Saturday, January 30, 2010
Just under three weeks and counting.
This is Maclaine's dad writing. In less than three weeks Maclaine will be released from her mission. We are all in denial. Grateful denial, but denial nonetheless. It takes our breath away when we consider this most marvelous blessing to us, to her and especially to her beloved people of Puerto Rico. Gotta stop writing. Tears are coming!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Elders with Cameras
Wow, its really hard to concentrate right now because the Titanic theme song just came on. Actually I’m surprised, I’m not as distracted as I would’ve thought… Oh wait, the finale is coming up… Ok here we go. This seems to be the radio station that plays all of the songs that I loved in 6th grade. Latin pop is so much easier to tune out. Anyway…
Thank you so much for your emails. They were so inspiring! Every week I just get this boost and reminder of the eternal importance of my calling. Thank you so much for giving me so much strength! I’m so glad that Andy is teaching Latin people. Wow. I just am in love with this part of the world. It is so special. We are teaching a girl from Suraname. She speaks English but also Dutch. Its cool because every time she needs to say no she says, “neigh”. Anyway, I just love all of these countries down here.
But, this week has been great. There are a lot of great spiritual things to share and a couple of funny things to share too. Like I said in my President’s letter, we have been blessed with some really neat investigators. I can’t think of anything too specific to share, just that I love finding people and testifying to them of the truthfulness of the Gospel. I find that my most effective contacts are when I really internalize what I’m saying and what the Gospel really means to me. I was thinking about it during one of my studies. I was reading 2 Nephi 4 and Nephi is so grateful of everything that he has. I wanted to be more grateful so I started to list all of the things that I was grateful for. At first it started out to be more for temporal blessings and as the list continued it turned into Gospel blessings : Temples, Prophets and Apostles, the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. When I think about all of these blessings in my life while I am talking to others about the Gospel my desire becomes so much deeper for them to accept.
This week Its been neat because I’ve felt way more focused in the work. Normally when we get in the car is when its easiest to become unfocused and just talk about things that don’t really matter. Well, we came up with the idea of reading to each other from the Bible Dictionary while we drive. There are so many things that we feel like we don’t know about the Bible and the Bible Dictionary is a great resource. So we’ve been doing it and its been awesome. Its helped me to keep my mind on Spiritual things and helped keep my focus and energy up the whole day!
Ok, I think the most interesting things that’s happened this week has been ... drumroll… our bikes!!! We are biking missionaries now. Our first ride was riding home at night on them. We were both nervous but we got home ok. I actually really loved it! I felt even more like a missionary! The next morning wasn’t as fun as the first night but the soreness wore off pretty quick. Well, 2 days later we took the bikes again but this time to a lunch cita. I found out that its best not to ride on the side of the road where all of the thorns hide out. I got a flat. Luckily all of the other elders were also going to the cita so they came and fixed it for us, then they headed up to go to lunch. Well, as we were going up the last hill where the members house was, lo and behold ALL of the elders are standing at the top… WITH THEIR CAMERAS, videoing us!!! I have to say that I wasn’t too happy. My companion was a good sport though and finished climbing the hill. I, on the other hand, got off. I think my exact words were, “ I am not giving 8 elders the satisfaction of watching me ride my bike up a hill!” Oh elders. I have to say it was pretty funny though. But, all in all. Its been a fun experience. We really haven’t had to do it very much, but I’ve enjoyed it. We pray for a lot of protection.
Well, my time is slowly clicking away (at the internet place). I just feel so joyful these days and I’m glad that you guys do too. I love you so much and am really super excited to see you. I’m still kind of in denial but it’s a good denial. Just gotta focus on Today and the needs of the people here. I love them so much. I love Gods work, I know that this is His work and Glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man – and it all starts with missionary work. What a privilege we all have to be a part of it!!! I love you all so much!!
