Out "Clapping"

Well this week was crazy, last saturday was our first day clapping and boy do I have a few stories for you guys.  So they pick us up in this bus and drop us all off in these zones in the city with a little map and we just made a plan and started to clap.  The trio, me and my companions, just went to the first house and clapped, but we forgot to pray so we just started a prayer, and in the smack middle of the prayer, right after 'please help us to be successful" the door opens and this super cool lady with one leg and no teeth comes rollin out and accepts our LDM libro de mormon, and says she'll read and pray about it and that we can come by and teach her next week. Very first door of all of our missions, and we were just getting started, then we found this catholic lady, everybody is catholic and she was just chilling on her yard and she took a LDM too and said she would read and pray about mormoni 10;3-5.  For the next few hours we had a lot of contacts and since it was ridiculously easy to give away LDMs we decided to keep our last one for someone who was geniunly interested. So we saw that there was a little store on the map and we still had 2 hours left so we went to go talk to the owner and he was really cool but not interested in the gospel, he did however give us free candy. But right next door was this girl who was watering her plants or something and we talked to her and gave her the whole run down, her name was Abigail and we all talked for a while so I figured it was appropriate to give her our last LDM. Which i will later regret. We continued to meet contacts and we found a guy from georgia, the country, and he knew about Jose Smith and all that so we set up an appointment for next week at 3 with him.  As we were just finishing and we were heading back to the spot where they would pick us up, my companion, Elder Taylor who is from Idaho Falls and hes a short little dude but he's really in tune with the spirit, said maybe we should take a different road back. So me and Elder Fletcher, who is a semi-pro UFC fighter agreed and we clapped the houses on that street. Most of them just said "no no soy Catholica" so i was begining to doubt our little companiero. But one door opened and for some reason or the other we just couldn't get anything out, we were struggling with sentances like "do you have five minutes for our mesage?" and he looked at us like we were idiots and said you guys can speak english if you want. Which was a huge relief and my companieros are really struggling with the language, i spent most of that day translating what they tried to say into real spanish. This guy was prepared for us. In collage he wanted to know more about us so he tried doing some research and said he only got opinions from everybody. So this is where i was wanting that last LDM we gave away.  But long story short we told him about the church, he set up another appointment and gave his information, needless to say we were the most successfull companionship that day clapping. 

Other than that its just been a normal week, we have one chef, and his name is papa noel and the CCM is still ghetto and the power goes out and the airconditioning leaks water in everyother room. So happy thanksgiving!

Much loves, Elder Webber.

P.S.

I'm thankful for, 

You guys back home

my friends who are serving and will serve. 

Hermano Cristeche

Hermano Mirosnikov. 

My companieros 

The gift of tongues

My scriptures. 

The church

Baby joe. 

My missionary planner.

Having a car because alot of the lamanites in the CCM their families have litterally nothing, no car, no phones, no electricity. No bikes no nothing.  Pretty eye opening that they would come on a mission. 

Doing Well...

Thank you for getting that done! Well this week has been crazy for sure.

So Elder Holland came to talk to all the missionairies in the argentina missions and there were maybe 600 or so and we sat in the very very back row. because we are just ccm missionairies for now. Which was kinda lame but still really awesome, and he was yelling and screaming and banging his hand on the pulpit then we got back and were were told that he was eating at our ccm the next day and we needed to stay in our rooms and be quiet. like harry potter and dobby, so we did and then we had a devotional but we still had to be quiet. In the middle of some kids talk he comes walking into the room and we all stand up and what not, turns out the trio (me and my companions who are the best two guys here) gave our seats to some hermanas (sisters) on the fourth row and we were in the very back row again, but only of like 75 people so it was like 10 rows back, he was yelling and saying that if we went home or failed he was haunt us for our lives and he would make spooky sounds in the night and tie us up and drag us to our presidente. Then we all got to shake his hand, and since we were the very last ones when we went out into the hall he was right behind me. Like 2 feet. Then he grabs my companion and compliments us three on how healthy we looked and if we were working out.  It was awesome. 

Yeah that first week wasnt really that hard, the second week was killer.  Im teaching lessons and praying and having full on conversations (gospel) in español. It was tough for the week but i was having too much fun to think about how hard it was, and plus Aaron said to make each day worth while and Josh said to make each day the best day ever. So yeah.  

This building is pretty ghetto, showers are broken and the lights go out every couple days. There is one chef who is called papa noel. This week on tuesday all the other missionairies who had been here longer left to the feild so it was only our district in the ccm.  All 11 of us. I guess the teachers or staff figured we didnt need supervision so from that night at like 7 to the next morning we were all alone, in the big ccm without any power.  Living the ghetto life. Presidente said we were an unusually strong district in the sense of language and not whining all the time.  Oh the ghetto building is kinda cool cuz its approximatly 10 million degrees during the day so we open up the windows but the breeze comes in the windows and blows all the ceiling tiles around. One really big gust came in and all the tiles went flying everywhere and one kid yelled "espirítu Santo!!!" which is , holy ghost! We all thought that was pretty funny. 

Yeah thats about it as far as i can remember. 

 

Loves,

Elder webber.

First Week in the MTC

Hola familia

Sounds pretty exciting back in the us of A. So yeah, theres like 75 missionaries total and maybe a third of those 75 are american.  When i got on my flight from utah to texas i was only with two sister missionaries, which was totally awkward but then we met some more elders in texas.  The CCM (mtc) is pretty small and right across the street from the temple.  They share the same parking lot i think.  But my district is 11 people strong and its an odd number because i have two companions.  Elder taylor and elder fletcher.  We are a trio because one elder never showed up.  so its pretty fun.  The very first class you have is how to pray in spanish.  I am amazed with how much espanol i have learned!!! one week in and me and my companions taught a lesson yesterday, its called cray, which is where its a one time lesson with a non progressing investigator.  All roled played but still, so we gave that and it was 100 percent espanol and we didnt have it memorized or anything. I can say my testimony on any principle of the gospel and stuff like that but if you asked me to buy some bread from the grocery store I couldnt do that.  We have two latino room mates, Elder Sinos from peru and elder Ford, my favorite from uruguay, neither speaks any english at all, so the first couple days were really awkward but now we can have almost full on conversations, (about the gospel because thats all we know.) Thats basically it.  Pretty ghetto but itll do, "shes old but shell hold" most the showers dont have warm water or shower heads at all and the food is pretty weird but ive had it before.  OH! our teachers are the best, hno Cristeche, hno mirosnikov, hno pederson,  They speak about as much english as we speak spanish,  on the third saturday of you ccm stay, the districts go out prosiliting (no idea on spelling) they call it clapping, but we go out on the real streets and try to talk to real people and get referals which we then give to the real missionaries.  Crazy fun, and elder holland is coming this weekend so its pretty exciting. Thats all i can really think of at the moment but yeah.  Bubbaganoosh. Oh and the only way to send letters to the ccm is through pouche mail.  And i cant any packages here so youll have to send them to the mission home.  Have ben or somebody post that on my facebook so the amigos know.  

Buenos tardes, 

Elder Webber

P.S.
We pray in the morning we pray for breakfast we pray at class, we pray after class, we pray for lunch, we pray for the next class, we pray at the end of that class, at dinner, and two more times at the next class and twice more for our role play lessons we give. So its alot of praying.  Our mission president is crazy learned in the scriptures and he can answer anything with a verse and he has them basically memorized and my plaque scripture is 3 nephi 5;3.  Yeah cant send photos because i cant take photos until next sunday,  some weird ccm rule. 

Elder Webber