October 26th & November 4th

In Jordan's October 26th e-mail, Jordan was able to report that Zahid had stopped drinking and was ready to get baptized but then came up to Jord and his companion yesterday at church and told them that he had slipped up and drank becasue his sister who he hasn't seen in a year came to town. Jordan said he felt really bad and was sincere but now they want to move his baptism up to the 16th and Jordan doesn't feel that that is the best decision. The zone leader is still trying to decide what to do about it but Jordan asked that you keep him in your prayers because he is a really great guy!

They don't really celebrate Halloween in Croatia, but they do celebrate the day of the dead and Jordan got to see some pretty cool stuff from it! Everyone takes red candles to the cemeteries and puts them on top of the graves so everything is lit up and looks really cool! Even though they don't celebrate Halloween in Croatia, the missionaries all do so they had a ward Halloween party on Thursday! They carved pumpkins, make snack and bobbed for apples! The members didn't  think that Jordan really would dip his entire face into the water to get an apple but he did! He sent some funny pictures. 

Here is a funny story from Jord about the day od the dead: 

"Something cool they do here on the first of November is celebrate day of the dead. I guess it is a Catholic holiday and everyone is Catholic here so it was a big deal. We tried to talk to people on the streets but no one was around. I told my companion he had to at least talk to one person before we had lunch it was tough but he did it. Anyways they buy all of these candles and set them on the graves at night. They were all red candles and it looked really cool when all you could see was red dots through out these huge graveyards. Elder Bursell bought a candle and we didnt know you are suppose to wait till after you are inside the graveyard to light it. So we looked like idiots I was holding the candle like the statue of liberty and we were getting weird looks. Once the sisters got there they told us that we arent suppose to do that so it was kind of funny." 

Jordan also got 4 new investigators this past week! They are a family that has talked to the missionaries before but they will be going back this week to talk to them more. They showed them a video of the restoration and talked about Joseph Smith and they want to hear more so pray for their hearts to be open to the gospel and hopefully the elders can teach them all about it!