President Villaba

Here's a picture that Elder Rau's mission president's wife sent to my Parents. His mission president is President Villaba and we assume that the other elder is Nate's Trainer, Elder Brooks.

Argentina!

Elder Rau left the MTC last monday for Argentina! He was traveling with several other Elders. They flew from SLC to LA then to Lima then to Buenos Aires and then took a bus down to Rosario. It was a long day! I got to talk to him on the phone while he was at the Airport. It was so much fun! He sounds GREAT! And his Spanish skills really impressed me. I recorded him and will put those clips on here soon.

My parents got an Email from his mission president letting them know that he got there safely and we got a family email from him yesterday. It sounds like he is in high spirits! Here is a part of his letter:

"My trainer is Elder Brooks. We are getting along great and have been getting a lot of work done. We have one of the biggest areas in the mission, so we do alot of walking. I am currently in the city of Paraná, specifically in an area called cinco esquinas. Average attendance in our ward is about 35. There are so many inactive members in the area, I guess mostly because they don´t like the leadership of the ward. Obviously, our priority is finding people to bring unto Christ, but we are going to be doing alot of reactivating in this area.... I´m so excited to be down here and able to share the gospel and my testimony with these people. They need it so bad. I have the oportunity to introduce them to the gospel and thier lives are going to be so much better because of it. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ can and will change their lives."

Here are a few pictures of his apartment or "pench" as the missionaries call it - short for pencion (with an accent over the o). It looks pretty shabby but I imagine it's nice for the area he's in. What a great life experience! :)

MTC Soccer Team

Elder Rau sent this picture to us - He said that he really loves playing soccer now and wished he would have played in High School....but isn't soccer in the same season as Track? Hmmmm..... Do you see the two elders with mustaches??! It's gotta be a joke!

The Latest from Elder Rau

Here is a portion of a family letter Elder Rau sent us last week. It sounds like he is doing so well! I've also put on a couple of pictures that he sent home. Enjoy! 

"Things are still going really well! We are transitioning into teaching the second lesson in spanish, and we are speaking more and more every day. "subjunctive" is the worst thing in the world, just so you know... I have really kicked into reading the book of mormon (in english) and will hopefully be able to finish it before I hit the ground in Argentina. And it looks like we will be landing about on time! Something happened, I don't know exactly what, but visas are coming in on time or a few days late. If anything, we might leave a day or two late." .....

"One thing that I have learned while trying to teach, especially in spanish, is that the gospel is really actually simple. We can get off and start talking about kolob and generations of Gods and other crazy things like that, but the real important stuff, the stuff that we are taking to the investigators is so simple. Not only are the principles simple, but the words we use to describe them don't need to be fancy. As you can imagine, we are barely getting by as far as vocabulary goes, but as long as the spirit is there, words don't really matter. I am reminded of the conversion story of Brigham Young. He heard all sorts of missionaries with varying levels of speech for about a year, but when he heard a man who could only say that he know the church was true, but say it with all his heart, he felt the spirit so strong in the conviction of this man, even though his testimony was simple." 

Nate and Sean! (I mean Elder Rau and Elder Layton, of course). I don't know the story here but it looks like they ran into each other at the Temple! How fun for them. 

Elder Rau and his companion Elder Hadley 

Classic MTC pictures

Elder Rau sent these pictures home to my Parents and my Mom scanned them and emailed them over to me....thus the blurriness. You just have to laugh when you see these because I think every single missionary who goes through the MTC gets pictures like these - one at the map and one in front of the Provo Temple. Now we just need some pictures of his companion asleep drooling on his pillow or something. :)

This is Nate with his companion, Elder Hadley.

More Elders going to Rosario.

They look so young! But they are the Lords Army and are carrying the message of the gospel to the world!

Elder Rau's Address

Elder Nathan Brant Rau

MTC Mailbox #164

ARG-ROS 0818

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

Hello Elder Rau!

My mom sent me these pictures they took when they dropped Nate off at the MTC. The second one is with our Grandma Unruh - my Mom's Mom who flew in from Denver to see him off. 

We got a letter from him a few days ago and he said that the MTC isn't quite what he expected it would be but it is amazing. He said he's never studied so much in his entire life.Last week he saw 6 of the 12 apostles! He also got to sing Joseph Smith's First Prayer in the choir that preformed at a fireside that Elder Hales spoke at. He told me that that was amazing, too. He said he and his companion are already good friends and he can see them being friends for years to come. I'm hoping he'll be able to send some more pictures soon!