Conference / Some AC

April 6

Sarah is getting married?  Really had no idea that was going on but that is exciting.  I bet Laurie will throw a bumpin party for that!

Okay so this week was really busy.  We had stuff going on everyday of the week.  Monday was PDay.  Martes came and we had to go up to Resistencia for a Reunion de Distrito.  Was good.  One of my good buds in the office so I got to see him again.  He was in the same pension as I was when we lived in Santa Fe.  Our hours have changed back to the regular schedule.  We get up at 6:30 and study all morning then leave for an hour then come back at lunch and leave at 130 during La Siesta.  It is so hot - it really is terrible some days.  We hit bed about 1030.
We had a great conference.  We met up with one of the Lideres de Zona.  His name is Elder Creer.  He is about 6'3'' and so funny.  The leaders have a nice place to live in.  Their area they teach in is really run down and people like to rob the missionaries.  I decided not to take my backpack with me when we visited.  I just took my  Libro De Mormon and folletos  The kids on the street like to say stuff to us but no problems.  At the end of the day we went to a members house.  When we left the husband had to walk us past this road cause it is where the kids hang out and rob people.  Nothing came of it.

The next day was good.  I had to use a leader's hat because it was sooooo hot during La Siesta.  Got up to 36C.  We were walking down this dirt road.  About 20 feet ahead of us was a horse eating grass.  He was tied up.  Then a little ways down there was another road.  As I was walking down the left side of the road I saw 2 people come out.  They had on nice clothes like us but was a man and a woman.  I was thinking that they were JWs.  I looked down the street to see if there was an Iglesia (church).  Elder Creer and I were right next to each other.  I started to slow down right as the JWs were walking past and just as that moment the horse decided to kick its back legs.  It kicked its legs right between us.  I am talking right between us.  You could put two fists between us.  The horse actually scraped my arm with his leg.  If the horse would have made contact I would have broken my arm.  This really taught me that Dios is looking over us every minute and will help us out in strange ways.  Even if he sends JWs that makes me look down the street out of curiosity to make me stop right at the split second I need to.

Conferencia General came around the corner really fast.  We did a lot of walking on Saturday before conference.  During the first session we had a young kid named Ismael that is going to get baptized that was coming to watch conference with us.  We had to walk all the way down to the church.  So we picked him up on the way.  It got up to 39C (102F) and Ismael couldn't make it.  I was proud that he made it as far as he did.  But I didn't want to be late to conference.  I wanted to see if Pres. Monson was going to make some crazy announcement again.  We were about 10 mins away and it was about 3 mins before it was suppose to start.  I said okay, get on my back.  I picked that kid up and ran . . . made it on time.  I just went in and found a fan and sat right in front of it.  Really loved conference could really relate to everything they spoke about regarding missions.  Ismael got squirmy.  I gave him one of my sandwiches to make him quiet.

After it was over we started to walk back.  It was really hot.  About half way I decided to try to hitch hike our way back.  A truck stopped . . . it was during La Siesta and usually nobody is out.  It was a nice ride.  We dropped off Ismael and got dropped off at our pension.  We stayed over night at the other missionary's pension since it was closer.  We hitch hiked again, and we were so lucky we got a ride there too.  Liliana is our other investigator that is suppose to be baptized this week.  She came to the next session with us.  I am not going to tell you what I liked about conference because that would take a whole letter in itself.

I got to talk to Renfro!  He called.  He was in Resistencia with my zone leaders watching conference!  Ahhhh was good to hear what is up.

After the first session had about an hour.  I said okay we are keeping the tradition alive and go out and buy some food or ice cream or something.  The other Elder are from Buenos Aires and don't get why we wanted to get food.  I was like everyone in the US buys food and need to make this a fun night.  They still didn't get it but we found some ice cream to buy.  Got the ice cream and ran back to the church.  Had to hurry so we were jumping over dogs and running through the bushes.  Got to keep it fun.  Sacerdocio was de died!!!!  Uchtodorf's talk was really good and Pres. Monson's was really just what everyone needed to hear.  Those 2 talks were great.

The next day we didn't have food for lunch.  We found some arroz and just had that.  We went over to Domingo session and that was good.  Afterwards we were just sitting there and dying in the heat.  We went in the President's office, took a nap with the AC on!  AHHHHHH!  Really loved hearing conference during the mission!!  After we walked home and cooked so much food cause we were starving!

