Hola familia como estan? Todo bien?

I hope that everything is all going well up there in the winter wonderland. Crazy to think that you are all freezing up there and I am down here burning hot. It is great to hear that you are all doing so well. Congratulations Alyssa with taking 4th at state! That is so awesome! I am so happy for you congratulations. From the look of the pictures it looks like there is so much snow. I hope that you are all enjoying this winter time of season up there!

This week definitely had its ups and downs. As far as being a district leader I have really been trying to get this district going. There were new missionaries that came in every companionship and so it just completely changed the chemistry that we had as a district and zone. We have been striving to work with these missionaries so that we can begin to see the fruits come again. Learning to work with certain people is very important. To know what we can do to motivate people to achieve their true potential as servants of the Lord. We are expecting big things from our zone this month. Elder Martin our zone leader leaves this month and so he wants to finish real hard so we are trying to break the record for baptisms in a month as a zone. The record is 22 and the goal they put was 23 I believe. On Monday night we did a sector attack with the hermanas in costanera. They were really struggling in their sector as for 2 consecutive weeks. We did a sector attack and found a few new investigators for them and then later this week they received a miracle as they received a reference of someone who wants to get baptized. I went on exchanges that night with Elder Sunderland and it was good to see him and check up on how he was doing. I tried to help him then later that night we together found a couple new investigators. 

In our sector we have been dedicating ourselves to just finding finding finding. That is all we can really do to open up this sector and start it from scratch. We were close to having a baptism this past Saturday but the kid that we were going to baptize is going to the interior and he wont be returning until next year. He wanted to get baptized but the timing and things did not work out. It was kind of a bummer and I really wanted to see our first baptism together as a companionship but i know that they will come as we continue working super hard. We have had to cut some of our investigators who were not progressing but at the end of week we found some bright new investigators. Saturday we wanted to find some new investigators and so then I suggested to my companion that we should go to a certain spot and just start touching some doors. About the fourth door we find 2 girls and they let us in and we start teaching them and their little sister in their little patio. We begin to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and then I had asked them a question I cant really remember what it was but then the friend began to tell me that before in her life she used to pray and things but as she grew older she stopped but the night before we came she and her friend together prayed for the first time in a long time asking forgiveness for some of things that they had done and they wanted to be clean. Hahaha how cool! They told us they would go to church the next morning, when we went to go get them the next morning, they didn't answer and I assume that they were sleeping. So that was definitely a bummer. However we are going to keep working with them this week and put a baptismal fecha by the end of this week. 

We are also working with a few other families. One of them being a less active family who has a daughter that is not baptized. Elder Stratford is doing very well and is progressing every day. He is great about working and is doing very well. We get along great and have a great time together. 

Thank you for all of your support and prayers and concerns. This week I have received many answers to my prayers and I know that the Lord is in charge as I continue to strive to help these people in the land of Chile. As I continue to read and study the Book of Mormon I am amazed how much more I feel like this book relates to me as I am here in Chile. I really feel connected to this book more as I feel like I can connect with the prophets of the Book of Mormon as they describe the love they had for the people and how they prayed that their seed could one day receive the truth again. Have such a great week. 

Elder Newman