Switch It Up

Dear mom and everyone else,

First things first. I feel very ashamed by my family. They go camping, have a fire, and hotdogs...And what do they do???? They grill the hot dogs instead of roasting them over a fire!!! lol. I love you family. Sounds like you had a fantastic week filled with lots of fun activities. The week here was pretty bland. I pretty much already knew that I am going to leave Santiago on Wednesday because I have been here six months. But now it is official. Next email I send will be from a spot of Honduras where I have never been.

I have a fear and I{m pretty sure that it is a fear held by any missionary that ever cared for anybody in an area that he has been in, that after I leave, the people that I have come to love will fall away. It is a pretty big problem here in Honduras. The missionaries make great friends have lots of baptisms, but when the missionary leaves, their converts slowly fade away into inactivity. So since I have been blessed to have a pretty good idea that I was leaving beforehand (unlike the last two times I got transferred as complete surprises) I have been busting my brains out trying to think of a way to keep this from happening to the people that I have come to love. After much soul searching, studying, and praying, pondering and a lot more ...ings, I finally came up with the answer which was monumentaly...simple. It{s what we learn in missionary training 101. Day one in boot camp. The very key of our religion. We had convince these people of the importance of the Book of Mormon. Easier said than done in a group of people where to them the BOOk of Mormon is a mere side note to the Bible and other books. Heck these people would read any other LDS book they could get their hands on except the Book of Mormon. But after 6 solid weeks of shoving (I mean inviting) The Book of Mormon into their lives...I think it might have worked. At least with one person. Every week we hold a class for the new preisthood holders in the branch aka all the priesthood holders in the branch and allow them to ask questions and then help them understand things. This last week Elder Beus and I had a wizbang Book of Mormon class ready using the whole arch and the keystone example, and were even going to have one of the members try to prove our religion right without the Book of Mormon. So we get to the class on Wednesday and we got a grand total of 3 priesthood members. But we did it anyway.

Oddly enough the brother who volunteered to try to prove the church right was Natalio Paz. A convert of 11 months but had just been married and baptized that week. Complete stud. Anyway he gets up and is talking to me about how this is the true church because of charity, love, and he even used the church organization and everything except what we were looking for. Poor guy, I thought he was going to cry. Finally he mentioned in passing the Key. So giving him a break I let him end there. After that we explained the importance of the Book of Mormon to these 3 men. We invited them to put the Bible down for a time and read the Book of Mormon instead. Leaving the meeting we did not think that it had worked. Then two days later, Chino, great guy, comes up to us and starts asking us questions that he had during his first two days of reading the Book of Mormon. He said that he has put the Bible down for a time (short time becuase the Bible is still important) and is reading the Book of Mormon. Hopefully he will keep reading, but I won{t be there to find out.

I love you family, and give you once again that there is a God, and He is a Loving God, and that there is a book that can change your life called the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Read it. If you already have...read it again....and again....and again.

Until my next area,

Elder Neiswender

Hillbilies in Honduras

Dear Mom and everyone else,

It´s great to hear that you and Kristi had a great time in Peru. I´ve always wnated to see Macchu Picchu. My whole life!!!! Ok so there aren´t even 20 in my long life yet, but almost!!! It still hasn´t sunk in yet that I will be 20 years old in my next email. Wow. But at least for a couple of years I have wanted to see Machu Pichu and those crazy places. I just have one question. We have a firepit now? When did that show up? Oh and before I forget, yes I did take some money out of my account last month.
Not much has really happened this week. I just love seeing the difference in the area with a hard working comp. The thing about Central American missions (or at least Honduran) missions is that you don´t have to work super hard to get baptisms. There are elders here who don´t do jack squat and haul in baptisms, trust me, I lived with one for three months. A lot of elders just get content and lay off the rules. But from what I have learned from the General Authorities that speak to the missionaries and all the friends that are on missions, that´s not the way it´s supposed to be. So I always had the vision of how awesome it would be with two elders that just work their tales off without looking down the nose at the ones that don´t quite seem to get (very annoying, but there are those missionaries). I{m finally getting to see it. Elder Beus has a way of inspiring me to work even harder without saying a word. It is awesome, and while numbers don´t really matter, it is fun to see how much the area has changed and exploded since Elder Beus got here.
First off I just have to tell you about something that I didn{t really think I would see in Honduras, and even more what I never thought I would see in church. We found this man named Pacundo (I still have trouble saying it). He is an very old man whose house is surrounded by trees even though he still lives in the middle of the town. It´s weird, when we go there I feel like I am at the cabin of some old mountain hermit or hillbilly. All he does all day is lay in his hammock, his thumb is cut off halfway down, the ground is covered in beer bottles (the strong stuff too), he lives with another grumpy old man, and when we went to pick him up for church he told us, "Just let me drink my coffee first, it{s almost ready." as he put out his cigarette. Never in my life would I expect to see this man in church. Oh how the Lord loves to prove men wrong. Halfway through sacrament guess who walks into the little house where we have church...PACUNDO!!!! And oh man did he love it. He kept asking when we were going back to visit him. All the members commented on having him in church to us. Actually yesterday a lot of people that the members have been working with for years finally came to chruch. It was really quite fun to have all the members come up and tell us thank you. Thing is, we can{t take any credit because all we did was pass by and invite them. The Lord has His time. We just have to be ready so that he might reward us with a sliver of credit in the last days.
I love you all and hope everything is going great back there for you all!
Love,
Elder Neiswender

