Joy!!!

8/28/2017

I always have more that I want to say and never have enough time, but anyway this week we had zone conference.  It was like a second p-day, but better because it was just a spiritual feast the whole day.  We had lunch with the President and lots of practicas and they even had me play the piano which was rough cause my bass clef skills are rough, but we got through the song hehe.  We also won cleanest casa which isn’t hard when you're in a zone with all elders haha.  Oh and we also now have a functioning microwave and laundry machine. 

Yesterday I was teaming with Kelsa, one of the youth in the ward, and was so excited by it.

Funny thing in Brasil, there can be a billion motorcycles and a few cars and then every so often you’ll see people on horse back just going down the street or have their horse and wagon its great!  We also the other week got to ride in the back of a members truck it was way fun!

Oh and also we almost got hit by a firework that went the wrong way.  It reminded me of Andrew Bailey seting of fireworks that all seemed to go into the neighbor's yard.  I don’t remember who’s reception it was I just remember the fireworks haha

Our new apartment

This week we had 9 investigators at sacrament, but half of them left half way through church because they had other commitments in the evening which was sad. Hopefully we can teach them more this week and they’ll hopefully be ready to stay all the way through church and understand the importance of all three hours.  Which with all of this it made me think of a few scriptures I read this week while trying to get down the plan of salvation in  Portuguese, so it doesn’t sound so sporadic and disjoint.  Anyway in 2 Nephi 2:25 it talks about how Adam fell that men might be and have joy!!It was literally part of the plan for Adam to fall so that we can know joy.  Heavenly Father thought of everything, so we could come down to earth and experience everything, but most importantly have joy!!  And we can have so much more joy when we choose the right.  But Heavenly Father wanted us to be able to choose so we were all given agency (2 Nephi 2:27) which is awesome. We get to choose and make choices and grow and improve and strive to do what is right so we can feel joy all the time.  Heavenly Father loves us so much that he let us choose to even be here on the Earth to exercise our agency.  We all have opportunity to choose just like our investigators yesterday, and just like Adam and Eve hopefully partaking of the fruit of knowledge so hopefully we all strive to choose the right so we can feel the joy that life can bring!

Have a fantastic week feeling the joy in each day!  Oh and if you want to send me a letter that would definitely be appreciated!! 

Sister Neuberger

Brasil Fortaleza East Mission

Rua Rebublica Da Aremenia, 765

Agua Fria

60821-760 Fortaleza CE Brasil

Liken Them Unto Ourselves

8/21/2017

Well the most exciting news this week was as we were about to teach this lady sitting on the ledge of the side walk, all of a sudden all of these police cars showed up and first I was like, "Oh no, I look suspicious and am getting deported, but that wasn't the case as the police all ran past us into the house next to us for what I assume was a drug bust.  So we decided to get out of the way and head to a different street.  

We had the baptism of Edimilson after it being on and then off and then on again because his sister got sick and he had to take her to the hospital.  We didn’t think it was going to happen, but he was like, "No, I want to get baptized today." So it happened.  He's amazing and loves the spirit the gospel brings. 

Not much happened this week.  I got to play futsal of sorts with the kids of Isabel's which was way fun!!! And we also got pizza this week from the stake president and from the members as a welcome to your new home gift cause we moved houses this week. 

I read in 1 Nephi this week and I really like 1 Nephi 19:23 that says to liken the scriptures unto ourselves which is so important to be able to get all the wisdom and knowledge that we can from them! I love the scriptures and know that they are our road maps home!  and so much of the stories of old can be seen in our day.

I love you all sooo much!!! And hope you all are having a splendid end to summer!!! And are ready for fall!

Sister Neuberger

What! You Speak English?

I got to speak in English!!!  Also, Happy Father’s day or at least for Brasil!!

Anyway, back to why I spoke English. Two Europeans came traveling through (well, came to see a member they know in our ward).  And it made the day even better!!!  Everyone was going up to them after Sacrament Meeting to meet them and then their friend Eder was like, “Oh, they don’t speak Portuguese.” So, everyone was asking me how to say welcome and everything else At first I didn’t believe it, but then they started talking with their super cool accents and I was like, “Yep, you’re from Europe!  The girl was from The Netherlands and the guy was from London, but they all met in Dubai a few years ago.  Anyway, I got to translate in the next two classes and they were like, “Woah! How long have you been here? You understand so much!” And I was like, “Well, I’ve been in Fortaleza for 5 months today, but I’ve been in Brasil for 6 months.” and then I was like, “Woah, I hit my 6 month mark!!!”  They were super cool and both have been traveling these past couple months and are headed home soon, but just wanted to meet up with Eder before they went home.  It was so nice/difficult to speak in English, but I liked it. I got to bear my testimony to them about the gospel and why I’m serving and even though it’s been hard at times I know that in the end its worth it because bringing others unto Christ and helping them feel the love that Heavenly Father has for them and the joy that they can have in their lives is totally worth it.

Which also made me think about how last year at this time I was with my family gathered around the TV watching Michael Phelps go at it again one last time to break records and be awesome; and how a year from now I’ll be headed home. It’s crazy how fast time can fly, but that’s not what I want to talk about.  I want to talk about how we all have those different struggles and moments when we just don’t think we’ll make it or just want to throw in the towel because it doesn’t seem worth it; like Olympians they all have dedicated their lives to the sports that they play and it’s so hard to become that great and to keep working though the tough times, but they don’t quit. They keep going because they have their eyes set on the future and the bigger picture.  I think a lot of times we focus on the here and now, but that’s when we need to take a step back and look at the big picture; what we’re working for and to look back and see how far we’ve come.  I love love love the quote from Elder Holland that says, “Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”  I love this quote. There is so much hope and happiness ahead for all of us if we just trust in the lord and lean on him and he will help us through. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be hard. It will be, but though that pain and suffering we gain so much more appreciation for the final success!! Which also makes me think of Moroni 7:33. He has asked us to do many things, but if we trust in him and have faith he will help us through.  We are never alone he loves us and wants us all to be happy.

