Jello Meat??!!....March and April 2011

GQ Pose in Russia...

So it was done...(14 April 2011)


Well sorry you didnt get my email yesterday the myldsmail wasnt working so we just get to email today. so here was the week. last week we had to help[ this guy to the hospital and the hospital was pretty creepy, there are people on gurnies everywhere long hallways of just rooms and people in them. and yeah i swear it could have been a horror movie place if the lights were dimmed and a flickering light at the end of the hall. So we were there for about 3 hours then we went back to the guys house. he is in a wheel chair so we would have to lift him everywhere and hold him while others move and fix the wheel chair, but its like 8 at nightafter we get to the house and they were like we need to feed you and we were like no we got to go and they wouldnt let us go, so we go in and sit down i am stuffed from the meal we had earlier though. then she is telling my comp what were are eating and turns out. . .  it was the meet jello. when she said those words my heart and stomach sank! and she cuts me a slice and slapps it on the plate and its just jiggling i was not excited. and then we were told the first day we got here not to eat fish, well for the side we had fish, and also some buck wheat. and thing here is they dont give you a drink till after your meal and they give you tea. well so there it was staring me in the face. i take a little peice and decide ok i will try it. i put it in my mouth and this is how it was... imagine salty jello made out of cow hoofs and nose and meat somewhere in the middle of it and carrots and yeah. it was slimy, moist, and overall not good. i had to hurry and shove the fish and buckwheat in my mouth to get it down. and i was gagging when it first was in my mouth so yeah dont want to have that again. and we went back there 2 days ago and we took this guy for a walk, or i mean we pushed him around for 10 minutes and it takes hime 20 to get ready haha, and same thing oh we got to feed you. no its ok we really have to go. we go sit down and its the buckwheat and some more fish but this was just chopped up fish, not cooked or anything. i didnt try it i just had the buckwheat. and that was everything that was exciting this week no investigators and we get like 7 meetings a week and all with members pretty much. hope everything is good back at home i love you all. have a good week

Love jordan 

Almost Behind Bars...(6 April 2011)


Hello everyone i hope you are all having a great week. so not to much happened this week. we dont have any investigators the guy i dropped the hammer on with the ping pong analogy doesnt want to meet with us anymore which is fine he wasnt progressing for 4 years. so what can you do? alright so after english club last week we were walking back to our apartment. we cross this busy street everytime we cross it but this time. . . my comp was almost hit by a car like he was maybe 6 inches away from being hit. and then once we get to the other side there were police men waiting for us, so they asked for our documents and they said usually you have to pay a fine for doing that. so they are looking at our documents and they didnt know what to think. so i am sitting there thinking like i am going to jail. i am going to go stay the night behind bars. i was kinda excited for it. and so i turn to my companion and say have you been to jail before? he says no. and i was like thats to bad i thought you were going to know what we should expect haha. he laughed. then they wanted us to sign something and we arent suppose to sign anything without our lawyers approval so we called her and she talked to the popo and said to sign it. so we did and yeah so we didnt have to go to jail but we got a citiation but we dont have to pay anything. another thing is that i went on a split with elder Goddard, he came here the same time i did, so we both dont know the language but we hap a meeting with this family that lived in new zealand so they know english. we play risk with them everyweek but his dad isnt a member, so me and goddard threw down the plan of salvation and he loved it and then the little kid was like what about reincarnation and i had the pictures all set out. i asked him, what about it, he said i want to be an animal, i said when do you get that choice? he said after i die. and i look at the pictures and was like this is gods plan his plan doesnt change, so you cant just take this picture and move it back to where we got our spirits and we understood it and changed his mind, it was really sweet. well that is it for this week hopw all of you have a good week. love you all.

