Chapel Dedication!

Hey!

Haha you guys had a pretty fun sounding week! And you'll have to say hi to grandma for me! I hope you guys enjoyed your Spring Break!

We had a pretty interesting week over here. This weekend we had the dedication of the new chapel so that was really cool. There was a family history class there on Thursday, a talent show and dance on Friday, an Open Chapel on Saturday, and then the dedication on Sunday. Kind of a crazy week, and we ended up spending the majority of our time working with members to get everything ready, and inviting every possible person we could find. Haha I think we ended up giving out a couple hundred invitations last week. But it all went pretty well, and I'll have to attach some pics from the activities. I absolutely love the new chapel though! The first time my companion and I got to go in there we were amazed! It looks so nice! Easily my favorite building in all of Argentina. And they've told us that if we can keep attendance up over the next couple months, they're going to build a cultural hall thing there on the side of building (it doesn't have a cultural hall...and its actually still missing a few things with the landscaping and the paintings for the inside haven't arrived yet, but they didn't want to keep postponing the dedication....).

We also got to see some cool progress with some of our investigators! Patricia committed to stop working on Sundays and she came to the dedication! Which is a huge deal for her, considering the only day of the week that she worked was on sundays, so now she doesn't have a job.  She also participated in the talent show (more than anyone else, she was in 4 different acts) and she's excited for General Conference this week. We also saw good progress with some less actives we've been working with, most of whom attended more than 1 of the events this past weekend. But yeah, we're super excited about the work here. And the members are too! Yesterday during church, this Ivan, a18 year old semi-active friend of ours, gave us a reference, and we asked him who the reference was and how he knew him. Apparently Ivan stopped this older guy in the street to invite him to church and ended up getting the guys address so we could pass by. Haha seriously, thats just one of many stories of the members during these past weeks just randomly sharing the gospel with people they don't know, they're so awesome!

And so, the moment you've all been waiting for, the verse of the week! Haha just kidding, you probably weren't waiting for it, but I'm going to tell it to you anyway. Its Malachi 3:8-10. Yup, thats right, tithing. Partially because I'm so grateful for the donations that went toward building our new chapel. And partially because its a cool scripture. It says that the windows of heaven will be opened and blessings will be poured out that we won't have room to receive...but I don't think its saying we'll end up with so much money that it won't fit in our bank account, or that we'll have to many cars for our garage. I was reading Elder David A. Bednar's talk from last conference and thinking about the simpler, spiritual blessings we can receive.  It seems to me that the more grateful we are, the more blessed we are. Those that aren't grateful always feel poor, but as we become more grateful, we are always finding more and more blessings. The promise in Malachi implies we have a limit to how much we can receive, but I think that by becoming more humble and grateful, we can improve our ability to receive and recognize blessings, which will lead to even more blessings. The scripture says there will be a surplus of blessings, but I think that the better we are at receiving and recognizing blessings, the more will end up with. Its kind of like the parable of the talents, where it says that more will be added to those who strive to get more, but all will be taken away from those who don't value what they have. Haha I'm not sure if this paragraph made any sense...sorry about that.

But anyway, I hope you guys have a great week and a super awesome General Conference! I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Elder Webster                                     

                                                        

                                            

Inside the chapel

Our bishop

Talent Show

Sketchy part of town

Andes over a vineyard 

Patricia's bathroom, haha!

Chapel Excitement

Hey!

Thanks for all the pictures! And that video you guys made was hilarious! I hope you had a fun time in California! Everythings going pretty well down here in the ol' Argentina.

This was a pretty cool week. Haha I feel like I tell you guys that every week but, its true so, I guess you'll have to forgive me for repeating it all the time. Probably the main cool thing was an activity we had on saturday with the ward. We met up to go invite less actives to the new chapel (which should be done next week). The activity wasn't super well planned and not a ton of people showed up, but it ended up turning out great. We all split up and everyone went to go invite their less active friends, and the members enjoyed doing it so much that they started stopping people in the streets and in the bus stops so that they could invite them to the talent night, the open house, and all the things we'll be having in the new chapel. By the time we all regrouped to see how it went, the members were way excited, asking for more invitations, and they planned to do the activity again on tuesday and on wednesday this week! So that was really fun. The new chapel is definitely having a huge effect on the members, who have been having their sunday meetings in a little house for like 20 years. My companion and I are super grateful to be able to serving here during this time! We also got to see some good progress with some of our investigators and we're hoping to have a few baptisms in a couple weeks.

