01-27-13

Hey family how’s it going. I’m doing well in sunny Uruguay. I got sun burnt pretty bad this week. I went on divisions with some elders in my district and I forgot my hat and my sun block. We ended up walking for a long time in the sun. Ugh, I hate getting sun burnt.

This week was pretty good. I’m enjoying the work and we are witnessing a lot of help from the Lord. I realize that I need to become better as a missionary, with handling responsibility and learning to plan better. My Spanish can always get a little better, but right now we are working with a family to get baptized. The Gonzalez Family. We were afraid of asking the mom (Elizabeth) to get baptized because we did not think that she was married. She is very poor, and many Uruguayans choose to forgo marriage.  I finally asked at the end of a lesson. And she said yes she is married. A great weight was lifted from our shoulders learning that. We are now helping them get more involved with the ward. We are receiving a lot of help from the ward. We are excited to see a family investigating the church. Please pray for them, they still need a lot of help.

I’ll be praying a lot for Stephen this week; I really hope he will get this job. I know he’s been through a lot. It’ll be great if he can get this job. I remember watching videos with him about this mascot. I love how the mascot looks. 

Questions:

I need a few things.

I need a new IPod cord. The white one that has a usb connecter.

With Lauren, I was wondering if you can send some more photos with her playing volleyball. More action shots if that’s possible.

Try to get an update on Elder Scott from Hurricane

Answers:

1. I’m ok, I’m a little tired. Finding it hard to sleep at night. Just thinking about all of the things I have to do the next day.

Transfers are the 12^th of Feb. Coming up pretty quick.

One thing I’m learning is trying to help people with the work, when they know a lot more than me. I’m learning how to deal with pressure, stress management, all that jazz. I’m also learning how to let myself have more fun.

Ok family I love you, and thanks so much for all of your love and support.

Elder Webster

01-21-13

Hey Family how are we all doing? It sounds like we are keeping things ourselves busy as usual. This week was really eventful. I really enjoyed it. Things are stressful with the all of the new responsibilities, but oh well. Having great experiences helps me keep it all in check. This week we helped a less active mom go 7 days without smoking. She said it was one of the hardest things she has ever done. But she said she definitely felt Heavenly Father giving her the strength to quit. She still has desires to smoke but with time we hope it’ll lessen.

 

Antony went to Church again, but is a little hesitant to get baptized. He is afraid of becoming a missionary. That is one of his biggest doubts. We will be working on him this week.

 

One of the miracles we had was finding a family last week, The family Gonzalez. They have 4 kids ages: 7, 10, 13, 15…Mira, Juan, Miguel, Angel and Nico. Their parents, the father and the mom. We found them this last Saturday we invited them to Church. All of the kids have been really excited to go. They have also been praying and reading their scriptures every day for the past week. Two of the kids have said that when they said their first personal prayer that they felt something happening…that they felt different and had a feeling in their hearts. We explained to them that it was the spirit telling them that these things are true. After that moment they have had great desires to learn more and progress. The only problem was the parents. The dad doesn’t want to listen to us and the mom is a little hesitant. But Saturday we invited them all to church, and promised the blessings of the going to church. She said she would try it out. We went and looked for them Sunday morning and brought them all to church. The mom said she could only go for 2 hours. After the first 2 hours she said she had to go, we invited her that she could stay for the last hour the most important hour, the sacrament. She said that she had to go. Before she went we promised her kids that we would show them the baptismal font. We went and showed them, the kids were excited to see it. The mom was very silent. After that, she said she wanted to stay for the last hour. We sat together in sacrament room. It was a really neat experience, showing them the baptismal font.

 

The package didn’t come again, nor my debit card. I’m hoping it didn’t get lost.

Oh well. Thanks family for everything. I’ll continue to pray for you guys. Much Love, Chase

 

Lauren. Feliz Cumpleaños, Did you know that when Girls turn 15 years old in Uruguay they throw an all night party for you, with cake and gifts, and a lot of alcohol. But we’ll skip that part. The birthday girl has to dance all of the night…from 11 to about 6 in the morning. They also wear a white dress and no one else can wear white. A great significance for the purity that all young women have. I also like it because it is a reminder of the White Dress that you will wear when you enter the Temple.  Lauren I hope you have a great birthday. I miss you so much and wish I could be there to see your special birthday. Just remember that as a Daughter of God you have great worth. Continue to live your life so that you can reach that Goal of Temple Marriage and to be Worthy to Wear White.  Love you Lauren. You’ll always be my favorite little Sister.

Love, your Brother Chase

Hey Family, This week was pretty eventful. One of the hardest working weeks of my mission. First of all, Brennan’s Birthday package came. I loved it. I go to bed every night wearing my Notre Dame shirt to help me remember to pray like a champion. In the night and in the morning. And I have my sign above the door to touch every time I leave the house. To help me remember to ask for inspiration while working. To pray like a champion today and to Preach like a champion today. I love it.

