10-27-2019

Jordan didn't write a group letter last week.  I think he wanted to spend more individual time writing personal letters and also talking to us.  So, I'm not going to complain.  I am going to share some excerpts from the letters he wrote Brad and me and some excerpts from his conversation with Brad and I last Sunday that he couldn't speak, but that he could only type.

Let me preface this a little bit so you don't just think Jordan is mean.  Going to a foreign country is hard.  There is a lot of culture shock.  The poorer the country the more difficult it is for someone to go there.  Jordan is going through this culture shock now.  It is helpful when you have a companion from the United States to help you make this transition.  However, I recognize that this is not always possible in missions.  Many times it is helpful to have a native companion that can speak the language, knows the customs and cultures and knows the mission.  Anyway, many times new missionaries are so miserable as they try to accustom themselves to the reality they now live in, they dislike their first companions and more so if that companion cannot even begin to relate to what you are experiencing.  I had 7 companions, 3 americans and 4 natives.  Of the 7, the only one I hated was my first companion.  I hated her.  I don't hate her now.  I don't think I would have hated her had I not been going through such a difficult time.  While Jordan does not hate his companion as of right now (at least, not that he admits), he is certainly trying to understand him.

Other quick note, I know Jordan is doing better because instead of being on the verge of tears as he asked us questions, he would ask us a question and then say, wait I want to tell you something.  Then he would type something and laugh as he typed it finding humor in the things that were driving him crazy.

Anyway, here is his last letter to me:

Mom that sounds crazy! I can't believe you almost got burnt by bacon oil. I am glad you still looked pretty as ever when I talked you today. I love and miss you all so much. As I already told you lots of small drama with my philipino companion this week but I am over it. I really don't hate him just sometimes when he tries to be my mother or tell me what to do, or tell me I am to loud it really bugs me.

Let me stop here and share a conversation with Jordan that he typed to us over email:

Jordan:  He (referring to his companion) says I am too loud and it drives away the spirit.  Also he always tells me to be quiet like less loud when talking in warray warray.  Everybody mumbles their prayers here, missionaries included.

I told him that he will probably come back mumbling.  Anyway, back to Jordan's letter. 

Like I said I told a member I knew exactly how many months away from going home I would be during both of my birthdays and she called me trunkee. I am not trunkee. To make matters worse I asked my companion if he thinks I am trunkee (trunkee is a missionary term which means longing for home) and he said I don't know which means yes. 

Let me stop here.  One of the issues of humans I think is judging others.  Of course, in our church this happens too and especially on the mission.  Here is some of the things he typed to me about how he feels the pressure to fit in.

Jordan:  My district leader says he hates P days and doesn't look forward to them.  He talked about how you are a bad missionary as well if you have an MP3 player, a speaker and if you don't wear your garments all the friggin time in 100 degree weather while jumproping.

Back to the letter.

He is 21 but we are not super good friends just friendly enough, half of me wants to start problems and fight him when he says annoying little things but I know it is not worth it. I don't think he likes me a whole lot but that is ok. 

Back to Jordan's conversation with me that shows how hard this is:

Jordan:  I don't think he likes me.  He doesn't sit by me on the bus.  I have been getting up at 6 instead of 6:30.  He says this is bad adn to stick to the schedule.  Is it bad to get up early?

To be fair, it's probably not just his companion, I'm sure Jordan frustrates his companion too:

Jordan: My companion is so Slooowwww at biking.  I hate it.  He is slower than Jake up the hills.  I leave him sometimes cause he is annoying. 

Jordan:  My companion is so slow when daily planning.  I tried to go faster and he said we can't receive revelation if we are rushing.  

Back to Jordan's letter:

 My area is hard. We had one sister who was supposed to be baptized this week but didn't show up to her pre-baptismal interview.  Not sure if she wants to be baptized still or her parents said she couldn't she is 15. It is tough work, especially where I am but I know I can do all things through the lord. My biking is fast but guaranteed if I came home I would get wrecked by the elevation change. I really hope I don't get sick here.  I seriously cant wait to see your beautiful faces again. I love the bread here. They dont have a lot of meat that is cheap but the bread and rolls here are always so goooooddddd.

PROMISE ME YOU AND DAD WILL MAKE PAN DE COCO ON CHRISTMAS

 IT IS SO GOOD

https://www.google.com/search?q=pan+de+coco&rlz=1C1CHBD_enPH871PH871&oq=PAN+DE+COCO&aqs=chrome.0.0l4j46j0.3184j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 

 Love you guys so much talk to you next week! 

Some things Jordan asked me about last week that shows just what he is dealing with.  These are things I don't have the answers to.

How do you keep rats off of your kitchen counter?

Where do I put my garbage?  We just throw it in a room here.

He did say he is learning to communicate with the people there and coming to really love them.  He said they are humble and kind.

10-20-2019

From Jordan to all:

Spiders and Crabs and Monkeys OH MY!

