Hola,
I'm going to write really fast because Elder Pimentel´s bus leaves for Juchitan in an hour and a half, I may be able to write some more later, I'm not sure what is going to happen today. I haven't had a chance to read your letter yet, so hopefully I can get to an internet place again today, read and write you a good letter. Elder Pimentel is going to be a Zone Leader down in the frying pan of Juchitan. Juchitan was his first area, and most likely will be his last. I'm gonna miss Elder Pimentel alot, we really got along and worked well together.
It also turns out that I am also going to be missing Casablanca alot. I have really come to love the members and area here. I'm really sad to be leaving, and I think that all of the members are kind of sad too. We have really become close to one another, its really hard to leave. However I don't have a choice. Of course, you want to know where I'm going right? Well I wont tell you, but I'll give enough info that I'm sure mom can figure it out. I'm headed to a place where a lot of Nacho Libre was filmed, its not too far from the city, and it is the home of the Quesillo. The place where Oaxaca gets all of its delicious cheese! We´ll see if mom can send a message back saying where I will be before I return to the internet later. We have to go now, but I think I should be back on later, I don't know when though.
I also put on some voice recordings that I took Friday night. They aren't in order. Hopefully the file names have the numbers there, so play them in order, file CIMG4660.WAV first, then number 4661 and 4662, simple. Anyway, talk to you later.
Oh, my comp will be an elder from my District in the MTC. Which is cool, but I'm going to be the Senor comp. Which I'm kinda nervous for.
Gotta go,
Jordan
Now here's the real letter of the day!! And I was right! :)
Hola mi familia!
Now here's the real letter of the day!! And I was right! :)
Hola mi familia!
I'm outside of my comfort zone of the wonderful ward and area of Casablanca, and writing this email at a small internet site a few blocks from our new home. I'm not sure what to think about being here. Before coming to Oaxaca I only had heard of 3 places, and those were the city Oaxaca de Juarez, Puerto Escondido, and then Etla. So its neat to be here, but we have an uphill battle to start off with here I think. Normally two new missionaries don't arrive at an area at the same time, that way somebody knows the members, area, and investigators. In our case, we don't have a clue about anything. Its gonna be tough getting to learn the area and everything without any help. Especially since Etla is supposedly the biggest area in all of the southern Mexican missions. However it was divided a little while ago, so we only will cover half of the area. But we are excited for this cambio, and hopefully we have a lot of success. I'll get on to the questions though for now.
(I'm sure you've heard about Josh going to Japan! How great is that?)
1. That is so great that Josh is going to Japan! He probably wins the coolest of all the calls. I guess Josh just always has to win. But there is no winning in a mission call. I have learned in Casablanca that we all go to the place that the Lord needs us. And it is true what one of the speakers in conference said that the Lord knows and chooses for us every area we serve in, every companion we serve with, every member we meet in our wards, and every investigator we meet and teach. Its kinda sad that I will have to wait 3 years now to see him, but that isn't important. He will make a great missionary.\
(Tell us all about General Conference.)
2. The stake divided into two different meeting houses, there are essentially two stake centers in our stake. The technical one is kinda far away, and half the stake went there. The one that the stake presidency works from (because it is a lot closer to their homes) is really close to ours. Its just up the avenida Montoya just before arriving at Plaza Bella and Bodega. And that is where we went. It was great to end the cambio with general conference, because we were able to take a lot of photos with the members. But we did have a fair amount of investigators come. The talk with about the BOM in Sunday morning session was just for one of our investigators, Artemio. Hopefully the two new missionaries can help him start progressing. He has been having trouble with all of the churches giving different interpretations of the bible, and the talk was perfect. On Saturday, we returned to our church building between sessions and a member brought some tortillas, chicken, mayo, chilies, and cheese for us to eat before returning. After the second Saturday session, we walked to Plaza Bella and bought some McFlurries from Brianna`s favorite place. Then we went for the priesthood session. On Sunday, one of the member brought some sandwiches, apples, and mango juice for us between sessions. After all of the sessions, we visited some people to say goodbye because we had found out that we were both going to leave. And then went to a noche de hogar with some of the best Tlayudas that I have eaten so far. But conference was really great. I forgot who talked first, one of the twelve, but he had translated his own talk into Spanish, so it was his own voice playing in Spanish, which I thought was really cool.
(Did you get transferred? A new companion?)
