Week 43

This week was pretty good. Monday after we got done with email and shopping we went on a hike around the coast in Pambula. We are going to go on that same hike again today because we went the wrong way. So we are going to go to a cool overlook of the ocean today.

Tuesday we did some service for Debbie Parker pruning trees and taking stuff to the tip(dump). Wednesday we helped Josh Shoobridge out with cutting firewood. One log that I carried over we cut with the chainsaw and like 15 Huntsman spiders crawled out from the center. The center of the log was hollow. I was checking myself for them the rest of the day.

Thursday we did some service at Mandeni, and for Sam Parker we fixed a mountain bike track. Then we had to test out the track, so we road with the Shoobridge family and the Parkers. It was a good ride. I got really tired, and Elder Plata said it was hard for him to walk afterwards, haha.

Friday we taught the Walker kids, and Joven was there this time so we were able to teach him a little bit. He also came to church this week.

Saturday morning we had our first MCM (missionary coordination meeting). It was pretty good. Sam has some great goals for the area, and he makes me excited about this area. Then we went to Eden and visited the Waymouths. They don’t get visited a lot here because they live so far away, but it was a good visit. She like gave us all of her food. I guess that is just the grandma in her coming out because we are the same age as her grand kids, haha. Then later that day we had dinner with Sam Parker’s family.

Sunday was pretty normal except for the Elder Quorum lesson. A guy gave me his phone to follow along in the lesson because we didn’t have our book, and the phone felt so awkward in my hand, haha. Got to love the missionary life.

Then we finally were able to contact the referral we got last week. They had just gotten home from a road trip in America, and on that road trip they went to Temple Square and met the missionaries there. That’s how we got the referral. We had been going over every day since we got the referral, and she was finally home today. But she was sick and tired because of the flight. I felt bad for her because I knew how long the flight was, so we gave her a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment for Wednesday at 2pm. So I am really excited about it because we are finally able to start teaching someone.

That was the highlight of my week. I love you all! Have a great week.

Love, Elder Newman  

 Mountain biking..

 Dinner and dessert , a warm doughnut with ice cream on top..

Cooking over the fire for dinner at Sam's, egg and bacon sandwiches and potatoes.. you can’t see them very well but they are cooking in the fire.

Week 42

This week we had a mission conference on Tuesday in Mortdale so we left here at 5 o'clock and stayed in Canberra that night, and then caught a bus at 5 in the morning headed to Mortdale so that we could get there on time.

The conference was great. They taught us how to deal with stress just like it says in “Adjusting to Missionary Life.” They also gave us some really good street contacting ideas. And since that’s all it seems like we do here in Merimbula and the Australia Sydney South Mission, they taught us some ways to get motivated to do the work.

After that we took the bus back down ts Canberra and stayed the night again and left in the morning. We got back to Merimbula around 3pm and went and visited the Walker family.

Thursday we went to Bega, visited some people there, and did some weekly planning. Friday we did service for the first part of the day which was pretty easy. All it was, was cleaning windows. And then after that we went home and cleaned our flat because this was the last week of the transfer.

Saturday was service all day. The first part of the day we were sorting and stacking logs and then cutting them up and then splitting them. The other part of the day was yet again helping someone move house. And man was this house dirty!

Then Sunday we got a Branch Mission Leader. His name is Sam Parker. He is the man! I get along with him very well. He has given us some ideas to help transition from service to teaching because right now we are doing a whole lot of service and not a lot of teaching as you can tell from my letters home.

Today is day one of another new transfer. I am staying in Merimbula for another 6 weeks.
I almost forgot we got a referral on Friday. This girl referred herself to the missionaries and wants a Book of Mormon and the discussions. Please pray for her. Her name is Wendy.

Thanks for everything.
Love Elder Newman

So this right here is a snake. It took some convincing, but Elder Plata finally got me to hold it. They must do this kind of thing in the Philippines all the time. It wasn't until after that we found out that this was a tiger snake, one of the top 10 most poisonous snakes on earth. I am so glad that nobody got hurt. I got one cool picture though.

The snake is plastic, haha.

Bus ride back home from Mortdale..

 Fun on the Trampoline

 Elder Plata is one great chef!

