Tracting at the Basketball Court

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Hola familia!!

Feliz Dia de San Patricio para todos... especialmente a mi Hermano Cris!!! Happy Birthday!! 

I cannot believe that we are halfway through March already. Transfers are next week on Monday. Hermana Calderon and I are thinking she will being leaving, because she has been here for quite sometime, but you never know. She is awesome!! Love that little Argentine! But bring on the new adventures, I am ready! How was your week?  I hope it was great! Mine was wonderful!!!! Miracles galore. I don’t have time to write about them all, but I do want to tell you about two :)

First, my companion was sick last Monday night and we had visitors from the coast. We needed to go out and work after preparation day, so I took my companion home and switched her with another Hermana and we went out to make our visits. I am getting the hang of my area, but sometimes it is still a little crazy, especially at night when you can’t see where you are. But no worries;  I was determined to get to our appointments.

Long story short, all of our appointments fell through. We only had 15 minutes left until we needed to head back to the pension so we decided to do some contacting. We ended up on a road that was pretty dark and sketchy, so I felt like we needed to find somewhere else to be. I was walking with this other Hermana when I felt a prompting to quickly cross the street. I had no idea why. But I did it. 

The next street: same feeling — cross again. So I did it. Ha I look behind me and there is a man following us. I was getting a little nervous but knew that Heavenly Father would help us know what to do with the Spirit. Just at that moment, I hear someone yell ¨HERMANAS... HERMANAS!!¨ I don’t know which part is the miracle... the fact that this man saw us in the pitch black or the next part that I am about to tell you. 

I had no idea who the voice was that yelled "Hermanas," but I quickly followed it and crossed the street. There was a tall man there waiting for us. He said hello and introduced himself. He said that he had heard of Mormons before and wanted to learn more. I love it! Miracle that he could see us and that he even knew who we are. His name is Cristian and he is one of our new investigators who is pretty stellar. I am excited to watch him change and progress. It’s funny how the Spirit works to keep us missionaries safe and give us new people to teach :) I love it! 

Two. This one is shorter to explain. Ready? drum roll...... we had 2 investigators and 3 less active families at church on Sunday!!! Wahooo! Tender mercy from the Lord seriously. We have been fasting and praying to get some investigators to come to church and progressing. I am a happy camper to say the least :) 

One more fun story and then I will let you go. I had the funnest ¨street contact¨ this week. We were at the church doing English classes and were about ready to leave when I saw a man playing on the basketball court by himself. I asked my companion and the 2nd counselor to the bishop who he was. Nobody knew, so I decided that I would go find out. So yes, Hermana Newman, skirt and all, walked out on the court to shoot some hoops with him. Basketball street contact?!? Best thing ever!! 

Sadly he is not in our area, but the elders are now teaching him and he is solid! It was fun to talk with him a bit and share more about our beliefs and invite him to church all while shooting hoops with him. Good times. I love being a missionary. Always something new! :) 

I think that is plenty of stories for this week. Sorry! :) I have lots going on in my mind but I sure love you all! Have a fabulous week and give it all you got...

PS. I didn’t get any pictures from anyone this week. I will be waiting for them next week! ;)

haha 

LOVE YOU!

Que tengan una buena semana!

Chau,

-Hermana Newman 

Hermana Newman's New Door Approach

TEMPERLEY, Argentina - HELLO FAMILY! :)

How is everyone doing this beautiful fall day? ;) I can’t remember what the weather is there, but I am guessing it is turning into spring? I hope you are enjoying it for sure! It’s weird to be on the opposite side of the world and hear about your weather there but it's different here. Anyways.... this week was GREAT! 

First I want to start off with some ¨funnies¨ from the week and then after I will tell you about our miracles. 

No Power for Two days. Fun.

First, we learned something new this week. :) ...  It is not a good idea to throw rocks at people’s doors. bahaha I can just imagine your faces. 

Yes, Hermana Calderon and I were desperate so we started throwing rocks at an investigator's door to get her attention. You do what you got to do as a missionary right? ;) I think I told you this before but here in Argentina instead of knocking on a door or ringing a doorbell, we clap. Well, we had an appointment and she wasn’t responding to clapping so we threw rocks. Oh dear. Bad idea. She was mad and cussing us out until she came to the door and saw who it was. She apologized quickly and said, "Oh my angels, come on in." ha-ha Quite the adventure. I don’t think we will be using that as our contacting technique in the future ;) 

Sister Calderon and me with unique ways of using candles.

