Playing Catch-up! June 7th-28th

Don't worry, Nick has back-up!

Ana's baptism

Cleaning up the Bishop's house after the storm

Sorry its been awhile since I've posted any of Nick's letters. My Mom and I went on a trip to Paris and Rome, so I'm playing catch-up with Nick's letters. He has been hard at work, and is past the 7 month mark! He is having a little trouble with head-aches and stress, so any prayers you could send his way would be such a help! Thank you all for your love and support.

June 7th-

Well this week has been pretty good. The storm from last week absolutely destroyed a colony where my bishop lives, so on Tuesday our whole zone went and helped with the clean up. I feel bad for him, his family is living in the church right now unitl they can get there house cleaned up. The water went above my head in the storm, i´ll send you a picture of where the water mark is. So im working with a family right now named the Cruz family. They´re pretty awesome. they´re real young with two young daughters. We taught them one time but it was a real powerful lesson, and when we came back the first thing she said to me was, " so i prayed like you asked me too, and i don´t know if was just because i was thinking to myself i was going to feel this way before i prayed, but after i felt super super calm and peaceful.. what do you think that means".. so yeah it was awesome haha one of the more spiritual lessons i´ve had on my mission, it wasn´t a huge deal or anything but for some reason i was way moved. So hopefully they continue to progress and we can baptize them sometime in the near future!
Things are going fine with my companion, we don´t have much in common, but he´s nice and humble so it´s cool.

June 14th-

Well everthing is going pretty well here! Im going to be baptizing a women named Ana on Saturday!! Im not sure if i have already told you about her but she is 45, doesn´t have any family and just works for and lives with a different family. I found her about 3 weeks ago and told me that she was really lonely and sad. We started teaching her and as we kept coming back she said, "ever since you guys have been coming over I have just been so much more happy, and I know that you guys are sent from God because I can feel the difference from when you come and when you leave." She has also said, " I have had a lot of religions come to my house and none of them have been like yours, not even close! I know its true." So that was really cool. She kind of had a fear of baptism and first because she thought that you had to be absolutely perfect after your baptism and thought that she would be in trouble if she wasn´t able to go to church one Sunday or something, but we explained to her that isn´t the case at all. It was pretty cool we gave her a little object lesson with a bottle of water, cool aid, and bleach. We took the bottle of water and said this is what you are like when you are born, perfectly clean. When you get older you start to sin, gradually dirtying your soul (that sounds weird.. sounded better in spanish i promise haha) so then we would poor a little cool aid in until it was way red and asked do you a think a soul like this can live in the presence of God? We then said the bleach was baptism with authority through the atonement. We poured it in and the red magically went back to clear. She loved it! That´s when she accepted her baptism.
Well this Thursday President is doing "surprise interviews" in the actually houses of all the Elders... luckily my boy Aiono hooked me up with the info haha so we´ll be ready.. house spotless!

June 22nd

how´s it goin guys? Well I´m glad to hear Mom and Brooke made it back safe and sound. Sounds like an amazing trip that you´ll never forget. Those pictures are amazing! Maybe one day i´ll get to go there.. but as for now im content with my Salvadoreño homies haha. Well my week has been pretty good, a little stressful, but good. First off, I baptized Ana Matilde Sandoval Hernandez on Thursday. It was awesome! She was way happy and way excited to have friends in the church and to get going with all the relief society stuff haha funny huh. It´s funny that you guys were all worried Saturday, because it realy was one of the most stressful days of my mission. To make a long sotry short, we went to go visit ana to make sure she was going to go to church to be confirmed the next day, because as you know without the confirmation it means absolutely nothing. When we went there, the owner of the house said that she had quit working there all of the sudden, and went to visit her family in a place far away. Our phone isn´t working in our house right now, so i couldn´t call her or anything. So we ran out around literally for 2 and a half hours trying to find somebody to let us use their phone. All of the members we went to weren´t home or didn´t have minutes on their cells. We finally found one and when i called her, her cell phone was turned off!! I was freakin out. So I just left a lengthy message on her answering machine telling her how important it was that she was there on Sunday (i had already told her about 100 times), and just hoped for the best. Well we showed up on Sunday and she was already there ready to be confirmed looking at us like.. "do you really think i wouldn´t show up?" haha. So that was a relief.

