It Wasn't Us

So kind of second week  "ish" opening an area.  Naturally, our miracles were up and it was time to get crazy to work.  It was a rather hard week, but we were trying so hard to reach every possible goal we had set.  We passed by everyone's house on Saturday and found next to no one.  The people we did find couldn't come to church the next day, so we were really stressed, scratch that, I was really stressed! We spent the good portion of 2 hours calling every investigator, MA, reference, AI, and contact that we could find a number for to boost them up and invite them to church.  We got next to no answers.....

So the next morning we went to work knocking doors, trying to find people at home, trying to remind people of the importance of the sacrament...and nothing, no one was home.  So we ran to the church for ward council and spent the little time we had before and after the meeting calling more and more people and still getting more answering machines then anything else.  We said a quick prayer and then just put on the smiles to say hi to the members that were arriving.  Basically it was one of the weirdest feelings of my entire mission.  Yes, I was still crazy stressed as always but I was at peace.  There was literally nothing more I could do!

Church started and we had two investigators there, and so I was happy and thankful and telling the Lord all about it.  I decided not to look around that day or keep turning around to check the door because I couldn't imagine who else could possibly walk in. At the end of church, I stood up and turned around, and SHOCK.... there in the back was an old investigator that we had not even called because we hadn't been able to find her in two weeks. And just two rows behind her sat a family that we had contacted the other day!

So maybe the Lord still has plenty of miracles in store for us. "¿Por que ha dejado Dios de ser un Dios de milagros, y sigue siendo todavia un Ser inmutable? Y he aqui, os digo que el no cambia; si asi fuese, dejaria de ser Dios; y el no cesa de ser Dios, y es un Dios de milagros!" (Mormon 9:19) I'm so grateful for a Heavenly Father who is so willing to bless our lives but also lets us stretch ourselves first so that we can become all we need to be!

Love to All!

Hermana Neuberger

Cuernavaca Good Times

Well I can’t even begin to describe the positives of this area, because there are far too many and the whole place is so beautiful! I love it despite the fact that my knees are about ready to fall off due to the crazy hills and thousands of stairs.  I think one of the greatest parts about this area is that the office Elders and the Assistants to the President share the ward with us, so the meals that they actually come to are a blast! I officially feel like a secret agent due to the office Elders.  This week has been interesting because not one of the food appointments has been in our area and if I’m getting lost in my own area imagine how great it is when I have to go explore in someone else’s.  BUT luckily the "headquarters" has my back.  I call in to tell them where the food appointment is (they naturally have no idea where it is because they rarely leave the offices) they type the address of the member into Google maps and BAM, I’m getting a fully guided tour to the house of the member.  Something like this, "are you looking at the blue house? Okay so you’re going to walk five more houses down to the orange house and there will be an alley way....don’t go into the alley way." hahaha thanks Elders.

The not so convenient part is that President Kusch lives around the corner which can be rather embarrassing.  I haven’t even been that lost this week, but the other day coming back from lunch we had no idea where to get a bus to get back to our area so we were crossing streets and looking crazy lost.  Out of nowhere we hear someone call out, "Hey Hermanas, are you lost?" I turned around, thrilled and hoping to see a member, only to realize that the question was in English and there were President and Sister Kusch laughing at us from their car....que pena!

More than ever this week I was incredibly thankful for the power of the priesthood and priesthood leaders.  This week my insomnia came back and it hit harder than ever.  I didn’t get any shut eye for about 3 days and after 5 months no problems, I wasn’t use to overcoming it.  By day three I was so beat I couldn’t even express Spanish and smiling made my head hurt.  Worse than ever, I knew my comp was exhausted too, first week on the mission and all, so I couldn’t complain.  I finally broke down and asked for a blessing which resulted in a family council (offices elders and assistants).  Their advice and help was amazing and I’ve been dreaming again.  I’m so thankful that the Priesthood truly has been restored to the earth and is here in this church! What a blessing it is to ask for aid and receive it from on high.

