Jordan: 4/8/2013

From: Jordan Schouten

Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 9:11 AM
To: Mike Schouten; schouten.julie; John Schouten
Subject: my letter 4/8/2013

 

Well, this week was great. Good things started happening last week and this week, they just kept on happening. It was awesome. It´s amazing how things change when you change your attitude and try to do what the Lord wants you to do. I´ve really learned the last few weeks that we mess things up for the Lord, He never messes things up for us. When we do what´s right, things go well. When we´re disobedient, things go poorly and we´re unhappy. So, it´s been a really good last 2 weeks and i´ve learned a ton.

AS for the good things that happend... We found a GOLDEN kid this week. His name´s David and he´s 19 yrs. old. we contacted him in the streets about a week ago, but we finally went to his house on friday. We went friday morning and his cousin answered the door and said he wasn´t there. So, we were about to leave, when an older lady came out and saw us and said that he was there. She told us to come in. Turns out that he was there, but he was sleeping. But the lady (his aunt) told us she wants us to talk with him because he´s not doing so well. She told us that his mom died 1.5 years ago and that since she died, he´s been a wreck. He dropped out of school, lost his job, and everything. He basically just sleeps until noon everyday and then rides his bike (he´s super into mountain biking. It´s kind of ironic because there are 0 mountains in Paraguay, but he mountain bikes hills.) So, she woke him up and we talked to him. We talked about his mom dying and we asked him if he´d like to see her again. and his eyes lit up. It was awesome. He said that he´d do anything to see his mom again. So, we told him he has to get baptized. So, he said he wants to get baptized. It was an AWESOME lesson. The Spirit was super strong and we only taught him for 15 minutes. Then, on saturday, he came to conference with us. It was super awesome. He´s progressing a ton already. We´re going to teach him during the week and then, he´s going to get baptized. It was a miracle.

We also have another invest. named Zulma. I think i talked about her last week. She lives with the most faithful family in the ward. She had a baptism date for yesterday, but she didn´t get baptized. Basically, she went on vacation to visit her family that lives far away and told them she wants to get baptized. So, when she told them that, they got mad and told her she couldn´t get baptized. So, we were kind of bummed out about that. But, she´s 18 so she can make her own decision.  So, we taught her thursday and we had one of the most amazing lessons of my mission. We asked her a bunch of questions and the Spirit was super strong. We asked if she had asked God if the Church was true and she said yes. We asked how she had felt and she said it was the best feeling of her entire life. Then, we asked her if she had asked God if he wants her to get baptized. She said no. So, right there in the lesson, we kneeled down and she asked God if she should get baptized. And the Spirit was SOOOOOOOOOO strong. After the prayer, i asked her, What did God say? she said, a lot of things passed through my head, but He said yes. So, we were super happy. So, we went to teach her on saturday to get her all ready for her baptism and she didn´t want to leave her room to come talk with us. It took us 15 minutes to get her out to listen to us. But she finally came out but it was pretty obvious that she´s not 100% ready for baptism this week. So, we taught about General Conference and we committed her to come. and she did and she really liked it. Then, the other elders in our ward had a baptism after General Conference on sunday night. So, she came to the baptism too and she really liked it. in the baptism, we were watching her and she literally is having a battle in herself. She KNOWS the church is true and that she should be baptized, but, she´s afraid of her family. but we studied for her this morning and we learned that really, she just needs time and needs to keep reading the BoM and praying and coming to church, and she´ll get baptized, without a doubt. It might take a week or maybe 2 or 3 but she´ll get baptized this month, without a doubt. So, it was a really good lesson and everything with her.

General Conference was awesome. There wasn´t a single talk that really stuck out to me. I think i liked this conference more than others because we had 5 invest. that came to at least 1 of the sessions. We were super excited about all the people that came. (5 is a lot. It may seem small, but it´s a ton.) So, it was great. I watched half in english and half in spanish. (saturday morning and afternoon in spanish because we had invest. there that had no members to sit by them so we sat with them.) then, priesthood and both sunday sessions in english because we had members to sit with them. So, it was really awesome. The biggest thing that i learned in conference was 1. be obedient. I feel like there were a ton of talks about agency and obedience. (that probably really stuck out to me because i was pretty dumb and disobedient the last few weeks) and 2. Be happy and have peace. I feel like every talk talked about that in one way or another. So, i really enjoyed conference and i´m excited to study the talks later on.

Mom- thanks for regestering me for college. We see what happens. I´m sure i´ll change some things but that´s fine. as long as i´m signed up. The Arches trip sounds like quite the adventure. But, it sounds like you still had fun. I´m glad that you felt like you have missionary work to do. There is SOO much work to be done. And the Lord wants to help us. I think that missionary work is considered the hardest and scariest topic in the church, but the Lord is going to help us if we share the gospel. Not everyone will accept, but the Lord will help us and bless us. I´m certain of that. So, don´t be afraid. Just share it.

Well, gotta run, but i know that the church is true. i have no doubt. I know that obedience is the ONLY way to true happiness. I know that we have a living Prophet and 12 Apostles. I know that they guide this church through direct revelation from God. I know that Christ is my Savior. I have no doubt. I know He loves me. I know he died for my sins and he wants me to be happy and if i´m obedient, i will be happy. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I´m so thankful for him and courage and faith that he had to not give up on this great work. It´s the only source of true happiness in my life. I know that the BoM is the word of God. I´ll read it everyday until i die. I love reading it. It is such a blessing. I know that if we try to get closer to God, he will get closer to us. He never moves away. We move ourselves away from Him. But i thinK that He does move closer. I´ve felt Him a lot closer to me these last 2 weeks than maybe any other time of my life. I know this is His work. Love you all

Elder Jordan Schouten

P.S. so, do i get ausitn´s new super awesome cell phone when i get home? :) Just kidding. I couldn´t care less.

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