Today was my comp's birthday so we just bought some ice cream and relaxed.  It has been so hot here and I thought it was getting into winter.  We had interviews with President on Friday.  We went back to Resistencia and bought facturas.  They are like little doughnuts but smaller.  The President just told me that I was in Las Palmas for a reason and to keep teaching.

Mom could you send me more fotos of the familia?  Someone took all my pictures.  Don't know who would do that, but its kind of funny.  Just need pics so I can show people.

Thanks.  Love you all

Chou!

Starving Missionaries

         March 30

Well hello familia Wester,

Thats how the people say my name. 

Well umm this week was calm nothing really big happened. Let me think.. really nothing happened this week so this might be a lame letter... okay so we started off with just going out and teaching our people that are getting ready to get baptized. Most of them are kids like 9 to 12 years old.  Hey, if they can get a testimonio then they are ready for bapitsm. Our investigator, Liliana, didn't come to church so she has to come to church next week to get bapitzed. She is the one that we have been seeing and she has a testimonio of the church so I don't sé why she didnt come.. we will pass by today.

We had a lección with one of our kids.. His name is Gaston. We have taught him every lección in the book so he just needs to come to church.  We stopped by his house and he was up, but he didn't want to wake up his parents to let them know he was leaving the house.  He let us in his backyard to wait. He had a look on his face like I can't go and I don't want to tell you that I can't come. We waited for about 30mins and now we were going to be late for church again.We told him we were going to pick up another kid and we would come back. SO this other kid is 9 and he cant really read or anything but he loves us and the church so why not. He was waiting for us outside shooting rocks at cabillos and trees. He was worried we were not going to come. Swung back to Gaston and he told us that his parents said no that he couldn't come with us. I think he lied but its all good we will talk to his paretns on Martes to see if he can really come to church or something. Walked 30mins to church and I had to give a talk.. wow thanks for giving me a heads up on being prepared, but that is what the misión is about suprises.. but its all good. I gave a talk on faith and the talk that Eyring gave.. Mountians to climb. Wasn't bad just gave some quotes and told a story that I saw about a USC professor. Some people could understand me and others not so much.. Ismael (the 9 year old) was doing good until Sacerdocio.. he got all poudy and I had to take care of him.. he didn't want to be in there and then his pen broke and he started crying. He kept looking at me when his pen broke and tryin to get my atención to confrot him or something.. but I thought to myself I am just going to ignore him and he will stop.. It worked finally. He stopped crying and got him in for the last 10mins. Matia the big guy got the Aronic Sacerdocio too so he is going to baptize Ismael.

Was the end of the week and end of the month so we had no food at all.... for a couple of days we just had rice and eggs and sometimes just rice and what ever we could find cause we ran out of money for some reason.. but now we have food and money.. we were just throwing whatever we could find with the rice. Our dueños had a Asado (bbq) going so I thought to myself.. I will get their atención and they will give us some.. I was up in the window trying my hardest but I couldnt get their attention… darn! Then our lighter ran out that we have to use to lite the stove. Was Domingo so couldnt go out and buy one.. was thinking hard.. I thought that our neighbors had one. They haven't been home for like a month now.  I went out on our balcony and jump over to theirs. I looked at the sliding doors and knew doors aren't that good and you could just slide it open. I pushed up on the door and pop, it opened right up. I was feeling like a theif but we are hungry boys so I jumped over some things on the ground and grabbed their lighter and closed the sliding door. I was talking with my comp and said go return it. But then I couldn't.  The door was stuck.. but said hey its good they always smoke so now we have helped them stop. 

But besides that things are going good this week.  It is Conferencia General this weekend and can't wait for that. We are trying to find ways to watch it in English because its just not the same in spanish.. but we will see. We have entrevistas with Presidente this week too. I think this will be my last interview with the President Heyman until he leaves. 

Hope everyone had a good week and hope SJ had a great birthday.. was thinking about her and hope she had a great day. SJ Feliz culpe años! Hope that you had a good time in Moab and hope that this week was a good birthday week. Was thinking about ya and saw a pic of ya and you have changed into a big girl ahhh its soo weird! You will be driving when I get home!! AHHHH!! But make the most of the time you only live once a wise man said. Love ya hope everything is going good!! As for the rest of the familia love ya all.  Have a good week. Make the most of it!

