Alpine, Utah
Mom's post:
Hi Everyone,
We were able to have a nice long video conversation with Elder Kocherhans on Mother's Day! He looked great, and it was wonderful to hear his voice and have some time to ask questions and catch up on things you don't necessarily have time to write about every week. We had all the kids here, along with our 4 grand children, so it was a joyful gathering!
Some of the highlights of our chat...
He talked about how great the Member/Missionary efforts are in his area. The members are feeding them referrals as fast as they can teach. There are two companionships assigned per ward, and they stay busy. The area he is serving, in Santiago, is a bigger city, and there are 2 Stakes...3 wards per chapel.
--It is really hot. He didn't complain about the heat, but it was mentioned :-)
--Toilet seats are non-existent... and large menacing bugs try to attack you while you are using the bathroom. Augggg.....
--One of the spiders he has had to deal with is called the Huntsman. Google it and get freaked out...
--He still loves to eat Balut. Google it and get freaked out... :-)
--There are lots of good candies in the Philippines, and overall, he loves the food. And, like President Obama, he has eaten dog. Eww.
--There are occasions he is using his music. He sang a solo for a conference, and has done a little guitar playing. He feels like he's losing his guitar skills. Understandable. I encouraged him to use his music as much as possible..and more than he may be doing at present, to do his Missionary work. He has such a gift...it seems to me a sad thing if he isn't using it a lot...especially when it can be such an effective tool to bring the Spirit. :-)
--He said people think he is wearing contact lenses...they can't believe his eyes are that color naturally. I kept noticing how beautiful his eyes looked...even in the pixily webcam connection.
--The Filipinos love Americans, and he has adults & children wave at him all the time.
--We talked to him about the missing package. It is the Johnson family, live in Salt Lake valley somewhere...have a huge pig farm in the Philippines, and a vacation home there where they were visiting at the time with extended family members. He has an email of "buymorepigs", not sure which .com. They have our addresses and phone numbers, but we haven't heard from them yet... Fortunately it wasn't anything valuable or irreplaceable. I'd love to find out what happened, however...
--His birthday is coming up, so we wished him a happy one and talked about his plans. They make a big deal out of birthdays there, so he is guessing he will have several dinner appointments and celebrating :-)
We moved to Alpine in February, so Jordan has never seen our new place. We took him on a video tour of the house... As we would walk into the next room with the webcam...his siblings and in-laws would be in that room, posing in a vignette, showing the room to it's best advantage. Scripture study in the office, doing dishes in the kitchen, ALL of them piled on the master bed...ALL of them jammed in our shower...etc. It was hilarious. :-) Jordan was laughing. It was so fun to hear him laugh! Good times were had by all :-)
Overall, it was a wonderful conversation. We got to see his companion, and one of the young men member/missionaries with which they work. Jordan looks good. Looks healthy, although he said there are always weird illnesses that just hit you time to time. Makes sense. It was sad to end the call, but wonderful to have enough time to discuss everything on my list :-)
When I got up this morning, I saw he had sent some pictures.
In addition, one of the Filipino members tagged me with some additional pictures of Jordan on facebook... Good to see he hasn't lost it... Classic Jordan :-) You can see additional pictures on my facebook page.
And we'd just like to add...a Happy Birthday to Jordan's Grandma, Mary Kocherhans, today, May 12th!
We love you!
No comments:
Post a Comment