22 and Great Experiences

Dear Family, I had an okay week this week! We are getting really into helping members do their visiting and home teaching! We took up all of priesthood and relief society class time to teach them how to have successful lesson when visiting. We even did a role practice of meet and greet and commitments. It was fun and we will see the results this coming week. I am still chugging along, we are teaching a couple right now that are wanting to get out of drug problems and start a new life. IT has been amazing to see there sincerity to repent as they have been going to church regularly and reading and praying. I hope i will be here to see them baptized, but it will take a little time i think to set up their foundation for a new style of life. Marriage is one of those building blocks. I GOT THE PACKAGE!! You guys know me too well! Thanks for the birth memories and poems. I AM 22 baaaahhh! That's okay though. I met a Peruvian missionary today who is 26. We had a great experience this week with a lot of investigators. Mercedes is trying hard to get her family to accept the gospel and her sister said she wants to go to church to see how it is! The Torres family (recently reactivated) invited their neighbor to church too!. We have an investigator named Domingo (Sunday) who has been doing great. He is a little afraid about committing to baptism. He is about 23 and has a lot of friends who aren't the best influences, but he is working hard to get a stronger testimony to make that commitment. We are focusing hard on the power of The Book of Mormon, and the many truths we can know through its veracity. (I don't know if that's the right word.) I will keep working, fear not! These assorted nut bars and granola goods will get me too the end! I love you guys, Stay safe on your journeys and whatnot! Love, Elder Neifert

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

Building a House, Romina's Temple Trip, and Hugo's Catching On!

Hey family,

It has been cold!! I dont know if I am just a wimp after a really hot summer or it really is that cold, but I have been wearing my long johns for 4 days straight, and making ninja masks to keep my face warm during studies.

Our air conditioner doubles as a heater, so that is better than last year!

We have been working a ton - doing a lot of divisions all around the zone.  

We helped a guy build his house today.  And I helped put up a telephone pole (coconut tree trunk) so he could run the electricity to his house.  It only took about 10 min to do that. :)  We just grabbed the trunk, stuck it into the hole, put the dirt around it, and that was that.  He got on a latter and strung the wires.  It was just funny how simple it was.  some people just use barbed wire to hook their house up to the electric wires. (they glow at night).  

Romina went to the Temple Saturday!  That was good news this week! 

We are working with a few great families that are keeping commitments.  It was great to hear from the Torress family - they started reading their scriptures again after a year and a half! The mom said she is finally putting puzzle pieces together about the restoration!

There is a guy named Hugo we are teaching. He knows a ton about the scriptures.  At church he (knowing he wasnt baptized yet) said, "The sacrament is only for those who are baptized right?"  It caught me by surprise, but it was great he caught that!  His mom is about to start chemo treatment because her cancer is super bad right now.  So, once again, without us even saying anything he asked if we could bless his mom.  So we did, and it was great.

Thanks for sending all the pics and videos!  They made my day!  I hope all works out for you guys Jessi and Cody!  

Love,

Elder Neifert

Mercedes + Pictures!

Dear family! 

It was great to talk to you guys! CONGRATS AARON AND CODY! You made it to the end!  Now you are going to start again doing something else! 

This week went by really fast.  We have been working a ton, with way more people to work with than time allows.  The cool thing about Luque Centro is that our ward has 12 returned missionaries in it!  So getting to have members present in all of our lessons is easy.  I started the New Testament again in Spanish and I am soaking it up.  

Elder Greer and I played volleyball today with the zone and it was great.  Lots of smack talk...using a scriptural basis.  So Aaron - Alma 41:15, the first part.

We are teaching some great smart people.  A lesson we had this week was with a lady named Mercedes.  The first lesson I asked her why she was so willing to talk to us and she said, "Well, I feel like the gospel is all about leaving behind the old me and becoming a new person.  I have done a lot of things I knew I shouldn't have and I know that to be happy I need to understand the gospel." 

Talk about a broken heart and contrite spirit!  There was an awesome spirit in that lesson.

I hope you guys are doing great! I will pray for you guys, Jessi and Cody! (Elder Neifert's brother-in-law graduated from school and was looking for a job. He has since found one!)  

aquino fam sitting in chairs,

paredez fam, + yolanda

HMNO ROJAS CAME TO CHURCH RIGHT AFTER I LEFT :( :)! 

salcedo fam

Luque 1b

Dear Family,

I am excited to see you guys too!  That will definitely be a party with everybody over there!  (Elder Neifert's Grandparents, Great Aunts, Aunt and siblings will all be in town for mother's day)

This week was a great one! We had a family come for the first time to church!  It was awesome that the members made them feel comfortable too.  

This transfer is over and I am headed to Luque 1b. with Elder Greer from Benson, Arizona.  He is the other Zone Leader, so I am out of the Training PROGRAM!!!!!!!! 

It will be a different and it gives Elder Greer and me more time to think about the zone instead of other stuff.

There is a less active sister who Elder Richardson and I have been visiting who got in a moto accident last week.  so we`ve been calling her and sent her things to read in the hospital and finally today we went to visit her.  (by the way her husband left her a month ago).  She learned today that her leg was infected and they would have to amputate it this coming week... She was really calm about it all and bore her testimony to us that she knows God will take care of her.  It was a humbling experience.  It would be good if you all could pray for her, her name is Adriana Alvarez.

There was a funny lady this week who, as we clapped at her house, just yelled out, "I dont like you!" It was funny.

We had more people this week at church than any other week and the Rojas family showed up to give their new baby a blessing.  Dad still didn't come but his wife said he was about too, just his brother showed up last minute.

That is sad about Gene Motley. I am sure that she has lots of people like you guys to be with her!  

I will call you guys Sunday at 5 pm my time! 

Love, 
Elder Neifert