Cross That One Off the Bucket List

Happy Easter!!  Hope everyone's Easter was splendid! Oh and happy birthday to Daniel and Savannah!!

I read this week in a very old Ensign about the olive tree being compared to Christ.  It said that it's a symbol of peace and it provides heat, light, lumber, ointment.  It is always green and always grows back just like Christ was resurrected.  Jesus came to the base of the mount of olives in Gethsemane.  Gethsemane means gath=press and shemen=oil.  Olives are pressed under great weight to squeeze precious oil from them like Christ in Gethsemane who was pressed under the weight of all the worlds sins.  I hope last week especially, but every week we remember all that Christ has done for us and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can do all things.  He is there for us in all our needs. 

In other news this week Gilia, a new investigator, seems to be excited about the lessons we are teaching her.  Sadly Carol is slowly becoming disinterested, but were hoping that we can change that this week.  Eduardo came to church this week!  He's such a happy old man and always talks to me, but i just smile and say, "Sim (yes)" because I don't totally know what he's saying at all. Hehehe

We also ate something that was kind of like tiki marsala without the spice and it was delicious!!  At another lunch we had ice cream!! And then that same day we ate like 4 more times because all the houses we went to were like, "You look hungry. Have some food." And we were like, "No, we're really good actually." But okay, so we had everything from ice cream to a peanut butter-type thing to hot chocolate. 

I have crossed crossing the highway on foot off my bucket list this week as we seem to do it several times a week because I guess the bridge is too far so it's faster. And it really gets the adrenaline going.  Which is good and bad because once the adrenaline stops and we keep walking I get a little sleepy in the next lesson and this last week I actually fell asleep in the lesson and everyone just laughed and then they fed us to wake me up. haha. 😋

It rained a lot this week which is a huge blessing because it is so ridiculously hot.  One day it was sunny when we went out and half way through the day the clouds rolled in and it poured and I was not ready for it in my white skirt. but it was all good. We were just a little soaked, but a member let us in and we got to teach them. 

I love you,

Sister Neuberger

  

Tchau Tchau English

Well this week has just been a roller coaster of emotions as I hear most peoples' first couple of weeks in the field are.  Luckily we had general conference last week which was a huge blessing because that made my whole district so excited for the field and everything we get to do here.  I really liked 

Bonnie Cordon: when you feel weak serve.  Trust and know all will be well.

We have to make great sacrifices to earn a great reward. – Burton

Humble yourself and your weaknesses will be strengthened. Charity never faileth.  We are not perfect, but the gospel is.-Yoon Choi

Act on promptings- Rasband

Have faith, hope trust all will be well stand firm in trails of faith. – Clayton

Change fear into faith, move with faith and try try again. Trust in him – Uchtdorf

Faith can forgive sin, give salvation, strengthen, and answer our prayers.

Families are so important to the plan –Eyring

Put your trust in Christ –Soares

Be all in in following the Savior –Sabin

Never loose the language of the gospel -Cordon

Be interwoven with Christ like attributes -Hales

You are unique and irreplaceable- Holland

God will help you become all that you can be.  Make goals-Ballard

So many great themes and sayings and definitely need as we headed into the field because we need to fully trust Heavenly Father that all will be well. 

For our last day in the MTC we just had workshops all day to get us ready.  Our district also got to sing at the devotional which was awesome!! Then we all said our goodbyes. The sisters all sing to you on your last day and then we all say our goodbyes and wish everyone a great mission.  There's five of us going to Fortaleza Leste.  The flight is 4 hours.  The others went to Fortaleza Rio Londrina, and Portalegre.  

I miss everyone so much, but also I miss English so much.  As we arrived in the mission home they started training us and then we had dinner with our mission president and a testimony meeting and him and his daughter sang "Mountains Move Just to Let Him Through" to us and it was so peaceful and the spirit was so strong.  The next day is when we found out who or companion is for the next 12 weeks and where we will be serving.  My companion is Sister Kubiak.  She's 24 and has 2 and half months left in the mission and shes nice and very patient which hopefully she can continually be because I know it probably is driving her nuts that I hardly understand anything she says, let alone her understanding me. But nonetheless we are both trying.  She had me start our first lesson of the day out in the field the following day after our training day and saying goodbye to everyone.  No more English, but hopefully now I'll learn the language faster and be able to talk to her more as the weeks progress.  Anyway we went a member's house for lunch and then she was like okay and Sister Neuberger has the thought for us today and I was like hehehe okay here we go.  It went wellis. I tried my best and the members were kind in helping me believe that I was making correct sentences hehe.  

Its very hot here and humid like Missouri in the middle of July on a really hot day, but everyday is like that.  If you aren’t sweating buckets by the end of the first block there is something wrong.  We also live about 20 minutes away from Fortaleza or the mission house.  We've really tried hard in helping Maria a long time investigator to understand tithing because she doesn’t quiet understand why she needs to pay tithing .  We also got to attend one of the other sisters in our districts baptism of  a recent convert.  And then the next day Elder Taylor got to baptize one of the boys in our ward who just turned 8.  How cool is that his first week and he got to perform a baptism.  In our ward its us and then Elder Taylor and Elder Xavier as the other missionaries.  Oh and one of the members where  we had lunch with this week knows Josyln  Bunderson from their mission so that was way cool and made me feel a little more at home.  They also had really good flan.  We eat a lot of noodles, chicken and potato salad and juice of course.  We also try to talk to everyone on the street, but it doesn’t always workout.  People are rather nice so they will listen but not totally be interested.  I also feel bad cause I'll say a little bit in our lessons, but my comp says the majority cause my vocabulary is so small and most people after I talk say they don’t understand so she has to explain it again.  Anyway the work is hard or at least the adjustment is hard, but I know with time as I learn more words it will get easier and ill be more comfortable and understand more.  One day at a time!  I love you all and thank you so much for your love and your emails they are of great help!!

Love,

Sister Neuberger

Alma 17;13  Matthew 21;21-22