June 30, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 43

Hey Dad!!!

 

Love the pictures you sent!!  Did you have a mullet back in the day??  Awesome!!  That´s crazy that it´s been 23 years!  Even crazier that I'm almost at one year on the mission!  Time is starting to fly here!!  

Well that sounds like a scary moment on your bike you had this past week!!  I don't remember where Uncle Wade lives now, but I bet that was rough!!  Gotta be careful!!  I still remember when I wiped out on my longboard on Zacks street going crazy fast one day, and like I had the worst road rash on my elbows and knees and I ripped up my favorite jeans... But ya from what you said you must have had some help to bring the bike to a stop without falling!  That´s awesome! 

It has been a pretty good week here in Telde.  Kind of different with a new companion, but we are working hard and trying to make good things happen here.  It´s so hot!!!  Like its fairly hot here during the days, but with how much walking we do on a daily basis I'm dying right now!  It´s kind of a bummer that we have to buy all of our drinking water and everything!!  But that's mission life, haha Kendal has it wayy harder!!  

Soo ok as a district leader I'm basically in charge of like a small group of people.  In my case we hav 6.  And I basically am in charge of like a 2 hour meeting once a week, teaching them and exciting them to work hard(all in spanish!!)  And I have to do an exchange with every one during a six week period to like monitor progress and then count all their numbers at the end of the week!  Oh and I have to give all the baptismal interviews for our area, which is probably the one that scares me the most, cuz thats a big responsibility!!  And then maybe a couple more things that don't come to mind, but those are the main things... From what everyone says its the hardest of all the leadership spots, because you are just like so busy with the meetings and stuff. But it's fun, and I think I'm doing ok so far.  

We found one really cool guy this week, and I hope that I can say he is progressing by the next email.  We helped him carry like 50 liters of water up to his roof because he couldn't walk well, then he asked us to teach him, so of course we jumped right on that!  I'm happy here... Struggling sometimes with the lack of people to teach, but gotta enjoy the good times and the hard ones as well!   Miss you!  Hope you guys are havinga great week, and enjoying your time with just Justin!  Careful on the bike, and I hope work is going all good! Love you!!

 

Nate

Pictures

June 30, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!!

 

Crazy that you only have Justin there now, how weird!!  And now like Kara is able to tell me college stories this all feels so weird!!  But I hope that it was a good week!!  I really like the lesson idea you sent me about the word and then you had to use other word to relate it back to Christ!!  You could just do like a principles thing and talk about how everything relates back to Christ and the gospel, and maybe like idk use some of the parables that jesus used as examples??  You could ask Bishop Murdoch too haha that is like one of his favorite things is finding stories and relating them back to gospel principles.  When he sent me like a couple tips to be a good teacher that was one of the things he put!!  

Sooo how is the new position at work??  Is it hard?  Different??  blahhh it's so hot!!  This internet place I'm in is without ac and I'm pretty much soaking... But anywayssss  It has been a good week!!  Not a ton of lessons or anything, but one of those weeks where I know I tried my hardest so I can't really be sad about anything!  It comes to the point where you know Heavenly Father sort of does what he wants with the work, and we are here to do what He wants, and learn from all of it along the way!!  

SO ya, we had this one cool experience though on Thursday!  After 8 hours of literally walking around with nothing because everybody was rejecting us, we ended up talking to this man on the side of the road... He said that he needed help, and asked us... We said we had no money, cuz usually people just want money here, but this guys said that all he wanted was for us to carry water up to his roof, because his legs were injured and he couldn't.  He said he had been out asking people for like 3 hours and everyone had said no to him... But we glady did it.  (Tons of water!!  But it only ended up taking like 15 minutes to hall up the stairs... An then he asked if we could teach him after!!  It was really good and we had a super spiritual lesson with him!!  Hopefully we can ,meet up with him  again today or tomorrow and see progression, because he did say that he was interested!!  

