Week 29: "Don't Murmur"

Hoooooiiiii! Que tal? chiques! Según a sus cartas, parece que todo esta bien con ustedes. Me puse bien alegre al escuchar sus experiencias, especialmente las experiencias chistosas de Mayson. jajajajaja! Espero que todo ustedes estén muy bien y disfrutando la nieve y the skiing! 

Well this week was pretty crazy, pretty sure I experienced another tropical storm where it rained for about 30 hours, non-stop. We were soaking wet, and every street were like rivers that we just walked through, hahaha! But it was a blast! Also went contacting with that awesome lady that I told you guys about last week that we gave a blessing. Anyway her family lives in Utah and she has lived in Utah for a couple of years so it was cool to be able to talk with her in her little English about Utah! haha. Anyways sounds like you guys had a great week this week and I was happy to that mom and dad got out skiing together! Feels like yesterday I was skiing, and a couple of hours ago that I showed up here in Honduras, crazy how fast time goes by. But before I start I’ll answer some of your questions. Ya we have DVD players that can play music. Also ya I do stick out quite a bit here like Hermana Despain. She didn’t tell me that they got robbed but I will ask her tomorrow. Sometimes I scare myself when I see a white person in the mirror (myself) or listen to a gringo speak Spanish (I sometimes record myself speak). The people are very blunt; when I first showed up I got offended pretty easy because Spanish is very strong language. I think the frustrating thing would be when people don’t understand me; it hasn’t happened very often lately which is a good sign but nothing destroys your confidence like a blank stare and a ¨mande¨. That’s one of the harder things to deal with. The food here is good, just the fact that they cook everything in cooking oil, Everything! I eat beans and tortillas all of the time! A common simple food is just a tortilla and some beans. Weird how much I enjoy a good plate of beans and rice and some corn tortillas! My life has definitely simplified here on my mission.

Esta semana pasada estaba llena de milagros, but more than anything I learned a lot. I just wanted to share some things that I have been learning the past week and some personal miracles in my life. During my studies in the 1 Nephi I have been extremely impressed on the difference between Nephi and his brothers. I find it so interesting because they all went through the same things, ate the same food, built the same ship, crossed the same waters, witnessed angels, felt the power of the spirit, but the results are extremely different. Nephi was extremely blessed and grew spiritually and became more and more favored by the Lord while on the other hand Laman and Lemuel were not changed and struggled and later were cursed. Nephi uses one word that I feel is the difference between the two of them, “murmur”. Nephi did not murmur while his brothers did. It made me think about what it means to murmur. For me, murmur means to not accept or to not trust in someone or something, causing someone to talk, think, and do against it. I also compared it to my mission and realized that the times that I didn’t ¨murmur¨ and gave everything I had to the Lord I along with my investigators were blessed immensely, on the contrary, the times that I held back and wasn’t focused in on the work was when the Spirit was not with us and we as a whole were not blessed. I have noticed that cycle in my life, the cycle of pride, when everything is going well we forget about God and start trusting in our own strength, then comes a trial or something that helps us remember our God. I think that was the biggest miracle of all this week that God loves me enough that He gives me trials and weaknesses to help me turn to Him. As a companionship this week we went a couple of days that we were working hard but not having success. We quickly realized it was because of the absence of the Spirit and that we had become prideful and began trusting in our own strengths. Along with this realization we became quickly aware of our many problems and weaknesses, helping us turn unto God. We experienced this week the power of the Atonement in our own lives, as we watched our weaknesses and faults become strong. The part I found most interesting about this change in our lives is that it didn’t come immediately when we prayed for it but it was when we got up and put forth more of an effort to follow the Spirit and give our all. At the beginning it was difficult but slowly but surely the Lord changed our hearts and were able to enjoy the Spirit. 

Thursday's planning session

I want to tell you about a lady that I have already told you about. She has been to the temple and sealed with her husband. About 7 years ago her husband was killed leaving her along with her 2 children, without work and basically without anything. She moved herself and her family to her old, abandoned, and basically destroyed house where she tried to rebuild her life. She went inactive and because of it none of the members knew that she lived there. She was forgotten. When my companion and I found her and her family we found that she was in need with a lot of help. The past week with the help of the Young men’s president we rebuilt her window allowing her to be able to leave her house without worrying if her house is going to be broken into. Yesterday we had a meeting with all of the priesthood where the Bishop gave us time to talk about her and how we can help her. We organized a service project and then last night we went and visited her. She told us through her tears about her problems, how they don’t have anything, and many days her children go without food. As I looked into this lady´s eyes I couldn’t help but cry. The sincerity of her plea and the fear in her eyes created in my companion and me a love that I can’t explain. I tried to put myself in her shoes and was extremely humbled. Tomorrow we are going to begin to help her with the ward. I will keep you posted about her this next week. I don’t know how to try to explain the living conditions here and what she lives in because it has become so normal to me to meet with people in these circumstances. Maybe it would make more sense this way, I find it extremely weird when I am in a nicer house or even when I am in my apartment. Our apartment is one of the nicer buildings I think in our area. It’s extremely humbling and helps you recognize the blessings that we have in our lives temporally but more than anything spiritually. 

Thanks mom for that wonderful quote, it was yet again another quote that I needed to hear. At times its very frustrating only being able to invite! Oh I forgot to tell you we had a wonderful Sunday yesterday where we finally had an attendance of 111 which has been the high for about a month and a half. December was a hard month to get people to come to church. Also had the wonderful miracle yesterday of having 8 investigators in sacrament meeting! It was really great.

I loved also hearing about what you guys are doing as a family to study. Keep it up! Also my invitation this week is to be more grateful, give more thanks for the things that we have, in the 2 days that I have been trying to do this I have experienced a newfound joy and peace in my life, and I can feel the spirit more strongly in my life. I find it interesting that in 1 Nephi 17 while Nephi was bound on the ship and it was raining and he was in pain, what did he do? He gave thanks. So let us give thanks for the things that we have. I love you guys, I will try to send some pictures. I love you guys, always remember that. Thanks for your support and love. 

Love Elder Neuberger