week #21 - Antofagasta

Well this week has been pretty good! I have actually been a little sick throughout the week which has kinda sucked. Started Tuesday and it's practically gone today. Just a head cold but still wasn't super fun. But just gotta keep working no mas. This week we were working a lot with someone from the Stake. His name is Jorge Reyes and he is assigned to our ward to help out the priesthood because there really isn't any. He is el capo. Capo means like skill or something like that I really don't know the direct translation. But yeah we have been working hard with him this week with visiting less active members and members to make them more stronger. We have the attendance of about 40-50 people weekly but in our sector we have something like 350 members. There are a lot of less actives. I know that right now that I won't be able to see the result of everything in this ward but I know in the future that this ward can be huge and super strong. But from working with Jorge Reyes this week I have learned so much.

Today for P-day we had a BBQ with parts of our zone. We have a rule that for activities there can only be 8 missionaries. So we had a BBQ with the zone leaders and some other missionaries from our zone. I only took one picture of the BBQ that I guess I can send, but it really isn't that great. But yeah the BBQ was great, also played some ping pong. There is a lot of ping pong down here as well. 

From the stadium and Japanese park we are actually really far. We have to take a bus practically everywhere. To go to Centro it is usually like 45 mins in the bus but the stadium is even more in the south so it's like 1 hour 15 mins. We actually can go to the beaches now, I think we might try in the next couple weeks to check out a beach or something. 

When we are in our sector it is just walking, we don't need to take a bus or anything. But if we need to leave the sector, for example if we need to go to Centro or something, we need to take a bus. My feet are holding up fine, some huge calases, I don't know how to write this word, but my shoes aren't holding up... The shoes that I have been wearing the whole time have finally given out on me. There is a hole that goes directly from the ground to the bottom of my foot so I decided that it's time to switch to my other shoes. Hopefully these will last me some time. But I know that I'll probably have to buy some more shoes at one point. A lot of the missionaries that I know have gone through a ton of shoes. My comp, for example, has gone through 8 shoes in 7 transfers haha. He has a curse of breaking shoes in 1 transfer. But we'll see how long my other shoes hold up.

The investigators are good, not a ton of progress but there are some really good investigators and a lot of good potential progressing investigators. I have just been studying and reading from the BOM. I really don't need to have a huge knowledge of bible. I can answer any question that someone has with the BOM. The BOM has the fullness of the gospel and that's really all you need as a missionary. The BOM is absolutely key in the conversion of someone. If someone doesn't read and pray about the BOM then there isn't a conversion. No matter what questions or doubts that anyone has I know with a sureity that if they read and pray they will recieve an answer. Just as Moroni promised to everyone in chapter 10. 

Hmm, about the food there really isn't anything too special that I have tried. The food down here usually is just the same and it's actually pretty boring. It really usually is just the same thing every time. A lot of rice and chicken and soups and tomato and mayo... There are actually some pretty awesome different types of candy and stuff down here that I actually really like. When I come home I'll definitely have to bring some for you guys to try out. 

I won't be able to send a picture this week, sorry! I'm using a different computer and this computer doesn't have an adapter like the other one that I use does. Will have to wait until next week! Sorry!

Well running out of time! Hope you guys have a great week! Love you!!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #20 Exploring around Antofagasta this p-day!

And the weeks just keep flying by and a new one starts. But this week has actually been really good! Also today has been pretty awesome, we actually went to go check out some places here in Antofagasta. Did a little of exploring around the city. Today we went to the soccer stadium of Antofagasta and also to a Japanese park. I´ll send some pictures. 

Thanks for the music! I actually received a lot of music this week from another Elder that had a lot. So I had him transfer some of his songs for me but thanks for the music! You can just keep sending me some more if you want!

About the packages that I have been waiting for.. I only got one and it was the one from Grandma and Grandpa Oldroyd from Easter haha. I think it takes about 2 months for the packages to actually get to me.. So I´m thinking that I´ll be getting it the start of next month. Super fome(chilean slang for Lame) but there isn´t anything that we can do.

