We All Need Somebody to Lean On

Friends and family,

I must tell you all again how much I LOVE CHINESE WORK! Seriously.. I have been away from this work of miracles for too long. I am so grateful 

to be teaching these sons and daughters of God. I know they are precious in His sight. Every time I walk away from speaking or teaching in Chinese I just have to marvel that I have been able to obtain this gift of the Spirit. Disclaimer: I am still no where near being fluent. I don't know everything but I know enough. 

We are starting to teach this Chinese girl named Ya Nan. We had followed up with her last week and set up a return appointment. She never really confirmed the day before that we could still meet but the day of she said it was still ok. She is so golden because she met with us even though she was sick! We taught her a really great lesson on the Godhead this past week. We related her relationship to her best friend to the relationship she has with Christ. We taught her how Christ died for us and was resurrected (fu huo) three days later. She never knew this before. She made the connection her self that Easter (Fu huo jie) was about the resurrection of Christ. 

This week we were truly guided by the Spirit in deed and conversation:

-Our appointment and back up plan fell through one day and Sister Lee and I said a prayer that we would be guided to find the prepared. This doesn't happen too often but during the prayer two images flashed into my mind. One was this passage way and the other was the millennial bridge not too far from town. We followed that route and met some incredible people! The greatest miracle would have to be that everyone was too busy to stop and talk to us until we got to the bridge and stopped this man named Martin. He is so prepared! He has a great understanding of the importance of the Spirit. He accepted the invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We will follow up with him soon. 

-After having a really great lesson on the spot at the Uni one evening, we stepped aside to say a prayer of gratitude (we are doing our best as a mission to double the quality and quantity of our prayers) and asked the Lord to help us find new investigators that night. The next person we stopped was a Chinese girl named Iris that we found a taught my first weekend here in Lancaster. She agreed to a return appointment and became a new investigator!

-We felt impressed one day to call by Anna, an English recent convert that the Zone Leaders passed to us. She has been really hard to get a hold of and she hasn't been to church in ages. Guess what? She was home! Wow, it is such a blessing to be guided by the Spirit in this week and help Heavenly Father bring back His wandering sheep. We had a great chat with her. She has been busy working on her Masters dissertation. We have an appointment to see her this Wednesday. This taught me to never give up on trying to get in contact with someone. Everyone was starting to lose hope we would be able to.  

This week was full of funny and crazy moments:

-We went to visit one of the elderly members, Jenny, in a nursing home. In the middle of the spiritual thought this old lady in the corner started singing opera style. Jenny quickly shot her glance at this lady and with irritation in her voice said ''shut up Joyce!'' 

-We were warned by a member in the ward that the day before Guy Fawkes (November 5th) was ''mischief night'' and we were on high alert. We were taking the bus to a tea appointment when all of the sudden I saw sparks and heard a POP! POP! Living near Chicago and reacting to it like it was gun shots, my first instinct was to drive for the floor and I thought ''get down!'' On my way to the floor I saw no one else had moved or even flinched. I quickly realized that they weren't gun shots but just some chaves lighting off fireworks. Awkward. I tried to play it off like nothing happened. 

-I was almost attacked by a swan. Ok maybe I wasn't in real danger but it was getting too close for comfort.

- I taught an Italian man the restoration in Chinese! It was so weird. He teaches Chinese at the uni. 

-We may or may not have watched the Lancaster Fireworks Spectacular show that was twenty minutes in the hopes that this golden family we had talked to 5 minutes before it started would become potential investigators.. They are the cutest little family! Sadly they were rushing off back to their home after the fireworks ended but at least they took a mormon.org card. 

In all honesty, this week was probably one of the hardest ones on my mission. I am walking away from it with more experience for the future and a lesson on how the Lord can help my weakness become strengths. 

Our investigator Jun that was working towards baptism went onto the Internet to research the church to ''make sure she was making the right decision'' and ran into some stuff about polygamy. We did our best to help her understand the history of the church but this has really shaken her. She is a feminist and has a hard time accepting this. All of the good feeling she had that gave her the faith that what she had been taught was true is currently being overshadowed with a big dark black cloud of doubt. It was only a matter of time before opposition was to creep into her life. The full and complete story is too long to type but let it suffice to say that we were so close to losing her as an investigator. It is a mighty miracle that in the course of 4 days she has softened her heart and is willing to be taught by us still. We know we need to help her build her faith back up by helping her be more sincere in reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and recognizing her answer. 

