Puerto Viejo, Heredia, Costa Rica 10.27.14

Cumpliaños Feliz,

Te deseamos a ti

Cumpliaños Mommy Dearest,

Cumpliaños a Ti

Howdy Ya'll,

Happy Birthday Mom! And a happy Halloween to the rest of you. I actually have a great halloween story to share with you all. This is a Halloweenie Tender Mercy of the Lord to Elder Neider.

We were in a lesson teaching a family of Less Actives. Their daughter is incredibly active and is planning on turning in her papers some time next month. She ask a question about a parable that she was having a hard time understanding. It was the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. I gave Elder Hernandez the opportunity to answer to which he responded that he didn't know. This is one of my favorite parables of the Lord and had just finsihed reading Jesus the Christ, so I was incredibly prepared. Her little brother left the room and began playing the piano. My back was toward the dark street behind us. He began going through all of the music he knew how to play. He finally came to a song that both my beloved mother and I are terrified of. blasting his piano with full blast he began playing the theme song to the horror film, "Halloween" having my back to the darkness I began to be petrified. I yelled for him to stop playing that song. He asked "Really?" My heart was pounding. My companion finished the lesson and we had to start back to get to our next appointment.

We were walking in the dark night with lamp posts every 200 meters. Naturally I kept peering over my shoulder to make sure that Michael Myers wasn't following us. I know it's an irrational fear. But it's MY irrational fear.

I was like that walking all the way to my next appointment. It's the family of one of our recent converts. We always have our lessons in their unfinished basement. Never upstairs. I began to pray in my heart for help to feel peace. My companion entered their dark, unfinished basement (which we all know isn't a good idea in any horror film) and said Upe! Buenas!, (also not a good idea) Olivier came down and turned on the lights and said, "Lets go upstairs tonight. Alright with you guys?"

I know that Heavenly Father is watching over every single one of us. It doesnt matter how irrational or small your problem may seem. He is there waiting to send blessings if we will just ask. One of my friends named Aryn Espiritu wrote me for the first time this week and shared a similiar experience in asking for help over something little. I know He is ever listening. Ever willing to answer the small, fervent prayer.

"Ask and ye shall receive,

Seek and ye shall find,

Knock and it shall be opened onto you."

It's a great and true scripture. I know it to be true.

I love you all and I'm so very thankful for all your prayers and help. Have a good week! Happy Halloween!

Siga Adelante,

Elder Neider

Puerto Viejo, Heredia, Costa Rica 10.20.14

Dear Family,

First off that Wreath of Birds is disgusting. Good work Mom. Thats cool that Dad got that calling. My only advice for helping people prepare is helping them to understand the Atonement. I don't know if it is a public video, but there is a video by Henry B Eyring and Jeffrey R Holland called "The Atonement and Missionary Work". It's incredible. Also "Because of Him".

Well, same old same old here in Costa Rica. We've been having a lot of success lately. We found 17 new investigators this week. I feel that I'm really good at getting in the door. I've been learning a lot this last week about the Atonement. I'm close to finishing Jesus the Christ for my second time in the mission. It is a wonderful book. Full of great doctrine and its all about the Savior. I have always thought that it would take forever to finish. Nope. 

I've also started reading the Old Testament for the first time. It's very interesting. I'm about to hit Leviticus. It's really interesting. I asked my Mission President about some funny stuff I had found. Like Noah was a drunk in Genesis and how it says the Lord repented. His answer, "Elder we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly" Thanks President.

So in Puerto Viejo, things are going great. We should have about 5-7 baptisms already. But..... they all need to get married. There is a law here called Union Libre. Basically if an unmarried couple lives together for about 3 years, they receive all of the right and privileges of a married couple. They don't understand the importance of marriage. But through that challenge, we get the opportunity to bare testimony of eternal marriage. We are finishing up some paper work to help those families become eternal. If we can do all of that, this means I'll be able to come back in a year to 3 temple sealings. I really want to watch those families do it :)

Health has been good, companion has been good, food, weather, and lessons have all been good. 

I've been saving 4 of my white shirts and 2 pairs of garments for when I hit 1 year, I can have pure white new clothes. I've been thinking a lot about Elder Holland and that one Seventy who spoke of caring for the poor. Their are 2 recent converts who received the Aaronic Priesthood, but don't have shirts, slacks, or ties. I thought a lot about those talks a I felt the desire to give them 2 of my shirts. I felt really good that service. To me, they were just shirts. To them they were just shirts. But to their mom and wife, she had a spirit of gratitude. (She's awesome. the Elders before taught about marriage and she said,"Ricardo, marry me or I'm leaving you. I will be baptized") She's cool. I felt a pretty good. It was a good spiritual experience. 

