"The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow"

It has been another miracle filled week. Each day seems like the same insurmountable challenge that I sometimes feel I don't have enough energy to conquer but as I witness even the smallest miracle each day, I have the boost to carry me to another day and to another week.

Sister Klemm and I had a really rough afternoon of finding one day. After some language study and tea time to recoup, we both felt we needed to pray and ask to be able to find a family. As I was saying the prayer I had an image of a family flash in my mind. Upon closing the prayer I described to Sister Klemm this family that came to my mind. I had no doubt in my mind we would find them that evening. We talked to the first people out of the door and a couple of minutes into the conversation I looked over to my left and saw the family I had envisioned! I politely ended the conversation and we ran over to talk to this family. They were from Poland and are Christians and they have the cutest little family. They accepted a return appointment on the spot. I am so excited to teach them :)

One of the biggest miracles from this week is CiCi. She is the friend of the Chinese recent converts here. While we were teaching Michael and Amanda, she came to their flat and sat in at the end of the lesson. I wanted to invite her to learn more and she was looking at a Book of Mormon that was by her on the floor so I asked if she has ever heard of it before. Then Amanda invited CiCi to give the closing prayer! Haha. I taught her in Chinese how to pray. She said the prayer in the cutest broken English. It was one of the sweetest and most sincere prayers I have ever heard in my life. CiCi is very interested in learning more about the gospel. She is such a blessing! We have been praying to find Chinese to teach and BOOM, like manna from Heaven. We are teaching her tonight.

Garry is doing great! We had some very great lessons with him this past week. We saw him on Saturday and came up with a action plan that would help him give up smoking by cutting down how much he smokes each week. Garry is afraid he might fail and that would be discouraging but we bore our testimonies that through the Atonement he would be able to quit for good this time. We invited him to get a priesthood blessing the next day. We taught him the Plan of Salvation lesson that day and it was amazing. The Spirit guided our lesson and by using the pamphlets, we were able to keep our teaching simple. We asked Garry if he thought his life has a purpose and he told us he didn't know. We opened up to the famous Alma 34:32 and explained that everything in his life has a purpose; the trials, his weaknesses, his triumphs-- they all prepare him to meet God. He then asked the perfect question: ''How can I prepare to meet God?'' We were felt prompted to turn to 2 Nephi 31 that talks about the gospel, repentance, and baptism. It was the perfect transition into inviting Garry to be baptized. He is now dated for the 27th of September. He is so excited to having this new start in his life. We asked Garry how he felt before we ended the lesson. He smiled and told us how he has had so much more hope in his life since meeting with missionaries and how he feels peace each time we teach him. It was the perfect opportunity to help him identify that this was the Spirit. It was a powerful moment.

Lukman may not be a member of the church but he is always referring people to us and saying we should share the Book of Mormon and our message with them. As a result, we taught Michelle, one of our Nigerian investigator's wife, and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. Actually, Lukman was the one that taught Michelle practically the whole Restoration lesson almost perfectly ( he has heard it so many times). I don't get it.  Lukman just  needs to get baptized already!

Last week I talked about a man we met that invited us over to see his family and  was baptized in Nigeria over 20 years ago. About that.. First, we went to the address we thought he said and a Bulgarian lady lived there. Then we saw him walking in town and we ran down to talk to him and ask for his address again. He asked us when we were coming by and we said Saturday morning. We tried by on Friday morning too because he told us mornings were always good but no one answered. We go by Saturday morning and again, no one was home. -_- I am determined to find him and teach him and his family! One of these days it will all work out haha.

On a more moment of success note, we set the goal this week to see a family history miracle. We chose a street to tract one day and we got yelled at by this old man for knocking on his door. We walked away with sadness in our hearts for meeting such a cold hearted man but behind the next door that someone answered was Lauren. She has to be kindest atheist I have ever met. She is confident that her beliefs will never change but she admired us going out into the world to share our beliefs. We told her we were sharing about family history and she became very interested. She has always wanted to learn more about her grandmother. She invited us in and we got to know her a bit. She wants us to come help her with her family history sometime this or next week! Truly after tribulation comes blessings and miracles.

I am in just so much love with my area right now. After serving here for 3 transfers now, things are finally starting to happen. I feel like the Lord has been blessing me more than I feel like I can handle.

Can you image the blessings waiting for us in the next life? If we but suffer for a little season and allow Him to try us in this life that is only a spec on the spectrum of eternity, all that He has will be ours. Our storms of life will always pass and as Annie says ''The sun will come out, tomorrow!''  

