Blessings on Blessings, The Baptism of Paula

 Getting ready for Paula's baptism

 Elder Timana, Paula and Elder Newman

  Sunset in Tarija

A little afternoon snack

Hello beloved friends and family!!

We had an exciting week, so I’m super excited to tell you all about it!

First off, my replacement license and credit cards all arrived this week! Huge shout out to Mom, thank you so much for taking care of your slightly challenged son! You took care of the situation better than I could have hoped for, so thank you for all you did to take care of that situation, I’ll be sure to not lose them again! Also, while it is nice to have an updated license, I’m pretty sure that 205 while accurate before the mission, is pretty generous now, haha. I have lost quite a bit of weight here in Tarija! Something about not eating dinner (I know, weird at home, but normal here in Bolivia) has made me drop weight!!

We'll go ahead and start off with our eventful things of the week, the first being the opportunity to give a blessing of health this past week. One of the members in our ward is in the hospital right now with cancer, receiving chemotherapy right now, and her family requested us to come and give her a blessing of health. We walked into the hospital, knocked on the door, and the member's mother opened it up and welcomed us right in, where we talked with her for a little bit, and then began the blessing. Cool experience to offer a blessing in Spanish, but definitely sad to see the effects of the chemotherapy on this faithful member. One of the most sad things I have seen here in the mission for sure.

Now for the great news, on Friday, we had the baptism for Paula!! It was an amazing experience to watch someone God had truly prepared, enter the waters of baptism. We had a musical number during the service, where Elder Lopez (Don't let his last name fool you, he is from California, haha) and I sang in English!  After the service, Paula invited us and the Familia Figueroa (her member "family") over after the baptism and we had a dinner, which was nice, because we rarely eat dinner here!

Just one day later, we had the opportunity to give Paula's three year old son a blessing of health also. I also got to offer the blessing (I’m getting lots of practice). What a great way to exercise our priesthood to bless the lives of others!

Truly a great week in the work of the Lord! I’ll be sure to share some pictures this week, (sorry I forgot last week!) but thanks again for all of your letters and support!

Love you all!

Love, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, Glad to hear that you guys had a great trip! And way cool that you connected with Elder Stewart's mom on FB! He is way cool, he has become one of my best friends here in the mission, he's awesome! Love you Mom!!

Dad, different dynamic with a motorhome instead of a houseboat, but looks like you all had a great trip!! And good job to the PG boys for getting a win and going to state! Love you Dad!!

Emma, The baptism was a great experience!!! And Ii hope you enjoyed sleeping in during fall break... must be nice. Love you sister!!

Sarah, by the time I get back, you are going to be a better skiier than me!!! Fun that you got to try some foward in your soccer game! Love you sis!!

Callie! Good job kneeboarding!! I hope you had a super fun trip!! Love you sis!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. Did you get your id and cards this transfer? What about your missionary card? Have you received that replacement yet?

Yes I do, and yes, I have my replacement mission card too. All is well

2. Did you have the baptism on Friday? How was it??

Yes we did, and it was amazing!!!

3. What changes were made to your district and transfer with new missionaries coming in? Any more gringos?

We welcomed four new missionaries to Tarija, one new gringo!

4. What funny thing happened this week?

Well, today I tried to play soccer. That’s funny in and of itself because I am absolutely terrible,, haha!

5. Do you and Elder Timana have any inside jokes between the two of you?

Yes we do. We have an investigator who is a little too friendly with us, (she likes to flirt) so we always have a pretty funny argument when it’s time to call her and confirm the appointment, and who's turn it is.

Santa Cruz, Weather change, Cambios

 Massage chair at the Tarija airport

 E

 Zone

Elder Newman found alphahores (which his brother Jackson loves in Uruguay and now Christian loves them too)

 One of many meals the missionaries had with ward members to say goodbye to Elder Talaverano

 Samuel, the stray dog is actually not a stray. He is the ward mission leader's dog.

Elder Newman and Elder Talaverano (who is heading home to Peru this week)

Hello Friends and Family!!

So I know a lot of you are on Jackson`s email list also, and he always does this with Cambios (transfers), so I’m going to roll with it too! In this cambio, I am going to.......

...stay here in Tarija to finish my training! Yeah not a surprise, but I had to keep it going!

It was definitely an interesting week, with my trip to Santa Cruz getting delayed to Tuesday, and doing all of my stuff on Wednesday. (Christian’s trip was delayed because he lost his wallet and id his first week in Tarija and his new id and cards haven’t arrived yet, so he had to wait for the office to send him his passport so he could travel (by plane) up to Santa Cruz.) Basically what I was doing was finishing my immigration papers, and then returning back here to keep on going with the work! But something interesting about the trip to Santa Cruz. It’s hot there. Like stupid hot. I left the plane, and went outside of the airport to meet the Hermano who was going to take me to the offices to meet up with the secretaries, and holy cow, it was so hot and humid. I went on splits with two of the secretaries for the night, and the next morning, we went to the building for Immigration stuff. I can only describe the experience like this. It was like the DMV, except hotter, absolutely no AC, and the people at the desks were less friendly. We were there for almost 6 hours... Needless to say, I was very happy to return to Tarija!

