GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS WEEK!!! WOOO!!!
Thanks Mom for the quote from CS Lewis, I´ve read parts from that book before, but I´ve never read that part. I liked it. One of my favorite parts goes something like this (I´ll try and remember how it goes)
*The mistaken idea these days is that good people know very little about what it means to be *bad*, or that they know nothing about what evil really is. This idea, in it´s entirety, is false. After all, you discover the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by running away, you discover the force of the wind by walking against it, not by lying down. So, in a sense, bad people know very little indeed about what it means to be bad, for always having lived a sheltered life and always given in to temptation, they never know what it might have been like five minutes later. And Christ, being the only man who never gave into temptation, is the only man who really knows the full strength of evil, the only true realist*
Anyways, news from the front-lines:
We had a baptism! finally!! We had a baptism meeting Saturday with the other companionship in our ward, and 4 people got baptized, we baptized Camilla, woo! And that one lady I told you about the other day (the lady I marked a date with for Elder Dantas) got baptized too. So it was a good day, and it was also the ward´s Relief Society party, so there was cake too! Sweeeeet. Makes life easier for us. But President still has a goal to baptize 300 people by the end of the next month... so we gotta work on doing our part for that, we have 5 baptisms marked for this Saturday, but the Mom is being a bit flaky, very annoying, but oh well, we´ll get her/them. We always meet her kids in the bus stations and they come running up screaming our names and jump on us and give us hugs and everything..... then stick their hands in my briefcase trying to grab my extra change to buy Popsicles. BACK YOU DEMONS!! Meanwhile everybody is watching us, wondering why there´s a bunch of kids hanging off our necks as we´re trying to talk, until of course they see that our bus has arrived and they *help* us get onto the bus, mainly just by pushing us into it. haha. And all the while they´re yelling out the day they´re gonna be baptized, haha, so now everybody knows that there´s 4 little kids somewhere, running around, that are gonna be baptized on the 2nd, haha, at least the kids are excited about it.
Yesterday, as we were at lunch, the dad pulled out all his book of mormons and showed them to us, old ones, new ones, and all sorts of languages. And then I saw one on the bottom of the pile.. and it looked like....oh could it be? Yes, yes it is! a Book of Mormon in Arabic! Before I even picked it up to see for sure I had already made my offer to buy it from him.... after a small negotiation he said he´d give it to me for free! He put his name in it and all that, so then the rest of lunch was spent trying to get him to accept the money for it, but he wouldn´t accept (I get an A for effort). So now I have an Arabic book of mormon sitting at home, booyah. Then he felt bad about giving me one, so he gave an Italian book of mormon to Elder Erickson.... Arabic is better.
Elder Erickson got sick this week, diarrhea and all that, not too fun, though we went out to work anyways, however our numbers did suffer a little bit. But he´s a bit better now, so that´s good. I found some Immunizen I had hidden away in my bags ( it´s amazing how much stuff I had hidden in my bags )... so what did i do? I kept it for myself to protect my precious body from his black death, of course.
We had a service project the other day, clearing out the bush from a member´s *back yard* and the whole time we were encountering huge spiders, GIANT caterpillars, bats, and all sorts of other critters, Elder Erickson got attacked by an army of ants, poor guy, and removed himself from the battlefield.
All the older guys in the meantime, we just talking about stuff, and chatting away, and by the time I had realized that I was the only one working, I had already plowed my own small trail way into the middle of the tall grass and bush, I was surrounded. So what did i do? I decided to chop down the small trees around me, good times.
Well the work goes on, we´ve formed our own little study group at that one Hostel I told you about, there are now 3 guys who are listening to the lessons, one already went to church with us yesterday, and the other two say they´ll go with us this week, I love those guys. Everybody in the bar in front knows who we area and always give us a warm welcome when we enter into the small doorway to the rooms in back. :D
Anyways, I miss you all, love you all.
*the Jamaican papaya was seedless!!*
Elder Webber
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Another "Quiet" Week...
Well this week was pretty *normal*.