Hello all! This week has been tough for sure but definitely ten times easier than last week. I have officially been spit on! We were biking through a small barangay (town) and looking for an investigator family, when a 4 or 5 year old girl singled me out of the crowd and spat on my leg as I biked by. I was taken back but just took it and moved on. I know that some people hate the missionaries, and some people love them. Just because we are ridiculed and spat upon does not mean we will give up. We are persistent. We continue to share his message with unwavering faith. Our happiness cannot be crushed because we though we are in this world we are not of it. The world will see our happiness and ask why. The reason why is Christ. As I have focused on Christ this last week, I have nbeen able to stay happy and keep an eternal perspective. I am happy because I have Christ in my life, because I am a vessel through which his message can be carried to his people. I am happy because I can share just a little bit of the joy that I have experienced in the gospel with others who do not have that joy. Through Christ we can find an unending joy.

 As missionaries and members our charge is to as 2 Nephi 25:26 states so well

26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

I know as I and as you do this we will see more blessings in our lives from it.

He loves you and he knows your pains and sorrows. 

My favorite line from a hymn named be still my soul reads "Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end"

That is the biggest message I got from conference this week is if we endure our pains and our afflictions with happiness we will find unending joy through Christ and through his gospel.

This week was good. The good news is my butt does not hurt as much from biking 24/7. The bad news is there are spiders here as large as my hand that are poisonous. There are crabs in people's houses ( I saw one in my branch president's house as we ate dinner last night). I almost got strangled by a monkey yesterday. I saw a pet monkey on a chain and took a picture by him. Right after I took the picture he lunged the length of his chain for me, growling ferosciously. It was quite scary. 

I love this place. I love this people. I love and miss you all. Most of all the lord knows and loves you all.

Until next week amigos.

Pictures

1) The monkey

2) Me posing in front of the killer monkey (moments after this picture was taken he lunged)

3) A stellar picture taken by a stellar photographer.

His letter to me:

I miss you guys a lot, but I am doing much better than last week. You guys look cold in the pictures. My companion is nice, I don't hate him, sometimes I am not sure if he loves me or not, little things like he always takes the best seat or sets his bag in the chair next to him or doesn't sit next to me all of the time. Sometimes I can't tell if he doesn't know the language or doesn't want to tell me the word. I feel like he gets frustrated with me sometimes so that stresses me out. He is awesome, a really cool guy, I want to be best friends but I don't know if he wants that. He is also slower than me on  the bike which bugs me because I want to go places quickly and sit on the seat as little as possible. I am excited for zone conference to see my friends and I am excited to get your package. I will never take anything we have in America for granted ever again. The people here are so poor, they have so little but they are so happy so that is a huge example for me. The area here is pretty. I eat rice and fish almost every night. I am a ninja. We killed a rat a couple of days ago we caught in our apartment. We can always here them scuttling in the vents upstairs. I miss you all and love you all so much.

10-6-2019 & 10-13-2019

Jordan's P-day is now on Mondays so he didn't contact me exactly a week later.  It was a little over a week.

Here's his first letter to me when he got to his mission:

Hey I got to Tacloban today! It is hot and I saw my friend from provo. Love you!

Pictures from his airplane I assume:

Pictures with his mission president and wife, President and Sister Argana.

Pictures with all the Elders and Sisters that arrived new in the mission that day:

Pictures of the new missionaries with their companions:

Jordan's building where the ward meets:

Jordan's apartment (he said there was a lot of trash there when he got there and he had to clean a lot.  He especially wanted to show me the bathrooms eek!):

His shower, a bucket.

His companion and trainer, Elder Java.

His next letter to all:

Hello friends! I have arrived in the field officially! It is awesome here! It is very hard because of the isolation of my area. My area is named Marabut. We have mountain bikes for transportation and bike anywhere from 12-16 miles a day, my butt is sore from biking everyday. The funny thing that happened this week is that when we were at a member's house the member said that I looked like Jon Cena and my companion said I looked like Ryan Reynolds. Not bad people to look like I guess, I must have amazing genes. This area is good. The thought of the week happened in church. This Sunday my area had a brown out which is where there is no electricity from 6 am- 6 pm. Even though we had no electricity we still had church, the people still came. A meeting was held in our tiny building that at the time was holding 55 people. What occurred to me as I was pondering after I had given my testimony in broken Warray was that natural light was flooding our building. The light poured in from every direction. Christ is that light in our lives, he lights every single one of our lives even in the darkest of times. I bear testimony that this is absolutely true. I would not leave my family for two years and go half way across the world to teach it if it wasn't.

The scripture I would like to share is 

3 nephi 18 verse 24

24 Therefore, hold up your ^alight that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the ^blight which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. 

 I got an amazing new companion Elder Java as my trainer. He is so cool.\

His next letter to me:

Mom it is tough here but I havent cried yet so don't worry about me. I like the area, it is very isolated and right on the beach so there are no mosquitoes. Our apartment is really big but it is kind of unclean so I cleaned it up a bit. The work is good. We bike 12- 16 miles a day on mountain bikes on a small philipino road. The cars fly by at 50-60 mph. kinda scary. Everyone here is so poor but so happy it makes no sense.

Some pictures from his first week.

Pictures of the area:

Pictures of some animals:

Pictures of the people he is working with.