1 more year to go! Monday November 22nd

Nick and Elder Alviso before transfers

Dear Fam,

I HAVE A NEW SISTER?! haha call me an idiot but I kinda freaked out when I read that. Who knows you could have adopted somebody or something, I wouldn´t put it past you guys! Alright I´ll admit Sophie is pretty dang cute... but I'm getting pretty mad that I keep missing out on pretty major things AKA Reese... now a new puppy! So is she going to grow a lot more or is that pretty much it? she´s tiny!

Well this week has been pretty interesting with my companion. Last monday night I had a long chat with him about the mission and about his challenges and we finally came to the conclusion that he should just call president and talk to him. So he called and pretty much just told him that he simply does not want to be here and the mission is ruining his love for the church and if he stays here he is just going to go inactive when he goes back. So President called his stake president, who then called him. His stake president told him to wait it out a week, work as hard as he can, study, pray, and if he still feels the same way at the end of the week then he can go home. So I´ve been working like a donkey this week trying to animate him and we even found a sweet family that I'm almost possitive we will baptize the first week of December. But even with all of that, He started packing his stuff Friday night... there´s no stoppin him. So I guess it's just a matter of when he goes home now. I don´t want to push him to hard or try and convince him to stay more than I already have because you shouldn't force anybody to be on a mission, that's why it's called service. If you don't love the people and what you're doing you're not going to have baptisms, let alone converts. So yeah that´s all the drama that is going on right now, so I very well might have a new companion by next week.

But on a good note, that family that we found is waaay sweet and they went to an activity at the church on Saturday and then to church on Sunday. There are 6 of them. So we´ll be working with them real hard the next couple of weeks. So supposedly Elder Alviso is now in my old area in San Miguel! sweet huh? So I told him to take care of my converts.

Well sounds like Thanksgiving is going to be pretty sweet at Uncle Mark's house! I can´t believe that it snowed so much already that´s so sweet, when I heard that I about died ahhhh snowboarding!!!!! Haha send me some sweet video at least. Sounds like Harry Potter was pretty sweet, at what point did it stop? It willl be sweet to be able to watch the two movies at once when I get back, (I planned it that way).

Hey, Brother Cefalo sent me a letter saying that they will be sending the ward news letter to us by email now and that he wanted me to tell you if I got it or not...so.. I got it! Haha well guys have a good week love you all, I'm sad I can´t be there for thanksgiving but I'm greatful for you guys....a lot! Eat until you die!

Last Two emails- November 8th and 15th

November 8th-

Hey guys,

Well the change Is officially done, and it´ll be interesting to see what happens on Wednesday! To tell you the truth im pretty sure that my companion will leave, just because President Perez doesn´t want to do any changes right before Christmas, so if we don´t split up this change that would mean we are together for 3 changes! It´s unheard of to have two gringos together that long, so yeah im not counting on it. But it would be sweet! This change has been super fast it´s crazy. Next Thursday I complete a year!! unreal. Well this week has been pretty good for us. This sisters had a baptism so I had to do an interview for that which was a really good one, one of my favorites. He asked me to baptize him so I was able to do that which is always fun. This guy is crazy smart, supposedly after like the first lesson when the sisters went back he said, "so I´ve been doing some studying, and am I wrong in thinking that we can become Gods?" haha pretty sweet. Anyways I´ll try and send you a pic of that. Also we have a baptism date! This Saturday Bonny is going to get baptized. She has been wanting to do it for a while along with the guy she lives with but he just did not want to get married. We tried and tried forever but he just wouldn´t do it for some reason. Anyways last week we went over there and find out that he left her in the middle of the night. They have a 3 year old together and he just bounced! Way sad. Said he just doesn´t love her anymore blah blah blah. ANYWAYS she told us that she had a dream that her and her son were in a huge building walking up some stairs, and the whole building was completely white and they felt super calm and peaceful and happy. Temple anyone? haha and we had just had a little lesson on temples a little bit back and I told her that is exactly how a temple is. Anyways long story short she is getting baptized Saturday!

