Nathan called us last night. He had permission from his Mission President to talk for 45 minutes and he was very clear on keeping that time limit. He talked to each one of us individually and as a family. He also said "Hello" to the extended family via speaker. He sent pictures with a Christmas package for our family a couple weeks ago. He gave Eric, Dave and I Honduran soccer shirts. He gave the girls necklaces and earrings. He gave me a purse. He gave Liz and Dave these spinning tops and all of us some wooden knives and a Hondurian flag. It was really cool.
Some of the highlights he told us last night were:
*He loves being on a mission!
*He really hasn't had any problems with his mission companions who have all been native central Americans. He even said this "what that primary song says Kindness Begins With Me really is true when dealing with other people. (Finally that one sunk in -- I used to sing that one to the kids when they were fighting!)
*When I asked him what the hardest part of his mission was he said the heat. He said the temperature has been nice now but that it can get really, really hot. He also says he is getting tired of eating rice and beans because it is hard to cook anything also on their little hot plate. He said he can sometimes get bananas but apples were really expensive because they get them from the states.
*He talked about how he is learning to respect free agency and that you can't make people change or join the church even though you know how much it would bless their lives. That has been hard to watch.
*He said they all drive cars and trucks like his little Toyota truck. He is amazed at how old many of the cars are (many are Toyota's) how the people can repair them. He said he helped a guy translate an English Toyota manual into Spanish. He said it reminded him of the times he and Eric would work on the Toyota truck together.
*He said the houses reminded him of Lego houses. Just kind of stuck together, right next to each other and you can hear neighbors fighting and stuff. He said you can often stand in an alleyway and touch 4 houses at once.
*Finally the best thing was that he really appreciates his family and realizes that he has taken for granted the home he grew up in. He said he has seen some really sad family circumstances here and didn't realize how blessed he was until now.
He sounded really good, happy and like a missionary. At one point he had a hard time coming up with the English word for what he was trying to describe. His mission is having the missionaries study "Preach My Gospel" an extra hour a day and he says he loves it. Right now he is training a new missionary and really likes being the one in charge. He says they have been having a lot of "emergency transfers" because a lot of the central American missionaries are having a hard time getting visas to serve in Mexico or other countries.
It was wonderful to talk to Nathan and it was nice to hear his voice and be able to tell him again how much we love him and pray for him everyday!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!
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