Hello Family!

Happy Fathers day yesterday! I hope you all had a great day. I love and miss you hope you are all doing so well. How was the cabin? Were you able to get the railing up? Ha-ha hopefully the boys caught some fish. I'd love to see some pictures if you got any. I hope you guys are doing well. That is sad about sister hamnett but she is in a better place now.

Thank you so much for the package it was amazing! We have so much food and I absolutely love it! Mmmm it’s so nice. Ha-ha we took pictures and videos so I should be sending my SD card soon. I'll try and get those pictures home soon. Don’t worry I am taking plenty of pictures.

Wow this week has been such a wonderful week.  On Tuesday one of the elders in our district decided to go home. It was Elder Griffin and he has Celiac disease I think it is called. Anyways he can only eat special foods and he was having trouble finding foods to eat here. We all encouraged him to stay and stick it out but he chose to stay home. That was hard for his companion Elder Robertson but I think for the other missionaries in the district it strengthen their resolve of why there were there to serve the Lord. It was a challenge for the individual but I believe it helped our district come closer; we have made wonderful progress as a district and in my own companionship. I have learned so much about how to specifically teach by the spirit. It is amazing and it is hard to describe the joy that comes when you teach with the spirit and you see the investigator progress towards the Savior. The language has been increasing and especially as we have strived to follow our language study plans. I have been memorizing a lot and made some very good strides this week.

Tomorrow we are losing two more elders in our district because they are going down to the Guatemala MTC. I am really going to miss them. It's only been 3 weeks and I feel like I know these elders so well already. I am really going to miss Elder Jorgensen. That kid is a stud ha-ha he is really funny too. Elder Vaughan I won’t miss as much but its okay hahaha :) He reminds of the kid off of polar express. You know the one I’m talking about. Ha-ha. So our district will shrink down to 7 with 3 companionships. That will be okay thought because we will all have more time to teach and more individual time with the teacher. Friday and Saturday were some amazing days. Ha-ha it was a very odd birthday, practically the whole day I forgot it was my birthday until one of the elders in our zone would tell me. I got letters and packages from everyone in the family so thank you so much! I am so blessed to have so much support behind me.

On Friday I probably had one of the best basketball games I’ve ever played in my life. Ha-ha let’s just say it was a lucky day eh?

Saturday was probably the best day of the week. I and Elder Van Pelt have been working with one of our ''investigators'' who is from Argentina and doesn't believe in God. Our very first lesson with him was very challenging and we didn’t know where to continue. But we prepared for Saturday and prayed that we would have the spirit tell us where to go as we taught. (Hermano Hallsted is our investigator but he acts as a different person). We taught the lesson and the spirit was so strong and it was the best discussion and meeting we had ever had. Hermano Hallsted was so excited for us and then he taught us for about a half hour just me and Elder VP about how to continue to ask inspired questions, and then the person will feel the power of God witnessing to them that our message us true. It was powerful and we were so excited because we can feel our abilities increasing through the Lord.

We had some wonderful devotionals this week. They were very powerful. On Tuesday it was from Per G. Malm of the Seventy. He gave wonderful counsel and it was similar to PLOW. He talked about the Lord is in control and we must be bold giving 100%. Yesterday we had the opportunity of hearing from Sheri Dew. Wow she is an amazing woman. She talked about how we need to always live life with an eternal perspective rather than the right here and now. She said to do this we need to 1. Continue Receiving and 2. Continue remembering. We need to work on receiving spiritual gifts because the Lord is waiting to give them to us, however we must work to obtain them. She also said to continue remembering by continuing to have spiritual experiences and continue to receive spiritual gifts. It made me think of a quote, I can’t remember who said it, it might of been president Kimball, but he said the most important word in the Book of Mormon could be remember. I know and understand that because it is when we forget God, our covenants, the commandments, the experiences we have had, when we do not follow him and then make incorrect decisions. It was wonderful counsel and she gave many other wonderful things to remember.

I am so grateful for this Gospel and the happiness that it brings me! I love this work and the opportunity I have to be a servant of the Lord. There are times I feel overwhelmed because I have so far to go but I know as a take it step by step and in the Strength of the Lord Jesus Christ we can do all things! I love you family! Keep up the good work. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Elder Newman