January 14, 2013 letter

Well, This is my last letter, and I am not really sure what to say in it. Part of me just wants to say see yall in 4 days and call it good, but I dont know if I will do that.

 

This week has been the same. Sister Thomsons health issues have not let up at all, So she will be coming home as a departing missionary on thursday with the rest of us. Its been a very emotional week for all of us. 

 

This week I feel like I have learned alot about little victories. We worked less than ever this week, but we had a few small successes. I have come to really appriciate those moments, when in any other area I would cast them aside and not really think I did anything successful or noteworthy. This week we tracked down a less active that has had a wrong address on the roster for a really long time. For us, that was a big sucess considering most days we dont even really get to leave the apartment. I was really grateful for that moment. I have been writing down 5 tender mercies a day this transfer and its been a struggle alot of the times to find them, but I have learned to really appriciate those small blessings that often get over looked. I have come to learn that life is never going to be what we plan, but having a negative attitude never helps. God is always there and his plan is much greater than ours, so if we look for those blessings we will be happy in all of lifes storms.

 

I will end my last testimony with a simple testimony to you all. I know that this gospel is the gospel of jesus christ restored to the earth. I know that living it is the way to be happy. I know that Christ suffered for us so that we could find happiness in the midst of our sadness, pain, lonliness, feelings of inadequacy, and weaknesses. I know that the holy ghost is real and prompts us to do the things we need to do to help ourselves and to help others. I know that God had a plan for each of us. I know that we have the commandments for a reason and they will keep us save. I have come to know and love the scriptures so much, Especially the book of mormon. I know that it can answer any questions we have about life. I know that My savior lives and he and his father in heaven love us and are watching out for us .I know I can turn to them for anything. I know that families are eternal and that they are also a big part of our heavenly fathers plan. I am so grateful for my chance to serve a mission and for all my many blessings!

 

I love you all so much!

See you in a couple days!

Sister Webb 

January 7, 2013 letter

"get right, or get left" -Baptist Church sign

Well Well Well. I am now in the single digits of days until I come home. That may or may not have been a bit of a trunky comment, but I promise that I am still working hard and doing what I need to out here. Its hard to not think about coming home though. I have never been in a ward where people ask "is anyone close to going home" instead of "how long have yall been out"... except for this one. EVERYONE keeps asking that. Then there is the elders that are so nice to count down for me and remind me everytime I see them of how many days I have left. yesterday we were in the middle of ward council and they leaned over to say "Im not sure if you knew this or not, but you only have 10 days left in the field. We just wanted to make sure that you were aware" haha I got my itinerary in the mail saturday... The dreaded yellow envelope. We pulled over to the mailboxes and sister schoppman hopped out to grab the mail like she always does and after a few minutes she pokes her head out from behind the boxes and says "... uh, I think its here. Its yellow and from the mission office. You gotta come get it" So of course I had to take a sad picture of me taking it out of the mailbox. :)

 

This week has been about the same as the last couple. we go out when sister Thomson feels well enough, stay in when she doesnt. We are going back to the dr. this wednesday to find out her test results. President and Sister Jensen are having sis schoppmann and I go this time with her because they are on the road doing interviews with all the missionaries and cant go with her. The assistants took her to the last one, but sister jensen talked to me on friday and said that she was having us go because no matter what the results are, its going to be emotional for her and the assistants are awkward boys that wont be able to comfort her the way she will need it. I'm prepping myself for that... last week they did a brain scan and took 12 viles of blood to test; so it can go a couple different ways. best case scenario: they find the problem and its an easy fix. They said that they were going to test to see if there is a chemical imbalance that is causing her muscles not to work the way they are suppose to. Thats really the only good one. All other options will result in her going home to do more testing or to recover.

 

We did have one awesome day though! Saturday was the semi-anual Missionary field day in madison where they bring a whole bunch of missionaries to pair up with the youth and we take them out to see active less active and non member people in the area to see what missionary life is really like. I went to the one they had back in July and it was alot of fun. They had us go again this week and it was awesome. Sister Thomson just ended up staying with the Young womens leader while sis schoppmann and I got to go out. It was an EVENTFUL day for sure! I was paired up wth a girl named Alayna. She is actually the 1st counselor in YW, but shes only 18 so they let her go on these things still because she is a convert to the church and hasnt even been a member for a year yet. 

 

We started out by going to see some active members and Alayna was really ancy. We stayed for like 10 minutes at the hospital with the first lady. She was so fast I didnt even get in a word or offer to share a message. So then the next one was a non member who let us in for a second but she was sick and so we couldnt stay. We prayed with her and left. The third one was some members WAY out in the boonies and we got there and the gate was locked so we drove for a while trying to find service to call them and ask them to unlock their gate. We were there for 20 minutes or so getting to know them and I had told her before that we should share a message so we got to read from the scriptures with them and talk about the importance of bettering ourselves and becoming christlike. We were so fast with all the people that we had a while left to go tracting. She was really nervous and really didnt want to, but we found a street to knock some doors. There were a whole bunch of cars parked on the road we were on but it was a really narrow road so everyone was parked up on the grass. We followed suit and pulled up on the grass too. Well, we got 6 or 7 houses down the road when we got a call from her sister (who hates the church) asking where she was because her car was about to be towed. We ran back to the car and there was a cop and a cranky old man by her car. Luckily the cop was her sister boyfriend and so he called her to call alayna but the man just didnt like the fact that we were in front of his house so he called the tow company. We were super lucky haha. The only person who answered her door while we were tracting was a baptist lady that told us we werent christian. We invited her to read from the book of mormon and she said no and then as we were leaving she recognized alayna... so that turned out to be really awkward. It wasnt exactly the tracting experience that i was hoping to have with alayna, but it was definitely a normal day in the life of a missionary. I admire the strength converts have to stay true to what they have come to know and feel. She faces alot of opposition at home with her mom and sister, but she stays strong and true to the gospel. She bore a powerful testimony afterwards and it was good to spend the day with her and talk to her about serving a mission. She isnt sure if she wants to and is feeling alot of pressure to do so, but we talked about it all and I think it helped.