Respect

Dear Mom and Everyone else,

Thank you all for all your love and support over the past few weeks. I relize it might be rude to say, but I have been taught not to lie, I am excited for Wednesday. Elder Marcia gets his wish of going home and I get a new comp who hopefully shows respect for people. I don´t know where me and him went wrong, but just know that I don´t care who my next comp is, he is going to be my favorite right from the get-go. A lot of elders in the zone see how Elder Marcia treats people like dirt and ask how I went 3 months without hitting him. I can honestly say that I prayed in the morning, mid-day, night, and a few times inbetween for patience and love, and I think it worked.

I found the thing that really got under my skin about this guy, and it is something that has angered me only once, and it is something that I learned from having 4 older sisters, a great sister in law and a fantastic mom. Marcia has absolutely NO respect for women. My wonderful sisters, sister in law and mom, have always taught to to respect woman. It is something that I have tried for a while to practice. Now, as can testify my boy Brad Johnson, there are few things that make me more angry than when a man (if he deserves that title) mistreats a woman. There is no reason for it. There is no gain from it. There is only sadness from it. This part of the email is to the guys that will recieve this. GIVE PROPER REPESCT TO WOMEN!

This part is for the women that will recieve this email. To my Madison, Melanie, Kristi, Vicki, Danielle, Mom, Kaitlin, Grandma N. and Grandma O. and any aunts cousins or any other reading. One of the few things that make me more angry than a man who mistreats a woman is when that self same woman accepts the abuse in anyform and laughs. There are times for laughter and there are funny jokes. Be wise in knowing where the line between joking and reality lies. DEMAND RESPECT! There is no reason to accept insults from low down men (and I use that title loosely). Have the courage to tell them how you feel and how they should treat you. I have seen first-hand young women down here broken down, nearly to tears, by cold unfeeling men. Yes even one man who carried the title Elder. Don´t let this happen. Don´t degrade yourselves. You are far to precious to our Heavenly Father to think of yourselves as below us men.

I´m sorry if this email sounds like a chastisement, but it is what I feel. It´s shouldn´t taken hard because the people I know that are reading it already follow this advice. This is only a warning for the future. Please give respect where respect is due, and if it is not due, help that person to earn it. I can´t remember who origionally gave this quote but I heard it in sunday school a long time ago. It refers directly to high school, but involves life as a whole. "Popularity ends on yearbook day. Respect lasts forever."

I love you all, and hope for the very best in all your endeavors.

Love,

Elder Neiswender

Work Work Work

Dear Mom and everyone else,

Well there´s not a lot to say this week since I just talked to you guys yesterday. Oh and thanks Tim for coming over and talking for a few minutes! I don´t think that my family minded too much (?).

I read Elder Simper´s letter about the sacrament and I have to agree 100 % with it. Last week, due to poor plan, and quick decision making, by someone who is bad at making snap decisions, I followed my comp from one church building to the next, and we ended up missing the sacrament. No, I was not happy. This week when I took the sacrament, I remembered that it had been two weeks since I had taken it. It felt so good. It was as if I could feel it working right there, like the way that Elder Simper described it. It was amazing.

