Matt 25:21 "it get´s better"

'Hola familia!

Best week and weekend of my life. Ximena got baptized! It was hands down the best baptismal service of my mission. The Spirit was icnredibly strong, everything went off without a hitch, and Ximena was more content than ever. I was extremely pleased and happy to have been able to take part in this miracle. Her story is a huge testimony builder for me, of the fact that the Lord knows each of us personally. It seemed as if for the last year of her life, especially in these last 2 months, everything that has happened has been carefully orchastrated by someone else; and it was all for her good. And what´s funny is that I feel the same way about me. My Savior knows my name, where I am right now, who I´ve been teaching, etc. I feel that everything that happened in my mission occured so that I could be the proper instrument to help Ximena and her family. Also, I couldn´t have a more perfect companion for the job, Elder Hannemann has been prepared for thisjust as much as I have. En fin, I guess what I¨m trying to say is that the Lord is incredibly smart and I have personally witnessed that and been apart of His wisdom. 

Ximena came to church and got confirmed and then we had a really great fast and testimony meeting. Someone mentioned the story of Lot´s wife which has always touched me. Just decide to change and don´t let back. Don´t let your old monsters still eat at you. Confession time, I was really sad during my final sacrament meeting here in the beloved country of Spain, and I member noticed that. He talked to afterward and gave me some really good council. He advised me to just make sure that all the chagnes that have taken place on my mission be real, profound, and forever lasting, and that although these have been the best two years of my life up until now, "it get´s better" he said. It sounds silly, but those words really brought peace to me, and made me feel better. And so thus is how the most miraculous and glorious weekend of my life ended. 

Today and tomorrow will consist of eating and saying goodbye and then eating more. It´s going to be a challenge, especially considering the fact that I have no appetite. It´s all good though, I´m a big boy and my comp is huge, he´ll help me out. Thank you everyone for all your prayers, for your support, for reading my always longwinded letters, for your encouragement, for your council and above all for your love. Keep trying your hardest to feel the Spirit each week and increase your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I love you all so much and will see in you four days! Loves!

Elder Webb

                                                               baptism!! 

                                   greatest baptism ever (next to Christ´s)

3 Ne 27:20

Hola familia!

I will never ceased to be amazed at the goodness and mercy of God. He takes time to remember all of His children, especially when they seek Him out with real intent, and with a broken heart and contrite spirit. So this is what happened. Belen didn´t get baptized. She called us on Tuesday and told us she had changed her mind. She feels that God will not condmemn her for being a good person (which He won´t, but that doesn´t eliminate the need for ordinances and making and keeping convenants). But NBD because Ximena (I was spelling it wrong all along...I¨m going back to 3rd grade with Billy Madison) has made some STELLAR progression! Her baptism is set for this Saturday at 7pm. With each passing day she becomes more and more prepared for it, her heart opens more and more, and her understanding grows; that day just can´t get here fast enough. I haven´t seen a change quite as drastic ever in my mission as I have seen in her. I mentioned this before, but it still continues to surprise me, the amount of love I feel for her and her family. It´s different with her and it´s difficult to describe, but I honestly feel like this was started before this life. It´s wierd, and I probably sound crazy, but it´s how I feel. Anyway!

This week there´s really only one thing on my mind: getting Ximena prepared for Saturday! It´s going to be the best baptismal service this ward has ever seen. She met quite a few people at church yesterday and a member of the bishopric came to a few lessons with us. She´s already becoming a part of the ward. We´re going to reteach her everthing throughout this week, on Friday she´ll have her baptismal interview, and then Saturday she makes a covenant with Heavenly Father! I¨m seriously so so excited. 

In other news, our rolls were a super success at the Thanksgiving dinner, even though we made everyone wait 40 minutes for us to arrive! The rolls were worth it though. So mom, seeing that I am a pro now, next year I got the rolls, cool? 

That´s all I have to write this week, because there´s really only one thing that I care about anymore and that´s Ximena. But life is really good, and we´re still doing really well. I love you all a lot and will talk to you next week! Loves!

Elder Webb

  Here´s a picture of all the stinking rolls we made. And yes they tasted as good as they look. 

And this was the plate of food I ate at thanksgiving. The mashed potatoes are hidden under the rolls.

                I helped out with the hermanas baptism. I look a little awkward don´t I?

