La Dernière Semaine de Français!

 This was Jordan's last week learning French! He will start Tahitian this week, and study it for 3 weeks before heading to Tahiti. Because the French lessons are over, the missionaries from both districts who are learning French, but NOT going to Tahiti but instead going to other French speaking places, left for their mission's on Sunday! Including Jordan's companion, Elder Bichon. Jordan said he will miss them all very much, as they have gotten so close these past 6 weeks together. They took a beautiful picture of his district before anyone left:

and a picture of companions Elder King & Elder Bichon:

  An exciting thing that happened this week is that Jordan's cousin Nick entered the Provo, Utah MTC to prepare to serve a mission in Salt Lake City, Utah! They'll be there together for 3 weeks! Although the Provo MTC is huge and there are 2,000 missionaries there, and Jordan and Nick are in totally different districts, and staying in different areas of the MTC, when I talked to Jordan on Friday he had already seen Nick 3 times!! They were so happy! 

It's such an awesome thing that they can serve missions at the same time. 

We enjoyed our video chat with Jordan again this week. Jordan said the early mornings are pretty cold there in Utah, and he hadn't brought any warm clothes since he won't need them in Tahiti, so he asked me to send him some. I think we forgot about the fact that Utah gets cold earlier than California does and he would be there for some of that! And since they wake up so early, they get pretty cold. But other than that, he's doing great! Excited to learn Tahitian, but sad to say goodbye to those who are leaving. He said that two more sister missionaries just came and joined his district this week! They're from France, and going to Tahiti, so they didn't have to learn French and just came for the Tahitian portion. Also, Jordan found a piano that he has been playing in his free time here and there when he can, and I'm so happy about that! He has missed being able to play the piano or his guitar so much. That's how he would relax and decompress, and I worried about him not having that there. He's about 90% over his cold, and still as happy as ever :) 

It's so fun to get updates from him as we chat, but I also love that we get to just "hang out" together and be silly too!

Here is this weeks email: 

La Dernière Semaine de Français!

(The Last French Week!)

Bonjour! It's been a really great week! This was my last week of learning French, which means that half of my district is leaving for their missions in Barbados, Republic of the Congo, and Côte d'Ivoire on Sunday while the rest of us stay for another three weeks to learn Tahitian! I am really gonna miss everyone that's leaving, we've become so close and it'll be really weird without them here, but I'm SUPER excited to start learning Tahitian. I have really seen the Gift of Tongues working this week. Maybe a week or so ago, we took a French assessment online just to see where we were at with speaking French, and I thought it went really really terribly haha I could not at all say what I wanted to say and I was nervous and couldn't think and it was just bad. But we took an even longer and more thorough assessment yesterday, and I could say everything I wanted to say with no hesitation, past, present, and future tense, telling stories, giving lessons, everything. My mind was clear, I wasn't nervous at all, I could just speak! It was amazing! There's no way I could make that kind of improvement on my own in just a week. Gifts of the Spirit are real for those who are willing to work for them. I can learn all the vocabulary I want, but the Spirit helps my mind to be clear, focused, and organized so I can meet the needs of the people in the best way I can. 

Omni 1:25-26 "...exhorting all men to come unto God, the Holy One of Israel, and believe in prophesying, and in revelations, and in the ministering of angels, and in the gift of speaking with tongues, and in the gift of interpreting languages, and in all things which are good; for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord... And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."

I know that the power and authority of the Priesthood of God is on the earth today, and that I hold that priesthood in a direct line from Jesus Christ Himself, and that through this power, miracles can and will be performed. The day of miracles has not ceased. God has not stopped speaking to His children. There is a prophet who holds the keys of the Priesthood on the earth today as there always has been following a period of Apostasy. I'm not just saying this because I'm a missionary now. I'm just Jordan, and this is what I believe, and I'm just in a position now where I can share it more. Please take the time to find out for yourself if this is true. If it's true that there is a prophet on the earth today, how EXCITING and life-changing is that? It changes everything!

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything you do.

À bientôt!