3. I am in the area known as Etla 1. I am the mayor compañero between the two of us, even though we have the same amount of time. My comp is Elder Jones, and I'm excited to be his comp. He was one of the 4 in our district at the MTC. So we already kind of know each other. The only downside is that we are both Gringos that don't know Spanish extremely well. We know it enough to speak, but we will see how it goes. He is a really neat person, he was always a little bit more spiritual in the MTC, and at the same time he was able to make us all laugh. He attended USU for a time before coming here, he was already 20 when we entered the MTC. But he said he lived in the Old Farm (if I remember right, hopefully that is what its called.). Too bad I never met him, but maybe we saw each other without realizing we would shortly be in the MTC together, and then companions in Etla, Oaxaca. But I'm excited for this cambio, though it may be a little bit tough.
(I sent Trevor a copy of your talk, I hope thats ok. He was wanting some things in Spanish to read.)
4. That's okay. I'm gonna try to write him a quick letter. My talk isn't really good, it only said one simple thing, obey the rules. A boring talk really, but I don't want to speak in front of a Seventy, so... that's okay.
(Ok, last chance to request something for Christmas...)
5. Mmmmmm... I remember that I had thought of something that I would like for you send, but of course I can't remember what it was. Oh ya, I finished off the delicious Bear Lake jam that you sent, I used it wisely, and it made some good breakfasts. So if there is some really good jams, that would be cool. The house here actually has an oven! I bet its one of the only ones that do. I'm not sure if it works though, but maybe you could send some brownies or something that we could make in it. I don't know, I don't have many ideas, so it`ll be up to you.
(Did you get your baptism this week?)
6. We had the baptism right after the second session on Sunday. It is also a miracle that the baptism happened. I`ll share really quickly the story of what happened during the week. So we went and visited her on Tuesday, and we talked about how she was ready for baptism, she said that she really wants to be baptized, but still didn't think that she could do it. We talked and eventually discovered that the problem was with one of her daughters. She had approached Marìa early and said that if she got baptized she wouldn't talk with her, and she asked her why it was that after she had taught her children so much in their religion, why she would want to be baptized again in a different church. Marìa was really sad as she told us this, and we tried to comfort her. If you remember, last Sunday I was called on to give an impromptu talk in Sacrament meeting, and I shared my lost check story, and how I had prayed and then it was found. I brought up my talk again and reminded her of the story. I told her that if she would pray with faith, everything would turn out fine. I told her that if the Lord would answer my simple prayer, for something unimportant, He would answer her prayer for something as important as her own daughter. She did pray that night. On Wednesday, her daughter went to her house and apologized, her daughter said she still didn't agree with her decision, but wanted to go to her baptism. Then on Thursday, while we were on divisions, E Pimentel and Romo went and visited her, where they found her to be so much more happy and prepared for baptism, they interviewed her then, and then after the second Sunday session, she was baptized by Elder Pimentel. And her daughter did come to see the baptism, and it was a really neat, spiritual, baptismal service. But it really did strengthen my testimony in the power and importance of prayer. My Heavenly Father has answered so many of my prayers, and answers everyone else`s prayers too. It was also really neat, because in conference, one of the speakers shared a very similar story to my check story. And he also gave the same promise to all of the world, the same promise that I gave to Maria Agustina. The promise is true that God does and will answer prayers. And this story is one more testimony added to that promise.
(Tell us any exciting news of the week.)
7. Well, exciting news is that when we arrived at our new house we discovered two bikes in the front room of the house. It was like Christmas. We pulled them out, pumped up the tires, and had to mess with the chains a bit, but then we rode them around the street a little to test them out. It was pretty fun. The bikes are really old and crappy. So we may not use them much, but maybe we can try to fix them up a bit and use them for when we go to the very far parts of our area. We actually rode the bikes here to the internet, just because we could. And I guess the upside to the bikes being terrible is that nobody will want to steal them. But one has a horrible back tire and is all wobbly, and the other has some gear problems and will randomly change gears and sometimes have the chain fall off. But it was fun to use them, we`ll see if we can fix them up a bit though.
Anyway, my camera is out of batteries, so I guess I wont be able to send any of the photos that I have. So next week there will probably be a lot of photos. I have a lot from the families and people of Casablanca. I really am going to miss that ward and area. They all held a small noche de hogar/party for us before we left. It was really neat and special to me to see that these people really do love and care for us. And it is true that I have been called to a people that I can love. I'm still working on understanding all of the people who aren't members, but all of the members are really kind and loving. I'm excited to get to know this ward, though some missionaries that this ward really loved have just left, so it may be hard for them to adjust to two new elders. Hopefully all goes well though.
But for now, its hasta luego. I gotta get going, sorry I cant send any photos. we have to go clean the house, the elders left it as a mess, and I don't know if it will ever be really clean again, but we can make it better. I love you all, thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers. Love you!
Love,
Jordan
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