Los elegidos, pescando, y más pastel de canela

 Contemplating life´s great mysteries    ....on a log​

 We are fishers of men all week, but on Mondays, we sometimes like to fish for... well, fish!​

 The one fish I caught and landed!​

 I am standing in Uruguay, and behind me is Brazil!​

Making ham, cheese, and onions quesadillas for lunch. We made the tortillas ourselves because it`s way cheaper, but it took us over an hour to make them all​.

 At Gustavo´s mission call opening​

Elder Fonseca injured his ankle on football night, so we had to carry him home on Saturday to his house. And it wasn`t close by.​

¡Hola hermanos y hermanas, amigos y amigas! ¡Es muy bueno otra vez hablar con vosotros y deciros que ha pasado aca en Chuy!

Mom, thanks again for sending me those talks; they really have inspired me and helped me a ton. Troy Dunn kinda sounds and acts like Coleman, and I thought that was hilarious. And Ed Pinegar is absolutely fantastic!  Thanks for the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf. That story of patience being rewarded is what I needed to hear. Uchtdorf always comes in clutch! :)

Pap! Our ward mission leader here, Gustavo, just got his call to serve in the Paraguay, Asunción Norte mission! And the obispo (bishop) here served in Paraguay as well! Reminds me a lot of home.


So I want to start off by telling y`all about my first P-Day last week, because I emailed in the morning. We actually went fishing by this stream/pond and had a blast! I only caught one fish, but had 3 hooked and lost the other two mid-air. Bummer! xD Also, pre-fishing, Elder Anderson brought in this frog for me to look at, and all of a sudden, it peed "like a frickin´ racehorse" all over my suitcase! However, since it was the waterproof one, we all ended up cracking up; I was rolling on the floor.

In the questions below, you`ll see a lot about some of our investigators that are just awesome, like Karen and Dennis & Vivianna. There`s also Nilida and Viktor. We haven`t talked with Viktor yet while I`ve been here, but Nilida has read the Book of Mormon before and feels strongly it is true. They need to get married before they can be baptized, but I have strong hopes for them. And Eduardo is progressing nicely as well. However, we`ve also had quite a few charlas fall through, and the majority of the people hear aren`t interested in changing their religion or going to a religion, period. Contacts are sometimes demoralizing in this way, but we just have to remember that "they that are persecuted for my name`s sake," shall receive blessings in His service. We need to continually press on!

One falling through instance: we promised last Sunday to bake a cake for Fernanda y Gloria, and yesterday we brought it all the way to their house, so excited to give them the cake and to talk with these sweet sisters; and THEY WEREN`T HOME! It was a huge disappointment, but we are going to try again next week with another fresh cake. (Yes, we did eat the one we had brought. It was too good not to.)

Oh yeah, yesterday in church I was able to introduce myself to the ward and bear my testimony in Spanish! Talk about nerve-wracking! However, it went very well and I received a few compliments on my testimony and on my Spanish. God is good! His Spirit and the gift of tongues are REAL!

Well, that´s all I´ve got for today! The Church is true, the Book is blue, Chuy is awesome, and I am still addicted to alfajors! (Seriously, I´ll see if I can bring you family home some; they are soo good! Life-changing!) ¡Os amo! ¡Guardad la fe! ¡Para siempre Dios estè con vos! ¡Ciao!

Elder Newman

Mom’s Questions:

1. What is a normal proselyting day’s schedule like?          

Awake at 6:30, breakfast at 7, Personal study at 8, comp study at 9, 12 semanas (weeks) training at 10 (which will end once I`m done being an oro), proselyte at 11, lunch at 12, language study at 2, proselyte from 3-9, personal time at 9, bed at 10:30

2. What is your p-day schedule like? Are there any interesting things in Chuy to sightsee?      

We follow the same study schedule in the morning, and then we´ll email in the morning and last P-day, we actually went fishing! But there are some fortresses that Elder Adnerson says he wants to show me, so there`s that!

3. What are the people in Chuy like?                  

You`ll hear more in my audios, but they LOVE to talk

4. How long has Elder Anderson been out? I didn’t see in your letter or hear in your audio file how long he has been out.        

