week #74 miracle baptisms

Hello!

More baptisms this week! TA! Marcell, Luis and Francisco(Daniel) got baptized this week! I´ve got quite the story about these baptisms because they were literally a miracle lol. So with Marcell and Luis this week is wasn´t all that 100% for this weekend their baptism. Marcell has been wanting to be baptized but with some certian health issues she still didn´t want to do it. Luis also didn´t feel like it was really his time to get baptized and that he wasn´t ready for it still. But we were walking close by there house Wednesday night and felt like we needed to go and visit them. So we went by and knocked on their door. Normally Luis isn´t home because he is always working in his taxi and works until late. But for some reason he was home early and we found them in their house. Luis was going through a depression episode because about a month ago his mom died. We have already explained the Plan of Salvation to him and everything but he still has depression. But we passed by and talked a little about the plan of salvation again with him and also gave him a blessing of strength. Immediately afterwards he returned to normal. While we were talking a little bit more afterwards we brought up the topic of their baptism and she said that she was going to get baptized this Saturday! Luis also accepted to have his baptismal interview to see if he was ready because he still didn´t feel 100% ready. So he had his baptism interview Saturday morning and was baptized at 11am lol! I acutally baptized Marcell and Luis. It was a pretty interesting baptism especially with Luis because he´s a little bigger and when he went down into the water he literally threw all his weight down....... So that was fun lol...Also with Francisco which is Francisco´s son who´s 9 years old. It´s Daniela´s and Francisco´s kid who still didn´t want to get baptized. So Friday night my comp and another Elder went and passed by their house to visit them and asked Daniel(when I say Daniel it´s the son because it´s his second name..) straight up if he wanted to get baptized. He told them no and when they asked a little bit more it was only because he was scared of the water lol. So the dad told my comp and the other Elder that Satuday morning just to bring the white clothes and everything and do the interview as well. Well Daniel also had his interview Saturday morning and got baptized at 11am!

That was pretty much just a basic story of all that happened this week with the baptisms but the thing is, is that the 3 of them got baptized this week!

Other than that my week was pretty good. Just another normal week of working and helping out the zone to baptize! In the zone we had 10 baptisms this week and this month of May we had 20 baptisms and 22 confirmations! It was a really good month! We worked really well as a zone and did a lot of good work! I think we are doing this best out of the mission not to brag or anything because it is really the Lords work and he is doing all the miracles! We are only being instruments in his hands! But a lot of good work going on in the Lords vineyard.

Also this week we had another open church activity where we invited a ton of people to come and do tours of the church. This activity went really well! It was in our branch this time! Our branch building is really close to downtown of Alto Hospicio and a ton of people are always passing by so it was actually quite easy to get people into the church to get a tour!

This next weekend coming up we should be having 4 more baptisms! We had a family come to church this weekend who are really excited to get baptized as a family! They were old investigators that were investigating the church. When we got there they pretty much already had a testimony and everything. They remember like all the lesson that the missionaries gave and everything as well. His name is Jonothan and her name is Viviana. So that made the work a little more easier for us lol! They have 3 kids, Kevin(13), Jonothan(8), and Mayley(6).  Also coming up this week this Wednesday we have a zone conference with president in Iquique! Also we have interviews with President this Thursday! Should be a good week for us!

Today for Pday we just played a little bit of soccer as a zone then from there just a normal pday of buying and stuff like that.

Sounds like you guys have had a pretty busy week with all the family stuff going on! Wish I could be there with you guys! Looks like you guys had fun!

Other than that not much else left to say about everything... Just a good week of working and baptizing!! Everything´s going really well for me here in the mission! I hope that everything is going just as well as things are going for me! Love you guys a ton a hope that you have a great week!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. I think next week I´m going to take out a little bit of personal money to buy some running shoes! Hope ya don´t mind lol

Pics: Baptism of Marcell, Luis and Daniel!

week #73 - baptisms week

Hey! Yeah don´t have a ton of time to write to you guys this week! My time writing has just blown by because I have had a ton of stuff to do on the computer today and only a limited time to write!

But this week was really good! We had 3 baptisms! Juan Ibacache and his daughter Daniella got baptized. Also Daniela(Francisco´s wife) got baptized! Definitely seeing miracles passing here in Alto Hopicio working in the Lord´s vineyard! This week coming up if everything goes well Marcell and Luis might get baptized! They are definitely ready and everything but there are a couple complications for them but with faith I think they´ll get baptized this week!

