Financiero

Hey!

So I already had a pday this week, but in the offices we have pday on Saturday, so I get two pdays this week, which is kinda nice I guess.

So this week has been pretty weird. I got to the offices on Wednesday morning, which has definitely been a big change from Rodeo del Medio. Haha I'm going to miss that place so much, it was so great. I've actually been a lot busier here in the offices than I thought I would be, but I feel more like a guy with an office job than a missionary...but hey, here I am. So I'm learning how to be the new "financial secretary" (I think that's what you'd call it in english...). I'm still kind of learning what I'm learning, but the guy training me basically just walks around wherever he wants and is just leaving me to try to do stuff. He helps when I ask but...yeah. I'm basically supposed to make sure the mission has the money it needs for everything, and then I keep track of what they spend it on, and try to get more money from people in Buenos Aires. I get to go "undercover" when I go to the bank (no name tag, no tie, just normal clothes) so that people don't think every other missionary walks around with like 20,000 pesos like I do, so thats pretty fun. I also get to know the code for the mission safe with all of our money and passports and stuff. Haha thats pretty fun to open. And randomly laminating everything we can get our hands on. In the afternoon we're supposed to leave to go do missionary stuff, but it seems like no one has ever taken that part seriously before. My companion doesn't know the boundaries of our area, anyone that lives in our area, and he also doesn't know if we have an area book (the record that missionaries keep of what they do and who they teach). So...we basically just walk around every night in circles and talk to random people. Yeah, working in the offices has a lot of pros and cons. And I live in a pench with 8 other missionaries, which is weird. And other missionaries are always coming and going too, because its like the central part of the mission. Weird.

So, I was thinking this morning about 2 Nephi 9:51. Haha that'll have to be my "financiero" scripture for the week I guess. But its also something I want to apply to everything I do. Trying to focus my efforts on things that actually matter, in the long run.

Well, I don't really know what else to say, especially since I already emailed home once this week. But I hope you guys have a great week! And I don't know if you saw that other email, but I'm supposed to ask you for help with an international drivers license.

See ya!

Elder Webster

Transferred

Hey!

  It sounds like you all had a way awesome week!!! Thats so exciting about Jordan getting to go through the temple, and Derek's talk!! I would have loved to been there. And I hope Jaxon and Hailey have fun on their adventures this week! Haha and yes, the world cup is awesome...and terrible at the same time. If I didn't love soccer so much, I'd be mad at the world cup. We got a schedule of all the games so that we know when to expect people to not want to talk to us and when we have to make a ton of back up plans.

  So we got the transfer calls last night. I'll be going to be companions with Elder Evans. It should be kind of fun, he was actually with me in the MTC, so it'll be nice to catch up with him. I'm really going to miss Rodeo del Medio though. I love this place so much, and the people and friends I have here are amazing. I'm never going to forget this place. I'm more than a little hesitant about leaving...but I know that I need to go. I don't really have a new area, I'm going to be an office missionary.

  We had an interesting week. A little long, but good. We basically devoted a ton of time to trying to find new people to start teaching. It turns out, if you go out into the middle of absolute nowhere, people are surprised enough to see two gringos at their doorstep that they'll usually give you at least a couple more seconds of attention than normal. It also turns out, that running from dogs still isn't very fun, even when you're in the middle of nowhere. Ok, thats a lie, it was kind of fun. Haha, and one of the times after running from a bunch of dogs, we talked to this girl in the street that had seen us running. We explained who we were and she said "Well, I'm on my way somewhere right now, but my mom is home. Our house is that one over there. Our dog is tied up". Haha I think she might have been the first person that seemed to care when the gringos got chased by dogs. But I have no idea how the whole scenario happened without her laughing out loud at all. So, that was cool. Like always, we want to be teaching more people, but we made a start.

   So, the verse of the week is something I was thinking about this morning. 2 Kings 5:9-14, from the Old Testament. Its the story of Naaman going to the prophet Elisha. Naaman was a leper and was seeking help. Naaman was told to go wash in the Jordan river 7 times, but he wasn't exactly very pleased with that guidance. He complained that Elisha hadn't come out and performed a great miracle, and said that he could have at least told him to go wash in a better river. However, Naaman eventually did what he was told, and was healed. It makes me think about how often, we hope to be asked to go do something great or difficult, but we don't actually find the results we want until we humble ourselves and do the little things. Sometimes in the mission, we think we need to do something crazy, new or original, or we hope to get sent to the "best" place, but success comes from doing the simple things first. From going where we are told to, and doing what we need to do.

