Training!!

hola familia!

     Where do I even begin?? I can´t believe that I´m training already. It´s an incredibly daugnting (spelled right?) task. We had a trainers training with Pres. Deere the day I picked up my son, and he played a clip of an address given to mission presidents by Elder Holland. Elder Holland said that of all the leadership position decisions a president could make throughout his time in the mission, who he picks as a trainer is the most important. Depending on how a missionaries training goes, you can get a glimpse of how the rest of his mission will go, and to some extent, the rest of his life. Yikes! Talk about loading on the pressure! Elder Holland is sort of infamous for that.

     Elder Flores is from Mexico City, Mexico. He´s 18 years old, has a brother serving in Boise Idaho, understands a lot of English but doesn't speak that well, and including his time in the MTC and this week with me, has been on his mission for three weeks. He´s super awesome, I freaking love him! He´s like a stinking scriptorian, he´s got tons of scriptures memorized, it´s super helpful in lessons because that is one thing I definitely struggle with: memorizing references. He´s a super good listener which is extremely helpful because I´m still struggling with understanding. It´s such a blessing to be with Elder Flores because he really helps me with my Spanish  and he came super prepared. We've been teaching with unity from day one. He´s a super stud! He´s having a little trouble adjusting to mission life and the different culture, but that´s okay because there are still things that I am having trouble with! Like the lack of a drying machine for my clothes. We have to hang everything. Stinking annoying!

My First Son

     One funny thing about Elder Flores is that he´s a bit of a neat-freak. Like´s everything super organized and orderly. Everyone knows that missionaries can live a bit messily at times, so when Elder Flores got to our apartment the first night, he was straight up disgusted! He´s been cleaning almost non-stop since arriving here and the apartment looks amazing ha ha. So thank you Elder Flores.

     At first I was extremely overwhelmed at this call, but I´m a lot better now. I´m just going to focus on each individual day and how I can make it the absolute best that I can. And by accomplishing that goal, each day will be good which means we´ll have good weeks, and eventually good transfers! Just gotta remember to exercise patience with myself and Elder Flores because we´re both still new and learning! But we´re the Lord´s messengers and He´s going to help us with all that we need.

     So one funny story before I leave. Elder Keller, when we were together, he talks in his sleep a lot. On our last night together, I woke up to him shouting "there´s a spider on the wall! next to the door and it´s HUGE! Kill it man!" and I said "no way I hate spiders, you kill it!" to which he replied "no I can´t it´s too big. Elder Estrada will get it." (Elder Estrada was our zone leader who was in Granada about 50 miles away...) to which I said " are you joking? Estrada isn't here!" I then asked him if I could turn on the light to inspect this spider problem we were having, and he said yes. I turned on the light and found no spider, and Elder Keller laying down in his bed. After a moment, he rose and asked me what I was doing and why I had turned the light on. He was straight up having a conversation with me in his sleep!! Seriously one of the funniest things that´s happened to me yet on my mission.

     All things are going well here in Jaén. President said that if the work keeps progressing, he´s going to put two more missionaries in Jaén, which would be fantastic. So that´s our goal right now. Work as hard as we can and give president a reason to put more missionaries here! So please pray for our success so we can reach our goal!

     That´s it for me. I´m glad to hear McKay had a good experience at the temple. I definitely miss the temple and wish there was one in the mission. That´s alright, I´ll have plenty of time to go after the mish. I love you all and hope everyone is doing great! I´ll talk to you next week!

con amor,

Elder Webb

Craziness!! (Beyond Crazy I Think - Bob)

Hola familia!

     Such a crazy week this week. First off, Fausto got baptized! The service
was really good and the Spirit was really strong which is good because we
had other investigators there that were really impacted by the whole thing.
We´re going to see them today, hopefully they´ll want to be baptized too
now. Pray for them!

