Nathan's email and pics

Hey Mommers,
So how are things going over there? Hey tell dad I'm sorry but I'm not going to be able to write him this week :( however I will try to answer his questions as well as yours in this upcoming email, but first pictures... alright.. pictures are uploading.. not sure which ones were sent but.. I'm sending them.. there will probably be another email too with more pictures... but we shall.. So things here are going good. Not too much happened last week but we were able to find more potential investigators.. so that was good. hm.. not really too much happened, we tracked and did all of that fun stuff. um.. yeah.. but its getting pretty bright here.. we pretty much have normal daylight hours at this point in time. so its not too dark.. but I'm super bummed because i liked the dark days and everything.. that was a lot of fun... So its roughly about -5 - -10 every day now.. so its not super bad. and its actually quite nice. And as far as food goes, we get usually 1 - 2 DA's a week.. so not really that much.. actually i don't think we had a single DA last week.. but yeah.. we ended up getting a TON of bread from this funeral that was on Saturday.. so we are stocked up on bread.. haha.. but that's good... Hmm... so not too much else is going on here.. so yeah Take care and I love and miss you!!! Take care.
Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck

P.S. so the pics I'm sending are of our apartment and of zone conference and district meetings.. so yeah... and the one with food... i don't think its in this one.. is our Super Bowl feast.. haha.. but yeah.. have fun with the pics.
P.P.S. Next time you send a package do you think that you could send some pictures of Vienna and some maybe some of my old chums.. I don't have any so it would be cool to have thanks!!!

Most of the pics are of his apartment. The first one is of the super bowl party him and Elder Behnke had.

Kingston and Prince

Prince use to be scared of Kingston. But as you can see....not anymore. :)
Now they are buddies!!!

I think Kingston's shoulder is now going to be Prince's new perch.

Curtains

These are the curtains I bought at Anthropologie....on sale for a killer deal. I couldn't make these for the price I paid. I was pretty nervous getting them cuz I had no idea if they would match the room but my biggest worry was......will Steve like them??? They came today and they are beautiful. They're orange, purple, beige/brown and navy blue. The main color is an ivory color. They are also embroidered and lined!!! Steve came home from work and saw them hanging up in the living room and loved them.....relief!
Curtains opened
Curtains closed. It does give the living room a warmer feeling to it. :)

slow down time

One of the highlights of the Presidents Day weekend was having Jaron come home. It was so fun seeing him. Besides him making us dinner 2 of the 3 nights Emily had someone to hangout with. And they do have a good time together. I only wish time would slow down more during the weekend and holidays. I can tell that we had a lot of fun cuz today I'm paying dearly for things I didn't get done. But it was worth it.
Christopher, Lesa, Maddox and Asher came by for dinner Sunday. Twist my arm in holding Asher!
Now I better get serious on the homework. Tons to do and I haven't even started.

Nathan's email

Tampere Zone. Nathan is in the back on the right side-ish.
Nathan is in the front row on the left.

Hey Mommers!
Nope no transfer for us.. Still me and Elder Behnke for another 6 weeks... its crazy this is my 6th change in Pori... that will make about 8 months for me here... It'll be fun tho.. I like being with elder behnke so it wont be bad. Um..... Pictures.. well .... so i lost my camera again.......so... I'm not really sure when ill be able to get you some... Sorry.... Just kidding... yeah I can take some more pictures and then send them to you.. I would sent some right now but i don't have my cord to attach it to the computer, thus i can not. but next week i will try to remember and send you some again.. . And in case you weren't sure.. or the joke wasn't clear... I did not lose my camera... no worries. So things here are going really good.. but it is starting to get realy cold again, so that has been stopping us from doing a lot . but we did have Zone Conference this last week. Me and elder Behnke had to wake up at 4:45 so that we could get up and get ready to leave by about 5:30ish so that we could pick up the Rauma Elders and get to Tampere by 8:45, so that was pretty crazy and i was super tired the entire time. but when we were there we watched this movie... something about being a 'go getter' and the main guys name was Billy Peck and when they would say it in the movie it would sound like Veli Peck (veli means brother and its was all the members call us, fyi) it was just pretty funny everyone called my Billly Peck for the rest of the meeting tho. it was pretty funny. hm.. welp that's really about all so take care and I love and miss you!!!!
Rakkaudella,
V. Nate Peck
Hey Pops,
Hey so hows everything going? sounds like your class thing went really good, and it sounded like a lot of fun. So how is school going for you and all your teaching stuff. I bet that's a lot of work. So things here are going good. That will be cool to get that talk that will be a lot of fun to read. so I'm excited for that. So not too much is relay going on here... But the days are getting a lot longer. it feels like they are not back to normal length. Its really quite weird i Really liked the dark winter so I'm kinda bummed that its gone. but oh well we'll get it again next year.. haha.. welp that's about all but thank you for everything I love and miss you!!
Rakkaudella,
V. Nate Peck

Gramma and Grandad J

This is my Gramma when she was around 19. She put this up on fb yesterday when she saw the picture of Emily and I in a photo booth. This picture was taken in a photo booth. By the way...gramma is 92 and on fb. She's cool.
Me and Grandad J.
This picture of my Gramma and Grandad was taken I think, when they were dating or soon after they got married.

