June 26, 2016

Hola familia!

So this week has been a really good one, we have been really busy lately and lots of stuff has been going on. A couple of the highlights are the multi-zone zone conference that we had, President and Hermana Mcmullin finish their mission this week which means President Evans is almost here, and we ended up finding some really cool people this week. 

So this week we all got to go to Luque to the stake center there to hear our last Zone Conference from the Mcmullins. It turned out to be one of the coolest Conferences i've had in my whole mission so far. President Mcmullin has been one of the greatest examples i have had in my life, who has constantly helped push me to go way beyond what i thought were my limits when it comes to this work. I am grateful i had the opportunity to work alongside him for 5 months and learn every step of the way. Going to miss them for sure and hope the best for them. I'm excited to meet President Evans too, from what they shared about him it seems he will fit right in here. 

But about some of the people we are teaching..

One is named Silvina. After the Zone conference we got back to our area really late and just had enough time to go contact for a little bit. We found her our second contact of the day. She is mother of 2 daughters and is a really humble lady. We go up and clapped her house and she was like"come on in!" haha such a nice lady. turns out she had never talked to missionaries before and once we got inside and sat down and got to know her she told us a bunch about her life and what she has been going through. Her daughter almost died recently and she has suffered a lot in this life. Something that really catches my attention about her is that she has one of the hardest lives i have heard about but yet she has one of the most bright and happy personalities that i have seen. She believes a lot in god and always recites her prayers every day and night. We taught her about the restauracion of the gospel and the spirit was really strong. She accepted the invitation to follow Jesus Christ and to be Baptized. We ended the lesson with a prayer kneeling on her dirt floor and it was one of a kind. When we had just left the house the first thing me and my comp said, almost at the same exact time to each other, was "Man, did you feel that?". It was a one of a kind lesson for sure. Can't wait to go back on tuesday and see how it goes.

Next one is one that happened yesterday night. So sunday night were just walking around, the person we had planned to visit wasn't home so we just kept walking a little bit looking to contact some people. As we were walking we just hear this lady shout "Hermanos!!" haha so we look over and there is this big lady waving us down. So of course we go over there to talk to them and they invite us right in there yard to sit down. We got talking and the lady`s name is lidia that is like 45 years old with her sister and her old mom too sitting next to them. They wanted to know alot about the church and had tons of questions. They are passing through a ruff time too, none of them have work and they have kids to feed. Her brother got into drugs and stuff too and they have been suffering alot lately. The coolest part was when she asked us what time the meetings are in the church, i told her every sunday starting at 8:30 in the morning, then she just looks at her sister and her mom and was like "you good to go this next sunday?" they say yeah and then she looks back at me and was like "don't worry we will be there for sure". haha so i'm stoked to see if they show up! We taught lesson 3 about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all three of them Accepted to be Baptized.  Were going back tomorrow and bringing a member to our lesson that lives close by them. 

Last cool experience was yesterday after church got over we got a call from a guy named marcos we have taught once. He had tons of questions and was a pretty cool guy. He calls and on the phone he's like "where you guys at?! i'm looking and were you at?!" Kinda confused, i told him we were just by the church. and then he says he was just out walking by the river and he remembered that we said our house was over by the river so he gave us a call haha. I asked him if he wanted to meet up at the church so we could share a little bit with him and he said sure! So 5 min later we met up at the church and we gave him a tour of the place. Then we sat down and went over the Restauracion of the gospel and taught about the Book of Mormon. It went really great, i'm stoked to go back and see how he progresses.

But i'm out of time, hope you guys have an awesome week! love ya!

Elder Nyberg

Nate's Comp. Elder Starks 

June 6, 2016

 So i bet you guys are wanting to know what happened in changes............. yup i got changed! my week long vacation in Itaugua finally came to an end. Now I'm in a Little farm town called Piquete Cue. Right next to the Rio Paraguayo. And my comp is Elder Starks from a Little town in Utah. He just got out of his training so his spanish is still really iffy but he is a really great guy that likes to work. He really loves to learn too so I'm trying my best to teach him all the tips and tricks to the misión;) The área I'm in right now has about 1 investigador that they have taught, its literally a Brand new área that just got opened up so that means there is alot of work to do. My week consisted of pure contacting.... clapping house after house after house. It was kinda tiring but it was alright. I hope when i get through with this área the next people that get in here will actually have lots of people to teach.  Hope you have an awesome week this week!

Love ya!

Elder Nyberg

May 23, 2016

hey mom!

i have a suprise to tell you haha

President just called me last night and told me that i would be leaving

this morning to go to an area to be comps with Elder Hunter from Spanish Fork, Utah. 

