Skip to main content

The Transition

 July 5, 2021

This week was President and Sister Holme's first week as our mission presidents! I've been super nervous about this week for the past 3 months, praying, fasting, and staying up too late thinking about all the things I would need to do as their assistant to help them the best I can. Well, this week turned out to be one of the BEST weeks of my life! It was absolutely amazing! As I explain some of the awesome opportunities I had this week, KEEP IN MIND we worked SO hard this week. Harder than ever before. It wasn't all just fun and games like it might sound haha. 


First of all, I attended the transition dinner between the Teuschers and the Holmes, and it was really fun just hanging out and joking around with everyone. The Teuschers surprised me, Elder Money, and President Holmes with matching "unity ties". They have little boat steering wheels on them to basically say "you guys are in charge now". I am so so soooo grateful for that whole experience, I will never forget it.

The next day, we drove the Holme's around the mission to meet all the missionaries! They live in downtown Manhattan and are really nervous about driving anywhere, so they asked us to drive them anytime they need to go somewhere. It's been fun! I love hearing them talk on the way to/from meetings saying how nervous they are, asking for advice, asking about certain missionaries, and answering all their questions. It's pretty funny how little they actually know about New York and everything going on in the mission haha. It's been a super humbling opportunity to get to train them on some things.

President asked us to be with him all day every day to help him with things that come up. So, every morning we went to the mission home and helped unpack boxes, plan his schedule, do emergency trips to the store, join him in meetings, plan zone conferences together, drive him to things, set up wifi, and also just to be there to answer questions and calm their nerves. We are with them so much, and they are so nice that it kind of feels like we are part of the family. The are SO much fun to be around. They live on the top floor of a skyscraper, and the view is absolutely incredible. My ears pop in the elevator everytime I go there. For some reason, they dont have any gas yet in their apartment, so they can't cook anything. So, for every lunch and dinner this week, the Holmes' took us out to eat at fancy restaurants around Manhattan. Sushi, steaks, burgers, shakes, it was incredible. They are super rich too, I think they own a private jet. The food was amazing, but it was even more amazing getting to know them and learning so much from them. He personally knows several apostles and knows the prophet really well (he told us about President Nelson's diet and how he looks so amazing for being in his 90's). I have learned so much about the gospel just being with them! 

Last night was the 4th of July, and we got to watch fireworks from the roof of his building, overlooking the whole city. The pictures don't look as cool as it actually was. I looked around and thought, "what even is my life right now???" How on earth did I end up on top of a building watching fireworks over NYC with my mission president and his family???? I am seriously so full of gratitude, and I feel very inadequate to be getting to have these experiences. Almost every day, Elder Money and I look at eachother and say "why us?"

We also had MLC this week. It was pretty intense trying to prepare things for it because President Holmes wanted to change a lot of things about how we were previously doing them (good changes, just lots of work trying to adjust slides and agendas). It was probably my favorite MLC we have ever had. At MLC, we clarified what actually counts as finding a new person to teach, and everyone was shook... as a result, our mission found 100 more people than normal (almost 3 new people per companionship, which we have been trying to do for over a year and a half haha). President told everyone about some minor changes in rules throughout the mission, and everyone was going crazy. I guess after MLC, all the missionaries went back to their areas and told their zones about the changes. If you've ever played the game "telephone", you know that things don't get passed on very well. All week we were receiving texts asking about WILD RUMOURS that I have no idea where they even came from. The changes aren't even that big, but everyone is acting like the world is ending and we've had to send lots of clarification texts.

In conclusion, this week has been super fun, INCREDIBLY BUSY, very humbling, mind blowing, and I have learned so much. Some things I have learned:

- We should not add or take away from what prophets and apostles have already given us. Adding on extra rules and requirements (such as putting a time limit on how long someone needs to be free from cigarettes before they can be baptized, or random rules for missionaries that aren't anywhere in the handbook) is altering what apostles have said. Pretty interesting.

- the baptismal interview is based on WILL YOU questions, and the temple interview is based on DO YOU questions.

- President Nelson and President Oaks were ordained apostles on the same day, but President Nelson was set apart first, which is the only reason he is the prophet instead of Oaks. Crazy stuff.

Have a wonderful week! Love you all!

- Elder Webster

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Land of Spider-man

November 17, 2019 Hola! All is well here in New York City! I CANNOT believe how amazing it is here, and how happy I am doing the work I am doing. There is nowhere I would rather be, and no work I would rather be doing. I have found so much more joy than I thought was possible in being a missionary. I've had so many incredible experiences this week, but I will only share a few for the sake of time, and for the sake of the length of this email. So buckle up, there's a lot I want to share with you all but I don't want to bore anyone so I will try to condense it. My new companion is named Elder Stanford! He is from San Francisco California, and is one heck of a guy! He is the best trainer I could ask for, and I love him so much. Seriously, no complaints. The area I was assigned to serve in is called Richmond Hill! Its in Queens (and a little bit of Brooklyn), and I love it so much! Its literally where Spiderman lives! The high school that they filmed Spiderman at is really ...
Post a Comment
Read more

#Bendecido

April 27, 2020 Wow! You would think I would run out of updates to write about since we are still stuck at home, but I have some news! But first, thank you so much to everyone that sent Elder Goodman and I something! We got like 6 meals delivered to us throughout the week and some packages and letters! It was a fantastic birthday! I feel super blessed! When I asked people to send me stuff last week I was kind of joking because I didn't think anyone would actually do it, but we have been LOADED with food and packages! Thank you everyone! I also feel mega blessed because WE FINALLY KILLED A MOUSE! After many sleepless nights, trips to the store for traps, and praying, we got 1! We have seen rats and other mice too, so the war is not over. But 1 mouse is progress! We got transfer calls on Saturday night, and Elder Goodman and I are both staying in Olmstead. But the thing is, since so many missionaries got sent home, a bunch of areas have been shut down. The entire Chinese Zone clo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Urgent Care + TRANSFERS!

March 16, 2020 It's a crazy time to be a missionary, for sure! Due to the Coronavirus, church was canceled worldwide, and everyone is avoiding contact with everyone! It makes it a little hard for us to work because... inviting people to church and talking to as many people as possible is what we do! I am not entirely sure how to do missionary work effectively in this circumstance, but we are figuring it out one day at a time. Because we try to talk to literally everyone we see, I actually got sick this week! Elder Larson and I were told to stay inside to rest and to avoid spreading anything. We have been at home for the past 3 days! The mission doctor also asked me to go to Urgent Care, just to make sure I didn't have Corona Virus. They took my blood and ran tests. Turns out, I AM OKAY. Thank goodness! They still don't want us to leave the house though because of everything that's going on in the world. So, we have been doing as much missionary work from home as we ...
Post a Comment
Read more