December 5, 2010

Hi everyone,

I've had a great time in Edmonton in my last transfer. I have a great companion from Quebec.

I'll be home on December 16th and report my mission on December 26th. My meeting starts at 1:20 p.m. at the Midvale East First Ward. The Building is located at 250 East and 7570 South. Hope you can make it.

Look forward to seeing you

October 20. 2010

Jordan was able to participate in another baptism. Courtney Hardy was baptized on October 9. He and his companion are teaching a 10 year old boy, Josh. His parents are returning to activity. They are also teaching an older couple, Alfred and Nancy.
Alfred plays the violin. He and Jordan enjoyed playing together last week.

We got the official letter of his release. He will be arriving at 4:14 p.m. on December 16, 2010. That time will be here before we know it.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Elder Jordan Ferguson had his first baptism, Gabriel, on August 31st. Gabriel's wife Betti has also been taking the lessons. Elder Ferguson said she told him and his companion that she knows that what they have taught her is true, but she has one question left to be answered. Elder Ferguson feels that she will also be baptized.

Elder Ferguson is to be transferred to Spruce Grove and will be serving there for the rest of his mission. His companion will be Elder Wilson from Kaysville. Elder Ferguson is excited to have the transfer.

August 17, 2010

Elder Ferguson was able to take a temple session at the Edmonton Temple today.

He was excited because two of his contacts went to church on Sunday. They were Gabriel and Dallas. He is also hoping that Gabriel's wife, Betti, will go to church and feel the Spirit.

He and his companion had an Ethiopian dinner with Gabriel and Betti. He said it was delicious. I am sure they also talked to them about the church that evening.

July 27, 2010

Elder Ferguson and his companion, Elder Smith are working hard. They have a couple, Gabriel and his wife, Betti, who are very interested, but are also trying to open a new restaurant. Gabriel has a stronger interest and is trying to get his wife to join him.

Dallas is their other investigator that has promise. She has quit smoking, but has lots of questions. She is being more diligent in her study and prayer with the Book of Mormon.

Elder Ferguson and others in their district meet at the stake center on their preparation day to play hockey in the gym. He likes the game.

Elder Ferguson is beginning to realize that his time as a missionary is going fast.

July 5, 2010

Elder Ferguson has a new companion, Elder Smith. They were on their way back to their apartment and had decided to get some gas. They were near Gabriel's house and decided to visit him. He was so glad they showed up. Gabriel had been praying for peace when Elder Ferguson and Elder Smith knocked on his door. He has set July 29th as his baptismal date. Other investigators are coming along. Dallas has set July 17th as a baptismal date.

Elder Ferguson sent a pickture of him with his zone and his new mission president and family. He is kneeling on the front line. How appropriate. President Campbell, his wife and 16 year old daughter are standing on the second line. (Mom is challenged in trying to get the picture up, sorry). Maybe later.

The elders enjoyed celebrating Canada day on July 1st. They don't do much proselyting on that day because people aren't interested and the drunk ones may do them harm. They did visist with Gabriel and taught him that day. Elder Ferguson said he wasn't impressed with their fireworks, but enjoyed watching what they did have. They also sang the Star Spangled Banner during their companion study time this morning.

May 11, 2010

Mom was on pins and needles for a few minutes on Mothers Day. Elder Ferguson had emailed to call around 7. I kept trying to call the number, but kept getting a fax machine. Finally, Brother Hogg from the ward Elder Ferguson serves in called to tell us to call about 8:15 and gave us the correct phone number. I tried at 8:15, but got a busy signal. His companion, Elder Phelps, was still talking with his family. we waited for about 10 minutes and tried again and got through. It was really good to hear his voice. He is doing well. He hasn't seen an Aurora Borealis. He is doing his best to work with his companion and the people of the area. Gabriel and his family are really busy with business right now, so have postponed their baptism until the end of the month. Most of the family got a few minutes with him on the phone. By the time he had to hang up, he was sounding in much better spirits.

