Monday, September 28, 2015

On his way to Angola... :-)!

This week was a normal week in the field, nothing big happened and nothing small happened just a normal typical week here in Tucson, which I won't be here for much longer, I got my travel plans for Angola and I'm leaving tonight.. Which is really sad, I'll miss this wonderful place. The people here are the greatest, they are so charitable and full of love always looking for ways to help each other. I've certainly learned a lot while I've been here, but I don't think I've learned the full reason as to why I was sent here and I may never find out until much later in my life. But one thing I do know is that I am very thankful for the time I had here. It's been a great experience that I'm sure will greatly help me in my life.

One of the people we taught this week is named Dana. She is the sweetest lady ever, and already has such a strong testimony in the gospel. This week while we were teaching her a lesson we asked her if she was going to come to church, she said of course she was but she still needed a ride, which was crazy because the buses are running and we asked her why she needed a ride, she said that she wanted to pay her tithing instead... WHAT!! That's nuts, we were so happy for her and it's so sweet to see how much she has progressed and come to love Christ and the gospel. She is the greatest. 

Other than that nothing much have happened, just more of the usual work. It's now time for me to prepare my mind and body for a 22 hour total flight time and 32 hours total travel time. Pretty nuts but I know it'll all be worth it! Next time I talk to you I'll be in Africa! 


Elder Webber

Monday, September 21, 2015

A Baptism...!

This week flew by pretty fast because Elder Huntington and I were focused on making sure that CJs baptism happened and went smoothly, because our area hasn't had a baptism in a couple months so it was a pretty big deal. but as always there's always something that comes up because Satan is trying so hard to prevent people from coming unto Christ and boy did that happen Saturday. It started with CJ arriving when the baptism was suppose to start.. at 9.. We thought okay at least shes here no big deal she'll just change and we can get started.. NOPE!! She's about to enter in the room but sees all the people that are there to support her and starts having a nervous break down and wont come it. We should have taken into account that shes a thirteen year old girl and would be nervous in front of large crowds haha so we had to go out there and talk her through it for like 20 min.. she finally went into the room after we told everyone to look the other way so no one would see her. The speakers kept it short which was good and it was finally time for me to baptize her.. but she wouldn't get up unless we closed the curtains and only her family and the witnesses saw her be baptized. So thats what we did. We got her into the font, i said her name and everything and dunked her she sprang up out of the water and was normal CJ again, she cracked a joke as soon as she saw her dad and was totally fine. It was so sweet to see. The spirit was super strong and she was so different before and after the baptism! We confirmed her after church in the privacy of the bishops office, just the bishop, her dad, a family friend and us elders.. As to avoid any problems or nervous break downs again haha but it happened and she was baptized which was awesome! 

Tucson is getting a temple pretty soon and the ground breaking for it is on the 17th of October. So for district meeting we went to the area where the temple will be and it was beautiful, they saved the huge cactus that use to be on the lot so they can put them back in and it has a beautiful view of the valley and mountains. Its gonna be a pretty cool temple when its all done. The members here are so excited for it. No word for Angola yet, from what i can tell we will get word the day before we leave so we have time to pack and then we are off. Not much of a heads up so its just a waiting game. pretty lame, i just want to know! The bus strike is finally over so we are starting to get our investigators to church and the attendance at church this week was awesome, its about time these bus drives finally decided to work again. Jeez it was such a pain having to find rides for people everywhere for church, but no more now that the buses are back on line. Missionary work is going to be a whole lot better now. which is sweet! 

Other then that nothing much is happening here in Tuscon, just more work and a whole lot of investigators that don't have time to visit with us which is super frustrating, but we have a couple really good investigators like Dana, after our second lesson with her and coming to church we went back to visit with her and she downloaded the gospel library and was reading the BOM as well as the Ezra Taft Benson book all on her own. We were shocked, how often does that happen? like never! shes studied all this week and is progressing really well, we have a baptismal date with her and it really looks like nothing is going to stop her from being baptize because she really wants to and is learning really well on her own. SHES GOLDEN!! 

that good everything is going well back home, good stuff. Melville about to enter the MTC, he's going to do great.

