Some Memorable Stuff!

Dear Loved Ones,

Sounds like everything back home is going alright!

Shout out to Hailey for rocking that dance recital! If you can figure out how to send the video, that'd be cool!

Shout out to Elder Fredrick for once again being a spiritual GIANT! *and for calling me yesterday*

Shout out to the family for going rock climbing. you ROCK! :)

This week went alright I think. In the past few weeks, I've felt like we've been seeing more and more progress with investigators, and a lot of our numbers have been on the rise! a lot of things really have been going pretty well for Elder Muniz and I! This week seems to have been a little slower for us, but we've been working really hard, so despite our lower numbers, I feel like we've done as much as we can.

The first (slightly boring) update was this Saturday, Elder Muniz and I were asked to give a training at a Zone Training meeting! I had asked Elder Muniz to give a training a couple weeks ago during a District meeting about how to work with members. And whatever he did, he did an excellent job. So they asked him to give the same exact training again, but this time, in front of a larger crowd. It was the same as the first one, except for this time, we split it between the 2 of us. It went pretty well I thought! :)

The only investigator that we're working with that is getting close to a baptism is Mariela Irama. She's just a miracle. I love her. Unfortunately, one of the requirements before a baptism is that she would need to have attended 3 or more sacrament meetings, and she works on Sundays. Tonight we're giving her a church tour and teaching about the sabbath day. We're going to ask her to request this next Sunday off so that she can attend with us. I'll let you know how that goes next week! :)

Transfers are next week, so I MIGHT be moving to a new area soon. I'll find out before next week if anything changes. I've been in the same area for about 5 months now, and I LOVE IT. I've really gotten pretty close to the ward, and I feel like I've really helped quite a few people here. But I'm still excited to see if I'll be moving somewhere else! honestly, it doesn't matter to me either way. It's cheesy, and I'm sure everyone says this as a missionary, but this really is the Lord's work. No matter where you're living, or who's in your area, there's always someone there who will benefit from coming closer to Christ.

Here's some random pictures for the week to make up for the less-than-exciting update! :)

This is a traditional Mexican sombrero that an awesome member named Jose Largaespada gave me :)

Just a random dog that came up to the window while we were painting a lady's house. Elder Muniz and I helped it to have more swag.

General Conference #2

Dear loved ones,

What an amazing conference that was. I'm fairly confident that this years' annual spring General Conference was my favorite conference of all time.

Just a couple quick thoughts about what I really liked about it :)

Last week, I told you about how I was going to write down some questions I had, and try to find the answers in the Conference. Saying "it helped" is an understatement. I realized things about the gospel that I had been completely ignoring. I received answers to all of my questions, multiple times.

Question 1: What defines a Successful mission?

Answer: I learned from the Priesthood session of a missionary whose brother was a Zone Leader with many baptisms. The young missionary went on his mission with the desire to become like his brother, receive a calling as a zone leader, and baptize just as many people. He soon learned, however, that NONE of these things will help determine whether your mission was successful or not. It doesn't matter how many baptisms "you got" or what your title was, or even how many companions became your friends. But instead, the success of your mission should come from your dedication to the Lord, and your willingness to submit your will to His. Under closer examination, I was thinking about all these so-called "success definers" and one thing REALLY stood out to me. Nobody will EVER be able to accurately describe to someone how successful his/her mission was.

You can tell someone how many people you baptized. But it doesn't matter. You could tell someone what your callings were. But it doesn't matter.

You could tell someone about your mission buddies. But it won't matter.

The ONLY people that should know how successful you were on your mission is YOU and the Lord.

I loved that.

Question 2: Obedience Brings....???

Answer: As you know from last weeks email, I've been putting a real focus on obedience lately, and after that exchange with Elder Yellowhorse, it's been on my mind a lot. It is a very basic church belief that Obedience to the commandments brings Blessings. But I learned something from this conference that completely changed my perspective about following the commandments.

Previously, I knew with all my heart that if I follow the commandments and the mission rules, then I will be blessed. I would receive blessings that would help me in the field and for the rest of my life. Blessings I wanted. Therefore, I would have to follow the rules. Often times, my only motivation for trying to follow the rules was because I wanted to earn some sort of reward. But. I've been doing it wrong.

