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

De Boa Na Lagoa

Hello everyone!! I hope everything is great at home because it's great here (in the lagoon haha) in our last week in the MTC!!  Were all excited and nervous for the field. I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks!  Our teacher the other day was telling us about what to expect and about all the large spiders...my favorite part!!

Which goes along with a great story about my comp who got scared by a spider that was probably one of the smallest spiders I've ever seen, but she flipped out and was like that is THE BIGGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! I cracked up and got it to crawl out the window. 

It was a great week for my comp. During breakfast one morning, one of the elders in our district dropped his smoothie and he went to go clean it up.  Meanwhile another elder came by to fill up his cup and then left.  His cup was still being filled, so my comp saw this from across the way and she didn't want it to overflow, so she sprinted across the cafeteria and totally slipped on the spilled smoothie from the other elder in our district.  I could not stop laughing and Elder Burningham the elder in our district had just gotten back from getting cleaning stuff to clean up the mess.  it was soo funny!!

I think I have broken my wrist trying to make that snapping noise with my hand in my efforts to be Brazilian, but on the plus side now I can make the noise... I don't know if that's my wrist just popping or if I actually got it to work. 

Saturday was an excellent day for proselyting!  My favorite people we talked to were the last two. Mike and Jennifer grew up in Sao Paulo.  They were so nice and so patient and just so grateful for the Book of Mormon that we shared with them.  We had a lot of time left, so we helped some newer elders figure out how to talk to people and who to talk to and after that they were having a great time.  They were like woah you guys are so good at it and we were like nah we just try our best and let the Lord take care of the rest!

I also got to give a talk in Portuguese to my branch this past Sunday.  It went wellish.  I don't know if anyone really understood it, but I tried my best hehe.  I also got a cold this week so I've been trying to lay low a little so I can get better before the field. 

The devotional this week was from President Grau. He talked about how we need to put on the full armor of God and that we all will still go through struggles, but happiness is a choice and we have to make it our choice!!  They also played that music clip of the little girl who sings Gethsemane and is so cute.  He told us to read D&C 103:36

The temple was great and I'm so going to miss going every p-day, but hopefully the Fortaleza temple will be built quickly!

Anyway, tha'ts about it for here in the MTC.  We got donuts with our teachers today and we leave at 3 am on Tuesday!!

I love you all!! Thanks for the emails!!

Write to you in probably a week and a half!!

Sister Neuberger

Alma 2   Alma 7:12  Mosiah 26:23

Do It For the Lunche

So this week was great. Nothing too exciting, but a great week nonetheless.  I'm mean we made it a month!!!!!

The weather has been amazing this week. It's been in the low 70s in the day and high 60s at night.  I actually have to use a blanket at night.

We have really stepped up our game in volleyball and I've been trying to learn different terms in Portuguese which has been tons of fun.  I also can tell I understand a lot more than I used to this week as we were doing divisions and the elders teaching us were talking really fast and my comp was like "I have no idea whats going on," and I got to explain what was happening. I mean I was still missing out on a lot of words, but I got the gist of everything!!!  Now speaking back in full sentences is a different story.

Our district has now become best friends with the Hispanic district and we trade lunche (snack) with them at the end of the night so if any of us are having a bad day we just say "do it for the lunche" because everyone is always excited about what we will get for lunche and its always delicious. Chocolate, fruit juice, and a muffin.  Also at lunch they had this amazing chocolate caramel sauce with a cookie thing it was AMAZING!! 

The mission president of one of the Sao Paulo missions knows the Neiferts so that was fun small world stuff.  Also the devotional was super good as well.  He spoke about how we need to act quickly on spiritual promptings because they are always of importance and you never know the affects they can have on others.  

Also at breakfast this week the Spaniards dared my comp to eat weird mixtures of food like hot dogs and chocolate it was hilarious.  We also found a triple banana in one and it looked sooo weird!!  We also had a water fight this week with the Spaniards after activity at the drinking fountain and somehow didn't get in trouble. Luckily it's all outside, so it all dried rather fast and I would like to say that I totally won the fight.  

Another great quote from Elder Ballard this week was to forget yourself and be filled with the love of God so we can be an instrument in his hands.  

Anyway that's it for the week.  Hope you all have a splendid week.  I love you all!!!  Thanks for the emails!!

Alma 26. 3-6  Mosiah 18

Sister Neuberger

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

I don’t even know where to begin this week was THE BESTEST!!!

So to start, we went proselyting in the busiest street in Sao Paulo and it was amazing!! We got to hand out six Books of Mormon and had some great experiences like the first guy we talked to was so excited about the bible and so excited to know there was something that goes with the bible.  Another one that I really liked was when we decided to talk to the guy standing next to us waiting to cross the street and we just started talking. He told us how his friend is Mormon and he was so excited when we gave him a book because he said he’s always has kind of wanted to know more.  So, that started the week off really well!!  Also, my comp is fabulous and because she knows Spanish her Portuguese is loads better than mine, so I would always start the conversation and when I couldn’t remember a word she was right there to pick up what I was saying. Sooo good!!

