Family, 

We are all alive up here in the north of Chile! Haha don't worry about us! The earthquake that hit was around 50 miles north of iquique and it was around a 6.7. So we are all doing okay and everyone is fine. That was on Sunday afternoon and we were on our way to an appointment and then Elder Mccusker called me to ask me if i was informed about the quake that had just happened. He said that he entered into a members house and then they were all talking about it and everything and that the members had all the news on and had been all worried. Then i got a few other calls from a few missionaries informing me. So then we had to call all of the missionaries in Iquique and Arica and make sure that they were in the safe zone and we had to organize places for them where they would stay . Anyway we later had to create a report of all of the missionaries and their exact location and information on how to contact them. But the next day everything was all ok. 

Things are looking really great in the mission. In part of the zone conferences we talked a little bit about setting baptismal dates because we had more people going to church than those who had baptismal dates. But in reality we should have many more dates than that, we should be setting baptismal dates with everyone we teach in the first or second lesson. Anyways it looks like the south put that to practice because our baptismal dates last week increased 50%. I was super stoked to see that, I hope the north now does the same after this last week of conferences with them. On Monday we did a few things here in Antofagasta and got ready to leave that night. On Monday night around midnight we left on a bus to Arica. We got there on Tuesday morning and then had our first exchange with some elders that afternoon. On Tuesday morning before we had arrived to Arica, the bus workers put on a movie in the bus. Anyways i was just sitting there with my companion and I was studying and usually the movies are in Spanish so i don't really have to worry about hearing them (obviously we don't look ha-ha and usually i have earplugs but i forgot them this time). However this time the movie was in english and it was in spanish subtitles. I was trying to focus on my studying but this movie just had terrible awful vulgar language. I said to myself well i will just try to focus on studying, but it was difficult and so i started to pray asking that i could block the words out of my mind and not really register them. But then i had the thought come, "go and ask them to change the movie". And so i sat there for a second trying to decide what to do, and then I went down the stairs to the first floor of the bus and called the worker and told him that the movie that was being played was obviously in english and had terrible, very strong language, and i asked him if he could change the movie. I was worried to what his reaction would be, but he actually responded very positively and immediately went and changed the movie. I felt so much better as we went on the rest of the trip without having to worry about that. I know that there are many times in our lives and especially in mine where situations come up like this. We know what we must do and the gospel has taught us, it just takes us to act and do. At times we are unsure or scared of what may happen. But we just need to trust in Gods wisdom and that everything will work out. I had a really good feeling that morning. 

We had exchanges with missionaries on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday morning we had the zone conference in Arica. The zone conference was great! We worked with a companionship after the conference and i had an awesome experience. I was able to see one of the guys that i had taught about 5 months ago with some other elders. His name is Rafael. I had taught him in an exchange that i had on Halloween. He is getting baptized today and has made so many changes in his life. The guy doesnt really have a lot and I gave him my mini hymnbook that i had and his face lit up. He was so excited because he had been humming words from a hymn that he loved but he didnt know the lyrics. He is doing really good. I was happy to see him doing well. 

We left on a bus that night around 11:30 pm and then we got to Iquique around 4 am that next morning. We went straight from the bus terminal to the Lynch apt. where I started my mission to get a few hours of sleep before we started to get ready for the zone conference. We had iquiques zone conference and then later worked with the elders last night. I was able to work with Elder Marsee from my group and it was great to be able to work with him. He is an excellent missionary and is doing great things up there with Elder Stratford. For about an hour we went around the area and i showed him houses of people and families that i had taught that were old investigators. I hope that they can find a few. We left last night on a bus around midnight and then we got here to antofagasta here this morning at 6 am and then we went to our apartment and crashed for a couple of hours. It was a solid great week! I am doing great! 

I hope that you all had a great week! I am loving working with Elder Galvez! We push each other everyday to be our best! He has got a lot of energy and is ready to work and I am loving that! Anyways life is great! I love each one of you. You are all the greatest! I got another great week coming up! I hope all you do as well!

Elder Newman