Signs of the Times

Dear Mom and everyone else,

Things are still going great here, a lot of people sitting around blaming the Japanese people for not beleiving in God and bringing this great destruction upon themselves, and then they reject the message that we have about God and his restored truth. Oh well. Just gotta keep pushing:)

I had one of the most awkward experiences of the mission the other day. We went to the house of a recent convert that I hadn't met yet because he hasn't been back to church. He came out and the guy honestly looks like he is Davy's age OR YOUNGER! I started talking with him and noticed that he had a deep voice for such a youngster. I asked him what grade he was in in school, and I used the spanish word for elementary school. He looked at me weird and my comp leaned over and said in broken english. "He is TWENTY FIVE Years old." I felt horrible lol! I wonder how many times this guy has been insulted on purpose and then along comes this gringo who pretends to know Spanish, comes to my house and insults me again. Oh man I feel awkward. I hope he took my apology:)

I got to go on divisions with an elder from El Salvadador named Elder Perez. That elder is awesome. He was in the area right next to mine during my first transfer. He is also the elder who was first to trade helping me learn Spanish for my helping him learn Spanish. :) (I have heard him play the piano since and I think I got the better end of that deal:)) We talked to whole day and I learned a lot of new words from him:) He is awesome and he only has 6 more weeks than I do so we get a lot of time to be in the same mission.

We had a meeting with a few zones last Wednesday and President did something weird, for lack of a better word. One of the APs was talking and then President Veirs got up, stopped Elder Cardon, and read us a scripture about how we are seeing the signs of the last days with the events of Japan and all over the world, and then he told us that we all had to be prepared. I still can't decide if he was just saying that to make sure we knew it was important or because he felt something was coming. I think it's time to be prepared:) In his talk that he gave to us later, after Elder Cardon finished talking, President talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ. He detailed how the sweating of blood is actually possible, but only when the human body was under extreme pressure! And then he explained the flogging and the crown of thorns and how he must have suffered there. Then he explained in great detail, the physical effects of the crusifixition and how it really would be the most painful way to die because of how the nails effected the muscles. It was really amazing to learn about how much Jesus Christ went through for us. I can't do his talk justice in an email, but know that it was amazing and that a few elders were crying. It helped refocus me on why I am here after hearing so much about Japan and what happened there I admit I kindof got distracted a little bit. But I agree with the quote that Elder Simper used in his last email from Shawshank Redemption. At first I didn't like these walls, but now I do depend on them.

I love you all and thank you for all your support:)

Love,

Elder Neiswender