Well, so how i told you i was doing divisions with the assistants last monday and tuesday, we´ll it turned out to be the best 30 hours of my mission so far. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!! In my time here in Centro, we´ve never been good at finding new investigators. Our mission goal is 20 new invest. every week, and the most i´ve ever found in Centro in a week was 5. So not very good. So on the divisions, we set the goal of finding all 20 new investigators in our two days together. Monday night and Tuesday all day. It turned out really good. On monday night, in just 3 hours, we found 6 investigators. So in all of 3 hours, we had already broken my former record for a whole week of work. And then on tuesday, we found 8 more investigators. We ended up finding 14 investigators in a day and 3 hours. We didn´t meet our goal of 20, but we exploded our area. And then, in the other half of the week with Elder Reid, we found 12 other investigators. So we ended up meeting the mission goal, and we really got a jump start on our area. Things are really starting to pick up. The assistant really taught me how to find people and how to get into their houses, and then how to teach lesson 1 well enough that they feel the spirit, but also fast enough that they don´t get mad at you for taking too much time. Because a lot of the time, we go into a house for the 1st time and teach lesson 1 and it takes over an hour. And when the lesson is over, the invest. looks at the clock and realizes they lost an hour, and after that, they hide from us because they don´t want us to steal all their time. So he really helped me learn how to be happy and exciting enough to get into people´s house, and then to teach lesson 1 by the spirit, but in less than 45 minutes. This week was absolutely incredible. We taught more lessons than i´ve ever taught in my mission, we finally got a little bit of help from the members here in Centro, and we found a lot of new people to teach. But the best part is that i now have faith. Before the divisions, I was a bad person and i didn´t believe that we could have success in Centro, because very few people actually live here. They just work here. but now, after being with the assistant for 30 hours, i have faith that people really live here, and that we really will be able to find people to teach and baptize. My faith and excitement have comepletely changed, and my vision has been opened. It was amazing.
We´ll, i can´t tell you about all the people that we found, but i´ll tell you about the best. We found a guy and his wife, named Juan and Sonia. They´re GOLDEN! we went to their house and we sat down to teach, and at the very beginning they told us "we´re members of the Universal Church (no idea who they are, but it´s a super big church here in Downtown Centro.) and we´re planning on getting baptized in 2 weeks." Me and the assistant looked at each other, smiled, and thought to ourselves "we´re going to change that." And then we taught lesson 1. It was INCREDIBLE! They listened SO carefully. They we´re just paying attention and were so interested and understood everything so well. Then, at the end, we talked a little about baptism, and they said again that they´re getting baptized in their church soon. and then, 5 seconds later, the assistant invited them to be baptized, and they said yes. I don´t really know what happened. The Spirit just took over and made them say yes. then we invited them to be baptized march 17, and they said no. We said "what would prevent you from being baptized this day?" and they said "actually, we´re getting married that day, so we can´t get baptized. So we said, "how about the 18th?" and they said yes. It was just too perfect of a lesson. Nobody in paraguay is ever married, or has plans to do so. God has prepared them for baptism; to be members of his true church. I´m excited to keep teaching them. We have an appointment tonight. It´s going to be great.
By the way, how did BYU basketball do this year. mom just told me Gonzaga pounded them, but how good were they? what was their record? they they beat any really good teams? are they going to the NCAA tournament?
Mom- I think i´ll buy a few more things from Paraguay for you, and then let you know how much it was. But $200 for right now is alright. Also, i finally got the package!!!!!!!! Thank you so much. It was kind of funny because you said when you were buying the stuff, you couldn´t remember what i liked and what i didn´t. And it was funny because there was stuff in there that i wasn´t a huge fan of before the mission (beef jerky, cashews), but now, i love them. If you want to change a picky eater, send them to paraguay for 2 years. I loved EVERYTHING in the package. Thanks so much. And also, i don´t want to ask this, but could you send me another package. I´m almost out of contact solution. You can just send the bottles in those little pouch things the mail office has that are a lot cheaper. But i´m running out on solution, and paraguay doesn´t really have contact solution. So if you could send me a 2 or 3 bottles in one of those little pouches, that´d be great.
Dad- sounds like stage crew is about as good as it was when i was there. i´m glad no one got really badly hurt. The pictures looked really good. I take some pictures. Not a million, but i take pictures.
Austin- your comb-over is super cute. I love it. you should always do your hair like that :)
Natasha- sounds like a fun week. That brownie/strawberry/other stuff desert sounded REALLY good. I hope you enjoyed it.
Shaylee- how old are you? I forget.
John- did you like mom´s super trunky question about your release date? you´ve still got plenty of time left. Don´t answer that question. Just work. It´s more fun that way. I know my release date already, but mom and dad won´t know until about 2 weeks beforehand.
I know that this church is true. I know that God is a God of miracles, but we will NEVER see miracles if we don´t have faith. We always quote the scripture "faith without works is dead", but i learned this week that works without faith is dead. I was working as hard as i could before this week, but i had no faith. I didn´t believe people would be in their houses, i didn´t believe that we could find people. I had no faith. But now, i have faith. I know it´s possible. God will do miracles. He loves us so much, we just have to believe in him. I know that this church is true. The gospel is the greatest blessing that i have in my life. I love it. Being a missionary is the best. I love you all.
Love, Elder Jordan Schouten
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