FUTBOL!

May 26, 2105

Hola a todos!

Well, my first week with Hermana Clark was grand! We were busy, busy, busy. We found 4 new awesome people to start teaching and Alberto is going to be baptized on June 6th! Yay!!  

Hermana Clark is from Texas, and is just this tiny little thing. Haha. Her shoe size is 6 and I feel like a giant walking next to her! But her testimony is huge and I love working with her! Her Spanish is already pretty good and she came out for the mission so prepared!

We had a memorial day soccer match yesterday. A family in our branch and all their relatives versus the missionaries. So we show up and there's all these Hispanics out on the field in their jerseys and nice cleats. Let's just say we got demolished. Haha. The little kids were just running circles around us as we were literally eating their dust. Haha. Those kids got game. It was dang fun though!!

Hope you all had a wonderful memorial day! Sorry, don't have much time on the computer today!

-Hna Webb

Volunteering in the beautiful community garden

Missionaries vs. Hispanics...they won. Haha.

Representing BYU!!

Our next best friend and future soccer star!

District picture

They're Taking My Baby Away and Giving Me A New One!

May 18, 2015

Well, surprise!!! I thought everything was good and dandy yesterday with transfers around the corner that me and my little Fifita would be staying here in Lynnwood for another six weeks.

But if I've learned anything on my mission, it's that the second you start getting comfortable, the Lord pulls the rug out under you and you're thrown into a new situation! So just when me and Hna Fifita were starting to get good at teaching together, the Lord is sending her up to Bellingham and I'm getting a brand-new missionary for my second round of training!! Crazy! Her name is Hermana Clark, and if you want to see her, I guess her video about her mission is viral on youtube. Just type in Washington Everett mission and you can see my trainee before I do! Haha.

I'm so excited to met my new baby, but am SOOO  incredibly sad to be leaving Hermana Fifita. Pretty heartbreaking! These past 6 weeks have been incredible and a ton of fun!! I've learned so much!

As for the area, Alberto came to church again yesterday!! :D YAAY! He is doing so awesome and his prayers have become some meaningful, he started the Book of Mormon from the start again this week so he could understand it better, and he absolutely loves the peace he feels when he's at church! We've had some really incredible lessons with him where we've all been able to feel and recognize the presence of the Spirit of the Lord so strongly. Keep him in your prayers this week as we try to help him take the next step of baptism! :)

And as for the weekly embarassing moment, we decided to have a bike and bus day because we're running low on miles, so we take the bus to an appointment at the end of our area. We get half-way home and then I give the bus book to Hna Fifita to coordinate our next bus to get home. So we got on the one she says, and lo and behold, it was taking us the completely opposite direction! Hahaha so we were back to square 1 and it was already like 9 pm. Uh oh (curfew 9:30.) I'm starting to panic and when we get back to the half-way mark and see that we missed the last bus, I'm really panicking! It was pure uphill back to our apartment and we had a long way to go. Thankfully, I had the impression to call Hna Waite and she was able to come and rescue us and get us back home on time and in one piece!! Haha now THAT was a stressful day!! (Note to self: never put the newbee in charge of the bus scheduling! ;)

Best part of the week: yesterday, I finally got to talk to my wonderful family on the best Skype call ever!! Boy oh boy do I miss them!

Well, I sure do know that the Lord is truly in charge of this work. I have felt so much of His guidance this week, preparing me for changes and helping me to put my complete trust in Him! I would encourage you all to do the same- slow down a little bit and be sure to listen carefully for the still, small promptings of the Spirit that may not be able to guide you if you never take the time to listen! Have a great week!! Echenle ganas!!!!

-Hna Webb

Skyping our baby a week late because of being in Africa. Best day of EVER!!

The BEST package from my bestie Lorna!!

This crazy bunch of hooligans! These kids are crazy!

We decided maybe we shouldn't knock this door!

Sometimes we bring our investigators Cheetos

Ups and Downs

May 11, 2015

ALOHA!  Oh wait, that's not my mission language. Been around too many Islanders this week! Haha. Hna Fifita's been teaching me Tongan and Somoan while I teach her Spanish, I'd say it's a pretty fair trade-off! (:

Well, this week was filled was some very high highs and some heart-breaking lows. But I suppose that's true of every week as a missionary! I'm sure all of you that have served a mission know exactly what I'm talking about. One hour of the day you can see a miracle and feel like you're floating on air, and then ten minutes later you go to see an awesome investigator and they tell you not to come back, and your hearts back on the ground again. I think that is why missionary work is so exhausting- you're riding an emotional roller-coaster all day every day!!

