Computer Glitch

Well, the computer just erased my first draft, which already had a bunch of stuff written in there, and I don't have much time. Sorry, this is going to be a bit shorter.

 

We are still here in Santo Tomas, but about  half of our district has changed this transfer. It's weird, I was used to all of the other missionaries. We also had a change in one of our zone leaders. And you'll never believe who it is! It's Elder Burk! Who lives in (...a town near us), and I actually got to meet him today. He seems really nice, though we only had about 10 minutes, and we weren't really talking about home or anything, it was all missionary stuff. But I'm excited to know him better, he seems pretty great. And actually, to use the mission slang, he's my great grandpa. Meaning he trained the trainer of Elder Lezano, who is my current trainer. Go figure.

 

But this week has been full of ups and downs, but with the help of the Lord, my companion, and my leaders, I've been able to pick myself up and push forward. And I really know now that when we look for the positive, focus on doing good (like what Dad sent me this week) we really are happier. When we only see the frustrations or on the things we can't do, it's harder to be happy. So try to focus on the Good!

 

G_____ and B_____ are doing well, but we need to refocus on baptism. G_____ hasn't prayed to know if the Church is true and if he should be baptized, so he's really unsure about it. We are praying that he receives an answer soon. And for C_____, the youth that we have, there are some things we have to do, some hoops to jump through. We will see what happens there. But we are going to teach him to be absolutely sure and baptize him should it come to that.

 

We've found some good people, but we have to be better in follow up. It's one of our goals to improve on. Really the mission is very good at humbling you in almost every aspect of your life, it's interesting. But as long as we are striving to improve, that's all that God wants from us. And He really does bless us as we are trying to improve. This week I felt really blessed during one of our lessons. One of the people we were talking to was having a hard time expressing a doubt, and with the help of the Spirit, I was able to ask a question that helped her to express it. But she hadn't said anything about it, so there was really no way I could have known what her doubt was. But really, the Spirit guides us when we strive to do His work and be worthy of it.

 

But yeah, that's been my week. Sorry there's not more. I finally found the cable for my camera, but I may have accidentally left my camera in the house.... Sorry, I'll be sure to bring it next week. I've taken a bunch of pictures, I'm excited to send them. I love you all so  much, and you're all in my prayers. I'm really jealous that Dad and Kate get to go on that humanitarian trip, it sounds like fun. I hope you all have a great week, and that you're able to take advantage of any missionary opportunities that come your way! Ciao!

Land of Heat and Mosquitos

With Elder Troche

 

Zone Conference

Hello everyone from Santo Tomas, the land of heat and mosquitos! Sorry for that really short email last week, but it was a pretty crazy P-day. Luckily I have a little bit more time today.

 

Elder Lezano is pretty great. I've gotten a little bit frustrated at times, mostly due to my disabilities. It's been difficult to "lead" the area, because I'm so new. Hopefully it'll be easier. But it's also helped to build my confidence a lot, hopefully that'll continue. Elder Lezano tells me that it's not unheard of for missionaries to finish training and immediately get called to a leadership position or trainer. I'm really hoping that doesn't happen with me, but it's good to be prepared I guess. But I've got another 6 weeks before I need to worry about that. I don't think that either of us is going to move this transfer, but we won't know until later tonight. They tell me that we usually get the call around 7 tonight, and then we get to spend the rest of the night packing. So we will see what happens. I hope that it doesn't happen, because I really don't want to repack, it would be difficult. But we will see.

 

As for G_____ and B_____, they're an older couple in their 70s that live close to our house (which is a small house for the two of us with one bathroom). They're very receptive, but they couldn't attend this week. We had a stake conference about 45 minutes from Santo Tomas, and they take care of both of their mothers, both of whom are 97 years old. 97 or 93, I can't remember for sure. But no, they couldn't attend. None of our investigators attended this week, which means we have no progressing investigators once again. Hopefully that will change. We need to teach them about the Book of Mormon soon. We've taught them the Word of Wisdom, and we were surprised with how receptive they were, because they both smoke and both drink coffee, but they both committed to do it without too much of a problem. We found them by talking to them. G_____ was sitting in the street reading a book, which isn't very uncommon here, and we walked up and started talking to him. At first they didn't seem really interested, they seemed pretty set in their beliefs. But about a week later we passed by and had a really great lesson, and they're doing really well. B_____ likes to talk a lot, sometimes it's difficult to actually teach. but we are working to fix that.

