Birthday Pictures

Birthday Celebrations!

Leaving my First Area

Greetings,

Alright the update:

 We had a baptism and confirmation this week! Hermana Lorena. She's doing great. I could feel the spirit as we laid our hands upon her head to give her the Holy Ghost. We are working on a few others for next month well this month now!

We were able to finish this week pretty well. We found lots of new investigatores (investigators). We had a family home evening at a members house with investigators. IT WAS GREAT: The investigators feel a lot better about joining the church now.

We are going through a few changes here. They called last night and said "Well, Elder Neifert you have changes." I will be someplace else this week. I will be either leaving tomorrow or Wednesday. I have served in this area for something like 8 months. Give or take a little. Its been 6 changes. I feel nervous and a little sad. This is the first time I've had changes before. Who knows where I will be.

I will be leaving my beloved companion Elder Clawson. He is a really great guy. I'm super happy that I was his companion in the mission. We've got some hunting / sasquatch searching / monopoly plans we he gets back.

It feels weird that I will be 20. I don't feel too old. The mission has gone by super fast. 

Anyways, I love you guys! 

I know the Lord really is behind the changes. Hes got a really good plan for us.

Elder Neifert

Quick email to his Sister

Things have been going well. We just got notified that I  have changes. I will be leaving my area. Colonial. I'm actually pretty sad. I like it here. (Not in order) The things I will be leaving: great papusas, sweet house with two bathrooms, awesome cook (she makes us lunch), mediocre washing lady, leaving the remains of our dead squirrel, a really great companion Elder Clawson, and lots of great people who will be baptized soon. I will be missing the people the most.

I love you all! It makes me happy that Emma and Eliza are talking bout me! 

Spirit up

Elder Neifert

Visits from General Authorities

Jessica and Codyman,

Enjoy your birthdays! Do something fun!  Its weird that is has already been another year! I love you guys and you are not forgotten. Isaiah 49:14 and 15.

I WILL BE 20! AHHHHHHHHH I feel old. You must feel old too. So we are not alone.

Heres a little of what happened this past week.

Elder David L. Cook came to our mission! I was able to sing in the mission choir again. It was a grand experience. Really I was able to feel the spirit as he talked. First, I got to shake is hand again. He said to me, "Hello". It was a warm hello. It was really so quick. I just wanted to linger longer, but I imagine his hand hurt from being squeezed by 600 missionaries. He spoke on the importance of having the spirit as we teach and he spoke on working with the members. A few things I remember word for word are that, "We are edifiers of the church, we need to be the most warm, loving, kind, and friendly, but the most important is that we have the spirit. Because we are the message." He stressed that people see us and know us before we talk or teach. We can reflect these things with little actions. He helped me remember my purpose: to Baptize! To baptize till I've got pneumonia. That should be my biggest worry getting pneumonia, because I'm baptizing day and night. 

 He has a great spirit about him. I know he is an apostolic witness. One of his words I will never forget are, "I know His voice. I know His face." His testimonio (testimony) really helped mine. I could feel how sure he was of Jesus Christ being our Savior. 

Elder Christensen of the presidency of the seventy was also here on Sunday. He came to my stake. He talked about the scriptures. They are a treasure he said about 5 times. They are so important. He talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy which is always a something everyone can improve. Having righteous worship of the Sabbath. He told a story of a son who wanted to stay home to watch the Superbowl instead of going to church. He gave him a great powerful lesson of the Sabbath day. At the end of the 20 minute Sabbath talk his son just said, "yeah, I'll just stay home." He was worried about his son. BUT He had an impression during the sacrament that his son really did hear him. Sometimes I feel like I've taught something powerfully and nothing happens. Everyone has their agency. One thing is they will remember what was taught and testified of, AND one day it will be remembered. 

I love you! I know that the Lord is holding you up in your callings and your troubles,

Elder Neifert

Tatooed Eyebrows

Here's the update from this week. Starting from what happened most recently - we had our stake conference Saturday and Sunday. It was great! The topics more or less were keeping the Sabbath day holy and serving missions. In the session on Saturday our mission President, President Bruno Vasquez, came to speak. When he got up to speak he began talking about the missionaries. He called Elder Clawson and I up to the stand! His message was really simple. The purpose of an Elder (missionary or no) is to BAPTIZE. There's a great reference in Doctrine and Covenants talking about the purpose of an Elder. We want people in the ward to baptize the investigators as they help us in lessons as they befriend them. Its really a great idea. Before the mission I would have helped the missionaries out more if I had that vision that I could baptize one of the investigatores (investigators). President is really passionate about getting the ward to help the missionaries more. He's really doing a great job. Talking about mission numbers and statistics we have been rising in the past months.

