Week 86

Bueno, we didn’t do a whole lot this week. It has been raining and a lot of people should be inside, right? Well that wasn’t how it was here. We went to all the people that we knew, and only one family was there and let us in. But I know that next week will be better.

Well we did teach a family. They are the familia Marchena. The dad is a security guard, and he was teaching me some self-defense moves while we were waiting for his wife to get back. Then we taught them and put a baptismal date with her, and we might baptize one of their kids that’s a little bit older. The dad is a member that served a mission but lost his focus and started breaking commandments, but we are helping all of them get back on the path. Next week I’ll send a picture of them.

I’ve been really bad at taking pictures. I have had to leave my camera home a lot because I have to go into a area that’s a little sketchy. The people like us there, but you never know when someone might rob you. But this week I’ll be able to send more pics.

It was great to see all of you during Skype. I really do love the mission. I wouldn’t change this experiencia for anything in the world.

Thanks for everything.
Elder Newman

Week 85

Bueno, I don’t have a lot of time, but I’m loving it here in San Martin. The weather is cold, and I think we will get snow here in a week or two.

I’m still getting to know the area, but we have some people that we have found that are progressing really well. One guy is named Luis. He is doing great and accepted a baptismal date for the 27th of this month.

And that’s about it. The rest of what happened this week I’ll have to tell you the next week. Sorry.

Elder Newman

Week 84

Well I’m in San Martin de Los Andes right now. I got transferred here and I arrived at like 6 am this morning, so I was traveling all night. Let’s just say I didn’t get much sleep, haha....but all good here.

My new comp is Elder Sorenson. He is from Koosharem, Utah, and he also has a pair of boots. I think that’s why we got put together. He is a really great missionary, and we are going to do lots of work together. I am the Zone Leader here with him.

Here in San Martin it is super cool. I finally smelled a pine tree. The lake is super cool, but I didn’t have time to take pics of it because we were in the middle of transfers. But next week I’ll have some good pics to send.

Juancho was confirmed Sunday, so that was good. We also had found another guy that wants to stop smoking, stop drinking and change his life to be able to see his daughter again. He has to go talk to the judge to be able to see her, and he wants to change all of this stuff first. This guy’s name is Ariel. He is super nice.

I have some pics of the members that I was able to say goodbye to, and I was able to say goodbye to algunas investigators.

Love, Elder Newman

Week 83

Well this week was a pretty good week. We had 2 baptisms which is great! Juancho was one of them. We thought he wasn’t going to get baptized, but everything turned out great. Then Sunday came and we couldn’t find him, and he didn’t get confirmed. But the first half of his baptism is done, so next week we should be able to finish it.

This is what happened. Saturday morning we woke up and got ready, then went to the church to start cleaning and filling the font. We had planned with Juancho to pass by his house and pick him up at 10:30 to go together to the baptism. We are walking to his house and we get a text message that’s translated said, “Hey Juancho wanted to advise you that he won’t be able to attend his baptism today for x reasons and he will explain why later.” So we ran to his house, and he wasn’t there, and he wasn’t answering his phone. So we went to another investigator’s house and took him to the baptism (Matias). Then after the baptism was over, we are all sad because we didn’t baptize anyone, but we made the decision to do everything possible to have a baptism that day.

So after lunch I call Juancho like five times, and the fifth time he answered. He explained that he was in Plottier because some stuff happened to his family and a whole story, but I told him that there’s still time and everything is all ready and we could do his baptism at 7. He said sure why not, so we just got him baptized and that is that. Hopefully you can all understand that. It made sense in my head, jaja. So we can learn from that to never lose faith. Anything can happen if we try hard enough.

Then for the last pday, we went to the river and the Neuquén letters to take pics. Also Saturday was the birthday of our Mission Presidente, so of course the office got cake, haha. It was great!

Yep, and here in 8 days I will be out of the office and in some other area. I still don’t have any idea of where I’m going, but I know I’m going. Well that basically describes what happened this week,

Love You All,
Elder Newman

 

 

Week 82

Well we didn’t have such a successful week this week, but we did, however, get a lot done. The visit of President Nelson was great. He is a great guy and has a good sense of humor. He may be old, but he is very healthy and always has a good attitude.

One of the things he talked about is how a member here asked him when we were going to get a temple here, and he said no, and that we wouldn’t have one until we had enough members to be able to fill the temple with temple workers and that it all depended on what the members did. If they start working a bit more and then the baptisms will come, and then we would get a temple if the Lord wants it here. I was also able to shake his hand when he had the meeting with all the mission. It was a great experiencia.

Then after the meeting on Saturday, I was given the opportunity to baptize Ivana. She is 9 years old, and the sisters were teaching her, but I did the interview and she asked me if I could do it [the baptism]. It was a good baptism, but there were literally no members, and the water was dirty and super cold. The water in Bear Lake was warmer than the water we had in the baptismal font. The poor girl was gasping for air when she came back up. I almost started gasping for air too when it got up to my hips. The water was super cold.

Also, today we had a good friend of mine go home, Elder Juarez. He is from Buenos Aires. We had his last lunch in the mission with him yesterday, and today he got on the plane.

Well that’s about it. We haven’t been able to find Juancho again; we had a cita [appointment] with him yesterday, but he wasn’t there, so we will pass by again today.

Love,
Elder Newman

Week 81

Well this week we didn’t get a whole lot of teaching in, but we did get some done. We taught Juancho again, and to help him get to church we asked him if he could help us with a practice that we needed to do with the members. He showed all the members how to give an invitación to go to a church open house, and he did it great! It was the best practice that we had seen, and all the members were asking if he was a member but he said not yet. We are going to try and get him baptized the 22 of April.

We also went and taught Graciela and Luciano. My sign language is getting a lot better, but Ariel still has problems understanding because he is half blind.

Also we are teaching la familia Millado. The mom was baptized, but they can’t find her records so she has to do it again. And her daughter wants to get baptized. So we are more than happy to baptize them, Haha. And also, I went to help some missionaries do a church open house. And that’s basically all we did this week.

Love You All
Elder Newman

Elder Machuca, yo, Elder Kelshaw, Elder Dean, Elder Heward, Elder Asencio, Elder Rodriguez...then the hermanas, Hermana Guida and the Hermana Gutierrez

Me, Cynthia, Juan, Abril, Elder Ortega then in front of him Elder Llontop.

Week 80

Well it has been a pretty normal week. We did a lot of running around. We had to go to Villa Regina 2 times and one time in a bus. We also helped an investigador of the asistentes do a cement roof, so that was fun. We cleaned out and painted two apartments and watched one session of conference there in Villa Regina. It rained a lot down here too.

Conference was great. I really liked the talk of Joaquin E. Costa. I’m going to download it and share it with all our investigators. He basically sums up every investigator that we find. Haha. We also have plans to have a few more baptisms here before the transfer ends.

I still have no idea where I’m going. President says he knows, but he won’t tell me where I’m going. I think I’m going to the South because I’ve basically been everywhere else. Haha.

I’m still training Elder Ortega, and we are both helping Elder Llontop with his work. I don’t know what they are going to do when I leave, because I’m the only one with a license to drive. So they will have to do something a bit different when I go.

Graciela also went back to Buenos Aires, so we are going to have a harder time talking to Ariel. But we will get him baptized one way or another, haha.

Well that’s basically it for the week.
-Elder Newman

[Smile, your girl loves me.]