Matthew 5:2-16

Hola familia!

Jolín what a great week. It feels sooooo good to be with my new comp. We´re on exactly the same level, the same wave-length, same station, what ever you want to call it. Elder Allsop is the best. He´s got a lot of really great ideas for the work, he knows how to teach, and he´s willing and full of desire! Those last two are crucial because they´ll either make or break your companionship. DyC 64:34 says it all. Anyway, he´s a stellar missionary. He´s from Bountiful Utah, the first missionary in his family and we are going to do WORK together.

So he arrived Wednesday and we started off meeting all the members in our area. They were all excited to have a new missionary, and elder Allsop has connections with a lot of them because of his previous area (my beloved Jaén). We desperately need to find new investigators and so we came up with a plan as to how we´re going to do it with the members. I love his ideas and the ability he has to think outside the box. I feel really good about the direction we´re taking, all we need is a little time and we´re going to start seeing fruits. Seriously though, when you get a companion like this missionary work is the greatest thing on the planet. I¨m super excited.

We had an interesting run in with the grandpa of the two boys that we are teaching. We had tried passing by several times in the week, but every time we went we found them "locked" in their house and unable to let us in. Saturday evening we came across thier grandpa and he told us we can´t visit them because the niños are sick. I felt like he didn´t like us from the beginning so I asked him if he just wanted us to stop coming and he yelled at us "Yes! stop coming over and bothering my family!" and then promptly rode off on his bicycle. Weird. So we went over anyway and talk the kids and the mom and it turns out that he´s just a grumpy old man and a little crazy. They still want us to visit them, so that´s a blessing. One of the kids is currently recovering from apendicitis which is no fun, but they still have lots of potential to be baptized. Please pray for them that they will be able to get baptized in the month of July!

The whole zone recieved a lot of changes this transfer, and there are a lot of older really strong missionaries in the zone. There have already been improvements in a lot of areas in the zone and I¨m really looking forward to how the following transfer goes. I just love seeing the Lord´s formula for success put to work. Obedience + hard work + faith = miracles or in other words, success! 

Last thing is something I learned from my compstudy recently. Elder Allsop and I have decided to study and dissect the beatitudes. Of all the things He could have said in the first one, and of all the blessings He could have promised, it´s interesting to note what the Savior said in the first beatitude. "Blessed are the poor in spirit that come unto me, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven." (3 Ne 12:3) He´s talking about humilty, and for the humble, their gift is the greatest gift! Humility is the gateway to a happier, more peaceful and content life, and opens the door for us to aquire more Christlike attributes. So let us all strive to be more humble. I´m not talking about timid or shy, but aware of our weakness and our dependance upon the Lord and Heavenly Father. 

Anyways, this week is going to be awesome, we don´t have a lot of time in our area, pero bueno. We´re going to work hard anyways and strive for the Standards! Friday we will have a zone conference in Sevilla with President and Hermana Deere. On the fourth of July. God bless America. I hope you all enjoy the holiday this week end and eat lots of barbequed food for me, I´ll probably be having paella. I love you all so much! Talk to you next week!

Elder Webb

Moshia 26:30

Muy buenos dias familia mia!

Let me just say first off that I love you all. Second off, transfers is this week and we got called. I´m getting a new companion here in Jerez de la Frontera. His name is Elder Allsop. It´s interesting because I lived with him for a transfer in Molina last December. He´s a really great missionary, he´s been serving in Jaén for the last 6 months, my home turf! I¨m super excited to be with him, we´ve joked around for a while that we´re going to be companions, and look at what´s happened. This is going to be a really fun next couple of months, we´re going to baptize for sure.

Our baptismal fecha Maricarmen has been out of town working a lot and we weren´t able to meet with her this week. However on Saturday we were walking through the town centro when from a distance this car starts honking at us and waving us down. Turns out that Maricarmen was in the back seat on her way to a birthday party. She waved us down to inform us that she would be coming to church the following day. I was super excited because we hadn´t even said anything to her all week! Unfortunately however she did not make it to church. But at least she understands the importance of that commitment, and she does have honest sincere desires to come. I think it´s just one of those "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" situations, which we´ve all been in, so I understand. We´re just going to be more "pesado" with her and pass by her more often and call her, etc. So please remember her in your prayers!

There are two other kids that have lots of potential. The two Martin and Bentoni. We weren´t able to meet with them either this week, however we did stop by and just chat through the window a few times. They´re great kids and have the most potential, the whole family does. Their mom just works a freaking TON, so it´s hard for her to come to church. However, when she comes just once, she´ll let the boys be baptized, and then we´ll work with her little by little. We´re going to work closely with the young mens leader and the bishop to make sure this kids are known throughout the ward and that they have friends. I ask you all to specifically pray that the ward will be able to effectively fellowship our investigators here in Jerez, not only my compship but the other two as well please. Thank you!