So I’m sure a lot of you are wondering about Paula. So we had our interview with her for her baptism on Thursday, with her baptism planned for Friday. While we were practicing the interview with her before our district leader came to do the interview, she told us about something that she had in her past that she had never told us. She told our district leader about it, and the thing was, in order to give her the good to go, she had to have an interview with President. We scheduled it for Friday, and then began the process of praying our guts out for her. We prayed for her in every single prayer we had, which in the mission field, is a lot. The next day, we picked her up for her interview with President, and then waited, and waited, and waited. She finally came back, gave the phone to our district leader, and shortly after, he came back and told us that she is all good! We have her baptism this coming Friday, and we are super super excited for her.

Cambios, so one of my best friends in our district, Elder Talaverano, finished his mission today! Hard to see him go, because he is super cool, and has been a great friend to me from the moment I arrived here in Tarija, but he is super excited to start life at home, and it’s been amazing to watch him work his hardest in his final week, where a lot of missionaries slack off that last transfer. Something truly inspiring to see!

Well, thank you so much to all of you for your support! I can’t tell you how grateful I am to read your letters and to just have the best support system in the world!

Keep the Faith!

Love, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, that’s an awesome picture of Caleb and the Temple! and so so cool with Elder Coombs and Aunt Erin!! Have a great trip!! Love you mom!

Dad, rough situation with the filming, but good that you were able to pull it all together! Bummer that the boys lost, but good to hear they are playing hard. Are they going to State? Love You Dad!!

Sarah, sounds like you had a great week! Ooooooh braces, I remember the days!! That’s super fun, hope your teeth feel better!!! And Mr Manning!! Oh, isn’t he awesome??? If you see him again, tell him I said hi!! Love you sister!!

Callie! Yeah we had some fun things happen this week!! I found out Samuel has a home! He is the dog of our ward mission leader!! I hope you have a great trip!! Love you Call!!

Emma, Sounds like you have been super busy!! Remember to always to take time to relax, and to hang out with your friends!! It’s important to work hard, but also to be balanced!! The Canyon looks beautiful right now!! Are you enjoying having the car to yourself? Love you Em!

Mom’s Questions:

1. Were you finally able to make it to Santa Cruz to finish up your paperwork?

Yes I did.

2. Did Paula get baptized Friday? How did it go?

This Friday! :)

3. Is the 9 year old boy still on track for his baptism on the 21st?

Unfortunately he didn’t attend church last Sunday, so we have to move it to the following week.

4. Is the weather changing? Starting to get warmer? Or does it stay cooler because of the elevation of your city?

So Tarija is kinda crazy. Sometimes, we are wearing coats, and others it’s short sleeves and  sweating. It’s kind of like fall or spring in Utah to be honest.

5. Have you cooked anything new this week? Are you making your bed each morning? :)  

Not really, there isn’t really much to buy or cook, because you can’t really buy in bulk here. And yes I am making my bed each morning :)

Milagros, Power of prayer, Samuel

 District meeting with Pizza!

 Actually watched this cat get plastered by a car

 Stray dog that loves to follow the Elders around, Christian lovingly named him 'Samuel'

 Baptism of the Ward Mission Leader's son

Zone P-day Activity

Hey friends and family!!

So I am going to Santa Cruz today to finish up papers so I can actually stay here the full two years, so this email is going to be pretty brief, but I’ll be sure to give a really good email next week and to get some personal notes sent out!

Quick update on the week, We found Paula!! When you work really hard, the Lord blesses you with miracles. We found her earlier this week, talked about her baptism, and ended up moving it to this coming Friday, so her member friend can be there, but she is super excited!! And so are we!! This Friday, I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures!

Another miracle, so a member, a single mom, has a young boy who is nine years old. She wants him to get baptized, but she wants to make sure he’s ready, so she asked us yesterday to teach and baptize him!!! We have a baptism for him planned for the 21st, so just like that, after five weeks of contacting, and working our tails off, we have two baptisms planned for the next two weeks! Talk about miracles and being rewarded for our efforts!

Something else cool happened this week, our ward mission leader had a baptism for his son this past Saturday, and he asked the four missionaries in the ward to do the program. I gave a talk at a baptism!!! It was a cool experience, and also pretty hilarious, because after the ordinance, we closed the doors to the font, but shortly after heard a huge splash! we opened it back up to see the kid had jumped back into the font to take a swim!!! Oh my goodness it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen!

I have truly felt the power of prayer this week. Heavenly Father is truly in the details, and I have truly felt his help and love every time I turned to him in prayer.

One more funny thing before we wrap it up for the week! So in a certain area of town, there is a dog that absolutely loves us. He follows us around everywhere, and will even sit down next to us during a contact. After two weeks of this, I decided it was time to give him a name. His name is Samuel, and he is the best!!!

