Resolving the New Year

Hola familia!

Hey I stinking love you all. Do you know that? I want every single person that reads these words to know at least one thing: I LOVE YOU!! It´s nice to be loved, and wanted isn´t it? Love is the greatest driving force in existance. It drives us to good things, and sometimes bad things. To do funny things and sometimes stupid things. It brings the greatest amount of joy and happiness we can know, and also hurts and breaks us in ways that nothing else can. It´s interesting isn´t it? Why the heck am I even talking about love? Well it´s one of my new years resolutions. To be more loving. I have met people throughout my mission that are so filled with love, that after being with them a mere five minutes, I know they love me. And I want to be with them more because they make me feel so good, and happy. I desire to be that kind of person. I believe that part of this love comes from Christ, and our personal love for Him, our appreciation for His Atonement, and my relationship I have with Him. I feel that if I understand the Atonement and His love for me better, then I will be filled with more love and be able to transmit that same love to others. Also being filled with the Spirit I beleive plays a role too, becuase who´s going to carry that love to the person? Anyway, I feel really really loved here in Spain, amongst all the members, investigators, and missionaries, and I want to return that love and help someone else feel as warm and fuzzy inside as I have. Yay for new years resolutions!

Christmas was awesome and it was super great to see you all and to get to talk to Dad and Ryan as well! Best Christmas gift right there, for sure. Tuesday and Wednesday we hardly did any work becuase the entire world was gone to friends or families houses, or they had friends or family over and didn´t want to recieve us. So we hung out with some members and it was really great. We worked really hard Thursday up through the rest of the week and ALMOST got the standards of excellence. We only were missing 3 people at church. Man that was frustrating for me! We invited and had confirmed about 7 people to come to church yesterday. We had rides set and EVERYTHING. And the following day, not a single one came. No one! Man that was hard for me because we had worked soooo hard and did all of our part, but the people always have their agency right? I was really frustratred and kept wondering if God ever gets frustrated like this when we use our agency and break a commandment. I came to the conclusion that yes, perhaps it hurts Him and He gets frustrated, but He NEVER stops loving us and believing in us, that we have the power and strength to choose good next time. So this week, all seven are going to come to church, I believe in them! 

This Friday President and his wife are coming for a specilized training and a talent show to celebrate the new year! I will be playing a duet with a sister, and singing "Danny Boy" with some elders in my zone. Super pumped! We´re going to talk about the goals we want to set for next year, for baptisms and so forth. It´s been a really satisfying year. We saw some odd things like that meteorite that fell in Russia, a Pope retire, some scary things like more natural disasters in preparation for the second coming, and incredible miracles which are the most important the hastening of the Lords work as He sends more than 80,000 missionaries across the globe. And I´m apart of it! Super awesome. I hope the year that you´ve all had has been as equally as satisfying, and that above all you´ve felt the Spirit in abundance, your relationship with the Savior has been strengthened, and you´ve felt His love. And I hope you all know that I love you! Happy New Year to everyone! Love love love.

Elder Webb

Merry Christmas

Hola Familia,

Hey, Merry Christmas to all whose eyes graze these letters. I love you all! And I love the people of Spain! And I love missionary work. We celebrate during the Christmas season the day our Savior was born, and feeling that Spirit makes people happy, and I get to share that message (that they have a Savior, and the beauty of His Atonemet) with people every day! Así que me siento genial TODOS LOS DIAS. That´s not to say that there are sad moments, and moments of difficutly, but I¨m learning to face those trials with a better attitude so that they become easier to get through. This last week was the Week of Finding, and the goal was 800. We ended up with 847 new investigators! There were miracles happening every single day! It was the most amazing week of my mission, and ALL the missionaries in the whole mission were having similar experiences. The Lord really was with us in this one. It was a huge testimony builder for me, and I hope for all the missionaries in the mission. There is literally nothing that can stand in our way. With the Lord, everything is possible. We are the only ones that keep us from our potential and acheiving our goals. I¨m so stoked right now I can´t even contain it, nor describe it! President has been putting an emphasis on working with the Young Single Adults, like I said last week, and we found 7 new investigators through ONE YSA!! She loves missionary work and helps us so muchl, and her friends, the news that we have found, are incredible. All of them will be baptized. I have faith. 

Friday we had the ward Christmas dinner and it was also super great. We planned on having about 10 investigators, but in the end none of them came! They all chose to stay in that night, but that´s okay, there was more chicken for me. The missionaries in the ward sang a Christmas song and it actually wasn´t too bad. It´s a little difficult to perform musical numbers when no one else knows anythign about music, and even more when they ask for parts and a guitar accompaniament. But in the end it wasn´t too bad and they asked for a repeat performance the following year. I love the participation of the ward here in Molina. They all have such fire for the work and understand their role and the importance of fellowshipping. The work in Molina is progressing like crazy. We´re going to have a lot of baptisms in January, and in about July or so, the new chapel will be done finally!

So we have two mini missionaries with us for a week and they´re the best. Randy and Davis, they live here in Molina and will be with us until Friday. They´re going to be super awesome missionaries when they finally leave on their missions, way more prepared than I ever was. They already know how to teach the lessons and everything! And their testimonies are rock solid, they´re stinking examples for me! I love it. Anyone who has the opportunity to go out with the missionaries before leaving on thier mission, or to do a mini-mission, DO IT! It´s a really awesome experience. 

