Big City Life...

Hola familia!

This week has been a pretty good one,I'm  slowly coming to know my crazy area a little better... a little ha. And changes are tomorrow, so I'm hoping I get to stay another change with my comp so I'm not super lost -haha. But we´ll see what happens! I just had one cool expierence this week I wanted to share and I guess you guys will get to know about my changes next week!

Wednesday-But This day was super legit, a bit trunky though -haha. Today I was on a division with Elder Beus who has like 3 days until he goes back to the states and finishes his mission. My comp had to go into asuncion to get his wisdom teeth out hah. yeah so these next couple of days i got to play nurse while he was all drugged up -haha. But today was really cool just because i got to ask as many questions as I wanted to a missionary that has tons of expierence. I really learned a lot today. We worked really hard and found a new investagator who accepted the babtism invite, so that was rad. Later in the evening we went to eat a quick dinner and get Lomitos when we were just going to sit down a white couple said ¨Elder!¨ and I came over and started talking to them in spanish. The funny part was, I started to contact them as if they were potencial investagators and I didn't even notice their missionary plaques! HA. They were the older couple missionarys in the mission and I didn't even notice! They spoke English after and man it was super cool to have a big conversation in English. The lady was from st. George and ended up knowing my grandpa Pete from Dixie College way back when. We had an awesome conversation all about missionary work and about the states too. They were soo nice though, they got up and left before us and we stayed to finish our food, then after we finished we got up to pay and the cashier told us the couple had paid for all of our food!!!! They were just some genuinely good people, the world really needs more of those these days....

oh and ps.. the restaurant we ate at had a real live Toucan! and I touched it -haha

Elder Nyberg

San Lorenzo

hola familia!

This week has been super crazy for sure! my new area is insane -haha but I love itI'm  just going to run by a few things that happened this week cuz I don't have much time!

Wednesday- We got up in the morning and traveled to Asuncion for the cofrence to get to listen to the 70 Elder Gonzalez . So we traveled on collectivos, and I don't think I missed bing squished in like sardines in these collectivos while I was out in Concepcion -haha. But standing up on a bus with sweaty people all over you for 45 min is not the funnest. Anyway we got to asuncion and I got to see half the missionarys from the mission there, the bad part was I couldn't even reconize hardly anyone because I had been gone out in the chaco in concepcion for so long -haha and all my friends in the mish are in the lejos half. But then we had like a 6 hour meeting with President Mcmullin and the 70. I don't think I can put into words how many things I learned today but going into the meeting I felt pretty acomplished as a missionary I mean I can speak fluent spanish now and have a basic understanding of all of the scriptures but when I left the meeting I felt as if I was at ground zero with so much more to learn. Elder Gonzalez the 70 was insane! His knowledge of the scriptures and just life in general was mind-blowing. Sometimes it's really tuff just being 18 years old and have the responsibility of being an actual representative of Jesus Christ while I'm here. When I left that meeting it put a lot more in perspective how much more I have to learn and work on to better myself as a missionary of Christ.

Friday- Today was a pretty crazy day. We got to walk a bit today and I got to see actually how big my area really is. I legit feel like I'm living in New York city it's that crazy here. I'm still acustomed to Concepcion with horses and cows walking in the streets with chickens and pigs at every house... Now here in San Lorenzo, just to give you a picture, in my area we have the #1 universidad national de Asuncion and one of the biggest shopping malls in all of Paraguay. There are collectivos(sketchy buses) always passing by and I never know what numbers of buses take me where. The main roads have like 6 lanes like any other major city would have haha. Taxi´s, motos, tons of people walking on the sidewalks and the traffic!! Last night I was chillin in my room getting ready for bed and there is constantly the sounds of horns going off, car engines, motos, and every once in a while sirens from an ambulance. I'm really starting to love the city... and I don't know why -haha. Right now I'm always super lost and never know where I am but once I start to know the place I really think I am going to love it here. The sketchy part is because I got special changed here, the normal changes are in one week and it could be that my comp leaves here with me being all lost -haha yeah we´ll see what happenes. Missions are not easy that's for sure but they are worth it. Hope things go good!

Anyway I hope you guys had a great week! especially with fathers day and everything! Love you all!

Elder Nyberg

Quick transfer to San Lorenzo

Hola familia!

So sorry I didn't get to write you guys yesterday... I've been super busy and these past 24 hours have been legit crazy! but gimme a sec and ill explain it all haha. 

