Week 40: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Hermana

¡Buenas!

Feeling blue … in a happy way (:

I’ve come to learn that “buenas” is for when you very well could say a whole phrase, but find yourself too lazy to do so. Which means that I absolutely love saying it.

We’ve been having a lovely time here in Calvario! Finding, teaching. … Hopefully we’ll get to the baptizing part soon enough. But today, I’d like to examine this week through the lens of art.

I love anything to do with creating, if you couldn’t tell from how lovingly I craft each weekly letter, and I’m grateful for all the talents I’ve been given in the arts! Acting, singing, writing, and—specifically these last seven days—drawing.

I do not know why I look so angry in this picture where I’m looking at Elder Juarez as I’m drawing him. I promise we’re actually just good friends.

It all started on Sunday during our member lunch with la familia De Leon (who are some of the best people on the planet, btw). I sat there with a napkin and a marker that happened to be around and sketched the lovely Hermana Gonzalez. I showed it to her when I finished, and she loved it! So did everyone else at the table. They requested that I draw Elder Rivera as well, and I obliged. They were all super kind as they complimented the drawing.

The finished portrait of Elder Juarez (I just can’t get the nose right)

A little later on in the week, we were setting up our lunch with the Relief Society president, Hermana Norma. While we talked, I could feel that she seemed a little off-beat, so I decided to do what I could. Hermana Gonzalez and I wrote her a card, and then I drew her (with a little halo!) to show our appreciation for all she does for us. When we got there, Hermana Norma’s daughter Sharon actually helped us, and told us that her mother was feeling a little sick (she’s just gotten the vaccine), and so she was resting. Later that day, Hermana Norma thanked us for the card, and the next time we talked to her, she just seemed so much happier!

Then, on Wednesday, while we were with the other office missionaries for a meeting, I did caricatures for everyone! Elder Escobar was sad because I had drawn everyone else, and his expression when I started drawing him was so tender! Everyone else also enjoyed my versions of them, and I loved showing my love for them!

The best album cover of the mission so far.

The next afternoon, we had lunch with la familia Castillo. The kids all really liked drawing, and Hermana Gonzalez happily told them that I drew people while she sketched a cute lil flower. So I drew one of the kids, Izan. To make things even better, he drew me!  And yesterday, at the end of our English class, which Hermana Castillo was attending, Izan came in and gave me a more complete drawing of me! (He forgot the body the first time.)

Who knew about the heavily prevalent Korean influence in Quetzaltenango? Surely not me!

I’ve learned a few lessons through this experience. One, that the gifts we have really can be used for the work. And yes, that’s all of them. It can strengthen and uplift everyone, and in turn make them more willing to do the same! And kindness heals. It truly helps people not only want to become better, but to actually do it. It’s also helped me truly look around myself and recognize the beauty of what I’m living in.

A verse in Alma 30 talks a little bit about this:

44 ... The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.

God created everything. The trees in our courtyard, the goats being guided through the streets, the mountains that hold Xela in a warm embrace. But the thing he loves most, and the thing that is most miraculous, is us. The Supreme Creation of the Supreme Creator. That’s part of the reason I love drawing them so much—as well as being able to put a smile on their faces. Both on paper and on themselves.

— All my love!,

Hermana Newton

Week 39: Living on a Prayer

WE’RE HALFWAY THERE!

There are so many signs here!

That’s right, everybody! I have been a missionary for nine months. Can you believe it? Those are nine months that many on this list have endured receiving weekly emails from me. If you’re still around and reading, congratulations are definitely in order.

Xela is to Quetzaltenango as Muletown is to Columbia

A thing about missionary work that I recently discovered is the months you gain feel a lot more like years lived. Like, sure, I've been a missionary for nine months, but I feel more like a 9-year-old than like someone with *experience* and *wisdom*, if that makes any sense. And so by the end of this, when I’ve reached those 18 months, I’m still going to have a lifetime of learning and growing. To be fair, though, a 9-year-old has more of a grasp on how to do things than a newborn baby does. So I suppose I have earned some credit for getting this point.

