Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ Rainy Season ~ 4/24/17

On Tuesday we did divisiones with the assistants and I went with Elder Grover and this time we actually stayed in our area of Tanlum. It was cool because it is actually his old area and we both know it really well so it made it easy to work efficiently. The best lesson we had that day was a lesson with two brothers we found a week and a half ago and we taught and testified about the Book of Mormon. It was a really great lesson and the spirit was very strong and even though we had to sprint about a half mile in the rain to the bus stop and were in the farthest part of my area, we made the best of it and were happy. Actually waiting for the bus we contacted a guy there by asking him if he wanted to be in a selfie with us, and he got super excited and took out his smart phone and asked if he could take one too!

This last week we started working in Terranova to help out the ward because they share the building with us and havent had missioneries in about a year, and so we went to open the area with the sister trainers in our zone. We divided the area in half and we are going to be going there once a week to visit investigators, but out of all the contacts we made that day only 2 rejected us! It was an unbelievable experience because our Area is really hard hearted but we found lots of people that have been prepared to receive missioneries.

On friday we did a district activity of bringing the investigators that we have to the temple to the gardens outside and the waiting room. Romel did a small charla in front in the gardens before we went in and then one of the consejeros of the temple presidency showed a few videos and talked in the temple waiting room. It was a great activity and we should have lots of success. 

We are trying to figure out how to baptize more to fulfill with the goal of 25 baptisms a week as a mission so we are trying to do lots of different ideas to help the work progress. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ Mission Fast and Septimo Dia ~ 4/17/17

Hi family!! This was a really busy week as well but very rewarding!! We were able to find 9 new investigators this week and 5 of them are from a Seventh day adventist family! It was a very funny lesson because i almost never planch or in english reprimand with the scriptures, but it was really the perfect opportunity to do it... we were teaching and the mom of the family starting hypocritically inviting us to read the bible and to understand what it says there and the whole truth... so I asked her what she thought about baptisms for the dead. She told me she had never heard of that and so we showed her where its at in her bible, and we were then talking about the spirit world and she got super mad and stood up and starting screaming at my companion and asking him if he believes that we can talk with spirits. She lost it and was interrogating him, so I changed the subject and asked her if she thought it was important to invite the holy spirit to be with us... she replied yes. I then read to her the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace) and asked her if she thought that screaming at my companion was the proper way to invite the spirit..... hahhahaha  im so bad. She practically changed colors in front of us, calmed down, accepted another visit, and gave us dessert bread and water:)

I dont know if you guys remember the family i told you guys about when we visited the youth whose dad showed up and we thought we had lost that family from teaching? Well we visited them this week and his mom was there and she is a sweetheart!! One of the nicest people i have met in the mission!! She loved what we shared and I think we may have some baptismal dates for that family in the not so distant future!!

We had a multizone meeting and my companion and I asked the zone to give us money so that we could have Sister Moya make us a lunch for the zone after the meeting, and it was so great! I think we were the envy of the mission hahaha!

We fasted as a mission this week so that we can fulfill the goal of 25 baptisms a week and we had a great experience after fasting. We found another small family at 8 oclock last night and it was like a classic mission experience. It was far away and raining and there was no transportation to get back to our house but walking home we were very happy because God has blessed us with lots of success this week!

We are going to start working with the sister trainers of our zone in a ward that shares our building but that has not had missionaries for over a year and they are super excited to start working with us. We are going to dedicate one day a week to help them progress! I am so happy to be here and I cant wait to see you guys in just a few short weeks! 

Love 

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ Busy, busy, busy! ~ 4/10/17

Wow I think this week was one of the busiest weeks I have had since I came out on the mission. We had two meetings with President Ruiz and the stake presidents of Stake Chuburna and Stake Itzimna, a mission leadership conference,  and my companion Elder Roa and I were in charge of the stake ward mission leader training last night! The week honestly went by very fast, and we are tired but its good to always be anxiously engaged in a good cause:)

