Bus Surfing

Elder Broman and I decided to try out a finding idea that I'm pretty sure is crazy. But it worked out great, and was a lot of fun! Usually, the biggest downside to working in San Francisco is the travel time. On bus, sometimes it can take an hour and a half to get to some appointments... BUT, this week, we set aside two hours JUST to travel. We had NO destination in mind.

we just Jumped on a bus, sat by two different people, and started to teach them whatever we could. When they got off the bus, or it was clear they weren't interested, we would get off the bus and get on the next one! It was super fun, almost like a game. AND we got like 3 or 4 new potentials out of it, including an 18 year old Columbian that Elder Broman found. He's looking pretty promising. We'll probably keep doing that for a while.

Also, Felipe got Confirmed a member of the church yesterday! The Young Men's President confirmed him, and it was super powerful.

We challenged him mom to be baptized, and she said she would be too scared to change from what she grew up with (Catholicism). which is totally natural. Her brother converted to the church a few years ago, and he talked about how hard it was for him to make the change as well. Actually, he was kicked out of him home when his parents found out he had been taking discussions. He prayed and asked to know what the right path for him was and he received a clear answer that the LDS church was the route he should take and that the Lord would provide a way for all those that follow Him. IT. WAS. AWESOME. He is such a great support for her. We think she'll be baptized once she prays about it sincerely. We're not rushing her, it's gotta come from the heart for it to have any impact on her, but we think she'll be baptized in the next month or so. Pray for her! #CeciliaCruz

YUP. Love you all.

ps. I found out there are a lot of members in my mission that read my blog. haha shout out to you!

Thanks for everything!

Elder Webster

List of Miracles

This week was great! Here are a couple cool miracles this week:

1. We had a second appointment with a new investigator, Jorge, and we had challenged him to read the Restoration Pamphlet. When we went back this last Saturday, he told us that he's been in an overly happy mood all week long, and it has something to do with us. He said he read the whole pamphlet (even though we only challenged him to read 2 pages) because he liked the feeling it gave him. We explained that he was beginning to recognize the Holy Ghost, and explained that the Holy Ghost helps us find spiritual truth. He opened up his pamphlet and had answered all of the "Additional Study" questions in the back of the pamphlet, and asked if we could give him the Book of Mormon. He said if a small pamphlet could help him feel like spirit so strong, he wants to read the Book of Mormon.

He's totally in the House of Israel. (That's not funny to anyone but me... sorry.)

2. We were waiting for a bus, and when it came, it was just us and the bus driver. He turned around and asked us what we can do to fix a broken heart. He had been through a lot of rough life changes lately. His Girlfriend cheated on him, he has health problems, his family is falling apart... etc. He told us it was no coincidence that we showed up on his bus at that time. We said we wouldn't be able to teach him on the bus, but we know how to help with a broken heart, and that if he would give us some contact information, we would send missionaries to his house to teach him. He said he had been praying for some sort of sign, and we were the answer.

(background information, we only got on that bus because Elder Broman and I felt prompted to visit a member that brought us close to his bus route. We had no reason to visit that member, but both decided to check up on him for whatever reason. Traveling to his house brought us to that bus driver. We were way far from where we had planned to go... But that's where we were needed.)

3. We had a baptism yesterday! It was the first baptism in this area for 3 years. We have two more coming up this month. The rest of our mission calls San Francisco "Sodom and Gomorrah" because it's know for being ridiculous, but we've seen nothing but miracles for weeks.

Love you all

Betty's cute puppy!