We´ll be hanging out with a few families tomorrow and Christmas day. The ward coordinated so that we have a family to be with during the holidays. They´re the stinking best here in Molina! I¨m loving it for sure. So mom, don´t worry about me on Christmas, I¨ll be well taken care of. Just keep Christ in your hearts and thoughts during these last days of the Christmas season. Him and His Atonement and the real reasons to celebrate. The chains of death have been broken; the horror of eternal torment and suffering out of the presence of our Heavenly Father has been erased and replaced with the hopes of glory, honor, and happiness as families in the Kingdoms of our Father, to last for all of the eternities. That´s reason to celebrate right? Love it! I love you family! I¨m excited to talk to you on Wednesday. Love you and Merry Christmas!

Elder Webb

December 16, 2013

Hola familia!

We had a stinking crazy week last week. We found some really good families to teach and we had some super good lessons with our fechas and we had zone meeting to get the zone pumped on the week of finding, and we had some intercambios in Murcia. I was in Murcia with Elder Baker, he´s new, from Chicago and he´s got a lot of fire and desire to work. I stinking love him! He doesn´t like sitting around not doing anything, he wants to be out DOING, and working and I love his attitude. We left a cita Friday night and were late for a baptismal interview that I had to do. So you know what E Baker says to me? He says "get ready to run!" I stinking love that attitude. He doesn´t want to sit still, and that´s how we need to be in the work! I hope he´s having a similar effect on the other missionaries in the zone. 

We have two investigators that I totally love. Paola and Ivan, a brother and sister. They have a fecha for the 28th, however they´re not progressing as much as we´d like. We had a really good cita last night and basically just sacked out all of their doubts and got to the bottom of why they won´t be baptized. They know everything, but they´re afraid that they won´t be able to make the changes and maintain them, or that they´ll get baptized and nothing will change. Family, please pray for them! They just need to recognize the Spirit once, to recieve the answer that everything will be better if they get baptized, and they´ll do it. They´re close, but I´m out of ideas of how to help them. The only thing we can do now is try and bring the Spirit strong enough that they realize all this. Anyway, please pray for them.

In preparation for the Week of Finding, we´ve met with a lot of members and asked for their help in the work. We´ve met with some JAS and we´ve planned to have a familiy home eavening with them and all their friends that can come. So potentially, we could find A LOT of new investigators. I love working with the JAS, and it´s actually something that President has asked us to do recently. JAS are the Young Single Adults. Jovenes Adultos Solteros. This Thursday, one of these JAS will be joining us for a week on a mini mission and it´s going to be a lot of stinking fun! Please please pray for us and the mission this week so that we can meet our goal of 800 new investigators in one week! It´s a high goal, but nothing is impossible with the Lord. Thank you familiy! I love you all! I will talk to you next week!

Elder webb

Me and my compy made pizza from scratch the other day. All those years working at the pizza place finally paid off. It was stinking tasty too! Barbeque

This is Penny. She´s a demon. And I love her.

December 9, 2013

Hola familia!

What a stinking week. Kinda weird actually. We were gone out of the area for two days for concilio and it really bugged me! 48 whole hours where nothing got done. Well we just tried to work even harder the rest of the week to make up for it. We found two news that are incredible, named Celia and Katy, from Bolivia. They´re super great people, the only problem is that they´re super busy and never have time to meet with us! The way we found them was a pure miracle. We contacted this lady on the street and she said "go visit my sister, she´s a bigger believer than me." So then a few days later we knocked her door and Celia answered and told us that then wasn´t a good time becuase the whole family was over, but if we came back Sunday she´d be able to listen. Well we went back and taught her and it turns out that she works on call in the hospital in Murcia and is always getting called in so it was pure miracle that we got in with her! Her daughter is Katy and they´re both super great. They both have desires to find God and be happy. 

Getting people to church is really hard, did you know that? We taught the mother of a member that lives in valencia, (the girl was down here visiting, and turns out is a friend of elder Lucero, he lives in valencia, cool huh?) and it was a really good lesson. After giving the first vision and talking about the prophet and apostles she suddenly was very interested and said by herself without having to be invited that she would come to church the next day. However, after we left, she backed out of her commitment, saying that it was too early. But what´s worse is that she got up and drove her daughter and two other investigators to church in murcia, then returned three hours later to pick them up. That one hurt a bit because she was really set on coming to church, and I knew that if she came she´d feel the Spirit becuase it was the Primary Prgoram! It´s alright though, we´ve got another week to work with her. Speaking of primary program, I played the piano for them and let me tell ya, it was a stinking success. I mean, the performance of 2012 with sister Becki Hone was a bit of a bigger success, but we can´t really make comparisions. There were a lot of differences, the venue, the lineup, the audience, heck even the language! But the Spirit was there, just as strong. Random thought: it´s a neat experience when the Spirit talks to you in Spanish. 

This week we will be having zone meeting in Murcia and will be planning our zone chirstmas pday. I want to have a white elephant and cook a PHAT American breakfast. Others want to just play football, and some don´t want to do anything at all! I´ll convince them of the food idea. Who doesn´t love breakfast? I´m really excited for this week becuase I¨ve got some goals that are really burning in my heart. I want to just get out there and DO what I said I was going to do. Last week we were a little lazy and didn´t work as hard as we could have. Well now I feel bad for doing a have baked job and I´m going to go out this week and GIVE ALL, make every day a 2 Mite day. That´s the invitation I make to you all. A lot of the time, it´s our habit and perhaps even nature to do the bare minimum, or to give only what´s left over, no? Well, like the poor widow who gave EVERYTHING, we need to have the same mentality. In the end what´s important isn´t if you merely did what you were asked, but rather HOW you did it, and WHY. This is going to be a two mite WEEK. In the words of Ben Gibbard (with some slight alterations.) "I´ve got a hunger twisting my [soul] into knots... this is the sound of [a Spirit hungry missionary!]" That´s the theme song for the week. "the Sound of Settling" by Deathcab. Listen to it, and find the same hunger to do EXTRODINARY and give EVERYTHING this week! 

