Hey guys,
How's everyone doing? Everything is going well here, just another busy week with the temple and all of that. On Friday 11,000 people passed through! Insane huh? I'm not exactly sure what the total count is, but it's gotta be up there pretty high. On Tuesday I got to give a tour of the temple to a family from North Carolina who were here for business. It was way sweet and fun to be able to chat with them for a while. It was the weirdest thing hearing little kids speaking English haha, I can honestly say that it has been 20 months since I have heard a child speak English. They had a little chunky 4 year old son with really curly hair and EVERYBODY was just loving it, rubbing his head, pulling his cheek, the whole deal haha. I got to see once again a lot of people from my old areas which was way cool, including a little group that came down from Ilobasco and Pedro was there! He's still going strong.
Well today the zone has interviews with President Glazier for the first time. Yesterday My companion and I had a stake correlation meeting with him and the Stake President. He's a really good guy, I like him a lot and am excited to work with him. I'll ask him in my interview today about you guys coming down to get me, I'm sure he wont have a problem with it.
Well this next week we should have a baptism coming up. It's a wife of an inactive member that we are helping reactivate. They aren't married so we're going to marry them and baptize her. Her name is Daisy. They have a son who is an absolute spaz haha, if you could send some riddalin down here for the little guy I'm sure the parents (and me) would appreciate it haha.
So John and Joan Robison are home huh? Sounds like they did a great job on their talks, I wish I could have been there to hear it! They are definitely great people and I'm sure were great mission presidents. That's cool that a lot of their returned missionaries were there, and even cooler the joke and John made haha hilarious. I can't believe Adam Jones is going to be home so soon! I just still don't fill like I have so little time left, and I know that is how I'm going to feel when I have a week left. I'm pretty sure I won't believe it until I'm in our house... and even then I might have to pinch myself a few times haha.
It sounds like Reese is getting so huge! Man its so weird to think that I have never even seen her, and she is walking, saying words, and giving attitude haha, I cant wait to get those videos! Well sorry a little short this week guys but all that is going on lately just seems like a big blur and I cant remember what happened this week or if it was the last or a month ago haha, but love you all thanks for all your support!!!! Behave yourselves and live the gospel!
Love Nick
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Temple Work- July 4, 2011
All the Zone Leaders and the new mission President and his wife
Nick in front of the El Salvador Temple after the first open house
Dear Fam,
Well this has been a pretty crazy week, it feels like I just wrote you guys yesterday! Things are going awesome with the temple open house. It has only been open for two days and we've already had 24,000 people pass through! The goal is 100,00. The mission is receiving a ton of references for the missionaries. Last night I was up until midnight writing down references that the office was giving me for the zone and calling the missionaries to have them contact them. Way hectic! They want us to contact the references that we receive within 24 hours of receiving them, so it's pretty crazy. Well Tuesday we had the zone leader meeting the new president and his wife. They are both great people. I'm excited to be able to work with them. President Glazier is a lot more spiritually emotional than President Pérez, which I think will help the missionaries a lot. His wife is just a classic mission president's wife haha. Sweet lady. Soft spoken, kind, energetic, worries about everyone. I can't remember if I told you guys this, but her father was actually the mission president of Uruguay when she was thirteen, you were probably just a little guy though dad haha. But it was a good meeting. We set some goals, talked about the needs of the mission and how are zones are doing. My zone is doing really well right now, I think everyone is going to baptize this month!!
So Saturday I helped at the temple for the first time! It was an awesome experience, soooooo many people went through. The best part was that I got to see a lot of people from past areas and a few converts! The temple is sooo nice I love it. Part of the day I was standing outside the door of the celestial room directing people where to go, so I got to see their reaction of when they came out. I saw quite a few people come out crying. There is a chandelier in the celestial room that supposedly has 10,000 crystals in it. It's HUGE! We are having more people that expected coming to the temple so they are going to be needing more help, which means I'm going to be spending more time there than I originally thought. I'm way excited, I'd help there everyday if I could haha.
We have an investigator who is a girlfriend of an inactive member that we have been teaching for a bit now. Before she was super cold and didn't really like talking to us, just did it because the member wanted her to. And the member never wanted to get married, despite the fact that they are living together. Anyways, they went through the temple on Saturday and I visited them Sunday. She was totally different, really nice, and we committed her to baptism at the end of the month. The member is totally willing to get married now and wants our help to do it! We are also going to be having a baptism this weekend if all goes as planned.
Well I'm going to send a few pictures of the temple. Love you all thanks for everything! les extraño mucho!
Nick
Update! June letters
Nick with President and Sister Perez and their daughters
Nick's recent convert Pedro and his family
Elder Merino, Elder Jolley, and Nick
June 6th:
Well this week has been pretty good, and pretty busy. We`ve been trying to get a marriage worked out and it`s been a pain. They both had been married before and their spouses both died so we have to go and take out papers for both of them proving that there spouses are dead (weird) and then renew there ID`s (both of them have been expired for four years now) and then print off their birth certificates. After all of that we can give it all to the lawyer and get them married and the wife baptized! So we`re hoping for a miracle and that it can all work out before this Saturday so we can have the marriage and the baptism the same day. It was pretty sweet yesterday in testimony meeting a lady was saying how much faith she has in missionary's giving blessings. About a month ago she asked us to give a blessing to her son because the doctors told her that he was probably going to lose his right eye. So we did the blessing and I didn`t really hear much about it after. But yesterday she said in her testimony that he didn`t lose his eye and that it is starting to heal! Pretty sweet. And then Pedro got up and was saying how sad he was cause possibly me or my companion might leave Wednesday and how`s his grateful for all we have done for him. So nice and spiritual everything good and then........ this 15 year old girl got up and dropped everybody`s jaw by saying a really bad word and confessing some of her latest sins. hahaha I`ll miss stuff like that. But yeah other than that everything is going well and we`re just waiting to see if me or my companion get`s transferred on Wednesday. We should find out tonight or Tuesday morning. I also had my last interview with President Pèrez which was good. He gave me some good advice for life and finishing out strong my mission. President Glazier get`s here on the 27th, coming up! It`ll be interesting to see what things he changes or if things stay the same and just how he goes about everything. Seems like a good guy though.
