Thanksgiving week

hola familia!

This week has been a pretty fun one, the heat is really coming back that's for sure. Summer is just starting full out while all you guys are probably getting cold weather and seeing snow haha. That really is so weird to just think of how snow is going to feel after 2 years of the heat down here, probably unreal. This week was a pretty long one, I kinda got a reminder that missionary work isn't always easy too. But I think i'm gonna share a couple experiences that happened in my week!

Okay so this week we have been talking with EVERYBODY! The mission right now is really focusing in every moment that we have to share the gospel with everyone that we can in all types of situations. We have a goal in the mission of at least, like minimum talking to 10 different people every single day about the gospel. Riding in collectivos, clapping houses, people in the streets and just pretty much everywhere! This week i kinda got a little reminder about the mission not being the easiest, it's not always fun getting rejected time after time. And this week it seemed to be rejection after rejection after rejection. Getting yelled at and cussed at is never fun but you just gotta love these people anyway. And we can never give up because it could be that last house or that last person passing by us on the street at night walking back to the house after a hard day's work that God has prepared for us to find and are ready to accept the Gospel. I was reading a part of a talk last night and there was a part that i really liked, it says ¨We are willing to pay the price of repeated rejection for the hope of a single conversion. Whatever the world throws at us, we throw back a smile, because we know we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ.¨ I just really liked that quote, i saw it during the week for sure especially in my comp one time. We clapped a house and a lady came out and started yelling at us about how much she hates our church because we apparently ¨worship José Smith as our God¨ and when she finally got done yelling right in the face of my companion and telling us to leave, he looked her right in the eyes with a massive smile and told her that he hopes she has a great day. 

So since I only have hermanas in my district I haven't been able to do divisions for a long time, but now since my zone leader is training i guess president mcmullin thought it would be a good idea for me to do divisions with the new missionary in his training every week. So this week was the first time and it was way fun! The new missionary is from Utah and it was fun to get to work with someone who lives back in the states. I get to help him a bit with his spanish and believe it or not he helped me tons with my english! haha. While we were on the division we decided to contact a house just like any other and it was super weird because a girl came out and turns out she has been studying english for the past 5 years and speaks really good! So we got talking and I changed to english, we introduced ourselves and i started explaining a little bit about what we do as missionaries and i was going good all in english but once i got into trying to share a little bit about the restoration in english i was totally scrambling to remember words! i actually had to look at the new missionary to help me out in english in the contact! hahaha it was great cuz he came in and contacted super great in english but it was such a bummer cuz when it came back to me i just had to go back to spanish cuz i legit couldn't do it in english... but the lady was super nice and switched back to spanish when she would talk to me haha. But it turned out to be a super cool contact and were going back this next week for a lesson cita. 

Anyways hope you guys have a great thanksgiving and be sure to count all the blessing we have in this world. We have so many blessing that sometime we can take for granted, so this week I want you guys to really think of all the things that you are truly grateful for. but I love you guys tons! and hope you have the best week!

Elder Nyberg

Summer is here...

Hola familia kuerá!

Okay sorry in advance this is gonna be a short one if I can get this to send- jaja. there are only 2 computers here in the only little ciber by us that we can use and the internet is not working, it's probably because these computers are legit dinosaurs, soooo old but anyways this week has been a fun one! Here the summer is starting.... this week I’ve been having flashbacks to my training a year ago at this time dying of heat and whitewashing- jajaja man that was the adventure. But it has been pretty hot this week for sure, remembering of those times in my first area when we would leave the house and within minutes were soaked in sweat and already looking for someplace to drink some water.

So this week we found two cool new investigators named noelia and edgar. Noelia is a mom of 6 and lives in a super humble house. she just barely found some work so she is super happy that she can provide for her kids now. We've only had 1 lesson with her so far but she is a super nice lady and we'll see how things go with her. Edgar is a guy who called us over on the street. he was chillin with a bunch of guys on the street, with half of them smoking and full of tattoos jaja so when he first called us over I thought in my head ¨well this is gonna be a fun one¨. But we got talking with them and they now they love us-jaja we shared about the restoration with them but edgar was the only one who really wanted to learn. but equal, at least we left a good rep of missionaries with them.  he has like 19 years and is a super rad guy. He goes to the catholic church like every sunday but wants to know more about the church and said that his dad received the missionaries like 5 years ago. At first glance he seems a little sketchy but man he has tons of desire to choose the right and to learn about Christ. im hoping for the best, but we´ll see how its goes as we continue to teach them this week. 

This week we also had zone conference, it was legit as always. My mission pres is the best. Such a rad guy. 

But hope everything is good back in the states! love you guys! 

