Faithfulness and a New Hat

Dear Family!,

This week was a good one!  Elder Haworth (Hayworth) and I are working hard trying to find people to teach who are willing to keep commitments.  We did a lot of exploring this week and we found a few cool people.  We were walking on a jungle path in the middle of nowhere and an old guy popped out of the forest.  He had one eye and was a drunk. We tried talking to him, but he couldn't hear very well and was convinced that all men have seven spirits within.  The monkey spirit, cat spirit, parrot spirit..... and I cant remember the rest.  So we weren't able to get very far with him, but I noticed he had a really old cool hat.  So I traded him my normal straw hat, for a sweet gray old hat that is made up more of stitching and repairs than the original hat material.  I will send a pic.  

We did finally get a less active family at church, and it was great to finally see them taking the sacrament.  Also, I am pretty sure I gave the worst talk of my life.  The guy asked me 3 min. before I needed to speak and gave me the topic of ¨laws of the land¨.  I don't know to much about that topic I found out and I rambled about the need for good leaders and a smart law knowing people to protect agency and freedom.  And then I told them the story about how you (mom) called the police on dad to pay the fine for killing a deer without the tag.  They thought that was funny.  People here don't know what deer are, even if I say the word deer (alce), they don't know it.  So I said, "It's the animal that pulls Santa Clause" and they understood!  Any way I got a big slice of humble pie and I felt betrayed and embarrassed that I didn't speak too well.  But its just a friendly reminder that I'm not a perfect teacher and that there is a lot of room for improvement.

A spiritual experience we had was....,

We taught a guy who had been inactive for a while and had his reasons all in a line ready to use for excuses to bash on the church/ leaders.  He also has a 9 year old daughter who needs to be baptized.  He is a lot bigger than I am, and his personality is pretty strong and stubborn.  So we got into the lesson, and we wanted to teach about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our conversion to Christ and in knowing eternal truths.   2 minutes in, he started in about his reasons for leaving and talked for about 15 min, negatively about the church.  I am a pretty easygoing guy I think, and it is tough for me to tell people they are flat out wrong.  So I prayed asking for the right words so that we wouldn't get into a brouhaha and that he would feel the spirit.  So when he was done, I felt inspired to talk about love, and ways to express it.  So I asked him, what is the best way to express our love to the Savior.  And it came down to Faithfulness.  That is when we began talking about his baptismal covenants when he promised to be faithful in obeying the commandments.   And then came the question, "if you were to die and stand in front of Christ in this very moment, could you tell him, i have been faithful in keeping all of your commandments?" ( and then the spirit was there and I got chills)  He thought about that for a few seconds, and then came the reply. "No, I cant say that I have." We set, and he accepted, goals for him to begin keeping the commandments and to talk to the Branch President so that he can take the sacrament and, from there, be worthy to baptize his daughter.

It was pretty intense and I know that the spirit was there to help a child of God get pointed in the right direction.  I am super happy as well that he didn't try to chew us out or ramble the whole night on problems of the past.  That kind of thing where the spirit just brings just the right words has happened time and time again, and I am humbled and blessed to be one of the many lucky instruments in the hands of the Lord.   There is not a more safe and happy feeling in the world.

To the Maryland heights ward... I guess you could share that message I just wrote. And that I love them.

I haven't got a package yet.  And the card still won't work.  Is it an international visa?  I talked with a few banks and they don't know anything.  They said if it doesn't work,  it doesn't work. ( hey that solved everything! )  

We are planning to skype on Christmas day at about 5 o clock Paraguay time.  Is that okay?  I will still write next Mon,  so let me know.  Who will be there?  I don't know if you guys want to try the skype with everyone?  

I love you guys and cant wait to skype!

Love, 

Elder Neifert