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