5/28/2015 Liberal, Kansas is awesome!

Hola!

We weren't able to email Monday because it was Memorial day and the library was closed. So I'm going to do a quick update on what happened this past week!

We had transfers this week! My companion is Hermana Kammeyer! She's from Syracuse, Utah! She is so amazing! She will be done with her mission in a couple of months on August 6 (just in time to celebrate my birthday!).

We just keep finding more and more people to teach! It's not a problem trying to figure out who to see! Also we've been helping people move a lot this past week. We have one family that moved this morning to Utah. It's sad to see that family leave, they have 7 kids about ages 5-12 and they are all so adorable. Sister Poulson (the mom) even helped me sew a dress on several  P-days. I'm actually wearing the dress that I made in the top picture.  and a missionary couple in our ward (actually our ward mission leader) is leaving to Utah and then they're headed on their mission to Santiago, Chile West mission in August! Pretty soon another family in our ward will be moving to Ohio. One person in our ward joked that we need to baptize that amount of people in June to replace everyone who's leaving.

We drove up to Wichita for a training. We're getting Ipads soon! I loved the training because we talked about Ipads 10 percent of the time. We were mainly trained on how to raise our future families. I know that this mission isn't only for my Savior and to find those people who are prepared to hear his word; this mission is for me. I know that when we lose ourselves in the service of others we find ourselves. We recognize our weaknesses and seek to become better every day because of the atonement. We seek to be agents of the Lord. I took so many notes and learned so many things from Elder Clarke from the seventy! It was just like a flood of revelation on things that I had no idea and things that I know I need to change so that my future family will be strong in the gospel and be protected against the adversary.

On Sunday there was this crazy storm! Not to alarm you or anything! We're totally fine. The Elders were on the road coming back from Dodge city for a devotional and they saw a tornado about a mile wide. I'm not here to alarm you! It was out in the middle of nowhere around Plains. So when the rained started we were on the front porch talking to an investigator. Then it started hailing so we decided to go. We went to a less actives house and we heard the hail and the sirens and we were about to get pushed into the crawl space (because they didn't have a basement). But luckily the sirens stopped before we had to get our dresses all dirty. I actually don't get claustrophobic, but that crawl space looked scary to crawl into. Not to mention they were going to shove all of us in their with their dogs and cats. It was quite an interesting experience. But luckily we're alive and the only thing that was hurt was the poor car, which just got a little beat up from the hail. I have a picture at the bottom of this email so you can see how big the hail was.

I love you so much! Remember CPR. Go to Church, Pray, and Read. It keeps us spiritually alive! Also we need the temple and family home evening each week! 

3 Nephi 13:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

con amor,

Hermana Webb

5/11/2015 Mothers Day!

HOLA!

It was great to see my family after 5 months! I'm so excited for the new adventures in everyone's lives! Yes I'm going to miss a lot of exciting things like... my brother's wedding, but that's okay because I know I'm in the right place doing what the Lord wants me to do. :)

This weekend we are hoping to get 4 baptisms in Liberal. One of them should be from the Elders and the rest from us Sisters! It definitely is the month of miracles this May! One Baptism expected for this Sunday is Nyibol. She's from South Sudan but they moved here because there are horrible things happening over there. Her Mom was recently baptized about 4 months ago. So even though Nyibol is 8 years old and her mom believes strongly in the church, her mom wanted her daughter to be ready for baptism and she wanted her to know enough for herself. So we talked about baptism a lot with Nyibol but her mom and her were saying she wanted to learn more before baptism. So we held off talking about baptism for awhile. Then this past week we invited her for baptism. We didn't know what she would say, we thought maybe she'd want to hold it off until she read the whole children's Book of Mormon or until she was a year older... but we hoped for a miracle. Well... she really has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized! Es un MILAGRO! I'm so glad that she is being baptized for herself because she has pure testimony of Christ and her reasons aren't because of pressure from anyone else. We love Nyibol and her family!

We have been talking to more and more people prepared to here the Gospel. There are these 2 girls in high school, who live with just their mom, named Jada and Jai. The Elders gave them to us to teach! It was so awesome, last night we saw them for the first time. There was an instant connection. We talked to them for about only 15 minutes because we had to leave to go skype our families. We said the closing prayer and we were about to leave, but then I felt like I needed to invite them to baptism (because we are told to invite EVERYONE to baptism, even on the first visit) So usually I'm a little cautious to invite to baptism when I just met them, but I found the courage to ask them to be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They said they would like to be baptized because they've seen the example of their teammates and how passionate they are about their church. They didn't fully commit to a date... yet, but they will soon! 

