week#61 -- new area -- Alto Hospicio -- new calling as a Zone leader

Hola! Como estamos? Si quiere empezar los correros con español entonces vamos no mas! jajaja

No my week was actually really good! A pretty chill week over all until we got our transfers! Well I´m now in a new city with a new companion and with a new calling! But before we get to that I´m just going to explain my normal week.

Monday and Tuesday just normal days like always. District meeting Tuesday which actually went really well! I received revelation on how to tie together Kolob with the spirit of urgency! There is a saying going around the mission that when someone has a crazy idea or is just crazy in general they say that they went to Kolob lol. But in the pearl of great price says that in Kolob one day is 1000 years here on earth and that the time in Kolob is the closest time to celestial time. So I tied that together with the time that we have in the mission and technically the mission for us after this life will be like 1 second long... So what am I going to do in this second? Am I going to work hard? Be lazy? Sleep? Just walk around? And how am I really using this short time that I have as a missionary to bring souls to God. But the district meeting actually went really well! Then from there we just were working all day long trying to find new people to teach and baptize!

Wednesday was a day of just pure baptism interviews! We had this day planned out for like a week so that every sector could have someone to send to an interview so that they could be baptized this week. So all day long I was with Elder Prada(who is AP), Elder Critchfield(another DL), and my comp. We were just going around all day doing interviews for the sisters. We were all able to do an interview with someone(well expect my comp because he can´t do interviews). But it was a pretty crazy day with a few photos to go around as well!

Then comes Friday... Day of Transfers... So we had a mini zone training in the morning so that we could know the transfers and everything. But the assistants didn´t want to tell the transfers just yet. So while working on Friday we got a call from the assistant with our transfers. And I definitely got my transfer to something that I didn´t even think I would get lol! I got a transfer to a city called Alto Hospicio(which is where I´m writing from right now) as Zone Leader!! I´m with Elder Cordova, he´s from Lima Peru! He´s got like 19 months in the mission and so far is really nice and a cool guy! I traveled this morning, my bus left at 7am.... so I´m a little tired... Also this week I have to travel back to Antofagasta for Leadership Council now that I´m a Zone Leader. Leadership Council are every month and there is one just this week so I have to travel back this Thursday lol.  But yeah now I´m in charge of a zone now in the mission which is pretty crazy! Alto Hospicio is a city just above another city called Iquique. This city started out of just pure Tomas which are those houses made out of whatever people can get their hands on. But now it is a pretty big city! In 2018 there even putting a mall! It´s like 20-30 mins from Iquique which is another city which is super awesome as well! But I´m actually really excited to be able to be Zone Leader and work with a lot of missionaries!

District Leader was definitely a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed it a lot. Now as Zone Leader should be even more responsibility and the opportunity to bless a lot of people and other missionaries!

Then the weekend was pretty much working a little bit more and saying my byes to the people in Las Arenas. I was there for a short time actually, only 3 months! But I really enjoyed it there and will definitely miss everyone there but I´m also excited to be here in Alto Hospicio(let´s see how you guys pronounce this city lol).

But that was pretty much my week this week. I should definitely have a pretty interesting week here my first week as zone leader so I´ll let you know how it goes next week! With a lot more to write!! We should also be having a few baptisms this week here already in Alto Hospicio!

Sounds like your guys week was just a pretty normal week of work lol like always! And looks like you won´t go to Portland this week, that´s lame! Hope that you have a better more exciting week this week!

Yeah Elder Abalos is pretty funny. Yeah he´s from Utah! He´s going to be finishing the mission real soon this next transfer in 6 weeks!

Well hope that you guys have a wonderful week! Got to finish the letter here! Out of time and need to send a ton a pics lol! Love you guys a ton and hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. Invite the poor missionaries to your house lol

Pics: Goodbye Photos!

With Elder Muir who is going home

With Enriquez, Jenny, Bastian, and Ignacio who are super super awesome!!!(Also gave us a pizza!!)

