July 26, 2013

July 26, 2013

Hey, thanks for the pics. I am looking forward to going to the lake again :D 

I'm glad the vacations were fun, though. Things are are going fine. Just making sure Elder McCoy and Elder Diarte know all the stuff they need to know beofore I leave. Yesterday I put thousands of cards, pamphlets, Book of Mormons, New Testaments, DVD's and who knows what else in people's mailboxes (not a lot of people have mailboxes and all their bills and stuff just get thrown on the sidewalk in front of their house or through their fence, but the ones who did got alot of church stuff). Like literally so much stuff. And only like one person let us in yesterday and we made tons of visits. But oh well.

Basically I just go with the Assistants everyday because their area is closer. Plus they're funny. 

Oh and thanks for the birthday package and wishes. I knew it was totally going to be full of dollar store stuff and it rocked. So thanks for that. I have some pictures that McCoy took for me that I'll send you. It turned out well. Some of the office people got a cake and we used the candles you sent. It was pretty low key; you know, the type of birthdays I like.

 Me and a cake and that face that I'm making is exactly how I blew out the candles.

                                                         The office today.

 

                                               Me and THE FLAG.

That's really been about it for this week. Visited some people, working in the office. The usual.

I would say you might have to start asking me questions if you really want to hear stuff about what goes on here (because I can't think of anything really interesting) but that would go for one more email. So nevermind.

But I'm excited to see you guys soon :D

Thanks for everything,

Jord

                                                      A newsletter from last week

July 19, 2013

Ju;y 19, 2013

Heya,

What UD is doing sounds pretty cool. Sounds like everyone else is having a pretty normal Summer. I'm excited about having a little bit of Summer Vacations, by the way. It's been a while since I've experienced that. 

As for the stolen stuff, the camera is only to see who is at the door. It's pretty low class and doesn't record anything. So whatevs. 

This week has been SUPER LAME because we're taking care of two Elders that are injured. So they're here ALL DAY EVERYDAY. It's basically like babysitting all day. And the AP's and President and his family all went to visit the whole mission this week, so they've been gone. So it was me and McCoy babysitting three very large babies all week. Without being paid. And it looks like they're going to stay here until I finish, so I'll be looking for excuses to avoid interacting with people for that time. 

There's really not much more to tell. I think that's basically me this week. Not really eventful. 

Today I will do my last baptism, most likely. It's a kid who we ate with once that the other missionaries were teaching and he wants me to baptize him because I look like some Elder he used to know. I feel honored.

Talk to you latahhhh,

Jord

July 13, 2013

July 13, 2013

Hey fam!

Thanks for sending the pictures from California :D Looked like a good vacation. You'll have to tell me more about it IN THREE WEEKS.

I'm currently eating a bowl of Captin' Crunch cereal for the first time in my entire mission. I think that because Saltillo is the biggest city people hit when they come from Texas to Mexico, they have more American stuff. Not sure, though, but I'm not complaining. 

As for the new President, he's from Pachuca and does not speak English. He's a native Spanish Speaker. He spends a lot more time at the office and we ate with him at his house yesterday with his family, so that was fun. They do things a lot differently than the Swapp's. It's not better or worse, just super different and I think it's just because of the culture. But they're doing well with the adjustment and everything.

I have no pictures to send this week. Let me tell you why. Yesterday we came into the office and President and his wife were here talking about the plans for the day and I look for the camera that I had bought the day before for the mission. I left it charging so that we could use it that day, but it wasn't there. I assumed President had taken it and then he gave me something to scan and email to a temple president somewhere. So I sit down at my desk (which I'm sharing with Elder McCoy now becuase he'll be replacing me and all that) and some of my stuff were in weird places and I thought to myself "Okay McCoy, nice. Just leaving crap everywhere." And there's a screwdriver on my desk (we have no tools in the whole office) and that was weird to me, but I didn't think much of it and went back to sending the email. Then Elder Mikkelsen comes to my desk and asks me where one of the computer monitors was. I look on the other desk where it should be and it's not. And there were paper clips all over the ground. And the drawers were broken open. SO WE WERE TOTALLY ROBBED. They had broken in one of the windows and stole a TV, a computer monitor, and the camera that I had just bought for the mission, AND MY CAMERA. So now I have no camera or pictures to send. 

