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. 

Pressing on

COLUMBIA, Md. — I don’t even know where to start. I am sitting here trying to write with lots of thoughts and emotions. I am leaving my mission here in Baltimore... my family. But I am going to my other family who is waiting for me in Argentina.

How incredible.

I know the Lord needs me there, too, so I am also very excited to get down there. :)

We have been letting our branch know we are leaving, and it kills me every time. Everyone has such a sad face on, but then after they take a picture with us, give us some hugs and kisses, they are fine and wish us well. We were asked to bear our testimonies at church yesterday. It was a fun opportunity for sure. There was a twist as well: two of our investigators were there who we hadn’t told we were leaving. They were quite surprised I think. Whoops :) Our schedules are quite booked for the next two days because everyone wants to feed us and say goodbye.

This week was great, weird as well knowing it was my last here in Maryland for a while. But Hermana Crotzer and I were working hard to leave with a bang! We had lots of miracles and crazy moments too. 

The weather here is crazy and we get lots of ice, so sometimes the cars are "grounded" and we have to walk. Which is fine by me. But we are located centrally and our area is the entire stake so nobody lives close. We make it work and make the best out of it and have quite the adventures. 

I want to tell you about one of the small miracles we saw. It was one of the days we were grounded because of an ice storm. Hermana Crotzer and I grabbed our boots and rain jackets and started walking up the road a few miles. We stopped at a less-active member's house (Long story short she is not in our branch but is Spanish and so the other ward asked us to work with her). When we first met her, she was very grumpy and not warm and fuzzy at all. She said we Mormons just visited her and she was just a statistic. It made me want to cry. Hermana Crotzer and I decided to visit her every other week so she didn’t feel like a statistic and that she knew we loved her and cared. She is not a warm person to begin with, but slowly and surely she has warmed up to us. Well, she let us in her house (I think because we were soaking wet and cold) but we just talked for a bit. 

When it was time to leave, she offered us a ride home (first miracle!) then after she dropped us off she said, "Hermanas, thanks for not giving up on me. I know I can be snappy sometimes. But I appreciate your visits."

WOAH! Miracle number two! I hope the missionaries keep working with her and slowly and surely I know she can come back to the church. I LOVE seeing miracles. They are all around us. Keep your eyes out... open... whatever that saying is because you can find miracles all over the place.

I am not sure what else to say today except that I love you! I am praying for you. I will talk to you next week except this time.... from Argentina!! :) Have a great week

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman :)

Wet, crying and clean: my first baptism

COLUMBIA, Md. — Hola, mi querida familia!! Feliz Diciembre!

Holy Smokes.... December? Since when? Craziness. 

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? I hope SO good. Mine was excellent! We did service in the morning, then I got to go help cook at a member's house and we ate at our branch mission leader's home. They are awesome! Then, a family gave us some papusas later. Needless to say, I had a lot of food. 

We weren’t allowed to proselyte on Thanksgiving, so we had a lot of plans with the members. Unfortunately, many of them called and canceled. :/ So what do you do as a missionary who cannot go talk to people on Thanksgiving? Volleyball at the church! :) Turns out a few other missionaries in our area had people cancel too, so we had a little activity at the church. It will be interesting this month because we cannot proselyte on Christmas or New Years Eve/Day. 

This week was fabulous. Many reasons why it was so fabulous, but at the top of the list, JENNIFER GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED :) Wahooooooooooooooooooo! 

She was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday in church. It was a great baptism. Weird because it was my first, so we weren’t exactly sure how it would go. But the Spirit was very strong. It was awesome, too, because it was all in Spanish! :) Man, I love Spanish, have I mentioned that before? ;) Let me tell you a little about the baptism:

Jennifer had a lot of support from the branch. Quite a few people came, which was great, especially the young women. (She is 15) Hermana Crotzer and I had a lunch appointment in Elkridge that day, so we drove there to visit and eat with a family. Then we had to rush back to Ellicott City to start filling the font. Quite the new experience for me — never done that before. After a while of playing and messing around with water temperatures, we got it down and the font was filling up. It takes about 2-3 hours to fill, so we were there early. We got everything set up, made some cutesy stuff (I love being a sister) for Jennifer and waited for everyone to arrive. 

Remember, we are in a Spanish branch, so everything is on "Hispanic timing". Our branch mission leader and the Riveras said they would meet us at the church 30 minutes before the service to get ready and take pictures and such. Well 30 minutes before and it was me, Hermana Crotzer, a bunch of empty chairs, a full font, and an empty church parking lot. Talk about scary! 

I was a little nervous, but everyone ensured us they were on their way. Sure enough, about 5 minutes before the service was supposed to start, everyone showed up. They about gave me a heart attack, but no worries, I survived. 

The service was beautiful. I loved watching her go under the water and come back out with a big smile on her face. But my favorite part was "behind the scenes". We took her back into the bathroom to change and she had the biggest grin on her face. She started squealing so I gave her a great big hug. She started crying and would not let go. I stood there, in the bathroom of the church, with a soaking wet teenager hugging me. I pondered for a second how special this day was for her and how it will change her life forever.