With The Soliz Family who are a really nice family(All members)

With Enriquez, Jenny, Bastian, and Ignacio who are super super awesome!!!(Also gave us a pizza!!)

Mini Zone Training that we had Friday!

Mini Zone Training that we had Friday!

Pics with Elder Critchfield, Robles, and Prada all tight up in the car of the asistents! I couldn´t get a selfie with all of them in so they´re seperate!

Pics with Elder Critchfield, Robles, and Prada all tight up in the car of the assistants! I couldn´t get a selfie with all of them in so they´re separate!

A huge watermelon and Elder Robles and I bought

Photo with the golden plates and a robot! It was in a house of an eternal investigator who we had an interview with! He has been an investigator for like 100 years but has never wanted to get baptized, he even has a replica of the gold plates......... Idk about this dude lol but we tried to do another baptism interview with him to help him to baptism but said no again...

week# 60 - - soccer with members and investigators - transfers week - summer vacations

Hello!

Just another normal week of just working hard!

Tuesday-Wednesday were just normal days of working. Tuesday we had our district meeting like always. It´s always interesting preparing classes to give to the district. There are a few tips and stuff in Preach my Gospel but one has to create classes out of nothing. I normally look at the numbers of the district for the week and see where we are lacking in things and make a class out of that to help the district so that we can baptize! This week coming up is the last week in February and also the last week of transfers so we will be working real hard this week! Always the last week is one of the most craziest especially with transfers this week as well! I should hopefully be getting some transfers this week!

Thursday was a day of baptism interviews that I had to do for the sister´s. I had to do two interviews that actually went pretty well. They both passed their interviews and hopefully will be baptized this week! The interviews took like all day and then right after interviews we had a soccer game set up with the youth and some investigators and we told the youth to bring their friends(which they didn´t do...). So then we shared a little message and played some soccer. As missionaries we have the rule when we play with members and investigators we can only play as goalie(which is kinda lame) but it was fun! We are going to be planning soccer games every week in the night to play with the members and investigators. Also so that the members can invite their friends to play so we can find new people to teach!

Then the weekend was just a lot of walking around haha. We are in the last couple weeks of summer vacations so everyone is taking advantage and leaving out on the weekends so there practically there isn´t anyone... Can´t wait for the school season to start back up and things will start to calm back down! It´s funny at first I thought that summer break would be awesome and that everyone would just be in their houses and would let us in because they wouldn´t have anything else to do but it is the completely opposite! Everyone here just leaves and are pretty busy during summer break. I thought as well that the members(especially the youth) would leave with us a lot more as well because they are in vacations but that didn´t really work out like I thought as well... Haha but I´m just glad that summer is finally coming to an end and finally things can get back into a normal schedule!

Yesterday at church we only had one investigator come to church.. All the others were either sleeping when we passed by to go look for them to go to church or they were traveling for vacations...

This week coming up should be a pretty crazy one like I said it being the last week of the month and also the last week of transfers! Today we have another appointment with Enriquez and Jenny, the couple that we have been working with since I got here who we also baptized their son Bastian. Enriquez is awesome and super ready, he even came to church with a white shirt and tie the last time he came to church. But Jenny is a little rebellious... They just need to get married but Jenny still has to change a few things. She also doesn´t really want to get married but I really hope that they do soon! Any tips on trying to convince someone to get married?? lol

Also this week on Wednesday I will be doing baptism interviews all day long. It is the day where all the leaders will be doing interviews for all the investigators that are ready to be baptized that have gone to church so I should have quite a few interviews all day Wednesday. The urgency week! Then on Friday we should know our transfers!

Sounds like you guys had a pretty good time down there in Vegas this weekend! And congrats Hailey for making it to World´s!!! That´s awesome! A ton of traveling it seems like! A lot of money as well haha! Also congrats on getting your licence as well! We have a crazy driver out there in Reno now!

