I got to go to Primary this week!!

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

This week was great!

First my birthday was awesome! I think it was one of my best birthdays ever! My comp was absolutely adorable!! I love her! She did a lot for me! They sang for me, she made me pancakes, we celebrated again in district class, and we ended the day with my favorite P____! She makes me so happy! She basically made me come to her house on Tuesday, and I did not understand why until I remembered that it was my birthday. That cake in the picture is bigger in real life than it looks. It was pretty fun. They all sang to me and we had great time. I continue loving that family so so much! After we went home and my companion made this stupid excuse to make me take off my backpack and give her my camera. (I should have figrued out that some thing was wrong.) So she took a bunch of random pictures with me and my balloons and then we went back to plan when suddenly the door for the bathroom opened up and the other girls in my apartment were there waiting with a bathtub full of water. They all three picked me up and dumped me in. They have been trying to do this to me for months because Weeber (the ten year old boy inside of me) usually finds dumb excuses to get them wet. Basically that means I always win all of the water fights because I have a ten year old boy inside;) So they were jealous. But they definitely had their revenge. After they let me shower and when I came out they had the mousse waitng for me. Don´t worry I fought back that time. We all ended covered in mousse. It was a pretty fun birthday!

Every thing else is pretty chill. We did not have a huge week. The fun day was when we went to see I____ again with Y____. That was really beautiful. The first thing he said was 'are you the girl that has two weeks to get baptized?'  We all laughed and said yup.  He was pretty adamant about getting baptized in two weeks. He said that now is should be one because last week it was two. We were able to set a hesitant date with her but she is still working a lot so we will see how things go. He was really sweet about you guys! He asked us about our family. I got to tell him a little bit about each of you and Lauren. He was really sweet about you mom, he asked your name and when I told him about you and what you said, he said 'wow, Melodie is a beautiful name, send my love and my greetings to her' and then he continued to ask about each one.  He wanted me to send greetings and love to each one.  He really is an amazing man!  I wish you guys could meet him!  We talked about eternal families and our hope that he can see his daughter again and I can see Lauren. It was a pretty beautiful conversation. There are always angels in his room and I am pretty sure they were both listening. It was a really beautiful experience. 

B____ are doing well. We visited them on Wednesday and it went pretty well. The mom is really not ready but the dad is. It is frustrating when one is ready and the other is not, because the other drags the ready one down a little.  But we talked about baptism and it was beautiful. They did not go to church on Sunday but we are hopefully going to do an awesome FHE this week with the bishops family so hopefully that will help. 

E____ prayed with his wife and twins!!!!!!!! That is a miracle of a life time! I am serious that man never ever prays out loud!  But thanks to his sweet kids he did it!  I love those twin boys!!!  According to P____, he was watching TV and his kids said that they had not prayed yet. E____ tried to say he was too tired but they would not hear it.  And P____ took the opportunity to say you have to teach your children. She told us that it turned out to be this really sweet experience because they held hands and each said a little prayer! I love them! 

M______ is progressing a lot. He is still smoking but he really likes the docrine we have to teach. It is a little awkward some of the things he says but we're just learning that that is dear old M____. He is a good man. He understands some eternal truths a lot better than I do and I like learning from him. 

I got to go to primary this week! It made me so happy! They are having a hard time with classroom management. I know that stuff! I offered my help in a meeting and they put me in right away!  I hope I get to continue escaping from relief society to the primary.  It is so much more fun down there!  We had fun even though they made fun of my accent;)

E____ is really sick. We went to see her today and she has a lot of pain. The poor thing is in a hospital that is pretty bad too. It was nice to visit with her. It is so hard because she thinks that God will take away her pain if she has faith so now she thinks that she does not have faith. I am so grateful for doctrine that says nothing about that! I am so grateful that we know that God does not give punishment. I am grateful that we have a God that loves us so much that He did the opposite. He sent His son so we could avoid the punishment of our own sins. He put the punishment on His own perfect Son so that we would not have to go through it. That is a God of love! It is a bummer when we have to go through hard things on earth but He has a plan! 

