Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

Thanksgiving sounds crazy back home! Glad everyone's having fun down in AZ!

My Thanksgiving was SO fun. Honestly, I wasn't super excited for Thanksgiving, because everyone I talked to made it sound like holidays are the WORST on a mission. But I loved Thanksgiving! :) The district and I had 3 square meals with various members. (we originally had like 5, but people canceled)  So we started off by having breakfast with the Dzib Family, who are soooooo cool. They made some high quality eggs, pancakes, sausage, orange juice... All that good stuff. Plus their just a very friendly, nice, caring family! Then we went to the Melara family and had chorizo and hashbrowns, which is pretty good too. (chorizo is some kind of spicy mystery meat and it was mixed with eggs. it's pretty bomb.) They are both from other countries, and don't usually celebrate Thanksgiving, so this was mainly all just for our benefit. :) And then we went to HERMANA BETTY for Thanksgiving dinner! She went all out.... She invited family over, and some returned missionaries that used to serve in San Fran, and some of her friends, and ward members. She made Turkey and Sweet potatoes and the whole sha-bang. It was pretty fun.

And we had permission to stay late because it was a holiday and there were non members there. So we stayed over for the rest of the night playing Cranium with some other english speaking college students/ex missionaries and family. And it was almost like a big party. Except then we had to give a thought of course. :) So it was fun.

Side note: Black friday gets pretty intense here. Apparently people wait outside of stores and then mug people who just bought stuff. it apparently gets pretty bad. So we were supposed to avoid a lot of the busy areas. (we didn't see anything, or even hear of anything happening at all.)

 Anyway! Happy December! Hope everything going good! :)

Love you!

Elder Webster

Picture Day

So, I've already given a big update of the last week. But even since Monday, San Francisco is flippen crazy. Elder Castleberry and I had exchanges on Monday, so he was sleeping over at my house and helping me with the lessons I had planned whilst Elder Curay traded him spots for the day. We were GOING to trade back on Monday night, but we got an emergency text from the Zone leaders to stay in doors because they were having an "Anti-police" protest because of some "racist killings" that have been going on lately, and we were supposed to avoid going near that. It was kind of scary, but thankfully, My new area is far enough away from Downtown/mission street that we didn't really see or hear anything.

I finally hooked up some pictures!! I have quite a few more, but I think I got all the big events home FINALLY.

Anyways, it's only been a couple of days since my last email, so not a ton has happened. My main goal for today was to send home all my pictures. So I hope they didn't get cut off or something. let me know if there is something specific you wanna see. More of members? more of my companions? more of the city? more of my apartment? because I have quite a bit more, but I had to pick and choose which ones to send home this week.

Anywho. Thanks for everything! You're the best! Hope everyone's enjoying Arizona during Thanksgiving!

Love you!

Elder Webster

Jordan and Elder Curay at Alcatraz

My district! (left to right)

Elder Olivas, Elder Castleberry, Elder Webster, Elder Curay, Sister McCarthy, Sister Hellewell.

This is a cool looking picture I took/edited while ON Alkatraz, looking at the San Fran Skyline.

Elder Castleberry and Elder Curay BOTH hit their year marks while I was their companion. And this was them burning their shirts.

Some of the locals during "Dia de los Muertos" November 2. (everyone looked like this...)

San Fran Skyline

Me touring AT&T park during the WORLD SERIES WHERE WE WON!!!

This is Betty Mejia. (I'm actually at her house right now.) She is this AWESOME Columbian women who LOVES the missionaries, and feeds us every week, and is just the best. (and Elder Castleberry)

Another one of AT&T park with Elder Castleberry.

This is when we went to Golden Gate Bridge a while back. (We went to the half way mark) :)

My very first district when we went to Golden Gate. :)

A couple of the Relief society members on Sister Rosa's Bday.

(Sister Moran and Sister Astrada)

Dia de Hispanidad in the ward. Sister Rosa and Sister McCarthy are wearing Argentine dresses.

Dia de Hispanidad! The lady I'm sitting by is named Karina Cervantes. She and her Husband Victor were some of my very first investigators. They're the ones who had a baptism date, but it got dropped because they never come to church and because of a couple other small reasons... But then I transfered areas... So I don't see them anymore. :(

Me (in an ugly sweater I found.) and Elder Castleberry standing in front of the Guatemala booth (That's where my bishop served.) at Dia de Hispanidad.

Elder Curay and I locked up in an Alcatraz jail cell.

Pretty Sick Week!

So you know how a long time ago, I said I got interviewed? Well it's finally on line! :) missionlocal.com (meet the mormons) I read a little bit of it at a members house. But I didn't finish it. I was afraid it would be "anti mormon" ish, but it's not too bad. it's pretty un-opinionated, It just says the facts... And from what I read, it's mooooostly true. So you should check that out.

I've been pretty sick this last week. Which at first, was pretty discouraging. I never wanted to "take a sick day" so we still had all of our normal lessons and stuff, but I did spend most of my free time sleeping. But, honestly, I think it was an answer to a prayer. My companion, Elder Curay, really stepped it up this week. It's like he was on Hyper Drive. And plus, he was super super nice to me, like, insisted that I get some rest, and made me hot chocolate, and was just really considerate.

Thanksgiving should be pretty crazy this next week. We have 5 or 6 meals planned with the members, and we'll have to take bus and Bart all over town to make it to all of them. Should be pretty busy. But I'm excited.

One of our investigators totally bailed on us this week. She was supposed to go to the Relief society dinner on Saturday, and we set up a ride for her and she said she was going to go and everything... But then fell off the face of the Earth, didn't go to the dinner, and won't answer the phone. Dang it.

Lastly, we started riding bikes this week! It's.... kinda lame. I prefer bart and bus. and I MUCH prefer cars. But it's faster than walking. So that's good I guess.

That's about it! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! D&C 78:19

Love you! Elder Webster

Elder Bednar!!!

I only have about a half hour to email this week, so this is going to have to be shorter than I'd like it to be.

