June 7, 2013

June 7, 2013

Hey fam!

So...yeah that meeting. It's online and I'm in it but it's...extremely slow paced. So I thought I'd write you at the same time. I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home and that everyone is living it up for the Summer.

Things here are going well. Super busy. Haven't done almost anything outside the offices this week. Went to the temple for the last time here in my mission. I cleaned my desk. It feels a lot better. I got my haircut last night. I feel like none of that is even mildly interesting. On Monday we'll receive 20 new missionaries and we bought tons of Subway again so that will be sweet. Just doing some projects for Sister Swapp. Yesterday I located about 100 references and gave them to Elder Estrada and he passed them for me. That guy is so funny. He's Elder Avery's comp now but he's become totally hilarious with his time here in the office and having to deal with people all day.

I feel like that effect of having to help people all day everyday has also made me a little more...fun. But I do enjoy everything that I do here.

This is a great meeting.

Hey, also, thanks for all of your support and help. It's been great out here so far. I've learned good stuff. I am sure my mission has had a big impact on my life and will help me with basically everything.

So that's good news.

I'm pretty sure that's all I've got before I start saying ridiculous things.

HEART YOU :D

Jord

May 30, 2013

May 30, 2013

Hey fam!

Hope things are going well. That picture of the UD pizza is totally sweet.

 The sky (it was like 9pm. SO WEIRD)

 1 & 2 - An area called Mitras where I do interviews about every weekend
(there are two sets of missionaries there)

Everything with me is good. This Monday President took me in his office and talked with me about what I thought about going to the new mission to open the offices there and get it all up and running. He said some really nice things about what I've been doing here. So it looks like in about a month I will be in the Mexico Saltillo Mission as the Materials Secretary and I am right now being trained to be the Financial Secretary as well. I'll train the Materials Secretary for here in the Monterrey West Mission and the Financial Secretary for here, too because when I get to the Saltillo Mission I'll have to train the Financial Secretary there as well (which will be a Senior Missionary so we'll see how that goes) as well as set up everything for the offices and the mission there. We'll receive the new mission president (my third mission president) in the last week of June.

A quote I have on my desk

So it's going to be a busy time. But it'll be good to stay busy. Then at the end I'll train my replacement as Materials Secretary and I will be home. I'll be white washing an area up there, as well, so yeah. Basically it will be busy. I'll tell you all about how that goes. But that's basically what's new with me. 

What's up with you guys? Everyone loves the package you sent. Everyone asks me for food and stuff all the time. Thanks again for that.

I'm pretty sure that's all that's new with me. I can't think of anything else of consequence to share.

Heart you <3

Elder Wheeler

May 24, 2013

May 24, 2013

Hello :D

You have to tell Taylor I say hello! Reese is totally the bomb. How funny. And hopefully Tanner can get the housing worked out! That kid is so funny. That's awesome that school is done! Dylan you're totally the man! The totally, sweetly honest man! Do you have any Summer plans?

Happy Birthday to Uncle Ira and Rebekah. You are awesome! 

This week has been good. Elder Holland came on Tuesday and it was an awesome talk. He's so animated and just cool. Like a real person. I totally have no time for people who try to put on like their ¨churchy spiritual face¨ or just be like false in that aspect so it was really cool to see how down to earth he is. He talked about some stuff I'll most likely remember for the rest of my life, hopefully. I wrote it down in a journal (which I don't do often and am not very good at, but I'm trying to keep a better one. 

Apart from that, it's been good here. Not sure what else is new. Took a boiler up to an area outside of Monterrey with President Swapp. It took about 4 hours, but it was cool. I printed out a quote that by my desk that says ¨Kill Them With Kindness.¨ I totally am trying to apply it to people who...are a little more difficult to deal with. We'll see how that goes. 

Oh, and we have one investigator right now. Here's my journal entry on it:

         ¨We taught a lesson last night with someone named Victor, who is Berenice’s husband (Berenice is one of Elder Avery’s converts from a year ago and only she got baptized out of her family. They have 2 daughters of like 5 years and 2 years). They live in humble circumstances and are actually going to be moving to San Lois Potosi in July where the nearest church is over an hour away, but in teaching him last night, you could feel just a good spirit about it all and I just felt like he was understanding everything and that he really wants to be baptized. Then just before we left, he says that he feels like the church has really helped his family and he’s seen changes in them (his 5 year-old daughter totally gave the sweetest prayer at the beginning and even the two year-old folds her arms and closes her eyes) and he feels like he’s the missing piece and he needs to be a part of the church and be there with them. I was so happy to hear that.