 

I am now entering the "this is the last time... " phase of my mission where I realize that "this is the last testimony meeting I will go to on my mission" or "this is the last ward council I will be at on my mission" or whatever it might be. Its weird. That is all I can say to explain it. I plan to finish as strong as I can and work until the end. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

 

Love Sister Webb

December 31, 2012 letter

Happy new years eve. I cant believe 2012 is almost over! it feels like yesterday that it started. I hope everyone had a great christmas and from what I hear there is tons of snow at home.

 

This week has been interesting. I have learned alot this transfer, and they are all lessons that I definetly didnt expect to learn.

 

I think I have briefly mentioned it in other emails, but one of my companions, sis thomson, is having some health problems that are causing her not to be able to walk for very long periods of time. This week has gotten alot worse. It was the elders turn for the car and as such we havent been able to really go out and teach at all. Not the christmas that I expected at all. Each day we find productive things that we can do at the apartment and if we can, we find someone to drive us somewhere to teach a couple lessons. we dont have any investigators because we cant go find, so we teach less actives and active members.

 

Wednesday, after having had to stay in most of the day, she had a small break down because she cant really be a missionary in the condition she is in. We talked for a while and she started to talk about going home to get better. I told her she needed to council with president about it, but she didnt want to. Sister Schoppmann and I both felt prompted that we should suggest fasting together. As soon as I said it, she said "I was just about to say the same thing" So we decided to fast for sister Thomson to figure out what to do. Just a few minutes after we started our fast, President Jensen called. After they talked for a couple minutes they decided that its best to have her come down to tally to talk with him. SO off we went to Tallahassee the next day. We sat down and he said what are you thinking? and she said maybe home is the best option for me right now because I cant be a missionary. He looked paniced. There are a billion new sisters coming and and they have no idea how to get them all trained and here is sister Thomson, one of the best sisters telling him that she is going home. Sister Jensen, Schoppmann and I went into the other room so they could talk. I told sis Jensen what we had talked about and what I had seen over the week and she started making phonecalls to find a doctor. Its been really crazy, but sis Thomson is going to see a nurologist on wednesday to see if they can find anything that is causing it. He says shes not going home, but she feels like she is hindering the work and is pretty determined to go if the doctor wednesday cant figure anything out. SO, that is how our week went. alot of crying. alot of comforting. and alot of down time in the apartment.

 

Needless to say this was not how I expected to spend my last transfer. After talking to sis Thomson, President pulled me in to talk with him and he said that alot of the time he doesnt get to interview the exiting missionaries because of how long transfers take here so he wanted to have an exit interview with me. We talked about how by my standard and what we had talked about before he put me up here this transfer was supose to be another 'ideal' situation. I am in GA which is exactly where I wanted to go. I am opening an area. I am working with awesome elders, and He put me with one of the hardest working sisters we have in the mission. But despite what seems to be perfect, things happen and she started to have health problems.

 

I have had alot of time to think this week about the lessons I can learn from everything that has happened and from the situation that we are all in. I can tell y'all that I have learned a whole lot about mouring with those that mourn and comforting those that need comfort. I have learned to be patient through trials and definetly be more selfless. I have two companions that are going through alot of emotional struggles and as easy and it would be to think about myself and home and the struggles I am going through trying to deal with the saddness that comes with realizing that I am almost done, but I have been able to put it aside and help them through what they are going through. I looked back over my mission and thought of all the success that I had, especially in the first 6 months of my mission. I think Heavenly father blessed me with that because there would be other things that I would need to be here for besides to baptize in the later part of my mission.

 

I dont know how much I will get to teach over the next couple weeks. But I know that there are other lessons to be learned and other work to be done and I am grateful for the chance I have to serve my companions. I hope she doesnt have to go home, but its been great to watch her be so postive through it all. I know that she will come back as soon as she can because of her love for the work.

 

I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love yall!

Sister Webb

December 24, 2012 letter

Well. its Christmas eve and we are at a members house emailing, so this will be quick. I am going to be talking to my family tomorrow, but for all those that dont get to talk to me on the phone, I will send a quick Christmas message and tell yall a little about my week.

