Family, 

Its transfers already! Crazy how fast the time goes by. Well, I am getting a new companion! Elder Pinto is going out to the field up to Calama. I am going to miss him but I am also very excited to have Elder Galvez as my new companion. Elder Galvez is from Mexico and he has been here around 13 months. He is very young in the mission but he is super excited to work and is a great missionary. We lived in the same apartment in Calama and we had worked together a couple of times. I am really excited to be able to work with him. He gets here tonight around 11pm and then tomorrow we start with dropping off the old missionaries and pick up the new ones. 

This last week we were up in Arica almost the whole week working and having some meetings up there. We have been teaching a lot about finding through members. We left last Sunday night around midnight and we got there Monday morning to Arica to visit a few people and to have a training meeting with the zones of Arica. It went really well we received great feedback from the missionaries. We worked with 3 different zones while we were up in Arica. It was great and I had a great time working with the missionaries as always. 

On Friday we got back and had a few meetings with president, as we prepared everything for the transfer. Last Sunday in stake conference our ward boundaries were reorganized and we were combined with another ward that is in our stake. The ward that we were serving in did not have much priesthood and so was closed. But we are all apart of the Quito ward now, and the ward is strong. The goal is that with a little bit of time strengthen the ward so that they can split the ward into two different wards. The building that we used to go to is being transformed into the employment center and also in the future they will move the mission office over there. Yesterday we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and I am really excited about the things that are happening. We will be 11 missionaries in the same ward. There are 2 new missionaries coming into the office to be trained in their future positions and so there will be 5 of them, plus my companion and I, and then 4 missionaries who were in that previous ward. So we are a big ward with a lot of missionaries. But with the schedule of the office elders they usually get out around 6pm to go work. We have our investigator Julian who is progressing very well. He will get baptized in march. He is keeping all of his commitments and will be a great priesthood holder. Also the family that gave us the reference for him is doing well also. The dad will be receiving a calling this next week and they are continuing to prepare to go to the temple in September. 

There was a broadcast that we had from the area for all Melchizedek priesthood holders from Buenos Aries. Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband were present at the meeting along with the area presidency. The meeting was awesome and was about the work of salvation. Elder Rasband talked about how the cell phone is a rescuer tool. How through the cell phone he can reach out to every single one of his missionaries that he was president over. He knows which ones are less active and which are active. He says that he has been able to reach out to them through technology like Facebook and things and sends things to strengthen them and now he said that some of those missionaries are active again and doing very well. I was thinking about how we can also do the same with former quorum members and classmates from high school and whatever it may be. Everyone has facebook or some sort of way to contact them through technology. He committed all of those who were there to get an appt. for the missionaries though modern technology. He talked about how things are changing and that if we always do what we have always done we will remain with what we have always had. We need to think outside of the box. 

Elder Ballard talked about the work of salvation as well. He said that how personal prayer is more powerful than any cell device. He told a story about Wilford Woodruff when he was called as prophet he was having a difficult moment and he wanted to talk with the prophet Joseph Smith. Anyways he said that he was looking towards the temple and then saw Joseph behind the temple gate running back and forth as if he was super hurried. He said just one minute Wilford and then walked away. He said that he also saw Joseph's father do something similar. Later the prophet returned and Wilford Woodruff asked Jospeh... Why are you all so hurried? I thought that in the spirit world I would rest from all of my labors. Joseph responded to president Woodruff and said that every dispensation has had sufficient time to prepare for the second coming, but in our dispensation we don't have enough time to do all that we need to do. We have so much work to do here in this earth, that is why the Lord is hastening his work. I know and imagine that on the other side of the veil they are going double time to get the work done, and they are waiting on us to do their temple work so that they can receive the blessings of the Atonement in their lives. How privileged are we to live in a time that such great things are happening and that we can be the smallest fraction of such of the greatest work in the universe. We need to ask the Lord to know what we can specifically do to help hasten the work. Everyone is depending on us. There have been so many prophecies about the time that we are now living. We can help save souls every day. We must set goals and make plans to do so.

We are pretty busy right now but I am doing great! I will be excited to tell you about my new companion next week. I love you all! I have such a great testimony of this work. I know the savior lives. I am grateful to work for Him. 

Elder Newman