Letter from 7/28/2014

Hey everyone!

This week was transfers week, so it was pretty hectic. My companion left me...and now I´m waiting on my new companion. I get to stay in the area, so we get to test my navigating skills. Hah, it´ll be interesting. 

The members here are so good to us. They feed us literally all the time. If one of us says we´re hungry, they make all 6 missionaries in the ward go to their house and eat. It´s awesome, we´re super grateful. 

This week was pretty good, we saw lots of cool things happen. We found a MARRIED family who´s super excited about the church, (even the husband, which is pretty rare here.) One of our investigators had a really awesome answer to her prayer and knows that the church is true because she had a dream. And one of our investigators who just appeared at church one day is SUPER excited, loves the church, and brought her sister and now we´re teaching both of them. It seems like after 6 weeks of trials, things are finally starting to happen, and we are beyond excited.

I love you all and I hope you guys are all having a good summer! Keep the faith, hold to the rod and stay firm!

Love,

Sister Neal

Letter from 7/21/2014

Hey everyone!

Brasil is still really really really hot. And awesome. I absolutely love the people here! 

I just wanted to share a cool experience our zone had. 

So our zone leaders were walking around making contacts, and they walked by a man that they passed by every single day. The most they ever said to him was good morning, but this time they actually stopped and talked to him. They started talking about the church, and the man said, oh stop, I know all about the church. I´ve had the Book of Mormon for 10 years, I´ve been preaching its teachings in other churches, and I´ve just been waiting for you guys to stop and talk to me! He was baptized 2 hours later. How crazy is that?! It showed me that we really need to talk to everyone. There really are people waiting for us.

Miracles are real! Stay strong and keep the faith!

Love,

Sister Neal

me and geovana (our recent convert) when i left, she was crying :( 

 a group of us before i left my first area

 my companion with a tiny puppy!

the other two sisters in our district

my companion is sister cardoso, the other american is sister sender, and HER companion is sister g. cardoso. 

Letter from 7/14/14

Hey everyone!

So, if you guys didn´t know, Germany absolutely DESTROYED Brasil last week. They made World Cup history. They made 3 goals in 6 minutes, and made us look like little kids with the total at 7-1. And our one goal was literally given to us. All of our Brazilian companions were crying. Literally kneeling down and crying. Our mission president was very wise in letting us watch this one game. Gave us lots of humility. :P But we made the whole thing a missionary experience, and I actually learned stuff. We can try and try, but sometimes it just feels like we´re running in place and hitting walls. But if we keep the faith, miracles happen. (In real life, not the game, because that game had 0 miracles.)

But anyway, that was exactly this week. We ran, got people all ready for church, called, got cars ready to go get them, and we had zero investigators at church. We didn´t understand, we fasted, prayed, EVERYTHING. We did our part. It is the most frustrating thing it the world to feel like all of the work we do has no affect. But as we entered the church building, we found 3 people who live in our area who just decided to come check it out. This might sound small to you guys, but it was a HUGE miracle. We are super excited to work with them and continue helping the people who didn´t make it to church like we wanted. We´re learning  to rely on the Lord in all things. 

So, never pray for patience, because things WILL come up to try it. :)

I have never been so exhausted and incredible happy.

Keep the faith! I love you all!

Sister Neal

Letter From 6/30/2014

Hey everyone! This week was full of sun and work and it was AWESOME.

First of all, serving a mission is SO much more fun when you can actually understand everyone and participate in the jokes. I even have some people believing I´m from South Brasil now, which is awesome. I am so thankful for the Lord, there is absolutely no way I´d be doing this well without His help.

The Brasil-Chile game was insane...especially because we have a Chilean Elder in our district...and he lost...and it was his birthday. Poor guy.

Something cool about living in the Amazon is that whenever you´re hungry, you just go up to a tree and eat a bunch of fruit...it ROCKS. (No, mom, I don´t always wash it, and I´m still alive :) )

Our area is enormous...one of the main areas we work takes like 40 minutes walking to get there. Blah. But we always have a good time. The chaple´s far away too...but we´re getting lots of exercise. :D

We had about 7 people come to church today. An entire family and 2 others. It was WONDERFUL. We just gotta get these people MARRIED. It eats up so much time. 

I´ve been reading in Alma, and I´m learning how to be a more effective missionary because of it. It´s really fun to apply what I learn, and then see the results. 

Alma 24 is really touching. The men burried their swords and knelt down in front of their killers because they knew it was better to die clean of sin than to break a covenant with God. We really do need to bury our sins and stand up for what we know is right in all times, all things, and all places. Don´t have shame.

Anyway, that´s about it. Hope you are all well...and I hope you enjoy the fireworks, because I WON´T. Haha. 

Tchau, gente!

Sister Neal

Letter From 7/8/2014

Sorry I didn´t write yesterday, we had zone conference. It was so good to see everyone from the CTM and my old zone!! I am learning so much.

I don´t have a lot to say about this week, just that I am really gaining a testimony of this gospel. It is so incredibly perfect, and it makes so much sense.

I love my Savior. I know He suffered for my sins, and because of this I can make it home to my Heavenly Father. I know that He lives. I know that He loves me. I know that because of the love I have for Him, I need to be 100% obedient. If I do my part, He will do the rest. He is always at my side. The Holy Ghost is guiding me every day. I can speak a foreign language and people understand. Investigators know that what my companion and I say are true because of the Spirit we have. Heavenly Father guides my footsteps, and I know that every single person I talk to every day is put into my path for me to talk to and challenge to baptism. I love this work, and I am putting my all into it. I am so thankful for the prayers I feel, They are making me strong. I love hearing about all of your miracles and blessings too. Stay safe, I love you all!!

Also, Pres. Scisci is letting us watch the game today!! BRASIL VS GERMANY WOOOOO!!! We only have a 30% chance of winning...LET´S GO BRASIL!!! 

Love,

Sister Neal