12/15/2014 - Mazatlan Letter

Hey Everyone,

   So this is going to be short, i am sorry. words can't express what i am feeling and the experiences that i have had. I really hope that i can express what it is that i am doing here in Mexico, for 18 months.

   I am learning, that's just it. Learning. I am learning who i am, the people around me. Learning to understand trials and challenges that have come into my life. I am learning how to share, how to be more patient, how to have joy and love for little things that mean so much to other people. I am learning how to see others and what they feel, and not only for teaching but for knowing who they are.  I am learning there is something more for me, something that i don't know but there is a bigger picture and someone has the missing piece. I am learning who is Jesus Christ. If you learn it, live it, love it, you will be happy i promise you!

I want to share a story with you. It was raining and really cold actually, and i had my jacket and umbrella, warm and dry. We were in the church and we were gathering materials for our proselyting, and a woman entered into the church and started asking for help, she didn't have a jacket or an umbrella, she singled me out after talking with all of the elders and sisters there, i don't know why she singled me out but she did. i know what you are all thinking now, did i give my jacket and umbrella to this woman?  she was poor and was going from house to house just asking not working for anything, and just living off of the people. How can i help someone who will not help themselves. it's not fair, i worked and paid for my umbrella and jacket, why should i give her my things and she will just continue to keep asking and not work for anything in her life........ Then there was a nagging feeling, a feeling that tears at your heart, and you start to feel something, you don't like it, but you know what you need to do. I gave her my jacket and umbrella because it is what Jesus would do, he is mercy, he is kind, he is giving, even when others do not deserve it. After i entered the church i felt good, all the other elders and sisters were there and looking at me like i made a dumb choice. One elder even said that i did not need to do that, she will continue on doing whatever she wants, asking for everything. I felt awful, here i did a Christlike thing and i am getting reprimanded for doing so. I later went to the bathroom and cried to heavenly father with all my heart to know if what i did was right, and that i was sorry for ever thinking selfish and let him know that all that have, all that i will ever be is for Him. I will serve Him to the end and give all.

Love,
Hermana Newmeyer

12/8/2014 - Mazatlan Letter and Pic

Choir, Patience, Throw-Up

Hey Everyone,

  So this week has been great! We were able to teach people and let them know more about Jesus Christ and share the video of "He is the Gift" so powerful, I love it! We also have run into some members who have not been to church in forever and we brought them back and one of them is a young man named Jesus, and he brought three of his friends to church for the Christmas Devotional, granted they came late but they stayed when we practiced the songs for our Missionary Navideña. And they were really amazed in the messages and the spirit that was there. It was great we were able to put meetings with them. 

  So for our Zone we were asked to put together a choir and we were all together and our Zone leader asked if there were anyone of us who knew how to direct, they asked a couple of people and they said no, so i volunteered, :) perhaps not the best idea but hey i got everyone laughing and they all participated in singing the songs. It was cool, anyway, so i am the choir director for our Zone and they all sound great. i love them all. :) We have a couple of practices this week planned but we also have transfers this week and i really don't know if i am leaving or not, i don't think i am, but i believe that most of our choir will be leaving. uh oh. O_o 

   So we headed out with a family from my companion's old ward and about halfway through the drive her little son that was sitting on the lap of my companion and Hermana Castillo, decided to throw up, we took pictures and he continued to throw up all over the hermana's until we pulled over and opened the car door. It was hilarious, the poor little guy was a little car sick from the ride from Culiacan to Mazatlan. We all piled out cleaned and then headed back the way we came and ate lunch instead of going to the marina. It was great. 

   This week has been great, and full of changes and things that i am learning everyday. Its amazing to see the progress of where i started one year ago in my house to where i am now, in Mexico, teaching people about Jesus Christ. To not speaking or understanding Spanish at all to being able to joke with someone and talk about their desires and wishes. To see where i was and thought that i was okay, to now where i know i can grow more, see where Heavenly Father is molding my life to help others. I have read a scripture in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, where Peter is asking Heavenly Father to take away his weaknesses and help him to become better, After talking with him, Peter says in the last verse, 

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

   Well I know that this is true, i have seen it shape my life through the thick and thin, i know that no matter what we think is impossible or hard, we can achieve it with Heavenly Father near our side. I love you all, thank you for your letters and I hope that this year we will be able to look back on the things we have learned from Heavenly Father and not what we have accomplished.  I love you all again, thanks for everything, Feliz Navidad!

