So the major news item of the week... is that it snowed here yesterday! It was coming down pretty good in the morning, so church ended up being cancelled and our car and bikes were grounded... so that was exciting :) Aside from that, this week was pretty sweet! I still don't have as much time as I would like to email, so we'll get going with some highlights!
First off, last monday I got to play tennis! We have a tennis court at our complex, so for our preparation day activity my companions and I played tennis for a little over an hour! It was pretty fun, even though I was quite rusty. It made me pretty happy to be able to play again though :) Looks like that's not going to happen this week though as there's currently snow on the court....... But, aside from that Monday went pretty well :) P-days here are a bit more rushed than in Ponca, but that's alright. We had dinner with a super awesome family - they made some delicious hamburgers on the grill... since it was warm enough outside to do that ;)
Tuesday was a blast, as we got to meet a couple new people while trying to find members that we haven't met yet. So, that was pretty exciting since for the most part we didn't know what would happen when we knocked on a door. But, we got to have dinner with this family and they made this tasty chicken thing with a yellow sauce that you ate over rice - it was super tasty! Then Wednesday came and went super fast - we had a lesson out in Medicine park with a referral that went super well - they could talk a ton though. Then we came back... and pretty much had to go back out there for dinner with the ward mission leader and a meeting where we discussed the ward mission plan for next year, and that was the rest of our night just like that.
Thursday on the other hand was super neat! We had a mission tour in Norman with Elder Craig A. Cardon from the seventy, and it was incredible! We talked about everything from Charity towards our neighbors and companions, to how Christ showed love to others, to the role of a seventy (D&C 107 does a pretty good job of describing that), to the Abrahamic Covenant, to the Work of Salvation (all 5 aspects of it), to how there was an apostasy even though John the Beloved was still here, to the difference between the presence/power and the gift of the Holy Ghost, to the importance of controlling the teaching environment to invite the spirit and help them do the things you know that they need to, and finally to becoming a more confident missionary instead of being self-critical. It was a pretty awesome conference, especially since we still had time that day to have dinner with another super neat family that served some sort of Brazilian Stroganoff thing - it was super tasty... I think Matt might have made it for me once? And we had our weekly Book of Mormon class, and a visit with an investigator! It was a pretty packed day, and super inspiring :)
Friday was neat, as after district meeting we did an exchange - Elder Morrell went to work on the other side of town, and Elder Shumway came here. He's from South Carolina and pretty awesome, and we got to see a ton of people! It was neat because we tried to meet a bunch of members throughout the day and it actually worked out... we saw most everyone we had planned - which almost never happens. We met some awesome families, and Elder Shumway had a couple cool object lessons that were pretty neat - one involved a lighter, a fork, a spoon, a toothpick, and a coffee mug or a glass. It was related to Helaman 5:12, so that was neat. He also had one involving a ring and a chain that was related to Ether 12:4, which we used a couple times as well :)
Saturday, for the most part, was a bust - nobody really let us in, but that was alright since it was only freezing cold outside. We did get to visit with a couple people, but there wasn't really much of note that day. Then came Sunday... the day of Snow. When we woke up in the morning, we got a text that church was cancelled because of snow and ice, then later our car and bikes were grounded because of it... so yesterday we only got to see a couple people, and for dinner they had to come pick us up. But, dinner was some incredibly tasty chili and cornbread with some mint chocolate chip ice cream and brownies for dessert... I was in heaven ;) The family we had dinner with is incredible as well - They're doing a ridiculous amount of work on their friends... too bad it's all in the sisters' area :P
Then we have today... which has barely started :) So, a few spiritual thoughts! Enos. This book/chapter is just incredible. I really like verse 11, and just the entire thing. But particularly verse 11. It shows how as you begin to have faith in Christ you naturally turn to thinking about others, which is a pretty neat principle. Aside from that, I've been doing a lot of studying in Preach My Gospel, particularly chapters 3 and 8 to work on being more effective in what I'm spending my time doing. A couple other scriptures I've found that I particularly like are Jacob 5:21-22 and 3 Nephi 27:6. 2 Nephi 9:51 was particularly applicable this week, as we had quite a few members feeding us :) Lastly, my favorite scripture that I read this week is Alma 37:35-37. Prayer is so key, along with obedience, and that scripture just shows us so simply what we need to do.
Anyway, That's all I got for this week :)
Have a fantastic week everyone!
Love ya!
'Til Next Time,
Elder Jordan Nielson
