Current Address

Elder Jordan Carlson


Send emails to: urumontemission@gmail.com with ELDER JORDAN CARLSON as the subject line. The mission home will print the email and send it to Jordan.

Monday, August 29, 2011

An Early Birthday Present for Mom

Dear Family,


Sounds like everything is going well....


I had no idea that Spencer was moving out finally. Where is he living now? Is he just renting?
Oh AP Stats, does Whitney have Mr. Marker, he is the best and probably the easiest.


Well, we still don't have a phone line and what's worse we now don't have access to the old house so we are officially without a phone. We have a card to use the payphones throughout the city. It's a pain, oh well. Hopefully we get a phone this week otherwise change calls (This Sunday) are going to be a huge pain. It's crazy that the change has already flown by. This Sunday we get calls and the Tuesday following that is the actual changes.
Time is moving faster and faster the further along I get. This coming change (My 8th in the field) I will pass my one year mark. that's weird.


So here is a weather report from this last week.


Monday- I was gone all day doing immigration ( but i didn't do the immigration stuff, only my companion did, which means i have to go some other day and do it.)
Tuesday: Overcast, cold
Wednesday: Overcast, cold
Thursday: Overcast, still cold
Friday: Still Overcast, and Cold
Saturday: It started really overcast and extremely windy, then it got colder and it rained, and rained and rained some more.
Domingo: Overcast.


Today actually is pretty nice looking.  I saw the sun so that's good.


So things are going pretty well work wise here. Emma (Angela's Mom) is doing really well. She is reading the gospel principles book and loves it. Also we finally had a charla with Irene, Angela's sister. She had listened in on some of the charlas but we finally had one just for her. Also she is like 19 and is studying to be an English teacher, so we gave her a Liahona in English with the same one in Spanish to compare and read.


Ha ha... the other day we had a lesson with Emma and she was asking about our family and stuff and she said something, talking about my comp, along the lines of "He(Elder Erwin) has more American blood than the other(me) (because he's tall), but he (Me) must have some Latino blood because Spanish is easier for him" Haha it was funny!
First off everyone thinks all Americans are tall, beautiful and look younger than they actually are. Mom, I was going to save this for your birthday but on a few occasions when I show the family pictures people have thought you were my sister. don't let it go to your head or anything!


So.... the last time you sent me a box, you said it's hard to think of things to send me... well don't worry I am making a list for Christmas so it will be easier. But in the mean time I would be very appreciative if you could send me a very small packet of things (last time I asked for a packet you sent me a whole box, just a packet will suffice).


  1. I would really like the Portuguese Missionary language learning book, its lime green i think. you can get it at Deseret Book or maybe the Distribution center.
  2. Envelopes. The kind that are a little nicer that have the strip that you just pull off the seal it, the licking kinds don't work good because the humidity seals them shut.
  3. Address stickers. My name "Elder Jordan Carlson" and my mission address, just a sheet or two
  4. Kool-aid packets, but just send me the normal super cheap ones that you have to add sugar too. because we do have sugar down here
And maybe get Cameron to give me a few mission ties. That is something you can always send me, Ties. I always like me some ties.


Just a small packet. maybe for the good old one year mark or something.


Well that's about it.


Thanks and i love you all!


Elder Carlson!


ps. Kate Ze... I don't know how to spell her last name, besides its different now that she got married. Anyway, she sent me a letter. It was great and very much appreciated! Sounds like she is doing great out there in Virginia! Thanks for the update Kate!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Dear Family,


Well yup, I'm not a teenager anymore....

So today I was expecting a nice relaxing pday, we were going to get elder Erwin a haircut and do a little letter writing and fix some stuff in the house, like rig up our indoor laundry lines, but hey, you don't always get what you want. Last night when we were talking to the district leader he told us that we would be going to Montevideo (Again) today to sign immigration paperwork. The weird thing is that he said Elder Erwin would be doing it and not me. Its weird because I still haven't done it and I have been here longer than elder Erwin. Oh well I'm an illegal. Also its going to be horrible like last pday because we don't need to be there until 2 o clock. So we have to leave here in like a half of an hour at like 11:15. Its about a two hour bus ride from Minas to Montevideo. Then we will be there for about an hour or two and come home and probably arrive around 6, Just in time to start working again. (Ya Preparation day is really only preparation 8 hours.... I was a little disappointed to find that out in the CCM). So it's another pday down the drain.... at least the normal ciber is working today. Some of the cibers down here have the worst excuses for computers. But luckily the ciber we normaly go to has really nice ones, the best in my mission so far!.....