Love you all so much!

Love, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom’s Questions:

1. So when you say you wash your clothes by hand, do you wash them in a sink or a bucket?

How are your clothes holding up?

We wash them in a sink. Clothes are holding up great.

2. Did you find Paula this week?

Yes! :)

3. What is the biggest miracle you experienced this week?

Definitely finding Paula, baptism coming this week!!

4. What is something new you have learned about your companion?

Elder Timana likes to invent songs in the tunes of hymns for Samuel

5. What are the children like in Tarija? What games or sports do they like to play?  

Soccer, soccer, soccer. The girls like to play a little basketball, but it’s mostly soccer

Conferencia, Breaking the wall. We are just kids

Hello friends and family!!

It is so good to talk to you all this week, and to talk to you all about conference, and what’s been going on here in Tarija! My heart is so full right now, I am so grateful for all the support I have been receiving from you all, you are amazing! I love hearing whats going on in all of your lives, and with that, I’ll give a quick update on what’s been happening here!

So on Tuesday, we had another visit with Paula, and we went into it ready to tackle the last few things we needed to before her baptism. And one struggle for me at least is that she was really close with Elder Timana´s previous companion, so she hadn’t really been taking me that seriously. This had been kind of a struggle for me, but on Tuesday, we broke the wall. We shared a couple of videos about baptism, and then a video with testimonies of the apostles about Christ, and how He lives. I bore testimony about the Apostles, and about how Christ lives, and because He lives, we are never alone in this life. During my testimony, she began to cry. She talked about how whenever she has felt alone, she has always felt God step into her life. We did it, we broke the wall, and she is ready for baptism. Well, that is, when we find her again, her phone doesn’t work, so we have to find her again because our last appointment with her fell through. So fingers crossed once again for Paula.

We had a cool experience with our investigator Edgar. He has insane faith, and we have been working with him a lot. We had kind of a weird experience where he had a question that we couldn’t find the answer that he wanted, and he was getting kind of frustrated. I got the prompting to take a break. I jumped in, and I explained that we were here to help him, but in reality, we are just kids, and sometimes we don’t know all the answers. He understood, he wasn’t frustrated anymore, and the Spirit returned to the lesson. We were able to place a Book of Mormon for him, and he has been reading it!

Kind of a funny experience! We had a contact, and he could tell I spoke English, (I don’t know how, something about tall and white screams American...) He asked me to offer the prayer in English, because he studied English in school, and wanted to see if he could understand anything. So I went to offer the prayer in English, and that was harder than praying in Spanish!!! I guess it’s a good sign, when you start to forget your first language, it means you are really learning your second!!

General Conference was an absolute blessing. I was kind of struggling with some homesickness this week, and had been praying my guts out to receive some Heavenly help. Little did I know that it would come in the form of conference. Those words were truly inspired. We are bearers of the light of Christ (Uctdorf). There is no such thing as coincidence, only divine design (Rasband). I’m trying to be like Jesus (Holland). But most of all, was the message of Henry B. Eyring, "Faith always defeats fear." These are just a couple of the things that totally lifted my spirits and changed my entire week. I challenge you all to go and study the talks, because there is truly revelation individually tailored for every single one of you.

Love you all so much! I hope you all had a great conference weekend, and I hope you take the messages of conference into your daily lives!!

Love, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, I’m so glad to hear that Conference weekend was so good back home!! I truly had an amazing experience with this Conference. I received so much Heavenly help through this conference. No muddy buddies?? I probably could have used some, I’m dropping weight here, I don’t know how much, but most my pants are looser than when I left. Love you Mom!!

Dad, Glad to hear you still had two sons at conference (Lucas and Chris)!!  And those are some awesome pictures of your mission! The OG Elder Newman!!  Love you Dad!!

Emma! Hope that Shakespeare Festival was awesome!! Nice job with the aerial!!!! And good job repping the Newmans in Spanish, right now the Newman family is a Spanish family. Love you Em!!

Sarah! Good job with soccer this week!! Things here in Bolivia are great, I had a great conference weekend!! Love you Bear!

Callie! Saturday is a pretty good day! Here in the mission, Saturday is pretty much the same as any other day. Good luck performing in the halftime routine!! Love you Cal!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. What do you cook or prepare to eat for the meals you do for yourselves?

We have eggs, bread, and ramen a lot, because it’s super cheap.

2. How do you do your laundry? Do you have a washing machine or do you wash by hand?

We wash all of our clothes by hand.

3. How is Paula doing? Still progressing? How are your new investigators doing?

Paula is good, just need to find her again, if we can find her, we can baptize her this week. Hoping for another miracle.

4. How big is your area? Do you walk more or take buses?

It’s pretty big, but we walk everywhere. The only time we take bus or taxi is when we go to the stake center for meetings and conferences.

5. Did you watch conference at the church? In Spanish or English? What was your favorite talk?

We watched conference at the stake center, and I watched it in English with Elder Dibb and the other North American Missionaries.