Hey everyone!

Hey it's me again,

Just thought I'd give you all a little update on my week last week. It was an awesome week. On thursday we got to plan my first Zone Conference, and then on friday we actually did it. I got to teach on Revelation through Prayer, and lead a role-play on that. It was kinda nerve-wracking because President was there along with the Assistants, Sister Doll and my whole zone of 32 missionaries. Did I tell you that mine is the biggest zone in the mission? It's pretty nuts having to lead all of them. We have double the missionaries that some zones have. I don't know how I drew the "lucky" straw and got put in charge of all of them, but it has really been a growing experience for me. After the Zone Conference, I went with one of the Assistants to the President on exchanges, Elder McDonnell. He goes home with me. We talked about that and a ton of other stuff, while we were stuck in traffic for over 2 hours! It was rather dull. But then we went to Portillo's with a recent convert, and that was nice. I haven't eaten out since getting to the city because it's too big of a time-suck and my companion is on a self-imposed diet. Saturday morning, Elder McDonnell and I went to a farm and helped weed the raspberry bushes. Elder Abe and Elder Nunez were also there. That was cool cause Elder Nunez and I are good friends. And the farmer gave us fresh strawberries!! It was awesome! We're hoping that the farmer becomes an investigator, he's a really good guy. We also started doing some surveys, which is a new tracting method that we're trying. It seemed to go rather well. Actually all of the Hispanics that I talked to that day were really interested and all accepted return appointments. That was a miracle for us. At about 9:00 that night I got back to Chicago to our apartment and finished the exchange. Then sunday we had an experience where we were tracting and found 4 new investigators really quickly! With those four included, we had 11 new investigators in a week! That's really good for this area, because it's been dead till now. Then, at 8:00 sunday night, I had yet another exchange with Elder Bench, one of the District Leaders i'm in charge of. I was training him on how to be a DL. That was a lot of fun and we got along really well. While on the exchange, monday, we met with some of his investigators, and he was really surprised when they said that they wanted to be baptized! It came out of the blue! I started laughing after the appointment, he was in shock. I've seen that when we pray for miracles, God provides them. We've been hoping to see them in this zone and the Lord has shown us that he is conscious of our needs.

Personally I feel like I've grown a lot lately. Working with these excellent Elders and being responsible over so many others, I have been forced to come to face my own weaknesses and become the man that I ought to be. I've come to be more consecrated to the work and have come to know my Savior better every day. I think there are few things that make you more mature than a mission, and I've seen the effects thereof in my life already. I'm really happy to be a missionary, and I'll miss the day that it ends. However, I'll be really excited to move on and continue progressing. I'm excited for everything that will happen after the mission, but I've got my mind focused on what needs to happen now, while planning for the future. I've come to realize that if we don't plan things, they won't happen, so we need to give forethought to everything we want in this life. In a recent article, a magazine called Mormon Missions "God's MBA's," and I couldn't agree more.

A few funny, strange things that have happened this week: Elder Lemke and I were knocking some doors, when all of a sudden we heard something barking at us. As we looked around, the only animal we could find was a little squirrel. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. A barking squirrel! It sat there and barked and yapped at us and if we tried to get closer it'd climb the tree more. It was really funny. I wish I had my camera. Also, yesterday we were driving to an appointment and some people had broken open a fire hydrant and so we got a car wash! It was great! Saves us time for today. What else..... Oh Elder McDonnell and I were walking to our car, and we passed this guy smoking who said, "Hey Elders." We were like, "Hey," and we just kept walking. About halfway to the car, it hit us. "Did he just say 'Hey Elders?'" So we ran back and asked him. Haha he started laughing and said, "Yeah I know the Elders, I thought you guys just weren't as friendly as the ones down in Georgia!" So we got his information and sent him the missionaries. Oh and when I was in an appointment, I convinced a 14 year old girl that I was psychic. I said something about her to be sarcastic, and her eyes got all wide and was like, "How did you know that? That's a secret!" She started FREAKING out! I told her that God revealed to me everything about her and she got all scared. That was really funny.

Well I love you all very much. I know the Church is the restored Church of Jesus Christ. He guides and directs it, and I know that the Prophet is called of Him.

Con todo mi corazon, les amo.
Avec tout ma coeur, je vouz aime.

Elder Jord