Matt 19:16-20; 11:28-30

Suuuuch a good week. I know I say that about every week, but seriously this time I think it was one of the best weeks of my mission. Elder Kearon from the 70 visited us and it was incredible, amazing, SPECTACULAR! And on top of that Sergio and Gimena have made some serious progress, and we set a fecha bautismal with a woman named Belen for the 7th of December, and it´s a solid fecha. Amazing week!

Elder Kearon encouraged us all to change and grow and become better and I loved hearing his words. There were so many things that he said that I absolutley loved, but I´ll share just a few. So he talked about stretching and doing hard things, about going for the impossible. He said that Latter Day Saints have always faced adversity, resistance and challenge, but that´s okay because we thrive on it. I loved that a lot. He also talked a lot about choice, and making the decision to change, to become better. It´s our choice and Heavenly Father isn´t going to force us into anything. He loves us so much, He loves us exactly how we are right now, but He loves us enough to invite us to change. So we must decide to become better than what we are now. His wife mentioned the story from the bible of the rich youth, who in the search for eternal life asked the savior "what lack I yet?" That´s a great attitude that we must all have in order to really reach our full potential. And sometimes in our quest for improvement and refinement, we must do hard things, but no worries because we thrive in adversity. Sometimes, we must do what Moroni does, and want he does he does better than anyone. Stand alone. But it´s all worth it. I left that meeting totally and completely edified and inspired. 

We had had several meetings with Gimena and the Lord and the Spirit have been working hard with her. She´s progressed so much! She read a Plan of Salv. pamphlet and had a lot of questions and when we answered them all, you could see the wheels turning. She read the Book of Mormon saturday night and had a really big spiritual experience, and Sunday she was planning on surprising us at church (because before she said she wouldn´t be able to come), but in the end didn´t end up making it. But just the simple fact that she had started making plans to go to church on her own, that´s huge!! And last night we had another really great lesson, the Spirit was sooo strong as we read from the scriptures. She knows it´s true, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, she´s just afraid now of the commitment. She´s afraid that she won´t be able to do it, and because of that she would be worse off than before. So she gave herself her own commitment. During the next few days she´s going to not drink cofee nor tea in order to see if she really can do it. I know the Lord will show forth His power and help her. He´s done it with me when in the past I had to get up very early in the morning to go to work. We´ve been praying mightily for that blessing, so that her fear of committing herself will leave. Please PRAY with us, I know He will hear and answer our prayers.

So that´s that. Belen will be baptized next Sunday. And Gimena will be baptized next Saturday the 6th after she sees the Lord´s power and realizes that she can do this, and that His yoke really IS easy and His burden light. Thank you for your prayers on behalf of our friends (we no longer call them "investigators"). I know the Lord has great power and can bring forth this mighty miracle. There are few miracles as great as seeing a person change their entire life for Christ´s sake and accept the restored Gospel. It really is something miraculous. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week and enjoy Thanksgiving! Loves!

Elder Webb 

                 little piece of home in my area

Matt 17:20; 14:31

Hola familia!

Really great week this time. The Lord has lots of power, did you know that? And if we simple have faith and show Him that faith by our actions, then His power always comes down and works mighty miracles. We had quite a few investagators at church, and they all had really good experiences. A couple were saying that they felt the words said were intended specifically for them. Liset was finally able to get confirmed! She and her son have been in and out of the hospital for weeks and she hasn´t been able to come to church, but finally yesterday she made it. Because of the recent flood of baptisms we´ve had, we´ve been working a lot with recent converts. The work has changed a lot since I started. It´s now our responsability as missionaries to take care of our converts after baptism, reteaching them the lessons and having contact with them daily for the first 3-4 months. That change took place in the summer, and now I´m getting a really good understanding of why. The RC are progessing so well! Thank you for all your prayers.

We had intercambios with the Zone Leaders and it was really helpful for my companion, it "opened his eyes" he keeps saying. So now starts the transistion process where he starts taking over, and by the last week he´s the señor companion. It´s gonna be fun! 

A highlight of the week was yesterday and the fact that two of my favorite people on the planet came to church. Sergio and Gimena. I don´t think I have loved investigators more on my mission, than how much I love them. They were the ones that kept saying that the messages and words were intended specifically for them. They loved church! And kept saying that it surpassed all their expectations. At the rate they´re going they will be baptized soon, I jsut really hope they make the decision before I leave!! But they have a really specially spot in my heart and I´m really greatful that I have been allowed to get to know them and too see the change take place in their heart.

