Ryan with his MTC teacher

May 28 letter from Dad

Elder Neuhaus,

Hope you had a great week.  We really enjoy your letters.  I know you told us before who your companions were but I'm a little slow.   Can you tell me again so I can add it to the blog we have started for you?

This past weekend I took brad, Gabe, josh and Andrew to California.   I would have sent a picture of a huge fish but we didn't catch one.   We were 50 miles off the coast and saw lots of dolphins and sea lions.  We caught 39 fish, all small rockfish.  Brad only caught one.  He wasn't very happy.   It was fun though.

We spent Saturday morning at Venice beach.  They were having a powerlifting competition and the picture I attached is the kids with a world champion power lifter named CT Fletcher.  At one point he bench pressed 710lbs.  He is 52 now.  Oh, and he is 100% natural.  No steroids.  He was huge.

Other than that not a lot to report.  We are heading back to Tennessee in a couple of weeks.  About the time you get to bolivia.    I bet you are excited to get to the field.   Enjoy your last couple of weeks at the MTC and going to the temple.  You will miss it.   I'm impressed that you are reading Jesus the Christ.   Reading the books you have will definately help you be a better missionary and will strengthen you understanding of the Savior.

You are in our prayers!   Love you Ryan.

Dad

Hey Family,

I have had a good week. Only 5 more days in the CCM! Yay!!! ha.

Umm do you mind looking it up in the past emails i have sent you? i dont have much time to send emails and i have about 10 different people writing me right now so i'm trying to split up my time so that i can at least send everyone a line or too.

I bet that was still an awesome time. I'm jealous you guys got to be on the beach and in the water. I won't have that for another 23 months at least! Haha i bet brad was bummed out. I hope he was still grateful they got to go. He'll definitely treasure that memory like i treasure going to Spain with dad.

That dude is huge!!!! No steriods?!?! wow. Maybe i'll get that big by the end of my mission. 150 pushups and 300 situps every night so far :)

I went to the temple for the last time for 23 months today. Really felt the spirit. Put your guys names in the temple one last time today. I hope you feel the Lords love and blessings in your life each and everyday. You guys are constantly in my prayers. Teaching investigators has helped convert me to the gospel even more than i was before i came out here. ive realized that even if i dont baptize a single person throughout my entire person i need to be converted to the gospel more than when i was here.

I'm almost done with the book Jesus The Christ. Did you that Christ did not even know that he was the savior of the world until he was 30 years of age? He understood that he was Gods son but did not realize his purpose until he was baptized by John the Baptist. Incredible. Such an amazing book.

Spanish is coming along as it comes. I understand everyone no matter how fast they are speaking and I can read with a great fluid accent but coming up with words in my head is hard on the spot. I'm ready for a latino companion so i will be pushed harder everyday.

So far the mission has been everything I have needed and more. I am grateful for every opportunity I have gotten here and have made lots of friends. Tell Mom that I might have even found my next girlfriend when I get back ;) Hermana Adams. Really nice girl from Conifer, Colorado. She actually knew Jon Layne when he lived there.

Today we got to go to Pizza Hut. We managed to convince the Mission President to allow us to since it was our last p'day and we miss american food. Pizza has never tasted so good. Bought a watch, a CTR (HLJ) ring, and a Peru soccer jersey. Everything is super cheap here. It'll be even cheaper in Bolivia. 1 american dollar is 7 bolivianos.

I hope you guys have been enjoying your excursions lately. Sounds like you have had alot of fun. I miss you guys alot and tell everyone about you and all of your little adventures. Everyone thinks i'm just a little rich kid but i see how the Lord has blessed my life. I am grateful for the example you guys have set for me as parents and i hope to replicate that with my own family someday. I've had to give 3 blessings to sick people here so far. I've kind of played "doctor" here as well. I never realized this but by watching how you, bishop lifferth, and other doctors have treated people i've picked up some stuff. Maybe it's the Lord encouraging me to become a doctor like you. I dont know, we'll see. I have lots of time. People around me call me "Doctor Neuhaus" its funny.

Love and Miss you guys alot. Stay safe and live the commandments of the Lord. He will bless you.

Elde

May 28 family letter from Ryan

Hey Family,

I have had a good week. Only 5 more days in the CCM! Yay!!! ha.

