Email March 26, 2012

Dear Mom,

Well a pretty good week here in Paraguay. Sounds like a good week there in Bountiful. So far I am 4 for 4! 4 Americans for companions. Not sure how much that happens in South American missions, but pretty common in ours. Elder Gardner went to Mburucuya, which is the area where the office is. Birthday package, not yet. But we are going to Santani tomorrow for a training from President Madariaga so he should be bringing packages out hopefully. Let us hope. But we'll see.

I got a good chuckle about James. That is pretty awesome. I should have figured he would do something with a crane. Kind of weird to think he will be getting married though.

Well. Alright. This week was pretty good. But it had its challenges. Many plans fell. Many investigators didn't come to church. And well... Life goes on. But that is ok. I will tell you about the good things that happened this week. Tuesday we had a cool experience with Josefa. Isaías's grandma. We were teaching her and her husband the Word of Wisdom, knowing that she has a smoking problem. After reading in the pamphlet and scriptures for a second, I said, Josefa, do you understand what this means? She says, yes, I can't smoke anymore. Then she stops me and says. You know, I had a dream the other night. I started smoking in my dream, then she looks at me and says, then you were there, and you said, stop that! Throw that away! Haha I love that woman. I also love that God sends dreams to help prepare people. The best part about the whole experience was after, Shumway asks, what just happened? I explained the dream and he started to freak out. He loved it. He thought it was so awesome because it was pretty cool, but it made me pretty happy to see.

Funny thing of the week. Well actually, it is more of a suggestion. And this one is for Bishop Welling. I think all of the ward will enjoy it. A few weeks ago the branch here in Paloma had a birthday party for a little kid during church because that is when everyone is together. Well the whole branch liked the idea of having a snack before sacrament mtg so now for the past few weeks there has been a cake every week hahahahaha. It is pretty funny. So everyone gets a piece of cake after classes, then we have our sacrament mtg. It is great.

Well this week I followed several impressions of the Spirit to talk to people, and we found several new investigators. Finding news in Paloma is always tough, but this week it seemed like a breeze as we were just walking and I just felt like contacting certain people. I am so grateful for the Spirit and that the Lord is helping us in every step of the work as long as we are willing to listen.

I love you all so much. Hope you have a great week. Love you Mom. Happy 28th birthday on Sunday!!!! Love you!!!!

Love, Elder Naegle

Email March 19, 2012*

Hello Mom,

Well the big news of the week.... Changes.... I am now training Elder Shumway. Yep. I am now a trainer. Can you believe the Lord would trust me with some new missionary in an area that speaks as much Guaraní and Portuguese as it does Spanish??? Hahahaha I can't either. But anyway. I am sending a little voice recording to tell you about him a little bit. But I am not sure if this is the right voice recording... So if it isn't, you will get a repeat. My mp3 is numbering them weird now. That being said, I bought a new mp3 player today, so you will see that charge on my card.

But anyway. That is cool you went to Menlove's homecoming. he is a good kid. I didn't really know him, but from the few hours I spent with him I liked him a lot. I am glad that Nate made it back safe from Colombia. That is cool to hear about KO and Hager. What area is KO in? Is he still in San Isidro? I don't know where it is exactly, but I know the bus that gets there in Asunción............ Hahahaha no no no don't you worry there folks. Old Naegle is stuck in Paloma and isn't going anywhere. And I am glad that you liked that picture. (Tell Staker's mom that he has saved me while I have been out here, a good phone call at night is a wonderful thing).

Well sorry my email is not going to be too exciting this week. Not much happened in the work. We had a bunch of Portuguese lessons though, so that was pretty fun for my comp.... haha. Rubén is doing well, but he didn't come to church. In fact, we didn't have any investigators in church this week, so it was kind of a rough Sunday. But that is ok. We had a mtg with one of our zone leaders out in Saltos today, and the mission is really changing its vision. Now we are focussing on changing the missionary first, before trying to change what he does. We have been talking a lot about faith and charity. I think it is really going to help our mission a lot.

