Again with the Football

Man, football is going to be great this year. I think that Lamichael James and Kendal Hunter are the future of the running game in SF. Gore has a few good years in him, but he has been injury prone his entire career. It would be cool if he retired after hitting the 10,000 yard mark.
Yep, I am in the middle of my mission. We have a system to relate a mission to a sports career, and I am about to hit my prime.
Vitamin D deficiency? You should drink some SunnyD. I mean, it's all in the name.
I wish I was in Cali. It has been SSSOOOOO freaking hot here. Wednesday is supposed to be like 108. 1-0-8. Are you Kidding me? Man, It is going to be an oven. Since Elder Burden is from Vegas, he feels pretty normal in this heat.
Things are going really well here. We have a baptism on Saturday with Blake. I am stoked for him. It has been cool seeing his entire countenance change while he has gained a testimony of the gospel. He is a cool gut and will be a great member.
We have a lot of good potentials as well here. Each companionship has an area book with all of the investigators since the dawn of time in it for that area. We have been using that so find new people to teach. it has been working pretty well.
Other than that, we had dinner with Evelyn on Tuesday. She is the coolest person. I really hope to keep in touch with her after I leave here. She is just so cool.
Our stake is doing a "mini-missionary" program, where kids from the stake get paired with real missionaries for 3 days and live the life. We had one last week. He was pretty nerdy. He was a cool guy though. I think the idea of mini-missionaries is genius. it really is the best way to get prepared for a mission. I wish I could've done something like it before I left.

1. Actually, we just nuked our apartment this past week. We cleaned everything and even got a rug doctor to attack the carpet. it is spotless now. And of course, now the stake wants us to be living with members. Ay ay ay. but yes, it is clean.

2. When we're out and about we usually talk about the cars that we see, or music, or life in general. Nothing too profound or too idiotic.

3. I like reading those stories a lot now, but I don't feel totally related my Book of Mormon heroes. I just feel like a missionary. White shirt, tie, dark pants, shark-covered planner.

Okay my favorite family, have a great week. Love you .

Love, Nick

What up Elderino?

FOOOOTTTBAAALLLLLL. Do you have too many butterflies now that camp is starting soon?

I love it.

Cool that Jordan Larson is Spanish speaking in Idaho.  The Spanish people in Idaho will pronounce it: Eeda-o.

Things here are going pretty well. JCS (julio cesar) is doing well. He is reading and so is his daughter so that is great. Phil dropped us. I guess he just wasn't that enthusiastic about the work. Oh well, we gave it a shot. Blake on the other hand, is getting baptized on the 28th of July!!! He is a funny guy. He has received a testimony of the gospel and is ready to take the needed steps to join the church. I am excited for him, he has really come a long way.  If all works out well, he'll get sealed on one of the last weekends in my mission, and I'll be able to go.

Other than those people, the work is clickin' pretty well. We are going to put some focus into finding people this week. We need to ramp up our teaching pool.

Man, it has been hot here. Saturday was a scorcher. I don't have much to say today, nor a lot of time. We got caught up waiting for this dummy to buy some groceries and it took forever. Sorry.

1. We actually had a talk solely about pioneers. So I guess yes, they are making a mention of it. But other than that, not really.

2. No, he is not a morning person at all. He just sits there like Elder Lopez did while I work out. It's a nice gesture. He's a nice guy.

3. We do not have a ton of interaction with any sister missionaries right now because none of them are in our district. Just guy time, all the time.

Okay my beloved family, have a great week. I love you a lot.

Love, Nick

Aloha!

Aloha!

I got Eric Johnson's autograph? Dang. I forgot about that. I do remember going to UoP to watch the 49ers practice. That was sweet. Even though I am totally out of it all, I am stoked for training camp. I love football a lot, and training camp is just the menu screen to the full force dvd that is the NFL.

Yeah, it has been just so freakin hot here. Luckily, this week is supposed to be cooler. All of the grass here is D-E-A-D dead. It has been a dry heat, like Utah, but gets super humid as night. Just when I think that the sun is down and I will be cooler again, I am covered in water from the air. Gross.