This week we also had the last zone conference ever with President and Sister Kusch and everyone was rather down....well almost everyone.  My newbie comp (no pun intended) was dying of sleep by the second hour and had a grumbling stomach by the fourth hour.  I guess the whole goodbye to the president doesn’t have nearly the same effect when you just met them 5 days before.  The rest of us were hanging on to every word and just loving every moment of it.  It’s going to be super hard to say goodbye to them, but I’m grateful for the chance to have served with them!

Back to the Beginning

Editor's Note: This letter was from last week and I failed to get it posted. There should be a new one tomorrow so stay tuned.

Once upon a time, late at night, a group of 25 brand new missionaries arrived at the offices in Cuer

navaca.  They were quickly divided into different houses to get to sleep. The Hermanas Neuberger, Sturt, and Johnson were all chosen to sleep at the sisters’ house in Palmas, leaving a crying Chynoweth in the offices.  That very night Hna Garcia was one of the sister training leaders and little did her and Hna Neuberger know, but they would one day become the greatest of friends.

In Cuernavaca with Hermana Chynoweth

Fast forward to this week, by a magical turn of events, and having failed to meet up with my companions, I got dropped off at the offices to wait for them (PERFECT!) right at the hour when all the people who were going home arrived aka Garcia.  Last P-day she sent me a pick of my dream, she found Calle 15 de Septiembre, and in the offices she brought me chump change and conference Ensigns.  That’s true love right there, she knows me WAY too well!!! So I got to hang with her for a little bit and the AP ended up having to drag me out the door to comida with the promise that she could sleep with us that night.  Boy what a night it was. I was so happy and we talked for hours, while all the other girls in her generation were in some other house! I also got to spend almost all of Sunday with her and I am now sporting the Garcia wardrobe! I’m so glad for the time we had together and would have loved to go with her to see her family who are just the funniest!

With new transfers saying goodbye to Hna Skinner and Hna Chynoweth was a little difficult but okay because we are all still in the same zone and we will be seeing each other every martes!!!! (President must really love us). We truly had the most amazing week of all weeks as we taught 142 lessons in total.  That’s the power of a trio and divisions! And I don’t think I’ve ever taught more spiritual lessons in all my mission....or laughed so hard for hours straight.  Everyone was really worried about us getting separated when transfers came and how we would handle it, but at the end of the day we all know that we’re headed to be where the Lord needs us most and we’re so glad that we will be together again really, really soon (12 weeks).  

Saying goodbye to Hermanas Skinner and Chynoweth

So I think it’s safe to say that the last 6 weeks have been the craziest of my entire mission.  From leaving Chilpo, to the twin fest in Amayuca, to emergency transfers to the greatest trio of all time, to saying goodbye to Hna Garcia, to training and white washing an area...it’s been quite an adventure.  I guess that the key and joy of the mission: making every moment the greatest wherever you are and with whomever you are! I’ve truly made the greatest of friends and had the most amazing experiences.  I know that when we are all working hard for the same purpose that it’s impossible to not love every moment of the work we are doing. This is the work of salvation and I’m so truly glad for the opportunity that we have to be doing it!

Love to all,

Hermana Neuberger

La familia Neu (two daughters and a granddaughter). I'm so proud!

They Ran Us Right Out of Town

So I guess I’ll just start out with the biggest surprise....I’m no longer in Amayuca. It’s weird to think that a month ago I was saying goodbye to everyone in Chilpo and now I’m already gone from Amayuca. But that’s the mission.  I’m sure you’re all wondering why? A question that can be summed up in one word, Twins!

