Email Dec. 26, 2011*

We had a wonderful video chat with Preston on Christmas Eve. He looks and sounds great. He expressed his appreciation to all that wrote him. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Hello Mother,

Well I will start this week's email. I haven't gotten yours yet, but hopefully sometime today I will be able to get back on and write. Just a quick tid bit for the family... I will be writing at 10 every week I think.

So anyway. This week was pretty good. Monday night our zone leader pulled fake changes on me and Elder Richins. He told us that I was going to Reducto 2. One of those areas that people don't want to go to haha. We didn't find out they were fake until Tuesday morning at district meeting. It was pretty funny, but I am not a big fan of jokes like that. Tuesday I said my goodbyes. It was sad, but I was happy too. I was happy to see the changes people had made while I was there. I said goodbye to Catelina, the woman I have been teaching who got baptized yesterday on Christmas! Pretty awesome. I got permission to call Elder Richins in Trinidad and talk to her for a minute. I am super happy for her. She is super happy.

I am sad to say goodbye to Trinidad, but happy to be here in La Paloma. My new companion is Elder Gardner from Taylorsville. It is very different. Not nearly as many members out here, but it is quite a bit nicer. Well, not my house... Haha unless you like rats... My house is huge. I attached a picture of it. The first picture is of Catelina, on the left, and her cousin Julio and his wife Rocio on the right. They are Elder Shirk's converts. I was super sad to say goodbye to them. The second picture is of Hermano Borjas. He just went through the temple a week and a half ago. I am so happy for him. He is the funniest guy. I got some really good video of him.

Well here I am now in La Paloma. My Christmas was pretty good. I had to give a talk. I don't think my comp has ever had to give a talk in the mission... Haha but I gladly volunteered to give it. Christmas in the mission is a lot different, but I can't complain too much. Thank you so much for the Jesus the Christ! It is amazing. I must admit, I opened it a few days early. When Elder Richins and I found out I was getting changed he convinced me to open it so he could see it. He was convinced it was a book of pictures. Haha but thank you so much. It is great.

Funny story of the week. Out here in La Paloma most of the people are better off the most of the people I talked to in Trinidad. So naturally they drink cleaner water. It was pretty hot one day. I asked this guy for water. He gave us water that my comp thought was questionable and I thought was cleaner than 75% of the water I drank in Trinidad... Short story even shorter. I drank, he didn't... Hahahahaha do I have the runs? Well I am in Paraguay, you can answer that question for yourself... hahaha. The answer is always, by the way.

Well one thing I know is that the Church is still true out here in La Paloma. True everywhere we go. I love being a missionary, even when it sucks. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I am grateful for this time of year and the time we get to celebrate his birth. Thank you for everyone at home and for your support. I loved opening the letters each day! I love you all.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Dec 19, 2011

Hello Mom,

Well transfers are this week. I will find out tonight if I am going or staying or what not. Richins and I have a feeling that I will be leaving good ol Trinidad. Unfortunate because it is right before Christmas.... And I have an appointment to kill a pig on the 23rd.... Hahaha but we still dont know, so I will find out tonight. I will explain about the pig later on. As far as calling goes, I will probably call on Saturday during the siesta. Around 1 or 2 my time. I think I am 4 hours ahead. If I am still in Trinidad, I have it lined up with my boy Arnaldo, where we do our internet, to come open up his place for me. So I am not too worried about it.

It sounds like everything is going great at home. Tell everyone thanks for the letters! They are so great to read every single day. All of the individual packages inside were left alone, but I think they are just trying to mess with me at the Paraguayan post office. I got a letter from Jackee today, and they had opened that too. They put a big stamp on it and wrap it back up in a plastic bag. Hahaha it is pretty funny. I dont think it happens to letters usually, but apparently it does to me.

Alright. So I will start my letter with a miracle. Well it felt like a miracle to me. On Tuesday morning, I woke up and said a prayer and told my Heavenly Father that we had 3 weeks to find a house and that we really needed his help. That day at our lunch appointment I felt prompted to ask Ignacio if he knew where we could find a place to rent, a kid preparing to go on a mission (we were helping him with his papers, it is pretty cool). He told us about a few places that we hadnt looked and he came out and looked with us. They were all full, but he told me to go ask at a despensa further down the street. So Richins and I went down and asked and they pointed us to the sister of a lady who is renting houses. Within a half hour we had a lady (who speaks english, lived in Chicago for 10 years) give us a call about an available apartment. We went and looked at it later that night and decided to take it. We will be moving in a week from today. That may not seem like a big deal, but here in Trinidad it is really hard to find apartments. I wasnt sure how we were going to do it, but the Lord answered my prayer.

