THERE ARE CATS IN OUR HOUSE‏

I talked about having a headcold. NOPE! It was cats.

​Found this guy a couple weeks ago, shooed him out, and forgot about it. Then, on Friday night:

We were struggling to get two cats out of our house. We manage to do so, block our doors, and magically, my head cold and congestion go away.

Now, it occurs to me that there is a spiritual parallel here. Of course, because I am a missionary. And I have time to write it.

Many times, there are things in our lives that hurt us. Sometimes, we know what it is. Other times... not so much. We could be completely unaware of it, even though it was pointed straight out to us. Then, something happens and you're like "WOW. Gotta fix that." And it's wasy to fix, you do it, and then all is a lot better and you're not sneezing so much that you have to end your prayers early to go blow your nose for the next 10 minutes.

I don't like cats.

And that's life.

Well, thanks for all your support, and I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Newman

AND THEN I WAS SICK

...with a rotten head cold.

Here's a picture from last night of my coat getting caught in my bike wheel while riding on a freeway (miraculously, I didn't crash):

​And it took me a while to get it out. Later on, the chain fell off the gears, but then I got it back on.

Things are interesting on bikes.

And... well, last week wasn't so exciting. It was mostly just me getting back into the swing of being a normal, non-office missionary. Everything'smostly back to normal now, so that's good. I've got to make sure that I do everything I need to and more, though, but that'll come. I'm really looking forward to this week, and hope that all's going to go better.

It should, because we've got 5 appointments tonight. At 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, and 8:00. Anyone can tell you that's pretty rough, but they're all really good people, and if all goes well (and it will), they'll get baptized soon.

Well, love you all and hope all is well with everyone!

Elder Newman

Elder Newman.exe has crashed‏...

...on his bike three times. Once, I got an infected wound because of it.

So, what's happened? Not much, although we did find a fantastic family last weekend. It's a single mom with her three children, and they accept everything. They came to Church on Sunday and stayed to watch a baptismal service afterwards. The mother loves it - she's led a really rough life - and so does her oldest daughter. They're going to progress really well and really far.

WE'VE GOT WORK TO DO. SERIOUSLY. But things are going to go well.

Also, you may be interested to know that I've been designated the branch piano player. Evidently the members are so sick of the CDs they've got that they don't mind just hearing a mangled version of the right hand of the hymns. Although it did pave way for a miracle that only I saw.

The first hymn was number 10. I mangled it terribly. We had investigators in the meeting, so they didn't know, but the members surely did. I wanted to make sure that the sacrament was as spiritual as possible, so I said a very fervent prayer that the Lord will bless me as I played the sacrament hymn - "The Lord is my Shepherd," which is #56 in Spanish. So, the time comes, and I begin playing. I bungle the introduction up a slight bit, but then for the rest of the song, the rest of the three verses, I only played about 3 or 4 sour notes. Final hymn comes around, and I destroy it in the bad way. It was quite a delightful miracle with the second hymn - and evidently, I played well enough that the branch still wants me to play the hymns. We'll see if I can get any time to practice.

Let's see... well, we hit 65 people in attendance on Sunday, so that was good as well. I appreciated it. We're working on making the number jump even higher and higher, since we want to see real growth here in the ward. That means I need to contact more people, which means I need to contact men.

​And now I've got to go. Thanks for all your support and sorry for the short and lame emails!

Love,

Elder Joseph Newman

Maravatio‏

IMMA GOIN' TO MARAVATIO, MICHOACAN! *fireworks* It's awesome. It's the one district in the mission with bikes, the Branch President (Presidente Muñoz, I believe) is one of President Whitehead's favorites, and the area is like none other in the mission (aside from the bikes). In an interview yesterday, President Whitehead told me that Maravatio is like no other area in the mission - way different than Atlacomulco. Atlacomulco was way different than the city, and I've spent a total of... well, one year now in the city. [4.5 (Culturas) + 5 (Offices) + 3 (Naucalli) = ~12 months = 1 year. ] So, it's going to be like starting the mission all over again - new area, new culture, new companion, new accent (there should be a new accent), new EVERYTHING. I imagine it's going to be more like my Dad's mission - little to no American influences, almost no speaking English (I may be the only American out there. I haven't checked yet) and all that fun stuff. The only difference to the beginning of the mission is that I'll still be a District leader, but aside from that, it's all new.

And I don't have any new pictures for this week. Sorry about that.

Well, that's all I've got time to talk about. I'm leaving for Maravatio on Monday, so if you don't hear from me next week, that's why.