Love,

Sister Jordan

I Won! I Won Again!!

You are all probably wondering ''Why in the world does this email have this title?'' Well let me tell you a little story about this man we met named Robert. Robert is extremely atheist because he is pro-science. We tried our best to share the gospel with him in bear our testimony, but he just wasn't havin it. He went on and on and on about how science ''disproves the existence of God.'' It was getting late and we were in a neighbourhood that gets dodgy (dangerous) at night. I started walking away because politely saying we had to go was not enough. As we walked away he pumped his fist in the air and exclaimed ''I WON! I WON AGAIN!!!!'' Our friend Robert here thought he had ''won'' the argument about religion vs. science..He  Needless to say, it was a funny experience that we always quote.

I cannot believe how good this week has been. We have seen so many miracles this week and I didn't think it was possible to be blessed this much. I am excited to continue to move the work forward here in Wrexham. Hopefully I can give you an adequate summary of all the good that is going on in our area.

Sister Klemm and I helped a recent convert with her photography project. We posed as her models. It felt like a dream come true! All of those years of watching America's Next Top Model paid off haha.

4 hour finding
I had one of the best 4 hour findings ever on my mission this weekend. We have been praying all week to be able to find kingdom builders this Saturday. We had two members accompany us in our finding. The Bishop's wife referred us to their neighbour, Lisa, the other week so we went to contact her this weekend. Lisa's husband was baptized in Chester 5 or so years ago and she has told Sister Dickenson how she missed the feeling that the missionaries brought to their home when they were teaching them. We had a wonderful lesson in Lisa's home. She had committed to coming to church but she did not show up yesterday. We will have to follow up on that.

Another miracle we saw came as we helped this elderly blind man named David find his bank. We had just been talking to these two young ladies and we were handing them Restoration pamphlets before walking away to help David. David overheard what we were saying about the pamphlet and then he asked ''Hey! What are you both about?!'' We replied that we were missionaries for the church. He almost stopped in the middle of the street because of this news for he has ''been looking'' for us. He knows a lot about the church already. He asked if we could sit down with him and tell him more about the Book of Mormon. He has been trying to get a Book of Mormon in brail but with no success. We got his address and told him we would try our best to get him one. An unusual miracle but a miracle none the less!

I have prayed in the past to be able to receive a witness that this work is exploding in our mission. Heavenly Father has gone above and beyond to answer that prayer and the people placed in our path each day adds to the witness that it is true-- the work is EXPLODING. We had a potential investigator bring his friend to his lesson. Both of them became new investigators. In total, we found 7 new investigators this past week! We also ran into this man from Nigeria that was baptized 20 years ago. His wife is not a member! Finally a family one step closer to the temple! Sister Klemm and I just have so many wonderful people to work with. The thing we need to do now is to boldly invite them all to be baptized on a specific date.

Sister Klemm and I are putting our transfer vision plan into action. One of those plans was to help part member families with their family history in the hopes that the non member family member would be touched by the spirit of family history. This week we were able to offer the Edwards, a part member family, help with their family history. We will start hopefully next week to help the non member father do his family history. One of the daughter's friends was present during the lesson on family history and is also interested in doing her family history. The Spirit of Elijah is real!

As we were updating our WML in ward coordination on the progress of those we are teaching, he was shocked that Lukman was no longer one of our most progressing. We explained the spiritual wall he had backed himself up to and how he was not progressing anymore. Brother Bullock came up with the idea that we could all fast Saturday night to Sunday evening for Lukman to receive a testimony and the courage to commit . He told us to be bold with him and tell him that we were fasting for him to receive these blessings. Brother Bullock was so inspired because this is really the only other thing that can help Lukman at this moment.

As I prepared for Lukman's lesson, I was guided to study in PMG about the power and authority of my calling. These three lines stood out to me: ''As you prayerfully and worthily exercise that authority, you will receive spiritual power, which is evidence of the reality of your call. Do not be afraid or shy about fulfilling this commission. Just as the sons of Mosiah, you are to teach with the power and authority of God.'' The Spirit hit me and I knew what I had to do. I needed to invite Lukman to repent. Never have I ben so bold in a lesson and invited them to repent. Although PMG told me not to be afraid to do so I was nervous about how he would respond.

