Ninja, Stake Conference, Prayer Rug

These past two weeks have been awesome. Last week was kind of a struggle because the sim cards in our phones stopped working so we couldn't call, text, or do phone calls unless we were at the church. One night we left the church building a little later than usual and when we went to open the outside gate to leave the key fob would not work because it is only active during a range of hours and we were outside of those hours. So we had to scale the 15ft fence to get out. #ninjamissionaries 

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

We have started working more in the town of Alcoi. We did a Facebook Live on the page here in Alicante. We got a new ward mission leader and created a ward mission plan to get more people involved in the work here. Last weekend was stake conference and the presidency got reorganized so we got to hear from two area seventies Elder Franco and Elder Hänni. This week we had zone conference and Elder Mahling and I gave a teaching about finding and teaching "those that receive us" (which comes from doctrine and covenants 42:8) or as I think President Nelson would say, those that "let God Prevail". We also met with Mercedes and Gallo this week and had a good lesson with them. 

For pday this week we went to a town nearby called Creviente. It dates back to the time period of the Moors. Most of the people who live there are Muslim. So I bought a prayer rug to remember the visit.

Tenga una buena semana!

Elder Neuberger

District Lunch

Prayer rug

Mosque in Creviente

My Halloween Costume

Drinking mate at sunrise

Goodbye and Hello

Goodbye to Guymon. Last week was Elder Guymon's last week in the mission. So we had quite a bit of goodbye visits to people we have been teaching and members here in Alicante. Since we are not allowed to be by ourselves the Elche Elders came to stay in our piso from when my companion left on Sunday and to when my new companion came on Tuesday.  

with Elder Guymon

On Monday night my companion from last December, Elder Rappleyea showed up because his companion had to fly out of the Alicante airport really early the next morning. The Elche Elders ended up leaving and then Elder Rappleyea and I went back to the airport later to pick up my companion. (Our mission is big enough landwise that depending where you are going your transfer might be a plane ride, or if you are me they put you on a train for 10 hours instead of a plane.  I must have made someone mad at the mission office.:) We didn't realize that another missionary was going to be coming as well. So we ended up having to fit 5 suitcases and 4 people into one tiny car. It was a pretty funny scene.

Hello to Mahling. My new companion is Elder Mahling. He is from Chico, California and has been in the mission for around 8 months. He came in right before the Pandemic happened. Wednesday morning we got a phone call saying we had to go into quarantine because Elder Mahling had been in contact during his travels with a missionary that had symptoms of Coronavirus. We ended up doing almost all of our citas this week through video call. On Saturday we received another phone call that the missionary ended up testing negative and that we could leave our piso. So we went straight to go get Kebab. Mercedes and Galo, who we are teaching, came to church this Sunday which always makes a missionaries day.   And last week Sophia was able to watch a session of conference. I hope everyone enjoyed watching General Conference. One quote I really liked was:

"Our faith increases as we choose to believe rather than doubt, forgive rather than judge, repent rather than rebel."

¡Tenga una buena semana!

Elder Neuberger

with Elder Rappleyea

my new comp, Elder Mahling

Dónde está el auto?

This week has been pretty crazy. On Tuesday we had intercambios with the elders from Elche. On Wednesday we were waiting for one of our amigos to show up to the church who didn't. So we left and shortly afterward when we got a call from the hermanas saying our amigos were outside the capilla. It ended up being 4 Nigerians that showed up wanting to play ping pong. So we set up the ping pong table and I showed off my skills from my ping pong class that I took back in high school. We have another appointment with them next week to teach a lesson and play more ping pong. 

After district meeting this week we all decided to meet somewhere afterwards for lunch.  When we went to go get our car it wasn't there, but that's OK because we currently have two cars (why we have two cars is a story for another day). So we take the other car and go grab lunch. After lunch we head back to figure out what happened to the missing car. It turns out it had been towed because we parked next to an "unsafe wall" but we got it back and didn't have to pay a fine.  

On Saturday the Alicante Philharmonic group performed a concert on the church soccer court, so we set up a table and ended up getting a reference even though only around 10 people showed up to watch it. It was a really good concert. This Sunday church opened back up here in Alicante for the first time since the covid. There were a lot of precautions but it went really well. Also we were able to help Anghelo move pisos this week and he also received the priesthood on Sunday.  This coming week is General Conference. If you want to know more about what that is drop this link in your search bar, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org. Also, this is Elder Guymon's last week on this mission as he is completing his two years. So next week are transfers and I will be getting a new companion. Not sure who the lucky missionary is yet. :) 

¡Tenga una buena semana!

Elder Neuberger

funny street name

Paperwork from getting car towed

the "unsafe wall" which now has a barrier

sunrise pics

something yummy from the panaderia

english class students