Always Happy,

Hermana Newmeyer

12/1/2014 - Mazatlan Letter & Pics

Thanksgiving in Mexico!

Hey Everyone,

    So this week has been altogether too short but awesome, there have been some ups and downs and then some retracing and going full speed ahead. This week we have started with a program in our ward to have a night of fun during the week and the ward just gets together and do activities we did "Ganar a Minuto" or "Minute to Win it" Super funny and great. We were eating with a member and her dog attacked one of the Elders it was super hilarious it was biting into the pants of the Elder and just growling the whole time! Next we had lunch with another member and Chicken soup here is really popular especially with the whole chicken in the pot. We were eating and the husband was eating the chickens foot, i think i ate some lungs and the kidney, it was purple so yeah i ate it. Tasted like chicken jejeje. We also helped with the Primary made two pinatas and practiced a song to sing for the Christmas Pageant that they are going to do, will be awesome!! 

   So i was a little discouraged this week, we had the opportunity to talk with the Presidente and he explained that in the ward that i was in last was going to have a baptism. I was excited for the baptism but also a bit hard on myself, i thought why can't i have success and why can't we have a baptism, we are working hard and we are doing what we need to do.  We also had a really sad parting of one of our investigators, she was progressing great and was going to get baptized this last Saturday but we passed for her this last Sunday and she wasn't home, so we waited and passed later in the week, only to find out through her neighbors that she had packed up and left, we were a little shocked. We worked so hard to explain the gospel through the scriptures and we gave books to read so she could find out herself and then she just left. We also lost a family that we were teaching and they just lost interest so it was a really hard week as well for us. 

   I was feeling sad and explained my feelings to my companion and she said that even if we don't help convert people here through baptism we will help others through our examples through our efforts and through our intentions. She explained that Gordon B. Hinckley didn't baptize anyone in his mission but he became a prophet and baptized millions. I felt better but still determined to do the best that i could. 

    So i have thought about this for the past four months and i hope that this will be able to have some affect in a way that will help you to know how to love something with all your heart. There are four steps. Simple steps. However, require something a little of yourself. 

   First, Faith, believe that you can do something, believe in yourself and believe that through His help you can do all things. Alma 32:21

   Second, Hope, hope that you will be able to accomplish and do things that are impossible to think, to wonder, to achieve. Moroni 7:48

  Third, Desire, my favorite because this is where you take action in yourself and give more, you want to do more to achieve and aspire higher than anything, to soar above the clouds and to run faster than you can run. 

  Fourth, Passion, Love, Charity, you are completely and wholly involved in what you have become, who you are and what you will be. Knowing that you are where you are, because someone Believed in you. Moroni 7. 

   These four principles can be applied in our lives in every aspect and nook and cranny, we can find happiness and success,  hope and life, Passion and Love, all because we applied principles that were taught to us by Jesus Christ. This month i would like all of you to think why we have Christmas and find a little faith, that will lead you to hope for something good and in turn become a Desire to do something and in the end, i believe with all my heart you will find the Passion and love of Christ in your life. It has changed mine and i could never be happier. He is the Gift! www.christmas.mormon.org. 

       I love you all thanks for reading my emails, hopefully i can help others that are not here with me to come unto Christ and see the hand of God in our lives. I wish all of you a Feliz Navidad, prospero año felicidad, i wanna wish you a merry Christmas...... hahaha you are all singing the song in your head, jejejeje. Love you all. Merry Christmas.

