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

September 30, 2013

Hi, This is Bob, Shane's Stepdad.

So we only got a quick note from Shane saying that he didn't have anytime to write this week. No explanation just that he would write next week. So I thought I would still create an entry and post some picture sent to me on facebook by a member from Shane's current area that friended me. His name is Jose Antonio Marin. I guess Shane and his companion go over and eat at his house a couple of times a week.

Jose and the missionaries in Shane's apartment

 

Barbeque in the "campo"

Sardines? I wouldn't eat them!

 

Creamed Cured Ham? Yummm!

Chorizo. Now those I know are good.

 

Shane and his companion Elder Adams

Goofy missionaries!

Shane serving food at a baptism.

 

Or just eating, not serving!