 

Last week sister Thomson went to the doctor because shes been having some health problems that make it so she cant really walk. Not walking makes it hard to do missionary work. She was gone for a day and sister Schoppman and I were able to do a little bit of finding, but other than that we haven't been able to tract at all because of whatever is going on with Sister Thomson. Since we just opened the area for sisters, if we cant find... we don't teach. I now more fully understand the need for balance in the work. We have tried to see SO many less actives this week its outa control. We have been sharing a Christmas message with most of them from the book of Mormon, so I would like to share a little bit of that with you all.

 

Most Christians at some point during the Christmas season read and ponder about the account of Christs birth as told in Luke 2. Year after year we think about what it must have been like to be Mary, having an angel appear to her and telling her that she will be the chosen mother of the Son of God. We think about Joseph, the wise men, the shepherds, and the inn keeper. We ponder on the true meaning of Christmas and what Jesus Christs birth means for each of us individually.

 

As Latter-day Saints, we have the blessing to have the book of Mormon to be another testament of Jesus Christ. Each prophet testifies of the coming of the Savior of the world and teaches us more about the atonement he will perform and how to access its powers in our lives.

Some of the chosen prophets were lucky enough to be able to see the birth of Jesus Christ. The account in 1 Nephi 11 is one of my favorites.

 

13 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white.

14 And it came to pass that I saw the heavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?

15 And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.

16 And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?

17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.

18 And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.

19 And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look!

20 And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.

21 And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?

22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.

 

The angel that is teaching Nephi the interpretation of the vision of the tree of life uses the birth of Christ to help him to understand Gods love for each of us.

 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

The true meaning of Christmas is just that, God loves us enough to send Jesus Christ to come down to earth, to pay the price for each of us to be able to return to live with our heavenly father. I know that He truly does love each of us. That he knows and cares about us individually. I know that the atonement is the single most important event that has ever occurred and that through that atonement we can find strength to keep going when we feel like we don't have anything left to give. We can find forgiveness for the things we do wrong and feel the peace and the hope that comes from that forgiveness. I hope that each of us can take the time to read of Christ and to rededicate ourselves to live his gospel a little more fully in the coming year.

 

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Sister Webb

December 17, 2012 letter

Hello everyone!

So we are still trying to figure out how to get everything done we need to get done p-days while in a car share with the elders, So time is REALLY short because we finally got the car and the housing couple showed up to inspect our apt so we waited around for them for a while and an hour later finally got to come to the library.

PHEW! Ok. So my mind is going a million miles an hour, but I will attempt to tell you about our week this week because it was great! I cant believe ive already been in Thomasville for almost two weeks. This area is so great! the people, the culture, the ward, my companions. Its just awesome. I love it.

So weve been trying to get everything all ready and set up as far as maps and getting to know members go, also done alot of finding. We dont have any crazy awesome finding experiences, but we did get a new investigator at one of our dinner appointments which was cool. We were super stressed because we let the elders borrow the car to go out to contact a media referral and they were suppose to have it back to us in time to go to our dinner appt at 630. well it came 620 and they still hadnt gotten it back to us, so we called them and they had gotten boxed in and were trying to find someone to come move a car to let them out and couldnt, so we ended up having to get a member to come get us and we were 45 minutes late to dinner. Luckily we had already met this sister and she was ok with us being that late and that is when dustin was there. at the end of our dinner we were talking about her studies and what she has been learning and he kept coming in and out of the room (he is her nieces friend) and finally he just sat down and we started to talk to him. He has had alot of bad experiences with churches but he is saerching for God right now because he is going through a rough time. So we gave him a book of mormon and we are going to teach him this week.

We also had the 1/2 mission christmas party this week which was fun. President and Sister Jensen put so much work into it, it was incredible. We watched clips of the savior and listened to christmas music and he had a bunch of missionaries testify of the savior and then at the end we got to watch Brave. haha. They let us watch a movie every year, which is cool. Sister Jensen talked about how brave we were for coming out and serving the lord and then we watch it. I was really distracted the last 15 minutes or so because I knew that as soon as it was over I was going to have to give my final testimony, so I wasnt really paying attention but it was a really cute movie. SO yeah, I have now given my final testimony that they make all the missionaries do their last zone conference. I kept myself together while I was up talking but I cried forever afterwards. I cant belive its so close to being over. Its a really strange feeling to be in my last transfer. Dont worry though, im not trunky, there is too much to do to be trunky :)

Other fun things that happened this week. Thomasville has a christmas event every year called victorian christmas. Downtown thomasville still has old cobblestone roads so they shut down the streets for a couple nights in December and a whole bunch of people from the community dress up in old victorian style get up and walk around and there are a bunch of booths and performances and what not that are all over the place and you can go look through all the old shops down town so we went contacting there one night. It was really cool, the best part was probably where they had a small fenced in area where they created a pile of snow and let kids come in for a couple minutes to play in it haha. It was really cute.

We also had our ward christmas party saturday. The ward here is amazing. they are so giving and love the missionaries and are excited to do missionary work. There were some less actives that came to the party, so that was great to get to meet them there. The ward gave us a big old christmas box full of little things like toothbrushes and soap and toilet paper and a scarf and the elders got ties and snacks and such. it was really cute. They had santa come for the kids and they all got a treat.

Church was great again. We ended up going to help with the primary because they were short on teachers so we were in with the 4 year olds. haha there were like 10 of them and they are a handful! We went and drove through a church

Christmas is next week and I hope you all enjoy it and that you have gotten some time to think about Christ and all that he has done for us.

