SO the biggest event of the week is K's baptism! She got baptized Monday night. Due to a series of unfortunate shenanigans, we did not have a camera and almost did not show up to our own baptism, but it is alright (for reasons unbeknownst to me, the days we baptize are the only days when something weird pops up that forces us to stay in the Office almost until 6 PM making us almost late to the 7 PM baptism we should have been comfortably on time for). Fortunately, the other Elders in the Ward provided a camera and pretty much everything we weren't able to provide. The service was wonderful, 8 investigators came. K gave a poignant testimony as did one of her member friends from school. The only inconvenience is that she won't be confirmed for another week and a half because:
Special Stake Conferences all over the country! Our Stake and at least also Apopa and Ilopango do as well. An Apostle is doing a Multi-Mission Conference on Saturday, Sunday we have an authority visiting (from what I've heard, it'll be Elder Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy). Changes are expected in Stake and maybe Mission boundaries.
So yeah, K will be confirmed the Sunday after the coming one.
The Worldwide Mission Conference today was powerful. It was especially interesting because in the last Multi-Zones President Vasquez had begun to teach a lot of what was taught today. We also saw his daughter a few times in the crowd, since she's serving in the Temple Square Mission.
REPENT
BAPTIZE
GO TO THE TEMPLE
Fantastic!
So, take care everyone!
Elder Newman
San Salvador Skyline
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah
Things that happened since Thursday morning last:
I got a birth certificate from Santa Tecla. We closed a house in Apopa and so received el Libro de Mormón in braille. I didn't even know those kinds of things existed in the Mission. I hope to know braille within a while :>
We had Stake Conference this weekend. Familia E attended and had good experiences, even though they got there a bit late and we freaked a bit out cus we didn't see them even though we were helping the ushers (they went through the other entrance). S G, one of the converts in our area, received the Melchizedek Priesthood and is serving as 2nd Counselor of the Stake Sunday School Presidency. His cousin, V H, dreamed about us guiding him through a large field. We hope that a lot of his family gets converted. K (her last name isn't E since the dad isn't her dad and we're still working on some divorce and marriage stuff) has her baptismal interview today! If all goes well (and it did in the pre-interview) she'll be baptized Monday. She's had some strong spiritual experiences and is super serious about it. On Monday we had a crazy FHE with S and almost all of his non-member family which involved 1 Nephi 11, a lot of technological problems, the Liahona child's section, baptism dates and yeah.
Elder Craig C Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy is coming not this Sunday but Sunday next for a special Stake Conference (there are rumors that the 3 Church units in Zacatecoluca will be split into their own District) and the Apostle is almost here as well.
My current project is creating an individual efficacy report for every missionary to help them reach higher levels of power and authority by consecration. I'm focusing on better studies and planning and am meditizing 2 Nephi 4:34-35 (it's Elder C's favorite scripture). As an area, we want to find old investigators and President invited us to search for the people who have had a baptismal date that's fallen since October because many of them will be baptized.
Fun stuff: the volcano Chaparrastique (otherwise the volcano of San Miguel) had a minor eruption yesterday. It mostly just vomited an opulent amount of smoke. No lava flows as far as I know. This was right after Elder F and Elder H, a new assistant, were super angry because he failed a driving exam and has to wait a month to try it again (because here, you have to know the minutia of traffic bureaucracy to get a license. More fun when in a foreign language.).
One of my favorite words to say is alabaster. My favorite word to write (at the moment) is Sofia.
Well, that's the news.
Have a good week! Build Zion!
Elder Newman
I got a birth certificate from Santa Tecla. We closed a house in Apopa and so received el Libro de Mormón in braille. I didn't even know those kinds of things existed in the Mission. I hope to know braille within a while :>
We had Stake Conference this weekend. Familia E attended and had good experiences, even though they got there a bit late and we freaked a bit out cus we didn't see them even though we were helping the ushers (they went through the other entrance). S G, one of the converts in our area, received the Melchizedek Priesthood and is serving as 2nd Counselor of the Stake Sunday School Presidency. His cousin, V H, dreamed about us guiding him through a large field. We hope that a lot of his family gets converted. K (her last name isn't E since the dad isn't her dad and we're still working on some divorce and marriage stuff) has her baptismal interview today! If all goes well (and it did in the pre-interview) she'll be baptized Monday. She's had some strong spiritual experiences and is super serious about it. On Monday we had a crazy FHE with S and almost all of his non-member family which involved 1 Nephi 11, a lot of technological problems, the Liahona child's section, baptism dates and yeah.
