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.

week #17 - Back to good health and opportunities to give blessings!

¡Hola! ¿Como les ha ido?

Everthing here has been great. We´re back to being at 100% in health which is good. The sickness is still going around though and we have had a lot of opportunities to give blessings of health. There isn´t a lot of priesthood down here so we get to have a lot of opportunities to give blessings and serve the members!

This week was good, I think it was just a normal week haha. I don´t really know what is considered to be a normal week because the weeks are always changing. Yeah when we were sick we didn´t leave the house. We didn´t work on Sunday and also on Monday. We practically just slept and studied. Two days definitely makes an impact on the work but we still had a great week and found some new people to start teaching. 

Another thing that I have really started to realize recently that has hit me hard, this week, is how good that we have it. A lot of the people that we are teaching and meet everyday have a lot of problems. People here work so much with crazy schedules. There are some people that work from morning until night every single day and don´t have time for practically anything. But there are so many different problems with the houses and the streets and everything. The humility has really set in, it has been a humbling experience since the beginning, but it is something that I have been thinking a lot more about this week and as well in my studies. We are seriously so lucky to have what we have with where we live and everything. And we´re even more lucky because we have the gospel in our lives! I don´t know it´s just something that I have been thinking about this week.

With the people down here, there are a ton of different religions and a ton of different beliefs. I have learned so much about other religions and how others worship. There are a lot of weird, different things that religions do. But I can´t talk bad about other religions and stuff that people do so I´ll just leave it at that. 

Sounds like you guys will have a lot of fun in Florida this week. Hope Hailey and her teams does well this week in Summit! Can´t wait to hear next week how everything went!

Mi Español es mas o menos no mas, pero es mejorando. In the companionship we practically speak spanish all the time, very little do we speak English. My companion actually understand a lot of English but we don´t use English at all. It´s basically all Spanish all the time. I have definitely noticed though that English is getting harder and Spanish is getting easier. I can still write in English perfectly fine but when I talk in English it just feels weird, and even at times I have to translate in my mind Spanish to English and it just comes out weird. But I don´t have any problem with writing my letters every week. It´s only when I try to speak in English it is weird.

This P-day was actually pretty awesome, we didn´t do a lot but we ate some really good food today. Today we went to Centro again so that I could change some money and buy a speaker. We we did that and after that we went and tried a place that Hermana Malva recommended to us. It was pretty expensive but it was definitely worth it. It was a placed called Gran Chimu and they make Peruano food. I´ll be sending a picture of what me and my companion got. It was really good. 

Love you guys a lot and hope that you all have a great week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #16 -- Getting over being sick the past few days

Hola! ¿que tal?

I actually haven´t felt any earthquakes in my time here in Chile. People have said, "Oh, did you feel the earthquake yesterday?" but I haven´t felt anything yet.. 

Vanesa is doing great and attended church this sunday with us. I don´t know how long she plans on staying here in Antofagasta but if she is here for like another month she will be baptized 100%. But so far everythings going great!

I´m not sure how Hermana Malva is doing but I do know that there is a sickness going around because my companion and I have it too. It started yesterday for me during church. I threw up like 3 times at church. Yesterday wasn´t all that fun. And my companion started the sickness last night. I´m actually doing a lot better and I think I´m practically at the end of the sickness. Just need to get some energy back and get some food in me. But my companion is still pretty sick. I think it was probably just something that we ate, but who knows here in Chile right?

Thanks for sending the package to me, hopefully I´ll be getting it soon! We´ll have to time how long it takes for me to get the package haha.

With you comment on the Restoration, "Joseph Smith claimed he seen Heavenly Father and Jesus. Not many can claim that so boldly as he did. Probably why many people dont think he did what he did." It´s true, but God knew that people wouldn´t believe in some kid that had this vision so that is why he showed to him the Book of Mormon. All the evidence is in the Book of Mormon, everything about the Church is all weighted on the Book of Mormon. All someone needs to do is read it and pray about it and they know that everything about the Church and the Restoration of the gospel is true. Like you said the gospel is perfect but people aren´t. We have to have a testimony in the gospel not in the people, if we only had a testimony in the members we would fall away from the church in a heartbeat. 

