"I know THIS is eternal!!"

How are you all!?  I loved seeing you guys so much!  You guys are so cute!  You should have seen me before I talked with you guys and after.  I just cried and cried.  It was pretty funny.  My companion learned the word "breathe" in English pretty quick because she kept wanting to say it to me.  (she is like you mom!)  Don´t worry, it was a happy cry.  And I testified of families a lot that night.  It was pretty funny because I just got really frustrated.  I told my companion that it gets me so angry because I have something so beautiful and so wonderful!  I want everyone to have it because there is NOTHING else that makes me SO happy!!  But people are not listening to me!  I kept wanting to say: "Don´t you see what I am trying to give to you!?  Don´t you understand how happy you could be!? Look at what you could have for forever!! Please take it!!"  In fact I think I did say it to R_____ family that night.

So you already know about half of my week but I will tell you about the other half now!  We spent the most important part of Christmas with Paola and her family.  I love them so much!  They already invited us to New Year's but we feel bad that we continue to eat her food so we are going to go to a members house instead.  But I had a great time!  Dad said in his letter that it is like these people that I meet become so much a part of my life that I can´t imagine not knowing them.  He is so right. Especially with them. They make me so happy!  The twins, Vania, and Josefa, Paola and the parents are just so great!!  They are all progressing so much and it makes me so happy! 

So Thursday we went to visit Y_____.  (Who is so cute!!)  She had the Christmas card we made for her on the top of her tree.  I made 300 cookies for Christmas this year and she was one of the ones we gave the cookies to.  She told us she loved our gift so much that she wanted to give us one.  She made us these super super beautiful scarfs that I love!!  She is so adorable.  It frustrates me to try and explain her because she is one of those people that you can´t really put words too.  "Adorable" just does not cut it.  She is just Y______!  We are still stuck where we are with her.  She loves it when we come over but she literally has NO time.  She is sweet as can be and would totally be baptized now but she has to work. 

So the funny story about her is she was super excited to tell us this story.  She kept starting the story and then getting distracted.  I knew what story she was about to tell and I was doing my best to keep her distracted.  She was going to tell us about an envelope.  I don´t know if I told you guys but we went with president and his wife to drop off a couple of envelopes to families that really needed it. We chose her family as one of those families becuase she is in so much trouble with all of the bank stuff.  We have made this goal to have more lessons with members this week and it was a bad idea! We came with a family who is also in need and also needed an envelope.  So when Y______ started telling the story I was super worried.  She told us that she got home late and tired one night and wanted to sleep but her son told her there was a sobre on her bed waiting for her.  She told us that she did not have the ganas to open it but she did anyway and found PLATA. "PLATA, chicas plata!!" Hermana G____ (the member with us) looked at her with wide eyes and said the same thing happened to me and I have the sobre.  As you can imagine, Hermana Maciel and I were, at this point, sweating bullets, and had our hearts in our mouths.  I did not know what to say. Hermana G_____ pulled out the envelope while Yesica went to go get hers.  It was obvious that the same person did the good deed and the only connection between the two women were these two idiot missionaries scared out of our pants.  They did not do anymore investigating so they don´t know who did it, but I think they do ... they just did not want to say if we did not say anything.  Ha ha ha!! it was a good story anyway.  I love them so much!  I hope I will be friends with Y______ for forever! 

Friday we had divisions so I had to do a lot.  I got to work with this cute girl who got here a week ago.  She is adorable but does not speak Spanish.  We went to the two hardest lessons that we have in the week.  The first is with the preachers son.  He is so great!  I really love being in his house.  I don´t know how this guy is so smart with such a limited book and such a limited way of interpreting it.  But he understands a lot of things really well.  It got kind of gross when the cute member we were with started Bible bashing.  He started saying we have missionaries that preach in the street every day and where are your missionaries!? (which by the way Evangélicos totally have missionaries!) I had to stop him and correct him and tell him that they do in fact have missionaries and that we know that all churches are great.  I ended up bearing a really intense testimony about families and the Book of Mormon!  I told him that he could throw lots of scriptures at me and I probably would not have the answer but I told him that I know that the Book of Mormon was true because I had read and prayed about it.  Then I happened to find this picture that mom had sent me of our family and one of Lauren (he knows her story) and I told him "I know THIS is eternal!!" He got really quiet and said 'how do you know?'  I know he wants a family forever!  I know he likes that idea!  I know he loves them so much!  I told him that I still feel the love of my sweet little sister and it is the same as when she was alive, so 'I know that relationship has NOT died!'  It was so cool!  I felt the spirit so strong.  He told me basically that he wants it to be true, but because the Bible does not say anything about it, he cannot believe.  It was so sad!  And then our cute member changed the subject to why the stake president is cool.... Oh how I love members.... sometimes.  The next day we had M_____.  He is on the other side of the spectrum.  I_______ uses his head way too much and M______ uses his heart way too much.  It is really funny because we have divisions every week and we always have these two people and at the end of the day the Hermana I am with always looks at me and says ... your sector is hard!!  It really is not but we do have crazy lessons with these two.  M______ is so great but he does not care what it says in the Bible he just believes what he feels in his heart.  So we are still stuck trying to help him understand that we will be resurrected and that Jesus was not a sinner.  That was the new discovery.  He told me that Jesus had to have been a sinner because if not he would not be able to relate with us.  It turned out to be really cool because I went to one of the best scriptures I know about the Atonement in Alma 7.  I read 11 and 12 with him and he said that is fine, but I still think he sinned.  The Spirit told me to read a little more so I looked down and in 13 it explains perfectly.  It says first that M_____ was right, up until that point the Savior really could not relate with us because it is one of the only things that the Spirit does not know.  But then it says that our perfect Savior took upon him the sins of the world.  I got to bear this testimony of how I know that the Atonement was that much prettier because not only did he sacrifice for my sins, he as a sinless man paid for my sins so he could relate with me perfectly.  He does know what it is like to be a sinner even though he NEVER sinned!  That is pretty ironic.  I love my Savior!  He lives!  And I know that he paid the ultimate price for me even though he was the last one to deserve it!  I am finally starting to understand what it means to use His atonement every day!  I need Him to teach me, to strengthen me, to cleanse me, and to forgive me.  You guys should read the talk by a 70 in general conference.  I don´t remember his name but it is called "Will you also be made whole?"  It is in the second session on Saturday.  It is a beautiful talk about how we need His atonement for every part of our lives.  I love this new idea.  That with this infinite act of love, we have the power to fill our lives with love too.   Enough love to completely change our hearts and only want good.  (Mosiah 5 and Mornoni 7)  I think that is really all God´s power is.  Priesthood power has the exact same trates as charity.   It says that the Atonement was a great act of love!  God´s love is so pure and so infinite that he has the power to use that love to make us holy!  He can use that power to save us from satan.  That is why satan cannot be stronger, because his power is hate and we all know that love is always stronger than hate.  If you don´t believe me you can watch whichever Disney movie you choose!!  ;)

The girl I did divisions with the whole time kept asking me when she was going to know Spanish like me. I did not know I knew Spanish, so that was fun.  It turns out I learned a lot without really noticing it.

Saturday we went to visit that family that I told you about last week.  They are so great!  They are doing great!  The dad thanked us right off for the visits because their home is already changing.  He told us that they could feel more peace in their home that week!  Yes!!  They also went to church on Sunday!!  That is HUGE!  People never go to church that fast.  We found them on freaking Wednesday and a week and a half later they were at church.  We have another appointment with them this week so I am super excited. 