Well. I hope all is well. I love you so much Mom and family and friends. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I am grateful for this wonderful opportunity that I have to be His representative.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email March 12, 2012*

Hello Mom,

Well to answer your question about the time change here. yes they change. But it will be in April. Last time I had no idea when it was and neither did the Paraguayans.... Hahaha. But anyway. As you will see in my pictures, I didn't go to Saltos today. They moved it to next week because changes are happening. Yes, that is right, we are getting changes tonight. But that is pretty crazy about Nate's Colombia trip. Too bad it was a little more expensive than planned. Yes. I am hitting 9 months. Pretty awesome. I celebrated with the package I got today! Oh yeah! I guess because it wasn't a box, the cartero (kid in the office in charge of the mail) sent it out to me for free. I love free things. But thank you Mom. It was most definitely opened though.... The Paraguayos love to open my stuff. They wrap it up back good though, so that is nice. As far as I know, nothing was stolen though.

Ok. I will explain the pictures. That is a waterfall about 15 minutes outside of Puente Kyjhá. Pretty awesome. There is a member in my branch with a taxi so I worked a deal out for everyone, including Saltos elders to come with us. Check out Richins... He is in the middle of us... Look at that haircut.... hahahahahahaha some guy really messed up. so he is gonna fix that tonight.

Ok. So this week was an awesome one. I am going to start with the funny stories. First one. Well it isn't funny, but I got PK this week. Not sure if that is how you spell it. But that is the little dust sized bug that gets in your foot and lays eggs and stuff. I always wear flip flops, but it still got in there. That was fun digging it out. Sorry, I forgot pictures.

Second. The branch presidents daughter recently returned home from her mission. What does that mean? Tryouts. hahahaha we have had 2 consecutive weekends with return missionaries from Asunción trying to impress her. Great for me. President makes them speak in sacrament mtg. Hahaha

Third. Grandma of Isaías told us that one time she ate a half a kilo of ice cream and almost died. We were dying laughing. I reallly thought she was going to die from laughter, then she stopped and said, but really I almost died. My husband had to take me to the hospital. Then we all lost it again. Haha I reallly love that woman.

Moving on to the serious things. Isaías passed the Sacrament this week. His grandma was there again in church. As well as his companion in school. During the Sacrament, his companion turned to me and said that he would be there every single week. He has a baptismal date for conference weekend. Saturday was the birthday of Isaías, and all the members put something together for him. It was way cool. His mom came, and we have never really been able to talk to her. She thanked us from the bottom of her heart. It was awesome. All the members are really coming together for this family. Apparently his mom was baptized in Caaguazu when she was little. KO shoutout!! But she tells us she wasn't. Anyway. I know that with time she will be softened by the Spirit and get back on the right path. Isaías is helping us so much with the work. It is really awesome. What felt like a dead area 2 changes ago now feels like an awesome one.

I love you all. Hope you have a great week. You might be hearing from me with a different comp next week. Odds are high. Gardner has 4 changes here. But, well you never know here in the Asunción north. Tell KO that I sent him a letter last week so he can take a chill pill. I need to take a chill pill as well. Hotter than heck here. Well gotta go. Love you all.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email March 4, 2012

Hello Mom!

Well another Monday morning here in La Paloma, Paraguay. Pretty cool to hear about the Amazing Race in Paraguay. I got a good chuckle about them complaining about the heat. Welcome to my life! Every day baby! But, it is cooling down.... Not really... Thought I had you going for a second... And I am glad you were able to listen to the testimony of Isaías. He is such a great kid. He received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday too. Oh yeah! so awesome. Anyway. I will get to that a little bit later...

The big news of the week..... Special Changes!!!! And.... Gardner and I are still here... But.... My faithful district leader is now gone, and guess who replaced him. None other than Richins!!!! Booo Yeah!!! It is good having my old comp in Puente Kyhja now. Plus. I had to go in to Asunción to sign stuff for my visa (which is all worked out now), so I was able to come back out with Richins and just talk to him on the 7 hour bus ride. I made a voice recording, but it is not showing up now, so sorry you won't get to hear my sweet voice this week. But anyway. So awesome. I am so excited. That all happened friday by the way. We got the call wednesday night, went into Asunción thursday night, and came back friday afternoon. So you will notice a Burger King charge on my credit card..... Love you Mom.