Love, Sister Neff
Thank you so much for your emails. They were so inspiring! Every week I just get this boost and reminder of the eternal importance of my calling. Thank you so much for giving me so much strength! I’m so glad that Andy is teaching Latin people. Wow. I just am in love with this part of the world. It is so special. We are teaching a girl from Suraname. She speaks English but also Dutch. Its cool because every time she needs to say no she says, “neigh”. Anyway, I just love all of these countries down here.
But, this week has been great. There are a lot of great spiritual things to share and a couple of funny things to share too. Like I said in my President’s letter, we have been blessed with some really neat investigators. I can’t think of anything too specific to share, just that I love finding people and testifying to them of the truthfulness of the Gospel. I find that my most effective contacts are when I really internalize what I’m saying and what the Gospel really means to me. I was thinking about it during one of my studies. I was reading 2 Nephi 4 and Nephi is so grateful of everything that he has. I wanted to be more grateful so I started to list all of the things that I was grateful for. At first it started out to be more for temporal blessings and as the list continued it turned into Gospel blessings : Temples, Prophets and Apostles, the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. When I think about all of these blessings in my life while I am talking to others about the Gospel my desire becomes so much deeper for them to accept.
This week Its been neat because I’ve felt way more focused in the work. Normally when we get in the car is when its easiest to become unfocused and just talk about things that don’t really matter. Well, we came up with the idea of reading to each other from the Bible Dictionary while we drive. There are so many things that we feel like we don’t know about the Bible and the Bible Dictionary is a great resource. So we’ve been doing it and its been awesome. Its helped me to keep my mind on Spiritual things and helped keep my focus and energy up the whole day!
Ok, I think the most interesting things that’s happened this week has been ... drumroll… our bikes!!! We are biking missionaries now. Our first ride was riding home at night on them. We were both nervous but we got home ok. I actually really loved it! I felt even more like a missionary! The next morning wasn’t as fun as the first night but the soreness wore off pretty quick. Well, 2 days later we took the bikes again but this time to a lunch cita. I found out that its best not to ride on the side of the road where all of the thorns hide out. I got a flat. Luckily all of the other elders were also going to the cita so they came and fixed it for us, then they headed up to go to lunch. Well, as we were going up the last hill where the members house was, lo and behold ALL of the elders are standing at the top… WITH THEIR CAMERAS, videoing us!!! I have to say that I wasn’t too happy. My companion was a good sport though and finished climbing the hill. I, on the other hand, got off. I think my exact words were, “ I am not giving 8 elders the satisfaction of watching me ride my bike up a hill!” Oh elders. I have to say it was pretty funny though. But, all in all. Its been a fun experience. We really haven’t had to do it very much, but I’ve enjoyed it. We pray for a lot of protection.
Well, my time is slowly clicking away (at the internet place). I just feel so joyful these days and I’m glad that you guys do too. I love you so much and am really super excited to see you. I’m still kind of in denial but it’s a good denial. Just gotta focus on Today and the needs of the people here. I love them so much. I love Gods work, I know that this is His work and Glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man – and it all starts with missionary work. What a privilege we all have to be a part of it!!! I love you all so much!!
Love, Sister Neff
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
"The hard is what makes it great."
Hello my darling family! Oh how I love you! Oh how I love your emails!
Wow. Well, this week has been great. Tough but great. But, just before… a little , as mom likes to call it, “housekeeping”. First item of business – I don’t think that President is coming down before next transfers. Possibly but I don’t think so. Sometimes they send the mail down through someone else, but I don’t know if any more would get here. I haven’t gotten your other letters yet but I think that someone has them – I’m going to pick them up today. And, other good news, our bikes haven’t arrived yet! Maybe this week we’ll start using them. It will be a perfect getting in shape thing.
Also, sad news – Elder Bednar isn’t coming down to the islands – he’s just going to Puerto Rico. We were super super bummed. But, its ok. He is doing a conference with both of the Puerto Rico missions and there are a lot of other islands in the east mission, so it wouldn’t be totally fair for him to come to some islands and not to others. Who knows if that’s why or not but its what we tell ourselves to help ourselves feel better. I think that’s all of the little news that I can think of.