Sunday was rough!  I miss Lauren!  I love her so much!  I read all of the book that Sara sent me and it made me really happy!  I hate that she had to leave us and four years is a long time!  I cried a lot.  I made a goal though.  Lauren hated contention.  She would run away as fast as the Spirit would if we let it enter the room.  So I made the goal to stop letting contention enter my life.  I don´t want to feel angry.  Lauren did not like contention because it made it harder to love.  She was so good at loving that contention just did not make sense.  It did not matter if she did not get what she wanted she wanted to love people.  She knew how much better it was.  Anyway ... so that is my goal.  It started before New Years, so it is not my New Years resolution;).  I love you all!  You are all an example and a power in my life!  We have a family with power because we know how to love!  We are good at it! Even if it has to be on different parts of the world and even different parts of the veil!  And, because God loves us enough we are going to be whole again one day!  Because His love is more powerful than death!  I am so grateful for my Savior who made that possible for me!  He lives!  He is real!  And His love can save us! 

Love you all! 

Hermana Webb.

Feliz Navidad!

¿Como Están?

Life is so great here in Apoquindo.  We had a week absolutely full of miracles and I am so grateful for everyone!  I love being a part of the work of God!  It is so tricky because we have to choose to accept it ... but God has a really good way of showing us what will make us truly happy! 

Tuesday- We always visit V___ and J____.  J____, as always, is doing really well.  She continues to have health problems, but never testimony problems.  She loves to pray and especially sing.  I love her so much.  V_____ on the other hand was not progressing as much. I went to their house scared. You guys remember what has been going on the past couple of weeks.  She was not sure she wanted to continue with this whole church thing.  She was pretty sure that God did not even exist.  I told her the last week that I would pray with all of my heart.  And I did!  I made a deal with God.  I have been struggling with the idea of "praying with faith" lately so I told Him I would be a really good pray-er if he would just help Vania get her testimony back! :-)  She did!  She told us that she has been praying pretty hard too, and one day she was lost in the hospital and she told God: "if you are really there, and I am really in the right church please help me find my way."  (I know God does not always answer prayers like this) And, she found her way!!  She was so happy on Tuesday!  I left the house bawling!! I was so happy!  That little girl is like my little sister, so when she was questioning her testimony I about died.  It was so beautiful to see how God answered her prayers.  I like it because I have a lot of really beautiful experiences of when God answers my prayers, but it was really sweet to be involved in the story of the answer to prayers for someone else.  God helped me pray harder in faith.  And, V____ is happy!!!  I could not be happier! 

Wednesday- This day started out tough.  At lunch with president we started talking about cancer and how terrible chemotherapy is.  I am definitely feeling pretty tender about her recently.  I miss her.  It really hurt to think about chemo again.  I hate that stuff and I hate that Lauren had to suffer through it. I was crying pretty hard but did a really good job at hiding it except when president asked me to give the closing prayer.  I have this terrible habit of crying at his house.  IT was not that terrible I just really missed her and you guys and had serious ganas to testify of families!  Don´t worry, God knew! That night no one wanted to talk to us!  I was done!  I wanted to go home and cry myself to sleep.  I could not seem to get some really nasty images out of my head from the last days of Lauren´s life. We were getting rejected by everyone!  It was like 8:45 and we had a appointment at 9 ... I felt like we should go to one more house where they are never there.  It is the house of this lady that I contacted like 4 months ago and was not interested at all.  But we went anyway, because it felt like something better than contacting someone on the street.  We rang the door bell and no one was home.  But a man drove up and asked if someone had come out.  We told him no.  It was the husband of this lady we had talked to.  He was really interested!  He wanted us to come inside but he is a man and we can´t go in the house if there is only a man. The wife walked up while we were talking and they invited us in. We sat down and started talking about the first points of the gospel. Then a little randomly, God whispered, "Okay Carlie, I need you to testify of eternal families."  God is so good to me!  I got to tell them with all of my crazy passion that I know that families are forever! That with the Gospel we can have stronger family relationships!  The dad was pretty happy after I was done.  He looked at me and said 'that is something we need!'  Then the image in my head was not of Lauren suffering in a hospital bed, the image changed into my family triumphant pure, strong, and eternal!  The Atonement restores everything!!  We had another appointment with them on Saturday and they were there waiting!!  The mom and the daughter had read and the husband did not have time.  But I am so excited because the second lesson is a good sign!  I am so happy! 

Thursday- Remember forever ago the reference of the Peruvian named John with a black fence?  We found a different person instead.  It is a house of Peruvians.  Every time we go there someone else leaves the house.  One of the times we went we taught this kid that seemed drunk and not very excited.  We continued going back to this house and we continued finding this kid. His name is Aldo. He recently fell while doing construction and broke his shoulder (or some bone around there). His animo was pretty low and seemed more excited to listen to us.  This Thursday we went to his house to give him a blessing for health. The elders and a member from our ward came to give the blessing and it was awesome!  The spirit was so strong!!!  After the elders asked how he felt and he just smiled and said 'I don´t really know how to explain how I feel.'  I felt really impressed to invite him to get baptized, and he accepted!!  It was pretty exciting!  He told us he felt really good!  He kept saying I don´t know how to explain it I just feel really good! 

Friday- We went to see MC.  I love her so much!  She is a sweet heart!  Hermana Maciel has been visiting her for 9 months now every week and she has never said a single prayer.  My companion told me that that was one of her goals before she left this sector.  When we got to her house I felt very impressed to try to include her grandchildren who usually don´t want to listen.  They are 7,11,11, and 20.  They were all sitting in the same room and I kind of made them join by joking around.  We talked about the gift that we can give to Jesus for his birthday.  They all had sweet answers.  It was kind of a joke of a lesson and I felt bad for making them join.  I tried to end it with a prayer and none of the grandchildren wanted to say it.  Hermana Maciel felt impressed to asked M____.  I had given up hope on her praying but it worked ... she prayed!!!!  MC prayed with us!!!!!!  I was so happy! Hermana Maciel was happier!  She cried for like twenty min. and had an emotional hang over and everything!!  It was pretty funny she kept looking at me with all of her tears in her eyes saying 'this is all your fault!!' He he he he!! my evil plan of making all of the world an emotional wreck is totally working!  :-)  We were pretty excited!

Saturday- We finally got E____ to leave her house and go to an actividad at the church.  She was pretty sick but she was still really determined to go. It was pretty fun. It was an activity for the primary.  We went with her and her two girls.  I also played the violin!  My violin playing skills are getting popular around here.  Which is funny because they are pretty lacking in supplies right now but it was exciting to play again. 

That was our week of miracles!  We are so blessed!  It ended with a bummer.  P___ and her family moved.  I have not written about them because they are a member family that live in the sector of the hermanas.  But they are really amazing!  I love them!  All four of the Hermanas in my apartment had a nice cry.  It was hard to see them go.  This ward really needed them.  They will be great where they are headed though. 

That was my week! Can you see that God loves me and really loves these people that He is letting me serve!?  He is so good at this game!  I love God so much!  God lives!  He loves us!  He is doing so much more than moving mountains here in Chile ... He is changing our lives for eternity!  I am so grateful that he is changing my heart!  He is so good to me!  I love you all!  Thanks for being a part of my family! Talk to you in 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Hermana Webb

I am still in Apoquindo with Hermana Maciel!!!!!

This has been a very exciting week that ended up being less intense than we thought it was going to be.  Hermana Maciel and I are together again!!!  I know it is crazy!  We were both prepared to be transferred, but we are both happy and I am just really excited to have six more weeks with my favorite companion, and celebrate Navidad with someone I am already really comfortable with.

