Sept 24, 2010

Hey mom thanks for the letter. I don't really have much to say this week. Elder Shorten is a pretty chill cat so we have a lot of fun. we get along pretty good and we have the same sense of humor. we found a Mary-go-round while tracting this week so we stopped for a little bit. we are going to probably go back today and play on it. we have some pretty cool new missionaries. Elder Earnshaw came from the MTC and he is pretty quiet and serious. but he is opening up a bit.
we talked to this lady named shorron who was a lot like Ashland it was great but it just made me miss that place. today we are going to go play ping pong with the first ward bishop. we had some good lessons this week and hopefully getting some people closer to baptism.
I am pretty excited for those pots and pans. we have the little things but every apartment here doesn't usually have a good size pot or skillet. they are usually really small and you cant really make gravy or a big pot of rice or jumblia or something. but someone did give is a fairly good size skillet. anyways we are hoping to get Donald ready for baptism he is just stubborn. I hope Jo is doing well.
It is really interesting being on a mission during an election where there is a mormon running. people either really like him or they really don't. It is really getting down to the wire so it is kinda intense. not very many people are really interested in the church because of him. mostly it's that people have a huge misunderstanding about what we believe but think they know everything. In a way it just makes it more frustrating. But at the same time people have a lot more respect for us too because of him. they say they don't agree with what he believes but that he is a good guy and they respect him. we can i believe vote but it would be on leave and you would have to basically send me out the paperwork for it. anyways that I believe is pretty much all for now.

Sept 17, 2012

Hey Mom,

sounds like everything is going good. I don't believe it is Rocky getting blessed considering I was at that blessing, I think you meant Noah. I am hoping to make that chicken and rice but i cant until i get a pan and pot. we dont have anything that i think i can make it with. i did buy a crockpot so i can take it with me as a go through the mission. so if you have any crockpot recipes that would be great.

This week has been pretty good. we went on exchanges twice. one with Elder McKenzie in Redmond so I could Interview someone for baptism, then later in the week with Elder Delis in Madras to interview 2 more. It was a lot of fun being on exchanges. When Elder McKenzie came back to his apartment there were two guys in our apartment changing light bulbs. It was a little awkward to come back to but it was funny. One of the guys was this super buff black guy from NY. He was really cool. We had some interesting lessons this week with some people. One kid that we talked to drove me nuts he was rediculous. I got so sick of it. people here think they know about the mormon church but really they know crap. It's still pretty antimormon here but its alright.

So Elder Moua is gone now. And right now we (Elder McKenzie, Delis, and I) are waiting for our new companions. I am getting Elder Shorten, Elder McKenzie is getting Elder Williams, and Elder Delis is getting Elder Hatton. So they will probably get here around 5. I am pretty excited for Elder Shorten though. I don't know him at all but I think we will be able to do a lot more in Prineville. anyways thats all I can think about that is going on and this computer is horrible! anyways love you tons!

Sept 10, 2012

Hey mom! thanks for the recipe! Everything is going pretty good. we have two people with a baptismal date we are hoping will go through. we had exchanges last week and i was with Elder Gosar in Redmond. it was pretty good. President and Sister Young were in Redmond last week which was great!  we had a few meetings with them and learned a lot. We are changing a few things that we do now in the mission. Hopefully it will work out great. I think we are already seeing more success. so on Thursday we had 2 dinner appointments. the first was with a regular white family and we had Fajitas. And the second dinner was at the Ortiz family and we had chicken Fajitas. There is definitely a difference between white man fajitas and mexican fajitas. the white ones were good but the mexican ones were probably the best fajitas i have ever had in my life. afterwards they had us teach 3 people that they had over. it went really good even though they didnt speak english and our translators didnt have the best english either. we are going to meet with them again so elder Hawkins in Madras (the spanish missionary) can teach them. so we have exchanges again. tonight I am going to Redmond to go on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders Elder McKenzie so I can do a baptismal interview. then on wednesday we are doing another exchange with Madras so I can Interview two more people and that way Elder Hawkins can teach the spanish people here.

I think one of the Pluses to serving in the US is being able to have a variety of cultures. Diana white invited us over for dinner and we had Cajun Jumbolia (i have no idea how to spell that) while she told us about growing up in south Louisiana. It was awesome and the food was soooo good. 

for service this week we helped bro moss buck some hay which was super fun. there wasnt as much as last month but it was still good. anyways thats pretty much all the highlights of the week. Love you!

