"Things in Fresno are warm and fantastic"

Dear family,

 

          Things in Fresno are warm and fantastic.  The work has been a little slower and with higher goals and expectations we have seemed to be seeing more difficulties and problems arise in the work.  We just taught one of our investigators and her family the "Stop Smoking Lesson".  It was awesome and we taught it in a members house and the Spirit was there and she is going to stop.  It really it a fantastic lesson of 15 steps each day for one week and it always works if they follow it to a T.  I just got off the phone 2 seconds ago with a man from our ward who came to the mission office to get an account on his tithing but no one speaks spanish so Sister Mauro (the secretary) called me to translate and let her know what was going on haha.  It was cool and we ended up helping him be able to get in contact with the people that could actually help him.  Our other really good investigator Enrique came to church and he is just doing awesome and we have a FHE with him tonight in a members home.  We hope to set a date tonight.

                 In other news I am still in Echo ward and I LOVE it here and it is funny mom talked about me not extending cause I was really thinking about talking to President now to get an extension on my mission rather than wait to the end.  Do you really not want me to do that?  Cause I do.  But anyway Easter here was the same with easter eggs and stuff but instead of ham it was tamales and rice and  beans which I love.  I will spend my birthday and Mother's Day here in Echo and the transfer will be the Wednesday following that so I will know what I am doing and where I will be when we are on the phone.  I will be done training Elder Hafen in the 12 week program so the is the possibility for change and I will do and go where ever the Lord wants but if it doesn't matter too much to Him I would stay in Echo doing what I do now cause I love it.  The members are amazed at how long I have been here and I have their trust and friendship as a missionary so I hope I stay here.  They are like my giant mexican/slightly central and south american family haha.

                 I did infact send pictures so I don't know why they are not there but I promise I did send them.  Also Eleanor, Grandma told me you are excited for BYU with me and so am I but that is a little ways off so I am not really going to think about it so I can stay focused but it will be fun and I love you a ton.  Make sure on your end that you study hard and get good grades so you can get accepted!

                Dad thank you for sharing that story with me.  I never knew that and I want to hear all sorts of stories from your mission.  I really do love them and I love you and your awesome example of work, love and obedience that you put before me.  I love you all and pray that you are being missionaries and promise you all the help of heaven as you just go out and try to share the Gospel through any means of example, teaching, or inviting.  You will see miracles.  I told our Zone in some recent training I gave that we hold the same power of Elijah to call down fire from heaven so let's do it.  Let's call down fire from heaven and stop just saying we believe in miracles in this day and age and lets actually believe.  Let's actually perform and witness miracles through His help accompanied with our BEST effort.

                 I love you all and pray for you daily.  I know all is well and I hope that you all continue being as amazing examples of Christ that you are being now.  LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

 

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle/friend Elder Neeley

Happy Easter

Dear family,

 

               Happy Easter to all of you!  I am sure the beach was great for those of you who went and I enjoyed my Easter here sharing the Gospel and eating the Easter candy that you sent me.  Thanks again for that, it is delicious.  In other news we have some baptisms coming up this month but they are not as solid as the ones we have had in the past so we need to work even harder and help these people to recognize the Spirit and make those commitments that will bring them closer to Christ and recieving eternal life.  One lady is named Alejandra and she smokes and has an ex husband who still kind of lives there with her and their kids and he (the ex husband) hates us and doesn't want us around.  She is awesome and wants to be baptized and so do her kids but there are some large obstacles in her path.  The wonderful thing is that there is nothing in the world greater and that has more power than the Atonement of Christ.  There is no obstacle too big to be swallowed up by that infinite loving sacrifice.

              As well we are teaching a man named Enrique and he is amazing.  He came to General Conference with his son and then the next time we came to his house he had been reading through the Book of Mormon as well as on LDS.org and watching the Saturday Conference in Spanish that he missed.  He is a "searcher" as we like to say here in the California Fresno Mission.  His only hold up is he just feels like he hasn't gotten the answer he is looking for yet.  He said "I am looking for something and I haven't found it yet but I know it is in that book (pointing to the Book of Mormon).

