Stayin Alive!

June 22, 2015

Hello Family and Friends!

How are you!?

This week was FAB.

I'm just happy like all the time! It's crazy how much joy missionary work brings.

The most exciting happening of the week: we go to contact this referral. We had to go through their fence to knock on their door. So the fence closes and out of nowhere, this huge pitbull rounds the corner and starts bounding over to us. Hermana Clark just yelps and turns her body to me curls into like a fetal position. Haha. I was just like "Hermana, dogs can smell fear. Don't be scared." Haha so I try to brave as the senior comp and I try to pet the huge beast and calm it down. And it's just jumping all over us, way taller than Hermana Clark, with its huge claws. I couldn't even get to the door to knock, so we're just standing there trapped! And then, thank goodness, the lady heard us and comes and opens the door. She was like "oh my goodness! I don't know how to control him. Just come in!" We got home that night to find some pretty sweet scratches all down our bodies. Ha. But at least we lived to tell the tale! And the family actually turned out to be super solid and we got to teach them a good lesson, so it was all worth it! (I'm just a little scared to go back for the return apt haha)

And just to show you that 11 months of the missionary schedule really starts to wear one out, let me tell you another story. So every morning we wake up at 6:20and Hermana Clark and I say a prayer together. Well, as many of you know, I am NOT a morning person. And this morning, it was my turn to pray. I start saying it and the next thing I know, I'm popping my head up again. "What just happened?" I asked Hermana Clark. She just starts laughing and says that I suddenly stopped talking during the middle of my prayer and I had fallen asleep again. haha. Whoops!! I had to explain to her about the rule that all my college roomies know: no talking to Hermana Webb for the first hour after she wakes up. Ha. Hermana Clark probably thinks I hate her cause when we go running or do some Jillian Michael's in the morning, I do not talk to her at all. Ha, so I had to explain to her that I in fact do love her, I just am not really awake for the first hour of the day!

So, good news! Alberto has resolved everything and is sooo ready to be baptized this Saturday!! Yay! He is incredible- he smiles bigger and bigger everytime we go over. The gospel has changed him so much! He is RADIATING with the light of Christ!! He works at Panda Express, so we went to visit him at work this week, and we walk in and he sees us as he frying this huge pot of orange chicken! YUM! He walks over and says "Welcome to Panda!" It was sooo funny to hear him speak English. Haha, I was dying.

I just love these people and I'm so grateful for all that I learn every single day! I know that this Gospel is true and that it changes lives! What a joy to have a front row to seat to see the miracle of the Atonement!

-Hermana Webb

Pic: Celebrating 20 years of life! :D

My birthday cake from Avelino!!

Me and Elder Allen the exact same day!! Crazy! We celebrated together!

Olive Garden for the birthday dinner! Glad I got to carry on tradition!

Happy Father's Day!!

We are ALL enlisted!

June 15, 2015

So last pday we went to the beach with our district and that was BEAUTIFUL!! And fun. And refreshing. Ah. Received a new appreciation for God's creations to say the least. Needless to say I am going to have a long "post-mission" to do list...BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT right now!:) so moving on...

We had an awesome zone meeting this week in Arlington (about 30 minutes north of us)We learned a ton about praying with faith. At the end of the instruction, the zone leaders asked, "so who has the faith to find? who has faith that the Lord will guide you to those who need this message?" Of course, everyone stood up. Then they said, alright, now lets put that faith to work. They proceeded to switch everyone's companionship and assigned you to a place in the area and sent you off with the task to pray in faith and have the Lord take you to those who need this message. Our adrenaline was seriously through the roof! Ha. We all zoomed out of the parking lot to our assigned street corner and got to work. We were able to contact so many amazing people- one mom who had lost a child about the Plan of Salvation, one about the book of mormon, and one about the Restoration in just 45 minutes! So cool! It gave us all a renewed feeling of urgency for the work! Our time is short and there are soo many people to teach!

So our mission has a goal to contact 16 people a day this month (which requires A TON OF WORK) and it has given us a new enthusiasm and drive to find find find! We have met people from EVERYWHERE!!! Mongolia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Cambodia, Egypt, Russia, Ukraine..you name it, we met them. We have such a love for people we don't know...it's kinda weird, but you gotta love it!

