January 10th, 2011

¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Wow, sounds like things are going great over there! Congratulations again Than and Chi! Still can`t believe it! Effie! You`re so good at doing stuff! I`m so super jealous!

Of course we`re not surprised that they can`t get rid of Em, she`s the vital part of everything she does! Way to go Sis. And don`t worry Mom, now it`s the downward slope. This is the fastest part of them all. It`s honestly kinda scary, it feels like it`s already ending. It honestly feels like in just a little bit, I`m coming home. I`m sure that`s the Holy Ghost trying to tell me, HEY! Things go by fast, work HARD!

So me and Elder Tah have been working very hard this week. By the way he is from Cancun, Quintanarroh. He worked in turism and even had a class about it. I discovered he`s actually almost a licensed bartender. He is always pointing things out about animals as we go through the streets and about how you should treat them so that they don`t try and eat you. He`s Elder Jungle Man. But as I said, we have been working very hard and have received many blessings.

We found two new people this week that just blow me away.

First was Nancy,

We contacted her outside of the church and invited her in, and she accepted. In the tour we gave she said that she has a son that had an accident as a child and now cannot talk, and is mildly mentally retarded. They were watching TV one day and saw one of the Mormon Messages and her 11 year old son started making lots of signs that his mom understood as, "When I grow up, I`m going to be Mormon!" She came back the next day with her son, and he was just the happiest little guy I have ever seen. He was pointing at everything in the church and just smiling more than a face can hold for the whole hour. We invited her to baptism and she agreed, and we said if she would like us to come to her house next time to teach her some more if it was too inconvenient to come to the church, the son started saying, "PLEASE! Please let us come back!" I love kids. It is honestly a family so special. They don`t drink, smoke, nothing, they live right in front of the church, and are searching for God to help their two sons.

Second was Aurelio,

While we were showing Nancy the baptismal font, a man entered the church and wanted to talk with us. The Sister Salas, wife of the Bishop, was with us at the time and left to go talk to him. We ended the lesson with Nancy and went to go talk to Aurelio. I thought he was just looking for money or something, but he just asked that we say a prayer for him. We invited him inside to talk for a bit, and he mentioned that his life was going bad, and started to cry explaining all that had happened. He had lost his family, his job, almost everything, and was just searching for a way to get things straight again. He wasked someone in the street where a church was that wasn`t Catholic, and this person pointed him here, he came running to see us. Sister Salas told him about how she was before and how the gospel helped her, we showed him the baptismal font and he asked us how he could follow Jesus Christ. We taught him about baptism and his face completely changed. He left being incredibly happy. Every time afterwards we met with him his face was entirely happy. He has a giant desire to learn more of God and came to church this week. He will be baptized next Sunday after the church services. He is one of those rare people that Realize how dependent they are on the Atonement. I love him bunches, he is going to be an amazing member of the Church and will be blessed highly by God.

Those are the biggest stories of this week Family, hope everything stays well and prosperous,

¡ADIOS MI FAMILIA!

Elder Newell

1. Spending New Years with the family of the Bishop

2. Shampoo, and an unfortunate difference in languages meet