I Got a New Puppy!

Hola!  Como están todos por aya? 

 

Haha I am doing very well.  This week has been a good week.  It was a little slow, but we have seen the miracles!

So on Sunday we learned that the father of one of the families we are teaching is going to Spain for 6 months.  So we are going to see what happens with them, but I think we are going to keep teaching them and see if they will progress more.  

Also this week we had the blessing of finding 4 new investigators to teach.  So a member from out of town came to our ward and told us that he wanted us to pass by and try and teach his family.  He gave us their names and directions and told us that he wanted them to learn about the gospel.  When we passed by for his sister she told us that she had been waiting for some missionaries who her brother was going to send, to which we replied saying that it's us!  We scheduled an appointment to pass by a few days later.  When we passed by she was waiting for us outside, and she had her brother there too. He told us that he wanted to listen too.  So we went in and sat down and started to share The Restoration, when their other brother walked in and decided to listen too. We shared about the prophets, and how they always helped the people, about Christ organizing his church and giving power and authority to his apostles, and then we shared about Jose Smith.  We explained how he saw God and Jesus, and how he received the Priesthood.  At the end they looked at me and said, "So what your saying is that Jose Smith has the same power as the apostles had to teach and heal sickness, and all that stuff".  I have never had anyone make that connection as fast as they did.  We then explained about the Book of Mormon, and each of them started saying "I want one of those, I want to read it" and at the end each of them were saying that they had never heard anything like this before, and that they were very interested.  So we set up 2 more appointments, and that's when the Hermana said that she wanted us to teach her 2 sons as well. So we went and taught her sons.  The next day when we saw her in the street she told us that she had been reading the Book of Mormon, and that she had a lot of questions for us about Nefi (Nephi)  so we are going to see how it goes!

The house where we live is a department behind another house,  and the owners got a new puppy!  I want to eat it!  Haha it's so cute, but it bites hard.  But that's pretty much my cool story of the week!

Also I have had several people ask me for help with English, and let's just say... it's hard to remember!  Haha but that's what I wanted, to forget Ingles, and learn Español!

 

The people Nate lives behind have a new puppy.

Lots of Appointments and Progress

¡Hola! ¿como están esta semana?

 

So this week was a really good week for us. We worked hard, and we got a lot done. So Monday we had a lesson with a kid in the house of a member.  He is a friend of the member's son and he likes to listen to us.  The other day we got to know his parents a little and they were nice,  which usually doesn't happen.  The kid's name is Felipe.  We taught him the restoration, watching the video about the first vision.  It's funny because I can almost quote the entire video.  But when those are the only videos that we can watch that's what we do.

On Monday for the first time in a couple of weeks I actually did something for my p-day.  We went to the church and played ping pong.  Haha it was good for a change to actually do something instead of stay in the house not doing anything.

On Tuesday we were able to have 2 lessons with members.  That was really good. The first one was a family home evening with a member and her cousin also her ex-boyfriend was there, so we were able to teach all of them.

On Wednesday we had more than 6 lessons.  We went from one house to the next practically running to get there in a reasonable time.  Of course we were a little late to about every lesson, but we're missionaries, we are always late.  

Fresia an investigator that we have that has been waiting to get baptized for 7 years told us this week that the divorce papers of her husband aren't going through very well, and so she is going to have to wait even more time.  The other problem is that her husband is getting sicker and sicker, and weaker and weaker.  So she is in a difficult decision.

Then on Sunday we were blessed to have 3 investigators in church.  Fresia, and then a less active member came with his family who aren't members.  We have been teaching them for some time now, but the father of the family told us that he is now going to go to Spain for 6 months!  He is going for work purposes, so we are going to see if we are still going to be able to share with them or not.  I hope so, because they are finally starting to progress.

It's getting so cold here!  My hands hurt from typing in the cold haha, but other than that things are going good.  I love you and miss you all!!!

Nate and Elder Stepz

 

Special Change or New Companion for all you Gringos

So this week was a pretty good week!

 

On Monday we had a family home evening as a ward, and it was really good. The bishop taught a lesson, and then we were in charge of the games.  What we had planned didn't work out because people kept taking the stuff that we needed to do our games, and the games that we thought about doing were more for adults, and pretty much the primary were the ones who played.  Have you ever tried to control 20 little children at a time trying to explain how it works.  Ya it's difficult...  but it was still really fun.  

Then on Tuesday we had another family home evening with an investigator, a kid named Felipe.  He is really mature for his age, but it is good, and he understands a lot.

Haha this week Elder Arenas and I prayed a lot for the opportunity to find new people to teach,  in 2 days we found 6 new people.  The only problem was, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WERE MEMBERS, LESS ACTIVES...  I think we need to be more specific in our prayers.

Other big news that happened this week.  Thursday night we get a call,  Special Changes.  Elder Arenas got changed.  So now I have a new companion!  His name is Elder Stzep.  It's really hard to pronounce his name.  It's neither gringo nor spanish...  he is from Guatamala, and the only thing he knows about where his name comes from is that it might come from the Mayans. But he only has 4 months in the mission, and he got here on Friday, just in time for the other ward activity.  It was an activity of food, where everyone brought a different type of food, and we were the judges of which was the best.  It was a very good activity for us haha.  But ya, Elder Stzep and I get along well.  We work well together too.  What else is new?

Then on Sunday we had our ward conference, and I had to play even more songs on the piano because there was a choir that did some special numbers.  I also had to make up an easier part to play for one of the songs, but in the end, everything went really good.  The theme for our conference was the third article of faith, with the statement, "If it's difficult, you know your in the right direction"  but it was really good, and I learned a lot.

Other than that nothing much is new.  Changes are next week, so we will see if I am still in this ward or not next Monday.

