P-Day with investigators, the Unquenchable Fire and the Golden Contact

 Pictures from p-day with the Vincente family to Santa Teresa and Punta Diablo

**Sorry I’ve been so slow to send out Jackson’s letter this week. Because of time restrictions on pdays, Jackson has been sending more details about their work with investigators in his voice recordings he sends us each week. So here’s a summary of some of the things he has told us in those recordings:

The Vincente family consists of Alberto (dad), Alejandra (mom) and Lucia (14 year old daughter). They started teaching Alejandra and Lucia and both have been receptive—especially Lucia. Alberto is an atheist but has started listening to their lessons, however he admits he likes the ideas of eternal families. The family took Jackson and his companion on their pday to see Santa Teresa and Punta Diablo and then they had another charla where the Elders found out that Alberto and Alejandra aren’t married so that will slow things down a little bit. Lucia has a baptismal date, but is trying to decide if she will wait for her parents to get married and hopefully get baptized with her.

Gislaine is a lady they are teaching who has been pretty receptive and open to their lessons, but believes in reincarnation so they are teaching her about the resurrection. The other bomb that was dropped on them was that she is also being taught by two other religious groups right now: Jehovah’s Witnesses and another group that I didn’t recognize. So, that’s a bit interesting.

Elder Anderson and Elder Newman had a great contact with a teenage boy named Mateo who was playing basketball outside and they started talking to him and he asked them to play some basketball with him. The dad came to pick up his son and they talked to him for quite a while and consider him and his son, Mateo great prospects for them. He referred to them as their “golden contact and slam dunk contact”.

Hello friends and family! ¡Me hace muy feliz hablar con vosotros otra vez! Esta semana fue un poquito difícil, pero ¡tengo esperanza que cosas van a mejorarse! Si tenéis algunos discuros o canciones de alguno sesión de Conferencia General, decidme para que yo pueda descargarlos. ¡Gracias!

(Translation: It makes me very happy to talk to you again! This week was a bit difficult, but I have hope that things will get better! If you have some speeches or songs from any General Conference session, tell me so that I can download them. Thank you!)

Christian! I`m so stoked to hear about all your opportunities to bear your testimony as of late! The best way to build a testimony is to share it often. These will be great preparations for you as you prepare to serve. I fully expect to receive your call video. ;) Love you buddy! BTW, just saw your answer to Tianna for Preference. Atta boy, that`s the way to do it.

Emma! ¡Estoy feliz que tuviste un tiempo maravilloso con Kyle; ¡ese chico es buenazo y muy chistosísimo! ¡Tu grupo apareció muy divertido! ¡Buena suerte con tus bailes futuros en Drill y Dance Company! ¡Continua disfrutar tu año décimo en el liceo (high school en Uruguay)! ¡Te quiero mucho!

(Translation: I'm glad you had a wonderful time with Kyle; That boy is good and very funny! Your group was 

very funny! Good luck with your future dances at Drill and Dance Company! Continue to enjoy your tenth year

in high school in Uruguay! I love you so much!)

Sarah, I hope you had such a fun time at Chuck`s! I haven`t been there in ages, even without the mission. 

I`m so touched that you chose my number for your bantam jersey. :) Now make me proud with it ;) 

#nopressure You´ll have to let me know how your state report goes!

Callie! Thanks for writing me first! I love Chuck E Cheese! The ticket machine sounds like soooo much fun! Have fun with that disco globe! I love you!

Mom! Thank you so much for the Google Drive and recipes and all you do! The recipes would be easier as pictures for future reference, thanks for asking :) So great to hear about Kegan`s progress; I`m sure he`s itching to get back out there! Yaco is so awesome; I`m glad you got to be friends with him!

Pap, hope you enjoy your stay in London! 11 hour flights are always brutal. Wish you luck with After Effects! If your son can get it done, you`ll be fine. ;) Very cool story about the followed prompting; it’s amazing the things that can happen when we listen intently to the Spirit. I need to do better for sure in that regard.

Well, we are down right now to 4 solid investigators: the Vincente family (Alberto, Alejandra, y Lucía) and Gislaine. All the others have been falling through on charlas that have been set; in Uruguay, there`s not really a standard to follow concerning time. If you think lateness in Utah is bad, you ain`t seen nothin yet. Also, you can set a charla and write it down in your planner and fix it for a certain time and date, and the odds are that they will forget or even avoid you at that time. So it’s been kind of tough so far, and we`re doing a lot of finding, but finding is how people begin to receive the gospel! So although we´re in a bit of a rough spot, we press on steadfastly!

Also, really excited for this Thursday: we will be receiving Elder Ronald A. Rasband from the Quorum de los Doce for a multi-mission conference (Montevideo y Montevideo Oeste)! Extremely excited for that!

Thanks once again for all your prayers and support; it means the world to me! ¡Os quiero mucho! ¡Que tengáis suerte en todos aspecto de vuestras vidas! ¡Para siempre Dios esté con vosotros! ¡Ciao!

(Translation: I love you! May you have luck in every aspect of your lives! Forever God be with you! Ciao!)

Love, Elder Newman

Mom's Questions: 

1. It’s been great to see the progress in Alejandria and Lucia this week. Is Lucia still on track for baptism on Nov. 19th? How is Vincente coming along? Is he starting to believe in God? Is he ok with Lucia and Alejandria progressing? 

