Good thing Nathan spent the last few years in the Pacific Northwest...

A little bit of rain never hurt anybody...

Transportation.

Elder Jardine's first baptism-Erika.

Week 13

This week was great! It is good to hear about all of your weeks. This week was a bit exciting for me. I had my first baptism!!!!!!!!!!! We baptized a widow named Erika who we had been teaching this whole transfer so it was very good to baptize her. I will send you some pictures. My companion is Elder Santos da Sylva. He has one transfer left and is an excellent trainer even though I am his first and last trainee. He is a really calm, cool guy and I can joke with him and he helps me a lot. I am very blessed to have him as my first companion out here in the compo de missionario (mission field). 

This week was pretty normal. I am still working on talking to 30 people a day. The weather is crazy; it will be blasting hot in the morning and, if we are lucky, it will be overcast in the afternoon, although it is always a coin toss whether or not it will become a complete downpour. 

We are still working on our only two investigator's baptisms. We just need to get Danilo to live the Word of Wisdom and have his 10 year old son, Pedro, come to church with his parents (his mom, Patricia, is a less active member). But ya, my weeks are starting to go by fast and my Portuguese is progressing.

I love you all so much and I hope life continues to improve for you.

Sincerely,

Elder Jardine

Pics of Elder Jardine

Week 12

Well, this week was good. We weren't able to baptize Erika this Sunday because she wasn't in town, but we are shooting for this Wednesday, so that is exciting. Jessica decided that she didn't want the gospel, so that was sad, but I just told her to keep reading and praying for an answer so that was okay. We are also hoping to have two other baptisms this week, so pray for that. 

It is sad to hear about Grandma Ignacio, but she is in heaven now so it's all good. (My maternal grandmother passed away this past week.) 

So, things here were pretty normal and I am loving the weather. It is hot in the mornings and pouring rain at night so that's great. I remember we had to run to an appointment with Erika and I just was laughing while getting drenched. When we got to her house, she gave us some warm chocolate milk and cookies, so that was great. 

I am glad to hear that everything is going well. Just keep telling me how things are going and I will tell you when I get your packages.

I love you alll so much and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless you.

Sincerely,

Elder Jardine

Week 11

Well, I am glad to hear that everything is going well and that you are all having fun.

This week was good and went by fast. We just keep tracting and teaching our investigators. Some highlights... we got one of our investigators, Erika, to come to church, so we are shooting for her to be baptized this week! Yay! My first baptism! I will send you a picture! (Also, with Erika. One night, we had this amazing lesson where we talked about church and we started talking about hymns, so I pulled out my little Portuguese hymnbook that I carry around for situations like this and me and my companion shared a few hymns we thought could cheer her up. I was also able to sing Brilia Mega Luz or Lead Kindly, Light for her. It was awesome.) 

Also, I was able to place my second Book of Mormon when we taught a girl named Jessica. She lives in humble circumstances and I can tell she wants to learn more, so I am excited for that. The only bad thing I can remember about this week is when one of our promising investigators decided that she didn't want to have this church and gave us back the Book of Mormon we gave her (my first), but I have already used my fifteen minutes on that, so... moving on... (Nathan's computer time is limited on P-days since he has so many other things he has to do to prepare for the upcoming week.)

 I am working on talking to everyone seeing as how our mission president has set a goal for us to talk with 30 people per day so that will be interesting. I am getting along with my companions and we are having fun. The language is coming easier, although at times, I don't understand everything but I am working on that. My companion is starting to have me take the lead seeing as how he will be heading home in a week or two and I will have to show the new missionary around. 

So, yeah. Everything is going well. It's funny because up there it's starting to get colder but down here, it is starting to get blazing hot so if you could send me a hanky or something that would be great.

Well, continue to tell me how things are going up there. Send me some pictures if you can. It is always good to hear from you guys. I love you all so much and I hope that things continue to go well for you.

Tchau! ("bye" in Portuguese.)

Sincerely

Elder Nathan Paul Jardine

Week 10
Alright. First off, I did get to watch General Conference in English (I was the only one in the little secretary's office watching it live on the computer) and yes, General Conference was awesome. I took about 20-30 pages of notes (each page was a quarter of the size of a normal piece of paper). Yes, I was also able to watch the Priesthood session in between sessions (in English) so that was great.
Also, in morning session, we had one of our investigators, Erika, come and I felt like the first 3 talks were purely for her, especially the one about joy (her husband died recently and she has been feeling sad). 
Other than that, this week was good. Tiring, but good. The other three missionaries in our house live to play Uno, Brazilian style (it's interesting).

So, everything here is good. We are still working on getting investigators to come to church so they can be baptized and we have had to cut one or two investigators, but we keep meeting new people.

Oh! On a side note, I gave out my first Book of Mormon, so that is a small milestone . I am getting better at learning Portuguese and I speak as much as I can along with utilizing language study in the morning. It is getting to the point that Portuguese is my primary language when I speak and I am also starting to think in Portuguese so that is exciting. 

I learned this past Friday that I am able to get letters and packages every three months at zone conference and interviews so we'll see when I get your packages and letters...so, ya. All is good here.

Keep telling me how things are going and any news that I should know ( I had a dream last night that Jessica was pregnant so DEFINITELY tell me when that happens or anything close to that) and please send me pictures. I love hearing from you guys.

With all the love in the world,

Elder Jardine

Week 9

Well, this week was good. We went tracting a lot and we taught a lot of lessons. We were able to get three or four people to commit to baptism (one is named Paulo and he agreed to be baptized on November 1st after hearing just the first lesson. We go to teach him tomorrow about the Word of Wisdom so we can get him working on his smoking problem (that is how we found him when we were out proselyting). We talked to a lot of people and they are mostly open to our message (no Jehovah's Witnesses). My companion, Elder da Silva, and I are getting along great; he does a great job at teaching me and letting me teach. My other two housemates are cool; a little bit crazy, but we all get along.

Things were a bit difficult at the beginning and end of this week. I was tired and a bit depressed and in pain. (Nathan has hurt his knee and it's been bothering him lately with how much walking they have to do.) I am doing everything my mission president and his wife have counseled me to do to make things better.

It is sad to hear that Mike Riggs died, but at least he is in heaven now, so he is perfect (literally). (Mike Riggs was a man in our Eugene ward who was confined to a wheelchair all his life with significant health problems; even so, he was an amazing example of faith in the face of adversity.) Keep telling me how things are going there.

Love you,

Elder Jardine.