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

Headin' Out..

So finally got my travel plans.. and I'm still going to Tucson Arizona and I'm not sure for how long I'm going to be there, hopefully not to long. 

I leave Monday morning (the 31st) at 3:35 am. Still super excited to get out and serve, cant wait to get out of the MTC and actually get into the thick of it. It'll be really cool to actually teach some lessons in English and get it down before I go to Angola. 

Tucson,.. as in Arizona?

So this week has been super weird, a whole lot of ups and downs in this crazy emotional week at the MTC. Started out with our branch presidency saying how well we have been doing and how district is lifting the standard for our whole zone.. so that was really cool to hear, President Dansie is a straight boss and he really knows what is best for the branch, so that was great to hear. but them Friday rolled around and that's when it all went down hill really fast.. so our whole district was suppose to get their travel Friday and the majority of them did.. except for Elder Mitchell and i.. we sat there waiting for ours but they never came, a bit confused we went to the travel office and asked what was up and they said that we haven't gotten our VISAs yet and that if we dont get our visas this next week we will be going on temporary reassignment to Tuscon Arizona, until our visas do come then its off to Angola. Super frustrating, super dumb as to why they didnt come, why it took so long, and why us? but elder Mitchell and i went and said a prayer together for comfort and the rest of the week we have felt the lords love and comfort in our lives. We have a feeling that everything is going to be okay and that its not our work to do but the lords and it doesnt matter where we serve as long as we serve with all our heart might mind and strength. They are still children of god and need to be brought back into the fold of god. so either way im still excited to get out and teach people, whether i can understand them or not it'll still be the lords work and it still needs to be done. 

Sundays are really long here, we still in our class room and do nothing for hours. but the coolest part is our branch has allowed us to watch music and the spoken word! Never realized how great that little 30 min would be. Its really nice to just mix up the usual day of the MTC with something different and fun.. really enjoyable. Also this last week we have really been listing to Elder Bednar alot and he is probably my favorite apostle now. He laws down the law, his talks are so crazy here in the MTC when you watch the recordings of them it still hits you like a ton of bricks, but even his GC talks are so powerful and strong its really cool to read and listen to his testimony. Our TRC this week was fun, we got to skype people from outside the country some got portugal, most got brazil, but what did elder mitchell and i get? a girl that lives across the street form the MTC!! whats the point?? haha but oh well we still taught a really good lesson and it was still really fun. 

Oh remember my lunch time missionaries that were having a hard time and i talked to them, well they are still here and are doing really well i see them with a big smile on their face laughing and having fun now, a big difference to what they were last week. i see them every once in a while and we talk for a little bit and they give me an update and tell me everything is going really well. so thats great to hear. They are finally completely on the lords side and are now seeing the wonderful blessings that come from it. 

any ways thats about it.. still waiting on that visa to come and to go to angola, but if it doesnt im off to Arizona.. 

Elder Webber

LOVING The MTC

This week was a lot of fun, we hosted again this week and instead of getting the elders we were directing traffic and that was really fun because we were given walkie talkies and that was a terrible idea for them to give us walkie talkies... We have the coolest teachers though, Irmao Nore and Irma Read, they are the greatest people ever. Irmao Nore knows Pete really well and has actually been to our home a couple times which is really cool, but our teachers usually speak 100% portuguese but sometimes Irmao Nore speaks in english and when he does you know its about to get real with the gospel doctrine he's about to lay down for everyone. It usually blows my mind pretty bad, We taught TRCs again this week and last week elder Mitchell and i didn't do as well as we could of, but this week we knew exactly what they were saying and could talk back and we killed it this week, probably the best feeling ever when you actually nail a great lesson and feel the spirit super strong, also when you studying here for the full 3 hours that you are suppose to you can pretty much feel the spirit leaning over you and telling you things are true and what you need to study, its a cool feeling and its really nice to have the spirit tell you what the lord wants you to know and to study.. pretty cool stuff..

The devotional for sunday we had the Nashville Tribute band play and that was a very new and interesting experience. I really like their music because it mixed it up from always listening to hymns but their music made it seem like we were in some southern baptist church haha it was weird at first cause our church never does that, but it was actually really good after you got over the initial shock of what was actually happening, and my district sat 3 rows back from the front so we had front stage passes as well haha couldn't be better! Lately weve been listening to a lot of GC talks and they are all so dang good, i sorta beat myself up for falling asleep so often during GC and missing these awesome talks that they give, they are all so great theres just not enough time to listen to read them all! ahhh super frustrating! Its interesting to see how some elders handle their missions, some take it as a joke others get super home sick, and we were sitting across from an elder and his companion and they were being so negative about the whole mission, i wanted to get up and slap the baby out of them and yell "Quit being so dang greedy and serve the lord for two years, just keep going" but i couldn't do that so the next best thing was just to bear testimony and tell them what i was thinking, so i talked to them for a little and they finally left and after that an elder in my district was sitting next to me and he turns to me and says " Wow that was crazy, felt as if the spirit was talking to everyone here" so that was a pretty crazy experience, just goes to show that we are just tools for the lord to use, and when we open our mouths and forget ourselves thats when the lord and the holy spirit are able to go through us and to preach and testify to those that need it. 

Spirit is real and boy is it strong, mission is true and it doesnt matter who you are as long as you surrender yourself to god forget about yourself and your only desire is to serve him then he will use you as an instrument in his hands to preach and teach to those that need it most, He the same god that did all those miracles in the bible and book of mormon so why wouldnt he help you with your mission or help you become the best person you can be?

