Visiting Dr Warner on Election Day 2012

Studying the Zone

Nov 26th 2012

hey mom! thanks for the email. our thanksgiving was pretty good. We had dinner at the Matthews which was a lot of fun. It was a lot like home because there were 13 kids running around. Thanksgiving we played football with 1 of our districts, then we went bowling with another district, had dinner then watched 17 miracles at the church with some other missionaries.

Monday we went finding and it was pouring rain. we had everything in ziplock bags so it wouldnt get soaked. it rains so much here. i have to cycle through 3-4 pairs of shoes because they don't dry out fast enough. but its been pretty fun.

We went on splits with the priests and taught Carolyn and Melanie. I taught Carolyn while Elder Thomas taught Melanie. Our lesson with Carolyn went very well. she is really excited to get baptized on Dec 15. we taught her the plan of salvation and she really liked it all. She came to church but left her dog (wolf) Shonca in the car. I guess its trained to detect if her blood sugar is on the fritz and she was planning on taking him in but decided against it. The Bishop over our ward is awesome! during sacrament he had all the youth stand up and told them how much he loved them. How much the savior loved them, and how we all need to do our best in helping them. After sacrament meeting we took Carolyn up to meet Bishop Moore and the first thing she said was " Hi i'm Carolyn. Will you baptize me?" We talked earlier before sacrament that any male that had the Priesthood could baptize her. So she asked Bishop right then and there. It was pretty awesome. she told him how much she appreciated his words and that basically bore her testimony to him. she talked about the spirit feeling like a big sun in her chest and how everything just rang true to her. she is set on getting baptized. she said that since she has made that decision everything has been like a tornado. But she knows what is trying to stop her and said she was a "fighter". She is without a doubt one of Heavenly Fathers elect children that had been prepared.

as to other stuff going on. My companion and I are getting along great! we are working hard and having a lot of fun. He sings a lot and does acting. so other things that are going on. we had another thanksgiving last night that was good. there were a ton of people but it was very enjoyable. We have specialized training tomorrow and teaching Carolyn with President Young. So we got to get ready for that. Anyways that't pretty much it for this week. I have some pictures to send however I left my camera back at the apartment so you will get them next week.

November 19th

Hey mom,

Everything is going pretty good. I enjoyed your letter. I think I will probably just eat a bag of marshmallows a day instead. that way i can actually enjoy them. so our p-day has been changed to Thursday so we may or may not email on that day too. our p-day today ends at 1. We set a date with one of our investigators Carolyn who is pretty set and really wants to get baptized. so that was pretty exciting. she is going for December 15. Anyways that's basically all for this week. btw can you email me your tamale recipe for an investigator so i can print it off thursday? thanks love you!

Nate's First Week as Zone Leader

Bro Jones

Nate with the Birts

Service Day in Prineville

Nov 12, 2012

Hey mom,

So this week was pretty interesting. We did however have some great lessons this week. We were at the doctors during the election day and were in the waiting room while it was going on. it was funny because everyone was so focused on the tv until we walked in. then they just stared at us to see what our reaction was like. so we tracted in to a part member family last week or so and this week we had a lesson with them. the first one went pretty good and Matt (the less active) said he knows its all true and his wife was interested.

Thursday we had a day of sacrifice where we just parked our van (Btw we have a mini van) and walked all day. it was great because our area is pretty small. but we ran into a ton of great people.

So friday I got my catheter. not fun at all. afterwards we trained a district leader, went to lunch, and checked out an apartment for the Turners coming in to the four corners ward. saturday we had a breakfast for salem stake so we went to that. it was pretty great actually. after we went to introduce our bishop to matt and melanie and that went pretty good. we ran some errands delivering supplies around the zone and went to dinner at the putnams. after dinner we were on our way to the stake center and got a surprise call from president young saying that he was at the stake center at some single adult thing. so we got to visit with him for a minute then had our lesson with lauren. then we visited with our ward mission leader and came in to prep for our talks in church. 

