Email April 23, 2012

Hi Mom,

How are things? To answer some questions.  Those prom pictures look good. Niglet is a stud. I got a really good chuckle. That Cam kid was in my prom group my senior year, hahahaha. Funny how things work. 

Well. As you can see in the picture. Old Shumway and I killed ourselves a rat! It was just a little guy... I was changing and I saw him zoom across the floor so I yelled at shumway to get the brooms. He came in and we started moving his stuff until it came back out. I gave him a nice hockey stroke right into the wall, which stunned him, and before I could say rat my comp started beating the poop out of it with a broom hahaha. So funny. But I think we have made the family upset.... They have started to make quite the ruckus at night now. The poison just makes the rats here stronger... The traps are worthless... So I am thinking about throwing a cat up in the ceiling... But then I got a throw something up there to eat the cat... hahahaha Things are getting crazy here in the missionaries' house in La Paloma.

My other funny story of the week. We did a division with the Puente elders. I worked out a ride with a guy at the house of one of my investigators. Anyway, the second night when he was driving us, I ask him, "so what have you been up to tonight?" His reply, "just drinking some beers. I thought you guys werent going to call me..." Hahaha oh man I got a good laugh. He was a good driver though, just didnt see the huge speed bumps until the last second. 

Alright. Well. The good news for the week. Josefa is still going strong. She hasnt smoked in 2 weeks. Her and Julian are still pretty hesitant about marriage though, well not her, just Julian. But we will get there. Cool story for the week. We taught a guy this weekend, a super smart professor. He talked for like an hour and it was tough to get a word in, but anyway. He tells us that he used to go to our church back in the day when he was 16. I asked him about the Book of Mormon. He said, oh yeah, that book written by Joseph Smith. I explained a little bit about how the Book of Mormon came about and he responded. You know, the Guarani believe that the Son of God came and taught them. I marked him 3 nephi 11. He was super pumped to read it. i am super excited to follow up with him. We also found an investigator that Gardner and I found a while back. He left to work a while back and we havent been able to find him until he called out to us in the street the other day. He is a super awesome kid. About to turn 18 this week. 

But anyway. That is what is going on in La Paloma. I want you to know that I know the Book of Mormon is true. I feel the Spirit every time I testify of its truthfulness. I love teaching about the Book of Mormon. It is my favorite thing to teach in the mission. I hope everything is going well at home. Have a good week.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email April 16, 2012

Hey Mom,

Ok, so I will explain the pictures first. Those are my hats from the expo. Did I go? No........ Someone from Saltos had to ask for permission, and when you ask for permission, things get taken away.... So... I had planned to go with Isaías and I told him I would buy him a hat, so he just went for me and bought me 3 hats. So he got a hat out of the deal, and he was nice enough to put some stuff on the hats for me. As you can see he spelled my name wrong, but I am super happy with the hats he picked for me and I love that kid so much so I didnt even care.

This week was a rainy one, Paraguay is finally starting to get some rain. Wednesday we just had an awesome day. It started with Josefa, Isaías grandma. She came back from her trip to Caaguazu, and told us that she hadnt smoked for 8 days! Oh yeah! She also came down with a cold, so we offered to give her a blessing of strength and health to keep her going strong. That is key, so remember that. After that we had a great lesson with Bruno. After that we were able to meet with a kid named Sergio, nicknamed Chocho. He was an awesome investigator but got a job in a supermarket right after we started teaching him so he couldnt go to church. We taught him and he told us. Hey, I read that pamphet you gave me. I got down on my knees, and I asked God if it was true. I felt  pretty good, and then I went to bed and had a dream that I was sitting with you guys in church... Wow. Wasnt expecting him to tell me that, but man was I sure happy. I have found that if people will follow through with the simple formula of read, pray, and go to church, every single time they will get an answer. The frustrating thing is that people have their agency and choose not to try it out. Oh well. Moving along.

Saturday. Josefa tells us that 2 days after the blessing she felt completely better, which also helped her to commit to a date for baptism. the 5 of May. Her husband, well not yet married, is not quite as sure as she is, but we are working with him.

Funny story of the week. My comp tells me. "yeah this one time I was in Boston, and I sung with the group I was in at a baseball game in a place called Fenway or something." I reply, "really? I hate the red sox, who were they playing?" his reply..... "New York or something. I dont really know. Everyone was making a pretty big deal.  Anyway, I fell asleep after 2 innings or something"....................  That really happened. My jaw got wider and wider until he said he fell asleep and I had to leave the room hahahahaha. Shumway is so funny. We get along really well. Training has its challenges and him and I definitely have our differences, but it is fun.

Other funny story. Well, you decide how funny it is. I saw a guy intentionally hit a dog in his car, and then about 5 minutes later he intentionally tried to hit us as we were talking to a drunk in the street. Can you believe that? hahaha. It was pretty crazy. My comp literally had to jump out of the way.

So anyway. I hope you have enjoyed the stories of Naegle this week. I know I sure have. I also know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ and I am so happy to be here in Paraguay. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email April 9, 2012*

Dearest Mother,

How are you? Well I am now 20 years old! Oh yeah! You will see in the pictures that I got my book, ate my oreo pudding, and my branch presidents family had a party for me! First of all, the Book of Mormon you got me is awesome. Thank you so much. I am loving reading it. The oreo pudding is delicious as always. And my members were nice enough to buy me a Paraguayan jersey! Wow. I am blessed. I will finish telling you that my birthday it rained.... All day... And it was Holy Friday here... Meaning.... I taught one lesson that day... So it wasnt all sunshine and lollipops... But who cares!!! My birthday was awesome!!!

