November 18, 2013

Hey family!!

 

Glad things are going good back home and I hope you know that i love and miss you (as well as everyone else) a ton! Hope everyone is doin well back home and enjoying the snow... It's like 90 degrees today here.... this week tho it was a little cold. Like around 65 degrees... ha and you would have thought it was the ice age all over again judging by how the people were dressing and stuff haha but i was in short sleeves still and just loving it. I miss the cold weather in all honesty. also, this week i sent you guys a letter, it should get there sometime in this next week.

 

This week was a little boring..... it flew by.... but nothing really happened. haha we taught a few less active people this week, still tryin to find new investigators to teach, but still not having much success haha. But life's good! My companion and I get along fine. Also he's a super clean freak and we all know that i'm not exactly the most organized human in the world so sometimes he gets after me but haha its all good we're doin fine :)

 

This week the zone plan for us is to teach to some more active families about the blessings they've received from being members. As i've been studying this a little bit more, as i've seen in the lives of these people here, and as the scripture in doctrine and covenants states, all blessing come from being obedient to the laws and commandments of God. I hope, in this thanksgiving season (for you guys it's thanksgiving, theres no such thing here), that you really focus on the blessings you've received from our Heavenly Father. If you can't think of any right off the bat, think hard and ponder about it and you'll find that everything we have has come as a blessing from Heavenly Father and from being obedient to the things he has commanded us. Hope you all have a great week, and always remember how much i love and am thankful for each one of you. que Dios les bendiga

Elder Webb

November 25, 2013

Hey hey hey family!

I'm glad to hear that my letter got there and everything. haha and also, sorry for giving you a heart attack mom, but you know me i`m never gonna miss a chance to mess with you guys :) **(Jared wrote us a hand-written letter that said he had been bitten by a dog and that he had spent the night in the hospital getting stitched up from an 8-inch gash and being tested for rabies, etc. . . then told us he was just kidding about all that, but a dog HAD come after him and had torn his shirt.  Nearly gave his Mom a heart-attack . . .)** That's awesome to hear about all the mission calls and stuff from back home. and statler gets home in january??? what???? he just barely left i promise. and to answer your question about the piano mom, no, no one has asked me to play the piano for the ward or anything. But every chance i get i go over to the piano and play a little something or sight read the melody of the hymns and what not. And every time i do i think to myself...¨why did i ever stop practicing piano?¨ I hate to say it but.... mom..... you were right.

This week was pretty good.... really nothing special goin on. Haha i know you guys are all probably sick of me saying that in my emails but in all honesty this area is a little bit boring! ha it`s even worse than my last area, as far as teaching goes (which i didnt think was possible), and so we spend more than half of the day just walking around and getting shut down by the people we go to visit haha. But dont worry, we're not getting too down and i'm thankful to have a good companion who, even though he leaves in 2 weeks, is still willing to work hard. he`s a really good example to me of enduring to the end of the mission.

This week we did have a little experience that lifted my spirits a little bit. Like i said we dont really have many people to teach. But the other day, we finally got in contact with this less active lady that hasnt been to church in YEARS. She accepted us to go over there and talk with her. so we went! after listening to her tell her about her life and a little bit of why she hasnt been coming to church, somehow both me and my companion decided to settle on talking about faith. So we did, we taught a whole lesson about faith and trusting in the Lord and having faith to keep his commandments. At the end of the lesson, almost in tears, she was telling us how thankful she was for us and how she is now awakened to what she needs to do with her life. I learned a few things from this lesson.... One, that it's NEVER to late for someone to receive or re-receive the gospel. Two, we ALL need faith and to trust in the Lord in order to fulfil his commandments. and three, even though we arent having much success with anyone else, I know that i'm here in this area for a reason. The one thing that's bad about this whole situation is that we found out that the next day she left to go live with her husband in Monterrey.... so she wont be coming back to Tampico for at least another 3 or 4 months. Who knows if i'll ever see her again, but i hope and pray that we've been able to plant a seed of faith in her heart so that she can continue faithfully in the path of the Lord.

Quick thought for the week: i was reading in the Liahona this week, i dont remember which but i think it was from like 2008, we have a bunch of old ones here at our house. ha but i came across a quote by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. and he says: ¨The most cherished and sacred moments of our lives are those filled with the spirit of love. The greater the measure of our love, the greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true measure of success in life.¨ I really liked that quote, and it made me think a lot about what exactly is important in our lives, as well as the key to receiving spiritual experiences. Love. Speaking of love, i love you all. Have a great thanksgiving! Gonna miss being around the table with you all but its alright, i`ll live :)

Elder Webb

November 12, 2013

Hey Hey Hey family!!

Mom, I just got your package today. Also, I realize that it´s Tuesday but we pushed p-day back a day so we could go to the temple today. The temple was awesome. It's a lot different when everything is in Spanish but I really enjoyed it. But thanks for the package! I'm gonna down the candy in no time flat. Haha.  And the baby pictures? Thanks... now all my companions will make fun of me forever. Thanks for the ties too! In this next package, could you send me more recent pics please? Haha and I have a million of us as a family, which is great, but I'd kinda like a few of my friends, too :) Thanks a bunchhh. Oh and Mom, I know what you mean when you say you are living on cold cereal (while Dad and Cam are gone). I feel your pain.

This week went prettyy well! Things are goin good with my companion and everything, and we just had the baptism on Friday! I'm gonna have to send you pics next week because somehow my adapter doesn't fit in the usb port on this computer... but the baptism went well! Hah--we were all wayy lucky to be baptized in warm water! There is no hot water tap here so the water was ice cold haha you should have see their faces when they were getting into the water!! But it was a great experience. And yes, my companion had been teaching them for a little while before I got here. I'm in an area called Nuevo Progreso, (or new progress).  I'm enjoying life in the city.

