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Monday, February 23, 2015

We Found The Cubans!!!

February 23, 2015

Hola mis amigos!!!

Como estan? This week was wonderful!!

So this week we scored because we found the biggest group of Cubans! Remember the lady that let us in and fed us wonderful Cuban food last week? Well we went back and found this huge group of Cubans hanging out and got to know all of her friends! They invited us to join their volleyball team! Haha they are SUPER nice people. So we started teaching one of her friends, Yuliet, and she is so awesome. During the second lesson, we taught her about the Book of Mormon. When I pulled out a copy to show her, she says "Hey I already have one of those!" Ummm...what?! So I guess she met some missionaries a few years ago. But she was really busy with her little baby, so they didn't teach her much. But she has kept that Book of Mormon in her box of important things for all these years. She's never read it, but pulled it out and there were already some bookmarks in there with questions she was supposed to find answers to. It was so cool how the Lord had prepared this lady to let missionaries in to teach her at a time in her life when she's ready to learn. She had kept that book even though she had no idea it's importance. Gives me hope that even though some people aren't ready to hear right now, leaving behind simply a copy of the Book of Mormon could lead them to open their doors in the future!

We also have another new person we're teaching named Victor. So we went over to visit a less-active member of the church. And instead of finding him, we found his wife's sister's boyfriend. He tells us that Cesar's busy, but that instead, we could teach him about our church. Andale!! He just totally poured out his whole soul to us about being lost in his life and all the regrets about his past and his desire to change his life around. We testified that it is NEVER too late to change and that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he can be freed from this huge load that he's carrying. The Spirit was strong in that lesson. At the end, we told him that he could start this path back to God by saying a prayer. He told us that he didn't feel worthy and that it had been over 20 year since he had offered a prayer. We kneeled down and Victor offered the most beautiful, sincere prayer I've ever heard. I almost cried, watching this man talk to a Heavenly Father who hasn't heard from His son in 20 years. It was a beautiful moment.

Funny story: so every week we go over to Hermana Terry's for dinner. She's from Peru and cooks wonderfullyyyy! So we were over there on Tuesday and she made us some weird type of fish. So we start eating it and Hermana Miller says "Wow, this is a really interesting type of fish. It kinds of tastes like sweet potatoes or something." Hermana Terry just looks at her and says "Hermana, those ARE the yams." Hahaha we just died laughing!!!!

Soo lots of happy moments this week!! The work is hastening.

Shout out to my big sis Ally! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BESTEST FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Webb
 
Little Sebastian!! Chowing down his ice cream cone before
he wiped it all over my face...but it's ok, now we're friends!

Teaching all the YW to lead music! Haha! So fun. I promise
they're not all slapping each other.

Three packing with Hermana Bagley for  a day until transfers.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

All is Well

February 17, 2015

Hola!!! Estoy aqui!! I am SO sorry I didn't write last week. We were sitting at the library, email open and all. But I was just staring at the screen, dying of a fever and I could not even think. Forgive me!!

Second of all, THANK YOU to all who wrote me so many letters this week!! Literally the 3 days I was down, our mailbox was so full and those letters gave me so much strength! And then the day I felt better, there was no more mail. Haha. Heavenly Father's timing is pretty dead on! Wow! I loved all the little Valentine's notes and pictures :) hehe I have the best family in the world!

So this week was not very fun. I woke up Monday morning with a bad fever, headache, chills, and pain. We got up just long enough to buy some groceries for the week, then slept the rest of the day away. My body was NOT up for much. Tuesday, I learned a good lesson the hard way. The scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that says,
"Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to you but be diligent unto the end". Yeah definitely tried to do too much on Tuesday, and the mission doctor was NOT pleased when we called him that night to tell him my voice was completely gone and I was feeling much worse. Whoops!! So there IS a balance between diligently serving and running yourself into the ground. So I paid the price for that on Wednesday and Thursday. It just about killed me and Hermana Miller to be stuck inside the apartment that long. She organized and reorganized the apartment more times than I can count. Haha. Poor thing. And I was just dead to the world, trying to sleep off that dang virus. So the moral of the story is: if you get the flu, go to sleep!! Do not go tracting all day! Haha

Other than that, this week was great! We're teaching Paola and her mom, Judy, from Peru and they are just awesome!! When Peruvians speak Spanish, it sounds like they are singing it is so beautiful! Sometimes I just sit there in lessons with them mesmorized by the sound of it! Ha. It is pretty cool! They are from the selva (the jungle) and they have a lot of culture! They came to stake conference and absolutely loved it. The Spirit was soo incredibly strong in that room. Judy looks up at the end and says she just felt like crying, in a good way, and I'm just over there with tears streaming down my eyes. Haha. Sensitivity to the Spirit is a great thing, really! Judy reads the Book of Mormon every single night and is already in Mormon! She's about to finish the whole thing. We've taught her all of the commandments and she understands them and can explain them better than I can! Ha I am just amazed at her strength and progression in the gospel!!