Other than that everythign is good here. It has been sooooo cold in the morning and at night lately it´s a joke. Supposedly it is just a weird cold front that has come through and should stop soon but in the mean time I am dying and have never wanted a warm shower more than I do now haha. I was actually very close to boiling some water the other day. Desperate times call for desperate measures! That´s sweet that you guys got a letter from Nate, he´s making me look bad! haha I´ll tell him I know he´s just sucking up to get a package. Speaking of packages Mom for the Christmas package the other day I had the biggest craving for trail mix... throw a bag of those in there for me!

That´s devistating that Utah got blown out like that.... I almost cried. Oh well as long as we beat BYU, it will ease my pain. Well love you guys thanks for all your support. Im gonna go get my soccer on now. Talk to ya next week!!

November 15th-

Hey guys,

Well this has been a pretty crazy week, the mission has changed a lot. Pretty much everybody in the whole mission had changes because the President doesn´t want to do any changes right before Christmas. Two zones in the mission got shut down, so along with four zone leaders. The zones are now a lot bigger and there are fewer district leaders and bigger districts. Alot of people got dropped from being district leader, but for some reason papí Perez saw it fit to keep me in there. I now have 6 other elders in my district. Also president started a new rule that the zone leaders have to have a district leader as well give their numbers to and all of that, and so I'm the zone leaders district leader.

Well my companion ended up having changes unfortunately, but he actually got sent to my old area in Roosevelt San Miguel so that´s kinda cool! My new companion is Elder Rojas from Honduras. He´s 26 years old, absolutely hates El Salvador, the people, the food, their culture, and thinks that everything in honduras is so much better. And I'm for sure going to be with him for three months. Haha I knew that my last change was to good to last. But oh well we got along fine personally, it's just wearing to here him complain all the time and treat the people so rudely. Other than that everything is fine here, just working and trying to find people.

I got my humpday package and can´t wait to open it Thursday!!! I can´t believe that I have reached a year, I never thought that it would come. I feel like the exact same person I was when I first got here, so it´s weird to think that I am actually half way done! I used to look at the people with a year in the mission as so experienced and pretty much all the way done, haha now that I´m there it´s seems kind of silly. So are you guys all getting ready for Thanksgiving?! I can´t tell you how good mashed potatoes and gravy with some stuffing and turkey sounds. Im drooling Homer Simpson style right now. So I'm glad that everything went well your surgery Mom, that would have been torture to have to wait until the next month. Sounds like everybody else had a pretty busy week!

I heard a really funny spanish version of i saw mommy kissing santa claus the other day haha Im definitely buying it when i get back. Man I can´t believe that guys like Nate Naegle will be coming home soon.... time is such a blur. Well guys thanks for everything that you do, I think about and miss you all the time. Have a good week!

Two weeks of catch up! Oct 25th and Nov 1st

School Service Project with Elders and Sisters

Nick, pretending he's golfing!

Elisa's baptism, she's so tiny!

November 1st:

Hey fam,
Well happy halloween! Sounds like nothing too excited went on back home, just baseball and football... not that I would want to watch that or anything..haha :) but the two teams that I wanted to win won so that´s good. This week has been pretty good, we had the Multi Zone meeting on Tuesday and every elder that was with me in the MTC was at the meeting so that was way sweet to see all of them. Nobody has gone home so that's a good thing! haha. It was a good meeting though we learned a lot, I always love hearing from President Perez. We went and did service at that school again and finished up painting, which takes about two hours to paint one wall with all the kids swarming you the whole time! This change is almost done there is only one more week its crazy! I think this has definitely been the fastest change of my mission. Hopefully my comp and I will stay together, but we´ll see what happens. We got to baptize an 88 year old women on Saturday, I'll send you a pic you´ll love it. Her name is Elisa. 

I had to teach the combined priesthood/relief society meeting yesterday at church so that was a blast... haha it went well though. It´s been perfect weather here lately, I'm not sure the temperature but its not too hot and there's always a nice cool breeze. Almost feels like Hawaii!  So you guys are gonna put down Rosco huh... gosh that´s sad. I´ve had that dog since I was 5!! and the boys their whole lives. We´ve had him longer than Adam and Justin haha. But clearly he needs it, sounds like he has been doing pretty bad lately.
 

