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

Feeling Good! Letters Jan 31st and Feb 7th

January 31, 2011

Hey fam,
Well changes are this week, should get a call tomorrow telling us who has changes and all that. I´m pretty sure that I'll stay and my companion will leave, but we´ll see who knows! But yeah this week has been pretty good, we´ve been doing quite a bit of service lately. We went to a place called las champas to help rebuild a house (I´m not sure if I´d even call it a house). This area is the poorest place I´ve area seen in my life. Over 5000 people live in this colony and all the houses are made out of cardboard, tin, and tarps. The roof broke on the house of this member so we went and tried to fix it. All we could do is put wooden beams across the top and tie a tarp over it. Inside the "house" there is just one bed that looks at least 70 years old and just a bunch of garbage with a dirt floor. Super sad! The thing is the missionarys don´t really go there because they know the church has money and think if they become members they´ll just get hooked up with money and food and that kind of thing. Apart from that it is super dangerous. I got questioned from the police for the first time in my mission there. About five minutes after we entered two police on dirtbikes came and questioned us and wanted to search us! And then on the way to the house I had two people stop me and ask us to build them a house. I told one guy we are just from the church and he grabbed me by the arm and said just come over so I can at least show you where I live. Anyways it was pretty sad!

On a lighter side, the other day I had to go and do a baptismal interview for a young twelve year old kid whose family was inactive. When I got there Elder Day told me that he hadn´t been taught the law of chastity yet so we just went over it real quick to a twelve year old level... ya know you have to respect girls blah blah blah. Anyways at the end we asked "alright Cristian so what is the law of chastity?" He sat there and was like"hmmm how do I explain this.... pretty much like you can´t force a girl into kissing you.. you have to do it gently" hahahah I about died and just said yeah man you´ve got the idea.

Well I got the package last week! It was way sweet I loved it. Those videos were awesome, I can´t believe how big Reese has gotten!!! She´s pretty much almost talking and walking! I can´t wait to see her. But yeah you all look good, and the house looks even better! haha. I´ve watched them all the three times each at least. The food was super good too! All of it was good so thanks. Man that stinks that Angie is having a hard time.... I´m going to send her an email. The MTC is tough especially at the first, but once you get into the swing of things it´s actually pretty sweet! I´d love to go back there for a week. But yeah I knew from the moment you guys told me that she was going to the Provo MTC that that was going to be a good thing. I think it would be a lot tougher in Brazil.

I´m excited to see where Jaxon goes!! That´s so weird that he is already going... gosh the time between when you get your call to when you leave is soooo weird. But pretty sweet at the same time, just livin the good life haha. That´s too bad about Angel.... I always thought that she would live way longer than Rosco just cause she was always way healthier.

Well not much else going on here everything is going well. I´m feeling good and not sick anymore so that´s good. Tell everybody in the ward hi for me and all the fam. Love you all talk to ya next week!

February 7, 2011

Hey!

How´s everybody doin? Sounds like you all had a pretty good week partying it up Super Bowl Sunday style! haha go Packers.

Well today I have to go to immigration to renew my residency here so I dont have a ton of time to write. But this week has been pretty good, just the normal stuff! I didn´t have changes... and neither did my companion.. haha so yeah another six weeks together. Oh well though, I´m sure it won´t be as bad as the last change. So pretty funny story, there is an elder who I came here with named elder Ottohenning, but he was only in the MTC for three weeks because his mom is from Honduras so he pretty much already knew Spanish. Anways, he couldn´t go straight to El Salvador after the MTC because he had troubles with his papers, so they sent him to Washington DC for a month and half. I don't know why I didn´t ever think to ask him but I finally asked him if he knew a Sister missionary Reid (Nichole) and he sat and thought for a second and said.... wait... Sister Reid?! and showed me a picture of her haha he totally knew her. He said that she was so straight and narrow and that everybody called her sargent Reid! haha how funny is that. I just laughed and thought way to go Nichole. So yeah you´ll have to ask her if she remembers an elder Ottohenning in DC.

