Hello Everyone!
I would just have y'all know that this morning it hit 50 degrees here in Tallahassee and I am wearing a coat. I think my body has acclimatized to being in the warmth because in Utah 50 degrees is nothing!... Ill be honest, I'm a little worried to come home in the dead of winter. I am going to Freeze!
This week has been really great, we have done some fun things! Wednesday was transfer day (I am still with sister Pulsipher on FSU campus) Nothing much has changed here, we got 3 new elders in our ward (each companionship got a new one) and so that is always exciting. We got to go and teach a geography class over at FSU about the church. The professor is LDS and they talk alot about how environment and culture has effects on us, so he invited us to do a Q and A about how our religion has impacted our lives. We went with the FSU elders and Elder Rowan (who us assigned to FAMU but his new companion wasn't in tally yet) It was really cool to be able to teach like 40-50 freshman about why our faith is so important to us.
The week was normal, lots of campus time trying to find new investigators and getting the ones we have to progress. We had an incredible lesson with Alicia about why faith in Christ is so important. We watched the testimonies of some of the apostles on the "special witnesses of Christ" DVD and when we asked her what she thought and felt while watching it she just said that each one we watched seemed to talk about Christ as if he was in their lives in a very real way, not just as someone that came and died so that we can go to heaven, which is the way that she views Christ. I think it was powerful for her. We got to think about our own experiences and testify of how Christ CAN be in your everyday life as someone that cares and loves about each of us and not just about forgiving us of our sins, but he cares about our heartaches and sorrows and the things we go through on a daily basis. I hope that she can feel that way about Christ one day... She has such great desires and she wants to know the truth. It was good for me too just to be able to reflect on my own life and what experiences that I have had that have helped me to come to allow Christ to play a very active role in what I am doing and in my life. Its something great to think about. That is probably one of the greatest blessings of being on a mission, being able to teach principles that are to help other people come to Christ but in turn seeing my own life and coming closer to him myself.
The Lord keeps blessing us with things to do with our weekends, which is great. It was homecoming this week, which means even more alcohol that usual so we didnt want to go out onto campus at all. So Friday the 2nd ward sisters texted us and asked us if we wanted to go help with some service out in Monticello (which is a tiny town out in the sticks of Tallahassee) so Saturday night we went out there and helped with the ghost tours. Every year they have some legit ghost hunters come in and take you on a tour of the town and all the "haunted" houses and they tell you all about the ghosts that live in the different old houses. So we got to be the crossing guards haha we got giant reflector vests to wear and made sure that all the people crossed safely. It was great. Mostly we just laughed and had fun because it sounded like everything she said was made up, but it was really cool to see all the old building and architecture. The other crossing guard that was with us would tell us the real history of the town and stuff. She was a really nice lady and asked us some questions about our missions and the church.
Yesterday we had a "bring a friend to church" day, which was SO great! We had like 20-25 non members come and all the meetings taught really basic gospel principles. The 4 talks in sacrament were about "who we are", the atonement, how the book of mormon relates to the bible, and the restoration. Then we had 2 musical numbers that were INCREDIBLE there is a kid in the ward that is getting a masters in violin performance and he arranged 'be still my soul' for the piano and cello and it was AMAZING! he is really talented and the spirit was about to burst the walls I swear! I got to give the talk on the bible and the book of mormon, which was really cool. Before my mission I didnt know how to talk about anything more that 5 minutes. Yesterday when I finalized my talk and practiced it once, It was about 18 minutes.... So I had to cut out alot of what I wanted to say, but I think it turned our alright. Turns out I really like to speak! :)
Ive been thinking alot this week about "the ideal situation" and how rarely in our lives are we ever in the ideal situations. There is always something in life that makes what we are going through less than ideal, whether it be sickness, family issues, career, money, motivation there is always something that could be better in life. There are a thousand cliche sayings about being positive in situations that are less than ideal. "look at the glass half full", "the power of positive thinking" "attitude is 100% of how things turn out" "count your blessings" "look for tender mercies" etc. and they become cliche because they are true. For anyone that has been on a mission, they know that its not easy. Its usually a year and a half or two years of being in a less than ideal situation: Hard areas, hard companions, Hard leaders, Hard wards to work with, low numbers, rejection; but when we look at all of these less than ideal situations with a positive outlook, we find the silver lining. Often times that silver lining brings a heightened spiritual sense or brings us closer to God because we realize that he is the one that can help us through it. He asked us to be perfect, which is something that we will never achieve in this life and never on our own but by trying our best and relying on him we are able to allow him to make our weaknesses strong and have joy and peace and happiness in all our many less than ideal situations. I want to just end with a quote by President Hinckley that my friend Claire sent to me a couple months ago that has really just helped me to stay positive and know that everything is for our good. "In my ninety plus years, I have learned a secret. I have learned that when good men and good women face challenges with optimism, things will always work out! Truly, things always work out! Despite how difficult circumstances may look at the moment, those who have faith and move forward with a happy spirit will find that things always work out." I have found that to be true. When I look at things with optimism, and try and help people around me that are also in less than ideal situations, my problems get smaller and I am give the capacity to reach out, lift, and help others. I love this gospel and the joy it brings to my life!
I love yall so much!
Sister Webb
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