Well my time has ran out like always... Hope that you guys have a great week and that you receive blessings! Love you!!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

No hay fotos esta semana lo siento! (no photos this week, sorry!)

week #59 - Zone conference and zone training

Hi,

Well this week was good and full of conferences. On Tuesday we had zone conference with zones Antofagasta, La Portada, and Calama. President talked about a few things about how we should be our own agents. He has focused a lot on the scripture in D&C 58:26-28, which talks about how we should be our own agents and that the Lord isn´t always going to tell us what we need to do and that we have to take our own decisions and if we feel good about the decision then we just need to do it and not doubt about anything else. We also talked about the vision to baptize because right now our mission is going for the goal of 150 baptisms in a month! In the history of Chile never has one mission had more than 147 baptisms in a month! Last month we reached 124 baptisms so we are right there! We have been progressing a ton in this mission and have been going up and up every month. We´re going for the records now! We just have to keep working hard and finding people that the Lord is preparing that can be baptized! This week we are just going to work super hard to find those who are ready to be baptized next week so that we can reach this goal!

Also on Friday we had zone training where the zone leader talked more about baptism! TA! Idk why but in the mission like almost every missionary just shouts ta after talking about baptism lol... But I have a pic from zone training of the zone that I´ll send. They talked about baptism dates and how we should invite everyone that we meet to be baptized in the first lesson and in the streets! Also we talked about how we can bring more people to church and a few new things that we will be trying out to get more people to go to church. Operation Luke 15. Bringing sheep back to the flock(or investigators to church).

Other than that this week has just been another week of just working and teaching. It has been a little hard with vacations coming to an end. Like everyone is taking advantage of these last couple weeks of summer vacations and have been going on trips or just at the beach. So yesterday we didn´t have any investigator in church yesterday which was kinda lame because no church, no baptism... We had a couple people who said that they would go to church so we went and passed by in the morning to go and look for them and go with them to church but no one answered the door or their phones... But I know this week will be a lot better! Just have to keep working with faith!

Other than that this week should be good. We are just going to keep working hard to be able to bring people to church so that we can baptize next week and in the month of February! But other than that this week should be pretty chill.

As far as appointments for the week we normally have maybe like 10-15 appointments during the week and then from there we find a lot of people and teach a lot of people through contacts in the street. We have goals every week for baptisms and confirmations, investigators with baptism date, investigators in church, lessons with member, other lessons, progressing investigators, contacts in the street, new investigators, lessons with less actives or converts. So every week we keep count of these things and give informs to the leaders and then those get sent to the mission office and then to church headquarters. In our mission the standards are 14 lessons with member, 10 new investigators, 6 investigators with a baptism date, and 6 investigators in church.

Yeah those 30 baptisms set-up were actually pretty lame.... haha. Well normally we put baptism dates with people in the first contact that we do with them, even in the street. We talk with people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of baptism and especially baptism in the form that Jesus Christ was baptized and then invite the people if they would like to be baptized in the form of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. But this way normally filters out the people who are ready to commit and prepare to be baptized and progress in the gospel!

Sounds like you guys should have a pretty busy week with Valentine´s Day and with cheer! Hope that you guys have a great fun and safe week!

Wow Hailey´s already getting her licence! Careful out there on the road!

That´s cool that you have been able to talk a little bit about the church with your co-workers! Keep it up!! Keep using me as an example to start a conversation up!!

Every transfer we get new elders. So every 6 weeks! Sometimes more missionaries come then go or sometimes more missionaries go then come to the mission but it just depends on the transfer!

Well I don´t have any more time to write! Gotta get out there and work!! Love you guys a ton and hope you have a great week!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics:Zona La Portada!!
There is a motercycle club out front of our house. I never showed it to you guys but here it is. Normally they are there on the weekends with their Harley´s and everything and playing rock and roll all the time...

week #58 - Companion exchanges - finding many new investigators

Hey!

