Multizonas, If the bed fits

 Office Elders

 Love of Coke

 With MTC Comp, Elder Hansen

 Ummm....

Pizzas for Multizone Conferences

Hello Friends and Family!!!

So this was a pretty crazy week! We had our two multizone conferences here in Santa Cruz, so it was pretty hectic getting everything organized. Also with President deciding to buy pizza for the two conferences, left me in kind of a tight spot getting 25 pizzas bought for each conference. Yeah, our Elders can eat a ton of pizza, and the Hermanas are a force to be reckoned with. Everyone ate at least 3 slices...

Well, another update, so I’ve been sleeping on some very tiny beds since I got here in Bolivia, like, with my head touch the very end of the bed, my feet are still completely off the bed. Well, Hermana Rodriguez, she is literally the mom of our mission. And well, she heard about that, and was not about to let me continue to do so, and I walked into our apartment to be very surprised to see a custom made bed that I ACTUALLY FIT IN!!! I have slept very, very good this past week!!

We had a very interesting Sunday this past week!! So we had a missionary from Yacuiba that was waiting for his flight to the Mexico MTC yesterday, so he came with us for a day! That’s right, we were in a trio for a day!! Elder Aguirre was great company, even though he spoiled Thor, and Black Panther, and the new Star Wars.... Yeah, that was kind of a bummer there, but it was great to have him with us for the day!! Also, a guy from Utah came to our ward this past Sunday... It was super cool to talk to him for a bit! He is thinking of moving down here, and he was really cool! Definitely interesting to talk to someone in English... That was the first person that I’ve spoken english to that wasn’t another missionary. Definitely an interesting Sunday!!

Well, that wraps it up for this week!! Going to be a another crazy couple weeks as we get ready for cambios, General Conference, and then, Cambios!! Hard to believe my first cambio here in the offices is almost over!! Its gone so fast and I’ve learned so much, but here’s to more learning!

Have a great week everyone!!

Con mucho amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman


Mom, Sounds like a super fun week out in Cali!! And a mixed ward? Thats super cool!!!! Hope you were able to understand some of the Spanish, and I’m sure you were able to feel the spirit super strong!!  Love you Mom!!

Dad, bachelor for the week!! Hope you enjoyed your time not being at Disneyland! Sounds like Sarah's team killed the March League!!! Thats super awesome!! Super fun for you to hang out with Bart and go shooting with the Mortons! Love you Dad!!

Emma, Sounds like an eventful week with drill, Disneyland, classes, spanish wards, and teaching yourself chemistry!! Hope you have enjoyed relaxing a little bit!! Love you Emma!!

Sarah, is that you with Peter Hollens?? Thats super cool!!! Hope you had a great time in Disneyland!! And great job with your March league!! Undefeated!!! Love you Bear!!

Callie, How fun to go swimming and go to Disneyland!! Looks like you guys are having a great week!! Your pictures look so awesome!! Have a great week!! Love you Callie!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. How are your investigators Herman and Elizabeth progressing? 

Elizabeth was awesome!! We got to know her husband too, and they fed us dinner!! We weren’t able to meet with Herman, but hopefully we can this next week!

2. What is your apartment like? How close are you to the mission offices and the mission home? 

Our apartment is very nice, one of the few that has AC, and its only two blocks from the offices!

3. How is Renan doing? Is his business continuing to do better? 

It’s getting better and better. He has to go to Villamontes for a legal thing this week, but if all goes well, it will help his financial situation a lot. He came to church again this past week. Has progressed a ton, he is super awesome!!

4. What food do you miss the most from home?

Everything. Literally everything..

Milagros de Domingo

 Celebrating Elder Lozano completing 18 months in the mission. 

 Intercambios with Elder Johnston

 Pique Macho, Tastes alot better than it looks

Hi Friends and Family!!!

