Audit, Christofferson, and 28 New Missionaries

Hey y'all

Sounds like there were a lot of updates! Pretty cool stuff. At the rate everyone is growing up, Jaxon might even be potty-trained by the time I get home! :) (hahahahahaha sorry, that was mean, you should probably not put that on the blog...). Its crazy how much goes on back there!

We had a pretty busy week in the office yet again. This week was my first time going to the airport since I first got to Argentina, but I ended up having to go there 3 times this week. 2 of the times were to pick up/drop off someone that works in the church area office in Buenos Aires. He came to do a training meeting with me and the president about budget stuff, and then he spent about 5 or 6 hours with me doing an audit. So that was great. Haha I guess there aren't many 20 year olds that have had to go through an audit in a foreign language. But I learned a lot of good stuff from him...plus he took me to lunch and bought me ice cream afterward so...totally worth it. Haha and he told me all about the new iPhone 6 Plus. I guess he's thinking about getting one...haha the people I meet working in the office are very different than the ones I met when I just talked to people out in fields. Oh, and on an unrelated note, I found out that Elder Christofferson is going to be coming to our mission in November, so that should be way cool. Everyone in the office is pretty excited about it (I'm not sure the rest of the mission knows yet or not...but I'm sure they'd be excited if they knew also..).

We've also been way busy this week trying to get everything ready for transfers next week. At first we were planning on receiving around 28 missionaries, but it looks like some are visa-waiting, and now no one is quite sure how many are coming, so thats making things a little difficult. Oh and this week we sent a bunch of missionaries to Chile and back for visa stuff. We actually ended up working it out with 2 other missions to all go together, so it was interesting getting to work with them.

Well other than that, not a lot of news this week. I've literally had to stay working at the office until around 9:30 every night, so I haven't been able to go visit those teenagers in the plaza for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to go take some new missionaries next week to go meet them. We'll see.

As a verse of the week, I was thinking of something I read in Alma 46:12,19-21. There was one phrase that caught my attention, but you kind of need all the verses to set it up. Verses 12, 19, and 20 explain that Captain Moroni set up a sort of flag as a symbol of their purpose in going to battle, which was to protect their families and religion. He shows it to the people and essentially asks them to come forward if they supported it and where willing to fight to protect those things. The phrase I like was in verse 21, when it says that "the people came running" in support of such a cause. It kind of makes me think of the things that we are often expected or asked to stand up for or to do-to be an example or to stand strong in our beliefs. Sometimes we might hesitate or feel that it is a burden. The people in this verse didn't think like that. They literally came forward, running, to be able to support such a cause. I think we could all (at least I can) learn a little from their strong desire to go forth and do what they had to do, in the moment that it was asked of them.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. I hope I don't get any news about Hailey wrecking the car :) Keep being awesome.

Elder Webster

The people that came to family home evening, wearing their "armor of God"

Elder Smith and I taking a break after some hard work of "organizing" a bunch of boxes that showed up at the office this week (we finally got some materials we've been waiting on forever...and now the office is flooded with cardboard boxes).

And our finished soccer court!

Spending Millions and Learning to Drive Stick

Hey

So first of all, happy 15th birthday Hailey! I was about to say happy 16th birthday, but then I remembered that you are never going to turn old enough to date. Sounds like an exciting week with the monsoons and family history work. Nothing more exciting than that! And I got the package you sent! Way awesome! Haha the elders that go to the place to pick up the mail got to see what was inside it before I did, because they have to open it there for customs stuff, so when they got back to the office they kept telling me how awesome it was. Thanks!

This week was pretty good. Busy as always. I found out I spent over $1 million pesos last month for the mission, so that was kind of cool. This week I also got to go help set up a new apartment we bought. We've been doing contracts and stuff for it the past few weeks, and this week we got to go buy all their furniture and go assemble everything so that next transfer people can move into it. So that was different. Hmmm...oh, I sort of learned how to drive stick this week. The mission has 2 vehicles for the offices, an automatic car and a manual truck. I tried driving the truck like 2 blocks a couple weeks ago, and I probably killed it like 10 times in 5 minutes. Yesterday was the first time I've tried driving it since then, and somehow I made it all the way across town without any problems, so that was pretty awesome. Which is good, because it looks like I might need to be able to drive it on monday. A last minute thing came up this week and a group of missionaries are heading over to Chile on monday for visa stuff, and I think I'm going to have to shuttle some missionaries to a meeting spot here in godoy cruz at like 4 in the morning that day....so I guess I figured out stick shift just in time. Who knew that I would learn that on my mission? The bad news for this week though is that I only got to spend like 3 or 4 hours in my area. But we have a ward family home evening activity planned for tonight at the church that we are in charge of, so that should be fun. We're going to teach about the "armor of God" from Ephesians 5, and then hand out a bunch of cardboard boxes and stuff and have everyone make some armor...and then maybe pull out some lightsabers and nerf guns....maybe. Not sure about that yet haha.