Transfers passed. I´m staying here for another 6 weeks with Elder Lozano. Actually there weren´t a lot of transfers here in the zone. Only the sister missionaries changed and Elder Pineda and Elder Fernandez are going to train this transfer! So I´ll be living with Elder Pineda and a noobie which should be some fun! Happy that I get to stay here because there is a lot of success here and we have a ton of people to teach and to still baptize! Of all the families that we have been baptizing not all of them have gotten baptized so there are still a couple people that need to get baptized! But we definitely need to start to find more people because we have just been baptizing all our investigators so we´ve got to do a little white wash with our stock and find new people to start to teach. Stop passing by the people that haven´t been progressing a ton and do a white wash to find more people that are ready and ready to progress into the waters of baptism!

Here we normally have the same program and normally the members give talks. But actually I had to give a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting about how to be a friend with the investigators and new converts which was kind of a hard talk to give without giving palos to the members. But the talk went really well. But other than that we don´t really have to give a lot of talks or teach. The members here are really good and almost all of them have calling and stuff so we don´t have to do literally all the work here which is nice lol.

Sounds like you guys had a fun week! And sounds like this week coming up should be fun as well! Definitely send me some photos!

Actually my feet have been hurting a little bit while running because the shoes that I have aren´t that great for running because they´re only indoor soccer shoes.... Might want to get me a pair of shoes lol... But it´s not because I have bad feet like you guys..

Well other than that we´re just going to keep working hard! This week should just be a pretty normal week of just working and working with other missionaries in companion exchanges! Hope that you guys have a great week in the graduation and also in your family reunion! Love you guys a ton!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics: Baptisms!!
Photo of the Zone Alto Hospicio!

week #72 - - baptism of Francisco - busy week on conferences and travel

(first email I got)
Hey! 

Good talking to you guys yesterday! So there isn´t any thing to talk about today because we talked yesterday! So cya later

Love

Elder Newkirk

(then got this a bit later) haha

Nah joke I´ll keep writing for this week that happened.

This week went really well. Francisco got baptized!! He also received the priesthood so that this next weekend he can baptize the rest of his family! The family still didn´t feel ready and stuff like that to get baptized but after Francisco´s baptism they are excited to get baptized. Sunday we passed by in the morning to take them to church and they told us now the rest of the family wants to get baptized! It was pretty cool. Just have to baptize the people that are ready to enter into the waters of baptism because if we would have just waited until the whole family was ready to get baptized then we would still probably have to work with them for a while until they all felt ready to go. We also have another family that only part of them are going to get baptized this weekend. They came to church this Sunday. The Ibacache family! There are 5 of them but only 3 of them came to church and 2 of them are going to get baptized this week as well. We actually had 8 investigators in church yesterday for being mother´s day I thought that it was pretty good. I thought that a lot of people wouldn´t be able to go to church for mother´s day but actually a lot of them came to church. There were a few that told us that they couldn´t for it being mother´s day yesterday. But it went really well this week! So this next weekend we should be having 4 baptisms! 

Also this week we had the conference with Elder Texiera. Friday everyone went down to Iquique to travel to Antofagasta a 1:30am which was a lot of fun... Then we got there at like 8am and went straight to the conference. The conference ended at like 3:30pm and then just pretty much just hung out. Then I went out with Elder Alcantara to visit my first sector with him and we visited a few people. Then we returned home at like 9pm and got in the house at like 4am. So I was a little tired during the next day lol. But the conference was really good. Elder Texiera talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and the importance that it has in the conversion of the people. He invited us to focus on the importance that investigators have to read and to pray about the book of Mormon. The book of Mormon has power and changes people. I have definitely seen it a lot in my mission when people read the book of Mormon. So that´s about it on the conference. Pretty much just threw the hammer down with us in a couple things that we need to do a little bit more lol.

But yeah this week should be pretty busy as well because it´s the last week of this transfer and also have 4 baptisms. So should be interesting. Could be as well that we might have some changes going on! But we´ll see what happens next week on The Mission of Elder Newkirk.

Next month I´ll be heading down to Antofagasta again. Every month I have to go to leadership council so at least once a month I have to go down to Antofagasta. 

So how baptism interviews work is that another Elder has to do baptism interviews in other sector. For example I can´t do baptism interviews for my investigators. We have to have our district leader(Elder Barney) do interviews for our investigators because it wouldn´t be right if we could do our own interviews. And we get to do the interviews for all the district leaders and if something happens and other sector needs interviews then we do the interviews. 