CHOU ELDER WEBSTER

A Trip to Walmart

March 23

Hooooolllllaaaa from Argentina

So this week was pretty good.  We had some good leccions with some people and might be having another baptism this week.  We are not sure if this will happen since the people have to come to church twice and they have been in other places the past week.  We will have to talk to the President to see if they have done everything that they need.

PDay was good this past week.  We walked all the way to the other Elder's place to chill with them.  Things were good, cooked some really good meat.  Tuesday we had a reunion de zone in Resistencia.  It is always good that we can leave and get away.  My companion wanted to go and by some rain boots   so we called the President to see if we could to shopping after the conference.  So after the conference we were off.  We went to Walmart!  Yes there is a Walmart here.  When we got to the store they had to zip tie my backpack so I would shoplift anything.  My comp wanted to get in and get out, but I was like hey we may never get back here again, lets walk around!  The other elders were with us as well.  As we were shopping, a woman came up to me to ask me a question.  She thought that I worked at Walmart!  I certainly could't pass this up.  She asked where cleaning supplies were located so I walked her over to where she needed to go and pointed out all the different options and talked to her about what she could get.  Then she asked about where the wine was located.  So I took her over to that section, but I told her that the wine here was not good for her and that she should replace wine with something else to drink.  Then I took her over to the grain section and talked about how healthy this was for her.  She finally left without buying anything.  The other elders were laughing and couldn't believe what they had just seen.  Maybe I should come home and be a salesman.  On our way through the store I saw doughnuts.  No way, haven't seen them in such a long time.  I had to buy them!!!!  I got those and I finally bought an umbrella.  We finally found the special car that could drive us back to our apartment.  It is about an hour ride.  It was a fun day and night.

The other night we had a huge storm.  It was really big.  We were having a lesson with a woman and all of a sudden the lights went out.  The woman was freaking out.  The first thunder strike hit BOOOOOOM!!!!!.  She got up and ran out of the room.  I looked at met comp and was like what just happened.  5 minutes later she came back into the room.  She doesn't like storms.  The lightening and thundering kept on coming all through our lesson.  The lights went out again so we decided it was time to go home.  She looked at us like we were crazy that we were going to go out in the storm and walk home.  I rolled up my pants and got my stuff in a plastic bag and said okay lets walk.  The streets were like a river, but didn't bother me.

We couldn't see anything.  When the lightening comes it lights up everything so we could see the street for about 2 seconds at a time.  The thunder was soooo loud!  Right when we got to our pension and were climbing up our stairs, 2 blocks away the lightening hear a pole and lit up the world.  We just ran inside.  It was intense.

This Sunday was good.  We had our progressing investigators bring her mom to church.  She is a little loco and doesn't follow things very well.  She is used to saying blessing on everything and amen to everything.  We also had a young boy come with us .  His name is Ismael.  This week was good for teaching.

things here are good.  Excited to hear about Alex and her mission call and all the other boys in the ward putting in their papers.  Love ya all.  Thanks for everything.  I will send pics next week.

Chou!

