Lieutenant Dan and Oscar

Dear loved ones!

I'm glad to hear things are going so well for everyone. Shout out to my mom for entering the business world once again. Shout out to Elder Webster por los intercambios divertidos y los investigadores que estan progresando.

Elder Muniz and I have enjoyed a full week of finding and teaching. For various reasons niether Mariela, Eurogio, nor the Ramirez's could meet with us this week. They are the investigators that we normally focus on, but this week, we were able to focus our efforts on finding some new people! :)

Meet Lieutenant Dan:

We met the uncle of one of our Less active members this week. unfortunately, he's not interested in the slightest about what we have to say... But he makes for a good story! He's about 40 years old, and he is completely deaf, and has one leg, and has a passion for singing and song writing. He's a fairly bitter man who has a real potty mouth and will continue to talk and talk and talk because he can't hear when you are trying to talk back to him. He can talk to us totally normally, but he lost his hearing and his leg in a war. So when we had something to say, we would write it down on a paper and put it in the air, and then he would read it and then keep talking. He sang us a couple of (inappropriate) songs he wrote at the top of his lungs. And his family insists that he is very good, so he just keeps doing it. We tried saying something that might interest him about the life after this life and about how we will be able to have perfected bodies and have perfect health, but he really wasn't all that interested..

Meet Oscar:

We got a phone call from some of the english-speaking elders this week and they told us that they were standing by a man that spoke only spanish and they wanted us to translate over speaker phone for them! His name was Oscar, and he was basically begging these 2 elders to follow him to his house to have a lesson, but they had no idea what was going on. haha We ended up telling Oscar that Elder Muniz and I would be happy to meet him at his house, but that the 2 missionaries he was with wouldn't be able to communicate very well. haha We showed up and he legitimately asked us to baptize him as soon as possible and that he would do everything we asked him to do. We set a baptism date for him on April 18th, but he said that was too far away, so he moved it the April 11th. He just wants to get baptized! It was a crazy random miracle. sadly, upon further inspection, we learned that he lives outside of our boundaries, so we had to give him as a referral to the missionaries that cover his house... :( So now Elder Castleberry and Elder Yellowhorse are teaching him.

Lastly, Elder Muniz and I decided to find a more effective service opportunity because cleaning the streets has become a little... disgusting. So as of this last Saturday, we are officially registered as volunteers at the Hercules Public Library! WHOO! I'm pretty excited about that actually. It looks like a good way to brush up on my Dewey decimal system.

Jose Figueroa (the boy I interviewed for baptism a couple weeks ago) got confirmed a member of the church yesterday! And I get to give another interview this Saturday! But this next guy only speaks Portuguese. I've met him a couple times, and it seems like if I speak Spanish and He speaks Portuguese, we can still understand each other. But I'll let you know how that goes. :)

Gunna be a good week!

Love you all!

Elder Webster

Transfer 6 - Week 1

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well back home! By now, Ethan Snell is probably "Elder Snell", and he is going to be an awesome missionary for sure.

Dad, I'm glad you're enjoying the new buggy! I hope it's still around next year!

My week has been a fairly average week here in Richmond. Elder Muniz and I got the assignment to stay here for another 6 weeks, and we just finished our first week.

Mariela is doing well! She did have to call and cancel our appointment this week, but we are still set for her baptism next month, and we have a family home evening with her and her aunt's family tonight!

Didn't see a ton of awesome progression with anyone specific unfortunately..

But I do happen to have a couple random mission stories that happened this week!

1. PUPUSAS. Pupusas are an El Savadorian meal, which I love. It's got beans and cheese and cabbage, and it's wrapped in this torilla thing, and it's really good! But I can only eat like 2 or 3 until I'm full. Well this week, we were at a member's house and she made pupusas for us! Which of course, I was super grateful for. My plate was piling with not 2, not 3, but FIVE big plump pupusas. I wasn't really even that hungry, but I didn't think it would be impossible. right? it's just food! well... I got done with number 3 and felt like I couldn't eat another bite. It was bad! it was like every ounce of me was filled with food. And I was just over half way done!!! I looked over at my vacuum of a companion and gave him the eye that said "Can you eat this for me?" and he started to laugh and shook his head as if to say "You're on your own". So I slowly, painfully, shoved down two more greasy pupusas bite by bite until I couldn't eat any more! And then I continued to eat.... And eat. It was so hard. But I finished it! It felt as if I had reached the top of Mt Everest. Probably one of my biggest accomplishments this week. :)