Name a better duo. I’ll wait.

Week 2 in Xela is already finished, and I’m more than a little shocked by that fact. The first few days in a new place always seem to go by painstakingly slow. Everything is so foreign (no pun intended), and as you adjust, it’s a lot to take in. Wait, lunch is when we eat the most? Everyone drives like they’re on Rainbow Road in Mario Kart? I am Dorothy in Munchkinland? But now that I’m semi-used to the chapina* way of life, it looks like we’re actually on a bullet train, and boy, does it have places to go!

Look at all of those houses that are most definitely not in our area (Calvario is a pretty small neighborhood)

I am still learning how to street contact en español, but I am amazed by how kind Heavenly Father is, because as I keep a prayer in my heart and open my mouth, I’m amazed at the people we cross paths with. We’re especially excited about this one person we approached on Thursday. We’ve only had one lesson so far, but he's been super promising! Like, baptism kind of promising. So make sure to keep Cesar in your own prayers! I know he’s in mine.

There is nothing like a pupusa after English class with the Calvario squad.

I’ve been able to grow a lot, both in the nine months of my mission and in these first weeks in Xela. And I find myself going back to these verses in Alma 26:

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things. …

15 … yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.

I will never have sufficient words to describe how incredibly imperfect I am. Everything about me, and any person on this planet, is flawed. It’s insane. But what is even more striking to me is the fact that it doesn’t matter. Heavenly Father still has a great and marvelous work, and “if ye have a desire to serve, ye are called to [it].”

I have been overwhelmed by my weakness a couple of times here. Not knowing how to wash laundry by hand, being shocked to discover that mayo comes in a bag, and especially not understanding half of the things that people are saying to me. But the thing that’s important isn’t having a washing machine, or American food brands, or that people get to know how funny my joke would be in English. It’s that they feel loved by their Savior. And He will help people know it, regardless of how broken my Spanish is. I hope that what I’ve written today has shown you that He loves you, too. And so do I.

If you know, you know. (Matthew 5:14)

— We’ll make it (I swear),

Hermana Newton

* A colloquial name for Guatemalans.

Week 38: What Kind of a Week Has It Been?, Pt. 2

¡Buenas tardes!

I’m so glad I get to be near the House of the Lord, even if it is in Phase 2–B.

Even if it’s not the afternoon, I always end up accidentally saying “buenas tardes” when it’s supposed to be “buenos días” or “buenas noches,” so it’s fine. Except for yesterday, when I had finally gotten used to saying “buenos días” to everybody, but it was 12:05. The struggles of salutations.

Whatever time it is, hello everybody! It’s been a while, and a lot has happened. Far too much for me to cover in one email, but I’ll try to get the especially good snippets.

First day with Hermana Gonzalez (also our first P-day haha)

If you haven’t been paying attention for the past few weeks, I’m in a foreign country now! My companion is beautiful, Spanish is beautiful, and Guatemala is beautiful. Those are the things that are most important to cover, but I guess I’ll elaborate on a few things.

The plane ride to a foreign country is surprisingly stressful. My carry-on was filled to the brim with my heaviest items, namely my Spanish copies of Saints and all of my notebooks and studying materials. I probably didn’t need to bring Santos, but I needed the comfort in these times of constant change.

So I got to the airport, and my flight from Nashville to Houston actually got delayed. Luckily, I was originally supposed to have a gigantic layover in Houston, so I ended up being just in time. A nice little milagro in my travels.

Rolling with the Rodens!

It was crazy being with all of the American missionaries. We all talked about our different reassignments and the rules and structure each of them had. While it was interesting to talk about, it made me extremely nervous to face adjusting to an entirely new mission. Luckily, President and Sister Roden make this an incredibly easy task. They are so kind, so hardworking, so amazing. It was such a privilege to be able to stay the night in the mission home and to get to know them.

