Memorizing, Summarizing, and Define-izing

Hey guys!

Sounds like a pretty eventful week! I'm glad Hailey and Jordan had so much fun at EFY. I got the package and Hailey's letter last Tuesday, but it was after I had used my computer time, so I wasn't able to thank you for it, so thanks! I also put a letter in the mail for Hailey today, so that should get there... eventually. And good luck with the house! I hope it will sell quick!

So I should be leaving the MTC about 2 weeks from today. I haven't heard anything about the visa yet though. We're supposed to get our travel plans this upcoming weekend, so mine will probably tell me I've been temporarily reassigned somewhere in the US until my visa comes. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but I don't think it would be so bad to go state side for a little bit. It might even make the transition to Spanish a little easier. Who knows? So I got to talk in sacrament meeting this week! That was pretty cool. They treat us sort of like youth speakers, and we're only supposed to go 3-5 minutes, but it's a lot different when you're doing it in Spanish. I got up there and decided I didn't like what I wrote, so I ended up doing an improv talk in Spanish. It was pretty awesome. It was similar to what I had prepared, but I wanted to emphasize different stuff. Plus, its awkward if you stare at a paper the whole talk when theres only like 20-30 other people in the meeting. Speaking of which, one of the districts in our zone left yesterday for the field, so now there are only 20 missionaries in our district, and next week its dropping down to 8. They decided that rather than make us join another zone for a week, they'll just let us be our own zone. That last sacrament meeting here should be interesting with only the 8 of us and our branch president (his counselors have been released).

Oh, we've been slowly getting better at Spanish! We're way better than we were when we started, but we have a long way to go. Our lessons are also improving. We've been practicing teaching a lot. We practice teaching entire lessons by only asking questions and sharing a couple scriptures. We basically try to help the other person teach themselves the gospel and why they need it, rather than just telling them it's important.

Oh, and the verse of the week! I really like finding these. I have this goal of memorizing each of my "verses of the week" in Spanish, and remembering them. Right now I think I have 5 verses, the mission purpose, the first vision, and the invitation for baptism all memorized in Spanish. This week's verse is Alma 26:22. I really like this verse. It explains what we should do and then gives some awesome promises. One of them includes bringing thousands of souls to repentance. Pretty sweet.

As always, I feel like so much happens here, but whenever I try to write it down I can't remember any of it. I'm having spiritual experiences everyday, and one of my favorite things to do is when we have personal study. I've started doing this thing where I'll choose something I'm interested in, study it in the scriptures, and then try to write a super awesome definition of it, as if I were writing an entry for the Bible Dictionary. I really like doing it. It helps me focus on what I'm actually teaching and what it should mean to me and to investigators.

Anyways...
Vos amo,
Elder Webster