On Tuesday I turned 17 months in the mission and it keeps going by very quickly. We had an interesting learning experience that day and it happened for not listening to the spirit. We taught a young man that is 16 years old and that we had contacted the week before. He is really great, understands very well, is anxious to learn, and we were getting along great and teaching the message of the restoration, and we were in the living room of his house with the door open... his parents are divorced and he lives with his mom who is constantly working. His dad shows up at the end of the lesson and was not very happy to see us at his home.... even though this young man invited us in to the living room what we should have done was stay in front of the front door and teach there to not disrepect the father of the home (even though he doesnt live there)... it was something that both my companion felt before beginning to teach, and as strong as the spirit was during the lesson, just as strong was the contention that was felt when the dad showed up.... it ended okay and we put another appointment but it would have been more ideal if we had listened to the council of Elder Rasband and followed the first impression. That night we had our Alineacion de llaves meeting with stake president Soliz and President Ruiz, and we talked about how we can work better in the stake of Itzimna. It is a very rich stake but it also has lots of pueblitos that are easier to progress so we want to focus the missionaries of the zone in visiting other pueblitos too. President Soliz wants to use visits with retired members a lot, and his phrase of the night was "no hay jubilados para el Señor".

Wednesday we had another meeting of Alineacion de llaves with President Morales and President Ruiz, and we talked about what activities we can do as a stake and we settled on doing a baile de los cabezones or in english the big head dance, which is a cool dance with giant paper mache heads that originated in Guatemala and we want to do sketchs with the members and learn how to do visits as home teachers to less active members. We also contacted a guy that I wanted to contact because he had a krav maga shirt on, and it turns out that his brother is the president of Krav maga for the whole state of yucatan! This guy is the 2nd best marksmen in yucatan too, and he studied theology... he was giving me goosebumps with all the stuff he was saying. He related the beginning of the bible with the end, has read the pearl of great price, and studied the bible in hebrew and greek.... he is probably the most knowledegable guy ive ever contacted but he didnt accept visits from us because he doesnt want to join any church... he is buena onda though:)

This week we had real Mexican food (enchiladas) because we ate with a family from the Ciudad de Mexico named the Rincon family. They are new here in the ward, and they are some of my favorite people here.

Friday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! En un dia feliz.... una niña nacio... que se llama Morgan... y que sea feliz:) We had a Consejo de Liderazgo meeting on friday morning and we talked about the new excellence goal we have from the area presidency... 25 baptisms a week as a mission. We did a giant brainstorm activity to come up with how we are going to accomplish that goal and it was great to see all of the inspiration that is received by the leaders of the mission.

On Saturday the sisters of Arboledas had a baptism and we brought one of our investigators there to see it. We hope to have a baptismal date for her within the next two to three weeks:) We also taught a lady named Margarita that we have been teaching for a while, but this time we taught her the plan of salvation using a short video from youtube we found and it was such a great lesson! She knows its true, but its hard for her to make the choice to leave behind her religion so we are really hoping that she can receive a clear answer this week.

Last night we did the capacitacion of the ward mission leaders of the stake because President Morales asked us to train the ward mission leaders, and it was a wonderful learning experience. It went really well and I hope we can see some progress this transfer in the wards of the stake!

I love you tons and hope you have a great week! The sensacion termica or the what it feels like number last week got up to 130, but the good news is that... they gave us air conditioning to all the zone leaders woooohhooooooooo por fin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a great week and I will try to send pics later!

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ General Conference Weekend ~ 4/3/17

Hi Family!!!

How are you guys doing? Were you guys able to enjoy all the sessions of General Conference?? Watching General Conference in the mission is about the closest we get to watching the Superbowl... we buy food, and get super excited, and we are in air conditioning! We had an english group in the high priest council room on Saturday to watch the conference and I watched it in spanish on Sunday. 

One of our best investigators went to two conference sessions and she loved it! She is 79 but she know the bible like the back of her hand and every time they quoted a scripture from the bible she knew it word for word.... like every single scripture without a single mistake. Her name is Rosy and she really is a sweetheart. 

On Friday we went to Las Americas to do a baptismal interview for Elder Mosqueda and Elder Lopez and the guy that I interviewed is a genius. He understands the gospel on a whole new level and it was such a wonderful experience to be with someone who had developed such a strong testimony in a period of about 2 weeks... that shows that God really does prepare people. We ate cheeseburgers in a super nice place called Angry Angus and these burgers were so big it was difficult to finish. 

