week #24 -- 6 months out on the mission - year and a half left.

Hola!

Everythings been going great. Nothing too much happened this week. This week has actually been pretty slow. A lot of walking around because there haven´t been too many people home. It seemed like everytime that we knocked on a door no one was home.. But this week as well we have been preparing a baptism for this Saturday. This Saturday Juliana is going to get baptized. Juliana is 11 but practically all her family are members but inactive. We reactivated her mom these past few months and have been teaching and preparing Juliana to be baptized. These past 2 weeks as well we have had one of our investigators attending church. He was one of those investigators that we were thinking about just dropping because of how long that he has been an investigator and hasn´t progressed at all. I would have never thought that he would progress. But these last two week he has actually attended all 3 hours of church and has been reading the BoM. It´s awesome to see the Lord change the hears of people. His name is Jorge Malatesta. He is like 64 and doesn´t have a huge religious background as well as the rest of his family. I hope that after he joins the church that his family will also be able to follow his example. 

Yeah the ward activity was actually really fun. Yeah brownies are pretty popular down here but they aren´t as good as they are in the states. The chocolate here really isn´t that good. For the karaoke there wasn´t anything in English so I didn´t get the chance to sing, no. But I´ll send you the link or the information for the videos and photos that I have taken. 

Yeah I´m expecting to leave this next week, so let´s see where I´ll go. I have all the mission to choose from. I´m just hoping that I won´t have to take a huge bus ride to my next sector. I´ve heard a lot of different things about Tur-Bus. Tur-Bus is the company that the missionaries travel with around the mission, so Tur-Bus is pretty popular among the missionaries. But I haven´t heard good things about it...

Yeah I´ve heard and seen a lot of the copa america. USA actually left their group in the first position! They will be playing Ecuador for the Cuarto Finals. But we actually got permission from President Dalton to watch the Chile games from the Copa! But the catch is that we have to watch it with an investigator or watch it with members who invite non members to the game. So we have been watching the Chile games! Tomorrow Chile plays as well! Vamos Chile!!

Yeah I got the pictures that Mom sent me. Looks like you guys are having a fun time in Boise! That´s actually a really cool story. I haven´t heard of missionaries returning to their first area, but that´s an awesome story. I don´t know if I have had any stories like that in my mission yet but I do feel like I am called where I need to be called at a specific time. I know that every missionary has someone waiting for them in the areas that they will serve in. I have had a lot of different experiences though on how we meet people and find them to teach. The Lord definitely does put people in our path every single day. It really just depends on us and how we react in the situations. I definitely see God´s hand in his work daily! 

Awesome bishopric. Brother Sadler was an awesome temple prep teacher! That´s also cool that you got to keep your calling!

I actually really enjoy this new schedule! It feels like we have a lot more time in the mornings to do things. I also like getting in a little bit earlier. Because now that it has been getting cold at night, once it hits dark everyone goes inside to have once, or tea time. Usually the nights are really hard so actually this change has been good. It´s been a little weird getting used to and has been hard getting up at 6:30. Because in the mornings it has been cold and I just want to stay in bed and not get up haha. But no it´s been good!

Yeah I received the last package, I got it this week. Thanks for all the photos, they are great! All the food is practically gone as well haha. Hope that I get my birthday package by my birthday. Guess we´ll find out.

Hope you have a great week!!

Love you guys a lot!!

Love

Elder Newkirk 

week #23 -- Weeks flying by.. Fun ward activity last week

Hey!

Like you said sounds like it was a sad but decent week that you guys had. Sounds like you had a great experience on Wednesday though with the prayer. That´s awesome that you did that and that Grandma asked you to say one. Definitely a hard experience though. I also would like to say that I fasted for you guys on Wednesday, not to be prideful or anything like that. But I know that even though that I´m here in Chile I know that the Lord is blessing you guys. But I also want to testify with all my heart that this isn´t the end and that God has a perfect plan. Something that my mission president wrote me this week after I told him about my Grandpa dying was this " I testify to you that he will have the opportunity to hear the gospel in the spirit world and accept it, there is a lot of hope there, and your efforts here as a missionary will actually have a great effect on his willingness to hear and accept the gospel there...God has a plan for each of his children individually so that each and everyone has the greatest opportunity possible to accept the gospel and return to Him! Those opportunities do not end with death. " He also told me to make sure that his work gets done in the temple. And I would love to do that with you after my mission! 

