Philly, but no cheese steak August 29, 2016

Hey everybody! 

Pretty cool week this go around. Lots of meetings and a long trip on Saturday, but definitely a memorable week. First off, the mission was visited by a general authority, Elder Dube. He is straight outta Africa and has a sweet accent to go with it. He was smaller than I expected him to be, but he was a super humble funny guy and it was pretty cool to have him talk to us as a mission. So we had two meetings with him this week, which ate up a pretty big chunk of our days, but the other highlight was that on Saturday, we got to go to a temple open house in Philly.

So when a new temple is built for the church they have a period of about a month where anyone, members or nonmembers, can take a tour through the building to see what it's all about and learn about what it is that goes on inside. So Elder Page and I got to go on a trip with the singles ward to the temple that was just built down in Philly. It was super cool! We piled into a bus with about 40 other people and drove about an hour and a half down to the temple. Wen, the chinese investigator that we've been teaching, got to come too! They also had built a big church building right across the street so we all filed into there, were organized into groups, went into a room to watch an intro video, then went on through the temple. It was my first time being in a sealing room! Pretty neat. They definitely played off of the history of the US in the decorations of the temple and the church building. It was really cool. 

After going through the temple we went up the the museum where Rocky runs up the steps in the movie, so we took a little run! I can now say I ran up those same steps as Rocky. Legendary. At that point we had been promised philly cheese steaks as well, but we got subway instead ... that was rather disappointing. It was a super cool trip though! I didn't realize just how much American history there is in that city, and you can just tell it's older by the look of the buildings. It's a pretty cool place! 

That's pretty much it though! Nothing too exciting regarding crazy people or anything like that. We're plugging right away though! Talked with some pretty chill people and got got some more people excited about going to the Philly temple, that's about the extent of it though! I hope you're all doing real well and staying healthy! Take er easy! Love yas! 

Doors on Doors August 22, 2016

Hey guys! Sorry I suck at emailing. I think this is my first email since coming to Union City. It's hard on the iPads, way too easy to get distracted when you're trying to write emails in the chapel with other missionaries. But hey! Here we are today.
So! Cool thing about Union City, it's one of the most densely populated cities in the US. So that's nice for missionary work! There's just tons of houses in our area and we only cover 18 blocks across 7 streets! Got plenty of doors to knock. Every single one of these people works over in NY though, so sometimes it's hard to find em at home. So E Page and I are gonna start focusing more on talking to some people in the street and see what we can get going.
We are working with some cool people right now though! In this area we cover a congregation of Young Single Adults, kids 18-30, as well as a regular Spanish ward, so that's pretty cool! In the Singles ward we get to translate, so that's pretty neat! We wear a little mic dealio that hooks up to headsets people use and we speak what we hear at them in Spanish. Listening and talking at the same time can get a little tough, especially with how fast some people talk! There's just a couple of people that listen to the translation, so if it ever goes really downhill I'll just apologize over the system. One time this guys read some CS Lewis quote and there was no way I was gonna know what the translation of the words was, so after going "uhhhhhhh" I made eye contact with and investigator that was listening to the translation and told her, in Spanish, "he's using really big words, sister ..." Haha! She just laughed. I gave her a general idea of it afterwards though! With the same guy though I missed like full sentence because he was going so fast, so if you ever have a translator, be sure to take your time and pause for effect!
Just one person I wanna tell you about. Wen. Pronounced just like "when" unless you're trying to talk like Hot Rod. Anywho! She's coming straight outta China, and it's super cool teaching her! She has pretty much 0 background whatsoever when it comes to religion. I think she had heard about Christ before we taught her, probably from her member friend that she lives with, but we're teaching her from absolutely nothing. It's sweet though! Of the Chinese people I've met they're all really humble and Wen accepts everything we say even though she's "exploring the possibility" of God in her own words. I think it's the coolest teaching experience I've had this far. That's pretty much it! Things are going good! Hope you all are doing well! Sometimes I sweat a lot, sometimes less. Missionaries say I've lost some weight though! So that's good.
Love yas! Have a wonderful week!

We played with some dental lip-puller-backer things. We had to blow a
bubble. It was hysterical.

Union City! and Facebook ... August 1, 2016

Well. We got it. Facebook is here. So that's that! I'm gonna be making a few changed to my account and whatnot for sure. So I'm not messing around breaking the rules when you see me on there! But just so you know, I won't reply to any messages or anything like that from folks back home.
Apart from that, this week I got moved outta Newark! It was a long time coming, I had been there for another 6 months and had spent a year in total in that area. Sad to go, but I was ready to get out! Union City is where I'm at now, it's a super densely populated place, just houses on houses out here. Right across the river from NYC too! So the view just got better! Other good news is that it's a walking area too and we don't get fed quite as much, so there is hope for some weight loss in this place! Not too many crazies though, so there might be a little lull in the stories. We did talk to this white washed Mexican guy from down south who went to a bible university in Florida and he voiced some disagreements about the priesthood and whatnot for about an hour. So that was a glorious use of time!
Something interesting is that in this area we cover two wards, or congregations. The Union City Spanish ward, which is just like a Spanish ward in Jersey usually is, and the Hoboken YSA (Young Single Adult) ward. The two wards overlap their service times in the chapel, so it can be a little bit of a challenge with visitors in both wards. It's pretty cool though! Because in Union City Spanish we got all of our Spanish people from Southern and Central America, but in the YSA ward there's people from all walks of life! Got a few white boys back from their missions, Chinese people here for school and whatnot, Spanish people that live in the area, and that's pretty much it! In the YSA we have to translate sometimes too because it's all in English and not everyone speaks it! Some of the Chinese people don't speak it too good either, so it's a lot of fun!
Did have a baptism this Sunday! Obviously I had very little to do with the whole teaching and conversion process seeing as I just got here, but he's a really cool Chinese guy named Leo! He's my man too, basically laughs at everything, so we get along just fine! And for his baptism there was another Chinese girl visiting with a roommate of hers and it was definitely the most positive reaction I have ever seen to coming to church from a nonmember. She ate it up man! Chinese people are way cool.
Other than that we got some more solid people we're working with in the YSA! Maria is the friend of a returned missionary and started listening to the missionaries after helping us out by down a teaching eval, where she came to receive a lesson just to evaluate our teaching and tell us how to improve. She ended up liking it enough to have is over a few more times! We made some sushi with her and some other friends this week, so that was pretty cool.
All is well though! I'm stoked to be in the area and ready to meet some new people! With FB it's shaking things up quite a bit too. Pray for me! Hahaha! Love you guys! Have a wonderful week!
Elder Jordan

