Whats up my beloved family!! Can you believe that it is almost Christmas??! Sounds like you all are doing so well! I can't believe how fast the time goes by! Wow this has probably been one of the craziest weeks of my whole mission!

To begin it has been so hot! The sun is so stinking strong up here and I am always sweating like a dog and I am always soosooosoososossos thirsty! Haha you all know me! I drink and drink and drink. This week in Zapahuira we worked like dogs. We found 15 new investigators and we are just working so hard to try and get a baptism by the end of this month. 

Wednesday we had a zone conference. Man it was so incredible. I received so many answers to my prayers. President Bruce is so inspired! Honestly I am so amazed, the things that he said I swear were just for me! The best part was he had not even planned to go over to a certain set of scriptures to share and he felt inspired to do so. It was such a wonderful spiritual experience and man it was strong. As a mission we are very close to hitting 1000 baptisms this year and we need to pull through! We had a great lunch with a type of Chilean taco it was really good. Sister Bruce came and sat next to me and I got to talk to her for a while. She is super nice and wonderful and it was cool to get to know her a bit more.  Honestly they are so amazing I am so sad that I only get to have them till July  During the lunch break we played a little game. Every missionary had to buy a small gift worth 6 bucks and then we wrapped it and played the present pass along game with the story when someone reads a story. The two pass along words were Christmas and baptisms. It was so awesome! 

During the conference president asked me if I had my ankles taped and was ready to teach someone how to be a missionary. He told me I was going to be training next transfer. After Zone conference some of the elders from the office brought over new beds and a closet that we needed to set up in the pension. That night Elder Todd and I were up till 3 am finishing everything  We were absolutely wasted with all of the spiritual, physical and mental energy that we had lost. 

Friday afternoon the assistants came with us to do exchanges. I was with elder ceballos who is a complete stud. It was so much fun to go and talk to him and I was able to ask him for advice and we had a great time. He had previously served in Zapahuira for 6 months so he helped me know more of the members who give references and we found a less active who has 4 kids who are not baptized it was awesome! He was completely inspired to go there and we went to the house of the lady and Elder ceballos asked her if she had been praying for help and she said that she had recently. It was awesome. We finished the exchange with a inventory of the day and a review. He told me that I am doing very well in the and that I am going to be a great leader in this mission. He told me that president Bruce has a lot of trust in me and expects a lot of me and says that i am going to be one of the future studs of the mission. It was awesome, I look up to elder ceballos a lot he is an amazing teacher, and i hope to be able to be a missionary like him. He is truly a Christ like servant. 

Saturday we worked all day long and did really well. We found a great family who will progress and we had a great first lesson with them. The spirit was strong. But Saturday night we had to take elder Todd to the bus terminal because he finished his mission. It was really weird to see someone leave. Oh yeah Saturday during the day one of the water cord/pipes broke so we couldn't shower for 2 days! It was awful. But this morning we went and bought the pipe and i took a nice cold shower and ohhhh it felt so good. 

Anyways so because there is a group going home for Christmas there are these special transfers. So we didn't think that anything was really going to happen to us. But then elder ceballos calls me and says elder we have a cambio for you. I was like noooo way don't take me from Arica. He then says we are now going to close zapahuira B. And you are going to finish training Elder Sunderland. I was so shocked! So now I am senior comp and finishing the training of Elder Sunderland Elder todds kid. Then he was like oh yeah I have one more surprise for ya, you are also going to be district leader. I was so shocked. So now I am moved to the ward of pukarani which is a lot like the barrio lynch. it has a assistance of 50 or so and I have got a lot of work to here.   I am so excited for this new ward. We are going to work our tails off! Yahoo!! I think that I am probably going to finish his training and then train another new missionary in January. 

Last night we got straight to work in the new ward and we taught a less active family and they have a friend who is an investigator who lives with them. He is progressing and we had a great lesson about the restoration. He accepted the challenge to be baptized.

Elder Tymczyczyn just emailed me and told me that the ward in lynch is doing extremely well. I am so happy to hear that. He told me that one of the family´s that we reactivated Vicente and Francisca, That vicente just got called as the ward mission leader and is going awesome. Also I don't know if you remember monserat. She is the daughter of Rodrigo the less active that we reactivated. Anyways they are doing so well. And after we had baptized monserat the 9 year old, she doesn't know how to read. And I promised her in the name of Jesus Christ that is she would try to read the book of Mormon that she would learn. Elder Tym just shot me an email and said that she can now read. Hahah sick right! Haha anyway family I love this so much! Maybe I'm never coming home! Haha jk but this is awesome! I love my savior Jesus Christ so much. My heavenly father is blessing me so much! This work is real! It is incredible! Have such a great week! I will email on the 24th and then we will Skype on Christmas! Yahooo!!!

Love,

Elder Newman

Hello familia I hope that all is well. I am in Arica and it is hot hot hot! Its super hard to believe that it is Christmas time because we are in the middle of summer down here! Much to update! I hope that you are all doing well.

