week #35 - Investigators progressing. Another great week.

Hey!

This week was pretty good, I really don´t know where these weeks are going...

But this week we were working with Yerack and he is going to be baptized this Saturday! He has his baptism interview this Wednesday. For the moment he doesn´t really know if Thomas S. Monson really is a prophet or not. But he does have a testimony of Joseph Smith so we should be able to fix things up real fast before Wednesday haha. 

About Camila is that she really doesn´t have any time at all. We haven´t really been able to have any lessons with her. We have only had one lesson with her but she is still reading everyday and is starting to change her life without us even doing anything. The only thing is that she doesn´t have a lot of time and we haven´t been able to really find her home... We had a meeting planned for yesterday after church but she didn´t come to church.... So we still have to work a little bit more with her.

Also this week Williams and his pareja (I don´t know how to say that is english), Jimena, got their date planned and everything with the registro civil to get married. They will get married the 16th of September and baptised the 17th, Williams and his son, Ismael, together! Jimena is already a member. Everything is going really well with them!

To get the Chilean ID I really don´t have a lot of knowledge about it. I did a few things through the PDI and stuff but the majority of the paperwork and everything the mission office does. I´m pretty sure it´s a process to get it, but since we are missionaries it´s a lot easier to get it.

For fishing we were just throwing out a line with bait on it, nothing else. The fish aren´t really that big but if we go fishing again I´ll get a picture of the fish so that you can see. 

Arepa con todo is a lot different than a chalupa taco...... lol

But it was really good, I have been enjoying trying a lot of new foods. 

Speaking of food... So I have heard about a soup, called casuela here, made with seafood that when you eat it, it makes you really tired. Yesterday we were eating with a member and they brought out this soup made with a fish head. It was actually pretty good. But it is super true about that it makes you tired... When we got home after lunch I went and laid down for like 2 minutes and I was completely out... I woke up like 2 hours later but completely dead. Whoops... All 4 of us got knocked out pretty much. I really don´t know why it makes you so tired but I have never been so dead before in my life. I think it might be because there are just a ton of vitamins in the soup that it just makes you tired. That was definitely an interesting experience...

Sounds like your new job isn´t that bad. Sounds pretty chill. Hope that things keep working out!

Thanks for sending me some more music. Wish that I could get on the internet myself and look for some songs but I´m pretty limited to what I can find.. If you find any more just send them my way! Thanks!

This week should actually be a lot of fun. This Friday as well we are planning an activity to do minute to win it. Then the baptism on Saturday. So this week should be a good one!

But yeah everything down here is going good. Just the same old, same old. Love you guys and hope that you have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

Pics: These are some pics of the new house. It isn´t too bad!

week #34 -- Settled in the new place. 6 new investigators.

Hi!

Well this week was decent. The weeks are really just flying by and I really don´t remember a whole ton about the weeks that are going by. Like I have said at the beginning of my mission, days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. So for me this week just felt like a day and I feel like I don´t have a lot to write about.. 

This week we actually had a really successful week. As of now we have 6 investigators with a goal to be baptised with a date. Our next baptisms should be on the 3rd of September. We have 2 investigators planned for that day and let´s hope that it works out. Their names are Yerack and Camila. Yerack a converts brother who has been coming to church and been investigating the church. He is 18 years old. He likes the church a lot but him and his dad (who isn´t a member as well) have a problem with one of the commandments. And that commandment, out of all of them, is the law of chastity.. I was a little surpised at first and didn´t think it was real haha. His dad was telling us that he wants his son to "disfruit his youth" and get to know girls before he marry´s them to know if they are good or not in bed pretty much... Well welcome to Chile haha. 

But yeah that was kind of a weird story that happened to us this week but Yerack will still be baptized, we explained a lot to them about it and cleared somethings up. Also this week we put 5 other baptism dates for people and also planned 2 marriages which was super awesome!

We have finally settled into our house with everything set up now. We had some pretty interesting stories setting everything up haha. We were setting up the laundry machine and almost made a pool out of our front patio... The hose part popped off while I was trying to turn off the water and water was just everywhere... But the house is all good to go. Forgot to take some pics but I´ll try for this week. I always forget stuff... This house will probably just be the house for missionaries here for a while. It isn´t ideal to just keep changing houses even if it isn´t the best house around. It takes a lot of time away to work and stuff. We lost a lot of time moving and doing everything.

I have really been liking the new schedule. The days have been going a lot faster and we have been able to have more lessons with people as well. The people here in Chile are usually up late and also later in the afternoon. So I like the schedule better. Especially with summer coming up!

