Diligence

Hey!

Sorry for kind of worrying you guys about me being sick. I'm totally fine now, the whole thing passed after a day or two. I hope you didn't worry too much. And thanks mom for that quote, Ireally like it. And thanks Dad for that scripture. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be there. Its kind of weird, but something about being on the mission makes me think about the second coming more often, and I ask that same question about that. And good luck on your talk!!

This was kind of a crazy week. We decided to really start trying to focus more on the less-actives in the ward, which wasn't too hard to decide since our ward list has like 500 people and only about 40 people come to church. So we've been spending most of the week working with them, and a couple of them came to church this week, which was way cool. Haha and I set a baptismal date with one, so hopefully that will turn out. Haha we just knocked on the door and the mother and little daughter answered. We talked for a bit and the mom said they couldn't really talk to us right then, so then I turned to the little girl and just straight up asked her if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes, so then I told her when we wanted to help her get baptized, and then looked at the mom and told her we'd be back to help them prepare. Haha so that was cool, we'll see how that goes. This sunday was also the primary program, which was fun. Its funny how it seems like no matter where you are in the world, people are basically exactly the same. I had noticed it before but it was super evident with the primary program. The parents trying to help out, the primary president stressing out...haha good stuff.

And yeah, I guess I didn't really say anything about my new comp Elder Fullmer. He's from Washington and has about 10 months in the mission, 6 of which were in Argentina, and before that he was waiting for his visa in Ogden, Utah. This is also his first transfer as district leader, so he keeps asking me what to do and what other district leaders did, since I've been the comp of the district leader basically my entire mission...but I don't think I've been much help. Its a bit of a weird change from last transfer just because Elder Jones loved to constantly be talking and Fullmer is more...like me. So we have some long, quiet walks sometimes. Haha but its good, figuring things out as we go along. I think I told you guys before, but we also live with the zone leaders, and one of them is new this transfer too. He's from Colombia and he's pretty cool. He really wants to learn english so we've been helping with that. Haha he drew me a picture this morning and it looks way cool. I asked him where he learned to draw, and he said he couldn't draw at all before his mission but he started to do it whenever he was super stressed and now... he's amazing. Haha so I guess thats one good thing that comes from the stress here.

So, as a verse of the week, I was thinking of DyC 103:36. It talks about how all victory and glory is gained through diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith. Way sick. And that section is talking about Zion's Camp, which I was reading a bit about the other day in the book "Our Heritage," and it talks about how crazy difficult Zion's Camp was but that from it came 4 future prophets and basically all the general authorities of the church for a long time. Kind of got me thinking about the diffirent types of victory and glory we can be looking for. I'm sure that at the time they thought it was a failure, but if we're really here to learn and progress, then it could possibly be considered one of the greatest successes of their lives. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, I hope you guys are doing well and are getting stoked for Christmas! The kids here just got out for summer vacation, which was a little weird. But hopefully you guys are enjoying your Arizona winter and everything! Have a great week!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Webster

 View from the pench

Our awesome pench window

Would the Devil Have More or Less Power if Everyone Was Like Me?

hey!

Yeah mom, but a lot of people here say "como anda?" or " que tal?" instead of "que pasa?" But I think that they don't use those 2 very much in mexico. And thanks Hailey for the email! Yeah, we just call each other elder all the time. Sometimes we use each others last names. Kinda weird. And thanks to the Lawrences and my grandparents for the emails too. I'm not sure I'll be able to respond to them though. And thanks for sending a package, can't wait to get it. Haha and it sounds like everyone is super busy trying to prep for the christmas season/winter break! Good luck with finals and with the christmas party stuff and nativity thing. Don't forget to actually enjoy it! And thats awesome that Derek baptized someone! He's such an awesome member-missionary and he'll be an amazing full-time missionary one day.

We weren't able to visit the Nuñez family this week, they were never home when we came over...or at least they didn't answer their door the times we tried to pass by. So not really sure how they're doing. Them and the Sosa family have been kind of hard to find lately...hopefully they still want to talk to us though.

We've been trying to work more with the less actives lately. We went to one house and  it started out with the mom complaining about how she needed help...and then we shared a scripture and all of a sudden she was inviting us to Family Home Evening this week and wants to make some treats and go caroling with us next week to the houses of some of her less active friends, so thats pretty cool.  We also met this pretty cool guy yesterday. We were walking down the street and this older guy was working in his yard. We asked if he needed help and he said no, so we kept walking. But then he called out asking where we from and it turned into an hour long discussion in his yard. So that was cool. There were also some less-actives at church this week that haven't come in a long time, so that was way sweet.

And Elder Fullmer is cool. He's from Washington. Pretty cool guy. He's been on his mission for about 10 months.

As a verse of the week, I was thinking of Alma 48:17. I thought that was pretty cool. I wonder what would be written about us if someone was writing about our lives. Would the devil have more or less power if the whole world was like us?

Anyway, I can't think of a ton to say today for whatever reason, but I hope you guys have a great week and keep being awesome!

Love

Elder Webster

Following (And Not Following) Promptings

Hola,

Haha looks like you guys had a way fun Thanksgiving!! Haha I love that picture with Jordan, Hailey, and Jaxon posing like models or something. You guys are crazy!  Glad to hear you had a fun time with the Lawrences (including TAYLEE). Haha and I'm glad Dad finally got to see Duck Dynasty. It seems like a show he'd like, haha I loved watching that. And thanks for sending a package! I have no idea how that all works still but I guess I'll have to let you know.

So this week has been pretty good. It was a bit slow, because one of the Elders that lives in our pench ends his mission today, so all last week their companionship didn't do much because they had to do a lot of last minute stuff for him... and my companion was sort of getting easily distracted. It was weird seeing someone ending their mission though, that doesn't even seem possible. We went shopping with him today for some more gifts/souvenirs. And Dad you asked if I wanted money to buy stuff like that, but as much as I'd like to, I feel like thats something that can wait a bit. No need to carry a ton of souvenirs with me for 2 years when I have such little space as it is. But thank you!