Wow – it sounds like a great week that you guys have had! That is so neat about the ward doing so much humanitarian work! So neat. The reaction to the whole Haiti thing is a little bit different down here – I think it has really scared a lot of people. It usually gets brought up in lessons and then there are always the people that tell us they know why it happened. We don’t really know a lot of the details but that is awesome that they are getting a lot of help from the Edgemont 19th ward.
Well, like I said – its been a great week but also a hard week. Aren’t they always like that! There is a quote that I love from "A League of their own," and I totally applied it to the mission. Jimmy Dougan (Tom Hanks) is talking to Dottie who is going to leave the baseball league and she says, “It just got too hard.” He says, “It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” I love that because its so true. It wouldn’t be this great if it wasn’t so hard.
I just feel so grateful for this experience. I am loving it right now. I had interviews with President Martineau last week. They were awesome. I told him that I haven’t really realized that its my last transfer and then when I do I get nervous because I don’t really have any plans or goals for the future – like after the mission. What he told me was really neat. He explained the principal of “proximity” and that revelation usually doesn’t come to us until we need it. For example – the last night in the mission president’s home we have a chance to make those goals and I don’t need that revelation right now. So he told me not to worry about it and to just work hard. I was so glad. In Gabe’s words, “I feel so free!” I felt so liberated after the interview in knowing that I don’t need to worry about any of that right now, I just need to work hard! Of course its hard sometimes to stay focused – especially when you look at the date! I was contemplating whiting out the date on my planner so I wouldn’t be reminded of it but then I decided that that wouldn’t be very practical with setting appointments.
But, we have seen some really neat things this week. We have a couple of really neat young investigators that we see a lot of potential in. “Future missionary” was coming to my head all of the last lesson. I love this work and I love the scriptures. I’m so grateful for the Book of Mormon challenge that President Martineau gave us. We were talking about it in Zone conference and president asked one of the elders, “ Elder, when will the time come that you don’t read every day from the Book of Mormon?” he looked down and then said, “President, I don’t think that day will come anymore.” I was really touched by that and want to adapt his response. Every morning I wake up with a thirst to learn from the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is becoming the keystone to my religion. I know that it is the word of God and an evidence that this is the true church of Christ. He lives.
I love the calling that I have as a missionary and what makes me so happy is to know that my calling of preaching the Gospel doesn’t end with my mission because our call to gather Israel is for our whole lives! How neat is that!
Well, I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week!
Love,
Zuster Neff( I got my Dutch nametag!)
P.S. My companion and I love to make Dutch crapes – it’s a good mix that we get at the store. Also, Ritter sports have become a necessity whenever we pass by a pharmacy.
Wow. Well, this week has been great. Tough but great. But, just before… a little , as mom likes to call it, “housekeeping”. First item of business – I don’t think that President is coming down before next transfers. Possibly but I don’t think so. Sometimes they send the mail down through someone else, but I don’t know if any more would get here. I haven’t gotten your other letters yet but I think that someone has them – I’m going to pick them up today. And, other good news, our bikes haven’t arrived yet! Maybe this week we’ll start using them. It will be a perfect getting in shape thing.
Also, sad news – Elder Bednar isn’t coming down to the islands – he’s just going to Puerto Rico. We were super super bummed. But, its ok. He is doing a conference with both of the Puerto Rico missions and there are a lot of other islands in the east mission, so it wouldn’t be totally fair for him to come to some islands and not to others. Who knows if that’s why or not but its what we tell ourselves to help ourselves feel better. I think that’s all of the little news that I can think of.
Wow – it sounds like a great week that you guys have had! That is so neat about the ward doing so much humanitarian work! So neat. The reaction to the whole Haiti thing is a little bit different down here – I think it has really scared a lot of people. It usually gets brought up in lessons and then there are always the people that tell us they know why it happened. We don’t really know a lot of the details but that is awesome that they are getting a lot of help from the Edgemont 19th ward.
