Happy New Year

Hey,
  I´m gunna be honest, i am absolutley lothing writting this letter cause there 

is just entirely to much to say, in fact i´m just gunna half ta put my older 

planer away and catch you guys up on that when i got home because there´s 

already to much thats happened with christmas.  Before i forget, FELIZ ANO NOVO!!!
  AH i will kill this keyboard in its sleep (wprds of Nick, sorry, Elder Lee) 

All the letters are worn off it, the keys don´t press down and the shift bar is 

SHIFTED over to make room for a ´´turbo´´ button´.  What the hebk is a turbo 

button? Ots certainly not making this internet run any faster...
 
  All right, going back in time a little bit to the christmas party i forgot to 

mention how loaded our Mission President is.  He bought every missionary a new 

white shirt and nice tie and long with another bag of goodies.  Very cool.  Then 

the Couple Missionaries gave everyone a wash towel and two bars of soap.  I´m 

not all together sure which of two thought proccess might have been going 

through their head here.  Either they were just keeping the sisters in mind....

or they were trying to tell all the elders something, personaly i like to think 

it was the first against my better judgement.
  Alot of this email may seem like a repeat to my family who got to speak to me 

on christmas but i´ve got to add this little fun bit cause i just think its so 

ridiculas.  Not only did i have my heart reset by a hanging live wire that gave 

me quite a buz as i was closing a metal door (ZAP!)  But i also got readily 

attacked by a fan this week that decided to leave a nice gash in my arm.  I had 

pulled the thing out of my new homes clutter (i was transfered, we´ll get to 

that) which was prolly the first mistake i made.  Not only was the thing dustier 

than life but one blade was broken and another was seered or melted down. 

Regardless i plug the thing in to see what it worth.  The answet to that was 

zero but i was quite intertaining to watch the unbalanced fan walk across the 

floor.  All the other elders came running and então had the privalege of 

getting to see me attpemt to reach down and turn it off. CHOMP, it at me. 

Fun memory though, that i guess i´ll now always remember.  
  I got my haircut, l ike really cut.  Cause naturally i´ve been dying to look 

like a five year old forever and now i have that privilage everyday, excellent. 

Number 3 everywhere, do the math- i´m much cooler, but only in relation to 

temperature.  I must say though it has grown back remarkably fast.
  The week before christmas was packed.  It started of with a chuhschya with 

the members from our ward in Bariloch (ps if anyone every wants and idea of 

were i am i believe its very simple to just go to lds.org and plug my ward 

into the church finder...i think, ask my dad) Anyways aparently 10 rieas down 

hear buys more meat than you can carry in a truck and its all excellent too. 

Each missionary (4) had pitchd in 10 bucks and with the memebers there where 

like 10 of us there- I was prolly full before we were even close to half way 

done, did this stop me from eating more......psh thats funny.  Some how i 

rolled myself to a matress that night.
  The next day i took off to a place called Vestosa (not sure how to spell that)

but its a little town in land that was in need of baptisaml interviews and so 

while my companion took care of the interviews in Kartchner´s area i went with 

Kartch to this other area. Bem Tranquilo...wow its like and hour and a half 

drive through open rolling hills and sugar cane fields and just gorgeous, i 

didn´t want the ride to end.  WHen we got there we went to visit some members 

at the top of a hill that pretty much looks over the intire little town, it 

was breath taking. (i almost pastout, and then i took a breathe)
  We had a wedding the next night for our people who, should be baptised by 

now but i donpt know cause i´m not there.  Aside from helping pay for it my 

contribution was the opening prayer.  I think my favorite part was the bishop 

having great trouble in remembering the husbands name although listening to 

him read the entire Proclomation to the Family was also very excellent.  In 

all seriousness though, member or non memeber, every one could benifit from 

reading that document, which i´m sure is even more uplifting in English.  We 

had cake that night and i promised myself come new year (hoje a noite) i would 

start treating my body better.
  Monday were the day of transfers.  Kartch had been telling me the whole past 

