week#61 -- new area -- Alto Hospicio -- new calling as a Zone leader

Hola! Como estamos? Si quiere empezar los correros con español entonces vamos no mas! jajaja

No my week was actually really good! A pretty chill week over all until we got our transfers! Well I´m now in a new city with a new companion and with a new calling! But before we get to that I´m just going to explain my normal week.

Monday and Tuesday just normal days like always. District meeting Tuesday which actually went really well! I received revelation on how to tie together Kolob with the spirit of urgency! There is a saying going around the mission that when someone has a crazy idea or is just crazy in general they say that they went to Kolob lol. But in the pearl of great price says that in Kolob one day is 1000 years here on earth and that the time in Kolob is the closest time to celestial time. So I tied that together with the time that we have in the mission and technically the mission for us after this life will be like 1 second long... So what am I going to do in this second? Am I going to work hard? Be lazy? Sleep? Just walk around? And how am I really using this short time that I have as a missionary to bring souls to God. But the district meeting actually went really well! Then from there we just were working all day long trying to find new people to teach and baptize!

Wednesday was a day of just pure baptism interviews! We had this day planned out for like a week so that every sector could have someone to send to an interview so that they could be baptized this week. So all day long I was with Elder Prada(who is AP), Elder Critchfield(another DL), and my comp. We were just going around all day doing interviews for the sisters. We were all able to do an interview with someone(well expect my comp because he can´t do interviews). But it was a pretty crazy day with a few photos to go around as well!

Then comes Friday... Day of Transfers... So we had a mini zone training in the morning so that we could know the transfers and everything. But the assistants didn´t want to tell the transfers just yet. So while working on Friday we got a call from the assistant with our transfers. And I definitely got my transfer to something that I didn´t even think I would get lol! I got a transfer to a city called Alto Hospicio(which is where I´m writing from right now) as Zone Leader!! I´m with Elder Cordova, he´s from Lima Peru! He´s got like 19 months in the mission and so far is really nice and a cool guy! I traveled this morning, my bus left at 7am.... so I´m a little tired... Also this week I have to travel back to Antofagasta for Leadership Council now that I´m a Zone Leader. Leadership Council are every month and there is one just this week so I have to travel back this Thursday lol.  But yeah now I´m in charge of a zone now in the mission which is pretty crazy! Alto Hospicio is a city just above another city called Iquique. This city started out of just pure Tomas which are those houses made out of whatever people can get their hands on. But now it is a pretty big city! In 2018 there even putting a mall! It´s like 20-30 mins from Iquique which is another city which is super awesome as well! But I´m actually really excited to be able to be Zone Leader and work with a lot of missionaries!

District Leader was definitely a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed it a lot. Now as Zone Leader should be even more responsibility and the opportunity to bless a lot of people and other missionaries!

Then the weekend was pretty much working a little bit more and saying my byes to the people in Las Arenas. I was there for a short time actually, only 3 months! But I really enjoyed it there and will definitely miss everyone there but I´m also excited to be here in Alto Hospicio(let´s see how you guys pronounce this city lol).

But that was pretty much my week this week. I should definitely have a pretty interesting week here my first week as zone leader so I´ll let you know how it goes next week! With a lot more to write!! We should also be having a few baptisms this week here already in Alto Hospicio!

Sounds like your guys week was just a pretty normal week of work lol like always! And looks like you won´t go to Portland this week, that´s lame! Hope that you have a better more exciting week this week!

Yeah Elder Abalos is pretty funny. Yeah he´s from Utah! He´s going to be finishing the mission real soon this next transfer in 6 weeks!

Well hope that you guys have a wonderful week! Got to finish the letter here! Out of time and need to send a ton a pics lol! Love you guys a ton and hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. Invite the poor missionaries to your house lol

Pics: Goodbye Photos!

With Elder Muir who is going home

With Enriquez, Jenny, Bastian, and Ignacio who are super super awesome!!!(Also gave us a pizza!!)

With The Soliz Family who are a really nice family(All members)

With Enriquez, Jenny, Bastian, and Ignacio who are super super awesome!!!(Also gave us a pizza!!)

Mini Zone Training that we had Friday!

Mini Zone Training that we had Friday!

Pics with Elder Critchfield, Robles, and Prada all tight up in the car of the asistents! I couldn´t get a selfie with all of them in so they´re seperate!

Pics with Elder Critchfield, Robles, and Prada all tight up in the car of the assistants! I couldn´t get a selfie with all of them in so they´re separate!

A huge watermelon and Elder Robles and I bought

Photo with the golden plates and a robot! It was in a house of an eternal investigator who we had an interview with! He has been an investigator for like 100 years but has never wanted to get baptized, he even has a replica of the gold plates......... Idk about this dude lol but we tried to do another baptism interview with him to help him to baptism but said no again...

week# 60 - - soccer with members and investigators - transfers week - summer vacations

Hello!

Just another normal week of just working hard!

