week #65 -- bautismo!

How´s is going?!

My week was great like always! Just another week of working hard in the Lord´s vineyard! This Thursday Chile played against Argentina. We have permission to watch the world cup elemenatory games so we were able to see the game on Thursday. We can see the games because everyone is watching the game and we would just be walking around doing absolutely nothing so we can watch the games with investigatores and share something at halftime. Chile plays again tomorrow against Bolivia! Chile lost against Argentina but they played really really well! Vamos Chilenos! Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le Viva Chile! We actually found a new investigator to start teaching. We watched the game in the church. We did an activity in the church and invited people to come and watch the game in the church. We had a convert come to the game with one of his friends. So we´ll see what happens with the friend but he was cool and receptive!

Then Friday we had to do companion exchanges with Pozo Al Monte again because they needed an interview for their investigator and Elder Schmid had to go down to Iquique to go see a doctor. So my comp went to Pozo to do the interview and I went down with Elder Schmid to Iquique. It was a pretty chill day. I sat on a couch for like an hour and a half waiting while Elder Schmid was in his psycology appointment. Got a good study in of the scriptures which was good lol.

Saturday we also had another baptism! Martha got baptized! She was an investigator that has been going to church for like a month now but couldn´t get baptized because she wasn´t married to the dude that she was living with. Like 3 weeks ago he left the house and left the family. This dude is just a mess. Just left his family and everything....  But for something it happened and Martha had the faith to move forward and also to get baptized! She promised that if he came begging back at the house that she wouldn´t let him back in unless they get married. So we all good! And if he really wants to be with her then he will do anything to be with her...

Also this week I contacted a girl in the street with Elder Schmid. We talked with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about baptism. She said that she´d like to get baptized and go to church. So I was like "well permiso, vamos a bautizar". Well I think and talk in spanish so I thought it would just be right to put what I thought in spanish because idk how well that translates into english lol.. So this Sunday she came to church with her husband(THEY ARE MARRIED IT¨S A MIRACLE) and their 2 daughters. One has 8 years old baby!! TA! They are super awesome. They loved the church and everything. The only thing that keeps them from getting baptized this week is I think that they might have a problem with a couple things in the word of wisdom. But we are going to confirm and help them to change the things that they need to change to get baptized ASAP! But it´s awesome finding the people that the Lord is preparing every single day. That is why is it so important to always keep a look out and talk with everyone that you come into contact. I just imagine not stopping to talk to Candy(her name is candy lol) and missing out completely on a entire familiy that the Lord has been preparing to recieve the gospel in their lives! Always just have to keep working and keep trying to find the people that the Lord is preparing! If we do everything that we can and are being obiendient there isn´t any way that we shouldn´t have people coming to church and recieveing these gifts of the gospel!

But yeah that was pretty much my week this week. Nothing too interesting! Today we actually went to a place in Iquique called the Zofri. It´s pretty much just a huge black market where there are so many stores that sell pretty much everything that has to do with everything lol. A lot of technology type stuff and they sell everything for like super cheep because they are a lot of products from outside and stuff like that. It´s crazy how big the place is and how cheep they sell somethings. So today I bought an electic shaver with my personal money so I hope that, that´s alright... lol. I´m sick of having to shave everyday so I found a nice cheep shaver so that it´s a lot faster and easier lol. Should serve for quite a while as well. But honestly if there is something that you guys want from a black market just let me know lol.

I´ll have to ask Elder Wheelwright about that lol. Maybe we´re family.........lol

Yeah the scripture for my plaque is in Mateo 28:19-20 19 Por tanto, id y haced discípulos a todas las naciones, bautizándolos en el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo;
20 enseñándoles que guarden todas las cosas que os he mandado; y he aquí, yo estoy con vosotros todos los días, hasta el fin del mundo. Amén. If you can put it in Spanish that would be dope but if not english is all good as well!

I´m super excited for general conference this week to be able to listen to our leaders and what they have for us this conference. The conference are always super good and there are things that we can learn in every single talk! I will also be able to watch it is english! Gringo room baby!! Yeah we go to the ward building to listen to conference!
Good luck this week Hailey in your cheer competition!! Hope you guys have a good time!
Love you guys a ton!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics: BAUTISMO

week# 64 -- lots of training and conferences this last week

Hello.

This week has also been a pretty packed one as well because our mission president was pretty much here all week long and we had a couple things that we had to do while he was here in Alto Hospicio!