              I hope that you are all still being missionaries every single day.  Pray every day to have people put in your path and to know how you can invite them to feel the Spirit.  Reach out to all around you and follow the Holy Ghost.  You ALL know a "searcher", now just go and be a "finder".  I can't wait to talk to you on Mother's Day/my birthday andl I hope you all have great missionary experiences to share with me because I am going to ask you.  Repent and do better everyday.  I love you so much and thank you for all that you do for me and the awesome support that you are to me.  I pray for you and love you dearly.

 

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle/friend Elder Neeley

"Have much to learn, you do, young Elder"

April 2, 2012

Dear family,

           Things in Fresno are going well and we had our two other baptisms of Jenny and Iridian so all 4 total were baptize this week and they are so happy and doing so well.  They came and watched conference as well as one lady who is going to be baptized on April 22nd with her kids and another man and his son came who are investigating but don't have a baptismal date set yet.  We are going to set it with him tomorrow.  His name is Enrique and his son's name is Enrique as well.  The lady who has a date set is named Alejandra.

            I really liked the letter that you sent me Mom.  Don't feel bad that you can't write me all the time because I know you are busy and more importantly I know you love me and that this 2 years is going by faster that I could have imagined.  We have another transfer this Wednesday and I am staying here in the Echo ward for atleast one more transfer which will be about til my birthday and Mother's day (which I will be calling home for so I hope you are all excited for that again!!).  I am still in the training process of Elder Hafen of Idaho Falls.  He is a great missionary but as Uncle Keith would say "He still has much to learn young Elder."  He works very hard and I enjoy being his companion.

           Also General Conference was awesome!  I thought every talk was so good and I learned a ton.  I really can't wait for the Ensign to come out with all the messages in it.  I hope you all took a lot away and hope that you will be putting it in to practice imediately.  They talked so much about families and parenting and I am sure you all learned a ton because I did.

           I am sure the beach will be lots of fun and I hope you send pictures as mine are going to be on their way.  That is crazy too that the family reunion will be coming up again so soon.  You will have to get me another shirt from that one that I can wear every week to sports like I do with the one I have.

           Uncle Keith that is pretty crazy as well that you are being released cause you have been there for a LONG time and I loved having you as my Scout master.  I think my Dad should be the name you submit to the Bishop for the next scout master haha.  I am sure that there are other callings and service in store for you ahead.

            Well I hope all is going well as you indicated it is and I hope you are all being missionaries every single day.  There are so many people prepared that you know and don't know.  They need you and I hope dearly you never pass up the opportunities and that you are seeking the opportunities.  The Lord will bless you to know what to say and what to do and you will find yourself doing and saying things you thought were beyond you.  I love you all so dearly and appreciate all you do for me and all the prayers you offer for me.  I never want this missionary experience to end and yet it seems to comes faster every week.  I thank you for everything and love you so much!

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle/friend Elder Neeley 

Brighter Days in Fresno

March 26th, 2012

Dear family,

             It is so awesome to hear from and it seems that our family is always up to something fun and an exciting.  Either you are having way more fun now that I am gone or I just never got a snapshot of everyone's life like this before haha.  I am absolutely loving it here in Fresno and to answer your question Dad I may never get transferred at this rate and I hope I never do.  I love this ward and they really like me too.  I hope I just keep being a trainer here til the end of my mission and I think that it is a good possibility.  I may move in responsibility but I just know I am wherever the Lord needs me MOST.  I am sure I could do a lot of different things but I am exactly where I need to be and I know that is true.

            We just had a baptism of Maria Salmeron and Maggy Rosales who are sisters.  I told you about them.  We had their baptism and it was great!  They were very excited and they are just awesome members and we are going to go look at the temple and talk about baptisms for the dead and sealings and get them to go there ASAP.  As well will and going to let them know that March 25 2013 we will all be going to the temple together.  This Saturday we are going to baptize their other sister Jenny and Maria's daughter Iridian and we are going to have that between General Conference sessions.  We are very excited and are just trying to work our hardest and be obedient and humble.  It is tough to do everything but we do our best to do it.

