Working my face off is the least I can do after all he has done for me!

Wow!  The weeks keep passing quickly.  Your letters made me so happy!!  I followed my same tradition in reading the letters and crying, but this time I was in a busy KFC!  I now understand why people think that Mormons are so weird.  I was reading the e-mails and could not stop crying/squealing/laughing!  Well, that's one reason people think I'M a weird Mormon, I guess!!  I can't help it.  I just love my family!

So this week was good. We are working hard like always and trying to press forward. The bummer part of this week was P_.  He dropped us.  That was a bummer!  We got to his house for his appointment and he had us talk to him outside instead of coming in which I knew was a bad sign.  Anyway, this time we came over with M_ the CR who is AWESOME! He is so great and bore a beatiful testimony.  Anyway, AGAIN the spirit was super strong! AGAIN I cried and he cried and AGAIN he put up his wall.  He kept telling us that he just did not think that religion was the answer to all of this problems.  I wanted to yell in his face ... I am not trying to just give you a religion!!! I am trying to give you the truth!  I am trying to help you understand and accept the healing power of the Atonement in your life so that you can feel the true hope of an atonement that really is infinite and really does reach to where you are!!!!! I am trying to help you make sacred covanants with God that can bind you to God and eventually bind you to your whole family and God! How do you not understand!!!??  But don`t worry, I did not. He told us that it is not what he was looking for and that he did not even want to try it because it just did not look appealing to him.  So we left, and I cried!  It is the same as last week!  

I wish I could explain the power of the Atonement!!  In a Steven Curtis Chapman song (1 Peter 1:10-12) ... it says that the angels (that have not lived yet) long to understand the story of grace!  Maybe they know what God looks like because they are still with Him and maybe they know a lot of things we don`t know but what they long to know, is the story of grace that we have come so familiar with.  Dad wrote me a little about this. Those little things that have built up to be a lot of big things, when we realize how fallen we really are and how sweet it is to be saved by his all-powerful hand! 

I thought about that same idea this week with Y_.  She is doing GREAT!  She came to church this week and I think she liked it!  This week we are going to tackle the Word of Wisdom... that is going to be fun!  But she is a sweetheart!  We really love her.  My companion prays all of the time and says that she is grateful for the existence of Y_.  And it is true she helps a lot!!  We talked about the Plan of Salvation this week.  She is great but it is really hard to talk because she talks A LOT but we were able to talk about how after this life we will still be with our famlies.  She has this joke with her husband who always says NO I signed up for only until death separates us.  But she has told her daughter to mix their ashes;) so they are together even after death.  She told us that she thinks there has to be something because we don`t finish our work here.  There is more to do.  I kept thinking about that.  I started thinking about Lauren and how NOT done I am at being her sister.  I am not saying I was a bad one, but I feel like I am a better one now.  I started thinking about how frustrating it is that I can`t love her better now.  I realized again, that I had fallen.  I realized again that I needed Him to lift me up.  I was not doing well.  I was really missing Lauren I wanted to send her an email that had lots of love and lots of !`s and I was bitter that I know that there is not e-mail that is powerful enough to get to the other side of the veil.  But, The atonment is.  Once again God taught me and helped me see the reality of my ETERNAL family!!!  I don`t have to start enjoying the power of His sealing power until I die! Just like I don`t have to wait to enjoy his perfecting, or enabling power until I die. ... Like mom said I can participate in His bread of life EVERY DAY!  I can`t hug Lauren, and I can`t send emails, but I can continue loving her more and more everyday, and I can continue learning more and more from and with her everyday!  What a blessing!  She said it right when she said that we don`t have to wait for our happily ever after.  I know that sounds weird but I feel her learning and progressing with us. It is a total bummer that I can`t hug her until her eye balls buldge, but I can participate in some of the promised blessing NOW! God is good! He will let us finish every job! and I am so grateful that being a sister, daughter and maybe mom and wife is not a finish-able job!!!  I am up for the task! 

The other fun house this week was A_ and his family.  A_ is adorable!! He is the CR who is staying with his sister and their family. He is so great! The family is three boys, the mom, the dad, and the brother of the mom.  So it is hard to get into the house because the mom has to be home. (mission rules.)  Anyway, the mom left and we had to leave running too. But we still had not eaten pizza with them. It was so cute the entire family ended up eating outside on the front pourch (which is extremely small) so they could be with us!  I love that family!  It is frustrating because the entire family is pretty interested except the mom.  She is REALLY catholic, so the dad just kind of follows her even though he does not really like it. But we will get them someday. They like it when we come over so that is a good sign. 

