Drafted...for the Lord

Mi familia,

I'll be honest, before the Niners signed Brandon Jacobs, I was hoping that they would draft James. I guess they did anyways. They have a ton of running backs. Sounds like a productive effort on our Boys from the Bay's part. How are the Giants doing? Is the bearded hero still going to sit the season? I don't have a ton of info on the Mother's Day sitch, but I will investigate like McGruff the Crime dog on Sunday.

There aren't very many barbecue places up here as we are more north of the metropolis that is KCMO. I miss Oklahoma Joe's. So freakin good.

I got the charger. Thanks a billion. And thanks for the package. It was fun to read how everyone is doing.

The work is really going well. I was on exchanges when we saw Edgar and Cecilia, but my comp said that it went well. We have this other guy named Juan de Dios (John of God, I know, kinda weird) and he is really enthusiastic about the message. Also, we started teaching a guy named Prisco who is very interested in learning more, especially because his dad is a member. So yeah, the work is really cookin'.

The open house is done, and the dedication is on Sunday. Should be cool. We went to the temple again on Friday. It is a pretty cool place. On Friday we also did Liberty Jail, and the Indy VC.- the whole kit-and-kaboodle. The Liberty Jail is about as fun as a jail. Informational but bland as Kansas. The entire MO-KS area is buzzing with temple excitement. Lots of nonmembers that we run into tell us that they went to check it out. It has been excellent publicity for the church and we have been finding new people like crazy. This past week was pretty sweet- 8 new investigators. Hopefully, a lot of good comes from it.

On Saturday we get to go chill with President Monson, and sing the "We have been born as Nephi of old song" in the Cultural Event. Should be a good time. President Keyes is bussing in all of the missionaries in the entire mission, so it will be really fun to see everyone.

The weather has been kinda weird. On Wednesday it was 90 degrees, which was terrible. Now, it is raining. I don't have a problem with allergies here (knock on wood), so that is a plus. Ok, it is your favorite time.

1. We drive or take the bus and walk. We have the car every other week. Members here are very willing to drive us around. It is nice of them.

2. Elder Lopez's English is ok. He rarely speaks it. We try to have one day Spanish, one day English, but it never lasts past lunch. I'm guessing that English isn't his favorite.

3. I make my best effort to pound as much tasty greens as possible when we are at dinner appointments. Seems to be going well.Congrats on the callings, you should tell them about how we are really named Malomet but also Goldberg, and say "If we didn't do Family History Work, I wouldn't have written proof that my husband's family is crazy." I'm sure they'd get a kick out of that. I do.

Okey doky, familia, have a good week.

Love you, Nick

1/3rd of the way

Tell Michael congrats.The baptism sounds like a great success. It is really great that he went through with it. Good to hear that people asked about me and I'm not completely forgotten.

I am pretty stoked about the 1/3 mark. I have been out of the MTC for 6 months now. That is crazy. I don't think that my personality has changed too much, but I am a lot more open with people now. Like it doesn't take me near as long to get comfortable with someone. My faith has definitely grown a lot, and my overall knowledge of the gospel. So yeah, it has been a rad time. By Christmas I will be at 2/3. Weird to think.

 The stake stats are crazy. #1 in the hood.

The new comp is pretty good. We have been working hard and have been seeing the fruits of the work. We don't have anyone close to baptism yet, but hopefully soon we will get someone on date. The ward here is really strong. The members are all very willing to help us. We found a pretty solid family this week. Their names are Edgar and Cecilia. They took the first lesson really well, and even asked us to call them and make an appointment. Hopefully it turns out well for them. The work here is starting to pick up, and we had a missionary themed sacrament meeting yesterday to get the ward more excited.

