Monday, April 24, 2017

March 26, 2017

Well this week was great. Loved it. Love you. We had a lot of fun being in a trio with Elder Miranda and Elder Slade. But now my beloved companion Elder Miranda headed out today to go to his real mission in the Gilbert, Arizona mission. He will be missed. I learned a lot from him and had an awesome time with him. This last sunday was the coolest day in my mission. We woke up and just had a good sabbath morning, had some church music playing, we took our time getting ready and we headed out the door at 8am to pick up our investigator Brother Alfredo. So we took a tricycle down to his house and picked him up. Then we got a text from our other investigator to go pick them up so good thing they are neighbors with Brother Alfredo so we just stopped by there and got them. This is where the interesting part comes in. There was us 3 Elders, 4 investigators, and the trike driver. Now a trike should really only take 6 people including the driver but there was 8 of us hahaha. So we put all of us on the trike like a puzzle and Elder Miranda and I hung on the back of the trike as we drove to church haha it was pretty awesome. That is what one of those pictures I sent. Then we arrived to the meeting house and we were all so happy because we had 3 investigators at church which is pretty low but good for this area. Then I was a part member family that we teach popped into my head that lives right next to the church, so us 3 walked down to her house to remind her about church and she was out planting something and she looked at us and said "Oh dang it I forgot! Then she ran into her house to get ready but she ended coming with her investigator daughter. Then 2 members brought their friends so there was 6, what a blessing. Then as we were sitting in sacrament meeting we got a text from this young mother we found tracting yesterday, she said she was on her way with her kids! We were shocked haha so she came a lil late but still made it! So we ended up with 8 investigators at church:) It was so awesome I was so happy. The only thing that upset me was that there are always a lot of members that come in late and sit in the back and are SO loud and we like cant even hear the speakers, so I was just praying that our investigators would at least feel something, I was pretty upset. But we made up for it in our Gospel Principles class. I taught the lesson. It was about Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 18. It was okay I thought considering I had no preparation. I enjoy teaching. I hope I can do some teaching in church when I get back, that is something I really love to do. Faith is the principle of action and power. Everything we do has to do with faith. Would we turn on the computer if we didint believe it would turn on and work? Would I type these keys if I didint believe that they would make letters appear on the screen? But church was good, very rewarding. Goodness gracious time is coming to an end. I gotta make the best of it. I seriously love the people here haha they are so awesome. I might cry my eyes out when I leave. I seriously have made the bestest friends here and I wont forget them, even though I might forget their names because I have learned I absolutely suck with names but life goes on. Hopefully Elder Slade and I can do somethin with this area and leave it awesome before I head out. Anyways love yous have a great week:)








March 20, 2017

Today has been a full day so far it has been a lot of fun. We woke up at 6 and went to a members house to play volley ball and they fed us breakfast, it was delicious. Then we headed straight to the church to play basketball. Since having a basketball court right outside our house we play basketball a lot and I am starting to really like it haha, I kind of wished I played in highschool then I would actually be good right now. But the members here in the Philippines love basketball and so does the whole Philippines. Its like their favorite. But a lot of them dont have running or basketball shoes so you will see very very often people playing in flip flops or just bare feet, I have tried it and its hard haha but the people here are dang good even with flip flops.

So transfers are tomorrow. I will not be leaving this area I will be staying. My companion got his visa so he will be heading to Arizona at any given moment. So tomorrow we will gain one more companion and we will become a 3 sum as they call it here. His name is Elder Slade, he is from St George Utah. He is pretty new as well. He is batch mates with Elder Feiloaki. He will most likely be my last companion. So it will be fun and we will do some good work.

Since I only have 12 weeks does anyone have any ideas on some things I can do to work on to accomplish, like something different I could do everyweek, goal type of things. I have a few things in mind but let me know if you got anything.

Oh yeah I turn 20 tomorrow which is the weirdest thing in the world to me. I always thought growing up when I was 10 14 17 I always thought, "I wonder what kind of person I will be and how different I will be when I am 20?" It seemed so weird and far away but now its here... Weird. My next birthday will be in the states.

