Baptism and daily bread

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — Hola familia, Feliz Febrero!!
 

Can you believe it is already February? I can't! Craziness! I always say this but it is true... time is just flying. Transfers are next week already. Wow.

Hermana Calderon and I are hoping to stay together one more transfer at least in this area, but you never know. I will update you on that next week.

This week has been great. We just got done bowling with our district. Way fun! I haven’t been bowling in forever, and of all places I got to go in Buenos Aires!

We are at a different cyber again today in another city because of the activity and unfortunately, they won't read my camera card, so I can’t send pictures. Bummer, because I have some I wanted to send.

Especially because... Evelyn was baptized and confirmed this weekend! Wahooo!

Everything went well and it very nice.I am having a hard time describing it in English ... in Castellano, easy... it was muy lindo!! (very cute).

I love baptisms. They are wonderful. Always something crazy, but you can always feel the Spirit. My first baptism with Jennifer was crazy because nobody showed up until like 5 minutes till.

This time, people came on time, but we almost flooded the church. Ha-ha no joke.

We went running at the church that morning so we could turn on the water to start filling. My companion said it would be fine to leave and come back after we had showered and gotten ready. I thought, "Ok it should be fine. In Maryland it took 2.5 hours to fill." Ha Wrong-o! Here, the fonts are much smaller. We got to the church and I opened the door to see how the font was. Bahhhh! Water to the very top. I had to quick take off my shoes and go a little ways in to start draining the font. Oh dear. Good times :) Got to love being a missionary!

But yes, everything went well and she was happy as can be.

What a blessing it is to be baptized. I can’t remember a ton about my baptism to be honest, but I can remember how happy I felt. That’s how I feel every time I see my investigators go into the waters of baptism. We have some other investigators that we are working with. Right now, a few of them are being stinkers and not progressing, but we are praying that they will kick it into gear soon.

One of my favorite parts of this week was just seeing the Gift of the Holy Ghost in my life. There were many times, but I can remember in particular two times where the Spirit led us somewhere we needed to be at the right moment.

First, we were walking around deciding where to go and who to visit, because our plans and backup plans fell through. Hermana Calderon and I both thought maybe we could visit a potential investigator nearby. We were almost to her house when a sweet little old lady said, ¨How are you doing? Who are you girls?"

We explained that we were missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we had a message to share with her. She invited us to sit down and share it with her right then and there in front of her bakery. We shared a short message about the Restoration and she invited us to come back in the following week.

My favorite part was just before we left she said, ¨Thank you hermanas. I was feeling really sad and was praying for someone to help me feel better. You are an answer to my prayers. I know that God sent you over here today."

Yes. Yes m'am!! We are here for a reason! I can’t even describe how I felt. What a wonderful experience. I love that we can be put in the right place at the right time.

Next was right after that visit, we decided to visit a less active member: Hermana Galvez. Such a sweetheart. We began talking (also about the Restoration) when we heard a knock at the door. Her neighbor had come over to visit. So we invited her to sit down and talk with us. We talked about families, prophets, Jesus Christ, the Atonement, apostasy, all of it. At the very end, we told her that she could know all of this was true by reading the Book of Mormon and praying to Heavenly Father to know for herself. Right as I was about to mention the Holy Ghost she said, ¨I feel something in my chest. I feel peace and happy. I don’t know what it is but I like it. ¨ I just gave her my big ol´cheesy Hermana Newman grin and explained that it was the Spirit testifying to her.

I feel like I am not doing a very good job at telling my stories or expressing myself today. Sorry. I hope you can understand what I am trying to say. Everything is going well here in Argentina. We have had some rainy coolish weather for a few days, which has been quite lovely. Working hard and trying to bring more people unto Christ.

How are you all doing? I hope sooo great. I miss you all and love you even more. Hope you know it!

Before I go I want to share a little video with you.


I had the opportunity to share and translate this for some people in my ward yesterday because it is not available in Castellano. I love it! Such a great message and reminder of the small things we need to be doing daily. Just like we need to eat, we need spiritual nourishment as well. It's a process, for sure, but I know that if we do the small things EVERY DAY and make them our priorities, we can and will be blessed and will become closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior.

Remember who you are, who you represent. Go out and give it all you got! Have a wonderful week.

Love ya - 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 :)

Basketball and bugs

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — This week like many others has just flown by. I cannot even believe it. Argentina is as great as ever. Hot and sunny but sooooo good! I have had quite a few adventures this week and lots of hard work so I am nothing but smiles! :)

Let me start by just telling you a few of my adventures.

- I went on exchanges this week. Very fun! Two white girls in a new area makes for quite the adventure, let me just tell you. But luckily, it's not just two white girls — two white girls and the Holy Ghost is all ya need. We were able to talk to lots of people and get some new investigators. Whooo! It wasn’t my area, but it was great!

- Bugs love me! Mosquitoes galore, of course... what’s new. But my newest adventure... attack of the cockroach. Ewwww. (Juli you might squeal haha) I was drying off after my shower when I felt something weird on my face. SUPRISE- yep cockroach. I about died. I was surprised I didn’t scream just a silent panic attack. Good times.

Hermana Newman with the bishop's daughter

 - I got to play ¨basket¨ this week! I was so excited. I haven’t been able to play basketball in ages. It was lots of fun. One of the Elders looked at me and said, ¨Hermana Newman, you played basketball in high school didn’t you?" I laughed and smiled. Nope... Just with the Elders Quorum every Wednesday night. Thank you Bishop Frandsen and Elders Quorum.

- Rain here is crazy! I think I better go buy me some boots. The streets looked like a river and then it was super muddy. No complaints here. I’ve always loved playing in the mud.

- Lots of nurse calls this week. Bah!! I love being a missionary and I love being the nurse. Good times. Keeps me on my feet.

- We went to Capital Federal this week... yep Buenos Aires! Crazy. It was fun to go, but WOW... can you say big city? I would love to go back and visit one day, but I am pretty sure I am still the same old small town Hermana Newman. It was quite the adventure to get there as it almost took 3 hours on the colectivos. (buses) 

- I am absolutely positive there were more stories but my little brain has forgotten them. Sorry. Next week I will write my adventures down. I have at least one adventure every day. Livin' the life here in Temperley.

This week was great, like I said. We were able to visit with lots of people. My favorite part of the week was on Saturday. We had an open house for the church, since it was just rededicated. It was AMAZING! We invited everyone and their dog to come, and it was a pretty good turn out. (The picture I sent was of the ward members who came out to support the activity) It was like a little mini visitors center, but at the church. Each room had different information for the different auxiliaries. Hermana Calderon and I had the job of a little tour/mini discussion. There were three boards that had pictures on them, front and back. I don’t know if you can imagine that or not. Anyways, it was basically the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, families and temples. We got to tell people about all of it in a mini tour. It was kinda fun, I felt like a visitor center sister. Those sisters are awesome, let me just tell you! It takes some skill! 

The ward after its open house.

But yes, great turn out. We even got some referrals and new investigators. The Spirit was strong and I could not just help but smile big as ever. I love activities like this!

Then on Sunday, one of our investigators came to church again and she has a baptismal date for the 25 of this month! So excited for her. She is almost ready. Just gotta get her to stop smoking. 

Sara, Hermana Calderon and their "abuelita" investigator

 I LOVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It changes people’s lives everyday — including mine. Heavenly Father sure is helping me change into the person he needs me to be! 

Life is good... oh so good! Thanks for all of your support and prayers. I love you all sooo much. Have a fabulous week. Keep it up, work hard!

Love ya long time,

-Hermana Newman