I had no idea that Kelly and Leesa went to Guatemala?! Freak they should have come visited me!! Did they say they liked it? It's a lot like here actually I hear, but cooler stuff to see. How do they get around when they are there? Do they have a translator or what? Was it just those two who went? Well guys love you hope you all have a good week. Mom, Dad, if the boys get out of line (or Brooke for that matter) just read them Proverbs 23 verse 13 and 14.  :)
love Nick

October 25th:

Hey guys, Well this change has gone by incredibly fast so far, there are only a couple more weeks until changes! This week has been pretty good, super super busy! Some of us from the zone went to a school by my house to do some service painting and teaching a few classes about the strength for youth pamphlet, mainly just about accountability and responsibility and agency... stuff like that. They loved it though, just the fact that there were like 6 Americans there made them go nuts. I can´t tell you how many times I heard the phrase "how do you say this in English?!" And "are you a gringo?" haha it was fun though. Also that one investigador of the sister that I have been helping did decide to get baptised but then satan just kicked him in the face and put doubts in his mind about tithing. So me and my zone leader went over there and had a sweet lesson with him and re-interviewed him, and he passed! Then Satan just didn´t want to give up so he called me Friday night (the night before his baptism) and said that he was super sick and didn´t think he was going to be able to make it. They have been working with this guy for like 6 months so it was like alright if we wait any longer something is going to happen and he is never going to get baptised. So then next morning I went over there and talked to him and gave him a blessing. After the blessing his attitude totally changed and he said that he would do whatever it takes to be there even though he felt so sick. So he got baptized! Really sweet. I´ll send you some pics from that as well. Let´s see what else is going on here.... nope still haven´t found a cook but oh well, I´ve pretty much just given up haha. The couple who needed to get married had a big fight Saturday, so yeah that has taken us back a bit... I seem to be able to convince everybody to get baptized besides my OWN investigadors haha.

Sorry that you have to get surgery mom that stinks, but hopefully that will help it and you can get back to normal fast. Gosh what´s up with all the sad stuff going on, haha poor Rosco that makes me sad to think about ... you guys will have to keep me filled in on what you decide.  Well guys everything is good here, I can´t believe I'll be coming up on my year mark soon... me and Alviso already have big plans to celebrate haha. Time flies it really does. I hope you all have a good week love you all.

11 months In! Monday October 18, 2010

Nick's new comp Elder Alviso

Getting creative with his camera

Nick teaching English to the people of El Salvador

Happy 20th Birthday!!!! He made a birthday cake from a mix we sent him

Celebrating his Birthday with his district

Dear faaaaam,

hey guys! Well today I have 11 months in the mission... sweeeet! time has been flying lately, seriously its nuts. I dont know what´s going on. This week has been a good one, we got a young couple to come to church for there second time but they aren´t married (like the whole country of El Salvador) so we are working on marrying them and getting them baptized. Hopefully it all works out! I had a way cool experience helping the sisters with an investigator they have had for a super long time, and ended up commiting him to baptism. I don´t know what it was but the lesson was so sweet and he just out of the blue said " alright I'm getting baptised Saturday, I just barely made my decision."

Mom, Im in zone San Salvador, and yeah my first area was Lyco. That´s cool that you guys went to Elder Twitchell´s homecoming! I never met him but he seems nice. What was the name of that other elder that was in his ward? Anyways my area is pretty cool like I said it´s pretty, surrounded by mountains, and poor like always. We haven't found a cook yet and I haaaate it! Haha I have just been having a ton of top ramen for dinner, but for the first time I actually cooked yesterday! haha you ready? Take notes if you want....

step 1: you take a tortilla ( be careful not to burn it)

step 2: scramble 3 eggs (do NOT let any egg shells fall into the mix).

step 3: heat up pre made beans ( refer to advice on step number 1)

step 4: put it all into the tortilla and throw on some cilantro if you want to make it look fancy.

yeaaaah I´ve picked up a skill or two in the mission.

It´s been pretty fun being able to train, I'm enjoying it. The only thing I dont like is that I feel like little things about my spanish are worse and it bugs me, oh well I guess that´s what I get for having to speak English all the time. So ever since I´ve been here, me and the sisters have been giving free English classes for anybody that wants to come so that's been really fun, and we´ve gotten a few contacts out of it, so that's always good. I was also able to make my cake in the church on Thursday and it was gooooood. I´ll have to send a pic with it. Sounds like your trip was successful mom, I´m glad!

