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 :)

Reminded of God's Plan

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Hola fam bam! How goes it up there in the North? :) 

I hope you are enjoying some nice spring weather! Pretty flowers and sun, perhaps? It is still fall here, but we are looking at some winter weather coming up. Its pretty stinkin' cold in the mornings and nighttime, but during the day is fine. Everyone thinks I am crazy because I am walking around with a cardigan and nothing more, and everyone else has coats and scarves. Gotta love it! 

Hermanas Newman y Kent on a rainy Buenos Aires night

This week went well. But to be honest, I can’t remember much of what went on. We are working hard with our investigators and a few a progressing right now, so that is good to see. We are working hard with the ward as well to strengthen the ward missionary program and use the new pilot program here in Buenos Aires South Mission. Like I said before, we are focusing on the priesthood holders or those who have been to the temple first, and then others. It’s definitely a work in progress, but hopefully we will be able to see some fruits of our labors here soon. 

Playing futbol on a for a district activity

We had a pretty good lesson with one of our investigators this week. We talked about The Plan of Salvation. It’s very interesting, because she believes in reincarnation. But we explained The Plan to her and when we got to the part when we talk about the Spirit World, where we wait for the Second Coming, everything just clicked. Her eyes lit up and she just seemed to understand it all. Like it was familiar to her. Funny story — because it is familiar to her. I love it! 

We all learned this plan once, and now I get to help people be reminded of the plan! :) How cool! She told us that she was going to pray about the plan and the Book of Mormon and would let us know what she thought about it. We have an appointment tomorrow, so we are hoping that goes well. 

Well, I will keep it short and sweet this week. I wanted to send some more pictures, but I don’t think we had time to take pictures this week ;) Thanks for all your prayers and all you do. Go have some adventures, and I want to hear all about them! 

Love you lots!

-Hermana Newman :)

Prayer and happiness

TEMPERLEY — Hello and Happy Monday! 

It seems a little weird to be writing today, because I got to call home yesterday on Skype, but here I am in the cyber writing nevertheless :) Yesterday was SO good to talk to you all! I loved seeing your faces. So crazy but good! Happy Mothers day to my amazing mother, grandmothers and all you other moms out there! You are all special daughters of God!   

Hermana Newman Skyping on Mother's Day

I Skyped from my investigator's house. Her name is Débora. She is awesome!! Love that girl! She is 21 years old, and I am teaching her English as well as the gospel :) Perfect! Speaking of her, I have to tell you a quick little miracle. I wanted to tell you this yesterday on Skype but I didn’t want it to be weird that I was talking about her at her house.

Ok, so she is still a little embarrassed/nervous to pray out loud. We are working with her on it, but she doesn’t like to. She is awesome and praying every day, but silently. Well, she told me a little story yesterday that I loved! It was a miracle for me. 

A rainy day in Temperley

She said that this week she didn’t pray. (And it just so happened that we couldn’t teach her much this week.) But she came to church on Sunday again and liked it. She told me that one night, she just knew that she needed to pray. So, she asked her sister if she wanted to pray with her. Her sister said yes... then her brother asked them what they were doing so they invited him to pray, too. They were praying at nighttime and their mom heard them talking so she starts yelling ¨go to sleep, go to sleep. Then the mom called them on the phone to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep. She said to her mom, ¨mom, we are praying. ¨ Her mom began to weep with tears of joy at the beautiful sight of her kids praying together. 

I am amazed with them and was so happy to hear this tender mercy. It is yet another testimony to me that our Heavenly Father is real and that when someone feels the Holy Ghost with an open heart, they can't deny it and can only change and follow it more.

Service! They got to paint a fence

I hope you all know how much I love you! Sorry this is a short one again, but we got to get going to the church to play futbol! :) I hope you all have a fabulous week! More adventures to come I am sure!

Love ya,  Tear it up!

-Hermana Newman

Finding the lost sheep

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Feliz 5 de Mayo!! That’s not a holiday here in Argentina, but hey, it is in Mexico so happy day to you all! ;) 

Well, I think I told you that today was transfers and we were waiting to hear what would happen with us all. Well I have some news.

Fall in Buenos Aires with Hermana Dias

... drum roll please...

I am staying here in Banfield 1 again and I will be training Hermana Kent. I think I wrote about her in my last letter. Yep, two Norte Americanas here in Temperley ;) Awesome. Good thing a lot of people think I am Latina or we might have some problems. All is well here in Banfield 1! 

The trio of Newman, Dias y Kent says goodbye

We have a new pilot program that we will be using from May until December that should be interesting. I think they are trying it out with 3 missions in South America, and we happen to be one of them. They really want to focus on the less-active members and bringing them back. So obviously we will be looking for and teaching investigadores, but we will also be putting more emphasis en the less actives as well, especially those who don't have the priesthood or who have been to the temple. 

I am excited because I LOVE less active work. It’s the best ever! I will let you know how it is going and if we are able to see a difference in the work and with retention of members here in South America. 