Sounds like all that you guys did this week was really beautiful for Grandpa. Also all the photos that you send to me were cool and the slide show as well. Was definitely hard to watch the slide show, and I also noticed that you guys put some of my photos from the mission in there! About the cremation.. I´ll let you guys choose for me, I´m fine with whatever you want to do. And it´s fine if you send me the picture. Definitely sad that I missed it all, definitely wish that I could have been with you guys, but thanks for all the photos and for sharing with me what happened!

Well about my week this week... Well it was good as always! The weeks are just flying by for me now and I´ve heard that it gets worse. This Friday we had a ward activity that I´ll send a quick photo of that I took. I also have videos of the activity but the one drive will have to wait until I actually have time to put everything on it. The activity was really fun. We did a master chef international. Every family brought different foods from all over the world. There was like Chile, Argentina, United States(they brought brownies), China, Japan, and a lot more. And afterwards we did karaoke, which I have videos of. It was a pretty fun activity! 

Other than that this week has just been visiting people and finding new people to teach. There has been a lot of good progress in a lot of our investigators which has been really awesome. I´m thinking that I´ll be leaving this sector in these next 2 week so I probably won´t be able to see all the success of my investigators but hey that´s how the mission is! 

Also this week the copa america started which I have been hearing a lot about. But all the games here start at like 10pm because they are playing in the States. Go USA! Also this week President changed our schedule. We now have a normal schedule of 6:30am-9pm not 7:30am-10pm. It has been a little weird getting used to the change but I actually like this schedule better. 

Well that´s practically been my week. Love you guys so much and know that I´m praying for you guys always! Hope you guys have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #22 -- Intercambios with Elder Joos

Wow really sad news this week. Super sad that Grandpa passed away this morning... I´m more at a loss of words more than anything. But I do know out of experience here in the mission is that God does have a plan for each and every single one of us. Here in Antofagasta there are a ton of different people with sicknesses and it is really hard for a lot of people here. Also in the ward there are a lot of people that were like Grandpa with a lot of different health problems. I have had plenty of opportunities to talk with a lot of different people with these problems. Actually today after P-day we have a meeting with Hermano Luna who is super sick and the doctors sent him home this last week (when doctors send people home that usually means that there isn´t anything more that they can do to help). But I know that the comforting message of the Gospel can help. And that through Christ there is more after this life. This definitely isn´t the end and this life is just a small step in the eternities. I know that God´s plan is absolutely perfect. Definitely a great idea to head to the temple, I know that you can find answers there and can feel peace and comfort that you need. I know that these times must be really hard for you and also for our family. But as a member of the church and with the knowledge that you have you can really help out your family at this time. To share with them this plan that God has. Just know that God is with us each step of the way and we can always turn to Him for help in these hard times. 

Everything´s still good here in the mission. Not a ton happened this week, just working hard and trying to find some new people to teach. We have some great investigators but with schedules here in Antofagasta is makes it really hard for the people to actually progress. Everyone here works a ton and has absolutely no time and the time they do have they want to use it for something else, like family. The mission definitely isn´t easy that´s for sure. 

This week we actually contacted a mamita from the year 1988 in the mission viña del mar. She never was a member of the church and has always been Catholic. She was showing us pictures of the missionaries that she was the mamitas to. Super old pictures haha. The missionaries that wrote to her said that they hope that she progresses in the gospel. And I know that now is the chance that she has to do so. She is like 80 years old but it is never to late to hear the gospel. This just assures to me again that God has a plan for everyone to hear the gospel, whether it be in this life or in the life to come. It was a really cool experience to find her haha. 

Also this week I had an intercambio with Elder Joos(our district leader). I was working with him in his sector for a day. He is actually really cool and we made an awesome contact. We were just knocking on doors looking for a random name and we actually met someone really cool. His name is Wilson and when he opened the door he was playing NBA 2k16 so we sat and talked to him about basketball while he was playing. He acutally travels around Chile with teams playing basketball. He plays center and he is this really tall big black dude. It was pretty awesome to talk with him and his experiences with traveling around playing with teams. He showed us some pictures as well. It is super rare to come across people here who acutally like basketball so it was pretty awesome. Just wish that he was in my sector haha.

