Accomplishing Goals, 6 Months, Heartbreak, Feeling God's Love

 Helping move some missionaries across town

 Flooded streets are pretty normal here

 6 Months in the Mission-attempting to burn a tie

Hello Friends and Family!!!

I hope you all had a great week, we definitely had ups and downs this week. It was a crazy busy week that went so so fast! Let’s get right to it!

Well, I finished my goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in Spanish! In 23 days, I strengthened my testimony BIG TIME about the importance of the Book of Mormon! There are so many things we wouldn’t know, and so many things we wouldn’t understand if we didn’t have the Book of Mormon! I think I know what Brigham Young was saying when he said, "I wish I had the voice of seven thunders to wake up the people to the truth of the Book of Mormon."

We had Intercambios this week! I had the opportunity to go and work with one of our zone leaders Elder Cohelo in his area for a day, and it was awesome!! Its always so great to go and work with the zone leaders, they are studs! It seems like they are always so in tune with the spirit and just ready to attack everyday with the same enthusiasm! It was truly a pleasure to work with him and learn from him. One thing I learned from him is to NEVER underestimate the power of prayer in the lives of the investigators. Many times these investigators don’t have a super strong relationship with God, and really dont pray a lot.

Another thing that happened was hitting the six month mark here in the mission!!! This past Thursday, January 25th, I attempted to burn a tie. Well, it definitely didn’t go how I planned it. The tie wasnt nearly as flamable as I had hoped.... Oh well, its the thought that counts.

When your golden family (Familia Silvestre) accepts the invitation to be baptized but can’t accept a baptismal date because they are moving to a city far from here that doesn’t have a church, that usually is an acceptable reason to be a little bummed out. Yeah, that might have been the definition of heartbreak. My goodness I was disappointed. But we press on. Even though I definitely cried that night, I prayed my heart out. I needed to know that Elder Maravilla and I weren’t alone out here, and the next day, I got my answer.

We were passing by for a partial member family, and sharing a message with the grandparents who are recent converts, and the Mom and Dad are investigators. The one problem is, the grandparents can’t read. So they have some difficulties when they are sitting in church and all they hear is "Read the Book of Mormon.." The Abuela expressed some sadness as she told me that she was trying her best, praying everyday, and going to church, but that she wanted to read so bad. I felt the answer come to my prayer as I was able to testify to her that God was proud of her, and loved her so very much, because she was doing her very best to draw near to him. I felt God's love for his daughter so purely in that moment. I know that even though we may not always have things work out in our way here in the mission, our responsibility is to share that love with people.

"I am grateful God is merciful and a peacemaker, because I need mercy, and the world needs peace." Jeffrey R. Holland.

I love you all so much, have a fantastic week. Thank you all for you responses to my question, "Why does the gospel make you happy?", I loved reading your responses! There are so many reasons to be happy in this world, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of the biggest sources of that happiness!

Con mucho amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, What a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland.... I love that talk so much.. Sounds like we are both enjoying the Book of Mormon! Love you Mom!

Dad, Ice Ice baby will never die! Upset city! Go Utes! And I wish I could say I was suprised by the Jazz not being very good. Back to normal I guess. Love you Dad!

Emma! Sounds like an eventful week! Emma, I know it’s discouraging to get taken out of the dance routine, but remember just how far you have come, and I know you will be the team mate you need to be to support the team throughout your state run. I’m proud of you Emma! Love you Sis! Those Valhalla is STUPID LIT! Hope you enjoyed the reception! Love you Emma!

Sarah! My favorite song right now is Mormon Tabernacle Choir “Master the Tempest is Raging”. Good job with Nova Graduation! And awesome that you got to play basketball with the young Women!! Love you Bear!!

Callie, You are one smart cookie Cal!! 100 days of school! What an awesome project! Love you Callie!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. Were you able to get back in to see the Barrientos family this week?

Not yet...

2. How is the Silvestre’s son that you gave the blessing to last week? Are they making progress with the discussions after attending church last week?

Yeah they were.... But oh well! Gods timing!

3. Were you able to start teaching the 10 year old daughter of the less active sister in your ward?

Not yet! Working on getting that first discussion...

4. How is the weather? Is it still pretty hot?

Rained every day this week unfortunately. Im starting to get a little sick..

5. Callie wants to know are there toys in Bolivia. What kind of toys do they play with?

Soccer balls haha

Why are we so happy???