I am so grateful to be spending another christmas in the field and that I have the opportunity to teach of christ while celebrating his birth this season. Merry Christmas.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Love.Sister Webb

December 10, 2012 letter

Hello from Georgia! 

Well, I have officially left Tallahassee and I am now in Thomasville GA.... which is a pretty small town just over the state line. (which you can tell that you are crossing the stateline because the roads go from being really nice to not as nice as soon as you see the welcome to GA line haha) It is really really great here, I already love it so much! 

It's been an awesome week. Transfers were crazy, sister Pulsipher and I moved out of our apartment so we had to deep clean everything and throw away all the junk that was left there. Said goodbye to the ward at FHE and to our investigators that we had. :( I really hate goodbyes, I am the worst at them. Sometimes I would rather just leave without it as to avoid the awkward "well, see ya never... have a great life" that you know accompanies some people on a mission. But, we did it anyway and it was good. I have really come to love the people in 5th ward, and because they are my own age they have become really good friends. 

I dont know what it is about being on a mission but you seem to accumulate so much stuff in such a short period of time. I thought i would be good with the suitcases I had because a member who is heading out to UT took a couple post office boxes home for me.... NOT SO! I think one of my suitcases had to weigh at least 100lbs, it was really entertaining to watch the elders try and haul it around for me. 

So anywho, Wednesday morning we headed to transfer spots and the zone leaders took us up to Thomasville to our new apartment. We met the Sr couple (the Larsens) and the elders over there to meet them and have them give us our keys. The Housing couple had already furnished everything and bought us some groceries cause they knew we'd be starving. I love the older couples. Every older couple should serve missions. They bring such a great dynamic to the work. So we spent the day unpacking and going and some food and cleaning supplies for our apt. We went over to the church that night to have dinner with the bishop and to help set up the Christmas Chreshe (some french word that means nativity or something like that) It was really cool. Its a christmas event that they have done the last 4 years and they set up the cultural hall with 100's of nativity scenes on display and they have a live one (without animals) and then they have people from the ward performing christmas music and then they had the mo-tab christmas performance playing in the chapel and they invited the whole community to come and see it. Its a great way to get people in the church and to see what our church looks like. So we helped set up for that and then we were over there saturday night meeting people. 

Thursday we planned in the morning and started finding, meeting members, and working with less actives. around 7ish we got a call from sister Jensen asking us how things were, how our apartment was, if it was pretty big etc. We told her it was great and that it was pretty big and she asked if it was big enough for 3. We were a little confused and told her we only had 1 shower but other than that it was. (oh side story, SO after morning exercises thursday we went to go get ready and I turned on the shower and it was nothing more than a trickle. There was a piece mission from the shower head so there was no way to shower. So we ended up having to wash out hair by just sticking our heads under the faucet and washing it that way. It reminded me of girls camp trying to wash it in the freezing water pumps they had) anywho, SO she told us that we were getting a new sister Friday night that was coming from a different mission that got sent home because of issues with terrible companions and a fall out with the mission president. She was home for about a month but wanted to finish her mission, so the first presidency decided to reassign her to the FTM. They found out she was coming about an hour before they called us to tell us that president chose sister Thompson and I to be her first companions here.  

So friday we had a normal day, we went and did some service for a member, met the knudsons at our apt and rearranged everything so that we had a bed and chairs and desk and what not for the new sister coming in. That night we headed down in the Tallahassee to go with president and sister Jensen to the airport to pick sister Schoppman up. She is a cute girl from Page AZ that has the greenie fire and love for the work even though she was in her other mission for about 10 months. Among her favorite missionary things she really loves to tract, teach, and back out the car. She is really timid but loves the work and loves being a missionary. We went to dinner with the Jensens and then went to their house for 'orientation'  or whatever you want to call it when you come in and they tell you all about the mission, then we headed back to Thomasville. 

Saturday we found an awesome new investigator named Kandace. She let us right in and we taught her all about the restoration and she was really receptive. She is trying to get right with God again and said she'd come to church with us this following sunday, we are teaching her again tonight. 

Saturday night we got a call from the 2nd counselor in the bishopric and he said that there was a death of one of the members of the ward and that the speakers for sunday were all related to her and wouldnt be at church sunday, SO to welcome us into the ward he wanted us 3 to speak in church the following morning.... I felt like I was back in Troy getting called out of the congregation to speak, but it went really good! 

The ward here is AWESOME! I love being in the south and the people are so nice and love the missionaries and I think they realize how lucky they are to have 7 full time missionaries serving in their ward because they all keep talking about how its time to start finding people for us to teach. It is a great area and has incredible people. 

Yesterday night we got to go down to Tally to be the ushers for the messiah performance that the stake put on, which was fun cause I got to see a bunch of people from `1st and 5th ward. There were alot of non members that came and really enjoyed it. 

Its been a fabulous week! Hope yall are enjoying yours! 

 

Love, 

Sister Webb

December 3, 2012 letter

Hey Family! 