Elder Nyberg

3rd change and still in San Lorenzo with Elder Cisternas

hola familia!

Sooo... it looks like i get to stay in San lorenzo for at least another change! And I'll be staying with my same comp, Elder Cisternas jaja its kinda funny cuz I've almost never heard of companions staying together for more than 2 changes but looks like weve got a 3rd! Im super happy I got to stay because for real I'm loving it so much here in San Lorenzo. And I know that God needs me to be here at this time. 

This week not a ton of new stuff happened but we did have one cool expierence I wanted to share. But man I can't believe it's actually Monday again already, no joke I feel like yesterday I was in this same ciber writing all you guys jaja.  

Okay so this week (because we still have 2 areas to work in, the area is HUGE) we got lost in my own area jajaja. But as my comp says ¨we didn't get lost, we were just getting to know the area a little better¨.  So we were walking around a whole new part of the area that we have never explored before. We contacted a bit and had a lesson with a guy named Alfredo who is a ¨natural juju medicine doctor¨ jaja it was a cool lesson and I can see him progressing. But when we were just walking around out there we passed by a house with a guy sitting outside on a chair in front of his house. When we were walking by, I was contacting a lady who was walking with us in the street when this dude sitting in front of his house legit started freaking out, and started yelling ELDERS ELDERS sooo loud! I'm pretty sure it scared the poor lady I was contacting away cuz she didn't want to know more about the church jaja. So this guy tells us to come over to him and then he runs inside his house while were walking over.... so we just like stood outside for a couple minutes, i clapped the house to see if he would come out then we see him coming out with his mom like still freaking out and soooo exited. The guy is like 40 years old but just running and jumping and yelling as if he was a little kid jaja it was a pretty funny moment to see. Turns out his mom was just visiting that day from Argentina and they both are members but the guy(Armando) has been inactive for more than 20 years. His mom came to visit for a day and she is the Relief society Pres in her branch in Argentina. And for Armando, he grew up in the church, was like the perfect member until he turned 19 and started to take one bad decision after another. But he was always withthe missionaries  when he was growing up and litteraly LOVES the missionaries. I guess we were the first missionaries he has seen since he moved from argentina when he was a teenager. But man this guy has been through it all...... it was soooooo sad to just listen and hear his story. Drugs, drinking, losing both marriges to drug addictions, has kidsbut doesn't  know where they are in the world and so much more. but man I just wanted to give this dude a hug and tell him it's gonna be okay cuz of all the things he has gone through...  He is such a cool guy though, he loves joking around and is so funny. hes just the kind of person that you can't help but smile when you see him. But he came to church yesterday for the first time in 20 years! He still has a couple problems that we gotta work with but little by little this guy is going to come back to the church for sure. Its definitly his time to be back. 

But hope you guys are doing good! Love you guys tons! 

Elder Nyberg

Collectivos & Elder Gutierrez

Haupeí familia! (guarani this time;)

this week has been a pretty crazy one! lots of work and some cool expierences too. Hope you guys all had a great time on Halloween! and made sure to eat some extra candy for me! i have changes tomorrow so we´ll see what happens!!

Okay I gotta share a bit about my day today, cuz its been insane jaja... soooo they told us all of the district leaders and the zone leaders of the whole mission had to go to the office today because a seventy was going to be there to talk to us. So I woke up at 3am this morning with just enough time to hop in the shower and put my suit on then were out of the house and waiting on the Routa(highway) for a collectivo to pass by to take us into the centro of san lorenzo. So we wait, and we wait and we wait. It seemed super wierd that there wasn't any collectivos passing so we just had to walk a couple miles to the center of the city to wait there. Once we got there, we soon found out why there were no collectivos... there was a TON of people all going on strike against the collectivos for thier prices. It was insane!! Sooooo many people with banners, drums, shouting and screaming. So we had a little problem.. jaja we had to find a way to get me and like 5 other missionarys to this meeting which was all the way in Asuncion, on top of dealing with all these crazy people in the streets. So we found this old dude that had a pretty sketchy old Mercedes and paid him to take us to first track down the other missionaries and then head off to Asuncion. Weaving inside and out of crazy traffic and people. It was for sure a crazy process. But we got there and like right on time! It was an adventure that im not going to forget. But we then had about a 5 hour meeting with the seventy about the mission and they gave us a whole new system to study and get better as missionarys. I loved it. I learned so much. You guys have no clue how much i love my mission pres, like for real the sickest dude ever. I've learned so much from him today and from the seventy. I really wish I could express just the littlest amount of what I learned today but I don't know how I can put it into words.. the things you learn in the mission you can't learn anywhere else thats for sure.