Well, like I said – its been a great week but also a hard week. Aren’t they always like that! There is a quote that I love from "A League of their own," and I totally applied it to the mission. Jimmy Dougan (Tom Hanks) is talking to Dottie who is going to leave the baseball league and she says, “It just got too hard.” He says, “It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” I love that because its so true. It wouldn’t be this great if it wasn’t so hard.
I just feel so grateful for this experience. I am loving it right now. I had interviews with President Martineau last week. They were awesome. I told him that I haven’t really realized that its my last transfer and then when I do I get nervous because I don’t really have any plans or goals for the future – like after the mission. What he told me was really neat. He explained the principal of “proximity” and that revelation usually doesn’t come to us until we need it. For example – the last night in the mission president’s home we have a chance to make those goals and I don’t need that revelation right now. So he told me not to worry about it and to just work hard. I was so glad. In Gabe’s words, “I feel so free!” I felt so liberated after the interview in knowing that I don’t need to worry about any of that right now, I just need to work hard! Of course its hard sometimes to stay focused – especially when you look at the date! I was contemplating whiting out the date on my planner so I wouldn’t be reminded of it but then I decided that that wouldn’t be very practical with setting appointments.
But, we have seen some really neat things this week. We have a couple of really neat young investigators that we see a lot of potential in. “Future missionary” was coming to my head all of the last lesson. I love this work and I love the scriptures. I’m so grateful for the Book of Mormon challenge that President Martineau gave us. We were talking about it in Zone conference and president asked one of the elders, “ Elder, when will the time come that you don’t read every day from the Book of Mormon?” he looked down and then said, “President, I don’t think that day will come anymore.” I was really touched by that and want to adapt his response. Every morning I wake up with a thirst to learn from the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is becoming the keystone to my religion. I know that it is the word of God and an evidence that this is the true church of Christ. He lives.
I love the calling that I have as a missionary and what makes me so happy is to know that my calling of preaching the Gospel doesn’t end with my mission because our call to gather Israel is for our whole lives! How neat is that!
Well, I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week!
Love,
Zuster Neff( I got my Dutch nametag!)
P.S. My companion and I love to make Dutch crapes – it’s a good mix that we get at the store. Also, Ritter sports have become a necessity whenever we pass by a pharmacy.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The lingering possibility of helmet hair.
Dear Family,
I was super excited to hear from you guys too this week! Wow, what incredible things that have happened this week for you guys! Happy Birthday Ruby! I totally thought of you yesterday and thought too that I can’t believe that you are 14! Wow. That’s just crazy. It made me smile a big smile to know that Ruby laughs like me. I didn’t know that I “have” a laugh but that makes me happy. There’s a lot of things that make me happy these days.
Wow! What a neat experience that Gabe had! Wow! That is just about the most special thing I’ve ever heard. Elder Holland is like the hero apostle of all of the missionaries. That is SO awesome. Gabe – you will be an amazing missionary and you will love your mission too.
Wow, it is so great to hear from you guys. I just love you all so so so much. This week started off with me going to Aruba to pick up my new companion and drop off Sister Reid. We stayed there for the night and then left the next afternoon. It was fun. It was sad to see sister Reid go though. I probably won’t see her until she is done with her mish. But, this week has been fun with my new companion. She is from Cali – a little bit east of LA. She is super fun. She has about 10 or so months in the mission and speaks good Spanish and Papiamento. So its really nice. We have had a lot of fun together. I’m grateful to have her as my companion for my last transfer.
Its been really interesting to think about. Most of the time it doesn’t feel any different until something happens like last night when I decided to work on a Christlike attribute from Preach My Gospel – one a week. My companion asks me, “um.. . do you have enough time to do that?” No! Then, it hits me and it's really weird. I’m not really sad, but I’m just enjoying every minute and every time I’m in a lesson feeling the Spirit. Yesterday it was really neat we had a lesson where an investigator was describing how she felt as she read the Book of Mormon and even with the distracting American music in the background I was able to feel the Spirit and was so amazed at how true the Book of Mormon is.
