Quite The Blessings

Hey!

Sounds like quite the week! Sounds like the wedding went well! I hope mom is okay!

This week was pretty good. On Wednesday the district came to our area to do an activity where we all went out to basically talk to as many people as possible to find more people to teach. We even had the participation of some youth from the ward, so that was way cool. It was way cool and nice of all them to come help us out like that. We spent most of the rest of the week trying to go back and meet all of the people that they told us about. Most of them weren't home when we went by, but we have an appointment tomorrow with someone that they met that basically told us that she would have been baptized years ago, but that she was too young when her family got baptized and then somehow she never got around to it...? Hopefully we can keep finding lots of new people!

We also got a cool new investigator this week. We went to a house looking for a past investigator, but...it turns out he's been in  jail for the last year. But it also turns out that his mom/aunt (I'm not really sure how they are related) is way receptive and invited us to come by some time. We went by with a member and it went super well. Her name is América. Hopefully she's able to keep progressing.

I also got to do a baptismal interview this past week which went way well. The investigator is crippled and we did it while he was on his bed, but it went way well. It was great getting to hear his testimony. The whole time I was just thinking about what a blessing it was that I got to be the one to get to talk to him right before he did something so important. Not to mention, who would have thought that I would ever be able to have a deep and spiritual conversation with someone who grew up in La Paz, Bolivia? Quite the blessing. And the zone leaders asked me to go to some interviews of a family tomorrow, so I think I'll be doing 5 or 6 interviews tomorrow. Pretty excited.

As a verse of the week, its something that caught my attention in Omni 1:2. (Haha hopefully my good friend Omni doesn't take any offense from this--He sounds like a way better guy than me). But in that verse he acknowledged his wickedness and his sins. What caught my attention was that he made no mention of any repentance or intent to repent (again, no offense Omni, I'm sure you are all good now). But it made me think a lot about the difference between the recognition of sin, and repenting of that sin. Recognition is an essential first step, but I've met a lot of people who seem to think that if they just confess their sin, its all done and they are safe. They tell me that they are imperfect, but when I tell them how to be perfected, they don't seem to be interested. I really like the simple and straightforward explanation of repentance given in D&C 58:42-43.

I hope you all have a great week! Haha I sure hope I do :) You're all the best! Thanks for the support and love you always give me.

Elder Webster

Cordoba Temple Dedication

Hey!

Sounds like you all had a fun week! Sorry about the rain at the father/son campout, but I'm glad everything worked out. Its hard to believe that school is ending (ended?). And yup, don't worry mom, alfajores are definitely on my list as something to bring back. I'll probably try to see if I can bring some mate also. You'll probably hate mate but...hey...everyone has to try it once. Kind of..

Again, sorry for not really saying anything last week. We went on a hike up Cerro Arco as a district, and it took longer than we thought. The member that brought us said we could get back by 4, but that wasn't really the case. Not that anything really went wrong, I guess our district just don't hike very fast...haha..not to point fingers at anyone :) Anyway, pretty cool week here in Dorrego. On wednesday, our whole district took a double-decker bus at 6am to go on a 2 1/2 hour drive up into the Andes to get to a place called Uspallata, part of our district. The branch president there asked the mission president to send us up to give them a "boost" for a day. So I'm pretty sure that between the whole district, we talked to almost all of Uspallata. Super beautiful place! We found a lot of receptive people and the sisters that are assigned to that area were way grateful for the help.

Yesterday was also a way special day. We got to watch the dedication of the new temple in Córdoba Argentina. Its been a long time since I've gotten to see a temple. It was a way special experience. I would definitely like to make the temple a more important part of my life in the future. I read a quote in a booklet about preparing to go to the temple, that basically said that, while we can organize stakes, wards, branches, relief societies, quorums in any building or location, the Lord has told us that the only place where we can organize eternal families is in the temple. Kind of cool to think about.

Verse of the week. So, I've been thinking lately about how the Lord commands us to seek wisdom and learning, but that there are also many prophecies and curses that are to fall upon the "wise and learned". I really like how James talked about 2 different types of wisdom in James3:13-17. In my opinion, I think that those who seek to be humble will find more wisdom than those who seek to be wise. Perhaps thats why in Matthew 11:29, when Christ said to learn of Him, He specifically mentioned learning from His meekness and humility, rather than trying to learn from something else (like His wisdom and knowledge, which He also had, but didn't mention). I guess it all is just summed up pretty plainly in 2 Nephi 9:28-29, but yeah, thats what I've been thinking about lately.

Well I hope you are all doing well! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Webster

Long Hike...

Hey!

Skype call was awesome!

Hey I´m way super super sorry but I don´t really have any time. A member took us on a hike today and told us that we'd be back by 4 pm at the latest....but we had some complications and now I have absolutely no time to write. I'm so sorry!

This week was good. Still doing lots of searching for new people. Haha pretty much everything I said on skype.

The verse of the week I wanted to share was Psalms 37:23-24,39-40.

Seriously I´m way sorry!! I can't really write anything! Won't happen again! (Haha I'm fairly certain about that, considering I'll only be writing home a couple more times....thats way weird...).

Love you all,

Elder Webster

God Knows Our Moments of Need

Hey!

Sounds like another good week! Sorry, I spent so much time thinking about your emails that I don't have much time to write this main email. But I'm glad you are all doing so well!

