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

Sent from my iPhone

Truly amazing .... he is growing so much!!

Aug 24
Sounds like a pretty exciting week, and kubwe ekwojarjar!! (holy crap) hahaha but no one actually says that I just like saying it. That's insane that Joss and Taylor are both going that soon, I mean I guess I've been out for quite a while now, but it still doesn't feel that long. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot, but at the same time I feel like you guys are missing out on a lot of the stuff that I'm learning out here. When I really sit down and look at myself it's crazy how much I have grown, and I haven't been out that long. I'm still the same person obviously but just things I am able to do now, 7 months ago I never thought that I would be doing them. To answer your questions, the best thing I have learned about myself is how well I can get along with people, I always tried to get along with everyone before my mission, and I feel like I don't know if it's patience or what, but I can really get close to people. I've made so many really close friends since I've been out and it's almost like another family in all honesty. I guess I've learned a lot of patience. Umm most spiritual experience I've had thus far is when Kevin W. Pearson came and I was able to sit with him one on and one and just talk, the power I felt in that room was incredible and the whole rest of the day I literally felt like I could do anything, it was like a shot of spiritual adrenaline is the best way I can describe it, just being super confident and powerful, it was really an amazing feeling, I wonder if that's how prophets feel everyday? Random thought. But let's see how has my testimony of the saviour increased, I don't know how hasn't it increased? Just seeing the effect it can truly have on people's lives when they accept it, is amazing. Like I've said before my best investigator, Trina, had no idea how to pray before, went out and partied and just didn't know what to do with her life, she has seen the benefits and has shared with me how she has felt the spirit. One example is when she went in for her baptismal interview, she had to be interviewed with the mission president because she had done some things that required a higher power to clear her for baptism, and she was really nervous about it and thought that she wouldn't be able to answer the questions. When we helped practice with her before, she was still forgetting things and thought she wouldn't be able to get baptized, but she prayed before her interview and was able to answer all the questions and she told us that she didn't even feel like she was answering them, that someone or something was telling her what to say, I thought that was cool. And just to see how she could go from her life before, to that, has really strengthened my testimony of the power of the Atonement. It is clear, it does have power and it is truly incredible. Umm miracles.. still working on that, just with our investigator on probation, he has to show us a desire to change and he hasn't really showed that, he hasn't come to church for the past 3 weeks which makes it a little harder, he said he was sick, but sometimes people just make up excuses and its frankly pretty frustrating, but we just have to keep being patient and working with him. It's not our job to change him, that has to come from him. I guess one thing that is difficult about this mission, is that there are lots of people that we can baptize, but they aren't truly converted, they don't truly understand and most likely they will fall away shortly, I'm trying to prevent that as much as I possibly can, I don't care about the numbers or about what everyone expects. I want to try and help these people truly become converted, and I hope I've been doing that. There are so many less actives here, who have forgotten everything they have been taught, they have no clue who Joseph Smith is, and they have never even opened the Book of Mormon, they were just baptized either because they liked the Elder's or they were too scared to say no. So yeah I don't know, kind of went on a little rant there but, still working on seeing miracles in the work, I saw one with Trina and also Selina I would say, but still working on seeing some in this area. The investigators are doing fairly well, had more of a slow week because my companion was sick, but no worries, still managed to go out and work. The problem is the people who would probably be really good investigators can only study once a week, or not even that, because they are so busy working. The educated people are always busy, and then the other people frankly aren't that educated so it's harder for them to understand, which is also where the patience comes in. Just trying to do what we can to help everyone come closer to the Savior, we have some young kids who are really progressing towards baptism, but we are still looking to try to change someone's life. The church is also still so young here, that the people don't exactly know how it's run, and bring ideas from their previous churches into our church which causes some arguments and hard feelings, so hopefully as this next generation grows up in the church the wards will continue to get stronger. Sometimes I lose sight of that, it is frustrating sometimes when people don't understand how the church should operate, or they're too lazy to care. I feel like it would be easier to explain all of this once I'm back home, just saying but I'm trying. Umm things that I can't get here, I don't know anymore, I'm pretty much content with anything haha those mios last time were really good, enjoyed those, made drinking water a lot better, and I mean we can get a lot here, it's just ridiculously expensive. Umm a side bag would be nice though, one I can put my scriptures and stuff in just a small little bag, because apparently we're not supposed to be wearing backpacks as missionaries anymore, so I've been using another missionaries side bag and it's actually pretty nice, I think I like it better than a backpack. I dont know exactly how long letters take to get here, it's not ridiculously long or anything, they definitely get here faster from the states though, I can tell you that much. Umm let's see, person I've heard from that I was the most surprised to hear from, probably Angie? Wasn't expecting that one, so yeah. Umm funny stories... okay the other day we were teaching a nine year old what repentance is, and he just wasn't quite understanding, so we tried to give him an example about how stealing is bad, and how if you steal in order to repent you need to give what you stole back, or pay for it. So we thought he understood and then a couple days later, we were preparing him for his interview and he forgot, so we asked a little girl what repentance was and she just remembered our example, her response to what repentance was is " when you steal something" haha and that was it, that was pretty funny i thought. Did you get my letter yet? I tried to break down how many missionaries there were on the island, but we keep getting more so it's hard to keep track of, so hopefully they'll start opening some more outer islands. Right now there are 3 open as well as Ebeye which is I think the most populated place on the planet? I don't know maybe check that one out, but for one square mile there are 15000 people, so that's fairly ridiculous. I don't know the exact number of missionaries now in this mission, its somewhere around 58 I think. This email Is ginourmous so I hope you enjoy it! Take care I think that's about all for now, lots of lovin' from the pacific!!

