Elder Jordan Blackwell's Mission

Returned to Salt Lake City over General Conference weekend and visited with friends still serving and at the mission reunion. What a tender mercy to run into Jordan’s last companion as we were parking!!! So much joy as Jordan greeted his mission brothers and parents - it was awesome!

Another picture found.

Lurking in the background.

Found another few pictures with our Elder!

Assorted first day home/mission release pictures.

With our dear friends (and former longtime home teacher) Elder Michael And Sis. Sandy Gillenwater just before leaving SLC.

I love the UT SLC HQ Mission page- another mom ran into our elder. The pictures turned out bright, but its so fun to see our missionary!

3/30/17
The week of miracles. Straight up.
Hello fam! How is it going? It is incredible here. This week has truly been a week of miracles. Let's go down the week highlights, shall we?

Last Thursday (after emails) Elder Snow and I were part of a group that went to go teach elderly people at a nursing home about adding memories of their ancestors. There was a 81 year old french speaking lady, and for obvious reasons I was assigned to help her. We had to spend 20 minutes just to find her father, but it was worth it. It turned out her father was a russian general during WW1 and fled for fear of assasination to Paris, France. (Hence why this lady was born in france) But that wasn't the best part. We went to his father, and saw that there were 3 memories. It turned out there was a russian coat of arms attached to him (a shield thing from the 1600-1700's) along with an explanation of what it meant. This lady had ancestry that was royalty during the 1600 and 1700's, to the point where her direct paternal line owned villages and ran them as the head in multiple parts of russia. she had never known about this. She truly had been touched by the spirit of Elijah. she asked for my name, and every one was in shock. I even got a picture of the coat of arms, but I forgot my flash drive (doh! :) It was so cool. She was crying with joy. She begged me not to leave. :) I don't care if it took part of my p-day, .

Friday-Sunday Work and sacrament were amazing as usual. elder Johnson (my former companion) gave an incredible talk on consecration. Everyone was touched by it.

Mon-Wed work as usual. Helping a lot of people. Living the life. And a pretty dang good one at that

Today(so far) we got up early to do baptisms for the dead. I was baptized for many people in the nagel family. It was so spiritual and fun. We then went to get food and do laundry, which was good. After that we went to the tabernacle for a special organ recital. This one featured the kings men a ca****la group and organists, students from one of the oldest and well known music colleges in England. It was incredible. The a capella was so in tune, and the organists were amazing. They performed latin music for us in the tabernacle. It was incredibly fun.

(A message directly to all those watching his FB page, writing him, etc...)
Let them know that I love them and thank them so much for supporting me! Tell them also that I know God is real. He lives, and loves me. Thanks so much for all you do.
(About advancing to become an arbitrator)
Yeah, I'm getting close! I have indexed over 3100 records. My goal is to get to the 4000 mark 2 weeks from monday. It'll be hard, but completely worth it.

It is time to give thanks for sure in our family. I think it would be well for all of us to pray and thank Heavenly Father for everything that is going on as a family. I certainly will do so.

The spirit has been amazing this week. I love God. I love my companion. I love Jesus Christ. I love this Gospel, and I know that it is true. I love all of you. God bless and keep you. privileges and are forever! Love you Forever!

Elder Blackwell
P. S. Here is a photo of me right before the kings men began in the tabernacle.

Received an emailed picture from this senior missionary couple tonight!

So thankful to find this picture on another mom's post today!

Today's email:
Hello Fram! I hope everything is going well for all of you at home. I'm so excited to see that you went to the temple.

So transfers was last tuesday, and some changes have been made (besides my p-day again.... Lol XD, I guess just expect that to be different every time now:) I now have a new companion. His name is Elder M Snow (We have two elder snows, so we have to distinguish.) He is awesome, he was in my district and apartment last transfer, and we get along very well. Also, we got moved into a 2 man apartment, so only the two of us live there. It is awesome! the apartment is super roomy, and we have more than enough room for everything! a good message for the youth, good cleaning skills= happier relationship with your companion (mission and eternal).

Now as far as my assignment, it is the same. We did lose 2 elders in our zone, so we only have 8 elders working in the day and 10 at night, which means we are getting even busier than before :).

I am under a different district leader. I am under elder schetrompf, who lived in my apartment the first transfer I was in hosting. He is hilarious! This is really setting up to be a great transfer.

I'm actually getting close to becoming an arbitrator (the second part of indexing for experienced indexers) I should be one by the end of this transfer. I'm glad to almost be ready for that.Basically, the next level requires you to index at least 4000 records and then apply for the opportunity. Basically, every record that comes in to be indexed gets indexed twice, and then an arbitrator goes through any differences between the two people's index. they make the final judgement call on the name, place, year, and other things of a record. Once that is done, the arbitrated record is searchable on familysearch.

I've got some photos from today. It is actually raining right now in temple square, and it has been raining all day. Local people have been talking about how rare it is for this much rain to accumulate here. The buds are also blooming so I've got some pics of that. I love all of you so much. The Lord has shown me many miracles since I have decided to consecrate myself to him and his work. God Bless all of you. Love you Forever

This arrived today! The last name tag for this generation is in the cabinet!!!