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

February 12, 2017

Well here I am now in my new area of San Jose Del Monte, SJDM zone. I never thought I would make it out here but I am here. This zone used to be called the "promised land" back in the day when I was new. I used to always wish I would come here and even better to have it as my last area, and it has happened. Upon arrival it is actually not too much of a promised land after all hahaha. But it is still great. The area just needs a lot of work and some help. It seems like thats what my President is doing, he just tossing me into areas that need help. Well hopefully we can do some good things here. My new companion is Elder Miranda! He is way awesome hahaha. He is super funny. Most of my other Filipino companions have been a lil awkward or quiet. But me and Elder Miranda have got along really well already. He is new, so I am following up his training. Elder Miranda is actually assigned to the Gilbert, Arizona mission so he is just waiting it out here to get his visa, he will most likely leave in about may. The area is kinda in a rut right now and it is kind of a struggle because we only have a meeting house and the church is far from where most of the members are and so its hard to find investigators that can make it to church. But everything is going to get better from here. I dont like being new in an area but it is also fun. This mission is cool because EVERY area is different in some way. Different, lay out, different people. different style of living, and even a different way of speaking sometimes. So it is cool to explore a new part of the mission. This will most likely be my last area. Most of the time a missionary will stay in an area for about 4 months and the longest is usually 6 or 7 but since I only have about 4 months left I will most likely finish off here. My experience at church yesterday was quite interesting. The meeting house is on the second floor building on top of a hardware store right next to a main road so it is kind of noisy. We are still a ward so a lot of people go to church but you can barely here the speakers because the inside is so loud with people being kind of disrespectful and talking and the normal occasional kid running around and being loud. We didint have any investigators at church yesterday but I got news from my last area and we had 8 there! So it makes me happy to know that I left that area in a good spot, now I have to do the same here.  

I am kinda running out of time but I love you all! Thanks for being the best:)

February 6, 2017

So this week was a good week, I have made some awesome friends here in the mission from missionaries, members, and investigators. I have had a lot of fun being with Elder Feiloaki, Elder Peterson, and Elder Kirifi. Some awesome friends that I will never forget. I will be transfering tomorrow to most likely my last area:) I have met so many great people in my area here in Bocaue. It has been difficult but I can confidently say that I have left the area better than when I found it. That is one way you can measure success as a missionary, not by baptisms, or by how many people to teach but just by helping the people and building them up. (then all the baptisms and such follows) I didint have too many baptisms my 4.5 months here but we mostly definitely set up a lot that will come this month and in March. Hopefully about 6. One of them being a family that I have come to really love teaching. They are very sincere family and want to know the truth. But they basically have all of the barriers of being baptized they are not yet married, they smoke, drink alcohol and coffee. But we knew that they could over come them. So we just kept teaching them the basic lessons Restoration, and Plan of Salvation and they have been reading the Book of Mormon and building their faith. Then yesterday we dropped the word of wisdom on them. BUt it was a great lesson. They were pretty surprised when we named off all of the things that are not allowed. But as we went on and told them how it was a commandment coming from GOd and that we need to live this in order to return back to God and they understood and accepted to live the word of wisdom in their own individual lives. Who would of thought that a white american 19 year old with a tongan 19 year old would go knock on these random peoples doors enter their home and then return about 3 times a week and ask them to change their lives. Well it definitely is not us because that is not possible but it is God the Holy Ghost working through us. You may not always feel the Holy Ghost super strong with you and feel like speaking for you, but he is there. There is no way two 19 year olds could just go and do that, it doesnt make sense. It is the Spirit of the Lord. Just look back on your life and dont focus so much on "why am I not feeling the spirit, why dont I feel like them" Just look at all the miracles and changes in you then you will know that God is in your life. We met this other huge family the other week, we went knocking on doors and found this whole extended family that wanted to listen to us Grandma, daughters, sons, grandchildren, aunts. THere was like 12 of them. So we taught them and went back a few more times. I was shocked because they listened so well during the lesson even though it was a lot of them. Then as we kept going back man I was so shocked, the little girls ages 10, 11, and 12 are reading the Book of Mormon like crazy. We asked them to read 1nephi chapter 1-3 and they laughed at us and told us that they were already on chapter 8 hahah. I was so surprised. They really wanted to go to church the other day as well, but sadly we had stake conference and it was way to far for them all to go, but this upcoming sunday I expect them there:) I have had so many cool experiences here and just feel bad sometimes because I think I took it for granted. But God really just did bless us and me so much and I am very grateful. I will be leaving tomorrow morning for my new area in San Jose Del Monte. Which used to be back in the day the best place in the mission. They called it the "promised land" It has since then kinda gone down but I am excited to go there and hopefully help it come back to being the promised land again. I need to do all I can this next next area I only have 4 months left and its scary, I hope I will become the person that Heavenly Father expected me to become. I need to finish off my conversion as a misisonary, help others become more converted, I need to love others more than myself, I need to leave it all on the table. I love you all. Thank you for all your amazing words and pictures. Have a good week:))) 

