A clean sword is beautiful where a stained one is terrible - the key observation in how the people of Ammon testified of their repentance, that their swords were unstained, because truly, the sword is a beautiful device.‏

So. first matter of business, I've decided that the whole condemnation of riding on others´ testimony is sophistry. It's important to be firm in the faith such that if someone falls, you don't, but if you know that someone knows, then it's identical to knowing yourself. As the Army of Helaman said, "We do not doubt that our mothers knew it." And when Alma was blessed in believing that Abinadi knew it, as well as the wife of Lamoni, etc etc. If you know that someone else knows that God is true and this is His Church, then you know as well.

Anyway, it was a hard week. Had a fever Monday and Tuesday, but kept working. Did exchanges with the Zone Leaders Tuesday. Then had a crisis in Jucuapa with the missionaries there so that was a thing and I won't go into detail on that. Then Friday and Saturday, Elder C was bedridden and being a good missionary is so hard when you have absolutely noooooooooooooooothing to do. It appeared to be a disease named Chinkungüya (I have no clue how to write its name), but it was a high fever and strong bodily pain and looked dreadful on Friday. It's supposed to last 2 weeks though, so we're not sure if that's what it was. The Zone Leaders brought us ice cream though so that was great because it's so expensive down here and I've had no ice cream proper since leaving. Yesterday we didn't have PDay because it was Independence Day here, so the city was filled with PARADES and CELEBRATION and INIQUITY because in Central America it appears that the first two guarantee the existence of the third. Transfers are tomorrow, and the Zone Leaders are going to tell us about changes in like an hour but have heretofore withheld that information. Happily, I remember the word catharis still. Oh, and Elder G, one of the Zone Leaders, is going home tomorrow. Our entire District is guaranteed transfers, so we'll see how that goes. It's gon be different tomorrow.

Oh, and J was baptized. She almost cancelled due to cold feet, but she went through with it and the Spirit blessedly confirmed her choice.

Adios entonces,

Elder Newman

Designing matrixes with nonimaginary eigenvalues is hardmode when you randomly assign values to the matrix. Just so you know. Don't have much for pictures. Just a bit of drawing. I also say Graci a lot instead of Gracias because I am Italian obviously. And apparently my hair is also special down here :y

The Fiscal Cliff is just next month and Congress still isn't doing anything‏

The Fiscal Cliff was a dark time for news buffs because Fiscal Cliff was such an overused, overreported, thingy in general.

I got a bit sick. I've been running around with a head cold and last night was pretty sketchy. We expect a baptism this week, of a young woman. She's quite prepared, so that's good :>

I read Jacob 5 before going to sleep Tuesday in one sitting, and goodness that was incredible. Felt the Spirit of Revelation in strength and now have notes explaining just about the whole chapter. Really good emphasis on the covenants of Israel, and I was surprised by the precision and breadth of the parable. Been reading a lot more, and since then have read through Mosiah.

Last full week before transfers, and only one more P-Day. Elder G will be headed home this transfer, so yeah. Expect lots of changes there.

Adios,

Elder Jacob Newman

This week for photos, we have my desk after 2 changes, the board where I like to make charts and stuff, a decent picture of our backyard this time, and Elder S and I after a companion exchange. 

Sep. 1, 2014

Not too much too report for this week. We're getting close to the end of my training, so that's pretty good. Probably? I guess.

Not raining much again. Didn't find that pastor in the end. We've also found that visiting members in our branch is just about the same thing as contacting less actives or investigators. That's nice and efficient :>

I translated "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" a few weeks ago since it isn't in Spanish. I miss that hymn and goodness putting a syllable limit on Spanish is suicidal. They just throw syllables out there like it's nothing. (looking at the conditional tense, let's just take a full length word and add 2-3 more syllables and change the accent entirely that's just perfect :y )

We're kind of just pushing forward over here. I'm seeing some definite patterns in my stress levels and I'm praying and working to rein them in a bit better. Speaking of rein, I'm pretty sure that's how you spell it and I think haft is a word but I'm not sure if it's a mix of huft and shaft and if huft is how it's spelled

Tamales are really good here, whereas Cafe de Maiz is más o menos. It's not even coffee they shouldn't call it that.

