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 :)

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 :)

Jesus Christ, Holidays, and inactives

TEMPERLEY, Argentina — HAPPY MONDAY!! Craziness here, but everything’s all good. 

We had more ¨visitas¨ or guests come from the coast to stay with us, but this time for a whole week. That was interesting. One of the poor sisters is pretty sick and has to go home tomorrow. I have been with her in the house all day today but she said I need to get out to write my family so here I am. :) 

I sure love my family! You are the best! How was your week? How was Easter? I hope so good! 

Holidays here are so different than in the States, but my favorite thing is that no matter what day it is we get to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. How cool is that? 4th of July... Halloween... Christmas... Easter... No importa! I love teaching my brothers and sisters here in South America! What a blessing.

Brittany said something to me that made me laugh and think about me pre-mission and now. I have always loved talking to people, but before my mission, I was pretty shy and made Brit take the lead with everything up at BYU.... Now? I don’t care if I have to chase people down the street to talk to them. ;)  Why? Because the message we have to share is SOOO important we gotta share it with the world! 

(Yes someone ran from us this week. No idea why but it was pretty funny)

Our week was great. We are still have some trouble getting our investigators come to church, but no worries — I have faith that it's gonna happen one of these days! :) 

Yet again, we are trying to work with less-active members. I think that is a huge part of my mission personally is to help the less-actives come back, because no matter where I am, South America or North America, I always find the less-actives and love helping them. All in the Lord's timing of course! My testimony of this has grown 100% in that. Everything truly is in the Lord's timing and we just have to learn how to wait.

We found a new less-active member this week. His name is Daniel. He has about 50 years mas o menos. He has been away from the Church for quite a long time, but the first thing he asked me was, "Do you have family home evenings still?" Why yes we do! His simple questions impacted me a lot. 

I love how everything in the church is so important. Doesn’t matter if its something small like FHE or something huge like baptism — all of it is important and matters to the Lord! :) All of it has a purpose, even if we don’t understand why. HE does! Nobody is perfect, but I sure know I can do a whole lot better when I get home!

We also have a new investigator named Debora. I am teaching her English. I asked her if I could also share a message with her about Jesus Christ, and she said yes. She said yes, but that she wasn’t really interested in religion. We continued to share with her, and right now she has lots of questions and hopefully is coming to church next week. It’s interesting because she wants some of the lessons in English, too. Bah!! I don’t know if I remember how to do that ;) I love how the Lord works. Throwing rocks at doors, playing basketball, teaching English.. what’s next? :) I love to see what the Lord has in store.

Well, I have talked your ears off yet again ;) I will let you get back to your day. I hope you have a wonderful week and find some way to help in the work of salvation! Seriously, it doesn’t matter what you do, but get down on your knees tonight and ask how you can be an instrument in the Lord's hands this week. He needs YOU... every single one. It’s that important :) Have a fabulous week! I love you!

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman