He's home!

Hello Friends!
Nathan returned home from Guatemala on 13 September 2012, after a flight delay that near drove his mother to the edge.  He was so hyper and funny when we got home.  He would start a question and get only part way through the asking and start another question, then another.  His English is coming back, but some words are still escaping him. He is still full of crazy energy. He would love to hear from you!
Mom

2012 Sept 10

2012 Sept 10PM

Hey Guys!

It is crazy to think that this is probably the last time that I am going to email you guys as a full-time missionary in Guatemala. That is pretty crazy to think about. 

This week has been good. On Tuesday, an Elder named Elder DeHut became part of our companionship. If he hadn´t come, I would have had an entire mission without ever being in a trio. So that was a close one. J I got to know him pretty well considering that we were only together for less than a week. He is cool though. No complaints. He is going to be a good missionary. 

This week was pretty good though. It looks like God has a lot of people prepared to be baptized in these coming weeks. Elizabeth, Kimberly´s older sister, came to church for the first time yesterday and she is wanting to get baptized. And plus if she gets baptized as well, she will be able to be a great support for Kimberly. And she seems really sincere so we will see what happens. Also, there is another Hermana from Buena Vista who is named Elena who said that she wants to be baptized as well. I don´t know why she didn´t go to church yesterday because she has gone the last 5 Sundays in a row but I feel like she too will end up being baptized. That will be good for them. 

On Saturday night, the second counselor called us and asked that one of us would be able to speak in Sacrament meeting. So I thought about it for a little while and talked about it with my companions and so I got to speak in sacrament meeting for my last Sunday in Colotenango. And I even gave my testimony in Mam at the end of it. It was a good one and I think that everyone liked it a lot. I was grateful for the opportunity that I was given to be able to speak in Colotenango for my last Sunday that I was there.  And I will leave all of my worn out stuff in here in Guatemala so that I have to worry less about the weight of my bags. 

The schedule that I have heard about is the following:

Monday: My final interview is at 5pm. I will sleep there

Tuesday: I am going to go to the temple in the morning and then we are basically going to have the whole day to just do nothing. So this is when I am going to go to Central Park to buy the nativity sets and some other stuff that I find there. In the night I think that we are going to have a Family Home Evening with President Bautista and his wife. 

Wednesday: I am going to be in Guatemala City. I don´t know what I am going to be doing there. :)

Thursday: All I know is that my plane takes off at 8ish and I get to Colorado Springs at 4ish.

Friday: :-/ I am not a set apart full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That will be weird. 

.......................

Last week my comp, Elder Monasterio, had an interview with president so we went to the mission home to do it and while I was there, I found the elders from San Francisco there! And I got to ask them how everything is doing and it was awesome. They are already remodeling the chapel right now! So that was nice to hear. 

It sounds like you guys had a really fun time for Sarah´s birthday! Something that is crazy to think about is that I know some kids here who are about 13 years old. And they are normal, not-babyish people. But I remember when Sarah was born! So that will be weird to see her again but at the age that I was when I was a DEACON. That was not even that long ago!  Shoot. I can´t even imagine what it must be like to be a parent. You guys remember when I was born and on Thursday night I will be an official return missionary. Before you know it, I´ll be married and have kids. And you guys will think, "Wow, has it really already been twenty-whatever years?" Crazy.

And you guys are such pilas in missionary work over there. I would have killed to have a bishop like Dad here in Guatemala. Good job!

WOW it is crazy to see that you guys already have the appointment with the Stake President to release me as a missionary! Crazy!  Well, I guess that I will see you guys on Thursday!

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 Sept 4

BUENOS DIAS!!

First of all, I just want to say that I love Colotenango.  And Guatemala.  I am going to miss it a lot. 

We had the baptism of Kimberly yesterday and it was amazing.  2 of her family members that we have been trying to commit to come to church came and some others also came.  It was a great, amazing experience. I had the privilege of baptizing her.  We were talking to her older sister (who is about 21 and is married) and she was saying that it was a great experience and she legit said that she really wants to be baptized.  She is so amazing.  We would baptize her this Saturday that is coming up but she has never gone to church for one good reason or another (her grandma died, her husband got in a car accident that very easily could have killed him...).  But she said that she is going to go to church for this Sunday that is coming. 