Tuesday-Wednesday were just normal days of working. Tuesday we had our district meeting like always. It´s always interesting preparing classes to give to the district. There are a few tips and stuff in Preach my Gospel but one has to create classes out of nothing. I normally look at the numbers of the district for the week and see where we are lacking in things and make a class out of that to help the district so that we can baptize! This week coming up is the last week in February and also the last week of transfers so we will be working real hard this week! Always the last week is one of the most craziest especially with transfers this week as well! I should hopefully be getting some transfers this week!

Thursday was a day of baptism interviews that I had to do for the sister´s. I had to do two interviews that actually went pretty well. They both passed their interviews and hopefully will be baptized this week! The interviews took like all day and then right after interviews we had a soccer game set up with the youth and some investigators and we told the youth to bring their friends(which they didn´t do...). So then we shared a little message and played some soccer. As missionaries we have the rule when we play with members and investigators we can only play as goalie(which is kinda lame) but it was fun! We are going to be planning soccer games every week in the night to play with the members and investigators. Also so that the members can invite their friends to play so we can find new people to teach!

Then the weekend was just a lot of walking around haha. We are in the last couple weeks of summer vacations so everyone is taking advantage and leaving out on the weekends so there practically there isn´t anyone... Can´t wait for the school season to start back up and things will start to calm back down! It´s funny at first I thought that summer break would be awesome and that everyone would just be in their houses and would let us in because they wouldn´t have anything else to do but it is the completely opposite! Everyone here just leaves and are pretty busy during summer break. I thought as well that the members(especially the youth) would leave with us a lot more as well because they are in vacations but that didn´t really work out like I thought as well... Haha but I´m just glad that summer is finally coming to an end and finally things can get back into a normal schedule!

Yesterday at church we only had one investigator come to church.. All the others were either sleeping when we passed by to go look for them to go to church or they were traveling for vacations...

This week coming up should be a pretty crazy one like I said it being the last week of the month and also the last week of transfers! Today we have another appointment with Enriquez and Jenny, the couple that we have been working with since I got here who we also baptized their son Bastian. Enriquez is awesome and super ready, he even came to church with a white shirt and tie the last time he came to church. But Jenny is a little rebellious... They just need to get married but Jenny still has to change a few things. She also doesn´t really want to get married but I really hope that they do soon! Any tips on trying to convince someone to get married?? lol

Also this week on Wednesday I will be doing baptism interviews all day long. It is the day where all the leaders will be doing interviews for all the investigators that are ready to be baptized that have gone to church so I should have quite a few interviews all day Wednesday. The urgency week! Then on Friday we should know our transfers!

Sounds like you guys had a pretty good time down there in Vegas this weekend! And congrats Hailey for making it to World´s!!! That´s awesome! A ton of traveling it seems like! A lot of money as well haha! Also congrats on getting your licence as well! We have a crazy driver out there in Reno now!

Well my time has ran out like always... Hope that you guys have a great week and that you receive blessings! Love you!!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

No hay fotos esta semana lo siento! (no photos this week, sorry!)

week #59 - Zone conference and zone training

Hi,

Well this week was good and full of conferences. On Tuesday we had zone conference with zones Antofagasta, La Portada, and Calama. President talked about a few things about how we should be our own agents. He has focused a lot on the scripture in D&C 58:26-28, which talks about how we should be our own agents and that the Lord isn´t always going to tell us what we need to do and that we have to take our own decisions and if we feel good about the decision then we just need to do it and not doubt about anything else. We also talked about the vision to baptize because right now our mission is going for the goal of 150 baptisms in a month! In the history of Chile never has one mission had more than 147 baptisms in a month! Last month we reached 124 baptisms so we are right there! We have been progressing a ton in this mission and have been going up and up every month. We´re going for the records now! We just have to keep working hard and finding people that the Lord is preparing that can be baptized! This week we are just going to work super hard to find those who are ready to be baptized next week so that we can reach this goal!

Also on Friday we had zone training where the zone leader talked more about baptism! TA! Idk why but in the mission like almost every missionary just shouts ta after talking about baptism lol... But I have a pic from zone training of the zone that I´ll send. They talked about baptism dates and how we should invite everyone that we meet to be baptized in the first lesson and in the streets! Also we talked about how we can bring more people to church and a few new things that we will be trying out to get more people to go to church. Operation Luke 15. Bringing sheep back to the flock(or investigators to church).

Other than that this week has just been another week of just working and teaching. It has been a little hard with vacations coming to an end. Like everyone is taking advantage of these last couple weeks of summer vacations and have been going on trips or just at the beach. So yesterday we didn´t have any investigator in church yesterday which was kinda lame because no church, no baptism... We had a couple people who said that they would go to church so we went and passed by in the morning to go and look for them and go with them to church but no one answered the door or their phones... But I know this week will be a lot better! Just have to keep working with faith!

Other than that this week should be good. We are just going to keep working hard to be able to bring people to church so that we can baptize next week and in the month of February! But other than that this week should be pretty chill.