Always Happy,

 Hermana Newmeyer

Minute to Win It at the Night of Fun

Hermana Newmeyer's Caricature's

Minute to Win It at the Night of Fun

Dogs love the Elder's pants

Mazatlan at Night

Hermana Power - Shades of Tan

Primary Group

11/24/2014 - Mazatlan Letter

Hey Everyone,

   So this week has been great and yet hard, our investigator that we have been teaching for the past three weeks, and had a baptismal date for this Saturday, didn't go to church!! oh it was really sad she had all the lesson`s and put a date to go to the temple and was really excited to be baptized, and yet did not go to church. I can't express the feelings or emotions that i felt, sad, let down, discouraged, upset, a great desire to do all that i could so she could go to the temple, all these feelings all at once and then i had to give a talk in church. in a different language. yeah. I really can't express the importance of going to church. There are three important things that every person in the Church of Jesus Christ has to do.......

     1. Pray everyday,
     2. Read your scriptures,
     3. GO TO CHURCH!!!!!

  Its been a long week for me, ................ These three things are different but they all have the same purpose just like the trinidad, all three personas are different but they have the same purpose "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," to return to our Heavenly Father.  These three things help us to feel the Holy Ghost, when we feel the Holy Ghost we feel, happy, it so says in Galatians 5:24-25 and when we feel happy we find out that we learn something and then understand a bit more what Heavenly Father has in plan for us, our prayers get answered through the Holy Ghost, we receive counsel and guidance when we read the scriptures through the Holy Ghost, and then we feel relieved of our sins when we partake of the sacrament every week in church, through the Holy Ghost. Because the Holy Ghost always, helps us to learn, remember, and testify of Jesus Christ! John 14:26.

   I love this week, hard and challenging but rewarding and eternal in the things that i have learned, which i can apply in my life to understand more the will of our Heavenly Father. I love you all, thanks for your support and the chance to share my testimony and what i have learned in my mission. Go to church please, feel the saviors spirit and know that he loves each and everyone of you!! 

    I also fell down this week it was hilarious, i limped over to a bench and the whole time i was like ow ow ow ow ow, jejeje my comp just laughed, i laughed too, we also had a junta this week and we were able to listen to our president and assistants it was great, i also raised my hand to share something and our Presidente said that i should go to the pulpit, oooooooo so scared and yet calm it was amazing, i'll write about it the next week. Happy Thanksgiving, eat more tamales!!!!!!!!!! 

Always Happy,

Hermana Newmeyer

11/17/2014 - Mazatlan Letter & Pics

Hey Everyone,

 So this week was awesome, we had some really good lessons and a trip to the hospital for my companion, ha i seem to always go but never for myself. Thats good right? or did i just jinx myself? oh well it was good, anyway, we have a lot going on and we are working pretty hard. We have been contacting quite a few people and ever Sunday we have mission activity and it is really awesome, we have the ward members and we teach them what missionaries do and we do practices. Hopefully the people will be able to see how they can share the gospel with people. It was really awesome!

   This week we had our water fixed and now we have hot water, wow i never knew how amazing hot water was, i have been taking cold showers for about eleven months, its amazing. I am so happy to have just the little things, its been a really great blessing to realize all that i have and what i miss most. We have a junta this week and the Presidente of our mission is going to talk to us. So excited for the meeting always great. 

    I don't really have that many stories this week but we did find a huge rat in the street and we pranked the elders, it was hilarious, they gave us the keys to their house to get a memory card for a sister, and so yeah the pictures should do justice, ha this was for the hour change that they did on us about a month ago, we slept in an extra hour and missed a lesson, crazy elders.  oh i also got a picture of a dog biting the pants of Elder Palacios, its true, dogs do not like mailmen and missionary's. we were walking down the boardwalk and saw a man jumping off of a really really really high pinnacle, it was awesome but scary at the same time. 

    Well that is all that i have this week i will have more this next week, thanks for everything, also thank you for the people who have sent me letters, i truly enjoy reading them and knowing more about you and your families and everything. i love you all. Thanks.

Always Happy,

Hermana Newmeyer

Dog attacking Elder Palacios' shoe

Hermana Newmeyer

Helping the Elder's decorate?

Do you have toilet paper?

Edler's walking the street

High Diving