I just love feeling the Spirit so much. It is definitely something that I have been able to recognize more on my mission, the presence of the Holy Ghost and its promptings. Just last night we needed to contact some more people before we reported our numbers and I was going to turn to go to a place where we could find a lot of people but I felt like I should turn the other way and go the longer way to get there. After thinking about it for a second I decided to follow the prompting and go. It wasn’t a huge deal but just a little prompting from the Holy Ghost.
Well, on the way over we needed to drop something off at a member’s house so we stopped and on the way talked to a guy who was waiting for the bus. He seemed interested and without hesitating accepted an appointment. Then after, as we were talking with someone else I looked over to see the bus picking him up and he was gone. I knew that I had received that prompting because of him. Just something small but it was really neat to see how subtle the Holy Ghost’s promptings are and that they will always lead us to do the right thing. So, right now I’m just finding joy in all of the little opportunities like that that I have everyday. I just have to make the most of it.
Well, I love you guys so so much. There isn’t too much to report on this week. Thanks so much for praying with me for my goal! I KNOW that it is possible. I love you all and I hope that you have an awesome week!
Sister Neff
P.S.We probably get our bikes this week. We are going to be half the week on bikes. Half on cars. Super excited for helmet hair. But hey, it will help me get in shape!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
E ta hopi nechi
Sorry, I thought that P-day would be tomorrow, but its today. (We didn't send her an email because we were planning on sending it on Tuesday.) My companion and I are going to Aruba tonight to spend the night then I'm coming back with my new companion tomorrow to start - can you believe it- my last transfer. Wow, I just can't even believe it.
It has been a crazy week just thinking about the fact that this is my last transfer. I actually got kind of emotional the last planning session as I was talking about my goals for the next week, and really, for the next transfer. My goal for this transfer is to magnify my calling as a missionary. I really want to strive to become the missionary that Heavenly Father wants me to be. My desire to do that is so strong. Also, I want to baptize two people this transfer. I know that with Heavenly Father's help I can help bring two other people into the church. I read "The testifying and challenging missionary" today and in that talk I realized how I can accomplish this goal! Wow, as I think back on what I have learned, especially as I was thinking about 2009 - the entire that I've spent in my mission - I was filled with emotion and gratitude for what Heavenly Father has given me. I want to do everything I can to live up to the expectations that Heavenly Father has for me on my mission.
Well, I hope your week was good. Kind of weird to be writing a letter without hearing from you... but its all good. Did you get President's letter? Elder Bednar is going to be coming to our mission at the end of January!!! Wow. E ta hopi nechi! (its really cool!) What a tender mercy for me to be able to see him this last transfer. Whoa.
I'm bummed again because I can't send pictures. There are a million that I want to send you! We went to this cool place last P-day called shete boca (seven mouths) its a cool park where the water breaks on the shore... anyway, I got some cool pics. Hopefully next week.
Well, as I'm sitting down to write, I can't think of anything really specific to write about this week. It was a great week but I just can't remember what happened! Oh yes - New years. Let me just tell you how many fireworks they have here. Oh. My. Gosh. But, they aren't cool kinds, they are just really dangerous, loud kinds. The entire week they were going off, more and more until New Years Eve. It was crazy. They would light them off in the middle of the day and in the street.
I think I had a heart attack every time I would hear one - it sounded like a gunshot every time. Our district was talking about New Years Eve and one of the elders said, " Last year I went to bed on time " and another one responded, "Ya, well last year you weren't living in Vietnam!" Seriously. But, thank goodness the firework madness is over. Just a little piece of Curacao that I thought I'd share with you.