Nate's 20th Birthday 8/28/12 Letter on 9/3/12

Hey Mom! thanks for the email, This week has been pretty good. It was a pretty good birthday week. I don't think anything really happened on my actual birthday but it was still good. I appreciate all the packages I got they were great! I was never more excited to see ties in my life. on monday we had dinner with a member that had a cake for my birthday and it was a lot of fun. they are a part member family and we had a good family home evening with them. on tuesday we didnt do much had a few lessons. had a few fall through. our dinner appointment forgot they were feeding us and were up in portland so we ended up calling someone last minute to have dinner but it ended well. This week one of our main investigators came back after being gone for 2 weeks and we are sure excited about that. so hopefully we will set a date with him. On Thursday we were having a really rough day so we had a prayer that we would find someone. after that I thought that we just just walk for a while and saw some cool miracles. we were going to contact a referral and a these people pulled up next to us and started talking with us. It was a Less active member who said that he wants us to come buy and visit him. his name is grady and his girlfriend debora. so we set up a time and went to visit them. we had a good visit, and debora said she knew the book of mormon was true but to not try and convert her. we are teaching a former pastor bill who is really awesome and said he would love to come to church with us this week. so we are looking forward to it. anyways that is pretty much the highlights of the week.

Aug 27, 2012

Hey mom! yeah I know what you mean when you say I can't believe you are turning 20. I can't believe it either. It is really weird. thank you for the CD. I don't really like country but I like the blue grass style that they use in the lower lights CD. But I really enjoyed the package it was great! THANK YOU! I think i might be sending a package home soon. I need to get rid of a lot of books we are only allowed a few (scriptures, gospel library, pmg) and that is pretty much it so I think I will send the rest home so it saves me room. i have a ton of junk that I dont need with me so I will just send it to you to put in my room.

so this week was so-so. we had dinner last monday with this crazy navy seal guy who went nuts in the restaurant swearing and stuff. He loves to talk about military but I learned that if he starts you change the topic immediately! I was surprised we didn't get kicked out. so we set another baptismal date with a girl named Karina but she called today unsure about meeting with us again but luckily we have another appointment with her. we had dinner with some investigators that went well. he is a minister at the jail but he is very friendly. we talked about the plan of salvation and everything. it went good and we are going to go back soon.

 so we were basically out of miles so we had to walk everywhere. I loved it! we got to talk to a lot of people which was cool. So there are whats called "rainbow people" here in town which are basically just a ton of hippies. The town seems to hate them but I love it! Its like a splash of Ashland in Prineville. So I almost got to try goat this week but we had to leave the kids birthday party before it got there. so that was a bummer. but who knows I will probably get a chance another time. anyways I actually got to get going but thanks again! Love You!

Aug 20, 2012

Hey mom!

thanks for the email. this week has been pretty crazy. we went to Eugene on Wednesday as well as Saturday for general authority visits. first on wednesday Elder Snow of the Seventy toured the mission with his wife on Wednesday and Thursday so we got to meet them and shake their hand. They were a lot of fun and they taught us a ton. We had to drive our own car there which was a beast because it killed our miles. but it was a lot of fun. it was about a 3 to 3.5 hour drive so it took basically all day. we left at about 9 and didnt get back till 10:30. but it was good. we had a good meeting and afterwards they had dinner for us. at the dinner it was super weird because this 60 something year old guy came up and started talking to elder moua. it was fine at first because he was just asking about his ethnicity and explained that he just got back from china. then he started crying telling him that when he looks at him he sees all the kids that he taught. which was fine except he kept stroking the back of his head. then he kissed elder moua on the forehead which was incredibly awkward for everyone at the table. i thought i would have to protect my companions from the young ladies, not really old guys who love asians. so we had a really slow week because of the meetings but Elder Anderson came to the mission on Saturday with Elder Stevenson head bishop of the church, Elder Rasband, and Elder Hansen. It was awesome to be able to shake their hands. Elder Anderson is actually really funny so we had a good time. the whole mission was together for that so it was awesome to be able to see all the missionaries. I found out that Angela, a investigator down in Ashland that I with Elder Gamez and later Elder Jackman taught went through with her baptismal date that we set for the 28th of July. so that was awesome. btw i finally found someone to give that book of mormon away to that sister starr gave me. it was the first family that i found that had anyone close to the ctr5 class. their names are Sergio, Sherry, Morriah(6), and  Victoria. so I when i have time will write up the story so i can give it to you to get to her. 