Elder Ferguson emailed us today. He hasn't told President Rhodes that he is serving with a cousin. President Rhodes will be leaving after the next transfer. Elder Ferguson comments: That's going to be tough. It's been fun know him. He's a really neat guy. He is very strong spiritually.

May 3, 2010

"Our investigators re doing pretty well. Some are stubborn, some are doing really good. Gabriel and Betta are golden contacts. Gabriel is already talking about baptism. The bishop is going to talk to the stake president to see if there is a way he can be baptized next week. Then he can receive the priesthood and baptize his family who are eligible such as his wife and nine year old son."

"Dallas and tony are okay. They really want to get baptized and are off cigarettes right now. They are just trying to get a divorce finalized so they can be married and baptized. They didn't get to church yesterday because Dall had a wicked bad migraine, apparently."

Jill and Cody didn't come to church as We pretty well knew they wouldn't. Cody doesn't feel ready to come yet and his Jill said she wasn't much of church person. We stopped by on Saturday and talked with them before church. They were drunk so we knew they weren't going to be able to come to church. We'll see what happens though. We'll keep talking to them and do all we can to help them progress in the gospel.

As for Mother's Day, most likely you'll have to call me around 7 p.m. My companion and I have to work out the time with the other elders as well.

April 26, 2010

So sorry I didn't post this last week.

Jordan wrote: "Things are going pretty good here in Canada. We have found 4 new people to teach this last week. We were getting a haircut for my companion and had a couple of minute wait, so we walked into a little grocery store nearby. When we talked with the man at the counter, he asked about my name tag and that of course proceeded to what kind of Church is it, which led to the first vision and then we set up another time to come by and drop off Book of Mormon because neither one of us had a copy. We taught him all of Lesson 1 from Preach My Gospel and then invited him and his family to church. he said he'd come alone this week, but bring his family the next week if everything w okay and we weren't crazy or anything like that. Gabriel came to church and really liked it. He was actually talking about baptism. His wife, Betta, is also interested."

"The other couple are named Cody and Jill. We had talked previously with Jill, but wanted to talk to her more when her husband was there. Cody was former Jehovah Witness. He said he was forced to be there until he was 14, but couldn't take it anymore and left. he said that it turned him off to other religions for a while, but then he also said after a while he started looking into a few other religions to see what they were like. The only things he had heard about the LDS church was from the show, South Park. He said that he knows most of what they say is about 10% truth and the rest is just super exaggeration. Jill had questions about the Word of Wisdom and I tried to clear them up. We invited them to church."

"Iv'e been to the Edmonton Temple twice since I arrived. I will have another opportunity on May 11th. It will be nice to go to the temple again.

April 19, 2010

The missionary work is kind of slow and just kind of going at this point. We are trying to do things but time always seems to run out on us or other stuff pops up. Dallas and Tony are doing really well though. They came to church again on Sunday. Tony wore a suit that he bought at a second hand store. He said he felt kind of like a slacker or something along those lines because he saw everyone else in suits. He had been wearing his nicest button up shirt and a tie, but they found this suit that fits him for 20 bucks and he's going to wear it all the time now. Tony is now working for the bishop in the ward, which helps a lot with their situation and some of problems they are having. They are talking a lot more about getting married now as well. Things are really looking up for them. They are working on quitting smoking.

So I recently met a missionary that has been in the Edmonton Canada mission for about 2 months. He is Elder Russell from Blanding, Utah. He said he knew the Richmond's, mostly Robby. He is serving in St. Paul with the natives.

APRIL 12, 2010

Last week was a 3 day holiday for all government facilities so the library that he usually emails from was closed. He wrote: "I've been out for 16 months and the pace isn't slowing down."

They had some snow recently, "just a few inches here in St. Albert. Fort McMurray which is north got dumped on, two feet." His last companion, Elder Phelps was moved there and called to be a district leader. Elder Phelps is from Alpine. His Grandmother, Kathryn, passed away 3 years ago, but she was born a Ferguson. Hence Elder Phelps is a second cousin once removed of Elder Ferguson.

