The more I lose myself in His work, the more I find how much I fit right in His hands!

Family!!

I love you all so much I can´t even explain! We had such an amazing week. I told my companion I feel like on the mission I just want to sit back and enjoy the miracles because they never stop! 

So first of all we have a baptism this week! It is a hija de a recent convert. She is a sweet heart! It has been an adventure getting her to this point but she is so ready for this! We were teaching her about the law of chastity which was one, super awkward and two, pretty hard for her.  I injected in to tell her why we had this law and she stopped me and said (in Spanish of course) I know, I know it is because God loves me.  YESSSSSSSSS!!!!  I did my job!  I guess I tell her that a lot because she told me that that is all I say.  It is true.  My Spanish is still pretty crappy, but it is cool because I can say Dios le ama!!  Yes that is why!  That is why I am here!  That is why we should pay tithing, go to church, live the law of chastity read the book of Mormon and pray!  Yes!  She got it!  That is why I am here is to tell as many people that as I possibly can! That is our religion!  Because Dios Nos Ama!  Muchisimo! Entonces we should be really happy and we should be ready to live the commandments they are only going to set us free!

The rest of the week was one miracle after another. We have this list of the ward.  I am pretty sure there are like 900 people in our ward.  Of course, none go to church so we are out looking for all of them.  That is an adventure.  These people start out as just names on a page and then suddenly they become people with real lives and real desires and real problems and real dreams and real ruined dreams.  We found one sweet women that at the beginning was super closed.  She did not want to talk to us then we asked if we could pray with her and for some reason that just opened every thing up! She is the grandma of the home.  There are two children and their families living in this apartment. We have not met the others but we have an appointment with them tomorrow.  They had a seven year old granddaughter die in their house from Leukemia.  Sound familiar? yeah! Bummer! And the little grand daughter that was with her has autism.  She did not say so but I am pretty sure of it. I am kind of a creeper and watch kids that seem like they have some kind of disability.  She was a sweet heart! Also we found an old bishop!  Turns out no one is safe!  He told us that he loved the church and that he has a testimony but things have... changed.  I don´t know what that means but hopefully we will find out.  Miracles! He may have forgotten God, but God never forgot him! 

Okay so for the weeks chistosos!!  So my Spanish is definitely better! I can understand when I have the spirit super strong and I can talk about almost anything I want.  This week I was trying to tell my comp about bunny bashing (for those of you who don´t know what that is, it is a terrible sport in Idaho where people use bats to hit bunnies until they die.)  That is hard to explain when you don´t know the word for bunny and tampoco for bashing.  Thankfully, baseball bat is bata de baseball; entonces that was easy.  You think we would be better at Charades by now but we are not because when I acted out the ears for the bunny Hermana Maciel thought I meant a deer.  So she had the image of people in Idaho with baseball bats attacking deer.  No wait it gets better.  We started talking about deer and when I told her that there are always about seven deer next to my house she imagined like seven deer heads on our wall because that what she knows as deer.  So basically mom I have an idea!  Take some baseball bats and bash the deer until they die and mount them on our wall! What do you think!?  Oh I love Spanish!

The other chistoso was the drunk man of the week!  Oh wow he was very drunk! He stopped us in the street last night and gave us the gift of some leaves. (I know, very nice right?) Then he proceeded to mumble about I don´t even know.  I understood him.  After a while he came out to greet us.  For those of you who don´t know a greeting in Chile consists of a beso on the cheek.  That is awkward! We can´t obviously beso the men.   As he was opening the gate Hermana Maciel and I tried to frantically explain why we could not beso but it was not fast enough.  He went right to me and stuck his cheek right in my face.  I mean right in front of my face!  I have not been that close to a mans face for a very long time!  I had to practically stick my hand in his nose to help him understand that we shake hands. I was trying really hard not to laugh but when he started to explain to us that he is George by day and Maria by night, I lost it!  I just laughed and laughed!  He was very confused as to why I was laughing but proceeded to dance and tell me jokes about lamp posts to add to my laughter. It was a good day!!  Turns out he was one of our referencias.  Thanks Elders! 

