They've got a "Sign"

Good points about humility, i read a talk this week from this last general conference about humility... twas very good, also many times with my companions we have studied the importance of humility and what true humility is.. Humility is not a denial of gifts or of your talents but in recognizing from where they come from.. We can use our gifts and be happy with our talents.. but any praise we receive should be turned straightly to our savior and to our heavenly father who were the ones that gave us these gifts and talents.. My companion and i have been extremely blessed by the lord in this area.. coming in all we heard that we would be doing was hours of contacts a day with hardly anyone at church (a lot like joshes situation) but we are teaching many amazing families and many great single people who are coming to church constantly.. We have been extremely blessed while walking to run into people truly interested about our message, and families who realize the blessing of the gospel.. Many times during lessons we receive little prompting to say something or teach something and that little point helps our investigators greatly. We can truly see that the lord is walking with us step by step and guiding us with his hand.. we are only humble conduits in which the lord can use to teach his own children the gospel.. and what a great pleasure we have to be those conduits for the lord! 

Our investigators are doing great.. We had a great family night with the Nascimento Joao family, such a fun family.. plus Vanusa makes the best shrimp in the whole world.. i could stay there all week long and eat her shrimp.. Yolene and Wilma are doing great.. staying strong and reading the BOM, the young men in our branch all have their eyes on these two sisters, we noticed.. had to tell them all to calm down and the girls asked us to only bring Mitchell to come help teach.. they only want him.. what an interesting lesson.. the one that works hard, walks with the missionaries, shows up 45 min early to prepare the sacrament and is honestly quite shy is the ONLY one that the sister want to help teach.. shows the importance of doing whats right and not just being "cool". Celson and Lurdes are doing great.. turns out their marriage isn't legal so thats a little problem but nothing that the lord cant help fix.. 

We had a great week this week, a lot of fun. We are looking forward to this next week though... we get to drive to the airport to say good bye to President and sister, and meet the new president the same, then on friday we have another mission conference for the new mission president.. We are very very sad to see president and sister leave, i have had the chance to work very close to them these last couple months and what a great learning experience it was, i have to to love them and lot and will be very sad to see them leave.. but we are excited for the new one and see how he will lead us and the church here in angola... even if the accent is a bit weird

Elder Webber

GOATS!!!!!!

and our new office sign.. the mission has waited 3 years for it to come and its finally came just in time for president and sister to leave! 

A "Professional Driver" now..

Id like to say that i am a professional driver now.. if i can live on the streets of angola i can live anywhere! Its been fun driving, certainly saves us a lot of time and a lot of money not having to take taxis. Thats sad to hear about the young men, it reminds me of a scripture in Isaiah that says that "real" men in the latter days will be worth more then their weight in gold.. and its so true, the world is quickly (no longer slowly) turning what a man should be into old fashioned and "lame". Satan is very clever isn't he, but its interesting to see how a mission changes things, Before the mission yeah i didn't have all my priorities where they should´ve been, but looking back now i see how foolish i was and how i wish i could go back and change it. These young men better learn quick or else they will look back on their lives and say to themselves "i was such a fool, chasing after things that had 0 actual importance" Give them a quick slap if necessary because its not worth it to be cool for a couple of months to later look back and wish you had done better.

But this week as super fun, we had a mission conference the last one with President and Sister Merrill, and boy was it solid. I took away that we have to live what we are teaching, you cant expect to teach someone about obeidence if you youself are not obedient, you cant teach with the spirit if you are not worthy to have the spirit with you. It was good little reminder of our purpose as missionaries and what we are called to do. The mission will dearly miss President and Sister and i will certainly miss them. They have taught with love and been great for the church here in Angola. But with that said we are excited to see the new mission brazilian president.

We are doing well with Celson and his wife and the Nascimento family, they are both progressing really well and they are stronger them a lot of members that i know back in utah. We are also teaching a woman and her 2 daughters Wilma and Yolene, and they are AWESOME! we went to visit them one time and when we asked how the book of mormon reading was they said "yeah these last couple of days have been super busy, so we only got to read 21 pages... but we shared the book of mormon with one of our friends at school and he said he wants to learn more" holy moly it was super cool, the lord has blessed us with great investigators who go out and look for the truth themselves, we are only here to answer a couple questions here and there. I love this area, i love our new branch presidency as well, we guested the president and 1 counselor but the 2nd counselor was a bit of a shock.. its Joaquim Puto!! a super cool recent convert of 6 months, hes 21 years old and is married with a little 2 year old kid, he hasn't yet graduated from "high school" and hes working as well to provide for his family, yet hes doing such a great job in his new calling... if you ever think you don't have time for your calling in the church you should reorganize and reprioritize....

Thats all, its been a fun week, its the start of a new transfer and im staying here. Im excited for 6 more weeks.

The Magic Man always find a way..

