Izcuchaca 2.11.13

Mommy! I am going to the office today, we will see if they have a package waiting for me, not sure.... but im hoping! I currently am not walking with my coat so im not sure what size it is. I will let you know nxt week, in the meantime dont worry about it. And remember that the peat part is fine, i am only missing the outer shell. 

Love hearing from home, about Matt and shannons crazy kids, keep up the great work! 

This week has been pretty interesting..... Wow I always start off así, what do you want to here? How should i model my weekly letters home? Get some info from everyone so that i can have a better idea of what will be more valuable to write. 

We worked hard this week, there cant be any doubt about that. And besides this I also tried to make our work a lot more organized. I began to communicate with all the members and investigators about every day by phone. The people here aren´t very comitted people... If we want to have any form of success or a set plan with them i feel like i have to be reminding them every day of the things we have planned. I feel bad about my old life! I am starting to realize now just how difficult it is to set an appointment and then to have someone tell you just as you stop by to pick them up that they arent going to be able to make it. We had an experience like that this week i want to tell you all about it. 

We are teaching a family of three people. Their names are Sorayda, Jose, and Edwin. They were a reference of a member and from the get go I was super excited about the family. We only had the chance to teach the mother at first, but with time, some acts of service and other things we have had the chance to speak with everyone. This Wedenseday we taught the message of the restoration and then challenged them for baptism. We are challenging just about every single person that we meet and really it has helped me to grow in faith, it is difficult to invite someone to be baptized, but if we really love them we desire their happiness and want them to grow and progress during their mortal probation, we know that the moment they decide to be baptized will be the most important moment of their lives. Well we challenged the family! Of course at first, they said no. :) In the mission we have developed a way to almost make themselves comitt to be baptized without realizing it... And this may seem a like taking away their agency.... but just read the story of Ammon teaching the Lamanite king in the book of mormon and you will now what I mean. so in the end they accept, on the condition that they recieve and answer. This is where I begin to question a little bit, or.... I shouldnt say question, because i know that what my leaders say, and what the lord says more than anything, is true. If we follow the inspired council we will be so blessed, and even if it takes time for the blessings to come, they will come and we can trust that our heavenly father is very very mindful of us. 

Well, i tell you all of this to give you a little bit of background information. We had a lesson with this family saturday night. We stopped by their house to pick them up, and we only found the wife at home... she told us that she wasnt going to be able to make it to the appointment and that her husband had traveled that day. This is AFTER we had called them repeatedly, and passed by their house the very same day to remind them of the appointment and to do their comittments. Aparte de eso, we were going to have the lesson in the house of a member and the wife had prepared food specifically for the lesson. 

Well, i wasnt angry, or anything like that. But it has been difficult. It is hard to do so much for someone and then have them think that it has little or no value for them. Mom, I know how you feel when we dont do what you ask right when you ask us... More than that, I know somewhat how the lord feels when we dont obey his commandments.... and we all have to do better at that. 

The challenge is exhilarating, I love to learn about the gospel through my personal study and experiences in the mission field. I have learned to be happy about the problems... at the end of everyday when i pray to the lord and account for the days work... it is great to have the good feeling of " you did a good job today". I am happy that the Lord loves me enough to tell me that. 

I love you! sorry there arent any pictures... I didnt take any this week 

Elder Neff

Izcuchaca 2.4.13

YES! you got my package! Soooo happy about that. happy that you got the chance to see ALL of the pictures and por fin some of the videos.... Just to let you all know, was trying to capture a baby pig for my first 3 changes and when i finally did it i was so proud of myself :)

Paige! So great to hear that you passed your boards. NCLEX or whatever, now i am going to pray that all goes well with the birth of my new neice! Cant wait. Hope you and jenna liked your gifts as well.

Such an interesting week Elder Gomez and I had. Cant wait to tell you all about it.

I started out this change with a lot of hopes for the families that we are teaching. Honestly I have never prayed so much in my entire life, or felt such a strong need to excercise my faith. I remember entering my room the night after the change mtg, helping Elder Gomez unpack, and then getting into my bed..... My thoughts went back to my first day in the mission field (Ironically I am sleeping in the same bed where I started and was trained) I remember that I thought, "How in the world am I going to do this?" Haha and my thoughts after I was assigned as trainer and district leader were, again, "How am I going to do this?" I´m happy to say that the Lord answers our earnest prayers. I learned an amazing lesson this week, and this is a thought that perhaps I have shared a few times, but I have realized in my service as a missionary that we ask things from people that are near impossible for them to do. The steps of faith that are required for the people to take to change their lives and live according to the gospel standards are an amazing change... and when I say amazing i mean BIG! HUGE! The world is in a serious dump right now. You could say that the country of Peru is a country of mostly christian people... but it really isnt so. They do not live Christian values, they do not obey the commandments, and saint worship is almost worse than any other type of idle worship because it destorts the true nature of Christ and his relationship with us... When people think of Jesus Christ here in Perú, they always refer to him as suffering and dying on the cross. His loving nature and character is overlooked and only his dying and suffering are emphasized. I have talked to many people who think that Jesus Christ is dead, and never resurrected.

