"I'm singing in the rain...."

Buenos Aires has been flooding all last week- parts of the city have waist-deep high water. Thankfully, Jordan says in his area it only gets knee-deep. He's trashing his shoes, though! He thinks the lightning is amazing- much more spectacular than in Utah. He's loving missionary work in Argentina!

Jordan's February 22, 2010 letter

Dear Family,

Heyyyy!!!!!! It´s Elder Nuttall, now emailing in the internet kiosk near his apartment, while it is raining INSANELY heavy outside, and there are HUMONGOUS thunder claps that sometimes hurt my ears and shake everything, and last week I was in the middle of a flood that was way cool, and yeah!!! Basically, the mission is the coolest thing in the world - I´ve experienced lots of hardships and difficulties, but I am having a blast out here and there is no other place I´d rather be in the whole wide world. I miss you guys, but I sure love the people (especially the members) here and it is just so cool to be here out on the mission. I sure hope Carson goes on a mission! He would love it - go on a mission Marsh!!

Thanks a million for all of your emails - I am very grateful for them. I love long emails! It´s good to read about everything that you´re all doing and the many activities that are going on back home. Carson - WAY TO GO!! You got into BYU!! Go where you want to go (as directed by the Spirit, of course), but man, I´d love to see you go to BYU. I´m positive you´d still get a great military experience, but the environment of BYU is like that of no other school, in the fact that it is a wonderful environment with great students, awesome professors who rock at what they do, and it´s very safe, fun, and lots of gospel principles are taught. And it´d be sweet if we both went to the same school! Think hard about it, but if you want my vote it´s for BYU, haha, because that´d be the coolest!

Thanks for all the information - and guess what? In only five minutes of sitting here in the internet place, the streets are already filling up and flooding!! How awesome is that? The mission rocks. It´ll probably kind of stink to run back to the apartment, though. But fun too haha.

Thanks for all the info on the jazz festivals, on Carson and Kendall and Spencer hanging out (that is rocking news), for Gavin´s recital - hey Gavin, great job! I wasn´t able to be there, but my parents said you really tore up everything and even had some Stefon Harris in your recital...that makes your recital holy if you have Stefon in there haha. Great job man! I really miss the drums and the vibraphone, but man I´m so happy to be out here. The experiences that I´m having are priceless.

This week was great! I´ll start going through my list I´ve made here. First, a sister in the ward is going to buy me a mate cup and straw as a present from my first area! How sweet is that? They are such cool people - I´m very grateful for all of them.

Second, I´m going to need to do some shoe repairs here in a little. The insides are getting damaged pretty badly, so I might find a shoe shop and see if they can do something about it. I was also thinking - maybe in a future package you guys could send me a pair of Dr. Shoell´s inserts to put inside of my shoes? That would probably help me to walk without too many problems and all. They outsides are doing great, but the insides not so much. Also, it might be a good idea in a month or two to send some meds, because I got a cold and winter will be here in a few months, and it´d be nice if I had Nyquil and Dayquil to help me if I catch a cold. Let me know what you can do - this would be something to send in like two months, so yeah. Oh yeah, and a mini Spanish Bible would be rocking!!! Thanks Mom!

Also, classical cds would be tight too - whatever you guys have in classical music I´ll listen to, because right now I don´t have much music. I downloaded some music from the Mission, but something went wrong with the computer while it was downloading and I couldn´t download much, but I´ll try here tomorrow to see if I can try once more to put more music on there. I hope I can!

I cleaned the apartment really well today - yay!! I got up at 6:30, showered, then washed a LOAD of dishes, then pulled everything apart to sweep, cleaned off the kitchen surfaces, and when I get home I´m going to clean the bathroom. Hooray! I love having a nice, clean apartment - thanks again Dad for your great cleaning example!! I´m still being blessed from everything you taught me, and I think about you and all the days before my mission when you had Carson and I clean, and boy am I grateful for you and your example!! I´m starting to see how important it is to keep everything nice and clean, and I´m really being blessed from it and blessing my companions through your teachings. Thanks Dad!

