Snow and Saints

COLUMBIA, Md. — Happy day for Hermana Newman!  I woke up Sunday morning to white stuff all over the ground... yep- SNOW! :) WAHOOOOOOOO 

I have missed it so much. It is stinkin' cold here, but the snow makes it worth it, indeed. Funny story about Maryland: they freak out when it snows. Seriously, I about died laughing. The mission grounded our cars for the day (which was understandable), so we were on foot the whole day, which was interesting considering I cover the entire stake. But hey, what an adventure. Out of 21 years, I can only remember church being canceled once and that is because the bishopric got stuck in the snow driving to church. Well, we got to church yesterday. Sang a song, prayed, took the sacrament and then went home. Yep... they canceled church, and we woke up this morning to find out school was canceled and most of the libraries didn’t open until noon. In the words of my branch mission leader, "Yeah Hermanas, it's the end of the world when it snows here."

Yesterday was quite the adventure. I wish I could send videos home but they are too big. We were told we needed to still proselyte, but no cars. Which is just fine by me but definitely interesting because my area is HUGE and we live near the freeway. Missionaries crossing the freeway is probably not the best idea, so we started our journey walking to the nearest area with members and investigators. What we thought would take us about 30 minutes ended up taking 2 hours in the snow to walk. I was just laughing and grinning the whole way. Life is good! 

I was thinking about the pioneers a lot as I was walking and how amazing they are. They had it WAY worse then having to walk a couple hours in a snowy day. They are amazing! It made me think of the hymn of course:
 

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell -
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell-
All is well! All is well!

We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away, in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints, will be blessed.
We'll make the air, with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell -
All is well! All is well!

And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell-
All is well! All is well!

All is well! All is well! How true that is! We are SO very blessed :) I am thankful for the pioneers and all they did for what they knew to be true. I hope we can be a little more like them and stand up for what we know to be true. Stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The pioneers had it hard, but they endured the trials they had and made the best of it all. I definitely look up to those pioneers!

On another note, we had another great week here in Maryland. The snow has got my attention, so I am having a hard time thinking about what else went on this week. 

Oh! Soila! We had a great experience this week with her. We went over to her house to visit and see how she was doing. We planned on watching The Restoration video with her and reading the scriptures. This woman absolutely LOVES The Book of Mormon. It is quite the humbling experience to me because she only has a 3rd grade education from Honduras, yet she loves to read The Book of Mormon and has a big smile on her face every time she reads. She is amazing to say the least! A

During the video, she kept looking back at me and smiling. At the end she had a big grin and the first words that came out of her mouth was, "Que Bonita." (Beautiful) My favorite part of the night was when we gave her a card and invited her to the temple lights. She looked at the building and asked if she could go inside. I told her that she wasn’t able to right now but that she could someday. She looked at me and said, "Hermana Newman, I want to go there. I will go there after I am baptized." 

Yes! Yes Yes! Slowly but surely she will get there. She knows this is what she wants and needs in her life and I absolutely love watching her makes changes and use the Gospel. I have the best calling in the world: full time missionary! :)

The work is great and moving forward every day. Thanks for letting me be part of this great work and supporting me. I know you all are being great missionaries back at home too! Keep up the work and keep praying for those opportunities! I love you all!

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman :)

Patience, pioneers and prayer

COLUMBIA, Md. —Another week has gone by? Say What?!?! That is crazy. Time is flying and I don’t know where it is going.

I hit my 6-month mark this week, which about scared me half to death so I think I won't count anymore. Oh dear. Time is crazy. I LOVE being a missionary. Love every second of it :) Man am I blessed to be out here in Maryland.

I have some awesome news! President asked for eight Spanish-speaking hermanas to come to the mission permanently! Can you believe it? How amazing is that?

They have been praying soooo long for hermanas in this area and it finally got approved this week. I am very excited for them. My branch president is especially excited. He gave me a special thank you for being the "pioneer" for the hermanas here in Maryland. "Not a problem at all president, I love it here!"

It is so weird to think that 5 months ago me and Hermana Brown started off as the first Spanish sisters and now things are going awesome and we are getting eight more! Blessings, blessings. Hermana Crotzer and I are super happy.

Anyway, another great week here in Columbia. :) Drum roll please.... 

One of our investigators has a baptismal date: November 30th! 

Bahhhhh! I am sooooo excited and just cannot stop smiling. She has been prepared by the Lord and definitely needs and wants this change in her life. What a great blessing this will be for her and our little branch. We have a few kinks to work out before then, but I have faith it’s going to happen. She is solid. Some prayers wouldn’t hurt at all either ;) thanks.

Another great thing that went on this week was Sisters Conference. We had a conference for all sisters on Wednesday. There were a ton of us! 60+ and by the start of the year, we will be 90+. There is a lot of work to do! Bring out the missionaries :)

We had the opportunity to go to the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center again this week. They were having a Hispanic cultural celebration. We invited lots and lots of people, but only three investigators, one less active and one recent convert said they could come.  We got rides figured out and everything and decided to meet up at the visitors center an hour before the event started. Well, we were there an hour before and could not find our investigators. Time passed, and then only 30 mins till the show started.. 20.. 10 ... 5 mins. 

The show started... still nobody showed up.   

I have to be honest: I was starting to feel a little impatient and stressed that they weren’t there. Another companionship of sisters had the same problem. The one was freaking out a little bit and I overheard her companion say, "It's okay, breathe and it will all work out. Just take it as it comes." 