 

Also, I finally received the package from the Wolfleys, thank you all so much! Also, my zone leaders have another package for me, I don't know who it's from. There might also be letters there, I don't know. So now we know, it takes about a month for me to get a small package. But thank you all who have written to me, even if I haven't had the chance to read them yet!

 

It sounds like you guys had a really fun week. I'm glad that you're enjoying it and that you got to see Diane and Justin. And congratulations to Christina! And Kate, I'm sure that the ACT went well, but it's a good idea to plan to retake it, your scores will get better every time. Normally. I had to take it 3 times before my score improved.

 

As for how the people respond, its very different. Yes I do attract attention, being very tall and blond. Here they call blondes "mono" which means monkey. So we always get a laugh when I tell them that my last name is a type of monkey in English. It helps to start the relationship. They're usually pretty nice to me, but they don't seem to understand that they have to speak more slowly for me to understand, which is improving, but it's still difficult sometimes. But they're starting to talk to me more, which also helps my confidence. It's frustrating, when they're just talking, I don't have too hard of a time understanding them, but I feel like as soon as they direct a statement or questions at me, it seems like they don't speak as clearly, because for the life of me I can almost never understand what in the world they're saying.

Also, I may be getting my first baptism in the next week or two. There's a youth here whose baptism wasn't recorded, so we may have to rebaptize him. We've talked to him, and he says that if we have to do it, he wants me to do it. So we will see what happens there.

 

But yeah, everything's going pretty well. Sorry that I haven't been attaching pictures, I can't seem to find the cord for my camera. But I should be able to get one this week, so you can probably expect more pictures later. Also, could you send the contact information of the new stake presidency and bishopric? Because there was a change, I have to report it to the mission office. But I need their emails and phone numbers I think to tell them.

 

I think that's all for this week, if I think of anything else, Ill send out a short email before I go. I love you all, thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts. You are all in mine. Have a great week!

Unexpected Change

Sorry that this is a day late, we had a crazy day yesterday. On Sunday night, President Gallego came and visited us, and he called Elder Troche to be a secretary in the mission offices. Which means he's not my trainer anymore. I'm still in Santo Tomas with Elder Lezano. He's Peruvian and has 6 months in the mission. He's very driven and organized, he should be very good for this area. I'm sad, I miss Elder Troche, but this should be very good too. It was weird, because transfers are next week, but Elder Troche had to go to the offices yesterday.

 

But this week was pretty good, we fnally have progressing investigators! They're an older couple named B_____ and G_____, and they're great. We expect to baptize them in November. There are more that we are hopeful for, but we will see how that goes. Sorry, I don't have too much time today. If I have time I'll answer more questions. I love you all, and I hope that you're all doing well.

Help the Missionaries!

Our zone

  

 More p-day pictures

 

 

 

To answer uestions first (sorry, the first letter of uestions isn't working). We don't have anyone progressing yet. There are 2 that are really close to progressing, they assisted for the first time yesterday, but also their baptismal date fell through because of a stake conference. So we need to meet with them and get that sorted out. But we also found some really great people that we have high hopes for, one of which is named W_____. Church is great, I'm starting to understand more. This week, the teacher for Principles of the Gospel was sick, so the Branch President asked us to cover for her, about 5 minutes before the class. That was a bit of an adventure, especially since more than half the class was investigators and we were talking about eternal families. But it was pretty great, I hope they felt the Spirit. Oh yeah, there's also a lady named B_____ who's super great. It can be hard to find people, but we are making some changes in our approach, and so far it seems to be working well. We teach people every hour, but sometimes I don't feel like I'm much of a help to my companion, which I'm trying to improve.

 

As for the area, it's awesome. I'm adjusting to the heat, slowly, and yes there are many, many, many mosuitos. But all is well. And when we were told that Colombians juice everything, they literally meant everything. Most of the time, I don't know what in the world I'm drinking, but it all tastes super good. I've had mora, which is something similar to a rasberry, guanabana, agua de panela which is really good, and even corn juice, which was surprisingly tasty. They also have lulu, which I have no idea what that is, but I've heard that it's super good. And the food is all really good, I haven't had a single problem yet. I like almost everything I'm given to eat, and even what I don't like, I can eat anyway. And the bread is incredible, my companion told me that Colombia is famous for its bread. It's really really good. Sorry dad!