I'm Alive! July 18, 2016

Hey! Just so you all know I'm still living! Things are good! Jose Jerez is getting baptized next week! He's a member's man (not married yet) and when we went to visit after not seeing them for a few weeks he said he wanted to be baptized! So the last two weeks we've been teaching him like mad to get him ready for it, he's solid though, he's really made the decision already. We're really just there to make sure it happens as it should. So that'll be next Sunday! Other than that there's a lot of people that we've been contacting, calling, and not really seeing. So yeah! Working through that. Chances are I'll be getting moved not this Tuesday, but the one after that. No clue where I'll be headed to! Things are great though! Working hard, sweatin' lots, and eating like kings. Life is good. Love yas!
Elder Hordan

This is my comps weekly email June 27, 2016

Wow. The days just fly by, it's already Monday again!
 

This week traffic and driving have been just that. Lots of traffic. But hey, we are finding ways to contact people to car to car while in traffic, so that is quite fun let me tell you.
 

While doing a table stand this week, we met a little old lady with the code name of "Silver Bells". I promised I wouldn't tell anyone her real name so Silver Bells it is! She was quite interested in learning our message and signed up for us to come by later that week, but after words she started giving us some tips about how to survive in Newark like she has. Rule number one, don't talk to black people. Rule number two avoid groups of black people. Rule number three, if five or more black people are walking towards you, immediately call the cops and just put in the phone in your pocket just in case. Then if all else fails, we were instructed to call her and say her code name...Silver Bells. Then practically on queue, five black kids were passing our stand and she like flipped out. We were trying to convince her not to call the cops so instead she just got by us and acted all tough so they wouldn't try to mess with us. Just imagine a little old lady, ready to fight, trying to step in between us and five full grown men who had no intentions to do anything. It was so hard for my companion and I to not just start busting out laughing, it was a sight to see...I think she was a little racist.

Also yesterday we were walking past a house when we noticed a large refrigerator hanging off a third story balcony with like 6 Hispanics trying to get it from the second floor to the third, hanging out of windows and such to lift it. I thought someone was going to die! I wish I had a picture to show how crazy this thing was! We yelled, "necesitan ayuda", and they were like "Si si si, por favor!" So we ran up their stairs and were able to add just enough power to lift this refrigerator over the railing onto the balcony. Afterwords they said we got there just in time, otherwise it probably would have fallen...haha I believe it! Then we realized that the wife of the man were talking to was someone we street contacted the other day and was not interested at all. However after this act of service they both glad accepted us to come by and share our message! Must have been inspired!

This area is so awesome. Great stories and many miracles to come I'm sure!


Elder Clement

I always had my suspicions about this river, then I saw this sign...only in Jersey.

 

 

Contacted some people from Ecuador on the public bus. Started talking about how good the bread looked they were eating and they just gave us some! Turns out they know some members and want us to come by!

Temple! June 6, 2016

Hey everybody!
Had a pretty stellar week with a little temple trip on Friday. So, being a zone leader (bow to my glory) my companion and I are over a group of 22 missionaries serving in areas bordering each other. So for the temple trip we went as a zone, meaning all 24 went at the same time and it was up to me and my companion to plan it all out. Believe it or not, it went well! Got to navigate a couple of train and subway stations and we all made it through together! No one got lost! We got close with one of the senior missionaries though ... Passing through turnstiles can be a bit of a challenge I suppose. But no! All went well! It's about an hour long trip and we all made it out alive! Even got to go to a joint in NY for a burger and a shake after.
Good stuff.
So that was last week. This week, I went to the temple again with my old friend Elder Gates. We planned a trip for Javier, Rocio and another Rocio who has been a member for quite a while longer to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was super cool to get to be there with them for the first time! And in a small group like that too, it was sweet! Other than the two temple trips it's been back to the grind over here. The people we've been teaching have been busy with work and it's been hard to meet with them, so we gotta get back to finding more people to teach and getting them rolling. It's been good though! Elder Hilton is always super positive and he has a lot more faith in people than I do, so that's good. I'm doing real well though! Just sweating like a pig as always over here. Love you guys!
Take er easy!
Elder Jordan

Sweet Victory May 2, 2016

Sergio got the spirit! Finally! And Javier was able to get the spirit and the Priesthood at the same time to baptize his woman. It's a beautiful thing.
We went to do service at this place that is super southern baptist status. People shouting yes and Amen during prayers or whenever someone paraphrases a scripture. At that same place I talked to this old lady, Elizabeth, who laughed every other sentence like the old guy from that chess animated short from Disney.
This fast and testimony meeting, after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, both Sergio and Javier went up to share their testimonies. That was sweet yo.
Love yas!