week #52 -- Year one all done! - -Year left.

Hey! Hope that you had a Merry Christmas!

It was cool to be able to talk to you guys yesterday in Skype. It was good to see a lot of the family! Also a little fun to speak a little Spanish! I´ll definitely have a little fun with that when I get home lol! But yeah it was really good to see all you guys!

Thanks for everything that you did for me this Christmas! You guys did a ton and I really didn´t need everything haha but thanks! Also thanks to the grandparents for everything that they sent to me as well! I took a video of the aftermath of everything that I´ll be sending as well. But seriously thank you guys for everything!

This week was actually a decent week. Even with all the Christmas rush around we had a baptism this weekend. Bastian got baptized! His parents were the first people that we contacted in the street here in this sector. They are super awesome as well but they aren´t married. It´s super common here that people aren´t married because the marriage process is wack here so a lot of people don´t get married.. So we have to wait until they get married before they can be baptized as well. Oh their names are Enriquez and Jenny. They also have another son, Ignacio, who´s 7. But they are super awesome and we baptized their son this weekend. They have been attending a lot and been getting along well with the members. That´s the importance of talking with everyone that you cross because you never know who are prepared and just waiting for someone to tell them the truth. If we would have never talked to them in the street my first day here we never would have known them or anything. It´s crazy to think about how many people we pass by every day but we never know who are going to progress and who isn´t. So you just need to talk with everyone!

Yeah these weeks are going to be a little slow with all the parties going on. I´ve never been here in Chile for New Years but I imagine that it will be pretty crazy with a ton of parties. And then the next day we have church at 10am... So we´ll see how the attendance goes....

But even with everything that was going on, we had a decent week. On Friday we had our Christmas conference as missionaries. It went really good! I really enjoyed it. We talked about a lot of different stuff and we also went over this years numbers month from month. It´s crazy in these last times the numbers have jumped up a ton and we are having a lot more success here in this mission. At the start of the year we had like 30-60 baptisms monthly and now we are having more than 100 every month! Also in the Christmas conference I got Grandma Newkirk´s package with a ton of food!! Also we had lunch and president gave away goodies to everyone. We also watched a movie(The Croods) which was pretty cool as well! Then on Saturday we had our baptism and then in the day we went and worked in La Chimba which actually went really well and we had a few lessons. Then at night we went and ate with a family. So here they open presents at midnight on Christmas Eve and before that they have a big dinner. So we had permission to stay out until 11pm and eat dinner with a family. So that´s what we did! It went really well! Then on Sunday just opening the presents that I had, church, and Skype! And that was pretty much my week this week!

This morning we also played soccer with President and his family and also the office which was a lot of fun! We played in a real soccer field and everything. I actually didn´t really get any pics but president took some pics so they should go up on the blog or something pretty soon! http://2012375.wixsite.com/chileantofagasta Here´s the blog just in case if you didn´t have it! But it was just out zone of like 20 missionaries, president´s family, and the office. There were a lot of us but it was a ton of fun to be able to play with President and on an actual field!

Well this week as well should be an interesting one and we might have a chance to have another baptism! So we´ll see how everything goes! But should be an interesting week! Also sounds like you guys are going to have a good week as well! Have fun sledding and at the movies!! Wish I could be there with you guys! I would much rather be in the 20´s with snow than the 80´s with beating sun all day long..... Count your blessings haha

Well hope that you guys have a great week and a Happy New Year!!! Love you guys a ton!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. I complete a year in the mission this week! WOO(yeah that was pretty trunky....)

Bastion's baptism

Bastion's baptism

Bastion's baptism

Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner

Elder Newkirk y Elder Wild -- Christmas conference

Elder Newkirk y Mission Pres and his wife -- Christmas conference

Elder Villegas y Elder Newkirk -- Christmas conference

Elder Newkirk y Elder Torrico -- Christmas conference

In my Christmas jammies -- little warm for Chile..haha

week #51 -- baptisms this week.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well this week was actually a decent week. Pretty busy with some things to do! We also had 2 baptisms this weekend! Claudia and her son, Benjamin!

Monday-Thursday this week was pretty chill. Just working and contacting people to start to teach. My comp doesn´t have a ton of time here in this sector so he doesn´t know the sector all that well either so we have been just trying to find new people to start teaching. That´s our main goal right now is just finding new people to teach. We are also going to start working more with the members here so that we´ll be able to find more people to teach through them. Elder Bednar said that the missionaries are full time teachers and the members are full time finders! We have actually been working with a lot of different families as well that we contacted in the street and have been starting to teach and they are all super awesome! But.... The problem here in Chile is that a lot of people aren´t married but live together and have their family. It´s a little more complicated here in Chile to get married because you have to go to the civil registry and take out a date to get married which takes a lot of time... Like 6 months... So we have to have a lot of miracles with marriage! Not being married but having a family is super common and normal here which kinda sucks...