Thanks for those 2 talks as well!

But yeah my letter this week is going to be short as well sorry. Just know that I´ll be praying as well as fasting this week for you guys! I know that you can find peace in the gospel and that everything has a purpose. 

I love you guys so much!

Love 

Elder Newkirk

Picture from the BBQ from last week.

week #21 - Antofagasta

Well this week has been pretty good! I have actually been a little sick throughout the week which has kinda sucked. Started Tuesday and it's practically gone today. Just a head cold but still wasn't super fun. But just gotta keep working no mas. This week we were working a lot with someone from the Stake. His name is Jorge Reyes and he is assigned to our ward to help out the priesthood because there really isn't any. He is el capo. Capo means like skill or something like that I really don't know the direct translation. But yeah we have been working hard with him this week with visiting less active members and members to make them more stronger. We have the attendance of about 40-50 people weekly but in our sector we have something like 350 members. There are a lot of less actives. I know that right now that I won't be able to see the result of everything in this ward but I know in the future that this ward can be huge and super strong. But from working with Jorge Reyes this week I have learned so much.

Today for P-day we had a BBQ with parts of our zone. We have a rule that for activities there can only be 8 missionaries. So we had a BBQ with the zone leaders and some other missionaries from our zone. I only took one picture of the BBQ that I guess I can send, but it really isn't that great. But yeah the BBQ was great, also played some ping pong. There is a lot of ping pong down here as well. 

From the stadium and Japanese park we are actually really far. We have to take a bus practically everywhere. To go to Centro it is usually like 45 mins in the bus but the stadium is even more in the south so it's like 1 hour 15 mins. We actually can go to the beaches now, I think we might try in the next couple weeks to check out a beach or something. 

When we are in our sector it is just walking, we don't need to take a bus or anything. But if we need to leave the sector, for example if we need to go to Centro or something, we need to take a bus. My feet are holding up fine, some huge calases, I don't know how to write this word, but my shoes aren't holding up... The shoes that I have been wearing the whole time have finally given out on me. There is a hole that goes directly from the ground to the bottom of my foot so I decided that it's time to switch to my other shoes. Hopefully these will last me some time. But I know that I'll probably have to buy some more shoes at one point. A lot of the missionaries that I know have gone through a ton of shoes. My comp, for example, has gone through 8 shoes in 7 transfers haha. He has a curse of breaking shoes in 1 transfer. But we'll see how long my other shoes hold up.

The investigators are good, not a ton of progress but there are some really good investigators and a lot of good potential progressing investigators. I have just been studying and reading from the BOM. I really don't need to have a huge knowledge of bible. I can answer any question that someone has with the BOM. The BOM has the fullness of the gospel and that's really all you need as a missionary. The BOM is absolutely key in the conversion of someone. If someone doesn't read and pray about the BOM then there isn't a conversion. No matter what questions or doubts that anyone has I know with a sureity that if they read and pray they will recieve an answer. Just as Moroni promised to everyone in chapter 10. 

Hmm, about the food there really isn't anything too special that I have tried. The food down here usually is just the same and it's actually pretty boring. It really usually is just the same thing every time. A lot of rice and chicken and soups and tomato and mayo... There are actually some pretty awesome different types of candy and stuff down here that I actually really like. When I come home I'll definitely have to bring some for you guys to try out. 

I won't be able to send a picture this week, sorry! I'm using a different computer and this computer doesn't have an adapter like the other one that I use does. Will have to wait until next week! Sorry!

Well running out of time! Hope you guys have a great week! Love you!!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #20 Exploring around Antofagasta this p-day!

And the weeks just keep flying by and a new one starts. But this week has actually been really good! Also today has been pretty awesome, we actually went to go check out some places here in Antofagasta. Did a little of exploring around the city. Today we went to the soccer stadium of Antofagasta and also to a Japanese park. I´ll send some pictures. 

