Surprise Baptism

January 28, 2013

Dear family,

            First of all, Dad, no worries about the letter just when you get to it, that will be fine.  I am so glad that you are all my family.  I just think of you and pray for you and am filled with such an overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude for you all.  I love being a missionary and can't believe the time is winding down SO fast.  It is incredible to think less than 5 months til I get home!  I try not to think on it, although I will be happy to see you, but I honestly don't know where it has gone.  I can't say enough about how thankful I am for my mission and a family who has prepared me in more ways than you know to be a successful missionary.  I hope Alex and even some of the girls if they so choose will not just go on a mission but I hope you all prepare to serve.  Not just reading and studying but learning patience and love, which I will tell you our family can teach you a lot of those two haha.  Some good and some not so good haha. 

            Here in the field we had a surprise baptism, literally!  We have been teaching Brother Dan Bravo and he has been so solid but then this last week he wasn't sure and brought up a concern about tithing so we had to postpone the baptism that was to happen this last Saturday.  So Monday the 21st we had a lesson and we were really trying to help him overcome his concern but he still said he needed to pray and work some stuff out before his baptism on the 26th.  We had a tour of the temple with him Tuesday and he still wasn't sure and then Saturday we thought we were with out a baptism.  You could imagine how we felt as we had transfers and couldn't see him for 3 days straight and just had to hope that he was praying and getting answers and having the courage to act on what is right.  Then Saturday afternoon we get a call from Bro. Bravo and he says that he wants to meet up with us Saturday evening at 7 at the Stake Center.  We were traveling with President Gelwix at the time doing some mission business and so we changed our plans and got there and Brother Bravo was dressed in white!  It was so awesome and he said he knew since last Sunday he was going to do this but he wanted to surprise us.  It was awesome.  A ton of the ward was there and everything set up and we went to dinner with him, his family, some other misssionaries and President afterwards.

            We have zone conferences this coming week on Tues, Weds, and Thurs and so we will be very busy this week as well but it will be great.  This transfer is only 5 weeks long cause of the change in MTC time is now one week shorter.  Usually the transfers are 6 weeks but to accomodate the surplus of missionaries they changed the time from 9 weeks in the MTC for foreign speaking to 6 weeks.  Also for native speaking it went from 3 to 2 weeks.

             Ok this is really important: I need the info for our dental insurance (what ever that entails) so that I can get this tooth fixed.  I realized I need it so I had to move the appointment and so it is next Monday at 1:30pm so I just need that insurance info so that they can find out costs and stuff.  I would have done it this week but they are open Mon-Thurs. and we have the conferences this week through Thurs.  So it is set and it will be done now for sure, I just need that info and President said I can get on my email when ever today or this week to get that info from you.  So just email me back with that as soon as you can and I will get it to the dentist.

            I love you all so much and appreciate all that you do for me.  I realy am so thankful for your prayers and love for me.  You are the best family ever and I want to spend forever with you.  Be a missionary every single day!  LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Picture of tooth to come

January 21, 2013

Dear family,

 

          I love you so very much and appreciate all you do for me, with your prayers, emails, letters and packages.  Things are going well and this week is transfer week so things will be crazy as we won't have even one day after monday til Sunday to work in our area.  We always have lots of time but this week is always nuts and we don't get lots of sleep.  We have a lesson with a man named Dan Bravo tonight and he is going to get baptized on Saturday.  He is amazing and he has been progressing ever since we met him.  We met him 2 weeks ago and he has been to church 3 times in a row and read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.  Then tuesday we are with the departing missionaries all day, Weds we take them to the airport and pick up the new missionaries and then we go and have a training session with their trainers while the new missionaries go with some zone leaders to go contact people.  Then Weds night we get back to President's house and have dinner and orientation.  Thursday we assign trainers and trainees and drive up and down the mission to drop everyone off and get home late.  Friday and Sat. we have a leadership training for district, zone and leadership trainers and the trainers.  A lady named Liz Wiseman is coming to do a training called "Multipliers" and she gets paid the big bucks to do this training all of the world but President Gelwix is a friend of hers so she is coming for the 3rd time and doing it for free.