I think that is about it! We are happily just working!  My life is wonderful and I love you all!  God is good to me!  He is teaching me a very specific lesson plan and I find the more I lose myself in His work the more I find how much I fit right in His hands!  I am learning every day to choose faith and not doubt!  No, I am not perfect but I am happy when I choose faith!  I am finding His hand every day!  One of my favorite lines in a song says 'for how can we hope to see his face if we never could see His hand!'  I love this!  Look for it this week!  Find how he is teaching YOU!  Because he is!  He has a plan for you!  But it probably involves helping someone else!  I love you all so much! I continue to stand all amazed at the blessings this family brings!  I am so happy!  God is so good!  This stuff is so true!  In the scriptures, a lot of people ran when they found the truth (read the end of Matthew the last chapter.)  My favorite part is when the two Marys run with a lot of joy and a little bit of fear in their hearts and who do they find on their way?  I am running!  I am running with joy and a little bit of fear because total villa I am not perfect but I continue to find my Savior in my path! Love you!

love,

Hermana Webb

She was looking for more in her life and we have it!!

Dear family!

August 19, 2013

It has been another amazing week in Chile! The first day of my mission my mission president´s wife scared me out of my pants when she said 'don´t worry it does get easier.'  Chuta!! I thought what does that mean!? Turns out she was right.  Not going to lie t-- he first part of my mission was pretty hard but I am finding more and more to just enjoy every day!

This week was a week of finding new investigators! All of our amazing investigators have either been baptized or were on vacation this week which meant to me and my comp it was time to find new ones.  God obviously thought so too because we had 12!!!!! referencias this week (for those of you who don´t know or don´t remember that is A LOT) We usually get... 0.  It was a week full of miracles! We found this awesome lady who just asked us questions and seems really interested!  She is looking for more in her life and we have it!  She has a picture on her wall that she drew that is practically the tree of life vision -- she was pretty happy about that.  Also there are two families that live in our apartment that are super interested and we are going back tomorrow.  En serio, that is a good week!  It is pretty amazing because every time I start to feel a little frustrated because everyone is telling us to go away or come back on the 32nd of August, God always sends a little miracle that makes the day really cool. We ¨randomly¨run into a lot of people we need to run into. 

So my favorite references this week were from the elders and some kid in our barrio.  The elders found this guy who forgot his address ... and so he told the elders his street and that he had a black gate.  So we get this reference, look for the Peruviana who has a black gate... So we go to the street and all of the houses have a black gate ... What do you do?  Because we are missionaries and are super awkward, we knocked on doors and asked if peruvians lived there.  It was a very funny fail. The next was some kids friend in our barrio.  He told us to look for a house with a post in front of it.... Like a light post. It was pretty funny.  We are excited for the next reference that tells us to look for the Chilean who has a nose.

Now that I am good friends with my roommates they are starting to laugh at my Spanish. It is really cute to watch them hold it in after I say something pretty off.  I really love my roommates! They are pretty funny!  This morning I taught them what gringos do to flirt.  Turns out gringos are weird ... go figure.  It is pretty fun to live with four girls all from different countries.  The new Hermana se llama Hermana Del Barrio.  She is super sweet.  She is from this mission though so she is pretty excited to go to her actual mission in Mexico. 

 

To give you an idea of my fun with my roommates: We were walking out of our building all together today and a cute man was standing at the gate. Because we are missionaries we all have to say hello so he sat at the gate and said buenas dias over and over again but then when he saw me, the last out of the gate he said in his very cute Latin Accent "and good morning!"  It was very cute!  I like my roommates!

 

My Spanish this week was a ton better!  I kind of got it into my head that if God wanted to bless me with el don de lenguas He would .... I don't know where I got that idea.  Anyway, this week I finally decided to ask for the gift.  And, WOW!  It worked.  It is actually a little creepy.  I can conjugate better, words come easier, and my mind feels clearer during lessons.  It is cool.  It definitely depends on the day, but I am feeling a ton better about all of it.

I love you all 

Hermana Webb

 

My story of grace

Hey Family!

