Doing well in Xoxo!

Hola mi querida familia!

Well, another week down, went by really fast. And speaking of fast, there is alot of questions, so I'm just gonna get down to the good stuff and start working on those first.

(Do you have any idea why you and Elder Carrasco were put together again?  I think you got along alright so I'm assuming it's going to be ok though.)

1. Ive got no idea why we were put together again. Ive never heard of it happening before, I was confused and not sure if there was another Elder Carrasco that I didn't know about, I think Elder Carrasco was pretty confused about it too, he wasn't sure if he heard wrong my name when he got the changes. He thought he'd be comps with Elder Carl or something like that, not Call. Jaja. Anyway, its kinda strange because normally you get to know your comp slowly throughout the change, but we already know a good amount of things about each other. It was only like 3 months ago that we were comps in Comitancillo. I went from Comi with him, to La Joya, and now to Donaji with him again, only one area in between. He is the same, he went from Comi after I left to the area of La Hacienda 2, and now he just came here to Donaji with me again. Not a lot of time. But oh well, we were only together for one cambio there, so its not like we had a ton of time together, but he is a good Elder, and things are going good, hopefully there isn't something that he doesn't like about me. I don't know if President realizes that we were already together, not sure if Elder Carrasco mentioned it in his letter to the Presidente, but oh well, here we are again, guess its for a reason.

(I found your church on google earth, but what is the street that you live on?  I can't find Vista Real.)

2. On the map in our room, it has a name, but all of the signs call the highway out to Arrazola, Carretara a Arrazola. Go along that, and you will find a colonia (section of the city, like a neighborhood I guess) called Las Culturas. Right after that part, there is a fraccionamiento called Vista Real. I have pictures from the carretera looking at the entrance to the fraccionamiento. We live on the street called Canastas, and we are all the way at the end of the little street, number 49 I think.

(Were you able to get those stickers to the office to get to that family in La Joya?)

3. I'm going to see tomorrow if I can send it through the Elders in the offices, because Elder Day is in our District, so I will see him tomorrow and see if I can do it. I also let Elder Wilson know that I would try to get them to him to be able to pass it the family.

(I saw that the town called Arrazola is famous for making Alebrijes [wooden animals]  You need to buy one for us.)

4. I already bought two of them, sadly there isn't a package place in our area, yet again, hopefully I can send some to you. But the Alebrijes are really cool, there is one giant store there that has hundreds of them, what I thought is the coolest one is a giant dragon, and also a giant peacock, they cost 10,000 pesos though, and I don't have a clue as to how a person would ever be able to bring it home with them in their suitcases. We wont go out there too much though sadly, the majority of the people aren't too interested in the Gospel out there, and there is only one family of members out there. But I went with Elder Butler to eat with them, and they supposedly have a family member who makes them at request for the Elders at a a slightly lower price, I want to look into that, but I'm not sure what Alebrije to ask request. But it is a cool little place, I did see some blue eyed gringos there, we will have to give it a visit when we come as a family. I remember that the house of the President and his family is full of colorful Alebrijes, now I know where they come from.

(Please take some pictures of your apartment for us to see.)

5. I don't have pictures of the inside yet, its not too bad of an apartment, but the contract expires this month and the owner wants to raise the price, we are waiting for authorization from the president to make a new contract, I hope we can, because Its also in good position for the area.

(I sent another package last week but lost the tracking paper.  Just be looking for it in a couple of weeks.  It has your pants in it.)

6. Ok, Ill be waiting for it then. Was there a question in this question?

(We saw that Hurricane Carlotta hit Oaxaca near Puerto Escondido on Friday.  There were warnings from Puerto Escondido to Salina Cruz.  Did you get much rain or wind from it?)

7. It stinks not having the news as a missionary, I got soaked on Friday, my comp too. Would have been nice if the weatherman told us to not leave the house to the other end of the area without being prepared for a hurricane. But it was fun, I lost several pamphlets, but my scriptures were safe inside a plastic bag at least. But we did end up being pretty soaked, but its fun to walk in the rain in what should be a miserable situation, completely soaked, but yet I was pretty happy doing missionary work. I don't know why it made me happy, but I was happy. A member told us about it, but made it sound like it had hit Guerrero, not Oaxaca, hopefully everything is fine down there on the Coast. But Friday was a really wet day for us, sadly, it didn't seem to earn us any sympathy points with the people. It may have confused them though as we walked through the rain while they were all hiding under canopies and whatever they could find, and I had a big smile and sometimes I sung a few hymns.

