Transferred for the first time October 7, 2015

crickets for dinner

New companion, Elder Mendez

Hey all! It's been a real good week with some big changes going on. First off, it felt like I left home again last week. I think I mentioned, but just in case, the missionary leaders send out a text on Sunday night with the names of those that are leaving the area. Turns out, my name was there, which is what I expected. It was tough saying goodbye to everyone I had come to know over there though. I have a lot of people in Newark I'm gonna miss and it felt like I was saying goodbye to my family. Then, last Tuesday they have a big meeting where it's all a surprise as to where you're going and who you're new companion is up until they announce it. So I've been called to Passaic East, which is full of Mexicans and has a couple of Dominicans running around as well. The area is actually huge, there's just only one part that we actually work in because everywhere else if full of Italians. My companion is Elder Mendez. This guy is legendary. He's a litte fireball from Honduras that has lived in NYC for the past 11 years. He's turning 27 the 14th of this month, so he's pretty old for a missionary, but we get along real well. He's a great missionary and I'm excited to learn a lot of Spanish and teaching skills from this guy. 

Transfer meeting

Other than the transfer it's just been running around trying to get to know people this week. The good thing is that there's plenty of people to visit in this area and it seems like people actually answer the door here, so that makes our job just a wee bit easier. There was a little bit of a hurricane scare for us, it was supposed to hit on Sunday, but it didn't even rain that day! So we're free and clear. 

So, the reason I'm writing today instead of the usual Monday is because we had a pretty cool opportunity to help put a new park together in Passaic as part of a big service project and we had about 80 missionaries there alongside community members that wanted to help out. It was a pretty sweet deal. Some people from the Today show even showed up! They really just slowed us down though, it was pretty lame. So that was Monday, then Tuesday we have meetings so I think they didn't want to have to shift those around, so P-day is today! Yesterday we were surprised asked to share a message at a funeral too! No big deal at all, except for the fact that it was a Catholic Funeral. Elder Mendez told me about how he had done something similar before and made some people angry, so we kept it really generic, went a little non-denominational on them to keep everyone happy at the funeral. (hehe)  And that's pretty much it! No more drugs and drunks and crazies! Just some interesting situations and some good changes. I hope you're all doing real well back home! Keep rockin' it back there! Love you all! 

Elder Jordan

http://www.today.com/news/watch-matt-savannah-reveal-their-shine-light-playground-t48386

"Shine a Light" service project.  Elder Jordan is wearing the orange bucket hat.