2. This was is gross, but short. On Thursday, Elder Muniz and I decided to spend some service hours walking around the hood with garbage bags to try to clean up a little bit. We noticed that it started to smell really really bad. And it didn't take long to realize what the source of the smell was. In the middle of this HOT day in the streets of Richmond, some disgusting human being decided that he couldn't wait any longer to use the bathroom. And here we were, as missionaries, deciding to clean up the streets with gloves and a trash bag. so it was our responsibility to clean up after him....So. Gross. #missionlife

I did find a cool scripture this week! Alma 7:23 I like because it teaches us exactly how God expects us to act. We should be humble and patient and submissive and I recommend that you read it and pick one or two attributes that you can work on TODAY! I personally picked patience! I've been sort of in a slump in this area because I've lived here for about 4 months, and I was kind of expecting to get transferred this week! But I didn't, and as much as I love the ward and my apartment and my area, I found myself a little bit less motivated this week, and I think I just need to be more patient with myself and with others. :)

Any ways! Love you all! Life is going good! Write me when you can!

Shout out to Grandma and Grandpa for the Card this week! And to Elder Fredrick for continuing to be my loyal pen-pal! haha Hope your transfers go well!

Elder Webster

Me in my lavalava!

I decorated my handbook :)

Baptism + Police

Thanks for all the emails! I'm happy to hear that life is still going on back home, and it sounds like this week was a pretty good week!

Shout out to Hailey for the prom invite, and to Jace for the baptism, and to Jaxon for the bloody nose... Love you! And everyone else of course. :)

There was some sort of crime her in Richmond the other day. (Obviously). But we went to go visit a member in our ward, but we couldn't because it was all blocked up with like a million cop cars. We pulled over down the street a ways and then we noticed that there was a helicopter and search dogs and stuff. it was crazy. We eventually visited the member a couple days later, and he didn't even know it happened. He was sitting peacefully at home during the whole thing, and knew nothing about it. I love that concept of finding peace in times of war. This example was more of a literal example, but as I thought about that situation a little more symbolically, I realized how much of a blessing it is when we are able to be happy and peaceful and clean even though the world is so full of chaos and temptations and evil. And yet, here we are! (hopefully) trying our best to make the right choices! I know that as we strive to make the best choices, we too can find peace. ya saben. pero me gusto todavia.

This week, I got to lead another baptimal interview. This time for a 10 year old named Jose Figueroa. He was very well prepared, and he passed the interview with a gold star. He even sang me a couple songs! haha Good kid. He got baptized yesterday at the temple, and I'd been ask to help do a musical number with Elder Ah Hoy! We a Capella sang "Las Familias Pueden Ser Eternas" (Families can be Together Forever) So that was fun. It was an excellent turn out too. We got our newest investigator (Mariela) to go to it too! :) AND SHE LOVED IT!

This investigator, Mariela, is golden. She was a referral that we got from a family in our ward on that day that Elder Muniz and I spoke in sacrament about missionary work. It's the member's Nephew's wife.

STORY TIME:

We needed to find a member to come to a visit with us, or we'd have to cancel it. She was going to be home alone, and we can't visit single women if we're alone. Mission rule. So we needed to find a member, and fast. We called a couple people, but they were all busy or didn't pick up the phone. So we decided to stop by the house of the family that gave us the referral! Just to see if they could help us last minute.. Turns out, they really needed us there! One of their sons is about to get deported to Mexico for a DUI, and the mom was losing sleep and stressing a ton. understandably. We were able to give her a blessing of comfort, and bring a smile to her face, and it was beautiful! :) She ended up coming with us to our lesson too, and with her help, we had the most powerful lesson EVER with her. Long story short, Mariela is set to be baptized on April 11! :) Such an awesome story, but I'm not sure if I'm explaining how much of a blessing it was. God definitely helped us is every step.

For example: If we had spoken about a different topic at sacrament meeting, we wouldn't have gotten that referral.