When I was in my first interview with President Roden, he told me that he wanted me to serve as a nurse with Hermana Gonzalez. Suffice it to say I was a bit confused, seeing as I’m a theater arts major with no experience in medicine, but I accepted the calling. Seeing Hermana Gonzalez’s face when I explained that I was but a simple artist was absolutely priceless. She’s studying dentistry back home, so she knows quite a bit more than I do.

It’s not the Parthenon in Nashville, but Roman is still all Greek to me. With another new missionary, Hermana Woodbrooks, and the STLs*, Hermana Franco and Hermana Villatoro.

My real role, however, is that I speak English. Now that American missionaries are starting to come in, President Roden wanted to provide a line of communication that allowed all missionaries to be able to explain their problems in their native language. In this past week, as I’ve talked to my fellow North Americans, I’ve seen how real the relief is when you’re able to say exactly how you’re feeling.

Since I’m an office missionary, that means that 1) my P-days are on Saturdays (I miss Wednesdays, but it’s OK), and 2) I’m serving in Xela!† Before leaving, I was really mentally preparing myself for being in basically the jungle, but we actually have a pretty nice living situation. Not as nice as the Bowling Green apartment, but I don’t think many missionaries live in as nice of a place as the Bowling Green apartment.

Who knew that murals had gone global?

Our area is Calvario, and let me tell you, it is tiny! So much so that Facebook finding doesn’t work, so we actually do a lot of street contacting. I like street contacting, but it is incredibly intimidating in another language. I continue to trust in God and try my best, though. And he’s blessed me immensely with Hermana Gonzalez. Seriously. She is an absolute unit of a missionary.

Bonus photos of the temple.

In my personal study the other day, I was looking at Moroni 10. It’s the last chapter in the Book of Mormon, which of course means that it absolutely slaps. As missionaries, we quote verses 3-5 all the time, because it contains the promise of how you’ll be able to know if the Book of Mormon is really the word of God, but this time around, what followed just after caught my eye:

6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

There is a lot that is hard about being a missionary. Sore feet, sunburns, rejection. But there is so much good in it, too. For me, all of the blessings that have come from this week and my entire missionary service point to this idea that what I am doing acknowledges the reality of my Savior. And through all the change I’m experiencing, that will always stay the same.

—Adios (that’s the same no matter the time of day),

Hermana Newton

* Sister Training Leaders.

† Xelajú, or Xela for short, is Quetzaltenango’s Mayan name.

Week 37: A Whole New Kind of Country, Pt. 2

Howdy!

Wearing one of Hermana Jones’ yellow dresses (she loves and is yellow)

This is the last time I feel like I’m actually able to start my weekly in a customary Southern fashion, so I figured I would. If I seem sad, now you know why.

I’m so glad I got to talk to my family on Father’s Day! I love them so much ❤ 

So many amazing miracles have happened in this one week that I am beyond grateful for. The people I’ve had the privilege of meeting, the lessons that I’ve (been) taught, and the companions I’ve had. Both teaching as a missionary, and living in this not-so-little apartment.

When you need to see if anyone has a bigger pan, you have to use something for scale.

I am admittedly very tired from a long day of packing and stressing over being able to ship myself off to a foreign country, so I’m afraid I don’t quite have it in me to describe in grandiose detail the many escapades we went on. A quick rundown of events, though:

1. Becoming instant kindred spirits with Hermana Jones (it’s so unfair we only got a week together; she has forever changed me)

This is at the Greatest Relief Society Activity of All Time

2. The Relief Society activity that had the most delicious cupcakes in the universe. Angel was fellowshipped so well there!

3. Talking to four Steves at one apartment complex while trying to find a member.

4. Being able to do the training for a spiritual and powerful district council.

5. Performing all of “High School Musical” from memory for the quad in a five-part installment.

6. Finding an entire family and their chickens.

7. Going back to their house to make sure we recorded the address correctly, then finding three women, one of them being a Spanish-speaking mom with three kids.

8. Someone we’re teaching inviting us to play soccer with her little daughters and “unos amigos,” only to get there and have her show up with practically a barrio.

