May 27, 2013

Hey Family, so it was a good and a bad week for us.

Good. We had a Baptism this week. Sofia got baptized. It was really easy teaching her the lessons before her baptism. She’s really smart and can remember things really well. Her problem is that she is diabetic. She has these mood swings almost everyday. She’s an Angel when she’s feeling good, but seeing her on a bad day just scares me. Her Mom and her grandma came to the baptism. Her Mom isn’t a member yet because she is not married to her husband. We are working on her. She said she felt really good seeing her daughter get baptized. I’m really happy for her and her family.

I’ll have to send the picture of the baptism next week. Today we moved into a new house and I don’t know where I packed my cord to my camera.

We moved into our new house this morning and we had to do a lot of cleaning this week to help get our old house ready. This morning was the worst; we cleaned for about 3 hours before the moving truck came.

The new house is really nice. It’s one block away from our church and our area. Our old house we were about 8 blocks away from the church and our area. We also live really close to awesome members. It’s great that we can be so close to the members now.

Bad. I was sick all of this week also. It has to be with the change of temperature. It was really hard on me trying to motivate myself to work hard. Please pray for me and my companion that we can feel better so that we can work.

We didn’t have anybody come to church this week which was a bummer. This was the first time in a long time where we didn’t have anybody come. It was a bit disappointing because we found some awesome new people and we were sure that they would come. I’m not sure what happened. We had a leaders meeting last night and our zone leaders were very surprised that we didn’t have anybody in church. They just told me not to get discouraged because sometimes God sends us a trial like this to see how we will respond. It’s easy to work when things are fine and life is good. The test comes when there is pressure.

They told me that they had great respect for me as a missionary and that I was someone reliable and 100% obedient. They also said no one could say anything bad about me as a leader because I was doing everything the way it should be. They knew that I was doing everything possible for my area. I think I really needed to hear this for myself. Sometimes I’m too hard on myself. I don’t know what God is trying to teach me right now, but I just know I’m going to keep on working.

I love you guys so much. Thanks for everything. Please pray for me that I can find these people that are ready to receive this gospel.

Love you guys.

Elder Webster

May 20, 2013

Hey Family,

It was a very trying week here in Artigas. It rained for pretty much the whole week. I’m still sick trying to fight off a flu and my companion also got sick this week. Thursday we stayed home for the whole day because my companion had a high fever and threw up a couple times. First time I’ve ever had to stay in the house because of sickness.

We had zone conference this week, I now feel really old in the mission. I hardly knew anybody or even recognized any one from the other zone (zone conference is always done with 2 zones together) but everyone seemed to know about me. I don’t understand how this keeps happening.

 It was really sad when we heard President Heaton and Hermana Heaton give their last testimonies as our mission president. It’s going to be a really weird transition having a new mission president.

Sunday in sacrament meeting I was feeling so stretched as a missionary. There were just a lot of tough things that happened over the week and I was feeling so taxed physically and spiritually. We were having problems with investigators not coming to church and problems with members and I felt very responsible for all of the bad things that were happening. I felt like I was doing my best but I still felt weighed down. I remember listening to one of the speakers talking about Moses and traveling in the wilderness with Israel. Moses was doing everything correct; he had just helped free the people of Israel from Egypt. And yet after he had accomplished such a great task God sent more tests and challenges his way. He continued to have trials and tests until he died. But God always sent help to Moses, God sent Aaron and others to help him. He sent a quorum of 70 also to help him. Also, the Lord was with him and always guiding him. In the Cloud during the day and in a fire during the night. I loved his talk. I was feeling sad in that moment because we didn’t have many of our investigators go to church that day. Right After his talk we sang and they said a closing prayer. Right after they said amen to the prayer. A member sitting behind me and tapped me on the shoulder saying, “Elder, This is my Friend Veronica.” This is her first time coming to church. She is interested in taking the lessons. I couldn’t believe it. God answers our prayers and he sends help when we feel burdened down. Just like Moses with every trial that he faced in Egypt and in the Wilderness.

We are going to have a baptism this week with this little girl named Sophia. Please pray for her that she can be ready.

Love you guys.