Week 41

Not a whole lot here on this end, it’s pretty much the same as last week. Today we are going to head to Canberra so that we can go to Sydney for another mission conference. Elder John is getting transferred, so he will pack all of his stuff today so that we don't make two trips to Sydney and waste our K's, so that we stay under our limit. So it’s just going to be me and Elder Plata in Merimbula. I have enjoyed serving with Elder John. He is a great missionary. I hope he does well in his other areas.

This week was a lot of service. We helped people move house again, and we have another family moving house this week.

One thing that happened this week was we met Joven's Grandma, and she is a nice lady so we might be able to start teaching her as well as Joven. We are trying our hardest to be able to work with Joven. Our whole goal is to act and not be acted upon, but sometimes you just got to wait till people are comfortable with being taught.

This gospel does bring joy to the lives of the people who follow Christ. It gives them hope. It gives them a sense of belonging. Most importantly it gives them a knowledge that they aren't alone. They have a Father in Heaven that loves them and knows them personally, and he wants to help us, we just have to let him. When we understand that we have a Heavenly Father, we understand that we have divine Eternal Potential, and that's something that we can strive for as a goal. That knowledge gives us the path that we should follow, and as we strive to make that goal a reality, I have no doubt that our father in heaven will help us accomplish that goal. He wants what’s best for us.

I hope you all know that you have a Heavenly Father, and I hope you understand how much he loves you. I hope that all made sense. It did to me. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love, Elder Newman

This bird belongs to a member. It's pretty mean. It tries to bite. I was hoping it didn't land on my shoulder.

Norma, one of the members, has a house out in the bush. So when we got to her house she told us to walk down to the creek. It was a little creepy in some spots. I was watching out for crocs.

Week 40

This week was a full week of service. That’s probably the main difference between serving in a branch as to serving in a ward. But another difference is you focus a lot more on the members, so you are divided half and half. Sometimes it gets hard to do that as a missionary because you don’t have as many investigators to teach. But in a way you are preparing for the future because you need to have a strong foundation, that being the members once they are strong. Then they can be great fellowship for the investigators, and then you are more likely to have another strong member.

Update on Rob (recent convert)
He had to go back to Canberra to get some more tests to see if he needs to get a pace maker put in for his heart. That is most likely going to happen. Then he is taking vacation so we won’t be able to teach him at least for this week.

Update for Joven
We haven't been able to meet up with him. He has been sick or it has been his birthday and nobody in the Branch really knows his parents. But they know his grandma so one of the members is going to contact the grandma and talk to her about the situation, and hopefully we will be able to teach him. Joven still talks to President Wright at school and talks about how he wants to be baptized and how much he loves the Book of Mormon. He even talks to his friends at school about the Book of Mormon. I hope that he is able to accomplish his goals.

Monday after emailing we went and played a round of golf (I’m getting good), and then we did FHE with the Shoobridges. And then Tuesday we got trapped in Bega all day.

So what had happened was we got our car serviced, and they had forgotten to book us in for an appointment (I did make an appointment), but they said that they can fit us in. So we were going to do some street contacting, and when we came back at 1:00 they had just barely started on the car so they said come back at 4:30. So eventually that time came around, and they decided to put new brake pads on so that still wasn't done at that time. So we leave, and they call us about 5:30 and say that it is done. If we would have known, we would have gotten a ride to somewhere where we could do other things than street contact all day.

Wednesday we did service, and President and Sister Back came to inspect our flat and take us out to dinner. They gave us an idea to get involved in community service projects because here, for some reason, we get mistaken a lot for Jehovah Witnesses and for Seventh Day.

Thursday was weekly planning and service, helping people move. They had just sold their house.

Friday we had DTM [District Training Meeting] and then followed up on a potential and tracted a couple streets.

Saturday was service all day helping a guy move a kitchen; and that was a little difficult, but we got it done. Then we went to help another person move and clean out a bunch of junk. Then Sunday was church and visiting the old widows of the branch and taking them sacrament. And that was my week. I hope you all had a great week. I did.

Talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Newman

Me, and Emmitt, and Elder John

Me, Elder Plata, and Elder John

Week 39

Well this week wasn't as busy as last week, but we still had a good week.

Wednesday we spent a lot of time doing family history. I indexed 130 names, and then we went and visited some members and a part-member family.

Thursday we did our studies in the morning along with weekly planning, and then drove 600 kilometers [373 miles] to Canberra again this week for zone conference. It was good, not a whole lot of new information but I did enjoy it. We stayed the night there Thursday night and Friday was the zone conference, and then after zone conference we traveled back home.

