2010 Nov 29

Hola familia!

This week was pretty eventful but really not eventful all at the same time. On Friday I was just out tracting with Elder McGuire and we ran into the other two Elders who are in our house and they said that one of the Assistants called for Elder McGuire and said that Elder McGuire needed to call them back as soon as he could (we only have 1 phone between the two companionships). So Elder McGuire called and afterwards, I found out that we were having emergency changes and that we were supposed be in Xela the next morning (Saturday) by 11. So we got there and waited in the mission office, seriously, until 5. So we ended up doing nothing all of Saturday but now I have a new companion, Elder Sigler who is from Las Vegas, after this transfer is done in 3 weeks (which is crazy that I'm already halfway done with my first transfer) he will only have 1 transfer left! So that's pretty crazy to think that that will be ME soon. But I like Elder Sigler a lot. He's a zone leader and everything but he's probably the most humble zone leader I have ever met which is a pretty big deal because there is something about become a zone leader that gets to people's heads. But he's really cool. I like him a lot. I don't really know why Elder McGuire had to have an emergency transfer out of this area but it's all good. I'll miss him because he really is a cool guy pero esta bien.

But Thanksgiving was really good too! There is a lady who is from America who moved here with her husband who I guess is from Guatemala and she was really good at cooking and everything. So we went to her house and we had an American style thanksgiving at her house. But I still think that your thanksgiving cooking is better, Mom. ;-)

And my area isn't all that big, I guess, but it seems pretty big because we have to walk to everywhere in our area. To go to the Dispensia which is pretty far away, we take a bus and we take a bus when we have to go down to Xela (oh, and I found out that nobody calls it Quetzaltenango--They all call it Xela (which I found out is "Alex" spelled backwards)). But it's not that big... Well there is this one part of our area that is legit country and it goes on forever (I've never been to the end of that part of my area). But yeah, we walk everywhere.

Oh! and I think that the plan is for me to play violin at something for my Zone's part of something for the whole mission (I don't ever really know what is going on). I'm kind of excited for that and it will be hard because violins aren't the same thing as violas but it'll be okay.

And Amelia and Maria, we found out, have 2 roommates who are sometimes there and are sometimes not but there isn't really any way to know when so it is kind of hard to teach them because we are always having to catch up their roommates. But it'll be okay. And Henry is doing well too.

That is awesome though that you guys are having snow! It's probably just annoying to you guys because you are used to it but snow would be nice. :) That's awesome though that Sarah and Janeen are going crazy on the harp stuff.

Oh! and while I was at the office for 5 hours doing nothing, they got a shipment of packages to the office. And I saw that two of them were for me! They were pretty crazy about not letting my look at them at all but I think that they were both from you. So that was really fast because I didn't know that I got packages that quickly. But yeah. :)

Well, I've got to write a letter to the President. So have a great week!

Love,
Elder Froelich

2010 Nov 22 Nathan's eating ants!

2010 Nov 22

Hola familia!!!

I have two different boxes coming?! That's awesome! Yeah, I know they are really expensive to send so thanks a lot for sending them. What happens with packages is that they get sent to the mission office and then whenever there is a zone conference when the Zone leaders go down (which we had last week) and then transfer meetings as well which are every six weeks. So I guess that, altogether, I get packages about every 2ish weeks.

But, yeah, Huehuetenango really is the epitome of what Guatemala really is, I feel like. I live right in the middle of the city in an area called "Centro." I kind of miss the relatively clean air in America that comes with emissions testing but it's alright. If nothing else, I will be really exciting and appreciate the clean air in America when I go back there. And Elder McGuire said that the ruins are in our area so we will eventually get to seeing those. And that will be really exciting. But, shoot, we are so blessed. The people here are so poor. I told one of my Latino companions in the house that I went to EFY twice and he was like "so are you rich then? (en espanol)" and I was like, “uhh... no” but relative to them, we have SUCH a blessed life. Like our (I thought) regularly sized American-sized house would be considered to be like a mansion. Not even kidding. But the people here are so happy with each other and with everything that they have anyway so they don't really know what they are missing.