I realize now, thanks to Elder Uchtdorf, that although it's true that I'll get blessings for my obedience, that should never be my "motivation" for following God. As it says in John 14:15 If you love me, keep my commandments. It's as simple as that. There's my motivation. I now know that I should be obedient because I feel a desire to show my love for God. Never again just to receive some sort of prize.

I loved that too.

Question 3: How can I bare a testimony with power?

Answer: Keep On Practicing

I loved that as well.

I know that Thomas S Monson is a courageous and inspired prophet of God. Through prayer and fasting, he receives the God-given inspiration to speak to us, and it's an opportunity that, if properly taken advantage of, can really help us and inspire us to be better. I know that you aren't perfect. That's ok, because neither am I. But you and I both have the chance to pray and fast, and work to master the Christ like attributes that will help us to have happy and successful lives. I know that Christ was our perfect example, and that even though he was the most perfect of us all, he still had to endure the same temptations that we do. He always chose right, and it's possible for us to do the same. I know that He lives, and loves us both. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love you all!

Elder Webster

Portuguese Luiz

This week was great!

Glad things are going well back home!

Thank you for the emails!

(the beginning of my emails are probably pretty repetitive, but they usually go something like that!)

OH! and Shout out to everyone who sent me pictures this week. :)

So from last week, do you remember Oscar? I really thought he was golden. And he really is a good guy. But here is some updates from good ol' Oscar:

The Elders I gave him off to, Elder Castleberry and Elder Yellowhorse, got to visit him a couple of times, and in a nutshell, they were told that the environment was too dangerous, and they probably shouldn't visit him any more. But they do send him occasional spiritual thoughts and church invitations. So we'll see how that goes..

So I was talking to the other Elder Webster a little while ago, and he told me that he's been trying to pick up Portuguese recently! Props. Portuguese is sooo weird. I've looked into it a little bit, and basically, if you're fluent in Spanish, you can probably understand Portuguese! There isn't really an equivalent in English that I can compare it too. But they are close enough to each other that even though they're not EXACTLY the same, and the accent is a little different, it's not impossible. SO! That being said... Elder Castleberry found a man about 8 weeks ago from Brazil who ONLY speaks Portuguese. His name is Luiz Souza, and unfortunately, we don't have any Portuguese speaking missionaries here to teach him, so Elder Casteberry was the one that got to teach him. He's had various companions along the way, but Elder Castleberry was there as they taught every single lesson to a man who doesn't even speak the same language. Crazy right? WELL! I got to give his baptismal interview this week! I did it in Spanish, and he spoke nothing but Portuguese, but we did a whole 45 minute interview with each other, speaking different languages, and had ZERO misunderstandings. I got out of the interview completely amazed at the story line that I saw. Elder Castleberry and I didn't know any Spanish before the mission, and purely through some incredible help from the gift of tongues, us as missionaries have been able to communicate well enough to help the spirit bring a man to his conversion. isn't that powerful? I thought it was a huge testimony builder.

(Pictures Attached)

I also got to go on Exchanges this week with Elder Yellowhorse, one of my Zone Leaders, and he really taught me a lot. I really just wanted to shut up and listen to his counsel, because his obedience and his diligence is just incredible. We were together for about 24 hours, and we saw so many miracles. Not even "blessings" or "improbabilities" but full blown Miracles. Like, one in a million chance-type things happened all day long. They were unavoidable. He inspired me to live more obediently. It's almost ironic, because the BIG blessings seem to come when you pay attention to the SMALL and SIMPLE things. like... "obeying the laws of the land" including using your blinkers and parking within the lines. and being "Modest with your language" including avoiding slang and slurs. any one of those things wouldn't be enough to convert a crowd right? but I now know that God blesses us for however much effort we put in. You should try it out some day. It works.

And that's the big highlights for the week! Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa and Mom and Dad for the St. Patrick's day stuff! I actually went to McDonalds today to buy a shamrock shake for the first time, and they said they were SOLD OUT! So I have to rush to a different McDonalds after emailing. hahaha

Happy Conference! Happy Easter!

Love you so much!

Elder Webster

Me and Portuguese Luiz