Jordan: 3/13/2012 - The Temple is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, first off I didn´t write you all yesterday because this morning, we went to the temple, so today became our P-day. The temple this morning was absolutely incredible. the Spirit in the temple was incredibile!! I don´t know if i´ve ever felt the spirit that strong in my entire life. it was kind of interesting, because the session was in Spanish, but that was really good because it MADE me pay attention, if i wanted to understand anything. (not that i normally don´t listen in the temple,  but in english, i can understand things with out listening really at all, so there are times that i can hear and understand, but not learn a thing.) today was the first time in almost 8 months that i´ve been in the Temple, and it just made me realize how blessed i am to live in centerville utah, where there are around 10 temples with an hour drive of our house. We´re so blessed to be so near to the Lord´s House. Don´t let that blessing go by. Go to the Temple! All of you! Adults and kids over 12 as well. I felt the Spirit so strongly. Everyone needs to be able to feel that spirit.... The temple was also really really cool, because i was able to see a little bit of the spiritual progress that i´ve made. There were things in the temple session that i noticed/ understood for the 1st time, and i know that is because i´ve been a missionary for 9 months now, and my testimony and spiritual progression has improved A LOT. Not to say that i´m perfectly spiritual; i´ve still got a long way to go, but i was able to see this morning that i really have progressed a lot in the Gospel.

 

Well, this week. It was super awesome again. Not quite as crazy awesome as last week, but still amazing. We found 17 new investigators. We´re really progressing a lot here in Centro. The Lord is blessing us SO much. We found a GOLDEN family this week. It´s a mom, dad, and their 2 kids, and one of them is old enough to get baptized. They used to go to another church, but they stopped going because the church didn´t do it for them spiritually. But they´re really excited about the church and really love our visits. They have a baptism date for the 1st of april. so im super excited to keep teaching them. The only hard part with them is the dad doesn´t have a work schedule. He´s kind of a handy man, and just does random projects, so he never has a set time that he´ll be home, but we´ll get over that.

 

The guy that has already read the whole Book of Mormon FINALLY came to church on sunday. we´ve been teaching him for about a month or more, and he FINALLY came to church. So hopefully, he´ll start progressing a little more and his doubts will be cleared up.

 

That family that i said that i found with the assistant, we had a really good lesson with them yesterday. They haven´t really been progressing. They´ve kind of been making up excuses for not coming to church or reading the BoM, but we had a really good lesson yesterday, and we really found out if they wanted to know if the church was true or not. They really do have desire, they´re just a little lazy, and they really like the church they go to now, because they say it makes them feel good, but they commited to do what it takes to find out the truth, and come to church to see if the TRUE church makes them feel better than another church.

 

Mom- if there is anyways to cancel the contacts that you ordered, do it. i have plenty. I brought enough to last me almost 2 years if i changed them every month, but i only change them every 2 or 3 months, because every month is overkill. But if not, that´s alright. Thanks for sending me the contact solution. Your YM/YW activity hiking to Ensign Peak sounds like a blast, even if it rains or snows. I would love to do something like that, but nothing like that really exsits in paraguay. It´s mostly just dirt and buildings and trees. It´s beautiful, but outdoors activities don´t really exist here.

 

Dad- sounds like you had a PARTY doing all the pictures for the play. I´m glad i´m not you. That sounds MISERABLE. But it sounds like everything turned out ok, so that´s all that matters.

 

austin- see john´s letter. hope you had fun in the play. have fun in high school. Don´t stress. I stressed high school. It wasn´t worth it. Don´t be lazy. But don´t stress. in the real world, high school grades are really very important.

 

Shaylee- how was your play? what was it? did you have fun? i hear you´re quite the little actress. Keep it up. Just don´t become a drama queen.

 

Tasha- how´s jr. high? do you still like it? you blone joke was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! i Laughed pretty hard when i read it. Send me more good jokes. My companions kind of a stiff, and doesn´t laugh much. he´s awesome, just not super funny.

 

John- ya, our goals for every week are this: 1 baptism and confirmation, 9 people with baptism date, 7 people at church, 8 progressing invest. 20 lesson with members, 10 other lessons, 20 new investigators, and 20 baptism invitations. I´ve never actually reached any of them other than last weeks 26 new invest, and 10 other lessons. But we´re starting to get there. As for finding 20 new investigators... In my 7.5 months in paraguay, i´ve had probably 50 investigators that i´ve taught one lesson, and never taught again. Paraguayans will let you in the first time, but they run away for the 2nd visit. So of the 26 news we found 2 weeks ago, we´re only teaching 6 or 7 right now, and we only see them once, maybe twice a week, because they fall through on their appointments. That´s how paraguay works.

 

We´ll the chruch is just as true as ever. The Temple IS the House of the Lord. The Spirit there is amazing. don´t let that amazing blessing go by (i´m talking to austin, natasha, and any other cousin over 12 yrs. old too) Go to the temple. You WILL have the Spirit in your lives. And you will be saving souls that have passed on. i think living in Utah, we think that there aren´t many missionary opprotunities, because 95% of people are active members. But there is A LOT of missionary work to be done in the temples. Go and do it. You´ll be blessed.

 

I love you all,
Love, Elder Jordan Schouten