Love jordan

Good Encounters...(30 March 2011)


Hello there again everyone, another week down and first transfers are down. i will be staying with my companion in the same area so that will be good we are hoping things will start rolling here pretty soon. this week we set a baptismal date for this one guy his whole family are members but he isnt. but he comes to church every sunday and is just a great guy. so we set a date for the 16th and hopeing he will recieve an answer if the book of mormon is true. but the only thing is he is addiced to . . . video games. . . he plays all day long and doesnt spend alot of time with his family so i am ready to lay the smack down on him too and say video games are only a temporary satisfaction and will only satisfy you for this life. . . but what do you have after this life? your family. . . but you playing video games is taking you away from your family and causing contention. so yeah we will wait and see how that goes. i have began to be very blunt with these russian people, they like to beat around the bush with everything so you got to be staright forward with them, but my comp is way to nice and has a hard time being blunt so i just do it and dont mind haha i get the point across. so yesterday we were handing out english club flyers and i stopped this guy and he started yelling at me and my comp starts talking with him and he is yelling and spitting everywhere and i am trying hard not to laugh because i just think its funny that people get so mad when they see the name tag so i am just like eh whatever and he was yelling like there is no god and what not so yeah we decided to just walk away. pretty funny. and also we had this chinese guy cook us some chinese food i told him to make it as spicy as he could! it wasnt to bad for me but my comp 2 other elders and peter (chinese man) were dying!! peter is like i am not going to cook for you again this is too hot!! my favorite saying of his is "YOU SO SUCK!!" so funny he is my favorite. So remember me telling you that my friend is going to be in the same mission as me the one i went to high school with? woodruff is his name, well he will be in my branch starting thursday so that will be fun to see him often. that is pretty much it this week, my language is coming along very slowly but yeah people we met with when i first got here we meet with again and the say i sound like a russian and it is getting alot better so yeah that makes me happy everytime i hear that, but i have a hard time understanding people still, they speak like lighting here, i dont know if you know how fast lightning is but its fast! i hope everyone is doing well and having a good week you are in my prayers and i love you all.

P.S. here are some pictures, my comp is the one i am at the table with, with mountain dew :)

Love jordan!

My Comp and I

Circus...(23 March 2011) 


Hello everyone! Another week down and i have been in Russia for over a month now. so this past week has been pretty crazy. we found this one guy in the metro and he know like whee our church was and when we meet and what not so we met with them and pretty much they are missionaries for the Russian orthodox church. and at the end they decided to say a prayer and write down what the spirit told them and gave it to my comp. well it sounded like they were beat boxing when they were praying, one guy is holding down the beat saying something they others and chanting some other words and yeah pretty crazy. we went back again and all they like doing is bible bashing so we aren't meeting with them anymore. we also had a meeting with this investigator who has been meeting with the missionaries for 4 years. so this meeting went down and i pretty much laid a smack down on him. he speaks English. so first time i met with him i gave him mints to take instead of smoking. well he just ate the mints. next time we met we challenged him to read the book of Mormon every night, he did nothing. then the next time i challenged him to read to find answers to his questions and he was going to give the lesson the next time we met, also nothing happened. so this next meeting we were going to commit him to be baptised, he started making excuses. so we were downstairs of the church and we have ping pong tables there and i went and got a paddle and ball and said OK, this table is your life, this ball is the book of Mormon and commitments and stuff like that, then i said the paddle was him. so i told him that the missionaries came and gave the book of Mormon to him. so i put the ball on the table, then said OK the ball is in your court. and asked him what can you do with the ball. he goes on and says stuff for playing and then i was like OK but you need the paddle to make anything happen and work with the ball right? he said yeah. so i said last time we asked you to read so you could give the lesson, in this case what did you do with the ball. . . ? you left it there didn't you, you did nothing with the ball. and i was like you have to pick up the ball to do something with it. i was like how hard is it to pick up the ball? not hard at all, same thing with the book of Mormon, its not that hard to pick it up and do something with it. then he was like this book cant help me in my life, then he opens up and flips to 2 Nephi and says how has 2 Nephi helped you in your life?? and i said flip to chapter 32 and read it, so he flips there and starts reading and then wants to stop and i said no, keep reading you wanted to know. my heart is pounding with adrenaline and the spirit at this point. finishes reading and then i say OK right there, words from god telling you to pick up the ball and do something about it. read the book of Mormon and pray about it. and then i was like this chapter is like having god right here showing us how to hit the ball over the net and score. so i was like if someone is showing you how to be better you would do it right? he said yes. so i said then pick up the ball and do something with it, then i hit the ball over the net and the echo of the ball bouncing fills the room, he was left speechless. alright enough of that, some fun stuff! we had a culture night this week and we went to the circus!! so much fun!! there was a huge bear in a like tonka truck thing and tigers and leopards and it was alot of fun. well that was about it for the week. hope everything is going well for everyone. i love you all

