IT IS TOO IMPORTANT TO ASSUME!

Dear Family,

How was Aaron's Birthday?

I will get you that picture next Monday. Sorry... I've been looking for a sweet background with palm trees or a lizard or something, but I will for sure get it too you in a week.

I think I'm good on Sunscreen. if needed i will buy some more here... but I sweat it all off in like 5 minutes of being outside.

I think we are at the peak of heat right now so were on the down slope. From what I've heard, it starts to get better in late March.

That's awesome, DEREK!!! I'm super excited for you!  (a friend from his home ward gave his talk and will be leaving for his mission to France this next week.) 

I started The Book of Mormon over again and it is incredible what I missed the first time! It is really crazy reading verses of scripture that collaborate with what iI just read at the other end of the book. I learned about a sweet pattern this week between Moses and Jesus Christ. Just how Moses freed the Hebrews from bondage and took them through the Red Sea and then to Mount Sinai, Christ has saved us from the bondage of sin by taking us through the waters of baptism and then to the mountain (Temple) of the Lord so that we might gain exaltation.

Today is changes (transfers) and so we will see whether I am staying Yukuryr or leaving.  I've been in this area for 4 months, so I don't know whats going to happen. 

Elder Brown and I found some incredible people this week. We found a lady named Maria, who spoke with missionaries 7 years ago on a collectivo (bus). The missionaries eventually baptized her brother and now 7 years later she wants to be baptized! We walked into the lesson and she flat out asked us what she needs to do to be baptized. So her baptism is on the 23rd of Feb. She is an amazing example of what seeds every one of us can plant in the lives of others. It might not grow instantaneously, but give it a little time and all of the sudden the conditions are right for it to start growing.

Another person we found yesterday is a lady named Rosana. We had been talking before we met her about how we could improve teaching people instead of lessons and so we focused really hard on just teaching her specifically to her needs. The lesson went amazing and she opened up to us that she had been searching for a church that would be able to "fill her," and that she had gone to an evangelical church and switched to Catholicism because of her spouse. We were able to talk about how the church of Christ does exactly that, it fills us. Just like Christ said if you will drink of my water and eat of my bread you will never hunger or thirst again. And how it is only in his true church that HE PLACED on the earth that we can be filled. She committed to be baptized and read and pray to know if the message we shared was true. Also she commented how talking to us made her feel good because it was a discussion not a sermon. She was able to express her ideas and views and that made her feel good. We will see what happens on Wednesday, but I know that she felt the spirit really strong and that because we listened and applied the lesson according to her needs, she wanted to make commitments and keep them. The Lord prepared her and blessed us that we could talk to her with her needs in mind. After the lesson I had an incredible feeling thinking about how much the Lord had done for us and for her so that she could accept and apply the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This church is not led by men thinking about the Bible a lot and making a good assumption about how we should follow and partake of salvation. IT IS TOO IMPORTANT TO ASSUME! Revelation is necessary, directly from God, giving us the directions we need to obey Him and do His will. If we don't receive revelation directly from God then who are we following? I have felt the spirit of God telling me of the importance and truthfulness of this work, and I know it is led by Him.

The pictures are that blue lake I told you guys about and me and elder Mejia our last day, and
a typical house in Paraguay that we are contacting. (fake contacting, nobody was home.)

(Will update with pictures later - for some reason it won't work)

Love,

Elder Neifert