Well as you guys already know we had a multi zone conference yesterday and Elder Clark (area 70 president of Central America) was there to speak. It was sooooo sweet! Powerful guy. Really funny too. He was crackin jokes the whole time and often the jokes were directed toward President Perez and his wife haha so of course all us missionaries loved that. He served his mission in Argentina so he talked for a total of 3 hours or so completely in spanish, and the man is around 60 years old so it was pretty impressive! We received a ton of good instruction. And I dont want to say the highlight of the meeting.. ok i´ll be honest it was definitely the highlight of the meeting, was getting the package you guys sent me!!! Soooo awesome. Thank you so much i loved every little thing that was in it. It was amazing to see your guys faces and all of the family. I loved all the videos from the family home evening with all of the Reids it was sooo good to see everyone! I enjoy listening to Nichole haha it was awesome that i could understand someone actually from my family speaking spanish. But yeah it made me super excited to talk with Dad and all of my buddies in spanish when i get home it´s gonna be sweet. Josh is looking way way old and Adam and Justin look older as well. Tell Grandma (both sides) thanks so much for the letters and money i really enjoyed their letters and that im glad they are feeling better. Tell the rest of the family thanks so much for the letters it was soo good to get them it´s comforting to know how many people support me.

First Tropical Storm- May 31, 2010

The River outside his house!

Miguel Rafael Parada Ayala's Baptism

Nick's cook and her family

Hey fam!!
Well this week has been a pretty crazy! As you guys heard, there has been a huge storm here, and that eruption in Guatemala. The eruption hasn´t affected us here, but everybody has been talking about it. My comp has been a little worried about his family, cause I guess he lives semi-close to that volcano, so hopefully everything is alright. So it had been raining pretty much all week long, but not way hard up until Friday. Saturday in the morning the president called my zone leaders and said that a big storm is heading this way and make sure all the missionaries have food in their houses. So we went and bought a bunch of emergency storm supplies (hence the chunk out of my card), and waited to see what was going to happen. Sunday morning I woke up to water dripping on my face from the ceiling! My whole house was pretty much drenched and it had been raining very hard all night long. I looked out into the street and it was literally a river up to about my knees!! My zone leader called me and told me that church had been canceled for everybody, and that we weren´t aloud outside for the whole day. So I spent all day inside bored out of my mind eating canned beans haha.

But other than that it wasn´t really a huge deal,everything is fine today and all the water is pretty much gone. It was so cool to see that much rain though, I never never seen anything like that in my entire life! What´s new about the volcano in Guatemala? I heard it was realllly big.

Well Saturday I had a baptism! His name is Miguel Rafael Parada Ayala and he is 22. We found him a while ago but he had some problems with his work and his girlfriend..so we couldn´t baptise him. But we kept working with him and he actually quit his job and dumped his girlfriend just so he could get baptised! It was so awesome. We have a few other really positive people that I think should end up getting baptised in the next few weeks.
Well Mom and Brooke are you ready to leave?! I still can´t believe you are going to Europe... that´ll be so much fun. I expect plenty of pictures! So you are going to be gone what like 11 days or so? Mom have you been brushing up on your French?

So hopefully I get that package pretty soon because I can´t wait to see all those videos of Reese!!! And all the other good stuff that´s in there. Hey you guys haven´t got the card i sent yet right? hopefully that gets there....
Well Im kind of short on time today but love you all Mom and Brooke be safe on your trip!! Hopefully I get to hear from you guys.
love nick

Changes- May 24, 2010

hey fam!

Well my companion had changes today. My new companion is Elder Pelicó from Guatemala, and has the same amount as my last companion did, practically brand new. He seems to be a real humble guy which is all I wanted really. So im crossing my fingers for this change and im sure it´ll be a good one! It has been a pretty busy week, I have quite a few people that I am teaching right now so that is good. If all goes according to plan should be baptising this guy named Miguel who is 22. We also have quite a few people who are progressing so hopefully we will have a lot of success this change! Im glad that I am still in this area, minus the heat I actually like it quite a bit. I dont think im going to change houses any time soon cause turns out it is a lot tougher to do than i thought. I am going to talk to someone about our electricity bill because it is rediculously higher than it should be... i think somebody is robbing us!

Well sounds like you guys have a craaazy week coming up!! It´s good that everybody is staying busy, that´s always key! So im really excited to get the package that you sent!! It´s going to be awesome to be able to watch all the video im particularly excited for that. I miss those Reid get togethers. Im glad that you guys have been able to spend a lot of time with little Reese! You sent video of her too right? I got Danielle´s letter today but I had already written her one from last week so it is a little out dated.. so tell her I´ll have to write another next week. Speaking of letters.. you guys should be getting something in the mail in the next little while! Im going to be sending off my memory card today! It is the first six months of my mission with some video and stuff included so I think you will all enjoy it. And I reallllly hope it doesn´t get lost haha.

