March 31, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 30

Hola!!!

Hows it going??  We had the whole time change this weekend and I never really thought about it. but man when you are working all day and lose an hour of sleep that messed up my whole mental clock!  Email is like my favorite but I'm all sleep right now... anyways, that's a bummer that it has been a hard work week, it has been here too but I hope we start to pick up like you are going to!   

Transfes were this past weekend and I´m staying the same except for like the tiniest detail.  Before they had me down as junior companion but now they made me senior companion, which I´m not really sure what that means but I guess I can´t say im young in the mission anymore.  And one of my good buddies left the island :(  Elder Saquicela from Ecuador, he is like the trainer of my trainer, and he always calls me his Nieto(grandson) He goes home in like a month or so, so we played a huge game of soccer with all the missionaries and investigators and members and it was great!  Although with all my time here I'm still not great at soccer haha.   

That´s sad about the missionary in our ward.  Is his family members or no?  My comp doesnt get too much mail either but because its super expensive from his part of Mexico, but he gets all his emails every week like me!   

Hmm what else to share..  Im super excited for general conference this weekend!  I think I will have to listen in spanish, but I guess I´ll just try and make the most and understand as much as I can!!  But we´ll see!!   

Have a great week!  And yes I am so glad not to be in Madrid!  Th weather there is craziness, it is so cold, or when its not cold its way to hot, or raining or snowing and it makes no sense!  Well  I think that's all for this week.  Keep going hard on the workouts!  I got a benchpress from the other elders piso so we have that in the middle of our living room now!  Lovely!  haha Love you!!

Nate

March 31, 2014 - Beach Near Piso

March 31, 2014 - Look I Can Cook

March 31, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Mama!!!!

Wellllll the rama shrunk again :/  Its a pretty back and forth thing.  And no investigators came to church.  Whooo as I write this I start to realize it was a harder week than I thought!!  ahha But on the bright side an inactive lady that hadn't been to church in something like 8 years came yesterday!  That was the little bright spot of my week.  And all the members were super loving and kind and this lady came up to us like three seperate times during the church blocks to say thank you... Pretty cool!  

THE SWEET TARTS CAME!!!!  I´ll take a pic soon but they came on Wednesday during zone meeting and every missionary in the island was like uhhh what's that and I already knew so I didnt open it until I was in the car so people wouldnt steal them all haha.  We had american food this week too!!!!  The Buhlers are so awesome and they feed us so well!  We went to a place called VIPS, which is pretty much a spanish super expensive TGI Fridays and it was amazing!!  Hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes :)  

Oh and I can say I had a 60 year old companion for like a half our!! haha it was kind of awkward actually.  We had to split a pair so we could all fit in the cars and of course they split the poor Telderes who nobody else ever sees haha So I was in a car with Elder Buhler and a ton of hemanas, and I felt sooo weird for like the half hour cuz my comp got lost and I was just sitting at the restaurant haha and ya... You never know how weird it is to be alone until you have lived with some other guy your age for like 6 months and then you are alone for like a bit haha I'm weird.  That pobably made no sense! 

Hmm What else happened this week!  I went downto Vecindario to be with the district leader and it was fun!  We made chile rellenos and talked to a TON of people and got awesome work done, and then I taught ANOTHER english calss there haha I might as well have am elementary teaching degree for how much english I teach nowadays haha But it's growing on me little by little.  Know any language learning games that would help grown adults learn basic englsih??  That would be awesome!!

 I made beans again this week and they were evern better!  With potatos this time too!! And I made spanish rice, but they don't sell chicken broth here so it was kind of flavorless!  But was nice and red!!! Oh the random skills I'm learning as a missionary!  

Hmm another thing that idk why I forgot to mention a while back that you guys might find cool!!!  I taught a leeson in a high school the other week!  How weird is that!!  Like I thought it was illegal or something!  But this young woman in our rama like is a super good member missionary and her teacher asked her to give an HOUR presentation on the church and her beliefs in their class!  That's crazy to ask of a 16 year old but anyways... She was smart and decided to invite the missionaries along too!  We were origionally just gonna answer questiosn but then I think everyone just wanted to talk to us because we are two foreigners with different accents haha and we ended up just teaching for like 45 minutes!  It went way good!  And now all the high school kids in the city know us and say hi to us on the street even if they dont want to learn from us at all haha But man it was wa awkward leaving the high school building, we just had like a herd of short people surrounding us wanting to know who we were and why we were all dressed nice and random things like that haha So ya we had a lesson with 30 high school kids!  Everyone else in our island thinks it's super cool! haha

