Beware of Pride and Choose To Be Humble

LUIS GILLON, Argentina: This week was great! Argentina is throwing us for a loop and playing pranks with the weather! Seriously! All last week I was in skirts to my knees without tights. Today?!?!  Tights, long skirts, coat, scarf, boots.  It's

Carne Asada with the Savedera Family. I was in Heaven

winter again, folks! Never again will it be summer in the life of Hermana Newman ;)

How was your week? I hope fabulous! What missionary moments did you have? I had a lot of great experiences this week doing contacts. We have a few new investigators and some other potentials. I love sharing the Gospel, and there are lots of ways to share it, too! I love teaching lessons the most, of course, but this week Heavenly Father had other plans for us.

Ice Cream on P-day? Yummy

He (Heavenly Father) wanted us out on the streets, and not in the houses. Hermana Mills and I decided to set some goals to talk to people on the buses and trains and at the bus stops and stations. Usually, we talk to everyone, but sometimes it is hard because seriously the buses and trains get packed like a can of sardines.  I am not even exaggerating! However,  we set it as a goal and did it!
 

I was making some nursing phone calls waiting for the bus to come when my awesome companion sees Jesus on someone’s shirt and blurts out, "Is that Jesus?¨ I couldn’t help but laugh and look over to find my companion making a conversation with a complete stranger and sharing the Gospel. Well, then of course after, I am on the look out for my opportunity to share, and lo and behold the bus comes and here is my opportunity!

Missionaries like to be silly too.

There was one seat left and my companion let me take it. So I casually leaned over and started talking to the lady beside me. I think she was startled that this white girl was keeping up the conversation with her but she was happy to talk and wanted to learn more! Of  course, it was a quick thing because we were on the bus and had to get off, but we got her information and I am praying something comes of it in the next couple of the weeks. 

Moral of this silly story: EVERYONE can share the gospel.

You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to share the gospel. You can share it on the bus, at work, at the store, the gym... Everywhere! Just pray for your courage to get out of your bubble and go do it! Don’t just read this email and think,  "good idea". I DARE everyone reading this letter this week to go share the Gospel and if you did it... I expect an email with the story.:) I am excited to hear about the miracles we all have. 

Another story about less-actives. This one is a quickie... We are still working with the pilot plan here until December. It is being tested here and in 5 other missions in South America. Anyway, we are working with getting the less actives reactivated and them sharing the Gospel with their friends. We have seen some huge improvements. Every week I swear, I see someone new at church an it makes me just want to die of excitement. 

We had one this week tell us how she knew she needed a change and did what she knew would be best: coming back to church. She did, and she is loving every second of it.  She just got an assignment and is hanging in there strong.

If you have someone in your ward who did not come to church this week I invite you to go visit them this week! Take your time and tell them how much we need them and love them and miss them! It’s the truth and they need to hear it from a loving friend who cares! 

I read a talk this week I want to share with you and then I will let you go because I have written a lot. It is about Pride. Its called BEWARE OF PRIDE by Ezra Taft Benson. 

"Pride affects all of us at various times and in various degrees. Now you can see why the building in Lehi’s dream that represents the pride of the world was large and spacious and great was the multitude that did enter into it. (See 1 Ne. 8:26, 33; 1 Ne. 11:35–36.)

"Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice.

"The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. (See Alma 7:23.) It is the broken heart and contrite spirit." (See 3 Ne. 9:20; 3 Ne. 12:19; D&C 20:37; D&C 59:8; Ps. 34:18; Isa. 57:15; Isa. 66:2.) 

THIS PART IS MY FAVORITE....

"God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble. Alma said, 'Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble.'"(Alma 32:16.)

Let us choose to be humble.

I hope that this week we can all be a little more humble. All be a little more Christ like and help those in need. I know you are all awesome, but we should always be striving for more, right? Let's do it together! Let's conquer this nasty poision of pride. Drop it and pick up the Christlike humility we all need to return with Him again. 

Love you with all my heart! Have a fabulous week! I know I sure will. Don’t take life too seriously. Remember to laugh, smile, and have fun! That’s what God wants for us: Happiness! 

Until next week!

Chau chau

-Hermana Newman :) 

 
 P.S. I Hope you enjoyed the pictures. 

Always improving

LUIS GILLON, Argentina — FAMILY OF MINE WHOM I LOVE SO MUCH!!!! How are you!?!? I hope you had another fabulous week. I know I sure did! It has been a little crazy but great.

I would like to tell you how my morning started off today. A lady from our ward came over and taught us how to stretch out and then gave us massages.... I WAS IN HEAVEN! How blessed are we?!?  Gotta love tender mercies of the Lord ;)

We had a great week with lots of miracles. I would just like to tell you one, not that numbers matter, but this made me so happy to see on Sunday. We had 103 people attending sacrament meeting, eight of them being less active members and four of them being investigators! WOOO! Miracles. We haven’t had that many people come to church in a while. I love seeing people come to church and feel the Spirit. The Familia Velasquez is continuing to progress and are getting ready for their baptism in 2 weeks! WOOO!