So we had a super good week this week!! First off, a little update on that golden family that we found two weeks back. So they are the family Retamoso. The mom and son moved back to Villamontes because right now they are having some pretty big financial problems, and the Dad (His name is Renan) is staying here in Santa Cruz trying to save his business. He is a chef, and he is selling just enough food to stay in business, but not enough to pay his debts or really progress. He expressed all of this to us when we visited him on Thursday, and Elder Lozano testified that if he offered a prayer before he opened up to sell, that God would help him in his business. I felt a strong impression that we should kneel and offer a prayer right then, so we invited Renan to kneel down with us, and offer a prayer to bless his family and his business. He did so, and told us that he felt really good afterwards. He said, "Tomorrow is going to be a good day, thank you hermanos." We passed by again on Saturday for our cita, and he told us that the next day after we prayed, he had prayed again, and that it was the best day he had in a super long time. He came with us to church again yesterday, so all we need is for his family to move back, and he wants to get baptized (he doesn’t want to do it without his wife and son). Prayer is so real, answers come when we get down on our knees and pray!!!

On top of that, we found two really good investigators this past week!! The first is Herman Jimenez! He is a super golden investigator, and a referral from our mission president! He lives in the other area in our ward, but the thing is, he lives alone, so its super hard for the hermanas to visit him, so President gave us permission to visit him and teach him! He came to church yesterday, and he is super super awesome!! Looking forward to our cita this Saturday, he is super awesome! The other, her name is Elizabeth Santiago. She has a daughter that moved to Utah, and listened to the missionaries, and it changed her daughter's life. She got baptized and has completely changed. Now, Hermana Elizabeth finally accepted to listen to the missionaries, and we were able to explain to her what the Book of Mormon was, and invited her to baptism, and she accepted! This Wednesday, we are going to teach her more, and work on getting a date set!

So sometimes here in the offices, I feel like a baby in the mission. You see, this week, the next youngest Elder in the offices (Elder Lozano, my comp) completed 18 months in the mission. I haven’t even hit 8 months yet, so I feel pretty inexperienced sometimes. But its super awesome, because I am constantly learning! We had intercambios this week with the AP´s, and I got to go to Elder Johnston's area! It was super fun, and I learned a ton from him, he is a stud!!

We saw some big time miracles this week, here’s to a great week, and hoping for some more this coming week! Love you all tons, have a fantastic week, remember to get ready for Conference in a few short weeks!!

Con amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, Hope you had a great week! Sounds like an eventful week, so crazy that Ty is married!!! That’s so crazy, tell him congrats from me!! Callie as an escort again, sounds like she has become the official Mr. Viking escort!! Have a great week Mom! Love you!

Dad, Maroon suit, that is definitely a Ty move, and you are right, definitely super cool. I need a picture of that!! Don’t worry Dad, we´re keeping the hammer down here in the offices, it’s going to be a crazy couple weeks here with zone conferences this week, preparing for cambios the next week, and then, cambios. Holy cow this past transfer has flown by!! Love you Dad!!

Emma!!! Woohoo!! Going to Cali this week!! Have a great week, and remember to relax a little bit. Sounds like a good competition for Mr. Viking!! Doesn’t surprise me one bit that Will won Mr. Viking, he is a funny dude!! Have a great week! Love you Em!

Sarah! It’s never fun to hurt your ankle! Hope that it is feeling better, and good news that those growth plates are still open!! Maybe you will pass up Jackson Glad you had a good time with pedicures with Grandma and Mom! Love you Sarah!!

Callie! WOOHOO Disneyland!! Have a great trip!! Mom told me all about you escorting almost all of the boys, and sent me a bunch of pictures!! Love you Callie!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. What is the update on the Familia Retamoso? Did the dad end up moving back? 
Dad moved back! Still waiting for the rest of the family, but great progress for them!!


2. How is Jose Luis coming along?
No cita this week, he was super busy, and no church either. Not really progressing right now.

3. Are you still singing “What does the fox say?”
Thankfully no

4. What is the best thing you ate this week?
Pique Macho!!

5. What was your favorite scripture this week?
I’ve been reading in the New Testament lately, and I love the last chapter of John. It reminds me of the talk by Elder Holland you sent me.

