"Don't hold back"

PROVO -- Bahhhhhhhhhhhh! I hit my one month mark this week! CrAzY! :) Do you know what that means?? It means that next week is my last full week here at the mtc. Woah! 

And next week we will be getting our reassignments. I will let you know when I find out where I am going. Two Elders going to Peru got their Visas this week, so there is still hope, but I am thinkin its not coming this week. Guess we will find out soon right?  

This week we got to be the host missionaries for the new missionaries coming in. It was SO fun. Except for the fact that all the girls I took had 3 HUGE bags. I am sure it was hillarious watching me drag them around, but I got my big buff girl arms out and got the job done.

I got to host an international missionary. Guess where she was from? Argentina!  Buenos Aires. Cool, right? I was so excited. She was telling me all about her country and how I should be excited to get there. She was helping me practice my Spanish a little bit. I feel like my Spanish is doing okay, and I have learned a lot. However, talking with her has made me realize I know nothing with Spanish. I know MTC Spanish, but real world Argentina? Oh dear. Guess I'll learn it there right!? ;) 

Fun fact about the MTC this week: we had 700-plus new missionaries come in! Thats BIG! It's getting full here fast. Last week, there were more sisters than Elders coming in, but there are still a few more elders in percentage here.

It's weird that we have been here so long because in our zone, we are the oldies. I don't feel like I can be the oldest here yet, but we are! 

One of our substitute teachers got to teach us the past two days. It was awesome. He teaches so well, is funny, but always has the Spirit. Yesterday, he gave us hermanas a good compliment. We practiced door contacting him and then taught him a lesson about El Libro De Mormón. I thought the lesson went really well. The Spirit was there, we got to know him better, and taught to his needs. When we got back to the classroom, he gave us high fives and exclaimed, "Yeah. The Sisters have got it! They just do. They know how to be missionaries." 

You should have seen the elders faces. Poor boys looked confused. I guess he was trying to say that we were good listeners and really cared about the investigators. Anyways, it made me feel happy. 

Not much else has been goin' on here in Provo besides moving the Lord's work along, but before I sign off I want to share a thought with you from a devotional we had, and then a scripture I like.

Elder Nash from the Seventy was our devotional speaker on Tuesday. He said some things to us missionaries that I never want to forget. A few things that stuck out to me: 

-You were preparing to serve a full time mission before you came to this earth.

-The Salvation of many people depend on you.

"Don't hold anything back from the Lord. Give it your all!"

I have been thinking about a lot of what he said and me being a missionary. I hope that every night when I go to bed that I am tired, because then I will know that I have worked hard and gave the Lord my best. I don't want to waste His time. His time is precious, and I need to be doing the best I can to help the work move along. I want to be able to look at my Savior and say, "I gave it my all, Lord. I did what you asked. I found my brothers and sisters and brought them back."

Being a missionary is hard sometimes, but it is not harder than what Jesus Christ did for me! I like what it says in 3 Nephi 5:13:  "Behold I am Hermana Newman, a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among the people in Argentina, that they might have everlasting life."

I want to be a missionary for the rest of my life. The work is good, it is so true! I encourage you all to think about what you could be doing a little bit better and strive for it this week. Help the work move forward!

I love you! Thanks for your support and prayers. They help me daily.

Have a wonderful week, smile lots

-Hermana Newman :)

MTC Miracles

PROVO -- This week has FLOWN by. I cannot believe it is pday again. :) Happy day! Don't get me wrong, I love the rest of the week, but by the time it is Friday night, I am definitely ready for P-day!! 

A lot has gone on this week, so I will try and tell you as much as I can and hopefully my hands will type as fast as my brain goes. 

First off... we have been spoiled this week with our speakers. On Sunday for Relief Society, Janice Kapp Perry came and spoke to us. COOL right? She is an amazing lady. She gave us a lot of tips and inspiration. But my favorite was when we got to sing the songs she has written. Did you know she has a new song coming out? We were the first people ever to get to sing it. Let me know when it comes out. Anyways, It is to the tune of As Sisters in Zion, but she changed the words. Its all about sister missionaries and the work. I can't remember to words right now, but such a spititual uplifting song... AMAZING to say the least. 

On Sunday night for devotional, I was in the MTC choir, which was great. We sang Come Thou Fount. Well, guess who showed up as our speaker?!? Elder and Sister Nelson. I was shocked and super happy all at the same time. An Apostle of the Lord, right there in front of me. He gave a lot of good advice to us missionaries. He mostly taked about how we can be better and what we need to be doing. One thing that stuck out in my mind was that We as missinories are the link between Jesus Christ and our investigators. We fill the gap.We don't find people to baptize them, we find our brothers and sisters to help them have Salvation and Eternal life! "How great is our CALLING!" (PMG)

 Sister Nelson told us that as missinoaries, we needed to be praying for angels to help us with the work. She has helped me realize how much help we have as missinoaries. We are NEVER alone. We can have the Spirit, angels, our companions, prayers from our families, friends, ancestors, etc. I can't explain it, but this work is of God! How great it is! 

