Ainda Alive

11/27/2008

Hey everyone,
  WARNING: Do not spray Deet on black pants...trust me.  Especially while in the 

hot sun.
  So about Brasil, its awesome.  One thing i will say tho is that i don´t tihnk you 

can get a traffic ticket down here.  In fact i´m pretty sure if you get hit as a 

pedestrian your the one who recieves a ticket.  Riding in a taxi here surpases 

anything Sienfelt had to say about taxi´s in New York.  Wow i´m pretty sure my 

life expectancy dropped a few dozen points just getting into one of those, as 

well as just walking one the same streets as them.  Another fun one, we all seen 

Harry Potter, some of us have even read them *cough cough*  Well i´m am quite 

sure i just rode the night bus.  Its not my first time on a bus here, and not 

even close to my last, but its a thrill everytime.  I remember the first time 

my first week here when i thought ``Eh i´ve ridden subways and such a thousand 

times i donpt need to hold on to anything i got this``  MISTAKE (scrubs) Im 

standing in line to pay one moment and the next i´m nearly on someones lap. 

We easily squeezed through spaces not even the Night Bus could have gotten 

through traveling roughly at Mach 2.  Needless to say Brazlian or American 

when you hear a bus coming in the streets everyone immediatly dives for a 

side walk.
  This week was pretty evenful socially with other missionaries.  Sadly i 

feel i miss alot of spiritual moment because of my languege deffiset.  But we 

did have another baptism at our building this week for a Kid who was turning 8. 

I knew him from all the soccer i´d played with him and kartchner did the baptism.

Afterwards me and my companion had some appointments to attend to, but the plan 

was to order burgers and meet up at Kartchner´s after that (Holmes and his comp 

were present again too) And so we did.  I was just expecting some low key brazy 

burger.  WHat i ended up with was immidiate heart burn and the feeling that i 

wasn´t gunna be able to move off that couch like stack of matresses.  I remember 

Elder A. Olson writting home about something he had in South AFrica that you can 

only have 4 times a year or you´ll die, well i´, pretty sure this is the brazy 

equivalent.  It was a ´lanches´with grilled chicken sausage and steak pieces 

(like nickel sized) and chopped up onions and peppers as well mixed in there. 

Then it had like 3 scrambeled eggs fried on top.  All on a bun that seemed to 

have been soaked in delicious greese.  You ate the entire thing with something 

they call carrot sauce (as it translates) on every bite.  It was one of the most 

deliciously horrible things i´ve ever had.
  I got some kind of Brazilian Poison Ivy this week i tihnk.  It started on my 

right ear at ZC then moved to my right wrist other wrist and then other ear. 

All this would have been pretty incradibly frustrating but luckly there´s this 

amazing Person neamed Emily H who gave my some anti-itch cream (w/ Zybrol or 

something, man that stuffs gotta be a steriod) this summer and for some random 

reason i brought it down here.  The stuff zapped it pretty quick tho i still 

hav a little bit lingering.
  Sunday me and my companion went out early again to try and collect all the 

people we had tracted into this week.  We ended up bring 4 to church tho only 

2 made it to Principled of the Gospel.  One of them is a 17 years old boy who 

seems to have quite the interest in the gospel.  Also while at the church this 

week a man walked you and had a few questions about our church.  WE were with 

our ward mission leader, who is a very fun 23 year old man, and we ended up 

giving him an entire tour of the church.  He sounded very commited to coming to 

church on sunday tho he lives a little out of the way.  We´ll see what happens..
  I´m writting you today btw and not yesterday because we got caught up with a 

member family after lunch on our pday and never got a chance to use the internet.

But in summary yesterday was awesome. Actually it all kinda started the day 

before when i was told E whitehead his comp and of course kartchner and guerra 

were coming over that night for a (you guessed it) pancake party!  I´m pretty 

sure half way into making the pancakes, before everyone got there, my companion 

for some reason thought they weren´t coming and so he gave alot of pancakes away 

to the memebers that live above us.  But sure enough about 10 minutes latter 

their were 4 elders out side our gate all clutching a pillow.  (i don´t have 

a clue how my companion heard them clapping btw, that is a mystery to me)  We 

all ate about 5 of so giant pancakes when we only had room for maybe 1.  This 

intire time i was wondering were the heck everyone was going to sleep in a 

house of only 2 beds but it worked out as everyone was ok with just using a 

sidewayz matress for their back and the floor for pretty much everything else. 

(all floors here are tile btw, i don~t plan on seeing carpet for 2 years) 

(also, all church buildings are nicer here, lol, the new ones that is.  I´m 

pretty sure the one ZC was held in was origanly supose to be a temple, the 

ouside has gorgeous marble and theres even an elevator!)  In result i didn´t 

get the best nights sleep ever and i dont think my comp ever went to sleep cause 

he was talking rapid portuguese to whiteheads comp all night.  Both of them 

both woke up at the crack of dawn to to go play futebol somewhere too.  The 

rest of us woke at a much more normal hour (fpr a missionary) and went up to 

our building to play volleyball with some other ppl from our zone.  It wsas fun 

except the brazilians won every game BECAUSE THE SAVE EACH GROUNDED BALL BY 

DIGGING IT OUT WITH THEIR FEET!!! makes me sick.  But it was a ton of fun and i 

got a ton of sun.  After that we met just about every missionary in Maceió at a 

churrascaria.  And that was exseptional!  It def compared to Bacana Brazil in 

it buffet tho i think Bacana might have a few more meat choice, excepting chicken 

heart which is alright (a little to chewy)  Regardless it was certainly a lot 

less expensiving only amouting to about 8 amercan dollares i believe (im not 

sure on the exact exchange rate currently)  We left there expecting to jump on 

a bus home, but what ended up happening was an hour long search for were our 

certain bus stopped...beacuse aparently our bus only stops at a bustop on the 

other side of town lol.  Kartchner said it was nearly immpossible to ever 

understand the buses here so i´ve decided just to expect that seeing as how 

the don´t even have route maps.  It was Sis Beynons birthday and so we called 

and sung to her while on the bus (she is amazing)  Next is where me and my 

companion got caught up at a recent converts house.  SOme how i got caught in 

a version of uno i still don´t fully understand but i did come in second once.  
  That night, while people in south africa were making preperations for 2010, 

the brazilians casually kicked my trash in futebol.  I´m not entirely sure how 

i got worse but it was pretty apparent, maybe i need to stretch more...  I will 

have you know that i did score again...on saturday....against the..little...