That´s cool that they changed it to a womens conference  I heard it's all girls from 8 and up?  Thas a lot!  Sorry I don't have many cool stories this week.  They had transfers this weekend and I'm staying.  They changed my title to a senior companion as well which I don think means much except that after Elder Lopez leaves I might have someone younger than me as a companion!  Craziness!  Well I hope you guys are having a great week!  Enjoy conference!!  I think I might have to go up north to las palmas to watch it, and it will surely be in only spanish haha lucky me we´ll see how much I can understand!  Btw when is Easter I have no idea!  Next week?  That is pobably something good to know!  Love you mom!!!  Hope you have a great week with the banquet and everything!!!

Nathan 

P.S.  Oh ya a spiritual thought!!! I found one I LOVED in Alma the other day!  Idk why I've never heard anyone use it before.  Ok turn to Alma 5!!!  This is a crazy chapter with all sorts of good stuff and good questions to ask yourself.  It talks first to people that aren't a part of the church and how they should change their ways!  Then Alma tuns to those that are already members and asks a good question we should all ask ourselves from time to time.  Read vers 26!! ......  I only have it in spanish, but it pretty much sas that we have already been converted(or if not see the 25 verses before) and now that we have felt a change of heart and supported the church and loved our savior, we have to ask oursleves if we can still feel those same strong feelings we felt when we first were converted to the church.  Its a good question to kind of assess where one is in there endure to the end process, since we´ve all already been baptized.  The next 5 verses or more I don't remember talks about things we do that make our feelings of conversion more faint, such as pride, being mean to people, teasiong people and taking advantage etc... And these are the little things one must fix to be able to always have their testimony as strong and perfect as when they first recieved it!!!  Kind of a thought more directed at people who are already members and I have never used it so I don't really have anything fine tuned or well explained, but I hope you like the scriptures!!  Love you mom!!!

March 24, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 29

Hey Dad!!!

I didn´t get an email from you this week!!!  What happened?  It´s ok I´m sure you were tired or busy with something, but it's been a pretty good week here in Telde.  I had an exchange with another missionary this past weekend and was able to go down and work in Vecindario!!  It's toward the south of the island and its soooo windy!!  Like you can't talk to people in the streets because of the crazy amout of wind!!  But I was with another guy that is pretty new from utah, and we had a great time!  Taught some good lessons and found some people!  I had one of those crazy experiences that you always hear misisonaries talking about, where like you just start talking in spanish and even though you don't know exactly what you are saying it's what the investigator needed to hear.  They have someone with a lot of worries and confusion about the gospel, and we were teach him late like at 8:15 ish, and after a bit into the lesson he wasn't really paying attentions so we asked if he had a question and he went off on like asking why we are here as missionaries and why he should believe anyting we say and stuff.  And then we just ditched the lesson and started talking to him.  Like why we are here as missionaries, how this is something that has blessed us and our families so we want to share with others, and I really don't remember what else I said, but next thing I knew it was like 9:30 and we were all happy ending the lesson and he wanted to meet more with the other missionaries later that week!  It was really cool!!   

Well how have things been back in Poway?? Is the biking going good??  Do you ride a lot with Uncle Wade and Bryce??  I wrote quite a few letters to like you guys and some aunts and uncles and people so maybe I need some addresses later next week!  Not sure yet... Well hope to hear from you next week!!  Love you!!!

Nathan

March 24, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!!

How´s it going!!  Sounds like you had an amazing time at youth conference and with everything!!  Oh and btw that sweet tart is HUGEEE!!!  IS it just one or like a roll of them?? What a bummer that customs took them from me :(  Or maybe like the office stole them haha Who knows!!!  We have had a really good week this week!!  I´m not usually a huge fan of numbers and comparing, because some of my best weeks I didn´t have a ton of lessons or something, but this week was a good numbers week and a good week in general!!  Last week was kind of rough, but we bounced back and had the best lessons, and like everything else that we have had since getting to the island!!  Oh and our little rama is growing!!  You know how it is usually like 20 something or 30 pico people?? Oops pico means like something, but like little so like 30 something small I guess...  Well we had 37 pepole attend sacrament meeting!!!  And then we had a little mini miracle after church ended!!  We were going to leave to eat with a cool family in the branch, when the elders quorum president pulled us over and said hey talk to this lady!!  She just kind of stumbled into the chpale and had never seen anything like it... She said how she prays for the Pope and the missionaries every day, but now she finally found some missionaries hahhaah And she wants to come back to our church during the meetings next week!  Super random but super awesome!!!