Have I told you about TRC yet? Not sure. It is my favorite part of the week. We get to go talk to members about whatever and share a lesson with them. It is all in Spanish, but it is a cool experience. Small world, guess who I got to visit/ teach with this week. Hermana Rice! Sister Rice from our ward. Crazy right? It was fun to see her. 

We also got to visit with another man, Hermano Crockett. It is good practice to get to talk with them and teach. I LOVE PEOPLE!!! It is scary at  first but always so rewarding. 

Miracles are all around us. The miracle I have seen several times this week was improvement on my Spanish. I am nowhere near fluent, but I have seen a difference in Spanish this week. It makes me very happy. We got out of TRC's and my companions stared at me and said, "Hermana! Your Spanish! Where did that come from? I am so proud of you." It's coming from the Lord. With a lot of faith and trust, the Lord is blessing me. 

I have also seen it in my lessons. I have no idea what to say or how to say a word and then all of a sudden, I am saying words in spanish I don't  remember learning. It is an amazing experience to see the hand of the Lord. He has always been there for me in my life, but as my faith and testimony has been increasing, he is helping me more.

I still have a LONG way to go. Spanish is still confusing but I am trying my best. This week, I have been learning past tense. Woooo, it's hard for me. But guess what? I can do it... Newmans do hard things right?!? 

oh PAUSE... 

ummmmm get ready for it...... 

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

CONGRATS TO STEVE AND BRIT! I am so stoked for you both! What an awesome thing :) All my siblings are married when I get home. Crazy! haha You oldie moldies ;) 

Okay, one more funny story and then I will tell you a little bit more about the MTC. So, my district knows I am a nurse. So they try and ask me hard questions all the time. It's fun but sometimes I have no idea the answer. This week, I got to practice some of my nursing skills. One of the Elders has had something caught in his throat all week and it has been driving him nuts. He makes horrible noises trying to get it out (gross I know- sorry) anyways, he was aksing me a bunch of questions so I was asking him assessment questions like: "does it hurt to swallow" "can you feel something in your throat?" "Does it feel swollen, etc etc" The elder asked me to look in his throat to see if I could see anything. I didnt think I would be able to but I said sure anyways and that I would take a look. Much to my suprise as he opened his mouth and I got close to look he made a noise because his throat hurt. Remember his mouth is wide open and my face is right there. He spit all over me. hahaha I couldnt see it but it was on my face and arms, then I looked down and saw the evidence of it on my skirt. I about died laughing. I was SO grossed out. But I held it together cuz I am a nurse and that what we do best.

That my exciting story for the week. Some of you have been asking about our schedule here at the MTC so I will try and explain it. It changes daily  but you will get the point. I will give you an example of yesterday's schedule. 

Friday:

 6:30 arise and prepare.

7:30 breakfast. 

8-11 Classroom instruction. 

11-12:10 Personal study, 

1210 is lunch, 

1:05-1:55 gym

2:25-3:25 TALL (language program)

3:25-4:25 Language study

 4:25-5:10 additional study time

5:10 dinner

5:55-8:55 Class room instruction again

9-930 planning, 

930 return home get ready for bed, sleep. 

It is quite the schedule but it is really good to have a routine. 

Well, I have a thousand things to tell you, but my time is up and people are waiting so I better go.

 Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Hermana Newman

Good tears and funny missionary mess-ups

 PROVO MTC — I cannot believe it is preparation day again, but I am very happy it is. 

Thank you again for your letters. It is great to hear from you all! I miss you and love ya like crazy. 

Before I forget, shout out to my lovely mother. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM! I love you sooo much! I hope you got my silly card in the mail. I also hope Juli, Hannah, Grandma Morgan and Newman and the rest of you mothers have a wonderful day. Mothers are so great and such a great example to me in my life. I got your package Mom. Thanks so much :) 

Oh and NICK.... Holy cow bud, thank you! That was very thoughtful of you. I got another package in the mail this week. Nick sent me flowers. They made me very happy. Beautiful purple, pink and orange tulips. The card made me laugh: "I may not be Bobby but I wanted you to know I love you anyways." Thanks brother, You are the best! Love you. Sorry if you haven’t gotten a letter from me yet. Patience and you will get one for sure. I am trying to write them but don’t have tons and tons of time. 

Let me tell you a little bit about my week. Sunday was my first fast sunday in the MTC. It was great! Testimony meeting was fun because we all were expected to bear testimony in Spanish if we wanted to get up. I didn’t think I would, but as I sat in my seat, my heart would not stop pounding. I knew it was my turn to get up. I didn’t say anything super profound but I definitely could feel the Spirit with me so strong! I was the only one from my district to get up. In Spanish, I told everyone how grateful I was to be on a mission, that God loves us, he is watching out for us. Even though it is hard, he knows we can do it. 

Being out of our comfort zones is good, because then you rely on Heavenly Father! You all know I am a stone heart and don’t cry often. I could not contain myself. The Spirit coming from everyone bearing testimony in Spanish got to me. I, Sara Newman, could not stop crying! I love feeling the spirit so strongly. I hope we can all feel the Spirit with us so we can do God's work and know that he loves us.