Ok. Now for some funny. Thursday we were visiting some less active ladies. They raise pigs for a living. We got them really laughing, Richins and I are pretty good at it, and they invited us down on Christmas for a pig. They got talking more about it and they told us they are going to kill it on the 23rd. These are the kinds of things Richins and I live for. I jumped all over it. I put a huge smile on my face and said I want to kill the pig! Let me kill it! I started making the stabbing motions with my arm. I dont think I have ever seen an old lady laugh so hard in my entire life. Then Richins piped in and asked, ¨dont pigs scream like crazy when you kill them?¨ Then he said he couldnt handle that so he would have to hide under the lady´s bed while I killed the pig. Oh man did that lady laugh.... Hahahaha it was so funny. I was laughing so hard tears were coming to my eyes. So anyway... Now I am going to kill a pig on the 23rd if I am still in Trinidad... Probably not, but maybe. Those old ladies sure think I am.

Other funny story of the week. Friday we sat down with a drunk guy with a second cause he invited us in. He was wearing green cord shorts. Not sure if that is how you spell cords. Anyway. Ofcourse being the person I am... I had to say, I like your shorts. Without skipping a beat, he said, REALLY? Here let me give them to you. He then immediately went into his house and changed his shorts and put the green shorts in a bag to give to me. It was hilarious. I would have felt too bad taking a pair of shorts from a drunk guy... So I didnt take them from him. But Richins and I got a good chuckle out of it.

Now for some more serious. Sorry for my childish behavior.... So not sure if I told you about Catelina, but she is our solid investigator right now. She is so awesome. She is the cousin of Shirk´s converts. She was having trouble recognizing her answer to the Book of Mormon, but on Saturday she told us that she knows it is true. It was such an awesome experience. She is going to be baptized this week, and her cousin Julio is going to baptize her. I am so happy for her. She has her fair share of problems. Her boyfriend is in prison right now, waiting his sentence. Let us just say that his crime involves the commandment, Thou shalt not kill. So he will be in prison for 25 years likely. But there is a bright side, she is accepting the gospel and living the law of chastity. The Lord is preparing people everywhere and it is so much easier to find them when recent converts are trying to find investigators for us. Catelina is already trying to share the gospel with her family. It is really awesome.

So anyway. This is a good season. I really appreciate Christmas now. Being in Paraguay on a mission will do that to a young man. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I am so grateful for his sacrifice for me. I am glad I get to celebrate his birth during this month. I hope everyone at home has a great Christmas. Thank you again for the package and letters. Sorry I dont have the time to write everyone back, but know that I really appreciate it.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Dec. 12, 2011

Alright Mom,

This has got to be rushed. I will explain why I am short on time. But first.... I got my package!!!! Last Friday we went in for a little Christmas activity at the office. It had been opened by Paraguay just like my last one... I never got my Migraine meds, so I dont know if you forgot to put them in or if they got stolen. But the package was great! The letters are great! I love opening them every day. Also, there was another 100 dollars in there. Dont know who it is from. Also on Friday. Hermana Madariaga stopped me to tell me.... That the owner of our house is not going to renew our contract... So we have 3 weeks to find a new house. There are absolutely no apartments in Trinidad. The only one we have found is way too expensive. So I am not sure what we are going to do. We have to be out by January.

Ok. So about today..... We had to go sign in at immigrations... We waited for 5 hours, doing nothing. Finally the missionaries got to start signing, and it takes less than 2 minutes to do so. But as for me..... The lawyer for the mission came up to me and told me that they were having some problems with me.... So remember my FBI Clearance? Yeah so the date they sent it is 20 days too early.... If I would have gotten here 20 days earlier or the date was 20 days later I would be fine... Which means they wont be able to renew my visa the last 6 months of my mission. Well that is what I understood anyway. Legal terms in Spanish are way over my head... So she asked me if I can get another FBI Clearance. I told her I needed finger prints for that, but I would ask you to look into it. I told her it is unlikely that I can do it, but that I had absolutely no idea. So if you could look into it for me Mom, that would be great. But please dont stress over it. She said if we cant get it figured out, she would find a way to make it work. Im sure if you pay enough money to the right person here they will not care one bit... Hahahahaha

But in happier news, I saw KOs old comp at the migrations office! Small world!!!! I was hoping that I might see KO because the office elder that was in Bennys MTC group told me that the other mission was taking some missionaries there today. Shoot. But it is all good.

