WE DIDNT GET
TRANSFERRED!!!!!!!!!!!!! Were still here and were hoping against hope that Hermana Garcia and I will be together until she "dies" in one more transfer....but I guess we
will leave that to the future. Yes, I’m still with Hna Garcia, the fake Latin
who was born and raised in Provo, Utah but has her entire extended family
living in Morelos (inside mission boundaries). Before she also was studying at
BYU and members ask us all the time if we knew each other before. I think
people often under estimate how big BYU is, but we have fun making up stories
of how we met at BYU and all the horrible impressions we had of each other
before the mission!
(The letter I tried to
send last week that apparently didn’t send) Once again I have no time....so
here goes the fast track!
This week we made the
stuttering decision to drop everybody (well almost everybody), and then prayed
that the Lord will fill our time! It made me super nervous to go from 25
investigadores a 6 pero the Lord knows what we should do. Our first appointment
was with a MA who’s family has been inactive for basically all of her life so
she literally does not remember ANYTHING. We’ve been teaching her for
about a month now and she’s really excited to come back to church. She
has a school course that she takes every Sunday so she can’t make it to church,
but it ends in the beginning of March. We had an extremely powerful lesson
with her about the importance of the Sabbath day and her cousin from another
ward was randomly there and bore testimony with such power that we didn’t want
to leave the house. The lesson ended with her silent comment, "I can’t
wait to go to church" (perfect!). From there we left just glowing
and smiling all the way down the street. A man in a pick-up called out to
us and we just waved as always not really thinking anything of it until he
stopped and pulled over (not always the best situation). He introduced
himself as Mario, a MA that we’ve been searching for for a month and told us
that he had taken his whole nonmember family to church last week and that now
they want to listen to the lessons.....ummmm YES! Well, we continued walking
and passed a house where we had contacted the husband a few days before and
decided to knock. The wife answered and graciously let us in all excited
because her friend is a Mormon and had been telling her a ton of good
things. Safe to say it was one of the greatest days ever!
This week also had one
amazing day that just spun our heads around and had us all smiling so big we couldn’t
sit still but I think the greatest thing that we have seen happening here is in
the lives of our menos activos (MA). Recently we have been focusing our
efforts with the bishops and teaching weekly the MA families that he would love
to see sealed in the temple by the end of this year. We were psyched two Sundays
ago when they all showed up to church, then disheartened when only one showed
up the next Sunday, but this Sunday changed it all and they were all there
again. We have been focusing a LOT on one of the husbands, Luis, who we
recently realized though he has 4 years in the church knows very little about
anything. We taught him about the importance of the sacrament and what it
really means and then asked if he had any questions....he got really silent and
then said, "In my 4 years ¨(as a member) I think I’ve taken the sacrament
a total of three times. I guess I just never knew how important it
was. But now that I know I’ll never miss it again!" And thou
he was a little late Sunday, he was there for the sacrament and smiling!
(miracle 1). We had a great chat before church with Andres (a member of one
of the MA families) and though it was one of his first days off work in over
two weeks, he was there, AND FOR ALL THREE HOURS!!!! First time in years!
(miracle 2). Another couple arrived just in time for the testimony of the
final speaker, song, and prayer...but they made it ;) During Principles of the
Gospel, the husband raised his hands to share and simply bore his testimony of
how thankful he is for answered prayers. He had been praying for someone
to care that he existed, to care enough to pass by and get him reanimated about
the church and the next thing he knew the missionaries were there. I’m
just so glad that I was ready to answer that prayer! He said when he realized
just how blessed he was by the Lord that he made a personal commitment to never
miss church again no matter what it took or if his wife couldn’t make it
(miracle 3). All of that was just too much, way too much, but if you can
image it, there were even greater miracles! We are also teaching a part
member family, Monica and Alejandro and their three children. The only
nonmember is the dad, but all the others have so much time without church that
they feel like nonmembers. We’ve been teaching them twice a week and yet
still can’t get them to church. With the help of others we were able to
target there biggest concerns and give them answers to questions. When we
committed them to go to church this week it was super indefinite and we walked
home a little down that they weren’t going to be there. BUT THEN SUNDAY
CAME, oh blessed Sunday of joy and surprises (see past miracles). We got
there SUPER early with an investigator that can’t walk too well and therefore
wanted to be super early and seated fast. Church started with no one and
I was a little down but super grateful about the fact that there wasn’t room
for us to sit anywhere near our investigator due to the crazy amount of people
surrounding her. Then little by little every miracle started happening
and my face was just splitting with a smile. That’s where this family
comes in to play, you see I was already giddy and excited, and then I heard the
door open. Naturally my comp and i turn to see who it is and I didn’t
know if I should start crying or stand up and shout....I stayed with a face
splitting smile that hurt my jaw. There was the family slipping into the
back pew!!!!!!!!! I looked up at the Bishop, whose jaw was on the floor (I mean
this family has been inactive for like 10 years), and we both just couldn’t
stop smiling at each other!!! (MIRACLE 4!)
I’m so grateful!!!!! I’m
so grateful for so many things! No tenemos muchas personas a ensenar y todavia
tenemos algunos de los mejores momentos de todo la mision!!!! El Senor siempre esta en
nuestro lado! Yo sei con todo mi corazon!!!! Y estoy bien agradecida por este
conocimiento! (Editor’s translation: We don’t have many people to teach and
still we had some the best moments of my entire mission!!!! The Lord is always
at our side! I know with all my heart!!!! And I am very grateful for this
knowledge!)
Love,
Hermana Neuberger
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