Rough housing with the kids

 Visit from an area authority

 Coke makes Elder Newman happy

Elder Newman is no longer the tallest missionary in his mission. He loves playing volleyball with his new friend. And can't wait to see what kind of basketball player he is.

Hello friends and family!!!

Holy cow, what a week!!! I’ve got lots to tell you all about, so I’m just going to hop right into it!!

First off, we had the opportunity to watch the broadcast from the First Presidency, announcing President Nelson as the new President of the church, and his counselors. Wow. Those men are inspiring. I absolutely loved listening to them in their devotional, and after in their interview with the press. The way they confronted the problems and questions facing the church right now was amazing, always talking about how we are children of God, and that we should never forget that fact. And one of the things that I absolutely loved was this phrase from President Nelson, "Keep on the covenant path. If you have left, we beg you, come back." President Nelson, we love and sustain you here in Bolivia!!!!

We also had our Multizona conference, which was awesome!! We had the opportunity to listen to one of the members of our area presidency come and talk to us about the power of being FULL TIME missionaries, and of using the members to our advantage to find investigators. We set to work right after the conference, and visited one of the less active references we received from a member. She was so happy to see us. And on top of that, she asked us, "Elders, I have a 10 year old daughter, and she hasn’t been baptized. Will you come on Saturday to start giving her the lessons?" Talk about a miracle for our obedience!!!!

Saturday was one of the best days I’ve had in my mission so far. And the thing is, it started off terrible. In the morning, nobody listened to us, we got doors slammed in our face, and it was crazy hot. The first few hours of the afternoon weren’t much better, with a crazy dude telling us that we were literally Jesus Christ. And when we told him, “No no no, we aren’t Jesus, but we are his representatives here on the earth today”, he told us that we were denying Christ. Yeah, it started of kind of odd. But we pressed forward with faith that we would have success. And let me tell you, it came. We found a family (Familia Barrientos) that we have been trying to get a hold of since I arrived to the area, so about two months. They let us in, and one of the first questions out of the mom´s mouth was, "How are you two always so happy? Its raining, you walk everywhere, Im sure you are tired, but you two always have a huge smile on your faces. How?" Holy cow was it a privilege to explain to them how the church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us so happy. We then had the chance to visit the family Silvestre, (the family that’s actually married, which is still a miracle), and invite them to come to Church. As we were leaving, the Dad, yelled to us, "Elders, can you pray for my Son???" We entered, and gave a blessing of health to his son. The thing was, we have never talked about blessings or priesthood or anything like that with them. But he knew. He knew that we had something different. And all five members of their family came to church the next day!

A quote I loved from Elder D. Todd Christofferson this week.

"Jesus taught his followers to do as he did: To welcome everyone but to also teach about sin, since love demands teaching people about what can hurt them."

I would love to hear each of your responses to this question for when we visit the Familia Barrientos again. "Why does the church make you happy?"


Love you all tons!! Have a great week!!

Con amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, What a week for the coed! Lots of homework, but always good to dive into the scriptures!! How cool to do 30 sealings this week, and to visit Sister Brady! My goodness I love her tons, send my love her way! I’ll definitely be praying this week! Love you mom!!

Dad, Looks like the dad dance was a success!! Look at the 5th ward repping with you, Jim, and Alan all in the mix there!!! Sounds like a fun week, here’s to another good one!!! Love you dad!!

 Emma, Good luck in your competitions!! State is going to be here before you know it, go at it with all you got, work hard, and enjoy it! Love you sister!

Sarah, Sounds like a good tournament, with a little bit of crazy!! Keep working hard, and remember, you are 10000 times better at soccer than me, haha! Love you Bear!!

Callie, How fun you get to go to a birthday party!! Valentine’s Day is so soon! How fun! I actually have no idea what they do to celebrate here, I’ll have to ask! Love you Callie!!


Mom’s Questions:
1. I heard that there is a protest going on in Bolivia right now because of concerns about the current president. Have you seen any of that in Tarija? 

A little bit. They have been doing some strikes, but nothing violent. It’s basically they just close the roads and everyone takes a vacation day. Pretty much about as mellow as it gets when it comes to protests.

2. What do the members think of the announcement of the new prophet and 1st presidency? 

They loved the broadcast!!

3. Eat anything good this week? Have you been able to use any of the recipes in the book I sent you for Christmas? 

Actually, since we haven’t gotten reimbursed for some of the purchases we made for the house, so we are eating pretty cheap right now. So, no not yet, haha

4. What is your favorite scripture you read this week? 

Reading in 3rd nephi about the coming of Christ here in the Americas!

