August 25, 2014

FAMM

 

How's it goin, everybody?? Wow Lindsey is out... Cam is 17... Time is flying by, is it not? Glad to hear that you guys had a safe trip though.

 

Man, the weeks just keep getting better here! We're starting to see a lot of the fruits of our labors. On saturday, Abimael and Angelica got baptized!!! It was an awesome experience. We had about 40 people in total show up, which is about as many people as we usually have at church on Sundays! haha it was awesome. Our branch president owns a big public transportation bus that he used to take us up to a river about 45 minutes away to do the baptism. (I think I mentioned that we don't have a baptismal font here right?). It was a really special service, there were a ton of investigators there! It was very spiritual and we're hoping to be able to teach a lot of the other investigators that were there. We invited Elder and Sister Watkins, the senior couple missionaries that are working in the district right now to attend the baptism. They accepted, and they invited President Jordan and his wife! haha so they all came out to see the baptism too, which made it even more special. After the baptism, Abimael and Angelica both bore their testimonies. What great testimonies they have! Even I was surprised! I feel like they have better testimonies than some of the members here in the branch.... haha. But the next day in church, even though, as missionaries we aren't allowed to baptize, we are allowed to confirm. So Elder Hernandez confirmed Abimael, and I confirmed Angelica in Sacrament meeting. And THEN, in priesthood class, Abimael received the Aaronic priesthood. It was just a weekend filled with blessings for them, and they are the first ones to acknowledge it. I sent you guys a couple of píctures from the baptism.

 

A lot of this week was dedicated to planning for the baptism and getting all of it prepared, but we were able to have a good work week as well. We're working with a lot of Abimael's family members right now, and about three of them have baptismal dates already!! Hopefully we can stay with them and keep them going but I wouldn't be surprised if real soon, that whole family gets baptized. And there's like 10 of them! Yesterday in church, the branch president got up in priesthood class and said something that I thought was kinda cool. He started talking about how much the branch has progressed in such a short amount of time. He said that not too long ago, when they would pass the sacrament, they would only use one tray for the water, and they would only fill up the outer edge of cups. But now, we have to use almost two full trays so that everyone can partake of the sacrament. It made me feel really good for the work that we've been doing here. And I know that things can only go up from here. We still got a long ways to go if we want to really grow, but we're getting there.

 

Cam, happy birthday bro!!!! hope you have an awesome day. Big 17 whaa whaa! I'll think about buying you a souvenir maybe :) haha. But thanks for everything guys, I love you all soo much and I couldn't have ever expected such a great blessing as serving a mission would be. Linds, have a great time in Massachusetts. Be safe. PREACH THE GOSPEL :)

 

Elder Webb

August 18, 2014

Wassup, everybody!!

Dannnnnnng--you guys are all growin up now aren't ya!! Lindsey, gotta say, nice touch on the glasses. And Cam doesn't look too bad in flannel. Is that even flannel? I don't remember anymore. Is Cameron taller than Dad now??

Man, things are rollin along out here! First off, yesterday was the last day of this transfer cycle and we found out that Elder Hernandez and I are gonna be staying together for another transfer! We're super pumped about that because we're seeing a ton of good things goin on here and we don't want to leave just yet! Speaking of good things goin on... Abimael and Angelica are gonna get baptized this Saturday!! They are soooooo pumped!! I'll have some pictures comin next week. They are such a blessing to us... And they WILL be such a blessing to this branch. They truly are converted to the Lord and his gospel and are just anxiously waiting to enter into his path. Jesus, one of our other investigators, is still progressing really nicely and will probably be baptized at the beginning of September! Things in this branch are really starting to turn around in the good direction!

This week went by so fast for me.... I like swear I didn't notice that today was already Monday. Haha so I'm struggling to remember things that we did this week! But one of the highlights of our week was on Saturday, when we had a big branch activity. We got up at like 6 in the morning and we hiked up to one of the famous places in this city. Its kinda like a monument, the they call it the Hill of the Cross. It's just a massive white cross on top of this big mountain, so as a branch we hiked up to it! It was a great time. We sang songs, we played games, we had a carne asada with a ton of food, and took a lot of cool pictures! I sent you guys a couple of them. But it was really a good experience, and it really helped the branch to gain more unity. More investigators went than members! All of the investigators are game to hike up to the cross but nowhere to be found on Sunday morning.....hmmm...... ;) haha. But it's all good we had a good time.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. It's crazy that golf season is already here again! Time just flies by for me in all honesty.... The work is really picking up here, and we're super excited to keep going. With the transfers that we just had, they made me district leader again. I was kinda enjoying my little break--not gonna lie.... haha but whatever I'm still excited. I hope you all have an amazing week! Know that I love you!!

