Rockin' Along...

Well well, Josh has finally embarked into the great beyond, when I left the car and headed into the MTC for the first time it all seems like a blur, I don´t even remember what I said.

fotos!

1. me trying to remember what I´d learned in my guitar lessons, with Bruno.

2. Josh is going to Paris eh? well i´m already there :D

3. Me and Samuel at stake conference.

On Tuesday I went on division with Elder Dos Santos, to try and figure out what´s going wrong in his area, and to see what i could do to help him baptize finally. While I was there he took me to a family he´d been teaching for a while, but the mom and dad are reluctant to finally be baptized. So i decided to leave a message that was special to me. So I opened up the book of mormon and read Alma 22 (my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon) and told them about my convesion story on the airplane. I dunno how they felt during the lesson...but I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It was amazing. to put it in the words of John Paul Suart´s book *The Wall*: *I cried and cried and cried.... I cried so hard.. that I laughed*

The zone leaders came by on friday to interview Lucia... but she didn´t pass, she needs to wait a bit longer to show that she´s really repented of drinking coffee and smoking... oh well, now she´ll be baptized on Sunday between the general conferece sessions. Every time we go there when it´s night, she always runs off... and comes back with omlettes from the food-stand next door, haha. oh yeah, she loves us.

Sunday we had 5 investigators in church, woo!

Every once in a while when I answer the phone, I hear *oh Babylon, oh Babylon, we bid thee farewell!!!* Thanks guys... that´s helping me focus, haha. Though I think President is gonna leave me here till the end, cuz he called me last night to ask about how the district is doing, and what the problem is with the zone, he told me to fix it, that he´s trusting in me to help the zone baptize a buttload next month.... I only need 4 more to meet my goal, YOU CAN DO IT!

Lets see... what else is new here...... I decided to do a conferece call with my district this morning, make some plans for next month, see how this month went by, what´s good, what was bad, what can be better, all that good stuff. But when I asked one by one what their thoughts were they all said the same thing: *our district is awesome! We´re all united and happy, and our district leader is the best, we learn something awesome each district meeting.* by the end I just ended up saying: *guys! is there ANYTHING we can do better? any little thing that anybody isn´t happy with?? * ..........cheep cheep.....cheep cheep........ haha... well... at least everybody is liking where we are :D

Well that´s all the big news for now. nobody has been transferred. So we trudge on!

LOVE YOU ALL!

*What is the difference between a man, and a slave?

Is is money?

Power?

No, a man chooses, a slave obeys.*

ELDER WEBBER

Lots of Teaching...!

So, yup.

We´re teaching a way cool lady these days, Lucia. Found her a week and a half ago. she went to church after the first lesson, read and everything. knows it´s true. the day after she went to church some nice J-dubs passed by there and told her that she was going down the path of satan, blah blah blah, said a bunch of stuff about the chruch. she just said *no, YOU`RE wrong, I went to your church already and I didn´t feel good, but when I went to theirs I felt great, I liked it and I´m going back, thank you very much!* booyahh! Take it! our investigator is balls-to-the-wall, she chewed out some nosey pentecostal neighbor because she told her a bunch of stuff about the church. Hahaha! and now she´s telling everybody that she´s getting baptized this Saturday, oh yeaaah. She stopped smoking in one day, now she said that when she tries to smoke she feels sick and wants to throw up. We bought her a HUGE sack of oranges to help her out, but she really didn´t need it anymore. She went to stake conference yesterday with a member, and she started calling the church *our church* :D Last Tuesday we were a-chatting, and she started crying cuz she remembered that i was heading home in November. *but two months is so little time!!! you barely show up and you´ll have to leave!*

On the other hand, we´re teaching another family, and the mom told us that one of the daughters cried during the night after she found out that I couldn´t date while I'm on the mission. haha. So now she´s just shame-less when she talks to us *if i go to church and get baptized will you marry me??* *umm....no* every area I pass through.....

Note: I feel like i´m companions with a 10 year old child with ADD. Everything I say just goes in one ear and out the other... it´ll be good to be home and not have to answer the same questions on the phone: *Elder, how´s your companion? * *umm.. he´s alive* *still slacker?* *yeah* *you gotta help him out* *no duh, that´s what i´m trying to do* *how´s his study, is he getting better in his teaching?* *umm... sure, a little bit* *yeah, i´ve seen your district meetings... he just zones out the whole time* *this i know...* *does he still want to go home?* *well.... he hasn´t mentioned it lately* *we´re praying for him* *thanks* oh the joy!