The Power of the Fast

  With my comp and Willy

 Lunch with Mars Family

 With our ward mission leader the night he got set apart

El Libro de Mormòn

Hello friends and Family!!!!

So this week was a kind of run of the mill week, so not a ton of stuff out of the norm to report, but I do have a couple of experiences to share, so I’ll get right to it!

One, on Monday, our ward mission leader got set apart to leave for his mission in Peru, and he invited us to come and watch him get set apart as a missionary, which was really cool!! During the prayer, all of these thoughts and memories of when I got set apart almost 6 months ago came flying back to me. Holy cow, where has the time gone?? It was awesome to remember that experience, and to see just how far I have come since July 25th!!!

The other side of the spectrum, on Tuesday we had an Elder spend the night with us during his journey back to Santa Cruz to finish his mission. It was kind of weird to see both ends of the spectrum, one missionary just starting his journey, and another finishing! He gave me some great advice, to live the mission to the fullest, because it goes so, so fast.

Like I said in the subject line, we fasted this week, which definitely resulted in some miracles! I’ve learned here in the mission, because we are living so close to the spirit (we can’t succeed without it, so it’s essential to have it.) We see miracles almost every day. But when we fast, oh my goodness, the windows of heaven open, and blessings just start coming. We found 3 families to teach during our fast!!!! And the amazing news is, we know for sure that one of them is married!!!! Oh my goodness what a relief to finally have a family that is married and can actually progress. I know that it was a result of us fasting, through our sacrifice, the Lord blessed us!

A cool quote I found during my personal study! I’m trying to apply its principles everyday!

"If you walk with the Savior long enough, you will learn to see everyone as a child of God with limitless potential, regardless of what his or her past may have been." 

            -Henry B. Eyring

Love you all!! Have a fantastic week this week, remember your goals and resolutions that you set with this new year!

Con mucho amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Dad, You could only escape the dad dance for so long!  I covered you for two years, but now, no escape haha. (Actually, Duane was at sales conference the last two years and had to miss the dad dance but was so happy to perform for Emma this morning.) Good to hear you and Callie had some good dad and daughter time!! Love you Dad!!

Madre, College!!!! how exciting that you are studying again!!!! Sounds like a great day at church!! Also, I listened to Brother Pierce’s song, and downloaded it! Holy cow, so good!! Love you Mom!!

Emma! How exciting with solos, crushing math tests, extracting silver, awesome sis!! Also, one of the little guys at my pension showed me the Jurassic World 2 trailer.... Talk about trunky haha. Love you Emma!!

Sarah! Hope you had a great tournament! Love you!!!

Callie! How exciting that you are learning the piano!!! How exciting that Jackson will be home in 6 short months! You will finally have a brother home again!! Love you Callie!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. Since transfers were last week, have you met the new members of your district? What are they like? 

Awesome Elders and Sisters have come in! And I officially am not the tallest person in the mission (Dang you Elder Allred, beat me by one inch)

2. What ways do you involve members in your ward in the missionary work? 

They come with us for our appointments a lot!!

3. Do you and Elder Maravilla play much basketball or is it still a lot of soccer on pdays?

Almost exclusively basketball, haha.

4. What is the funniest thing that happened this week? 

We have had one of the priests from our ward come with us almost every day, and he is hilarious! His name is Willy.

5. What is your favorite thing you ate this week? 

The lunch after the fast, haha.

Dario, Intercambios, Che, I hate the Internet.

 District Picture

 Zone Picture

Filling the Font!

 Dario's Baptism

 A dog that came into the church to escape the rain

 Sister Selfies

Hello Friends and Family!!!

So another 6 weeks has come and gone, but nothing will be changing for us! Elder Maravilla and I will be sticking together for at least another 6 weeks!

In this weeks update, we have some awesome things to talk about!! We had a baptism this week!!! Dario, after almost an entire year, 10 elders, and tons of invitations to get baptized, and an extremely catholic and unsupportive mother, he finally entered the waters of baptism, making a promise with our Heavenly Father!! Talk about a miracle, it’s awesome to see how the Lord's timing always prevails. But something I was thinking about this week made me ponder a little bit.. It’s easy to say, Lord’s timing, and all those kind of things, when it aligns with our own timing.. But how often are we willing to let the Lord’s timing happen when it isn’t the same as our own? I’m trying to apply that more, when some of our investigators don’t seem to be progressing, or when things aren’t working out in the way that we hope for, to be able to submit my own will to the will of the Lord’s. It’s definitely a challenge sometimes, but as I have tried to apply it, I’ve seen the hand of the Lord more abundantly here in Bolivia!!