Love you all so so much! Stay warm and be happy! I¨ll talk to you next week!

Elder Webb

                           Name tags make great christmas tree ornaments

Murcia de Seguros

Hola familia!

Toni got confirmed on Sunday! I´m so stinking happy for him. His parents have fechas to be baptized! And in like a years time, he´ll be a missionary. The Lord´s work is amazing! Uniting families for eternity! 

Christmas time is here. You can smell it in the air. And in Spain, it smells like Churrizo. Man I love churrizo. There´s decorations everywhere and in the piso we listen to christmas music all day. I love christmas time and I´m doing my best to share the christmas spirit!

Holy stinking cow Molina is great. The Lord has blessed me with an area just as great as Motril. It is a ward of about 55 members and they participate a lot in the work. Kinda wierd because I had gotten used to doing everything ourselves becuase there straight up weren´t members to work with in Motril, but it´s definitely a welcome change. My companion is Elder Lucero, and he´s from Bolivia but doesn´t look like it. He´s a really good missionary, he likes to work hard and he teaches really well. He´s been here in Molina for 2 transfers already. 

On Wednesday when I got here, we found a new investigator named Raul and he came to church with us. We had 4 investigators in church and it all went really well. The members help out a lot by arranging rides for the investigators and such and it really helps a lot becuase the chapel is in Murcia, about 30 minutes away in bus. Raul is from Colombia and he´s golden. When we explained the restauration he got really excited about the Book of Mormon and said "so that mean that if this is true, then your prophet is true as well right?" So awesome! We´re going to work realyl hard with him to help him and his familiy get baptized.

Monday and Tuesday we had concilio, where all the Zone Leaders and the Traveling Training Sisters meet with President at the mission home to talk about the status of the mission and to set goals for the coming month. In December we´re going to do another "Finding Week" like we did back in August and we talked about how many news we want to find. I was, and still am, totally pumped on all the things that had happened to me in Motril, and my faith was through the roof. Everyone was suggesting a goal of about 600 news in one week, and I felt that it was just too low because the Lord can do anything right? So I suggested 1000 new investigators in one week. It went dead silent and some missionaries looked at me like I was crazy haha but I had good reason. The Lord guided me to find 26 new investigators in an area where there hadn´t been missionaries for over a year, and we are 229 missionaries in the mission, we all have at least 6 months, so there is no reason not to set a goal like that! I had most convinced haha, but there were some others that felt a more realistic goal would do. So we all got on our knees and prayed with President for what we should do, and we decided on 800, and we´ll baptize 100 pèople in January and Feburary. Super exciting! We´re going to have to work hard, but it´s totally possible. The Lord can do anything that He wants. And if there´s anything in this world that He wants to do, it´s help the church grow in Spain. So we´re totally going to do it! 

I live in a four man piso and it´s a lot of fun. The other elders, Elders Allsop and Butler and stinking awesome and really good elders. I´m really stinking excited to be working here in Molina and for the new adventure that the Lord has placed in front of me. These last couple of weeks, I´ve felt something change inside of me. Nothing else matters to me except doing the work and helping these people progress. I am willing to sacrifice anything and to do anything to get the job done. I didn´t feel like this before, but it´s also another welcome change.

I love you family! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week! Seek to keep the spirit of Christmas alive in every moment and seek to do a little good. do something out of the ordinary. I love you and will talk to you next week! 

Elder Webb

Me and Elder Lucero in front of President Deeres Christmas Tree

Miracles and transfers

hola familia!

holy stinking miracles. They never stop coming. My head is exploding with amazing with how much the Lord has blessed us and continues to bless us here in motril, and above I´m oozing with gratitude for what He has helped us accomplish. I feel that I have truly been an instrument in His hands, and let me tell you, it feels great! I feel like Alma when he said "I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." This is what happened. 

Kati and Gloria came to church and they totally loved it. Kati is the young lady that is paralyzed. We had some problems because her wheelchair didn´t fit in the elevator, and Gloria her mom was saying the whole time "lets just go home, it´s easier!" But we ended up carrying her the stairs and they stayed for sacrament meeting. The Spirit was super strong and they totally felt it. I spoke about the Prodigal Son and how amazing it is that we have a Father that is watching and waiting for us to return, and willing to run out to us and help us the rest of the way. Katy and Gloria are pretty hard core catholic, but they totally liked church more than mass, and they now have some really good friends in the church. They´ll get baptized for sure down the road, I don´t doubt it. Gloria is a funny lady, she doens´t like to call us Elder, and so she asked us our names, and upon hearing mine, she insists on calling me by my name becuase she loves it! She says my name is "celstial music to her ears" haha. A really funny lady, and she works really hard for her daughter becuase Katy is totally and completely 100% dependant on her mom. To bathe, eat, sleep, you name it. And Gloria also has to work to provide the house and food and what not, it´s incredible all that she does. And she said she´s for the first time in 8 years found real happiness and peace when ever we´re with them. The Gospel blesses families!