  And yeah. I hope you all have a great week! I hope Jordan has a great last few days before going to the MTC! The same goes for Skyeler! And Derek too! And Fischer! And everyone! And on a totally seperate note, I hope the US doesn't lose their games too bad :) and that Argentina wins the world cup! Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Webster

"Oh hun, you've got an infection in your... intestines... or whatever"

Hey!

 Thats way cool that you guys got to go to Liz's wedding! That's way exciting, and thanks for the pictures. It looks like it was great! Tell everyone hi for me! Its been forever since I've gotten to hang out with them. Haha I remember all the fun times I had with the Petersens :) And the Mellens too!

 It sounds like a lot of other exciting stuff has been going on too! I can't believe Derek, Skyler, and Jordan are all leaving so soon! And thats way cool that Derek and I both did our "farewells" on Fathers Day (Happy Fathers Day!!! By the way). I hope Hailey and Jaxon are both having a good time with their camps, and Jaxon's trip. And thats crazy Dad, your new job! I have no idea what a procurement team is...but sounds nifty :) And I'm glad you aren't going to be moving while I'm gone!

 As for me, as always, all good in Argentina. Haha one of the quotes of the week would probably have to be when our mission nurse told me over the phone: "Oh hun, you've got a bacterial infection in your...your intestines or whatever". Haha don't worry I'm fine. I was throwing up in the morning the other day, but I was out working by the afternoon, and everythings fine. Its amazing how you feel after drinking 2 bottles of spanish pepto bismol. Haha sorry if that sounds worse than it was, I'm totally fine, no worries. And the Lord has been helping us find more people to teach. One of the families that we're super excited about is the family of Aldana and Mauro. Basically, Aldana talked with missionaries like a month ago and they gave us her address since she lives in our area. But all they gave us was the name "Aldana" and an intersection of 2 streets (and one of those streets doesn't exist...). But hey, we found her!! We've tried a few times before, but it turns out all we had to do was walk down a road for like 2 hours until it hit a dead end, turn left and walk for lik 10 minutes, and there she lives in the middle of nothing! Easy. Its a family of 11, but we've only met her and her brother so far, and after 2 visits they've both told us they'd get baptized if they find out what we've said is true, so now all we have to do is...motivate them enough to read and pray! Haha easy enough...right?

 So as a verse of the week, I was thinking of something from the New Testament. In Acts 9:10-18. Saul had been traveling around, persecuting the followers of Christ, but then had a vision and also went blind. In these verses, the Lord tells his disciple, Ananias, to go help Saul. In fact, He tells him that Saul had already seen in vision that Ananias would come to help. At first Ananias was hesitant, but then he went to help. The Lord even told him which house and street to look in. Saul was then baptized, is renamed Paul, and goes to preach the gospel and wrote 14 epistles (essentialy the majority of the New Testament). I guess what I'm trying to say with this is that God really prepares people to hear the gospel, and sometimes the people that are prepared aren't the ones that we're expecting. It was also impressive to me that it says that Saul had the vision that Ananias would come, before Ananias even received the prompting to go to him. It shows to me the great trust that the Lord had in Ananias, and that He knew he'd obey. I'd like the Lord to be able to trust me like that. That He could be so sure that I would do what I was told, that He could prepare others so specifically for me.

 And yeah, so thats the stuff I've been thinking about lately. I hope you are all doing great and enjoying the summer there! Dad, good luck with the new job! And I hope everything goes well with all the big plans everyone has coming up! Can't wait to hear from you all next week!

Love

Elder Webster

Day Trip

Hey!

Thanks for all the pictures! They all look way fun! And Jordan's graduation looks way cooler than mine, super jealous. Haha but it sounds like everything is going good back home. That's crazy that its Jordan's last fast sunday there (speaking of which Jordan, don't forget to check your email:) ). It sounds like you've all been enjoying the summer, including mom and dad! Fun, Fun, Fun.

We had a pretty good week. A little challenging, but way good. Seriously, the Lord has been blessing Elder Perez and I a lot. I've been given more new investigators with Elder Perez over the past several weeks than I've ever had at any other time in my mission. Haha if only they would all progress! Still no luck with getting permission for Teresa or her sisters unfortunately. Haha plus, we literally have a handful of people that are willing to get baptized, but they all have things restricting them (they have to get divorced, and then married to their current "spouse"), which is a several year process here. Haha but hey, there has to be someone around here waiting for us that doesn't need that.

