02-27-13

Hey Lauren, How’s it going? Mom sent me a video of your volleyball tournament and I was pretty impressed. You did two pretty awesome spikes. You’ve sure grown a lot since I’ve been gone. You are a lot more athletic now. WOW! I’m doing good Lauren, sometimes I get really stressed about the work and how I’m going to help all of these people. I’ve seen Heavenly Father help guide the way time after time. I know Heavenly Father will answer our prayers. We just need to ask. Ask him about volleyball or cheer. He’ll help you make the right decision. Hey, love you Lauren. You’re not so little now, but your still my favorite little sister in the world.

Besos Lauren. Love Chase

Hey Family, How’s it been going? This week has been pretty good. It rained a lot here, which stunk because my laundry basket kept on piling up as the sun refused to come out. We had some pretty cool experiences this week.

Sara: Sara is now our main investigator. She’s already been to church 4 times now. We only have had 2 lessons with her. Sara is 50 years old with 2 kids and is going through a divorce right now. She also lost her job and needed help. She landed a job with Direct TV were 3 members of the Church also work. They became friends at work and told her that she needed to go to church to receive the help she needed in this time of difficulty. So she went and she loved it. She is still very hesitant with the whole baptism deal because she’s been Catholic her whole life. We are working on her. The 1st lesson we had with her we talked about the Book of Mormon and how it is a book of deliverance. 2nd lesson we talked about the plan of salvation and why bad things happen to us and what is the purpose of this life. She really accepted our message and is praying and reading every day. She even has her 12 year old son saying prayers with her now. He still has not come to church but this is a big step prayer. The 17 year old daughter still doesn’t want anything to do with the church. Like all typical teenagers. I think she’ll come around with time.

At the baptism of Sandra there was another ward there who also had people getting baptized. So we did the baptisms together. After the baptism, one of the ladies from the other ward came up to me to shake my hand and she told me that when I was dressed in all white she thought I was an Angel. Or she thought that’s what angels look like. Very interesting hearing that. I’ll always remember when Grandma showed me the photo with Christ and the little children with the angels around about them telling me that I looked like one of those angels.

Well family I’m doing good. I just get a little stressed sometimes. Now more than ever. It’s tough training because at the beginning you have to do everything. You don’t have that balance when teaching or when working. So the load is all on you. But I know that I can handle it for a little bit longer.

I’m happy that I’m having new experiences that I can tell you guys about. I feel like my mission is just now starting and I’m trying to make up for lost time. I know I’ve grown a lot in my time here in Tacuarembo.

I need: 1. A new memory card for my camera. I’m almost out of space.

2. Peanut butter. I need a little bit more protein in my diet now that I’ve started my exercises again.

3. Some new ties. I’ve given away a few of mine to some of the converts.

There was something else but I forgot. Darn.

Anything I can do for you guys. I’m going to write a letter today; sorry it’s been so long.

I was super impressed with the video of Lauren. She really has gotten a lot more athletic. That’s my little Sister.

02-18-13

Hey Family. It was a pretty interesting week. Every week seems to be getting more challenging. I continue to see Heavenly Fathers help with all of the burdens. I had to do a lot of things this week and I felt very humbled, but I’ll explain those things later.

This week I was called to be a trainer. I went down to Montevideo Tuesday night and arrived Wednesday morning. I spent the morning and lunch at the missionary home. It was good seeing old friends, Elders in the offices and the assistants. It was surprising to see how many friends I’ve made in the mission. In the mission home we received some brief training and some things to help inspire us. One thing I liked was that they showed us the video when Susan Boyle sang for Brittan’s Got Talent. You’ll have to see it. It helped us as trainers understand that we need to be very positive and not to judge these knew missionaries and to help them fulfill their potential.

Then we went to the temple grounds to find our kids. They stand in a row on the temple steps, and we come in behind them so they can’t see us. Then we sang Called To Serve. After we were done, they turn around and meet their trainers. Pretty fun experience. My kid is Named Elder Gudmundson. He’s from Orem Utah. A really tall and skinny kid. He actually reminds me of Trent a lot. He’s a pretty smart kid, He knows Spanish pretty well already. I’m glad I won’t have to spend a lot of time teaching Spanish and we can just start working. He’s pretty cool though. A bit socially awkward and really shy, but nothing that time in the mission field can’t change.

Sandra got Married this last Friday and baptized the following day. Saturday. Woop Woop. I was invited to be one of the Testigos for her marriage. That was pretty cool. Definitely a first. I had to fill out a ton of paper work, and sign my signature a million times also. But it still was a pretty cool experience. I felt bad that there weren’t many people there for her wedding. She said she didn’t care. One of the only reasons why she was getting married was to get baptized. She was happy anyway.