This week has been absolutely wonderful! I am learning so much! So my new favorite song is this song by I think Steven Curtis Chapman.  It is supposed to be this comparison between angels and people on earth and the point is that this life is hard and we don´t have all of the answers, but something we do understand is the story of grace!  I love this idea!  What is my story of grace?  When I started thinking about it I realized that I have a story of grace every day.  Because we are on this earth we have felt that feeling of total helplessness and then we have also felt that saving power of grace.  I love sharing my story of grace and then helping other people find their own stories of grace as well!  Ah!!  This is my frustrated face because when I put it in words it is so less cool than it is when you experience it.  My story of grace is everything to me but the only way someone would understand is if they actually experienced it.  I think that is why we all need this personal relationship with our Savior!  We all need our own story.  I need his grace every day as I learn to totally surrender myself to Him. 

We are doing great with our investigators. Paula and her family is always a focus for us. Right now we are working with Josefa. She is always in the lessons but she does not pay a lot of attention. She has a little bit of a learning disability so it is super hard for her to read the Book of Mormon. Not that I am happy that she has the problem but I am happy because I know how to help her.  I am so grateful for my Utah State experience! We are reading different stories in the Book of Mormon together twice a week to help with her reading and help her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. When I was her age, I hated reading too and the thing that helped me was the Book of Mormon.  I hope her story can be similar to mine.  It has been pretty fun to see things that I can help with because I am finding that God can use my love for learning out here.   It is fun to see how I can help simply by being myself ... by being Carlie, just like my blessing told me to be.

We have a menos activo (less active) that totally breaks my heart. She is such a sweet heart! She has not been really active for twenty years.  Her son was murdered 20 years ago and in that same terrible year her husband up and left her for another women. She breaks my heart because I think she just did the same thing that a lot of us do; she started with questions that slowly turned to doubts, and now she is reading stuff on the internet and claims she has no testimony. I know she does. She is as sweet as they come but now her whole family has followed after her and all of them are no longer active. I want to help her but I also know it is going to take a while. 

 

We did have cambios (transfers) this week! It was pretty intense and a pretty big bummer.  I am safe and so is my comp, but my roommate se va.  I am super bummed too!  She really is one of my favorites!  Her name is Hermana Cortese.  She left this morning and there were definitely a lot of tears.  She was always really fun to talk to because she was the one who practiced her English the most.  I am so blessed!  I wish you people could meet my comp and my roommates they really are the best! We are from five different countries though, so it is not likely that we will see each other all juntos (together) again. 

I am trying to think of a good funny story for this week. We still teach at the menos activos house that is trafficking drugs because she is trying to make steps to coming back. I don´t know if she is just saying that or if she actually wants to. It is going to be quite the fun process if that is what she actually wants. This gospel is so wonderful but we have to change every day as we come unto Christ. Of course we do ... it just makes sense ... he is perfect and we want to be. ;)

My comps stomach growled like crazy through a lesson yesterday. It was pretty funny. Every time there was a silence it started growling. I almost lost it every time but thankfully the 16 year old daughter started laughing first so I could laugh too. I think all of us - my comp and the family we were with - needed a good laugh so it turned out good.  I have never heard so much growling in one period of time.  Also, I had a converso resente fall asleep in a prayer.  It was pretty funny.  I was praying, which means -- trust me, the prayer was really short, because p.s. I can´t talk in Spanish! And she fell asleep anyway.  My comp and I sat there wondering what we should do. I was thinking of every sad thing on the planet that I could think of so that I would not laugh. Thankfully I made it outside.  She is this sweet lady who has a lot of meds in her right now.  She is super tiny and just like Gogo!  She even has the same towels in her bathroom and a bright pink bed spread!  I love her and her house basically! 

Life is good, family! I am so glad everything is going so well.  I love the stories!  I always laugh out loud when I am in the internet place --- good thing everyone already thinks I am crazy.  I am happy! Love you all!

Love Carlie 

 

God is so much better at all of this than us!

I love you all! Have I told you that lately!? So this week has been a party! No but really it has been pretty exciting. It started out pretty rough! I definitely am really bummed about my Grandpa! He is really cool and I was not ready for that news! I thought about sweet grandma all week and prayed that all would go well!

