Email Sept 26, 2011

Just a side note from me. I traveled with 26 elders and 1 sister going to Preston's mission from SL to NY yesterday. I had so much fun meeting them and I just wanted to sneak with them to Paraguay!!

Hello Mother,

Well sounds as if everything is going well in Bountiful! There was lots in your letter so I probably won't reply to it all but it all sounds good. Have fun in New York! That sounds like it will be a good time taking care of those kids. I am sure it will be a blast. Good work on all the peaches. Make sure to save some of them for me... I miss peaches. I bought some peach jam this last week to put on toast. It was good, but not nearly as good as our home grown peaches and your jam. Good luck to Niglet with golf. That is awesome. He is the man. I am glad you got my letter. Seems like it went pretty fast. It feels like a century ago that I sent it, but it was only a bit ago. Kinda weird what time does on the mission.

Anyway. So Damian got baptized! It was pretty cool. Shirk did the baptism for Damian. Also his cousin Lucas who is 8 years old needed to be baptized. So they told us that he had been interviewed by the branch president and he wanted me to baptize him. So when we got there we asked president if Lucas was ready.. Turns out he hadn't been interviewed yet.. President asks him, is your mom here? No. Your grandma is here right? Yeah. Ok good enough. Haha so he interviews him and I was able to baptize him.

We also had another lesson with Graciela on Friday. She is the one who speaks Portuguese. It was really cool, but I kept thinking to myself, man this would be so much easier if I spoke her language.... Get B or Joe down here!! B can take a break from dental school for a bit! hahaha calm down Erica it would only be for a couple of weeks. Get Joe down here too, not sure if he is in school or working or what, but I need a Brazilian ASAP. Haha.

So this week was really tough on my stomach. Paraguay finally got to me. I had a bad bad stomach ache all week. And our lunch appt. on Saturday put the icing on the cake... She is always a curveball. I always expect dead flies in my food stuff.. But on Saturday she comes out with just a plate of meat. Saying "I hope you like it" haha I thought oh man. As I start cutting it, I was just wondering what is this texture? this is weird. This smells way too much like the cow factory we walk past every day.... I realized it was liver. It was disgusting. I hated every single bite. Even the cat and the stupid chicken wouldn't eat it. Hahaha oh man I love Paraguay.

Life is good here. This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Sept. 19, 2011

Hello Mom,

Well sounds like a pretty good week at home. It was a pretty slow week in Trinidad. Everything fell through it seemed like so it made for a long week, but it was good. As far as the package goes, maybe airborne, I could use more echinachea, and some equate face wash. I am not out of those yet, but I am just trying to plan ahead a little bit. That face wash has been great, and it lasts a long time. So one thing should do. Each week I will probably add a few more things to the list for the next package, but don´t feel like you have to send it right away. Just when you were planning to send it. The time is going to change down here pretty soon, not sure when, but the time will also change back home, meaning there will be a 4 hour difference. You might want to email me Sunday nights just to make sure I get them.

So for this week. Monday we had a lesson with Graciela. It was our first lesson with her. She is a neighbor to David, so we had his señora place a Book of Mormon in Portugese with her. Yep. She speaks the tongue of the Brazil and also Guarani. I speak neither of those.... Haha but she can speak a little bit of Spanish and she understood most of what we would say. So we spoke in Spanish, she responded what she could in Spanish and the rest in Portuguese. It was tight. She is investigating 2 other churches right now, but she likes us the most because we gave her a book in Portuguese. Tithing money at work! Haha it is cool. She is tough to find at home though, so it is hard.

Wednesday we did a division with the other Trinidad elders. I had to go over to their house. It is gross. I was with Elder Muedas. He is from Peru. I made the most of the opportunity to really practice my Spanish. This is a story that no mother wants to hear... But I am going to share it because I think it is funny haha. So while I was sleeping over at their place, their neighbors call at like 2 in the morning. The neighbors are members. I guess there was a guy outside with a gun trying to get in. He just waited out there for like 2 hours. They called the cops, but the cops in Paraguay don´t care about anything, so they told them they weren´t going to come. Muedas woke me up and told me, but of course it was early, so I wasn´t about to try to understand any Spanish hahaha so I just said ok and went back to sleep. It is wonderful to be in a place where I don´t understand much hahaha.

Other than that not much happened this week. Saturday it rained. Got to use my rain gear. Booo yeah!!! Didn´t get wet at all. My boots are the bomb. My coat and pants are the bomb. Well worth the money.

Damian was in Church yesterday. Which means I will have my first baptism this week! Pretty excited. He is 9 years old, hopefully this will reactivate his family. I am pretty pumped about it. I will send photos next week.

I am living it up down here. Life is good. The Church is true.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Sept. 12, 2011 *

Hey Mom!

Sounds like everything is going well back in the states. It was weird thinking about college football the other day. People down here know one sport and two teams. Olympia and Cerro. I am Olympia I decided. They have cooler jerseys so that is why. Haven´t gotten one yet though, too busy buying my machete a few weeks ago. But I explained that in my letter I sent on Wednesday. Which reminds me. Got some dearelders on wednesday. Had to go to the office to pick up some BOMs. The zone leaders never bring the carpeta, which has the mail in it, so if I get mail it will probably sit in the office until I go get it.... But yeah.

