7/27/2009 - Week 11

The Street Where Nathan Lives

Well, I am doing good here in Orange. I really enjoy biking, you get to smile to lots of people. I got a flat tire yesterday, which I will fix today. We do tons of tracting. I am trying to get to know the members; however, the ward is so small it could fill the first three rows of the center aisle, if you pushed everyone together. And everyone is gone within 5 minutes of church getting out, I mean ghost town style gone. There are rumors of combining wards. I got to speak on missionary work yesterday, so that should help. We did so awesome last week; we taught 9 lessons.

The Sites in the city of Orange, CA

7/20/2009 - Week 10 - First Week in California!

Hi Family! I am in California and am doing good. Well, you are probably wondering where I ended up. I am serving in Orange, Orange County, California English speaking (for now). I am in the Orange 3rd Ward and my companion is Elder Queen. English speaking, crazy huh. Most of the Elders from my MTC district are English speaking, too. Well, when I got here Elder Queen and I had a car, but on Thursday, we got a call telling us, we are now bike missionaries. So, we went to Target and bought shiny new Schwinn Ranger bikes. Luckily my area is fairly small and flat. A little bit about Orange 3rd Ward, this ward is tiny, I mean tiny. Most people are moving out because of the high cost of living. Also, it is a heavily college ward and since it is summer with high living costs, all the college students are gone. Also, it sounds like this ward hasn't had a baptism for 2 years. Whether or not that is true, I will have to change the rumors. Now a background on Elder Queen, he is from Ohio, but claims home to Fort Collins Colorado, even though, he only lived their for the 2 months before his mission. We do a lot of tracting. It is ok though, most people say, "I appreciate what you are doing, but I am not interested" or "we are stuck in our ways". We have found 3 people that we will try and see this week. I got let in my first door last night! They were very open to all religions and it turns out they have let the missionaries in before, but it was still refreshing to get let in. We have placed one Book of Mormon and a bunch of pass a long cards this past week. The work will move forward! The sun is always shining and the people are very nice, and I am happy to be here.

7/13/2009 - Week 9

Missionary Training Center Veterans - Spanish Speaking District

Hey, family! I got on here, one last time, as I am doing my laundry, for the last time in the MTC. Thought I would say HI or Holla! I will be able to call tomorrow, it will probably be at around or a little after 7 (Utah time). CALIFORNIA HERE I COME!!!

7/8/2009 - Week 8

Nathan and Cousin Jeffery (going to Peru)

I got my flight plans and I am leaving the 14th. I have to be at the MTC travel office at 5am and my flight takes off at 8:40am. I am not sure if I will be able to call you because it is a direct flight, I hope I will be able to. If I can, it will be then (I think). Thanks for the post cards, they have brought me some smiles and laughs. I have such a good family! The weather has been perfect here. I did get to see the fireworks from in the MTC; they were the fireworks from the BYU stadium of Fire, they were kinda weak, but oh well :). I did get to go running with Elders Speirs on the 4th, it was much slower then the firecracker 4, lol, but still fun! While I was running there were 17 hot air balloons, I have never seen that before! I saw Spencer Fogleman yesterday, and saw Elder Jeff Wigington. He was excited to leave today. I got a good picture with him.

7/1/2009 - Week 7

Just emailing you to let you know, I am doing good. I should be getting my flight plans this Friday. I am super excited for the 4th of July, we get to go to the Missionary field, stay up late, and watch the fireworks (I think). Happy Birthday Rebecca!!! I hope you got my card before you left! Party really hard, maybe because you are closer to the MTC I will be able to hear it, lol.

