Bear Jordan - October 10, 2016

What's up Fam!!! 

- we taught Institute Tuesday night. That was fun. I drew a baby groot under the keystone arch. Also shed a manly tear when everyone went to BDubs after but we had to go in because it was 9:00. #MissionaryProbs 

- carried Sam on my back up to the second floor of the Institute for a lesson since he was too tired to walk. I love him. He wants me to come up and work with MSU football and I'm kind of down... either that or he comes and works EQ for Utah. Regardless, we will hit up BDubs together someday. 

- had a Zone Conference in Billings. Super awesome. I talked to Elder Baird and he gave me a hug when we brought up the Cal game during our College Football Live MBM Edition™. We also talked about the BYU-Toledo football game that sounded more like a basketball game. He may be 60+ and a Cougar fan but Elder Baird and I are brothers, I love him. 

- still having Naps Burger withdrawals so we tried a new burger place... Got this burger called a "El Scorcho" and it scorched me more than once. #SorryMom

- I can't psychologically handle bdubs as a missionary so I just go hard on the spicy stuff at other places to make sure my body is still in shape for the return. 

- we met this super chill guy from Saudi Arabia while walking campus, Elder Hunter pointed out he had a GoPro so it made for a easy contacting approach.  He was pretty interested in what we were doing as missionaries and we taught him the Restoration. He's Muslim and he thought it was cool we believed in prophets of old and modern day. We made a deal we will study the Quran with him if he studies the Book of Mormon with us, should be fun, I'm hyped for it. 

- went and checked out the tailgating lot during the MSU game... it was no RES but it felt good being around a college football atmosphere. 

- B1 gave us a call explaining they had just been set up for a bible bash sesh. We invited them over to vent and things escalated quickly and we played this game where we bounce the Nerf foam swords at the ground REALLY REALLY HARD and hit each other with them. It was entertaining... pretty scary too not gonna lie.  #ThingsYouDoWhenYouCantWatchSNF

- we also got a random 5 page anti text from "Trevor the Anti Guy" (no joke his name in our phone, never even heard of this guy before lol). So I got some fire drafts typed up in our phone that I didn't send for obvious reasons but mainly being this is the mission field... not Twitter. Mission has changed me a lot, but honestly some things never change.... I'm still a smart a** when it comes to people bashing on something I love. #TwitterDreamTeam 

- so you know that wasp nest from hell that is conveniently outside our door??? Well now that it's cold they are getting really slow and I have been killing a ton. Got a 6 kill streak one day. #RcXD #DragonFire #NapalmStrike 

- we hit up Home Depot this morning because Elder Hunter needed to buy something. McElvany and I decided to go check out the Halloween decorations. Well there was this giant spider thing that launches forward when you walk past... and it freaked me out, bad. I screamed, LOUD. People were staring. 2 old ladies were laughing. Hunter and Bennett were on the other side of the store (keep in mind HD is pretty big) and they heard it and knew it was me. It was a rough moment. Up there with the breaking and entering that went down in Missoula during the NBA play offs for most embarrassing moment of the mission. 

In terms of teaching and actual missionary work and important stuff: we have 2 solid girls we are teaching right now that we are hoping to have on date soon. They are both progressing and one had a neat experience where she got a confirmation the Book of Mormon is true. It's way fun teaching them. Other than that we are still hitting up campus and finding those that are ready to hear our message.  We have some others we are working with but the 2 girls are the most solid right now. We have been blessed with some good success here and the YSA is coming in clutch in inviting their friends for lessons. 

Honestly it's all a blur fam, can't believe I have been doing this for 15 months. I'm loving it so much, I thought I'd be more stoked being out this long but I'm really not. This work is a drag sometimes and you get the occasional dingleberries throwing anti at you and trying to tear down your testimony, but man I love it. Every day the Lord teaches me something, and it's something I need to learn. Even the moments we face opposition I learn and have my testimony strengthened. I love this Gospel, I'm not perfect at it, but I love it so much. 

We attended a mission call opening this week for Ryan Bishop (total baller, I love him. Imagine a more white/Mormon Allen Iverson on the court) and before he opened it the dad said how happy he is for his son to take the next step in his journey back to his Heavenly Father. I loved that, how often do we forget that that is the whole reason why we are here? To go through experiences and make decisions so that we can return back to Him. 

Missions obviously aren't a requirement to get back to Heavenly Father, but it's certainly helped me grow and learn and put me on that right path. The miracles, the people, the experiences, those are the real blessings from being out here. You always hear "you'll be blessed" and a lot of missionaries (including me at the beginning) translate "being blessed for serving a mission" = going home and getting the perfect job, getting a nice car, wifing a hot girl (for me it was NCAA Football hitting the shelves at GameStop again #SorryMom) but I've realized the true blessings from a mission are things more like... appreciating your family, applying the Atonement, learning to love those around you, gaining a testimony... and most definitely the relationships you make with people out here and helping them progress towards getting back to Heavenly Father. 

As much as I love taking Georgia State to the Sun Belt Championship on NCAA Football, I'd take list 2 blessings over list 1 everyday. Like I have said in the past, the Gospel is our best shot at happiness, other things can make you happy too, Disney is still life, but the Gospel is what's gonna lead to eternal joy. I love being able to share that with others. 

I'm grateful I can do this, especially grateful for the people I serve around and serve with. 

I love you all, thanks for being the best family. So hyped that I get to come home to a new nephew AND a new niece next year (still a longs way away so quit getting trunky @pettbryan), pretty stoked when I heard about that. I seriously have the best family ever. 

Happy birthday to Potato Boy (Kurt) and Britt this next week! 

Love ya fam 

- Elder K 

Pics 

- got this today. I needed it.  #BearJordan 🏀🐻 

- possibly the last time I'll see Elder McMahon in the mission, we go WAY back, back to the #BGrade days. Gonna miss this guy. 

- when you run out of water and you are thirsty and need to improvise. 

- Institute with groot

- B1 left this in our apartment. #LoveGames 

- #WelcomeToMontana

- saw this at a thrift store, thought of Grandma Pett 

- in case anyone wanted to ball at the Sister's baptism in Livingston 

- it's a girl! 

- #GoCatsGo

- Walmart today... got a little distracted. 4 seconds it takes to walks past the tv with Civil War on is the hardest part of the day. Then we have to walk past the Star Wars section and it went downhill from there #SorryMom.