I have always been very independent and never really allowed my true emotions to show but one of the lessons I have really had to learn on my mission is how important it is to not hide my emotions and to seek and accept the support of others.  I would not have been able to get through this week without the comfort and guidance of my mission president, district and zone leaders, and my companion of course. Please don't worry though. You know it doesn't take me too long to bounce back from set backs.

I have also come to learn a lot more about the Savior and what He went through. Never had I full understood what it would feel like to truly give your time and energy in the service of others only to suffer the pain of heartache when others don't necessarily appreciate what you are trying to do for them. 

The most important person we can ever lean on is our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. He understands our heartaches and disappointments. He will give us strength to overcome. 

Keep pressing forward! 

Sister Jordan

PICTURES may only have time to upload one now..

1) Sister Lee in front of John Taylor's home

A Conscious Choice

First of all, we just had a HUGE miracle right here in the library. We were just about to sit down and email when we caught the attention of this man named Ian across from us. Looking at his computer monitor I could tell he was working on a research paper and so I asked if he was a student at the Lancaster Uni. He said he was. He could tell by my accent that I was not from here and I asked if we were here as students. I of course responded in the negative. Before I even said we were missionaries he said ''I assume you have something important to tell me'' and said we could talk after he was done on the computer. As soon as he finished on the computer we had a more in-depth conversation. Ian told us that he was a student and a single parent of 2 children. He ran into the Elders at the library too and told us to keep up the good work. Before he could leave, I invited him to church. Sister Lee and I were able to share our experiences at church and testify that this church is true and we also invited him to Jun's baptism on Saturday. He was touched by the things we said and he is seriously considering coming to the church if not the baptism. He will try to bring his children as well. 

Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I would not be surprised if this man ends up being the answer to my prayers and fasting to find the prepared to be baptized at the end of this month. 

Jun is still on track for baptism on November 8th. We still had a lot to teach her when I first got here and I was worried she would not be ready for the 8th, but wow, let me tell you- she is so prepared! She has a deep and abiding love and faith in the gospel. 

Greatest Chinese Street Contact Ever:

We were at the Uni about to head to a lesson and we stopped this Chinese boy named Bodin. We always start off in English and when we confirm that the person is actually Chinese and not Korean or something we transition into Chinese. We asked him where he was from and he told us he was from Beijing. He turned to Sister Lee and asked where she was from. They exchanged some words in Chinese. Assuming I had no clue what was going on he then turned to me and asked me in English where I was from. I looked him in the eye and said ''wo shi mei guo ren'' ( I am American). His reaction was priceless. He did the biggest gasp I have ever seen. He had to rush to class but gave us his number. 

For the first time in his life, he came to church yesterday. He is so great. 

I am loving the daily study our mission has on the Atonement. This week I read about how Mosiah 3:19 talks about both the redeeming and enabling power of the Atonement:

''For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.''

 Quoting one of the prophets ''the gospel is to help bad people become good and good people to become better.'' 

The Atonement is not only to help us overcome sin (putting off the natural man) but to be strengthened and grow beyond our own capacity (becoming a saint). 

So how can we better apply the Atonement in our lives? Well, we are agents to act not to be acted upon. We must make a conscious choice to be changed. Once we make the choice, the Savior and His Atonement will do the rest. From personal experience, the times I have grown and changed the most were when I recognized I needed to change and made the decision that I was going to be better. We cannot walk the gospel path expecting it to change us if we do not put any effort in on our part. Asking for a change of circumstances is not the way but to ask for the strength to face our challenges is the source of power. We have the ability within us to change our circumstances if we first make the change within ourselves. 

The Spirit testifies to me every morning that this gospel is true. What a privilege it is to help others have that same witness from the Spirit. 

Love,

Sister Jordan 

p.s- sorry, still no pictures yet!

Limitless

Dear friends and family, 

I would love to describe to you the beautiful land of Preston. Oh wait.. I'm not in Preston, I'm in LANCASTER. 

Yep.. President Ulrich was inspired to change transfer plans. He had this nagging impression 3 hours before transfer meeting that I needed to go to Lancaster to serve with Sister Lee. I am so blessed to have a mission President that is so close to the Spirit. So here I am in Lancaster. By the end of my mission I will have a total of 5 companions and 4 areas. This has gotta be a record..

