Jordan: 3/11/2013

From: Jordan Schouten

Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 8:30 AM
To: Mike Schouten; schouten.julie; John Schouten
Subject: my letter 3/11/2013

 

Well, this week was up and down again, but it turned out really good yesterday. The worst part of the week was that the guy that i talked about last week that came to church and told everyone that he was going to get baptized fell through. His family and all his neighboors are all against the church and he let them get to his head. We realized when we talked to him during the week that he´s not 100% mentally. He´s still like a little kid, sort of, and because of that, he didn´t/couldn´t accept getting baptized because his mother in law (who he lives with) doesn´t like the church. So, that was a bummer. He can still get baptized, if we can teach him. The problem is teaching him. because we can´t go to his house because if his family members and neighboors see us, the start telling him bad stuff about the church and he gets all scared and doesn´t want to talk to us. So, we´re trying to work with a couple of members to go by his house to get him to leave and go to members houses so we can teach him. We´ll see what happens...

 

But, the awesome part of this week was yesterday in church. Well, i guess it started on monday. On monday night, we were walking to an invest. house and there was this guy sitting on the side of the road, drinking soda. So, i stopped to talk to him before we went to the invest. So, while we were talking to him, he told us that he had almost gotten baptized about 15 years ago, when he lived on the other side of paraguay. So, we talked a little more with him and he told us that he wanted to go to church again, and get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was super cool. So, we asked him where he lived, and, we didn´t understand the address that he gave us at all. (Addresses in paraguay are terrible. Streets without names, houses without numbers, etc.) so, we didn´t know if he lived in our area or the area next to us. But, we just kinda hoped he lived in our area. Then, during the week, we called him a couple times to see if we could visit him, but he was always working. He works a ton, like 12 to 15 hours a day. So, it was kind of a bummer. Then, we called him saturday afternoon and he said he was working, but that he was going to come to church on sunday. So, we were just kind of like "we´ll see what happens. We´ll see if he comes." Well, he came to church and he loved it. Then, right after church, we sat down with him and went of the baptism interview, to see where he´s at. Basically, he knows everything and he´s ready to go. He just needs to strengthen his testimony of Joseph Smith and the BoM. So, we invited him to be baptized this saturday (the 16th) and he said yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, were really excited. It was a miracle. by the way, his name´s oscar.

 

Other than Oscar, we really don´t have very many invest. we have a few people that listen to us but they´re really not "investigating" the church. So, we´ll see what happens with them.

 

Annie and Lexie (if you read this)- well, congratulations for deciding to serve missions. It´s going to be the hottest, hardest, most exhausting 1.5 years of your entire life. But, it will also be the greatest experience that you´ve ever had. Really, it´s impossible to give advice about how to be a great missionary, but i guess the most important thing i could tell you is that the Lord wants his children to get baptized. I know that may sound like weird advice, but, you´ll get to the mission, and you´ll meet a lot of missionaries that think we´re called to be missionaries to work and to teach. but, it´s not true. We´re called to invite others to come unto Christ, so they can apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to their lives, be baptized and recieve eternal life. The Lord is preparing his children to recieve the gospel because He loves them. Teaching them isn´t enough. We have to baptize them. So, whenever you´re feeling down or depressed, just remember that there are people out there, waiting for the gospel, and the Lord wants us to find them and baptize them. This is the Lord´s work and nobody cares about it more than Him. You´ll never be in a "dead area" with nobody to teach. The lord prepares people everywhere. We just have to work hard, and find them and baptize them. Also, obedience is the 1st key. if we´re not obedient, the Lord will never bless us. So, even if your trainer, or your district or zone leaders aren´t obedient, BE OBEDIENT  and then, the Lord will bless you with His Spirit, and you´ll find people to baptize. (i don´t know if any of this helped, but, i hope so, if not, oh well.)

 

Grandma and Grandpa are moving? weird. i can´t belive that. but, it probably is the best thing.

 

Mom- i´m glad you´re almost done with school and everything. Hopefully everything turns out ok.

 

Well, i´m out of time in 34 seconds. Love you all. the church is true. Good luck, Annie and Lexie.

Elder Jordan Schouten