And we have been visiting someone from a place in our area called Buena Vista named Elena.  Her husband just died about month ago and she has been going to church every Sunday since he passed away.  And she is looking positive to get baptized as well. 

This week I feel like we were doing a lot of sembrando (I don´t have time to think of the word in English and I don´t have permission to go onto a translation website) but it was good.  It was nice to see that the people could feel and were reacting to the power of our testimony.  I know that they could feel it.  They didn´t always except it fully but I know that they could feel the power of our testimonies.

Thank you guys for everything!  I love you guys!  Thank you for your prayers and for your support.

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 Aug 27

2012 Aug 27

Hey!

.....

I don´t think that I will be able to find indigenous clothes that fit me because the guys don´t have indigenous clothes in the area where I am and also, if they did, they would definitely not have them for my size.  And I think that I will be able to get it all home.  If not, though, I will just send it home by the mail.

.....

And is "knocked most of the peaches off of the tree" a new figure of speech that I don´t know about or do we have a peach tree?!  I hope not because the thought of having a peach tree sounds great. 

And just try to get me the topic for my talk as soon as you can.  If you can´t, don´t worry about it.  Preparing talks extremely quickly is something that my mission has taught me.  (The stories about the bishopric standing up during sacrament meeting and announcing to everyone 5 minutes or less before you have to give a 15ish minute talk are real.)

And as far as what you guys can do for me, just keep me in your prayers.  You guys have already done so much for me.  Thank you. 

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 Aug 20 PM

Hey Guys!

......

And the boys from Mexico!  At first, I just gave them folletos but then I felt like they needed something more so we also gave them Book of Mormons and we are going to be friends on Facebook for after the mission.  They were really cool people.  I guess that we will see what happens!  I am excited about it though.

I am for sure really excited to talk to that person that you guys mentioned that opened up Huehuetenango a long time ago.  Crazy!  I love Huehue! 

This week we have been very blessed.  We still have to see what happens but right now it loooks like we are going to be having at least about 2 or 3 baptisms from people who just came out of nowhere.  We still have to see what happens but they are looking positive and I am excited about it.  But I will let you guys know! 

I have to go already.  Sorry.  But have a great week!

Love,

Elder Froelich

2012 Aug 13

2012 Aug 13

Hey Guys!

This week was fantastic!  We completed almost all of our goals for this week (which was hard because we had a lot of high goals).  AND we found some pretty good families.  Which is good because a lot of the investigators that we have right now are not really wanting to progress.  Victor is going back to drinking and a lot of the other ones aren´t really having any desires to progress.

We found this one family of like 8 people right now yesterday. (or we found them a while ago but we were finally able to teach them yesterday).  The Grandma/father of the family is named Toyar and he said that he is excited for his grandsons to belong to a church and start learning things from a church instead of learning things from the street.  And they are looking positive so I will let you guys know how that turns out. 

Also, we found another guy who is actually the brother of Victor named Porfirio.  He seems really good and positive and so we are going to see what happens with him.  He has a wife and 4 kids so we are excited about the possibilities of them.  ALSO I don´t know if had already mentioned to you guys about him before but Fredi, a before pilas bishop who´s wife died and some other crazy stuff happened to him so he became a drunk, has not drank alcohol for like 2 and a half weeks!  And he is looking more excited to see us and everything too!  Cool story: We went to visit him yesterday and I was talking to one of his sons named Kevin who is thinking about going on a mission.  I went to talk to him and I noticed that he had two friends with him.  And I came to find out that they were both from Mexico, one from Chiapas and the other one from Tuxluc (or something like that. I don´t remember the name of it exactly).  I was talking to him and I asked them if they had ever seen missionaries where they live and they said that they had seen a lot of missionaries, that they saw them all the time and that they even knew where the Mormon Churches were but when I asked them if they had ever talked to a missionary, they said that they had never talked to one in their whole lives.  I was the first one!  So we talked a little bit more and then the family of Fredi gave us dinner and then I gave them a pamphlet and they promised me that they would read it.  I am excited about them because they look really sincere.  So I am excited about it. 