Alberto is doing great!! He came to church for the 5th time this week and just loves it. He's started singing the hymns, and participating in the classes and it's just awesome to see how he's finding this new family and love in the branch. After church, we asked him if he'd been praying about a baptismal date and he said he's decided on the 27th of June! A little bit more time to work things out, and a little more time to study the Book of Mormon he said! Right on!!!!

Karolina came to Eugenia and Andres' baptism this week and absolutely loved it. She went around telling everyone "Me bautizara..." "Me bautizara" (I'm getting baptized). It was soooo cute! We started planning what she wants to happen at her baptismal service, and we told her we would sing for her. She straight up started crying!!! This woman is incredible!! 

Wow. As a missionary I have a new appreciation for church. For a billion reasons. But the peace has a new meaning. Missionary life is crazy and hectic, so when we get to come to church, it means the world to us. It's kinda funny. We sit in a row with all our investigators and recent converts...all men except one. It is so fun though, we really are just a big family! Sometimes we try to take the 10 minutes during the sacrament for ourselves as missionaries...but the reality is that even then it's not about us, we are always trying to help our investigators have a good experience. When it ceases to be about me, I know I'm doing the right thing:)

So I love to study the words of Elder Bednar and I was studying a talk called Ask in Faith (READ IT https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/04/ask-in-faith?lang=eng) and something he said that IS SO TRUE. He said:

Asking in faith requires honesty, effort, commitment, and persistence. Let me provide an illustration of what I mean and extend to you an invitation.
We properly pray for the safety and success of the full-time missionaries throughout the world. And a common element in many of our prayers is a request thatthe missionaries will be led to individuals and families who are prepared to receive the message of the Restoration. But ultimately it is my responsibility and yourresponsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach.
Missionaries are full-time teachers; you and I are full-time finders. And you and I as lifelong missionaries should not be praying for the full-timemissionaries to do our work!
If you and I would truly pray and ask in faith, as did Joseph Smith—if we would pray with the expectation to act and not just to express—then the work ofproclaiming the gospel would move forward in a remarkable way. Such a prayer of faith might include some of the following elements:

• Thanking Heavenly Father for the doctrines and ordinances of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, which bring hope and happiness into our lives.
• Asking for courage and boldness to open our mouths and share the gospel with our family and friends.
• Entreating Heavenly Father to help us identify individuals and families who will be receptive to our invitation to be taught by the missionaries in our homes.
• Pledging to do our part this day and this week and petitioning for help to overcome anxiety, fear, and hesitation.
• Seeking for the gift of discernment— for eyes to see and ears to hear missionary opportunities as they occur.
• Praying fervently for the strength to act as we know we should.

I cannot stress the importance of members enough. I know he was using this scenario only as an example, but he also extended it as an invitation. And that is what I will leave you with as a challenge with this week; a challenge not just from me, but from an apostle of the Lord. Follow the counsel of Elder Bednar. We appreciate the prayers as missionaries, but we need your help. The members are truly the source of success. I've seen it in realtime in the past month I have been here. The blessings are real and eternal.
I love being a missionary. Sometimes for fun I look for something to complain about, but the truth is I can't find a thing. I am on the errand of the Lord. It doesn't get any better than this.
With all my love,
Hermana Webb

Finally got to the beach!!

We found a wittle crab!! (:

Our crazy district!

My two hijas!!!

What happens when we have absolutely no time for dinner...haha

Better and Better

June 8, 2015

How does this just keep getting better and better? Really, I don't quite understand! Being a missionary brings the most pure joy. I was studying about charity this week and found this definition: "It is the highest, noblest, and strongest kind of love and the most joyous to the soul." That basically sums up a mission. I'm filled with charity and I've never been happier. These people truly hold my heart in their hands!

To tell you about a few of these special people,

First of all, Karolina!! Ay! This woman is literally the best! She is the most prepared person I have ever met and she soaks in every word that we teach her. We left her with a pray,read,write assignment in the Book of Mormon. She's always had the question Why do bad things happen to good people? So we told her to prayerfully read 2 Nephi 2 to find her own answer. She told us at church on Sunday that there was a part that made her feel that God was talking right to her. She said "you girls told me that signs would come as I kept learning, and they are coming! God is telling me this is the right path for me!" I'm soo grateful for the Book of Mormon. It truly contains the answer to the questions of the soul. And at the end of church, it felt so natural to turn and ask her: so when do you want to get baptized? She told us "I already thought about it, and I want it to be after I get home from my business trip." So we decided on July 3rd. We are so excited for Karolina! Wow! She is truly converted after only 2 weeks.