 

I'm starting to be able to understand people better, but still not as much as I want to, which sometimes frustrates me a bit, but it is what it is.

 

I almost forgot. Im officially challenging all of my friends and family to get more involved in the mssinoary work. Its so hard without much help from the members, please please please help them!

 

That trip to Utah sounds like so much fun, I'm a little jealous, but I had my own little adventure today too. We played volleyball as a zone, and after that Elder Troche and I asked permission to go to a mall, because we both wanted some new bags. My bag is great, but it's really nice and it's starting to wear a bit, and it's really big and unwieldy, so I bought a smaller one. We ate pizza and ice cream for lunch, which was incredible. The pizza isn't uite the same, but hey, it's pizza. And we had McFlurry wth M&Ms and areuipe, which was pretty fantastic.

 

I hope that you're all doing well and that everyone has a great week. I love you all, and thank you for your prayers for me. Congratulations to the Spauldings for their new baby girl, she's absolutely adorable. I can't wait to meet her. Have a great week!

 

Conference!

P-day pictures

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone! Sorry, I don't have much time this week. This email will be pretty short. Things are still going well. Wow, the i key on this keyboard is difficult, sorry if I miss a few here and there.

 

Conference was fantastic, but I feel like I missed a lot of it. It was all in Spanish, but we had some pretty bad English subtitles for it. But I feel like I learned a lot, and I'm very excited for the Liahona. There was an English one in the stake center about an hour from us, but my district leader wanted me to listen in Spanish. So that was difficult, but it worked out well.

 

I'm very excited to keep working here. We've had to avoid a few election groups, but other than that it's been pretty normal. Not much interestng of that nature.

 

Just so you know, I expect all of my family and friends to be more involved in the missionary work after this conference, because that was a big theme!

 

For our meetings we have to take buses. They're super cheap in reality, less then 2 dollars American, but we don't like it much. That motorcycle thing is a motocarro, they're everywhere. Those are what everyone travels in here in Santo Tomas. For pdays, during each transfer, there's one day of soccer, one day of volleyball, one zone activity, one district activity, and 2 free days. Today was the zone activity. We played some games and watched half of The Other Side of Heaven and ate McDonalds hamburgers. It was alright, though I got sunburned during the games.

 

Elder Troche is great. He's very funny, he loves to joke, and he is really trying to learn English, which helps a lot. He's very good at helping me to step out of my shell. He's very encouraging too. I'm glad that he's my trainer.

 

I love you all, Thank you for your prayers and thoughts for me, I look forward to writing next week, hopefully with more time.

 

As for the ankle brace, it's barely bothered me. We can find a brace if it keeps happening.

Power in Testifying

With Elder Troche, headed to play soccer with the zone

 

A typical street, lined with mango trees. A lot of the streets have asphalt,

but a lot are also dirt.

 

 

Nathan's first zone conference, with Elder Falabella of the Seventy

 

The Falabellas with the Gallego Family

 

 

Thank you all for your emails, I love to hear from all of you. To start, this has been a week of highs and lows. I rolled my ankle late Tuesday night and it was very difficult to walk for a little while and very painful. The next morning was very hard for me, I felt very homesick for a long time. I actually felt pretty depressed. What helped me most was our training. Elder Falabella came and that day we heard from him, his wife, and President and Hermana Gallego. Their messages helped me a lot, and the things I have studied this week have been very powerful for that. I've definitely learned a lot about the Atonement this week and how I can apply it for myself. I think my biggest struggle is similar to the struggle of President Hinckley in his mission, I need to forget myself and go to work. But sometimes that's difficult. I'm working on it and getting better.

 

But everything is pretty good. I'm starting to adjust to the heat, more or less. The food is all fantastic. I had fish for the first time yesterday, and it was pretty tasty. It was the whole fish, head and all, fried. But it was very good. I definitely know that the blessing for missionaries is real, because I'm able to eat everything that people put in front of me. Even the tomatoes and green beans. I've learned to just mix it with the  rice and other stuff. As for food, our meals usually consist of rice, sometimes beans or lentils, with some kind of meat like chicken or beef cooked in some different form. And often potatoes. It's all very delicious. There are also usually some form of bananas, fried, roasted, every form imaginable. It's all very good. And the juices are all fantastic. So far my favorite is from some fruit called mora. But last night we tried one made from green mangoes and it was divine. And we learned that pretty much every tree that we walk under is a mango tree. But most of the mangos aren't ripe yet, but apparently their juice is still fantastic.