Provo LDS Temple

6/24/2009 - Week 6

I am doing so good, here at the MTC! I am not quite ready to go into the field to teach, yet. I got so much more to learn in the Gospel and the language, but I am excited to be getting closer to go to the field. Being the district leader has been going really well. I will be district leader for three weeks, then it will switch. I am fortunate that our district is pretty much a dream district. We all work hard and the hermanas keep us Elders in line, lol. Yeah, everyone helps me out and wants to be obedient with exactness, so it is really quite easy. They even want me to just get the mail once a day at the end, so it wont be a distraction!!! Que Bueno! Although, I haven't seen the elusive Elder Jeff Wigington, an Elder Wigington did get called to the front desk the other day. I wasn't sure if it was for me, so I called the front desk to see if they wanted a Nathan or a Jeff Wigington. They said, I don't know, but they said they had found an Elder Wigington name tag. Good old Jeff has already lost his name tag, I got a good laugh about that, lol.I thought... you know now that I am missionary I need to share some of my new favorite scriptures with you guys, here goes: 2 Nephi 4:35; 2 Nephi 33:3,12; Romans 8:16-17; D&C 45:3-5; Moses 5:11.

Nathan's Fellow District Elders and Sisters

6/17/209 - Week 5

I am doing great here at the MTC! So, News update:The Mexico missionaries finally got to leave; it was sad to see them go. But we had some good times before they left. I do get to go outside and study, sometimes, if I want, and I get to have gym in the field in front of the temple, occasionaly. My Spanish is coming ok, my dictrict is only speaking Spanish now. I will have the same district the entire time here and the same companion. By the way, I just got called as district leader. I have the most important job of collecting the mail; it is a great honor, lol. The flu is still going around, but I think it is just about beat. Being here has taught me what an amazing beautiful Plan our Heavenly Father has given us. And yes, I am at the half way point, but much like sickness, I don't do scared.

6/10/2009 - Week 4

Swine flu update, everyone except for the Mexico misssionaries are being let go into the field. Poor Mexico missionaries. David A Bednar spoke to us yesterdy. I thought I would share some of his thoughts with you. He answered the most asked qustion: How do I know if it is the Holy Ghost, or just me?Answer: Quit worring about it, be a good boy or girl, honor your covenents, keep the commandments, and press forward with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our steps will be guided, mouths will be filled, and we will be in the right place at the right time; we cannot go amiss.

6/3/2009 - Week 3

News update. Right now, we are teaching mostly in English, but by week 4 it will be all in Spanish. Elder Reidhead and I have started a competion where if we speak in English, we have to put the dork dot back on; now, we just have to enforce it better. We have got 10 new elders in our district and the ones going to mexico can't leave because of the sickness going around, so showers are a little crazy. There are some missionaries quarentied for swine flu and influenza A. I feel sorry for those missionaries going to mexico; they have been here 11 weeks, they were supposed to leave in 9. I am glad Eric escaped, most missionaries leaving Monday, were sent back from the airport to the MTC, to stay here for an other 1-2 weeks. My favorite scripture is 2 Nephi 4:35. Hey, Dad, so in the past few devotionals they say, if it isn't painfully hard, then you aren't doing something right. Do you have any pointers? It will get harder, I am sure.

5/27/2009 - Week 2

Sounds like good times in Wisconsin. Yesterday was purple day in our district. We all wore purple ties and the hermanas all wore purple clothes. We were stylen. I have been learning a lot and been fillin (aka feeling) the spirit a lot, but I don't want to bore you with that. I sang for the MTC choir for devotional, that was interesting. Haven't sang like that for a while. The MTC is definately easier than college and pretty fun, too. I just need to do better with speaking spanish outside the classroom; it is too easy to just talk english.

5/20/2009 - First Week at the Missionary Training Center

Well, the days at the MTC are long, but it is good. I can't remember if I told you this, but my district (4 pairs of Elders and 2 pairs of Sisters) and I are apart of a guinea pig project or a "learning research project." They don't teach us unless we ask, for the next week at least. They want us to develop study habbits that are most effective for us. We choose where we want to put the emphisis of our studies. There have been like only 2 other districts that have done this before us. It is very unstructured and we spend a lot of lime studying Preach My Gospel, preparing lessons, annalyzing our teaching, and learning Spanish on couches, in empty rooms, outside, and occasionally in our classroom. For this reason, I think, our district has become very close.