Jordan: 10/24/

Well, I didn´t get transfered, and my companion didn´t either. so that means that i have another 3 months here, guarenteed. I guess that´s probably the biggest news of this week. I´m here for 3 more months, so i´m taking that as a sign as there is a lot of people that i´m still supposed to meet and teach. I´ll just have to work harder to find them and bring them unto Christ.

This week was kind of an interesting one. The hardest part of this week was the heat. It´s probably around 95 degrees with 90-100% humidity. I´ve never been so hot in my life. I´m sitting at the comp. right now, completely drenched in sweat. It´s terrible. You´re so lucky you all are in Utah right now, where it´s dry. But back to the work.... This week was the first week that we´ve "gone tracting." In paraguay, for the most part, just going around and knocking doors doesn´t do any good. You have to talk with people in the streets and then go to their house later. But there are two neighboorhoods in our area that we don´t know at all, and if you don´t know a neighboorhood very well, you can´t do anything, because there isn´t addresses in paraguay. So this week, we just went to one of the neighboorhoods that we haven´t been to yet, and just started knocking doors, and talking with everyone we saw. We found 2 new invest doing that. I´ve learned why they always say, knocking doors really isn´t very productive and you should aviod it if possible. It takes a long time to find anything. But when you don´t have members that will help you find people or help in the work, you have to do everything yourself. But really i was pretty happy that we ended up finding 2 new invest. and we also found 2 less active families.

The only invest. that we really have that´s worth telling you all about is Sergio. He´s progressing like crazy. He hasn´t smoked or drank since we taught him the word of wisdom, and he´s reading the BoM everyday. He came to church yesterday and really liked it. We taught him yesterday and he said the closing prayer and he said "i hope that my baptism date will come soon and without problems." that was super amazing to hear. An investigator that´s praying that his baptism date will come faster. He pretty well has everything that he needs to know, other than tithing, which we´re going to teach him tonight. Really all he has left to do is endure until his baptism date, and resist all the temptation that comes.
interesting story..... on friday, i met a brazilian. He didn´t speak any spanish, and he talked to us in portuguese. I´m glad i´m speaking spanish. Its so much easier. Portuguese sounds better than spanish, but i could just tell that it´s a LOT harder language than spanish.
Sounds like the new muesuem thingy at the UofU is pretty cool. I´ll have to go when i get home. I´d like to see that.

Mom-I´m sorry that you felt sick the entire week. I kind of felt the same with the heat. I hope everything starts going better. Well, i´ve been thinking about what i wanted for a christmas present for a couple of weeks, and i finally came up with my list. Most of the things are really just things that i need, with a couple of other things that i´d like to have. I´m going to put them in order of importance of things that i want. That way, you can just put stuff in the box, until you hit the weight limit.  1. Contact solution- one of those big boxes from Costco that has 3 bottles in it. And 2 or 3 new contact cases. Paraguay is super dirty, and my case is getting kind of gross. 2. Maple flavoring to make maple syrup. i make french toast all the time, but i don´t have syrup. Costco sells super big things of maple. I think one of those would last me my entire mission. 3. Mosquito Bite Cream- i have a million mosquito bites and i haven´t found mosquito cream yet. if you could send 2 or 3 tubes, that´d be awesome. 4. USB drives. I had like 3 USB drives before my mission. I don´t know where they are, but you could send those if you can find them. I´d like one USB drive with all the church music that Dad can put on it. They have these little speaker things here that are pretty cheap and you just put a USB in it and it plays music. So if you could send me 1 USB full of church music, that´d be awesome. And the another USB to put my pictures on. I want a back up of all my photos in case some thing happens to my camera. 5. Super glue- my spanish scriptures are breaking a little bit at the spine. It you could send me a little tube of superglue, that´d be awesome. 6. a Sharpie- ultra fine point pen. it´s the only thing i´ve found that writes well on preach my gospel. (but if you can´t find it it´s not a huge deal. 7. chapstick- 2 little tubes of carmex..... Wow, that looks like a lot more than i thought it was. Just put what you can in the box until you hit the weight limit, please.

Dad- how goes being in the young men´s presidency. (that is your calling, right?)

Austin- I want to know what you think about the new choir teacher? Everyone says the concert was pretty good, but i want to know what you think about her, seeing as you´re her student. Have you gone to harvest yet? Did you kiss her? Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Tasha- yes, you letters have that green thing with you name and the smilely face. It´s pretty cool actually. With the scripture cases, i thing that he draws the pictures on every case, but i´m really not sure how he does it.

Shaylee- your room is green!!!!!!!!! lucky!!!!!!! all i ever got was white. John- Tyler Brown is in my mission. I know you´ve asked me a million times, but i always forget. I know nothing about him, other than he is in my mission. Keep working hard and enjoy your new area. don´t give up on anyone, and never give less that 100%. It´s the only way to succeed.

Well, the church is true. I have no doubt. God loves us and is waiting to help us. We just have to work. Yesterday, i was feeling a little bit down, just because our numbers aren´t as high as i´d like. But i just worked even harder than before, and the Lord blessed me and although our numbers didn´t really change, I feel a million times better than i did. I know that Christ suffered for our sins, AND all of the other pains and trials that we have. He loves us. The Book of Mormon teaches us who He really is. It´s changing my life every day. It´s true. I love the Lord, and His church. I love all of you as well. Take care, work hard, and be obedient.

Love,

Elder Jordan Schouten