In come the tanks! September 13, 2010

Tanks for gang security

Rolondito's birthday (his cook's son)

Original Spanish Book of Mormon (above and below)

Hey fam,

Well this week has been a little crazy! A law was passed here in El Salvador against the gangs saying that just being a part of a gang is now a crime and they can put you in jail just for finding out you´re a part of the gang (or have any tatoos of it ec), as apposed to how it has been up until now where you have to get caught doing something to get in trouble. So needless to say the gangs didn´t like that and let it show. They burned a bunch of buses in the capital and one here and killed a whole bunch of people. Tuesday, Wednsday and Thursday there were absolutely no buses or micro buses (which means there is nothing in the streets if you´ve been to El Salvador), because they said if anybody runs the buses they will kill them and burn the bus. Soooo needless to say we had to be in the house and 7 at night pretty much this whole week and the work was extremely slow. Everytime we knocked on a door they would just look at us weird and say "you know... you shouldn't be on the streets today, go home and come back another time." The country actually told everybody to stay indoors after 6pm, so yeah absolutely a ghost town!! It was super weird. I never thought that I would live in a country where the bad guys have more power than the good guys. That´s literally how it is. If they say there aren´t buses.. there aren´t buses.

But other than that everything else has been good this week. Dad it was funny you mentioned the reactivating thing because we actually reactivated a family this Sunday that hasn´t been to church in 4 years! I found them like a month and a half ago and I couldn´t get them to budge, the Mom just kept making excuses like she has to do wash and make breakfast in the morning, so she doesn´t have time blah blah blah. So I made her a deal and said that I come to her house super early Sunday morning, wake up her family, and cook the breakfeast while they got ready. She agreed just because I think she didn´t think I would do and would be impressed if I did. Well we did it and they went to church, haha it was sweet. So hopefully they keep going!

I was at a recent converts house the other day and we got talking about how long ago the missionaries first visited him and he said it was super super long ago and that he actually still has the book of mormon they give him. So he brought it out and it is sooo sweet and so old looking! He saw how much I liked it and just gave it to me! I´m going to send you a picture of it! It´s gotta be the first edition in spanish ever made. (Dad don´t get offended if these are the ones that you passed out on your mission haha!)

That´s cool that Conner Winters got called to the same mission as Jeremy! One more guy to speak spanish with when I get back haha. How´s grandma and grandpa on both sides? Tell them all I say hi! haha I had to laugh pretty hard when I read what Will Naegle said to Nate. To avoid that little problem here my president held up the missionary hand book in a meeting and said " while you're on the mission, these ARE commandments." haha good old Papi Perez. Well guys I'm glad that everything is going well I think about you all a lot. 10 months on Saturday! pretty nuts. Love you all I´ll talk to ya next week!

Love Nick

Crazy Week! September 6, 2010

Hey fam!

Well sounds like a pretty busy week for you guys again. I feel like so much has changed at home since i have been gone! I dont think im hardly going to recognize some of the things that are going on and just the way life is for you guys now! Pretty weird how much can change in such a short amount of time.

Well this week has been pretty good for me, I had to do three baptismal interviews on thursday which was really cool, and really sad. The first one I went to was for a lady that has aids. We showed up to her house and we knocked on the door and she wasn´t answering. We could kind of hear something through the window so we peeked through and saw her lying on her bed, clearly in bad shape. We called her name but she wouldn´t answer and her body was just in a way weird position. So we no joke ran about two miles to find her family to try and get keys to the house. When we got there we talked to the mom and we told her that her daughter is super sick and that she needs to come with us to open the house so we can help her. The mom said "It´s my turn to visit her every two days and im scared of crossing the bridge so i´ll just go tomorrow..." I couldn't believe she didn´t really care at all. So her 11 year old son was actually on his way there to give her food so we went with him there. I dont think he really understand the sickness that she has so I was talking to him about how if his mom is bleeding or has anything like that you CANT touch her or he could get really sick. So when we got there we opened the door and went into her room was she was just about dead. She could barely utter a word and her head was just hanging off the bed. So we tried to call an ambulence but the only hospitals that have ambulences here are the private ones and the family doesn´t have money to have her there, so we ran and got a taxi. It took about an hour to get her from the front door to the taxi because she really didn't have any will power, she just wanted to die. When we lifted her up her back we could clearly see that she hadn't even moved for about a week, her family hadn't been doing anything besides her 11 year old son! Well we finally got her to the taxi and off to the hospital. I have no idea what happened to her but I would not be surprised at all if she died. So sad. 28 with three kids. It was a super weird feeling being around someone that sick in that bad of circumstances.. you should see the house she was in.