Well anyways, not many good stories this week, but that was definitely the highlight of it all!!  Being district leader guy is alright... Idk its a lot of respoonsibility, but it´s not too hard!!  I had my first district meeting last wednesday, and I feel like it was really good!  I tried to teach them all that we should be more christlike, using some scriptures from the bible and stuff from preach my gospel!  This week I guess I can tell you cuz you won't be there, but I plan on teaching and talking about the power and authority of our calling... It talks about it in chapter one of PMG and we are also going to read some scriptures I like!!  Above all I want to study with them John 15 like verses 1 to 16... Which is really good on the comparison between the Lord and those who are his servants, or us pretty much!  I like the comparison of the vine and the branches and how pretty much like how a branch of a tree can't give fruit without the base, neither can missionaries reap the fruits of their labor without depending on Jesus Christ in all that we do... It´s something that I was kind of hoping to like make a theme in all the meetings we have... Christlike Missionaries will get Christlike Results!! But I guess that can be applied to anything in life!  Christlike people will have christlike miracles in their life, and everything will be good for them :)  And then I definitely plan on sharing my fav quote with them, which would be the missionary comission... It's strange but like other people from other areas don't know it as well.  Like I like that it's a thing we read weekly in priests!  It definitely is drilled in my head now! haha 

Hmmmm well ya that is pretty much everything  I'm super nervous because in a week and a half, I think I'll have to give a baptisimal interview, and that is like a big deal!!  You have to baically interview someone to see if they are worthy of everything!! ahhh That should be like a bishop´s job, but its the DL´s job for converts... We´ll see how it goes!!!  

Exercise is going ok!  Better than before!!  Honestly more than anything though the amount that we  walk is making me lose weight I think!!  At least I feel like I am losing it, which is good because generally the person losing it is the last to notice right??  Idk... Gotta get back to that like college fitness level... Or at ñeast pre five guys job haha That place haha 

Well I hope you have a great week!!!  And that the new job goes well and that you enjoy all the Justin time you have!!  Wish I could hang out with you guys too!! haha But they need me here... In like a year or so I´ll be there hanging out too!  Happy anniversary!! Dad sent me your wedding picture and I though it was pretty awesome!! hha Well have a great week momma!!!  I love you!!

 

Nathan

June 23, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 42

Hey Dad!!

Sounds like you had a pretty good week out at the river!  Bummer the rapids weren´t all the way going, but that's sweet you at least had jumping rocks and stuff!  Did you jump off??  I wish I could swim!!   

So anyways this past weekend made it six weeks and we had the changes.  I am staying here in my area, but I'm getting a new companion named Elder Dyer.  He seems like a cool guy, from when I talked to him back in Madrid, but I´ll get to meet him soon because we´ll be going to the airport to pick them up!!  Actually I guess we are leaving very soon!  But anyways I'm excited.  A little nervous, because they also called me to be one of the leaders here, and that means I have a LOT of responsibilities now.  I hope I can get them all done and help my area get better too!   

I rememebr that custard place it was good!  Mom said she just went there last weekend too!!  Did you guys end up meeting up there??  That´s fun.  Mom told me that was the place you took me and kendal when we were all driving back to California!   

That´s a bummer that you have a ton of work, but I guess it's a good thing too!!!  Justin said he isn't doing much this week you can try and recruit him maybe??  Good luck with all that... That´s funny kara started out the same at BYU!  It´s really just how everyone lives there, especially the first couple of weeks, so we´ll see if she still loves it all after her first month.  She told me something about how maybe she would be able to transfer to fall semester as well, so that would be awesome!!!  I hope she can so we are there same time.   

Not a whole ton of stuff happened this week.  I went and got to know some litte villages that are part of my area, and I think I'm going to try and work in them more with my new companion.  There are a lot of people out there, and we will be working right along the beach, which makes it more fun even if we can't go in and swim!!  Had an investigator named Greg come to church yesterday and I think he liked it.  Elder Lopez got called on to give a talk without any preparation in sacrament meeting, and he ended up doing really well!  I hope they don't do that to me when I leave!!  haha I'm guessing I still have another 3 months here though!  But we´ll see how it goes!!  Hope you have a great week dad!  Good luck with work and the calling and everything!  Miss you guys!  I´ll tell you all about life with my new companion next week!  Love you!

