picture is with a family named the Coomers. They are moving and they are a pretty cool family.
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