week #83 - Baptism of Freddie and Cleusa

Hey!

Definitely a busy week this week! Tuesday we had the conference in Antofagasta as a zone. It was really good. President talked a lot about verification and helping people go through with their compromises. It was really good. Learned a few things that I´m going to start to do to help people to go church and do other things like pray, read, etc.. Also got my package when I went down to Antofa. It got here all beat up and disformed lol. I´ll send a pic. I actually opened it up to see if everything inside was still good. Everythings all good inside. I also took out the travel pillow because I had to travel to Tocopilla for Wednesday.

All day Wednesday I was with the Elderes in Tocopilla. Elder Taylor and Elder Camera. They are really good missionaries. It was good to be able to work with them in Tocopilla to teach and help them out with a couple things and questions that they had. We also had to go a couple interviews for the sister missionaries there as well. It was probably one of the most interesting baptism interviews that I have ever done in my life. Yeah so it was a 83 year old grandma. She has been going to church for the longest time there in Tocopilla because its pretty close to her house. But I´ll just leave it at she didn´t want to live the word of wisdom with tea. And she also had a problem with the law of chastity even though she lives alone...... Her first lover from the year 1950 who lives far away and comes to visit her like every couple months.... I´ll just leave it at that....  I hope I´m still going strong at 83 hahaha.

Also this week in our sector we had 2 baptisms!! Cleusa and Freddy got baptized this week!! Marisol and David didn´t get baptized this week. Marisol is back with her ex bf and he is living back in the house so she couldn´t get baptized. David couldn´t get baptized either because he has to go to church more because he is only a kid still.. Kinda lame when people tell you they want to change their lives and everything but do to complete opposite. David called us Saturday night at like midnight crying because his mom was drinking. He called and I answered the phone and all I hear is "my mom is sinning, what should I do?" I felt really bad for the kid. I told him to say a prayer to God and to go and get some sleep and that we´ll pass by tomorrow morning to bring them to church. Well they haven´t answered the door still. We haven´t found her since then as well. Really sad, I felt really bad. So hopefully we´ll be able to find the family soon and help them!

But back to the good news with the baptisms this week! Freddy and Cleuse got baptized! They are really cool. Cleusa got up and bore her testimony after her baptism in front of everyone and it was really cool! She also called me their Godfather because I baptized them both. In the Catholic church they have Godfather´s when they baptize babies so she called me the Godfather lol. It was funny! But they are really awesome and I think will grow a lot in the gospel! Definitely a golden family!

Then we also had our interviews with President yesterday after church. He came to Calama and was in church with us. My interview went really well. He told me that I´ll be put in charge of the zone this next transfer and that I´ll probably be getting a new comp that has never been zone leader before and have to train him how it works! Should be pretty fun! But I guess we´ll find out exactly when the transfers happen in like 2 weeks. He also told that I will be training a new missionary si o si before I finish the mission! I´m excited because I still haven´t been able to train yet. President also told me that one day I´m going to be a bishop and that I need to learn now how to be a leader in the leadership position that I have. Whelp... But it was a really good interview! I always love to be around President and talk with him. Tomorrow we are heading down Antofa again for the leadership council! More traveling whoooo!

Hope you´ll finally get the answer for the job this week! I have been praying every day for you guys! Hope everything works out!!

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

Love
Elder Newkirk


Pics:

Our group that came to the mission together. Only missing Elder Jennings!

BAPTISM OF CLEUSA AND FREDDY TA!

BAPTISM OF CLEUSA AND FREDDY TA!

Selfie with Elder Kirk

Heres the package.......... I think they were playing soccer or something with the box

Heres the package.......... I think they were playing soccer or something with the box

Today we went to eat huge hamburgers in a place called La Selva(The Jungle)... It was pretty great!

