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

Unity, Duty, Destiny Hombre‏

so it's worth noting that the titles of these emails will be sensible to maybe 3 people at any given time if I put anything there at all

But Tuesday started off the week with a bang. We were on exchanges, so I was with Elder Morales, and we were bringing an investigator family to a family home evening in the ZOne Leader's Area when it starts raining. This is a thing, but not a big deal usually. And it was a heavy storm, but a normal heavy storm. Except for 5 minutes of this horrible wind. We were passing in front of the chapel and climbing a short hill when wind and hail come out of nowhere, to the point that I can't really walk against it. Then, something like 30 feet behind us, a huge tree falls down and covers the road. Once we started moving again, after the wind passed, streets were covered with trees and branches. Plus, trees had fallen on pretty much all the power lines, so we were lacking in that respect too. We still went to the FHE, but it was a thing right there. And since nobody had power, we were walking the streets to lightning flashes in the distance, because even after the storm passed, the entire sky remained covered, with extremely bright lightning in all directions around us. Minus the tree, it wasn't really dangerous, but it was crazy. My stuff got wrecked too, cus I gave my umbrella to one of the investigators. My agenda is extremely sad, minus the octagonal sun that is extremely happy on its cover. The wind bent it too, and I think it remains at the house of the FHE, cus we lost track of it in the darkness and locura general.

In other news, it was a pretty chill week. We helped an investigator prepare the foundations for his house. That's new. More machete proficiency, since we helped (mostly my companion) trim a huge tree by a lot. It was 1 tree and we spent like 2 hours cutting the thing. A bit of drawing here and there. I came into possession of audio CDs of the April 2007 General Conference. It's crazy how long ago that was, but the talk by Elder Holland in the first session,The Tongue of Angels, is well worth it. We're a week off from my first Changes. Apparently people do get changed during training, so I guess I do have to watch out for that. And we had District Conference too, so that was great. Pres. Vasquez spoke a lot, and he's really good at that in general. An investigator came for the first time in a month, which is fantastic, since he's a good person and it feels like he could progress super well, just a bit on the fence at the moment. We're also expanding our cooperation with members quite nicely.

Did a lot of study about gifts of the Spirit and differences between the ministry of different prophets. DIdn't know that Elisha brought a man to life when the man's body fell on Elisha's bones in his tomb. And the note that John the Baptist did no miracles, despite being one of the greatest prophets of all time, is worthwhile.

As for pics, it's mostly just drawings, and doodles, plus me in the Cyber Cafe that I'm currently chilling in. wheeeeeeeeee One thing I didn't expect is the nostalgia. You have a lot of time without stuff to think about, so sometimes, I just think of really old stuff that I haven't thought about in ages, like Bionicle, Spore, Gibs, and all that. As long as I'm not working, it's pretty nifty running through old memories.

Alright, ADIOS and have a superlative week!

Elder Newman

I can't remember the tune of God Save the Queen (or is it Long Live the Queen)‏

So, if you want to have Salvadoreño food, the first thing is pupusas. Everyone knows about those. Then, there's Kolachampan. It's a soda you only find here and it's really good. I kind of hope someone imports it to the states. They use Zapote a bit here too. Then, Arroz con Leche is a general Latin American dish, which I haven't had since the CCM, but it's super good. Then there's the stuff that they eat here that every other country throws away or doesn't like. There's this eeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh drink here that's a pastel red and made of corn. Not recommended. And Elder Gibson keeps finding deals on American chocolate and buying a ridiculous amount but I keep missing them :<