It was a good reminder for me: take it as it comes. Only worry about the things that you can control. People always have their agency! It made me think of another thing, though, too. Me sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting reminded me of how it must be for Heavenly Father watching us sometimes. He is waiting for us to arrive at the big event (to return back to him)  but He has to be patient and watch us go through life. He has to watch us struggle, go through hard times, etc. Sometimes we don’t listen and we are "running late". But, there He waits for us patiently to make right decisions, be happy, grow and be strong and eventually get to the big event. 

We have a tool similar to a cell phone that we can call him and ask for help anytime we want it- very similar to prayer, no? Moral of the story: our Heavenly Father is patiently waiting for us. He wants us to return and He wants to help us. He loves us and wants us to be happy. Make sure you are using that "cell phone" and checking in daily with our Heavenly Father. He will help you make it to our goal... the big event... the big celebration!

Time is up; I hope you have a fabulous week! As always I love you and miss you like crazy. I have the best family there is, hands down! Smile big, laugh lots for me, and enjoy life! Have a great week and in the words of President, "Tear it up!"

-Hermana Newman :)

Going and doing

COLUMBIA, Md.  — Another wonderful week in Maryland has passed. I can’t believe I have been in Maryland for 2 months. It’s not very long, but time is flying for sure! The weather here is still hot, but thankfully not as hot as a couple weeks ago. It is bearable and I don’t mind it at all.

I would now just love to get rid of the yucky mosquitoes. I don’t have eczema on my legs anymore, but they are infested with mosquito bites. Dumb bugs! All is well, though, as long as I don’t get mosquitoes in Argentina and get dengue, I think I will be good.


This week has been great. Guess where I got to go?!? Don’t be too jealous.

Yes, got to go to the DC Visitor Center. The temple is beautiful just like everyone has told me :) I wish we could have gone inside! I miss going to the temple. I haven’t been in 2 months, which is the longest time I have ever been without going to the temple. It is killing me. But it’s okay because I am a missionary and get to help the people here in Maryland instead. But one day, I am coming back to Maryland and going to the DC temple. It is way pretty! We went with a member in the branch and a family from Mexico. It was really nice, and I think they liked it a lot. They were really shy and didn’t talk too much, but we are going to start teaching them this week. I am really excited!

It has been a little hard to find new investigators and visit members and less actives because it is summer. And apparently, people like to leave and go on vacation in the summer. What? Who do they think they are? Don’t they know that we need them here and we have a message to change their lives? ;)

I can't think of a particular story to tell this week, but I have definitely learned a few things. One big lesson I have learned again this week was the easiest and best way to do things is just by following the Spirit. We found one family and two ladies this week to teach because we went by the Spirit and were not afraid to open our mouths. I Love it!

We were walking around trying to find a potential investigator's house. That’s when we happened upon a lady named Sara. I had the impression to say hello and talk to her. I was scared for some reason though. I kept fighting with myself while we were walking up to her what I would do. Finally we caught up and it was go time. What am I going to do? Talk to her or just smile, say hi and keep walking?

What kind of question is that, Hermana Newman? 

Luckily, I had my head on straight and I listened and I talked and walked with her for a bit. Asked her how she was doing and who we were etc. I asked if she lived close and if we could share a message with her and her family. She smiled and me and said, "Claro, Hermana. Pasen." (Of course sister, come in) My heart stopped for a split second.

What? Did she really just say yes? That doesn’t usually happen. 

A lot of times they are not interested, too busy or ask us to come back a different day. I was so happy. We met with her family and got to know them better and started teaching them about the Restoration. Long story short, we have a new family to teach. I know it is not because of me: totally the Spirit guiding two 'lil sister missionaries. I know that when we forget ourselves, not worry about it and just go and do what Heavenly Father needs us to, we can see miracles and have blessings.

Another cool blessing I have noticed this week was my Spanish. Trust me, I am nowhere near fluent. I have quite a ways to go, but I can definitely get around and talk to people. I mess up sometimes and people love to help me. A lot of the times I am so scared and just have to pretend I am not. But this week, as I put my fear aside, the Lord helped me open my mouth and speak.

My Spanish is slowly increasing and getting better. I love leaving appointments and thinking back, "Wow, we just taught that whole thing in Spanish."  Or just walking around outside talking to everyone and having conversations in Spanish. I really do love these people already. They are awesome! 

By the time they get to Argentina, they might not need these coats.

My absolute favorite thing is when people look at us with weird faces and are just staring. It’s the best. They are staring because they see two lil white girls speaking to them in Spanish. I love when people ask, "Where did you learn to speak Spanish?" Or "How long have you known Spanish?" It’s the best! Testimony to me of how much God really can help us. I have only been out 3 months and my language still needs a lot of improvement, but from going from zero Spanish to where I am now? I am grateful to my Heavenly Father every day! What a blessing.

The cool thing is that Heavenly Father wants to bless us all every day, but we just have to ask. This week, ask for specific blessings — do your part and I know that God can bless you with what you need if it is His will. God is so loving and wants to help us. Don’t think if you don’t get it right away that He doesn’t care. I absolutely know 100% He does care! God is a God of miracles and blessings. He loves me and He definitely loves you. Be good, do what you are supposed to, strive everyday to be a little better and you will see blessings, and your life will change for the better.

I love you with all my heart!  Have a fabulous week! Until next time: Give em Heaven!

Con Amor,
Hermana Newman :)