Week #32 - Hot Days, Cold Showers (Cerro Verde)

Hola familia y amigos,

Espero que esta semana fuera mejor que la semana pasada!

Well, it is getting absolutely hot here! It feels hotter than Arizona, which I didn’t think could happen, but it is absolutely crazy! I’ve had a nice migraine this week from the lovely weather here! It’s just weird cause as soon as the sun goes down it starts to cool down a lot and the mornings can get kind of cold, so adjusting to this will take a while. All I know is that I don’t like sweating, haha!

Well this week we had 2 baptisms, for Cristian and Daniel, and I got to baptize Cristian. Satan was working hard this week to stop the baptisms, well at least for Daniel. His past is a bit sketchy, he doesn’t like talking about it and his parents say that where he lived before didn’t have a good influence on him, so some of those problems came up these past couple weeks with him, and we have been trying to help him and the dad to overcome it, because the dad has been taking it a bit hard too. So he got baptized and we just hope he can push forward. Cristian is super pilas! He has gotten more comfortable with us, but when we read the Book of Mormon with him and talked about the Priesthood he was more serious and showed respect. He seems like he will be great addition to the youth here.

We were planning on getting Victor and his girlfriend married this week with so he can get baptized, but they have to pay L 1000 to get married and they don’t really have the money. So we are gonna try to help them get it, get them married this week before conference, and maybe get Victor baptized during sessions. The problem is that he works and won’t know when he works until the day before and his boss isn’t very compassionate towards other religions. We are gonna keep passing with him, he seems receptive, the problem is that I'm not sure he has a testimony quite yet, but I know if he goes to conference he will get it.

I feel like conference is a perfect opportunity to help spread the gospel. It’s a way for people to see and hear from our leaders what we teach and what we aspire to do.  I hope that everyone can take a non-member friend to conference. Invite them to your house for a session, they will begin to see that we aren’t crazy and we don’t teach things contrary to the bible.

I hope everyone has a great week, and that everyone is preparing for Conference, I’m so excited for it!!! Keep pushing forward and trust in the Lord.

Elder Neher

(Notes from a follow up email where he answered a few questions)

I did finally get my new nametags either this week or last week, and Pres Veirs made a comment about Abuelo, I didn’t quite understand him, but now that you said this it makes sense haha! (He lost his pocket nametag a couple of months ago so we asked Abuelo if he could order new ones through his job at the Church offices. They told him that it could only be ordered by the mission, so Abuelo wrote Pres. Veirs an email about it. Pres.Veirs wrote an email back and had some nice things to say about Steven. At least now he won’t have to wear his nametag on his tie!!)

We had a zone conference, I don’t remember how long ago, everything has gone by so fast! President Veirs talked about the medical things that happened with the Atonement, what it takes to bleed from every pore, and what pain is experienced while on the cruz.  It was very interesting and I loved learning about it. It made me realize more how much Christ suffered for us.

My companion has been here since December, so we think he will leave this change, although I don’t think he wants to, but we´ll see what happens. I’ve been writing Chase every week for about a month, just sending him stuff about the culture and what not. I felt like I needed to send him some encouragement with the language and other things about Honduras.

Week #31 - Travel by Clown Car (Cerro Verde)

Buenas familia y amigos,

Well this week was great! We have been contacting a lot to try and find a new family, and we have 2 possibilities. The only problem is that we can only visit them once a week due to work schedules. One family we contacted on Tuesday and only the husband, Darwin, was home so we taught him the first 2 principles of L1 and he invited us to eat with him and his wife, Daniela, on Friday night, which was really surprising, but we took them up on their offer! We went and they wanted to do something better than what they had (tortillas, beans, eggs and sausage) but it still was really good, and we had a great conversation with them. I told them about my family heritage and Daniela said that Argentines make the best carne asada, so true, haha! We taught them lesson 1 and they had a whole bunch of questions and we were able to answer them fairly easily. My comp said they seem positive because when people have questions like that, and more than one, it shows they are interested. They weren’t able to come to church, but we are going to pass by with them this week and remind them of Conference, which I’m sure will help them gain a testimony. We are also still working a lot with Victor, trying to get things ready for their marriage and hopefully that can happen this Friday and maybe his baptism on Sat. He didn’t go to church on Sunday so we need to see if he can or not.

This Sat. we didn’t have a baptism as planned because Daniel (11 years old, lives with dad and step mom/sisters) had a problem and so we are helping him to understand what he did was wrong and helping him understand the repentance process. We are also working with Cristian and he has been opening up more to us, joking around and stuff and we have his baptism planned for this week. Hopefully he understands the importance of it. We have tried teaching him that, but he's only 13 so he's still a bit immature, but at least he's progressing.

So last week or the week before we contacted a lady named Emilia, we were just looking for someone, contacted the house and from there taught lesson one, and she asked about the BoM so we left one for her. We came back maybe 6 or 7 days later (her schedule is kinda iffy) and found out that she had read everything from the title page to 1 Ne 18! She even marked the scriptures she liked and we asked her questions about the story and she was able to answer them all. She really enjoys reading it and we are going to pass more with her, hopefully she can come to church. She just feels a bit uncomfortable because her daughter is a bit rowdy and doesn’t sit still, but she seems very receptive.