 Here are some pictures he sent from while he was riding his bike in his new area... Arrak

 He laughed when he saw this one

 This is his MTC companion. Elder Ingalls they aren't serving together but still get to see each other sometimes

 At zone conference

 He said he knew he was being tempted to go bare footing but resisted it!!

The Marshall's need I say more was his comment

Thanks for the recipes

Aug 18
Well that's nice that you get to know some of Eric's friends, do they ever come by?? Does Erc just kind of chill with the same people?? That's cool that Logan went through the temple, when is he leaving exactly?? I'm definitely going to make the orange scones, excited for that for sure!! Crazy that school is almost starting again, time out here has been flying, it still seems to me that I just got here, but I have 2 intakes of missionaries after me now. I'm starting to be one of the older missionaries and it's weird to me! The investigators are coming little by little it's hard to find time to see them all because of the length of our area, but it's going well! I love biking places, the tire got destroyed one day and I just remembered how much I don't really enjoy walking out in the hot sun, with the bikes you get a breeze and it's just way better. On p-days so far it has mainly just been drive into town and come back, no time really to relax, just go get your stuff done and come back, hopefully today will be better, p-days have kind of not been so fun lately. Still am able to get all the same stuff I was before, hasn't changed, just if I ever go to an outer island, that'll be the huge change. My companion is pretty good at Marshallese, I mean he's been to an outer island and been out 21 months so he should be pretty good, but I understand pretty much all of what he's saying and I just need to keep learning new words. He's helping me out and I'm getting along with him pretty good, in terms of working with him, I'm actually loving it. We've been teaching better together and working in unity which is nice, and also I had to give a talk in church today, a little nerve wracking for sure, but I think it went pretty well, it was also these new missionaries first sunday, so I wonder how much they understood of what I said. A couple of people came up to me after the meeting and told me they appreciated what I said and they understood it and said that my marshallese was good. All the Marshallese people say our marshallese is good, I don't know if they're just being nice, but regardless I'll take it. So that was exciting, pretty good experience and I felt confident speaking, more so than I thought. Yes we use object lessons, that is the way to teach these people, use rocks, pictures whatever you can find, object lessons are what's up!! Random question are Geoff and Andrea still sort of interested in our church, I was wondering if the Elders could help them and be normal?? I don't know. Hopefully found some new solid investigators that we can help them progress. Life is good out here, just chilling and hopefully I can send some pictures, but this computer is kind of jorraan so yeah... we'll see. Anywho love you lots, hope your week is fantastic!