E-mail June 8, 2009

Dear friends and family

Well this past week in Colombia has been a good one. We didnt have any baptisms but we have lots of people investigating the church which is a good thing. We have a young couple Manuel and Angelica that have 2 little kids that are getting married this week!! I am so happy for them and their little boy is the cutest thing ever. But that is the big news of this week to come that we have that to plan for. So I will send some pictures of that next week if things actually go through. cause well plans here are never certain until the exact hour. So we will see. Today for P-day we went to a little pueblo called Mongui. They are famous for making soccer balls. So well I bought one that is pretty cool. It was so pretty up there. It was very high up in the top of the mtns. This past week we did service and I got to chop wood! I was quite excited because I quite like doing it. Dave save me a big stack for when I get home!! It was pretty funny cause my companion never had done it and I had to teach him. It was fun. Also we ate on Sunday after our fast so stinking much that I about threw up. Then our next appointment fed us again 2 huge plates. I was so sick on Sunday that I could hardly stand but I survived. I have just been living on the edge here and some days I wonder what I got myself into but I am having a wonderful adventure. I am so grateful for all your love and support and hope you all know I love and pray for you.

love nate

An Excerpt from the letter to his dad:

Thanks for your e-mail it is what I needed this week I have been a
little stressed cause we have high goals for lessons and contacts and
such and well just haven’t been making them cause the people here,
well like to talk so it is a little stressful but I have been getting
used to it cause now I actually understand a lot more of the
conversation. The people here are so interesting to talk to and hear
about their lives. And yes I have learned that I could live on
nothing cause well at the end of each month we live on nothing. But I
want to thank you for all the opportunities that you have given me as
a kid. I was a very lucky kid.
My mission is definitely different than I thought it would be but well I
have learned a lot about who I am and that well there are just people
that flat out don’t want to listen, and that we need the millennium to
actually do all the work that needs to be done. Our area is huge and
we track maybe 1/30 of it cause we just don’t have time for more.
I am going to send you some pictures of a man that is in the ward that
is the hardest working person I know. He rides his bike about 10 miles
everyday at 3 am for work for one of his jobs but yet is the happiest
man ever. also I got to eat a peach from one of his trees. It was
small and green but it was still very sweet and good.