June 13th:
Oy! So this has been a surprising week for me. We were waiting for the calls about transfers to see who was going. I was obviously thinking that my companion would be leaving, seeing how it is his first area and he has more time than me in the area. Well when the calls came I was told I had a changes and he was staying! My companion had pretty much already packed his bags haha. Well later that night the phone rang and it was President Pèrez letting me know that he had called me to be a Zone Leader. Didn't expect that! We chatted for a while about what I needed to do and what my responsibilities would be and how I can take advantage of the opportunity to as much as possible. I was pretty sad to leave Ilobaso, I liked it a lot and had some good converts and friends there. Not to mention this week I was supposed to marry a couple and get them baptized! But oh well that`s how the mission is, at least the missionary that took my place is happy I'm sure haha. But yeah I`m a zone leader now of zone Cuscatlàn, in the area of Buena Vista. It`s a pretty sweet area but It`s right in the capital pretty much. I'm about 10 minutes away from my first area in Porvenir! I`ve been tempted a couple of times to go over there and visit some people to check up on them, haha. It is however nice to be back in an actual ward, and a pretty strong one in fact. I`m actually in a threesome companionship right now, Elder Jolley and Elder Merino, because Elder Jolley is ending his mission in two weeks for school, so they just kept him here instead of sticking him somewhere else for just two weeks. He`s from Utah and way cool, I already knew him before so it`s been way fun to be with him. Elder Merino is from here El Salvador. I`ve already had my plate full the first week dealing with quite a few problems in the zone that I was lucky enough to inherit, but we`ve finally got them all worked out. I'm definitely going to grow a lot I can tell you that much. Especially in the sense of real life application. It`ll be challenging but good, and help me finish out the mission strong.
June 20th:
Well this week has been really good, just getting in the swing of things with all the new stuff I have to do. It's not too different than being a district leader, just that I have a cell phone, more meetings, and in charge of a lot more Elders. It's pretty cool though! Elder Merino actually had changes on Tuesday (long story) and they sent us Elder Aguilar from Costa Rica. My first "tico" companion so that's pretty sweet. He's a cool kid, a little on the hyper side but a good worker. He also speaks English pretty well! But yeah we have just been dealing with all the stress of the end of the month coming and having to help the zone meet all the baptismal goals and that kind of stuff. This is Elder Jolley's last week in the mission! We're trying to help him not be too baggy... but it IS his last week haha. No he's great though still working way hard and going out strong, definitely one of my favorite companions. It's pretty weird "killing" a companion though, I can't imagine how I'm going to feel my last week here.
Well right now we are working with 4 complete families which is awesome. la familia Echeverria, Acosta, Colorado, Parrilla, and then a couple other people. All of them have to get married but that's cake. I'm pretty sure we're going to baptize a ton this coming month! On Tuesday we had the farewell meeting with President Pérez. It was really good and he gave us a lot of good advice. He gave us five points of how to be successful financially and then five points how to be successful spiritually. I haven't really had a way close relationship with him, but it really is going to be sad to have them leave. They had their whole family in the meeting and all their daughters got up and bore their testimonies about there experience here and all of that. Most of all I'll miss Sister Pérez, she's a pretty incredible lady. So in exactly a week from now President Glazier will get here and then a couple days later there will be a meeting with all the zone leaders and him. I'm sure he's going to need a lot of help and support the first couple of months to help and get things going and help the transition be smooth. I'm excited though, change is a good thing once and a while! I'm also getting really excited about the open house and dedication for the temple coming up, ahh I can't wait. That's pretty much been the main focus in sacrament meeting for the last couple of months and there is a huge focus on bringing investigators to the open house. I think tonight some members are going to take us to see it and eat afterwards :) That has definitely been one of the things I've missed most on the mission, being able to go to the temple. I didn't get to go a ton of times before the mission, but enough to know that it's unlike anything I had experienced before. Hopefully they will let us go once and a while! I also hope that the members here take advantage of it and go regularly. Elder Aguilar was telling us that the temple in Costa Rica has a hard time, mainly people willing to be temple workers and people going on regular bases.
June 27th:
Well I lot to tell you this week! I've got some great news, remember how I said that we weren't going to able to participate in the open house for the temple as missionaries? Well On Thursday I got a call from the assistants saying that all of the sisters missionaries in the mission are going to be helping in the open house and 24 Elders.... out of the 180. And me and my comp are gonna be there! I was so excited I can't even tell you. So we had a special meeting yesterday in the church right next to the temple that they have built. It was sooooo nice I felt like I was in Utah again! haha. Nice seats, air conditioning, good sound system, nice lighting, everything. Some representatives from Utah came along with Elder Rivas from the area seventy to explain to us what it is that we are going to do and how we need to do it. Pretty much there are going to be three assignments for us. One of them is in a room where all the people are going to pass through as pretty much a "welcome to temple" type thing. I'll talk for a bit explaining a few things and then show a video of the temple, which is incredible. Then there is obviously the part of being a guide in the temple, taking the people through. Then after there is a refreshments room and a place to ask questions and write down comments and say if you want the missionaries to come visit your house, that kind of thing. We will all pretty much be rotating through these different assignments. It starts on the 1st of July and goes until the 21st. Between those dates I will be there 7 times pretty much all day long. I can't tell you how excited I am it's going be so awesome! Well they wrapped up teaching and showing us what we needed to do and all of that and then somebody made the comment of if we could go through the temple.. well the guy in charge went around talking for a few minutes to some people trying to pull some strings, and then asked my president and his wife if they had gone through together yet, which they hadn't. Well long story short, they let us go through!!!
We were one of the firsts to be able to go through the temple being totally finished. It is absolutely incredibly I can't even explain to you. When you first walk in, there is about a 10 foot painting of Christ with two little girls at his side. One a Nephite, and the other a Lamanite. They are holding onto his white robes and he has a bit of a serious look on his face. It is one of the sweetest paintings I've ever seen, and it was made especially for the El Salvador Temple. The temple isn't super big, but it is so nice. It is very personalized to El Salvador. In the session room the walls are painted with scenes of El Salvador and all over the temple is the national flower of El Salvador, the Izote. I could explain it to you all day but I don't have that much time haha. Anyways it was an experience I'll never forget. My first day of working there is this Saturday. I'll give you plenty details! It was so cool how it's not even dedicated yet and how strongly you can fill the spirit.
Well Elder Jolley went home this morning, he is probably in the air right now in fact. I really enjoyed being with him and I learned a ton, he's a great guy. He definitely ended the mission well going to the temple yesterday haha. Also this morning, we had a surprise farewell for President Pérez and his family. It was pretty sad but pretty cool. They are an exemplar family and we'll all miss them. The new President arrives tomorrow and will officially be the new president at 7 pm.
This week is going to be crazy. Thursday we have a Zone Leader council for the first time with President Glazier. Friday we have a multi zone meeting with about 5 zones. Saturday I'll be working in the temple. Time is going to start to fly more than it already has!
Well sounds like everybody is doing well at home, I'm glad. Just stay busy everybody! I feel like everybody is going to be so different when I get home it's going to be crazy.
