New Mission President

 This week, our new Mission President arrived!! His name is President Gardner and I totally LOVE him already!! He is just infused with energy and love for missionary work, he is so very humble, a self proclaimed optimist, and is seriously an open book.  I am soooo excited to see what he has planned for this mission:D We even were able to have interviews with him personally after the big conference, he challenged me to open my mouth and testify at every opportunity. So this week I took up that challenge, and though at first it was difficult, the more I did it, not only was it easier, but I began to notice that confidence, conviction, and power accompanied my words. It was so wonderful to see the power of acting in Faith and relying on Heavenly Father. 

    Got to go to an AWESOME BBQ party for 4th! We met this man named Brother George, and he is just the BEST!!! He at first introduced himself to me as a Catholic Priest, and I didn't realize that he was a member until about 30 minutes later haha. He told us many fantastical stories about his rough and tumble life. He knows where 800 lbs of gold is buried in Colorado, he punched through a guy's truck window because he said something about his wife, and he ran away from the Canadian police with a semi truck full of stuff hahahaha Though he was raised in the church, he fell away, but returned again !  His adult son had been baptized and wanted his dad to be there with him and his family to be sealed in the temple, so his son said, "Dad you have 9 months to get your act together." He said it felt like God had slapped him in the face and made him realize what the most important things in this life is family and your spiritual relationship with Heavenly Father. So he shaped up and never went back! It was so wonderful to hear all of his exciting stories as well as his tender testimony building experiences.

 Ooh we had a game night this week, with my favorite game...Perpetual Commotion it was tons of fun and reminded me of when we would play that game with the missionaries, and now I was a missionary, yayyyyy! Our wedding planning for the Baptism/Wedding on Aug 8 is moving along very nicely: rustic, country chic dark blue and sunflowers AWHH YEAH!!:) 

Beautiful Sunrise on way to Zone COnference.

Matching with Sister Taggert

Standard of Excellence

This week was an EXCELLENT week! We started it out in Kearney where we were finally able to go to Walmart, and were able to do exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. We even did some tracting in about 100 degree weather (plus humidity) it was awesome!! Though we did not find anyone who was interested in the gospel, it was a personal faith building experience because it helped me to overcome my fear of  talking to others. Heavenly Father really did bless us this week, especially yesterday, because we were finally able to reach Standard of Excellence after weeks of just missing it. For those of you who don't know, Standard of Excellence are goals that our mission president sets up for our mission. It is very difficult to reach and we really had to work extra hard because we were out of our area for two days.  

 But like Ammon says in Alma 26 "I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." I know it is only through the power of God that I am able to do anything, therefore, I will forever praise his name!!:)

Tender Mercies

This week was another great week! Oh big tender mercy from this week. So on Thursday, all of our appointment canceled on us. Not only that, but we were the part of our area which is really small so we really have to work hard to stay busy the whole day. We were a bit worried about what we would do to occupy our time most efficiently. We prayed and then planned to our best ability. Then the next morning, the family who we are staying with asked if we could spare sometime and help her with potting some plants and painting. She was an answer to our prayers! We were able to stay busy and productive for the entire day, as well as go and visit with some other people, it was an awesome day!:)
Oh and the wedding/baptismal plans for one of our investigators is moving along very nicely. Her and her daughter are just on FIRE about this gospel and they are going to do many wonderful things!!!

Selfie with the Zone

Sister Jordan with a frog she caught and named JO-JO.

(She later let him go)

Talking with EVERYONE :)

This week was another eventful and exciting week! Had an awesome and very inspirational Zone Conference centered around Elder Holland's talk on Missionary Work and the Atonement.This was our last time seeing our mission president because he is finished with his mission, and is leaving for home tomorrow. After taking pictures, he told me to keep the fire I have for missionary work going, I told him a year and a half is not nearly enough time to satisfy my fire for sharing this gospel!:)  It is so very uplifting to be around other missionaries too, especially because Sister Taggart and I are the only ones in our area. Let's see, what else...oh we went tracting in one of our local towns called Alma. Found a cool guy named Scott, and even accidentally talked to some juvenile detention inmates playing basketball. The work here is moving , I am just lucky enough to be here to experience it!:))

Sister Jordan with fellow Cali missionaries at Zone Conference

Sister Jordan with President and Sister Weston

A Magnificent Week!

This week was another magnificent week! We almost reached standard of excellence, we were just off by 3 new investigators. The previous weeks, we got 3 new investigators but were lacking in one or another of the other standards. So this week, we plan on combing them all and achieving the standard of excellence!:) Highlight of this week was fast and testimony meeting yesterday. So many powerful and inspirational testimonies were born. Even our two new investigators and our recent convert stood up and testified! It was so beautiful!!!

  This week, on Thursday, we are fasting and praying with one of our investigators about knowing for himself of the truthfulness of the restored gospel, and if Joseph Smith was the prophet who restored the gospel again on the earth. He says he does want to be baptized on June 21, but he wants to know for sure that this is exactly what he wants. So I am pretty excited to see what comes of this fast.

  Oh and I am really looking forward to Zone Conference tomorrow, we will be reunited with other missionaries which is great because Sister Taggart and I are the only ones in our area, so we never see other missionaries except at meetings haha

Being a judge for a talent show...so much fun!!! So hot, humid and windy but great!

Drivin' alongside the beautiful landscape.

Auctions, Prophets, and Weddings...Oh My!!

This week was just wonderful! Carolyn, who just was baptized, attended the temple and already has been baptized for some of her family members! She is just on fire! We also had the awesome experience of doing some service for the community in Phillipsburg. There was an auction, and the local Rotary club was in charge of the snack bar, so me and Sister Taggart were able to help. It was so cool, there were real cowboys and the auctioneer spoke SUPER fast!  It was great to meet so many people in the community and show them we aren't scary. I even met a lady who is from France and we were able to speak in French together and we set up an appointment to see her again:) Later, Brother Isernhagen, who set this all up for us, told us of the wonderful impression we had made on everyone just through working hard and smiling. He even said that they want us to help them the next time they have a booth because of all the help we gave! Oh and Sister Taggart and I are helping to plan a wedding!!!! One of our new investigators isn't married to her spouse and she wants to be baptized so she said that she and her spouse have no problem with making their relationship official. So they will be getting married in the next couple of weeks!:D  And then on that same day, we basically testified of modern prophets to a whole crowd of people who were in Love's gas station, because this guy started asking us questions and people just started to gather around haha. Ahh there is just so many exciting things going on here in Phillipsburg area!!:D

Straightened my hair :)

Only in Kansas

Such a wonderful enriching week this week:) I had a great start to this week thanks to Trainer Trainee meeting,(in Omaha, a 6 hour drive from Kansas!) where I was encouraged, uplifted, and inspired. I loved having the time to make goals and plan for our visions and meeting my fellow missionaries finally. 

 Then we headed back to Phillips burg for Carolyn's baptism. Everything worked out perfectly! Carolyn's family was there and very supportive and happy for her too. It was so wonderful to be able to share with her this awesome beginning to her new life path towards Heavenly Father . Oh and we got two new investigators, a mother and daughter from the baptism. They saw it and wanted to be baptized right then, the mom has even begun to invite people to speak at her baptism, and she has not even had the lessons yet! I am so excited to teach them this week!:)))

Only in Kansas highlight of the week...I got to pet some cows because our ward mission leader owns a farm and has TONS of cows. 

Carolyn's Baptism!!!

Cute, cuddly, and hungry brown cows