We had some interesting things happen this week. In the middle of district meeting in our chapel this week with other missionaries, two guys showed up asking who built the roof of the chapel. We told them we didn't know, but we offered to do a tour of the church with them, and they agreed! So, that was a weird district meeting. On saturday, we went to visit a recent convert from last year that I had never visited before. He came in the morning and told us he'd ride in the bus with us to help us get to his house. Well, a 1 hour bus ride later, and then a 20 minute walk, and we were in the absolute middle of nothing...and at his house. Then we asked when the next bus would pass so we could go back, and the only bus back was at 9 at night...So, we were kind of left with no choice but to be at his house all day, since there was literally no where to go from there. But we got to teach a way spiritual lesson there about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they made an amazing asado (argentina bbq) for us!! Yesterday we also had an interesting experience. We were walking down the street, and a ways up the road was something that looked like a person on the ground. Turns out it was! So we got to try to help this guy who was totally passed out in a bush on the side of the road, which was...different. So yeah, good week.

So this week I wanted to share 2 scriptures. The first is Alma 60:11 and 21. These are 2 questions asked to the chief judge of the people, but they apply to us too, about how we really can't expect the help of God if we refuse to use the help he's already given to us. He doesn't do things that we can do ourselves. The second is Ether 2:22-25, 3:1-6. It struck me that in the first part, the brother of Jared prays, simply stating his problem, and all he gets is an answer where God basically says, "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" but in chapter 3, he prays to tell God the solution he had come up with and to ask for help, and that is when the miracle happened. Miracles don't happen when we tell God our problems. Miracles happen when we tell God the solution we've come up with for our problem, and when we need His help with that solution. These scriptures in Alma and Ether really just made me think a bit more what it really means to pray with faith.

But yeah. I hope you guys have had a great week and a great start to the summer! And have fun getting everything ready before Jordan leaves!! So exciting!

Elder Webster

Road to Said's house

My companion and Said harvesting grapes that got left behind in a vineyard

Me and more grapes

Said's house

Us enjoying the asado

You Pray. What Else Can We Do?

Hey!

Haha wow you guys did a lot of stuff this week! I'm glad no one died on the skydiving trip! Well done. Haha and I can't believe Jaxon trusted Jordan enough to cut his hair! Very brave. Haha I kind of wished I had attempted to learn how to cook better before the mission, maybe you guys can trick Jordan into cooking for you (Jordan, pretend you didn't read that). And no Dad, I don't think I'll be going to any soccer games. Haha I'm a little bit worried about the world cup though. It starts in a couple weeks, and literally, it seems like the world kind of shuts down whenever there is a game going on here. I get to play soccer almost every monday though, so thats pretty sweet.

We got some cool blessings this week.  We've really been trying to find more people to teach. It seems like for a while we got stuck in this problem where we had a lot of people we could teach, but we couldn't get any of them to really progress. But this week the Lord totally blessed us, and we got more new investigators in this past week than I have gotten during any other week here in Rodeo del Medio, and possibly during any other week ever. So we're really hoping that we'll be blessed again and that they can start progressing. It seems like everyone we know is right on the verge of a breakthrough, but we haven't quite been able to get any of them to take that leap of faith to start progressing. Woot! Horray for helping people! We also had stake conference this past weekend, and our mission president and a 70 came, and basically the whole conference was about members and missionaries working together. Haha no pressure.

We had kind of a bitter sweet experience yesterday. We've been teaching Teresa for about 4 months now. Yesterday, she finally prayed with us for the first time! I was here when we first met her, and she's been wanting to get baptized for a while now, but we've been struggling with getting permission from her dad. Yesterday we taught her 2 younger sisters, and three of them committed to get baptized. The lesson was at 4pm, and after they said they'd all get baptized, we committed the 3 of them to go, together, to their dad at 7:30pm to ask permission. We were hoping that with all 3 of them, he'd give in. We told them we'd call them at 9 to ask how it went. We called at 9, to find that they had done what we asked, but...the phone call...well, when an investigator is crying on the phone asking you to pray so she can get baptized...you pray, I'm not sure what else we can do.

As a verse of the week, I was studying Alma 37:38-47 this week. I think my companion thinks I'm weird for reading that chapter every day for like half this week but, hey, I liked it. Anyway, I liked how in 41 it says that without faith and diligence, they couldn't progress. The cool thing about the Liahona, is that not only did it direct them to the end destination that they wanted, but Nephi also says that it guided them on a direct path throught the most fertile parts of the wilderness. Alma compares it to the words of Christ. Not only do they guide us to where we want to end up, but they help guide us through the best, most direct path. They still traveled in the wilderness, and it was way hard, but the Liahona kept them in the better parts. Kind of cool. Lots of cool cross-applications between the liahona and the iron rod (not to mention what Nephi says about the words of Christ in 2 Ne 31 and 33).

Well, I'm glad you all made it through your crazy week, and I hope you enjoy this upcoming week! Your first full week of summer! And happy Memorial Day (haha thanks for the reminder, I had no idea it was today)

Love

Elder Webster

My favorite little kid ever (Lucas)

Me and Lucas and his brother Jesus.

one of the concrete fields at the churches I told you about. (this is one of the few that is actually set up to play basketball too.)