But I got to see Preston Fredrick this week!!! :) It's indescribably comforting to see someone from back home. Spending so much time with companions is cool and all, but there is a difference between "getting along" with a companion and having a "Love you man" relationship with someone, like I do with Preston. I was beyond overjoyed. And he gave me an empanada from home, so thank you to whoever sent that to him. :) delicious.

They same day, I got to hear Elder Bednar speak!!! :) It was spectacular. You can't really tell from listening to him in conference, but he is actually a very funny, relaxed, personable, cool guy! He treated it more like a discussion. Which went over really well. :) He really had a way of making sure nobody was ever put on the spot, nobody felt stupid, everyone was excited to give responses and ask questions, but he introduced it all in a way that kept people from speaking up "just to get speaking time" or just to "sound impressive". So I enjoyed that. He is a very talented speaker, and I took a lot of notes.

A couple cool points are:

1. There's nothing less impressive than trying to be impressive

2. Never ask questions when you have a "correct answer" in mind.

3. Be an agent, not an object. And allow others to do the same.

Super good stuff.

The area is going good.  Guardados are doing alright, but the mom is pretty sick still. None of our investigators came to church, even though most of them said they would... :(

And finally, today I took a tour of Alkatraz!!! WHOO. it was awesome. Such a cool experience. Hopefully I can attach pictures of everything pretty soon.

Love you all!

Elder Webster

South San Francisco

So, my new area is pretty cool! It's kind of in the middle of an Asian community, So street contacting is a little different. I usually speak English in the streets now, and I've learned a couple phrases in Chinese! So that's cool. :)

Jaxon told me about the Elder in your ward from Honduras. He sounds cool... Sorry he didn't eat much... I basically eat Chicken, Rice, and beans every single day. But it just depends on the culture. Mexican houses will usually be spicy, Argentinian houses are usually steak, Columbian houses have REALLY good rice, but my favorite is usually the El Salvadorian houses. They make the best food. haha And we have a great ward, so we usually go to members houses every day for dinner.

Elder Curay and I get along fine,  he's actually is very cool. His family lives in Pheonix right now! So when I come home, maybe he can come down and stay with us or something. He's pretty chill.

I'll try to send some pictures next week i think. But my current apartment is quite a bit nicer than my last one, and I live in a pretty big Asian community, So Elder Curay and I usually just speak spanish, but most of my street contacts are in English or really basic Chinese. And by "Basic Chinese" i mean: "Hi, I'm a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Can I give you a card? Thank you." and that's it. If they reply, I have no idea what to say. haha but it's fun. That's one of the cool things about San Francisco. It's incredibly diverse.

This first week, I really wanted to just visit EVERYONE. Even if we didn't have lessons with everyone, I thought it'd be a good idea to just go around and stop by everyone's houses and introduce myself as the new Elder here. So that's what we did. And even for the ones that didn't answer, at least I kind of know where people live.

Some big people we are focusing on are

1. La Familia Guardado. Family of 4 from Hondurus, and they have 2 little daughters, Kimberly and Nazli, who just got baptized last month! Elder Curay (My companion) is actually the one who baptized them. But they make the top five because the two Parents are not married. So even though they have a testimony, and like coming to church, they can't get baptized. SOO. There isn't a lot left to do with them except to keep talking to them about a marriage date... But that's the deal with them.

2. Hermana Aguilara. She's also from Hondurus I think. And she is AWESOME. And totally has a testimony, and actually is all set to get baptized... BUT... Her ex husband is in our ward, and they aren't really on good terms. So we can't get her to come to church because she thinks it would be too weird. And we could technically transfer her records to another ward I think, but the next closest spanish branch is pretty far, and she doesn't want to drive that far. So that's also kind of a weird situation.

3/4 Ana and Anna. They are 2 investigators of ours. I haven't met either of them yet, but they are somewhat interested. And they don't live together or anything, but they're neighbors both named Anna, and we teach both of them. I'm not quite sure about them yet,

That's all the big ones.

Yall asked me a lot of questions about the new comp and area and stuff, so I'll try to answer them all: Elder Curay in from Peru. But he lived in Pheonix Arizona for a couple years, and that's where his family lives now. He is about to hit his year mark. Our apartment is nicer than the one in my last area, And if you want pictures, I can send some next week. My trainer is training again, and his new trainee is from Mexico, but him and his family have been living in Mesa Arizona. He's a native speaker too.

I cover the same ward still, but it's a whole new area, and new investigators and less actives, so it feels pretty different.

My last area covered EVERY tourist thing in San Francisco, and my new area doesn't cover anything cool, so it's a bit less exciting.

Grandma and Grandpa, thanks for the packages, and I wrote you a letter, but I don't have your address!!! So let me know what it is and I can send it!

And tell the Lawrences that I got their package too, and tell them thanks! :) I think I should get the one from the Webster Clan some time this week. :)

That's pretty much it!

Thanks for the support and the packages! Love you all!

Elder Webster

#Bestweek

This week has been absolutely insane. Both with missionary work and just because I live in San Francisco. So. Here's some cool highlights! :)

I live on 22nd and Mission. Which just so happens to be one of the busiest locations in all of San Francisco. It's basically "the place to be" if you are a spanish speaking missionary in San Francisco. And this week, it was crazy for several reasons.

1. Giants WON the World Series on Wednesday.

It looked like NYC on New years eve. except everybody was crazy and wild. People were burning mattresses in the middle of crowds and hanging from fire escapes, and blasting music and crowd surfing, and shooting fireworks and cannons (and apparently someone actually got shot) Right outside my front door. It was absolutely chaotic.

2. Dia de los Muertos on Sunday.

You might not think a spanish holiday like day of the dead would have much impact in America... But San Francisco was all about it. There was a parade on Sunday night, and there were fire dancers in the streets, and most people were decorated in lots of authentic Day of the dead stuff. Like face paints, and skulls and skeletons and stuff. and that was pretty cool.

