Avisai

Greetings,

Hey i got the package! I got it last week. THANK YOU! I just loved everything that you sent! You read my mind with the socks and all! The best way to enjoy a package is to share! I have been sharing all of it with my companion.

This week was really great! We are helping a young man named Avisai get baptized this weekend. He is 18 and he has changed a bunch. I remember when I first got here we went to his house Elder Lauro and I. He didn't want anything to do with the church. He never joined us in the lessons to teach his aunt and he never came to church. Really its a miracle to see how far he has come. Now we talk about serving a mission and really it is something really possible for him. I am amazed at how his desires have changed. His heart has really turned toward the Lord. He has repented of things like all of us need to do and has moved on to new and better things. I'm reading the New Testament right now and I love the story of the woman who is caught committing adultery. The mob brings her to Christ asking what do we do with this woman? By the law of Moses says we should stone her. He says, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." Nobody is without sin, but Jesus, so they left. He tells the woman "Go and sin no more." He invites her to repent telling her he doesn't condemn her. She hadn't repented so he invited her to do so. Like the Apostles or like John the Baptist I've got to call people to repentance. Only as I do the same thing. I cant teach it if I don't live it. 

One thing that my companion and I are doing is we are being different! There are tons of missionaries which do the same contacts, say the same thing, or they follow the crowd of missionaries in many ways. From of working, or planning what they do everyday or going through the motions. Like a good Halloween costume - you've got to be different. Many times maybe we follow the crowd, but we have felt that we should change some things. Visiting members everyday, talking with everyone. Giving out copies of The Book of Mormon everyday. I think we will be see the fruits of our labors in the coming weeks. If not we will change our form of working again. Its awesome! I'm excited to see how this week goes.

I know the Savior Lives. I feel like He stands shoulder to shoulder with me as I suffer. Because He suffered it and knows how to succor me. I know He loves his sheep here. As I remember how much He loves them I am humbled to be here in the mission. I listen to a talk from Elder Packer saying that sometimes the Lord doesn't intend for us to succeed. What He wants is for us to sacrifice. The outcome is what it is sometimes. When you work hard to talk with tons of people and nobody wants to listen it stinks, haha, but many times I don't know the outcome. For instance Avisai. I didn't know or think he would change. But he did.

The church is true and built upon Christ. Not a beautiful building (which we just got). The priesthood is the power of God and the church has it. The keys and the power.

I love ya! Keep on reading. Sometimes I get pretty excited when I read. Its kinda weird. I never thought I would get to into the scriptures! Its something that the Lord has blessed me with. 

Elder Neifert