Mi seman hopi bon.

Hey Family,

Thanks for the emails! I’m glad that you had a great week. That is really sad about the guy who was trapped in the cave. Wow, I can’t even imagine. Thanks dad for including what you wrote on your blog. I’m glad that your Thanksgiving week was good - and I was laughing out loud that every room in the house will have its own Christmas tree!

Just a little “housekeeping” as you like to call it – about the picking me up. Its really funny because I dream all of the time about me going home – I don’t know what that means. But everything sounds good – I think that staying there until Tuesday might be a little bit long. Do you think that we could maybe do Monday? But, if Tuesday works out better or if its cheaper than that’s fine too.

But I just had a little thought – I bet that I’m going to just be talking your guys’ ears off the whole time. I hope that’s ok. I’ve realized being with my companions that I’m kind of a chatter box. Its funny.

Anyway, I’ve been dying to tell you guys all about Curacao! I was going to make a little list of all of the things that I wanted to tell you! But, I didn’t so hopefully I’ll remember. This is funny, I’m sure this is going to be really similar to all of my greeny emails. Which totally fits because this week I’ve felt totally like a greeny. Sometimes I like that, sometimes I don’t. But, thank you so much for your prayers because I have been able to catch on really fast to the language. Actually I was thinking about it and I was really grateful for the progress that I’ve made just in the past week. My companion gives me a lot of encouragement. After every prayer she always says, “hopi bon!” (really good!). Anyway, I was just feeling grateful and I thought, “you know, I bet my family has been praying for me that I would learn the language fast” and wow – totally true!

Thanks so much for your prayers – I know that they have helped so so so much!

Well, Curacao is the coolest little island. There are people from literally all over the map here. But, it has a lot of Dutch influence. There is this touristy part of our area that is called Punda and its full of Dutch architecture and shops and you can also see the cruise ships docked there too. Wow. Most of the buildings are really Dutch and so it's just gorgeous. And, there is a lot of Dutch food that is imported here too! I bought a little scone mix to make Dutch scones last week and this week I’m going to buy powdered sugar to put on them too. The bread is to die for as is the chocolate and these little waffle things that have caramel in the middle. Its seriously so cool. Its like living in Europe and the Caribbean at the same time.

The people here though are the best part! Wow, the branch here is just fantastic. Almost all of the members are endowed and are all really strong. A lot of them are from the Dominican Republic and others are from Columbia (two of our investigators are from Columbia). There is also a lady named Joyce from Suriname that comes out with us a lot. And, there are a bunch of really neat Jamaicans too! A lot of the members here live in pretty humble circumstances but are so happy and willing to give every thing they have for the Gospel. There is a recent convert family who are immigrants from Jamaica and they struggle so much but are so converted to the Gospel and have found so much peace in the Gospel.

I have been excited all week to tell you that I talk with Jamaicans just knowing that Mom and Dad love them so much! (We had a wonderful experience going to church in Jamaica.) The people here are really ready for the Gospel - it is really neat. We have 8 missionaries in our branch – our district – who are all really dedicated and have a lot of good investigators. It is going to be a great transfer. Church is a mix of Spanish and Papiamentu and there are some people that need translators because they just speak English. I feel like Devin.

I have fallen in love with black people. I just love being around them. I love being surrounded by people of all different cultures!

We had two great baptisms this last week to and I felt the Spirit really strong. They both were really happy. The font is outside so the service was outside. There is a zoo close by and the time that they have baptisms – around six – is the time when they feed the lions so you could hear a couple of times lions roaring in the background!

Last night I had a neat little Curacao island of enchantment moment. We were with Joyce and sitting outside a recent convert’s house sharing a scripture with him. It was just such a beautiful moment to be there. He is an older guy from Columbia. We were talking about the Gospel sitting there, it was breezy and I was watching the purple clouds move along the dark sky and could here faint sounds of Latin music in the background, all on this little island of the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean! What could be better than that? Wow, I feel so blessed to be here and to know the people here. I know that there are prepared people on this island waiting for the Gospel.

I love the Gospel with all of my heart. I know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and that His Gospel will never change. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. I was thinking yesterday about the Book of Mormon’s role in my life. I literally don’t know what I would do without it. Wow, what a great treasure we have!

Well, I love you all so much! Thanks so much for your continual support and love! Thanks Mom and Dad for raising me up in the Gospel. I love you all - also I’m praying for Alicia too.

Mi ta stimaboso hopi! ( I love you a lot!)
Ruman Neff

The Last Week in Utuado.