Elder King

Le moyen de Devenir

 

 Today marks a month that Jordan has been out, and 4.5 weeks in the MTC - which means he's halfway!! 4.5 weeks left in the MTC before he flies to Tahiti! He has one more week learning French, and then he will start learning Tahitian! He's excited about that.

 He's getting pretty good with his French now, and has memorized The First Vision in French! During our video chat today I asked him to say it for us and we recorded him!! Enjoy :)

 Doesn't it sound so pretty?!

Click on this link to find out what The First Vision is, for those of you who don't know:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/first-vision?lang=eng





Our video chat today was extra special because it's the first time our whole family was "together" since Jordan left! It finally worked out for all of us to get together and chat with Jordan!! Of course we had to take a family picture, haha!

It was so nice for all the kids to be able to "hang out" together <3

 Jordan is still as happy as ever, and loves being at the MTC. He's had a mild cold this past week, but said it hasn't been too bad. In Utah it's full fledged Fall, with cooler temps and rain! He's enjoying that a lot! But with that comes cold season, and he says its definitely going around the MTC. With 2,000 missionaries living there and being together all the time, he says just about everyone's got it. But it hasn't been too bad, and he's at the tail end of it now. Luckily he went prepared with vitamins and cold medicine. And luckily he likes the rain! He's getting it in Utah and he'll get it a lot in Tahiti - and that's something we don't get a lot here in CA. In any case though, Jordan has always been pretty good at rolling with things and being positive. He's such an incredible person :)

  Speaking about being positive, Jordan has such a great message for us in his email this week:

Le moyen de Devenir

(The way to become)

Salut! (Hi!) It's been a great week! I've been sick, so that hasn't been fun, but it's not too bad, just a bit of a cold. Everyone gets it at least once here haha mais c'est la vie (But that's life). I have just over a week left of French and then I'll be starting Tahitian,  which I'm super excited about.

This week I just want to share the strong conviction I have of not complaining. I read 1 Peter 4:12-13 and it made so much sense to me. I see people complaining all around me when things get tough or they're asked to step outside of their comfort zones or they're frustrated with learning a language, and I can't help but think that if we would spend as much energy on the task at hand as we do complaining, we might actually be able to accomplish much more than we realize. I love the way Peter phrases it in verse 12. This is not some strange thing that has happened upon us. We are literally here to learn and grow, whether that be at the MTC or just on this earth in general. Trials are the reason we are here. The difficult things we go through are intended to help us become better and realize how much we need to be reliant upon God. Do not complain that your situation in life is hard, though it may be more difficult than you think you can handle right now. The days will pass and one day we will look back with grateful tears in our eyes that we had the opportunity to pass through the trials that have made us who we have become. Keep your head up and focus on who you are becoming. Your attitude will determine how fully you fulfill your potential. Be positive. Focus on what's important. Forget about yourself and go out of your way for those around you. This is how we find what Peter describes as "exceeding joy". This is how we Become.

I love you all more than you know, each and every one of you reading this right now. Thank you for being you :)

À bientôt, (See you soon,)

Elder King

I love Jordan's message SO much. In today's society it is so common to complain about something that it's almost strange if something positive is said! Maybe people feel almost like by complaining about something we feel we are being humble - or at least not bragging. But really, being positive adds so much joy and gratitude to our lives! And to those around us. Every situation has good and bad, and focusing on the positive will help us to become more Christlike. 

Thanks for the reminder Elder King!

Jordan sent some fun pictures this week! I love seeing that he's having fun in between all of the learning as well - although he thinks his classes are fun too, ha! But I'm happy to see he can goof around a bit :) 

the district!

scripture study

goofballs :)

   I love how Jordan ends his emails so much of the time with "A bientot!", which means "See you soon!" He's only weeks into a 2 year mission, and he says See you soon :) Makes my heart smile. And puts into perspective that while 2 years seems so long right now, it will pass, and this time of his life will be a blink when compared to the whole rest of it. I'm so grateful he has chosen to serve for these two years, and that he has made up his mind to learn and grow as much as he can. It's incredible to watch him "Become".