So, this week as the verse of the week, is something I read the other day in Alma 31:38. In this chapter, we see 2 examples of prayer, right as a group of missionaries head out to begin to teach the people. This verse says something along the lines of how "the Lord...gave them strength so that they did not suffer any type of affliction that wasn't consumed in the joy of Christ...because he prayed with faith". It stood out to me that the Lord didn't stop the missionaries from having afflictions, but rather, He helped them to find joy and peace in their trials, and they found that it was all worth it in the end. Haha sounds a lot like missionaries and missions today.

Well, thats...that. Haha I hope you all have an awesome week! Keep being super cool.

Elder Webster

The new soccer field they're putting in at the office (they tore the old one down a few weeks ago).

The view from the balcony of the new apartment we were opening.

Elder Chamorro and I after assembling a bunch of furniture

Another Good Week

Hey, ¿Cómo estáis?

Haha in the words of an Elder from my MTC group, "There´s some spanish for ya!" Haha anyway, it looks like you had a way fun time for mom's birthday!! Way cool! And happy birthday to Hailey next week! And thats way cool dad, that you took out Jordan's friends to go rabbit/snake hunting for a bit, and I hope Jaxon enjoyed dove hunting! And thanks for all the cool pictures!

Haha well, another good week here in Godoy Cruz Centro. We were way busy this week and didn't get to go to our areas like at all this week, because we had to get everything prepared for a whole bunch of huge meetings that we had.  We had over half the mission here at the offices this week for zone conferences and leadership meetings. And we had to get everything ready for the meetings next week that won't be at the offices, so we can send everything with the President and the APs to take out to the missionaries. But it was way nice getting to see a lot of old friends from the mission this past week and hearing news from my old areas. In fact, I got a couple letters from an awesome family in Rodeo del Medio, so that was way exciting!! Patricia is still doing awesome, and I got a letter that was from her brother Jorge and Jorge's girlfriend, where they told me that they think they are going to get baptized soon, haha and they were even apologizing a bit for being so closed to me while I was there. So it was way great to hear from them!!! And I got to write some letters back to them and send them with the missionaries that are there now. And a little closer to the offices, Jhony was out of town all week, but he's texted us a few times and it sounds like he's been doing good. In fact, last week at church, the lesson was on missionary work, and he is way excited to go help his friends! Lets see... besides that...I set a record for most money taken out by the financial secretary at one time, so that was pretty cool. And last saturday night I had to make a road trip and drive way out to the middle of nowhere for a "financial emergency" (haha it sounds way cooler when I say it like that). But yeah, nothing else that was too exciting or out of the ordinary this week.

As a verse of the week---is a scripture that the President shared in the zone conferences this week. John 15:16. The part he focused on was  " I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" He talked a lot about what we can do to help people become converted, not just to the point of them agreeing to get baptized, but to the point of really trying to help them stay strong in the church. It reminds me of a scripture I read this morning in Alma 15:12, where it says that "Alma baptized Zeezrom unto the Lord, and from then on Zeezrom began to preach to the people" (..might not be word for word translated right). Our President, and Heavenly Father, want the converts to the church to be just that...converts.

Well, that was probably not the most exciting letter I've ever written but... lets not start pointing fingers. I hope you all have a great week! And I hope Hailey decides to postpone her birthday and just stay 15 years old!

Elder Webster

Some pics, for the visually blessed:

Elder Chamorro from Colombia and Elder Magdaluyo from Las Vegas when we went to buy waters for some of the meetings.

Elder Chamorro outside of our pench-there are 8 of us that live there, there are 3 bedrooms, around 24 beds (for visitors), 4 more or less working showers, 2 more or less working toilets, and 1 working budet, and it has a place to do asado (argentine bbq) on the roof. So...welcome to the most expensive pench in the mission!

The street outside of our pench...because its beautiful...and its ours.

And my comp, Elder Magdaluyo, after we set one of the meetings.

Haha I bet you thought there would be a pic of me! Well...better luck next time