Jan 31, 2012

yeah, only two more months. i´m not really sure what to think at this point other than that time goes by really fast. things are going good here, it´s actually getting kind of cold which i don´t like haha. we´re just working hard. we had a zone conference yesterday. my last one on the mission. it was good but it made me feel weird thinking about my first zone conference i had on the mission and just how much has happened in two years.

yeah all the mission preparation makes the time go by super fast. Does kaleb have to buy a coat there in ukraine because of the cold? i know when sean left for russia, they told him specifically not to buy a coat in the US because they aren´t good enough.

yeah last week i was going to tell you happy birthday but i got caught up in kaleb´s call and stuff and i forgot. how old are you already, like 30?

you better believe i´ll end strong. it´s hard though, at the beginning of my mission i always thought how lame it was when other missionaries wouldn´t end well and i made a promise to myself that i would finish working. well now that i´m actually in this position, i undertand the other missionaries who can´t handle the pressure because it really is hard. Suddenly you start feeling really tired and you aren´t as excited to go out and work. it´s hard to descibe but that´s how it is. I´ll finish well though, you can believe that.

i still didn´t get my travel info but i´ll be in the mission home a day before i go to buenos aires so probably the day after general conference, i´ll leave early in the morning for neuquén like at four in the morning to get there by 7 ish. then i´ll have my interview, have time to go buy stuff and then we´ll get on the plane to buenos aires. wow i just got a vision of me boarding the plane haha. trunky thought. love you

elder newey

January 2, 2012

yeah it was cool to see everyone again. I didn´t get to see Sarah for very long because right when she got on, the connection failed and we had to reconnect haha. It was great though, I loved it. Another elder did his call in the morning and said it worked great. Apparently the ciber was pretty packed when we made our calls so that´s why it was so slow. but yeah, in two more transfers i´ll be home anyway so that should be exciting. Tranfer calls come in this Saturday so i´ll let you know on Monday where i´m off to. I´m not really sure what´s going to happen with these transfers but it´s just the adventure of the mission right?

I´m way excited to see where Kaleb is off to. He should get his call in like three weeks right? My guess is Miami Florida Spanish speaking. But i might change it in a couple weeks when the real pressure is on.

It´s pretty hot here. This morning we were out at like 11 in the morning and it was already 30.5 degrees which is like 90 or something Fahrenhite haha. I´m loving it though. This should be my last p day here so we´re going to play football american style in the church in another hour. I really love it here, the elders in the zone are awesome. We all sleeped in the zone leaders pench for new years eve and it was so hot me and another elder couldn´t sleep so we were up till almost 4 talking haha. He´s a really good guy. He´s from washington and I really hope he can make his way down to BYU after he finishes the mission in October.

Mission work wise, it was a really good week. Actually, we paid pretty dearly for the success we had. In the beginning of the week, we kept coming acros pastors that wanted to bash with us. Now that´s something I don´t enjoy doing but when they start insulting Joseph Smith and tell me I´m preaching a lie, we have to throw it down. So we had some intense Bible bashes in the street but I held my own. They can´t argue against the truth and they always whip out the same old scriptures, it´s like you know what they are going to say long before they even say it. They my comp got spit on by a guy we wanted to contact and then right afterwards, we ran into another pastor haha. So that´s how the beginning of the week went and then we got a sick reference of a less active family who has two kids that aren´t baptized. Score. Then we set four other baptismal fechas with some other investigators, so it was a good week. The area should be all primed up and ready for the next elder that comes down here.

Anyway, that was my week. I´ll let you know next week where I´m off to. I´m thinking i´ll be going up by Neuquén. It´s even hotter up there... love ya

elder newey

December 19, 2011

Wait so Holli isn´t going to be there when I call on skype? I would love for her to be there but if she can´t i´m pretty sure she has a skype as well so I could call her, I just need to know her username and stuff. Could you get that for me?

Bummer there isn´t any snow. I miss snow a bunch, but I don´t miss the cold, I´m lovin the hot weather. you´re going to see my sick tan on monday when we talk. Does anyone else from the brotherhood get to skype? I already read that kyle gets too, anyone else?

In the next bolsa they send to me, I get my "trunky papers" which i think have some travel info in them. I´ll let you know on monday when we talk and we´ll get it all worked out. Man, I just got hit with a wave of excitement for christmas and being able to skype on monday! ooooh man it´s going to be sick! That would be cool to have everyone there, all the cousins and sarah and fax and everyone. I could see how much everyone has changed but if they can´t be there I understand as well. Just one more time for the doubts, i´ll call at three my time which is 11 your time. i´m hoping the ciber will be empty and that we won´t have any problems with getting a computer to skype on but you never know. If i can´t get one right at 3 here, don´t worry i´ll be calling as soon as I can.

I´m pretty sure my package should be getting here tomorrow so i´m excited for that as well.

The work is going great here. We´ve put a couple fechas bautismales but we want more. I haven´t baptized in a while, like two months and i´m starting to feel it. I would love to have a baptism on the 24 so we´ll see what we can do. pray for us! love you

elder newey

December 12, 2011

Well this week flew by. Quite honestly I don´t really remember what happened. I do remember that we had some problems in the district with a companionship that i´ve had to deal with but I´ll tell you more about that when the whole mess is over. It´s kind of a long story anyway so maybe i´ll just tell you about it over skype. I am so excited to skype you have no idea. I´ve been telling everyone we talk to that we get to skype with our families for Christmas.

