Reply from Dad, May 6, 2013

Elder Neuhaus,

Hope you are doing well.  We think of you often. We enjoy your emails and look 
forward to hearing from you.  I have only done one temple session in Spanish and 
that was just a few months ago.  I imagine that was a little tough for you but 
what a great way to learn the language.  Sounds like you are having a great MTC 
experience.  You are so fortunate to be able to leave the MTC to practice what 
you are learning.  You can't do that in Provo.  

We had dinner with a family this past sunday night.  I wish you could have been 
there.  It was Tim Ballard.  He wrote the book "The Covenant".  I don't remember 
if you read that or not.  It is about the covenant the founding fathers 
recognized they had with God.  He referred to Genesis 49 and Matthew 24 a bunch.  
He recommended another book called the Harbinger which looks at the covenant as 
well.  That author used isaiah 9:10 and how it refers to our country as well.  
He related it to 9/11 and how our country is embracing evil.  As the promised 
land we lose our protection from Heavenly father if we do not keep the 
commandments.  The Covenant is a great book.  The author has 6 kids, is a CIA 
agent and a BYU grad.  You would have really liked talking with him.  He served 
his mission in Chile.  Graduated with a double major-spanish/poly sci degrees.  
You may want to rethink it when you come home and decide to get serious about 
school.  You have a lot of time to think about your career options.  Sorry to 
bring it up and make you think about it.  I know you are probably in the mission 
mode, at least you should be.  Anyway, he will be a good contact for you.  He is 
in good with Glen Beck.  He said Elder Ballard met with him and wanted to talk 
to him about his book shortly after it came out.   He just wrote a new book 
about Abraham Lincoln and how he recognized the covenant our country has as the 
promised land.  I havn't read it yet, he gave us a copy so I will make that my 
next book to read.  I could totally see you hanging out with him and being like 
him.  

I hope you are taking advantage of your time in the MTC.  It may seem like it 
gets old after a while but you will really miss it when you get to Bolivia.  

Make sure you send the grandparents letters every once in a while.  You could 
have an impact on Grandma & Grandpa Neuhaus.  There address is 4410 Waite Lane, 
Madison Wisconsin, 53711.

I also finished reading a book from Clayton Christianson today on my flight back 
to TN.  He is an area authority who lived in Boston many years.  He was a 
Harvard business school professor.   Anyway, he talked about what makes wards 
successful when it comes to missionary work.  You will learn that there are 
certain wards in your mission where the work seems to go great all the time.  
There will be an area all the missionaries want to serve in.  He says it is the 
members willingness to pray for missionary experiences and welcome 
investigators.  He says it is as simple as being very friendly and loving the 
people which makes a ward grow.  You should talk to your teachers about their 
experiences with that.  It was certainly true in Spain.  Being in the small 
branches I was in was tough.  Most of my experience was that the members were 
not very friendly to investigators.  It makes the work tough if that is the 
case.

Let us know the details on talking to you Sunday for Mother's Day.  We look 
forward to hearing from you.  

Love you Elder!

Dad