Hermanas Kent and Newman enjoy cooler temperatures

This week has been great! Working as hard as ever. Some days are easy to teach people, and some days are harder to find people, but we are working hard nonetheless. We just had stake conference, which really focused in missionary work, so I am hoping we can get the members a little excited in helping us. 

They gave a good example that I really liked. They said that we as missionaries need to work with the members, because we are new in the areas and a lot of missionaries are not even from Argentina. They said imagine yourself in a new place and not knowing anyone and having to preach the gospel. They said that is why we have members who know the area and the people, to help the missionaries who don’t. 

Hermana Newman with "Mis Hijas" — the girls she's trained

 I don’t know if I explained that very well, but I hope you can understand what I mean. I am excited to work with the members because really, that is the only way to do missionary work. TOGETHER. President has a phrase he always says CON MIEMBROS (with the members).

Let's get on the ball and help the work move forward together! :)

I had tons of pictures I wanted to send but I can't figure out how to send them on this computer :/ But I will try next week. Sorry so short but I gotta get going. Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Newman

A flooded trio teaches Preach My Gospel

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Hello my lovelies! How is everyone doing this fine Monday? This is the last week of this transfer. I cannot believe it! Yet again, another has whizzed by!

This week has been super interesting because guess what?!?! I have another new companion! Yep, we are in a trio right now. I have never been in a trio yet in my mission so that is very interesting. Her companion got sick, and had to go home, so she is here with me and Hermana Ruiz Diaz in Temperley. 

L-R: Hermanas Newman, Kent y Ruiz Diaz

 

She is brand spanking new.... so I get to train again :) Woooo!!! Her name is Hermana Kent. She is from Utah, but her family lives in Iowa. She is 24 years old and is also a nurse. She went to school at UVU. Her calling here is not as a nurse, just normal missionary, but it’s been interesting to talk with her and hear some of her experiences. 

I love both of my companions. So different but so great. They absolutely love being in a trio. Funny story: hermana Ruiz Diaz doesn’t speak any English. Hermana Kent? Almost no Spanish sooooo I get to be the translator for my companions so they can communicate. bahaha :) gotta love it! 

With transfers coming up and all, we don’t know what will happen, but for sure hermana Ruiz Diaz is going home and as for me and hermana Kent? We will find out next week. 

The Hermanas with an unidentified sister.

This week has been great. I have been learning a lot about how to be a better missionary, friend, companion, daughter, sister — all of the above! I love how much I am blessed with and get to learn out here in the mission field. I honestly don’t think a day goes by that I don’t learn something new. 

We had an investigator come to church on Sunday. Her name is Debora. She is awesome. I KNOW she felt the Spirit this weekend at church and at the baptism of the Elders. It's fun to see her changing. She told me she feels something ¨weird¨and doesn’t know how to describe it: like a pressure in her chest... Boom! Espiritu Santo! :) We are taking it slow because she told us it’s a lot to take in, but I am hoping she will be progressing towards baptism soon! We are working with some others as well that are progressing... slowly but surely :) I LOVE THE GOSPEL!!!

We had quite the exciting night and morning. I just have to tell you this story real quick. We were all getting ready for bed yesterday. Since there are 3, one of us needs to shower in the night and 2 in the morning. So, hermana Kent was showering and me and hermana Ruiz Diaz decided that we would go downstairs to brush our teeth and get ready. We walked out of the bedroom to water all over the floor and running down the stairs. As you can imagine, we were panicked. We ran down to get buckets and towels and hermana Ruiz Diaz started yelling ¨hermana Kent... para para para para!!¨ I about died laughing because hna Kent didn’t understand. So I yell ¨Hermana Kent, stop and shut off the water!¨ Needless to say, we were a little late to bed last night. We are not sure what happened, but we got it all cleaned up so everything is good. 

This morning, hermana Ruiz Diaz went to shower and I was downstairs eating breakfast when I hear "HERMANA NEWMAN!" I booked it up the stairs to find my companion in a tub of water up to her knees and water all over the floor. We had to bucket the water out so it wouldn’t overflow. I think there is something wrong with the plumbing. We tried cleaning it out but are still having problems. I sure hope that we get it figured out today, because I would really love to take a shower tomorrow! ;) I hope you are smiling and laughing as hard as I was because it was too funny!

Maybe next week Hermana Newman will tell us what this means

Last week of the transfer and we are pumped as ever to work hard and invite everyone to hear the precious word of God. Oh how I love being a missionary! This week I have been studying a lot of how to be a missionary. 

We are helping a lady in our ward with Preach My Gospel and how to use it. She is an inspiration to me. She is 80 years old and ready to get to work and use Preach My Gospel to help out with this great work. It got me thinking about how important the work is and that everyone can help out in someway. So... My commitment to you this week is to get out your Preach My Gospel (everyone) and get to work studying it so you can either help the missionaries or help out your friends. 

I am excited to hear your stories next week. I know that if you study and pray diligently that you will have a missionary experience this week and will be able to share what you have learned from PMG. 

Email me and let me know how it goes! I hope you all have wonderful week! Love you to the moon and back! 

-Hermana Newman :)