Trina's Baptism explained

Well that sounds like it was quite the insane week!! High River is destroyed?? What the heck!! This week nothing super exciting, just chilling. That family I told you guys about, the dad is going to America for a month so he won't be baptized for a while but hopefully when he comes back he will be. Most likely I won't still be in this area, so we’ll see how that goes, but hopefully this Saturday, three of his family members will be baptized. A 16 year old, a 14 year old and a 22 year old, which is pretty exciting. Their names are Darren, Rishilla and crystal, I'm pretty excited for them, and they’ve had their interviews already and passed.  Yes the new Mission President is here and he seems awesome. We went to a fireside last night where they had that broadcast, and then he spoke after it. I did watch the broadcast, but because it was in Marshallese it was a little tough to understand all of it.  Talking with people and having conversations where I can get things clarified I can do, but just sitting there listening to people speak straight  Marshallese is a little difficult still, so frankly I didn’t really understand what they were talking about.  The new Mission Presiden, President Weir seems like a really awesome guy, just ready to work and seems very friendly, same with his wife, so I’m excited to see what changes they will make and if the work will be any different. Not that it was bad before but just see how different personalities influence the work in different ways.  That’s nuts that Taylor leaves here pretty soon, is he getting excited or nervous or what? I’m excited to hear how everyone’s missions are different when they come back home. My companion is doing good, same as always. Oh funny story, I was walking down the street the other day and this little kid comes to give me a high five or shake my hand or something and then goes and kisses my hand and says “I love you Michael Jackson!” haha and then kisses my hand again Elder Schmidt thought that was pretty funny, apparently the little kids just love me :p He said it in some pretty good English as well so I was pretty impressed. Just this past week they opened a new supermarket here, and it reminds me of home a little but it was weird walking around in it and hearing some normal music see how organized everything was, with prices on everything and just like way ship shape, frankly that doesn’t happen a whole lot in the Marshall Islands, that was kind of cool and weird at the same time. Oh and I guess I should tell you about Trina’s baptism. Well first they started out with a prayer and then we sung some songs… hahaha just playing,  I was able to baptize her and the spirit was so strong and then after her baptism she went up and bore her testimony and it was so powerful. It’s testimonies like that, that make this work worth it, the fact when you can see it in someone’s eyes when they are truly converted.  A big problem here is baptizing people who don’t really belief or understand what your telling them, and sometimes they tend to fall away and are not that strong for a multitude of reasons.  It’s so comforting to see when someone goes up, who is scared of large groups of people, hates public speaking, and goes and makes everyone feel the spirit about how this gospel truly has changes her life, and how grateful she was that we were able to find her. As a result of her testimony, she brought some non-member friends who studied with Elder’s long ago but now has that desire  rekindled and wants to study with us as well, she was crying and told us she also knew it was true. It’s amazing the difference that one person can make!! That was a really successful baptism I would say, I hope the one this next week is just as powerful. That’s been my week, we have a new district leader who just started working here and I’m excited for that because he’s just an awesome guy, right now our district is so awesome. Just a bunch of awesome guys, Rita is the place to be right now, minus the fact that I’m still stuck in the prison cell house, even the senior couples here call our house the prison cell! Oh well, but life is good, still alive and having success. The work is frustrating at times when people make excuses and don’t come to church, but I know that’s just the way it is.  Ssome times when you have those high expectations and everything seems to be going your way, you need a little dose of reality. Everyone still has their agency and it is our job to INVITE not to force people, so it’s hard sometimes to have the a great attitude all the time. I had sort of a rough Sunday, but during the sacrament meeting felt the spirit and had that realization. I think that’s about all for now.

Lots of lovin from your son Elder Michelson

He didn't get my email :( So this is what we got

I'll just write you a quick one, Trina was baptized and it was a good week, I'll probably get your email later, but I'm emailing now and don't have anything I'll send you some pictures, thanks mom, hope life is good there! 

Mom's note in my defence. He usually doesn't write until 9 or 9:30, he was several hours early :( I was very sad. I even had one almost finished and then supper needed to be made.I wrote a couple and sent pictures to make up for it!!

Here are the pictures he sent. I wrote the  captions, he only ever sends pictures without explanations. 

This is obviously a beautiful sunset on the Island

This is Trina who go baptized on Saturday. He has been working with her for a few months now. He was really thrilled that she committed and followed through!

His companion is on the left of him. His name is Elder Schmidt. Notice Jordan's classy tie. Nice tie eh??

Islands in the Marshall Islands Majuro mission. He is on Majuro right now

These are the islands of the Marshall Islands mission. Jordan would love to serve on one of the outer islands at some point is time. He is currently serving on Majuro the main island. I sent an email last night but apparently it was later then he was in the email category. I felt bad because I started it before we started making supper but was interrupted and didn't get it sent in time. He sent a few pictures.

