Answered prayers, Christmas coming, working hard and finding success...

November 11, 2018

I am really glad that all those things happened like they did for you, mom. I am so glad that Heavenly Father answered your prayer like he did and I’m so glad that you were able to find your earring that dad had given to you on your 25th wedding anniversary. Those kind of things happen all the time in missionary work all the way to the smallest of the small things. God blesses all who keep his commandments temporally and spiritually.

That is cool you are going to go eat lunch with Elder Ashby`s mom. The Christmas party for the missionaries is mostly a secret, but I do know that there is going to be a talent show and a Secret Santa with all of the missionaries. We are being given 250 pesos each to buy gifts for another missionary’s name that we pull out of a hat.  

So, we went out looking for a new pension for ourselves that a sister in the branch had said she knew of that we could check out, so we walked by to see it, and we found out that it had already been rented out, but we met a family and taught them and we met this kid named E. that is so prepared for baptism that it is insane! He came to church with us and we haven’t even taught him yet. He was talking with the leaders in the church and he is in major need of the gospel. He loved church and so I think he is for sure going to get baptized. I am super excited. God leads us to people like that in random ways. Yeah, I am way good friends with Elder Pratt. He is sitting next to me right now as I’m typing this letter. He says he is directly related to Parly P. Pratt. I am that Elise and Coleton came over to visit the family. They are great friends!

So, the people in the picture we took at the Asado, was the whole zone. Some of them are serving in Laguna Blanca and others in La Primavera. The building were we had the Asado is on top of the zone leader`s pension. It is the nicest pension in the mission. The picture of Elder Smith at the Asado is of him trying to do the sasquatch pose in the background, Haha. I think it turned outpretty good! Haha!

So, update on this week. It has been sooooooo freaking hot. I am tired of being wet and sweaty all the time! Haha.

(Dad asked him how many Book of Mormons he has placed, he said; )

Just in my time in Clorinda, I have found hundreds of people to teach and I have an average of like 20 lessons a week. We teach our butts off. But it is hard for the people here to get to baptism. This week we have found so many good investigators with a lot of potential. We just have to teach a lot more lessons. We are having a lot of success right now. 

So, in a week, I probably hand out like 5 or 6 Book of Mormons, in my whole mission, I have probably handed out hundreds. To be honest, I am pretty sure every house here in Clorinda has had a Book of Mormon placed in it. We find stuff of the church, all over the place here, the seeds are definitely being planted. Haha!

Boca and River (to Argentine soccer teams) are playing for the final and that hasn`t happened in a long time and the rivalry between Boca and River is insane here. The fans go crazy. They made us stay in our pension during the game. It was a tie, but they will play again soon, you guys should try to watch it, it is a huge game! I’m sure you will find it broadcast on TV somewhere.

Well, I can`t wait for Christmas. I am sooo excited to see you guys too! Don`t worry, I wont get too trunky. I still work very hard out here. To be honest, I am very grateful for your sacrifice in keeping me out here on my mission. I am so thankful for a great family.  

Dad, My car looks amazing thank you so much for cleaning it! I can`t wait to see it again. You did such a great job on the rims!

I love you and miss you all and I hope everything is great there in Utah. I’m excited for the snow and cold weather! I have the best parents ever.

Chau!

Love,

Elder Pendleton

One of the kittens we found that someone just left to die. A dude passed by on his motorcycle and said he would take care of it and took it...

And some kids fishing in a zanja (ditch) and called us over and showed us the fish that they had pulled out of there. I gave the fishing a try, but I didn't catch anything, haha...

 Walking out tracting in the campo...

Multizona fun, teaching English and an Asado on the roof...

Yeah the multizona this week was fun. We had to go to Formosa Capital for the multizona it was fun. I enjoyed it! The guy who drove us down there was listening to Daft Punk and Dubstep, Haha, that was fun. We had a good time! It was a party! The other elder in that photo of us, is Elder Johnstun. Elder Ashby likes to pull funny faces like that a lot. Haha. I got to see a lot of people I knew there, at it. I am still the District Leader. President talked about what will happen with the Christmas activity we will be having in December for a little bit, and then he talked about how we need to have a more positive attitude towards our missionary work. It was good!  

Dad that was crazy that you were over 60 miles from the town in Venezuela that you were serving in when your companion got sick at night! Those kinds of extreme experiences are my favorite! You never forget them. It is cool that Riacho Negro the little town we went to last week looks a little like it did in Venezuela!

It is stressful to teach English because the class is a government program that is free for these kids and it has to be somewhat official, so that the parents are happy. It is getting to be more relaxed, though. We just teach the children random stuff in English. It’s mostly just to teach a few new things to the kids. It is stressful though, because I don`t like teaching English, It wasn’t one of my favorite subjects in school, Haha!