3. Halloween

two of the other Elders in my district had a gas leak this week, so pretty much every day, they've been sleeping at our apartment. Which sounds fun at first... but we're missionaries, so it's not like we can hang out and play video games or something. But on Halloween, we all had to come home early to do "Deep Cleaning" and we had 4 people in a tiny apartment, so we finished pretty fast, and then we had like 3 hours where we weren't aloud to leave, so Elder Kutterer taught us karate, and we listened to piano guys music, and just talked about funny stuff from back home and it was fun. :)

4. The Work was Awesome

This week was probably our most productive week for missionary work. We worked our butts off. Milton Montano, (our golden investigator) is progressing so much, and he's following all of his commitments, we saw a less active at church (Maximina Lozano) who hasn't been to church in the 12 weeks I've been here, we finally made contact with a few potentials that seem to never be home, and We've just seen countless blessings from our work this week. It's been great.

5. Transfer Calls!

I just finished my second transfer with Elder Castleberry, and I was pretty nervous about leaving San Fran because I LOVE IT HERE. But the transfer calls came in and I'm going to move to South San Francisco with Elder Curay. (He's the thug missionary I talked about a long time ago. from Peru.) So I won't be living on 22nd and mission, I'll be living on the corner of San Bruno and Silver. But I'll still cover the same ward. Just a little bit different area. I think Elder Curay and his old companion had a baptism coming up soon. So I might get to help with that a bit. :) I'm excited.

Sorry this email has been so long!! :) lots of stuff happening.

Love you all!

Year Mark/ATT/Milton

This week was Elder Castleberry's year mark!! So we went out and bought ourselves a nice frozen pizza to celebrate. That's pretty much it. We don't really have a ton of money to do cool things, and it wasn't on a p-day. So we just did the usual, and he got some packages from home and stuff. So that was cool!

My second transfer ends this Saturday, So I am OFFICIALLY out of "Training" after this week. Finally. I should know if I'm getting moved by the next pday. So I'll let you know.

Today, (Since the Giant's are currently WINNING the world series) My district went and took a tour of ATT park! Which was incredible! I'll attach pictures sometime. But that was cool! Especially since I HAPPEN to be serving in the EXACT PLACE where the Giants are IN the WORLD SERIES. It's basically the perfect timing, and everybody goes nuts.

So about the missionary work... This week, the bishop asked us to focus on the less active members in the ward, so we took a list and separated them into our mission areas, and asked the bishop to star any names that he wanted us to pay special attention to! So this entire week, we've been tracking down less actives and officially meeting them and planning appointments with them, which is great! The problem is usually something like... I don't have a car, and the subway costs too much. Or I've been busy because I work 3 jobs, or something like that, so most of them are still very religious and nice, but just can't come. I like them a lot.

Our newest investigator is Milton 2. Not to be confused with the original Milton from like 3 months ago. He is the best. He's stopped us 3 times on the street and begged us to come over and teach him ove a period of 6 weeks. And we stop by all the time, but this is the first time he's been home! And the lesson went AWESOME! He's got some potential.

Victor..... still hasn't come to an actual sacrament meeting yet. So We have to push back his baptism... grrrrrrrr..... Hopefully soon he'll come. I'm not sure he is as interested as I thought he was.:/

Last week we taught 5 lessons. But usually we get like 6 or 7. It just depends. Contacting is pretty easy here in the city, because you can stand in one spot, anywhere, and you can see like 40 people at a time. So usually, we just walk around for like an hour whenever we don't have anything planned and talk to as many people as we can. But we never go tracting. ever. We've never had to. Our bishop is really good with missionaries, he's a gringo that served in Guatemala, and he's super super helpful with all the missionaries. I usually get about 15-20 emails a week.

Can't believe Tyler's just now going! It seems like he got called just a little bit after me! He must've been waiting a long time... How was his farewell? Where is Josh serving? Nice oven thing. looks good. I think our article hasn't been published just because of all the crazy stuff happening with the Giants recently... So... Maybe eventually. If not, oh well...

Giants Go To The World Series!

So this week was pretty great. here's why:

THE GIANTS WIN!!!!! WHOOOOO!!!

The San Francisco Giants are the baseball team here, and EVERYONE IS A FAN! Everyone. and they qualified to play in the World series this last week and the city about exploded. There was riots in the streets, and people running up at down the streets with SF Flags, and blasting their music, and honking their cars for like 4 hours straight. IT. WAS. AWESOME. And I got some videos of it, but it's too big to attach or something, but seriously, it was just super cool. It's going to be even cooler when they actually WIN THE WORLD SERIES. And I think I'll still be in this same are when that happens, so I'll get to see a lot of that. :)

Investigators are alright. Victor, the one with the baptismal date for the 26th is going to be pushed back a little bit, because we haven't gone through all the lessons with him yet, and he kinda seems hesitant for some reason... but other than that, I think he's all good to go.

Betty, the awesome lady who feeds us all the time, has her daughter in town this week. She's cool, I got to meet her on Saturday and she came to church with us yesterday. Betty is awesome, she's a member, she's active, and just the most helpful person with everything, but her family, (although equally awesome) Don't usually come to church. So we're going to reactivate them.

Elder Hamula (from the quorum of the 70) came this week to talk to us!!! He's pretty good. I got to shake his hand, although I didn't get a picture with him... :( sorry. But that was really very very cool.

Love you all. Thanks for the support! :)

Elder Webster

The beach in our area

Street art

Golden Gate Bridge

Dia De Hispanidad

This week was Dia de hispanidad! it was where all the members would bring in food and decorations from all over the world! Where ever they are from. and the had a sweet mariachi band and other cool talent show type stuff. A couple of our awesome investigators came to it, and it was basically a loud, crazy, latin, mormon party. SOOO COOL.

Thanks for all the pictures! I always like getting cool nature pictures because nature doesn't really exist here... But Yeah, I really liked Meet the Mormons too! And with the interview thing.... Sorry it's not up yet. Dan called us back again and wanted to follow us around and get some pictures and do follow up questions and stuff. But it SHOULD be posted this week for sure. :/

I DID get my charger! And the beef jerkey. :) thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. and so does Elder Castleberry haha

Investigators are all doing good! Victor and Karina are moving to a different floor in their building this week, so we are helping them with that.