8 months

5. Do you have any investigators you want to tell us about?            

Just yesterday we had our first charla with Dennis, an Uruguayan, and Vivianna, a Columbian. Dennis was baptized but almost never attended church and has been less active for 23 years. Vivianna is Catholic but doesn`t really like or believe in Catholicism. We taught the Restoration, and they both seemed interested, and Vivianna REALLY interested. She wants to come to our church! And they both have accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I am really excited for them and think that Vivianna will be a great strength to Dennis with her enthusiasm, because he`s unopposed but not quite as invested. Karen is an investigator we`ve picked back up after two months with (I believe) a husband and child. She is rather quiet and doesn`t know much about the gospel but LOVES the Book of Mormon and seems to believe everything. She, I believe, is an elegido; now we just need to get her and her husband together.

6. Do you get to watch General Conference?        

Yes! There are two options: we can either watch it in our capilla (chapel) in Spanish or go to this area three hours away called Treinta y Tres and watch it English. We`re really hoping some more money comes Friday so we can get bus tickets and go watch in English!

7. We saw an LDS church not far from your house when we were looking for your house on Google earth. Is this your church you attend?        

Yup!

Dad’s Questions:

1. Have you had empanadas yet?          

Nope, I actually don`t know what those are

2. What kind of cool sodas?                

Guarana is FANTASTIC! Alos cool to note that in Chuy there is lots of Sprite, especially for the Brazilians. I mean, LOTS

3. Can you still hammer as many push-ups as you could do in the MTC?              

Haven`t tried since then. Will give it another go later today or tomorrow morning

¡Cinnamon cake and 2 hour charlas!

After a long night of flights, Jackson arrived Tuesday, Sept. 13th at the mission home, tired but excited and ready to get to work. Here are some pictures the mission sent us the day he arrived:

 All of the missionaries that arrived on Sept. 13, 2016

 President and Sister Eddy with Elder Newman

 Elder Holland and Elder Newman

Elder Newman with his trainer, Elder Anderson

After six days in Uruguay, here is the letter we received from Elder Newman.

Greetings from Uruguay! Crazy to think I`ve almost been a full week here in the field! It is sooo different than the MTC but I love it here! There is a powerful Spirit in this mission!

Time to tell y`all about my area! I am currently serving in Chuy, which is an area on the east coast that actually is part Uruguay, part Brazil! A lot of our members and investigators actually live in Brazil, so I have been as far as 2 miles into Brazil!

Some customs of the Uruguayas: Their biggest meal here is lunch. The whole country has siesta about 2 PM, and we stop proselyting at this time and do language study until about 3. They have this thing called Mate: It is this special cup that holds this special plant called erva ("chairvah"), a kind of grass that you mix with water. Everyone here drinks it with these mate cups and in all sorts of crazy ways: carrying their child in one arm, mate in the other; walking down the streets, on their motorcycles using only their hips to keep the bike upright. It`s a pretty funny sight to see. We as missionaries are only allowed to have mate in our houses, but I have not and have no plans to. They also do cheek kisses here, and the missionaries are only permitted to do it with the dudes. Hasn`t happened to me yet. Their Spanish is really funky: the letter y that is not alone or at the end of a word makes the "sh" sound, as does the double l (ll). Their consonants are really soft if even existent, and they talk really fast and love to talk a ton. An average charla (appointment or more technically "chat") lasts between 1-2 hours here rather than under 40 minutes. Most people here believe in God and are either Catholic or don`t have a religion, and there are some atheists too.

I currently live in a house on the Uruguayan side at 316 Leonardo Oliviera with my trainer, Elder Anderson, and Elder Fonseca and Elder Saeteros. You`ll be introduced to them in my audio recording, but it is a blast living with them! Elder Fonseca has been out for a year and a half is an amazing missionary but also one of the biggest cheeseballs I`ve ever met. He is training Elder Saeteros who has a month left of training. Chuy is split up into A and B, and I have B and they have A. Elder Anderson is absolutely awesome: he is way spiritual and an incredible missionary but also is not a robot; way chill, way funny as well.