So this week we had some interesting experiences with the Nuñez family. They are new investigators we met 2 or 3 weeks ago, but they're never home. We went by monday night and got inside, but the woman there was way mad at us for some reason and yelled at her dad ( the grandpa of the family) to kick us out... so naturally we came back the next day! We got in and taught them and all went well, and returned again later in the week. Its like she doesn't even remember that she hated us. So thats cool. We also learned an important lesson about always following the spirit, and how the Lord will never let you do something stupid without warning you. Unfortunately, we also learned that if you don't follow the warning, the Lord will let you do the stupid thing. We had more then one example this week, but one of them involves my companion receiving a prompting to put our cell phone in his sock while we were on a bus after he had sent a text to someone. He put it in his pocket instead. We got off the bus and now... our phone is gone. So...weird story about daily inspiration I guess.

Oh and Thanksgiving. Our lunch actually cancelled that day...but we ended up having dinner with a member, which is kind of rare/cool. We had chicken nuggets and salad. Not going to lie, way more delicious than it sounds. I think tomorrow the american family is going to try to make it up for us and give us thanksgiving...I think. Not totally sure about that.

Oh yeah, transfers. My companion is leaving to go serve in San Luis, and I'll be getting a new comp here in Mayor Drummond in a couple days. His name is Elder Fullmer. I definitely don't feel ready to teach someone the area but...here goes nothing I guess. The other Elder in our pench is getting a new comp too (since his is going home). His new comp is from Columbia. Should be a fun transfer.

Verse of the week: Romans 5:19. I was studying obedience the other day and found this scripture. I know I read this verse a little while ago, and I almost used it as a verse of the week but I don't think I did... I hope. But I really like it, how the obedience of ONE can help many others become righteous. We each have that individual responsibility to be obedient.

So yup, I think thats everything. I hope you guys have another awesome week! When is winter break? Oh you asked about Christmas. Christmas eve is bigger than christmas here I think. Not a lot of decorations, but I hear there will be tons of fireworks and drinking. Sounds fun! Haha!

Anyway, have a great week, keep being awesome, love you guys!

Elder Webster

Be Of Good Cheer

Hey!

Sounds like you've been keeping busy! Yeah Dad, its weird thinking of all the moving you do and the people you meet on the mission. Its hard to believe I've only been doing this since June, even though I still have no idea what I'm doing:) And I know you'll be great in your new calling! And thats too bad the Duves are moving, they're moving to Portland? Tell them the temple there is way cool. And good luck on the vacation!

So this week has been pretty good. Yeah, I'm still with Elder Jones in Mayor Drummon. Transfers are next week (every 6 weeks, except that I got here during the 2nd week of this transfer). So I should know if I'm staying and what-not next week in my letter. And I'm super sorry, I keep saying I'm going to send pics but I don't know if I can this week. I'M SUPER SORRY! We're at a different computer place than normal and I'm pretty sure these computers are like 20 years old, and we can't get them to work right. I'll keep trying after I finish this email to see if I can get it to work. Sorry! I haven't been very good about sending pics, I know...

So this week hasn't been super eventful. We've had some times this week where we just honestly didn't know what to do or who to visit. Aldana isn't progressing so much as an investigator, and our other main investigators have been out of town for a few days now, and we've sort of been struggling to get into houses. Still a good week though. We've been practicing as a choir because the missionaries in our zone are going to be singing in stake conference this weekend. The mission president´s wife is helping and keeps telling everyone to listen to me because I apparently have "perfect tone"...not sure I believe her, but I guess russian choir was good for something! So thats fun.

Dad asked a ton of questions in his email, so I'll try to answer them. As far as american restaurants, I've heard there is a burger king and a mcdonalds somewhere, but there isn't anything like that in our area, and people don't really go there very often. I've heard one burger there is like $10 (US) and that its where the rich people eat. Yeah we don't have thanksgiving, although there's a family in our ward from the US, so we were planning on doing something with them, except the husband left town and won't be back in time, so I don't think we'll be able to do it. But the wife brings food to our pench each week, and its always american food, so Im not missing the US too much in that sense. But yeah they have some of their own holidays, for like everything. I think today is actually a holiday... but I have no idea what it is. Apparently a few years ago the government made sure there were patriotic type holidays every month so that they'd get more days off work (haha at least thats what a member of our ward told us yesterday, probably not true). And yeah, honestly I think just money in the account would be the easiest/best. As far as the pants go, sorry, pants confuse me. I was trying to see what size my slacks are and I can't understand what its trying to tell me... but my jeans are about 32x32. I don't know if that translates over to slacks or...what. And yeah we get to play soccer on pday when we want to try to get other missionaries together. I've only done it once so far because we always end up having other stuff planned on pday and it takes a lot of time to go to where we normally meet up to play. But don't worry about sending any soccer stuff. (That was kind of a weird random paragraph... hopefully you can follow that)

As a verse of the week I was thinking of John 16:33. I like how it says to be of good cheer and that you can be that way because He overcame the world. Really, we all get worried about all these daily problems but sometimes we should just slow down and be happy, because we have a Savior, and thats what is most important. We just need to focus on that and keep our actions focused on that, and we can find that cheer.

I feel like this was a really long email and I didn't really say anything that interesting...but...here we are at the end of the email.

Hope you have a great week and that all is well!

Les quiero,

Elder Webster

don't worry, our room is usually more clean than that

something I found in our pench

Elder Summers? Elder HAYDEN Summers??

Elder Western Union

Hey!

Sounds like a fun week. The caving pictures were way cool! And Hailey sounds like she's been doing some crazy partying out there. Hopefully the new ward will work out well, and the lady that mom is visiting with the missionaries will really start believing! Sounds way cool. And thanks Dad for the tips and scriptures. Also, grandma webster emailed me, I should have time to reply but if not, thank you!

