Rockin' Along...

Anyways... I keep telling my companion how awesome Halloween is, and that he should be excited that it´s coming up... but I don´t think he quite understands the concept of running around in costumes and free candy... poor kid.

I forgot to mention during my last email that we had a *surprise musical number* during the baptism of Liniker. The bishop announced: * now we´ll have a special musical number by me, Elder Dantas and Elder Webber* hmm.... ok. So we got up there, and he told us * Me and Elder Dantas will sing the first two verses, and elder webber will sing only on the chorus, cuz his voice is so deep, then elder webber will sing the third verse and chorus all by himself... then we´ll all sing the last verse together* hahaha..... right. so that was fun.... first time ever singing in front of an audience... fun stuff. nobody´s head exploded, i guess it wasn´t too bad

So..... Saturday, we had a baptism, wooooo!!! yay. We baptized a lady named Ivani, and it´s only her and her son that live together. It was a miracle how we found her, we were just walking down the street, saw her sitting in her door and said * hmm... let´s teach her* so we did, found out she´s already been to church, so we taught her, and baptized her, haha awesome! her son hasn´t been to church yet, but he´ll go these next few weeks and then we can baptize him as well. sweet. When the hour of her baptism came around, she didn´t show up, so we waited around.... and waited, then finally went to seek her out, in the rain. we found her at home, and she said she didn´t want to get wet....huurrrrrr? so then we told her, *look, we´ll go find an umbrella and we´ll go, ok?* so we searched for one, didn´t find one, and came back, and when we arrived, the rain stopped, so we walked to the chapel, and as soon as we got there the rain started back up again. Miracle. Everybody from our ward was in Goiania for some activity, so it was just us, Elder Pattie, Elder Fralick (his American greenie) and 2 other members, so we held the meeting, all neat and quick, and then there was the FHE activity after, perfect timing, so she got to participate and have fun. Good day.
She had a problem with the word of wisdom while we were teaching her. Cuz we asked her to tell us again what the 5 things are that she can´t eat/drink and this was her response: *no beer, no cigarettes, no drugs... thou shalt not rob... umm...* hahaha, it took us a while to make it clear to her that robbing is bad, but isn´t part of the word of wisdom. haha

Yesterday we got the call about transfers, and nothing has changed in my district, everything is exactly the same, yay! So I guess I´m doing alright cuz president decided to leave me here. And we´re starting to see the fruits of our labors here in our area.Tthis last transfer was complete suffering and hard work, and now we´ll be able to start thrusting in our sickle. woooooo.

We had another good district meeting the other day, the tables were still set up from the ward council the Sunday before, so I stuck them together and gave it a *conference room* feeling, me at the head the other 5 missionaries sitting down on both sides. Sweet. I quite enjoyed it, made it much more comfortable to talk and discuss stuffs. I think I might do it again. Because normally they just set up the chairs in a semi-circle and I sit/stand in the front, not as cool. I like the conference table.

We started teaching a new family yesterday, a mom and her two sons, the two sons are crazy kids who go to rves and party for three days straight to techno music... crazy. Dancing in broad daylight? Not my style. And the mom is a 7th day adventist....dun dun DUN! ROUND ONE! READY... FIGHT!
It actually went pretty good, she told us about some things she thinks are wrong about her church (how they can´t eat pork, how they can be re-baptized if they sin, I partly convinced her about how the sabbath day is Sunday, and not Saturday) so she was really excited to get a Book of Mormon and read and pray. She did the opening prayer for us.... wow.... it was a 10 minute prayer, they certainly like to pray. I had to use some tactics and restrain my companion from starting a bible-bash with her... oh young one... so naíve.

That´s a funny thing though, the reason why the 7th day Adventist church is so strong down here:
in English the bible says: * remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy*
and our days of the week are: *.......friday, saturday, sunday......* so it really depends on your studying and/or crazy level if you end up worshiping on saturday.
but in portuguese the bible says * remember the day of Sabado, to keep it holy*
and the days of the week are: * Sexta Feira, Sabado, Domingo *
so in english it would go like this: *friday, sabbath day, sunday*
so tons of people are converted to the church because Saturday ACTUALLY IS the sabbath day (in name at least) hahaha.