As far as the work goes here in La Paloma. Well Isaías is helping us a ton. His grandmother was in church yesterday. She has a baptismal date for conference weekend. I can't believe conference is right around the corner by the way. Also we are teaching his companion in school. He didn't come to church yesterday and his cell phone is broken so we haven't been able to get a hold of him, but he is very interested so I am confident we will be having several baptisms in the next few weeks. We are also teaching the cousin of Isaías. Hahaha just about everyone he knows. He is a cool kid, and the branch here really likes him. They are going to throw him a birthday party on Saturday. And they know how to give someone a birthday party. The cake is getting to my belly.... I have eaten a lot of cake here. They always have cake. Such a wonderful and terrible thing... haha

Yesterday in church we also had a visitor in church. A friend of a return missionary in the branch. He is a return missionary from Colombia. Served in Barranquila. He saw my bag, and asked, "where did you get that?" , "my brother, he served in Colombia". after a minute of talking, we came to find out that Parker Winters was this kid's zone leader. Pretty cool. Small world. Can't remember his name. Sorry. But a Paraguayo that got back in January. Ask him that.

Well. Life is pretty good here. I hope life is the same back home. Love you all. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I bore my testimony of its truthfulness in church yesterday and it felt wonderful. Love you Mom. You are the greatest.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email Feb. 26, 2012*

Hello Mom,

Well how are you? Sounds like things are a little crazy there at home. Not much has changed I guess. Well I will start with my week.

So we went to Asunción on Wednesday night for zone conference on Thursday. It was pretty sweet. Home sweet home. It had been too long since I had smelled the sweet smell of... Well I dont know how sweet Asunción smells, but you know what I mean. Zone conference was good. President Madariaga gave us an awesome lesson about faith and how it is a process. He talked about 4 different levels of faith and it being a knowledge and all sorts of stuff. I learned a lot. Then after conference, we had missed the nice bus to take back out to our area, so everyone in the zone was planning to take the 11 oclock bus that night, but the zone leaders pulled a quick one on us and told us we had to leave right then to catch the bus. We piled into the mission van and took off, and next thing we know we are at the terminal, but the bus isnt at the terminal, it is somewhere else. So we had to walk for about 15 minutes to catch it, and it was a rough bus. Let us just say that it took forever to get back to La Paloma. But all tranquilo with the zone leaders, their area is fairly close to Asunción..... Hahaha gotta love the mission.

This week we have really started to focus on the grandma of Isaías because now she is really starting to open up to us. On Saturday she accepted an invitation to be baptized. It was a pretty awesome lesson. Now with Isaías, we have a good member to leave and do visits with us, and we are going to start in his own house. He is so awesome. He is doing really great. I am going to send home a voice recording of him, I also recorded his testimony this week to send home. If you could please save this for me. My player is starting to act up on me a bit.

Yesterday I had one of those really awesome mission experiences that I wont forget. We were planning on visiting this less active guy(served a mission here in Paraguay) in the branch, and he actually had come to church that day. So we were thinking, sweet, this is going to be great. Around 4 o clock I called him to see if we could come by a bit later. He told me to come about 5 30. About 20 minutes later he called back and said to come right then. When we got there he told us that he was struggling really bad. Especially when we had called. He asked, why did you call me? How did you know to call? He told us how he felt so alone in his life. I asked him how long it had been since he had talked to his Father in Heaven. He said a long time. We talked about the Plan of Salvation with him and the role of our Savior. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in my mission. We gave him a blessing before we left. So awesome.

This is the true Church of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary and having these types of experiences.

Have a great week.

Love, Elder Naegle

Mom. Tell Sam that he is a great example to me and that I love him. Tell him to email me when he can.