Mission Conference and what Jordan is learning June 17, 2013

Thanks for the email and before I answer your questions and what not, I want to say that we had a mission conference and Elder Pearson our area 70 came. It was incredible, the spirit I felt from him was amazing.  I didn't feel tired I just felt like I could do anything and talk to anyone and spread the gospel through the power of the Holy Ghost. I guess he helped me realize moreso of the magnitude of what I'm doing here, and then after the conference he randomly picked a couple elder's and sisters to have a one on one interview with. I was kind of nervous at first, but we just talked and one thing he asked us in the conference was to write down, before our missions what we were, and what we had to give up to become a true disciple of Christ.  The spirit was able to tell me some things I need to work on in order to become the best missionary I can be and the missionary that my mother thinks that I am! haha I know that that is very important and also his wife gave a very good talk in mission conference as well. She said that her parents served as mission presidents in Norway, but they didn't know my dad,  but oh well still cool and got me really inspired. I always try my best each day, but it just gave me more of a drive I guess, which is important.
Sometimes that's what I lacked before my mission I didn't have the drive.  I would just let life happen as it would, it's good to be laid back but if you are too laid back you can be your own worst enemy.  I guess the spirit was trying to tell me I need to be a little more driven and motivated which is good, so that's what I'm working on right now. Just way excited to be working where I am right now, and it is hard  to get motivated here because the people just have an attitude of laziness but I have to rise above that  and show them what the church can do for them. Hopefully I will still be working with Elder Schmidt because I'm really liking working with him and we get along really well.  On to answering your questions, all the islands are pretty much inhabited other than Bikini atoll I think, they moved them all to Edjit. The food people eat here besides spam are..... rice... lots and lots of rice, but they also eat chicken mostly fried legs and stuff like that. They eat corned beef from a can, sometimes they eat pig if they can get it. If we're lucky we'll get coleslaw and that's about the greenest we can get, although at mission conference the other day we had like mexican taco salad and that was like heaven, oh baby!! Well I've made fajitas and chicken and then just whatever spices I can get I'll throw on some chicken and make like a chicken alfredo or spaghetti or whatever else I can throw together from what I have, but its good. I can mix it up and I'm way glad I know how to cook as is my companion, it just takes a long time on one electric burner that can't even get water to boil!  So no, recipes probably won't do a whole lot. Nope no crock pot, our house has like literally nothing, the other Elders have them so maybe later in the mission I will use a crock pot. Yeah I've got some letters from Aunt Deanne and I'm working on replying to them. (the letters I get) The language is actually coming way good, it's nice being able to get into a taxi and just bwebwenato with the taxi driver, it's way nice! I understand mostly what people say to me, I just have to add little words in now that I dont' know, but I can have real conversations now and I feel like I don't need a senior companion to lead me everywhere, so that's nice. It's crazy how fast we can learn! Trina has not been baptized yet, but she will be this week, her mom has come now and for sure this saturday she will be baptized which is nice. I will send you pictures and tell you all about it. I guess I'll tell you how a baptismal service is run, sorry if I  stink at explaining things, I just tend to assume you know everything.  Seeing as you're not here you don't. I spoke at church a while ago, I  might have forgot to tell you that, I don't remember, but I  spoke at Easter and talked about the atonement and that was good. There are some solid members in the ward, they have enough people to run everything, Rita was the first area that missionaries had success they have like 7 high council members in Rita and none in Delap or Uliga which is the more city area. Seems like there is not a ton of solid memebers when you go to church on Sunday, but when we go out and meet members we find out they are all High Priests. Right now there's only one outer island open, there is Ebeye, Majuro and Lae open right now. Ebeye isn't really an outer, but Lae is moreso. My new companion, he's just awesome, way easy to get along with is sarcastic and at the same time knows how to work and work hard. We're having some pretty good success right now and hopefully if all works out, we could have a whole family baptized. Tthe guy is just way solid and reading in the Book of Mormon a ton. We didn't even commit him to read it and he had already read up to the end of second Nephi,  just way solid!  His name is Jillia and if all goes well we could have the whole family baptized but his wife is in Hawaii right now going to BYU but is also not a member, so if she got baptized there and he got baptized here that would just be awesome! I think that's about all for now, I'm loving the work right now, I'm way happy and excited to see how the work will change when the new mission president comes! Thanks for all the love and support, and I pray for you aelop iien! 
Lots of love
from Elder Michelson!

Mom's note. It was so good to get this email. Usually they come on Sunday sometime in the evening. We didn't get one on Sunday and I was worried he hadn't gotten ours because we sent them while we were driving. I guess it was just because of Mission Conference. Whew everything is good! I love hearing how he is realizing what the important things in life are!!!

