Christmas Eve

Hello, this week was a pretty good week, it went by fast. I am starting to understand the language more and more each day. I understand words, its just hard to compile what they say fast and then put it into English for me to understand. My companion is helping me though learn and as I speak she is telling me what to say, it is helpful. I just need to remember it all. Our living conditions are great, haha Its good, I am getting used to it, although I am not a fan of mosquitoes and fleas. My legs are going to look bad when I come home. I put on bug repellant, but that doesnt always do it. The ward mission leader and I share the same birthday, he is soo great! I really like him and all the members of the branch here. He said he promises to make a cake for my birthday. haha It doesnt really feel like Christmas other than us singing Christmas songs and some people have Christmas trees in their house. Tonight we are going to the ward mission leaders house and having a party with them. Not entirely sure what it all will consist of, but it should be fun. I am looking forward to it. We contact on buses and knock on doors,it's hard when there are a ton of people on their, but our mission president says talk to everyone because it's their salvation. It's difficult, but I am doing my best and just trying to understand what they are saying to me. haha We have some progressing investigators, but not many set on a baptism date. I enjoy teaching the gospel to the people here, some want to learn and listen and some don't. Whats funny is that I will be talking and my companion understands me totally, but the person we are teaching doesn't understand me and says no entiende ella. My companion says it's their excuse to not understand me because I am not from here and they can tell this isn't my native language. I always ask my companion did you understand me and she says yes. haha Some people aren't prepared for the gospel yet. We had an activity last week with the mission, we were able to go to the temple and then we had a devotional and that was really good. The night before we came and stayed with four other Hermanas and went on divisions because we didn't know the area and I went with a girl from Lindon, Utah and it was so nice to talk to someone in English for a little bit. I talked in Spanish too but just to express myself about my first week in the field was good. This week was a good week. The people here are great!

First week in the Mission Field.

Well I survived a week in the mission field. What an experience this will be. I am in a little town and there are about 60 members in the branch. Its very different. The people live like they are camping every day. Some of them cook their food on a fire and others have nicer houses to cook on a stove. Our place is pretty nice except our sink, toilet, shower are outside. Its different but its something that I need to get used to here. The members are great and one is really trying to help me with my spanish which I really like. Spanish is hard, its difficult for me to try and express how I feel about this gospel when I dont know the words in Spanish. My companion is from Ecuador and is helping me learn Spanish, she doesnt know very much English. My Mission President put me with her because I need to learn the language FAST in order to be the nurse. It was great to meet him. Its good teaching the gospel. We have a member who cooks us lunch everyday which that is nice and then we eat dinner at 9:30 at night. My companion is ahead of me always, they said it takes time, but soon I will be running or walking really fast. The lessons we have taught have been great, I feel the spirit even though I can't totally understand what they are saying, I pick up on a few things here and there but can't completely understand it. Oh the dogs here are like ants, they are everywhere. Not sure if they have owners or what. They are everywhere though haha random fact. The gospel is great, the church is true and I am doing my best at teaching the gospel. We get to have a mission Christmas party on Thursday and are going to the TEMPLE. That should be fun!! Merry Christmas to everyone.

Mission Field here I come.

Hola! This week has been good. My Thanksgiving was good, they had a big dinner for us that was decorated. Made us feel like we were home only we weren't. It was really nice that they made it feel like Thanksgiving. We had everything that we usually have for Thanksgiving dinner. LOVED IT!! My teacher Hermano Lopez is AMAZING!! He is the greatest teacher and knows so much about the gospel. He told my companion and I that our Spanish has really progressed and that if we are diligent its going to come. He also told me that as I do nursing that God will provide me with rememberance of the knowledge and wisdom that I have studied in school and more with come as I do it. He is sooo uplifting and gives me hope and encouragement to keep pressing forward. Well this week being the Sister Training Leader has been interesting. These girls are not being obedient and just doing things to cause problems. I don't like going to the President or his wife but I have had to twice now and they came and talked to us all last night on obedience. Ya its been a good time. The Lord is teaching me to not be very nice to people and tell them how things are done if you want to obey. I have to go and turn off all the lights at night and some give me crazy looks, but thats what the Presidents wife has told me to do. Its crazy! I am definitely learning. The Presidents wife is really nice to me. Last night after talking to her I just looked at her and smiled and said thank you! It was nice! Another Hermana said to me you are doing a good job Newman. haha There is another leader with me now and she speaks both English and Spanish which is really helpful. I like it a lot because I can't get the message direct in Spanish. haha I haven't really had to do a lot with nursing besides giving some people medications stomach issues or one went to the dentist. I have talked to the Dr here and he is soo funny. He sent me some references which I thought was really nice of him. I will see him sometimes on Sunday. I don't know exactly yet what I will be doing. Its a surprise. haha Next week I go out in the mission field. CRAZY!!

