week #78 Baptism of Ana and Jhan

Hey!

Was a good week! We had baptisms! TA! Ana and Jhan got baptized this week! Juan Ibacache´s wife and son! We have been working with them for a little bit now, like 3 months but finally almost all the family are members of the church! Now it´s just the other daughter that lives with them that isn´t a member. Her name is Tamara and we´ve shared a little bit with her but she doesn´t really care all that much but we´re going to keep working with her so that she can get baptized as well! More about baptisms we might have one more coming up this week! We have a girl that went to church this Sunday. My comp found her during the week and invited her to church and also to baptism. She´s nice and has a chance of getting baptized this week. Her name is Nelva. She is 15 and has a baby that just was born like 2 weeks ago. Pretty crazy but she´s nice and is receptive. She lives with her family in the tomas. Part of our sector is just like a city of tomas, there are still parts of the tomas that I have never heard of or know about. But there a lot of people that live there with some sad stories but they are usually nice people. Well you get all types of people in the tomas lol... But yeah she has the possability of getting baptized this week! This also might be my last week here in Alto Hospicio.. We are in week 6 of this transfer and there is a good chance that I´m gone this transfer to another zone or something! But we´ll see what happenes next week if there are any changes or not. We actually have to go to Antofagasta this week to go to leadership council this Thursday and I´ll pretty sure they´ll tell us our cambio there in the council. So that should be my week coming up!

Other than that this week was good. Just a normal week of just working and sharing the gospel with everyone that we come across! Also our converts have been progressing a ton! There are a lot of them that have been receiving callings in the branch and have been progressing a ton! Thanks to the members as well! The members here have been working pretty hard to help out the converts to stay and progress! Actually one of our converts Sebastian Flores has been real excited to leave out with us to visit people. He has been calling us like everyday this week asking us if he could go out with us and visit people. He´s 19 and in his last year of high school, he has actually told us that he would like to be a missionary as well! So we´ll see what happens but it would be pretty cool if he left out on a mission! He´s only been a member for like 2 months now.

Also this week I had an comp exchange with a new Elder, Elder Jibaja from Peru. He is in his first transfer in the mission field! He is super awesome and with all the fire to talk with everyone about baptism! I went over to his sector to work with him and to do some interviews for a couple of their investigators that got baptized this weekend! Also had to go to another sector that same day to try and help out with another baptism in another sector but didn´t work out as well lol. It was actually an investigator that I have known for quite a while now. I actually knew her in Antofagasta when I District Leader. It was a girl that lived here in Alto Hospicio but she was visiting family in Antofagasta for summer vacation like 6 months ago. In Antofagasta the sister missionaries were teaching her and she was on the edge of getting baptized in Antofagasta. I did her baptism interview in Antofa but her mom didn´t give her permission because she wanted her to get baptized in Alto Hospicio. Well she still hasn´t gotten baptized but I went and visited her this week and talked a little bit with her. I invited her to get baptized Sunday after church because the missionaries were preparing a baptism service after church and she actually accepted and I did another interview with her and everything. The missionaries passed by her baptism clothes the next day and everything was good. But then she didn´t go to church..... She´s real lazy seems like lol. In Antofa she was like always going to church and mutual and everything but since she´s been here in Alto Hospicio she still hasn´t gone to church. It´s weird how the people change and how lazy they are as well lol. But definitely interesting situation knowing someone from another sector in the mission like 6 months ago and returning to see them again and stuff.. Oh her name is MariaJose just in case... But yeah that´s what happened there. Here in Chile it´s hard to get people to go to church. Idk why it´s so hard for people to go to church but that´s the hardest part that we have is bring people to church. We even leave out with a member super early every Sunday morning in a car to go and wake people up and bring them to church.... No Church No Baptism!

No there are always dogs in the street. There are good dogs and there are bad dogs. But every where in Chile they have just dogs everywhere. There are more dogs than there are people. And there is more poop then there are dogs lol😂 But everythings good. My pants are in a wearable shape now lol. I have no clue what kind of dog it was because there are all types of dogs here and so many types of mixes. But yeah we were just passing by a street to go and visit an investigator and the dog just started barking at us with a group of other dogs and when we passed by and were knocking on the house the dog came up and bit my leg.... Always got to look out lol.

No I didn´t by the East Carolina jersey.. lol. Why would I buy that thing. Just thought it was funny to find that jersey in Chile ya know.

Hopefully everything works out in the place that you want to work! Would be pretty cool to work at Blizzard!! Hope that everything works out for ya there! But the Lord will put you where you need to be, also where I need to return home to as well lol!

Well that was about it for this week! The mission is the best! Lot´s of ups and downs and the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life, but it is definitely the best!! Just going to get out there and give it all this week like normal!! Love you guys a ton!! Hope you have a great week as well!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics: Baptism of Ana and Jhan!!!

We played soccer today for P-day! Also played a little 1 on 1 with Elder Ambao from the Philippines. He´s like the only other one in the zone that actually plays basketball! but it was definitely fun to play a little ball as well today!! Been a long time!