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

I Now Live Under a Penthouse‏

Because now I am working in the offices, so I live with the Assistants and the house has to be giant for all the Elders that are going home. So that's cool. We've got an oven, washing machine, drier, dish washer, two floors, 3.5 bathrooms, tons of beds. We've also got; Costco, Subway, and other cools little things like that. And I think a Carl's Jr.

This also means I'm back in the big city and that's why I'm writing on a Saturday because now is when we've got our P-Days. So don't go around thinking that Elder Newman turned apostate!

I hope I don't make any of those "oops" as financial secretary. I've got a lot of tasks to do, including taking care of the less active people here in the ward(s) as well as our investigators. We're going to baptize three people tomorrow.

I think the $100 was for either A. That awful medicine (Vartalon Compositum, as it is called) or my cool jacket. I'm going to think it was the medicine, since it costs about 750 MXN (pesos) to buy. I'm learning currency codes.

On Tuesday I trained the newcoming missionaries in the magical arts of sending in one's reimbursements. That was fun, but I think I'm going to make a powerpoint to get that going better.

I forgot my camera in the house. Sorry. ...I hope I left it in there. It should be in there.

Well, on Sunday Elder Riveros and I saw a huge miracle. The guy from Acambay didn't want to get confirmed but then I called him and the Spirit guided me to say the right things and then he got confirmed and I was like "what did I even say to get him to say yes to coming to church from a pueblo 2 hours away to get confirmed?" and I was like "Oh well, miracles are fantastic!"

Anyways, I've learned a lot of things out here already. Like about repenting and things like that. Really, if we're not repenting every day, life's a whole lot harder. 'Cause Satan gets his little chains in and then more and more and we need to be constantly fighting off those chains because then they're going to get huge and hard to take off. So that's what I've learned recently, and honestly, without repentance, where would the world be?

...I think we'd probably all be fishes or something like that.

Also the chapel is fantastic and we've got an English-speaking ward out here. We go to that one sometimes, too.

Well, thanks for all your support, work, and love and little things like that! It really helps me out a ton in my life. Thanks for all your help!

Anyways, I've got like 20 e'mails or something like that to respond to, as well as Jacob's. So... yeah.

¡Nos vemos!

With Missionary-style love,

Elder Newman

We got only one email this Monday...

• I'll Write You Saturday‏

Because I'm Secretary now and that's when I have P-Day *Little jingle song*

Love you tons!

Love, Elder Newman

Well

There's not much more to say right now. Except that I was reading in "True to the Faith" the other day, and I read that in order to make a branch, the minimum requirements are two families in an area and at least one worthy Melchisedek Priesthood Holder or one worthy Priest. Well, Acambay has just about... all of that stuff, so what's the problem? Well, the ward itself needs to be a little stronger. We don't want to make a division if it's going to weaken the ward too much, right?

Right.

Also the thing I'm most excited about right now is that my brother, Jacob, got his mission call so the El Salvador, San Salvador Este mission. Interesting, he's in the East mission and I'm on the West of Mexico city...

Things are going good here. With enough work and miracles, we should be able to see 2 or three baptisms here this week, which would be very nice.

There's still two changes left before May (more or less) and in May I'll have to get my visa renewed, so who knows what'll happen. I doubt I'll still be out here in Altacomulco by that time - in fact, I kinda feel like, with the changes that are coming this week, I'll be headed back to the big, ugly I mean pretty city. La verdad, I prefer the pueblos.

One of the things I almost always think about is "Am I being as good an example for my brothers (and the ward and everyone else) as I can?" So I'm basically using that as my motivation to become a better missionary. This week, for like, the millionth time, I'm going to try to stop drawing non-Gospel things during the week. So that's my main goal, and try to be more diligent as well.

Well, that's about it for right now. Thanks for your e'mail and example, Dad! Tell Jacob I said congrats (again) and help Mom out with her Spanish.

Well, I'm out of time, so this ends here!

...I hate it when the busses have movies playing, especially if the'yre sci-fi and I've never seen it before and it sounds interesting.

Love as a missionary does,

Elder Newman

© 2014 Microsoft Terms Privacy Developers English (United

2/3/14

I'm doing more exercise in the mornings, I'm forgetting more English (calling clothes "rope" because clothing in Spanish is "ropa" - "I need to put on some new rope...  I mean clothes"), continuing to grow spiritually, and trying to figure out some things that I've forgotten. 

Last week wasn't really all that interesting, sadly. BUT IT IS ALL GOOD (except it really isn't 'cause now we've got to find a whole lot more people to teach).

Keep reading them scriptures and General Conference talks because you never know what you're going to find!

Love, Elder Newman

THE FIRST THREE BAPTISMS OF ACAMBAY: ACHIEVED!‏

(A lovely picture of a family with 2 children was here)

The father was a last-second miracle, really. He was dressed in his street clothes up until the moment when we were going to do the baptism, after the testimony of the ordinance by a member. He asked, "Can I go get changed?" The mother broke into tears; Elder Riveros and I had a small Vaudeville routine as we rushed to get him baptismal clothes (we ran into each other), and some of the investigators that the sister missionaries had brought were greatly impacted as a result. There are so many things about this baptism that were miraculous, which is fantastic, because the last week was probably one of the hardest I've had in a very long time. Basically put, it felt like, as Elder Rogers put it in "The Best Two Years", an Ensign story. Anyways, over the last week I was kept afloat due to a large increase in faith, hope, and charity, the primary being faith. I love the mission; I shall not let that change.

Anyways, about other things... I'm finally going to make those peanut butter cookies, I've been teaching the missionary English class, and I've been practicing on the violin more; and Elder Riveros and I are preparing a special number to play in the ward. So that's going to be fun and exciting. And when we get bored with the special number, we practice something just for the fun of it (Paradise). So that's nice and fun, something other than drawing to help me cool down after a week of really hard work. I love it though, that hard work.

I say "in a year is scary" because I never thought that the first year would past by so fast - and everyone keeps telling me that after the first year, it only goes faster... and faster... and faster...

Last things: this family was a result of a member, and I love this work with all my heart. If you've drifted from the Church, come back, and if you've never joined, look into it seriously.

I thank you all for your support and love,

Elder Newman