Email July 20, 2009

I really did teach him better than this but boys will be boys I guess!! Gross!!


Dear Family and Friends,
Well i am sorry it has been a little crazy the past two weeks on p-day so well we got our stuff figured out and came to internet in the morning to actually write our families. Well like i said in the last blog it is Festival here and well it is hard to find a sober man or woman in this town. We saw part of the horse parade which is just HUGE here and they drink all morning then about 1 they start the parade, and well it isn't no parade like centerville, everybody has a beer, and all the people riding horses have beer, and well beer beer beer, while we were watching some guy rode up to me and asked me where i was from and i said the US and he was like well hell let me buy you a beer, haha i just laughed and said i couldn't, then he offered me to ride his horse and just come to the big party after, and said i could kiss his wife, haha well i just couldn't stop laughing after that, it was just funny, my companion re-enacted it about 40 times for the rest of the night. It was great. But it was a problem cause all our investigators were at the festival so we didn't get a whole lot of real teaching done. But it was still good. It was just a party too cause one of the zone leaders stayed at our house for the entire week. But we have 3 baptisms in the next 2 weeks. Marcella, is this next week and she is awesome, she is 18 and has a little boy. She lives right by us about a block away, and just was interested and we taught her and she accepted. She is cool. Then the other 2 are Jessica, and Elizabeth. Jessica we have been teaching for more than a month and a half, and well she is AWESOME, her friend is a member and we just were there one day for lunch and made an appointment. She is 16 and is just amazing. She marks her scriptures better than i do and she has only had a BOM for about 2 months. She has had problems with getting permission from her mom to be baptized. But her parents are just super super nice and don't have any problem with it, it is just they want her to be sure and have a little more time in the church and learning. So we are going to have a fast with her on Wed. So she can get permission. She is probably my best investigator that i have had. She is great. And Elizabeth, her 2 brothers are members, one is getting ready to serve a mission and the other served in Barranquilla. And now just has an interest. She is 18, but has a lot of opposition from her mother. But she is going to get baptized cause she has a real desire to do so. It is exciting to see her with her brother in the church and just watching her share her testimony. That is about all we have right now cause we have dropped a ton of people. Manuel and Angelica, being some of the dropped. I feel really bad, because i have become really close with them but it is just they wont come to church on their own and we have been teaching them for about 3 months, and not progressing anymore. So hopefully one day they will have a desire to come back.
As for me, i had been struggling, and my dad sent me some great advice, so i have been trying to put it into practice and and just been a lot happier and just trying to look on the bright side, it kinda was like a turning point for me. So i am doing great. I am so graetful for all the love and support. Nick Reid, congrats, my brother told me you were headed out to El Salvador. That will be awesome. Just live it up for 2 years. I love you all and know that i am praying for you. Love nate from Colombia.
Hi dad,
i just wanted to send you a message and tell you thank you so much for the advice you sent me last week. I have really tried to just change my attitude with everything that i have been doing. And well now even the food doesn`t taste bad. Gol I am eating my tomatoes with out even flinching. I still have a tough time with fried chicken but other than that i am really starting to enjoy it all. Fried chicken cause that is what I ate when I got way sick a few months ago. I am just trying to eat as much as possible cause like you said I think I will miss it one day. As for my companion, he is a great kid. I love him to death. And yeah we still are late to just about everything, but our lessons have been a lot better then they have been. So well I have just kinda tried to change.
Also this past week I borrowed Mormon Doctrine from Bishop Sanchez, cause he has it in English, and I studied 2 things, the Millennium and Plan of Salvation, in the week I had it. I learned so much about all the specific things and phases of them both. It was really cool to just learn about them both. I also have been studying the bible like none other, cause it seems like to me at home we use the Book of Mormon a lot more than the bible, but here we have to use the bible with everything, and you know the kind of seminary student I was. So I have been trying to play catch up. It is way hard to cause I am starting to understand the BOM in Spanish but the bible is 14 times harder. So it has been a struggle. But I am coping with it.
Also, the last talk that President Camargo gave to us was about school and getting a good education to be able to help the church, and well I received some revelation. I had a great impression that I need to go back to Utah State. I don’t know what I am going to study, or anything like that I just know that is what I need to do. It was kinda crazy cause, I hadn’t thought anything about school, or what I should do with myself after my mission, but I just had that bit of revelation for me.
I love you and thank you for all your advice, love and support. You are a great father and I am proud you are mine. With love your son Nathan

Email-July 13, 2009

Well family and friends,
This will be short because we became cave men today to have lunch, it was a night mare, the meat was left out from well forever, cause they don't refridgerate it here. So well the one good thing that happended was that it was cooked. As for the work, it is festival for 2 weeks here only in Sogomoso, so we are having a hard time finding a sober man in this city. It is ok tho. As for our investigators, they are dropin like flies, speaking of flies we have about a million in the house from the meat. But yeah it was a good time. To start the fire today they bought a bottle of diesel and well Williams about burned to death trying to pour it on the fire, I wonder about him some times.
But We met Pres. Hacking Friday, he and his wife are great, he told me that I am doing great and that everything will pick up. So I am hoping that is true. So no need to worry right? Haha well i got my box on Friday too, only after 9 days!! It helps when it gets brought straight from the office, but I was happy. I am doing great. Thanks for all the love and support. Hope all is well. tell everybody hello for me please.
Love Nate

Nate's Recordings...