So I got a package on the day of changes! The one with the pants and shirt and more video with Josh's choir concert and more Reese stuff. It was so good!! I loved all the food too. Packages are the best. Thanks for sending me a shirt I really needed it! The pants are sweet too. So this Thursday Elder Falabella from the 70 is going to come and talk to us so I'm really excited for that. We´ve had a lot of general authorities coming lately and I´m loving it. They also announced the date that the temple is going to be dedicated and the open house! The open house is going to be the first of July until the 21st, and the dedication is going to be the 21st of August! I´m so excited, I really think the Prophet is going to come. That would be sooooo sweet to meet the Prophet as a missionary I can´t even imagine.

So sounds like you guys are thinking of a little vacation coming up here, that would be sweet! I totally remember the trip to cali haha so fun. The muffins.. hahaha... and those gross jelly fish! I wonder how the beaches/water is here?

That stinks that Jaxon didn´t get his call... ah that´s got to be the worst!! I would have died if mine didn´t come when I thought it was going to come. Remember, my guess is Brazil! Speaking of Brazil, sounds like Angie is doing a little bit better, that´s good. She wrote me and said that the first couple of weeks were super hard but things are getting better and she knows better now what she has to do to get through it. She´ll be alright.

Well things are fine here, things are a little slow with investigadors right now, mainly because my companion just doesn´t want to do anything ever. So I´m going to start doing a lot of divisions with my district and try to get some better work done. Well sorry this is so short like I said I dont have a ton of time but I love you all. Seeing those videos was so good you are look great! Talk to ya next week! love nick

Baptisms always make you feel better! January 24, 2011

Reynaldo's Family at his Baptism

Hey guys, How´s everybody doin? Well this week has been pretty good, super busy! We baptized Reynaldo and Elder Mason and Elder Chavez baptized a guy named Salvador so we had the baptism together. We did a little version of Come Thou Fount at the baptism! Harmonica, flute, and singing haha it was pretty legit. It was way good though, he was way happy to finally be baptized. His whole family actually came to the baptism which was a big surprise. We went to pick him up and were waiting in his house for a couple minutes just chatting with his Dad. We invited him to come and told him it was something really important and that he would for sure enjoy it.. but I didn´t think he would come to tell you the truth. But about five minutes before it started both of the parents and the little sister walked in, his Dad in a white shirt and slacks! I didn´t even know he owned a white shirt haha. So yeah Reynaldo was pretty excited. We are starting to work with his Mom and little sister, I´m pretty sure they´ll get baptized this month.

On Thursday we had a super cool meeting with the whole mission. Elder Jensen, the President of the Quorum of the 70, came and spoke to us. It was the first time in a really long time that the whole mission met together for something. Everytime I hear a General Authority speak, especially in person, it stregthens my testimony a ton! You can just tell that they aren´t normal men. He shook everybodys hand and talked to them for a bit. He talked at first about the power of music in the church and how life would be empty without music. He then talked about how there is a lack of reverance in the church. He said, "where there is reverance, there is revelation." I liked that. He also talked about the Book of Mormon and how we should read it as a big picture rather than chapter by chapter. Anways, he talked about a lot of stuff, I won´t be able to cover it all but it was way awesome. His wife also spoke with a translator and did a really good job. It´s cool to think that he is probably going to be an apostle one day and he spoke to our mission!

Well as for me I'm doing pretty well, pretty much back to normal health wise. We have changes here next Wedensday, it´ll be interesting to see what happens! Im pretty sure my companion will get changed. It has been pretty tough with him this change. That´s so sweet that Preston got called to Paraguay!! There were a couple of guys going to Paraguay in my zone in the MTC, pretty cool guys. But yeah tell him congrats and he´ll love it. So did you guys get an email from Angie? Hopefully she´s doing alright. Let me know!
So the office told me that I have a package that I´ll get today! I'm assuming its the new years one, I'm pretty excited. So if you guys go to Jaxons mission call opening put me down for Brazil. Well I'm going to try and get some pics sent of so I'll end this but love you all thanks for everything that you do. Talk to ya next week!