This last week I had a realization. I noticed that we have been teaching lesson 1 pretty poorly and not the way it should be. I fell into what preach my gospel says, "a rote presentation" Almost like me and Elder Miranda were actors memorizing lines. Obviously we didint memorize what to say but it felt the same always. So I really took a good study in chapter 10 of PMG and my eyes were opened. I found out ways on how a first visit should be, and how we can capture the attention. After that study our lesson ones are totally different now and so much better.

It is really cool now to see the difference and how receptive the people are, I hope to really help people come along this week and do some good.

We have an investigator, we knocked on his door last week. His name is Alfredo, he is awesome. He has been Catholic, Muslim, and Born Again. But he is very receptive and he is loving our lessons. His wife has cancer and is kind of on the edge so he is really enjoying the truth with him. 

I love you all! Have a good week:)

March 12, 2017

Sorry I dont know what much to say... I kind of drew a blank from this last week... It wasnt super duper awesome and it wasnt super duper bad... Okay ill just try and write some stuff.

So this past week not a ton happened in the area which is not a good thing. We taught some good lessons but we had some stuff to do. My companion went to Manila for a couple days to get his interview for his visa. He passed! So he could leave any minute to Arizona Gilbert mission. Then I went up to Manila is well to talk to someone from the Area then we had a meeting at the office so not too much time in the area. But the time we did spend in the area I thought was good we had some good lessons. Shared lessons and love to a lot of less actives and investigators and had a lot of promises that they would come to church!! We expected to have about 7 and we were excited! Butttt when sunday came around, we waited and waited ANDDD no one that we taught or invited came. So we have been discussing about what we need to do more to get these people to come to church. 

Its actually kinda sad because you seem them and there families active and happy you can see it happening but hey just wont do it. Especially this one less active family that we teach sometimes the Salagan family. They were sealed in the temple and the father used to be a branch president then he got called to the district presidency back in the day but now they are inactive, the mother and the daughters dont really want to listen. They are never together and I just think about how much of a difference it would make if there family was just active. They have a 16 year old son Lawrence and we teach him often. He tells he wants to go to church but we wants his family to go. So we taught him about Nephi and how Nephi was basically the foundation of that family. Even Lehi murmured at times. But Nephi was always strong and I thought about how if Nephi kinda was just lazy and didint do much then they never would have gotten to the promised land, they never would of made it through hardships, I mean look at what happened to the Lamanites. We never would of had the book of mormon. Even though Nephi was the youngest in the family he was the strongest. So we taught lawernce about how he needed to become like Nephi and set the example for his family. He seemed to really feel the spirit of the lesson but when sunday came around, we waited for him to meet up with us to come to church but he didint come. So its disappointing when you want a lot for someone but they just dont seem to make the right choice.  Im sure my parents felt that a lot with me when I just wouldnt do what I should haha. But I am here now and I am glad that I have learned.

Sorry it was a short letter, but I love you all have a good week!






March 5, 2017

So this week was the first week of living our new missionary schedule. We had a zone conference last tuesday and we watched the world wide missionary broadcast. It was really good, the church is really changing the way they run things, it proves modern day revelation is real and necessary. Instead of the missionary department just holding a day of talks from the department in front of an audience of missionaries they just filmed 7 of them in a conference room going over some awesome topics about missionary work, nothing scripted just 3 apostles and some 70 and Bonnie Oscarson talking about missionary work and being guided by the spirit it was really cool. We got to hear David A Bednar pray and that was just really cool to hear an apostle pray. So our new schedule just gives us some more time and some more freedom. We can schedule our working and studying hours whenever we want now and we do planning in the morning instead of at night. Ill just go through our regular daily schedule. So 6:30 wake up, pray, exercise, eat, shower and that is until 8;30 which is new and very nice because we actually have sufficient time to exercise and get ready in the morning. Then from 8;30 until 9 we plan for the day then 9-10 we do personal study. So when 10 comes we can either just head out to work or finish out studies because we still have to fit in 1 hour of companionship study and 1 hour of language study. But basically it says 10am-9pm we work but we have 2 hours of study and 1 hour for lunch and 30 mins for dinner. So a couple times last week we headed out at 10 and then came home at 12 to eat and study and we went out at 3 again to work. WHich I personally love because the hours from 12-3 are very difficult to work in. It is hot, everyone is sleeping, families are not together so its just better to study and then head out in the afternoon around 3 when people are more active. So that was a cool change. THen when 9pmcomes we are free do as we want at the house, we can go to sleep right away, write in our journals, extra study and then we head to bed at about 10:30. So thats the new schedule, I like it. It is way more effective. 

