LOS CHILLOS: Missionary Work 1.25.16

HI FAMILY!!!  

un postre de maracuya

Ok so first off HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAIGE!!!!!!!!! I love you so much.  You have been the most faithful writer and i am so so so grateful for you!! I hope you had the best day EVER!!

Ok so we have still been finding lots and lots of families.  Most of them arent married which is so so frustrating because it makes their progress so slow!  But they have a lot of true intent so we are working with them and trying to help them in their progress to be baptized!  

We found this family that lived in Quevedo and they listened to the missionaries before.  So anyways ximena didnt come to church this sunday but Jose did!  He is her cousin....25 years old and so so prepared!  He said that before he didnt even want to listen to the missionaries.... but now he feels the need to change his life.  His experience at church was GREAT and he passed up a job offer to be able to attend.  I love to find those that are chosen!! 

This week we had interviews with President Christensen.  I feel so strongly that part of the reason that The Lord sent me to this mission was so that President Christensen could be my mission president.  He has helped me in so many ways. And i am so so grateful!

We have literally just been working so hard the last little while.  It is so satisfying to share the gospel with others!  I cant think of anything else in this world that brings me so much peace, contentment, and fufilment.  I love it!  My favorite hymn is Hark all ye nations.  I love it is spanish.  "listen nations and rejoice! Listen to the light of heaven! In this land the light of truth was restored!" I LOVE IT!! It makes way more sense in spanish but it has been my favorite song since i started my mission.  I think it always will be.  Our duty is to share this light and this truth with others.  Today on the way home from Quito i was contacting a man who had read a lot of false things about Joseph Smith.  He was not too excited to let me share what i know to be true.... and he wasnt exactly nice about it either.  But i tried to be kind but firm.  I asked him if he had had a spiritual confirmation that his church is true.  He couldnt respond so i took advantage to testify of Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon.  He promised that he would pray to know and apologized to me.  I gave him the biggest smile as i got off the bus. 

It is always interesting to me to think about the feelings i get as a missionary.  Sometimes it is so so hard to be patient with these people!  But i LOVE them.  And i LOVE TO SHARE THE GOSPEL!!!!  I cant think of anything so fufilling.  What a beautiful life.  We have been focusing a lot on repentance the last few days and i feel like we have been very directly calling people to repentance and we are seeing such changes in people!  I wish i could just tell you all everything that we see everyday.  But so many things happen i forget them all!  jajaja but the general feelings i have are feelings i just cant describe.  Sacred feelings that really just fill me up so big that i want to burst.  

I love you all so much.  I hope your week is filled with joy and love and The Spirit!! 

Hermana Neff 

 some flowers that were in my hair when i got home.  

 divisions!

LOS CHILLOS 1.18.16

HOLA FAMILY!!  

Ok so this week was a week full of ups and downs!  I truly wish that i could share with you guys the many wonderful experiences that i experience daily.  I have been learning so much that the spirit IS the greatest tool that we have here in missionary work.  I feel like he is constantly guiding me.  There are times when i have to make decisions based on logic, but the spirit always affirms to me that it was the right thing to do.  I love kneeling down at night in my nightly prayers with my heart full of peace and warmth.  Nights in the mission are my favorite... because at the end of the day i love the feeling of fufillment that The Lord gives me.  I find myself thanking Him every day for the mission and the wonderful experience that it is for me.  I feel like i will never truly be able to thank Him enough.  

So we are teaching 3 families right now that are married and very interested in the gospel.  They are all catholic... and wanting to be baptized, but not if it means leaving behind their religion. They all came to church this week so that was great! But there is a lot of work ahead with them. Anyways we have just had some great lessons filled with the spirit and seen such wonderful changes beginning in them.  I think the most frustrating part of missionary work is when people feel peace and feel that the things we are teaching them are true.... but they arent willing to act on the feelings and answers that they recieve.  Sometimes it is heart-breaking, but as missionaries we have to accept their agency (that is, after we have done literally EVERYTHING to get them to change and after The Lord has done all as well)  Sometimes they just wont change.  We do our best to help them! It is such a blessing though to see that when the truths of the gospel ring true to them, their eyes change and they always feel it.  I pray every day that every person i have taught the restoration to in my mission will remember it forever and always remember what they have felt.

We have been getting rained on quite a bit but we are enjoying.  Gotta love missions!!

LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK.  

hermana neff 

LOS CHILLOS: The Spirit 1.11.16

HOLA MI QUERIDA FAMILIA QUE TAL

Ok so this week was a hard and a GREAT week!!  It rained almost everyday and we had some days where we were soaked.  We have been contacting lately and have found 5 less actives that the ward didnt even know existed and now we are teaching their non-member family members!  

We are seeing so many miracles.  I know i dont share too many experiences, but we see miracles everyday.  For example, yesterday we were going to visit some less actives and we got lost.  Which is SO UNLIKE US!! It was a little dark and we had some unpleasant run ins with some rather large dogs, but we finally found out way to a safe street.  Then my companion says, "we are lost.  it must be for something."   So we kept walking and two minutes later this HUGE black guy was like "hermanitas are you going to a cita right now?"  We stopped to talk to him and it turns out that he is a less active that wants to come back to church with his non-member wife.  That is just an example of the types of things that happen to us EVERY DAY!!! 