Thanks for the music! I actually received a lot of music this week from another Elder that had a lot. So I had him transfer some of his songs for me but thanks for the music! You can just keep sending me some more if you want!

About the packages that I have been waiting for.. I only got one and it was the one from Grandma and Grandpa Oldroyd from Easter haha. I think it takes about 2 months for the packages to actually get to me.. So I´m thinking that I´ll be getting it the start of next month. Super fome(chilean slang for Lame) but there isn´t anything that we can do.

Yeah the weather has been pretty much the same. It has cooled down a little bit, it isn´t super blazing hot like it is during summer. Nice in the 70s and gets in the high 50s to 60s at night. So it´s been pretty nice.

The time actually changed here. We are now one hour back so right now it´s 6pm. We actually didn´t know that the time changed on Sunday and showed up to Stake Conference an hour early haha. We were asking why there wasn´t like anyone there at the church, so yeah that happened to us.

Awesome that Hailey recieved the team leader achievement again! Congrats! Good job Positive Polly!

Church was great yesterday because it was Stake Conference. We had one of the 70 there who was acutally Mision President like 6 years ago here in the Antofagasta mision. Also our mission president, President Dalton, was at the conference and gave a talk. They talked a lot about temples and the importance of going to the temple. Especially here where there isn´t a temple, there are a lot of people who don´t go or don´t have a chance to go. But the conference was awesome.

But yeah the attendance for this ward is around 40-50 every week. I think that they just rotate through members of something, but it honestly doesn´t feel like the same people give talks every Sunday. Everyone here I think loves to share things. Especially during testimony meeting, I don´t think there is a dead moment when there isn´t anyone talking. But yeah I definitely think it would be hard on the Bishop, especially because he is alone now. Our Bishop doesn´t have any councelors right now... He has a ton of responsiblitiy. 

About the contacts this week... We acutally have 5 new investigators from this week and they are all awesome. One is a family, Fernando, Barbara, Barbara´s brother, and their little kids. Well practically the whole time they were just trying to teach us things from the Bible and just talking a lot. We could barely get anything out... But I ended up sharing about the Book of Mormon real fast and invited them all to read and pray about it. We returned later in the week and only Barbara was home but she said that Fernando had been reading a lot from the Book of Mormon and that we´d better prepare for his questions when we return for them again. He has a huge knowledge of the Bible so hopefully he won´t try to bible bash with us. That is one thing that I wish that I would have done more before my mission is study everything, the bible, book of mormon, etc. I have a pretty good knowledge about the book of mormon but hardly any knowledge of the bible. Definitely makes things hard sometimes. 

Wow crazy story about Avalanche shutting down, the Lord definitely knows what´s best for us in the moment. Maybe we won´t know right now but everything will work out. But it was definitely more of a blessing that we moved when we did. 

Love and miss you guys! Hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #19 baptism this last Saturday of Vanessa

It was super great to see you guys yesterday! Everything ended up working out so it´s all good!

But this week has been great, a lot has happened and Vanessa was baptized! I´ll send the pictures of the baptism.

Today we are just chillin for our p-day. There really isn´t too much to do. We went and did a little shopping so that we could have some snack and what not then just chilled in the house. Then after this I think we will just go back do some cleaning and that´s about it. There really isn´t too much to do here, I mean we could try to explore things but I really don´t want to get lost here in Chile. But I thinking really soon we should be able to go to the beach, because it is starting to become "winter" here, which should be something to do on a p-day.

This week we will definitely be hitting the streets hard to try and find some new investigators to start teaching. We definitely need some more! 

I actually can´t watch youtube videos. In the past the missionaries were able to but there are disobedient missionaries so now we have a rule. We are limited to lds.org and our emails pretty much. I wish that I could watch the talk that you sent me but I can´t.

Well I guess that I´ll share my flea story that I shared with you guys yesterday. I really wasn´t planning on sharing this story but I guess here we go... So the start of this week I started to notice bites on my legs and I kept waking up with new bites. My comp said that it was because that I had fleas and that I could shave my legs to get rid of them and that other missionaries shave their legs as well because of the fleas. So I decided to shave my legs to get rid of the fleas... Well I think I would prefer the fleas then to shave my legs again. Having shaved legs sucks so bad and I don´t think that I´ll ever do it again. But yeah that´s something that happened to me this week.