Sounds like the competition in Stockton was pretty lame. But hey they got first in everything right? Haha, yeah it sounds like this competition was pretty lame and that not a lot of teams went to it. But good luck in Florida at the end of this month! 

Wow, crazy what happened in the with the whole stake change, that´s a pretty big change! You´ll have to keep me updated on what happens to the bishopric and everything. But that´s awesome that President Farr in the stake president of the new stake and that Bishop Steimle is second counselor!

Otherwise everything is going great, other than getting sick. This week we contacted a lot of future investigators and we are also working with a lot of less actives. With the ward, the focus right now is in reactivation because there are a lot of less actives in the area. Usually the attendance every Sunday is around 50 but in the records there is about 300-350 members in the sector. So that leaves a lot of work to be done. With the list of less actives we have been able to contact a few of them and also their families, which a lot of them aren´t members. There is a lot of work to be done in this ward!

Also yesterday I had to give my first talk in Spanish. They chose me, my companion, and the mission leader to give talks. My talk was on baptisms for the dead and it actually went really well even though I was pretty sick. People actually said that they could understand what I was saying too, I don´t know if they were just saying that to be nice but yeah haha.  

This P-day has been really lame because we have been sick, just laying around all day. Our Mamita is awesome though, she made us stuff to help with us being sick and everything. The only thing that we will be doing today is emailing. After this just go back to the house and rest so that hopefully we´ll be good to go for tomorrow! Definitely hasn´t been fun but hey everythings all good! 

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

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #15 -- Golden investigators

Hola!

Everything once again is going great. A lot of walking this week but always we get to talk with a lot of different people. A lot of people don´t really like to listen to the gospel. But we always meet great people every single week. This week we came in contact with an old investigator who we thought moved to Tocopilla. But she is still living here in Antofagasta for another 2 months and wants to be baptized here! A lot of her family is LDS but she has troubles at home with her husband so she is moving to Tocopilla to live with her family who is LDS. But she is super awesome and already had a testimony before we taught anything. Definitely a golden investigator.

Hopefully everything goes well with the job hunt. (Editors note -- Some may read this and wonder what is going on but it's nothing right now  -j) But wherever the Lord wants you, that´s where you´ll be. I have learned that a lot in the mission. As missionaries you are constantly changing locations and constantly running into new people. The Lord knows everything and knows where we need to be to the exact second. It´s funny how the Lord will put someone in front of you that you´ve been wanting to contact or run into someone who needs your help. It is happened so much in the mission it is crazy. I know without a doubt that the Lord has us in locations that we need to be.

Hmmmm in my studies. Well I started to read the Bible a lot this week. A lot of people here have a lot of knowledge about the Bible and I have never read through the Bible in its entirety. So yeah that is what I have been doing. This morning I was reading the story about Lot´s wife and how she turned into salt. This story is actually really short but you can learn a lot from it. So Lot was visited by holy messengers who told him that Sodom and Gomorrah was going to be destroyed and to leave to the mountain with his family and told them not to look back. Well Lot´s wife turned around and looked back and when she did this she turned into salt. Sometimes in life things look good just to try a little but it is actually just a huge trap that will lead us to be like Lot´s wife... Dead (spiritually). There are also a lot more that we can learn from this story. I have also been studying lesson 1 about the restoration everyday like I have said. Always learn something more everyday from studying lesson 1. I thought that I was going to be really bored of studying lesson 1 every single day but it has actually been really good. 

Can´t wait to see the photo book!

Love you guys a lot! Thanks for everything! Hope you guys have an amazing week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

A new shirt that our zone made for all the missionaries in the zone. This doesn´t happen like at all in the mission but yeah it´s sweet! 

An old picture of me and Elder Villegas with Hermana Malva´s sons. (Well Matias isn´t her son, he is her nephew but he lives with them)

 Matias(left), Elder Villegas, Nico, Me