Friday, May 20, 2011
6 Months to Go! May 16th, 2011
Hey fam,
How are you guys? Sounds like you all had a pretty good week, especially with dinner at Grandma Reids..... You´re killin me! haha tell Grandma that she already has to start to plan a return dinner for me haha. Well today we are going to have Pday here in Ilobasco so I don´t have to travel, which is awesome. That means more sleeping time! haha. So guess what? My companion's Aunt lives in San Salvador and so when my comp talked to his family for Mothers Day, they arranged for her to drop him off a package here in Ilobasco! Well I was thinking that my package had to be in the office by now, and that I wasn´t going to be able to get it until the 31st... and needless to say that´s way to long. So we called her and asked her if she could stop by the mission office and bring me my package too! So she came with the packages on Tuesday and took us out to lunch and everything. Very nice lady, and not too bad off financially, haha. I'm not exactly sure what she does but I know that she lives in the richest part of the country (Escalón). But anyways the point is I have my package now! I'm loving it thanks a lot! Everything in there was a great idea and tastes so good. The Grifindor shirt you sent is way sweet, I love it! And of course the Barcelona :) but yeah thanks a ton I loved it all!!!!!
Well I'm glad the lesson with Kris Tanner went well. I was kind of surprised that you guys liked so much of what I wrote, because I actually felt a little bad that I didn´t take more time to think about it and write it down ahead of time, so I was worried it would make a lot of sense because I was rushed, but I'm glad it was of some use! I liked what you said in the lesson Mom, it sounded really good. It´s so true about the bell thing. Everybody responds differently to the spirit and hears it in a different way. So as a teacher or a friend or whatever, you have to be able to discern how it works for that person and be able to adapt your teachings accordingly. It's a little embarrassing that you had a blown up picture that I sent and put it up there the whole lesson, haha by what can ya do.
Hey I haven´t heard any talk about the Bleaks or the Hunts these days, what's going on with them? Well this week or the next, we will be baptizing a twelve year kid named Samael. Short little chancho haha, he´s hilarious. Well sad news, a ladies son in our branch was killed on Friday. He´s inactive and was drinking supposedly and started wandering around, and happen to wander in a zone of MS. They ask where he came from, and him being drunk and not thinking, responded from the "elen" which is a 18 zone... so him being from an 18 zone and crossing over to an MS zone, and being 23 years old, was reason enough for them to shoot him. So his funeral is tomorrow. It´s weird how numb I have become to murder.. not something I´d ever thought would happen.
Well love you all thanks for everything, I hope you all have a great week! Cuídense!
Love Nick
How are you guys? Sounds like you all had a pretty good week, especially with dinner at Grandma Reids..... You´re killin me! haha tell Grandma that she already has to start to plan a return dinner for me haha. Well today we are going to have Pday here in Ilobasco so I don´t have to travel, which is awesome. That means more sleeping time! haha. So guess what? My companion's Aunt lives in San Salvador and so when my comp talked to his family for Mothers Day, they arranged for her to drop him off a package here in Ilobasco! Well I was thinking that my package had to be in the office by now, and that I wasn´t going to be able to get it until the 31st... and needless to say that´s way to long. So we called her and asked her if she could stop by the mission office and bring me my package too! So she came with the packages on Tuesday and took us out to lunch and everything. Very nice lady, and not too bad off financially, haha. I'm not exactly sure what she does but I know that she lives in the richest part of the country (Escalón). But anyways the point is I have my package now! I'm loving it thanks a lot! Everything in there was a great idea and tastes so good. The Grifindor shirt you sent is way sweet, I love it! And of course the Barcelona :) but yeah thanks a ton I loved it all!!!!!
Well I'm glad the lesson with Kris Tanner went well. I was kind of surprised that you guys liked so much of what I wrote, because I actually felt a little bad that I didn´t take more time to think about it and write it down ahead of time, so I was worried it would make a lot of sense because I was rushed, but I'm glad it was of some use! I liked what you said in the lesson Mom, it sounded really good. It´s so true about the bell thing. Everybody responds differently to the spirit and hears it in a different way. So as a teacher or a friend or whatever, you have to be able to discern how it works for that person and be able to adapt your teachings accordingly. It's a little embarrassing that you had a blown up picture that I sent and put it up there the whole lesson, haha by what can ya do.
Hey I haven´t heard any talk about the Bleaks or the Hunts these days, what's going on with them? Well this week or the next, we will be baptizing a twelve year kid named Samael. Short little chancho haha, he´s hilarious. Well sad news, a ladies son in our branch was killed on Friday. He´s inactive and was drinking supposedly and started wandering around, and happen to wander in a zone of MS. They ask where he came from, and him being drunk and not thinking, responded from the "elen" which is a 18 zone... so him being from an 18 zone and crossing over to an MS zone, and being 23 years old, was reason enough for them to shoot him. So his funeral is tomorrow. It´s weird how numb I have become to murder.. not something I´d ever thought would happen.
Well love you all thanks for everything, I hope you all have a great week! Cuídense!
Love Nick
Monday, May 9, 2011
Mothers Day Call- May 9, 2011
May 9th email:
Hey guys, Well it was pretty sweet talking to you guys yesterday. The next time that we talk will be face to face! Pretty weird huh. Time flies I can`t believe it. Thanks for all the advice and everything, I`ll have to start making some decisions here pretty soon and let you guys know which school and all of that. I couldn`t get that number for you guys that I wanted to get, but I will for sure get it for you by next week. Well today we are going to go out to Zacatecoluca for P day which is pretty far away and kind of by the beach, so super hot. Should be pretty fun though. Well I think we pretty much covered everything yesterday so I`ll talk to you guys next week. Love you all have a great week! Nick
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Almost 6 Months Away! May 2nd, 2011
OY!
how`s it goin guys? Man I can`t believe that it`s time to call home again, that was definitely a quick 5 months! I don`t know about you guys but it definitely was for me haha. But yeah everything is going really well here, we actually have a ton of people right now that we are teaching and that are progressing. It`s been a little tough being in a branch though. With less people in the branch, it means less people to choose from to be leaders.. Which means quite a bit of apostasy and a lot of correcting to do. But it`s fun at the same to be able to help so much and almost feel like I`m in the branch presidency haha. Yesterday I blessed the sacrament with my convert Pedro which was pretty cool. He was so nervous haha it was funny but he got it on the first try. It`s pretty cool to watch him progress and everything. He had an interview with the branch president and I'm pretty sure he gave him a calling.. but I guess we`ll see Sunday. His Mom has also been coming to church and talking to us lately so hopefully we`ll be able to baptize her soon. We are also teaching a lady whose son is on a mission in the branch. It would be cool to able to baptize her with her son in the mission, I'm sure he would be way happy. We also had a lady in our branch die last week, and the branch took care of the funeral and did all the arrangements and we went there and spoke at the funeral and sang some hymns. It was prety cool. But she has 3 daughters, all older women and her husband that weren`t members. They were so grateful for everything that we did and were impressed with it all. Yesterday we went with them to the cemetery (which by the the cemeteries here are SO weird), and wanted to know more about where their mom is and what she is doing. So tonight we`re going over there to do a family home evening with them with some members of the branch. Now`s the time to get them going while it`s all recent!