Two more weeks in the CCM, then off to Teach & Preach like Missionaries Do.

This week was good. It went by soooo fast. I cant believe I have already been out here for four weeks and that I only have two more weeks in the CCM. We are going to be the viejos (oldest ones) here. Crazy! Sunday is always great. There was a story that one of the members of the Branch Presidency told and it was amazing. He told about how a man went to the Temple on Saturday to take out his endowments and that he brought a family card with him who it happened to be his wife who has already passed on but he was going to get sealed to her. I am so excited to go out and to be able to touch these peoples hearts. His wife talked about the Primary song I will go, I will do, the things the Lord commands, I know the Lord provides the way He wants me to obey. It was so great! I was crying haha. We also had the chance to hear from President Eyring, Elder Richard G Scott and Sister Rosemary Wixom for a Regional Conference. Apparently they are here in Guatemala. Elder Scott knows Spanish so he talked in Spanish which they had a translator for English and it was weird to not hear his actual voice, but President Eyring and Sister Wixom spoke in English so that was really cool. I had the chance to help out some sisters with my calling as the Sister Training Leader. Some have been sick, so at night one of them was throwing up and couldnt breathe so we had to go get the Zone Leader and District Leader and give her a blessing and got the Mission Presidents wife. Also, there were some girls who were scared so we all gathered around and said a prayer and they have been fine ever since. It is great to be able to help these girls out. I realize more each day why I have this calling and why I am here. I did talk to the nurse here and she said today that I am her favorite nurse. haha She gave me this packet of medications that I will tell the missionaries what to get if they call me. She said I will have a phone and the missionaries will call me if something is wrong and that I will discuss with them the options that we have. Thats about all that I know right now. She is so great though and a big help. She said when I am in the field I can call her anytime I need to if I have a quesiton. This week has been great, I have learned so much, and I know that I need to continue to STUDY STUDY STUDY!! I realize I dont know a whole lot about this doctrine and in order for me to teach it to the people here I really need to study. It is good though and I am study as much as I can. I really wish we had more personal study time because that hour goes by WAY too fast. My knowledge though is increasing and my Spanish is improving little by little.

Sister Training Leader (Who is Surprised?) Not this MOMMA

This week was good. We went to the market and it was wonderful to actually see the people of Guatemala and see who I will be teaching. It was awesome. There was a day this week that was hard, we got discouraged a little bit, but we were able to change our thoughts and the next day was so much better. Actually, that day we were doing TALL which is language study and one of the teachers came in and asked for my companion and I. And said the President wants to meet with you. Well guess what. . . . I got called to be the Sister Training Leader, which means I get to be in charge with one other girl for all of the sisters. I have meetings on Sunday with the Branch Presidency and district and zone leaders. I am the only girl in there. I have meetings on Saturday with all of the leaders and the other Sister Training Leader. Its good, just reminds me of going to my ward correlation meetings. I make sure that the lights are off by 10:30 and that we have a song and prayer at night. We have been teaching away this week and have had some good lessons. Where I know I didnt know some of the words I was saying and others where I was struggling. I need to go by the spirit. Definitely makes things easier and not trying to focus on what words to say, I just need to open my mouth. I went to the temple again today and boy is it such a wonderful place to go. I also LOVED Sunday, we had church, then watched The Mountain of the Lord, had a wonderful fireside from President and watched Jospeh Smith The Restoration. We had a member of the first quorum of the seventy come and speak to us last night which was really good, he talked about being a successful missionary. There are some sisters here that I know that I will be friends with for the rest of my life, we get a long so well and have such a good time together. We just laugh away at meals which is a good way to have a break from studying. Take care and love to all. Hermana Andriel Newman