I think that is it. It was a beautiful week. God lives! He has a plan for us! He is so good to us! He really is the perfect teacher. I don´t really have words of wisdom, just that He is so good! That He is involved! I always loved the phrase in the scriptures that says that He has the power to make us holy. But now I love it even more because I am experiencing it!  The process of becoming holy is long, hard, rewarding, beautiful, and full of love!  Sorry, I know I am corny!  But I love it.  I know I am far from what I want to be, but I am so blessed and grateful for all of the miracles He sends me along the way to help.  He is good!  Trust Him! 

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week! I continue praying for you! 

Hermana Webb

God takes my awkward offering ....

(Happy Birthday, Carlie!)

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

This week was another week of miracles! Really though, God is so good to us!

First for this weeks funnies!  I always get myself in trouble because I respond to the drunk people on the street. This time they started talking to me and at the end of the conversation in a mix of Spanish, English, and nonsense, one yelled "Bendiciones!" (Blessings!) I thought he said "Religiones!"  So I yelled back laughing 'Yeah, Religiones!' They thought that was pretty funny!  But to make it better, all of the time now when I run into one of them that was in that group, they always say "Hey! Religiones!"  Turns out I was the confused one that time;)

Now for the good stuff! P____ and her family are as cute as they can be.  It is so hard to not live in their house! They just make me so happy.  The second I walk in there is something really beautiful going on.  There is always something to learn from them. My favorite story of their family this week is from P____. She has been having a really rough time after her vacations. She had a nice break from all of the crazy things that happen in her house and when she came back everything was still waiting for her, but this time with a vengeance.  Her kids are all really sick. Whether that is mentally, physically or sometimes even spiritually (We are working hard to fix that one;)) Anyway she said one night that she was crying and needed help. She was praying to God and opened the Book of Mormon. She was so excited to show us the next day what she opened up to.  It was the prayer for the sacrament bread. She read that to us the day after and then again. This time she explained why she liked it so much. She took the bread to mean the bread of life. That if we feast upon the bread of life which is like the scriputes we are going to have all of the blessings that it lists. It was really beautiful to hear her think of that verse differently than I had thought. That verse always had this rigid interpretation for me because obviously it is about the sacrament. But I was wrong! Of couse the bread does not have to mean the sacrament bread. And how beautiful is it that God used that scripure to help her feel comforted!? She also told us the story again of when she knew the Book of Mormon was true. She said that after I asked them to pray about it, She did and she felt like she did not get a response. Then she was in this help group for her daughter and everyone was talking about their kids with special needs and suddenly this women stood up and said, I am Mormon, and I just know that there is someone here that is looking for answers, and I know that this Book of Mormon is true! What!? She had told that story before, but I obviously did not understand it. You don´t get a much more direct answer than that! 

And now for B_____! I love them!!!! They are doing so well. We were running super late to their lesson because we were with M____, but on the way we thought really fast about what date we were going to give C____ to get baptized. (don´t do that! We should have planned in advance but God is good to us and gave us an answer anyway.) We both agreed that we felt really good about the 13 of April. So we went to the lesson with that date in mind. When we got to their house the first think C____ said was I have been thinking a lot about a date, and I feel pretty good about the second week of April, which is the 13 of April!!! It was awesome! God is totally in this!  And that man is connected to God! It was really beautiful! Then we had a great lesson!  It was really cool because at the end I got to testify again about you guys. It was one of those experiences that I LOVE as a missionary. The moments when it is so important what you say that God feeds you every idea. The moments where every one goes silent because what you are saying is exactly right and you are even surprised at how wise something sounds as it is coming out of your mouth.  I am not an eloquent person, and less in Spanish, but God takes my awkward offering and helps us all learn from it. Even though it is weak and small. It was a really cool ending to the lesson and the spirit was really strong. M__E___ is still a little behind but she knows it is true. It is going to take extra work with her, but I am excited for her to see the change that happens when suddenly her husband is a priesthood holder! 

