Aug 9, 2010

¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Well, honestly I expected something like that. Maybe not quite so severe, but I was remembering Indy and what happened with him. It is the inevitable I guess. Thanks for telling me. Thanks for keeping care of him. If theres something I´ve learned here, it is to trust in the Lord´s timing. If he decides I won´t see my dog again, well, it´s for the best. I´ll wait until the next life.

NO TRICERATOPS!? WHAT!? This is an outrage! Im losing childhood favorites left and right here...(it helps a little to joke about it :P)

Hey John! I´m doing great! I miss you all too, but we´ll see each other really soon! Mexico is a really pretty place, especially Uruapan, where I am now. It´s full of trees, rivers, and old buildings! I hope you do well in school, and that you treat your sister and parents really well!

I hope everything else is going well back home. I can´t wait to try all the fruits and berries and veggies growing when I get home! Which, according to the missionary calendar, should be in about a month. Time flys by so quickly here. I do not joke when I said that I feel like I was home just last week.
Emily, I hope all is well with you too, haven´t heard much, so I assume that´s good. Also that your group is still going strong. Thanks to your courage to speak up first about OCD, I learned about it, saw it in myself, and have been able to help others do the same. We have an investigator that says his mind always obsesses in voices, numbers, letters, and drugs. He says there is always a voice in his head that is telling him to use, or do whatever. I told him, I know how you feel, I have something very similair, just without the drugs. Just as Jesus Christ calmed the waters of the Dead Sea, I know he can calm our minds as well, because he has done it with me. I silently prayed to God and thanked Heavenly Father for putting me in this family with you all so that I could have these experiences, and help others to grow.

Also, I have been having this pain in my knee, I talked to Sister Jesperson about it and she prescribed some exercies to do, and to take my Vitamin I. Or, 12 Ibuprofens in the day. Apparently this is something that happens frequently to long distance runners. So, me and Merlin can share each others pain :)

There was a baptism in my district on Saturday. The following pictures are from the National Park. You see, this guy was a descendant of the tripe of Purepecha indians, and wanted to be baptized in a river. So we took him over there, and got him baptized. After his baptism, he talked a little about the beliefs of the native peoples, and said that he felt like his ancestors were very happy with his decision. He then said that us 4 elders that were there, he felt represented the 4 elements, Elder Rojas being water, me being air, the other two were fire and earth. It was a very interesting experience, and I told him my Mom would absolutely love to talk with him and learn about the ancient practices here.

We are starting to see a bunch of potential success here. We have 13 baptismal dates planned, with at least 4 more to put this week. We are so very priviliged to be here in Uruapan, where the people are ready to accept the gospel. This area has not had much success at all, but President told us we were put here for a reason. That there are such young Elders here so that they had no false conceptions, or pre-fabricated ideas. I know that the Lord visits his children. Even when we don´t recognize him. Better, ESPECIALLY when we don´t recognize him. He is always there, helping us in whatever we let him.

Well, I think that´s all for this week. Sorry it´s short once again, but that´s how things go sometimes.

ADIOS MI FAMILIA!

Elder Newell

PS: Oh well, I have a picture of the baptism itself, but GMail doesn´t want to upload it. I´ll show you when I get back :P