Some cool/funny/crazy experiences here:

-We had a 2 hour Bible Bash on Friday! These people met us while we were tracting (which is rare here, normally we end up just giving out pamphlets) and we started to teach them. Marcelo and Claudia were their names and they were former Catholics who believe very strongly in the Bible. We would show them instances in both the BoM and the Bible how the two go together, and they (Marcelo mainly; Claudia listened more and was better) would continue to argue about how the Bible refuted this and that and yadayadayada. And not only did they fight with us, they frequently had verbal spats among themselves as well. It was nuts, especially since I had very little clue what was happening. However at the end, Elder Anderson had been arguing over how the Old Church had a prophet (Jesus Christ at the time), 12 apostles, and the priesthood, and how there could only be one true church who had these things; and finally, in a non-yelling but firm and powerful voice, he declared that we had these things today and that, consequentially, Christ`s Church of old was on the Earth today. A prominent silence filled the room, quickly followed by the Spirit, for that had been Claudia`s main concern. We both were able to bear powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon and of the restored Church, and we invited them to read it and "try the word of God." We`ll see what happens!

-Yesterday we visited some less actives to see how they were doing. They are an old mother and mature daughter named Gloria and Fernanda, and the mother Gloria is blind. They are INCREDIBLE! We started out just seeing if there was anything we could do to help them, and we just started to chat. They commented on how good my Spanish was for 4 days in the field and were very impressed. (So that`s good!) Somewhere along the way we got talking and reminiscing about 80´s and 90´s music, and they know quite a bit! (Oh yeah, there`s a LOT of music popular in the States that`s played in South America. I mean a LOT.) Whenever either of the sisters or my companion didn`t recognize an artist we`d mention, I`d sing a quick excerpt, and most of the time they`d be like, "Ah, ¡sí! ¡Yo sé ahora!" Really fun. Finally I shared Moses 6:34 as a scriptural thought of how Christ always walks with us through trials or sunshine, and they proceeded to tell me of an experience where their non-member daughter /sister had tried to kill them multiple times and sometimes through other people too. (I didn´t get this until afterwards when E' Anderson explained.) What I did get was that for a small time they accused God for not being there, but through prayer and faith, they came to realize that He was always there, much like the story of the pairs of footsteps in the sand. We had come to edify and strengthen these sisters, but I was truly edified tenfold in return. And through the power of the Spirit, I was accurately able to tell the story of how Seminary Council had chosen this scripture last year and why it was my favorite. Such a sweet, tender experience, and we will be bringing them a cake next week.

-Speaking of cakes, I am learning how to bake! E' Anderson is a master cook and has this cake with cinnamon in it as well as this rich cream/sauce that we put on top of it that is one of the best desserts I have ever had, if not THE best. Incredible! (Mom, I`ll try to send you the recipe next week) Yesterday we made one and I was able to put in some ingredients and mix and stir quite a bit! WAY fun!

Well, I`m out of time, but just wanted to let you know that everything here is awesome and I am loving Chuy in Uruguay! Can`t wait to tell you more next week! ¡Ciao!

Dad’s Questions:

1. How was your first discussion in the field? How much were you able to understand/participate?                

It was absolutely CRAZY! I went on splits my first day with Elder Saeteros, and we got invited in by this ancient Evanglist lady who proceeded to talk and talk and talk some more. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and since Elder Saeteros knows no English, I couldn`t get much explanation. However, I was able to share the 1st Vision, so I still participated!

2. What are the most interesting foods you have had so far?          

Yesterday I had cow intestine! It was actually pretty steller! Also, Elder Anderson and I have baked this cinnamon cake and made this thick cream to go on top, and it is FANTASTIC. I`ll send you the recipe sometime, Mom.

3. How is the foot?            

Great. No complaints

Mom’s Questions:

1. What is your companion’s name and where is he from?                    

Elder Anderson! He is from Leesburg, Virginia

2. Can you understand the people? Can you speak to them?            

I can speak to them alright, but understanding is a WHOLE different animal! In the beginning I understood just about nothing; now I can get the general gist of conversations, and Elder Anderson clears up what I didn`t catch      

3. What is your ward/branch like?                    

There`s about 600 members in our ward and about 72 that attend regularly. Everyone is so sweet and patient with my Spanish struggles

4. What is your apartment like?      

We have an actual house! And by Chuy standards, it`s pretty decent! (I`ll send you pics) However, it gets REALLY cold at night and in the morning because it`s made out of concrete, and so far I`ve seen 2 cockroaches, a slug, and a spider in our house, which by Uruguayan standards is supposed to be really good. Not pleasant

5. How’s the food? Are you getting enough to eat?      

Wonderful, and yes! The members here LOVE to serve you food, especially lunch, and our leaders and president have advised us to do it as much as possible, because it blesses their lives (and ours too) for them to serve us food.

