ALMOST DONE IN THE MTC

Well it pounded snow here this morning so that means it probably was the same there. This was kind of a boring week, but our new district is loaded with basketball talent. One of the elders even walked onto the BYU basketball team. He plays at like 25% all the time and still works us.

Oh I almost forgot. I got my travel plans this week. Unfortunately, this doesn't guarantee that I got my visa. I won't find our if it came until Thursday or Friday of this week, so keep praying for it to come! But if everything goes according to plan, I'll go to the travel office here at 8:00 in the morning so I should leave here around 830. That means I'll get up to the airport around 9:30 and my flight won't leave until 12:10 so I'll have a really big window to call you. If my visa doesn't come though, and I get delayed, I'll email you early next monday so you aren't waiting around for a phone call that won't come. But if you don't get an email, it means I got my visa because I won't get to email at all monday if i'm leaving. My flight from Salt Lake goes to Atlanta Georgia where we have a huge layover until like 8 at night. Then the flight to Buenos Aires will take a full 12 hours, from where we'll fly probably another 3 hours to Neuquen. Once at Neuquen, I'll get on a bus to go to my area and if it is al the way down south, that could be another 20 hours of travel on the road, so in all, it could be around 2 and a half days until I get to my area. So if you don't get an email next monday, be ready for the call and I'll be on my way to Argentina! So yeah please just make sure that I have some extra money in my account so I will have plenty to check my bags and stuff. I'll do what you said and pay for food with cash and just check bags with the card, that should keep it relatively safe and not stolen.

Other than this, nothing has happened. I just sent a package with some stuff I won't need. I'm so excited for Brady to come in, but I don't think I'll be hosting this week. We've done it for the last two weeks in a row so I guess they thought that was enough for us. I'll keep my eyes open though and I told the district from our zone that is hosting to look for him and let me know where he is. In your letter you said he was coming in Tuesday at 1:15 but I'm hoping you meant Wednesday at that time, otherwise I won't be able to see him because I have class at that time on tuesdays. but anyway, it will be awesome to see him and that's also the day Kyle's getting his mission call! I'm pumped to see where he's going. When are the clements going to russia again? I know it has to be soon I just can't remember.

Oh yeah, how much is left in school? Will everyone be out when I'm calling? I'd like to talk to everyone since I'll have so much time. I'll bring a lot of quarters or you could buy a phone card and send it to me this week, that would probably be easier.

Anyway, I'm way excited. I hope my visa comes through. President Watkins says that as long as you turned everything in on time you should be good and I'm sure we did that. I think we even had it in a few weeks early. And when I say WE had it in, I mean you, mom and dad, had it in because I was being such a slacker.

But I love you all. I love the letters so much, Kaleb's letters are a short breathe of sanity in here. I love hearing from Holli and Kessa and Keith, just keep those letters coming. That's almost all I have to look forward to.

Pray for that stupid visa!

Love, Elder Newey

Week 6, or is it 7???

Dear fam,

Well, three of my favorite elders in our zone left on thursday, so on tuesday night, we had a huge sleepover in their room. Ten of us fit mattresses in there and it was so packed. One elder even slept on top of our dressers. You can imagine the smell in that room, but it was so much fun, it was worth it, and we weren't breaking any rules either. I still need to develop the pictures i got before I can send you any. Elder Newell, one of the leaving elders, said something about his best friend from college named Eric Stapley and that all of his family is from Washington. So I just wanted to ask, what exactly is my relation to the Stapleys and do they have a son named Eric serving in Brazil right now? It would be kind of cool if we were somehow related.

Edler Holland spoke to us on tuesday and he gave the best talk I have ever heard. I've never had a general authority yell at me from the pulpit before. He spoke about the importance of missions and how irritated he gets when he sees missionaries wasting time. He said how tired he is of talking to missionaries about obedience. He bore the strongest testimony at the end. He said some great things like, "You don't have the right to come home from your mission and go inactive," and "somehow, as they pray, the small children who are looking up to you understand to a small degree what you are doing-- don't you dare let them down." I'm so happy I got to hear him speak, he's my new favorite.

I did get the pen Kessa made for me. It's such a nice pen, I carry it around with me everywhere I go and I brag about it to other missionaries I don't even know. Give her a big hug for me. I really liked Summer's book too. My favorite picture she drew was the penguin.