Nick

January 17th, 2011

Hey guys!

So I went to the consult and I just had a stomach infection mixed with the flu, so just a bad combination. But a couple days on meds and resting a bit and I'm pretty much good now so no worries! I still don´t have a lot of desire to eat, but I do it anyways just so I don´t lose a ton of weight haha. But yeah don´t worry everything is fine here, thanks for all your prayers I know they helped. Don´t worry so much next time if things are really bad of course I would tell you guys. And if the mission knows that things are really bad the office would call YOU and let you know haha.. I got like 4 calls within 45 minutes asking If I was in the hospital or If I was dead or what! First the mission nurse called me saying she got a call from a doctor in salt lake (Doty I assume), then sister Perez, then from the office elder that Mom talked to, I almost just wanted to call myself and say I´m ok! But yeah I tried to tell that Elder what to tell Mom exactly and at the end asked him "do you even speak english man?" He said ummm kind of? haha so I knew the conversation would be interesting. So yeah everything is cool here noooo worries.

So you guys went out to lunch with Angie huh? Sounds like she is pretty nervous! Can´t blame her. She´ll do fine though I know. It will definitely be tough for her at first, just like it is for everybody else, but she´ll end up loving it. Make sure to give her my email address so she can keep me updated on how she is doing. I think it´s a good thing that she is going to the MTC in provo instead of in Brazil. I just hope it doesn´t take an eternity for her to get her papers and all of that stuff.

Well this weekend we are going to baptize a kid named Reynaldo. He has been going to church for a long time, like over a year, but his parents never would give him permission to get baptized until recently. We are going over there tonight to finalize it and talk with them one last time to make sure it´s ok and try to sneak a signature on the baptismal form haha. But there are going to be possibly quite a few baptisms this weekend in the zone so we are thinking about having a "white night" and doing all the baptisms together and a big meeting, kinda like what Dad did for Christmas on his mission which would be sweet! So hopefully there are enough to do it! I´m pretty happy cause my whole District is going to baptize this month which is always the goal.

So sounds like everybody is pretty much done with winter haha. Has anybody else been skiing other than the boys? Im going to die when I get back to winter, I get freezing if I´m in any place with air conditioning (which is rare), haha so I can´t imagine how´s it´s going to be returning to snow. Well thanks for everything and all of your prayers this week, sorry that you were all worried. Have a good week I´ll talk to ya next week! love you
Nick

January 3rd and January 10th

January 3rd, 2011

Hey Guys!
Happy New Years! I can´t believe it is 2011.. so weird. According to the Mayans this is the second to last year ever so live it up! haha not in the sort of eat drink and by merry way though...
Well New years Eve was pretty much just a repeat of Christmas here. But up all night long lighting fireworks (I wouldn't really call them fire works.. pretty much just bombs haha), drinking and blasting music. I didn´t get to sleep until 3 in the morning because of all the noise. But the next day President told us that we didn´t have to leave the house until 2pm the next day because everybody is pretty much hung over. It was pretty fun though we just stayed in the house with the other elders and played UNO for a while. So you guys didn´t even tell me about your New Years what did you guys do?
Well that´s way sad about Jody and Jesse's baby. It´s pretty cool though to think that their baby was one of the more valiant ones and just needed to come and get a body and not have to worry about all the crappy things of the world. And I read just a little while ago that if somebody dies before they are full grown, they will resurrect just as they died but continue to grow until they reach a full grown age. Which means anybody who has a child that dies or dies early will get to watch them grown up in the millenium.. pretty sweet! Man I can´t believe that Nate Naegle is coming home on Wedensday... that is insane! You guys will have to tell him hi for me and let me know how the homecoming went. So something pretty crazy happend this week! I was on divisions and this lady walked up to us and started talking kinda random. She is a member but has lived in California for the last 29 years. Anyways we were just talking and she asked me where I was from, so I told her Utah about 10 minutes north of salt lake. She told me that the missionary that baptized her lived in a place called Bountiful.... I told her that´s where I´m from and I asked her what the missionarys name that baptized her.. ready? She said Elder Milligan!! Tom Milligan, son of Don Milligan! How crazy is that? Even more crazy is that she is going to visit Utah on the 6th of this month which would be this Thursday so I´m going to send her with a little package to take to you guys!! She pretty much worships Tom Milligan, haha pretty cool how much an effect you can have as a missionary. Anyways you guys hopefully should be getting a little visit here soon.