Sounds like you guys had a great weekend there in Palm Springs for Hailey´s cheer competition! That would have been cool if they would have made it to worlds! I met a couple weeks ago a family who is also a cheer family. Their daughters also have gone to worlds in Florida so I was able to talk a little bit about cheer with them. They are actually investigators from the sister´s sector who have been going to church. So even here in Chile they have some teams and do some cheer! But that´s good that you guys had a great time! Hope that you guys have a safe trip home today in the snow!

My week was actually pretty great but also a pretty tiring week as well. We focused a lot this week in finding more people to start teaching and putting more baptism dates with people. What we normally do in the street is just start talking to people and start talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ with a pamphlet that we have. Like faith, repentance, baptism, etc. Then we explain a little bit about baptism and invite them if they would like to be baptized like Jesus. Normally the people here have been baptized in the catholic church(which don´t baptize for immersion and also baptize when they are babies). So normally just have to explain the way Jesus was baptized and that baptism is for the remission of sins and that when they are babies they didn´t have sins and normally people understand and want to be baptized for the remission of their sins. The people here in Chile are actually quite a believing people but they don´t really act. But this week we found 41 new people and put 30 batism dates with people so hopefully a couple of these people that we found this week will actually get baptized and weren´t just saying yes to us so that we left them alone lol.

But we had a companion exchange this Tuesday with the zone leaders and I went to the sector of the zone leaders with Elder Prada from Colombia. And Elder Lozano went to my sector and went crazy with talking with people and finding new people for us to teach so that´s why our numbers this week were pretty high but we also found a good number of these people this week.

Cielo is still going strong in the church! She is super awesome! Her family is supportive but they don´t go to church. Cielo goes to church with a couple of her friends that live in La Chimba close to her house. There are a lot of youth from La Chimba that are converts and all go to church together which is really cool and Cielo is now part of that group.

The mission does Capilla Abierta. There are a marriage missionaries in charge of doing Capilla Abierta and they do rotations throughout the mission every once in a while. And what they normally do is that the sister missionaries stay there in the church and do the tour and do a couple sessions and teach people a little about the church. Then 2 elders are in the baptism font room that are dressed in white and explain baptism. Then all the other missionaries are out in the street kinda close to the church inviting people to come in and participate and learn more about the church. You definitely get a lot new people to start teaching through Capilla Abierta!

Yeah I heard about the Superbowl today. A couple missionaries were talking about it in the zone activity that we did for P-day today. We played soccer and did a BBQ! It´s was fun as always! So we were talking a little about the Superbowl and what happened.

Still haven´t gotten my xmas gift that I bought. Patience haha.

Well that was pretty much my week this week just trying to find new people to start teaching. We didn´t have like any investigator in church yesterday as well with vacations going on. There weren´t a ton of people really willing to go to church yesterday even though they promised to come... It seems like laziness always wins... Or that always something comes up so that people can´t go to church... But we just have to keep working this week to get people to go to church and to keep finding new people to start teaching and start teaching more of the people that we found this week! We also have a couple conferences this week which should be good to learn from President and from our leaders! Other than that my week should just be pretty normal!

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

Love
Elder Newkirk

Well I didn´t have any photos to send this week so I just took a selfie 

week #57 miracle baptism -- more hard work this week!

Hey!

Well this week actually went really well! A lot of crazy stuff happened in my week and quite the miracle as well! Hope that you guys had a great week as well!

