Monday November 30, 2009

November 30, 2009

Dear Family,

Thanks for all of your great letters - I love reading my letters and the updates from you guys! It is the best! I have lots to write to you about today because lots of great things went on this week! Woohoo!

Thanks for the info on Thanksgiving - I sure missed you all! But I was happy to be here and to be able to have a good Thanksgiving Day. My companion was totally out of money last week, so I ended up paying for our Thanksgiving feast but it doesn´t matter - it was yummy! We had empanadas, soda, and a caramel pie for our feast. It was good! Except the pie made me sick - I had stomach pain for a couple of days, and it hurt pretty bad. I consumed more than half of the Tums that I have, so hopefully I don´t get more stomach pains any time soon, because I don´t have much left! But I´m feeling better now :) but yeah, it was a fun day! We still worked basically all day (Thursday is the big three-hour planning day, and it worked out nicely for Thanksgiving), so yeah, it was a good Thanksgiving Day! And it sounds like you all had a good Thanksgiving too.

The work is going good - we dropped an investigator this last week, which was kind of awkward and sad. He´s just too big into worshipping Mary, and we kept inviting him to read and pray, but he never did - just kept on worshipping his statues. So, we had to drop him. He told us thanks, though, and that we are his friends and he enjoyed our visits. Maybe sometime in the future he´ll turn things around - we´ll see.

We have one person with a baptismal date for the 26th of December - hopefully she follows through! Her name is Maria. She is a sweet lady, but she has lots of family problems. She is older and her family I guess just doesn´t respect her very much, and they´ve had lots of communication problems. Also one of her sons is in prison right now (for his second time), but he isn´t guilty of the charges - he´s in just because he was charged before so he appeared to be the guilty one. But yeah, she is doing good. We´re going to give her a giant Book of Mormon so she can read it easier, and yeah! She´s cool!

Our star investigators right now are Beba and Hugo (Hugo is the Argentine version of Troy - and a painter too! How crazy and cool is that?) They are taking the lessons very well, are reading, praying, and they want to be baptized! Woohoo! Except there´s a problem...they´re going out of town for the whole month of December to be with family for the holidays and such. Dang it! They´ve gone to church one time, so they only need two more times to qualify, so hopefully after the holidays (possibly with another companion), I´ll be able to see through that they get baptized. We´re excited for them and they are praying about whether they should be baptized our not, so hopefully they stay strong during the holidays. They don´t have any problems with drinking or smoking or anything else from what we´ve been able to see, so hopefully it stays that way. Oh, and Hugo is Beba´s son if I didn´t mention that.

Damian still hasn´t been baptized because he just doesn´t want to pray, read, or go to church. It´s kind of frustrating at times. He´s a really awesome kid, and I like him a lot, but he just doesn´t want to do this stuff I guess. His friends aren´t the best friends either, and he´s a member of a soccer club that plays every Sunday morning I believe. I´d hate to see his friends drag him down - we´ll keep trying though, because boy, he could sure use the sweet companionship of the Holy Ghost! He really needs the blessings that come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There was one contact I did that was with this weird guy who´s formed his own "church" in his house. The weirdest part was after we taught about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, because we ended with a prayer (like usual) but after we said "amen," they started like doing their own weird prayer immediately after us, and it was pretty awkward. And during the time we were praying they were muttering phrases to themselves - it was kind of awkward. Probably won´t visit them anytime soon. But oh well! We´ll find people who really want to listen right?

Oh and another factoid - there´s lots more Jehovah´s Witness and Evangelicals here than what I thought there would be. Man, those people are like just angry! And when we think they´ll actually listen, they end up lying to us about their address or something. Luckily, my companion knows the area enough that he can tell when they´re lying. Yeah, it´s kind of frustrating, and the Jehovah´s Witnesses have changed their Bible so much it´s like impossible to teach them. Yeah. It would be easy to get angry with them, but the spirit of contention isn´t of the Lord, so I just testify and let them go basically. I´m not here to Bible Bash.

This week was a kitty week! Holy cow, I was in heaven! Almost every day I was able to be in contact with sweet little kittens and cats, and it was just awesome. One day at lunch with a member, they had bought themselves this awesome new kitten that is way cool! It wanted to play with me, so I played with it for a while, and then it decided to take a nap on my lap for like thirty minutes. It was awesome! It reminded me of my beastly cats at the house...I sure miss them! It´ll be great to give them lots of pets when I get back home - hopefully they don´t think I´m a stranger!

But yeah, I think that´s about it! I´m doing great, my health is better, and I´m learning tons of great lessons. There have definitely been times when I´ve thought "Why the heck am I out here on a mission?" But then I think of everything I´m learning and all the blessings you guys are getting, and then I realize the reason why I´m here. I´m grateful for the Lord and His mercy towards all of us, and for all the blessings He´s giving us. I want to push forward with more energy and be a better missionary for Him, so I can help Him with the work as much as possible and so that He can bless you all even more! I sure love you all, and I miss you, and I know that this Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It´s perfect and without flaw! I know that by living the principles taught by our Master will bring peace and happiness that, truly, no one else can know without. Have a great week, I´ll be sending some pictures, and I hope you are having a great day! I love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Nuttall

From Carson’s letter:

The language is going good here - I´m starting to think in Spanish now, and to be honest, English is getting harder to write and to speak! The gift of tongues is real, and it comes with the work - if you study, pray, and work hard, all gifts from God are possible :). Also, the storms here are incredible! I have some pictures of the storms, and they´re pretty insane. I hope you like the pictures. The rain comes down super hard and in loads, and basically there are mini rivers in the streets! And at some intersections, literally the entire intersection is flooded - the storms here are crazy. It´s kind of fun to be in one, though, except that the wind blows super hard and you get soaked.