May 27th, 2013

Hola Familia!

What a crazy awesome week! We found a few new investigators, set a baptismal date with one of em, started teaching an entire family of Seventh Day Adventists (they keep trying to teach us at the same time that we´re teaching them), had a super aweomse Zone Training in Malaga with President Deere, and found out that we´re going to have a baptism that isn´t ours!

So the new investigator that we found and set a date with is named Edwardo. He´s from Ecuador and lives in a Pueblo, Porcuna, and is friends with another investigator or ours. We had gone to porcuna to teach a man named Antonio and Edwardo was there hanging out with him. Me and Eddy jammed on the guitar for a little bit and then taught them both The Restoration. Eddy told us that he had lived in a catholic convent for 10 years and didn´t like it at all and felt like it wasn´t the right church. He agreed to be baptized in two weeks! However we have to change it because one he didnt´come to church, and two in two weeks is stake conference and we can´t have a baptism or confermatino that weekend. It´s all good though, he´ll get baptized in like 3 or four weeks. He´s super solid!

In the zone training we talked about being born again and how lots of people are searching for somethign like that, but they just don´t know how or wear to find it. Christ taught that baptism is how we put away our old selves, and are born again, new in Christ. Nephi taught the doctrine of Christ really clearly in 2 Ne 31 and we practiced using that to invite people to be baptized. That was on Friday, and the next day in Porcuna, Elder Flores and I did exactly what we had practiced and commited Edwardo to baptism! Super awesome.

So about this baptism that isn´t ours. There is a family that lives here and the mother is divorced twice. The second man she married isnt´a member and now lives near Barcelona. After a lot of time, he decided to listen to the missionaries and is now joining the Church. He´s coming here to Jaén to be baptized and confirmed by his former step son. It sounds kinda weird, but I think the family still has strong ties with him, so it´s not that weird. So we´re going to have a baptism this Friday! I¨ve never met the man, but I spoke to the missionaries in Barcelona and they say that he´s beyond ready. Im super excited to meet him, and to have this baptism!

So that was basically it for this last week. This coming week is gonna be super awesome, with a baptism, a birthday, and moer new investigators! The wedding looks like it was amazing! And Rachel is so freaking tall! When the heck did that happen?? I love you all very much and I hope that you have a wonderful week! Keep the Spirit in your hearts!

con amor,

Elder Webb

 

 

 Manuel and Elisa Giron. Friends that will be coming to Utah.

 

Shane with Snail Shells, THAT HE ATE!

We were also doing some service painting a members house, and I was painting the ceiling above the stairs. I felt really cool doing it like that.

 

May 20th, 2013

Hola Familia!
 

Holy crazy week! The training with President Deere was stinking amazing, and we had zone conference on Friday which was super super awesome as well, and we found 3 new investigators, two of which are super promising!
 

So Tuesday and Wednesday was the training with Pres. Deere and man was it good. Super inspiring. President Deere is such a spiritual GIANT. I feel so luck to have him as a mission president! The assistants to the prez talked to us about how to better use the time given to us in District meeting, how to better serve our districts, and be better leaders for them. President talked to us about always knowing exactly where we are and where we are going as far as the work is concerned. Always having the vision in mind, and setting goals to work towards that vision. Our goal this year is to have 555+ baptisms and 20% growth in attendance in sacrament meeting. Right now we´re aren´t exactly where we should be, so President gave us the Spain Malaga Mission Backup Plan! Goals, and steps that we can take in order to be back on track by August. On Friday in the Zone Meeting, the zone leaders talked to us about the Standards of Excellence and always keeping those in mind. That if we set goals every day to get us closer to the Standards, we will be able to acheive them every week, and the mission will be able to reach our goal of 555+ baptisms. Right now, the mission is super young, we keep losing missionaries, and recieving even more that left, and our youth is reflected in our numbers. But that´s okay! Once we all get some more time under our belts, all of the south of Spain is going to get baptized!
 

So we found three news this week, and two of them are super awesome. They are Antonio and Daniela and they live in a pueblo like an hour away from Jaen. Anotonio is from Bolivia and Daniela is from Romania. Antonio had participated in church activites in Bolivia, and new a little about it. And when he had learned from Fousto that theres a church in Jaen, he got super excited and told Fousto to have us call him. He told us that he wants to participate in the Church because he likes the values we have. Super awesome! The only problem is that they live super far from Jaen and don´t have money for the bus to come on Sundays. So we´ll be trying to figure out a solution to this. They both agreed to be baptized after they checked out the church more and decide that they like it. Super cool!
 

I´m sooo stinking excited for Gentry! Be sure to send me lots and lots of pictures! I can´t believe how quick it´s come. Time passes so quickly, it´s incredible. The month of May is almost over! Who´s idea was this?? Be sure to send lots of pictures of when you go camping. I hvae no clue of this place that you are going, but it sounds cool!
 

We went to the Alhambra again this week, but only part of the zone and two americans came. There are two americans studying in Jaen and they´re super cool dudes. These are just some pictures of some gardens around the area. It´s a pretty spectacular place to visit, lots of really cool arabic architecture.
 

This week we´ll be going to Malaga for specilized training again with the Malaga Zone and President and Hermana Deere. Super excited for that! That´s basically how the week went. This week will be super awesome because we´re going to get the Standards of Excellence. I´m determined. I love you all so much! Make sure to send lots of pictures of the wedding! Love you!
 

con amor,
 

Elder Webb

Shane at the Alhambra

Great Week!

Hola familia!
 