On Thursday Elder Kearon of the Seventy is coming to visit us. It´s going to be really good. I´m excited to see what he decides to tell us as a mission, and for the things we can do to improve. I hope he´s blunt and calls us all to repentance. There´s always room for improvement, and I don´t know why but I like it when I get "called to repentance", meaning someone is straightforward with me and tells me what I´m lacking in and where I can improve. You have to be kind of hard to do it, in spanish it´s called giving "caña". So I hope he gives us lots of caña haha.

I love you family and I want you to know that I LOVE being a missionary. Have a really great week and remember to have faith because He can do ANYTHING with our faith. When things get rough, or scary, or lonely, don´t doubt! Keep moving forward, and keep having faith. Loves!

Elder Webb

                                        Sergio and Gimena! I love them!

                                     President and Hermana Deere

DyC 64:33; 84:19-20

Hola Familia!

First let me give a shout out to my amazing sister Gentry and her husband Devon, for she is with child and shall bear this child in the month of may. Let us all pray that he be born on the 6th of May, a fine day if I do say so myself.

Also, Jason Deere, the brother of President Deere (my mission president) is the man behind all the Nashville Tribute Band CDs and he´s just released a new one called Redeemer. I have listened to it and it´s really really good. Ya´ll need to go check it out!

Okay so this week was a pretty stellar one. We found some cool new investigators, an american lady that is married to an argentinian man that live in spain. Kind of an interesting mix. Also some investigators of ours are really progressing well. Jose-lin came to stake conference and LOVED it, we´re going to place a fecha with him tomorrow, and also we placed a fecha with a lady named Belen. And a woman named Gimena has made some really great progession too. 

Gimena has a special place in my heart. She got sick during the week, so we offered to run some errands for them. When we stopped by to pick up the goods to deliver, we also asked her if she would like a blessing. She had never had one before and it was an amazing experience. The ordinances of the Gospel bring the Spirit so strongly it´s amazing. Especially for those who in the past have felt it before, but maybe have gone a little while without feeling it, it always hits them hard during a blessing. That was the case with Gimena I think. The Spirit was definitely strong during that moment, I could feel it, but she was in tears because of the blessing. Afterwards we talked and we asked her what she´d be willing to do to have the feelings of the Spirit more often in her life. I knew that her thoughts immediately went to baptism. We commited her to pray and ask Heavenly Father if she should be baptized. The next day we walked into her house and the first thing she said was "Webb I´m going to church with you this week!" That about knocked me off the floor becaues she´s never been to church since the missionaires started coming over back in March. She´s made some serious progress, so please pray for her that she will fufill her commitment to come to church. In the ordinances of the Gospel, the power of godliness really is manifest. 

In stake conference they talked a lot about the "small and simple things" that bring to pass the great ones. Inmissionary work and in daily life. I enjoyed those talks a lot. So take the Lord´s advice and "be not weary in well-doing!" keep with the small and simple things, daily personal prayer and scripture study, weekly family home evening, and you will be laying the foundations of a better life, of more spiritual power, and of the blessings of heaven to fall into your life, brick by brick. Keep going, keep smiling, and keep doing what is right. Changes to become better don´t happen over night with huge extravagent ocurrences, but rather little by little, through small and simple things. I know this is true because I´ve seen it in my own life over the course of my mission. ¡Animo! ladies and gentleman!

I love you all and hope you have a great week. Please pray for Jose-Lin, Belen, and Gimena and Sergio. We need your prayers! Keep up with the small and simple things that invite the Spirit into your lives. Enjoy the week! Loves.

Elder Webb

                                        look who I saw at stake conference! 

                              and like father like son... (inside joke with my dad)

Moshia 1:6-7

hola familia!

Good solid week this week. Cristina came and was confirmed in church this
sunday. She said she had a very neat spiritual experience during the
confirmation. Liset wasn´t able to come becasue her son has been in the
hospital and she´s been taking care of him. But we´re going to find another
time to confirm her because this coming sunday is stake conference. But
she´s doing good still.

We be working a lot now with recent converts, but still in the middle of
all that, the Lord is good enough to bless us with more investigators that
progress. So sadly every last one of the investigators that we found during
finding week have decided to stop investigating. But as a direct
consequence from them, we have found other investigators that are lots of
potential. We have basically two main focuses right now: help our recent
converts progress and stay on track for the temple, and help these other
few investigators that we have been given progress.