week how he was pretty confident i would have no changes and i was fine with 

that.  We check the email and sure enough i had nothing.  How ever i did know 

there was to be a new AP made this transfer though i totally forgot to check 

while we were at the lan house.  I remembered when we got back home and asked 

kartchner who it was, he simply told me it was on the last page to the transfer 

list he´s printed out.  It came as no suprise when i read the name 

K-A-R-T-C-H-N-E-R on the back, the kid hasn´t even een out a year, he´s just 

awesome (and humble too) I dropped the paper and just siad, figures.  In fact 

i´d told him that morning that i bet it was him and he´d known then too but 

had just shrugged it off.
  I´m not sure how i´m so fortunant to always make friends with such amazing 

uplifting people.  When i finish this life i absolutley want to be able to 

say i have no regrets and that i tried my hardest to become all i could be. 

When i finish my mission i wanna be able to say i did it the philmont way 

(some will understand that).  Thats what Kartchner is doing and has been doing.

There will never be enough time in this life to try everything i want to do or 

learn about everythihg out there either, but that certainly doesn´t make me 

wanna set back and say o well.  I love my friends like,Danny or Natalie (and 

everyone else), who just have found their talents, hot their stride and are just 

doing everything they can with it.  At times it even makes me feel a little 

silly and wonder what have i been doing these past 20 years.  Though Brazil is 

not a bad place, i certainly also have come to realize how blessed we are to 

even have such opportunuties to learn and group as we do. Uhg....there´s just 

not enough time, i guess thats why we constantly hear the wisdom of others 

beckoning us to make each moment count.  The sky isn´t the limit, we are.
  Well as i thought about this i said goodbye to E Kartchner and then sat in 

his apartment with his old comp who had to wait for the new one to arrive. 

4 hours later he finally did and naturally this called for ChapaKent.  Here´s 

the situtation, i´m sitting there at chapakent, fresh smell of bread in the 

air.  All the table as just strewn across the sidewalk (always) and i´m 

watching cars take turns at some fast speed in kilometers.  Nearly nothing 

is on my mind when suddenly Elder (forget it i can´t spell hs name) Elder 

gets a call and hands the phone to my comp.  I can´t even really remember 

what happened. All i recall is some rapid portuguese and turning to the 

american for help, his reponse ´´looks like your getting transfered´´ 

Turns out the Presidient wanted my companion to train another new Elder and 

he was suppose to report to his house promptly while i was to head to Belo 

Horizonte (which was a little worry some because i had 10 reias..yeah i know...

AGAIN)  Well i packed my stuff in less than 2 minutes, which is a lie but i 

was moving so fast thats wat i felt like.  I really have no desire to pack 

that fast again.  The good thing is i made it here.
  Upon entering my new apartment i was a little worried and more than that 

upset.  We had just cleaned my old apartment that morning but aparently the 

last elders had done some nuclear testing with their morning.  I think what got 

me through the entire transfer was just nibbling on a Clif Bar the entire time 

(OMGosh, btw, is you  havn´t read the back of a Clif MOJO bar you need to repent 

and do that now.  I´m pretty sure the last line makes my life)
  After further inspection i learned that i would have two matresses stacked on 

each other which seemed rather nice and i was exbited aout that untill i 

realised the were both so small that my twin size fitted sheet raps around 

both of them like a burrito (ps i would love some tabo bell, anyone? anyone? 

priority envelpe?) On top of this i learned that to keep the shoer from turning 

of the fauset must be constantly running on full blast or else the shower turns 

back on do to the water preasure....awesome.  Lets be honest all of these things 

just made me laugh and i loved it.  Everyones home needs a little personality 

right?  Plus there were hooks pre-installed in the wall for my hammock, what 

more could a man ask for.
  The next day was spent just trying to figure out what our area included as 

both me and my companion were new to it, which i am not a fan of btw.  I quickly 

realized, walking along the strip, that this area certainly was nicer than the 

rest.  In fact i had my first meal that didn´t include beans that day, still had 

ricen but no beans.  Most memebers live in these high rise aparments here and 

i´m pretty sure they own some of the most gorgeous views ever, there´s even a 

light house in the distance.  (Plus Elder Duerden is compaions with our district 

leader which means i get to see him all the time here, AWESOME)
  But of course with opposition in all things our area is also home to the 

worst most crime ridden garota in Maceió caled Regenoldo....maybe.  It comes 

as no suprise the place is huge and people are packed in like sardeens down 

in that valley.  Its actually split up by 3 different companion ships it so 

big.  Fun, i´ve actually had to climb some ladders to get places in this new 

area and, though i´m not all convinced of their intergitty, i tihnk is great. 