On Saturday the elders of Las Americas and the sisters of Chuburna had their baptismal services in our chapel after conference. We had to fill the baptismal font and the stake president Morales helped us out to cork the drain because it is messed up and all the water goes out. 

Its about 102 degrees right now and going up everyday so its definitely not winter here anymore. I hope you guys loved the conference and I invite you to all review the messages that were shared!

HAPPPPPYYYYY BBBBIIIRRRRTTTTTHHHHHDDDAAAAAYYYY MOM!

Love,

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ Un Buen Taco No Anda En Cualquier Tortilla ~ 3/27/17

Hi Family!!!

Wow I am already in the last week of the transfer! This last week went by really fast, and honestly it was a challenging week, but we were able to achieve lots. We had about 20 appointments this week that fell through, but we visited about 15 people less active, and every single one that we visited went to church.

We presented our ward mission plan and we made a powerpoint and showed it in our ward council. We want to focus on working with member references and if the plan works out we should be having 80 references a month. I really doubt that we will receive so many references but, if we could receive a few a month I would honestly be really happy. 

This week I have really understood the importance of receiving personal revelation and receiving revelation for an asigned area. If we really read and understand the scriptures and think about how powerful all the things that were said or discerned by the prophets are... its because they were able to receive what the people needed to hear. I have adapted a lot my teaching style and tried to really make everything very specific and personal. Many missionaries say things like ¨if you go to church this week, the Lord will send you many blessings, and you will have more happiness in your life¨and as companions we are trying to promise blessings more specifically just as we are shown in the book of Isaiah. ¨ And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.¨

We had our alineación de llaves meeting with President Morales and Presidente Ruiz this week and it was like a room full of power. I respect and love them both a lot and I am grateful to have a wonderful mission president and a powerful stake president. 

Last night we had a 3 stake meeting about seminary and institute and I think the most impacting thing that I heard was from a talk that was shared by the stake president of Itzimna. He shared a talk from President Kimball that says that the four most important goals in life are first exaltation and eternal life, second temple marriage, third mission, and fourth seminary and institute. All the missionaries of these stakes were invited and it was packed. I know that as we center our lives around these things, we will truly be happy. 

I forgot my agenda in the house and I dont remember all of the details of the week but, I love you guys all a ton and hope you have a great week!!! Happy Spring!!

ps- that title is something i saw in the street in a taco stand and I think it is hilarious

Jordan

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ fijase ~ 3/20/17

Hi Family!!!!

This week was a really good, long, hard week, but wow I only have 2 more weeks left of this transfer and then I only have 4 transfers left!!

On tuesday we did divisiones with the assitents and i went with Elder Martinez. It was super fun and he is honestly one of my favorite people in the mission. We contacted this one lady in the morning that wouldnt even look us in the eye, until we asked her what she needed help in her life. She looked up and told us she needed money and make the classic hand sign for money that they use here in Merida and Elder Martinez told me noooooo she used the sign!!!! We used matching ties that day, and I honestly learned a lot about having faith when we contact. When we were contacting at night we found a ton of future investigators and I was like man why cant these be from my area!?

The next day (Wednesday) we did divisiones with Altabrisa and I went with Elder Ocampo. While we were walking he stole my rag i always carry and stored it in his backpack and the whole day i was trying to get that thing back haha. We found an 8 year old kid that understands the restoration completely and even understood that every time God sends a prophet its called a dispensacion!! We finished the night buying my addiction that ive developed here in Tanlum... frappe:)))

We came to realize this week that we have been kind of working in circles because we havent had a ward mission plan, and we sat down with our ward mission leader and bishop last night and made one. I am really excited to see the progress we have with a mission plan. 

Today was probably the luckiest day i have had in a long time. I was able to buy the book teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith at a super cheap price, an old investigator that is a taxi driver for uber took us to the plaza of Altabrisa for free, we went to Fudruckers with the assitents, and one of the girls working there is a sister I always visited in Kanasin and she gave us a huge discount, then we left and the first car we saw was another uber driver, we contacted him and he lives in our area and doesnt work sundays..... it was like holy cow every thing we touch today is gold thank you for all these blessings!!!

I hope you guys have a great week!!! Love you tons!