Finally, she looked up at me and said, "Hermana Newman, I feel amazing. Why do I feel this way? Why am I so happy?" It took me everything not to cry. So of course me being me, I laughed instead of crying and replied with a big grin, "Why do you think, you silly girl?! You are feeling the Spirit!" She smiled and just kept squealing, "I feel so good, I love this feeling. I am baptized!" This simple moment between this young girl and me made such an impact on me. I want to feel this way all the time. I want to be squealing jumping for joy, saying how great I feel because I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! 

The service was ended with a musical number on the violin, and Jennifer giving her testimony. Her testimony was short and sweet but POWERFUL. Wow. I can’t even describe the Spirit that was felt in the room. I am so glad that I have this opportunity to be her missionary now and forever. What a great blessing that is. Her journey has just begun. I am excited to work with her family more and get them all active and members of the church. We need more strong families in our branch, and they have great potential to be one! :)

We are working hard to find new investigators and work with the members. It’s a little hard because we haven’t found a new investigator for quite some time. But we are still looking! We visited with one of our other investigators this week and she informed me that she has been off coffee for more than 15 days. Woo! Gotta love La Palabra de Sabiduria! 

I have said this soooo many times before, but I LOVE watching people change their lives and follow the example of Jesus Christ. We are still working through some stuff back in Honduras, which can be tricky, but I know this sweet little lady will be baptized no doubt! She always tells me how much she loves The Book of Mormon. She knows it is true and loves to read it. The difficulty now is she is having eye problems and eye pain, but can't go see a doctor :/ Let me tell you, working with these people has made me seen all the things I have and take for granted. I am SO blessed. I have had quite a lot of humbling experiences out here and she is one of them. She has so many trials, but yet she doesn’t let it get her down and she has enough faith to realize this message is the truth and she wants it in her life. I will be thrilled the day I hear she is baptized! :) She is so solid.

Well, this week has been great! Looking forward to another one! :) How is Utah, by the way? Cold? Any snow? I miss my snow!!!!!!!! It's cold here, but no snow. Lame. I love it here. Every second of it. Have a wonderful week and remember who you are, and whom you represent. Go find those people who need the gospel! There are so many out there who are waiting for all of us to do our work and spread the gospel! I love you with all my heart. 

Con amor,

Hermana Newman :)

Have I done any good? Service, sincerity, and the Atonement

COLUMBIA, Md. — Well, here we go. Starting off yet another week. Week 6 of the transfer. Yikes! :) Transfers are next week. If I don’t have my visa by next week I will be lucky enough to spend my 5th transfer here in Columbia, Maryland! 

This week has flown by (most do for me here on a mission). We had tons going on this week. Lots of activities, service opportunities, church, normal lessons and mission conference. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you about everything, because that would just take forever and a day and I don’t think I can type fast enough for that. SO I will tell you bits and pieces of my week. All summed up ... It was wonderful!

When you get bored in companionship study, you balance books on your head while studying your language.

We started the week off with Elder Carlson (of the 70) and his wife coming for a mission tour and having mission conference with us. WOW! What a powerful speaker and motivator he is. I got so many wonderful insights and I just love personal revelation. I am sure every single one of us missionaries there got something different from his message, but all directed to us personally by the Spirit! 

I was going to tell you about some of my favorite parts and what he said, but like a silly girl, I left my notebook in the car :/ bummer. But I will try next week to bring it and share some of his thoughts. But yes... just fabulous!

Saturday we started the morning off my doing service! Yep... I am going to say it again. I LOVE service! It was kind of funny because the whole time I was just thinking about Mom and Brittany. The reason why? Because I was stuck inside cleaning when I wanted to be outside: P 

I wanted to rake leaves and help with the outdoors stuff, but we were asked to help in the kitchen. Good thing my mama and sis taught me how to clean real good because I spent the next hour or so on hands and knees scrubbing the tile. Feels good to get down and do some service. If you want to feel good and happy in your life (which I would assume you all do) GO SERVE SOMEONE!

Saturday night we had an activity with our investigators and some people in our branch. Marcos, our branch mission leader, thought it would be good for our branch to know our investigators. So each investigator was invited to a member’s home for dinner to chat and get to know each other. Then after, we all met up at the church to watch a movie (Finding Faith in Christ) and have dessert.

It went soooooo well! Our investigators came and loved it. They loved the branch and seemed to have a great time. Well, even better, they came to church on Sunday. It’s amazing what a little love and friendship can do.

Every Tuesday, we have our District meeting. As part of it, we go around sharing our miracles of the week. We see soooo many miracles in the Gospel. So since today is Tuesday, I would like to share Hermana Crotzer and my miracle of the week. The Riveras :) 

Oh if you could only see my face right now. I just can’t stop smiling. I have been working with these girls since I got here. Their Mom is a less active of many years. She was baptized when she was 9 and fell away at age 11. Anyways, our goal has been to really get them involved in the branch and Young Women’s. Well let me tell you — it worked. 