Our sector is pretty huge. I think our sector is the biggest of Alto Hospicio. Like an hour walking from one end of the sector to the other. 

But that´s about it.. I´ve actually been running a ton with Elder Pineda, like this morning we ran about 4 miles which was pretty good. Wish I had a good pair of running shoes though lol, but when I get home. 

Well love you guys a ton! Thanks for everything!! Hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

with a giant lizard that they have in Pozo Almonte

With Elder Howe, Elder Gali, and Elder Wild only missing Elder Jennings

Also when I went with Elder Alcantara to visit. Matias and Nicolas!

With Elder Texiera

Francisco´s baptism!

Francisco´s baptism!

Photos in Francisco´s house with star wars stuff lol. He´s a little star wars fan

Photos in Francisco´s house with star wars stuff lol. He´s a little star wars fan

Photos in Francisco´s house with star wars stuff lol. He´s a little star wars fan

week #71 -- finding and baptizing investigators!

Hey don´t have a ton of time to write this week like normal haha but I´ll try to write as much as I can in a short period of time!!

This week went by super fast! When one is focused in the work, to find new people to teach and baptize, the weeks just go flying by!

We found a new family that are super awesome and are progressing a ton. Tuesday we had companion exchange and I was with Elder Schmid in our sector working for the day. But while we were walking around a dude stopped us in the street to talk to us. He told us that he shared before with missionaries and told us to pass by Wednesday to share with him. So Elder Lozano and I passed by Wednesday and shared about gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism. Told us that he wanted to get baptized for this weekend. 13th of May. So then we passed by again Friday and taught him and his wife and his kid that is 8 years old(perfect age lol). Passed by again Saturday to teach a little bit more with the family and they all went to church Sunday. They came all dressed up as well. Whoops didn´t say their name... Francisco, Daniela, and Francisco(son). He came to church in a suit and she also came dressed up and everything. So they have a date to get baptized this weekend 13th!!! We have a lesson tomorrow with them to talk about their baptism and everything so that they can have their baptism interview as well! They have been also reading the book of Mormon and everything! They are super awesome and progressing a ton!! So let´s hope that everything goes well and they can all get baptized this weekend!

We are still working with a few of the other investigators as well. Also finding a lot of people to teach! We had like 7 investigators this Sunday in church again which was pretty cool. Marcell and Luis came to church again! They are also progressing but a little more slow then others. But they should be entering into the waters of baptism soon!! Also we have still been working with the Ibacache family, Juan and his family, but he had to go to work this weekend and the rest of his family went down to Santiago so they couldn´t come to church this weekend. This Sunday they should be coming to church so they can all get baptized the following week, May 20th! We also have a lot of other investigators that are progressing and that have came to church and everything just need to work a little bit more with them so that they can also get baptized!

This week also we had our trip to Antofagasta for leadership council! It went pretty well! I had a to actually give a short talk and do a practice in front of all the leaders about something we call the tarjeta de fuego(card of fire). It´s a way that we invite people to baptism in every first contact that we make with people! It went pretty well! Other than that there were a couple things that we talked about. We actually talked a lot about working with the youth and also about the book of Mormon but it was really good. Also got some pizza so that was also a bonus lol. We actually have to travel back to Antofagasta this Friday but this time we are going to Antofagasta with all the missionaries. We have a conference this week with Elder Texiera of the Seventy. So that should also be really good! Definitely should be learning a lot! Also next month we are going to have another visit from general authorities in June. Elder Christensen(from the Seventy), Elder Bragg(Seventy that talked this general conference), and the MTC President. They want to come and visit our mission to see what we are doing as a mission because we have been having a lot of success and everything! So we are going to have that visit coming up as well!

Other than that our week was just another one of just working hard in the Lord´s vineyard to bring souls unto Christ. It was actually a really good week. This week should also be a good one as well!

About skype this sunday!!! I should be online like 8-9pm here in Chile! I honestly have no clue what time that will be for you guys because this Saturday we put the clocks back an hour. So I´ll let you guys figure it out but I think that should be like 3-4pm for you guys but I´m not 100% sure. But I´ll be on like 8-9pm here! So that you guys can be ready to go and everything. Hopefully you won´t have any technical difficulties this time!

Man NBA news.. Miss watching the NBA lol. Sounds like the Warriors should be going up against the Cavs again lol. Both of their teams are super stong..

Thanks for all the photos from your trip in Florida this week! Looks like you guys had a good time!!

Well I´m out of time! Got to get back to the house and shower and stuff to get ready to get out there and work!! I´ll talk to you guys this week!! Love you a ton!! See ya!!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Sorry I don´t have any photos this week!!

