Wednesday, October 20, 2010

11 months In! Monday October 18, 2010

Nick's new comp Elder Alviso

Getting creative with his camera

Nick teaching English to the people of El Salvador

Happy 20th Birthday!!!! He made a birthday cake from a mix we sent him

Celebrating his Birthday with his district

Dear faaaaam,
hey guys! Well today I have 11 months in the mission... sweeeet! time has been flying lately, seriously its nuts. I dont know what´s going on. This week has been a good one, we got a young couple to come to church for there second time but they aren´t married (like the whole country of El Salvador) so we are working on marrying them and getting them baptized. Hopefully it all works out! I had a way cool experience helping the sisters with an investigator they have had for a super long time, and ended up commiting him to baptism. I don´t know what it was but the lesson was so sweet and he just out of the blue said " alright I'm getting baptised Saturday, I just barely made my decision."

Mom, Im in zone San Salvador, and yeah my first area was Lyco. That´s cool that you guys went to Elder Twitchell´s homecoming! I never met him but he seems nice. What was the name of that other elder that was in his ward? Anyways my area is pretty cool like I said it´s pretty, surrounded by mountains, and poor like always. We haven't found a cook yet and I haaaate it! Haha I have just been having a ton of top ramen for dinner, but for the first time I actually cooked yesterday! haha you ready? Take notes if you want....
step 1: you take a tortilla ( be careful not to burn it)
step 2: scramble 3 eggs (do NOT let any egg shells fall into the mix).
step 3: heat up pre made beans ( refer to advice on step number 1)
step 4: put it all into the tortilla and throw on some cilantro if you want to make it look fancy.
yeaaaah I´ve picked up a skill or two in the mission.

It´s been pretty fun being able to train, I'm enjoying it. The only thing I dont like is that I feel like little things about my spanish are worse and it bugs me, oh well I guess that´s what I get for having to speak English all the time. So ever since I´ve been here, me and the sisters have been giving free English classes for anybody that wants to come so that's been really fun, and we´ve gotten a few contacts out of it, so that's always good. I was also able to make my cake in the church on Thursday and it was gooooood. I´ll have to send a pic with it. Sounds like your trip was successful mom, I´m glad!

So like I said to Josh, my companion has just been telling me about a ton of movies that have been coming out while I have been gone haha, gosh it´s been killing me. A new robin hood came out?! I love robin hood. Man doesn´t Nate Naegle come home soon? That's so sweet, I'm sure his fam is way excited. Thanks for those pictures you sent mom, the backyard looks so pretty and New York looks awesome. Well guys don´t have a lot of time this week so I´ll cut it off, but thanks for everything you do. Love you all have a great week.

Nick

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Sweet Life! October 11, 2010



All the Gringo Elder's and Sisters watching Conference

Hey guys!
Well this week has been pretty good, a little stressful, but good nonetheless. I really like my area a lot and the fact that I have an American companion is soooooo sweet. I´m loving it, I feel like ever since I have had him as a companion I have just been on divisions this whole time haha, so that´s a bit of a challenge to get the frame of mind that he's really my companion. But it´s a good time for sure, I can´t remember if I really told you much but he´s from California, close to Fresno. He´s going to turn twenty in November and he´s been a member his whole life. The weirdest thing about having a new American companion is that I'm the only one that speaks Spanish! Haha it has totally reminded me of my first couple of weeks here, barely understanding anything. It´s so weird how time flies, it seems like just yesterday I was in that same boat. But lucky for him, if he doesn´t understand something he just looks at me and I tell him in English haha. In fact the other day he was trying to say something but instead said a realllly bad word so I enjoyed that along with everybody else.

Well my ward is pretty sweet I like my bishop a lot. It´s a little weird sharing the ward with the sister missionaries but fun at the same time. The average attendance is about 130 people which is better than my last ward, but the church is alot smaller. Well what else can I tell you.. it terms of investigadors the last missionaries who were here didn´t leave with pretty much anything so we are just knocking doors alot and asking for referances from the members.