Gramma with Greg, Melanie and I.

Grandad with Greg and I. I love all these pics. They are such a treasure!!!

Picture minus a picture

I tried to put up pictures of my grandsons and somehow the blog sight would only let me put two up. It's acting like it's locked and I can't get Maddox's picture up. Sorry Maddox.
Kingston sleeping with his new guitar. He's not going to let go of it....even in his sleep. :) I sure miss that kid!!
Asher smiling. What a sweet smile. He'll stare into your eyes and smile at you. Such a sweetheart!!

Photo booth

Emily and I had a mommy-daughter date. We went to the mall and hit most of the stores.....and target too.
She got a skirt and top for church. She is growing out of everything she has so it was a much needed trip for clothes.
Jaron also benefited from our excursion and got some shirts. I don't like buying for the kids without them there but between Emily and I he likes every thing we bought him.
We went to subway and got dinner but before that Emily really wanted to go in the photo booth. Even though I wasn't sure I wanted to do this, I'm glad we did cuz we have them for our memories. Emily is so much fun! I love you Doodles!!

It's goin' down

I don't know what kind of fir tree this is but I do know that I don't like it. It's one of those that came with the house. Every few years the snow will get really heavy on it and part of it will snap. Looking at the pic. you can tell where it did this year. I have to admit that the birds love this tree but I'm not going to keep it for them. I have HUGE plans with everything I have learned from my class so far and this is one thing that is going. It will take me years and years to get everything done in the yard that I want to change but I'll probably change my mind a dozen or more times before it is done. I have so far chopped up the 1/3 that has broken off. It takes me a while cuz I put all the branches in the garbage and keep the bigger parts of the tree for the fire pit. It fills the garbage can up fast so it's slow work. Next week another 1/3 will come down. So hopefully by spring this tree will be gone and I can start putting plans into place. :)

Nathan's email

Hey mommers,
Hey so how are things going.. That's crazy to hear about the crazy stuff that happened last weekend... pretty scary. Thanks for the money... I'm going to take €50 out just to use in case there is an emergency.. and for some reason the card doesn't work.. so when you so that I took some out you'll know... and I'm not planning on buying anything soon so ill just let the rest dewl there for a couple months. But Thank you so much. your the best mom in the world!!! Oh by they way is there anything Finnish that you want... I cant really remember if you collect anything... I think you do but i cant remember... Its been a long time.. but if you or anyone else wants something let me know and i can try and find something for them. So transfers are next week.. and change calls are Friday so I'll know then if I'm staying or going.. I think I'll probably be staying but we'll see. So its starting to get cold again and I'm not used to it anymore so it feels SUPER COLD... but I'll probably get used to it again.. but we'll see.. So yeah... do you have any questions?? So yeah.. things here are good.. we don't really have any super good investigators.. just a couple alright ones.. but we'll see if we can get them super good soon :D Welp Thank you soo much for everything!!! I love and miss you a ton!!! take care!!
Rakkaudella,
V. Nate Peck

Hey Pops,
Hey so I did get your letter.. It just came late.. it probably just got lost in cyber space for a little bit.. but that's super crazy about everything that happened. So how long were you all stuck in church.. .were a lot of people bummed because of the super bowl.. haha... but yeah.. that is a super crazy story.. I'm kinda glad that I was here for it haha... but yeha things here are going really good. We don't have too many investigators at this point in time but were looking and I'm sure we'll find some soon. And don't worry I'm not discouraged.. I'm doing good and as happy as every.. By the way... we got this report from the church offices.. and Finland is the FASTEST growing mission in the world. Pretty cool huh? they are using it in the MTC as the example mission for growth.. so its pretty cool I thought. Well thank you for everything I love and miss you!!! Take care!!
Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck

What is your proposal story?

BCC asked what every ones proposal story was. Here's what Steve wrote. If you want to tell me yours.....go for it ! And you can exaggerate a little if you want....but just a little. :)

My wife and I were sitting in the waters of Malacca off the coast of Sumatra, two hundred meters of climbing rope stretched between us, with water skis on our feet. We had parachuted into Kuala Lumpur, on a mission for a secret arm of an unnamed government. We were waiting for a submarine, which would surface enough that the periscope could snag our rope and we would water-ski into safer waters. She had just rescued me from a drug lord’s palace and we had had a prolonged fire-fight, that had raged for about ten hours, and I knew she was tired. Plus she had taken a bullet to the shoulder and, even though it was just a flesh wound, was acting a little testy and out of sorts. But I knew the time was right. I had popped the ring into the hollow-handle of her combat bayonet while we had been pinned down. Luckily most of the blood had washed off from the mercenaries we had escaped from, and she was talked into unscrewing the top of the knife where I told her I had GPS coordinates for the pick-up in a note. Was she ever surprised to find my proposal and the ring. I’ll never forget her smile as we water-skied over the open ocean, in the moonlight, together forever.