Baptism In Las Palmas

March 17, 2014

Yes we had a baptism on Tuesday.  We were worried that we may not be here for the baptism due to transfers.  We contacted the assistants to ask if we could still do it on Tuesday and they said it would be okay.  We were so excited to get the big guy ready.   Was so good to hear his whole story about how the gospel has come into his life.  Tuesday came around and we had to walk down to the church.  When we arrived at the church it was all locked up.  The other set of Elders had the keys.  Those Elders were about 30 minutes away.  It was 5 pm and the baptism was suppose to start at 6 pm/.  Finally the Elders got there and we got everything ready.  But before all of this Matia had to decide who he wanted to baptize him.  After thinking long and hard about it he sent us a text and asked if I would be the one to baptize him.  I was so excited.   Things were good fine.  The abuela and came and she helped us set up the chairs.  Matia came with his dad and some of his cousins.  It was awesome to have all his family there.  We all got changed into our whites.  Matia was having a hard time finding a white shirt that would fit him.  I had brought a white t-shirt that I used to wear just in case.  Some how he squeezed into the t-shirt.  It was pretty darn snug.  But he was ready.  Matia was a little nervous.  When it was time to start, I walked down into this small little pool thing.  It has stairs going up to it, but no stairs going down.  So I could barely get in and I was thinking how in the world is he going to get in.  Matia climbed up the stairs and they were creation.  He couldn't figure out how to step down into the pool.  Man I though this might be bad.  He slipped and kind of just fell right on me.  I tried catching this big kid in like a bear hug.  I just fell in with him.  We got settled in and did the prayer and I said okay bend your knees.  I wanted to make sure he went under the first time.  I helped push him down and the only way of describing this is like the movie Hitch.  At the very end of the movie when they are dancing at the wedding Kevin James does a slide under Will Smith and then Will Smith tries to pull him up and he can't.  That is exactly what happened.  But somehow with the strength of 20 moms I pulled this whale of a man out of the water.  Was great.  Then we had to get him out of the water.  So yep I just got my shoulder underneath him and pushed.  Thank goodness he was out.  I was dying laughing and so was everyone else.  But we were all so happy.  No one cared.    This was the first baptism in Las Palmas since they opened the area!  Woooo!!!!!!

The weather here is getting crazy.  It clears up then it gets really dark and pours.  The other day it was raining on and off.  Luckily we timed it just right and we could just run from Kiasco to Kiasco and we kept somewhat dry.  But we had a lesson way far from our pension and we say the clouds getting a little more dark.  Knew the big rain was coming.  There was this long street and we could see the rain just moving down the street.  It got dark and made it hard to see.  We could hear something coming.  Just kept getting darker and darker.  We had to act fast.  There was no cover anywhere.  It started to rain.  We ran to a palm tree.  Luckily my comp had an umbrella. We held it sideways because that was the way it was raining.  It just started to pour like you were standing under a shower head.  We started running and the streets were filling up like a rio!  I saw patches of hard spots and I started jumping across on them so I could keep my feet dry.  I made it across and then I hear a ahhhhh and a scream and SPLASH!  My comp fell into the rio.  It was pretty funny.  We ran towards a house where a guy came out and called to us and gave us a towel and a drink of warm milk.  That is really my favorite thing now.  After the rain let up the rain died down and we headed for our pension laughing the whole time.

Sunday came and we went to get Matia to go to church.  It was time for him to get the Espiritu Santo.  Went to his house to wake him up.  No answer.  Clapped his house for about 10 mins.  No answer.  Knocked on the door.  No answer.  I looked at my comp and I said I am going in.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  Nobody has a lock on their door.  They just put a plastic chair in front of the door to keep it from blowing open.  I pushed open the door and start walking down a dark hallway.  There were people sleeping in all these different rooms.  Finally I hear Matia snoring so I go in there. There were others sleeping in there too.  It was so dark I wasn't sure which one was Matia.  So I softly called out his name.  Nothing.  I heard another door open and it was Matia's dad.  His dad works for the policia and I got really scared.  He came out with no shirt and shorts with something in his hand.  I thought it was a gun!  No, was just a mate cup.  He looked at me and I said sorry we really need Matia to come to church.  He said no problem and got him up and Matia came to church.

I had to talk again at church.  It seemed to go alright.  I talked about faith and prayer.  Most of the people understood me, but they seem to have a hard time with my accent.

Thanks for everything.  Have a fun week.  Tell Emmy that when she goes to do her missionary stuff this week that she should teach simple like to a child.  Ask questions like "What are some ways to follow Christ",  "Will you pray about our message to see if it is true?", describe the Holy Ghost and ask if they will follow Christ and be baptized by the authority of God.

Love ya all

Elder Webster

The Spirit and Matia / Lost Keys

March 3

This week went by fast.  We had a district meeting in Resistencia this week.  This means that in the morning we don't have time to do much since it is an hour ride there.  A special guy comes to pick us up.  His name is Laucha.  Rained all day long.  It is always good to get away and see some new people.  After the meeting some of the missionaries in our area had to go to a special bank.  That bank is about an hour away.  So they left for the bank which left me and my companion in the city.  We got to walk the street of Resistencia. It was sooo crazy.  So many people.  It was fun to chill out there for a little bit.