9. Explaining all of season one of “Downton Abbey.”

10. Hermana Reidhead becoming everyone’s hairstylist.

From left to right: Half of Hermana Aguilera’s face (I am so sorry, mija!), Hermana Radford, Hermana Jones, yours truly, Hermana Reidhead

I got to bear my testimony on Sunday night as a way to say goodbye to the mission, and it was such a powerful experience. I love the TNM so much, and I’ll never be able to express how much I’ve learned in its entirety. I read from D&C 80. I made some edits to make it about me (as I do with many things):

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant [Mary Newton]: Go ye, go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature that cometh under the sound of your voice.

2 And inasmuch as you desire a companion, I will give unto you my servant[s] [Ashley Volk, Dantzel Petersen, Savannah Stevenson, Paola Aguilera, and Kylee Jones].

3 Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss.

4 Therefore, declare the things which ye have heard, and verily believe, and know to be true.

5 Behold, this is the will of him who hath called you, your Redeemer, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are so many beautiful promises and pearls of wisdom in this passage of scripture. Each verse pricks my heart. I just want to say that I know that Jesus Christ himself has been who called me. I don’t know why, but he did. And I was in Columbia, and I was in Bowling Green, and now I’m going who-knows-where in Guatemala. But I am so honored, and so humbled, and I can’t wait to see what joy it brings me. 

— Bon voyage (that’s not Spanish!),

Hermana Newton

Week 36: A Little Bit Longer

Greetings!

Pix with the the Bowling Green hermanas! Clockwise from left, Aguilera, Newton, Boden, Reddish, Reidhead and Gomez.

All things are well in the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky! The people we teach are amazing, as always. The missionaries we serve with are so hard-working, kind and conscientious. Hermana Aguilera is growing into a spiritual giant.

I love Hermana Gomez so much. We were in Home MTC together.

A lot happened, but I don’t know how to fit everything into stories. Thankfully, there are a lot of pictures for some reason (?), so for the little I write, there will be much more to see. Which is what many people pay much more attention to in weekly emails.

Having Sister Forbush in the apartment was oodles of fun.

Since I’m going to Guatemala next week, I was prepared to be moved down to Nashville tomorrow, since transfers are happening. You know, so that driving down to the airport isn’t a ridiculous juggling of events. But apparently President Weaver doesn’t care about juggling, because I’ll be staying in Bowling Green until I leave the country! Pretty exciting stuff.

Sister Forbush made German pancakes on exchanges! Low-quality photograph, very high-quality food.

But because I thought I was leaving Bowling Green, we had a ton of lessons with the people we were teaching, and for the most part, I was viewing this week as a last hurrah. And full of hurrahs it was! Hermana Aguilera and I found an atheist and got him interested in reading the Book of Mormon. We did a couple of door approaches, and through it, we found true paz. Allow me to explain.

The nightly calls with the district leaders are always fun.

So we were going over to visit Angel, our most progressing person. We had prepared a lesson to set her on date for baptism, and were visiting her with Hermana Boden and Hermana Forbush, who were together on exchanges. When we got there, however, there were no cars, and no Angel! What rotten luck. So we decided to visit formers in the neighborhood, and to walk to a woman named Cynthia’s house. We had actually tried to call her the week before, and she hadn’t responded. So we got to the house, and inside was a guy named Joey. He was definitely not Cynthia. He was very polite, but also very uninterested. So we wished him well and started to make our way back to the car to meet up with the other sisters and eat the brownies that were awaiting us. As we walked, we saw a woman on her porch, sitting with the cutest baby boy. I figured I might as well go for it, so I said, “Your baby is so cute!” Then she responded in Spanish, then I responded in Spanish, and then she went, “Hermanas!” and invited us on her porch. She gave us water and told us that she used to play soccer with the missionaries who served here before she got pregnant with her youngest baby and COVID happened. Her name is Paz, and she invited us in so that I could play some alabanzas with her on the piano. It was surreal, and I’ve never felt more like a missionary.