So my birthday was pretty sweet, looooooved the package, and yes I did get the one from Elder Twitchell´s mom last Monday. Gosh I love seeing video, it´s my favorite thing. Looks like Hawaii was awesome like always, I can´t wait to go back!!! It was awesome to see that Yellowstone trip as well, and of course almost the best part is always just seeing the stuff around the house. Brooke thanks for those vids of just driving around that was sweet to see, it hasn´t changed a bit, which is a good thing! Gosh seeing the golf course just about killllled me haha. Those rice kripsy treats tasted sooo good too. I haven´t be able to make the cake yet just because finding an oven hear is pretty tough, but there is one in the church so I'm going to try and make it this Thursday when we have a zone meeting there. That birthday card was pretty sweet haha, and hearing the Star Wars theme song got my adrenaline going as weird as that sounds!

So mom I really hope that thing in Phili helps, and hope you enjoy a little New York action (remember when you said you would take me there when I was 16?) :) Im sorry that you messed up your knee again! Gosh I hope you don´t have to get surgery or anything like that... maybe a little New York broadway is all you need haha. K what happened with Grandma´s leg nobody ever told me about that... fill me in!
Well love you all thanks for all the support, say hi to the ward and thank them for everything they do. Wish me luck for finding a cook this week, because as of right now we don´t have one and it is nooot fun. haha well love you all talk to ya next week!
SalĂș!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

New Area!!!! October 4, 2010

Hey Fam,
Well as you already know I had changes, I have been sent to zone San Salvador! My area is actually pretty sweet; it´s called Colonial and it is pretty much a huge valley surrounded by huge mountains like a big bowl. I feel like I live in a crater or an old volcanoe or something haha its really cool and pretty. Soooo about my companion... Im training! President perez called me the night before changes and said that I would be training and that I had to be in Lyco at 8:30 in the morning.. so that means I had to wake up at 3:30 in the freakin morning, walk out in the rain with all my bags to try and find a taxi to take me to the bus terminals to San Salvador. haha needless to say I have been pretty dead this week. So we got there and I saw a bunch of buddies and got to hang out for a while while we waited for the newbies to get there. We had a short meeting with president where he just pretty much explained how important and big a job it is to train and how we are setting the pace for our companions for the rest of their missions. Well I was pretty nervous to see who my companion was going to be. All the trainers were on one side of the room and all the newbs on the other, and president would just call the trainers name and the area was he was going to be in followed by his "hijo" or brand new companion. So it turns out I am training a GRINGO from California!!!! His name is Elder Alviso. His great grandparents are from mexico but he doesn´t speak a word. I couldn´t believe it! I never thought I would even have a gringo companion let alone train one, so im pretty excited. He´s a cool kid we get along really well! Also Elder Montoya (my trainer) is in the same zone so that´s way sweet. I am also the District leader over Elder Ramsey who was in my district in the MTC, as well as two sister missionaries who are ALSO both from the states, Colorado and Utah haha! So out of the six that are in my district only one of them is Latin, Elder Ramseys companion! It´s pretty crazy, I can just about do my district meetings in English if it wasn´t for that one elder haha, except I doubt I would even be able to talk about missionary stuff in English without sounding like a huge idiot.

Well that´s the big news for me here, just been getting used to my new area. It´s been pretty hard since my comp is brand new because neither one of us knows the area at all, so we´ve been doing is walking around blind relying on help from members and things like that. Opening an area is tough! But im excited it´ll be good.

Well confernce was pretty sweet eh? I did get to watch it in English with all the Americans in my zone so that was good. My favorite talk, like dad, was definitely by Elder Uchdorf about pride, that guy is a stud. Brooke and Mom definitely need to read it when the Ensign comes (not that you are prideful, just cause you werent at priesthood conference haha)!

Well sounds like the funeral was amazing. I can´t tell you guys how much I wish I could have been there, but I can´t wait to listen to the disc of it. Sounds like it was super emotional, but everybody was strong. Im way proud of grandma and the way that she has handled it all, pretty impressive. The pictures that you guys sent are awesome, thanks for sending them.
Well tomorrow I´ll be 20.... freak. Haha man time goes by fast I'm coming up on a year! I did get the package that you sent and I'm soooooo stoked to open it tomorrow. That will definitely be the highlight of the day! Thanks for all your birthday wishes, isn´t it kind of weird that none of you will even know me as a 20 year old? So a couple days ago there was a small earthquake here! Well I guess you can't really call it an earthquake, but it was definitely a good shake for about 3 or 4 seconds. I thought it was going to start up big again and my heart was racing pretty fast afterwards, haha and the funny thing is my comp had just asked me if I had been in any earthquakes here yet. Well I love you thanks for all your love and support it means everything. Talk to ya next week!!
love nick