Found some fun weapons to play with!!

Random friends from zone meeting, and reunited with my trainer finally!!!

I was really happy to get mangos!! I ate the first one before i even remembered to take pictures!!!

September 1, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 52 - 1 Year

Hey Dad!!!

Yaaaa I kind of can't believe I´ve already been here a year!! Like I look at some things, like how I can speak spanish and how I've been in three places and it makes sense, but it still seems like just yesterday I was back home with you guys or at BYU skyping you all every Sunday!  I only hear time flies by even faster after you hit your year mark!  Everyone tells me it's like getting to the top of a roller coaster and you just seems to free fall all the way to the 2 year mark!  But who knows!!   

I´ll have to ask Kendal about exact dates and everything if she has them!  I think she does, but I'm not sure how it's all going to work!!  You and mom can just ask her in an email like seperate to send the information over, and I'm sure she´ll send it!  Sometimes when things are asked as part of a long email we forget because there are lots of questions to answer, but I´ll ask her as well to send info over to you!  Or you can also talk to her mom!  I know mom and Kendal's mom have like phone numbers or something I dont remember.   

Anyways, it has been an awesome week!  I´m a bit tired at the moment because we just spent the whole morning playing basketball! It was pretty pathetic cuz like all we had was a soccer ball and it was really bouncy so it made it practically impossible to make a shot unless it was nothing but net, but it was fun! We played with two guys from the branch, one of them is inactive but we are good friends, and the other is active but we are helping him fix some stuff so he might be able to go serve a mission!  It´s nice I'm starting to feel like I'm in better shape!  Not quite where I was before college when I was coming off rugby and football, but still better than when I left!  Are you still biking quite a bit ith uncle wade and bryce or have you gotten busy??   

That´s awesome you and mom got to go to the temple! My area I guess they used to go to the temple back when they had a car in this area, but they took the car out and now like we aren´t alowed to go to the temple!  Let´s just hope I get the chance to serve inside of Madrid one more time!  Actually not sure... I really want to be able to go to the madrid temple again, but at the same time after I finish here in Talavera I really want to go up north!  From what I hear and from what everyone says Galicia is just a beautiful area!  Like even better than the islands but we´ll see!  I´m sure you could look it up one of these days! 

Soo we had a ton of new people come to church this past week!  We taught a family from Romania, and started teaching two brothers from the Domican Republic, and they all came to church and from what they were saying I think the two domicans migt already want to be baptized!!  So that´s a plus!  I hope we can help them along and make it happen!  It was a really stressful Sunday with 9 investigators at church like we were running all over the place making sure the kids were liking the young mens classes and hleping people finding relief society or whatever and then finally hearding them all in for sacrament meating!  It's kind of weird we have sacrament meeting last here in Talavera  I'm not a huge fan of it, but oh well I guess that's just how things are!  Hmm not sure what else!  I hope things are going well and that work starts picking up!  Love you dad!!

Nate

September 1, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!!

Hope you have had just a great week!!  Yaa it was a bummer your email didn't send last week, but that's what I figured happened so I wasnt too worried!!  I told Kendal that last week as well, and like she said she got your email right when she was finishing up I think, sooo awesome!  

Good to hear you are taking care of the missionaries in Poway!  The members here are taking care of us really good to, so awesome!  Remember the member who I told you is like Nana but from Spain, well actually she is from Chile but lives here in Spain!  Well she is the best. I was saying last Monday how I really wanted mangos or something like that, and not sure how she found out but just the other day after we had a branch family home evening, she left me with two big ripe mangos :) yummm and then like on Sunday she gave me a little bag and I opened it up in piso and it was peure!!!  Not sure if that's how it's spelled, but it's basically the chilean version of our mexican salsa!!!  It's a bit more liquidy and uses a different pepper to make it spicey, but it's the best I've eaten here so far!!  I was just playing basketball with a chlean guy this morning and he was all jealous that i had a big jar of peure in my fridge at home haha So ya it's awesome!! Ok i´ll answer your questions!!

