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