Week 7

Hey, this is just an email to let you know that I am alive and that I am finally in the Campinas mission home. I won't be able to email you until next Monday. I will tell you more then. I love you all so much and as soon as I can, I will send all the pictures I have taken over the past month (there are some pretty freaking cool ones if i do say so myself).

Check out Adventures of a Mission President's Wife (blog) and Brazil Campinas Mission 2015-2018 (facebook page). My mission president is President Hill (and Sister Hill, his wife).   

Like I said, this is just to let you know that all is well and that I have finally started my mission, so I will tell you more next Monday.

Love you!!

Sincerely,

Elder Nathan Jardine

Week 6

Everything is going well here. I leave for Campinas next
Tuesday and things are starting to wind down here at the MTC. I am healthy, gaining weight and muscle ( My goal is to do at least 50 push ups, 50 sit ups and 15 pull ups a day). We were able to hear from Elder Neill L. Anderson here at the MTC this past Wednesday and I was able to shake his hand. It was awesome.  
As for the house... holy crap are you building a castle? (I sent pics of the footings for the foundation.) It looks huge!!!! But I cant wait to see the finished product. Well, it is always good to hear from all of you and I am so happy to hear all is going well. I will send more pictures as soon as I can. I love you all so much and a pray for your saftey and for the Lord to bless you every day. The Lord loves us all and he will help us if we ask for help. I know that's true because that was how I
was able to get through life in the MTC and I will probably use it a lot in the coming weeks/months until I am fluent in Portuguese and know what I am doing :).
Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week.
               
Sincerely
Elder Nathan Jardine

Week 5
Well, I have officially been out here for 31 days and honestly, it doesn't seem that long. I am glad to hear that everything is going well and that the Lord is blessing you. As for your callings, have fun!! (Rich and I were sustained today as the 13-14 year old Sunday School class instructors.)  

Things here are great. This last Tuesday, we said good-bye to our district friends. I was surprised by how much I bawled and by the impact we had on them. There are a few MTC traditions here and we were privileged to be able to get to participate in one of them by being the district who gets to keep "the book" which was started by this district. What "the book"is is it is the testimonies of all the missionaries who go through the Brazil MTC and only one American district keeps it in their room until it is passed down, and we were the district, so it's a pretty big honor. 
The reason I cried so much when they left is because I looked at them with the same eyes I use when I look at Jaron and Hayden and that got me thinking about them and that night I spent a good 15 minutes crying. But I'm good now, so it's all good.

This is my second to last p-day before I leave for the field.

I am really loving the MTC. I am seeing myself become more fluent each day and I haven't felt the Spirit stronger anywhere else in my life (aside from the temple).

I miss you all. I love you and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless your lives.

Sincerely and with pure love,

Elder Nathan Paul Jardine

Tallest elder and shortest elder in their district

The Brazilian people like to take pictures 
with Nathan because of his height.

Elder Jardine with the MTC Mission President and wife

Cool pic Elder Jardine took

Week 4

Well, it is so good to hear from all of you! I am glad to see that everything is going so well.

In general, things are going well here. I wrote a letter with some of my more spiritual moments, so I'll just tell you the general stuff for now. My roommates are Elder Nichols from Alpine, Utah (he went to Lone Peak) and his companion, Elder Johnson, from Star Valley, Wyoming. Then, there is my companion, Elder Crockett, from Mapleton, Utah and they are all great guys. Things here are going smoothly. It doesn't feel like I have been in the MTC for three weeks, but at the same time, it feels like years. The language is tough, but I find myself starting to understand little by little, so it's going well. Things are just by schedule here, so not really much time to do other things, but at least I'm not dying of boredom.

One cool thing that I mentioned in my previously mentioned letter is the fact that we went proselyting last Saturday and we were able to hand out 9 Books of Mormon, get 3 addresses and one promise to call, so that was super cool. Also yesterday, we were able to hear from a General Authority and in one or two weeks, Elder Neil L. Anderson is coming to the MTC so I will be able to meet him.

I hope that mom and Lauren enjoy school and I hope everything else in your guy's life goes as planned. One thing that I have learned here during my time in the MTC is that if you have the Spirit with you, all will go better than it would without it.

Well, that's all for now.

I love you guys and I think about you every day . I pray that the Lord will bless all of you and that everything goes well.

Sincerely,

Elder Jardine

PS-if you want to send me a letter, send it to:

Nathan Jardine

Brazil Campinas Mission

Brazil Missionary Training Center

Box 45, District 31-A

Rua Padre Antônio D'angelo, 121 Casa Verde

Cep 02516-040 São Palp-SP Brazil

Week 3

Well, not much has happened since the last time I emailed you guys. I am glad to see everything is going well. As for me, I am doing fine. The past two weeks have been a blur and things are starting to get better. I am starting to like the full immersion language thing; it encourages me to learn. I am getting along well with my companion, Elder Crockett, and the rest of my district. We are becoming very close as a district. I ran into one of Tommy's friends here, Elder Myre (Tommy is Nathan's cousin).  He recognized me as the tall kid from Tommy's farewell. Speaking of  Tommy, I hope he is doing all right and can get back out there ASAP (Tommy had to come back from his time in the Mexico City MTC for knee surgery). 
Things are starting to pick up here. I have been doing splits with other Brazilian missionaries here at the MTC and it is amazing. My companion and I go with Elder Sylva, who speaks better English than I do Portuguese, but it's all good. I can understand most of what he says. 
Time is tight here, so I haven't been able to send the letter I promised, but I will once I write it and get the supplies to send it. I will also be sending pictures. I will send them once I head out into town after this.
I hope everything continues to go well and if there is anything SIGNIFICANT that happens, I want to read about it in great detail (this was a plea for his siblings to write and tell him all the SIGNIFICANT happenings in their lives...which haven't happened yet...)

I love you all so much and I can feel your support here at the MTC. I am so glad that we are all a part of this gospel and are able to feel the love God has for us. I pray for you every day and I hope that God will touch each of your lives.

Week 2

Well, I have been at the MTC for a week now, and I can safely say that it is the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done. Just this week, I was able to take part in 5 blessings, one of which I was the recipient. Life here is very regimented, but there are a few pluses. First, the food is amazing and I have been eating a ton. Second, Sundays are relaxing and I am actually able to take a nap and relax. Third, P-days so far are great. (P-days, which stands for Preparation-days, are scheduled once a week for missionaries to be able to prepare for the upcoming week by doing laundry, grocery shopping, etc.) We start by going to the temple (we went to the Campinas temple today;  I took pictures, but I can't send them to you due to MTC policy and time constraints) and normally, we would have about a hour to go explore the city, but today, I barely have enough time to email you. 

Everyone here is super nice and I am getting along well with my companion and everyone else in my district. The language is difficult, but I am constantly working at it. Things here are amazing. I have felt the Spirit so strongly. I feel like I have been here a year, but I have seen and felt enough of God's hand that it could last me a lifetime. There is a lot of things I want to tell you, but won't be able to due to time constraints, but I will try to send you a letter as soon as I can get my hands on the necessary materials. Life was very difficult to start off, but now things are starting to get better. I think about you guys every day and I miss you a lot. I love you soooo much and I can't wait to read your emails next week ( feel free to send me pictures). Also, another elder told me to tell you to look into mission ties (Brazil). Apparently, you can get some letters sent to me and a few other pluses. I don't know; you will have to look into it. Well, I will write you next week. I love you so so so so so very very very much. I hope things go well for all of you.

Sincerely,

Elder Jardine