Jordan: 2/4/2013 - my letter

From: Jordan Schouten
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2013 7:50 AM
To: Mike Schouten; schouten.julie; John Schouten
Subject: my letter 2/4/2013

WEll, this letter is probably gonna be a little short because my letter to president is gonna be a little bigger than normal today because we have a missionary in the zone that is having a lot of obedince problems so, i have to tell president about it. So, it´s gonna be short, but, that´s ok.

This week was a lot better than last week. Me and my comp are getting adjusted to each other. We´re teaching better and he´s helping me out a lot more than last week. I think it was just that last week was his first week here and he had no idea where he was or who he was teaching. But this week he´s figured some things out and he´s helping me a lot more. We´re laughing more and getting along better. So, i´m happy.

As for investigators.... it was a really up and down week. We found a ton of really really golden investigators monday tuesday or wednesday, and then, in the next 3 or 4 days, they completly changed. They all had a ton of desire to know the truth and fix their problems and their lives through the church. Then, it looks like bad influences got to them and now, they don´t want to talk to us/lie to us/hide from us. So, it was kinda depressing that almost all the people that we had have now lost their interest, but, we´re going to keep looking and we´re going to find people to teach.

We found a really cool guy saturday night. His name is Israel. He´s 25 and lives right across the street from the church, so that´s awesome because 1. getting to church will be easy for him and 2. we can teach him in the church every time we teach him. Teaching people in the church is awesome because the Spirit is super strong there.  But we found him on saturday night and he said that he´d come to church on sunday morning. So, sunday morning we stopped by his house on the way to church and his aunt come out and she said that he wasn´t home. She said that he got up really early and went to another city. So, we were kinda bummed out. Then, sunday afternoon, we were by his house again, and we saw him and started talking with him. we told him that we had gone by his house in the morning to take him to church but that his aunt said that he was gone. He said "i wasn´t gone. I was sleeping. i haven´t left my house the whole day" so, that was cool. He was sad that he didn´t go to church and now we know that his aunt in the problem, not him. He´s already read 13 chapers in the BoM (which is a TON for a paraguayan) and he said that he feels really really good when he talks to us and when he reads the BoM. So, we´re excited for him.

We also taught the sister of a recent convert on saturday morning. She´s awesome. She wants to get baptized. She was super excited to read the BoM and talk with us. She didn´t come to church, even though she said she would, but, we did find her on saturday, so it´s understandable. But next week, she´ll be there for sure and she´ll get baptized.

I´m glad grandpa is getting better. Tell him to keep getting better and that i´m praying for him.

Mom- your letter this week was much better. I hope everything for the job goes well, if it´s what the Lord wants for you. Your story about trying to do the powerpoint was pretty funny. I´m not a huge powerpoint fan myself. Also, thanks for looking into the BYU stuff for me and getting all that hassle out of the way. I talked with the mission secretary last monday and he told me that they did all the ecclesiastial endorsementes, so, everything should be good to go. Do you know when registration is? if you could let me know, that´d be great. I think you have to do everything, but i´d like to have an idea to give you an idea of what i´d like to take.

Dad- my comp is a zone leader too. Zone leaders always are 2 together. 

John- your letter was great and all, but knock it off with all the "you´re almost done stuff" Please. You´re advice is awesome. keep sending it please. But, just leave off the parts like "you´ll be home before you know it" and all that jazz. I´m trying to be focused and those comments just make me think about how much time i have left. I promise you i´m going to make the most of the last few months of my mission. I´m going to keep working hard every moment. I´m going to be obedient till the end and do all i can to baptize everyone that i meet.

I´m out of time. I love the gospel. I love the church. I know it´s true. I know God lives and loves us and he answers our prayers. He answered a lot of my prayers this week. He helped me a lot. I love preaching the Gospel. It truly is the ONLY way to return to live with our Heavenly FAther. Love you all,

Elder Jordan Schouten

Also, Annie, Lexie and Lauren... i did divisions with the missionary from austrailia this week. He told me a little bit about it. He says that it get´s to about 105-110 degrees for about a week or two, but the it calms down a little bit. He says the sun comes up at 3 or 4 am during the summer and goes down at 10pm. It the winter it comes out at 8 or 9 am and goes down at 4 or 5 pm. He says that Melborne isn´t as humid as paraguay (you lucky Lexie) He said that Sydney is really humid (sorry Lauren) and he said that Perth is one of the biggest missions in the world as far as distance and that when they have transfers, if you´re in the south of the mission and you go to the north, you have to go in an airplane. So, just some random facts. if you want to know anything specific, tell my mom to tell me and i´ll ask him about it. I don´t promise anything, but if you have questions, just ask me.