Yesterday, we were out trying to find more Spanish-speaking people and we knocked on this door and a lady opens and she doesn't really look Hispanic, so we start talking to her in English and she lets us in. We find out she's from Cuba and is trying to learn English. No joke, before we had even introduced ourselves, she lets us in her apartment and makes us this huge plate of wonderful Cuban food!! Me and Hermana Miller were just shocked that this lady would trust us so much after like 5 seconds of meeting us! Haha I love Hispanics!!! She agreed to let us go back and teach her the gospel and help her with her English this week and I'm pretty excited!!

I must say though- not everyone reacts the way this wonderful Cuban lady did when they see missionaries! Last week we were just walking down the street and we say hi to this man as we walk past. He turns to us and says Yeah I know who you guys are. You guys are from some religion. And I don't believe it! Any of it!! I have intelligence, which you do not have to believe in a God!" And with that he huffs off down the road, but not before I tell him "Have a wonderful night!!" I walked away smiling, thinking of what the apostles of Jesus Christ described after they were put in jail and beaten. "And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." This has become one of my absolute favorite scriptures on my mission. When someone slams the door in my face, or tells me that I have no intelligence, or makes fun of us- I think, how lucky am I!!!! Wow! That is so cool that Heavenly Father counts me worthy to be able to be hated of the world. What a blessing! Keep this attitude through all of your trials and life will be so much easier! It works for me (:

I LOVE you ALL so much!! Have a wonderful week and thank you again for your prayers, letters, love, and support! I feel it carrying me every day!

-Hermana Webb

Billions and billions of letters this week. Wow!!

My absolutely wonderful Sister Training Leaders bringing
me flowers and chicken noodle soup while I was down with the flu

V-day love from Hermana Miller
I have fallen in love with pomergranates!
I know weird, huh?


Yay!! Tennis with the district such fun!

Whoopin all the district in tennis. Haha.


Monday, February 2, 2015

Finding the Motivation to Pedal On

February 2, 2015

So...we didn't win the Superbowl....Awk. But we did celebrate in style: we ate pizza in our seahawks t-shirts and did weekly planning as we listened to Seattle scream when we got a touchdown. And a couple of "boo patriots" to end the night. Ha. It was a pretty exciting way to keep updated on the score!

This week was definitely trying on a new level...physically! So what happens is every set of missionaries gets a certain number of miles for the month. Then when it gets towards the end of the month, you start to realize that you didn't budget your miles very well, and you have to bike the entire last week of the month. So, unfortunately, this is what happened to Hermana Webb and Miller. We were on bike this whole week, and Washington is not flat like Illinois. We were trekking up some serious hills and I won't even mention that my bike had absolutely no brakes. Haha. They were really worn out, so we had some near-death experiences, but that's what keeps you on your toes. So, basically by the 2nd day of biking through this treacherous terrain, my legs were feeling like jelly. I was just about ready to give it up and call it a day, and then Hermana Miller reaches into her pocket and says "Want a jellybean?" That little jellybean gave me the motivation to keep pedaling for another few minutes, then I stop and turn to her and say "Jellybean me." Haha. This pattern continued until we got home, dragging myself to the planning table, but hey we did it! And now we have miles again! Thank you February (:

So Friday was my 6th month mark! If you can believe it (I can't!) I am 1/3 of the way into my mission already. I have learned more in the last 6 months and changed more than I have in the last 19 years of life! Preeeettty sure. You probably won't recognize me when I get back because #1 I'll be speaking like a crazy Hispanic, and #2 I'll be super fat like a crazy Hispanic. Hahaha just kidding. This biking thing makes that hard to do.

But really, missions are the best! These 6 months have been the hardest, most rewarding of my life! I LOVE being a part of the work of salvation. If you're thinking about serving a mission, DO IT. You will have no regrets.

-Hna Webb


Riding off into Narnia! We bike through the PRETTIEST areas!