So this week was pretty good. In fact, you know what is really weird? I'm not sick yet. Everyone I talked to before I left was always telling me how sick I'd get the first few weeks. I haven't even used a water filter once! (not sure if you'll be happy to hear that). So thats pretty cool. They eat a ridiculous amount of chicken here, so I guess you could say I'm starting to get a little sick of that, but whatever. 

Haha other random thing, I don't remember if I've said this or not, but spanish people seem to find it physically impossible to say "webster." Haha I haven't heard my name pronounced right in a long time. Haha almost everyone calls me "Elder Western Union" because its the only thing they've ever heard that sounds like my name. So thats fun. Thats even how they announce it at church. Another weird thing here is the money. ATMs give you pesos in $100 bills, which is only worth like $15 dollars, but its like impossible to get change for that. People here hate change. Whenever we want to change a $100 we have to go buy something, and the people will literally take everything out of the csah register and their wallet in order to make change. And if a store can't give you exact change, sometimes they'll just offer you some candy/mints to make up for it. So thats fun.

This week has been pretty cool though. There's a bunch of guys that are always drinking and smoking marijuana that we see hanging out all the time and they always try to invite us to do a bbq sometime. I also met this girl that told us this long sad story about her life and then started to try talking me into giving her my watch. We actually ran into her twice in the same day, and the 2nd time she was singing to us about how drunk she was and asked for our watches again...so, yeah. I feel like there's more stuff happening, but its starting to feel more normal so none of it really stands out. But seriously, its amazing what kind of private information random people on the street will tell to missionaries and how much certain people like people from the US. Oh, and someone mentioned the weather. Its like about 30-35 C every day...whatever that means. Kind of reminds me of summer in Arizona, except that its only spring here.

Dad was asking for more about investigators. There is the family Sosa that we are working with. The wife (Laura) and son (Ramero) have baptismal dates and the husband is a less-active, but they need to get married first, so hopefully they decide to do that. There is Aldana who goes to catholic school but refuses to stick with the catholic church because she says it doesn't feel right and she loves listening to us. This week she invited her friend Guadalupe to a lesson, and Guadalupe loves it to. Aldana told us that before Guadalupe met us she thought mormons were brainwashed, but now we've taught her twice, seems eager to come to church with us, and loves participating in lessons. We also met the family Muñoz this week. They've had some recent deaths in the family and seem interested, but we haven't been able to sit down and really teach them yet. There's the girl Milagros, who is the grand-daughter of a recent-convert. She was supposed to get baptized this upcoming weekend, but she ended up not coming to church yesterday because her uncle got out of jail this past week and they wanted to be with him, although they say they want him to meet with us.  Those are the main people we've been working with, but we're always looking for more people.

As a verse of the week, how about Ether 12:4. It says that faith in God includes hope in a better world. We shared this in our first lesson with Guadalupe and I started explaing more about it. I hadn't really thought about it like this before, but as I was explaining it, I started explaining how faith in God really does mean hope in a better world and a better life, but if you want a better world/better life, you aren't going to find it by sitting around doing nothing. You need to do something. Then we started talking more about going to church and baptism. But seriously, I was thinking about that, and God can't really bless you if you're not obeying. He's given us agency between good and evil. As a God of justice, He literally can't go blessing people that are choosing evil. It would take away their agency, because they wouldn't be getting what they chose. Obviously people who aren't obeying all the commandments can still get promotions or have nice houses, but He literally can't give you eternal life with Him if you refuse to choose it, even if He wants to give it to you (which He does).

.

Anyway, I hope you guys have another awesome week! I'll be praying for you! Good luck with school, work, missionary work and other church stuff, and everything else you're going to do! You're trip to CO isn't for a week or 2, but good luck with that too! I'll try to send some pictures today too in another email.

Les Amo

Élder Webster

Working, Praying, and Having Fun

Hola!

They split the ward? Hopefully it goes well, and I know you guys will do great in your callings there! Good luck with that! Thanks Hailey for the email! And thanks for the pics Dad! And I'm glad that Elder Rand is alright!

So to answer your questions... No I don't have a car. We walk or take the public buses everywhere. Pretty sweet. I'm serving in a ward-but there are only like 40 active people come each week, which makes it basically smaller than some of the branches in Oregon. We still get fed pretty much every day by the members, but not dinner. They feed us lunch during the beginning of the Siesta. Most missionaries here don't really eat much of a dinner, because most people in Argentina don't eat dinner until like 9 or 10 when we have to be back in our pench (apartment), so lunch is sort of the main meal of the day here culturally. And it generally includes a bunch of chicken/pasta/bread. And then breakfast I've been drinking a glass of yogurt (yup...you read that right...their yogurt is weird), and then some juice, fruit...good stuff.

As far as "unique encounters"...yeah. Not necessarily things that seem crazy here to the missionaries, but things that are very different from the states. Things like seeing tons of dogs (dead and alive) out in the streets and sidewalks, my companion waking up with a cockroach in his hair the other day, people smoking marijuana in the streets, the shop half a block from our pench got robbed at gun point 2 days ago for the 7th time this year, someone breast feeding during one of our lessons, a girl we're teaching telling us about a knife fight she was in last year at school...umm.... So yeah, nothing to out of the ordinary :)

I'm not going to lie, the work is a bit slow right now. I live with the zone leaders and my companion is the district leader, and they told me that last month we had less baptisms as a mission than we have in their whole missions, and a lot of the missionaries here have seemed kind of down about the work lately because of things like that. But my companion and I are determined to work hard and obediently to change things around in our area. Right now we have two baptismal dates set. One with a girl named Milagros and another with a girl named Laura. I don't know if I've told you about them. Milagros is 9, her grandma was baptized recently, and shes basically ready just needs permission from her mom. Laura we met this week. Her husband is a less active and when we found her and shared the first lesson, she told us she believed us because of something she had seen on tv just a couple days before and that us coming was like a sign. No idea what she saw but...whatever works! The girl that I said told us about a knife fight is super close to baptism too... we think. Oh, and I'm emailing this guy I sat next to on the plane ride down to Argentina. I talked to him for a while on the way down, and we exchanged emails because he wanted to hear about my mission. He lives in....Georgia I think. I can't remember, but he's pretty cool.

