Training

*Editor's Note: I apologize for not posting updates in here as often as Camille has been giving them to us. She has been in Ogden with Sister Cline this whole time, and having a lot of success in her work. She has had some health problems including thyroid problems, but she has been getting treatment and is doing fine now. Below is from her latest letter (last Tuesday).

So...I got a call last night..One of the APs is australian, and he says to me..."sistah jo-dan, the Lord has a new assignment for you...you're going to be a mummy!" I'M TRAINING! Aaahh! I'm so excited. I really would have loved to stay with Cline, but was definitely my secret hope, but I didn't dare dream. I'm still bad at directions, that hasn't changed :) and I am sure that I will make many mistakes and often find myself not knowing what to do or say- but for some reason I feel really calm and peaceful about it. Her name is sister Grigor and she is from Canada. I need a TX flag asap! :) ever since I saw her picture I felt like I would train her. What I know about her so far: she is extremlely stylish, 5'11, chatty and confident. I am sad that sister Cline is leaving. We are so used to each other and all of our routines and the things that we do for each other I almost feel like we are breaking up a marriage lol. But I am really excited to stay in the area and to train.

the Den of Og!

Hola Famila,

OGDEN!!! The Den of Og. It is simply fabulous. This transfer has been AMAZING so far!! I don't ever want it to end!! This is seriously my mission dream..My favorite place with my favorite person!! Who could ask for anything more?? The Lord keeps blessing us with miracles. I love biking/walking, it makes me feel like more of a missionary, like I'm working harder, and it feeks good to be getting sun and exercise. I come home every night exhausted, and consequently my insomnia has totally been cured!! I sleep like a log. I feel like because we are so close we are able to really focus the work because we have nothing in our companionship to work out, and everything is so enjoyable. Even rain and being smelly and grouchy people and embarrassing things are a hilarious good time with Cline. We had a baptism on Saturday and it was awesome!! She is such a solid convert...so cute and she knows her scriptures backwards and forwards. her baptism was really spiritual. We always share the message of the restoration at baptism while they get dressed, and it was a good audience. Our baptism goal for May is 4-6. we are at 3 now, but we have faith that we will reach our goal if we keep working hard! We have already had some others and a few more planned this month! We started teaching this new girl last night, she's pretty awesome! I like her a lot.

So we had Zone conference this week...AMAZING!! Best ZC ever, hands down. You wanna know why?? Because Freaking Alex Boye came and spoke/sang! Only my favoritest and first black man ever to be in the MoTab!! He's pretty much a celebrity around here...but his message was so inspiring! And his voice was amazing! We got to sit in the front row..practically saw his adam's apple bobbing up and down! But this is not all..Cline and I got a special audience with him before the show!! We got to go back to the room where Boye and his accompanist were practicing for a meet and greet! They were so nice. he asked me what my favorite song was that he sang and I started singing "rocca my soul in the bosom of Abraham!" and then he started singing along! I SANG WITH ALEX BOYE!!!! AND HE SAID I HAD A GOOD VOICE!!!! Everyone was trying to get me to sing with him onstage, but I said NOOO THANK YOU!!! I would die of a heart attack!!

Well, I love you all to distraction! You are the bestest besty McBestersons, all youse guys.

Dubs,

Sista J

Transferred to Ogden

Hey famblee,

How is it going? Well as for me and my house we are having a grand old time in Ogden!!! I have been here just shy of a week and I absolutely LOVE it!!! We are in a walking area! We cover 6 wards. Smallest area ever. But it is still a lot of ground to walk, so we are trying to get some bikes! But it is a lot of fun to walk around, you get to contact a lot of people. I have been really happy but totally exhausted at the end of every day.

Our apartment was nasty beyond nasty! we moved in after elders and it was DISGUSTING!! NEVER again. smelled like the dickens, with disturbing surprises around every nook and cranny including (but not limited to) plethoras of moldy food underneath every peice of furniture, candy bars with bites taken out of them strewn every which way, etc. The bedroom is a most attractive shade of blood red, and the shower is made out of stone like a lil lil mountain. Our house must be a million years old, it's bright blue with christmas lights :) pretty much ghetto fabulous.

Being comps with Cline is amazing!!!! I love it I love it i love it. It's like a party every day but we work really hard.

Well, I gotta go!

Sister J

Aim Hungry!

Flombe,

How art thous? I am HUNGRY like the VOLF!! On tuesdays I wake up later in lieu of more sleep, and as a result I never have time to eat much before we are off to the Temple! And then we don't get home till about 1. Ah, such is life.

So, the latest news: The Lord keeps blessing us with miracles! Over the weekend, we had TWO member families invite their friends into thier homes to listen to us and they both said yes!! Those occasions are precious and rare!!! We have met with one of them so far. We also have two golden media referrals that we have talked to and set up lessons with, and they both sound super prepared! Amazing! We also picked up a new investigator on Sunday. SO many other miracles, but not enough time to tell!

