Week 5

Well not much to report on this week. We almost had another kid leave, but somehow we were able to convince him to stay. We have a Hermana from BR here. Maybe you remember her, her name is Alexandria. I feel bad for her because the day she left to come out here her grandpa died. She is doing good right now. She is in my zone, so I was able to give her a blessing. She is being taken care of by the Sister Training Leaders.

Rusty told me that he had someone sic his dogs on them. Don't worry. He just said he tried to sic his dogs on him, so I'm betting they didn't chase them.

We've been having fun here. I miss music. Me and Olsen are trying to do a parody to a rap song. Hopefully we will finish it soon so I can send it.

That’s cool B got his first deer. Was he excited? I miss hunting here too. I’m already itching to pull a trigger.

I can’t wait to get out into the field, but I’m a travel leader and I’m in charge of 4 elders. I have not a clue what I’m doing. And I guess I have to pay 60 bucks for the 2nd bag that I’m taking. I might have to leave my pillow here at the MTC. No worries, I won’t miss it that much. I have not a clue what’s happening after I get to Buenos Aires. We'll just take it as it goes.

My Spanish is ok. I can somewhat communicate about gospel principles, but if I need to ask an armless person where the bathroom is, it won’t be good because he can’t point, haha. Everyone here is ready to leave, but a lot of us are far away from where we want to be in the language. Oh well, I’ll learn it eventually. I’ve forgotten most of my French, so there is basically 4 years of French gone.

Jose [in the picture below] is a member basically replaying his conversion while we teach him. He is an awesome guy. I will go and talk to him before I leave one last time because I love the guy.

There have been some hard days where life just sucks at night when I think about home. But I just have to go to sleep after I finish prepping for the next day. Learning Spanish is probably the most fun thing here. I wish I had my punching bag to take some stress out. The best I’ve got here is 4-square because no one wants to go lift [weights]. At least I’m not fat yet, haha.

I met a guy here from Argentina [another missionary], and he said that I am going to love it down there.

Well, that’s all I have for now.

LOVE YOU ALL.

-Elder Riley Newman

I'm literally climbing the walls here in the MTC.

Some late night "studying".

One of the other elders got a package with 5 mustaches in it, so we all put them on for the day. We could barely get a picture in because it was so funny!

 Skype for the first time with Barbara in Neuquen, Argentina.

Jose after our last lesson. He is pretty cool!