Later that evening, a member came with us to met with Lukman and our other investigator, Stanley, joined us. We read in Alma 30 about Korihor the anti-Christ in the hopes to apply the principle of being careful of demanding signs when we have the truth already placed before us. After reading the chapter I bore testimony of the truth of this gospel and that I have been called of God to help Lukman. The invitation for him to repent was not as scary as I thought it would be. He was silent for what felt like a couple of minutes but he eventually admitted he had stopped praying to know the truth of our message. He opened up and told us he still has questions that haven't been answered and the great apostasy and how the priesthood was taken away does not make sense still. I had one of those ''pure intelligence being poured in the mind'' experiences during the lesson and I was able to explain the priesthood using our flat keys. It is amazing what you can learn yourself as you teach by the Spirit!

We went to Lukman's Nigerian church yesterday to support him in his preaching. We got permission from the APs but I guess President doesn't want us to visit other churches even when we are invited.. oops! I am sure Heavenly Father wanted us there though because so much good came out of this experience:
1)Lukman's heart was softened that we had come to support him and he is now willing to come to at least one hour of church each week. A baby step forward but progress none the less!

2)The main preacher of the church has a Koran and had a Book of Mormon too but misplaced the one he had. When we were talking to him after the service he asked if he could have the one I was holding in my hand.

3)We met Lukman's friend, James, who is from Kenya. He has various relations to our church and has always been  curious about what we believe. We walked towards home with him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.

4)Lukman and his friend invited us to a BBQ that is this week and invited us to ''preach'' there. Free food and we get to share a gospel message to everyone in attendance??? Why yes. Yes we will :)

There is just too much good happening in our area for me to write it all. I struggled to fit even a tenth of it in this email!

I am a believer in miracles. As long as we believe, obey, and endure, we will see great things come to pass in our own lives as we share the gospel. The church is true!

Love, Sister Jordan

Picture:

1)Sister Klemm and I! (for those of you that haven't seen my hair in person yet.. yes! it has been transformed :) )

We Have Been Saved For These Latter Days

First things first-- I have some news I am really excited about! Jewel, the man from Bangladesh I met on the train back in May or June is getting baptized this month! We taught him here a couple of times, he came to church 3 weeks in a row, and then he moved to Manchester last month. We referred him to the Elders and now he is getting baptized on the 16th of this month. This joy I I have is summed up in a scripture I read this morning in the New Testament:
'' I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave‍ the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward‍ according to his own labour. For we are labourers‍ together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are‍ God’s building.'' ( 1 Cor 3: 7-9)
We owe all of our success to the Lord. He is the true converter. With and eye single to the glory of the Lord, the sower and the reaper can share in the joy of the harvest :)

As always, we have seen many miracles this week. Sister Klemm and I have a lot of hope for the people we meet with. It will be hard to share the depths of all the amazing experiences that happened this week.

Right before transfers, Sister Chu and I were stopped by these children between the ages of 7 and 10 that were raising money for charity. They asked us if we would like to watch them ''perform'' the dance routine  they came up with to raise money (so cute!). They asked us what we were doing and we explained we were missionaries. A little girl named Nicole told us her family was into ''that stuff'' and gave us her address so we could go visit her family. The other children wanted us to come see their families as well and they too gave us their address. Such angels!

Sister Klemm and I went back a couple of days later and visited Nicole's house and met her granddad, Jason. He lost his step daughter when she was only 29 and has been struggling to know why God would so that to such an innocent life, if He even existed. We were able to teach about the Plan of Salvation and we felt impressed to him that his step daughter had led us to him to say she was ok, was learning about this gospel, and wanted him to have the same peace and happiness. We left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.

Now fast forward to Sunday night. We went back to follow up on the pamphlet. Outside again was Nicole and her friends. I asked Nicole if she had read or looked at the pamphlet we left behind and with the biggest smile on her family she nodded her head yes and told me she had twice. I asked her how she felt as she looked at it and she said ''good''. I believe children like her are very close to God. We went to see Jason again. He hadn't read the pamphlet.. We had another great conversation with him though and this time we left behind a Book of Mormon. We left him with a promise that if he read every day he would receive revelation on how to help his family situation. I know the Lord will fulfill this promise if Jason does his part.

