Temple Trip

Hola familia!

This week went by soooo fast! I feel like I was just here typing you guys like yesterday...it doesn't even feel close to a week! But this week was a really great one, the temple trip was much needed and was such a refresher. Changes are tomorrow too..... so hope for the best! in 2 days I could be sleeping out in a little hut in the chaco, or waking up to a massive city full of people in asuncion. Fun stuff! (yeah im just a little nervous;) 

Sooo temple! We left last monday and traveled for around 8 or so hours to arrive in Asuncion! We got to sleep in the hotel that's next to the temple and ohhh myyy..... I felt like I was back in the states! I had a real bed and a real mirror! We had HOT showers! I think the thing that shocked me the most was seeing one of those water knobs that has hot on one side and cold on the other like we could actually pick the tempature of the water!!! I think the only thing that was missing was a carpet floor and I would have been in heaven haha. But we woke up the next morning and got to go though one session with the mission president. This temple trip was exactly what I needed. Exactly. The spirit that you can feel in the temple is unlike anywhere else. It was really cool because the last time I went though in the CCM I couldn't understand a word of spanish. This time being able to understand it all in spanish was a really cool feeling. When I walked into the temple I was really stressed from things going on in my area, really tired and losing some of my desire to keep going strong and just completely exausted. I usually dont tell you guys really how hard it can be sometimes being in a city where no one wants to listen, it has really felt like everyone in this city vs me and my comp. Just this week alone I had one investagator burn the Book of Mormon, another got all up in my face yelling at me that I'm Satan only sent here to decieve the people and how ashamed I should be. Its been constant things like these that have made it really hard for us to keep going no matter what.  After the session when I walked out of the temple I felt like everything was okay, I felt full of not only love for these people but a real desire to give it everything I have and more. Si o si strengthened my testimony of temples and how they are really the house of the Lord on the earth. Then we got to go into the chapel next to the temple and have a testimony meeting with all of the missionarys in my zone. So cool to be able to hear the testimonys of all the different missionarys that are working hard right with us out here. If there was one thing that I took with me from the temple it would be a better vision, a vision that I work everyday as hard as I can so that the people God has prepared for us can one day enter into that same temple and feel the same love that God has for everyone of us that I got to feel this day. No matter how many people want to throw things at us, spit on us or completely reject us. If the work I do in this city will bring one person to the joy and happiness that I could feel in the temple everything I have done will be worth it. Everything. 

I hope you guys are all doing great back home!

Love you guys TONS!

Elder Nyberg

P.s I didnt have any time to eat my Burger King hamburger- haha but I did get to eat some Ice cream!!:)

"Little Seed"

¡Hola familia!

Hope all you guys had a great week this past week. Mine was a long one but it was a pretty good. Me and my comp are killin it out here haha everyday is si o si an adventure and its the best. A part of me feels like its been forever since I've been gone but time is going by way fast too. the mission is crazy. I'm almost at 8 months already............ yeah whoa. 

But anyway this week was just one of those weeks where it felt like everything that could go wrong went wrong -haha but así es la vida. Sometimes out here in Paraguay where the church is really really new there are some problems that can come up pretty easy. Like my little rama consists of about 50 miembros with just a presidente de rama and his counslers and thats it as leadership goes haha. Thats pretty much how it is in most of paraguay, the rama has as many worthy preisthood holders for its leaders(which usually is barley any) then the missionarys make up the rest. And sometimes when there isnt any worthy priesthood holders the missionarys have to be the presidente de rama. Like my last comp elder granados right now is out in the chaco, his comp is the president and elder granados is everything else... that means from the elders quorm to the primary he has to be in charge of it all haha. With the church like this it can just be a little stressful for the missionarys sometimes and that pretty much describes my whole week this week. This week was a little stressful with all the things that we had to deal with but i did learn something really cool by the end of it about our testimonys. Out of the whole week i saw something in common with all the things we had to deal with and every one went along with our testimonys. A testimony like the song says ¨is like a little seed, if planted it will grow¨. Once we have it planted, and its growing, Its so important that we keep helping it grow and grow, bigger and bigger. We should always strive to have our testimonys grow, so that our once ¨little seed¨ can begin to look like a giant, sturdy tree thats not going to move no matter how many storms or bad weather come its way. In life we never know when were going to have to go through a nasty storm or trials and problems, but when we do, i hope that everyone of us are prepared enough to take it on. Because its really way to sad to see people who didnt nuture their testimony and when the bad storms come its just sweeps them up and takes them with it. In this life we have so many things to lean on and to help us grow, like the scriptures, church, the Prophet, Apostols, prayer and so much more. I hope we can all have a testimony and foundation strong enough to take on anything that this life could through at us head on.  For me, my testimony has been such a help, no matter where i am in the world or what im doing the one thing i will always have and can fall back on in this life is my testimony. 