Nate

P.S.  I wrote your email or almost all of it a few hours ago and then I had to go pick up my companion from the airport.. . He´s from arizona!!  I´ll try and send a picture!

June 23, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!!

Sounds like another super eventful week that you have had!!  I guess I´ve had quite an interesting week too!!!  I´ll save the fun details about transfers for the end haha Just to keep you guessing!  This last week with Elder Lopez was really good!  I had to try extra hard to keep him focused and excited, because he was so excited to go home and see his family and everybody, but hey I can´t judge I´m sure I will be just as excited to see all yall when I´m only a week away from flying home!!  We had some good lessons, and we spent any other time with members and people, which was fun.  Lots of laughs and good moments, and wayyyy too much food :(  I´m going to die!  haha But it was fun!  

Oh hey are you ready for a typical nathan story??  It hasn't happened all that much so far on  my mission, so I´m really confused why it just hit me last Thursday!  So we were walking through this slightly ghetto area of our area called Jinámar.  And i got the biggest nose bleed!  It just came out of nowhere and there was nothing we could do with no paper so I tried my best but still ended up getting blood on my face, tie and a little on my shirt... sad day :(  We callled our next appointment to tell them we had to stop by our apartment real quick so I could change my shirt and wash up!  Yaaa that was a bummer, seeing as before last week I had only had two bloody noses in the misison, and one of them was at night when I wasn't wearing church clothes haha I need to fix my nose when I get home or something.  We´ll see... Friday was a good day.  We had a branch activity like movie night and we ended up watching the Joseph Smith movie that they show in the building to the side of the Salt Lake temple.  It´s my favorite church movie, so that made my day really good.  Hmmm ya and then the weekend which was all about transfers and stuff and I´ll get to that!!  I´ll answer all your questions now i guess!!!

1.  YEEEEPPPP   I´m still here in Telde haha I never really thought that I was leaving, because I knew my companion was going home, so I guessed right!!!  I got called to work with an Elder named Elder Dyer!!!  

2.  Ya it was kind of weird.  Kind of like see ya!  But you're going to Mexico so maybe not!!  And I couldn't really say bye since we were in a hurry and right after sacrament meeting we had to move so he could catch a flight.  We only went to sacrament meeting, then they dropped me off in Vecindario to stay with them until Elder Dyer got here, then they sent Elder Lopez off to the airport with an hermana that was going home to a part of spain.  

3.  No we just got sick of it... Unless you REALLLY like jamon serrano, I wouldn't recomend buying one of them for two people and trying to eat a ton.  Maybe my new companion will want to eat it!!  haha

4.  Hmm that´s actually a really good question!!  I haven´t tried it on since he left.  My guess is that it fits better than it did the last time, but it still is a little too tight!!  We´ll see what happens this transfer.  I don't think Elder Dyer likes to cook too much and he likes his frozen foods, so I´ll have to try hard to eat healthy!!  

5.  Elder Dyer is from Arizona!  He said he is from some part of Phoenix, but I don´t remember which exactly.  Phoenix Arizona ahah pretty good, I don't know how many missionaries can say that the majority of their companions aren't from utah!!  I can!! haha I kind of thought I would be with Elder Dyer or his old companion Elder Hawks.  They are from the same group as me like time out in the mish and everything, but I never really saw Elder Dyer all that much in the MTC.  So ya it was exciting to hear that in the announcements saturday night.  Then they gave me some announcements that made me a little more nervous too!  haha They made me a district leader, which not sure if you know what that means, but I´m sort of the leader of a group of missionaries here in the island, and I have quite a few responsibilities now to worry about, so we´ll see how all that goes!  I got a call from president yesterday to tell me that and fill me in on what I need to do in that role.  I´m excited!!  But I hope I can do everything!  I´m not always the best teacher, but I´m gonna try!!  

