*We don't get long emails from Elder Newey anymore. He is too busy doing the work. Here are a few emails from Aug-Oct that we have received. 6 months to go! -Gretchen
AUGUST 29th
yeah it´s really long but it has kind of flown by me down here. this transfer went by really quickly just like all of the transfers haha.
this next transfer i should be training i think it would be really unlikely for my companion to stay another transfer here. he´s thinks he´s staying but he just doesn´t understand the mission like i do, haha just kidding i am really going to miss the guy when he leaves but i´m about 98% positive he´s leaving. i´m pretty excited to train though but it´s going to be difficult. this transfer has been different from what i´m used to because i have a comp who is still learning the language but i guess i just better get used to it. I can´t believe that Kyle has already trained three times! what a stud. it´s wierd that they keep moving his companions away after one transfer since it´s supposedly supposed to be really really rare that a trainer isn´t with his companion for at least two transfers in this new training program.
yeah i`ll ask my president what the plan is when i go up to Neuquen to get my son. we call the newbies our "sons" and the trainers are the "dads" so you´ll have another grandkid in one more week haha.
about the calculator, i thought Kaleb was using it so i really have no idea. I always put it into the cubbies but it could be in my room somewhere. hey, just a question, what have you guys done with my room? do you use it for something or is it just there, empty?
so you´ve had some thunder storms? that´s something i haven´t experienced in a long time. apparently here in the summer there are a lot of thunder storms but as for now it´s just cold and we´ve had some good wind storms lately so hopefully all that goes away soon.
How is Jordan doing? does he plan on going to college right now? poor guy i am not very excited to go through what he`s going through. life after the mission must be really different.
well that´s about all i have for the week. I´ll let you know next week if i´m training or not. love you!
SEPT 11th
I´ll tell you all about my companion, Elder Ross from vernal, utah. he´s is ridiculously tall, like 6´3´´ and he´s way cool. he came in and he´s just excited to do everything and to just be a missionary. his spanish is already awesome and i´m pumped to work with him. he hasn´t shown that he´s homesick at all, quite the contrary haha. we´re going to have a bunch of success together!
so a story from last week that i forgot to tell you in my last email. so you guys were talking about baby blessings and stuff and you made me remember that two sundays ago i also participated in a baby blessing. so a less active family showed up to bless their baby and there was apparently a miscommunication between the bishop and them but in the end, the baby wasn´t blessed before the sacrament. so the family was getting way mad and the bishop was saying that they couldn´t do it until the next month. so that´s when i stepped in and got everything worked out and saved the blessing. but then the guy who was doing the blessing had no clue what he was supposed to say so he ended up doing a mix between a baby blessing and a confirmation haha. i was standing by him and made him do it again and this time i had to wisper the words in his ears which made him mad because he has some argentine pride but i was like, listen, if you knew had to do this right, i wouldn´t have to tell you the words. but we got it out in the end. it was pretty intense though since all of this was happening during the fast and testimony meeting haha. good times though.
so yeah, things are all good here. sorry i don´t have time to upload any pictures of my comp because the internet is having problems. next week though, i promise to send some. love you!
SEPT 19th
yeah my comp is the fourth in his family to go on a mission so i`m sure his mom is a veteran already. but yeah, we`re doing really good here. my comp got up on sunday and winged his first talk in spanish, and spoke for 10 minutes! that`s not something i would have done but mad props to him i guess haha. we`re getting close to some baptisms so keep praying for us!
not much happened this week, it really just slipped by us. the new training program that i`m using with my comp has us studying in the pench until 12 in the afternoon and then we go straight to lunch so the days are going by even faster than they were before, which i didn`t think was possible. we`re doing good though, my comp is learning a lot and things are just peachy.
i think i`m all good as far as packages go. my garments are getting a little run down but i can buy more from the mission home in neuquen so we`re all good there. other than that, things are great. i just heard that Nolberto, one of my investigators from down in Caleta Olivia, just got baptized so i`m way pumped for that.
about the college thing, i was thinking i would just start in the fall semester and be able to work a little in the summer and stuff. so yeah, let me know what i need to do! love you
SEPT 25th
o i`m pretty sure the sister missionaries from my group finished this last week or will finish in a couple weeks more, it depends on if they went home early to go to college. It`s weird though, it`s starting to hit home how little time i have left. I need to work harder.
things are going great here. It`s different having a companion who is straight out of the states. sometimes we talk a little too much about what is going on back there and it takes my mind out of the missionary work. but we are super close to some baptisms here though. a couple who has been waiting for paperwork to go through to be able to get married finally had the paperwork finalized so they just need to get married and then we`ll dunk em. the problem is that the husband needs surgery on his kidneys i think and so their minds aren`t exactly on getting married at the moment. it`s stupid though because the guy could probably get fixed up just fine by medication from the states but down here, everyone is on national healthcare so the doctors, in order to get more money, always prescribe surgery to fix minor problems. this guys already has huge jagged scars all across his stomach from past surgeries, it`s ridiculous. speaking of surgeries though, remember that i want to get my tonsils out as soon as i get home. they`ve been bothering me my whole mission but i won`t have to deal with it for much longer haha.
so yeah, things are good here. my companion is learning quickly. i need to help him get a little more humble but that`s part of my job right? anyway, love you! hope you have an awesome week!
elder newey