Jordan: 7/2/2012

-----Original Message-----
From: Jordan Schouten [mailto:jordan.schouten@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 10:22 AM
To: John Schouten; Mike Schouten; schouten.julie
Subject: my letter 7/2/2012

 

Well, this was the best week ever! Honestly, it was the best week of my entire life. The best part is that we had 2 of the 5 baptisms happen. The other three are going to happen, but we got 2 of them to go through, and we´ll get the other one´s this week. Honestly, this week was just amazing. It was one of those times when everything just seemed to go well. It wasn´t perfect, but perfection is something that doesn´t exist in missionary work. Someone always falls through on appointments or something, but this week was as close to perfect as I’ve ever had.

 

So, the 2 baptisms.. their names are Mariela and Graciela. It´s a mom and her 8 yr. old daughter. the mom got married to a member on wednesday and then on saturday she and her daughter got married. It was a good baptism. It was kind of hard to get them ready for baptism because they both have learning disabilities, but they new the most important things (that the church is true, joseph smith was a prophet and that the BoM is true), so, they got baptized. It was really good.

 

The other 3 people that we had that should´ve gotten baptized are Bernardino, and his 2 kids, alan and angelica. We only talked with them once last week, so that´s why they didn´t get baptized.

 

Bernardino still says he´s not ready, but we have an awesome lesson planned for him when we can finally teach him. And if he still says he´s not ready, we´re going to baptize his 2 kids. They´re 110% ready.

 

We asked her daughter if she read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. She said "yes, i read it and prayed and i´m sure it´s true. I´m absolutely sure it´s true. 100% percent sure. They´re is no way it can´t be true." So, she´s ready. So, we´re going to baptize them, no matter what, and hopefully that will be enough motivation for Bernardino to get baptized with them this Saturday.

 

We also found 2 awesome guys this week. The is this member family and the 2 daughters have boyfriends that aren´t members of the church. So, the mom called us and told us to come over so we can teach the boyfriends. (it´s kind of interesting because the mom is less-active, but she wants her son in laws to be members of the church.) So we taught them on saturday night and sunday morning they came to church.

 

They have baptism dates for the 21st of July. I´m excited for them.

 

They´ve got a LOT of potential.

 

Mom- girls camp sounds like fun. Bear lake itself is way better than the lake at the cabin, but around bear lake is super ugly. The water is better but the other stuff isn´t. But i´m glad you had fun at girls camp. Hopefully everything goes well at the cabin. Have fun.

 

Dad- i´m glad you could relax a little bit. Have fun at the cabin.

 

John- i said you didn´t write me becuase you didn´t write my name out and write something to me. i got your email but it didn´t have anything for me. That´s why i said it. But i don´t mind. I´m glad you liked your divisions with the assistants. I hope things start to pick up in your area. Just keep working hard and God will bless you. I´m sure of that. also, is your Pres. leaving this year or does he have 1 more year left?

 

Austin- are you alive? have fun.

 

Tasha- have fun at the cabin. I´m glad you liked girls camp. I really like your letters. Thank for always writing.

 

Shaylee- i love you. Have fun at the cabin.

 

Also, the new mission president. I know he´s here, but i know nothing about him. We´ll see what happens. I have no idea when i´ll meet him or what he´ll be like.

 

Another question... do you happen to know if Kyle Lemperle is the assistant yet? it´s just a matter of time. He baptizes people every week. But do you happen to know if it´s official yet?

 

I know that this is the True church. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. He saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We watched "The Restoration" movie with some investigators last night, and the Spirit testified to me again that he truly was a Prophet. I know without a doubt that we´re in the true chruch. We´re SOOOO blessed to be members of this church. I know Thomas. S. Monson is a Prophet today. What a blessing it is to be able to study his words every day. I know that if we heed his counsel, we´ll never go astray. I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It´s true. It´s such a blessing in my life. It literally has changed my life. I love reading it every single day. I´ll never stop reading it. But most importantly, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that he suffered and died for me. I know that I can be forgiven of my sins. I know that Christ was resurrected, and because of Him, we´re all be resurrected some day. I know that if we´re obedient in this life and choose the right and try everyday to get closer to the Savior, we´ll live together forever in the Celestial Kingdom. The Gospel is so amazingly simple, and it gives us so much peace and joy and happiness. I love this Church. I love being a missionary. I´ve learned so much that i´d never have been able to learn without this experience.

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Jordan Schouten

P.S. i found out this morning that Kyle Shegrud is in my zone, so who knows? maybe i´ll see him soon.