Also I had pizza the other day... chocolate pizza, pizza with banana and cinnamon.. all sorts of pizza. Be jealous. I ate the most out of everyone ( of course ) and I wanted to keep eating but it was late and everyone wanted to leave.... not cool.

Another family we´re teaching is a Mom (Andrea) and her three daughters, 2 are toddlers and the other is 16. She used to live in the US for 5 years, and when she came back she said she hated her *brazilian house* and did everything she could to americanize it... so i feel like I´m back in america whenever I walk into her home... except for the lack of carpet... nobody has carpet down here. Nobody. But she´s so crazy about america that she´s always telling her daughter (right in front of us) * my daughter, just wait for him to finish his mission, marry him, then you can go to america too!!* hahahaha, oh how strange.

It´s also raining like crazy down here, the roads are always rivers, and we always find ourselves prisoners under a small roof somewhere far from home. I took a few videos so you´ll be able to see what it´s like one day. crazy stuff.

anyways... here are some pictures:
1. a view of Anapolis from our area.
2. our baptism
3. Me and my grape juice, and my new Flamengos ( soccer team ) beer mug, haha.


*The tree of liberty needs to be watered, from time to time, with the blood of patriots.*

Love you all, miss you all
Elder Webber

A Solid Week

So thank you :D i love getting packages and letters.

I´m excited for Halloween or *day of the witches* as it´s called down here... even though nobody celebrates it. que bummer.

The baptism here didn´t go according to plan, apparently the kid went to the farmland for the weekend without letting us know... thanks dude. So now we´ll just have 2 baptisms for this weekend. I was getting pretty frustrated during this last week, because everything was falling through, nothing was going according to plan, the members do absolutely nothing to help with the work, and the enemy is working overtime here in this area. It seems like every step we take forward, the enemy whips something up and we end up taking 2 steps back. I related my frustrations to the zone leaders, and they agreed that because of the long history of iniquity in the missionaries in this area, the devil has a lot more power here than he should. And it´s easy to see. The members aren´t too excited to get involved in the work, and it´s difficult to find people who will progress. We´re gonna baptize no matter what, but I was not a happy camper during most of last week.

So now we´re entering the last week of the transfer, and we have 2 people to baptize, and I´m gonna hold onto them with an iron fist, there´s no way I´m letting this transfer, or month, pass by without baptizing. Wow, I´m nervous.

President also paid our zone a surprise visit during this last week. Because the zone took so few people to church last week, he came by to animate us to work harder, and to see what we can do better, or what we can fix, it was pretty short, but I still liked it. Elder Dantas had a little time to speak, and he told President that my lesson during district meeting about *teaching people, not lessons* really helped him to see how he can improve and work more effectively, so it´s good to see that somebody is liking what I´m teaching, haha. Then after, President got a phone call and left for a bit.... when he came back, the dude was ticked. Apparently somebody told him something and what he said to us was something like this:

*Enough, I want you all to know that I sent another missionary home last week, Elder Dos Anjos. This mission is being held back because of the iniquity of a few missionaries. And I tell you now, if you´re breaking mission rules by playing videogames, going to parties, using MSN, flirting with girls, or anything, YOU WILL GO HOME. I don´t want you here because you´re ruining my mission. If you receive a phone-call saying *come to the mission office with your bags* you can be sure that your plane ticket has already been bought. Like it says in D&C 1 *Wickedness will be revealed* I will find out, one way or another, what you are doing wrong. There are some missionaries here in this zone who are still here just because of mercy, but from now on, if I find out that anybody is messing with these kinds of thing, you´re going straight home, you wont even have time to explain your actions*

wow.
so that was fun.

