Letter from 11/17/2014

Hey, I really never have enough time on the computer and it´s really hard. It´s never enough time... Haha.

So. This week was fun, but really difficult. We´re supposed to put 2 baptismal dates every day and we have put 3 this week. Our whole zone is down. A lot. Like half of our goal. It´s really hard to baptize the people because they first have to come to church for 6 weeks then they can be baptized. If they don´t come to church their baptismal date isn´t valid and we have to put it off. On saturday night i was told that I was gonna baptize someone the sunday. At 8 in the morning... and the font takes time to fill... so that was fun. We woke up earlier and did it. Missionary work´s really hard, but I know it´s the work of the lord. Something I learned this week was how I learn the Doctrines of the church. I don´t really like how I learn them, but I should start to like it. How I learn is by reading the stuff, and thinking about it, and by gaining all the knowledge I can and pray about it, and then over time, I just know it. It just starts to make sense. It all just comes together. Like the plan of salvation. We´re ETERNAL. We´re going to live for ETERNITY. It´s a truth that I was studying. Something else that I learned is that I should have made the gospel a bigger part of my life. I am asking people to change and to do things that will help their ETERNITY. If only other people could know that and accept it. IT´s true. Something else that I learned was that simply knowing doctrine and things doesn´t help unless you can present the doctrine in a way that the people can understand it. I have a problem with this. I´m working on it. Love you all. I hope this weeks better!

Elder Neal

P.S. Something else interesting is that this week, it was really cold on Wednesday night and Thursday, So cold, that I actually had to use my sweater. REALLY COLD. Haha, and I´m gaining weight! It´s so bad.

Love you!

Elder Neal

Letter from 11/10/2014 - More Pictures!

My District

Encontramos un tren

Letter from 11/2/2014 - Pictures!

The Dominguez family baptized. I bought a tamale. It was a piña (pineapple) and coco, coconut tamale, and it was fantastic. That´s my district! Some Jehovah witnesses or Testigos de Jehová  came to our house and gave us a pamphlet. It´s really funny. We also found gandalf, and Tad R Callister in there. the last picture is us walking in one of our areas, and we saw the Hermanas, missioneras sitting in the park and my companion, the district leader decided to check up on them. The hermanas are in the background on the bench.

We were waiting for some people to arrive at the wedding and we had like an hour, so we went to the museum. We had fun. Lamanites made this stuff. Cool, right?

There was a complete rainbow and a partial double. It was pretty intense. The pretty font. We baptized Heidi. Her grandma is a member and she lives with her. The grandma´s husband is a gringo and his accent is like a southern English like Alabama... in Spanish. It´s bad. It was pay day today. My companion got all of the money to pay for the rent and stuff, like 5000 pesos right there. 

Letter from 10/27/14

There´s just never enough time to write! Mexico is fantastic! It´s hot, but the people here are so kind! 


Since I´m running out of time I´ll jump right to it. This week has been fantastic We had four baptisms and four confirmations. This family was ready change when they were found. Really wanting to change, they just wanted to know how. They´re awesome. Their last name is Dominguez. They got married on thursday and baptized on friday. It´s awesome. 


We found out that our ward had the most baptisms this month and this year in our zone. We´ve had 54ish baptisms now. It´s really awesome. Not all of them are active, but the ones that are really have testimonies. My companion and I have been working on keeping people active and reactivating others. We´ve had really good success. 


The food here is incredibly flavorful and good. Seafood actually tastes good here. One thing that´s really hard here is that we´ve been working in a new area with TONS of people, but we haven´t had much success. It´s called Los Lagos of Puente Moreno or Lagos. And we´ve spent almost entire days out there with almost no success. That´s really stressfull, but the people that we do find come because we work and it´s not completely about the baptism, it´s about being the warning for them. Sometimes we have to tell people that their salvation and their eternity is real and that they should put forth a little bit of effort, We raise the flags and the people get to make their own decisions. 


I love the work and I love how people change because of it. I know that our salvation is real and is attainable for every one of God´s children. This really is a marvellous work.


Guarden la fe,
Élder Neal

I got this picture from a member in the ward Elder Neal is serving in.