Well. Its transfer week and I'M GOING TO GEORGIA FOR MY LAST TRANSFER!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That barely shows my excitement. I am not making it up into the heart of the Tifton zone, just on the outskirts (Thomasville).. but still I am leaving FL and heading into another southern state and I am really excited. I am going to be serving with Sister Thompson who is a stellar missionary and works really hard. If I cant be with sister Hirst again, She is the next best thing :) We have been on trade offs a couple times and get along great. She laughs alot and has great stories and she is going to be a fun companion. We are white washing the area and its going to be GREAT! The two elders that are there are two that I served in the MTC with and they are alot of fun. Its gonna be AWESOME! 

This week has been great. I wish I could accurately explain the craziness of church yesterday... its going to be a long story, so it might be the only one I tell. We will see. 

So yesterday started off a normal Sunday morning. We got up did our studies, went to campus and then to missionary coordination. We had a less active FINALLY come to church with us and one of our investigators came. This was her first Testimony meeting that she had been to, so we sat down and I began to explain how it all worked. 

One of the sweetest ward members, Jayne, started it off with an awesome testimony about blessings and how obedience brings blessings into our lives. Then this 70 year old lady who walked in 1/2 way through sacrament (keep in mind we are in a singles ward) gets up and she looks like she is going to give a talk. She has her scriptures, binders, a notebook, a framed picture and the George Albert Smith manual. She started off her testimony like this: "una momentee. Noticed I added an E to momentee, thats my special touch. Well, today is my birthday and I knew I wanted to bear my testimony for my birthday..." she then started to talk all sorts of nonsense that had nothing to do with a testimony. She whipped out her scriptures and said she was going to read to us from Isaiah 63 "everyone told me that I was never going to understand him... So I am going to just start reading until the Lord tells me to stop reading" So she did, starting with the chapter heading really emphasizing a couple times that the second coming is going to be a day of VENGEANCE for the wicked... VENGEANCE, and stopped when it talked about the red garment to point out that she had worn red that day. She read pretty much the whole chapter stopping a couple times to look up at the celing and to tell God to tell her to stop reading when she needs to stop. In between all of this she had paused to tell us how much she loves josh groban and in case we didnt know, she spelled it for us yelling G-R-O-B-A-N. she went on a tangent about him for a while, saying that she wanted to play one of his songs for us if the bishop would allow it. She talked for a long time about how Josh Groban needs to be LDS because he is teaching us... he takes the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain and merge them together."I want you to hear a song of his, maybe I can sing it for you, no - you don't want me to sing it for you, well maybe yo do" she just decided to quote it for us. She finally stopped reading Isaiah when she pulled out a framed picture that she "got at big lots the other day for 6 dollars... it says Familys are forever. I just want to read to you what this says. Treat your family like friends, and friends like family.... FRIENDS LIKE FAMILY" then she turned around and gave bishop an ornament that she got at big lots to show him that he is her friend/family. Were like 20 minutes in at this point, but then she pulled out her family history chart and started to read us her grandparents names and where they lived etc. She told us her whole life story and how she got her degree at New mexico state university and she has 29 extra credits so shes 1/2 to a PHD. The rest of the craziness I will present in bullet points because this is already really long: 

- she at one point pulled out a magnifying glass to see us. 

-I don't know when she was talking about this but she said something to the effect that "People told me that it was impossible to fall asleep while walking but Ive dont it TWICE." 

-She loves public radio international and we should all listen to it.

-she read some stuff from the George albert smith manual to us

-Something about the Russian leader and a student group is trying to kick the mormon missionaries out of the country. She yelled that one at us too.

- She is going to buy 7 Josh Groban T-shirts and wear one every day of the week because he is the best. 

SO this took the entire time, about 30-40 minutes, and while this is all happening the bishopric is trying to handle the situation. 5 minutes in, they start talking about what to do, bro smith asks if bishop wants him to get up and say something, bishop said that he will try a note. So he spent 2 minutes trying to find a piece of paper and he writes a note and gives it to her and she looks at it and says "I know I know, I dont want to take a second of your time, I will be done in a minute" so a couple more minutes go by and this whole time members of the ward have been getting up and going onto the stand trying to show her that others want to talk. But she kept going, so Brother Smith just turned off the mic and she wasn't even phased - she said "What happened? this thing broke, what is going on, how do we fix it (she was swatting it around) someone fix this... oh well, I WILL JUST TALK REALLY LOUD" So half the ward is on the stand and Brother Johnsons  wife gets up and tries to tell her its time to be finished and thats when she went crazy! 4 or 5 people are dragging her off the stand and she is yelling about how she is contacting the 1st presidency and that the relief society has already asked her to stop coming and how she is going to get a restraining order. 

Despite all of this craziness it was cool to see the ward just jump in and take control and help with the situation. As soon as they started to escort her out, one of the kids jumped up and put the organ player back on and we sang because I have been give much and I am a child of god  to drown out all the things she was yelling at us. Everyone that was on the stand helped and after it was all over the bishop decided to cancel sunday school and have a normal testimony meeting. If nothing else was learned from the whole experience, I think everyone at least learned a little about the spirit and the feelings that accompany truth and testimony. As soon as the situation was over and people started to testify again the spirit flooded the room. It was crazy. All the missionaries had to do damage control for the 8 non members that were there and tell them that testimony meetings are not usually that way. 