Tuesday we had conference pretty much all day long. We had a conference with the zone in Iquique and with our zone with president. He talked a lot about suffering with joy and how we will come across times in the mission that are hard as well as in life and that we just have to always have joy even when we are in rough times. Suffer with joy! We also talked a lot about our savior and the importance that he has in our lives first. It was a really good conference that we had! I missed parts of it though being zone leader you have to make sure that everything is going well and have to prepare lunch for everyone and stuff like that so I missed out on a couple parts of the conference. Also Tuesday at night when we got back to our sector we found a family that we started to teach. They are pretty catholic but they´re nice. There are a ton of catholic´s here in Chile!

Then Wednesday was a pretty normal day. In the morning we planned out a zone attack in a sector that needed help finding new people to teach. So we all went there to go work in their sector and find new people to baptize! I went out and worked with Elder Wheelwright from Utah. He´s pretty cool and we found a few people to help out the sector of Las Americas! Then from there Wednesday was a normal day of just working and having meetings with out branch leaders.

Thursday we had interviews with President. He told me that I need to smile more and not look so serious lol. Better start smiling then 😁 But President is super cool! He´s awesome! Then we had companion exchange for the day and I went to work in Pozo Al Monte which is a small city outside of Alto Hospicio like 30 mins away. There are 2 elders there working. It´s a pretty cool but pretty small city. It was super windy there as well. I went and worked with Elder Schmid from Arizona. He´s got little time in the mission but he was fun to work with. As a leader you always have to give the example and give the other missionaries the vision of what they need to do and their purpose as a missionary. Especially the newer missionaries. It´s always good being able to go and work with other missionaries!

Friday I honestly don´t remember what happened.........................

Saturday we had a super important meeting with our mission president and every branch president and the distrct president and all the leaders from here in Alto Hospicio. A lot of the leaders had a ton of questions and stuff that was happening with all the new changes that have been happening here in the mission with the new mission president and with the changes of everything. It was funny, president told them "Here are the Zone Leaders to answer all of your questions". So we had to answer a lot of questions that they asked us. A lot of the questions were about the asistence that people need to be baptized and a few other things about the investigators and stuff like that. But then at the end with like 30 mins remaining president took the time and pretty much just roasted everyone lol. It was super good. I got to see president is action and in his fullness. I felt like I was trasfigurated in his presence when he started to talk. It was really really cool. But the good thing is that the leaders want to do what it right and they were willing to listen and get rid of their doubts that they had and clear a few things up. There were so many different things that happened in this meeting that I could just sit and talk about but I don´t really have the time to do so but it was really good and I also learned a lot from President. Also after the meeting we talked for like a minute and told us that he loves meetings like that because he knows the church and how it works and everything and knows how to control things and roast people lol. It was super good. He also asked us a question that really touched me a lot as well. He asked us "What is the main objective as a mission president?" We told him to baptize or something like that but his answer was a lot different than I thought. He told us "My main objective is to save you guys"(you guys as in the missionaries). President is super awesome!

Then Sunday we had district conference which is stake conference but it´s not a stake yet. President also talked there, president is super powerful! But the conference was pretty good. All the missionaries had to watch it from a different room on the television because it was packed that there wasn´t room for everyone to sit so all the missionaries went out and we watched it from the tv that they had setup with the camera in the sacrament room. Then from there it was pretty much just a normal day of working. We went out with Brother Marcos at night. He took us around a couple places around his house to visit people that the missionaries used to pass by or people that he knew around there. He knows a ton of people! We seriously found a ton of new people to start teaching thanks to Marcos! He is super awesome! I wish that all the members were like that!!

And that was pretty much my week just another week here in the field working in the lords vineyard!

Yeah our area has a lot of less actives! I feel like in every single area around the world there are a lot of less actives. Especially here in Chile there are a ton. Like for example there are like 850 members in the system and only like 110 go to church lol so there are a lot of less actives here. And that is only in our sector! But we have to start working a lot more with the less actives and then we will have more baptisms!

No we didn´t break the beds tossing them out the window lol. We had a couple people below that caught them as we handed it to them from the second floor. I probably got a good 10 new ties lol. They are actually really nice ties. They are skinny ties which I didn´t have a lot of before. I actually really like skinny ties. They look a lot better!

That´s awesome that you were able to confirm this Sunday!! Keep it up! Share the gospel with everyone!  Remember that no one can be saved, only through covenants like baptism! There are a lot of people that listen to the message of the gospel but only listening to the gospel won´t save them. It is those who take the steps to baptism! I´ve had to confirm quite a few people in my mission! It´s a really cool experience and it´s awesome that you were able to do so! Now your goal is to baptize someone!!

I have no clue... maybe my hair is getting lighter because of the sun. It could also be because I haven´t been using gel now. I don´t really like using gel now. I just put my hair up with water then just let it go pretty much. Maybe it could be that but I have no clue.