So, the verse of the week is based on something I was thinking about yesterday. Its in John 5:1-9, the story of the miracle at the Pool of Bethesda. There was a talk in the last general conference about that miracle and I had studied it a little bit, but the thing I was thinking about yesterday was about how Jesus really went looking for people to help. Many of the miracles He did were when people came to Him for help, but I was trying to imagine the Pool of Bethesda. A spring, apparently surrounded by lots of sick people. It doesn't exactly seem like the place Jesus would go if He was hoping to "see the sights" or have a relaxing afternoon. He put Himself in a situation where there would be people that wanted His help. It just kind of reminded me of the stuff we do in the church, and how its easy (more or less) to help someone or do something when you're asked to do it, but its a totally different thing to go seek out those in need.

And, yeah. But I hope you guys are having a great week, and that you're next week will be even better! I'll send you some pics if I can!

Love

Elder Webster

New chapel

With Him and His Glory

Hey!

So guess what I got this week? If you guessed "a bite from a dog"... you're wrong! But I did get the christmas packages! So that was pretty exciting. :) I guess they managed to make it after all. It just took a couple extra..months.  But all good. And tell thanks to Elizabeth, Maya, Ellia, Kiplin, Eliza, and Annika for putting the notes in there! And I got some mail from Grandma Nielson so that was cool. Thanks Grandma!

 Yeah it kind of stinks that they had to postpone the chapel, but it should be done soon, so we're not too worried about it. As far as this week, its ben kind of a roller-coaster week, but the kind of roller-coaster where as soon as it ends you want to get right back in line and do it again. This week we decided to try to get better at talking to more people in the street. A long time ago the mission set as a standard that each companionship should talk to 10 people in the street everyday, which we don't always get. But this week we got more excited, and we kind of went way overboard and ran out of things to give people, so we had to ask for some extra supplies from the offices. But I think we definitely got blessed for it. We got more new investigators this week than we've gotten in quite a while, we set a baptismal date with Patricia, got to do a super spiritual church tour, and lots of other good stuff.

So, as a verse of this week I was thinking of Jacob5:72,74,75. Haha we actually had a really interesting lesson this week where we sat down with Patricia and Carolina (Carolina is the girlfriend of Patricia´s older brother, and it was he first lesson with us) and we read all of Jacob 5 and basically explained it to them. It was a super crazy lesson and one I never thought we'd have to teach, but it went super well and they loved it. Anyway, those three verses talk a lot about the servants. And I think its interesting how He says that because they were "diligent in laboring with me...kept my commandments... brought unto me the natural fruit...ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard" I just like how really, if we want to be happy with Him in His glory, we need do His will with Him.

But yeah, good week. I hope you guys are doing awesome! Have a great week!

Love

Elder Webster

Dogs Hate Me

Hey!

Glad to hear from you guys! Oh and tell the Kartchner's thanks, I got their family christmas letter thing this past week, that was pretty cool. But yeah, it sounds like going to the lacrosse game was pretty cool, I'd like to see that someday! And of course that jeep is the coolest car on campus! How could it not be? And I'm glad Jaxon's team was doing so well!  And Hailey! With the permit test! Thats crazy. Dad, I'm sorry to hear you've had to work so much lately, thats a crazy number of hours. Haha Gma and Gpa Webster sent me an email and they mentioned that hard-working gene that you guys all have, it was kind of funny to read that and then right afterward read about how much you've been working.

So guess what happened this week!?! Again!?! Yup, I got attacked by a dog. Ripped my pants again. Nothing too bad, its all good. I'm pretty sure the dogs just hate me here. My companion and I were literally both just standing there waiting for someone to open their door when this dog walks right past my companion so that he can tear my pants. So, that was fun. Also, the new chapel got postponed. It was supposed to be ready for next weekend but now they're saying it won't be done until the end of this month. Not too big of a problem, I guess thats just more time for all the members to get ready for the talent show.