Other than that, the other exciting news for this week is that Diane Dickey (one of the ladies that I taught in 1st ward with sister Hirst) got baptized so we got to go to that. It was incredible to see her faith and to see how much she has grown. She finally gave up smoking and she was so excited to join the church. Her testimony was awesome, she just said ":I have spent my whole life looking for the right church, and now I have found it" Which is incredible because the first lesson we had with her she told us that she had been studying with the Jehovahs witnesses for 40 years and how the only thing that kept her from joining was that she was never ever ever going to give up smoking, but she did it for us because she felt the spirit and gained her testimony of the book of mormon. I was so happy! 

Well, I think this letter is long enough-

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week~ 

Dont send any more mail to my current address, send anything to the mission home! 

Sister Webb

November 26, 2012 letter

Hey everyone! 

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and a great week! 

Thanksgiving for us this week was really weird, but it was great. Last year I was in Troy and we went to 4 different peoples houses and we stuffed ourselves four different times. This year we had just one, but we got to go spend it with President and Sister Jensen. They invited the campus missionaries over because we are in a singles ward and don't have families to spend it with. It was a lot of fun to spend it with them and their daughters family was there too. Something about missionaries make little kids go crazy, cause their grand kids were SUPER hyper. I think it made them a little flustered, but it turned out to be great. 

There were no people on campus for 1/2 the week but we found ways to be productive still. We went and chalked 'Mormon.org' and Book of Mormon scriptures all over campus and went and did service for the salvation army. The rest of the time we walked all over campus and talked to the 10 people that happened to be there. 

Yesterday was probably the best day this week. We were at church and there were a couple visitors that were in town for the Florida, FSU game from lakeland and they brought a friend with them that goes to school here, her name is Emilee. She stayed for all 3 meeting and then afterwards we went to talk to her and see how she felt and she kept saying things like "I dont get why people dont think you are christian, you clearly believe in christ" and "I feel the spirit here that I feel other places" and "I really loved it, I feel like I was called to come here. I really just feel like this is where I am suppose to be right now.. maybe not to join, but to help other people have a better understanding" haha she things its not to join, but i am pretty sure it is. :) She said that when her friend converted (about a year ago) that she started asking questions and people were really rude to her for even being curious about it and that she wants to put a stop to that by helping people better understand us... SO we are teaching her on friday. I am really excited. Then after church we went to campus and only had 1/2 hour or so, but sis Pulspiher and I both felt a prompting to talk to this one girl, Ricki, and she said she was actually looking for a church to go to, so we are meeting with her Tuesday. Then we had dinner with the Johnsons and at the end of dinner I stepped out to use the restroom and when i came back they were all saying it was my turn and I was in the spotlight, I had no idea what was going on SO I grabbed my scriptures cause I thought they were all saying it was my turn to give the thought, but instead they were having those of us that will be leaving soon bare our testimonies and talk about what being on a mission has meant to us.... So that was unexpected. Elder Faulkner is leaving this transfer and so he went first and even though I still have one more they decided I should bare mine too. It was really nerve racking to talk about it. It doesnt matter how often you bare your testimony to people everyday, it still is scary to do it in front of lots of people. but honestly, being out here has meant everything to me. I have grown in so many ways and feel so blessed to have been called and given the opportunity to serve. I feel so lucky. Then the Johnsons bore theirs because they are leaving right after transfers (they are the institute couple here that have come to be another set of grandparents to us all) and they are so sweet. Sister Johnson said that her biggest worry was that she was going to be remembered for her food and not for her testimony of Christ. I want to be just like them when I am old, they are such an incredible couple. Then right after that, one of the girls from the ward came in and said that there were two girls that wanted to talk to someone about the church, so since they were girls and we are the sisters we got to talk to them. Turns out they were just writing a paper for a class so they had a bunch of questions but even still, when we were teaching them about all the different things we believe one of the girls kept saying stuff like "I love that" or "that just makes so much sense" They go to FAMU so we gave them the FAMU elders number and so hopefully FAMU will get to teach them more. 

Gerrit is doing great, we had a good lesson on following the prophet and praying always last week. He is having a hard time accepting the answers he is getting cause he says he still doesnt know if there is a God, but he has recieved answers to his prayers so tonight we are going to revisit the restoration and help him to recognize what he has been feeling. He came to church yesterday and the Elders said that he participated in the discussion a lot in Elders quorum, which was awesome! I'd love to see him get baptized, he is one of my favorite investigators that I have gotten to teach on my mission. 

I have been thinking lots about reaching our full potential this week and how God gives us guidelines and commandments to help us reach that potential. Our potential is to become Christlike and to achieve perfection and to live with God again. All of the commandments that are given to us are pointing us towards that goal. When we chose to only follow a select few of the commandments then we will never reach that full potential. It takes a power beyond ourselves to be able to reach it and that is why we have the atonement to help us go just a little further and make up the difference. The closer we come to that goal, the closer we come to God and to the spirit and through those things we find happiness. There are so many things that can distract us from finding that happiness, but I know that when we put God first and fulfill our purpose here on earth that we will be able to be with him again. If you feel like you are not reaching your potential, evaluate your life and find ways to bring it closer in harmony with Gods commandments and you will have a greater amount of happiness in your life. 

I love you all! have a great week! 

Sister Webb

November 19, 2012 letter

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future" -Oscar Wilde

Alright alright. Hello again. It's been another week, and its been great! 

