[Nick] "today I leave to GUATAMALA"

July19 email

I'm SOOOOOOOO excited to get there!!! I WANNA TEACH PEOPLE. i still don't speak the language well at all but i know that if i just put a smile on my face and have an excitement for what I'm teaching god will do the rest. I will say that i am really sad to leave my zone though.... THEY ARE SO AWESOME!! I'm going to have so many friends when i get back and i have so many adventures planned already. REMEMBER TO ASK ME ABOUT BROVERTIME WHEN WE TALK its hilarious hahaha I have seen her! the last time i saw her she was doing great! she did talk to me about the feet but not much really ( i have 8 min left for Email) I really wanna find her cause i do need to send the shoes back with her. I really hope she has the good attitude she had when i last saw her. This is where you decide how strong you will be for the rest of the mission. I believe I have learned to forget myself and SERVE OTHERS and in doing that we really serving the lord.

[Nick] I'm............ (guat. MTC)

July 20 2011
I get fifteen minutes just to let you know that i'm alive and well! its very different here. I don't know many people which is sad and i need to get to know more but i am still excited to work and learn spanish

[Jessica] 3 down 5 to go

July 20 2011

Hello Family and friends!!
It's another Pday at the MTC. It is SO good to hear form you all! And the care packages are overwhelming and threatening to make me gain a few more pounds. I seem to have gotten my appetite back. I had a baked  potato and half of a brat. With a side of milk and croutons, of course. I feel I'm in the beat now. The language is coming, slowly but surely, and while there are still times I think about jumping out the window, studying hours on end, I've found my rhythm I'm getting along SO well with my Elders. I love their guts!... most of the time. They are so cute and annoying. Mom, you don't have to keep telling me to think of them as Nick. They are Nick, and I have five of them.... heaven help me.
I have two investigators right now. Rommy (rommi) and Nathan (nah tin) Rommy is a Muslim who doesn't believe that Christ died for our sins. And Nathan has a hard time believing that there is only one true religion. Rommy is coming to Church this weekend and Nathan said he would "try" and start reading the Book of Mormon.
Turns out I'm really good at beach volleyball. Better than most girls here anyway. I don't know if thats saying much though... Most of the girls are bigger than me, so you'd think they could hit a bit harder. They can't. They also can't take a spike to the face, I learned.
Sorry! I'm rambling.
Nick left yesterday, so I am officially alone. Yes, I cried, a bit, big surprise. NOT. The rest of the Dutchies left on Monday. They are now in the Netherlands. Jealous!!! But I've grown more comfortable with the MTC. I don't hate it, but we're not going to be BFFs when I leave.
My companion is great, she often reminds me of ... a lady in our ward who I will not mention... but she's a bit of a nazi sometimes. Her boyfriend is coming into the MTC today. She's freaking out. He's 24 years old (a convert).
I only have 5 1/2 weeks left here! A whole month has gone by! I felt every second of it... But I feel it getting faster :)
Lots of love!!
Tot ziens!!
Zuster Jessica Wimmer






Cutting those lumps out!!!?!???!!?!
July 22 2011

For now, this is Jessica's last letter as a missionary. She has come home since then, she is having her bunions operated on. Many of you know of her foot condition, for those who do not: Bunions are a growth defect, that typically hurt when walking, climbing stairs, jumping, etc. They have not bothered her until this last week when she started noticing pain in her second toe. The pain started when she jumped about a foot off of the ladder from her bed. We have seen multiple doctors and have operation appointments set to get this taken care of as soon as possible. The healing process can take anywhere from two to six months. District leader promised a 99.9% chance they will send her back to the Netherlands. We are anxious, but feel quite confident.

[Jessica] week two

Happy Birthday Yesterday Mom!!! Have you used your fabulous gift yet? I am a little jealous that I don't get to partake. Though you probably could send me some in the mail. People have received some pretty weird stuff, I mean, I got breadsticks, I didn't expect that. They only told us you couldn't send pizza in a package. Someone else got a watermelon, it was pretty fabulous. I'm really missing moms cooking.. I'm starting to wonder if you are getting my letters.... I sent one last wed. with the draft of my email... let me know if you got that one.