Osama Bin Ladin... IT WAS ABOUT TIME! Gosh I can`t believe he got away for 10 years.... well I hope he enjoyed those ten years because he is suffering right now that`s for sure. So my President is from Orem? I hadn`t heard that that`s sweet! Im excited for him to come. Im hoping he`ll maybe take out some of the rules that we have right now.. AKA no coke. haha. Man I cant believe how much everybody has changed since I`ve been gone. Josh looks way old!
So about calling home, I think I`m going to call around 4ish.... would that work? I can`t believe its my last phone call. The mission is so weird, I can`t belive that I'm getting to that time, it seems like just a little bit ago that I was home. But at the same time when I look back to an old area or when I look back to the MTC I think wow.. that was an eternity ago! haha. Im sure that`s how it has been for you guys as well. Well I guess I`ll sign off now so I have some stuff to tell you on Sunday. But have a good week, love you all! Talk to ya SUNDAY!
Love Nick
how`s it goin guys? Man I can`t believe that it`s time to call home again, that was definitely a quick 5 months! I don`t know about you guys but it definitely was for me haha. But yeah everything is going really well here, we actually have a ton of people right now that we are teaching and that are progressing. It`s been a little tough being in a branch though. With less people in the branch, it means less people to choose from to be leaders.. Which means quite a bit of apostasy and a lot of correcting to do. But it`s fun at the same to be able to help so much and almost feel like I`m in the branch presidency haha. Yesterday I blessed the sacrament with my convert Pedro which was pretty cool. He was so nervous haha it was funny but he got it on the first try. It`s pretty cool to watch him progress and everything. He had an interview with the branch president and I'm pretty sure he gave him a calling.. but I guess we`ll see Sunday. His Mom has also been coming to church and talking to us lately so hopefully we`ll be able to baptize her soon. We are also teaching a lady whose son is on a mission in the branch. It would be cool to able to baptize her with her son in the mission, I'm sure he would be way happy. We also had a lady in our branch die last week, and the branch took care of the funeral and did all the arrangements and we went there and spoke at the funeral and sang some hymns. It was prety cool. But she has 3 daughters, all older women and her husband that weren`t members. They were so grateful for everything that we did and were impressed with it all. Yesterday we went with them to the cemetery (which by the the cemeteries here are SO weird), and wanted to know more about where their mom is and what she is doing. So tonight we`re going over there to do a family home evening with them with some members of the branch. Now`s the time to get them going while it`s all recent!
Osama Bin Ladin... IT WAS ABOUT TIME! Gosh I can`t believe he got away for 10 years.... well I hope he enjoyed those ten years because he is suffering right now that`s for sure. So my President is from Orem? I hadn`t heard that that`s sweet! Im excited for him to come. Im hoping he`ll maybe take out some of the rules that we have right now.. AKA no coke. haha. Man I cant believe how much everybody has changed since I`ve been gone. Josh looks way old!
So about calling home, I think I`m going to call around 4ish.... would that work? I can`t believe its my last phone call. The mission is so weird, I can`t belive that I'm getting to that time, it seems like just a little bit ago that I was home. But at the same time when I look back to an old area or when I look back to the MTC I think wow.. that was an eternity ago! haha. Im sure that`s how it has been for you guys as well. Well I guess I`ll sign off now so I have some stuff to tell you on Sunday. But have a good week, love you all! Talk to ya SUNDAY!
Love Nick
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Doing Great! March 21st-April 25th
March 21st:
Hey Fam,
Well I know you`re anxious to know about changes.. I`m still here! which is good. And my companion had changes, which is also good. haha. They shipped him out to San Miguel haha poor guy.... he is going there right about the hottest time of the year.. we`re coming up on "Semana Santa", and it`s also just blistering hot that time of year here, but especially San Miguel. Well guess who they sent me? Does "chor sun ees okay he ess no sik" sound familiar? haha yup! Elder De Leon from the office. I was super surprised because he was only in the office for three months and they usually take them out when they are in there for a good 9 months or so! But yeah he has six months in the mission and is from Guatemala. My fifth Chapin(Guatemalan)! But yeah he`s a good kid. It`s pretty funny though, the house that the office elders live in is pretty much a palace compared to any other house in the mission. Pretty big, a washing machine, decent kitchen etc. So he came to the house and was pretty shocked, haha anyways long story short we are going to change houses. We`ve been looking around and haven`t found much so far but we might move farther away than where we are right now, which means we would have to change our cook. But there are some houses for rent by the cook of the other elders in my ward and she is soooo awesome. So we`re hoping that we can get one approved over there and change cooks. I`m scared to tell my cook that I have right now though, she is a return missionary with a very strong character.. haha everybody in the ward is scared of her. But yeah it`ll be good, she doesn`t cook very well, especially for breakfast she pretty much gives us nothing. So wish me luck!
It`s funny that Reese like`s Dora so much, because the little daughter of my cook is also obsessed with Dora! It`s so funny to see it Spanish because it`s the exact same idea, just her throwing in some English phrases. But yeah, other than that everything is going well here in Conacastes. Our investigators are doing well. We are teaching a guy whose son is on a mission who never wanted anything to do with the church but while his son has been in the mission a lot has changed with him and we`ve had some really cool experiences. I'm way excited for general conference coming up!!!!! I`ve grown a new love for general conference in the mission.
I can`t believe Mom and Brooke went to the lady gaga gaga concert..... haha yikes. Concerts are so sweet though, I love them. You finally got to see what it`s like at a crazy concert with literally no room to move! love it. But don`t know if I would have gone to lady gaga... haha especially with the crowd she pulls in. Well you had your experience, no more concerts like that! haha just kidding, kind of...
Well i hope everybody is doing well, tell everybody hi for me and thanks for all of their prayers and support!!! love you all have a good week.
