No complaints

By Leslie (followed by a letter by Jordan):

After that last email, Brendan said, "It's kind of weird that we're not even worried or freaked out about all the crazy stuff that Jordan experienced last week." I think I can safely say that Jordan has never been approached by a "legit crazy person," seen children use whips to herd goats on the streets, hung out at a park full of homeless and drunk people, or held on to dear life while traveling dangerously on a bus packed with people literally jumpin on and off of it!

The following paragraph is from a letter that Jordan's companion, Elder Winkel, sent to his family:

"My companion, Elder Smith, and I were nealy killed twice coming back from the temple this morning. Pedestrians do not, repeat, DO NOT have the right of way here. People drive down the street hanging out of their cars, honking, and the lanes are close enough to reach out and touch the next car without even trying! Crazy, eh? . . . . The kids there... Wow!!!! I have never seen such beauty before! I´ve never seen such innocence and love in anyones eye. They were all so eager to shake our hands and to tell us there names! Some of them would try to show off by doing a summersault, or showing us that they could roll down a hill. One of the small boys there stopped us as he were going out the door. He had Elder Smith put out is hand and he poured some sugar into it. He waved us good bye and as he left he tossed some sugar into his own mouth! "

Somehow we have been blessed with peace in our hearts and excitement in our house for all of Jordan's mission adventures. It's a great feeling being able to turn him over into the Lord's hands and have the reassurance that all will be well. Wednesdays are like Christmas each week! To see Jordan's testimony grow and his excitement to share the gospel come through each week in his emails has blessed our home and our family tremendously. We catch ourselves counting our blessings every single day and have been blessed to even see the good in the adversity and trials that have come our way as well.

Below is a snail mail letter that Jordan wrote on March 10th but just barely came this week. It was written to Nicole, but she was so wonderful to share it with us and now with you:

"Well today I sent that email and said I wouldn't write letters but I found out that I can use U.S. stamps so I will send some every now and then. Everthing is going good like I said. I took some very beautiful pics today. You will see them soon when I send a CD home. It is blazing hot here. I couldn't fall asleep last night because of it. And the latinos in my room like to wake me up...they will learn not to ;).

It's great down here. The temple is about 100 yards away! I think that is all I didn't already say in the email. Oh...the food is good. I want some good cold milk though. And maybe a sandwich or something, or even better, a nice soft chocolate chip cookie! Ha! But no complaints. (Any ideas how I can preserve my homemade cookies long enough to be fresh for the 7-10 days it takes for packages to get down there?)

Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial. Dios nos ama. Dios restauro su Evangelio a traves de Jose Smith. Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dios. Tomas S. Monson es un profeta en la tierra hoy! Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y Redentor. Si orara a Dios y Jesuscristo, ellos bendicira su vida mucho. "
Elder Smith