So to start off this week that happened, we had a new investigator attend church this Sunday. She is a friend of a recent convert. She´s 14 and her name is Geraldin, but we call her "Cielo"(which means heaven in Spanish). Because I´m pretty sure she was sent down from heaven this week because she got baptized Saturday! So let me explain the story!
So the first time that we´ve ever met Cielo was Sunday when she came to church. She is a neighbor of a convert and they are practically sisters. She just got back from a 1-2 trip to Perú for vacations to visit family, because she´s from Lima, Perú. So her friend invited her to come to church so she came. Then like Tuesday and Wednesday we went to go a visit her, (She lives out in La Chimba so we have to do quite the trip to go and visit her), but she wasn´t home Tuesday or Wednesday. So on Thursday we decided to try out our luck and head out there with our zone leaders to teach her and also to do her baptism interview. So we went there Thursday morning and we finally found her. We taught her, got to know her better, then we just sent her to a baptism interview with Elder Lozano. After like a hour in the interview she came out and told us that she was going to baptize this Saturday! It was awesome because as well when she lived in Perú she was attending church there and was close to getting baptized but then moved to Chile and didn´t get baptized. Then on Friday after mutual in the church we finished teaching her everything and she got baptized on Saturday! My comp baptized her by water Saturday and I got to baptize by fire on Sunday! On top of the baptism this Saturday we had what they call "Noche Blanca" or "White Night" where all the missionaries bring their investigators to baptize in the stake building. So Cielo was able to participate in the "Noche Blanca" and it was a great experience because there were a lot of people there and all the missionaries were there!
The Lord blessed us a ton for the work that we have been doing. I have felt like this whole month of January we have just been getting rejected and just things haven´t been going too great. But when we do our part the Lord will always do his part! It was a pretty big miracle that happened this week but we were able to baptize in the month of January. The goal of the mission is that every companionship can baptize every month! So we were able to baptize in January!

Other than that this week we were just full on trying to prepare Cielo to get baptized and do everything for her. But she has already progressed a ton! She is already really close with the young women and has already started doing her personal progress! She is awesome!

Also on Tuesday we had interviews with President which was cool. Now with the mission President we will have interviews every 6 weeks which is kinda cool. It´s always good to talk with President!

Then on Sunday we had a "Capilla Abierta" which is "Open Church" in the ward "Caliche" where they open up the church building and do tours and teach people what we do in the church. We were there pretty much the whole afternoon on Sunday. So what happens is that there are a few members that are in a couple rooms around the church that are prepared to share a couple things with the people that come into the church and what the missionaries do is just go out in the street the whole time and just bring people from the street or from their house to go to the open church activity. It was actually pretty fun. We just all went out their and started talking and walking with everyone in the street to bring them into the church. It actually worked quite well and we got quite a few people to go into the church. It was funny the first person we brought to the activity was a old drunk guy in a wheelchair. At first we went up to him to invite him to the activity and told us no that he didn´t want to. Then we told him that there would be soda, he looked up at us and told us "yeah, let´s go!" I was with Elder Prada(Zone Leader) during the activity so he took the wheelchair a we walked him to the church. So that we pretty funny but we actually got quite a few people to enter and all the missionaries in the zone were helping so we actually got quite a few in there to learn more about the church and everything. It was actually a ton of fun and I enjoyed it a lot! I took a few pics there in the open church that I´ll send as well!

Well on to this week we are pretty much on square one again to find new people to start teaching and everything. So this week will just be a lot of hard work and also some more baptism interviews for the sisters! There are 4 sisters in my district, and it seems like the sisters baptize a ton! But the investigator usually gets to choose who they want to baptize them and idk why but usually the DL gets to baptize them haha. That´s fine with me!

Already the superbowl next week! Crazy! Well I honestly don´t care about any team that´s playing in the superbowl. Sounds like it will be a little lame...

Vacation time has been quite hard for working as a missionary because like I said before. But just gotta keep working and the Lord will always put people in the path that are ready to accept the gospel! But no we can´t go to the beach. We can only go to the beach if there is absolutely no one in the beach which is literally impossible. so maybe when it´s winter time again we´ll be able to go to the beach lol.

TGI Friday´s was a little expensive like 15 bucks.... but it was definitely worth it! and I´ll probably be going again!

Well I´m out of time once again! Hope that you guys have a great week! Love you!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Noche Blanca

Noche Blanca

Noche Blanca

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

Capilla Abierta

week #56 - Another busy week spreading the gospel!

