Nathan in WA-VAN

Nathan's email this week: This week was awesome! On Tuesday we had a meeting in Vancouver so Monday night we drove over because it takes two hours. We stayed at the AP's apartment and went to the Mission Office the next day. We got to watch the announcement of President Nelson and the Press Conference which was good then i got to see my buddies from the MTC which is always great everyone's doing awesome! We have a little bit of a competition to see who can come up with the most Bigfoot/Sasquatch apparel or accessories so if you want to help me out ;). Any way we had some good training Tuesday then we drove 2 hours back and had dinner at a members house. The members here are amazing they're so strong and loving with our investigators and so willing to help. Pam Barela who is are super elect investigator who studies seriously everything she just wants to know everything there is to know, we were gonna talk about the steps to baptism then she said "I already lo...

So I found a few more pictures from trolling the mission Facebook page. Lunch time Donut time! Trainer/Training meeting with the staff.

Got this email from Elder Donaldson today. A man of few words! I dont have a computer so i can't make it where you can't see the other emails. SoTuesday  morning i left the mtc at 350 am and got on the bus to the airport. At the airport there was this awesome guy Nate from BYU that bought us breakfast then we got on the plane to Portland! It was like a 2 hour flight we arrived at the Portland airport at like 930 and got off the plane to meet the missionaries going home! They were so nice and helpful then we met President and Sister McAteer (macateer) they're so awesome. I spent the first day tracting with 6'7 Elder Lucuer (lusweer) on bikes it was fun then we had dinner and stayed at the mission home. In the morning was transfers where i met my dad Elder Hofmann I'm in Warrenton Oregon right on the coast. It's so beautiful here and i love it already  The program from church. Youngs Bay at sunset. Elders Hofmann and Donaldson on their walk this mo...

Elder Andersen invites missionaries at MTCs worldwide to join his family for Christmas By Sarah Jane Weaver @SJW_ChurchNews Published: December 27, 2017 1:00 pm Updated: Dec. 27, 2017 5:17 p.m. Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, address missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center on Christmas Day, Monday, Dec. 25, 2017.                                 PROVO, Utah — Missionaries at missionary training centers worldwide received a special gift from Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, on Christmas day — an invitation to join the Andersen family for the holiday. “This might be the first time you have ever been away from your own families on Christmas,” said Sister Andersen. “We want you to feel part of our family so we prepared a surprise for you.” The surprise was a 10-minute video highlighting “the most precious grandchildren in the world...

Got this picture from the mission home today. Elder McAteer, Elder Donaldson, Sister McAteer No additional info, so I googled and found this article from the Mormon Newsroom Canada from May 25, 2016. :) Ottawa Couple Thrives on Life of Service  http://www.mormonnewsroom.ca/article/ottawa-couple-thrives-on-life-of-service After living in and serving the Ottawa, Ontario, community for more than three decades, Dennis and Sue McAteer are heading south of the border to Vancouver, Washington, where Dennis has received an official assignment to be a mission president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Earlier this year, the Church announced 168 new mission president assignments, including the McAteers’. Each of the Church’s 400-plus mission presidents supervises and trains hundreds of the more than 80,000 full-time missionaries assigned to a specific geographic area. Most mission presidents and their wives serve for three consecutive years. “Missionary w...

I know social media can be ugly, but I am so grateful for it right now! The WA-VAN mission page shared these photos of the incoming missionaries - some with their new companions and some of them at lunch. My heart is full!! Front and Center! Think they're comfortable with each other yet? :)

Nathan left the MTC at about 3:30 this morning (ugh!!) and was scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake City at about 8:25 am, then get to the Portland airport at about 9:25 am - a 2 hour flight, but they gain an hour. Some nice guy at the airport who was travelling to Jerusalem for a study abroad semester bought him and his companion breakfast at the airport and let them use his phone for a super quick call - like 30 seconds - to tell me he loved me and that they've been talking to people at the airport about the church and had a mini-discussion with a custodian in the restroom. :) He sounded so excited! I'm anxiously checking my email and the mission facebook page for any updates, but haven't gotten any yet. Not sure if I will until P day, which is now on Mondays. So proud of this kiddo! Watch out Washington! Washington-Vancouver mission boundaries in blue.

Hey everybody! This week wasn't as crazy as last week for Christmas which is good I feel so much more relaxed, I'm learning a lot and am teaching a lot. We have a Teacher Resource Center TRC where we teach investigators the lessons and can commit them to be baptized.  This week we had Josh Christensen for 3  lessons that were 45 minutes each and we had one lesson with Isaiah Scott because he didn't show up for the other two. We don't know whether or not they are actual investigators or members, my bet is that since we are in Provo there are a lot of members that are just acting.  Our zone leaders District did leave  on Wednesday  I was sad to see them go. Elder Cheney was from Albuquerque, NM and Elder Tschappatt (Maciah) is from T or C, NM it was cool getting to know them even though I already knew Tschappatt from Priest's Trip and stuff. Elder Cheney's companion, Elder Kimball is from Utah somewhere and he's a cool bullrider and outdoorsman...

Mela Kaliki Maka! (I can't spell but that means Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) Sunday was Christmas eve and even though it was only 6 days ago it feels like forever. So we usually have a Sunday devotional and a Tuesday devotional but because Monday was Christmas we had three devotionals in a row. I do not remember much from the Christmas Eve devotional, not because it was bad but the other two really blew it out of the water, especially Christmas. The Christmas Eve devotional was just a little play about the birth of the Savior by a bunch of adorable kids that couldn't remember their lines haha. Then we watched a video that MTC President Martino's grandkids put together for the missionaries which was awesome. Christmas day was awesome, but they didn't plan it very well in my opinion. We were scheduled to do service early so we all woke up like half an hour early and went to our spot but no one came because of Christmas so we just studied then we had breakfast then we ...

12/23/17: From Nathan: Hey guys just wanted to let you know I'm doing awesome and this is the best time of my life so far, I love my district, the Elders in my picture and also the Sisters, and my teachers are amazing. Nathan's district Elder Belnap, Nathan's companion, AKA Elder Jinglesleep. Elder Johnson with lego missionaries! MTC campus at Christmastime From Left to right: Elder Eggett, Me, Elder Belnap (District Leader/ Companion), Elder Johnson, Elder Zeller, Elder Barry! The MTC has been awesome, the classes are so engaging and it's awesome to feel the Spirit of the Lord everywhere you go! I'll send more pictures later. It snowed Wednesday night and Thursday morning, but on Thursday Elder Barry got a stomach bug so I got to help give him a blessing with Elder Johnson. Elder Eggett is a technical genius, he does freelance development and programming from Lehi, Utah Elder Belnap my companion is awesome he's a mountain man th...

Dec. 20, 2017 Nathan entered the MTC today! It was emotional, but I'm so proud of him and know he's going to be fine. He's up for adventure and has faith and a good testimony and will be an excellent missionary.   This morning we got up and puttered around a little. Nathan added the rest of the stuff we had bought here to his suitcases and took a shower after I trimmed up his neck hair (and irritated his skin on his neck - oops) so he wouldn't look scruffy going in. London and Porter were here from a little before 9 until about 11:30 and Samia was here for the last half hour or so of that. I brought our Fisher Price nativity sets for Porter because London doesn't want to share hers. Porter brought the stable, baby Jesus, and one of the shepherds over with him and played with it the whole time. London played with Pam's homemade stuffed nativity set. They are into scripting from Peppa Pig lately, so Porter kept introducing himself as George and telling us Lond...