AP Webster

 March 29, 2021

WOW! This week completely flipped my whole world upside down. I am full of SO many thoughts and emotions. On Thursday morning, President Teuscher called me and asked me to be an AP. For those of you who don't know what that is, it means Assistant to the President. He told me that he usually has AP's serve for 3 transfers, but he will have me serve for 4 transfers, which is THE REST OF MY MISSION. The reason he wants me to serve longer is because we will be getting a new mission president soon, and he wants me to TRAIN him. He said that new mission presidents don't really know how things work when they first arrive, so he wants me to pretty much be the mission president while he is figuring stuff out. I feel super inadequate to do that, and clueless about where to even start. I. Am. So. Stressed!

So after I got the call, I had 15 minutes to pack until I got picked up. I got transferred a week early so that I could help plan transfers and learn how it works (and wow there is a lot to it!). I spent the rest of the week with my new companion, ELDER WEBB (we almost have the same name, how crazy is that?), and his old companion, Elder Walters. We are in a trio until tomorrow, and it has been SO much fun, these guys are hilarious. My first day was spent driving all around the mission dropping off beds, desks, chairs, and dressers to companionships that are going to be in a trio and need more furniture. But, because me being an AP had to remain a secret until transfer calls on Saturday, I had to curl up in a ball and hide in the back of the van when we were dropping stuff off. I pretty much had to stay hidden and be undercover all week when we had any interactions with other missionaries. That was fun. But the secret is out and I am free now!

AP's serve in an English pool in New Rochelle, which means I won't be speaking Spanish the REST of my mission! I am SO sad about that! Other things I will have to do is plan transfers and help decide who goes where, plan and conduct MLM, MLC, and Zone Conferences, pick up new missionaries from the airport, drop off departing missionaries, help furnish new apartments, go on exchanges with every zone leader in the mission each transfer (there's 22 zone leaders), monitor every zone and district group chat, help missionaries with tech problems, and somehow train a new mission president while ALSO finding, teaching, and baptizing in my own area of New Rochelle. I have always welcomed your prayers, but now I NEED them more than ever haha, please keep me in your prayers!

Some other random things:
- We saw a dead dolphin washed up on the beach during one of our runs.
- I get my own laptop now, which makes Facebook finding and teaching lessons SO nice
- We have 3 cars. I don't even know what to do with 3 cars.
- Since we have so much work to do, we have permission from President to go to bed and wake up whenever we need to. So, every day this week we went to bed at midnight and woke up at 6 AM so we could finish planning things for transfers. Its a grind. I don't anticipate getting any personal time anytime soon.
- I think I receive a new text or phone call about every 15 seconds, all day. I cannot keep up.
- Our apartment is pretty dang fancy and I get my own bathroom!!!

- I got to go to Manhattan to volunteer as a translator at a COVID-19 Vaccination center. I loved talking to my Spanish speaking Manhattan amigos!
- I got to join all the zone's transfer calls, and watch the reactions of all my favorite missionaries when they heard the news. It was probably the highlight of my whole week seeing them excited for me and cheering me on even when they didn't think I was watching them! So so sooo nice!

Okay LAST thing and then I will end. I have been feeling very inadequate and incapable of doing all the things I have been asked to do. Its been several days of just straight confusion, headaches, and sleepless nights. I don't know what I am doing yet and I am super nervous/scared. Well, last night, President called us and asked us what we thought the topic of discussion at Mission Leadership Council should be this upcoming week. And IN THAT MOMENT, I received an idea. And that idea sparked into about 10 more good ideas. Within a few seconds we had all of MLC planned. It seriously felt like I was given revelation for our mission as a whole, and it was a marvelous moment. This experience humbled me A LOT. I am incapable and unqualified to do this work. It's just a fact. That's how it is. I literally CANNOT do this without the Holy Ghost. So, this transfer, I will be studying and focusing on how to receive revelation not just for myself, but for a collective group of people. I feel like I go day by day, desperately praying for an idea to come to my head at the right time. I'm just walking by faith at this point, because I can't do any of this by my own efforts.

Anyway, I am pretty overwhelmed by the mountain I am going to have to cross before I finish my mission, but I am very excited for this new challenge. Please please please please pray for me because I need all the help I can get! I've never trained a mission president before or led a group of 250 missionaries. Sorry for the long email, lots is happening! If you ever want to send mail, you can send it to the mission office (I am there regularly now). Here's the address:

700 White Plains Rd Ste 315
Scarsdale NY 10583
United States

Love you all!

- Elder Webster