Serving a mission is the best thing you can do for your life, no question.

Okay so first of all the craziness from last week and just the weird times and whatnot was due to a combined p-day in laura that didn't happen, we switched everything and then it didn't end up happening so we did it this week in Laura which is why I'm late again this week. So that's that! Combined p-days are awesome, I don't know about the other missions but because there is such a concentrated population of missionaries on this tiny island all the elders are pretty close. I have made some really good friends out here, and am definitely going to go visit some people when I get home, weddings and all that good stuff!! This week was good, I wrote you a letter, so hopefully you'll get that sometime in the near future. Like I said I'll try to get better at writing letter's. To answer the questions... medicine I'm good, if I need anything I can ask the nurse for it, and plus I haven't really been that sick yet, so that's been nice. I think I've put on sunscreen once ever, and never put on bug spray so I'm good for that as well! There is one local missionary in the whole mission, a lot from New Zealand and Australia and other islands as well, and then a lot from the states. I am the only one who is truly from Canada still, there is another one who was born in Canada, but lives in Washington. His name is Elder Whetstone and Holy freak do I love that kid, so funny and I  am going go jumbo and visit that kid. Gotta be his wingman after the mission! It's good I have a half-canadian brother, since he has dual citizenship, but I am the only true Canadian still! Christmas is kind of a big deal, they do this beat or dance celebration every year so that should be good! I'm amped always love dancing and acting like an idiot, I think I explained about that in the letter, but I still don't know what it's like since I haven't done it. I've only heard about it, but that should be pretty cool. Getting people to serve mission's here is difficult, just getting active member's here is hard, there are like 6000 members or so maybe 5000 on this island and we just had stake conference on sunday and only about 400-500 people showed up, so that's what they're really trying to focus on here. We're trying to bring back all the less-actives and get people going to the temple, you can totally notice the difference between someone who has served a mission here and all the other people who just struggle a little more. It really does strengthen your faith so much serving a mission. Serving a mission is the best thing you can do for your life, no question. If you really serve with all your heart, you will grow and learn so much. Favourite experience this week, was on Saturday we went and tried to learn how to climb really tall coconut trees with our less-active guy named Baby, just a super awesome guy. I got like halfway up, then just started to get sweaty and my legs started shaking like crazy, it was pretty funny. And then after that he taught us how to make like some handicraft or whatever and that was kind of funny just three 20 year old guys sitting around in a circle crafting, thought that would be kind of a funny picture to see. Sorry I don't have my camera on me right now, but I will send some pictures next week! Thanks for everything and take care!

:D lots of lovin'

Elder Jordan Michelson

Good food this week!!

Haha first off I'm sorry that I am a terrible letter writer, I'm working on doing better on that, it's just difficult in this area and I don't know what to write, but I will send you some love soon! Sorry! This week was really slow, a lot of rain which just makes it really difficult to go out, it's bad manit (manners) to go to people when you're wet. Definitely destroys a week when the houses are few and far between and your on a bike, but oh well. Had a little halloween party with the Elder's and Sister's that was nice, there was so much food and we ate some pretty good stuff, it's nice when some other people know how to cook as well! A nice cheesecake and just some good stuff, so that was fun. In terms of money and what not I'm good, pretty good at budgeting and don't really do any excessive spending, it's crazy to see what some other Elder's do with their money. I don't know really what I need for christmas, I don't think I need anything.  Right now we have a lot of people to go see and have been seeing more success with less-actives, we had quite a few come to church this week, which was nice. Hopefully we'll be able to get a couple married here fairly soon so they can really become active. We didn't have any investigators show up for church, it was pouring rain which just makes it difficult to begin with, and the people who usually come were sick, so that's kind of frustrating sometimes, but that's just part of the work I guess. The favourite scripture this week is... just basically the New Testament, I have been reading that more lately along with Jesus The Christ like I've said previously, just a lot more insight and depth and understanding are coming to me through my study. I don't know but I guess for a verse I liked Isaiah 55:8-9 that was a good one, I mean I've read it before, but for some reason that verse just really stuck out to me this week. Sometimes I don't understand things but I just need to continue and press on, and know that my Heavenly Father has a plan. Hmm... best meal was probably the meal we had with our landowner ladi Jack, it was his 50th birthday party on Saturday and he invited us, and just had a lot of really good food, some Sale fish sashimi and all sorts of American food, some vietnamese salad rolls, and then just a big smorgashborge (no idea how to spell that word, or if that's even a word, but I feel like using it) of whatever anyone else wanted to bring.  Most of ladi's family had been to the states before, so they know what good food is, definitely some good stuff there! The weather is either hot and sunny or hot and rainy, no difference it stays pretty consistent.  It is clear now, that in the middle of this month, I will be training, so that'll definitely be a growing experience for me. Excited and nervous for that at the same time, I don't know if I sound like a robot and just say the same things over and over again, hope it's not boring! This week was kind of slow, but just doing what I can. I also just want to say thank you for all of your love and support, it really does mean a lot to me, and I hope I'm not a punk and make you all feel like I don't care, because I really do. I think about you all a lot and I am so grateful for all the prayers that are sent in my behalf. I'm trying to make good use of them, because I know I need them! I also can't wait for the christmas call, and I am looking forward to seeing all of your faces again! Thank you for everything, and I also got the package, thanks so much! I promise I won't open the wrapped gifts until christmas, haha I'm a man of my word. I think that's all for the week, take care!
Lots of lovin'
From Elder Jordan Michelson

