Week 67

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 67 (9/14/15)

Well this has to be one of the most interesting, difficult, but fun weeks that I've had in my whole mission!

So on Monday, we had our usual farewell for my companion Elder Simper, and it was really nice to see how much impact that he had made in these last 6 months here in Vista Alegre. Then on Tuesday was the official transfers meeting at 10a, where my companion met his companion and they left off to their new area, and I just stayed back with another trainer until the new missionary meeting at 1p. We were all sitting there in the church and then came the group of exactly half Latino and half american new missionaries, with a lot of tall Americans. At that point everything just hit me at once and I realized what I was going to be doing for the next 3 months.

So one by one they called up each of the new companionship's and I finally met with Elder Smith!

Elder Smith is 18 years old, from Waddell, Arizona (close to Pheonix) and he is a pretty sweet guy. This is no joke, but he came pre-trained. He already knew about almost everything in the mission and has better Spanish than I had even after my training. He's the 4th of 7 brothers and sisters, and each of his older siblings had served missions too. Oh, and he is a literal descendent of Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Joseph Fielding Smith, which is pretty sweet.

With all of this new responsablilty that I haven't had, I also had a personal conversation with President Marler who also called me to be the district leader here. Talk about a lot of new responsabilities! Not only do I have to be training a new missionary, but I am now in charge of a district with us 2 Elders and 7 American Sisters. I already had to give a 35 minute training on Saturday, teach Elders Quorum on Sunday, and teach our district meeting on Wednesday. But in all seriousness, I can tell how much the first 15 months of my mission have prepared me for this point. My testimony in prayer has grown a lot just in this week and I can't wait for these next 3 months.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Elder Terry