Jordan: 1/2/2012

Well, welcome to 2012, the end of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha. Paraguayans are super superstitious and they all believe the world really is going to end this year, so it´s pretty funny to listen to them talking all the time about it. 

Well, this last week was kind of rough actually. In Paraguay, vacations don´t exist, so people pretty well just worked their normal schedule, or if they weren´t working, the traveled to visit family that lives really far away, so it was actually a little hard to work here, but it was good. The hardest part is that people start preparing for their New Year´s party at about 2pm on New year´s eve, so Saturday was more or less shot, because no one would let us in their houses, and then Sunday, everyone was sleeping the whole day. In Paraguay, the party for new years starts at 12 or 12:30 am, and they stay up until 4 or 5 or 6 am. (funny story, at 6 am i got up to use the bathroom and i could hear music from a party that was going on 3 or 4 blocks away from my house.) so they stay up all night and sleep all day on New Year´s. So saturday and sunday were rather hard. But they were good days.

This sunday after church, I had a really cool experience. I´ve just been really confused with all of my investigators lately. My first 5 months here in Paraguay, i felt like i really always had the answer, or i could find it with just one morning of studying. But my investigators have been stumping me for 2.5 weeks now and i´ve just kind of felt a cloud of darkness in my brain. So sunday, during the Sacrament, i prayed and asked the Lord what we should do to help our investigators. And i got the feeling to study "Revelation through Prayer" (john will know what that is, everybody else, no. we have 8 really awesome study guides for PMG, about 8 of the most important parts of missionary work and revelation through prayer is one of them). and after studding that with my companion after church on Sunday, after just 15 minutes of study, I recived about 3 gallons of revelation (I don´t really know what units revelation come in, so i went with gallons :) and know i really feel like i will be able to help my investigators out a whole lot more.

One thing... so DearElder still exists here in my mission. I don´t know if it costs anything, but if it´s free, or rather inexpensive, could you send me Matt´s and kyle´s letter every now and then. Not every week, but every 2 or 3 weeks. I´d like to know what´s going on in their missions. but if it´s expensive, that´s alright.

Dad- Kings Peak..... i didn´t really like the food. that was probably the worst. also, i got the world´s biggest blisters, so that didn´t help. and i just don´t really like backpacking. hiking is alright, but backpacking isn´t my favorite. But it´s not completely terrible. But i think almost everyone will complain the whole time you´re there, so keep that in mind.

Mom- yes, people sent off fireworks the whole night. At midnight, it woke me up and it was CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but i fell asleep 3 or 4 minutes later. I´m glad that your lesson went really well. As a missionary, there is NOTHING better than a lesson that goes really well. And there´s not much worse than a lesson that blows up in your face, so I´m glad you had the better of the 2. 

Austin- YOU WENT ON A DATE???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, you just have to go on about 29 more. Then you´ll be alright. and like john said, study question of the soul in PMG. That will really help you, and it will really strengthen your testimony. I love studing that section. It´s amazing.

Tasha- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shaylee- get feeling better. Don´t eat to much junk food.

Well, this is the true church. Christ loves us. He lives. He died for us and was resurrected. We WILL live with him again, if we keep our covenants. There really isn´t anything more important in life than keeping our covenants. If we´re always obedient, we will live in the Celestial Kingdom. I have no doubt. Joseph Smith saw God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. The spirit testifies of this to me every day. I have absolutely no doubt that he was a Prophet of God. He translated the Book of Mormon. It is the word of God. One challange that i want to give you all... Tasha and Shaylee too... Read the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY this year. If you didn´t read it yesterday, start today, and be PERFECT this year in reading the Book of Mormon. I promise all of you that the Spirit will come into your lives and that all of your trials will be eased. It changes my live every single day. Read it. Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet of God. He guides the church today by revelation. I love you all.

See you soon.

Love,

Elder Jordan Schouten

 

This less active family likes me so much that they wrote my name on the wall of their house. Not gonna lie, I´m pretty proud of that one. :)

other kids of the family on christmas playing with sparklers.

 

daughters of the less active family that gave us food for christmas. we didn´t eat with them because in paraguay, everyone eats christmas dinner at midnight on christmas eve. so they just gave us food at 8:45 to take to the house.

This is my backpack, and that white stuff on there is salt from sweating so much :)