Monday, October 29, 2012

A GREAT week, and start in the new area...

I apologize in advance, this email will be short.

But on to more important things; i got sick on transfer day; of course; that is just my like; but i am feeling better now. My comp is elder Justin Stephens; we were in the same classes in orchard elementary school!!! what the joobies!

We are recieving some major blessings from heaven here so far; our first day we called the only two investigators that the elders had here; during our first rendez vous with them we fixed baptismal dates for the both of them, whoot whoot, we are finding new investigators left and right, my mouth is getting tired and all dry from talking all day; especially in french, not the easiest language with a sore throat.  this town has been seriously prepared; its pretty cool.

We went up to Paris on Friday for mission conference with all the zone leaders and president, talked about all the stuff we have coming up.  tomorrow we leave to start week 2 district meeting; we go visit each district in our zone, talk to all the districts and train all the district leaders afterwards.  we also plan on doing all our exchages with the district leaders after the meetings; so tuesday wednesday and thursday we will not be in our ville at all; it kind of scares me; that we have to leave our city for so long and our investigators; but this will save time overall.  we go to angers, (where elder burgess is the DL haha) then to blois for the next district meeting; back to Tours for the exchange, and then to Poitiers for the last district meeting.  Its the largest zone in the mission; my head feels like it is going to explode, but s'allllll good; then zone conference and interviews we have to figure out; and the big mission conference; we have to get our whole zone up to paris when elder Andersen of the 12 is coming.  I'm sure i will be getting plenty of phone calls.

Sometimes it seems like we have no time at all to do the actual missionary work; but we do; and the Lord puts the right people in our path, things just work out, the little time we do get; I just make sure i talk with EVERYONE

That's funny about joseph; what a shmeegle haha

Sunday was great, the ward here is alot different from the one in cergy, alot of old french people haha; but they are nice, the bishop is actually a young 37 year old african dude; he's a pimp.  We presented ourselves; and it seems like they are happy to have us.

much love

Monday, October 22, 2012

Moving.., Sad,.. but HAPPY


it seems like it has been a long week; long story short; the miracle baptism we were looking for didnt happen; it will happen soon but just not while i am here, i am getting transferred...  however we set two baptismal dates, a mom and her daughter who are soo LEGIT, they LOVE me haha i know that sounds prideful but we just get along great; the mom came to church yesterday, the daughter was sick, we have seen them for about two weeks now; and they are set to be getting baptized the 3 of November, i am pretty bummed that i wont be there for it, just story of my life; i set up baptismal dates; then get shipped out to a ville where the elders did so poorly they got "whitwashed" out, where they both leave at the same time because there is nothing going on there.  its hard not to get a little upset about it, lucky elder guymon and his future collegue have things SET UP here haha nah i kid i kid, easy there elder Webber.  But the mom and her daughter invited us over for dinner tonight; so i am excitited for that; get to say good bye and take a pic before leaving

WELL DONE mariah on your talk; in all honestly, much respect much respect.  i had to get up and bare my testimony and say goodbye to the ward this sunday; and just a secret, i was nervous.... it is true

But so much good stuff has gone on this week; where do i start, i have no idea!!  oh before i forget; i am getting transfered to Le Mans, to be Zone Leader for the Orléans Zone, in the southern part of the mission. President gave me a call on friday and told me it will be especially difficult because, we are whitwashing in, both missionaries who were there are getting kicked out; and me and my comp are both going into the ville at the same time; which is never the easiest thing, its what i did when i went up to brusseles.  i have never been zone leader before and neither has my companion; he is a transfer younger than me; aaannnd they changed the ville that the zone leaders are normally in; usually they are in orléans; but now we are in mans, annnd this zone is notorious for how big it is and how much time we spend on trains going from exchange to exchange; district to district; so president told me; your missionary work is Reallllly gonna have to be top notch to keep from going under; and we are getting a car; and a new credit card, and i have to do my year mark legality while i am down there so i have to find the prefecture.  if i look at it from that perspective i tend to get a little stressed out; but from day to day; its sall good; every days a PARTY, i am suuuuper excited.  Already called the elders who were down there.... yeah theres no progressing investigators, figures.  but hey i dont mind 3 weeks of pure finding