Friday we pretty much just worked in La Chimba all day to talk with some converts and with some other investigators. There are a lot of youth who live out there in La Chimba who have been going to church and are converts. A lot of their parents are also pretty cool but.... not married of course.. La Chimba is actually pretty fun to work in even though it´s pretty dirty and there are a lot of dirty dogs roaming around as well but it´s fun!

Saturday we had our baptism! Claudia and Benjamin got baptized. It was a pretty cool baptism and a lot of the members supported us there. It was kinda funny, so I baptized Benjamin but he was scared of the water and took him a while to enter in haha. He finally got in and we were ready. Then when I baptized him he lifted his leg out of the water so I had to do it again. Then again...(Because the same thing happened) Then finally the third time I just dunked him hard in the water so that he wouldn´t lift his foot up haha. Then after he got baptized his mom got baptized. Benjamin wanted to see his mom get baptized as well so I let him see. After she got baptized the first time(because nothing left the water) her son yelled out "Mom you got to do it the second time!" hahaha. It was pretty funny. But yeah everything went well in the baptism! Benjamin actually didn´t get confirmed this Sunday because he was sick and throwing up but next Sunday we should be confirming him. But yeah everything went well.

Then this Sunday we helped out the Zone Leaders a lot in their baptism so we lost a lot of time working this weekend.

But yeah that was my week this week!

That´s nice that you guys will be able to get a little break in there for the holidays! Hope that you guys enjoy the breaks!

Well I only have 10 more mins to write so I´m going to make this a little quick!

I´m excited to be able to Skype with you guys this Sunday! I should be online at like 7pm here in Chile on Sunday. I honestly have no clue what time that would be for you guys there in Boise... Like 3pm but idk... I honestly don´t think that I have an accent haha. But I´m pretty sure that I´ve lost a little bit of my English. I have hardly spoken any English in a while because I have been living with latinos for the past while... So we´ll see how my English goes!

Yeah as district leader I have to do district meetings and prepare a class. I also have to call in for the number during the week. I have to pretty much supervise the work of the district and report it to the zone leaders. Also I have to do interviews for the investigators that are going to get baptized which is actually really spiritual and cool to do. For example this week I had 2 interviews for baptisms. One with the Zone Leaders and one for the sister missionaries! District leader is fun with a lot of different things to do but I like it!

And don´t worry I have also been opening up the "12" days of Christmas every day! You guys were really creative! and Thanks for everything that you´ve sent!!! I´ve been enjoying opening up things everyday!

Well love you guys a ton and I´ll see you Sunday!!! Merry Christmas! Always remember the real reason for this season!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. Don´t worry we aren´t playing Ping-Pong like at all in the house. There isn´t any time at all. We are pretty much always super busy with stuff to do...

pics of the Baptism

pics of the Baptism

week #50 -- First week back in Antofa! Good week.

Hello!

Well everything´s going good here my first week back in Antofa! My comp is alright. The first time that my comp has had less time than I have had in the mission so it´s a little different. This Zone is also a lot different from the other zones that Ï´ve been in. I feel like it´s a little crazy sometimes but I have learned a lot. I´m also District Leader of a district full of sister missionaries... We´re called the Relief Society District haha.

The new area that I´m in is also super good. We´ve got a pretty good ward. There´s an attendance of about 90-110 members. Sometimes more and sometimes less. So it´s definitely the biggest ward that I´ve been in! We also have a different ward building from my first ward here in Antofa.

The people that are here in this sector are actually pretty receptive as well. There aren´t a ton of investigators that we are working with right now. When I got here there wasn´t a lot of people that we have been working with. But this week we have talked with a lot of people and we actually had 10 investigators in sacrament meeting yesterday! We found a family that we started to teach this week that came to church. They aren´t married so we have to get them married before they can get baptized but they are super awesome! We also have a few other investigators that we are working with but we definitely need to find more!

Also part of our sector is like 20-30 mins away in bus so sometimes we have to travel out there. It´s like a camp that´s called La Chimba. It´s a group of tomas(which are like houses made out of whatever people can get their hands on). Tomas are houses made out of wood, cardboard, metal, and anything else that you can think of. Actually the people who live out there are actually really cool. A lot of the people who live in La Chimba are foreigners. A lot of people from Bolivia, Peru, and a few other places.

Well other than that we have been working on finding more people to start teaching and everything. I feel like I´m almost at square one here in this sector. Also with this mission president he changed the rule that investigators only have to attend one time before they can be baptized when before it was 3 times. This Zone I feel like has been taking a lot of advantage of this. They are a little baptism crazy. Some people are ready for baptism after one attendance at church but I feel like a lot of them aren´t. We had someone attend this Sunday that can technically get baptized this Saturday but I don´t know how good I feel about it and if the person really is devoted to what they are going to do. What I´ve seen here a little bit is they have been baptizing a lot but a lot of the converts haven´t been attending church.... I guess I´m just a little scared to see what happens. But we never know if anyone is going to inactivate after their baptism or not. I don´t know, there are a lot of conflict of thoughts. Sometimes I feel like it´s ok and other times I don´t...