I can´t believe that it´s been another week already! We´re starting week three of the transfer. It´s crazy how fast the time goes, and how much we do every day. We ended the week yesterday with a Noche de Hogar (family home evening) with some members. Carlos is 32, engadged to a nonmember Ana who is one of our investigators who will get baptized after their wedding. Carlos´ little stister Laura was also with us. Last night was one of the most powerful nights of my mission! Laura´s exboyfriend about two weeks ago committed suicide and Laura felt responsible for it. We shared a lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He is able to take away all our pain and sadness feelings like that. All we need to do is have faith. Laura was really feeling the Spirit, she was crying, but what´s also cool is that Ana was feeling it too! She said she wanted to know how to let Christ take away her bad feelings and we taught her that she can pray for this relief. She however has a problem with prayer, she´s a bit timid. So what we did was we all got on our knees, and offered a prayer out loud, all asking to be able to feel the power of the Atonement, and man was it powerful! The Spirit was soooo strong! Super super good lesson, and a really powerful moment.
 

Tomorrow I will be going to Malaga for a District Leaders Training and I´m super excited! Going to the mission home is always fun. It´s kind of far away and traveling with other missionaries is always fun, and Hermana Deere´s food is sooo good! Also, and more importantly, I´m going to learn how to help my district better, and how to help Jaén better. I´m super excited for the leadership training. President Deere is such a spiritual giant, he´s always got something to say that I need to hear. I can´t wait to see the changes that are taking place in Jaén. The work has kind of slowed down here, we haven´t found anyone new to teach and neither have the Hermanas. I´m confident that President Deere will help us get the work back up and going. I can´t wait to see how the week unfolds!
 

Esther and Luis came to church, but only for Gospel Principles class. I was certain that they would stay for all of it. That´s alright though because they´ve both come a long ways. Like I said yesterday, Luis said the closing prayer in Gospel Principles class and he prayed for other eople in the world that they would be able to find the correct path like he has. Super cool to see that change taking place inside of him. We´re still working with them to help them get married. It´s just a really long process, and at this point there isn´t much really we can do. Just wait for the papers to come.
 

Well that´s pretty much it for this week! Like I said the work has slowed a little, but we´re going to change that this week! I´ll have lots more to report next week. I love you all so much! I´ll talk to you next week!

con amor,

Elder Webb

pics: This is a birthday cake that Esther and Luis made for me. apples and apple jam and a whole bunch of other good stuff. Love it!

 

And, I finally got your package! Thank you so much for the birthday gifts! I love you!

Fab Four

Hola Familia!

Holy stinking week! It was awesome. On Wednesday the hermanas got here.
Hermana Hodson is from Sandy Utah, been on the mish for about 10 months.
She visa waited in SLC for a little while, and spent the last two transfers
in Malaga. She´s training Hermana Anderson, from Alpine Utah. She´s 19, and
got here straight from the Madrid MTC. They´re both super awesome hermanas
and are going the help Jaén a lot! All of the ward members here are super
excited to have sisters once again. I´ve got some good feelings about the
area here, we´re going to be seeing a lot of miracles!

We had a really good family home evening with Esther and Luis. We talking
about the restoration, and putting God first by coming to church and
keeping the commandments. We invited them to be baptized again, this time
for June 29 so that there is time for their papers to come. They both
accepted. They were more sure than I had ever seen them before, and this
Sunday (yesterday) Luis didn´t come to church. Not sure why, however,
Esther did come it she had a super Spiritual experience. We´re going over
there tonight to talk about it, and to eat some stinking amazing Bolivian
food! More birthday meals :)

This week we also found three new investigators that I think have a lot of
potential. One woman, Francia, is from Peru and she and her husband and
daughter live here in Jaen for about 11 years. She has attended LDS
services in Peru when she was a little girl, and when we taught lesson 0,
she said that it feels good to be talking about God again, and trying to do
the right thing. Her husband works a lot so meeting him might be a little
diffecult, however if we can help her feel the Spirit and recognize the
blessings that come from repentance, I feel confident that she´ll encourage
her husband to listen to us.

The other investigators are a family. The mother, Inosencia, and her four
children all live together, and they´re all older children with kids of
their own. While we were teaching, the mother said to us that she can see
something in our faces, a calmess and peace that she doesn´t have, but
wants very badly. (Awesome! she´s recognizing the Spirit!) and she accepted
an invitation for baptism once she knew it was true. In that moment, when
she said that to us, it made me realize just how important it is that I
live the words that I preach. The Lords elect will be able to see the
Spirit in our faces when we live worthily of its presence. Before they
start keeping commitments and repenting and feeling the Spirit, they have
the opportunity to experience the Spirit and that´s through me. That´s one
more reason that it´s crucial that I live worthily of the companionship of
the Spirit.

So for my birthday a member offered to take us out to lunch. We went to a
Chinese buffet and it was sooooo stinking good. 8 bucks for all you can eat
of literally everything you could think of. There´s chinese buffets like
this all over Spain, and yes, it´s run by actual Chinese people, and yes
they speak spanish. Not very well though haha. Super good birthday present,
I thought so anyway haha.

That´s basically it for this week. I hope that everyone at home is doing
well and that you´re all excited for the wedding! I know I stinking am! I
love you all.

This is the member that took out to stuff our faces. He´s a champ. Jacob
Thomson from Cedar City Utah.

 

 

Hermana Hodson and Hermana Anderson

 

 



The new district of Jaén; Hermana Hodson, Elder Webb, Hermana
Anderson and Elder Flores

 

 

con MUCHO amor,

Shane!