Second, I think I have been hit-on my mission more times than in my entire life. Hermana Calderon and I are going to start keeping track this week. It’s pretty ridiculous. This week we got some whistles and a ¨Hey Mormons, how you doin?¨ Oh dear, I love being a missionary. All the adventures and randomness keeps me on my toes :) 

Okay, time for some miracles :) 

We found a new investigator who is ¨De Oro¨(golden) Her name is Lidia. (Yes we threw rocks at her door). We smiled at her on the street and said hello and miracle happened .... she asked us who we were, and what we were doing. We explained our purpose as missionaries is to invite people unto Christ, to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end.  She smiled and asked us to come back. We have been really trying to work with members and get them to friendship our investigators. Well, it worked! We had a member come with us. We talked about the Restoration and invited her to be baptized. The Spirit was strong as she looked up at us and replied, “Yes, yes I will prepare to be baptized on March 29!”  
WAHOOOOOO! We are praying for her and working hard with her to make her date. I am pretty sure she will have no problem. She is solid. I love seeing little miracles like this. God putting us in the right place at the right time! 

Baptism with the Elders

Next up... Less active work. You all know how I love working with less actives. It’s the best! We have been working with a bunch of less-actives in the area. Our district had a goal to get two investigators or more per companionship at the sacrament meeting. Well all of ours canceled like 15 minutes before church, so we were kind of bummed. but God had other plans in store. 

We went to go pick up a less active — and surprise! — her less active brother came also with their children and we got to church and another less active and her son were there. It was so good to see three less actives and their children at church! I was super-happy. 

And the miracle doesn’t end there... One of them got up to bear her testimony and was telling us how the Lord works in mysterious ways. She was looking for a new place to live and bam!... she is the missionaries neighbors (us). I agree the Lord is aware of everyone and everything. I feel so blessed to have her as our neighbor and watch her change and come back to church. LIFE IS SO GREAT, ISN'T IT? :) 

Okay, I have already made this email super long so I will share more next week. We got a special visit this week from Elder Evans (the head of the missionary board). He was awesome and so inspired. I will share what he said next week for sure! Love you all! 

Have a  great week! Remember who you are. Go out and help build the Lord's Kingdom this week. Can’t wait to hear from you again!

Chau!

Your favorite ¨gringa trucha¨:) (Editor: I think this means Trout. More on this next week)

-Hermana Newman 

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 :)

Week one in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES -- I cannot believe another week has gone by. CRAZY! 

I  am doing great here in Argentina. I really love it! I am soooo blessed to serve here.  Only 3 things I could do without: the heat, the mosquitos and cockroaches.  ;) but we get a long just fine. No worries. 

All is well here in our area. Me and Hermana Calderon are working hard to get this area into shape. It is weird because we both are in different points of our mission so we both have different focus. She knows the area really well and I am clueless, but I have brought some fresh ideas from Baltimore to try in this ward. Should be interesting. 

Hermanas Newman y Calderon with an Argentine family

Yes, we are a ward here! It's great, I love the people. Dad asked me some questions so I will answer those real quick.

My companion is the best ever. So cute! Last night I taught her how to pray in English... SUCCESS. She is shy with her English, but such a smartie pants. 

The weather is REALLY HOT and HUMID! A little crazy, but nothing I can't handle. I just will return black and a red head, no worries. 

The food is great, my favorite so far is empenadas and milanesa. They love mayo here, which cracks me up. Not a huge fan, but I am a missionary so guess what... I eat everything, and I like it!

For water we have a filter in our house and then filtered water bottles for the streets. (they gave us them in the mtc) The water is never cold, but hey it's water. 

When it's 95 F on Christmas, you have yourself a merry little picnic

My Spanish is just great. I spent so much time in Maryland, that I have picked it up. The only trouble here is the accent and different words. But I am sure I will get those down quick (I hope). I can understand people almost all of the time, but sometimes they get confused with my Mexican/Honduran accent.

We had a great Christmas and I can't believe the New Year iis almost here. 2014?!? What? Since when? 

For Holidays like that, we can proselyte during the day and then once it hits 6 p.m., we have to be in the pension or with members and the members have to drive us home. I keep learning new things every day and am amazed with the people here. They are soo poor, but so happy. Life is good! We are blessed! Especially in the gospel! 

Today in my studies, I was reading from the Liahona. A talk from the General Conference. It's called ¨Be Meek and Lowly of Heart". What a powerful talk. I don't know why I hadn't read it again until today, but it was definitely an answer to my prayers. If you haven't read it, go read it! 

"It is our duty to try to be perfect... To improve each day and look upon our course last week and do things better this week. do things better today than we did them yesterday. So the first step to becoming meek is to improve day by day." - Elder Ulisses Soares. 

I know this to be true! It is a process. Day by day! We can do it, though! It is possible, all is possible with God's help. He expects us to follow Him and become like him (3 Nephi 27:21 and 27) 

Sara's tree in Argentina

¨God's promise to the humble is that He will lead them by the hand.¨ 

What a great promise. Hand in hand we can persevere to the end! I love you all, hope you have a great week! 

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman ;)