Feeling Grateful!

Hey Fam! 

This week has been pretty awesome! A lot has happened, even since Monday (last PDay)! It was pretty cool, we were in Guerrero, a town close to the Junta, with the missionaries over there playing soccer. While we were playing, a BUNCH of people showed up and we started playing king of the court... and we beat everyone twice 😎 Remember that because it's cool later on...

But yea, this week has been great. We've been visiting these two families a lot - and now we have 4 baptisms planned for this Saturday!!! We're super excited. These people really are special and I think that it'll be a really special Saturday. They're super ready and super excited, and we are too! :D

Also, this week, I officially retired my first pair of shoes! That's always an exciting and sad moment for a missionary Hahaha! They served me super well! :D 

Also something kinda crazy happened the other day... We were in a restaurant and when we stood up to pay two older ladies started trying to talk to my companion in English, so I went back to talk too, and it turns out that they were two members of the church! They went on vacation and were on their way back home. The crazy part, is where home is! One was from St. George, and the other said California. So I asked where and she said Sacramento, And I said me too - and then she said ROCKLIN! And I was like WHAT?! I'm from Newcastle!  What are the odds that I'd meat someone from Rocklin in the middle of nowhere on Chihuahua in the Junta in la Sierra!!!!! It was so crazy!!!!! 

But I didn't catch her name, sooo I can't make any connections 😐 Yea, I know, my bad, but I was excited and we were going to be late for an appiontment... But it was really cool!!!!! On the down low, it was totally hard to speak 100% English - like what the heck?! But it was cool!! :)

So yea, we've also spent a lot of time splitting wood lately for people, and that really makes me feel right at home! Hahahaha! It's pretty cool! And one of the people that we cut wood for has a son, and the son asked us if we were the same 'hermanos' that play football Mondays Hahahaha!! So that's why it's cool! Our fame is spreading throughout la Sierra ;) Ha! but naw, it's cool! :)

Really it's been a blast up here in the Sierra, and I really hope that they keep me here for the next 10 months! Hahahaha! It would be way cool!!! But as for now we'll just take it a day at a time!! Hahaah :)

This is a town call San Juanito, it kinda looks like Auburn, right???

I hope you guys are well, I love you guys a bunch! I am super grateful - for my family, for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the opportunity to be here in Chihuahua. I have been given so much. I have been personally blessed more then any one person could really ever deserve, I have received a lot of comfort and guidance in my life, and something that I want to do, more so, I have to do - is use all I have been blessed with to bless others, to help others feel the same love and guidance and comfort that I've felt. We all need to be conductors of God's love! :)

I love you!! Have a great week!!!! Be a conductor of God's love!!!

Till next time,

Nick :)

We Need to Use Our Experience to Help Others!

Fam!

This week was really good! We've been working a lot, my comp and I, and we're really enjoying our time here. The area is really cool and the Branch is awesome. There's a lot of youth here that wanna do good, and that makes me happy. Theres a lot of potential here so that's what were working on most :D And I was able to give a talk this week, being a missionary, I talked about baptism :) I thought it was alright, hahaha :) I keep all my talks, so you guys will be able to read em in a year, Okay? ;) 

Something for sure, is that we've seen a lot of miracles this week, even the little things we've seen are just amazing to me. I'd write a list but there'd be too many - Hahahahaha, honestly, it's incredible. We're meeting amazing people that want to progress. We're meeting and working with people that have already impacted me as a person. Every day I learn lessons of simplicity, being family centered, putting yourself out there, making friends, choosing the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and oh boy, I have felt Gods help every day. 

And this week I think I've learned a lot about the little things. O mas bien, the little things that God does in our lives so that we can help others or meet others needs :) For example, in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 it reads,

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God

or basically, when we receive help from God, we have to be able to reflect this same comfort. If we are able to get through a hard experience with the help of God, we should look to help someone who's going through a similar experience. 

It's something that I really liked from my personal studies this week :)

But life is awesome, I hope all of you guys are killing it back at home!!! 

I love you guys a bunch!!!

Till next time!!!!

Nick

Crazy Awesome Week!!

Hahahaha Mom, 

Don't worry, I'm not mad or sad or upset nor anything like it about you sending another care package, I just know, as the AMAZING WONDERFUL LOVING INCREDIBLE mother that you are, you are always going to go a little extra -- extra effort, extra care, and extra stuff!  And I don't want you to trouble yourself out of worry for me.  I just want you to know that I'm good here, everything's good, and I've purchased some winter clothes too, or have found them here in the house!! I have all the goods, and yea if I have extra I'll just leave for the next missionaries or donate it to members or friends.

But even though I don't need anything, don't worry about overdoing it, or anything like that, because there are a lot of missionaries that never get boxes. I consider myself amazingly blessed to have a Mom that loves me so much and has the means to send me packages to physically show her love because sometimes it's hard to express it when you're so far apart, I get that. A lot of times I feel like I can't properly show how grateful I am for the same reason.

But, you should know that this week was awesome!

My comp and I are killing it out here and this week we travelled out a little farther to a place called Madera :D And I took a video of the drive because I swear I could have been driving on Sierra College Boulevard at home... you have to see it to believe it.. and you will don't worry! ;)

But yea we have like 3 families that we're teaching and they're all going to church! It's pretty awesome! They're all super excited and we're gonna see what happens this month!!!

So yea, I don't know if I told you guys, the wards and branches here are pretty tiny! On a good Sunday we might have like 40 people in attendance. Often the missionaries have to pass the Sacrament, direct hymns or give talks or classes or whatever. It's one of the reasons I really enjoy it here, because we feel like an important part of the branch. It's really cool :)

I've gone back to basics, AGAIN, and I'm gonna be studying the Christlike attributes. Something I've realized is that I haven't been focusing on those for a while. I want to get back to being more like Him so that I can be better for Him and the other people in the world. I know I've said before, but we really can't do His work if we aren't like Him, so I hope that I can be a little more like Him every day until the end of my life :) He told us to be perfect, even as our Father is perfect, so we might as well start trying today!

I love you guys a bunch and I hope you have an amazing week! 

Until the next one :D

Nick

When I went to Leadership Council in Chihuahua I found friends from barrio Centro!!!

Family of gold here in Chihuahua!  I love them! :D

Alexis, my old Ward Mission Leader,

and is now on his mission in Costa Rica!!!!

Abandoned train station in la Junta.