If we had rescheduled the appointment, we wouldn't have had that member there.

Who knows, she might have denied the baptism date and never have gotten baptized if things had gone differently, and we are excited to work with her. :) God's hand is in all things.

Love you all!

Elder Webster

Samoa, Skype, and Sebstian

I'll be honest, I haven't really thought about "Rodeo Break" in quite a while. But it sounds like everyone enjoyed it despite being sick back home..

My week was so full of awesome, I don't know where I should start. But I did have the opportunity to go on exchanges with one of the Elders in my district!

His name is Elder Mulipola, and he is from American Samoa. He's in the English YSA branch, so it was totally different than what I'm used to. But I loved it! And he taught me how to pray in Samoan too! :) unfortunately, we didn't teach a single person on exchanges. All of the people they had planned to visit either weren't home or called and canceled. So we spent a little while just talking to people in the streets. My old companion, Elder Ah Hoy, was from Samoa too, and he gave me a "lava lava". which is one of those traditional skirts that Polynesian people wear. So it gave me a reason to wear it again! haha

On Thursday, an old Peruvian lady called us up and wanted us to help her move her bed. We had never met her before, but I guess she is a less active member of our ward! So we went over and tried to see what we can do, and it turns out... She's basically blind! But she asked us if we can hook her computer up to the TV so that she could see it bigger, so we did. and then she asked us to install Skype for her. It took a little while, because I am terrible with computers, and Elder Muniz is even worse, but we got it done! :) We were all set to leave, but then we got talking about why exactly she needed Skype if she had such a hard time seeing. She said it was because she wants her kids to be able to see her. It made me think of our relationship with our Father. He's only a prayer away after all, and it's pretty easy to talk to Him. But because He loves us, He wants us to be able to SEE Him too. I think that must have been the reason He lets us have the scriptures. And prophets. And Bishops. And basically everything. So that we can DIRECTLY see all the things He does for us. I love it.

Third story is about these members named the Espinoza's. They have a daughter on a mission right now in a Utah Visitors Center, so we go over every so often. They have a son at home named Sebastian who is incredibly cool. Good guy. Super fun. Late 20's. Always helps the missionaries out. Well, this week, we went over to eat dinner with the Espinoza's and Sebastian comes rolling up in a brand-new, blacked-out, 2015 Mustang. It's beautiful. He let me get in and start it up, and wanted us to take it for a test drive, but we weren't aloud to. (mission rules) But awh man. SUCH a nice car. Fun fact about Latino culture: a lot of times, their cars are nicer than their houses.

Lastly: Ramirez family (our main investigators) are really interested in the lessons. They have us over about twice a week, and usually give us dinner and stuff. They're the best. But we've had to teach the Restoration about thrice so far. The wife, Sarah, is a bit confused about how Thomas S Monson got called to be a prophet. but we're still working with them!

Also: it's March 2nd, so I've been out for 8 months, but yesterday, I burnt my "6 Month Mark" tie! A little bit late, I know. but a special shout out to Kieth Weber for giving me the tie. :D haha

Love you!

Elder Webster

I have the best mission call!

Wearing the ashes of my burnt tie

The month of February

Sebastian's Mustang

Typical missionary pic

TALK About a Pretty SICK Week!

I'm pretty sure that by now, you've pieced together what happened this week just based on the subject of my email. My puns are getting less creative. I know.

But! you're right! This week, I was sick for about 3 days! the worst of it was on last Friday. I ended up sleeping through most of the day, but on Wednesday and Thursday, I pretty much sounded and felt gross, but I didn't want to take a sick day because we had some important messages to share! It was a little unfortunate, but I'm all better now! :)

On Thursday, some of the other Elders in my Zone asked me if I could give an interview for their investigator's baptism! Her name is Nai, and she is from Laos. She's basically the quietest person I've ever met. She speaks pretty good English, but part of her culture is to keep her head down out of respect, and I don't think she was used to speaking so openly about her beliefs, nonetheless she will make a great new addition to the kingdom of Christ. :) I was a little bit nervous for giving an interview though. It was kind of weird to think about the fact that last year I was scheduling a hot tub party, and this year I am scheduling an interview for someones salvation.

