Week 75

This week has been hard and fun, new ideas for finding and new ways to teach. [We have been] getting some new investigators and making a little progress with the old ones. I will start off with the new finding idea. We had to get permission for it because it’s a little sketchy, but it is dealing with finding people to teach on the train.

Two missionaries are in P day clothes (normal clothes) and have their badges in their pockets. Then the missionaries get on the train and say that they are going around sharing a message about the Book of Mormon and about Jesus Christ and ask if anyone is interested. Then what usually happens is nobody raises their hand to talk to the missionaries except the two undercover Missionaries, and [we] talk a little louder than normal so that everyone else can hear. The undercover missionaries try to involve the people around them. It’s pretty hard to do, but it is pretty effective and getting people involved with our message. We did that on Saturday and placed 5 Book of Mormons! What a day!

We also got some new investigators. We will see if we can get them to progress. We were also finally able to introduce Elder Olsen to Simon and taught him a great lesson and inspired him to try harder to make time for us and to also read the Book of Mormon. It’s been great!

[I have] nothing else to report on. I love you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Newman

[Elder Newman broke his glasses a couple weeks ago playing basketball, and he had to go get new ones. We like the new look!]

Week 74

This week was pretty good. We got a lot done, and a lot of families are starting to progress a little bit. Monday we played basketball like we always do for P-day.

Tuesday was a little rough. My glasses broke, and on the way back from an appointment I was kinda riding the bike a little funny. The back tire was flat so I was riding on the front tire, and I needed to stop and so I pulled the brake, and I pulled a stoppy and end-overed. Nothing happened, just my pride got hurt a little bit because it was at a busy intersection. But I didn’t get hurt. I just sat there for a little bit laughing, then I got up. I only had 1 hole in my shirt, but no scratches, so I was pretty lucky for that one. There is another elder that did the same thing and it cost 6000$ to fix his face. He was all I was thinking about as I was going over the handlebars. That’s all the happened that day.

Then the next day I went on splits with Bishop, and he is the man! He has helped us make heaps of progress with the less active members of our ward. We also contacted the potentials that we got last week, and we might be getting a couple more investigators, 2 families and another guy. They are still just potentials, but they are pretty interested in learning.

We also went over to help Bishop fix his wife's car this week. We had to replace the ball joint because it had broken. So we got that done, and then someone must have talked because at church yesterday we got two more members that want Elder Olsen to help fix their cars. It looks like we are going to be getting a lot of referrals pretty soon.

That was our week. I hope you all had one just as good as that or better. I love you all! Talk to yous next week!
Elder Newman

Week 73

This week was a scorcher mate!! A total scorcher! We have had like four days that have been over 40! On Saturday the thermostat in the car said 48 degrees Celsius.

Not a whole lot went on this week, just getting Elder Olsen introduced to the area and introducing him to members. Other than that, we did a lot of finding on Saturday. We knocked 100 doors and got 6 potentials. We will probably be able to get 1 investigator from that, so we will have another person to teach, which is good. We will be following up with those this week.

But other than that we are trying to find some creative finding ideas for being able find people. We might try to cowboy it up a bit. We made our own ropes, and we are going to go and rope us some investigators. We will see how that goes. Other than that.. loving the area, loving the members, and my comp is the best!

Have a great week everyone!
Elder Newman

Week 72

This week was transfers! I am still in the same area, but my companion got changed. Elder Cook went back out into the bush area to a place called Dapto, and he is with his trainer again.

My new comp is Elder Olsen, and he is from Wellsville, so another Cache Valley Elder that I am comps with. He likes archery hunting, so that is something that we talk a lot about. It’s been awhile since I have been able to talk about things like that. He has been out about 7 months, so just barely got rid of the green, but he is still a pretty cool guy. It’s going to be a fun transfer.

Not a lot happened last week besides heaps of meetings. A lot of our investigators are progressing slowly, but they are still progressing, so that’s good. Not a whole lot else to say about the week, but I love you all, and have a great week!

Elder Newman

Water fight at the church last week...

 (Mom asked if he was playing basketball in his slides, and he answered: “yeah I gave my shoes to another Elder that needed them. I will just buy some new ones from payless.”)