My Soul Delighteth in Plainness

Hi all! 

​Well, I'm fairly certain that it's actually been a month since I got here. But everyone tells me it's only been ten days. Either way, I've loved every second of it. The MTC is definitely a sacred place, and I'm going to miss it so much when we leave. 

To start off, last Sunday was probably the longest, most spiritually educational day of my entire life. The whole "day of rest" thing, does not apply here. Basically it's 18 hours of church, with about 1 hour to eat during the day. It was crazy, and I got pretty dehydrated, had a migrane, and was feeling pretty lousy. Someone mentioned around 5 o'clock that we really aren't physically capable of doing the work we're asked to do on our missions, and that the only way we survive is through reliance on the Spirit. 

That hit me pretty hard, and I started praying to be supported in my weakness, and it was crazy how fast I felt power flowing into me, the headache was still there, but it was significantly easier to deal with. All and all, it's incredible the sorts of promises we are given from God, if we just ask for them. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 

Anyway, Sunday evening we were able to watch some devotionals or church films before we went to bed. Our district went to one called, The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. That devotional was life changing. I can't hope to explain it, but the premise was simply that if we want to become truly converted, we need to act on the testimonies of Christ we have. To do this, he says we need to strive to do as Christ did. 

He described being Christlike in a totally new way however, putting it very simply. When the natural man in each of us wants us to turn inwards, and worry about our needs and our wants and what makes us uncomfortable, when we want that, we instead need to turn outwards and help others and do the will of the Lord. That process of turning from ourselves outwards to others is what makes our conversion to Christ's gospel true and complete. It's incredible. 

Immediately after that devotional, we had an opportunity to put that principle into practice. We were all super tired, and ready to go to bed. But Sister King hadn't been feeling good all day, and it had turned into a fever. We were able to give her a blessing, and it was amazing for all of us. Elder Alton gave the blessing, and it was so powerful and inspired that we were all in tears by the end. Her fever broke that night, and she was totally fine at breakfast on Monday. Our God is a God of miracles. 

Anyway, the rest of the week went pretty smoothly, relatively speaking. We taught Elizabeth again on Monday, and really helped her understand how prayer can bring us personal knowledge of things we desire to know, and it was a really spiritual lesson. 

Later, we got our TRC (Training Resource Center) investigators,  which are basically investigators who come several times each week, and just your companionship teaches them, as opposed to the PI investigators (like Elizabeth) who are taught by all the companionships in your district as a way to assess our teaching needs. 

We were assigned to teach Oleg and Debi. Oleg is from Moscow, and barely knows English. He's here on a student visa, and is going to school at UVU. He is such an awesome person, and he really loves to learn, and is so ready for the gospel, it's amazing. He was super uncomfortable with praying though, and we couldn't figure out how to help him. We had a class one day, where we discussed the need to dig deep and ask really searching questions to find the deep concerns of the investigator, and then to share scripture and simply testify of the truth of those scriptures, and let the Spirit do the teaching. We applied that principle to our next lesson with Oleg, and the results were amazing! I was skeptical, cause I've always been good at teaching, and I wasn't sure how much good just asking questions could be. But amazingly, he opened up, and we found so many of his concerns, and the scriptures answered them, and the Spirit testified. He was so moved, he asked if he could say the closing prayer. Wow. 

Debi is a traveling storyteller, and she loves family history. We were meeting with her, and found out she had lived in England for a while. She and I got talking, and found that we can relate in so many ways! It actually all started when she asked, in a Scottish accent, if I had any Scottish ancestors. I replied in my accent, and it just got better from there! She loves Scotland, and has ancestors there. I did some research, and we actually share some ancestors from Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. It was so cool, and led right into the Plan of Salvation and how we can live with our families forever. She is progressing so fast, it's likely they'll switch her to the missionaries assigned to her area soon, so she can be baptized. All because of a Scottish accent. Talk about working in mysterious ways. 

Anyway, there's so much more I could say, but I've already said too much. If you've actually read this far, you deserve to treat yourself to ice cream or pizza. 

I love you all, more importantly God loves you all. I challenge you to try to grow closer to Him. I promise that as you do, you will become happier. I gave you that promise in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Mosiah 3:19

​Godspeed,​

Elder Housholder

Note from Jordan's mom: I added the transcript and audio of Elder Bednar's talk that Jordan references in this letter, mostly so we can find it more easily in the future, but also for others to enjoy it as well.  

District 44a, my district, the BEST district ever!

All the Elders in my district, all of us going to Des Moines. Basically the most incredible men I've ever met. I'm so lucky to be able to serve with them.

My comp, Elder Orme.  He's such an incredible teacher, and really is able to communicate ideas with power. 

Our district leader, Elder Barney.  He's a powerful missionary.  He honestly reminds me of Amulek in his teaching style.  I love this guy.