Wow i can´t believe that it snowed .. that´s a joke!! The next time I touch snow will be a good day haha, I can´t even fathom the idea of being cold ever again right now. So Mom you all ready to go on the big trip? Don´t worry about leaving the kids they are all old now, I'm sure nobody is going to throw scissors at anybody.. haha.. who would ever do something like that? not me! Hopefully you guys don´t have any problems with the volcano.. I´ll be sure to pray for ya. Well I gotta go but im glad everybody is doing well, I miss you all a ton and can´t wait to see some video of you all. You filmed it on a different camera this time right? Well love you all wish me luck with my new companion!

love Nick

Birthday Party- May 17, 2010

These Lizards are worth tons of money there (for food)! The Elders "blinged" it out

Birthday party (Nick with Elder Aiono)

Hey fam!

Well my last week of this change.. pretty sweet. This change has gone by pretty fast! the fastest one so far for sure. Nothing too exciting has happened this weekend.. But I went on divisions with my zone leader Elder Aiono the other day which was way fun. We went to a member’s house in my ward because it was their son’s birthday. They had a guitar and wanted us to sing and play something so we played and sang I'm yours by jason mraz ha-ha! Yeah I know it really has nothing to do with the church or a birthday for that matter, but it was the only song that we could both play and sing that we could think of. Anyways that was pretty sweet! Afterwards one of the older sons came up to me and asked, "Do you know who John Schmidt is?" I couldn’t believe it! John Schmidt is actually known by members here in El Salvador! I told him that he goes to the same ward building as me and that my little brother is really good friends with his son, so he thought that was pretty cool. He then showed me something waaaaaaaaay sweet song that John Schmidt and some other guy did. It’s called viva la vida meets love story, LOOK IT UP!! that guys amazing.

Well we’re teaching quite a few people right now so that’s good. It’s possible that we could have a couple baptisms at the end of this month! I’m especially hoping for this Cristobel guy, I’ve got to be real good friends with him he’s awesome. He has been reading the book of Mormon and I know he knows it’s true, and when that happens it’s all down hill from there.

Well I can’t believe Brooke and mom are going to Europe on the fifth!! That’s so sweet.. That’ll be awesome I can’t wait to get some pics. You guys are still going to Hawaii right?

That’s insane the Biss is companions with his cousin.. lucky dog!

So I'm sad I missed the baby blessing, I'm glad Ashley did well though. Holy cow mom sounds like your dang busy with your photography! That’s awesome. Watch out dad before you know it mom’s bank account is going to be out doing yours! ha-ha Well I'm runnin out of time and want to send a few pics so love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love nick

Mother's Day!!! May 4, 2010

All the Gringos that helped translate

Doctor Larson

Volcanoe behind Nick's house

Hey guys!

Well this week was really busy! We had the multi zone on Tuesday, which went pretty well, nothing too exciting. I didn’t really see anybody that I know, but I got to know a lot of Elders that I didn’t before which is always good. Including that Elder Brummond that you know mom! way cool guy. I got the package! LOVED it. Thanks so much I can’t believe you sent me that many CDs I was way excited. That Showtime CD especially is way good I love it. Way good idea with the honey and peanut butter too! I haven’t been able to have anything like that here and it tastes sooo good! Reminds me of home.

So then on Thursday all the gringos in the zone slept over at My zone leaders which way awsome!! I felt super weird not bein in the presence of a latino, haha first time that has happened in like four months. The next morning we got up early do go to that translating thing that I told you about. It wasn’t what we thought it was going to be, instead there were doctors there from the US and Canada giving free eye exams and giving glasses so we translated for that. It was actually way fun and way eye opening (no pun intended ha-ha). Pretty much half of El Salvador is walking around almost blind I swear. I saw some of the biggest cataracts you could ever imagine! I was with this one doctor the whole time ( 8 straight hours) helping him. I referred at least 50 for surgery because their eyes were so bad it couldn’t just be fixed with surgery. But the surgery is free for them, which is way cool. They still are way skeptical about getting surgery so each time I had to pretty much convince them that it was the best thing too do. Man we are way lucky to have good medical care at the moment we need it! It was way sad. I had to tell one lady that she needed surgery and she started crying saying that she can’t see out of one eye at all and the other eye just barely.. she said she is terrified that she is going to go completely blind and not be able to work. I have never felt so bad the whole time here in my mission! So I hope that she gets the surgery and it all works out for her. But yeah I pretty much just did that the whole day and it actually kind of sparked a little interest for me in the field of optometry.. (ophthalmology) what do you think? I think it’s all pretty coo l!

Get this, one of the main guys that were there lives in Layton and knows Mike! Ask him if he knows a doctor Larsen.. I also have a picture with him that I will send.