Love you; miss you


Elder Webber

His Baptism and his District at the Temple site:



Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Visited the Consulate...

Family,

Sorry the email is a bit late, I was at LAX waiting for my plane back to Tuscon with elder Mitchell, We finally went to the consulate! We had to wake up at 4 this morning to get our flight and were there in the airport in LA for 5 hours.. It was really weird, we showed up sat in a room for half an hour, gave them our paper work and had our finger prints scanned.. It was actually pretty short. It was in Beverly Hills so we had to pay for a cab and on the cab ride there we talked to our driver about the church and he actually is really interested in the church, so your welcome LA missionaries there's a great referral for you guys! Haha but yeah now that we went to the consulate it's now 5-10 days before I'm going to Angola 

This week has just been a lot more work, we are still teaching CJ and we have a baptismal date with her for this Saturday and its for sure going to happen which is legit! But its scary because I might not be here which is super sad cause I really want to be here for that. It's weird I'm really torn right now, I've really grown to love my companion, missionaries, members, investigators and people here in Tucson.. But I also really want to go to Angola and experience all that I have in store there. It's weird cause I haven't been here long yet I'll miss the people here a lot already.. But I'm super excited to get to Angola and do some good work there. 

The bus drivers here are on strike so half the ward isn't coming to church and we can't get any investigators to come to church either, many of the people have lost their jobs because they can't get to work so it's just terrible all around! These stupid bus drivers are stopping the work of good citizens but more importantly they are stopping the work of salvation! 

We went to the Gila valley temple as well this week, which was awesome, it wasn't a good day for missionary work in Tuscon but it was a great day for missionary work in the spirit world.. Either way we are still saving souls! But cool experience, after ward council we went out into the foyer and there was a homeless guy looking super sad on the couch.. So elder Huntington and I went up and talked to him.. He said his wife was murdered a couple of years ago and life was going terrible and we could tell he didn't want to talk to anyone or be apart of any church meeting, all he wanted was to be in the house of the lord and feel the lords spirit and love in his life. He knew our church buildings have it and wanted to feel it so he came here.. Pretty cool and sometimes we forget how important the church building truly is.

Love you miss you


Elder Webber

Monday, September 7, 2015

Having "Fun" in Tucson...

This week has been pretty nuts, been super busy and i came into a area
that has a ton of investigators which is sweet! We are teaching a 13
year old girl named CJ, her dad was inactive but recently started to
go back to church to give her the best life he can which is really
cool of him, they life in a trailer park and after one of our lessons
we come out and see 3 cop cars getting one of their neighbors, elder
Huntington and I were shocked and CJ and her dad just sat there and
said it happens all the time! What in the world!! Another investigator
is Melissa she's "married" to a "active" member of the church, and
cool story with her is almost every time we go over to her apartment
she's sleeping because she has major depression and says she can hear
voices sometimes, so we usually never teach her, so that happened
again last night and her boyfriend told us to give him our number so
she'll call us to make an appointment.. So we left and elder
Huntington was super mad about it because she is a great investigator
and our lessons are great with her.. But we start driving away and I
just said something without even thinking "we could go back and say we
think we left the wrong number" and elder Huntington was down so we
turn around and start heading back and we start talking about a
scripture we could share real quick.. We get back up to the door and
knock and joe answers the door and we say we think we left the wrong
number and lo and behold Melissa is awake and ready for a lesson! We
read the scriptures with her and got her to commit to baptism on the
26th!!! Which is sad because I probably won't be here for it.. Pretty
sweet first week though, here on the mission it's crazy to see the
lord work small miracles in every aspect of your live..

Also like my third day here we were at the church building and I run
into a black lady wearing a Africa shirt so I talk to her and her
friend comes up and we started talking and her name is Lorena she's a
member but it turns out she's from Mozambique and speaks Portuguese!
What are the chances! So we made an appointment to come visit and
teach her so elder Mitchell and I went and did that and it was
awesome, she told us all about it and gave us some tips in Portuguese
and all that.. Pretty sweet tender mercy!