So I took a spanish assessment test thing this past week. It scores you on a scale of 1-7 and if you get a 7, you're like a native speaker, but I'm not usre how accurate the test is because I got a 5.5, and my spanish isn't that good. At least I didn't think it was. I'll bear my testimony at the end so dad can tell me for real how my spanish is coming.

that's awesome that Kessa made it into Musical Theater. I definitely wouldn't have had the courage to do that in 8th grade. I'm glad everyone is doing good. I'm glad Addie is better too. It's so weird that Kaleb is almost a senior and that Kessa is almost in 9th grade! crazy. I should be getting my travel plans this week on thursday. Pray for my visa to come! I'm so excited to get to Argentina and start teaching real people rather than these fake investigators we have to practice on.

Well, I wish everyone luck. I guess I'll say my testimony here, but I can't really put on accents, just be aware.

Jesucrist es mi salvador. A traves su expiacion, podemos vivir con dios despues esta vida. Por el poder de Dios, daba a Jose Smith, el Libro de Mormon fue traducido. Se que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta verdadero sobre la tierra hoy. Yo se que el poder del sacerdocio fue restaurado a Jose Smith en estes ultimos dias. Estoy tan feliz ser un misionero y estoy agradecido por la ayuda que me dan. Todos los amo y amo este trabajo. Este Evangelio es el camino solo a recebir perdon para nuestros pecados. Yo amo esta iglesia. Esta iglesia es mi vida. Jesucristo vendra otro ves en poder y gran gloria. El Espiritu Santo es tan fuerza aqui, y lo siento cada dia.

I don't really have much to say but yeah, en el nombre do jesucristo, amen.

I love the letters you send me, thanks for everything.

Love, Elder Newey

WEEK 5

First off, you asked some questions in your last letters. Three other missionaries from my district are going to my same mission, elder thoelke, elder adams, and hermana byam, but an hermana elsey from anvanced spanish district will also be coming with us. Oh and I'm not quite sure what I'll be sending home before I leave but for sure i'll send back the pocketwatch and just buy a cheap wristwatch here.

Did you get the email from Brother Taylor? He's one of the counselors in our branch presidency and he is just awesome. He said he would email a 25 letter message to our moms for mothers day so we wouldn't be breaking any rules since we weren't actually the ones using the computers.

I'm glad to hear Holli got into the art prgram. Is it actually a college thing or just online? I am really excited for summers book, I hope she finishes it soon so I can get it before I leave. It's crazy that I only have three weeks left. As soon as kyle gets his call, you have to write me so I can know before I leave because they changed my departure date to the 31 of this month. Also, when does Lindsay Williams get her call? did she just put in her papers?

I like what Kaleb made you for mother's day, Elder Taylor and I were quoting psych all day after we read that letter.

It's a 4/5 chance that the general authority that is coming tomorrow will be from the quorum of the twelve. The word is that it will be Eyring, but rumors just arent that believable here. it would be so awesome if he did come, one of my friends is playing a musical number in the meeting so he'll get to shake his hand if it is Eyring. This week, we started teaching all in spanish. It's actually not as hard as I thought it would be, because whenever you get stuck, your companion just takes over and helps. That's why I'm so glad my companion isn't a slacker because the other two male companionships have the problem that only one person teaches and the other just sits there looking dumb. I would be so mad if Elder Taylor did that, but he doesn't. Elder Taylor was sick this week though, throwing up and stuff. It gave me a lot of free time to just read Jesus the Christ which has to be one of the best books i've ever read. Kaleb should start reading it now, it's really not that hard to understand.

One and a half of the districts in our zone are leaving this week, in fact, the one district just left this morning. The half are going to the Dominican Republic mtc so our zone is going to consist of maybe 14 people after thursday. Hopefully, we'll get a new district this week. Everyone thought Elder Taylor and i were going to be called to be the new zone leaders but luckily we're already five weeks in and they like the zone leaders to be leaders for a while so they called someone from the newer district.

I'm really sorry I missed mother's day, it was hard to remember to mail my card while Elder Taylor was sick.

Everyone here has been asking what my address in Argentina is going to be so I really need my call letter and packet. I don't remember if we packed it or not but I don't think we did since I can't find it. The packet should have the address of my mission home in it, but if it doesn't, could you just send the address of my missoin home in a letter?