Oh and you asked about my pench. I've been told its one of the better ones in the mission. We live right above a blood donation place, and...well I'll just send you some pics of it next week. Easier than trying to describe it.

So yeah, its going good. Working, praying, having fun. As always I feel like there is more to say that I'm forgetting. Oh, I gave a talk in church yesterday. We got there and someone in the bishopric came up and asked my companion and I if we could both give a five minute talk that day. So that was fun. Improv spanish talks are always the best.

Anyway, I hope you guys have an awesome week! Oh, verse of the week. 1 Kings 17:9-16. A member read that to us and then told us thats why he loves to feed us. Verses 17-23 were good too.

Well have a great week!

¡Les amo!

Élder Webster

money and something I saw walking to the computer shop

The Most Beautiful Thing I've Ever Seen...

Hey guys!

Yeah sounds like you had a pretty typical Halloween. You guys have all been pretty busy it sounds like. Hope lifes going well! And way exciting about the Lawrences baby! And glad to hear you guys got the pics from Hermana Hunt.

So you guys all asked me about Halloween, so I guess I´ll answer that first. Halloween isn´t very popular here and most people don´t do much for it. We saw maybe like 10 people out knocking doors for candy, but nothing like the US. Although their was a family in our ward that decided to throw a Halloween party for all the young men, young women, and their friends, and they invited us so we could meet their friends. It didn´t start until like 8pm so we had to leave pretty soon, but it seemed cool. My companion took some pictures, so I´ll have to steal his camera and send you some pics. Apparently that family loves going all out on everything. Oh, and we had lunch with them yesterday and I had my first Asado (basically argentina bbq). Way good. I like the food here for the most part. I´ve heard stories from some of the other missionaries about crazy stuff they´ve eaten, but its all been normal so far. They love their meat and pasta. And lots of it.

You also asked what the city is like...I think. It could definitely be worse. Could definitely be better. They´re in a big economic decline and it shows. Haha and they love american music so its weird walking down a street seeing spanish everywhere but hearing familiar music from some of the stores and cars. Even though they don´t generally know what the songs are about. All the movies are US too. Haha talked to a member about Captain America. But of course, everyone´s biggest source of entertainment is soccer. You can´t go anywhere without seeing soccer jerseys or team inisignias graffitied (is that a word?) on walls.

As far as people we´re working with. There´s this girl that went to church the past 2 weeks and went to see a baptism with us on saturday. She likes it all, but she says she doesnt feel anything and is hesitant about being baptized. But she goes to catholic school and has decided to not go through with the church stuff all her friends are doing, so thats cool. Haha my companion told me that they found her last transfer when her and her friends started laughing and making fun of the missionaries in the street one day. So not really sure how she turned into an investigator, but...cool. We also set a baptismal date with a little girl named Milagros. Her grandma was baptized early this year and we´ve been working with the rest of the family. So hopefully that goes through and the rest of the family will join too. Other than that nothing too exciting. I dont want to sound negative, but the area is a bit dead, so we´ve been doing a lot of work with less-actives and trying to find new people, without tons of success. Oh well, it´ll happen when its supposed to.

How about as a verse of the week, Galations 1:10-12. Kinda makes me feel justified when I have to walk into houses and tell people things that they sometimes don´t want to hear. Yup.

Oh and you asked about the spanish. I don´t know. I get told everyday by members that my spanish is surprisingly good, but I´m pretty sure they´re just trying to give me a big head. How much I understand depends a lot on who is talking and what we´re talking about, and I can generally convey eveything I want to. I don´t know how good my grammar is, but they generally understand what I mean.

Haha speaking of not totally understanding. Yesterday there was a meeting for district leaders that my companion was in, so me and someone else whose companion was in there went to go talk to people in the street. He got here the same time I did. We met this guy who either wanted us to cast a demon out of him, told us he could cast out demons, or told us that someone had cast a demon out of him. We weren´t really sure. I think it was the 3rd one. Not positive.

Anyway, everything is going good! Lifes good here and its fun. Hope everything is good, and hope thats enough information to hold you over until next week! :) ¡Espero que tengan una buena semana!

Les amo,

Élder Webster

PS-attached 2 photos. One of the most beautiful things I´ve ever seen....like 10 little kids playing soccer with a flat ball in a dirt street...but doing tricks with the ball I couldn´t do until I was like 4-6 years older than them. The other is a "standard of liberty" we wrote up during our last district meeting. I´ll try to steal my companions camera to send some other stuff

some pics from my comp's camera. Halloween, Asado, the walk to someones house Enjoy!

Pictures

A sister in the ward Jace is serving in sent me an email with a nice update about Jace and his companion. It was really fun to hear from her!

She also sent a bunch of pictures. It's a beautiful place!

Elder Webster and Elder Jones

Linda and Lynn Hunt (who sent the emails)

The Andes... She has a view of this from her front yard! Wow.

One of many Mary shrines where people can stop to pray.

Bricks used for the poorer homes.

Wine country

Finally in Argentina!

Hey!!

Glad my letters got there! Sounds like you guys are keeping busy and are getting ready for an awesome Halloween! Haha good luck Mom with that ring! Haha this whole computer is in spanish so its telling me I´m spelling every single word wrong...slightly annoying.

Anyway, I´m here! I think we were traveling for almost 30 hours (including like 8 hours in Buenos Aires) before I actually got to Mendoza. Pretty sweet! Its like I´m in a foreign country or something! Haha the streets are crazy. I´m pretty sure there arent really rules in the streets, and my companion says that police here dont really have any authority..so if there are rules no one seems to follow them. Haha and then we flew to Mendoza...airports are cool here. For the flight to Mendoza we had to go to a different airport, and security basically meant going through a metal detector, setting it off, and then a security guy looking at me and telling me it didnt matter and to just keep going. Haha customs or whatever was awkward though. We got there and told them we planned on being here for 2 years, but apparently right now the church only has tourist visas for us, so they talked for a long time and told us if we don´t get some other visa we need to leave in 3 months. So not sure what will happen there.

