Score of the Week‏

Fun fact: this e'mail goes to 38 people each week.

So, to begin, here's some delicious:

​Why, yes, those are peanut-butter-filled pretzels. And yes, that it a lot of drinkable yogurt (6.7 pesos each, so it came out cheaper. Who doesn't love Costco?).

Also, Mom and Dad, I actually did have my camera with me in Zocalo... hehe... oops... (For those who aren't "in the know" if that's how some people say it in English, El Zócalo is the center of Mexico City, with el Palacio Nacional, a giant catholic church, a huge public square, some sketchy markets, and all sorts of really fun stuff!)

So, how are things going in the offices? Well, we're getting ready for some new missionaries to be coming in a week, so I've got to get all their money things arranged so their trainers don't hate me (getting them their emergency money, their medical cards, making sure that they've got some money on there, I just remembered that I needed to take some money off of one sister's card, etc. etc.)

And we're also teaching a really good investigator right now named Jesús. Yes, I need the accent there, otherwise I read it in English. He's accepting everything really easily, from Word of Wisdom to Tithing and from Joseph Smith to the Book of Mormon. We've just got to get him a little more... excited, I think the correct word would be. He's going to be baptized; he's said so himself. We just think that being a little more excited would help out a bit.

In other news, we've also got to find a house for some sister missionaries here in the ward, because President's looking to put some sisters here. The problem is... there's nothing available for rent that's cheap and good and... well, available more than anything. I mean, there is available apartments to rent out - that cost more than $10,000 pesos. That's the problem -  it needs to cost less. Like... $6000 pesos less. So that's been a thing we've been working on recently.

Well, gotta go now. I love you all and all your support that you give me (even if you just delete this email when you get it or say "Oh, Elder Newman sent an email. I'll read it later" and then forget about it, which I'm sure none of you do).

Love,

Elder Newman

P.S. JavaScript is still a terrible terrible thing.

THIS WEEK IN THE MISSION OFFICES...

 ...Elder Newman learned that JavaScript is just about the worst option out there.

"What does that have to do with missionary work," you ask? Well, it has to do with how missionaries get reimbursements. We used to have an online form in which they submitted their reimbursement, and now the form is broken. So, who's job is it to fix the thing? Mine. So, I begin looking for various options and learn that, to my current knowledge, the only viable option is Google Apps Script, which, according to Google itself, is an implementation of the JavaScript programming language.

Well, I'm fed up, but I can't leave that project sitting there, because it's worse than the other option: Scrolling through about 100 different emails each week, all on Monday after 6:00, opening individual image files and trying to decipher what they bought, how much it was, and "is this really reimbursable?"

So that's what I've been working on. 

And here's my desk, if anyone's (not) interested:

It looks slightly better right now. And the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's channel is fantastic. And it looks like, by that pile of papers to the left, that I took this picture last week.

And such is life. But back to Rita - her daughter gave a talk about baptism at the service. It was a fantastic message - you could hear (and see) how joy-filled she was that her mother, who, a few months ago wouldn't even let her go to Church, was getting baptized. She's a fantastic convert.

So yeah. Things are fantastic out here; I love the mission and the Church and I know without a single doubt that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and this because I have prayed about the Book of Mormon and each time I hear Joseph Smith's account of the first vision, I fill the Holy Ghost testify to me that it's true.

Any doubts? Well, for me, none whatsoever. And that is why I love the mission.

Thank you all for your support and love,

Elder Newman

Well then, what have we here?‏

For those of you wondering and that know about it, no, I didn't feel the massive 7.2 earthquake over in Guadalajara. I'm not happy about it, either. The only people that felt it were the Assistants to the President, and nobody else. Not President Whitehead, not me, not my companions, not the Sellers (a senior couple that works here in the mission offices), just the assistants.

And the other millions of people that live here in Mexico city. And the millions-ish that live in Toluca, Pachuca, Morelia, and many other places super far away from here. So... that made me upset. Mostly because I didn't feel it.

So, in other news, I love being an office missionary. Helping out the other missionaries with their finances is really nice; and with an interview I had with President Whitehead the other day, I've got some ideas as to how to change around a lot of stuff, to make things a little easier and so on and so forth.

And then what else do we got going on? Well, the best of it is a baptism tomorrow! Her name is Rita, and wow is here testimony strong. Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, everything - she's got a strong testimony of it, and she's super ready and willing to be baptized tomorrow at seven at night. Before, she was "enojona" - someone that gets mad easily - but now, she's super calm and happy, and is just a great person to be around. Her daughters were baptized about 2 months ago.

Well, that's it for now.

Love you all!

Elder Newman

Post-Hospital Update

I'm alive and back at work, so don't worry about me.

Although my stomach is super sore and bruised up.

So, you remember that umbilical cord that I was born with? Well, as it turns out, in (almost) everybody's body in the world, there's a remnant of that tube in your body that closes shortly after birth. Well, mine opened up, which is what caused the abscess due to infection, as well as pain. In addition, that tube opening up has been identified as a cause for cancer.

So I got that removed. I've got three red marks on my side, a yellow-bruised stomach, and that's about how my weekend went.

Also, because I didn't know I couldn't eat anything before the surgery, I'm famous in that hospital and I got the surgery on Sunday. So that means I missed all of General Conference, but hey, I'm in the offices and so I'll be able to see it all again soon. Also, I did get permission to write y'all right now, so don't you worry about that.

