"Beware of Pride, Boy"

First of all, thank you all so much for writing such wonderful emails. Always something to look forward to on a Monday :)

We gave our Turkish investigator, Murat, a Book of Mormon in his language this past week. It was actually a miracle we were able to meet with him this past week. The night before we put in our plans to just call by him with out calling him because we are only meeting him informally at the moment. We were taking the bus to visit a potential investigator and I had no one to talk to so I made a few phone calls to be productive. I thought I would call Murat and let him know we were coming. He did not answer but called back about and hour and a half later and we told him that we had the Book of Mormon in Turkish for him and that we wanted to give it to him that night around 8pm. He told us he would see us then. That night when we went by he told us that he was planning on going to Liverpool to do some job searching but when we called to say we were coming, he cancelled his plans to go. Murat has a strong desire to know what is true.

We got back to our flat Thursday night after ward coordination with 10 minutes until 9pm. We were going to go in for a bit of language study but I figured it was not the most time effective thing so we went to find one last person to talk to for the night. I am so grateful we did because there is no doubt in my mind we were meant to talk to this man named Terry that night. He was walking a head of us and stopped to smoke which made it quite easy to talk to him. Upon introducing ourselves Terry told us he had been in the exact same spot we were in now when earlier he found a booklet on the ground with a picture of  Jesus on it ''looking right up at him''. He told us he has been reading it and that it had some scriptures from the Bible in it. It sounded like he found one of our pamphlets we had passed out that some one must have left on the ground. We showed him the pamphlets we had and asked if any of them were the one he found and it was! He had found a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. He could not believe the miraculous nature of the situation and said that we all needed to tell everyone of this miracle. His wife is in the hospital dying of cancer so e gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and we managed to get his number before he walked away. Last night we saw him again. He has been reading the pamphlets he has. He said they have helped him feel better. We simply testified that this was God telling him that what he was reading was true. We gave him a Book of Mormon.

Lukman agreed to meet with missionaries in Nigeria! Now to let the Lord do His magic :)

We visited Ruth and Mario with a member that lived near by. Ruth did indeed have the baby and they are doing great. We gave them a Book of Mormon in their language. We were convinced they were coming this week but alas, they were a no show again. Sigh..

Remember Naomi? She is a former investigator we have been teaching on and off since June? Well we were with the member that is really good friends with her and dropped by to see how things were going. It is still emotionally exhausting for her to deal with her brother's suicide that happened a little over a year ago but she told us that what we have shared with her the times we have come are helping her cope. She wanted to go to church last week but did not make it. She was going to come this Sunday but once again did not make it.

Samilda fell through on her appointment this week. We went by a day later to see how she was doing. She had family visiting which made it difficult for her to meet with us. Her husband is not too keen on us meeting with her because they are Catholic. Despite this difficulty, Samilda is still willing to meet with us. There is something keeping her drawn to our message.

Thus we have seen a lot of miracles but a nice helping of disappointments as well. However, I know that this is the Lord's work and that He is mindful of the people we are teaching. Although so much feels out of our control right now I find peace in knowing the Lord will take care of it and give us the aid we need to bring these souls back to Him.  

I am gaining a stronger testimony in asking inspired questions. I love sharing the gospel and I love sharing what I learn as I study for my investigators and I always walk away from a good conversation or lesson with Spirit seeming to radiate around me. But what is it that really helps our investigators have these same feelings during and after a lesson? It is the questions we ask them. Often times I just want to spoon feed them what they need to know and neglect to let them actually learn for themselves. I know I need to step back and let the Spirit do the teaching and trust the Lord to place into the hearts of those we teach not only the answers to our questions but a witness of the truth of what they have answered.

As a missionary I am learning that there is always something to work on and learn. I have learned a lot and yet I know I still know nothing. It is so humbling! I am grateful to have weaknesses because it keeps me humble. I want more than anything to be stripped of my pride. I can hear the words of the preacher from the Restoration DVD that confronts the young Joseph Smith: ''Beware of pride, boy.'' Haha. I love that I haven't lost my ability to quote movies on my mission.

Love you all!

Sister Jordan