Remember last week how we were all laughing (President included) about two human eating white people running around the corn fields of Amayuca? Well on Tuesday night we were contacting someone when we got a call from a member.  She simply told us that some crazy lady (the “don’t eat me” lady from last week) was trying to start a law suit against us and that she was also trying to convince her neighbors to band together to run us out of town.  The warning was just to not go to that part of town and it would all settle down in a couple of days. Okay, sounds good and we hung up thinking that everything would be alright. We had just walked in our door when the phone rang and poor Elder Ramos only said, "You guys have to get out now" (in his flawless English). "There is a huge mob coming for you guys, so pack!!! Were on our way to pick you up" IS THIS A JOKE!!! And now we see how quickly the truth can be changed and blown WAY out of proportion.  Apparently after talking to us the member had called our ward mission leader just to warn him, who had called the first counselor, who had called the elders, who instantly called President because they were so scared.  The story grew from an angry lady’s talk to an imaginary angry mob that was coming to lynch us....I truly don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard.  The best part is that we never unpacked from Chilpo because we were still awaiting the call that would tell we were headed back to good old Aeropuerto, therefore packing took a whole 5 seconds.  The Elders picked us up and took us to the stake center where we met our very confused zone leaders, who had no idea what was going on.  We stayed with the only other sisters in our zone for the night...and long story short, basically our entire zone finally got to bed about midnight due to the whole twin fiasco. We made it to the mission offices the next morning, where we got to once again tell the dramatic story of the twins (something we were getting REALLY good at) .  .  .  . and then we found out that Hermana Garcia and I were getting super separated .  .  .  . all laughter gone! She only has 11 days left, safe to say I was super disappointed!!! On the positive side I’m back with Hermana Chynoweth, my MTC companion, and Hermana Skinner, a sister I’ve known and loved all my mission.  I’m serving in Palmas, the President’s home ward, and my areas is so beautiful that I’m actually okay with serving in Cuernavaca.  I’m finally back to huge hills littered with houses and a ton of greenery, ITS SOOOOO PRETTY!!! So here starts my area of firsts: first trio, first area in my entire mission that I’m not opening, first time serving in Cuernavaca, first time getting emergency transferred, first time having a ton of missionaries in my ward, and first time not being sad to change.

I think there has been an overkill of happiness in the last couple of days and I am not the least bit sorry for it!!!! Life is just good and I’m counting down the days till I get to see Hermana Garcia again (just 5 days when she comes through on her way home) and I get to see my baby, Hermana Hernandez, tomorrow so life just keeps going up! Who knows what’s going to happen with transfers in 5 days, but I don’t like to think about it.  For now I’m just enjoying! 

Between false doctrine Friday (Hermana Skinner was having a hard day) and a crazy amount of golden investigators I don’t even know where to begin talking about how amazing this ward is! There is naturally a ton of work to do because the ward has 600 members and only a sacrament meeting attendance of 100, BIG PROBLEM, but that’s all about to change because there is serious power in this trio.  I think in the last couple of days I might have taught the most powerful lessons of my mission!

On Sunday I was talking to a member and a man standing nearby overheard my name.  He looked up shocked and said, "did you say Neuberger?" I was super shocked and said yes. "You know Elder Stutz.  I know you.  I’ve heard all about you! It’s so nice to meet you!" That got the ward really excited soooooo Hey Thanks Tanner ;)

I’m excited for everything that life has to bring!!!!

Love ya,

Hermana Neuberger

Anybody See the Gemelas?

Whelp.....no bishop, no relief society president, no ward secretary, no ward missionaries, no primary presidency, no young men’s presidency, no Sunday school presidency, and yes, I like you, am quite amazed that this ward is still somewhat functioning! But they are and it’s probably has something to do with the fact that the entire ward is family.  Things have been a little different but.......

P-day exploring

Now for the greatest plot twist of my entire mission: Amayuca is a REALLY small town so rumors spread fast, like REALLY fast, and they grow even faster.  Now for the rumor: In a very small town near ours, two twins were apparently playing Ouija board and became possessed by evil spirits.  So they naturally did the only normal thing to do under the situation....they ate their parents and then they took off to live in the fields living off of wild dogs.  Yup, that was the beginning and then...the story is that it was actually two guerras (white people) that were here on vacation and now they’re going around eating unexpected people in the street. So every so often we had heard kids in the street whispering gemelas (twins) as we passed, but we had no idea what was going on so we just kept walking.

