MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

28Dec2009

On Christmas Day we were able to talk to Jordan for about an hour and a half. It was great to hear his voice and ask him questions about his experience. We thought we would share some of the things we talked about with you.
A TYPICAL DAILY ROUTINE
7am-get dressed, eat etc.
8:30am-Study
9:30am-Work
12:30-Lunch
1-3:30pm-Study,rest,dinner (they stay inside their apartment during this time of day because the temperature usually hits over 100 and most people take their siesta during these hours.
3:30-10:00pm-work, back to the apartment by 10pm
11:00pm-bed

Jordan also told us that Christmas Eve is the big holiday there. Fireworks are legal and are sold along the streets all day long. At Midnight everyone shoots off their fireworks. Some as big as a 1/4 stick of dynamite!!!! (Not what a mother needs to hear!!) Jordan said that it was sooooo loud and sounded like a war was going on.
We want to wish you all a very HAPPY Holiday season and a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR.

Transferred to Southern Resistencia

22Dec2009

I was transferred this week to Southern Resistencia. My new companion is Elder Campos, also from Chili, he told me that I speak better Spanish than his last companion, who has a year or so more in the field, and people understand me a ton better just in this last week. Sometimes I need to say things a few times still but at the same time it is a relief to know that maybe I am doing OK. It is way harder to understand my companion now than my last, he speaks less clear and faster and he does not ennunciate as much. I am also understanding more, sometimes I just make a well educated guess at what they meant and continue if I don’t know for sure, sometimes it works sometimes no. But none the less, the language is coming, and I know with time I will be able to be just fine but I just have to study.
This week aside from the transfer, which was rough because I left a lot of good friends and stuff, Sister Mortensen and Elder Schneider, well all the Elders it was a good time with the members and I had finally gotten more settled in. But I am going to have a better opportunity to grow with the language here and leadership because I will probably be teaching English and have to speak a ton more in lessons and contacts and everything.
Jordan

ARMADILLO ANYONE?

15Dec2009

Here is a picture of an armadillo that a member family ate. We stopped by their house to wish the sister a Happy Birthday and she was about to cook it so we took pictures. I included one so you could see. Also quick before I go; another funny story the kids here and even the other missionaries that I know of listen to this rapper from Puerto Rico named Daddy Yankee and they all say I look like him. Yesterday a kid was like Daddy Yankee?! So look him up and tell me what you think.

Keeping Busy

30 Nov 2009
Ok, I can´t decide whether this week went by fast or slow because a ton of things happened. First, Monday we had the flood (pictures are on their way), and Tuesday was zone conference so I traveled 3 hours to Chaco and three hours back the time in the middle was zone conference. Wednesday was normal (what’s normal?) and then Thursday I traveled 2 hours one way to Esquina, the southern part of the mission, because there are not any missionaries there but there are a couple of members and a house for a chapel I think. So we travel there every once in a while. I did that for the first time this week and we delivered some church materials to the members. And then we traveled 2 hours back.
Then Friday was not normal at all. Our district leader had to have his
gallbladder out. And because my companion is Zone leader the mission president wanted him there for it. So the whole morning we were running around trying to link up paper work and what the computer said at the post office to allow a money transfer to pay for the surgery 2700 pesos...which is only 700 bucks and this is at the PRIVATE clinic apparently the public is 10 times worse according to another gringo. Saturday in the morning we helped him get checked out of the clinic and get him and his companion in a taxi back to their apartment. NOTE: Jordan goes into detail in his letter about the surgery, especially the pain that followed, which I have omitted here.
So anyway I´m glad you guys had a good Thanksgiving, I did alright ,surprisingly,
as it was my first major holiday away from home, since Halloween I don't think
counts haha, my first major holiday that is family centered. In the morning on
Thursday I went off into a room in my apartment and shut the door and looked at my family picture and the pictures I have of both sets of grandparents and the poem that grandpa sent me in his first letter to me. I love that poem ( I always look for centavos), my companion found a 50 cent coin once and I laughed and translated the poem for him or tried he tossed the coin to a little kid that was sitting on the ground nearby.
As far as the language goes I have made a lot of progress this week it seems, I understand more, and I can say more. I understand everything sometimes or most everything or at least the big picture but there are still some people, usually the people that are more ¨hick¨ like, that I have a really hard time understanding.

Jordan

Getting My Feet Wet...

23 Nov 09
The food is great, I have had a couple things that I´ve been like umm ok a little bit sketchy but its still all good. I am loving everything except for the language barrier and a little homesick.
My story for this week happened today, basically every night this week we’ve had a thunderstorm or at least a lot of them. and last night too, this morning it looked a bit gloomy and my companion opened the window and stuck his head out and looked out and he goes, “Have you seen Independence Day?” I was like yea and he says, “Look.” and I stuck my head out and it looked like there was a pitch black cloud in the distance with a clear line between the regular summer day and the cloud and rather quickly the cloud was overhead and then eventually the cloud was all we could see and then....it was a cloud burst like I have never seen, and when we finally ventured out of the apartment to see if the church had power or somewhere had power, we walked out of the apartment and at the bottom of the stairs there was about 2 or 3 inches of rain water on the walkway and I was laughing and then we opened the door in from of our apartment and look out and the entire city was covered in water like a foot deep (pictures coming soon). I was like if I am going to be here I might as well experience stuff like this cause it was nuts so we basically swam to the church and then to the sisters apartment because their apartment flooded and worked on clearing the drains in the apartment. They were filled with bugs (cockroaches to be specific). And then after we played in the water.

Jordan