Anyway, I´m in an area called Mayor Drummond with Elder Jones. We also live with the zone leaders, one of whom is latino, so we mostly speak spanish at the pench. The accent here sounds crazy. I can understand it okay-ish, but it basically sounds like some of these people are trying to speak spanish with an italian accent sometimes. Sometimes I try to talk with their accent, but I feel super stupid when I do it. Like Im overdoing it and making fun of their accent or something. Their accent is called castellano, and some of them are 100% sure that its a different language than spanish and that they don´t even know spanish...but whatever. Haha another cool thing is that almost everyone I´ve met, the 2nd or 3rd question they ask me is what team I support, and if you say the wrong team sometimes they kind of stop talking to you. So my companion has been trying to teach my what team I´m supposed to support to be able to be friends with more people.

But yeah, its kinda crazy here. The nice parts of my area remind me of the sketchy parts of Tucson, and the bad parts remind me of the ruins you find out in the desert in Arizona. Pretty sweet. The city also has sequias (no idea how to spell that), but they´re like these big drainage things on the side of the street with water and trash in them. They´re like deep enough for a dog the size of copper to walk in and you wouldn´t see him (I know that because there´s quite a few dogs walking in them). They´re uncovered and I have a bad feeling its only a matter of time until I fall in one. Also I just attached a couple pics, but they´re both from while we were driving in Buenos Aires...which was probably the scariest drive of my life. I´ve already been spending a lot of times in buses here, and when you sit by the window and look down, its generally impossible to see the space between the bus and the car next to you. Fearless. And ¨bus stops¨ basically just mean the bus is going to have its doors open for about 5 seconds, stop for about 3 of those seconds, and then keep going. Way fun.

I feel like there´s tons of other stuff to say about here, like how I haven´t found a single toilet that I could figure out how to flush with help or looking for like 5 minutes, but I´m not sure what else to say.

Oh, verse of the week. Mosiah 29:26-27. Yesterday was the election here so I felt like that applied pretty well. Almost everyone here kind of seems to hate their government and don´t want to vote for anyone, but they have to because there is a fine if you don´t vote here. They´re all pretty worried about the country.

Anyway, everything is going pretty sweet. Its kind of weird because almost everyone here totally looks American, so sometimes I almost forget that they speak spanish. The spanish is coming along alright. I can generally say what I want to say (simply), but it will be a while before I fully understand everything they say to me. Oh well. I think my spanish is pretty good considering I didn´t bring the main spanish grammar book everyone else studies, and this is my first transfer ever talking spanish with other missionaries. Not that I´m looking for excuses to not be able to speak spanish.

Well other than that its all good. Fun stuff. I´m super stoked to be here and its way cool. President Avila is way funny and nice and my companion is pretty sweet too.

Hope you guys have a great Halloween and rest of the week!

Les amo,

Élder Webster

PS Oh and I got to see Elder Wengert! He´s with one of the people that came down with me and was in my District in the MTC. So close to being his companion!

PPS and you 2 make an awesome Señor y Señora Increíble

Elder Webster Has Arrived!

Dear Webster Family,          

We are happy to inform you that Elder Webster has arrived here in Mendoza alive and well!

 Following a short orientation and a dinner with President and Sister Avila, the new missionaries were then brought to the mission home to eat dinner, recuperate from the flight and have a brief testimony meeting.

Today they will meet their trainers, receive trainings from the assistants to the president, and have their first individual interview  with President Avila. After this they will be off to their first assignment area. I am putting with this email a few pictures we took the first day in Argentina and you can even follow the blog of the mission.

May the Lord continue to bless you and your family for all that you do in order to support your missionary.

                                                                                   

Sincerely,

Elder Wells

Secretario

Misión Argentina Mendoza

How Do You Say Pizza In Spanish?

Hey!

So that was way cool that we got to talk on the phone for like a minute! Wasn't expecting to get to do that. Haha sounds like dad and hailey had a fun weekened. I don't know if I'll have time to respond to Hailey's email, but make sure she knows she's awesome! Haha you're all awesome. And I'm super glad to see the things Hailey and Jaxon both sent me. That was really cool.

So obviously I'm super excited to fly down to Argentina. Thats cool Kollin is going the same time. Maybe I'll see him! And I hope I get to see my companion from the MTC, because he's going down on Wednesday. Oh, and tell both sets of grandparents thank you so much for the packages! And tell they YM/YW thank you for taking a mutual to write to me, that was cool.

So cool week. We taught one guy the first lesson, and he took notes the whole time and said he believed us. I love it when people listen and want to believe. Most people listen, think its weird, and don't want to talk to us, but other people listen to the first vision like we're teaching a history lesson and get super interested and want to know why the people at their church never told them about it, because it seems like it should be a big deal (which it is...). Oh, and yesterday we knocked on a door and just taught the whole first lesson while we were standing at the door, and by the end I had this feeling to ask about baptism, which usually we wait a bit longer to ask about, but I asked and she said she'd be willing to get baptized! So that was way cool. We also went to teach a less-active family about the Word of Wisdom, and at the end we blessed the house and they went, grabbed all their coffee and tea, and threw it in my companion's backpack so we could go throw it away for them. Haha so lots of cool stuff this week. We also set 2 other baptismal dates with people, although they might have to get pushed back. One of them had a date before, but was living with her boyfriend and didn't stop..but...he got deported so now there's no problem. Haha I guess I should feel more sad about her boyfriend being deported... haha its crazy how many illegals we meet. Weird stuff.

Hey so I tried to attach some pictures, but I'm on a library computer and it says theres some sort of restriction on them. So I'm not sure if they'll show up or not. Hopefully. Oh, haha a native speaking missionary told me yesterday that my spanish is actually pretty good, and he was surprised when I told him that I never speak it with my companions or in our apartment. Haha I think I let compliments like that go to my head way to easily.

