Hello Family & Friends,

It has been a couple of months since my last update on Nate in Argentina.  He has been out 9 months now and is still serving in Las Delicias, where he has been since January.   Transfers are next week, and he thinks he will probably be transferred to a new area.  Regarding his time in Las Delicias, Nate wrote the following to us in an email on June 4, 2018: 

            there are lots of good people here and i know ill be remembered when im gone. ive baptized so many people here that the whole barrio is getting excited again and old members want to come back to church to be part of the action. i hope thats my legacy.

In one of Peter’s recent emails to Nate, he asked Nate how he was doing with the language.  Nate wrote this reply:

            i can communicate with people well, but a conversation between me and a non native would probably still be a bare bones conversation. i understand it all though and sometimes it comes out of me before i remember how to say it and thats cool. lots of practice. ive been thinking in spanish for a long time and i started having dreams 2 or 3 months ago.  being a senior comp means you need to talk a lot more and learn it. we'll see if they send me a native for the next transfer.

Here are some photos of Nate taken at his Zone Conference, May 24, 2018:

The missionary on the far left is Elder Ellingson, Nate's companion.

Nate, front and center, with his zone at a recent Zone Conference.  
I think they were doing an activity that involved being yoked to a car and pulling it.

Hello All!  

Here's a short update on Nate.

He just passed his 7-month mark.  For the past three months, he has been serving in Las Delicias, a town on the outskirts of Rosario.  He has visited the downtown area of Rosario, and he said it is busy and big-city like, with people filling the streets, and buses everywhere.  But Las Delicias is very different.  Here, the people live in brick, cement, or metal-sheeted houses with dirt or cement floors, side by side, all packed in.

Argentina is moving into its fall and winter months, so the extremely hot and humid days and nights Nate suffered through are past now.  Nate is very happy about that!  He said it is raining a lot there right now.

Nate is training a new missionary named Elder Elingson.  Nate said he is a good kid and wants to work.  And they have been working hard.

Thanks so much for caring about Nate!

Love, Heidi

PS.  I found a few photos of Nate on his mission's Facebook page.

Nate is near the back, third from the left.

We heard from Nate on Monday, February 19, 2018, and he responded to some of the things we had told or asked him in our emails.

We had told him that Justin Berrett, one of his best friends here at home, was likely to get his mission call this week.  I asked him if he ever took pictures or if it was too dangerous to carry a camera around.  I also told him I had a pinched nerve in my back that was hurting.  And Peter gave him an Olympics update and told him about Shawn White winning a gold medal in the half pipe.  This gives you the context for Nate's comments below:

that's great that justin will get his call, let me know where. no i dont take pictures. there is a fair amount of crime, and its supposed to be the worst here in the south side of rosario, but i think its about equal everywhere. a long time ago i pinched some nerves in my neck from my heavy shoulder bag and it amazed me how debilitating it is to have neck pain. hope it gets better. 

before i forget i have a new companion now named elder smith. he will probably finish out his mission here in las delicias.   i remember watching shawn whites run in sochi at about 3 in the morning before school when he turfed the whole thing up and i about cried. good for him. it was cool at the begining of the week, but yesterday, and today have been horrible.

Nate wrote the following on Monday, February 5, 2018:

...  Soccer is big. I don´t know, but I think they play all year. They play now anyway. I don't get to watch any games though. All the blocks of the city are painted with the team colors so people know what gang owns what territory of the city, cause the teams have lots of gang violence outside of the field.

I tend to sing quite a bit just as I walk and do anything... The food is mostly all good. Today I got to eat a whole bunch of meat, so that filled an empty place in my life for a little. There is just a lot of opportunity to eat food that isn't exactly good for my body, so I don't feel good all the time about that. It's all okay though. I'll just keep on going.

I haven't had a warm shower in a very long time cause the thing is broken.  Cold showers don't make me feel as clean, so I have to shower longer.  Did you know that I/missionaries have to wear full proselytizing stuff on p-days too?  I didn't know that before the mission, but it's true.  Our neighbors moved this week, so we go to unplug the power cable that was coming in our window for the last 4 weeks so they had light in their room.  I realized that the Olympics are coming and that hit me hard cause it's about my favorite thing ever.  At least it's the winter games.  I got to play basketball this week quite a bit, and teach the natives, cause they think I'm really good, so that makes me feel good.  Also I taught an English class all by myself to a few ward members.  It went over fine, but it was weird to teach backwards...  I speak and understand lots more all the time and I'm feeling pretty comfortable with all of it.

…I attacked the freezer 2 times this week-the first time with a boiling pot of water.  Freezer 1, Nate 0.  But I made my comeback with the steak knife and demolished the whole thing, so now there is lots of space.  I can’t always remember if we have certain words in English that aren’t in Spanish cause it's all just coming together for me.  Something funny I might have told you at one point is that people just call out to me in the street and say eeeh colo, or chow colo.  Colo is just short for Colorado, and that’s what they call red heads.  I just throw up the hang loose and carry on.  I was in primary the last two weeks of church and that is a great place. 

Here's an update on Nate from the past two emails he sent--January 22 & 29, 2018:   

January 22:

"It was cooler this week, but there still was lots of humidity. I am getting tired of going to bed wet cause I just cant sleep in it anyway....I miss the snow a lot. I always loved it."

  

"I love listening to accordion music, and I think a genre I love is cumbia, so you can google it.  There are lots of ice cream bikes here instead of ice cream trucks and I think its genius.  We also suffer from spaced power outages here, so we couldn’t watch the thing with President Nelson.  Also lots of dumpster divers."

Nate's new companion is Elder Calle from Ecuador.  Nate is finding out that having a native speaking companion can have its challenges.  This will be an experience that will give him some growth.

January 29:

Peter and I had asked Nate if he had any new investigators in Las Delicias, and he wrote, "We don't have lots of new investigators."  We also asked him about his mission president (President Allred), and he said, "The president is good.  A very willing person.  I meet with him for an interview every transfer."  

Kami shared the following from Nate's email to her:

"First off, I gave a talk yesterday, and I need to thank you for asking about my current favorite scripture last week cause it made me go back to check.  The one I tried to remember was actually Alma 29:5, but the most recent one I’d marked that I really liked from that moment was Alma 42:15.  So I gave my talk around that scripture, specifically Alma 42:12-15."

"Our freezer was a cave so I boiled water and used the whole pan to melt a hole in it.  That was exciting." 

"Oh, this is kinda big news.  I killed 10 cockroaches this week.  Elder Calle killed one, and only after I commanded him to do it.  Last Tuesday I killed 7 before 7:30.  They were living in my winter boots.  Tell me that doesn’t make you cringe.  I burned all their bodies out of spite." 

"Without mountains (that I miss), the clouds move really fast."


Here are the scriptures Nate referred to above:

Alma 29:5:
Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.

Alma 42:12-15:
12 And now, there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state, which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience;

13 Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice.  Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.

14 And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence.

15 And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.