Well, this week we worked hard, there was one day that we actually taught 8 lessons, found 5 new people and we set 7 baptismal dates!!!! We have really good investigators, but the only one that came out to church on Sunday was a 19 year old kid that has had problems with drugs a little bit, but he wants to change his life, he really liked church! We were teaching his mom and she said; “My sons will never listen to you, all they do is fight and I try to read them the scriptures but they don`t listen.” When we were teaching her, her son came out and he was going to go out to sit with all his friends that were drinking and doing drugs, but then when he asked us where we were from, he got more interested in our message and decided to stay and sit and listen. Anyone can change, now he is reading the Book of Mormon and went to church! It has been a cool experience. E.’s sister will eventually get baptized, but it will require a little bit of time. On Halloween, here, they don`t do anything to celebrate it, but we saw a group of kids that were dressed up so we bought some candy from a Kiosko (store) nearby and we gave it to them and took a picture with them. We even got acquainted with one of their moms who said we could come by and teach her.

Yeah, I am glad we have temples close by in Salt Lake I am excited to go back to one and keep learning and feeling the spirit. Well, I know I leave the mission field, officially on January 1^st, but I have no Idea if I get home on the 1st or the 2nd of January. I know that in this mission they usually send something out to the parents to let them know, but probably not until my last transfer starts, which is in 2 weeks! President told me I would probably be staying here in Clorinda with Elder Smith right up to end of my mission. I got to thinking about it and I am glad that I will finish here!

To be honest, not many stories to tell this week. We got to eat an asado (barbeque) on the roof of a building, today, it was great! It rained like crazy on Saturday, again. This week I also sent my shoes in to get fixed and he fixed them really well! They work wonderfully again! He sewed the black ones up, and my leather boots, which had the worst sole on them, were just getting destroyed, so he just changed out the sole on those and now they are so much better. They almost look like race car driver boots that you would wear in a Ferrari with the new style of sole that he put on them. I will send pictures of them. I love you so much, mom and dad! Thanks for all you do!  

Chau! 

Love,

Elder Nate Pendleton

Multizone...

 My old companion, Elder Ashby and I...

Elder Johnstun, Myself and Elder Ashby pulling a funny face, haha!

My shoes got fixed, good as new!!!

My leather boots also got a new sole...

Handed out candy for Halloween, not sure if they really celebrated it here, but we were able to meet their mom and teach her a discussion...

  An Asado on the roof, my companion is trying to pretend to be a sasquatch, haha! I think he nailed it!

My zone, eating our asado, on the roof of our zone leaders pension...

My companion in the hot Argentine sun...

Lots of potential, splits in Riacho Negro...

October 29, 2018

So the work is good. We have a lot of people with a lot of potential. Tons of people have accepted baptism. Things are good with the investigators, but the main problem is that they don`t come to church, we do have a lot of people with potential though. E.’s sister is awesome and she should progress a lot. The district president was the one who confirmed E after her baptism.

Elder smith is doing well, his Spanish is better and he does his best to teach as much as he can. We have the Multizona tomorrow, so that will be fun.

So, Elder Pedernera went to serve in the Corrientes Capital. We have serving  here in Clorinda,: Elder Hopkins, Donoso, Marù, Woodruff, Butler, Smith, and Elder Bareiro. I think that transfers this time will be like the 18^th of this month or something like that, I ‘m not sure if I will end up staying here in Clorinda or not, I have been here for a long while. It would be nice to have a change, though.

It would have been really cool to get to go see the prophet speak in Ausuncion, Paraguay when he visited South America! I can`t believe he was so close, just right across the border from were I am serving. I am glad dad`s talk went well on Sunday and that you got to go to that family party at

Kim’s.

So, experiences I had this week; we are starting to teach an English class now to little kids to try and get more investigators, it is stressful but we will see how it goes. The kids are really funny, though. The coolest thing I did this week was that I went to a place called Riacho Negro it’s like 20 minutes outside of Clorinda. I was on splits with Elder Hopkins and we went out and worked there, it was really fun but the best part is that the only way to get back to Clorinda is to hitchhike (just like dad had to do in Venezuela when he was on his mission) so we stuck out our thumbs and this lady who`s husband is a member of the church picked us up and took us back in to Clorinda. It was a super fun experience. I will send pictures of it. Don`t worry the Zone leaders have permission to do all that, and work out there Haha.  

Well, love and miss you all,

Chau,

Elder Nate Pendleton

Elder Hopkins and I, on our way back from Riacho Negro...