It’s interesting to see how things work out and how when Elder Avery and his companion started teaching her husband, he didn’t want anything to do with the church and actually forbade that the missionaries came over to teach his wife. She would have to make specific measures to wash all the dishes and have them dried before he got home for work or he’d be totally upset with her and just like a lot of opposition from him and problems, but now he is completely different and I think that he’s really felt a different spirit about it all in giving what he’s heard about a chance. After a year, he looks like he’s completely ready to hear to gospel and live it.

It’s cool seeing how the Lord works. We don’t always see all the effects of what we do here in the Lord’s work. Actually, we almost never see them all, it’s impossible, but that isn’t what matters. That’s the story of my mission. I feel like I’ve gone around doing good things for two years and seen very little to none of those fruits, but that isn’t what matters. What matters is that I am where I’m supposed to be and I’m trying to do what’s right, even if it isn’t easy. That’s what matters most to me and that’s why I’m here.¨

He`s put his own baptismal goal for the last week in June. 

Oh,  and I got a huge package this week. THANK YOU! That thing freaking rocks! The guard wouldn't even bring it to the office because he's lazy and it was too big. He made us come to the little guardhouse to get it. Everyone from the office opened it with me, even President. And then I start pulling stuff out, and I pull out the peanuts and set them on the table and President says, ¨I gotta have some of these!¨ and just opens it, rips the seal off and starts eating them without even asking or anything. It was totally hilarious because that's how the desperation gets. It's totally cool having a mission president who is just cool and normal, too.

But anyway, so that's the best package ever. Thank you so much. Love you guys tons. I walk around with sound effects all day and everyone was laughing at my beanie. I have an entire shelf in the back room where I keep all the supplies just full of sweet snacks. 

You guys are the freaking bomb!

Thanks for everything,

Jord

May 18, 2013

May 18, 2013

Hey!

It was totally awesome being able to talk with you guys on Mother's Day. Even though we got the times messed up a little (sorry about that) and even though not everyone was there who wanted to be there, but it's totally cool. It was cool, so thanks for that. I TOTALLY MISS YOU GUYS.

Things here with me are going very well. Just the same stuff. Packing materials, opening areas, buying stuff online, passing references, and all of that. Today we actually went hiking with President Swapp and then had breakfast with him and Sister Swapp at IHOP. It was totally cool and fun. I'll see about getting some pictures in here. We just went as the office elders. (P.S. Today is Pday this week because of stuff we had to do here).

So this Tuesday it looks like Elder Holland will be coming to the mission and giving a talk. We're totally excited for that. It's going to be in Saltillo, where they'll be opening the new mission. I'll let you know how that goes, too! 

Definitely let me know how it goes with Taylor this week! That'll be exciting. I loved the pictures you sent me. 

I'm glad I have time to get everything ready for the new mission with the other secretaries as well as train two materials secretaries in the time I have. It'll be exciting. 

 Morning Hike with President

This week my companion and I also went to the airport to pick up a senior couple who are going to be working in the temple here in Monterrey, so that was cool, too. That's why there's really no list of the things I do here in the office, it's just whatever is needed at that time. I've been spending a lot of time getting together all the information on all the houses in the mission to pass it to the new mission and get it all up to date. Totally exciting, right? Either way, I like it. 

I'm doing good stuff and I feel happy about that.

Thanks for everything. 

You guys totally rock.

Much love,

Jordan

May 10, 2013

May 10, 2013

Hello!

Congratulations Savy about getting on Cheer! That's totally awesome! You'll totally have to tell me about how you like it. Happy Birthday Reese! You're the bomb!!! I totally miss you. Also, Happy Birthday Uncle Ben and Aunt Martha.

So everything with me is going well. This week has been extremely busy and honestly I had like the most stressful day of my entire mission this week just because of the workload and how many favors people were asking me. But it turned of fine. I'm alive. It's a lot of work opening a new mission. I also had some problems with the Zone Leaders this week just being completely disrespectful, but I worked it out with them. So as for tons of spiritual experiences to tell you guys or stuff like that, they've been few this week. But I'm sure I'm learning things that will help me in the long run. I don't think I've ever slept so little and been so busy before in my entire life.

Oh, and as for talking on Sunday...Well, we talked with a family and they said we could come to Skype from their house on Sunday. Hopefully there won't be any issues because we didn't work out all the details, so we're in that, but it would be most likely that I'd call between 1:30pm to 3pm. Somewhere around there. If I find out anything else, I'll let you know, but we'll plan on that for now, if that's cool.

Thanks for everything. I'm sure we'll talk more on Sunday. 

Love you all,

Jord

May 3, 2013

May 3, 2013

Hey!

