Letter from 3/23/2015

Heeeey, Marcelly got BAPTIZED! Wooohoooo :D Gosh she´s adorable. We followed up this whole week, went and got her mom´s signature, and it was like the most relaxed baptism ever! We got there early to get everything ready, and when Marcelly came in she was in a fit of tears. She said she didn´t know why, but as she got closer to the chapel she couldn´t help but cry. She´s already all set up to go out with us this week, and she´s basically already a sister. She´s fantastic. 

The ward we´re in is amazing. I don´t remember if I told you guys, but there are like 3 or 4 big families in the ward who are members for less than a year, and they´re super excited about missionary work. The others who have been members for longer are excited about the work too. They give us referrals like crazy and help us out and are super concerned about us. I´ve never been in a ward who loves missionaries so much, and the support we get is fantastic. I could finish my mission here and be SUPER happy. 

This week I was thinking more about how important Sacrament meeting is. Like, basically my whole entire life I just sat quietly through sacrament just thinking about nothing. But in the mission I´ve made it a goal to actually think about the meaning of the sacrament, think about the hymns and really feel the spirit and it´s been incredible. I´ve found that I´ve learned so much more about our Savior just by doing that simple thing. My testimony of the Atonement grows every day, and I am so thankful for it and our Savior´s love for us. He gave us His life and the perfect example of how we can go back to the Father´s presence, and He asks us to do what? Have faith, have hope, live like Him and help others on their way. I know that He lives!!

I love you guys!

Sister Neal

Hey guys...forgot pictures again. Heh. Toma.

Also, here´s a little bunny.

Marcelly´s such a PRINCESS. :D

Letter from 3/16/2015

Photo with Elder Cook!! GUYS I´M BETWEEN HIM AND HIS WIFE. Cool right? Yeah.

Hey!  This week was good...you know. Awesome. Full of awesome stuff that I can never tell right. We found an incredible woman who is so ready and wanting to be baptized, but we just gotta marry her. Her name´s Mari and she loves the church and wants to do everything she can to be saved. Marcely, the girl I talked about last week, wasn´t able to get baptized this week because of some little problems...but she´s getting ready for this week, so please pray for these two! They´re amazing, just needing some prayer. The members here are amazing and they love us and we love them and we´re actually able to work together. I don´t know...nothing that awesome happened this week...

But I´m so thankful to be here on the mission. I know that this is the work of the Lord and that if members and missionaries work together to build the ward, the kingdom of God will be built as well, and we´ll be helping God with His purpose. I know that Christ lives and suffered for all of us. I know that He made the perfect path for us to follow. I know that we have a prophet who lives today and who guides us and tells us what God wants us to be told. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and was written for us in our day. I know that this Gospel is perfect and the the Lord is always with us, always helping us, and always loving us.

Have a fantastic week!

Sister Neal

I forgot pictures....

The Sister trainers before we picked up our companions, the new kids, me super red with s. almeida, some catholic guy gave me a saint and then randomly all the catholics let us in, s. almeida and i with our somos loucos por jesus sticker. yeah. that´s about it, love you guys!

Letter from 3/9/2015

GUYS this week rocked. don´t have much time, but basically we had no one to be baptized on the 14th and the zone leaders were like HEY, GO FIND PEOPLE TO GET BAPTIZED. so...we did. we found a girl named Marcely, who is SUPER ELECT. like think about someone who is already reading the BOM, searching REALLY for her salvation and wants to get baptized. of course, we were THRILLED. sorry for all the caps, i´m just so happy! also, we were looking in our area book and found a lady who wasn't baptized cause she couldn't ditch coffee...and we went there and she was like, oh, how good that you guys passed by, i stopped drinking coffee!! We´re gonna baptize them and we´re sooo happy!! also, one investigator went to church this week ALL by herself and LOVED it. IN THE RAIN. WITH HER NEWBORN BABY. gente. i´m so happy! I know that this is the work of the Lord. This church is true. We have a prophet. I love you guys so much.

Have a wonderful, semana milagrosa!!!

Sister Neal!

Letter from 3/2/2015

WOOHOO :D I got my new companion, Sister Almeida, and I´m super excited!! I was transferred again, so we´re opening the area, and we´re super ready to see what Satélite has waiting for us! I don´t have a lot of time, so I´m just gonna write about the experience I had while seeing Elder Cook last week.