Remember Sister Lee? We served in Wrexham together. I love Sister Lee so much and I am so grateful to serve with her again. She blows me away with the spiritual power that always accompany her words. I am so grateful that she gets to stay in Lancaster and I hope she will be able to stay for awhile; She has served in a new area almost every transfer. She is helping me a lot with my Chinese. It got a bit rusty since we weren't teaching in Chinese much in Wrexham. We have so much fun together. 

I could not be happier to be here. It is so beautiful and this place is crawling with Chinese people which is quite the contrast from Wrexham at the moment. The members here are so supportive and excited about missionary work.

Right before we got on the transfer bus to leave the chapel I spotted President Preston. Once your mission president, always your mission president. It was so great getting to see him again but also a bit weird to see him with out a name badge. The Prestons will always have a special place in my heart. 

I got to give my introduction testimony yesterday during sacrament meeting. I was prompted to share a bit of my testimony in Chinese. I scanned the crowd to see the faces of our Chinese investigator and recent convert and they both had big smiles on their faces. I love being able to gain their trust as they see how hard I have worked to learn their language. 

Jun is our dated investigator here. She is doing really good. She came to church yesterday and seems very able to be independent. The members are warm and welcome to her. She will be interviewed for her baptism this week. 

Our area needs a lot of work. I have reviewed the area book and we are in desperate need to start finding more investigators and potentially drop investigators that are not progressing. I am excited to find new investigators that are PREPARED. The time to find, teach, and baptize is now. There is also a great need to strengthen the recent converts. There are at least 5 in our stewardship and I can feel the weight of our responsibility to nourish these members. We are very fortunate to be serving in a ward that cares about their recent converts and has done everything they can to look after them.

How am I? Well I could not be better! I have this great boost of energy and I have no idea where it came from or how it is possible to be so full of energy at this point of my mission. Oh wait, yes I do know where it has come from. This has come from a loving Heavenly Father that knows and loves me so much. I am ready to ''sprint to the end'' and give this last area my all. It has been a blessing to have long areas my whole mission because now I am in the mindset that I will be in Lancaster for a long time and it is helping me remain focused and settle in. It usually takes me awhile to be myself when I first go to a new area or serve with a new companion but since I already know and love Sister Lee I already am able to be myself. I cannot express enough how much the Lord has blessed me this transfer. There has been problems with missionaries bus contacting in Lancaster in the past (i.e, Elders being thrown off buses) so for a long time missionaries who serve here typically do not bus contact. Well you know me. I don't want to spend a second not talking to somebody. So I have been sitting next to people on the bus and gently weaving the gospel into the conversation. So far so good. I know the Lord will bless us for our extra efforts. Perhaps this will be the time we can break out of that mode of no bus contacting if we do it right. 

I wish I could describe in words how grateful I am and how much love I have for the Lord right now. This week I have learned that when we are willing to do the will of the Lord we are LIMITLESS. So often we limit our happiness and our ability to achieve our potential when we stubbornly want to do what we want to do. The moment we give our will to the Lord, He will be able to guide us to where we need to be and that path will always have great happiness in store than the path we want to take because we are short sighted. He sees the end from the beginning. We cannot see our lives the way He sees it. He will not do things against our will and that is why He patiently waits for us to cheerfully submit. Like Nephi, we may not know the meaning of all things ( 1 Nephi 11:17) yet we can be confident that He knows and loves us. I would have never imagined that it would be in Lancaster that I would fulfill my greatest potential. I wanted to badly to stay in Wrexaham but now that I am here I see that I am happier here than I would have been had the Lord granted me the chance to stay where I was. I am grateful to have learned this important lesson of humility.

I invite you all to ask Heavenly Father in prayer what His will is. Once that will is made manifest to you have the humility to DO IT. Trust that everything will always work out for your good. 

Love,

Sister Jordan.

p.s- Since I only arrived in Lancaster on Saturday I have no pictures yet. Stay tuned though!

He Knows Us

TRANSFER CALLS (drum roll, please..)

I got a call Friday morning from President Ulrich saying I am going to serve in Preston with Sister Once from the Philippines!!!

This transfer call caught me by surprise to say the least.  The Lord knows me well enough to let me know Friday morning instead of Saturday that I was being transferred there. I was sad to face the reality I was leaving Wrexham after 6 months but the more I thought about it, the more and more I got excited and start to really feel this is where the Lord needs me to be next transfer. Preston is were the first baptisms in England were and it is where Gordon B. Hinckley, one of my favorite prophets, served for like half of his mission. There is a Uni there and plenty of Chinese students to work with. YAY!  I am so grateful I will be able to do Chinese work again. They really are some of the most humble people I have ever met.