Hey Family how’s it going? It was so good to see you guys yesterday. I can’t believe that was my last call home. Time just flies by so fast. It was great to see the house. I can’t believe how nice it is and how big it is. Lauren is so big now I’m glad that you guys are doing well. I’m happy with the work that we are putting in here in Artigas. I have never felt more self-satisfied with my own work. We’ve been working really hard. I have been fighting with a cold, but I refuse to let it beat me. I love the talk by Elder Bednar. I listen to general conference talks as I get ready and I listen to his talk about not shrinking often. I’m trying not to shrink in these last few months of my mission.

I went to Brazil today with my district and we ate at this Brazilian restaurant. Some of the other Elders from Utah said it’s really similar to the one in Salt Lake where they just keep bringing meats out until you say no. I also talked to one of the waitresses that could speak in Portuguese and Spanish and we came to find out that she lives in our area; she told us that she almost got baptized a while back but then something happened. We asked if we could pass by again and she said yes. Pretty Funny that we found an investigator that lives in our area…in a different Country. All of the other people we talked to talked to us In Portuguese. Pretty interesting. We also met with some other missionaries from Brazil. It was hard understanding their Portuguese. Some words are easy to understand, but some other words are just way off the map. They said that the church was pretty small on their side, with only a few branches. We told them that that’s pretty weird because we have a stake on our side of the border with 6 wards.

It’s an open boarder, so we just walked across a bridge and there we were in Brazil. I’ve now been in 4 different countries in my life: United States, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

We’ve been working with this little girl named Sofia. Her grandma is a member but her mom no. I think the only reason her mom isn’t a member is because she works on Sundays.

She came to church yesterday even though it was raining. She lives in front of the Church and she came by herself. I was very proud of her. Please pray for her that she can be ready for her baptism the 25^th of March

Hey, I love you guys. Thanks so much!

Elder Webster

May 6, 2013

Hey Family,

How’s it going? This week went really great. We got a lot of work done this week. I feel very happy with the efforts we are putting in to help this area out. We helped a lot of less active people go to church…also, a few Investigators. I’m really attached to one of the Investigators. His name is Geraldo, I feel very connected to him even though I met the kid 2 times. Geraldo plays professional soccer here in Uruguay. He plays for one of the best teams. He is on the youth team for now because he is only 18. But when he turns 19 he’ll be playing for the big league. His whole family is baptized except for him. We are hoping we can help him out. His family is great. They take care of us big time. We are going to be doing skype in their house this week…so maybe I’ll show them to you.

The district is already improving. I feel very happy about that. The zone leaders like a lot of the ideas that I have and are even putting a few into practice. The zone is on the upside now, we just need to help it reach its potential. There is still a lot of work to do. The president even made a few emergency changes to take out some disobedient elders. President is pretty serious about helping this zone get back on top. President told me that I need to be an example for the zone and be an example of obedience.

Artigas is a town that’s on the boarder with Brazil. Everyone knows Portuguese. The other day we did a contact and a lady came out of the house speaking in Portuguese, so there I was trying to do a contact trying to use as many Portuguese words that I knew. Luckily the two languages are super similar. I was able to give a small message. We talked for about 10 minutes in front of her house. She told us that she is evangelical but that we could come back another day. Pretty funny experience, my poor companion didn’t understand a thing.

 

Yesterday we went to church and the meetings were all really nice. It was fast and testimony meeting and a lot of people talked about praying for the missionaries. There are about 4 that are serving right now in our ward (not quite 25 haha). It’s nice because everybody knows these 4 missionaries. I gave my testimony saying that missionaries can feel the power of these prayers, and that we need them in times of difficulty.

We also went to another sacrament meeting in a small branch. I had to give the Sunday school class. They told me about 1 hour before the class started and it was about temples. Not so sure about how the lesson went but I felt good when I bore my testimony about the importance of the temple in my life and that the temple was very important to our family. I said that I have a brother who is waiting for me on the other side of the veil and that nothing else can be more important than keeping these covenants…so that I can be with him again.

I feel like I’m getting a little better at giving Sunday school lessons and district meeting talks but its still a struggle. I think I just need to keep practicing.

I’m very happy that I can be a missionary. It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world. I love seeing God’s hand in my life and I love helping people. God is changing me and helping me to become someone.

The only time that I have to do Skype is at 7:10pm my time, 4:10pm your time. Sorry that doesn’t give much time to get home from church, but it was the only time.

Is there anything that I can do for you guys?

Birthday: One more thing I want to add is more peanut butter. I’m trying to put on more muscle for when I get home…haha.

Love you all. Can’t wait to see you guys next Sunday.

Love Elder Webster