Happy new year!! Feliz año nuevo! How is everyone?Well we had an
extremely awesome week this week and sounds like you guys did too! New Years
was fairly uneventful, only a ton of fireworks all night long. They also have
these things called meteors that just make a huge boom sound, so those were
really nice to sleep throughJ. The next morning
all of the streets were filled in firework scraps, and it was completely
silent! It was so weird. Also on Thursday I had to go to San Pedro Sula to get
my residence! Yes I am officially a Catracho! or a Honduran! We left for the
bus station at 6:15 in the morning, to find the buses where all sold out so we
went to another bus station where we caught the ¨direct bus¨ to san pedro.
Turns out that we stopped at about every pueblo along the way and stuffed the
bus full. We gave up our seats and stood for 6 hours in a hot sweaty bus filled
with people. I learned to fall asleep standing up! We finally arrived, finished
our residence in about 30 minutes and turned right back and caught a bus back
to the Cieba. We finally made it home at 9 at night! Needless to say it was a
long day! So happy to hear that everyone is doing great and had a nice lazy
week. We on the other hand worked our butts off. Our biggest problem was trying
to find time to do it all! We did everything from speed walk/run to appts, fix
windows in the pouring rain so that people could go to church the next day and
not have to worry about there house being broken into (which is a huge
problem!), teaching some super spiritual lessons, being rejected, feeling a
love so strong that it burns, studying the scriptures, learning new things
everyday in all aspects of my life, spiritual, emotional, physical, and
collapsing on the bed in complete exhaustion at the end of the day.
This week was really truly what I needed. Even though we still have
our difficulties and challenges we are working fervently to overcome them. I
don’t think I have ever worked as hard as I did this past week! We have really
been trying to get the ward more involved, and work more with the members. As a
result we have received many references and have helped activate some inactives
all through the joy of helping others to the gospel. It’s amazing how a spirit
filled lesson not only helps the investigators but also the missionaries and
also the members. Just like what it says in Doctrine and Covenants and Preach
my Gospel “that through the spirit every one will be enlightened and rejoice
together”. This past week we had our schedules so full that at times it seemed
impossible to do it all, but we had many miracles where we were able to finish
everything. Sunday we changed times to the 8:30 am mtgs. It was a challenge
especially Sunday morning to bring our investigators to church, but we are
still brainstorming and trying to figure out a better and more effective way to
helping more people come to church. About 2 weeks ago, I was feeling pretty
beat down and really stressed for the area, ward, and our investigators. But
right when I was at my breaking point and feeling the most beat down, we had
some of the most amazing and spiritual experiences. It’s amazing that at your
lowest point is when you will experience some of the most spiritual
experiences. This past week I have felt a joy and a love so pure it burns and
brought tears to my eyes. It’s a hard thing to explain, it is something you
have to experience. I have 3 experiences that I want to share with you guys.
The first 2 came on Tuesday, 31st, which could be one of my most spiritual days
in the mission. About 2 weeks ago we contacted a lady, the mom of the man that
I told you about last week (mom of the man that I got robbed with), and she
accepted a visit. We showed up and started teaching the Restoration. She told
us about her life and how she wants to start going to church again. We taught
the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and she stopped in the middle of the
lesson and asked us, why no one had told her about the restoration like 40
years ago. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted readily, we taught
about the Book of Mormon and she told us that this whole message just made
sense, and that she wanted to continue to learn. I sat there in complete and
utter awe listening to this lady. Our biggest problem became trying to control
our smiles and our joys to be able to talk to her! Wow! So hard to explain this
experience but I hope that it gives you somewhat a taste of it. She came with
us to church yesterday and told us that she can’t wait for her baptism. The
ward received her warmly which were answers to our prayers. Her husband is
really hard and doesn’t want to meet with us, but she told us that she knows
that when he goes to church he too will be baptized! What an amazing family! I
will keep you posted about their progress and what happens when the husband
goes to church:)! Second experience, one of our recent converts, I have
already talked a little about him, Gonzalo, with you guys. Anyways he has
trouble walking and can’t read. But makes the 25 min. walk (1 way) every Sunday
down the hill and back with his family! About a week and a half ago we taught
about the Priesthood. We gave him a definition and told him that we were going
to come back and check up on what he has learned. When we came back, we taught
a lesson in Moroni 7 and forgot about checking up with Gonzalo. At the end of
the lesson, he said, ¨Elders, you guys forgot about something, I was going to
tell you about the priesthood.¨ He then recited to us word for word a perfect
definition of the priesthood and about the quorums. I was so happy I started
crying! haha This man who can’t read or write, memorized with the help of his
awesome wife, the definition and all of the quorums of the priesthood! Third experience, came yesterday when a older
lady asked us for a blessing. We gave her a blessing and after words started
talking about the lady in the first experience. She told us how they went to
school together and when we told her that she accepted a date she began crying,
which eventually lead us to start crying. She then insisted that we go and
visit her right now. So we went and visited with her and afterwards this
wonderful member told us how she wants to help us and what joy she feels. It
was a wonderful experience. Last off,
the ward at last had its first ward council! Whoooo Whooo! We are now on the
path to a more fully functioning ward! And in a couple of weeks we are going to
have my very first ward mission leader! First ward council that I have heard of
in 6 months!!! That is probably the biggest miracle of all!
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| Christmas Eve with Fam Funez Cantillano! |
Thanks mom for that wonderful quote and
thank you and please continue to send quotes. Just wanted to tell you mom that
that quote is an answer to our prayers. Each and every day you see more and
more of your weaknesses. Really we cannot do this work by ourselves. Thanks to
the Spirit, you can pierce the hearts of the people here. Thanks mom for
following the Spirit and sending me that quote!
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| Kaden loves this family...His home away from home! |
Workouts- We are doing them, about 3 weeks ago we went and ran in
the morning, but my comp has bad knees so he cant do a lot of jumping. Most of
the time I do like a circuit thing of burpees, situps, planks, jumping jacks,
push ups, and stuff like that. Please send me some more ideas of what I can do.
I am going to start jump roping this week, our house isn’t big enough to jump
rope. But please send me some workout ideas! I really need some help! I think I
have lost some muscle mass for sure, and have gained a little bit of weight.
 |
| They found Nutella! |
My invitation this week would be to keep doing what you guys are doing. I have loved to hear and see how close you guys have become as a family.
Keep it up. Study tip, or something fun to do, read the first couple chapters
of 1 Nephi and try to find similarities with the family of Nephi and our
family. I just recently finished the book of mormon about a week ago, and it
has been really fun and interesting to see the similarity of the problems that
they went through. I promise you that each one of you will learn something new,
and will find an answer to a question that you didn’t know you had. I did it
and I have learned some much! I love you guys! I hope you guys have a great
week this week and I am going to send a bunch of pictures today!! I love you
guys, and keep up the good work! Ski some snow for me!
con mucho amor!
Elder Neuberger (Chiqui)
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