Transfer meeting will be on Saturday this time around which is a huge blessing. Plenty of time to say goodbye to the members and investigators I have grown to love so much. Oh yeah, I guess I get another few days to pack too.. Not excited about that bit haha.

This week Sister Klemm and I focused on inviting people to church. Our hope is to get more people we meet on the street to church and then to set up a return appointment when they come.  Around 10 people said they would come but alas only one uni student, Norman, came during the second hour. We met Norman on the street and didn't talk to him for more than 10 minutes. He really enjoyed church and now we are going to see him on Wednesday. We think it was worth it to try something new to get different results. We will try again this week.  

Last week we taught this young man named Will on the street and gave him a pamphlet to read. We messaged him to follow upon the pamphlet that we gave him. He told us he hadn't read the pamphlet but he had been thinking a lot about what we had shared with him. We felt inspired to ask him if he felt that what we had shared with him was true and he said yes! Will comes back this week from visiting his parents in Cardiff. He wants to meet with us when he gets back.

We finally got to teach Carol in her home this week. She told us she has been reading the Book of Mormon ever since we have given her a copy.  She feels the the Book of Mormon is true and it has helped her through the trials and lingering sorrows of losing her son 6 years ago.

Lukman is back from Nigeria. Not sure what happened but the missionaries in Nigeria never contacted him.. We watched Elder Bednar's talk titled ''Come and See.'' Lukman believed in his words. We took the opportunity to testify of the divine calling Elder Bednar has and to testify of the gospel being restored here on earth. The priesthood being taken away during the Great Apostasy is still an issue for him. We will have one of the Brothers from church help us teach more about the priesthood this week.

 Sadly, no non-members from Wrexham came to the Chinese activity but we had a few members come with us. They all enjoyed it. The activity was a great success. It was so great getting to see Richard, one of the investigators I taught when I served in the YSA. I have no doubt that he will gone on to be baptized one day.

I just want to take the time to share my testimony that I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. The answer may not come in the time we want or they way we want but the answer does come. I know that He knows what is best for us and that everything will always make sense when we look back and reflect on our lives. He knows us better than we know ourselves.

Love,

Sister Jordan

A Place For Everyone

Hello! Hello! A lot to share this week:

This week I went on exchange with Sister Klingonsmith here in Wrexham. It was her last exchange ever on her mission. The STLs were quite clever when they planned my exchanges for this transfer since one exchange was a Sister's first and the other was a Sister's last. What a honor it was to be apart of the final moments of a missionary's journey of a mission. Sister Klingonsmith is working so diligently to the end of her mission.

Some miracles we saw on exchange:
We ran into a less active named Tolu that we have trying to track down for ages. We invited him to church and to partake of the sacrament that is blessed by the restored Priesthood. A Chinese potential investigator, named Chen Chen, became a new investigator! And then we were guided by the spirit to go visit another potential investigator named Carol. Just as we were going down the street to her house we ran into her on the street. We had a great lesson on the spot with Carol and read about the Atonement from the Book of Mormon. With out being prompted, Carol said she believed what we had read. Long story short, we finally scheduled a return appointment to visit Carol. We had a lot of success on this exchange with people Sister Klemm and I have already met.

Sister Klemm and I found this super golden investigator named Brice the other week. Brice is originally from Cameroon but recently moved here from Germany. She has a catholic background but is searching for greater light and truth from the Spirit of God. The first time we meet her we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and a Restoration pamphlet since the questions she had would be answered with these specific lessons we teach. She came to church yesterday! We walked with her to church and she was able to ask us the questions she has. She asked us for a ''book of our prophets'' so we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. Although Brice is busy at Uni and does not want to be distracted from her studies, she is willing to meet with us to learn more. 

Richard is slowly coming out of his shell the more and more we meet with him. He is more on the shy side but he is now reading from the Book of Mormon with us during lessons and giving really great responses to the questions we ask him with more ease than when we first met with him. We arranged for members to bring him to church but he was not ready and dressed when they got there so they came to church with out him. It can be very hard when things are out of our control, like getting our investigators to church. Had I been the one bringing him to church I would have told him it was OK and that we would wait for him until he was ready and dressed. I cannot blame the members for wanting to be on time to church though. Hopefully next week he will be able to come to church. 