Nous pouvons devenir plus comme Christ

   Another week has past and Jordan is halfway through his French classes! He has been at the MTC for over 3 weeks now, and has 3 weeks of French left before starting Tahitian! He got another roommate this past week; another Elder who is also going to Tahiti with Jordan! He is already fluent in French so the MTC did a language test with him and determined that he wouldn't need to come to the MTC until the second half of learning French! So he came 3 weeks later than everyone else in his district. That makes 5 Elders in Jordan's room now. I'm so glad they all get along and enjoy each other. While video chatting with Jordan today, we got to meet one of the Elders in Jordan's district who is from Tonga and going to the Ivory Coast Africa! Also while video chatting, we discovered that we could do filters while we video chatted - and it was SO funny!! I picked up Emma so she could chat with Jordan one more time before she leaves for the Brazil MTC on Tuesday (!!!) and then we drove to the dental office where both Jared and Nicole work, so Nicole could finally get a chance to video chat with Jordan! She had some open time in her schedule right at the perfect time! We laughed so much at the filters, and then we would get to talking and forget about the filters until we realized Jordan still had a funny mustache filter on and it was so funny again! Hahaha!

  We chatted and laughed and it was so great. Then it was time to say goodbye. Emma took a "selfie" with Jordan since they won't be seeing each other for 18 months while she is serving a mission in Fortaleza Brazil! And then we all said goodbye. I'm so grateful for our chats!!

I just love seeing that happy face! Here is Jordan's email this week:

Nous pouvons devenir plus comme Christ.

(We can become more like Christ.)

This has been quite a week! We had the opportunity to host new international missionaries on Wednesday, which was really cool! I hosted one elder from Hong Kong and one from Taiwan. The French is really coming along, but I still definitely have a long way to go. We're making it a goal as a district to speak as much French as possible throughout the day so that we're better able to serve the people where we're going. After a while at the MTC, it's easy to lose sight of the importance of our message, and we can become somewhat complacent in our growth. But it's important to remain a sense of urgency in our learning so that we can really help the people to the best of our abilities! We had the opportunity to hear from a living apostle of Jesus Christ on Tuesday, Elder Gary E. Stevenson. I testify that there are prophets and apostles on the earth today as there have always been following a period of apostasy. The priesthood authority of God is on the earth again, and the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. And most importantly, God loves you. YOU. Get to know Him. Talk to Him. Become more like Him every day--even right now.

I love you all and I'm excited to continue learning and growing to become more than I could ever be without Christ. Keep growing, keep becoming.

Elder King

1. A beautiful Fall day in Utah at the MTC. Rain means snow capped mountains!

2. The Elders and Sisters in Jordan's district!

*Bonus: Jordan told me that the cat he sent a couple of pictures of before actually lives at the MTC!      Her name is "Sister Mittens" and Jordan's companion loves her - hahaha, so cute!

Par le Pouvoir du Saint-Esprit

  I'm hearing from other Missionary Moms I've met online who have sons and daughters serving with Jordan, that these missionaries, who have now been at the MTC for 2 1/2 weeks, are tired. I've even seen pictures posted of missionaries sleeping wherever they can when they get a second to close their eyes! Although Jordan hasn't mentioned to me about being tired, I'm guessing by this time they are feeling the effects of their rigorous schedules and constant learning and information overload. I am so humbled and amazed by the willingness of these young people, at such a prime time of their lives,  to put their lives on hold and fully immerse themselves, so enthusiastically and completely, into learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ more fully, going all over the world, learning new languages and cultures, to serve and teach people that they don't yet know, but already love - because they understand that we are all God's children. Jordan said it so perfectly in his farewell talk, through tear filled eyes and a shaky voice from the Spirit that was filling his heart, when he said that he was leaving his family for two years, so that others could be with theirs for Eternity <3

  Jordan had the opportunity to welcome incoming missionaries as they arrived to the MTC this past week, just two weeks exactly after he himself was the one arriving! One of the new missionary's moms posted this picture online that she took when she dropped off her son:

It was so fun to see this! What a sweet story :)

Here's Jordan's email this week!