Letter from 10/20/14

I asked Elder Neal a few questions. Here are his responses:

Tell us about your area.

In my area, it´s pretty normal. We´re in Reforma, our area is over a place called Puente Moreno, Los lagos de puente moreno, and Las vegas, 1,2,3, and 4. We´re in 3 different cities, one´s veracruz, one´s Medellin, annnnd I can´t remember the other... 

Have you been cooking and do you need any recipes?

Nope, just "hot cakes" -Pancakes and quesadillas and cereal and avena bars. and cookies. and bananas. because they´re cheap and we´re poor.

How is the washing machine working?

I only was my garments in the washing machine, and i guess every night I´ve been washing this shirt because I took all of my shirts and socks, minus the shirt and socks that I´m wearing to the laundry place and we haven´t had time to pick them up. so I´ve been wearing the same socks and shirt for 4 days in a row. I´ve had to iron my socks (I think he means shirts) every day... it´s awful.

What is your schedule on P-Day?

pday, get up study, do things that we need to do like get birth certificates for the people getting married and go get their marriages set up and everything, then go back and take care of laundry, do email, go back, study or sleep, eat, then work 6 - 9. I want to send back my pull up bar. all of the door frames here are like inside. they don´t protrude, so... 

LOVE YOU!

Elder Neal

A picture of my area.

Some food. That´s a whole fish and camarones.

Woke up and found my scriptures altered.

This family is from the sister missionaries, but we worked with them and taught them about 5 lessons too. My companion and I baptized the children. The mom and dad aren't married but are getting married this Thursday and the mom´s getting baptized this Saturday. They´re really cool! I baptized the little kid in the front. Chrisma Jaime. He jumped into the font and swam around and dunked his self before i had baptized him. Haha!

Letter from 10/13/2014

Current investigators for me have been jumbled and stuff and in Floresta, my assigned ward, and since someone in my district had surgery, his companion was in a trio with us and my real companion would go with a member to teach and I would go to Tejar and teach with the other Elder. His name is Elder Rodriguez and he doesn´t know any english and he´s really cool. The zone I´m in is called Reforma, we take taxis and busses most places, my assigned area I think is called Medellin. It´s a really safe place where we are. 

We have one family that doesn´t have a lot of money, but they love the Gospel. They aren´t married, so we have to do that before they can be baptized. But it costs money. This is a trial of their faith and we´ve been working with them and getting them papers for marriage from the Civil building in downtown veracruz, which is a long way away, but it´s been worth it. They really are awesome and I love seeing them change. They´re names are German, Margarita, Juan Carlos, Leonardo, and Bryan, but Bryan´s only 6 years old. I contribute quite a bit, but I don´t control the lesson.  

Some of my study time has brought forth fruit. Something I read in Jesus The Christ was really awesome.  Jesus said "I partook and finished my preparations among the children of men." That´s something that I hope i can say at the end of this life at the Judgement. One more quote from right after the atoning in gethsemane "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels?" EXACT OBEDIENCE. Brings blessings. It works.

Close to a train, we were walking on the tracks and i happened to look back and it was coming, pretty cool.

Elder Rodriguez. He's our trio companion.

Our fridge on Sunday before P-day. The orange juice is actually gone.

I was Elder Rolly (Riley Rolly) for about 3 hours.

Elder Neal's Addresses

Addresses

Letters:
Elder Riley Neal
Mexico Veracruz Mission
Apartado Postal 103
91700 Veracruz, Veracruz

Packages:
Jesus Andres Rodriguez Gonzalez
Calle Rio Soto la marina 108A Las Vegas II
Boca del Rio, Veracruz
C.P. 94297

Cell phone of him is 2293060699

Letter from 10/6/14

Our house is apparently the nicest house in the zone! Holla! Bathroom´s interesting... There are 15 elders in the minivan, 8 are in the trunk. MY COMPANION´S AWESOME. His name is Elder Melgar. He´s been out 13 months and I´m his first son. And he knows english pretty well. The purple and white cylindrical thing is a washing machine. It´s one of the best parts of the house. The BEST part of the house is the AC. The only other house with ac is the hermanas.  The mud... I wasn´t looking where i was going. Some members bought us burgers. It was fantastic.