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~Big Brother... AGAIN! 3/13/17

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  I am a big brother again!!!! Felicidades Mom and Dad!! She looks beautiful and I cant wait to see her!!!

This week was honestly pretty tiring because we had a zone conference we had to organize on tuesday and then we were in a multizone conference on wednesday! It was a lot of fun, and my companion Elder Roa and I were in charge of the practices! I love the new way we do our 8 principles meetings, and I feel like my rate of learning will really soar.

This week I have really learned the importance of following the spirit, and how important it is in missionary work. I think I have spent the majority of my mission not understanding that, and this week is when I finally realized it... :P We contact lots here in my area, but almost everyday the last week we had a spiritual impression to contact a house and sometimes there are huge dogs guarding the house, or the person looks really unfriendly but boom... a really strong future investigator:) I also learned the importance of how great shall be your joy with save only one soul, because honestly after all day contacting, when someone finally is cool and accepts, it is the best feeling ever!

This Sunday I was a little disappointed and sad because some of the investigators that had committed to come to church didnt show up, and it is really sad when that happens honestly because it feels like the whole week of working was in vain... but something hilarious happened yesterday. We went with Romel to teach a 7 day adventist and he was really stubborn and contentious and while we are teaching, a drunk guy comes over to talk to us... with his certificate of being ordained an elder in the melchezidek priesthood in his hands.. it was like no manches what kind of terrible example is that but it was also hilarious! At the end of the lesson the guy told us he was not interested in studying our pamphlet because he has his own study books, but his wife gave him a huge slap in the face when she stopped us, and said that she wants us to visit her as soon as possible and she needs to hear more of our message... That was such a cool moment in my mission:)

We did a district activity today and it was my first activity I have had since last April!!! It was super fun and we got surprised soaked by the district when we got there! We played volleyball and the version with water balloons and towels. 

Tomorrow we have splits with the assitants, and so I am excited to learn more from my leaders. I love you all and.... welcome to the fam Laurel Anne!:)

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ 16 Months ~ 3/6/17

Hi family!!! Que dicen? Como están? Como les ha ido?? Que milagros me cuentan de la semana pasada? Ya nació la niña?? 

This week seemed to go by extra fast, and we were pretty busy every single day! On Tuesday we did divisiones with the elders of Pensiones and Elder Ocampo went with my companion Elder Roa, and I went with Elder Perez! Elder Perez got in the mission at the same time as my son Elder Nuñez, so he has very little time here but I honestly learned a lot from him. We taught a lesson to a pentecostal guy named Ruben that got really hung up on the fact that the restoration pamphlet has a picture of Jesus Christ and that that is against the ten commandments, and also we cant possibly know that Jesus Christ was white or bearded or anything like that. We responded in many different ways, including a way I had never thought about teaching before because i taught that Jesus Christ was from the lineage of David, and then I showed him in Samuel that David was blonde... interesting the way some lessons turn out sometimes:)  I was honestly losing my patience with him a little bit, but Elder Perez was great in keeping a smile and the spirit, and we ended up having a really good lesson:)

The next morning the assistents called and let us know that Elder Ocampo and Elder Perez had special changes and that they were going to Oxzcutzcab where the sisters had been, and the sisters were coming to Pensiones.  That afternoon we contacted an old investigator that is 14 that has all the answers to the Gospel memorized. We are hopeful that he will be able to get baptized this month.

On Friday we had our leadership meeting with President and it was honestly really great. President organized a new way to do district meetings so that we can focus on the 8 principles of missionary work, focusing on one principle each month. This is really going to be a great way to learn and to have better meetings. 

Saturday i turned 16 again!!! Well not exactly... but I did complete 16 months in the mission:)

Yesterday we had lunch with a sister that is a nurse and always likes to give us healthy food so she gave us agua de chaya to drink... it was like drinking a plant. We found an inactive sister who is 25 years old who no longer wants anything to do with the church. She is really cool and super funny honestly, but it is sad to see how she grew to be hard in her testimony. She is engaged and she said jokingly to her boyfriend a few weeks ago that in her church people dont get married, they get sealed together for time and all eternity. She loves the temple but doesnt want to come back to church. It is sad to see because she knows she wants a temple marriage. We told her that the temple is still an option for her if she wants. 