 

WOW! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EYEBROWS, MAN?

 

We went our visiting with a few members yesterday. We had planned to visit a few investigadores (investigators) who are progressing rapidly. As we passed by Rosas home on the way to the appointments she called out to us, "Tengo un familiar aqui que quiero presentar a ustedes." (

I have a family here that I want to introduce to you)

We went in to her house and a tall man with a baseball cap came out. The first thing I saw about this man was his eyebrows. He had shaved his eyebrows and had tattooed them back. I shook his hand and I started talking in Spanish, but he started responding in English. He told me he had been in St. Louis, Missouri for 8 years. I thought that was really weird. We got to talking about the church and I asked if we could come over to visit him another time. He said he couldn't, but that we could visit him at his house. He lives in the other area. Despite the fact that he had tattooed in his eyebrows, he turned out to be really nice. Its great to see the members wanting to share the gospel with their family and their friends here. There is a lot of work to do here for Elder Clawson and I because of the members who are sharing with their friends.

 

Things are crack-a-lakin in our area. We have a great teaching pool. Lots of people are going to church and are reading and praying, but lots are just afraid to be baptized. They either feel inadequate or unsure. We have been praying hard to change their hearts but I'd like to ask some help with Familia Hernandez, Lorena, Alexis, Saul, Antonio, Maria, Ana y Dolorise. They could use some prayers to help them feel that the church is true.

 

I love your guts! Keep on writing me! I like reading your letters. I'm not to good at writing back, but give me another shot! I'd like to change. Keep on praying and reading the scriptures. I'm in 2 Nephi 11. There is a great scripture about the sword of truth. Nephi just tells his tumultuous brothers the truth and it HURTS! But the truth hits the guilty in the core. 1 Nephi 16: 2 and another one 2 Nephi 9:40. Now it makes a little more sense why it's the "sword of truth". Keep up the hard work. All of your afflictions will come out for your benefit. In some way or another it was to help us.

 

 

Elder Neifert

It was there. I felt it.

Family!

"Ohhhhh what a beautiful morning oh what a beautiful day!" HAHA Seth left me one of his cards he used on his mission and it has that on it. SETH, BY THE WAY I LIKE YOUR CARDS A LOT. They are great tools to remember important things. Bueno pueessss. There is good news - we baptized this week! and confirmed him! His name is Christian and yes he is Christian. He is a way awesome man. He hails from JERSEY. He speaks English pretty well. So we taught him the lessons in English. It all happened so fast. There have been years and years of missionaries working with Christian. He had a few difficulties so he just never wanted to be baptized. He got married and then the same day set his own baptismal date. He was a prepared man. That in itself is a testimony that the Lord is preparing the hearts of men. There are some good people progressing in our area. The Hernandez family came to church. They came! We taught them the doctrine and they lived it! I love that.  I felt the spirit in the confirmation of Christian. I finished the first set part of the ordinance and when I came to give a blessing I didn't know what to say. Then words just started to come out from my mouth. I love what Seth wrote me the other day saying he wished he would have fasted more. That letter came in to my mind on Friday so I had fasted to have the spirit during the confirmation. It was there. I felt it. I happy that I was able to feel that and be apart of that experience. Fasting and prayer works! 

 

I love you guys! I hope you get to see the great new videos of Christ's birth the church has.

Elder Neifert

 

Edwin Baptism

Greeting,

I love reading your letters too! I'm glad you are not worried. Its a lot less dangerous than what everyone says. God really does protect us when we keep our promises. We don't have His promise outside of His guidelines.

 

There aren't too many people writing consistently probably because I don't write consistently. People have written and I don't get to responding the same day so I put it off and off until I have forgotten. So I'm just behind. What do you think I can do to be better at writing more people during the 1 and 15 I have?

 

 

This was a good von (one)! We baptized Edwin. A youth who has family in the church. It was a great experience! Now we are looking ahead at a another awesome guy Christian who is practically begging to be baptized! He is super prepared. He's gone to church for a long time but just wasn't married. He finally got married and now he is progressing a bunch. Its awesome to see the fruits of the labors I gave a few months ago. Now its time to seed for the next year! Its such a blessing to see the harvest.

I will be here in San Marcos for the next change! Whoop WHOOP! I'm actually happy about it. Its because I know there are people still here for me! We made some pizza! Homemade crust and every-thang. It was way good!

 

I was also Jose Smith This week! We had an activity were we re-enacted parts of the Gospel! It was uncomfortable at first, but I could do it again. Lots of people wanted pictures with Jose Smith! bahaha

 

ANYWAYS, I LOVE YOU GUYS!

 

 

ELDER NEIFERT