Yesterday was really fun after Elder Lopez left in vecindario as well.  Two missionaries were leaving from the are and the other two staying, so I ended up just being at quite a few despedidos (farewells) eating way too much again but enjoying all the people down there.  It was funny at night before going home we stopped by the bishop´s piso, and a family from my branch was there too! They were confused as to why I was out of my area ha  Then we all shared a Mate and were there until curfew.  Mate is super weird.  Its like this nast herb drink that is put with hot water or milk, and a ton of sugar and when I first tried it I hated it but afer more times it has grown on me.  It´s super south american, like argentina, uruguay, places like that.  SO ya that was fun..  Then today got up early lots of traveling around, some studying, and just picked up Elder Dyer from the airport.  We are just getting email time in at the end of our pday, or close to the end at least.  Hmmm ya that was my week!!!

  

That´s crazy that kara is at BYU I can't believe it!!  But that´s nice that she seems happy there, and better than being sad on the couch!  She even wrote me after a few weeks without, so I'm guessing she is in a happier mood!!  Hopefully she is off there making a ton of friends and having a blast, and getting grades good enough to stay so we can study together!!!  Congrats on the job!!!  That is awesome!!  Is it much different from what you were doing before??  I´m sure you´ll love it!!  Well I gotta get going, I love you!!!  I love our family :)  Have a great week!!

Nathan

Entry from June 22, 2014 - Sis Larsen

Excerpt from Sis. Larsen:

We had a busy, busy Monday, since we invited the missionaries to come and join us for their P-day. We plan to do this once a month.  This time, since we have three functioning cars on the island, we were able to have the 7 missionaries from Las Palmas, and the 6 elders from Vecindario and Telde. Everyone started arriving around noon.  It was a busy, fun household.

Emails were written.

Elder Poulson and Elder McWhorter

Ping pong was played.

There was a game or two of soccer.

A few card games were played.

 Elder Poulson, Hermana Grover, and Hermana Irigoyen

And of course, there was plenty of food to be had.

We really do love these missionaries!

Wednesday was crazy as usual.  I hit the kitchen bright and early.  We had done a lot of chopping and slicing the night before, so I didn't think things would be quite so busy, but, somehow when we fix and transport meals for two groups, it just makes for a busy day.

For the district meeting, I made chicken pasta salad, homemade Jewish Sweet Bread, and Texas Sheetcake Cookies.  I had seen the recipe on line, and finally decided that I would give up 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips to try the recipe.  I did read a few comments about the recipe and added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.  Absolutely delicious.

Our meeting was wonderful.  These six missionaries love the Lord and want to share the message of Jesus Christ with the people here on the island.  It was a little bit sad knowing that Elder Lopez would be leaving us this Sunday as he will have completed his two years and is headed back home to Mexico. I enjoyed hearing him share his testimony and his love for his Savior.  And of course they loved the food.

Entry from June 16, 2014 - Sis Larsen

Excerpt from Sis Larsen:

I made two large pans of lasagna, garlic bread, and salad.  For dessert we had our family favorite scotcheroos.  Too bad that only one of the six ingredients, sugar, is something that I can buy at a good price at the local grocery store.  Rice Krispies and peanut butter can be found at a few stores, but at a steep price, and corn syrup, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips are items that have been purchased in the States and brought over here.  I am thankful for the corn syrup that Hermana Buhler had on hand.

 A meal that tasted like home, even if I had to pay almost $2 a cup for the cottage cheese.  

It is a pleasure to cook for these missionaries who are always so thankful for everything I fix.

June 16, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 41

Hey dad!!!

how's it going?? Sounds like you have had a pretty crazy week getting ready to go on the trip!!!  Mom said you have been working a lot and stuff to get ready for it!!  Hope it all turns out well!  I´ll try and get on again in a couple hours so we can try and chat or something... We´ll see how it goes... How long of a drive is it to get to the river??  Probably pretty far... 

It has been a pretty decent week here in Telde... This week that we are just starting is the last week for my companion before he goes back to Mexico, but we are hoping to make it a good one!  It´s a hard time to be working in Spain, with the world cup going on and nobody wants to miss a game, but we are trying our best with what we can do haha It´s funny because even the members cancel on us when spain plays and the other teams they like haha 

We had a fairly decent week with teaching, and actually had a really good lesson with one of my favorite families.  The mom is Nancy, and her family is from peru... The husband is out working in france, but they have 6 kids ranging from 6 to 23 and we are friends with all of them, just a ton of boys haha  We had a good avctivity this past Saturday where we played soccer and basketball, and they all came to play with us and the other members!  So that turned out really well. We also met a couple new kids while we were playing so we are hoping we can teach some of them this week!   

