November 14, 2011

(i wrote this before i read the second email)

hey mom,

I called Ronnie.  She was really excited that I called. It was good to hear her voice. President Nieder is awesome too, i thanked him and told him that ronnie thanked him also. haha. He just laughed and said your welcome. I love president and sister nieder, theyre awesome. One of the members were close to (the burgess family)  told us about that also. Her sons on a mission in Michigan and has only been out 7 months, so she started freaking out. Im like you and my mom would be best friends. she goes REALLY? haha. but i havent been biking much lately. were mostly in our car. Whenever we are on bike though we wear helmets and Sis. Burgess yells at me if I have the strap unbuckled when im walking to my bike. haha. shes awesome. We really only biked the first 3 weeks i was hear and it stayed lit longer also, but ill go do that. I do have a helmet, but its a piece of crap falling apart from walmart, i know mine is a really good helmet thats basically new and will last the mission. Thanks for the money also, i bought a couple long sleeve shirts and extra clothes at ross because i blew out both my suit pants and a pair of regular pants within the first couple weeks. haha. :D i got 3 new suits though! 1 from a missionary that didnt need it and 1 from a missionary that i havent given back to. :D haha!! and a 3rd one from a member that it didnt fit so he gave me a ralph lauren suit for free. haha. great success!! i love members! and then our dinner calendar coordinator bought me a new pair of suit pants for my grey suit and then sewed up my other one. now i have 5 suits i got in a month. sick right? :))))

Ive taught sunday school 3 times since ive been here and twice to elders and high priests combined. so, maybe its just a family thing. and, id love to write her too, but i need an email, actually nevermind, ill write a letter home this week. sound good? k good.

the work here is picking up. My new companion is Elder Roedel. hes a ginger from florida and georgia but with a utah accent. He plays in a screamo rock band in provo and he and his band all turned down a record deal with a label, all to go serve missions. crazy right?? at first, i didnt like him probably because i was freaking out cause i had to do all the planning and direct him around the area. but the work here is picking up like crazy! We reset our family of 4 for baptism on december 17th. Their 11 year old daughter came home from a young women activity and tells her mom she wants to be mormon, and when can she be mormon?? we go to teach our lesson last night and she raises her hand and asks when there gonna be baptised. were like..... uh.... ok? nows good. just kidding. haha. so we talked about testimony, faith, and how we have to have the spirit to know these things are true. it was an awesome lesson. Our 20 year old on the other hand whos baptism was coming up is going south. Her parents have had bad influences and theyre telling her to stop. So were going to set up something and rebuke her. just kidding. haha. but seriously. well work it out. we also had a group of 3 women who live together and all have kids and were fighting over who got to read the book of mormon first. hahahaa. which was funny.

all in all I still love what im doing and its only getting better. :)

Love you guys!

Elder Ryan Nonu

 

ps: im sad but im more happy than anything. Elder Roedel and I are giving talks in 2 weeks. Now, I know who Ill talk about.  Ronnie!!!  Thanks Mom, Love you.

November 7, 2011

Hello family,

My zone leader here just got transfered to be zone leader in elko
today, so if he sees an elder dixon then hell know me. haha. but elder
van bruggen left last night, hes at the mission home and leaves
wednesday morning. im goning to transfer conference on tuesday and ill
get my companion then.

the college girl dropped, but thats ok, and our family of 4 isnt
progressing right now, but were setting something up this week and
well get them in gear. but our investigator thats doing awesome is
kelly, shes in elko right now actually, shes like 20 and weve had like
6 lessons with her and shes set for the 26th. Elder Van Bruggen is
going to try and come down for that, so thats exciting. were really
happy for her. i didnt get to ride in a helicopter after all, but
thats alright, we taught a lesson to kelly that day i think, and thats
when we set her for baptism. so yah! everythings going really well.

it actually snowed here too! it was so wierd! i woke up, and i look
outside, im like "oh, lots of frost." everyones like. dude... thats
snow. i go.... oh.... IM FROM CALIFORNIA! I dont know what the crap
snow looks like when i wake up. but yah, ill try and send pictures of
everything. each "transfer" is 6 weeks long. that means every 6 weeks,
you potentially could move somewhere in the mission. so my first
transfer is down. :D now ill look forward to thanksgiving in kingman.
btw, its freezing here! about 40-50 every day for the past week or so.

for christmas, i want a new suit really, and more slacks. preferably
dockers (more durable) or go to missionary mall, i blew out both my
suit pants. but a member bought me a new pair for my calvin klein and
another just gave me a ralph lauren they had. so yah. pretty friggin
sweet man. :)

anyways. everythings awesome here! LOVE YOU GUYS!!

elder nonu

"god be with you til we meet again."

