Our new "Cyber" (aka the Secretary's office). The best computer I've used in the mission, and completely free!
Waiting for our interview w/ Pres with the Zone Leaders. ¡Que capos!
The sublime perfection of Uruguayan sunsets
When a member is fantastic and gets you a whole chicken
Food stage of zone activity. ¡La Costa,la mejor!
¡Hola mi querida familia y queridos amigos! ¡Literalmente he
estado más allá que animado para compartiros mi semana! ¡Tuvimos milagros en
plentitud! ¡Aun yo puedo decir que mara mí, ha sido la semana mejor de mi
misión! (Queda bien por lograr 6 meses esta semana) (Translation: Hello my dear family
and dear friends! I've literally been beyond excited to share my week! We had
miracles in abundance! Even I can say that for me, ithas been the best week of
my mission! It's good to hit 6 months this week)
Hey Christian! You will have to tell me how the Super Bowl
went! The Falcons!? That is quite the surprise! But oh well, as long as they
beat the Pats, I'm all good. Dude, you are going to love Comedy Sportz; it is
absolutely fantastic. Let me know if they roast Canada again. Who are you going
with? And I am confident that you will enjoy Tucanos although our pineapple is
better than yours. Interesting fact: Here in Uruguay, a barbeque is called an
"asado" or "churrasco", and the latter is also a name for
steak in place of bistec! I'm so excited to see how lacrosse goes this year; I
know for a fact you will continue to wreck kids, and it would be sweet to see
you get a coast-to-coast too. I'm not surprised about the radio voice incident;
you have a very deep and mature voice. I was literally telling Elder Christesen
this week about your spot-on Patrick Warburton impressions. Love you buddy!
Emma, I am so sorry to hear that you guys got jipped once
again at State. It reminds me of one of the things I definitely DON'T miss
about high school sports: Politics. But oh well. Mom told me about how
beautiful you girls danced and I know in my heart that you girls deserved gold.
And there will be much greater things in life than sports. I've come to realize
that very dearly. But hey! You do have the best student section of all time and
great friends in the Bingham drill team and especially your own! These
friendships and bonds you make all throughout sports will last much longer than
the euphoria of a big trophy. Just know that I'm proud of you and the girls and
that y'all are gold in my heart. Make sure they know that E' Newman sends his
proudest, biggest Viking Spirit all the way from Uruguay! Man, Get Out Games
would NOT be good for me; I'm not good with that kind of pressure and anxiety! ¡Te
quiero muchísimo y estoy para ti! (Translation: I love you very much and I am here for you.)
Bear! Great job with the wax musuem! I remember that it was
exhausting for me as well, but we got to do it with people we loved, and that
always helps. Holy shmokes! 24-3; that is a beatdown! I'm excited to see what
the rest of the season holds; you have a very loaded team! 6 months in! I would
honestly love to do some temple sessions with you when I come home! The temple
has a peace and joy that can be found nowhere else in the entire world. Love
you!
Callie! I was very sad to see 4th place for Emma as well,
but if they did their best (which I believe they did), they are winners no
matter what the judges say! Guess what? I LOVE SAUSAGES TOO! That's my favorite
breakfast meat! Even more than bacon! Hahaha I don't even know what sound a
kangaroo makes either! But you are a very good jumper, so I'm sure you did
great! I love you!
Holy cow, Mom, you actually did it! You cleaned my room! I
honestly wasn't sure if you had already done it or were going to make it or if
I should ask... but it looks very good! High five!
¡Hola, Pap! Solar power! That's some pretty exciting stuff!
Glad to hear about all the great stuff going on as bishop. The Primary is
always fun if not chaotic! Also incredible to see the work moving along and
growing so well. The Lord really is watching over us! Just have a few requests:
Could you send me the dates of my mission interviews with you and President
Gleason, and the date of my endowment? I have a spot in my journal that I would
love to fill with those. Love you!
This week has seen a grand increase in the work, as we have
got 8 nuevos and 2 with baptismal date!
Julio Cesar (remember him?) has a baptismal date for the 4th of March! We had
L3: the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him, and it went perfectly! It fit his
needs perfectly on wanting to know how to change his life and endure to the end
without sin and in Christ! He still has not come to church yet, but I am
positive that he will be ready this week.
