Hi family!

I hope you all had a great week! It has been a great week here in the MTC! It is crazy to think that I only have 1 week left here! Time just flies by so fast! Maybe not for you all but on the mission it’s screaming fast.  I can’t believe you sold the truck! When I got the letter I was distraught! Ha-ha so so so sad... :(  Monday during our workout time in the Gym I did some single leg RDLs (it’s a type of workout) and my legs were so sore for the rest of the week. For about 3 days I was hobbling around like a grandpa, I could barely pick up my legs it was funny.

Monday night we taught our final lesson with our Mario investigator. It was great and Hermano Hallsted helped us realize how much we have learned over the last little while and it is incredible how blessed we have been from the Lord as we seek to prepare to build the kingdom in Chile.

Tuesday was an incredible day, Tuesday morning we were playing softball,, I play Centerfield, and I made a sick diving catch that morning ha-ha it was awesome I was sprinting in to home plate and leaped and caught it and it was funny everyone was going nuts so that was a good way to start of the day.

That night we had a fireside by Vaughn J Featherstone an Emeritus General Authority and it was awesome. The spirit was strong and he talked about many different things. Attitude, work, dreams, and revelation. I received some wonderful promptings from the spirit that I needed at the time that were great. He also talked about how we are tested before great things will happen so that the Lord can test our faithfulness. I know this is true. That night while we were at the Residence hall Elder Nolan who is one of the newest elders in the zone came up to me and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. He said he had been having a really hard time with the language and was starting to get very scared because he was going to the Peru MTC in a week. He asked if I could give him a blessing. I said of course and so I took him into my room and gave him a blessing. It was crazy because usually I would be pretty nervous but I was completely calm going into the blessing. I sat him down just asked his name and then gave him a blessing. It was an incredible experience. The spirit guided my words and the spirit filled the room. After I finished he had tears in his eyes and came up and gave me a big hug. He's a great kid. It was a blessing from the Lord as I was completely calm, and act like the savior and try to implement Christ like Leadership. I have been blessed with so many opportunities to serve others and I am trying to do the best that I can for the Lord.  It was awesome.

After that I was getting ready for bed and I hear all of these people across the hall cheering and yelling and I was wondering what the commotion was. I go over to see and this massive Polynesian was arm wrestling people. I just sat there to watch for a minute and then all of the Spanish speaking natives started pointing to me and where like you! You! You turn!  I was like no no no and they pushed me up there to arm wrestle this guy. Let me try to paint a picture of this man. He has to be like 6"4 like 325 pounds. A beast! Ha-ha so I get up there and we put our arms on the ironing board and we begin. I think he underestimated me. Ha-ha we had a great battle and while we were going and giving everything we got all of the natives were like "American!" American!! in my mind I was thinking "for my country"!! Hahaha it was stinking funnny. After about 50 seconds my wrist was about to break and I lost. He came up and gave me a big hug and all of the natives tried to explain to me that I had given him the best challenge

Fast forward a few days and then I saw him in the hall way and I tried to ask him where he was from. I heard him mumble out Tahiti and I was like nooooo way. I asked him if he knew an Elder Hannemann and he said yes! yes! He took me to his room and grabbed his camera and then proceeded to show me 4 pictures of him and Elder Hannemannn. I tried to explain to him that Elder Hannemann was one of my best friends so I took him to my room and grabbed my photo album and then showed him the pictures I have with Kyle. He got all excited and told me that his family would feed Elder Hahnemann often. It was the coolest thing. We got pictures with each other the other night and I plan to arm wrestle him one more time before I leave with all of my elders cheering me on so I can get some support. Ha-ha it honestly was the coolest experience to hear that he was just with one of my best friends clear across the other side of the world. His name is Elder Pihatarioe. If you see Howard, Mindy or Micah make sure you tell them it was so cool. He is going to serve his mission in Montreal, Canada French speaking. I also tried to tell him that one of my teammates Austin Heder is there.

This week I have been striving to have more Faith. That is the christlike attribute I have been working on and it is incredible what you thought you knew about certain principles and then you realize how much more you really need to learn. It was great to study and work on that this week. With faith I have also tried to have a great attitude with everything that happens. Attitude is everything! There may be times when things don't go our way or the way that we planned but we need to decide to have a good attitude, be happy and trust in the Lord! He knows what is best for us and as we do everything we can to align our will with his he will bless us incredibly! Yesterday we had a great devotional by Stephen B. Allen the head director of the Missionary department. He related the song come come ye saints to missionary work and it was a very powerful spiritual experience. We listened to the Motab sing it and then we all sung it together a few times and analyzed the lyrics. Hymns are powerful with great messages packed into them. I remember President Gotttfredson advised me one time when I was younger to grab an old hymnbook and tear out a song each day and study it and look at the lyrics. Sunday night I got a picture with all of the BYU guys so that was fun to see all of them.

We got a couple emails today from our mission explaining all the details and everything about what we are supposed to do. I love this work. There is nothing that brings me such joy! I love my Savior Jesus Christ and am doing everything I can to better represents him and share his restored gospel! Bless you all. All is well. Godspeed.

Love,

Elder Newman