Then Saturday morning we went to visit with our recent convert family and did some service for them. We taught one of the follow-up lessons and had lunch, and then we drove home and went to another part-member family and visited with them for a while and shared a scripture.

And then Sunday was church and then we took the sacrament to those that wanted it but couldn't make it.

So it was an alright week. Not too much [going on], but we are trying to work with the members. I love this area even though it’s tough.

Have a great week! Talk to you next Monday!
Love, Elder Newman

In Cooma on the way to Canberra.. Haha.

Zone training in Canberra

Week 38

I had a full week this week. Monday was normal, and Tuesday we traveled all day so that we could get to the mission conference in Blair Athol where Gifford Nielson was going to give us a training. On the way there we stopped in Canberra, and I got a parking ticket because I parked in a paid parking spot and I didn’t realize it. So I am going to pay that today. Then we eventually made it up to Blair Athol. We stayed with the missionaries that night, and then went to the training in the morning.

The training was great. Our Mission President trained on repentance just like he always does and his wife trained on “faking it until you make it”. So if you don't love missionary work, pretend to, and eventually you will love it. Then Elder Nielson's wife trained on repentance and talked about how the Lord loves broken things. Elder Nielson trained on how everything we do is a choice, and it kinda just went from there. He kinda combined everyone else's training and made it all come together. He talked about how Satan does not have power until we chose to give him power.

My favorite comment that I heard that day was, "The Lord loves broken things. It takes broken clouds to make rain, and it takes rain to fall onto broken ground to grow grain. It takes broken grain to make bread, and it takes broken bread to remember the atonement of Jesus Christ." It takes a broken heart to be humble enough to ask for the Savior’s help. How can he fix something that isnt broken? That is what we do as missionaries. We teach people how the Lord can fix the broken things in their life. I loved the training. I learned a lot.

After the training we had to travel back to Merimbula, but only made it to Canberra. So we stayed with the Elders there and left again in the morning, and went straight to the Shoobridge family to help them put in their air conditioning and air duct system. We got pretty itchy with all of the fiberglass insulation that we were going through, but we were alright. We were able to take a shower when we got home.
Then Friday we did some more service for a potential. And then Saturday we went on a hike with the Shoobridge family and then went and played squash, which is basically Racquetball. I played against Mrs. Shoobridge who is 7 months pregnant, and I lost. But it’s alright; I beat my companions in that game.

Then Sunday was Church and then taking the Sacrament to the ones who were too old or sick to make it to church, and that was our day. Then Monday was the Queen’s Birthday so that's why our p day was today.

Yesterday the Shoobridges asked us to go on another hike with them, and it was fun. Then we went to their home after and had family home evening, and that was my week.

I love you all. Have a great week. How did everyone do with the inviting someone to church?

Love,
Elder Newman

Backpacking getting ready for when I come home and go hunting.

On our way to Blair Athol.

War memorial.

Canberra.

I got beat by a pregnant lady.

Week 37

How was your week? Mine was great. True it has been raining all week, but that's all good. It hasn't been too bad. A lot of roads are flooded, and I am the only one that can drive here so I am stuck in the driver’s seat. But we are blessed, we have the hand of the Lord watching over us.

This week I found out how important it is to work with members as missionaries. We have been trying to find all week, but no success.. same with my last area. And then this Sunday we get there, and one of the kids in the Walker family brought one of his friends to church. His name is Jovan, and I guess that was his second time to church. He bore his testimony in fast and testimony meeting, and he has been reading the Book of Mormon and he loves it. He talks about it at school. He wants to be baptized, but we have to get permission from his parents in order for us to teach him. So please pray for him and his parents that we can begin teaching him so that this kid can accomplish his goal of being baptized.

It just goes to show how important it is to be member missionaries and how much easier it is to introduce the gospel to your friends than it is for the missionaries to do so.

My invitation to you all is to invite someone to church this week, and then pray for that person to feel the Holy Ghost and to see the light of Christ that is in us all.

That boy was a miracle this week. He is just what this companionship needed to keep us going. This is a tough area, but it’s good to see that you can find potential in this area. The branch is great! They are few in number, but they are strong in the faith. It is really inspiring to see.

That was my week. I hope you all have a great one. I can’t wait to hear from you all next week!

Elder Newman

Me and Elder John from Guyana, north of Brazil (not West Indies like I said last week ;)

Elder Plata from the Phillippines