But then this week ended absolutely beautifuly with the baptism of Vania. I really love her family! Like a lot! I am so happy for her and her choice to get baptized. We are really trying to work with the parents.  I know I don´t want to solve all of their problems but I know the gospel can at least help with all of them. 

Isidora told us this week that she does not want to get baptized into any church. When she said that I felt like some one was breaking up with me or something. I was super bummed! Hermana Macial is smart though and saw right past it. She asked why and she answered flat out because of her dad. So we are going to talk with the dad. Not that we are going to tell him he should let his daughter get baptized but we are just going to convert him too!!  :-)  I guess the misionaries have not talked to him much so our goal is to figure out what is going on in his head. 

Mariana is still half and half. She is the daughter of a recent converet, Laurdes. She is a sweet heart and has a testimony but is still feeling timid about the idea of baptism. This week something went wrong in their family. I don´t know what because everytime we go over there Lourdes has left the house and she does not want to talk about the problem over the phone. We are anxious for more news!

Okay and now for the funny parts of the week.  First, we were not sure that this was happening so I did not write about it but now we are positive.  We have this manos activo that we love!  She and her mom always have sweet answers to our questions and always let us in to their apartment.  It is this miracle because neither of them work but still have food to eat and a place to stay... By the way, that does not just happen. Every two minutes we were there, there was a new knock at the door with a different rhythm. The daughter would go to the door with a tissue and shut it really quick after she talked to whoever was outside.  Weird, right?  We did not stop teaching though; we continued to have this wonderful spiritual moment talking about Jesus and having faith in Him. Ha ha, yeah she is trafficking drugs!!!  I am not kidding! The other day she tripped on my backpack and all of her drugs fell out of her hand!  Oh dear... not really sure what we are going to do about that one. 

My poor companion is going crazy. I think it is because she cannot communicate. There are times where she will just laugh and she can´t stop. I don´t know why. It is pretty hilarious though. Everyone around her (including me) stare at her and wonder what is so funny.  When you can´t communicate for a month, I guess you go crazy.

I am happy to announce I don´t have any "pulling an hermana Webb" for this week. My Spanish is definitely better every day!  It is pretty wierd to feel my brian finally switch to Spanish.  I am starting to think in Spanish!  That makes me really happy!  It is one reason p days are kind of hard because I never think this much in English. Hermana Maciel has a "pulling a Webb" though! She was talking to someone through a gate. We were looking for a manos activo named Rosa.  Hermana Maciel asked the person if they were Rosa´s Hermana, and the person responded no... her husband. It was definitely a good awkward moment of my day. 

Teaching my roommates English is my favorite part of the day! It makes me feel so vindicated! They are so cute! They come running into our study room with their eyes closed and say some phrase to me in English and then open their eyes hoping it was right. I am so blessed with awesome roommates!

This is definitely not easy, but it is definitely worth it!  I am learning so much!  I read some of my journal today and I was reminded again that God was in charge the whole time and He is and has always has been my perfect teacher!!  (Even when I am stubborn.)  I feel a little frustrated because this whole 'write you guys once a week' is so not sufficient!  I have so many things to tell you all that I never have time to tell you!  I have learned so much in the last month - I am a totally new person!  Everyone should go on a mission!!  You learn so much about everything!  I am happy to say that I am better every day!  The decision is It is not worth it to try to keep our lives our way because God is so much better at all of this than us!  We need Him!  I love the scripture in Hebrews that talkes about a new heart!  I love getting a new heart from my Savior!  I am learning what that means.  It is not just something that is one really awesome spiritual experience.  It is a total change every second of every day.  My desires are changing, what I think about is changing, what makes me happy is changing!  It is such a beautiful process to experience but it is also hard.  I testify that this path is better!  I was so afraid to take it but I am happier!  I find joy in things that I can have forever not things that are only for a day or a year or this life.  I love my Savior!  Every day I give him all of me and he sanctifies my offering. He is the answer just like He has always been.  It is not easy because it is a constant battle.  Satan does not want this change.  I feel like the people in Mosiah five who had no more desire to do evil but to just do good. It is hard to keep that attitude but when I have it I find the most profound and lasting joy!

Love you all! Thank you for your examples and prayers! I need them! 

Love Carlie