There was also a baptism last night for a kid named Tanner that the Birts (the senior couple here) were teaching. I got to interview him for baptism and while we were filling out his address i realized that he was in our ward. so they were poaching which i wouldnt suspect a senior couple to do but oh well. we love them anyway. they are super awesome. they just bought us tie clips and they are taking us out to post later to get milkshakes. I am pretty much adopting them to by my 3rd set of grandparents. they can be my utah grandparents. anyways that is pretty much all that happened this week! love you all!

Elder Berg

PS how is my dummy bob doing? and tell Allen to send me that Dominican style chicken recipe and rice. and beans too. 

Aug 6, 2012

Hey Mom!

Everything is still going good. we just had transfers and everyone stayed the same in the district except one of our zone leaders elder thompson went down to medford. so i am in prineville another transfer. so when i got on today i was expecting to see pictures of baby noah but i guess not. how was it seeing my on google maps? that is pretty much the top of my bucket list checked off right there. This week went pretty good. we didnt talk to too many people however the people we did talk to said we could come back which was pretty good. Elder Moua made a Vietnamese dish called Pho for some members. um not much else happened this week other then that. we went on exchanges and i went to redmond to be with Elder Shipley. we had a pretty good time but walked all over the place because we didnt have the car. I almost got on a bike but thought that it probably wouldnt be a good idea. during the exchange i had to meet with the stake president to talk about the district. it actually was pretty good we had dinner with him and talked about how the district is doing. currently it is doing really good! 

So i have no idea what is going on in peoples head to make them think that they need to answer the door when they arent dressed. i guess we are that important or something. but it makes for really awkward conversations. anyways that is pretty much everything that happened this week!

8/6/12

July 30, 2012

Hey mom,

thanks for the email. this week was so so. we were told that we would have a baptism here because someone was coming over from sweethome to get baptized. his name is tarrence. his family lives here so we got everything set up here for him. it doesnt count towards this area but oh well. Diane is getting baptized this weekend though and she seems really excited for it. she personally invited pretty much everyone. she is so involved in ward activities and events that everyone basically thinks that she is just a member from first ward. she even helped in the kitchen for a funeral we had here.

Elder Wells and I went over to Eugene for District Leader training. we had a pretty good time over there. I learned a ton. but that day was kinda tiring. the morning of the trip we had to wake up at 5 so we would be there on time. but i didnt sleep too much. we had a storm in the middle of the night and a cat fight right out side of our window. but the day was still pretty good. we spent most the day tuesday traveling to eugene, sitting in the meeting, and traveling to bend from eugene. then tuesday evening and wednesday day we were on exchanges and i was in bend with elder wells. anyways thats pretty much everything that happened this week. love you!

July 23, 2012

Hey mom,

thanks for the email. this week was so so. we were told that we would have a baptism here because someone was coming over from sweethome to get baptized. his name is tarrence. his family lives here so we got everything set up here for him. it doesnt count towards this area but oh well. Diane is getting baptized this weekend though and she seems really excited for it. she personally invited pretty much everyone. she is so involved in ward activities and events that everyone basically thinks that she is just a member from first ward. she even helped in the kitchen for a funeral we had here.

Elder Wells and I went over to Eugene for District Leader training. we had a pretty good time over there. I learned a ton. but that day was kinda tiring. the morning of the trip we had to wake up at 5 so we would be there on time. but i didnt sleep too much. we had a storm in the middle of the night and a cat fight right out side of our window. but the day was still pretty good. we spent most the day tuesday traveling to eugene, sitting in the meeting, and traveling to bend from eugene. then tuesday evening and wednesday day we were on exchanges and i was in bend with elder wells. anyways thats pretty much everything that happened this week. love you!

June 11th 2012

Hey Mom,

Sounds like everyone has been super busy recently. i loved the package you sent especially the pictures. it looks like a blast. Thanks for getting Eriks CD to me it came just in time. i wanted to give it to him for his birthday which is today so that works out. everything is going good in the mission. Naomi was blessed in Sunday which was great. we had a few investigators at church, and some good lessons this week.

we had interviews with president on wednesday and thursday morning we went on a 2 or so mile run with president and sister young. it was really nice we had a good devotional and afterwards they got the entire zone oatmeal with blueberries from McDonalds. its was pretty cool. thats pretty much everything that we did this week that really stands out. in interviews i was told that it was time for me to move so on the 25th i will be leaving Ashland.  so after wednesday the 20th if anyone is going to send me a letter send it to the mission office until i get my new address.