Jordan: 3/18/2013

From: Mike Schouten [mailto:mikesphotomm@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 10:01 PM
To: Mike Schouten
Subject: Jordan: 3/18/2013

Well, this week was a lot better than the last few weeks that we´ve had. Our area was pretty much dead for the last 2 or 3 weeks, but this week, we found a lot of really prepared people that i really think are going to progress. we worked a lot harder this week that we´ve worked the last few weeks and we just had a lot more faith and some really good things happened. 

As for Oscar (the guy that came to church last week that´s awesome)... he disappeared. It was weird. We don´t know what happened to him. His phone was turned off basically all week long and we don´t know exactly where he lives because we´ve never actually been to his house. So, we´ll see what happens. We still hope he´ll show up and that he´ll be able to get baptized this week or next.

Then, we found a lady named Ancelma. She´s about 60 yrs. old but she´s super smart (it´s weird to find someone over 60 yrs. old in Paraguay that´s really smart because most of the people that age never went to school) So, teaching her is really interesting because she listens a lot and she has a lot of questions that are really good. We had a really cool experience with her in the lesson on thursday. Thursday morning in comp study, we were talking about her and what we should teach and we really didn´t know what to teach her. We couldn´t decide between lesson 1 or lesson 2. So, we talked for a long time and we decided lesson 2 but we still weren´t very sure. So, i said the closing prayer for comp study and i asked in the prayer that God would help us know exactly what to teach her while we were in the lesson. So, we went to her house thursday night and sat down and started talking with her and she just said, out of nowhere: "ok, i want to know what you belive about what happens after death. I know what a lot of people belive but i still don´t know" So, that right there was the answer to my prayer. Before that moment, i still didn´t know if we should teach Lesson 1 or 2 but in that moment, it was very clear that the Lord was telling me exactly what he wanted me to teach her. So we had a really awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation.

Then, on tuesday, we found another really old, really smart lady. Her name is Atanasia. How we found her was pretty funny. On tuesday we were working and out of nowhere it just started DOWNPOURING. It was probably the hardest rain of my entire mission. and me and my comp didn´t have umbrellas, so we ran under a tree to try to wait out the rain (because in Paraguay, when it downpours, it only does it for about 10 minutes, sometimes less.) So, while we were hiding under a tree, a lady saw us from the window of her house and she started yelling at us to come in her house. So, we went. She invited us in to hide from the rain and she started asking us a ton of questions about "the mormons." So, we answered a few of her questions and gave her a pamphlet to read and set an appointment to come back and teach her more. So we did and she read the pamphlet and she understood it really well. So told us when we went back "so, basically, the mormon church is true and all other churches in the world are wrong, or Joseph Smith just invented this story and the mormon church is like any other church and if Joseph Smith did tell the truth, that means i have to go to your church and be part of your congregation." i just kinda stared at her in unbelief and after 5 or 6 seconds, i said "yep, that´s about it. Here´s the BoM. Read it and pray about it." It was really cool. She´s got a lot of potential.

Mom- sounds like you had a really good, but pretty crazy week. I´m glad your Relief Society lesson went well. I can´t belive that Grandma and Grandpa are moving but i´m glad their house sold quickly. That´s a blessing. 2 questions... 1. can you send Annie and Lexie´s letters to me on Dearelder. I´d like to know what´s happening on their missions but i don´t have time to read other emails. and 2. Do you know what´s happening with me for BYU. Am i going to summer term or just starting in fall? and also, when is regrestration? (i butchered the spelling on that. the thing that means signing up for classes.) You have to register for me so, if i´m going to summer term, just pick some religion classes or something. I don´t have any idea what i want to study but i don´t want to think about it too much so i´ll figure it out later...

John- thanks for your letter. It really helped a lot. It had a lot of good advice. Thanks a bunch.

Rest of the fam- love you all thanks for everything. 

I know that this is Christ´s true church. I have no doubt. I know that Joseph Smith was  a prophet of God. I have no doubt that he saw God and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove. I know that Joseph Smith recieved the Priesthood authority again, so that all of us can recieve all the saving ordinances so we can return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet and if we listen to him and his teachings, we will never go astray and we will always be spiritually protected. I have no doubt that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I´ve read it every day of my mission and i know that it is true. I know that if we abide by the precepts that it teaches, we will get closer to God and we will have the Spirit with us at all times. I know that I´m exactly where the Lord wants me to be. I´ve been thinking about that a lot lately, because i´ve really be struggling with my area because i´m not a huge fan of it. But i know this is where the Lord wants me to be because there are things that i need to learn that i couldn´t learn anywhere else. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He is my Savior. I know that He suffered for my sins. I know He loves me. I know this is His work and i know that He leads and guides this church. 

Love you all, 

Elder Jordan Schouten