Well first of all i cant tell you how thankful i am to be safe right now and well! there was another quake today and a big one, but you guys already know that. Its so sad to see these Haitians do anything they can to get money for there family's. As a missionary were not suppose to give money and it breaks my heart not to give it and see these poor people who have lost family, houses, and food in the streets. Honestly it has been a very humbling experience. Every Friday and Monday the Haitians cross the border to sell things and i have never seen so many of them before, things are needed now more than ever, please keep them in your prayers, honestly i cant express the love i feel for these people as i have 1 year and 6 months here and now to see everything they have get destroyed breaks my heart. I even worked in a Haitian area in Puerto Plata remember?? and i baptised one too but he left back to Haiti after that, i hope he is ok.

Well Saturday we got to se Elder Bednar talk! ya it was really incredible and he said some of the most powerful things i have ever heard. One was, you will never again in your life be in a room this small with an apostle of the Lord, three 70s, a mission president, and their wife's again! wow ha crazy. He didn't give a talk but we all went with questions to ask him and be taught by him through revelation, it was the best thing ever. he also said that if we think we are the teachers when we teach investigators we need to repent!!! haha wow fuerte. Also he talked about how we should take notes, don't write what the speaker says, but what the spirit says. He said something really funny about that, he said here we are, all us members, we take notes, never use them, then end up losing them! how stupid is that!!! (yes an apostle of the lord said stupid so that means no more getting mad at us kids mom and dad for saying it, its been approved haha that was a joke, no but seriously) and the strongest thing he said was that members say prayers in sacrament or what not and say please bless the people that didn't come.....i quote "that is a weak prayer and has no faith, stop saying things like that now and as the rising generation, you be the example" wow can you believe that?? he said it should be more like this....."father were thankful for the day we have had today and we recognize that there are people not with us today, please bless us that when this meeting is over that we will go find them and bring them back! (goes good with your talk dad) bless us with the strength to go get them now! and bring them back( he was pretty much crying saying this) and then he said something funny....please bless us that we all don't go to the same house hahaha we all laughed! but it was such an amazing experience. He gave us a challenge to more fully comprehend the Atonement, get a new copy of the Book of Mormon, like a paperback cheap one, and underline or mark every time it says in the strength of the lord or promises blessings from following the Lord or through the Atonement. Then pull them all out after we are done then we will be able to feel the power more fully in our lives. So if you want you guys can do it to!

Well this week has been filled with mission work, I'm working like i have never worked before and losing myself in the work. I'm not going to let my comp slow me down, and trust me i let him know that and so did the zone leaders in my house, if it wasn't for them i probably wouldn't make it with him. but we have found so many knew people and last week we had 3 baptismal dates, now were up to 7 and teaching lots of lessons. We should have 3 baptisms this next week and the week after (30th and 7th) wow i dont even want to think about how much time i hit on the 30th, slump day, but i dont want to go there its not an exciting topic for me.....home????? ya right haha

Today was a very long day, it was Santiago pday and yesterday we had interviews, yesterday we traveled for like 4 hours and today 6 hours. Today we went in early to play basketball with tons of Elders on a wood floor, it was so fun. Then we went to Pricesmart (like aka Costco) to eat and stuff. Then we faced the long 3 hour drive back home and i had the worst headache and still do!

Well I'm really tired and its like 8:30 so I'm going home now and going to eat dinner then sleep, major headache! well i love you all so very much and will talk to you next week.

ps. mom i got some shoes and i didn't have my card reader to put up pics today sorry! 100% promise next week ok?? love you!

Earthquake hits Haiti

Yesterday there was a 7.0 quake that hit Haiti in Puerto Principe the capital of Haiti. Jesse is close to the border of Haiti so I was very worried about him. We received an email last night from his mission president saying all missionaries are ok and accounted for. I got a email from Jesse today telling of his experience, his first earthquake and I think it shook him up a little. We are just glad he is OK and are praying for those in Haiti.

Well i was pretty shook up yesterday at about 5:30 when i was teaching a lesson and my seat started shaking, i thought it was one of the little girls pushing it, then i looked and there was no one there, so i looked outside and the street poles were shaking back and forth and my comp yells, the earth is shaking! we ran outside, cause the houses here are not made very well, and the whole world was outside freaking out and screaming. It lasted for about 2 minutes and there were 2 aftershocks. It was very scary, my first experience with an earthquake in my life. Well the news on that is that it happened in Puerto Principe the capital of Haiti, along with many buildings that went down, a hospital went down and some schools and they say over 100,000 dead and about 3,000,000 affected! its all everyone talks about, people here are devastated. Haiti is so corrupt, with all its witchcraft and apostasy, i think someone upstairs is trying to get them to repent and change, it happened all throughout the Book of Mormon, so why not now! but I'm glad I'm OK and all the missionaries here are to.

Besides all of that, my week has been alright. I'm struggling pretty bad with my new comp. he wasn't all that like i thought he is, he has some problems following the rules and its really annoying. Its not just affecting him, but me as well. I already have sat down and talked with him with the zone leaders, but it doesn't seem to be working, please pray for me to have patience and the spirit, thanks.

Well on good news, FINALLY, we are traveling to Santiago Friday afternoon to spend the night in the mission home, and on Saturday we have a conference wit the whole mission and ELDER BEDNAR will be speaking to us! I'm so excited and cant wait to learn from this man! the whole mission is doing a fast on Thursday so we can be super prepared. so that will be really fun.

I put 3 baptismal dates this week all for the 7th of February, so were really excited and receiving lots of references from the members. I think this might be my last transfer here because i talked o the zone leaders, i told them i have 1 year and almost 6 months in the mission and have never been in Santiago, so they are going to talk with President, so am i, next week in interviews to get me over there. I only have 4 more transfers left and i want to die in Puerto Plata, so i want 3 good transfers in Santiago.

Well that's about all, sounds like you guys are doing very well over there in the United States! i hope its not raining on you guys, because here it has rained like the last 21 days out of 27 or something like that, I'm sick of it and never want to see it again the rest of my life, i have not played basketball for like a month. I want to play so bad. well take care with everything there and i will talk to you next week! you guys are amazing your in my prayers and i hope I'm in yours! Please pray for the people of Haiti and there family's all there family also, and keep reading the book of Mormon. i love you all very much!

love Elder Westergard