Week 89: Knowing our Sheep

Hey guys! Well what a fantastic week!!! First off, thanks for all you guys have done for schooling and getting me signed up, I really appreciate it. The second is that one elder here in Planeta had to go home because he was sick, so his companion Elder Lessard from California has been with us and will be until the changes in about 2 weeks. Needless to say it has been crazy trying to maintain the two areas and to continue to find and teach people. But thanks to the members especially our ward mission leader we have been able to divide up and teach more people. 

This past week Elder Duncan came and man how awesome was it!!!! All of my questions were answered and we learned many new ways that we can hasten the work in our areas. It was probably one of the best meetings that I have had on my mission. I had felt like I was falling into a routine doing the same thing over and over again but thanks to this meeting and the things that I learned I learned how to break out of that. What Elder Duncan emphasized a lot is the importance of knowing our sheep. That we must have our investigators truly written in our hearts and not only in our agendas. This past week our investigators have meant a lot more to us, we are trying to always think about them and our desire to help them has grown so much. And our lessons are much more powerful because we are teaching them!

We had some great experiences this past week. First off, Angelica an older lady made the decision to be baptized and to leave behind her coffee. This past Friday she was baptized and I will send you pictures! She is a very awesome lady and will be a great member. The same day she was baptized we had a recent convert activity where President Klein came and talked with all of the recent coverts, so needless to say it was a great day!

Remember how last week I told you of our investigator that has been teaching her friends, ya well she gave us a golden family!! We showed up on Thursday and found their house; we talked with the wife for a little bit and all of the sudden the husband showed up. The wife was shocked because he never came home early but that day he came home 3 hours early. We had a great lesson with them; we left a pamphlet with them and decided to come back on Saturday. They expressed to us very clearly that they attended another church but wanted to listen to us. When we showed up again on Saturday the husband had read the entire pamphlet and the wife only until page 15, haha,(she felt really bad she didn’t finish it). They were very receptive and accepted our invitation to go to church and Sunday morning they were there with some of their children. Now the interesting thing was what they told us in the Gospel Principles class. The wife began to tell us and the class that they had been going through some really hard spiritual trials. She began to cry and they were very happy that God had sent them this gospel. It was a very special experience for all of us. Can someone say temple sealing? Anyway we had a lot of success this past week with going with all the members and asking them about their neighbors. We went and knocked doors with one inactive lady and we found a new family to teach. 

Just a spiritual thought that Elder Duncan shared with us. I was extremely impressed by his special witness of Jesus Christ. Something that he told us all that I wish to be able to accomplish, is to be able to testify with power and authority that Jesus is the Christ and that we missionaries are representatives of Him, and that the message we bring will help us all return to His presence. Now the interesting thing is that it also involves us testifying of our own calling. We tried this this past week, to testify about Jesus Christ and about us being His representatives and the Spirit was so strong. The people we are now teaching have reacted differently and have been more receptive to our message.

Anyways this Saturday Elder Andersen is coming!!! I will try to tell you of some things that he will tell us. 

Love you guys

Elder Neuberger