Family,

I am 20 years old. Man I am getting old. It is crazy to think that i finished my teenage years ha ha.

 We had such a great week and we are doing very well up here in the driest desert. Monday night we were planning, and we really wanted to do something awesome with the zone to get things pumping and help them get excited and do great things this month as president and sister Bruce prepare to leave and return back to their home.

We had planned a few things  and then i told my comp. Elder, lets break some boards man. He was pumped because he always wanted to do it and we were really excited for the zone. 

Tuesday morning we went early to a place similar to home depot and we bought the wood. This time i made sure we bought the correct type and that it was cut in the way it needed to be cut. We then went over to the church and then met with our district leaders and then after that they broke off in their districts for a little bit and then they got together with us. We started with an inspirational video and then after we went into the cultural hall I gave the whole pep talk and how it relates to missionary work and the things and personal things that keep us from doing our best

All 20 members of the zone broke their board. Even the Sisters! The whole zone roared when the first sister broke her board. After everyone had finished we finished with a few scriptures and statistics. One of the things i told them that the chance of being a missionary in the world is 0.000008% and it is not by chance that we are here. The Lord has a great work for us to do, and we each are here to do great things in MCA. The meeting was so great, everyone was so happy and had such a great time. The zone left revived, pumped and unified. It was a great experience. 

During the week we saw so many miracles. The zone has been setting so many baptismal dates with their investigators. This past week the zone set 15 dates. We have 5 confirmations already and we have 21 baptismal dates. We are going to break the record here in Calama. We are working so hard. 

With our investigator Alicia, we went to her house we were teaching her and her daughter. We started and Elder McCusker gave a wonderful opening prayer. We looked at her and she had tears in her eyes. We were teaching her about the plan of salvation, and started to talk to her about what she feels when we come over. She explained that she feels the spirit every time that we come and that it feels so good. We had a great lesson I taught about the atonement and it went well. We were able to set a baptismal date for the 29th of June. The only problem was that we weren't able to get her to church or Sunday so we will see what happens.

Transfers are today and many elders and sisters are leaving. The zone changes a lot. But we have great missionaries coming in and we are very excited. Elder Stratford is going to train. He is so excited. I am excited for him to. He is really becoming an awesome missionary. We went on a exchange last night with him and his companion. It was good to work with him. 

We had our baptism on Saturday!!!

After the baptism the hermanas made some cheesecake, and brownies for me and Hermana Mendez from Mexico. We share the same birthday. So i got some cake! Ha ha it was great!

I confirmed Carlos, he will be a great member. He is 15 years old and definitely a possible future missionary.

I am doing very well. I have a blast with Elder McCusker every single day,  we are the best of friends. We will stay together one more transfer and we are both very happy. 

Love you all!

Elder Newman