Thanks for all the love and support back home. You don't know how grateful I am for all the prayers. And I can promise you that I can feel the strength of the Lord helping me along, and I believe in many ways it comes from the prayers of support from back home. So thanks, to every one of you who will read this message. This week, I read the book "Our Pursuit of Happiness" by M. Russell Ballard. It was aweseome. If you havn't read it, I highly encourage you to read it. I was gonna share a quote with y'all from it but I left the book at the house, haha, but just know that it is an awesome book that outlines our basic doctrine, as well as some personal stories from Elder Ballard. Seriously read it!!--you'll love it, I promise. Right now I'm reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage.... And it may or may not be blowing my mind. Haha I'm learning tons. But anyways... Love you all tons! Keep on keepin' on.

--Elder Waypf (that's how people here pronounce my name.........ya, I don't get it, either.)

November 4, 2013

whats upppp family!!

 

Life here in the city is a lot different.... suppppper different. In my last area, we were knee deep in mud alll the time it seemed like but now we´re in concrete and civilization. Haha. And usually, the work here in the cities is a lot better.... but the ward I´m in is worse than the branch I was in out in my last area. Haha. Yesterday, we had 25 people show up to church..... and we're in a WAR--let's not forget that. Haha. But I got up and bore my testimony, too, Mom! I bore it about a cool experience I had this week that I´ll tell you guys about in a sec. Also, it´s cool to see how fast my Spanish has progressed and it´s fun for me now because I don't have trouble communicating with people. All in all, this area is a lot better than my last. We have a Walmart, Little Ceasars, Church´s Chicken (kinda like Popeye's).... so I´m content :) Haha. And my comp is way sweet. He´s out of here after this transfer but he´s been a real good example to me of sticking it out until the end because there´s a lot of missionaries that tank towards the end of their mission, haha. He´s funny-- I´ll have to send you a pic of him next week I don't have one this week of him.

 

But, like I said, I had a pretty cool experience this week.... we were walking down the street after visiting with a less active member, heading towards another appointment that we had. As we were walking, I looked to my left and saw a lady walking on the sidewalk, and I got this super strong impression to go and talk to her. I´ll never forget this promptin--it was so distinct. It wasn´t a voice, but a strong feeling in my heart that I couldn't deny. And trust me, I tried to shake it off because I hate contacting in the street haha. But I knew it was a prompting from the spirit that I had to follow. And I got super excited because we don´t have hardly any investigators and I thought that since I was receiving this prompting she´d be someone who was prepared to receive our message. So I got all excited haha. But so I go up to this lady, stick my hand out to introduce myself, and before I could finish asking how she was, she cut me off and said like, "Oh no sorry I can't.  I have another appointment to go to". And she started walking super fast to get ahead of us, and I was like, huh??? Didnt I just receive a prompting to talk to this lady about the gospel? Why doesn't she want to listen?? And as I sat there thinking more and more, I receive another distinct feeling of peace. And I knew it was the holy ghost tellin me that I did well. Ha--it was kinda a weird experience but in all honesty it was awesome for me, because I learned that no matter what, listening to and obeying the promptings of the spirit is always better than rejecting the promptings. I don't know what´s gonna come out of this situation, but I did learn that lesson.

 

Other than that, this week was pretty normal. I would say it´s harder in this area than it was in my first area. But we´re goig to have a baptism this weekend! We´re baptizing a family of 4. I´ll be sure to send pictures next week. Also, no, I havn't received the package yet, Mom. We´ll see when it gets her--haha. Love you guys!!! Have a greeeeeeat week!!!!

 

Elder Webb

Wasssupppp fam!!!!

Greetings from another great city in Mexico! I´m here with my new companion, Elder Marin! He´s a stud.... he´s from Mexico and is gonna leave after this transfer. We´re gonna have fun.... and now that I don´t have a problem with the language it´s much easier ;) but supposedly we´re in a hard area.... but I don´t care--we´re gonnna get down to work!!

Ok, ok, so I gotta tell you guys about Antolin´s baptism... So we were super pumped right? Because we had been teaching him for almost three months, and he was finally gonna get baptized. My last day in the area... a good way to go out right? So we had everything prepared... the baptism was gonna be at six last night. We had to move the baptism to Sunday because he was gonna be in Tampico for the weekend, but he told us he would be back an hour or two before. So everything´s ready, and half the branch shows up which was wayyy cool for us! And Antolin never showed up..... hhaha. We called him a million times, and he finally called us back at like 7 saying that they were still in Tampico and that they weren't gonna be able to make it. FREAAKKKKK!!!!!!! Hahaha--soo frustrating.... but whatever--he´s gonna get baptized this next week which is good... the only thing is that I´m not gonna get to see it . Haha---gooooood night!!

But other than that all is well. I´m doin' good....missin' the fall weather back home, but I´m hangin in there :) For a Christmas package, Mom, send me whatever. But one thing that I would really like is some new music. Pleeeease--I´m getting tired of mo tab and Daniel Beck all day long.

My spiritual thought for the week: Yesterday with the whole Atolin situation... obviously me and my comp Eder Gnzalez were super stressed out and what not. We were praying the whole afternoon, but we said a prayer together around 6 o clock or so, asking that he might be able to make it. And I received an answer that I thought was a little funny.... I heard a little voice, just as they say... still and small, say to me: my son, don´t worry. After that, I was chill. And we know that Antolin never showed up. So my testimony this week is that God does answer prayers, and that God has a will for everything, and there´s a reason that Antolin didn't get baptized yesterday. Though I´m not sure why.

 

I love you all.... thank you sooo much for the love and support!!! :) un abrazo!!

Elder Webb