Elder Craig C Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy is coming not this Sunday but Sunday next for a special Stake Conference (there are rumors that the 3 Church units in Zacatecoluca will be split into their own District) and the Apostle is almost here as well.
My current project is creating an individual efficacy report for every missionary to help them reach higher levels of power and authority by consecration. I'm focusing on better studies and planning and am meditizing 2 Nephi 4:34-35 (it's Elder C's favorite scripture). As an area, we want to find old investigators and President invited us to search for the people who have had a baptismal date that's fallen since October because many of them will be baptized.
Fun stuff: the volcano Chaparrastique (otherwise the volcano of San Miguel) had a minor eruption yesterday. It mostly just vomited an opulent amount of smoke. No lava flows as far as I know. This was right after Elder F and Elder H, a new assistant, were super angry because he failed a driving exam and has to wait a month to try it again (because here, you have to know the minutia of traffic bureaucracy to get a license. More fun when in a foreign language.).
One of my favorite words to say is alabaster. My favorite word to write (at the moment) is Sofia.
Well, that's the news.
Have a good week! Build Zion!
Elder Newman
Thursday, January 7, 2016
1/07/16
Today is Thursday! Yesterday was Wednesday!
Yesterday was not our P-Day since we had a Multi-Zone Conference with President Vásquez. Well, today's not our P-Day either (P-Days sometimes just disappear in the Office) but we at least have permission to write home :>. We learned a lot about consecration and my personal favorite was teachings about testifying of blessings with more applied and specific and potent blessings. I also presented my statistical analyses. Not sure how much everyone else got out of them, but ni modo pues. I feel like it was useful. Applying that in the lessons last night produced some lovely feelings of repentance.
We also got a birth certificate from la alcaldía de San Salvador, Elder Frazier has taken 2 of 3 driving tests he needs to get out his licencia de conducir salvadoreña.
Going backwards, Tuesday we had a great Family Home Evening with familia Esquivel (investigators) and la familia Rodríguez (1st Stake Counselor's family). Katerin, the young woman of the family, (I'm never confident in writing the Spanish version of Catherine since I've seen more than enough forms of it) is pretty likely to be baptized soon and the parents are coming a long. We've been focusing on finding new and old investigators. We're trying to boost progression and help people be baptized and converted.
Well, ¡feliz semana! We'll have an Apostle visit this month, a worldwide Missionary Conference, and then next month, Elder Duncan, Area President, visits. Busy days.
Oh, and the least fun news of the week is that Change/Transfer Meetings are no longer a thing. That's mostly relevant to me since said meetings were the entire material distribution system. So I'm working on figuring out how to get materials from here to the 90+ areas in El Salvador. I've got a plan to get it to each Zone, but I still don't have it figured out after that, given that various Zones are well spread out (2+ hours of travel time in sketchy buses with several heavy boxes is not something I plan to encourage). Any insights appreciated.
Fotos: 1. Where I was today from 6 to 6:45 AM waiting to send some suitcases with someone who's going to Honduras.
2. Light noodles from taking longer exposure photos on New Year's Eve.
Oh, and clearly we have gone around the sun once since 2014. Remember, the significance of your age is the number of times you've traveled around the sun.
Welp, we'll see each other! John 12:44-50, Moses 6:59-61
Elder Newman
Yesterday was not our P-Day since we had a Multi-Zone Conference with President Vásquez. Well, today's not our P-Day either (P-Days sometimes just disappear in the Office) but we at least have permission to write home :>. We learned a lot about consecration and my personal favorite was teachings about testifying of blessings with more applied and specific and potent blessings. I also presented my statistical analyses. Not sure how much everyone else got out of them, but ni modo pues. I feel like it was useful. Applying that in the lessons last night produced some lovely feelings of repentance.
We also got a birth certificate from la alcaldía de San Salvador, Elder Frazier has taken 2 of 3 driving tests he needs to get out his licencia de conducir salvadoreña.
Going backwards, Tuesday we had a great Family Home Evening with familia Esquivel (investigators) and la familia Rodríguez (1st Stake Counselor's family). Katerin, the young woman of the family, (I'm never confident in writing the Spanish version of Catherine since I've seen more than enough forms of it) is pretty likely to be baptized soon and the parents are coming a long. We've been focusing on finding new and old investigators. We're trying to boost progression and help people be baptized and converted.
