Week 103

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 103 (5/22/16)

Well, I guess this is it! My last email from being here on the mission! I'll be planning on writing an email next week, but it is most likely that I will already be home! ¡Qué locazo!

I guess we'll start off with a few things from this week.

So first, last Monday after writing we had a nice district P-day with the sisters from our branch. We decided that we wanted to try to sled down some sand dunes here in our area which sounded like a lot of fun! But then we get there and it turns out that it doesn't really work like you think it would. We tried to go down, but we wouldn't slide down like you were supposed to.

But it was still a lot of fun and we had a little picnic on the hill and also buried my companion.

Also on Saturday morning, we had a zone devotional and service where we were able to go to a cemetery in Pacasmayo and register a lot of the names and death dates. Apparently the graves of older ages are not registered in the city's system so we did this to help them out and also to input in the family history system Family Search to match up records with people.

We also found a tomb that was opened up and found a skull:

Pretty successful day!

There was also a lovely full moon yesterday and had to stop to take pics:

Well, as it may be my last email here in the mission field, I guess I should add some special words to this part of the email. Well I have to say that these past 2 years have definitely been the hardest thing that I have ever done in my whole life. Maybe I don't mention all of the terrible things that I've gone through but it definitely has not been too easy. But I have to say that it was also the best 2 years that I have had ever. I have gone through so many enjoyable experiences and met so many great people that have helped me grow as a person. But I have realized that the hardest times are the one's that help me learn the most. One of the greatest things that I have learned through out these years is just the ability to communicate myself to others. It was a huge struggle for me at the beginning and throughout almost all of my mission, but I am super grateful for every person that I have met, for all of my companions, and for my mission president that has played a key role in all of this. Well, I am very happy to make it home knowing that these years have not been a waste and have blessed me more than I could ever imagine, but I will also miss all of this. The mission has become my life, but I now have a new life ahead of me that I know will not be easy either, but I am ready.

I would like to testify that I know the church that I have represented for the past 2 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's church here on the Earth and that it is the same exact church that Christ established while he was here and that it contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel. I am so grateful having been able to give Him a little bit of my life to serve in His vineyard, and I know that I am not the same person that I was.

And to finish of this email, here are some pictures to finish off these years of service:

To see me mentioned in the mission blog, click here:
http://kurtandkathymarler.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-few-interviews-with-president-and.html

I will see you all face to face soon!!!

Elder Jordan Terry

Week 102

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 102 (5/15/16)

Well, we had an amazing week, full of many great experiences and miracles!

This week we were able to have our interviews with our mission president, his wife and the asistentes. It turns out that these are his last interviews for all of his missionaries, but I will have one last interview with him before I go home. I really just left the interviews inspired and with a renewed excitement for the work. The mission leaders are amazing.

We have had a few days where we were blessed a ton going from house to house and being able to enter in and teach. A lot of our time is in the streets looking for potential investigators, so it is a great blessing to teach a lot. Also continuing with the miracles, we were able to have 6 less-active members show up at church yesterday, and 4 of them were for the first time in a while. It was a pretty awesome week.

Hmm well that was pretty much it for this week. The time just flies here in the field and it is such a weird feeling knowing I'll be home in only 2 short weeks.

Also, I didn't take too many pictures this week, so here's one of me writing this email right now:

And here's a beach:

Well I hope every one has a great week!

HOMECOMING INFO
Flight Information if you want to come to the airport:
5/31/2016 8:50 AM DFW American #2506 SNA 10:09 AM

Homecoming party at the Terry's:
5/31/2016 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
10261 Cardinal Ave.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708

Elder Terry

Week 101

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 101 (5/9/16)

Happy Mother's Day!

It has been another amazing week here and a joy to be able to talk to my family again, and for the last time here on the mission. It looks like every one is doing great and (somewhat) looking forward to my return!

I miss you all and love you more than I can put in words.

Well for this week, it looks like I have a lot of pictures for your enjoyment.
To start off, last Monday was Elder Bentley's birthday so we were able to celebrate that with a zone P-day over in Pacasmayo on the beach
We have a less active member, Gladys, who is in the process of coming back to church that made a delicious cake to celebrate his birthday, the famous tres leches cake:

We then all went over to the Pacasmayo pier which was constructed over 100 years ago!

It used to be 3 times as long, but it's age and some big waves have reduced it down a bit.
They didn't let us go all the way down it for it's age, but it was still enjoyable:

 It also used to be a usable railroad:

We could also see some paragliding surfers? over in the distance:

Muelle is the word for pier in Spanish:

We then head over to the Christ statue again which they had painted his hands red for last Easter:

It was a pretty good p-day and the Bently's are amazing!

I also have some more sunset pictures! Idk why I like them so much:

Pretty amazing!

Well, there wan't too much else super eventful, but this week we are planning for interviews with President! So until next week!

Elder Terry

Week 100

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 100 (5/2/16)

Wow after 100 weeks of being on the mission, I guess it's down to the final stretch, and I can officially say that I'll be home this month. But I'm still working as hard as ever, of course.

Well, for this week, we had a few interesting things go on. Well, in the past 2 weeks I've actually got sick 3 times. The first time a terrible sore throat and a runny nose, and then after recovering from that, I think I got food poisoning also a fever at the same time, which was pretty epic. But I'm doing great right now, so don't worry about me :).

This week we also had our monthly leadership training with all of the leaders in our zone and their companions hosted by the Bentley's:

Also we found a random scorpion in the street. Apparently they're pretty common, but it's the first time I've seen one:

Also this week we had an Alma Rescatada, which is when a less-active member returns to church. His name is Wilfredo and he was never super strong in the church, but recently his dad had died at 99 years old and he decided to return for good. I love seeing the change that the Spirit makes in the people after teaching them and helping them keep commitments.