On Sunday a few points from the talks and devotional that I really liked were: we need to have patience, obedience, hope, and humility on our missions, we need to work hard= bring the spirit=teaching with the spirit=touching hearts=no homesickness because you’re focused on the work.  The best point though was Heavenly Father expects perseverance not perfection and it’s so true.  As long as we are doing all that we can to be like him, he will help us the rest of the way.  I have felt that so much this week in our lessons as I try to learn Portuguese and understand what people are saying and how I should respond. 

I also gave the Relief Society lesson this week and it went well.  I had lots of questions to ask the class and a lot of scriptures to discuss. And luckily some of the girls were big into story telling.  We talked a lot about baptism; 

We also had FHE as a floor that night, which was so good.  They talked about the iron rod and how we need to keep moving to get closer to the tree to partake of the fruit.  They even gave us the greatest marshmallows EVER!! They were rainbow and looked like little rods. Anyway, sadly those Brazilians that gave the lesson left this week, but they are going to be amazing in the field. 

My comp and I have been on fire this week with our lessons and listening to the spirit to know what to teach, especially in our member lesson because we kind of were prepared but not fully. But it went really well and you could feel the spirit as we taught. 

On the Tuesday devotional I really liked the point that we need to believe love it, live it and teach it;  harder the work the better the work and 18 months to serve a life time to remember. 

My comp reminds me a little of Gina, so we get along so well.  She’s from Arizona;  but she sadly is not going to my mission.

The Brazilians pronouncing my name are hilarious. They cannot do it.  My teacher just mumbles something that vaguely sounds like Neuberger.  We all get a kick out of it. 

Also, this week the dryers stopped working so we had to make forts out of our clothes to get them to dry which was quite fun! They also had fruit soup this week which is my favorite and it had mangos and kiwi in it!!  And the oatmeal had oatmeal in it all week!!,

I realized this week that Elder Hatch in my district is a mixture of Noah and Daniel Larson so it’s way funny every time he talks.  And it turns out Elder Taylor knows Noah from Sky Mountain.  SMALL WORLD!!

Some Spanish elders from Spain came this week and they told us about how they lived in the US for a while and how people always thought they were from the US till they talked and then they were like whaattt?? and they always thought it was hilariouus!

Lastly this week we played a lot of volleyball and last night I was on the guys’ team because my skills have improved a little. But not fully because at one point I got wrecked by the ball and Elder Taylor because neither of us called for the ball. But I was fine and he was fine and I just died of laughter. 

We also got our teacher off topic yesterday and he told us all about the cookies and corruption and culture in Brazil.  Oh, and my old teacher just got engaged!! We’re all excited for her.

Anyway, have a fabulous week!! Love you all!!

Sister Neuberger

Learning Japonese in Portuguese

This week the Brazilians learning Japanese started teaching us Japanese through Portuguese so we had to translate it to English so we could translate it back to Japanese.  IT was awesome!!!!

The biggest news of the week was that our district got split.  They realized how cool we were so they split us.  haha jk. They split us because 3 missionaries came from Provo,  so I now have a new comp and a new district with four other elders.  My new comp is way good at the language because she already knows Spanish, so I'm a little lost in lessons, but I'm praying everyday that I will understand everything that is happening.  Also you can tell the age of my new district. They are all fresh out of high school, so I feel a little old and miss Sister Wixeler who was also my age.  My new comp is kind of quiet, but super nice. We get along.

To finish up my last days with my old district someone found a ping pong ball and the guys started trying to get it into a cup with different cool tricks.  It was hilarious and I am going to miss my old district a lot. 

On Sunday I got to play the flute for Fast Sunday which was awesome. The flute was well worn but still worked great!!  Also, last week we went to the temple and it was beautful. I love going to the temple each week. If you live near a temple go as often as you can. It is such an amazing experience and the blessings are so great!!

Mr Cheney's cookies are delicious, but not as good as Mom's! (Mr. Cheney's is a shop across from the MTC that is well known to anyone who has been to the Brazil MTC)

This week was way stressful because we started TRC which is them recording our lessons so we can watch and discuss them later. We also started splits this week which I really liked. My comp was awesome and made sure I understood everything that was happening and our lessons went really well.  Then because of our district splitting, we had to teach two lessons to our teachers a day which is stressful because we don't have a lot of time and that's when I was like "I have no idea what is happening in our lesson," but as the day progressed it got better.  I also have to teach the Relief Society lesson this week which is stressful, but luckily it's in English!

In the middle of our lessons this week the back board hanging on the wall fell off and freaked our whole class out and then later the light fell from the ceiling and we were like "oh  my goodness the classroom knows were getting split." 

In devotional this week I really liked the how he said our faith grows when we are diligent in reading the scriptures.  We have to start our studies with prayer. Also in Elder Holland's talk he talked about how our trials are hard, but not as hard as the Savior's and that we all must walk through our own Gethsemane on the road to salvation. 

I met someone that lives somewhat close to STL!!! Best day EVER!! He lives in Edwardsville and though that's now super close he at least knew where Creve Coeur is and is a Cards fan, so that made my day!!