(How was this past week in your new area?  Are you figuring it out?  Did you get to meet with Carmen again?)

8. It was fun, we got lost several times, but we had a good time. We pretty much have the general points of the area figured out pretty well now though. So we probably wont get lost again, at least not really lost. We did have a new investigator that seems really interested in the church, I'm excited to teach her, its just that she works alot and can only talk with us on Saturdays and only has a small amount of time to come to church, but she actually came to church yesterday. Her name is Flor, and she came with what we believe is her husband, and who told us is a member of the church, just that he is a trucker and is driving all over Mexico and isn't home much. We didnt get to know them too much, but we have an appointment for Saturday. The husband wont be there, but Flor will be, hopefully all goes well. We have been looking for Carmen all week, but every time we pass by her house, nobody comes to the door. Hopefully we can find her this week.

(Did the cookies and the frosting arrive alright?  I'm a bit worried about the frosting still being edible.)

9. They were really amazing, I still have two left for the both of us, probably will finish them tonight, but the frosting and the cookies made it just fine, a few cookies were broken, but they weren't smashed completely. The only thing that didn't make it, was the pie crust, it exploded over everything, I was sad when I opened the package because I though that it was the cookies. But everything else was just fine, Thanks so much for the stickers! I checked them out and they look great, I'm sure that the family will love them, hopefully they will get to them.

(Anything special you'd like to share with us this week?)

10. I don't have much time left, but I just want to say that I had a neat experience yesterday. I really don't know why, but while I was studying in the morning in the scriptures and also while reading some talks from Conference, I just had a really happy peaceful feeling overcome me as a sat meditating for a while about things and about the church and the messages that I had just read. It was something simple, but something that came from a source outside of me, and I know that it was the Holy Ghost speaking to me. It was just a really neat tender mercy that the Lord sent to me, it was one of those moments when I have really had my testimony confirmed and strengthened. It was a beautiful feeling that I will never forget.

(Do you go the the mission office on Tuesday's for your meetings?  Do you have to start hand washing your clothes again or do you still have a washing machine?)

11. We go to the church of Atoyac, the ward that goes there is called Atoyac. It is really close to the mission offices, it is down the road Periferico a ways from the offices, and then a small distance up a street. Sadly, the other missionaries went to wash with a washing machine with a family that is really nice, but that aren't members, they have been listening to the missionaries for over a year, but they didn't offer to us to come and wash with them when we visited them, and I feel like it isn't very good if I just go in there and assume that I can go and wash clothes with them at their house. So I'm gonna have to do some hand washing tonight in the house. Hopefully we find someone kind enough to help us out with that, but I feel bad going around asking if we can use peoples water and washing machines.

The line of authority isn't absolutely necessary, but I think that it would be cool to have. Elder Wilson had his on a little laminated paper card, with the names printed on it.

Well, everything is going well here in Oaxaca, rainy season seems to be picking up a bit finally, especially with the hurricane that hit us here. The coincidence of the email you sent me of the pilot still has my head wondering and thinking about that. I hope that you all enjoyed Bear Lake, and I'm disappointed that you had the chance to go wake boarding and didn't take it, don't worry about the cold, I would definitely do it if I could. I would wake board even if we were in Yellowstone! Well... maybe, i guess that would give me hypothermia wouldn't it.

Anyway, I have to go now, but I love you all so much and miss you. Thanks mom for the package! Say hi to all of the family for me, I hope that you all have a wonderful week this week. Talk to you next week!

Love,

Jordan

Here are some more photos that I took this week. I got several of the church building, its a really nice building actually. Then just some photos that we took while wandering in the area this week. So now you have a ton of photos to look at, I think I sent a lot this week, I needed to make up for all of the weeks that I haven't been able to send anything. the picture with the elder isn't elder Carrasco, he didn't suddenly turn into a Nephite, its with Elder Butler as he left for the Istmo. The other pictures don't really need explanation I think. Anyway, enjoy! I love you and will talk to you later.