Surprise!

What a week! I guess for starters, I’ll break the news that I’m leaving Trumbull. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But just like the OC, Prison Break and LOST, all good things must come to an end. I’m going to Central Hartford. It will be a big change to go from the wealthy countryside to the inner-city, but I’m excited for the change and the opportunity to hopefully interact with more people every day. My companion will be Elder Prusse, who shared my room in the MTC and we’ll be sharing the apartment with 2 Spanish-speaking Elders. Here’s the new address:

Elder Cody Jardine

288 Park St Apt 2W

Hartford, CT 06106

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was great. Being with the English’s nearly made up for not being at home. We had tons of fun and lots of great food and virtually no arguments. That morning, we played a Turkey Bowl game with our ward and the other missionaries in our district. It was way fun and I made a touchdown and a couple interceptions. Not to brag or anything.

That’s all, folks. Hopefully I won’t get stabbed in the streets of Hartford between now and next week so I can tell you all about my continuing adventures! Have a blessed week. Thanks for everything. I love you all!

6 Months

This week I will be hitting my 6 month mark! CRAZY! If you haven’t sent your packages and congratulatory letters yet, don’t worry. You still have a couple of days to send them to make sure I get them in time.

What’s that smell in the air? NEW INVESTIGATORS, of course! Well, technically, we don’t have any new investigators YET. But we do have some great potential. There is a girl that has been coming to church for about a month with her friend, Kylie English (who we’re eating with for Thanksgiving) named Nina and yesterday at church, we explained the priesthood and Sister English is going to set up a dinner with the family to introduce everyone. There is also Sarah Gonzalez. We have had problems getting a hold of her family but hopefully soon we will be able to teach her.

Julian’s baptism is postponed til further notice. With his mom, we decided we just need to keep teaching him and take it slow so we’ll see how that goes.

Sorry this one is so short but I am pretty sure that’s all I’ve got. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy those red velvet cupcakes you’ll be eating in honor of my six-month mark! Love you all!

Things that are new and noteworthy

We weren’t able to teach Julian this week and are pushing his baptism back… again. Hopefully we can get everyone on board this ship and get some stuff figured out.

Saturday was designated in our mission as a “finding day”, a day to focus all of our efforts on contacting and tracting and doing other things to find new investigators. However, since we don’t really have any investigators and no appointments during the day, it wasn’t very different for Elder Thomas and I. However, during some tracting, we did have a neat experience. We knocked on a door and the man who answered immediately invited us in. He was very nice and offered us water and some food. We made small talk for a while and were eventually able to place a Book of Mormon with him. His name was John and he seemed fairly interested so we will definitely be following up on him.

Last night, we had a missionary fireside at the church that went really well. Bart Oats, former NFL player and three-time Super Bowl champion, came and spoke. It was really interesting. There were quite a few non-members there and we were able to talk to lots of people about the Church and give away a few Books of Mormon. Unfortunately, I think everyone we talked to came from outside our mission boundaries but we were still able to plant a lot of seeds.

That is all for this week and if there is anything else, I can’t think of it. I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for everything! Much love!!

Same Old

This past week has been pretty much the same as all the other ones before. We did some tracting and less-active stop-bys. Daylight savings is going to screw some things up not that it is getting dark at 4 PM. People don’t tent to answer the door when it is “night time”. Also, we had an ice storm this morning so winter is coming and I’m not excited about it.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference which was good. It is always nice to have a spiritual boost like that. However, we arrived about an hour late because we went to the wrong church. Apparently they sent out a text message telling us to go to a different church but we never got it so we spent the morning driving around western Connecticut.

We taught Julian again this week but had to move his baptism back to the 20^th because the family wasn’t ready for this weekend and they have guests coming to town next weekend. It wasn’t the best news, but we will be able to teach him more and make sure he is completely ready to be baptized.

Yesterday, Sister Gonzalez and Sarah came to church. Sarah said she liked it but it was “different” and her mom thinks she was a bit shell-shocked. Hopefully they’ll keep coming and we can teach Sarah soon.

That is the gist of what has happened to me the past seven days. Please keep us and all other missionaries in your prayers! I love you all and hope it is a good week for you! Talk to you soon!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Was yours as good as mine? I highly doubt it because you probably didn’t win the award for BEST DECORATED VEHICLE at the Trumbull 1^st Ward Trunk-or-Treat. That’s right. Our Books of Mormon and Joseph Smith pamphlets really pulled in the votes and our stacks of pass-along cards definitely sealed the deal. We won a shiny orange certificate and a mummy doll. My joy was most definitely full. For actual Halloween, we weren’t allowed to proselyte after 6 PM so after an awesome dinner appointment with purple mashed potatoes and blue apple cider served in chemistry beakers, we went back to the church and just hung out with our district for the rest of the night.

This next part may not make sense. It is a complex story, so bear with me as I try to explain. We got a call this week from a woman who is not a member of the church but has a friend from California who is. The friend is named Sylvia and she only speaks French. She is in Connecticut right now and somehow she got a hold of our number for her friend to call us and try to get her a ride to the church. MEANWHILE, we saw Guy (our investigator that we thought had moved) at the post office. He told us his sister was staying with them, that she was a member, and that she needed a ride to church. Do you see where this is going? Sylvia is Guy’s sister. They aren’t moving until the end of the month and yesterday Sylvia and Linda (Guy’s teenage daughter) came to church. It was really neat and I think we will start teaching Linda soon and then turn the family over to the other missionaries once they move. Please pray for that situation to work out and that there will be someone who can translate for the missionaries when they move!

Last week we went to meet an inactive family in the ward, the Gonzalez’s, and sat and talked to them for a while. The parents are both converts but they attend another church. A couple days later, we got a call from a lady in our ward who is Sister Gonzalez’s visiting teacher. She told us that Sister Gonzalez wanted us to teach the lessons to their 12 year old daughter, Sarah, who hasn’t been baptized and they want her to be able to make a choice of what church she wants to attend. I guess she went to a fireside last week and loved it so that is good news for us! Please pray that we will be able to meet with her and that her heart will be soft!

Well that is all I have for this week. Julian’s baptism is coming up on Saturday if we can teach him what he still needs to know and if he passes his interview! Thanks for all the support you’re sending my way! I love you all!