Well that's about it for this week and I'll be calling home on Sunday, which I'm really looking forward to.

Elder Terry

Week 99

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 99 (4/25/16)

Well there goes another week here in the mission!

The work is going great right now. It seems that we are being giving more less-active member to visit and we are helping a lot of them go to church for the first time in a while. Having investigators and less-actives go to church is one of the coolest things because many people let us in their house's but when they go to church they are really showing their desires to come unto Christ or at least to investigate the church a little.

Here are some pictures that I took of a few things from this week.

As part of our area, we not only proselyte in San Pedro, but we also go to a nearby town called Chocofán. There we have some of the first members in all of our branch and they continue faithful in the church. We caught a lizard in their house while we were there too:

San Pedro is actually really famous for their lizards. They actually have a special dish called "ceviche de lagartija" (it's a lizard ceviche if you want to look it up) typical to San Pedro, which I have still yet to try. Here is the family that live there: Sindulfo with his wife Carmen and also their great granddaughter Yazumi (the lizard's tail fell off)

The people here are so great!

Also I was able to snap some pics of the San Pedro Market which is in the center of our city.

Here Supermarkets aren't very common, so people daily go to the market to get all of their food. It's pretty cool to walk through these, with meat hanging on hooks and everyone trying to get you to buy from their booth. There's also a large variety of fruits here:

I was also able to take some opportune pictures in our area.
Another sunset, with the Pacasmayo Cement factory on the side:

Also a nice close up picture of a butterfly:

I'm pretty used to pulling out my camera now in the right moments.

Well, that's about it for this week and looking forward to another!

Elder Terry

Week 98

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 98 (4/18/16)

Wow. I always thought this point of the mission would never approach, but here it is!

Well today are the last transfers that I am going to have and it looks like I'm staying here in San Pedro with Elder Connelly. I was a little scared that they might transfer me for my last six weeks, but it looks like I get to serve these people a little bit more! It's weird to think I only have the time I had in the MTC remaining for my mission, which means I have to make this time well worth it.

One of the sisters in our district and in our branch, Hermana South, also went home this week. My companion and I both saw her start her mission in the same zone as us and she has also been in my district in Central Zone for a little bit and now finished up here in San Pedro. Her parents came to pick her up with a branch activity Saturday night, and going to church Sunday morning. She left with her parents to visit all of her areas and to some historic Peruvian sites. It was a pleasure to meet them:

(those are 2 random kids from our branch)

Well that's all I have for this week, so until the next!

Elder Terry

Week 97

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 97 (4/11/16)

Well that's one less week that I have here at the service of the Lord and this really has been another amazing week here in the mission, and enjoying every minute of it!

Well last Monday, we went climbed a hill to go see the iconic mark of Guadalupe, "La Virgen de Guadalupe." It's a statue of a virgin situated on top of a hill in the middle of the city of Guadalupe. It wasn't too high up but you could get a great view up there. A great way to spend an only Elders P-day:
Part of the trail:

The statue of the virgin with a baby in her arms:

The view at the top:

My companion, one of the zone leaders Elder Mendez, and I:

In the plaza de armas of Guadalupe:

It was also a really interesting week because of a random rainstorm in all of the cities in our zone. Out of nowhere in the middle of the night it just started pouring rain like it never does in Perú, and it wasn't only rain but with lightning and thunder and everything. Apparently this hasn't happened here for over 20 years! Kind of reminds me of last year when I was in Chocope and the same thing happened. Good memories.

Also, this week we were in elections for Peru's next President and they've finaled it down to 2 people now, a woman from Japan, and a half Peruvian half American man. It made it kind of hard to visit because every one was out voting. If you don't vote here, they send you a fine which is pretty interesting.

Also today for P-day we climbed another hill! We climbed the hill of Chepén which is right next to Guadalupe, but this hill was a lot bigger! Chepén is where Elder Smith is right now. Along the trail they had nice statues of Jesus and how he suffered on the trail:

The view from up top:

Selfie:

3 cross statues:

Resurrected Jesus with his metal heart:

Elder Smith doing the karate kid:

And a pretty cool Atonement statue:

Well, that's about it for this week and this will be the last week of the second to last transfer in the mission!

Until the next!
Elder Terry

Week 96

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 96 (4/4/16)

Well I am left with very little time to write, but this has been a pretty amazing week.

Nothing too momentous to comment on, but this week we were able to watch general conference! We go to our district center to watch the first session on Saturday, but it turned out that the building was closed and no one was going to come over to open the church for some reason. But thank goodness that the Bentleys were there! We have senior missionaries that live in Pacasmayo, who when they heard that the church wasn't opened, invited us all to their house to watch the session. Because of technical difficulties and rushed time, we were only able to watch the first session in Spanish.

But we pretty much got to spend the whole day in the Bentley's house. They made us lunch and we stayed to watch the second session in English, because they got the church building open by then to watch it in Spanish. We then ate dinner with them and got to check out the sunset on Pacasmayo Beach and stayed in their house for the Priesthood session. The Bentley's are so awesome!

On Sunday we were able to watch Conference in our own church building while all of the members watched it in Spanish and we went on the secretary's computer to watch it in English. Overall, the conference was amazing! It was the 10 fastest hours I've gone through in a while! It was amazing to listen to all of the prophets and especially our beloved President Monson, with his short but powerful message. I got a "you can do it" type attitude out of all of the talks and loved the concept that they talked about choosing to be happy and not finding faults in others. I have learned a lot and am planning on re-listening to all of the talks in these next few months. We also were able to get a member that has been less-active for over 25 years to go to church for the first time in a while! It is amazing to be a part of the change in the people here!

Well that's about it for this week, and I'll leave you off with this picture:

(see if you can find the white dog)

Elder Terry