Update on Samilda:

We called by the other day to follow up with her fasting. She had indeed fasted and more than she originally said she would. We asked her if she had received great light on her question (is the church true?) and she nodded her head and said yes. I was like ok.. ''would you like to share your experience with us?'' and then she shook her head and with a slight grin on her face said no. Haha. She is so funny. She did not really have time to talk with us because she had to go get her daughter from school. We will be making yet another visit this week coming up.

Over a month ago, Sister Klemm and I went and contacted this less active named Annette and we had a really great lesson with her and her husband, Neil. Due to her busy work schedule at the hospital, we haven't been able to see them all since. We decided to call by the other day and they were home. We actually arrived at the same time as her son and his family were going in. I was surprised but grateful they still let us in. We had a really great lesson as we read from Mosiah 3 which is about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. We asked them why the life of Christ would be these ''glad tidings'' to us and Neil answered that it is because Christ gives us hope that evil can be overcome. We committed their family to read from 3 Nephi 11 this week, a little each day. I hope their family will be able to come to church and work towards being sealed in the temple.

Da Wei, the Chinese man we met, told us he wasn't interested anymore. I was disappointed he all of the sudden lost interest but I feel like I did my part in declaring the message of the gospel to him so I cannot be disappointed in myself. The Chinese work here in Wrexham is really struggling. In fact, I have no idea who will be coming to the Chinese activity this next week. We are going to need a miracle. Most of the students we have meet this transfer have left to other universities or have to go back to China at the end of this month because they have been unable to get VISAS. The only solution I can think of to keep the Chines work here alive would be to do some finding around the College campus where there as younger Chinese students there. We shall give it a try this week.

One last miracle!

We met this man named Rob last night and he is amazing. He told us he has had missionaries knock his door before and he has always said he wasn't interested and slammed the door. Upon learning about the Book of Mormon, he became very interested in what we had to say and regretted ever closing the door on missionaries and said had he know what we shared he would have listened. We talked about a lot of things with him, including the Word of Wisdom. During the conversation he told us that he felt really good about what we were sharing with him and that ''we were really close to converting him.'' We walked in the same direction as him to go home and before we said bye he told us he is going to try giving up smoking and drinking tea and we didn't even ask him to. He became a new investigator! Crazy things are happening.

No big life lesson to share this week but a fantastic video found on lds.org. Enjoy!:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-04-020-family-harmony?category=homefronts&lang=eng

There is a place for everyone in the restored church of Jesus Christ.

Love,

Sister Jordan

We Don't Hug Men

There is a funny story to accompany my email today. It goes as such:

Tuesday night after ward council we went with the Relief Society president to visit a few less actives. At the house of the less actives were these 2 non-members that had came home with the mom towards the end of the visit. One was a man and a lady both in their 50s. I went to hug the less active daughter and mother and then next in line was the man. I reached out my hand to shake his and he stood up to give me a hug. I quickly told him that we don't hug men because I did not know what else to say to politely turn down his approaching hug and he was like ''You do now!'' and hugged me anyways. It all happened so quickly. Haha. The thoughts that were going through my mind as he was still going in for the hug was ''well.. l mise well just let him hug me because the alternative to fight my way out of it won't be very dignified.''  I awkwardly stood there with my arms at my side as he hugged me. We got in the car afterwards and had a good laugh about it. Emma, the Relief Society President, jokingly said she would tell the whole ward that ''Sister Jordan hugs men.'' haha. An awkward moment always makes a good story

The Chinese work is still picking up its pace. The other day we street contacted this Chinese student that has met the Sisters here before and still is not interested but might come to the Chinese activity. I asked him if he had any friends that would be interested and he referred us to his friend, Chang, that lived near the university. The funny part is this referral lives in the same house as one of the members in the ward. It was funny knocking on the door and seeing a familiar face answer. Chang is super kind and we taught him how to pray. We will set up a return appointment for this week.  And then there is Da Wei, the Chinese man that moved from Rhyl 3 days before we met him. We went by the takeaway he works and had a nice visit with him. He desires to find greater happiness in his life and we explained how Heavenly Father has designed a plan to bring to pass just that. One last miracle regarding the Chinese work is on Monday night we said a prayer to find a new investigator and then a Chinese man with a suitcase came walking down the street. He was in a hurry and we only had time to quickly swap numbers and give him a pamphlet but I know he was a direct answer to that prayer.

