June 24, 2013

Hola familia!

Holy awesome week! Nuts that it´s already been a whole week. Time time
time. There just ain´t any in the mish. Anyway, yesterday at approximately
8 pm in elche Spain, a young man by the name of Andrés made a convenant
with his Heavenly Father and entered the waters of baptism! He´s 9 years
old and wants to live the gospel. He´s such a stinking awesome kid. His two
older sisters are members, along with his aunts and uncles. His mom is next
up in line, and if we keep working with her really well, she´ll probably
get baptized in the next couple of weeks Her name is Carmen, so please pray
for her! She totally knows the church is true. During the baptism,
andres´older sister bore her testimony and his mom was crying the whole
time! She was feeling the Spirit big time. We´re not entirely sure what´s
holding her back, so again, please remember her in your prayers!

We did some service on Saturday, helped a man remodel this old buisness to
be a home. And I helped a member make payea and it was super super good.
Really I didn´t do much, just watched him do it all as he explained it
becuase every time I went to do anything, or to even touch anything, he
would freakout and start screaming that I would ruin it becuase I didn´t
know anything! haha the Spanish people are kind of pridefull, especially
when it comes to cooking. But it´s alrgith. I learned how to do it and I´ll
be trying it really soon.

So I learned something from an investigator this week. We were talking with
a lady named Rafaela (she´s catholic) and we were talking about Jesus when
out of nowhere she asked me if I knew if Jesus was Christian or a Jew. And
with out giving me time to respond, she very blunted informed me that Jesus
was athiest. Becuase the Jews didn´t believe in Christ, and Jesus was a
jew, he was therefore athiest. Elder Morán and myself were trying very very
hard to compose ourselves. It was incredibly diffecult to not laugh at
this, so I burried my face in the book of mormon, pretending to search for
a scripture, while Elder Morán had to fend for himself. She said she had
learned it from a movie, and so we kindly help her see that Christ was not
athiest, but infact did believe in God.

So that was a quick review of this last week. Lots a lessons, lots of
investigators, and lots of fun. Elche is super awesome and I stinking love
it here. I think I forgot to give you my new address the last email so I´ll
be sure to include it here. I love you all and hope you´re doing well! I¨ll
talk to you soon!

con amor,

Elder Webb

Elder Moran, Young Convert, Elder Webb

Elche Chapel. Elche is a beautiful place for sure!



Pallea

June 17, 2013

Familia mio!

Whooaa Mckay is entering the MTC on Wednesday! So so so crazy! We´re going
to be missionaries together! Ahh I can´t wait! The whole family now needs
to learn Spanish so that they can join the club. I´m glad to hear that her
fairwell went well. She´ll be a super awesome misionera for sure.

So my first week in Elche was totally awesome! It´s like a completely
different world here compared to Jaén as far as the work is concerned. But
that that I mention it, visually it´s pretty dang different too. Jaén is
the olive tree capital of the world and Elche is the palm tree capital of
the world. It´s super stinking hot here and ridiculously humid. It feels so
muggy every day, especially by the end of the day. But it´s super
beautiful! Lots of awesome colors and the city is a lot bigger than Jaén.
There are two wards here of about 75 people and they´re both super awesome.
There´s right now 6 missionaries in Elche and we´re going to be reciveing
two more next transfer. The mission is growing super quickly and lots of
areas are spiltting. It´s exciting to see and be apart of the Lords work as
it begins to hasten. Next Sunday we will be watching a broadcast to new
mission presidents about that very thing. Next Sunday we also have a
baptism! His name is Andres and he´s 9 years old. His sisters are members
and he wants to be baptized. He´s a super awesome kid.