Elder Ferguson really enjoyed General conference. One of his favorite talks was by Elder Packer on staying alert. One of his investigators, Dallas, was able to watch most of conference. A cable company, Shaw Cable, is willing to service the church members in that area. "Dallas and Tony were able to make it to church and things are going better for them. They have set a baptismal date of May 15th. They need to quit smoking and get married." We will continue to teach and help them along the way.

Elder Ferguson is starting to think about when his mission is finished, but not too much. He wrote: "It'll be cool and weird at the same time, you know. I'll like the fact that I can finally have some time to just be myself again, but it'll be weird at the same time because I won't have someone right there with me to talk and joke with."

April 2, 2010

We had a really good week this last week. We have 6 new investigators: two from tracting, two from contacting some people at a gas station, one from going out to an investigator's place whose appointment fell through, and the last one from a dinner appointment with members. Dallas also finally came to Church. her boyfriend, Tony, started taking the lessons last week. He really gave her that push that she needed because he really wanted to keep the commitments that we gave him. He also really wanted to come to church and he remnded her of it! it was really an exciting week this week!

The power of the Atonement is very real and is there to help with more than just our sins. In Alma 7:11-12, it talks about the pains and sicknesses that Christ also felt. It also talks about death and how because of the fact that he experienced these things that we can feel comfort from Him when we are in hard times with the weight of the world bearing down on us. I also like Alma 24:10. This is about the brother of Lamoni and son of the great Lamanite king, Lamoni's father. Anit-Nephi-Lehi becomes the next king over the Lamanites. He and those who converted had to leave or they would have died for they wouldn't take a weapon into their hands, fearing they wouldn't be forgiven again. I kind of look at it this way. They feared that if they killed someone again, they would remember why they enjoyed killing and turn back to their wicked ways and not be able to turn back to Christ and then they would be unable to receive for- giveness. We have our weaknesses and temptations, but through Christ we can be strong, praying we can always come off conqueror. This is what gives me the greatest hope in my life.

Not everyone understands everything all at once. We come to our conclusions and realizations of the gospel at different times and in different ways. It depends on the pride we have as well. It's all about when we are willing to let our pride go and ask our Heavenly Father for truth and testimony.

March 25, 2010

I don't know what happened to the last post. I did it last week. Oh well, here is the report for this week. This is Mom writing. Now on to Elder Ferguson.

I'll be happy when it starts to really act like spring around here. It's been really nice the last week or two with highs in the 10s. Then all of a sudden we wake up to see it has snowed and frozen to the windshield of the car in a nasty way. It's minus 7 out (March 22), so not super comfortable. You would think I would be semi used to this by now, but I still don't like there being snow on the ground when I should be able to see greenish grass. It's just going to take a little while longer. The sun light is longer now, It is nice. Instead of going down at 5 p.m. it goes down at about 8:30. Of course the daylight saving switch helped with that. Now I don't feel terrible for ringing doorbells after dinner time. Before I would just feel really bad because it was like I was invading time when it was time for people to be going to bed.

We had a special stake meeting with Elder Melchin, an area authority. He spoke about temples. The Edmonton Temple President and his wife also spoke about covenants and genealogy work and temple work. We had a special meeting Saturday with Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve. He spoke on how we cOuld approach member missionary work a different way and tr a new way to get referrals, which I'm just fine with doing, but my companion doesn't want to do it. We'll see what happens. we also got the opportunity to shake hands with Elder Nelson and his wife, Elder Melchin and Elder Donald Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy. Elder Hallstrom and Elder Melchin spoke on Saturday as well.

We go to the food bank here in St. Albert to do service work. We shelve and sort things, but last week we helped moved a refrigerator. We e-mail from the public library. I finally got my shoulder bag that I inadvertently left in Peace River. I practice on my violin on P-day by playing hymns and figuring out other songs.