So anyway. Before I forget. I went to Saltos today. I pulled out some money. Probably about 250 bucks or so. I am going to something called the expo next week here in Paloma. So I need some money. All the Paraguayan souveniers you can buy will be in one location, so that is why I pulled out the money. This will probably be the one chance in my mission that I get to go to an expo in my mission.

Well... This week was one of the toughest of my mission as far as the work goes. So I am going to tell 2 funny stories and something I enjoyed from that awesome BOM you got me. Hope that is ok. First funny story. I did a division with Richins this week here in Paloma. It was awesome. Loved it. Anyway. As we were walking in the street, we saw 2 people making out in the middle of the street on a motorcycle. Top Gun style but it was really wussy haha. Anyway. Richins has a problem with saying lots of words in spanish when he talks in english. So as we were walking by, when we were right next to them, he says. ¨look at this, No Verguenza!¨ Which means no shame. Then he realized he had said it in spanish and we about died laughing. A great Richins moment. I miss being his comp.

The second funny story. Well, it is a little more gross than funny. So anyway. I was eating some oatmeal last night. Just plain. Straight out of the box, just pouring it into my hand and eating it. So about the 8th handfull I look down at my hand and it seems to be moving.... My hand was loaded with these little tiny sugar ants.... Hahahahahaa so funny. I probably ate about 500 to 1000 sugar ants. Pretty disgusting but I am far beyond caring. I got a good laugh out of that.

Anyway. As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week, which is really awesome in the original version cause it feels like you are reading a book and not verses. But anyway I realized how big of a stud that Nephi was. This week was pretty tough for me. Everything seemed to fall, and at times I was like Laman and Lemuel. I wanted to throw in the towel. I kept going, but my heart wasnt in it the whole time. Nephi on the other hand, his heart was in it the whole time. He was constantly striving to get that last lesson, to find that last investigator, to get one more person in church, he was a stud. It was a good reminder for me.

Well. I know this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. His gospel is the way. There is no other.

Love, Elder Naegle

Email April 2, 2012

Hello Mom,

Happy Birthday yesterday! I hope you had a good one. I enjoyed your birthday watching conference here in the wonderful La Paloma. But I will get to that in a bit. I am going to try to answer all of your questions before I forget. I am doing pretty good with my migraines. I have been getting more lately. About one a week, but I can usually manage it with the imitrex, so I honestly don't even notice it. I think I am good on the Imitrex, but maybe a few more would be good. 25 or 30 just to be safe. The daily stuff should last me all the way through my mission. I counted in my first area, so I should be fine. And if I needed it I bet I could find it here in the pharmacy. Plus you don't need a prescription haha. So if anyone needs anything when I come home..... Hahaha

I never got the letter with the chip in it. Robbed I m sure. Don't worry about sending it again. I got my package! Thank you so much. I opened it, but I am saving my present for my birthday. I get dearelders every 2 weeks and i love hearing from my friends.

Alright. So here is the news for the week. We went to Santaní on Tuesday to hear from Pres Madariaga. We got a little bit of chacha as they say here in Paraguay for the lack of results.... But it was really good and we left being built up. That is when I got my package as well, so it was great. Wednesday is when a little bit of a cold spell came into town... Man July is going to be rough.... Hahaha but we were also able to do some service for Isaías' grandparents. I bought some chickenwire for them so the little ones couldn't get out anymore because a dog was eating them and she couldn't leave the house alone to come to church. So we put it up for them... And both of them were there in conference! oh yeah! We still need to work with Julian and working on Sunday, but we'll get there.

We had a really cool finding experience this week. President Madariaga told us that we need to talk to more people. That night as we were walking home, quickly I might add because my comp was feeling the Paraguayan food.... hahaha. Anyway we saw some drunks and they called out to us to come over. I didn't want to go over, but I remembered what Pres. Maddog had said. So we talked to them and I set up an appointment with one of the kids for the next day, not thinking much of it. When we went the next day, Bruno was waiting for us. We taught him twice. And Saturday afternoon he was walking to conference with us!

Unfortunately.... I am in Paloma. So when I arrived at the chapel, I realized that all of Paloma was out of power, so we were unable to watch the first session of conference and Bruno went home. Julian and Josefa also came (Grandparents of Isaías) and went home.... So I was pretty bummed. But we were able to get all three of them to come again on Sunday. So great. I love conference and I love miracles.

Funny story of the week. I bought some Pringles for conference to enjoy some home sweet home. (not exactly cheap here in Paraguay). After looking for investigators on Sunday I came back to the second session to find a good nice Paraguayan man from Saltos chowing down on my Pringles! Patience! Forgiveness! Put a smile on your face Naegle! hahahaha it was pretty dang funny. At least he was sharing with everyone...

Well. Conference was great. I loved Elder Bednar's story in Priesthood session about his father. Made me think about whether or not I am acting like I hold the Priesthood or not. I also loved President Ucthdorf's talk on Sunday about forgiveness. Conference was awesome. I hope the 1st session was great too! Haha. You can imagine me watching conference in a little chapel with 7 other English speaking missionaries in Paraguay on a little tv. At least it was in English! Oh yeah!

Well I love you all. Have a great week.

Love, Elder Naegle

p.s. It is my birthday on friday, April 6. Please write a letter or something.... Hahahaha they even mentioned it in conference.... So if you don't do it... Well, you be the judge...