The coolest part, besides i get two pdays in a row haha is I am in ITAUGUA

AGAIN!! back to the first place i came to when i got here in Paraguay!

May 30, 2016

Hola familia!

This week has been one of THEE coolest weeks so far in paraguay. To get to be in Itaugua for a week has been just a dream. It has been really fun to see all these people that helped me out so much back when i was starting the mission and couldn't speak a word of spanish haha. Besides seeing lots of great people that i haven't seen in forever, we worked really hard this week and i'm super stoked to start seeing how everything works out with the people we are finding and teaching.

So for one of the first days when i got here we were doing our nightly planning that we always do, and we decided to just see if i remembered any investigators houses that we taught while i was in my training. So for a couple citas in our agendas for the next day it said "Elder Nyberg`s memory" haha. Turns out i remembered a lot more than i thought i did. I don't know if you guys remember that one time i got chased by the guy with a machete? Yeah so we were actually teaching a lady named Veronica at that same house, I looked at the Teaching Record and it said that she was dropped by some other missionaries because she moved to Asuncion.  But i decided to go by and see if anyone was home anyway. We passed by and it turns out she moved back a little bit ago and we actually got to teach a little lesson with her. She had a couple doubts about the book of mormon but we left her with one and the invitation that Moroni gives us. Were going back this week and i guess we will see what happens.

Another cool experience is we were walking down in the Asentamiento(the poorest part of our area) and it was about 8:30 at night. Then as we were passing by this ghetto little bar place with drunk people all out front, this guy ran out to us to come talk to us. At first we thought it was some really drunk dude, but it turned out to be the opposite. His name is Daniel and he told us he has been waiting for the missionaries to pass by his house for a while now so he could talk with us. He is a really humble guy who has chosen lots of bad decisions in his past. Now it's coming down that he is about to lose his familia, and he really wants to change. It's so cool when you find someone that you can tell has pure desires to follow christ, and i could definitely see it in him. We talked about the Atonement and Repentance. It was a super cool lesson. He acepted to be Baptized and has a baptism date set for the 2nd of July.

There is a guy named Alex that we are teaching right now. Alex is a little different than any other investigator i have ever taught, just because we teach him in english! haha. i didn't think my english was that bad, but i am a lot more rusty than i thought i was. But Alex is a Paraguayan that just learned english by himself. He speaks it perfect too! he is a really cool guy, and really interested in the church. We have only taught him twice but he has been reading the Book of mormon and progressing really well. We have another cita for this thursday.

Bianca is a super cool contact we had, we talked with her and she didn't have time for us to share but my comp gave her the book of mormon and explained a little tiny bit about it before we planned to pass by another time and left. She wanted us to pass by when her husband was home so he could hear about us too, so we passed by yesterday when they told us and had a lesson with Bianca and her husband Rodrigo. They are young and just barely got married a year ago. One of the coolest parts though was we asked to see her book of mormon and if she had read any of it. She pulls it out and shows us that she is already in Mosiah! haha we then had a super cool lesson where we basically just answered ALL of her questions, she had TONS! It was super cool and they both accepted to be baptized. Were going back next sunday too, to have our next lesson. 

Im running out of time but this week has been one of the coolest. The mission is just the best.  Tomorrow are changes so i will know tomorrow if i am staying in Itaugua or if God wants me in another part of paraguay. But i love you guys so much! Hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Nyberg

May 21,2016 Office Picts.

May 14, 2016

Hola familia!

First off, It was super cool to get to see all of you guys on Sunday. And Roachy i hope you had the BEST mother's day! I don't know how you are able to put up with all of us, especially all living under the same roof haha but somehow you make it possible;) But really thanks for everything you do mom! This week has gone by pretty fast... the time is really flying by. Had some pretty cool things go down this week and some more awesome people we found to start teaching. I guess i'll get right into it!

This week we had a couple more lessons with the familia Quinde and familia Parodi. (the 2 cool familias that were teaching right now). So since sunday, The familia parodi were the only ones that were able to come to church but they seemed to love it so much. As for the familia Quinde, we were positive they were going to come but when they didn't show up we knew that something was wrong, so that night we decided to pass by their house to just see how they were doing and man i'm so glad we did. We came that night and found the whole familia except fernando(the dad) just super sick. The mom had dengue and was stuck in bed for 5 days. They always say it feels like your bones are breaking when you have dengue so i can just imagine just how painful it is. Then their three little kids all with bad fevers in bed too. We had a lesson one on one with fernando and man it was one of those moments in the mission that i'm never going to forget. This guy is one of the coolest father's i have ever seen. his day starts at 4 in the morning to go do manual labor for the whole day until 9 at night then he gets home to his little house to take care of his family. I could tell he was giving it everything he had to try and support his familia, he told us he didn't even have money to pay for any medicine to help his wife or children and he doesn't think he is going to be able to pay for his rent for his little house this month and how he feels like he is becoming a failure as a father. We had one of the coolest lessons and he asked us if we could give his family a special prayer or something to help. We taught about the Restoration and Priesthood blessings. We ended up giving his wife and kids blessings and i don't even know how to put all of this into words, but for sure one of the coolest experiences that i've ever had on my mission. 

