Jordan: 12/5/2011

Wow.... what a week. I thought my week was a little crazy, but your week back in Utah was WAY more crazy than my week. I don´t even really know what to write other than i´m thankful that you are all okay and that no one was seriously injured. A car crash, trees falling over and everything. Wow, I really am sitting here writing, and i´m completely speechless. But i´m also super thankful that you are all okay and no one was injured. also, i want to see pictures of everything when everythings all cleaned up and all. Our house, Grandma and Grandpa´s house and everything. I want to see pictures of how everything looks now.

Well, here in paraguay, everything was pretty normal, other than the fact that i´m training a new missionary. His name´s Elder Ashcroft. He´s from Arizona. He´s.... Stiff. That´s the best word that i have to describe him. He´s very obedient, which i´m very grateful for, but he´s also very very stiff. He straight up told me that he was more or less anti-social in high school, so i´ve been working my best to get him to open up from his shell a little bit, and just relax. He understands spanish a lot better than i did when I got here. He struggles to speak, but he understands really well. We´re working really hard to help him get better in his teaching skills. Since his was more or less anti social in high school, he struggles to communicate, so teaching is hard for him, but he really has improved 200% in the 5 or 6 days that we´ve been together. But the most important thing for me is that he´s obedient. 100% and he just wants to work, so i can´t complain at all. He really is a great companion, just a little stiff around the edges.

As far as the work goes here... We found a couple of new invest this week. Most of them are rather older men, but they seem to understand better than a lot of 20 and 30 year olds that i´ve taught. They´re just SUPER catholic, and don´t see the importance of getting baptized again, even though we´ve taught apostasy and the restoration about 3 or 4 times to each one. We´re just trusting in the book of mormon that it will take care of their doubts and they´ll be converted by the power of the book of mormon.

oh, something cool i did.... I drank milk that was straight from the cow. 1st time in my life. It tasted like home-made vanilla ice cream. It was really good. also, question. do they still have jimmer fredette BYU jerseys. I told one of my converts about jimmer and he You-Tubed him, and fell in love, and now wants a jersey. Do they still exist. If they do, could you tell me the price and everything. Thanks.

I honestly don´t really remember what happened this week, you letters about the storm kind of wrecked my memory. Wednesday i met my companion, and we had a training meeting with Pres. callan about our responsibilities as trainers. It was a really good meeting. Pres. Callan is definitely called of God.

Mom- We really are blessed to live where we live where people serve and help when times are hard. If something like that happened here in Paraguay, it would be a disaster, because no one would come to the rescue. But we´re very blessed to live in an area where people keep their covenants and understand the importance of service and helping others.

Dad- same thing as i said to mom. You pretty well had the exactly same things in your letters.

Austin- Don´t beat yourself up for the car wreck..... I wrecked the van into a curb in the viewmont parking lot. It doesn´t get any worse than that. Just be careful. And from the letters that i read, your work thursday, friday and saturday in the yard kind of make up for all of the damage that you caused to the car.

Tasha- Your weird. Car wrecks aren´t fun. Have fun, but just don´t have fun by wrecking cars.

Shaylee- hi. Hope the wind didn´t blow you away.

Well, I hope you all are well, and nothing more crazy happens. I´ll be praying for you all. But the church is true and that´s all that matters. Trials like that come, just to make us stronger, and so that we can receive more blessings from the Lord. The book of Mormon is true. I know life is crazy there, but don´t forget to read it. Jesus Christ lives and loves us. He´s there to help us. We just have to live worthy to receive his love and help. Joseph Smith was a Prophet. I´ve been studying the Restoration a lot this week, because we teach it so much, and every day, the Spirit just tells me that it´s all true and that Joseph Smith really was called of God. We have a living Prophet in Thomas S. Monson. He guides the Church today.

I love you all. Stay Safe.

Love, Elder Jordan Schouten

Jordan's new companion.