word mishap with the new companion June 2,2013

Close on the marshallese, mottan jiddik kwonaaj jela aelop kajin majul haha raanin ej raan im jabot im iaar etal nan monjar haha thats like today is sunday and I went to church, and that sounds like an interesting camp about the mid evil theme. This week was way good, I love my companion he's so awesome and he has been here for 5 months and for sure I am still learning marshallese, I feel like on the last day of my mission I'll still be learning marshallese. The old stake president is the guy who's teaching me marshallese and he's really helping out with the gramatical use of the language because you can't really get that from the normal marshallese people. If you do come, you will definitely have to meet him. No he doesn't really cook, I do all the cooking but no worries, I cook and he does dishes and he's really glad that I cook because I made some really delicious food this week. made a cake with an orange glaze and some mac and cheese with a homemade cheese sauce and then some spaghetti sauce and it was just way good! I also ate some turtle this week which was probably one of the best things I've tasted here so far, so good! I got a good ninnin story about my companion he also learned this word this week! hahaha so Trina our investigator was showing him a picture of one of her friends and as soon as he looked at the picture he stares at it for a sec and asks "ewi ninnin?" kind of struggling through it, and me and Trina look at each each other and just start laughing like what did you just say??? haha its like looking at the phone and asking "wheres the boob?" What happened was she got a message right as he got the phone, and the message said "ewi nin2(squared)" and in marshallese phone kind of text that's like asking where's the baby, but he had no idea why we were laughing so hard, because he hadn't heard the word ninnin before that was a good story quite humourous. We've doing a ton of finding the past week and had a pretty successful week seeing as we started basically from ground zero. My trainer didn't really work the way missionaries are supposed too, and 

I found out that I was training him half the time, oh well you learn right? Elder Schmidt and I have been working hard and trying to get our area to what it could become, because the people are really nice and friendly and this area could be so much better than it is. It always had the rep of a bad area, so we're trying to change that, Elder Schmidt says that I'm just going to stay in Rita and after the next transfer I'm going to train. Holy if that happens that would be a long time in Rita I hope that doesn't happen and I don't know if I'm ready to train, but thats not for a while anyways. Trina is getting baptized this week, which is really exciting because I have seen her completely change, its like she's a new person who she is really solid and ready for baptism. I am so excited for her, it'll be cool for sure. I think that's about all I have for now, thanks for the love and support and lots of lovin from your son Elder Jordan Michelson 

Charmaine here

So I wrote him a sentence in Marshallese, so I guess it wasn't quite right so that's what the beginning is about. I also asked him about the people at church so that where the old stake president sentence came from. 

June 9, 2013

Okay first I’ll answer all your questions, yes they have a Book of Mormon in Marshallese and a bible, so reading from the Book of Mormon right now. I'm to the point where I can understand most of the words in the Book of Mormon and get a meaning from reading in marhsallese, Ill look at an English one to clarify but yeah they have a Book of Mormon. No D and C or anything like that yet, but they're working on it. Me and my comp are bros!! haha I love this kid he's originally from Boston, and Philly but his parents live in Saint George right now, and he’s worked in two places now, and he’s pretty good at the language and we work well together I think. I'm loving the work right now and I taught him how to play rook and he says he's going to come for the rook tournament so we can show him what real rook is! Trina hasn’t been baptized yet, but this Friday she will be. Her mother was off island and she wanted her there for it! Selina is getting a calling shortly and I think she’s doing really well. I hope she stays strong, its hard for them to not backslide, that’s a big problem here. The weather depends on the day, I don’t know when the rainy season is, it's kind of a drought right now.  We went jumboing,  jumbo is like wandering kind of just walking around, kind of mixing English and Marshallese a bit, but we went for a jumbo to ejjet which is the other island, in our area, we tried climbing huge coconut trees and then this Kiribati guy, Elder Atantaake who you saw on skype just climbed it like it was nothing, it was ridiculous. We drank some coconuts, tried to go fishing but ejjelok toprak, haha no success, and we got nice and toasty because it was hot and just kind of walked around and hung out, walked on some corral with no shoes on, because I thought it was sandy, not really my brightest moment that kind of hurt a lot and just took some pictures and had a good time. Elders and sisters I have no idea, like 10 sisters on island and probably 40 elders?? I don’t know haven’t really counted, and I love my mother a lot, because she knows her son really well and sends him awesome packages of just straight chocolate!! Haha that was awesome!! And appreciate everything you do for me! And sounds like Taylor is doing well, I would say wish him luck, but I don’t know if he's gone yet! If you do see him again before he leaves tell him I still expect a letter from Eunice. I don’t know what else to say, not a lot of excitement this week, hope you liked the story last week I thought it was pretty good, and yeah if I'm brief about certain things tell me, that’s about it thanks for everything!! Peace out my madre!! Lots of love from your son!

The work is starting to progress

May 26, 2013

Haha so I kind of dodged a bullet a little bit not gonna lie. So right now I'm working with Elder Schmidt and he is the man, his name is Elder Stafford Schmidt and yeah he's awesome, I think the work is going to really start being productive now, he's only been to the island for like 5 months now, so he's still pretty new to the language and stuff still. Which will help me progress in the language more too, but he's still really good. I'm starting to be able to really understand what people are saying now, I mean I'm definitely not perfect and don't understand everything but i can bwebwenato with people which is nice to be able to do and joke and stuff with them. Trina hasn't gotten baptized yet, she has to have an interview with president first, but in 2 weeks she should be ready. We went out jumboing to all the islands and had a really fun day today, hopefully I didnt get burnt... I need a letter from mama Layton haha or something and mama Grigor,I miss them. I think that's about all to report, in the past 3 days we've had 9 new investigators, which is sweet, so we'll hopefully be able to study with them and help them, we have to do a ton of finding, which will be good because I still need to get out of my shell. But yeah love you guys bunches, and hope your doing well! Love Elder MIchelson