As far as appointments for the week we normally have maybe like 10-15 appointments during the week and then from there we find a lot of people and teach a lot of people through contacts in the street. We have goals every week for baptisms and confirmations, investigators with baptism date, investigators in church, lessons with member, other lessons, progressing investigators, contacts in the street, new investigators, lessons with less actives or converts. So every week we keep count of these things and give informs to the leaders and then those get sent to the mission office and then to church headquarters. In our mission the standards are 14 lessons with member, 10 new investigators, 6 investigators with a baptism date, and 6 investigators in church.

Yeah those 30 baptisms set-up were actually pretty lame.... haha. Well normally we put baptism dates with people in the first contact that we do with them, even in the street. We talk with people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of baptism and especially baptism in the form that Jesus Christ was baptized and then invite the people if they would like to be baptized in the form of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. But this way normally filters out the people who are ready to commit and prepare to be baptized and progress in the gospel!

Sounds like you guys should have a pretty busy week with Valentine´s Day and with cheer! Hope that you guys have a great fun and safe week!

Wow Hailey´s already getting her licence! Careful out there on the road!

That´s cool that you have been able to talk a little bit about the church with your co-workers! Keep it up!! Keep using me as an example to start a conversation up!!

Every transfer we get new elders. So every 6 weeks! Sometimes more missionaries come then go or sometimes more missionaries go then come to the mission but it just depends on the transfer!

Well I don´t have any more time to write! Gotta get out there and work!! Love you guys a ton and hope you have a great week!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics:Zona La Portada!!
There is a motercycle club out front of our house. I never showed it to you guys but here it is. Normally they are there on the weekends with their Harley´s and everything and playing rock and roll all the time...

week #58 - Companion exchanges - finding many new investigators

Hey!

Sounds like you guys had a great weekend there in Palm Springs for Hailey´s cheer competition! That would have been cool if they would have made it to worlds! I met a couple weeks ago a family who is also a cheer family. Their daughters also have gone to worlds in Florida so I was able to talk a little bit about cheer with them. They are actually investigators from the sister´s sector who have been going to church. So even here in Chile they have some teams and do some cheer! But that´s good that you guys had a great time! Hope that you guys have a safe trip home today in the snow!

My week was actually pretty great but also a pretty tiring week as well. We focused a lot this week in finding more people to start teaching and putting more baptism dates with people. What we normally do in the street is just start talking to people and start talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ with a pamphlet that we have. Like faith, repentance, baptism, etc. Then we explain a little bit about baptism and invite them if they would like to be baptized like Jesus. Normally the people here have been baptized in the catholic church(which don´t baptize for immersion and also baptize when they are babies). So normally just have to explain the way Jesus was baptized and that baptism is for the remission of sins and that when they are babies they didn´t have sins and normally people understand and want to be baptized for the remission of their sins. The people here in Chile are actually quite a believing people but they don´t really act. But this week we found 41 new people and put 30 batism dates with people so hopefully a couple of these people that we found this week will actually get baptized and weren´t just saying yes to us so that we left them alone lol.

But we had a companion exchange this Tuesday with the zone leaders and I went to the sector of the zone leaders with Elder Prada from Colombia. And Elder Lozano went to my sector and went crazy with talking with people and finding new people for us to teach so that´s why our numbers this week were pretty high but we also found a good number of these people this week.

Cielo is still going strong in the church! She is super awesome! Her family is supportive but they don´t go to church. Cielo goes to church with a couple of her friends that live in La Chimba close to her house. There are a lot of youth from La Chimba that are converts and all go to church together which is really cool and Cielo is now part of that group.

The mission does Capilla Abierta. There are a marriage missionaries in charge of doing Capilla Abierta and they do rotations throughout the mission every once in a while. And what they normally do is that the sister missionaries stay there in the church and do the tour and do a couple sessions and teach people a little about the church. Then 2 elders are in the baptism font room that are dressed in white and explain baptism. Then all the other missionaries are out in the street kinda close to the church inviting people to come in and participate and learn more about the church. You definitely get a lot new people to start teaching through Capilla Abierta!

Yeah I heard about the Superbowl today. A couple missionaries were talking about it in the zone activity that we did for P-day today. We played soccer and did a BBQ! It´s was fun as always! So we were talking a little about the Superbowl and what happened.

Still haven´t gotten my xmas gift that I bought. Patience haha.

Well that was pretty much my week this week just trying to find new people to start teaching. We didn´t have like any investigator in church yesterday as well with vacations going on. There weren´t a ton of people really willing to go to church yesterday even though they promised to come... It seems like laziness always wins... Or that always something comes up so that people can´t go to church... But we just have to keep working this week to get people to go to church and to keep finding new people to start teaching and start teaching more of the people that we found this week! We also have a couple conferences this week which should be good to learn from President and from our leaders! Other than that my week should just be pretty normal!

Well hope that you guys have a great week! Love you a ton!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Well I didn´t have any photos to send this week so I just took a selfie