The temple has been a real blessing for the work because it allows people to talk with their friends about the church in a more open way. They don't have to ask friends out of nowhere to take the lessons, just to go with them to see a big building. We went last week with a less active family to the temple, it went really well. We also had an appointment to go on Saturday, but we got stood up. That kinda blew. Other than that, we are still truckin' along.The temple is still in the open house stage until this Saturday. It gets dedicated on May 6. The entire mission is singing at the cultural event on the 5th. Should be sweet.

That is crazy that Rick comes home this month. Where did the past 2 years go? Well, you know what time it is....

1. We have a great ward. They do not let us go hungry. This month we haven't had a day without dinner. It is great. Therefore, I do not cook.

2. Yeah my companion is good about getting up on time, so we both get up and exercise. It has been good. I always feel better during the day when I exercise. Not as groggy.

3. Yeah so our branch is like only a half hour long sacrament meeting. The ward has quite a few people who served in spanish speaking places, so usually someone will stay with us and give a talk. Yesterday was my turn however. I talked about preparedness.

Alright daddy-o: I am sad that Johns Hopkins has fallen so hard. Luckily, their core group will be there next year, assuming they lose in the playoffs. Have fun watching the draft, I wish I could.  have a good week. Love you.

Ok my favorite mom, thanks for all that you do. Have a good week.

Love you, Nick

New Stuff

An anecdote to start off this email.

Me: Hey does (person) live here?

Man: Nope, not for a few years.

Me: Oh, we have you ever seen missionaries like us before?

Man: I'm blind.

Me:.........

Yep, that happened. This week has been a whirlwind. Transfers are a crazy thing. In 24 hours you are somewhere completely different with someone completely new.

Speaking of whirlwinds, over Saturday night there were 122 tornadoes. They all went right around KCMO, where I live now.

My new comp is Elder Lopez from Mexico by way of Nebraska. He is a very hardworking guy, and I am very happy about that. He's pretty cool. He is really serious at times, which is hard for me because I am not. This area is called Platte Woods, but is located in KCMO, so I'm just across the river from Kaw Riv. The area has a Spanish focus, but we also work with lots of English speakers as well. The ward is an English ward, and we have a tiny Spanish branch of like 5-7 people. We are assigned to cover 2 stakes worth of Spanish, but because of the Temple Open House, we don't have much info for the Liberty stake.

Quite a few of the members here are in either med school or dental school in KCMO and they live in a group of town homes we call Provito (Lil' Provo). The area is nice, I am looking forward to working here.

Leavenworth has their own set of mishies. Elder Eldridge, the Nichol's cousin is there actually. He is a funny guy. We talked yesterday for awhile. Um.. what else?

I am excited that Michael is getting baptized. That's gonna help everybody out.

The ward is good. It is all white people. That was different. We cover the ward, and then a Spanish branch. It is small. All is going well here, our apartment complex has a gym, and that is sweet. We live really close to the temple. So yeah, life is good. Oh we almost had to give a funeral for a kitten on Friday. We were contacting people, and this lady stopped us and asked us if we could help out with her grandkid's cat's funeral. She lived far, so we kindly declined.

Yeah, all is going well. I am excited to really get going with this area. We live like 10-15 minutes away from the Temple. It is a really cool building. We went on Wednesday before transfers. It was a good time. Well, not much else to say without spoiling your questions.

1. It wasn't necessarily hard to say goodbye. It just kinda happens. They were all very supportive. Keep in touch with Sis. Gaona for me. She helped us a lot.

2. We live in an apartment. It is pretty nice, but the bathroom is tinsy tiny. Speaking of which, here is the address:

6317 N. London Ave. Apt. K

KC, MO 64151

3. So no we aren't in a ward of Spanish speakers. Just a little branch. The area authorities are talking about combining a lot of the little branches in the greater KC area to make a decent sized branch/ward.

Alright Momma, hope you can relax a little this week.

Dad, Glad the bay treated you well. My contacts are fine. I will be good for a long time with them.

Love you,

 Nick

Hoppy Easter

Hey!
Easter was pretty good. The sacrament meeting that we had was really good. They did the whole story of the death and resurrection. It was really interesting.