Paz invited us into her home so I could accompany her on the piano! So cool!

In Mosiah 26, it reads:

24 For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand.

I love so much about this simple verse, but what really stands out to me is that middle phrase: “if they know me they shall come forth.” In stake conference this week, the visiting general authority, Elder Martino, talked a little bit about Spanish vocabulary. In Spanish, there are two ways you can say “to know,” and they are the words saber and conocer. Saber implies an intellectual, detached knowledge, whereas conocer is a more personal, intimate connection. When we look at our relationship with knowing Jesus Christ, would we translate that using saber or conocer? If the answer is the latter, the action described in Mosiah 26 applies to us.

Bowling Green 1B on the prowl for people ready to hear the message of the restored gospel.

I love being a missionary. I am so glad that I decided to come forth to the Tennessee Nashville Mission, even if I wasn’t originally the most excited at the prospect. I am so thankful for the people, and for the love, and for my Savior. And I’m thankful for you, too. And hope that you’ll have a fantastic week.

— Atentamente,

Hermana Newton

Week 35: Too Young to Die

What is up, everybody?

This transfer has flown by ridiculously fast. Can you believe I only have a week left before who knows what will happen? Because I sure can’t!

We found some snacks left in the church freezer for the missionaries.

This week we had interviews with President Weaver. It was such a good conversation, and he really helped me a lot. I am so grateful for him, and I’m really going to miss having him as my mission president. That feels so weird to say. But everyone keeps on talking about how I’m basically dying* in the mission, which is another equally weird concept. I barely hit eight months on Monday, and, as mentioned last email, I had my twentieth birthday!

Fun fact about me and Sister Smith: We literally have the exact same hair color.

Being on exchanges with Sister Smith was such a good birthday present. She and Sister Forbush gave me a fantastic card, along with a “#1 Dad” stuffed dog. What can I say? I’m paternal. We had an amazing finding experience and some awesome contact with a part-member family. We also got to talk to a member who’s the fellowshipper for one of the people we’re teaching, Coe. The icing on the cake was when Sister Haver and her adorable daughters stopped by while we were at the park and gave me a gift! There’s additional icing, which includes all of the letters that arrived to me by mail (thank you SOOOO MUCH I loved them!), surprising one of the people we’re teaching in the drive-thru where he works, and calling my family. I know that I had gotten to talk with them the day before, but it is so fun to talk to the people you love most on your birthday.

Me getting my special birthday gift from Sister Haver! Thank you so much (:

Hermana Aguilera and I had one of the best comp studies of all time on Monday! And because of it, we made a resolution to have the most powerful, spiritual, epic comp studies this entire week. We’ve come up with all of these different goals and focuses that I’m really excited about. I’ll sure be missing her when I head down to Guatemala.

I’m still not exactly sure what the Guatemala situation is. I thought I’d find some details from a Guatemala reassigned missionaries group on Facebook, but, to my utter dismay, there isn’t one. President Weaver asked me what I knew in terms of travel plans, and I told him my portal said that I started on June 24th, but didn’t provide anything else. President Weaver then told me that last he heard, I would be flying out on the 17th. Suffice it to say that the travel process is very confusing, and I am trying so hard not to stress, which goes so against my natural way of being.

Our zone has been reading the book of John together this transfer. It’s basically been New Testament Book Club. Which is what a Bible study is in general. This week, I was reading from chapter 10, and I absolutely loved these verses:

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

…

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

In a lesson we had yesterday, we asked the member present on the lesson to share his testimony about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and Hermana Aguilera and I were also able to share our own. But I would love to testify of it here, too.

There is so much power in choice. The fact that Jesus actively decided the entire time to suffer and die for us is mind-blowing to me. It is insane for me to think about how Christ made the choice to have everything that happened to him happen. And the reason that he did it was purely for love. I am so grateful for that, and the only way I can begin to give thanks is by sharing that with other people. Thank you for letting me share that with you today.

