Week 14

Well transfers happened yesterday, but I stayed in Camden. But I did get a new companion. His name is Elder Melville. He is from Orem, Utah. He played basketball, and he was on the same team as one of the other Elders in our flat, so they were pretty good friends.

Me and Elder Melville can connect a lot. He loves wakeboarding, so I can talk to him about that pretty easy. And he thinks kinda the same way I do, so teaching with unity will come pretty easy. I am really looking forward to see what this transfer will do to Camden area.

Okay, so with the roach, the coin next to it is between the size of a nickel and a dime.

Week 13

Well this week has been a struggle for missionary work. Everyone is out of town or too busy to listen. But one thing that happened was we were tracting like the whole week, and we got a lot of potentials, and that’s something that never happens. We tracted Lords Street and this lady wanted to learn more about family history, and then this other guy wanted to know about what we believe, and those two were in like 2 minutes of each other. They seem like solid potentials. We already have fellowshippers lined up for them.

Then we went and tracted another street and we taught the restoration on the doorstep [of another lady]. We are going back next week to meet with her again, so a big potential week.

Monday was the Christmas party for the mission so p day was moved to Tuesday, and then during email time the website wasn’t working for our whole zone so we are emailing today.

Other than that, not a lot happened. Thanks for all your help and support. Have a Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Newman

I got your packages Monday and I got back at like 11, so it was late; and so I took a picture and then went to bed.

Week 12

Hello everyone! This week was good on the teaching investigators. We got to teach both of them, and a funny thing is, is the one that wasn’t progressing has started to, and the one that was progressing a lot has almost stopped. So they basically just swapped on how they were doing, but both of them are still progressing so that’s good. The one seems like he is just wasting our time; but he still comes to church every week, and he is starting to pray. We have a plan for him though. We will see if it works. We are meeting him next Sunday, so we will see.

I’m doing good here. It was real easy to adjust. This week was the first time that I felt a little homesick, but I’m alright. It’s probably just because of Christmas. But we have a good ward, and they will take care of us. I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Newman

Week 11

Not a lot to report on this week again, but it’s been a busy week. We went to the [Sydney] temple to show people the lights there, and it was good. About 1000 people went through, so it’s nothing like at home; but there were still people who weren't members, and they wanted to know more. I was in charge of showing them a movie about the events leading up to Christ’s birth. It had a little bit about what he did during his earthly ministry, and then it showed him visiting the Americas after his death and resurrection, so we showed that and then talked about the Book of Mormon after. The little clip that we showed was good. I noticed some people crying when they were leaving, so the spirit touched their hearts. I was glad to be a part of the program. I think it was a success.

We also invited, this week, one of our investigators to go to the lights. She was the one investigator that dropped us, and so we just visited her and invited her to see the lights. She got really interested in the temple so we were able to talk to her about it and teach her a lesson. We invited her to be baptized, but she declined. We were able to teach her 2 lessons. We were there for 2 hours because she was really interested in what we had to say. I felt like we were supposed to go to that house at that time because she was in a situation where she was ready to learn, and she was able to sit down and listen to what we had to say. So hopefully she visits the temple grounds. That would be good for her, I think. That was a miracle that happened this week.

I love you all. Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Newman

Week 10

Not a whole lot to report on this week, but it was Thanksgiving. I had a good time. We have American families in the ward so they invited us over. We went with two elders that haven’t had Thanksgiving ever. The one didn’t know what turkey was. He just eats chicken and red meat, but he enjoyed it. It was a smoked turkey, and it was great! And then another dinner there was 50 people there, and it was at the Bishop’s house. They are Aussie, but they love celebrating whatever they can. They had an excuse to have a party, so they planned a Thanksgiving dinner. Not a lot of people knew what turkey meat was. Haha. They thought it was great. They are all just used to eating ham.

We are doing good. The missionary work is slow, but it is progressing. The members are starting to help a little bit more. Our teaching pool is small, but the people that we do teach seem to be understanding the importance of our message. I hope that [all of you] will be examples and help with the missionary efforts. Everything helps.

Those are some awesome pictures of [Bryant hunting]. The other elders think it is so cool because two of them don’t hunt. They don’t have guns, and here you aren’t really allowed to have a gun, so I’m pretty safe. Every time I share a little hunting story, they all think it’s really cool.

I heard that you got snow. That is awesome! I’m still here getting tan. Haha. I have heard that it doesn’t snow here, so that’s something I will be looking forward to when I come back. That’s all for this week. I love you all. I hope your week is great. Keep me up to date with what is new back home. Thanks so much for everything [you all] do for me.

Love, Elder Newman
The Church Is True