Maybe this is what gemelas look like

A few days later around sundown, we were super lost and looking for directions and decided to ask a lady who was walking by...rather quickly.  As we turned to talk to her she didn’t respond...weird. So we called out again and she only looked worriedly over her shoulder and then kept trotting down the street.  So we walked quickly after her hoping to get her attention and her help.  HORRIBLE IDEA!!! The poor lady took off running when she saw we were gaining on her and yelled over her shoulder at our pleas for help, "DONT EAT ME!" You can only imagine how confused we were until the next day when one of our investigators told us that the neighbors had seen the gemelas the other night on her very street (aka us ;))

Maybe if we had a sign

So now people run from us because the rumors have spread to include that the twins are nuns, that they’re always by churches, and they have secret allies (aka members).  The other day a member said, "Good thing the people here are scared folk or I’m sure you guys would have been lynched by now! Hahaha imagine that" .....ummmm hahahaha. All the members think it’s the funniest thing to ever happen and my comp and I are having a fabulous time with it.  I personally find it hilarious!

For all the walking we have been doing we are still sitting on a whole lot of zeros but the Lord has a greater plan for us. I recently found a quote that I really like that says:

Heavenly Father knows us, loves us, and desires everything necessary for us to return to His presence. And sometimes that includes trials, troubles, and challenges (see 1 Peter 1:7). If Heavenly Father were to free us from our challenges simply because we asked, He would deny us the very experiences necessary for our salvation. We must learn to trust in God’s plan for us and submit our will to His. As we align our desires with His desires and acknowledge our complete dependence on Him, we may qualify to receive “the end of [our] faith, even the salvation of [our] souls” (1 Peter 1:9).

I know with all my heart that Heavenly Fathers plan for each of us is so much greater than that which we can comprehend.  We have two choices in this life, to overcome or be trodden down and I personally enjoy the first one so much more.  One day in the future we will be able to see the big picture of all our struggles.  I feel like recently I’ve been crying out "hope yah know, I had a hard time" when there is no one who knows more perfectly then the Lord that I was struggling.  Let us never forget how truly he knows us, in a way more complete then we could ever imagine, and is willing to go to whatever length to help us if we but ask Him!

Thanks for all your love and support!

See you soon,

Hermana Neu

Into Outer Darkness

Well hello there from the bountiful dead grass fields of the sweltering Sahara of our little city  (holy cow that pool across the street is taunting me!).

Day 1: No house

Day 2: No light....and for many days after

Day 3: No air (and literally my comp can’t breathe! We think she’s allergic to Morelos...she’s still super clogged and sick)

Day 4: Random Guests

       Stayed home because my comp had a fever and still couldn’t breathe. I took the time to organize our three area books into one area book with all the antiguo investigators organized into colonies and then in alphabetical order....yup I’m crazy, but organizing always helps me to de-stress! While I was lost in a maze of over 600 registros there was a knock at the door (odd because we know literally nobody).  I opened it to see a woman and three children standing at my door.  Ummm, I didn’t order Girl Scout cookies.... But then I saw the little old man in the back and I started straight up laughing.  Safe to say we’ve been found, again, by the Garcia family.  I have to say that President was all but asking for that to happen when he sent us to an area 20 minutes away from Garcia’s grandparents’ home...and into a ward where her grandpa was branch president way back in the day and her father served as high council men.  So I woke up my sick companion to let her know that her aunt, cousins, and grandparents were outside our door, only to come back down the stairs to find them in our house....this is so illegal (highlight of the week!)

Day 5: Sunburnt, fasting, and crazy lost....lucky all the cambi drivers had pity on us and gave us free rides

Day 6-7: The sweet relief of general conference!!!!!!!!!

    We basically lived in the stake center all weekend watching the conference in English (so we could hear their real voices) with all the American elders and then quickly changing the station to Spanish during the last session for the Latino speakers.  If there are two HUGE things we can pull out of conference it’s the importance of the family and of personal conversion.  I think the greatest part about conference is receiving answers to all the little things we need to hear.  I’m grateful for the opportunity that we have to hope in the powers and redeeming life of Christ! I know that He lives and has made the pathway possible to return to our Heavenly Home.  I know that I can never thank Him for the price that He paid for me but it’s truly a blessing that I can show my appreciation for everyday as I remember to apply it!