Sorry I dont mean to rant but you can imagine the work that is required to change the "false traditions of their fathers" of the people here in Peru. I love reading the respective stories of Ammon and Aaron in the book of Alma... read them when you get the chance! I have tried very hard to follow their example and their way of teaching to help overcome similar problems among the lamanites here in the latter days.

Story about trials of faith. We took a BOMBIN´! family to a baptismal service this week. Everything went super well and they felt the spirit... I just knew they did. We passed by yesterday to invite them to church... They told us that they wouldnt be able to attend because while they were at the baptismal service someone stole two tables from their store............................................................ I honestly did not see that one coming. They dont blame us obviously, but it is difficult to keep people excited about the gospel when difficult things happen like that.

Well I am out of time, and i wanted to explain more... but suffice it to say I know one thing. Nephi built a ship. He was never trained before to do a thing like that, but the Lord saw it fit... to teach him and give him the power to do it so that his great purposes could come to pass. I know the lord can "teach me" to be a good missionary, and not only that but to be the person that I absolutely need to be to complete my mission in this life. His "teaching" more than anything comes through the trial of faith... I have learned to be so greatful for that trial during this last change.

No time left, here is an explication of the pics.

not in any particular order.

Pics in the plaza de armas in Cusco.

Cristo Blanco with those NUEVOS MISIONEROS!

other cool pics hope you enjoy

Mom i just got your letter... if you want me to get something for sure send it to me before 10 oclock my time here.

LOVES!

Elder Neff

(note from Ami....I think Sam sent the pic of his eye because we were wondering how he was doing with it.  We sent him a good pair of sunglasses and also a new pair of glasses with transition lenses to hopefully help with his light sensitivity and also to help protect from the increased light that will cause some damage.  All in all, I think it looks really good!)

 

 

Izcuchaca 1.28.13

Dad: Me encanta leer un poco en español cada semana. Ójala que yo mejore cada semana por hablar y escribir en español. Me hace felice a saber que nuevamente tienen agua caliente suficiente para toda la familia... la situacion de agua en izcuchaca tambien a mejorada bastante! basicamente tenemos agua cada mañana... bendiciones del Señor.

Mom: HAHA the insta made me laugh so hard! I love little things like that keep em coming. Letters from friends are great.

 

Paige: praying always... wish you the best of luck! Take care of yourself and am praying that all goes well with the baby.

 

Family! Hope you are all very excited and anticipating some more news from CUSCO PERU!!!

 

I am learning so much here in the mission. Honestly I have passed through so many difficult times and learned how the Lord gives us our trials to bless us and prepare us for even more difficult barriers that we have to overcome in our lives. Everything is a process but i am grateful every day for the opportunity to serve the Lord, and experience the grand change of heart that comes from knowing and living the gospel, and the opportunity to see that same change take affect in the lives of others.

 

My child and I are working super hard. Speaking honestly, I was super happy to get the chance to train because there were many things that i wanted to put into practice as a missionary that I just couldnt do before because... well, I couldnt convince my other companions that they were important! haha, what I really wanted to do was to try the Lord and do everything in my power to serve him in his way. The promises are real, and becuase this is his work I know that we must do it in his way if we have any desire to be successful.

 

We have had so many miracles the past week. When I started this change with Elder Gomez, (by the way my child elder Gomez is from CHILE! as i mentioned in the email two weeks ago...i think. He is da bomb! He knows a little bit of english and it has been so fun to teach him. He loves to bother me, and one of the ways he does it has been through a phrase " shut your mouth you little worm" and yes he defintely learned that all by himself.) I knew that what izcuchaca really needed was families in the church...I feel terrible tosay this, because i would love to tell you the stories of how we have found all of them, but suffice it to say we are teaching 3! And I know that they can accept the gospel and become faithful members of the church.

 

I love you all sooooooo much. Cuidense muchisimo, sorry there isnt more time, but i am determined to be obedient and hope you all understand :)

Elder Neff

 

Izcuchaca 1.21.13

Mommy: Thank you for the long letter! I really enjoy them, honestly keep them coming and i promise i will do my very best to send you all good and long letters to compensate! Love the pic, love the news about the family.  You also keep encouraging me to spend my money... and i will if i need to but i am still doing just fine.

 

Tell Dad to write me.

