Happiest Day Yet!

This week was awesome! Got two baptisms! and found some new investigators who are really awesome! For the baptisms we had scheduled Isabel, but Pedro (The dad of the family we baptized my first week here) wanted to get baptized so we baptized him too. I baptized Pedro and Isabel was baptized by her son Alex. Saturday was my happiest day here. 

We´ve been having trouble finding interested people here, but this last week we found a family and a few others that I think will progress. Also we had 5 investigators come to church on Sunday, I was soo happy. It sucks sitting in the chapel without any investigators there. Super happy to see them walk in. 

Nothing much happened this week, lessons have been good, trying to learn better ways to teach, the language is coming along. I can understand alot, but I can´t just talk about whatever I want to I get frustrated sometimes. 

Right now it´s raining and the thunder is so loud, it shook the building. We had an activity with all the missionaries in the area where we go to a ward that has a lot of less active people and we go visit them. I was miserable. The people lived hecka far away from the church, we walked forever to get to the first house, then wandered around for 30 minutes trying to find the other houses and the entire time my toe was killing and the member we were with kept grabbing my shoulder and asking my how I was, but I was just sweaty and sticky so I wasn´t appreciating him touching my arm. 

Three things I learned this week:  Families are amazing, Baptisms are awesome, and we need to contact ´new´ places in our area. Also a ton of people used the word "viejo" this week.

Ya, that´s about it for this week. Really good week, super happy. Love you all! Abrazos y besos!  

Castle Time

Awesome week! Finally had some success! Lessons rocked, investigators came to church and I´ll probably have my first baptism this Saturday! Weather was nicer this week, but rained quite a bit. 

Things are going all good with my comp (Elder Mañuico), he´s great and pretty patient. It´s a little bit harder with him because he doesn´t know as much English as my old comp,  but we work it out. Really just a normal week. 

Elder Mañuico on a cannon at the Castillo.

"I'm in Heaven!"

 We just got back from the castillo (castle - Castillo San Felipe de Barajas - Click here for Castillo/Castle Info) and it was sweet! 

Traveled through dark dungeons, got lost, sweat to death, had a sweet view of the city, touched a giant colombian flag, got in trouble for touching the giant flag, found pancake mix and syrup! and bought some souveniers! 

Elder Mañuico and I in the Dungeon - teaching!

1. Me in a dungeon.

2- Sitting on a cannon

3- Standing under a giant Colombian flag

5- Me and my comp grabbing the giant flag and some random dude ruining the pic

1- Me and my comp in a giant shoe

2- Me in the shoe

3- Ate out of a cocoa thing, not sure. The little cart said coco helado

This week was much better than the last, we had good lessons, found new, interested investigators and people actually came to church!! It´s super hard for people to progress when they don´t come to church, but we finally got people to come.  The past several weeks, we just haven´t been having much success here. It´s such a bummer because people always say that they want to learn more and be closer to god so we tell them how they can be, but they don´t keep the promises to read or come to church so they can´t progress so we don´t have any success, but this week was much better

Super pumped for the baptism because I´ve been teaching the lady Isabel the entire time I´ve been here and she really wants to get baptized! Excited for this coming week, but ya that´s it, not a whole lot. Love you all! Abrazos y besos!  

Monkey'ing Around in Cartagena

Well I´m finally free! Spent 4 days in the house studying and I was going crazy!

Nathan & Kiki

Nathan & New Companion Elder Mañuico from Peru

We had changes last week and I got a new companion from Peru, his name is Elder Mañuico. Everythings been going great with him. The day of changes I didn´t have a companion so I went around with the zone leader and bought a bunch of stuff for new apartments and ATE SUBWAY! It was heaven!

FHE - All Elder w/ Personal Fans.

Then later that night we had a ton of extra missionaries stay the night and there were two Elder Andersons. One is Marky Mark´s brother and the other is Dub´s friend! Small world! Dub´s friend is living in the house and Mark´s brother went to another area, but crazy! Also heard that the other missionaries that stayed in Provo got their visas and they just got here the other day.

With the comp changes I got booted out of my room so now I sleep on a matress on the floor. We finally got mail!!! So yes mom I finally got the package and loved it! Chocolate is amazing! Also got a bunch of letters too!

We didn´t have a ton of lessons today since we only went out on Monday and Tuesday, but we had some rockin lessons with a couple investigators! They were awesome until we got to the end and couldn´t give them a book of mormon beacause we don´t have any at the house...Bummer...

That´s about it, but the highlight of my week was that.. I HELD A MONKEY!!! It was awesome!!!! My life is almost complete! It´s name is Kiki and a boy, don´t understand that part though. Well that´s it for my week. Love you all!

Abrazos y besos!

Festival Week Coming up in Cartagena

November 5, 2012

Well it´s been a pretty normal week with everything. Lessons, walking, sweating, understanding a little more, but all good! 

This week my bag broke, the bottom of it just ripped open so I borrowed one from another elder for now until I buy a new one. We eat at members houses for lunch and we ate sooo much food. Every time I think I´m gonna puke from how much I eat. And alot of times I have no idea what I´m eating. Weather this last week was nuts! 

We had some crazy lightning, and the thunder was so loud! Scared me a few times. Also one of the days it rained soo much. The streets were rivers and I was just soaked, it didn´t even matter that I had an umbrella. It was pretty cool though. 

For exercise we have a make shift bar, meaning its a bar and at either end has two paint cans filled with cement. But we don´t do much. I feel myself getting weaker and my muscle getting smaller. For pday we wash, clean, shop, and usually go out in the city to the centro or something, but today we couldn´t because its a festival.  In lessons tvs are my kryponite. It doesn´t even matter if it is in spanish, I can´t look away. The other night the power went out and I woke up just wet, it was awful. I spent two and a half hours fanning myself with envelopes trying to stay cool. It was miserable. 

This week is some sort a festival thing in Cartagena so from thursday to sunday we can´t leave the house. Also maybe wednesday we might not be able. Not looking forward to being inside that long. But ya, that´s about it! Haven´t gotten letters yet, should be getting them this week. Love you all! 

Abrazos y besos!  

El Libro de Mormón

Good-ish week, had some rockin' lessons, but had a lot of uninterested people. Doing better with the Spanish, feeling more comfortable until the people start talking about different kinds of foods and animals. 

We had interviews with the mission president this week so he brought some letters with him. I got them from Granny, Clint, Tyler, Tori Faulkner, Mindy, and the 'dearelder' one from dad. We usually only get mail once a month when the zone leaders have meetings with the president but since he came here he brought them. 

We had some elders move out of the apartment to a new one so we only have 4 in it now, feels more empty, but now we aren`t as pressed for time to shower in the mornings. Last week though, our water was shut off for like a day so we couldn`t wash dishes, shower, or flush the toilet.. 

Weather this week was brutal, it would sprinkle rain then just be clear skies and crazy humid. I was dying. When we are in lessons I just fan myself with a pass along card until the people feel bad for me and bring out a fan. 

Ya, nothing really huge has happened this week. I am getting more and more tired during the days, nights go by way too fast, but days go by quickly too. Oh! My Book of Mormon broke, so I`m scared it`s just going to fall apart in a lesson. I don`t know what to do or where to go to get it fixed though. 

Ya that`s it, Love you all! Abrazos y besos!