Hola!
I'm super super sorry that I wasn't able to call when I told
you I would. Like I said on the phone, I was sitting in a chair near the phones
in the airport waiting for a turn when somebody came up and started talking to
me and another Elder about the church. At first it was cool and he seemed
interested, but as soon as we started to teach he started bashing us with
random unrelated verses from the Bible and wouldn't listen, but he also accused
us saying that missionaries always give up and walk away whenever people like
him have real questions, and we didn't want to give him the impression that he
scared us or that we didn't want to talk to him, so we ended up talking to him
for like an hour...super sorry!
Anyway, once my plane landed I found out I was re-reassigned
to the Oregon Salem mission, which was just formed like a month ago. Things are
going pretty good. Haha guess what happened at the very first door that I
knocked on for my mission!? It got slammed in my face after it was open just
long enough for the person to yell at us saying she didn't have time for us.
Haha pretty classic. It's all good though. We've mostly been focusing on the
less-actives here and knocking on a lot of doors trying to find new
investigators. There have been a lot of little miracles every day as we try to
do what we're supposed to do. Also, guess what my first meal was in the mission
field. That's right, pizza! That was sweet. We have dinner with the members
every night, so I'm learning pretty quickly to just eat everything.
So one of the coolest things was our lesson last night
(there were lots of cool things, but this is the most recent and easy to
remember I guess). Anyway, we were with this family that has been investigating
for almost a year. We brought along 2 members that are engaged. In fact, the Brother
that came with us used to be a missionary in this area and was the one that
knocked on their door a year ago that started their interest in the church! So
that was way cool to be able to have him there. Anyway, we after teaching the
plan of salvation and eternal families, his future wife shared the importance
of temple marriage, and then I explained that we needed to prepare for the
temple, and invited their whole family to be baptized. They (basically) said
yes! The parents aren't actually married, but the mom said she is determined
that their family will do what they should for God, and when the father said he
wanted to but jokingly said that marriage was a lot to ask of them, the mom
basically told him that if it came down to it, she'd leave him so she could do
what she had to do! Hopefully it doesn't come to that, and that they'll follow
through with what they said. She even said she's going to buy a skirt for
church because they haven't actually gone during the whole year they've been
meeting with missionaries.
Anyway, that was just one of the super cool things that
happened this week. Oh, my companion is Elder Benson. He's the district leader
and he's an awesome missionary. He's been out for about a year. He actually
reminds me a ton of my roommate at BYU. They like the same music, the same tv
shows, and everything.
Most of the hispanics here are at least slightly bilingual,
so I don't feel super immersed in the spanish, although I'm definitely trying.
In fact, yesterday I got to share my testimony at church in front of our ~80
person spanish branch. Sharing your testimony in spanish to 80 native spanish
speakers is a little scary...but it went fine. I don't remember the last time I
shared my testimony in sacrament meeting and only took like 30 seconds, but it
was still fine. A lot of the members have been telling me that my spanish is
really good for only being here a week, but I can't wait for it to get better!
Anyway, that's awesome that you already have a potential
buyer for the house! I hope that works out. I hope everyone has an awesome
first day of school! I'm a little jealous that you guys will get that first day of school snack...oh well! Oh,
scripture of the week. I had a hard time choosing, but I'm going to go with
"And my father dwelt in a tent" from Nephi. It's our district
scripture. It's a great example of sacrifice and humbly doing what the Lord asks.
Plus...the whole district has to memorize it and its really short. But there's
a lot to get out of that scripture and its there for a reason.
Good luck with everything!
Les amo,
Elder Webster
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