 

This week was super interesting... a little difficult, but I am grateful for one thing in particular and that is that the lord is allowing me to recognize more fully the miracles that pass every day here in the mission, how to search for them and enjoy the knowledge that our Father in Heaven is ALWAYS watching over us.

This week started off in a really interesting way, we went off and did service one day for one of the investigators in the other companionship in my district... as you can see i have attached a picture that more or less explains what the service entailed as it was raining cats and dogs and i couldnt take any photos. Please refer to the picture diagram for more info as i explain. We went off into the fields of ANTA on a little moto... which is basically a superpowered motorcycle with a truck bed attached to the back. We stoped on a back road in the middle of the valley and started walking to through corn fields to get to the big campo of grass that we were going to cut to feed the cows of this investigator. Well, at first it was super fun! We got to know the investigator, he is a way cool guy, and he taught us how to cut grass Incan style! With a little scythe tool... which i broke 3 times with my gringo strength but thats another story. Well it started to rain about halfway through the service activity, and honestly we didnt think much of it because we had our ponchos and doing service is a blast!.... But then, Valentine (the investigator) told us that we were going to carry the grass back to the moto on the road. Well that doesnt sound too bad.... he told us the grass was going to weigh about 40 kilos... which, ya is a lot but when i had seen a bunch of old waykies doing it in my time in izcuchaca so i figured it wouldnt be too much of a problem. Well he rolled up the grass into piles, tied it up, and then helped us put them on our backs..... Honestly... the second i had the wieght on my i though to myslef... " oh there is no way in the world i am going to carry this back to the moto i think it weighs more than ME!!!" Well im sure it did becuase it was 40 kilos of grass... saturated with POURING rain. Needless to say i carried two loads more than half a mile (at least) through the swamp to the moto waiting on the road....I have never worked harder in my entire life and i never will... Honestly nothing can compare. I have so much respect for these old Peruvian men who carry things like that like its nothing! Oh and as you can see i found myself a snickers.... i think i deserved it!

The rest of the photos are vistas of Anta (the whole area around izcuchaca) IT really is pretty huh? oh and one of Gomez when he wasnt ready for the pic :) I love my child!!!! He is from Chile and one of the humblest people I have ever met. He loves to do magic tricks for the children and members, and honestly, it really is a great finding tool! (Uncle mike took that advice from you!) We are working soooooo

hard, i have so many hopes for izcuchaca... It is amazing how your mind can focus in on the work when you have a goal. I know that the Lord rewards us according to our labors and we are going to do everything possible to make izcuchaca a better place before we leave, bringing as many families as possible to know the truth of the gospel!

Sorry... there is only 1/2 hour allowed to write in this mission... sometimes it seems unfair becuase all of my other friends can write SOOO much, but solo sepan que les quiero muchisimo... y espero que tengan una buena semana.

Hasta lunes

Elder Neff

actually i only went afew pics because the computer is bad... sorry :(

actualy only one this is making me mad!

Izcuchaca 1-14-13

WOW! that is a lot of snow. Happy to inform you all that here it is a little more tranquilo... except for torrential rain that we are having about two times a week. Sweet for the news about the glasses, cant wait to stop using the classy clip ons (even though, yes they are pretty classy!) Hope you are all doing super well and a kiss and a hug from me.

Edna got your dear elder,  a letter is coming, just know that i love you a lot and that things aren´t all cream and peaches here either, although the Lord is blessing me soooooo much and i know that he can do the same for you. Perhaps he wont take away all the problems... but he will help you through them, and if you do your best to follow his example all things will work together for you good... and, yes, you can even be happy in the hardest of times. LOVE YOU!

Mom shoot me a longer email next week :) love to hear your voice.

 

 

 

SO many good things have happened this week.... cant believe all the changes and how it has affected my view of missionary work and the blessing that we can recieve as servants of the Lord. Excited to tell you all about it!

P-day last week wasnt really p-day... because the whole day we were taking care of the new kids as trainers. WOOOT! I am training... cant even believe it. We showed up at the office tuesday in the morning to have a little training session, and then we went off to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. I sat shotgun in presidents car as he drove, and en camino he clasped me on the shoulder and said " Elder Neff! El capacitador!" haha all i could say was " sí presidente, estoy emocionado!" I never thought that this day was coming so quickly.

We waited for the new missionaries in the airport for about an hour. I got to talk to my good friend Elder Fuller assistant to the President, and he gave me some good advice about training and how to enjoy the experience to the maximo.

 

 

 

Well they all got off the airplane a little startled and zoned out... but it was super exciting to see ELDER GOASLAND ( i know that i spelled that wrong really sorry about it.) I hope it was good for him to see a familiar face, I remember getting off the airplane and thinking "oh no where in the world am I?" Haha hopefully that eased his fears a little.