Hmm not a ton of really good food that I´ve tried. It usually is just a lot of rice and chicken and meat.. Sometimes it changes up but for the majority of the time it is rice and meat or a soup or something. But yesterday we had something called Arepa con todo. It was probably the best thing that I´ve had here in Chile. But it´s not even from Chile, I´m pretty sure it´s from Columbia because our columbian papitos cooked for us yesterday. Other than that just rice....

Do they play baseball at all down in Chile?

Nope.... Baseball isn´t popular at all from what I´ve seen. Baseball is more popular in Mexico, but here in south america it isn´t that popular.

Man definitely missed the Olympics. Well I´ll just have to wait for 4 years to see the next one. And of course the states won gold in Basketball. But they played agaisnst Serbia? Who does Serbia have?

Well there really isn´t anything else from this week! Love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love 

Elder Newkirk

We went fishing again today in the morning! Everyone actually caught a fish today! But the fish that I caught was super ugly and small.... We just had to throw it back into the ocean... Of course out of all the fishes in the sea I get the ugliest. It was seriously the ugliest creature that I have ever seen. Also while fishing today a huge pack of dolphins swam by. There was a good 40 dolphins in the water. It was super awesome to see and I got a video of them. I´ll have to upload the video another time when I have time to sit a wait for it to upload. 

The other pic is my Chile ID. I got it this week! Officially a legal Chilean, pretty much... So I´m Chilean now

week #33 -- Able to find a new place for the 4 Elders! Whew!

Hola y Hello!

Well we may be living out in the streets this week...

Nope we found a house to live in this week. That was our biggest worry this week was just finding a house and doing all the contract and paperwork and stuff. Then on Saturday we moved everything over into the new place. Not going to lie, it isn´t the best place... I´ll have to take some pics and send them next week. We had to find a place fast so we pretty much just took the best one that we could find that could fit 4 missionaries. The house is a separate house out back of the owner. When we got there it smelled like old people... Maybe someone died there or something before. But we blessed the house so we should be good. 

Other than that, not much happened this week. Just trying to work in the Lord´s work here in Tal-Tal. We´ve kinda been in like a stump trying to find new people to teach. Like in these last 3 weeks we have had 2 new people which isn´t that good... We´ve been working with lists of less actives and other lists of future investigators but we haven´t had too much luck. But through less actives is really the key to finding new people to teach and to be able to re-activate a family.

The other thing that happened this week is that we now have a date planned for our investigator, Williams, to get married and then to get baptized. The date that we have planned is September 16th for the wedding and September 17th for the baptism. This will be the first week of the next cambio so I´ll probably have a new companion here for that. But it was awesome and I´m happy for them.

The bbq´s as a zone, especially in this zone is super rare. We had a lucky opportunity to be able to do the bbq in this zone. Reason being is because this is the zone that is most separated. Most other zones all the missionaries are close together but in out zone we are all spread out in small towns where there are only branches. We also have the smallest zone out of all the zones. I´m sure in other zones there are a lot of missionaries that get together and do stuff but here in this zone it is practically impossible. 

Let´s hope that Hailey doesn´t crash the car haha. But that´s cool that she got her permit and is starting to drive. I don´t know it´s weird to think that Hailey is driving now. Will definitely be a weird experience when I get home to see everything that´s changed.

Church yesterday was alright. I actually didn´t have to talk or give any classes yesterday which was a little nice. I had a little break this week haha. But here in Chile we had the hour change again. Saturday at midnight we moved the clocks forward an hour and there were a few people that came to church at like 11 thinking that it was 10 haha. Also with the change of the hour they changed our schedule again. We are back to the 7:30 to 11:30 schedule again which is really sweet. I really like this schedule better. A lot of the people here are usually out more at nights than in the days. Also with summer coming up in a couple months it should be a lot better.

Here, and I´m pretty sure in every other mission, you get new missionaries every transfer. Every group has different numbers of new missionaries that come in but just depends on how many people put in their papers and how many missionaries we need here in the mission. They put a cap on how many missionaries you can have in a mision. The cap is like 200 missionaries.

Here in Chile people usually don´t get into the Olympics like they do in the States which is kinda lame. But I understand why.. They have won any metals and don´t have a lot of people competing... There are a few people that watch the Olympics and stuff but they don´t really get into it. I´ve seen a little bit of the Olympics here in there when we are in houses of investigators or members or if we are passing by a store with it on. Looks like the States are doing good! Also a lot of people here were talking about Micheal Phelps, sounds like he won a lot again this Olympics.

Also we got a list of 5 movies that we can watch now! The five movies that we can watch now are, The Lion King, Brother Bear, Mulan, some Moses cartoon, and some Joseph of Egypt cartoon. We can only watch them on Pdays but it´s pretty awesome. Last week we already watched Lion King. And maybe today if we have time we are going to watch Brother Bear. We have just been asking members to download the movies and then just passing them to us on our USB haha. 

