6 months in Argentina!

first off to Kaleb, I completely understand that you have no time because of college writing, but are you learning a ton? It should prepare you so well for the act. Love it though, that the chargers lost to the Seahawks, they seem to be having a rough year Ha!

Hey thanks for kyle´s letter, man does it bring back good memories. It sounds like he´s going to love his companions which really is the only way you can love the mtc so he´s got some good times ahead of him. Could you try to put a little of his letters in your email each week? I really enjoyed reading it and hearing some news about him. Hey, dad told me that ryan is starting his papers, do you know when he is going to send them in? I can´t wait to hear where he´s going.

Mom, thanks for the addresses, I´m going to start writing a letter to sean today, but wow I have a lot to tell him. Things are going better with my companion and I´ll find out this next Saturday night if I´m going or not. We have general conference this weekend which I´m really really excited for. Oh, before I forget, I forgot last week to comment on the fact that kaleb is getting taller. Did I call it or not? I was just almost dead on when I said he would grow at the end of his junior year. I´m going to have to practice hard to be able to beat him in basketball when I get back. Hey how did billy´s wedding go, or is it not for a while? you said you weren´t probably able to go but i´m sure you´ll hear all about it from other people in the family. How is reece´s leg? you said she hurt it again, did it turn out to be a bad injury or just minor?

So my story for the week. With elder whitaker, we tried to teach a 17 year old girl named Nilce who has had a really hard life. she lives all along in this huge house that is her mom´s but her mom is working in El Bolson, a city about 10 hours from here so she never sees her. She has horrible friends and smokes marijuana (which is legal here) almost every other day and definitely every weekend and we wanted to help her so bad. The problem was always that she was really hard to find home and we needed a member to come with us because she is always home alone. So if we pass, there has to be another adult male with us or we´re breaking mission rules. So with elder whitaker, I never taught her, I always just saw her at the grocery store where she works, but about a week ago, elder rengifo and I finally caught her home. she was of course alone so we just left her a plan of salvation pamphlet and said we´d come back with a member next week. We gave her our cell phone number so if she needed anything she could send us a text message and we´d call her when we could. So this weekend, we got two messages from her. They were, "hey I need your help. My friends want me to go to a baliche (or night club) with them but I don´t want to smoke anymore." and the second was "hey I just finished reading the pamphlet and it gave me a lot of grief and I feel really bad right now." Obviously that was not the intention of the pamphlet so we called her as soon as we could to talk to her which was Friday night. And in the call, she opened up incredibly. At first she started talking about the pamphlet and how bad she felt, and then she told us how alone she feels in that huge house without any family there, and then she said "I just really miss my mom." and she started to cry. All this was over the phone and elder rengifo and I were looking at each other wondering what to do and what to say. So we started teaching her the plan of salvation and how it is meant to give us hope in our lives and she started bombarding us with questions like "why do some people starve while others eat huge banquets, and she told us a story of how she bought a sandwich for a kid who was begging for food and this kid gave her a kiss when she gave him the sandwhich," just a bunch of feelings that were deep down inside her finally coming out. She said, "So does God exist? Does he really exist?" She told us how she had done everything she had done only because she had never known that he really existed and how she now felt terrible. We tried to explain that she was now feeling the godly sorrow necessary for repentance and by the end of the call, both elder rengifo and I were almost in tears as well. I´m sure if I had been there in person I would have been crying as well, but really, this is why I´m out here. These are the experiences that really make the mission and it´s weird that I could feel so much to someone I´ve really only talked to through the phone and who I really don´t know, but I guess that´s the nature of the mission. We´re planning on going over to her house on tuesday to teach her some more and I think she will be really open to us so now that transfers are finally coming, I don´t really want to leave. I´ll go where I have to though and just hope that she does what she needs to to be baptized.

Well that´s it for the week. I´m way excited for general conference and the fact that we´ll be listening to the same exact message even though we´re thousands of miles apart. Thanks for everything, really, I´ll check the bolsa to see if my packages got here today. Love you!
elder newey

A Week of Enduring

Hey first off, in your email to elder whitaker´s mom, tell her to tell him that he has no idea how many seeds he sowed while he was here. We just found someone out in Restinga who he and elder carlos taught the second lesson to and when we knocked his house, he come out with the plan of salvation pamphlet in his hand. To make a long story short, he has a baptismal date now so we´re really excited for that. The cool thing was that we didn´t even set the date, he did. At the end of the second teaching visit, we asked him if he had any questions and he said, "yeah. I would like to be baptized" Ha! music to a missionary´s ears. Oh and tell him I finally confirmed someone and that it wasn´t so bad but I´m still glad I didn´t do it with Patricia haha.

Anyway, I loved hearing about kyle´s farewell. I´m also excited to get ryan´s letter. Speaking of letters, I´m sending kyle´s letter today but it´s addressed to his home so tell sister clements to be looking for it to send it on to him in the mtc. To answer one of your questions, one thing that everyone could send me is pictures of their family. That is, pictures of them on vacations, playing sports, everything. Also, I thought I would be more specific of the pictures I want from you. Pictures of moab (especially the pictures of us jumping off the huge rock), other vacations, pictures of football, pictures of snowboarding, snow, stuff like that. People here like to see what it is like in Utah.