Love Jordan

Crazies??!! (16 March 2011)

So this last week was a little weird. we had about 3 or 4 meetings set up a day and we were lucky if 1 of them worked out. we had a total of 4 meetings last week and they were with mostly members. everyone else didnt feel like showing up so its all good. so not much else happened this week except for this crazy high dude. so we were handing out english club flyers and we were by our appartment and decided to give one out to every person that walked by. so we give one to this guy then he asks us for money for smokes. we said no but kept talking to him. then we asked what religion he is and he said satanist. . . yeah so my companion was like that bad. and the guy was like your saying i am bad and we said no satan is bad. then we was like look in my eyes, and got really, really close to my companions face and stared at hime for like 15 seconds and then backs away and asks is he sees bad in him. and we just tried not to answer the question then we were like ok we got to go and we start walking awaym, but wait he turns the same direction we are going, but we ran into him head on so he was going the other way before. so we start walking faster, he starts walking faster we are trying to lose him so we turn around a building and find that there is this huge deap puddle and you cant go around it because there and like little fences around it and then snow piles so we are stuck and then my comp was like what do we do? then he said ah the crazy is coming. . . so i jump the fence and am climbing on the snow but my feet are falling through the snow and i am like in snow past my knees and just plowing through it. then i get out of the snow and my comp just walks around and meets me there and starts laughing at me and then we were lke we cant go were we wanted because there is more snow so we go back the way we came and the crazy was gone. it was funny. :) not much else happend but that was the most exciting. hope everything is going well for everyone i love you

 

Love jordan

Looking Good (9 March 2011)

Alright so i am not illigal anymore we found a new appartment and we got all moved in. its pretty nice but i liked our fisrt appartment better. moving was a hassle bucause our landlord wanted us out of the appartment in like 1 day so we had to pack up and get out in one day and we had to take all our desks and stuff. we carried a closet up 9 flights of stairs and that was terrible because it didnt really fit in the stairs either. thiss week was alright we had alot of meetings planned but alot of people bailed on us so we didnt really do anything. we tried tracking and found out that doesnt work very quickly. we were told by like 5 people that they were going to call the police on us but they never did. and alot of guys came out with their shirts off and they . . . eh will will say they werent in shape. then this week i was a part of 2 blessings. so i have been in 3 blessings here in russia and one guy actually had me give the blessing so i gave my first russian blessing. he said that he understood everything that i said so that was good. the language is still really tough but it is coming along. ok one question you are all probling think of is how is the food and what have you had to eat?? well i made a goal before i got out here to eat everything that was putt infront of me. yeah so last night we were at this members house and the brought out potatoes and meat and an egg salad.. so to start off it was all cold! so not the best right there then is was soggy. . . there was like water on the bottom of it. and the egg salad had onions, cucumbers, eggs, and broccli. i think? i dont know how i did it but i ate it and eh . . . i am suprised i was able to eat it. i have been fed a pretty much raw chicken leg which eh, i wish that was warm too. but yeah i am somehow eating the food. the stuff that we cook is usually really good my comp likes to put alot of onions in whatever we cook. so i am getting better. so today we went to the reenok and decided to buy a suit, because they are way cheap here. so i got and lighter gray suit with a blueish pin stripe in it and it is european fit so it hugs the body ;) it looks good i got the suit for just over 50$ way good price and it looks good. then i found a tie that goes perfect with it. so the tie is black and it has grayish blue butterflies on it. oh man i am so excited to wear it all. i am also pretty much a champion of attracting people to talk to me and i have no idea what they are saying so i just decide to pull out the good ol book of mormon and give it to them and tell them its a gift and they dont believe me. but that is pretty much everything for this week not as exciting as last week but still a good week. we have about a strong 0 investigators so we need to find some. hope everything is going well for all of you love you all.

Love jordan

Illegal Americans...