This week was really similar to all of the other weeks with a lot of ups and downs.  First down: sweet V____.   AHHHHHHHH!!!!!  I refuse to have children  -- it hurts too much!!  Oh my word, I hate that she feels like she has lost her faith.  And what makes it worse is she is not really trying to find it again.  She does not really want to and so she is not going to find it.  She told us that she is content where she is.  I don´t think it is because she is lazy, I think it might just be that she is afraid to find out that it IS true.  I find it is worth the risk.  We are going to keep working with her and her family, who are still doing great, but I think are pretty tired.  It is good that the girls are in vacations now hopefully the family can have some time to rest together. 

We had zone conference this week.  It was intense.  President gave this really beautiful talk about the Savior.  We talked in detail about the Atonement, and how we should use it to teach our investigators. We tried to talk about it a lot more often this week and it worked well.  It is pretty spectacular that we have access to that Atonement that is infinite!  It does not matter what we have done, what sin we have committed, what challenge we are going through, what temptations easily overcomes us, what weakness constantly haunts us, or what trial we are facing WE KNOW IN WHOM WE HAVE TRUSTED!!!  He has the power!  No one is excluded in that group! Sometimes it feels too good to be true, and so I freak out a little but turns out His Atonement can cover my freaking-out-ness too!!!

So, Y_____ is doing really well!  She is such a sweetheart.  I love her so much!  She is doing really well spiritually, but not too well financially.  She lost a good job which cost her her savings and now has taken a job doing something with parking and is now working EVERY DAY for 18 hours!!!  The only day she has "off" are Sundays when she only has to work 9 hours.  She is working more than us!!!  We only work like 16 hours a day and our day off we only have to work 5!  You know your schedule is RIDICULOUS when you are working more than the missionaries! And, we get a lot of support.  We get letters from home, lunch with members, and of course the most important is a lot of strength from God Himself! ... because we are doing His work.  Pray for her please!   We challenged her to get baptized and she accepted very happily!  We are really excited for her!  She begs us for homework even though she does not have time to read and she reads every time!  I love her!  We don´t get to see her very much but when we do it is a delight!  I don´t know when she is going to get baptized (she can´t go to church so we are kind of stuck) but she is awesome. 

We continue to have really beautiful lessons with M C____.  I can´t believe she still has not gone to church!  She is so sweet!  She has a heart of gold!  It is so hard for her to find the faith that she feels like she has lost.  I don´t think she has lost it; I think she just has to find it in herself again.  She is the one who lost her son and her husband cheated on her and left her all in the same year.  I love her so much!  She told us that she was able to just straight up forgive her ex-husband.  She taught me a lot about how we should just love people .... that being mad at someone is actually so much harder than just loving them. 

We also challenged Manuel to get baptized and he accepted!  His only real problem is he believes truth is just what you feel is right.  He is half right but he does not trust the scriptures.  I feel like the Tree of Life vision is right on because I feel like I am on the path using the scriptures and words of the prophets to feel God´s love.  He can see that I am happy, and it is like he is in the field, calling to me: 'How do you have such a firm path to the tree?'  I keep repeating over and over ... I am using this bar of iron (the scriptures) and he keeps saying ... 'that is not it!' 'what are you doing?'   He told us he knows this church must have something good with how many signs he has experienced in his life but he just wants more time to learn. 

So, now for my sermon on Love :-) .... Sorry I did not realize it was always about love, but dad is right ... I love loving people so much!  I really think that was the joy God was talking about when He told us we can have a deeper joy.  When we love, look for, and enjoy the good; it makes it so I don´t have to feel angry, I don´t have to wonder if God is real.  I just get to feel love all of the time!  I am so obviously not perfect at this but I love learning about it.  This week is about hope and love.  There is a scripture in Romans 5:3-5 that says that we are grateful for trials, because they bring patience, and we are grateful for patience, because it brings experience, and we are grateful for experience because it brings hope (like the article you sent me mom!) and "hope maketh us not ashamed because the love of God shedeth itself abroad on the children of men."  I love that!  I can have confidence in my hope because I cannot deny his love!  I know it is real, so I can go out every day UNASHAMED to share His gospel, because I feel His love.  What a beautiful idea!  God lives and loves us!  I know it!  I hope you all have a great week and I can´t wait to talk to you all super soon!

Anyway, I love you all!  

Love, Hermana Webb

Misión Chile Santiago Este
Cristobal Colón 6824
Las Condes, Casilla 27.144
Santiago, Región Metropolitana
Chile

I LOVE love!!

"Turns out I'm really still just a little kid!"

Hey! I really love you all so much! This week was another great week! It was super crazy but it was good!

We had a lot of divisions this week. My companion is a leader entonces we do a lot of divisions anyway.  Leaders have four to eight hermanas that they do divisions with every change.  I like that my comp is a leader because I get to know other girls.  I also like it when I have divisions with a gringo because I get to talk in English!!!  (That does not happen very much.  It is crazy after one day my Spanish totally gets worse.)

We had a really hard lesson with ______ this week.  _______ is the son of the baptist pastor.  I learned some things about his religion that I did not know ... Did you know they interpret the Bible literally?!?  Who does that?  I thought those people did not even exist anymore!  I don´t mean to be rude, but I really thought that did not happen.  He is such a smart kid and he understands the principles of the gospel so beautifully so I was really surprised to find out that he is so well educated with such a limited view of such a limited book.  He is usually very loving and patient but this time he was worried and contentious.  I have never seen him like that.  I think it was because we scared him a little bit.  I really just want to focus on the Book of Mormon with him because it is so obviously true!  I feel bad -- I don´t want to throw it in his face but he could be so much smarter!  He could understand these things so much better if he just used a little faith to try it!  I don´t know if he is going to though.  It was a really beautiful experience for me though.  I was about to read the story of Enoch with him because we were going to talk about how he could pray to see if the book is true. But then the spirit told me another idea.  He just finished his thesis about sin and how people repent. So naturally the spirit told me to read the story about Alma. We started reading it and that is when he started throwing every type of question at us.  That is when he started feeling contentious.  But it is such a beautiful chapter.  ______ started talking about how God has perfect justice and mercy and he wanted to say the chapter was wrong.  He quickly found out how right this chapter is!  I am pretty sure it has all the right structure and it is this beautiful comparison between justice and mercy.  I never noticed it before but the chapter was absolutely perfect.  It is so tricky because I don´t want it to sound like HA you were wrong!  But I want him to break through the limits that he is in. 

We had another great lesson with ______. He still thinks that the religions are just ¨football teams,¨ but he wants so bad to have the connection that he had with God before again.  We took a recent convert to both of the lessons, one with ______ and the other with ______ .... and poor guy was a little stressed.  These men are the hardest investigators that we have.  He really liked ______ though. Now it is getting awkward because he continues to tell us that our eyes are the prettiest and that we are ¨guapisimo¨ -- that in case you were wondering is 'like really attractive'.  That is when our lessons get awkward which is always why we have another member with us.  We will see what happens with him. 

______ is doing so well!  She is so cute and the experience at the baptism did not scare her away!!  I was so worried that she would go running but she is still really excited and was practically begging for more homework from the Book of Mormon.  She is such a cutie!  She basically taught her mom everything and she is now listening to us too!  I love this work!

On of the members here was commenting on why we have been in this area and been companions for so long ... he said he believes it is specifically for one family ....  I felt that big time when he said it to me.  I love them so much!  But that makes the responsibility really big!  I really want them to be happy!

....  _____ and her family!  I love them I love them I love them!!!!  _______ just got back from a long trip and we were not sure where he was so me and another comp just went over to find out.  I love him I love him I love him!  He is so quiet, but turns out he has been quietly progressing.  I was kind of blunt and said:

¿Entonces, quiere bautizarse?

¡SÍ!

Enserio! Ah bakan!! ¿quiere casarse?

¡SÍ!

Ah su familia va a ser eterno!  Estoy super animada!  Ah! Bakan ok no creo que tengo mas! 