Anyways that is what happened this last week. We just keep moving forward. Love you guys.

-Elder Neider

PS For Christmas, President Wilkenson said that we will watch "Meet the Mormons" together as a mission. Super cool. Can't wait.

Puerto Viejo, Heredia, Costa Rica 10.13.14

(Family:  This was difficult to read, but it was priceless so I left it)

Hola,

So this keyboarde is brokden so you're going to see a lot of typos. 

This week I had my first baptism in a rivder! So cool. I was scarded for a timde that a snakde or a crocodile was going to come. It was a gredat succdess this wdeek. I love this new areda. It's a littled diferrent herde bdecausde it a group. Asistancde in thde cahpdel was only 32 pedoplde. Thed members ared gredat. We havde bdeden having gredat success and im learning a ton. 

We hade a redally cool ldesson about thed Atonement last night. There is a video callede Because Ofd Him. its incrdedeibly powerful and then we bored our tdestimonieds. It was a cool dexpderidence. Somdetimdes wde havde lessons that the spirit is prdesdent. But thden theird ared othder ldessons whden its not redtraindede dan ddddddddddevderyonde is truly edeifiede.

This letter is probably increddeibly difficult to redad. sorry.

Siga Adeelante, 

Eldeer Ndeideer

Puerto Viejo, Heredia, Costa Rica 10.6.14

Dear Family,

I received the package from Grandma Margo with all the little notes from the last Neider reunion. Thank you for sending that. I felt very happy to receive it. Sent mail is easily one of the best things in the mission field. Just ask any missionary. So I haven't had the opportunity to be in my new area much. I had about 2 days in it this last week. I was in Guapiles on Divisions while investigators were being interviewed for baptism in my area. I still don't know my area very well and I found that all the members live far and spread out. We a a part of a Group of about 35-45 active members. They are an attachment of a Ward of 160 actives. Once there are enough people here in Puerto Viejo, maybe they will put a chapel here. I'm still trying to feel out what the Lord wants us to do here. 

I loved conference. The speakers in their native languages was very cool. Especially cuz 2 of the speakers where Spanish! Hoo-rah. Richard G Scott speaks his talks before hand in Spanish so Latin America can actually hear his voice and not a voice over. It was a good conference. I needed the recharge from it. I was good to see the things I can improve on. 

In the photos you can see that in Puerto Viejo we baptize in the river! Oh cool. Even cooler is that their is the precaution that we need to find river that are clear. They have problems with crocodiles here. The water needs to be clear for us to see them easier. I made the joke, "At least we will know for sure or not if she's worthy." " Why Elder?" "Because if she isn't that croc is gonna eat her Buford" (deep southern accent) 

I think I'm funny. Whatever. That's the update for this week. I hope that everything is good. I love hearing what's going on.

Siga Adelante,

Elder Neider

PS Corbin: Did you see Blaine Johnson in the MTC choir during the Priesthood Session?

Puerto Viejo, Heredia, Costa Rica 9.29.14

Como estan?

So today was transfer day. I am currently serving in a new area called Puerto Viejo, Heredia in the Zone Atlantica. I'M STOKED! Our house is the church. Here they don't have enough members to become a branch yet. So it's only a group. We have a presiding Bishop here that lives 3 hours away. It's a small little town in the mountains. I walked in and I fell in love with it here. "It may not be on a mountain height, or over the stormy sea. It may not be at the battles front my God would have need of me. But if by a still small voice He calls me to lands that I do not know. I'll answer dear Lord with my hand in Thine, I'll go where you want me to go" I'm ready to get to work here. I love it in Puerto Viejo. 

I don't know much else more about this area so we shall see next week. Oh yeah. There isn't a baptismal font so we will baptize in the river! SAAWWWEEEETTTT!!!!

The pictures are of early morning seminary, selfies, a super cool sunset, and my new home/chapel.

My new companion is Elder Hernandez.

Elder Neider

Canas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica 9.22.14

Hey Family!