Lately it has kind of been starting to hit me now that I am going to go home.  Yesterday in daily planning we were planning for today and I turned my agenda to today and I read that it said agosto lunes 13.  And I just thought, "Shoot. I have exactly one month from tomorrow (or today, now) from the day that I am getting on the plane to go home."  And then I told that to my comp, Elder Monasterio, and about how much I love Colotenango and about how that one time when I went to Guatemala City to the CCM and I saw all of those missionaries that were just starting and I wanted to start my mission all over again.  And then I talked to him about how lucky he was to still have 19 months left on his mission.  I have been writing in my journal every night lately and it is crazy to realize how quickly time is passing.  Every time I write down the date before I start the journal entry, it always surprises me how quickly time has passed in the day.  I love Colotenango and Guatemala a lot and I am going to miss it with all of my heart.

Things with Elder Monasterio are going well.  I can´t really complain.  The church is supposed to be finished within 3 weeks. So there is a good chance that I will be able to go to church in it at least once before I have to go home. 

Thanks for all of your guys´ support!  And for your prayers! I can feel them.

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 Aug 13

2012 Aug 13

Hey Guys!

This week was fantastic!  We completed almost all of our goals for this week (which was hard because we had a lot of high goals).  AND we found some pretty good families.  Which is good because a lot of the investigators that we have right now are not really wanting to progress.  Victor is going back to drinking and a lot of the other ones aren´t really having any desires to progress.

We found this one family of like 8 people right now yesterday. (or we found them a while ago but we were finally able to teach them yesterday).  The Grandma/father of the family is named Toyar and he said that he is excited for his grandsons to belong to a church and start learning things from a church instead of learning things from the street.  And they are looking positive so I will let you guys know how that turns out. 

Also, we found another guy who is actually the brother of Victor named Porfirio.  He seems really good and positive and so we are going to see what happens with him.  He has a wife and 4 kids so we are excited about the possibilities of them.  ALSO I don´t know if had already mentioned to you guys about him before but Fredi, a before pilas bishop who´s wife died and some other crazy stuff happened to him so he became a drunk, has not drank alcohol for like 2 and a half weeks!  And he is looking more excited to see us and everything too!  Cool story: We went to visit him yesterday and I was talking to one of his sons named Kevin who is thinking about going on a mission.  I went to talk to him and I noticed that he had two friends with him.  And I came to find out that they were both from Mexico, one from Chiapas and the other one from Tuxluc (or something like that. I don´t remember the name of it exactly).  I was talking to him and I asked them if they had ever seen missionaries where they live and they said that they had seen a lot of missionaries, that they saw them all the time and that they even knew where the Mormon Churches were but when I asked them if they had ever talked to a missionary, they said that they had never talked to one in their whole lives.  I was the first one!  So we talked a little bit more and then the family of Fredi gave us dinner and then I gave them a pamphlet and they promised me that they would read it.  I am excited about them because they look really sincere.  So I am excited about it. 

Lately it has kind of been starting to hit me now that I am going to go home.  Yesterday in daily planning we were planning for today and I turned my agenda to today and I read that it said agosto lunes 13.  And I just thought, "Shoot. I have exactly one month from tomorrow (or today, now) from the day that I am getting on the plane to go home."  And then I told that to my comp, Elder Monasterio, and about how much I love Colotenango and about how that one time when I went to Guatemala City to the CCM and I saw all of those missionaries that were just starting and I wanted to start my mission all over again.  And then I talked to him about how lucky he was to still have 19 months left on his mission.  I have been writing in my journal every night lately and it is crazy to realize how quickly time is passing.  Every time I write down the date before I start the journal entry, it always surprises me how quickly time has passed in the day.  I love Colotenango and Guatemala a lot and I am going to miss it with all of my heart.

Things with Elder Monasterio are going well.  I can´t really complain.  The church is supposed to be finished within 3 weeks. So there is a good chance that I will be able to go to church in it at least once before I have to go home. 

Thanks for all of your guys´ support!  And for your prayers! I can feel them.

Love

Elder Froelich