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