Dear Family,

I think this has been one of the fastest months of my life. I honestly can´t explain how fast the time goes. I looked back at the calendar and realized that it was the 24th of July last week. Ha-ha I hoped that it went well for you all. I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your summer as you get prepared to enter into school again. Alyssa´s senior year??!! It can’t be! That is super crazy.

This week went so fast. It got super cold in the beginning of the week and then got warm by the end. The weather here is like Utah in the sense that it can be really nice one day and then freezing cold the next. But it has been nice.

On Tuesday it was our last district meetings with the zone for the transfer. At the end we all got together and we had a testimony meeting. It was really powerful, especially because we have to missionaries that were finishing their missions. Elder Pope and Hermana Candia.  You will see on the picture card that will get to the house soon.

Throughout the week we had worked with Alina and her family. The husband got back from his work turn and was in the house for 7 days. He was a member of the church but they had a child that passed away being a few months old and I believe that they just kind of inactivated when that happened. The dad over time changed religions. Anyways we have faced a little opposition with the father. He has given permission that his kids can join the church but has just caused a few issues. They weren’t able to come to church yesterday. But we have an appt with them tonight and we will see how they are doing. The boys were reading the Book of Mormon last week and were doing really well.

This week we will have Family Home evenings with some of the references that we have been working for. We are super excited to be able to work with these families. One of them we got to know this last week. The friend (Karen) of the Sister Andrea in the ward was sick and we went and gave her a blessing. The next day she was 100% better.

While we were there giving the blessing we and the member came to find out that Karen´s husband is a member of the church. He was baptized when he was a youth. So we are really excited for this family. The member family also has some next door neighbors that we have the family home evening with this Thursday. We are pumped.

Things are really kicking here now. The work is doing so well. Our ward council is now functioning and the members are now contributing and working. Yesterday we had 105 people at church; all of the efforts from the 6 missionaries are paying off. When I got here the attendance was like 70. The zone is also doing really well and is starting to catch this new vision and are implementing it and we are already seeing so many blessings.

This Thursday we go down to Antofagasta for the leadership council meeting. They are always really good meetings. I always learn a lot and leave really motivated and excited for the work. It is also fun to see all of my buddies from the mission and to eat lunch and just have a good time.

I am doing really well and am really excited for this next upcoming transfer with Elder McCusker. We were sure that they were going to transfer one of us and we ended up staying together one more transfer! Originally we were only going to be together for 1-2 transfers but it’s going to be 3! It will be the longest I have ever stayed with one companion.

I am glad to hear that you are all doing well and are enjoying your summer! I love each one of you and am grateful for the people that you are. I am thinking that this week or next week you will be getting a visit from elder pope. I know he is excited to pass by. He is a great missionary and a great example to many of us here in MCA. Have a great week. I love the work.

Elder Newman