Intercambios! So with Elder Maravilla as the district leader, we have the opportunity to do intercambios with the zone leaders! It’s super awesome, because in order to be a zone leader, you have to be a cream of the crop missionary. Oh, it was so awesome to have a day with Elder Iparraguirre. I learned a ton from him! He reminds me a ton of Elder Talaverano, my first zone leader, and one of my best friends during my first cambio! One of the things I learned during this intercambio was that there is nothing more powerful that we can share with investigators than our testimony. We share scripture, and doctrine, and all of that is essential, but nothing touches the heart of a person like our own testimony..

Alright, so I have a couple of funny experiences to share for the week!! The first is one of those, you can either laugh or cry, so I choose to laugh kind of experiences. On Thursday, the day after our intercambios, we taught a guy named Marcos, who was super receptive in our first lesson during the intercambios. We walked in, and he sat us down, pulled out his phone, and we listened to 20 minutes of anti mormon literature that was just blatant lies... Oh my goodness I hate the Internet so much....

Che. Ok, first I’m going to explain why I’m talking about this word. We have some investigators that have some problems with addictions, mostly with alcohol.. So we are doing an activity to help us sympathize a little better with what they are going through.  The activity is to get rid of an activity, habit or something like that for an entire day, and then if possible, for a week. Well, Che is one of the most common words here in Tarija, and it means "dude" or "bro". So we tried to cut that word out of our vocabulary for an entire day. Well, as you can imagine, we failed. Hard. But it did give us a better appreciation for what they are going through, and how hard it must be. 

Before I go, I do want to give a tribute to President Monson.. What a man, called as an apostle at 36 years old, and over 50 years of dedicated service to the Lord. Timeless revelation given to us through him, like the importance of service to others, and the importance of daily study of the Book of Mormon. Thank you, President Monson.

Well, that’s all I got for this week!! Thank you all for your continued support!! Love you all tons!!

Con amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, What a busy week with drill, futsal, and basketball!!! As I have learned, busy is good!! Love you Mom!!

Dad, What a busy week full of meetings, mutual, and being a drill dad. And what an awesome picture at Jackson's senior banquet, crazy how fast the time goes!!! Love you Dad!!!

Emma, Good luck with drill!!! Less than a month till state, work hard! I know you guys can do something truly special!!! Brother Fossum!!!! Be sure to ask him what it was like to have me and Isaiah in the same class, we had a great time! Enjoy the last half of your junior year! Love you Emma!

Sarah, Christmas break is an awesome time to get relaxed, and how exciting that you have tons of games this week, and a tournament next week!!! Fun times with the egyptian funeral, I remember that activity!! Love you Bear!!

Callie, Back Bends?? You are definitely more flexible than your brother!! And better on the piano!!!! And good to hear CoCo was good, we can watch disney movies here in the mission, so maybe when its on dvd, we can watch it! Love you Callie!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. What was the reaction by the members in Bolivia to the passing of President Monson? 

Very sad... Many of the people here are converts, so he was their first prophet.. 

2. What did you do for New Years? 

Absolutely nothing. We went to bed at 10:30 haha

3. What experiences did you have this week that strengthened your testimony? 

Had a chance to talk about my experience doing baptisms for the dead during my senior year where I received my answer for the mission with our recent convert, Zulma. Testimonies are strengthened when we share them!

4. Was Dario baptized on Saturday? 

Yes! :)​​​​​​

Happy New Years!

 New Years Resolution, with the conference talk that inspired it!

 We received permission to attend the baptism of one of my old investigators in San Bernardo!

 Packages from both sets of Grandparents

Hello Friends and Family!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday, and a big Happy New Year from Bolivia!!!

Time for the update on the week!! Well, starting with Monday, we had our Christmas call, and I was able to not just call the family back home in Utah, but also to coordinate it with Elder Newman in Uruguay so we could talk a little bit!!! Holy cow, it was so good to talk with the family and cry and laugh and just the best!! The feelings after you finish the call are kind of indescribable. It’s like, just so so so happy, everyone is happy healthy and just awesome, but you miss them a ton. So luckily by the time Elder Maravilla finished his call, it was time to go back to the house and hit the hay. That helped a ton, to just kind of hit a restart, wake up that morning (Tuesday) and just get back to work! Getting back immersed in the work helped a ton!!

