Letter from Nate

We received a letter from Nathan today (1/24/13) that I wanted to share (unedited) along with an email we received from him this week:


Dear Family,

How are y'all doing?  Sorry my emails aren't very long.  By the time I read the email from President Harding and respond to it, I only have so much time.  It's just go, go, go all the time.  President Harding is young for a mission president and so he has a lot of energy and he tries to get us all fired up when we have zone conference and such.  Elder Schenck says it feels like an Amway meeting.  If y'all know what Amway is.

I love it down here.  The weather is nice (for now).  The people are nice.  There is more than one black person in a city, and the food is great.  Every Friday, Brother Warren takes us to the Green Durby which is a buffet.  They have Waffle House's down here which are really good.  I have a Yoohoo and a peanut butter blueberry jam sandwich almost every day.  I am really lucky to have been called to Georgia.  I just don't feel like I deserve any of it.  I am so blessed with the life I have been given and I haven't been grateful for any of it.  I take a lot of things for granted.  Thank you.  For everything y'all have done for me.  I can't believe I have been out for almost 2 months.  But then again I still have 22 months to go.  I miss you guys and I look forward to seeing everyone again.

Well anyways, I told y'all about Emmitt Davis and how we are teaching him to read.  I remembered that video with Danny saying "The fat cat ate the rat" or something, and so we are teaching him simple words like that.  He was actually baptized by the missionaries from the Macon Georgia Mission.  Elder Schenck told me that the Macon mission was too baptism happy so they shut it down.  People were getting baptized and they would never get confirmed and stuff like that.

Well I love y'all.  Love, Elder Jensen



Here's the email:

Hello everyone. It was great to hear from you guys this week. Thank you so much for the letters and the packages you guys send. I got the haircutting thing and the camera. Thank you guys. It means a lot. I feel kinda spoiled to be asking for all that but thank you guys. Its great to hear that everyone is doing good and everyone is improving and doing better.

 

 Hey Danny, its great that you are finishing up your eagle and you want to get your patriarichal blessing. I can't believe you get up at 5:30 every morning and workout and you still play basketball every day. You are going to be a better person and a better missionary than I will ever be. You have a lot of dedication and discipline to be doing what you do. You should be my big brother haha.

 

Hey Jenny, thats great that you are going to the AA meetings and opening up more and more. I'm sorry to hear that Taylor gaylor was stealing from you. Just know that I love you a lot and Christ loves you even more. In order to overcome any addiction you need to turn to Christ. He went below all of us and knows how to help each of us. You are loved more than you know and I can't wait to see how far you can go by the time I get home.

 

Mom and Dad. Thanks for all the sacrifice you guys have made to get me here. I am truly grateful to you guys and everything you have taught me. I wouldn't trade you guys for the world. I just hope that I will live up to everything that is expected of me. I don't want to let you guys down. Thank you for everything.

 

Jess and Devin. Thats cool that you guys are going to go to Seattle soon. It is also cool that you got to meet Brandon Sanderson and shake his hand Jess. I am lucky to have you guys to look to for an example.

 

Agghhhhh I am sooo slow so I can't say much more but this week was ok. Our most promising investigators right now are Adam and Erin. Forget about Vinny, he is a flop. But Adam and Erin are a 26/27 year old couple with 2 kids. They are really humble and they seem really golden. I like going over to teach them. Oh yeah. We are also teaching a 43 year old black guy named Emmitt Davis, how to read. We taught him his ABC's this week. It was kinda fun but kinda frustrating. He doesn't even talk right so it is hard to teach him to read. Black people, instead of using a t they use a c. Like screet light, scruggling, hes crying (trying). Its funny.

 

Well I love you guys! Thanks for everything.