Okay other expierence. You guys remember my little peruvian Elder Gutierrez? yeah so today I learned he just had a heart attack..... It was a crazy story but thanks to his comp now, God and fast acting he is okay. but man you guys have no idea how much this little peruvian means to me. You know that saying where you don't really know how much you love somthing until its gone? Today I couldn't find myself focusing on anything but my little peruvian comp. He taught me more in 3 months than I could have learned in a life time. I know God puts us with our companions for a reason, every single one. But i called him after the meeting was over today and got to talk to him for a little. You guys just have no clue how great this guy is. i just love him so much. I ask him how he is doing and the first thing he tells me is ¨nahh its not that important, i want to know how YOU are doing¨ He then goes on to ask about everything that I'm doing to make sure I'm okay and everything is good. He is the perfect example of a selfless, beyond humble person. After that I could finally get him to talk about how he was, and he says he is hurting but says he can still work. I ask him if he has to go home to peru and he just laughs at me and goes in spanish ¨man I still got a year left out here serving the Lord, there's no way I'm going home shorter than what the Lord wants of me¨ So yeah, he's staying in the mission, after a heart attack. i just can't put into words how much this little alkward peruvian has changed my life -haha. I really don't know what more to write. Other than Guti is my fav. 

Okay last expierence for the week. like 3 days ago the sister of Lisandro came home from chile. His sister was the only member of the church in their family until Lisandro got baptised. Yesterday she got up in testimony meeting and gave the coolest testimony. She told us that she has been praying to her father in heaven for years that her family could come to know of the truth of the gospel. And she said when she was sitting down and saw Lisandro bless the sacrament as a worthy priesthood holder now it brought tears to her eyes. After she came up and thanked us as missionarys for the work that we have done to change her brother's life. In the mission there is really nothing better than seeing the fruits that come from our hard work. Its feels so great, its more than just being happy its like pure joy, kinda hard to explain. but its just the best feeling ever to get to be part of helping these people come unto Christ. 

Anyways I hope you guys are all doing good. I love you guys TONS! I know without doubt that this church is true. I love this gospel so much and the change that it brings when we LIVE it.  I know Jesus is our savior and that he lives right now. I know that he is leading and guiding this church through Thomas S. Monson today. I dont have a single doubt in my mind of these things. 

Elder Nyberg

Elder Gutierrez

Elder Nyberg & Lisandro

Primary Program in San Lorenzo.

Hola familia!

This week has been pretty good, we've had a couple investagators fall but we've had a couple little miracles happen too in finding more people to teach. All in all it was a solid week. It's crazy you guys are getting close to Halloween! kinda lame they dont have halloween here but make sure to eat some extra candy this year for me;) 

Yesterday on Sunday we had the primary program here in my little branch in San Lorenzo. It was so fun to see haha. All the little kids from the branch get up to say their little part, and then there is always that one or two that get too nervous to be up there and just run back down to their mom and dad -hahaha I love it. But something that really made me think was when the branch pres got up to speak after the program was over, he talked about how every one of the little kids were going to be the leaders in this future generation. Talking about how the world is going to just get worse and worse, and that these little kids are going to be the future in boldly choosing the right, time after time, not giving importance to what consequences may come. Just looking at all of them and how inoccent they were, thinking about how much potentail each one has. Just thinking of every little one as a little Captain Moroni, Bold in following Christ in every decision we make. Then he talked about the responsibility that every parent and every leader in the church has to teach these little kids to become the people that God wants them to become. I really thought about that for a bit. I thought about every teacher that ive ever had since i was in the primary, up until young mens, then to leave to serve a mission. Thinking about every parent, leader, teacher or good example im my life who up until now has helped make me who i am today. I really wanted to thank every one of you, you know who you are, who has taught me since I was young to follow Christ and make right choices. Have taught me this gospel and shown me the happiness that we can find in living it. If i didnt have these people since i was young in my life, there would be no way I could be the instrument in Gods hands that I am today to help others to come to know these things too. 

A cool little expierence that happened yesterday too. I contacted a lady like more than 2 months ago and gave her a Book of Mormon, it wasn´t a super cool contact or anything she just kinda took it like whatever haha. Since then I never heard anything more from her until yesterday. I got a random phone call and it was that same lady, she told me she had been reading the book i gave her a ton and she is now in the San Lorenzo area and wants to meet with us. It never gets old seeing how God continues to soften peoples hearts and guides these people to the truth. I love it. Super pumped to see what happens this week when we can meet up to teach her. 

But hope you guys have an awesome week this week! love you guys so much!!

Elder Nyberg