A Great Week!

So this week, we had a buttload of investigators at church, finally!! (a whole 9 people! sweeeet) so I was pretty happy on Sunday. woo!

But big news: I got the box you sent! it´s the one with the birthday cards and birthday presents in it... I may or may not have been too impatient to wait till July and opened a couple boxes... thank you!!! thank you very much.

We had another division this week, i brought Elder Etchechurri here again... ugh... sometimes I wonder why some missionaries are still on the mission. DON`T BE LIKE THAT BROS!! That kid is a pebble in my shoe, so I just walked him to death for 2 days then sent him back, though we (I) got a lot done, marked a few dates for baptism. so it wasn´t a total loss.

The other day we were teaching a missionary from the Assembly of God, she loved the message and she was excited to say the last prayer when we asked her to do it, she asked us to kneel, then she stood up and put her hands on our heads and started screaming and yelling, and schreeching... wow. She said it was a blessing.. so I just went with it.. it felt like a whole half our we were there with her screaming. oh sheesh. But then she went to church on Sunday, so I´m proud of her.

This week we had a conference with president and the doctor of the mission, Elder Call. He just gave us a bunch of health reminders, told us to repent and read the health manual and so on. Pretty much what anybody got out of it was *think before you act* and *don´t do anything stupid*. Good stuff. Then we watched a scene from Disney´s Hercules, President gave a message and we came back home.

I don´t know about any other country, but here in brasil is the only place that I´ve met people that think 1=15000. Let me explain, we tell the people *one lord, one faith, one baptism* then ask them why there are so many churches and they say *well god is just one, therefore since every church teaches about god they´re all true and go to heaven* *so... one god made 15000 churches just cuz it´s easier?* *yeah, for sure, there´s no way just one church can fill the whole world* oh wow.

I realized the other day that I almost have just 5 months on the mission... wow.... that´s nuts, it´s not even funny. It´s gone by so fast... I´m planning on asking president to see if he can figure something out to let me stay longer, they say it´s a new rule that you can´t, but I think there´s nothing wrong in asking anyways.

I miss going hiking and camping... a bunch... just thought I'd throw that in there. haha.

Dude.. dad you´re going to India, Dubai, Jordan and Israel!?! Take me with you! and yes, I am definitely ready to do some translating between you and some Brazilians. fo´ shizzle.

There´s really not that much news to tell, sorry, I try to write down and remember the good news. But I guess a hardened veteran like myself just grows used to the life here.

Well I love you all!! Miss you all!

*what makes you laugh tells God who you are, what breaks your heart tells God who you are*
Elder Webber

Baptisms!

Well well well, it seems like it was a weekend of defeats. How sad, we were defeated this morning as well. We got up and walked to the base of a jungle covered hill near our house, it was just calling for us to climp it, though we were repulsed. Sent back it shame. We were doing pretty well all until the last little bit when the 20-foot grass wouldn´t let us through anymore, I tried going tank-mode (wrapping a sweater around my head and diving in trying to bust our way through, that worked for a little while until it got even thicker.) So we decided to sound the retreat and we came home, oh well. It was only round one.

Bishop gave a talk on Sunday, he started out by saying that he had a dream about me and him on a mission in puerto rico. Sweet

But the best news of the week: 2 BAPTISMS! woooo!! On Tuesday we baptized the two girls we´ve been teaching, Fernanda and Jhulia, wooo. Then the got confirmed this Sunday, not too shabby if I do say so myself. They were pretty happy, and I think they´ll stay firm, no problems. Now we´re working on plans to help the zone bump up their baptisms, we´re gonna try and get the zone to baptize 17 for this next month. So we´ll see how that goes.

Also yesterday we were walking out in the middle of nowhere, and we passed some paddocks with cows...so... naturally... I jumped the fence and tried to ride one... but the all ran away and wouldn´t let me on... how sad. We have a video of one of my attempts. which reminds me, I´ll be needing a memory card soon, I dunno if you´ve already sent one, but i´ll probably just buy one here, good luck.