         I will send a picture of my tooth next week. I don't have my camera on me and haven't gone to the dentist but it will be done this next monday unfortunately but it will be done and I will take a picture and send it.  I love you and pray for you all every night.  Please be a missionary every day.  LOVE YOU!!!!!!

 

ps happy birthday Olivia, I love you a ton!!

 

-Love Elder Neeley

Trip to Yosemite

January 15, 2013

Dear family,

           Sorry the email is late.  We went to Yosemite as you can see from the pictures from some missionaries from the south of the mission and with our mission President and it was so much fun!  We had the missionaries come stay the night with us the night before so that we could get up in the morning and go north to get to Yosemite with plenty of time to see the park.  We saw a coyote and some deer and the deer in the picture I sent you was less than 10 yards away as it came up close to us and tried to cross that bridge you see but got scared of the people on it.  JoAnna would have loved to see that and be there for that haha.  It was a great time and we all got to bond together.  We then taught a less active man this evening and invited him back to church with his wife who is not a member.  Their last name is Richardson and they are very nice but just have to jump the hurdle of getting back to church for the first time.  They say that they are closer and closer each time we come over and that they love having us by so we are praying and hoping they will be there soon.

            Things are going well and this next week will be busy as we have transfer boards this week (that is when we decide which missionaries go where and do what for the upcoming transfers) and then the next week is transfers and that is crazy for us with the outgoing and incoming missionaries.  It will be exciting and probably I won't get as much sleep.  I love being a missionary and sharing the Gospel.  It is hard but it is so much fun at the same time.  I truly appreciate all you do and have done and sacrificed for me to be here and serve Jesus Christ in this way.  I love Him and love all of you and this work.  Our area is doing well as we had 3 investigators at church this week and we have about 7 or 8 people that should be getting baptized here in these next few months so we are very excited and moving right along.  I love you all so very much and keep you in my prayers.  Be a missionary every day.

-Love Elder Neeley

ps Grandma I will send that letter to you first thing and I will set up an apt. with the dentist for this week.  LOVE YOU!

Getting the Hang of AP

January 7, 2013

Dear family,

           Things are going well in Fresno and I think I am starting to get the hang of being an assistant.  It is a lot of fun to be with the missionaries and I have already see how the Lord has used me to be the means of answering other missionaries' prayers.  I love being with them and having a good time but also being there for them in the struggles they go through everyday.  We are starting to ramp up as far as getting more missionaries in the mission.  We will have 50+ in just the next 2 transfers and we will have to open 12 new areas and this is just the beginning.

           Christmas was really good and there were no problems as far as I know of missionaries abusing rules or hanging out or talking for hours with their family.  We have a very obedient mission in general with very few exceptions of missionaries you could probably count on one hand.  President Gelwix truly inspires us to do more and to be obedient as he does the same.  I love him a ton and he is so awesome and you will meet him some day when you are out in Utah to visit.

