week #69 -- normal week and companion exchanges

Hey, how´s it goin? Yeah I know, the lead off sentence is getting a little boring. I keep trying to think of something to put at first but yeah..... it´s just about the same everytime now.

My week was pretty normal actually. We were doing a lot of companion exchanges this week. We had like 3 exchanges this week. I was able to work with Elder Pezo, Elder Schmid, and Elder Eager this week. Elder Pezo and Elder Eager are 2 of the 3 district leaders of our zone so I was able to work a little with the district leader this week. Normally we do comp exchanges when we have to go and do baptism interviews or when we want to work with the other missionaries to see how they are doing and everything. So it was a pretty busy week with working with other missionaries and doing interviews for a couple other sectors. I was able to also go to Pozo Almonte this week which is a small city that is like 30 mins from Hospicio with Elder Schmid. I was able to do a couple of baptism interviews for them this week which is always fun doing. I like to do interviews with people that are preparing or need a little help preparing to be baptized!

Other than that my week has been just a week of working hard to make sure that we have some baptisms coming up this weekend. We should be having at least one baptism. Sebastian is all good to go for this weekend. We also have another couple that came to church this week who also could get baptized if everything works out well. Marcell and Luis. Also the Ibacache family didn´t come to church this weekend..... Which was kinda lame. We passed by their house Saturday night to make sure that everything was good for Sunday. They ended up doing a bbq Saturday night and woke up late Sunday and didn´t make it to church..... But it doesn´t really surprise me now.. I´m kinda used to it but oh well there is always next week. Just have to keep moving forward with faith!

But yeah that was pretty much my week this week. Just trying to find more people to teach and as well prepare people to get baptized this week as well. It´s just a never ending cycle of finding and baptizing and trying to help people progress and all that good stuff.  But other than that just working hard with members and just being a missionary.

Something that I really realized this week as I have been studying and as well just thinking is that the only reason why I´m here on the mission is to help people to be baptized. A lot of people think that missionaries are just there to talk about God and stuff like that but anyone can talk about God before and also after the mission. When one is in the mission it is the only time when you have the keys to open up the door to eternal life. Also something that I learned this week is that a less active is in a better state then someone who has never been baptized. One because one who is baptized still has the gift of the Holy Ghost so at one point or another God will give another chance for them to come back to church through the Holy Ghost. Also people will still have the chance to change in the other world and it is a lot better if one is baptized then one who isn´t. Because the one who isn´t will have to wait until one of us here on earth to do that ordinance for them. Idk just a couple things that I have been thinking about this week that I thought that I might share with you guys.

Good luck in Florida this week! Hope everything goes well! I imagine that you guys will have some fun down there!

The census was good this week. We actually got counted pretty early. At like 11 we were already good to go and work like normal. But I think that there were some people that pretty much just had to wait in their house all day long lol. That would have been lame if that happened to us.

But yeah other than that my week should be a pretty good one. We´ve got interviews with president this week also we got another open church program coming up this Sunday which should also be some fun!

I´ll stay as ZL as long as the Lord wants me to be lol. I could go and train as well because I still haven´t trained anyone....... Man I want to be a papito and have a son lol.. But I´ll go wherever the Lord wants me to go!

Love you guys a ton!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics: Found a Nacho Libre bike so I had to take a pic with it lol

We were in a elevator and they wanted to take a pic with the mirror... lol (Yo, Elder Pezo, Elder Lozano, y Elder Fernandez)

week #68 -- preparing a new family for baptism!

Que pasa con vo loco! Soy chorro loco! There´s a little chilanese for ya lol.

It´s always awesome baptizing a family! I love to see the whole process of someone being baptized! From finding to teaching to bringing them to church to baptizing! We should have some more coming up soon as well! 100% we will have some baptisms for the 29th! There are actually quite a few people that we are helping to prepare for the 29th. Also another family of 4 as well!! The Ibacache family! Also a little girl called Ashley whose family are all less actives. We are going to bring them back to church and baptize the girl. Also we have Sebastian who´s 19 and a friend of a convert who wants to be baptized as well! Also Freddy who is married with a less active that have been going to church for like 3 Sunday´s. I honestly didn´t know that he was an investigator and I thought it was from the sister missionaries but then we sat and talked with him but he lives in our sector and isn´t baptized! So we are going to be teaching him so that he can be baptized ASAP! So there is definitely a ton of work to do with a ton of other investigators that are still really good. But these are all the people that could be baptized real soon!