kids...
  Ammon is the coolest missionary ever.  Its interesting that you seem to think 

the same mom.  I think Alma 17-26? (is that right) could potentially be my 

favorite part of the Book of Mormon.  I nearly cried, no joke, as i read about 

the anti nephi lehi´s giving there lives for the church.  How great a work that 

one could have such great faith in there Lord to do such a thing.  And if it 

weren´t for ammon it couldn~t have happened cause he got all those other 

brothers out of jail, as a side note.  It wonderful to see how his missionary 

work didn´t stop there.  When he returned to the nephits he continued his work 

and even went down to those worshipping on the ramiumptam.  I ithnk we should 

all follow his example in always being missionaries.
  Well i canpt tihnk of much else.  Grand ma will be happy to know i´m scratching 

my head alot here as to retain my hair and prevent baldness.  Gotta keep the 

pores lose, right grand ma?  I´m glad to know Mrs Kia is gdoing well, and high 

five to those who helped north get fourth in swim confrernce.  
 
I love You All 
Falou!
E Neuberger

No Maceio

Well Folks, E ai! Tudo Bem? Beleza? Ai POIS!
  Let me just start off by saying for an instant humbling experience--> Send your 

kid to Brasil.  But i´ll get back to that.  As a preface to this letter i´m just 

going to admit that i know i´ll acidentally leave a whole bunch i want to tell 

you out because there is just so much to say.
  For starts this week my companion just couldn´t seem to get up at 6:30 like 

we´re supose to.  I think this happened like the first three days i was here. 

But then magically, on that thrid day, i went to shower and when i got out my 

clock had some how moved and hour back...interesting.  I had been waking us up 

at 5:30 each day because maceió does do day light saving, oops.  Regardless i 

have continued to wake up at this time because thats about what time the sun 

decides to wake up everyday :-(
  Question: What is the best fresh fruit? Answer? I have no idea, i havn´t even 

come close to trying them all yet, but manga is dang good and easily holds a 

spot in the top ten.
  Ok, so i know more about my companion now.  He´s 23, from Campinous (a beautiful 

city of 4 million, with a gorgeous temple.  I think i´ve mentioned that before) 

and has about 3 months left on his mission.  I slowly discovered he speaks a 

little english over the course of this week, prolly a little less engliosh than 

i speak portuguese.  The first day i could prolly count on one hand the amount 

of things i  attempted to say; how are you, what time is it, wafers are better, 

and...what time is it.  But the next day i couldn´t handle the silence any long 

(come on, you know me)  And although its still very hard to have a personality 

in portguese i did the best i could.  At that point alot of the things he said 

i just ansered with a head nod and gruntish thing.  Now i can understand most 

of the things he says, however (and Duerden noticed this too) when other people 

turn and talk to me i miss the content completely.  Its weird because i can 

follow the general idea of the conversation their having with my companion but 

then they go ahead and turn to me, mutter to words, and i´m completely lost. 

I tihnk i missed the question ´´were are you from´´ atleast 20 times this week. 

NOT MY FAULT tho, the dialect up here makes all the de´s and di´s and ti´s and 

te´s hard constenents.  So i was constantly turn to my companion with 

the, ´´uh..what´´ face, and he mutter the question to me in english.  he can 

now say the phase Where are you from with a perfect american accent.
  Futebul is something else up here.  P-days are way chill as we hang out in 

the Centrol with other missionaries and then have ward futebol that night.  I 

didn´t play last week tho, instead Skowsen grabbed my frisbee and i ended up 

playing that with a whole bunch of little kids, all of which wern´t half bad 

by the end.  I don´t think i will ever get tired of a Brasilian child tugging 

on my sleeve saying ´´èlder, élder!´´  Each Saturday morning we have soccer 

for all the YM and younger childern (we pretty much invite all of Maceió to 

play throughout the week)  Some how i got stuck in a few monkey in the middle 

games just in the parking lot where the little childern play, i hardly even 

made it to the real court.  Their favorite phrase that day was ´´Élder, O Que 

é isso?´´  I did manage to score tho once i got one the real court and all the 

kids went nuts, lol hurray i managed to score on an 8th grader!!!  Last night 

was a different story however (we had ZC yesterday so p-day was pushed back to 

today)  That was the night all the MEN get together to play.  We all drew 

tokens and i think i lucked out as i ended up on the team with a true goalie 

(he was amazing)  Lets be honest i don´t think they were to happy to have the 

American on their team but psh didn´t matter we held our own and won 4 consecutive 

games finally losing in the 5th round.  The time flew and as i went in to play 

again (7th round) everyone started talkiong and waving at me...apparently it 

was almost past my bed time :-(
  Our appartment is pretty night i think.  We clean it pretty well every week, 

which means we sweep the mountain of dust that collects from all parts of the 

earth (we live on a very uneven dirt road) as well as theroughly mop the place. 