Have you ever entered into a house where there are Jehovah´s witnesses beating the family to death with the bible, then they see you and high-tail it outta there? I have, many times, and it happened again last week, they don´t even look you in the eye, as soon as they see you they start packing up all their stuff and book it. Don´t even have a closing prayer, how rude. But the family was SO happy that we saved them and all the rest of the family came out of hiding to hear our message (not kidding)

We almost taught more lessons with members that we did alone this week, how´s that for some good work eh?

We´re teaching an awesome family, the dad´s name is Luiz. They all read the book of mormon (well the daughter read to him cuz he can´t read) and then they prayed about it. The next day they said that they got tons of calls offering work for them, and that they had been looking for work for a long time, and that they totally believe it´s all true and want to be baptized. Though now he has to get divorced form another lady, then get married to the woman he´s with... patience young padiwan.

On Thursday we taught a guy named Felix, he had the fanciest house in the whole part of town were were in, he even has a front lawn...oooooooh, aaaahh. When we asked what he did for work he said *i take care of other people´s problems* hmm... ok. so we taught the lesson then asked a few more questions after. And we found out that when somebody owed another person TONS of money, they call him and he goes over there and beats the person till they hand over the money, he said that he wont work for any debt less than 20,000 Reais. sheesh. Coolest investigator ever, luckily he hasn´t killed anybody... yet. He even showed us all the bullet wounds he has on his sides and legs... wow.

hmm.. Well other than that I can´t remember much else of what has happens, Elder Erickson has arrived in the US of A, and Sister Riggs (the sister from my group) and sent us news that she is home as well.... that is weird....

Good luck to josh on finishing up his mission prep! And to everyone else for whatever they´re up to.

Well I love you all!

Elder Webber

Transfers...

Anyways, transfers today, elder *trunky* Erickson has left and I´m chillin with Elder Taylor now, the new zone leader. Now it´s time to stop with the jokes and messing around and we´re gonna make some changes in the system here in the zone, get down to business.
There a few changes in the mission that are making most of go: *ummm.... are you sure about that president??? you DO know who that missionary is right? ok... if you insist...*

Good luck in the rugby games, I know that both of them can make #1, and from the sounds of it, it should be easily possible.

We´re gonna baptize this Tuesday, both are girls that just fell from the sky and told us they want to be baptized. WOO! really, we had no idea or even were thinking about these girls last week, then all of a sudden they go to church with a member family and tell us they wanna be baptized... I´m not gonna complain, so now we have 2 baptisms this week, oh glory! And one of them, Fernanda, when we challenged her to be baptized, said she´d pray about it, and the next day she said she had a vision, saw Jesus standing above her telling her that she should be baptized.... oh yesssss!!!! Happiness.

District meeting last week I asked for 10 minutes to speak, and I whipped out the missionary manual and had to call a handful of missionaries to repentance, haha, I felt bad for the greenie of Elder Watts, he looked pretty scared, cuz I told everybody that if they don´t start putting their act together they´re gonna get what they deserve: get sent home. because *God gives to the children of men according to their desires... if you desire slack off and sleep in, you´re gonna get it... AT HOME!!!* I believe it had the effect I wanted. :-)

Also, a missionary that went home last year came back with his parents and came to church Sunday, so that was way fun to see him again. His parents didn´t speak any Portuguese, and when I was talking with them I kept speaking in Portuguese by accident, they they were confused half the time, and I was getting a headache trying to translate for everybody. haha. But it was cool to talk with them for a bit. and the mom said she wanted to call you, so we´ll see how that goes. :D

Those ramshackle houses in Rio are some of the funnest to teach in, cuz you have chickens or cats or dogs all over the place, naked children climbing all over you, and something always smells like death. And then they try to give you strange food.. that you HAVE to eat.

