Last Zone Conference with President Madariaga

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a good one.  Those bus trips to Asuncion are fun but they are really tolling.  Its a seven hour trip and there are ladies in the dang bathroom every minute through the night.  Elder Ohara is my Zone Leader.  I don't know if you guys remember, but he was in my first district and my DL (District Leader) for a while.  He is a good friend on the mission.    Anyway we had the last zone conference with President Madariaga!  It was pretty powerful.  He talked about how missionaries really need to focus on the doctrine of Christ in every single lesson and contact.  That is the key to success and your investigators keeping commitments.  A lot of time we teach about the restoration, the plan of salvation, or the gospel of Christ, or anything without first explaining the reasoning behind it all. That reason is to repent and be baptized to return to the presence of or Heavenly Father.  An example would be: we explain the word of wisdom to an investigator and just say something like, we know you will receive blessings of health and strength and you will be able to feel of the spirits guidance and presence more consistently as you follow this commandment.  This commandment was revealed to us so that we can purify ourselves through repentance and be ready for baptism in order to live with our Father in Heaven after this life.  It was a really inspirational conference and I really felt the love and care that President had for us and the love that God has for us.  Elder Smith and I have already put it into practice and it has helped the quality of our lessons a ton! 

We will see what happens on my birthday.   I accept your challenge of conatcting 21 people. (His sister suggested he have a goal to contact 21 people on his 21st birthday).  I will let you know what your inspiration brings about.  I have some super exciting news.  There was a guy I met in the terminal about a month ago (click here for the story) and I talked with him, gave him a Book of Mormon, and challenged him to be baptized.  GUESS WHAT?? In two weeks, he's getting baptized out in Pedro Juan!!!!!!  I got the news and I got SOOOO happy!!! Joy just flooded into my body.  The guy is a genius and speaks like 3 or 4 languages.  It just boosted my contacting testimony a bizzilion times over.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! YAYAYAYAAAAAAAAAAA!! 

We found an APARTMENT! por fin! (finally!) it is extremely chu chi (fancy)  and Elder Smith and I are really happy with it.   We bargained down the price a ton so it's not too expensive.  I will send pics when we move in. 

Thank you for the Birthday and Christmas cards and things!!!! It was just what I needed! Thank you for the notes. I laminated them and taped them to my wall.   THANK YOU PRIMARY!!! I loved the letters and pictures you sent!!!!  Jacob Shepherd - yes, there are quite a few attractive women down here, but they are your sisters, and it will be a while until you will be on the wife hunt. 

I am having a blast in Concepcion!  We are finally seeing some of the fruits of our labor and I think we will have a couple baptisms this month. 

I hope you are all doing well!!!!

Love,

Elder Neifert