Monday, February 27, 2017

Faithful & Competent

My week was awesome!

Missionary Activity- I think the highlight of my week was the youth missionary activity.  This week all the youth were combined and we did a huge missionary activity.  We had Caesar help us by letting us practice teach the restoration. He was my companion and we taught Sister Allen for five minutes. Then we broke everyone off into companionships,  gave them a Book of Mormon and a Pamphlet, and we had them study. We took all the leaders to a room, gave them a character, and took each companionship to a door where they were able to knock and be a teacher to these people.  The youth LOVED it and they did SO GOOD!  It was a huge hit.  After we testified and the Spirit was SO strong. It was an awesome activity!

Primary- In Primary we also got to do sharing time.  I want to be in primary for the rest of my life.  We told stories and talked about how we can be like Jesus.  I told a story about how I saved a man with a bloody nose once... that was a good day :)

MLC- We had Mission Leadership Council this week and I had two favorite trainings. First was a training where President talked about how we cannot be discouraged with less success.  We have to recognize even when we are rejected that the Gospel is ROLLING forth.  He talked about King Nebuchadnezzar's dream and how prophesies always come true.  Even if we aren't large in numbers WE ARE SO MIGHTY!  We literally are God’s Kingdom.

My other favorite was about numbers chasing.  I'm not a numbers chaser but I have never wanted to submit straight 0's.  I want to have good key indicators every week, and he talked about how having that desire ISN'T NUMBERS CHASING.  In fact, in many ways, if good intentions are in mind numbers chasing is a good thing.  I loved that training.  It's like striving to get a good grade in school.  A good grade can many times show what you know, and it's the same with key indicators.  It's not a bad thing to want a billion baptismal dates!  It's actually good and healthy.

President said something this week I would like to share.  He said:

 A missionary can be faithful (obedient) but not competent (effective). We need missionaries who are both faithful and competent, in other words, obedient and effective.

I recently read the following story that provides some context:

Imagine for a moment you are a farmer with acres of golden wheat ready to harvest. You hire two men to help you do the job. The first man goes out to the field and starts up the combine, a machine that has been specifically designed to harvest wheat in the most effective way possible. The second man goes out into the field with a pair of scissors. He plans to first snip each individual stalk down and then sort the grain by hand. Who will accomplish more?

What does that teach us about faithful and competent? Or obedient and effective?

Imagine that the man with scissors is up early snipping away. He diligently works all day and is the last one to leave at night. While he is faithfully participating in the harvest, his ineffective methods ensure that he accomplishes little. He is faithful but not very competent. Meanwhile, the man with the combine harvester goes out to the same field for an hour. Due to the effectiveness of his approach, in an hour of effort he harvests more than his partner does by slaving away all day. He can then take his combine to other fields and double, triple, or even quadruple the amount of grain harvested. He is both faithful and competent.

Some missionaries think they “just have to be spiritual” and work hard and missionary work will just happen. In missionary work, obedience (faithful) and skills (effective) are both required if we want to harvest many souls. That is why obedience does not necessarily translate into success in regards to helping people be baptized. Helping people progress requires some skill and effective teaching methods. An obedient missionary, accompanied with faith, having developed necessary missionary skills, is most effective. A missionary who has developed skills that is disobedient, weakens his/her effectiveness. The Lord needs missionaries who are both faithful and competent.

This is SO TRUE FOR LIFE!! We can be do so many things and not do them effectively.  We have to be effective!  I love you all!  

Monday, February 20, 2017

My Dad

It's been a busy week full of many miracles!  Here are a few of them:

1- Anaheim phone call- The Anaheim Sisters called us and told us they have someone who wants to be baptized on March 4th who lives in our ward! I'm excited to see what he is like. It's interesting because I've been praying for the opportunity to baptize one more investigator before I leave.  We'll see!
2- Miley- Miley came to church again this Sunday with Mike and she requested her first priesthood blessing.  She is going through hard things right now. She witnessed a murder and was the only one on the scene, so she was in court all week testifying.  It was really hard for her.  On Sunday we brought her some chocolate from the Relief Society President which brightened her day, and she just told us how much she believes in and loves our church. She talked about how she wants to be baptized, and how she knows it's true.  It was an incredible experience.  She is learning about repentance and it's an awesome thing to witness! 
3- John- The Spanish Elders called us and said they met someone on the street who wanted to learn more.  We went with them the next day and it was a man who I had done service with at an Old Folks Home. We taught him the restoration and he was STOKED.  He loved all of it.  The next day we did service with him and he was preaching to all the service people about how amazing we were and how God was with us and our message- SO COOL!
4- Stephanie- Stephanie is 17 and feels the spirit really strong. We have met with her a few times and she loves the gospel message. She wants to be baptized in March (but she needs to come to church). Her mom is not supportive of this. Stephanie told us that she is amazed how the Book of Mormon talks about the proper way to be baptized. There is a ton of confusion in the world on how someone should be baptized, but the Book of Mormon clears that right up.  
5- Jenny- We had an awesome lesson with Jenny where we talked about her barriers. Her husband was Mormon, but is now disaffected and has been introducing her to a lot of anti-Mormon material.  We have been able to visit with her and answer many of her questions and she has great faith which makes all the difference.  She came to church on Sunday by herself and stayed through the entire block.  We really love her!