*they say money can´t buy happiness... but have you ever tried being sad on a Ski-doo? *I´m so unhappy! vrooom!*

LOVE YOU ALL!
ELDER WEBBER

Mother's Day Call

So I loved mother´s day, it was awesome to talk with everybody!! Everybody sounds so different. Good luck to Josh on finishing his papers and getting his call :D There´s a kid here in my areal named Wiley that is the exact clone of Josh, I´ll have to take a picture with him and show you, he even has the same haircut. we get along well.

Anyways, as we were walking the other night (we stopped in the woods to take a pee) we were looking up and we were looking at the stars, like we do, and then all of a sudden one of them just got really bright, beamed for a little bit, then all of a sudden disappeared... I dunno if anybody else noticed it... but I´m pretty sure I saw a star explode. Rock on.

Well I don´t really have much else to tell, for some reason everything is falling through and nothing is going according to plan... we havn´t been able to baptize for quite a while.. and it´s making me mad. But oh well, it´ll work out in the end. I hope everything is going good at home, hope mom and Mariah travel in safety ( is it just the two of them going? sending mom on a plane alone..? is that... wise???) hahahaha.

Anyways, I loved mother´s day, even though I was about to throw the computer out the window, stupid technology. Oh... and wow... it kind of scares me about what life is gonna be like for me after the mission. eesh.

But yeah, I love you all!!!

*do you think I´m stupid? everybody knows that Jews carry fake bags of gold around their necks to keep the real bags of gold safe.*

peace, love and happiness
Elder Webber

"Surfing"... again

Anyways, this week we had divisions with the assistants here in our area, so that was pretty fun. Me and Elder Dias spent the day together, knocking doors and all that good stuff. I think he walks too slow, but I still liked it.

Food news: I ate baked fish tails. :D

I don't really remember my dreams on the mission, and the only ones I do remember are nightmares, and they´re all about the same thing: I find myself hanging out at home, then I realize that it´s still summer time or something: I came home early! , So then I panic and wake up, not fun, it´s happened quite a few times.

We´re teaching an awesome family, the dad´s name is Alexandre, they promised us they would go to church on Sunday, but when we got there they didn´t show up, what a bummer! Then at night we passed by to see how they were doing and they said they had gone but had gotten lost and couldn´t find the church, arrgh!! What a loss. But they say they´ll go next week, and this time we´ll go with them so nothing goes wrong.

Remember a few weeks back I told about the moto-surfers on top of the bus? Yup, we met them the other day, we were coming back home on a bus and they got on at the same time as us, after hopping the bar so they didn´t have to pay the bus-fee, they asked the driver if they could moto surf, he said yes so they spent the rest of the ride trying to break open the skylight trying to get on top, well it didn´t break so the busdriver opened up the doors and told them to go up that way... while he was driving. But I guess they must have been passing some rival turf so they just yelled out the doors at the kids in the neighborhood, yelling their gang chant and flashing their gang signs, I got a video of it, so no worries. Best busride ever. It was even more fun the the few other people on the bus were cheering them on, or making fun of them cuz they were too weak to break the skylight. Good times.

Who is ASO? Ive never heard of them, but they certainly deserved the butt-whopping they got. BYU rocks.

hmm... that´s interesting to hear about the new YSA stuff. I dunno where I´ll live after I get home, I´ll probably live at home for a bit so I can find a job before re-enrolling at BYU, and all that, but Elder Lunceford says that his grandma has kicked the sister missionaries out of her basement and that she wants us to live there, she lived right next to BYU, so I´ll probably just live there with him. I wont have to worry about paying rent or anything. Score.

This mission is getting better these days, pulling itself out of the hole it had fallen into. We did pretty good, thought the zone was pretty embarrassing this month.... ech. Oh well, it´ll be better this next month.

I´ll plan on calling Mom around 4:00 my time on Sunday, on Skype, so prepare yourselves.

*the butt of mercury... not quite as cool as the face on mars... but just as mysterious*
Invader Zim

LOVE YOU ALL!!
Elder Webber