3 WEEKS IN ARGENTINA!

ok so yesterday was father´s day so we almost couldn´t find a place open to email. apparently, the day after a holiday, everyone has the day off of work and everything is shut down. it´s weird.

first off one story. It´s been raining here like crazy so it is ridiculously cold. we were knocking doors the other day in the rain and this huge german shepherd jumped up on his fence and sprayed us with mud from his feet, then when we started walking away, he jumped the fence somehow and started charging at us. my companion bent down quickly to get a rock, but all we had were little pebbles and mud and he was coming to kill us. Luckily, he thought we had a big rock and ran away. we were breathing hard for a little after that haha. oh yeah i don´t think i ever told you that we clap at the doors. almost everyone has fences so to "knock" doors, we stand outside the fence and clap really loud. its kind of cool.

We were in an investigator´s house this week and we saw a news report about Bariloche, the area i wanted to go to first, it´s like a skiing town, just beautiful, but anyway, the news report said they were having huge civil unrest there. the police apparetnly killed a 14 year old boy and the whole city is in protest, throwing rocks at police and smashing stuff. the police have already killed 3 more, in the report, it had a video of a police man firing a shotgun into a huge crowd, so i´m sure more than just 3 are dead. i´m sure the missionaries there can´t even leave their houses! i´m a little glad i´m not there now, but it would be exciting.

Oh happy father´s day dad! and yes, i have been getting your emails, they´ve helped a lot. I haven´t had time to read all of them from this week because like i said, we barely found a place to email and we´re short on time today. we had a zone activity earlier where we ate pizza an elder made and played some soccer. i´m so bad at soccer it´s not even funny. but yeah we we´re playing and an elder got hit in the mouth by another elder´s shoulder when they jumped for the ball and it almost knocked out one of the his teeth. it was one of his front ones too and it was barely hanging on. he went to go find a place that could fix it but as he said, i wouldn´t want to go under the knife here in argentina. he´ll probably lose the tooth, but at least he´ll fit in here. i swear everyone here is mission most if not all of their teeth.

We run into a lot of testigos de jehovah down here, what´s that in english, witnesses of jehovah? i already can´t remember some english haha. but anyway, one thing i found out, most people outside the church believe jehovah is god the father and jesus christ is just jesus christ. I had no idea! i just grew up learning jehovah was jesus christ and i didn´t know anyone thought differently. But when we talk to them, that´s the main reason they won´t let us in, because we say jehovah is jesus.

I tried a little piece of heaven here this week. I got a churro. now that doesn´t sound that good, but imagine the most delicious, warm, soft, and sugary churro you´ve ever had and then mix in the fact that they fill the inside of the churro with dulce de leche. oh man they´re so good and they´re only 1 peso which is about 25 cents in the us. i could eat them all day.

We have some good progressing investigators. one is named patricia, she´s 17 and from peru. She lives with her dad here but her mom in up in peru still and she keeps telling her not to go to church and to quit listening to us. The good thing is that she keeps coming to church, she´s reading the book of mormon a lot and she keeps listening to us. We extended the baptismal committment to her yesterday and she said yes which made me so happy but then we remembered she is only 17 and needs her mom´s permission before she can get baptized. We´re going to teach her about the law of the fast this week so she can fast that her mom´s heart wil be softened and she´ll give permission to let her be baptized. We´re not supposed to have our families fast for investigators here otherwise, i´d ask you to as well, but yeah, as it is, i think we´ll get the whole ward to fast for her.

We also have an investigator named Blanca (yeah like from street fighters, kaleb and kessa). she´s about 45 and she´s progressing a lot. she´s smoking though, and she´s trying to stop but she has to completely stop before she can get baptized. we actually set a baptismal date with her because she is old enough to choose for herself so we´re working towards the 10th of july as her baptism. we have some other people who are getting close to a baptismal date as well.

Hey can you ask Holli if she knew anyone with the last name Cox in high school? There´s an elder here with that name who graduated from AF in 2009 and he played football. He´s in my zone, so it´s pretty cool that we ended up so close to each other. He lives just a little ways away from the mt. timp temple and could have been in our stake for all i know. but yeah, just check to see if she knows him.