This Week

Temple day was splendid this week. I took my study topic to the temple and ended up with more questions than I had at the beginning, but I did have a lot of cool things stand out to me that I didn't know before! :)

The Cruz family came to church again, and then drove all the way up to Oakland with us to go to the Visitors center and watch Porque Yo Creo, at which one of my converts and Oakland was asked to bare testimony. So we got to see the Carrada's family share the stories of how they got baptized and what there testimonies are. WHICH WAS INCREDIBLE! Their lives have completely changed from the time they got baptized till now. People claim that happens, and I think we typically just write it off as not a big deal, but I was there every step of the way with the Carrada family, and I saw them pre-baptism, mid-baptism, and post-gift of the holy ghost, and there is actually quite a big difference. They were just a normal family filled with bickering and disagreements and disunity, but now, they are always smiling and seem to be happier with and around each other. Must be one of those "had-to-be-there" things, but for me personally, I now have a strong testimony of the gift of the holy ghost and the fact that living the gospel blesses families.

In Other news, this is the last week of this transfer, so if I get a new companion I'll know by next week. so... I'll keep you posted.

That's pretty much all the stuffs for this time.

Not too eventful this week, lots of meetings within the mission. We're putting a big focus on member work.

in other other news, rule change says that we're aloud to wear sunglasses now. (about time) just kidding :) but seriously.

So, a few months ago, Elder Struve and I put a big focus on finding FAMILIES. We works with the Primary, we visited formers that had children listed, we tracted in areas that would hold families, we've been praying for families, and I might have mentioned this already, but I'm really happy to report that our teaching pool is now full of families. :)

One family in particular has not only "agreed" to baptism, but has "COMMITTED" to baptism. They've been studying on their own, praying to be ready by their date, asking great questions, and this last week they even came to Stake conference at 9am in an unfamiliar chapel. and LOVED it.

The odd part is that this was clearly an answer to our prayers... But didn't come from any of our actions. They just showed up out of nowhere pre-prepared. This was a testimony to me that this is the Lord's work, not our work. It is THEIR time to BE BAPTIZED. Not OUR time to GET A BAPTISM.

A little picture I drew on my window in front of my study desk.

Elder Webster logo

Innkeepers

Hey everyone! So in response to all the emails I got about coming home soon: A lot of you asked if it's hard for me to focus, or if I'm looking forward to coming home. ---Nope. It barely even pops into my mind throughout the week. But thanks for reminding me.

In other news, I'm going to the temple tomorrow and Elder Struve and I decided to make it as special as we could. It's been in our prayers/fasts for a few weeks now, and we each picked progressive studies we've been working on for a few weeks in preparation, we did some family history last week to find some family names, and I'm super excited. Elder Struve's been focusing a lot on the Creation (way more in depth than I've EVER gone into it. Example: What did God do on the 7th day of rest?) And I've been focusing a lot on the role of the Devil and the need for opposition. My studies are going AWESOME, and I'm excited to finish them up tomorrow in the temple.

In other other news, we're going to baptize a family in 2 weeks. I know I say that a lot, and then we have to drop a lot of dates, so you never see pictures, but mark your calendars this time. Cecelia and Felipe Cruz are a mother and son, and they are probably one of the most sold investigators I've had in terms of faithfulness. They're right up there with the Carrada family from Oakland. Props if you remember who that is... The Cruz family takes an hour long bus ride to the chapel every week and prays about the day they can be baptized, they're willing to turn to the book of Mormon to find answers to their questions and then pray to know the truth of what they find. Most members don't even do that. Their awesome.

We just got a new bishop assigned yesterday. His name is Bishop Kitchen. I haven't really met him yet, but Elder Stuve and I are going to go over and have a Pupusa party with him and his family tonight.

Side note: one of the 70 came to our stake conference yesterday and challenged us to be "Luke Chapter 10 Innkeepers" as opposed to "Luke Chapter 2 Innkeepers". Extra points if you can find out why one is better than the other.

Love you all! :) See you in like 2 months ish!

-

Elder Webster

President Frandsen Knows Betty!

This week was good.

Got to talk to my family yesterday. That was cool.

They heard a lot of the updates already, and I don't really have a ton of stuff to say this week anyway, BUT Here's a kinda cool story:

On Friday night, President Frandsen (Our Mission President) called us and asked us if we had any dinner plans for Saturday night. He was planning on going to a baptism in our district that night, and since we don't have a car, he offered to take us out to eat and give us a ride to the baptism afterwards. :)

We already had a dinner scheduled with Betty (A super loud/funny member of our ward), BUT she's a single woman, and we aren't aloud to eat alone with women unless there is a third male present, SO we decided to invite President Frandsen to her house and eat dinner with us there! :)

One does not simply dine with the President at Betty's house. It was legendary.