I did two interviews saturday in Luizote, but only one got baptized. How sad. They managed to get an old lady baptized, it was one of the most interesting interviews I´ve done

*what is the word of wisdom?*

*baptism!*

*what do you understand about the law of chastity?*

*baptism!*

*what does the word repentance mean to you?*

*baptism!*

i think she wanted to be baptized..., or she was brainwashed.

Today is the day I start officially using my last planner of the mission...... oh wow. And all they told me is that I leave Goiania about 8 in the morning and get to Utah 10:30 on the 3rd. But I´m sure they´ll give me more info later.

We had district meeting with President this week, he passed a few new rules, a few other little things, and apparently every companionship (in Brasil or the world, I dunno) gets a portable dvd player to keep at home, to watch the church training videos, sweeeeeet! That´s a lot of trust the prophet has in the missionaries here, especially since my comp. got busted for buying a dvd player and watching movies.... I´ll have to keep an eye on him. *I`M WATCHING YOU WIZOWSKY!* I gave a top-dollar training afer, just like President asked. Feels good to just lay it out flat and show ém how it´s done. I got to see the differnce in my relationship with my district, and Elder Wengel´s relationshiop with his.... it´s nice to have the feeling of knowing that your missionaries love and respect you, and actively ask for your opinion, and aren´t just there cuz they have to be there. We´re a family.

So we have a baptism this week, 4 more planned for after general conference, and so on. Good times, good times indeed.

I met a guy named Alligator the other day, he put glass in our front door for us. *hey mr. Alligator!*

*you do know Elvis is dead right?*

*No, Elvis is not dead, he just went home*

LOVE YOU!!

ELDER WEBBER

A ... week

So, nothing really exiting here on my end this week, nothing compared to what´s going down back home eh?

We finally moved house, it´s a pretty spiffy place, the front door is missing glass and the landlord said he´ll put it in this week, and it´s only got tile on the roof, so when it starts to rain we´ll have a huge problem with leaks, but we´ll see how that goes, and if he´ll get around to actually finishing the roof soon.

I was bored the other day so i decided to draw my dream house, very nice indeed, it includes ballroom, atrium, 2 floor library, wine cellar, vinyard, observatory, grand entry hall, rugby field, and so on.

We played pool the other day with an investigator family, and i realize i´m gonn ahve to practice a bit more when i get home cuz i´ve lost my touch, im terrible at pool now, how embarassing.

I went to Luizote to interview a man for baptism, and halfway through i asked *have you commited any serious crimes?* *hmm.. yeah, a few... used drugs, sold drugs, got in fights....etc* *ah ok ok, well have you repented?* *oh yes, of course* *is there anything else?* *yeah, i´ve killed someone.* *.......well that sucks. sorry bro, you can´t be baptized.* poor dude, he was so bummed out. almost as bummed as the missionaries.

We´ve found 3 really awesome people this week who accepted to be baptized, 2 went to church on sunday, wooo! they just have to stop smoking and drinking coffee and it´s a done deal. ahhh! so excited!! It s even better knowing that one was studying with the J-dubs, then met us and totally gave the cold shoulder to them, bwahaha!

I think i have pink-eye, or something these days, but it´ll go away soon, i hope.

Ii found out I´m gonna be jumping back at about 10:30 on November 3rd. ahhhh!

Good to hear that josh´s farewell was all that and a bag of chips. though... my homecoming is gonna put it to shame! boom! i talked a bit about that during district meeting last week, about walking out of the terminal, doing the slow-walk, with music playing in the background, i even acted it out for the district, throwing your arms in the air, people screaming. and so on, and i said:

*every missionary in the world leaves on the mission thinking about one thing: what it´ll be like to come home, leaving the airplane after 2 years of dedicated service to the Lord, for 10 minutes you are THE MOST important person in the world. you go out to come home. are you gonna make it worth it? or are you going to come home a sham, a liar, a fraud?? cuz if you screw up your homecoming, you may as well just throw those two years away cuz they did nothing for you. Elder, are you gonna come home the missionary your mother thinks you are??? and you? and you? and you? and you? and you? if not, change now, or go home, cuz it doesn´t matter if you go home now or at the end, it´ll still be a let-down for you and everyone you know and love.*

I summed it here up but i think you understand how it went.