Even still u´ve seem some rather exciting living creatures.  My favorite would 

def halfta go to the lizard i saw on our door last night, and my least favorite 

being the spider in our bathroon shower i´ve named Frank.  There is certainly 

more room than a Missionary could use, tho we´ve found ways to spread out our 

stuff.  As i´ve a justed to it, and grown to be able to call it home for now, i 

believe i have only about 3 complaints; No hot water (or drinkable water from 

the tap), Our toilet doesn´t have a seat...only the bowl (you do the math) and 

something smells horrible out side the windows facing north.  But thats easily 

solved cause we just keep those windows closed, and i don´t need hot showers in 

Brasil anywayz, tho it might be nice to have in the next appartment.  The best 

part is when i practically have to jump over the toilet to get to the shower 

cause there is such little space, pretty funny. We have a blender by the way, 

so that pretty much makes my life, along with the terquiose colored tootsie 

pop i had this morning.  What flavor is that? ps Thank you Mrs Kia
  Well the first and prolly best thing i can remember this week was our lunch 

appointment with a member.  We have lunch pretty much every day with the members 

(which is excellent, rice and beans!!! always!!!) and sense both me and my 

companion are new to the area its a wild goose hunt each day going from one 

memebers house to the next trying to find someone who know´s where the people 

who have lunch for us live.  Does that make sense?  Well as we finally found 

someone who knew that first day we followed her down the street.  Suddenly she 

stopped and turned into this small allyway between to buildings.  It didn´t go 

very far but suddenly opened up into this massive hole in the earth (like and 

open pit mine) that just has homes and homes stacked up upon eachother, the 

´´Grota´´ in English i suppose the only real translation is slum, but i don´t 

like that because the people here carry such a different ora about them.  And 

for the record our ward takes in 2 of the massive Grotas within it boundries. 

Well back to the story, stairs are a joke here, if your super lucky there will 

be some concrete ones, but half the time its just carved out dirt thats slowy 

eroding, and most of the time its just a straight drop pretty much (i´ve decided 

to buy brown showes the next time that becomes nessicary btw, because thats 

pretty much the color these have turned)  So as i jump from place to place 

we finally make our way down to one of these homes.  Now lets be honest, i 

didn´t even know we were there for lunch, i was still just following my companion 

around blindly at this point.  The home had one room truely, well 1/2.  A kitchen 

about the size of our kitchen...bathroom and an ajcent room that was just a 

little bigger.  As we entered and said our hello´s the lady of the house grabbed 

some cushions for us to sit on the floor, then, to my suprise, she came back with 

to plates of food.  I was blown away that these people who seemed to have nothing 

would be able to voulenteer to feed the missionaries.  But there we were and i 

ate my first meal right on that floor with my comp.  When we finished we stood 

up and my comp leaned over and said ´´do you have a message for us´´  uh...what? 

do i know portuguese?  Didn´t matter i ended up sharing a short, very short 

message on faith.  I read a scripture and bore my testimony pretty much.  It was 

a wonderfully uplifting experience.
  The rest of the meals that week were in pretty average homes, for Maceió that 

is.  Everytime i have been told to eat more, and i have to tell them there is 

no room left in my body anywhere for more.  
  We had to, random in my opinion acts of service this week.  The first was with 

am investigator (who reminds me alot of Penny ;-) who had us rearange her bed 

room furnature- a bed and a cabnet.  This was difficult because the two items 

hardly fit in the room in the first place.  We were with the ZL´s for this and 

what ended up happening was two ppl lifted the bed and the other two slide the 

couch under it.  A few days later we stop by for one of our scheduled 

appointments with her to teach a lesson and apparently she´d forgotten and 

wasn´t home, sad day.  Then the other day me and my comp refinished a windowsil 

and a few walls in another members appartment.  The Grinch was on in the 

background, and let me just say thats a horrible movie to watch while trying 

to learn a languege, WHICH WORDS ARE REAL?
  We visit with alot of members seeing which need help and stuff.  Usually at 

night when its not the best time to just be walking around tracting.  One family 

is having hard timesas there son has gotten into alot of trouble.  Though i 

only could catch bits and pieces of some of the most rapid cpnversing ever, 

the mother crying through out the entire thing was enough to convince me of 

the seriousness of the situation.  Its amazing how much can be expressed just 

from body languege.  I kno we hear that all the time but it takes on an even 

bigger meaning when thats nearly all you can understand.  We left that home 

with a very positive spirit as my companion was able to relate a story and 

share some scriptures from 3 Nephi.  As we walked home i tihnk the only words 

muttered for a while were ´´Drugs will destroy a family´´
  On a more positive note sunday was excellent.  Our ward (and area) is called 

Bariloche.  All the talks were about the same length and no one seems nervous 

or rushed as the speak.  Also we were able to bring that investigator i talked 

about before with us.
  The night before there was a baptism for someone in our ZLs ward and ELDER 

HOLMES got to do the baptism as him and his companion came up for the cerimony. 

He was a little taken back when asked, but managed just fine.  It was great. 

Our Zone Leaders are way great, like if i can be half the missionary that either 

E Kartchner or E Guerra are i will be very satisfied, but i´m shooting to be 

double ;-) They have a second story appartment that i would kill for with a 

constant breeze.  Past missionaries have had some fun with chalk on the walls 

and it looks pretty cool.  E kartchner holds the record with a former companion 

at 150 bananas eatin in 5 days (don´t worry, i´ll break it)
  O yeah, my birthday was this week, i used mom´s poppyseed mix to make myself a 

kinda cake, i tohught that was pretty cute.  And then the Presidents wife called 

and they sung happy b-day to me.  I appriciated the Grandparents cards and Ashley 

P´s card, and then went to work.  Later that day we were with the ZLs and, as the 

were talking about who knows what in portuguese, E kartchner suddenly turned to 

me with a big grin and was like ´´So i hear from your companion hear that you 

got a call from Sis Beynon this morning.  Got some health problems eh?´´  What? 

(totally caught off gaurd) Oh..lol No, its my birthday.  They went nuts and 

later on that night swung past our appartment to sing to me.  It was pretty great. 

