Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Baptism Possibilities! Feb 22, 2010


Hey fam!!

Well this time next week it’s possible that I will be in another area with a different companion! But it’s also possible that I will be in the same area with the same companion haha so we’ll see. Well I know that you have all been concerned about my rash so I’ll start of by saying that it’s on the mend!! It doesn’t itch badly anymore and it looks like it is starting to heal. I called the mission nurse and she gave my some pills to take to take away the itching. It did the job, but unfortunately made me feel kind of crappy.. but oh well at least it worked. Thank you for all your prayers I know they helped!

Well this week has been pretty good, not too much news with the Ramos family, but last night we dropped the "baptism bomb" on them and told them to pray and ask God if getting baptized this Saturday is the right thing to do, and they all said they would. Some are more hesitant than others, but I think at least most of them will be baptized this Saturday. Also the sister of Alex (the guy I baptized) has decided to get married, so she can now get baptized this Saturday as well!! So if all goes as planned, we’ll have a really good last day of the transfer. Mom thanks a ton for the pictures you sent of Danielle’s shower, I loved seeing everyone! looks like it was a good time.

I forgot to tell you Brooke that I got your letter last week thanks a lot! I also got a dear elder from Danielle and from Kim this past Wednesday so its looking like they are taking about ten days to get here. not bad! Interviews with president Pèrez went well, pretty short and simple so yeah its all good! He complimented me on my Spanish, so that was a relief! Josh, Brooke, Adam, and Dad thanks a ton for the Olympic updates, it sounds like I missed out on a freakin sweet week! I can’t believe Shaun White has been doing that well, I can’t wait to see that new trick it sounds sooooo sick. And what the heck where did Bode Miller come from?! That’s awesome that he is making a comeback, what a stud. Josh freakin captain of the wrestling team that’s right baby!! do me proud, I wish I could be at your matches. Adam sounds like your doin solid in school, keep it up! you better do better than I did haha but that’s not too hard. What else have you been up to bro? What about Justin I didn’t hear anything from him! Mom thanks a lot for your letter I really enjoyed it, I had never heard that story of your friend that’s so sweet! I'm hoping the whole ripple effect will be able to happen here in El Salvador. Also thanks a ton for the updates of my friends, sounds like they are all doin well. Joe is speaking English right?

So I don’t have much to tell you about this week other than I’ve discovered EVERYBODY that we visit wants help with their English homework haha I was at a members house and the daughter wanted help with some stuff, and it’s sooo hard to explain why we do certain stuff in English! It really is a way weird language. I’m glad I already speak it haha. Well everything is going well I'm doing fine and getting pretty comfortable here. Thanks for all your love and support everybody I really appreciate it. I'm gonna send some pictures now! love you all

Nick


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Almost 1 Month in the Country- Feb 15, 2010






Hey Fam!

Well I’ve almost been here a month now. In some ways it seems like forever and in others it has seemed pretty fast! This week has been pretty good, with one exception.. I have this really bad rash/infection type thing on my arms and hands that itches like crazy! I’ve had it for about two weeks now and it just keeps getting worse and worse and I haven’t been sleeping well because of it so we’re going to call the mission nurse and see if she can get me some sort of medicine for it, so hopefully that’ll help!

That’s so sweet that the Olympics have started, that makes me so jealous! that’s like my favorite type of the year, especially the winter Olympics. Sounds like there has already been some drama with it.. That’s way sad about that guy from Georgia. You guys will have to keep me updated on all of that please!

Well I realize I haven’t been the best at answering questions in my emails so I’ll try and answer all the ones that I can remember. The most unusual thing I have eaten here is like a bird membrane in a soup.. haha nasty. Usually though my meals consist of beans rice and eggs and tortillas. I don’t get to hear much at all of what is going on in the world.. once and a while I’ll see something on the TV but that’s about it. I have heard however a new song by that chick that was on American Idol..? sounded pretty good! of course my vision might be a little skewed because I heard that titanic song the other day by Celine Dion and was lovin it haha. There isn’t a set time of when you get transferred.. it’s different for everybody. Elder Montoya has been in the same area for 3 transfers so like 4 and a half months and others get transferred after a single transfer so who knows! I’m getting nervous as to where I'm going to go or if I'm going to stay and who my new companion is going to be. I haven’t heard from any of my friends.. I want to know how they are doing so if you hear anything let me know!