              To answer some other questions, I will be making pictures and sending them to you and I am sorry that I am slow on it cause I know that I need to keep up with you all at home as well as doing all my mission responsibilities so I will do better.  By the way tell Ruthe she is awesome and please take Alex to New York cause I know that he would love it and there are few sweeter memories than those I have just one on one with you Dad and I know Alex will cherish that time with you for years to come as I do.  Also I am not fat at all still and like I said I still work out hard in the morning.  I have been using the same belt the whole time and my pants still would hang a little without the belt.  I am not dying or anything but I am certainly not fat.  I never bike.  Our are just is huge and I don't really enjoy it but I know that we meet a lot of people through doing it.  I need to bike more.

               That is so awesome that you are going to London to speak at a Conference with President Jordan cause that is an experience you will never forget and will really impact those missionaries.  Fast and pray may days (Alma 5:46) while preparing what you will say because this training that they will recieve from you is going to impact them and directly how they work.  You will know what to say cause you are awesome at speaking and you are a fantastic missionary.  I love you all so dearly and pray the best upon all of you and hope so much that you are being the BEST missionaries you can be.  Always keep inviting your friends and sharing in anyway possible.  I love you and am always praying for you.  Thanks for all you do and for the letters and support you give me.

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle/friend Elder Neeley

A Few Bumps in the Road

Dear family,

 

              Things have been difficult recently here in the mission.  Our family of 4 who are supposed to get baptized missed church again because of things that came up so now it we have to push the baptism of 2 of them back a week and we need to sit down and talk about the importance of keeping commitments and especially coming to church.  It is frustrating because they are good people and are going to get baptized but Satan is certainly working hard to keep them out of the water.  We are going to see them tomorrow and we are going to make sure they are back on track to baptism and recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  As well this weekend one of our Zone Leaders needed to go to the Emergency Room (internal bleeding in the stomach) and because of scheduling difficulties I had to go with him and we were there for 6 hours.  Then on Sunday I had to stay with him again because he was still sick but atleast he was back home in his apartment and I stayed with him there.  So the work was a little slower this week but I know that as we serve as missionaries doing the best with what we have the Lord will bless us and make up for the rest.  It is always that way in all things in life, that through our best work we give all to the Lord and then through faith in Him, He makes up the rest.  I have been praying to serve more and reach out to others more and the Lord has answered my prayers in waves and buckets of service and I cannot complain cause He definetly listens.

                As for my license I can just get a CA drivers license they said and then you don't have to worry about anything but also they said that some states allow you to renew it over the internet but our Vehicle Coordinator doesn't know about PA.  Do you know if I need to fill out something to renew it or do I only need to send you a picture and you can renew it?  I think it may just be easiest if I get a CA drivers license so I will just do that and if you object for some reason then call the mission office at 559 445 1467 and Sister Mauro will answer the phone (I just called her and she did say that you as my parents can call the mission office but calling me would be the only issue haha).  She is from PA too and she is my mission mom and she takes care of me while I am here and we are all going to hang out after the mission in PA and they will come to a Steeler game with us cause I told them we have season tickets but that is besides the point!  If you have any objection to my CA divers license then call the office.

                I have stopped reading Jesus the Christ but I promise I am going to start again it is just tough to find time with all the different responsibilities and investigators to study for but I will do it.  Also I did go to Yosemite and I will be printing pictures to send so just hold tight and they will be coming!  It is super warm out here and that is awesome that you are all going to the beach and Nate is coming.  Give him a big bear hug and tell him I could take him if I were home right now haha.  That is amazing too that Ruth is SO fast.  Tell Lauren Williams or whatever her name is from Rochester to watch out.