We actually had an awesome lesson with the Ibacache family yesterday. Juan who is the dad of the family has been listening to the missionaries for a while but idk why but the missionaries just stopped visited him and his family. So we have started to teach them again. But yesterday in the lesson we taught about the Plan of Salvation. The mom, Ana, was a little sick and after the lesson Juan asked if we could give a blessing to her. So we gave her a blessing and after the blessing she started to cry and felt the spirit strong. It was pretty cool. We then put another appointment for tonight. Juan called us today to tell us that his wife wasn´t sick and that the blessing worked and to make sure that we were coming to his house tonight to share something again lol. It was pretty cool! That´s probably like the first time that an investigator has called me to make sure that we were good to pass by lol. But they are definitely a great family! We just got to get the whole family to church and then to baptism!!

Other than that this week has actually been really really good. Elder Lozano and I have been working a ton! Elder Lozano is super good and super crazy haha. He talks with everyone and is super awesome at teaching people. Definitely have a gift! But I have definitely been enjoying working with Elder Lozano! Definitely a busy bee! I´m super used to working with latinos lol. Every single one of my comps have been latinos... The only time I´ve had gringo comps was in the MTC with Elder Wild and Elder Jennings... So I really don´t know what it´s like to have a gringo comp.. lol . But it really doesn´t matter who your comp is if they want to work and are focued in the work. Now that I´m a ZL it´s pretty hard to get a bad comp now lol..

Easter Sunday was good. It really isn´t a huge holiday here in Chile. They don´t celebrate it as much as we do in the States. Like they don´t do Easter egg hunts or anything like that. Just some chocolates and stuff like that. But it was just a normal day of working and visiting people..

Actually this Wednesday coming up we have a nation wide census. Which is when they go door to door counting the families and stuff like that. So we have to stay in the house until the people pass by and then we can go out and start to work. So hopefully the people pass by early so that we can get out and work!!

Yeah it´s always lame to get sick in the mission. But I´m pretty sure that it was just something that I ate but idk because my comp didn´t get sick.

Yeah we live with another companionship. Elder Reveko from Chile and Elder Rodriguez from Argentina. I´m pretty sure that I´m losing my english. I find it a lot easier to talk in spanish now instead of english. I feel weird speaking in English.

Well I´m out of time like usual! Love you guys a ton!! Hope you guys have a great week!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pic: The only pic that I took this week. With my comp Elder Lozano

week #67 -- Baustimo TA!

Hey how´s it going? Espero que bien! Would be correct lol! (not muy bueno espero) Pero HAY BAUTISMO that happened this weekend!!!!

My week last week was pretty crazy but a good week! This last week that happened was the last week of this transfer and there were some changes! I´m now with a new comp! I´m with Elder Lozano! He was my zone leader like 6 weeks ago and now he´s my comp! I mentioned him before when he went to work in my sector and did a ton of work. So now I get to be his comp! He´s from Peru as well! I have a ton of comps from Peru. Well all my comps have been latinos, so still waiting until I have a gringo comp lol. 

But the trip down the Antofagasta was good. We went down to leadership council with all the zone leaders and president. There is leadership council every first part of the month, so every month I have to travel to Antofagasta. It was actually really good. We had some good discussions about a lot of differnent stuff. We talked about general conference and a few other things like the spirit and the importance that it has in the work. We have to make it so that the investigatores can feel the spirit and we talked a little about the obedience and that how it brings the spirit. First we have to bring the spirit in our life then to everyone else. We also talked about the promise and the talk from President Monson about the Book of Mormon. I also extend the invitation to you guys to read the book of Mormon every single day if you aren´t doing so! It is something that a prophet of God has told us to do, so we should definitely do it!! 

Then Wednesday and Thursday we worked and were preparing our baptism this weekend that happened! Friday I got super sick.... I woke up at 4 am throwing up... So that was fun. I was in bed all day with fever and everything. Saturday I went to the doctor but he told me that the bug that I had my body already got rid of it. Saturday I was a lot better and just was a little weak. 