Mom was telling me all about Kara graduating and everything that as happened this week!  Sounds like it has been crazy!!  I´ll come back on while I'm at the Larsens for a few minutes and tell you guys about what happens there!  We are headed off right now to their house, and we are going to eat mexican food!!  I´m way excited!!  Well have a good trip dad!  I'm excited to hear all about it!  Love you!

Nate

Food

You ready to be shocked to death mother?? Ya those nasty red vegetables that I hated for my whole life??  They are pretty good sometimes when I make them right :) haaha Tomate, Garlic, and a bit of Salt!!!  Just wait for the food I'm gonna try and cook tomorrow, try and guess what it is!!  If it turns out I´ll send piics and you´ll be surpised haha

June 9, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!

Hope you have had a fantastic week!!  Things are going fairly well here in Telde!!  Do you not work on Mondays or something, that's cool me neither!!!  Well for a couple hours then I work the rest of the night haha Soooo let me think what has happened this week.  

On Tuesday another missionary came here to work with me.  Elder Gentry, he´s a good bud from Orange County!! So that was fun being able to speak a little english, talk about California stuff and just have a good day.  We then switched back and after district meeting all went and stuffed ourselves with a chinese buffet... YUMMMM!!!  

Lot´s of people failing us to watch soccer this week haha, and I´m super scared for how things are going to go this week because I think this Wednesday the FIFA World Cup starts... You know what that is right???  When all the counries in the world have the huge soccer tournament... Blahhh It´s kind of a bummer that now that I like soccer and stuff I won't get to see the US or Spain or anybody play haha Oh well we´ll see how it all goes!  

We had an awesome activity this past weekend.  All the members came at two different times, and we set them up in different rooms and investigators and less actives passed through and were taught about the basics of the plan of salvation!  It turned out really well!!  This month is the invitation month here in our stake, so we have activities every single weekend, I'm excited!!  Next weekend is a Relief society thing, but we also just set up like an impromtu basketball game Saturday morning and we have investiogators and members coming and it should be a ton of fun!!!  

   

Oh among other big news, though I suppose it doesn't sound all that interesing to you, they changed up all the leadership in the branch, which is kind of sad.  Our branch pres or I guess old branch pres lives in Las Palmas, so they no longer need him here in Telde with his family, but Presidente Denis is being nice and letting them stay until the end of the year.  All the kids who are all friends were crying and like trying to convince the family to move down here to Telde before the end of the year haha we´ll see how it all goes.  Antonio Gonzalez was called as the new pres, which is nice cuz he lives in our area, and he actually has a son who isn't a member!!  We are hoping to work with the son a bit more now and see how it all goes!!  His name is Aaron and he is my age pretty much.  He played semi pro bball and we aren't sure why he isn't a member, but we´ll keep working on it and see what happens!!

     That´s cool that you saw Nick Verde!!  Bummer he can't play more rugby, he was really good!!  And hmmm ok a kebab... Basically its some sort of unknown meat(I think beef and lamb) but like a hugeee cylinder of it on a rotating skewer that they slice off with a shaver and put into delicious sandwiches and burritos :)  Look up "Doner Kebab Meat" or something like that and you´ll see!!  Looks gross, tastes AMAZING!!!  So ya haha What a weird coincidence that Aunt Kimber knows Elder Giforos... I just met him last week but he's a cool guy!!  If I ever see him again I´ll have to ask him about if he remembers them! haha 

     How exciting that Kara graduates this week!!!  I´m bummed I can't be there!!! It was sad in Karas email she said she wishes I could be there too!!  Oh well be sure to send me pictures and stuff!!  It´s an exciting and stressful time, just be patient and give her a hug when she cries I guess???  I don´t remember much about pre college, but I was pretty stressed and nervous too!!  She´ll love it once she gets there and gets used to everything!!  Oh and I just wrote to Fielding as well!!  How crazy he leaves super soon!!  Tell him hi again  for me!!  