Yeah the weather has been pretty much the same. It has cooled down a little bit, it isn´t super blazing hot like it is during summer. Nice in the 70s and gets in the high 50s to 60s at night. So it´s been pretty nice.

The time actually changed here. We are now one hour back so right now it´s 6pm. We actually didn´t know that the time changed on Sunday and showed up to Stake Conference an hour early haha. We were asking why there wasn´t like anyone there at the church, so yeah that happened to us.

Awesome that Hailey recieved the team leader achievement again! Congrats! Good job Positive Polly!

Church was great yesterday because it was Stake Conference. We had one of the 70 there who was acutally Mision President like 6 years ago here in the Antofagasta mision. Also our mission president, President Dalton, was at the conference and gave a talk. They talked a lot about temples and the importance of going to the temple. Especially here where there isn´t a temple, there are a lot of people who don´t go or don´t have a chance to go. But the conference was awesome.

But yeah the attendance for this ward is around 40-50 every week. I think that they just rotate through members of something, but it honestly doesn´t feel like the same people give talks every Sunday. Everyone here I think loves to share things. Especially during testimony meeting, I don´t think there is a dead moment when there isn´t anyone talking. But yeah I definitely think it would be hard on the Bishop, especially because he is alone now. Our Bishop doesn´t have any councelors right now... He has a ton of responsiblitiy. 

About the contacts this week... We acutally have 5 new investigators from this week and they are all awesome. One is a family, Fernando, Barbara, Barbara´s brother, and their little kids. Well practically the whole time they were just trying to teach us things from the Bible and just talking a lot. We could barely get anything out... But I ended up sharing about the Book of Mormon real fast and invited them all to read and pray about it. We returned later in the week and only Barbara was home but she said that Fernando had been reading a lot from the Book of Mormon and that we´d better prepare for his questions when we return for them again. He has a huge knowledge of the Bible so hopefully he won´t try to bible bash with us. That is one thing that I wish that I would have done more before my mission is study everything, the bible, book of mormon, etc. I have a pretty good knowledge about the book of mormon but hardly any knowledge of the bible. Definitely makes things hard sometimes. 

Wow crazy story about Avalanche shutting down, the Lord definitely knows what´s best for us in the moment. Maybe we won´t know right now but everything will work out. But it was definitely more of a blessing that we moved when we did. 

Love and miss you guys! Hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #19 baptism this last Saturday of Vanessa

It was super great to see you guys yesterday! Everything ended up working out so it´s all good!

But this week has been great, a lot has happened and Vanessa was baptized! I´ll send the pictures of the baptism.

Today we are just chillin for our p-day. There really isn´t too much to do. We went and did a little shopping so that we could have some snack and what not then just chilled in the house. Then after this I think we will just go back do some cleaning and that´s about it. There really isn´t too much to do here, I mean we could try to explore things but I really don´t want to get lost here in Chile. But I thinking really soon we should be able to go to the beach, because it is starting to become "winter" here, which should be something to do on a p-day.

This week we will definitely be hitting the streets hard to try and find some new investigators to start teaching. We definitely need some more! 

I actually can´t watch youtube videos. In the past the missionaries were able to but there are disobedient missionaries so now we have a rule. We are limited to lds.org and our emails pretty much. I wish that I could watch the talk that you sent me but I can´t.

Well I guess that I´ll share my flea story that I shared with you guys yesterday. I really wasn´t planning on sharing this story but I guess here we go... So the start of this week I started to notice bites on my legs and I kept waking up with new bites. My comp said that it was because that I had fleas and that I could shave my legs to get rid of them and that other missionaries shave their legs as well because of the fleas. So I decided to shave my legs to get rid of the fleas... Well I think I would prefer the fleas then to shave my legs again. Having shaved legs sucks so bad and I don´t think that I´ll ever do it again. But yeah that´s something that happened to me this week.