One of the investigators that is in that catagory is Jose-Lin. He´s the
husband of a member and he´s super awesome! A really great person and I
don´t understand why he wasn´t baptized with his family three years ago. We
had a great lesson with him saturday and he commited to come to church and
to pray and ask God if he should be baptized. His wife was so greatful that
he came to church with her, in fact there were a lot of people that were
happy to see him there. I can feel the Lord working on him and preparing
his heart, and I have faith that he will make the decision to be baptized.
Please pray for Jose-Lin.

Interesting experience, yesterday we were out tracking and we saw a recent
convert and stopped and were talking with him. Out of nowhere a woman
approaches him and says "cousin! I´m so happy to see you!" and gives him
two besitos (kisses) on the cheek. She looks at us and says the exact same
thing and goes for the kiss, but she was rejected (she didn´t really like
that..) I ask the recent covert who she was and he told me that he had no
idea who it was and had never met her in his life! Something appeared to be
a little "different" about her because she was behaving very strangely. We
told her that we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ and she
said "oh so Mary doesn´t exist for you guys?" and then proceeded to
instruct us on how to do the Catholic cross, touching our forehead, chest
and stomach to show us how. After that she just walked away without saying
another word! It was odd. Why do all the crazy people flock to me?

So this week the plan is to get Jose-Lin and Anthony and Kimberly to
church. They have the most potential and could all be baptized this month.
Please keep them in your prayers! Also don´t forget to open the Book of
Mormon every day and read from it, even if it´s just one or two verses. The
difference in spiritual strength between an individual that reads daily
versus one who does not is staggering, and we see it every day in the
mission. I promise you, that life is just simply better, everything goes
better, and you just simply do well when you are reading daily from the
Book of Mormon. It´s powerful! So read it, "that ye may profit thereby". I
love you all so much! I hope you have a good week, and I hope to see some
progression out of these investigators. Loves!

Elder Webb

This is Elder Reid with his companion elder Gonzalez. Elder Reid is one
fine missionary and he´s from Missoula! So I just wanted to give him a
little shout out cuz I love him. He got transfered after just one transfer
here in Málaga and is now opening a new area in La Extremadura! Go Montana

2 Nefi 27:23

Hola familia!

Hands down the crazies week of my entire mission. I could not believe what was happening. Every single day it was miracle after miracle, finding new investigators, and helping two people prepare to be baptized. So first off, we reached our goal! We found a total 897 new investigators in one week. In our companionship we found 18 news and I´m very satisfied with that. Cristina and Liset were also both baptized last night and it was a really great baptismal service. Lots of turn out from the ward and lots of support, which I was grateful for. I really enjoyed this week because as it started I remember asking the Lord for help, and telling Him that I really wouldn´t be able to do this without His help. In that moment I felt a lot of peace in my heart and all the stress left and it was as if He was telling me "of course you can´t do it! But that´s why I´m going to help you, so don´t worry". After that all the miracles started happening and each day I was more and more surprised. 

I´m positive that the Lord was completely aware that it was finding week in the Spain Málaga Mission last week. Every day was filled with miracles. For example. Wednesday we went to a pueblo and found 1 new investigator, then we came back to Málaga around 2 for an eating appointment and found new more news. As we were walking back to the piso talking about how good the Lord is and how much He was helping us, a woman stopped us on the street and asked us if we could sit down with her for a moment and talk to her about the Book of Mormon. Found another new right there. That was incredible because we were trying, we had plans to find, but the Lord had better plans and He put us in the right spot to find people.

I had a really big testimony building moment one night. I realized more than ever that this truly is HIS work and He will get it done, and I will be just a simple tool in His hands. We had planned to pass by a lot of street contacts we had made, but everything failed and it was late at night and all the doors we were knocking wouldn´t let us in. So we saw some folk sitting on a park bench and decided to talk to them. Turns out that the lady was from New York (her parents from Puerto Rico) and she was an old investigator of the sisters. We had a really good conversation, she expressed how she missed having the discussions, and wished for us to teach her again. The Lord puts us where we need to be, exactly when we need to be there. It´s amazing how He does His work, and it's an even more incredible feeling to be the instrument that helps Him get things done. I´ve had many experienecs like this on my mission.

Cristina progressed lovely towards baptism without any problems. However Liset had us worried for a few days. The last time we taught her was Tuesday and we hadn´t seen nor heard from her since then. But she came to church on Sunday and was ready and excited to be baptized. So we taught her everything in one lesson, she had her baptismal interview, and was baptized! It was incredible haha and the service was really good, the Spirit was really strong and the members were all really excited. 