Anyways, I went to Industrial on Friday to interview a lady who was supposed to be baptized... it´s a one hour bus-ride away. I sent Elder Dantas and Elder Margalho to my area to work while I was there. But the lady wasn´t home... all day long. She disappeared. But they have a boy named Linkier who they´ve been teaching for the last 3 months or so, the kid wants to be baptized, it´s just that his dad is a raging alcoholic and would never give his authorization for the baptism... after hundreds of lessons, and pleading and so on.... the missionaries have already given up on persuading him. So when the lady wasn´t home to be interviewed, I asked to pass by this kid´s house and talk to his dad. So I met him, made friends, talked a bit. Got to know him, then left a little message, and after a little bit of technique I managed to get his signature. Needless to say, I was pretty happy, and Elder Dantas was blown away that I managed to do in 20 minutes what he couldn´t do in 2 transfers. So we planned the baptism for the following week, and I went back to my area planning to interview the other lady the next day.
So I went back the next day, after lunch, and the lady still was not home. So instead, we passed by Liniker´s house, and asked if he wanted to be baptized that day, cuz the font was already full. He said yes, and he got baptized, yay! That´s the first baptism that area has had since February. wooo!

The other day it started raining as we were walking about, and it was angry rain. We found shelter under a little awning-thing and waited for it to pass so we could go home. Except the rain kept coming, and the river in the street kept growing, and we didn´t have much room to negotiate with. so we had to keep shuffling to the side under the little roof to keep from getting our feet drenched in the slowly growing lake. fun stuff. We finally decided to make a break for it, and ran home. Once home, we got a phonecall from president (I was more nervous than usual to answer, especially after the last conference, haha) But he just asked how the district was, if my companion was alive, how wet we got, and then he told me that he needs me to be a leader in the mission, that I need to help my district with whatever problems they may have, that I need to be the solution for him. Cool.

The other day we were walking home again, at night, just us two. And we walked by a house, and the sound of drums and soft mumbling/singing kept growing louder as we approached, when we finally passed in front, we stole a peek through the open window.. and what did we see? A bunch of people in white standing in a circle around a table with a bunch of statues of Macumba (voodoo) spirits. Beating drums, singing, and doing chants of some sort. They had a bunch of candles, and it was pretty darn creepy, Elder Margalho got spooked and ran off and I followed after. These people are weird. But I´ve heard quite a bit of stories about Macumba, spiritualism, and voodoo down here, and what some people have done, and its some pretty freaky stuff. Like now I know that if I see a pile of severed chicken heads in front of somebody´s door...Ii don´t want to enter that house in the near future. But we´re not out late enough to see most of the other freaky stuff they do, so that´s good. I really don´t know if any of it´s true, or actually works, but I´m not stupid enough to go and find out.

Do not worry, I am a benevolent leader, I try to lead by example and be loving when I can. I don´t get angry, I just let them know I´m disappointed when I have to. I really only have to talk forcefully with Elder Cruz, cuz he´s just full of problems, but even then, I need to be friends *lest he should take me to be his enemy*

But yeah, that´s a bout it I think, some good things, some bad things, some weird things. We finally had a ward council last Sunday, with the new bishop, nothing got resolved (as usual) but I did let everybody know that we´re here to work and we expect to help and be helped in the the ward´s mission *plan*. Because this ward is slowly dwindling away to nothing. Sad story batman.

Anyways,

*Sister Webber, are there cookies in this cookie jar?*
*Yes Austin, there are Oreos*
*Well.......can I have one?*

I love you, Miss you.
Elder Webber

My life be like ooh--aah.....

So last night while we were closing our numbers for the week, I got a call from the zone leaders, and they did a conference with us three district leaders. Apparently president wasn´t too pleased with our results of taking people to church, our numbers were....low. So after they got barbecued, they called us and burned us alive, then sent us off to fry our districts. So that was fun.... I´ve never actually had to burn somebody so bad before. I called Industrial first, and asked a bunch of questions, told them to repent and try harder (something along those lines). They live in a house with another companionship, and I could hear the other missionary in the background giving excuses to his district leader as well, haha. Then I had to call Morumbi... and I had to step up the fire-throwing, otherwise he won´t do anything, first he was joking, then he got angry, then he got all depressed about how he´s a bad missionary, what a mess. So pretty much, I got a 2nd degree burning last night and my district got a 2 1/2 degree burning, I´ve never had to speak with such righteous fury to other missionaries before.
And apparently, yesterday was a day of fire all day long, cuz the Stake President came to our ward, he called a new Bishop, and called the ward to repentance because they weren´t supporting the former bishop, then burned them for not going to conference, then again for being lax in going to church, yay finally someone smacks around these members to wake them up, then during the last hour of church, we all had one class together and he continued his fire-show.
but yeah... that was fun.
And when the zone leaders called again this morning, they said they really didn´t want to include me in the burning, cuz they know I´m doing the best I can here, but it needed to be done, and I needed to burn my district, so I felt pretty good about that :D

