2nd Companion

Dear Family,

My new companion is Elder Mejia from Peru!  He is an awesome missionary and has perfect Spanish and so I think I will be learning a lot faster.  He speaks ok English, too, and is a really good teacher. This week was a little slower than the others.... we had special changes and so Elder Bredsguard and I had all Monday and most of Tuesday where he ran around taking pictures with everyone of our members and investigators.  Then in the morning I picked up Elder Mejia in San Lorenzo and we went back too Yukury.  Our area is pretty big and it has been tough for me to remember all of the shortcuts to members and investigators houses.  We got lost like 3 or 4 times and once in the middle of the jungle in the dark... we trudged through a ton of spider webs and tall grass and then popped out at a house in the middle of nada and scared this lady washing clothes on her patio.  We had a Christmas thing on Thursday and we went to a hospital to sing carols to patients there.  We found one girl there who wanted us to teach her one day and we got her number so we'll be able to find and teach her.  Like three minutes afterwards we started getting a ton of text messages from her quoting scriptures and whatnot so I think she will be a good investigator.  We also did that invisible friend gift game and I got this blow up guy for punching. It looks like nacho libre.  We practice teaching him the gospel just about every companion study.  We went to visit Raquel and her family and talked about setting goals and how important it is to work together as a family towards them.  She wants to wait with her kids to be baptized for a couple of weeks so that her husband and she can work together to get married for the right reasons.  I didnt really understand, but hopefully their family will be baptized in the coming week and they can get married too.  It has been a good week though, and I think that I am going to be able to learn a lot from Elder Mejia.  I am trying to send the letters to you guys, but I think it will take a really long time due to the sucky mission mail chain of command.  None of our investigators showed up to church (like 13 people) and so we are a little sad about this last week but I'm sure it will be better this coming week.  I think that the President is going to send out a letter about when I am going to skype with you guys and so I will let you know hopefully a few days before Christmas.  I love you guys!!!!

Love,

Elder Neifert

Moving

Dear Family,

We had a really good week and got a ton of lessons in. We've been working really hard with Raquel and her family! We taught her the law of tithing and fast and explained how God has given us His promise that He will open up the windows of heaven upon those who keep this commandment. 

This is one of the toughest commandment for people to keep here. Out of our ward, I think there are like 3 people who pay a full tithe. She asked a lot of questions and we answered them with scriptures and shared a few experiences and then we asked her if she would keep the commandment of paying tithing. She said she didn't know if she was going to be able to pay her rent this month if she does, but she said, "I guess I will leave it up to God" and she is going to start paying tithing. Experiences like that where you are sitting in front of a house built out of mud and sand, in a chair made out of jump ropes and seeing a leap of faith like Raquel's makes you know that there is something behind what is being taught. I am so happy to be on a mission serving the Lord and feeling and seeing the miracles as the hand of God is stretched out to these people. There is nothing as awesome as seeing somebody you have met with all of the sudden feel something they've never felt before and you get to watch them change almost their entire life to grasp the thing they've been looking for.

We moved today to get back into our area and we found a sick house that has "Alianza con el Espiritu de Dios" (Alliance with the Spirit of God) written over the front door. I think it used to be an Evangelical church. We were going to get it like a month ago, but it needed a lot of work so the guy fixed it up and we moved in today. We showed up at the house with all of our junk in this guy's truck (who was the first high priest in Paraguay). All of these kids showed up and started helping us move stuff into the house. They were super funny and would take our stuff in the house and hide it. We bought some super good chupa chupas (lolliops) for them and we moved in the rest of the stuff.

Elder Bredsgaurd just got a call and we got special changed and so he is moving up to District Leader in Paso de Oro and I'm staying here in Yuqury in the same place. I don't know who my companion is yet, but it will happen Wednesday. DANG IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't received a package yet. I am going to send a letter for you guys tomorrow I hope and I don't know when it will get there, but it has my Christmas present for you guys. I will Skype you guys and I think you need to make a new account for me and send me the info next Monday so I can use it. I don't know when we will Skype yet, but I will let you know when I know.

I love you guys!!!!!

Elder Neifert

Dear Family,

Thank you for all of the letters and prayers! I really am thankful for what a great blessing family and friends are!  

This week was a really good one.  We had a Zone Conference in Asuncion where Elder Zaballos came and talked about how important missionary work is and gave us some ideas about how we can be better.  The main message of the conference was purify yourselves and get rid of distractions.  And so Elder Bredsgaurd and I made a really big list of things we will work on getting rid of so that we will be focused and in tune with the spirit.  

 We made some awesome contacts that I know the Lord helped us find.  We had one lesson in particular where we met with a family and we taught lesson one.  The father was paying really good attention and just seemed like he was hungry for more.  At the end we asked him to pray and ask God if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God... and he prayed and then the spirit just hit us like a ton of bricks.  He said that he received his answer and we explained about the Holy Ghost and what significance this has for him and his family.  He didn't come to church yesterday, but we will visit him this week.   We also had 2 or 3 more situations just like that where the people were just prepared and had enough faith and desire that you could see the spirit working in them.  I just feel really blessed to be a part of this beautiful work.  This week has really strengthened my faith in how the Lord directs and leads his servants.  

We also have been working a lot with Raquel and her family. It rained a ton on Thursday and we headed out to visit her and other investigators out there.  The streets were all under at least 4 inches of water and got deeper and deeper the closer we got to Nuevo Asuncion.  About a kilometer out the water was above the tires and the driver wouldn't go any farther because he couldn't tell where the road was.  So everybody started to get off the bus in waist deep water with all of their groceries and stuff - holding it above their head. We took off our shoes and started trudging through the water to get to Raquel's house.  It was awesome and way funny because we would be walking and all of the sudden you would step into a huge pot hole and fall over.  None of the houses had yards.  All you could see was the houses and the tops of gates.   We borrowed some pink flip flops and crocs from some members and got to Raquel's house.  It looked like her house was in the middle of a lake.  We had an amazing lesson with Raquel's family and her sister about the word of wisdom and went over the law of chastity again.  The whole family said they would keep both commandments and it has been incredible how  quickly their faith and testimonies have grown as they've kept commitments and really experimented with prayer and keeping commandments. The blessings  of living the gospel don't come without sacrifice though and it has been a crazy week for their family. Raquel's husband said he wants to marry her and learn more about the church.  On Sunday Raquel didn't know if he's really in marrying her because he loves her.  And now her boyfriend is mad at us for teaching his family about how important marriage is in keeping the family together and happy.  I feel like I am Doctor Phil.  I am sure that Raquel will do what is best for her family. Her baptism is being postponed along with her 2 kids and sister.

I love you all and I hope that my letter gets to you in time for Christmas!

Love,

 

Elder Neifert

I wont have transfers until after Christmas and I think I will probably be staying in Yuqury.