This week, we forgot to remind the girls about mutual but guess what? They went, even without us reminding them. Then on Saturday, they went to the dinner and movie activity at the church. And to top it all off, they came to church and stayed for all 3 hours on Sunday! Bah! 

I have been here a long time for sure. And I am not sure why I am still here, but I know this family has got to be one of the reasons! I need them, and they need me. The oldest daughter we are inviting to baptism and setting a date for hopefully this month. :) I love seeing miracles.

What happens when you serve in a stateside Spanish mission: country pride for all sorts of countries.

One of my favorite things about serving a mission is watching people change. I get to watch people change and use the Atonement of Jesus Christ all the time. It has helped me to understand the importance of the Atonement and why we all need to use it daily. If you don’t have a testimony of your Savior and what He did for you personally, I beg you to go pray! Go pray and ask for the confirmation. I testify that God lives, He loves us. He gave us a plan to return. Central to that plan is Jesus Christ. I know He died for me personally and you all as well. This Gospel is real. It takes work but it is worth it! God promises us all He has if we follow our Savior Jesus Christ.

This letter is getting long, so I will stop now. I hope you all know how much I love being a missionary. No matter whether it is here in Maryland, down in Argentina, or back home in Utah, once a missionary, always a missionary. Go out and find your missionary moment.

Love you with all my heart! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

-Hermana Newman :)

Finding the lost sheep

COLUMBIA, Md. — How are you this fine Monday? Another week has flown by! How is Utah? It is fall here and I love every second of it! The leaves, the fresh air — all wonderful! And the humidity has dropped quite a bit... at least for now. What’s new with you?

This week was great. We had some miracles with less actives again! I love working with less actives! I am sure I have said that sooo many times, but it is true! I love working with ALL people here, but working with less actives and showing them love is very fun and something I am good at. People change when they feel loved. That is why it is so important we help people to know that they are loved — by us, and more importantly, by our Heavenly Father!

A family in the branch. The girls found their boots to match Hermana Newman

We went for a return visit to a less active lady in our branch. It has been pretty hard to get a hold of her, so we were hoping and praying she would be there. I was a little doubtful, but said a little prayer to help me have some faith. I knocked on the door, and it was her. She answered the door with a big smile and invited us in! 

She invited us to sit down while she went down stairs to grab something. When she returned she had two books in her hands. She began to dust them off. I looked at what she was holding and had a big Hermana Newman grin on my face. It was the Book of Mormon and the Bible :) She went and grabbed them, without us even asking and wanted to show us them. We got to know her better, talked about her family, work, and of course the gospel of Jesus Christ. Her and her son are the only members of their family and have been less active for quite some time. 

Before I knew it, our time was up, and it was time to go to our next visit. I am excited for this week because she invited us back this Wednesday for another visit... and to learn how to make Tacos. Mmmm! Win-win situation. Gospel and food! What more can you ask for? ;)

We also had some great lessons with our investigators. It just so happened that most of the lessons we taught to them were about the Plan of Salvation. What a wonderful plan. I love teaching people about it. 

Some people have an idea of what was before this life and what they hope is after. But this week, I have realized that A LOT of people have no idea where they came from, and where they are going. It is sad to me, but it makes me happy to see their faces when I tell them there is more to life. I tell them they do have a purpose and that one day they can live with their families and God again. I know I always say it, but we are so blessed to have the Gospel in our lives and know what we know. 

Don’t ever take it for granted! So many people don’t know what you do. Share the happiness of the Gospel with someone this week! It will be the best part of your week, no doubt!

Well, I don’t have too much more to say but before I get off, I just wanted to say a quick thing to you specifically, Mom and Dad. THANK YOU! THANK YOU THANK YOU! MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS :) 

I think about you often, of course, but this week during Relief Society, you especially came to my mind. We were talking about families and how to be better parents (Which does not directly apply to me since I am not one). But it made me think of what awesome parents I have! I have two parents who love each other very much, who raised their children in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, taught me how to work hard, to have high standards, to get a good education, never failed to tell me they loved me or give me kisses and hugs. 

The list goes on and on. 

It reminds me of the first words we read from Nephi in the Book of Mormon. 

"I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents..." 

Well, I, Hermana Newman, having been born of goodly parents... am very blessed to say the least! Mom, Popi, thank you for all you do and all you have taught me. Sometimes I have taken it for granted. But I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! You are amazing examples to me.

I don’t know who all reads my letters, but those of you who are reading this right now, think about the things your parents have done for you. Make sure you tell them thank you! Make sure they know how much you love them.

This also applies especially to our Heavenly Father. Offer a prayer of pure gratitude sometime this week! Don’t ask for anything, just give thanks. After all, He has given us everything we have!

We are so very blessed! Keep smiling. Be good and have a wonderful week!

Con Amor,

-Hermana Newman :)