Saw a Cruise Ship didn't know they came to the Marshall Islands

Oct 27, 2013

Well sounds like you had a pretty fantastic week. The other day I saw a cruise ship around here and didn't know that they did cruises around the Marshall Islands, that would be cool to do one day! Life is pretty good over here, nothing to complain about and had a pretty good week, other than the fact that I just wasn't feeling to hot, but just worked through it. We had 2 really good lessons this week, where the spirit was really strong, it's nice to be there when people receive those spiritual confirmations. I love having people explain to me what the spirit feels like, that is such a cool experience and really helps give me more push to help people feel that same spirit that I have felt. One of the hard parts about this mission, is that everyone tends to believe in God and Jesus Christ which is good and helps, but at the same time, they think as long as they pray and go to church somewhere, that it doesn't matter. They don't understand the covenants that they make, or have made and makes things a little bit difficult, so it's really good when they actually recognize the difference between this church and other churches. Dang, your going to make me wait until Christmas to open them, that'll take a lot of patience, but alright I promise I'll wait. Nope there's not a whole lot to jumbo (exploring) in my area, it's just a skinny piece of land almost like the highway of the marshall islands, and also we go into town every week so we don't really have a lot of time to write letters or do anything else other than shop, and play a little bit of sports. Oh well, it's good I like it, this area's p-day's just aren't quite as relaxing but I will try to be better at writing letter's I have one ready to send to Grandma and Grandpa now.  It's just hard to find the time, but that's something I've been trying to improve on lately.  We don't really have any baptisms scheduled other than maybe a lady in November, we went to a baptism for people last week in a different ward and that was good. I'm able to translate a lot better than I thought I could, which is nice. Still not perfect, and sometimes I get frustrated because people don't understand what I'm saying or I won't understand all of what they are saying, but I'm still learning and just need to continue to be patient. I don't really have any way to keep in contact with my other converts, I'll hear stuff every once and a while, but I haven't heard anything in a while, they apparently haven't been doing that well, which is kind of frustrating to hear. Gossip is kind of a problem here, but we continue to try and do what we can. It's also just hard because the church is still so new here, the key is the youth and getting people to serve honourable missions, that is what will really help the Marshall Islands. In terms of service, we help whoever needs help, gardening, cleaning, husking coconuts whatever we can do. In terms of moving, people don't really do that, if they do they can pack all of there stuff in like 15 minutes and be ready to go, they don't have a whole lot which keeps them humble. The ones that do, usually just stay in the house that they already live in, because it takes a while to make a nice house. Recently I've been trying to teach more like the saviour and teach in the way that he would teach, it's hard sometimes because I realize how truly imperfect I am. It's also hard to find the balance between joking with the marshallese people and studying because if you joke too much, they won't take you seriously but will love you.  If you are too serious, they won't listen in the first place. Some Elder's are able to get lot's of baptisms just based on their charismatic personalities and their ability to talk to people, but I realized that's not exactly what I am, and also that's not what I'm here for. Most of the time once that Elder leaves, the people they baptized will fall away and they will lose all of their desire.  I'm trying to help people have a more lasting conversion which is not easy to say the least. I understand more about how the Saviour feels when seeing his children not accept him and his teachings, that because of old traditions that have been ingrained. They won't accept the truth and don't do anything to even see if it's true. So I guess I learned more about how our Saviour feels about us when we fall, or when we don't reach our full potential. The scripture this week that I learned a lot from in Companionship study is Jacob 4, the whole chapter, the verses within that chapter just really applied to our investigators and helped a lot this past week, I love that chapter. Verse 16 I think it was really stuck out a lot, and was a helpful verse. A characteristic that I have seen improve is just my ability to talk to people, it's still not perfect and I tend to be a little more shy, but it's easier to just talk to people now, without fear of rejection or anything like that, it's good. I feel like that will help me once I start training, because when I'm training I am going to be doing a lot more talking. I think that's all for the week, have a great week :D

