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.