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

The Tree of Life

Hey!

Thanks for all the emails! Hopefully I can respond to all of them!

Sorry Mom, I have no idea where my ACT/SAT books are. Might be in my closet...or in the dump...? No idea. Dad, that’s way cool that you're going up to AK, hope you have a safe trip!

Dad, I also like what you said about the fruit in the vision of the tree of life. I was kind of thinking about that. I hadn't really thought about the option of throwing the fruit, but I had thought about Lehi taking some and walking over to his family. But that would kind of take away their agency. Plus they wouldn't get the experience of overcoming trials to get the fruit for themselves. Probably a lot of other reasons too. Cool stuff. Another thing I was thinking about is how the whole time, Lehi seems able to see everyone that is in the mists of darkness, but they don't seem able to see him. That could be about how prophets are able to guide us, or how people who aren't actually facing the problems are able to see it with a better perspective, and a ton of other stuff. I love studying that vision.

That’s way cool that my letters got there on Hailey's birthday! I hope she had an awesome time, and hopefully I'll have time to reply to her email too.

Anyway, this week was pretty good. Yesterday was way cool. Every other week the Spanish group goes to the English sacrament meeting and we're supposed to translate for them. Only one of us has to do the translating, but during the week I was thinking about it and realized how scared I would be to do it. I know fear and faith can't both be there, so I didn't like that I felt nervous. So...I volunteered to translate. It was way fun! Sitting in the back of the chapel talking into the microphone. Haha I was so bad at it though. I ended up handing it over to my companion while they were singing the sacrament hymn because I felt bad that the people listening to my translation had missed like half the announcements. It was way cool though and I'm glad I tried it. I kind of wish I had tried doing the whole meeting but I felt bad for the people that had to listen to me do it. In honor of that, the verse(s) of the week is all of D+C section 9. It talks about the Holy Ghost, but it also talks about Oliver Cowdery (if I remember right) and how he had been given the gift to translate, but because he had failed to use that gift during his window of opportunity, the time had passed and he had lost the gift. So, yup. Use 'em or lose 'em. (Dyc 6:36 is pretty cool too)

Also, almost everyone we're teaching went to church this week! But since we teach in like 5 towns, everyone that went was at different church buildings, so we didn't even get to see all of them:( Glad they went though.

Another cool thing was on Friday I got to go on exchanges again. This time with one of our zone leaders, Elder Haymore. He's pretty cool. Grew up in Idaho on a ranch. Anyway, at the end of each transfer we're supposed to help each other learn from it, and he basically just told me that he was super impressed and that I acted and taught like I had been out for way longer than I have been. So that was cool. Not that I want  to go getting a big head or anything. It helped that he's an English missionary, and I was in his area, so I got to teach everyone in English, which made it a bit easier.

Mom, you said you hope that I'm actually happy and not just trying to sound happy in my emails. I'm happy! It’s hard and long, but it’s also fun and rewarding. I wouldn't feel right if it wasn't hard. But I like it and it’s an awesome experience.

Hmm... I feel like there's more to say but I can't think of anything.

Jace

Also, got an email from the church about my visa today. It basically just said "thanks for waiting, we're trying to get your visa. Have a good time in Oregon." So yeah, I still have no idea, but at least they're working on it.

Buenos!

Buenos!

Yeah, I don't know why people here say "Bueno" or "buenos" to say hi..but they do. I'm slowly starting to catch on to random phrases people say that don't totally make any sense.

Anyway, I'm glad to here the house sold!!! Sorry about the stress at work Dad, but I know you can handle it. And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for emailing me! I'll try to reply if I have time, but if not, I love you guys too! That's cool that Seth had his baby, although I'm super super super disappointed its not named after me:( haha just kidding. I hope everything goes well, and I know Kollin will love the MTC.

Okay so, new info about my new area. We cover Redmond, Sisters, Madras, Prineville, and then a bunch of super super tiny towns that I'm pretty sure are essentially just trailer parks in the middle of nowhere. So we do a lot of driving. Yesterday I went to church here for the first time. There were about 15 of us, and apparently that was a pretty good turnout for our spanish group. Apparently the leader (not sure what his title is...) has the missionaries talk in our little sacrament meeting kind of often, we teach sunday school, and he wants us to start teaching elder's quorum too. So, that should be interesting.

Elder Madsen is pretty cool. He and Elder Benson were companions for a week in the MTC until Elder Benson got switched to a more advanced spanish class or something like that. But yeah, we get a long pretty well. Our apartment just opened during the last transfer so its super empty and kind of weird. All we really have are our beds, 2 desks for studying, kitchen stuff, and then 4 metal chairs like they have at church. Kinda fun.

