MÉXICO-BOUND

The letter below refers to an event that has taken place: Elder Max flew out of SLC Monday morning at 12:55. The 17 of them left Provo at 9:00pm Sunday. Yes, 17 — Elder Max and his district knew only the eight of them in their district; a second district apparently resided in a parallel MTC, and neither knew about the other until arriving at the airport last night.

Which means we got to talk with him while they awaited the first of three flights! He called around 11:00pm, and we had a great catch-up (thanks to a generous soul who loaned Elder Max his phone for the 40-min call). He sounded great, whether speaking in English, Spanglish, or Inglespañol. And (drum roll) we’re only 100 days away from the Christmas Day call with both Elders Webb!

UPDATE 11:00pm MT - Safe arrivals:

from Thu., 11 Sept. 2014 

Phew

[Elder] Elijah, I’m sure it was different for you, because by this point, you had been in-country for a month, but I’m SO EXCITED to get to México!!! I’m sick of it here. I’m ready to start my mission and perform the work I was called to deliver.

Mom, thanks for the package, it was everything I could have dreamed. Somewhere we have a video of Elder McQuivey dancing along with my skeleton. [Ed. note: It's a toy, not Elder Max’s actual bones.] It’s spot on. Maybe I’ll send it next week, because I don’t know where he is in the computer lab. But I just yelled, and he’s definitely around here somewhere.

Spanish is so weird! Que el (heck) is Subjunctive!? The way our teacher explained it, he drew a picture of Earth, and said, “This is the Spanish we’ve done so far” then he drew a picture of the same earth, but everything had dotted lines, and he said “This is the subjunctive world. It doesn’t exist in English, nor, technically, in Spanish, because it’s a conjugation you use when you want to say something isn’t really happening” or something, I’m paraphrasing, and I don’t get it yet. Pray for me.

The [baby] shower [for Cousin Sophie] looked awesome! It’s so good to see you guys can prepare a party without me. [It’s true: Max was Berta’s YSA — “Yard Special Assistant”] And I loved the pictures of the house, and family, and Chester, and laundry! You guys got the hang of what I want to see. Thank you.

Quickly: I destroyed everybody at Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings trivia. Be proud.

Also, we found out that Dearelder.com is free to Reynosa México! So if that’s your thing, keep on keepin’ on.

We got our flight plans last Friday! I leave SLC Int’l at 1 AM Monday, then I’m in Atlanta for like 4 hours, which is when I think I’ll call you? Just keep your phones on you. I’m really not sure when I’ll be able to EXACTLY. It’ll happen, have no fear. Then I fly to México City, then to Reynosa. I’ll land around 6 PM.

I’ll probably think of something else I was going to say as soon as I leave, because I never write any of this stuff down.

Check out Matthew 5-7. It’s the most comprehensive record of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and it’s powerful. Also the books of Peter. Did you guys know Peter has like 3 books? Me neither. He just lays it out. This is how it is, ye sinners. I respect him a lot.

Love you guys. Keep sending pictures, keep being yous, and I’ll start practicing “tu” form for our call at Christmas.

Love,

Elder Webb

PS, I really want you guys to get this joke, so I’ll explain before Dad can.

“Trabajo” is Spanish for “Work” so a Sister in our zone came up with “Trabajarder”. It’s now our MTC zone slogan. Not technically conjugated correctly, but, at least for me, therein lies some of the humor.