Elder Thompson and i thought up a quote that we really like and are going to use our whole mission "would you rather have legs here on earth, but not have anyone waiting for you in heaven? or have no legs here on earth but be able to walk up to those you baptized and give them a hug in heaven?" food for thought 

Love, 

Elder Webber

President Nelson Visits the MTC ....

This week was really good, just more studying and learning portuguese.. We put up the Angola flag in the back of our class and it legit looks like we are a classroom in a communist country, its kinda weird walking in and seeing it displayed proudly on the back wall of our class. I got my first haircut by someone other than myself here in the MTC and they did really good.. slowly learning to trust people with my hair so thats good. I learned how to do the rubix cube this week and have gotten pretty fast at it.. my best time was 2:50 thats gonna be really helpful.. when i show those african kids my skills and they kill me because of black magic. We also hosted this week and i got to host elder ham into the MTC, it was awesome talking to him and catching up with him. i see him every once in a while and its really good to see him, hes loving it here. We also found out our name tags can be used for musical instruments and our ID cards can be used for throwing knifes.. just another productive week here in the MTC

The Tuesday devotional was President Nelson, and that was incredible.. He talked about our role and how important we are as missionaries, but it was great because he shared his feelings and thoughts about becoming the quorum of the twelve apostles president and that was great to hear. He said how he felt inadequate and did feel like he deserved it.. I feel inadequate when i have to say a prayer in front of people.. so that blows my mind! I finished the BOM this week and thats always a great spiritual confirmation on the truthfulness of the gospel. We did TRCs this week and thats when you have real people come in and you teach them in your language a lesson.. it was really cool and elder mitchell and i actually had a great time doing it.. the language is slowly coming along! (Josh and Aaron should look into doing that, its voluntary so anyone who speaks a language can do it.. its really cool) 

Elder mitchell and i had to care for an elder who had a giant cist on his tail bone and that was really gross, but we also left the MTC to go the health department and that was a nice little breathe of freedom.. Elder mitchell was also called as the online coordinator, they help the new missionaries with their emails and that was really funny because he sits down and says " I dont know a thing about computers" we laughed and realized he was totally right! Oh i invited everyone in the world to read Mormon 2:4, probably one of my favorite scriptures and scriptural proof that my mission is the best mission on earth! it even says in the the scriptures! 

Anyways thats about it.. nothing else really happened here just repetitive and the same thing over and over agian.. 

Elder Webber

Doing Well... The Work Continues...

This week was a lot of fun, it started out with a meeting for our malaria pills and to sum all of that up is was them saying if we miss a day in taking our pills we die, or if we take the pills at the wrong time or lay down after taking the pills we get incredibly sick and wish we were dead.. so that fun to hear haha 

I dont see how the MTC can be hard for anyone.. the hardest part about it is just learning the language because you get so frustrated when you cant understand a word the teacher is speaking so you just sit there with a blank stare on your face trying to peace together everything thats going on.. but its slowly coming and i can see the progress slowly grow in my life as i diligently struggle and work on the language and the mission. 

We taught more mock discussions and those are slowly improving, the spirit is always there whether you understand what the person is saying or not so that was fun.  We sent off quite a few elders from our zone and a sister from our district and it was a really cool experience to be in the circle and bless them as they enter into the field. It was a really cool thing to see so many missionaries serving and faithful and willing to help others. 

The devotionals are always really good and you really see a different side to all the brethren.. Theres rumors that there might be a qourem of the twelve here today so we might have to start lining up at the doors now to get a good spot to see him speak.. but my favorite part about the devotionals is hearing all of the lords servants sing hymns.. Its the coolest thing to be a part of.. 

Other then that nothing much happened.. the days are pretty much the exact same here.. more stuyding, eating praying.. thats about it. SErvice is fun here, the best part about it though is you get a sack breakfast and you can choose the milk and they have cookies and cream milk from the BYU creamery and it is heaven in a bottle. 

Tell joseph to write me back because there truly nothing better then receiving letters in the MTC.. 

Also elder bradshaw got an email from the elders in angola and they told him the stuff that they should have brought.. so ill need 2 more pairs of short sleeve dress shirt (size 16), 1 pair of my gray suite pants (just one pair of pants), 8 more pairs of socks, and my blue tie that we wore at Aarons wedding.. Thank you! 

Love you, Ill send photos in another email

Elder Webber

Yeah our mock discussion was with a guy named Assis (it was our teacher pretending to be a guy from Angola) and it was going really well as first, we could understand what what he was saying and we could reply back so it was doing good at the beginning and we asked him all about his life and family and he told us and we understood, but then we got into our lesson and he started talking really fast to our questions and we had no idea what he was saying because we asked why he couldn't get married right now and we were so confused on what he was saying.. So elder mitchell and i just said "we know know that marriage is ordained of god and we know that god willl help you with whatever you need" pretty sure we didnt answer any of his other questions but the spirit was there so it was still really good. We also got moved up to our 3rd floor with the rest of our zone and district and the first night was crazy fun but dont worry we still obeyed all of the rules.. it was just good to relax and talk to missionaries that we are in classs with.. 

Ill send photos next week, these computers are being dumb

Elder Webber

The only three Angola missionaries in the MTC, Me elder Bradshaw and Elder mitchell 

Our district, Me, Elder mitchell, Elder Nimmo (aka Nemo), Elder Thompson Elder Stewart Elder Bott, Elder Podzikowski, Elder Green, Elder Kaelberer, Elder Jimenez, SIster Hunsaker and Sister Roasbach

 Mine and elder nimmos ensign photo