Jordan: 8/8/2011

Well, first off, tell grandma twitchell that I love her, and that I hope her hand heals quickly and with no problems. She will be in my prayers this whole week, until I hear more. Tell her that I love here so much and that I hope she heals quickly.

Well, this week has been interesting. I don't really know where to start. We really really struggled to find people to teach. The people here don't have addresses and you can't knock doors here. Here, we clap doors, and it's considered rude to clap someone's gate, if you don't know them personally. So, we have to do all our finding through the members and by street contacting. Saturday was one of the worst days of my life. We had three or four appointments, and they all fell through. We walked for 9 hours straight. usually, we get a break in the walking while we teach, but we didn't get that Saturday, because we didn't teach a single lesson. But Sunday was so good that it makes the memory of Saturday not so bad. we had fast and testimony meeting this Sunday, and it was amazing. the members here have such strong testimonies. They aren't necessarily the strongest members in the world, but their testimonies are so strong. there was only 40 people in sacrament meeting, but we didn't even have a pause in the testimonies. in our ward in Centerville, with 300-400 members, we usually have long, terrible pauses in between testimonies, but here, with only 40 people, we didn't have a single pause. I could pretty well understand most of what the people said, and their testimonies were so good. the spirit was so strong. Sunday was also good, because we taught 2 amazing lessons, and 1 really good lesson. our great lessons: Christian- he's about 25-30 and he's devout evangelical. he is super dedicated to the bible but really has a sincere desire to hear our message. it's going to be a project to help him overcome his other beliefs that are incorrect, but I think we can do it.

Ramon- his wife is a member, and she wants him to join the church. he has a really strong desire to improve himself. his life is terrible. he works 12-15 hours every day, and barely has any money. we can only teach him on the weekends, but I really think he's going to get baptized. when we introduced the book of Mormon, he basically told us what it was and what he had to do to know if it's true. I don't know how he knew all this, but it was amazing. the spirit was so so strong.

Well, the language really is coming along. I can understand about 40-50% of what the people say. it really isn't terrible anymore, like the first week was. the first week, I just wanted to sleep all day because I didn't want to have to try to communicate with the people, but now, it's really pretty good and I enjoy being with the people. my comp. says he's trained 3 Americans now, including me, and he says my Spanish is the best by far. so that's pretty good, it's really coming along.

Mom- elder wistisen is actually in my district, so I get to see him every week in district meeting. he's doing really well. his Spanish is terrible. he can't understand or speak anything, but he really loves it here. thank you for sending me my study journal and my face medicine. I’m going to need it. today is one of the hottest days of my entire life, and it's only going to get hotter. villeta is about 40 minutes away from Asuncion in a car I think. I’m not really sure. it's a giant city with about 5 or 6 little cities inside it. it's huge and impossible for 2 missionaries to cover the whole thing. it's a 15 minute bus ride from one end to the other. you can try Google earthing it. I don't know what you'll find, but you can try.

dad- man, your life is hard. don't have too much fun without me.

Austin- I don't even know what to say to you, other than I am completely 100% ashamed to call you my brother. What in the world were you thinking when you said you'd wear a Utah shirt? I want a really really good explanation.

Tasha- school shopping... fun stuff (not) I hate shopping more than anything. have fun in junior high and make a lot of friends.

Shaylee- are you alive still? I haven't heard anything from you in a while.

John- I'm glad this last week was amazing for you and that you felt the spirit so strong. the spirit is such an amazing thing, and it's amazing how much you can feel the spirit as a missionary. it's so great. I love the spirit. it really is the most important thing in missionary work. without the spirit, we can't do anything. but with the spirit we can do everything. I'm glad that you're having success with the people in your area and that you're loving you mission. when you can love what you're doing, it makes life so much easier. mail here is normal. you just need an international stamp, and it should get to me. I put my mission address in my email. I have no idea what my apartment address is. the address that says 2881... something something something, is the address to send letters to.

Love, Elder Schouten

I attached some pictures. I don't really know how to describe them, because I can't see them in my email. there's pics of my district in the mtc, my travel group here in the mission home, me with my new comp, and one with Annie, and one or two with Brock and tanner, and there's one with elder wistisen outside the mission home.