What Does the Fox Say?

Take out

 Another day in the office 

New personalized scriptures

 Zone Activity--Bowling

 

Hello friends and family!!!

So we kind of had a bummer week, but it seems to be going back up, so fingers crossed, scriptures opened, and lots of prayers are being offered that we can see some success!!!

The first thing is that Familia Retamoso (that golden family we found last week) moved to Villamontes this past week. Yeah, huge bummer.  After working super hard to find them and to literally see the miracles coming into to play with them, it was super heartbreaking to have that happen. It was Tuesday, and Elder Lozano called them to try to set up a cita (appointment), and he just fell silent and listened to the hermano talk, and then after like five minutes of silence on our end, Elder Lozano said, "Don’t worry hermano, we can send your address and phone number to the elders in Villamontes". Heart, broken... But literally like five minutes ago, we received a call, and it looks like the hermano is coming back, but we aren’t sure about the rest of the family, so we will see what happens!

Saturday. So weekends here in the offices are sacred. It’s the two days that we don’t have to be in the offices, and we can just be outside working and talking and all that stuff. We also set up the majority of our citas (appointments) for those days, so they are literally like a spiritual recharge before we have Pday and restart the week of stress in the offices. Well, this past Saturday, every single one of our citas fell through, so we were outside contacting and knocking doors all day long. It was like eight thirty at night, we hadn’t had any success finding new investigators, and Elder Lozano said, "Ok, we'll go to the park and buy something to eat real quick, and then we will pass one last time for some of our investigators." So, I think that God used our hunger to bring us a little success, because while we were eating our hotdogs, Jose Luis (one of the citas that fell through) showed up to the park and started talking to us!! We were able to finally have a cita, and we invited him to church!! The only problem is, he got called into work last minute and couldn’t come to church, but we'll get him there!!!

So funny story for the week. Sunday night, as we were contacting (again, all the citas fell through on Sunday too), we taught an entire lesson while someone in the other room was blasting the song, “What does the fox say?” on repeat..  It felt like eighth grade all over again. I had forgotten entirely about that song, and now its been stuck in my head for the past two days.

Well, I think that’s about everything!! Thanks for all of your support!! Have a great week, keep the faith!!!!

Con amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, Sounds like the Newman sisters are killing it! So exciting to hear about Parker! I know he will be a fantastic missionary!! If you want, feel free to send those chicken enchiladas here to Bolivia. Love you Mom!!!

Dad, So cool to be able to catch up with Reed and the rest of the Chadwick family!! Wonder what that’s like... (Sam if you are reading this, an update on that lifechanging wedding experience would be nice, just saying). And Dad, send some pictures when you and Brett go shooting!! I remember when we went last Christmas Eve, it was tons of fun!! Love you Dad!!

Callie, How fun to go to Sams wedding reception! How exciting you get to go to Disneyland!! Have so much fun!! Love you Sister!!

Sarah, First mutual!! How fun!!! That’s so cool that you are playing up with the 7th grade girls!!! Enjoy your games and I hope you had a great birthday dinner!! Love you Sarah!!

Emma, Well done!! All As!!! Your Morp pictures looked awesome, looks like you had a great date and had tons of fun!!! Love you sister!!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. How’s the family coming along that came to church last week?

Well, they moved so that was a bummer.

2. Was Jose Luis able to come to church this week? 

Had work, so that was another bummer

3. Tell us about the other missionaries you live with. What is your favorite thing about each of them?

Elder Cuaycal: He is from Ecuador, and he is super funny and a super hard worker. He has like 21 months in the mission, so he is also constantly tired. Elder Johnston: he's my homie. He is from St. George Utah, and we just have a blast. He such a humble, cool dude who will walk into our room in the middle of study just to share something cool he liked from his study. He's a total stud!

4.  What is your ward like? How many members come to church? 

We have about 150 members in church

5. How is Santa Cruz different that Tarija? 

Its super hot, and super humid.