Love Nick
March 28th:
Hey guys,
Well sounds like Utah is being its normal bipolar self haha. People here think it is SO cool that we have all four seasons. Its nice to live in a warm climate, but after a while It gets tiring... believe it or not snow sounds pretty sweet right now! But I'm sure I'm going to eat my words when I'm crying in November because it´s 50 degrees. I´ll die! Well everything is going well here, just getting used to my new companion. He´s pretty cool, and everyone thinks he is from the states cause he is really white and has a weird accent haha it´s pretty funny. Well we had a meeting with President Pérez on Thursday and he announced some new things that are going to be happening here in the mission. We are going to be recieving two new stakes in the mission that used to be part of the other mission. "la Libertad", and "Los Heroes". On the 26 of April la libertad will be ours (next change), and the next change will we have los hereos. But what that means is we are going to have to take out all the wards that have 4 missionaries in them (aka my ward) and just leave them with two so they can fill the new zones. The area will be huuuge! Anyways, knowing that, I pretty much know for a fact that my area will be closed down this next change and me and my comp will be outta here.
Also when the new mission president comes because of those changes the mission will be "mission el salvador, san salvador", and the west mission will be "mission Santa Ana, Belize". Pretty crazy! But it's good because that means that the work is growing and moving forward.
That´s crazy about the Ogden temple, are they really going to actually demolish it..? I can´t imagine that they would do that. I'm sure they will just remodel it a ton. But who knows I guess. The date for the temple dedication here is getting closer and closer, I'm way excited. I really hope the President Monson comes and talk to the missionaries, that would be unforgettable. I just saw the movie "the lords errand" about his life, you guys should watch it if you haven´t already, it´s impressive. Man one thing that I've really come to appreciate and gain a testimony of here on the mission is the divine calling of an apostle and prophet. So cool.
But yeah, I forgot to mention that because the area will probably be closed here next change that means that we are not going to move houses because president didn't want us to get a new house and then have to turn it in 4 weeks later.. makes sense. So yeah I guess we are just going to have to stick it out here for a while haha. Oh well, I'm not complaining... just mostly my companion. Well thanks for everything guys, I miss you all and always pray for each of you. I hope you are all doing well and doing what you should be doing! Have a great week talk to ya later.
April 4th:
Hey guys! so how`s Orlando? Sounds like you`ve had a pretty good time so far, thinking back to when we went to Disneyland made me laugh! Haha I guess I was kind of at a whiny age. So where have you guys been today? Another theme park? And tomorrow Harry Potter Land? Niiice.
Well this week has been interesting. I got a call from President Friday Morning and 6:30am on the dot, telling me that there was an Elder in San Vicent that was having some problems there. So they had to take him out, and I was going to go there in his place. He said I had to pack my bags and leave by 9 in the morning to catch the bus to San Vicente.... which means I didn`t get to say goodbye to anybody!! I was pretty bummed. So now I'm here in a place called Ilobasco, it`s pretty sweet. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. To meet up with the rest of the zone, I had to hitch hike here for an hour. I went in 4 different trucks haha. This town is pretty famous for tourist because there are a TON of souvenirs and cool shops. I`ve never really been in a little pueblo like this so its pretty cool. My companion is elder Carpio from Honduras and has about 3 weeks in the mission, so pretty much I'm training again! He `s a pretty cool guy, and is amazing on the piano which is sweet, I`m gonna have him teach me some stuff! But yeah I was a little bummed to have to leave Soyapango. The day before I left I had kind of a cool experience. All our appointments had fallen and we had nothing else to do so we starting knocking doors. We knocked probably 35 houses and nobody would let us in. We were about to finish and knocked on a lady's door who kind of looked at us weird but immediately let us in. We sang a hymn had a prayer and then I asked her if she had any questions for us and the first thing she asked me was "who sent you guys here?" I told her nobody, that we are just missionaries and this is what we do-go around talking to everybody about Christ, and then asked her why she asked that. She just kind of looked curios and said "nothing I was just wondering". So anyways we had a sweet lesson about the plan of salvation and set an appointment to come back. At the end she said that the reason she had asked me that at the first was because she had been going through some really tough trials with work and having to watch after her 4 year old son and she didn`t know how she was going to do it. So she was on her couch thinking and praying for help about how she was going to be able to through it all, and right that second we knocked on her door. Pretty sweet huh! So that was kind of a bummer to leave her, but I'm sure she`ll get baptized in the future.
Well you guys will have to take a bunch of pictures for me and send them. I hope you all have a good time, I wish I could be there! I`m glad you got the package that I sent. Did you get my plaque and key chains that were in the package too? One of them is for Amber.
Well be safe and have fun everyone! love you all thanks for everything you do. Talk to ya next week!
Love Nick
April 11th:
Hey guys!
April 18th:
Hey!
Sorry Im writing a little late today, we decided to play soccer first thing in the morning today and write later because it is unbelievabley hot right now. But yeah everything is going well in my area, im really enjoying it. When I first got here three weeks ago, we starting working with the Melendez family which consists of Pedro, Rosa, and Claudia. They are all great but Pedro, 19 years old, is the best and has been progressing the most. We had been teaching him over the past couple of weeks and put a goal for baptism with him for the 16th of April. We watched the movie The Testaments and he loved it, super powerful. The next day he had his baptismal interview and passed! Everything was all good and he was ready to go. We visited him on Thursday and he was having a lot of second thoughts and doubts all of the sudden. We couldn`t figure out what his real fears were for not wanting to be baptized. Well we came back the next day, but he wasn`t there and we couldn`t get a hold of him.... the day before his baptism. That night I got a hold of him super late and he had gone to the beach with his friends. He told me that he wanted more time getting to know the church and he wasn`t ready and not sure. I told him that we were just going to stop by the next day in the morning to talk and try and resolve some of his concerns. Well we showed up and there he was waiting for us, which almost surprised me! We starting talking about his doubts and concerns and trying to get to the bottom of the real problem. I knew he was ready and that he knew the church was true, and this was something that he needed to do. Time wasn`t going to help, he just needed to have faith and act. Well turns out that his uncle had been feeding him a whole bunch of lies about the church and saying we don`t even worship God and we are just a sect fallen off from the Johovas Witnesse... that really got me going. So we started throwing out scripture after scripture clearing his doubts. He explained that that`s why he wanted to investigate more so that he could learn how to be able to defend himself before he got baptized. We explained that he needed the gift of the holy ghost to be able to really learn and understand the "meat" of the gospel; that waiting wasn`t going to help, but actually make things worse. More time waiting would just put more doubts in his head and block out the feelings of his heart. When God talks to us we can`t wait to act.. if we do the impressions will leave. We explained how he should think about his future. Earlier he had explained his desire to be a missionary someday and how cool it would be, so we starting talking about the blessing of a mission. How sweet it is and how it chnages lives. We explained that all these blessings could be his if he just decided to act and claim them. That he wasn`t a boy anymore and that he needed to start preparing himself for the rest of his life, and the church is the way to do it and a mission makes and shapes you into the man God wants you to be.