We had zone conference with President on Wednesday, he told us that the mission has a new goal to baptize 300 people before the end of April, so we all had to rework some goals and plans to make our zone do its part to help reach 300, we have 7 people in our area who have a baptism date, and we´ll be sure to mark some more as the days go buy, and 6 of them are really firm dates, so we should be doing pretty well in these next few weeks. The last family we were working with decided to be lame and all that junk, and we couldn´t take it anymore (it´s hard to help somebody resolve their doubts and problems when they aren´t *real* doubts, just flaky-ness) so we just dropped them. The family is so full of problems that we can spend our time in many other better places.
I bought a new drink called Guarana Redentor (Redeemer Guarana, pretty much a knock-off of Guarana Jesus from up north). It´s pink, and I thought it might taste the same as normal guarana, or maybe even better... oh I was wrong, it tasted like cough medicine, ugh, it´s terrible. Never gonna buy again. Oh yeah, Elder Erickson has a nasty ingrown toenail, so now he has to walk around in jandals all day so it will heal faster, it´s a little bit weird.
We were supposed to baptize this last week before church started, but the bishop didn´t want to (at the last minute) so now we´ve had to put it off until this next Saturday, oh well.
Anyways, life keeps trudging on, hot sun in the morning and afternoon, and torrential rain in the evening. Trying to keep the zone in one piece (especially the district of Elder Tayler, it´s tearing itself apart, even his own companion wont even follow him, bunch of rebels in that district, poor guy). And LOTS of buses, we take a bus almost every day, part of our job as Zone leaders and living in a HUGE area, and the buses are terrible here, they´re chock-full of people, when I don´t have one of my feet hanging outside the bus/stuck in the door, I have teenage brazilians trying to get all up in my sugar-lumps. every bus-ride is an experience, judging by the fact that our bus´s tire popped yesterday, it was pandelerium!
But yeah, anyways, we´re still working the system, making a lot of pastors mad ( I have no idea, can´t we all just get along?)
That´s about it for this week,
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
LEROOOOY JEEEENKIINNNSS!!
-Elder Webber
We had zone conference with President on Wednesday, he told us that the mission has a new goal to baptize 300 people before the end of April, so we all had to rework some goals and plans to make our zone do its part to help reach 300, we have 7 people in our area who have a baptism date, and we´ll be sure to mark some more as the days go buy, and 6 of them are really firm dates, so we should be doing pretty well in these next few weeks. The last family we were working with decided to be lame and all that junk, and we couldn´t take it anymore (it´s hard to help somebody resolve their doubts and problems when they aren´t *real* doubts, just flaky-ness) so we just dropped them. The family is so full of problems that we can spend our time in many other better places.
I bought a new drink called Guarana Redentor (Redeemer Guarana, pretty much a knock-off of Guarana Jesus from up north). It´s pink, and I thought it might taste the same as normal guarana, or maybe even better... oh I was wrong, it tasted like cough medicine, ugh, it´s terrible. Never gonna buy again. Oh yeah, Elder Erickson has a nasty ingrown toenail, so now he has to walk around in jandals all day so it will heal faster, it´s a little bit weird.
We were supposed to baptize this last week before church started, but the bishop didn´t want to (at the last minute) so now we´ve had to put it off until this next Saturday, oh well.
Anyways, life keeps trudging on, hot sun in the morning and afternoon, and torrential rain in the evening. Trying to keep the zone in one piece (especially the district of Elder Tayler, it´s tearing itself apart, even his own companion wont even follow him, bunch of rebels in that district, poor guy). And LOTS of buses, we take a bus almost every day, part of our job as Zone leaders and living in a HUGE area, and the buses are terrible here, they´re chock-full of people, when I don´t have one of my feet hanging outside the bus/stuck in the door, I have teenage brazilians trying to get all up in my sugar-lumps. every bus-ride is an experience, judging by the fact that our bus´s tire popped yesterday, it was pandelerium!
But yeah, anyways, we´re still working the system, making a lot of pastors mad ( I have no idea, can´t we all just get along?)
That´s about it for this week,
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
LEROOOOY JEEEENKIINNNSS!!
-Elder Webber
Thursday, March 17, 2011
A Quiet Week
So not much happened this week, Elder Erickson turned 21, I went to one of the areas of one of our district leaders to do some interviews, and then we taught an AWESOME lesson to a lady that never committed to be baptized, but we managed to do it. It was a response to my prayers in more way than one... I´ll tell you when I get home.