One of our new investigators is Stanley. He is a friend of some of our other investigators. We met him one day when we were over to teach Lukman and he joined us and the lesson quickly became geared towards him when he brought up his questions. He is visiting from London and will only be here for another month but it is such a privilege to teach him. Not to make a generalization, but he, like most Africans, is very well versed in the Bible. He has a sincere desire to learn the truth and asks A TON of questions. When he first met with us I could sense he was not ready to accept the Book of Mormon so we made a compromise with him that we would use the Bible to teach the Restoration and then we would transition into the Book of Mormon and him reading it after we were able to adequately explain its purpose. The first official lesson with him got a little out of our control when he dominated the lesson a little too much and he brought up some concerns he had about prophets and the priesthood. We knew we would need a fellowshipper to help us teach him and control the teaching environment. That fellowshipper was Sister Reynolds, a member in the ward that is originally from Zimbabwe, a recent convert, and served a mission in South Africa. I was so grateful she was available to come with us. She is a powerful teacher. What we had tried to explain the other day that didn't make sense to Stanely, she had easily expounded upon in just 5 minutes and Stanley understood. The Spirit was strong and we were able to commit Stanely to start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and for him to come to church, Sister Reynolds offering to give him a lift.

Stanley came to church on Sunday and it was just such a wonderful experience for him. It was fast and testimony meeting and the members of the ward got up and bore some of the most powerful testimonies I have heard from them since I have been in Wrexham. Sister Reynolds even got up to bear hers.  Stanley was able to see that we (members of the church) do read and teach from the Bible. He was also able to observe just how family centered and child friendly church was, which he really liked.

Two young men just left from the Wrexham ward to go on missions and as a result, the members have caught a glimpse of the vision of the work. They have a fire to share the gospel. It is so important we maintain and fuel this desire within each of them. This past fast and testimony made me realize just how great of an impact I have been having on the ward by bringing them out to teach with us or going to their homes to teach their families. I love the members of the Wrexham ward!

I have received a witness through the Spirit of why I Sister Klemm and I are serving together at this time. During weekly planning we came up with a transfer vision. We both have a desire to find the sincere and pure in heart that will progress to being baptized. There is so much power with us as we teach and testify to everyone put in our path. I admire how sincere and genuine Sister Klemm  as she teaches everyone, I mean everyone, about this glad message of the Restoration. This is the first time on my mission that I have been privileged to serve with someone who came out on a mission the same time as me. I am so grateful Sister Klemm and I can relate to how we feel about our missions having the same amount of time left on our missions. This has been a great strength to our companionship

I received revelation during church on Sunday and I would like to share with all of you the insight I gained.
I have always wondered what it means that Heavenly Father has saved His finest and most valiant for these last days. Something about it made it seem that He favoured some of His children above the rest. During the Relief Society lesson on how we are daughters of God, however, my mind was enlightened and expanded by the Spirit. I scrambled to write down the impression before it left me:
Heavenly Father saved His most valiant children for these last days because He knows we will stand up and fight for His kingdom even when it is hard to. If we are privileged to be born or raised in a family that has the gospel, He knows and trusts that we will go out and share it with others who are not as privileged. The same thing goes for those that will find the gospel later in life and convert to His restored church.

I know Heavenly Father loves all of His children equally as much and unconditionally. What a comfort it is to know that He trusts us to be here on earth at a time like this to bear such a great responsibility.

Love,

Sister Jordan

Trust in The Lord with all Thine Heart

So some surprising transfer updates:

I was so certain I would be staying in Wrexham to finish training Sister Chu and I wasn't worried at all for transfer calls. Saturday transfer conference call came along and the Zone Leaders got to our district, which is an all trainer -trainee companionship district, and they asked us all what we thought was happening. We of course all responded that our district would be staying exactly the same. It was true for the first two companionships but when they got to us the Zone Leaders said Sister Chu was  going to the Manchester YSA to be follow up trained by another Chinese speaking Sister, Sister Sun. We all thought they were joking (they sometimes do that) but this time they were really telling the truth. As soon as the conference call was over I called President to ask if he could tell me why. His answer was simple: He prayed about it and felt really strongly that Sister Chu is needed in Manchester. There is a massive amount of Chinese students there and it is only going to keep growing. He (and not to mention, the Lord) need her there to help with the work there. I'm sad to see her go but I know the Lord knows what He is doing and we always go where we are needed. That is my previous area and I know Sister Chu will be in good hands. She is a bit sad that she won't have as many tea appointments anymore haha.

 My new companion will be Sister Klemm. Don't know much too about her except for the fact she started her mission at the same time I did. She will be my first non Asian/ non Mandarin Chinese speaking companion. 

