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

Transfers

Dear Famblee,
Emotionally draining day! As I suspected, I am not staying in Syracuse. The way we usually find out transfer news is that they give leadership calls (aka if you're training or if you are advancing as an elder) the night before, if not, you get them tuesday morning really early, then you have pday to pack. Well, sis Cline did not get a call last night, so that was a load off her mind. Then this morning, we waited and waited and did not get a call! We had zone study at 8 and finally we were told that we would hear transfer results there. They read them off, and I am going to be WHITEWASHING and opening a new area, pleasantview south in ogden! My companion will be sister martin, a way cool sister from Houston who is about halfway through her mission. I have been on exchanges with her before and I like her a lot, she's an amazing missionary. Why do I continue to be blessed with awesome comps? I don't know. In case you didn't know, whitewashing is when two new missionaries go into an area, neither one of us knowing anything about it! We are reopening the area, it has been closed for awhile. So it's a lot to figure out, but I bet it will be really fun and probably has quite the potential for the work! We will be going in there blind, but it's kind of exciting in a way. I have no idea what my new address is, or if we have a place to stay but i will let ya know when i get it.

After they announced my call, they asked Sister Cline if she wanted to share her news. Puzzled, she asked, "What news?" She will be training, and they didn't even call her!! needless to say, she about had a heart attack!! Poor sis Cline. So as I'm sure you can imagine, I have mixed feelings about it all. I feel better prepared for change than I did last transfer and I know that I'm really lucky to get Sis Martin and it's exciting to open a new area! But I love syracuse and will miss it dearly. I have had such an amazing fun transfer, and there is so many people and things from it that I will miss. It's my greenie area! I've never had any other area, house, or leaders. I love it, and I'M GOING TO MISS SISTER CLINE SO MUCH!!!!

I have to pack!! I have accumulated so much stuff it's redonk.

Love you all,
Sister Jordan

hallloooooo

Dear Famblee,

BBBRRRR! SNOW!!!! I am not even kidding you. Snow in Oct. My jacket keeps me pretty warm though :)

Have I told you how much I love Sister Cline? She's amazing, pretty much the best friend companion lady ever. This tranfer has been the most challenging but absolutely my favorite so far. I think I am beginning to learn how to enjoy my mission. I have learned so much these past weeks, and sister Cline truly is like a sister to me. I am learning how to be myself and how to relax and have fun but still work hard and think more about those we are teaching. I can't believe I only have a couple weeks left in this transfer, I wish I could stay companions with Cline forever. I have a feeling that I will be leaving Syracuse though, but I feel a lot better prepared to accept whatever happens this time around.

That's cool that you went to cb [Cracker Barrell, where Camille used to work]. I love my cb peeps, and I actually REALLY miss waiting tables! that's exciting that some of them said they would write me. I wonder how all my old regulars are doing? We tracted into a cute old couple yesterday and it made me happy and reminded me of the old cb days.

Halloween is going to be fun, we are having a sister's activity/sleepover friday night. It's costume, and Sister Cline and I are planning/practicing an surprise dance performance, which I will video record. We will be dressed as missionaries from the 70's, and dancing to a little disco tune called "messengers of light" from a cd of the same title by lex de azervado. Brother mcGEE gave us the CD, it's a delightfully cheesy missionary ballads from the 70s. Listen to it if you can, you will crack up.

I love you all!
Sister Jordan

famblee

Dear fambleh,

Here I be again, with a bit more time to spare this week. Last week I was able to get a few cold-weather staples, including some leggings, a coat and gloves. I have the most important things (except boots) So my plan is just to slowly build up my winter wardrobe each week until I have enough to brave the crazy Utah winter! One week recently was freezing, but this past week has not been so bad.

Sister Cline is awesome! She's from PA like Schill, but she spent the last few years in Alaska and Hawaii. She is super laid back and goofy, very surfer-ish and tomboy. She doesn't take anything too seriously. She is a fun companion, and we work hard together because we are both pretty much new. I have learned more in this transfer so far than I have since I've been out, and I FEEL a lot more like a missionary. I have an easier time being bold and confident now, and I am growing in other ways.

She is a health nut so we were running every morning, but I sprained my foot stepping off a curb wrong (only me and my graceful self could do that) in the first week, so that put an end to that. My foot hurt pretty bad for a while, but it's getting a lot better. I got a blessing and saw a Dr and I don't have to have a cast or anything - it's just a light sprain.

We are teaching a lot and finding a lot of new investigators. We had a baptism a few weeks ago and it went awesome! She is such a sweet girl. Schill and I sang "What Heaven Sees in You," the same song I sung at Nina's wedding. We also hard a baptism this last Saturday, another little blonde angel. Her baptism was awesome, the spirit was very strong there. Sister Schilling tracted into her mom a couple months ago right before I got there. She was really receptive so we started teaching them both and it has really been an amazing journey for that little family. The mom totally turned her life around and started re-activating, the daughter had the lessons and was able to be baptized, and the mom is on the track to rebaptism. They were so grateful that they were found. The little girl bore her testimony on Sunday after she was confirmed (she's 9) and it was the sweetest, cutest thing I've ever heard! It went something like this: "I'm so glad the missionaries found us, because if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have the Holy Ghost right now!" And she burst into tears!

I am doing a lot better with directions, I have learned a lot, and we get around fine now. I even read a map once! I didn't go to conference, but we had a great time watching it at member's houses and stuffing our faces. I truly have developed a new sense of appreciation for conference. It's amazing!

Gotta Go!
Love,
Your sister missionary