September 10th

before i forget, yes i am staying in cergy for another transfer; we just got the email with all the transfer decisions on saturday; i was 90 percent sure i was going to stay anyway; because you spend two transfers together when you have a blue, so i will be here for another 6 weeks; still district leader; and we are getting two other elders moving into our apartment this next transfer; so there will be 4 missionaries in our area; which is the way is used to be, cool cool, i know them both; and theyre both pretty chill; so itll be good to see them in couple days

we fixed a baptismal date this last week with françois; an african man about 42 years old; he loves us haha, he came to church yesterday and couldnt stop talking about how much he liked it; it was good to see. the fact that everyone contributes; its like a family. good stuff; so he will be getting baptized the 29 of september, we found him when we were doing some contacting in a parc at cergy prefecture; not too much success; but i saw him sitting on the bench eating some foods; we went up and talked with him; now hes got a baptismal date and LEGIT

we had fixed a goal to have 10 investigators at church this sunday haha; which alot of people thought was pretty outrageous; but we worked hard and by saturday night we had a good 8 that confirmed to come to church the next morning and 7 more that were maybies, then sunday morning when i checked the phone, thats when i saw all the missed calls and texts of everyone saying they couldnt come haha; ah man thats the worst; but françois and one other of our investigators came so thats good. i would say we had about 20 invited to come; and 2 actually came; soooo if we invite 100 people this week then we should get 10 right?? haha we refixed the goal again this week; and now it WILL HAPPEN; ha

all else is going great; im going to try and bake a cake tomorrow for a less active family we are going to see; im just praying just it wont be sooo disgusting as to push them even farther away from the church ha nah i kid i kid.

all else is well; alot of finding; praying; searching; teaching; meeting some really interesting people; ups and downs, happy times; depressed times, but then happy times again

as for the package; yeah i would love some peanut butter cups; but chuck in whatever you want; it will be much appreciated; whatever frosts your cookies; 

much love

September 17th

the apartment is still pretty good with the two extra elders now; one is from my group in the MTC, he's a real jokester; we get along too well; tooo well.  and his comp in his last transfer; the one from my group is coming from a pretty rough time from down in the southern parts of the mission; some sketchy stuff; so he needed out of there; now he's in the promised land of cergy; where you CAN get over 20 lessons a week; as apposed to what they were just doing down there; 3 or 4.  

we all just went to the HIMALAYA restaurant; Indian and Pakistani restaurant; dont worry we told them we were australian... haha yeah ive heard about the news about all the muslims, its pretty sketch, but whatever.  The food was great; all you can eat buffet for 12 euros; and that included ice cream bar; the peeps there were laughing at how much food we were eating; and they told us to come back haha thata boys my pakistani homies!!

françois is going so great; came to church again, solid dude

the other family that we have been seeing for a while; we went and saw again; REPENTANCE was the theme of our message; and i think they got the point; "no we are not here to have bible study twice a week"

i have sooo many exchanges to do this week; and zone conference and stake conference; so its going to be pretty stressful and i just hope that my blue remembers where to go for the the rendez vous that we set up, i guess we'll see

yesterday we were doing some contacting; we had some spare time before our rendez vous with françois and frere kimbembe, we did some contacting around cergy prefecture; "little africa/morocco" we walked by all the parked buses and one of the dudes knocked on the window; he opened his door and asked as who we were; he was arab, we told him and he invited us in the bus haha no worries i made sure the taliban wasnt hiding behind the back seat; turned out to have a pretty good lesson with him in the bus; and he invited us to drop by again any other afternoon when he is parked there

things are going pretty well; really trying to find those "prepared" people these first couple weeks of the transfer; because they will be the ones we will be baptizing at the end

much love

A good week....

this week has been interesting, we spent alot of time in paris; doing n'importe quoi, but it had to be done, so week 2 of the transfer was a little harder to reach our goals; and i personally believe its the most important week of a transfer, but thats just elder webber.  we had to go into paris for my fils legality; to get his visa and what not; that took up the whooole day, so the trainers; elder burgess and my old mtc comp included went out and did some contacting to pass the time; bought a tie, and this arab girl; taught me how to write my name in arab; so the time was well filled, i did have to cancel 3 rendez-vous; because all the blues took too long; and we were all late; joobies.

then zone conference on thursday; that took up the whole day; but it was GREAT, learned alot of great stuff. afterwards i had my exchange with elder florence in my district; we went out to his ville; in chartres, a little town, very old, they are struggling over there, while i was there i opened an ensiegn while eating dinner and saw an article with the chartres cathedral; which i could see out the window; the article was about how the parabole of the good samratin 

actually explains the plan of salvation; and the stain glass windows in the chartres cathedral depicted it, wow what a crazy coincidence, those early christian writers were smart.  and on saturday was stake conference, normally missionaries dont go to the saturday session, but president wanted all the missionaries in the paris and paris east zones to go; and we sang the mission song and a hymn, because the whole session was centered on missionary work; it was actually pretty dang cool

last p day after emails i got a haircut; we went to saint christophe to look for a barbershop; i wanted to mix it up a bit and not just shave my head like usual; found the cheapest; and arab barber shop; 8 euros; not bad; i told him to give me the classic; now i look like an arab; super short on the sides and longer on top, he busted out the razor and lined me up, very well done indeed; them arabs do know how to cut air; ill give that to em

we set another baptismal date yesterday; with rodrigue; and francois is still going great; so if all goes well; francois will be getting baptized the 29 of september and rodrigue the 20 october

work is going great; my comp is exhausted haha... he needs to start eating fruits and veggies

much love

For Sept 3rd...

