Week 51

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 51 (5/25/15)

Well there goes another week here in Perú and another week of having the Open House for the Trujillo, Perú Temple.

We had some really great experiences this week and a whole bunch of miracles with the temple. The temple has made our work a lot easier in the past few weeks. We are constantly having people that we contact that were literally just planning on going to the temple, we have people that come to us asking about the temple, and we are constantly receiving referrals of people that have already gone through the temple and want the missionaries to visit them. It's amazing!

This week we were able to go to the temple with a really special family, the Esteves family. A few months ago (before I was in Primavera) Andy (the person directly to the left of me) got baptized. He had permission from his parents, but they didn't want to learn more about the church. Until recently... We tried to teach them and do family home evenings with them but they were all really talkative and it was hard to stay on the subject. So we committed them with a day that we could all go to the temple, so we did!

We all went to the temple together on Saturday and it was a really spiritual experience for everything. The dad, Alejandro, after going through told us that everything he had seen in the temple, all of the rooms and paintings, he had already seen in a dream. Wow. It is really amazing to see the miracles that occur in the House of the Lord. We are now working with them so that the parents can get married (publicly) so they can be baptized!

Well that's about all I got for this week, but we are working really hard to get everyone to the Open House for the LAST WEEK! and then preparing for the dedication. I will write back soon!!

Elder Terry

Week 50

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 50 (5/18/15)

Well there goes week number 50 of being here on the mission! Almost at a year!

Well this week went really well for us here in Primavera. The Temple Open Doors continue and we continue bringing people to the temple. This week we were able to go another 3 times, with investigators, recent converts and less-actives. Here is the evidence:
The Saturday that we went to the temple, they counted almost ten thousand people that went through! (Find Elder Passey)

Some nice birds hanging out on Moroni

The temple with a cloudy sunset

Our convert Ernesto with our rescue Rosa María (I might have bought glasses)

Beautiful shrubbery

Open lens of Moroni

El Templo de Trujillo, Perú

I'm not left with too much time today, but here is something that I thought was pretty funny. I guess this is what you have to do when you don't have sprinklers:

I also managed to find a little distraction cube at a great price:

Well the work keeps progressing here in Trujillo, and we keep on working with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.

Elder Terry

Week 49

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 49 (5/11/15)

Well this week, we started the Temple Open House!!!

It started on Friday and we were able to go with some recent converts on Friday and Saturday. I had a lot of fun taking a whole bunch of pictures:

Just to the left of the temple is one of the biggest cemeteries in all of Trujillo, and on Mother's Day there were thousands of people going to visit their parents in this cemetery. So, some one had the great idea that we could go in front of the temple and invite every one to the Open House that is going on. So we stood in front of the temple and started inviting every one to the temple and that day, we received hundreds of referrals for people to teach.

Well everything is super exciting right now in the mission, and we are finding a lot of success as we talk more about the temple and the blessings we can receive from this magnificent construction.

It was also great to be able to call home yesterday (Mother's Day) and to receive the encouragement to keep on working hard in the mission. Thanks for all of your support!

Elder Terry

Week 48

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 48 (5/4/15)

First of all, I would like to apologize for not being able to send my weekly letter last week. But this week is going to make up for it!

So officially this week, the Temple Open House starts on May 8th! So we are completely focused on inviting and getting every one ready for this amazing event.

In the spirit of getting prepared for the temple, our stake had an activity last Saturday morning where they invited all of the priesthood leaders from each of the wards and all of the missionaries in the stake.

To start off the activity, they talked about the importance of unity in each ward, and that the missionaries shouldn't be doing all of the work in the ward. To teach us how to work in a team, they had us build mini temples. They gave us all of the materials and the dimensions and we got to work.

It turned out really well, and learned that we had to have some one to direct us to make it more efficient.

Afterward, we all traveled to the Temple, and we were able to (for the first time) enter the Temple Grounds. I literally took more than 70 pictures of the temple that day, but here are a few of the best ones:

Walking around the temple helped me realize the actuality that we are going to have a temple in Trujillo! There is an amazing Spirit with this building that helps me remember the feelings that I had going through the temple for the first time.

In every moment we have to talk and teach the people here, we always mention the temple. And every time we do talk about it, every one tells us of their desires to go inside. Maybe it's just out of curiosity, but learning more about the eternal blessings that can be recieved there will help every one understand their real purpose in this life.

Well, that's about all I got for this week, and I will make sure to write back the next!

Elder Terry