Investigators

Elder Whitaker is counting down the days (speaking of which, did you ever get a response from his mom to my message?) until he goes home. Two of the elders in my zone, including my zone leader will be going home this transfer with him so our whole zone is getting shaken up. Everyone says i´m going to train but we´ll see what happens. I´d be content to train, since it can´t be much more work than being District Leader is which isn´t as hard as I thought it would be.

Did you ever look through some pictures of the brotherhood to send to me? I got that picture of kyle and darth vader which was awesome. the sooner the better though, with the others. because i´ll probably only have one more week with elder oakeson and i need to use his card reader to put pictures on my memory card.

an interesting story for the week. So there is a family in the branch and one of their sons got baptized right before i got moved over here. The mom used to be lds but she changed to Evangelica a ways back, yeah lame. But we were teaching her and her "husband" and they were both getting excited about the church and they actually went to church once and they loved it. Then their pastor got to them and convinced them to drop us which was kind of disappointing. The pastor obviously lied to them about us because she asked us one day, "so who do you guys believe Christ is?" The pastor probably told them that we don´t believe in christ and all the old lies like that. But, during divisions this week, elder oakeson and a member went by them to see Brian, the son who got baptized. When he wasn´t there, they planned on sharing a quick scripture and then leaving, but the mom started to tell them about a dream she had...so apparently in this dream, she was at the judgement or the last days or whatever, but either way, christ had come again and everything was set. Then two guys came up to her, she never said if they were missionaries or what they looked like but they told her that the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints in the only true church on the earth and that she was messing up big time. and that was the dream. pretty straight forward if you ask me. It obviously got on her mind though because she can´t stop thinking about it and now we have another "in" to start teaching them again. I´ll keep you posted on what happens.

about your question on whether i´ll have time here, if i do end up training here, i´ll be here for at least the next three months and there is no way i´m leaving this transfer since elder oakeson has been here for three already so yeah i´ll have plenty of time here.

did adam get the picture i sent him? i thought he would like it. anyway, i think that´s everything for now. if i missed any questions, well...let me know next week haha. Love you!

elder newey

Maggots and My Birthday

haha i like the happy birthday wishes. Josh´s was especially funny. I really liked Brady´s too haha. Yeah it´s weird that i´m half way to being 40...that´s seems pretty long away but when i really think about it, it´s really not at all haha.

Things are good with my new companion, he´s a little frustrated at the moment with spanish because it´s just hard sometimes. The members aren´t exactly the ray of sunshine he needs either, they aren´t very encouraging but I defend him from their jokes so maybe eventually they´ll get the message. If not, i´ll have to drop the cane because elder oakeson just told me yesterday that he actually hates going to church. something has to be changed. My apartment though, is better in some ways, and worse in others than the one i had in alto 2. It´s a good deal bigger, more open and we have two fridges so we don´t have to just share one as a companionship which is pretty cool. The bathroom isn´t as good as the one i had before but it´s not too bad. Interesting story about the pension though that i´m sure you won´t like but i think it is funny. the other day, we were going out to work, and elder oakeson notices a bunch of big rice-looking things around the door that are moving. Yeah, they were maggots and they were everywhere so we do some investigating, and turns out we forgot to take out the chicken bones of a lunch from a couple weeks before and the flies had gotten in and laid their eggs everywhere. Don´t worry, we took tons of pictures haha. It´s under control now though, and we have pension inspections this week so we´ll have to super deep clean everything today...

I did buy a new camera. It´s working fine, i´ve had it for a good month or so so things are good.

About the brotherhood pictures, I need a couple different pictures of the four of us if you can find some, and they don´t necessarily have to be recent. Then I also need a couple pictures of each of them alone in the picture. Then whatever else you find that you think I´ll like haha. I´m making them all something they can use on the mission and i need to pictures for it.

I´ll send Adam the picture today haha. Also, let me know when you put the money in my account for extra fast offerings. The woman´s name is Yanina and the members have really rallied together and have given her a bunch of stuff. I just saw her son in centro about an hour ago and he said his sister is doing a lot better. The last thing I knew was that she was even sicker than before and she still doesn´t get into the doctor until the 22 because of the healthcare system here. He said they are doing better though but i´m not sure if he was just saying that.

About the work in my area, we don´t have as many investigators as I did in Alto 2 but we have found a couple families who are really excited. The two families happen to be really good friends too which we didn´t know until yesterday so they can help each other get to church and get baptized and everything. I´m getting really pumped about them. The dad of one of the families has his mom who is a member and apparently, a few weeks ago, she talked to him for a long time about finding the truth and trying to make contact with the missionaries. This took place up in Santa Fe about 3000 kilometers away (that´s what he says anyway, i´m not sure how accurate that is) and his mom also said a really strong prayer for him that he would be able to find the truth in his life with his family. The day he got back to Bariloche, he was over at his friend´s house, and we happened to pass by in the street. He saw us and remembered what his mom had told him and prayed to happen but he didn´t come out and stop us to talk to him. Then, one day, we were going to an appointment and we were a little late so we didn´t catch the bus we usually do. So we waited for the next one, and this bus happened to be the one he was on. Then, as he says, we happen to stand right next to where he is sitting on the bus. He says it was just too much to all be coincidence so he started to talk to us, asking where the church is and we set up the appointment to go by the week pasada. that´s when we heard all of that story and we were pretty blown away. what a miracle right? His name is Marcelo and his wife is Roxana and they have a son named Franco and I´m thinking all will get baptized. I´m so excited.

It´s no problem that the package will be late, i´m just excited to get the letters. also, will the allergy medicine be in there?

I think that´s it for the week though. I hope i answered all of your questions. Love you!

elder newey

DL

I guess I´ll give you a report about what happened in transfers. Well, I got transfered...yeah, I didn´t want to but I guess it´s not that bad since I´m still in Bariloche haha. Yeah, it almost never ever happens but I got moved to a different area in my same district to be district leader. And, it´s like you said, I´m comps with Elder Oakeson who only has a few transfers out here. I´m way excited to work with him, we´re already way tight and I love the kid to death. We´re going to have a ton of success together and we have high goals for our district after my first district meeting as DL. I´m kind of dissapointed that I won´t be able to visit Lucas or Vanesa anymore but at least i´ll still see them at church. My new area is called Frutillar and it a branch, which is something new for me. It´s hard because we don´t have a lot of investigators like in Alto 2 and this week, we´ve just been knocking doors ALL day. It´s been a lot of fun...but the fruits will come.

It´s been really really hot this week. Talking to the people here, this never happens in December but we´ve had five days in a row that are just burning hot. It´s been absolutely unreal. We´re dying of heat and the people here are basically not wearing clothes, so that´s interesting in contacts and stuff haha.

I don´t have a ton to report this week, I´m just having fun sharing the gospel! Everyone remember to read the scriptures! sometimes we take them for granted and you don´t realize it until you meet people who have lived their whole lives without them and you see what kind of life they live without purpose and without faith. Love you all!

elder newey