Am I a Missionary or a Wedding Planner?

Glynis Neves
Sep 10, 2018
4 min read

Teaching moments, wedding plans, looking forward and a bunny rabbit

Glynis here: A very big "thank you" to all of you who emailed Elder Neves this past week. He has been blessed by all of them! He is dealing with some real homesickness, and hearing from everyone is helping BIG TIME! Enjoy his latest adventures!

Pet rabbit? Or dinner? Read to find out!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic week. It went by so quickly for me. Honestly, it feels like I was emailing home yesterday, so it is totally cook that it feels so fast! Here's what happened this week.

First of all, apparently, my zone is like the bomb dot com because we had the most baptisms in August, and that means that we got to have a special Family Home Evening with the mission president. It was so much fun! We went to his house and I finally got to meet him (for the first time). He's really so funny! We played all sorts of fun games and we had PIZZA! It truly was a miracle. I don't know where they found pizza to give us, but I was so grateful!

So, something I've noticed here is that our biggest problem with the investigators is marriage. None of them are married, so before we can baptize, we have to get them married. That's kinda funny! We were teaching this one family and they aren't married, but I showed them my pictures of my family and promised them that through marriage they would be able to be together forever. We invited them to pray to see if marriage is right for them. Well, they did, and the next day they called us and told us they want to get married! So this last week my companion and I have been planning the reception and the wedding and all sorts of random things, like figuring out how much it costs to buy a ring and stuff like that. That has been so hilarious to me, not gonna lie!

Another thing I've noticed is that the people here really believe that they can only receive revelation through dreams. They are always asking my companion and me to interpret their dreams. We do our best to explain to them that they can receive revelation through other means, but for the most part, they don't listen to us. That is so funny to me!

On Wednesday, we were teaching the Restoration to a girl named Valentina. She is the girlfriend of a member, and she was so interested. At the end of the lesson I bore my testimony and she started crying and said she knew it was true. That was one of the most spiritual moments I've had so far on my mission. It was such a boost for my testimony, as well. Another day, we were teaching a young man named Fran Pezo. He is a youth, and his parents are hard-core Catholic. They really hate "the Mormons." Anyway, we gave him a Book of Mormon while his dad wasn't there and by the next visit he was already in Mosiah, so he is really dedicated. We were in the middle of teaching him, and he told us that he knew it was true. We invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. At that moment, his dad walked in and told us to get out of his house and to leave his son alone. He told us that we didn't have his permission to teach his son. That was kind of a bummer! We are going to keep trying to teach him though, because he really needs the gospel in his life.

So, confession time. I got super homesick this week, and I started to doubt why I'm on a mission. I prayed to God to help me remember the reason that I'm here, and I instantly received this thought in my head; that God is watching out for my family and loved ones. That God is helping and preparing my family and friends in ways that I cannot comprehend, right now. That was a BIG comfort to me to know that our Father in Heaven loves each one of you. I exhort you to look for the good in your lives and to thank God for everything that you have been given. He truly is watching out for you guys.

So, next week there is an apostle coming, and that is super exciting! It's going to be Elder Renlund and all of us are so excited! The rumor is that he'll be in our Stake Center so we will get to see him. Fingers crossed!!! I am so excited to hear from an apostle while on my mission! It's going to be a really cool experience!

In other random news, my companion and I cleaned the font in our chapel because the water was brown and there were dead cockroaches floating in it. We rolled up our pants and scooped out the water because the drain was broken. After that I wrote some inspiring words for the children of the chapel on the blackboards.

Another random thing, a family was about to eat this rabbit so they let us hold him... ha ha. Just kidding! It's their pet! Hee, hee! Oh, that reminds me of a blessing that I almost forgot to mention. All the food that I was super scared of before I came here, like the grubs, turtles, crocodiles and stuff like that, is all BANNED FROM THE MISSIONARIES! So Hallelujah! That was really good news!!!

All in all, it was a really spiritual week and I hope you all have a great week! "Talk" to you next Monday.

Sincerely,

Elder Neves

P.S. The jungle sunrises are absolutely gorgeous!