Today we went to eat huge hamburgers in a place called La Selva(The Jungle)... It was pretty great!

week #82 - Calama working in the Lords vineyard...baptisms next week

Que pasa con vo loco? When you start your emails in Spanish you talk a little ghetto hahaha

Well this week actually went pretty well. We actually didn´t end up having the baptism because we went to visit her Tuesday with the Bishop and we found out that she isn´t married..... We were like 99.9% sure that she was married because when we asked her once she told us that she was and when we passed by on Tuesday we found out that she didn´t get married legally. She got married with some tribe thing that doesn´t count... Oh chilenos... So that´s what happened with the baptism this week. The Bishop just made fun of us afterwards as well haha. The Bishop is actually really nice here. Today we actually went to his house because he wanted us to pass by to see a collection that he has in his house. He has like a complete Nintendo collection. He has a ton of consoles and video games and just like everything. He has things as well that cost like more than $1000. He broke out a couple old school consoles and stuff like that from Japan to show some of the games to us as well. He also had the Virtual Boy that we tryed out for a second. It was pretty cool! But that´s pretty much what we did today is just hang out and look at the Bishops collection. His name is Andres Acuña, good Bishop. I´ll have to take some photos another day because I forgot my camera...

Well getting back to the baptisms and working in the Lords vineyard. We should be having 4 baptisms this week! We had 7 investigators in church yesterday and 4 of them are going to get baptized! Marisol and her son David and going to get baptized this week. They were the ones that were suppose to go to church last week to get baptized but weren´t able to go but they came this week and are excited for their baptism for this Saturday. Then we have another couple that are going to get baptized as well. Freddy and Cleyusa(or something like that, her name is a little difficult). He is from Bolivia and she is from Brazil actually. First person that I´ve taught from Brazil and the first person I´m going to baptize from Brazil as well! She speaks Portuguese and Spanish. When she speaks in Portuguese I can understand a little bit but Portuguese is really cool. They actually went to church last week but in another ward. The sister missionaries last week passed us the reference because they live in our ward. But they are super ready also for their baptism this weekend. They already know a couple members in the ward from their work as well! So we should be having some baptisms yes or yes this weekend!

Our zone actually only has 8 baptisms this month of July. I´m definitely used to Alto Hospicio where we were able to baptize a lot more as a zone. I definitely think as well that the Lord expects a lot more from us. So we´ve been working hard with the missionaries especially the leaders here to be able work better and harder here in Calama.

Tomorrow we get to all go down to Antofagasta as well for a zone conference with President. We will be with the 2 zones in Antofagasta and our zone here in Calama. Should be a good conference. Our President I think will talk a lot about investigators in church in this conference. I actually have to direct the conference tomorrow which should be fun. We take a bus at 5:30am tomorrow which should also be fun. But I actually get to head to Tocopilla afterwards to go and work with the missionaries in Tocopilla. Tocopilla is another city in our zone that is like 3 hours away. This city is actually a little famous because a real famous soccer player is from there. Alexis Sanchez. They even have a statue of him there. Hopefully I´ll be able to take a photo with the statue when I go there!

Another than that my week was another week of just working. And this week coming up should be pretty good!

Sounds like things are going well for you guys as well! Looks like fun there in Utah! (I feel like I say that like every week because you guys travel a ton without me...) Good luck with the job this week! Hopefully you´ll finally have all the answers this week and everything will work out! The Lord will definitely put you guys in the right place!

Love ya guys a ton!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Voy a tener fotos la aproxima semana! Lo siento!

week #81 - working hard in Calama

Hey! My week was pretty good! I´ve actually been having a lot of fun here with Elder Torrico and the house that we are living in! I feel different here like I´m enjoying everything a lot more. We are still working really hard and finding a lot of people to teach and to baptize as well. Haven´t had a baptism in a while actually but we are working hard to be able to find someone who is ready. This week if everything works out well we should be having one baptism this week. We had a new investigator come to church this Sunday who is super motivated to keep learning and stuff like that. Her name is Ingrid, she is really cool and has been reading a lot and has been really interested. So if everything goes well then she should get baptized this week! We were actually going to have 2 more this week but they weren´t able to go to church. They are the people in the photo that I´m sending this week. I was with Elder Shelton who is the assistant to President who came to Calama for a day to be able to work with the missionaries as us as well. We went there so that he could do the baptism interview for them. They passed the interview and everything was good to go. Its the mom with her 10 year old kid. Her name is Marisol and his name is David. We passed by Saturday night as well and everything was good to go to bring them to church this Sunday but Sunday morning someone went and robbed her dad´s house so they were over there in the morning. Stupid Satan, wish I could use a stronger word... They were super ready and everything but we´ll have to wait until the next week. We´re just going to keep visiting them this week and helping them so that they can go to church this Sunday.