But I'm glad it was just my camera. I guess it could have been worse. 

So that's my story. I keep all of the important stuff for the office in the safe, so nothing that really mattered was robbed. Oh, they stole the spare change on my desk, too. But there were about 40 donuts on the counter that we took to a Zone Conference yesterday, and they didn't take any and Elder McCoy was like "Dude, I totally would have taken some donuts, too."

Anyway, so that was the most eventful part of my week. I've been working on a lot of the same stuff as last week (Healthcare, credit cards, training McCoy, buying stuff, etc.).

Hey, you got my flight information, right? I WILL BE THE FIRST MISSIONARY TO GO HOME FROM THE SALTILLO AIRPORT IN THE HISTORY OF FOREVER. 

I think that's all I have. 

We celebrated Elder Mikkelsen's birthday yesterday. I printed out a paper that said "IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY." And taped it to a box of Cinnabon Cereal that I found at the store (which is crazy that they sell it here, by the way) and we bought him a cake. It was good. 

Well, that's it. 

Thanks for being the bomb :D

Talk to you guys later and SEE YOU SOON.

Much love,

Jordan

July 6, 2013

July 6, 2013

Hey fam,

How's California? I got that video of Reese, which was totally the bomb, by the way. 

                                               The new President and his family.

Things with me are going well. Remember when I sent that email like a month ago that I'd never been so busy in my whole life as I was then? Well, I think I'm more busy now. It's been good, though. Basically my weeks has consisted of planning tons of stuff, buying all the stuff we need for the office (hopefully I won't be condemed for how much money I've spent), getting all the food ready for a Leadserhsip Conference we had, working out President and his family's health care, setting up their credit cards, trianing the new financial secretary, today I start training my remplacement (which is Elder McCoy, the Elder I trained :D ), translating for the new President, doing all my normal stuff like references and materials, and thing like that. I take less breaks these days when I work because of how much there is to do but it's good, though. It keeps me occupied and hopefully it's stuff that will help this mission work smoothly in the end. Plus I'll have Elder McCoy's help, so that will be good.

                                                        One of my many receipts.

I do miss the Swapp's, though. I called them both several times this week for help with stuff that I had no idea how to do.

Basically I'm pretty sure that's all that's new with me.

Send me pictures from Cali!

Heart you,

Jordan

June 28, 2013

June 28, 2013

Things here are going pretty well. If I thought I was busy in Monterrey, I'm like 10 times more busy here. So...I don't have any pictures. At all. But this week I'll take some. President Rodriguez will be getting here tomorrow and we've just been trying to get everything ready for that. Basically my week has consisted of having to work with difficult people to get all of the things we need for the office here so that it can actually work like an office dealing with wiring problems here in the building, office max. It will all work out!

Elder Mikkelsen (My comp from the MTC who's here in the offices, too) and I got the Swapps a little keychain with a picture of the office missionaries on it and just wrote them a little card. It was sad knowing that we won't really be a part of their mission anymore, but then again, I won't be a part of anyone's mission, so you know. It made me laugh though because President Swapp says "We are hanging out after the mission" and Sister Swapp says "Can we adopt you?" (I'm totally a grown person and not adoptable). 

So basically it's been a good experience and I've learned some good stuff here. Right now I'm running the Financial Secretary's job and my job here and trying to get it all set up and I don't think I've ever worked this diligently in anything. Totally weird. 

The security cameras and vandalism...well, it's Mexico. I guess it's for vandalism but also for just general security. At our old offices we had a guard and he watched cameras all over the grounds, too but here we don't have that, so we have our own just for the front gate. Nothing super dangerous has really ever happened in my time in the offices. One time in Monterrey a drunk guy jumped the fence and cut his hands up by doing it and tried to get into the office to get money, but he really wasn't dangerous. 

Saltillo is a lot cooler temperature wise. We're in the richer part of the city so there's like everything we need right by the office (basically the opposite of the offices in Monterrey) but in Monterrey we lived right next to the office. We literally hoped the fence to our backyard there and that was nice because we could work late when we needed to and just come and go but here we're about 15 minutes walking from the office. Not as nice, but we live in a gated street and it's a really nice house (the best one I've ever lived in) so I'm not complaining. 

I think that's really all that I have to write. 

Thanks for everything. I'm glad I'm here and have the time I have left. 

Heart you,

Jordan