I'll start with an update on Gerrit, cause I am sure you are all DYING to hear how things are with him... haha probably not, but He is our one solid progressing investigator who is so great to teach and his lessons are always awesome. So I am going to tell you about this weeks lesson. :) 

So last week we committed him to living the word of wisdom and he is doing so good with it. So we asked him how its been this week and he said its been great. He still hasn't done any drugs or drank or anything that he usually does and when we asked if anyone has noticed that he is off everything he said no, but then after thinking about it he said there was one time. It was when he went to church with his family (cause he went home for the weekend) and between their 'sacrament' meeting and their Sunday school class they have tea and cookies. They always have it all set up so you just have to come in and grab a glass and sit down. well, they usually only have a couple glasses of water there and he said no one EVER takes the water, so when he went for the water he got a lot of really strange looks, but no one asked why so he didnt have to tell them the reason he wasn't drinking tea. 

So then the lesson got even better when we started to talk about his praying, because he knows its true, but I dont think he feels ready to accept it, so he keeps trying to deny it -- without success. So he said he prayed a couple times. The first was after he had a migraine. He got it and the first day he thought "hmm, I should pray about this" but he didnt. and the next day it was still there and he thought "I should pray about this" and he still didnt. So then the third day he finally decided to pray about it, and within the hour his migraine was gone. His friend did come over and give him some meds, so he tried to tell us that it was the meds, but he knows that it wasn't. Then the second story was even better. I told yall last week that he threw out his back -- and so he needed to go see the doctor but he hasnt found one here in tallahassee, so he was just going to go to the medical center and I guess it doesnt have a very good reputation when students come in cause they just assume that they have an STD, test them and send them on their way. SO he was worried about that, and he couldnt find anyone to take him cause he could drive with the way his back felt. SO he decided to pray and he prayed for 2 things: #1- that he would get a ride there, and #2- That when he got there they would take his seriously and be able to do something for him (he also said that whenever he goes to a doctor they never take him seriously because he is just a 20 yr old kid complaining of back problems) So right after he prayed some girl that he use to be roommates with (that he hasnt talked to in forever because their friendship ended on really bad terms) called and said she could take him (he had posted it on facebook) and when he got to the doctors office he got right in to see the doctor who figured everything out, gave him a steroid shot, took x-rays, gave him a better medication, etc. He said that she did more for him that the specialist he has been going to go see for years, even more than the doctor did when he initially broke his back. He tried to figure out how it all happened, but he knows that it was God. Haha  yep, he knows it. He said he keeps trying to deny the feelings hes had when he prayed and he cant. So its just a matter of time. :) I get so excited for Mondays to go and to teach him. 

We also had Zone conference this week, and I just want to say how SAD I am to be coming home soon because missionary work is going to explode and I want so badly to be a part of it. President Jensen talked alot about what the new announcement is going to do to our mission and we all got so excited! Right now we have 165-ish young missionaries. 13 of those are sisters. then we have another 16 or so couple missionaries. He started writing numbers up on the board. and I dont have my notes with me, but it went something like this (im just throwing out numbers): by February we are going to have 24 sisters, by April we are going to have 36, by May we are going to have 60, by July we are going to have 84 and by next august we are going to have 100 sisters and 150 elders with 32 seniors. ONE HUNDRED SISTERS! he said he almost had a heart attack and then he called the Jacksonville mission president and the Birmingham mission president and they are going to be at 112ish and 130ish sister missionaries. I AM SO EXCITED! i guess those numbers are pretty consistent across missions. The lord is hastening the work and its so incredible. I want so badly to be a part of it. The work is going to go forth at an incredible rate! Also, we dont watch the news but there have been rumors started to be talked about china.... One of the girls here (who is preparing to serve) said that china got a new leader and that it was all over the news? I feel like that piece of news means alot more to LDS people than to others because we are all just waiting for china to be opened. I also have heard a couple people talk about friends who received their calls that said they were called to another Asian country until china opens. That is all just hearsay so dont take it for fact, but either way the work is being hastened and I am so ecstatic about it I can hardly contain myself! 

We went to the doctor Friday for sis Pulsiphers foot and he couldn't find anything wrong with it, so its been a hard week as far as getting other work done goes, but president had the sisters who were using the mission bikes bring them to us so we can ride to campus to keep her off her foot as much as possible. That's been alot of fun! Hopefully her foot heals soon, cause if not president said she'll have to go home for recovery. :(. 