These photos are a week old, but they are the last ones sent to us from Utuado. One picture is of Maclaine and who we believe to be Hilda. The other is of a wonderful family she began teaching just prior to leaving. There is a wonderful story that goes along with that picture, but not for the internet.

Christmas Update.

We found out a few days ago that Maclaine will NOT be able to receive any Christmas packages. The mission office is unable to deliver them and traditional mail takes between 6-8 weeks. And even if it did get there on time, the postal workers will have removed everything of value for their own consumption. Letters to her mission office, should make it on time.

In an earlier letter, Maclaine told us that she didn't want us to send anything. I guess we now have to take that request seriously.

Mi nomber ta ruman neff (My name is Sister Neff)

Images we've found online of Curacao (prononced cur-a-sow) island.

HI guys!

Estoy sentada aqui. Or in papiemento “Mi ta sinta akinan”. Oh wow, there are people speaking gibberish here also known as Papiamento. (Maclaine was transferred to the island of Curacao on Monday.)

I cannot tell you about how shocked I was to be told by President Martineau that I would be finishing my mission here. It was really really sad to say goodbye to all of the investigators and members in Utuado but I think it helped them and me not be as sad when I told them, no se preocupen. Mis padres me van a recoger de la mission cuando termine asi que nos volveremos a ver pronto. (Don’t worry. My parents are coming to pick me up when I finish my mission so we will see each other really soon!) Yep – I decided! I would love for you to come and pick me up! Monday night I was stewing about it and so I decided to make a pros and cons list. Well all of the pros totally outweighed all of the cons and I just had a really peaceful feeling about it all. Then I went and prayed about my decision and felt really good about you guys picking me up! Yay!

Then it was perfect because the next day I had interviews with President Martineau. Sister Sitton (Maclaine's companion) and I were interviewed for a minute together before our separate interviews. Sister Sitton said, “President I have never met someone so different than myself but we are having such a good time together.” He kind of stopped her right there and with a huge smile said, “ Well, that’s great. Because Sister Neff is going to finish her mission in the Islands and you (sister Sitton) are going to train.”

Then he said to me “You will be with your companion for a month and then you will train. (Which I don’t think that anyone else really knows that here on the islands but we’ll see what happens.) So you'd better learn the language fast!” Oh. My. Gosh. Never in my life would I have thought that this would happen! Wow. I was in shock!

It has all worked out really well because even though last week was my last week to serve in Puerto Rico, I was so excited to be able to come back and introduce you to the people and culture that I love! I feel like I am starting a whole new mission – it is crazy. But there are a ton of different cultures here – a ton of Dominicans which feed us a lot. My companion said that she has gained a lot of weight here. Nice. That’s a nice little sumpin to look forward to.

But there are also Jamaicans, and a lot of Dutch people. On the plain it was so neat because I was just surrounded by a whole bunch of different cultures! And hello – I got to go on a plane! For all of the zone conferences here we catch a 30 minute flight to Aruba. How awesome is that? I feel a little bit nervous about speaking this new language but apparently it is really easy to catch on to. With a lot of prayer, the Lord will help me. And, a lot of people speak Spanish. My comp is really nice too. She says that the members are AMAZING here. Last week they had 17 lessons with members present – in Utuado we were trying for a good 3 or 4. She says that they give of their love so freely. I miss PR a bit, but I have a ton of animo to work here this next translado! I love you so much! I totally got the package and loved everything! I’m in love with my princess twistables. (Pens we sent from Disneyland.) Thanks so much for your love and support. I was so excited to hear about the fortune cookie and Elder Ballard! I luf youwr a lot!

I know that this is Christ's Gospel and that Jesus is the Christ and knows us perfectly. I know that the E Buki di Mormon (Book of Mormon)is the word of God. Wow. we are so blessed.

Sister Neff

"I feel so blessed."

At the caves and beaches in Arecibo!

This weekend there was a Caribbean conference that was held in the DR (Dominican Republic) and a bunch of general authorities were there and also Elder Ballard. We got to watch it via satellite in Arecibo. Oh wow, it was so so amazing. It was broadcast to the whole area so I hope that Andy was able to watch it in the West Indies. I continue to think that it is so awesome that he is serving in the same part of the world that I am. The conference was in Spanish mostly, so I don’t know if he would have seen it.

Wow – Elder Ballard was awesome – he talked a lot about how every child of God has the right to receive personal revelation and guidance from Him. He talked about a lot of neat experiences that he has had reorganizing stakes and calling stake presidents and how both he and these men and even in some cases their families received the revelation that they would be called as stake presidents. It reminded me of the times when I have received similar witnesses of the Spirit kind of letting me know that I would receive a calling – specifically about my missionary calling and also when I was called to the seminary counsel. What a wonderful gift it is to have the Spirit and to be able to ask our Heavenly Father for what we need.

