Well I finally made it to Argentina! 12/31/2015

Well I'm in Argentina

I finally got to my house this morning (thursday)we left on Monday at 830 am got on a plane for Atlanta, then we got there around 8 pm but most of our day was spent in SLC , we got on a red eye flight from there to buenos aires and got there at 9 the next day, then we took a bus for 20 minutes to another airport to bahia blanca. It flew out at 5 so we sat in that airport for 6 hours and got to bahia blanca at 6 and had dinner at the presidents house then all six of us slept in a little shack, all of us are new and the only other English speaker was fluent in Spanish so i sat in the corner while they all chatted and i was so tired cause i only got 2 hours of sleep, so we woke up the next day and went to the mission home and got our companions, mine speaks english thank goodness but hes cool and works hard. his name is elder kleinman hes from paso robles california and i dont know a whole lot about him cause he speaks Spanish to me all the time, but it will help me alot.  we got assigned our zone and its in mar del plata which was 8 hours away and our bus didnt leave until 1130 that night so we went out an did street contacting for a while and we got a couple return visits and we talked to an inactive that was offended 30 years ago, he was really nice, so we went back to the church which is the mission home and some 15 year old kid walked in out of curiosity an elder kleinman committed him to baptism and set a date he is really good at talking to people and works really hard, i mean why would some young kid walk into a random building and take a lesson but that was in bahia blanca! so other missionaries will work with him now, so we finally got on our bus that night and got here this morning at 6 i slept for 3 hours luckily its pday,

 our house is super ghetto haha you have to turn the water on and fill the back of the toilet to flush it and there is no hot water in our apartment so yummy haha and its super small, oh and there are dogs everywhere but they are nice they just do there own thing, but as soon as i got off the plane in bahia blanca which the airport is the size of a large house with one terminal and one baggage claim there were 3 dogs walking outside and they walk inside nice places and people dont care at all haha, but yah we left on Monday and got her on Thursday an I'm in mar del plata the biggest city in the mission and its really green and its a coastal town i believe, my comp has been in this area before and said that the people are really nice and that its pretty safe as well, he said the bad places are the outskirts of towns where the weirdos go but we dont go there, but its pretty cool here and i like it alot and i miss you all alot and cant wait to learn the language cause i have no idea whats going on half the time, it doesn't make much sense of what to do around here haha its almost 3rd world but then its not, the houses are like tiny 1 room shacks and made of cinder block looking bricks and mud but then they have smartphones haha its weird but everyone is nice an there are so many doves and parrots around here and they said they have emu (American ostrich) so hopefully i can see one, but the culture is very different here, they look American but speak Spanish, its weird thats about all i can think of right now so see ya next week!

Elder Pitcher 

Shack we slept in the first night

Ane just like that he is off to Argentina!!

Dec 28, 2015

Last week at the MTC 12/22/2015

Well sorry I haven't emailed in a while it's just there hasn't been a
whole lot that's gone on and usually I forget what I do in the week
but, we taught victor again in TRC, TRC is a investigator training
thing and they are real investigators or members, really just
  volunteers and we have to teach them every week, 2 Times a week and we
have to do it in Spanish.  I don't know very much, enough that I can
understand what he is saying but he is a tough cookie to crack, one
day he asked me and elder Knuth the pray and ask if Jesus wasn't the
savior because he doesn't believe that he was the savior which is dumb
because he wears a big gold cross haha but then another lesson he
asked why does Jesus atone for big sins that people commit like
hilter, and what's gonna happen to hilter but really it's what hilter
decides in heaven and of course he is gonna have to repent but Victor
doesn't know why Jesus would do that, and also victor thinks that kids
in Germany that drink beer at 12 that Jesus is furious with them but
those kids don't know better because beer is like water over there
haha, but victor is a grande boy ha he is big and he was goin to Vegas
and my comp is from Vegas he just kept asking him what buffet is the
best I've never seen him so happy, the gospel should be doing that for
him haha all we do is bare testimony to him and he will just ask why
it's because he studies religion and philosophy so he wants deep
doctrine and we don't know enough Spanish haha we later found out he
was a member and was just a tough one haha

Well I have been out a month now it's crazy and we leave next week and
I and pumped, we fly out to Georgia at 2 in the afternoon and fly out
on the red eye to Argentina to Buenos Aires at 9 from Georgia and get
there at nine in the morning the next day then we need to get on a bus
for Bahia Blanca I'm guessing it's gonna be 5 or 6 hours on the bus so
I have like a 24 hour trip ahead of me so yummy haha, but it's
supposed to be around 85 degrees when I get there, I wish it was like
70 but no it's gonna be hot. I was looking at the ward boundaries in
my mission and one of the boundaries is about 250 square miles for the
one ward haha but I figured out that Bahia Blanca means white bay not
white sands or White Sea like some people told me haha, I'm getting
sick of the food here I just eat soup most of the time but it's gross
to me now so I get cereal quite a bit lately but who knows how long I
can take that, every Sunday we get BYU creamery ice cream and it's
good but I try to stay away from it or just one bowl so pretty much I
try to stay away but always have one bowl haha we have devotionals
every Sunday and Tuesday they are always really cool, this week we are
having one on Tuesday Thursday and Friday and Sunday but Thursday and
Friday we are having a general authority so I'm pumped but don't know
who it will be. I had to give a talk in church this week in Spanish
but they are easy because you just copy out of preach my gospel in
Spanish haha but yah one more week here and then we are hitting the
streets in Argentina I'm the only guy in our district going to my
mission the rest are goin to buenos Aires east mission so they all get
to see each other ha but they are all way chill guys and I'm gonna
miss them a lot but we have formed a brotherhood I told them to come
rip the sleds around when we get back haha