lots of lovin'

From Elder Jordan Michelson

Sent some pictures for no reason. NICE!

First, just thought I'd send you some pictures, just because it's been a while, nothing too exciting just some pictures bajjik (for no reason) I don't think they need any explanation, nothing super exciting going on. This week was pretty good, nothing too exciting, other than the fact that I almost passed out on monday night. I don't know if it was just exhaustion or what, but didn't feel too good and had to take Tuesday off to recover, but now I'm good to go, no worries! I don't know we didn't get a ton of lessons this week, but the people we did study with were really good lessons and I felt like we better identified their needs and taught accordingly so that was good. I also went on another exchange with another Elder who is still relatively new, and just doesn't really have an idea of what's going on. It's crazy to think that, that was me not too long ago. Crazy how much the Lord blesses us and I truly do believe in the gift of tongues if we study and we do our part. I guess to answer your questions now, the person that I heard from this week that surprised me was Sister Draycott, that was nice and unexpected.  Oh and also thank you for the package! Before I forget to say thank-you for that it really was a nice package, I literally just started running out of good spices, so your timing was impeccable! That was good, and scripture from this week, well one lady asked me who Jehovah was and what was the difference between Jehovah and God and things like that, and I knew the answer but didn't exactly know how to answer it with the scriptures. So I went and did some searching and found some good scriptures in John 8:54-58 that perfectly answer that question, that before Abraham was I am. And how the term "I am" means Jehovah, and then also looked up in the bible dictionary the other meanings behind the word Jehovah, and found out that it meant unchanging one, and other things like that, add hebrews 13:8 to that and I think that's a pretty good definition of Jehovah. So I learned a lot about Jehovah this week and have also been continuing to read Jesus The Christ, which is a really good book, full of interesting insights. Just gives you a different perspective on some things and also makes the Gospels come alive for me. There is a lot of huge words and James E. Talmage speaks in a very intellectual manner, but it's still really good, just have to really focus and ponder it, rather than just read. Person I remember meeting the most... I don't know maybe my recent convert Franky, just a solid kid and just from the first visit I could tell that he was really solid and just a happy down to earth kid, which was nice, super friendly and then all of his cousins and whatever just all really funny and love to just talk with all of them.  That was a good first meeting I think, nothing crazy, just good. As for the rest of the questions, I guess a spiritual experience I had was when we were teaching an investigator, he has all these problems that he has to deal with, he has to live the word of wisdom, get his probation revoked and just all this stuff, and I'm not sure if he believes that he can do it, but a marshallese proverb and I guess also a verse popped into my head when he was speaking "an pilinlin koba, e komman lometo" which is like from tiny droplets it will make an ocean. It was kind of like by small and simple things great things can be accomplished, so it made me realize how simple this gospel is. If we do the small and simple things everyday, the big things will begin to take care of themselves. We will begin to see changes within ourselves and all of life's problems will seem not as significant, because we have more of that eternal perspective. We explained to him that through prayer, if he just prays daily, everything else will be able to fall into place and that he will be able to overcome all those things that causing him to not be worthy to be baptized. I thought that was a cool experience, but nope nothing super funny from this week, hard to explain some of the things that are funny, just because in English it doesn't really make sense. And no new foods really, although bwiiro is still delicious, love me some bwiiro, but yeah I think that's about all for the week, hope that your week was equally fantastic, and try not to have too much fun in Cancun!