Despite the heat, the work is going well.  I just got a call from one of our investigators. He got his answer. He knows the church is true. It was a sweet experience. Umm, funny story. The other day we were teaching this guy and his kid was taking a nap on the table (I know, weird) and then I was reading a scripture and this kid let out the biggest burp ever. I had to hold every fiber of my being together to not bust up. I hate situations like that. Man, how am I turning 20? I still think burps are funny. The work goes well. We are having a good time teaching people.

We are teaching and preaching like champs. Not much more than that. Our 4th of July was boring. We still had to work but nobody wanted to talk to us that day. Then, we taught this guy Miguel (we mostly tried our Spanish people on the 4th) and it was an alright lesson. I never thought before my mission that I would be teaching a guy in full Spanish on Independence Day, who had a belly shirt on (don't ask), while Hotel California was playing in the background. It was an interesting experience. After teaching him we didn't find too many other people that day. We had a lunch with a member and went to Applebee's to finish it off. Pretty quiet day. The rest of the week was pretty good. We found an entire Spanish family to teach. I am excited about that. The guy's name is Julio Cesar Sanchez. In English that is Julius Ceaser Sanchez. I thought that was funny. Pray that they will read. So yeah, not much else. Kind of a quiet week. Sorry.

1. So I have a base list of schools so far: U of U, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, U of Oregon, Colorado State. I was thinking it would be great if we could get on this pretty soon and try to have the applications in by their "priority date" or whatever.

2. President Keyes just says keep working. Actually, he hasn't said anything about keeping safe from the heat.

3. Ummm, something with peanut butter and chocolate. Maybe more of the other missionaries in the wards' letters. I liked those. Besides that, I'm good.

Okay my lovely family, have a good week. I love you.

Love, Nick

Whazzzzzaaaaapppp?! (do you remember that stupd commercial?)

First of all, I've had to use my home card more than I'd like because the ward here isn't giving us that many meals. I think it is probably because they are mostly students, so a lot of them are gone for the summer getting out of this stupid freaking heat. Speaking of stupid freaking heat, bron bron finally got his ring. Good for him I guess, now the haters can't hate.
That Broney thing is funny. I must tell you, my next planner looks pretty epic with a lot of sharks and such on it. Thanks for that.
I have been thinking about schools and such, and I think I wasnt to stay on the west coast for school. I don't know what I want to do with my life yet, but that is something that I have been praying about.
The work here is going really well. Ally's baptism was really great. I guess the church got a new water heater, so the water was like hot-tub hot for the baptism. Usually, we just turn the hot water on and then the heater runs out and by the time the font is full, the water is perfect, but I guess it was super hot. Her dad baptized her, so I never even felt the agua. I guess hot water is better then freezing cold water. When I baptized the Borjorquezs the water was freezing. The baptism was the highlight of the week for sure.

Sounds like everything is going well back at HQ. It has been stupid hot here. It was in the 100's just about everyday last week. So that was just fantastic. 

The other guy that we have on date is Gabriel, who is from Mexico. His hang-up is that he needs to quit smoking. He really has a lot of desires to join the church but is having a hard time giving up those death-sticks.

The guy who wears converses, Phil, is doing well. He isn't a convert, but he should be soon. He is very interested in the church, so hopefully that leads him to the right path.

Evelyn is doing great. She is such a little firecracker. I really hope to keep in touch with her after my mission. The work is going well. We have some solid people that are learning right now. We should be able to see some more fruits of our labors (BAPTISMS!!!) in July. Will you guys pray for our investigator Blake? He more or less has already received an answer to know if the church is true, but he hasn't been able to recognize it. Pray that he will realize his answer. Other than that, life is great. I'm enjoying myself out here.

1. The Olympic what?? ha. I guess not.

2. We have a barbeque to go to on Wednesday with some members, and pretty much after like 7, we're supposed to be with members so that we don't get into trouble or something, so we won't do much work that night. Also, our zone got over 10 baptisms in June, so the stake is making us a pancake breakfast on the 4th as well. Free food? Yes please.

