Family, 

Good to hear from you all and to hear that you are all doing well. I hope that you are all enjoying your labor day and having a good time having a nice BBQ with some burgers and garden fresh tomatoes. This last week I bought this thing called a mammoth burger. It was hugggggeee. It was almost like a half pound burger patty and I ate it for lunch. Then I ate another one that was just a bit smaller. Then that night I ate another. We calculated that just from those burgers I got 90 grams of protein that day haha. They were pretty good. But I lacked some nice garden vegetables with my burger. Tell Leianne congratulations at her wedding! Did they make a cardboard cutout for Mitch? I have no idea where they would get a cardboard cutout big enough to replicate Mitch. They would need to get one of Ray Lewis (Middle Linebacker for Ravens) hahaha. But I hope that you all have a great time. 

Another week flew by. The time is some element that is completely against me and my companion. But it is all good we are making the most of every second we had. We just got done with a zone activity. We had a BBQ with some chorizo and bread and then a type of beef. It was really good. We had the elders from tocopilla come up and then today we played some soccer and ate some good food. It has been getting really bright here in the morning. By 6:45 the sun is already coming over the peaks of the dirt mountains. And you know me by the time it shows any light I am already up. So lately i have been waking up at like 6:30 and cant go back to sleep. This morning we went and played basketball for a little bit and threw the pigskin a little bit. I was replaying some of the routes i ran and the completions I had in some of our games. Yes i went back to the glory days for a bit haha I brought out the uncle Rico in me from the movie Napoleon Dynamite for a min... If they woulda put me in, we coulda taken state, etc hahahaha. 

The week went super fast. We are entering into the last week of the transfer. I was kinda a bummed thinking that Elder McCusker was going to leave this next week because we have had such a good time together and have seen so many miracles together. We really strive so hard to be better everyday and live worthy of the spirit and we have seen miracles. But anyways President Dalton had called my comp on Saturday talking about some missionaries and things and then they finished the call and then immediately president calls back and says "Elder you and Elder Newman have been together for a while right?" Elder MccCusker said yeah ha ha like 4.5 months. And then president said "Well i am looking here at the computer and it says here that you have been together for 3 transfers and the natural man while i look at the computer is telling me to split you apart but i don't want to, so elder how do you feel about that?" Haha elder mccusker was so happy and said president we could serve together till the end of our missions and i would be completely fine with it, elder Newman is like my brother! Haha so anyways we are staying one more transfer together here in calama! We are super excited. 

We created a sweet ward mission plan with the bishop during the week with the other missionaries and the work is just accelerating. We are super happy. We organized it so that the family history center will be open right after our English classes on Wednesdays so we will be able to bring our investigators, less actives and other people after the classes. Our English classes are going super well. We were walking in the street and we contacted someone and we invited them to our English class and then she came that night. Mornings are difficult here in our sector and Wednesday morning we weren't really sure what we were going to do. So we were sitting there and then we decided that we should pray and find out. So we prayed separately and we both received the revelation that we were supposed to go and print off some flyer's for our English class and go around the city and put them in buildings and stuff. So we went to this little store that is by the church that has a little advertisement wall, and then we went to some clinics and other places and we received great feedback. We had so many people say that they were super happy and excited to hear that we were doing English classes and that they would come. So that morning became super effective. 

Javier and Jose were confirmed yesterday and it was awesome. Javier is such a stud. He is 13 years old and Alina his mom told us that she went in one time late to see what he was doing, and she told him that he needed to go to bed and he told his mom yeah mom just a little bit, and she walks in on him reading the book of mormon. He is already in Mosiah 20 or so. The kid is such a stud he wants to be a missionary. He was interviewed yesterday to receive the aaronic priesthood this next Sunday. His mom was also interviewed which is a huge step. They have really become firm and. Alina is just awesome. She is sharing the gospel with all of her neighbors and advertising our English classes. 

Enrique is also doing really well. We are just trying to find him a job. But he is doing very well and is also preparing to receive the Melchizedek priesthood this next week. The little girls are also doing well. We taught them about the temple this past week and they want to prepare to go. Also Kattya yesterday shared her testimony in testimony meeting. It was awesome! We were super pumped!

Anyways we had another great week! We are trying to find some solid progressing investigators right now and we are working a lot with our converts. Kattya and Karla brought one of their friends to mutual and the friend told her mom that she wanted to be a member of the church. It was awesome. So we are really seeing so many blessings and fruits of our labors, and we are really excited for the future things that will come. With using family history as a resource to find great people and to continue with our English classes and working with the members. I love you all so much and am grateful for all of the support and prayers. It has been a blast as we have seen the blessings of the spirit in the role of conversion in the lives of the recent converts. I hope that you all have a great week.

Love, 

Elder Newman