Thanks for that quote Mom. It's exactly what I needed to hear. I got stabbed in the bum today by a syringe! My bum is killing me! We ate lunch with a woman named Odi. She has a son named Banardo. He is special. Everyday he comes and gives as a big hug. We walked in the kitchen to see what we could do to help out. My back was to the door so I didn't see it coming. I felt a pinch in my bum so I turned around to see Banardo backing away laughing. The syringe was bloody and bent. I understand what had happened and the only words I could think of was "No!" Everyone began to panic and I began hobbling over to the bathroom. My companion began asking me about my heart. I said, It's not my heart it's my bum dude!

Turns out if air enters it will travel to your heart and kill you. No bueno. I'm doing fine and just feeling some pain right now. But it's all good. 

We've had some pretty cool teaching experiences too though.Their are two youth here that have a hard time paying attention in lessons. They didn't understand the importance of baptism much. We entered the house and we found that they both really love futbol and basketball. We read 2 Nephi 31:5 which talks about Christ being holy but needs to be baptized, how much more do we need it. We picked up a soccer ball and asked them,"Quien son sus jugadores favoritos?"They said Mario something and Michael Jordan. We asked them to you think that they practice? They said yep. So we used that verse. If Michael Jordan is a professional, and he needs to practice, how much more do you, being a teenager need to practice? He said a lot. We then re-explained that Jesus Christ is a professional and still showed us that we need to practice. 

It was a very cool experience of us because we knew the Spirit was speaking through us in that moment. It was super simple to understand and their attention was fixed. 

We just keep moving forward. 

Siga Adelante,

-Elder Neider

I was able to contact Caden immediately after he emailed me.  This was my response to his syringe stabbing.

Hey. Could you get a disease from the syringe?  Tell your president what happened and seek medical care at the mission office. It is important that make sure to get it looked at. I'm not kidding. I will contact your mission president. Holy cow!

This was Elder Neider's response to me email.

Calm down. It's alright. We are all good. Already called and we are fine. Hahahahaha love you too Mom. It's fine. Haha. It was a clean syringe, never been used. If I was going to die it would have happened already. Hermana Garnder is the nurse for the missionaries and she said I'm all good.

Then I responded with:

Geez!

Canas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica 9.15.14

Hola Chicos,

Corbin is going to sing Goodbye! Dude that's a fantastic song. It's my favorite broadway song by far. I think you'll do really good with that. Just need to learn how to hold that super high note at the end for 30 seconds..... Good luck! 

Things in Cañas are doing great. President Wilkenson and us missionaries are trying to put a new stake here in Guanacaste so we've been incredible busy with reactivating less actives and trying to prepare people for baptism. It's been difficult because people aren't following through on commitments much. But that's the story of the life of missionaries. 

Today is the Independance Day for all of Central America. There's parades going on in every city in Centroamerica. Its crazy. The sad thing is that the law enforcement here isn't the best so just about every teenager has a big jug of Imperial Beer in there hand. Its about a liter for only $2. It's sad. Luckily we haven't seen members drinking.... so far. 

My scripture study has really changed. I ask the Lord to help to learn a principle in Preach My Gospel and a story in the Book of Mormon or the Bible pops into my head. Once i really start studying the story the doctrine just starts flowing. It's incredible. I know that the Lord is preparing this area and me. He has big plans. Kinda like the Plan of Salvation. But that plan isn't really that big.... Just kidding... I don't preach apostasy like dat. 

A really cool thing happened the other day. We were trying to go teach a youth named Heiner. We said Upe Buenas, and an old man came out saying he isn't home. Feeling a little discouraged because we knew his baptism date was about to fall, we began to turn to leave. As we did that I heard a distinct voice or impression. "Aren't you going to teach him?" I turned back to look at him. We made eye contact and he walked toward us. "I have a question for you boys." Ok what is your question? "Is Hell a real place?" Great question Hermano. Do you mind if we come in to teach you about it? "Sure. Come on in" 

The Lord is hastening His work. As we do our best to be ready for His promptings, He will send help to point us where we should go. I love being a missionary and I'm doing my best to do His will. I love you all and please keep writing me.

Almost forgot. If you could send new ties for me that would be great! After 8 months the same 10 are a little old. A new long sleeved shirt would be great as well. My companion says if you guys can please send the Girl Scout Chocolate Mint Cookies. Other than that I can't think of much else. Thanks Mom and Dad.  Love you.

Siga adelante,

-Elder Neider