Okay so that was this week! It was nuts, and a whole lot of fun, but I¨m glad it´s over. Now our focus is shifting to Anthony and Kimberly, the children of the RC Roxana and Demetrio. They still need to be baptized! Also, there´s quite a few news that we have that have a lot of potential. So thank you family for your prayers, but please keep em' coming! I love you all so much and I hope you have a fabulous week this week. Feel the Spirit lots and seek to see the Lord´s hand in your life! I know He knows who I am, and where I am. Do you?


Loves!

Elder Webb

                                                        The baptism

Me and my comp had a quick planning sesh last p-day to prepare ourselves for finding week. we scaled the mountain and recieved lots of revelation just like moses of old

             

1 Ne 19:9‏

hola familia!

First of all, I would like to make it know that one of my long time goals has now officailly been accomplished. Last night I dreamt in spanish! Expect it was more of a nightmare because everyone I was talking to only spoke english and I could only speak spanish, but no matter. Now that that´s out of the picture, let me tell you about the intense week we had. The Lord is blessing us like I ahve never seen. Cristina is going good, we now have another fecha with a woman named Liset, the ward has responded really positively about the finding week,and the children of Roxana and Demetrio are progressing well.

So Liset is a straight up miracle. Perhaps I´ve already written about her. She came to church last week all by herself. We taught her on Friday and were explaining the blessings that come from coming closer to Christ and living His gospel when she interrupted and asked what the requirements are for baptism. Upon explaining DyC 20:37 she asked if she could be baptized!! I was blown away. So we set the fecha with her for this coming sunday. That was ten days away from the time that we set it. She wasn´t able to come to church yesterday because there was a surprise marathon in the city and it shut down all the buses (freaking runners!), but that´s okay because she´ll come next week and be baptized later that evening. I called her on the phone this morning and she said that she´s read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and believes that it´s true. She´s amazing! She has two children and is really looking forward to learning more about the Plan of Salvation. I´m greatful that the Lord is allowing me to be apart of this amazing experience with Liset.

Cristina is progressing nicely. She´s really determined to be baptized. The other day she was suppoesed to have a job interview sunday morning but said no because she knew that she would have to go to church. Such faith! Her date is also still for this sunday, they will both be baptized on the same day, and it´s going to be a really good service. This week is going to be a pretty crazy week because we still have a lot to teach the both of them, and we need to prepare the baptism, and also it´s finding week, but that´s okay! I love being busy, and a little stress never hurt anyone. In fact it feels nice sometimes, keeps me on my toes.

Demetrio and Roxana are doing fine, well Roxana more than anything. She´s the motor behind the family, and is motivating them to read and pray. We had had a fecha with the kids but they have decided once again that they want to wait until they know and understand more. Which is fine, but sometimes a little frustrating because they don´t come to activities, and they only stay for sacrament meeting. We want them to be able to meet other youth but they can´t if they keep leaving church! It´s okay, we have a stealthy plan for this next Sunday so that they stay for the whole time. 

So that was the week last week. Really crazy and really good. We taught a ton of lessons and were blessed with a lot of success. I´m really looking forward to this week because the ward has done a really good job at giving us referrals and helping us in the work. And the ward leaders are doing good at helping us in the conversion process of our investigators. It´s a really good ward here in Málaga. I´m really greatful and blessed to be serving in this area. 

Don´t forget that God loves you all! And that I do too. I hope you have a wonderful week and seek out them Spiritual experiences. Don´t let the world distract you of what´s really important, as they counciled us in the last general conference. Loves!

Elder Webb

DyC 100:7-8; 90:24

hola familia!

fantastic week this last week. Full of tons of crazy miracles. I feel right now that I´m nothing more than a tool, and the Lord is just placing me exactly where He needs me and fufilling His purposes through me. So many awesome experiences this week. We set two baptismal fechas, had zone conference, got lost in a small pueblo, helped a less active start the repentace processs, had zone meeting, and got super wet in a freak rain storm! 

so last monday a lady called me in the middle of the day and said in very broken spanish, "I´m a former investigator from the Málaga hermanas and I live in London. I'm returning to Málaga on Wednesday and I´d like you to find me a place to live". Okay...? So I had that shoved on me out of nowhere and tried being a realtor for 2 days, and after a lot of phone calls and a few stressful moments, I found her a room to live in. She got here Wednesday and was very happy to have been helped like that. Friday we sat down with her and as we were explaining the Book of Mormon, she inturrupted us and asked "when do you do baptisms in your church? I¨d like to be baptized." Miracle! Her name is Cristina and she´s from Romania. She´s going to be baptized on the 25th of Ocotber. So lesson learned is: be nice to everyone and try to help everyone because "all things shall work together for your good".