So yes I am sending a pic of Angela's baptism, just this week we starting teaching her mother too. Emma. We have already put a date with her for her baptism. If Angela was made of Gold then Emma is a dingy silver. But it's silver none the less. I think she might smoke but we can work on that.

We had a lot of people in the capilla this week. Over 70. It's the most my comp has ever seen in one sacrament meeting on his mission. I have seen a little over 80. We had half of the recent converts, which is good, its normally like 25 percent. and we had 4 non members. Fredy, who is going to be baptized in October as soon as they get married. Emma, Angelas mom, Diego, the son of some memebers that we were teaching but then he said he didn't want to continue but then he came this week so who knows what he wants. and Daniel, another guy that is living with a member, they aren't married so he can't be baptized but he wants to be, because they are waiting on a divorce for the member lady because she got married in Brazil and it takes lots of time and is expensive. So we don't know about him. Marriage and divorce is like the worst posible thing as missionaries, The government has made everything a super long and painful expensive process. It's terrible. In Uruguay you can't be married in the temple. you have to get married on friday and then sealed the very next day. Its a giant pain.

But anyway things are going good. Its been really cold this week. and windy. and rainy. and it hailed once. Apparently some polar winds are blowing through or something and thats why its so cold and windy. its supposed to get better today i think but  who knows. they were actually prediction snow here the other day. but it didnt happen. we talked to a guy and he said it hasnt snowed here in like 20 years and that he has only seen it three times in his life.

So for my birthday we worked like normal....

But dont worry thats not all. haha We went to one of our investigators houses. Pablo and Silvia. justo Pablo's birthday is the same as mine. so Silvia made cup cakes with a meringue frosting and hot chocolate. It was nice. but it  ended up making me sick. Uruguayans are so stubborn they won't take no for an answer so I was forced to eat a ton.  I really did feel sick so we ended up going home about an hour early and I was just going to go to bed, but about an hour and a half after we got home a member came by our house to tell us that our district leader needed us to call President Da Silva because he was trying to get a hold of us. We still dont have a telephone in our new house. It's the mission financers fault. Anyway my comp woke me up and I got re dressed and we went over there and I called President. They started singing happy birthday in English to me. hahah it was funny, I'm not sure if it was worth getting woke up and re dressed and walking over there in the cold but hey. They were the only ones that sang to me so its ok. haha

So my comp sure didn't cheap out. He took a piece of paper from a members house and wrote "Happy Birthday, you're old, 20" yep.

Thats all for now!

Got to go to Montevideo!

Love Elder Carlson

Monday, August 15, 2011

A Baptism and a Birthday

Dear Family,
Thanks for all the birthday wishes! As usual there is some problem at our normal Internet place and we had to go to a different one, and of course we are super short on time because we are going to Montevideo at 12 so I can get my wart re-zapped because the first time did almost nothing. So this letter will be quick!

So Angela got Baptized!!!!!

We weren't going to do it this week because we didn't have a chance to teach her Tithing and go over the interview questions with her, but we did an intercambio anyway with the district leader, and when he talked with the Zone leaders at night they made it very clear that we needed to do everything possible to get her baptized this week. haha anyway we went to her house the next day and everything went smooth, she already has an amazing testimony of tithing. So that's good. Interview went fine, the only problem is no one knew about the baptism so we went around announcing to everyone. Not very many people showed up but it was still a really good baptism. Her two sisters and mother came, that's good. We are going to start teaching them next!

Thats about all for this week! I made banana bread and apple bread, both turned out really well.... but yup.

Love,
Elder Carlson

Monday, August 8, 2011

The Temple

Here's me on our last pday...I think we get to go inside in November.