I have learned so much about prayer since I have been here in Puerto Rico. I have absolutely no doubt that our Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and that He answers us. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of me and my presence here on the earth. A lot of times as a missionary, especially when you can’t see any immediate success from the work that you are doing it is easy to get down on yourself.

I read Elder Uchdorf’s conference address this morning and it was awesome. I want to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ and to be motivated in everything I do by the love of God. I still have miles more to go but I am excited that I recognize that room to improve. I won’t even be close when I finish my mission. I know that this mission will just be a spring board to help me become the person that the Lord knows that I can be. How blessed I am to be serving a mission and to invite others to come unto Christ!

Last night we had an amazing lesson with our investigator Hilda. She called us in the middle of last week asking us to come by. We hadn’t gone by, in hopes that the situation that I explained last week would have cooled down. So we went over and as she told us a little more in depth about what had happened and as I was listening I thought about the story of Esther and that we needed to teach her about fasting.

So, we taught her about fasting and invited her to fast this weekend with us so that the situation with her and her husband could improve. Anyway, we went over last night and she said that she had fasted and loved it! But, there was way more that happened than just that. We went with a member, Carmen Rodriguez, a previously semi-active member, and she was amazing! At the beginning of the lesson she was asked to say the opening prayer and she invited us all to kneel down to say the opening prayer. As we talked about it afterward in the car we thanked her for doing that because it invited the Spirit so well for the rest of the lesson. When we said this she said, “El Espiritu me guia."

How blessed we were to have a third companion with us who is also guided by the Spirit!! Throughout the lesson she gave great testimonies and support to what we were talking about – prayer. During the course of the lesson I felt like we should share Moroni 10:3-5 again with Hilda. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I prefaced the scripture. Never before had the Spirit made such a powerful connection in my mind of the background of this scripture. Here Moroni was, with a thousand years of history written on these gold plates that his father had spent so much time compiling, getting ready to bury them in the earth for more than a thousand years and he urges us to read them, ponder them, and pray to God to know if they are true. Wow, the Spirit was so strong and I felt edified by the Spirit as I taught.

Then, as we talked with Hilda she told us that she knew that they were true. We then invited her to be baptized. Although she did not accept the exact date that we extended, she did express her desire to be baptized and told us about how no other church or message has touched her like this one. We invited her to pray to know if she should be baptized on that specific date.

I feel so blessed for the Spirit that we felt in that lesson. Then, as we were saying goodbye to Carmen she said something like - “We’ll be able to get her baptized on Dec 12th!” At the end of the night I couldn’t decide what joy was greater – joy because Hilda knows these things are true and has the desire to join the church or the joy because Carmen is taking part in this great work!

I’m excited for what the Lord is doing here. I loved what Elder Ballard said in His testimony of the Savior and that this is His church and that He is close to it. I know that He lives and that He is the one who is doing all of the miracles here in our area.

Goofeao’ (goof-y-ow)

Hello my dearest family!

Thank you so much for the emails! Don’t ever worry about sending long emails. Just like you guys eat up my emails, I eat up your emails. Seriously. I love hearing about everything.

This week has been an amazing week. We are teaching a lot of people that are truly interested in the gospel and are really strong investigators. One of them is Jury – she’s about 30 and really independent and smart, but really interested in the Gospel. She has a little bit of a hard time accepting that women can’t have the priesthood but to our wonderful surprise she has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it. She even was talking to someone at work about it. It was neat - she told us that the first day that we contacted her she had seen us about a half an hour before in McDonalds and she thought it was cool that there were women missionaries. Then a half an hour later we showed up on her street and contacted her. I can TOTALLY see her getting baptized!

We are teaching other people with a lot of potential. One of them is a family too! I could tell neat experiences about each one of them. All of them are in the same phase of only having had two or so lessons and so we are hoping that this week they will come to church. But, I feel really full of energy and excitement for the work and so hopeful for the future here in this branch. We were really sad on Sunday because we woke up to a phone call a few minutes before 6:30 AM from our investigator Hilda. She is progressing the most. She has made friends with a sister in the ward and also the Ramirez’. She committed this week (with excitement) to come to church. Well, she called us on Sunday morning to tell us that her husband came home in the middle of the night and told her that if she went to church with us then she shouldn’t plan on coming back and that he doesn’t want us to visit her anymore. Hilda was in really bad shape when she called us. She said that she had even gone out to buy a skirt to go to church. It was a quick conversation and right after Sister Sitton and I got on our knees to pray that Heavenly Father would soften the heart of her husband. I know that the power of God is stronger than that of the adversary and that somehow, through the power of God, everything will work out for Hilda’s good.