Okay.... Sooo last night I was in Concepcion all good just chillin when I got a phone call out of nowhere from my Zone Leader Elder Smith and told me that I had 3 hours to get to my house, pack everything I own and get to the centro to catch a bus to Asuncion because I would be having cambios especiales to an area just out side of Asuncion and they needed me as soon as possible.  I told him it was a nice try man that he was just messin with me haha but after the 5th time of him telling me I started to belive him. And it was true! I guess an elder got hurt really bad here and had to leave so who do they call? yeahh Elder Nyberg;) haha. But man talk about stressful, I was in a lesson with the familia Benetiz when I got the call, after I ran to the familia Marin and luckly the familia Coronel and familia Avalos were there so I got to say goodbye to them but didn't get photos cuz I didn't have my camera. One thing that really stood out to me was when I was saying goodbye to Rodrigo Marin(16 year old), he is probably one of the coolest members here, but anyway we talked for a little bit and wished me luck for the rest of my mission then gave me a hug and told me "see you in the reino(celestial kingdom) bro" I dont know why it stuck out so much to me, like we have always learned that this life is just a short time in which we face challenges and learn and then after we are going to one of the 3 kingdoms of glory and depending of our works here, we will go to dwell with God forever in happiness.  But sometimes this plan just stays on the chalk board when we learn it and we might not give it the importance that it really has for each and everyone of us. When Rodrigo told me this i could tell that he knew what he said was true, that he really had a testimony of the plan God has prepared for us. And that most of all that this plan, the plan of salvation, its REAL! Im grateful for the opprutunity that i have had to come to the knowledge of the truthfulness of this plan for myself and the power it has to bless peoples lives. 

But right now I am in a city called San Lorenzo, its a pretty big city, alot bigger than I'm use too... haha. My new comp is Elder Carrillo from Guatamala! My third latin in a row -haha its legit. but I'm doing great and its going to be fun to learn a new area and be the new guy for a while.

Love you guys tons!

Elder Nyberg

Meet The Mormons ward movie night

Hola familia!

This week has been a really good one but it has been a long one for sure. This week we found 2 sweet familys to teach and I'm sooo stoked about that. In the mission out here they always use the example of if we contact 100 people it could be 1 person out of the hundred that is ready for us to teach, and we can't know where this 1 person is in the hundred unless we contact every single one. It could be that the one person waiting for us was the 100th contact and if we give up after the 99th we won't be able to find them. But that little example of contacts pretty much described my week this week haha. This week I contacted pretty much every person that I could see.... and pretty much every person that I could see menos these 2 familias rejected us -hahaha. 

But I had a couple visits this week that were pretty rad so I wanted to tell you guys about a couple of them.

Thursday- This morning we had a cool lesson with Renalda, she was talking to us all about fasting.  She is a single mother with like 40 years. She started telling us that she always thought fasting was just a thing that members were supposed to do and nothing ever came from it but she was telling us of a day this week when she just spent her last guarani(money) on food for her kids and that left her with nothing to eat. So out of nowhere she decided to try to fast. She kelt down and started it with a prayer that day. And her face at this point into the story changed completely and was like ¨Did you guys know that like this fasting thing actually works?!?!¨ haha She then began to tell us that a random member from the branch came over that night and brought a little dinner so that her and her kids got to eat. It was just cool to see her expierence with fasting and prayer and how God hears and then answers our prayers. And sometimes through people or ways we would never expect.

Sunday- Was really really cool day, first off i had a great fast sunday. Church was sick, got to listen to tons of testimonys in pure Guaraní and thats always rad. So tonight we watched ¨Conoce los Mormones¨(Meet the Mormons) that i just got in a package. But we watched it as a giant noche de hogar with like 15 members and after without saying anything to them it just turned into a giant testimony meeting. I've been sitting here for like 10 minutes trying to think of how to type this part in my email and I really can't think of the words to describe this testimony meeting with my miembros. But it was a moment in time that im sure i will never forget. I loved it. 

I hope you guys are all doing great!

love and miss you TONS!

Elder Nyberg

Winter Rain in Paraguay

hola familia! 

This week was a fun one for sure, with my little peruvian comp. everyday has been an adventure for sure. This week I got to learn what ¨cold¨ here in paraguay feels like. We had to help the other elders move into the apartment right next door to ours(so now we have neighbors!) haha. And there was a giant party/parade for the anniversary for Concepcion. 

Wednesday- Today was actually a really fun day, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life before today -haha. First off, this is the 3rd day in a row that its been raining...... and the streets are all turning into legit rivers! I got a couple pictures off a little road by our house with my tiny peruvian comp. too, -haha he's such a little alkward dude, I love it -ha.  So basically all of today consisted of walking around to citas, trying not to fall into the big street/rivers, but ending up watching each other fall into all sorts of giant puddles anyway 

-haha. This has been the first time since my training where I'm going to have the same comp for 2 changes, so its super cool that me and Elder Gutierrez get to stick together for more time. You know it was a good day when my stomach is sore form laughing so much -hahah it was great. I'm for sure going miss my time here when I have to leave...