Just so you don't think I'm totally jipping you when it comes to letter time, I only get 30 minutes to email. After the 30 min timer goes off, the computer kicks me off and if I didn't send the email, it doesn't get sent. so I'm writing as much as I can as fast as I can.

The MTC isn't so horrible, I don't love or hate it. But I am tired of having to have someone with me at all times. I like my alone time, often. I like being a solo sister though, it is a blessing from God. I get to do somethings by myself, and sometimes I am forgotten, which I LOVE. Because I get to walk by myself, it's a lot of nice pondering time for me. This is from my journal last night: Right now I'm doing very well. I'm very comfortable where I am. I haven't felt this kind of peace since I've been here. I'm sitting alone down the hall from the cafeteria doors. There are about 20 sisters sitting along the walls, we;re all waiting for our companions. There is a coordinating sisters meeting going on right now. A sister is in an open room playing the piano (poorly), but it is still very nice. I got to talk to nick for a couple of minutes. He seems SO HAPPY!!! He is just SO positive every time I see him. I really don't know what I would do without him. He is such a rock for me. He seems to be loving every bit about what he is doing. He loves learning the language, and he loves teaching his investigators. I do envy him a bit, he gets to speak some english with his investigators. I have 3 investigators, that I can speak absolutely NO english to. If you can't say it in Dutch, you won't be saying it. And the investigators aren't very patcient with your slow moving speech. It is a bit stressful. Sometimes after a bad lesson, I just go into the bathroom and bawl my eyes out. Then other days I have a great lesson (only 1 good lesson so far) and I think "Yes! this is it! I've got it!" then the next day starts and I'm in the bathroom again. It's become my own little sanctuary. As sad as that sounds it is quite nice because it is the only time I can speak out loud to Heavenly Father and express my feelings with my whole being and voice. I've rarely had to do that in my life but it  is such a wonderful feeling afterwords when you've exhausted yourself and all the Dutch you know.

Honestly I think the worst of missing home is over. I struggled A LOT for a few days last week but it's better now. I no longer have to live second by second or minute by minute. It is now living moment to moment and hour to hour. I am seeing that as a good sign. I am trying my best and am so excited to hear about what goes on with everyone.

I love you all so much!

And I can tell someone has been praying for me, I wouldn't be able to do this on my own.

Love

Zuster Wimmer

Tot Ziens!!!

[Nick 1 & 2] Hello to the outside world

NICHOLAS #2
From: Nicholas Wimmer
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 11:09 AM
To: Wimmer, Gregory J (GE, Appl & Light)
Subject: Re: I believe this is your address?

Why hello friends and family or to whomever this applies to. This will be my first official Email to the people in the "outside world". I refer to them as outsiders here. kinda like the Nabi on avatar call the humans, or how the indians call john smith an outsider. I have flight plans! Yaaaaahooo!! I'm leaving in a week from today, the 19th! One step closer to going out and serving the people of Quetzaltenango! When ever I work with the investigators here at the MTC it makes me wanna go to guatemala so much more, sprinting from door to finding the peoples issues, problems, and questions, then and finding their connection to our church! A good way of putting it is the people are fish and i am the fisherman, different fish like different bait and in order to find out what kind of bait they like i need to, love the fish, talk to fish, care for the fish and once i've found their bait? I violently pull and drag them to god as they struggle to resist. I'm still working on the ending.

     Welllll i'll try and answer some questions real fast, they don't give us much time on the computer at allll. The spanish is going quite well, i can keep a conversation going well and i can talk about the first vision and the apostasy pretty well. I love love love my teachers, they have such a wonderful excitement for spreading the gospel which rubs off on me. (ps rhett i saw a teacher at the mtc from your mission, i said hello and talked but i forgot her name) any who. there's this thing at the MTC they call studying. apparently they expect you to be able to sit down for hours on end and just read or write. muerte. studying is easily the hardest thing for me here. i have gained ten pounds already! I work out every morning and night and i'm loving it! FOOTBALLLLL. any who i love my companions. especially elder Romney. we're going to be really good friends when we get back i know.