Hey is there any way that you could ask Nick if he got my letter I sent to him? also, did you get sean halbleib´s address for me?

So it´s still not sure if I´m leaving or not. sometimes i really really want to leave and then other times I really really want to stay. We´re starting week 5 of the transfer now and we´ll find out if i´m going saturday of week 6. It´s is way weird that I´ve been out for almost 6 months, it´s just flown by.

Hey next week, could you send me a list of everything that is going to be in the next package and also everything you sent in the last package. You sent that last one like three weeks ago right? I´m keeping my eye open for it.

Well, we´re just working hard. The wind has been absolutely crazy here lately. I think when it begins to transition from one season to the next, the wind picks up a ton. On sunday, there was quite honestly the most powerful wind I´ve ever felt.

I don´t have a ton of stories for the week, but we´re working hard and I´m having a good time. Sometimes my comp still bugs me but we´re getting along all right. Thanks for everything, i´ll write more next week. love you

elder newey

Yeah I´m wishing for warmth still. It´s getting a lot hotter but the problem is one day it will be roasting hot and the next will be bitterly cold so you never know when you´re getting ready in the morning what kind of day it will be, so sometimes I just guess and dress for warmth when it turns out to be really cold or the other way around haha. It´s not for sure that I leave this transfer but I´m pretty sure I´m going. That´s the pattern at least and I think I´ll follow it. I will be happy for a change. Tell me all about Kyle´s farewell this next week and I really liked Brady´s facebook status.

Anyway now for the family email. I´m attaching some pictures of the baptism we had on Saturday and also some other pictures I have taken. One is of something I made to hold all of the coins I have because as a missionary you save every bit of money you have haha but I sewed a broncos symbol on it that I´m kind of proud of. I think it looks pretty good at least.

So we baptized David and Alicia Peña this saturday, elder rengifo baptized David and I baptized Alicia. Then I also had to confirm Alicia in Sacrament meeting yesterday which I was really worried for but it was all good, I shouldn´t have worried.

Other than the baptism, nothing really happened. I´m getting really anxious for a change so I´m really hoping I get transferred in a few weeks. The office is now keeping our passports safe in the office so I don´t have to worry about that anymore.

Oh hey, elder Slater´s friend, elder justice, is writing him a letter but he doesn´t know his home address so he´s going to send it to you and then you can give it to elder Slater. I thought that would be easier than asking you to find out his address so be looking for that letter in a month or so.

Everything is good though, I feel good, working hard, having fun. I´m so excited for Kyle! I´m going to write short so I can work on sending the pictures, so bye for this week, love you and thanks for everything
Elder Newey

So Billy´s getting married in the temple? that´s excellent. Did he go back to college or what is he planning on doing for a career? I´m excited for him either way, he´s basically like an uncle to us haha.

So the other day I was writing in my journal and realized that it had been exactly one year since I started working at the developemental center. Can you believe that was a year ago? It´s going to be like that in March when I complete a year. I already almost have 6 months on the mission. Oh hey, elder justice wanted me to pass a message to elder slater (i know he isn´t an elder anymore but i don´t know his name) that he is writing him a letter right now so it just get there in about a month or so.

Oh man i´m so excited for Kyle! He´s probably so prepared it is going to be awesome to hear stories from him in Japan. Do you know what his mail address is giong to be in Japan so I can write him? But yeah, tell him happy birthday from me on the 10th, and i´m going to be sending a present, or maybe just a picture, i don´t know yet. Oh man he´s going to love the mtc. Hey also, could you try to find out Sean Halbleib´s address? He´s my friend who is serviing in Russia and I want to write him but I don´t know his address. He almost has a year already on his mission.

Well, about my comp. At the beginning of this last week, i honestly wanted to kill him. I don´t know why but everything he did just rubbed me the wrong way. Everything he said seemed so self righteous to me and I just couldn´t stand it. So I was going to get really mad at him on Thursday during our comp inventory but that morning I decided that I was the one who was being really proud haha so quite literally, I forced myself to get along with him. It wasn´t easy but I think I accomplished it. I humbled myself and now I really like the guy, and I´m learning a lot from him. He still likes to complain a lot but He´s a good missionary and he teaches really well and we´ll have a lot of success together.

This week we found an old guy in his 70´s who had already been taught by a bunch of other missionaries. We didn´t know about it, but he was in our area book, he was about to be baptized even but he can´t give up smoking. So we put another fecha with him and are working with his smoking problem now. The problem is that I would like to give him like a nicotine patch or that nicotine gum stuff that helps people stop smoking easier but it doesn´t exist down here. It´s frustrating but I think we can get him to stop. He told us that he went a whole day smoking only one cigarette, but the problem is that we honestly don´t know if he is lying or not. I hope he´s not. He´s way awesome, he already knows everything and has a way strong testimony.

It´s been really rainy here and I´m still waiting for it to warm up. We have our baptism this saturday with david and alicia so next monday i´ll send you some pictures of it.

I think that´s it for the week though. the time is flying by, before we know it, I´ll have 1 year out, then 1 and a half, and then I´ll be home! Thanks for everything, love you
Elder newey