Well, ¡feliz semana! We'll have an Apostle visit this month, a worldwide Missionary Conference, and then next month, Elder Duncan, Area President, visits. Busy days.
Oh, and the least fun news of the week is that Change/Transfer Meetings are no longer a thing. That's mostly relevant to me since said meetings were the entire material distribution system. So I'm working on figuring out how to get materials from here to the 90+ areas in El Salvador. I've got a plan to get it to each Zone, but I still don't have it figured out after that, given that various Zones are well spread out (2+ hours of travel time in sketchy buses with several heavy boxes is not something I plan to encourage). Any insights appreciated.
Fotos: 1. Where I was today from 6 to 6:45 AM waiting to send some suitcases with someone who's going to Honduras.
2. Light noodles from taking longer exposure photos on New Year's Eve.
Oh, and clearly we have gone around the sun once since 2014. Remember, the significance of your age is the number of times you've traveled around the sun.
Welp, we'll see each other! John 12:44-50, Moses 6:59-61
Elder Newman
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Hello to All The People
Well, this week went along quite nicely.
Christmas has come and gone, Pres. and Hna. Vásquez invited us over for dinner (and also to help get some stuff ready for the Ward Christmas Activity). It was a very good dinner. I ate a fair bit of potatoes.
We had the Ward Christmas Activity, skyped home, had to handle a ton of work for people who had problems calling home. It is really stressful arranging international calls between people who hadn't planned anything like that. :/ But everyone called home by the end of it.
I'm doing some end of year reports and taking advantage that I now have 2 years of data to work with, I'm doing some statistical analysis! I've found that quite entertaining.
We're working and finding a few positive families so we'll see how that comes along!
OH. I almost forgot: last Wednesday, at night, we went to visit some less active members and when we got there, they were tearing their house apart. (Here, moving as a poor person means tearing your old house down, recycling what you can, and building the same thing somewhere else). They didn't really want to ask us for help but we knew they needed it so we managed to wait outside there door long enough for them to tell us what to do. I tore out bamboo braces that sustained the dirt walls, which Elder F proceeded to knock down with a 15 pound shaft with an iron head. He also managed to kick a few walls in which was quite entertaining. As shown in the photo, his part was a fair bit dirtier than mine. As a blessing, the cough I had didn't seem at all affected by all the dirt clouds. That was a very nice way to spend the 23rd. And I have now torn down a house. Oh, and their backyard had the best view of San Salvador at night that I've ever seen.
The other photo is a thing I did for a quick Christmas present for one of the families we visit. Office advantages: being able to edit in your drawings to a temple photo.
Another innovation is that I've decided to ponderize (o algo parecido) Conference talks. Every day in the morning, I get up and listen to The Tongue of Angels (Jeffrey R Holland, April 2007) to start everything up. I figure I'll listen to that for a week and then choose another Monday. I've also changed my alarms to the audio ripped from some Mormon Messages. It's pretty tranquilo. And if you're familiar with Earthly Father, Heavenly Father (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng), it's a pretty appropriate thing to wake up to.
Well, have a great week!
Elder NEWMAN
Christmas has come and gone, Pres. and Hna. Vásquez invited us over for dinner (and also to help get some stuff ready for the Ward Christmas Activity). It was a very good dinner. I ate a fair bit of potatoes.
We had the Ward Christmas Activity, skyped home, had to handle a ton of work for people who had problems calling home. It is really stressful arranging international calls between people who hadn't planned anything like that. :/ But everyone called home by the end of it.
I'm doing some end of year reports and taking advantage that I now have 2 years of data to work with, I'm doing some statistical analysis! I've found that quite entertaining.
We're working and finding a few positive families so we'll see how that comes along!
OH. I almost forgot: last Wednesday, at night, we went to visit some less active members and when we got there, they were tearing their house apart. (Here, moving as a poor person means tearing your old house down, recycling what you can, and building the same thing somewhere else). They didn't really want to ask us for help but we knew they needed it so we managed to wait outside there door long enough for them to tell us what to do. I tore out bamboo braces that sustained the dirt walls, which Elder F proceeded to knock down with a 15 pound shaft with an iron head. He also managed to kick a few walls in which was quite entertaining. As shown in the photo, his part was a fair bit dirtier than mine. As a blessing, the cough I had didn't seem at all affected by all the dirt clouds. That was a very nice way to spend the 23rd. And I have now torn down a house. Oh, and their backyard had the best view of San Salvador at night that I've ever seen.
