Letter from 12/15/2014

This week was unbelievable stressful and WAY worth it! You guys remember Arthur from last week? He´s been being taught for 6 months, and he was FINALLY baptized this week!

I've spent a transfer and a half working with Arthur, and last Sunday (for like the 3rd time) we put a date on him. His baptism was to be the 13th of December. We followed up every day, brought members there, worked everything out so the baptism would be EXACTLY how he wanted it (Very few people and he wanted to be confirmed directly after the baptism, not in sacrament meeting) Which worked out because this Sunday was stake conference. WOO! Then...Saturday came and it didn't happen. We got super bummed out and super stressed...but we marked it again for Sunday the 14th. 

On Sunday, I called him so much...I definitely felt like a crazy ex girlfriend. But we couldn't get a hold of him. But...we wanted a baptism, so we went to the church and got the font ready. While we were filling it, Arthur called and said that he wasn't sure, and that he was really scared. He wanted to wait for another day. But we said nooooooooo. And he said FINE, then it has to be right now. I´m on my way. 

Needless to say, we were ecstatic, especially because he didn't even give certainty that he´d be baptized on Sunday..but we were prepared and it happened! Now he can enter the kingdom of God! We are beyond happy!!

We also have an investigator named Isaac. He wants so badly to be baptized. We contacted him in the street and he didn't want anything...but he went to church all by himself and now he wants to be baptized. The problem is that he needs to get married. The woman he lives with has been wanting to get married to him for 20 years, but he´d never agreed. and now that HE wants to, she doesn't. Satan, right? Gracious. She won´t even let us talk to her and she won´t sign the papers. But we´re working and fighting for it! So if you guys could pray for her to have an open heart, that would be AWESOME. 

I love you all, thanks for all the support!!

Sister Neal

Letter from 12/8/2014

Hey guys! This week was sad and happy at the same time. My companion left and went home, but I'm still here serving strong! But It´s sad because I definitely feel like my time is getting shorter...I just want to do all I can and help all the people that I´m meant to!

This week was full of miracles. Arthur, who´s been taught for 6 months, has FINALLY agreed to be baptized this Saturday. PLEASE pray for him so that this can happen, that he can have the courage and won´t have any doubts. Also, we had tons of people at church this Sunday and they all loved it. We´re planning to have a white Christmas here (baptisms...because it doesn't even almost snow here) and it´ll be wonderful.

I love the spirit of Christmas! Even though it´s hot here, I know that Christmas is coming. The spirit is so strong! And every day I am more and more thankful for the sacrifice that Christ made for all of us. It´s because of Him that we can go home! The greatest gift of Christmas is our salvation! We´re all full of joy here and super happy to be serving the Lord. Remember Him! He is the reason for our happiness!

I love you all! Here are some pictures!

Letter from 12/1/2014

This week absolutely flew by! It was definitey because Sister Domingues went home today. I´m gonna miss her so much, we had the greatest time ever. 

My new companion is Sister Urbano! She´s from Peru, and she´s really awesome. We´re gonna have a great time. 

We had an activity at the chapel where we did a play about the Plan of Salvation. It was hilarious and super fun. I wish you guys coulda seen it. We had investigators there, and it really put it into perspective for them the plan that God has for all of us.

Ana, the woman we baptized last week, was unable to be confirmed last Sunday because her son got super sick. But we worked this week for it to happen this sunday...and it happened! She (again, because of her son) arrived about 45 minutes late. She entered into the church running, super sweaty, and SUPER excited to get the gift of the holy ghost. She really understood the importance of all of it, and seeing her running into the building was amazing. I know that Heavenly Father watches us and knows of our needs. If we do our part, he´ll do his and we will be blessed. Now the rest of Ana´s family is interested in the church, and we´ll be teaching them this week. I love this work and I love that Heavenly Father is letting me serve him here. As missionaries, we get a front row seat to see the miracles of this Gospel...there really is no greater call.