Oh hey here the cool quote of the week that I liked from President Denis when he gave a talk this past week!  "Nuestro Padre Celestial nos ama, nos ama no solo por lo que somos, pero por lo que podemos llegar a ser."  Translates to Our Heavenly Father loves us.  He loves us not just for who and what we are, but for who he knows we can become.  I like that!!  Only God knows how much we try and be our best, and he knows that as we keep struggling and moving on we will become the sons and daughters he wants us to be!!  Sorry I don't have any other cool stories for the week!  I´ll try and be more interesting so I have something fun to report next week!  Miss you!!  And I love you!!!

Nate

Entry from June 2, 2014 - Sis Larsen

Excerpt from Sis Larsen:

Monday morning we started our day very early as we had to get up at 4:30 to get to the port in time for our ferry departure.  Because we were driving our car over, we had to be at the port an hour early for our 7:30 departure.  We had lots of unknowns about our departure, so we were very relieved when we actually were on the ferry and on our way.  We feel very blessed to be able to associate with these 13 great missionaries.

We arrived for our Zone Conference a little before 9:00.  Zone Conferences are held every 3 months.  It gives the mission president and his wife an opportunity to be with the missionaries from that zone. They both spoke, as well as the Zone Leaders and the Assistants to the President.  The conference was from 9:30 to 2:30.  Pres. Jackson asked for the missionaries to be in their seats at 9:00. It was a wonderful sight to see these young people studying their scriptures and preparing themselves spiritually for the meeting. 

We did have pizza, but they could use some lessons in crust making.  We heard no complaints from the missionaries.

 Elder McWhorter, Poulson, Echegaráy, Antezana, Beuden, Lopez, and Shumway

 Left-Elder Brewer Center- Elder Poulson

The smiles on everyone's faces do not tell the story of how seasick people were.  The water was choppy and most of us felt pretty miserable.   I had a good discussion with this group of missionaries. The main theme was that we need to be ready to do the Lord's will even when it is not what we have planned for ourselves.  I continue to be impressed with these young people.  By the time we dropped off the hermanas, picked up Elder Gentry and Elder Rawlinson at the bus station, drove to our house, and got ready for bed, it was 1:00 a.m.   A good, but very long day.  

June 2, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 39

Hey dad!!

It has been a pretty awesome week!!  As you can probably imagine the highlight was definitely going over to Tenerife!  Hmm where to begin...  So the boat we took over was super nice!  The company is called Armas, just in case you wanna try and find a picture or something, but it looks like a small cuise ship converted to a  fairy... I´ll send you guys a couple pics, cuz we were out so early we got a nice sunrise when we casted off... It was so big, so it didn´t rock to much, but it was still super nice to sleep on!  Then we got to the other island and all the missionaries met in a city called Santa Cruz.  We all changed and headed out to play Soccer and Basketball for a long time!  Super fun.  At one point my basketball team consisted of Me, another friend I just made who is from Eastlake in san diego, a sister missionary who was in my ward at byu, and then President Jackson haha and we won a TON!!  I guess being a missionary has made me really good at shooting 3´s for some reason.  Whatever I´ll accept the random blessing.  Then we ended up staying in a hotel that night!  Bwah nicest shower, nicest bed, and nicest breakfast I have had in 2014!!  There was Bacon!!!!  And all sorts of other good stuff.  Then we had our meetings which were all super great, and a pizza party before our boat left back to gran canaria at 7.  Me and elder Lopez didn´t end up geting home until 1am, so the next day getting up at 7:30 and working like normal was rough, but gotta do it!   

It was a decent week of work.  We found some cool people, and someone actually came up to us yesterday asking for help and wanting to meet with us, so we´ll see how that goes tonight at 8!!  I´m excited because it´s a tiny pueblo(like little town) that I have never visited before!  Lots of rain this week and the weather has cooled down a lot, but I think it´s supposed to be hot this week now.  hmm what else.. oh ya I ad a terrible ingrown nail in my big toe so president numbed me up and ripped it out with like pliars or something!  I couldn´t watch, cuz i´m not a fan of seeing people dig into my skin, but Elder Lopez said it was gross!!  President is a surgeon, so he knew what he was doing and everything.  After hundreds of knee surguries, a toe nail isnt a big deal for him haha But ya that was pretty much my week! 