Par le Pouvoir du Saint-Esprit

(By the Power of the Holy Spirit)

Salut! This week, I have really seen a lot of improvement in my French. We have taught many lessons in French, and with each one I am able to understand more of the person's needs and rely on the Spirit to help me know what to say without focusing too much on trying to formulate French sentences. It's really powerful to be able to just focus on loving the person, listening fully to them without thinking of anything else, and then just knowing what to say to help them. Needless to say our French isn't anywhere near perfect, but we are able to speak with power and authority from the Spirit, which is the most important thing. The Spirit teaches what we cannot.

"The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." - President Russell M. Nelson

I personally testify that this is true. No matter what our lives may look like, no matter what situations we find ourselves in, I know that we can choose to either learn how it can change us for the better, or let it change us for the worse. We can allow the Spirit to teach us, or we can complain and ruin what the Lord had planned for us. REMEMBER: Who left their wealth in Jerusalem and traveled three days in the wilderness because their father ? Who then returned to Jerusalem and tried and failed twice to obtain the Brass Plates from Laban, only to return a third time to successfully complete the mission? Who then lived in the wilderness for eight years, with no witness of why this was to be? Who then helped to build a boat (which they did not know how to do) to travel to a place that they did not know existed? Who witnessed angels who testified to them of the truth? Brothers and sisters, this is the story of Laman and Lemuel. The only difference between their story and the story of their brother Nephi is that they complained and murmured the whole time and did not allow the Spirit to have a place in them, while Nephi trusted in God and desired to know the things that were right. We can all be Laman's and Lemuel's, or we can choose to be Nephi's.

I testify that we have a prophet on the earth today just as there always has been on the earth, and his name is Russell M. Nelson. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that if you are willing to read it and pray with all sincerity that it is true, being willing to give all you have to find out the truth, you will know by the power of the Holy Spirit that it is true and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth.

I love you all.

Elder King

  

 And pictures! No explanations this time, but I'm guessing he is enjoying the summer storms in Utah!
Also, I really need to ask him about the random cat who has now appeared twice - haha!

Jordan's district, obviously on P-day since they're not dressed up!

Tahiti flag!

   Of course we loved it when Jordan video chatted us again on Friday P-day! This time I had his girlfriend Emma in the car with me! It was so fun for them to be able to see each other and chat! Emma leaves to serve a mission in Brazil in just a week and a half, so it was a special thing that she could be there with me. 

I just LOVE seeing his happy face!

 Some of the moms of the missionaries in Jordan's district posted pictures that included Jordan! 

Jordan's district. They will all be serving French speaking missions, but not all in Tahiti. 

This is the group of the Missionaries called to serve in Tahiti, who arrived at the MTC the same day - Aug 21, and will go to Tahiti together on Oct. 21. 

  I love the stats another Missionary Mom I've connected with posted. Her son is in this picture as well - preparing to serve in Tahiti together with Jordan. She said:

There are over 65,000 full time Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world. In the Tahiti Papeete Mission (which includes it's 114 surrounding islands), where Jordan was called, there are 150 of those Missionaries. On October 21, 2019 these 14 Missionaries will be the newest ones to arrive in Tahiti and serve the people there!

 Pretty exciting! 

 

Nous sommes enfants de Dieu

 We love Fridays even more now that we get to hear from Jordan! 

 Today we got to video chat with Jordan while we drove to the high school to meet up with Tyson and Ashley so they could video chat with him too! For some reason I missed him more this week, and so I was really looking forward to this. It was so good to see him and hear his voice! And I love hearing all about what he's doing. It makes my heart so happy :)

 Of course I took some screen shots of our video chat!

 Oh how I love seeing his happy smiling face <3

His schedule at the MTC is very structured and pretty intense. But he is loving it, and says the time goes by quickly. Every day they get an hour for exercise. There's a workout room, but Jordan and his district have spent that time outside playing different sports. They've played basketball, soccer, and even beach volleyball! There's an outdoor sand volleyball pit! He said they take their shoes off to play and the sand feels so good on his bare feet. He definitely gets that from me :) Today they were getting ready to go play Spike Ball. I hadn't heard of it, but apparently it's really big there. I'm so glad that between the rigorous hours and hours of classes, they have a chance every day to get outside and have some fun. That's so important in so many ways. 