Umm do you mind looking it up in the past emails i have sent you? i dont have much time to send emails and i have about 10 different people writing me right now so i'm trying to split up my time so that i can at least send everyone a line or too.

I bet that was still an awesome time. I'm jealous you guys got to be on the beach and in the water. I won't have that for another 23 months at least! Haha i bet brad was bummed out. I hope he was still grateful they got to go. He'll definitely treasure that memory like i treasure going to Spain with dad.

That dude is huge!!!! No steriods?!?! wow. Maybe i'll get that big by the end of my mission. 150 pushups and 300 situps every night so far :)

I went to the temple for the last time for 23 months today. Really felt the spirit. Put your guys names in the temple one last time today. I hope you feel the Lords love and blessings in your life each and everyday. You guys are constantly in my prayers. Teaching investigators has helped convert me to the gospel even more than i was before i came out here. ive realized that even if i dont baptize a single person throughout my entire person i need to be converted to the gospel more than when i was here.

I'm almost done with the book Jesus The Christ. Did you that Christ did not even know that he was the savior of the world until he was 30 years of age? He understood that he was Gods son but did not realize his purpose until he was baptized by John the Baptist. Incredible. Such an amazing book.

Spanish is coming along as it comes. I understand everyone no matter how fast they are speaking and I can read with a great fluid accent but coming up with words in my head is hard on the spot. I'm ready for a latino companion so i will be pushed harder everyday.

So far the mission has been everything I have needed and more. I am grateful for every opportunity I have gotten here and have made lots of friends. Tell Mom that I might have even found my next girlfriend when I get back ;) Hermana Adams. Really nice girl from Conifer, Colorado. She actually knew Jon Layne when he lived there.

Today we got to go to Pizza Hut. We managed to convince the Mission President to allow us to since it was our last p'day and we miss american food. Pizza has never tasted so good. Bought a watch, a CTR (HLJ) ring, and a Peru soccer jersey. Everything is super cheap here. It'll be even cheaper in Bolivia. 1 american dollar is 7 bolivianos.

I hope you guys have been enjoying your excursions lately. Sounds like you have had alot of fun. I miss you guys alot and tell everyone about you and all of your little adventures. Everyone thinks i'm just a little rich kid but i see how the Lord has blessed my life. I am grateful for the example you guys have set for me as parents and i hope to replicate that with my own family someday. I've had to give 3 blessings to sick people here so far. I've kind of played "doctor" here as well. I never realized this but by watching how you, bishop lifferth, and other doctors have treated people i've picked up some stuff. Maybe it's the Lord encouraging me to become a doctor like you. I dont know, we'll see. I have lots of time. People around me call me "Doctor Neuhaus" its funny.

Love and Miss you guys alot. Stay safe and live the commandments of the Lord. He will bless you.

Elder Neuhaus

p.s.- the guy i am with in the temple pictures is papi Gonzalez. he is one of my teachers. love that guy to death.

May 28 letter from mom

Dear Ryan, 

We hope you have had a good week. You seem to be enjoying the mission. The 
pictures were great. Our Internet is still down. The Comcast guy comes today. I 
will send pictures when we get it up and going. 
Brad is still working hard on the basketball court. The boys had a good time on 
their fishing trip, but Brad only caught one fish!
Emily's friends are throwing her a surprise good-bye party. It should be fun. 
Andrew is almost a life scout. He is going to scout camp out here in Utah. He is 
looking forward to BYU basketball camp.  
Natalie is getting tall. 
Laura is interviewed and ready for her baptism on Saturday. The girls and I are 
taking a quick trip to San Francisco this week to see where we used to live. 
Nathan can really hit a baseball
Preston loves to ride his bike. 
Mark turned three on the 25th. He is growing up. 
Tyler is already walking around the furniture!  He totally reminds me of you. 
You walked at nine months. He is now 8 months. 
Stay healthy. Neil has to have knee surgery out on the mission. His mom is 
having a hard time. 
President and Sister McKee of the Nashville mission are being sent home a year 
early due to her heart attack and stroke.  She has improved. But I think still 
has challenges. 
Angie McKee came out for graduation, she did distance Ed. 
I know you are where you need to be right now. Enjoy the experience. We love 
you! 
Love Always,
Mom. 