And last but not least, we have SOMEONE PROGRESSING!!!! Her name is A_.  She is really great!  She is VERY open to the world.  She is very politically correct ... which is why she started listening.  But she is praying and reading the Book of Mormon.  Now her mom is listening and we get along great with the whole family. This week we are going to make Guatemalan food (I am learning how to make Guatemalan food it is SOOOOOOO good!!!! I love my comp!!!!) So we are excited about them. They are just starting so there is not much I can say. 

Other than them we contact all day!!!  We have found some potentials that look like they could be pretty cool so we will see what happens.  Please keep praying for us.  We are going to need it!  We are working hard and I am learning how to endure to the end.  It is true that satan seems to attack even harder than he had before.  But God seems to be even more willing to help us understand.  I am learning so much about His goodness because I experience it everyday.  He is so good to us!  I love you all so much!  I wish I could express, but once again I am limited to only capital letters and exclamation points!!!!  I look up to everyone!  It is so good to be part of this family!  I feel like I fit and I LOVE it!  Thanks for everything!  Thanks for the letters, the prayers, and thanks for counting down the days with me!  I promise to work my face off!!!!  It is the least I can do after all He has done for me!  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Hermana Webb

You cannot really taste how freaking delicious the cookie is unless you put in the other ingredients!!

How are you all!? I love you all so much! I have a tradition on Mondays that all of my comps and roommates are used to.  I print off my e-mails, I run up to my bed, and I sit on my bed, read, and cry like a child and then usually end on my knees totally overcome with how much I love my family and how happy I am that they love me back, ... and then I say to myself, "wow self, you are really, really, really corny! -  Heather would be so embarrassed " but, then when I think about Heather, I start thinking about all of you people again and ... I start crying... again.... I am a mess, but you all love me that way so there is not much to do. ;). I followed the tradition today.  I love reading your letters and knowing that God is protecting you just like He is protecting me!

I have good news! We got into like 4 houses of investigators this week!!!!  That is pretty good! I was pretty content! The new investigator this week is P_.  He is this 25 year old who is very sad. He lives with his family, and is studying to do something really smart, but the bummer part is his dad died about 3 months ago from cancer! I HATE CANCER! It really does hit everyone.  It does not matter if they are saints or devils, old, or young, or rich, or poor, famous or unknown.  He sounds like he was an amazing dad.  We had this amazing lesson about God`s plan for us. We talked about all of the joy that P_ had felt with his family and how this is something that was meant to be and eternal!  We talked about how God had planned that because He loves him!  The spirit was way strong and me and him cried a couple of times. Anyway, at the end of the lesson once again I was sure we had him!  So my comp invited him to read the Book of Mormon when I thought the spirit was really strong.  I guess not, because he totally told us no!  He did not want to commit to anything except to pray.... prayer is great and everything, and we can learn a lot but it is like the flour in a cookie.  You cannot really taste how freaking delicious the cookie is unless you put in the other ingredients.  We will see how it went ... maybe he was hungry enough that the prayer will taste good to him.  It is so hard to have the answers to so many of his questions and have him not take it!!!  That is one of the hardest parts of missionary work ... Watching people die of thirst but when I get to offer them the living waters through Jesus Christ ... they say things to me like 'ummmm no me nace' (ummm it just does not come (born) from me ... or that it isn't important to me)  How could you say something so dumb!? You are dying of thirst! Take the water! I think that is what the brethern wanted to say this last conference. They have tasted the water, and we can too! I loved that we don`t even have to just take their word for it that drinking from the living water is great. We can try it!  And it is true - it is great! 