Sunday was a interesting day. at around 3 Am a less active we were working with called us but we didnt answer because we figured it was a drunk call. but then he called at 6 am and asked if we could get him from the hospital. so we had to get him take him home, finish our talks, and get to church. we were suppose to give our talks on missionary work specifically inviting and the blessings that come from that. It was interesting giving a talk with a bag of pee strapped to my leg. but it was cool because if i was nervous it was all good because it just would all just drain into my pouch. so that worked out great. i would just have to try and hide the big bump above my knee. I told the bishop afterwards that he can now say that while he was bishop he saw someone pee themselves while they gave a talk. we tracted a bit, but now my catheter is no longer. and i dont miss it at all. anyways thats pretty much how my week has been! 

11/5/12

Hey Mom!

Sorry I didn't really have time to write much last week. It's been pretty crazy lately. 2 weeks ago we went on exchanges up in Madras and had a pretty good time. we basically only did service on the exchange. The Elder I was with didn't really do anything except drink soda and play with their horses while I split most of their wood. But it was still pretty fun. During our lunch hour we went to a members home so that we could go see their horses. they have 4 huge Percheron's. We went in and I almost got trampled by the biggest one named pete. it was crazy. they were a lot of fun though. after lunch we went back to split more wood. but then i broke the head of the splitting maul. anyways that's pretty much it for Prineville.

Now I'm in Salem! It's pretty nice here but it rains a ton. either its raining or there is a mist in the air. I think for the first few days being here I didn't even see the sun. But it is a really nice town. our area is pretty wealthy so the work is harder here. The members are doing good with helping us out but it is just really hard. our boundaries are pretty small because there are so many wards here. When I first got here I has freaking out a little because of how much we have to do. The Zone Leader I was replacing stayed with us for a day and taught me a little about what i need to do. It was pretty intense because he is SUPER organized and I felt like a new missionary again. Our Zone is about 37 missionaries and I believe is the biggest zone in the mission. I kinda feel like I have no idea what I am doing but I think it will be alright.

We are staying pretty busy with everything even though the work in this area is hard. We met with the Stake President of Monmouth stake and had a breakfast with him and two of the four districts. 

So we had Zone Leader Council this week at the mission home. It was weird going to the mission home for the first time since i came in to the mission. It was really cool experience and there like 5 squirrels going crazy right outside the window at the zlc. it was hilarious! anyways thats pretty much all for now. Love you!

Oct 29, 2012

Hey mom!

so we are sitting here at the transfer spot in Eugene and I am waiting to be transferred. They are moving me up to capitol (Salem) to be the Zone Leader with Elder Thomas. Elder Thomas was my second district leader in the mission and is an awesome elder so i am excited. I am very grateful to be getting an awesome missionary for a companion. So I don't really have time to email because we are suppose to be leaving soon so i cant really tell you everything this week so expect a longer email next week or possibly another email today. i dunno it depends on time. i have a few pictures to send you. some highlights for this week: I made a game like werewolf but with those who said cards you gave me and did it with the gadianton robbers. so we read scriptures about them and played the game for a FHE. it went pretty good. The Bishop was pretty bummed that i was leaving. we did have a good visit after at his house.  anyways we gotta go right now hopefully i will be able to email later the driver from prineville is freaking out about something so i gotta go.

Amy's Baptism

Just Divorced in Prineville

Oct 22, 2012

This week went pretty good. we had a Baptism! Amy got baptized on Thursday which was a battle but everything went well. she told us the day before the baptism that it had to be about 30 minutes because she had to be at a school concert for her kids. everything turned out though.
That is pretty much the most exciting thing that happened this week. we went to the conformation in first ward and afterwards they had the primary program. I always love that one kid that seems to yell the words rather than sing. There was a little girl who is just starting to really talk who sat in front of us. during the Primary program, one of the kids in his script said "...Jesus died to..." and the little girl turned to her mom and yelled "Jesus died?! OH NO!" she was hilarious. anyways thats about it for this week.