Also during the move I finally found my charger. It was just in one of my luggages and I don´t know how I haven´t found it until now.........

Well that was pretty much my week and everything that has been going on! Love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

The pics for this week. This is from last Monday when we were watching The Lion King. Also these are some new clothes that I bought with my money that I took out. A soccer jersey from Chile and some pants.

Week #32 -- Looking for a new place to call home for the 4 elders!

Hey, what´s up? 

This week was actually really crazy. The start of this week we were just doing a lot of moving around. We are now living in the other sectors house for now. I also still haven´t found my camera charger, I don´t know what happened to it... But the new President wanted the missionaries here in Tal-Tal to live the 4 of us together, to save money and to be more safe. So we had a house ready to move into this next week so we have been planning to move there but... She decided that she wasn´t going to rent her house and told us yesterday... So all our contracts the houses that we were living in are ending this next Monday and we don´t have a house ready to move into next week.. So yesterday and all this week we need to look around for a house to move into. And if not I guess we´ll be living out in the street haha. We have a plan to go see one house today later, so hopefully this house will work out! So yeah this week was pretty crazy and this next week will be pretty crazy as well!

With all the changes this week I have actually liked it. I have liked living in a house of 4 missionaries, it is a lot more fun. And you´re not always with your comp 24/7 because you are living with 2 other missionaries. I feel a lot more free, I guess you could say haha. But yeah Elder Phillips is in his last transfer of the mission. He only has like 5 more weeks. We have all been giving him a hard time haha. Also today he recieved his tickets and everything for his plane haha. Time really does fly while you are out on the mission. I can´t believe that it has already past my birthday and everything. It doesn´t feel like 7 months at all. It´s really crazy. 

Speaking of my birthday that happened this week. It honestly just felt like a normal day. Not a lot happened, just worked like normal. Like you mentioned I took out some money but I still haven´t done anything with it yet. Today I plan to go and do some shopping and buy some things. I explained to mom what I am planning on buying and I really don´t want to explain it again haha. But I did have one family sing to me happy birthday which was really nice. Also I got some sweets the other day when other family learned that my birthday was on Thursday. I didn´t really go around telling people that it was my birthday or anything, that´s a little weird. If it came up then it came up haha.. Also I opened your package on my birthday. Thanks for everything that you sent to me! I really miss the snacks and sweets from the States! It´s not the same here.

I also hope that our investigators stick to their plan as well. I have been praying a lot for them as well I plan on doing a few fasts this months for them as well. Praying and fasting really is key! But we just have to continue to keep working hard with them so that they can take the steps to be baptised.

Church was good yesterday, we had 40 people there for sacrament. Yesterday was also kids´ day, I don´t know if we have that holiday in the States but in Spanish it is called dia del niño. So there was a lot of activities and stuff in downtown so I think that´s why not a lot of people came to church. Whenever there is something going on in downtown or something like no one comes to church... Yesterday it was my turn to do the Gospel principles class, it was on the word of wisdom and the class actually went really well! The converts and investigatores that we had there were awesome! The converts that we have here are awesome. Like half of the members in the sacrament meeting are newer family that just got reactivated or are converts. 

Sounds like Hot Augusts Nights was fun. I remember the one from last year there were a lot of cool cars so I´m assuming that it was just pretty much the same.

Well hope that you guys have a great week! Also good luck with Hailey and her first week back at school! Love you guys!!

Love

Elder Newkirk

staying with the Elders in Chanarel few weeks ago

soccer as a zone

pictures of a bbq that we did as a zone like 2 or 3 weeks ago that was pretty fun!

It was a service project that we did this week. This dude(Luis) is building his house and we were helping him this week level out some dirt so that he can put down his floor of his house.

Every Saturday we are starting to play some soccer. There are some investigators and some members in the pic. The girl next to me is Camila who is an investigator that will probably be baptized soon. And next to her in the red Chile shirt is Yerrack who is also an investigator who is Carlitos´s brother who this Sunday said that he was thinking about baptism!

This is a pic from yesterday. In the middle is a member that is from Peru. He was here in Tal-Tal visiting some family for his vacations. He is really cool and left with us for a few days! His name is Nolan

So every Tuesday night we do Oreo night. Everyone does Oreo´s and milk and this is a pic that we took from Oreo night!

Friendly neighborhood SpiderMissionary!

week #31 -- Lots of changes - moving in with Zone leaders - many baptisms this transfer!

Hey how`s it going? 