The other fecha we have is with a woman named Joy. She´s from Nigeria and she´s also really cool. We were talking about the atonement and being free from our past mistakes when she said "I don´t know if I´m actually baptized, but I´d like to be". I smiled and calmly told her "don´t you worry Joy, we can help you with that." Little did she realize that she had just answered one of my prayers. So she´s set to be baptized on the 08th of Nov. The Lord is working miracles here!

Last awesome experience we had with some investigators. They´re pretty hard headed because they love the missionaries, love having us over and spending time with us, but don´t like the book of mormon. So we got talking about their relationship as husband and wife and how much they care about one another, and all that they´ve experienced and gone through, and all that they´ve accomplished. They started getting all lovey and cutsie as they thought about these things. Then we talked about how all of that would absolutely no point at all, if families weren´t meant to be eternal. The Spirit was soooo strong at this moment and they both were feeling it. I think they both realized for the first time that they want to be together forever. They kept asking how it could be possible and what they need to do, so we talked about the temple. They loved it and committed to pray about the truthfullness of the church. This was some serious progress on their part, and that lesson was 110% by the Spirit. It was lighting the room on fire it was so strong and my testimony of eternal families grew. It truly is amazing that we have been given the opportunity to be together forever. I came out of that lesson on cloud 9 and still haven´t come down.

Well my family, the church is true. Nuff said. This week we´re going to prepare for a coming "finding week" where we will find 888 new investigators as a mission in one week. That starts next week. I¨m excited! Please pray for us to be guided by the Spirit and to have courage and faith. We´re also going to be working with our fechas and our recent converts to help get them started on the path to the temple. It´s been hard to teach them, but they´ve been coming to activities which is good. 

Thank you for all your prayers. Sorry this was such a long one, it was a really good week. I love you all so much and I hope you feel the spirit lots this week. Loves!

Elder Webb

          just knockin doors in the cathedral

and we were eating at dominoes outside when a freak rainstorm came in. My

suit got wet AND my pizza got wet. I was not a happy camper.

DyC 1:38;88:67

Hola familia!

First off, shout out to my great big brother Ryan. Happy Birthday on Saturday! I celebrated appropriately by watching conference. 

Speaking of which, what a great conference! and also we had a really great week. But general conference definately takes the cake. For me personally there where two prominant themes in this conference: the value of our living prophet and the fact that he recieves revelation directly from God, and that we need to be careful not to get distracted from the real goal, the things that matter most, we must keep our eye single to the glory of God. What was everyone else´s favorite part?

So aside from the normal finding teachigna baptizing, we had some pretty unusual experiences happen to us this week. First off, a man contacted us on the street and began to tell us how he has the worlds biggest gospel library including everything from the mormons, catholics, and evangalists, and the only thing missing from his library is a book called "guide to the study of the Melchezadick priesthood". So he asked us to go to the church and track it down for him. Suddenly two other men dressed in white came walking down the street and grabbed him by the arm and asked him if he had taken his pills. I kid you not, this only happens in the movies but it actually happened to us. Turns out he had managed to sneak out of the hospital that was just up the street and stopped as we were passing by. It was probably one of the most bizzare experiences of my mission because he spoke waaay too fast and repeted literally everything 3 times. The mission is fun.

It seemed to me that there were a lot of talks about not making excuses to not live the gospel more fully. As humans, as natural men and women, we are quick to make excuses, and slow to make changes. But no excuse we make can justify not loving and serving the Lord. After hearing so many talks about that, I have made a new resolve within myself to never ever make any excuse, to not try and justify anything, and to always put the Lord first. I hope ya´ll felt the spirit strongly as well and have made new commitments within yourselfs! I love conference.

So aside from that this week was pretty tranquilo. The ward went to the temple and there were a few recent converts that finally were able to take their endownments out and get sealed. We were all really happy for them, they´re a great couple. We have some family home evenings planned this week with Roxana and Demetrio to help get the kids on board with baptism and the temple. So please pray for us!

Anyway I love you very much family! I hope you have a great week and don´t forget the Spirit you´ve felt during conference. Have a great week and feel the Spirit in lots of different ways! Loves.

Elder Webb

2 Nefi 2:6-8

hola familia!

