Nursing and missionary work

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Hola mi famila querida! :)

Hello and happy Monday again. I hope you are all doing super great. I heard the good news about Natalie and her mission call. Wahoo congrats cousin! Yeah 3 Newmans Spanish speaking right now. That’s pretty cool!!

This week seemed forever and a day long, but short at the same time. I don’t understand time. But hey, all is well, so it doesn’t matter.  This week was super interesting because everyone was stressed about transfers. I have never had to think about transfers before, because in Maryland, I stayed in the same area. But here I have to think about them now. But... good news... I am staying here in Banfield 1 with Hermana Calderon! I am very excited because we have a lot of work still left to do here together.

This week was great and filled with miracles. We had some visitors (Sister Missionaries) come stay with us for a couple days because they live on the coast, but it is like 6 hours away from where we have transfers. Anyways, long story short, we had to divide the area between us 4 and do splits for two days. It was great, but a little bit stressful all at the same time. The best part was we were able to find some new people to teach and some of our other investigators started progressing, felt the Spirit and are on date to be baptized :) It's fun working with other missionaries, too, because you can learn new ways to teach or explain things. 

Sara's district in Argentina

I love my calling! It is so great to be a missionary and a nurse.

Funny story about nursing: I get lots of calls and so I get to help lots of missionaries every day. Sometimes in Castellano and sometimes in English, depending on who the missionary is. My favorite calls are from the elders because they are just so funny. 

Anyways, an elder called and first thing I hear is, ¨Hi hermana, do you speak English?" Why yes, yes I do, elder. They are always relieved to find that part out. I knew he had a question, but he was avoiding it, so finally I just asked him what he needed. 

I heard him sigh and say, "Well, it's a little embarrassing." 

Then, in the background, I hear an elder yell ¨Oh come on elder! She is a nurse, she can handle it just tell her!¨ 

I seriously about died laughing. Oh I love my life. So great, so fun! Hee hee good old elders. I had lots of stories that are funny this week, but me with my good brain forgot them! :( I need to figure out how to get my brain and memory working better because it is awful!

The work here is great. There are people who don’t want anything to do with us. and then some who are really excited to talk to us and learn more. It’s hard when people don’t want to listen. It breaks my heart when people yell at us, throw rocks and tell us they don’t want to listen, but all I can do is keep on working and pray for these people to soften their hearts so they can be ready for what God has in store for them. 

I love reading in the scriptures about the sons of Mosiah and the things they went through as missionaries. Before my mission, I thought I understood, but being a missionary now I can definitely understand. They were the best missionaries ever no matter what trials came to them. They were hard working, selfless, Christlike, truly full of desire to bring people unto Christ. That is something I am working on daily. One day I want to be a missionary like Alma, Amulek or the sons of Mosiah. :) Yep... new goal of mine! 

Well family, sorry this email is a little short this week, but I can't think of much to write. I hope you all are doing well. My prayers are with you. I love this Gospel. I know it is true and it is truer and truer every day. Have a good one and go tear it up!

Chau,

Hermana Newman :)

Mountains to Climb

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Well, hello, lovely people. How are you? I am doing just fabulous! Life is so great and I am so blessed to be here. It has been a great week with lots of work, miracles, craziness — the whole shebang.

First off, thank you, whoever prayed for cooler weather. I quite enjoyed it. I got to wear my hair down for 3 whole days! That is a miracle in and of itself. Me and Hermana Calderon are doing great and working hard. This week we had exchanges again. I was super nervous because she left me here in my area alone. No big deal, right? Well to all of you, I would just like to say that I do not have a GPS here. But all went well. Know what is better than a GPS? The Holy Ghost! Yep, got to all of our appointments and meetings and everything and with good timing AND using buses. Woah!

Hermana Newman and Hermana Calderon

I still don’t know my area super duper well, but I can at least get around without Hermana Calderon. This week she is going to teach me a little more about the roads and how they are sequenced here (They are a little random to be honest).

I want to share a little miracle we had yesterday evening. We were looking for an old investigator when we accidentally found Dario. No accident there: always part of God's plan. Anyways, he told us he didn’t know who we were looking for, but he had probably moved. So we told him we were representatives of Jesus Christ and were here to share a message with him. We asked him when would be a good time to come back and share the message with him. 

He looked at us and said, "Do you have time now?" 

After we came out of shock, we immediately said, "Yes, of course we have time."

Hermana Newman in front of the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple

 He invited us in and we started to talk about his family and beliefs in God. He has a very interesting life story. His parents died when he was seven. He was the only survivor of the car accident. I can’t even imagine his feelings. But what I do know is that the message I have to share can help him with any struggle or challenge. 