Elder Webb

August 11, 2014

YOO

Man, I can't believe Cam's about to start his senior year and Lindsey is gonna be on the other side of the country! We're all growin up so fast aren't we mom? hahaha. Man time is flying by I swear.... and, ya, Nick told all of us last week that he would be going home. I'm gonna keep emailing him and stayin in touch. But I hope everything goes well in his surgery... we should all pray for Nick with the hopes that he can recover and finish his mission.

Man this week was great! We had a normal week teaching-wise and finding people-wise... but things are just changing around here in the branch! This branch has really struggled for a long time in a bunch of different things, but it appears that FINALLY the branch president is getting excited to work a little bit, and the rest of the members are showing a little more unity. We've been doing a lot of different things to try and help out the branch, but I'm convinced that when the members see that the missionaries are working hard and having some success and they see investigators coming to church and progressing, they all start to get a little more excited about the work. 

Abimael and Angelica are awesome and are continuing to progress!! For a little while, every other week they would go and visit Angelica's parents that live an hour and a half away from here so they could only go to church once every other week. But we taught them about baptism and how they have to go to church EVERY week in order to be able to do it, and we promised them that if they did it, they would receive the blessings they needed to be able to visit their family. So they did it and they began to come to church every week for the last 3 weeks. And just barely this week, Angelica pulled us aside and told us that they had offered her new work! With a much less busy schedule, that would give her time to visit her family, AND go to church every week!! We were so excited, and so was she! It really was a testimony builder for her and her husband, but it also was for us. "Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God and it's justice, and every thing else will be added upon."

On Saturday, our branch had a baptism! The other Elders in the branch, Elder Wall and Elder Delgado (ya, the same Elder Delgado that I trained around Christmas time. Remember the guy that kept popping up behind me when I was skyping with you guys? haha) have been teaching this middle-aged guy named Marco Antonio. He's such a stud and it was a way sweet experience!!! We went about 45 minutes away to one of the rivers, because we don't have a baptismal font here. It was soooo cool!! I took a few photos, here are a few of them. 

Love you guys... thanks for being the best family ever ever ever ever. 

Elder Webb

August 4, 2014

:);)

Hows it goin,everyone!!

Man this week fleww by! I felt like we spent more time on the bus than we did working! This week we had interviews with President Jordan, and I know you guys already know it because I mention it literally every time we have interviews but, I love that man!! It's always an edifying experience to be one on one with him. I learned a lot in the interview we had! He said something that has really stuck with me and that I have been striving a little bit better to keep in mind. He said, giving me counsel on how I can keep progressing, "Pray just a little more than you do right now. Every so often, just take a step back and ask yourself, 'What am I doing?', and then say a prayer asking for guidance." I think that that is counsel that we can all take to make our lives just a little bit more meaningful. But the days of the interviews always takes away a lot of work time for having to travel 2 hours to and from. But aside from the interviews, i received my stuff to renew my visa, and so I sent it into the mission offices but there were some things wrong on them. So they had me go allllll the way to Tampico just to sign a couple of stupid papers. haha. So that took away like half of friday and all of saturday..... haha but it's all good!

Abimael and Angelica and Jesus all went to church on sunday!! They are soooooo awesome. They're getting ready to get baptized onAugust 30th! We're getting super excited too.

For the most part, not too much was goin on this week! Lots of travelin, little bit of workin! haha. Yesterday, we did find this crazy new investigator though. We went to contact a reference that some other elders had given us and when we got there, we saw that there were two guys there, and one of them was like half drunk with a huge bottle of beer at his side. We introduced ourselves and started talking and the drunk guy just would not shut up! Haha like we were trying to teach a little bit but he kept asking questions and doubting everything we were saying. But we finally talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon and he kinda sat up and started paying more attention. After a minute the half drunk guy goes, "Is that for sale?" And when we explained that it was for free he goes, "Alright, give me two months. I'm gonna read the whole dang book and analyze it, and then we'll talk." haha we were kinda surprised at his response but we agreed and said our goodbyes. So, i guess we'll see what two months has in store for him! haha. The power of the Book of Mormon is real. I'm tellin ya.

Love you all, thanks for always being the greatest examples for me. Peace!

Elder Webb

(a couple of sweet views from our area)