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

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