Other than that, things are going just dandy. Elder Struve finished his "training period" of 12 weeks last week, so now we're just normal companions. so that's cool.

Love you all!

Que Grandioso es su Llamamiento!

Such a good week. We found 6 new investigators this week! Most of them are new families, and we were able to set dates with a couple of them. They look pretty good so far.

Here is something exciting that only Return Missionaries will appreciate:

Elder Struve and I invented a 2 minute lesson plan about the Book of Mormon (menant to be used in tracting) that is informative, interesting, engaging, answers popular misconceptions d only takes 2 minutes! It's worked wonders for us in our area.

If you have a blue Book of Mormon with you, this will make more sense..

1. Offer to teach a 2 minute summary of the Book of Mormon

2. State the 8th Article of faith (We believe the Bible to be the word of God, we also believe in the Book of Mormon.)

3. Read with them the (full) title of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Ask "What does 'another testament of Jesus Christ' mean?" (check for testimony)

4. Turn to first Picture of Jesus Christ. Testify that it will help us follow Jesus Christ

5. Turn to Picture of Lehi/family. Explain that the Book of Mormon is a record of Prophets in the American Continent in the same time period as the Bible.

6. Turn to Picture of Joseph Smith. Explain that it was translated to English by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 1800s.

7. Turn to Christ in the Americas. Explain that the resurrected Jesus Christ visited the American Continent to teach the Gospel.

8. Offer a Book of Mormon pass-along card. Set a return appointment to explain in further detail the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gold I tell ya.

Anyways, all is well in the hood. We just went shopping at Costco with one of our members... So I can't complain. :)

This is Kind of a weird request, but I've been doing this comprehensive study for the last few days about Satan in preparation for my next temple trip in a couple of weeks. and it's been super interesting! If any of you have any insights about Satan, let me know! haha

Fun Fact: Lucifer (satan's name before the rebellion) only appears one time in the entire Bible. Lucifer was one of the spirits in Authority in the Premortal realm. He didn't take on the role of the Devil until he opposed God's plan. Up to that point, he was just Lucifer... Our spirit Brother.

Deep Doctrine, but interesting huh? Let me know if you have any cool facts about Satan!

Love you all!

Primary Missionary Initiative

Check this out,

So a while ago, we had the idea to hold a "Bring Your Friend to Church" day.

We went into the Primary and I told the story of Derek Funkes and how Jace helped him be introduced to the church and now he's not only baptized, but on a mission! We challenged them to think of friends that they can invite to church and we would bring them and their friends candy if they come. Yesterday was that day, and we were amazed at how much of a success it was! Our goal is to teach families, and every kid is part of a family, so we thought if we can get more kids to church, we can teach more families! It worked like a charm. We're hoping to add a few of them as investigators in the next couple weeks.

In other news, this weekend we had a "Mini-Missionary" with us! He stayed with us from Friday night till Sunday night. Basically just spent the weekend as a missionary. He's 13 years old, he lives in the Tongan Stake of San Mateo, and he's awesome! He helped us tract, taught a couple lessons with us, studied and worked like a missionary and was even willing to eat ramen and macaroni for like 3 days straight. He liked it a lot.

^^as a "Thank-You" his mom gave us these homemade Tongan Leis when we met her Sunday night. She had tears in her eyes and was super grateful for us. It was all very heart warming. I felt really close to the kid! I got his address and phone number, and I'd be happy to keep in touch with them. :) Heres some pics.

Other than that, it was a pretty standard week. Things are going great. We're preparing a lady for baptism in the next few weeks. If everything goes well, she'll be baptized on May 29th. *Sonia

Love you all!

Mini Missionary

Tongan Lei