Jan 7th

Dear family!

We had changes again and so I am with Elder Brown now. This change was really big because we split Yukuryry (pronounced Ju-ki-doo - we discovered this in our Skype call with Elder Neifert) in half and so now I am in area Yukryry A! It was really nuts during changes because they had me split the area with Elder Breadsguard and we got 3 new missionaries who were coming into the area. So most of this week I was showing the 3 missionaries around the area and meeting with members. We all live in the same house in Ita Angua.  Elder Brown is from Lydon, Utah.  The other new Elders are: Elder Ramos from Argentina and Elder Rodriguez from Columbia.
 
I didn't get to teach that much this week because of the changes, but I am really looking forward to working with Elder Brown.

This Sunday was really awesome, we had 100 people at church!!!!! It is usually at around 50-60. We had a ton of inactive members come that we visited and a lot of investigators! The priesthood couldn't all fit in the room!

  I also got sprayed by milk.  I was sitting behind a kid named Dillon who had a bottle and he dropped it behind him and sprayed me. It was warm - that's all I have to say about that.

We also taught this lady named Gladys, who konked me in the head with a mango. We contacted her at her house and she wanted to get me a mango from her tree... so she used this super long wooden pole and poked one.  We were standing out from under the tree and I wasn't paying too much attention because her mom was giving me weird looks... and the mango fell and hit a branch and deflected into my head. And that thing was hefty.  The weird thing was that she acted like nothing happened and just went back to her chair and sat down as if it happens all the time.  Luckily it didn't explode, it was just super squishy - so I chucked it after we left.

Those mounds I was standing on are termite mounds.

My scripture study is different every morning. I try and study up on something that I am going to use that day or something I feel would help the most in teaching or being a better missionary. I think that the most important thing for me as I start studying is to have a specific purpose that I pray for help with. If I don't start off studying with a prayer for help, I feel as though I'm not getting what the Lord wants me to get out of it. When I study without a purpose in mind or a subject in mind, its pointless and I lose interest in what im reading. I wish I could read conference talks, but I am still looking for a copy.

I love you guys and I'm sorry I didn't have too much to write about lessons or working.

Love,

Elder Neifert

December 31st, 2012

Hey.

 It was really great to talk too you all! I love you guys and I miss you all a lot.  I hope your Christmas was sweet.  We had asado with the Lopez family which is like a huge barbeque. We ate it with a fruit salad I made!  Christmas in Paraguay is awesome.  Its like the fourth of July, except with music blaring everywhere.  Everyone eats outside in their front yard until 12 and then they light off fireworks and blast their music as loud as possible! Another thing about Paraguay - everyone has a huge stereo system. Some people here might live in a a trashcan, but its a noisy one with really nice speakers.  And they place the speakers in their windows so everyone can hear. The fireworks are nuts! They aren't like the big ones in the states, they are just little bombs that make one big boom.  Every house also has a nativity set that they work on forever... here is a picture of Hermana Lopez's.

 They are way cool.   I wasn't able to fall asleep until around 3 because of the music blasting and fireworks.  I think some of the neighborhood kids were throwing them at our house.  I bought them chupa chupas and they stabbed me in the back.

We had a burger fiesta with the district:

and I got your package!!!!! THANK YOU!!! I am super excited and it was way funny to elder Mejia's reaction at getting a stocking with toothpaste.  

And, mom, that princess ball is just what I needed to feel the Christmas spirit.  (The ball is an inside joke.)

We had sort of a tough week numbers wise.  We found a couple new investigators that I am excited about.  And Raquel and her husband set a date to be married and baptized!  We had some awesome lessons with her and her family.   Her sister took a collectivo for two hours to come and talk with us about the scriptures and God.  It was a really powerful lesson and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. 

I have been blessed a lot in speaking Spanish and also knowing where to look for people and what to say to them.  One example out of a ton is that we were doing contacts and we weren't able to find anyone who wanted to learn more or come to church and so I offered a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find two people who we were able to teach who would want to know more. The next house we clapped at we taught two boys who asked us questions and we taught them about prophets and how we can receive answers from God about the restoration.  They accepted the baptismal invitation and hopefully we will teach them a lot more this week.  I am not even able to fathom how much the Lord has blessed me and how much he loves his children. 

I love you all and hope you have a great new year!