I think im gonna start sending you guys pics, cuz I´m sure you´ll enjoy this more than anything!  Love you dad!  Hope work is going well and high adventure and everything!  have a great week!

nate

June 2, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Alright Momma I´m back!!!

Soooo I ended up eating a Kebab (You probably don´t wanna know what that is...haha)  And then we went and bought a blender for the Piso!!  And with the excitement of a blender bought a ton of fresh fruit and now we are set for a smoothie week :)  It´s so weird how I know things like when strawberries are in season on this side of the world and stuff.  And I bought a blender... I don´t feel adult enough to be making these daily choices and stuff haha Anyways... I´m back!!  And I just sent off some sweet pictures I hope you enjoy them :)  

That sunset was so cool looking!!  Especially when you have water in every single direction!  So ya!!  Not sure what else I should say about Tenerife that I haven´t already said to the rest of the fam...  Well I´ll just try and give you a detailed version and hopefully between you and dad you have the whole story.  So ya we ended up sleeping in Las Palmas Sunday night and left super early in the morning to catch our boat.  It was stressful, but we all ended up finding it after a while and shipped off!!  We were all going foto crazy for the first 15 while the sun rose and we left port and then ended up just sleeping and relaxing the whole way over!  Oh and I got the cool surprise that my friend Chrissy from my BYU ward is on my island now!!  So we were able to catch up onlife and all the people we still talk to from BYU ward and everything!  

Hmm what happened next... We landed and all got shutled by the tenerife missionaries to the chapel and went to a really nice sports complex to play soccer and basketball!  That was super fun.  I had a blast, after 8 months with nothing but soccer it was nice to play a little basketball.  Ok sad side note as part of the story... And don´t worry it´s all good now, but President during sports time gave me a little daignosis of my toe and said that he could rip out the nail tomorrow after the conference... Soooo I´m sure you can understand how excited I was for that!!  Then we all went and ate terrible at McDonalds, wrote a quick message to the family and changed into normal clothes to work for the night.  

All 40 or so of us worked in this one area, and ended up killing it!!  I´m sure those 4 missionaries who are normally there must have been so happy!  Just with me and Elder Lopez we taught two new people that night and set appointments fo the other missionaries... Now imagine that times 40!! Craziness... I told President next meeting we have, we should do it in Telde, and he just laughed :) But anyways...  We all crashed in the hotel after and slept in those super comfy beds(I sent a pic I think)...

Ok day two:  Started pretty magnificent with the hotel breakfast, that was the best I´ve eaten in 2014 without question :)  Bacon, eggs, fresh bread, spanish tortilla, banana bread, the list goes on... Anyways after that we had all our meetings which were amazing, learned a lot about Love for the work and the people we teach, and how we can all become more Christlike missionaries.  Oh and as a special musical number some sisters sang my favorite spanish church song.  It´s not a hymn or anything, but it´s called Sus Manos... You should look it up!!  Hmm then we had a pizza lunch and pres pulled me aside and gave me a little surgery haha And you know how I exagerate things, but for reals he gave me anesthesia and everything!!  I wasn´t knocked out but my whole foot was asleep more or less and ya no more gross details cuz I couldn't even watch... But I came out same old me just with one less big toe nail.  I gotta keep it super clean and rewrap it twice a day, but other than that not much.  It will grow back in like 6 months I think!!  So I was pretty normal and happy until we were on the boat back and the meds wore off and I was dying a little, but Chrissy had painkillers and Sister Larsen was super nice and bought me a sandwich to take with the meds, so I was good, and now it only hurts a little bit!!  Oh hey side note!!  Not sure if there is anything about me on it, but the Larsens gave us there blog name so we could send it to our parents.   We dont see them a ton, so I doubt there is much, but maybe they´ll post pics from tenerife today or something.  Not sure... Alright the adress is...  www.codyandcherylmission.blogspot.com...  Maybe they´ll have more stuff you would be interested in!!  Hmmm I don't remember where I was now... Anyways, we played cards and everyone got seasick but me on the boat back so we just relaxed pretty much and got back at 1am :(  Blah that bus ride at 12:30 was brutal..................

