EARTHQUAKES AND GENERAL CONFERENCE

Dear Family, 

Wow what a crazy and unusual week! But full of adventures! Monday was pretty calm, but everyday since then has been pretty crazy.

On Tuesday i had an exchange with Elder Packard from my group. We met up in the office and we went to his area and Elder Galvez and Elder Mcconkie stayed in ours. We share the same ward but we just work in different areas. Anyway I went with Elder Packard and we were having some great lessons. It is so cool to see how everyone has developed as missionaries and as servants of the Lord especially those from my group. Elder Packard is a stud and is a great teacher. He is doing an incredible job in his area with Elder Mcconkie.

We were in a middle of the lesson teaching about the atonement and Elder Packard had put on a small video that shows the atonement.  While we were sitting there watching the video it started to shake.  We were sitting there and then it kept going! Haha it lasted about a minute and then it finally finished. Earthquake!!!!  We finished the lesson and then as we started to leave the house i thought oh boy I am going to have to make a lot of phone calls it is going to be a long night.

Immediately i started calling and I told elder Packard that we needed to go to the church and we went there and our companions also came there as well. We were calling for the next 6 hours trying to get a hold of missionaries and ensure that each was okay and was in the safety zone. There was a lot of people evacuating to get to the safety zone as a precaution for tsunami.

Anyway around 2:30 i had finished a report on the computer in the church and i sent that to the Daltons and then we were able to go rest for a few hours. A few hours later we met with president and sister Dalton to be able to talk a little bit about what we were going to do and some changes we were going to have to do. 

To be honest the news kinda overdoes things so don't worry to much. They show the worst of the worst. I mean there was definitely an 8.2 earthquake but we are OK.  The next day we were able to work a little bit in our sector. It was awesome! We had left a lesson and as we were walking up a member called out to us and we went over to his car and started talking with him. He was with his friend in the car and it was a referral that he wanted to give us that he had talked to us about. The Lord had put us there in the right place at exactly the right time.

After getting to know him a little bit we set an appointment with the member and yesterday we had a lesson with them in the house of the member along with 2 other referrals which became new investigators as well. Jeremy (the member) is from Angamos, the ward where i served in Antofagasta a year ago with Elder Silvester.

Jeremy told us that he has like 3 more referrals that he wants us to teach and they are all men with families. We are so stoked! The majority of them live in our area as well! What great blessings! We had a couple investigators to teach and the Lord just blesses us, just like that! 

From nothing we have all of these people to teach! Obedience truly brings miracles. The Lord is so good to us. All of these men are supposed to come to a session of general conference 

this afternoon. 

Anyways things are great here in the mission and everyone is okay. With the other earthquake that happened, it caught us in the night and we just got up and left the building and then we got in the cars and went for high ground and spent the night in the car. We were with President and sister Dalton and we called and communicated with the missionaries to account for all of them. 

That first session of General Conference was incredible! Wow! This is better than Christmas! So far here are a few of my favorite quotes "Pure Christlike love flowing from righteousness can change the world"-Elder Holland and when President Ereying said something like You hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can ever imagine. How true is that statement. How many people we can reach with small acts of service, and also the future generations that will enjoy the gospel because of our faithful living. 

The church is true my friends! I love you all! I am so happy!!!! As we maintain the spirit of the Lord in our lives we will be directed for good and will be blessed in many aspects. I pray that you continue to receive guidance and answers to your prayers. 

Oh yeah, this next transfer I will stay here in Antofagasta with Elder Galvez! Yahoo!!!

Onward and Upward, 

Elder Newman