Love,
Elder Neifert

Here are a few pictures Elder Neifert sent this week as well:

2nd Companion

Dear Family,

My new companion is Elder Mejia from Peru!  He is an awesome missionary and has perfect Spanish and so I think I will be learning a lot faster.  He speaks ok English, too, and is a really good teacher. This week was a little slower than the others.... we had special changes and so Elder Bredsguard and I had all Monday and most of Tuesday where he ran around taking pictures with everyone of our members and investigators.  Then in the morning I picked up Elder Mejia in San Lorenzo and we went back too Yukury.  Our area is pretty big and it has been tough for me to remember all of the shortcuts to members and investigators houses.  We got lost like 3 or 4 times and once in the middle of the jungle in the dark... we trudged through a ton of spider webs and tall grass and then popped out at a house in the middle of nada and scared this lady washing clothes on her patio.  We had a Christmas thing on Thursday and we went to a hospital to sing carols to patients there.  We found one girl there who wanted us to teach her one day and we got her number so we'll be able to find and teach her.  Like three minutes afterwards we started getting a ton of text messages from her quoting scriptures and whatnot so I think she will be a good investigator.  We also did that invisible friend gift game and I got this blow up guy for punching. It looks like nacho libre.  We practice teaching him the gospel just about every companion study.  We went to visit Raquel and her family and talked about setting goals and how important it is to work together as a family towards them.  She wants to wait with her kids to be baptized for a couple of weeks so that her husband and she can work together to get married for the right reasons.  I didnt really understand, but hopefully their family will be baptized in the coming week and they can get married too.  It has been a good week though, and I think that I am going to be able to learn a lot from Elder Mejia.  I am trying to send the letters to you guys, but I think it will take a really long time due to the sucky mission mail chain of command.  None of our investigators showed up to church (like 13 people) and so we are a little sad about this last week but I'm sure it will be better this coming week.  I think that the President is going to send out a letter about when I am going to skype with you guys and so I will let you know hopefully a few days before Christmas.  I love you guys!!!!

Love,

Elder Neifert

Moving

Dear Family,

We had a really good week and got a ton of lessons in. We've been working really hard with Raquel and her family! We taught her the law of tithing and fast and explained how God has given us His promise that He will open up the windows of heaven upon those who keep this commandment. 

This is one of the toughest commandment for people to keep here. Out of our ward, I think there are like 3 people who pay a full tithe. She asked a lot of questions and we answered them with scriptures and shared a few experiences and then we asked her if she would keep the commandment of paying tithing. She said she didn't know if she was going to be able to pay her rent this month if she does, but she said, "I guess I will leave it up to God" and she is going to start paying tithing. Experiences like that where you are sitting in front of a house built out of mud and sand, in a chair made out of jump ropes and seeing a leap of faith like Raquel's makes you know that there is something behind what is being taught. I am so happy to be on a mission serving the Lord and feeling and seeing the miracles as the hand of God is stretched out to these people. There is nothing as awesome as seeing somebody you have met with all of the sudden feel something they've never felt before and you get to watch them change almost their entire life to grasp the thing they've been looking for.

We moved today to get back into our area and we found a sick house that has "Alianza con el Espiritu de Dios" (Alliance with the Spirit of God) written over the front door. I think it used to be an Evangelical church. We were going to get it like a month ago, but it needed a lot of work so the guy fixed it up and we moved in today. We showed up at the house with all of our junk in this guy's truck (who was the first high priest in Paraguay). All of these kids showed up and started helping us move stuff into the house. They were super funny and would take our stuff in the house and hide it. We bought some super good chupa chupas (lolliops) for them and we moved in the rest of the stuff.

Elder Bredsgaurd just got a call and we got special changed and so he is moving up to District Leader in Paso de Oro and I'm staying here in Yuqury in the same place. I don't know who my companion is yet, but it will happen Wednesday. DANG IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't received a package yet. I am going to send a letter for you guys tomorrow I hope and I don't know when it will get there, but it has my Christmas present for you guys. I will Skype you guys and I think you need to make a new account for me and send me the info next Monday so I can use it. I don't know when we will Skype yet, but I will let you know when I know.

I love you guys!!!!!

Elder Neifert

Dear Family,

Thank you for all of the letters and prayers! I really am thankful for what a great blessing family and friends are!  

This week was a really good one.  We had a Zone Conference in Asuncion where Elder Zaballos came and talked about how important missionary work is and gave us some ideas about how we can be better.  The main message of the conference was purify yourselves and get rid of distractions.  And so Elder Bredsgaurd and I made a really big list of things we will work on getting rid of so that we will be focused and in tune with the spirit.  

 We made some awesome contacts that I know the Lord helped us find.  We had one lesson in particular where we met with a family and we taught lesson one.  The father was paying really good attention and just seemed like he was hungry for more.  At the end we asked him to pray and ask God if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God... and he prayed and then the spirit just hit us like a ton of bricks.  He said that he received his answer and we explained about the Holy Ghost and what significance this has for him and his family.  He didn't come to church yesterday, but we will visit him this week.   We also had 2 or 3 more situations just like that where the people were just prepared and had enough faith and desire that you could see the spirit working in them.  I just feel really blessed to be a part of this beautiful work.  This week has really strengthened my faith in how the Lord directs and leads his servants.  