Apparently this area is more in the desert part of Oregon, so it won't be raining as much here. Its normally around 60 degrees and a bit cloudy. Kinda nice.

You asked how much spanish I get to speak. Not much. Usually we average like 1 lesson in spanish a day, maybe 2, and other than that I don't really hear or speak any spanish. I'm definitely getting better at it though. I do almost all of my studying in spanish (finished reading the book of mormon in spanish a week or 2 ago!) and I can understand a pretty good amount of that. There's a kid in one of the english wards here that just got his call to Mexico, so he's been trying to learn spanish and likes coming with us to spanish lessons, so its cool seeing how far I've come in spanish because I remember sounding like him before.

Speaking of the english wards, we're in sort of an odd situation. We cover all of the stake boundary for our stake, but just do spanish. But we work with the english wards a bit, and have dinner with them most of the time. So it was kinda weird having american food for dinner this week. Mexican food is so much better...although I admit, I kind of missed hamburgers.

You also asked about P-Day. We study all morning, then emails, then shop, wash the car, do laundry. I end up using some of my free time to study more....cuz...studying is cool and I'm cool so it makes sense. Although I may be writing some letters today to you guys, because that seems like a cool thing to do to. And no, haven't really played much soccer yet. We talk about it a lot though.

So, verse of the week. Moses 1:12-13. Moses had just had an amazing vision, learned a ton, and was kind of humbled. Then Satan shows up, calls him a son of man, and tells him to worship him. I love Moses's response. He basically just says, "no, I'm a son of God." Pretty sweet. I think its interesting how Satan tries to pull us down by telling us we're just men, but I love Moses's logic. We're children of God. Why would we worship somebody else by doing what they want us to do? Pretty cool.

Anyway, I hope I answered enough of you questions, you had a ton and I don't remember all of them. Just know that I'm doing good, the work is good, my new area is cool and different, and Christ lives.

Have a great week!

Elder Webster

Some pics of my new apartment, the family Luisa and Fidel, Tony, Alex, and Ricky that moved to mexico from my old area. Cool keychain from the mission. Legit stuff. Oh and this week a guy we were teaching told us he probably couldn't go to church because he likes to milk his cows on his farm where he works and mix alcohol and chocolate with it to relax on sundays. So...that was interesting. Random story

Transferred

Hey!

Thanks for helping me get in contact with Derek and Mrs. Finch. That was awesome. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!! I hope it was awesome. I really like that picture Jordan drew. That's too bad about Jaxon losing the game, but I'm glad he had fun. Also, I may or may not be able to respond to Hailey and Jaxon's emails due to time... but thanks for emailing me! And I'm glad that life's good!

Today was transfer today, and I got transferred! Which was sort of surprising to everyone. I moved from one of the most northern areas to one of the most southern areas (I'm in Redmond now), which means I got to go on a 3-4 hour ride today, so that was...interesting. My new companion seems really cool and our area sounds interesting. Apparently we cover the entire english stake boundary (which includes like 4 or 5 tiny towns). But...we're spanish, and there aren't even enough spanish members for a branch. There are 2 active spanish families and 2 inactive ones, so it should be interesting!

About the bag, I have no idea. You could try to ask Argentina if you want. I'm sure I could just buy one down there if I need one. I wouldn't be too worried about it. I'm in a car most of the time here, so I almost never have my bag with me anyway.

Also, I was going to send you more pics today but...I dont have my camera with me, so next week. And I don't have a ton of time since today was a weird day. Mom also said to talk about how I AM doing, so I guess I could share that. I'm doing awesome. My spanish is improving. I can basically understand like 80% of what everyone says, its just the communicating back part that gets me. I can teach the lessons well enough (ish), but its hard to just have a casual conversation in spanish. Life's good though. I've been having fun and working hard. To be honest I'm kinda glad I got transferred, that was nice. Not that my old companion was bad, he was awesome. I'm just not used to spending so much time with the same person. Its nice to have a change. Anyway, I hope all goes well with the house, with school, with everything! And I'm sorry for kind of just saying a lot of nothing in this letter... Oh, verse of the week is DyC 6:34. That's the mission scripture. I can't remember if I already sent you that one or not. Oh, and Dad, thanks for the input on the iron thing, that was interesting.

Love you all!

Elder Webster

I forgot something. I also wanted to thank you for how awesome you are raising the family and me. I spend so much time here in homes where there is something missing. Sometimes when we knock on a door and someone answers, you look in and you just don't see love in their house. Its weird. I didn't know how awesome our family was