6. How’s the weather this time of year?              

We are currently in primavera (spring) so there are days where it is fantastic weather and I can just go white short-sleeved shirts, and others where only my overcoat will keep me warm. And it`s about as bipolar here as Utah, except even more so, because due to the humidity, the cold penetrates your whole body and I hear that in the summer you`ll be sweating constantly. So there`s that!

7. If I send you music, is it best to send a CD or should I send a thumb drive with the songs on it? (I bought some music for you for your birthday and wanted to send it off this week, but wasn’t sure if you had a cd player in your apartment or if you just have your mp3 player.)              

Probably in email attachments, and then I can download it onto my MP3 player.

 At the mission home/temple grounds with my trainer, Elder Anderson

 Elder Fonseca y Elder Saeteros tuvieron un bienvenidos amable para mi :)​

 The wind was so bad the night we got here that it destroyed part of our fence! Oh well.​

 Our kitchen!​

 Our bathroom/washer​

 Living room/study room for Elderes A (Fonseca y Saeteros). The clothes on a line are drying because we have no dryers out here

 Bedroom​

 Exterior​ of our house

 Here they have these cookie things called an alfajor (alfahor, like Korihor) that are so freaking good! A few versions of them also have crazy amounts of trans fat (like 8 grams worth). Here in Uruguay, it`s almost guaranteed you´ll get fat due to these and the meals from members: my trainer was 150 when he got here and worked out every day, and now he´s 180. So now I work out for damage control: abs and pushups until I can start running again​

 This is the centre of the city on a road called Avenida Brasil/Uruguay. On the right side of the road is Uruguay, and on the left is Brazil, and the walking thingy in the middle is considered a dead/neutral zone. We get most of our groceries in Brazil and other stuff like materials and alfajors in Uruguay​

 A horse outside our house. Not unusual at all​

 Cemetaries here are big courtyards fenced off, and the graves are literally big drawers that you place the bodies in. Not kidding. And if you´re rich enough, you can place them in special houses

 My dad (trainer) is a pyromaniac​

 Baking a pastel de canela y salsa! (cinnamon cake and sauce)​

 Elder Fonseca

Elder Saeteros​

¡Uruguay, aquí venemos!

Hey, hey, hey everybody! I am now less than 6 hours away from taking off and heading for Uruguay! The real work is about to begin! I still feel like I´ve got tons to learn, but also like I´ve come so far! AND GO UTES!!!

On this past Friday, we had an In-Field Orientation: meetings in the same building from 8:30 to 5:00 (8.5 hours) which was a STRUGGLE! However I learned so many helpful things for the field, so it was all worth it. Funny story: in one meeting we were learning about the value of setting goals, and the teacher asked "3 strong Elders" to come up. Then she asked us to set a goal of how many lagartijas (pushups) we could do in 30 seconds. The other two Elder´s jokingly set goals in the single-digits, and I put 50 to the shock of mi maestra. The other two ended up doing above 30, and I hit 50 on the dot. It pays to set tough but inspired goals! It´s so crazy to think that many of my friends in my zone and even district are already in the fields today or on their way! Time truly flies!

Packing has been truly stressful for one particular reason: your carry-on on my airliner has to be 17 lbs. There has to be next to nothing in there. Elder Adams had to bail me out and pack some of my stuff in his luggage because I was to the limit in two suitcases and 5 lbs. over in the other. However, we made it all work, so all is well!

Some cool spiritual thoughts from this week: just as a married woman takes upon herself the last name of her husband, becomes a "Johnson," (so to speak) and integrates her will into his, so we, when we are baptized, take upon ourselves the name of Christ, become Christians, and mold our will to His. Also, when you find it hard to organize and handle the many priorities of life, read 3 Nephi 13:33 and trust that in the Lord, all will work out. If we ever feel that we have a glaring weakness we can´t overcome, read Ether 12:27 and trust in His power. And when we feel the weight of sorrow, affliction, and any trial seeming to crush us with its darkness, turn to D&C 121:7-10. Herein lies a most sweet promise for all those who are afflicted.

Yesterday, we had a live broadcast from the Provo MTC and listened to Elder M. Russell Ballard speak to us. He spoke of how we as missionaries stand in for the Lord Himself, and how we need to have an all-consuming enthusiasm for our missions and forget ourselves. He also said something pretty funny that also praised our generation and the preparation we have: "Knowing what I know now, I wish I was your age and could do it again; I´d be dynamite!" xD

Well, the real deal begins! I am soo excited (and a teeny bit nervous) for this next step in my mission! Thank you all for your prayers and your love, I have truly felt them very dearly to the heart.