After that i went and did the other two interviews and they passed with flying colors. It was really cool to do the interview i enjoyed it a lot! My convert Miguel got the Melchezidek priesthood last week!!! So sweet. It was cool to see him progress and he is preparing to go on a mission. fruits baby! Early this week I had to go take out a birth cirtificate for an investigador in another area and the city where she was born is right by the beach so I saw the beach!!!! sooooo sweet ah it was so good to see the ocean. I´ll try and send you some pictures of that.

So Angie is going to BRASIL!!!!!!!!!! that´s so nuts....! she´ll love it though, it is sweet being in a foreign country. I have definitely had my eyes opened here. I just found out that in the month of August there were 376 murders.... in ONE month. And a member was explaining the me the cayote system of how people from here and Mexico and get smuggled into the US. It is a legit business! Pretty crazy. It was really good to get the emails from Dani and Ashley! Whenever they come over tell them to write me, even it is during the week so that I can hear from them as much as possible! Well other than that everything is going well here. 6 months is a long time but im staying strong. haha but yeah mom what you said about the one ward thing that's how it is here too, we are assigned to only one ward. The area is usually pretty big but yeah I go to the same ward every week. I've got some good people that we are working with right now, so we´ll see how it plays out in the next few weeks. I love you all thanks for your love and support. I couldn't be here without it. Seriously! Talk to ya next week! Portense bien

love nick

Back to School- August 30, 2010

Making smoothies at a member's house

Nick and one of his favorite members at her pupusarie

Nick's cook's cute little boy (Nick likes to call him Chancho off of Nacho Libre)

View of the volcanoe. He walks up this path everyday for breakfast and dinner.

Hey everyone,

Well sounds like you have all had a pretty busy week!! Boys sorry it´s back to school time haha. This week has been pretty good for me, and pretty busy. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday which went pretty well. It´s a bit frustrating at times here because the leaders just aren´t as organized as they are in Utah, so confusion and disorder are pretty common! Half of the meeting the microphone wasn´t even working, people were getting up off the stand to go and answer their phone, kids were running up and down the isles and the parents weren't doing a thing, yada yada yada. Haha but with time I know the church will get more and more organized as it gains time and experience. The José guy was baptized, but he actually wasn´t in my ward. We found out at the last minute that he actually lives in the boundries of my ZLs, and so they were the ones who finished up the teaching and baptized him. I was kind of mad but that kind of thing is pretty strict here, just so that the whole word doesn´t go to one ward over the other over little things like not getting along with a leader.

So I've been getting a lot of complaining about the whole Arizona immigration thing. Supposedly they are shipping out any illegal immegrants and there were quite a few from El Salvador, so yeah almost everytime I talk to someone that gets brought up and they somehow act like I have a say in it. I finally kind of blew up yesterday and told a guy "well maybe if they weren´t breaking the law and just got citizenship papers it wouldn´t happen. That´s how it is in the States, you break a law and there´s a puinishment.. not like here where if you kill somebody you are in jail for 6 months maximum." Haha so yeah that kept him quiet. Also I guess a group of 72 people headed for the states got murdered by gangs in Mexico. Man there are some evil people out there. So did you guys really not get any of my pictures last week?? I sent like 10! I will make sure to send them again this week.

Well other than what i have told you everything is going well here and im just sticken out my last month in San Miguel. I can´t believe that I will have been here for a fourth of my mission! crazy. hey do you know what I was thinking about? I will be coming home the 23rd of November and Thanksgiving is the 24th... how is that going to work out if you guys want to come and get me..? Let me know what you think. As for my health im doing just fine. Im skinnier than I would like to be but at least im not sick. Well guys I love you all and thanks for all of your support. Keep being obedient and doing the little things! talk to ya next week,

love Nick

Same Same August 23, 2010

Hey fam!