      

So that was my Tenerife trip!!  We got back to Telde and it rained pretty consistently from Wednesday to Saturday, so the work was pretty hard, but we still had some good moments.  It has been like a month or so since we played ping pong with investigators, but with bad weather we were able to get quite a few to come and then we taught them after as well :)  Church atendence was rough this week too!  It was the week for our branch to fly to the Madrid temple, so we were in the 20´s, but the Larsens came and I think nearly every member older than 12 bore there testimony!  That´s pretty cool!  It amazes me every week how mature these kids are here in the small branch.  There just isn't a ton so they are called on to give 20 minute talks, to say prayers, play piano, lead music and just be amazing examples to everyone!!  It blows me away!  

Oh so since you asked, we have 5 youth.  3 of them are brothers and sisters, and then two of other girls... Oh wait 6 youth sorry and 4 of them are siblings!  Two young men and 4 young women.  The young men meet with the bishop as their leader 3rd hour, and also there is one counselor, but he only comes every once in a while.  And then I believe the woman in charge of the young women is also the primary president, so second hour she does primary and third teaches young women.  So yaaa not sure if that answered your questions, but they make do with what they can.  Sometimes the youth just end up teaching themselves, but they do well.  Elder Lopez and I taught Priesthood and we gave a pretty good lesson about Blessing of the Sick.  I shared the story from when Nauvoo was founded and nearly everyone was sick from malaria, but through the priesthood, the majority were healed.. Awesome story!!!  Hmmm that sums up my week!!  Not sure if that was a long summary or a short one!!  I liked reading the testimony you sent me from Aunt Kayce!  She has been through a lot, it´s nice that everything is starting to be the way it should be!  Could you tell her hi for me??  I always loved seeing them while I was up at school, and getting haircuts at her salon, and ya just everything :)  

   

About my pants...  Ya i´ll take two pairs if you could :)  Charcoal and Navy!!  If you have the same lengths they ajusted on me that would be awesome!!  And maybe the next size down??  Actually definitely one size down would be great!!  And to Madrid because it´s just more secure, and no matter what if it goes to the mission office it will get to me.  Who knows if I´ll still be in this area in a few weeks!  I think I will be, but better safe than sure.  I´m having Kendal move her letters to Madrid as well, so ya that would be awesome :)  

How crazy that Kara leaves to BYU in a few weeks!!!  I bet you are super excited and bummed at the same time!!  I really hope that somehow we can make it works that she is able to switch over to Provo when I get back or something!!  That would be nice to have Kara there with me :)  We´ll see how it goes, maybe she´ll love Idaho and want to stay as well!  

Well I think it´s about time to head off!  Not sure what we are going to do with the time we have left, cuz I can´t run well yet :/  But ya!!  Hope you have a great week momma!  Is work still going well??  Kara hasn´t told me anything about jamba or her job either... Well actually I haven't heard from her in two weeks in general, but I hope she is doing good!!  Miss you guys!!  Que pasa una buena semana!  Os amo!!  Love you!!

Nathan

Random Pictures

Picture

That girl who is writing Tanner that was in my first ward, she´s here on the islands now!!  Not sure why i´m sending this... I suppose if you see Tanner you can tell him she says hi haha

Pictures

1.  The only soda i have found that I LOVE: Clipper

2.  Hotel Room!!  

3.  I have so many good ones with the sunrise

June 2, 2014 - It's a Small World...

From Kimber Millard:

Our friend posted this picture on Facebook of her son, Elder Zac Giforos at zone conference...look who else is in the photo!

Pictures

1. Random Telde Sheep...FarmLife

2.  A few friends from my isla...And Chrissy from my BYU ward!!

3.  Santa Cruz de Tenerife

I'm on a boat

Not what a mom likes to see in her inbox

Hold on we are starvinnngg and gonna go grab some lunch!!!  You´re email be be sent momentarily!!!  Not sure if i used that word correct... SOON!!! :)

Boat ride to Tenerife

This place is paradise huh??  View from the boat at sunrise!!