3. A typical pday is as follows: laundry, get ready, email, get some lunch, meet up with other missionaries, usually here we go window shopping and such at an outdoor mall here. There isn't much to do in the Midwest. then at six, it's missionary time again.

Please read Alma 7:11-13. Tell mom to read it. Tell dad to read it. Make Chelsea read it.  You too, Devon and Brit. It is one of the most powerful Atonement scriptures ever. Christ suffered through EVERYTHING. He knows what each of us is going through in our individual circumstances. No person is outside the bounds of the Atonement, but not everyone uses it like they should. How wonderful is it that Jesus Christ has given the ability to use his grace to everyone. "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" -Ephesians 2:8. We are saved by grace through faith, but faith is through action. By having faith in the Atonement, we can begin to use it. To fully use the Atonement, there are more or less 3 things to do. 1) be repentant 2) enter the waters of baptism (or partake of the sacrament and use it fully) and 3) obedience to God's laws. How great is it that all mankind has the opportunity to start anew. The best way for each of us to turn our lives around is through the gospel. We must make sure that we understand the why of the gospel. The what informs, the why transforms. Many have a long path ahead to redemption. But there is a path. For every person, there is a path. I bear witness of Jesus the Christ. He lives and through his ultimate sacrifice for us, we will live. The Church is true, and we have the Savior's words from the mouth of our prophet. I leave these things in the Redeemer's name, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love, Nick

All is Swell

I am glad you had a good anniversary. I miss the Red Iguana. I only ever went like 3 times, but it was delish.

Dude, it has been so freakin humid here. The actual air heat isn't too bad to me, but the fact that by the time we get to our car from the apartment, which is like 50 feet, I am sweating. Yesterday we walked around a lot and I was literally dripping. It was nast-ay.

Also, my comp and I were talking, and can you send us some pictures of sharks for our planners? Also pictures of Street Sharks, it was a cartoon in the 90's. We would really appreciate it.

All is going well here. Carla totally bailed on an appointment that we had with her, so that kinda stank. But other than that, the work is moving along really well. Evelyn is doing great. She is super solid.

Ally is set to be baptized by her dad this Saturday and all is going well with her. She is ready.

We are teaching this guy, Phil. He is a cool dude. He's in probably his late 50's to early 60's but wears high top converses and is a really cool guy. He was a referral from a member in our ward. Yesterday, we were waiting for our investigator, Juan, to show up to church, but it never happened. So we went in to church and we were kinda bummed. Then out of nowhere, here comes this member and Phil. It was sweet. He wore his converses to church. looked good. So that was sweet.

Also, the other day, I totally lost the phone. Like it was gone. We destroyed the apartment looking for it, but it was no where to be found. It was time to go, so we left and went about our day phoneless. it wasn't too big of a deal. Then, when we got back to the apartment, it was phone hunting time. We looked, and looked, and looked, but it was not there. So we went to this member's house and set up a very tedious sort of strategy. We had to give him our number and then tell him to wait until a certain time so we had the chance to get back to our place in time for the call. Then once we got back we heard a distinct buzzing coming from the couch. The phone was in the couch. Like INSIDE of the darn thing. I couldn't believe it.. But we have the phone now. So life is good. All is well is super humid-ville. SUPER. HUMID.

1. The apartment is pretty thrashed. Missionaries have lived there for like 10 years now. Um, it has an open room in the front, probably about the size of my room at home. We have a couch and our desks there. That room is attached to our tiny kitchen. basic apartment kitchen, nothing too fancy. Then we have the bedroom. It is again about the size of my room at home. And we have a bath room. All of the walls are white, the crowning is brown. The carpet is dirty.

2. Luckily, you're supposed to teach as if you were teaching a child as far as explaining things clearly, so we don't change much. She is a really smart girl, so she understands what we say.

3. Yeah, I have been thinking about it. I don't want to be a doctor. I'm not sure what I want to be, but not a doctor. I really want to be involved in sports, whether it be administration, marketing, or journalism. Something along those lines.

Okay familia, I hope this week is great. Love you.

Love, Nick