Btw sightly related but slightly not related I heard something like that too about the happiness being like 2000 chocolate bars!!  And we were talking with someone the other day and we randomly came up with how life is like a mirror, and when you are smiling and being happy, good things just tend to come your way mnore and more happiness comes!!  It´s like in the parable of the talents that say to those who have, more will be added!!  Anyways random haha Oh I forgot to tell Justin but I´ll tell you since I'm sure you all share emails!!  We found a new investigator this week!!  Is that show duck dynasty still popular in the US???  Well imagine Si from duck dynasty wit his beard and everyting... I found him... Spanish version!!! hahaha :)  It wasn´t quite as funny sharing that with my companion because he's never seen it, but i hope you will get a laugh out of it!!  I´ll try and send a pic whenever we are buddies enough with him to take a pic!!  

Oh and the other topic of my week that I had to tell you!!!  Are you ready to be proud of me on like a million different levels!!  Well first of all you know how much I love cooking... And I figured the mission is the perfect time to get better at cooking so I started practicing and experimenting my own recipes this week.  And Thursday I think I made one of te best things I've made in my life!!  Just will be so proud once again!!  I made a HUGE pot of beans!  Like a bean soup kind of!  SO simple buit so good!  Pinto beans soaking for 24 hours then I drained and put them with fresh water to boil and when it boiled i put in fresh spicy chorizo, onions, and quite a few differents spices and let it simmer for like 4 hours(we had weekly planning, so I was able to keep an eye on it every few hours!!)  And they turned out sooo DELICIOUS!!  And they lasted us until this morning"! Like 4 days I think!!  I´m going to keep experimenting so that I can make them perfect when we get back!!  I´ve also perfected your white rice!  My companion loves it and has no clue how it's so like soft and fluffy!  Well ya pretty much that was the non missionary work highlight of my week!!  

Well you didnt have any other questions so I´m not sure what else you wanna know that's interesting.  I´ve been reading the spanish Book of Mormon for what seems like forever now and i finally just started Alma!!!  Slowly but surely!!  Oh and this week someone legit thought I was from Columbia for like a few days until our second visit when they asked where I´m from and said the US... I guess my accent is getting better!! haha  Well hope you have a great week!!!  If I missed anything do the question thing and I will love to answer them!!  Love You Mom!!!

Nathan :)

March 17, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 28

Hey Dad!!!

Telde is fun!!  It's Telde... but hey I think we are about to get this rama growing!!  We have a year goal to get the attendence up to 45 and we already have it up to like 37, so I wanna kill that goal and get it up to like over 50 or something!  But we´ll see how it goes...  We had some good people just like drop off the map, but you kind of get used to that sometimes in the mission... well at least in my mission.   

You guys gotta see the beaches around here they are sweet!!  I dont know if I wanna go back though cuz like we wanted to swim so bad but we can't so we left sad kind of haha.   

Sam comes back??  Wow its crazy how time flies for everyone else and then when you are actually serving it seems slow but then you look back and time has flown!!  Is it really week 28??  that's a lot!!  It's 4 weeks here now in Telde... but it feels like less!   

Hhmm  ya exercise is going good!!!  We went and tried out this new gym this morning(we woke up at 5:30 so we had time for it!!) And now im pretty exhusted but like its all good!  We might just stick to running in the cold outside though cuz we are poor missionaries. 

Hmm whats new...  I think in spanish sometimes!  I have to try but other times it just is the way it is.  Like I´ll wake up thinking, ughh tengo sueño, quiero dormir mas, blahh pero vamos a correr!  haha I dont know random stuff.   

It was a pretty normal week sorry I don't have any cool stories.  We got fed quite a bit this week..  One time two lunches and it was painful!!  Then we had to go out and work in the heat... fun stuff!   

Hope you guys are having a good time there! 90!  thats quite a bit!  I swear I'm permanently ruined with measuring temperature now.  I don't get celsius or Fahrenheit I just know generally that it's hot and cold and I can't convert them either way!  But its been nice and warm here!  Enjoy youth conference!  Where is it at this year?? 

Love you dad!  Enjoy biking and work and the family and everything!

Nate