A new thing we learned to do in Spanish this week was contacting. We learned how to do street contacts and door contacts. I was SOOO scared, but it was SO good. I loved it! That is what I will be doing in Argentina all the time is contacting my brothers and sisters, trying to give them a message about their Savior. 

We have two progressing investigators. Their names are Alexandra and Alberto. Alexandra is 11, which is a good experience. I have to teach differently with her. Got to go back to my beehive days. ;) 

Teaching is still scary, and every time I do teach a lesson, I mess up. But that’s the cool thing about the MTC: everyone messes up and it is good practice. 

Some of the funny things missionaries accidentally say during lessons: (don’t laugh too hard) "I know the gospel will kill your family." One of the sisters offered her teacher marijuana instead of a mint. Whoops. My whoops last week was that instead of testifying and saying I know the gospel is true, I reversed it and said I don’t know it is true. 

The point is its okay. We all mess up and have to learn. That is why we are here on earth (or for me in the MTC): to learn and practice and do what the Lord needs us to do. 

I don’t know what else to say. I am doing great. Still trying to learn the language of course but it is coming along. I am excited for the day when I can actually speak it fluently. It is much harder than I expected but I am sooo blessed to be able to be learning a language. Spanish will bless my life forever and I am excited to help my Spanish hermanos y hermanas in Argentina. 

Sorry I am not super good about giving details about the MTC. If you want to know something specifically just ask and I will let ya know. My head is full and yet I can't seem to type and express myself super well. 

Today I get to go to the temple again :) WAHOOOO! love the temple. Best part of p-day. 

Anyways, sorry this is a little random. Hopefully, as the weeks go by I will get better at being more organized with my thoughts. But guess what? I am almost half way done at the MTC. CRAZY. Time is flying. Only 3-ish weeks left on Wednesday. 

Love you all. You are in my prayers! Have fun, learn lots, make good friends, and serve others!

-Hermana Newman :)

Baptism commitment and visa-waiting

PROVO — Hola :)

Today is my first P-day. Crazy! We had to skip it last week, so it is kind of fun to have it this week. 

It is fun to be able to write letters and email home, but I am most excited to be able to go to the Temple. I haven’t been for a week and a half and am having withdrawals.

Thank you for all your letters! I have received one almost everyday, which has been fun and makes me feel loved. I did get Grandma's package, and the skirt looks great! THANKS GRAMS!

It sounds like you all are very busy with school, work and moving. Wish I was there to help, but I am glad I am here doing what I am doing. I still have not been here very long, but I am learning tons everyday! The MTC is great. My Spanish is slowly but surely coming along. 

Last week, our investigator, Ada, committed to baptism, which made me very happy. It is amazing how the Spirit works. I say that because in the short time I have been here I have been able to feel the Spirit often. They expected us to teach a lesson in Spanish the third day we were here. I was SO scared, but I was able to do it because the Lord helped me and the Spirit told me what to say. The gospel is exciting! I am grateful everyday that I get to be a missionary and wear my Savior's name on my shirt. What a blessing that is!

Yesterday we got fingerprinted again, and Monday we are meeting with the Argentine Consulate. For some reason, Argentina is really behind in getting visas out, so most likely I will be reassigned in 5 weeks until I get my visa. They were telling us to expect to get reassigned unless you are from Canada. For some reason Canadians are getting their visas way easier. Funny right? I thought so. 

I also had my "Nurse Specialist" meeting this week to find out a little bit more about my role as a nurse. Everything obviously depends on the mission president, but as nurses, we help missionaries when they are sick. Teach how to be clean and prevent illness, etc. Pretty much whatever the President and his wife want you to do. It was a relief to know that we have a lot of online resources and help so we are never alone and can always ask someone if you have questions. It is really cool: there is an online charting for us to use. I loved it —Nerd Moment :) It’s really cool!

  

I hope all is going well with you. I don’t have any really cool stories yet, so that’s a bummer. But I will tell you a little about mi companera y mi distrito. My companion is Hermana Tanner, from Salt Lake City. She is 20 and went to BYU. We get along great and are both serving in the same mission. The two other chicas in my room are Hermana Hillstead y Hermana Watson. Hermana Hillstead is 19, from St. George, Utah and also serving in my mission. Hermana Watson is 21, from Seattle and serving in Argentina too, but the Salta mission. They are so great and make me smile and laugh daily. 

There are 5 elders in my district. 3 serving in Peru and the other 2 in Argentina. They are fun as well. It is crazy for me because they are all so young. Not that I am really that old or anything but, I am the second oldest in our group. There are tons and tons of youngsters here.

I am out of time because I need to write my Branch President, but I just want you to know how much I love you! You are the best family I could ask for. Seriously! Thanks for the support and the prayers, they definitely are helping. I hope you all are doing well and know that I pray for you daily. Keep doing what is right. Laugh lots, smile even more and work hard!

Love you long time!

-Hermana Newman :)