A kid on the street randomly asked me how old i was that day and i got to tell him 

20 AS OF TODAY.
  Well yesterday was Zone Conferance and that was AWESOME.  I got to see Skowsen 

Whitehead Duerden and Holmes and reciepe for instan laughter and smiles.  As we 

all first gathered around the comment, ´´man you look so different´´ kept coming 

up towards one another.  Then we all realized, omgosh we´ve all finally been 

working outside in the sun.  No Wonder!  We wern´t our pale CTMselves.  We were 

so giddy, but the entire conferense was very uplifting, I even said the opening 

prayer- IN PORTUGUESE!  Its amazing how much easier it is for me to understand 

whats going on when the topics are gosspil related.
  Not to much else has been going on other than that.  Danny Freiberger keep 

pushing algon for that eagle scout.  Getting it out of the way before High School 

is such a blessing.  Shelly goodluck with everything your doing.  PNH Congrats on

a 44-0 victory on Halloween. I hope you can keep it up!  Im interested to know 

where Haylay P is living now with a newly elected President.  its amazing how 

many people keep up with that down here.  I get asked my opinion on Obama each 

day, and my response, well, i don´t really have one.  I would say on average 

people down here know more about American politics than the average American tho.
  Well (as kristi lee would say, i love the way you write your leters sis) 

thats my week in a nut shell.  I appriciate all your letters.  Im sure as soon 

as i end this email i´ll think of more to tell you, but thats all i have for now. 

Write me bunches about your lives and remember to pray and that your in my prayers. 

3 NEPHI 18:21!/Mosiah 4:15
 
Walking more than Ever,
E Neuberger
 
PS I´ll try to send pics next week, but at the moment i don´t have a great way to 

upload pics cause i don´t wanna carry my camera around sucha high crime town. 

Fam maybe you can send me one of those card readers we have sitting around?
 
PSS Alot of you, kinda a suprising amount of you. have asked what the big 

flash/bang was at the CTM.  To be honest we never found out.  We had the privlage 

of attending the temple that day which cut our p-day time in half and never had a 

chance to check it out.  The Brazies say it was just a firework. But theres no 

way thats right.  The thing never even left the ground.  I tihnk it was much 

closer to the fashion of a pipe bomb or flash grenade.  The amount of smoke we 

saw pour out of there was way more than any firework could have safely produced 

on the ground.  PSSS Polica here are like military, wish the inforced more, just 

kidding.  
 
I LOVE MACEIÓ

Hey Fam

11/12/2008 

How is everyone?
  Well if you´ve read the other email you have a pretty good idea of my week, 

but here´s a little more to ponder...
  First off Ali i don´t wanna hear any complaints about Kumon, yes i know exactl 

what and were that is, The Musgraves worked there as Travgis might have told you 

along with half the other asiains i knew and its proven to work and is a great 

place.  Your not getting dumber.  Use it for all its worth and if you feel your 

not getting enough out of it b]make ysur eyou be the one to start asking the 

tutors questions for understand or clarification.
  Travis and Kristi Lee..kinda.  Seminary is super duper important, i pont this 

mainly to travis because i fouind out this week, and maybe you already realuized 

this.  But if you don´t graduate seminary you can´t go to brasil on your mission. 

Its nearly impossible you get a viosa here in the first place and to get them at 

the rate they do the church hasta prove your a trained minister through your 

seminary schoolinh.  Pretty sneaky i know.  Also if you read the book of mormon 

section of PMG you´ll find that most scriptures masteries answer questions of 

the soul, study and memorize them!!! this will be of great assistance, trust me.
  Mom Dad, keep being awesome.  And tell your parents i got their b-day card mom. 

Also how´s Cresh and Carol sent up and planning going?  So sorry i´ll be missing 

that again for the second (and then third) year in a row but i hope the whole 

things go on without a hitch and you´ll half ta keep me posted as the sate draws 

closer.
  ALI GOOD LUCK IN FIDDLER!!! i hope that hasn´t already past by but i hope you 

nail the whole thing girl, have no fear, you ll be great.
  Our district had a sleep over this past week, just to proive that you can have 

fun in the CTM.  And the hug up christmas light and decorations everywhere which 

is fun and i forgot to say that in the other email to everyone.
   I wish i had brought a step counter, maybe i already sauid thuis, on my 

mission tho just to see how far i walk each day.  the Pres said we will walk 

about 5 miles a day.  That's nothing right?  Philmont!
 
Anyway i love you all so much, continue studying the scriptures
E Kyle Neuberger
 
ps i only get mail every 3 weeks at the latest

Dusty

O man, Maceio is awesome.
  Ok but first we half ta talk about the begining of this week. For starts the 

Jynx battle of the century went down at the begining of this week.  We had 

finished learning all the lessons in our grammer book and for fun another district 

had come in to re teach a lesson to us.  Well me at Whitehead answered one of the 

questions at the same time and then both said Jynx at the mesmo tempo.  This 

naturally sets off the chain of constant jynx´x till the loser takes a breath. 

Well neither one of us were in the mood to lose, infact Whitehead has never lost 

a match.  I could tell he was close to out of breath as i was still going strong 

but he suprised me as i felt myself slowly reaching the end of my limit as well. 

At this point we were both blue in the face and had to lean over as to be able to 

push more air out of our lungs...horrible idea.  So as we´re both hunched over 

our desks...dying, i feel that i can´t take it anymore and proceed to utter my 

final Jynx b efore takiong a breath.  Well i do, and ironically enough so does 

E Whitehead, resulting in a tie double Jynx, unheard of.  When both of us to a 

breath we relized what a horrible idea the whole thing had been to let competition 

get the best of us.  It felt like someone was blowing a ballon up inside of me 

and i was feeling pretty queezy the rest of the day with a slight head ache. 

no good.
  But on to other things, the rest of the week was pretty chill as you might 

say, the CTM kinda loses focus or direction as you get ready and axious to get 

into the field.  We got to leave the compound a few time wthin the week for 

things like dry cleaning, and i picked up some chocolate as well.  Interesting 

was the fact that the same day a bought 3 rather large chocolate bars i wasn´t 

expecting to get any mail.  MISTAKE (scrubs opra singer) My companion comes 

running out of the mail room telling me i have a package, lies.  Theres no way 

its our last week and i was expecting nothing.  So i ask him who its from and 

he tells me not my family but mumbles the distinct word, ´´Mrs Kia? Who is 

that´´ Whos is that! um only one of the greatest families in the world.  So 

yes i have gotten your package Freibergers and i cannot thank you enough, 

neither can the helpful mouths of my district :-) We finished off most of the 

small stuff and maraculasly got the rest of it up to my apartment here in Maceio.