The people down here are the greatest, many of the people we are
teaching have nothing, there's a family we are teaching that has 7
people living in a 2 bedroom apartment and only have 3 beds and a TV,
no couches chairs or anything, yet they still fed us one of the times
we were there.. They have nothing yet have the most to give.. So this
week I've been thinking a lot about charity, because these people who
have nothing have the most and are so willing to help and care for
others it's pretty cool, charity is the most selfless act with the
most selfish reward.. I'll just let that sink in for a little bit..

That's sweet to hear about home and the camping trip, those were
always the coolest! Yeah I heard all about the game in priesthood,
bummer about Taysom but I knew tanner was gonna kill it. Sacrament
meeting was super weird too, a "member" got up and bore his testimony
on his business plan about brining all the churches together for a
music festival and asked the ward for money to help him out... Hahaha
what a great first week here in Tucson, it's actually really cool and
I've loved it so far

If you wanna send anything the address to send stuff too is,
939 w chapala dr
85704 Tucson Arizona

Love you, miss you


Elder webber

Our sweet district killin it in a sketchy over pass while going on a
p-day bike ride, (the second sister may see, familiar to josh.. It's
sister ponanski.. His mission presidents niece.. Pretty cool!)



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

And an add-on....

Some more info on the mission cause I feel bad I don't write that long
of emails, but this whole week I've just been super down and super sad
cause I'm not going to Angola, but it's all good I know there's a
reason why I'm down here and I know God has a plan for me, We study
for four hours a day because I have language study and 12 week
training, so my trainer is super antsy and wants to get out and do
work while we do it and I'm the same way so that's great, he's really
cool and super helpful. We have the university of Arizona in our area
but he said we never go there because it's straight up Babylon and
just full of sinful college students who just make fun of you and are
super inappropriate and not the place for missionaries haha, he have 3
lessons night and I'm really excited for that and to have my first
real lesson. Being a visa waiter is hard because I can't drive, I have
to use my companions money cause mine hasn't come yet, my plaque is
different, and quite honestly I feel like I don't belong at all down
here in Tuscon even though my companion is sweet and cares for me I
still get the feeling that I don't belong and shouldn't be here at
all, so to be honest I can't wait to go to Angola and belong there..
Mission president has been really accepting of elder Mitchell and I
but our first interview with him was super short so it was really
weird.. Angola can't come soon enough but while I'm here I'm for sure
gonna work as hard as I can to change as many lives as possible and
come what may I'm gonna do my best until my time comes to go to
Angola. Love you and I miss you very much, talk to you Monday when i

have a week in the field under my belt!

In Tucson...

So Tucson is about as hot as hades... It's was pretty crazy coming off
the plane and feeling that heat hit your face, but the first thing we
did here was as soon as we landed they took us down town and told us
we had to place our first BOM and boy are people rude down here. But
it's pretty cool, we get iPads so I am currently at a pep boys waiting
for our car to be fixed and doing emails... Seems like I'm at home,
our first night was cool, presidents name is Pessey and he's an
awesome guy, super cool super funny.. We didn't stay at the mission
home first night elder Mitchell and I went to a super ghetto apartment
in some sketch neighborhood and we didn't even have a pillow to sleep
with hahaha starting off strong.. My trainer is elder Huntington he's
a really cool guy, he's from Utah and super chill and can tell we are
gonna work hard for the little bit I'm here.. 
Yesterday president told
us that we were going to LA to visit the consulate Wednesday so we
were way pumped to go cause after we go there its 5-10 days then we
are off to Angola! But today he told us one of us weren't ready to go
so they rescheduled it until we could both go and that's in like a
week.. So at least we have a time window for how long we are here,
won't be to long but that just means we have to do 2 years of work in
3 weeks and I can't wait to actually get started, we have a couple
appointments today so that's gonna be sweet to get started! 
Apparently Tucson is actually pretty ghetto so it's a nice little warm up before
Angola which is really nice, so yeah got a lot of hard work before I
leave and gotta get 6 weeks of training in less time.. Which will
actually be really fun so I'm excited! P-days will be on Mondays from
now on.. Short email this week cause that's all the happened just a
ton of meetings and sitting around waiting to actually get started.
Love you it was cool talking to you at the airport, talk to you guys
soon


Elder webber