California is Picture Perfect!

California Sunset

My Guitar "Ramona"

Redlands, CA temple we go every three months

Tracting in Riverside

Riverside, CA



On the plane from the MTC to California November 27, 2012

My Companion and our Apartment in Riverside, CA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Testimony of the Gospel (and cleaning ...)

February 25, 2013

 

Hey!

Thanks for sending me some mail real quickly. I've successfully obtained a library card. By the time I'm through with my mission I'll have a little collection of California library cards. It will be the best! (The missionaries go to the local library to email letters home) Hey and I always forget to tell you thanks for keeping me updated with all my friends, and what is going on with all of them. Looks like Chris is doing good laying down his weapons of war. Good man! I have to do a better job at that as well. Tanner will be chillin' (serving) in California for a while. That's pretty wild. Do you know how long he'll have to wait for his visa?? & I hope Josh and Kenny are doing good in the ol' MTC! That's crazy about every one's mission calls recently. Jacob is going to California speaking Hmong? That's one of the craziest things I've heard! I met a few missionaries going to Minnesota speaking Hmong while I was in the MTC. I guess there are little communities all over the place! And Brooke is going to Boston! That's too cool! It fits her. I don't really know how, I can just see her doing really well there. Taiwan fits Josh Claflin as well.

I'm really digging the new area, even if I haven't had one Spanish street contact yet. I think the Lord really wants me to work hard at learning the language. We made a goal as companions to speak to each other in Spanish all day, as much as we can. It has been working out well, and will help me a lot. The branch is really cool! There are a lot of really good members and alot of them are willing to help us out with missionary work. It is weird going to church and having such a small congregation though, and I thought my last ward was small..... This one has it beat. But like I said the members definitely make up for it. They are champs!

So, we live with some members and they are pretty great! I haven't met the whole family yet, but I see Brother S a lot, he takes us hiking in the hills out front by his house every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that means we have to wake up extra early.. and I still hate waking up. I thought I would get used to it, but I don't think I ever will. He is a pretty great guy! We live in a room, just like any other bedroom, and share the kitchen. It's a pretty sweet deal! There house is the cleanest house I've seen, and we have quite a few rules to keep it clean, and it's actually really easy to do. It's a concept I never got before but it's a lot easier to do a few, little extra things now, and not have to have a mass cleaning project later. I'm a fan! So don't be surprised if I come home a clean freak.

I have been reading Preach My Gospel all they way through, and doing the activities on all the pages for my personal study. It's really great! I've been learning a lot of cool stuff! Tell Jenn I've completed the reading chart for D&C that she gave me. I read the whole thing last transfer. It was great. There is a lot of really neat things in there. Well, that should suffice for know. Thanks for everything (Mom & Pops), for allowing me to come out here and do this, and everything! I've made it a goal to do more testifying in lessons, but why not do some testifying now as well. I have a testimony of Revelation, both personal and modern revelation given through the living Christ. The message we share of the Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most unique and marvelous message any one could hear, and it's either true or it's not. And it's my testimony, something I can say, as a 19 year old boy, who doesn't know much of anything, that it's true. I would have thrown in the towel and came home a while ago if I didn't know. And it all boils down to a prayer I said about a book, and an answer I can't deny, and can only explain as a manifestation of the Holy Ghost. So, there you have it. Thanks for everything. I love you all!

Love Elder Higgins

Transfer Day!

Send Mail to Elder Higgins at Mission Office:   Elder Jordan Dale Higgins
                                                                                 California Riverside Mission
                                                                                 5900 Grand Avenue
                                                                                 Riverside, CA  92504

February 19, 2013

 

Hey everybody!!

I got thrown a curve ball here, and got transferred to a new area. Both my companion & I got transferred. He went to Redlands, and I got shipped to the densely Spanish populated land of Murrieta. That's a total lie. There are only two Spanish missionaries that cover the whole area, & I'm told that we have a very humble Spanish branch here, and 1 investigator that we are working with. It should be very fun, hard work. I also hear that the members are awesome, and love to share the Gospel, and the branch is very "Mission" oriented. We live in a home with some members that attend an English ward. They seem really nice.  My new companion is from Ogden, UT. He is awesome. We are going to get along really well! And I can already tell he is going to teach me a lot! From what I've seen of him already, He is the kind of missionary that I want to be. So I'm excited to be in this area, and with him!!

Way way back, when I was in Riverside, like, last week, we had our best week yet. It was a good way to leave Riverside! I don't feel like I got any closure though.. I didn't think I was going to leave. We went in and taught E-- about The Atonement, and then presented her with a baptismal date of the 17 of March. At first she said she couldn't do it, but we talked through her problems, and we helped her think about the things that are most important, and where she wanted wanted to see herself in the future. By the end of the lesson she agreed to get baptised, and she not only agreed, but did so with a smile on her face. I hope the new missionaries follow up on that, and she gets baptised. I promised her I would come back for her baptism when she did! So hopefully it happens!! I defiantly have a strengthened testimony of the spirit & how it does, indeed, provide aid to the things we need to say. I'm going to miss that area, and I'm going to miss the ward, and G (hope she gets baptised too). All of it.....

Love Elder Higgins

 

 

February 11, 2013

 

Hey!