Since it was Mothers Day yesterday I thought I'd talk a little about what was said in Sacrament meeting. One member talked about how tenacious his mom was in getting him to go on a mission. She filled out all the papers for his mission and he just needed to sign. For a week, instead of getting lasagna or hamburgers... he got papers on his plate. He refused to sign it. But after a while he decided to just sign the papers and go. He was so grateful he did go on a mission and that his mom pushed him to go! Another person talked about the word mother as a verb "to mother". He talked about how it was hard for him and his wife on mothers day because they couldn't have any kids and they tried for several years. So they boycotted mothers day every year and stayed home. But even though she wasn't a mother, she mothered (or cared for) those around her. The story ended happy and they adopted 2 beautiful daughters.
 "Life doesn't come with manuals, it comes with Mothers." I love my mom!

I just want to end with a scripture: Mosiah 2:17 "..when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

I know that when we love and serve others we really are showing our love for God. 

con amor,

Hermana Webb

5/4/2015 Elder Holland!!!

Hola!!!
I had an amazing opportunity to see Elder Holland on Saturday! If I had to pick a favorite apostle, then I'd definitely pick Elder Holland. I got a chance to meet him about 3 years ago with the young women in my ward. I almost asked him if he remembered me... Which is highly doubtful but it would have been interesting to see what he'd say. Everyone in the Kansas Wichita mission got to shake his hand and say their name and where they're from. He told us later that he had a personal interview with each one of us as he shook our hand and looked into our eyes. The mission president, President Bell, told him that there are no obedience issues in this mission. Elder Holland confirmed just how obedient and amazing we are :)  (not to be prideful or anything.) He said that for the most part everyone was doing well and there may be about a couple of people who were struggling and there's about 200 missionaries in our mission. I know that the eyes really are the windows to the soul and watch out when Elder Holland looks at you!

Be careful the next time you meet Elder Holland because you never know when He will grab your face! It was really funny when he was talking to us he went into the audience and he was saying,'It's been about 55 years and 5 months and 2 days (I don't remember how long he said exactly) since I've been on my mission. But who's counting?" Then grabbed this one sisters face and said, "Are you counting?"  Then another time he grabbed an Elders face and kissed him on the forehead and said,"You look Irish to me."

There are so many things I learned from Elder Holland. Although he can be pretty funny, he is very serious, especially about missionary work! He was rebuking us left and right, with love of course. He literally was yelling at us, but yet the spirit was there. He had a perfect balance in the tone of his voice. The way he taught reminded me about the sons of Mosiah teaching with "power and authority of God". He told us, or rather shouted how our mission is "THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU"LL EVER DO IN YOUR LIFE!" Because we get to save children of God. We are preparing people to see Christ again. He told us that we are basically the same: apostles and missionaries. It made me really ponder on my calling as a missionary. I'm just as important as an apostle of the Lord.

He mentioned that "Salvation is not a cheap experience." If we say that we are Christ's disciples we need to feel a little bit, at least 1/ 10,000, of what he felt. Because we will never feel anything close to what he experienced in Gethsemane or Calvary, and we don't need to because he did that for us. But we at least need to taste a little bit of pain, disappointment, sorrow as disciples.

Elder Holland also mentioned how EVERYONE needs the gospel. We can't judge who needs it or who is prepared to hear it. He mentioned some stories about Christ teaching 2 very different people who both were seeking the truth. In John 3, Christ talked to Nicodemus, who is the Chief Rabbi. Then in John 4 he talks to the Samaritan woman at the well. Just open your mouth to everyone.
There are so many things I learned from Elder Holland and the other speakers.

As far as baptisms and teaching people, everything's going great! We had a couple of solid investigators on date to be baptized the past couple of weeks. But due to circumstances they aren't baptized... yet! They are so ready, they just need to take that leap of faith! We are teaching some really amazing people that I swear I was friends with them in the pre-mortal world! This month of May is the month of marvelous miracles (try saying that 3 times in a row!)!!!!
May the fourth be with you today!! :)

"I know that my redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives."

I hope you remember your baptismal covenant you renew every week in sacrament meeting to take His name upon you, always remember Him, and keep His commandments.

con amor,

Hermana Webb