Speaking of which, when I called you guys asked me to speak spanish and asked what I ate for lunch...? haha what did you expect me to say?? Saying "pizza" doesn't exactly require spanish. Pero, estoy dispuesto a escribir en espanol. No mas quiero compartir mi testimonio acerca de nuestra Iglesia, y que se' que el libro de mormon contiene la palabra de Dios y la plentiud del Evangelio.

Anyway, I think verse of the week could be Genesis 19:15-17. Our mission president has been sharing that chapter a lot lately, relating it to the hastening of the work, and how it wasn't enough to leave the city, but they had to leave the plains and go to the mountains (mountain->mountain of the Lord->temples). I thought it was interesting. He also related missionary work to Noah trying to tell people to get into the Ark. We were picturing what the people must have thought when it first started raining, and how they must have felt when they realized that after a couple days or whatever, that it was really going to start flooding. He urged us to treat missionary work like that, how we're literally trying to save their lives. I thought it was pretty cool.

Well I'm going to keep trying to get these pictures to go through. I can't really think of anything else to say. Oh, and mom, I assume I'll just email next p-day, I don't think I'll be calling or anything before then. But I also didn't think I was going to call yesterday, so I have no idea.

I'm glad you guys are doing so good, and I hope everything is going well! I'm glad Jaxon had fun at camp, I hope Jordan likes his new job, I hope Hailey keeps being perfect, and I hope you guys keep being...you guys!

Con amor,

Elder Webster

Transferred To A Trio

Hey guys!

Thanks Grandma Nielson and the Lawrences for the emails! Hopefully I'll have time to respond to you guys. Sounds like you guys have had a way cool week. And yeah, I can't wait for Jordan to get his mission call! That would be so cool if he went spanish speaking too! Also, I'm super sorry, I was planning on sending some pictures today but I got transferred today and didn't put my camera in a very easy place to get to... Now I'm in the North Salem area in a trio, since I'll be leaving next week. I still haven't really heard much else about the travel plans though. Super excited to get to Argentina, but I'll miss the people here too. They're so great! Haha whenever latinos do their impression of an Argentinean accent, I can't understand anything there saying...but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough. Haha yeah it would be easier to send stuff to me now, but I don't really need anything, and I still have to make sure my bags won’t be overweight for my flights to Argentina, so I'm fine.

Mom, that’s way cool about the stake missionary thing. It reminds me of something said at church this past week. He was talking about how he had never been released from a calling until he was released as a full-time missionary, and he was expecting them to do it by laying their hands on his head and everything, but that’s not how it works. So he's technically released, but he says he never really felt released, so he still feels like a missionary. That was like 2 years ago, but he still acts like a missionary and he loves coming to lessons and teaching and stuff. He's way cool. He was talking about his mission in Mexico and how he baptized almost every week.

Jade is still hesitant. She kind of just shuts off whenever we start talking to her about church stuff. Armando still wants to procrastinate. I mentioned Isabel before right? We went by this past week and she had read half the Book of Mormon in a week and told us she believed it all and now she has a baptismal date for Nov 2nd! So that was pretty cool. I'll be long gone by then, but still super excited for her. Other than that it was a pretty slow week. Only taught 8 lessons... which is the lowest I've ever had, and the lowest my companion had ever done too (which is saying something, since he’s been out for about 16 months). But it was still good. I'm trying to think of other cool things this week, but honestly it was more walking around looking for people than actually doing things, unfortunately.

But yeah, I got transferred. I'm actually serving in the spanish branch I was in at the beginning, but they have 2 sets of missionaries in this branch, so I used to be in the other area, and now I'm not. So now I have a week to meet these people and learn my way around the area. I'm in a trio with a visa-waiter going to Brazil (so he doesn’t really know spanish, just portuguese) and a native spanish speaker (well, bilingual). So should be fun. Haha I wonder how long it will take for me to start considering myself bilingual? Because even though I speak spanish to people and understand what they say back (generally), I don't really feel like I know spanish yet.

So for a verse for the week. I was thinking of Ether 12:27 (pretty sure thats it, I don't have it written down with me). Normally I read that and see how it talks about how weakness makes us humble, but this time I focused on how it says that God gives us weakness. I know only good comes from God, so I was just thinking about that and trying to see what good there is in weaknesses. Cool stuff. 

Speaking of cool stuff, I don't remember if I told you guys or not. This mission is starting to do this "strengths assessment" thing. It’s like this online test that tells you your top 5 strengths. Not gonna lie, stuff like personality tests make me skeptical. But it’s still cool and it’s been really accurate with like everyone that’s taken it here. It says my top 5 are learner, intellection, achiever, responsibility, and belief. There’s like a page long description of each of them, but, you get the idea. Except for maybe with intellection...not sure if that’s even technically a word. Haha, whatever.

Anyway, super glad to hear from you guys as always! And I really am sorry, I was going to send you some pictures today but I don't have my camera with me right now...probably could have planned that a bit better. I'm looking forward to my week in this area, meeting the people, sleeping on the couch (3 of us, missionary apartments have 2 beds...), and being a missionary. Sounds like some cool stuff has been happening at church over there, have fun inviting the missionaries over for dinner. Oh and thats way cool that you were with Chris and Sherie! Hope they're doing well, and have them tell hi to Josh for me if they can!! They're so cool.

Que vaya bien

Elder Webster

Visa Approved!

Hey!

Sounds like you guys have been going crazy. I don't think I'll recognize the house when I get back. That's way cool that you got to meet that guy and give him some salmon! He sounds way cool. Glad Jordan didn't get bit by the snake, and that's cool that he'll have a new job! I hope everything is going well and that you guys have a fun break from school. I'm sure you'll find something fun to do! And thanks for the card and money for McD's! That'll be awesome to use.

Yeah Conference was pretty sweet. We watched all the saturday ones at the church, the sunday morning one at the Creswell's house, and the sunday afternoon one at the church. We tried to get all the spanish people at the church for the sunday afternoon one so we could all watch it in spanish together...but only 1 person showed up, out of all the members and investigators we invited. And he's already a member. So we ended up giving him headphones to hear in spanish and we just watched it in english. Still fun though, lots of great talks. I'm not sure what my favorite was, but ElderEdward Dube had to be one of my favorites. Haha we already have the whole conference in our car listening to it again.