And then I screamed for a little while about forever families and he laughed at me but we both know that he is more excited than I am ... he is just so cute and shy!  I love him I love him I love him!  (Too bad at that time _____ and _______ were fighting so _____ does not want to get married now but that is just a bump in the road compared to what we have had before!!  :-)

_____ is my biggest worry.  She is not choosing things that are going to make her happy.  She is still trying to go to church and participates in all of our lessons but she continues to doubt. 

We had an NDH in the house of presidente last night and that was awesome!  The twins, as usual, were crazy!  One almost drown in presidents pool and the other was just well... ______.  They are so cute, but so crazy! 

I think that is about it.  I am so happy!  God is teaching me spiritually, and mentally.  I have been thinking a lot about love!  Moroni says twice (Ether 12 and Moroni 7) that we don´t get any good gift without charity.  I don´t think that is because God is trying to hold back the good gifts; I think it is because we are honestly happier when we just love!  God tries to build up our love.  When we follow his commandments, love is sweeter and lasts longer.  We develop traits like faith, hope, patience, diligence and kindness (Moroni 7) and it makes love so sweet!  Not only is He helping make that love sweet here on this earth but it can be sweet in the life to come.  It is a forever love.  satan is the opposite.  While God uses every thing good to build it up, (Moroni 7:16) satan uses every thing bad to tear it down (Moroni 7:17)  satan uses lust, addictions and contentions to dull the affects of love ... he uses those things to distract us -- anything to keep us from receiving that beautiful gift of true love forever.  I am not just talking about husbands and wives - I am talking about with everyone. Especially with God.  This gospel is true!  I am finally realizing what that phrase really means!  Our family is forever!  God really does love us!  And he really answers prayers!  He is going to take us home to live with him in His mansions that he is building for all of us!  We are ALL welcome! ... Because He loves us all!  I love this plan!  I am tired and I fall a lot!  But love is what always gets me up again!  It does not just get me up again, it changes me completely!  With the atonement, or the power of His love I can change and have a heart that is pure enough to be filled with that love that Moroni tells us to pray with all energy of heart for.  I love Love!  I also love you all so much! 

Hermana Webb

"... how do you even know there is life after this one!?"

Wow that is so weird we are now in December!!

This week was so wonderful! It started off absolutely wonderful with a new investigator who is golden!!  She is so cute!  She was a contact in the street from the other Hermanas.  She is always really busy but she is really open to the gospel. ____ is super cute. Whenever she likes something she says 'whatsup?' or 'incredible!'  She was so excited when we gave her a book of Mormon because she said she could feel the passion coming out of my fingers as I passed it to her.  She is right ... that book is special!  There really is something about that book!  People will be so grumpy until we pass the book to them and then they pause because they realize this is not just any other group of preachers. She came to church too! We will see if she keeps progressing. 

The rest of the week was pretty intense. ______ (our star converso recente) has been doubting her faith like crazy.  Not just the whole Mormon thing, but all of it.  She is now not even sure if God even exists.  Turns out satan is attacking all of us -- even the star ones that seemed to have all of the faith in the world.  I told _____ the same thing I told you guys about questions.  I like what mom said about how things that take away from our testimony are only from satan.  I told her that I don´t know why, but at some parts of life, we just have to fight for our testimonies.   I told her that we can fight together.  It was actually a really sweet experience, because she looked at me and said ... "how do you even know there is life after this one?"  I could answer that one!!  I told her that I knew it because I have felt my little sister.  And, I can´t make up the cute personality that she has in my head.  I know what it feels like when I know that she loves me! That is something that I could never make up.  She has a great grandma that she was really close to and who died more than a year ago.  I really hope that she will take her name to the temple because I feel like that could be a really beautiful experience. ______ is definitely a favorite!   Her family is progressing so well and she wants to believe so bad that I think she will be okay. 

We lost __________ this week.  It was a pretty big bummer!  He was progressing so well.  _______ is the nephew of _____ and loved everything we teach.  He is young, but he was doing so well that we kept going back and helping him get to church.  This week when we came the mother told us that _____ cannot get baptized because he is going to get baptized in the Catholic church.  Then she told him right in front of us that she is going to give him this precious gift called baptism and she hopes that he never gives his mom disrespect when he is old by getting baptized in any other church!  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!  Are you kidding me!?  That is so sad and also ridiculous! Thanks _____!  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I hate pride!  We should get rid of it it!!!  The visit got worse when his dad told me that I only believe because I was brain washed by my parents and I just don´t know any better.  AGAIN, GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!  satan is so mean!!!  It was a very frustrating visit!

Sunday was quite the day!!  Here are all of the reasons that we are very blessed! First of all ______ got baptized, ________ got back from a very long work trip (like a month and a half) ... he traveled all through the night so he could see his daughter get baptized!!  We had two new investigators in the church, and the chapel was absolutely packed!!   Those were all of the good things! It was a pretty exciting week!  There were some pretty rough things too with the church people not understanding some things about the investigators and not letting some important things happen on the program.  Not to mention that _______ had to be baptized three times in icy cold water and the testimony meeting after was focused on some members boyfriend ... (in the words of Sara: "Can't we please just talk about Jesus!?")  I also had a pretty embarrassing moment that I have picked up a new nickname for from the Elders that I would like to lose already, but I hope the two investigators that were there will come back anyway.

So this week was quite the week! I am learning more and more every day! This week I discovered how good at this 'game' God is again!  As I got kind of grumpy about some of the problems that happened on Sunday and with our investigators, God showed me a way around it.  The answer again is LOVE.  When I remember how very much I love these people or you guys, it is hard to question that you all could possibly just be a random result.  The way that _____ and her family, _____, _______, ______, _____, _____, _______, _________, and _____ have changed and blessed my life is just too beautiful to decide is just by chance!  Our family is too perfect to not have been made by a loving, and all knowing creator and a life dedicated to following Him.  We are just too happy for any other conclusion to be possible!  God took my strength and used it to lift my weakness!  That was a cool idea!  I love you all so much more and more every day!  This is so worth every moment, even at the times I have to fight satan!  I love you all so much!  I hope you have a great week!  Thanks for your letters!  I really like them!  They make me very happy! 

Love, 

Hermana Webb

Amazing and hard like always.

Misión Chile Santiago Este
Cristobal Colón 6824
Las Condes, Casilla 27.144
Santiago, Región Metropolitana
Chile

First of all,  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Second of all, dad is really about to turn 50?!?  That is really old!  I was thinking he was still 40 y tanto.  Pero, turns out time goes by really fast!

So this week was awesome!  First I have to tell you all about the temple because it was really beautiful.  We finally got to go.  President lets us go one time every year, and so we planned it so that our old apartment could get back together again.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Going to the temple reminded me of some of my struggles when I was scared to come to another country and try to convince people about some things I wasn't 100% positive of myself.  Whenever I would get overwhelmed, I was saved by one beautiful word, LOVE!  I can happily say that I know that God is good! I continue to have to fight for my testimony but He continues to show me ways how ..... just like He promised me that He would.  I wish I could explain how many times your letters and love that I got from you were answers to my prayers!  This week was no different. I have a testimony but I don´t just get it for free.  I have to fight for it.  I have to chose faith which is sometimes hard for me to do, but I am blessed to make that choice. 

So I went to the temple with hopes (and prayers) that I would really feel the spirit.  My prayers were answered!!  It was a beautiful session!  The love there is so strong.  (When I want more faith, God sends me more love!)  Not that I think I am cool or anything but whenever there are lots of missionaries doing one thing the experience usually turns out to be a little more sweet.  And it was! 

It was just so beautiful!  I wish I could show you guys all He did to send me love ... from temple workers, my companions, from you guys, but mostly from Him!  But, as Moroni always complains; words are just not enough and neither is my precious hour and a half to write. 