General conference was a great spiritual feast. My prayers leading up to this past weekend included me asking the Lord to help me think of questions to bring to conference so that I could be ready to learn what he wanted me to this weekend. I was amazed at how every single question was answered and in the depth that they were as well. One of the questions I had was ''how can I help our investigators attend church?'' It seemed like half of conference talked about the importance of the sacrament and how to get the most out of attending that meeting. I loved the talk by Elder Eduardo Gavarret which talked about following the voice of the Lord and always being willing to do what He askes with a ''yes, Lord. I will'' attitude. I am really trying to apply that to my life and aligning my will to His.

Application of this in real life is that I may be training my last transfer. Sister Klemm and I were on the phone with President this morning and he asked us if we are ready to train next transfer. In my head I was like ''no.. not really!'' haha but I am trying to do what ever the Lord wants me to do and go where ever he wants me to go my last transfer. He told us with 35 new Sisters coming in he wants us ''his most seasoned and experienced Sisters'' to train. He is going to pray about it and wants us to be too.  As much as I would love for things to just stay the way they are now because they are going so well, I am preparing myself to say ''Yes, Lord. I will.''

We invited everyone we talked to this past week to come to General Conference. The only person that came was our investigator, Garry, whom we have not been able to meet with in awhile because he has been so busy with work. We saw him in the library and promised that if he came he would receive guidance from the Lord for his life. And he did! He attended the Priesthood session that was being rebroadcasted at the chapel at 10am. We found this all out when one of the members from that ward that has fellowshipped at Garry's lessons told us that Garry had been and that he introduced him to the brethren that were in attendance.

Our dated investigator, Richard, is going great. We gave him 2 Nephi 9 as a reading assignment in one of the lessons earlier in the week. This chapter answers the question of the soul of ''what does Jesus Christ expect of me?'' Now, Richard is great at keeping his commitment to read the Book of Mormon and the following lesson we asked ''So, what answer did you get as you read 2 Nephi 9?'' He said the answer he got was that Christ needed him to be strong and help others. He is incredible. We taught him follow the prophet to prepare him for General Conference and the Word of Wisdom to prepare him for baptism. He has been wanting to give up smoking for awhile now and he seemed very grateful to have the spiritual tolls to do it now. Sadly, Richard was sick this weekend and wasn't feeling well enough to come watch General Conference.

I was able to present my ''Adopt-an-investigator'' idea at Ward Council this week. It went really well. Bishop gave the Ward Council his endorsement and commented on how great he thought this idea was. This is the exact direction he wants the ward to go in with the members being more involved in missionary work. Now to start putting it into action..

HUGE miracle in the making:

Remember how I wrote last week how we boldly testified and invited our investigator Samilda to pray to know if this church is true? Well she did. On a follow up visit this week she invited us in to tell us how she had prayed and had a dream where her grandfather appeared to her. Her grandfather did not say anything to her in the dream. She called her aunty to get her opinon on what the dream meant (note: her husband, family, and pastor are against her changing churches..). Her aunty just told her it probably means she should not join the church. Now we all know that 1) ''don't join the church'' is not an answer to whether or not the church is true and 2) that our family in the spirit world are learning about the gospel and can lead us to the gospel here on earth. We explained to Samilda that the veil is very thin and her Grandfather appearing to her in a dream is way more significant. I kept praying in my heart that the Lord would help us think of a scripture to share with her. I was lead to Omni 1:26. Samilda read it and afterwards we asked her what more she can do to receive and answer. On her own she decided she needed to fast. So we fasted with her on Friday. Samilda is making great spiritual progress despite the opposition that is against her. What happens next is to be continued... Please keep her in your prayers!

President and Sister Ulrich have made every missionary an Atonement study book with great talks and scriptures on the Atonement that they want us to study over the next month. Today was the first day and I had the chance to reflect on how I have been able to apply the Atonement in my life. I came to the conclusion that it takes trust and courage to confess and forsake our sins. We must trust the Lord's promise of forgiveness  and peace for our mistakes if we repent and we must have the courage to confess them. The eternal consequence of our choice to repent and the joy of forgiveness paired with the weight of guilt lifted off our shoulders will far out weigh what it might cost to make things right in our lives. I encourage you all to reflect on what the Atonement means to you.

Love you all!

Sister Jordan