The other photo is a thing I did for a quick Christmas present for one of the families we visit. Office advantages: being able to edit in your drawings to a temple photo.
Another innovation is that I've decided to ponderize (o algo parecido) Conference talks. Every day in the morning, I get up and listen to The Tongue of Angels (Jeffrey R Holland, April 2007) to start everything up. I figure I'll listen to that for a week and then choose another Monday. I've also changed my alarms to the audio ripped from some Mormon Messages. It's pretty tranquilo. And if you're familiar with Earthly Father, Heavenly Father (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng), it's a pretty appropriate thing to wake up to.
Well, have a great week!
Elder NEWMAN
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Charity:Christmas:Christ:Jesus:Noel:Love
This is Elder F's friend. He was chilling by our study tables yesterday.
This week was quite nice, fairly relaxed. We found a family of 6+ (well, we taught 6) on Sunday and the mom explained for us the reason why authority is necessary in baptism :> The only shame is that we can only visit them on Sundays! We're finding some good new families :>, especially since some others we were visiting chilled a bit on us :<.
L moved away... we're trying to figure out where so as to send missionaries.
I'm working on pass-along cards for the Sabbath Day, Internet resources from the Church, and a Plan of Salvation fold-open brochure for teaching. Also, consolidating reports.
Last night was the Ward Christmas activity! It was a lovely devotional and 3 investigators, 2 less actives came! 2 of them have almost come to Church twice but la joven of the family was super friendshipped by the young women and was ecstatic by the end.
But yeah, it has been a good week and further Christmas joy awaits :>
The light of Christ burns bright in Christmas. John 16:33.
Elder Newman
Also, something I've found useful, you judge- from time to time, I have an idea about stuff I want to do as a parent and I keep a list of said things.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Buenas taaaaaaaaaaaaaardes
Hola, ¿cómo les va?
This last bit went bien rápidito. There's not really much too report though. We did a service activity cleaning up a neighborhood on Saturday. Improved our numbers reports.
Probably the coolest thing is that one of Pres. Vásquez's counselors, Presidente López, invited us to a Christmas dinner Sunday night. It was extremely good. I didn't know the family before but they have very light, lovely souls. We watched a movie that apparently everyone except me has heard, the Little Drummer Boy.
We have a lot of good families we're working with. It's just hard helping them to get to Church, which is frustrating since they can't progress spiritually and less towards baptism unless they come. In the eternal words of the District 2, "Just come to Church!"
I took a few scene photos from our house. The country is lovely and the architecture, even if it's not sophisticated, is wonderful.
I found to my pleasure that there is a bus route we take normally that is sufficiently calm to read the Scriptures on the ride.
Talk of the week: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/be-not-afraid-only-believe?lang=eng
Pues, work hard, live by the Spirit! Keep organized, have a daily plan, remember that you are really cool people! Give people things just because! We don't need a lot of the stuff we have and a lot of what we have would make someone much happier than it's making us!
Love all y'all!
Elder Newman
This last bit went bien rápidito. There's not really much too report though. We did a service activity cleaning up a neighborhood on Saturday. Improved our numbers reports.
Probably the coolest thing is that one of Pres. Vásquez's counselors, Presidente López, invited us to a Christmas dinner Sunday night. It was extremely good. I didn't know the family before but they have very light, lovely souls. We watched a movie that apparently everyone except me has heard, the Little Drummer Boy.
We have a lot of good families we're working with. It's just hard helping them to get to Church, which is frustrating since they can't progress spiritually and less towards baptism unless they come. In the eternal words of the District 2, "Just come to Church!"
I took a few scene photos from our house. The country is lovely and the architecture, even if it's not sophisticated, is wonderful.
I found to my pleasure that there is a bus route we take normally that is sufficiently calm to read the Scriptures on the ride.
Talk of the week: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/be-not-afraid-only-believe?lang=eng
Pues, work hard, live by the Spirit! Keep organized, have a daily plan, remember that you are really cool people! Give people things just because! We don't need a lot of the stuff we have and a lot of what we have would make someone much happier than it's making us!
Love all y'all!
Elder Newman
Friday, December 11, 2015
Previous messageNext messageBack to messages A long list of things went wrong but it all worked fine, ya know?
BUENAS TARDES.
