Storm & investigators

hola familia!

this week has been a fun one, the weather is still super hot and humid but it's been fun. Me and my comp are going to travel to Luqué today so this might be a little one but I wanted to share a couple cool things that happened this week. 

So this week we had a night where a big storm passed by with tons of wind and destroyed a lot of the houses down here. Mostly everything when it comes to building and houses and stuff here are super sketchy with the things they use to build them so the storm really took its toll. We were left without light and water for a bit too but now we're all good. It really is pretty cool down here in south america, every day is another adventure for sure. i love it. 

So this week has been full of more finding new people and really trying to share the gospel with EVERYONE. Of course along with that we had our fair share of rejections and people yelling at us to leave. i don't know why but it's usually always the super catholic old grandmas that reject us the hardest. But with all the hard rejections we had one it really made everything worth it when we found a super sweet investigador! The moms name is Loura and her little daughters name is Micka who is 9. It was super cool actually how we found them, we were passing by one day on their street and we contacted the house next door to them just like any other normal contact and a lady came out that turned out to be a jehovah's witness and she rejected us pretty hard, told us never to come back but little Micka was playing with the lady's kids in her yard and just after the lady rejected us and went back inside we were about to leave when Micka was like ¨Wait! are you guys the mormons?¨ we told her we were haha and she said that she seen people like us in her grandma's church before. She also told us we could visit her someday and that they lived next door, so I gave her a little picture of Jesus and we left to go try her house next door, but no one was home. So a couple days later we passed by and we met Micka and her mom Loura and they turned out to be super prepared! After the first lesson we came back and Loura not only read the whole entire pamphlet but she prayed about it too! (okay in paraguay that usually never ever ever happens haha) once she told me about her prayer and how she felt that God had given her an answer, it was like perfect! just goes to show there are always people that God prepares for us to find and really puts them in our path. But it's always up to us to open our mouths to find them, can you imagine what would have happened if we never opened our mouths to talk to the Jehovah's witness lady that rejected us super hard? We would have never have met little Micka and her and her mom would probably still be waiting today to find the happiness that we find in the restored gospel. So the challenge of the last email still stands, get out this week and share the gospel with someone thats not a member, it might be scary or alkward but just go for it. Try it. I promise you that God prepares people and puts them in our paths to find, but its all up to us to open our mouths. 

Elder Nyberg

Studys when the storm came and knocked out the electricity

Share the gospel

hola fammmm!

This week has been fun, i'm pretty sure i'm going to be starting off my next few emails from here on out with the same words.... Its getting HOT down here haha. The summer is definitely coming in and man.... it's been crazy. I keep having flashbacks to my training a year ago when it was in the middle of summer and our house didn't have AC or anything. This week I just keep wondering how i survived that haha but the good part is that i survived so atleast i know i'm not gonna die or anything this summer;) 

This week we have been really focused in contacting and just trying to talk to literally everyone in between lessons. It's been really fun tho, its really cool to see the results of just opening your mouth to share the gospel with someone. There is always that little awkward feeling or maybe a little unsure or scared even to just open your mouth and start a conversation with someone about the gospel but if we don't do it, we will never know if that was the exact person that was just waiting and prepared to hear the gospel. We found a couple of super cool people this week but the majority of the people we talked with rejected us. Lots of times the people can be pretty mean in rejecting us, definitely got a few doors slammed in my face this week haha but it makes it that much more worth it when you find someone that wants to listen to our message. And in the end of the day it's not the rejections that we remember but the people that we could help and the people that really change their lives around thanks to the gospel. 

This friday i got to do 3 Baptism interviews, back to back to back. I'm pretty sure that these experiences are one of my absolute favorites in the mission. I wish i could have the time to just stay here all day writing about every one of these 3 people and each of their stories from before the gospel and seeing them now. It really never gets old, everyone needs the gospel in their lives, and sometimes they don't even know they need it until they find it but the change that comes from following our savior Jesus Christ is so rad to see. Seeing the change that comes from the gospel really is just more motivation to get out and share it with more and more people. And to think i get to do that day after day out here in the mission is really the best. I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world right now but here in sketchy Paraguay sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the wonderful people that live here. And i want to challenge you all to get out and try it, try sharing the gospel with someone who isn't a member this week. It might feel a little awkward or you might feel a little scared but you never know if God has prepared their heart to hear it if you don't just give it a try. So go for it.

Elder Nyberg