Although this situation is very sad, and we will keep praying I have a lot of hope for the rest of our investigators. Almost everyone that we are teaching I can see getting baptized! We have really focused on teaching about baptism in our lessons from the very beginning and have felt a change in the power that our lessons have. I’m continuing to strive to focus on my purpose and it has been going well.

Anyway, I’ve got to go because our zone leaders just called and the zone is waiting for us to go to an activity. And we still have a half an hour drive ahead of us. Oops! Anywya, I love you all so much!

Sister Neff

P.S. puertorican word of the week, goofeao’ (goof-y-ow). Surely stems from the English word goofy. Changed to goofeado then with a Puerto Rican accent is goofeao. Means cool, awesome. After we watched the restoration video with an investigator family we asked him how he liked it and he said it was “goofeao!”

Halloween in the isle of Enchantment.

Hey Guys!!!!

Wow- what great emails this week! I'm so grateful for this time that I have to write you and catch up and ponder a little bit about how the week went. Its a great opportunity to realize all of the blessings that Heavenly Father has blessed me with this week. Sometimes its so easy to get caught up in the day to day but looking back at this week we have seen some neat things and I have been able to feel the Holy Ghost a lot in our work so I'm grateful that we write every week, it helps me to recognize the blessings.

Well, this week was the last week of the month which means we were super low on miles - so we walked just about everywhere this last week. My back is killing me but it was actually really fun and it was really neat because we felt like we got to get to know our area a lot more.

There is just something neat about walking around instead of driving. We felt more focused and more connected to the people and had to rely on the others - like to get water or use their bathrooms. It was definitely kind of "without purse or script", just the scriptures in your hand kind of an experience. Really neat. And, just to give you a little mental image - I had my umbrella with me the entire time. Here is your little sis Neff walking around P.R. with a backpack and an umbrella! It was really funny - yesterday we got out of the car to go "toquing" (a Spanglish version of saying "knocking") and headed up a really steep hill. Our legs were like butter! After the whole week of walking around they were seriously jello. My companion and I just looked at each other and just laughed. It was so funny for some reason. But, luckily we made it up the hill ! We are going to try to be walking around a lot more!

Also this week was Halloween. So, we had a little Halloween sleepover! (Missionaries have to return early to their apartments on Halloween.) We pulled the mattresses out into our little family/study room and put on the lights, wore our socks and glow sticks, and just read, I attempted to make Puerto Rican pollo guizado (failed miserabley. But there will be other attempts. The next time though I think I'm going to buy frozen chicken. I discovered that I hate the smell of raw chicken - it makes me want to vom.). It was a super fun night. I snuggled up and read Jesus the Christ - that the 19th ward sent me. Wow. I was reading about Christs temptations - it was so awesome. Serioiusly the more I learn about my Savior and the sacrifice that He made, after having lived a perfect life makes me want to share the Gospel even more. I love Him so much and I know with all my hear that He lives.

Then, we actually slept out there - it was a fun Halloween night. And then a good day at church the next day too. Sacrament Meeting was exactly what I needed - even in our little branch of 25 people we could feel the Spirit a lot. What a wonderful pick me up.

We've found some great new investigators that we are really excited about. The investigators that we have been teaching have kind of dropped off a little bit. It was actually really sad because we haven't been able to find Jose and then I talked to him on the phone the night before church and he gave us the polite "tengo tu numero" brush off that people normally give us after a first lesson. THen the branch pres told us that he had seen him drinking again. Really sad. But, I know that he'll remember how he felt when he was at church and learning about the Gospel. But, I'm excited for these new investigators. We've been able to feel the Spirit a lot this week as we've taught.

Well, I love you guys so much! I'm so glad and grateful that you are my family AND that you are all so strong in the Gospel. What a blessing to know that we are all striving to keep the commandments and that we are experiencing so much happiness even in different parts of the world! I am so grateful for your emails and for your love and support! I love you all so much - more than you know. I hope that this week will be awesome and that everything goes well with the Alicia call. I was thinking about her being home and me living at home tambien to help with the Spanish/ English transition - I know that it will all work out.

Reading about Patience in PMG (Preach My Gospel) I absolutely loved this quote by Pres Monson." Life is full of difficulties. Some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required." You guys are such a wonderful example of patience and faith with this whole situation. It is an attribute that I'm trying to develop and you guys are a great example to me of that.

Anyway, I love you all so much!!!

Sister Neff