this last sunday was great; our investigator with a bap date was there; and francois who got baptised; and then after the first hour priesthood, i walked out into the hall and Chantal was there!!! i baptized her last transfer; she had been up in brusseles studying; but this last week was in lille visiting her sister; which is about 4 hours away from cergy; she heard it was my last sunday and came all the way down to cergy, woooow; when i got up to give my testimony and say bye, i almost cried because my two cergy baptisms there in the congregation for my last sunday; best gift ever.  she gave me some book marks and a silver tie; because "all my ties are ugly" haha great

our less active families all came too; the francos; especially i will miss, when the dad heard i was leaving in priesthood he cried a little bit; hes the really big dude; who reminds me of brother jensen; i got pictures with them and said bye bye

everything else is great, i started packing today, ready to move on down to my new ville to spend the winter most likely

here is my new address, place it up for the homies!!

Elder Webber
Les Missionnaires
49 rue Marengo
72000
Le Mans
France

much love, 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

A Good Week


We found someone who wanted to get baptized on the 20th, which was quite the miracle, we had a lesson with him on saturday, but he then explained he had found a little side job in paris; so he could not come to church the next day or see us until wednesday; i pulled a francois on him, telling him he has to make the decision between this side job and the baptism; and the blessings that come with; a real test of his faith; afterwards my blue said i was too hard on him; and need to take it easy... nah i dont think so.
unfortuneatly he chose the job and didnt come to church; and is working down in paris until wednesday; soooo he will just have to put his blessings on hold i guess; his choice; you can only do so much.  BUT we still have every intention of finding someone to baptize this weekend.  we had a meeting with our ward mission leader; his is a bit of a knuckle head; after church yesterday; i told him we would call him tuesday evening to tell him who will be getting baptized the weekend; he kind of just looked at us, and didnt say anything haha

we saw some great things this past week; its been raining all week and pretty cold; so instead of doing the usual contacting; we decided to do some bat porting in a group of big apartment complexes i had seen earlier; after waiting for someone to do the code and enter the building we shmeegled in behind and were inside at last.

we only had one hour and we told ourselves SOMEONE will let us in and we will have a lesson before we leave.  took the elevator up the 6Th floor and started our way down, talked with a few nice people; but not much, then a we knocked on another door and the lady let us in, we had a lesson with her and her 15 year old daughter; left her with a book of mormon; got her number and set up another rendez vous the next day, after we left, we said; hey that would be cool if someone else let us in, the next floor down; we spoke with another lady; i told her we would only take 25 minutes; and she let us in; we ended up staying for a while, had another lesson, got number and set up a rendez vous for tomorrow; next floor down we found a family from portugal, who had been baptized there in the church and were now living here but not going to church; we talked with them; got their number and set up a rendez vous the next; day; it was pretty funny.  then we left and i got a phone call from  a less active, evelyn, she told me how she was beat by her husband the night before, he is not a member and hates the church; she asked us to come over; we went over; gave her a blessing, told her to go to the cops asap; and to talk with the bishop because he works with the police and will know exactly what to do.  Now she is coming back to church with her two daughters; so thats great.

Francois is still doing great; and he is going to recieve the priesthood this sunday; im excited for him

district meeting went great with President, smooth as a babies bottom

by the way there is a facebook for the mission that presidents wife has started; and she puts pictures and what not up on the site; i dont know what the page is called; but im sure you can find it, if you search facebook enough

Monday, October 1, 2012

A Baptism...


the baptism went great; francois was pretty dang excited; at first when we were filling up the font the water was super cold; i called a member and he told me to push a few buttons and i did; then the water was hot; but it was almost boiling hot when it was finished; good think it was our ward mission leader who went in to baptize francois; not me, he came out his feet were bright red, haha noob. after francois was dunked he stood in the faunt for about 30 seconds, just being quiet; it was really a special moment for him; he was really happy

things are going well; we continue working with our other baptismal dates; one of them might move away to england this next week; so we will see

my blue has had to spend alot of time in paris and he went up to brussels to do his belgium legality; so i would spend long days down in paris doing contacting or waiting around; its kinda hard being a trainer; but i dont mind it, it can be pretty fun

there seems to be quite a bit of political movement going on over here; but i dont know if thats just normal; they did sound out a few text messages saying to stay out of heavily populated arab areas for a while; and then theres just the classic gays and feminists who are always complaining or rioting about something

but all else is well, we hope to get at least 2 baptisms before this transfer ends in 3 weeks; so thats means that we will have to find some new peeps this week and keep working hard with the ones we have

much love