Yeah I met my president when I got here last Tuesday, I think. He seems like a really great guy. He's kind of like the powerful quiet type. His wife is what I would call a "strong woman." She is really nice, so don't get me wrong, but she just seems to have a really strong will. But I love them. :) I haven't really had any interes... wait just kidding. There is this one really enormous ant that they sometimes... I actually don't know how they make it but what it ends up being is pinky fingernail-sized little black balls, and they are ants. It sounds really weird but it just tastes like some kind of salty thing. Elder McGuire is from a really small town in northern California. He has, I think, 7 siblings and he was homeschooled from the time that he was 8. He is a little bit quirky but he's a good guy. I love him. And nobody really comments on my tallness as much as they just notice it. I mean, they comment on it and I'm like (haha, si, 2 meters.) It's mostly just the kids who comment on it and I tell them that if they eat their vegetables they will be able to grow as tall as me some day. And the doors haven't really been a problem surprisingly. I mean, they are all short but I think that they aren't really that much worse than the united states. I always just duck unconsciously when I am going through doorways so it doesn't really end up making a difference. But, yeah, it's really not that much worse than the states at all.

But yeah, Elder McGuire and I have been having amazing success. There is this one girl in our ward who is a returned missionary and she has been waiting for the right missionaries to come around before showing them her friends and so yesterday she seriously accompanied us to her friends'/ familys' houses and we have a lot more people to teach. And then we also had the idea of starting an English class because seriously everyone here wants to learn how to speak English. And we were knocking doors (which, seriously, never works) and we ran into these two sisters and they are so amazing, Maria and Amelia and we been having our member friend who also knows them accompany us to their lessons. Amelia's husband died a while ago and, anyway, I think that things are going to go great. And then there is this other guy named Henry who was a reference from his GF Damarice and he is really great too. I can feel the spirit really well when we teach him. And those are the highlights this week! AND I’ve been writing in my journal every single night (okay, I forget like once every 3 weeksish but I think that I'm tearing it up! I already almost have to pull out one of my other 2 refiller packs! Dominated :) But I do need to start taking pictures. So we will see about that.

And the Spanish is seriously coming along so great. Right now, if I'm focusing on what's going on (like I don't have the ability to accidently overhear a Spanish conversation yet) and being said, I know exactly what they people are saying! Talking is a little bit harder and I'm a little bit of an awkward talker and my accent probably isn't the best but that stuff is coming along too! I'm being so blessed right now that it is ridiculous. :)

For Thanksgiving, there is a oldish lady from America who is going to cook Thanksgiving for us on Thursday! So that is really exciting! And I met her while she was doing a presentation for some Latina moms on how to can jam and jelly and tomatoes and.... so she knows what she's doing! But I'll miss your food though and it won't be the same. :)

And that is all I can think of saying.

ALMA 32 (the whole chapter is good but I like 26 and 27 the best and that until the end of the chapter (it's on faith ))

I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Froelich.

2010 Nov 15 Huehuetenango, first area

My P'Day is going to be on Mondays. Just so you guys know!

Ha, I just realized that you guys don´t even know where I am right now! I´m in a place called Huehuetenango which is about 2.5 hours north of Quetzaltenango which is about a 4.5 hour bus ride away from Guatemala City. I was really really excited to leave the CCM. When we got to the CCM, we learned that since there were hardly any experience missionaries because (this is my theory) they just created a new mission in Retahuleu so they had to split the experienced missionaries in between the two areas while still sending the same amount of missinoaries to each respective area. So long story short, I´m getting trained by a zone leader! So that´s pretty cool. It also means that we have to do a lot of other random stuff like send DATS (whatever those are) and do other stuff but it´s all good. His name is Elder McGuire and he has been on his mission for 9 months. But I like him.