Second thing. Toni is getting baptized tomorrow! There are a couple of reasons, one of them being because I´m being transferred. After only one transfer President is kicking me out! I can´t believe, and I´m super upstet. I¨m headed to Molina in Murcia, back to the other side of the mission. My new companion is named Elder Lucero, I¨m not sure where he´s from but I do know that he´s a really good elder. We´re going to work hard like we have been doing here in motril. Back to Toni. Last night we had a really good lesson with him and his parents and President Izquierdo. His parents stinking love us now and kept saying "man it stinks that you´re leaving webb!" and his mom as we were leaving asked us "hey are you doing anything tomorrow? Want to come over and hang out more with us?" haha it was perfect! The Spirit was with us, and they know we´re not crazy. So Toni told them that he still wants to be baptized and they are totally down with it! So tomorrow he´ll be getting baptized, in the ocean! I will have the honor of baptizing him and I can´t stinkign wait!!

So things are going really good here in Motril and I don´t want to leave, but the Lord needs me in another area. It´s been nice just being a normal missionary and not worrying about anyone but my investigators, but I´m also excited to see how I can help the other missionaries as a zone leader. I imagine that I¨ll being staying in Molina for at least three transfers, hopefully President doesn´t pull me out right when I get comfortable. I have to go pack my bags now. I stinking hate packing my bags. Too bad my mom isn´t here to do it for me...

Hey I love you family! You´re the best! Remember that like the prodigal son, our Father in Heaven is always waiting for us to return whenever we stay, even if it´s just a little bit. He´s waiting, and willing to run to us to carry us the rest of the way. We just need to accept that we´ve made a mistake, and start the journey home. I love you all! Be safe and have fun this week. I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving for reals this time! Love you all!

Elder Webb

                        We went to the beach to look for a place to baptize.

                             This is President Izquierdo and his wife

                         And this is Miguel Angel and his girlfriend Almudena

November 18, 2013

Hola familia!

 

I am still amazed, each and every week at how much the Lord blesses us and the miracles that we see! Miracle number one. Thursday was weekly planning, so we were in the piso planning the next week, and making a few calls. We saw a number of a man that the previous elders had contacted some three years ago, and decided to give it a call. Turns out that the man, David, is in Madrid and can´t meet with us. No big deal. Last night we were trying to contact some futures we had and they weren´t home, so we went to the streets to contact people when we saw a younger couple, Nano and Raquel and decided to talk to them. We sat down at a park bench and taught them lesson one and they were really great people, they accepted a book of mormon and agreed to meet with us again. Turns out that they´re friends with our investigator Toni, the one who almost got baptized! But what´s even more crazy was that Nano is a nickname, and his real name is David. and it is the same David that we had called a few days earlier. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?? Too big to be coincidence. The Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit lead this great work, I¨m sure of it. 

 

Miracle number 2. The Lord has led us to some really prepared people. Jose Carlos, one of the young kids woke up Sunday morning with some ankle issues (he plays rugby). He originally wasn´t going to come, but after talking to him on the phone he agreed to walk with us. Well we went to his house when we get a call from him and he says "hey Elders, where are you? I¨m at the church but you´re not here!" What´s even cooler though, is that HE BROUGHT A FRIEND! They stayed for all three hours and afterwards we were talking about Jose´s baptism next week when out of nowhere his friend Ernesto says "I want to be baptized with him too. Can I be baptized the same day?" What?! Jose has been sharing the gospel with his friends and Ernesto liked church and that was enough for him, he´s getting baptized! Huge miracle! For the first time on my mission, we set a baptismal date without even extending the invitation! It was given to us! 

 

Over this transfer I´ve been focusing a lot on humility and having the Spirit. I though before that I could do this work with the skills and abilitites that I naturally posses. It took me until now to learn that that is not so, and that in fact I don´t get very far with just my talents. I need the Spirit and I need to submit myself to His will in order to become an instrument in His hands. The constant companionship of the Spirit is most important, and for the first time in my life I feel the Spirit constantly. I understand now what that phrase means, but even more, I understand what it´s like. I¨ve come to realize that a life guided by the Spirit, with His influence and presence is one of the most important things we could seek after right now. I understand now why some prophets like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young have said that the gift of the Holy Ghost is one of the greatest gifts to man. The Spirit I have been feeling these last couple of weeks has been amazing, and something that I never want to lose, for the rest of my life! 

 

Last thing, my companion and I have decided that we were friends in the preexistance. We both like the same things, we both think the same way, we both have the same desires and dreams, and the same faults to work on. We get along better with each other than with any other person in the mission. He is my best friend ha. But the deal breaker was this. Elder Peroni was born May 5th and I was born May 6th! We were up there hanging out when they called for us to come down to earth and I had to give Elder Peroni a shove infront to make sure that he would come down, that´s why he was born one day before me. Serisouly though, the mission is so much better when you have a companion that you get along with, that has the same vision, and that is honestly your friend. Love it!

 

Well I¨ve talked enough. I love you all and hope that you enjoy Thanksgiving this week. I will be here. Not eating turkey. No one celebrates that day, and I don´t have enough money nor time to buy the neccessary things. So eat a couple platefuls for me! And remember to thank Heavenly Father everyday, not just this Thursday, because He blesses us every single day! We just need to open our eyes, and sometimes try a little harder to look for it. I love you family! Have a splendid week!

 

Shane

Nov. 11, 2013

'Hola familia!