So recently I have been thinking about my Dad.  I don't know how well you know my Dad but he is probably the most incredible man EVER. He is the epitome of the parent I want to be.  I remember walking into my Dad's room late every night before he went to bed and seeing him with a pencil in his hand reading his scriptures. I never said anything about it to him.  I never talked about it with him.  I also know that every night and morning he rolls out of bed to say a kneeling prayer right next to his bed.  Not ONLY that but he NEVER EVER EVER has skipped one Sunday of church for sleep or a football game or anything. He supports my mom in her callings, and he magnifies EVERY calling he has ever had, even when he has several at a time.  Every morning at 6am I would hear his alarm go off and I knew he was up.  He never slept in unless he was sick, which also hardly ever happened.  My dad isn't lazy.  His version of lazy is watching a movie while folding all of our laundry.  He is always serving those around him, he is constantly thinking of new ideas or new things to improve our lives.  He shows my Mom he loves here EVERY day, every Valentines day, every birthday, every wedding anniversary... He lets us do his hair, and was a good sport when we purposefully bugged him in his ritual Sunday nap. He will probably read this and think I'm crazy, but I love my Dad.  I have yet to find or yet to know a guy my age who matches the standard my Dad has set.  I want to be like my Dad.  I know if my Dad was on a mission right now, he would be  the most incredible missionary here.  SO I LOVE YOU DAD! Thanks for your example. 

Monday, February 13, 2017

Just ACT and TRY

This week was SO MUCH FUN!  I LOVE being companions with Sister Allen.  She is incredible.  She is so sweet and we laugh all the time. She is super optimistic too.  I feel like I'm learning so much from her.  I love that about a mission!  You are always learning.

This week I was cool! I had 2 neat experiences:

1) We were planning and I had the distinct impression to go to area 11 in the area book, start at the back, and go to the first person with an M at the beginning of their name.  Well... it was Mike and Miley.  We taught them a TON when Sister Watson was here and honestly I didn't want to go back but we did.  It turned out that Mike had had a stroke a few days prior.  Since his stroke, he has started to change. He quit smoking, He wants to come to church and change his life.  It was really cool!  

2) We saw SO MANY people this week who talked about and struggle with drugs.  I had NO IDEA that drugs were so prevalent.  Sometimes it seems like it's the exception to the rule to find someone who has never abused prescription drugs or used illegal drugs.  I understand that it can numb the pain, but it is a very short fix and leads to addictions that are heartbreaking and destroy lives!  We are helping many people give up drugs and it's super easy because nobody actually wants to do drugs, believe it or not.  The drugs seem to control them and tell them what to do.  They want to be truly happy, and Satan tries to convince people that drugs do make you happy!  Many soon learn that this is NOT happiness!

I would really like to participate in one final baptism before I go home. I know there has to be at least one person in Westminster who is ready to accept the gospel and be baptized (I would love it if there were 50 people).  It's interesting though because the longer I have been out, the less I realize I know!  I only know that I need to rely on God and pray that He will allow me to again "sit back and watch the game".  I've learned that as I open my mouth and talk, text people, set up appointments, help them get to church and firesides and everything else... miracles can happen!  I love my Father in Heaven and through the Spirit I know I'm doing His will... and I guess if that is all I can do, I'll do it.

Love, Sister Webb




Sister Oikle and me

California is getting SO MUCH RAIN!  We are getting drenched and driving in rivers of water!  We need it though!

A sunny day in between all of the rain in Westminster


This is about as close as we can get to the beach/ocean . . . 
Sister Allen and me!  My very last companion on my mission and she's WONDERFUL!!

Monday, February 6, 2017

Late Christmas Surprise & New Comp!

Okay so here's the dealeo.... I don't have a ton of time but I'll try to write good stuff. 

1) I didn't know how to get into our mailbox but we got a note on our door saying our mailbox was full and we needed to get our mail, so we went to the office and got it!  I GOT SO MANY CHRISTMAS LETTERS AND CARDS hahahaha.  Thank you SO MUCH!   They were beautiful.  I'm sorry I didn't get them sooner. 

2) We had two exchanges this week, I got to go with Sister Dimmick on one and Sister Holt on another.  Both of them are wonderful missionaries and they are doing so good...

3) Jenny- So this week with Jenny we taught her with her husband present.  Sister Bowers from the ward came with us and bore a powerful testimony.  Jenny is doing well, but her husband is a huge roadblock.  He doesn't care or believe in religion or God.  He wasn't argumentative, thankfully, but he very clearly stated his opinions and questioned his wife's beliefs in the lesson. Sister Bowers saved the lesson though! I didn't know what to do but she totally bore powerful testimony and the Spirit filled the room and Jenny knew what she felt.  It was awesome! bogus. 

4) Jayleen- She is doing so well. She is excited to continue to learn about the church. Her mom isn't fully on board but allowed her to listen to us and make her own decisions.  We may run into some problems when her baptisms rolls around, but we'll have faith and take it as it comes! 

5) Stephani- This week we met Stephanie. We contacted her on the street and she seemed interested to learn about the gospel.  She told us to come back and when we went back she was TOTALLY on board. She loved everything we told her and had awesome insights.  She set a date to be baptized too so hopefully that works out. 

Sister Oickle left this week and my new companion is Sister Allen- Emily Allen to be exact- which is the name of one of my favorite aunts!  I'm going to be an STL until the end of my mission but I'm excited for a new transfer to start and I'm excited for my area!  Please pray for our investigators!  I'm still praying for one more baptism before I go home and all of your prayers would be so appreciated!

Love you all!

Sister Webb