Well like you already know... 6 more weeks in San Miguel! Man I never thought that i would be in an area this long. I would always hear about some elders being in an area for 6 months and think wow I would die if that happened to me haha. But as of right now im not too bad and im sure I can bare 5 more weeks. Im pretty sure we will be baptising a 22 year old guy named José this weekend so hopefully that goes through! It is stake conference this weekend so all the missionaries will be there in the same meeting and they are reserving the first 2 benches for us to bring investigators. Haha, I think its going to be a bit of a competition to see who can bring the most. The mission really is so competitive it´s kind of funny. This week we are going to have intereviews with president Perez. Interviews always make me nervous ha but it´s fine they are usually real short and president always has great advice and makes you feel good.

Yeah it is still raining here pretty consistantly, which I like. Except lately it has just been raining in the morning and then being sunny in the day so it´s even more hot because it is incredibaly humid. That will be one good thing about when i go to a new area, hopefully i will be able to gain some weight! Sounds like you guys had a good time in Yellowstone! Sorry Mom and Adam couldn´t go.. but sounds like everybody got to have a good time with Reese sleeping over. Tell Danielle i loved getting her email and that i´ll be waiting for her letter to get here!

So the other day i was eating lunch and there was this thing playing called "viajeros de El Salvador" showing all the sweet places here and this guy going to them. wooooow they are some sweet beaches and some awesome places here that i didn´t even know existed! Mom and Dad are going to have to look them all up and just plan out the week that you come here with sweet things to do!

So that´s cool that Ivette added Brooke on facebook! Remember she doesn´t speak english... haha so you can´t get too indepth. Well i´ve got some pictures to send next week, but i love you and and thanks for all your love and support! I´ll talk to ya next week.

Elder Nikko Reid

9 months! August 16, 2010

hey fam,

How's it going guys? Sounds like the same old stuff back at home and that everybody is doing well! Wedensday we have changes which is kind of nice not being on a Monday now because it doesn't waste an entire P day. To tell you the truth I really have no idea what is going to happen... could be anything. Elder Brummond is going to for sure be training this next change so he is leaving, along with his companion elder Canaza. So BOTH the zone leaders will be leaving which is really rare. If I don't leave I will have at least 6 months in this area.... that´s a long tme! To tell you the truth I would be more or less fine with being here another changes just as long as I get a swich of companion. I dont know what is going to happen though, I´ve got a feeling things are going to stay the same way they are right now.

Other than that everything is going well here!! It was really cool yesterday in sacrament meeting my convert Miguel blessed the sacrament. It has been cool that he has progressed a lot and might possibly serve a mission. He is already 22 and would have to keep working at it but he could do it! Things are pretty good in the area, although I feel pretty burned out. I feel like i have knocked every door at least twice.. haha.

Wow that surprises me that Adam Jones in the office! You´ll have to let me know how that goes for him... everybody who is in the office here can´t wait to get out. Which reminds me, Elder Street is now in the office. But yeah keep me updated on him. That´s awesome that Shawn and Nate visted you guys.. miss those boys. Im so stoked that Shawn is going on a mission and SPANISH speaking. Although I hear spanish in the dominican is weird ha.

So thinkin about building a new deck eh? that would be sweet! Im sure josh would be down now that he´s going into high school, bringing over his teeny boppers for some hot tubbin haha. just kidding. (you know it´s true josh) But yeah the idea sounds good to me! Let me know if it happens or not.

Well if i stay here im hoping that I will at least get a different district. Man it´s so weird that so many people are going home this next change... it´s going to be weird for me. Some of my best buds will be gone! Time really does go by quick and when I look back to just a couple months ago. I can always see progress that I have made spiritually, with the language, and just regular life stuff. The mission is good stuff! Tough at times... but good. Well I love you all thanks for your love and support.

love nick

Almost 9 months! August 9, 2010

hey guys!

Well this week has been pretty busy. We had that training thing with president which was really cool. My president is a stud, terrifying.... but a stud. haha but while I was there to my surprise I saw Elder Dennis!! He isn´t a DL so I didn´t think that I would be seeing him but they invited him to come so I'm sure that means he´ll be going up this next change. It was way good to see him, we pretty much just hung out all three days. People came from all of the areas of this side of the country so there were about 24 elders all in my zone, so two other elders stayed in my tiny little house and went out to work with us in the nights. They were both way cool so it was a fun three days and nice to be with some people that I could actually talk to. But I learned a lot from the meeting and had a good time. We learned new ways of teaching that pretty much is competely different than anyone has ever done but i really like it and i think it will help the misson out a lot. I also got the package!!! thanks a ton i loved it! I´ve pretty much already read the book and that pillow is soooooo nice. As well as the food, good choice on the gold fish those tasted good! Other than that the week has been pretty good, nothing too exciting. One week until changes. Speaking of that, changes are now on wendsdays and not mondays just so you know. I´ll be able to write regular on monday. Yeah i wont lie im hoping i get changed, but I could very easily stay here. So I'm not getting my hopes up! Either way it´s all good, time is time haha.

