Work for God, The retirement benefits are great!
Hello Hello!
Welcome September, I am so excited that August is over and in a couple weeks its going to start to cool down, my tan lines are outa control.. ya know, just the usual missionary farmers tan. I always prepare for the worse because people say its bad, but then going through it isnt that bad at all. Summer was hot and humid, yes, but not as bad as I expected by the way people talked.
If there is anything I have come to learn while being out here is that the mission is for the missionaries, not the converts. God could easily do this work without us but he sends us out here for us to learn and to grow and become who we need to become. There is a quote that says something to the effect of 'If the church wasnt true the missionaries would have screwed it up a long time ago.' which is so true, we are all imperfect teachers that are learning things also but still the work goes on and rolls forth and continues to grow at an exponential rate. I have been thinking about this alot since yesterday, here is why:
So this transfer my companion and I again decided to exercise some greenie faith for her last transfer and start praying for a baptism. We have been working hard to find someone but things were SO slow for first month that we were here that we didnt know if it was going to happen. We both got a little discouraged and after studying the christ like attribute of humilty this week decided its time to humble ourselves and just accept gods will and if someone comes along, great! If not, thats ok too. Well, someone came along yesterday!!!!! We had a great day where we had a new investigator come to church but he could only stay for sacrament. So we were walking him out and we ran into the 4th ward elders and they were with a girl. They grabbed us and said: "this is Alexandra, she came to 4th ward today but she is going to FSU and she would like to meet with you and is ready to be baptized." HALLELUJAH! GOD IS GOOD! we were so happy. We talked to her for a bit and she said she had been meeting with missionaries for the last couple years down in south Florida. They have taught her everything multiple times and she has read the book of mormon all the way through. Her mom didnt want her going to church so she decided she would just wait until she moved up here to go to school so she could start going and get baptized. we asked her when she wanted to do it and she said "well, im free tuesday but I think thats maybe a little soon.... sometime in the next week or two though!" So She is going to be baptized next sunday, which is sister fullmers last sunday on her mission. what a way to end! Like I said, God doesnt need us for this work, but its great to be a part of it. it reminds me of a quote from elder hollands talk this last conference: "the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it." We dont feel like we deserve it, but we are SO grateful to get to be the missionaries to help her get baptized.
We had some awesome lessons this week. I love having the institute to teach in. There are no screaming children, people knocking on the doors, TV's or radios in the back room, food cooking, phones ringing, dogs barking, etc to distrurb the lesson. We go and shut ourselves in a room located in a building that is dedicated for spiritual learning and teach our lessons. The spirit has been overwhelmingly strong everytime we teach there, and there are always students hanging around so if we want a member present at our lesson, all we have to do is grab someone that is just hanging out there and ask them to come. How great is that?!
I have alot of random thoughts I want to talk about, but I will just share something that I have been thinking about alot this week, and that is the strength God gives us to acomplish that which he asks us to do. I began to think about it after watching the testimony of one of the apostles. He talked about all the feelings of joy and sadness and fear and inadequacy etc that he has been through since his calling to the holy apostleship, and how he was able to overcome them through the atonement of Jesus Christ.For me, I look at people in leadership positions and think they have it all figured out, that they know what they are doing and dont have any fears or feelings of inadequacy, but thats not true. I wonder how often the prophet feels inadequate to do his job. I thought about the different callings I have had in the church and how inadequate I felt each time I got the call. I thought about when I first got on my mission a little over a year ago and how inadequate I felt to teach people, or each time I moved areas and how uncertain I was that I could do the things that I was being asked to do, or to work with the people I was being asked to work with. But somehow I have been able to take the steps of faith relying on my father in heaven to walk into the unknown and keep working knowing that he would give me the strength I needed to acomplish it, here I am a year later much better than I was and its all because I know where to place my trust. 3 nephi 3:7 "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I know that no matter what we are asked to do, that we are given the strength to do it.
I love you all!
Sister Webb
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