So...Jade. We were over at her house Tuesday choosing speakers and hymns for her baptism, and then went over Wednesday and all of a sudden she had more doubt than I've ever heard of/seen before. Honestly, if I was doing a role play with some to practice teaching and they used the doubts she had, I'd get mad at my partner for being so ridiculous. We still have hope for her, but the baptism was cancelled and we're hoping to set a date in the future. Haha that family is crazy/fun to work with. The mom is super motivated/spiritual, but no one else is nearly as dedicated as her and she can't figure out how to help them. Haha but Jade won homecoming queen this past weekend...so I guess thats something to celebrate.

Oh, last night I ate dinner with the Thompson's. They're super nice, fun, and generous. One of our investigator families lives on a 2nd house on their property. They're also pretty good cooks and sent us home with a bunch of extra food too. Anyway, they're snowbirds or whatever and they're going to be in TUCSON for the next couple months. I gave them your address and told them to stop by, so maybe you'll get to meet them!

Let's see...anything else interesting this week....? Oh, umm.... my visa got approved!! Ya know, no big deal. I was told I'll be flying to Argentina on the 22nd of this month, but I'm not sure if they know all the details yet. So that's pretty nifty. I'll definitely miss Oregon and the people I've met here, so I feel slightly bad feeling excited to leave them but...I'm excited. Deal with it.

Oh, fun story. Evelina and Ramon. First of all, every hispanic person will tell you their catholic, as far as I can tell. But these two are the first that have proved it to us. The first time we met them they told us we could try coming by late on a weeknight, but they'd probably be busy praying, or that we could try a sunday, but that they'd probably either be at church or reading the scriptures. Yeah. So we went by last night. The whole conversation was about how active they are in their church. When we told them about the restoration, they basically said "oh, so you're church is only like 200 years old. Ours is 2000, so ours is right. Maybe one day you guys will catch up." (in a nutshell). Then they told us that if we believe in praying we should pray that all the satanic people that sacrifice little kids for halloween would be stopped. So...umm...yeah, fun people.

Anyway, I was thinking of Luke 9:62 as a verse of the week this week. It practically sums up Dube's talk, and its pretty cool.

Not sure what else to say, but I hope you guys are having an awesome time and I want you to know that I'm having an awesome time.

Love,

Elder Webster

Tracting In The Rain and Homemade Chocolate

Hey!

You're putting in hardwood floors? That sounds fun. Yeah I'm super excited for conference this week. Oh and I got a package from the Lawrences, which was pretty awesome! I also really like that scripture you said, about how the rain falls on the just and the unjust...especially because its been raining for since like last Wednesday. And we don't want to go over our mile limit for the month, so we've been out walking in the rain/wind for the past few days as much as possible. Haha Saturday we even some trees that had fallen over from the wind. Haha something about tracting in bad weather is fun. Not sure why...

You asked about the investigators. Yeah, Jade's baptism should still be happening on the 6th, as long as all goes well. Her dad should hopefully get baptized sometime in the near future also...we just need to get him to believe that there's a God...but other than that he seems ready! With her dad, we watched a mormon message called "mortal father, heavenly father". I love that video! My companion and I watched it like 4 times this week during studies. Armando...hasn't really changed since last time. He still thinks baptism is good and wants to do what he should...but is willing to wait until next year.. We also contacted this old potential investigator named Isabel. She told us she had read the whole restoration pamphlet, liked it, and told us she'd be at church this week...but didn't come...so hopefully she ends up being as aweseome as she seemed when we talked to her.

Oh, last P-Day was pretty cool. We went to where Armando lives (he lives with a member family), and one of the members there is a chef and is training to go to national cooking competitions or something. Anyway, she had some cocoa beans that her brother had harvested at their house in mexico and had sent over here, so we went and made chocolate from scratch with her. Took like 3 or 4 hours, and honestly, I think store bought chocolate tastes just as good or better, but it was pretty fun. Then they fed us mole, which as far as I can tell, is like enchilidas covered in chocolate/spice sauce stuff. I have no idea what they are, but they taste good. Then for dessert we had super expired bananas with cheese and sour cream...and... umm....yeah...

Haha random quote from this week... "Oh, a native american examining a tree...so stereotypical." -Elder Madsen. Not really sure how to explain that...thats just exactly what happened. Not really sure why I thought it was so funny, because now as I write it out, it looks pretty stupid.

Oh, yesterday was the primary program. We got to sing with them for one of their songs, because they wanted to sing I Am A Child of God in spanish, so that was fun. My companion translated the first half of the program and I did the second half...but afterward we found out that the headsets we had passed out were all dead and that no one had been able to hear us the whole time...so that was awkward. I guess we'll have to learn from that.

So I was thinking of Alma 5:15-16 as a verse of the week. The other day I was studying hope (because DyC 4 says you need hope to be qualified for the work), and afterward I went to read in the book of mormon, and those were like the first two verses I read, and they're awesome. Alma 5 is like a self-interview, and if you can answer yes to verse 15 and 16, I'd say that qualifies as having hope. I especially like the phrase "eye of faith". Today I happened across another verse in Alma 32:40-43 that uses that same phrase. Pretty cool. So today I ended up going and studying all the scriptures I could find that talk about eyes. Kinda weird I guess, but super cool.

 Oh, other random thing. Did I ever tell you guys about "THE LIST"? Its amazing...but we think it might be illegal. Not sure. Our area book has a list of every hispanic sounding name in Redmond and a few other cities. My companion says he thinks we got it from a member that works at a cable company or something...but its great. There's not a ton of hispanics here, and its not like they all live together in the same neighborhood, so its like a list of addresses of where to find them. I guess you could theoretically get the same info from a phone book, so it shouldn't be illegal...but its just funny/creepy that we have it. We joked around the other day saying that if anyone saw our apartment they'd think we were some sort of weird border control people, because we have spanish names written all over our whiteboards. We look especially creepy out in the rain because our jackets look like trench coats. Interestingly enough, little kids still talk to us all the time, even though I'd say we look exactly like a stereotypical "stranger" that parents tell their kids not to talk to. We can get them to tell us their names and addresses and everything. Haha well other than that, not sure what else to say today. Hope everything is going good! Super stoked for conference! Hopefully by next p-day we will have baptized Jade, if all goes well. Love you guys!