Love you and miss you all tons!

 

Nate and Elder Arenas

 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

¡Halo! (That is what we shout to have people come to the door)

 

So this week was fun.  Remember Monday when it was raining a lot.  Well, we got back to the house and decided to sleep, what better thing to do on a rainy day.  But around 5 (we still have an hour to sleep), we get a phone call asking if we can go help a part member family because there is water leaking from the roof, and I'm the smallest one, so I'm perfect to get on the roof.  So we changed and went to help. As we left our house and walked to the main street we saw that it was flooded.  No joke it looked like a river.  There was no way to get out without going through the water.  So that's what we had to do.  The water was so deep that we couldn't see the curb of the side walk, and water entered a lot of people's houses.  After that I had to climb the roof, while it was raining, and try to clean it off and see what was wrong.  By the end I was soaked.

Wednesday I had an interchange and went to work in a different ward. It was pretty good.  Also they live 4 elders there in a new apartment.  Living with 4 elders is a lot more fun than 2.

We are going to have a lot of ward activities this week, so next week's letter should be pretty good!

But I love you and miss you all tons!!

 

[This is Nate's redneck fix of the bathroom sink].

 

 

Sleeping in Stake Conference?

Hola!  How is it going?

So this week was a little slow on the teaching side of things.  We have had a lot of appointments fail, but on the bright side the members have started giving us more referencias to contact, so we are trying to find more people to teach.

This week we had interviews with president.  We had to be there at 12:30, and we didn't leave until 7:30.  The zone leaders planned it a little bad haha, but that's ok that's what repentance is for.

Right now the weather here has gotten really cold, and today and tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day.  Thus far that has proven correctly, but that just means more mud and puddles for us.

I had my first stake conference on Sunday.  It was really good! But we sat on the very front row, and so the stake president could see me,  and I was trying really hard not to fall asleep haha!

Other than that things are pretty much the same.  Not much else interesting happened this week. What a short letter.

 

But I love you and miss you all tons!!!

Priesthood Blessing

Hola todos!

 

I am doing very good!  This week was a little slow, but it was still a very good week. 

This week we had the opportunity to teach some friends of Margarita.  It's very interesting to see how the gospel can mean something to all kinds of persons.  That even to some of the most unlikely people, they have some of the most interest in the gospel.

Saturday we had a pretty fun experience.  We had an appointment with Nancy at 6, but we felt like we should go a little bit early.  We got there and asked how she was and were in the middle of singing the opening hymn, when I noticed a flash of light outside, followed by more and more.  Then the thunder started.  Out of nowhere it started to pour, and the streets flooded,  then it started to hail! Not for very long but still if we would have not gone early to the appointment we would have been soaked and who knows what else.  

Also on Sunday we did splits with some of the members, and it ended up that I went to teach a lesson we had.  It was a really good lesson and at the end the grandma of the family asked us for a blessing. I jokingly asked if the member wanted to do it and he told me that he was just here for support, so I asked for her full name, and right before I put my hands on her head to give her the blessing I found myself asking her who she wanted to give the blessing.  She pointed to the member and said him. He gave the blessing, and after when we left he told me that he had never felt the spirit in that way.  He wanted to bless her with the ability to walk and to feel better, but he told me that the words didn't come that way.  That the only thing that he could say is that she should have peace and comfort.  The spirit wouldn't let him give a blessing that wasn't for her.  It was a very powerful experience for the member and for me.

But I'm out of time.  I love you and miss you all tons!!

Investigator Updates

¡Hola!  

 

So this week Nancy was confirmed!!!!  She is officially a member of the Church.  It was very exciting for her, and now we get to teach her cooler stuff. 

Other than that not much happened this week.  We had to go to the doctor 3 times again which wastes time and money, but we have to do what we need to do so my companion is in good health.  I think we are done going for about a month now so that's good.

So I think I have told you guys about Margarita.  She is an investigator that has a lot of problems. One day she got in a fight with one of her neighbors.  A couple days later we were talking with her neighbor trying to share with her too.  It's pretty funny how things work.  But anyway this week we taught Margarita about the Word of Wisdom, and the 5 things that we can't consume:  alcohol, tea, coffee, illegal drugs, and tobacco.  After talking a lot about each one and how it is bad for us, I asked at the end if she had any problems with these things (knowing that she does, but asking the question helps us to know if they are really serious about repenting or not) and she replied,  "I think I have a problem with every single one".  Let's just say that she is very honest with us, but that is the best way to be able to teach people because that is how we know how to help them.  When we taught her the Word of Wisdom, we weren't planning on teaching her that, but it is what the spirit told us to teach. Something else that she said that was really cool was, "by learning all of this I am condemning myself". It sounds tough to say that, but what that means is that she understands that the things we are teaching are not a game, but that these things are real, and that we are trying to help her.

Also our investigator that tried to commit suicide twice, decided that he is going to get help.  I think that is for the best.

We are still waiting for the divorce papers for Luis so Fresia can get baptized.  Six years is a long time to wait to get baptized...

Pedro and Andrea got married, so now we just have to help Andrea to recognize the answers to her prayers, and we have to get them to go to church.

Pretty much the big problem that we have is getting our investigators to go to church. The biggest obstacle is getting them out of their warm bed in the morning so that can go, and it's not even like church is that early.  It starts at 10 in the morning.

 

But I think that is all for now.  I loved being able to talk to my family this past Sunday, and now I only have to wait 7 months more for the next call.  You can ask them how my English was haha. [He won't be able to speak to us at all when he gets home!  No he did pretty good except for the lapses into Spanish where we just looked at him and said "what"?]

 

But I love you and miss you all tons!