Our baptisms fell through this last week, but we remanded with them for this week, and it´s pretty firm, so it´ll probably go down.... hopefully, haha. One of our investigators is wanting to commit suicide cuz of some girl, another is anorexic, and another (31 year old guy) is dating a 15 year old girl.... oh what a messed up world we live in. So we´re working with these people.
The other day I found a Portuguese Manual for the Old Testament, and oh what gems I am finding in it, it´s the second manual, so I want to find the first one cuz I think it´d be more interesting. I should be focusing more on the lessons, but we´ll see how that goes.
Ah, we´re teaching a guy named Francisco, he a cool dude, but he lives in a hostel-type place. (the kind of place where you enter in a small broken door and enter a building made of plywood, and scrap metal and there´s tons of single-person rooms, and it´s set up like a maze). So it´s always fun to go and teach him, and when it rains it starts to flood inside. It´s a neat experience. He invited us to eat lunch with him too, so we´ll be passing by there to eat some day soon.
I have to say though, I prefer the muslims MUCH more than the catholics, though they are the easiest to teach (cuz half the catholics here don´t even go to church) but they have TONS of strange rituals, parties, traditions....yeah, I´ve seen them pray to a flag.
Anyways, that´s about it for this week, it´s still hot and humid cuz it´s raining every day, and still trying to straighten out some problems in the zone, but all´s well.
*to err is human, to forgive, divine*
*wow... that´s sweet, who said that? was it 50-cent?
* I believe it was God, the biggest mac of all*
Love you all!
Elder Webber
Our baptisms fell through this last week, but we remanded with them for this week, and it´s pretty firm, so it´ll probably go down.... hopefully, haha. One of our investigators is wanting to commit suicide cuz of some girl, another is anorexic, and another (31 year old guy) is dating a 15 year old girl.... oh what a messed up world we live in. So we´re working with these people.
The other day I found a Portuguese Manual for the Old Testament, and oh what gems I am finding in it, it´s the second manual, so I want to find the first one cuz I think it´d be more interesting. I should be focusing more on the lessons, but we´ll see how that goes.
Ah, we´re teaching a guy named Francisco, he a cool dude, but he lives in a hostel-type place. (the kind of place where you enter in a small broken door and enter a building made of plywood, and scrap metal and there´s tons of single-person rooms, and it´s set up like a maze). So it´s always fun to go and teach him, and when it rains it starts to flood inside. It´s a neat experience. He invited us to eat lunch with him too, so we´ll be passing by there to eat some day soon.
I have to say though, I prefer the muslims MUCH more than the catholics, though they are the easiest to teach (cuz half the catholics here don´t even go to church) but they have TONS of strange rituals, parties, traditions....yeah, I´ve seen them pray to a flag.
Anyways, that´s about it for this week, it´s still hot and humid cuz it´s raining every day, and still trying to straighten out some problems in the zone, but all´s well.
*to err is human, to forgive, divine*
*wow... that´s sweet, who said that? was it 50-cent?
* I believe it was God, the biggest mac of all*
Love you all!
Elder Webber
Monday, March 7, 2011
A GREAT week... (again)
So carnaval is going down here, and it is a VERY unwise idea to glance at any tv as we´re walking around... as we´ll see all the ´serious business´ of carnaval in full swing... not very good. All the kids from the ward went on a campout over the weekend (Sunday included) so the parents wouldn´t have to worry about them getting up to no-good in this carnaval season. always fun, though carnaval isn´t too strong here in goias, more just in Sao Paulo and Rio.
Thank you mother for the information about the scripture cases, there´s some missionaries wanting it. :D. and yeah they showed up the week before Christmas, and they weren´t munted at all. the pictures and the scriptures and the Portuguese is all perfect, so no worries. speaking of packages, in the box I got last week (with the candy) came the all blacks shirt, the Disney shirt, and the United shirt (just to let ya know everything arrived alright. though i really hope there´s another United shirt at home, cuz i traded it with Elder Vitorino for a Goias jersey, pretty spiffy. and I really liked the United shirt, in other words.. I want to have my cake and eat it too, and have both shirts, bwahaha.
Me and Elder Erickson have been talking, and we have decided that it´s just about time the family buys a wii with wii sports and wii yoga (we think mom would love this one). We both have tried it out (before the mission) and we think it would be a very nice investment, (for mom and dad), cuz it works really well and it´s fun. yay!