This week the rain has just kept coming and coming and coming! I don't think we have seen the sun in about 6 days! At first the rain here was just like any other rain storm that I've ever seen, but then it turned into the wierdest rain/humidity stuff that I've never seen. When we are walking outside there are like millions of these little tiny droplets of water just chilling in the air. Its the wierdest feeling to walk through it, it's not like its raining, it just feels like there are tiny little drops of water just floating around and when you walk into them you start getting wetter and wetter. So that wierd rain, mixed with the humidity and cold..... makes it really really cold! From knowing how hot it gets here I never thought again I would get to feel the cold again.... but when your basically wet all day with the humidity and the cold it gets super super cold! The cool thing is we drink tons of maté dulce when its really cold outside and it's soooo goooddd! I'm for sure teaching you guys how to make it when I get home! 

So we have neighbors! The other elders for rama 2...Elder Birge and Elder Polo moved in next door. we helped them haul all of their stuff in the most sketchy ¨truck¨ if you can even call it that, that I have ever seen haha. If I could think of one word to describe this whole day of moving beds, oven, refrigerator...... it would be SKETCHY. I dont think I'm going to tell all the storys about this day because I don't think Roachy would be to happy to hear them -hahaha but don't worry mom there were no broken bones and the 4 of us are all good:) haha. But the fun thing about neighbors that we have learned in the past couple days is that they are super easy to scare and they scream like little girls -haha. Poor Elder Birge is soooo jumpy -haha its so great. 

But anyway I am having the best time out here, living every day to its fullest. 

Love all of you guys and miss you tons!

Elder Nyberg

 Elder Gutierrez

5 months in Concepcion and staying...

Hola familia!

Sooo for changes............ Me and my comp are both staying! haha yeah so at the end of this change ill have 6 months in this same area! The cool part is my comp is super rad so I'm happy we get to keep going strong out here. But the other elders in my rama got changed and a super new columbian came in. So that's cool to get to talk to another columbian like my last comp! 

This week was a pretty tranquilo one, not much went down but we did find a couple new people to teach because we have been contacting like everyone we see. Most of the contacts we get rejected, but ya never know sometimes they turn out to be cool people. So highlights of the week.... Me and my comp planned almost an entire babtism that wasn't ours because the other elders didn't know how. yeah stressful, a drunk guy did some karate for us, made some ¨american¨ hamburgers that turned out alright, and learned how to make maté dulce without the yerba(sooo good). It was a pretty chill week, I really can't remember what else went on these weeks are flying by way too fast. But I guess I can just give you guys a run down on just a few people that we are teaching right now. 

Rocky- we actually have a cita with him tonight, he is a 16 year old kid who we just started teaching recently but I can tell he has real potential to progress(which is really hard to find here). When we contacted him he asked us if we had anything to give him, so I hooked him up with a restoration folleto and asked if we could come by later to talk a little more about it and he accepted!  The fact that someone accepted us wasn't even the thing that shocked me, it was that when we came over to have a lesson we got sitting down and I asked him if he had any time to read the folleto that we left him and just like every other paraguayan he said yeah he read all of it. They almost always lie to us. So, I asked him what his favorite part was just thinking that I was going to get the same answer I get millions of times...that they liked the whole thing, But he started going off about Joseph Smith and pretty much reciting the whole story! mine and my comps jaws just dropped, we were just sitting there in unbelief that someone actually read a folleto and the cooler part was that he had questions! So we had a sweet first lesson about the restoration and were going to be going back tonight to keep it going! should be cool to see how he progresses. 

Gregorio- He is a pretty old dude, has a family with 2 little daughters and one little boy. They live in a little brick house and he runs a security buisness out of his house. We have been teaching them for a while and he has been progressing really well, i mean the people here are a little slow but they have been going really good. Just recently his wife started joining in on the lessons, and before she didnt want anything to do with us -haha so that has been cool to see. We actually had a really cool lesson with them both recently and she just happen to pull out a Book of Mormon that some missionarys just gave her in 2003 and she has had it ever since! The coolest part with them is they have really come to love us alot, at first Gregorio was a bit mean being an army guy and now in security with all his guns everywhere and stuff but now he is such a nice guy and a real softie -haha. Now they always make sure if we have eaten and are always offering us food and stuff. There only boy named Pablo calls me Tio(uncle) Elder haha its funny. But with them we are looking to have a wedding for them in a little and then after they are married they can be babtized. 

there are a couple more cool ones like Marí, lauriza, sergio, and antonia but i dont have alot more time to type here in the ciber.

But i hope everyone is doing great back home and i love you guys tons!

Elder Nyberg