Hense i had a wonderful box of golden grahams this morning.  The reason it took 

so long, in case your wondering, because the had to inspect the propel packets 

for ´´sanitary purposes´´ w/e.  I believe it all got here because the checked 

everything through and claim it was safe, thank goodness.
  I have decided it is impossible for a brazilian to not be happy or to sies 

from smiling by the way.  Now if i can only figure out the words that acompany 

those glowing faces all be golden, however the second may take awhile. (6months 

as most say, 2 down four to go)  
  So yesterday our plane left, at who knows what time (later thatn scheduled) 

and me and 8 other excellent missionaries flew to Maceió.  The President his 

wife his secrateries, AP´s and Senoir Couple all met us at the air port.  For 

the first time ever they were checking your bagagge claim tickets and of course 

i had no idea were mine was.  L literally searched every where and could not 

find it.  So i said a small prayer, and decided to open up one of my notebooks 

again to check.  I klnow for a fact i had already checked that book, but low 

and behold there were the tickets.  Small Miricals
  The mission home here is gorgeous, actually its in a gated community if that 

helps you grasp an idea.  We had an excellent meal and quicjk over view meeting 

as well as entrance interviews with the president.  He is from Draper Utah btw 

and his name is Pr. Beinyen.  Im not quite sure how to spell it.  His wife had 

made brownies too and then we met our new companions.  Mine is Elder Martins, 

and he is from Campines Brazil (they have a gorgeous temple)  And speaks nearly 

zero english as far as i know.  But i was delighted to meet him and as everyone 

slowly pulled away in various taxi´s and such (some had a 5 hr bus ride to 

Aracaju, ie olso and bevan) i watched my old companion and district leave. 

It was a sad but happy moment.  
  Now...my apartment.  Well its really big i guess but there is nothing filling 

the space.  Luckly this m akes it super easy to clean which was good because the 

last elders had´t gone a good job of that (this was E Martins first time in the 

apartment tambem)  We took a minute to bust it and then left to meet up with 

some other Elders who were transfering and stop by the supermarket.  We bought 

more cleaning supplies there and end up moppin gour whole apartment before the 

night was over.  Its fun so count all the living things that run away when you 

turn on a light but for the most part nothing all that entertaining.  Tho on 

the way in from the airport an AP was telling us how one night he had been 

about to go to bed whenh he pulled to covers back and found a foot sized spider.

E Duerden my old comp, who we all know is petrified of such things, just *GASPED* 

We all looked at him as he exhailed and said ´´you know what, at that point i 

don´t tihnk i would even be scared of them,  when their that big, i figure you 

could prolly reason with it´´  We all cracked up laughing.  I knew the word 

for bed here was cama, but i´m not quite sure of that anymore.  If so its not 

a direct traslation, or something gets lost in translation i should say. Just 

Kidding, its a wonderful bed my only complaint is the aged smell it has.  But 

i managed to get some sleep, as i was dead tired last night.
  Today is now P-day so i still have no way of telling you whats it is truely 

like.  But i have been walking around the city all morning and it is beautiful. 

There is always a breeze and its pretty much like any coastal city in the states; 

merchant shops everywhere with people selling thengs on the street all over. 

The only difference is i have no idea what they´re saying, for the most part. 

Needless to say i love it.  And i can´t wait to fill everyone in on all the 

new stories next week.  
  Thats really all i have for now I love you all, pray i can some whow understand 

portuguese tomorrow ;-)
 
E Neuberger

Halloween Highlights

11/4/2008

Well this week is all pretty much a blurr except for halloween.  So....shall 

we begin?  The day started with personal study instead of the typical breakfast 

then personal study.  This was because E Greener was finally leaving this week, 

finally because half his district was already gone, so we rigged it so we could 

have breakfast with him.  That was excellent cause we got Gilehermie (an instructor) 

to sit with us and he´s hilarious.  All the sister missionarys wore white shirts 

and ties for halloween, and a few (like 2) elders wore like three ties which they 

thought was pretty funny, but really ...it wasn´t.  And the instructor we were 

sitting with kept calling them jerks in his english accent.  Pretty funny. 
   The rest of our study time flew by, i´ve been playing the piano quite a bit 

this week because its just comforting and fun, and so before we knew it we were 

out prosilyting again.  We finally went to a knew place, speaking of which, this 

week.  It reminded me alot of France actually, with a little Manhatten mixed in. 

Of course there were plenty of people and we ended up talkin to a lady who go 

very excited and ended up giving us the kissy cheek thing at the end of talkin 

to her (our instructor wasn´t to thrilled about that.  Funnier still was we 

hadn´t understood half the things she had said, but someday we might lol. 

