Jordan's December 28, 2009 letter

Dear Family,
Hey there! Woo! Another great P-Day in Argentina! I was so happy to call you guys on Christmas - thanks for the great phone call! It was the best! I love you all so very much, and I was really happy to be able to call you on Christmas day and tell you about everything that´s going on here in Argentina with Christmas and everything else. You guys are the best family ever!
I´ll tell you about my Christmas. It was good! Christmas here revolves around the night of the 24th up to 1200am - when it hits 12, there´s a bunch of fireworks that the people let off for a long time, people will put these fire thingies inside balloons that float up in the air and light up parts of the sky, there´s a load of drunk people (Brother Turner wasn´t lying when he said Christmas here is drunk people and fireworks except for the Mormons!), and yeah! It was great! We ate dinner with the Bishop´s family the night of the 24th, and it was great. The Bishop is so cool! We talked about music we liked forever, and he said he likes Joe Satriani and Van Halen and some other music that´s from the 80´s too. He also played in a bunch of bands when he was younger and said it was way fun. Man, the Bishop rocks!
I woke up Christmas morning, the 25th, to open up my presents. Thanks for the garments Mom! That´s what I needed, and with the goodies and other stuff that I got, man it was perfect! I had a great Christmas, and I definitely realized that the happiness doesn´t come with the presents, but from spending time with people and having fun and remembering our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was really sweet, and I loved it.
After waking up, we went to Merlo to spend the whole morning with our Zone. It was awesome! We ate some food, played ping-pong (Elder Sureda won out of everyone), and played soccer. It was a rocking time. And there was like nobody outside the morning of the 25th, because everyone was sleeping. It was crazy, but crazy good! Especially being able to talk to my family! And I delivered Crepes to Patricia Luna (she is single with five kids) to give them a yummy dinner. I bought caramel to put inside the crepes and a thing of cider that they could drink. I felt really good, and all the kids were happy. Patricia doesn´t like crepes, but she said that her kids loved them. Yay!
We had 3 baptisms on Saturday! Woohoo! And GUESS WHAT? I got to baptize for the first time in my whole life! The Bishop baptized Maria and Silvio, and I baptized Carla. It was so awesome! I have pictures and I´ll be sure to send them to you all. I felt so good! It was a great day and they were all really happy, and I also brought crepes to serve as snacks for afterwards, and guess what? They were a hit! Everyone was amazed and asked me for the recipe, and Carla (who is an amazing cook) said that I make them better than she can! Not to be proud, but it was a pretty awesome moment - thanks Mom for showing me the ways of the crepes! I´ve been able to share the yumminess with the people here, thanks to you and the wonderful little book you made me of recipes.
Elder Sureda has some pretty rocking Christmas songs that come from the Mission Playlist, and guess what some of those are? We have Feliz Navidad (the version Dad likes), drum boy or whatever it´s called, joy to the world (a version that David Archiletta sings), and a song by Michael Buble (it´s called my Christmas list or something like that). It´s pretty awesome. I´ve had fun listening to them. Maybe later in the future I might save up money and buy an MP4 - they have them here for about 250 pesos, and I could put the mission cd on it and have some great music to listen to throughout my mission. We´ll see on that though - it woudn´t be for a while, that´s for sure!
Thanks for telling me about everything that´s going on back home - I´m so thankful for your letters and all the information that you´re giving me! But I don´t know Dad´s calling yet - what is it? I´m excited to hear it!
Today I bought myself an alarm clock that rocks and has batteries, and dictionary that´s got tons of words. I´m excited to use them!
Oh, and I must tell you about the kitties. There are two that I really love. One is named Luly, and she is a calico kitten that lives with Maria, Carla, and Silvio. She is so sweet! She likes to play with me, and man she purrs so loud! She is like a motor boat! She likes to play bite, but she´s starting to get bigger and therefore it hurts more sometimes, but it´s okay. Luly is so cool!
The other is named Olivia, and she lives with Damian, the kid we thought we´d baptize (it will happen...someday...hopefully with me!) She is older than Mitzy - I think she´s like 20 years old is what I heard. But she´s always really happy to see me! I think it´s because no one else at the house ever gives her loves, but when we get to their house she runs up to me and meows a lot and I pet her. She looks like a mix between Muffins (the old cat that lived with Grandma Gammon) and Mitzy - she is so awesome!
Thanks for the Superfly Monkey - I play with him lots in the apartment!
I´m pretty sure that´s the bulk of things...I love you all so much! Thanks for a wonderful Christmas, and I´m glad that you all had a great Christmas too! I prayed for you all a ton all Christmas Day - my biggest wish is that my family could have the best Christmas ever, and if that was the case, I would be happy. I´m glad to hear that things went well and that you had a great time together. I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers, and I know He listens to us and wants us to be happy. Prayer is something that is so simple but so powerful. I am learning to pray more and more out here in the mission field, and I really know He answers me, loves me, and is helping you all out right now. Keep praying to Him, as a family and individually, and I know you´ll all be blessed. I will continue praying like a madman for you all, because I love you all so much! Merry Christmas once again, and this week it´ll be a Happy New Year! Make sure to make individual goals and, if you can, goals as a family too - it´ll help you all to measure your success throughout the year and have things to aim for throughout the year. You are the best family I could have ever asked for! I love you and I can´t wait to hear from you!
Love,
Elder Nuttall(and Superfly Monkey!)