Ok. Sorry I dont have much time for anything else. I still need to go buy groceries for the week. Oh, by the way. President Madariaga´s email today said that we can call/skype on Saturday or Monday. Transfers are next week, so I wont know what day next monday.... Because I could be transfered.... So I am not sure how it will work. But I will figure something out next week.

Yesterday I had to play the piano for the primary program. Pretty cool. Especially because our branch president forgot that it was the primary program so I didnt have to give the talk he assigned me to... Hahaha probably next week or something.

This week was pretty good. I have realized that the mission is stressful at times. But the beauty of the mission is that I dont have to be stressed about it. I just go out and work hard and let the Lord take care of the rest. Am I worried about finding a new apartment? At times. But then I remember the Lord will take care of us. Am I worried that I wont be able to stay in Paraguay for the last 6 months of my mission? Not at all... It is hotter than heck here..... Hahahahaha just kidding I love it here. But I know that whatever happens is because the Lord needs it to. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Dec. 5, 2011

Hello Mom,

Well sounds like a crazy storm hit Bountiful?? As for the weather in Paraguay, well God answered my prayers and it cooled down for a few days this week. It was so nice. I cant fully describe how good it feels to sleep without sweating the whole night. Well as far as my week goes...

It was a pretty good week. Elder Richins and I went out and worked hard, and we did our best to get the branch involved and get some members to leave with us. The work is so much better when you have a solid member in the lesson. It went pretty well for us. We had some good lessons, I only had to eat liver this week, and that sums up to be a pretty good week. I must admit though, I am not a big fan of liver. But you eat what you are given and do your best to smile while you are doing it.

So Wednesday we did an exchange and I was with Elder Barker in my area. We were able to get Javier (one of the counselors in the branch presidency) to come leave with us. He came and visited a inactive guy we have been visiting. Hermano Lopez. He went through the temple, had a son go on a mission, but his family has just fallen away because he has some problems with the branch. So anyway. We shared a scripture with him, and then Javier hit him with a powerful invitation back to church. Lots of it was in Guaraní, but it was awesome. When we were leaving, those 2 hugged and there were some tears in Hermano Lopez´s eyes. My smile couldnt have been bigger this Sunday when Hermano Lopez and his wife walked through the gate into the church. Later that night we went to visit a cousin of Elder Shirks converts. One of his converts, Rocio is her name, came with us to make the visit. The cousin wanted to know what the church was about, so I let Rocio explain. She explained the Book of Mormon in pretty good detail, a lot more than I would have, but it was awesome. When she was done I bore my testimony and invited Catelina to be baptized and she accepted without hesitation. It was really awesome. I have a big testimony of having members coming to make visits with us. Hopefully we can reactivate some of the 1300 members here so that the missionaries will have more people to make visits with in the future.

Friday I felt prompted to contact a house with a lady outside cooking or something. Lately I have just been asking everyone if they know any members so we can find all the less actives, and they usually point out a few houses. So I did that, she pointed out a few houses and then I asked if we could share with her. As we started sharing I felt the influence of the Spirit so strong. It guided the entire lesson. It was the most smooth lesson I think I have ever had. It was awesome. At the end she had the usual Paraguayo doubt of already being baptized. I felt prompted to handle it in a different way than we usually do, and she accepted a baptismal invitation. It was a really good experience for me.

Saturday we ran into Hermano Borjas on the street. I wish you could meet this man, cause he is flat out hilarious. He is a pretty old guy and he will never stop talking so you have to be careful or he will take all of your time. But anyway, we have been bugging him a little bit about going through the temple. So when we ran into him he was carrying a bag from the distribution center. He had a huge smile on his face when he saw us. He asked me, in broken english I might add (I really love this guy he is hilarious) ¨Do you know what this is?¨ I told him, temple clothes! He said yes, it is temple clothes. It was awesome. It was one of the happier moments of my entire life. I am not even very close to him, but it made me so happy to see someone so happy about going to the temple. I am so happy for him.

Well this week was a pretty good one for me. I hope it was good for you too Mother, family, and friends. I realized my love for sharing my testimony of Joseph Smith. My heart burned so strong every time I did so this week. I love being a missionary. I am far from perfect. I have lots to work on. But that is the beauty of this life. Thanks for the love and support. Especially you Mom. I love you so much. You are the best mom in the world.

Love, Elder Naegle