Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ 8/29/16 ~ Transfers!

Ok so this week has been pretty wonderful honestly. One of the greatest blessings that I have seen that has really struck me, has been watching the power of the words of an Apostle. In my area we have a less active sister that is literally always blaming everyone, and especially her husband. I have visited her several times and she always has had an incredible spirit of contention that makes it difficult to teach. I arrived for the first time in her home more than a month and a half ago and she told me how the previous missionaries that were here, planched her for always blaming her husband, and basically she used what they said as an excuse to feel offended and not participate in sacrament meeting. I felt prompted the previous week to use the talk ¨And nothing shall offend them¨ and literally quote the words of Elder David A Bednar.  “Let me make sure I understand what has happened to you. Because someone at church offended you, you have not been blessed by the ordinance of the sacrament. You have withdrawn yourself from the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Because someone at church offended you, you have cut yourself off from priesthood ordinances and the holy temple. You have discontinued your opportunity to serve others and to learn and grow. And you are leaving barriers that will impede the spiritual progress of your children, your children’s children, and the generations that will follow.” 

 “Dear friend, we are here today to counsel you that the time to stop being offended is now. Not only do we need you, but you need the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Please come back—now.” I used this more specifically to her circumstances and with scriptures to make it more loving, but it would not be a style that i would say was me before the mission. I have learned so much and she has been in church the last two weeks, and her husband has been as well.

We have found a really cool new investigator this week named Carlos. He is 21 years old and happens to be the boyfriend of one of the young women in our ward. We spoke with him yesterday and he told us that the book of mormon has become his refuge and that in the two days he had between our visits with him, he read 10 pages. I think i was in shock. 

We had a stake conference this week that was literally amazing. My companion and also one of our zone leaders went to get their patriarchal blessings and we basically had a huge field trip to get to the patriarchs house. They didnt have their recommends and so he started to just go off about how they need to have them, and its no different than the temple, and how could they be in the mission and not have received their blessings before. I began to explain that they didnt realize it was something required for the blessing and he kept going.... he also told his wife to let him speak because he is the patriarch and has the authority.... I almost planched a patriarch. I almost dropped Doctrine and Covenants 121 no power or influence priesthood section but i didnt.... and how wonderful i didnt. He ended up being a very cool guy after we fixed the recommend situation and I think he suffers from some illnesses from his age, and it ended up being a very spiritual experience for our companions. 

We did however arrive 30 minutes late to our stake conference and wouldnt you know... we had an area 70 and our mission president there... it was still such a powerful conference and this Elder Walter Travino spoke to finish. First off picture James Spader from the blacklist and thats about how he is. He spoke with such power and about the importance of women and called up about 7 women that formed a question panel. It was very fun and when he speaks you basically get chills because there is such a power in his words. OH and fun fact he served in my mission 35 years ago.

The next day my favorite message was from my last mission presidents little brother who is the temple president here. He shared seriously like a 3 minute message and finished by saying, ¨if you want to have eternal life, go to the temple. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.¨

Anyway  love you all tons and hope life is great.:)

ps it is super hot still and there are attacks from the mosquitos from (....) ;)

Elder Saunooke