SO, he said a lot of fantastic things about how we´re supposed to be better ward builders, and how we need to be better examples. He told us that we need to have more faith. Then he answered a bunch of questions that we had, and we learned a lot. He answered a bunch of questions that I was personally thinking about during his talk, too. But the part that marked me most was when he left his blessing with us. You know how in the scriptures those parts that kind of annoy us because they just say something like ´yeah, we can´t describe what was said because the words were so incredible...but i can tell you that the spirit was REALLY strong.´ Yeah, well, that happened. He left his blessing on us...and I remember that he said such simple things...but the spirit I felt was the strongest I´d ever felt in my life. The spirit was testifying of the things he was saying, and there is no denying that he is an Apostle of God. I can´t describe what he said...but I know what I felt and it was exactly what we needed. 

I know that Christ lives! He died for us and showed us the way. We need to hold on to the rod with all we have and FOLLOW Him! Everything´s been prepared for us. He loves us, and we really can go back home. There are prophets on the Earth today. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Book of Mormon is true. There´s no denying it. I love this Gospel, and I love all of you, have a wonderful week!!

Sister Neal

(pictures next week, this cyber´s ruim)

Letter from 2/23/2015

This week was fantastic here in Icoaraci. There was this holiday in the middle of the week called Carnaval...yeah there was tons of drinking and men dressed as women and huge parades. It´s called the Babylon Week here. It was definitely entertaining, but we lost a day of work. But it´s okay everything ended up going great. There are TONS of investigators here who have been going to church for a long time and a bunch of others who went this week and are getting testimonies. We were super blessed this week with a bunch of miracles, our zone had a miracle baptism, and we were able to get 8 people at the church who loved it. We´re super excited for the work to get going here and to see more miracles happen. I hope you guys have a fantastic week!

Sister Neal

Also, I made one year in the mission....and there´s a cat that enters and pees in our house...and my shoes died. 

Letter from 2/16/2015

This week was crazy!! We had a bunch of stuff going for us, a bunch of miracles happening...and I was emergency transferred a week before the actual transfer! President called on Friday and said that he needed me to be in the new area on Saturday. I´m now in Icoaraci (Like 40 minutes from where I was) and I´m with a short term missionary, who´s going back home this week. Then I´ll be training a greenie! I´m so excited, it´ll be so fun! The only scary thing is that I don´t know the area...so we´ll just learn together. Woohoo! This area is definitely full of miracles, and I´m excited to see them! Thaat´s about it...but here´s some pictures!!

That food is bull tail. gosh it was good. and the rest are pictures with some of the members I left! (president let me go visit church on sunday to say bye :D )

Have a wonderful week! 

Sister Neal

Oh, also, that man in the 3rd picture isn't a member, but his wife is. He knows the church is true, but just won´t give up drinking to be baptized. When I got there, everyone told me not to talk to him because he didn't want anything with anything...but we started having FHE at his house and he started participating. Then he said that a long time ago he´d sworn to never talk to a missionary again...but then when I told him I was leaving, he got really sad and told me that he was preparing himself to be baptized. UGHHH. But that´s okay. At least he´ll still be baptized!! 

Letter from 2/9/2015

Hey guys! I've been super negligent in sending emails...just forgive me, it´s easier that way. BUT. These past few weeks have been great! We´re learning so much! Our recent converts/less actives are starting to come back to church! Our ward is growing! Last month we had like 65 people in the ward on Sundays, and these past two weeks have been 100 people! Our ward´s growing and the ward is really helping us find new people to bring in. I still haven´t been transferred..but I think I´ll be eliminated at the end of February. So, we have a little investigator named Trinity. Her mom´s a member, but she lives in another city, and her dad´s not. BUT, she decided the other day that FINALLY she wants to be baptized....so we´ll be baptizing her and PROBABLY her sister this Saturday! Woo hoo!! 

Also, I learned about faith. You can´t just decide to have faith randomly one day. You gotta start, like, YESTERDAY and develop it in the little things every day! That´s why positive attitudes are so important, because if we stay positive and SHOW our faith, God´ll give it to us! I know it! We gotta start practicing our faith now...and one day it´ll become UNSHAKABLE. I love you guys!! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Neal

Bunch of pictures! Ants buliding a home in our freakin sugar, The Elders had 3 baptisms and it was awesome (we helped them out) and 2 birthday parties. woo hooo!!