Elder Newman

Morning teacher Hermano Tapia!

Afternoon teacher Hermano Hernandez!​

 Mis maestroes

 View of the CCM

 District 14C

 Zone 14

 This odd statue is part of a gym just outside of the CCM en México. Someday, I will return and use this gym xD​

 Elder Gabe Summers from Westlake! Former enemy football captains, and now fellow servants in the Lord! He will do great things with Elder Ben Anderson in Dallas!​

Elder Newman did most of his letter in Spanish and I used Google Translate so I could read it. Some of the wording doesn’t sound right because of the translation. Also, thanks to all of you who have been writing to him. He loves your letters and words of encouragement. He wishes he could write personal letters to all of you, but his time in the MTC computer labs has been so limited. Hopefully, he’ll have a little more time in Uruguay to respond.

Hi, my family and my friends! It makes me happy to talk with you again! It's amazing that I leave Mexico to Uruguay in five days! These six weeks have felt like two weeks! I have much to say, then, here I go!

Last week, when I was using email, it was raining, and stopped before we left for our home, but had continuous thunder the entire time. When a sound of thunder was ending, a new sound started, and some were STRONG!

Class, as always, is great fun. Hmo. Hernandez continues to become more and more sarcastic, and Hmo. Tapia will have their first child! Sister Masina made an impression. HMO. Hernandez was fantastic. Also, we had a fight of words about that is frozen and is snow (types of ice cream). Milk (ice cream, yogurt, custard) is frozen, and without milk (sorbet, shaved ice) is snow.

Also, the lessons are very good! Caesar has promised to stop watching pornography and also to attend church! Our lesson of the law of chastity had a profound effect on him, and from this, has been more open to our message. It's amazing the change that happened in it. And Carlos is perfect as always! He has also promised to live the law of chastity (just was not married) and has accepted all of our message. Isabel is not happy and not yet open much to our message, but is becoming more open with each lesson. And Miguel is also progressing well; slowly, perhaps, but progress nonetheless). And also my district says "joke" (joke) as hump daayyy! It is often very funny. xD

We have seen many videos of speeches this week, and they are very good! If you want to see the speeches are: Quick to Observe - David A. Bednar; Your Refined Heavenly Home - Douglas L. Callister; and (I believe called STI) Preach My Gospel Missionary - David A. Bednar. I especially want you to see to Your Refined Heavenly Home. Be alone and pray before seeing this, and listen to the Spirit. I learned a lot from this discuro; powerful!

The devotional was Tuesday and went fine! Elder Knudsen, Hermana Masina, H. Garff, and I signed up for a Sunday devotional musical number Where Can I Turn for Peace? (¿Donde hallo el solaz?). We also had the help of Elder Bagley, H. Garff´s cousin, for accompaniment. We each took a line of melody in the first verse, and then harmonized in 2nd verse - E. Knudsen melody, H. Masina alto, H. Garff tenor, and me bass - and again 3rd verse - H. Masina melody, H. Garff alto, me tenor, y E. Knudsen bass - and then we repeated the last line with the first two measures all melody, and then the last two like the second verse, and I got to hit a booming bass note. ;) We auditioned and made it in, but due to spacing issues, we were asked to perform that night pre-Tuesday-devotional! However, it went very well and we felt the Spirit so strongly. And then we had the treat of hearing E. Christofferson speak live from Provo! It was so cool to see the Apostle born in Pleasant Grove talking to a crowd with a lot of Vikings that I could see! (Elders Austin Slade and Ethan Vincent, and Sister Lisi Hong!) His message was concerning preaching repentance and how there is hope and Christ is that hope. He also talked about being trustworthy and with how good it is to be loved, it is better to be trusted. He actually used Cheerios for an illustration because they had the motto Trusted. I´m not going to lie: having my head down writing notes and hearing an Apostle say, "How many of you were raised on Cheerios?" caught me WAY off guard, but it was a great illustration.

Wellup, I´m out of time again! Just so you all know, I have a half P-day on Monday, so it is possible I may get to email you all again soon! And as always, It has been very good to speak with you again! I love thee! Do what fair! Keep the faith! See you, and see you later!