Elder Webber

Driving in Angola

Its always fun to have a great first lesson with an investigator.. who understands everything and is super excited to go to church the next day.. even accepts to be baptized on a specific date.. then when you come back to teach him the second lesson you find out that he is currently in jail for breaking the law... so with that we were very very sad.. We found him this last week.. and looks like we wont see him for a long time.. with that sad note we also had a great week because Victorino was baptized! It was awesome.. his neighbor Mitchell baptized him (it was his first time, he was super nervous) and it was awesome!! he said the prayer perfectly but first time Victorino didnt go all the way under... but the second time he did it perfectly! we were so proud of both of them.. VIctorino after bore his short testimony by just saying "when i was baptized, i felt something leave my body" hahaha hes such a cool little kid.

Also this week i have been over whelmed with stress... because i started driving on these angolan roads.. let me set the scene for you.. you are currently driving but need to make a U-turn because the only way to turn around here is by U-turns in the road.. they dont have stop lights here.. While you are down shifting you are also turning into this U-turn.. on your right is a huge 18-Wheeler who also wants to make this U-turn.. but then 2 or 3 motos come up in between you and said 18-wheeler... on the left there are people climbing over and through the road divider to cross the road.. in front is a turck full of people sitting in the bed of the truck.. and to but the cherry on top president is in the back of the car watching how you are doing... No pressure.. but apperently i did alright because now im driving around.. Only the APs and us have cars so it is a very very rare that missionaries here get to drive in cars.. but its a great privilege and opportunity to help the mission and its been a lot of fun! 

We have also found and have been teaching a new family.. Celson and Lurdes.. they are a super cool family.. ones a JW.. the other a Catholic but they arent active at all.. both have been searching to the true church of Christ and found something close to it so they stayed with them... until we showed up!! ahh yes here we come with the truth.. first lesson was a ton of fun, they have a lot of questions but also love to learn the truth.. THey say they feel something different when we are in thier house and that when we teach it all makes sense.. well of course sillies tahts the spirit talking to you! We are very excited to visit with them this week because we know that this family will do great things. Esspecially with the division of the branch we dont have a whole lot priesthood holders.. so this family and the nascimento family will really help out the church.. we have also been going to all the RCs and been giving them a pretty brutal awakening of what they are doing and what they should be doing.. its all slowly coming together and we are seeing great success here in apparently the area where you only do contacts all day every day.. dedicate yourselves and you will see miracles! 

May the Magic guide you,

Elder Webber

Going Fine...

The work is going just fine.. we had a lot of fun this week because we found a younger guy called Ribeiro Carlos.. He speaks english but only like a rapper.. a lot of people speak like that, because of the music. They learn how to speak english by listening to rapper and american music.. not the best example to follow but it works. We had a fun couple of lessons with him, hes about 27 so it was fun talking with him in his broken english and having him help us with out Portuguese accents (its turned into one of my goals to be able to sound like someone from portugual) Other then that hes very curious, he has been taught by a lot of missionaries from other churchs but never joined them because he never felt they were true.We met with him for out first lesson and he just asked question after question wanting to learn more and see what our church is like, our first lessons went for a long time. Our second lesson was the same thing, this time about the BOM, and in this second lesson we commited him to be baptized, and he accepted with a date. He says that we teach like no other kind of missionaries that have taught him before, that the things we teach him make sense, and they are simple and clear. We told him it was the spirit helping him understand and see that these things are true.. so we are excited to meet with him this week and see how he will progress.

Also this week we found something very interesting, we knew that the word of wisdom was at first a suggestion for the saints to follow and was not yet a commandment, we then found out that family was first a suggestion but is now a commandment as well. SO with those 2 little facts in our heads we began to ponder and study about why the lord sometimes first gives us suggestions to follow, then a little bit later turns them into commandments. We also looked at today to see what kind of "suggestions" the lord is giving us that could possibly turn into commandments, we thought of a couple... but i think the reason why he does that is not help us prepare to live a higher law.. he doesnt give us a straight commandments becasue many people would fail.. but he gives us a suggestion to help prepare, then makes it a commandment to make sure taht we do it... so in other words.. all you young women better be prepared.. because right now its just a suggestion to go on a mission.. but soon i would not be surprised if it turned to a commandment! hahahah 

Also i love the children here! they are a first very scared of us.. call us chinesses and run from fear before you.. but as you show them you are normal and fun they love you! always wanting to play and highfive you... yesturday while waiting for a recent convert i started dancing with about 12 little kids, they loved it!! they were laughing and running around just thinking it was the funniest thing ever.. then for the rest of the night i had 12 little shadows following me around dancing and singing.. if you ever want to fell special come dance with the children here and they will instantly love you

ELder Webber

This week was pretty cool, the shoulder hasnt been bothering me to much so that was a blessing. If you could have Mariah talk to Colby the Timpanogos trainer as well (if hes still there) that would be sweet. I think that would be very wise to have it looked at very closly when i come home.. it is a dang pain to always be worring about it. But all is well, its a good thing i dont need my shoulder to do mission work. We had our last family night with the Nascimento Joao family this week. We are letting them do their own family night from now. THis last family night was beautiful, they could sing the hymns all on thier own, the father gave an great lessons about the importance of scriptures. He told about how much the book of mormon has changes his thinking and his life, and hows he so grateful for the things that he has learned from it. Yet he still says that he has not yet recieved an answer that the book is true.... NOOOOOO how?? the book is changing your life and you have the answer right in front you, but he and his wife still want a stronger spiritual confermation that the book is true.. I guess thats not bad becasue itll come... just needs to be soon because with the branch splitting the church is in desperate need of this great family!