Last night we ate hot dogs with Bishop Tek and his wife. They are really great and i love being with them. Tomorrow we have a zone conference and we still need to organize it but...al rato;)

I love you all and I cant wait to see the pics of the new Saunooke!!! Yay for being a big brother again!! Welcome to the Saunooke family pequeñita!

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ Ya ves?? Que ingrato es... jajajajXDD ~ 2/27/17

This week went by really fast honestly and this week marks the end of the month of February. 

On Tuesday we ate lunch with Hermana Moya and she made us lasagna.. that was the first time I have eaten lasagna since I left home. I love when she cooks lunch for us!! Her son Adrian, invited over two of his classmates from the university and they are both really great and 21 years old. I was really hoping that they lived in our area to be able to visit them but... no fue asi:( They still gave us their direction so that we can send other missionaries to visit them and I guess sometimes te toca sembrar la semilla y a veces te toca ver la cosecha:)

On Wednesday we went looking for less active members and found a less active guy from Queretero named Chalio that is a painter that is paralizyed from the waist down, and has limited mobility in his arms and hands, but is ridiculously talented! He speaks about a million miles an hour and when we shared the scripture with him, he made my companion stand up and put one of his hands on his head and (force the scripture) into him... it was a joke but he wanted us to understand the importance of strongly declaring testimony. He hasnt been to church in 11 years, and physically cant, but he has forgotten much because he assured us that he only drinks the best Tequila Don Julio. He gave us like 4 references to go visit close by. 

On Thursday in our weekly planning session we were starving and ordered a pizza from Dominos and it got to the house late so.... #freepizza. Best planning session ever. 

Saturday night we visited Bertha and she asked me if Elder Zurita (my last comp) still talks to me and when i told her that he doesnt, she replied ya ves? Que ingrato es... translate that and you guys will die laughing as well:D

We did divisiones yesterday with two members and even though lots of people reject us in this area especially, Pahoran and I found 2 great new investigators, and we are slowly finding the wheat in the midst of the tares:)) 

I cant believe that we enter into March this week... que rapido!!! I love you guys all a ton and hope you have a great week:))

Elder Jordan Saunooke

Elder Jordan Saunooke ~ Trigo y Cizaña ~ 2/20/17

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

This week was a very good week and very tiring. I have been thinking a lot of the parable of the wheat and the tares lately because we have lots of days of just door to door looking for new investigators and so we happen to find lots of tares... but we have been able to find 3 new investigators this week that seem to have potential. 

We had interviews with President Ruiz on thursday and I truly love having him as my mission president. He is such a great man and example to me. That night we met with Maria (one of our investigators) and she has a lot of doubts about the different churches but we explained the message of the Restoration and read 1 Nephi 8 and she had zero doubts afterward. We did divisiones with Bishop Tek and Brother Adrian Moya that night so that we could help out with family history in the ward with the youth and wow I honestly do feel way older now and when I see the youth it seems like that was a long time ago. It is interesting to be on the other side of activities. Adrian left me for like 20 mins and i didnt know it hahah but it was funny when he came back and I was like hey what happened to being my companion! He is a return missionary and actually served in this mission. 

On Friday I interviewed a sister that was the investigator of the sister trainers and it was a very neat experience. I love meeting with the people that are ready to take that exciting step in their lives to come unto Christ. 

On saturday we got up early and went and painted a recent converts house at 7 in the morning which was lots of fun, and we didnt have to be in the sun. That day we walked a ton and were able to find a new really good investigator that is 17 years old, that accepted a baptismal date the first visit. We got home that night exhausted and the next day when we woke up it felt like a train had hit us. 

Yesterday we had hermano Edgar come with us and he accompanied us for 6 hours!! The sister who was supposed to give us food yesterday told us she wasnt going to be able to and so she gave us money... hahaha money to buy food on the sabbath dayXD Bishop Tek invited us over last night for pancakes and we found out last night the changes or in english i guess that would be transfers. My companion Elder Zurita went to Ticul Sierra to train and be district leader and my new companion here in Tanlum is Elder Roa from the Dominican Republic. He is a really cool guy and I think we will have lots of fun this change.

Love you guys all tons and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Jordan Saunooke