Over all prosilyting was prolly the best yet.  Me and Duerden handed out more 

cards than everyone else, not to brag, but that was cool, with a totall of 43 

pass along cards distributed.  PRetty much everyone was able to hand out all 

there cards tho, we had just grabbed a couple extra.  
  About the portuguese tho, def understanding more.  It just when people talk 

fast i start thinkin about the first things they said, tryin to figure it out 

and then i miss all the other words.  But...better.
  Da Luz brought us in candy that night, (not half as good as american candy) 

but we had a fun time.  Then around bed time a whole lot of missionaries came 

through the hall all dressed up as different things.  The best by far was a 

creative fellow who had taken apart his fan and was using the cover as a turtle 

shell, hense a turtle costume.
  O that reminds me, the night before we had been up taking pictures with 

Greener and company.  Aparently we were to loud because suddenly out of no 

where the president comes walking down our hall, never really making eye 

contact with anyone, and just politely says (all in portuguese) lights are 

suppose to be out, right elders?  doesn´t ever even stop walking, just 

continues there the halls.  Suprisingly he didn´t come up halloween night tho.
  Here´s sometihng fun and interesting.  37-C another district that arrived 

the same week as us, has two people in it we have ties to.  The first is a 

young man by the name of E Christian Workinger, from San Diego.  YOu guessed 

it, he knows the nuckols as i learned this week.  We reminised about Jeffery 

and Steven so that was cool.  Then an E Seastrand went to the same highschool 

as Treny English i havn´t really talked to him, but thats just a fun little 

connection.  Small World
  Sunday was yet again another excellent fast and testimony meeting, i hardly 

made it through my testimony as i was already all choked up from listening to 

E Olson´s.  Then that night a local Stake President gave a wonderful fireside 

in which he had brought a whole bunch of items from his mission.  He had a 

brasilian on the stand who he handed everything to and asked him to confirm 

it was used and then would ask him to smell it.  He ended with a shoe and of 

course everyone laughed.  Then he told the story of his first day in the field; 

they mised the bus, had to walk home, got there at midnight, the bed was broken, 

the other elders in the aparement were sick and need a blessing then the bed 

broke again then there were cockroahes and lastly the sick elders need them to 

go get some stomach drugs.  By this time it was time to get up and go about 

the work.  The entire talk was very insightful and up lifting.  I can´t wait 

to get in the field
 
I love you all
 
Until Next Week
E Neuberger

Family

10/28/2008

Hey Fam
  This email is really just to you.  I just wanna say i´m so proud of everything 

you do.  Its so great to see that each of us have passions and continued excellence 

within those.  Its funny i was wondering about dimond and mom was able to answer 

all those questions and settle those conscerns with her last letter (HOW DID YOU 

KNOW? haha)
  Can i throw an idea out there though?  can we give a copy of Jesus is the 

Christ to Mr Kramer/ their family. The book is excellent and, for the most part, 

concerns with their beliefs.  Needless to say its a wonderful way to draw someone 

closer to Christ.
  Travis you are incredible keeps up the good work in all of your school and 

sports. You are going to have so many options open to you in the future if you do.
  Kristi Lee and Ali make sure you get along.  A sister bond will be cruesial 

in the future, support eachother in all that you do
  READ YOUR SCRIPTUREs...ali....travis.  Take your time in doing so, they will 

come alive i promise you as you open and end your study with a prayer.
  Mom and Dad your letters are amazing and yeah...you were right about everything 

you ever said. Note that childern.  Your words are close to doctrine haha just 

kidding. But they are certainly great advice even know.  Specail thanks to dad 

for advice in the field, point well taken.
  In closing i just wanna say that i have written to Nick Lee.  o yeah, and that 

i love you, dearly!
 
Your Elder Kyle Neuberger
 

Another Day in the Life

10/28/2008

Como Via?
  This week was an emotional roller coaster, needless to say it ended on a positive 

upslope though.  E. Scott (corum of the twelve) came to visit on saturday, no big 

deal.  I´ll get to that in just a bit though, lets take this week in chronological 

order first.
  It started with a bang here this week.  I got letters from Family Lisa and Emily 

all on wednsday and i was on an emotional high, super happy, could not stop smiling. 

I´m a child wat can i say.  
  Then, to everyones suprise, E Mahor left that night.  He, as you know hadn´t been 

well, but apparently, though he seemed to have recovered, there were other medical 

problems we didn´t know about.  He had been meeting with the President alone and 

when we returned to the rooms that night all we found was a note he had left.  At 

this point this all prolly sounds like some kind of fairy tell, only finding a 

note and all, but i can assure you at that moment it felt like a lot more than 

that.  My heart shattered for an Elder i has only known for a litte more than a 

month.  Its amazing how open your heart is out here, you just love everyone, 

generally.  Everyone shed tears and me and Olson had trouble stopping over the 

course of about an hour.  Luckly i was able to make out the words, ``Lets say a 

prayer``  And Clark readily agreed.  The AP also had a few comforting things to 

say and the night ended in one group hug and then quite a few individual hugs. 

It was rough, and completely unexpected.  I was so grateful for all the words 

each of you had written, in knowing that i have all you supporting me back home, 

i cannot thank you enough.  I also was able to find much comfort in the scriptures 

and prayed diligintly that night, tho sleep still didn´t come easy.  No one ever 

mentioned it again the rest of the week.
  As a district we recovered though, there were so many opthers things going 

on it would have been hard not to.  We went into over drive as we prepared for 

our second TRC this week and i am happy to say that i did it all without any 

help from a cheat sheet, in fact i didn´t even take anything in with me.  We 

even answered 2 of their questions as well, it was an excellent and encouraging 

experience.  
  As all this was happening we had choir each night in preperation for E Scott´s 

arrival.  We sang Come Follow Me and it was excellent.  As the program started i 

had no idea how i would ever stay awake, but all this was quickly solved as 

Presisdent Woodward anounced that E Scott would like to shake everyones had 

before the meeting.  All 300 some of, not alot compared to E Austin Olson i 

realize, us stood up and shook his hand.  I was like giddy, everyone else 

standing around me of course has their profesional missionary smiles on. 

But not me, i´m like uncontrolably smiling from ear to ear, felt pretty silly 

actually, but there was nothing else i could do.  E Neil L Anderson acompanied 

E Scott and i swear i´ve seen him in person before. Maybe one of you can help 

me figure out where, or if that even true (family? Ashley P?)  E Scott opened 

the fireside with some scripture questions that no one promptly responded to. 

