Soccer and Stories

Hey!

First, happy almost birthday mom! The big 2-0, right? And congrats to Jaxon with all the merit badges, what a boss. It looks like he might be the youngest of us kids to get his eagle. Keep up the good work!

So first of all, yes, Johny did end up getting baptized last saturday, so that was really neat. I'll be attaching a couple of photos of him. And he's already set the goal of making to the temple in Chile someday, so that was nice to hear. He's a way spiritual guy, it seems like every lesson he manages to ask us questions none of us have ever been asked by people before.

This week my comp and I also got to have some fun proselyting experiences. We didn't get to go to our area very much, but on Thursday we managed to go visit those kids that are always hanging out in the plaza. We got there and the first thing they did was challenge us to see who could juggle a soccer ball the longest. Haha so that was pretty fun. Then one of them asked, "Hey, aren't you going to teach us something? Tell us a story!" Haha so we all ended up sitting down again and we were able to teach a couple points from the restoration lesson. They weren't super focused, but we found 1 or 2 of them that really seemed interested, so hopefully we'll be able to focus on them more in the future. In fact, the sisters we share a ward with are now teaching the mom of one of them, since we passed them the reference, so thats pretty cool. Haha when we finished talking to them, they all started leaving because they were about to play soccer with another group that they had been waiting for, but before they did, one of them asked, "Hey, aren't we going to pray again, like last time?" We said yes, so he started shouting out for everyone to come back so they could pray. Everyone from their group turned around from the people they had just left to say hi to, said stuff along the lines of "oh yeah, we forgot" and came back so we could pray. Haha they're like the most spiritual gang of young teenage pot smokers ever. Haha they're way fun. 

The other main cool experience/idea was yesterday. You know how sometimes in Mexico, people would come to our car at intersections to try to wash our windows and stuff? Thats pretty common here downtown, and they also go car to car at intersections to sell fruits and other random stuff a lot too. Well yesterday we had to go to a place to get some new nametags made for missionaries, and while my comp and I were waiting, I said it would be fun to go car to car with pass along cards. He just kind of laughed and thought I was joking....so I did it. It was way fun. We were only there for like 3 red lights, but I gave away probably 30 pass along cards to people stopped at the intersection. A few people even would call me from other lanes so they could get one, and one guy had his wallet out when I got to his car because he wanted to buy one. Way fun. It looks like I found my new pass time for whenever we're downtown waiting for something.

Anyway, so the verse I chose this week is Mosiah 27:28-29. Here, Alma the younger is talking about his repentance process, and he says that he had to repent almost unto death (haha...I think thats how it would translate). It made me think of something I was thinking about a week or 2 ago. Its that everyone, from a mass murderer to a missionary that accidentally sleeps 5 minutes late, needs the atonement equally. Can any of us really say "Oh, I'm better than him, he needs the atonement way more than I do"? Or can we say "I'm pretty good, I only need a little bit of help from Christ"? We all need to be perfectly perfect to live with God again, and since none of us are perfect, we are all in need of His forgiveness. Even if we might say 1 sin or error might be "worse" than another, every single error must be erased. It doesn't really matter if one persons sins are more "minor" than another person's, if neither of them get to live with God than what does it matter? They essentially have the same punishment of not being in His presence. That thought process made me realize that really, the severity of the sin doesn't really have to be directly proportional to the degree of our repentance. When we really see the results of even the "smallest sin" and if we are able to look at our sin the way our Heavenly Father does (without the least degree of allowance), we can be brought to repent in the way that Alma the younger did. Great godly sorrow isn't limited to great sins. The atonement's impact on our life isn't so much a result of the severity of our sins, but a result of the depth of desire to be forgiven.

Well, thats the gospel according to Elder Webster for ya. I hope you all have a great week! Happy Birthday mom, again!

Love

Elder Webster