*There is a box of twinkies in this store. Not just any box of twinkies, but the last box of twinkies that anyone will ever enjoy on the face of the earth*

-Zombieland

So Josh you study scriptures

and read the lessons hard

Cuz Hell´s broke loose in France

and the Devil deals the cards

and you earn forgiveness if you baptize in the cold.

but if you lose the Devil gets your soul!

LOVE YOU ALL!

GOOD LUCK JOSH!

Elder Webber

A Good week

Let's see.. what happened this week, I´ll get the small stuff out of the way.

1. i saw two drunk dudes shving the beard of another drunk dude in the street.

2. i tried shaving with a knife on tuesday cuz my electric shaver ran out and i couldn´t find the charger.

3. i plucked a cigarette out of the mouth of one of our investigators and threw it on the ground

4. i chopped a tree down, feels good to swing an axe again after so much time.

5. as we were walking the other day, my companion hustled up to walk by my side and said *elder... i don´t think i´ve had any companion until now that has so much zen as you do, i mean, the world could end today and you´d be there saying...*well.. that´s cool, what´s next?* it seems like anything other people say really doesn´t piss you off too easy* i thought that was interesting, seems like my breathing exercises in the morning are helping :D haha

6. i love walking around in a suit on sunday, also, we were closing the deal with the owner of our new house, and i love the feeling of rolling up, plooping my briefcase on the table, whipping out the folder, thubming thought the papers, explainging the deal to him circling the important parts, telling him where to sign, then walking out into the sunset, oh the power, i´m a businessman and i´m here to DO WORK.

7. i dunno why, but God thought it was a good idea to stick a bunch of J-dubs in my path this week, i met 4 or 5. and after so long on the mission i really don´t have patience to hear them preach anymore, i mean you just say hi to them and they immedieatly start preaching to you. so i decided it was time to fight fire with fire:

Situation one:

*no, thank you, i´m J-dub... blah blah blah*

*oh yeah? sir, i~ve never been to your church, what are some of your beliefs?

*umm.... blah blah, the bible blah blah*

*sir, some people have told me, and i dunno if it´s true, but they said that you believe that God is Jehova, is this true? do you beleive this?*

*why, of course! it says in the bible*

*where?*

*umm...blah blah, avoid the question...*

*you mean, you beleive in this and you don´t even know where it says it in the bible? don´t you go to your church?*

*of course i do, it says it lots of times in the bible, i´ve just forgotten..*

* i´m not so sure sir, look here.... Revelation such and such... CLEARLY sir, it says here that JESUS is Jehova....*

*umm.....*

*but it was just a question, thanks for your help, bye!*

Situation 2:

*no, i´m j-dub, bye!*

*sir, i didn´t ask what church you´re from, i asked what was your name*

*jose*

* can i shake your had sir? can you open up the door please?*

*umm...

*why? are you afraid of me sir? i´m a missionary here to talk about Jesus...*

*but i already know The Word*

*does everyone in your church treat everybody so coldy? or is it just you?*

*its just that i have lots of things to do...*

*just wanted to shake your had sir. good day*

where is the love???

also, i found out that i love teaching athiests and smart people, gives the chance to really break a mental sweat. and not just deal with stupidity, we spent about 2 hours on friday teaching to atheist kids, Elder Nunes didn´t say a thing cuz he didn´t unsderstand half of what they were saying, even though it was all in portuguese. fun stuff indeed, a battle of wits is.

but, best of all, BAPTISM ON SUNDAY!!!! WOOOOOO!

he´s the son of a less active lady, it blows my mind how other missionaries never found him. but i´m happy they didn´t! oh yeaaaah. he got baptized, confirmed, and received the preisthood all in the same day. good stuff.

I got a package from Grandma Hutt this week, THANK YOU GRANDMA HUTT!!! woooo! loved it! love the flakes... i shared some of the minties with the other missionaries, but the flakes and milkybars are MINE!

I realize how much i miss playing rugby, and coatching flag football and soccer... good times indeed. I`m on my way now to buy i giant bull-horn, oh yeah.

I´ll play *taps* in my head for Josh this week :D hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

*take a bad boy, make him dig holes in the hot sun all day long... turns him into a good boy. That´s our philosophy out here at Camp Greenlake.*

LOVE YOU!!

ELDER WEBBER

A good week