Unfortunately, my district is being dumb and want to play soccer and use this computer, so I have to get off. I might write more later, but if not:

Love you all! thanks for all the support and love!

Elder Webster :)

Mission(ary) Local

Hey everyone! hope everyone had a good conference weekend!

My conference weekend was pretty good. :) We watched both the morning conferences at Hermana Betty's house. Once in spanish (Saturday) and once in English (Sunday).

Which means that we still watched the same people, but they had a spanish speaker doing a voice over. and when there was a native spanish speaker speaking, there wasn't any voice over. We just got to listen to it normal.

Remember when that Portuguese guy spoke? I actually understood some of that. apparently spanish and portuguese are REALLY similar. I could probably get more of it if I was fluent in spanish. But I'm not. So I just got bits and pieces, and then we moved back to the english version.

The two afternoon sessions we watched at the chapel, Once in spanish (Saturday) and once in English (Sunday).

I went into conference with some questions on how to break addictions and how to feel the spirit, and I learned TONS! One thing in particular that I learned was about the Sacrament, and how we need to 1. Be worthy to take the sacrament, because it is incredibly important. 2. Pay attention to the prayers and the songs. Part of the sacrament prayer mentions how we can "Always have the spirit to be with us." Not just for the day, not just occasionally, but ALWAYS! and I really like that. Having the spirit with us can also help reduce the temptations we feel everyday, whether it's the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, or even just being honest, having the spirt with us ALWAYS can be the answer to that.

In other NEWS. (you'll get that joke pretty soon.)

I ran into a journalist on the street (Daniel Hirsch) who asked Elder Castleberry and I if he could interview us! :) He works for a website called missionlocal.org (check it out) and they deal with all the local news here on the mission district. (the area I live in) and he said he's seen us before, and they sometimes do profiles on interesting people, and we are interesting enough to interview! So in preparation for the interview, he researched our names, and he found my blog!!! so he read my whole blog! :) Daniel, if you're reading this, you deserve a promotion. And he interviewed us about what it's like living here, what a normal day is like as a missionary here in San Francisco, any weird experiences we've had, and it went pretty well! I think it's going to be published on October 8th on the website if his editor approves it.

You should read it, and tell me how it sounds!

That's pretty much all the big stuff that happened this week! keep giving me updates from back home! Love you all!

Elder Webster

Swag-Fancisco

Good Day to you all.

This week, we happened across this guy on the bus. He was wearing a Giants jersey and sunglasses and we were just kinda standing by him, and not talking. once he got to his stop, he was like "Hey, you guys want dinner?"

We were on our way to an appointment, but we had about 15 minutes to kill, so we said "Yeah! sure! that'd be awesome!" and followed him and his girlfriend off the bus.

I figured he'd buy us a cheeseburger or something, and then send us on our way, but no no no no no. Not this guy. He took us to this SUPER EXPENSIVE, DELICIOUS, PHENOMINAL Mexican restaurant. :) out of no where! Apparently, he's a regular there, and he gets a big discount or something. But he (no joke) pointed at the left page of them menu. and ordered everything on it. and then told us that we can take any of it home with us. :) WHHHAAAAAT. Seriously. He was the bomb. And not only was he super generous and kind, but we was hilarious, and likable, and just a great guy! He's not even a member of our church or anything. Just some random guy. So his name is David. and I'll never see him again, but he's my favorite person in the world.

We also set our first baptismal date! A really cool young couple (she's a member, he is not) but we plan to baptize him on October 26th. But They're not married, and they're living together with a kid... so We gotta work through that first. Hopefully everything will turn out ok.

That's most of the awesome stuff that happened this week. We also saw some amazing street performers ON the subway. playing guitar and playing some buckets like drums, and singing. On the actual Bart. So that was pretty cool. other thatn that... All is well! :) Me and Elder Castleberry. We tight.

Love you all! :) have a good week!

Elder Webster

ps. Some of you tried to send me videos. I can't watch them. (not a mission rule. just a down side of using the library computers.) so... sorry.

Love you!

End of Transfer One

Transfer just ended! I'm staying here for another 6 weeks with Elder Castleberry. And that Elder Curay guy (the one that has gotten a shotgun pulled on him, and has been in a gang) is now going to be training a new missionary! other than that, nothing has changed.

This week, I had my first big confrontation with some lady on the street! :) so that was pretty exciting! She came up to us while we were getting to know these 2 guys we had just met, and she yelled at the 2 men to get away from us. so they were like.... what? ok? and kinda walked away. then she proceeded to inform us of how evil we were and how she hates us, and how we need to stop ruining people's lives, and repent, and stuff. She was so angry and loud.

It was so funny! :) Honestly, she was a blast. :) It was a rage of blind furry and insults, and I almost couldn't even keep a straight face. :) haha

Like, it would have been a little insulting maybe, and it kind of was. And I'm not sure what made it so funny to me. But I invited her to church with us! haha she about blew up. Man. good times. :)

In other news, 2 of our steady investigators are going through a really hard time. One of them have pretty bad depression, and said that she would just be better off dead, and how she never wants to leave her house, and she is having a really hard time.. But I talked her through it a little bit, and she's been in our prayers, she knows that whenever she needs a friend, she's got me and ol' elder Castleberry by her side. The other one also has depression, and feels like she's over worked and under paid, and she has house troubles and debt, and it's all a big mess. But she's one of those people that will just do anything we say, and so we've been fasting with her to help her find more work opportunities and stuff, and also for the first lady to feel better.

Other than that: Elder Watkins, a guy in my district is going home next transfer, and he gave me like 8 new ties! so that was sweet, and I got some new pants today. So... You know. pretty exciting stuff.

Love you all! Keep me posted on things. :) Hopefully soon I can send you pics.

Elder Webster

Bret asked Jordan a few specific questions (because sometimes Jordan doesn't volunteer much info!), so I'm posting the Q&A here. 

-Alisa

1) How are your investigators doing? Any new ones?

