¡La casa de El Pinar!
On divisions with the Zone Leaders, we met a guy that makes his own wine and has an impressive vineyard. And this guy gave us a ton of grapes to carry with us! And they were honestly the best I've ever eaten! ¡CAPO!
Upon seeing this massive pot of spaghetti that I made, E' Christesen asked me, "are you planning on having many kids?"
Service at Gonsales with E' Espinoza. The camera died before I could get more pictures or video, but we built a dog block to prevent their little dog from getting through the wire fence and disturbing the neighbors. I was terrible with the hammer, but the saw and I got along very well :)
¡Hola, mis queridos! ¡Ha sido una otra buena semana al pesar
de algunas personas con las cuales hemos peridido contacto, y la obra es buena
como siempre! ¡Ojalá que todo esté bien con vosotros! (Translation: Hello, my dear ones!
It has been another good week in spite of some people with whom we have lost
contact, and the work is good as always! I hope all is well with you!)
Christian, that is quite some endurance! Winning 98-37 after
3.5 hours of working out! #BEASTMODE Dude, that halftime gathering is literally
the most epic thing I have ever seen in sports; I just laughed out loud. #bondingstatus
Way to dominate in all that you do! So glad that you had such a blast at
Sweethearts; looks like a fun group! Btw, did you ever find out who let off the
stink bomb at the dance? That is certainly an unprecedented event. What did you
guys do for the day date? I heard that you got asked to Sweater Swing before
Sweethearts even took place! Who asked
you? Excited to hear about the lacrosse season; keep me updated! Love you bro!
Emma! That truly is a great object lesson; whatever we do to
others affects the Savior, be it good or bad. Thanks for sharing that with me!
It makes me want to be better as well. Jaja Mamá me contó acerca de tu fiesta y que
¡eráis muy locas! ¡Estoy feliz que la disfrutaras! ¿Con quien la tuviste?
¡Ojalá que estés disfrutando más tiempo para dormir! ¡Te quiero muchísimo!
(Translation: Haha
Mama told me about your party and you were crazy! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Who
did you have it with? I hope you are enjoying more time to sleep! I love you a
lot!)
Sarah, I see you with the missionary work! Great job standing up for your beliefs and
striving to make a friend out of it! Love and friendship bring true power to missionary
work; it's much easier when we see the person we are trying to invite to the
Savior as our brother or sister rather than some person who is not a member.
That's helped me a lot here in Uruguay! Another beatdwon in Bantam! Nice work!
And way to establish yourselves as La Roca verdadera! (The true Rock) Love you!
Callie, Oh. my. Gosh. I LOVE Hot Pockets! SO YUMMY! I hope
you enjoy your 7-11 Slurpie and also have fun with Valentine's Day in your
class! Oreo shakes are absolutely AMAZING! I would eat the whole thing in 5
minutes! I absolutely love the boat show, and Ski Nautique is THE BEST! I hope you have so much fun with Gabby, Brock,
and Talia! Sleepovers at Grandma's are always the BEST! I love you Callie!
Mom, service is the expression of love just as words are the
expression of thoughts; I love that! I have had much opportunity to bear
testimony about how we are happiest when we are serving. Challenge accepted!
Pap, I agree completely; our ward has always been there for
us and for each other by way of service and love. Honestly, the ward here in El
Pinar reminds me a lot of the Grovecreek 5th Ward at home; very strong, very
organized, and very loving. And very animated to participate in the work! They
are truly a strength to us here. Yes, I would love to see a picture of the
mission board! And also my plaque, because I have not seen it!
Well, we have had a bit of trouble this week finding many of
our investigators, but we did have some great lessons with the ones we were
able to find! Juan is a new investigator from this week that we contacted a
while back and finally found on Thursday. He has not thought much about God in
his life but is open to learn. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and it
seemed to answer his questions about life before and after this existence here
on Earth. He was very open to listen and seemed to accept it well, and we are
excited to continue teaching him! Next in our plans is to teach the
Restoration, gift him a BoM, and invite to be baptized and start his journey
towards the Celestial Kingdom!
