Week 14

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 14 (9/8/14)

This week was pretty uneventful, other than on Tuesday, we had interviews with the mission president, Presidente Marler. So I guess I'm the official pianist for the mission. Every Christmas our mission does this huge Christmas program where all of the missionaries get to participate with their talents, and I get to be the pianist for all of the numbers. When I met with the mission president, he told me that they were going to send me a personal keyboard to practice for the program, so I am super excited for that.

Also, a huge importance is being placed on family history with the new temple being completed within a year. We are being asked to fill out all of our family history online and in the "My Family" pamphlet that we were given, and then use this pamphlet in our teaching. I think this is great because all of the members are going to be able to find out about their ancestors and be able to do temple work for them.

I'm sure we are going to have the baptism this week. We have to go to a specific church building that is able to have hot water in the font so that he can be baptized. I'm really looking forward to it!
My Spanish is going pretty good. I feel like I can say what I need to say, but I have trouble understanding what the locals say. I think that is because I studied Spanish in school for three years, so I understand the grammar and how to write it. But I didn't have a lot of practice speaking it before and never heard a native speak Spanish, so that was new for me.

During the next change my companion, Elder Fernandez, dies (goes home), so it is most likely that I am going to stay in Chocope and get a new companion. Of course it's all up to the mission president, but I hope that I am not senior companion any time soon, ha ha
And that will do it for this week, talk to you soon!

Élder Terry

Week 13

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 13 (9/1/14)

Wow these weeks really fly by, I feel like I was just writing home.

Well this week, I got to meet the new missionaries that came into our zone, and they are all really cool. We also had another 3 Alma rescatadas that got back into activity!

The baptism that we had planned for Saturday didn't turn out. Hermano Segundo had his baptismal interview, and we determined that we would do it this week instead. So we'll see how that goes. I'm looking forward to my first baptism in the field.

That will just about do it for this week. There's not much to update on, just keeping busy doing the Lord's work.

I'll talk back soon!

Elder Terry

By the way, here is a picture of our branch meeting house where we hold Sunday services. It's not much compared to the chapels back home, but the spirit is strong and the members are like one big family.

Mission Blog Reminder

Remember to also click on the Mission Blog link over on the right. Here is a GREAT blog about what Trujillo missionaries do on their first day. http://www.kurtandkathymarler.blogspot.com/2014/08/what-missionary-does-on-their-first-day.html

Week 12

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 12 (8/25/14)

And that ends week 12 of me being here in Perú! So I've officially spent 6 weeks in the CCM and 6 in the field and I have to say, the 6 weeks in the field went by about 3 times faster than in the CCM.

The end of 6 weeks means time for changes! I don't change at all because I am in training for 12 weeks, but there are a few changes in our zone. So this new batch of missionaries coming in has 30 people, compared to our 15! So it turns out that every area out of the 9 areas in our zone is going to have a newer missionary except for the zone leaders, which is going to be very interesting.

So Saturday was a big day. All of the missionaries in Trujillo got the opportunity to hear from an apostle! Elder Anderson got to visit us, along with Elder Soares from the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Waddell who is the tallest member of the Seventy. It was pretty awesome! We all got to shake hands with all of them and we took a huge group picture which will probably be on the mission's blog page soon.

Trujillo Missionaries with Elder Anderson (Jordan is 4th row back near the center)

Zoomed in on Jordan in center of photo

The cool part about having these general authorities was none of their first languages is Spanish. Elder Waddell spoke in Spanish, but his wife had a translator for English. Elder Soares and his wife's first language is Portugese so Elder Soares's Spanish was half Spanish half Portugese and his wife had a translator into Spanish. And Elder Anderson served his mission in France, so his Spanish was a mixture with French and English which was pretty funny, and his wife spoke a little Spanish, but mostly English. The whole thing was pretty amazing and I definitely learned a lot!

Well this week we had another alma rescatada and this Saturday, we have a baptism planned! It's going to be for Hermano Segundo Díaz who is an elderly who is 75 years old and just loves listening to the gospel. I get the opportunity to baptize him as my first baptism in the mission! Information to come!

Oh yah and Sunday was really good. I got the opportunity to talk in sacrament meeting (unplanned) about repentance and the Atonement and it was cool to see how my Spanish is improving.

