Family, 

This week has been super crazy but we have seen so many wonderful blessings. I was thinking the other day how pretty and warm and green it must be. I haven't seen that in a long time.. 

This week went by so fast at the beginning of the week we found two families that are sooo awesome. We went to the family of four that we had found on Sunday night last week and we d taught them. Before we got there the wife told us that the husband was super happy that we were going to come by to teach them. We had a great lesson with them.  They are married and have a daughter that is 12 years old and then a little baby that is like 6 months old. They are so great. They are named Sebastian and Alicia. We are so excited to be able to work with them and we honestly believe that they will be baptized.

They both had missionaries in their homes when they were younger but then their parents stopped listening to the missionaries. They desire exactly what the gospel will offer them and we are so happy.

We did some service  for Sebastian on Saturday morning.  He is building onto his house and so we helped him for a few hours. We have already established a great relationship with them. 

They came to church with us on Sunday and before we went to pick them up and while they were getting everything ready we made hot chocolate for them and had it ready for them when they came. They were super happy. They liked church a lot and while we were sitting in church Sebastian saw this reference card that talks about how the book of Mrmon answers questions of the soul and he was telling me he really liked that and he wanted to talk about It.. We have a appointment with them tonight so we are really excited. 

The other family we have found is a marriage with two kids and a cousin that comes by the house a lot. They all came to church except for the dad because he had a work thing that he had to do. They also really like the church and want to come closer to God. We have really seen the fruits of our labors come now and we are really working hard to see miracles this month. We are thinking putting baptismal dates with them for the 15 of June which would be the greatest b day present ever, to see these families be baptized together. 

We had zone conference on wednesday and it was awesome. President talked a lot about obedience and its important and that if we are not obedient we cannot live with God. He also talked at the very end of conference about marriage and its importance in our life. It was pretty crazy hearing stuff about that.

We had Dominos pizza and it was really good. I was able to talk to President and Sister Bruce for a while it was great. We all traveled down there to Antofagasta for the conference.  

This week the office elders came up here to work with our zone a ltitle.  They bought us a new water heater and some other appliances which will make living conditions so much better.

We were able to work with one of the assistants and it was great. On Wednesday we travel back down to Antofagasta for our zone leader council with president Bruce. It will be the last one with him. he leaves on June 28th.

I am doing so well and I am sooooo happy.  I am excited about the people that we have found as we prepare them for baptism. I hope that you are all having a great week! I love being a missionary and serving the Lord. 

Elder Newman

Family, 

This past week has been pretty crazy. In our zone we have a lot of new missionaries or missionaries that struggle a little bit and so we have been working a lot with the zone and unfortunately we haven't had a lot of time to work in our sector.

Monday night we went and worked with the sector called Caspaña. Elder Stratford is there with his companion who has been here for about 3 months so they both are very new. I was able to work with Elder Stratford and it was good to be able to work with him again. We went and visited a few of his investigators and also found a few new great investigators for them to teach. 

On Tuesday some of the new elders and sisters had to go to Antofagasta for a conference so we had to take them there at 5:30 am to get on their bus to Antofagasta.

Elder Stratford stayed with us and worked with us in our sector. Wednesday morning elder Mccusker went down to Tocopilla which is a little city 3 hours away from Calama. There are 4 elders there and he went there to work. It was tough because he was down there for 3 days trying to help them and fix some issues that were occurring down there. While he was down there i worked with a sector in the zone and tried to find people to work with me in our own sector.

That has been the most difficult part is that we haven't been able to work in our own sector that much. However despite that we have seen some miracles this past week throughout the zone. We are quite confident that we will complete our goal as a zone.

I don't have a lot of time today but last night we were working in our sector and we found some great new investigators that we are excited for and we feel that can be baptized this next few weeks. I hope that you are all doing well. This Thursday we have zone conference in Antofagasta so the entire zone will be travelling down there on bus to get there.

This morning we played basketball and soccer as a zone and had some hot chocolate for all of the missionaries  It was great. I am so blessed to have each of you apart of my life. I love you all so much and i am striving to do my best and to help elevate the work here down in Chile. Have a great week! 

Elder Newman

Family, 

It sounds like you all had a great week! Alyssa you look so good in your dress! I don't know what to do since i cant protect you from all of the boys down here. I loved hearing all that you were able to do and that Nate and Jason had a good time together hanging out. 