Here is a random fun fact: So back when I first got to the mission sister Horan and I decided that we were going to sing all the songs in order and sing all of the hymns in the hymn book. Its taken me my whole mission to get through them (some of my companions havent wanted to do it with me) but sister pulsipher and I sang "god save the king" this morning for our studies and I finished the last song in the book today. It feels like quite the accomplishment to me :) 

Well, I just want to end talking about gratitude because it is thanksgiving this week and we have so much to be grateful for, especially because we have the gospel in our lives. I overlook so often the blessings that I receive but when i take the time to look back on my life and especially the last 15 months being out here on a mission I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessings given to me from my Heavenly father. I truly can see his hand in my everyday life and more than anything this year I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to spend a part of my life in complete service to God. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. I have grown and stretched more than I thought was possible. I have such deep gratitude for the gospel and for Jesus Christ. I am grateful for my testimony and for the companions Ive gotten to serve with. I am grateful for faithful friends and family at home that consistently take time out of their busy lives to write me. I am grateful for ward members here that treat us like their own kids. I am grateful for people that say hi back when we smile and say hello, or the people that sit and listen to us even when they aren't interested. I am grateful for the spirit and his working in my own life and the chance I get to see first hand the change he can make it others lives. I am grateful for my personality and talents and abilities to go out and to do the things that the Lord has asked me to do. I am grateful for the scriptures and the words of the prophets and for singing. I am grateful for our freedom to worship God how we want. I am grateful that its like 105 degrees anymore and the humidity has died down. I am grateful for a mission president and his wife who loves and cares so much about 165 of us. I could go on and on, but above all I am grateful for the atonement and the chance that I have to access its powers and to become a little better each day than I was the previous day. 

Enjoy thanksgiving everyone! 
Love you all! 
Sister Webb

November 12, 2012 letter

"Cant nobody fix it but Jesus" -Sign help up by a lady on the side of the road.

 

Hello everyone! 

I dont know if I have ever expressed how much I love southern people before. But its driving past/talking with people like the lady with the sign that makes being down here so great! 

Its been an interesting week to say the least. We had some really great things happen and we also had to stay inside alot of this week but as always I learn lots from every situation we I am in. 

So the week started off with a great lesson with Gerrit, who right now is my favorite investigator, probably because he is progressing and his lessons are so great! We talked about the word of wisdom and baptism with him this week. We had talked about the word of widsom a little bit in the first couple lessons we taught him, but we were just answering questions that he had and werent really teaching the whole principle or committing him to live it. So we taught him again and asked him to live it and he was really funny. He said "ya know, I knew we were going to talk about this today and this morning I bought two cans of arizona iced tea and I drank one on the way over here and then I got here and realized that we were probably going to talk about this again and so I have one more in my car.... how about I start tomorrow?" and I said "how about you start today?" and he said "alright, I will just give it away to my roommate and start today". He was pretty excited to live it because he said he always wanted to go clean of EVERYTHING hes ever been on. He goes off different drugs at different times, but never all at the same time. So after the lesson he was talking to a kid in the ward that goes and watches the sunrise everymore and he asked him where the best place was to go watch it and at the end he said something like "thanks, I just need a way to wake up now cause I cant have coffee because of THESE TWO...(pointing to us)" haha hes been testing us throughout the week telling us how its been a hard week to live it because everyone keeps offering him free stuff and he threw out his back and usually he smokes weed when he does that but that hes been good. Then he tested us yesterday to tell us how he never realized how much tea he drank until he stopped drinking it, but that he still hasnt done anything against the word of wisdom. He is so great! 

Like I said, we also talked to him about baptism. He said hes not ready to set a date yet, and probably wont for a while because he wants to make sure that he is going to be clean and stay clean for a long time before he decides to get baptized. We talked about the answer that he received and he said that his "logical" side keeps telling him to forget how he felt, but that as hard as he tries to forget that he got an answer to his prayer, he cant forget it. I think its only a matter of time before he decides to get baptized. He is going to start coming to more activities and getting more involved. I am really excited! 

The other really great thing that happened this week was teaching Jonathans friends that he brought to church. We taught them on Wednesday and on our way there they texted us and asked if they could bring a friend with them. So we ended up picking up ANOTHER investigator (kyle) and teaching him as well. He came to church on sunday with us and seemed to enjoy it. Being on a college campus is so interesting because people are very willing to listen and to read and they keep commitments very well, but you can have one REALLY spirit filled lesson and then at the end they say that they just wants to some to read and pray on their own and that they will call us when they are ready for another lesson. I have never had so many powerful lessons end with them not wanting to keep learning. They seemed to love it all and to feel the spirit and at the end of their lesson they were so excited to learn to pray. OH that was a really cool part as well... usually at the end of the first lesson we invite whoever were teaching to say the prayer, but since there were 3 of them we didnt know who to ask... none of them had prayed before so we didnt know who to ask but then a stroke of inspiration came and we decided to have everyone say a prayer. So we knelt down and sis pulsipher said one, then me, then a member that was with us (nick), then each of them said their first prayers in their lives. It was SO great to hear their humility and to feel the spirit that was there. 

The down side to the week was that sister Pulsipher did something to her foot and so when we called the mission doctor he said to only walk on it when she had to... and to wear tennis shoes when she did have to walk haha since we are a walking area that means all the time, but he said to only walk to our lessons and to stay off of it the rest of the time. SO we had to stay in alot this week, but when we went out she rocked the tennis shoes and skirt look :). It finally felt good enough friday night and we were pumped to get back out and work Saturday, then she woke up with the flu (or something) that made it so she had to sleep most of the day saturday.. So we had to stay in again. I think Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience and long suffering? That is the conclusion I came to because I was going stir crazy this whole week not being able to work. Im hoping this week we get to go back out and start talking to people again! I have a bit of the beginning symptoms of a cold, so I am trying to battle that as best as possible so that there is no reason that we have to stay in this week. 

So that was our week! Hope yall's was eventful :)

Love you lots! 

Sister Webb