We actually ran into the Zone Leaders today in Jumbo and they said that my companion and I both have mail so hopefully that it is. Because I´m also waiting for the things that grandma and grandpa sent me as well so we´ll see in Friday!

Love you guys a lot and it was great seeing you! Hope you guys have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #18 friendly game of finding investigators

Hola, things have been going great as always. We have contacted a lot of future investigators this week thanks to a game me and my companion have been playing. This game is with a coin, one side is me and the other side is my companion. Whatever side the coin lands on one of us has to make a contact with someone in 5 minutes. If you don´t make some sort of contact in 5 mins you have to pay the other 50 pesos(which isn´t a lot). We have acutally found a lot of people through this game and it has been pretty fun. Also this week we are all good with health, haven´t had any problems!

Sounds like tomorrow should be fun with your flight at 6:30 in the morning. Definitely not as long as the flight is here in Chile. As well as the bus rides here. There is a chance that next week I leave to another sector and will have to take a long bus ride. In Saturday is when they call for transfers, so I´ll know then if I´ll stay here in Antofagasta or if I will be in another sector. But I have heard that the bus rides here are terrible and suck really bad. I´m not looking forward to when I leave Antofagasta. But about the weather, the weather here in Antofagasta has been really weird. There are some days where there are a lot of clouds and it isn´t hot. But there are days like today where it is just hot. But at night it has started to cool down which has been nice. But a lot of changing of the weather here. In the mornings and nights it is usually a little cool and in the afternoon it is just hot. But yup that´s the weather here. 

That´s too bad what happened at Summit with Hailey´s team, but hey what can ya do? At least you guys get to go to Disneyworld and all that still! 

Should be awesome this Sunday with being able to talk to you guys! Looking forward to it! Some information about the Skype call is that we´ll be doing it with Hermana Malva in her house. I think we are planning to do it around 6pm Chilean time. I´m not exactly sure what time that is for you guys I think around 2? But yeah just be ready around that time I guess!

Hmmm, any crazy or funny stories from this week... So we were in one of the more dangerous parts of our sector trying to contact a less active. So we were talking with a less active outside of there house and everything was good. But then some guy turned the corner who was completely drunk and bloody. He was bleeding from his head and didn´t have a shirt or anything. But just completely bloody. He started yelling at us about Jesus or something. I don´t know I couldn´t really understand what he was saying. But the less active was telling him to leave and stuff because she knew who he was because it was one of the neighbors but yeah he finally left us alone. But yeah I guess that´s my crazy story for the week.

Yeah Vanesa is making good progress to be baptized this Saturday. She had her interview and everything last week and passed! But she didn´t attend this Sunday at church so we have to plan everything and call some people to figure everything out. But we are still planning to have her baptism this Saturday, but I guess we´ll see!

About Sebastian, hmmm great question... He´s not doing so well with the gospel right now. He knows everything and knows what he needs to do but doesn´t do them. In my time here in this sector he has only gone to church one time. We have talked and stuff but just doesn´t seem to be interested and just thinks us to be just friends, not like missionaries. We have practically shared all that we can, I think the only problem is that there really isn´t anyone for him in the church. The attendance this Sunday was 39 and last week was 35. Definitely a hard situation but I know nothing is impossible for God. 

Also have met a lot of new people this week. We met a lady who is married to a gringo. I haven´t met him because he is in the states right now for health. But he is from Florida which is pretty awesome. Also today on our way home from centro I sat next to someone who knew English and we talked for a little. But he travels a ton all over the world and knows like 5 or 6 different languages. He is a history teacher by profession but travels all the time. He is originally from Europe but knows a lot of the world. He said that he is planning to go to Vietnam and Israel next year which is crazy. I also asked him out of all the places that he has been where does he recommend. He said that Machu Pichu and Cuzco are definitely a place to visit and that he recommends a lot. So guess I´ll be making plans to go there some day! 

Love you guys a lot! Hope you guys have a great week and see you on Sunday!

Love 

Elder Newkirk

A book that I have to get while here in Chile. It is a book with all the slang words in Chile and it is super funny.