Oh, another interesting piece of news... we are getting bikes. Ya. We'll still have cars but we'll have bikes too. I don't really know why but hey, at least I'll be getting in shape!
We have some really great new investigators that I am excited about. I have a lot of hopes for them. I can't tell you how much I love teaching the restoration. I feel such a sweet Spirit every time. I know that Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.
Also, what a great experience it was to finish the Book of Mormon on the 31st! (A goal for her mission.) I was finishing the last few chapters in Moroni and I had the strongest, most burning feeling in my heart telling me that what I was reading was true. Then, as I knelt down to pray and do as Moroni instructed, the feeling intensified. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We watched the Restoration movie a couple of days later and with my renewed and stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon in mind I felt a confirmation about Joseph Smith. If the Book of Mormon is true then surely Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I knew these things before but my testimony has deepened and my desire to share this with the world has grown. The days after I had these experiences I felt incredibly happy as I went about doing missionary work and testifying to people of the Book of Mormon.
Love you,
Sister Nefi
It has been a crazy week just thinking about the fact that this is my last transfer. I actually got kind of emotional the last planning session as I was talking about my goals for the next week, and really, for the next transfer. My goal for this transfer is to magnify my calling as a missionary. I really want to strive to become the missionary that Heavenly Father wants me to be. My desire to do that is so strong. Also, I want to baptize two people this transfer. I know that with Heavenly Father's help I can help bring two other people into the church. I read "The testifying and challenging missionary" today and in that talk I realized how I can accomplish this goal! Wow, as I think back on what I have learned, especially as I was thinking about 2009 - the entire that I've spent in my mission - I was filled with emotion and gratitude for what Heavenly Father has given me. I want to do everything I can to live up to the expectations that Heavenly Father has for me on my mission.
Well, I hope your week was good. Kind of weird to be writing a letter without hearing from you... but its all good. Did you get President's letter? Elder Bednar is going to be coming to our mission at the end of January!!! Wow. E ta hopi nechi! (its really cool!) What a tender mercy for me to be able to see him this last transfer. Whoa.
I'm bummed again because I can't send pictures. There are a million that I want to send you! We went to this cool place last P-day called shete boca (seven mouths) its a cool park where the water breaks on the shore... anyway, I got some cool pics. Hopefully next week.
Well, as I'm sitting down to write, I can't think of anything really specific to write about this week. It was a great week but I just can't remember what happened! Oh yes - New years. Let me just tell you how many fireworks they have here. Oh. My. Gosh. But, they aren't cool kinds, they are just really dangerous, loud kinds. The entire week they were going off, more and more until New Years Eve. It was crazy. They would light them off in the middle of the day and in the street.
I think I had a heart attack every time I would hear one - it sounded like a gunshot every time. Our district was talking about New Years Eve and one of the elders said, " Last year I went to bed on time " and another one responded, "Ya, well last year you weren't living in Vietnam!" Seriously. But, thank goodness the firework madness is over. Just a little piece of Curacao that I thought I'd share with you.
Oh, another interesting piece of news... we are getting bikes. Ya. We'll still have cars but we'll have bikes too. I don't really know why but hey, at least I'll be getting in shape!
We have some really great new investigators that I am excited about. I have a lot of hopes for them. I can't tell you how much I love teaching the restoration. I feel such a sweet Spirit every time. I know that Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.
Also, what a great experience it was to finish the Book of Mormon on the 31st! (A goal for her mission.) I was finishing the last few chapters in Moroni and I had the strongest, most burning feeling in my heart telling me that what I was reading was true. Then, as I knelt down to pray and do as Moroni instructed, the feeling intensified. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We watched the Restoration movie a couple of days later and with my renewed and stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon in mind I felt a confirmation about Joseph Smith. If the Book of Mormon is true then surely Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I knew these things before but my testimony has deepened and my desire to share this with the world has grown. The days after I had these experiences I felt incredibly happy as I went about doing missionary work and testifying to people of the Book of Mormon.
Love you,
Sister Nefi
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