December 28, 2014

Hey Hey Hey!

Let me apologize now, Mom, and say that the usb port on my computer today doesn't work... So I won't be sending any pictures. I'm sorry. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to send you guys some pictures.

Man, the phone call on Christmas went by crazy fast! It was great to see Grandma and Grandpa Garrick, too. I always love talking to you guys!! And I apologize for not telling you all about my hospital stay when it first happened :) And Thank you so so so so much for the Christmas package. You don't know how much I enjoyed it!! You guys are the greatest. I continue to enjoy the toffee and the candy actually so thanks for that!

Mom..... SO YOU SAY ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY.... da da ded dda doo IT's MY BIRTHDAY TOOOO... ahahaha happy birthday, Mom!!! You're the best mom in the world and you look even younger than you did when I left! :)) I literally cannot express into words how thankful I am for you and how much I love you.

Things were pretty slow this week! People take the holidays pretty serious here... everyone is partying like all the time I swear. But we had some good experiences teaching this week, although we weren't able to teach much. But on Christmas it was pretty interesting. We were all gathered together as a zone eating and playing around and having a great time, but at the end of our activity we received paper bags full of candy and a few different bags of bath products like shampoo and soap and stuff to take around to some poor people. At this time of year, a lot of very poor people come in from the small towns outside of the city and they basically just live in the streets for a few days. So we took these bags of candy, soap, and fleece blankets that one of the sister missionaries had brought to a bunch of these people. What a humbling experience for me! Here I was, with new socks, a new tie, and a new watch that I had received from my family, and these people with hearts overflowing with joy to have received a fleece blanket because their daughters don't have any. I truly felt the spirit of Christmas this year, and I will be eternally grateful for that experience that we had!

I love you all from the bottom.... OF MYYY HEEEEAAARRT! hahah

FELIZ NAVIDAD Y PROSPERO AÑO

Elder Webb

December 15, 2014

QUE PASA

What's up family! Gotta love Christmas time--am I right or what? I've got this sweet Christmas card that some buddies here in the mission made.... but I can't send you the picture because the computer isnt working!! Computers these days....

Tell everyone who gave me money how much I appreciate it and that I love them so much. The next time I talk to you guys will be on Christmas!! Did you know that?? pretty weird huh? I'll be calling you guys around 10:30... I can't say that it will be exactly on the dot but it should be right around there. Will you send me your skype info? I'm just gonna use the same password and everything that I had the last time we called. Also, bad news Mom... the packages still haven't arrived :(. But don't worry, we'll be keepin a close eye on them.

I don't have tons of time today... and I don't have tons to write about. This week was a pretty normal week. It was the last week of the transfer cycle, and I think most of the zone was ready for some changes. Ha it was a pretty tough week! A few of the investigators that we've been teaching have stopped listening or haven't been coming to church lately! It's always one of the most frustrating things ever. haha. However we have been teaching this young 12 year old kid named Cristofer. He's a stud, and he came to church yesterday! We're really hoping that he can show his family the way, and be an example. That's a lot to ask from a 12 year old kid but we think he's gonna do it!

Today we had transfers! Elder Hernandez and I are gonna stay the same, but we got a new companion today! We're gonna be in a threesome for this transfer cycle by the looks of it. Our comp's name is Elder Smith, he's from Idaho. He's pretty young in the mission, only been here about 4 and a half months. But he's a stud and is ready to learn! Well family, sorry for the short email today but we gotta jet! I love you all heaps and heaps. Talk to you on Christmas! Don't forget to send me your skype info!

Elder Webb

December 8, 2014

Aloha

We actually had a pretty good week here this week! We're still struggling a bit as far as work is concerned, but we're hanging in there! We actually found a couple of pretty good people to teach this week. But we also had a couple of sweet rejections :) gotta love it! haha. It was a pretty busy week this week, we were running around all over the place! On Tuesday, we did divisions with the assistants to the President. I went out to their area with Elder Hallman, one of my best friends in the mission, and one of my good buddies from the MTC. We had a really good time, we had a couple of sweet experiences together too! 

