I am finding His hands FULL, even though I always come with EMPTY ones.

Zone Conference, 9/11/14

This week was good and really crazy!! I thought we could start with the laughs! This sector is really really hard, but God in His goodness has sent us a lot of really fun things to laugh about.

So this Thursday we had to go to a zone conference.  Ask me if I like Zone Conference ... No!  No, I actually do like the learning part a lot, but usually our zone conference is 7 hours (which is the same size of p-day!)  Anyway so I was going with a bad attitude and did not really want to go ... Don`t do that!  We were going to get there late because we were only going to get there 30 minutes early, so we were running like crazy people to the bus, and I tripped. When I say I tripped, I mean I face planted!  It was like a slow motion trip and I learned a lot of things in this moment ...

1. Your brain can think a lot of things the few moments that you are falling, 'stinking idea to us go early!  Why does the president want us to go early?  I should have a better attitude about this!  I think I am going to hit my face on the dirt!  I think we are definitely going to miss the bus!  I wonder what the people in the cars next to me are thinking.  

2. When we need to do things for the Lord, we should just do it with a good attitude from the start.

3. Trying to catch buses is a bummer

So we got to the conference, and I was bleeding all over the place and could not move my hand.  But because we got there late, we did not have enough time to get it cleaned up before we went to take pictures.  After the pictures the Area Seventy that came to visit us wanted to shake each of our hands, and of course I DID NOT HAVE MY NAME TAG!  So I desperately looked for what ever hermana I could find who had two name tags, and thanks to cute Hermana Fisher, I realized that she had three, one for her scarf, one for her shirt, and one for her jacket!  I love that woman!  So, I stole one of hers, and tried to hide the name from my President and the Seventy with my hair.  It worked!  He had no idea!  Then in the middle, i sang in the zone conference with 4 other missionaries,  ... they had changed a part, but don`t worry I am good at faking it and I think it sounded really good! 

After the session we were just laughing about my crazy day. When my other companion heard about it she just laughed and said that it sounded like me.  So, I thought that my problems were over until I tried to get on that terrible bus again!  It was me, my comp, and one other companionship that lives in my house.  We were laughing about the events of the day and the bus came ... but it was super full.  A lot of busses had already passed full because everyone was rushing to their houses.  (It was September 11 which is a bad day in Chile ... all of the jovenes come out and start destroying things.)  So, finally we gave up and started trying to get on but I got left behind .... It was so funny - the doors closed and my comp started yelling that she would get off because she did not want to leave me alone, but the bus driver was a jerk and did not let her off, or me on.  So I was left alone with 6 other elders.  Let me explain to you the awkwardness of the situation.  President is so strict about elders and hermanas that if I say more than hola elder, I start feeling like I am breaking rules.  So, now I was stranded, but I felt more comfortable with them than alone.  Everyone else was freaking out about the situation but I could not stop laughing!  I watched my companion yell "Let me off!"  And, I watched the elders faces which said something like "What are we going to do?"  And I just laughed and laughed!  I called Hermana Wright in tears because I was laughing so hard and she just laughed with me.  She asked me what I was going to do and I responded I had no idea.  In this time, the Elders bus came and one of them wanted to get on but the others yelled "no!, we have to protect the Hermana!!!!"  It had to be a pretty funny site of them yelling "what do we do do we get on?" "Do we call the hermanas?"  I am sure the other people watching thought we were pathetic, because when my comp came back, she hugged me for about ten minutes. We were only separated for like 15 minutes, but that is like 15 years in companion time!!  It was a great day!  And it gave great material to make good jokes for the rest of the week which really kept our level of happiness up. 

So that is my happy part of the week. Ha ha ha -- I taught my companion the word "spastic" this week.  I told her that the definition of spastic is that day ... It was great!!

The other good news of the week is our cute menos activa came to the 18 activity. 18 de septiembre is like our 4th of July.  They are so fun!  They put flags everywhere and everyone eats meat all week!  I love Chileans.  The stake did this big activity and Y_ got to meet a lot of members, and they were really great with her!  The other good news is G_ went!  They told us they were going to go to church, but they did not ... sigh, but that is okay because we are going to keep bugging them!  The other good news of the week is P_ is going to get baptized in the stake center during general conference so we will be there!  We were really excited about that! Hopefully her date does not fall!  It would be really nice to see her get baptized!

As for cool investigators that are progressing .... nope! We are trying so hard but this week was a bummer. Everyone that looked liked they could have progressed dropped us ... It is funny because the feeling of an investigator dropping you is like a boyfriend breaking up with you.  And they say that it is not us, it is our message  -- which makes it even worse! So, we are back to the drawing board!  We are going to CONTACT all week!  We have hope of finding someone!  I firmly believe that if there is someone ready in our sector we will find them because we talk to EVERYONE!  So we are excited to find them! 

This week I gave a talk in church IN Spanish!  And even better news, they UNDERSTOOD!!!  So that is good -- that means that I learned how to talk in Spanish and, how to talk slow (the much harder task).  I found something really interesting.  When we make covenants with God, we have more access to the Atonement.  Why is that?  I never really understood why.  I found a really beautiful thought.  When Christ came to his disciples again by the sea of Galilee, he told his apostles that if they really loved Him they needed to feed his sheep! Sometimes I am a little bugged at how fast we invite people to get baptized but now I understand that it is because they need Christ and His Atonement!  Covenants give us things like the Holy Ghost, which bind us to that living water that Christ always invited us to drink!  We need covenants and we need to keep our covenants! There are too many broken families, lost lives, and confused people to stop this great work!  That means from both ends of the veil!  I love that dad is obsessed with genealogy now too.  He sent a quote that mom has been reading to us for years freaking out about it!  There is something really beautiful about helping people make covenants with God and then helping each other keep with it until the end!  I really love you all!  God lives!  I don`t understand a lot of things that He is doing but I am finally choosing to not be afraid about it!  I trust him and I love learning under His sheltering wing!  I am choosing faith and not fear!  And, in that faith, there is a lack of knowledge, but I am not letting that lack of knowledge turn into fear and doubt, I am enjoying the journey!  It really is fun when we stop being so afraid of every little thing!  I am so glad that He is in charge!  I trust in his hands!  And, like mom says ... I feel like right now I am running to the empty tomb, and even though there are not very many people who want to follow me there, I am finding it empty (as he said) EVERY TIME!  I am finding His hands full every time even though I always come with empty ones!  And, I will continue to try showing what it really means that it was empty for the next two months! I love you all so much! I am so happy to hear from all of you! 

Hermana Webb

Mision Chile Santiago Este
Cristobal Colon 6824
Las Condes
Santiago, Region Metropolitana
Chile

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