Everything is pretty well with the work - this week we´ll have the baptism of Yohanna!! (pronounced Joanna in English) That is way cool. We had to work hard with her, because she was really down low. She´s gotten into drugs, smoking, drinking, and a whole lot more, but thankfully she´s really changed things around and is doing great, and she´s going to get baptized! Yay! She´s 16 years old and already has a sweet daughter Mía, who is almost 1 year old. Crazy, huh? Her boyfriend is in prison, but yeah they´re not hooked up anymore. We´re really excited for her and what she´s about to do this Saturday!

Some bad news is that Silvio, who got baptized this last month, has done a 180 turn for the worst. He is a Schizophrenic (however you spell that), and he has to take pills every night to be okay and be the good guy he really is. For some reason, he stopped taking the pills and started having attacks, and it´s really affected Maria and Carla (who also were baptized with him - I baptized Carla- my first baptism was her) and the rest of their family, because he basically destroys everything when it happens. They called the police on him once and he got scared when they came by, and thankfully started taking his pills again (at least for a while). And what stinks is now he´s hanging with his bad friends again, and he´s started smoking and drinking once again. I was really depressed to see that. At first I was a little afraid to say something about it when I saw it, but then I thought the simple phrase: "What would Jesus do?" So I told him about it and told him that I know that it´s hard, but that he has the power to stop smoking and drinking and that he shouldn´t be doing those things. I don´t know if he´ll actually do it, but I´m glad I stood up for the doctrines that I´m teaching and that I did as I believe Christ Himself would do if He were in my position. As a representative of Him, I shouldn´t be afraid to counsel against sin, right?

I´m learning to really have more respect for my sweet Mom, because I love you so much Mom!! I´ve seen lots of people here who have zero respect for their mothers, and really it breaks my heart when I see what some people do to their moms or how they treat their mothers. That´s something that I´m going to stand up for the rest of my life - no one should ever disrespect their mother, and we should all do our best to build our lives on gospel principles and love, so that great family relationships can be strong, loving, and enduring through trials. I´ve really gained a testimony of this as I´ve seen the situations of many families who, unfortunately, are broken right now. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ really does strengthen family relationships, and that all of us should always have respect for our parents.

The language is going great - I´m feeling really good about it. I´m going to try to get some extra studies in today so I can learn even more. I think I´m going to make P-Day like Language day, because man I want to be a master of the language!! I know I won´t be the complete master by the end of my mission, but I want to reach the highest potential in every category of the mission before I head back home. I just want to be a good missionary and learn as much as I can in the time that I´m here, because it´s wrapping up fast - I´ve already got less than 18 months here, which is way fast for me.

My studies are going great too. I´m in Ether in the Book of Mormon right now - yay! I´m going to finish it here soon and read it one more time, and then put my efforts into the New Testament so I can study up more on the life of the Master and His teachings. I´m really excited with all that I´m learning through my studies out here.

And so you know, my fan is okay. There is a part that doesn´t work anymore (it´s something that rotates to blow the air in different places - it´s kind of hard to explain), but the fan itself works fine still. I just put the moving part in one place where I like it, and then just use the fan. I´m glad I have that thing - there´s some nights where it would be unbearable to not have a fan. Oh and I also got a Vanilla perfume from Spain from a sister in the ward - I don´t know what I´m going to do with it, but I thought it was cool. Maybe I´ll spray the apartment with it if it smells bad or something haha.

Everything is way great out here!! Yeah! The mission rocks - sometimes it´s hard, when people don´t want to listen, when I´m tired or hungry or something else like that, but man everything I´m learning out here is way worth the time, and I´m very grateful to my Heavenly Father that I was born of "goodly parents" (the best family in the world, really) and that I was raised in the gospel and with all the blessings that come from the knowledge that we have. It´s such a great blessing! I love the mission and I love the gospel, and I´m happy that I have the chance to share it with others. I hope you´re all doing great!! It sounds like you are!! I love you and I miss you and hope you all have a fantastic week!! I love you family!!!

Love,
Elder Nuttall

District Meeting - Febuary 10, 2010

"Hello" from the Elders of Merlo District!

Monica the Dog

This is the guard dog at Jordan's apartment!