October 31st, 2011

hey mom glad everything is going well. Im gonna be staying in kingman for at least 6 more weeks. President said Ill probably end up serving in the samoan branch in vegas which goes all the way to the west mission where reno is. I get to learn samoan too as part of my study. So hopefully that blessing will come true. Our investigators are doing great. The family were teaching got back from a hunting trip and well probably teach them this week. Kelly, the 20 yr old were teaching, is doing AWESOME!! weve taught her 5 times and we set her for baptism last night for the 26th of november. were excited. Van bruggen leaves on the 8th, im kind of sad about it, and hes freaking out because hes scared to go home, but i help him as much as I can. Ill get a new companion next tuesday, so im excited to see who it is. hopefully its not some goober i have to slap every 5 seconds. well see.

 

Tonight our mission president doesnt want us going out on halloween so were going to a members home and watchiung 17 miracles in their theatre room (rich people man) so were all excited. Were going on a hike today also up the mountain here, im gonna try to send pictures home this week also. btw, you have wierd dreams homes.

 

paanes a boss for that, im sure shes pretty and theyll have little islander babies running around by the time i get back. when the freak is james gonna pull the trigger on that one?? his gf is pretty so yah, get on it dang. just kidding, but still... :) no, i havent heard from anyone else, im too busy/lazy to write any letters. i just come home plan and then snooze. except for last night we played fooseball on the table we got from a member (sick members!!) until midnight and then fell asleep in the new la-z-boy we got (sick members!!!) at 2am. so it was a good night. :)

 

the bike is awesome, im broke another missionaries bike the other day (mine was at our old house) and broke the crank arms off. he said "crap nonu! your freaking samoan legs are too much for it!!" so im letting him borrow mine since we have a car. So im gonna go buy a tool and get him a new one off an old bike.

 

anyways. everythings awesome in kingman, i love it here. love you guys!!!!!

 

Elder Nonu. :)

October 24th, 2011

Hi Mom,

 

Im still having a blast but the work is flippin slow! the family we have set has been gone for a week and half for a hunting trip. I was on exchanges with another elder and my companion went to their house when they got home and the husband was just home and we can tell hes just not into it. he hasnt read he hasnt been to church, so we have to push back their baptismal date. we also were teaching that college student girl and i called her and she dropped us, so whatever. but not all is lost. Were teaching another 20 yr old girl. Her names Kelly and shes awesome! weve taught 2 lessons to her and shes really receptive to it. Weve been teaching her at a members home and that family feels like my family. Theyre so cool! even though its a little bumpy, im not discouraged at all. just leaves more room for us to focus on people that want to learn. Ill try to send some pictures this week. perfect since grandmas there.

 

We had Elder Jensen of the 70 speak in Vegas this week at a fireside and a zone conference. He talked about how to gain a testimony and what to base it on and our conference was all about faith and whether were fully converted as members of the church. It BLEW MY DOMEPIECE!! Our mission president and his wife are awesome. There so nice and inviting, and hes always trying to talk to us as much as he can. Elder Van Bruggen is awesome too. Its gonna be sad to see him leave in 2 weeks, but thats ok.

 

His last sunday is a fast sunday and hes trying to speak at the supai ward, which is on an indian reservation at the bottom of a canyon. "how are you gonna get there?" you might ask... well the only way is either hike for 4 hours and 4 hours back up OR take a helicopter. Guess which one we chose..... thats right....

 

anyways. I love being an Elder, obviously. Im having so much fun. The days seem like hours and the weeks seem like minutes. yah.... its that fast.

