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...