This week was good. We´re seeing progress, little by little. We had a few way cool spiritual experiences this week, but I don't really have time to write everything about all of them, and writing just a little about each one wouldn't really suffice... So, I`ll narrow them down.

On Friday Elder Cook and I were walking down a dirt street when Elder Cook told me that he thought I should talk to the teenager sitting on the curb near the end of the street. He looked sort of sad. We went up and I told the kid that we were missionaries and handed him a card about learning from our challenges. I paused and asked him "Can we help you with something?" When I asked that he broke into tears and started telling us about something that had just happened to his sister, but I didn't really understand because of how much he was crying. So we just sat down by him on the curb in silence for a 2 or 3 minutes. I then told him that we didn't fully understand how he must feel, but that God knew him and understood perfectly. He nodded, and we kept sitting there in silence for a few minutes. A police car pulled up and asked if someone had called them. The kid said that he had. I couldn't understand him very well, but from the questions the police officer asked, it sounded as if the kid´s sister had just been kidnapped. They took the kid away in the police car to keep helping him. It was quite a blessing to get to be there in his moment of need. We were really thankful for that opportunity. To think that Heavenly Father can put 2 americans on a dirt street in argentina at the precise moment that He needs one of His children to know that He loves them. Not to mention, we were glad that the police didn't ask about the bag of marijuana on the ground next to where we had sat... So, officially the 2nd time in my mission that a person I sat down next to on a curb got taken away in a police car.

As a verse of the week, I decided on Proverbs 16:17-19. It talks about the importance humility. I've been studying that a lot lately. To be honest, I like that Proverb more in spanish than english. But I like the reference it makes to how every fall is preceeded by pride. Reminded me of D&C 38:39 ( I think thats the reference). It occured to me that if pride is the "universal sin " (President Benson), and that it leads to all other sin, and that if humility is the opposite of pride, humility must (theoretically) lead to all righteousness. Makes me want to be more humble.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week! Hope you are all doing well! Can't wait to talk to you on skype!

Elder Webster

Much Is Required

Hey!

Wow sounds like you all had quite the week! Sounds way fun!

This week here was good. We've been spending a lot of time trying to find new investigators and, well, it hasn't been as "productive" as we might have hoped. In fact, we didn't find anyone. We found out that half the people on the ward directory no longer live here and that neither do most of the old investigators...but...new people live in their houses! So that just means there are more new people to talk to! But seriously, we've been thinking a lot and we came up with a few new ideas of what me might try to find new people and work with the members more. Haha I feel like I've probable said that exact sentence about 50 times to you. But its true! Hopefully it works out. But yeah, not the most exciting week ever. Maybe it was the second or third most exciting week of the mission...but definitely not the top one.

So, verse of the week is something I was thinking about in class at church yesterday. D&C 82:3 talks about how much is required of those that have received much. That principle is shown all over the Book of Mormon, and its pretty clear from the parable of the talents that Jesus taught. Anyway, I was thinking about that and how we can learn a lot about what Heavenly Father expects of us when we start looking at what He has given us. For example, He has given us all agency, which is why He expects us all to make good decisions and to repent for our bad decisions. There are other things we receive, such as the gift of the Holy Ghost, the priesthood (men), etc, and then there are tons of more "unique" gifts that we have received. And something I've noticed is that He doesn't tend to give us more than what we need--in other words, He expects us to use everything He gives us. So I've been thinking about what I've been given and about would be expected of someone that has those things. Its something we could all do.

I'm glad to hear that you are all doing well! I hope you have another way awesome week! Sorry not really saying much in this letter..but...yeah.

You guys are great!

Elder Webster

Transfers, Not Transfered

Hey!

Haha sounds like a pretty good week for everyone! And it sounds like this upcoming week is going to be kind of crazy, hopefully everything goes well! Happy Early Birthday to Jaxon and Dad! Haha I feel like my week was a little bit like your week back home. It was good, but I'm not really sure what to say about it or even what actually happened. It was just....good!

We got transfer calls yesterday and it looks like I'll be staying here with Elder Cook again. It should be good. I've been learning a lot from him and from the members, so I guess its a blessing to get to keep working with all of them.

This week we...well...I'm not really sure what we did. We've been working a lot with the members in an effort to help them with the new ward mission plan and to find new investigators. They all seem really willing to help and many of them have specific friends that they want to share the gospel with. So I guess the good news is that several members are working a lot with their friends, and the bad news is that none of them have gotten to the phase yet where we have actually gotten to meet their friends. So for know I guess its just patience and motivating them to set up the appointments that they keep telling us that they want to set up.

So, verse of the week is something that really jumped out to me as I read Alma 19:12-13 this week. The missionary, Ammon, had been teaching King Lamoni about, well, everything. At the beginning of the teaching process, the King didn't have much of an understanding of God or of Christ, or their plan for him. The king's words in verses 12 and 13 reveal the depth of his conversion to what he learned. Not only did he say that he had seen the Redeemer of the world, but he said that he had seen his Redeemer. His relationship with Christ had become personal, and his life had changed forever. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know and love us personally--but now I have an even greater desire to come to love and know them personally as well. As I come to learn more of them and build an ever-more personal relationship with them, I find greater and deeper meaning in what Christ meant when he said that "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (I think thats how it is in english...John 17:3).

I hope you all have a great week, especially with all your plans this weekend! Again, happy birthday Dad and Jaxon!

Love

Elder Webster