The only difficulties that we are having right now not just here but in all the mission is bring people to church. You guys got any tips or tricks to get people to church?  How´d you guys get me to go to church as a kid? haha

Sounds like Hailey had a great time at girls camp! You too dad with your cute fingernails painted!

Hopefully that you´ll be able to find a job soon! Definitely in my prayers everyday! Just have to keep looking and keep going with faith! I´ve actually been reading a book that we got permission to read that´s called drawing on the powers of heaven by grant von harrison and I have learned a ton about faith and how to call on the powers of heaven in our lives. As a missionary and not as a missionary as well. I would definitely recommend it! 

Hopefully you guys have a good time in Utah this week! Say hi to everyone there! 

Well other than that my week was just pretty chill of just working and getting to know my sector. My comp this Tuesday went off to Tocopilla which is part of our zone but 3 hours away. So he went there all day long to be able to help out the missionaries there with interviews and stuff like that. So I was in the sector all day with a recent convert who is super awesome who always leaves out with us. So I had to be in my sector not knowing it at all. I had just had a map and a list of some names of people to visit. It was a day of talking to a lot of people in the street and getting to know the sector. It went really well actually and found a lot new people to start to teach. Other than that it was pretty chill getting to know more members and some part families. 

I´ve also been learning how to play the ukelele. My comp has one. It´s a lot of fun. Thinking about buying one now as well lol! I´ve been learning a ton here in this sector and also the ukelele.

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

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #80 -- new zone - Working hard to find new investigators

Hey!

This week has been pretty good! It´s been a little different working with Elder Torrico because he is a lot more relaxed and likes to have more fun. Him and Elder Lozano are a complete change but it has actually been really good. There is a reason why I got put with Elder Torrico here in Calama because I feel like we´ll be able to learn a lot from each other! Elder Torrico is pretty close to finishing the mission. He goes home in September. There´s a chance that I might kill him, when I mean kill him it means to be his last comp when he finishes the mission.

This week we didn´t have any baptisms because Andres didn´t pass his baptism interview. He´s a youth, he´s 15. He is a little different and has a lot of personal problems but we´re going to keep working with him a little bit to help him to change the things that he needs to and to help him out. We were going to have 2 baptisms this week of a couple people that we found just talking with people, knocking doors, and looking at the old investigators but the both of them didn´t go to church this Sunday so we´ll have to try to get them to church this Sunday so that they can get baptized next week! One of them is a girl whos name is Diyanaira(good luck pronouncing that), shes 17 from Santa Cruz Bolivia. We knocked on her door because missionaries have passed by her house to talk with the parents but we found her and started to teach her! She is really cool and believes a lot in God and knows a lot of stuff. She has had a lot of questions for us and I definitely see her as a future missionary but she didn´t go to church because she had to baby sit and few kids Sunday morning....😭 We also found another person that is really ready for baptism also. She was an old investigator but we passed by and told us that she has been waiting for us to come back because she wants to go to church and get baptized! She remembers almost everything that the missionaries taught in the past so we sent her to the baptism interview(which she passed) and everything was ready to go to be able to go to church on Sunday. But my comp went and passed by with a member to go pick her up and she just recently woke up so my comp went to go pick up a couple more people and when he went back for her she was leaving her house with her kids in some truck....... So that was kinda lame... But we´ll see whats up this week so that hopefully she can go to church and be able to get baptized the next week as well!

We have also been working with a lot of people who are part family members. We work a lot with the members here in this ward. Elder Torrico likes to work a lot with the members and visit them and stuff but it´s actually good because I need to learn how to work more with members as well and gain their confidence. So it´s been good working with Elder Torrico, only sometimes he gives a little bit of juice. But I´ve been getting to know a couple of the members here in the new ward! We have like an attendence of like 110-120 people. Our ward is the Stake building. The church here is huge!! It´s a really cool church, its real different from the other churches! I´ll have to try and take a pic of it this week! But yeah the members here are really nice and pretty cool! There are also a lot of members that are pretty rich as well. Calama is just a pure mining town pretty much so a lot of the people here have money. There are parts that are ghetto like every city but our ward is pretty rich. We also eat lunch with the members everyday which is nice as well! So we dont have a mamita, only a mamita that washes our clothes like normal.