1.  No need to be hemmed :)  They fit perfectly!!!  Thanks I love them!!!  It's nice to finally have a charcoal pair of pants again and to be able to wear my brown shoes again!  My brown ones are my favorite!!

2.  hmmm  more socks... Definitely not more athletic socks because I have an abundance of those, but ummm I´ll have to think about that one and take inventory or something!!  I don't need them like now, but I´ll check it out and see if I need a certain color or something.

3.  Yes I got the other suitcaase and it was full of all sorts of happy suprises!!  I got everything from new cologne and shaving cream, to my christmas stocking to a ton of shirts!! haha 

Bummer I forot to bring my camera today i took a ton of pictures!!  Also super random but the toothpast i had packed in my suitcase expired and i was super bumked about that!  Likee ummm i didnt know toothpast expired, but it smelled weird and i wasnt sure if it was the normal smell so im just gonna toss it!

4.  ummm ok I didn't bring it (his apartment address), but honestly I think I would just rather have everything sent to the address in the mission office.  Less stress and I know things get there.  One day in the island, I'm walking into the piso with some other missionaries and like there is this old guy just reading one of my letters.  Well at least looking at the pictures there or something cuz it was in english, but ever since then I've decided I would prefer things to go to the mission office, plus it's like christmas every time they give me stuff!  Hopefully I get your package this next week but if not oh well!  I got a huge letter from Kendal that I'm not allowed to open up until my year, and I feel like I´ll get your package really soon as well!!

5.  I learned how amazing it will be to finally have a dryer in a year, but I suppose that isn't what you were asking about haha  Nooo one of my favorite things this past week was a talk yesterday in church!!  We talked about how like each and every one of us is a bit like Peter.  When all the apostles went out in the boat and were struggling against the storm, but then Christ came walking along the water, and Peter jumped out and started walking on the water towards him.  We all have embarked on our own boat of life, and at some point or another we have found Christ walking along the water, and have needed the faith to jump out of our comfy boat and walk towards him.  Like Peter, there are waves and winds trying to make us fall in and drown, but if we keep our eyes towards the Lord, things go well.  It's when we start to worry about all the bad things around us that we starting to fall into the sea.  But Christ is always there with his hands outstretched to pick us up, and tell us we need more faith!  Yaaa I'm failing to remember where that is in the scriptures and in which gospel, but I really liked how it was told, and it was nice that all our investiagtros could hear it!!!  Like I was saying to dad, its amazing and not sure how it worked out but we had 9 investogators in our sacrament meeting, and we reached a high in sacrament meeting with 51 people!  We finally reached over 50!! yayyy And we were still in August so who knows what else can happen by the time we get to Christmas!!!  Things are looking really good for the area!  

Ohh ok so I´ll tell you a cool story of something that happened this week!  We were just outside the church waiting for people to come to family home evening, and this woman walks about super randomly and like asks us if we teach english class, and I said I can teach english because like ya I'm American so we ended up having a class with her yesterday.  Turns out she speaks super good english and just wanted like someone to talk to to prepare for a test she has, so we start talking and then end up getting to share all about the Book of  Mormon in english, and she ended up taking the book and wanting to read it a little bit!!  I´m excited, and we´ll see how it all goes!  Lots of good things are happening here!  We learned a lot about having good desires in our zone meeting last week, and how if we have the right goals and desires then we will always get the results we are hoping for.  Its really true, and we have seen so many awesome results this past week!  

Hmmmm I think that is most of everything!  I miss you guys!!  Crazy its been a year since I left, it feels like it was just the other day, and the second year always goes bye faster sooo idk!  I hope you have a great week!  Keep taking good care of the missionaries and being great in everything!  I love you!  Tell Kara and Justin hi for me!  I miss having them around!  Have a great week!!! Love you!

Nate