He accepted, still with a few worries, but he accepted. We baptized him later that day with his mom there at the service. After the baptism when he was changing we asked him how he felt and he said with a huge smile "incredibley happy!" My comp asked on a scale of 1-10? and he said "9.5... ok maybe 10 but I just don`t want to accept/admit it!" haha. After the baptism he hugged his mom and they both cried for a good 4 minutes just hugging, it was awesome. He was confirmeed yesterday in church and the immediate change in him was awesome. He made comments in Priesthood meeting that made everyone speechless! He was so excited after church and just kept saying "you guys were right about everything" "I'm on cloud 9 right now I can`t even explain it!" Then later that day Elder Rivas from the 70 had a little meeting for the district to talk about the upcoming temple, so we took Pedro along. The meeting was awesome and Pedro said after "I`m completely absolutely convinced" with a huge smile "I had no reason to wait, I was just wasting time!" In the course of 24 hours he went from being shy, timid, and unsure about things, hesitant to leave behind 20 years of Catholic tradition and beliefs, to energetic, excited, and as happy as I've even seen anybody. Willing to do anything asked of him. I can`t wait til he serves a mission! I almost gaurentee he will. So yeah it was a good experience!
Sounds like everything is going well at home! Sounds like the weather is starting to calm down. It`s been so hot this week it`s a joke. Where I live is like 98 percent catholic... its insane. This week is holy week so there are a bunch of parade-type things that they do in the street. It's pretty much just a huge group walking around carrying a crucified Christ singing a weird song.... It makes me want to kick a dog every time I see it. haha. I can`t believe I'll be calling home soon! weird! The last phone call. Today I have 17 months in the mission. whaaaat?! Well have a good week everyone, love you all thanks for eveyrthing you do! talk to ya later.
Cuidense mucho.
April 25th:
Hey Fam,
How´s everyone doing? Sounds like you all had a good Easter, I´m glad! Here in El Salvador, and I'm pretty sure anywhere else where Catholicism is big, the whole week is important. "Holy Week". Pretty interesting.... haha. During the whole week they do something called "vía crucis" where there is a whole big parade of people following a crucified Christ while singing some sort of weird hymn and having the pastor praying. I had to go right through the middle of one of those to get to where I was trying to go and all of the sudden everyone knelt down to do some sort of prayer, and me and my comp were the only ones left standing... in the middle of a group of like 200 people.. going the opposite direction. haha it was awkward to say the least. And then some guy was in my way so I said excuse me and tried to get through and he just looked up at me and said "you´d be better off staying" in the most condescending, cocky way. I almost hit him in the face. haha the Catholic church.. bless their hearts. But yeah and then on Friday they do these huge paintings in the roads. And then Saturday on my street past a huge group of dressed up Roman soldiers with a man leading the group screaming "Wanted! Jesus of Nazarth!" and then the whole group chants "Wanted! wanted!".... haha I tried to get video but my camera was dead.
Somebody asked me the other day why we don´t wear the cross in our religion. And I pretty much just answered him by asking why they focus so much on the death and crucifixion of Christ when he was resurrected and that´s what we should be focusing on. That´s a big difference in our religion. It seems like they focus and worship a dead God and Christ, when we worship a living God and Christ. Anyways that shut him up real quick :) haha. But yeah other than that it was pretty good week. We have changes on Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure that me and my comp will just stay together being that I just got here a month ago.
So guess what? I know who my new mission president is. His name is David Glazier!! GRINGO! Haha I'm not sure where he is from but the president just sent us all an email saying that he is going to be the new mission president. His wife is named Beverly. So yeah, he´ll be coming at the end of June. Look him up for me and give me a little background on him!
This week it rained a couple times super hard, so it looks like we are finally entering winter here! I love the rain, except that´s when all the bugs come out. There´s a bug called a sonpopo that is a GIANT ant with wings. You´d love it haha. But yeah other than that the rain is good, is cools everything down. Well this week we will be getting the new areas of La Libertad, which is a big part of the country. Hopefully I'll get the chance to head over there before I finish! We´ll see though. Everything is going well with my companion and all of that. We have been making some killer breakfasts lately. There is a dish called Baleadas in Honduras that is the main dish, like Pupusas here. They're pretty much like breakfast burritos if you ask me haha, but my companion will swear to the death that it´s not. Well have a good week everyone thanks for all your support! love you all.
Nick
Hey Fam,
Well I know you`re anxious to know about changes.. I`m still here! which is good. And my companion had changes, which is also good. haha. They shipped him out to San Miguel haha poor guy.... he is going there right about the hottest time of the year.. we`re coming up on "Semana Santa", and it`s also just blistering hot that time of year here, but especially San Miguel. Well guess who they sent me? Does "chor sun ees okay he ess no sik" sound familiar? haha yup! Elder De Leon from the office. I was super surprised because he was only in the office for three months and they usually take them out when they are in there for a good 9 months or so! But yeah he has six months in the mission and is from Guatemala. My fifth Chapin(Guatemalan)! But yeah he`s a good kid. It`s pretty funny though, the house that the office elders live in is pretty much a palace compared to any other house in the mission. Pretty big, a washing machine, decent kitchen etc. So he came to the house and was pretty shocked, haha anyways long story short we are going to change houses. We`ve been looking around and haven`t found much so far but we might move farther away than where we are right now, which means we would have to change our cook. But there are some houses for rent by the cook of the other elders in my ward and she is soooo awesome. So we`re hoping that we can get one approved over there and change cooks. I`m scared to tell my cook that I have right now though, she is a return missionary with a very strong character.. haha everybody in the ward is scared of her. But yeah it`ll be good, she doesn`t cook very well, especially for breakfast she pretty much gives us nothing. So wish me luck!
It`s funny that Reese like`s Dora so much, because the little daughter of my cook is also obsessed with Dora! It`s so funny to see it Spanish because it`s the exact same idea, just her throwing in some English phrases. But yeah, other than that everything is going well here in Conacastes. Our investigators are doing well. We are teaching a guy whose son is on a mission who never wanted anything to do with the church but while his son has been in the mission a lot has changed with him and we`ve had some really cool experiences. I'm way excited for general conference coming up!!!!! I`ve grown a new love for general conference in the mission.
I can`t believe Mom and Brooke went to the lady gaga gaga concert..... haha yikes. Concerts are so sweet though, I love them. You finally got to see what it`s like at a crazy concert with literally no room to move! love it. But don`t know if I would have gone to lady gaga... haha especially with the crowd she pulls in. Well you had your experience, no more concerts like that! haha just kidding, kind of...
Well i hope everybody is doing well, tell everybody hi for me and thanks for all of their prayers and support!!! love you all have a good week.