 

Elder Troche doesn't speak much English, but it's helping me to understand Spanish a lot. Our biggest problem is time. Sometimes he and I talk too much to the investigators and have a hard time getting to all of our appointments. But we have plans to fix that. Also, we aren't starting the area up again. There were missionaries here before us, but we've heard rumors that some of them were pretty disobedient, which means that we really need to win the trust of the members. Which we are working  at. The branch is really small. There are about 90 registered members, but about 50 attend regularly. But we had a branch conference this week and had almost 70, one of which was an investigator.

 

But I've realized that I'm a lot more confident in my Spanish during the lessons, and I'm starting to be able to understand more and more. I know more will come with time. I just have to focus almost completely in what they're saying. But when I do that and make an effort to love them, I definitely feel the gift of tongues.

 

I've learned that it's very hard to teach effectively, it requires a whole lot of thought and effort on my part. But there is an undeniable power when my companion and I testify. It's hard, but there is power, and I love to feel it. I need to be able to make the gospel applicable to the lives of the investigators, because that's when they will feel it. We received a reference for an investigator names A_____ this week who was awesome. Hes been searching all his life for a church, and said that as soon as we stepped on his porch, he felt something different. We hope for good things from him. He's searching for work, and of course the one day he found a short term job was on Sunday, which we were very upset about. But it's alright, we are going to work with him a lot.

 

As for our area, we have Santo Tomas and an area called Sabana Grande, which we have yet to visit since we've barely started learning our area. It's difficult, we are exhausted every night. But I also learned that Elder Troche loves music like I do, which was pretty great. He wants you to record yourself playing Come Thou Fount on the piano, Mom, and send it so we can listen to it.

 

I think that's all for this week, if I think of more I'll send out some more! I love you all, thank you for your prayers and thoughts on my behalf, and I look forward to hearing from everyone this next week! I love you!!

Santo Tomas

Holy cow its soooooo hot here. But its also pretty great. Sorry, I dont know how to use the apostrophe on this keyboard. I dont have a ton of time, because its been crazy and I dont have as much time as I will normally. Normally Ill have one hour, and itll be from 430 to 530 my time normally.

 

We are in an area called Santo Tomas, and neither Elder Troche nor I have ever been there. So its been a bit difficult. We have a huge area, and a lot of this week has been used to get to know the area. But the branch president is pretty great. For meals we have contracts, at least for lunch and dinner. That means that theres a member of the ward who we pay a small amount of money to each month, and they feed us lunch and dinner every day. Its a good system, and so far all of the food has been delicious. Rice every meal, but its very tasty.

 

There have been gringos here before, but apparently they didnt look quite as gringo as me, because I get a lot of stares from the people. They are very kind with my Spanish, which is actually getting along pretty well. Its far from perfect (far from proficient might be more honest) but I get by the people here speak pretty fast, but im getting to the point where I can understand a bit better. But yes, its difficult. But I like it here a lot. Santo Tomas is actually about an hour and a half from Barranquilla. Most of it is pretty poor, but its very safe. Thats what everyone says, and I havent felt unsafe once. There was a big party festival thing this weekend, so we were a bit more careful at night (since Im so obviously American) but we had no problems. 

 

As for mail, it seems that if you send it to the mission home, I can get it. One of the Elders that came with us had a package waiting for him, and Ive seen others get mail. I dont know about the whole putting pictures of  Jesus on it. It may help, it may not, I dont know.

 

Everyone here is super nice. Their doors are always open, and they love to talk to us. But when we got here, there were no progressing investigators, and in the last 2 years, there have only been about 10 investigators baptized. So we are working hard to change that.

 

I want you all to know that I love it here. Even though its hot and we never know where we are, its a great place to be, and Im very glad to be here. The people are super nice and the food is super good. I love you all and think of you often. Thank you all for your prayers for me. Sorry, I cant send pictures because I forgot my plug to the computer. Ill be sure to send some next week. I love you all!