So like I said to Josh, my companion has just been telling me about a ton of movies that have been coming out while I have been gone haha, gosh it´s been killing me. A new robin hood came out?! I love robin hood. Man doesn´t Nate Naegle come home soon? That's so sweet, I'm sure his fam is way excited. Thanks for those pictures you sent mom, the backyard looks so pretty and New York looks awesome. Well guys don´t have a lot of time this week so I´ll cut it off, but thanks for everything you do. Love you all have a great week.

Nick

The Sweet Life! October 11, 2010

All the Gringo Elder's and Sisters watching Conference

Hey guys!

Well this week has been pretty good, a little stressful, but good nonetheless. I really like my area a lot and the fact that I have an American companion is soooooo sweet. I´m loving it, I feel like ever since I have had him as a companion I have just been on divisions this whole time haha, so that´s a bit of a challenge to get the frame of mind that he's really my companion. But it´s a good time for sure, I can´t remember if I really told you much but he´s from California, close to Fresno. He´s going to turn twenty in November and he´s been a member his whole life. The weirdest thing about having a new American companion is that I'm the only one that speaks Spanish! Haha it has totally reminded me of my first couple of weeks here, barely understanding anything. It´s so weird how time flies, it seems like just yesterday I was in that same boat. But lucky for him, if he doesn´t understand something he just looks at me and I tell him in English haha. In fact the other day he was trying to say something but instead said a realllly bad word so I enjoyed that along with everybody else.

Well my ward is pretty sweet I like my bishop a lot. It´s a little weird sharing the ward with the sister missionaries but fun at the same time. The average attendance is about 130 people which is better than my last ward, but the church is alot smaller. Well what else can I tell you.. it terms of investigadors the last missionaries who were here didn´t leave with pretty much anything so we are just knocking doors alot and asking for referances from the members.

So my birthday was pretty sweet, looooooved the package, and yes I did get the one from Elder Twitchell´s mom last Monday. Gosh I love seeing video, it´s my favorite thing. Looks like Hawaii was awesome like always, I can´t wait to go back!!! It was awesome to see that Yellowstone trip as well, and of course almost the best part is always just seeing the stuff around the house. Brooke thanks for those vids of just driving around that was sweet to see, it hasn´t changed a bit, which is a good thing! Gosh seeing the golf course just about killllled me haha. Those rice kripsy treats tasted sooo good too. I haven´t be able to make the cake yet just because finding an oven hear is pretty tough, but there is one in the church so I'm going to try and make it this Thursday when we have a zone meeting there. That birthday card was pretty sweet haha, and hearing the Star Wars theme song got my adrenaline going as weird as that sounds!

So mom I really hope that thing in Phili helps, and hope you enjoy a little New York action (remember when you said you would take me there when I was 16?) :) Im sorry that you messed up your knee again! Gosh I hope you don´t have to get surgery or anything like that... maybe a little New York broadway is all you need haha. K what happened with Grandma´s leg nobody ever told me about that... fill me in!

Well love you all thanks for all the support, say hi to the ward and thank them for everything they do. Wish me luck for finding a cook this week, because as of right now we don´t have one and it is nooot fun. haha well love you all talk to ya next week!

Salú!

New Area!!!! October 4, 2010

Hey Fam,

Well as you already know I had changes, I have been sent to zone San Salvador! My area is actually pretty sweet; it´s called Colonial and it is pretty much a huge valley surrounded by huge mountains like a big bowl. I feel like I live in a crater or an old volcanoe or something haha its really cool and pretty. Soooo about my companion... Im training! President perez called me the night before changes and said that I would be training and that I had to be in Lyco at 8:30 in the morning.. so that means I had to wake up at 3:30 in the freakin morning, walk out in the rain with all my bags to try and find a taxi to take me to the bus terminals to San Salvador. haha needless to say I have been pretty dead this week. So we got there and I saw a bunch of buddies and got to hang out for a while while we waited for the newbies to get there. We had a short meeting with president where he just pretty much explained how important and big a job it is to train and how we are setting the pace for our companions for the rest of their missions. Well I was pretty nervous to see who my companion was going to be. All the trainers were on one side of the room and all the newbs on the other, and president would just call the trainers name and the area was he was going to be in followed by his "hijo" or brand new companion. So it turns out I am training a GRINGO from California!!!! His name is Elder Alviso. His great grandparents are from mexico but he doesn´t speak a word. I couldn´t believe it! I never thought I would even have a gringo companion let alone train one, so im pretty excited. He´s a cool kid we get along really well! Also Elder Montoya (my trainer) is in the same zone so that´s way sweet. I am also the District leader over Elder Ramsey who was in my district in the MTC, as well as two sister missionaries who are ALSO both from the states, Colorado and Utah haha! So out of the six that are in my district only one of them is Latin, Elder Ramseys companion! It´s pretty crazy, I can just about do my district meetings in English if it wasn´t for that one elder haha, except I doubt I would even be able to talk about missionary stuff in English without sounding like a huge idiot.