Investigators are..... eh. But I'll explain more in the main email.

2) Did you get the letter I sent you?

Nope, I haven't gotten your letters yet. It might come in the next couple days though!

3) Tell us about your typical day?

Typical day:

Wake up, go on a mile run, study for 4 hours (personal, companion, language, and noob training), then we have lunch either at popeyes, five guys, with a member, or at the apartment. then we try to visit some less active members/recent converts during the day, and then usually we'll usually have dinner at a members house, and then have a set appointment at one of our (5) investigators' house. then we come home at plan for tomorrow, and go to sleep. that's basically every day.

4) Did you get over the bedbugs?

Bedbugs=dead

5) How's your Spanish coming along?

Spanish is nothing to worry about. Honestly, gift of tongues is a life saver. I can have a full conversation with pretty much anyone as long as they speak clearly, and it helps if the conversation is gospel related. but if it's not, I usually try to make it gospel related. But honestly, Gift of tongues. Love it.

6) How big is your ward? Are sacrament mtgs, lessons, etc all in Spanish at your Sunday meetings?

Wards pretty small. Every thing is all Spanish all the time. (except when someone from the stake comes to speak. then it's in English, and one of the missionaries have to translate. I haven't had to translate yet.)

Love you!

Toumoepaou

Went on exchanges this week with an elder who speaks Tongan. His name is Elder Toumoepaou (tow-mway-pay-ow) and it was SOOO WEIRD! One super cool thing about my mission is that everyone speaks different languages. and it was really cool being with a Tongan Elder. One lady we visited was like "Hey elders, do you want a Hot Dog?" and then gave me a plate with 4 hot dogs, 2 pieces of toast, a pear, some chips, and large lemonade, and a side of ice cream.... Like... As a snack. It wasn't even a meal time. And that kind of thing happened like 6 times. Tongan people NEVER STOP EATING! and everyone I talked to was at least 280 lbs. Which made it weird for elder Toumoepaou to drag around my sorry 140 pound skinny white self.

Some one tell Ethan and Preston to email me from their new email addresses! and tell them good luck for me!! :) they're going to be awesome!

That's pretty much the only super interesting thing that happened this week. Hope everything is going good! love you all!

AT&T park is awesome! hopefully I'll get to send you some pics soon. Because that's what I did this morning. :)

Thanks for everything!

Elder Webster

Pesky Pests and Pesky Tourists

SO this week, I got bed bugs! :D YAAAAAY

They suck. But apparently it's pretty common in the spanish program to go into a members house, and have them crawl on you and have them hitchhike back to you house in your clothes. But I kept waking up with more and more bug bites until my companion told me that I should maybe report it. And sure enough... We have bed bugs. So we called a guy in to spray and fumigate and stuff. Anyway. that was fun.

Yesterday was actually our pday, but since it was also Labor day, all the Libraries were closed. So that's why I'm writing y'all today. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I swear. Monday's should be the day when I write every week.

Since yesterday was our pday, Elder Castleberry and I (with 2 other missionaries) went to a museum/aquarium! It was pretty cool but it was jam packed with tourists because it was labor day and all. But we always get those people that are like "HEY ELDERS!" So it was cool. It's like, any where we are, members usually feel pretty comfortable starting conversation.

Mauricio is doing good. except he is ALSO looking into being a Jehova's witness. (which is fine, It's good for him to explore a little) But I guess the JW's talk a lot of crap about us. He wants to learn more and he's curious and stuff, but he's just super confused in what we teach. But it's all good. Him and his brother (Pancho) are now our official investigators.

VERSE OF THE WEEK: It's a verse that I found in my daily reading, and It's basically exactly how I wish I could introduce myself to people. I actually wrote it on the back of my nametag. :)    <<<3 Nephi 5:13>>> It's pretty good. check it out.

All Good in the Hood

First off: the earthquake. Don't you worry, I'm fine. I slept right through it, and nothing happened to anyone I know. My picture frames on my desk didn't even fall over. My companion woke up for it, but he said it felt like when you pull up to a red light, and you rock forward in your seat a little bit. Seriously, we're good.

As far as the work goes, I've gotten to teach about 8 lessons last week, but all of them have been with less active members, and we're just trying to get them to come back to church and stuff. So no new investigators yet... But it's been super humbling seeing how so many people are living. Even in San Francisco. I've been in apartments that are smaller than my bathroom back home. and it's just packed with junk. and it only has room for like, a bed. So everything they own is piled on the foot of the bed, and they must just sleep curled up in a little ball or something. But they're always smiling. It's a really humbling experience for sure.

But since we haven't really had any new investigators, I have actually been kind of discouraged this past week. It's just hard walking miles to try to visit somebody, and then having them yell at you that they're not interested, and then having to walk miles back home... :/ that happened like 3 times.

Other than that, All is well. We are trying to set up lessons with a girl named Mila, Betty's sister. And I should have to teach an English lesson to spanish speakers pretty soon. So I'll let you know about that.

Love you all! Oh, and PS, some of you were asking, and my mission home address is

4945 Lincoln Way

Oakland, California

94602-2594

Thanks! Elder Webster

So I'm in CA Now!

So I'm in California now! My first area is San Francisco 6A, which is apparently really lucky! it's right in the middle of the crazy active city, and lots of missionaries actually never get to serve there the entire mission. So that's cool. My trainer's name is Elder Castleberry, he's cool. We get along fine, but I don't know, it's hard to compare him to Elder Otto just cause we got along super super well. But Elder Castleberry is from Urtah and plays the banjo and the harmonica. I've seen pictures of his massive neckbeard before the mission, and he's just an interesting guy. haha but in all seriousness, he knows his doctrine really well, and his Spanish is quite a bit better than mine. The one big thing is that I'm a lot more out going than he is, he has kind of a hard time talking to strangers, and he always compliments me on how I'm doing with stuff like that.

Elder Castleberry and I are "shotgunning" the area, which means we are both new to San Fran, so we don't know the area, or have any investigators... So we haven't gotten to teach anyone yet, but we set up some appointments with people we met on the streets.

