2010 Oct 13

Here is Nathan's letter from last week. There was a problem when he went to send it. :)

2010 Oct 13

¡Hola Familia!
First things first, I miraculously just realized that the keyboard that I am using lets me do the enter bar! So that´s great! And I got to go to an English session at the temple today and that as way nice. Last time when I went to do the Spanish Session they offered me headphones but I told them that I didn´t want them. It was nice not having to think too much during the session though.

And it sounds like everyone in the family is doing really well! Janeen will be a professional harpist playing at Carnegie Hall by the time that I get back from my mission in two years! That is really awesome!

The weather here is pretty good. It isn´t nearly as miserable as I thought it was. The first couple of days it rained lightly every day all day but lately it´s been clear blue skies. It hasn´t even been that hot either! So that´s really nice.

Oh yeah! And I keep on forgetting to tell you guys that the Quetzaltenango mission was changed. They made a new mission called Retalhuleu (SP?) that just about cut our mission in half and took all of the coastal parts of the mission. I heard that that is the hottest, most miserable part though. Quetzaltenango and the mountains north of it, on cold days, get down to freezing. And I asked a native Elder who is from here (in Spanish!) if I would need any warm clothes and he
said that all we would need is a sweater which I packed with me. So I should be good.

The Spanish is coming pretty well. They just made a new Spanish class for people who feel like they could learn a little bit faster in Spanish and I´m in it! It´s really exciting. I´ve only gone once but I learned a lot. Did you know that Subjuctive tense is ridiculous? I didn´t until Tuesday, but I guess that it is and there are like 6 different kinds of it. Pero, está bien because I´m gonna have to learn it some time.

Also, on Tuesday I got to go to the square just outside the capitol building and go contact real people! It was really great! There weren´t that many Latinos to go around so I was just in a companionship with... I forgot his name but it wasn´t my companion. It was really cool though. I didn´t know too much Spanish which means that I kind of got to take the lead in all of the conversations. Sharing the gospel is so much fun! The first guy that we walked up to (i.e. the first person that I had ever contacted for real in my life) totally talked to us for like 15 minutes and bore his soul to us about... well, let´s just say he talked about a lot. So we gave him una folleta about the restoration of the gospel and I told him the first vision when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ from memory! (vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol...)SO GREAT! I felt the spirit so strong that it did happen and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God! And then he totally told me that my Spanish was coming really well and that he understood everything! So that was really good. And then we talked to an old (anciano, not viejo) guy in the plaza right across the street from the Capitol building and I couldn´t understand what he was saying but we gave him a pamphlet and right after we did, he said something about basura (garbage) but my companion thought he said buscar (to search) so we just left. I don´t know that anything will come of that but it´s all good. Not everyone is ready to hear about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that will bring happiness to their lives. After that, we ran into a lady while we were walked and she looked at me the same time I looked at her so we talked to her and she was so ready! It´s like those practice ones that they give missionaries to build their confidence except that she was real! So we gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and she was like (no tengo dinero) and I was like (este es un don para usted!) because I didn´t know how to say free. Anyway so that was really great. And while we were there, we ran into some missionaries who were leaving in 10 days! That´s pretty crazy to think
about because that will be me soon! What else... Oh! I bought the coolest scriptures covers today! And my time is almost up soo...

I love you guys! have a great week! and write me letters! (Sorry I just realized that when I pushed the send button last week, it didn't actually send. So you guys get two this week.