Wow! How great is life really!

Dearest family!!!

I just sat here with a huge grin on my face reading your e-mails and laughing out loud! (I'm trying to keep my chortles to a minimum though because i don't want everyone else to be jealous that my family is way funnier than theirs.)

I don't even know where to begin telling you about this last week because WOW!!! I just absolutely love, love, love being a missionary. I have never felt more uncomfortable at times or pushed out of my comfort zone so far, but I have also never had such great faith in our Savior. In class time with our teachers we don't really spend a whole lot of time just listening to them, because they say you learn how to teach by teaching. So we study on our own time (which is way too minimal), and then we role-play with each other. (at least our elders are becoming like family, so it's okay to sound like a complete fool sometimes). Can you say AWKWARD MOMENTS!!!?? You just have to laugh at yourself sometimes. They are also all about focusing on the needs of the INVESTIGATOR, so we watch these videos on the internet from the "6 billion people" project and talk about what doctrines would be important and mean something to them, and then how understanding those things would help them progress towards baptism. The videos are really cool--you should check them out.


I've found out that obedience is a blessing and a curse. (mostly kidding.) We really have so much more energy and feel better when we go to sleep at 10:30, but they also say to be fifteen minutes early to sacrament meeting, and I can't quite decide if that is the best option....I got cornered! They called me to be the coordinating sister for our branch. Meaning, I work with the zone leaders to orient all the new people we get every week to the MTC. haha. I laughed my butt off at first cuz HULLO, I am certainly no MTC expert!! But I guess I haven't epically failed...yet....last night I had to introduce them to missionary planning during the meeting with the branch presidency. And I guess after someone overheard President Price say that even if i hadn't said anything, the diagram (a daily planner page all planned out) I drew on the board was the best they had ever seen. Sigh of relief. I thought I was going to be fired for sure!! But, my companions have been great helping out too because right now, I'm the only coordinating sister and next week we have 16 new missionaries!!!! (not gonna lie--I felt pretty sweet walking around wednesday without a dork dot..hehe)

Can I say again how much I love my companions?! I wish I could elaborate but time is so short.

Anyway, I am so lucky and so blessed to have this opportunity. I love hearing from you all and can't adequately express how much I love you. But, I won't really say that I miss you TOO much, because I realize more and more every day what a sacred trust I've been given. We watched a "district" video (real-life missionary stories) and I just sat there sobbing (at least I'm still a bawl baby) watching the person being led into the font. I was thinking how great it would be to see someone you had taught come unto Christ and enter the waters of baptism! Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that he gave his son to provide a way for us to return to Him and inherit all that He has! I can't wait to be able to help others understand that the Savior has restored His Church and His Gospel and that we can know how to return to Him!! What a blessing, i mean really. I love you!!!!!

I love you so much and I do miss, but am just trying to push those thoughts away.
Love, Jordo

P.s. I love, love, love my clothes! I sometimes feel a little spoiled, but I will admit that it’s nice to not feel like you have to look totally frumpy.

There are also some things I never knew would have guessed about the mtc. Like there aren’t that many people who play the piano. In my branch there’s me & one sister who can play a few hymns. Oh, and I like relief society so much here, since there’s not very many sister missionaries (one dorm building), we have it all together and show up & there are guest speakers. Like today was… Janice Kapp Perry!!!! FOR REAL!!!! Obviously we sang as part of her talk & she sang for us. Many, many tears & tissues used in that estrogen-filled environment.

Singing “Called to serve” on Sundays @ the firesides is pretty sweet, I’m not gonna lie! It’s fun looking around the huge auditorium & seeing everyone singing proudly while sporting their black nametags.

One thing that warmed my heart yesterday was that I got Elder Garcia to say “he’s great.” Elder Garcia is in my class, (he is serving in montreal & speaks French, english & Spanish fluently already) & kinda one of those sorta not super friendly & a little stubborn, but really sweet elders. Whenever I asked him how he was doing, he said either “fine” or “all right” without fail. So, I told him I was determined that one of these days I was going to get him to say, “great.” And he finally broke yesterday!! We were partners for role-playing, teaching the word of wisdom & after I finished, he told me he felt “GREAT!!” My heart was warmed for sure!

So, I showed my companions the pics of our family in that album today. Sister Wang couldn’t get over how pretty my mom was! I wholeheartedly agreed.

One of our teachers referenced the “Jedi missionary” this week in a large group meeting. And used the appropriate hand gesture & said “you will be baptized.” Great Moment!! It’s those times that I miss you guys the most though cuz I look around to share a secret laugh & inside joke & you’re not there. But it’s ok, in the health clinic there’s a sign that says, “Missionary (misch-un-a-ree): a person who leaves their family for 18 months, so that others can be with theirs for eternity. I know that’s super cheesy, but really that’s what it’s about & I know I couldn’t be doing anything better.