Oh I never got those pictures of reese in an email like you said I would get. It's not a big deal, I'm just reminding you. Have you heard anything from nick? I can't wait for brady to get in here. I should have a good five days to find him.

Well I think that's it. I hear the jazz are down 3-0. dumb lakers. Keep me posted, the dear elders are awesome. Oh and could you maybe send me a picture of the cousins and stuff? I tell stories about summer and people (mainly the hermanas) want to see what she looks like.

I would write something in spanish but i have one minute left and I don't know what to say so,

Bye

Love, elder newey

May 3, 2010 Email from Hayden

We hit our half way point this sunday. It's crazy how quickly it has gone by.

So every tuesday, we get to have a talk from a general authority, usually one from the seventy. This week, however, we started hearing rumors that it was going to be an apostle, and when Elder Taylor and I happened upon a program for the devotional, we found out who it was going to be. L. Tom Perry. By the time of the devotional, almost everyone knew an apostle was coming but only a few knew exactly who so it was almost a brawl to get a close seat. Elder Taylor and I had to abandon our district so we could have some sweet seats right in the middle, but it just had to be done. He spoke about the Book of Mormon and he was a lot more blunt and open then he normally is in conference. It was sweet though and aparently we're supposed to get four more in the upcoming weeks.

On another note, I'm really glad I got to participate in so many priesthood blessings before coming here. One of the hermanas needed a blessing and I was the only one who had ever sealed an annointing. It was good practice for the other elders but I just thought it was weird when they read the words off of a card.

On Wed. I think, Elder Taylor and I were messing around just being dumb and he tried to sneak into a building like a ninja. However, the door caught his shirt and wripped it all the way up his side. Everyone gave us the weirdest looks on our way back to our resident hall where he could change. Now we are drawing pictures and writing stuff on it. It's really funny.

We got a new district leader on Sunday and I was thankful when I wasn't called. The funny thing is that the branch president doesn't tell you you've been called until he announces it in sacrament so we were all scared about being called.

We had our first Mission Conference on sunday which is a two hour meeting where the entire mtc presidency speaks. President Smith got up and started calling us all out on different rules that he felt we weren't observing. The only one that applied to me was no writing letters on any day other than P-day. So in order to be obedient in all things, it looks like you'll only be getting emails from now only unless i'm sending home pictures or something.

Other than that, it's been about the same thing as the other weeks. The days are starting to mix together so I have to look in my journal before I write my emails to remind me about what happened. I had forgotten about L. Tom Perry even. It feels like he came three weeks ago.

Oh, I met some missionaries going to Bulgaria and they should still be here when Brady comes in. I don't think anyone told me what time Brady is coming in yet though. I could very well be hosting that day since our zone is losing two districts in the next week. I think it would be awesome to host him, even though it's really not that big of a deal. That's just what you start looking forward to in the MTC, Tuesday devotionals and new missionaries.

I really love all of the Dear Elder letters you have been sending. Did the jazz kick out the Nuggets, and if so, how are they doing against the Lakers? I really want to see some pictures of Reese with her cast on. Is she doing better, or has she rebroken her leg? It wouldn't surprise me.

But I'm still having a great time. I still have a great relationship with Elder Taylor, however, this week, there has been a little friction in our district. i was told it was bound to happen but I was just surprised when it really did. One of the elders, Elder Thoelke, completely freaked out at the hermanas. He's kind of a strange elder and you'll see why. The main reason he was mad at them is because they wouldn't let him take their dinner trays once or twice. That's about it. But he told them that they had all of the qualities that his older sister, who he hates, has. Then Hermana Byam started fighting back, and this was all at dinner so I was trying so hard not to laugh and then I looked at our zone leader and saw he was covering his mouth with his hands, trying not to laugh too. This made me laugh which brought attentino to both of us at which point he said "estoy aqui para ensenar y aprender y compartir my testimonio acerca de Jesucristo..." and he went on for a good thirty seconds just spouting off spanish. It was one of the funniest moments of my life because elder thoelke was so mad over such a small thing. I guess we're just starting to see people's true characters.

But anyway, have a good week and be safe everyone. I'll try to send home some pictures here soon but it's hard to find time in the day.

Love, elder Newey