Sunday, March 20, 2011

Getting Caught Up!




Things have been crazy this past month, and I'm so behind!!! Sorry guys, here are Nick's last few letters! I promise to be better!!! -Brooke

February 14th:
Hey guys! How´s everyone doin? HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! haha not too big here in El Salvador.. but I guess it´s not really that big in the states either right? We are going to do a little gift exchange in the zone so maybe I´ll get lucky with a rose and some chocolates.... keep your fingers crossed. haha Well this week has been pretty good. Tuesday we had that meeting with Elder Falabella, it was way good! I told you guys that they have the date for the dedication of the temple right? Im way excited. It kinda stinks though because I remember when i got my call the church website said that it would be done around november of 2010, and it´s not going to be done until August of 2011! I´ll only be able to enjoy for like three months. But last monday I told you guys that i had to go to migration to renew so me of my papers, so on the way back we stopped by the temple! I´ll send you some pics it´s looking pretty good. I also got a bit of some inside info... I know who is going to be the new President! Supposedly his name is President Wilson from Texas. It´ll be way interesting to see what changes he makes to the mission and just the way he goes about all of it. We´ll see if he is a little more relaxed than Papi Pérez. I don´t know if you already know but he finishes June.
Well things in the area are pretty good, we have a couple new people that we are starting to teach so we´ll see how it goes. It has been pretty cold here relatively speaking, I have no idea about the tempurature but I would guess around 70 at night... freezing huh?! haha. I´m glad Jaxon is finally going to get his call, that stinks that it has taken so long! Hey how long has Mark been bishop for now? seems like forever! I´m glad you guys are going to take a little vacation, that´ll be way nice.
So how´s the ward doing? I´ve learned a lot about the inside works of the church and all that really goes on with the leaders and stuff being on a mission. I´m excited to have Darrell as my bishop when i get back! Well im going to hurry and try and send some pics but love you all thanks for everything you do. Love Nick p.s. i did get grandmas card so tell her thanks a ton for me!!!!!!!!

February 21st:
hey guys! Well mom and dad sounds like you had a good time in hawaii, i´m glad!! Be sure to send me some pictures of the whales and stuff! Well things are fine here, this week I was able to do 8 baptismal interviews. I love doing them, probably one of my favorite things in the mission to do next to baptizing haha. I get to here all the conversion stories and be a judge whether or not they are ready and worthy to be baptized, pretty cool. Well we brought quite a few people to church this week. During sacrament meeting my comp had to go to the bathroom so we went out and we saw the 17 year old kid clearly not a member, looking at all the paintings. Especially the one where Christ appears to the Americas. So we went up and talked to him and asked him which painting was his favorite, and he said "this one by far" pointing to Christ in the Americas. So we explained it a little bit and took him into sacrament meeting. After that we went to gospel principal and for priesthood we just took him into a room to teach him the first lesson. It went way well and we have an appointment tuesday to go to his house and talk to him. I guess he is a friend of a member and was embarrassed to actually go into sacrament meeing for some reason. But yeah we´ll see what happens with him! Well I´m a little sick today, I think the flu is coming on. Hopefully it doesn´t get bad! I´ll just stock up on some meds haha. But hey I know for sure that I have a package waiting for me in the office, so hopefully it´s the shoes! I´m finally going to send you guys my memory card so watch for that and a few other little surprises. Let me know when you get it. That´s so sweet that Jaxon is going to Mexico City! That is the biggest city in the world I´m pretty sure, or maybe just most densely populated? I know that when I went to China the beijing had 32 million... So if it´s the most populated it has to have more than that! crazy. A lot more than the 7 million that are here haha but then again it´s about 20 times bigger. But yeah tell him congrats and that he´ll love it! Just tell him not to pick up on there bad language haha mexicans are famous for having absolutely filthy mouths. Sounds like Angie is doing really well, good for her! That´s sweet that she is going to speak porturgues. The other day we were watching a church movie at a members house and we switched it to portugues for fun and it´s actually super similar to Spanish, I could understand quite a bit! We also switched it to French for a bit.... and I´ve decided that I´m going to learn it when I get back, seriously! Hey did you guys ever ask Nicole about that one elder? I took some video around where I live to show you guys a little bit. I wanted to go into some of the poor areas (more poor than where im filmed), but It´s too dangerous I didn´t want to risk pulling my camera out there! But hopefully you guys like it. Kinda boring to me but I´m sure it´ll be kinda cool for you guys. Well guys love you thanks for everything, I always look forward to getting your emails. Best part of the week! Have a good day. Love Niko

February 28th:
Hey everyone!

Im glad you guys got my package! I paid a little extra for it to get there fast and safer so that´s why it got there in four days. I acutally forgot to send a few things so I might send a small little package sometime soon. Im glad that the scripture covers fit though, i was a little scared that they would be too small... Did the big ones fit the big scriptures? I hope so! how about the top have you guys mastered it? I´m glad you enjoyed the videos, pretty funny haha. Those hawaii pics are way sweet thanks for sending them!! Those are some huuuuge waves those guys are on... nuts. Well things are going pretty well here, things with my companion have taken a dive.. I really might hit him soon. I´ve never met anybody like him. After this I´ll will be able to withstand anybod haha. ahh.