Well that´s the big news for me here, just been getting used to my new area. It´s been pretty hard since my comp is brand new because neither one of us knows the area at all, so we´ve been doing is walking around blind relying on help from members and things like that. Opening an area is tough! But im excited it´ll be good.

Well confernce was pretty sweet eh? I did get to watch it in English with all the Americans in my zone so that was good. My favorite talk, like dad, was definitely by Elder Uchdorf about pride, that guy is a stud. Brooke and Mom definitely need to read it when the Ensign comes (not that you are prideful, just cause you werent at priesthood conference haha)!

Well sounds like the funeral was amazing. I can´t tell you guys how much I wish I could have been there, but I can´t wait to listen to the disc of it. Sounds like it was super emotional, but everybody was strong. Im way proud of grandma and the way that she has handled it all, pretty impressive. The pictures that you guys sent are awesome, thanks for sending them.

Well tomorrow I´ll be 20.... freak. Haha man time goes by fast I'm coming up on a year! I did get the package that you sent and I'm soooooo stoked to open it tomorrow. That will definitely be the highlight of the day! Thanks for all your birthday wishes, isn´t it kind of weird that none of you will even know me as a 20 year old? So a couple days ago there was a small earthquake here! Well I guess you can't really call it an earthquake, but it was definitely a good shake for about 3 or 4 seconds. I thought it was going to start up big again and my heart was racing pretty fast afterwards, haha and the funny thing is my comp had just asked me if I had been in any earthquakes here yet. Well I love you thanks for all your love and support it means everything. Talk to ya next week!!

love nick

Waterfall! September 20, 2010

Zone Pday activity-Waterfall Hike!

All the Gringo Elders singing the National Anthem!

Hey guys,

Sorry that i am late writing this week, we all went to a waterfall as a zone this morning! It was pretty sweet, although the water was pretty gross haha. Oh well it´s not like I could have swam anyways. But yeah this week has been pretty normal, just enjoying my last little bit here in San Miguel. It really will be pretty sad to leave, I have gotten to know a lot of people that I´ve grown really close to and care about so yeah when it comes down to it, it will be tough to leave. I´m getting nervous as to where I'll be sent! I´m almost positive that it will be in the city. My buddy who was my zone leader in Lyco is now assistant and came to the zone last week to do divisions with everybody and I got to be with him for about half a day so that was really fun! I told him that he has to take care of me and send me to a sweet area with a good companion haha. He told me he´ll do his best.

Sounds like you guys have had a pretty crazy week, I'm really sorry to hear about grandpa... poor guy. Tell him I love him and that I hope everything works out well. I can´t believe he broke his femur!! That´s incredible that an 87 year old man had to have surgery and is doing well... I'm sure with the help of a lot of prayers. So have they told you guys that he´ll have to be in a wheelchair for a while or what´s going to happen with that? I can´t imagine how stressed out Grandma must be with all of this... how´s her back doing? I will definitely keep both of them in prayers!

Gosh it sooo weird that people in my grade are getting married.... i feel like I'm still 12. And probably still act like it haha! Me and Nate were saying that we´re not getting married for at least a while haha, so remind me about that promise when I get home. I can´t believe that I'm coming up on a year.... it kinda scares me that I'm almost half way done! I still have a ton to learn. I always looked at return missionaries like brilliant accomplished adults with their lives set haha. I've got a long ways to go to get to that point! But I have learned and grown an insane amount in the last 10 short months and know it´ll just keep getting better. Thanks for all your love and support I miss and love you all!

Love Nick