So that guitar is sweeeeet! Man I have always wanted a 12 string I can not wait to play it when I get back. The office looks really good! Hey you should send me a picture of that ipad thing I really want to see it. Im glad everything is ok with Grandma R.. I bet that was scary! That´s awesome that grandpa k is actually gaining wait!! tell both sets of grandparents hi for me and tell grandpa reid that I have been getting his emails and I appreciate them. So why did Leesa have to have back surgery? that stinks... Leesa and staying down for two weeks... doesn´t go together haha. I totally didn´t realize that my birthday is coming up in while.... 20!! man that stinks... I dont want to leave behind the teenage years haha. Don´t worry about what to get me Im really fine with anything and there is nothing really that i need right now but if i think of something i will definitely let you guys know. I can´t believe nate naegle comes home in december! thats nuts.. went by way fast.

Well guys everything is good here and im pluggin along. A lot of my buddies here in the mission are going into their last change so that kind of stinks....I'll miss them. El Salvador is its regular crazy good old self. Still raining pretty regularly in the nights but hot in the day. Maybe I'll get lucky and get sent to a cool area next change! There is one area called Berlin that is sounding preetttty nice. Well love you all thanks for all your prayers and support, I couldn´t do it without them. have a good week!!

love nick

Two more baptisms! August 2, 2010

Elders and Sisters serving in San Migel

Ivette's baptism last week

Ivette's sister, Lorena's baptism (and another boy he didn't name)

The elders working on houses (see the two at the very bottom of the pic!)

Dear Fam,

Well this has been a pretty busy week for the both of us sounds like! Tuesday we went as a zone to do service in a really really cool place. The church is paying for quite a few houses to be built down here. This house is the worst house that i have seen while i have been down here, it was really sad. Well we had to carry down all the materials down a huge steep mountain with huge rocks and cross a river to get the place where the house is going to be built. We carried huuuge pillars of wood that were wet, which made them really really heavy, as well as a ton of cinder blocks. In all, it took about three and a half hours.. needsless to say i was absolutely dead the next day haha. And my shoulder scarred! But it was really cool and the place was super pretty. Im going to send a few pictures from there.

Also I had two baptisms Saturday! The little siser of the girl I baptized last week, and a kid whose family was inactive but we activated them and baptised there son. I went on divisions with Elder Brummond on thursday so he could do the interviews, so that was really fun! In the interview with Lorena, he was just chatting with her and i wasn´t sure if she was going to pass. So they entered after they were all done and the challenge of getting her dad to sign the papers was still there. He said that she doesn´t know what she is doing and is too young. Elder Brummond then said "ok lorena tell your parents what you told me". She then said, "when i was at Ivettes baptism, I prayed and asked God if this is the true church, and when I did God told me that it is and that I need to get baptised too." chills when up my spine! It was awesome because I told her to pray at her sisters baptism and ask heavenly father if it was the right thing for her to do, but I didn´t think she really would. I didn´t know that she had until that moment. So long story short she got baptised and it was one of the best baptismal services I've had. Me and Brummond sang "para siempre Dios esté con vos", or God be with you til we meet again. Needless to say everyone loved it haha.

Well this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday President Perez is coming to do leader training with all the DLs and trainers from all the zones out here. Im pretty dang scared because there aren´t that many elders that are going to be there so we will be working really close to the President which makes me nervous haha. It will be good though im sure i will learn a lot. Well the package didn´t come at the multi zone... but the ZL's are going to San Salvador tomorrow so im hoping it´s there and they can bring it to me Wednesday! I was way bummed. So i´ll cross my fingers! Well other than that everything is going well here. Changes will be the 18th of August (same day i complete 9 months :) so we´ll see what happens there. I would like to leave but if i dont i at least want a change of companion haha this kid..... somethin different.

Alright well everything is fine here! im feeling pretty good so dont worry about that. I´ll let you know how the training thing goes and all of that.- im going to send a ton of pics!

love nick