I had a few baptism interviews to do last saturday and I love doing those. It is always a time where I feel inspired and lifted up by the strong by simple testimonies of these investigators. The first one that I did was going okay until I found out that he was not living the Word of Wisdom so I couldnt let him pass the interview, but I will interview him again in a couple weeks.  But the two that I had after were awesome! They are so prepared. It was a mother and her son. The mom is very strong and has a strong testimony and knowledge of the gospel. It was great to interview her and hear her awesome testimony. What was even more inspiring to me was her 9 year old son who has awesome knowledge of the gospel! I was blown away by the things he knew and only being 9 years old. I can most definitely see him being a missionary one day and helping a lot of people. 

Yeah so this last week we were knocking on doors and we knocked on this door/gate and there was this guy laying on a couch and he looked young about teenage years. So we asked if his parents were home and he said "Uhh what do you need them for?" In perfect english haha I was pretty surprised so I just started talking to him in English. He let us in but I guess the other people in his house didint wanna come out so he said we could just teach him. He is 19 years old and his name is Clement. I asked him why he was so dang good at english and he explained that back in his province at his school he was friends with Americans. I could tell this guy was really smart and went to a good school especially because he was so good at english. He told us that his dad was still back in the province and his mom is working in Russia. So we taught him a good first lesson and he said we could come back. So we called him and texted him and stopped by his house but we could not get a hold of him. We thought that he might of blocked our number haha. So we used another companionships number to call him and he answered! AHA! GOT HIM! I said "Hey, its Elder Webb!" He said oh hey! and was pretty surprised but he told us to come back on sunday at 1 so we did and we got to teach him again! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and it was a great lesson! He testified and promised him that the Book of Mormon will really help him in his life. He felt the spirit and agreed to read and pray about the book so we will hopefully be meeting up with him again tomorrow afternoon. 

So my companion ELder Miranda is super awesome, he is waiting for his visa here right now because his real mission is in Arizona. So he finally got his interview at the US Embassies here tomorrow. So he will leave tomorrow morning and get going on that. He might be leaving pretty soon which is great but sad because he is cool and I dont want to get another companion haha. 

Anyways that was the week, hopefully it was a little interesting. I love you have a great week!!