Everything has been great here, a bit cold with rain, but that's how I like it, something about my area is that to get from where I live (Cascadas) to Cerro Verde we takes buses, or Rapiditos, which are a little bigger than mini vans and when you ride in them, it’s like a sardine can! I counted 27 people in one, including driver and attendant! They pack everyone in and it is so hard to get out, so now I know what it feels like to ride in a clown car, haha!! 

Inside a Rapidito

I absolutely love this country, and the people, and I love being able to share the gospel, I know it’s true and I know that we can receive the ordinances we need for our salvation here. I hope all is well back home!

Elder Neher

Week #30 - Hot 'N Cold (Cerro Verde)

Saludos a todos!

Well, this week has had a lot of ups and downs... in temperature. It was pretty hot at the beginning of the week, but only for a couple of hours, because later at there would be a breeze, it would cool down, and at night and in the morning it gets pretty chilly. Apparently there was a cold front that came in with some rain, and people attributed it to the tsunami from Japan, but that never got here. A lot of people here lately have been, I don’t want to say freaking out, but worried about the earthquake and tsunami because it could mean end of the world and the people here are pretty superstitious like that. This week we didn’t have any baptisms, but Yuri, who we baptized last Sunday, came on her own to church yesterday to be confirmed, which shows the faith she has.

We have a baptism planned for this Saturday with an eleven year old called Daniel. His dad remarried and I don’t think his mom is a member, but his dad is, so we have been teaching him. He is super smart and loves everything. We left the L1 pamphlet after we taught L3 and when we came to teach it, he was reciting the First Vision at the same time as me! Incredible! haha We went again to teach stuff and found him with the pamphlets, saying he was starting for the 2nd time to read them, and we left him a BoM, so everything is ready for Saturday!

We have been teaching Victor as well, and we were talking the other day about how many baptisms we have had this month (which I think is four) and Elder Perez said it wasn’t a lot, and I said it was to me because we baptized 4 people in 4 and a half months in Olanchito! So Victor said "so I’ll be your fifth here, huh?" haha! He is awesome and he really appreciates us and has already asked for our info for after we go home. He is awesome and hopefully he can gain a testimony (which I believe he already has, he just hasn’t noticed yet) and that he can get baptized. I have realized that I don’t know this area too well, but with time I’ll get it. It’s just that some streets look the exact same as others!

Well I hope everything is going well back home. I’m praying for everyone, especially those in Japan. I hope they can recover from the disaster they have had. Hope the best for everyone!

Elder Neher

Week #29 - No Air (Cerro Verde)

Saludos familia y amigos,

Well before I get started, I will apologize for not sending pics this week, I was really looking forward to do so, but the USB port I have has a body that is too big and cannot connect to this hard drive, so we will try for next week.

Well this week was nice and eventful; we had a wedding and 3 baptisms! Familia Garcia got married on Friday, and Saturday they were baptized. Marisol, the wife, shared her testimony afterward and said she really did feel clean, and that she feels completely different from before. Her husband also shared that he was grateful for the missionaries to pass by. Sunday, Marisol's sister, husband and niece all shared their testimonies. Her sister was extremely happy to see her get baptized and that even though it was hard, that they pushed through and managed to get them closer to Christ. Also, the baptism helped reactivate their mom who has had more than 20 years of not assisting church! It was truly a blessing to see this family come closer together and to get the blessings that the gospel has in store for us.

We also had a baptism for Yuri on Sunday because her boyfriend is leaving to Mexico to work and he wanted to be here to see her baptism. So we held it yesterday and her family was there to watch and they seemed really happy for her. They aren’t members, and while we were waiting for them to change after the baptism I gave an impromptu lesson. There was the non-member family and a few other investigators so I taught a little bit of lesson one, trying to tie it in with the baptism, explaining that this was done with the authority of God, that Christ had the authority, as did his apostles, but when they died it left for a bit, but then Joseph Smith restored the gospel again here on the earth. It felt like it went well and I really hope it did. Some of the investigators we were hoping would go to church didn’t make it, so hopefully we can get them to come this next week. One of them is Victor who lives with his wife (?) at her mother’s house, and most of them are members. He wanted to come and see what our church was like and wanted to receive the lessons, so we are going to keep teaching him. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he had a lot of questions about it, one of which was if it had inspiring scriptures like the Bible and if we could share our favorites and personal experiences. I used the Bible and BoM with John 16:33 and Alma 7:11-13 explaining that I know that Christ suffered everything and he has a perfect knowledge of everything that we have been through, and because of that he can easily help us through whatever challenges we may face.

We are trying to contact more right now and find another family, so hopefully this week we can find another family. It has been extremely hot down here, but it is so weird, because during the day it’s scorching, then at night and early morning its cold… it’s really throwing me for a loop, haha! Well I have been going everywhere with my Camelback, and now that I have purified water to fill it with I have been using it every day, and people always ask me what the tube is for. Everyone thinks that I have "falta de aire" or no air and that I have an oxygen tank in my backpack haha! Then everyone says its super cool and that its super smart to have water in a backpack like that. Well now that I’m closer to SPS I finally got the letters from everyone, so thanks! Thanks for visiting Hna Arias in the Mesa Visitors Center, she is really nice and very humble, and I know she’s an awesome missionary. Hope everything goes well this next week!

Elder Neher