We have 14 to 17 investigators that we are working with. Dallas Voung has a baptismal date, but is struggling to quit smoking. It keeps us busy. We also go tracting, but I don't like it. I hope to implement the new way that Elder Nelson gave us, working with members for referrals.

I 'm trying to be healthy and work out. It's hard when it's cold in the mornings though. Bishop Gatt, who's from England, bought a bow flex that we are able to use. It is really nice.

More later.

March 2, 2010

Elder Jordan Ferguson has been transferred to St. Albert. It is just north of Edmonton. He is glad to be in the Mission Hill Ward. His companion is Elder Phelps from Alpine, Utah. He has been in the mission for about 6 weeks, but has gone through training. He is a cousin to Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer. Elder Ferguson wrote, "He's a pretty cool kid, very hard working." Elder Ferguson is no longer a district leader. He said it was fun, but he hated the paperwork. He is enjoying being a missionary.

Elder Ferguson reports that one of the investigators, a sister, has a baptismal date. Other investigators are new. One investigator used to be a changer for a Roman Catholic Church. He is going to be gone for a while and says he won't have the time to give the church the attention that he knows it deserves. Terry, a friend of the Bishop enjoyed going to church and said he will probably be back, but he actually lives in a different area of the mission. They will have to forward his information on to that area.

Elder Ferguson was glad to see the Olympics come to a close. "Now that the Olympics are over we may be able to get some more work done. No one wanted to listen when we went to the door during the closing ceremonies. When the American hockey team beat the Canadian team last week, no one was very happy when we came to the door. The chapel on Sunday was semi-
empty because the big game was on and people didn't want to miss it. We had a Stake Priesthood meeting we didn't attend. We were tracting instead, which really did nothing for us because the Olympic closing ceremonies were on, and NO ONE wanted to turn it off and let us in. It was ridiculous."

He also wrote: "Time has been flying by since I cam to Canada. I just can't believe that I'm more than halfway through my mission. When looking at it from the beginning I thought it would take forever, but time has gone by so fast."

February 24,2010

Elder Ferguson and his companion, Elder Anderson along with Elder Smith and Elder Faber put on a musical Fireside on February 21st. I know Jordan played his violin and they sang hymns. He wrote, "We sang and performed the first lesson from Preach My Gospel. We did hymns: Nearer My God To Thee/Guide Me To Thee, I Am A Child of God, Love at Home, There is a Green Hill Far Away. We sang "How Can I Be? and The Things I Know." They also performed Joseph Smith's First Prayer, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, and I Need Thee Every Hour. They were hoping to have a lot of non members there. Only one non member came named Evelyn. Elder Ferguson feels it was "her first big step to coming to church, this really helped, I think." They had quite a few members attend.

Other than the musical fireside, there were two baptisms in Fairview. That is part of his district. It was a mother and daughter "who both really want to come to church...they also have a friend, who took the lessons with them, but due to current circumstances of her life has to wait for a little while to be baptized. She is determined to get baptized and the whole branch is supporting her. It's awesome."

"I haven't spoken in Peace River at all, but I have spoken in High Level and in High Prairie. It has been quite an experience working here in Peace River and High Prairie. I'm going to be leaving here this week. I don't now where I'm going yet, but I'll let you know ASAP.

Sorry for not blogging for awhile.

The missionary work has been slow. He and his companion are hoping that the night of music they have planned will bring some non members and maybe in-actives out. They are trying to find people to teach. I'm glad that President Rhodes has allowed Elder Ferguson to have his violin.
Music is a powerful tool for good. I hope it works.

The economy in northern Alberta was never really exciting, mostly agriculture with some side industries. They all struggle.

The weather has not been too bad. Most of the time the temperature is around 0 to -5 centigrade.

They are trying to help Kathy get baptized, but they found out she is not married to the man she is living with. In fact she hasn't divorced her former husband. So there are a few things to take care of.