Hermanas Newman y Mills with the Velasquez family.

I sent a million and five pictures and that took up a lot of my time to write this email so I will make this another quick one. But I just wanted to share an experience I had a couple weeks ago. I don’t know why but I forgot to share this.

We have interviews with President every 3 months. We always talk about how we are doing, if we are still worthy and what goals we want to make. I made previous goals to finish reading The Book of Mormon in Spanish and be writing in my journal daily before our next interviews. Well, interviews came around, and I found myself improved, but I had not completed my goal. I have two lessons I learned from this experience, but let me finish the story first.

President looked at me with his usual smile on his face and asked me how I was doing and the normal stuff. I replied that life was great and I loved serving here. He soon got to the goals part. He looked at me and simply asked, ¨How are your goals going? ¨ I sheepishly said that I hadn’t completed them. I told him that I was sad that I had to tell them that I didn’t do them. How sad it was to tell my mission president that I hadn’t completed my goals! I was horrified. Well, my mission president, being the awesome man he is, chuckled and said, ¨Hermana Newman, I didn’t say you had to be perfect at your goals. But... did you at least improve?" I told him that I had and that I was almost done with the Book of Mormon, just had a little bit left to go. With a big grin on his face he said, ¨Well that I am happy with, hermana. That is the point. To always be improving!"

Sara and her companion doing some planning. Without power. Again.

I learned two lessons from this. First (if we take this true story and just change the mission president for the Lord), I learned how loving and merciful the Lord is. He takes imperfect people like me, loves me, helps me to feel good, and gives me encouragement to keep going and be better! He doesn’t expect us to be perfect — he just expects us to improve daily! That’s the beauty of it! And the cool thing is, He is there every step of the way. We don’t have to wait 3 months to have the interview. We can just get down and pray to our Heavenly Father and he and His Son will help us.

Second, I learned something about preparedness. Now don’t get me wrong, I tried my hardest to accomplish my goals, but yes, I did fall. But during the meeting with president, I just looked at him and said, ¨President, I am having a hard time telling you I didn’t complete my goals. I never want to have to tell my Savior I didn’t complete them. ¨ As I sat there and looked into his eyes I KNEW that from that day on, I had to try harder and do better. I am aware I cannot be perfect, but I can be better and I can be prepared. I can be prepared for that day when I see my Savior's face. I want to be ready with a big smile on my face ready to say to Him, ¨I did it. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, and I have kept the faith!¨

Idaho-born Hermana Newman representing the Beehive State in Argentina.

This story might not make a lot of sense or matter to some of you. But it was a big wake up call to me. We can always be doing better. We should be pushing ourselves to be better. If you are comfortable in where you are right now, GET UP and do something. If we are comfortable, we are not progressing. Remember: ¨Ripe things rot, green things grow.¨ Do what you have to do to grow. It will not be easy, but it will be the best thing we can do. We are all in this together. We are here to help the Kingdom grow!

Have a great week. Make miracles happen. Go be those instruments of the Lord. Write me next week and tell me about the missionary moments you have or miracles you see! Love you with all my heart!

- Hermana Newman :)

The fourth missionary and the ease of the Restored Gospel

LUIS GILLON, Argentina — I don’t want to say it but here it goes again.... FELIZ AGOSTO! 

Yes, like always, weird to say another month and transfer has whizzed by! I don’t think I will understand time my whole life. I guess I will stop trying to understand it and just go with the flow ;) 

Sunrise in Argentina.

How are you all doing? I was super surprised and got some extra awesome emails from my family this week. THANKS! I loved hearing how you are doing and hearing about your families. I miss you all like crazy! Hermana Mills and I talk about you all the time. We are working hard as ever and trying to find more families to bring this happiness of the Gospel to!

This week was great. We had our own Capilla Abierta (Open House) this week here in Luis Guillon. It was awesome. I sent a few pictures of it, so I hope you can see them. It was a big success. We had active members, less active members, investigators and contacts off the street there. It was fun to see the ward come together in unity for this great cause. The capilla abierta is to invite people to come and see what we believe and do in the Church. All of the auxiliaries do a room to explain that part of the church and then us sisters do a tour with short explanations of the charlas (what is that word... bah.... lesson. Nope.. discussions sorry) and then the Christus with the audio. It's nothing like Temple Square, but it's all we have available here and it is amazing. I love that I get to be part of it because I can always feel the Spirit SO strong.

Hermanas Newman y Mills with the elder at the Capilla Abierta.

We are still working with the Valasquez family, and they are progressing well. Still keep them in your prayers, please! I will try and send a picture next week of them. They are great little family. I think they are about Nick and Juli's age, and with two kids. They came to the open house this week and loved it! Everyone thought they were members, which was funny when she said she wasn’t, everyone was so suprised. They still have their date for the 30th, but Satan is a stinker and she is having problems with her work now.