We also taught another man named P_. He is a really nice man who always wants us to come over, but it is really hard for us to find a hermano at the same time that he can. But we finally found a day that he would be home and could find a member.  Sadly, the day we went something was wrong.  It seems like he was really stressed and he kind of took his frustration out on us.  The spirit during the lesson was more like the spirit of contention. But it was really sweet, because suddenly I felt the Spirit tell me a question to ask him.  He is always helping people and so I asked him WHY he did it. P_ was frustrated that God would give us agency (or the possiblity of failing,) and then give us rules that He expects us to keep.  So I asked him why he is always helping people.  And he told me that it made him feel good.  So I asked him if there was a time that he could have helped someone and he did not do it. I told him that that is what God wants us to free us from ... I told him about my experience with God and how I had asked for Him to help me give more because I was not a giver like I would have liked. And it was so cool because the spirit came back and we could explain that God wants to FREE us from selfishness.  It is not just that God is trying to find reasons not to save us.  We can`t love like He wants us to be able to love if we are trapped in selfishness, anger, or laziness.  I know I have already gotten on this soap box, but it is so freeing to put aside the chains that keep me from running to him!  And, I love testifying of it and promising a new view of everything to those who are learning about who the Savior really is!  Because even though we have to wait for the perfect bodies that he will give us through His perfect grace when we are resurrected, I don`t think we have to wait to start leaving the chains behind NOW!  I still stand by the fact that we can`t change and leave behind those chains without HIS help, but I believe with all of my heart that he plans to start changing us now!  He plans to start freeing us from the effects of a fallen world in the moment that our knees hit the ground!  It is a hard process and usually I make the same mistakes every week but like they said in conference, as I take the sacrament, and keep relying completely and wholly on HIS Grace, I really do start changing!  He is good!!!!!

The other fun news of this week is Y_ (the MA) came to church!  She came to the first session of Saturday Morning.  She loved it!  It was so cute because she was so nervous that she went to the barber before so she could look cute.  She really is so great!  She made a lot of friends, and she plans to come next week too so that is pretty fun! She has been a tender mercy of this sector. We found her contacting, so in the end it kind of works. 

Conference was AMAZING!! I love our prophet and apostles! They really are amazing people!  I also really liked seeing Aunt Holly and GREG!?  (A cousin.)  That was weird!  I did not know he was in the choir.  I just yelled it out ... hey Greg! in the middle of the conference when I recognized him.  That is fun.  Tell them all I love them and tell Aunt Holly that she looked hot!  During the first session, I just enjoyed the spirit of God telling me over and over again that those men and women really were called of God.  I love being part of His church!  I felt like people of Moses listening to Moses speak.  How cool is it that we can listen to a prophet who has authority from God!?

I love you all so much!  Thanks for everything!  You guys could not make me happier!  I know this is totally a sinner thing to do but I am reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy excited to see all of you!  Six weeks to go!  I love you all and thanks for everything!  I testify that God really is good and He really does have plan to save us even when it looks impossible.  He knows how to save our hearts, and He does it exactly in the way that WE need it!  I love Him for it!  And I love all of you!  And, I am sorry Heather that I am so corny!!!  ... It just spills out of me - I don`t know how to stop it! 

Hermana Webb

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

51

I cannot express how free I feel

How are you all doing!? I am happy to say that I am actually great! I am exhausted, but good! 

This week was harder than ever.  Sadly, we had less success than we had the weeks before (if you would call the weeks before success:))  But, we continue forward!  Not a single investigator let us into their house this week... So you can imagine that 10 hours of proselyting time basically always in the street.... that is a long time in the street this week.  I told my companion like five movies and she told me an entire series. (I learned that Mexican series are really really dramatic and quite entertaining he he he he)  We were getting pretty discouraged ... We talk to everyone except boys that look our age and are attractive ... I am afraid of them. I feel bad that they can`t listen to the good news I have.  I am working on getting over that fear.)   They have started figuring us out ... when they see us coming, they either walk faster, duck into another street, or stop doing whatever they were doing outside of their house and run inside. I did not know that a message about Jesus was that scary. I guess it is quite a bit of commitment. 

But I really cannot complain!  God has been so good!  There is a song that all of the missionaries listen to here that I always make fun of because the chorus is about 'wanting trials'  ... like "Give me mountains to climb because they will make me better than I was" ...  Let's be honest.  Mountains suck ... but they have given me time to decide who I want to be.  A lady in our ward who I love a lot said that sectors like these make missionaries either greater or worse.  So, I have a choice ... God is good! He has raised us higher, which I like because He is smart with what He does! 