Ok so this week. Monday was great. We had an awesome lesson with David. He told us that when he fell asleep last week in church (remember that?) he was having a dream and that he saw God and that he now knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true Church. So basically I was trying to wake up one of my investigators while he was getting an answer to his prayers!!!! Hahahaha actually that isnt that funny... But it is hilarious at the same time. wow paraguay has really messed me up. Tuesday I had my first opportunity to give a blessing in Spanish. Cool experience. Then I had a couple of more opportunities later in the week so that was good.

Wednesday this American couple pulls up next to us on our way back from the office, the lady says, you two on missions? Yep. Great! And they drove away. Well it was just a weird experience. They must work at the embassy or something?? I have no idea. I was just hoping for a ride.

Thursday we did a division with the zone leaders. Elders Patty and Clyde. Not a joke. Those are really their names. I think I am the only Elder that thinks it is funny though... Anyway. I was with Patty in my area. Patty goes home in 2 weeks. He speaks Spanish really well and Guarani pretty well too. He is just a really good missionary, so I was able to learn a few things from him. Always good to get a different perspective on ways to go about things.

Saturday we taught Amado again. I taught him the first time with Patty. I have met him before. His family are all members. Not active. Baptized a few years ago. Amado is a drunk. He wants to quit, when I taught him with Patty he was shaking so so bad cause he hadn´t had a drink in 2 days. But the interesting thing is, I never thought I could have any sort of love for a man like this before my mission. But on Saturday as I was sharing my testimony with him, I wanted him to feel the Savior´s love. I can´t quite explain the way I felt, but it was different. Anyway. I hope he can stop drinking, for the sake of his family. They have and hard life and they truly have nothing. Anyway...

This morning we had to go do service. He moved a bunch of boxes for an operation smile thing. Then got in the back of the box truck and drove for like 20 minutes to a hospital. Felt like a bunch of illegals or something. 12 missionaries in the back of a dark box truck full of boxes and stuff. Haha it was different but different is always good in the mission. So that was this morning. That was this week.

I love the Gospel. It is so much fun to teach the people of Paraguay. It is the hardest thing I have done so far in my life, but definitely the most worthwhile.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Sept. 5 2011

Hey Mom,

Alright, so I had a list of things for each day of this week... And I forgot to bring it with me... Haha so sorry about that. Sounds like things are great at home.

This week was tough as far as the work goes. All of our investigators didn't show up to church except for David Colman. Who is the man. Haha in priesthood he fell asleep after about 10 minutes and was out cold. Snoring and drooling. It was awesome. Afterwards I tried to wake him up to take him to class, he wouldn't wake up. I was shaking him and all. He just wouldn't wake up. Haha it was so funny so we just left him in there. Anyway. David can't get baptized until we find out if his senora's previous marriage was legit, which takes a few weeks. Lots of times the judges down here will just pocket the money and throw out the marriage certificate. So we need to find out if that happened. If it is legit and they get married, well then the people who witness for the marriage could get 2 years in jail. So that wouldn't be good.

On Tuesday we were teaching Rebecca, who can't baptized until she gets married to Ricardo. Who is a member. Less active. Super weird funny guy. I bore my testimony of the power of the Spirit. It was incredible. I haven't felt the Spirit that strong on my mission. It was really awesome.

Wednesday is when Elder Arnold of the Seventy came. President of the South American Area or something. Everyone was afraid of him "dropping cane". That is what they say here in the mission. Anyway. I didn't really care. He didn't get too upset with anything. He was happy with the improvement that our mission has shown. "There used to be guitars!!" Haha chill out old man. He asked an elder, "What are you going to do when you get home?" "um... study" to which Elder Arnold responds... "NOOOO!!!!!" Haha the next missionary, who was in my MTC district actually, got it right. He said something to the effect of starting an eternal family. Hahahahaha are you kidding me??? I didn't even have 2 weeks in the mission yet, and | am supposed to be thinking about that?? Haha but that isn't for me to worry about.

Last night was interesting. There is this less active sister. And we were teaching her, she asks the most random questions and basically she doesn't know anything about the church. So we had just finished explaining who Joseph Smith was for about 20 minutes, when she says to me. Why don't you speak much? To which I respond, well I have only been in Paraguay for 2 weeks and I am still learning. She says, You don't know Spanish yet??? She continued to insult my intelligence for a minute, which was wonderful... Haha all I could think was, you couldn't tell me who Joseph Smith was if your life depended on it. And you think I am dumb because I can't speak Spanish? Haha it was pretty funny. I just smiled. So anyway. That was my week.

Life is good. The Book of Mormon is true. Read it. Pray about it. Love it.

The pictures are me at the temple last week. It is in our zone. We were waiting for our zone leaders for lunch. It is pretty cool. I can't wait until I get to go.

Love, Elder Naegle