My companion being cold

A whole bunch of puppies looking around in the trash

My serious face.

Staying in Rodeo del Medio

Hey!

Wooot!!!! Congrats Jordan!!!! That's so awesome about your mission call!!! I know you'll totally love it there! You'll have to email me pics and your weekly updates once you leave! And you guys are going skydiving today? Thats way cool! Don't die. Haha...seriously. And happy end of the school year to everyone!

Haha now I I feel like whatever I could possibly tell you guys will not be nearly as cool as what you guys told me, so with that in mind, here we go:

So with exchanges...I'm staying! Woot, 4th transfer in Rodeo del Medio! I'm glad I'll get to stay and keep training. Plus, I just feel like there's more I need to do here.

We had a fairly good week. It was a little different, we tried changing some things, and we ended up improving in a lot of the things we've been struggling in, but the stuff we normally do good at kind of got way worse....so we just need to find the right balance now. We had some cool experiences though. The one that comes to mind was last thursday. We were going to do a tour of our church with part member family, but they never showed up. But we had already set up the church for the tour, so we wanted to find someone else to invite. My companion made a joke and said we could invite the guy on the other side of the street, who happened to be digging through a giant pile of trash, collecting things and putting them in his backpack. I told him it was a good idea, so we invited him. And he accepted! Way interesting church tour, which ended with him telling us he does cocaine and wants to come to our church with his family. So....yeah, small, weird miracle. Lets see...oh, yesterday was interesting too. We went to work in this neighbor at night. We were wondering why no one was outside, but it turned out there was a soccer game. As soon as it ended, the street got filled with drunk people and fireworks. Haha so that was interesting. But hey, River won!

So, as a verse of the week, I thought of 3 Nephi 18:25. Here, Jesus explains to the Nephites that He had given them the example when He had invited everyone to come closer to Him and to learn that He is the Christ. He then explains that we should also invite others to come and know of Him, and that by doing so, not only will it be a blessing for them, but that it will help us to avoid temptation. I thought it was interesting that sharing the gospel would help you avoid temptation, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Cool stuff.

Lets see, I think thats everything. And yes Dad, I finally managed to get a camera. I'll send some pics after this. No te preocupes. Have a great week! Don't die!

Love

Elder Webster

Another Good Week

Hey,

 It was great to get to talk to you guys on skype yesterday! Haha even though it took us a couple of hours to get a computer here that could do it. I think it was actually going better when I was skyping with that phone but, I guess the video was a nice tough. I suppose. But I'm glad to hear you're all doing well and preparing for a great week! Can't wait to hear about Jordan's mission call!!

 So we had a good week again (of course). Haha maybe someday I'll send an email that says we had a bad week, just to see how it feels. Nah. But seriously, good week this week. We weren't able to get everything done that we were hoping, since we got pretty sick half way through the week, but all-in-all, pretty sweet. There were 8 non-members at church this week which was pretty exciting. They weren't the people we had invited, but hey, everyone needs to go to church! We also met some cool people this week. We got the phone number of the owner of the gas station in our area. He had an iPhone! And spoke pretty good english! We also met a guy from Portugal that is here working as a truck driver between Brazil and Argentina. He had the craziest accent ever, and I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, in fact I think half of it was Portuguese, but hey, we got his phone number! We've also started working with a family of 3 that is way interesting. Pretty much the whole appointment is the dad yelling at us and quoting the bible at us for an hour and a half, while his wife yells at him to stop talking because she wants to listen to us. But, it turns out that they read from the book of mormon between appointments! And they gave us a cake! So we'll see where they go I guess. We also had exchanges this week. Honestly, there is nothing like walking down a dirt street with a Colombian in Argentina while hearing english music blaring from the little houses on either side. I'd love to do this forever.

 So with a verse of the week. Oh yes. I was studying in D&C 76:69-70, 75, and 79. Verses 69 and 70 is talking about those that will go to the celestial kingdom, and it says that they will be "Just men made perfect through Jesus". Verses 75 and 79 talk about the terrestrial kingdom and say that there will be "honorable men...who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus". As far as I can tell, there isn't a huge difference between a just man and an honorable man, but there is a huge difference between someone that has been perfected through Christ, and someone that is lacking in their testimony of Him. It doesn't say that they won't have a testimony, it just says that they won't be valiant in their testimony. It made me wonder... Am I valiant enough in my testimony of Christ...? Needless to say, I've got some goals and some room for improvement.

 Anyway, it was great getting to talk to you yesterday on skype, and I hope Jordan has a great last week of high school!! Good luck with everything, and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love

Elder Webster