— All my love,

Hermana Newton

* Missionary lingo for completing missionary service.

Week 34: The Edge of (Being a) Teen

This is the last day my angst can be socially acceptable.

I got to hold a hamster owned by one of the people we’re teaching! When I took off my mask to take the photo, the kids said that I looked like “the girl from the movie.” Very specific, I know. They showed me the DVD case, and they were talking about Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz”!

That’s right! Tomorrow, I will have officially been alive for two decades. That’s a whole score, for those of you who aren’t aware. I have been sitting with anticipation since Saturday afternoon to open my birthday package, but I have withheld, and tomorrow, I’ll finally be able to crack open that bad boy, along with other events. I won’t spoil all of the surprises I have in store for my festivities, but tomorrow, I’ll be on exchanges with Sister Smith! I’m sure that’s going to be one hoot and a holler.

A birthday letter?! How exciting!

As always, what a fun week this has been! So much has happened. Probably too much. But I’ll cover as much as I can for the viewers at home.

First of all, I really love my district so much. Elder Gambill and Elder Yanez are the funnest district leaders. Definitely in my top five out of the four that I’ve had. They’re so kind and thoughtful, and so is everybody else in our district. It’s such an amazing gift to know all of those missionaries!

Hermana Aguilera taking a picture of me taking a picture of Hermana Aguilera

Also, I got to sing in church! The elders’ ward had asked Elder Yanez to do a special musical number because he’s a phenomenal pianist, but he didn’t want to brave through it alone, so he asked if one of us hermanas would be willing to sing with him, and of course I volunteered because (spoiler alert) I love to sing!

Anyway, we performed “I Will Walk with Jesus,” which is such a sweet song. It’s a little newer, so some of the older kids on this list may not know it, but trust me, it is so good. And it was so fun to sing! Shout out to Sister Haver, a member of the 2nd Ward who’s related to one of my mom’s friends, Ronna Park! We were able to say quick hellos after sacrament meeting, and she said hi from my mom! Which was so fun.

Getting Dairy Queen to celebrate Hermana Reddish’s nine months!

We also got to meet with Caleb, whom the sisters who were previously in BG1B were teaching, but he had been up in Alaska bear hunting, so we hadn’t been able to meet with him. But let me tell you: I am meant to be here for Caleb. He has some really good questions, and a lot of them can be addressed by just becoming a member of the Saints book club. Which he now is.

We happened to be in a lesson with Caleb on Monday when, as we were finishing up, we got a call from President Weaver. Caleb was kind enough to let us answer. I was very confused as to what President Weaver could possibly be calling for, because I legit had no clue. But then he asked to specifically speak to me, and it turns out that they’re starting to process my visa application for Guatemala!!! I don’t know when I’m leaving or anything, but for now, it sounds like I’m going to be making it. I am just so grateful and excited and in awe of this amazing blessing. Talk about a birthday present.

Riding up to district council, as per usual

For district council this week, Hermana Aguilera and I got to do part of the training. As part of it, we shared the story of Naaman, found in 2 Kings 5. Naaman is a captain for the Syrian army. He’s pretty highly regarded, but he has contracted leprosy, which, at this time, is an uncurable disease. So he goes to the prophet Elisha to heal him:

10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

I love this story, and in part, I think it’s because I’m very much Naaman. Both of us had an expectation of how the Lord would treat us. I expected to go to Guatemala, and Naaman expected for a prophet to come out of his house and grandiosely heal him. But that’s not what we received.

Expectations are really hard to combat. We’re always trying to anticipate what comes next and to make things go our way. But if things had gone my way, I never would have served with the missionaries here. I never would have had the experiences I wrote about this week in my weekly email, or any of my weeklies. I never would have gotten to meet the amazing people of Tennessee and Kentucky, who have changed my life in a very real way.

I am so grateful for my mission, and I am so grateful for the journey ahead. That, above all, is the best birthday present I could ever ask for.

— Still 19,

Hermana Newton