We had a meeting this week with the Zone Leaders, President and his wife, and the Sister Training Leaders this week. It was GREAT! I love working with the girls and learning from them, but also I love going to meetings and hearing from President. He is a very smart and inspired man, that is for sure! We felt the Spirit lots, and it gave us a good way to start the week off again.

Hermana Newman shows off postre celestial (heavenly dessert).

This week has been crazy with temperatures. It was freezing and I have been wearing tights for a month or so straight now, but we had a random heat flash and I was dying! Good thing I won't be here for summer or I think I might melt again!

I read a talk this week called the Fourth Missionary. I remembered it from the MTC (one of my teachers told me to read it) I had Brittany send it to me last week. This week, I am nothing but smiles. It is AMAZING to say the least. It is for missionaries and what kind of missionaries we can be. It’s hard to explain here over email but its great and I learned a lot. I think we can all apply it as members, too though. 

Hermana Newman with all her companions, except her trainer, who is serving in Salta, Argentina.

What kind of members are we? The best (#4) or are we just getting by or even being disobedient?  (#1) I invite you to all read it. It looks long, but it’s a fast read and well worth your time, I promise. It helped me realize I am doing great as a missionary and person but of course I have got to keep it up and keep getting better and being that person that God needs me to be! I am working hard at it everyday. 

One quote I loved and want to share is very short and sweet... ¨Life is hard, not the gospel. ¨ 

How true that is. The Gospel is not hard, it's what makes life good and helps us return back with Him. I'm going to share this video with you because it is powerful and better than what I could ever try to say or express! This just gave me the chills and I felt the Spirit soooo strong. This is what I mean when I shared the quote, ¨LIFE IS HARD, NOT THE GOSPEL.¨ He is there for us ALWAYS.

Make sure you are doing what you need to be doing. Do the small things daily. I PROMISE they make a difference! Be that person that you need to be but most important, who God needs you to be!

Love you with all my heart! Have a good week! Tear it up! Hugs and kisses to you all! 

Chau Chau

-Hermana Newman :)

Changes and enduring to the end

Luis Guillón, Argentina — Wow. What a week.... to say the least. I have been on quite the roller coaster ride. With way more ups than downs! But what I mean is lots of emotions and changes this week.  

First things first: drum roll........ Débora was baptized on Saturday! I couldn’t be happier for her. She is amazing! She is definitely a strong member already and only has 2 days as a member. I will miss her a lot!

All the sisters that worked with Debora pose for a picture

Because yep, I got transferred. 8 months in Columbia 3rd and then chau. 6 months in Banfield 1 and then chau. And now I am in a place called Luis Guillón. My zone is called Monte Grande. I don’t know anything about it, because I have only been here a couple hours. It is pretty close to my other area (30 mins) but different zone. Funny story: Hermana Kent is in Banfield with my Maryland companion, Hermana Crotzer. Yep my ¨daughters¨ (trainees) are companions now.

Debora's family

And I am here with Hermana Mills. She is from South Jordan, Utah as well but lives closer to the Jordan River Temple, so we never knew each other in the states. She seems awesome and is a fireball. Love this girl. SO crazy! I don’t know what Heavenly Father was thinking putting us two together because we are just one big ball of fun and craziness ;) I will write more about her next week when I know her a bit better.

And shock. I will know be serving here as ¨capacitadora¨ or Sister Training Leader. I think Brittany was that in San Diego as well. Should be interesting and keep me very busy as well!

This week was great. Like I said the Baptism went well. We have another date for 28th of June so that will be awesome for my companions there in Banfield 1. This morning I had tons of things I wanted to tell you but know I am sitting here with a head ache and can't remember anything whoops :P

Hermanas Newman y Kent being silly.

Last night was crazy trying to pack. We didn’t have electricity. so imagine this silly Hermana Newman trying to pack in pitch black. Luckily,  I found a lil candle to help out a bit. I got it all packed and am now here with in my new area and ready to learn what the Lord has in store for me to learn and do with my new brothers and sisters here in Buenos Aires! :) Let the adventure begin!!!

I am going to keep it short and sweet this week. Lucky me, I am a very simple person and I can do short and sweet very well ;). 

I shared something this week in church, because I gave a talk about enduring to the end. I thought a lot about what I should say to the members as the last thing I would say to them for a while. I prayed a lot about it and came to the conclusion to talk about enduring to the end and my testimony.

We learned from a Seventy this week what it truly means to be active in the church and it has a lot to do with perseverance. If we are not doing something, we are not progressing. And we all know we need to progress to return with our Heavenly Father. He made it very clear to us that we need to help the members to be DOING, not just sitting back comfortable. We all are a team. A team works together and progresses together to make the basket or the goal right? So just the same: we need to work as a team and get to the Celestial Kingdom together. It is a doctrine.

Brave Hermana Newman (she doesn't like birds on her) with a parrot.

 Super basic, but also very important and I think a lot of people forget that, myself included. Before my mission there were some things I let others do and I just sat back and watched but that’s not how the church works!

Alrighty, I better get going, but I love you all to pieces have a great week!

Tear it up! Smile lots... Life is good!

-Hermana Newman :)