Ryan and his MTC district at Pizza Hut-May 28th

5th Email from Ryan, May 14, 2013

5/14/2013

Dear Neuhaus Family,

I was glad I had the opportunity to write mom this past sunday, she's been a amazing mother! I've been doing good. However, the last 4 days I've been bed ridden with the Nova Virus. But they let me get up and walk around and eat when I could. I went to the temple today so I'm feeling good now. Well I usually spend about 14-15 hours a day in the classroom doing either personal study,companion study,language study, or learning grammar from a teacher. It switches off on a day to day basis on who my investigator is. This week MWF in the mornings i've been teaching a guy named Augusto. He is a college professor who had some students who were Mormon so he was interested in the gospel. Last lesson we went into it planning to teach on the restoration, but he was hungover so we decided to teach him about the Word of Wisdom. On T/Th evenings we've been teaching a lady named Nancy. She has an 8 yr old boy and a boyfriend who lives with her. Taught the law of chastity to her last lesson, she didn't seem to interested in it. She enjoys the gospel and reads the Book of Mormon and believes it to be true, but doesn't want to be seperated from her boyfriend. Supposedly its a common problem here in Peru because getting married her is expensive and in Peru bishops can't legally marry a couple. Couples first have to be married through the government before being married in the temple. Temple marriage here isn't a legal marriage like it is in the U.S. just another blessing we have that we don't think about. So those are my two "investigators" right now. On saturday I get to go proselyting for the first time for real. I'm super pumped for that, it'll be a neat experience. Listened to the whole temple sesh in Spanish again for P-day, understood almost all of it. My Spanish is coming along great. No one is speaking to fast for me out here, i'm feeling really confident right now. My companion gets on my nerves alot but i'm learning how to deal with him. He has the personality of Bryce Swenson and never knows when to be quiet. And in lessons he likes to try to talk but usually kills the spirit because he can't come up with a word and freaks out or just rambles about something we weren't even discussing in the lesson. Por ejemplo, we were teaching on la ley de castidad and he started talking about the importance of paying tithing and how it will keep you chaste....not the best example. But it's okay, we'll get there. We haven't been to any members homes yet, not sure where that came from...sorry.

My companion is currently from Gilbert, Arizona. His name is Elder Dorson. He's an interesting red-headed kid. Got alot of out-there ideas about the gospel. The two other Elders in my district are Elder Estrada, and Elder Zohner. Elder Estrada is from Tuscon, Arizona. He's a really cool dude i get along with him well. Elder Zohner is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He reminds me of Tanner Truman. He's that type of dude. Loves computers and such. Good at spanish though. My really good friends here leave this next week sadly. They're names are Elder Colton, Elder Walker, Elder Dority, Elder Hess, and Elder Leavitt. Elder Colton is from Arcadia, California. I spent alot of time with him the past 4 days. We both had the Nova Virus together and were stuck in the same room in bed,and we just found out he has a hernia yesterday. He's a funny dude that played some football and basketball in high school, he went to BYU-I for a semester. I'm trying to get him to come out to Provo when he gets back. Elder Dority is from Logan. He's a District Leader out here. He's a great guy, super country and has a good sense of humour. He always jokes about how he knows how to castrate a cow and he's more country than me even though I'm from Nashville. Elder Walker is from Payson, he's a quiet country kid that is a good friend. He's gonna be a kicker for the Dixie State football team when he gets back. He's pretty good at soccer. Elder Hess is from O´clair, Wisconsin. This kid is the most defined kid I've ever met. Tell him he's more defined than Mika and Gabe. Literally every vein is popping out of his forearms, and he never works out. He's a good guy, doesn't even have a wisconsin accent. He's kinda quiet but he knows aton about the gospel. I love having deep gospel convos with him and Elder Colton. Elder Leavitt is from Brighton. He plays tennis at SUU and is a hilarious red head kid with a really outgoing personality. I've had alot of fun with him out here. All the guys out here call me pretty boy or "sunshine" like the guy off of remember the titans. It's pretty funny.