My companion is Elder Morán. He´s from Argentina but has lived here in
Spain for 8 years. This is his third transfer in the mission, and third
transfer in Elche. He´s a good missionary and we´re for sure going to see
miracles here. The apartment that we live in is pretty disgusting haha.
There was a cockroach outbreak in the entire building not too long ago,
everybody has been affected. So there´s tons of roaches in the piso. We´ve
places a ton of traps and it´s been helping, but we still find several
every morning. I´ve gotten really good at buring roaches with matches. I
live with the two other elders in Elche, Elder Mendoza and Elder Kiffe. I
was in the MTC with Elder Kiffe so it´s super awesome to be back here with
him. It´s super awesome living with four missionaries, I think so any way.
Lot´s of fun and it´s nice to be around more than one other missionary.

So something that´s been on my mind lately has been finding the will of the
Father, and then doing it. Christ said repeadtely throughout His ministry
that He wasn´t there to do anyhting for Himself. He was 100% exactly
obiedient down to the tiniest detail. Now Christ had a little bit of an
advantage because He knew from the beginning what it was that the Father
wanted. It´s different for us because we don´t know right of the bat.
That´s what we have to find out. And that´s what´s been on my mind, how can
I know the Father´s will? How can I know exactly what it is that He wants
me to do? And how can I know that I´m doing exactly what He wants? And this
isn´t just about missionaries, it applies to everyone! Something to think
about in the coming days perhaps.

Well family, I wish you all well. Give McKay lots of love and support!
She´s going to be a rocking missionary. I love you all! Thank you so much
for your support and love as well! I´ll talk to ya´ll next week!

con amor,

Elder Webb

Pig Brains!!

Being Fed Pig Brains Blindfolded



Building in Alicante. Elche looks very similar.

June 9th - Transfer

hola familia!

Holy fastest 6 months of my life! I never believed them, but it´s true, time in the mission really does go by ridiculously fast. I like looking back at where I was 6 months ago and to see where I´ve come, to see all the times the Lord blessed me and helped me learn something. That´s why I stinking love writing in a journal! If you don´t do it right now, start doing it cuz it´s awesome!!

Crazy awesome week this week. We had stake conference on Sunday and 4 of our investigators came! That´s stinking awesome because for one it was in Granada, an hour away, and two, the bus that took us all there left at 9, so people had to get up super early to come. They´re all showing their faith and I´m loving it! Antonio, the man that lives in the pueblo an hour away, wanted to come to the conference, but had no way of getting to Jaén for the bus. So a member offered to drive us to Porcuna to pick him up. So amazing of this member! So at 7 in the morning, we left to pick up Antonio, then we all went to Granada in together on the bus. And conference was amazing! The member of the 70 or area authority spoke, Elder Richards, and him and his wife talked about nurturing the faith that we have. It was super awesome for all our investigators to hear.

A missionary from the branch here in Jaén returned home from his mission. He served in Calgary Canada. His name is Santi and he actually knew a couple of my friends that are serving in that mission, like Colby! Small world huh? Anyway, he came home on Friday and there was a party for him and we took one investigator to meet the members, which was awesome because ever since the beginning, she has been really reluctant to attend activities in the church. Now finally, she knows some members and I feel she will be mroe likely to actually come to church now. She really enjoys the lessons we teach her and thinks it´s really good and important to follow Christ, but she always says she doesn´t have a lot of time to devote to investigating the church. We only meet with her like once a week. It´s all good though, she´ll get baptized eventually for sure.

We also saw a miracle with a less active family. They´ve been less active for years, never really wanting the missionaries to come over, or the home teachers, they´re really bitter about the Crisis that´s happening right now and some other things that happened in the branch a while ago. Anyway, we went by this week and shared a really powerful lesson about coming back to the church, because the time is now, and to not wait until things are good to return because now is the time that they need it most. And they said "yeah we´d been thinking of coming back for a while and had been wanting to, we just are lazy and need a push from something". So that´s exactly what we did! And they´ve commited to come to church every week, and in fact, they came to stake conference yesterday! They´re a super awesome family, and a part member family at that. So Jaén will see some more growth!