Jordan's February 15, 2010 letter

To the Family :),

Hey there my family! How are you all doing? Man, I´m at the crappy internet place again - this thing loads kind of slow. It´s because we didn´t have the opportunity to go to Libertad today because of the Transfer meeting (it´s a little far away where we go for transfer meetings, and they usually take until one or two in the afternoon here). Yeah, the internet here kind of stinks but it works for now. Elder Reyes is now the District Leader, because the other guy went off to be Zone Leader of a different zone. It´s awesome!

Everything is good right now though - guess what? I finished the WHOLE mission library! Woohoo! I read Jesus the Christ, True to the Faith, Our Heritage, and Our Search for Happiness before the 6 month mark of my mission. I´m pretty happy about that. I ordered a Jesus the Christ in Spanish that I´m going to read too, but I´ll definitely have to use my spanish dictionary for some of the words that are in there. Elder Talmage sure uses big words at times.

The work here is great in Libertad - I´m on my last transfer here! I am positive that I´ll be leaving after this next transfer - I will have had four transfers here in total, which is a good sign of a "you´re leaving" the next transfer. Yay! I´ll be sad to go, though - the members here are the best! I love Libertad. It´ll be interesting to have a change in things though for sure.

There were some crazy things this week! First of all, there was this huge parade of Maria-worshippers that passed us like this last Wednesday or something - it was insane! They were carrying lots of banners, there was a guy with a megaphone yelling the memorized prayers with everyone chanting along, and they made sure to march past the Libertad chapel (the church of Jesus Christ chapel) which I didn´t agree with but oh well. It was an interesting moment! We were teaching some guy when they all passed by, and they even had a band with them like a mini marching band to play music. It was insane.

Also, we ran into an insane Evangelist this week. I stopped by to contact him, but then he started rambling off about stuff in the Bible and his opinion. I tried to explain what our message was, but he didn´t want to listen. The best part was, he manifested to us his "gift of tongues" - it was hilarious!!! I had a hard time not laughing. It sounded exactly like Dad when he says "de-blubbidy-blah", but really fast. It was so awesome - Carson would´ve loved it haha.

Thanks for putting all that stuff in my package - I love you all so much! I´ll be using everything, for sure. I found some deoderant here called Rexona, and it´s white stick. I bought it to use while I´m waiting on the sticks that you´re sending me. Hopefully it works! If it works out, maybe it´ll be the last time that you have to send me deoderant. I´ll be watching and we´ll see I guess. Thanks a million for doing this for me though!

Transfer meeting was rocking - I´m like the only guy left in the Merlo Zone that´s been here the whole time - all the original guys that I first met when I got here are all out of the zone I believe. I´ll see tomorrow when we have district meeting, but I´m pretty sure I´m the last one. I´m like "Lonewolf", right dad? I stand alone!
I got some letters from Cc that were nice - she sent me happy New Years and other cards. I was really happy to get them from her. Could you guys could put her on the email address so she gets my emails too? That´d be nice if you could! She told me she passes the house lots to see if you guys are home but usually not. She told me that you guys are the best and that she misses talking with you all. I thought that was pretty cool :).

So we had 195 baptisms this last transfer and we already have almost 100 baptismal dates right now at the beginning of the transfer! Wow! Pretty awesome huh? That kid wasn´t lying when he said that this is a "fruitful" mission. I´m having a blast here and being able to take part in the work of the Lord here in Argentina. I´m sure learning a lot and I´m really enjoying myself. It´s hard to believe that I´m already 25% done! That is insane. That means only three more of what I already went through. I´m starting to see how fast the mission really flies by. It sure is fun though! I really hope Carson goes on a mission, because all of the experiences and the things you get to learn are invaluable out here. There´s no place I´d rather be right now.

Another little side note - in the upcoming months all of you think up what your favorites scripture(s) are because at the end of the year I´d like to buy you all scripture covers from Argentina! Let me know if you want quadruple or two separate, and your scriptures that you all like. I think it´d be a good coming-home present for you all. So yeah, you have lots of time to think about it.

And yeah! I think that´s about it! I love you all so much! I hope you´re all doing well - it sure sounds like it! I´m glad that you´re all going to be reading a lot of books and stuff as Valentine´s presents - that is rocking! I love reading books. I want to buy some Spanish books when I get home so I can read some literature in Spanish as well, to keep up on my Spanish and learn new words and stuff. I love you all so much! I´ll talk to you soon!