Never have too many pics!!!

So maybe I'm a mush head but these kind of pics. really get to me.....very precious. Christopher looking at Asher and Asher looking at him.....Wow!! I think I have one with Timothy and Kingston and I can remember one of Steve and Jaron.
I'm thinking Asher's eyes are turning blue. I guess we'll see soon but there is blue eyes on our and Lesa's side of the family.



With Kingston there is personality in every picture. I love it!
Thank you Jessica for posting lots of pics. on your blog for me to take. :)
I can't wait to see him (and his parents) this summer!

The Ballet

Last night Emily and I went to the BYU Ballet performance of Cinderella. It was very well done. We were up on the balcony and there we tons of little girls there......elementary school age. Which was fine cuz a lot of them were dressed up in their Cinderella costumes and very cute. But half way through the show they were getting a little antsy. I think the parents were have a hard time trying to keep them sitting down and entertained. But overall....it was lots of fun watching but mostly it was great hanging out with Em!!!

Lesa's birthday reminds me of....

Once upon a time, long, long ago we lived in Raleigh, NC. We lived in some apartments (the George Apartments. Ask the boys about George) and right around the corner from us lived the Sperry's. They had a daughter just a little older than Jaron named Lesa. We all called her, "Little Lesa Sperry."
There were a few LDS families living there and we did a pre-school (4 yr. olds) type of thing for the kids that lived there. Jaron and Lesa did the pre-school together.
Christopher was in first grade at the time so he was one of the.......older boys. I wish I had taken more pictures of her and the preschool we all did. These are just a few of the boys while we were living there. It's a small world!!



Happy Birthday Lesa!!!

Running

This March it will be 2 years since I started working out. That first workout was brutal.....walked/jogged a mile. I thought I was going to die!! But I really wanted to get in shape for my heart. With all the anxiety attacks I was having and the racing heart beat I was a little worried. Plus I wanted to be able to play with my grandsons and keep up with them. Now almost 2 years later I can say that I'm a runner/jogger. I still get anxiety attacks every now and then but I have to say that I don't get them as often. What has been fun is that my little sister, Melanie, on the other side of the US has been running too and getting ready for some races. So we clock our times, good days/ bad days, distances, aches and pains, etc. She blows me out of the water with her distance but I have to say that I do pretty good at keeping up with her. My hope is that well into my 50's, 60's and beyond I will still be running.
BTW...today, 3 miles in 33 mins. 42 sec. Wahoo!!!

Nathan's email

Hey Mommers,
Hey so it sounds like everything is going good back at home, and good work on your Presentation!! Now you can be the power point master and make power points for everything. Power points on Household cleanliness, and things like that. haha... I got the package and the shirt fits good! thank you so much!! and I loved getting all the pictures. thank you so much!! So my licence number is, .............. So switch away.. So things here are going good.. It hasn't really been too cold so I've been quite warm.. My favorite food here.. I don't really know.. I'd have to say Rulla Kebab.. or a Kebab rap thing.. its really good and whenever we go to a kebab place I always get it (I sent you a pic of it awhile ago). I don't eat bugles.. I'm not even sure if they have them here... however, i think I'm going to look today because that sounds really good right now.. ahah.. and i do drink a good amount of coke... I have it about every other week so yeah..good stuff. and they don't have those breakfast sandwiches.. at least not that I've found. Maybe somewhere like Helsinki they would.. but not here in Pori. So things here are going good.. we had a pretty slow week, however we did have splits with Rauma on Friday and that went really good. Fun times with them... hm... that's relay all that happened this week, we did some tracting and stuff. Taught a couple investigators, which went okay.. none of our investigators are really that good.. but we're working with them so hopefully it will improve soon!! welp that's about it so have a good week and I Love and Miss you!!
Rakkaudella,
V. Nathan Peck

Lock down

Yesterday was a very interesting day for many reasons but the one big reason is that we were put on lock down while we were at church. We were all told to go to the chapel where the bishop told us that there was a shooting in the neighborhood.
The story goes (and I don't have all the facts. Just what I've read and heard) that our neighbor was sleeping when someone broke into her house. She got her gun and he wrestled it from her and she ran into her bedroom, locked the door and called the police. I'm not sure how many shots were fired. I heard 2 but no one was hit. Then the intruder left before the police got there.
Almost all the neighborhood streets were blocked off by the swat team. Luckily we were able to leave and go home a back way. Other people in our neighborhood had to wait till about 5:30pm to go home. The weird thing though is that when we got home our front door was wide open.....locked but wide open. We didn't latch it good before we left...oops. A bad day to do that. But no one was in the house and nothing was taken......if there was anything to take. Ha ha. So that was our eventful Sunday.

Lifted some pics.

I copied these pictures of Kingston off of Jessica's blog. Thanks Jess for putting them on. :)
One thing about Kingston....you can really capture a lot of his fun personality in pictures. He can really make me laugh sometimes!



And he is such a happy guy!!!!