Well no news about changing houses or anything, I didn’t have time at all to try and make it happen. So maybe next week! So guess what? I went on divisions with Elder Street on Wednesday ha-ha how crazy is that? I never would have thought in the MTC that I would actually be companions with him in the field for a day.

Well guys I'm way excited to talk to you on Sunday it is going to be awesome!! Everybody should write down some questions that you want to ask or things that you want to say so you don’t forget. Talk to you in 6 days! yaaaay!

Love nick

Four Baptisms! April 26, 2010

hey fam!!

well this week was a pretty good week. I actually had four baptisms this past saturday! We had been working with this inactive lady for quite a while and she has three kids that aren´t baptised so we reactivated her and baptised her kids, it was awesome. Then there was another girl that is way way solid that we baptised, she is only 14 but i think knows more than i do. The house of the family we baptised is out in the middle of nowhere, it takes about 30 minutes by bus and then another 30 minutes of walking. Right in front of there house is a big river that we had to cross, haha it was awesome i took some video and a pic that i will send. Well I'm starting to get more used to the area which is nice but the 105 degree weather is still killing me. It should start raining here in a couple weeks so that will be a nice change.

Im not sick anymore so that's good news! We might have to change houses here in a little while because we think somebody is stealing our electricity... our bill was $30 this past much which is RIDICULOUS. It´s usually about $8.. and it´s in a pretty dangerous part of the city, so yeah i want to move haha. We´ll see what happens though cause you have to get direct permission from the president. Well tomorrow we have our multizone meeting which Im pretty excited for! I don´t think I will see many elders that I know, but that´s alright it´ll still be a good time. Supposedly this Friday the Lions Club is coming to El Salvador and a ton of gringos are going to go and translate for them! I'm kinda nervous I'm not sure how well I´ll be able to do it, but oh well it´ll be cool and maybe I´ll get to see some elders that I haven´t seen for a while. Oh yeah i forgot to tell you that I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting, my first talk in spanish! it went pretty well and it was only about 8 minutes so it wasn´t too tough.

Well only two more weeks and I will be talking to you guys on the phone! I can´t believe it. I'm way excited! So supposedly the night before I'm supposed to call you guys and give you the number that you need to call me on for the next day. Well thanks for all your prayers and support I love you all have a great week!

p.s tell Darrel Welling that i know he´ll do an awesome job and that im stoked to have him as my bishop when I get back.

First week in San Miguel- April 19, 2010

hey fam!

Well first week down here in San Miguel. its been pretty crazy! San Miguel is SO hot... like nothing I have ever felt before in my life. I feel like I am in a different country, it is very very different from Lyco. It’s really not very pretty, just really dry and a lot of countryside.. almost like I'm in Kentucky or something! Ha-ha but it’s way weird because it seems like I am sooo isolated from everybody and everything in my area, but then I just have to take a bus 20 minutes and I'm in a city and there is actually a small little mall! Where the zone meets for Pday there is a WENDYS!!!! I couldn’t believe it... I think we are going to eat there today and I can’t even express how excited I am.

We have to take a 30 min. bus to get to our church, so that is also very different from lyco. But I was pretty happy cause we got 6 investigators to come to church which is pretty good! We actually have a lot of people to teach and our area is HUGE. It goes all the way to the beach which is actually about 1 hour or so. But after 5 o’clock we are restricted to only about a third of our area at most... it’s pretty dang dangerous here! I have already seen and heard some crazy stuff. Don’t worry though I'm going to be smart and follow the rules and as long as I do that I can guarantee nothing is going to happen.

Well my cook is really really good! A lot better than my last one. She is not a member so we have to wash our own garments which kinda stinks... but oh well. I feel like I'm living like 70 years ago so that’s pretty cool ha-ha. Her house is seriously like a zoo, she has a chiwawa and a HUGE dog that looks like a bear, two parrots, and like I all ready told you a monkey. The monkey is insane its waaaay strong and aggressive so you can’t really play with it or anything but it’s still cool to watch. Friday and Saturday I actually got really sick. I had diarrhea and was throwing up every half hour.. the worst I have ever been here! I obviously ate something pretty bad. But I'm all good now!

Yesterday we had a huge rain storm which was awesome!! There is a part of our apartment that doesn’t have a roof so I just laid in my hammock listened to the rain with mist blowing in my face, it was reaaal nice! Well I'm sorry to hear that Kim’s Dad died.. sounds like it was pretty tough. Sounds like he was suffering a lot though so I guess it’s a blessing that he finally is released from all of that. Well yeah that’s about it, I'm just plugging a long here takin it one day at a time! I'm sooo excited to talk to you guys here a few short weeks it’s going to be awesome.

Well I’ll write Brooke and mom and dad on their emails so have a good week everybody thanks for all your love and support!!

love nick