We had a couple of really cool lessons this week two. One was with the sister of JuanP, named Patricia. She goes to a different church but we're pretty good friends with here since we eat at her house twice a week. We got her to start reading the book of mormon and before this lesson she had stopped at 1 Nephi 13:18. We ended up just reading the rest of the chapter with her and she loved it. We spent like an hour and a half analyzing all the prophecies there, and by the end she told us like she finally understood what the book of mormon was, why we always asked her to read it, and why it was important. She says that she "thinks its true" but isn't sure enough to say that she "believes its true". But she's was sincere and we are super happy and excited for her. Another interesting lesson we had was with Josía and Cristobal. They're both members and Josía is preparing for a mission. He was asking a lot of questions about missions when their neighbor (technically they all live in the middle of a vineyard, but I guess he's their neighbor) just walks into their house and starts drilling my companion and I with questions. Well, actually it was like the same 2 questions over and over because he didn't like our answers. By the end it was all good, and Cristobal assures us their neighbor is nicer when he's not drunk and I think we might be teaching him again. But the main cool part was that after the lesson Josía and Cristobal went and waited for the bus with us and they told us how impressed they were with how we had handled the situation and now Josía is even more excited to go on a mission (Josía is the one that baptized his sister Mariné).

So, cool stuff. As a verse of a week I was thinking of Alma32:28 (which made me happy that Dad told me had been studying faith this past week). We summarized that chapter to Patricia the other day and she basically told us she had planted her seed and was willing to see what it would become. I really like that chapter, and I remember Derek really liking it too, so I thought I'd make that the verse of the week.

Anyway, all good here. I hope you guys have a good week! I hope Dad will be able to have an easier work week and that mom will be able to find "something fascinating this week!" Good luck with school and everything! You guys are awesome!

Love

Elder Webster

Talent Show and Parable of the Talents

Howdy!

Wow! You guys had a lot this week. Congrats with the baptism! Thats way cool, I hope everything went well! And thats awesome that you got to watch the Gilbert temple dedication! Honestly, I don't really remember the Gila Valley dedication. But I watched the Brigham City dedication while I was at BYU and that was way cool. Haha I actually watched it 3 times because they did it repeatedly so everyone that wanted to see it could see it...I'm not actually sure if I was allowed to watch it all 3 times with my ticket but umm...No one stopped me so...I did. Oh and the picture with Jaxon and the buggy was pretty awesome (thanks for sending that Jaxon), I can't wait to go out with that thing someday. Haha looks like you had a lot of fun! And Fischer going to Poland...wow. That'll be way cool. Haha I can't even imagine what it would be like serving over there. And I'm glad to hear Jordan has almost finished his papers!!! Haha my companion thinks Jordan will go to Japan. We'll have to see :)

So this week was pretty good. Got bit by another dog...well, technically it was the same dog. It belongs to one of our investigators and I'm starting to think getting bit by him might just turn into a normal thing while we wait for her to answer the door... he didn't rip my pants this time, but that was like 4 days ago and I still have the mark on my leg from his teeth so...thats great.

But in another, more important news, the missionary work is going well. We're struggling to find new people to teach, but the people we do know are going well. The girl with the dog has a baptismal date and is going to participate in the talent show/dance that we're going to have in the new chapel. Another person we're teaching, the sister of JuanP, somehow ended up in charge of the choreography of something the youth in the ward are going to do, which is awesome since she's not a member, and we're hoping that will help her a lot. Also, Mariné (the girl that got baptized a couple weeks ago) and Josía (her older brother that baptized her) both told us they want to serve missions now. Josía is working on his papers, but Mariné has to wait a few years, but its way cool. Mariné is also going to be in the talent show. So yeah. Like I said, everyone we're working with is going really well, we just need to find more people. Oh, and we want to start teaching this lady named Juanna. She's 94, comes to church every week, recently became blind, isn't a member and...doesn't speak spanish. She only speaks Quechua, which is apparently like the indigenous language in Bolivia and Peru and...something like that. We know a few people that can translate for us, but we really want to try to learn Quechua. We've learned a couple phrases but... we've got a long way to go.

So yeah. Awesome stuff. Verse of the week...is more than 1 verse. Matthew 24:14-30. Its the Parable of the Talents. I love it, probably my favorite parable...or one of my favorites. There is so much stuff in there, and kind of reminds me of D&C 58:27 and a few other scriptures/things that I like.

Haha I feel like I probably forgot to include something but...like always, I'll probably remember what it was as soon as I leave the computer place. But I hope you guys have a great week and keep being super awesome!

Que Dios les bendiga

Elder Webster