Well that's all I have for this week. Talk to you all soon!

Élder Terry

Week 11

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 11 (8/18/14)

And that ends week 11 of my mission and about a month of my time in the field.

This week was great. We got another Alma Rescatada who was a very interesting person. He is a great guy who is about 30 years old. He was really fun to teach because he was a little slow at times and he always gave really funny answers. For example, after having taught the Plan of Salvation, we asked him where his father is who had passed away and he said "In the cemetary." And we would ask him questions like, "Who was the first prophet?" and he would respond with something like "priesthood" or "Jesus Christ". But it is really great to see that he is back into the church and attending sacrament meeting each sunday.

Also, this last Friday, we had a missionary night with our branch where we had a bonfire to roast some hot dogs. The activity went fine and here is a picture that we took with some of the members and investigators:
But the hard part about this activity was the preparation. There are not many trees nearby so what we had to burn was the sugar cane in the nearby feilds. So earlier that day we went deep into one of the fields to find the right type of cane to burn, the kind that has a bit of alcohol in it, and we harvested the cane and brought it back. It was a neat and difficult experience to have to see what a lot of the Peruvians do here.

Also on Saturday, the mail came in and I got a few letters that were sent around the end of July. So Sister Gilbert sent a few from Sister Cindy Schlottman and Sister Genshey. It was great to see how much our ward supports the full time missionaries serving in the world, and It was great to read a little bit of Spanish from Sister Schlottman. All of the missionaries in our stake also received a letter from the stake presidency just updating how our stake is doing. Thanks to everyone that put in their time to write to the missionaries, the letters really mean a lot :).

Well that will do it for this week. Wish me luck in the upcoming!

Elder Terry

Week 10

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 10 (8/11/14)

And there goes week 10 and the 4th week in the field and it has been great!

Let´s see, this week we had our first Alma Rescatada, which is bringing a less-active member back into activity, and it feels great knowing that we have brought a soul back unto Christ.

I feel like I´m finally starting to contribute my part in the lessons that we teach, but I still have some difficulty understanding sometimes. Sometimes, they have to repeat it like 3 or 4 times for me to even understand a part of what they´re saying. But I don´t normally have this problem during the lessons; it´s more of just regular day conversations. I feel like I can say what I want to say though pretty easily. Progress is being made 

Our branch in Chocope is small. It´s so small that we have our branch president, and the missionaries are the two counselors, so I´m the second counselor. And that means that I have to direct the sacrament meetings every other week which is going to be pretty fun. Our church building is what they call a "casa capilla" which is just a house chapel and that is exactly what it is: But it´s kind of nice to have a smaller area because we get to focus more on specific people.

I think that will do it for this week. Until the next!

Élder Terry

Week 9

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 9 (8/4/14)

Well that finishes up week 9 of my mission and week 3 of being in the field! Yesterday marked 2 months of being out on my mission and I can't believe how fast it is all going.

Perú is beautiful. Where I am, we are on a huge plain and in almost every direction there are these giant mountains. I love just going on our roof and looking off into the distance. Also throughout all of coastal Perú, we are surrounded by these huge sugar farms. The best part about them is how they harvest them: they BURN them. When they do, the air is full of ash, but it's pretty cool. It makes for pretty cool sunsets.

Burning sugar harvest at sunset

This week we had our first transfer. I got to go over to Paiján which is not too far away and I got put together with Elder Bond. He is from Utah and the best part is HE SPEAKS ENGLISH!! So it was a nice break to be able to just talk in English and he helped me a lot it realizing my purpose here.

I took this picture a few P-days ago and thought I might add it.

Elder Fernandez, Elder Terry, Elder Bond, Elder Ashcroft walking to church

We were just walking to the church in Paiján and Elder Bond had the idea to take this picture. From left to right, my companion Elder Fernandez, me, Elder Bond, and his companion Elder Ashcroft, who was in the same group as me in the MTC.

To end, I just want to share a scripture that I found as I was studying this week. I read D&C 84:77-91 but my favorite was verse 88 which says, "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." I love this scripture. We have a whole army helping us do His work for Him.

Well that will do it for this week. Nos vemos pronto.

Élder Terry