Mom has been asking me about I___L___. He is the nice man in the hospital that bascially changed my life in a few short moments. I have not written about him in a while because they told us that he left. So we thought he was not there. He was there the whole time. Which is actually a bummer because that means he has been there for the 9 months that I have here in Chile. That is a long time! But it was cool for us because we got to go and see him again. My new comp had never met him. We went with Y____ again. It was beautiful!! The spirit is just as strong! The first time we went he thought Y____ was another missionary (he cannot see). But this time he found out that she is not baptized. It was adorable!! He had some of the most beautiful things to say! He said to her "Y___ you need to get baptized and you will quickly find that it is the best decision that you have ever made in your life, and then he told her that when she gets baptized she will not just be run of the mill Y___ anymore but people will see a difference. Then he bore this powerful testimony about how it has changed his life. And how he knows he chose the right thing when he got baptized. Then he gave her two weeks. After that he said: "Y___" and when she looked at him he had two fingers up. It was awesome! My favorite part was when we talked about his sweet daughter. The spirit was so strong when Y___ asked him if he feels his daughter and he said "oh no, I have seen my daughter!" The way he said it made the spirit so strong I could not move. I felt other people in that room! It was really beautiful! We were all crying by this point. It was a really beautiful day. Y___ walked out saying, "okay, chiquillas, how are we going to do this? I have to get baptized!" Too bad she has to go to church still before she gets baptized. She has to work and it really is pretty necessary if her and her son want to eat, so we are going to keep praying that she will finally find a job that is Monday to Friday. I know it will happen! 

And to top this week off, R____ finally went to church! Taylor, I used your lesson with the brownies and told him to just try the gospel! I told him that I can explain how rico these cookies are all I want, but you are not going to know until you participate! It worked! With the help of the primary president (Who is awesome!) He came to church! I hope he feels the blessings this week! 

Anyway family I love you a lot ... now my letter is really long and I have a lot of people to write. But I love you all a lot! This gospel really is true! I am learning a lot about giving our awkward part and then watching God do the rest. It is really beautiful! I get so frustrated because I am not a perfect missionary! I mess up all of the time! I know I am not who I want to be yet, but He still loves me and He keeps working on me! He blesses me with people who change me ... who give me a new view of this world. And to make it even better He helps me fall in love with people more and more every day and so the changing process just becomes something full of joy! I love testifying of you guys! It feels so good to see how you are all progressing! God is working in our family! He is using our covanants to bless us! I love watching Him do it! I hope you guys can feel Him doing it! Because He is! He is good! He lives! He loves us! Thanks for everything family! I love you so much!

Hermana Webb

Free to love in a way that means it will never end.

(The birthday gifts arrived a little early .... Happy Birthday, Carlie!!)

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

This week was great! We had a lot of success.

The first big thing to report is P____ and her family came home!  Finally!  I am so happy!  It was really fun because we were leaving Y___ one day right after a cita fell through and I looked up and there they were!  It was so cute!  The twins took off running and so did I!  It made me so happy! I hugged them until they were blue in the face.  But I don´t even feel guilty!  We went straight to their house!  They had a great time in the South and even went to the capilla once out of their three weeks. Which I think is pretty darn good!  They are the same good old family that I love. V____ brought dresses that her cousins gave her so she could were them to church, and J____ continued talking about all of the fun she had at EFY.  I love them so much!  We taught J____ the Plan of Salvation again because we have to teach all of the lessons again after baptism and once we got to the part about death she said 'that is why I have to help my family get to the temple! So we can all be together forever!' Last night we did a family night with them that was a classic family night.  We ate cake for P____´s birthday and we had a lesson from J____.  After, we played a fun game with all of them together in the same room.  It was super cute because even the twins were with us.  R_____ was on P_____´s lap and P_____ was sitting next to me.  I just put my head on the table and cried, I was so happy!  Then I looked at P_____ and said 'you know I love you, right!?'  And, he smiled and said: "yup!"  It feels good to be with them again. 

For more good news, Family B_____ is doing a ton better!  I felt like we should just pass by for them on Wednesday.  We were in divisions.  So we went to their house and they were home and let us in. We talked to them about prophets.  It was awesome because C_____ said that is really interesting because I always thought that if there were prophets before we should have prophets now.  Yes! We do!  Then we talked about one of the things the prophets invite us to do is family night and family prayer.  We are really trying to teach the whole family unity thing because that is what they really need.  It was an awesome lesson and the spirit was really strong.  And to make it even better, they went to church on Sunday!  Yes!  C____, I think is ready to get baptized. He is so awesome.  They had a question about callings and we told them one calling that all men and women have is home and visiting teaching.  He loved that idea!  He was so cute because he told us 'I love that because sometimes I want to help but I don´t know how.'  He is awesome! 