Some things i need though. Kaleb, and dad, i love the sports updates you give me, keep them coming. no one ever knows what happened in the US soccer game because they only really care about argentina. hopefullly the us never plays them or that could be trouble. oh and my companion and i were talking about football this last week and i thought i remembered you telling me that brandon marshall left denver, but if that happened, where did he go? are there any other major changes in the nfl teams that i don´t know about? besides tim tebow, what happended in the draft, and who has the best upside in the nfl this year?


I´m glad to here from everyone, kaleb, i really liked your email about the priest´s camp. Holli, i´m really sorry, i haven´t read your email yet, so i cant respond to anything in this. don´t worry though, i´ll read it before i go. Dad, i´m really grateful for your emails, i really hope you can go to that spanish class at work, that would be cool. mom and kess, your emails are always good, thanks so much, wish me luck!
Love, elder newey

2 Weeks in Argentina and the World Cup

oh man where to start?

So the mundial...or i guess, the world cup. it started on friday with a game between mexico and someone like nigeria or something. argentina wasn´t even playing and they closed down the schools. we were nervous for the next day when argentina would play because eveyone would be watching the game and we didnt want them to get mad at us. we were right about mostly everything except that everyone was really nice that day. maybe they were all drunk or something but we got a ton of contacts that day. everyone we saw was wearing an argentina jersey and we knew when they scored because fireworks went off everywhere and the neighborhood we were in just exploded with noise. we saw some of the replays at a members house when we stopped by for lunch and argentina should have won like 5 0. the other teams goalie made some excellent saves. now that i think about it, i think argentina was playing nigeria but i´m not sure. the US tied with england or as its called here inglaterra but apparently it´s only because their goalie made a mistake and practically gave us a goal, haha. everyone here is in the soccer mood, everone plays soccer in the streets and the other games are always playing on tvs.

i´m getting more accustomed to the food here and i have to tell you, dulce de leche here is one of the best things i´ve ever had. it´s like a carmel spread that they put on everything and it´s exactly what it´s name says, it´s candy of milk. it really doesn´t have that much milk in it and it doesn´t bother my allergy so i´ve been eating a lot of it. i mix it in my oatmeal in the morning, i put it on bread, on apples, on everything, it´s so good.

speaking about food, i remembered some stuff i would like in a package. first, macaroni and cheese in a box like the kraft kind. also, some candy bars like twix, snickers, that good stuff. also, i might need you to send some more ibruprofen and tums, i´m not sure if i can get them here. i haven´t checked but if i can, they´re probably expensive.

but some stories for the week. we went to an investigators house on wednesday night and taught the first lesson and about joseph smith. then we found out that they are from what they call, the "universal church." they say that every religion is correct becuase they all have the same goal, to get to heavenly father again. so when we explained joseph smith and asked them what they thought, they said that they believed all of that. so then my comp asked them why they werent baptized in our church to which they said they didnt need to and that they were already saved. we tried to explain proper authority to them but they wouldnt accept any of it. they said¨"la PALABRA es la autoridad" or "the word is the authority". they think that anyone with the bible has authority to baptize and work ordinances. it absolutely ridiculous. they say they believe joseph smith was a prophet but they don´t know anything that he said and if they did, they would know that this is the only true church on the earth. it was really frustrating and my companion kind of started arguing with them, so much so that we missed our bus back to our apartment and to walk home would take about 2 hours...and it was already 9 at night. but we know we´re being looked after because the first car we tried to hitch a ride from happened to be a less active member who was going to our part of town. it was awesome.

we have some good investigators though. cirilo is one of them. he is from paraguay and is so nice. his house he made himself and is about six feet by six feet in area. whenever we come by to teach, he wipes down our chairs and lays out rags on the seats for us. no one else in argentina would do that. he came to church yesterday and he said he liked it a lot. we keep asking him if he´s read and he always says there isn´t enough light in his apartment, but i think he just can´t read and is embarassed by it so he won´t tell us. i really hope we can get him baptized.

oh here´s a good story. so on saturday, we were knocking houses in this one barrio (neighborhood) and it was about 800 so already dark (the sun goes down around 630 here). we were going to stop by an investigator´s house and then these two boys ran up to us asking for a folleta, or pamphlet thing. we asked them why and then they started being dumb asking for marijuana and stuff. then like six more boys ran up and all we about 10 or 11 years old and they started mocking and making fun of us. then one tried to kick my comp in the area so we started to walk away. one then asked where we were from and when we said the US, they started chanting "argentina! argentina!" and started throwing rocks at us! at first they were just pebbles but then one about the size of a golf ball hit elder whitaker in the side of the head. he almost lost it and turned around to get mad at them and they all scattered. he was so mad the rest of the night but again we were protected. only one rock hit us and it hardly left a mark on my comp´s head. he just has a little bump there. it´s just crazy that little kids have nothing better to do than harass the missionaries. but at least now we can identify with the scripture, where missionaries are mocked, and hit, and stoned for the sake of truth.