As for the familia Parodi, we went over to their house a couple times this week and they could not just stop talking about how much they loved the church on sunday haha. It was super funny too, just while we were sitting by their house, two different people came up and Alfredo and Silvina were like ¨HEY! these are the guys i have been telling you all about!¨ (pointing at us). Needless to say one of those people was their niece Shirley, she is now an investigator and is reading the book of mormon and praying for her answer. And the other is an older lady named Carmen that lives next door, She has accepted to be Baptized and is also coming to church this Sunday. The Familia Parodi is one of the coolest, that's for sure. Already helping us with more references than lots of members and their not even baptized yet! But everything is coming along good.

The mission simply the best.

Elder Nyberg

May 7, 2016

Hola familia!

This past week has been one full of miracles, It has been really one of the coolest i have had in my mission. So many rad things going on where do i even begin haha. 

So here we go, one night last week we were all just getting ready to leave the office here in Asuncion and go out to start proselyting when we heard the bell go off for the front door. Since the office here is part of the church, We looked out and saw a whole family just chilling there. Two parents and 3 little kids. We opened the door expecting it to be a landlord of one of the missionarys houses or work related but they were just there to ask if they could know more about the church! We invited them to church this past Sunday, and what did you know they showed up! Both the parents and their 3 kids all dressed up in their Sunday best. They are a really interesting family, the dad is from Spain and he said he knew the church a little bit there and had a couple work friends that were members. The mom is from Paraguay and each of their little kids are from different countries because they travel all over. One from Spain, other Ecuador and finally Columbia. They are golden and are for sure going to progress towards baptism. So i thought that this was enough of a miracle after that happening to us and seeing them all in the church this past Sunday.... but no. God definitely works in the weirdest ways because he had way more in store for little Elder Nyberg haha. So sunday we set a cita that we are going to go by their house on Tuesday to teach them. On Tuesday we end up finding their house and just about when im about to clap the house, i recognize the man that is sitting in front of the house. It was a guy named victor that i taught back when i was in huguito. To give you some background if you don't remember, i was only in Huguito for 3 weeks until President called me to work with him in Asuncion. In those 3 weeks we taught Victor and he was golden! He came to church twice and then i got taken out of the area. One week later my comp got taken out of that area and Victor hasn't had the chance to talk to any missionaries since. So what does God do? It turns out that the dad of this new familia(Fernando) and Victor are working together in construction and Fernando told him that we were coming over to teach them that night and once victor heard he asked if he could join them. So we ended up having one of thee coolest lessons i've ever had in my mission with a whole familia and Victor. They all accepted to be baptized and committed to come to church this Sunday. I'm still stunned how crazy it is to see how God can lead someone who is really searching for the gospel, not only to the missionaries but to the same missionary that started teaching him in a whole different city in Paraguay! 

As for another miracle that happened this week, I found out about this one today when i went to go visit Junior and his family from my old area in Cocuere. Junior is doing great, he is still super active and loving the gospel. About 2 weeks ago he just baptized one of his friends that only speaks guarani. Junior had to translate every single one of the missionary lessons so his friend could understand the missionaries. I was so pumped to see this dude, he is already a better missionary than me! hahaha. But the miracle that happened today was i found out that his mom and his 3 brothers are all getting baptized in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, the same mother that threw me out of her house when i first found junior just because she saw that i am Missionary of Jesus Christ. Making us teach the lessons on the side of the street in front of their house. The same lady who banned Junior from stepping foot in the church for more than a month because she didn't want anything to do with us. She has been through drugs, alcohol and crazy trials in her life. It hit me like a brick wall today when i walked in their makeshift hut and i hear the church hymns playing in their hut with her just singing right along. Man i can't even express how great it felt today. If there is one thing i know, it is that the church is true, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. Im so grateful that God has given me the opportunity to get to know Junior and his family. And now they are one of the happiest families i have seen here in Paraguay. 

Well I'm running out of time but i hope you guys are all doing great and i’ll get to see you guys tomorrow for mother's day! Love you guys!

Elder Nyberg

Junior and his family