The meeting went well and he invited us back on Tuesday. Yes, I am aware this may seem a little miracle. But can I just tell you how grateful I am for little miracles like this everyday? They make the difference in everything! Heavenly Father knows exactly what to do and where we need to be as missionaries and members. I feel sooo blessed to be a missionary and an instrument in the Lords hands. (Alma 29:9)

"The Mountain of the Lord" in Argentina

Okay, I gotta get going but I want to share one more thing with you. My new theme song :) Funny story, I found this song because of two Mexican Elders. They were listening to it in their car (pensióneros have a car). It made me laugh because 1- they are boys and 2- they can't even understand the lyrics, but guess it doesn’t matter :) The message is the same and the Spirit can be felt. Go look it up if you want. It's awesome.

Mountains to Climb

Life can be a blessing.

Life can be... lovely.

Don’t wanna miss it.

So take a deep breath

and see that you can smile

and make it through anything.

You really gotta mean it. Don’t pretend.

It all depends on how you see it.

There could be a storm outside but

inside I’m full of sunshine.

I know that it won’t be easy,

but I wanna be strong so give me.

Chorus:

Mountains to climb. Give me rivers to cross.

Give me

something that ́s gonna make me better than I was.

Give me

mountains to climb.

‘Cuz I know that is takin’ me higher

than I’ve ever been before.

Give me

mountains to climb.

Give me

mountains to climb.

Life can be amazing.

Life can take your breath away ev ‘ry day and

though it can be an upward climb

we can love ev ‘ry minute if we lift our eyes.

I know that it won’t be easy,

but it’s makin’ me strong so give me.

Chorus

Oh, oh, it’s takin’ me higher
(x7)
than I’ve ever been before.

Chorus

Give me mountains to climb.
(x4)

Have a wonderful week! Remember who you are and that God loves you! Guess what?!?! Me too! Love ya like crazy! Tear it up this week okay!? Go do something to help in the Lords work!

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman :)

"Mi negra grandota"

BUENOS AIRES — Holaaaaaaaaa! Yep, I made it to Argentina. I don’t even know where to begin to start and what to tell you. 

I am currently sitting at the "ciber" emailing you, using a keyboard that is not like in the U.S. Needless to say, I cannot type very well. 

Argentina is great. SOOOOOOO different than Maryland to say the least. 

Holy smokes, it is hot here. I don’t know Celsius yet, so I am clueless as to how hot it is, but the other day I'm pretty sure it was more than 100 in Fahrenheit. Crazy right? So yes, I am always sweaty and am turning brown very quickly. My companion calls me "mi negra". If you couldn’t guess, it means, "my brown person" kind of.

My companion is the best in the world. Seriously, she is awesome. Her name is Hermana Calderón. She is from Córdoba, Argentina. She has 19 years and is a stellar missionary. She wants to learn English, and I need to learn Spanish more, so we are teaching each other. We decided that in the pensión (our apartment), we would speak English only, and outside only Spanish. So far so good.  She is a quick learner. 

Spanish here is different for sure. I can understand most of it, but I definitely have an accent. The people think it is funny because I sound like I am from México or Honduras. Someday, I will get it down. My companion is from Córdoba like I said, and apparently, they have a different accent so, apparently I am learning Córdobese.

Oh man, everything here is different and so I just find myself laughing and smiling a lot because I am sure I look and sound silly here. Oh well :) My companion pretty much thinks I am a giant, so she tells everyone I am a "grandota", it cracks me up. 

Funny news: I am the senior companion again. I am actually finishing up her training. SURPRISE :) Good thing she knows the area, though, because I am clueless. The streets all look the same. So, I am going to tell you some fun facts I learned about Argentina in the past 4 days. Ready?

• Cockroaches can fly — and they like our apartment.
• We have a bidet in our apartment (I don’t plan on using it anytime soon).
• We eat lunch with members every day. We don’t eat dinner. Kind of interesting.
• We have to be inside the pensión by 8 p.m. for safety (don’t worry, mom I am great)
• I am glad I can’t drive here. Remember how we thought it was bad in London? Ha ... understatement. People can’t drive here. Well, there aren’t rules, so it’s kind of just whatever goes. Fun, right?
• I miss air conditioning, but am very grateful for a fan :)
• Dogs and cats galore! I can’t believe how many are just roaming the streets.
• Mosquitoes love me, and I hate them. I know hate is strong, but it is valid. They are eating my legs and I don’t appreciate it.

I thought of a lot more fun facts to tell you yesterday, but of course, I cannot remember them now. Oops. 

My area is great. Lots of walking. It is called Banfield 1. We walk a lot and occasionally take the colectiva (bus) and tren (train). We are in a ward here, which is different because I am used to my little branch, but it is great. The members are very nice and I already love them. 

They were pretty excited to have a nurse come. My mission president is new and they haven’t had a nurse, so they don’t know how to train me. They pretty much gave me the books and said,  "good luck" haha oh dear. Gotta love it. Good thing I have an area doctor here, so that makes me feel a lot better. 

What else can I tell you? No idea. I don’t have very many spiritual experiences yet or teaching so I will tell you more about that next week.

Well, I can’t figure out how to get pictures to work here so I guess I can’t send them until I figure that out. I love you soooooo much! I hope you have a wonderful week and Merry Christmas!

Con amor,

Hermana Newman :)