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Sister Neal

Letter from 11/24/2014

This week was pretty sweet! We were working and fighting for baptisms to happen for the investigators that we´ve been working with...but they just kept not working out. We were working, praying, fasting, doing everything that we could...and still, it didn´t happen the way we were hoping. But then, one of our super recent investigators out of nowhere just said "I want to get baptized....I´ll be there on the 22nd and I´ll stop drinking coffee."

So, we were pretty stunned and extremely excited and thankful that the Lord touched her heart and showed her that she needed to follow. It was a beautiful ceremony with tons of support from the ward. Our paths are not the Lord´s paths. If we do our part, He´ll do His. He´s already helping us out find other super elect people. I´m learning to trust in the Lord, and I´m growing a lot. He lives and is aware of us!!

Have a wonderful, powerful, amazing week!

Sister Neal

Letter from 11/17/2014

Hey everyone! I didn´t like this week at ALL until Sunday! It was one of those weeks that feels AWFUL while you´re living it, but once you look back, it actually was pretty fantastic. We worked worked woooorked and WORKED and saw lots of success. We got 7 people to come to church with us and one of them was a contact that we´d made the week before. We contacted him and he said he didn´t want to hear a message, but we invited him to church anyway and he decided to go and he loved it :) We´re seeing tons of miracles in Ananindeua, and it´s AMAZING to be a part of this ever growing work. I´ve learned that if we just do what we´re asked and TRUST in our God, we WILL be blessed. Every time. Just trust in Him and have hope. I love you all, have a fantastic week! If you could, please keep praying for Arthur and Kelly. Thanks so much and Love ya!!

Sister Neal

She and Seth were having a conversation about her giraffe

Sis. Neal and Sis. Domingues

Letter from 11/10/2014

Hey everyone! I loved this week, it was wonderful. We´re working hard and seeing results. This area was dead and now it´s super alive and we´re loving it! We´re really having a blast. Thanks for the prayers...Arthur DID recognize an answer...but he´s still wanting to wait on baptism. We invited him to pick a day...and he picked the 20th...a thursday. Silly goose. Oh well, we´re praying for that!! Kelly made it to church with us and is keeping the commandments, thanks so much for the prayers.

I´ve been learning that if you wanna see results, you gotta be willing to do what you´ve never done before. I was reading in Alma today about the war where the bad guys were upset because the Nephites were super prepared and were doing stuff they´d never seen before and couldn´t win....I´d go into more details but time´s short...so we´ve been trying to think of new ideas of what we could do differently to help this work along. We decided to sing a hymn before every lesson, and it really has brought about miracles. The spirit is a lot stronger during the lessons and the people can feel a difference between our messages and the messages of other people. It´s been wonderful. 

I´ve also been thinking about the phrase ´if you want to go to God´s presence, you gotta repent.´ I´ve learned that that phrase is wrong. It should be ´You´re gonna go back to God´s presence whether you´re prepared or not. You should repent.´ It´s the truth...we´ll go back no matter what, and it´s our job to work so we´ll b comfortable there. It´s a good thing that we have the Atonement, what a blessing! We can always be clean and always prepare. Christ is with us every step of the way. 

I hope you all had a wonderful week, keep keeping the faith!!  

elder of the angels (elder dos anjos our district leader) hahaaha

 

Merry early Christmas!

Kelly at church!

Sis. Domingues and I

Me!

we wanted a cool walking picture and the elders kept ruining it

 

Letter from 11/3/2014

I´m loving this area everyone! We´re having tons of fun and tons of success. We're having tons of lessons and seeing lots of things change in this area that everyone said was awful. It´s amazing to see the hand of the Lord in the work.

Sorry, I ran out of time....no time for details, but if you guys could pray for Arthur that he might recognize the answer from God that he already has, and for Kelly that she might have strength to keep the commandments. I LOVE YOU ALL. have a WONDERFUL week!!!