Alejandro!

Hey yall!

Not too much happened this week, but here are some highlights:

 - Our friend Alejandro passed his baptismal interview and is getting baptized this week! He works out of town so he's not in Montevideo during the week, however this week we went to visit his mom and sister. His sister told us that it is amazing how the spirit is working in Alejandro. She testified of the change they have seen in him and told us they have seen him on his knees praying in their house. She said after we left their house one Sunday Alejandro left his alcohol bottle outside and has not touched it since. The spirit was so strong while she was telling us this story. He is an example to his family, I am so excited for him to take this step. He has been waiting for this day for sooooo long and is soooo excited! 

- My comp hit 2 months on the mission. All of our lessons canceled that day, but while we were walking home some of my fav members drove by and offered to drive us home. On the way they took us to get Dominos pizza and Gridos icecream. It was a miracle, we love Julee and Miguel! They remind me of my sister and brother-in-law! 

- We went to seminary this week! We are planning a volleyball night this week with the youth. I love the youth in our ward, they are our best friends!

- We saw our friend Damian, from India. He's leaving to go back to India this week. 

- I started drinking mate again, since the water is better! 

- Hermana Wilson had her first torta frita.

I read a talk my mom sent me this week called "Our Relationship with God." There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that is quoted it says, “Seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works” (Jacob 4:10). I love this! Sometimes its easy to tell the Lord what we want or what we think is best, but this was a good reminder that He knows what's best. Praying and taking the Lord's counsel makes all the difference. 

Have a great week!

Hermana Neuberger

 

 

Messi

Hey yall! 

I hope you had a great week and maybe saw Messi score the game winning goal in his first game in the US....

On Tuesday we had zone conference and it was edifying. At the end of the conference President Hollingsworth said he was going to do something he had never done before, he bore his testimony in english. He said, "God loves you, He is aware of you, and this is where the Lord wants you to be." It was powerful and I could feel God's love for me so strong in that moment. We tell people that everyday as missionaries, but it hit different when he told us that in english.

Our friend Alejandro that has addictions has gone 2 weeks without smoking nor drinking! We have been working with him for months without too much progress, however he has been to church everyweek for 3 months straight. We were about to drop him, but we decided to have another lesson. We shared the scripture when Christ asks Peter, "lovest thou these more than me?" We asked him if he loved his addictions more than Christ and asked him what he was going to do to change. He told us he was going to stop that day....he hasn't smoked nor drank since! A miracle!! Please pray for him, that he can be baptized August 5th! We also started teaching his 86 year old mom again this week. Previously, she had told us she would never come to church, she is very evangelical. But during a lesson with her this week she told us the Holy Spirit was telling her she needed to go to church to know if it was true and she came to church this week! She has a lot of questions, but keeps telling us she knows the Holy Ghost will help her know the truth! 

The family we are teaching is doing good! We taught them the commandments this week. Beatriz, the mom, has to change a couple of things in her life, but she has the desire! When we asked her if she was willing to live the commandments she responded, "I want to and I'm going to ask God to help." I trust God will help her and am excited to see her grow. They also came to church again this week! Her daughter is the cutest!

I love a talk called "An High Priest of Good Things to Come” by Elder Holland. He talks about how everyone has times when they need to know things will get better. He says, "Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve. Christ comes to you in His “more excellent ministry” with a future of “better promises.” He is your “high priest of good things to come." I highlighted the good things in this email, but this week has been pretty challenging for me. I feel like I am being tested and every transfer has a different lesson I have to learn. I am learning that God has a plan to help me grow. The mission has not been easy, but I am learning about my weaknesses and coming to know my Savior, because sometimes He is the only one I have. I know if we keep going and rely on our Savior during hard times, blessing will come! 

Have a great week!

Hermana Neuberger

 

References!

Hey yall! 

So much has happened in the last two weeks. We had transfers and I am staying here in Montevideo, but I got a new comp. My new comp is hermana Wilson, she is from Utah. This is her first transfer. We have gotten a lot of references recently which is the best!  Here are some miracles: 

- We got a reference from youtube...that actually answered! Her name is Beatriz and we are also teaching her two kids Linda and Valentino (they are 10 and 13). They came to church last week and accepted dates to be baptized. They are my favorite people! Please pray for them! We are going to teach them the commandments this week. 

- We also got a reference from a member in another ward last week! Her name is Blanca. We taught her twice, she got a blessing of comfort and came to church. She told us this was the path she wanted to take and she felt so much peace during the lessons and at church....but then she texted us and told us she doesn't want to continue. It was so sad, we called her but she wants to take a break. 

- We have member in our ward from Venezuela who wanted us to start teaching his son. We have had contact with him for a couple weeks, but be came to church this week. We had a good lesson  with him after church. He started crying and told us he was going through a hard time but wants to change his ways. I am excited to see what happens! 

- The craziest thing happened on Sunday. There was like 30 minutes left of our meeting and someone was trying to get in the door. A man in our bishopric went to open the door and he walked into the meeting with a man that was at church for the first time. I was thinking it was wild someone just showed up at church out of the blue. Then, during the closing prayer I remembered the man was someone we met on the streets a couple of days ago. We literally had like a 3 minute conversation with him and invited to church. We never heard anything else from him, but he showed up. It was a miracle. His name is Williams and he is from Cuba. Hopefully, we will be able to have a lesson with him this week, but he is super busy.

- We celebrated 4th of July last week with a pregnancy reveal popper....since we can't do fireworks!

These past couple of weeks we have been on the finding grind. I love how we get to talk with so many people everyday and tell them the have a Heavenly Father that knows them personally and loves them. It is such a simple message and sometimes I don't think that much about it, but these last couple of weeks as I said these words many people have started crying. I can feel God's love for them in that moment. Sometimes people just need to know they are loved. Even though a lot of these people don't want to learn more, I am so glad I get to help God share His love for His children.

Have a great week!

Hermana Neuberger 

 

 

1 year!!!

Hey yall! 

This week I hit 1 year on the mission! We celebrated with Burger King! The other hermanas also made me a crown and we at budín! This week we had exchanges, interviews with president, and a zone counsil. But here is an exciting story from my week: 

On Thursday we had interviews with president and he gave us each our own phone. So now every missionary in our mission has their own phone! On Friday night we we were walking to a members house for a lesson and my comp was using my phone for the directions (because my phone has the chip). We were just having a good conversation, laughing a little and then we hear something come from behind us on the sidewalk. We moved over because it was getting close to us. Then, a second later we see a bike drive off with my phone....we got robbed! This guy was low key so smooth. He just came from behind on his bike, didn't stop or say anything, instead he just grabbed the phone out of my comps hand and drove off. It was perfectly timed. Hermana Bateman starting trying to chase after him so I pulled her back and comforted her jaja! We were shook up for a minute but were super close to the police station so we went and got a cool police report. On the walk home we were scared of any noise from behind us. Our leaders were suprised to know missionaries in this zone got robbed because it is one of the nicest areas in the mission. It was a miracle though because I had 2 bags because we had exchanges the night before, we had a lot of cash on us, and we had another phone, but he only took one phone. Having our own phones was short lived, but I know God was protecting us! 

Also something funny....this week I saw a 2 year old drink mate and a women taking pills and using mate to swallow them. We love mate!

This week I was reading a byu devotional called "6 Things I Believe." It is so good, you should go read it. The 6th thing the speaker said he believed in was the power of smile. He said worry is normal because it is evidence you care about someone, but smiling can be a way to help you feel lighter. Simpling smiling can change your outlook on a situation and help those around you. A smile can go a long way, so smile this week!

Have a great week!

Hermana Neuberger