     I pulled the classic rookie missionary mistake when I was baptizing Fausto
and I screwed up the words, not only once, but twice! Instead of saying
commissioned by Jesus Christ, I kept saying consecrated by Jesus Christ.
Kinda funny, but super embarassing for me haha. But all in all, it went
great, and Fausto LOVED it. He was so happy and he didn´t want to wait
until Sunday to be confirmed. He asked if we could do it right then haha.
He´s such a champ.

My First Baptism - Fausto

     So my first baptism and confirmation was only half of the craziness. The
other half has to do with transfers. It was trasfers week this week and
guess what? Elder Keller is leaving me! He´s going to Alicante to be zone
leader. And guess who my new comp is? Well I can´t tell you, because I
don´t even know! I´ll find out Tuesday when I go pick up my new missionary
to TRAIN. That´s right, I´m training. After 1 transfer, President has asked
me to train. Craaazzy! I´m super super excited, but also a bit nervious.
Just gotta take it one day at a time. This will definitely be an adventure
haha. Please pray for me that I will be a good trainer!


     To answer your question, yes mom, I got your package, so thank you very
much! It was absolutely perfect, and I´m extrememly excited to be eating
peanut butter again haha. Serisouly thank you so much for the package. I
don´t know what day it got here because I was in Granada and then Malaga
most of last week and when I returned to Jaén, it was just there, so I
can´t answer that question exactly. But it probably got here on the 12th or
13th.

     So that´s pretty much my life right now. Just getting ready to recieve my
son tomorrow. I head for Malaga at 2 and we´ll come back Wednesday and I´ll
be a dad! So look for us on the blog this Sunday. Let me know if there´s
anything else you want to know! I love you all! Keep being super stellar!

con amor,

Elder Webb

March 11, 2013

Hola familia!

 

McKay is going on a mission!!! Ahh it´s sooo crazy! So awesome! Seattle Washington would be such a beautiful mission!! How big is it the mission? Are some other big cities in it? Who is her mission president? Is she going to be able to test out of the MTC? Does she even know Spanish? I´m so excited for her! How cool is it to have two missionaries out at one time! McKay I love you! You´re the greatest!

So crazy week this week. President came and went out with us on Thursday and it was really really good. We went and visited Ester and Luis and we had a super spiritual lesson, and President Deere invited them to be baptized! They were suuuuppper close to saying yes, however, they declined. Luis said that he needs to know more, learn more before he commits to that. But I have faith that they´ll get baptized. They´ve been meeting with the missionaries since before Christmas and they always love it. Just time for me to be patient now ha. So we spent a while at their place and that made us late for our next appointment, which was Fausto, the man getting baptized this saturday. Because we were late, he couldn´t meet with us, so we drove to a neighboring village and met with a less active member that had been on president´s mind lately. We saw a huge miracle here. This man has been going through a really hard time lately. Lots of family issues, he´s trying to quit smoking so that he can take his family and be sealed in the temple, and he has no job, he´s just in a really tough spot. And earlier that day, some cops showed up and reposessed his motorcycle for no reason, and his land lady was threatening to kick them out of the house. And then a few hours later we just showed up at his house, without calling ahead or planning it, and he knew that this was a sign from God that He loves him, and is aware of his circumstances. President Deere gave the man a blessing and it was super powerful. A really awesome miracle to see.

Fausto is super solid. He´s getting baptized this Saturday, the 16th, the second to last day of the transfer, so it´ll be cool to be able to baptize in my first transfer. I¨m super excited! Please pray for him that he will be able to continue progressing towards baptism.

 

So today we took a zone P-day in Granada and checked out the Alhambra. That´s the big castle thing on the blog page. The whole thing is so amazing. There are so many gardens with amazing fountains and old walkways and such. And the inside of the castle is incredible. So detailed, and every room has amazing echings in the walls and the ceilings. I´m doing a really horrible job at describing it all so ya´ll should just come over here and check it out for yourselves. It´s one of hte most amazing things I´ve ever seen in my life! Here are some pics.

