Jordan: 5/28/2012

-----Original Message-----
From: Jordan Schouten [mailto:jordan.schouten@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 11:21 AM
To: John Schouten; Mike Schouten; schouten.julie
Subject: my letter 5/28/2012

Well, this week was really good. Our area is really going places. It was pretty much dead when i got here, but that´s easy to fix if you just work hard. The missionaries before me weren´t lazy, but they weren´t as diligent as they could have been, but that´s ok. We´re past the dead point now and we´re going to get things going here. I love this area. It´s the first area in my whole mission that has members that are willing to help us. So, instead of fighting with the members, we just call them and ask them to help us. It´s AWESOME!!!!!!!

Well, mom, just a heads up. Next monday, i won´t be sending a letter.

I´m still the district leader, even though i´m in a different district, and our mission right now is really struggling. WE´re not baptizing very much. Every 1st pday of the month, the zone leaders have a conference with pres. Callan, but, since the mission is so bad right now, the district leaders have to go to the next one. So, next monday, i won´t be writing, seeing as the conf. will go from 7 or 8 until 2 or 3pm and then, i have to take a 7 hour bus ride back to encarnacion. So, i won´t be writing. Heads up.

My companion is really good. I kind of bugged him our first few days, just because i pushed him harder than his last 2 companions, but he´s realized that the harder you work, the better you feel. We have a lot of fun together.

This week was kind of interesting. I had to do 3 baptism interviews.

In the 1st one, the guy told me he had done something that made it so he had to go to jail, so i had to call pres. Callan, and get that all worked out, but it wasn´t a big deal. It was a long time ago, and he´s super converted. Then, we went to do another interview right after that, so we were waiting for a bus, because the 1st interview was SUPER far away. we waited for 30 minutes and not a single bus came by.

Finally, one came by so we tried to wave it down but it didn´t stop.

We realized that the buses had stopped and that bus was going to the parking garage. So, we hitch hiked. That was super cool Paraguayans are so nice. We stuck out our thumb and started jumping and everything to stop a car, and we got back to the city for the interview. Then, i did the interview and it was a disaster. The guy had a SUPER small testimony, but really wanted to get baptized. He also can´t read, so reading the book of Mormon is a problem but he does it with his wife, who also got baptized. So, long story short, i interviewed him twice and talked with Pres. Callan, and between me, Pres. Callan, and my zone leaders (who taught the guy) we felt and decided he should get baptized. So, it was crazy, but it all turned out well.

We have 4 invest. that have some good potential right now..

Bernardino and Alan- bernardino is the dad and alan is his son and alan´s older brother is a recent convert. So, we´re teaching his brother and dad. They came to church yesterday and they have a baptism date for June 16.

Miguel- he loves the Book of Mormon and reads it all the time. He says he knows its true. The only problem is that he didn´t come to church.  We went to his house to bring him to church with us, but he wasn´t there, and we still don´t know what happened and he doesn´t have a phone, so we can´t call him, but we´re going to visit him tomorrow, so we´ll see.

Fabio- he talked with missionaries 4 months ago, but they just stopped visiting him, probably because he´s got a weird personality, but he´s really good and got a lot of potential. We gave him a BoM yesterday, so we´ll see where he goes.

Mom- i have no idea what Encarnación means. I´ve never bother to look or anything. I don´t really know.... I´m glad that your week was better than the last one. It´s good to relax once in a while (unless you´re a missionary....). Enjoy your summer. Summer is the best.

(unless you´re a missionary in paraguay, because it´s 110 degrees outside :).

Dad- sounds like building the fence was a lot of fun. Hopefully you can get it all fixed up with out problems.

Austin- are you alive?

Tasha- Don´t ever tell me you thought an actor was attractive again, please. That´s weird. Don´t do it. Please.... Anyways, sounds like you watched a lot of movies this week. I bet that was fun. But don´t get lazy :)

Shaylee- are you alive?

The church is true, without a doubt. I love the Gospel. It is such a blessing. The Plan of Salvation gives us so much peace and comfort. I know that we will live with our families after death, if we´re obedient. Christ is our Savior. I have no doubt. I feel his love, and the power of his Atonement every day. He wants to help us. All we have to do is ask. I know i´m doing exactly what God whats me to do right now. The mission is the greatest thing i´ve ever done. I´ve learned so much is this year i´ve been gone, and i´m so excited for what i´m going to continue learning and the changes i will see in the next year i have.  I love you all.

Love,

Elder Jordan Schouten

P.S. mom, was the letter long enough? :) also, i got a letter from Matt Bates today, He told me he´s going to finish out his mission instead of going home early for BYU. Tell him i respect his decision a lot. That´s a tough one, but, he made the right choice.