I get so many weird reactions when people are like "Sorry, I don't speak English!" and then I (being super white) start a conversation in Spanish. Some people are like: dang it, I was hoping I could walk away now... but most people (especially the native Mexicans) are super friendly and will have a super friendly/normal conversation with us and will take our cards and invitations and stuff. Actually, no joke, Mexicans are so nice. It's hard to talk to the white people because about 50% of the ones I've met are super rude. But only about 5% of the Latinos I talk to have been difficult. Honestly. They are so nice. And I get to speak Spanish quite a bit.

My apartment is about as big as my bedroom back home. and it's got a loft (where I sleep) above our desks, another bed for my companion, a kitchen in the corner, and a bathroom that doubles as our closets. There's not a lot of walking room, but we're not usually there during the day, so it's all good. But we live on Mission street and 22nd street if anyone wants to look that up. (Dad)

Our area is a "walking/public transport" area, so I get to ride the "bart" (subway) basically everyday. But normally we just walk everywhere.

I might email a bit later, because my comp wants to go eat... haha more later!

Elder Webster

So there's this one lady, Hermana Betty. She's from Guatamala I think, and she's this little ball of energy. She's about 40, and has a couple kids, and she LOVES the missionaries. She only speaks spanish, but I can understand quite a bit of it. Anyway, She feeds us every Thursday, and I just love her already. I showed her son, (age 6) , a coin magic trick, and he totally freaked out. He's pretty funny too. I can tell we're gunna get pretty tight in this area.

Today, I went and checked out pier 39 and "Fisherman's Warf" and Alcatraz and all those tourist spots, because they're right here in our area. It was so crowded, and we usually get a couple honks and handshakes and stuff in crowds. I think if there's one thing I've learned about this culture is that the latino population just loves the missionaries. they're so welcoming and friendly. Even if they aren't interested in lessons or the church, it's always nice to talk to them. I just love the people here.

Oh, I saw a lady get mugged the other day. That was scary. She's alright now, and her boy friend got her purse back, but it was sketch.

I realize most of this hasn't been spiritual, we haven't gotten to teach anyone yet, so I don't have many spiritual stories. But If there's one thing, it's that the gift of tongues is real. I'm not fluent. Not even close. But whenever I'm talking to someone about the gospel, it all just comes out. So for reals, no joke, the gift of tongues. so good.

I'll send some pictures in a second. I didn't get to take any of the graffiti, but I'll get some for next week. the street art looks so cool.

My companion Elder Castleberry on the right

My crib

Some sea lions

That's the Oakland Temple. Seriously. So pretty.

The Favorite Third Wheel

You may be wondering: "Elder Webster, why are you emailing me on a Tuesday? Are you dumb?"

Well. No, I am emailing you today because I leave for San Francisco tonight at like 2:30 in the morning, thus missing my normal P-day on Thursday.

Anywho. My companion (Elder Otto) (Love that guy) left for San Fernando CA on Monday morning, So I´ve been in a trio with two other elders who are going to San Fran with me. (Elder Arrington and Elder Lotulelei.) both from Utah. They are like, the 2 people I was closest to other than my companion. So it´s cool. But now that main insult is "Come along Third Wheel" whenever someone is being slow.

Something cool happened this week! Hermana Buxton (I think I´ve talked about her before, she´s the one who told me I am a good missionary, and started crying when I was practicing teaching a while ago) Well, she also left for San Fernando this week, and she asked me if I would give her a blessing! Super spiritual, super cool, and she is officially the first person I´ve given a Priesthood blessing to.

Also. this is hilarious. Prepare yourself. Apparently, "picking favorites" is pretty normal in Mexican culture. Or maybe my teacher is just funny. But I was walking with Elder Otto when all of a sudden, my teacher (Hermano Sanchez) suddenly appears behind us and offers to buy us candy. You might have to know him to understand how funny it was, but he like, very sneakily and 007-like, takes us into a store on campus and gets us to pick something out. :) Man... Mexicans, am I right? Teachers aren´t supposed to buy us stuff, but he bought me a Grapefruit fresca. (Delicious and Mexican Soda) because apparently we´re just his favorite companionship!! :) hahaha Then on the last day with everyone together, he was like "I´m really gunna miss you all. Especially Elder Otto and Elder Webster" hahahahaha Classic Hermano Sanchez. Man, I love that guy. Also, he´s going to BYU I think next year. fun fact.

Anyway, All is well. Spanish is good. I just printed out my plane ticket for tonight. Thanks for all the emails and concern. Love you all. I may or may not get to email again when I land in Cali, sooooo... yeah, I have no idea.

Love you all!

PS. I officially made it the entire 6 weeks in the CCM with out getting a single letter.... I know a couple of you sent stuff, but none of it came yet. :( it will probably just get redirected to San Fran.

Hermano Sanchez

Dawn of the Final Day

Firstly, It´s awesome how often I have people tell me that they read my blog. that means a lot! :) love you all, and I love hearing from you! This is my last P-day in the CCM! and we are OFFICIALLY the most experienced noobs. if that makes any sense.. It all gets pretty repetitive, except for I learn different stuff each day. :) But I fly to California next Wednesday, and that should be super exciting! :)

So. The Futbolita tournament. It was pretty rad, there were 19 teams, and they all had an assigned country to represent in the "World Cup" type thing we had going on. Elder Otto and I were Portugal. We basically destroyed the competition. Actually, we got 3rd. which is basically like 2nd place... which is basically like winning. but we lost to Presidente Torres, who´s like 40, and his "companion was his 20 year old son. so. they cheated. haha Just kidding, but they are super super good at futbolita.

Investigators are going well. Eduardo, the "Doctor or God" guy, is still really difficult to teach because he usually comes up with questions that were designed to stump us and make us looks dumb. like... Bible bashing type questions almost. but we can usually handle them and give him decent answers... it´s just hard to get him to realize what he NEEDS to know... and that it doesn´t really matter what the garden of Eden smelt like... but His baptismal date is this week, and he seems basically ready. Jorge is doing good. we got him "baptized" last week. And Meredith is so awesome. she´s always super obedient and tries so hard to do everything we say. gotta love them.