Lastly I want to share some thoughts I had in church yesterday. I was sitting there pondering a talk from conference (The Savior Wants to Forgive, Craig A Cardon it´s  AMAZING!). Sometimes we try hard, but still end up falling, and after having gotten ourselves up so many times, we´re just plum sick of falling and having to get up! And besides, how many times is He going to be willing to forgive me? Sometimes I just get sick of failing. As I was pondering this scripture came to mind, 

Moroni 6:8 - "But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven." The answer to that question is AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES. The Savior wants to forgive! He wants to help us and He is ever willing to reach out His hand and help us back up again. I am so grateful for the gift of repentance, for a second chance. I am grateful for a loving Savior and Heavenly Father that are with me every step of the way, and are fighting for my success just as much as I am. I ´m grateful for the peace the gospel brings my soul and for the happiness I get as I live it. I love the Lord and His church!

Well my family, this shall be a good week. We have non-stop eating app. today and tomorrow. All that hard work I´ve been doing over the last months will go out the window. It´s okay though, I´d be lying if I said I wasn´t looking forward to it. Then Elder Allsop gets here and we´re going to hit the pavement hard, we´re gonna find, teach, and baptize! Cuz that´s what we do in this mission. I love you all so much family! I hope you have a fantastic week this week, and as always, that you feel the Spirit in a myriad of ways. Loves!

Elder Webb

This is Alejandro Fabrigas, he served in the Barcelona mission with Chad.

This is a church that I thought was cool. These are all over the place.

Jume 15, 2014

Bon dia família! There´s a little bit of catalán for you, the language they speak up in Barcelona. Ask Chad if he ever got fluent in Catalán. So it was quite the week we had down here in Jerez de la Frontera. We set a baptismal fecha, got some new investigators to church, had a sweet exchange in Cadiz, and the World Cup has official started.

So we have set a fecha with the mother of a recent convert (recent of about 6 months,) named Cristian, and his mom´s name is Maricarmen. She´s pretty cool, the problem is that she works a lot. For example, all this week she will be gone to Málaga for work. Her fecha is July 19, so please pray for her so that she will be able to be baptized. We´re going to go visit the father today, see if we can´t make an eternal family out of them! 

Yesterday at church (attendance was 112, one of the higher weeks here) we brought with us two young boys that are investigating the church with their mom. Their names are Martín and Bentoni. They are super good kids and really see the potential good that can come from this. They´re going through a hard time right now, and have a lot of trials. They have lots of faith that Christ will be able to help their family stay together. I love these kids! Please remember them in your prayers.

I went to Cadiz for an intercambio on Wednesday. Apart from being with a stellar missionary Elder Queirolo, the city of Cadiz is magnificent! Supposedly the second oldest city in the world, with 3,000 years of history. The cathedral there is one of the prettiest I´ve ever seen in my mission. Everything is white and shiny, it looks like the vacation spot for angels. I love it there. And Elder Queirolo is a fantastic missionary, very observant and obedient, he´s going to do great things in his mission. He´s from Chile and taught me how to speak chileanpo. They just say "po" at the end of most phrases. It´s easypo. 

So finally on Friday, I hit kind of a rough spot. I haven´t seen a baptism since being here, we don´t have that many investigators, and the work just didn´t seem to be going how I wanted it too. I had gotten to the point where I felt useless, like I didn´t know what I was doing. I was praying hard to know what to do, what to change when I heard a voice whisper to me "you´re not being very grateful". That made me think of Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk on gratitude from this last conference. I decided that morning for personal study, I would make myself a list of "reasons why I have no reason to complain". I spent a good while on it, searching deeply, and I saw that throughout this experience, my attitude completely changed. I am so so richly blessed! And I really have no room to complain about anything. I really enjoyed doing this activty, and I wanted to invite all of you to do the same. Sit down and see how many things you can come up with that you are grateful for and see how the Lord has blessed you. I came up with close to 60 things. I promise that if you do it, your view of life and your own world will change, brighten and you will find more happiness. 

My dearest beloved family, I love you all so much! The work is slowly progressing. The members are still a bit reluctant to open their mouths to their friends, but that´s okay, we´ve been blessed with the help of a few families. The Lord´s work cannot be stopped. I love being apart of it, and I love seeing all the blessings of the Lord in my life. A grateful life is a better life! I love you and hope you have a great week and feel the Spirit during it. Loves!

Elder Webb

       Cadiz Cathedral

                     That is a small raven!

God sends us trials‏

Hola familia!

Well that was a stinking long week. We´ve been having some difficulties here in Jerez for the last few weeks. Investigators weren´t progressing so we dropped them all, members weren´t helping much, the zone was taking a lot of our time out of our area, it just seemed like all was coming down at once. At first I was determined to not let it get to me, but by the end I found myself with a very selfish and negative attitude, saying things like "why me" etc, and not being truly grateful for the blessings He had given us. So Sunday during Sacrament meeting I had a nice wrestle with God and He kindly reminded me of these things. Then He was nice enough to bless us with a new family later that evening. They´re really great, the mom works a lot but she´s going to try and make time to come to church once and a while. The two little boys are the ones that have most potential. They´re great little kids, and really smart. They see the potential blessings and how much this will help their family, and so they were really excited to listen to us. They´re 13 and 10, Martin and Benito, so please remember them in your prayers!