Week #70-- baptism week for Sebastian

Hey!

Well this week went by pretty fast. It was a good week this week Sebastian got baptized! Things didn´t really work out for Marcel and Luis this week but we´re going to keep working with them so that they can get baptized as soon as possible. Also Juan Ibacache came to church this Sunday but he didn´t come with his family which was kinda lame.. We´re going to go for Juan´s baptism this week because he wants to get baptized and then work on baptizing the other 4 of his family or maybe they´ll all just get baptized together when they all go to church.. We´ll see how things go this week! 

An experience that happened to me this week that I´ll share is that we had to do an interview Wednesday night in a sector called La Pampa which is on the other side of Alto Hospicio. This week was the last week of April and always the last week we are short on money so we didn´t have any money to take a bus to the other side of Alto Hospicio so we had to just start walking(which is like at least an hour to walk there). As we were walking we were just talking and my comp said hey let´s just say a prayer in the street and ask for someone to help take us to the other side of Alto Hospicio. We we said a prayer and literally like 3 minutes later we got a call from a member asking us where we were... He came and picked us up in his car and took us to La Pampa. Prayers are strong and really work if you ask with faith! I was seriously just laughing because I couldn´t believe that, that actually happened. Even the smallest things God cares about in our life and about every single one of us. Just another testimony builder! 

Also had another companion exchange this week with Elder Ambao from the Philippines. He has like 3 weeks in the mission field but it was cool to be able to work with him. There in the Philippines they talk English as well as a couple other native languages. But they play a ton of basketball there as well so we were able to talk a little about basketball. It´s cool being able to work with a lot of different missionaries! 

Also this week we had a talent show after Sebastian´s baptism Saturday. We did a couple things. I did the magic trick from Hailey with poker cards which was pretty good. We also did a sketch as missionaries. It was pretty funny. So the sketch was about missionaries entering in a house and there ´s a kid in the house that just keeps bugging the missionaries and interrupting and just making a scene the whole time. Then the parents leave to go get food and when they leave the missionaries go and take the kid´s stuff animal and threaten him that if he doesn´t be good during the lesson they´ll cut the head off his teddy bear. So when the parents get back the kid is quiet and just listens and stuff like that. The parents are impressed with the message that brought peace to their kid and the house so they invite the missionaries to keep coming back every day. It was a pretty funny sketch. My comp was the kid and I was one of the missionaries with another Elder and the sister missionaries was the mom and the grandma. But turned out pretty good. The talent show was also really good and fun!

Sunday we had another open church program! I don´t have any time to write about the experiences that I had in the open church. But I was able to work with Elder Alcantara again because he is in the zone now. We went out to invite people to come to the activity in the church. And we found a couple that came with us and there is a part in the open church about baptism and when we got to that part they were just asking about baptism and how they could get baptized. It was pretty funny because all the missionaries in back were just laughing and baptizing and stuff like that because they were literally golden. So we found some baptism yesterday. Wish I could have explained the story a little better but I don´t have time to do so...

Speaking about comps in the zone we had a special transfer in the zone. Elder Reveko left and Elder Pineda came into the zone. So now I´m living again with Elder Pineda but not as his comp lol. Fun to see old comps! Back together with Elder Alcantara and Elder Pineda. 

Interviews also with President went well! Everythings going good. I always love talking to President! Also this week I´ll be seeing him again because we have to travel to Antofagasta again because it´s already May! So we´ll be traveling to Antofagasta for Leadership council at like 2 am Wednesday! Woo! 

It´s actually starting to get pretty cold here at night. Here in Alto Hospicio because we literally live on top of a mountain comes in clouds that block the view. It has started to happen but when it gets more winter time it gets pretty crazy what the people say. But night time here has been getting cold. The sweaters are coming out! But it´s still hot during the day. The climate is sucky. I think I´m starting to get sick again from the change of climates. It´s lame hot during the day and cold during the night.....

On the 14th is the skype call. Still don´t know what time. Well we can say pretty much any time that you guys want or that I´ll put. But time is definitely going by fast, the last skype call! I only have 7 more months to baptize and to bring more people unto Christ! Gotta work hard until the end!

Sounds like you guys definitely had a pretty busy and great week in Florida! I´m jealous! Hope that you guys had great time with the time that you have left on your vacation to Florida! Love you guys a ton! Wish I had more time to write!

Love 

Elder Newkirk

Pics: Sebastian´s Baptism

A pic from the open church activity!