So as for updates on people I don`t really have any. The thing that did happen this week was we went to the temple with A_ and J_! They are recent converts.  J_ got baptized a year ago, and A_ got baptized a little over 5 months ago.  He is so great!  A_ is the uncle ... he has this website of hundreds of names from his dad side. We took names to the temple and it was a really beautiful exspeirence. He even let us get baptized for his mom and grandmas. He is so great! I really love that guy!  He makes a great member and got excited to start gettting ready for when he can go to the other part of the temple.  J_ is the nephew.  He got baptized first in the family because he felt that it was true.  It was pretty cool.  He is pretty strong in the gospel even though he is only 14 and the rest of his family is very Catholic.  We had fun making fun of him and telling him that to get into the temple he had to smile (he almost NEVER smilies.)  It worked out GREAT when the temple worker asked to see his smile before he could enter.  Poor kid ... he got assigned to very happy missionaries;)  My companion is even more smiley than me! 

As for the greatness of God! I am soooooooooo happy!  I wish I could explain all that God has done for me this week!  This has been a little intense! I don`t even know where to start.  I had experiences every day this week that told me He is personally aware of me and how discouraging it is to not have anyone want to listen to us.

On Friday when I studied, I pulled out the patriarchal blessings of ancestors mom sent with me.  I read 5, and out of the 5, 4 of them have the EXACT SAME advice that my blessing has!!!  (Grandpa Webb, Uncle Vergil, Nora Welch, and Arza Hinckley) The advice was to be humble and prayerful.  Right together ... just like that!!  It was so cool!!!  So, I was freaking out a bit.  As I read their blessings, I just felt this overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the power of sealing families together.  I really feel like I know these people!  The veil really is thin and they really are important people!  I can`t help but think of the team of Gogo, Nora and Lauren.  I don`t know how you could possibly reject the gospel coming from those beautiful women!  I don`t think it is possible!  (Then again, we are pretty cute too, and people still say no ... hee hee hee hee ....  just kidding!) 

Sunday was the best. The week ended and we did not make our goal of getting into one house!  We were discouraged and frustrated and the other missionaries in our apartment had a golden family just fall into their laps.  I felt the jealous giant come out and I had a hard time even telling them I was happy for them because I knew I was not.  So, finally I followed my patriarchal blessing advice. I humbled myself and I got on my knees. IT WORKED!!!!!!!  Mom felt impressed to send me her talk of Easter again and it was definitely from God.  I felt his strengths replacing my pride and anger.  I wish I can explain how sweet it is to stop thinking of the reasons why I deserved the golden family and start enjoying the people I love and just be happy! 

Christ really frees us!  He does not want us to have to be tied up in thinking why we are better or worse; He does not want us to be caught up in an angry heart; He does not want us to be trapped in our own excuses that stop us from doing good; he does not want us to be tied in lies that may look true but really never were or will be; He does not want us to be stuck in doubts.  He wants to free us!  And He does! I really testify that Christ can overcome these terrible weaknesess that have been a part of us for way too long.  I love the scripture that says that we should lay aside our chain and run!  Running to him is the most freeing feeling I have ever felt!  It is real!  Mom wrote about the quote from Joseph Smith that he felt trapped in pen and paper.  Words are not enough to describe!  Christ frees us so we can love better, purer, and deeper!  I love loving!  Loving everyone!  It is real!  The joy he wants us to have comes from loving!  It looks like I am so trapped!  I walk around in circles all day and I cannot even go home and take a nap when I am tired, but I cannot express how free I feel! I feel more free than I ever have because I love deeper!  I hope stronger!  I believe with purer intentions, and I choose wiser!  All because Christ gives me his love, hope, faith, and wisdom!  I feel free! I asked God to take me to His Son as Taylor said, and it is working!  The Atonement can help us overcome even our weaknesses that are most ingrained in our personality! 

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week! Use the Atonement! The scriptures really do mean ask and ye shall receive! They have piles and piles of beautiful attributes just waiting for us to ask with all energy of heart. (Moroni 7)

I love you all! And I plan to love you all more and more every day because God is good!  I love letting Him take over! 

Love 

Hermana Webb

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

51

He really does have a plan; we just have to decide if we are in or not.

