New Address for Nick

Hey Mom,

Sounds life things have been pretty wild. Speaking of pretty wild, we are moving houses and will have a new address come Wednesday:

2503 Button Bush Cir

Derby, KS 67037

Dad: That's too bad that Crabtree is out. Poor dude. 

We went to Chili's for lunch yesterday and right in front of my face was the Nat'l Champ  LAX game. Satan is good at what he does. Who ended up winning? 

Mom has told me all about your little birdies. Have you named them yet? 

Things are going well for me. Anyways, we are trying to work a lot more with members. Elder Quentin L. Cook came to the MIM last month (we didn't get to see him because we were too far away) and said that "if it sounds like it could be more effective than tracting, do it. So that is what we have been doing. We are currently going through the ward roster and seeing every person on it. It has been fairly successful. 

So last Monday was pretty wild. After emailing we had to drive to Emporia, KS which is in between the middle of nowhere and Dorothy's house to pick up my new companion. That has to be one of the most boring drives ever. My new comp, Elder Eliason, is a total cowboy. He is from Holbrook, ID, a town with literally more cows than people. His family owns a beef ranch with over 1700 cows!!! He eats out of chuckwagons and shaves with a knife and sleeps under a horse. Not really, but that would be sweet. He did rodeo in high school and can do cool rope tricks.  He was actually a DL in this zone before getting bumped up to ZL with me.  He is really awesome and we get along really well.

We are trying to lift the zone a lot with the new mission coming up. We want them to be really excited. It is going to be sweet. 

Do you guys have any trips planned for this summer, or anything fun going on? 

These kids in front of me are playing some game called minecraft. It is all pixelated and stupid looking. Not nearly as cool as Pokemon back in the day.  

I would like to let you know that I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday in English. All those in favor to "neener-neener" please show by the uplifted sign. Blasphemy? Yep. 

This past week was pretty awesome. We had interviews on Tuesday and President Keyes told me himself, that I am the first person to be shipped home from the soon-to-be Kansas Wichita Mission! Weird. I am also the only person going home on July 30 barring some sort of disobedience coup. Crazy. I'll get to be by myself. Weird. 

We are still working with Sam, and he is doing awesome. We taught him the plan of salvation on Saturday and it went really well. This week should be good. We have transfers this week, but it won't mean much for me. We also have a tornado warning for tomorrow. Maybe I'll get to see one of those whirling dervishes from a distance safe enough for pictures.

1. See email,. Yeas I really am the only one coming home then.

2. Training a new Zone Leader isn't really a huge deal. I just have to get him caught up on the procedures like setting up miles for cars and some reporting that we have to do.

3. That tornado in Moore is crazy. It is really sad to see. It looked a lot like Joplin from 2011.

Okay , have a good week. Love you lots.

Love, Nick

Nick sees a Tornado

Hey, mi familia, we had a pretty eventful week.

On Monday night after Pday, we were invited to go eat with President Keyes who was in town. This never happens. So we ate some mediocre Italian food at the Olive Garden and then Pres. Keyes took Elder Taylor away to talk with him and when they came back he took me with him for a minute. Elder Taylor has been called to be the first AP in the Kansas Wichita mission. He is pretty nervous. He is actually leaving today after we are done emailing. 

Pres. Keyes told me that I would be training a new Zone Leader here in Ridgepoint. He also told me that I would be ending my mission here, in Derby. I will be flying home from the Wichita airport and everything. Instead of having a little group to go with, I will most likely be going home alone. Weird. So that was crazy. 

Then last night we had a monster storm come in. A town about 17 miles south of us got hit with a tornado and where we were the sky was all green and tornado looking. It was awesome. It was probably the most entertaining storm ever. We actually had to cancel the last hour of church because the sirens started going off. Luckily the family that we were with is really into cool storms, so instead of shrinking in the basement we all went outside and watched the tempest. 

Also, I went on exchanges with Elder Johnson, one of the DL's in the zone. We had a good time together. He was a body builder before the mission and he is going to help me hit 180 before I come home so I can be ripped. He says it is all in the nutrition. 

Besides these things, our week was pretty good. We found 5 new people to teach which is going to help a lot. Sam got into a motorcycle accident last week, so he has been in a lot of pain. He is still doing well though. Tom is alright. We have an appointment with him this week, so we'll see what is going on with him.

An investigator in my 2nd area gave me those tan shoes. He said that they were too big or something. They are pretty nice looking.

1. If you really feel like sending me something, maybe those cookies that Dad likes to make with the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.

2. To keep in contact later, we mostly give each other our names to look up on Facebook because we all gave up our phones when we left so we don't know what our numbers will be.

3. I have gotten some addresses from some of the members that I really liked, but  mostly  I will just have to look them up on Facebook when I get home.

Okay,have a great week. 

Love, Nick

Editor's Note: This is the ubiquitous picture that all Elders seems to send, trying to show they still have their cool. However, the thing that their mom might notice is that the room is terribly messy, beyond belief. one might be horrified.