And I lost the competition between me and the zone leaders, we had a deal to see who could mark more dates, take more people to church, and make more contacts in the street. It was pretty close, but we only talked to 200 people, and they talked to 238, blast. So now I have to take them to an all-you-can-eat pizzaria. I´m gonna eat too, of course, but I have to pay. But the pizza there is sweeeeeeet! (not amazing deep-dish amearican pizza, you have to eat here with knife and fork) but have you ever eaten ice-cream pizza? Banana pizza with cinnamon? i think NOT!

Also, there´s a pretty cheap ice cream shop here, called Nectar, and you serve yourself and they weigh it after, charging by the kilo, it´s about 11 Reais per kilo, pretty darn spiffy, so we´ve eaten there a few times already.

We made pancakes this morning. (Well *I* made pancakes with the Western Family pancake mix that was in our fridge when we got here, and i instructed Elder Margalho on how to make maple syrup, cuz we snagged a bit from a member who somehow had maple extract for some reason) He wouldn´t stop crying about making pancakes, sheesh, sometimes i feel like his mother, this kid is just rediculous sometimes, he doesn´t know how to use his money, or keep the house clean, sheesh.
Anyways, it´s funny, maple is FAMOUS down here, cuz nobody has it and hardly anybody has eaten it, but they always see it in the movies and the americans are always talking about how awesome it is. so if anybody has some, and knows and american who knows how to make it.... they wont leave you alone. So we had pancakes and maple syrup this morning... I´m so good.

Ah, but Saturday was pretty awesome as well. Angela ( the lady I baptized in Anapolis) and Gledson were getting married and invited me to be a witness. So we went up there early in the morning, the lady read some paper all fast-like, and then everybody who was involved signed their names and we went to the park after to eat ice cream and celebrate, yay. So that was pretty sweet. Pictures are included below.
Then later at night, me and Elder Margalho were watching the moon, cuz it looked pretty cool, then we saw a shooting star fly allllll the way across the sky, it was HUGE and lasted forever. That was awesome, The second one i´ve seen, and here in the same city, haha. i was happy.

We have a baptism closed for this weekend, yay! his name is João Paulo, he has one lazy eye, and he works as a rodeo-bull rider, so he´s pretty neat-o. He´s crazy to go to texas and wield a 6-shot and ride bulls in the huge stadiums filled with people. I always feel like he´s talking to the wall whenever he´s *looking* at me and saying something. but yay, baptism!!

Thank you for the excerpt from the blog, that was awesome to read, I liked it, and certainly helps. It seems like everybody is getting all cyber-savvy since I´ve been gone.

I´m TOTALLY not feeling the Halloween spirit from anybody here, how sad, they know what it is, but nobody celebrates it... i think i´ll just be a missionary this year.....

Pictures:
1. Us at the wedding, Angela and Gledson sitting down, me and Elder Pattie being witnesses. Laisa was a witness too, but she was busy taking all the pictures.... and she took a butt-load.
2. Me signing the paper saying I was really there and saw it all happen.
3. Yay, chillin in the park
4. More chillin in the park.

I finally gave my first district-meeting training this last week, me and Elder Bare did ours together. So we had motivate our district to help the mission reach the 120 baptism goal that president has set for us. So that was fun. Not as hard as I was thinking it would be.

Anyways, I think that´s about it for this week. I´ll have a baptism to write about next time, as well as about our pizza-night, wooo!