I also had the opportunity to bless the sacrament yesterday which was fun because the guy that I was partnered with to bless with has only been a member for about a year. He asked if I had ever blessed the sacrament before. I said yes but that didn´t stop him from explaining how it sould be done. It was cool to see how dedicated he was to seeing it done right. It´s been really cool seeing the progress that this little branch has been making. A lot more members have had the chance to confirm converts and even give the priesthood, so they are learning for themselves and gaining confidence and most important, faith and testimonies. The branch works hard with us because really, there is nothing else to do in this little place. But hey, I don´t care about the reasons, I just like working with cool members.

I hope that all focus on going out of your comfort zone and grow and grow and grow. because that´s how it works. My old companion Elder Ellett is a muscular man, and I know that he didn´t get those muscles by sitting there watching tv all day. he had to work. It might be hard, but it always pays off in the end!

Hopeyou all have great weeks!

Love,

Elder Neiswender

A Little Old Man on the Mountain

Dear Mom and everyone else,

I forgot to tell you guys last week, but here is a cool story. So two and a half weeks ago, we get a reference for an old man who lives up on the mountain. Not THE old man on the mountain because there are about fifty old guys that live on this same mountain. Anyway, for us as missionaries, it takes about twenty minutes to half an hour to walk to his house, for normal people, at least an hour. Yes, missionaries walk faster than most people. Anyway, we teach this guy once, and he falls in love with the part about how Jesus Christ organized his church, and kept telling us "Nobody ever explained this to me before." Then we told him how we have the same organization and he about fell off his chair. He walked the hour to church and loved it, but left before we got a chance to talk to him about baptism. We passed him a few days later when we were walking around the mountain. We asked him if he had prayed about baptism and he just tells us simply, "Yes, I have already made the pact with God, so I am going to get baptized." Then on the next Sunday (last Sunday) he comes up and just asks me out of the blue when the next baptismal service was, so I told him this (two days ago) Saturday. "OK" he said "I am going to get baptized that day." And that little old man from the mountain did it. He got baptized this Saturday and the whole time had a huge smile on his face. But there was a little bit of an awkward story from the baptism itself.

I got to organize the agenda of the service, so I decided to call on a non member friend of the guy getting baptized, to give the opening prayer. Just a quick preview to religion in Honduras, there are a TON of different churches, and some of them do or say things in prayers or in testimonies that are supposed to be saved for sacred ordinences. Some of them shout Halleluja all the time or end every prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost. Well this little old guy (like I said, lots of old guys) and he gives a 3 minute introduction to his prayer, also not uncommon here. We finally start praying and I don´t know why but I opened my eyes during the prayer and saw that little old guy praying his heart out with his are put to the square!!!!!! I just about lost it laughing. I know it´s a sacred thing that you´re not supposed to make fun of but that little man just doesn´t know that he´s not supposed to do that! We´ll have to teach him about that one real quick:)

Other than that things have been going alright. We had our regular interviews with President on Firday. His advice to me...Just let Elder Marcia end his mission thinking that he ended good. I love that man, he understands what´s going on and understands the truth when he hears it.

Oh, mom and Kristi...Just remember that when you are in Lima, Peru, I´m here in Lima, Honduras!!! And I can´t wait to talk to you all on Sunday, I should be able to call Sunday in the afternoon around 3.

I love you all and thank you all for everything!

Love,

Elder Neiswender

Thanks to Everybody

Dear Mom and everyone else,

First I would like to thank eveybody for all their encouragement these past few weeks. I have loved reading mission stories from all my aunts and cousins that have had similar experiences. Last week when I was feeling down, I tried making a list of all the people that have helped make me who I am today. All the people that given the opportunity, I would call great. After writing names for a good long while I looked at how many names that I had and realized that I hadn´t even come close to finishing. I can´t remember the number that did have a the time, but I added on and as the number grew I grew more and more amazed at the wonderful people that I have been blessed to have around me.

At the beginning of the mission, I remember when thinking about "Awesome" people that I knew, I had the list slimmed down to immediate family, the youth leaders in the ward, the preists quorum, and a couple of friends from school. As I go on, I have looked at different things I do and think, "Hey I learned that one from... or from...." I realize now that it wasn´t just a few people that changed my life in big ways. It was the people that changed the small things that gave me the strength to change the big things. Every day it seems like I think of someone new that helped me a long time ago, or even some random guy at the movie theatre telling me to keep smiling.