Dad on P-days we usually get together as a zone and play soccer, and once and a while we’ll go and eat.. but everyone always says they don’t have money so we just write at an internet cafe that costs like a dollar for an hour and go into the city for a while which is always fun! So how was skiing with all those guys from your work? that sounds way fun! did you have good conditions?

Well this past week we have been working with this family that I’m pretty sure is going to get baptized sometime here in the near future so keep your fingers crossed for that! It hasn’t been as hot this week so that is good, I can’t believe that it says it’s only 80!! it’s gotta be more... what part of the country are you looking at? So Brooke have you found a job yet? or just lovin the life of freedom? haha eh just take a break for a while. Well we have interviews with the President this Wednesday so that should be fun.. ha I’m kind of nervous I don’t know why. Well I’m going to send some pictures here in a sec so I’ll talk to you guys more a little later!! Love and miss you all. Have a great week

love Nick


Monday, February 8, 2010

Going Good! -February 8, 2010




























Fam!
Well i´ve made it three weeks. time is starting to go a little fast now that im getting into a rythem of things and getting to know people a lot more. Well this week has been pretty good, we had a multi zone meeting where I got to see elder dennis and elder marchant, I didn´t even know they were going to be there so I was way stoked! So I guess Elder Dennis got to kill a pig at a members house and for some reason thought it would be ok to eat it after, so he got really really sick for the first week or so haha he was telling me some details but I won´t put you through the agony,I'll just let you use your imagination! Also Elder Delmarcado who was in my district in the MTC is in the hospital I guess he has been really sick the whole time... I feel bad for him. I can´t believe I haven´t gotten sick it all! It made me feel way lucky. Elder Marchant is doing well, he was really homesick at first, and still is, but it´s getting better for him. It was really nice to talk to them because we all found out that each of us had pretty much the exact same struggles and worries about the mission right now so it made us realize that it is normal and that it will get better.

So I finally got some letters delivered to me by the Zone Leaders and I was all stoked ready to rip them open.. and then... I realized that they were all letters that were supposed to be sent to me in the MTC but were just sent to El Salvador on accident. haha freak! I got a Dear Elder from Brooke and from Amie and I got a Christmas card from President maybe with 10 bucks in it!! I couldn´t believe he spends ten dollars on each missionary... we have like 50 in our stake! what a stud. But then the last one I opened was from Mom that was actually supposed to be sent here, so that made me way happy, thanks Mom!! So I´m going to try and send you guys a couple voice clip things with that recorder we got before I left, so hopefully it works! one is for the fam and the other is of Elder Montoya speaking to Dad so you can see how different it is. He actually kept it pretty simple, so just know he speaks a lot faster than that!

Well nothing too exciting has happened this week. You guys wanted to know if I feel safe and everthing here, and the answer is yes. There hasn´t really even been a time where I didn´t feel safe so no worries. Although the other night we were talking to some people and all the sudden I heard five gun shots.... about 5 pasajes away, so that was the first time where I was looking over my back the rest of the night. I actually found out the next day that three people died from it. pretty crazy! But really don´t worry Im safe and smart here.