The Lord helped us end the week on a good note. I say that because near the end it looked like we weren´t going to end up very well because we had zone conference friday and we were out of the area all day, and then saturday my compy got sick and we didn´t work at all. However, the Lord heard our prayers and totally provided a miracle for us. I spent Saturday studying in the piso and calling all our investigators to remind them about church the following day. I called one family and the husband told me that he wasn´t sure they were going to come and he would talk to his wife when she got home and he told me to call the next morning to verify. Well I did that and when I called, to my surprise, the whole familiy was up and getting ready to come to church! So we went and picked em´ up and all walked together and they totally loved church! Huge miracle from the Lord because we hadn´t seen them since the previous Sunday. We had an atendance of 13 this week, four of which were investigators! Biggest number yet! 

We found two new investigators that are super awesome. Two young men named Jose and Jose(Papu). They´re both 16 years old and really smart and awesome kids. They keep ALL of their commitments, and have real desires to find the truth. Especially Jose (not Papu) becuase about four months ago his dad died and he really misses him. He totally loves the plan of salvation and was giving really smart answers like "if this is true then that means I should follow this path". they both have agreed to be baptized on the 23 of November! They´ll be the first youth here in Motril to be baptized and when they were told that, Jose shouted with joy "YES!! Finally I´m the first in something!" They´re both really great kids and the Rama (branch) needs them badly. Please pray earnestly for them so that they will recieve a witness and be able to resist Satan´s temptations!

So the zone conference was super great. We learned some new methods of planning to help us focus on our investigators and help them progress. The mission has grown a lot and all of our numbers has increased since the biggining of the year except for church attendance and baptisms. So President is making that a focus now. We´ve all learned how to find and if we can learn to teach well and get our investigators to church, then we´ll get them to the baptismal font as well, obviously. After the conference the senior couple from the office came to Granada to have a half P-day with the zone. We played baseball, soccer and had a barbeque and I stinking loved it. I kept thinking about the scene from Farris Buler when they go to the baseball game and almost get caught on TV. Classic movie. 

This week we have some exchanges with the district leader and is important that we meet with our investigators becuase in two weeks are their baptismal dates! Jose, Jose Carlos, Toni are those with a baptismal date. Miguel Angel is another investigator that we´re working a lot with. He´s become a really good friend of mine and is struggling to let the Spirit affect him and accept the baptismal invitation. Please pray for all of them! They need all the prayers they can get. 

Well familiy I love you all and wish you well! I hope you have a good week this week and look for all the ways that the Lord blesses you. Love love love! Chau

Elder Webb

Sunset while returning from Granada!

Making hime made ice cream. What a pain!

Who is more Crafty?

Hola familia!

I honestly can´t complain. A lot happened, but in the end I have no complaints. First off, for those that are wondering, Toni did NOT get baptized. About twelve hours before the baptism he called us and told us that his brother had be badly injured and needed to wait a week. We told him that we would run over and give him a blessing and he´d be fine and Toni could still be baptized the following day. Well Toni turns out that upon seeing that there was a solution to the problem, Toni opened up and told the truth. His brother was fine, it was actually his mom that was the problem. His parents have been asking him all week to wait to be baptized, wait a month or two, hoping that his desire would leave with time. They had been fighting a lot during the week and the night before the baptism they had a big fight and Toni decided that it will just be better to obey his parents wishes for now and wait a month to be baptized. Heart broken. Satan is a crafty one did you know that? But as I got thinking about why the Lord would let something like this happen, the thought came to me that perhaps the will of the Lord isn´t that Toni get baptized alone, but rather with his whole family. And now we have one more opportunity to open up the family and help them see the blessings of the Gospel. Had he gotten baptized alone, I¨m sure the family would be totally and completely against the church. So I learned from that that the Lord us much more crafty than Satan, now alls we need to do is fufill our part and do it right! No pressure.

The Lord blessed me Sunday in crazy ways to help lift my Spirits. So Motril belongs to the Granada stake, which was the first stake I started in in my mission. Well yesterday was stake conference and I got too see all my old friends and members that I was with in Jaén and it was super great.I also got to participate in the ordination of 3 people to the melchezidik priesthood. One was a convert of mine, the other two were less active members that I worked A TON with. It was so super cool to be apart of that, definietly a tender mercy of the Lord to be sending me to Motril so that I could be apart of that experience. Then He led us to a family of 5 that are super super prepared and will be getting baptized here soon. So like I said earlier, I have no complaints. The Lord knows me, and my needs, and provides for me. He blesses me in ways that even now I´m just realizing. I love being apart of this marvelous work!

I love you familiy and hope you have a marvelous week this week! The internet cafe owner is kicking us out so I need to go.

 

I love you!!

Elder Webb

 

 

 This was my holloween trick or treating pay load. I scored big!

 



This is how I usually end up studying everyday.

 

 

Un pedazo de milagro!

Hola familia!

The miracles that happened this week have left me speechless. Never in my mission have I been so blessed, and so aware that my Savior knows me, knows my needs, and He knows the people here in Motril and their needs, and He knows where to put us to best help them. Here´s what happened. 

This week Elder Peroni and I found 27 new investigators. The most I´ve ever found in my mission. The most before that was 9, and the Lord helped us triple that. There was not a single day that went by that we didn´t not find a new investigator nor see a miracle happen. The Lord every day was putting us in the right place at the right time and all we did was are part and opened our mouths and talked with everyone. But what´s even cooler is that we put 7 baptismal fechas (dates) with these new investigators! We grew from 1 to 7 in one week! There is a group of jóvenes (teenagers) friends, all around the age of 16 or 17 that agreed to be baptized in about 4 weeks. I love working with them because they´re so young and have so much potential! They´ve never prayed in their life, so we get on our knees and teach them how to communicate with their Heavenly Father. They don´t know that there is a life after death, so we teach them about Gods perfect plan; everything we teach them they just eat it right up! They love talking with us and learning more. Changing their habits and way of life is a bit hard for them, but nothing is impossible for Christ. That´s the miracle of His Atonement: That repentance and change ARE possible for everyone! 

