Week 79

Well this week was somewhat slow here too. My comp left on Friday to El Bolson, and now it’s me, Elder Ortega, y Elder LLontop. Training is going pretty good. Elder Ortega is learning pretty quickly. He still has a lot of things to learn, and he needs a lot of practice to be able to start doing everything super-fast. I also gave Elder Ortega a rundown of how we send missionaries home, and we had to send one home for some back problems he was having.

I was able to see Graciela again and practice my sign language a little bit more with her. I am starting to be able to communicate a little better. I’m hoping by the time the transfer ends Ariel will be baptized.

This next week we won’t be doing too much either. We do, however, have to take a trip to Villa Regina and paint 2 apartments so we can close the contracts we have with them.

Well that’s about it.

Love you all -Elder Newman

Week 78 - Happy Transfers!

Happy Transfers...with every transfer comes a surprise. This one was that I’m leaving the office! My replacement will be Elder Ortega. He is a great missionary and will do a great job.

We did pday Monday instead of Saturday. We also had the baptism Saturday. It was great. I’ll send some pictures. Their names are Alicia y Hector. I baptized Alicia and Elder Ramirez baptized Hector.

We also celebrated the Hermana Casariegos birthday with a dinner here in the office.

Yep and that’s about all that happened this week, we are going to be super busy here in the office with all the newbies and trainers this week, and we have to train our new replacements too.

So, I will still be here in the office for a full transfer training my comp.

Love, Elder Newman

Week 77

Well first off, I will explain who the pics are of from the last week...the guy with the tattoos is named Johnny. He is a cool kid. He is my age, has a kid that he never sees in person because the mom doesn’t let him, and he has another kid on the way. He is great. He just needs to get married and then get baptized. He was able to go to church last week, so that was great.

The other guy is named Juancho y has all kinds of problems. We were able to wake him up. We opened the door to his house and clapped our hands, and then we walked inside and just kept insisting that he get up and come with us. Then at church we heard a few talks about how the parents of the youth need to wake up their kids and get them up so that they can go to seminary. He thought it was funny because it was exactly what we did with him that morning. Then we went to lunch at a member’s house with him. It was really good.

This week we had our first corralacion with our mission leader. We finally got one [a mission leader] after 8 months without one.

This next week our ward has like 5 baptisms planned. It will be great! Oh and just a heads up, next Saturday will be our pday because it will be transfers. I need to get a picture with Hector y Alicia to send to you guys. They are both getting baptized this weekend.

This week that’s coming up will be super busy. I have to go to migraciones 3 times, and I need about 2 days to do transfers, make up plan with the bus schedules, and then buy all the tickets. I also have to help my comp. close 2 pensions, and that will take all day Tuesday. And I have to get a guy's papers to go home in two days. So I guess I can say that I have a ton of stuff to do jaja. Well that’s basically all I have for this week.

Love You all -Elder Newman

Week 76

Well I have to think what we did this week. Starting off we didn’t teach much, but when we did teach they were pretty quality lessons.

We were able to get through the gate of an investigator and wake him up to go to church. We also had two other people that were going to come to church. Their names are Alicia y Hector. They love the church, but Hector had an attack that night so they were up all night and were super tired.

We are also trying to teach the boyfriend of Graciela, but he doesn’t understand very well what we write and what we say to him in sign language. But he did tell us that the only reason he listens to the Jehovah Witnesses is because they know sign language and its easier for him to learn. We are going to try to learn a lot so that we can keep teaching him and get him baptized, married, and sealed in the temple. It’s going to be great. jaja (Evil Laugh)

We also said goodbye to Graciela and Luciano.

We are also teaching two kids that have a crazy story. Their names are Maxi y Matias. They like to rap, and my comp raps too, so we have taught them a bit through rapping. And when I say we, I mean my comp jaja.

Well that’s basically it.

Love You All - Elder Newman

 

Week 75

Well this week was good and interesting. To start off we were able to help get two more people to church this Sunday. Their names are Hector and Alicia. Hector is a special needs guy and is awesome. His mom died about 10 days ago, so whenever he remembers about that he gets super sad. Alicia is his aunt. Alicia really loved the church. She liked how clean it was, and she found a few old friends and some new ones at church.

Luciano and Graciela didn’t come to church though. They said they were packing to [get ready to] go home Tuesday. But Luciano is ready to receive the priesthood, and he will do that when he gets to Buenos Aires. Tomorrow we are going to the terminal with them to say good bye and give them a Book of Mormon with some fotos of them and us, with our testimonies.

Also this week me and the financial secretary went on a bus trip to Catriel and then back to do an errand for President. It’s about a two and a half hour bus ride just to go there. We got there, got the documents and papers we needed, and we were back on a bus to take another bus ride back to Neuquen. We weren’t off the first bus for more than a minute before we got on the next one.

Well that’s about all for this week.

Love you all,
Elder Newman

   

[Elder Newman fixed lunch for everyone today.]

Week 74

Well this week was a great week. To start off we baptized a mom and her son. It was great! Me and my comp practiced and memorized a song in sign language, and we did it for her at her baptism. It turned out really great. Then the members that were there learned how to say “welcome to the ward” in sign language, and welcomed her in that way. She was so happy that we learned a little sign.

Everyone here thinks that I learned sign language before the mission. When I was helping Graciela understand what the people were saying in their talks at the baptism, the bishop thought it would be a great idea if I had the assignment to stand next to the pulpit on Sunday and translate everything that they said. So guess what I did. Sunday I was up there standing the whole meeting doing signs to her.

It was in that moment I realized I had learned a lot of sign while teaching her. I think that when I was [set apart as] a missionary and they said I would be able to grasp the language well and fast, they were talking about literally grasping this language because I still have some troubles with Spanish, but I learned this in about 3 weeks. Now I have to teach the ward members on Friday. We scheduled a little class so that everyone could start talking with her. Her son, Luciano is super ready. He already wants to go to the temple, and I believe he will go on a mission when he is older.

I have been District Leader for about 8 or 9 months now. I am still here in the office.

Well that is basically all that happened this week. I guess I made empanadas and we visited a few people.

One of the families you can all pray for is Naohuel, Natalia y Maohue. They really need a big answer that they need a church in their lives and that God exists and has commandments that we need to follow. Thanks for all the support back home.

Love You All,
Elder Newman

 
A Valentine's Day activity at their ward.

 

 

Week 73

Well, this week we didn’t do a whole lot of teaching because first we were dealing with all the new missionaries. We also had to close 2 apartamentos y we had to take a bunch of desks and closets all over the mission. We did get some teaching in though.

This Saturday we are going to baptize a mom and a son. The mom is deaf, and we have learned a good amount of sign language to help talk to her. She has dreamed of the Book of Mormon before, and she really likes the church. Her son, Luciano, is super smart. He loves God and is willing to do anything to follow him, and he is 13. He asks a lot of questions that a grown man wouldn’t even think of here. Next week I’ll send you all some pics of the baptism.

Elder Newman