Elder Otto and I got asked to be Hosts yesterday because we are in the experienced group her at the CCM, and I ran in to my friend Nic Neser (elder Neser) on his first day. I haven´t seen him for a couple years because I knew him in Irvine, but It was nice to see him looking all confused and lost. it made my day. :)

Oh, and Elder Funkes is officially in San Diego! I think he left on Monday. maybe Tuesday. I´m gunna miss him. He was always a good friend of Jace´s but me and him got pretty close in the last 5 weeks. I gave him my purple tie as a good luck/goodbye gift. He´s gunna be a great missionary.

As I said, I should fly out next Wednesday, and I´ll let you know what my new address is, because I know some of you were asking.

Here are a couple pictures!!

You may notice, in one of them, I´m wearing Ethan Fredrick´s tie. it´s one of my favorites. :)

Love you all!

Elder Webster

Me and Elder Funkes after wrecking some kids at Volleyball.

And me and Elder Neser this morning wearing suits before breakfast.

Me and Elder Otto playing futbolita.

Nuther Day Nuther Peso

This week, it was alright.

My companion, Elder Otto and I, taught Eduardo about the word of wisdom (amongst other stuff) which basically talks about how we believe that God has revealed that we should not partake of harmful substances like alcohol, and tobacco, and drugs and stuff. And we asked him if he had ever had a problem with the Word of Wisdom, and he was like "yeah, sometimes I like to have wine with dinner, but the doctors say it´s healthy to have wine sometimes."

So we were like, "now that you know that God has commanded us to refrain from alcohol, will you commit to obeying the Word of Wisdom?"

"um. no? the doctor said it´s fine, so I´m not gunna stop."

"Do you believe that God knows about all things?"

"yes."

"do you believe that God reveals his commandments unto the prophets today?"

"yes"

"then will you listen to God and obey?"

"BUT THE DOCTOR SAID IT´S OK"

"WHO´S SMARTER? YOUR DOCTOR OR GOD??"

"BUT DOCTOR"

"BUT GOD!!!"

and long story short, it got slightly confrontational... We stopped teaching with the spirit. which is our fault... but it just didn´t go very well. but we learned, and in our next lesson, we explained things a little better, and we´re tight now. but... bleh... no esta padre.

We also met our new investigator, Merideth, and her daughter, Carter. and they are American and know quite a bit of english, but we´re still supposed to just speak spanish to them. our lessons are going so well. she could probably get baptized pretty soon with Jorge. (our other investigator.) but Eduardo, the "DOCTOR" guy... he has to wait until he´s good with all the commandment...

Also, we started a district wide futbolita tournament last week, and not to brag, but me and Elder Otto as a team... We´re totally undefeated. We are actually super good. but we play again today. and then if we win, we move on to the finals. so I´ll let you know how that goes.

I´m attaching some pictures too this week. hopefully. but if it doesn´t work out... I met another Elder Webster! we´ve actually become kinda close friends.

And the other one is a picture I took of the most dedicated weed puller in the world. I see him everyday, and he always looks awesome.

Love you all. Jaxon, your pictures always make my day. Dad, sorry about the trailer and stuff.

Hailey.... thanks for not emailing me... Jace, Good luck balancing your budget I guess...

and Mom, let me know when you sell all my drawings, because I want a cut of the profits.

Love you all.

Elder Webster

Elder Webster and Elder Webster

Weed puller

Dog Fights and Womanly Tears

Hola

(sorry. This is a long one)

Sooo it´s been crazy rainy lately. We´ve had 2 really bad hail storms in the past week, and it was totally legit. but both of them were during our "Gym time" so we basically stayed in doors and took naps and just hung out. It was so sweet. I got some pictures, I´ll send another email.

The Spanish is coming along really well! We have this thing called TRC every Wednesday, that´s when we teach a random investigator whom we´ve never met about a different topic every week, and we were "roll playing" the lesson amongst some of the other missionaries, and I got paired to practice with Hermana Buxton, (from Washington DC) and I had to teach her about the Book of Mormon. And straight up. I made her cry. She said that the whole time, she was thinking of her friend back home and she just kept thinking "I wish Elder Webster would´ve been called to Washington DC" :´) hahaha so that was nice. :) but the practice went better than the actual TRC. It was a good lesson and all.. but me and my companion had to be grouped with our roommates in a group of 4 for our lesson, and they are just really bad at Spanish.. so it was hard to get them to say much... me and Elder Otto (my companion) taught most of it.

Also, Elder Otto, Elder Lotuleile (the district leader) and me were asked to teach some greenies how effectively study Spanish. You could say we run this place.

This next part of the email is the most exciting part. because this morning we went to the Mexico City Temple!! It was the first time I´ve left the MTC walls. it´s all graffiti-y and loud and scary. But i did see a couple wild dogs fighting in the streets, so that was cool. and someone tried to sell cigarettes to my bus driver off the side of the road.. Mexico man... Mexico... But the temple was really pretty! the downside is that the actual "temple is currently being renovated, so We had to stay in the visitor´s center... Nonetheless, I did get several sweet pictures to remember the moment. Jaxon, I bought you a keychain that I think is sweet.

I´m also sending you a picture of my mailbox. You may notice... It is Empty... Everyday... All the time... Without fail... But you know, whatever. I´m not bitter.

Love you guys! I hope Idaho/Wyoming is sweet. Jace saw a llama this week, so I know he´s having a blast. Dad, try not to get too bored by yourself haha

PS. Elder Otto and I are the Fútbolita (Fusbol) champions. 100% undefeated. WHAT WHAT represent.