Elder Newman

Scriptures relevant to me that I would love for you all to read:
D&C 82:10 (The Lord wants to bless us, but can only do so if we do our part)
Mark 1:40-42

Isaiah 1:18

Mom’s Questions:

1. Have you heard what day you're leaving the CCM for Uruguay? I thought that it was going to be Tuesday but this last week Kegan left on Monday. So I'm wondering if you're leaving Monday or Tuesday.                    

Monday at 4:30 PM from CCM. Plane to Chile takes off at 8:25.Then a two hour flight in the morning to Uruguay!

2. What has been your absolute favorite thing about the CCM?              

Just the Spirit we feel here. Whether teaching an investigator, singing music, Sunday, reading scriptures, etc., there are so many opportunities to feel the Spirit. And the weight room is pretty nice too ;)

3. What has been your absolute favorite thing to eat at the CCM?                      

Either Costco Pizza or Carne Asada. ¡Brillante!

4. How are fast Sundays going for you? Are you handling fasting for the full 24 hours? :)            

Yes, I have managed well! And it only serves to make lunch even more awesome! (I start my fast after lunch on Saturday and end with lunch on Sunday)

5. Did you get your package and letters I sent? There should have been two dozen donuts and some letters from home and your father's blessing and notes from your setting apart.            

Yes I did!

 Our favorite hermanas besides those of our district! Hermanas Wennecott and Savoujld (I think)

                                                         My first haircut as a missionary!​

                                         We found a Viking head on the side of a construction truck. PG!​

                                                                                  Elder Jaden Bishop!​

                                                         Hermana Tristen Eady de Timpanogos!​

                                                        I took a slide while played goalie today. All is well​

 My missionary calender I have yet to use. The front picture explains a lot about Mexico; there are SOO many mosquitos!​

Tightroping, Specific Prayers, and Hail Mary´s

Hey hey hey everybody! My heart is filled with joy talking with y´all again! I have tons of stuff to tell y´all about, but first I need to tell y´all something: my next P-Day will be on Wednesday!

Now we have 4 investigators! Carlos and César obviously, and now we have switched up companionships just for the other two! I am now teaching Miguel (Elder Nadauld) with Elder Denham, and Isabel (Elder Ogborn) with Elder Cocheran! Miguel is a successful dentist who isn´t sure why he needs religion but is super friendly, and Isabel is a sultry girl with member parents, and she is not in favor of religion. It is interesting, but also good experience! Carlos is progressing very well, and we have committed him to be baptized! He remains my favorite investigator, so open and friendly! Our first lesson with César this week was a struggle as we realized that we needed to change up the way we taught. I´ve been writing a lot in my notebook what to say and haven´t relied strongly on the Spirit. We shed a few tears together, but our next lesson was way better. He has been talking with his wife about divorce and watches pornography (but we didn´t know that) and our next lesson was on the law of chastity, and we brought a member (Elder Martin) and simply wrote down questions and scriptures and let the Spirit guide our words. It was soo powerful; he finally admitted to us he viewed bad stuff and promised to change. Incredible.

I have gained a little weight! And not muscle either! Obviously I haven´t had much exercise opportunities because of my walking boot and I have been eating well, and recently I weighed in at 200 lbs.! (I entered the MTC at 195) Since then, I´ve watched my eating and done more ab workouts, and my belly has gone back down a little. I´m now probably around 195 or less.

I´ve forgotten to mention: the rain here is CRAZY! Since we are in the tropics, we tend to have sunshine in the mornings and monsoons in the evenings! The rain is sometimes so bad that there are literally rivers of water flowing down the streets! What an adventure!

I had some unique experiences this Sunday: Elder Nadauld told us a really cool story about Charles Bendam. This French guy was a tightrope walker, and was so good that he would bring a grill out on a tightrope over Niagra Falls and cook omeletes. One day the Emperor of France came to see Charles do his thing. On this day, Charles tightroped with a wheelbarrow right up to the Emp. and said, "Do you believe I can tightrope with this wheelbarrow?" The Emperor responded, "Yes, I just saw you do it," to which Charles rejoined, "No, do you believe I can do this?" The Emperor repeated his response. This happened once more, and then Charles said, "Get in the wheelbarrow." The Emperor´s stance at once changed, and he profusely refused. Charles commanded him again to get in, and he persistently refused. But then Charles´ mom, without a word, got into the wheelbarrow. I love this story because: Charles represents Christ. We can believe in Him and His power without actually acting on that faith, and if we don´t, it profits us nothing. The one who acts prospers.

