Hermana Webb in Washington: 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