Well good work Hailey!! That´s awesome that you guys won! (even though there wasn´t even any competition....haha) That´s a little lame that there wasn´t any competition but it´s good that you won! Looks like you guys had a good time as well, I saw a few photos!

Well I don´t have a lot more time to write! But I love you guys! Hope that you have a great week!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. Don´t worry I got your package. I´m just going to copy paste what I told mom and my story with the package...
"OH I also got my package!! Don´t worry! I actually got it last Monday but I didn´t know that it got in yet. The Zone Leaders had it in their house. I had to carry that stupid thing all the way from the Zone Leaders house until our house which is super long and our house it literally the highest that you can get in Antofa and the Zone Leaders live super low almost at the beach....,. So that was a long trek to get that giant thing to the house... Why did you send something sooo big? haha. That is the biggest mail that I have ever seen a missionary get... You guys are crazy haha!"

​Pics of the house! We also have a ping pong table haha!!

​Pics of the house! We also have a ping pong table haha!!

​Pics of the house! We also have a ping pong table haha!!

​Pics of the house! We also have a ping pong table haha!!

​Pics of the house! We also have a ping pong table haha!!

​Pics of the house! We also have a ping pong table haha!!

Pictures with the package

A pic of the Zone. We had zone training this week!

A photo with a dog that´s pretty chill. His name is Keith and he likes to follow us aroung. He´s like our guard dog.

Pictures with the package

I found a mini Christmas tree in the house. So I put some batteries in and now I´ve got my little Charlie Brown Chirstmas tree on my desk haha.

week #49 - return to Antofagasta - new sector.

Yeah I´m just going to translate what you said because it´s kinda funny.. You said hey how´s it going? I hope to go good.... haha
Nice try😅

Well I had a great last week in Tal-Tal! Right now I am writing in a city that I´ve already been! Yup that´s right, I got transferred back to Antofagasta! Out of all the city's and zones I got put back right into the same zone that I started but in a different sector. I´m actually excited to be able to work again in Antofa but work in another sector. I´ll also probably be able to visit a few people that I visited before in my old sector on P-day or something.

But yeah everything is going good for me and don´t worry I have money now! And I´m also not in a super expensive place like Tal-Tal. Things here in Antofa are still expensive but don´t as bad as Tal-Tal!

Well I didn´t receive the Christmas package yet but the good news is, is that I´m in Antofagasta so when the package gets in I´ll be able to head down to the office to pick it up. Also we have a Christmas conference coming up in a couple weeks where I´ll also be able to pick up my package! So I should be able to get it before Christmas.

Well my last week in Tal-Tal was pretty good. We worked pretty well this last week. Also yesterday I was able to say bye to a lot of people and take pictures with them. It was kinda sad but it was good. Well I hope to see a lot of these people in the celestial kingdom one day! I´m sending a ton of pics that I took with people yesterday. There are also some more but I´m just going to send these ones!

But yeah this week was good just a normal week of on the streets working and visiting people. Also on Friday we had an comp exchange and I went with Elder Oliveira to his sector to work for the day. We had a good day together and we taught a lot of people. We taught in like 5 different lessons and I also did a baptism interview which was awesome. I really like to do baptism interviews! But it was overall a good week.

Oh I forgot to mention. My new comp is Elder Robles from Peru. He seems like a really chill guy and is pretty cool. I´m excited to be comps with him and be able to work here in Antofa again. My sector now isn´t too far for my first sector. A little bit more north. But should be good here!

Hope that everything goes well down there in Sacramento this weekend for Hailey´s competition! Good Luck Hailey!!

Haha a lot of missionaries put there thumbs to the side because it´s like a baptism symbol. I don´t know where it started but a ton of missionaries do it. I do it sometimes as well haha.

But like you said trials are good for us. In the end they will help us progress and I have actually learned a ton from the trials that I have had. Looking back, the moments where I have learned the most in my mission have been in times of trial. Just have to be thankful for trials and remember the promise that the Lord will never put something in your life that will never be too hard to overcome. Every trial that we receive we can overcome and there is nothing impossible.

Well there is a new mission rule where we only have 1 hour on the computer on P-day so that means that I have to write super fast and everything and I don´t have like any time to write or do anything! But I´m jealous that you guys got to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie! Definitely miss movies! I actually saw the Captain America movie in TurBus today. I was just sitting there in the bus alone(alone as in the only missionary) and boom they put on the Captain America movie, Civil War.... So I saw parts of that haha. But yeah I´m definitely missing out on a lot of movies and I´ll have to see them when I come home haha.

Well I´m out of time and I hope that you guys have a great week! Love you guys a ton!!​