Also last night I read my patriarchal blessing for like the first time
ever like a have before but I've never really read it and I found so
much cool stuff and found out some really weird stuff as well but it
said I will be able to get through hard trials as well but it was so
cool we all stayed up for a while reading our patriarchal blessings
and sharing testimonies for a while it was so cool also we got subway
yesterday and for the first time I was satisfied with a meal it was so
nice I was so happy cause it was turkey and that's my favorite but yah
it was so nice to have an actual meal but the temple is closed today
so I probably won't be able to for 2 years so I'm kinda sad cause the
temple is so good I love it there it's honestly the best!

Well miss you all it really doesn't feel like Christmas here because
they try and make it so we don't get home sick but I'm excited for
Christmas and I get to call home for a half hour so I'm gonna stick
with the family but miss you all and love all of you and "keep God on
your side and the throttle open wide"- Austin svenson the Canadian
from my floor haha

Elder Pitcher

Dec 15, 2015

Colton leaving for North Dakota

Ok well I probably won't be sending any big group emails for a while until I get out into the field but ya that camera is so much better and I leave the 28 and I get to call home for a half hour on Christmas between 315 & 515 so keep the phone on you so you can hear me. I'll be sending your something this week sometime for Christmas so just keep looking in the mail for it.

No flight info yet for me but my Spanish is at a stand still but I can understand what people say,  I just can't get the words out of my mouth ehhaha

Dec 8, 2015 So like Nathan.....a man of few words. (writing)

Yah send the phone but some times flights get changed around a lot and I won't be able to know until that week so maybe have the phone valid for a week or so but most kids are getting track phones as well, my testimony has grown a lot since I've been here and I pray for you guys all the time, but get on my Instagram page and screenshot my snowmobiling pics to me I want to show my friends all of them, I'm not sending a big email this week because nothing happened we got new people on Wednesday and we taught an investigator in all Spanish and he asked us to pray that Jesus isn't the savior haha it's weird talking in Spanish, we have a lot of investigators that we have taught haha but send me that iPod and I'm loving it here
Elder Pitcher

His companion....go the wrong clothes in the laundry but put them on anyway!

THE MISSION Dec 1, 2015

Hola como esta mi amigos that is like 90% of my Spanish so far haha i hate typing sorry so this wont be to long, but the first day we got here we went to class and they only speak in Spanish so its pretty tough ha, the food here is really good for the first couple days then you despise it cause its so fattening haha, but i do love it here, i can bare my testimony and pray in Spanish but i cant carry any conversations haha im so tired here its pday and i took my fisrt nap it was so great and i had the weirdest dream i was on a boat and a tsunami came and yah really weird, THanksgiving wasnt very cool cause i wasnt with family but i spent it with the new family so that was cool, Dallin H Oaks talked to us and talked about thanksgiving and how our countries leaders are corrupted haha but the talks they give in the mtc arnet for the general public like they dont release the videos they are strictly for missionaries.

the mornings suck not because its early but our showers hot water is iffy i have only had 3 hots showers the whole time i ve been here and the rest are freezing you shiver the whole time your showering its terrible i dont like showering in the moring but at nights im to tired so i just stick with it in the morning.

 i get really tired here also class is 12 hours a day so pretty much all day we have an hour of free time before bed and dinner is at 430 so i starve around 8 haha

Thanksgiving dinner

Elder Knuth and Elder Pitcher

I'm Terrible at Spanish Nov 24, 2015

Well i made it and i am super tired we kinda party and get in trouble alot but we have gotten alot more humble but i know hardly any Spanish like what you said in your email i couldn't understand but we went to the temple this morning and i slept through the whole session almost i am still adjusting on it but its because we sit all day, but i have gotten your packages, my camera sucks alot so send me that nikon we looked at, also send food, chips practically any food you can because dinner is at 430 for us so we dont eat for 6 hours and we get way hungry, i like my district alot my comp is from Vegas his name is elder Knuth hes pretty cool and its just us in a room so we sleep good and get along, we taught some people that only speak Spanish its way rough, i hate typing emails so i think i might send my journal entries to you every week. anyways i love it here but it sucks i saw Colton a couple times and im gonna go hang out with him tonight.

Colton Peterson is Nathans best friend.  They entered the MTC on the same day.  Nov18, 2015 Colt is serving in the North Dakota Mission

Elder Peterson and his companion, Elder Pitcher & Elder Knuth

And away we go to the MTC. Nov 18, 2015

We had Nathans setting apart at the house the mornign that we left.  What a great moring and blessing that he recieved from our great Stake President Clark Israelson.   Mike and Darlene shared a small testimony and then every body else shared a small message for Nathan.
Then off to lunch at Cracker Barrel and then the MTC.

 Nathan with his bags leaving for the MTC.  The picure on the right is his Grandpa Douglas R Harper with his trunks on his mission in Canada in 1948.

Nathan, Grandma Pitcher, and Mike

Cousin Baxton Udy and Nathan

Pres Clark Israelson

Last moment in his bedroom

And he is off!!!!