We taught this guy named Juan, who was born here in Mexico but grew up and spent 30 years of his life in the states, he speaks English better than Spanish, so we taught him in English! Which was weird... I've only taught in English like one other time in my mission! But it was sweet. At the end of the day, we bought like a pound of pastor to make tacos :) I'm attaching a pic of it, it was pretty great. That was on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, I went on divisions with another elder in our zone, Elder Lima. Elder Lima and I are good buddies, I've known him for a while now and so I went out to his area! Just for a few hours we were together but I learned a lot from him.

We did a district service project here in our area. Other sister missionaries from the zone came and we helped build a house for this old member in our ward. This guy's name is Maclovio, and he got baptized like 3 years ago, and has been super strong in the church. He is very very poor, and has no family at all. Lives completely by himself. It was a good experience to help him. He was very thankful for the service that we gave him. Even though we were only able to do a little!  On Saturday, President Jordan assigned us to give a tour of the Temple to a branch that was coming from another city. So we were basically their guides for a few hours, talking about the history of the Tampico temple, watching a few different videos, a little bit of food... just a bunch of stuff! They are awesome people, a lot of them were less actives or investigators, which is why we were assigned to help them out, kind of explain how things are done a little bit better. It was a special experience!

Did you guys watch the Christmas devotional yesterday? We did, and I really enjoyed it! More than anything, I enjoyed the music. I worship Christmas music!! Especially from MOTAB. Just a heads up, now that Christmas is coming up, we've gotta start getting the phone calls set up. I'm gonna be able to talk to you guys any time between 10:30 in the morning til 3 in the afternoon. So you guys think about it, and let me know. Also, mom, would you send me maybe like an attached copy of the scrooge story, and the Night Before Christmas story? I would really appreciate it :) I love you guys so much! Thanks for all you do for me. Have a great week!!

December 1, 2014

Whats going on, family!!

Man I miss you guys this time of year! I'm not trunkie I promise I'm just saying :) Looks like you all had a great time at Scott and Julie's! Thanks for sending me some of those great pics! We kinda had a Thanksgiving dinner here, too. It was pretty great. On Friday, we had a mission council meeting for all the zone leaders in the mission, and afterwards we went to the mission home to eat! Sister Jordan made basically a Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome! It was a pretty special experience eating pecan pie after such a long time.

Things are going pretty good here! All in all, things are pretty normal! This week on Tuesday I went on divisions with Elder Bartholomew. I went out to his area, and we had a really good time! He's a stud missionary, he's one of the district leaders in our zone. We had a great day together. We found a bunch of new people to teach and had just a spirit packed day preaching the gospel! haha. It was pretty great, we taught this one lady and her son early in the day. This lady owns a little cafe thing, and she always has a little taco stand that she puts out at nights (that's the only time taco stands are open by the way... super annoying because we aren't ever out at night). Anyways, they do a lot of tacos al pastor here, which is like this special marinated pork that is awesome. ha. Anyways, she told us to pass by her house before we went home and she could give us some tacos. So obviously we said yes. When we passed by, she came out with this big take out box, a big pack of flour tortillas, and a bunch of salsas. In total, she gave us like 2 pounds of meat!! haha so we cooked it all up when we got home. We ate pretty good that day :)

This week we faced a lot of rejection as far as the work goes! Sometimes it happens. Some weeks it just seems that no one wants to know anything about the gospel. It's tough sometimes but I don't get down on myself. The Lord always blesses his children who have a good attitude during times of trials. I definitely saw that this week. We were blessed to find a few new people at the end of the week that we're really excited about. We're really excited as missionaries to start this new He is the Gift campaign! I imagine you guys have heard all about it. If not, look into it it's awesome!! I love you guys with all my heart. Have a great week this week!!