Well, that's about it. Not much interesting happened last week (aside from the surgery) (that I can remember, anyways).

Well, I'll write to you again on Saturday since it's so late over here.

The cool part about being in the offices‏...

...is that Saturday feels like Saturdays again and it's a lot like what the after-mission-life is going to be like, as stated by my dad: We work hard all day on a computer, and then I go out to work on my equally demanding Church calling. w00t for preparedness!

I also get to program a bit to help the mission out. Turns out, I like working with C#.

Also, the past few weeks, in regards to physical health, have been... interesting. I'll sum it up this way:

1) Feel a sharp pain in my stomach; nothing can be seen on the surface. Blood and pus come out. TMI, I know. Deal with it.

2) The mission doctor (who is in charge of all the missionary medical stuff in Mexico) tells me to do a thing I thought I would never do: get an ultrasound.

3) I get the results: It's an abscess! Wee!

4) Talk with the Doctor again; I tell him story (and here my abscess is hurting me again, real time), tell him this actually started in Atlacomulco (about two transfers ago) and that it hasn't really gone away. He then drops his judgement:

5) We've got an appointment with the surgeon next Wednesday to figure out when and how we're removing this foul health issue. *wincing smile*

So... that's been my health over the past two or three weeks.

Also we've got some really good investigators and the quickest way to shoo a missionary out of your local housing complex is by sending your large aggressive dog after them. If you're not a member, please don't do that because we don't like getting bitten by dogs.

And we've got an American family making us food today, so it's about time I head off.

Elder Newman

Look! I'm in a cathedral!‏

You gotta give them credit for their fantastic sense of architecture.

Well, things are going great in the offices and I wanted everyone to see that I was still alive and that I feel fantastic here in the offices.

Thanks for all the support that y'all have been giving me, be it in remembering that one kid that was in that one class or praying for me, it helps.

Even if I don't know that you've been doing it.

See you all soon,

Elder Newman

A Typical Discussion I've Been Having Since Yesterday:‏

Caller: "Hey, Elder Hansen?"

Me: "No, Elder Newman."

Caller: "...Oh. Well, I just had a question."

Me: "It's about the rent, right? It'll get there on Monday."

Caller: "...Oh, well that was my question. Thanks!"

Me: "Okay, see you later."

Caller: "Bye!"

*click*

...

I sent in the rent a day late so now everyone's asking me about it. Just a little frustrating, but hey, live and learn.

First thing, as you've read, I'm now the mission clerk out here. So far, it's pretty fun. I spend all my time working on the computer and sometimes filling in financial reports while listening to MoTab on the computer.

So, responsibilities: I need to verify all of the expenditures of President, his wife, and the mission's miscellaneous cards, organize what money was spent from which account and from which card, I manage all the reimbursements of the missionaries in the field, make sure they get their transport money, and make sure that their rent gets to them on time as well... *cough* oops.

So yeah, already made several mistakes, but I'm learning little by little and soon I'll be at top working level. I love working here; it's very similar to the times when I was ward clerk and when I was working for the Sayers right before I left. Probably because it's the exact same thing as those two combined. But yeah, I get to know pretty much everything that's happening in the mission before hand, including who's coming, who's going, whose visa is about to expire, etc. It's also been great having Elder E nearby again - he's the Assistant to the President right now, but he'll be leaving at the end of the change. He's been there since... last July, I believe. That's a long time.

We also spent about 3 hours last night trying to reconcile the budgets and all sorts of stuff and... bluh. This week, I've been able to leave the offices to work about... twice-ish. This is because President Whitehead wanted everything that was backed-up done so that I could have a fresh start on Monday when Elder Hansen, the old financial secretary, gets sent into the field again. Thankfully, for two days, people came in that were able to help me out with this task, so I was able to get it all done and now, next week, I should probably be able to get to work again. ...unless everything explodes and I somehow get buried in a lot of work.

There was a lot of backed-up work.

We also need to go out and work in the normal way, if we can. We generally leave about 6-ish, I believe, or around 5. But yeah, life is good here, we never have cold water in the house, it's always warm, we got CostCo and other amazing things, the English ward is going to start giving us food now, and there's Panda Express somewhere nearby and we're going to buy it. YUM.

 And you know that song that you love that you heard on your way down to the mission field? The MoTab has a version of it called Nella Fantasia from their album Glory! and it sounds absolutely amazing. Really, the Glory! CD is fantastic.

In terms of the ward(s), we've got two: English and Spanish. The Ward Mission Leader and his assistant in the Spanish ward are actually Americans. It's fantastic; the ward is doing tons of work. We're also going to be baptizing three people tomorrow - two sisters and a young girl whose parents are already members.

This week, I was feeling pretty down because I was feeling slightly confused about where I was and if I was doing well. I suppose that, like always, I'm too hard on myself, but it did help me realize one thing: I wasn't being to active in my repentance, so I've been working on that quite a bit more to get myself back on the track of progression. So that's been what I've been focused on recently.

In addition, the wards here are fantastic - I ate lasagna one day. With homemade french bread. Now some of you may be thinking, "So?" Well, I'll tell you that lasagna is a rare-to-never occurrence here in Mexico. I also taught my first lesson in English.

I read a talk called "Look forward and believe." It's been helping me out quite a bit recently.

Well, I got one last thing to do, so I'll talk to you all soon!

Elder Newman