            The other day we taught a man who is still technically a member of the church like he is on the records but he is evangelical.  Then when we asked why he keeps his name on the records, he told us that it is so that we keep coming by and he has the opportunity to teach us and "save" us.  He grew up LDS in a severely dis-functional family which I believe by the impressions of the Spirit, caused him to go looking why things were that way and found junk and trash on the church and really gets so caught up on things that are distortions and lies by men who like him have been hurt by people in the church and therefore attacks the church itself.  It was very sad to see and I don't mean in like a I'm right and what a pity on this ignorant fool kind of way but it was sad to see that he blinded himself the Spirit and shuns all reason from the scriptures.  He believes in the Bible but looks to the internet for info.  We told him we could answer any question from the scriptures that he wanted but that we would not go to the internet where you can find anything.  The internet just about holds NO weight as far as being factual and reliable.  He never even read the Bible and he does the same thing that he accuses all Mormons of doing which is: not look at the "facts", "questions" or "imperfections" of the scriptures and just put the doubts on the shelf and never really investigate it, then teach our children and brainwash them to reject and search for truth.  He did each of those things with his new evangelical faith and it was as sick of a display of Satan destroying someone and confusing them in to believing literal nonsense.  He didn't even know what he believes based on the scriptures cause if he actually read them as we pointed out he would see it didn't make sense.  They, as in anti-mormon people, attack the Book of Mormon so hard (and fail every time) but don't even worry about the many, many fallacies of the Bible.  They completely look past it cause that is what Satan does.  He makes wrong seem right and right seem wrong, it was all true and evident and disturbing.  I know the Bible is the words of God from Him and is true as far as it is translated correctly (or rather as far as man didn't ruin it and destroy the truth in it which they have MANY times) and I know that the Book of Mormon is too.  If you ever doubt that or have a question, it doesn't have to be swept under the rug but it can be investigated and asked and resolved but you must look properly and in the places of fact not opinion.  Who would you ask to know if the Book of Mormon is true: someone who as read sincerely (not from pressure of family or anything like that) looking for truth from God and only God, or would you listen to someone who as been hurt or mislead and is emotionally charged?  Would you ask John the apostle if Jesus is the Christ as he hung on the cross or Judas Iscariot or a Pharisee who were bought by silver and gold?  If you have questions feel free to ask me.  I don't know everything or even a lot but I will and can find out all things that God has revealed to man through His prophets.  I bring this up cause it is dangerous and if it hasn't come up in your life it will, and you must be prepared, not just to shut off your brain and be ignorant to concerns of others but to soundly understand what you know to be true and why and never be swayed from it by lies.

              Anyway it was a testimony strengthener for me as I know that we have the answers cause this is Christ's church with Him at the head.  I haven't gotten my tooth fixed but I will look into it and get it fixed soon.  Thank you for keeping up with me on it.  I love you all so very much and pray that you will all be missionaries everyday cause this is the ONLY way to real happiness here and a fullness of joy in the life to come.  You are such good examples to me and I am thankful to our Heavenly Father every day for you.

-Love Elder Neeley

PS I can't wait for the Neeley basketball show down and please let Matt Hansen know that I love him a ton and miss him so much but I can't read or send him emails but we can write each other or you can forward me his mail.  Love you!!!

Also our mission goal for this year is a minimum of 1000 baptisms for the year which has never been done in this mission.  Please pray for us to reach this goal in every prayer, that we may bring children to Christ.

Drunk Guys Like the Book of Mormon, too...

January 3, 2013

Dear family,

            Things are going well and we have two baptisms this weekend on saturday of two kids named Rodolfo and Claudia who are 10 and 12 years old.  They are very excited and me and my companion are going to baptize them.  We have several other people right now too who are preparing for baptism and we are very excited for this month.
            We went to Yosemite again today and I sent you some pictures from that too and I hope you like them.  We have transfers not this Wednesday but the next one so I am excited to see what happens.  It is always a little exciting to see what happens almost like fantasy football drafts but more Spiritually important haha.  I do in fact get a long with President really well and he told me that if you all ever disown me he would adopt me in a heartbeat.  He is a wonderful man and has taught me so much about the Gospel and how I can change and grow and be a better disciple of Christ and son of God.  I love him a lot.

             This past week we found a guy who may have been a little drunk but we went to contact one of our investigators and he was outside her house.  The investigator's husband said that she wasn't home so we said we would stop by later.  The drunkish guy thought we were talking to him so he said "today?" and then said "just come over now" and led us to his house.  He had read the Book of Mormon before and had a desire to help his family and change so we are starting to teach him and he said he would like to get baptized but needs more time.  It was a cool experience.