Earlier this week we found a family who had just had a death and we were able to testify of the truths of the restoration and that families are forever.  I love love love being a missionary!  My favorite part is just finding a new person or family and being able to share the restoration of the gospel of jesus christ.  And watching them feel something and change.  Of course they dont all progress... many do, but many dont.  But the best thing is just being able to testify.  I love the gospel!  

Anyways i hope that you are all doing so well.  This week we had an investigator drop us because she said that she saw an angel that showed her that the catholic church is true.  yay.  Luckily The Lord is blessing us with so many other people.  We said goodbye to her and left off on great terms and made her promise to recieve the missionaries again some day!  I know she will!! 

This week i have been feeling grateful for the spirit.  I feel like i am feeling it and recognizing it more lately than i have my whole mission and i am in heaven.  We are nothing in this work without the spirit.  

Transfers were yesterday and i am staying with Hermana McGill here in Los Chillos!  thrilled.  

Love you all SO SO MUCH!! 

Have a wonderful week!! 

Hermana Neff 

mom we made the gingerbread house!! So fun and sooo cute and soo yummy.  in case you were wondering what our companionship is like... this picture explains it 

 love love LOVE hermana pingree!

our less actives that are progressing  jajajaj i love them 

So fun to do divisions with hermana maldonado again!! 

the dog of a family that we are teaching that is identical to maisy 

the plan of salvation

 Los Chillos before a storm 

LOS CHILLOS 1.4.16

I HAVE NO TIME TODAY!!! I am so sorry i will try to make it good, and quick.  We had a lot to do in the mission offices today so we got back kinda late.  But first off,   I SAW HERMANA PINGREE!!!

 AHHHH IT WAS LITERALLY THE HAPPIEST REUNION OF MY LIFE!!!!  She is so so good and so so cute and i can tell is SUCH a wonderful missionary!  Tell her family just how wonderful and consecrated she is as a missionary.  She is doing such great things down here in Ecuador!  We LOVE this country!

Anyways this week was a little frustrating because people go CRAZY here for the Holidays!  And we couldnt even leave the house because it was unsafe the 31st.  So i set goals.  I will be honest.  I shed some tears for 2015.  One of the best years of my life.  I feel so grateful that i was able to be a missionary in this time.  I loved loved loved this special year in my life.  Mostly for everything that it has taught me, and my heart aches thinking that this year is over.  BUT, i am ready for a happy and wonderful new year.  2016!! It will be great i just know it!  

This week we had some wonderful very spiritual lessons.  I love the spirit!  This work is really impossible without him.  

I love you all so much.  I hope that this year may be a year full of spiritual growth and joy found through living the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Hermana Neff 

LOS CHILLOS 12.28.15

HOLA MIS QUERIDOS!!! 

It was so so fun to talk to you all this week.  Merry Christmas!  I. love. Christmas. in. the. mission. 

We had so many family nights and dinners with so many members that made our Christmas GREAT.  The Christmas miracle was that an eternal investigator FINALLY got her divorce papers and is getting married and baptized next month!  We suggested to her a fast and they whole family did it!  And on the 25th of December the divorcement papers came out.  yay!!!!

Really i have loved just sharing the gospel this Christmas.  My companion said to me that this Christmas is special, because we have spent the whole year remembering and serving our Savior.  I think that is so true.  We had so many special companionship studies this week just talking and remembering the Savior.  I honestly feel that this Christmas this year in the mission has not been a sacrifice for me.  Not in the slightest.  Last year i felt like i was sacrificing so much to be here.  And now i feel that it is the greatest blessing to be here at this time.  I love the mission so much.  It is such a joy to share the gospel everyday and feel the spirit all the time!  

We are finding so many people to teach and we have a lot of people that are progressing!  I LOVE this sector!  It has been so fun to just work as hard as always, but to see so many fruits from it. 

I have been thinking about Helaman 14 this week.  About the signs in America when Christ was born.  It is such a testimony to me that The Lord loves ALL His children.  In ALL the world.  I think of the people that lived here in the Americas and how they had so much faith.  They had never seen nor heard Christ.  Many saw the signs of His birth, yet they lost faith that He truly lived.  Yet, there were many who had believed even long before they saw the signs.  And their faith was unwavering.  I LOVE that story!  I love the image of a night without darkness.  .  The birth of the Savior allowed light to fill the world, that light has filled my heart.  I love to share it with others.   Then to think of the contrast, of His death, that there was NO light.  Without the Savior there is no light.  There cannot be light nor hope nor peace.  I have felt this week that one of the greatest gifts The Savior can give us is the gift of peace.  I have learned to CLING CONSTANTLY to that peace.  

I love you all so so much.  Keep on sharing the light of the Savior.  I know He lives!!

Hermana Neff 

latina selfies

Hi Family!

I have no time this week!  

HAVE A GREAT GREAT CHRISTMAS!!!  I love you all so much.  I hope that we may all remember our Savior this Christmas season and always. I wouldnt want to be celebrating anywhere else. I know He lives.  I love Him.  I love to serve Him.  

Hermana Neff