The daughter of MC is doing well but I am afraid she is too comfortable where she is. There are too many people in this world who like to use that as an excuse. They say well... "Everyone are sinners. and so why do I have to change my life upside down for your church?  I have faith and that should be enough right?"  We went to lunch with them this Saturday and it went really well.  I hope we can help them go to church again.  M_____ told me that if her kids go she would go.  She seemed hopeful when we told her that we were visiting her daughters house.  It is still really beautiful to watch people who refuse to change until it involves their family.  Then they change. 

We had something weird happen to us recently. We contacted two ladies at different times who gave us false directions to their house.  We did not know that and went to both of the houses anyway. The first house was of Sandra. The lady that came out was NOT the Sandra we met on the street, so we asked for Sandra but it was still a Sandra that lived there. The exact same thing happened with Maria.  It was super weird.  Let me tell you how awkward it is to go to a door and ask for Sandra and when they tell you that they are Sandra and you don´t believe them......

Elder Ballard gave us a challenge in the conference that has been quite the challenge (especially with a companion who is counting down the hours until they go home) He wants us to contact 20 people every day!  It has been really hard.  But I have actually found it an answer to prayer.  You know how people always say that God always answers prayers but never in the way we think?  Yeah, I felt that one.  We have been praying and fasting for new investigators.  I thought God was going to just be really cool and put all of these prepared people in my path and tell me exactly the ones I would have to contact ... I was wrong.  When we prayed and fasted for more we were just told to contact more.  And it worked!  We have new investigators!  But it was not because we have not contacted a bunch of people who did not want anything to do with us.  (We have.)  But that is okay. God does not just give us things handed to us on a silver platter.  We have to work for it sometimes.  This is a good example.  God says you want new people to teach?  Then talk to more people!  God has guided our feet.  But now He can guided them a little faster because we are moving faster.  He is smart that way. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about sin. I know that sounds funny, but as missionaries we come in contact with it a lot.  Not that the people we teach are vile sinners, but we are here to help people overcome sin.  Both mom and dad have talked to me a lot about vices or addictions or chains that bind us.  So did Hermana Wright in the interview I had this week.  Sin is just chains.  God wants to free us.  He wants us to have agency to choose what we really want.  He wants us to be free to love and to love in the way that means it will never end!  satan wants to bind us.  It is interesting because here we see all of the tricky ways that satan has that bind us.  Phrases like: "we are all sinners that is just the way I am."  Or, "Oh but don´t worry about me I already have faith in Christ."  "I don´t go to church but I still pray with my family and teach them to do good things."  There are so many things that are working so well here and it makes me so sad ... because I can see that they are chained.  But other people don´t understand that because they have not experienced the freedom of being away from the chains. Now I understand why Nephi and Moroni freaked out so much in their writings because they saw it happen.  They saw how much sin hurts people.  Moroni spends like two pages telling us to please be careful between knowing what is good and what is bad.  I thought it was redundant at first until I realized how many bad things that satan has made to look good and how many good things that satan has made to look bad.  Which is what makes the Atonement of Christ that much more beautiful!  He is good!  There are so many paths that will only lead to pain but He can save us from every one!  He loves us!  Moroni promises us that if we can just cleave to the good we will become the sons of Christ (Moroni 7).  We will become that new creature (Mosiah 27) The one that is born again through the blood of the Lamb.  And that new creature will only be possible through our Savior.  He is the author, the hope, the possibility, and the motivation for becoming the new creature. Which is why we become Children of Christ. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers, love and letters! They make me so happy! We need your continued prayers.  I am so happy here on the mission!  I am going to love the next change here!  I am falling in love with Apoquindo more and more every day! Thanks for every thing! 

Hermana Webb

Contagiously optimistic because of the brightness of our faith.

Monday, March 3, 2014
Family!!

How is everyone! I love you all so much! This week has been great! We have had lots of miracles. Today is the first day back to school and it was weird ... we had to like wait to cross the street because there were too many cars... what!? That like never happens! 

First off familia B____ continues to stress me out and continues to progress. We have a lot of lessons with them during the week but then they don´t go to church!!  It is frustrating me so much!  I know it is boring :-) and that it is three hours but you would think that after all that has happened in their lives they would be willing to give the capilla a try. Their story continues the same. 

M_____ continues the same too. Sometimes I want to bop him on the head and sometimes I want to give him a big hug.  He continues to fight against smoking so please keep the prayers coming. 