The rest of the week was amazing and hard like always.  _____ finally came to church again. He is such a sweetheart.  I really love him like my little brother.  He was my first baptism and we have been really worried about him.  We went to his house and asked him what had changed.  It took a lot of prodding and reminding him how much we loved him but he finally opened up.  He told us that he was frustrated that he can't get support from his parents.  Wanna adopt him, mom!?  I wish he could have the type of support and parents that I have.  

________ is a manos activo who I love! She can´t read very fast because she has dyslexia but she always reads with us.  She is a sweet example of someone who is just awesome because of all of her experience.  She left the church because of pride and could not be more humble now.  So I felt impressed to tell her that it was time to go back to church and asked her if she was ready.  She told us yes and that she would come to church next week!  So we will see.  I love her so much! 

______ is still adorable!  We had a problem with her kids wanting to sing in the primary program and having the leaders not let them; I was mad, but thankfully, it did not shake ________.  She is wonderful.  I don't think they meant any harm, but I DID feel like punching a pillow or something.  :-)

I love you all so much! thanks for everything!!  Thanks for giving me the faith (and love) to continue! 

Love Hermana Webb

When I feel like I want more faith, God always sends me more love.

Dear Family that I love!

How are you all?! I am doing so great! I loved all of your letters so much. First I need to respond to those. 

I love that Doug got married in the temple (where he could be closest to his cute dad)! What a fitting beautiful thing!  I love that family so very much!  I miss Uncle Thayne too!   I love the temple!  It is the goal! Baptism is great, but as I have discovered many times, a lot of people have gotten baptized.  To make covenents with God and the one you love in the temple is the most beautiful goal that I could ever think of. To start a family that can be together forever and provide even half of the joy, support and love that I get from my family is totally a fairy tale!  I thinking it is fitting that our Temples look like castles sometimes. (Sorry I am a corny nerd!)  But that is the goal!  I dream of one day Edgardo and Paola entering the temple together to be sealed together forever!  That is where God has saved some of the sweetest blessings. I don't know the wife part, but I definitely know how sweet it is to be a daughter, grandaughter, sister, and friend.  I love it! 

Also that baby of ours has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen!  Oh my heck!  I am slightly jealous that you all got to see him so recently but it is fine because he will quickly realize who is his favorite aunt when I get back. 

This week was really great!  Erika is doing wonderfully!  She is such a sweet heart!  She is already planning on going back to work after being sick for such a long time. She is still really progressing but I am hoping that this whole break of us bugging her to go to church won´t stop her progression.  We gave her a DVD with a bunch of mormon messages on it. 

Paola and her family are still classic!  Josefa was going to get baptized this week but her dad is not quite going to be home so we will have to pospone it for the next week.  I would like to postpone it a little more so that her cousin can get baptized with her too.  We made sushi again last night and basically I just love them!  You should see all the things they do for us!  If Paola had the choice, I think we would live in her house!  She now plans a FHE every night.  She does the lesson and we do the game.  Good deal right!?  Last night she taught her family about the law of chasity!  I love her so much!  She was very specific and direct! Poor Javier (the cousin who we are now teaching) looked very scared as Paola basically yelled at him that he better be clean when he gets married.  At least we don´t have to do that lesson now before he gets baptized. ;)

Elder Holland came this week to my mission!!  It was so cool!  The talk was amazing!  Elder Holland is classic!  He was very intense with us.  There were parts where I was surprised at how much he was yelling at us but then I remembered that it is Elder Holland.  He told us that we are God´s investigators.  He told us that we might be a little further along than the people we are teaching, but all of the hopes and dreams that we have for them, God has for us.  He told us that if we fall away after the mission he will come and hunt us down!  He was awesome!!

What I really loved was Hermana Holland´s talk!  She basically just got up and blubbered about how much she loves each of us.  She was so cute!  That is my new thing.  Just love people!  We are missing out on so many blessings when we choose to judge, compare, have pride, or even look at our own needs before those around us.  We need so much love here!  There are so many people on this planet who just need to feel loved.... I had a really beautiful experience with love this week.  Vania was acting weird and I felt very impressed to go and give her a big hug and tell her that we just love her!  The next lesson I felt impressed over and over again that I should tell her how much God loves her!  I came to find out that she feels like she does not have enough faith.  I have found that very interesting.  When I feel like I want more faith, God always sends me love!  Love focuses me, it helps me remember and see the eternal perspective.  It is easier to see lies, and faith feels so real because the feeling of love is so real!  No wonder Moroni told us to pray for it with all purpose of heart!  Without love, it is so hard to have the motivation to do anything.  I am so tired of watching families be torn apart because they don´t have it when they could!  I am tired of seeing parents not even want to follow God for their children or men who leave their families. We need more love!  It makes things make sense!  It makes joys eternal!  It makes our lives have purpose!  I think one of the reasons that the story of the prodigal son is so sad is that the older brother missed out on the party!  He was so busy worrying about himself and his own fate that he missed out on the party of loving people! That is my new goal!  I want to just love people!  I don´t want to worry about comparing myself, or judging others ..... I just want to love them and stick with that! 

Sorry, that is my rant for the day.  

So in other news Hermana Maciel had a dream about mom!  She said that she was in hiding and wore a disguise so that we would not notice her but that she had come to Chile to see me for Christmas.  We both laughed because we know that that is actually a possibility!  Good job mom!  You have made a big enough impact here that people are dreaming about you!

Other than that life is great! I am happy as can be. Sometimes I feel a little bipolar but I remember that everyone I talked to before my mission told me I would feel that way at times.  I am happy to be a missionary and helping people accept this gospel!  Thank you for your testimonies!  I loved them!  I loved mom what you wrote when you said that God has us do things and we just have no idea how He will use these commandments to bless our lives!  It is tricky to explain that to these people but I hope I am getting better at it.  I love you all! 

Hermana Webb

Pray to be filled with His love.

On splits ....

Family!!

How are you all!?   

This week was great.  Really stressful but really great!  We have a lot of people who think we can solve all of their problems.... Hee, hee, hee, we can´t ... but we are trying! 

We will start things off light.  It is time for the drunk of the week!!  This week is one of our investigators (yeah bummer but I am over it).  We were walking in the street and when people see me they just start yelling things at me in English.  But what is really fun is when I yell in English back.  My companion thinks I am crazy but I like to play with the drunkies in the street.  We had a good two sentence conversation where they really just repeated what I said but changed a word.  They told me their English was very well, so I corrected their grammar and told them it is very good.  So they started a chant: VERY GOOD; VERY GOOD! The chant lasted a good minute and I was very entertainied!  They were very happy that the gringo girl actually talks in English too!!  I don´t know if we will be stopping by his house again.  Let´s be honest, we probably will -- there is not much else to do at nine thirty at night so we usually pass by for him. 

In other news I am learning a lot!  Life is hard, just in case you were wondering.  We have lots of members and investigators who are experiencing really hard things.  The lists are long -- and it is extra hard because I love these people!! It is challenging because we always have the same recipe.... um we are not mom´s, wives or grandmas; we do not have all the answers, but we have this awesome book that you should read and you should pray.  It is a great recipe, but I have been thinking a lot about the blessings 'promised' as members of this church.  They are not all that you/they think.  We promise they will be blessed, and people think the blessings are the stuff they all want.  They think they are going to be healthy with living the word of wisdom; they think their money problems are going to go away with tithing; they think all of their family is going to be completely better and have more friends in school.  These are not bad things to want, but those are not the promises.  I have found that if we let Him, God has a different plan.  He wants to shape us, fill us with love, and help us become His!  That is what He has promised!  The other stuff are blessings from Him too, but we can not be sure we will have them.  We have a recent converet that is super suprised at how hard it is now to not do drugs.  Before it was easy for her but now she is struggling.  No, God does not take the hard things away! Sometimes things hurt more because you have more love for people.  But suddenly, with the gospel there is purpose!  There is a reason for all of this suffering!  There is a hope in a better world and their is a true profound joy here in this life!  It is so hard to explain what it means to be a Mormon.  I don´t know how to say it in English, and so much less in Spanish. 

______ has a baptism date and _______ accepted! We are continuing to see wonderful miracles with ______ and her family.  We love them so much.  I can't wait to for them to be baptized.

I think that is about it.  I love my mission.  It is hard, because God is doing exactly what He promised me He would do, ..... He is filling me with his love.  I hope I will ays long but it is worth it!  I continue to learn exactly what it means to just put it all in His hands and have trust that He will do the rest!  I find that that is even harder to do when it is with other people´s lives that I love so much!  But God continues to patiently show me that His powerful, all-knowing hands are so much more capable than my passionate but week and awkward ones.  I love God!  He is so good to me!  I am so slow to respond and I try to turn around so many times in a day that I probably give Him a headache, but He still loves me and He still shows it.  He is good!  Pray to be filled with His love.  It is so much more worth it and we need so much more of that stuff in this world!  I love you all! 

Hermana Webb

Logic has limits but the truth does not!

We need to have faith to understand . . .

I am still in Apoquindo with my comp!!  It feels so good to say that!  Life is good!! 

Voy are quidarme y me companiera tambien!!!!

So to start, I'm going to answer a couple of questions that dad wrote for me:

1. I have never had to speak in Sacrament meeting except to present myself at the beginning of the change. There are six of us in the ward so the young ones don´t talk a ton.

2. There are 10 missionaries in my district.  I love it - it is super fun!  My district leader is from Chile and is super funny!  He talks really fast and when he is mad he mutters stuff in English which is usually really funny.  I have no idea how many in my zone.... a lot.

3. The missionaries I know are awesome!  I have not seen any break big rules.  Like, I have seen some sleep in till 8 instead of 7:30 (our schedule is an hour later) but I don´t really call that rebelious. ;)

4. Have not been to the temple.... Want to!  But we only get to go two times so you have to save it.  We are thinking that we are going to go in like three weeks.  The new movie still has not hit Chile though which is a bummer.

5. I understand all of Sacrament meeting... well when I am listening.  Most of the time I entertain the children of the barrio during sacrament ;)  I love my life!!!

6. I have been attacked by some angry dogs. I HATE DOGS!!  They are gross!  They leave gross things and do gross things in the middle of the road and it does not make me a very happy person.  There is a dog who belongs to an investigator who is crazy -- its bottom lip looks all wierd and it is always growling.  It bit me, but I am over it now.

7. Most people are really nice here.  We have a couple of racist (against Americans) people but then again, people who think I am the coolest thing since sliced bread because I am from the States.  Entonces, I really can´t complain.  We did have someone tell us we were going to Hell because I am American. This was, of course, when I did not undersatand anything that was going on so I just smiled and said "que bueno!"

In other news I love my life!!!!  We are so happy here!

Paola and Edgardo are still progressing beautifully!  Edgardo is still far away but he is reading and calling his kids every night to talk to them.  I love the changes!  I wish I could tell all of the stories of what we heard before to show how much he has changed.  They made us Sushi last night.  It was so fun!!! I really do feel like I am in my own house when I am with them. They put up Christmas already which made me very happy!  I know where I will want to be during the holidays!

Erika is a sweet heart and I love her but she is worrying me! She did not go to church yesterday, but she did go out shopping in the hot sun with her daughters... uhhh, hello!?  If you feel good enough to go to a feria you should feel good enough to sit on a bench for an hour at church!  She has surgery this week and so she won´t be able to go to church now for six months so the progression with her is going to have to be put on hold.  We are going to try extra hard to strengthen her because satan likes it when people stop progressing for a while.

We found Javier again!  I don´t know if you guys remember the cute Peruvian man who was progressing a lot and then suddenly disappeared to go up north.  He came back!  We were super excited!  And in the break, he has been reading the Book of Mormon, and sharing the gospel with other people.... Yes! you read that right!  He have his pamphlet away to one of the people he works with!  Yes!!  The problem is he has been here for three months and may not be able to get a carnet to stay in Chile.  We are going to get his address in Peru if he suddenly has to go home.  We like him a lot he is a good man!  He works hard for his family and is looking for the truth!

Rosa went to church this week!!!  I am so proud of her!  She came in late after the sacrament and left right after sacrament meeting but I was happy!  She is adorable!  She also got her cute (but sometimes lazy) pololo to go too!  I am so proud of her!  I was so happy - I almost screamed in the middle of the meeting!

I love you all! As always I have been studying a lot about faith I found something interesting in Mark 14 this week. Here is what I wrote in my journal:

I am really good at having faith until someone looks at me like I am crazy. I don´t like it when it feels like people seem to have a "point" as to why I might be crazy.  So now, imagine those people around the feet of the Savior when he was being crucified. They had to be pretty sad but to make things worse the other people around him ¨had a point¨ when they said "He saved so many but he could not save himself" ... This would have to be a major test of faith for those around the Savior at that time.  They mockers had a "good point."  It had to have been hard not to think.... Yeah... Why is he not saving himself?  There are enough reasons to doubt and walk away.  My limited mind can come up with a lot of "plot holes" in this story that is so full of "happily ever afters" ... but that is just it ... My mind is limited!  I may see plot holes now, but that is just because I can only see a finite part of the infinite picture.  What the Chief priests were mocking - the "point" . . . . Christ did not save Himself so that He could save EVERYONE ELSE, including the very people who were mocking Him for not saving himself.  Christ did not save himself so that he could save everyone else!  He had not just come to save the few that he healed while he was here; He had a bigger job / purpose that they did not see or understand. The chief priests did not see that because they were just looking at the fact that he was not saving himself.   MICH!!  I love the scriptures!  We need the spirit!  We need to have faith to understand because logic has limits, and the truth does not! 

I love you all! this gospel is true!  My faith is growing every day!  I still don´t get it all and I still hyperventilate sometimes but I am learning to breath!  I love this process!  I hope you are all enjoying it too!  God has a beautiful lesson plan for each of you that is so full of Ah-ha!! moments and love that I can´t wait to see what is around the next bend.  I love you all! 

Hermana Webb

His atonement and plan work!!

I love all of your faces so much! 

First, for the fun of the week was when Vania came with us to be a missionary for a day!  She is such a cutie.  She was baptized two months ago and already wants to be a missionary!  I am so good with that!  Anyway, so she left with us and her random friend who thinks that this life is all just a dream and we all live in hell.  But it was really fun with Vania.  We walked a little bit and the poor girls were dying.  But it ended up being really great because we went and taught a really cool Evangelico but future general authority.  His name is Ignasio.  He is studying right now to be a minister in his church like his dad.  It is this family of five boys.  They are all super loving and kind to us.  We actually love going there because we feel the spirit so strong.  Ignasio is funny because I gave him a Book of Mormon and promised him he would find power if he read it.  He is not looking for power... he is looking for errors.  Ha ha, good luck my friend!!  I have studied that book inside and out and so have a lot of other people who are a lot smarter than me and you are not going to find anything!!  He read from Alma one to Alma 31 until he read what he thought was an error.  The Zoramite prayer!  If you read that chapter it is easy to tell that Alma was not a fan of their prayers but he did not catch that.  He read the prayer with us and said that 'really caught my attention  - I did not think you guys believed this stuff.'  My comp and I were like.... "WE DON'T!!  Read the chapter!"  In the end the conversation was beautiful.  We answered some of his questions and Vania bore a really sweet testimony.  I love her so much! 