wow kids village; lucky joseph, lucky indeed. And chaperone at a timpanogos stomp, ooohh wow; partay whoot whoot; whoot whoot.  Tis good to hear that the australia and nz trip went well; how is grandma and grandpa doing? That is crazy that ben is in highschool; and zach is a senior; annd mariah in 8th grade; im pretty sure i dont remember a thing from the 8th grade.  When is Bens curfew now? ha

This week was a week up some ups and downs.  the louvre was great; but we did pretty much do the classic run around try and see all the cool stuff in as little amount of time as possible thing; ha; i barely even remember glancing at the mona lisa before turning around taking a bunch of photos getting owned by all the little asian dudes then bouncing that joint as quick as possible.  I thought the egyptian artifacts section was the best; a mummified cat and alligator; ooooh how legit.  the renassaince floor, meh; just alot of buff naked dudes

tuesday i did my exchange with the zone leaders; went down to the center of paris, spent the night; we had a rendez vous with christine; a 50 year old or so lady that i found up in here in cergy a couple months ago; passed her down to the paris ZLS because thats where she lives; now shes a progressing investigtor; she refuses to call us elder; and uses our first names; she remembered my name after so many months ha.  First thing she says when we sit down to begin our lesson; "ah joshua, comment ça va, bien sûr je me souviens de ton nom; je te dis pourquoi, je te trouve... sexy, oui franchement; je ne veux pas te gêner, mais c'est vrais; tu aimes bien les grandes villes, tu es quel qu'un qui habiterait dans une ville comme paris; peut être à la venir" hahaha i just laughed; so did the ZL, wow how nice ha, but honestly we did end up having a great lesson with her; believe it or not

had zone/district conference; we split off into our different districts and soeur poznanski came and assisted my training; it went great; i talked alot with her afterwards; it was great; she said she loved it; vous parlez hardiment, she said; i speak boldy; yeeeeeaaahhh buddy; we dont mess around in district meetings ha; good stuff good stuff

the rest of the week was alot of dissapointments and hard work; allllllot of people who didnt show up to rendez vous or would cancel; on sunday we had 5 rendez vous set up; and during the first hour of church i got 5 different texts or calls finding out one by one they all got canceled haha; woooah; a long day of finding then, but we found some cool people; so its all good.  The family didnt come to church; mmmm the mom is being a bit ridiculous; the kids are legit; but the mom is being pretty stubborn... she needs to repent.  and hey thats why we are here; right

Im excitied for the last week of the transfer; get things rolling again; 

oh yeah; in your next pachage :) umm if you could look for like some little books that are pretty much just a summary of church doctrine and have scriputes and what not; like my old collegue companion had one; it would be like God had a body of flesh of bones; and then a bunch of bible verses that kind of hint it; or priesthood and alot of verses about it; it also had brief explanations on other major world religions.

its alright if you dont find one

thanks again

much love, Elder Webber

Going Well... Baking a Cake

hello family

before i forget, yes i am staying in cergy for another transfer; we just got the email with all the transfer decisions on saturday; i was 90 percent sure i was going to stay anyway; because you spend two transfers together when you have a blue, so i will be here for another 6 weeks; still district leader; and we are getting two other elders moving into our apartment this next transfer; so there will be 4 missionaries in our area; which is the way is used to be, cool cool, i know them both; and theyre both pretty chill; so itll be good to see them in couple days

we fixed a baptismal date this last week with françois; an african man about 42 years old; he loves us haha, he came to church yesterday and couldnt stop talking about how much he liked it; it was good to see. the fact that everyone contributes; its like a family. good stuff; so he will be getting baptized the 29 of september, we found him when we were doing some contacting in a parc at cergy prefecture; not too much success; but i saw him sitting on the bench eating some foods; we went up and talked with him; now hes got a baptismal date and LEGIT

we had fixed a goal to have 10 investigators at church this sunday haha; which alot of people thought was pretty outrageous; but we worked hard and by saturday night we had a good 8 that confirmed to come to church the next morning and 7 more that were maybies, then sunday morning when i checked the phone, thats when i saw all the missed calls and texts of everyone saying they couldnt come haha; ah man thats the worst; but françois and one other of our investigators came so thats good. i would say we had about 20 invited to come; and 2 actually came; soooo if we invite 100 people this week then we should get 10 right?? haha we refixed the goal again this week; and now it WILL HAPPEN; ha

all else is going great; im going to try and bake a cake tomorrow for a less active family we are going to see; im just praying just it wont be sooo disgusting as to push them even farther away from the church ha nah i kid i kid.

all else is well; alot of finding; praying; searching; teaching; meeting some really interesting people; ups and downs, happy times; depressed times, but then happy times again

as for the package; yeah i would love some peanut butter cups; but chuck in whatever you want; it will be much appreciated; whatever frosts your cookies; 

much love