2011 Feb 14

2011 Feb 14

¡Familia!

HEY! And I have a birthday present for you guys! The district leader (Elder Conte from Panama--He´s a stud) called us this morning and told us to take pictures or something so, in a nutshell, I´m going to send pictures to you today! I knew you would be excited because I haven't sent you anything. So Happy Birthday!

And right now I am technically in the same ward I´m just in a completely different part of the ward. I kind of miss my old part of the ward but this one is good too so it´s all good.

This week, We studied as a companionship about service and old investigators so we have been working a lot with that. The problem is that a lot of former investigators are former investigators for a reason but we do have this one guy and this other couple that are pretty good. We set a baptisimal date with them which is probably going to fall but they seem willing to progress so we´ll see how that goes.

The Spanish is going pretty well too but this week and the next coming weeks, I am going to work on my accent. We ended up having to stop visiting her because she wasn´t progressing but whenever I tried to say anything, she didn´t have any idea what I was saying even though my comp afterwards said that I had perfect grammar and vocab and everything. So that is what I am going to work on this coming week. But on Sunday, I was trying to talk to another Gringo in the ward in English and I gave up and just told him what I was going to say in Spanish because English was frustrating me. AND I said a prayer in English yesterday and it was one of the hardest things I had done all week because I haven´t prayed in English for a long time.

And the Comp situation is getting better too! I think that his problem was that his trainer was a little bit disobedient and I am not disobedient so I don´t let him do some things that he was used to doing before. So he gets frustrated with me a lot. But this week, I remembered that my Zone Leader in Momostenango said to us that we should treat our comp the way that we want to treat our future wife and that along with what I learned from Dad in my years growing up means that I am not to talk bad about him. I sometimes just want to punch him in the face from being frustrated with him but he´s a really good guy. And we fasted on Tuesday so that we could find more investigators and I also included that I would find more patience and love for him and it worked really well!

Thank you for your prayers! They help a lot!

Love,

Elder Froelich

2011 Feb 21 Nathan's Birthday!

2011 Feb 21

¡Hello!

Hey! Thanks for the birthday wishes! I was thinking this morning that I am going to be starting a whole new decade in my life. And I think that it was the last letter that I commented on all of the crazy changes that have happened in the last 2 years but since I was 10?? I don´t think that hardly a single thing has stayed the same. And then by the time that I turn 30?? It´s crazy to think about.

It is definitely nice to have P-Day be your Birthday. You know, because of that random mid-winter break that we had in Washington in the middle of February and then my birthday being on Sunday last year, I have never had to go to school (or work) on my birthday. And it is going to be the same until 6pm today when we have a lesson! Craazy!

And my package did arrive! I got it the day after last Monday in a conference that we had. And it is pretty great. And thanks for sending me packages because I know that they aren´t cheap (but DearElder.com is free... just sayin´).

And in the conference, the President told us to read the Book of Mormon in only 20 days and he promised us that if we did that we would find a scripture that would change the course of our lives. So far, I really like the last two verses in 1 Nefi chapter 9. I like it a lot because it is when Nefi was commanded by the Lord to make his other plates and he didn´t know why but he was just doing because God told him too. And we all know what happened to Lehi´s record of the plates. So we need to trust God and do what he says because he always knows best. Something that Hno. Koons (who was one of my teachers in the MTC in Provo) said that I liked a lot was that "If you follow the promptings of the spirit and do what God wants to do, I promise you that you will never regret that decision."

Hey! And I wrote 3 different letters after last P-Day and sent them through snail mail to the States! So that means that they should arrive there within 6 months! :) (haha, that´s something that I am not going to miss so much about Guatemala.)

Oh! and about the package that you sent me! You sent me some article in church news about the Xela temple the Stake president that is quoted on the front page, HE IS IN MY AREA IN MY WARD and I´ve been to his house and borrowed his DVD player for a lesson and his wife has given me bread before! And then they mentioned Canquixaja and how hard it is to go to the temple (by the way, it´s not really a 2 hour truck ride like the article said. It´s more like 45 minutes but maybe and hour if it´s really slow. But it´s still pretty tough.)

And this week has been awesome with my companion. We´re not a match made in heaven or anything but we definitely have a lot more respect for each other now. And this week, We´ve been super obedient and so God has been blessing us a lot with people to teach. We have 3 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday and yesterday, we gave one of the most bombing lessons ever. My voice was shaking because the Spirit was so strong! :) So that was awesome.

But I love the gospel a lot. We were teaching some recent converts that my companion knew because he was the area a transfer before me and we showed them a video about when Christ came to the Americas and they were like, "Where was this? The Americas? Whoa I never knew that!" I thought that that was pretty funny but also awesome that they are super strong the church even though they don´t have a perfect knowledge of everything. That´s what I call faith. And we have been getting some pretty awesome references too So everything has been working out pretty well.

And the part of the ward that I am in is way more, I guess that you would say suburban. There are a lot of houses and that´s about it but I like it. We don´t really ride big buses like school busses but we ride micro buses a lot because our area is still kind of big. We shop in a store called Dispensia Familiar. It´s owned by Wal-Mart and, as they say here, baratísimo (super cheap). And we don´t have any place in our area where we can send letters right now which makes it a little bit harder to send letters but we have a member in the ward who owns a tienda (little shop) who sends our letters for us.

