Nothing Fits Me Anymore‏

What is English? I can't remember.

Anyways, we went to paint a member's house today (I forgot my camera), and as a result, I put on my old pants. Well, turns out, I've gone down about 4 waist sizes, and too keep them up, I need to stuff in my shirt - not just tuck, but stuff - and use a belt. Even then, however, I still need to fight a bit with my pants. So, anything I used to have... no longer serves me. (Catch the spanglish! Although... I don't remember if one of those phrases is legal in English or not.)

Aaand... well, things went fine for us this last week. As the end draws near, however, I find myself still staying pretty focused, which is what I want. The last thing I want to be doing when I leave is working - I want all to know that I stayed working hard, baptizing and converting the people, loving them, and doing all things well. That's my goal.

Also, I've learned just how true it is, the heavenly paradox of "He that saves his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for the Lord's sake shall find it." Or something like that; I don't remember English. I see it mostly manifest with my drawings. My ability has increased vastly in these past 22 months, which is quite surprising - I almost never have time to draw anymore, except on mondays. And even then, not all that much. So, moral of the story is: you want to get better at something? Serve the Lord more.

It really works. I've lived it.

Anyways, that's it for right now!

Con espanglix muy horrible, tal vez más parásitos, y amor muy tierno, (With horrible spanglish, perhaps more parasites , and very tender love,

Elder Newman Mexicano

Parasites

So, for reasons that do not need to be explained in an email that gets transferred to an online blog that may or may not contain my not-so-great grammar, I suspected that I got parasites from eating chicken gizzards. It is a dish that is tasty, but I don't recomend it due to the presence of little animals living inside my stomach. I've since received medication, and the results of such medication also do not need to be explained in this email. You can ask if you really, really, want to know.

Anyways, in more spiritual news, we had interviews with the mission president last week and a stake conference yesterday. It was a special transmission from Salt Lake City, and therefore, an Apostle spoke.

The two talks I remember best were the first - basically, it was saying, "You want a united family? Well, it's easy. Super easy! Just read the Book of Mormon every single day and you'll have it. It doesn't matter how much, just read it!" It was nice.

The second talk was about sacrifice, given by Elder Andersen. It was wonderful, as he began talking of the sacrifice of the Mexican saints in giving up the Benemerito for an MTC. As he spoke of this, I thought, "Well, leaving the mission will be another sacrifice for me, then." I had just finished the thought when he gave his definition of sacrifice: "Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better." The answer to that statement of mine was amazing, but what shocked me even more was the timing of the statement. It was incredible.

And I have no pictures this week. Sorry.

And that's about it for now! Thanks for all your support, everyone!

Su siervo y amigo,

Elder Newman

HOLA‏

Some people say that the mission is the best two years for one's life, and others say that it's the best two years of one's life. I have now reached the latter - because I wouldn't trade these two years for anything else. NOTHING. And I love it. I, too, have seen how specific areas havce helped me in my life (still not too sure about Idaho, but...), how various people have helped me, how I've helped other people, and so forth. Things are wonderful, and if things keep on going as they are, I will be a very happy missionary towards the end of my time in the field. 

Anyways, we were able to find a new home. It's very small, but very cozy as well. I kinda feel like I'm in a hotel room there, but that's good. We don't have to worry about paying my light or gas or water bills anymore, however! And, even though we barely got any time to work duing the week, everything went a lot better for us this time. This week, there are no extraordinary events planned, so that means we'll do fantastically. The meeting I've got planned for tomorrow is also turning out pretty well. My English probably needs a lot of surgery - it's not terribly healthy, as two witnesses have attested. I'm also quite skinnier.

¿Podemos olvidarnos del inglés y hablar puro español por favor? Ya no sé mi lengua materna, y el inglés es demasiado difícil... mejor cambiemos al español. Sí, me gusta este plan. Hay más reglas que no se rompen. (Can we please forget English and just speak Spanish? I don't know my mother language, and English is much more difficult...better to change to Spanish. Yes, I like this plan. There are fewer rules to break.) All I know is that I'm happier speaking Spanish now, even though I am companions with a güero (gringo).

So, last week was a lot better than the last one. We had the anual Mission Tour, and Elder Jesús A. Ortiz of the (Area?) Seventy came. (I heard First Quorum of the Seventy and Area Seventy, so I'm confused. He didn't clarify after they presented him.) He talked about many things - about how to work, and, what seemed like a direct commentary to me, the after mission life. Oddly enough, it helped me get even more focused instead of getting me unfocused - probably because he took away some fears, doubts, and concerns. So that's really nice. I'll be studying it a lot over the next while, because the Spirit was very, very strong during the meeting. No photos, however.

What else? Oh, well, we found a family of three. The mom and her son are both members, less active, having moved from another state some three months ago. Her husband, not a member, is really good - we told him that we'd pass by their house at 11:30 to go to church (as we have it at noon), at he was sitting there, in his car, with his family, waiting for us to get it and go. I was very, very impressed. The only obstacle... they need to get married first. But, we're working on that. That makes me happy.

And then... well, I'm just loving the mission right now. It's hard, but the harder the better, I say. Well, I say that now. 24 months ago, I wouldn't have said that. I'm still growing, changing, and getting more and more excited to serve the Lord. I would love to extend now, but... well, I don't think that's going to happen, for various reasons. I would love to do it, but don't think that I can.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for all your support and your prayers, and thanks for spending some of your time reading my little mails! ...If you do read them, that is.

Elder Newman

Día de los muertos‏

So, it's that holiday, and a nice member gives us some treats to hand out to little kids that are trick or treating. So, I have 2. The first one I give away to a 50(ish) year old woman with no kids in sight - but, she has a costume on with flashing lights, and I'm contacting someone, so I think, "...Sure, why not?" The other I give to a guy returning from work, who does have little kids, so I think, "I don't like full pockets, he's got kids, sure, why not?"

I just need to make sure that I nab some pan de muertos before they stop selling it. Soon, it'll be roscos de reyes. I have 3 months left. (Sssshhhh - I don't dread it (that much) but I don't want to think about it)

Anyways, not much has been going on here. Last week was probably my worst week the entire time I've been here. Not in how I was feeling or anything like that, but numerically. My least diligent week ever. BUT if I've learned anything, it's not to let past failures (or people smoking right behind me) get on my nerves too much - just gotta remember the successes and all that fun stuff.

We need to change houses, so we're planning on doing it this week, too. Aaand... what else? Lomas Verdes is great; we've got Costco (they have bagels) and pie (we bought one - it's apple) and apple cider (we still need to buy that). They also have Wal-Mart; I just hope I don't gain any weight out here. I've dropped 45-ish pounds in the mission; if I get those back, I'd want it to be muscle. Not fat. So, I've been working on treating myself a lot better.

Being here in Lomas Verdes has been really good. There are quite a few people that I've met here that remember me from way back when (over a year ago); the bishop in Naucalli and his wife were particularly happy to see me (I didn't get the chance to see Hermano Uribe yet) - they were also surprised at how much weight I'd lost. I've lost about 45 pounds since I've gotten to the field - the suit that Presidente had me get is starting to get a little large for me. Not too much, but it's a lot more loose. Just can't let the apple pie we bought from Costco today reverse that.

That means WORK!

Costco is just the most american store ever.

Con amor,

Elder Newman