lol
  Side note before i forget, i live with the secretarys now too, so....i get 

mail everyday....so....send..it...?
 While we´re side tracked let me just say i learned everything i´ve ever need 

to know in primary.  I was reading the Friend the other day (cause with this 

hair cut the other missionaries won´t let me read the Ensign) and is truely 

has some excellent stuff asode from the helpful lesson plans in the back.  I 

think my favorite line was from President Monson (of course), it was a little 

coupet he quoted that said ´´Do your part, that is best; leave unto the Lord 

the rest´´ i tihnk i would change part to all, but still thats beautiful.
  It was a different Christmas this year.  The first one i can ever reember 

wondering wether or not lunch was going to be an issue.  We woke up that 

morning with the plane to stop by a members house to get directions to the 

next members hows.  We did so and in my opinion where basically told it was 

forever east and the house was green.  So we strated our journey.  By the 

time we found the appropriate street we had asked atleast a handful of taxi 

drivers and other asorted people where we were and how to get to where we 

were going.  Still though this didn´t seem to be enough and at one point i 

was pretty sure my companion was trying to break into some fast food frango 

place.  Continuing on past that though we were over joyed to find the 

appropriate street and turned right toward a green house, the only on we 

bould see.  
  We buzzed from the gate to inside.....nothing
  We buzzed again....nothing
   I made a fun face into the camera....nothing ...(prolly with reason)
  We gave up, or atleast my companion did in a huff and i ran to catch up 

with his giraffe like leg (hes a giant...to me).  Personally i wasn´t sure 

wat was going to happen at this point an my companion had happily change the 

words from feliz natal to triste natal and was singing mumbling that was see 

walked on.  We past the Frango place again and my companion went through the 

same knocking clapping rutine he had last time and also tried to find an open 

door.  Finally he gave on lst knock on the main door.  I knew if no one answered

CHristmas was gunna be spent in our apartment, no complaints there but i oppted 

to say a pray, ´´Heavenly Father, i am very grateful for al that i have but i 

really need you to help someone answer this door right now´´  Its sad how much 

great faith and strength we seem to mustar up when we´re praying for something 

we need, but i´m only human and i put more effort into that prayer than the 

average.  As i closed my prayer i heard the door handle turn and promptly 

opened my eyes to see who was at the door.
  I was a little dispointed to just find my companion fiddle with the knob. 

Slightly Furious he turned and started walking a way.  i followed but i was 

still praying with all my might that a small Christmas miralcle might happen.
  I tihnk i took 5 steps away from where i had een standing to catch up with 

my comp.  Maybe it was less than that.  The only feeling i could b sure of 

was knowing that every step the rest of the day was going to feel alot lighter 

than those 5 as i heard the door squwak opwn behind me and i immedialty began 

walking on air (in the clouds if you will, if i may) I started thanking our 

Father in Heaven immediatly.  Turns out, as this memeber informed us, the we 

were suppose to have turn left not right earlier.  We found that house and 

those people actually drove us to another house and honestly i´m not sure 

if we even ended up eating Christmas at the right house or not, but my pray 

had been answered and that was the best christmas present i could have 

received that day.
  Later on i had the privilage to call my family and afterwards found three 

letters at home from family. Although those were the only things i opened on 

Christmas it was all i needed to complete an excellent day.
  
Well that about wraps up the past few weeks, or atleast the highlights.  I 

am so thankful for all of you and everything else in my life.  If i could 

only 

advis you to do one thing i´m not sure if it would be to remember to pray 

or to expound all your talents, so do both.
 
I love Each of You,
Elder Neuberger
 
PS who is this 50 billion dollar crook on wall street and i saw a taxi driven 

by santa with lights hug everywhere th other day...awesome
 
pss Quinten L Cook is coming to Maceió, thats all i know
 
love you bye