To which he said ´´this is going to be a long and boring night´´ that losened 

everyone up a bit and thne he opened the floor to questions.  i wish i had 

thought of a question before hand but..i hadn´t.  E Clark though stood up and 

asked him something we´d talked about as a class earlier that week, ``Do only 

those who have been baptized return to spirit paradise?´´ E Scott responded 

with a, what do you tihnk?  and E Clark who is an excellent scriptorian 

refered to the mission handbook that said that was the case yet how he had 

read in alma that it was all righteous beings.  He concluded saying he likes 

to think its all rightoues beings, and E Scott said, ``I´m with you``  i 

thought that was so cool, and i was pretty jealous.  The main part of the 

fireside emphisised to trust in the Lord and read the Book of Mormon and 

constantly refer to it as your main resource, and also to write down any 

personal revelation you might recive even if its just th Holy Ghost telling 

you to turn left.  He finished with one of the most powerful testimonies i 

have ever heard.  He ended saying he can not tell us of how he knows the 

Lord lives but that he must bear his testimony so that we can feel what he 

cannot say.  Wow, it was astonishing.  Some noted scriptures were D&C 43:15-16, 

11:20, 82:10 and best of all 13:46
  In other news, though its nearly impossible to follow that, it was most of 

district 35´s last week.  And unlike most groups that leave all at once they 

left little by little going about to different missions.  Hense hall items, 

if you ill, were passed on to me this week.  Hall items arn´t things intrusted 

to everyone one but i managed to recieve three. The first being fart puddy 

which is to be used in class to freak out the Brazilain teachers.  The next 

is a giant rubber spider connected to enough fishing line to drop it to the 

bottom of the court yard.  Unfortuantly we ran into some problems with that 

towards the later part of the week (but all things will be revealed in time, 

and i´ll tell ya aobut that later)  The last item, o man, super coveted, is 

the HALL TIE (cue the trumpets) which E Greener past on to me saying no one 

even remmbers who started the tradition.  Bam i had an idea, lets start signing 

the back of the tie.  So me and Greener will now live on forever in District 

and floor 6 of the CTM with the  hall tie, lol.  I tihnk thats pretty cool at 

least, plus we got to sign it in the best place, cause we´re first.
  Something interesting and crazy that happened this week was this gigantic 

boom that i heard loud (rip your eardrum off loud) and clear as i walked into 

E Fynlasen and Beckstead´s room before they left the next days.  E Greener 

even saw the flash, it was only about a football feilds length away, and we 

all watched smoke pour out from the source afterwards.  We couldn´t really 

tell anymore than that because it happened infront of a building that faces 

away from us.  But we plan on giving it a luck as soon as i finish here lol.
  Not much else to report.  I´m getting more and more anxious to leave this 

place and start the work day by day.
 
Pray Conitueally
I miss all of you
E Neubehje (i got to listen to 5 different Brazies try and say my name this 

week...awesomeness)
 

Hey Hey

10/21/2008

I don´t even know where to start for this week, wait time out, yeah i do...
 
WARNING: the message you are about to read was written by a man with no leg 

hair...for the most part!That would be correct.  Not only did i get my entire 

district to compete in a wall sitting contest last week, which resulted in 

hilarious involentary spasms by my comp E Duerden, but i also managed, with 

the intial idea coming for E Clark, to get nearly half our district to shave 

their legs.  Ok lets be honest the real credit for this one does to E Clark who 

one day just shaved a square into his shin then uttering the unforgetable line ``

When i´m bored a shave stuff´´  It certainly is cooler i will have you know, 

specially as we head into those summer months.  But on to other things
  This week was said to have almost definantly have gone on the fastest ever. 

Had i been able to write friday or saturday the length of my email may have 

turned into a small discourse.
  Before we dive into any spiritual topics let me just say my pation for 

ULTIMANT was rekindled this week and we now have Gym 4 days a week instead 

of just three, must be doing something right.
  Friday we were able to go prosyliting again and.....I gave out all but 7 of 

my pass along cards with E Duerden amounting to about 30 some odd cards and 

one Book of Mormon(they only gave us one)  But all this was not before we got 

dead lost in the Giant city of São Paulo.  It started quite inocently just 

moving from one big open space to another.  Then being aw struck by the amount 

of helicopters landing on one rough we walked towards that, then away from 

it cause  you could here literally nothing.  And then, we turned a corner, 

and we were in the middle of a giant, eh for lack of a better word, Above 

ground Rave Parade.  Like a cloud of smoke with people gathering in behind 

infront and to both sides of us.  Pretty much you could feel the spirit just 

depart as we had to walk a little closer to the belly of the beast before we 

could find a sufficeint allie to crawl through and go around.  At that point 

we thought we were clear of it because it really just seemed like and organized 

concert with 20 various cop vechiles and a gigantic double decker bus thing that 

had a band of about 16 people a top it.  Well we were wrong cause apparently 

this thing was moving and in the time we thought we had gotten around it, it 

had merely caught up or actually maybe gotten ahead of us.  But all hope was 

not lost, the front of the parade was insight.  O and so you know the whole 

reason we are trying to get past this thing instead of just walking the other 

way is because before this point we had recognized that maybe we should start 

heading back to where we thought was the starting and end drop off point, Santa 

Cecila.  So as we walk, with Usan Bolt next us (everyone was dressed up in 

costumes, well mostly, alot of guys had just takin their shirts off entirely. 

Most of the time i would just look at building tops to aviod any trouble) we 

finally reach the front, were people happen to be taking pictures with this 

giant turckey they brought  lol.   

So we cut across the street and the get 

stuck waiting for an opening in traffic but manage to cross the ajacent 

street as well.  Yikes, we asked a man for direction once we were clear of 

the parade in both sight and sound and he just chuckled the entire time as 

he waved us in one direction saying it was a long way off.  It took us about 

a half hour to get back to the subway station (and afew more directions from 

helpful souls) though if you ask my companion it took us and hour and a half lol. 