How´s life for ya´ll?? Things are going well here in spain. Demetrio and Roxana got baptized on Saturday! It was a really nice service, and there were quite a few ward members there as well which was great. This last week was one of the craziest weeks of my mission as we scrambled to get them prepared. They´re a a really great family and have huge desires to set an example for their children and help them grow up with good values. The children decided that they want to wait a little longer to be baptized, so for now it was just the parents, but that´s just as awesome! Thank you for all the prayers in and out of the temple that you have said on our behalf. The focus now is to reteach them everythign and help them start creating new habits like FHE, family prayer, loving and serving one another, etc. 

Elder Hannemann is doing great, I really hardly feel like I¨m training at all. Other than the language barrier, which we all go through, he understands missionary work and is capable of doing things. It´s great and we´re having a lot of fun. We both had the privilage of baptizing and elder Hannemann didn´t even mess up! I was so proud of my little son, he did better than I did on my first. 

We also met a new less-active member that is on the verge of reactivating or going more inactive. He is spiritually hungry and wants to partake of the bread of life. We talked about and he told us about his desires he has to come back, but because of an experience that he had involving some other members, he won´t be coming back any time soon. That made me sad because he´s focusing too much on the people and not enough on the gospel. If you focus on the people and go to church for the people then you´re always going to be disappointed, because we´re all unperfect adn make mistakes. Perhaps whatever happened was something serious and it´s simply just hard to get over and to forgive. While that may be true, let´s not let that be an excuse to not try. Don´t let that stop you from partaking of the eternal blessings and everlasting joy that comes from the gospel. This man´s name is David and we´re going to be working closely with him to try and reactivate him. 

We also had zone conference on Friday and President talked about the Atonement. I love that topic because it´s literally endless. I could talk about this subject all day and I plan on studying it all my life because there is enough thigns to learn to last me a lifetime. And the best book we have to learn about it is the Book of Mormon! I do missionary work because it is how the people of this world learn about and can gain access to Christ´s Atonement. The more we study and learn and understand about the atonement, the greater our desire to share the gospel will be, as Lehi demonstrates in the subject line. I love the Atonement and I am greatful the Christ and Heavenly Father were both willing and loving enough to perform such a large task. The Atonment is everything! And two people on Saturday just gained access to it. Now it´s time for their children to do the same. 

Lastly, general conference is this weekend! I never thought I would get so excited for general conference, but like they say, a mission changes you. Seriously I feel as if it´s Christmas time I´m so excited. So I want to invite all of you to write down one or two questions and take them with you to conference and then listen to the speakers and listen to the Spirit. Because we can all recieve answers to our questions. I´m going to do that, and I´ll let you know how it goes. 

Okay this was way too long. I love you all very much! Have a wonderful week and enjoy conference! Loves!

Elder Webb

                             Here´s a photo of the baptism, it was great!

This is a family photo. my "sons", they all make me proud. Elder Adams, elder Flores, and elder Hannemann

John 16:33

hola familia!

I know I start every email off the same, but seriously, what a freaking
week we had. The Lord never stops surprising me, He is sooooo good to us!
So much has happened. First off I´d like to introduce the world to the
greatest missionary this generation has seen, my new companion Elder
Hannemann! He´s from alpine utah, went to Lone Peak high school, loves to
play football, and is already an incredible missionary. I sware he got
pre-trained by the three nephites because he is too good for how little
experience he has. It´s awesome! We already have great unity and are
teaching with power, and the coolest part is that he´s not afraid to try,
no matter what it is. I¨m lovin life right now. So check out what the Lord
has done for us this week.

Demetrio and his family are getting baptized this weekend! On Saturday at 7
pm. so please send as many prayers up to heaven as you can so that they
reach their day without any problems. They have so much faith and aren´t
afraid at all to exercize their faith. A common fear that inv. have when
accepting a baptismal date or approaching it is that they feel that they
don´t know enough. Well we set the date only ten days out and they readily
accepted it. I anticipated that they would say that they need to know
everything before baptism so I said to Roxana "don´t worry about knowing
everything before baptism, we´re all still learning and that´s not the
requirment for baptism." As I was saying that she interrupted me and said
"yeah yeah I know, I´ve got plenty of time to learn everything like you
guys, I just want to be baptized. That´s what faith is for right?" *jaw
hits floor in same spot as last week* They are so stinking prepared! And
the best part is that I have literally not done a thing. It´s all the Lord.
He´s prepared them 100% and we´re just mere tools in His hands. They came
to church and loved it and even brought a friend with them. The baptism was
announced and everyone in the ward afterwards was congratulating them, etc.
and so now it´s official. This family is incredible. The Lord is too good
to us.