Today was a week in which many things happened without them needing to happen, but we've gotten along well. I haven't exactly had much the luxury of waking up at 6:30, but the world is quite lovely in the early diurnal hours.
The Temple Activity went along smoothly, despite being planned kind of last minute. We had an attendance of over 1000 and at least the missionaries really liked my ordinances sheet (we almost didn't get it on time, but the printing company brought it to the Temple). I didn't see a ton of converts, but I saw some friends from Villa Mariona and Usulután, including E G, plus a super good family we found in Apopa while I was in companion exchanges. They've had some difficulties getting married, but they've almost got it. It was a bit different running the whole show as a secretary.
L's baptism was con todo! She's really great and the familia G (the children of a recent convert) and some less actives and L's daughter all came.
Changes prep went pretty normal until we were driving to President's house to receive the new missionaries and we get a phone call telling us that the news weren't coming due to protests on the Guatemalan border. Hmm.
So we had to receive the news on Wednesday as well as send off the missionaries who are going home, then have changes a day late (and change everything to make that work). The new missionaries ended up staying in our house, which has never housed more than 5 missionaries (suddenly, 16). Attached is a photo of Elder N, who actually does live with us and appears to have found my camera without me knowing. And at 12 AM, Elder F got a call saying that 2 Elders who are going home had lost their suitcases on the Temple grounds. Well, at that point, there's nothing you can really do but Elder F tried for like an hour and a half.
Yesterday we finally got to changes. That was nice but since Leadership Council was today, I had to stay late in the Office getting stuff ready and when we left there was some very very beautiful traffic.
Today was Leadership Council. Last month I kind of invited myself by giving a presentation in the Council, but when President went to the Mission Pres. Conference, the Area said that Secretaries should attend Leadership Council so we now get to go. Also, since Pres. and Hna. Vasquez´s grandchildren are here for the month, A had his 6th birthday party right after with all of us singing to him and Hermana Vasquez slamming his face into the cake. Pretty great stuff.
Now I finished some reports, did some birth certificate stuff, and I guess we'll go to the area as soon as we finish up here
Also Elder B left us and is now in Ilopango! It feels very different without him. And Elder B is being trained as the new financial secretary. He was my Zone Leader for two changes in Apopa. He's super chill :>
Today was a week in which many things happened without them needing to happen, but we've gotten along well. I haven't exactly had much the luxury of waking up at 6:30, but the world is quite lovely in the early diurnal hours.
The Temple Activity went along smoothly, despite being planned kind of last minute. We had an attendance of over 1000 and at least the missionaries really liked my ordinances sheet (we almost didn't get it on time, but the printing company brought it to the Temple). I didn't see a ton of converts, but I saw some friends from Villa Mariona and Usulután, including E G, plus a super good family we found in Apopa while I was in companion exchanges. They've had some difficulties getting married, but they've almost got it. It was a bit different running the whole show as a secretary.
L's baptism was con todo! She's really great and the familia G (the children of a recent convert) and some less actives and L's daughter all came.
Changes prep went pretty normal until we were driving to President's house to receive the new missionaries and we get a phone call telling us that the news weren't coming due to protests on the Guatemalan border. Hmm.
So we had to receive the news on Wednesday as well as send off the missionaries who are going home, then have changes a day late (and change everything to make that work). The new missionaries ended up staying in our house, which has never housed more than 5 missionaries (suddenly, 16). Attached is a photo of Elder N, who actually does live with us and appears to have found my camera without me knowing. And at 12 AM, Elder F got a call saying that 2 Elders who are going home had lost their suitcases on the Temple grounds. Well, at that point, there's nothing you can really do but Elder F tried for like an hour and a half.
Yesterday we finally got to changes. That was nice but since Leadership Council was today, I had to stay late in the Office getting stuff ready and when we left there was some very very beautiful traffic.
Today was Leadership Council. Last month I kind of invited myself by giving a presentation in the Council, but when President went to the Mission Pres. Conference, the Area said that Secretaries should attend Leadership Council so we now get to go. Also, since Pres. and Hna. Vasquez´s grandchildren are here for the month, A had his 6th birthday party right after with all of us singing to him and Hermana Vasquez slamming his face into the cake. Pretty great stuff.
Now I finished some reports, did some birth certificate stuff, and I guess we'll go to the area as soon as we finish up here
Also Elder B left us and is now in Ilopango! It feels very different without him. And Elder B is being trained as the new financial secretary. He was my Zone Leader for two changes in Apopa. He's super chill :>
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