We went to the police on Thursday to get our passports checked and to get our finger prints scanned. It was a fun experience and the best part was when this little girl around 5 came over and asked me to color with her.  She taught me the colors of the rainbow in Portuguese. I loved it and am glad I'm in Brazil to teach the gospel.

Anyway we only get 45 minutes to email, so I have to go, but I love you all.  Have a superb week and I can't wait to talk to you all again real soon!!!  I love you all so much!!!!

Helaman 5:12  Alma 14-17

Sister Neuberger

Just Like Kindergarten

Hey everyone!! Wow it feels like months ago since I have seen or talked to any of you, but it's only been 11 days.  Anyway, the MTC is great! The food is delicious and Sister Hintze you're right. The oatmeal is way good.  I don't know what they do differently, but its scrumptious!! 

My district is awesome we all get along really well sometimes too well and we start getting off task, but we try our best to stay focused.  Our teachers are really patient and they think we are a hard working group so that's good.  My teachers don't know how to pronounce my name so by the end of the first day they started calling me Sister Neu, but now it goes back in forth between Sister Neu and something that kind of is like Neuberger.  I think it's hilarious.  I have two companions, Sister Clark and Sister Christensen.  They have a slight flare for the dramatics in different ways so it all works out.  Sister Clark is so good at Portuguese which is awesome for lessons when I don't know what our investigator is saying.  We all also have blue stickers on our tags so the teachers call us blunies instead of greenies.  Also, Carnival has been happening all week which is so loud at night cause we're close to the samba drum, but it's fun to hear the music of Brazil!

My district also thought my birthday was on the 29th of February because I said I was 5 at heart and so I just went with it and on Feb 29th they all wished me happy birthday.  I told them later on that day that it wasn't actually the 29th and they were like, wait, what, its not?  I had a good laugh at that.

On our first day I got to talk to some Brasileiros that had just come to the MTC too and I told them the few phrases that I knew in Portuguese and they were very impressed so shout out to Kyle and Dad for some Portuguese lessons.  I love learning a new language. I'm terrible at it right now, but I love it all the same. The other day in our lesson I did it all without writing down exactly what I was going to say and it went well!!  Then yesterday I didn't do as well and our investigator told me that she thought I was speaking gibberish, so that was a little blow to my confidence, but the rest of the day we pretty much had language study so I just focused on that.  Also, on our first day we talked to Sister Schneider one of the couple missionaries, and she told us about how the homesickness will come and be kind of there almost the whole mission, but we should not worry because the Lord would not send us here and get us all the way here and then leave us.  We are never alone because the Lord is always with us. 

The area Seventy came and spoke to us last Thursday and I loved the part where he told us to write a letter to ourselves for 20 years in the future saying what we will be doing and how our life is and then talk about what the gospel means to you now and he hopes that it will not change or only increase for joy in the gospel with time.  He also said to end everyday exhausted because then you know that you've done all that you possibly can.

We sat next to some elders the other day and one elder told us about how he's the only member in his family and that he hopes that through his mission his family will see how much the gospel means to him and want to get baptized.  I think it is awesome how diligent and hard working he is because of that mind set. 

On Sunday we got to speak in English almost the entire day which is awesome!!!  The president gave a great talk about how some missionaries work hard as any others, but don't all have the same success, but no matter what we should all work as hard as we can.  Even when its gets frustrating keep going we only have this opportunity once, so keep on keeping on.  One day at a time!!  God knows us and knows how to help us grow.  It won't be easy, but it will be worth it.  His wife said something I really liked too. She said pray ponder and obey.  We must pray to know what we need to do. Ponder the response and then obey, and blessings will come.  Angels are looking out for us and people are waiting for us to teach them.  We have been called so we must prepare so we can declare. 

Monday was a little harder for our district because it had been almost been a week since we had heard from back home, so one of the elders wrote a rap about how it's hard and we don't think we can go any farther, but we need to press on and the Lord is there helping us when we feel like we are going to fall.  There are ten people in my district including me.  Sister Magno who is one of the first Philippinos to serve in Brazil is super nice and just always puts a smile on my face and reminds me why we're here.  Sister Wixeler is so funny and she's as old as me, so we laugh about how young our district acts sometimes.  She's the only sister not going to the same area after the MTC. Sad day!  And then there's Elder Hatch who's super good at Portuguese.  Elder Burningham or as the brazilians call him Elder Bacon (Get it?).  Elder Pina who lived in Saudi Arabia, but is Philippino and has recently been living in Utah.  Elder Daniel who is from Washington and is super funny and Elder Nichols who is also super funny and reminds me exactly of Porter.  All three of us have the same sense of humor, so it makes class a lot more fun.  Elder Nichols also told us that his family has become inactive, but his brother still would not change the fact that he went on a mission and he hopes that through his mission that his family will feel the spirit again and want to come back to church. 

We got to hear a devotional from Elder Holland on Tuesday which was amazing!! Such a good end to the day.  One of the best things he said was that the mission will cost you everything, but the reward will give you everything.  Conversion of yourself before your investigators is so important. 

Anyways I love you all and hope all is well!!  Remember to pray ponder and obey and have a wonderful week!!!

Moroni 8.25-26

Sister Neuberger