Instruidos del Alto

Hello Friends and Family!!

Wow, what a fantastic week in the service of the Lord. We were truly edified with our multi-zone Conference with President Rodriguez, and with the General conference this weekend. It was kind of a challenge not being in the area a whole lot, but we were blessed with some tender mercies and spiritual experiences.

For starters, Camiri has had TONS of rain lately, resulting in some mudslides and lots of rivers in the streets. On Tuesday, we had to cross several of those rivers and climb a mountain in the middle of the torrential downpour to get to a pair of appointments. Well, upon arriving to our destination, neither one of the appointments were there. We began to contact the neighboring houses, and the VERY FIRST house we knocked, a 15 year old young man opened the door to see a pair of VERY wet missionaries smiling back at him offering to share a message of Jesus Christ with him. He kindly let us in, and his older brother came in too, and we shared the Restoration of the Gospel with them, and they were super receptive! They accepted a Book of Mormon and the invitation to read and pray. Funny how God sometimes makes us climb a mountain in a rainstorm before receiving a tender mercy, but the tender mercy certainly came!

We had another cita that same day with Yolanda Vargas, the non member sister of the Familia Ichuro. We taught her about the Restoration as well, and she made a great question to us, "How can I know that Joseph saw God?" I smiled, told her that she could know in the same way that I came to know, She could pray, ask God, and that He would respond to her, and she could know with all certainty, because God wouldn't lie to her. The look on her face made it apparent that she was a tad skeptical of my answer. I laughed and told her, "We could be here all night. I could show you prophecies in the Bible that talk about Joseph, and prove the Book of Mormon to you rationally, geographically, historically, and we could compare the teachings of the 2 books for a lifetime. However, none of that will matter. You won't accept that answer or reasoning for yourself, until you receive a witness from God of the truthfulness of these things." She then smiled, and said, "You are very right, I wouldn't accept those things for myself until I receive an answer for myself." She accepted the invitation to read as well.

We had a long week of travel with multi-zone conference, traveling all night on Wednesday, being in conference all day Thursday, and then traveling again that same night to come back to Camiri, but it was so good to hear from President Rodriguez, and to see my former companion Elder Maravilla give his final testimony as he finishes up this transfer.

General Conference was so so uplifting for me. I couldn't believe that this was my final conference here in the mission. It ha strengthened my testimony of living Prophets and Apostles. GOD SPEAKS TODAY!

Well, I hope that you all received God's voice for each and every one of you during conference! I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!!

Love, Elder Newman

Dad, First things first. HAPPY 47TH BIRTHDAY TODAY DAD!!!!!! I hope your day has been awesome! I am glad you are feeling better, Love you so much!!!

Mom, what a funny driver, hahahaha. Sounds like you had a great week! That's awesome that there is some one who can rebind my scriptures! That makes me happy. :)  Love you so much Mom!!

Jackson, wow, sounds like a great week! That's so cool that Elder Zimmerman is in your Spanish class!! Love you man, good luck with your finals!!!

Emma, looks like you had a great trip!! Conference was amazing for me, I absolutely loved it! Love you Emma!!!

Sarah, Look at you reloading bullets!! That's super cool! Way to take care of Dad this week! Good luck with school this week! Love you Bear!

Callie, I loved Elder Gong's talk too! That was a very funny way to start the talk, haha. That's so fun that you got to take Reese on a walk after conference! Love you Callie!!

Mom’s Questions:

1. What were your favorite talks in conference?

I loved Elder Bednar's talk and President Eyring's talk from Priesthood session

2. I know you have a very small district, but how many missionaries are in your zone and how often do you see them? 

We have 16 missionaries in the zone, and we see them once a transfer for conference, haha.

3. Is Alex still on track for baptism on Saturday? 

YES he is :)

4. What other investigators do you have right now? 

We have Yolanda, Paola Gutierrez, Efrain Lazarte, and several others :)