We also were going to set a baptismal date with an awesome
youth named Santiago, but couldn't because he will be travelling all this
month! But he does now have a BoM and an entire month to read, so we are
excited to see what will happen!
Some Reverse Contacts (they came to us):
1) On Wednesday, we were called over by some fellow
Christians after doing a street contact; they were very impressed with how we
tried our hardest to spread the joyous word of Christ; one even commented on
how we went out in 2's like the Bible says! We set a charla with one of them,
Elías, to hand him a Book of Mormon and explain its purpose; it turned into a
very full charla of him asking deep, inspired questions concerning his life and
the Gospel, and us following the Spirit more than ever to provide the responses
he needed. We ended up covering parts of the first three lessons and the entire
third! He says that he wants to turn his life around so that one day he could
share his experiences like we do and bring people to Christ; future missionary!
2) We were heading down a street Saturday night, and a guy
named Angel crosses the street to talk to us! He told us in English that he had
lived in the States for 30 years and New York for 10 (definitely had the
accent), asked us if "this nice building here" was ours, and asked
for the times of Church Services! He says that he wants to fill an emptiness in
his life and that he has not found it in any other religion, but that he can
see in our eyes and feel in his heart that we are for real! He had actually seen
us 3 times earlier that day! He says that he wants to become friends with us
and also that one day, he wants to share his experiences too!
Soy Un Viejito (Translation: I am an old man):
1) 6 months down!
2) We were in a charla with the non-member family of a less
active father (who wasn't there) and the daughter asked how old I was. I asked
her to guess, and she put: 30! (knife to the heart) I told her that I was 19,
and she immediately blushed deep red, dropped her face into her arms, and
laughed embarrassedly. And ironically,
that is not the oldest I've received here: one guy gave me 34 years old! #ouch
It's Raining Sideways! (pt. 2):
You will see in the last two videos, but we were onslaught
by a TERRIFIC rain/windstorm yesterday that took out part of our fence and
back-patio roof! That's what happens when you live by the ocean! The bright
side: the humidity makes for some incredible sunsets, as you will see in the
photos.
Well, I love you all much, and the Lord has truly been with
us in this miraculous week! Just know that you are always in my prayers! ¡Os quiero
muchísimo! y ¡que tengáis una semana mágica! ¡Ciao! (Translation: I love you so much
!, and have a magical week! Ciao!)
Con amor,
Elder Newman
Mom’s Questions:
1. What blessings have you felt from following the new
counsel regarding mission rule changes this week?
As we have scheduled charlas and planned for our
investigators according to their needs, we have been able to fulfill them much
more, and the fruits of our labors have been increased dramatically!
2. What new things did you learn about Elder Christesen this
week?
He has Dear John-ed his girlfriend 3 times in and out of the
mission, and she has not gotten the hint (he gave me permission to say that. I
always knew he played baseball and was good at it, but turns out that he played
soccer and club soccer as well when he lived in California and that he was
constantly getting letters from college coaches without knowing about it. He
said that his dad, watching him play baseball his senior year, said, "You
know, you should've stuck with soccer; I'm still getting letters from coaches
asking you to play for them." Great timing!
3. How have you served Elder Christesen this week?
I cooked him fried alfajors this week and shared my Amish
Bread. That was tough.
4. How often do you see the other missionaries in your
district?
Once a week, and that in district meeting, zone conference,
or multi-zone conference. Oh, speaking of the final point: we now have
mulit-zone conferences and interviews with President Eddy once every change!
Exciting! We do it with Este and Maroñas, which means I get to see my trainer
often. (He's in his 2nd change in Maroñas)
5. Callie has a question for you: What did you do today for
P-day? Which reminds me, have you done any sightseeing or fishing in El Pinar?
What is your p-day schedule like there?
Today, we had a zone activity! We got together and played
some fútbol (I got wasted) and basketball (I led my team to victory. Assists
and buckets galore. Word, Christian), had mini tacos, and played some
Get-To-Know-You games! We have not gone fishing because I forgot my pole in
Chuy (grr) and am waiting for an opportunity to get it from Elder Estouco. But
we did go running last P-Day to the beach!
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