I love you all, miss you all

Love,
Elder Webber

An Update....

So this week I went to the area Murombi to do a division with Elder Stoddard, and Elder Cruz came to my area. They were needing a bit of help. So while I was there I observed how Elder Stoddard works and all that, fun stuff, it´s amazing how much attention you DON`T need to pay while being ´junior´ for a day. haha. But I gave him some feedback on what he did good and what he can do better to improve, and so on. Also, Elder Cruz had marked with a pastor to visit his church if he´ll visit ours... so that night we went to this tent/pavillion thing and watched a pastor give a sermon, it wasn´t too bad, I probably would have liked to stay longer, except we had another appointment. There was only 1 or 2 apostasies that I can remember, but not too bad. He spoke alot about improving our family relationships. good stuff.

Then the day after, during district meeting, the zone leaders, me, and elder cruz and elder stoddard had a meeting, cuz I told the zone leaders that we need a bit more *fire* in that companionship, so we talked about they problems they´re having, and how to resolve them, and now it seems like they´re doing pretty well. They don´t really like each other, so we told them: *You two WILL stay together until the end of your mission if you don´t learn to work together* I think that filled them both with enough fear to get out there and work harder, haha.

The rainy season has come... sheesh, and it´s angry. the plastic bag in my briefcase didn´t protect my stuff very well, so i had to dry it all out, bummer. and every night there´s a symphony of lightning directly above our house, fun stuff. While i was on divisions the power cut to our house, so that was interesting, and pretty darn scary in that part of town. So now, not only is it hot, but it´s humid and wet, everything has the smell of wetness... ugh. Not like the cool everything-is-wet new zealand smell... but a gross wet smell.

We met a guy named Jorge the other day. We were walking home about 9:15, and he stopped us to talk to us. I didn´t smell any alcohol, so I´m not sure why he was so weird, but this is what happened:
*Ah! missionaries! I´m not worthy to be in your presence! Come here and let me talk to you!! You´re church is the best church I´ve ever been to, it was so nice to me, I´m a gunfighter for hire, did you know that? I´m from up north, and I´ve already killed 7 people, I earned lots of money for it too, I´ve got over 4 million Reais in the bank, I´ve got money in the bank, I´ve got money in the bank, I´ve got money in the bank, this lady right *here* she´s the next on my list, I´ll get 5 thousand reais for it. will you help me change my life? I need help. you will? ok, take my hand.... you two promise to change my life..... or I´ll kill you. Do you know what it is to die? when your heart stops beating!!*

Yeah. so we made a deal with him to change his life.... so OF COURSE we went back to his house to teach him, haha. He wasn´t so weird the next day, a little bit frustrating to teach him, but he´s a funny guy, and he´ll go to church, yay. livin´ on the edge!
oh Jorge

Also, This morning we taught Roney and his wife the second lesson, we had to remark their baptism to the 23rd, that was easy, but we found out that Roney smokes.... bummer, so we´ll have to beat him over the head with the word of wisdom soon.

Conference was pretty fun, the fist session we got to hear in English, but then problems arose and we lost that privilege, so we had to watch it in Portuguese, which wasn´t too bad, none of the jokes make it through the translation though, darn. but either way it was still good, feels like Christmas every time conference rolls around for us missionaries, 2 days of just chillin listening to the prophet, good stuff.

Ah, I have a story from the leadership conference. One of the nights we were back at the house, me and two other Brazilians. So the question we asked was: why are we here? We know everything is true... we just don´t know when we got that testimony. One of the things we talked about was: do you get offended when someone rejects the gospel, or talks bad about it? And the answer was yes, of course. It was kind of interesting to think about it. That in a place like Orem where everybody has that light, doesn´t give to see yours, but here where everybody is carnal and fallen and dark, your testimony gets a chance to shine.

Hmm... well I think that´s about all the news for this week, Glad to hear that everybody enjoyed conference, and that the rugby team is doing well... even though the football team is an embarrassment. Honestly. I hope everything is well.

Love you all, miss you all.
Elder Webber