Another Great Week

This week has been great as well. There are those days that are kind of tough and hard to learn this language but I am just hoping that it comes to me. I can tell that it is getting better as time goes by. People say that it takes like 600 hours to become fluent, so we are working hard at it. We have just been teaching and practicing. My teachers are amazing and I truely love having them as my teachers because they know how to teach and know about the doctrine. They help me out soooo much and it makes me want to work harder to learn more about the gospel, so that when I go out and teach that I teach with the understanding of the gospel. Sunday, was such a good day!! I definitely felt the spirit so much. I mean all day was filled with church just like any other day here. Sacrament was great, one of the Elders sang I Need Thee Every Hour and WOW was it beautiful. It was what I needed because I do know that I need Him every hour. We also watched The Testaments as well as Legacy which both of those are great movies. We listened to a devotional by Elder Bednar and that was wonderful. He talked about how we need to make sure that our investigators learn and not necessarily that we are good teachers because we need to be teaching by the spirit. Thats definitely what I have to work on is just letting the Holy Ghost take over and let the words come out of my mouth. It was really what I needed to hear because at times there are periods of discouragement because the language isn't coming and its hard, because you want to express yourself to the people you teach, but you can't figure out how to put it into Spanish. I know I could tell them a lot more of how I felt about the gospel if it was in English, but I am doing my best at Spanish and praying and having faith that it will come. Thats about all that I have this week but will have more next week because it will be next wednesday when I write again. Because we are going to the market. We are writing today because there is no time tomorrow. We are going to the TEMPLE as well. YAY!!!!!!! Hermana Newman

Survival Mode in CCM

I survived a week in the CCM!! Yay! Sometimes it feels like its been forever that I have been in here, but then again it has gone by fast. My companion is great! We met at the Salt Lake Airport and found out we were going to the same mission and then got to the CCM and found out that we will be companions. We get along great and have had many spiritual moments together. I love this gospel! I definitely can say that I can tell that I am three plus years older than them. sometimes I have to get them back on task, but we get through it. I have the best CCM teacher ever! He teaches so well and knows so much about the gospel. He asks us really deep questions and it really makes me think. He always tells us that we need to ponder about it and that we will get our answer. Learning the language is a struggle but it's coming. We practice practice practice! We have an investigator that we are teaching (which we started teaching him the second day we got here and had no idea what we were doing). Tonight is our last night teaching him and then we pass him onto the missionaries that are in his area. We have had so many spiritual experiences with him. It's been amazing teaching him, he is so ready for this gospel and is really thinking about being baptized. Sunday felt like just another day besides partaking of the sacrament. My companion and I taught a lesson in district class which was really good actually. One of the Elders said that he could really tell that it was something we believed in because we taught it with passion. It was on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can definitely say that I am getting out of my comfort zone here and it really hasn't been that big of a deal. I get nervous but I just do it. I met the Area Medical Advisors wife in Relief Society and she got soooo excited when I told her that I will be the nurse for the central mission. She brought her husband over to me in sacrament so that I could meet him. He was way nice and excited to meet me too. Today we had the opportunity to go to the temple here which is right down the street from the CCM. The temple was so great!! I love it! It is a really small temple but man is it pretty just like any other temple. So wonderful! It felt amazing to sit in the Celestial room and just ponder and have it be soo quiet. Definitely felt the spirit then. I LOVE this gosepl. It is so wonderful and great! I am glad that I am here in this CCM so that I can be pushed into the language with people who know some English but Spanish is their first language. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!! Love, Hermana Newman.

She made it safe and sound.

Hola! I am here in Guatemala! It is different here but things are going good. This day has felt like an eternity because I didn't sleep much last night on the airplane. My companion is Hermana Olphant themissionary that I got my picture with last night at the airport. There were about 30 of us missionaries that traveled together which was sonice to have people with me. Today we got here at the CCM and they gave us a tour and we had breakfast and then got to take a nap and the rest of the day has consisted of being in class learning and going to the distribution center to get spanish scriptures and spanish PreachMy Gospel. It has been great here and definitely a learning experience already. My district teacher is really nice. He jokes around with us and makes the classes more enjoyable. Well we are running out of time,but I should have a lot more time next week to write. Hermana Newman