Saturday was her baptism. I baptized her and it was a really good baptismal service. After the meeting she was crying. She was sad that her family couldn’t be there with her. She lives far away from the church. She was sad that she can’t bring her kids to church. A member named Raquel told her that because of her decision that she would bless her family and with time god would give them the blessings of coming to church. That was my favorite moment of the baptism. It was a great day. I was very stressed trying to help plan the wedding and doing the baptismal service alone. That’s what’s been so tough about training so far is that your companion is so new, that you have to do almost everything for the first couple of weeks. I’m Happy it’s a new week.

The office Elders helped me put my money onto my companion’s card. Right now I’m ok with money. They apologized it took so long. They told me that the church is switching banks and that they’ve been having a few difficulties.

We have a few other investigators but we need to start finding again.

Thanks for all of your love and support family.

Her are some more photos. Baptism and marriage of Sandra. Me with my kid at the temple, and me signing for being a testigo

02-12-13

Dear Family. Another great week with a lot of hectic events and a lot of good events. Changes were this week and I’m staying. Elder Alvarez is going. I’m going to be a Trainer. Woopa! Pretty Excited. I leave for Montevideo tonight and get there tomorrow to pick up my kid. (We call the new missionaries kids and the trainers dads) a lot of missionary lingo.

This last week we had a Baptism of the family Gonzalez. It was a good baptism. I really hope we can help these people keep going in the church. To endure till the end. 

This Next Week we have another baptism. Sandra is her Name. We’ve been working on her for 3 months now. This Friday she is going to get married and this Saturday she’s going to get baptized. She is somebody that has changed her whole life around. She rides her bike every Sunday to church. It’s not a quick bike ride either. Great sacrifice. A good sign of repentance. I’m really excited for her. I’ll send the photos.

That’s really quite amazing that president Bangerter mentioned me. I remember that interview, and I still try to do those things that I’m expected to do. I think we all have been greatly blessed by being part of Brennan’s family and that much is required of us. I’m glad I could be an example for Wil. I don’t know how he looked up to me because really it was the other way around. I was blessed with great friends and with great leaders and with a great family. I’m trying to represent the Webster family the best I can.

The packages didn’t come. I really needed them to get here because I need my card. I just hope Heavenly Father will help me get through this week. Christmas packages: I got the cook book, the ties the cook mixes the Book of Mormon cards, 3 cds of music. Thanks so much Family. I love you all.

Here’s a picture of the baptism and my companion Elder Alvarez

02-04-13

Dear Family, This Week was another eventful week. With lots of work, work and more work. We even worked today during our p-day hours. I’ll explain later. But I’m very excited that Steve Got the Job. I was praying a lot for him, and it makes me very happy that Heavenly Father is watching over him and our family.

This week we had interviews with our mission president. I felt very happy to talk with him. Although we didn’t talk about anything special, I knew Heavenly Father knew of the things that I was doing and that he is pleased about my work. Later on, The President asked my zone leader what has been going on in Elder Webster’s area. And why it has been seeing so much success when it has been down for years. He responded they’ve simply been working. My zone leader told me that he has seen a great change in me since this transfer and last transfer. I’m happy to hear that I’ve actually changed and that others can see it.

Two weeks ago a lady named Sarah went to church by herself. She is good friends with a recent convert family and they invited her to go to church. She went, even though her good friends were out of town. We had no idea who she was until this last week. She has been having lots of problems in her life. Her Husband recently left her to raise her 4 kids alone after he and she lost work. She was looking for help when her friend told her that she needed to go to church. She’s gone 2 times now. We talked to her today during our p-time hours because she is very busy with work and raising her kids. But today we taught about the Book of Mormon and about the stories of deliverance. We gave her the story of Alma the Elder and his people when they were in bondage and how God freed them from their burdens. The member we brought shared her experience about her life and she also had the similar things happen to her. Divorced and raising 7 kids. But with the help of the Gospel and the Atonement of Christ it’s all possible. Please pray for her. She needs a lot of help.

I have been having problems sleeping still and I have been having back problems again…really bad. But I’m determined that it will not stop me from playing missionary like it did playing basketball. I’m doing all I can: stretching, ab exercises, sleeping with legs elevated to reduce the pressure. Hopefully it’ll go away soon. I think I’m just a little stressed out.

This next week we are going to have a baptism for Rosa, Angel and Juan Miguel. Please pray for them that they can be prepared for this day. Especially Rosa, she is having trouble quitting smoking.

Answers. Still no with the package and debit card. This last week the bank machine ate my missionary debit card. So right now I don’t have any money. I have to go to the bank tomorrow to go and try to get it back. I really hope my package comes tomorrow, or I might have to go another week without money.

Family I love you, Thank you for everything

Love Elder Webster

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