Matrimonio!!!

Planning, decorating, celebrating... it's all part of the mission life!

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Our handsome umbrella model!

This week has been awesome! We finally got our investigators, the familia Cuelo, married!!!! They are super excited for their baptism this weekend. Also, we finally got to watch the Sunday sessions of General Conference, and wow! Seriously, so good! My favorite talk, by far, was President Eyring's. When he started talking about how he sings to his wife every night and prays with her, and she can barely talk but she mouths the words, and then he started crying. Seriously, that just touched me in a very spiritual way. I loved that talk! It shows what pure love should be like, and how through the love of Christ we can all feel that pure love. It was really so powerful!

So, this week Elder Sindayen and I finished delivering all the wedding invitations to the members of the ward. We also got everything squared away, legally, for their marriage, as well as planning the reception. So, basically, we did everything for them, but, hey! they were happy and they had a great time and a wonderful experience. In the afternoon, at 2:00 on Friday, we went to the center of town to have their legal marriage, and everything went very smoothly. Then, they went home, and we went to the chapel to decorate it a little for the reception. We hung pink and white balloons all over the place. We also talked the bishop into playing D.J., since he is the only one in the ward we could find who had a laptop. So, we got it all decorated with some help from the Relief Society. The reception was supposed to start at 7:00, and 4 people showed up then. Elder Sindayen and I helped them to feel comfortable. After about an hour a lot of people (the happy couple included) finally showed up. There were a lot of people, and they all started dancing, so it was a nice night. We had to go home before they cut the cake, but I did get a picture!

Maybe not as elaborate as some, but made with love!

Yesterday, after General Conference, we had the baptismal interview for them, and they are really ready for this! They are all very excited and willing to take upon themselves the sacred name of Jesus Christ. So get ready for their baptism update next week!

After General Conference, I witnessed a miracle. For real. We gave a blessing to one of the investigators of the sister missionaries. He was an old man who used a cane and could barely walk with the help of his granddaughter. After the blessing by my companion and I, he sat there for 5 minutes in total silence. Then he said quietly, "I feel calmer." Then he stood up and walked out without any help and without his cane! Seriously, it was such a powerful moment for me to see that with God, nothing is impossible, and He has power to bless all of His children in so many different ways, but only if we have faith and we are willing to show it. What I love about priesthood blessings is that they depend on three things; the faith of the recipient that they can be healed, the worthiness of the person giving the blessing, and last and most importantly, it has to be the will of God. If God has given us a trial to help us grow, He won't take it away. We just have to realize that God's knowledge is eternal, while ours is only momentary. Obviously, this investigator had great faith that the Savior could help him, and it was the will of the Lord to help him to walk. That is an experience I will never forget.

Also this week, we had exchanges, so Elder Sindayen went to the area Bellavista, and an elder named Elder Walker, from Idaho, came here for a day. (I don't think I've told you the name of my area, it's called Mi Peru, in the stake Punchana.) Our area is really huge! We are sort of on the northern side of Iquitos, but the area goes all the way through the jungle up to the border of Colombia. Seriously enormous! The sad thing is, in this area we aren't allowed to go into the jungle, even though our area is right on the border. We spend most of our time in one branch named Versalles. So, my exchange was really cool because I got to work with the Zone Leader, and see how he works. He works very differently than Elder Sindayen, but it was very effective. I don't really know how, just sort of more direct to the investigators, and we got a lot of success that day.

That's about it for this week. I hope you are all doing great. Feel free to email me. I love getting your emails, and if I have time, I will always answer. I love you all and pray for you every day. Have a great week!

Elder Neves

Get ready for wedding pictures!