So I guess we'll start with the low- Remember Isaac? Super awesome, came to church twice with Lyli and Elvin and was sooo excited to get baptized on May 9th? Yeah, so last Sunday Elvin called him and said he couldn't come to church. And we talked to him later about what happened and he told us that he didn't want to be baptized anymore and hasn't responded to us ever since. My heart literally broke in half. The pain that you feel for these people is so real when they choose to reject the best thing for them. SO. REAL.

But as for the high, Alberto finally came to church!! We found him in January, just knocked on his door and he was super interested from the start. It was slow progress at first because he could only meet once a week because he had two jobs and worked like crazy! But from the very first time, he has kept every invitation we've extended- praying, reading in the Book of Mormon, etc. Everything but coming to church. So 2 weeks ago like I told you, he quit his job and got Sundays off. But then he got really sick and wasn't able to come to church for the last two weeks. Such a bummer! So we were at the point of stopping teaching him for a while again. But we felt impressed on Tuesday to invite him to come tour the church building so he could be more prepared for when he came on Sunday. He said yes! And so he came, and we got to show him everything, and then when we walked into the chapel, the Spirit came over us like a gushing wind. We explained to him about the sacredness of this place and the ordinance of the sacrament every week. It was such a reverent moment- Alberto told us he felt such peace. And that moment seemed to make it all click for him. We went back Saturday and taught him about eternal families and he said one of the most heart-felt prayers I've ever heard him offer, tearing up at the end. Then, there he was on Sunday. He got there before us! Haha. We walked in and I almost mistaked him to be one of the Elders. He was wearing a white shirt, nice black pants, and dress shoes. He was so aware of the reverence involved in Sunday worship and just soaked in each moment of Church. He stayed for all three hours of classes and seemed to be glowing with the Spirit when he left. And the best part was that he got to meet Elvin! He sat next to Alberto and showed him around all church. I am SO grateful that Heavenly Father sent Elvin and Lyli here and us to Lyli and Elvin. They have proved to be the biggest help with us here in our missionary work and friendship of the people we teach. This week has just gone to show me that the Lord inspires us to do the right things at the right time and He will take care of the rest. We have a family night planned with Alberto at Elvin's apartment tonight and we're so excited to help him progress more this week!

Some other exciting events this week was all the service we gave as part of mother's day!! We cleaned all the wonderful mom's homes in our area and brought them cookies and cards to give these awesome mothers a small break and tell them how much we love them!!!  And we got to help serve at the community farm! So fun! We plant, water, harvest (all having symbolic significance to the obra misional ;) Hehe) and give all the food to the people in need in the community! It felt soo good to be out under the beautiful Washington sun, sweating, looking at the gorgeous mountains and watering the raspberry bushes! 

Oh and just for kicks, the most embarrassing moment of Hermana Webb's week (there are a lot) happened right after this super disappointing lesson. We had felt the Spirit so strong testifying of truth, but the person we were teaching just refused to accept it. So we were going to visit our next potencial, pretty heavy-hearted and praying for something to lift our spirits. Well it just so happens that as we were walking up to the stairs to the apartment, I manage to trip UP the stairs and fall flat on my face. Hahaha. I turn to Hna Fifita and say "Never walk up the stairs with your hands in your pockets." Haha she was already on the ground dying laughing. It was definitely an answer to our prayer to lift our spirits in an unexpected way!!

Oh! And Happy Mother's Day!! I'm probably the only missionary out there that didn't get to talk to their family (Because some people choose to go to Africa on Mothers Day!! Not bitter, ok totally bitter) but I will be able to next Sunday! Hooray! LOVE MY FAMILY! And all the moms out there!

-Hermana Webb

Pic: The most beautiful, wonderful Peruvian I have every met- Paola and her wonderfully chubby baby, Miquita (who oddly looks more Chinese than Peruvian ha)! She and her gringo hubby came to our beautiful Mother's Day activity! :) 

Valeria's new puppies

What would a Mexican Fiesta be without a
few pinatas for the ninos?

Yay! Treat from our favorite member-Aura!

The cutest little vintage lemonade stand I ever did see

My wonderful companion and our fav member-present, Elizabeth

Went a little cray-cray with chocolate

Claudia and her fambam!