Hand written letter November 26, 2011

November 13, 2011

Dear Family,

            How is everything?  I hope well. I appreciate the emails I that I have received and love to read them. Things at the MTC seem to be moving way too fast. It feels like only the other day that I was sleeping in my own bed. The Spanish is a little better but I am still not up to par of where I should be.

           

            Stephen was right about the MTC being like a spirit prison. I feel the spirit so strongly here but yet when I go outside for actividad fasica I always feel like a prisoner when I see the walls and the one barbed wire fence we have with spikes on the top. We also have two security guards here so it feels like a prison.

            Here is a quick summary of a regular day routine. Every morning I wake up at 6:30, get out of the bottom bunk of my bunk bed, and I work out for about twenty minutes. While I work out I always listen to the Hercules song “I can go the distance”. It’s the only pump up song I really have. Then I go shower and shave at 6:50 and I’m ready to go at 7:05 am. It takes my companions from 6:30 to 7:05 just to get ready! Tuertogas (turtles) is what I call them. The three of us then head down stairs to have breakfast. We eat from 7:05 to 7:35, we then go back up to the room to do whatever until 8:00. At 8:00 we have to be in our classroom for personal study. I love personal study because it is just me and my Libro de Mormon! At 9:00 we have companion study in which we prepare lessons for our progressive investigators. Our progressive investigators are our teachers acting as investigators. We go to a classroom and knock on a door like its their house and we try to teach them. This is where most of my stress and frustration comes from because my companions and me aren’t doing so hot, because of our Spanish. We just can’t get our message across. We’ve lost two investigators which even though its practice, its hard to deal with.

            At 11:00 we have grammar until 12:00. Lunchtime (Almuerozo) goes to 12:45. We have missionary training from 1:00 to 2:30. We watch these pretty cool videos of live real lessons of missionaries. Its pretty interesting how much you learn from these guys. We have actividad visica at 2:30 to 4:00. I usually play basketball or ping pong with my one companion who doesn’t like to play sports. But recently I have been trying to play soccer with the new group of latino missionaries that just came in. At 4:00 we have TALL which is a language learning program that BYU created. This time is very helpful for me. I focus on the subjects I don’t quite grasp. At 5:00 we have more grammar, then at 6:00 we have Lena (dinner). At 7:00 we have more language study but this time it’s more on helping to teach the gospel. At 8:00 we do another progressive investigator but with a different teacher. Then at 9:00 we have planning, then at 9:30 the American missionaries get together and sing Spanish hymns. After that I read my scriptures for a bit, change into my pajamas, which is my Jimmer jersey and my BYU sweats. I write in my journal and pray. That’s a regular weekday here in the MTC.

            Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are a little different.  Thursday is P- Day YEAH!!! It’s the day we get emails and write letters and play outside from 2-6pm. Its great! It’s just nice to have something to look forward to help you get through the weekdays.

            Saturday we go prosolitismo from 12- 5 pm. They drive us pretty far into the city in a small bus/van we are then given a map and let loose until they pick us up. Its kind of scary talking to people but at the same time it really isn’t. I am pretty good at walking up to and talking to people. It’s my companions that are the shy ones. What’s really funny is when people see you walking on the sidewalk and they cross the street to try to avoid you. If I see some one do this I’ll mirror them and cross the street too and then go right up to them and start talking to them. Prosolitismo is fun but frustrating. The Argentineans’ talk really fast so its hard to understand them. It is hard giving a lesson when you can’t talk to them so I just try the best I can and try to hand out pamphlets or Books of Mormon.

            Yesterday when we went prosolitismo some crazy guy stole my sack lunch when we sat down to eat. It was kind of sad. It was even sadder that my companions did not get a single contact by themselves. I pray for my companions’ success every night. I just wish I could help them more!