Love,
Elder Nuttall

Argentina, Buenos Aires West Mission - Christmas 2009

Jordan's February 8, 2010 letter

To the Family,

Thanks for all your letters and comments and for helping me out so much! I love you all very much!!!

First of all, my internet changed - myldmail is now officially (the church in general I heard) working through Google! Pretty cool, huh? So this email box looks identical to what Google uses (because it´s a Google account :) How awesome is that? I´m so happy to use it - now you guys can know that all your emails are going to arrive and I´ll be able to look at all the pictures that you guys send to me. I loved the Superbowl ones - that looks like fun and the pizza looked yummy!

The work here is great. Damian is doing good - it´s a little hard to get him to church, because he likes to go with his Grandma Sofia but she usually can only go for Sacrament meeting (it´s the last hour here). We´re going to try to start bringing him in the morning so he can enjoy Primary and all that too.

We´re working with a girl named Joanna who´s 16 right now, and already with a baby. She is very ready to be baptized! She´s had a rough life - her boyfriend is in jail, she´s gotten into rough drugs and stuff like that, but she´s told us how having her little girl (her name is Mía, like Momma Mía :) has changed everything and how she really wants to change. And she´s doing it! She is wonderful and we´re very excited for her and the changes she is starting to make. Now we’ve got to meet the parents to make sure all is well and approved...we´re praying that it will go well and that she can make this very important decision.

Other than that, everything is normal and hot. Oh and so you know, the next week is transfer meeting (and today was a zone activity) so I´ll be emailing late again. Just thought I´d warn you!

It rained a lot this past week, and wow - when it rains, it rains! I wrote in Carson´s letter that LITERALLY like five seconds in the rain out here and there´s not a dry spot on your body. It rains hard! But it doesn´t rain hard every time - it seems like it´ll rain a little bit, sometimes light, other times a little bit more, but then after a while when all the humidity builds up - KABLOOIE! Lots of rain, and like the ex-missionary said at Missionary Mall, you really DO want to find cover when the rain comes, because man there´s like floods in the streets it´s so bad! Sometimes it covers up entire intersections with like 2-3 feet of water - it´s pretty insane. I´ve had to dry my shoes out once - they had lots of water inside. I´m really starting to appreciate these shoes, though! They´re invincible practically!

And I´m glad that you´re doing great! I´m doing good too - I got a little sick, and I still am a little sick, but I´m trying to recover. I´ve had a bad headache at times and it´s harder for me to work right now, but I´m feeling better right now. Yeah I´m fine - I think it was just a headache nothing more. Maybe the flu. I´ve been coughing a little bit today, so maybe that too. Nothing really with my nose, though. Oh and my stupid fan already broke - I´m going to take it back tomorrow and ask for my money back. It was only a hundred pesos, but still...I´m going to try to find something more reliable, because man it is hot at night.

Thanks for your letters about how everything is back home! I´m glad to hear that Superbowl Sunday was another success - that´s something I´ll miss a little out here! But man, I´m loving missionary work more and more every day now! For the first six months (almost six months done! Wow! This Friday is my six-month missionary birthday!) it´s been hard really "getting into" missionary work. It´s not like I hated it, but it was easy at times to think about home and stuff like that. But now, I´m gradually seeing changes and I´m really enjoying it! I´m starting to see why some guys don´t want to come home from their missions. Ha ha it´s really fun, especially knowing that you´ve worked hard. The mission rocks! And yeah, I won´t let rude people bum me out Dad - I understand that they´re not mad at me, just at what I represent.

I love you all so much and I hope you´re all great! Dad, I hope work is going great for you! And if the Prizm doesn´t work, that´ll be a bummer but oh well - what can you do right? I sure miss the speedy speed Prizm! And Mom, I hope your hand gets feeling better! Poor Mommy hand! I prayed extra hard for you this whole last week so that you could be feeling well and that everything could have worked out just fine - I hope everything went okay! And Carson - keep working hard! Life always has difficulties - I´m not very old, but I know that life isn´t perfect at least, and that all we need to do is do our best and that´s all. I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Nuttall

P.S. Don´t forget to give Mitzy and Lucky lots of pets!! :)

Jordan's February 1, 2010 letter

Dear Family,

Thanks for all your letters and everything that you wrote me - I always look forward to writing to you every week, so I can tell you about the great experiences I´m having here in Argentina and all the things I´m learning, and also to hear about all the many blessings that Heavenly Father is showering you all with. I am so grateful for Him and His mercy towards me and you all, and I´m very grateful He is blessing you as much as He is. I love you all so much! And I´m so happy to be on a mission!