I look back and realize that it wasn´t just chance that I got put in Brother Smith´s seminary class, or it wasn´t just chance that I brothers with David Archuleta on trek, and it wasn´t just chance that I got called to this mission, and it wasn´t just chance that I was put with Elder Ellett as my MTC companion. You guys don´t know him or the other elders from the MTC, but I tell you that they are some of my closest friends and Elder Ellett is just someone you´ll have to meet when we get back. I know that it wasn´t just chance that Brad Johnson was in Oklahoma with me, or that Chris, Ryan, Grant, Adam, Andrew, James, Austin, etc. Were in the same priests quorum as me, or that Tim, Mike, Verl, and Jeff, etc were our leaders. I know it wasn´t just chance that I have the aunts and uncles and cousins I have. I know for a fact, and with absolutely no room for doubt that it wasn´t just chance that I have the brothers, sisters and grand-grandparents that I have. And I am abosutley astounded at the wonderful, genuine, great, helpful...I´m running out of space....parents that I have. Everyday I see more and more parents that don´t care, or don´t know how to care for the kids. And everyday I grow more thankful for the parents that God allowed me to have. When people ask me how I know there is a God, I don´t start by looking at the trees or the rivers or the animals anymore. I start by telling them about my family, my friends, and my leaders. I love you all, and I thank everyone of you for every little thing you did or me to help grow. I agree with Elder Simper that I can´t think of how I would have deserved it. I can´t even dream of how I could deserve people like you, I guess the Lord you that I would need you instead.

Thank you all, I love you and I thank you,

Sincerely,

Elder Travis Neiswender

Here's to Mom and Dad

Dear Mom, and everyone else,

Well, things are getting better, then they get worse, then they get better, then they get worse...aka...We have an awsome lesson where we both use each other and support each others ideas and teachings and have an awesome spirit, then he takes us to the cooks house and has the cooks daughter apply some random cream on his face, for about fifteen minutes. Luckily, President Veirs was at our zone meeting the next day, so I pulled him aside and talked to him. I love that man, he has a way of inpiring patcience that I didn't think possible. Then the next day, we have another awesome, the guy understood everything and accepted baptism right there in the first visit, then the next day we go back to the cooks house in the early evening, and while we eat, the members put on Rambo 4!!!! I eat fast so we can split, but Marcia eats nice and slow and laughs at everytime somebody gets killed saying it's good learn about that kind genecide kind of stuff that really happens. The real kicker about it all, nobody understood any of the words in the movie but me, they were all just watching it to see different ways that Rambo could kill a man and how much blood the producers could fit in. And it wasn't just the adults that watched with their undevided attention, it was the kids that were 6 years old and younger! And the people here wonder why there are so many gangs and murders in this country.

The whole time they had the movie playing, I just sat there looking at the floor thinking about how great my parents had raised me. I'm 19 (holy crap almost 20) and I'm pretty sure that my mom and dad would still be mad at me for seeing movies like that. There were always times back home when I was younger, that I would think to myself, "Oh I'm old and mature enough to see this movie or go to this party or do this thing or that thing." Then I would get mad when mom would say no because I wasn't old enough. I can't remember who it was that gave these next two quotes, but the first one helped me avoid bad movies and situations when friends would invite me to suchthings. I think it was Elder Nelson, who when his kids or grand kids wanted to take him to see a certain questionable movie, his reply to them as their father or grandfather was, "No, I don't think that I am mature enough to see that movie":) And then in this conference somebody gave a talk about how the Lord knows what he wants us to be and that is why he cuts us down, so that we can grow better. So I quote the words of that inspired messege of God. Mom, Dad, "Thanks for loving me enough to cut me down." I know I didn't always make it easy, but I thanks you for putting up with me and always being there to help me. The family here in Honduras is of little more importance than financial support. I consider myself extremely blessed to have been sent to a family with loving parents such as you. Thanks again for everything. I love you Mom and Dad.

And I love the rest of you too everyone. All of you have helped me become who I am today, and in no way can I deny it. The other day I tried making a list of all the people that have helped me for the better, and I just didn't have room on the paper for all the names. I love you all and thank you all for being wonderful parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephew, cousins, leaders, and friends.

Love,

Elder Neiswender