The Ramirez family is doing pretty good. Manuel has a job fair that he's going to today. It's basically a place where a lot of employee-searching businesses get together and it brings in tons of people that are out of work, and it sounds like if they like you, a lot of times they will just hire you right then and there. So we're really excited to see how he does. We taught him about prayer and how it can really take the edge off and calm you down. I hope he picked up that we wanted him to apply that today, because he was pretty nervous for it. (If you want to imagine Manuel a little more vividly, just picture Sid the Sloth from Ice age wearing a baggy white t-shirt.)

Lastly. I GAVE A TALK ON SUNDAY! :) It went well. They called Elder Muniz and I on Saturday night at 8:30 and asked us if we could each prepare a 15 minute talk for the following day. And we were like.... Bring it on. our topic was "The Role of Members in Missionary Work".

I feel a little more comfortable with Spanish now-a-days, so I decided to just make some bullet points and try to just say things that come to my mind. and this is what I got:

THE FIVE BASIC QUESTIONS OF MISSIONARY WORK

WHO? D&C 4:3 - if you have desires to serve God, YOU are called to the work.

WHAT? (recite missionary purpose and explain.)

WHEN? First line of (Spanish) "Called to Serve" Which says "We are called to the service TODAY"

WHERE? D&C 24:12 - at all times and in ALL PLACES.

WHY? D&C 88:81 - If you have been warned, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to warn your neighbor.

HOW? Preach My Gospel Chapter 9 "Importance of Members" second sentence - Members should invite others to meet missionaries, and then be present during the lesson.

Somebody asked me for a copy of my talk afterwards, I was totally honored. But I didn't have one, because I didn't have time to write a whole talk.

BUT! If you want to hear a kick-butt talk, you should look up Troy Dunn's EFY talk: "Life is a game of Football" on youtube. because THAT talk basically rocked my world.

Hope everything is going well at home! but if not, you can tell me. :) Love you all a ton!

Elder Webster

Got Stood Up on Valentines Day

Welp! This week was a little bit discouraging at times. Firstly, because of the Ramirez family. :( I don't remember exactly what I wrote about them last week, but they are some former investigators from forever ago, and we just started teaching them again! I saw all this potential in them. They let us in, wanted us to eat with them, we set a return appointment, we had some laughs and even planned a big family trip to the Temple! I actually really like the family a ton! They do have a son, Manuel, who has a big history with various drugs, and has been known to kind of "Disappear" for years at a time, and never telling anyone when he's going, where he is, or when he's coming back. But he's home for good now because he's got a kid, and we were going to help him straighten up his life.

So our "Big Family Temple Trip" was on Valentines day, and Elder Muniz and I started driving at about 3:00. We got a call from Manuel at about 3:30 and he said that the family had some issues to work out, and so Manuel would be the only one coming. Of course, we were sad... That's terrible. But we kept on driving. At about 4:00, we got a call from Manuel's wife, and she told us that when we see Manuel, we should tell him to either come straight home or not to come back at all... She was pretty upset. and she told us that as Manuel was leaving the house, he had told her that he was going to meet his dealer. So he may or may not be coming to the temple (like he told us).

Long story short.... We got to the temple at about 4:30 and waited for Manuel. And waited. And waited. And Waited.... He never showed up. Now no one can get a hold of him, and he's probably gone for good. :(

It basically made me not want to talk for the rest of the night. Neither of us did. mind you, this family was GOLDEN! and Manuel was the most interested out of any of them. It basically broke my heart. :( I fell in love with this family, and had all these goals and plans to help them, but now they've completely fallen.

This whole fiasco made me think of a scripture (of course...). It's in Acts 14:22. One of my favorites actually. I can't remember exactly what it says in English, so I hope my translation is close enough: "....it is through much tribulation that we enter into the Kingdom of God." This tells me that life is going to be full of problems and set backs and even heartbreaks. But the kingdom of God is there for those that can pass through them all. And I can't wait to get that big hug for my father when I get there.

Gotta love that mission life! :) It's hard and stressful, and full of set-backs. But I love it.

Thanks for all the support and love! Happy Valentines Day! :)

Love You!

Elder Webster

Long drive to the temple

Planning outside with Elder Muniz

#nofilter