OK, first of all, can I just say how much I love you all?  I think my favorite part of this week was all of the fun pictures. Oh my heck taylor and heather you have two very cute little boys. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to play with that freaking toddler I cannot even express myself.  I know that trunky is super bad, but I have to admit I am a little trunky to kiss Evan's cheeks, and play with Alden.  They are pretty cute.  Other things, I am not ready to go home and face, but playing with that little boy and holding that baby look really, really, really, really good to me!!  Thanks for all of your letters!  I really, really like them! I always end up crying with joy as I print off and read your letters ... they are so fun!

How are you all!? We are doing great! This week was the fiestas patrias in Chile! They are crazy about their fiestas patrias. EVERY house has a flag, EVERY family BBQed their faces off, EVERY business closed down for the entire week. It was pretty funny.  But I really like it because they are really patriotic. Not like the 'I am just better than everyone else', but let´s celebrate our país!

The good news of fiestas patrias is that we get to eat lots and lots of BBQ the bad news of the fiestas patrias is that there is NO ONE in the streets.  Missionary work for Violeta Cousiño is contacting in the street so when we did not have any one to contact we just kind of walked around ... I walked in the middle of our busiest street and we just laughed because there was not even a single car.  They all leave, because it is against the law to open businesses. We ate SO MUCH MEAT!!!!!  When Lauren is resurrected, I found where she should poof herself to in September ... CHILE!!  I think I have eaten half of a cow in these last couple of days and it has been very fun!!! 

The sweet experience of this week was the last moment of the day.  We had a really hard week with lots of time in the street, and few moments talking to people.  We had both passed through a harder week, and we were both feeling pretty discouraged, but it ended on one of the highest notes of my mission.  We had been passing by a Menos Activas house probably at least two times a week, and every time the woman opened her door and said to us that she could not let us in because she was too busy.  But yesterday she told us to come back at the end of the day.  So we waited and came back for our last cita.  And she was waiting for us.  Every time we ring the doorbell, her son always comes out first.  When we got into the house I caught right on, ... her son has been diagnosed with Aspergers.  He has the most famous symptoms that there are. But this little boy was extra special. He is barely four and he is ADORABLE!  I fell right in love with him.  We could not understand much when he talked but then his mom showed us how he reads.  She kept saying 'my son knows how to read', and I kept thinking maybe she just thinks that because she is the mom, but really ... this little four year old could read!!  My companion pulled off her name tag, and asked him to read it.  Her last name is Zelaya!  He read it perfectly!  He read mine perfectly also.  And it was even cooler because the spirit was really strong, when he did it.  It is like he finds his voice through words that he reads.  It was really beautiful!  We were freaking out!  There was this huge spirit in the room, and it was really, really beautiful!  This woman got baptized, then got married to a very messed up Mormon who was addicted to drugs.  She did not know about this problem until he called her one day and told her.  Long story short, this man abandoned her and so she got divorced and is now living with a really good man (B_'s dad) and is afraid to go back to church, because she is not married and her kind of husband does not want anything to do with the church, but is a good man.  We sat and talked about the gifts that children have to give her strength.  She is a school teacher and finds a lot of strength in the kids she teaches.  She continues super firm in her beliefs.  She taught her cute son to pray, and the spirit was way strong everytime he prayed. (He needed to pray to start and to end;))  She became a real hero for me.  She told us that maybe she just was not strong enough and she let herself get taken by the current.  But, we got the beautiful chance to testify to her that Christ´s power is real, and that she was strong with him.  I felt the power of kids with Aspergers or Autism again and it was beautiful!  My companion started crying when he read her name tag perfectly and looked at me and said "is this why you want to teach children with special needs?" I responded with a BIG smile!  They are connected to heaven!!!  You feel it!  It is just really beautiful!  Their world is different from ours. There was an Elder that blessed her after her husband had left her who, after (or during the blessing) started crying a lot and said that she would have a baby and that the baby would be a boy and that he would be extremely important for the church.  So we have the goal to get those two back in church.  She told us that her and her husband have sworn to not talk about religion because it makes them fight, but B__ made the difference!  He wanted to pray with his daddy, and when he askes his daddy to do something he is there and ready.  So when he called his daddy for prayer, daddy came running ... now they have a tradition.  I love little kids!  They help us be closer to heaven!  It was a really nice personalized tender mercy that I got to enjoy.  At the end the mom asked me to help Bruno give the prayer.  What a blessing!  Those are moments that I just won't ever forget! 

