Week 14
This week was great. It was a pretty normal one with not too much excitement other than the fact that we had another baptism. His name is Danilo and his wife was a less active (now active). Pictures are attached. 
Also, I had an interesting experience that looks promising for me in the language department. We have a member in our ward named Edison, and he wants to learn English. He is also one of the people who we try to visit at least twice a week. This week, with my companion's permission, I could speak English with him or at least I tried. I couldn't really speak too well. I kept slipping into Portuguese. It was hilarious. I actually had to think about how to speak English. I am at the point where Portuguese is my default language and English is my secondary language that I don't speak.
I am well, continuing to work and find new investigators. We are now teaching Erika's 21 year old daughter, Kawani and she seems very interested. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. The only difficulty she has is work; she works Friday nights, so it is a bit difficult for her to attend church but she tries. 
So, that was my week. It is always good to hear about your weeks and all the success you are having.

Keep me informed.

Love you guys.

Sincerely,

Elder Jardine

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