Yo sé que este iglesia es la unica verdadera sobre la faz de la tierra. Sé que JesuCristo es mi salvador y redentor. Sé que él nos ama a cada uno de nosotros mas que podemos saber. Sé que su iglesia fue resturrado a través de José Smith y que el es un profeta de Dios. Sé estas cosas sin ningun duda en mi corazon. 

Love you guys tons and cant wait to see you this weekend on Skype!:)

Elder Nyberg

Peruvian comp.

Hola familia!

I had a really fun week this week haha definitly been making the best out of living in a crazy South America country for sure. This week I got bit by a parrot, fell in a giant thing of caca de vaca, (cow poop) did some servicio with some machettes, and made some super legit peruvian food. Life out here really is the best, a couple nights this week after we got home from working, me and my comp just have been chillin and talking about all sorts of stuff. First off my comp is such a stud, I've learned so many lessons from him its crazy, this email I just wanna give you guys a little taste of my comps life and how cool he has been.

Aight, so my peruvian. He is like 4 foot nothing and a little alkward (but the good kind of alkward haha). He lives in a town somewhere in northern Peru and has 3 littler siblings and his parents. That makes him the oldest. Before coming here to the mission he has worked his whole life ever since he was super small. To get money to come here on the mission he worked for two years in a brick factory, hauling bricks with his hands all day long. Every day for two years he would wake up at around 4 in the morning, ride his bike for an hour and get to work at 5am. He would work all day long and into the night, until 10pm. Then after 17 hours of working he would hop on his bike and ride for almost a full hour back to his house. Day after Day, Night after Night, for 2 full years. You guys should see his hands, their like legit rocks from all the calleces, everywhere. Then for his parents, everyday they would sell candy or little snacks on the streets and after working for about half a day, his mom would have just enough money to by some bread or something small to eat for lunch and his dad with the money he earned that day would have just enough for a little dinner. The thing that gets me everytime, when he tells me about the days when his parents didnt earn enough money and they didnt have enough food. And for their christmas, your probably not going to believe me but the christmas present they got on christmas night was one 2 liter bottle of soda to go along with the food they had. My comp is the radest person ever, when he gets back he keeps saying his goal is to work as much as he can so his parents dont have to work anymore. You guys have no idea how much i have learned from just the 3 short weeks I have been with my little peruvian. Just to start, I have learned to be truly grateful for the gifts and opprutunitys that God has given me down to each peice of food I get to eat each day. Oh man you should see my little peruvian pray.... for sure before every meal, every morning when he wakes up, and every night. I know that he is thanking God with all his little peruvian heart that he has in every prayer that he gives. I love getting to hear his prayers before we go out to work, they are so legit i cant help to smile in every one. Without doubt he always remembers ¨to bless my companion Elder Nyberg and his family¨ its so sweet. But I hope you guys can take these things and apply them, to help see the blessings and hand of God in everyone of your lives more. But I love you guys so much and am looking forward to getting to Skype in a couple weeks!

Elder Nyberg