Week 21

Well we are going to a bar again this Pday to play some pool, and we are late so I’m hoping this is quick. We’re all good here.

That’s funny Rusty has had some drunk people stories too. The majority of the people we talk to are drunk for the first visit or are high. But they always are sad about it so it’s a little easier to get them to stop.

We taught this one kid that was taken from an abusive home and who was with a member for 2 days. He asked what he could do to change his life, so the Sister called us. The boy’s name is Austin and he is 11 years old. His whole body has scars on it. It’s pretty easy to see he has had a rough life. We taught him prayer and faith in Christ because that is something he needs mucho. And also that his Father in Heaven wants him.

He kept talking about his brother, and he wanted to know that he was alright. [When the authorities took him and his brother from their abusive home,] they ended up separated and he doesn’t know where his brother is. This week I believe he [Austin] went to a place like a corrections facility. It’s the only thing I could think of when my comp described it to me. We gave him a blessing of comfort, and at the end of the blessing he said he felt much better. The kid didn’t even know what we were doing or what a blessing was or even a prayer. I really hope this kid makes it all right.

After that not much else [has happened], we had to postpone Ezequiel's servicio bautismal because he is still smoking every now and then, but he should be good for this Saturday.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Love you all,
Elder Nuevohombre

There is a fat cat, which is a lot bigger in person.

A scripture case made out of crocodile leather and has a lion's and a cheetah pelt inside that I'm going to buy.

It was raining hard so we let our dog in for a bit.

I made muddy buddies haha.

We had a bbq.

Week 20.

[Elder Newman didn't have much time to write this week, but this is what we got.]

Well first off I’m not sick anymore. It was just baking soda in the bag. It was more of a joke than anything.

The dogs are fine. Our neighbor baths them.

Not much to report. The baptism didn’t happen. We have another one this week, but he had a problem with smoking. He is doing so good, but last night his grandma died, so I hope he doesn’t start smoking again. Other than that nothing really happened.

Love, Elder Newman

Always joking around....

Week 19

Well things have been going pretty good this week. We walk a ton every day. I’ll probably need to buy some shoes here in a few months, but they are holding up pretty good.

I’m pretty sick right now, but I have drugs, haha. I have no clue what I’m taking, and I don’t even know what I have. But I’m trusting everyone here that I won’t die from them, jaja.

We have found a lot of people that are literally gifts from God, and we really need them. We have been working hard and staying obedient and know we are getting the blessings. This week we had 12 investigadores attend church. It was great!

Familie Campos is about the same. We pushed really hard for them this last week but they were never home.

We have one bautismo esta semana [baptism this week]. I hope we have one every week this transfer, and we will if everything goes as planned.

Its scary Bryant is driving, haha. I’m glad I’m here and I don’t have any cars or trucks there, jaja. I hope he stays safe.

I haven’t gotten anything like a letter or package for close to 2.5 months. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll tell you when I get them.

The holes [from last week’s pictures] are for [the man’s] waste water and his crapper, haha. He ended up finishing them [himself] so he could get the second half of the loan for his house.

Well I hope all is well there for you. Love you all!

Cho- Elder Nuevohombre

Zone Conference

 It was my comp’s birthday, so I had our neighbor buy a cake for him.

 I’m being attacked by our dogs, haha

 Drugs that looks like dope, jaja.

I don’t think you can read what I’m touching on the fridge, but it says something like "Don’t touch here because I can’t afford to buy more paint."

Week 18

Pucha, mucho de preguntas. Por favor próximo vez menos de diez. Jajaja. [Heck, a lot of questions. Please next time ten. Hahaha]

Todas esta bien aquí. Yo y me compañero estamos muy bien. El es mas abrir. Nosotros hablamos mas y nosotros quedamos aquí en zapala para esta traslado también. [All is well here. I and my companion are very good. He is more open. We talk more and we are here in Zapala for this transfer also.]

We are basically the same with all our investigadores. They are either stopped because they need a divorce or need to get married or los dos [both]. Familia Campos is a very good family, but the dad has a drinking problem, doesn’t read the BOM, hits his..wife.. (not really his wife though, they need to get married). The whole reason they started talking to us is for him. They love each other, but it’s his drinking problem that hurts all of his family. Por favor [please] pray for them this week. We are going to push really hard for them.

They feed [us] a lot better here. They have a bit more money, and they give [us] a ton of food. And here they rotate between a lot of families, so it’s not the same ones every week. I still miss Allen, but Zapala isn’t that bad. The ward is pretty good, and I’m making more friends every day.

Everything works in our pension now. Some stuff is pretty redneck, but it’s better than it was before. Haha. That’s basically it.

Love Elder Nuevohombre

This is a 3 or 4 year old girl that talks a ton. She is very similar to the sister of Kaylee, Miranda. She loves it when I [visit].

Uno es la campo (its the edge of the city, a field).

We were digging holes for a guy. One needs to be like 12ish feet deep and 5ft wide, the other 10ft deep and 4ft wide.......

Week 17

Well this week was a little better. I have found out why my comp had been kind of cold and closed off during comp inventory, and it is a sad story. He has a medical problem. In his last area about 4 months ago (because he had to go home because of depression and to check out his problem) the other missionaries were being really big jerks to him, making jokes about something he can’t control. I think the reason I’m here is to help him.