And the English is leaving and I´m pretty excited about that actually. I fasted this week and one of the things that I fasted for was to improve my accent so that they could understand me better and it was that day that I had never felt so stupid in my Spanish. So I took that as God saying that I need to humble up and start from the basics. If I´m lucky, I´ll forget English by Mother´s Day and Janeen will have to translate for me. *crossing fingers* And there are some people that we are teaching that Speak Quiche but they also speak Spanish and I didn´t really know Quiche at all before I came to the area so I mostly just say thank you, take care of yourself, the house is good, and stuff like that.

And thanks for everything that you guys do for me! I don´t know that I would be serving a mission if it wasn´t for you guys! So thanks for everything that you guys do and have done for me! I love you all!

Love, Elder Froelich

2011 Feb 7

2011 Feb 7

Hey Guys!

This week was pretty awesome! We had changes on Wednesday and I got changed to Las Rosas 2 (I was in 3) Elder Xovín got sent to Quiche and my new companion is named Elder Alvarado and he is from El Salvador. He´s a cool enough guy, I guess. I´m what they call his padrastro (because he is only on his second change. Padre=whoever trained him and padrastro=the 2nd change). We´re up by ourselves near the church in a house that also has a really nice shower. The day after changes, we had a campamiento con everyone in Xela (3 zones) and that was way fun. We slept overnight in a tent (Freak it was cold. I couldn´t feel my toes until around 11 the next morning) and got blasted by the Spirit. President Lorenzana is a freaking stud. All sin is based off of orgullo and orgullo is the sin favorite of Satan because it was because of pride that he fell. So humble yourself and you will be alright. Also, Satan is not going for your well-being and Alma 30:60--Satan will drag you down to hell if you are not careful. We had to botar all of our investigators because none of them are progessing and that was something that the president emphasized a lot of during the conference. So we are starting on a clean slate and we are trying desperately to visit members and share a spiritual thought and then ask if any of their friends would like to participate in the blessings of the gospel that they have had the opportunity to have. So far nothing, but we will see. We´re being extra obedient and everything so that God will be able to bless us.

Here is gets to "5 below 0" whatever that means in Fahrenheit, like 28 or something. So it´s not like Colorado or anything but it´s still pretty cold.

And it´s so crazy to think that in just 2 years so much has happened with Dad´s job and the life of everyone in the family. Ryan was on a mission two years ago and I was still in my senior year in high school. Something else that has been boggling my mind is that I will hit 5 months tomorrow! Which means that I will be almost a quarter of the way done with my mission! How crazy is that! I have so much to do and learn and... Ahh! I´m not baggy though. I´m sad that it will be coming up so soon! Pero está bien.

And I have loved all of my companions because they really have all been really great people. I think that it was just a really big shock to find out on my mission just how much of an impatient and intolerant person that I was. So I told the Pres that that was my goal in my letter to him this week--to develop as much patience as I possibly can before the end of my mission so that I can be ready for later in life. It´s just hard because I sometimes think that it would be way easier to just stay a little pile of coal dust but, you´re right-- God wants diamonds not coal.

But (I don´t remember if I already told you this) we are trying hard to be obedient and have the spirit so that God can bless us. We are going to fast tomorrow too.

Hey, I love you guys and remember that the gospel is true (if you don´t think the gospel is true or any part of it is not true, read and pray about Alma 32:26-27ish)!! And thanks for your prayers!

Love,

Elder Froelich

Nathan's Birthday is coming up!

Hi Everyone!

Nathan has his 20th birthday coming up on Feb 21! I know he would love to hear from you!

Cards can be sent to:
Elder Nathan T Froelich
Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission
5A Calle 14-35, Zona 3
09001 Quetzaltenango
Guatemala

Or for pouch mail: (a piece of paper folded in thirds and sealed only across the top)
Elder Nathan T Froelich
Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-0150

2011 Jan 31

2011 Jan 31PM

¡Hello!

I hope that you guys are doing well. This week has been pretty good.

On Wednesday, we did a service project for some less actives on the other side of the zone as kind of a like a zone project. They didn´t have any running water so we ran up the water and I guess that what they are going to do is that they are going to build a house or something. We didn´t get to the building the house part of the service project because it took a little bit longer to do everything than we thought that it would.

And then, that night, we had like a fireside with a real fire in the parking lot of the church. So that was awesome. Elder Xovín really doesn´t like contacting so a lot of this week, we spent with nonmembers. And we ended up having 3 different less active families come to church yesterday. So that was cool.

We went to an active family to sacar some referencias and it turned out that she already had a less active friend there. So I pulled out Alma 32:26-27 and was like "this is how I know that everything in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true--because I have experimented and prayed about it. That´s how I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through him we can live with Heavenly Father again after this life, and how Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who restored the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth again...." And then at the end of the lesson she said that she was going to come to the church with her friend on Sunday and she actually came which is a big deal because they never come to church when they say they will even when we try to pick them up from their house! So that was awesome.

And then I went on splits with someone who used to be in my area and they showed me some more houses that my comp and I can visit and teach! Yesterday, we went on changes with the district leader and so I was in his area and we even put a baptismal date! They said that they will be baptized if they know through oración que everything is true! So that was awesome!

Oh, and on martes the day after I wrote you guys we had a district meeting and for the zone leader who was there it was his last district meeting of his whole mission. He is going home in like... I don´t know but soon. And Elder Sigler who was my comp last change is going home after this change too! That is crazy! I already have almost 5 months on the mission and that will be me soon! So I have a lot of work to do.

Sorry this is so short but I have to go. Have an amazing week!

I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Froelich