We sang in the Keller's stake conference last weekend. It was pretty sweet! President Keller called us up out of the audience and asked us to bear our testimonies of the Prophet Joseph Smith, so we came up and sang "O how lovely was the morning" to the tune of "come thou fount" Acappella! Everyone LOVED it, and the spirit made everyone cry, even the men!!

So transfers are coming up!! We had interviews last week, and I told president that I wanted to open a sister's area in inner-city ogden with sister cline! And he said he would see what he could do!! It has always been my dream to open a sister's area in the city. It is as poor and as ghetto as you can get in Utah, but still so much safer than anything back in TX :) I am ready for the humble people!!! wish me luck :)

Love,
Sister Jordan

Snow and General Conference

Why oh why must it always snow?? Last night I was outside in a real, legitamite blizzard. Basically it consisted of horizontally flying snow/hail bits that ferociously whipped my face and eyes, made it impossible for me to walk in a straight line, and flew down my shirt. Feet of wretched snow piled up in a matter minutes. I'm ready for spring/summer! It's April, for the love of pete!!

So conference! Vunderbar! How was yall's conference/easter weekend! I love conference on the mission, there's really nothing like it. We pretty much can't WAIT to hear what these inspired servants of the Lord have to say, and we hang onto every word. It all means so much and breathes the life and fire into us that we need to carry on and try harder to be better. My favorite talks were Elder Uchtdorf's, Bednar, and of course Holland! he's so bold, I love it. My favorite funny line from his talk was when he was saying that all of us have unsavory thoughts occur to us, "but we don't have to invite them in for tea and crumpets! throw the rascals out! you shouldn't be serving tea anyway!" :) We watched the first sat session at a member's house with our district. We had strawberry crepes, mmm! And they gave us all sweet easter baskets. Very kind people. Then we went to another family for the afternoon session, a family who we LOVE. The mom is basically our gaurdian angel, we met her our first transfer here, and she always takes care of us. Every week she calls to check on us and ask what we need.

Things are still going well, but of course there is still stumbling blocks and sometimes things are not as exciting as they intially seem. A lot of our new gators have been cancelling appointments and not accepting baptismal dates. We haven't had anyone with a date since a baptism we had over a month ago, which is bad for Utah! BUT overall I still feel like things are on the upswing and going comparatively very well to what they have been previously. The Lord still blesses us with miracles every day, we just have to be positive and notice them so He can bless us with more! The Lord is teaching me patience and perseverance and that is is possible to have joy despite difficult trials.

Love,
Sister Jordan

Monkeys, flying and otherwise

Dear Famblee,

So I have lots to tell yall and not too much time!!! This past week has been pretty sweet, we have seen a lot of miracles. Sunday was an amazing day. We had really been fasting and praying to get the work going here. Because we have been tracting for days before we will teach a lesson. So after we finished church for the day, we had made some plans, but sister sutter said she felt like we should go to the stake center to practice our song that we are singing at zone conference (which is "as I went down in the river to pray-" it's sweet!!! We're excited!) Which was weird because we hadn't planned to practice and we didn't really need to, but we headed on over. We had been practicing for a few minutes and this woman who's daughter we have been trying to teach walked in and set up an appointment so that we could teach her daughter!! We also had 2 new investigator lessons on sunday, and they went really well. I haven't felt that guided by the spirit in a long time. One of them was with a part member family. The mom hasn't been to church since she was 15, but she has an 18 yr old and a 9 yr old who are recent converts, and an unbaptized 13 yr old. They are the coolest family and we feel that the daughter will be baptized soon. The Other new gator we picked up was actually someone that we used to teach when i first came into the area. We had long since given up on him, and randomly one night as we were planning, I felt like we might as well stop by and visit. As it turns out, They had moved and we caught them at home on their second day back. They are doing well. Also, another investigator called us out of the blue and wants to have the lessons again. Thank you so much for your prayers, we can definitely feel them!!!

Sorry, ran out of time!! i'll try to answer any questions next week. Love you guys!!
Sister Jordan

Goals

Editor's note: Sorry that it has been a long time since I posted anything here. I have been busy/slacking but have repented now. Camille is still in Pleasantview South area but has changed companions a few times. There has just been another transfer so now she has a new companion. On to the letter...

Dear Family & Friends,

I love serving with Sister Sutter!!! She is way sweet. She is from PA, and she has been out for 5 months. She is just what I needed. She is very confident, talkative, and outgoing! We have a lot of sweet goals and are very motivated. It really been a blessing thus far.

We have a goal of 5 baptisms in february, 6 for the transfer. And we also have a goal to have work of some kind to report in every ward in the North Ogden Stake by the end of the transfer. Pray for our goals! We need prayers. Satan is definitely trying us! But i know the Lord will bless us with others to teach and baptize if we work hard and expect those miracles.

Julie was baptized on Saturday, It was amazing!!! She is going to be such a little pioneer in her family. She is making strides.

Love you guys!
Sister Jordan