            Sunday: The Sabbath day is really a day of rest. We have sacrament meeting with just the Americans. We all have to prepare a 5-minute talk in Spanish for sacrament meeting but only two of us get chosen to speak. President George randomly chooses so no one is really safe. So two missionaries speak, then we get to hear from Hermana George for 10 minute as well as President George for 10 minutes. Their talks are always amazing. They have lots of really cool and spiritual stories. President George reminds me a lot of grandpa Rasmussen. It just seems lie he has an amazing answer to everything. We have two sessions of Sunday school and Priesthood. President George always teaches priesthood. Then the president’s counselors teach Sunday school. Later in the evening we watch devotionals from the Provo MTC. I love these because the Apostles always talk. We have an advantage over the missionaries in the Prove MTC because we can take notes while we watch the devotionals. The Provo missionaries are not allowed to take notes because it’s too distracting for everyone else. After that we get to watch some church movies like Legacy, Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration and I think we get to watch the Testaments tonight. Sundays are amazing here. All English, Its great!

            Family, if you could be so kind, I would like to hear some spiritual experiences you’ve had in your life. Anything would be great…maybe a moment in your life when you were truly converted, or a point in your life when you knew that the church was true.  I just want to hear experiences from family. I know it is a lot to ask but I would really like to have this for Christmas. I like to hear people stories and hearing testimonies.

                         I’ll leave you with my testimony. I KNOW that this church is true; I know that Jesus is our Redeemer, and Savior. Through Him we can return to our Padre Celestial as a family and live forever. This is why I am out here, to help other families return. I love you guys so much, and I miss ya’ll.

             It kind of makes me sad that I am missing birthdays. November was always one of my favorite times of the year. Its mom and dads birthday, there’s football going on, Thanksgiving, black Friday and it means Christmas is right around the corner. I am missing that. Here it is just weird. The days are getting hotter and my allergies break out every time I go outside. But, oh well.

            Mom, hope you had a great birthday! Dad, hope you have an amazing birthday. I hope Stephen is doing well at work. I hope he finds a girl to marry before I come home or else I’m going to bring home my teacher Hermana Aponte she’s a very attractive RM. She is perfect for Steve. Ha ha! Dad I hope things are going good with your work and with the Chris Stewart campaign. Mom I wish you the best in your new calling. I hope they are treating you nicely. Lauren! You best be behaving and being a good girl! I hope school and volleyball is going well and I hope your friends are being nice to you. Remember to keep reading your scriptures every day!

            If you guys have any questions for me ask! I would love to answer them.

            Please send me a Brennan story also. I need these things written down. I feel like I am starting to forget everything! Love you all

Elder Webster            

November 24, 2011

Hey Family! Yes I finally received a package today. It was the first one you sent me. it had Laurens letter and Lacey and Jentri's letter,  and candy. Thank you for sending that notebook. I love it already. It reminds me of the Indiana Jones notebook from the Last Crusade movie. But that is all I received no letters yet. But i´m really happy that I got a package.

I´m doing really well here. I´m making progress each and everyday. Sorry about my plaque I´ll mail you a scripture today. We are not allowed to take pictures, but picture day is coming up so I´ll send you something soon.
I can´t tell if I´ve lost weight or gained weight. I need a scale. I´ll send you a picture and maybe you can tell me.
Sorry about the pouch thing,

 I have to apologize for my letter. I told dad happy 52 birthday. He just looks so young I still can´t believe he´s over 45. but i´m really sorry about that. I´m having a really hard time trying to remember my life before my mission. its only been a month and I´m already forgetting stuff.

Happy thanksgiving day! I so wish I could be there. I´ve been waiting so long for dads birthday to be on thanksgiving again, and now i missed it. Que babadidad. I finally figured it out what it meant. It´s like saying o my gosh. but in a context like o my gosh he´s so good at basketball, or like oh my gosh I can´t believe you did that. its translated into ( how barbaric) I think its really funny, people use it different texts but mostly when they are suprised.

