Hello family! 

Monday night as we were leaving the pension to go work this 6 year old comes running to us from the play ground asking us for help. We have no idea who this kid is and so we follow him over to the play ground and his down syndrome cousin will not go back to the house. My companion and I are asking ourselves where are the parents of these kids? Here we are in the middle of iquique and there are 2 kids under 6 one who is downs and their parents are no where to be found. We try to get this kid back to his house with his mom and the grandma who was taking care of the kids sees us entering the apartment with them. We go to the fifth floor with them and we are trying to get the mom or grandma or someone to come to help us and we begin knocking the door and ringing the doorbell and no one is coming. I am thinking where is the grandma! It is obvious that the Lord wants us to help these kids having the little kid come running to us specifically but where in the world is the grandma who just saw us.   We knocked and knocked on the door and finally the grandma opened the door and poked her head out the window and we were like helloo??? Here are your two grand kids?? She was inside doing something but it was crazy. 

Friday night we had a fun activity. We went with the men from the ward to play soccer on the beach at night! We played at 9 at night and there were less actives who came and a few investigators. The beach has lights it  was so much fun! At the beginning of the game they said ¡Todo Vale! Which means anything goes! Ha ha I was so stoked when i heard those words. I felt like i was under the lights one more time! I was running around like a crazy kid like i was playing football again!  I made 3 out of the 10 goals! Ha ha it was so much fun! They were all shocked by this crazy gringo! They were asking me if i took anything before we played like a red bull or something and I was like No! Es como juego yo! Es mi Ser! Saying like nope that's just how I play, its who i am! They started to call me red bull as a nickname  Haha it was awesome one time I was running full speed across the field to get the ball and accidentally leveled one of the 20 year olds and took him off his feet.  I felt bad because it wasn't intentional i was just going for the ball. But i picked him up and said sorry. Anyway it was fun and we are going to try and get the less actives and investigators to attend so we can strengthen the relationships in this ward. 

The baptisms went great! They were so happy and Denis was crying a little bit after her baptism telling us thank you for the things that we had done. It was great. Elder Tym baptized and confirmed Denis and I baptized and confirmed Esmeralda  They are going to be great in the ward and have much to add. It is so great to see the blessing of the gospel enter the family and change the direction and course of the lives forever. They ultimately have the agency to decide where and to continue on the path but it is our job to get them started and to get them through the door and onto the path which is baptism. Speaking of baptism we are probably going to baptize graham this Sunday morning before church because he works in the mines and it will work out the best with this schedule. He is so ready to be baptized it was a miracle that we received him as a reference. 

Yesterday at church was a miracle. We had 19 less actives come and then we had 2 investigators. One of the less active family who we have been working with Rodrigo and Nicole are the parents of Montserrat who we are going to baptize 24th. Please include them in your prayers that we can follow through with these 2 baptisms. Anyways we are doing really well. We are trying to find great new people to teach. As we look for people to teach it is interesting at times how the Lord guides is to find people. The other night contacting we were trying to find a house of a hermano in the ward and i prayed to know where to go and i felt we needed to turn right so we went right and we went back and forth and we ended up talking to many people who are ready to receive the gospel and then we were lead to a person who knew where they lived and she is also very receptive and ready to receive the gospel. 

Thursday I got to go on exchanges with and elder Steiner who has been in the mission for like 6 months but he is a bit more timid so i got to take the control and it was awesome! I was in his sector and i just took control and was being bold and together we found 3 new investigators and some great people to teach. It was awesome, I have learned so much about contacting and talking to people from Elder Tym. He is really good with contacts and I have been practicing so that when i leave I can carry these skills. 

I hope you are all doing so well. I love you all so much. I miss you all and think about you. You are all in my prayers and I am so glad to be here. I am loving this more and more as time continues. Have a great week. 

Con Amor, 

Elder Newman