Elder Newkirk Chile Antofagasta LDS Mission Blog: week #63 -- zone training and leadership council

Hey what´s up?

This week was super crazy! It has been just go go go with so many different things to do this week. I´ll try to take you guys through a run through of my week.

Tuesday was actually a pretty normal day for us. Started off the day with zone training so we taught the zone what president taught us in leadership council. He has been focusing a lot on the members and the importance of working with them. Also working with the simi list where all the members from the branch show up. Working with the less actives or as they say the "gold mine". Because normally less active still have this fire but we just have to light it again then baptize their family members who aren´t members or baptize their friends. President promised us that if we work with this list to find less actives that we´ll baptize every week! So let´s go for weekly baptisms!! It is definitely possible! There shouldn´t be a reason why we can´t have a baptism every week! Then from zone training we went around and visited a few people and also the Vial family who got baptized this week!!!

Then on Wednesday we had a meeting with the district leaders to talk about the sectors and the baptisms for the week. At the start of the week we had like 14 baptisms as a zone ready for Saturday which is really awesome! We ended up with 9 baptisms this week as a zone but maybe I´ll talk about what happened later in the email because Satan also does his work. Then after the meeting with the district leaders we had a skype call with the asistent to talk about our zone and about the work and everything that it happening in our zone. Then from there we went to do a service project for a sister(branch president´s wife). We went to go and paint something but ended up that she wasn´t home..... Kinda lame when people ask us to do stuff and aren´t there when we pass by.... From there we went to lunch and everything normal. Then in the afternoon we had to help a couple missionaries move houses(Elder Pezo and Elder Fernandez). So we went there to their house and helped them move all their stuff out. We ended up pushing the beds out the top window because we couldn´t take them apart because we didnt have the tools to do so, so we just pushed them out the top window lol. Also while we were moving we found a suitcase just full of ties. There were probably a good 100 ties in that thing maybe even more! So I got a few new ties this week, they are actually really nice as well! Then from there we had to do a companion exchange because I had to do a baptism interview for the Elders and my comp had to go to coordination with the ward mission leader and then had to go to ward council meeting. Did the interview then helped finish the moving and got back with my comp and went to bed. Pretty crazy day with a ton of stuff lol..

Thursday was also a pretty crazy day. I honestly don´t remember exactly all that happened on Thursday but all I remember is that I didn´t have any plans that day but we were pretty packed with interviews just pretty much all day long. Also the Vial family had their interviews to be baptized that day! Just a ton of traveling to other sectors to do interviews and try to help people to get baptized this weekend.

Friday in the morning the whole zone went to a little city outside of Alto Hospicio like 30 mins to a place called Pozo Al Monte, which is a sector where 2 Elders are in our zone. They have been struggling a little bit so we planned a zone attack where all the missionaries went there and just talked with people to find new people for them to work with. I actually went to a place called Pica which is another part of their sector which is like another 45 mins from Pozo. It is a really small city but it is super green and really awesome. I went out there with Elder Pezo, Elder Mckinley, Elder Schmid, Hermana Castillo, and Hermana Villanueva. It was a pretty cool place and was able to talk with some cool people there in Pica. Then the rest of the day was just pretty crazy with just doing more interviews and trying to help out other sectors so that they could baptize!

Then Saturday was Baptism day! The Vial family got baptized! John, Kevin, Matias, and Lorena! They have another son called Cristian but he got baptized like 2 weeks ago! It was super awesome to be able to baptize a family! We had some troubles with the clothes to be able to baptize them because John and Kevin are a little bigger so the shirts that we brought didn´t fit too well. So we had to wait like an hour to start the baptism because there were a couple of elders who left to find clothes for them. It was pretty crazy but everything worked out! I feel like something always happens or something is always in counter especially when it comes to baptisms. But I´ve learned that you just have to do all that you can so that the person can be baptized ASAP! I really like that we can baptize after 1 attendance at church because you never know who is ready and when they will be ready. It could be 1 attendance, or 2, or 3, or 4 but you never know! There is a talk given by Elder Corbridge to the mission presidents called the vision to baptize and it is super good. Have to have the vision to baptize or you will never baptize!!

Sunday was also good but Kevin didn´t go to church so he didn´t get confirmed..... for the next week then.... I don´t have all that much time to write so I´m cutting off Sunday here!

I honestly didn´t have like any time to work in my sector this week because it was pretty crazy. I honestly can´t even write the half of what happened this week but it was a really great week. Also this week coming up we have conferences with president and also interviews which should be good. Also we have district conference because it is a district here not a stake! But we are working for the Stake!!! Also today we played soccer with president and the zone from Iquique! It was a lot of fun! I even bought a new shirt to be able to play today lol. I´ll send pics of the shirt!

That´s awesome dad that you get to confirm someone this week!! Congrats! You have the vision to baptize! lol! Have to help all of our brothers and sisters to be able to go back and live with our heavenly father. Because only through this covenant of baptism one can return to live with him. Not the people that just listen or converse! The ones that step into the baptismal font and endure to the end!

Things down here are still pretty hot. It´s been going down a little bit at night but not a ton! But we will start to be going into winter soon! Also the time does change here! Idk when but it changes!

Well that´s that time that I have to write today! Love you guys a ton and hope that you guys have a great week!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

soccer activity

Traveling with Elder Pezo to Pica! There is a giant dinosaur park close to Pica as well that has like life size dinosaurs to play with lol! It looked pretty cool!