I also was able to teach Julio Cesar the Restoration this
Friday with Elder Espinoza (divisions)! It went very well; Julio already has a
very strong understanding about how to receive answers and how the Holy Ghost
works, so we are very excited to see how his answer comes! Turns out that he
has had a Book of Mormon for a while and had forgotten about it, but he
considers it a valuable treasure and is excited to start reading! We actually
almost lost him this week, but that meeting gave us a prime opportunity to bear
testimony and re-animate him. He had not come to church yesterday, and we had
been heading to a charla on his same street, accompanied by a member. We run
into him on the way, and the reunion started out joyously, then, with a hint of
despair in his voice, he expressed to us how he didn't feel he could come to
church because he needed a job and to get his life in order, and he felt bad
about not having best dress to be able to attend, and he asked us not to waste
our time on him. Immediately I felt the Spirit place Matthew 6:33 and Jacob
2:18 into my head in reference to putting the Kingdom of God first, and I
shared the concept with him and bore my testimony about how when we put God and
His Kingdom first, our entire life falls into place. We also talked about his
job situation and decided that we would try to bring a member to the next
charla that could help him out, but primarily promised that as he put the Lord
first, his life would start to improve. Elder Christesen and Santiago (member)
bore powerful testimonies as well, and we set another charla and re-invited him
to come to church, which he accepted whole-heartedly. The power of testimony is
real!
In addition, we have had the chance to work with
reactivation and retention this week! Beatrís is a member who has been less
active for many years, and has had desires to come back. She lost her Book of
Mormon, se we gifted her a new one and have read and taught about obedience to
God's commandments. 1 Nephi 3:7 and 17:3 illustrate this perfectly; we are
promised two vital things when we strive to comply with God's commandments: 1)
He will not leave us in the dark. He placed these commandments because He loves
us and knows that they will be for our eternal good, and thus He will help us
and prepare us a way to obey the commandment if we show our willingness and
faith. 2) Upon obeying a certain commandments, there are promised blessings
attached that we WILL receive (D&C 82:10 and 130:20-21). So, we may
sacrifice a little or even a lot to obey the commandments, but we will be compensated
and MUCH more for doing so! We invited
her to church to obey the commandment of the Sabbath Day, and she accepted...
AND CAME! Not only that, but she brought
her older sister Nancy with her who is also less active and wants to continue
learning, so we will be meeting with her as well!
Blind Soccer: We also met a recent convert named José María.
He is 36 years old, blind, and the coolest man I have ever met! He was baptized
in September and, despite having not come for a few weeks, has a very strong
conviction and testimony of the gospel. He says that he knows he's in error
with not attending and is dedicated to change! He works in service with others
in providing homes for the homeless and courses for learning pretty much
anything, he has the Scriptures in CD format, loves music and MoTab, and
installed his own air conditioning system! But wait, THERE'S MORE! He plays blind
soccer as well! (No typo here) And he plays Mortal Kombat on the PlayStation!
He plays against his visually able brother and friends and absolutely schools
them! ¡CAPO! Not only that, he is very humble! He said that his house was to be
pretty much ours, and he lent us an umbrella and flashlight to make it home dry
in the dark and to fight off dogs! So excited to continue meeting with and
teaching this new friend of mine!
The Vineyard: You will see in the pics, but we met a man
with a VERY impressive vineyard!
¡Ojalá que tengáis una semana increíble! ¡Os querio
muchísimo, y amo este Evangelio perfecto! ¡Estoy a las órdenes para siempre!
(Translation: I
hope you have an amazing week! I loved you very much, and I love this perfect
Gospel! I am at your service forever!)
Con amor,
Elder Newman
Mom’s Questions:
1. How close are you to Montevideo? On the map, it looks very
close. How many miles from the mission home or how long does it take to travel
there by bus?
About an hour by bus to the mission home. Very close! So the
good news is: no more 6 hour bus rides! :) The bad news: no more reimbursables
2. You mentioned how big your area is now. Are you still
traveling by foot? Or doing more buses?
Still by foot
3. Did you get your Valentine’s package? Probably not, but
let me know when you do get it.
Not yet, but I will let you know for sure
4. How are you and Elder Christesen getting along? What do
you two like to do in your down time? Do you spend much time with other
missionaries in your district?
We are getting along very well! We work well together and
have also had a bunch of laughs; he's just straight up fantastic. We like to
listen to Elder Richard G. Scott talks in Spanish, and drink mate together. The
other areas in our district live more than 30 minutes away, so we only see each
other every Tuesday in district meeting or zone conference.
5. Have you tried empanadas in Uruguay? Dad and I stopped by
the Argentinian restaurant last night and grabbed a half dozen for dinner. So
yummy!
No, but I have heard about them!
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