I'll try to send a video out to you guys. Last time it wouldn't let me becase the file was too big...It was of my old Latino roomate named Elder Cañari beatboxing a little in my room. Right now I can't import pictures to a website so I will just email you them, we are only allowed on LDS.org and the myldsmail.net email they set up for us. Wow, that's gonna be aton of fun. I bet they are all freaking out. They'll love it. That'll be a great experience for them. Especially since Gabe and Josh have never flown before. Super jealous. You should send me some pictures of what is going on around out there. Plus I still need that yellow fever form. Sounds like you coulda been a pilot, I'm sure flying is much more relaxing than driving. But i bet driving a UHaul with the twins will be a great experience. I vaguely remember driving a UHaul from Texas to Louisville when I was around their age with you guys. Good to hear that you send some stuff. I got my very first 3 letters yesterday in the mail. Including your postcard. Definitely brought a smile to my face. Surprisingly got a Dear Elder letter from Jordan Dobson too. It was short. Mostly complaining about how she didn't enjoy Louisville as much as BYU and how calling me Elder Neuhaus was weird. So far she's the only person outside of family i've heard from, did you guys put my email up on fb? I obviously didn't really have that many friends obviously.

When I got your postcard and read the intresting fact about Bolivia I was super surpised. I'm excited to see all the wildlife there. I'm sure it will be awesome. All that is out here are wild rabied infested dogs. And then I read about brad missing that dunk. Did he really jump from 10 feet out? That's like LeBron James/MJ range! I'm upset I don't get to see him play. I really hope he gets to play college ball somewhere. I know I'm missing out. Let him know I'm thinking about him out here. He's definitely my best friend.

The food here is getting bland already. Rice and chicken every night. Nasty greasy eggs for breakfast every morning. I've lost almost 12 pounds already due to not as much food and sickness. I'm sure i will be super skinny when I get back. I heard that a girl from my mission (Santa Cruz) lost 80 pounds on her mission...that's alot.

The weather here is killer hot. Super sweaty all the time, but i'm grateful I'm out here. It's really pretty here, you guys will have to come out here evenually. No other place i'd rather be right now. I know the Lord is happy for my service and you guys will be blessed along with me.

Soccer with the Latinos is pretty fun. I'd like to think I'm getting pretty good, I score at least one goal every game. So far the most i've scored in one game is 3. They like to joke and call us 'gringos' and say we're no good but there are plenty of uncoordinated Latinos. All of them have a big desire to learn english too. Especially late at night. They're always asking us what such and such means. Can't help but love them.

I'm gonna attach a few pictures for you guys. Love you and miss you all. I can't wait to hear from you guys again next week or maybe from a suprise letter in the mail.

Love you guys, I hope you feel the Lords blessings in your lives this week.

Elder Neuhaus

Alma 29:9

Dad letter to Ryan 5/13/2013

Elder Neuhaus,

Mom really appreciated your email yesterday.  Thanks for sending that for Mother's Day.  It made her day.  I am so glad to hear you are doing so well and enjoying your new missionary life.  It will be awesome if you let it.  It sounds like you are figuring that out.  It sounds like you get to spend some time away from the MTC.  Tell us what your daily routine is.  How much time do you spend in class? How much is outside of the MTC?  You said you got to go to a members home for dinner?  What was that like?  Tell us the names of your companions and where they are from.   We have started a blog and plan to put all your emails (and ours to you) on it.  We really enjoyed the pictures.  Feel free to send a short video or two too.  :)  We are going to set up an online picture site and I think you will be able to directly import your pictures to the site.  That would be easier than doing the email thing and having to attach them all in multiple emails.  I will try to get that done tonight and send you the password/instructions in another email.

Not much to update you on here.  It was a pretty regular week.  I am flying over Texas right now on the way back to TN.  I decided to use some frequent flier points on Brad, Gabe, Josh.  The four of us are going to California in 2 weeks and will go deep sea fishing.  We will send you some pictures if we catch anything good.  Should be fun.  We head back  to TN in about a month.  I am going to drive a Uhaul truck back with the twins and the dogs then fly back and drive everyone back in the red van with the trailer.  I will be glad the traveling will be over but in some ways I will miss the flying.  I do enjoy seeing the world from above.

We have sent a bunch of letters/post cards.  Not sure if you have gotten them yet.  Let us know.  I have dated everything.  It will be interesting to hear how long it takes for you to really get everything.  I sent a ton of stamps last week too.

You are in our thoughts and prayers.

Love ya Elder!

Dad