Well the change meeting came that night... and i had no idea who was going to be my kid! (Who I was going to train) I was anticipating the moment soo much and when president said Elder Neff as district leader (ya another surprise) will train Elder Gomez in Izcuchaca! Elder Gomez has turned out to be one of the best people I have ever met. I honestly could not be happier. not only that, he has soo many desires to serve and do it well, we are going to have a lot of success here in Izcuchaca in these next two changes.

 

 

One thing I learned from a little conversation I had with President, was that there really are people who are ready to recieve the gospel. The only requirement we have is to find them, teach by the spirit, and invite them to be baptized. We have taken that promise... well as a promise for real in our companionship. We know the Lord is preparing people in izcuchaca... solo hay que encontrarlas.

I love you all! Cuidense mucho!

Elder Neff

 

 

 

 

 

Izcuchaca 1.7.13

Hello Fam! Well I have had an amazing week and it all ended with a serious BANG! So excited to tell you all about it.

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR! I wish you all the best and here we begin my complete year in the mission. Ay chay chou (wow!) a whole year in Peru! Couldnt be happier to be here. Our new years eve was nice and tranquilo... until 12 at night when the fire works started and from then on drunk people were yelling all night in the streets! But dont worry as you all know i sleep like a piedra so it didnt bother me too much.

This week we focused a lot on the rest of the family Baca, Sixta y George. I must say though that it was not difficult, I have never met people more prepared to recieve the gospel of Jesus Christ. They never faltered once in their desires and it was so cool to see their conversion from the beginning.

As you can see from the pictures (if you havent looked at them yet refer to them now.) President Baptized with us! He baptized Sixta and I had the chance to baptize George. It was pretty great to have him there in the service and, yes, I got to snap a photo with president in ropa blanca... Legend Status!

The best part of the service, however, was when my friend George bore his testimony about his experience being baptized in the church. He began to cry and say "I love to learn of Jesus Christ, and am so happy to now be part of such a beautiful church." It brought tears to my eyes! This is what misionary work is all about.

Well... I have a change.... but i know that none of you were thinking about what was going to come next. I am going to TRAIN this change! four and a half months in the field and its my turn. AND they are only changing me to izcuchaca 1.... again. Well it looks like i will have spent, at least seven and a half months in izcuchaca... home sweet home :) Elder Ferman is training too! Its gonna be a blast.

 

 

 

I love you all! until nxt week

Elder Neff

 

 

Izcuchaca 12/31/12

Dad: Thank you so much for the update and the pics! Sounds great next week i can look at the different frames and tell you what i would like. Ah I love that Ben has replaced me at game night! And that he is doing a great job with the trash talking... Keep it up Ben! Looks like a blast and I was happy to see a few more familiar faces.

Dear Family,

Wow it was soooooo great to finally talk to you on Christmas Day! Really it was so great to see all of you faces and hear your voices. The little guys really are growing up, (Ben and Andy) especially Ben I feel like he has gotten a lot bigger... Dont let him get too big before i get home... cant believe he will be 13!!! Love all of you it was great to hear from you.

Well Im sure you are all a little curious how the rest of my week went here in Peru. We finished off christmas night at the house of a member and they fed us some tasty turkey... although this turned out to be the bane of our existence this week because almost ALL of us got sick! (minus my companion it seems like they train you good for the mission field in Honduras) So a lot of this week was spent sick in bed! But we are all getting better so dont worry about it.

We spent all of the time we could strengthening hermano Hugo and his family and getting him ready for his baptism. Finishing up teaching Hugo all of the lessons was a really special time for me in my mission. After 4 and a half months of work here in Izcuchaca we finally feel like we have had some very real success. Of course, I have always had the spirit with me, and the Lord has seen it fit to give us some choice experiences helping members and less actives better there lives... but there isnt anything quite like watching the conversion of someone from the very beginning, and being their guide to help them learn the restored gospel and accept Jesus Christ in their lives. Hugo is a VERY happy man.... and I know that he is happy because he has allowed the savior to make a grand change in his life.

Well... we are happy! In this next week Hugo´s wife Sixta and his grandson (basically his son) Yorge are going to be baptized as well. I have such great hopes for this family and hope that they can become a great help for Izcuchaca, we certainly need it!

I love you all so much. If there are any details in particular you would like to know from my weekly newsletters please let me know! Also, I havent been able to send letters for over a month because of troubles we have had getting to the post office and things like that (sorry i have to wait until i get to cusco to send anything... and the past two weeks as well we have been in cusco only on a holliday so the post office wasnt open) Oh and i dont trust the post office in Izcuchaca..... enough said there.

Well we are on the last week of the change... not sure if i am going to stay here... stay tuned until nxt week to find out!

Love, Elder Neff