Saturday in the afternoon we had our baptism of the Rodriguez Crisostomo family!! Candy, Luis, and their daughter Lidia!! It was the girl that I contacted like 2 weeks ago in the street! They all got baptized this weekend!! It was super awesome! We also baptized with the other missionaries that are from another branch that actually live with us as well! It was pretty awesome! I have seen a ton of miracles here in Alto Hospicio, with Elder Cordova! There is a lot success here! All the members are super awesome as well! Now we´re just going to do even more work here with Elder Lozano! We have to renew our stock a little bit now because we´ve pretty much baptized almost everyone. There are still quite a few that we are working with but we´ll see what happenes! But we´re just going to keep going with faith to find the people that the Lord is preparing for us! 

Then on Sunday my comp was just saying his goodbyes to the members and also the converts and stuff like that! There are a lot of photos to send!!

Yeah completos are pretty much hot dogs with tomato and avocado lol. Idk I´ve tried a ton of new things lol but I honestly don´t remember a ton but yes I have tried a few new things. 

I haven´t been able to do a ton of exploring still but here one of these pdays with Elder Lozano we´ll get out there and do some exploring! 

Yeah we have Easter this week! Easter is quite big here. The week before Easter, this week.. They have something called semana santa, or holy week. Where everywhere on tv has movies about Jesus Christ and stuff like that. But yeah they celebrate Easter here. 

Well I hope that you guys have a great week! This week will be pretty interesting guiding a new sector that I don´t know a lot about still haha! But should be a good week of working!! Love you guys a ton!! 

Love

Elder Newkirk

Pics: Del Bautismo! TA!

week #66 -- conference weekend! Many great talks!

Hey!

My week was actually pretty awesome especially with conference! This weekends conference was super awesome! It talked a ton about discipleship and the consecration! Also a lot about the plan of salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ and his Atonement! It was super awesome and you guys definitely have to see it! My favorite talk from general conference was from Elder Sabin. He talked about going all in with the Gospel. That we pretty much just have to go all in and we can´t only go partly in. There is only hot and cold, there isn´t an in between. I also liked the talk from Elder Bragg. Actually Elder Bragg came to visit our mission last year, it was pretty cool to see him talk in conference someone that you got to know in person. I also really enjoyed the talk from Elder Uchtdorf in the Priesthood session about leadership in the church. There are a ton of other talks that I loved as well but those are the ones that came to my mind because I don´t have all my notes with me but I have all the talks downloaded to start to listen to them again during the week. But the conference was really really good.

Other than that this week there wasn´t that much. There was another Chile game that happened on Tuesday that we watched the second half with another family that are listening to the gospel! Vamos Chile! They won 3-1! But don´t worry we have permission to watch the games with investigators and if we are being productive! Don´t worry I´m not disobedient lol! It´s just that literally everyone is watching the game when there is a game so it´s a lot more productive to watch the game with investigators and share something during half time or something and also to have a better relationship with the people then to be just in the street walking around with absolutely no one in the street and no one that will let us in lol.

Other than that it was just a week of just working and helping out a couple of sectors. But that was pretty much it! Tonight I´m going to Antofagasta again at like 3am so that should be fun! lol! We have to head down to Iquique super early to be able to catch our bus then head out to Antofa like 5-6 hours. So I should see if I get my package tomorrow or no!

Also this weekend me and my comp got a little sick. We ate something bad at lunch on Saturday and Sunday we woke up pretty dead. But today we are feeling a lot better and almost normal. Some stomach problems, but I feel like it´s starting to get a little normal now lol. But this weekend it was pretty bad... But we all good now! Ready to work and to baptize! TA!

Sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week as well! But sounds like you guys had fun! The only thing is that you missed conference! You have to listen to it this week!

Zofri is awesome! It is huge!! It´s like a black market but it´s legal so don´t worry lol. But one could seriously spend all day in Zofri looking at things that you didn´t even know exsisted! But it´s really cool! But there is a ton of awesome stuff. Like there is a small drone with a camera for like 60 bucks but it is really cool. Idk there is just a ton of different stuff that one could buy.

Pday was pretty chill. Nothing much happened. Just eating and writing and buying. The good old Pday lol. I think we are going to go and do some bowling soon which should be fun.

Hope that you guys have a great week! Love you a ton!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics: There´s a completo joint that´s called The Lord of the Completos with a pic of Golem with a completo which was pretty funny so I took a pic.