Settling In....

This week was pretty nuts and oh so long, it seemed like forever. Our area is huge and we have spent most of the time trying to figure out where everything is so that means walking for miles a day. i dont keep track because i just dont want to know haha but we have found some really good investigators that are really eager to learn moer about the gospel.. and teach them we will. Im still struggling with the language but im doing a lot better, im contributing more and more to our lessons and slowly starting to understand what people are saying to me so thats a plus. Ive noticed while on my mission that the lord is really wanting this generation to be super strong in the gospel. (Like a kid named Bruno who is doing so well and wants to learn more) Most people we find are teenagers that are really interested but thier parents arent. about half the people we taught this week were people under 20 years of age, super interesting.. and frusrating because as a mission we are focusing on families so to grow the church here.. just gotta keep finding. We have a weird area.. youll be walking surronded by nice houses with pools and electric fenses and guards then BOOM suddenly youll be in the shanties teaching a family in aone room house with a tin roof and dirt floor. Both kinds of people have been prepared by the lord and we have found a lot of great invesitgators in both areas.

Angola is super interesting, the country pretty much ships everything in, so its all pretty expensive.. except for juice and bananas those are really cheap. The government doesnt like the outside world here but the people love it. You hear the backstreet boys while shopping at the super market and nobody knows what it means all they know is that its from the US and has a good beat to it. hahaha but the cool thing is they have luxury flakes here and they are pretty cheap so thats great!!

While walking around and during lessons you have a lot of time to think. esspecially when you dont know the language at all. You think about everything in your life and all youve done, you think about now and what your doing, and you really think about the future. but one thing my companion and i have been talking about this week a lot is just living in the moment, i feel thats so rare now a days, we are always looking back for memories or looking a head for the next big thing and never talking the time to enjoy the time you are in right now and who you are with. So we promised to live in the moment about looking back on my live regreting not enjoying fully where i was or who i was or who i was with. you just gotta make the place, time, and people your in right now the best and thats all that matters.. no need to worry about the past it cant be changed, and with faith the lord will prepare your future after you put the work in today.

Sounds like sweet living at home

love you miss you

Elder Webber

also sister merrill has a mission blog for the whole mission, if you could take those photos that im in and save them somewhere that would be great

merrillsangolamission.blogspot.com

P.S>  We were teaching a family and in the back ground i heard the wildkrats them song going off and my mind instantly went to joseph and my promise to him.. Sadly the area where you get to be in the wild and the country side is closed, president has focused 32 missionaries in the capital and 4 missionaries in the second biggest city Lubongo, so tell joseph i will try to get a photo of an animal while im here but it doesn't look like i will. All I've seen so far is a lizard and a bird.. which was probably eaten later that day. But hearing that song made me think of joseph and how awesome he is..

The " 'Eagle' has landed"

I havent died yet here in angola but i think i might soon.. let me better explain my situation in a parable... i am a little grain of rice, among a huge swimming pool full  of chocolate chips, and all these chocolate chips are speaking chocoguese while the grain of rice is speaking riceguese.. you know when you wear something youve never worn before to highschoool and its a bit werid and you think everyone is staring at you but they arent.. thats how i feel. everyone, i mean everyone looks at me like im an alien, the kids love high fiveing me becuase they like touching my white skin.. pretty nuts haha but there is seriously nothing you can do to prepare for angola other then just dive into what is going on. the streets here are nots, theres absolutely no rules here for the roads stop lights and cross walks dont exist. in order for us to cross a 6 lane road we find a solid place with a resting spot in the middle and when we see a gap we start walking, but dont run becuase the locals will laugh at you. while walking you hold up your arm hoping that cars will slow down or stop for you, siometimes they do, other times not so much and your left to your skills to junk and dodge these cars blazing down the road. Pretty crazy. In order to travel long distances you get packed into these tiny vans that are known to be the homes of a lot of pick pocketers and travel down these super bumpy roads to where you need to go, this place is great!! and really safe.. i mean all the guards for banks and apartments have AK-47s on them, perfect!! our apartment is actually really nice, better then my house in arizona, and im not kidding. we have a washer machine, dish washer, 2 showers with hot water, a couch. its really nice, the church got these apartments for the missionaries because they are the only safe ones around haha. but ive loved this place its been a blast so far

My companion is elder conde, hes from mozambique and can actually speak a lot of english which is super nice in learning portuguese and with everything. president decided to split the APs area in half and give our companionship half of it for a brand new area, so what that means is that both of us have no idea where anything is, one of us doesnt know the language at all and we get lost about twice a day, we got lost one day and had to cut through a sauper ghetto farm between neighborhoods, pretty sketchy haha they gave us the area with only 1 invesigator so our days consiste of a lot of finding. which is easy here because so many people here are prepared for the gospel almost everyone will give us their numbers and say to visit them again which is sweet, we found a 14 year old kid named Adilson and hes a boss, is so curious about the church and really wants his family to learn more so we are working with them on that, we found another family and currently have them on date ofr the 24th the parents arent married but they still want thier kids to be baptized so we are gonna do that for them! we also had mission conference this weekend which was good even though i couldnt understand a word but president and sister merril are awesome working with our huge mission of 36 missionaries!! its HUGE!! hahaha 

Being here in angola and seeing how these people live really makes me miss home, and makes me so grateful for having the family that i have. many times you see kids with torn up shirts and their dad is gone and mom is caring for 4 kids. you see how they live and i think back to how i was raised and how so grateful i am for a father that worked so hard to provide for us and a mother that contnually loved us and cared for us even when we were dumb in our teenage  years. many times this week ive wanted to go home and give my parents a big huge for all theyve done for me even when i wasnt the best child but i cant so that will just have to wait a few years. Its interesting seeing peoples prioraties here, they all live in tin houses and all their clothes dont fit but they also all have satalite TV hahah 

Much love, miss you

Elder Webber

All the americans and english speakers all 10 of us jammed into a back room to watch the one Saturday morning session. 

a photo of a farm land in between neighborhoods

My companion showing how africa really, gives a whole new meaning to helping your neighbor doesn't it.... 

and me doing my thang on one of the streets of our area with the little filhos playing soccer behind me.. 

heres the address for mail,  if you break down the package to 2.2 pounds its a lot easier and a whole lot better for sending stuff, letters are pretty easy. 

President Danny Merrill

condominio Arte Yetu

Bloco A Torre V Apt. 302

Talatona, Luanda, Angola

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

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:

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

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!)

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!