December 30, 2013

Hey Hey, Everybody!!

It was great talking to all of you this past week on skype... I miss all of you like CRAZYY but at the same time I know that what I'm doin here is more important at the moment. Haha. I didn't even realize it was my birthday until like last night, a couple hours before we got home! And as far as the cake thing, Linds, ya that's a thing here in Mexico but none of the members knew that it was my birthday yesterday so no.... I didn't get my face shoved in some cake :(  But it's all good, the holidays are over which means its back to the normal grind!--It's always been the normal grind but just knowing that everyone back home was celebrating the holidays without us was the only hard part haha. But I'm glad to hear that you guys had a good time down in St. George! Can't wait 'til we can all head down there again as a family and enjoy some time together.

The teaching here in our area is getting better! It was slow for quite a while... but we've put a little extra effort in finding new people to teach lately, and it's paid off a little bit! We found this one lady named Irma as a reference from a member here in the ward. Right from the get go, Irma was super prepared to hear our message. You can tell when you run into someone that the Lord has prepared for you to meet. The first lesson with her was spirit-packed, and she accepted a baptismal date! She went to church yesterday and is preparing to be baptized on February 1st. She's golden, and I'm so thankful that we were able to be instruments in the Lord's hands to help her find the gospel in her life. Other than her, we have a couple other investigators but they aren't progressing nearly as well as she is. But we're gonna keep working on finding new people to teach and helping this ward progress a little bit!

 

Mom, I hope you had an outstanding day yesterday on our birthday (I´m sure it was better than mine ;)) I hope all of you remember the Christlike spirit of the Christmas season and really make an effort this year to be more Christlike. Also, I want to invite each one of you, everyone who reads this message, to think of someone who is maybe less active in the church, or just a non-member all together, and invite them to accept the gospel. I promise you that you will see more blessings in your life as you do so, and if you make an effort to do it, the Lord will help you find and talk to the people who need to hear the good news of the gospel. Love you all sooo much. Have a great week :)

Elder Webb

Dec. 16, 2013

Wassup Fam!!

First things first.... On Christmas Day, I'll be calling at about 1:10. Or 12:10 your time.Through skype. In all honesty I don't know how... haha like I'm pretty sure I need your information or something to be able to do it. So if you could send me that, that'd be sweet. Also, I received Grandma and Grandpa Garrick's package last week. And I already opened it--sorry :) Maybe Dad will understand, but it's wayyyy too hard for missionaries to keep a package unopened for more than maybe a day. Packages are sacred treasures, and when you get one, it's literally impossible to wait to open it. But it was great--I'm really appreciative of the packages that I've received! :) And the money from Grandma and Grandpa Webb has already gone to good use. I bought myself a sweet Mexican national soccer team collared polo shirt. It's way sweet :) haha. But thanks so much for all the support from back home this holiday season. In all honesty, it's a little tough around the holidays here but I'm hangin in there. Miss all you guys like crazy but I'll be fine don't worry about me :)

This week was pretty good! First week with my "son", Elder Delgado. (The mission is just like life... he was just barely born, I'm his Dad.... he's my son... stuff like that--haha it's funny) He's a stud from the Domincan Republic. We're starting to see a little bit of progress in our area! We're in a tough area but we're working hard and getting the members excited to help us out. We have like 2 investigators right now that aren't really going anywhere, but with time I think they could get baptized. We'll see.... but for now, not too much is goin down as far as our teaching goes. But we're starting to see improvements, even though we only had 25 people at church yesterday. (Ya, be thankful you're all in a ward of like 900 haha) But it's all good, life in Mexico is great. Life as district leader is busy, especially since I'm training at the same time, but I know that the Lord will qualify me if he wants me to be a leader in this mission.

Hope life is all good at home! Can't wait to talk to all of you on Christmas!! Haha I don't think I'll be writing next Monday because our P day will be on Wednesday, Christmas Day. But we'll see. Sorry the letter was a little short... I honestly don't have much to say this week. I'll have a lot more to say on Christmas don't worry :) Love you all! Thanks soo much for everything. Cuidanse mucho! Que tengan una muy muy Feliz Navidad :)

 

 

 

 

 

December 9, 2013

Hola, hola family!! You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that everything is going well back home. It sounds like we are really receiving blessings as a family! I know you guys already know this.... but never forget to be thankful to the Lord for all he has blessed us with as a family!

Im gonna apologize right now and just say that this email is gonna be way short... haha we had transfers today and I spent the whole day at the mission house because they are putting me to train! haha I already received my new comp.... he's a stud named Elder Delgado from the Dominican Republic... but ya I'm already training.... haha and on top of that, I'm gonna be district leader, too!! Good night man I think I just might die.... but I'll tell you what--I'm gonna be busy the next few weeks and months.

But life here is good! Missing the Chritsmas spirit back home but I'm hangin in there! haha. I love you all soooooo much and thank the Lord everyday for such a great family. Thank you guys so much for all the love and support. Love you all! Sorry again for the crappy letter but I only have like 15 minutes to write today.... love you all :)))

December 2, 2013

Heyyyyy family!!

Whats goin on?? I got the Christmas package already! I feel like it came way early... Thank you all soooo much for everything you sent me!! Haha the stocking is awesome, I love the calendar, and the ties are way cool, too!! I havn't read the letter yet... my comp was in a hurry to get out and write our families haha but I'm sure it's great, too. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even remember that it was Thanksgiving. Never even crossed my mind this week! Obviously we don't do anything down here to celebrate it... but I'm glad you guys had a good time! And I'm glad that I didn't think abut Thanksgiving, otherwise I would have gotten homesick haha. I'll save the getting homesick part for Christmas :) By the way, I'll let you guys know abuot when I'm gonna call you and all that in the next coming weeks I still don't know anything.

Life here in Mexico is.... normal! Haha! This week flew by and not too much happened. We're reallly low on investigators at the moment... we have one, her name is Ana. She's super solid and accepted a baptismal date and everything, but she's living with and has had a kid with a guy shes not married to. Basically like everyone else in Mexico haha it's super normal to be like that... so we're trying to work with her on that but for the moment we're strugglin' to find people to teach. This week, we did a little bit more street contacting and asking for more references from some members and we had a little bit of success that way. We havn't taught any of those people but we're gonna go visit some of them this week so we'll see how that goes. All in all, it's a slow process. But I think we're improving little by little. This week, I went on divisions with an Elder Ellis. He's from Highland and went to Lone Peak. He's a stud! I think Lindsey might know him... His name is Bryce Ellis.  He did a lot of camera and filming stuff in high school... We had a lot of fun reliving a few things from high school. But other than all that, this week was pretty normal. My comp is going home in like 6 days, and he's starting to get a liiiiittle tiny bit trunky but I'm tryin to keep him goin haha. But he's a stud-- I love him.

Anyways, hope all is well with you back home. You gotta send me some pictures of the snow I'm dying I never thought I'd miss the snow that much! haha but I love you all soooo much and I thank you all immensely for your love and support :)

Elder Webb

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.)