Toni will be getting baptized this Saturday mornign at 11. He´s facing a little bit of diffeculties with his parents, they want him to wait to make sure that this really what he wants. Satan works not stop to prevent people from being baptized, but he´s not going toget my Toni! Please pray for Toni and ask the Lord to soften his parents hearts. 

Last miracle and then I´m out of your hair for the week. We were leaving a cita (appointment) with the youths I mentioned above when out of nowhere a young couple yells at us with the score is of the Barca - Madrid game. Obviously we have no clue so we begin to ask them if they believe in God. They reply in the affirmative and invite us up to talk! We enter there home and guess what we find? A family of 12 people!! It was your classic missionary situation. There were couches lining three of the four walls and they were all filled with people, elder Peroni and I set up two chairs in front of everyone and taught a massive group of people! It was super awesome, but what´s even more amazing is that their pastor in their church has been teaching them that in the last days, Christ would call a prophet and twelve apostels again. So all we had to do was show up and tell them that He´s already done that! Super huge miracle from the Lord.

I cannot begin to describe how much fun I am having here in Motril. The Lord is blessing us like never before and we´re having lots of success. The Lord knows who´s in Motril and where we need to be, and this last week He put us in the exact place we needed to be. Elder Peroni is hands down my favorite companion. It´s as if we were friends before the mission and we just came out here together. He reminds me a lot of Logan actually. We never stop laughing and having amazing experiences. Family, seriously, I¨ve never been happier. No great joy nor happiness comes in this life than from spreading the Gospel and doing the work of the Lord. I love being a missionary! 

Well that is all I have. This coming week we´re going to work like crazy, will all of these people to help them get to the waters of baptism. Please pray for them and the fechas we have. Satan works just as hard as we do, so we can´t let him win! Look for opportunities to serve this week. I love you all!

con amor,

Elder Webb  

 

Motril is a super pretty city, and some day soon, we will have an LDS church as beautiful as this one!

Welcome to Motril. Preapre to have the restored gospel of Christ shared to you

October 21, 2013

Hola familia!

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Motril is official open for the preaching of the word of God! And it´s totally amazing. Let me just tell you of some miracles I´ve seen in the last five amazing days. Since the day we arrived, the Lord has been blessing us non stop. It´s so amazing, and so crazy to see how the Lord works and prepares the hearts of the people. A huge testimony builder. So check this out. We get here and are looking through the old area book. We see a name and call her, named Trinidad. She says we´re too late becuase she moved to Madrid and got baptized. Not the worst news in the world, but then she gives us the number of her friend Toni. We call him and set up to see him the next day. When we teach him, he has already read the Book of Mormon and knows that it´s true, we teach him the restoration and he understands it and accepts it right there. The next day we teach him the Plan of Salvation and he says that it has answered every doubt and question he´s ever had! He agrees to be baptized but wants to wait until the new year. Yesterday we teach him the word of wisdom and baptism and confirmation. He agress to be baptized in two weeks. I¨m freaking out. The Spirit is super strong. And we´re having a baptism on the 2nd of November!

 

Other miracle. Friday night we were walking around knocking doors and contacting everyone. We ran into a man who was a strong believer and we ended up tlaking to him for about an hour and having a lesson with him right there in the street. He said he wanted to learn more and we agreed to come by the very next morning. When we went by, turns out he had given us a false address and number. However, I had some inspiration. I knew that when people lie when giving directions, they usually tell the correct street, but a false number, or at least a street that is close by their real home. So I knew that the man would be around the area, so we decided to knock all the doors in the whole street until we found him. From the very first door, we found someone that knew him and led us to another area where someone else knew him. Those people then led us to a different lady who was know in that area as being religious, and they suggested we teach her. Turns out that she was an old investigator that wasn´t in the area book. Miracle! Then after the lesson with her, she took us to meet her daughter in a nearby store, and guess who was standing out front with his friends? The man from the other night. Other miracle! It was super cool to be guided by the Spirit like that and to see the fruits immidiately. Things don´t usually happen like that, so it was a really cool experience.

 

The branch is quite small. In total there are 43 members, but there are about 8 active members, and with us, there´s now ten. But we´re going to be changing that! The Branch President is Andres Izquierdo, and he´s totally insane. I love him! He´s got a lot of passion for the work and HUGE desires to help the area grow. He´s got a real fire in his eyes for missionary work and wants nothing more than to help the branch here in Motril grow. Nothing to him, except his wife and children, matter more. Not even work! He´s a big inspiration to me becuase he understands the importance of hte Lords work. They´re building a new chapel and it should be finished by new years. It´ll be a whole lot better with the new chapel becuase right now we meet in a piso. It´s not the most glamorous thing, but it´s what we have. Soon however, the Lord will bless us with a new, beautiful chapel in a much better location. So, if you would please, please pray for the construcion of the chapel to go smoothly and swiftly!

 

This email is super long, I´m sorry. I´m super duper pumped right now. Elder Peroni works super hard, and is super obedient, which is a super relief. After all the ridiculous problems from my last area, it´s nice to not have to deal with any of that. Just being a normal missionary with a companion with the exact same desires as me: work hard and baptize! I can´t wait to see what the Lord will help us accomplish here. I feel kind of like Ammon. Going to a new land, with only the desire to be an instrument in the Lords hand. Let´s see what He can do with me! I bet great things, because for the Lord, all things are possible.