Love Nick
March 28th:
Hey guys,
Well sounds like Utah is being its normal bipolar self haha. People here think it is SO cool that we have all four seasons. Its nice to live in a warm climate, but after a while It gets tiring... believe it or not snow sounds pretty sweet right now! But I'm sure I'm going to eat my words when I'm crying in November because it´s 50 degrees. I´ll die! Well everything is going well here, just getting used to my new companion. He´s pretty cool, and everyone thinks he is from the states cause he is really white and has a weird accent haha it´s pretty funny. Well we had a meeting with President Pérez on Thursday and he announced some new things that are going to be happening here in the mission. We are going to be recieving two new stakes in the mission that used to be part of the other mission. "la Libertad", and "Los Heroes". On the 26 of April la libertad will be ours (next change), and the next change will we have los hereos. But what that means is we are going to have to take out all the wards that have 4 missionaries in them (aka my ward) and just leave them with two so they can fill the new zones. The area will be huuuge! Anyways, knowing that, I pretty much know for a fact that my area will be closed down this next change and me and my comp will be outta here.
Also when the new mission president comes because of those changes the mission will be "mission el salvador, san salvador", and the west mission will be "mission Santa Ana, Belize". Pretty crazy! But it's good because that means that the work is growing and moving forward.
That´s crazy about the Ogden temple, are they really going to actually demolish it..? I can´t imagine that they would do that. I'm sure they will just remodel it a ton. But who knows I guess. The date for the temple dedication here is getting closer and closer, I'm way excited. I really hope the President Monson comes and talk to the missionaries, that would be unforgettable. I just saw the movie "the lords errand" about his life, you guys should watch it if you haven´t already, it´s impressive. Man one thing that I've really come to appreciate and gain a testimony of here on the mission is the divine calling of an apostle and prophet. So cool.
But yeah, I forgot to mention that because the area will probably be closed here next change that means that we are not going to move houses because president didn't want us to get a new house and then have to turn it in 4 weeks later.. makes sense. So yeah I guess we are just going to have to stick it out here for a while haha. Oh well, I'm not complaining... just mostly my companion. Well thanks for everything guys, I miss you all and always pray for each of you. I hope you are all doing well and doing what you should be doing! Have a great week talk to ya later.
April 4th:
Hey guys! so how`s Orlando? Sounds like you`ve had a pretty good time so far, thinking back to when we went to Disneyland made me laugh! Haha I guess I was kind of at a whiny age. So where have you guys been today? Another theme park? And tomorrow Harry Potter Land? Niiice.
Well this week has been interesting. I got a call from President Friday Morning and 6:30am on the dot, telling me that there was an Elder in San Vicent that was having some problems there. So they had to take him out, and I was going to go there in his place. He said I had to pack my bags and leave by 9 in the morning to catch the bus to San Vicente.... which means I didn`t get to say goodbye to anybody!! I was pretty bummed. So now I'm here in a place called Ilobasco, it`s pretty sweet. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. To meet up with the rest of the zone, I had to hitch hike here for an hour. I went in 4 different trucks haha. This town is pretty famous for tourist because there are a TON of souvenirs and cool shops. I`ve never really been in a little pueblo like this so its pretty cool. My companion is elder Carpio from Honduras and has about 3 weeks in the mission, so pretty much I'm training again! He `s a pretty cool guy, and is amazing on the piano which is sweet, I`m gonna have him teach me some stuff! But yeah I was a little bummed to have to leave Soyapango. The day before I left I had kind of a cool experience. All our appointments had fallen and we had nothing else to do so we starting knocking doors. We knocked probably 35 houses and nobody would let us in. We were about to finish and knocked on a lady's door who kind of looked at us weird but immediately let us in. We sang a hymn had a prayer and then I asked her if she had any questions for us and the first thing she asked me was "who sent you guys here?" I told her nobody, that we are just missionaries and this is what we do-go around talking to everybody about Christ, and then asked her why she asked that. She just kind of looked curios and said "nothing I was just wondering". So anyways we had a sweet lesson about the plan of salvation and set an appointment to come back. At the end she said that the reason she had asked me that at the first was because she had been going through some really tough trials with work and having to watch after her 4 year old son and she didn`t know how she was going to do it. So she was on her couch thinking and praying for help about how she was going to be able to through it all, and right that second we knocked on her door. Pretty sweet huh! So that was kind of a bummer to leave her, but I'm sure she`ll get baptized in the future.
Well you guys will have to take a bunch of pictures for me and send them. I hope you all have a good time, I wish I could be there! I`m glad you got the package that I sent. Did you get my plaque and key chains that were in the package too? One of them is for Amber.
Well be safe and have fun everyone! love you all thanks for everything you do. Talk to ya next week!
Love Nick
April 11th:
Hey guys!
Well sounds like the Florida trip was pretty shweeet. You guys are all looking good, thanks for sending the pictures, I'm going to load them onto my camera!
Well I´ve just been getting used to my new area and branch. It´s pretty dang different being in a branch instead of a ward. Yesterday at church I blessed the sacrament, bore testimony, taught the Sunday school for all of the youth, and then taught the priesthood lesson.. followed by a leadership meeting to try and get the branch going and assign people to visit some families. Pretty hectic! But pretty cool at the same time to be able to help out so much. This place is pretty cool, I honestly feel like I'm living the 40s. That´s what all the streets and little stores look like. We´ll have to visit here for sure when mom and dad come... Mom you´ll go nuts buying stuff! haha. But yeah I get along with my comp well, he is an amazing pianist. Insane. He can play these classical pieces that just leave my mouth open. He wants to study music at BYU when he gets back, but he can´t speak English at all so I'm teaching him. It would be way sweet if he could go! Well my cook is pretty good, we just have her for lunch and then a different sister makes us dinner for free which is always nice. But we are trying to look for another cook because at the end of this month she is going to move to Honduras. My apartment is huge compared to my last one! But still kind of dumpy, but there is a shared balcony above the house and I hung my hammock up there. Pretty sweet at night time! Yeah, to tell you the truth we still have no idea who our new mission president is going to be. The whole "to be announced" thing has been up there for a while which is weird because all of Central America has their mission president already assigned except for this mission. I´m guessing that they called somebody but he´s probably trying to work out some work issues, or something like that before he can accept. Just an idea. -But other than that everything is going well! We have a few people that we are working with right now and if everything goes well we should have two baptisms this weekend. Pedro and Idalia.
So on Tuesday we had a multizone and I got the package you sent mom! Loved it as always. Especially the video! Reese is getting huuuge. It´s insane that she is walking and everything and screaming all over the place haha. Pretty dang cute. So how´s the rest of the fam doing? The Jensen drama sounds hilarious, hahah Kirsten would pull a prank like that! How´s Grandma and Grandpa Reid? and Grandma Kirkbride? Tell them I say hi and hope they´re doing well. Well love you all I better go now. Talk to you next week!!!