January 29, 2017

So we have some big stuff going on in the mission. I am so excited to say that David A Bednar is coming to speak to our mission on February 23! What an awesome experience. I was so blessed to have Russell M Nelson come last year and now my 2nd favorite apostle David A Bednar (first being Holland) It will be awesome to hear him speak and meet him personally. Also there are some big changes happening with our schedule and rules. Missionaries are now allowed to go swimming! Just kidding that is not happening. But yeah so here in the Philippines we always had to be home at 9 to do 30 minutes planning and then in the morning we have personal, companionship, and language study then we leave the house at 12. But now the whole world is changing it to where there is no more 30 minutes planning at night it will be in the morning (which I love) and now we have more flexibility in choosing how we do our work and taking lunch breaks. So I am excited for the new schedule.

This last week has been pretty good. We had our zone conference last friday. It was a good meeting. It was focused on how to get investigators to come to church, how to give better commitments, and also about teaching the people and not just teaching the lessons. I gave the workshop on teaching the people not lessons. It was alright I think. I talked about how listening is a huge part. We have to listen to the investigator and not just let our minds wander. Which is one of my biggest weaknesses sometimes is that I have a hard time just focusing completely. But when you have the spirit in the lesson everything gets easier, that is why it is so important to have the spirit in the lesson. So Brother Fedi came to church yesterday. He came by himself because all 3 of his kids have chicken pox right now. But he knew it was important to come so he came and he is making some awesome progress. We also have this family that we found. Well they arent married yet but they live to gether and they have 2 kids. We teach them every tuesday, thursday, and saturday at 4pm. They are pretty awesome and they love the lessons and they are making good progress. We had a great lesson with them last saturday about Plan of Salvation and they said they would FORSURE come to church the next day. But Brother has a tough schedule because he works the night shift at his job. So he is super tired in the morning around when church is but he said that he would force himself to go. So we told them we would wait outside the church for them on sunday morning. So we got to church at 8:40 and waited and waited but they didint come:( It was disappointing but its all good I bet they will come next week. 

I have been doing some personal reflecting and I want to learn more about love and patience before I head home. I want to be the most loving to others that I can be, but I am not the best at it. So I have started doing some scripture study on it. But if any of you have any scriptures or talks that you wanna share with me about loving others I would love it.

So this could be potentially my last week in this area and that means that I will be heading off to my last area next week!! Crazy stuff. But we will see it is not for sure yet.

I had a cool study earlier this week. I have been looking into the Atonement on how important it is as an event in the whole plan. So I was reading in Mormon 9: 11-14 and I realized how important the Creation and the Fall is to the Atonement. If there was no creation, there would be no fall, if there was no fall there would be no need for atonement and that means we wouldnt be resurrected and we wouldnt be able to be judged and exalted at the last day. The fall happened because Adam and Eve transgressed. If they did not transgress then there would be no sin and Jesus Christ wouldnt be apart of the plan. So that is a little something that is becoming more clear to me.

I love you all! Thanks for being awesome!