Well Spanish is coming along a lot better, I´m pretty much able to understand the jist of what everybody is saying. Cool story, we were knocking doors and I was talking to this lady and she asked me where I was from, so I asked her to guess, and she guessed Spain!! haha I was pretty stoked. Even though the whole door approach is definitely what I know best in Spanish so if our conversation went into depth any further she would easily be able to tell that I don´t speak Spanish very well, it still made me feel good haha. Thank you guys for your emails, I feel bad that I never really have time to Email each of you back personally, but I figure that you like to get a couple of pictures each week so I´m going to have to hand write some letters soon and send them. I´m excited to get your packages!! I have no idea how long it will take, I´ll have to let you know. So the Saints won the Super bowl... that´s too bad! haha Adam I would have rooted for the Colts as well bro. It sounds like it´s just normal life at the Reid house, keep me updated on what each of you are up to and what not. It´s so good to hear from you guys I look forward to it every week. Well I´m gonna try and send the voice clip and some pictures now so I´ll talk to you guys next week! love you all.
Love Nick

Monday, February 1, 2010

1st Baptism -February 1, 2010














Hey everyone!! well ive got two weeks down. this week has still been really tough but i have some great news, this past saturday i had my first baptism! His name is Alex and his mom and a few other members of his family got baptised a couple months ago but he didn´t want to but we finally convinced him. I actually baptised him!! It was so awesome.. they don´t have the little cheat sheet in the font so i had to memorize the prayer, luckily it is pretty easy so i didn´t have to do it twice haha. it was a really good experience though he was so happy after and i know he knew it was the right thing to do. i´m going to send you guys a pic of it so hopefully you get it.

So I´ve had a bunch of funny experiences this week, but here are just a few.. we go over to Alex´s house quite a bit cause there are still quite a few people in the house who haven´t been baptised, (to be honest i dont even know what child belongs to who and who is the grandma and who is the daughter and blah blah blah haha there are so many people living in this tiny house) anyways i was there and one of the daughters who is 15 asked me if i had any brothers, and i said yes three. and then she said "do any of them have the same color of eyes as you? they are really pretty" haha! so i showed her a picture of josh and adam and all the little teeny boppers in the house we very impressed, so boys if you need me to hook you up down here just let me know! haha alright next topic.

Things are very different around here concerning privacy and what not... the other day we were teaching a lesson to this lady and she had a little two year old and right in the middle of the lesson she just started breastfeeding her with no effort to cover up whatsoever.. yeah... haha you see that quite a bit down here. and then one day we had been knocking doors for a looong time and it was SO hot and we came to the last house of the colonial and this guy answered and was like hey please come on in!! I was thinking one of those classic mission stories was about to go down, but i was very wrong. haha we started talking to him a little bit and just wanted to bash our church and then started going off on how he hates americans. he asked, "who do you think has the most problems, a man like me who has nothing, or a guy like you from america who has everything?" yeah we left pretty shortly after that haha. Our area is acutally one of the hardest areas in the whole mission, people aren´t too nice and very stubborn. But its all good!

So the food still isn´t too bad, the other night we went and got pupusas and i bought 4 of them and a really reallllly good fruit drink and guess how much it cost? 1.30! sweet huh? We have a women in the ward cook breakfast and lunch for us and she is really close to our house so that´s good. We are pretty much just on our own for dinner.. I think i´ve lossed all the weight of the MTC already. So about our living conditions, its a very poor area like you said Dad so our house isn´t very nice obviously but i think it could definitely be worse. we don´t have hot water or anything to cook on so we just buy a lot of snacks. i´ll try to send you a pic of my room. thanks so much for your emails everybody i loved reading them, i miss you guys a ton and got pretty teary eyed reading them but i had to fight, i can´t be cryin in front of all these elders! haha let´s see what else was i going to tell you...this week has been better with understanding people a little better, and im getting better with understanding montoya (you killed my father, prepare to die). p.s i can´t believe utah´s air quality has been so bad... that´s gross. It has been SO hot here... i am constanty sooo tired. what can i do about that? seriously im constantly fighting shutting my eyes all day, its no good. Brooke you´re finally learning to drive a stick?! freak why didn´t you learn while i was there! haha that´s sweet though don´t worry its not hard. have you found a new job yet? thanks for your email justin! how´s school? how did basketball end up going? well i dont have much more time but i love and miss you all and would definitely like some actually letters as well, some pictures too! sorry this email has been grammatically horrible this keyboard is way weird along with me learning spanish is not a good combo haha. well I hope to hear from you guys soon! have a great week!

love Nick