Well I love you all thank you for the updates. Happy Thanksgiving

November 17, 2011

Hey family. I am doing well here. Thank you for all of your love and your support. I always look forward to my email time. I haven’t received any letters yet. But for Christmas I would love candy bars. Snickers, reeces pieces, cookies and cream, also if you could send my byu pajamas. I´m really not sure what I want for Christmas I really want your testimonies or spiritual experiences for Christmas that would be really great. I would also like stories with Brennan.

Being a District leader is kind of tough. We only received 3 Americans in this last transfer so they just decided to put them with us. With the 3 Americans came this really emotional girl that keeps breaking down crying in the middle of class. She isn’t really pleasant to work with so it’s difficult. Also my one companion is a complete goof off. It’s very frustrating. But life here is just great.

The new Latinos really like me. I help them out a lot with stuff because I’m the district leader. They call me Capo, (Capo is the word for Stud) which makes me happy. They call me that because I work out in hall every morning and I am really strong. We have arm wrestling matches at night the Americans vs. the Latinos. It’s pretty fun.

I hope everything is going well in the land of America. If you want to hear about anything else just let me know. I will write more detailed things in my letters. I hope you can read my handwriting and sorry if my grammar is poor. I feel like my English is getting worse everyday as I learn more Spanish. I love you Guys. I hope to receive your letters soon

November 10, 2011

November 10, 2011

Hey family,

Things are going great here at the CCM. We just had a transfer and it seemed like everyone in the MTC left. There were only 13 missionaries in the MTC for a whole week. It felt like a ghost town going from 50 to only 13. Plus the President of the MTC left town. Once the teachers went home we were the only ones in the whole building. Kind of a weird feeling, but we have a Counselor to the President here named Gomez Paz. He looks like would be in the mafia…just the way he looks and talks. Every day he just shows up with candy or ice cream or just things that are really hard to get here in Argentina. It’s funny because when we ask him where he gets this stuff he just says, “I have my ways,” and just laughs. He has made this week very fun. I have had a chance to talk to him by myself and he gave me some encouragement on the language. He said sometimes the Elders who have the most trouble learning the language at first in the MTC actually do better in the mission field because they keep practicing everyday and they master the language. The missionaries that learned it so easily plateau because they feel they have enough Spanish to teach. This gave me great comfort and extra determination. I study whenever I can. I bring note cards to meals and try going over subjects while I eat. I even try to do that during free time when we are playing sports. It’s a little harder to multitask when playing soccer with the latinos though, they are all just way too good at soccer. It’s not even fair.

Happy Birthday Mom. I love you so much and I hope it was good birthday.  I always love November because it’s yours and dads birthday, and then there is Thanksgiving and football and just so much great stuff.

Well, I miss you all. Thank you for the sports updates. I’ll try writing a little more since they only give us 30 minutes to write emails. I pray for you guys individually every night.

Love Elder Webster

November 3, 2011

November 3, 2011

This week wasn’t the best week Spanish is frustrating, we have a sister in our district that just knows so much more than the rest of us. We teach practice lessons to a fake investigator everyday and its just embarrassing because we can barley speak any Spanish. During my physical exercise time I either play basketball with most of the other elders, or I play ping pong with my companion. He is kind of a big kid so he doesn’t like to play basketball. I love my time here, the days go by so fast but it also feels like I have been here for an eternity. 

Fun news is that president D Todd Christofferson is coming to speak to us.

I have learned so much mom I love it. I feel the spirit and I feel your love everyday when times get hard. I feel Brennan helps me too.

Dad I’ve been way great. Sorry I meant to say I’m a district leader. I wish I could’ve been at Tanner’s farewell. Tanner and I have a special friendship because we’ve both shared personal stories. He talked about his dad, and I talked about Brennan.

Dad I appreciate the great example you’ve been to me. I appreciate having a great priesthood holder in the home. You’ve taught me a lot about hard work. 

Stephen thanks for setting a good example for me on going on a mission. I really appreciate that. I miss your sense of humor!

I am writing a letter today so well see how long it gets there. They say airmail is the best way to get mail here. Whatever that means K love you guys