I stinking love this place. At first it was a bit hard to love, there isn´t much except olive trees. But after getting to know the people, I don´t want to leave! And right when I get comfortable President calls me and tells me I´m leaving. Yup, transfers are falling on me this time. I´m headed to Elche, in the province of Alicante. It´s about 6ish hours away from here and even farther away from the mission home! Lots of traveling now. What´s weird is that I´m leaving today in about 2 hours. That doesn´t usually happen. It´s because Elder Flores is going to stay in Jaén and train! He´s a stinking champ and I´m going to be a grandpa! So soon, why do they grow up so fast? My new companion will Elder Fernandez Morán. He can´t decide which name to use, so for now, it´s both. He´s from ARgentina but has lived in Spain for a while. I¨ll send you some pictures next week. Elche is the palm tree capital of the world, so I´m coming from the olive tree capital of the world, to the palms. Kinda cool. Maybe my next area could be the banana tree capital of the world, cuz who doesn´t love bananas?

So that´s pretty much it for this week! Pretty stinking awesome, and full of blessings. The work is progressing here in Jaén, and I¨m pretty sad to be leaving, but I´m also excited to see what He wants me to do in Elche. Send me lot pictures of McKay´s farewell! I¨m soooo excited for here and to be serving at the same time as here! She´s a stinking champ! I love you all a ton. Have a good week and seek for spiritual experiences! Love love!

con amor,

Elder Webb

Elche is along the east coast of Spain, Known as the White Coast, just above Cartagena
and just below Alicante.

The largest palm grove int he world. Known in Elche as La Palmeral

View of La Palmeral from the Basilica with the Basilica de Santa Maria and the municiple
park in the foreground

Awesome!

Hola familia!

What a stinking awesome week! We were so so close to getting the standards of excellence. In fact the whole zone was! The standards are set goals established by President that we use for motivation and to build our faith. They´re something that we generally try to reach every week. And we almost got it! We were just missing one investigator in sacrament meeting and finding two more new investigators. That´s okay, this week we´ll get it for sure!

So we had the baptism of Cecilio, the man from the Barcelona mission. He´s such a stinking champ! Such an amazing man. He already has a rock solid testimony and loves the gospel so much. He was crying practically the whole time during his baptism, and during his confirmation yesterday. He´s staying here in Jaén and going to try and move here to live. I´m not sure if he and his ex-wife still have anything between them, but if they do, they could totally be an eternal family now and that would be amazing! Cecilio also has two boys that are of age that he wants to have look into the Church. Another eternal family. BOOM! Take that Satan! I stinking love being a missionary and getting to be apart of these miracles.

So that´s one thing that´s been on my mind latey. The Lord is blessing us so much and I just can´t seem to understand why. Why was I privelaged to witness this miracle and why do I have the privelage to be apart of this mans life and eternal progression? I would really like to know the will of the Father, and understand what He wants and expects from me. What does the Lord want for you guys?

Remember Antonio the man from Bolivia that lives in the pueblo? He came to church and is totally going to get baptized this month. Cool thing is his friend Edwardo (also an investigator) loves music. Him and his brothers toured Spain with his band for a few years and had lots of cool experiences. He has so many stories of being a "rock star". I stinking love teaching him because after every lesson we just talk about music haha. They´re both from Bolivia and have lots of Bolivian instruments that he´s going to teach me how to play. I´ll come with pictures next time. Finding and teaching them has definitely been a tender mercy for me. I´ve missed music and it´s been really nice to geek out about it with someone like me. Edwardo was talking about how awful todays music is and that we need to return to the old days when music had meaning. I almost started to cry when he said that. MUSIC LOVERS EXIST! Long live music! And the Gospel. That´s a no brainer

Anywho, I´m glad to know that everyone is doing well! I hope Gentry is having fun being Bartholomew. Is that even right? No clue. Anyway, I love you all a ton and I´ll talk to you next week! Love love!

Elder Webb

 

Cecilio with Andrés, his former Step son. They´re still really tight, don´t worry.

 

aaaand the after party with the members. Arroz con leche will be the death of me