With an abundance of Love,

Hermana Neuberger

River of Tears

Kind of depressing, I apologize!!!!

I’m gonna try to make this upbeat and exciting but I haven’t slept in two days so the banging in my head is crazy getting to me!!! I guess the biggest news of all is that they took all the American sisters out of Guerrero.....and now I think you understand just about everything.....

The call came late Saturday night and was soooo unexpected that we just sat there crying for 2 hours straight (and Hna Garcia NEVER cries!!) We sent a text to inform the bishop, who then instantly called (sad, angry, and confused all at once) and could barely put a sentence together.  Basically, the whole thing was like a really bad dream. We had a baptism planned for this Saturday...and the next...and the next...and the next....and the next...you get the point, things were about to get SOOOO good! Apparently are reaction was sad enough that the zone leaders called the sister training leaders to make sure everything was okay.

The next day at church was emotionally horrendous to say the least.  First off, let’s just remember back to that one time when we stressed out more than necessary about the fact that Elders were coming to our ward....well I think this Sunday just was meant to make us know how much the ward loves us.  They passed around the food calendar last week and we had a food appointment for everyday of the month of April (even with women who NEVER feed the missionaries) and the Elders had two.  Not saying anything bad about the Elders...just feeling super loved! Everyone kept coming up to us all excited about how they were going to feed us and then we would have to tell them the bad news.  We had an investigator who couldn’t make it to church, his wife is an inactive member, when we told them that we were leaving they started laughing and said good one.  You can only imagine our faces, AND THEIRS, when we had to tell them it wasn’t a joke! All of our investigators cried through church, but the worst of all was saying goodbye to Guri (who should have been baptized a month ago but still doesn’t have permission) who couldn’t stop crying and had me crying for a good 20 minutes.  Everyone wanted photos, everyone wanted to hug us, everyone wanted to march to president’s house and protest (there were a lot of jokes made about marches and camping in tents, but they’re not really funny to those who haven’t experienced Chilpo), and more than anything everyone wanted to know when we’re coming back! We told everyone to keep going and that we would be back for all their sealings in the temple/mission call openings REALLY SOON!

So I won’t go into detail about my day of tears...I think you’ve all got the picture by now. To end the night we went to the FHE on the privada! Then it was picture fest with all the Calixtos and way too many tears.  The bishop took us into his house at the end of the night for a private goodbye and said the nicest things! After the hundreds of missionaries that have passed through that ward, we go down as “the greatest duo of all” :( it was so heartfelt that I just shattered! The kids couldn’t grasp the fact that we were leaving and just kept asking "cuando van a ir a nuestra casa, tias?" (When are you coming to our house, aunts?) The other half of the privada, still Calixtos, but in the other ward, were also crying saying that they felt like we had been their missionaries.

And then we left.  We closed the door, we jumped in the car, and we drove away....and my heart is shattering right now just thinking about it all over again. I broke down at the bus station, I broke down on the bus, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ll never forget my family in Chilpancingo!!! More than anything I’m just grateful for the knowledge that I have that the Lord has a greater plan for us.  He is so aware of what we need that He is willing to cut us down at our highest just to make us better.  From the moment we got the call to entering the bus I’ve found myself on my knees whispering prayers for strength and comfort.  I know this is all for a greater purpose and though it hurts now, I can see how my prayers were answered in so many ways all over the place.  I think one of the greatest answers to prayer is that I got to stay with my best friend, Hna Garcia, to take on our new area together.  I don’t think I could have gone on without her and for that tender mercy I am truly grateful!

So where am I know?? I’m back in Cuautla in a little nothing town called _____. I swear everyone and their mom is a member and the ward only likes hermanas (they just throw out their Elders) so they’re super excited to have us.  Crazy side is that our bishop is inactive.....LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!!!

The mission is a spectacular thing!!!!!

Plus Hna Garcia’s grandparents and aunts and uncles all live 20 minutes away soooo I think Prez is trying to make us as happy as possible ;)

You know I love you!

Hermana Neuberger