Singing in the Choir!

This week was a pretty crazy week for me. My companions and myself decided to join the choir and we got to sing "Consider the Lillies." For the devotional Tuesday we were to perform said song and all the missionaries here had the opportunity to hear from an apostle of the Lord. Elder Russell M. Nelson of the twelve came and spoke on the same subject of the October Ensign, the Book of Mormon. I just want everyone to know that I have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that it was translated by Joseph Smith and through the power of God. Here are a few fun facts about this amazing work:

It took a group of about 50 scholars SEVEN YEARS to translate the King James Version of the Bible, an average of 1 page per day while Joseph Smith averaged 8-10 pages per day translating the Book of Mormon. The BoM contains over 400 verses that testify of Christ or mention him. I'll send more in each email.

Anyways, it was really neat, as always to be in the presence of an apostle of the lord. He said to us that we have similar responsibilities as him; we are to invite people to come unto Christ by receiving his restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end, call people to repentance, and testify of Christ. I'm glad that I know all of the things that I'm preaching to be true. I love the gospel and I know that it can help us all in our lives.

We have grown really close to each other in our companionship and district. I think we are going to be able to survive the MTC and stay life-long friends. Elder Olsen, is really humbled by his calling as District leader (glorified mailman) and was really scared about his calling at first. Our ZL (zone leader), Elder Stapely is from Salt Lake City and I would not be surprised if he were called to serve as an apostle one day. He really knows his doctrine and definitely loves everyone around him even if they don't deserve love. I have pictures but I don't exactly know how to work the whole computer system and what not. haha I fail, right??

Anyways, I love you all and wish I could give you every single detail about my MTC experience but I'm on a time limit (30 minutes computer time) and I can't figure out the little cheater secrets that other missionaries use but I guess that is a good thing. Elder Russell M. Nelson's wife said: "Obedience brings happiness but Exact obedience brings miracles."

I love you all and will continue to pray for you! Please keep the missionaries in your prayers too.

Love,

Elder Palmer

First E-mail!

Dearest family, friends, coaches, and church leaders:

I'm proud to be emailing you today from the MTC and hope that you are all doing very well. I appreciated the letter that you send me dad and want to let you know that it really boosted me for the rest of the day. If you all can famind the time, I'd love to hear from you and how you are doing. I heard that dad told you girld (sisters) to write me and I expect exactly that!! C.G., I know that the Homecoming dance is tonight and I want to remind you who you are, which is a daughter of God and He loves you and wants you to have a good night but he also wants you to obey his commandments including obeying your mother and father!! Be home on time for them please. I've realized the past few days how precious sleep really is and they need as much as possible, so help them out and save dad's hair from receding worse than it already is.

For those of you that don't trust USPS and want to email me, don't expect replies back via email because I'm only aloud one generic email a week to send to my parents. Although I can only email to mom and dad, I can read emails from anybody so when you send me an email, please enter your mailing address at the bottom so that I can reply to you. My P-days will be Thursday by the way in case you were wondering so that will be when I can write my letters and email from now on. Thanks for the song by the way dad.

Enough book-keeping business though. The MTC is amazing just as you described it dad! There really is a spirit here that is only rivalled by that spirit that exists inside the sacred doors of the temple. We have the opportunity, as you all do, to say a lot of prayers each and every day including district, companion, investigator, mealtime, and personal prayers. My teachers are very good too; they are Brothers Lewis, Painter, G'amez and Sister Dixon (who is our "investigator right now). They are wonderful and I learn new things about myself every single lesson. My companions (yes, I am in a trio) are great! Elder Olsen, from Las Vegas, just spent a year at BYU and his family just barely moved to Park City so he is having a little bit of confusion with that; he is about an inch taller than me and played tight end in high school. Elder Marker is from Green Bay Wisconsin (avid Packer fan) and is a bit lost because of this but there is hope still because he is a cross country runner and mom would absolutely love him even if his looks remind me of Andrew Unker. No, he is a great Elder and will serve a great mission in Chiclaillo Peru. By the way, Elder Olsen in going to Oaxaca, Mexico and was called just two nights ago to be our District leader so I'm companion to the district leader. This doesn't come with too many more responsibilities but enough to make life even more interesting, including: helping him collect the mail for the district, combining the goals of the missionaries, their companionships, and creating goals for the district. We have a lot of things that we need to accomplish and memorize while here; D&C 4, the articles of faith in spanish and english, my purpose as a missionary (also in both languages), the first vision (both languages), and the names of the missionaries in our zone (which is quite a few).

My Branch President's name is President Dennis. He's a very kind man and I can feel his love just by hearing him talk. His wife is a real fireball though. She's great and I can tell she loves missionaries but she was the first person in my mission to really let me have it. Yes, I have been lectured. My jacket wasn't buttoned up and she wasn't too happy about it but I will pay closer attention from now on.

I'll send more details later on my schedual, etc but for now I'd like to leave you all with the lesson that struck me strongest this week. We are all children of of Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to be happy and if we stop worrying about ourselves and serve others around us, God will bless us greatly. We can do anything with God. But we can do nothing without him. I testify of the truthfulness of that statement and want you all to know that I love you, I hope you are doing well, and I pray for you every day. Please pray for me as I do the Lord's work the next two years.

Love,

Elder Palmer

p.s. my address is:

MTC mailbox #356

Mex-Mex

2005 N 900 E

Provo, Utah 84604-1793

ELDER PALMER'S MTC ADDRESS!!! (MTC and First Letter)

Elder Palmer's Mailing Address:

    Elder Jordan Michael Palmer

Mexico Mexico City East Mission

Provo Missionary Training Center

MTC Mailbox # 356

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793 

     We dropped Elder Palmer off at the MTC Wednesday afternoon, September 14th.  It was a very surreal moment for our entire family, as well as a very exciting and proud moment.  Jordan was excited and anxious to get in and start getting to work.

      We were lucky enough to receive our first letter from Elder Palmer today, and we were excited to hear about how his first day.  We were all hoping for an easy first day for him.  When we read the letter Elder Palmer proceeded to tell us that his first day didn't go as smoothly as possible.  When he went to check in unfortunately, they could not find him on the list of missionaries that were supposed to check in that day.  Apparently there was a mistake made and they actually changed his arrival date to October so that he could do a 6 week program instead of an 8 week program. That of course would have been great, except for one problem... they never told the most important person, Jordan, that they were changing his date.  Of course they weren't going to make him leave and come back in a month so they checked him in and because they didn't have a companion for him, they paired him up with a companionship already together.  Elder Olsen from Las Vegas, Nevada and Elder Marker from Green Bay, Wisconsin.  So he now has two companions which he seems to get along with so far.  Hopefully from here on out everything will go well much smoother for him, and he can get to work improving on the Spanish language, the lessons and growing his Testimony.  We are all very proud of him and his great example and are excited to share all of his great and unexpected experiences. ;-)     

 

First Post

My sister and I set up this blog so she can run it and update my contact information for anyone that wants to follow me or send me letters/emails. I'd love to hear from friends, family, teammates, coaches, and church leaders while I'm on my mission in Mexico City. I love you all and you'll be a part of my prayers. 'til we meet again!