This week was really interesting to me.  I am about to finish the Book of Mormon.  What an intersting book!  I find something in every verse!  That is why I know it is true.  Something that I found really interesting is Mormon and his realistic optimism.  I say realistic because Agency is something real and he understood that!  This can create real problems in this world.  His world was the worst!  He was with a people who had become the worst that we can become. He saw wars, and sickness all of his life, but in the beginning, middle, and end of almost all of his letters, he always expresses hope!  He understood that his situation was terrible but he chose to be faithful to the end.  I looked for why he was so good at that and I came to the conclusion that he knew who Christ was and he understood his power.  Sometimes it is hard to feel overcome with a lot of agency and not a whole lot of good choices to go a long with it.  It is hard to hear people use silly excuses for why they should not have to listen to us and for why we don´t need to worry about them.  We respect their agency and continue, but it is never fun to say okay bueno que tenga un buen día igual.  I don´t like leaving them.  But I love how Mormon felt.  He always always trusted in the possiblity of repentance, and the power of the Savior.  I discovered that this week.  There are SO many people that tell us no every week, and every week God continues giving me hope.  I don´t get it because I should not have hope, but he keeps showing His good hand in what we do.  He respects the agency of His beloved children and keeps working with us.  I love being an instrument in His hands!  Look at how He respected the agency of the Nephites, and the Book of Mormon still came forth.  It works the same here. A lot of people don´t want to listen to us.  People don´t really want to help but His work moves forward!!  There was one night when I had listened to a lot of success of other missionaries, and I felt crappy because I felt like I was working double, and getting less than half.  So, I went to my roof (I am a spoiled missionary, remember?) outside my bedroom window, and I went to talk to God.  I went out with my sleeping bag, and like mom said in her gratitude thing, I went to tell Him that He was not being fair, and the only words that could come out of my mouth were words of gratitude.  He filled me with his love, and gave me the strenth to do it all again.  He is a good Father! He really does have a plan; we just have to decide if we are in or not.  And, once we decide that part and keep deciding it every day, we can be full of hope, even in situations like where Mormon was.  We can see that life is hard, and we can understand that we have a challenge ahead but we can rejoice in the hope that we find when we are "clasped in the arms of Jesus." (Mormon 5:11).  What a blessing!  God is real!  I know He is because His plan keeps working!!  I love you all!  And, I love to see that His plan is working in your lives too!  I testify of His power!  Like Mormon said in Moroni 9, I recommend you all to Him!  He is good!  He really does have the power to save, and strengthen us! 

Love you all

Hermana Webb

(Who she is trunky for  ...... :-)  The rest of us, she can wait for.)

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

51

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

51

A pile of evidence that the church really is true.

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

51

This week was great!! We worked hard and were pretty much dead on Sunday night. We were both pretty pathetic at like 6:00 on Sunday.  We had walked almost all of the week and we got a little punch drunk, but we made it and after a nice p-day of sleeeeeeeeeeeping, we are ready for another week!

This week there is not much to report again.  We are working really hard trying to find new people to teach.  We did a special fast to find people that are really interested in our message.  I feel like we are sooooo close, but we are just not finding anyone who is really interested. We have a lot of great investigators that are really wonderful, kind people who tell us that we can come in but then they don`t progress, and then they usually don`t let us in a second time;). 

The highlights of the week was a grandma, and her grandaughter. The grandma has five kids and one of her daughters is a recent convert, and so that is how we got into the house.  The daughter that got baptized is adorable!  She is in a different ward, but she is so great!  The grandma and the grandaughter both sat down to listen to us.  We had a great lesson, and we happened to be with a great youth in our ward that had a perfect story for the grandaughter.  The grandaughter was the best!  She is only 12 but she listened intently throughout the entire lesson and started reading her "home work" before we even had time to leave the house. The grandma is C_, and the grandaughter is A_. 