Well I´ve got to get going! Thanks for everything and for always keeping me updated with things! Love you guys a ton! Good luck in everything this week! Hope you have a great week!! I should have a pretty chill week I hope! Maybe some baptisms as well!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics: Elder Howe and Elder Gali! I was in the MTC with them. They are from my group!

week #63 -- zone training and leadership council - baptism of Vial family

Hey what´s up?

This week was super crazy! It has been just go go go with so many different things to do this week. I´ll try to take you guys through a run through of my week.

Tuesday was actually a pretty normal day for us. Started off the day with zone training so we taught the zone what president taught us in leadership council. He has been focusing a lot on the members and the importance of working with them. Also working with the simi list where all the members from the branch show up. Working with the less actives or as they say the "gold mine". Because normally less active still have this fire but we just have to light it again then baptize their family members who aren´t members or baptize their friends. President promised us that if we work with this list to find less actives that we´ll baptize every week! So let´s go for weekly baptisms!! It is definitely possible! There shouldn´t be a reason why we can´t have a baptism every week! Then from zone training we went around and visited a few people and also the Vial family who got baptized this week!!!

Then on Wednesday we had a meeting with the district leaders to talk about the sectors and the baptisms for the week. At the start of the week we had like 14 baptisms as a zone ready for Saturday which is really awesome! We ended up with 9 baptisms this week as a zone but maybe I´ll talk about what happened later in the email because Satan also does his work. Then after the meeting with the district leaders we had a skype call with the asistent to talk about our zone and about the work and everything that it happening in our zone. Then from there we went to do a service project for a sister(branch president´s wife). We went to go and paint something but ended up that she wasn´t home..... Kinda lame when people ask us to do stuff and aren´t there when we pass by.... From there we went to lunch and everything normal. Then in the afternoon we had to help a couple missionaries move houses(Elder Pezo and Elder Fernandez). So we went there to their house and helped them move all their stuff out. We ended up pushing the beds out the top window because we couldn´t take them apart because we didnt have the tools to do so, so we just pushed them out the top window lol. Also while we were moving we found a suitcase just full of ties. There were probably a good 100 ties in that thing maybe even more! So I got a few new ties this week, they are actually really nice as well! Then from there we had to do a companion exchange because I had to do a baptism interview for the Elders and my comp had to go to coordination with the ward mission leader and then had to go to ward council meeting. Did the interview then helped finish the moving and got back with my comp and went to bed. Pretty crazy day with a ton of stuff lol..

Thursday was also a pretty crazy day. I honestly don´t remember exactly all that happened on Thursday but all I remember is that I didn´t have any plans that day but we were pretty packed with interviews just pretty much all day long. Also the Vial family had their interviews to be baptized that day! Just a ton of traveling to other sectors to do interviews and try to help people to get baptized this weekend.

Friday in the morning the whole zone went to a little city outside of Alto Hospicio like 30 mins to a place called Pozo Al Monte, which is a sector where 2 Elders are in our zone. They have been struggling a little bit so we planned a zone attack where all the missionaries went there and just talked with people to find new people for them to work with. I actually went to a place called Pica which is another part of their sector which is like another 45 mins from Pozo. It is a really small city but it is super green and really awesome. I went out there with Elder Pezo, Elder Mckinley, Elder Schmid, Hermana Castillo, and Hermana Villanueva. It was a pretty cool place and was able to talk with some cool people there in Pica. Then the rest of the day was just pretty crazy with just doing more interviews and trying to help out other sectors so that they could baptize!

Then Saturday was Baptism day! The Vial family got baptized! John, Kevin, Matias, and Lorena! They have another son called Cristian but he got baptized like 2 weeks ago! It was super awesome to be able to baptize a family! We had some troubles with the clothes to be able to baptize them because John and Kevin are a little bigger so the shirts that we brought didn´t fit too well. So we had to wait like an hour to start the baptism because there were a couple of elders who left to find clothes for them. It was pretty crazy but everything worked out! I feel like something always happens or something is always in counter especially when it comes to baptisms. But I´ve learned that you just have to do all that you can so that the person can be baptized ASAP! I really like that we can baptize after 1 attendance at church because you never know who is ready and when they will be ready. It could be 1 attendance, or 2, or 3, or 4 but you never know! There is a talk given by Elder Corbridge to the mission presidents called the vision to baptize and it is super good. Have to have the vision to baptize or you will never baptize!!

Sunday was also good but Kevin didn´t go to church so he didn´t get confirmed..... for the next week then.... I don´t have all that much time to write so I´m cutting off Sunday here!

I honestly didn´t have like any time to work in my sector this week because it was pretty crazy. I honestly can´t even write the half of what happened this week but it was a really great week. Also this week coming up we have conferences with president and also interviews which should be good. Also we have district conference because it is a district here not a stake! But we are working for the Stake!!! Also today we played soccer with president and the zone from Iquique! It was a lot of fun! I even bought a new shirt to be able to play today lol. I´ll send pics of the shirt!