Elder Webb

#sharethegift

November 24, 2014

HEEEYYYYOOOOO

What's going on everybody! Hey, tell Greg and Miriam and their family that I say Hi!!

As far as the Thanksgiving package, I haven't received that yet. I don't know if it's waiting for me in the mission offices or not, which could be a possibility. Fingers crossed! haha. And I'll do the best I can to wait until Christmas to open my Christmas package. I mean, It would probably be a notable feat if it gets here to me before Christmas in all honesty. But if it does I'll wait until Christmas to open the gifts :)

Man, this week went by sooo fast! It just keeps going by faster and faster. Things are going well though! Really nothing to complain about. I've got a great companion, we're working hard and seeing some success in our area as well as in our zone... things are going pretty smoothly right now! (knock on wood). This week wasn't too eventful, just about as normal of a week as you can get. Aside from that, we had interviews with President Jordan! Always fun to have interviews! Ha.

 We had a pretty decent day at church yesterday! Sundays are always pretty tiring for us because we have to go to all 3 blocks of both of the wards. But it's great because there's this sister in the second ward, just the sweetest lady of all time, that always brings us little sandwiches before the second ward starts :) gotta love her! Beti came to church as well! She is progressing really nicely and we are looking to baptize her the 13th of December! Carolina and her two little kids came as well! I don't know if I've mentioned her before, but she's an investigator that we're teaching right now. She learns a little slower but she's really excited about the church and she looks like she feels comfortable there.

This week we had a couple of interesting experiences. One was actually pretty funny. We went to contact a reference that we had received the other day, and we got to the house but no one was home. We look across the street and we see a lady with her arm in a sling setting up a bunch of chairs in her front yard thing. So we were like, perfect contact moment! So we went over and offered some help, she denied our help but we started to talk with her a little bit and present ourselves and what not. Something wasn't quite right in this contact, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. We asked if we could pass by some day and she said yes, but in a really weird way and it was then that I realized it. This "woman" wasn't actually a woman... It was a man. Turned woman. My comp and I both realized it at the same time, and after that it was just SUPER awkward. Needless to say that I don't think we'll be going back to visit.

The other experience we had wasn't so much funny as it was just awesome! I told you about the "half-drunk guy's sister" a little bit, well, we went to teach her about a week and a half ago and we left a Book of Mormon with her other son that was there with us. We went back this week, only a couple of days after our original visit. She wasn't available to talk but her son was, and we sat down to talk with him for a minute and we asked him if he had been able to read a little bit of the Book of Mormon. He goes, "Yeah, in fact I read the first 15 chapters. It's pretty cool!"  We were like.......uh......... AWW YEAH!! haha the kid's a stud and he's getting his mom a little bit more excited too!

Well, everybody, I hope you all have a fantastic week and remember that I love you all. This is a picture of me and my comp with our autumny ties. Peace!!

Elder Webb

November 17, 2014

Hey Hey!!

What's up everybody. Man, just gotta say, things are going great here!! H--I'm loving where I'm at and how things are going. My companion, Elder Hernandez and I are getting along really well and are working great together! He's a funny kid, super happy and smiley all the time and literally just loves everyone. He's so smooth! We've got a few investigators that are progressing that I'll tell you about in a sec, but to answer your question mom, The "half-drunk guy's sister" is progressing in every aspect except for going to church. So... basically she's not progressing....  but she's getting there :) It was a great experience working with Abad before his baptism but man, I'll tell you what, he's really hit some tough times! He STILL hasn't been able to be confirmed!! And he's literally disappeared--like we have no idea where he could have gone to! Keep him in your prayers, please.