The other is Alberto!! We had to push the baptism back a bit to work out a few things, but he is still growing so much and so determined to take this step!!

Another exciting thing this week was when we got a new car! We were the only ones in the mission driving a van and that thing is so hard to park/drive/everything. Sooo.. we called our vehicle coordinator, and he told us to come to the office. We got there and he looks at us and says "Gray or silver?" Me and Hermana Clark just look at each other like giddy children and say gray! So he takes us out to this brand-spankin new car with 16 miles on it and hands us the keys! It drives sooo nice. 

And last of all, congrats to my big sis on her engagement!!!!! Skyler is one lucky guy! I'm so excited for them!

-Hermana Webb

Rain, rain go away! Don't come back until Summer's gone awayyy!

Pullin out some big old weeds!

Kimberly!! The coolest RM from Uruguay! She has been the biggest blessing!
(This is the way they say something was super awesome in Uruguay!)

This is Karolina!!!!!

Agency Though!

June 1, 2015

Hola! Que tal!

This week was fabulosa!! We have been so busy and I've never seen this area so hopeful!!

Our miracle investigator this week is name Karolina. She actually lives just up the road from us, and was a referral from another missionary. We started teaching her and from the very first lesson, just has this fire in her eyes of excitement! She prayed at the end and thanked Heavenly Father for sending two angels. The next lesson we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she promised us she would read it all! And as I'm sitting there trying to testify of this sacred book, Hermana Clark's sitting there with Karolina's 7 year old daughter who has a strange habit of collecting bugs. She kept handing Hna Clark huge caterpillars and a large array of creepy crawlers to her delight. Haha. And at the end of the lesson, she asks "what's my homework, what do I have to do?" I ask her if she wants to come to church with us, and her face just lights up and she says "ME ENCANTARIA!" (I'd LOVE to!) I will never forget that moment! And the coolest part was when we found out that she already knows Hermana Terry, the strongest member in our area and had already been invited by her to come to church. So she came on Sunday and absolutely loved it! She's had some bad experiences with other Christian churches in the past, and couldn't stop telling us how much she loved church! And as we're walking her out, her little daughter runs up to Hna Clark with 3 new caterpillar friends! Haha, how she finds these things just baffles me! And on the way home, she starts asked us things like "Let's just say I want to keep learning about the Mormon church, would I be baptized again? And "Would I have to baptized after I come to church a certain number of times?" I explained to her about the word "invite" and how it will always be completely up to her. And when we explained about asking God to know if these things are true, she was just amazed that we wanted her to find out for herself! I love the eternal principle of agency and seeing the joy in Karolina as she learns about it!

Also, Alberto came to church!!! He is doing so awesome. We showed him the baptismal font on Saturday and he told us he could feel how sacred it was. And when they announced his baptism at church yesterday, I looked over at him and he was just glowing! We have been teaching him pretty much ever since I got here in January, so I've been able to see the whole process of conversion. He's so much happier now and he is able to feel and recognize the Spirit consistently in his life! He's looking for a lot of peace in his life, and I know that he will find exactly that this Saturday! Please please please pray for him this week to overcome anything the adversary throw his way!

The pic is of Aura's sweetest ever little grandkids. We made nametags for them so they could be missionaries and we had them practice teaching us. Haha. SO Cute! They even tried door approaches. Going to be the best missionaries!! We've got to invest in the future generations! :)

I know that this Gospel is true and I know that it's totally up to each and every one of us if we're going to accept it! I'm learning to treasure this valuable gift of agency and how much our Heavenly Father loves to see us make good decisions and how much He hurts when we abuse this gift.

My FAV scripture of the week:

"Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the verythoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." (Mosiah 28:3)

-Hna Webb

Kinari left to Mexico! :(

I'm bringing home a baby watermelon!
Won't my mommy be so proud of me!

Filling out Alberto's baptismal record!

Cuties!!

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!