(P.S. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this....hopefully I'll figure out a better way to do it. If for some reason these links don't work, they are also at the bottom of the blog, or you can just email me or my mom and we'll definitely email them to you)

Nate has sent home several voice recordings of himself in the last few weeks. It is fun to hear his voice...even if these recordings are sometimes a little bit ridiculous!

4th of July
Breakfast

I'm uploading two of the latest. Just as a warning--there is some strange singing in one, and Nate talks with his mouth full of breakfast in the other. Thought it was only fair to warn you before you start listening....

E-mail June 29, 2009

Well hello from Sogamoso,
As my mom informed me in her last e-mail I just don't send a whole lot about the area and what is going on. Nothing really exciting, but we did have district conference this past Saturday and Sunday and we became a stake and ward. It was pretty cool to witness. The people are so happy right now with that title. President Sanchez became the bishop so the Noche de Matê will not be ending, we also have ordered a bunch from Bogota to have in the house. As for the missionary work, it has been a little slow because people just don’t like attending church that much, we call them the night before and pass by their houses and still don’t attend. So any returned missionaries if you have good advice for me I would love to hear it. The family we got married, Manuel and Angelica, haven’t attended for 2 weeks now, I am kinda worried they won't end up getting baptized, so you know what I will be fasting for, on the 5th. We should be having a baptism on the 4th of July, but the girl is not of age, Jessica being only 16, and her mom wants her to have more time in the church before she is baptized but isn’t against the idea it is just a time factor, she is awesome she keeps her commitments and also attends church, she is great. Also we have been looking up less active people in the ward to try and get them to come back, that is really fun, because they have testimonies, but just have forgotten the feelings of the spirit. So we should have some success in that I am hoping and praying. That is about it for me I will be sending some pictures of Pres. Camargo, because he is ending his mission tomorrow. So I am kinda sad cause his family is awesome, but also kinda happy cause this mission needs a little Gringo power to kick some of these missionaries in the butt. So I don’t know when I will get to meet Pres. Hacking, but hopefully in the next 2 weeks. I am just a happy guy right now, I am just livin on the edge here for 2 years but I am just livin it up. I met Elder Wagstaff, from SLC, his dad owns Wagstaff cranes, he was the comp. of elder Williams in the MTC, he is a funny kid and loves to snowmobile. That has to be one of my favorite parts of the mission, meeting new people and making friends, cause I never felt as I was very good at it before, but it is just easy here. Not much else except Elder Williams threw an egg in the house when he got mad this morning, it is funny cause sometimes, we just lose it in the house cause we are so stressed with our investigators and the language and just the mission details. I lost it when his companion didn’t wash his hands after the bathroom and was touchin my face after the bathroom. I had a Willard moment, but they just laugh at you cause I yell in English and then we all just laugh. The mission is just crazy! But I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now, not even to use the cabin. Amy Morrison, you are such a sweet heart. I got another letter from you from June 14, 2009. It is great to know that I have other people other then my family thinking about me. I love to hear all the updates of you and your family so thank you so much. I sent manda a letter today. Well I love you all and know that I pray for you. I am so happy that I had such a great ward to grow up in and such great leaders, Bro. Doane, Bro. Allen (Steve, who calls him bro allen?), Bro. Lovato, Bro. Alsop, and the Bishop. And all other people in the ward that pray and helped my testimony grow. A scripture we share a lot here is Mosiah 2:41. And I just want to tell you that I have a true testimony of it that when we live all the commandments we are truly happy. I am happier now then I was before my mission, and I am without snowmobiles, dirtbikes, boating, and my family (whom I love) and I am just happy. And well this has to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I want to give a special thanks to Ali and Liz. With their help I am here. So thank you you 2. Liz I am sorry I missed your wedding. You looked great, all the latin missionaries want your address, cause my mom sent me a picture. Mom I just want to let you know that I am so grateful for you and dad and all you did and do for me. I am such a lucky kid to live and grow up where I did. As to the cabin, I wouldn’t trade my mission to be there but I am a little jealous cause it looks sweet!! I don’t have much more other than thanks and love so until next week, I love you and hope you are just happy Love and pray for all. Love nate, from Colombia!