So lastly I want to share some thoughts on an experience we had this week.
We met and taught a lady on the street and she told us about her life. She
has had a rough rough life. Abandoned as a girl, her husband beats her, one
of her children died from a disease and the other committed suicide, and
she is chronically sick herself. Admist all these trials and hardships, she
has prayed and prayed for relief, for help and for Him to make it all
better. But to hear it appears that her prayers have fallen on deaf ears
because nothing has changed, she continues suffering. We simply testified
to her of the power of the Atonement, that Christ suffered so we don't have
to, and that with the gospel we live with a different perspective. An
eternal perspective that changes how we see our trials, and with a hope (in
the resurrection and in His Atonement) so strong that it can carry us
through all the hard times. Unfortunately this woman has chosen to let her
trials control her, and let her suffering get the best of her and has given
up, she no longer believes.

So my thoughts are this. We can all say that we would still believe if we
asked God for something and He gave it to us. But can you say the same if
He doesn´t give you want you ask for? I suppose that is the real test. What
we decide to do with our faith admist trials and suffering. The Lord
teaches us that in this life we will have trials and afflictions (subject
line) but He also assures us that all those things will be for our good
(DyC 122:7-8) because He has overcome the world. So lets all make sure that
we can say within ourselves "no matter what happens, no matter who or what
I lose, I will never stop believing in and loving my Heavenly Father and
His Son Jesus Christ." That is the unbreakable faith the apostle Paul talks
about, and that the prophet Jacob talks about. So that´s my invitation to
ya´ll for this week. Don´t let your trials nor your situations control you
and change what you believe. Rather, you control them and learn from them
the lessons that are to be had.

This guy´s kinda long, sorry bout that, it was a really good week! So
please continue to pray for our investigators. The family´s names are
Demetrio, Roxana, Anthony, and Kimberly. 27th of Septemer they´re getting
baptized. Thank you for all your prayers and support! I love you all so
much! I hope you have a great week and feel the Spirit lots. Loves.

Elder Webb

Mormon 9:21

hola familia!

First off, happy birthday Bob on the 11th! I hope it was great. Also, congrats to Brad for getting married! Now,

Such a miraculous week. God is a god of miracles! And He works miracles according to our faith. From the beggining of the transfer elder Merchan and I have been praying for jsut 1 family to teach and baptize before the end of that transfer. Well last Sunday He answered our prayer and brought Roxana and Demetrio to church, then on Thursday we set a fecha with them and their family! They´re 5 people in the family! Sooo good! And sooo prepared. We hadn´t even taught baptism yet in the lesson, we were talking about growing closer to God and living with His promised blessings, and they said "the best way to do that would to be baptized right?" *jaw hits the floor* They agreed to be baptized on the 27th and the ward is doing a really great job at supporting us, always offering to bring them over to their homes, or come out with us to teach them. They´re great people. I¨m so exciting for them! Please pray for them to keep them protected from the temptations of Satan! They´re a beautiful family that needs this Gospel!

The trainers training was really cool, I got to see a few of my old companions. Elder Patterson and Curtis are both training. President talked about helping the new missionaries create new and good habits in the mission. Like planning, keeping the schedule, talkign with everyone, finding, and staying together, etc. I¨m really excited to train. Tomorrow I will pick up my new companion in the evening here in Málaga and return to my area. So we´ll be a trio until Wednesday morning when we drop elder Merchan off to go to Fuengirola for his exit interview. These are going to be some fun and miraclefilled 3 months, I¨m sure of it. 

Quick thing that I learned this week in one of my studies, I was studying the parable of the 10 virgens. The 5 that were prepared were able to enter into the wedding feast because they had extra oil. So what does the oil represent? The Spirit and it´s promptings. We prepare ourselves for Christ´s coming as strive to always be worthy of the Spirit and as we listen to and act upon the promptings of the Spirit. It´s vital! ¡Sumamente importante! So reembmer that, if you don´t want to be shut out when He comes, bring some extra Spirit with you always! 

So that´s pretty much it, we´ll be focusing hard core on Roxana and her family to help them progress and be baptized. Please pray hard for them, we need it! I love you all so much and I hope that you have a fabulous week and that the wedding goes well. I will pray so there is no rain. Loves!

Elder Webb

this is my new mission car. We have real class here in the Spain Málaga Mission

also the Oasis of the Seas made a stop in Málaga, and it is a very large boat. very large.