So how´s little Reese doin? I loved seeing all the vidoes of her, I can´t believe how big she has gotten! So the package that I got last week was from Aunt Leesa, tell her thanks a ton!! I loved it, that was way nice of her. Speaking of Aunt Leesa, how is Kelly doin these days? Tell that slacker to write me.
Well this week is stake conference here, usually pretty hard to take investigadors because it is further away and jam packed so it´s hard to sit them where they can here cause there is usually always sound problems! but hopefully it goes well. I also heard a little something about my new president by the way.. i heard he´s from Texas... i hope so! that would be so sweet. We´ll see what happens, president only has like 4 months left. Man a mission president is an incredibly hard job... and three years. How´s John Robison doing by the way. WEll love you all thanks for everything. Talk to ya next week!!!!
Nick

March 7th:

Hey Fam!
How we doin? This week has been pretty good for us over here! We have found a ton of people to teach all of the sudden its awesome. We found an awesome family on tuesday, a couple with a 6 year old daughter and a 1 month old baby. The Dad doesn¨t have a job and is really worried about it (obviously), so hes really humble and told us to come in a soon as he opened the door. So yeah hopefully things will go well with them. Stake Conference was yesterday and we got a decent amount of investigadors there! Elder Castro from the seventy was there and spoke which was really good. He was super direct and came down on the stake pretty dang hard but thats what these people need a lot of the time haha. For example right now there are a lot of people that are going to other wards that they arent assigned to because it is closer to there house (and really they are both really close so they shouldnt be complaining). But anyways he was kind of joking about it and making everybody laugh and then all the sudden just kind of non shalant said well I hope you change that before the temple because if youre not going to the ward where you are assigned that means you arent paying your tithing there which means you will not be going to the temple when it is dedicated. Everybody stopped laughing real quick.... haha I laughed though. At the end he wrapped up with tithing and I had one of my investigadors, Aida 64 years old, sitting next to me. At the end she started looking through her purse, pulled out a dollar, and said where can i put this for the tithing? I about hugged her! haha it was awesome.

Well changes are next Wedensday! Well see what happens there. Things have been better with my companion this last little while. We have a weird relationship.. one minute we will be laughing and joking and the next about to punch each other haha. So thats crazy about Angie! sounds like she is probably in Florida right now....
So hows the ward doin? hows bishop welling? haha itll be sweet to have him when i get back. hey hows sam godfrey doin? you should hook me up with his email address!
so hey i got both packages last week!!!!! ah so nice to have the shoes haha i feel like a new man. and the garments soooooo nice. i loved it all thanks a ton! that song that has Michael and his wife is way good i was way impressed tell Marilee thanks for sending it! and the other cd was way good too. It was way good to get the news letter from my friends. its so cool that we are literally all over the world. Well love you all thanks for everything!!! talk to ya next week tell everybody hi for me!!
Salú pues

March 14th:

Hey guys!
How´s everybody doin? Sounds like everybody has been super busy lately, I bet you´re looking forward to the Florida vacation that is going to be so sweet! I love how all the boys just say "Im going to drink a ton of butterbeer" haha eeeeeeeeeeasy fellas. Well this week has been pretty good, a little slow but not too bad. My comp is almost sure he will have changes so he´s been wanting to go around and say goodbye to everybody and all that stuff.

Something kinda crappy happenend though. We sent our clothes to the sister´s house who washes for us like we do always, but it took a little while for her to get it back to us. So I called her to ask and she got super nervous and said well.... Elders somebody robbed a lot of your clothes. So we went over there and my companion got robbed worse than I did but they stole about 5 of my shirts (my best ones) and some regular clothes that I had. Luckily the ward was going on a temple trip this last weekend and my companion let his mom and know so she sent him back with new clothes so that´s good. But that sister felt so bad and gave me some shirts that her said had on his mission that she bought for him towards the end so they are in good shape so im good to go! Don´t worry about sending me anything, but maaaaybe just a shirt. yeah Im freaking skinny these days... I hate it. There is no way to stay in shape in this country with the food i eat. It´s like it´s so bad or so much that i get fat, but it´s nowhere near healthy that I could put on good weight if i wanted to haha i hate it. But oh well what can you do así es la misión.

So Grandma had her big moment huh? that´s so sweet! sounds awesome thanks for taking some video im excited to see it. That´s cool that she played you raise me up I love that song. Gosh it sounds like Reese is getting huuuge! It´s so weird how fast babies grow. I can´t wait to see more video of her! I hear she is walking and everything now. Its cool to see the steps through the videos you said. like the first one you guys were all excited because she was starting to move around and make noises, the excited but she was "so close" to crawling and saying "bye" or more just moving her hand, and now walking! nuts.

But yeah everything is going well here. Its crazy how fast time is going is scares me sometimes. Im just enjoying the last 3rd i have left! It´s going to be sooo weird to have it come to an end. But nah i still have a ton of time left so it´s all good. That´s so sad about the Tsunami and Earthquake. Nothing happend here but there were a couple gentle shakes here. I saw some video of the tsunami it´s incredible how much dammage it did. and they were saying that Japan is like the best country for earthquake protection, imagine if that would have happened in a different c ountry like here? This country literally would not exist anymore not exagerating. An earthquake of 6. something devistated the country like 10 years ago-- imagine 8.9! Well love you all thanks for all your love and support. Keep going strong and be faithful!!!!! talk to ya next week
Niko