I´m starting to get more familiar with my new area and really like this ward a lot! I´ve never been in a ward with this much member support, they pretty much fight to give us dinner! Haha apposed to my last area where we couldn´t even find anybody to pay to give us lunch. It´s been super hot lately though, I can definitely feel the summer coming... Im just glad I'm not in San miguel like last summer, what a nightmare! Well have a good week everybody, hopefully that lady comes and visits you, that would be way cool. Love you all talk to ya next week!!!!! p.s como les va con la musica latina que les di?

January 10, 2011

Hey everyone,

How´s it going? Well I don´t have much to say this week because I´ve been super sick the whole week! I´m not sure what I have, probably a stomach infection. I get to go to an El Salvador hospital today.... haha wish me luck. But yeah tell me what you think it could be.. my whole body kills especially my head and back, diarreah, threw up yesterday, cold one second hot the next, a fever that comes and goes, stomach pain. Gotta be parasites or an infection right? Oh well I guess we´ll see today! So yeah I´ve pretty much just been inside the whole week, and just managed to make it to sacrament meeting yesterday (with four investigadors might I add) haha but left after that cause I threw up. Pretty crappy.

So sounds like a pretty good week for you guys! It sounds like Angie did a good job, I´m excited for her. Im going to print off her talk so that I can read it. When does she leave exactly? Hopefully she doesn´t have a ton of problems with her papers because when I was in the MTC there were elders there going to Brazil that had been there for 16 weeks! That would be horrible. Also sounds like Nate did a good job with his homecoming talk that's awesome. I imagine he is absolutely dying from the cold haha, although I hear there are some kind of cold places in Columbia so who knows.. nothing like utah though that's for sure. Is he going to go back up to Utah State? So everything is starting to calm down here with all the crazy stuff that has been happening. I´m not exactly sure where everyone is, but I know that they are still in Central America so that's good. So everybody is already sick of the winter huh? haha yeah that's usually how it is by January or February.. that´s why you have to ski or snowboard!!! So how´s the little mouse.. I mean Sophie doing?

So earlier in the week a 16 year old kid was killed by my house so everybody has been sad about that (relatively sad.. people are pretty numb to death and murder around here). Here in my area supposedly has the highest rate of youth gangs.. kids 11-13 years old already runnin with the big boys. Pretty crazy. So what else is goign on with everybody? Same old stuff? Sorry this is short but not to much to report this week. Love you all thanks for everything and tell everybody hi for me!

Love Nick

Everyone please keep Nick in your prayers. We will let you know as soon as we know more about his condition!

Crazy couple of weeks!

December 13th Letter:

Hey fam,
Well sounds like you guys have had a pretty emotional week.. It sounds like putting Rosco down was super hard. Mom those stories you told me were horrible what are you trying to do kill me?! haha jk it´s ok. Well I´m pretty glad I wasn't there for it to tell you the truth, sorry you guys had to go through with it.

Well this week hasn't really been the best for me either, that family that I had that was going to get baptized ended up moving to Usulutan all of the sudden on Tuesday... so all five of them had to back out. Hopefully they get baptized over there but it´s pretty tough when stuff like that happens because they get used to the ward and the missionary's, and when they go somewhere else it´s just not the same and they go kind of cold, but I´m hoping for the best. Things with my companion are not the greatest either still haha laugh all you want! I really do hope I have changes or I might go out of my mind! Well this Wednesday we have kind of a mission Christmas party so that will be fun. It´s just with all of the zones in the city so the whole mission won´t be there, but it´ll still be a good time I´m sure. I´m hoping that I get the packages today!! I thought that I would get them last week but I didn´t so that was kind of disappointing, but I´m almost positive that they will be here today.