There are a lot of dogs here, and Sunday I got surrounded by 3 of them trying to defend our little dog. Normally when you bend down to pick up a rock they stop, but these guys were even madder. They changed their target to me. I had my boots on, and I kicked one of them in the neck. He yelped, and about at this time their owner was yelling at them and they left. If the owner wasn’t there I would have been bitten several times I bet. My comp was fine [because] they were all busy having fun with me.

Our investigators are few, but are pretty good investigators. We had a family f. campos attend church which was great. They both want baptism but they don’t want to get married.  We are trying for them really hard. We have a lesson with them tomorrow. Other than that most of the investigators are really new. I don’t know what the elders were doing in this area before because there is like no one to teach. So we are working on that.

I’ve fixed the toilet, but I need to fix it again. And the shower I fixed this morning. There are a lot of boots and old clothes from past missionaries that we are giving to people in the ward. In my area [there are] only us two and its freaking huge. It’s like all of Bothwell and we only walk.

This Wednesday there is a broadcast for all the missionaries in the world. I can’t wait. Whatever it is, it’s got to be good.. probably the second coming in 3 months or something so they are telling us to really get going. jaja.

I haven’t gotten anything in 4 weeks; I don’t know what the deal is. The office is supposed to send a bag every Friday but I don’t see it.

Elder Newman

I’m a pioneer and the dog is nuestros perra llama misionera. [Our female dog called Misionera]

Sunsets are great here, everyday is like this.

The pastries here are super cheap and really good. This one is chocolate and this caramel like stuff called dulce de leche.

Week 16

Well I can’t remember much of this week. Me and Elder Rosas were getting along great, like always, and our investigators were awesome. We found some really good people, and then bang, I had an emergency transfer that I didn’t want. It wasn’t because of our ward. They were just shifting missionaries.

I’m in Zapala right now. Elder Rosas is still in Allen and probably wishes I was still there to guide him. Now I’m here, not knowing where anything is, with a comp that didn’t try to learn his area very well. He has had 4 weeks here and couldn’t find the cyber cafe where we write every week. He doesn’t talk much either to me, which is hard for me learning Spanish. I understand everything, but I can’t speak very well.

Saturday was my first day of real work here. We walked all day, had one lesson late at night, wasn’t successful at all, had a huge dog sicced on me, and it was raining most of the day. The next day was better.

We have a dog named Misionera. She follows us to all of our appointments and waits for us to go to the next one. She is a cool dog. She isn’t scared of anything too. She chases dogs that could eat her in three bites. It’s weird, but cool.

I’ve fixed almost everything in our pension and cleaned it pretty good. It’s a mess and has a lot of broken crap that missionaries for some reason have kept. Our neighbors are pretty cool. They gave me the stuff to fix our toilet and our sink. This place needs some elders who care. Other than that, not much. I can’t remember names, but yesterday we got like 4 baptismal dates! :)

Elder Newman

On my way to Zapala...

My new comp. is Elder Martinez. He is from Buenos Aires.

Happy Birthday Elder!!

Week 15

Well this week was good until Sunday. Our investigators are doing great. We have 21 investigators that we teach regularly, but none of them come to church, which was a blessing this Sunday. We think we will have at least 3 people that will accept a baptismal date this next week, so that’s good. Javier is a cool investigator. I like visiting him, but we need to change completely how he thinks, which is going to be the big task. He likes to teach, so I learn something from him every time I go there.

New Years was good. My comp was a little sick so we didn’t really do anything. The rest of the week was all good.

Now about Sunday.. The week previous, the bishop was gone and his counselor wanted to call a meeting. In this meeting he started talking bad about other missionaries and started telling us that what we were doing was not right. He was telling us exactly opposite of what we learned in the MTC. If we did what he wanted us to do, our investigators would feel no love from us and not much would get accomplished. He basically told us to be robots. Apparently he didn’t like that we told him if he ever has a problem with a missionary that he needs to talk to the Presidente about us, because that is how it is supposed to be done. He talked to his family about this meeting, and then this Sunday his daughter stood and instead of baring her testimony she went off about how the missionaries are hypocrites and how she wasn’t going to attend church anymore because of us. Luckily only one of the sisters’ investigators was at the meeting. I think it hurt her. She even looked sad at the end of the meeting. But we have family night with them tonight so hopefully we can fix this. And I think the reason the Bishop didn’t stop her during her testimony is because he doesn’t like us either. A couple weeks ago his wife asked us to visit a lady that is way out of the way of our investigators and out of our area. So we told the President of the Quorum of Elders about this so he could have someone visit her because she is the wards responsibility. The next week when she [the Bishop’s wife] asked us if we visited her, we told her what we did; and I guess she didn’t like that, because ever since then she has shunned us. And normally we write [email] in the Bishop’s office because we don’t have to pay for the time on the computer, and the computer is nicer. But this week and from now on, we can’t because the kitchen was dirty....we (the missionaries) don’t use the kitchen, and when we are with the group of YM and YW that use it we clean everything. It was just an excuse for him to do something about us. He also called for an emergency transfer for the missionaries. The whole bishopric doesn’t like us, but everyone else here loves us. And if we have to leave, we leave all of our investigators that are all progressing. This bishopric is living in apostasy, and its hurting the people in the area. I wish I could speak enough Spanish to call people out and bring them to repentance, but I can’t and it’s probably a good thing. We are trying to resolve the situation with the President’s help.

I love you!
Elder Newman

My study time. I use four different books at the same time.

It rained a ton one day and all the streets were like a river.