 

This week I had my first baptismal Interview. I interviewed three little kids that the Sisters in our zone were teaching.  The First was named Roman. He did great with the interview, it’s really amazing how much little kids can learn and understand. After all of the questions I asked him who was going to baptize him. He thought for a second. Then pointed at me and said "You Are." The next day I baptized him and his sister Evalin. It truly was a great spiritual experience. One that I hopefully will never will forget. I’ll send the picture in the mail with our Invitation.

 

We found a lot of new people to teach. All of them are part member families. We also found a little boy named Antony, he is 10 years old. He accepted to be baptized Feb. 2. His mom we are working on, but we think if he gets baptized she will follow. He went to church this week and really liked it. He knows a lot of the other boys in primary from school. It’s nice to have friends who support.

 

We helped a less active mom of a youth go to church yesterday. We did service for her all Saturday morning so she wouldn’t have anything to do Sunday morning. She Works from 4 pm until 8 am the following morning. She hasn’t been to church in years. The young man said how grateful he was that we helped his mom go to church. He’s getting ready to serve a mission and he wants his mom to be active all of the time that he is gone. I felt really good helping her come to church. Now we are helping her quit smoking. We gave her a 1 week church program that has helped many people quit. Her Name is Zully, if you guys could pray for her this week I’d be very grateful.

 

I did not get the other Christmas package or the debit card. I’m really hoping for it tomorrow.

 

This week really was one of the most fun weeks of my mission. I’m hoping for the same results this week.

 

I love you guys,

Chase

January 7, 2013

Hey Family,

This week I feel like I’ve started a whole new mission, its crazy how different I feel about the work now. Things seem to move a lot faster now. It reminds me of football when I had to make the change from playing Freshman Football to Varsity.

But this week we did have a lot of success finding new people. As we were talking with a member we shared a scripture with her about the Savior and when he visited the Americas. He asks if there are any among you who are sick or blind or lame or are afflicted in anyway. “Let them come unto Me.” After he said that those were afflicted came unto him, according to those that brought them to him. We explained that there are many of our family and friends that are afflicted in many ways. We can help them come to Christ. To be healed of these afflictions. After we explained this she felt like her father-in-law needed this help. The next day (after we went to house of her father-in-law) I felt Inspired that we needed to have her husband come with us to talk to his father.  We asked the husband if he would come with us to talk with his father. He was a little hesitant at first, having already tried many times to preach the gospel to his father. But I told him that I felt inspired that he needed to come with us. The wife also said she felt inspired. After much encouragement from the wife, he said he would come with us. When we got to the house of his father, he was not there, so we waited a little while and talked to the husband for a little bit. After a waiting for a while, a few of his Cousins and his Aunt arrived. We decided to talk to them. We invited the aunt and the daughter of his cousins to be baptized. They accepted. The husband left the lesson crying a little and saying how grateful he was to preach the gospel to his family. There really was a purpose to our visit. A small miracle this week.

I’m glad you guys enjoyed the holidays.

Answers

1. This week was very good, I enjoyed it a lot.

2. A lot more responsibility, but my companion is great, Elder Alverez from Spain.

3. Tough, I had no idea it would be like this. I have had a lot of great leaders. The best in the mission actually. All of them are Zone leaders now.

Also, the New assistant to the president is Elder Landon Laycock. I went to Elementry school with him at Westfield and we`ve become good friends here in the mission.

4. Tomorrow I will get my packages.

I love you family, if Lauren has questions about her report just tell me and I can work on something for her.

Love you guys,

Elder Webster

January 2013

Hey Family,

Pretty Crazy week with the Holidays and Transfers. It was great seeing you guys and how much Lauren has grown. Holy Cow! I Had lots of fun spending time with members on Christmas eve and 31st of December. They do really big barbeques here, It’s the only time that their meat actually tastes good because they send all of their good meat up north to the USA. We ate Lamb and pork for Christmas Eve. It was really tasty. We also played a lot of card games. We played Uno must of the time. They let us stay out longer than usual (until 10:30 pm). At midnight we watched the fire works from our apartment. For Christmas and New Years they light fireworks. It was a really fun Christmas, a lot better than last Christmas. I’m glad I can speak better Spanish now and actually talk to members and make those friendships.

Yesterday we had transfers and they told me that I am and staying in Tacuarembo and that my companion is going. They also made me a Sr. Companion. Pretty Crazy. They also made me District Leader. Now I have a whole bunch of responsibility.

New Years Eve I prayed to Heavenly Father and felt like that my progression as a missionary wasn’t where it should be…and that I wanted to grow faster and become that missionary that He needs me to be. Next Day He answered my prayer with these new tasks…District Leader and Sr. Companion.  I’m very Excited for this new Challenge and I’m sure it will be a soul stretching experience. If I have ever needed your prayers on my Mission, I think it would be in this moment.

 

My new companion is from Spain…which is pretty cool. I pick him up tomorrow morning at 4:00 in the morning.

My Christmas packages will get here next Tuesday.

Thanks so much family; I’m so blessed to have you guys in my life.

Love,

Elder Webster