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

Week 8

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 8 (7/28/14)

This week has been pretty interesting, still trying to get used to this whole mission thing.

Well today is El Veintiocho de Julio, which is Peru´s independence day so things are kind of crazy around here. Parades everywhere and fireworks are going to be going off all night. Looking forward to it.

Let´s see, this week we had a pretty cool spiritual experience. We were visiting a contact in the outskirts of town so we knocked on the door, and no one was there. So we decided to walk a little further down the street and we ended up finding a whole family that we ended up teaching and they all attended church. In the field, we call our new investigators "Escogidos" which is like calling them "chosen ones" in English and it is just so cool to see how many people are prepared and waiting for us to bring them into the gospel.

The whole missionary work has changed since about 2012. We are not as worried about getting baptisms like how it used to be. Our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ" so our main goal is to get them to the temple. We have this thing called "Almas Rescatadas" which is "rescued souls" in English and it is bringing less-active members back to the church and it is equivalent to a baptism in our mission. We also teach for conversion and not just for baptism. It´s just amazing to see how much the missionary work has progressed in the past few years.

So Chocope is pretty remote. We are the only companionship here in the area and our are also extends a while past the city. This week we had 33 people attend which included 5 investigators and 4 less-actives and it´s a branch. We are part of the Paiján District which is part of the Casa Grande Zone, which is the most north area in the mission. We haven´t really had a transfer day, but we take cars whenever we leave our area. There are people that drive back and forth between cities as their jobs. But when we go to further places like Trujillo, we take a bus. We walk everywhere, but whenever we are in a rush, we take the Moto Taxis which are pretty fun.

The weather here is great right now and perfect for short sleeves. On most days, it is overcast until about 11a and then the sun comes out and it´s really hot so I´m fine with the short sleeves. Also, a lot of the houses look like they´re unfinished with like metal poles sticking out of them and all of the houses have roof areas where they dry clothes and stuff.

We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at our pension where our food is all cooked for us, and we also have our laundry done for us so all of our time is focused on the work.

I think that will do it for this week. I just want everyone to know that things are pretty difficult right now, but I can feel myself improve everyday and I know that this is where I´m supposed to be right now with the companion I have. Until next week!

Élder Terry

Week 7

Trainer - Elder Fernandez & Elder Terry

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 7 (7/21/14)
Well this is it, I´m serving my mission! I have so much to talk about but so little time.

I guess I´ll start out with my last week in the MTC because I didn´t get to email last week. So the last Saturday, we went proselyting again but this time was in a different area. My companion was on his second week and reminded me of myself my first time going proselyting. He had pretty good Spanish, but he didn´t talk too much. Other than that it was a great experience for the both of us because I had to lead in all of the contacts and teachings which was great practice for the field.

On the Monday before we left, we spent most of the day in the Migracions center and I officially got my Peruvian license! We spent the rest of the day packing with a little bit of anxiety about what was happening the next day.

So Tuesday morning, we got up at 4:45 in the morning to leave for our flight which left at 8. We didn´t even have time to eat breakfast. But the flight was nice and short and we landed in the smallest airport I´ve ever seen. There, our mission president and his wife was waiting for us and we all hopped into a van to drive to the mission home. But on the way, we stopped by to see the the progress on the Trujillo Temple. The structure is practically done and it just looks like they need to finish the interior. It looks great.

Later, we had lunch at the Mission Home and had a few lessons on our mission area and the rules and such. And after all of that, I got to meet my new companion and trainer, Elder Fernandez.

Elder Fernandez had served the first part of his mission in Bolivia but for some reason had his mission changed to Trujillo. He is a great guy and a really good trainer.

So the area we were assigned to is a small town called Chocope. Moving into this area was kind of a culture shock to me. We have the smallest little room and a bathroom with a shower that only has one knob: cold. But I guess I´m adapting to this new environment.

I´m definitely looking forward to spending my first 12 weeks in this area and my testimony of the gospel is improving by the day.

Well I´m almost out of time for this week so I´m gonna end it here. Wish me success in this new area :)

Élder Terry