February 26, 2017

This last week was amazing. Very spiritually uplifting and just inspiring. For the past month I would say we have been studying from 4 talks from David A Bednar in preparation for his visit that happened last thursday. We studying about conversion, asking in faith, learning by faith, retaining a remission of our sins. So Elder Bednar specifically chose these talks for us to read. We had a great experience with Russell M Nelson last year and I was expecting kind of the same thing with Elder Bednar that we would just show up and that he would talk to us for about 45 minutes. But what our whole mission got was much better. Our whole mission showed up the chapel and we all got to take a photo with Elder Bednar as a whole mission then we went into the sacrament hall to have the meeting. To start off of course we had a prayer and a hymn then a member of the 70 and his wife got up and spoke for like 5 minutes each then Elder Bednars wife for like 3 minutes and then Elder Bednar got up and I was surprised because we still had about 2 and a half hours of the meeting left and I thought to myself "is he really going to speak for like 2 hours??" But as he got up he looked at all of us and said "Elders and Sisters are you ready to get to work?" I thought we were gunna break up into groups or something and do practice teaching but he explained to us that he was not just going to stand up there and pick one topic and talk to us but he explained that he would talk WITH us. He completely changed the way of learning in a class room setting. I had always thought Elder Bednar was so serious and strict but he is the opposite, he is way funny and energetic. He said "Elders and Sisters our church is the true church and it is amazing but we talk way too much, we try to solve things but just making talks and lessons about things but nothing seems to happen. Then he said " We might as well be called the Church of Jesus Christ of Too Many Talkers" Hahah it was funny. He explained to us very clearly that we would all learn by the Holy Ghost. His whole theme was based on 3 things. 1- Prepare to learn 2- Interact and Edify 3- Invite to act. Elder Bednar just stood at the pulpit and invited us to interact with him to help make a great meeting. So he said "Okay, I gave you all 4 talks to read so right now raise your hands and tell me things that you learned." So people began to raise their hands and they would share then he would ask some amazing follow up questions and in just created an amazing learning experience for the whole mission. Then after about an hour of that (an awesome hour) he said that anyone could ask him questions (good questions he said not stupid ones) So he would look in the audience and he wouldnt just call on the first person he saw you could tell he would choose them by the Holy Ghost. Then after a while I raised my hand to ask a question, and he called on me. I started to get kinda nervous haha, but I stood up and I asked him a question about forgiveness and repentance and he said it was an excellent question and he told everyone to listen because it was very important then for about 5 to 10 minutes Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 apostles looked directly at me and talked to me about my question and he made sure that everything was said to satisfy my question. It is hard to explain over typing but it was so cool to have that type of an experience with an Apostle of the Lord. Then the meeting continued and it was just amazing, completley run by the holy ghost, something that I had never seen. I am so grateful to have experienced that with Elder Bednar.

At the conclusion of the meeting he invited everyone of us to act and find something that we were going to do to change in our lives. After some thought and prayer I have decided that I am going to work more on understanding the Holy Ghost more in my life and how I can better serve others and help them in their lives. My mission is quickly coming to an end and I have a lot I need to accomplish. I have a lot of good I need to do for others. I have to continue to strengthen my testimony so I cannot mistake when trying to strengthen others testimony. 

I learned something great about faith this past week. Faith is the principal of POWER and ACTION. Faith is much, much, much more than just believing something. Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith is the principal of action and power in all intelligent beings. We are agents, not objects. We are to act and not to be acted upon. That truth has helped me this week. Is that, nothing will happen unless we act. We have to act in all that we do.

I love you all! Thanks for all the awesome love and support:)

Stay steeeeezzzin

February 19, 2017

Hoooooollllyyyy cow it was cold in the Philippines last week. I dont know if it was on the news, maybe not actually. I didint actually realize how adjusted I was to the Philippines heat. We got down to about 65 degrees and I was freezing... Literally was cold. I slept in those clothes you see in the picture with a blanket.... I actually got pretty sick because I got so cold. It was strange. I am just now getting over my cold, and it has warmed up a bit and I am enjoying the weather now. 

The area is struggling a bit right now. To be all honest I didint try my best last week which I regret. I didint really give it my all, I just felt overwhelmed for a few days because of my illness, the new area, the "greenieness" of my companion, and just not really knowing what to do. But I wont let it happen again this week. I have just been going through a big adjustment stage. But we had a good day yesterday at church. I went in just wanting to become closer with some of the members so I went around talking to them and we had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader who is a cool guy, and we also met with our bishop who gave us a couple of assignments which we will go and accomplish this week. The area is just honestly pretty dead and we need to bring it back to life. Most of the past missionaries didint work too hard and we were pretty disobedient so there isn too much in the area. But I hope that this week and the rest of the weeks in this transfer we can turn stuff around so we can have a more enjoyable less stressful last 2 transfers.   

I am excited because this upcoming thursday we get to listen to David A Bednar speak. IT will be such an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity. He is one of my favorite speakers and I know it will be a great experience. 

Sorry not too much to write, I love you all! Keep it real this week