But yeah, the big deal this week is that we had two baptisms! One is a young woman, the first of her family to be ready (her younger brother needs to quit coffee [which is really rough, cus it was his 12th birthday and he really wanted to be baptized. But he's good though, and not upset. He set his own baptismal date for the 2nd of August and seems to really be working to be ready now], the mother needs to be married, and the father needs to take us seriously :/ ). She's worked hard to be ready and get her father's approval, and her testimony at the baptism was a straightforward promise to God. Especially when her father came late, just before the ordenance, since he's never entered the chapel before. The other was an older man who has been working with the missionaries for something like 2 years, but nobody figured out what his challenge was. IN the end, he had attended baptisms and saw that a lot of people came and was too scared to do the same. So we held a really quiet service for him, of 5 people. But on Sunday, he was fine being in front of the congregation for the confirmation, so he's already doing better :> My companion also baptized our cellphone, but it hadn't honestly repented of its sins, so it's been pretty sharply rebuked and no longer exists among the living. We're borrowing a member's phone right now :y

If you want a strooooooong sequence of Mormon Messages to watch, do The Voice of the Spirit, A Mother's Hope, and then Earthly Father, Heavenly Father. Do it.

Oh, a drunk asked me to bless him in English. We're just passing and he tells me "BLESS ME" and "I NEED IT" repeatedly. I offered to give a prayer but we ended up just going our different ways. It is how it is. Another guy on drugs asked the other missionaries during mutual for a Bible so he could preach. It's just a really weeeeeeeeeird adventure in this aspect. Also, they seem to have the best English. :/ I mean, grammatically. They don't make much sense, but they're saying everything right.

Also my camera just died as I was taking pictures of my drawings so that's that. My companion took the baptism photos and his email isn't showing up, so that'll have to wait a week it seems :(

Beyond this, things haven't been too eventful. Baptisms and drunks being drunks. Got some more machete proficiency, did some heavy lifting last night. The main street is getting torn up by the locals because they want to improve the water system. We took some of the slabs to build a ramp for someone we were passing and did the macheteando for the first time. Haven't had a lesson with the family yet, but it'll come.

Also, Gemini is such a great constellation. Best friend.

Have a glorious week!

Elder Jacob Thomas Newman

[He also had issues with an infected toenail, but we'll spare you that photo!]

More Interesting Stories

So, this week was pretty eventful. We had two days where we had very few lessons and the whole week hasn't been great insofar as getting successful contacts, but otherwise, a lot happened.

Did exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday. Their area is just across the bridge, but it's totally different as far as financial prosperity and all that. People have cars and paved roads. :0 But yeah, I learned a lot, and I did splits with Elder Gibson, who's been out for 22 months. A lot more English than usual, and I slept in a hammock that they have at their house.

Friday, we had interviews with President Vásquez, and I'm pretty fond of him. I'm probably going to do training or something on my 3rd-5th change, because everyone has told me as much and they kind of expect me to do leadership stuff. Zone Conference on Saturday that was pretty normal insofar as I know.

Saturday, I got ¿robbed? for the first time. All the drunks start appearing on your 3rd week, just so you know. So, we were waiting at the door of an investigator's house, and this guy just comes up to us, clearly drunk, and talking to us. I don't understand drunken Spanish, but we opened our backpacks and showed him we were only carrying books. So we gave him a Law of Chastity and Restoration pamphlet, hugged?, talked with a family member of the investigator while he was waiting, and then parted ways. :y It was really weird.

Yesterday, we helped clean up a house that got burned through. The work wasn't especially hard, but it was unpleasant to see. THe only things that survived (minus the house, being concrete), where the Church materials and the surfaces they immediately rested upon. The copies of the Book of Mormon had the outside blackened a bit, even when the shelf they were on was black and breaking to the touch. Where the copies had been set, the wood was good as new. In other places I found warped metal, and literally everything was burnt, so it was interesting to see.

Oh, and I'm learning a lot about architecture possibilities. SInce they build their homes directly here, they do what they want. Wish I could use a building sim or something to just tinker with stuff :>

Only pictures for this week are from an art book I'm doing to help teach lessons. Can't think of anything to draw for the Atonement because my drawing isn't really suitable for the sacred nature of it, but c'est la vie.

Adios,

Elder Newman