This is a shot of the backside of the alhambra, taken from a garden, where you can see some of the gardens that are there. There are lots and lots of gardens

 

We were testing out the castles defences, bunch of these all over the castle

 

Elder Kellers head fits perfectly. He looks like a muslim

 

 

 Lots of fountains and gardens like this. Elder Keller is a creeper

 

So tomorrow I´m going to Malaga to recieve my ´recidency´ card. This little card that says I am permitted to live here, if any sort of authority should ask. All of the missionaries that I came over with will be there. I´m super excited to see them all, and even more excited to be in the mission home! To see President and his wife again and to have meetings and trainings and interviews, but most importantly, to eat Hermana Deere´s food!! She´s such a good cook. I´ll spend the night there tomorrow and come back Wednesday.

So that was my week. If you want that I share more stuff, please tell me! I¨m always so unsure of what I should include in these things. Anyway, I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Webb

March 4, 2013

Familia!

Shaun´s coming home in three months, and Brad too?? Man that´s nuts! I´ve already been in Spain a month, and it hardly seems like any time has gone by at all. The rumors are true. Time in the mission really does go fast. So let me answer some of your questions mom.

The weather here is cold! Jaé is in the mountains, it´s ON a mountain, so it´s cold and overcast a lot, but it´s starting to warm up now, so that´s good. And for now, I do not need a coat. An elder left one in our apartment and I¨ve been using it, and it´s perfect. So for now, I got a coat taken care of. And as far as checking my email on friday, I´m not sure. I´ll have to talk to president about that, which brings me to my next point.

President Deere is coming out to Jaén this thursday to come out teaching with us! Crazy! I´m super exited. We were eating at a members house on Saturday when he texted us and said "Elders, I want to come out to Jaén this thursday to join you in some lessons. I hope that´s okay!" Of course that´s okay president! duh.  Hopefull he can help Luis recognize his answer from the Spirit that he needs to be baptized. Maybe he´ll also get us some bikes or something becuase the hills in Jaén are killer. My calves and my butt are eternally sore from walking up hill all day, err day. Oh well, perhaps this is a blessing from Heaven. Buns of Steel from Heaven?

So we got another baptismal date this week too. His name is José and he´s for the 23rd. He´s also super exited like Fausto. Teaching people like that, that want to learn and progress, feels so good. It makes up for all the times we get rejected, and I always walk out of those teaching appointments feeling so good. So happy and grateful to be a missionary. It feels good to be a missionary!

Something super funny happened to us this week. Well, I think it´s funny. On Saturday, we were eating at a members house, as I mentioned before. They have 4 kids, 3 of whom are young, like 8, 6 and 4. We were all at the table eating when I looked up and saw in the hallway their youngest son playing soccer in the hallway BUTT FREAKING NAKED. There wasn´t a scrap of clothes on his body and he was just kicking around a soccer ball, no pasa nada, no big deal, like it was nothing. His mom saw him and freaked out and started yelling and Elder Keller and I were trying super hard to keep from laughing. This family is crazy! I love the people here.

So we had a pretty dang good week, we got the standards of excellence for our misison. I´m excited to start another week and help Fausto and José progress towards baptism. And I´m super stoked to have President Deere coming out to teach with us! Did you know his brother is Jason Deere? The guy who wrote the music for all the Nashville Tribute band CD´s? He´s like practically famous in my book. Crazy.


Anyway, I can´t wait to see where McKay is going! So excited! she´s going to France. What was everyone else´s guess? Anywho, I love you all so much! I hope everyone continues to do well. I´m doing fantastic here. Love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Webb

Those two dudes are traing to be matadoros and we got to see them practice. That´s how they practice. Kind of funny huh? 

This is the picture of the Branch presidents parents and mother in law. The couple on the right are his parents and the woman in the left is his mother in law. His mother makes the absolute best tortillas patatas (Spanish tortilla).

A woman´s car broke down in front of 6 missionaries. Elder hooper and his companion are teaching her. If that´s not a blessing, I don´t know what is! elder keller and elder Nuñez did most of the dirty work, I was there mostly for moral support.