July 5th 2010

¡HOLA FAMILIA!

Sounds like things are calming down a bit, so that´s nice. Alex already turned in his papers!? YIKES! Alex! This is the BEST decision you can take in your life! Elder Holland said that if you don´t go on a mission for the people you will bring unto Christ, if not for the blessings you will bring to the family, DO IT FOR YOURSELF! You grow soooooo much on the mission! It´s honestly ridiculous. I´m such a better man than when I left. The mission refines you, helps you to know where you stand, with Christ, or with the other side, and what are you willing to do to stand by Him. Aiks, IM SO EXCITED FOR YOU! Be completely obedient, have faith in the Lord, and KEEP SMILING!

Haha, I cannot believe you are going to a flash feeze, you have to let me know how it goes! Way to go Dad! I knew there was some stupid reason for that shaking! I can´t wait to hear how everything sounds when I get back! Did you buy Avatar? How did you like it? I honestly thought it was stupid...but that´s just me.

No worries about the pictures, when it can happen it would be awesome, but no hurry. I would love to go to Jump On It. Sounds like a lot of fun!

This week for us was really interesting. We had to drop almost all of our investigators, we had left over, so we were knocking doors like crazy! we had almost no appointments for most of this week, and so we were on our feet all day with virtually no rest time except for the food. But, we saw the blessings of our work! We found some people that are so super golden it´s ridiculous!

Familia Morales! This is a middle aged couple that have a tiendita and are very, very overweight. But we knocked their door and they allowed us to come in and talk for a bit. We go thorugh talking about the Plan of Salvacion, and while talking about the spirit world, the sister asks us, "Can spirits be here on Earth?" We responded, well, yes, but not in a hocus pocus way. She said, "Well, I ask because in times that were really hard in my life, I have felt the presence of my Dad a lot...and I was in the hospital last week and I thought I was going to die, I even told my son all the stuff he needs to do when I go, but I felt like there were two people standing behind my bed dressed in pure white. One of them touched my shoulder, and after that I was fine. My daughter says there was no one else in the room, but I know this happened." Immediately after we went something like :O. Catholics here don´t believe in angels in white or anything like that, so we explained what is possible that happened, and move on with the lesson. We tell them they need to pray to know if it is true, and she says, "Oh, I already know that you were sent by God." Huh? "Ya, I have closed the door on sooooo many people from religions previously, but I felt like I NEEDED to let you jovenes in the door and talk to me." It´s insane, we have had like, 8 people like that this week that bear their testimonies at the end, we are very, very excited this area is FINALLY going to grow! We saw the baptisms for the last two years and they were only 29. IN MEXICO! That number should be like, 70-80 or something. We want to change that, help the ward to grow in their faith and trust in the missionaries, and the Lord is blessing us to be able to do it.

I am so blessed to be here in Uruapan, to be able to see peoples lives really change, see families be healed, people leave behind self destructive vices, and move forward with a faith that is firmly based in Christ. I know this church is true. There is no other explanation than we have a loving Father in Heaven that wants us to be happy. People, by themselves, are unable to do the miracles I have witnessed. God lives. He loves us. Of this I know, and speak with the people every day.

Thank you all for being so supportive of me, throughout all my life. I have seen families without a good system...it sucks. Our family wasn´t perfect, but at least everyone wanted to be better, and strove to have it. And now our family is awesome! I see these other people and think, wow, what if Dad was a drug addict, or a hopeless drunk. What if Ben was killed by gangsters when he was 16? THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE FOR BEING GOOD PEOPLE.

Well, I think that´s all I have for this week.

OH! It´s time for a special time I like to call, ONLY IN MEXICOOOOO!!!!!!!
I saw a restaurant yesterday while we were walking around Centro. It has the picture of Paris Hilton eating a burger, and a palm tree on the sign that says, "Afuera y Al Dentro Burger" which, translated, means In ´N Out Burger! Yep. They are trying to hit that immigrant that was deported audience hard down here. Only in Mexico.

OK, that´s all that I have this week.

Adios familia!

Les amo, cuiden se!

Elder Newell