Jordan's April 19, 2010 letter

Dear Family,

Hey there family! I am really excited to be able to write you guys, because there are lots of good things I´m able to write about this week!

First of all, I got the package finally!!! Yay!! I got the Easter Bunny, the candy, and the sweater and the other good stuff that was inside. I just wanted to let you guys know so that you know I wasn´t robbed after all - just delayed! Thanks a million for those packages :) they were the best!

I spent over two hours cleaning the bathroom this morning! I "baptized" the bathroom with cleaner and water, and man it´s a whole lot cleaner now! The trick now is to maintain it - I´ll do my best on that. Man, it was tough...but it´s nice and clean now! Yay! I´ll finish up everything else between this week and next p-day, for sure.

Everything is going great over here. It´s finally cooling down a little bit - yay! I´m starting to feel kind of sick, though. My stomach and head hurt a lot right now - hopefully nothing worse develops. I´m going to head out to work anyways unless I feel like I´m going to drop down or something. I think I´ll be okay - I bought a soda to see if maybe it´ll help me. Hopefully it does!

Yeah Elder Angulo is the coolest! He´s kind of shy, but he´s way nice and a great teacher, and man I´m enjoying my experience with him. He´s a great Elder! And he´s a guitar player too! He told me he liked playing Joe Satriani songs before the mission. How cool is that?

Today we went to a supermarket called "Carrefour", which is like an Argentine version of Walmart (I think it´s from Argentina...not sure). Man, it´s kind of expensive! I heard they might raise our funds here in Luján, because literally things cost more to buy and stuff. I hope they do, because I didn´t buy a whole lot but it was still pretty expensive. I´m definitely going to do better with my budget in this area, because it´s easy to lose money.

After shopping, we came home, cooked lunch (we each had a plate of pasta with a hot dog on the side), I took an hour nap, then I got up to write some letters, got ready, and now I´m here finishing my email time. Yep! It´s been a good day. Oh and I studied some Spanish today too...that was good. I´ve gotten kind of frustrated with my Spanish, because I don´t like it when people say that they can´t understand me. I´m going to do everything in my power to get better at Spanish. It´s just so difficult at times - not so much because figuring out the sentences is hard- it´s the accent, because they use their tongue and their mouth differently to speak than how it’s used in English. For example, they open their mouth way wider to speak, and you have to put your tongue higher up in your mouth to get the accent. I´m doing my best, though :). I´ll pray more for help too.

This last week we had Zone Conference, and there´s a funny story that comes with it. So Elder Angulo and I took the train at like 630 in the morning. An hour later (after we´d passed the other areas and the other Elders from our zone had gotten on), we boarded another train to arrive where the zone conference was going to be held. We got split up into two groups - my companion was with some other Elders and I was with the Zone Leaders and one of the district leaders. We were all on the same car, but because of the quantity of people we couldn´t all be together and we got split up fast.

This is where the fun part comes in. So the train took off just fine, and after a while we arrived to the station where we needed to get off. The group with Elder Angulo got off just fine, but guess what happened with us? We tried to get off, but the people boarding the train pushed inside the car like a wild pack of animals, and we got trapped!!! We weren´t able to get out. The Zone Leaders were yelling for people to get out of the way, but nobody let us through, until eventually the doors shut and off went us and the train to another station!! Tartar sauce!

This was rather crappy, but we kept patient. We waited until we arrived to the following station, got off as fast and "forcible" as possible, then boarded another train going in the opposite direction to arrive where we should´ve gotten off in the first place. This we did; we got off, boarded the other train, and arrived just fine to the station where we were supposed to get off.

As we got off and gave the train guy our tickets, he said "woah woah woah..." and pulled us aside. He began to explain to us that we couldn´t pass through because we didn´t have the right tickets!!! When this happened, the district leader and one of the zone leaders got mad and started contending with the guy (I wish they wouldn´t have). They explained kind of angrily how we couldn´t get off and that´s why we were in the situation we were in. However, since they didn´t say it too nicely or try to calmly explain the situation, pretty much all the sympathy the train guy might have had flew out the window, and wrote us each out a nice, pretty ticket. It wasn´t horrible, but it was 10 pesos each person, and one of the zone leaders didn´t have money so I paid for his too. Dang it!!

To be honest, though, it was an adventure for me! I wrote about it all in my journal and taped the ticket inside - that way I´ll be able to remember it forever. I definitely learned a lesson, too - it´s best to always treat people and situations patiently, because at least if we do that, there´s just a chance that things can work out well for us.

So that´s my fun story for the week!

Also, there was a huge storm last night!! I took video of it - I´ll try to send it to you guys if I can. If it´s impossible, I guess I´ll show you after the mission. It was HUMONGOUS!!! I´ve never seen anything like it - I thought a tornado was going to form or something (because tornados happen down here too - there was one just like two days ago in another part of Argentina). It was so cool! I´ll be excited to show you all about it when I get home at least :) it was soooo cool!! Especially the lightning - and there was hail the size of my hand falling down! Wow! Yeah, basically we took cover, because what´s my umbrella going to do against hail the size of my fist?...probably not a lot. It was cool!

Another crazy story. My District Leader (different than the one who lost his cool at the station) almost got robbed the other day. They were walking around when this guy waiting around started to eye them or something like that. They kept walking by, when suddenly this dude pulled out a handgun and started to pursue them. Crazy! Luckily, they ran and ran until they found cover at a nearby recent-convert´s house. But yeah, he told us the story about how they´d been pursued by an armed robber (and my District Leader didn´t have any money on him...didn´t want to be caught, for sure.) I guess that´s good reason why I should stay in shape so I can get out of dodge when I need to!!!

So yeah! That´s my news for now! It was a great week! And also, we have a baptismal date of a great guy! His name is Miguel Benavidez, and he´s going to get baptized! He came to church and absolutely loved the classes, and without us saying anything he came up to us and told us he wanted to get baptized. Woohoo! It´s a miracle in my eyes, and I know the Lord is blessing us with those who are really prepared for the message of the Restoration. It truly is a blessing.

I love you Dad! I´ll be honest - I still miss the heck out of you guys. I love all my memories with you all, and I´m sure grateful for everything you´ve taught me and showed me in my life. Without a doubt, you are the best dad I could have ever asked for. I´ve learned tons from your great example in life, and I hope I can be as good of a guy as you are someday. Thanks a lot for all your talks you´ve given me and also Carson - those are priceless to me, and I´ll always be thankful for them. You´re the best dad in the world Dad! I love you and I love my family! I love Mom and Carson and miss them, and that I hope they´re all doing great. I´ll be working really hard this week for the Lord - I love the mission and I´m happy to be out here. It was tough getting out here, and to be honest I wasn´t 100% sure if I wanted to do it when I hit the MTC, but I know now that there is no other place I should be at this point in my life. I pray Carson will make the same decision - it´s a great step of faith, because you can´t "see into the future," but I know this is the work of the Lord and that I´m laboring with Him every day.

Hey Mom! Before I head off I´ll tell you...that I love you! I sure love my Mom! Know that I love you very very much and that I´m always praying for you guys and working hard for you all! I bought a chocolate bar in memory of my Mom. I love you and I hope you have a wonderful week! Give each other hugs for me and tell each other I love you!! I love you Mom!

Have a great night, have a great family home evening, and do some fun things as a family this week! I love the mission and I sure love all of you! Thanks for all of your support! Talk to you in a week!

Love,
Elder Nuttall

P.S. Give the cats pets for me- thanks!!