Milagros, Build the Wall

Lunch today with the Office elders!

Hi everyone!!!

We had another crazy week here in the offices dealing with some missionaries going home, getting flights, housing and all of that taken care of, but luckily things calmed down a little bit at the end of the week, and we were able to see some miracles in our area!!!

First off, we had our first official lesson with Jose Luis this past week, and he is so awesome!! He hasn’t been able to come to church yet, but he told us about how he had talked to the missionaries before and how much he loves the Mormons! Hopefully we can get him to church and help him enter the waters of baptism!!

We were having kind of a long week, with not a ton of citas (appointments), and lots and lots of street contacting and knocking doors. Well, the problem is that here in the center, it’s a VERY different dynamic than my first two areas. It’s extremely urban, so we don’t have a lot of neighborhoods that we can actually knock doors, and the majority of the people in the streets don’t live in our area. We had knocked doors basically all day, and we had seen almost no success. We were almost to our area limit, and we decided to knock one more door before heading to the other side of our area for a cita, and a family let us in, accepted a Book of Mormon, and get this, CAME TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY!!! When we were leaving from the cita, Elder Lozano were walking away, and quietly saying, "tranquilo, tranquilo...." (quiet, quiet) and the second we rounded the corner, we just started fistpumping and celebrating, the whole 9 yards haha. We were so excited to see a miracle here in the area!!

So here’s my funny/interesting story of the week. So for those of you who don’t know, my companion is Elder Lozano, (still haven’t had an American comp yet, which has been a huge blessing for my Spanish, haha), and he is from Juarez, Mexico. Well, when people ask us where we are from, they think it’s just the funniest thing in the world that an American and a Mexican are companions, and just start up with all sorts of border/wall jokes (thanks Trump...). The good news is that we know how to play it off, and we joke that there is a wall between our beds in our apartment.

Thank you all for your continued support!! I love hearing from you all, and I pray you all have a great week! Remember that General Conference is in a few short weeks, and to prepare to receive revelation from our new prophet!

Con mucho amor, Elder Christian Duvall Newman

Mom, What a cool experience to go to the temple with Sarah for the first time!! Sounds like a memorable experience, and thank you for that verse! 2nd Nephi has always been one of my favorite chapters! Love you Mom!!

Dad, Looks like the room you so graciously let me sleep in has taken on some serious upgrades!! Glad you are feeling better now!! Love you dad!!

Callie, sounds like someone is one smart girl! Nice job on your report card!! How exciting for a new cousin!! Some one tell Uncle Taylor he just needs one more girl and he can have an entire basketball team!;) Love you Callie!!!

Emma, ohhhhhhhhh my goodness, you went to the Pie?? lucky lucky girl... And of course you had to get out the oars on the hills for Karen haha. Hope you had a great ACT, praying for that 31!! Love you sis!!

Sarah, How exciting to go to the temple for the first time! Im sure you enjoyed sweeto burrito alot, especially since this time you got to eat;). Great job in your basketball tourney! Love you tons sis!!


Mom’s Questions:

1. How goes the office duties in week 2? Getting the hang of things? 

Yep!! Getting the hang of things, definitely been a trial and error experience, haha.

2. Are you finding time to teach in the evenings? 

Yes, we have the goal to get out of the offices at 4, but its usually closer to 5 with how crazy it’s been

3. Tell us about your companion. What is he like? What is your favorite thing about him?

Elder Lozano is awesome!!! He is super funny, super outgoing, and the thing I love about him is his ability to laugh off the hard stuff that comes our way!

4. How is Jose coming along? 

He's super awesome!! Just need to get him to church!

5. I heard a rumor that the Bolivian mail service has been shut down. Any truth to this? Do you know when they will be back up and running? I had a package I wanted to start putting together to send to you, but I’ll hold off on it until you say it’s safe to send things again.

Yeah we have heard that it’s some sort of work strike, but we don’t know a ton about what’s going on. I’ll keep you posted.​​​​