Well the work was kind of slow this past week, being that we didn´t get to meet with any of our progressing investigators. I´m not sure what happened there but they were never home and we could never set up a good time to pass by. I´m hoping this week can be different and that we can get a baptism set up for the 24th so we can have a White Christmas haha.

Me and my comp have been enjoying the peanuts christmas and the home alone soundtracks that I have so that has really gotten us in the christmas spirit even though it is incredibly hot outside. I hope you´ll be able to see my tan on skype haha.

anyway, can´t wait to see you all on the 26th! love you

elder newey

Great thanks! that is going to help us a bunch. Everyone here is super excited to try the turkey. Now we just have to find one at the store. Everyone says that turkey is too dry which i´m sure the brine would take care of but we´ll make do without it. I´ll let you know how it all turns out. The activity we´re going to have is on the 26th so right after Thanksgiving, it´s going to be a lot of fun

We´re going good here, it´s starting to get really hot which i´m ready for. I´m sure after a couple more months i´ll be praying for snow but i´m living it up right now. Today we wanted to go see the penguins that are close by here but we didn´t have any way to get there. We need to see if a member will take us because it´s like 3 hours from here in bus.

Well i´m trying to think of some stuff that happened this week to tell you about but there´s not much. me and my comp are having a great time still. The other day we talked in British accents the whole day just for fun. Then the next day we talked like we were talking with walkie talkies haha. it was dumb but we were cracking up.

Oh also i´ve been helping all the missionaries here in my zone to finish the visa stuff. So yeah I thought i would be done with that garbage when i finished my own but apparently not. I think I told you i´m the first one in the whole mission to finish the paperwork so now it´s my treat to help everyone else do it. The bright side is that this should ensure me another transfer here in Trelew because they need me to know what to do for the visas.

Other than that, I don´t have much news. I wanted to write letters to the hermanas that were in the MTC with me but now they´re both done with their missions and I realized I don´t have their addresses haha. Maybe a miracle will happen and they´ll read this and send me their address. That would be tight. Things are good though. We´re working hard to find new investigators so keep praying for us! Love you

elder newey

*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!

elder newey

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!

elder newey

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

elder newey

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

so yeah, in the end, i got transfered to Trelew as a district leader which probably means that i´ll be training next transfer. my new companion is elder sydall from california and i´m his second companion. It´s different not being a zone leader but i like it just the same.

Trelew is a bigger city that is about 6 hours north of Caleta Olivia and in the summer, I can go see the penguins! they have a place called Punto Tombo that is swarming with penguins but i will probably wait until i get my new refuerzo (that´s what we called the newbies) next transfer. I´m excited because i´ll get to use the new training program that is going to be way tight.

I´m also way pumped that i´m an uncle now! i got the pictures that keith sent me and man is she a big baby! she already looks realively old. Keith said that she has red hair and blue eyes? she´s going to be way cute (not saying she´s not cute already, but you know what i mean). so paisley just wasn´t coming out because she was so big or is what dad said right when he said that holli´s pelvis is twisted or something like that? either way, she was born right? is it weird to think you´re a grandma now? now you really are GG haha.

sorry i didn´t respond yesterday but i didn´t end up having much time before i got transfered. I was sad to be leaving but i know that i left my area in good hands. anyway, i think that is all i have for the week. I´ll tell you more about trelew in my email next monday!

love you

elder newey

yeah i think i´d rather be a zone leader but i just work where i´m told right? besides, it will be fun to train which i´m sure i´ll be doing next transfer. with the new program for training, i will get an extra hour and a half every morning for more studies so my refuerzo (reinforcement) will be a stud once i´m through with him. of course, if i want him to be a stud, i have to be a stud myself, so i better get working on that haha.

yeah i love the emails you forward to me of the brotherhood, it´s great to hear from them everyweek. the brotherhood is truly tearing it up or "thrashing the nations" as the scriptures say. yeah you can send those pictures through the email but also print them out and send them in a package just in case.

Jordan boyd is already about to come home? i can´t believe it. and if nathaniel is about to finish as well, that means that shelby codling as well is getting close. it´s weird. I was just thinking about how the hermanas from my district in the mtc are about to finish as well. i think they will end in september. I´m glad i still have six months to keep working.

Niall Stoddard got his mission call to Belgium!?! that´s so awesome, that would be a sick mission! when is Kaleb going to start working on his papers?

the work here is going good though, we still don´t have any baptismal dates but we´re finding a good number of new investigators. the only hard part is finding them a second time hah. we´re working on it though. I can see a lot of potential here, a lot more than when i first arrived anyway. i just have so many things in my head that i want to do, i want the district the baptize weekly, i want to get the members more active in missionary work, i want to get more members active period since we only get like 30 at church every week and this is a ward. it seems like their isn´t time in the day for everything haha. I guess i will just have to walk in hyperdrive the whole day (yeah look out when i get home because i can walk like at the same speed that someone runs haha). but that´s about everything that is going on here. it´s cold and rainy here in Trelew (it´s pronounced Trey-lay-oh) but it should start warming up here soon. my new pench is way sweet, we ride a ghetto elevado up to the third floor where our apartment is but i like it a lot. the shower is like a shower in the states, being that it actually has good water pressure which isn´t something very common here in argentina haha.

anyway, i think that´s it for the week. thanks for everything! love you, chao!

elder newey