Alright so lets start this off by saying that i have to run and hide from cops now. so this is the reason. . . so live in this apartment and then we get a call that our landlord doesn't have the right documents for us to stay there, so that means i am not registered in Russia and if i get caught by the cops eh its pretty much bye bye out of the country forever. so we were told to move into another building with other elders until we find another apartment. now i know how mexicans feel in America every time the see cops, but its all about the confidence if you act like nothing is wrong then the don't look at you or stop you. so we have been staying with 2 other elders for the past week and it has been really fun. this week has been really good we set a baptismal date with a brand new investigator but come to find out he doesn't live in our area so we had to pass him to other elders. we gave another guy a BOM and he seemed really interested. then i was part of a blessing last night which was way neat to hear in Russian and be a p[art of the circle. and then we were walking back to the apartment last night and we just got out of the metro and this guy comes up and asked me about my name tag so we started talking to him and he was a really neat guy and i decided i wanted to give him a BOM so i did and that was my first BOM that i gave out on the streets to someone we just met but he seemed really interested in it. Alright now for the good stuff that happened this week. so on Monday we go a volunteer to speak English with Russians at a library, so you sit down one on one with whoever signed up to do speak with you. so we go there and you speak for 30 mins with them. First person to come speak with me was this girl. . . and then her twin sister came and sat down too. . . so we talked for an hour and got along really well and i got there numbers after. . .(not so i can call them to see how there doing but to tell them about the church :)) but they were cool and we got along really well. then there was another girl who eh it was hard to talk with her because she kinda didn't say much. then i had a guy who wanted to sell me an apartment and just was doing business. then the last girl. . . this is where it gets good. so we started talking and it was some good talking, then she was like how long have you been here? i saw two weeks, she says what have you seen, i say, only red square and she was like no!! there so much more to see, here you can come with me and i will show you around, and i just tried to change the subject, then the topic of movies came up and then she said there was an American cinema here and what not then she was like when do you have free time we can go see a movie and then i changed the subject again. then at the end of our time she asked me and my comp to come hang out with her and her friend and my comp was like no! we don't have time and cant do that. hahah its not over yet. . . so yeah go downstairs to get our coats and i was like ok i will invite her to English club. so i am going to give her a flyer and she turns to me and was like hey can i get your number and i was like oh aaaaa. . .  yeah its on this flyer. and then she was like her is my number call me if you need anything like help with Russian or anything. hahaha i got asked on a date in Russia!! and i didn't even have to speak Russian :) but nope i shut her down ;) Then another good story so there are drunks everywhere here and they always fall down and cant get up.. . so we are outside a metro station and see this guy on the ground and i am laughing cuz he cant get up, then we go and help him up and pick him up ( there is a band playing outside the metro, just a little background info) so we are holding him up and then he was acting like a cat when you are trying to put the cat in water and the don't want their feet to touch. yeah he wouldn't put his feet on the ground so he is dancing to the music while we are holding him. then we set him down and he just starts dancing, this guy had some . . . .moves for a drunk man haha, then he walks over to a statue of Adam and eve and by it he just undoes his pants and starts to pee just in the open showing is whole glory to the world. but i guess that's normal here haha i thought it was way funny. so yeah that was about it for this week, we are looking for a new apartment and just making an adventure out of it. i hope everything is going great for all of you i love you all.

Love Jordan

Friend in Moscow

Jordan and Judd Player met up in Moscow. They both swam for the West Jordan High School swim team and earned the 5A State Championship a couple years back. For just a few minutes at the Moscow Airport they were able to meet up and chat. Judd's twin Brother is also serving in one of Russia's missions.  What are the chances...

