March 12, 2016

Hola familia!

Well this week was a pretty crazy one that's for sure. It was transfer week and again being in charge of moving around 200+ missionaries is not the easiest task. I really do like being here in Asuncion though with the other elders that work with me, somehow we always find ways to make it fun with as much work there is to do around here. As you might remember, this week was much like the last months transfers. A week full of deadlines, no-sleep, airport trips and planning trips for lots of taxis and collectivo buses haha.  But lets see if i can remember some of the highlights.

I think first off, this week i got surprised by a phone call when i was waiting at the airport to pick up the new missionaries. It was Lisandro from Cocuere and it was super cool to be able to talk with him again! I think the coolest part was when he called he was super excited to tell me he just got ordained to be an Elder and have the Melchizedek Priesthood. He told me he is planning on leaving the day he hits one year of being a member for a mission. September 26th will be a year from his baptism and he is beyond pumped to get out to the mission field. You bet that just about made my whole entire week haha i can't even describe what it feels like to have heard those words from him. 

I don't know if you guys remember the familia Monzón from cocuere, But they are one of the most solid member families in this world. The dad is the 1st counselor to President Mcmullin for our mission. His son is in our mission too and the whole family are just some of the coolest people. Anyway since i've left Cocuere, Presidente Monzón had a couple heart attacks and he is not doing so good. He was hooked up to oxygen and has lost tons of weight from having heart problems. This week he was getting ready to have heart surgery and since his hospital is in my area a member here went to take us to say hi and hopefully cheer him up a bit. Man i wish you guys could be here to just meet this guy, He is such a stud of a guy and has been a perfect example for me. We got to visit the hospital and when we got there his room was packed full of people, like tons of some of the first members of the church ever here in Paraguay. It was so cool to be all around them, but what really surprised me is he chose me to give him a blessing. It was a really special experience for sure. Man i wish you guys were here, someday you'll have to come meet some of these people down here and get to know them like i do. I love paraguay so much.

Thanks for all the emails, Love you guys so much! have a great week!

Elder Nyberg

Visit to Cocuere & Elder Bednar

Hola familia!

 

This week has been really great! Lots of work as always but one of my favorite weeks for sure. There were just a ton of fun things going on this week and i definitely learned a lot too. I think ill just go over a few cool things that went down this week. 

I cant remember if i talked a little about this last week but remember that convert lady who just moved into our ward here? So we have been going over there to teach and she has the coolest family ever! Every time we go it is so much fun, mostly because the whole family are from Brazil and only moved like 6 months ago. Which means the Recent convert (hermana Val we call her cuz her name in portuguese is too hard to say) speaks only portuguese mixed with bits and pieces of spanish. Her husband is super cool but he only speaks portuguese haha so basically we just wing it when we teach them and it always turns out super cool. It's been really fun to be with them and keep helping them out, and i'm hoping i pick up a bit of portuguese while i'm at it too;) haha. Spanish and portuguese are really similar so atleast its a bit easier trying to learn haha. 

Since i work here in asuncion, i get to see a lot more missionaries. There are always missionaries coming and going, and i learned a couple cool things this past week from some other missionaries. I don't know if you guys remember a guy named Richard that i was teaching when i was in Huguito? He is 18 and is going to college. me and my comp in huguito found him contacting one day and we only got to teach 2 lessons before i had special changes to Asuncion. But an Elder let me know this week that last saturday was his baptism! Cool huh? I don't know if you guys remember Armando from when i was in Cocuere, san Lorenzo too? anyways the elders let me know that since we found him he hasn't missed a sunday since! Its super cool how word gets through all the missionaries of the people we have taught and the people we continue teaching. 

But i think the highlight of the week was by far a special broadcast from Elder Bednar. It was just to our mission, and two others in Argentina. It was probably one of the most spiritual experiences that i have had on my mission so far. The first thing he did when he got up to speak was ask us to get out a pen and paper to write notes on, but then he told us straight up not to write anything he said or what any speaker said. You could tell everyone kinda got a little confused haha. But what he said is so TRUE. Today in the church you always see everyone talking all these big notes on every word the speaker says. Now be honest, where do all these notes we take end up? we usually hold on to them for a bit, but as time goes on they always get lost or we forget what the speaker talked about. But the one thing we can never forget is the holy ghost touching our hearts. He talked about the big plates and the small plates of the Book of Mormon. The big plates were written to contain the historical text of what was happening with the people, But the small plates contained the majority of inspired words and prophecy given to the prophets. So then Elder Bednar proceeded to invite us to ¨Write on small plates.¨ To write down what the holy ghost testified to our hearts while we were listening to him and others speak. I can tell you at the end my notebook wasn't filled up all the way with notes, but the few notes i had at the end of that meeting, i will never forget. I am trying to think how to even begin trying to explain what i felt during that meeting, and im not sure it can even be put into words. But i will sum it up by one line that can be found in my notebook, ¨Elder Bednar es un apostol de Dios¨. I know that Elder Bednar is an Apostle of God, and I have not the smallest doubt about it. And its not because my parents told me he is, or other missionaries told me, or some friends, its because the Holy Ghost testified to my heart this truth, and as Elder Bednar said, This is something that i will never forget. 

The time i have to write you guys never seems like enough haha, i can't wait to get back and tell you about all the crazy stories i have that i just didn't have the time to write down. But i love you guys so much! and i hope you have the best week coming up!

Elder Nyberg

p.s got to visit junior and lisandro today. ill try to drop a pic below. they are both doing great, haven't missed a sunday since i left the area.