February 6, 2012 letter

"Life is fragile, Handle with prayer"

So last week, I told yall about our goal to have one more baptism before Sister Greenwell leaves and ITS HAPPENING! Shirley is getting baptized this saturday (february 11th) and I got a letter from Ting Ting (one of my converts in Troy) today, who told me that Lulu (a chinese girl we were teaching when I left) has also decided to be baptized on the 11th! I am so happy!

I dont even know what to tell you about this week, The elders had a baptism a couple days ago and it was the first one for both of them, so they were pretty stoked to finally see some fruits of their labors. I feel very fortunate to have already seen so many and to have another one after only being here for a month.

Something that Shirley always says to us is what I will talk about today because I dont really know what else to talk about. Everytime we meet with her she tells us more and more about what it was like growing up going to different churches. she was raised nazarine, then went to baptist. She has also been methodist and her whole family is a long line of preachers for various churches. She has never been baptized because never felt good about it. She tells us about how there are cliques everywhere you go and how more often than not the preacher runs off with the pianist. That when the preacher is done preaching he sells the church and makes a profit off the money that it is sold for when he didnt do any of the work to help get it going. How every sermon is not of love but is of hell fire and brimstone. that if you do something wrong and the church disowns you, there is no going back. How the children are shoved to the side during the meetings instead of being taught like the adults. How the doctrines conflict. Then, after every one of these stories she says "I dont know why I had to wait so long to find the truth, I just hope you know... Y'all are blessed". She came to Tims baptism this week with us and afterwards I asked her what she thought and if it was alot different than other baptisms she has seen. She talked about the reverence and the feeling that was there. That the Latter day saints really care about one another and take care of eachother... "Like I've been telling you... Y'all are blessed to have been raised in it"

I have been thinking about that phrase for the last couple weeks now since we started meeting with her and how blessed I really am. I grew up in a home with a loving mom and dad and I have two incredible siblings that I can honestly call my best friends. I am blessed. I have had good friends all my life that kept me on the right path. I am blessed. I have had leader after leader that I could look up to, and go to for advice. I am blessed. I have had the chance to see the world and I am 23. I am blessed. I had the opportunity to go to college and get a degree, then work in my field. I am blessed. I have been given a personality that allows me to laugh during the hard times and let the stresses of life roll off with ease. I am on a mission, serving the lord and have already seen a handful of baptisms. I am blessed. I have developed a testimony of prayer, church, the book of mormon, joseph smith, the atonement, the temple, the plan of salvation, modern day prophets, church callings, priesthood blessings and many more things. I am blessed.  I didnt have to search for the truth of the gospel, I have had it all my life. I dont know what I did to deserve all of this, but I am so very, VERY blessed. I was thinking this morning about how much I have learned over the last 4 years of my life since I really started to care about learning the gospel and starting to proactively learn about it. I have taken leaps and bounds in my faith. I can only imagine how much I will know when I am older if I continue on this path. Watching people come into the gospel and seeing their thirst for knowledge and truth makes me wonder why I was so passive about it before. I struggled to get through a chapter of the book of mormon a day before my mission and now when the alarm goes off after an hour of studying I am sad because its never enough time. To anyone reading this email that is passive about the gospel, stop.... because as shirley says. "I just hope you know... Y'all are blessed" We have been given so much, and the rest of the world is searching for it, even if they dont know they are.

I love you all so much! Hope you are doing well, Keep praying for me and I will keep praying for you!

Sister Webb