How are you guys doing? Man, it´s so hot over here!!!! I´ve been roasting!!!! It was like 38 degrees Celsius all last week, and holy cow - literally ten minutes of walking outside in the morning and I was already drenched, literally, on my face, my garments, my shirt, everything. It is HOT!! How is it over there?

The work is great! It´s amazing! Damian was baptized two weeks ago (I´ll send pictures too of this :) and now we´re working with an Hermana Fernandez, who´s like sixty years old and of gold! She came to church and liked it a lot, so that´s way good.

There was some sad news this week - Patricia Luna (a recent convert who is the coolest member in the ward - she´s the one who has absolutely nothing, basically, and who the Bishop is trying to find a better house and more healthy living space for her and her four children to live in) had a baby this last week (the only one who knew she was pregnant was the Bishop), but sadly the little girl passed away just two days after being born. It was a really sad time for her and for me, and I wrote a letter to her with scriptures about this and she said that reading them really helped a lot. Thankfully she is more peaceful right now, and I had the privilege of giving her a blessing of comfort yesterday to help her through these trials. I am thankful for the ability to give blessings, and I pray that her and her family will be alright. Thankfully they´re doing just fine right now :).

And right now, we´re just teaching the Restoration a lot and passing by everyone we´ve talked with to see if there´s a future with them. Most of them no (but that´s okay, because that helps me narrow down who is good and who´s not). Right now we´ve talked with an Hermana Fernandez that is way good, and she came to church this last week, we´ve taught here lesson one and the Book of Mormon, and we´ll be passing by more this week. Also a kid named Patricio seemed really good when we talked with him and his mom the Restoration, and we´ll be visiting with him more this week too. Teaching is going great! Elder Reyes actually lets me teach a lot!

I´m running into another problem - all my long-sleeved shirts are totally yellow in the armpits right now, and I´ll be trashing them soon because they are horrible. My short-sleeved ones are okay for now, but they´re starting to do the same thing. What should I do? Is there a remedy for this? I might be needing another batch of shirts in like a month or two if all of them do this. I told the laundry people to put Clorox on all the shirts from now on to try and slow down the yellowing. My comp uses Speed Stick (bar kind) that´s white (not clear), and he says he loves it and doesn´t have any yellow armpits. And his mom sends it to him from Panama - do you think you could stick a couple of them with my package? And with shirts - I talked with the President and he basically said that the shirts down here are pretty "trucho" (means fake/bad quality), and that it´d probably be good to have them sent to me here. If that means I need to wait a while until you have the money, that´s fine - my short-sleeved are good for now.

Besides that, everything is alright. I´m not too terrified of dogs anymore - sometimes there are "horse dogs" that are super-huge dogs, but luckily they´re almost always behind a fence, and like you said Dad, at least they´re not the dogs that are mixes between Huskies and wolves. That would pretty much be crappy to have those roaming around here.

Thanks for everything! I´m grateful to be in Argentina and serving the people here. It might be an oven, but I´ll take Dad´s advice and drink more water and stuff like that to deal with the heat. And definitely keep putting sunscreen on so I´m not a tomato at the end of each day. I love you all so much and I can´t wait to talk to you more this next week about all these great experiences! Enjoy your week and we´ll talk then!

Love,
Elder Nuttall

Pounce the Cat

When Jordan was little we bought him a "Beenie Baby" named Pounce. Jord has drawn pictures of Pounce and put them on custom made birthday cards since then. Here is the latest "Pounce drawing" in Spanish. Obviously Jordan's talents are not in drawing :(

Beetle of Death!

Jordan saw this creaping around his apartment.

Damian's Baptism January 23, 2010

Damian's baptism Saturday January 23, 2010 Libertad, Argentina. Jordan's comp Elder Reyes (from Panama City, Panama) far left.