Well as far as this week. Crazy stuff! The week has gone by very fast and we did have a great week. Tuesday we had our district meeting and it went very well. I knew that it was going to be the last district meeting would give, As I  prepared for it I had the idea of teaching plow. So i worked with the ward mission leader, he is a pretty tech savvy guy and knows quite a bit so he was able to help me get the clip from the movie war horse where it shows the guy plowing the field. The ward mission leader brought a mini projector he had to the district meeting and he helped me present the little clip. The meeting went so well and it was definitely the best district meeting we have had.

Wednesday we had this ward activity that the missionary group had created and designed. There was an activity where families brought typical food from another country. In our ward there are many people who are from different countries and so everyone brought food. Mariluz our investigator went and had a great time.  The activity was very successful and many people came. 

On Saturday we had the baptism of mariluz. It went really well. I had the thought that Elder Silvester and I should do some type of musical number and so we were able to create a musical number that we did. We did I am a child of God. It turned out really well and mariluz was very happy and the best is to hear things that they say after their baptisms. As we were walking back after the baptism she said "From here on out my life has changed today". I love to hear stuff like that as a missionary.

Saturday night we were working in this part of our sector called Jardines del Sur. And we had recently just taught a member and we received a reference. After we got out of the house, i asked elder Silvester "Hey doesn't president live around here somewhere" he said yeah its real close i think. It was just down the street, (hermana bruce had told us last week to pick up a something for elder Silvester at her house) anyways I was a little nervous but we rang the doorbell and president comes and opens the gate and says come on in. president sits me down on his couch in the living room and he says" well elder the assistants and the entire office are the most excited about your transfer." I am thinking to myself at this point, what is going on? He says, "your going to be a zone leader, and you are going to go up to serve with Elder Mccusker in Calama." I was shocked! I could not believe it! I am going to serve with my best friend in the entire mission! He is the biggest stud and we are going to do work together! Elder McCusker as you should remember is from my group and the kid is a freaking machine

He just got bumped up to Zone Leader in a special transfer 4 weeks ago, and now i am going to work with him. We are so excited, he called me yesterday morning to talk to me about it and we are chomping at the bit ready to go work! We thought that maybe at the end of our missions we would have the chance to serve together we are so excited we are going to baptize together! We have high goals for this month or so, we are quite certain that we will only be together one transfer, but we will make the most of it. 

I have never been so excited for a transfer in my entire mission. I am so pumped, the bummer is that i wont get there till tomorrow night so we lose a day of work. Calama is 3 hours away from Antofagasta so it is relatively close. But it is soooo cold up there. It is very high in altitude and very cold in the mornings and then warm in the afternoon. I hear it is soooo dry too. But I don't care i am just so happy and excited that i am serving with elder mccusker. Anyways we talked with president for a bit and then he told my comp that he would stay in Angamos for a 4th transfer. Elder Silvester is a little bummed that he is staying in this sector because of its difficulty but he is still doing great. Anyway after about 5 minutes talking with president and sister Bruce i was on the edge of my seat getting ready to leave and asked them if we could share a quick scripture with them. He said yes and then he would share something with us. Sister Bruce said the first prayer, it was cool to hear such a heart felt prayer as he prayed for the missionaries of our mission. I shared something that i had learned in my personal study the other morning and then we talked about that for a bit and then president started talking to us about the scriptures and he just kept talking and talking and talking haha and then they started to tell us funny stories and we were just laughing and having a good time. Various time i tried to end it as if we were going to leave and then president would just keep talking and telling us stories with him and sister Bruce! We were there for like an hour! Haha it was so cool though just to talk with them and enjoy some time with them. At the end president Bruce said well elders would you like a ride to the pension and i said "no we still have like an hour and a half to work so we are going to go find someone to teach and we will take the micro" 

I talked with elder stratford and they baptized all of the investigators we had and he is also headed to calama. He is going to be sr. companion to a latino who has been here for 2 transfers. I love you all so much and am so excited for this upcoming transfer! I am going to be back in Antofagasta on Thursday for a zone leader council meeting! Have a great week! I love the Lord and this great work! Talk to you on Sunday!!!

Elder Newman