I got to teach the plan of salvation this week which is my favorite lesson, but also the most difficult for me to teach because I’m still learning Portuguese. I sometimes get lost in my words, but I still got to bare my testimony at the end that I know it to be true and that we all can have never ending happiness with our families and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ forever as we follow their teachings and choose the right!! After all, it’s called also the plan of salvation!!!  I think it’s in Mosiah 2 at the end where it talks about how much happiness we will have here after and how wonderful that will be!!  I love it soo much and I know it to be true!!

Anyway, that’s all the time I have this week, but I love you guys sooo much and miss you all!!! Thanks for the emails!!! Have an amazing week!!!

Sister Neuberger

Neuberger Style

So this week I decided to be a Neuberger and when I saw a sale on ice cream I decided to not just get one container, but two because when their $3 why not?  My comp thought I was insane to get that much ice cream, but she doesn’t know the Neuberger family and how much we love ice cream/how much ice cream we can eat.  Ice cream is a little different here because when it melts it's no longer like melted ice cream or like a milk shake. The liquid seems more watery. I don’t know how to describe it. 

Sacrament this week was amazing. We had 7 investigators there, but in the beginning we didn’t think anyone was going to show up. This especially scared us because Saturday night Ana got baptized (which I'm so excited about because she's awesome and now her daughter whose 7 can't wait to get baptized) and in sacrament meeting she was going to have the blessing of receiving the Holy Ghost, but they still hadn’t arrived 10 minutes into sacrament meeting. So we were so sad about that and plus our other investigator who was suppose to get baptized after church hadn’t showed up either. So we were really sad and stressed, but then right before the passing of the sacrament, in came not only Ana and her family, but Roberto and his brother and his parents!!!!  His parents aren’t members and haven’t ever really been excited about the church. Davi the brother is a member. Anyway they all came!!   Ana was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and then after church Davi baptized Roberto and woah the light of the gospel grew even more in Davi’s eyes. He was in tears after the baptism and couldn’t thank us enough for teaching his brother and then allowing him to baptize his brother.  And the parents were actually excited about the baptism and stayed and talked to other members in the ward for a long time after the baptism.  So great week all and all! 

I love the gospel so much. And I love how much as we bare our testimonies and do the small things like read or scriptures, pray, go to church, we can see that these things aren’t so small, but large in size because they are the things that make us strong in the gospel and in our lives.

I gave the lesson for Family Home Evening this week and though it was hard to understand for the majority of people (and I still really struggle with asking questions so it was rough), but by the end I got a discussion going about the topic which was overcoming our trials of faith and how Heavenly Father is always there to help us overcome. Anyway, we had people baring testimony about the love of God by the end. It was great, although it had nothing to do with me or me helping because they couldn't really understand me, but the Spirit was still there. Although it's still really hard for me to see the reason I'm struggling sooo much with the language, but every time I get to pray I feel strength and peace.  I know it's true.  I hope can be more fluent by the end, but I guess if I can at least show that I love people and really want to help in whatever way possible, that's, but I'm still really working to get the gift of tongues.

Have a fantabulous week!

Sister Neuberger

2 Nephi 26:25

Panalada

Finally got Mom's box

So this week I ate Panalada which for those of you who don’t know what that is, it's basically all the parts of an ox that you would think you shouldn’t eat like the fat, the skin, the hair, everything, but I kindly ate it because Irma Doce was so excited to cook it for us. But let's just say it didn’t taste great the first time and the second time was not much better.  Hehehe  Luckily the members are awesome here and were willing to help.  They gave me medicine and more food which I didn’t really want, but ate anyway.

Avenue of Things Missed

Ana and her family of two little girls and Isabel and her two little girls all came to church again yesterday and they are really loving it both the children and the adults which is awesome!  The little girls which are 4 don’t love the walk back home, but they love primary. 

We also had splits this week and woah we talked to so many people or at least I tried and then Sister Santos would translate. Later she very politely told me that my Portuguese was not good and that I needed to work harder because I've almost been here for 6 months.  So definitely going to work harder because I want to be fluent so very badly. 

On the plus side this week, we were visiting a recent convert and when we walked in he was watching "How I Met Your Mother" which made for great conversation about TV shows and Netflix and got me talking a lot. Now Caulaun wants an English Portuguese dictionary so he can learn English so he can watch the shows in English. 

We also had pancakes this week at Irma Geisa's casa!! So good!! Best day ever!!

My comp and I are staying here for the next 6 weeks.  I'm glad I don’t have to say goodbye to the Nilsons just yet or Joici or anyone else in the ward because they're awesome! 

I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese (well half Portuguese) this week!! And I know that it is true that it is written for us for our day and that it will give us revalation for our day and answer any and all of our questions!  Just like in the last chapter in Moroni says if we read it and ask in faith we can know that it is true. 

Have a spectacular week!!!! Love you all!!!!

Sister Neuberger

2 Nephi 26:25

PS Photos added to the last couple of posts. Like chicken pox pics. Go back and check them out.