Lucía is not on track for that day, she`ll  probably have to be baptized in December if she doesn`t want to wait for her parents. They are not married, so that kinda throws a wrench in there. The family is Vincente and I think the dad`s name is actually Alberto, and he wants to have an eternal family but is struggling with faith right now. He has no problem with the others progressing and wants to try to progress, but is just hesitant on religion.

2. Loved hearing the story of you giving your Spanish Triple Combination to Carlos and Alecia. Have you been able to pick up a new one for yourself yet? Will you be able to attend their temple sealing?  

Not yet, but I probably will this week. And we`re not sure yet about being able to attend

3. That’s so exciting about Guermo’s call to Canada, French Speaking. Can you get me his lds email account? I would love to send him a letter of encouragement while he is in the Provo MTC and maybe drop off a package for him since his family probably won’t be able to send something from Uruguay.  

I will do my best

4. Were you able to visit Carlos’s friend that lived on the outskirts of Chuy?  

They´re actually in the other Elders´ area, but they did it

5. Were you able to get your new music off of your lds google drive ok?  

YES! Thank you soo much!

6. What’s the weather like right now?  

Most days it is very hot and humid. Kind of a struggle; I´ve been washing my clothes twice as much!

Guaraná en Piñas, Osama Bin Laden, y Bombachos

 The Birthday Boy

 Guaraná en Piñas

 Elder Newman sporting his new Peñarol bucket hat

 What people will do to keep electricity going

¡Hola familia y amigos! ¡Me hace felicísimo hoy para recibir vuestros mensajes y escribiros! Esta semana fue un poco más difícil, pero tambien ¡hemos experimentado unos milagros! ¡La obra anda continuamente!

Christian, nice work perfecting the dunk; no go find some random people to throw down on! ;) xD And I don`t even want to imagine you in No-Shave November; scruff-tastic. I`ll be having nightmares for the next few days xD

Emma! So cool to hear about Bryce being one of your teachers; he is going to be a superb missionary! Tell him and Jenna good work! So happy to hear about all the happenings in drill! Don`t even sweat the pressure; they put you there for a reason. Just take a deep breath, smile, and dance your heart out. Imagine success and it will be yours. And don`t even worry about your math scores; I once scored a 64 percent on a math test. I was not happy for days xD You´re doing great things!

Bear da bear! Nice work in futsal! Once again locking down the goal! I always take opportunities here to brag about you playing goalie and how awesome you are (because EVERYONE and their dog plays soccer here). Thanks for using my jokes! :) xD Good luck in Bantam this week!

Callerist girl! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The great 6! That is sooo amazing!!! I hope you have amazing parties and that it is all you want it to be! I can`t say that I share your feelings on M&M`s, but I`m happy to hear you had a fun Halloween!

Mom, thanks again for all the amazing gifts. I blew up the beach ball right away and loved the messages! Did I ever tell you that Hermana Eddy gave me a birthday call and sent me a card from the family? So neat! That steak place sounds amazing, especially the onions! #mmmm But the asados here are pretty steller, and we`re having another one this Saturday! #WIN I loved the thought about prayer; I definitely need to do more listening in my prayers.

Pap: yes, I am going all the way down on my pushups ;) Hope everything back home is going well! Keep me updated on how the wrestling team is doing, okay?

This week was a little tough for us. Rocío is nowhere to be found, many of our investigators have fallen through on charlas, and contacts have become more hostile. And it was like that all this week until Sunday, when Alejandra y Lucía came to church and we found a promising nuevo Luticia! So we were stretched a little this week, but I see great things coming to us in the near future!

Fun fact I learned from E' Poulson: Chuy is a notable habitation for Arabic and Islamic people; you`ll find a lot of them in the rich houses on the Brazilian side. This is because after the Vietnam War, many of them were expulsed into Uruguay because no other country would accept them. (The same thing happened earlier with a lot of Nazi prisoners) Anyhow, one day, Osama Bin Laden came here to Chuy as refuge from his hunters and dumped a ton of money into the laps of the Arabians here! So we are walking the streets that OBL himself walked! Pretty crazy!

Thank you once again for all your support and prayers! ¡Os quiero mucho! ¡Para siempre Dios esté con vosotros! ¡Ciao!

Elder Newman 

P.S. Also the story of the dead frog:

E' Anderson has made it a habit of picking up frogs at night and throwing them at me. So one night, I saw a frog on the ground, and just as his hand went for it, I used my foot and soccer-dribbled it to the side. And he didn`t move afterwards. Oops xD

Mom’s Questions:

1. What were you able to spend your birthday money on? Hope you had a great day. We really enjoyed your videos of you opening your presents. I’m so glad you liked your Uruguay tie—I have been so excited about it for months now and was so happy to get to see the video of you opening it and your reaction to it.

 I spent it on a Brazilian Soccer Jacket, a Peñarol bucket hat, and a cowboy hat

2. How many miles do you think you walk in a day?  

I would say around 5

 

3. Have you played soccer with any Uruguayan kids yet?   

Nope

4. How did you serve the other elders this week?      

I shared my birthday chocolate with E' Poulson