i think that´s about all that´s happened. i´m starting to understand more and people say my spanish is really good for how long i´ve been here. thanks for all the emails, i loved all of them. wish me luck with my investigators! I love everyone of you so much!

love, elder newey

COMODORO RIVADAVIO, ARGENTINA

Hi! it´s so great to read english, haha. i have a good deal of time on the internet, close to an hour so email away. so here is my story and my keyboard doesn´t have a good shift key so i just won´t use it.

i left utah at eight on monday and we got to buenos aires at around 930 our time so 630 your time on tuesday. we spent that day flying to neuquen and meeting the president and stuff. we spent the night in a building next to the missoin home and the next moring, we met our new companions. mine is elder whitaker from pleasant view utah, and weér pretty similar. he loves a bunch of sports and his favorite team is the saints so he was mad when they won the super bouwl becuase he was out here. but yeah, we did some door contacts on wednesday until our bus left at 10 at night. we rode the bus for 16 hours to my new area, comodoro. so in all, it took 4 days and 3 hours, calculating in all of the time changes, before i got to my first area. But yeah, go look up comodoro on a map or on google earth, im right by the coast so its always windy and freezing cold. luckily there is no snow but its a desert so the sand is constantly blowing in your face. the wind is unlike anything we have back in utah, i can literally let it hold me up if i lean into it.

when i first got here, i couldn´t understand a word that was said to me, they all talk to fast and have an an argentinian accent, but i´m starting to pick up on words and stuff. i just exchanged all of my dollars to pesos, 120 dollars worth to 460 pesos. sweet exchange i would say, but i don´t really know...when we´re done here, we´re going to go grocery shopping and stuff. the meals aren´t quite like how i heard they would be. i heard you never stop eating but that isn´t true. we eat breakfast at the pension and then eat a big luch with a member and that´s it. we have to eat when we get back to our pension at night. but it´s all good, we have plenty of food and stuff, just around 830, you start getting really hungry because your body is used to more food at that time.

the dogs here are insane. a couple are nice and just follow us around for a block or so, being scratched and stuff. the others try to attack us and we have to bend down to pick up a rock, which they all understand means ´¨run away¨. the other day though, i just had to carry a rock with me to keep them back. the nice ones follow you and bump your leg with their noses and it´s kind of a weird experience because your heart always jumps because you think it is another dog tring to bite you.

i had my first sunday yesterday and the members were all really nice. a lot of them call me ¨the baby¨ because i look so young. I had to bare my testimony in sacrament, the bishop asked us to because no one was coming up, haha, but everyone says i can talk pretty well, but i can understand next to nothing. it´s true too, i have to ask people to repeat themselves over and over until i pick up on one word that i can kind of know what they´re talking about. it´s a lot of fun though.

i really need the prayers because people aren´t that receptive down here so keep praying that we´ll be guided to those who have been prepared. especially when the world cup starts, no one is going to open their doors, it´s going to be tough.

don´t worry about me though, i´m warm and safe

love, elder newey

ps. it would be kind of bad if someone broke into our pension so maybe you should pray that that doesn´t happen either.

FROM ARGENTINA WITH LOVE!
I just got a call from the Mission President wife in Argentina! She said Elder Newey was there safe and sound and that she already loves him. She said he had a huge smile on his face through the whole training day, and was volunteering to do anything they asked. That really makes a Mom happy, I must say.
His first companion is from Pleasant View, UT and he will be serving on the coast right by the Atlantic Ocean. His area is called Comodoro Rivadavia. We looked at pictures and it looks beautiful, but dry and arid. Patagonia is a desert after all!
His P Day is Monday so we'll be hoping for a long email, but knowing Hayden we'll probably get a short note telling us how great it is. Hey, a mom needs details!!
We are so happy to know he is safe and happy and serving the Lord.
-Gretchen Newey (Mom)