We are still doing our best to focus more on the members and visit a member-- active, less actives or recent converts, each day. There has been a shift in our key indicators as a result. We didn't teach as many investigator lessons this week but I trust that by focusing on the members all of our other key indicators will start to prosper as well. The areas where we might usual struggle (member present lessons and sacrament attendance) have already improved so much in just one week!

This past Sunday was Alex and George's last Sunday before they enter the MTC this week on Thursday. They will both be in the Preston MTC for 9 weeks learning Greek and then head out to Greece.  I have only known them and their families for 3 months but I was crying during sacrament meeting listening to these future missionaries  give their farewell talks and hear their parents, one being the Bishop, give talks and watching them all fighting back tears. I was in their shoes just over a year ago. That phrase from Mosiah 18, ''mourn with those that mourn'' became a real experience for me.

On Saturday we got stuck in a torrential rain storm. I have never been outside when it's rained this hard. Sister Chu and I were drenched after just 5 minutes of being out in the rain. It was like walking through a waterfall! We made the most of the experience and enjoyed it. Luckily there was a less active we call Auntie Pat in the area that is always home and she let us come in and dry off. She gave us towels to wear, and apple pie to eat with a can of Vimto soda to drink as she dried our clothes for us. (I do not have my camera on me so pictures to come next week!)  I am so grateful for Auntie Pat! On the way to her house we taught a lesson to this young man from Bulgaria that was locked outside of his house, standing under the front door door frame trying to stay dry. We asked him if he has ever prayed before and asked what we could pray for. He asked us to pray for it to stop raining. We asked if he believed if it would stop and he told us he did. Faith proceeds the miracle! We said the prayer and just 5 minutes later it stopped raining. 

Another miracle that happened this past week was us being able to visit Anu, a potential investigator who is soooo golden. Her and her family are from India. She has a daughter around 14 and a son around 8. They read their scriptures together each night as a family. Basically they already hold an FHE and already practice the ideal Mormon culture. They are Christians and love the Savior so much. We have been trying to see her since but she has been very busy at work. Her family has already gone to India for the summer holiday but she is still here by herself for another 2 weeks. We rang her this past week and she told us she was available Thursday evening. We already had a tea appointment, which we invited her to and she politely declined, and then our missionary coordination meeting right after. We made plans to call by her as a back up plan if coordination fell through. It was quite the dilemma because we haven't had coordination in two weeks due to some schedule conflicts but I also wanted to see Anu. Well, coordination did fall through without any notice. We went to see Anu, she was home and we finally got to teach her the whole restoration lesson. She has a sincere desire to know if what we taught her is true. She said she would be baptized when she comes to know it is true.

We also taught our investigator Garry the restoration this past week. Garry already feels the church is true or ''why else would he come to church each Sunday?'' Fair enough. We invited him to still pray about it because we all need that confirmation from the Spirit and that is how we gain an enduring testimony.

Almost 6 weeks ago we met this girl named Sophie while tracting for consecrated finding. Sophie gladly accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and we had set up a return appointment to teach her more. Sadly, she fell through on the appointment. This past week we had the opportunity to call by her sister's house we met her at. She wasn't there but we used the opportunity to get to know her sister. Sophie's sister told us about the difficult circumstance her family is facing at the moment and how Sophie is struggling. She is anxious for her sister to get better and wants us to meet with her. If this works out they way I hope, I know Sophie will be the means of softening the hearts of her family and helping them receive the gospel.

Trust vs Believe

One of our investigators asked in Sunday school class  what the difference was between believing in God and trusting in God was. Half of the class was comprised of missionaries and we all struggled to think of an adequate answer to his great question. I think it is because most of us have grown up in the church that we never really asked the question or thought about it before. Another one of our investigators came up with a brilliant answer though. He said something along the lines of how we start off believing someone and then after a  pattern of reliable behaviour then we begin to trust them. From my personal experiences with Heavenly Father and the Savior, I know this definition is true.  One of my favorite scriptures and my mission scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6. Thanks to seminary I have it memorized:

"Trust in The Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."

I have learned a lot about trusting the Lord this past week. I may not completely understand why I am not going to finish training and now serve with an English companion but I trust The Lord will help me make the necessary adjustments and accomplish the work He has me still here I'm Wrexham to do. We all need to trust the Lord when unexpected events happen in our lives. If we wait patiently He will always reveal the reason behind His plans. 

Love you all!

Sister Jordan