 

I love you family! Be safe this week and look for opportunities to be an instrument in the Lords hands! And remember to just be happy like Elder Pascua!

Love love!

 

Elder Webb

this is the branch! one sister got cut off on the right there...

Elder Peroni and I went for a hike. You can kind of see the beach. The area here is super stinking pretty!



Meditating in hills above Motril.

 

 

 

Getting a haircut by sister in his district, Hermana Kunz

 

 

Well at least it will grow out!!

 

Transfers!

Well family, the dreaded day has come. It´s transfers week, and Elder Webb is leaving Elche. I´ve only been here for three transfers, and it doesn´t feel like I´ve been here very long. There is still so much to do! But Elders Pascau and Adams will do a good job together. I¨m sad to be leaving the members and my hijo elder Adams! But the Lord has a special assignment for me, which I am stinking excited to be doing. I¨m headed to Motril, in Granada, in the Granada zone. I¨m going to be opening this area with Elder Peroni (he´s from argentina but grew up in Barcelona), we´re white washing it. There haven´t been missionaries there for almost two years. The branch has between 5 and 10 members, and they meet in a piso. Right now they´re building a new chapel, and President felt that it was time to send missionaries and open it back up. So he has entrusted me and Elder Peroni to do the job, and I´m so stinking excited! This is actually my dream. I think about the first missionaries in the early days of the chruch and how it would have been to go to a place where there weren´t missionaries before, and just start spreading the gospel. And now I get to do that! I can´t wait to get in there and start working. Getting to know the members will be easier than in other areas, and we´re going to work really hard with them, and with the whole city and we´re going to stinking BAPTIZE!! I¨m a bit disappointed to be leaving Elche, but at the same time super excited to be going to Motril. This for sure is going to be an awesome experience.

So this last week was a fun one. Some elders in my district had to travel to Malaga, and one elder was left without a companion, so being that I was in a trio, I went to his area and we did exchanges for two days. We had a lot of fun and worked really hard, their area has been suffering as of late, so we worked really hard to just talk with everyone, and get references from members and help their faith grow so that we could raise the area. Have I ever said that I love missionary work? Being apart of the process, and seeing peoples faith in Christ grow, and their trust in Him grow, it´s the greatest thing ever to witness!! I don´t ever want to stop being a missionary. So after that exchange we had a really cool conference with President Deere and the stake presidnet of the Elche stake, President Lopez. They´re both super awesome men, spiritual giants and their so united in their vision of the area. We spoke to them about how the members could help us better in the work, and they spoke to us about how we could better help them and the members in the work. The things they were saying really hit me, about forgetting yourself and serving selflessly. I´ve been trying really hard to become a better, more focused and harder working missionary, and it seems like the Lord just keeps giving me signal after signal that yeah I already know how to do it, I just need to buck up and do it! So now is the time, with me going to Motril and the area having been dead for so long. This is going to take a lot of hard work and diligence, and I´m totally up for the challenge!

One quick note about my companion Elder Pascau. He´s a stinking prankster, always trying to prank the elders in the piso. Last night, he filled a bowl of flour and taped it to the door and then called for me to come help him. I heard what he was doing and knew what he was up to and so he didn´t get me. So then after about five minutes he tells everyone it´s time for bed and turns out all the lights in the house. I go into the bathroom to brush my teeth and as I turn on the light he jumps out from the shower and scares me and for a moment I thought he was going to kill me, like a reverse Psycho or something. That time he did get me. Although I don´t like being scared, what I love about Elder Pascua is that he´s always happy. Even if the day was cruddy, he´s always laughing and has a smile on his face and tries hard to be pacient and smile. He´s a great example to me and to everyone!

So my dear family, that is all that I have to say this week. I´m going to Motril! I 

can´t wait to get there and start working. Sorry if this email was way too long and boring. Please pray for the people in Motril and all the missionaries in the mission and in the world! I love you all and I challenge you to try to keep a smile on in every moment this week. It´s a lot harder than you think, but Elder Pascau has inspired me to be more happy. I love you all so much! I´ll talk to you next week!

con mucho amor,

Elder Webb

 

 

Last Sunday with Jose in Elche

Saying Goodbye

 

Paella at Jose's, last Sunday in Elche

 

Motril is in southern Granada

Motril

 

 

October 7, 2013

Hola familia!

What an incredible confrence. Seriously my mind is still racing and the Spirit is still pounding within me. The leaders of the church weren´t messing around this time. We all have LOTS to improve on and it seems like their sick of beating around the bush. It was a nice change I thought, to just be frankly told that we can and need to be doing better. And you know what? They´re right. We have no excuse, and there is none to be had. We simply need to do better. Look for the areas that we are lacking, and improve. That´s been on my mind a lot lately, especially in these last couple of weeks. Up until now, I´ve been serving my mission for myself, hoping to get things out of it that will benefit me, and my thoughts throughout the day are spent centered on me. Well that´s all changing, especially after the call to be better from the Lord´s prophets and apostles. I know I can be a better missionary, I know that I can more fully dedicate myself, and I know I need to work on being less selfish and more loving. So I´m done with the excuses. I know where and how I need to improve, and now I´m going to do it.