I think my companion would like ANYTHING that you want to give him, not kidding. He's a super humble guy from Mexico City. So like.... honestly, anything. haha. Just surprise us both ;)

So anyways, this week was pretty sweet. A little frustrating at the beginning of the week because I was a little sick with a bad cold but that only lasted a couple of days. We found a couple of investigators this week that are gonna be baptized in about a month!! Haha they are awesome. Both of them are middle-aged women, one named Rosa Maria and the other named Carolina. They both went to church yesterday and Rosa Maria had a special experience with us after sacrament meeting as we taught her, and she accepted a baptismal date for the  for the 20th of December! We're super excited for her. 20th of Dece

Our other investigator, Beti, (pretty sure I mentioned her last week?) is also progressing! She went to church yesterday and everything. On Saturday we had a lesson with her and we had assigned her to read Alma 32 about the seed of faith, and she told us all about her experience. She said that that has been one of the biggest questions on her mind for the last little while, 'how can I increase my faith?'. She said that when she was reading she felt "illuminated", and she felt this deep, strong feeling in her chest that she had never felt before. So we were like, um.... ya that's definitely the Holy Ghost!  And so she's starting very nicely along the path to conversion. This week we're looking forward to a lot of work. The wards here have never been so excited! :) Things are going great. I'm so happy to be a part of this great work! I love you guys with all my heart. Thanks for everything :)

Elder Webb

(Elder McNamara and I at the temple)

(Baptism of Abad)

November 10, 2014

Hey Hey everyone!!

Man... I gotta say, that's terrible to hear about Hunter Dahl. I hope and pray that their family is alright and that they can get through this tough trial.

Things are going well here. The heat/humidity is starting to calm down now, and it's starting to cool off. I'm probably gonna die when I get home because the coldest it will get here this month is like, 60 degrees fahrenheit. And I've already got a cold. haha. But my leg is all better! I've been back to normal for the last week and a half about. Elder McNamara finished his mission today! He ought to be on the plane headed back home already. He'll be going to UVU so maybe if Cam heads over there he'll run into him. Which, by the way, would be way cool if Cam could go to UVU! 

So yes, I got a new companion today. His name is Elder Hernandez. Not the same Hernandez I had as a companion like 4 months ago, but a different one. It's just a super common name in Mexico. haha. But he really is awesome. I love him to death! We were in the same zone some time ago so I got to know him a little bit over there. He's a super humble kid and super ready to get to work! I think he's a little nervous to be zone leader but I'll see if I can help calm himself down :)

This last week seemed to drag on a little bit. With Elder McNamara going home, things just kinda seemed to go slow. It was weird being in a threesome companionship, and I think we probably took it a little too easy this last week and a half that I was back. I think it was a little hard for Elder Mcnamara to focus ;) I don't think I can blame him though. But I'll tell you what, we had some pretty cool experiences this last week. Abad got baptized! It was a really cool experience. He passed through a TON of trials this week, but instead of deterring him from his goal, he took it as a greater testimony of the truthfulness of what he was doing. The computer I'm on today doesn't have a usb port again! So hopefully next week I can get that figured out and send some pics. 

The other night, we were planning on doing a family home evening with a family in one of the wards that we're working in. We show up, and it turns out that they had totally forgotten that we were gonna go over. So, we headed out thinking, "Great, what are we gonna do now?" But we remembered about a half-drunk guy that we had contacted the week before that lived right around the corner, so we decided to go see if he was home! We went, and this lady came out and we told her who we were looking for and she said, "That's my son! Surely Christ sent you!" haha... so we got excited and went inside! We get in their, and she introduces her son to us, but he didn't even say anything to us before running out of the house! He totally didn't want to talk to us hahah it was kinda funny. But the weirdest part is that it was not the same guy that we had contacted before. So we were confused, why were we there? Until the guy's sister came in and sat down and started talking to us with her son. She was confused about religions and really wanted to know the truth. She was so sincere, and even accepted a baptismal date. It was awesome!! My testimony grows each day that God is preparing his children to receive the gospel!!

Well, I love you all. very much. have an awesome week. :)

Elder Webb