             I am so glad to hear the family is all doing well and that everyone is busy doing different things and helping out family a lot.  Grandma is really greatful for Amber and Olivia and for all the grandchildren who help out.  Uncle Keith too was happy to have Alex and Darius' help this past week as well.  I am glad to hear too that Alex is doing better in basketball.  That is great.  Alex should invite Darius to church this Sunday and bring him with all you.  That would be a great opporunity for the Spirit to touch his life and he and his family need it.  We all need it.
            I love you all and pray that you are safe and continually to be missionaries every single day cause there is nothing better than others and ourselves coming to Christ.

-Love Elder Neeley

2013 Here We Come

December 31st, 2012

Dear family,

           We had a baptism this past Saturday of 2 young women, Haley Gordon and Alex Dunmore, whose mom is a member and their siblings are recent convert.  The Dunmore family only has the dad left and the oldest daughter to be baptized and then they will be able to go to the temple to be sealed.  The oldest daughter wants to get baptized but she needs to get married and they have plans to do that very soon so she will be baptized with her husband shortly.  They have the cutest little boy haha.  The dad is coming along but he is on dialysis for his kidneys so it is super hard for him to even be taught cause he is in bed groaning from pain.  We gave him a blessing and it has been a little better but he has been in and out of the hospital this past week.  He will be baptized soon but we just have to be patient with him.  He has come to church and wants to but the dialysis holds him back.

             This week we have a leadership meeting to set our year goal for 2013 for the mission and the meeting will consist of us and President, the coordinating sisters, the zone leaders and the district leaders.   It will be a really good meeting and I am excited to see what our new goal will be.  Then the next day we will have a trainer/trainee meeting to do a half-way-through-the-transfer check up on them and see how things are going and if they have concerns and do some training.  I will be doing training on the importance of getting our investigators to say a kneeling prayer at the end of each lesson.  It will be great.  Then we will have a leadership planning session on Thursday probably in which President and my companion and I will plan out for the next 2 or 3 transfers who will tentatively be a leader.

              So things are going well and I miss you all and love you.  I am so glad that we got to hear all your voices and grandma no se preocupe for not being there for the call.  That means don't worry about missing the call and I love you and will talk to you soon enough.  I hope you all are doing well and I am glad that you are going to makemormon.org profiles.  Keep being missionaries and keep working hard to keep your standards and covenants cause there is nothing more important.  I love you!!!!!!!!!!

-Love Elder Neeley

It's Christmas - but you only get 40 minutes :)

December 24th, 2012

Dear family,

          First of all we are planning on you calling me on my phone at 12 noon MY time and 3pm YOUR time.  I hope that is ok but if not we will figure something out.  The number that you will call me on is 559-270-2898.  The call can be NO LONGER THAN 40 min, sorry no hour and 40.  As well please just get rid of the number after we are done talking cause I know you know but we can't talk or text obviously until mother's day.

           I have got your packages and I love them.  I have gotten the card from Sarah and Robbie and can't wait to be able to redeem them after the mission haha.  I also got the family Christmas card and was just shocked to see how mature everyone looked!  2 years certainly changes a lot.  We have such a super star family because the Lord has blessed us with talents and success due to faithful living of the Gospel.  That is one of the greatest things is that we will "prosper in the land" or rather physically as well as spiritually as we are obedient even in the little things of the Gospel.  I know it is true.

           We have a baptism of 2 girls this Saturday and I am so excited for it!  It is a family of 13 just like ours!!  And they are half black and half white and they have adopted several kids and I feel right at home.  They are so unified and loving as a family and clearly they look at each other all the same just as we do.  I love that family and I fit right in with all their craziness haha.  I do miss you all so much and grow more greatful for an eternal family every day.  I love you each so very much I can't put it into words but I feel my heart is full as I look at your card.  Let's all be more faithful to the covenants we made in the DC temple so many years ago when we were all sealed.  That is still my favorite memory of my life and I want to be with you all forever.  Keep being a missionary every single day! LOVE YOU!!!!!!

-Love Elder Neeley