So our investigator (Darìo) who told us that he wanted to get baptized last week, had his interview and he is all good to go! We talked to him more yesterday at church, and this Saturday he will be getting baptized! How exciting is that?!? So cool to have had a piece of his progress here. He has taken the lessons for more than a year, and he is finally taking those steps to show his faith and start his journey towards our Heavenly Father!! The Lord's timing doesn’t always match with our own, but His timing is always what we need!

Another cool experience this week was receiving a reference from one our members, Hermano Sergio. He came to us seeking help. His addiction to alcohol has destroyed his family, and he came to us in tears, humble and ready to change. We offered our words of comfort, and showed him what we can do with the help of the Savior. We shared Phillippians 4:13, and he began to cry again. He told us that he knew we were angels sent to give him one more chance, and that he wasn’t going to let the Savior down this time. We were amazed by his faith, and even more amazed when he came to church this Sunday!! Talk about faith!!!

So, one of the best parts of the week was receiving my packages from my Grandparents!! The amish bread from Gr Newman fed us physically, and the conference talks from Gr Jessop fed us spiritually! Reading the talks again gave me a huge spiritual boost. Especially the talk "Be Ye Therefore Perfect, Eventually" By Jeffrey R. Holland. It’s easy to get caught up in our own shortcomings. I do it all the time. But in the words of Elder Holland, "the principles taught by the Savior were not intended to be a verbal hammer, battering in our own shortcomings". Don’t get caught up in weakness. Focus on the Savior, try to improve a little bit everyday, and we will be perfected by his grace, eventually.

In this time of goals and resolutions this time of year, I thought I would share one of my goals for this year! I have read Jesus the Christ 3 times here in the mission. The Book of Mormon twice. But all in English. This year in 2018, I will read the Book of Mormon, cover to cover, in Spanish! I know it’s going to be a challenge, and I’m not going to understand everything, but I know the Lord is going to strengthen me in this process!!

Have a great week everyone, and have a happy New Year!!! Remember this quote from President Uchtdorf. "This is your great adventure. Please heed the call of your Savior. Follow Him."

Love, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, Glasses again?? Matching your second missionary son! It was so so good to talk to you guys on Christmas, everyone is so happy and healthy, which is definitely an answered prayer for me!! Thank you for sharing your new talent on the guitar with me! It sounded great!! Love you Mom!!

Dad, Glad to hear that my room is now officially the gym of the house! And dang, I wish I could have heard Brother Pearce on the organ on Christmas, that man can play!!! And yes I know Sister Treseder’s Grandaughter! Thats Abby, She’s super cool!! So good to hear that you were able to catch up with Liv and Chris a bit this week! Those were some sweet pictures from shooting!! Love you dad!!

Emma, Well, not all dates go well, but Im sure youll have a good one soon! (To any of my football boys reading this email, you are now responsible for taking my sister out on a nice date.) And getting up on top of the High school, you are more like me everyday!! You truly have been blessed with great friends. I know what that is like, it’s one of the biggest blessings in the world! Love you sis!!

Sarah! Ukelele, Christmas Eve breakfast with June, hitting the thousand twice! Dang sounds like someone had a great week!!! I was very happy to see your smiling face on the call too Bear! Holy cow I was amazed at how tall you are now!!! Just remember, in 7th grade, I passed Jackson in height, and it looks like you are on track to beat that record to pass up Emma! For my favorite songs, have Emma show you my Spotify playlist with Chris, there’s some good stuff there! Love you Bear!

Callie!!! Glad you enjoyed the call, I sure did too!! I was impressed with your splits!!! Christmas break is the best huh? It’s always hard to go back to school after! But glad you had a great break! It is still summer here in Bolivia, my companions name is Elder Maravilla! Love you Cal!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. Have you had more time for teaching and proselyting this week?

Yes it has been a lot better

2. How was your Christmas Eve sacrament meeting?

Really good!! Lots of good songs!

3. What did you spend your Christmas money on? What did you get for your companion?

Haven’t spent it yet. Waiting for the prices to go down a little.

4. Were you able to refocus after the call? I hope it didn’t make you homesick!

All refocused! Took a good night of sleep and back to normal! :)

5. What are your new year’s goals?

Read the Book of Mormon in Spanish cover to cover!