I'm hoping Harold gets called to the Missouri Independence Mission. But only God knows (still have my fingers crossed).

I can honestly say that I will not become a Royals fan. Giants, Giants, Giants through and through. The soccer leagues are all in full swing, so a lot people are glued to that.

As far as the work goes, it went pretty well this week. We saw Ruben, and he is doing well. He wasn't able to get to church, which is a bummer. We have talked about it a lot and these people figure out how to get to various places, so if they really want to they'll find a ride to church. You know what I mean? Like we should always try to find people a ride, but ultimately, they have to have the desire, and they can always figure out how to get there. We weren't able to see Vilma at all this week, every time we went by, no one answered the door. Yeah, there really isn't any solution for the daytime situation. Just keep going.

 Transfers are this week. I couldn't tell you what will happen. I will be sure to let you know. I initially thought for sure that I would be transferred, but Pres. Keyes has said that this transfer will be really small. We had a zone conference/ half-mission conference last transfer, so this upcoming transfer are interviews. Anyways, all is well.

You know what time it is:

1. The Temple Dedication is May 6. We can only go to the stake centers to watch. We can't go to the temple itself.
2.For Easter we went to the Gaona's. It was fun. They are a fun family.
3.I just finished the Book of Mormon like on Saturday. Next is D&C. It is going really well.

Dad: What is up? All is well here. Nothing too crazy. Just basic KCK hood-rat stuff. Wheelin and dealin. There are a ton of sweet cars here. Like 90's caddys with 24s and such. A lot of Monte Carlos here. I think it is like 50/50 that is get transferred. That stinks that the Giants lost all 3. What is up with that? No run support again? fill me in.

Mama: We get to talk pretty soon. That'll be fun. I got my mission call a year from next month. That is crazy how fast the time went. Sorry I don't have much to say.
Well mi familia, I miss you and love you. Have a good week.

Love, Nick

 

Conference was the Bomb.com

What is up Familia?
I thought this was a great conference for many reasons. I liked the fact that the speakers just straight up taught doctrine. No tippy-toeing, just the truth. Like the Prophet yesterday more or less taught the Plan of Salvation. Sweet, right? Did you see David Archuleta singing? Ha. We all thought that was funny.
That is really great that Michael has decided to get baptized. This will bless everyone. I really thought conference was awesome. One of things I really liked was the talk in Priesthood Session about reactivating members.
Anyways, this past week was HOT. On Tuesday it rained, and I thought that it would have cooled it down, but 5 minutes later it was sunny, and all of the water evaporated into the air to make it at least 90% humidity. Yeah, this summer is going to be a melter. The work this week was alright. It seemed like nobody was home during the day. Our nights were good, but the days dragged on and on. The temple open house starts this upcoming Saturday, and that should put us in work. We are expecting a ton of referrals, hopefully the ward provides. As far as investigators go. We took our WML to see Ruben with us on Wednesday. He is doing really good. We just have to get him to read. I am pretty sure that he can, but he says that his eyesight doesn't let him. Hopefully we can have a good lesson or 2 with him this week.
It is pretty hard to contact people here because a good portion of them don't have a phone or have pre-paid phones so their numbers change almost constantly. That is a little bit of a trial here. Other than that, we are truckin' along. We have a few really solid investigators that we are working with to get on date.
Well you know what time it is:
3 QUESTIONS!!!
1. I usually wear my watch to church and that is about it. Can't lie
2. We can't roughhouse with kids, but give them high fives and such, occasionally I'll pick up the Gaona's baby to play with him, but that is about it.
3. I don't know which talk was my favorite. They honestly were all good. Temple Square did remind me of home. I was like "hey, I know there"
Too cool. Ron Burgundy is one of my favorite movies ever.
Well, I miss you guys a lot. I love you. Have a good week.
Love, Nick