This week was interesting. We are running short on options for people to visit, so we spend a lot of time tracting during the day, and then we visit the few people we have to visit at night. We tracted in the rain on Thursday. It was partly miserable, partly fun. Our pipes in our apartments broke Saturday night. We didn't have water from Saturday night until this morning pretty much. It was pretty crazy! They dug the whole lawn outside. We also had an infestation of ants. Someone left a doughnut out on the counter one morning, and when we got back there was a huge trail of ants leading to the doughnut. They were going back and forth across three walls, near the ceiling, and then they ran down the wall to the counter top. There was a ton of them. It gave me the heeby jeebys. I almost ran over a kitten as well. That would have been sad! Yeah, and we had a few cops get shot, like you already heard. The one that died was shot a few blocks from the other Spanish missionaries apartment. They were running that morning and saw the street all blocked off, and the cops told them to go back home. Pretty crazy. I don't know if the guy has been caught but he isn't in the area any longer. So that's good!

It's crazy this is the last week of the transfer! I'm almost done being "trained". Yeeah! I'm glad that I'll be classified as a normal missionary now! :) I think I will stay in this area for another transfer. I think my companion will leave for sure, but who knows. The other missionaries say President Smart pulls some crazy moves every transfer. We taught G twice this week. She really enjoys our message, and reads, and prays everyday. She came to the baptism for the other Spanish Elders and loved it. She said "ohala me bautizo" I don't know how to spell in Spanish, but that translates to something like, "Hopefully I get baptized." And I think she will. .......

With love, Elder Higgins

February 4, 2013

Hey gang!

This has been a good week. Nothing super miraculous or out of the ordinary, but it's been good. One day as we were tracting we found a family that has been taught before by missionaries. We did a harvesting blessing with them, and they said we can come back. So hopefully that can go somewhere. One of the brothers actually got baptized, but has since gone inactive. I guess he doesn't want anything to do with this church anymore, and he had told the bishop from his ward to stop sending people to try and get him to come back. Which is sad. But later this week I was reading in Moroni, in the 6th chapter, 4th verse, and it talks about the members being counted, and recorded so they would always be remembered. We do alot to try and keep people active out here. It's tough because there are not a ton of members, but it's important that we remember them, and do our best to keep them here. It reminds me of Christ’s request to Peter to Feed His Sheep. That pretty much sums up missionary work. We are feeding his sheep, most of which don't want to be fed, or at least don't know they want to be fed or think they already are. Being counted and numbered is a small part of the reason we need organized religion. So we can have people supporting us. The bigger reason for organized religion being that we need to be working toward eternal life, and doing those things that are necessary to obtain it. Like making covenants, and receiving counsel, and correction, in a Godly manner. I kind of studied about organized religion because some lady said she doesn't believe in it. She said everyone is a hypocrite that goes to church. Which is lame! While people that go to church aren't perfect, the sincere ones are looking to change, and looking for a source of happiness, and that is what church is all about. Pshh.. What does she know?

I  had my very first baptismal invite. We got a referral to go and visit this lady, so we went and taught her on Saturday, upon arriving we learned she is not even in our area. She is in the other Spanish speaking Riverside area. Lame! We don't get to teach her now. But she agreed to get baptized on the 17th, and she came to church. She is really nice, and wants the Gospel in her life. I honestly think she will get baptized on the 17th. It was pretty neat!

Here's kind of a funny story. It's actually quite disgusting. We were in a lesson a few days ago, and while we were teaching I was playing with the cutest puppy ever. I shouldn't have been playing with it necessarily. We are supposed to eliminate all distractions before teaching, but this particular distraction was too cute to eliminate. So I just kept playing with it, and I don't think it has been potty trained yet because it ended up peeing on my lap, and my arm. It was really really gross. What's even more gross is for the rest of the night we didn't have time to go back so I could change. I just thought I would share that with you...........

Love, Elder Higgins

 

 

Riverside Zone Conference - January 24, 2013

Well you can see part of Elder Higgins!

January 22, 2013

 

February 2, 2013 Update

So here's the story behind this picture Elder Higgins writes:

"The English Elders have these investigators, but we went and visited them last week because they have a grandpa that speaks Spanish.  They are a really cool family.  Anyway, the guys daughter likes him to put the cat in the bag and then they put it in a stroller and the daughter pushes it around and laughs.  This just happened to go down while we were there.  It was really funny and cute.  I feel like the cat doesn't really enjoy it though...........but I thought it was cool so I had them take a picture of me and the cat and sent it to you.

There are alot of dogs loose here.  We pretty much got attacked by one the other day!  It was wild, luckily it wasn't too mean.  I'm sorry you probably didn't want to hear that......"

Hot Peppers and Harvesting Blessings

January 22, 2013:  Elder Higgins writes....

.........."The other night as we were eating with the other spanish Elders at a members house someone asked, "Hermana, what's in the salsa?" Because it was pretty hot. Then the Hermana brought out these little peppers. They were super tiny. Like, 3 centimeters or so, and bright red. Well, another Elder suggested that we all eat one. So we did. Of course. They were super super hot. We were all crying. My companion's face was probably as red as the peppers. We were hiccuping. It reminded me of my Farewell day, except we didn't have Ice Cream to numb the fire. It was pretty funny. The Hermana got a kick out of it."  (***Note: there is a photo of the pepper challenge on this blog and a crazy video floating around on facebook, what is it with hot peppers??)

 

.......We are tracting a lot more and we are searching for new people. So, that's always a good thing! We do this thing called the Harvesting Blessing. It's where we basically introduce ourselves and representatives of Jesus Christ and we ask them if we can come into their house and give their home and family a blessing from Jesus Christ. We go in and we discuss what they might be looking for in life, and then we explain that we are going to pray by the authority and power of Jesus Christ, the Priesthood, and we explain it a littlebit, how it was lost, and restored. Then we pray for them. It is really neat! It's also a good way to get to know people and present our message. And who can turn down a blessing from Jesus?....

I am growing so much out here, and I'm super thankful for this opportunity! Thanks to you guys I can share this Gospel with the whole world! Much Love!!

Love, Elder Higgins