Zone training went well. We made a huge promise to the zone. We were talking about faith and how it brings power, as I explained in a previous email. Well we promised them that if they are obedient, repentant, faithful and show it through their actions, they will baptize by the end of July, every single companionship. We felt the Spirit strongly prompt us to promise them that. Please pray for the zone that they will be able to do these things and work hard. There are some compships that are really struggling and want to see a baptism. 

I love personal study hour because it is a time that the Lord speaks to me through the scriptures. So I was down and a little pesamistic last week. Yesterday morning for my study I read in the Book of Mormon Alma 26 because I wanted to know what Ammon and his bretheren did to have so much success. I read verses 27, and 30 and realized what the Lord was trying to say. Be patient in my "afflictions" and be willing to bear and go through ANY trial, just to simply be the means of saving some soul, and the Lord will give me the reward. I felt bad for having complained, and then my later wrestle with him further deepened my resolve to to complain, to be patient and to never give up! The Lord is good, and even more so when we seek Him out. 

Lastly, our ward mission leader Alejandro Frias spoke yesterday in church and it was awesome. He´s a total stud. Lived in Utah for about 10 years, he´s from Mexico. He said something in church that really impacted me. He was talking about how often we let our worldly problems get in the way of our spiritual wellbeing and our spiritual standing. He said "as we worry about how much money we have in our bank accounts, how often do we think about how much money is in our account that we have with God in Heaven? What are we doing to be putting more in there?" ¡toma tío! I really liked that one. So let´s all be putting more money in that account daily, it´s the only one that really matters. Whether it´s a few cents or several dollars at a time, any progress is acceptable. 

Well I love you family! I hope you have a really great week this week and that you feel the Spirit lots of times. I love you all very much! Loves.

Elder Webb

"God doesn´t expect immediate perfection, He only expects immediate progress." - Tad R. Callister 

June 3, 2014

Hola familia!

What a crazy stressful week we had. We had interviews with President, had a
small intervention with a struggling elder, prepared a baptism for the
sisters, had our mission leadership council and in the end Haider did not
end up getting baptized. He only needed to get a parent signature, but put
it off and off until the very last minute and his mother decided that
perhaps more in the future he can be baptized. He´s a good kid and he likes
church. We´re still going to work with him and try and help him get into
the habit of coming to church forever. Then the change of being baptized
won't be so abrupt. If you can, remember him in your prayers please. The
sisters were able to baptize though, so that was good.



In the leadership council President talked about faith. Faith as a
principle of action and power. God works through power, and His power comes
after we exercize our faith through our actions. He used the brother of
Jared as an example of how he demonstrated his faith through his actions
and the result was power from Heaven. The Lord told him that if he had
faith, all things were possible. So the bro.of Jared had an idea, and did
the best that he could. What did he bring to the Lord? Rocks. A bunch of
shiny rocks. But he had faith, and the Lord saw that, and He showed forth
His power by making the rocks shine and fill the boat with light.



In the mission it´s the same. Every week we have the opportunity to show
our faith to the Lord by making a plan and acting, and then His power will
come. It´s something that President feels that we can all improve on. I
felt the Spirit really strongly during that discussion, testifying to me of
the truthfulness of the work and of what President was teaching. Now I just
can´t wait to get out and make some rocks to give to the Lord! I´ve seen
His power in my mission before, and I know that we are capable of so much
more when we work with Him, than when we try to do things alone.



So in our area, me and my companion are starting from 0. We´ve dropped all
investigators that weren´t progressing and that has left us with a whopping
1 investigator. But I have faith. I know that the Lord will give us His
power in order to find more, teach more, and to baptize. Miracles are going
to be coming here in Jerez.



On top of starting over, this Friday we´ll be having our Zone Training
Meeting where we teach all of President´s stuff to the zone. I´m really
excited for this one because I think it´s going to open the eyes of a lot
of missionaries. It´ll give them a better vision of how to do the work in
their areas and get them pumped up to go out and work. We´re meeting with
President Deere and the stake president here tomorrow to talk about the
work in the stake and what we need to improve, so that will help us too.



Have I ever mentioned that I love being a missionary? I´m feeling the
Spirit so strongly right now and I love it. Being apart of the Lord´s work
is amazing and having my faith increase, my understanding grow, and my
relationship with my Savior strengthen are incredible feelings. I hope that
I never lose this feeling, of the companionship of the Holy Spirit, and I
hope all of you feel it too. If not, well I invite you to seek it out! Cuz
it´s great, and it makes me want to change and to be a better person, and
it makes me happier.



Anywho, it´ll be a good week this week. Thank you all for all your prayers.
We are feeling them here! I love you all so much! I hope you have a
fantastic week and feel the Spirit in many different ways. Loves!



Elder Webb