So it´s been super cold here lately! Well in the day it´s pretty hot but at night and in the morning I'm dying. It´s like high 60s! It´s pretty funny though, everybody here when it's that cold is wearing coats and sweaters and stuff and I know that if it was that temperature in Utah everybody would just be wearing jeans and a t-shirt haha. I´m seriously going to die coming back to Utah in November! So it hasn't really be snowing much lately? From what the boys told me it sounds like the weather has been pretty weird. Hey when does Nate Naegle come back? Isn´t it like next month? Man that´s so weird...

Well there have been some pretty crazy things happening in the mission lately.. there are a lot of REALLY disobedient elders and well one of them finally went to president and just told him EVERYTHING that he knew and that elders have done including himself. There are going to be some crazy changes in the next couple weeks and so I'm hoping it results in my being in a new area haha! But yeah its way sad what´s going on, I'm pretty sure some elders will be going home soon for things that they have done here in the mission. I was pretty shocked when I heard some of things that have been going on. Well what´s going on in the ward, anything new? Tell everybody hi for me. Ss the family Christmas party going to be on Christmas Eve like always? You´ll have to take some video for me. Well love you all soak up the holidays!!!! Talk to ya next week!

December 20th Letter:

Hey fam!
Well in just a few days we will be talking on the phone, I can´t believe it has already been 7 months since the last time that we talked! I remember us saying, "wow the next time we talk I will have more than a year in the mission.. pretty much home!" haha time is so weird because I feel the exact same as a did then, like not much has changed and not that much time has past. But then I look back on all the stuff that has happened and some differences in myself and it definitely seems like seven months if not longer! Anyways, I probably didn't make too much sense. I´m pretty sure I'm just going to buy a phone card (with plenty of time) and try and get a cell phone from a member to use because it´s cheaper that way. I´m way excited!!!

Well sounds like everybody is excited for Christmas, do you guys have any fun plans or are you just going to go to the family party? I'm sure that´s been fun to plan... haha I´m glad that you are doing it at the church though and not the house... it would be destroyed! Well I got the two packages!! I love them, the Feliz Navidad thing was a way good idea and it was soooo good to see all of those people! I have the wrapped presents sitting on my desk ready to go with my tree all made up and everything haha. I ´ll send you a pic of it it looks pretty good I won´t lie. Anyways loved it all thanks a lot!! Getting packages are the best. I´ve already pretty much downed all the food that was in there, haha the corn nuts tastes so good.

Well this week has been absolutely crazy. I can give you guys some more details in the phone call.. but this is it in a nutshell: I don´t really know if I have told you guys or not, but this mission is extremely disobedient and there are missionaries doing things here that would even get them in trouble if they weren't missionaries.. it´s a joke. Anyways a good friend of mine in the mission did something pretty bad a little bit ago, and felt really horrible about it. Anyways him and another elder were talking about how bad they felt and they knew a tooooon if things about other missionary's and other bad things. They knew by telling president they could literally change the mission. So they decided to go in and confess not only what they had done, but also EVERYTHING that they knew about EVERY elder in the whole mission. I give him a ton of credit for what he did, because he pretty much knew confessing to president meant going home early. But it was the only way if he really wanted to repent. To say the least president was pretty shocked and upset but didn't say much, just found out all the information he could and said he would talk to them later. Well a Monday night I got a call saying that there was a meeting that me and my companion had to be to and a few other people from the zone, in Cuscatlan. Well we got to the meeting the next day and they told us to sit down and study until president came. As I looked around I saw that everybody that was there were just the troubled missionaries and their companions..(so thanks to my companion I had to be there) so I kinda figured what the meeting would be about. So finally after about an hour president came in and said "you can all relax, you aren't going to be hearing a word from me today." what the heck does that mean?! After a little bit they separated us into two different rooms and the assistants were just talking to us and teaching us a little bit, but as they were doing that, the president was calling elders out one by one to be interviewed. So I was just sitting nervously waiting, and my turn finally came. I went out into the hall was greeted by the president, but he just pointed down the other hall. Well I turned the corner at waiting at the door was Elder Clark from the area 70!! He just shook my hand asked my where I was from and took me into an office. We started with a prayer and started talking. He started off by asking me if I would be 100 percent honest with him, so I said yes of course. Well he pretty much just asked me about my companion the whole time, and about the mission. So I told him what I knew and what I though we be of help to him. Turns out my companion had done some pretty serious stuff last change and he might be going home, along with about 10 other elders in the mission. Not only did Elder Clark come, but also elder Falabella and elder Martino from the area 70, the whole presidency!! I have never seen slash heard of anything like it. After all the interviews were done elder Martino came out and talked to everybody about the atonement and how if any change was going to be made it had to be right then. It was really cool and he was super forgiving and relaxed during the whole thing. I´ll never forget it! So pretty much a bunch of elders are just waiting out the transfer to see if they will be sent home or not. I'm just way grateful that I haven´t fallen into any temptation during the mission because there are a lot of elders who hate their lives right now and might be seeing there families a little earlier than expected. The changes are going to be crazy!!! Im almost positive I wont be with my companion again.. but we´ll see!!! Anyways sorry this has been so long, but we are going to talk this weekend!
But thanks for everything love you all, tell everybody Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk to ya Saturday!!!!