We'll see how this week goes.We're going to teach an investigator how to use a computer. LDS.org also allows you to download pretty much anything in audio so haha music from General Conference time having a flash drive is important. If you have really good talks in mind send me their names so I can download them and listen to them all the time yeah. Maybe I'll tell you guys something next week :>

Adios,

Elder Newman

I Have Special Eyes

This title is both a reference and fact. Having hazel eyes is money in El Salvador, especially if they notice that they change color in different lighting.

So, I still can't send pictures right now b.c this computer can't read SD cards, and I'm a bit tapped for time because I'm also helping my Zone Leader reformat his flash drive. He had like 4 GB hidden and registered as system files on it so that's a problem.

Not too much to report. When I have a working SD drive, I'll have some pictures, but yeah. One of the Seventy, Elder Ochoa, came Wednesday. That was pretty good, and we're all working to implement his counsel.

I don't think there's too much else to report. We contacted a positive investigator whose brother is a local pastor who is quite set on converting us tomorrow so that's probably going to be a dreadfully unproductive lesson. I feel like showing up 30 minutes early to see what happens. Also working with a Jehovah's Witness, but he actually listens to us so who knows?

So that's where we are. Thinking of stories, doing the work, all that. Oh, Galatians 4:6-7 is really good, and literally everything John wrote of course. I was reading the Discourse on Living Water yesterday in John 4 and goodness there are so many truths implied but not outright stated. Like, what does "Salvation is of the Jews" mean, and why does Jesus respond to the Samaritan woman's request for living water by asking for her husband? I've got my answers for that but I'll leave you guys to think about that :>

So cool stuff yeah

I really don't know

Have the best time

The best time is in Zion

because Zion is the best

(maybe if I use the enter key excessively, it'll appear that my email is long and worth your time)

Elder Jacob Thomas Newman

fibanaki is math - it has been discovered‏

Preface to the letter proper: none of you are ever allowed to consume alcohol ever because it is the biggest lie that anyone has ever conceived just DON'T

I will never cease to amuse myself by imagining return missionaries doing the exact same stuff in their dating life, e.g., leaving commitments and pamphlets, asking references from everybody, keeping an area book, all that. :y Also, I realized that Meet the Robinsons is a pretty fantastic explanation of human potential and the importance of hope and all that.

I met the nephew of the Bells. He just shipped in this change, plus I found another missionary who went to Late Summer Honors and left after first semester, so that explains why he looked so familiar.

Not too much to report. Things are continuing pretty normally, though a convert relapsed into alcohol. Nothing gives you a testimony of anti-alcoholism like a mission. Helping drunks walk, watching a friend turn anti-American, Anti-Semite, filled with anger and losing everything he'd gained in the past few months, yeah. Don't touch alcohol please unless it's hand sanitizer or something like that.

Had lots of ideas and a bit more opportunity to draw. Today I just wrote hypotheses about generating numbers that are a power of variable degrees, like 64 (being a power of 2,3, and 6), based on the uniqueness of prime factorizations wheeeeeee I just determined a correction/clarification I need to make.

So I feel like I become exceedingly eccentric during the hour I have to write so you have my apologies for when I send you something particularly strange or you don't understand the title of the email (or worse, you do understand :y)

Been raining a lot. Some investigators are deciding for their own initiative to start changing, which is what we really want. Working a lot more with the Spirit.

Keep moving forward and have the objectively best week to date and then have a better one next week cus then it kind of resembles an infinite progression or at least a strictly positive one yeah

Yeah

Elder Jacob Newman

P.S. No pictures cus the computer isn't reading my SD card cus that's how things work down here. I did enough of them though. Got a picture of my Zone Leader in sports clothes, a pink umbrella, talking on the phone. Que triste.