                  I could probably get like half of the articles of faith or maybe some more but not all of them.  That is something I would really like to work on as a missionary is memorizing those because I used to have all of them in primary.  Also tell Chris Hoke and President Carter I say hi and I love them as well as everyone else.  I wrote a letter to the young men of the ward and will send it home to you and if you could take it in to them that would be great.  I also heard actually the Chris retired cause I had dinner with a guy with the last name Lawrence who is good buddies with Chris from BYU and he told me that he retired.  I try to keep up with my friends from BYU but everyone outside of Elder Koford (Jordan) is in Russia or Brazil so it is tough to keep up with them but I have heard from them.

               Well I love you all and promise that pictures will be on the way. I miss you all so much but I LOVE my mission and fear that day when it must end so I just try to not think about it.  I love to serve and will my whole life. I hope you all cherish your missions still to this day as I do now and always remember that you are all always a missionary til death and even beyond that in the world to come.  I love you so much and am so greatful for your examples to me and especially Mom and Dad for raising me to love the Lord and love obedience.  Dad please tell me about some stories from your mission in Italy.  PLEASE!!  I love you so much and keep you in my prayers.

 

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle/friend Elder Neeley

Steven vs. "the big lady" (hint: Steven wins) :)

March 5th, 2012

Dear family,

 

          I feel like my mission is flying by and I don't know where the time is going.  Right now we have some solid investigators preparing for baptism on the 25th of March and we are very excited for them.  They are 4 young women named Maria (late early 30's), Maggie 22, Jenny 18 and Iridian who is 15.  They are really funny and they came on a Church tour and they all fealt the Spirit so strong.  This was my companion's very first day with me about 5 hours after we met and the tour was a complete train wreck.  There is a format usually for how it goes and it was hard to follow since my companion had only been in the field for a day and a half haha.  But it was a testimony to me that it doesn't matter what we know or how talented we are but if we are worthy and doing our best then the Spirit will make up for everything else.  It didn't matter that my companion was jumping everywhere or that there were awkward pauses or bad spanish.  The Spirit took us where we were at and made up the rest because we did all we could and now those Sisters and preparing for baptism because they unmistakeably felt the Holy Ghost.  The mom Maria said she felt it twice like a big hug that came over her all of a sudden.  It was a miracle.

           We have some other investigators that have very good potential for baptism but we need to work really close with them to keep them running and feeling the Spirit so that they are ready.  Oh by the way here is a good story!  So me and another Elder that was going to train were together for one day while waiting til the next day to get our official companion.  So we went to see a less active but he was not there due to miscommunication.  So we stopped by the house of the neighbor of this member.  There was just a drunk man out on the porch and the contact wasn't going anywhere so we gave him and card and were going to leave when his girlfriend came out who is like 50 and she was talking coherently so we talk to her.  So they let us sit down with them on their back porch and we start talking about the Book of Mormon and she is telling us just to teach her from the Bible cause she doesn't need some "little guide book" so we asked if we could explain briefly for 5 minutes about the Book of Mormon and then we would leave if she didn't like it.  So we start and she cuts in about how the church is in you and the church is in me and religion is man made and we just need to read the Bible and love God.  Then her husband/boyfriend guy was like wait I want to get baptized and so we say that through prayer God  can show him where (which Church) he should be baptized.  Then she yells out "I can baptize you in the tub if you want!" and start laughing like a crazy person.  So we felt like it isn't going anywhere and so I tell her to read the Book of Mormon and God can tell her if it is true and she starts going crazy and starts raising her voice till she is screaming saying how we need to teach what is in the Bible and need to share the message about saving others not some church that is man made or some "little book".  During this she gets up, while screaming at me and is getting closer and closer to me until she is right over me (and she was a big lady) and her spit is getting on me.  And she is just yelling about how we just need Christ and not anything we had in our "little book".  And then she started poking me in the chest!  So I said she is right and we need Christ and that He is is found in this "book".  She continued to ask "Just answer me this, is that little book more important than the Bible?"  There was a 5 second pause and I said "yes" and she kicked us out and pretty much told us never to come back.  I felt like Satan was sitting right there by that lady the whole time.