No Comp! November 29th 2010

FAMMMMILY,
hey guys how´s it goin? Happy Thanksgiving! Late.. haha sounds like it was pretty awesome though, I wish I could have been there! I totally forgot it was thanksgiving until one of the Latino elders in the zone came up to me and was like hey man pretty good day for you huh! I just kind of looked at him confused and was like yeah.... great day....what are you talking about? He just laughed and said wow that's sad, I know your countries holidays better than you do! haha pretty funny. But it was actually a pretty interesting day.

Sadly, my companion went home. We were sitting there Wedensday night and he was just mad because he didn´t think anybody was taking him serious about him wanting to leave and that everybody just thought it was a big joke. His stake president still hadn´t called him and it had been a week and a half, and when he called president all he would say is that he had to wait for the call from his stake president. So that night he told me,/.l look they either do something about this and we can do this the right way and they can help me out, or im just going to get on a bus tomorrow morning and im leaving on my own. So I called the assistants and told them what was up and that if they doing figure something out my companion was just going to leave. Well, it worked. President called the zone leaders on thursday (we were having a zone meeting) and asked to talk to my companion. He said Elder Rojas, I hope you´re already packed up, cause you have to be at the bus at one O clock, I hope you´re sure about your decision. Well he had been packed since the Friday before that, so yeah he was ready for some time arleady haha. So me and the zone leaders went and dropped him off at the terminal and off he went to Honduras. It was all pretty horrible to tell you truth. I feel pretty bad that I couldn´t help him and make him stay. But we all have our agency. But then again it is a commandent... ah I dont know haha. Just crappy all around. So the other problem is that the mission pretty much has nobody to send me right now , there are no trio companionships or anything. So I´ve been with the zone leaders in their area the whole week! I talked to the assistant last night and he told me that either I'm just going to have to stick out this change with the zone leaders and we can try to work once and a while in my are and with the people that I have, or they are just going to send me out to another zone and put me into a trio. Stinks being in limbo! But it´s alright... the work is the work. It doesn´t really matter if I'm here or in my area. It´ll be interesting to see how it plays out, I should know by tomorrow.

So for my sweet Thanksgiving dinner we went to a mexican restaurant and had burritos haha so good. Seriously though I love mexican food. Cafe Rio is on the immediate to do list when i get home that´s for sure. So what are you guys thinking you are going to do for christmas? any fun plans? So remember those scripture covers that I ordered..? I still haven´t gotten them! It´s making me nervous. We are going to go to the office today to get a few things so I'm hoping that they are there. Sounds like you guys are enjoying little Sophie. I forgot to ask, how are Rosco and Joey doing with that? Well not much more going on here right now. Thanks for all your support, I miss you guys all the time! Have a good week. love you all.

Nick