Yeah Calama is the coldest part of all of the mission during winter. It gets really really cold at night and in the mornings. But the weird thing is that it gets pretty hot during the day... It is also really really dry here. My hands have been pretty dry and I´ve gotten a couple nose bleeds. It is a literal desert. But thanks Grandma Newkirk for the jacket that you bought me before the mission! I thought I would never have to use it but I have been using it here every night! I´ve also been getting some sun... I always forget to put on sunscreen because I´m normally running out of the house when we leave so I normally forget sunscreen, that´s why I´ve been getting burned.. Also the sun is really strong here as well also in Alto Hospicio the sun was pretty strong.

Here in the zone as well everythings has been going great! The missionaries here work hard and are doing really well. The numbers this week have been good almost everyone reached the standards of the mission this week which is 14 lessiones with member, 10 new investigatores, 6 baptism dates, and 6 investigatores in church. The only thing that we´re missing is more people in church and also more baptisms. We have the goal this month to be able to have 34 baptisms in the zone but we only have 3 as of now.. This weekend we should be having at least 8 baptisms and after this week we still have 2 weeks to go this month of July! So we´re just going to keep working hard with the zone and also keep baptizing!!

Looks like you guys have been able to keep busy as well this week! Looks like you had a great 4th of July! We made a cake in our house for the 4th of July! Living with 2 other gringos has actually been a lot of fun! I´m living with Elder Clark and Elder Kirk, but I´m the Newkirk lol. They´re really great and a lot of fun to have in the house!  I actually knew the both of them when I was in Antofagasta.

Well hope that you guys have a great week! Have fun at girls camp Hailey! Good luck with the job as well! You guys are always in my prayers!! Love ya a ton!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics:Heres the cake we made for 4th of July

An activity that we did in the Stake this weekend. It was "Mini MTC", Elder Torrico and I were teachers for being the Zone Leaders and then after the classes the youth came out with the missionaries in the street to contact with the youth. It was a fun activity and was a good turn out!

We played soccer, had a bbq, and watched a movie as a zone today for Pday! So heres a pic of the zone!

week #79 -- new area - Calama as Zone leader

Hola! Happy 4th of July!!!

Well here I am here in Calama! I got transferred here as zone leader with Elder Torrico from Argentina! All my mission I´ve been with just pure latinos! But yeah everything is going good so far here. Calama is just a pure desert and with a really high elevation. During the day it is pretty warm outside but when it gets to like 6 o clock it starts to get really cold here. But hey there aren´t fleas to bite me here!! I still haven´t been able to work too much in my sector yet but we´re just going to keep working hard to be able to baptize here in Calama as well! This week we might have a baptism here in Calama. His name is Andres, he´s a little special and has problems with depression but he´s been going to church here and his mom is a ex missionary but we will be working with him this week so that he can get baptized because he feels like he isn´t ready and doesn´t feel like it´s his time but we´re going to teach him this week and help him feel ready for this Saturday!

It was a good time in Alto Hospicio though! I will definitely miss it a ton there! It was seriously a promised land and I had a real good time working there! Wish I could still be there in Hospicio! But the Lord wants me to be here in Calama during winter...lol. But just going to keep working hard. This last weekend we didn´t have any baptisms in Alto Hospicio but I left a lot of good investigators for the next missionary that´s going to take my place! But it was a good goodbye with the people there in Hospicio.

There has been a ton of trips this last week. Last week we went to Antofagasta to go to leadership council where we found out the transfers! But the council was good we talked a lot about leadership and also about the importance to be able to reach our goals and to have high key indicators like new investigators, lesson with member, baptism dates, and people in church. If we have high numbers in these 4 then we will be able to baptize si o si! Then we stayed in Antofagasta to be with the Asistents and to leave out with them and work in their sector. We left out with Elder Shelton who is one of the Asistents to President right now! He´s a great missionary and works hard! Then we came back home at like 11:30 and got to Iquique a like 5 am... So that was a little tiring. Then I had the trip to Calama which was 6 hours but everything's good and we are back at it in my new sector!

Hope that you guys have a great 4th of July! Hope that everything works out with your job as well! Well I dont have a ton of time because I´m going to send quite a few photos that I took this week! Love you guys a ton!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

pics: