Craziness!! (Beyond Crazy I Think - Bob)

Hola familia!

     Such a crazy week this week. First off, Fausto got baptized! The service
was really good and the Spirit was really strong which is good because we
had other investigators there that were really impacted by the whole thing.
We´re going to see them today, hopefully they´ll want to be baptized too
now. Pray for them!

     I pulled the classic rookie missionary mistake when I was baptizing Fausto
and I screwed up the words, not only once, but twice! Instead of saying
commissioned by Jesus Christ, I kept saying consecrated by Jesus Christ.
Kinda funny, but super embarassing for me haha. But all in all, it went
great, and Fausto LOVED it. He was so happy and he didn´t want to wait
until Sunday to be confirmed. He asked if we could do it right then haha.
He´s such a champ.

My First Baptism - Fausto

     So my first baptism and confirmation was only half of the craziness. The
other half has to do with transfers. It was trasfers week this week and
guess what? Elder Keller is leaving me! He´s going to Alicante to be zone
leader. And guess who my new comp is? Well I can´t tell you, because I
don´t even know! I´ll find out Tuesday when I go pick up my new missionary
to TRAIN. That´s right, I´m training. After 1 transfer, President has asked
me to train. Craaazzy! I´m super super excited, but also a bit nervious.
Just gotta take it one day at a time. This will definitely be an adventure
haha. Please pray for me that I will be a good trainer!


     To answer your question, yes mom, I got your package, so thank you very
much! It was absolutely perfect, and I´m extrememly excited to be eating
peanut butter again haha. Serisouly thank you so much for the package. I
don´t know what day it got here because I was in Granada and then Malaga
most of last week and when I returned to Jaén, it was just there, so I
can´t answer that question exactly. But it probably got here on the 12th or
13th.

     So that´s pretty much my life right now. Just getting ready to recieve my
son tomorrow. I head for Malaga at 2 and we´ll come back Wednesday and I´ll
be a dad! So look for us on the blog this Sunday. Let me know if there´s
anything else you want to know! I love you all! Keep being super stellar!

con amor,

Elder Webb

March 11, 2013

Hola familia!

 

McKay is going on a mission!!! Ahh it´s sooo crazy! So awesome! Seattle Washington would be such a beautiful mission!! How big is it the mission? Are some other big cities in it? Who is her mission president? Is she going to be able to test out of the MTC? Does she even know Spanish? I´m so excited for her! How cool is it to have two missionaries out at one time! McKay I love you! You´re the greatest!

So crazy week this week. President came and went out with us on Thursday and it was really really good. We went and visited Ester and Luis and we had a super spiritual lesson, and President Deere invited them to be baptized! They were suuuuppper close to saying yes, however, they declined. Luis said that he needs to know more, learn more before he commits to that. But I have faith that they´ll get baptized. They´ve been meeting with the missionaries since before Christmas and they always love it. Just time for me to be patient now ha. So we spent a while at their place and that made us late for our next appointment, which was Fausto, the man getting baptized this saturday. Because we were late, he couldn´t meet with us, so we drove to a neighboring village and met with a less active member that had been on president´s mind lately. We saw a huge miracle here. This man has been going through a really hard time lately. Lots of family issues, he´s trying to quit smoking so that he can take his family and be sealed in the temple, and he has no job, he´s just in a really tough spot. And earlier that day, some cops showed up and reposessed his motorcycle for no reason, and his land lady was threatening to kick them out of the house. And then a few hours later we just showed up at his house, without calling ahead or planning it, and he knew that this was a sign from God that He loves him, and is aware of his circumstances. President Deere gave the man a blessing and it was super powerful. A really awesome miracle to see.

Fausto is super solid. He´s getting baptized this Saturday, the 16th, the second to last day of the transfer, so it´ll be cool to be able to baptize in my first transfer. I¨m super excited! Please pray for him that he will be able to continue progressing towards baptism.

 

So today we took a zone P-day in Granada and checked out the Alhambra. That´s the big castle thing on the blog page. The whole thing is so amazing. There are so many gardens with amazing fountains and old walkways and such. And the inside of the castle is incredible. So detailed, and every room has amazing echings in the walls and the ceilings. I´m doing a really horrible job at describing it all so ya´ll should just come over here and check it out for yourselves. It´s one of hte most amazing things I´ve ever seen in my life! Here are some pics.

This is a shot of the backside of the alhambra, taken from a garden, where you can see some of the gardens that are there. There are lots and lots of gardens

 

We were testing out the castles defences, bunch of these all over the castle

 

Elder Kellers head fits perfectly. He looks like a muslim

 

 

 Lots of fountains and gardens like this. Elder Keller is a creeper

 

So tomorrow I´m going to Malaga to recieve my ´recidency´ card. This little card that says I am permitted to live here, if any sort of authority should ask. All of the missionaries that I came over with will be there. I´m super excited to see them all, and even more excited to be in the mission home! To see President and his wife again and to have meetings and trainings and interviews, but most importantly, to eat Hermana Deere´s food!! She´s such a good cook. I´ll spend the night there tomorrow and come back Wednesday.

So that was my week. If you want that I share more stuff, please tell me! I¨m always so unsure of what I should include in these things. Anyway, I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Webb

March 4, 2013

Familia!

Shaun´s coming home in three months, and Brad too?? Man that´s nuts! I´ve already been in Spain a month, and it hardly seems like any time has gone by at all. The rumors are true. Time in the mission really does go fast. So let me answer some of your questions mom.

The weather here is cold! Jaé is in the mountains, it´s ON a mountain, so it´s cold and overcast a lot, but it´s starting to warm up now, so that´s good. And for now, I do not need a coat. An elder left one in our apartment and I¨ve been using it, and it´s perfect. So for now, I got a coat taken care of. And as far as checking my email on friday, I´m not sure. I´ll have to talk to president about that, which brings me to my next point.