Jordan also said that his whole district joined the MTC Choir! I was so hoping that he would! He said that he sang at the devotional on Tuesday :) I'm so glad he is sharing that talent. He sings so beautifully, and it sure does bring the Spirit. 

This weeks email included lots of pictures!!! Yay! I was so excited!! I just LOVE getting pictures! I'm SO happy he is thinking to take some :) 

Here's his email!:

Nous sommes enfants de Dieu

(I looked this up on Google Translate. It says "We are children of God" in French)

Bonjour! This has been a great week! My French is really coming along, but there have been some incredibly humbling experiences. Doing practice lessons in French is extremely difficult, and it really shows me how much I don't know and how much I have to rely on the Spirit, because if I'm trying to think of how to say things in french during the lesson, it goes terribly, but if I forget about French and forget about myself and focus on the person I'm teaching and my love for them, the French just comes out and it's much more meaningful for the person being taught. If we work extremely hard beforehand, when it comes time to teach, the Spirit will speak through us. It truly is the Gift of Tongues. After working on this and making a conscious effort to think about the person instead of french, the improvement has been massive. We did practice lessons in french as a companionship with our teacher, Sœur Bennett, and the first time was really rough and extremely humbling, but a few days later we did it again and she said our French was at the level of someone at 6 weeks leaving the MTC.

My district is the best, we get along so well and it's so amazing to see how we were all paired up for a reason. Our teachers are so inspired, it really is a nonstop spiritual journey every day. 6 hours of sitting in French class per day seems to go so fast and I never get bored--that is also the Gift of Tongues.

We also had TRC this week where we teach an actual investigator who comes to the MTC because they're curious and want to know more about the Church. We taught a girl named Carter on Tuesday and Thursday, and I was unbelievably nervous, but it was such a cool experience. Tuesday didn't go so great, we just didn't feel like we did a good job teaching and bringing the Spirit, so we prepared and prayed so much for Thursday and it went SO well! It was so cool, the Spirit was so strong and she agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the truthfulness of it and of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I invite each of you--yes, YOU--to read 2 Nephi 33 today. Take 5-10 minutes to read it and think about it. (It's short, don't worry ;) ) I promise that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that all who read it can know (CAN know--if you really put in the effort and have a real, heartfelt desire) that what I have said is true. And your life will never be the same. 

Thanks for all of your love and support. 

À bientôt!

Elder King

For those of you who don't have access to a Book of Mormon (you can go to mormon.org and request a free one!), the scripture Jordan refers to of 2 Nephi 33 can be read by clicking this link: 

 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/33?lang=eng

Here are his pictures!! 

1. MTC

2.Tahiti Flag at MTC

3.Mural of Moses and the Exodus at the MTC

4.Mountain view from MTC in the morning

5. Jordan's Missionary name tags! One set in French, one set in Tahitian. The SYL sticker means "Speak Your Language" and when he's wearing that one he tries to only speak French!

6. Breakfast in the cafeteria with his district

7. His companion Elder Bichon with a random cat - haha! He gave no explanation for that pic

8. & 9. The Bible written in Tahitian! Jordan has to carry this, and he says it's so big and heavy! He likes how the sides of the pages are red. Check out the text inside - he will be learning how to read and speak that!

10. Walking to the Provo Temple across the street. He gets to go there every Friday :) 

11. I told Jordan I want fun Missionary tag pics, so I guess this is the first one! I love that we can see a peek into his room from the mirror too. Because he only has 4 Elders in his room (most have 6) he and his companion get a whole bunk to themselves and put their stuff on the top bunk. Lucky!

  I am so grateful for the experiences Jordan is having already. The opportunity he is having to go outside of his comfort zone and feel humble and to rely on the Spirit, to listen and love people more than worrying about himself and how to respond, these are priceless gifts.  After only 10 days he is jumping right in - and loving it! My heart is full <3