Also on Saturday we ate lunch with Margarita Calderon.  I love her!  I just hurt for her!  We taught her a lesson on Thursday and ate lunch with her on Saturday.  She is such a sweetheart!  She is the one who has the son who was killed.  Super fome!  She told us that it is just too late and she is just too scared.  I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and testify of the Atonement over and over!  I obviously have no idea how she feels.  But I remember the feeling after Lauren died.  I remember thinking.... 'wow then, who the heck is God then?!'  It hurts to wonder and doubt!  I hyperventilate sometimes.  I wrote in my journal that I really actually love this process: having experiences, tripping... a lot!, hyperventilating, persevering, watching my faith grow, crying, watching other people´s faith grow, laughing, enjoying, learning changing, and worshiping!  This process is beautiful but I hate the hyperventilating part!  I feel like that is where sweet Margarita is stuck.  She wants to believe but she does not know how to again.  We had this beautiful conversation after lunch with her and her daughter (also very menos activo) about angels and how we can feel them around us.  We especially talked about when people are close to dying.  I was feeling pretty tender after those conversations and was crying pretty hard as we left.  I looked up and realized that my comp was crying too! I love her! We just stopped in the middle of the street and cried and hugged each other! Yup! I am corny!  Ha ha no, but it was really sweet!  My companion is a sweetheart!  She is really good to me!  I hope some day we will help Margarita understand that the Atonement reaches her too! I am so grateful that the Atonement reaches everyone!  It does not matter your beliefs, your mistakes or how scared you are!  His grace is sufficient!  I love that! 

Well I love you all!  This week has to be short because I don't have enough time!  I know this gospel is true!  It requires faith!  It is not easy but it is so worth it!  satan wants to tear apart families and he uses so many good and terrible things to do it!  I am so grateful to be one that fights against it!  I love my Savior.  His atonement and his plan work!  I love being in the middle of it!  I love watching those I love in the middle of it!  Thank you for the love and prayers they make me very happy!! 

Love Hermana Webb

I am so content with His lesson plan.

 

Hey family!  How goes life!?  Mine is so good!  I love the mission.  I don`t know how God teaches people some of the things that He is teaching me without this time where all I think about and all I do is serve Him.  It really changes a person after a while.  Today is my Cumpli mes.  I now have five months in the mission!  Does that feel fast to anyone else?  I kind of feel like I left last week and then again I feel like I left twenty years ago with how much I feel like I am growing.

 

This week was super great!  First of all we went to a temple tour with one of our investigators.  One of the biggest perks of this perfect mission is we live right next to a temple and so when we need help for our investigators to understand what kind of happiness we are talking about here, we take them to the temple.  We took Erika with a lady in our ward and these other sisters did the tour.  The last part of the tour is when the people get to walk in and sit in the first doors of the temple.  It was so beautiful, because Erika could not stop crying.  She was so sweet.   Then she testified of this new life that she is super excited to have.  Then we watched this movie of when Christ was in the Americas. There was not a dry eye in the room.  She just kept thanking us and thanking us.   It was really beautiful!

 

Next for Paola and her family.  Like always, I love them I love them I love them!!!  Edgardo is this weeks favorite! He is changing so much! Richard and Pablo (the twins) are crazy!  Like I wish I could explain how crazy they really are, and before Edgardo yelled and threatened to hit them if they did not behave.  Now he is kind ... he uses kinder words and better punishment when they need it.  In church, I watch him hold his boys and kiss their heads as he listens to the speaker.  He gets this big smile on his face when one of them prays and is now actually helping his wife with all of the chores of the house!  AHHHHHHH I love the gospel!

 

We have only two weeks left in this cambio.  I am super scared!  I really don`t want to be separated from my companion!  She is super great and we have really become great friends!  In fact, when we do intercambios I freaking miss her.  Hopefully I wont get kicked out of my area either.   I really like this place!

 

Dad, I loved what you had to say about the change!  That is my thing here.  God keeps teaching me that now it is time to give it all up.  I always thought I was just fine.  I always thought that since I read the scriptures every day, prayed, and went to church that that was what God expected of me.  I am learning now that it is not a matter of what he "expects" of me.  It is a matter of if I want to like Him now or want be a God -- I have to start acting like one.  Of course that is going to take a life time, but it is also going to take more than just reading my scriptures; it is going to take a complete change in my heart mind and desires.  It is so beautiful, this plan, because God can do that!  He can make me a God.  He can take imperfect me, add a whole boat load of love and faith, mix it all together with some trials and joys and make a very happy God.  I am not saying I am a God!  I know that I am far from it but I can also see that with Christ's atonement (which is basically made up of love for us and faith in us) I can become that person some day!  God is so good at this 'game'!  I know I say that all of the time but I am so content with His lesson plan! 

 

Yesterday my roommate was sick.  So we did divisions and I stayed in the apartment with my sick friend during church.  This turned out to be beautiful!  I read and learned a ton in the house!  So much so that I could not stop crying!  It was super funny!  My roommates and companions just laugh now when I am crying. When my roommate asked me why I was crying and I told her that I was happy she just laughed and bore her testimony about the Lord, which of course made me cry more!!  It was great!  Some day He is actually going to do it!  After a long process of faith repentance, covenants and the gift of the Holy Ghost, I am going to have the desire to do good and only good!  And what I am discovering more and more is that God has a plan and can do it to everyone of us!  He uses these cute things like twin five year olds to soften our hearts and make us turn to Him because we love them so much!

 

I love you all!  I love this gospel!  It is true!  The small things that work together to change us make it obvious that we have a very loving God in charge!

 

Thanks for your love, letters and prayers.  I like lots of all three!!!

 

Love Hermana Webb

Good news is God does a really good job with His awkward servants

Hi family! I love all of your faces so much!

This week has been great and let´s be honest it just got so much better!  I love my life! I love my companion! I love my area! And I love my God! I hope that is not bad to say because I really really mean it!  We have been so blessed here! 

So we are super super lucky and eat lunch in the casa de presidente cada semana. Which is really fun because we have gotten to know him and his wife pretty well. I really love Wednesdays! One day we were joking around about this one time when a neighbor toilet-papered his tree.  I am still kind of sad that I was such an angel child that I was never stupid enough to toilet paper someones tree ha ha just kidding but I got the bright idea to do it to president.  So, one day when we went to lunch and he was not there we not only toilet-papered his tree, we also used his toilet paper to do it.  Ha ha!  He was pretty proud of us!  He told us bien hecho!  Entonces I was pretty thrilled with my great idea!  (This event with a photo was posted on the Mission President's wife's Facebook page last week.)

 

Okay for this weeks drunkard! My companion is a leader so we go on divisions a lot now.  I was with a very fresh from the states 19 year old gringa this week and we were contacting in the street. A girl walked past us very distressed and so we stopped her and asked her if there was anything we could do to help.  It did not take us very long to discover that this girl was very drunk!  We found out where she lived and decided that we better walk her home because it was on the other side of a very busy street.  By this time we became very good friends! She gave me her jacket to use and my companion for the day was holding her hand pulling her from the street so that she did not get hit by the cars. We finally got her across the street and were just going to leave her there because we were really close to her house and she did not want us to go in, when she asked us to give a blessing.  We explained that we cannot give blessings but we told her if she could give us the address of the house of the girl that needed a blessing the elders could come back another day.  She insisted and led us by the hand to where this girl was.  Suddenly were were in front of a catholic church.  There was this huge line with all of these people crying with flowers.... it was a funeral.  The girl she wanted us to bless?  Yup!  The dead body!  Ha ha wait, wait it gets better!  We told her that it is against the rules to go into other churches because we are missionaries but she kept saying now please!   Give her a blessing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost!  My poor companion was pretty confused!  The lady proceeded to pull on my arm crying and yelling please please come in!!  Finally she stopped and said wait for me!  So we waited (that was dumb!)  She came out with the priest and his wife!  This very nice pareja who told us that this capilla is our house and we are always welcome!  We explained to them who we are and I think they understood but our sweet drunk friend did not get it.  When we finally got our arms away we ran the other direction yelling sorry! and left the poor drunk lady crying in the yard of the church telling us she will never believe in us again... Good thing she probably remembers none of it!  To top off our wonderful night we walked for probably one block and there was a nice man peeing in the middle of a square.  Oh Chile How I love you! 