Also on Sunday, we heard from President Tenorio the crazy power of specific prayer! The more specific your prayers are, the more likely you are to receive positive answers! (Read Genesis 24 for example). I thought it was especially cool because that morning, before I heard his talk, I had been struggling not to fall asleep through sacrament meeting. Then in district meeting, Elder Adams asked me to say the opening prayer, and in that prayer, I prayed for us to not fall asleep. I wasn´t sure why I had said that, and I heard a snicker or two, but the moment I said Amen and opened my eyes, I felt great, alert, and awake! I gained a testimony right then, and hearing President Tenorio´s talk just strengthened it! I would advise you to read Genesis 24, then think of a righteous desire and pray for it in a specific way! 

In gym time, I have continued to have a blast! This week I threw up 275 lbs. on bench! (new PB) I am trying to bench 305 before I leave the MTC. In addition, there was a legendary moment in speed this week: I had just missed a shot, and it had bounced 3/4 down the court before I finally got it. And I was first to shoot. In desperation I chucked it from right there, and just as my would-be killer´s ball had hit the backboard and was coming down, my ball swished in, nothing but net, closely followed by his! Everyone was SHOCKED! (including myself) xD #laseraim  And then today, we had a soccer game against district 14C, who has some pretty big and athletic guys! We called it cage soccer (because it was literally a caged-in basketball court with goals built in underneath the baskets). We ended up winning 6-2, and I was the goalie and had a lot of saves! It was such a blast and they were so funny and cool about it.

In TALL (the language training lab), I have finished all the grammar lessons, and now Hmo. Tapia has authorized me to use the last 20 minutes of TALL each day to walk around the lab and help others like the teachers do! Pretty cool!

This past Tuesday, my 2nd and last time directing the choir, was so sweet and tender as we had 350! people singing the EFY Medley en Español! From what I heard, there were tears in the eyes of people in the audience and on the stand. It has been such an incredible experience.

Welp, I´m out of time again, but always a joy to speak with you all again! Keep me updated on all the happenings back home! I love you all!

Con amor,
Elder Newman

Dad’s Questions:

1.  Here’s the challenge: When I was in the MTC, I could do over 60 pushups in a minute and my comp could do 72. (He played football for Airforce) What do you got?

I got 79 pushups the day you issued the challenge. Going to try to beat it

2.  I noticed a tall guy in some of your pictures. Is that the kids from Skyview?

Yes, it is! Elder Barfuss

Mom’s Questions:

1. Did you take the boot off? How's the foot? Are your missionary shoes fitting well?          

Yes, great, and YES! It feels so nice to be walking normally now

2. How did the choir do this last week? I wish I had a recording of the EFY medley.        

VERY WELL! We had about 350 singers this past week. 350! It was the most powerful song I may have ever been a part of.

3. Have you tried out your voice recorder? I would love to hear your voice. Maybe you could have your district sing a song for us. Or you could send a little message to each of your siblings.          

I have not yet! I will try to remember!

4. Are you getting excited for Uruguay?    

You know it :):):)

5. Have you seen anymore elders from PG coming into the CCM?      

YUP! Elder Brayden Llewelyn arrived this week!

Mom asked for some close up name tag pictures

Elder Cheney had my camera pointed at me, so I did this pose and then Elder Barfuss decided to hug me around my waist. I was as confused as you probably are.​

                                           Dulces de la tienda​

                                  Our district is pretty awesome. Not sure who wrote this.

                                          Planking. Only Office lovers will get it​

                                          Our gameplan for soccer against district 14C​

 We found Hmo. Hernandez´s missionary pic in the hallway of our class building, and I make his pose about half the time I pass it

 We found out that Elder Barfuss sorta looks like this Nephi​

 Elder Ogborn with his sunglasses on looks a lot like the dude from the Matrix (Theollo?); the dude that informs Neo about the Matrix

                                                      District 14A Soccer team​

                                         Mom, thought you´d like a pic of algunos de los Uruguayos​

We´ve made some new friends! Elder Mozo (left) y Elder Bautista (right). They are soo funny and their English is really good! (Especially Mozo, porque es de California) It was so fun the day we met them to try to speak in our broken Spanish and hear them respond in their far superior English (to our Spanish, anyways)