Jordan's January 4, 2010 letter

Dear Family,

All right - I´m going to write a speed letter today! Weeeee!

Sorry for writing so late - we had transfers today; that´s the reason why I'm late. I have an awesome new companion named Elder Reyes (spanish for Kings) - he is awesome! However, I´m pretty shocked to be on my own having to direct things right now. I´m scared and sad. This is hard for me to do. I don´t know what to do :(.

Elder Reyes is from Panama City, Panama. He is a rocking guy! He is really excited to work here, and his former companion (Elder Horrocks, cousin of Emily Bingham Horrock's husband) said he really works hard and likes to work. He speaks pretty good English too - it´s obvious he´s been working hard at it. He said he wants to continue to work hard at it and all, so that´s way cool. We´ll be hard-working missionaries!

We went to Ramos Mejía this morning for the Transfer Meeting. It was super! There were great talks given by the President and his wife, and I got more desires to work harder and be a better person and missionary. I am very grateful for the words that were spoken. It was exciting to see who was going to be paired up with who, who was being moved up to leadership positions, etc. It was kind of sad to see Elder Sureda leave. I´m sure I´ll dig Elder Reyes though - he is a super guy and he has 17 months in the mission, and has the same number of people in his family as us (4!!), he is also the oldest, and he loves missionary work. I am excited to work with him! I´m grateful to have him and his positive attitude for the work out here, and it´ll be great to get to know him and be able to learn tons of other great things from him.

Thanks for the package - I got everything fine, and Elder Sureda said to tell you thanks for his package too. After the Transfer meeting, we went to Elder Reyes´ area (it took like an hour and a half to get there), got his stuff, called a taxi, loaded it up, and I had to direct the taxi driver in spanish to the apartment in Libertad. Talk about a little nerve-racking. Then when we got there, we unloaded the stuff, and Elder Sureda happened to be at the apartment so he ended up taking the same taxi. And he left his backpack in the apartment...I´ll have to return it to him somehow. And yeah, then I paid the rent (they give us the money to do it), ate something fast, and now here I am!

I guess it´s mostly that I´m just nerve racked. And I don´t know why I´m sad, but I´m just kinda shocked at how fast things are flying, how much I've got to do on my own now...it´s crazy. I will be praying more than I have in my whole life this week.

New Year´s Day was good - sounds like yours was better, but that´s alright! There were lots of fireworks again, and Elder Sureda and I drank cider. That was about the extent of our partying in the mission field. We also had dinner with the Bishop and his family, so that was cool. He cooked grilled chicken with potatoes and vegetebles, and man it was great!

I was able to write down goals for this year that I want to accomplish - I´m sure excited to be able to start afresh one more time to try and do things as the Savior would do. I want to work really hard this year so that I can feel the joy and happiness that comes from working hard in the mission field.

How was the break? Thanks for your great letters - I always love reading your letters! It´s fun to hear about what you´re all doing back at home. It sounds like it´s a blast! That´s awesome you all went to the McCabes to have a New Year´s celebration. They are great people. And, for Carson, I´m glad that he was able to have a party at the house with friends. That is so cool!

I finished reading "Jesus the Christ" before the new year started, and then two days later I finished "Our Search for Happiness." That was a lot of reading. I basically studied every spare minute I had to be able to do that. I´m going to start reading "True to the Faith" now - I know it´s a study guide, but I figured I could learn some really great doctrine by studying the whole book. I love to study!

I love you all so very much! I´m so grateful for all the love and support you all show me. Things seem harder than ever for me right now - with being the official ¨guide¨ of the area, not being a "master" of the language yet, having basically everything change...it´s kind of tough. But I know that what I´m learning will be so valuable for the future, and for that I am very grateful. I´m definitely being humbled by the Lord - I need His support for all things, without a doubt, and I´ll definitely be praying my socks off as I try to further the missionary work here in Libertad.

I want to thank you all so much for all that you do - I can´t express it in words, that´s for sure. But I want you to know how much I love you and how much I miss you. I love you all very very much and I want the best for all of you, and really that´s a big big part of why I´m on a mission - for my family! Thanks for everything you do for me!

And also, thanks for the picture with Dad - he has rocking glasses! You look awesome Dad! It´ll be great to see you in person with glasses- they are so cool! Thanks for sending me the picture!

Have a fantastic week and I´ll be writing to you all in just one more week! Woohoo! And by the time I write, I´ll be one day away from having 5 months in the mission...wow! That´s crazy! I love you and I´ll write to you then!

Love,
Elder Nuttall