Lots of lovin'

From Elder Jordan Michelson

 Jordan just chillin' in the sand.

Elder GQ anyone??

He's still Jordan!!!

Had some cool experiences this week

Oct 6, 2013

Something completely random, but husking coconuts is ridiculously hard!! Way harder than you would think, the first time doing it, it takes you like forever to get one, but once you get into a rhythm it's not that bad, just feel like a total white boy doing it! Just I guess another random experience from the week!

This week has been pretty good.  I don't really eat a lot of fruits and vegetables due to the prices.  That sounds like you had a pretty solid week, busy as always but good nonetheless!  We had a slower week but also had some cool experiences, so on Saturday we had our investigators get interviewed for baptism and they both passed, so this upcoming week we have 2 people getting baptized! I love teaching them and it's gonna be hard to not see them as much, just because it is honestly so fun every time we go over there! So that was good definitely a highlight of the week, and then on Sunday we planned a ward missionary night, to help strengthen the ward and help them all fulfill their callings. My companion and I were assigned to talk about Home teaching and the benefits that come from it, it went well, but it is tough when you have to teach the class 4 times and also speaking in another language in front of a group of people. I feel like it went really well and hopefully it will help the ward grow stronger. The goal from the area presidency in the end of 2 years is to have 2 stakes on Majuro and so in order to do that, they have to split the current ward so that's kind of our focus right now, to help strengthen the ward and bring back Priesthood holder's so that missionary fireside was a way to help achieve that. I feel like they have a greater understanding now, and hopefully will be able to fulfill their callings better. So in terms of teaching a lot of lessons this week, it wasn't that great but I feel like we did a lot of good this week and that we are doing more than just teaching lessons, we need to work more efficiently with the ward and that will help monumentally! That was our week, also my companion got some tough news from home, and so he wasn't in the best mood, it's hard to strengthen him and know what to say so I just gave him his space and let him come to me when he wanted to.  I guess it kind of made me realize that's how our saviour does it as well. I'm definitely no where close to the level of the Saviour but I guess it gave me a new perspective of how he sees us hurting, he knows we're struggling and he's willing to help, but he won't force us. He will wait for us to come to him, and he can do all he can to make the trials in this life easier. That's been my week! To answer your questions now though, the food is good nothing too new or exciting but it's good. I am trying to see what else I can do with what I have... I'm glad I have a creative mind when it comes to food, otherwise life would be boring. At least in this area pretty much all the expenses go towards food which is nice, don't have to pay for laundry or taxis where as in other area's you do. So I like this area quite a bit, with the washing machine in the house, a propane stove so when the power goes out you can still cook, it's just a really good set up. If you just don't be stupid and eat out all the time you can make it to the end of the month. I'm glad I know how to budget so I can eat well and not have to worry about running out of money, that's definitely nice. Nothing super funny this week, and I guess in terms of spiritual I guess I just have been realizing how much I've been growing, I tried reading Jesus the Christ at the beginning of my mission and really wasn't getting a whole lot from it, due to the complex language and I think my lack of diligence in trying to read it. I recently picked it up again and it's amazing the power that is in that book, James E. Talmage is just ridiculous and I couldn't imagine the relationship that man had with the Saviour, just incredible. That book has definitely been opening my eyes lately and giving me new things all the time. In terms of companionship study, it's just amazing what can happen when 2 people want to do it, and have both studied for the investigators, how the spirit can lead us and direct us. Role plays are hard to do for sure, but they definitely help a lot and prepare us for the lessons we teach during the day. I think that's about all for the week, it was a pretty good week, and hope you guys have an awesome week this week! It's crazy how fast the time is going!

lot's of lovin' 