Okay so I am not done! Remember that family that is selling drugs? Yeah we have still been visiting them. Ha ha so this week we discovered it is a family business.  The sister of this lady is selling drugs too!  We did not know they were sisters and we definitely did not know they were in on it together!  It was pretty funny!  So now they are running away ... I guess they were found out so they have to leave.  But we were told by the mission leader to never go back anyway because it has been confirmed that they have all kinds of drugs in that apartment.  I felt so cool!  I definitely feel flaite!(which is like gangster.)

I love my companion! We laugh so much! And now that we can actually talk we are having even more fun!  Before when one of us cracked a joke the other did not understand so we were not funny for a good two months but now we are funny again!! (at least we think so).  She is pretty funny!  You think she is just perfect all of the time and would never crack a joke but she is pretty good!  And now that she is learning English it is even more fun!  I am going to be bummed this change -- it is almost certain she is going to leave. 

Paola and her family are still my favorites! I was worried about Vania for a little while but she is so wonderful!  You can tell satan wants her because she got hit with a lot of really hard temptations right after she got baptized but she is fighting back and I love her!  Josefa is so great!  She is praying now ever night!  She wants to get baptized!  We now just have to convince her parents that she is ready.  I think she is!  Edgardo´s is being a good daddy!  I watch him kiss the heads of his cute twins during church and want to cry!  I am so proud of them!  They are my favorites!

Also we have a new family!  The same family that I thought I scared away last week let us into their apartment on Friday!  Not only did they let us in but they talked our faces off until like 10:40 at night! (which stressed my poor companion out! It was the closest thing she has ever had to a break down). We were a good 20 min. late!  But they are super cute!  They love the violin and love to travel so we became fast friends! 

I studied passion this week.  And of course to study passion the perfect person to study is Ammon!  I love him so much! I love his story and I love his passion! He faints like three times in his story that he is so happy that he just can´t contain it. My favorite part is the end when he faints yet again when he sees his buddy Alma otra vez.  It says that only a truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness can have that kind of joy.  I love that!  I want to be a truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness!  I want to search for happiness but not like the world looks for it how God wants to look for it!  I want to be penitent or repentant and change every day so that every day my heart can be filled with more love and more power of God.  I want to be humble and remember that it is all in Him and never lose faith that with Him the future can always be bright!  Sometimes I need to harness my passion because I freak out too quickly and too easily, but with that passion I can be a better servant for Him!  That is the goal at least!  I am still awkward but the good news is God does a really good job with his awkward servants! Turns out we all kind of are! 

Sorry I don´t have a lot of words of wisdom this week but I think that is a good thing ... our poor ward is probably really tired of hearing from me. I love you all so much! I love that I just get to go for a year and a half and while I am gone every Monday I get to see how God is carefully shaping each of you!  It is beautiful!  He is involved in our lives!  He loves us so much and has such a fun adventure ahead!  I love that He continues to add more!  Every thing that feels taken away will be returned and He is going to just keep giving! I love you all!

Hermana Webb

I was ready to run!

Misión Chile Santiago Este
Cristobal Colón 6824
Las Condes, Casilla 27.144
Santiago, Región Metropolitana
Chile

We love, (love, love) this beauty in our lives!  (And, her darling companion.)

 Richard and Juan Pablo.  I love them, I love them, I love them!!

 (More "I love them, I love them, I love them!")

Family!

Have I told you all lately that I love you!?  I hope you feel it because basically I talk about you guys almost as much as I talk about Jesus.  Don´t laugh ... it is okay because you guys are a big part of His plan! 

My life is so good!  I love being a missionary!  This stuff is so fun!  So basically this week was a lot like the other weeks .... full of ups and downs. 

First for the family of Paola!  I love them I love them I love them!!!  They are doing so well.  Edgardo went to Priesthood and both sessions of conference on Sunday in Sunday dress!!!!  Paola could only make it to one but she was wearing a dress too!!  I wish I could explain them to you! Edgardo is really quiet so it is really easy to misunderstand him.  I was so worried about his progression because he is so quiet.  But he is doing so well!  He listens and he is progressing with his Perfect Teacher!  I love that God is not just a perfect teacher for me!   It makes my job so much easier!  Paola announced also on Saturday that they are going to get married!!!!!!!!!  Edgardo did not say a word he just kept his arm tight around his sweet wife and played with the zipper of her bag with a big fat smile on his face!  So the wait for the nine months continues.  But now they have made the decision!  I am so happy! 

Also General Conference was amazing!!!!  I love them I love them I love them!  I realized what a job these people have to talk in conference. They have to talk to members for years, recent converts, manos activos, and investigators. They have missionaries, old people, young people, children.  People from all over the world in a million different languages!  How do they do that?  But they do such a beautiful job!  I loved every minute!  I am going to print off President Uchtdorf´s talk and give it to every manos activo that I know (which is a lot).   After conference my companion literally had to calm me down.  You know the story of Hyrum when he was told that the saints needed to build a temple and as soon as he heard, he took of running for his shovel?  I always loved that story and for the first time I think I felt what he was feeling.  I was ready to run!  I wanted to tell everyone that the Prophet of God talked to us!  And, that we have his love prayers and counsel!  I was a little too over- excited and might have scared away an investigator.  My companion was laughing super hard because I basically yelled in his face ¨the prophet of God is going to speak to us tomorrow¨ (this was Saturday night) but it is fine ... I will figure out some way to be a normal missionary.  Hopefully when we go to his house this Friday, they will let us in. :)

Other than that life is still great!  We are working hard!  Dad was right about his email when he wrote about all of the ups and downs.  People seem so convinced but then they don´t do anything about it!! It gets really frustrating.  The longer I am here the more I see how much these people need this stuff. It is just obvious to me but then I realize that I have a lot of experience!  Erika is the one that is still progressing.  She has a baptism date but I am not sure if she will actually make it.  She is so great but she does not want to go to church!   People don´t like leaving their houses here ... and it is frustrating! 

I made a cool discovery that I wanted to tell y'all about.  I was thinking about the two deaths that Christ can save us from, physical and spiritual.  This is an excerpt from my journal:

So, at the end of our lives when we stand at the judgement bar of God, Christ will save us spiritually by forgiving us of our sins and satisfying the demands of justice, just as He will save us from physical death by reuniting our body and spirit perfectly forever!  That final act of love, mercy and power, I am sure will be a beautiful moment.  However also just as He lends us our very breath in every moment of our lives, (Mosiah 4) Christ lends us spiritual breath by slowly changing our very nature so our confidence can wax strong in His presence, and we can enter into His kingdom with a new heart; His heart.  Then, his forgiveness of our sins will not just be beautiful but it will be eternal because we will have been changed!  We can no better change our very nature than we can raise ourselves from the dead. We need Him!

I love you all!  I love you all!  I love you all!  I love to hear all about what you are all learning and doing with your lives! Thank you for the letters .... they make me so happy! 

Love Hermana Webb