The other fun moment of this week was a MA that we found. He is this 29 year old kid that lives alone and is super rich. He lives in the richest part of my area, alone. He is an electrical engineer, and has been a member all of his life.  He came here and just did not go because he did not have friends. So we went to visit him and we started talking about his story. He told us about his testimony, and how much he loves to study the scriptures. He told us about his testimony and about his other ward. When he finished talking I just looked at them and said. and so.... I just have one question, Why have I never seen you at church!?  And he just laughed and said laziness!  That made me bummed!  I think there is obviously more than that, but it was at least something easy to fix, GET UP!  I hope to never let my sheets become a problem big enough to keep me from enjoying the sacrement.  This guy is awesome and I don`t think that it was just one week he was active and the next he was not.  It was one Sunday when he did not go here, and then another there.  satan is so tricky!  How could he ever make our warm bed look more comfortable and appealing than renewing our eternal covenants with God?  I have no idea!  But he does it to a lot of people.  he is good at lying!  Our MA sadly did not come to church yesterday, but we are going to get him next week!  He knows his covenants are more important. 

This week I learned a lot about myself. We spend a lot of time in the street, and because there are not very many people to talk to we get lots of talking time in-between with my companion. She is a really cool person.  I am learning more and more how fun it is to love people!  I used to think that it was easier to be angry and try to punish a person for doing something that you did not like but I am learning how much better it is to get over it!  I love just not worriying about it and moving on to loving them! 

The second step to the gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance. I love this step! It is really beautiful how God teaches us. Repentance almost becomes natural. In the bible dictionary it says that repentance is changing your view on God, the world, and yourself.  Or, in other words, learning! Taylor and I have been talking about faith and how we build it over time with experiences and things God teaches us.  In the last letter he talked about how we decide weather or not the church is true, and then we work within it to find what we believe.  Then he talked about how God takes us to the Savior.  I love letting God take me to the Savior through that exact process of learning, changing, and seeing the world more like He sees it.  It gets frustrating sometimes, because we talk to so many people everyday and in the 20 seconds we have their ears we try to explain to them that we want to show them that God wants to take them to Christ and how He plans to do that.  But they don`t get it!  This process of having God guide my beliefs and what I learn is not easy but it is totally worth it.  It actually gets frustrating sometimes when I don`t understand one piece of the puzzle and I think I had gotten it all wrong.  I really like John 6 because Christ says that God takes us to him, and this week I could see how he was taking my wonderful family and me to His beloved son. I read how Taylor helped Alden sleep in the big kid bed, how Sara, is preparing to get married, how mom expresses what she learns in the scriptures, and how dad learns from being a bishop, and I saw how God is taking you all to Christ!  That feels good!  What more could I want than God taking my family to Christ so you are never lost (which is what it says in John 6).  Then I watched Him do it in my life.  I go to bed amazed every night at the comments from people I love, the scriptures I read, the experiences, and the feelings during prayers that all fit together so well, that, as Taylor says, my pile of the "for" evidence that this church really is true ... just starts piling and piling up.  Sorry you all may need to read Taylor's and my letter from the last couple of weeks (yes Taylor, you totally have permission to share whatever you want of mine.) But I just love being carried to my Savior through my Heavenly Parents (as mom would say;)).  It works!  Look for it!  The things people say, the scriptures you read!  The precious experinces that you will have this week.  They will all fit together to see how God is helping you see the world differently!  I love you all so much!  Thanks for everything!  Have a great week and please remember that I am praying for and loving each of you!

Hermana Webb

God knows when we need a hug, a scripture, or a big chunk of meat.

Family!!!

How are you all doing!? I am doing great!! This week went by before I even had time to realize what was happening. 

I got hit with a cold really hard this week and spent time flat on my back.  I went crazy being cooped up in the house, but I am better now and it is great to be back to work.

We continued this week trying to contact everyone and their dog. It is funny because now it is like word has gotten around. When people are outside watering their yard and they see us coming, they turn off their water and run inside their house. Their loss. ;)

We finally were able to enter a couple of houses that we have not been able to enter for a long time. There is a less active who is called Z_.  She is a sweetheart. She owns her own clinic and works a ton, despite the fact that she is very sick with cancer.  I think she is trying to escape from her sickness through working.  It is interesting how satan uses our trials too.  he says to us when we are attacked that if we can just cleave to any thing that is not Christ, we will be happy.  he is happy if we cleave to work, the internet, video games, or even feeling guilty. he just wants that thing we cleave to, to not be Christ, because he knows that through Christ we really will find salvation.  After we asked a couple of questions and talked for a couple of minutes, her friend came to give her a message, and she disappeared... it was kind of awkwrd. We did not know if we should just leave, or stay there. In Chile it is SUPER disrespctful to not say goodbye to someone with beso before they leave your house, so we just kind of waited there until it looked like it was going to be way too much time and gave up... It was kind of weird.