So last Preparation day we (me, Elder Erickson, Elder Dantas and Elder Fonseca) went to a city called Trinity... and we were not prepared for all the catholic action, i´ve never seen so many saints in my life, nor so many scenes of Christ being crucified. We checked out the cathedral, pretty nifty, checked out a cave with the virgin Mary, we checked out the *room of miracles* we checked out a street where every intersection had a different scenes from the passion.. and so on, I took a lot of pictures so I can remember our very inspirational day there.
So church here is pretty interesting, the lst two Sundays we´ve been asked to sing the special usical number during the sacrament meeting, not too shabby, I always put myself in to sing the low part...duh. I´m a bass for sure. But yesterday, a girl who has been going to church for 5 months and never got baptized (I have no idea why) came up and said she can be baptized now, WOO! so this next Sunday morning we´re gonna baptize her. what up! and we´re still working with another family to be baptized this Friday, but they´re starting to look a bit flakey, so we´ll see how that goes.
hmm... what else is new? ah, we´ve made pretty good friends with a couple here, we only meet them in the streets, but the man wants to marry the lady, though she´s a raging alcoholic, but she doesn´t want to marry him though they´re together every hour of the day. so they always meet us during the day and she tells us to find her a husband, and he tells us she´s nuts and doesn´t love him, and so on. very funny, but it makes you feel bad for the poor guy.
Other than that, not much has been going on, hopefully things start to pick up soon, cuz the work is going rather slow, looks like our zone is bound to have a lot of success this next week.
*I do NOT want to work in the HOME DEPOT!
Love you!
Elder Webber
(I remind Elder Erickson all the time that he has almost single digit weeks left on the mission, bwahahaha, I´m the best companion ever)
Thank you mother for the information about the scripture cases, there´s some missionaries wanting it. :D. and yeah they showed up the week before Christmas, and they weren´t munted at all. the pictures and the scriptures and the Portuguese is all perfect, so no worries. speaking of packages, in the box I got last week (with the candy) came the all blacks shirt, the Disney shirt, and the United shirt (just to let ya know everything arrived alright. though i really hope there´s another United shirt at home, cuz i traded it with Elder Vitorino for a Goias jersey, pretty spiffy. and I really liked the United shirt, in other words.. I want to have my cake and eat it too, and have both shirts, bwahaha.
Me and Elder Erickson have been talking, and we have decided that it´s just about time the family buys a wii with wii sports and wii yoga (we think mom would love this one). We both have tried it out (before the mission) and we think it would be a very nice investment, (for mom and dad), cuz it works really well and it´s fun. yay!
So last Preparation day we (me, Elder Erickson, Elder Dantas and Elder Fonseca) went to a city called Trinity... and we were not prepared for all the catholic action, i´ve never seen so many saints in my life, nor so many scenes of Christ being crucified. We checked out the cathedral, pretty nifty, checked out a cave with the virgin Mary, we checked out the *room of miracles* we checked out a street where every intersection had a different scenes from the passion.. and so on, I took a lot of pictures so I can remember our very inspirational day there.
So church here is pretty interesting, the lst two Sundays we´ve been asked to sing the special usical number during the sacrament meeting, not too shabby, I always put myself in to sing the low part...duh. I´m a bass for sure. But yesterday, a girl who has been going to church for 5 months and never got baptized (I have no idea why) came up and said she can be baptized now, WOO! so this next Sunday morning we´re gonna baptize her. what up! and we´re still working with another family to be baptized this Friday, but they´re starting to look a bit flakey, so we´ll see how that goes.
hmm... what else is new? ah, we´ve made pretty good friends with a couple here, we only meet them in the streets, but the man wants to marry the lady, though she´s a raging alcoholic, but she doesn´t want to marry him though they´re together every hour of the day. so they always meet us during the day and she tells us to find her a husband, and he tells us she´s nuts and doesn´t love him, and so on. very funny, but it makes you feel bad for the poor guy.
Other than that, not much has been going on, hopefully things start to pick up soon, cuz the work is going rather slow, looks like our zone is bound to have a lot of success this next week.
*I do NOT want to work in the HOME DEPOT!
Love you!
Elder Webber
(I remind Elder Erickson all the time that he has almost single digit weeks left on the mission, bwahahaha, I´m the best companion ever)
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