 

Love you guys,

 

Elder Ryan Nonu

 

"God be with you til' we meet again"

Monday, October 10, 2011

Thank you for sending that money it really helped!  And my new bike is pretty nice.   I’ll send my SD cards back home soon, but the ones he was going to sell me that were in my price range, were either too small or just not what i needed.  He randomly said i could buy one of the bikes i was really liking for a while. so i got excited and bought it.

   Since my last message we met a family of 4 that are very interesed in being baptized so im freaking JUICED!! haha.  We taught them the restoration and they came to church Sunday.  The kids come to almost every mutual activity before we even got there and the kids have come to church almost every week too.  The mom came for the first time yesterday and loved it.  We teach them again tomorrow night!!  So hopefully  you’ll hear about my first baptism in a month or so. :)) 

   

We also met this 20 yr old college student named Jade.  We taught her the restoration also and seemed to be very receptive too, we invited her to church, but she had to study and junk. 

   I love Kingman, AZ and today I’m gonna teach everyone how to play rugby, so we’ll see how that goes. Love you guys. :)

ELDER RYAN NONU!!!!!!! 

 OH! btw. can you send me a package with my black GIRO helmet, those black ray-bahn looking sunglasses i left behind and the brown ones in the case i got right before i left. unfortunately, i left my oakleys in my closet at the MTC, which im pretty mad about. but yah. also send those metal toe clips and straps on those bike pedals i left, and i think thats it.

Ryan with President and Sister Neider

Ryan and his first companion Elder VanBruggen from Canada

RYAN ARRIVES IN KINGMAN, AZ AS HIS FIRST AREA!!!! 10/3/2011

UGH!!!!!! YOUR SO LUCKY!!!!! I WANTED TO GO!!! i was like my parents are there right now.... freak! hahaha. BUT EVERYTHING IS great! my first area is in kingman, arizona. its super rich people with huge houses, and mostly drs and junk. but awesome families none the less, and very humble people too. I love the mission field so far. my companion is elder van bruggen, hes the ex AP and is leaving in a month. hes from alberta canada and does like motorcross and snowboards competitively. hes a beast. our area just got reopened and elder van bruggen and I are the first 2 elders to serve in it. so we dont have anyone to teach yet. but were working hard to get people! we live in our own house that a member owns and remodeled just for the missionaries to live in, its small, but perfect for us. our roomates are the Zone leaders of the area. im reading through the book of mormon and studying it like crazy. i knew it already, but i super suck with remembering where scriptures are, so this helps.

   NAN wrote me and she told me about going back to church, i read it as we were about to leave for our dorm hall at the MTC, i felt the spirit crazy strong for the first time, and knew that my prayers have been answered.

  OH!!!!!!!! and theres a samoan branch in the vegas mission and president neider said ill probably serve there after the sisters there now go home! crazy right!!! but i love it here, i wouldnt trade it for the world.

    Also, i went to get a bike, and they only had 5, 3 were already reserved, 1 was a girls bike, and the last one was too small. They also told me that there were a couple missionaries that left there bikes. I got here.... 1 was already taken by a new guy, and the other was in 10 pieces. we went to a bike shop here in kingman and the owner as a member. i asked how much it would cost to repair that bike, and its about 20 bucks less then buying a brand new one. so he quoted me a couple bikes, and the ones they had on hand or could order were around $700, but after my missionary and tithing discount he quoted me at $385. I was hoping you could transfer me about 300, because thats without tax or anything. We have a car, but our miles are limited, and once they are out well have to walk since im bikeless, and our area is huge! half of it is on the other side of the mountains, so its not too practical. and if we go over miles, they take away our car. so I was hoping that you could transfer me money. I wont be able to email you to see if it got sent, so ill be checking my balance for the next couple days. if you could asap, that would be awesome, because we wanna bike as much as we can to save our miles. and if you do, make sure you send it to the same account you transfered me money at the arport for food. thanks a lot mom.

   so yah! the mission field is awesome, im already a month out and loving it. I hope everything back home is going well, you stay in my prayers every night. and your right about uchtdorfs talk, hes a beast! "count your many blessings."

I love you all!!!!!

ELDER RYAN NONU

Kingman, Arizona....

"God be with you til' we meet again"