From Your Son Elder Jordan Michelson

Companionships are put together for a Reason

Oct. 13, 2013

Thanks for the email, this week has been fairly interesting, just trying to work with some of these investigators is kind of difficult.  This work definitely requires a lot of patience and has to be led by the spirit. I think it's interesting how we are put in companionships, because there are certain things that I wouldn't say that my companion does. His way of working is different than mine, that the spirit is able to work through him differently then it does through me. For example this past week we had an investigator who started drinking again, which was hard, but I feel like we dealt with it appropriately where the things that we both said worked well with each other. They complimented each other, sometimes before I would think that maybe he shouldn't be saying those things, it will hurt people's feelings or whatever but sometimes people need that push. I'm glad to work with a companion who has different strengths. There are certain things that I do better than him, but he also has things that he can relate to investigators better. I think it works well together, just something interesting I've noticed from this past week. I mostly study for my investigators and that really helps identify people's needs, role plays are an interesting thing, where if we do them with the spirit they can help us identify certain problems that we couldn't on our own through just studying. I've also been reading from Jesus the Christ again, and it is really a powerful book. It gives more detail and insight into the life of Christ and truly how perfect he was.  I find it amazing just reading about all the miracles and how he dealt with adversity and problems. The best discussions I've had lately are probably with this lady Katline, she really has a desire to learn, and the discussions go well. She asks good questions and has a desire to come closer to Heavenly Father. One thing that is difficult though is to get people to ask questions, they will usually just say that they understand and say they will do everything we commit them to do, and then when we follow up, there is a clear lack of understanding. I've been trying to ask more questions lately in order to test people's knowledge and it seems to be going better. I think that's about all for the week, thanks.  Sorry I won't be there to clean up all the leftovers but I'm sure it'll be fine. Have a great week and take care

Love,

Elder Jordan Michelson

I just can never seem to smile haha

September 1

I guess you guys are getting back into the swing of things again, but it's crazy to me that it's already September.  Where the heck has the time gone? I don't know if you guys feel it but it has gone so fast so far, and thanks for the what 34 steps on how to be a happy missionary. You know how I struggle with being happy, I just can never seem to smile, I'm generally miserable all the time :p haha totally kidding, but I do appreciate it. I'm loving the work in this area right now, because everyone in the mission seems to think that this is a hopeless area that the people are all too busy and that it's hard to have success here, but things have really been picking up and hopefully we will help some more people within this area. We have 5 people with baptismal dates, but as you already know have some crazy situations, but we are doing everything we can to help out. I hope I don't get transferred, I definitely want to follow through with these people in helping them accomplish their goals that they have set for themselves. Another random question, about food again... seems like I talk about food a lot, but could you hook me up with another recipe. Any new news? Any people getting married that I don't know about and are any of the cousins my age dating anyone or anything?? haha just curious. Got some pretty glorious tan lines from doing some service on saturday, the kids at church thought they were pretty funny to go from like reddish, because you know how I tan, to a super white. They all tend to laugh at that, I'll tell you about an investigator that I'm pretty excited for his name is Franky and he's this 16 year old kid who's living with some members, one of the hardest parts about this work and these people is getting them to act, or use there faith in any degree, if they don't want to do something they'll usually come up with an excuse like they're sick or whatever, things like that. This kid is just a champ, I can see him being a future missionary and a really good one, we ask him to read a chapter from the Book of Mormon, and he does it, we ask him to come to church, he does it, no questions asked. He pays attention in all the lessons and just really has a strong desire, it helps that he's living with such a strong family as well. There's this bubu who always feeds us and gives coconuts or makes coconut cookies and gets like offended if we don't stop and eat, she always has to give us something, just love that woman to death, super strong. And then there's the teenage kids, that just love me and think I'm cool, and always ask me to beatbox or whatever because it's entertaining. We'll go over there and play with the bubu's grand kids and I just think that makes her like us even more. I love going to that house, it's just so perfect, always the highlight of my day. Franky has a baptismal date for September 28 and I really don't think there's anything holding him back, so hopefully he will be able to get baptized then and continue being strong. Also the power has been going of in our house a lot lately, kind of rough, especially after you come back from being in the sun and there's no way to cool down, so there's tile on the floor and that's how we cool down when the power is out. Reminds of home sometimes when I would overheat and couldn't sleep just go lay on the tile floor to cool dow, kind of funny. Anything else magical or exciting about this week? We found this new investigator named Katline she is an older woman who works at the college super nice lady and really has a strong desire to study. We taught her the message of the restoration this week, and I don't know it was just a really powerful lesson, I felt the spirit very strong so hopefully we will be able to help her and give her a baptismal date as well. I think that's about it for today, today is combined pday random fact for ya, that's always fun to see all the elder's and sister's again. Hope you have a fantabulous week and hope to hear from you all soon, good luck in starting school again! Miss you all, and jeramman nan komi aelop! lots of lovin' from Elder Michelson

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