The other family that we finally got to see was the G_ family.  They have health, financial, and lots of other problems, and they never go to church.  We got to talk to the mom alone which was really good.  We only had a couple of minutes with her too, but we read the awesome scripture in 2nd Nephi when Nephi says that Christ is mighty to save, and we talked about how Christ was mighty to save her from the hard situation she is in.  She just cried and said 'I am just so stressed and tired'.  Life is just so hard and I ache to give these people more to hold on to.

And finally, P_.  I love P_!  She is adorable!!!  Remember that P_ is F_'s friend.  We had a couple of lessons with her a couple of months ago and she was progressing a lot.  She is the one that totally looks like she would not want anything to do with us because of the way she appears, but who listens and is obviously looking for answers.  She is so great!!!  We had not seen her for a while because we could never get it to work out but we finally saw her last night.  She is so great!  She had prayed to see if the church was true and recieved an answer. Now she wants to get baptized and she wants her mom to listen too. We were so happy for her.  She makes me so happy!  That is the good news.  The bad news is that she lives outside of our sector.  We always taught her in F_´s house.  So we were bummed, but did what we have to do and passed her on to the Elders yesterday.  We are still going to see her all of the time and help her but it was hard to pass her on.  She is from a different ward, so there was really no other choice. It will be better because now her mom can listen to the lessons, it is just hard to sign her off to other missionaries.  But, I am really greatful for how the church is organized.  F_´s mom was jumped the other day.  In less than 6 hours after word got out, her visiting teachers, home teachers, the bishop and a couple of other people had all gone to her house to make sure she was okay and give her a blessing.  That is pretty cool!  I love that the bishop of my ward knows his responsiblities, and God with all of His love has numbered us!  He knows where His sheep are and he has lovingly put men and women who have HIS authority to help us.  I think that is pretty cool.  So, hopefully the other ward is as AWESOME as mine is for P_. 

I really love my companion.  She came from a hard background and has only been a member for two years, and it has been hard for her to adjust to all of the changes it has brought to her life.  She has all of the faith in the world, but was a bit discouraged this week.  On a particularly hard night this week, she was really sad and I just felt this powerful feeling of God's love and awareness for her and I tried to help her to feel it.  I wanted to help her so bad and I had no idea how.  I got up to hug her and she flat out told me that wouldn't work.  I thought of the story of Enos in the Book of Mormon and I went to read part of the story to her when there was a knock on our door.  It was the other Hermanas in our pension who had just come back from a big BBQ with a tupperware full of meat to give to my companion.  You need to understand that my companion LOVES meat ... I think she talks about it every day.  (And, for some reason - people in this area don't eat a lot of it here, which is weird for Chile.)  I had teased her because she had told me earlier that she was praying for meat and I said that God doesn't usually send meat to people.  I was wrong, and I'm happy I was.  She was so happy about this meat that she just started bawling.  My companion didn't need a hug or a scripture, she needed meat.  He knows us so well and He knew that what she needed at that moment to know He was there watching over her ... was MEAT.  It was a pretty fun scene.  I just sat on my bed smiling and staring at her while she bawled her eyes out eating her meat.  I love having her for a companion, and all of my companions, ... because it is a front row seat to seeing how God works in other people's lives.  He is really good at what He does.  

That was my week. I am writing you all from Apoquindo this week, because I came to visit my old companion. She is so great!!  It was really funny to watch two of my companions talk about me.  We had a great time, and I feel really trunkie for Apoquindo, but that is okay I am over it.  Life is good in La Riena.  God is real!  He knows just how to work in our lives.  He knows when we need a hug, a scripture or a big chunk of meat.  He works in his own mysterious ways, if we just cleave to Him.  But, that is the trick, we have to cleave to Him.  We have to take the risk and give Him our lives, our hopes, our fears, and our dreams.  And, He really does take us and make us something new!  I love being in His hands!  I love being perfected by Him!  I hope to always trust in Him because He is so much smarter than me and I love just letting Him show me the way.  I love you all so much!  I hope you have a great week! 

Hermana Webb

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

51