But all things happen for a reason and we were able to run into a man who 

actually already had a book of mormon and talk to him for a bit about the 

church before he had to go.  Not much compares to E Clark and E Whitehead 

who handed out 80 some odd passalong cards and tracted into a man who spoke 

English and wanted to translate what they had to say.  So they stood on a 

bench at gave the first discusion (in English mind you) to everyone passing 

by and standing still, about 5-10 people, pretty cool.
  Each saturday night we have a large group meeting in english.  Last week the 

doctor spoke on faith and we were suprised when we saw himn take the pulpit again 

this week, though we soon found out we were not going to be disappionted.  The 

topic was on the Atonement and he himself gave us a short history one the word 

and its were abouts then proceeded with an excellent compelation of video´s an 

such that he had pulled together.  Jeffery R Holland had some of the most 

definning points when he said, ``The Atonement is the central point of our 

gospel, everything else is merely an apendage...  This is not doctrine but i 

am convinced missionary work is not easy because it was not easy that night 

in the Garden...  Everytime you wonder why it is so hard, or if there is another 

way around a challenge in your life just remember you are not the first to ask. 

A long time ago in the Garden our loving Heavenly Father had to hear those same 

heart wrenching words as His son ask HIm if this cup could pass from him´´ 

Those are not exact words, but its something close to that and will stick to 

me always.  Conclusivly there were few dry eyes by the end of the meeting.
  I gave a talk in church this sunday.  Ok cool thats about all i have to say 

about that after such a great discusion saturday night.  But i´ll expound, it 

was on faith and previous to it i had only written down 3 scriptures.  So i 

stood up there with my three scriptures, prayed, and let the spirit direct me 

in what i should say.  I was shocked to see i had been able to take up my alloted 

5 (actually i took 6) minutes as i sat back down in my seat.  E Olson and 

E Holmes had spoken before me in that respective order and both of their talks 

had also been excellent.
  Sad side note, someone complained about Da Luz´s teaching last week, which 

was cowardly because he constantly asks each of us what we think of his lessons. 

Needless to say we have been learning Portuguese in over drive now.  
  Read Mosiah 13-15!!! i believe thats right, Abinodi is incridble both in his 

own words and those he takes from Isiah.  The rest of that book is crazy by the 

way in just trying to follow the story and time line of who is where and such.  
  Well thats all i can tihnk of, tho i am sure i am leaving things out.  So in 

conclution i suppose i will just end with Jacob 6:12, ``Be wise, what more can 

i say,´´
 
Yours Truely
E Neuberger
 
I love you family tho to be honest i didn´t get to hear from you this week, i 

pray about each of you and hope you have had a chance to read my missiontie 

letter.  I know dad did but thats about it.  I love all of you and am so 

proud of what you do.  Read and pray daily, this is more important than you 

maybe able to conprehend.
 
Your Loving Son and Brother,
E Kyle Neuberger
 

Not a Happy Camper

10/14/2008

Well my whole entire email was just deleted so one that note i will halfta recreate 

most of it next week.  Main Points however:
1 Sick with no sleep and the begining of the week (lost 6 kilos, 13 pounds i ithnk) 

pretty depressing with all the rain too
2 Taught a volunteer Brazilian Family in Portuguese our lesson
3 Sung in church on Sunday, sub par
4 Taught Da Luz our 3rd lesson in english and nearly cried while bearing my 

testimony on repentance and the power of the atonment at the end (in just a 

practice atmosphere)(the spirit was so strong)
5 Elder Mahor has been truely sick and we gave him a prriesthood blessing in 

which i did cry and lost my voice
6 finally got to attend the São Paulo temple and it is gorgeous inside
7 Bishop Zenger is amazing and i have my SD cards, and is was excellent to see him
 
I´m so sorry about this, i can´t even begin to tell you how sick i feel right 

now after typing for almost an hour and then losing it all i am all but throwing 

up.
 
Know i Love you and I´ll deliver all details next week, promise with added 

stories.
 
I love you all, 
Elder Kyle Neuberger
 
PS i got you missionties today and i love the story on split second desiciosns 

changing our life dad.  Once again i am so sorry about this.  I´ll talk to you 

all next week 

10/21/2013

Ok so last week wow that was rough eh? man you have no idea.  I am a little 
dispionted even further cause i thought the email started off pretty funny too. 
Kets try and  recreate some of it:

  Preface (for last week) I´m pretty 
sure this key board would work better if they just ripped off the spacebar on 
this computer an just replaced it with a rusty pice of tree bark that they 
bubble gummed in its place.
  Then i talked about being sad and that was lame 
but it was double sad because all the older elders left last week that i was 
pretty close too cause they had also gone to USU and were aka awesome at 
volleyball.  I kinda over exsurted myself in volleyball in frustration at the 
begining of last week to and scraped my knee then totally blew out a turn while 
running on a wet track to fast and went head long into the neighboring ivy/manly 
brick wall. AH! lol but others thought it was funny so, totally worth it 
right?
  MOTHER NEUBERGER you are so great and amazing and wonderful.  And i 
am ashamed to have not included this last week, but i totally recieveed your 
package last week like a rainbow after the storm, not to mention i have also 
secured my future as a juggler in the circuse.  No joke, E Whitehead here knows 
how to juggle quite well and taught me.  Plus i loved the various chocolates and 
well, and who doesn´t like girl scout cookies?  All the brazilians seem to be ok 
with them.  Thank you so much to all the Young Women who included letters in the 
package as well.
  You will be, and should be, pleased to know E Mahor is 
doing 76.5%....não, 88.2% better.  He had not only been sick but had some how 
managed to open up and ualser in the back of his throat.  Is that actaully 
possible?  Well regardless they were succesful in sciering it up together and 
he´s been able to come to class again this week.
  TRC last week was nuts, 
lets leave it at that and once more teaching a lesson to Da Luz was heart 
stopping and overwhelming in the greatest way possible.  Lastley tell Bishop 
Zenger thank you so so much again, its nice to know the outside world still 
exists.  Though having them call me out of sacrament meeting was a little jaring 
for 5 seconds.

OK thats a wrap, i´m going to start a new email for this 
week
 

Last Mission Ties Letter