Other then that we just do the usual work, dropping lazy investigators and finding new ones. Here in angola because the church is so new the mission is focusing on married self sufficient families to build the church grow. We have become more like ring hunters.. while walking or contacting if we see someone with a ring every missionary wants to talk to that person and meet with them. Its the goal of our companionship to stop and talk to very person we see who has a ring.. Its pretty hard because here in angola the marriage process is hard but as we search and diligently work we are blessed, so thats pretty cool.Also we are teaching a 10 yr old kid, Victorino he lived in South africa with his uncles, but his mom lives here, he speaks portuguese but can only read english so its very complicated on teaching him, he reminds me a lot of joseph, he loves to play but would not read the BOM so we told him in order to play he has to read 2 verses before, and hes been doing really well, we are super proud of him. Hes a fun little guy.

Also for i package i would ask for the most american like tie and shirt you can find, i want to give it to ELder DLamini to help him appreciate my home a little bit more. Elder Dlamini has become one of my best friends and will stay a life long friend, i love that crazy swaziland warrior dearly, and i would love to give him a little USA memory of me. So in the package, US tie, Us shirt, peanut butter and Nutella, and whatever else you think would be cool. Im not picky ill take whatever i get and ill love it. 

Elder Webber

Dlamini taking a selfie

and a sea shell road

A Chat on Mother's Day

This week ill write a little one.. not much happened..

Thats very true.. actually this week Elder Dlimini and i were talking about how missionary emails were like social media.. every one is trying to make themselves look better but you never know who is really struggling, and to be honest i think about home every day, and rugby i think about everytime im walknig around which is the majority of the time.. but its all good because the few lessons we have and the sweet people we meet makes it all worth it.. Missions are not easy in the slightest meaning of the word.. the walking the sweating, the dogs, the language, theres so much dragging you down and it gets over whelming way to often.. but thats exactly why a mission is the best 2 years.. it turns you into a man.. a spiritual man.

I also this week had back pains that would have killed me... but its all good Elder Dlimini rubbed some deep blue onto my back and with a couple prayers later we didnt miss a single lesson all week, so that was super nice, almost as soon as i would leave the house it would leave and as soon as i got back it would come straight back! haha its been super interesting.. also following the spirit brings miracles..

about packages.. i just want letters and photos to be real, if  you could just get people to write a letter, favorite memory, and a photo from all my friends and people i know that would be super cool, have mariah help you out! 

But joseph looked awesome.. i miss my little buddy dearly.. hes grown a lot. Zach needs to smile some more, life's a time to smile! not to frown.. and josh same goes for you.. mariah looked like classic mariah which is always great.

Loved talking to you all, miss you dearly. 

Elder Webber 

A :"Normal" Week

Yeah this week we had a nice little surprise sunday.. because monday was a holiday here in angola we received word that we would be working as normal on monday and that tuesday will be out p-day.. so here we are now hahaha This week was pretty solid.. nothing really happened.. we just walked around a lot, taught some really good lessons and found some cool new people. We had family night with familia nasciment joao, and that was probably the highlight of the week, it was their second time doing it and elder smith and i did nothing.. which is how it should be. The oldest son conducted, the hymns were beautiful and the oldest daughter gave the spiritual thought.. it was truly a thing of beauty and we are seeing a miracle happen right before our eyes. 

Other then that nothing really happened, we found a new young man named Fabio and our first lesson was awesome, we found him early in the week just hammered drunk and sitting down.. (this is when you get them... when they cant think straight so they straight way give you their number) hahaha nah but it was pretty good, we called him and made an appointment and taught him. The spirit was super strong in our lesson and he was understanding everything, said he would pray and did a wonderful job.. all around a pretty cool contacted and lesson.

Also and investigator who we have marked for baptism soon was sick all last week so we had to slowly work with him, but this week he was healthy and the usual sergio, he was smiling, came to church Sunday and had a great time.. hes gonna be baptized later this month so we are excited for him, a young guy that has had some troubles in his life.. so the gospel is really working out for him which is pretty cool.

Sounds like Joseph just created a secret society hahahahaha na that's pretty cool though good for him.. hell have to send me a medal soon.. itd love to have one!

Yeah we are planning on calling around 16 here which is around 8 oclock over in your neck of the woods, sorry for the late notice we weren't to sure what we were doing as a mission but now we do!

see you soon

Elder Webber