That´s awesome dad that you get to confirm someone this week!! Congrats! You have the vision to baptize! lol! Have to help all of our brothers and sisters to be able to go back and live with our heavenly father. Because only through this covenant of baptism one can return to live with him. Not the people that just listen or converse! The ones that step into the baptismal font and endure to the end!

Things down here are still pretty hot. It´s been going down a little bit at night but not a ton! But we will start to be going into winter soon! Also the time does change here! Idk when but it changes!

Well that´s that time that I have to write today! Love you guys a ton and hope that you guys have a great week!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

soccer activity

Traveling with Elder Pezo to Pica! There is a giant dinosaur park close to Pica as well that has like life size dinosaurs to play with lol! It looked pretty cool!

Traveling with Elder Pezo to Pica! There is a giant dinosaur park close to Pica as well that has like life size dinosaurs to play with lol! It looked pretty cool!

Baptism of the Vial family

Baptism of the Vial family

new shirt

week #62 -- busy week travelling -- learning and teaching

Hey! I think if we spoke in just spanish you wouldn't understand any of the conversation lol!

My week was actually really really good. The most tiring of my mission but really good! Well it started with Monday when I got here to Alto Hospicio. We did all the things that we needed to do on P-day then we went and picked up the remaining missionaries getting to the bus terminal. Then on Tuesday was just a normal day of work. We left with a youth all day, his name is Kevin, but he's really cool and left all day with us. We did a lot of good visits on Tuesday and was just a day of getting to know the sector and a few people. Wednesday was another day of normal work. In the morning we had to go down to Iquique to pick up some medicine for a missionary in another zone then we had all the afternoon to work which was just another day of just getting to know more members and investigators! Then Wednesday at night we had to head down to Iquique at like 11pm to head off to Antofagasta for leadership council. So we left with a member who took us down, Brother Rocha who is super awesome! It was me, my comp(Elder Cordova), and Hermana Lorenzo(the sister leader of the zone). Then our bus left to Antofa at 1am. Then I got like 4-5 hours of sleep and we arrived to Antofa at like 7am. In the middle of the trip we had to take out all our luggage at like 4am to put them through a machine to see if anyone had drugs or stuff like that which was kinda lame lol. Then we were in conferences all day long until like 4pm. I learned a lot from President and what he wants us to do as missionaries. He wants us to work a lot more with the members and be good friends with them! Now we have zone training that we have to do with the zone tomorrow and have to share what president wants of the missionaries for all the zone. Then we left Antofa Thursday at like 9pm and got back home at like 330am..... So I was pretty tired lol. Then right after that on Friday we had companion exchange. I went to another sector with Elder Atagi, from Ogden, in the sector Las Americas! It was a good day of work. Elder Atagi is a giant! His shoes are size 17 or something like that! But he's really cool missionary and it was fun to work with him! Then Saturday the sisters from the sector Tarapaca had a baptism(which was the only baptism of the zone) that we attended as a zone. Then from there the weekend was just to work in our sector. This week we should have 4 baptisms for sure! It is a family that all came to church this Sunday!! They are super awesome so if you could pray for them so that they can get baptized this week and nothing will go wrong! It's the Vial Family! I wish I had more time to write and talk about them but I think I'll hold off for the next week because I really don't have like any time because I want to go and cut my hair after this as well! Sorry! But that was like a really short version of my week and what happened kind of! It was a pretty crazy week but a lot of fun!!

My new comp as well is super good! Works really well! It's a lot different than the other comps that I have had! But here is Alto Hospicio is super awesome! I like it a lot! I'm in a branch here that has like 100-110 attendance so they are super awesome! Right now the branches are working to get a Stake here in Alto Hospicio! There are like 5 different branches here and there are 3 branches in our building! This zone is the promised land baby! There are 16 missionaries in total! 4 sisters and 12 Elders!

Yeah the pizza had advocado on it but it actually wasn't all that great. I like pizza a lot more in the States. But in some places there are Domino's lol!

The eternal investigator was pretty weird... Idk... I didn't really talk to him all that much, I didn't do his interview so I didn't really get the chance to talk to him.

Good luck in Sacramento!

Yeah I got the 2 minute mark until I have to be off the computer! Love you guys a ton and miss you!! Have a great week!!

Love
Elder Newkirk

P.S. Thanks for the updates with NBA! VAMOS THUNDER! Even though they aren't doing so hot this season!

Pics: After leadership councel I went with Elder Harris another missionary that served in Las Arenas and we went and visited a couple of people before our bus left

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...