Elder Webster

Chillin' in Corpse Pose

HOLA LOVED ONES!!! I sent some pictures a few minutes ago. Hope you got them all. :) it´s way pretty here, except for the daily rain. haha I also learned some spanish slang. haha so if I ever say "Está Padre", that means "that´s sick". kind of. haha So anyway. Things are still going good. haha

My first investigator, Felípe commited to baptism, and now we don´t teach him any more. turns out, he is a teacher here. So.... lame. But he was supposed to act like he didn´t know anything, only spoke spanish, and was supposed to turn down any commitment invitations unless he genuinely felt like he was ready. The teacher knows a guy who is actually named Felípe though, and he was acting as if he was his friend. So it´s still a huge achievement to commit him to baptism. Elder Otto and I have had a few investigators since then, and they´ve all gone really well. spanish is definitely still something I need to practice, but I can almost teacha whole lesson without any notes! :)

I gave a talk this last sunday about Faith in Christ, and it had to be in Complete spanish, and I think it went really well, but it´s hard to say exactly how well because i don´t technically speak spanish, but it was the material that was really important.

I´ve been playing a lot of soccer recently. :) We get a half hour of GYM time every day. And usually, I do Yoga.... Haha one of the sisters in my district has trained to be a yoga instructor, so usually, we just chill in some "corpse pose" or "warrior one". But I´ve moved on to Soccer recently. It´s a good time. haha

Dad, You were asking if i got a haircut, and yes.

Let me tell you something about haircuts in the CCM. THEY DON´T ASK YOU HOW YOU WANT YOUR HAIR CUT!!! they only spoke spanish, So i tried my best to tell them I wanted a haircut, and then they basically shaved my head. haha It´s the shortest it´s ever been. But it´s been about a week since then, cuz I got it cut last thursday. It´s sorta growing out now, kinda. but it´s still short. No more swoop. :(

Hope everything is going well! I´m happy to have gotten so many emails from everybody!! I hear that a few of my friends have been reading my blog, so that´s awesome! I had low expectations of people actually reading, cuz I wrote a lot. but once everything stops being so new, my emails will probably be shorter. haha

Verse of the week. 1 Nephi 3:15

You should read it because I read it last week, and It pretty much sums up how I feel about my mission.  It talks about returning with honor. That, and 1 Nephi 3:7. That talks about being obedient and willing to serve. It´s good. Read it.

Love you all.

Elder Webster

This is Mexican Jesus. We tight.

B Mountain behind mi casa.

CCM

Me and Derek

Old Mexican Pesident

A Quick Summary

Hola

So the MTC (or CCM in español) is pretty.... interesting. haha It´s in mexico city, which is this HUGE compact, busy, loud, dirty city. But the CCM is right in the middle of it, surrounded by 4 big walls and a moat. ?? It blocks out most of the sound, but if you get a chance, check it out on google maps, cuz Im sure it looks super weird.

Also, Thanks to everyone who emailed me. I tried to reply to a couple, but I´m almost completely out of time already, so unfortunately, I just don´t think I can get to everyone today... But you made me feel so loved and missed, and I want you to know that you are loved and missed too.

It´s rained almost every day since I´ve been here. I think I came in the middle of Mexico´s version of "monsoon season" because apparently today was like day 21 of rainy days in a row. Which is actually cool, because I thought I´d be super hot.

I live with 16 guys in my casa, but I´ve only talked with the ones who are in my "district", which is about 8 of them. Of those 8, I sleep in the same room with 3 of them. Elder Otto, Elder Mecham, and Elder Capels.

QUICK SUMMARY OF MY ROOMMATES:

Otto- my companion. He´s tall, kinda quiet, and super super funny. We get along pretty well. but his spanish is pretty awful, so they asked me to help him whenever I can. He´s the type of person who has played in Super Smash Bros tournaments when he lived at BYU. but he´s originally from Michigan with his family of 10, including his identical twin brother.´

Capels- He is from South Carolina, and he has a thick South Carolina accent. His spanish is even worse than Otto´s...

Mecham- Elder Mecham is pretty chill. I think we´d be friends if we lived close. But he´s from Morgan Utah, and he used to be a butcher´s assistant. Him and Capels don´t get along very well, which stinks, cuz their companions and we all share a room.....

Anyway, My spanish is probably the best out of us 4 because two of them took french, and the other one didn´t take a language. So whenever we have to buy something or talk to people, they usually stare blankly until I translate for them. which is pretty sweet and all, but I´m nowhere near fluent...

I kinda forgot that it was 4th of July last week... we didnt do anything to celebrate it, other than have hamburgers for lunch. but that´s about it. Happy late 4th of July!

I´ve seen Elder (Derek) Funkes almost every day this week, and we´re pretty tight. we hang out whenever we can, but we´re not in the same district, so it´s usually just for about a half hour at lunch or dinner.

I have an investigator already!! I´m pretty sure he´s not a real investigator, but we have to talk to him in only spanish, and teach him according to the situations he´s "in". but it feels so real, so it´s actually pretty cool. His name is Felipe, and after about 5 lessons, me and Elder Otto got him to commit to baptism on August 1st! :) it´s been going well!!

I have so much to tell everyone, but first and foremost, I love you all, and I laughed hard at all of Jaxon´s pictures. glad things are going well! keep emailing!!!

Elder Webster

I Landed In Mexico!

I landed in Mexico! I´m safe and happy. Spanish is already kinda weird to deal with. I´m currently typing on a spanish keyboard, which is very similar yet surprisingly different from an english one. and sometimes it typo-underlines random words I know are correct because my computer is set to spanish... and the signs and graffiti look awesome. I only have 5 minutes total to write all my emails, so I'd like to turn this into a family email. PLEASE SHARE WITH EVERYONE  Mom, Dad, I love you and I hope you keep sending me emails all the time because I was super excited to see the ones you sent today. Thanks for the facebook update dad. That picture makes me look ridiculous, but I´m happy to see that I´m missed!!! :) I made a friend in the airport today! his name is Israel, and he´s about 10 years old, flying alone, and looked as scared as I felt, so I sat with him for a while in Texas and we had lunch. He´s pretty chill, but I´m positive that his parents will either love me or completely hate me for talking to their kid, but whatever.

Hope you're not dying of boredom without me. Love ya!

Elder Webster