The other day we had this investigator named Matia.  He is about 300 pounds and is 18 years old.  My companion had taught him earlier in his mission but then hadn't been back to him for a little bit of time. We went back and found him and taught him the lesson of resurrection.  He really liked it.  We gave him a Book of Mormon.  We went back to see him a couple of days later and he had forgotten what he was suppose to read.  We asked him to read again.  He started reading that night and read the first 15 chapters of Nephi!  Yeah!  Was so sick.  Asked him about being baptized on March 15.  He told us that he had prayed and had not received an answer.  He was pretty mad that he had not received an answer. A couple of days went by and nothing.  He prayed every night before he wend to bed.  One night he woke up around 3am to get some water.  He saw his little brother on the couch watching soccer.  He said that he watched the tv for a little bit and then tried to go back to bed but couldn't.  He told us that all he could think about was the church and out message that we had talked about.  He felt so calm.  I told him "That is the Espiritu Santo!!"  Yeah said he really want to be baptized!  We told him he needed to come to church.  He said that he would try.  My comp wanted to leave at 7 am to go pick him up, but I told him that no one is going to be up at that time.  Sunday came and we clapped his house and no answer.  We waited outside his door for about 45 minutes.  We clapped again and his little brother answered the door.  That was Miracle number 1.  His little brother usually sleeps until noon.  Then his brother went and woke Matia up.  Miracle number 2.  Matia came and talked to us and said that he would come to church.  We noticed that his moto outside, the chain had fallen off and we knew he couldn't walk all the way to church.  So we left him at home a little depressed.  But soon enough here comes Matia at church all cleaned up.  When we talked to him about how he got to church he said that he had just taken his dad's moto.  Miracle number 3.  Then his aunt was at church the same day with her son.  She hasn't been to church for a very long time.  Mirachle number 4.  Matia loved church.  He invited us back to his house on Monday to play a little soccer with him.  Was soooooo fun. He had invited some of his friends to play with us.  Just tried to play calmly since we aren't suppose to play "games" with the natives.  All the boys thought I played pretty good.  Wondered if I was really from Brasil.  They all say that I have an accent like Brazilians.  They wanted me to speak in Portuguese, but I told them I was too shy.  That was a great time.  I am excited for Matia.

Earlier in the week we got ready to leave the pension and I am in charge of the keys.  We love on the second floor and with an little alleyway down the middle.  We we have two keys, one for the apartment and one for the front gate.  We got our stuff and I shut the door.  You need to have a key to open the door because there are no handles on the doors.  You insert the key and twist.  I shut the door and I forgot the keys.  We were locked out of our apartment and locked inside the gate.  We just stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out what we were going to do.  I remembered on the side of our apartment our bathroom window is always open.  It is not a big window at all.  I was like, alright here we go.  There is a small ledge on the side of the house so I had to climb up on that to get to the roof where I could lower myself down into the window.  Got up there no problem.  Looked down from the roof and it was a long way down.  So the roof was a little bit further out from the side of the house so I was going to have to drop down and then swing myself into the window.  I lowered myself down so I could touch the bottom of this little window.  I am hanging there and really just barely hanging on.  I knew that I could not get back up so I was committed.  I had to find some way to swing my feet into this little window.  I tried some different ways, but I couldn't get it to work.  Then I had an idea.  If i swung myself a couple of times I could time it and put my fee through the window, then let go and hopefully sit on the window sill. I knew this may not be the best idea, but it was the only thing I could think of.  My comp is watching and shaking his head.  I take a deep breath and boooom I swing my legs, let go and I am landing hard on the window sill in the sitting position.  It hurt so bad!  Then because of the momentum I started to fall backwards.  I grabbed the side of the window and  pulled myself through.  See no problem.  I made it in.  Got the keys and we were off.

This week the weather had been good.  It rained for about 4 days hard and I am yet to buy an umbrella.   With the parties still happening, Lunes y Martes, we have to be in our pension at 7.  Already seen people getting drunk.  Got a little homesick this week, but all is good.  Kalina the one that is in the picture does't have interest in being baptized but we showed her a movie about Cristo so we will see how things go.  We had her pray with us for the first time.

Love you guys.  Thanks for everything but can't wait for did de Madre on Skype.  Love ya.

Chou!