        So I love my mission and it literally is the greatest thing I have been able to do as my own personal service.  I am still working out and I have not finished reading Jesus the Christ but I need to and am going to.  I am in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and in Acts in the New Testament.  I hope you are all searching for opportunities every day to share the Gospel and invite others to come to Christ in any means possible which may just be dinner at the house.  Uncle Keith I have not had a "perfect day" yet and like you said it is extremely difficult but I am constantly striving to be exactly obedient and pray one day to get there.  I love you all so much and do plan on writing you all more often so just wait for those letters.  I love you and pray for you all.  Thank you for all you do and all the prayers for me.

 

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin Elder Neeley

New Companion from Idaho

Dear family,

 

            We confirmed Alma Contreras yesterday after a fantastic stak conference.  President Gelwix and a member of the 70, Elder Haney, spoke and it was amazing.  I wish so bad that I would have listened to all the talks of all the conferences I have watched in my life because I have come to realize that the messages are inspired and have something specifically for me.  The Church is true!  We didn't have the other baptism of Anabelly but we are still working with her and she will be baptized soon.  We found another family of 4 who also seem very solid and we are excited for them.  They are the friend of a recent convert and they came on a church tour and the Spirit was strong and one said they would get baptized. 

            I have my new companion now and his name is Elder Hafen.  He is from Idaho Falls and he is awesome.  He works very hard and is very humble.  His spanish is not too bad at all for being brand new and we get along just fine.  My spanish I think has gotten really good and I would consider myself fluent in Spanish.  I really love to speak the language especially now that it isn't something I have to think about but just comes naturally.

            I also just wanted to share something about the stake conference that President Gelwix and Elder Haney of the 70 talked about.  They talked about inviting people and inviting and inviting and inviting haha.  Elder Haney said that we just need to do what we are already good at.  The Lord wants to use our talents as we have them to spread the Gospel.  He said we need to do 2 things and that is pretty much it, and they are: 1)make our house a temple, just like the celestial room i.e. clean, read scriptures every day(personal and family) and say prayers every day(personal and family) and 2)we just need to invite our friends over for dinner and then invite them again for dinner and keep doing it.  Mom you are VERY good at cooking and the Lord wants to use that talent.  Just keep cooking and invite our neighbors and friends.  Invite the Hansens and invite them again!  They WILL feel the Spirit and eventually will ask questions and open up to the Gospel without even us as members "pushing" it upon them.

           I absolutely love my mission and I LOVE being a missionary.  I think I did a pretty good job as a younger kid being an example to my friends of the Gospel but I regret so much not INVITING my friends to do more things.  I don't mean going up and saying "hey (name) do you want to get baptized?", although that would be good I don't even mean that.  I just wish I would have taken every opportunity to invite all my friends AND acquaintances(sorry for spelling) to come to mutual or to dinner or scouts or church or a church dance, anything!  I just wish I would have and I plead that EVERYONE in our family and especially the youth will not pass up one opportunity to invite their friends to do something.  They want the Gospel and they KNOW it is true.  Their testimony though is covered by forgetfullness of the veil and sin, tradition and fear.  You just need to invite them to do something where they will feel the Spirit, who will remind them of their testimony of this Gospel.  Please go out this week and every single member of our family and invite atleast one person to do something to feel the Spirit.  I love you all and promise as a representative of Christ that you will feel the Savior's love in your life as you do so and you will, through effort, help others to come to the Gospel and have the same happiness we have.  Please everyone send me an email and tell me how your invitations went.  I love you all so much and greatful everyday to know we can and will live together forever through honoring our convenants.  I pray for you always and am greatful for the letters, prayers, and love that you all offer me.  I LOVE YOU!!!!     P.S. Grandma I have gotten your letters and I love them and appreciate them.  Tambien Tio Keith te amo y que bueno que ustedes bautizaron en los rios y el mar.  Esta es una cosa que yo quiero hacer pero no pienso que es posible para mi en mi mision. Te amo!

 

-Love your son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle/friend Elder Neeley