Hey family!

Well things are going well down here in Uruguay... yes it's still winter and it rains more in winter than in summer.... anyway we are aproching "La Santa Rosa" it's about 7-10 days of straight rain. It happens every year for some reason about the end of August. That should be fun. 

Anyway... Lake Powell, wow that has already come and gone. that is strange it doesn't seem like I have been out here that long.... the elders in the group ahead of me, 6 weeks, have already hit their 1 year mark. that is weird. that means I am next. It definitely doesn't feel like a year already,  maybe a long six months but not a year.

ABout the EFY cds...I already have the Courage to Stand Strong, as well as, We Believe, Stand in the Light, and Shine the Light, Those are the only ones I have. I'm want the 2011 cd, maybe I will get it for Christmas. also you could send the Alex Boye cd. He sings in Motab but he has a cd too and i like it....
Oh yes my shoes are finally starting to die.... maybe I will send a pic later..... its not too bad yet. its only on the bottom.

I actually get along with my comp just fine. We don't have that much in common, we both like EFY music..... but thats not important. 

I'm struggling to remember what happended this week because it went by so fast. we had some lessons and we knocked some doors....  don't get me wrong it was good, but it was just pretty average....

Yesterday for lunch we went to the president of the ramas house, Villanueva, he has two kids, Agustina and Manuel. they are really funny. Agustina said to her mother, "Mom you aren't following the example of Jesus Christ because when Jesus was 33 he was skinny!" Also we convinced Agustina to ask her parents for world peace for dia de niƱo, day of the child. and Manuel is always doing something funny.

Side note. I don't know why but the latino elders always change the color of the text in their emails.... they never leave it black.

The investigators are doing good, a little slow at times but hey, we are expecting to baptize Angela this week! hopefully all goes well!

Well that's about it for now

Love,  
Elder Carlson



Monday, August 1, 2011

My New Companion...

Dear Family,
That story about the missionary being attacked by lions at the zoo makes me think of another story I heard here, there was an elder at a zoo and he climbed up on a chain link fence and was throwing rocks at the bears yelling... "Oso! freaking Oso hah hahha, Oso" Ya there are a lot of dumb missionaries..... 

So I got my box, I'm not going to lie, I opened it early even though my birthday isn't for a few weeks! I'm a little confused at your selection of things.... did I ever mention anything about mosquitos last summer? hahah oh well hopefully it will come in handy, good call about the millano cookies, one of my favorites.... and I always love some good grape....

So I actually went today to Montevideo to get the wart removed [plantar wart on his foot]. We froze it. WE meaning Hermana Da Silva [the Mission President's wife] and I. No doctors needed. I will probably have to treat it again in two weeks.  Hopefully it works well, its annoying. 

That's awesome about the ward baptism! Were the missionaries involved?  I don't really remember seeing the missionaries in our building.. ever... and I don't think I have ever seen a confirmation in sacrament meeting. That's really awesome!

So I got a letter from Coulsen, he got dear johned.... hahha we all saw it coming..... 

Oh yes, my companion, Elder Erwin, is  6ft 5in, and from Brigham city, Ut. He has lost like 36 pounds on the mission, he is quite the character. o sea(spanish), he is weird. I think Whitney would get a long with him well, he is very into dance, singing, and musical theater. uh... yeah. hahha he wants to be a drama/ geography teacher and coach girls basketball on the side if he has time. We will just say he is a little flamboyant. He likes to sing and dance to Enya and EFY all day long or at least at night when we are home..... ps I would like the new EFY album if one came out this year......

So before Elder Mero left we took pictures of Minas from the only tall building in Minas...






We still don't have a telephone, its inconvenient. 

Angela came to church with her daughter(6) and her sister, we are going to baptize her either this week or the next week depending on if we can meet with her practically every day this week.

We are plenty busy now with the area, in the other area we have a guy named Fredy, he will be getting baptized as soon as they get married. They already have a date to get married which is the hardest part.

Well, going to Montevideo killed almost all my Pday, so I have to go and do the other stuff.... wash the garments and all....

Love You Guys!