New Pics!

Hey everybody! It's Heather... Jordan e-mailed me some pictures today, so I thought I'd put them up!

I'm glad he's up there in the cold, not me! (OOOH, I hope that didn't just jinx Eddie and I to go to a cold place on our mission someday!)

January 18, 2010

Elder Ferguson says that 30 degrees Fahrenheit sounds pretty good. The temperature in High Prairie has been from -5 to -15 degrees centigrade. He says it isn't too bad and that he get too hot if he wears his winter coat over his suit.

He had a bit of a scare the other day. He and his companion joined in with the young men at the church to see how fast they could go through the obstacle course the young men had set up. Elder Anderson was first and made it through in two minutes and six seconds. Elder Ferguson went next and finished in two minutes and sixteen seconds. He commented that it wasn't too bad, but had to sit down because he was winded. Then he got really dizzy and nauseous and went pale. One of the leaders is an EMT and checked his pulse and blood pressure. He took Elder Ferguson to the emergency room at the hospital. They put a monitor on his heart and were checking his pulse and blood pressure. They drew blood to be tested, but in an hour they came back with no negative results. They took x-ray of the lungs, but they were fine. The blood pressure was up a little so they kept him over night. The next day, the doctor prescribed an exercise and diet regimen for Elder Ferguson. He was glad that all seemed well. Elder Ferguson was glad that he could now have a medical excuse for not overeating at the members homes.

He wrote about an experience of a 2 o'clock Sunday meeting with an investigator. The Branch mission leader was with the elders when they approached a door. The lady of the house opened the door and was "absolutely drunk. She asked us good and bad questions. She first asked us if we were all virgins and if we had to be virgins to be members. Then she asked how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. She told Elder Roberts that he had clown shoes. Then she kept glancing weirdly at me. She stared at me for a second and then exclaimed loudly, "Oh! I though HE was a GIRL!" Since then one of the members in the area, Brother Coward has jokingly called him a sister missionary. In fact, Elder Anderson and Elder Faber wrote a song all about the adventure. It was recorded at Brother Coward's home. He put it on You Tube. You can view it at Elder Sister Ferguson. It is a scream.

Elder Ferguson said that since the baptism of Kim Smith that the missionary work has been a little slow. They are working through it and are currently trying to find more people to teach. It is hard because the recession has hit that area pretty hard. Two of the three saw mills have shut down. Many people have to look elsewhere for work. Church attendance at Peace River is between 50 and 60 people while at High Prairie the average is about 28. There must be a lot of possibilities for investigators, but the work is hard.

Sorry, Mom is so slow in posting the news. Kim Smith was baptized on January 2nd. Jordan commented that the water must have been a little chilly because she almost swore as she entered, but recovered quickly. She was glad the ordinance took place.

He and Elder Anderson are teaching a young man named Marcel. He was going south to a town near Innisfail, so Elder Ferguson was going to try and contact the missionaries serving there to see is they would meet with him.

Elder Ferguson was excited about an upcoming music fireside. He is hoping that it will generate some new contacts.

The mission has changed their preparation days to Monday. Mom is still getting used to it and was a little late in e-mailing this past Monday. Elder Ferguson commented that they changed their proselytizing to earlier in the day and hoped to get any late e-mails.

Elder Ferguson said that the weather has warmed up there recently to about 10 degrees above zero Fahrenheit.

JANUARY 1, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Things are great with Kim Smith. We finished her lessons and had the interview on December 30. She will be baptized on January 2nd. It took a while for the interview to take place because the zone leaders had trouble getting to High Prairie including having to go out of the way to get gas, losing their way and sliding off into the ditch when spinning on black ice.

It was great to talk to all of the family on Christmas day. i was going to sing I'll Be Home for Christmas next year, but then decided not to.

I think I'll be getting a transfer in January. My preparation day is changing to Mondays on January 4th. That is the day I will get to read e mails and respond.