Elder Webster

haha one other thing I was planning on saying. Since we've been walking around a lot more, we've noticed how people react to missionaries and notice us (we knew before, but this past week made it obvious). It seems impossible to walk anywhere without some members honking and waving at us! Super cool. Haha but at least once or twice a day, people will also stick their head out their window and yell at us. Usually they either just yell "Mormons!" (in a mean way) or "Satan!"...its weird. Not really sure why they yell that. Honestly though, for some reason, we end up smiling and laughing just as much or more when people yell at us compared to when they wave nicely.

Haha oh, other funny story. The other day we asked this guy how he was doing, and he launched into a 15 minute story about how all his sons had passed away, and some story about Portland, police, jail, guns, pain, death... not totally sure. He had like no teeth and half the time we werent' sure if he was speaking english or spanish, and he kept switching between the two... It was the only time we'd ever met him. We really enjoyed talking to him and have tried to visit again, but haven't managed to find him home. He's pretty fun to talk to though. Haha at the end we invited him to church, he asked when it was, and we're pretty sure he said he'd be at the bar during that time, but that we were welcome to come with him if we wanted. At least we think thats what he said. Haha, writing that reminds me of the kid in our last area that kept asking us about marijuana...yeah...random. Haha you get to meet some interesting people on your mission. You kind of end up specifically looking for the people that most people don't look for...or want to find. Pretty fun.

It All Goes Back To Soccer....

Hey!

Sounds like Jordan can't drive. Noob. Haha just kidding. Dad, sounds like you had a fun time in Alaska! I know you guys like pictures...I'm sorry I just never think to take any. I'll try to do better about that. Thanks for everything though, and I love reading your emails. Thanks for the package too! It was awesome! Oh and could you say thanks to the Fergusons for me? They sent me a nice card this week too.

So, one super cool thing that happened this week was... we set a baptismal date with Jade for 10/6! Super excited about that. We hope to get her dad to get baptized that day too (they're the Creswell family, I think I've mentioned them before). I've really seen them changing over the past couple weeks. Now when we go over they're happy and singing all the time (they're super good singers). Haha the youngest girl was singing a primary song yesterday while we were over. They're a super crazy, funny family. We're super excited for them though, and hopefully everything works out with them. They've also helped me see the importance of being a good example. They are good friends with their neighbors who were inactive for a long time and are just now starting to come back to church, so the Creswell's sometimes have a hard time seeing the importance of certain commandments when they see their neighbors breaking them... but we're super hopeful for them.

Dad you asked about money and food stuff. We get like $130 per month (I think..?) which goes towards food and whatever else we want or need to buy on P-Day. We're supposed to use personal money for other stuff...but I haven't really bought/wanted/needed other stuff like that. I can't really think of where I would need a gift card to because the smaller towns only have little family owned restaurants. But I don't think you could go wrong with McDonalds. Don't feel like you need to send it though, you guys are already doing so much.

So verse of the week, I was thinking of Ephesians 6:11-17 about the armor of God. I was specifically thinking of how faith can be like a shield and how the spirit can be like a sword. Kind of interesting.

Oh, other thing, I forgot to tell you. Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament in spanish, so that was cool. The bishop called us saturday night and asked if I could talk. I ended up talking about the first article of faith, and how the members of the godhead help to complete God's work and glory in Moses 1:39, and how if we want to become like Heavenly Father, we should have the same purpose/goal as Him. Talking in sacrament is weird when there are only like 15 people there. But it was cool. Only had to be like 10 minutes, so it wasn't too hard.

Also, not that I'm counting but...this past week was my 3 month mark. On the one hand its weird to think that its already been 3 months, but on the other hand its weird thinking that I've only been doing this for 3 months. Just...weird in general.

Oh, and Mom, you know how in the past you kind of asked how I was really feeling about everything and stuff like that? I thought of kind of a good way to explain it. The mission is like soccer. (Obviously, everything goes back to soccer... :) ). Its like how some days, practice is way fun and exciting, and other days its hard and tiring and I just want to go to sleep afterwards, but no matter how soccer practice was, I don't remember ever wishing I hadn't gone to it, and it never changed my opinion about whether or not I wanted to go to practice again the next day. Every day is different here, and even during the same day there are tons of ups and downs, but every day I'm glad I did what I did and I always want to go do it again the next day. So, yup.

Well, not sure what else to say... but I love you guys and hope everything is going well. I'll try to remember to take more pictures.

Love,

Elder Webster

Just remembered this. There's this guy Armando that we've been talking to. We keep inviting him to get baptized, and he keeps saying, sure, maybe next  year. We taught about how the Devil is the one that tells us to wait to do good things. This last time we saw him he said the closing prayer, and in it he said "Padre, tengo ganas a bautizarme, pero el Diablo me dice que no. Por favor ayudame." (Father, I have desires to get baptized, but the Devil tells me not to. Please help me). Not totally sure I spelled all that right and it might not be quite an exact quote, it was a few days ago.. but either way, he's giving us a lot of trouble trying to think about what to do for him. Kinda weird/funny guy.

Also, we went tracting on thursday for the first time in a while, while on an exchange. Did it for about 3 hours. Not sure why everybody dislikes tracting very much. True, it wasn't very effective, but you can definitely make it fun. Also, while doing it we ran into some spanish people, and the elder I was with for the day doesn't know spanish, so it was pretty cool getting to talk to him all on my own for like 20 minutes (turns out he's a member, of the spanish group in that town, that we didn't really know about). Pretty sweet