The Human Experience: A personal inquiry into the why of the human mind: A collection of firsthand accounts, stories, legends, and 27 years of field research, complete with attached charts, graphs, and rigorously developed statistical analyses‏

So last night was cold enough that I could walk around wrapped in my sheet. I mean, it wasn't that cold, nor was the sheet I used particularly warm, but c'est la vie. I just wanted an excuse to use such traditional American dress as being wrapped in a blanket when walking around the house.

​Otherwise, I don't really have anything to show you guys. Didn't really do any art on a worthwhile scale, or anything such. Thought about stuff but you can't send thoughts (without putting them in words, which I'm not going to at this juncture). I hope I have a bit of time to do it this week, but we'll see. It's mostly been PDays, but we haven't been doing sports in the morning which is when I usually do a bit of art and imaginative stuff like that.

Not too much to report this week. The rain's picked up a bit, didn't have any transfers, watched Ephraim's Rescue, mixed success in the work, all that. One brother finally came to Church (his family's been receiving teaching for a year now, so that's p good)

Anyway, that's it for now. Don't have time overflowing or any of that jazz.

Adios,

Elder Newman

1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 2584 4183 6767 10950 17717 28667 46384 75051 121435 196486 31792 514407 832328 1346735 2179063 3525798 5704861 9230659 14935520 24166179 39101699 63267878 102369577 165637455 267007032‏

So the title is the Fibonacci Sequence calculated to 42 instances. I'm pretty sure it's good, but I did all the math in my head so who knows? Last P Day I also proved why there are an infinite number of numerical palindromes and that it's a denumerable infinity. :y

Anyway, this week has come and gone without too much to report. I'm rather infatuated with the story of Enoch as found in Moses 6-7. There are 3 highlights: in 7:18, the description of ZION, which for me is a mission statement. Then, the calling of Enoch, how he was hated by everyone for his weakness in speech but was called to call the people to serve God and repent. Finally, the power of the people of God under his leadership, such that none could even touch Enoch, and all the wicked fled from the righteous, to the point that a new land came out of the sea so that they could leave the presence of Zion. I didn't remember that.

We did 2 exchanges this week, and had a pretty good activity on Friday. We showed some Mormon Messages and the video of the Restoration in a park in the Zone Leader's Area, and I had some good conversations with some members, and right before the event when we were walking door to door inviting people is the first time I've really felt free to speak and share something with everyone. I'm hoping to capture the same emotion in making contacts. It was really liberating.

Saturday was the baptism of the younger brother of the young woman baptized 2 weeks ago. It was the first time that I've personally affected the ordinance, so that was great. His father plus 2 other investigators who happen to be fathers came, so that was super good, esp. since they showed 2 Mormon Messages about fatherhood after the baptism.

Nothing much happened otherwise. I made a galaxy out of all the dirt in our house while sweeping and have been drawing the same robot for a week. Decided to name it Morton, give it a Fork, and make its life a Morton's Fork. :y I kind of like a lot of life paths, but having a media empire would be A+, with books and videogames and just producing ideas of all colors. :>

Transfers are this Friday, so that could be interesting. I just began reading Our Search for Happiness by Elder Ballard this morning. Man's Search for Meaning is still one of the most important books I've eeeeeeeeever read and I like that the title is similar. I'd put it and Les Mis as the 2 most important books for living a good life and just yeah. Read it cus it's only 150 or so pages and it's so important.

I guess this is it for this week. Sorry that I don't have too much to talk about, but that's that. I don't mind being left alone by the drunks.

Some last things: make sure to set goals, and make sure you're reminded of said goals. Ace Combat introduced the theme of the ethics and issues of war in my philosophical life, and I like cats a lot more now.

Adios, and live the good life!

Elder Newman