Hey! Sounds like you guys just have had a week full of work and snow!

My week was pretty good. It has been blazing hot here this past week and they are saying that there is a giant wave of heat that´s going to pass through this week so that should be fun. The weather says 80´s but it is definitely a lot hotter than that because the sun is super super strong here in northern Chile. Even at night it´s pretty hot. I've just been sleeping in g´s and I still sweat at night. There have been a few nights where I have woke up just dying of heat lol. We need to ask for a fan from the office so that they can send us one. We have a couple ceiling fans downstairs but we don't have anything upstairs when we go to bed.

But this week has just been walking around in the sun. Like everyone here in Chile are on their summer vacations and have been traveling, going to the beach like every day, or just lazy and don't want to receive us. It has been pretty difficult thanks to vacations. Normally more people are home and with the family during breaks or vacations but here everyone is just go go go. Not a lot of people have a lot of time.

We tried pretty hard this week to try and find more people to teach and that are ready to receive the gospel and be baptized! But all the receptive people that we have been finding are missing something so that they can get baptized(mainly need to get married). But we just need to go forward with faith to find someone that the Lord is preparing because I know that he is! Right now we have to plant the seeds and find the people that are ready to be harvest! I love working in the Lord's vineyard but sometimes it get's hard but the mission is awesome! But it is a little hard for people to get progressing here in Chile because they aren't that good with keeping their promises. For example this weekend we found an old investigator that was listening to the missionaries before, that we invited to come to church. He said that there wouldn't be a problem and that he wanted to come to church and would be waiting for us to pass by in the morning to come and pick him up to go to church. So we passed by yesterday and he came out and told us that he was waiting for a friend to go to the beach for the day so he couldn't go to church...... So that's the main problem that we have is just with the people keeping their promises.

But this week we just have to go out there and work hard like normal to find more people that the Lord is preparing. Like you said there is a reason why I was sent here to spread this wonderful message about the gospel to the people here in Chile. One thing that I have learned a lot is that God sees us all the same and that there isn't anyone better in the sight of God. Everyone is exactly the same in the eyes of God. One concept that sometimes it is hard to have because everyone is here on this earth to learn and to grow and to make it back to their Heavenly Father someday!

No we haven´t been able to contact the girl that we passed by last week to go to church. She has been in the beach or been leaving to go to the beach or do something so we haven´t really been able to talk to her. I feel like she was just talking the talk and doesn´t really want to walk the walk.

Yeah La Portada is pretty cool. There isn´t a ton to do out there, just take pictures. We took a bus that heads out there. It´s like 30-45 mins away from our sector. But yeah that´s where they take all the new missionaries to take pics.

We have P-days until 7pm then we get out and start working again. President Hinckley said that there doesn´t exist a P-night.

Yeah I´m waiting for the gift to share with you guys what it is. So you´ll just have to wait!

Well I´m out of time this week to keep writing(even though I didn´t have really much else to say)... Love you guys a ton! Stay safe in the snow!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics:
We went to TGI Friday´s today for P-day with a group of missionaries! I felt like I was back at home! It was pretty american there!
The sister missionaries of my district had baptisms this week! After I did the baptism interviews the grandma told me that she wanted that I baptized the girls so I was able to baptize this weekend lol! The benefit of having sister missionaries in your district!

week #55 - Visit to La Portada - continue working

Hey! ¿como están? Espero que hayan tenido un gran semana!

Well everything´s still going good for me! I´m still with my comp Elder Robles for another transfer here but it´s all good just got to get out there and work!

