January 22, 2001

Dear Family,

Woah, lined paper . . . high school flashback! Maybe now I'll write better . . . hah!

Well how's everything back on the homefront? Doing great up at the lines. I like Maracay a lot - the weather reminds me of California, and not in the middle of summer, either.

Last Friday we had a surprise Zone Conference - Elder Ben B. Banks of the presidencia of the 70's came to visit the mission all of a sudden so 6 zones (all the zones in Valencia and Maracay) got together in Valencia to listen to him. It was cool, he talked about helping us being able to see the things we need to improve upon and improving upon them. We got to eat at McDonalds, too :) We also got Pouch and I got letters dated Dec. 26, Jan 2, Jan 3, and Jan 9 so I'll respond to them. I also got a letter from Dad (!!!) and the ward missionary chain mail letter thing, and of course from Apryl :) On this missionary letter we have Elders DiPadova, Mitchell, Wyett, myself and Arnell (well, not anymore) and also Sister Salata. That's a TON of missionaries out! How is sacrament managed? Everyone seems to be doing fantastic. Elder Wyett is already training! I knew he'd be a powerful missionary.

The birthday video was awesome! We watched it a bunch of times (even the Venezuelans - they like looking at all the white people). It was awesome hearing everyone's voices again, their movements, hairdos, laughing, lots of people talking in English at the same time, the house and furniture, the karate movie (ha!) and Sky!! That was so nice of everyone to come over when I wasn't even there. Thank you!

Friday I also got a package - whoops, I already wrote about this package. It's the one I got at interviews with the stickers, top ramen, etc. I appreciate the top ramen a lot. Got any other flavors? I just finished eating one raw- years without doing that! About the oatmeal, don't worry about sending that. Here, it's really abundant and cheap and not my favorite, but thanks! :)

Before I forget, I think that soon I'm going to go buy a pair of glasses. Sometimes wearing contacts just gets boring and also they dry up a lot sometimes at night and the week before I left Puerto, I got an eye infection so I went a week without wearing them and it sucked. The infection wasn't bad - in fact it's fairly common - but it's just some airborne virus that gets in the eye and makes it allergic to my contacts and makes it extremely irritated and sensitive to light. But it only lasted a week. BTW, if you find my eye exam paper please send it. The exam's free but it would be nice to be able to carry around the paper.

My new pants fit great. I like the length, the waist (I wouldn't mind a larger waist, but they are great), the colors, the marks, everything's great. The garment bottoms are excellent - if you've got more, I'll take them :P but the tops I don't like as much as the cotton tops as far as wearing them; though washing them is extremely convenient. So it's about a tie. Keeps me drier? I don't know, never paid attention. I'll think about it and get back to you.

The decorations were cool, I liked how everyone wrote on those papers (even though I didn't make the links). The tree was really cool, and the pot pourri was a great idea. The other Elders enjoyed the stockings and their candy. The cassette with pure Mormon Tab was excellent, but the other type with Kenny G and Mannheim I can't listen to even though it was Mormon Tab on it. The t-shirts are fantastic, Elder Lindgren really liked his. The watch is really cool, even though I just keep it in my pocket. Walking around with that flashy thing swinging around is dangerous, at any time of the day or night. The ties, too, are great. I was kind of shocked when I saw the gold tie. I didn't think you'd send me a tie like that - but I wore it one day and really liked it. Also the one Stringbeans tie with the stirpes - at first I thought it was ugly but when I put it on, it looked good. The tie with black and red and grey is a very Venezuelan tie. The scripture tie and CTR tie are also cool, too. The Thorlo socks feel all nice and squishy, but the first week or two of wearing them I got some huge blisters at the balls of my feet. But now with my built up defense (which we call "callouses") they feel fine. But I do know some missionaries who wouldn't like them because the feet get really hot. I also enjoyed very much the Calabasas catalog. I miss oak trees! And as for a sports jacket I supposedly had, I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. I just got a wrestling sweatshirt, and even if you're talking about that jacket that Mrs. Higgins gave us, it was too small for me so I never took possession of it and I don't know where it is.

Well, as I look at the date I see that Doug will be home in 2 days! If it is that he comes in on the 24th, which sounds weird to me. I'd imagine that it'd be on teh 26th, but how cool! I bet that right now he has his bags packed, his stuff bought, and is trying to build up the program for his comp who'll be staying in the area. I know that the Arnells usually tape their sacrament meetings. If they do, please send me a copy of his homecoming! It'll be kind of lame for him because we're all on the mission! But he'll have lots of - whoops, never mind. Harts moved. Well, tell him that I say hi and that I thank him so much for his letters. Introduce him to Apryl but don't let them get acquainted. Hahahah j/k

As for the Bridge movie, forget the whole thing. I saw you talking about looking things up on the web for helping out less actives get active. If you see anything that I'd be able to use as a missionary please send it.

Now, you might all be asking yourselves just how I was able to write such a long letter. The only thing that I can say is don't expect another one for a long time :P naw, j/k. Well, I still ahve to write a lot and it's 3:30 and I still don't have my clothes washed. Chao!

Love Nick

PS.: When I get back I'll want to learn Dutch, so dad - brush up!