The miracle of the week is the daughter of Hermana M__ C____. MC is the one who has been listening to the missionaries for like 10 years. (she has been inactive for like 12). Her daughter never wanted anything to do with us but now suddenly she has invited us to her house, she wants to feed us, and she wants her whole family to listen to us. It is weird. But I am happy with it! I have no idea what we did but I will take it! They are really sweet and I am super excited about how much she wants the missionaries. Her daughter has already expressed a desire to get baptized but I have so already learned my lesson on that one.  I am not even going there until both mom and dad are going to church.  But I have high hopes for that family.  The only bummer is the dad is racist about gringo's. But that is okay I will use my charm and good looks to convince him that not all gringos are stupid idiots that buy what they want when they want. :-) 

M____ is our other little miracle. She was my third convert and I thought she was just a simple cute teenager, but it turns out she is a lot more complicated and comes from a family that is a lot more complicated.  But it has been really beautiful to see how much this gospel has changed her life! Wow! The way we think is just different. Because she thinks more in eternal family mode, she cares more about what happens with her family. She cares more about her mom, and wants her dad and sister to be more united with her. I am so proud of her. She did not just listen to us, she has changed! I really love her!

CC still just makes me happy! I love her so much!  She thinks about others before her self. And she is just sweet. She never complains even though she has every reason to!  We learned from a member that less than a year ago she almost died from cancer. We have never heard a word of it. And I want you to all hear her pray. There is no way to describe it except it is obvious that she has so much faith that when she prays she is talking to her Father in Heaven that loves her a lot!  Words are just not enough. 

The week we had a big conference with all of the missionaries in Santiago. There are almost 1000 of us! We all crammed into a capilla for three and a half hours!!  It was intense!  I got to see lots of people I love.  Annie was there! That was exciting.  She is doing great!  And then random people from my high school and our stake were there too. That was really weird! One of the Lathem triplets was there!  What!?  (See the above picture with Elder Latham and Hermana Jones.)  It was a big group.  And to make things more intense we were in trouble.  He got mad at us for not teaching the doctrine of Christ well enough.  I really liked the part on repentance.. I love repentance! I am learning so much about it now. When I was little I used to hate "Sunday Mormons" because I thought they got all of the blessings for doing half of the work. That is so not true! God expects us to change! He wants our hearts Monday through Monday! He loves us and has a plan but if we only show up once a week that plan is going to be slow and we are going to miss out on lots of fun!  As missionaries we like to do the fluffy stuff.  We like to say oh we need faith and then you can get baptized but that is not all!  God wants us to change!  Our hearts certanly are not going to change if we just sit in our house saying with a smile oh it is okay ... I have faith. 

So at the end we had a challange. We were supposed to think of one thing that we were to do better. There was a quote that he said that I loved that said that we should be 'contagiously optimistic because of the brightness of (our) faith'. That was my goal.  It has been hard this week because we had to drop a lot of investigators which was a big bummer.  I don´t like dropping investigators.  We have the truth!  They just don´t know it yet!  It is hard to be optimistic when people are so hard.  So I am trying to find that delicate balance between having a firm faith that God loves me and is involved in the details of my life but not falling to the side of thinking everything happens for a reason.  It is an interesting thing that I am learning from experience. That is something I have learned a lot here. There are just some things you won´t understand without experience.  We need it. Words don't work.  People always told me the mission is great!... But they could not tell me why. And it makes sense! Have you ever tried to explain how fun it is being a daughter, or a mom or a wife or a sister, or a aunt or a sister in law or all of those in boy form?  It does not work!  We have to experience it!  ... Like Taylor´s brownie lesson. I think that is why repentance is so important.  I really do believe that we can have a real hope that focuses on Christ!  My roommate said something really cool to me this week ... We were outside on our balcony looking at the stars and she said, 'I am learning to look at people the way God sees them.  At first you might see a drunk man but God sees each of them as His son or daughter that could one day be a king or queen!'  It was really beautiful!  Each of us have a path that could lead us to the Celestial Kingdom!  God has a way to change each of us.  

Each of our paths may be a little different but each of our paths will lead us through faith, repentance, covenants, and MOST IMPORTANT the atoning love and power of our Savior and Redeemer!  What a blessing it is to carry this message!  I love you all so much!  I hope you have a great week and can stand as a witness! 

LOVE YOU!!!!!!! I continue to pray for all of you! 

Hermana Webb