Thank you all for your being wonderful-ness,

Elder Newman

Long Story Short: THINGS HAPPENED.‏

That's what I've been saying to my Financial Secretary Replacement recently. There is a lot of stuff that happened within the past few weeks that have gotten arranged and are still continuing, and sometimes, it's somewhat sensitive information and sometimes it's a TL;DR (too long; didn't read) kind of deal, and sometimes, it's a "Well it's already been arranged and I don't really want to remember that, so... long story short, Things Happened."

And that is how it happened.

For our meal today, we went to someone's "house" - more like vacation resort.

That's just the pool. You can't see: the tennis court, the nearby AMERICA, and the "Am I really in Mexico?" across the street. It feels like Utah or Southern California over there.

As for me... what have I been up to? WHY, THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION. I've been training the missionary that's going to replace me as financial secretary. As such, I've been kinda bored, since in the offices, there are only two things to do: computer work and busy work. And since I've been training the guy, having him do both, if there's no computer available I've got very little to do.

Like spinning around in a chair. Or reading talks (which I like to do, but I can't sit and read for hours on end still). Or doodling. Or any number of non-productive tasks or short-lived productive tasks because I do them so fast. I've got to figure out something better to do.

Anyways, if everything goes according to plan, I should be leaving the offices a week from Monday and going to the state of Michoacan, to the branch of Maravatio. Probably. But, if there's anything I've learned by being in the offices, it's that things rarely go exactly as according to plan and that A LOT can happen in a mission in just a day, and especially in a week. A missionary can arrive, a missionary can leave, and if either of those two things happen, I could have a lot more time in the offices than I'm expecting.

Nevertheless, life is good and I'm really enjoying myself - or at least, learning how to be happier.

Thank you for all your support, direct, indirect, subconscious, or otherwise.

Love,

Elder Newman

RACQUETBALL!‏

As the members of my District in the MTC will attest, I've been pining for a good match of racquetball for a very, very long time. Well, on Sunday (Happy late Father's Day everyone), I overheard a really nice member that works for Intel down here in Mexico talking about his apartment place, and about how they had stuff and a racquetball court. I only heard that last part. So, we talked with him, and then they pretty much signed up to let us play racquetball with their equipment in the court. It was incredibly fun, and a good way to excersize and relax and get out my frustrations. After about half an hour, I got a nice amount of skill back, and I left there saying, "WOW. WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THIS SOONER?"

(Sorry, no pics - didn't get that done). But here's some ridiculousness:

This is at 9:00 pm, right outside the offices.

Of course, it was the same at 10:00 pm and almost 11:00 pm. That's the one reason I don't want to live in the city.

Well, I also finished the Book of Mormon and started it again, and it's a fantastic and true book and all of you need to read it more. Probably.

Love,

Elder Newman

These are Some Pretty Cool Pictures‏

​

​That was when we got soaked by walking in the rain. The streets were literally rivers. This was actually from a while ago.

This is from this week:

​I actually look like a secretary in this picture! And that was a crazy day. I will always remember that this was a crazy day because I had to bring my breakfast to the offices (as you can see by the peanut butter and jelly in the background and my sloppy desk - oh wait, that last part is normal...) I helped take President Whitehead's daughter to the airport, called Salt Lake City to talk about the problem we were having with IMOS and the missionary cards, and so on and so forth that day. And more!

And then today I made a true Mexico style quesadilla: tortilla, prepared the meat, everything!

​And it tasted really good, too, with good cheese, ¡chorizo [sausage], lechuga [lettuce], salsa verde que pica un poco [mildly spicy green salsa], y una tortilla de maíz bien [good corn tortilla] 

¿Ya soy mexicano? Pues, no, pero casí he llegado a este punto. Aunque yo sea güero. [Am I Mexican? Well, no, but I've gotten to this point. Even though I am a white guy.]

I'll just probably have to go find cheap shirts and whatnot around here soon - pants, rather. It'll probably be better than having to go get them sewed up and refitted - almost every pair of jeans I have now has at least a small hole in it or another, and my shirts... well, those are doing fine. It's the pants that I need more of.

Anyways, what else is new? Laura's baptism was fantastic - Elder Christensen, one of the assistants, and I did a trio singing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" with the first, fourth, and fifth verses, starting the fifth  a capella or however it's spelled. Supposedly, we did a very good job. So I guess I'll be joining the choir someday... you win. [Mom's only been trying to talk him into it for many years.]

Thanks for all your support!

Love,

Elder Newman