We also have been working a lot with Raquel and her family. It rained a ton on Thursday and we headed out to visit her and other investigators out there.  The streets were all under at least 4 inches of water and got deeper and deeper the closer we got to Nuevo Asuncion.  About a kilometer out the water was above the tires and the driver wouldn't go any farther because he couldn't tell where the road was.  So everybody started to get off the bus in waist deep water with all of their groceries and stuff - holding it above their head. We took off our shoes and started trudging through the water to get to Raquel's house.  It was awesome and way funny because we would be walking and all of the sudden you would step into a huge pot hole and fall over.  None of the houses had yards.  All you could see was the houses and the tops of gates.   We borrowed some pink flip flops and crocs from some members and got to Raquel's house.  It looked like her house was in the middle of a lake.  We had an amazing lesson with Raquel's family and her sister about the word of wisdom and went over the law of chastity again.  The whole family said they would keep both commandments and it has been incredible how  quickly their faith and testimonies have grown as they've kept commitments and really experimented with prayer and keeping commandments. The blessings  of living the gospel don't come without sacrifice though and it has been a crazy week for their family. Raquel's husband said he wants to marry her and learn more about the church.  On Sunday Raquel didn't know if he's really in marrying her because he loves her.  And now her boyfriend is mad at us for teaching his family about how important marriage is in keeping the family together and happy.  I feel like I am Doctor Phil.  I am sure that Raquel will do what is best for her family. Her baptism is being postponed along with her 2 kids and sister.

I love you all and I hope that my letter gets to you in time for Christmas!

Love,

 

Elder Neifert

I wont have transfers until after Christmas and I think I will probably be staying in Yuqury.  

Hello,

 

I had a way awesome week this week!!! We found this sweet Indian village!!!! I'm talkin' about naked people and wigwams!!! We were on our way to Nuevo Asuncion and we saw an Indian woman walking through the woods and we followed the same trail she took and found like 25 Indian Guarani families living in this community thing. Some had mud huts and others had houses made out of trash bags and sticks. We tried talking to a couple of different families but they didn't speak Spanish. We found out though they do carvings for a living of like armadillos and cocodrillos (Crocodiles).  My companion wants them to do a carving for him of the Cucapei (no clue what this is . We found some people that knew some Spanish and talked to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and whether they would be willing to come to church...they said yes but they didn't come. We are going to be working more with them this coming week though and we're going to find someone to translate for us for the people that dont speak Spanish. 

 

We walked through the jungle looking for the road to Nuevo Asuncion and we popped out like 3 kilometers outside of it when a chipa barrero truck went by and he yelled, "what the heck are you guys doing out here?" We said, "We don't know! Where are you going?".  He was going to Nuevo Asuncion, so we hopped in the back with all of the chipa (chipa is a type of bread)  because there wasn't any room in the front.  It was like sitting in a oven and there were super bumpy roads. We ate 2 chipa bread rings and payed the guy. It was super funny because we hopped out really sweaty and smelling like chipa and then they sold some of the bread we were just laying on to a guy. hahahahaha.

 

We also have been teaching this awesome lady, Raquel.  After teaching her 2 days before, she read all the way up to 2 Nephi. We taught her about the law of chastity because she has 2 kids with her boy freind who lives with her.  She is making her boy friend move out until he decides either to marry her or leave. She has had some incredible spiritual experiences and her testimony of the gospel and the Book of Mormon is growing really fast. She came to church this Sunday and hopefully in a week and a half we'll have her and her two sons baptisms. The effect that the gospel has on people is amazing and I feel incredibly blessed to be able to see peoples lives change and be blessed as they find a testimony that Jesus Christ is our savior and that his word and sacrifice for us is what truly brings happiness in this life.

 

I love this work and I love you guys. Thank you so much for the letters Dad, Mom, and Jessi!!!!! I got a dear elder letter from you, dad, already. All of your letters are helping me a ton.

 

Love,

Elder Neifert

Gypped!

Dear family,

I got gypped by the dang computer lady and I tried doing email for like 30 min and restarting everything twice, so I only have a few minutes and will reply to more letters next week.

I am only supposed to write to family... I think that means everyone I'm related to.
Thank you for the letters Jessi, Fil, Dad, and Mom.

This week I did a division with President and his wife which doesn't happen very often. We went to a lady named Raquel's house who showed up at church last Sunday with her son, Alejandro. We watched The Restoration video with her and talked about the important role that the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ can have on our families and what it means to have a prophet who directly receives revelation for the church. She was super receptive and the spirit was amazing as she shared about what kind of things had prepared her to be ready to change her life around. She wants to be baptized right away but she is living with her boyfriend and so she'll have to get married first, which they want to do anyway. We also talked about eternal families with her. It made me think a lot about you guys - everybody in our family and how great and blessed we are. I love you guys.

And dad that's totally sweet, dude! doodly doodly doot doot! (Dad and the dog, Bentley, were on a walk and found a deer.... The deer was severely injured (like broken leg - not gunna make it) and needed to be put down. The dog obviously saw it and started to go after it. The part Seth is so excited about is that his Dad, who didn't have a gun on hand, ended up taking it down with the dog leash and a pocket knife.) I salute you my good man. You should make a kimono out of that deer skin and wear it to do your walks in the morning from now on.

Bekah - I love you a ton, I hope you had an awesome time at camp!

I will respond to more emails (Jessi's, Fil's, and Mom's) next time. I am sorry I dont have much time today, because I stink at computers

From,

Elder Neifert