Jordan: 3/19/2012

Well, this week was a good one. Not quite as good as the last few weeks have been, but it was still really good. But me and my companion were talking last night at the end of the week, trying to figure out why we´re kind of going downhill slowly, and we realized that our problem is that we don´t have the fire or excitement that we had right after the divisions with the assistants. After the divisions, we were on fire and never got bumbed out or anything, but some of that excitement has worn off over these 3 weeks, and are numbers show the results. So we decided last night that we´re going to work a lot on being excited and just never getting down, even if we have a hard day. Because one thing that i´ve learned is that, as a missionary, if you get down on yourself and lose your excitement, nothing goes well, and you have no success in the numbers or anything. So this week, we´re going to be working on regaining that fire that we had a couple of weeks ago.

I don´t know if i told you about this family that we found a while back. It´s a dad, his wife and their son that´s 10 yrs. old. The Cubilla family. They´re really awesome. We watched the restoration movie with them on saturday and it really helped them understand and they really felt the spirit really strong. Yesterday, at church, only the dad showed up, but we knew the mom and son wouldn´t be there, because their son had a school event sunday morning. (all the schools in paraguay are catholic schools, so they sometimes have things on sundays). But the dad came to church and he really enjoyed it. He really learned a lot, and he became decent friends with some of the members. So hopefully they´ll all come to church this next week, and then, they´d be getting baptized between sessions of general conference, on april 1st.

This other family that i´ve been telling you about (juan and sonia), who i found with the assistant, aren´t really progressing too much as of right now, but this saturday, they got married, so hopefully their lives will slow down and we´ll be able to teach them. they haven´t been to church yet, but we talked to them last monday, and they said that they´d definately be in church this next sunday. so we´ll see.

Mom- i´m glad your sunrise hike turned out alright. I think that sounds like a blast. I would love to do that. I´m glad that you really enjoyed ward conference. Pres. Felt is amazing. I always love his talks. And i love the concept of always being ready and prepared to go to the temple, not just preparing to go a few weeks before you go.

Dad- too bad that the teachers lost in region. Who are the 2 best players? i have absolutely no idea who is even in teachers quorum these days.

Austin- are you alive? i hear your solo and ensemble group is really good, but i´ve never heard anything about from you? are you good? letter. Send me one. hint hint. (before the mission, i used to use subtle hints, but i learned in the mission that being subtle about things doesn´t work as well as being 100% direct. write me. Please. i can´t say it any more directly)

Natasha- are you alright. mom wrote be about your deathly disease. it doesn´t sound like fun. i hope you get feeling better.

Shaylee- i hear you´re quite the singer. Keep it up. That´s awesome! (just don´t become a drama queen, alright?)

John- well, i hope things with matt gamble go well, and with this new lady that you found that talked with missionaries a year ago. Don´t let them go by. Never give up on them. They´re no such thing as an easy baptism. Fight for them. Because there is always obstacles, but with the Spirit and the Lord on your side, you´ll be able to get over them.

Well, i know that this church is true. I know that with no doubt. I love the Gospel so much. It has changed my life, and keeps on doing so every day. This morning i was reading Pres. Monson´s sunday morning conference talk from last october. You should all read it. He talks about how even though the world´s standards change, our standards can never change. and if we don´t change our standards, 1. We´ll be happy. and 2. we´ll recieve eternal life. What more could we want. Pres. Monson really is a Prophet of God. I´m so excited to hear him speak again in 2 weeks. I know that we have the Priesthood authority of God. I know that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is evidence of that. I have 0 doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. It has changed my life. I love it with all my heart. But most of all, I KNOW that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. He died for my sins. He died for our sins. He died for our trials, pains, afflictions, and sufferings. He knows exactly how we feel at every moment of every day. He wants to and will help us. We will live with him again if we keep our covenants, and repent of our sins everyday, so that we can become more like Him.
I love you all. Keep safe, have fun! (and get well soon, tash)

Love,

Elder Jordan Schouten