That´s pretty interesting about the women wanting to be let in to the priesthood session. I wonder what led them to react that way? Grandma sent me an email and mentioned it a little and I love what she said: "You would think that the women of the Church could understand the way the Priesthood works and not complain that they are being discriminated against. They aren't. Men don't have rallys and complain because they can't have babies! We each gave our own rolls in the family and the Church." and it´s iteresting that Elder Christofferson talked about that very thing in the priesthood session! Not for this reason only, but for the whole conference as a whole, I agree with President Monson that this has been one of the greatest conferences ever. Most spritual, and most inspired. I love living in this dispensation!

So this last week on Tuesday I got a new companion. His name is Elder Pascua and he´s from the Philipenes but has lived in spain all his life. He´s a super awesome elder and motivates me to work hard and be more focused. Right now we are a trio with me and Elder Adams. This week is the last week of the transfer and one of us will be leaving. It´s probably going to be me, which I do not want at all because we´re starting to have some good success here in Elche and we´re going to have a baptism soon. The same thing happened in Jaen, just as things started to pick and I dind´t wnat to go, I got moved. I really hope that I stay in Elche becuase I stinking love it here. We found a new investigator that is golden. He even said the words "I¨m looking for the truth". Outside of stories and PMG videos, I´ve never heard anyone say that. He´s super prepared. His name is José Antonio and is actually a friend of my beloved Jose Antonio that sends ya´ll pictures. He´s reading the book of Mormon and praying and will for sure get baptized. Then we will teach his agnostic wife and show her the blessings of faith in Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. And then in one year they will go to the temple and be sealed forever! That´s the plan at least. I´m really excited to be teaching him, so please pray for him that he´ll be able to recognize the answers to his prayers!

There was another baptism in the other ward last night after conference and it was super good. The Spirit was really strong and there were quite a few investigators present which was amazing. The missionaries here in Elche are all working really hard and trying their best to do well. There are still occasional problems between companions, but it´s like they said a bunch in conference, when does life NOT offer obsticals? They just help us grow. Thank you all for your prayers and your support. We are feeling them here in Elche.

Welp that´s about all I got this week. Super good conference and being in a trio is exciting. Too bad it´ll only be for two weeks. This week is going to be a good one, we have a lot of plans to find and to teach. Please continue praying for us, because we need all of His help that we can get! I love you all very much! Remember the words of Elder Mayes last night, of how he spoke of having Spiritual stamina. Life is a constant race agains sin and darkness. We need the stamina to be able to witstand it all. So condition yourselfs by truely STUDYING the scriptures, not just moving your eyes over the words. Go read his talk, becuase it was really inspiring for me. 

Sorry this has been really preaching this week, I¨m just still riding in this spiritual high from conference and it wants to get out and into the ears of the people! I love you my dear family and friends. Be good, work hard to please the Lord, and improve yourselvs and your service. I love you and will talk to you next week!

con mucho amor,

Elder Webb

We tried taking one of those photos you see of missionaries in the conference editions of the ensign. It didn´t work out like I was hoping it would but that´s okay!

this is elder pascua my new compy

I found a crossfit gym in Elche! I´m sooooo excited! But I can´t go :( 

Last weeks Letter!

not sure why but last weeks email dind´t send. Here is what I said:

Hola familia!

Holy smokes theres no time today at all! I had the genius idea of letting one of the sisters cut my hair, and the only materials she had to work with were paper cutting sissors from the primary. Not cool. But, with the given materials, she actually did really well. I´ll send pictures next week.

So we had specilized training with president last week and it was super good. He talked about finding, and setting goals. We all could improve our view of goals and work harder to achieve them and really use them to their ful potential. He said that when we let place a goal that burns in our hearts, and when we include the Lord, we can move mountains. That´s so so true! I¨ve seen it already with the week of finding we had not too long ago. He has asked us to start placing higher goals that make us stretch and then involve the Lord, and work hard to achieve them. Specifically with the goal to find news. So I´m really excited about that. I really hope that we can all learn to use goals to our advantage to help the work progress. 

President also talked about obediece and the quality of the work we do, like if we really gie 100% or not. and I realized something. This whole time on my mission, I´ve thought a lot about myself. In fact, most of the thinking that I have done up utnil now (and mom is more aware of this than anyone) has been totally about myself. Up until now, I´ve been doing fine, but I want to be doing great. I want to change. I want to stop thinking about myself, and really work hard. I´ve made the resolution (I couldn´t wait for the new year) to really give it my all. To give the Lord EVERYTHING that I´ve got. Not hold anything back. I want to give him 100% of my time and of myself. Everything I do from here on out with be for Him, and to do His work. This work is not about ME, or what I want or anything about that. It´s about Him. Presidents words really helped me see the light and I´m feeling really good about what lies ahead for us. 

We weren´t able to meet with Jorge, he found work in a near by town and has disappeared from the Earth. It´s okay though! He´ll come back soon. And we´ll teach and baptize him for sure. We´re right nwo trying to help the members be able to participate better in the work. There are a lot of memebers that have big desires to help out, that have friends that they want to invite, etc. But the are a little scared or unsure of how to do it. So Elder Adams and I are trying to help them fufill their desires and responsabilities of missionary work. I hope you´re all doing the same back at home! 

For our new, higher goal that President was talking about we set the goal of 5, so please pray for us to be able to meet our goal! We need all the help we can get, and there´s no better help than heavenly help! 

I stinking love you all! I´m really excited for these next two week. They´re definitely going to fun. I pray for you all every day and I love you all so much! Make it the best week possible and search for the Lord´s hand in everything! Love you!

con amor,

Edler Webb