Monday night I arrived to Arica at 11 pm and then I went with the Zone leader Elder Lucero from Cali to his pension. We slept in his pension and waited both of our companions who were coming from Antofagasta. Tuesday morning arrived elder Lastarria. He has been in the mission for 9 months now and is doing really well. He is from buenos aires and is 19 years old. Our pension is super clean and super nice. It is the nicest pension I have seen in the whole mission. We are with Elder Todd who is an ex assistant and his companion Elder Sunderland. Elder Todd is training Elder Sunderland but elder Todd leaves this Saturday because the church is sending a group of missionaries home early for Christmas. So there are special transfers this Saturday and we are not really sure what is going to happen. But Tuesday we went and bought some food and went straight to work. The people are very nice here. In Iquique the people are a little bit more tough and hardened but here they are more nice. I am in a little town it is so calm and quiet. Iquique was very loud with cars and trucks honking all the time but Arica is very calm. It is very weird ha ha because I was so used to Iquique. My companion is obedient to which I am so grateful. This week we have just been working on finding finding and finding. The Lord has led us to some great people who seems that have potential. This week we have many lessons with potential new investigators that will be great. Unfortunately none of the investigators that we had found and taught came to church. We were expecting 2 investigators that said they would come to church and we went to go to their houses to pick them up and they were sleeping and we couldn't get them to come to the doors and we don't have a cell phone right now so we didn't´t have many options. 

Yesterday we went to go teach a member  who is a lady who lives alone with her daughter. My companion looked over to me as it was my turn to teach a lesson. I began to flip through my scriptures asking Heavenly Father what do i teach what do i teach and then I saw Mosiah 24 and thought that I would share that. We had a great lesson as we talked about how the lord will help us take the burdens off our back if we come unto him and trust him patiently waiting on him. She started to cry as she told us many of the problems that she has been facing with not having work and not having a job. It was a blessing. After that she gave us a reference to a family that we could go teach so I was happy. 

The other day we were passing by a house and then I started to slow down a bit and then me and my comp looked at each other and we knew we were supposed to go that house. I went in and talked to the lady and she said that  she was just talking with her friend how the Lord has blessed her in her life, then i talked to her a little bit about the church and as i continued to talk to her she became interested and told us to come back when he daughter is there so we will pass by this week. Stuff like this happens almost everyday but I love when the Lord guides us to people who are ready to receive the gospel. Our ward seems pretty good like they are wiling to help and work with us. So I am excited to see what we can do this transfer. 

Today we went to the beach with the two zones from Arica and played ultimate Frisbee and football!!!!! Not soccer football. But real American football!! It was really fun! I met a few new cool elders a few that went to Timpview high school and they seem really good. I am excited to be able to talk to you in 15 days! It honestly doesn't seem like its going to come! I hope that you are enjoying this Christmas season! I include you all in my prayers and think about you all! I know this work that we do is real, that we are guided every single day. As long as we are obedient, work our tails off and work smart, the Lord will bless us with many opportunities and success. This Wednesday we have a mini zone conference so that will be sweet!

Love you all,

Elder Newman

¡Hola Famila! Espero que esten bien. 

Hello my sweet family and wonderful friends. I hope that you are all well and are enjoying this Christmas season. As far about the news about transfers... I am going to Arica! I leave today at 5:30 and I am going to be in the sector Zapahuira with Elder Lastarria. I know that I am going to be in the furthest north in Chile the furthest north in Arica. I am going to be on the border of Arica and Peru and it is going to be hot hot hot. I don't know really anything about my companion and sector but Arica is going to be awesome! I am so excited. 

We had another really busy week and it was a great last week to finish the transfer. The baptism of Graham went awesome. This kid is going to be so great. I know that he is going to do great things for the church in these last days. We baptized him on Friday and then I confirmed him Sunday morning. He told me thank you so much for being the miracle in his life. But in reality it was a miracle that we found him. I am so grateful to the Lord for letting us teach him and baptize him. I hope to see this guy doing great work for other people and I really hope that he will consider serving a mission. 

We have been working with a part member family who is less active. The mom was baptized when she was young and then one of the daughters was baptized in June but had a few problems and then was unsure of herself. I had lost contact with them and hadn't seen them for a while. But one day as we were walking down the street I saw them from a distance and contacted her and we have been meeting with them. They daughters have been attending church with the mom and then the younger daughter who is not baptized took out all of her piercings the other day when we went there. The younger daughter knows that the church is true and we are just trying to prepare her for baptism. The dad also has begun listening to us and Elder Tym is going to work with him. I hope that they can baptize this family. 

Yesterday in church they gave me a bit of time and I announced that I would be going to Arica. I then took some time and bore my testimony to the members. The spirit was very strong and there were many who had tears in their eyes. I love this ward so much and I am going to miss it. In my testimony I talked about the 3 fold mission of the church and explained each part of it to the members. Perfect the Saints, Proclaim the gospel and redeem the dead. We had a great testimony meeting and then after church we took pictures with many of the members. It was sad as I saw these little girls of the families that we had worked with cry hahaha but it is nice to know that we have had some impact in the lives of these people. It makes me so happy to see the change that comes as we guide the people to come unto Christ. So see the blessings come into their lives and to change. 

After church we finished the day working. We are also teaching a husband whose family is members but he is not. The spirit was really strong and I challenged him to be baptized. He knows that the church is true he just needs to receive the confirmation from the Lord so he can have his own testimony. He accepted and I am hoping that Elder Tymczyszyn can baptize him. I would love to see some of these families go to the temple and be sealed. 

Anyways reflecting back on this last sector I have learned many things. We weren't able to watch the Christmas devotional but i went to the LDS web page and read a bit of it. I just add to what president Monson said what a great quote It is well to remember that he who gives money gives much; he who gives time gives more; but he who gives of himself gives all.” I hope that we can come unto our savior in this time when we have to reflect more upon him. And like president Monson said give ourselves to others. Because he who loseth his life, shall find it. Have a great week family. I love you so much. I love this work and am happy to be here! 

Elder Newman