Week 80 - Life Down Under

[It has been] quite a slow week knowing that everyone back home is able to watch general conference this week; and then I have to wait another week to even hear it. I hope that you all learned something from it and that you all took questions to it.

This week we have been making good progress with a potential family. They are Chinese and are going through some struggles. What an opportunity to testify about how much God loves us, and how much he knows and cares about every individual on earth, and how we are all sons and daughters of our father in heaven. The mom loves us coming over. She feeds us every time. Haha. She feeds us more than the members. Her son is 19 years old, loves hunting and backpacking, and cars, so we have a little bit in common. We just need to inspire him to love Jesus Christ just as much. They are always so nice to us when we come over. They are a great family that would benefit heaps from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We also had a Baptism this week. His name is Jackson. It was such a great experience for him, as well as for his mom and sister. That is another great family that is on fire with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That was a week in the Life Down Under. Have a great week!
Elder Newman

Week 79

That was quick! I am already back on the computer emailing home. This week went by pretty fast. We have been crazy busy getting to know the ward and running around to help with the ward activities.

This ward has got their act together. Everyone knows what their job is and what needs to be done, and as far as I can tell, nobody is slacking. This month’s activity is called “Pursuit of Perfection.” Just for this month they are trying to accomplish that in their temple attendance, church attendance, rescue night, and home/visiting teaching. It’s a great program that was set up by the ward council. But it is tough for us missionaries to get around and encourage everyone to accomplish their goal. That has been our week.

But in our free time/tracting time we do a couple hours of finding every day, and Sunday morning we had someone threaten us, and also someone call himself the anti-Christ. Haha. But we were talking with him, and he says he doesn't believe in God but he used to have conversations with him every day. And then he said that now he doesn't believe that He is there because God hasn't shown himself to him. He seemed normal, but maybe all the lights weren't on upstairs. But we were able to testify and ask questions like, maybe God is trying to communicate with you through us. He said, you are probably right, but I want him to come down and show himself to me. Haha. In the Book of Mormon there is an example of this guy, I think his name was Korihor, asking for a sign, haha, and how did that turn out?

There is evidences all around us that shows us that there is a God. This life isn't chance. This didn't just happen. It was all a part of God’s Plan, and I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I love you all have a great week.

Elder Newman

 My companion, Elder Chen from Taiwan.

Week 78

Well it was transfer week, and guess what… I got transferred. I was a little cut that I got the shaft and was told to leave. I love the ward, and I loved my companion. It was great serving there. I had a great relationship with the members, but the Lord now needs me in this area.

I got transferred to Ingleburn 1st ward. It’s an English speaking ward with a lot of Polynesians again. They are the best! My companion is Elder Chen. He is from Taiwan and speaks Mandarin. He is a great guy and has been in this area for 1 transfer, so I will be able to learn from him.

Yesterday we had transfers, and after I got all my stuff to the flat we hit the ground running and went and visited a potential investigator who was a referral given by a member. He was a minister for another church. He was "wanting to learn about our church." We get there, and turns out they already know about our church. They are very learned. We tried our best and left them with a Book of Mormon and our Testimony. Then we went to FHE to a part member’s home where Jackson, a ten year old kid, is wanting to be baptized in April. So we are looking forward to that.

Also in my last area, Omare's Baptismal date is now on April 15th. But I will let you know what happens with that.

This new area has a couple investigators. Right now I am just trying to learn the area and build a relationship with the ward.

I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Newman

Saying goodbye to all my Villawood friends...

Naki

 Part of the Suesue family

 The missionaries in Villawood Ward 

 The two with me and Elder Olsen are the Kafusi boys

 left to right top row (Epati, Fenninuti , Elder Olsen, Kafusi, Elder Newman) bottom row is (Salesi Kafusi )

 The Das Family

 President Amone [and lots of women;)]

 Sister Espinosa

 Benson and his fiance, Kafoa

 Suesue family

 Bishop Fennituti's family (Bishop is standing by me in an orange shirt)

 Two missionaries that you don't know yet is Elder Olsen and Elder Faaifoaso 

Elder Olsen, Elder Newman, Elder Bagshaw (also got transferred), and Elder Davis

 I got to see Elder Stott [former companion down in Merimbula] at transfers!

Week 77

Well this week was great. We didn’t get a whole lot of teaching done either, but we did get heaps of stuff done and heaps of finding. First off we had a baptismal date set for the 18th of March so we were preparing for that. But we had to move it back to the 25th. He is still getting baptized, and he has great fellowship.

Also we had a flat inspection, and they weren't too happy with the damage that had been done in the flat for the past 4 years. So we had to clean everything up and prepare everything for the contractor to come in and fix the damages. And we have had a great week of helping the Ward council catch the missionary fire! That’s basically all this week, and next week is transfers, so I will be emailing on Tuesday.

Oh yeah, I also almost forgot a miracle that we had this week that shows that God does answer prayers. We were tracting before an appointment, and our pen had broken. We didn’t have the car or any other spare pens, and we needed one, so we prayed that we would be able to find one before our appointment. So we finish tracting and start heading to our appointment the whole time looking for a pen, and we walked for like 15 minutes and get to the driveway, and boom... we find a pen in the driveway! How cool is that? God is real. He answers prayers. It was something small, like we could have asked anyone for a pen and they would have given us one; but the Lord answered our specific prayer, and we found a miracle pen. That was us this week. I hope you enjoyed that story.

I love you all, and have a great week!
Elder Newman

My old companion, Elder Cook, and I.

A member brought us dinner one night, and it was heaps of food!

Week 76 - Proud to Be a Missionary

This week was a pretty good week. It rained a lot. We got caught out in it a couple times without an umbrella, but it’s all good. We bought those $1 ponchos and wore that, haha.

We also got a new investigator this week and taught him the Restoration and invited him to be baptized. We set a date for March 18th, but we might have to push it back to the 25th in order to teach him enough because he has a busy schedule. He is 16, and the youth have really been good at making him their friend and including him in what they do. They are probably the best fellowship in our ward.

We also have a lot of potentials that will hopefully be turning into Investigators this week. We are spending most of our day everyday trying to find people to teach, and it looks like it’s going to start paying off soon.

Other than that, nothing to report on. I had a great week, and I am loving what I am doing. I hope that everyone is doing what they love, because if we do that and love God then we could not be happier. Happiness comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Everything that is good in my life has been because of him. He has helped me grow into the person I am today, and I am so happy to be able to spread his message around the world.

I love being a missionary! Have a great week.

Love, Elder Newman

The Bishop brought us Maccas [McDonald's] for dinner. [There are only four of them in their apartment to eat all this food.]

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