     I love you all and thank you all so much for the packages and letters!! they always make my day much greater! thank you thank you thank you!! DOING GREAT!!! LOVING THE MTC!!

NICHOLAS #1

July 12 email
Well I have P days on Tuesday(today) and I have a half hour to write on p days which is actually a pretty good amount of time. they say other people shouldn't write me on this but it is just so we write our families first. I need Addresses to chunie jackson braden and parker!! email and letters!! If you can send those asap so i can possibly send one today that would be AWESOME. I wrote a letter you should have already received and if not you will today most likely. On my mission life so far and all. I see dallan ALOT actually. I don't get to talk to him much but we run into each other quite frequently. love!

Jessica says The food is NOT good......

Happy 50th you old man!! How does it feel being alive for half a century??

the days and hours go by VERY slowly. But the week has gone by so fast! And you guys set me up! This food is terrible! Sure, its all you can eat but I have a hard time choking down the white rice! You can't mess up white rice, but worry you not, they found a way. their milk isn't too bad, I've had that for every meal. Oh! That reminds me, Rhett! I've been preparing myself to speak Dutch all my life! Don't you ever correct me again. Ik lief mijn melk!!!! HA! Yes, you read that correctly. Milk in Nederlands is "de melk". Next time you should think twice about correcting my divine inspiration!

To answer your list of Qs, yes, a solo sister is common enough that not many question me when I'm alone with my elders. And I do believe God is trying to ease me into spending everyday with a girl. My elders are funny, mature, immature, strange, yet kind. We're basically family now, we get along very well. I have 5 elders. My sis companion is Sister Moore. She is a drama girl, so her loud obnoxious attitude makes me feel at home. The time I spend with her is walking to breakfast and on Pday (which is on Wednesdays) I'm rooming with 6 girls (ahhh!!!) but I like them all. I want to finish this quickly so I'll send my draft in letter form. Sister Gardner is one of them.

Our district is  part of a new pilot program where from day one they have only spoken english for two hours for very important things we needed to know. The rest of the time it is Dutch. I'm good at speaking and reading it, but when someone tries to speak to me it all goes right over my head. But it's getting better the more words I learn.

I'm liking the MTC quite a bit. the only part I hate is not knowing the language but everyone tells me it will come. And I believe it. I just wish it would come faster. I like having a schedule and waking up has been shockingly easy. THe devotionals have bee amazing and so empowering. We had Dallin H. Oaks' (don't get excited yet Rhett) daughter come and perform for us. She is AMAZING. Look her up. The spirit was so strong.

Rhett thank you for the half eaten chips and hummus. (I need your address please)

(Dad correct my spelling!!!) And Laurie thank you so much for the bread sticks!!!! Real food! I was so confused because when I got the box it smelled of pizza. And that didn't sound so appetizing. haha Thank you :)

Thornton family (I'm guessing Jenny) Thank you thank you for the cookies!!! My roommates and I are so grateful.

With how much food I'm getting through the mail, I am going to become fat. But I figured since It's already boxed up I could send some of it to the starving kids in China.

Dad, saying that you broke down sent me into a fit of tears. Not cool. I've seen Dallan and Nick often enough. I have PE with Dallan and ate breakfast with Nick today... Sorry! I only have a few minutes left! I'll send you the rest of this draft and you can insert anything you'd like.

It's good to hear from everyone! I'm glad the 4th was fun.

*To Greg Fam : Send my email address to David. He can email me, I just can't email him. And I need addresses!!

Love you all!!!

   The church is true, see you in two!!!

Gah! Rhett, what were you thinking. I wanted to throw up just thinking of that. haha

Bye!!

      Zuster Wimmer

(Dad, Please correct all of my grammar and spelling errors, theu're driving me crazy. I'm so pressed for time. Thanks!)