Letter-Friday March 20, 2009

Dear Family,

I'm doing great. It is hard to believe I haven't seen you in about 7 weeks. We taught again in Spanish this week the 1st lesson. It went pretty well I thought. It is still tough cause you can't just say whatever you want, but it will come. I just want to thank you for all your love and support and writing me. Thanks for taking care of the dog for me. Sounds like he is being a pill, he might be getting out by that wood pile down there. A squirrel lives down there so that could be why he is being dumb. I'm sorry.

But Andrew I hope the tournament went well and you played good. Also consider the shirt a birthday present (Preston too). Thanks for being a good brother. Get on the 125 now that your cast is off!

Preston I hope you had fun at the dunes. I hope you were careful and had a good time. There is an Elder Kuchar here from Payson who was out at the dunes once and he broke his collar bone. He has a gross scar, but he is a cool kid. How did the CRF do? I hope the new tire on the front worked well.

Also I hope you like the shirts for you and Andrew. Tell him he will grow into it. I liked them and figured you guys would like them.

Also keep bugging Chuck for me I want to talk to him. Thanks for being a good brother.

It is pretty crazy to me that I leave so soon. I am getting excited. Yesterday my companion got sick again, so while I went to call Eve back (she is my investigator in the referral center I am kind of teaching. She is awesome) I decided that I needed to sit down with my companion and lay down some reality because he doesn't like to talk about his problems and I just told him that Colombia is going to be much harder than here and a bunch of stuff, all in a loving way, but i was frank because I have been really nice and easy going when he has been struggling. So he decided to write President Shelley (our branch president) and express what has been bothering him. Hopefully that helps because I am worried for his sake in Colombia if he has a total jerk companion. Big news this week. We get along so much better now though than we ever have so that is good.

Please express thanks to family and friends for their love and support and prayers. Let Grandpa and Marie know that I saw Elder Naulu before he left. It was funny cause the first time I saw him he just started pointing at me and was like we know each other and I had no idea, then it clicked, our grandparents are married. So that was funny. He is a great kid.

It truly is really cool to be here to focus on one thing which is inviting others to come unto Christ. I hope that both Preston and Andrew will make the decision to serve the Lord. There is nothing better, and I haven't even left the MTC yet.

I want to share a scripture with you all that I found and really liked. Its 3 Nephi 17:4. The Savior is preparing to leave the Nephites and he talks of the lost tribes. To me that means he probably showed himself to other people throughout the world. How cool is that to know that we might have more scripture from maybe a lost Asian culture that believed in Christ.

I want you all to re-read 3 Nephi 17 and ponder about it. Also another cool thing I learned is how to explain why we need the Book of Mormon. He drew some dots and lines here...not really sure quite how to explain them, but I'll try. The first dot has lots of lines leading in all directions-he explains: all the lines are different churches trying to find the right way back to God. The second drawing has one dot on the left side labeled bible and one dot on the right side labeled BoM with a line in between: with our knowledge we have a sure straight line between them. It makes us stand out because that is so different.

Also this past week we had L. Tom Perry for the devotional speaker, is a large man. But he talked a lot about companionships and the importance of them. It was cool.

Okay, in closing. M7 decal, check the pouch behind the passenger seat behind Dad's truck. Also, look for my oil in my backpack, I think it might have gone home accidentally. I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers.

I'm excited to see you guys at the cabin.

Love you all!

Nate

P.S. I signed a declaration of independence saying I won't speak English anymore! Also I'm sending home my planner from the first 6 weeks.