April 18th:
Hey!
Sorry Im writing a little late today, we decided to play soccer first thing in the morning today and write later because it is unbelievabley hot right now. But yeah everything is going well in my area, im really enjoying it. When I first got here three weeks ago, we starting working with the Melendez family which consists of Pedro, Rosa, and Claudia. They are all great but Pedro, 19 years old, is the best and has been progressing the most. We had been teaching him over the past couple of weeks and put a goal for baptism with him for the 16th of April. We watched the movie The Testaments and he loved it, super powerful. The next day he had his baptismal interview and passed! Everything was all good and he was ready to go. We visited him on Thursday and he was having a lot of second thoughts and doubts all of the sudden. We couldn`t figure out what his real fears were for not wanting to be baptized. Well we came back the next day, but he wasn`t there and we couldn`t get a hold of him.... the day before his baptism. That night I got a hold of him super late and he had gone to the beach with his friends. He told me that he wanted more time getting to know the church and he wasn`t ready and not sure. I told him that we were just going to stop by the next day in the morning to talk and try and resolve some of his concerns. Well we showed up and there he was waiting for us, which almost surprised me! We starting talking about his doubts and concerns and trying to get to the bottom of the real problem. I knew he was ready and that he knew the church was true, and this was something that he needed to do. Time wasn`t going to help, he just needed to have faith and act. Well turns out that his uncle had been feeding him a whole bunch of lies about the church and saying we don`t even worship God and we are just a sect fallen off from the Johovas Witnesse... that really got me going. So we started throwing out scripture after scripture clearing his doubts. He explained that that`s why he wanted to investigate more so that he could learn how to be able to defend himself before he got baptized. We explained that he needed the gift of the holy ghost to be able to really learn and understand the "meat" of the gospel; that waiting wasn`t going to help, but actually make things worse. More time waiting would just put more doubts in his head and block out the feelings of his heart. When God talks to us we can`t wait to act.. if we do the impressions will leave. We explained how he should think about his future. Earlier he had explained his desire to be a missionary someday and how cool it would be, so we starting talking about the blessing of a mission. How sweet it is and how it chnages lives. We explained that all these blessings could be his if he just decided to act and claim them. That he wasn`t a boy anymore and that he needed to start preparing himself for the rest of his life, and the church is the way to do it and a mission makes and shapes you into the man God wants you to be.
He accepted, still with a few worries, but he accepted. We baptized him later that day with his mom there at the service. After the baptism when he was changing we asked him how he felt and he said with a huge smile "incredibley happy!" My comp asked on a scale of 1-10? and he said "9.5... ok maybe 10 but I just don`t want to accept/admit it!" haha. After the baptism he hugged his mom and they both cried for a good 4 minutes just hugging, it was awesome. He was confirmeed yesterday in church and the immediate change in him was awesome. He made comments in Priesthood meeting that made everyone speechless! He was so excited after church and just kept saying "you guys were right about everything" "I'm on cloud 9 right now I can`t even explain it!" Then later that day Elder Rivas from the 70 had a little meeting for the district to talk about the upcoming temple, so we took Pedro along. The meeting was awesome and Pedro said after "I`m completely absolutely convinced" with a huge smile "I had no reason to wait, I was just wasting time!" In the course of 24 hours he went from being shy, timid, and unsure about things, hesitant to leave behind 20 years of Catholic tradition and beliefs, to energetic, excited, and as happy as I've even seen anybody. Willing to do anything asked of him. I can`t wait til he serves a mission! I almost gaurentee he will. So yeah it was a good experience!
Sounds like everything is going well at home! Sounds like the weather is starting to calm down. It`s been so hot this week it`s a joke. Where I live is like 98 percent catholic... its insane. This week is holy week so there are a bunch of parade-type things that they do in the street. It's pretty much just a huge group walking around carrying a crucified Christ singing a weird song.... It makes me want to kick a dog every time I see it. haha. I can`t believe I'll be calling home soon! weird! The last phone call. Today I have 17 months in the mission. whaaaat?! Well have a good week everyone, love you all thanks for eveyrthing you do! talk to ya later.
Cuidense mucho.
April 25th:
Hey Fam,
How´s everyone doing? Sounds like you all had a good Easter, I´m glad! Here in El Salvador, and I'm pretty sure anywhere else where Catholicism is big, the whole week is important. "Holy Week". Pretty interesting.... haha. During the whole week they do something called "vía crucis" where there is a whole big parade of people following a crucified Christ while singing some sort of weird hymn and having the pastor praying. I had to go right through the middle of one of those to get to where I was trying to go and all of the sudden everyone knelt down to do some sort of prayer, and me and my comp were the only ones left standing... in the middle of a group of like 200 people.. going the opposite direction. haha it was awkward to say the least. And then some guy was in my way so I said excuse me and tried to get through and he just looked up at me and said "you´d be better off staying" in the most condescending, cocky way. I almost hit him in the face. haha the Catholic church.. bless their hearts. But yeah and then on Friday they do these huge paintings in the roads. And then Saturday on my street past a huge group of dressed up Roman soldiers with a man leading the group screaming "Wanted! Jesus of Nazarth!" and then the whole group chants "Wanted! wanted!".... haha I tried to get video but my camera was dead.
Somebody asked me the other day why we don´t wear the cross in our religion. And I pretty much just answered him by asking why they focus so much on the death and crucifixion of Christ when he was resurrected and that´s what we should be focusing on. That´s a big difference in our religion. It seems like they focus and worship a dead God and Christ, when we worship a living God and Christ. Anyways that shut him up real quick :) haha. But yeah other than that it was pretty good week. We have changes on Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure that me and my comp will just stay together being that I just got here a month ago.
So guess what? I know who my new mission president is. His name is David Glazier!! GRINGO! Haha I'm not sure where he is from but the president just sent us all an email saying that he is going to be the new mission president. His wife is named Beverly. So yeah, he´ll be coming at the end of June. Look him up for me and give me a little background on him!
This week it rained a couple times super hard, so it looks like we are finally entering winter here! I love the rain, except that´s when all the bugs come out. There´s a bug called a sonpopo that is a GIANT ant with wings. You´d love it haha. But yeah other than that the rain is good, is cools everything down. Well this week we will be getting the new areas of La Libertad, which is a big part of the country. Hopefully I'll get the chance to head over there before I finish! We´ll see though. Everything is going well with my companion and all of that. We have been making some killer breakfasts lately. There is a dish called Baleadas in Honduras that is the main dish, like Pupusas here. They're pretty much like breakfast burritos if you ask me haha, but my companion will swear to the death that it´s not. Well have a good week everyone thanks for all your support! love you all.
Nick
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