I thought I'd share an experience with you that I had. Not like super crazy or anything, but just something that seemed interesting to me.

So this last week we ate at a member's house whose husband just passed away about two months ago. She told us the story about how other events in her life had lead her up to that point to be able to make it through such a hard trial. She is the only active member out of her immediate family, including her four children who are all married now but one. Just in talking with her anyone could see how much faith she had and how strong she was. I was literally impressed. She talked about how her husband wasn't a member but there was one thing that helped her accept God's will and not her own in that time of her life and it was the fact that she knew, I don't know how, but she was so sure that her husband had to leave this life to be able to progress. He wouldn't go to church with her or participate in the church at all, but her last words to him were peices of advice to look of and accept the Gospel when he heard it on the other side. She knew that somehow with such a hard experience, that it had a why behind it and that God see's things better than she could. 

While I listened to her experience I tried to put myself in her place. How hard would that be for me if someone I cared about so much just wasn't with me anymore? I mean, it's happened, but this was her husband. So I thought of you guys and how hard it would be to not have you here anymore. That'd be SO sucky. Then I tried to see how she came to the conclusion that it was for the better and that it has helped her and him. Even though I've been doing this thing for over 20 months straight and talking with people every single day, I'm always learning new stuff. Maybe I don't always share it all with you guys by emails and stuff like that, but I've had experiences I'll never forget here and if anyone has benifitted at all from my being here, it's been me. The viewpoint of this sister is something I'm going to try and remember when hard times come upon us, since we all know those don't really ever end here in this life, and hopefully it's something we can all think about when life just looks like crap.

Also, this week we had changes and it was completely crazy. I feel completely sleep deprived and exahusted, but good about all we've done. This next change we'll be recieving 25 new missionaries and this month we'll be training the new missionaries for the new offices and getting all of that set up. We'll have to take a trip up there as well to help them open them and get everything settled. It should be good. 

Elder Avery and I when we bought Subway for all the new missionaires.

Also, in my area they put sister missionaries as well as us, so we are now 4 missionaries.  They have a new leadership position that has been created worldwide for sister missionaries, so they now work in our ward with us. And my companion changed, so that's good. My new companion is Elder Rodriguez who got here to the offices at the same time as me. He has like 5 months in the mission and he was Elder Avery's companion. We just switched because I'd been with my old companion for two changes already.  Elder Rodriguez is super cool and totally hilariuos. He speaks perfect English and is from Tiajuana, Baja California. He's just turned 19 last week.

But I think that's all I've got this week. Things are going really good with me. Tell me more stuff that's going on with all of you. Oh yeah, and my comp from the MTC is the new assistant, Elder Mikkelsen. 

The first one is my trainer, Elder Vidal (who just finished his mission last change), me, Elder McCoy (Who I trained), and the Elder who Elder McCoy is now training.

We're four of us from our district here in this mission from the MTC and three of us are here in the offices. It's kind of funny but it makes it more fun. 

Thanks for everything.

Heart you :D

Jordan

 My New Comp.

April 26, 2013

April 26, 2013

Hey Fam!

How's everything going? Sounds like Ryan's homecoming was good.

Everything with me this weeks was really good. The baptismal interviews went well and they all seemed really happy and really sure about their decisions. It's kind of cool to see how the Lord works with all of those people in their lives, no matter how much crappy stuff has happened to them or whatever, they all have found what they know is true because God confirmed it to them. It's just cool to see that He really cares about all of them just as much as He cares about me.

The hospital is just like being in the States. It's because it's run by an American guy who used to be in my ward but he moved to open more hopistals in other parts of Central America. It's basically like being in hotel, honestly. The nicest hospital I've ever been in. I went there with Elder Cinseros when he broke his collar bone last year, too.

And anything that has to do with the mattresses is in our house. That's where all the new and leaving missionaries stay the night, when there's any type of leader's conference, etc. Basically we always have just extra people staying there. 

Life is good with me. We have changes this next week so we've been super busy. But then again, we're always super busy. They're going to put sister missionaries in my area so we'll be two sets of missionaries in my ward, so that will be exciting, too. It's happening a lot more because of the increased number of missionaries and due to the fact that our mission is splitting in two months. 

But other than that, everything is great. Elder Peterson (one of the Elder's from my district in the MTC) is one of the assistants and the other is going to be my companion form the MTC, Elder Mikkelsen. So it'll be cool being here in the office all together. 

Thanks for everything you all do for me. I'm really excited to see you all soon on Mother's day. That's coming up.  I'll give you more deets later. But the jist is I miss you all a lot and I'm just doing my best to make the mission a better place before I leave. 

Thanks for everything. 

Love you tons.

Jordan