President Deere is coming out to Jaén this thursday to come out teaching with us! Crazy! I´m super exited. We were eating at a members house on Saturday when he texted us and said "Elders, I want to come out to Jaén this thursday to join you in some lessons. I hope that´s okay!" Of course that´s okay president! duh.  Hopefull he can help Luis recognize his answer from the Spirit that he needs to be baptized. Maybe he´ll also get us some bikes or something becuase the hills in Jaén are killer. My calves and my butt are eternally sore from walking up hill all day, err day. Oh well, perhaps this is a blessing from Heaven. Buns of Steel from Heaven?

So we got another baptismal date this week too. His name is José and he´s for the 23rd. He´s also super exited like Fausto. Teaching people like that, that want to learn and progress, feels so good. It makes up for all the times we get rejected, and I always walk out of those teaching appointments feeling so good. So happy and grateful to be a missionary. It feels good to be a missionary!

Something super funny happened to us this week. Well, I think it´s funny. On Saturday, we were eating at a members house, as I mentioned before. They have 4 kids, 3 of whom are young, like 8, 6 and 4. We were all at the table eating when I looked up and saw in the hallway their youngest son playing soccer in the hallway BUTT FREAKING NAKED. There wasn´t a scrap of clothes on his body and he was just kicking around a soccer ball, no pasa nada, no big deal, like it was nothing. His mom saw him and freaked out and started yelling and Elder Keller and I were trying super hard to keep from laughing. This family is crazy! I love the people here.

So we had a pretty dang good week, we got the standards of excellence for our misison. I´m excited to start another week and help Fausto and José progress towards baptism. And I´m super stoked to have President Deere coming out to teach with us! Did you know his brother is Jason Deere? The guy who wrote the music for all the Nashville Tribute band CD´s? He´s like practically famous in my book. Crazy.


Anyway, I can´t wait to see where McKay is going! So excited! she´s going to France. What was everyone else´s guess? Anywho, I love you all so much! I hope everyone continues to do well. I´m doing fantastic here. Love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Webb

Those two dudes are traing to be matadoros and we got to see them practice. That´s how they practice. Kind of funny huh? 

This is the picture of the Branch presidents parents and mother in law. The couple on the right are his parents and the woman in the left is his mother in law. His mother makes the absolute best tortillas patatas (Spanish tortilla).

A woman´s car broke down in front of 6 missionaries. Elder hooper and his companion are teaching her. If that´s not a blessing, I don´t know what is! elder keller and elder Nuñez did most of the dirty work, I was there mostly for moral support.

Milagros!

Hola familia!

Talk about awesome week!! On Thursday, we traveled to Malaga as a zone to have a zone conference with President Deere, and the Malaga zone. Tons of missionaries were there and I loved it because it gets kind of lonely in Jaen. Anyway, Pres. talked about followng the promptings of the spirit more, and if at any moment, in any lesson, you feel a ¨chispe¨(spark) from the spirit, to change the subject to Christ and His Atonement, help them recognize the Spirit, and then ask them to be baptized. Super super awesome, President is brilliant and hilarious. He can bring the Spirit in any moment, super strong. He would be talking about something, then right in the middle of what he was saying, he would stop and get right in the face of a missionary and demonstrate what he was talking about with the chispe thing. And the Spirit would just smack everyone in the room right in the face, there is no way anyone could say no to a baptismal invitation when done this way!

Now time for the miricle. Last week, we talked to everyone in the streets, got a bunch of fake addresses and phone numbers, and only found one newe investigator to teach, and she´s kind of flojo (lazy). This week was just the opposite. We still talked to everyone, but the Lord put super prepared people in our path! We found 9 new investigators in one week! And the last one is the most amazing of all. His name is Fausto.

Fausto just showed up to church yesterday, having been invited by a member that knew him. He stays all three hours and absolutely loves it. We taught him a quck lesson right after church and in the middle of lesson, Elder Keller and I both felt the chispe, so we did it, and now Fausto is getting baptized on the 16th of March! it was amazing! He was so happy during church, and after we met, he was just super excited about being there and everything. We gave him a BofM and he left, but like ten minutes later we saw him walking down the street actually reading the book. It was stinking amazing! He practically walked into the church and asked to be baptized!! Such a huge miracle from heaven.

This experience has gotten me super excited to be here. I can´t wait for this week to get gonig so that I can teach Fausto and the other 8 invextigators we found, plus all the ones we already had. The work here in Jaen is starting to pick up! Thank you for all your prayers and Please keep praying for Jaen and for this to continue!

I´m super excited for McKay!! I can´t believe her papes are already in! My guess is Spain Malaga of course. But just as a back up Imma say Lyon France. I¨m feeling that one pretty good actually. This will be so exciting, two missionaries out at once! I can´t wait to hear back about her call!

I got letters from some people this week. A couple friends and Taylor and the grandparents. Letters are super awesome, even more so now in the field. Tell Taylor that I¨m working on a response and to be patient!

Hey I love you all, like, a lot. You´re the greatest family I´ve ever had! I can´t wait to tell you more about Fausto, next week, and to hear back about McKay´s call. I love you! Have a splendulous week!

Con amor,

Elder Webb

We found this on the mission web site

 



Another photo from the web site with the following caption:

In case you're interested, here is what the "Incoming Missionaries" board looks like. When President Monson announced the change in missionary age last October, a wave of younger missionaries and sister missionaries formed. It takes time for the wave to get all the way to Spain, but it's coming. In May we have 19 Elders and 14 Hermanas coming in one transfer. Get ready everyone!