Serving Outside of Natua

Spending a day outside of the office, reconnecting with a friend from the past, new role for our Elder.

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Glynis here: I got to spend a delightful half hour texting back and forth with Jacob this week. He's doing well, and enjoying his work. I did find out, though, that he is missing the proselyting side of the mission. He and his companion get to tract and knock doors from 5-9 each day, but the bulk of his time is spent in the office, and that is starting to get to him. Still, his testimony is growing by leaps and bounds, and he loves working with President Parker. I'm so grateful to President Parker and his wife for taking such good care of my boy!

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Dear family and friends,

This week we had the opportunity to do some awesome stuff. A group of Humanitarian workers (some of them were members) talked to President Parker about getting some help from the missionaries. They were working in a village a little ways away from Iquitos just outside of Nauta (you can look on google maps for Nauta but the village doesn't show up, that's how small it is!). Basically it´s about 2.5 hours outside of Iquitos on the only road that leaves the city. They were building a library for a local schoolhouse and needed some translators. President Parker sent me, Elder Roper, and Elder Argyle on Monday to help translate for them. It was so much fun. We helped them translate classes they were giving to the kids in the village and helped a little build the library.

Afterwards, we were talking to them (small talk in English is very hard by the way) and I found out a lot of them were from Utah, and one of them lives in Lehi but went to Timberline Middle school the same time I was there! That was pretty crazy! Small world, right?

We wandered around the village a little bit trying to find out how to get back to Nauta and then catch a bus to Iquitos so I have some pretty cool pictures. The humanitarian group told us we weren't allowed to proselyte there, but someone did ask what we were doing and we just told them we were missionaries and talked a little about the church. It was so much fun getting back out and performing some service!

We have been trying really hard to find new people to teach in our area but it´s a little hard because we are sort of in the center of the city so a lot of the people are here for work. But it is ok; we´ll just have to get a little more creative.

Love you guys a lot, talk to you next week!

-Elder Neves