Elder Neel: 12/13/23

 

Hello my friends and family!! Merry Christmas to all of you and I hope you are enjoying this wonderful Christmas season to celebrate and adore the Savior of the world. It is truly a blessing to serve as one of His representatives and spread His message during a time that is directly focused towards Him. I love my Savior and it is a time of such joy and happiness! I am excited to give you updates for the past couple of months and get back on track on writing to y'all. Lots of things have changed, especially schedule wise and I have been able to re-adjust and better find time to write. 

We are at the end of another transfer! Going back to the beginning of last transfer, I received the call to serve as an assistant to our Mission President and what a whirlwind of a learning experience it has been. With this my new area is on campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock and I am serving in my first YSA. Let me tell you it was a huge culture shock to go from serving in family wards for a year and then to go to a YSA and teach people around my age. Oh but how I have loved it and I have built some of the deepest connections and friendships that I have ever made on my mission. I love this ward with all my heart and they are very helpful and supporting of us. A lot of them are also returned missionaries which makes them awesome people to bring to lessons with our friends. Also my new companion's name is Elder Kirchhoefer! 

Our friend Liset entered the waters of baptism in November and just hit her one month of being a member!! Her testimony of the gospel is inspiring and she is what a disciple of Christ looks like. The day after her baptism she came to a lesson with our friend Ethan and testified of the power of being baptized to him and we then put Ethan on date in January! Literally the day after Liset was teaching and testifying about the gospel and her experiences with it. You do not see that often and it will be something I will forever remember. 

Here's a quick update on our other friends we are teaching so you can get the inside scoop of what's going on🤠 As I mentioned before, Ethan is progressing quickly and is taking in the gospel with a completely open heart. When we first met him he didn't even really know about Christ and His purpose. Now he can explain the Atonement with such an eloquence and all other parts of the gospel. He has taken the change the gospel can bring to his heart. We met Marcus and Jesús a week and a half ago and both expressed their interest in being baptized. We are deepening our friend Santana's knowledge of the Atonement. We stopped a guy named Joey on Tech who is a little skeptical but really wants to learn of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. There is also Seth, Cameron, and Shine who we are slowly but surely teaching. I know isn't much detail about them but you will get to know and love them more throughout the future weeks that I write about our experiences with them. 

The last week of every transfer we get to organize and work on transfers! It is quite difficult to plan for 190+ missionaries but the Lord makes it work every time. A fun memory is Elder Kirchhoefer and I film a video of us announcing every missionaries transfer news. We made it fun and very Christmasy (if that's even a word) and it is becoming a tradition that we love and a fun way to let missionaries know where they are going. I can't send a snippet of it now because it hasn't been sent out yet (we're almost finished) but sometime after transfers I'll add a clip for y'all to see what it's like. Fun memories like this is something I will always cherish. 

I have a deep testimony of how putting our trust and dependence in the Lord always will work out for our benefit. I have to trust in Him many times throughout my mission but ever more so this past transfer. I have learned of how much Satan wants us to fail when we are trying our hardest to look to and follow the Savior. Deepening my relationship with Christ has not been easy but it has been worth all the sacrifice. I know Him more than anything else in this world. I know without a shadow of a doubt He's got my back. And I know he's got yours too. Prayer is powerful, use it. There is nothing more special than in times of hardship or times of peace to turn to the Savior and our Heavenly Father in prayer and then move forward with full trust. Trust with All thy heart. Not just a bit, but all.  I love you guys and I hope it is an amazing week full of joy, peace, and a knowledge that the Savior's got you. Until next time,

Elder Neel✊️