Easter = Chipa?

Dear Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN AND FIL! AND ALSO JARED NEXT TUESDAY! 

This week was full of great stuff.  Because it was "la semana santa" there was a of traditions going on. Really just a lot of chipa.  Chipa is a hard cheesy flour based bread that you bake in a tataqua (brick oven) on top of banana leaves (its not that good).  We made some chipa with the Britez family and we also cooked one of their ducks, a pig, and 2 chickens.  

But everybody makes chipa...so every house we went to they loaded us up with more chipa until it just got ridiculous, and we cookie monstered (pretend like you are eating it but its really just crumbling in front of your face) as we walked home.  I am not sure what chipa has to do with Easter.

We found a great family this week who were less active and they came to church last week! They have 5 priesthood holder possibilities!.  

We are going to the temple tommorow and I am freakin' out about seeing the new temple movie!  I have only seen the old old one so I am pumped.  The whole zone is doing a fast so that the work will progress and that is cool you all are doing one too!  

Elder Richardson and I tromped around in the rain a ton this week visiting people. He fell down in the mud twice and it was super funny.  We both have gone into a haiku poem phase where we make up sweet haiku`s.  No stomach problems this week and we are back at 100%.  

Some great things I learned this week that have inspired me are a talk by Elder Eyring titled "Come Unto Me". and might I recommend it to you all.  It opened my eyes a little wider about how we can know the atonement is taking affect in our lives.  Also I found another scripture that I like a lot in luke 9 vs 62: "No man having put his hand to the plough, and LOOKING BACK is fit for the kingdom of god."  It helps me think about the commitments and covenants we make with Christ and how only when truly committed and resolved progress is made.  There is so much work to be done, and it takes committment to do it.

We did a trek to the Temple, walking with members from the chapel in Yukyry to Asuncion.  I think it was like 10 miles.. easy peasy for a man who walks all day every day... but for a lot of the sisters in the branch showed up with flip flops it was tough. Not suprisingly half way through the trek when the rain started that it was the men who wanted to quit and take a bus, and the wemon in flip flops who said they would rather push forward. We sang as we saw the Temple "I Love to See the Temple" and there was a great feeling.  Arriving being soaked we finshed the trek to the Temple super happy and spiritually filled.  

I will let you all know how the Temple goes and the musical number we are singing.  Hopefully I can get a video of it!

Love,
Elder Neifert