Two Baptisms!

Dear Family,

This week was a great week! 

We had a few baptisms - Romina and Mercedes!  We are working hard to keep the ward integrated in missionary work.  You would think with 10 returned missionaries in your ward it would be easy... not so chicken Joe. 

Luckily we had a good turnout for the baptisms and enough food for everyone! 

You guys wouldn't believe what we did this morning for p day.....

EXTREME HOPSCOTCH!  It was crazy.  Elder Richardson took a video and so I will try and send it next week, or I will just put it on my flash drive and send it.  Prepare yourselves for lava pits, monkeys, bum scoots, etc....

Spiritual experiences:

Mercedes is a rock.  She flat out told us that her goal now is to get a job to be able to pay tithing and help expand the Kingdom of God, and then go to the Temple.  WE HAVEN'T EVEN TALKED A LOT ABOUT THE TEMPLE!  Before her baptism we talked about if she would invite her family members to come too and she said that she already had but none were interested... but then she told us that she didn't care really because she wasn't doing this for anybody but herself.  She knew what the Lord wanted her to do and she was going to do it! 

The Torress family came for the second week in a row! They are going to start to begin to prepare for the Temple as well.  We had a lesson about baptisms for the dead and the work that goes on in the Temple and how the gospel is being preached on the other side of the veil as well.  Sister Torress` mom had died not too long ago and so she payed really close attention.  At the end she said she wanted to share an experience she had... She had a dream the night before of her mom. Her mom told her that the time was close for the second coming of the Messiah. We talked a lot about that and they have more excitement than ever about the gospel.  A lot of times when teaching I think about the ancestors of our investigators... I fully believe that they are present and very interested in the repentance and progress of there family members.

Lately, I have been studying the book of first John and it talks a lot about how our love for God is really directly related to our obedience to his commandments (if ye love me keep my commandments).  It goes into it a lot deeper and I am still learning.  One of my favorite verses is 1 John 4:19 "We love him, because he first loved us".   The more we learn of Christ's love for us, the deeper and more resolved our desire will be to repent and show our love to him through obedience.  I love him, because I know he loves me.

 Still no package.

Stay safe on the trip to see Gagu and drop Jessi off... and visit Cody and his wife who nobody told me about.

I am enjoying the mission more and more!   

Love,

Elder Neifert

Last Transfer

Dear Family,

We are going to have another Baptism this saturday!  Her name is Mercedes.  She has a young daughter and is super cool.  She reads really well and has pounded through everything we have given her.  

Also, Romina is getting baptized this Saturday, too!  

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!!!!!,

I bet you guys ate some pie....eat some for me! 

What did you guys do for Father's Day?  Besides eat pie.

Sounds like girls camp was sweet,  and I am sure you played a big role in that!  The Parkers!!! You always said you are going to hang out with Carla.

Changes are this week, but I am staying here in Luque with Elder Greer until the end. Which I am not thinking about, but am aware of.  

This week we had a lot of great people come to church!  After 4 years of inactivity, the Torress Family came!  We have been teaching them for about 5 weeks and they are making great progress!  The mom is reading The Book of Mormon for the first time and has just hit the Isaiah chapters!  (I pray she can fight through and make it out alive).  She is noticing a lot of differences in the family and has been really excited to finally get an understanding of the gospel.  So far her favorite chapter is 2 Nephi 4.  

We have an investigator named Domingo. I think he will be baptized this month as well.  We taught him all of the lessons and it is now just up to him when he takes the step to be baptized.  We think he is just afraid of making a commitment that he cant keep, so we had him read about when Peter walked on water and how when he started to sink the Savior was there to lift him back up again. 

I will keep looking for the package! 

I love you guys,

Elder Neifert

A Baptism and a Treasure Hunt

Dear Family!,

I had a great week!  We have a lemon tree in front of our house, so I made a weeks worth of lemonade.  We had a baptism! We found some great people to teach! We set a baptismal date with an investigator named Mercedes for the 21st of this month! 

I am having a great time in this area, because there is so much to do! We have an neverending list of less active families.  A while ago a bishop's store house was set up here in Luque and there was a big increase in baptisms, just about all of those people are inactive now.  So we are looking for them all.

This week we made a big map of our ward boundaries and are now pinning all members down by talking to the old people who know everyone.  It is like a treasure hunt.  

We are also teaching English on Saturdays to try and find more investigators and references.  

Elder Richardson and I found some short shorts and we didn't think he would fit in them...he did! 

I had a great experience on a division with Elder Wheeler.  We had planned to teach a Catholic family that night about priesthood keys/ the restoration, but they weren't home, so we felt impressed to just try their neighbor. We clapped and (like always) they peeked out of their peeky holes and out came a little fat Paraguayan boy.  (this is normal that the parents send there kids out to tell us no) But he just stood there.  So I asked him how he was and he didn't talk, and I asked him if his parents were home and he just stood there.  So finally after talking to him for about 3 minutes and him not saying anything, the mom came out to his rescue.  We told her we felt impressed to stop by and share a message about the family with her.  And she let us in.  We shared and she expressed to us how she was going through a rough time and that we had arrived at the moment she had been thinking about it.  The greatest part of the lesson was the end where we invited her to pray.  We got all of her children around and she offered one of the greatest prayers ever,  you could tell that she was thinking a lot about what she was saying and before the end she paused, and began to tear up, and then everyone teared up.  I don't know if I have ever felt the spirit so strong.  A mother with her children all around her, asking our Heavenly Father if he could keep them safe.  I don't know if they had ever heard there mom pray before.  It was great.

I am trying hard to not think about home and what is up ahead, and it is tough! But I will fight to the end! Fear not Mother! I will Fight! 

I don't have the package yet, but I will keep looking!

Have a safe move to Colorado, Jessi and Cody! I hope you like it there!

Love,
Elder Neifert 

Pics of the baptism of Josias Ovelar