This week we actually had a pretty great week! We found a few new people to start working with this week. We found 10 new investigators to start working with this week. There are a couple of them who are actually really good and should progress quite well with our visits. So we should hopefully have some baptisms coming up soon! This week we found a couple, Jose and Isel, who are really awesome. They came to church this Sunday as well. But like the majority of the problems here in Chile is that they aren´t married... Like usual.. They´re great! Let´s just hope that they´ll get married! We also found a couple more people who accepted a date to get baptized but they didn´t come to church this Sunday so that slowed down there progress just a little bit. That´s probably one of the hardest things that we have to deal with is bring investigators to church on Sunday´s because a majority of the people are used to not going to church and doing other things on Sunday like going to the beach or just sleeping. So it usually takes a little so that people come to church. As well with the new converts. That´s why President has been talking a lot about the importance of the Atonement and the Sacrament and how us as missionaries need to teach these things better so the people can understand how important it is to go to church on Sunday.

Well... The splits this week didn´t really work out like we planned them to. Either we couldn´t go the split because something came up or the members couldn´t because of work or something that came up as well... I had to do quite the interviews for the sisters this week so I had to go to their sectors to do baptismal interviews which took a little of our time to work. Also this week I should be having some more interviews to do! Well the sisters in my district are definitely working! haha.

Actually we did splits with a couple YM sunday morning to go and get some investigators to bring them to church. There was a chick that we started to talk to in the street Saturday night who we invited to church and said yes and that we could pass by in the morning to go to church together. So I passed by with Nicolas, Bishop´s son, to bring her to church. We passed by and knocked on the door. Then like 3 people came to the door that wasn´t her... 3 of her family members came out and they were all sleeping... They got pretty mad at us haha. But Christina, the chick that we talked to, was sleeping with her baby. Whelp she didn´t come to church and now I´m pretty sure the family is a little mad at us...

They called a new ward mission leader but we still don´t know who it is yet.. Next Sunday they´ll announce it! But this ward is full of returned missionaries so it should be someone who knows what they´re doing so it should be good!

Yeah Elder Villegas is going home this week. He´ll be home tomorrow! It was pretty funny, he called me Sunday afternoon with a phone from the mission office and we talked for a little. He´s a great guy and we laughed quite a bit! I was making fun of him because he´s dying and going home. He was there waiting to have the last interview with President and told me "it´s time to confess all my sins" haha. He´s great and told me that he´ll email me when he´s home so we should stay in contact!

I put out a couple rat poison to kill it because my comp said that he saw a rat running around and we had some poison in the house so I put some out. But I really wasn´t expecting to find a dead rat in the morning on the floor haha. Speak of the devil another cat pooped on our porch again and when we were coming home at night I couldn´t see and I stepped right on it and tracked it inside so the house smelled pretty bad for a little bit... Stupid cats...

It´s definitely fun to get out there and play some bball. And actually today for P-Day we left out with a member and went to La Portada. That giant rock in the middle of the ocean. It was actually pretty cool and we had some fun out there with him. We had to do a little walking to get there but it was fun! His name is Luis, he´s 22, and preparing to leave out on a mission this year. He has also been leaving with us to visit people. He also tagged me on Facebook with a photo as well. But he´s fun! We also went out and ate at Subway for lunch today. Oh how great is Subway. It´s been quite a while since I´ve had Subway. The Subway here is like in a super rich part of Antofa and we hardly go there but we thought that we would hit up Subway today for lunch. It was a good choice. There isn´t a ton of fast food here like there is in the states like McDonalds and Subway and stuff. There are a lot of people that sell things like completos and hamburgers and stuff like that but not like fast food fast food.

Yeah I took out some money because I got a card from Grandma and Grandpa Oldroyd that they were going to give me 50 bucks in my account so I took out some money. But I bought something that should be pretty cool that should get here by next month so you´ll just have to wait and see! I bought it through a member and they are shipping it to their house.

Well hope that you guys have a great week and a good week snowboarding! Sounds like there´s a lot of snow! Hopefully there´s a ton next year as well!😉 Have a great lazy day as well without work! Love ya guys a ton!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Reminder about family scripture study Mom!😘

Pics:La Portada that we went to today and Subway!

The Zone La Portada!!