So missionary stuff. The night after I got there, we got to eat dinner at Hna. Betty´s house. She reminds me a lot of Grandma Lucille in her sense of humor and everything and, oh my goodness, she is the cutest old lady ever! She is missing a couple of teeth and everything but she has such a sweet spirit. And the people here live so humbly! But they are still so happy! Like a sort of run down house to us would be like a really nice well to do house with them. And everything here is really cheap. We went to eat somewhere and for a super rico dinner, it cost Q20 (8Q=1Dollar) and at the time I thought that it was expenseive but it was really just like 2.50! Way awesome.

Also, we went out contacting and on the very first door that I knocked on, we got in and started teaching her. We knocked on a lot of other doors and no one wanted to talk to us but my first one did so that was cool. And when we went out contacting, we had a lot of exito. So that was really awesome. And we taught a lesson to someone named Henry with his member GF named Damarice yesterday and we taught him about the Book of Mormon and the First vision and everything and the spirit was so strong! I´m really excited about him.

Oh, and the Spanish is coming really well. I can almost understand what everyone is saying and I´m trying to memorize a scripture every day. So it´s coming. My favorite scripture of the week (and the one that I am working on memorizing right now) is Alma 32.27 I think. It´s about experimenting on the words god to see if they are true and you will know if they are true, so I liked that a lot. Read it!

Love,
Elder Froelich

2010 Nov 9 last letter before leaving for Quetzaltenango!

2010 Nov 9

¡Hola familia!

I am off to Quetzaltenango tomorrow and we are heading off at 8! I am so excited and ready to be leave the CCM and get out into the real world so that I can actually start saving real souls and bring people to Christ instead of just practicing to do so. SO excited! Also, before I forget, the place to send mail and packages to me is going to be:

Elder Nathan T Froelich

Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission
5 Calle 14-35
Edificio las tapias
Zona 3
Quetzaltenango
Guatemala C.A

That is the address of the mission home. You can still send me letters on DearElder.com and that would be just as good (and free for you guys) but that is the address that everything will go.

But not a lot has really happened so I don´t really have anything to talk about. PERO thank you for your email and your love and your prayers. I can really feel them every day!

Have an amazing week!

Love,
Elder Froelich

2010 Nov 3

2010 Nov 3

¡Hola!

I couldn´t find a computer that cannot do spaces again, so bear with me I guess. Also, I got a letter from Evan through DearElder.com (which you guys will be able to send me letters through for my whole mission) saying that he got his mission call! He´s going to Columbia Bogota North (sp?)! Based on what he said, it sounds like it happened a long time ago so it´s probably old news but that was really cool to find out.

That´s good that Grandpa and Grandma Leishman are in the process of building a new house. That´s too bad that their old one was burned down. And that was sad to hear that Grandma Sally passed away. She hasn´t really been doing too well lately so it´s probably a blessing for her. Thank goodness for the plan of Salvation! :)

My Spanish is coming along pretty well. Tomorrow we get to go the capitol plaza square to do some more contacting! So I´m really excited about that. And in less than a week, I´ll be in Quetzaltenango actually teaching lessons and everything. So I´m really excited about that! We´re leaving the MTC on Tuesday morning and getting on a charter bus to our respective missions! It´s finally here! Oh! While I´m thinking about it, I´m pretty sure that I´m going to be able to email on Monday the so if you could get an email to me by sometime around then, then that would be amazing. And I haven´t gotten Janeen´s DearElder yet. From the DearElder that I got from Evan on Thursday, it seems like it took his around 2.5 weeks to get to me. But even if it doesn´t get to me on time, they´ll just send it to the mission home, so it´s all good. I heard a rumor, though, that once I´m in Quetzaltenango, I´ll only get mail once per transfer (6 weeks). But thank Janeen profusely for sending me a letter! I love them. Also, thanks for putting all the effort in find addresses for me!

And my favorite scripture... It´s either Alma 34:37 or 37:34 or something like that. Sorry--today has kind of been a flustering day. It says something about how if you work as hard as you can with God, you will find rest to your souls. My favorite scripture this week has been Mosiah 2:22, read it. King Benjamin is a great guy. Oh! And say congrats to the Maughan’s on their new baby.

I love you all! Have an amazing week!