We actually ran into the Zone Leaders today in Jumbo and they said that my companion and I both have mail so hopefully that it is. Because I´m also waiting for the things that grandma and grandpa sent me as well so we´ll see in Friday!

Love you guys a lot and it was great seeing you! Hope you guys have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #18 friendly game of finding investigators

Hola, things have been going great as always. We have contacted a lot of future investigators this week thanks to a game me and my companion have been playing. This game is with a coin, one side is me and the other side is my companion. Whatever side the coin lands on one of us has to make a contact with someone in 5 minutes. If you don´t make some sort of contact in 5 mins you have to pay the other 50 pesos(which isn´t a lot). We have acutally found a lot of people through this game and it has been pretty fun. Also this week we are all good with health, haven´t had any problems!

Sounds like tomorrow should be fun with your flight at 6:30 in the morning. Definitely not as long as the flight is here in Chile. As well as the bus rides here. There is a chance that next week I leave to another sector and will have to take a long bus ride. In Saturday is when they call for transfers, so I´ll know then if I´ll stay here in Antofagasta or if I will be in another sector. But I have heard that the bus rides here are terrible and suck really bad. I´m not looking forward to when I leave Antofagasta. But about the weather, the weather here in Antofagasta has been really weird. There are some days where there are a lot of clouds and it isn´t hot. But there are days like today where it is just hot. But at night it has started to cool down which has been nice. But a lot of changing of the weather here. In the mornings and nights it is usually a little cool and in the afternoon it is just hot. But yup that´s the weather here. 

That´s too bad what happened at Summit with Hailey´s team, but hey what can ya do? At least you guys get to go to Disneyworld and all that still! 

Should be awesome this Sunday with being able to talk to you guys! Looking forward to it! Some information about the Skype call is that we´ll be doing it with Hermana Malva in her house. I think we are planning to do it around 6pm Chilean time. I´m not exactly sure what time that is for you guys I think around 2? But yeah just be ready around that time I guess!

Hmmm, any crazy or funny stories from this week... So we were in one of the more dangerous parts of our sector trying to contact a less active. So we were talking with a less active outside of there house and everything was good. But then some guy turned the corner who was completely drunk and bloody. He was bleeding from his head and didn´t have a shirt or anything. But just completely bloody. He started yelling at us about Jesus or something. I don´t know I couldn´t really understand what he was saying. But the less active was telling him to leave and stuff because she knew who he was because it was one of the neighbors but yeah he finally left us alone. But yeah I guess that´s my crazy story for the week.

Yeah Vanesa is making good progress to be baptized this Saturday. She had her interview and everything last week and passed! But she didn´t attend this Sunday at church so we have to plan everything and call some people to figure everything out. But we are still planning to have her baptism this Saturday, but I guess we´ll see!

About Sebastian, hmmm great question... He´s not doing so well with the gospel right now. He knows everything and knows what he needs to do but doesn´t do them. In my time here in this sector he has only gone to church one time. We have talked and stuff but just doesn´t seem to be interested and just thinks us to be just friends, not like missionaries. We have practically shared all that we can, I think the only problem is that there really isn´t anyone for him in the church. The attendance this Sunday was 39 and last week was 35. Definitely a hard situation but I know nothing is impossible for God. 

Also have met a lot of new people this week. We met a lady who is married to a gringo. I haven´t met him because he is in the states right now for health. But he is from Florida which is pretty awesome. Also today on our way home from centro I sat next to someone who knew English and we talked for a little. But he travels a ton all over the world and knows like 5 or 6 different languages. He is a history teacher by profession but travels all the time. He is originally from Europe but knows a lot of the world. He said that he is planning to go to Vietnam and Israel next year which is crazy. I also asked him out of all the places that he has been where does he recommend. He said that Machu Pichu and Cuzco are definitely a place to visit and that he recommends a lot. So guess I´ll be making plans to go there some day! 

Love you guys a lot! Hope you guys have a great week and see you on Sunday!

Love 

Elder Newkirk

A book that I have to get while here in Chile. It is a book with all the slang words in Chile and it is super funny.