This week was pretty great. I had a lot of fun this week. We actually didn`t do too much but it was a fun week. First we had intercambios with the zone leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was with Elder Abalos during the intercambio. He is pretty awesome and is from Utah. But something a little crazy happened to us while we were down there. So when we first got there we were walking to their house from TurBus and the owner of their house stopped us to talk. He was saying that he got an email from the mission office about the contract of the house ending and was asking them if they knew anything about it. So after we called the mission office and asked what was happening. Well this week is the week of cambios and with the new president he is starting to change a lot of different things. So what happened is that he is taking out the zone leaders from Chañaral and going to put them here in TalTal. So the zone leaders are coming here today, Elder Abalos and Elder Phillips. And they are taking out the two elder`s that are here and replacing them with the zone leaders. So Elder Torrico and Elder Boyack are going to El Salvador like 4 hours away but in the same zone. These cambios have been pretty crazy and the new president is changing a lot of different things around. And today we will be moving into the house of the other sector here in TalTal for like 2 weeks until we get our new house where all 4 of us will be living. So yeah a lot happened with these cambios but I`m still here in TalTal with my comp Elder Fernandez for another 6 weeks.

Then on Thursday we were practically preparing for an activity that happened on Friday. We did a talent show as a branch and we were trying to prepare something to do for the talent show. At first we tried to put together a dance, we had a lot of different ideas for the dance but nothing really worked out and worked well together. Then we tried to think of something else like a song to sing or a sketch or something. But in the end we didn`t end up doing anything. We spent like all day Thursday preparing to try and do something and it didn`t work out haha. We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot while preparing but yeah it was really just a waste of time. But on Friday I was the only missionary that performed something for the talent show. I did the magic trick that I learned from Hailey, Thanks Hailey!, and everyone loved it. Afterwards all the youth were asking me how I did it and everything. 

Saturday we really didn`t do too much, we learned the transfers, then visted a few people in the day but other than that nothing really happened.

But yesterday was really good. Yesterday Camila came to church and said that she really liked it and felt good there. So I`m pretty sure that she`ll keep coming and be baptized in a few weeks! Then after church we went to eat with the Family Perez. President Perez is the president of the Elders quorum and was the branch president before for like 15 years. Their family is really cool and they are super rich. The lunch that they made for us was probably one of the best lunches that I`ve had in the mission. It reminded me a lot of the food from home. Then after that we visited the family Becerra, which is the family that I talked about last week and shared with them about sealing and temples which went really well. Then the best part of yesterday is that we had a family home evening with another part family that we are teaching. It is a couple with 3 little kids. They aren`t married yet but the "wife", Jimena, is a member and has been for a long time and her "husband", Willams, is an investigator. He has been attending for a while and met with missionaries a while ago but he is super awesome. They read the scriptures and pray everyday and are progressing a lot. But yesterday for the family home evening we talked with them about baptism and the holy ghost. They accepted a date to get married and to be baptized the next day. So on September 9th is the goal for their wedding and the 10th for the baptism. And Williams and his son, Ismael, will be baptized the same day. But it was really awesome and went really well. So let`s hope that they keep with this goal because this weekend is the last weekend of this transfer. 

I`m actually really excited for this transfer because if things go well we should have like 5 baptisms and we will also be living with 2 other missionaries this week which should be a lot of fun. 

So I actually was able to get my camera charged, Elder Phillips (the zone leader), has the same charger for my battery so I used his charger to charge my battery. But still haven`t found mine... I thought that I brought it here to TalTal but I have no clue where it is, hopefully while we are moving everything this week we`ll be able to find it.

When we will live with the other elders everything is the same. You just do personal study then you have study with your comp, not the 4 of us together. But yeah definitely will be a lot more fun than just a house of 2 missionaries. More people to hang out with and to talk to. 

Thanks for the money that you`ll be putting in my account for my birthday! I`ll probably try and take some out this week. I think that our mamita might do something like make a cake or something if I mention that my birthday is this week, but I should probably mention it... I don`t know, in the mission holidays or birthday`s don`t feel like anything special haha. They`re just normal days..

Yes a lot of people here travel around. Especially during breaks because there really isn`t anything to do here. Here is TalTal they don`t really have anything. Also it is super expensive here. It is one of the most expensive parts of the mission and they don`t have a lot of products here in taltal. A lot of people leave out of town to buy other things and things for cheaper or just leave the city to actually be able to do something and have some fun haha.

Yeah when I was writing last week we had that 6.2 earthquake here. But here in Chile the people are prepared for the earthquakes because they are pretty common. So nothing got destroyed and nothing really happened. Just a few things fell. Actually in Chañalral when the earthquake happened like a large dust cloud got shot into the air and like the whole city was just blocked with dust in the air. But that`s about all that happened with the earthquake.

Sounds awesome that you`ll be able to take gpa`s bike around legally this next week. Should be fun!

Yeah I was able to open the audio file, thanks for singing happy birthday to me! Hope you guys have a great week! Love you guys!

Love

Elder Newkirk

Hope this answers your question if we have to worry about Tsunami´s here. These signs are all over town in almost every street coner.