Elder Judd Player and Elder Jordan Spoerri at the Moscow Airport

- 30 degree...Jordan's first week in the mission field

Alright so i got here a week ago and it was so sweet to hear evenone speaking russian except i realized i dont know russian. so lets start this off with step by step from the time i left the MTC, so we left at 5 in the morning tuesday morning and hoped on a bus to the airport then we get there and got situated and called home then boreded the plane i sat next to wininger on the first plane ride and a guy named herb, i talked to herb for like 2 hours but right off the bat he told me he didnt want anything so i just got to know him forever, that was my first shut down of the mission but it wastn to bad. and on that flight i had both of my carry ons by my feet so there was no leg room at all! i was so uncomfortable. then the next flight was alot better. we almost missed the flight but we made it in time and i went and found my seat and there was a lady sitting there and so i just sat next to her, i didnt care, and then she was like "oh this isnt my seat i am not sitting here" but she was speaking all in russian and i understood her and so i replied back" oh this isnt your seat?" and she was like no no no so i got up and she left but she forgot her computer case and so i had to go give it back to her so i went up to her and was like excuse me, this is yours, yeah? and she understood me and said thank you. i thought i was a champ because i spoke russian to someone outside of the MTC. but then here it comes. we get to russia. I DONT UNDERSTAND!! i dont understand like anyone. church members come up and talk to me and ask me where i am from but i dont know  but i dont understand it. but that was the first few days and i was way frustrated and was like what am i doing here i am never going to learn this language. but eh it takes time. so some stories, the grandmas here love me! i dont know why but they do! in church they all like came up and grabbed my hands and always ask me questions, but yeah i dont know what they say so they grab someone to translate for me and they just smile and grab my hands its funny. i dont know what i did to make them like me, all i do is smile :) so my companion. . . well lets just say since i was a terrible missionary in the MTC and had a hard time following all the rules, i got put with probably the most obeidiant person in the whole mission, there is a joke for the mission that he is John the Beloved. He is perfect in like everyway. but its going well i an\m learning alot from him. and he cooks for me so i cant complain. alright so here is a cool story. . . so my actual first real investigator. . . so he use to have a baptismal date a long time ago but then he started smoking again. so we met with him and had a way long meeting but he asked some good questions like why doesnt god help those people with cancer. and then my favorite at the end of the meeting he was like, you mormons think nothing is impossible and i was like your right nothing is impossible and busted out the scripture that with god everything is possible. alright so we were trying to get him to stop smoking and i was like ok how w\about we replace that habbit with a different one so i pull out my mints i have in my back pack and said, ok everytime you want to smoke take a mint and so he was trying them out and was like oh these mints are beautiful haha way funny and he was like ok i will try and i was like no you tell me you will or you wont. so i got him to say yes. and then so we all go outside after the meeting and first thing he does was pull out a ciggarete and lights it up. . . i was like what are you doing!! and he just laughs and smiles i was like NO! stop!! so we got him to throw it out and was way suprised. but i think he has been doing pretty good. so we went shopping today and i got this pretty sweet jacket its like one of those nicer dressier ones but it has some fur in it!! i love fur!! and its pretty sweet i love barganing with them too. OH! the ties are way cheap too! i am starting off my 1 tie a week for the rest of my mission. so i bought 3 today :) drunk people are everywhere here so its funny. like i was walking home a few days ago and so a guy just rolling on the ground because he was way drunk he was going crazy. oh and my favorite thing here is that when you step outside and take a breath through your nose. . . your nose hairs freeze :) probbably because its -30c here. well i think that is everything so far i hope everything is going great for all of you. i love you all! here is my address

Jordan Lee Spoerri

Moscow

glavpochtampt   a/ai 257

101000

Russia

Love Jordan

Finally in Russia...

Jordan finally made it safe to Russia. We received the following letter and pictures from his mission President.

Dear Brother and Sister Spoerri,

 

We wanted to let you know that your great son arrived safe and sound in Moscow earlier today, had his first day of contacting at Red Square near the Kremlin, and is now resting safe and sound before meeting his trainer tomorrow and heading for his assiugned area in Kakhovski, an area in Moscow. 

 

Thank you for preparing and sending such a wonderful son into the mission field.  He'll make a tremendous contribution, at an important time in the Church's development here. 

 

We've attached a couple of photos showing Elder Spoerri and the other missionaries who arrived with him today, in front of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square.

 

The Lord bless you for your sacrifice.  We will love working with Elder Spoerri.  Please contact us if you ever have any questions or concerns.

 

Warmest regards,

 

President Stephen J. Sorenson

Sister Corinne C. Sorenson

Russia Moscow Mission