First Day!!!! - May 27, 2015

Hey family!

I officially made it to Florida! It has been one long day starting at 2:30am but i am here and i know i had my doubts talking to you on the phone this morning but the longer i have been here the more i know i am meant to be here and that i will love it! i won't get another p-day for a week so i will email you again next week! this is a picture of me and my mission president and his wife. (don't mind my lovely hair, every picture i send will probably have this same hair! the second i walked off the plane the heat and humidity hit me so i am going to have to get use to this! i am so glad that i am feeling better about being here! i love you all! i hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Love,

Sister Webb

Sister Webb with President and Sister Craig

Group picture with President Craig

My First Package!!! - May 23, 2015

my first package! thank you so much for the package! i loved it! 

Sister Rigby and I - May 23, 2015

We match!  Just like we did on our temple day!  We didn't even plan it!

My District - May 23, 2015

Front row (r to l), me, Sister Rigby, Sister South, Sister Favor, 

Back row: (r to l)  behind me is Elder Karren, Elder Coy, Elder Fadley, and Elder Carrillo

Sister Rigby and I at the temple - May 23, 2015

I Leave for Florida on Tuesday! - May 23, 2015

Hey Family!

this week has been more stressful and overwhelming then the last week... but i am still doing good! i didn't think i was going to be able to email you this morning because lots of the missionaries are having problems getting into their emails and unfortunately i was one of them... i was so sad because mom never got my email last week and this week i wasn't going to be able to email... literally when i was talking to the i.t guy i broke down and started crying... it was kinda pathetic! haha but i found a loop hole in the system and i am able to email you! which makes me so happy because like i said i was having a really rough week! so sorry mom that you didn't get my email last week i misspelled your address.. so i put the right one in the computer and saved it so that will never happen again! thank you so much for finishing moving my stuff sorry it was a lot... and your story about the dog kinda confused me... is she dead or not?? 

So, Tuesday morning you should be expecting a call around maybe like 5:30 or 6 in the morning! I am leaving the MTC at 3:30 so once i get to the airport i have a phone card so i can call you. my flight leaves at 7:05 though so the call will be pretty early but i really want to talk to you so i am going to call no matter how early it is. i just wanted to give you the heads up!

i did get your package. i thought it was just from Racheal but thank you everyone for the package. the only disappointing part was i never got my rain jacket i asked for... do you realized that it has rained like everyday and i am cold?? haha but its ok, i will just get one first thing when i get to Florida. 

also mom thank you for that dear elder letter you sent me earlier this week. i was having such a bad day and all i wanted to do was hear from my mom and then when we got our mail at 9:30 that night i got one dear elder and it was from you!! lets just say i cried the whole letter! 

So let me tell you all about my week. i am going to start by telling you about my district. like i said earlier my companion is sister Rigby, she has been so great!

Sister South is another sister in my district, she is 20 years old and from Utah as well. she is kinda an attention seeker so sometimes she gets on my nerves but i still love her.

Sister Favor is her companion, she is 19 and the most naive person you can meet. so it has been kinda interesting. when we started talking about dating she said she had never been on a date.... i looked really bad when i talked about going on a date everyday for an entire month. 

Elder Carrillo, he is our district leader. he is 20.he is so nice but super quiet so i haven't really gotten to know him.

Elder Karren is his companion, he is 19 as well but he is my favorite person in our district! he is constantly laughing with me and we crack a lot of jokes together! oh and the other day he told me that i was the best singer in the district and that i can actually sing really good... haha i don't think he can hear very well but it was the nicest thing so he became my favorite! haha not to mention we share the same birthday!!

Elder Fadley is 21. he is one of our zone leaders. he is super funny and we usually joke around when we do our role plays and he always chooses to be a girl investigator and tries to talk like a girl. so most of the time we spend most of our role plays trying not to laugh. at least that's what happens when we have to role play together. 

Elder Coy, he is the other Zone leader, he is 23. and well i don't know much about him because he is so serious and into studying and never goofing off like me... Thursday night was the first time that i actually saw him smile... it has been my goal to make everyone laugh here so it has been quite a struggle with elder coy but i managed to make him laugh on Friday! SUCCESS!!!

ok so now that you know a little bit about my district when i mention them in my stories you will kinda understand them better. first though i thought i would share the few spiritual thoughts that i liked this week.

so i found out that there are 130 million Books of Mormon on the earth which sounds like a lot until you compare it to the 7 billion people that are alive... it just reminded me how great the Book of Mormon really is and that i am one of the lucky people to have it and that i need to do all that i can to share this wonderful book to the many who do not actually have it. i know that isn't really spiritual but i thought it was a cool fact.

So watched this movie on Sunday night, it was a talk given by Elder Bednar here at the MTC called Character of Christ. it was amazing! i have never been so humbled in my life! he talked about how Christ usually turns out when the natural man would turn in. so an example of the natural man would be like Cookie Monster. always thinking of himself... me want what me want. where Christ turns out and thinks about others first. he then went on to give examples in the scriptures of this. one was in Matt. 4:2-12. he talked about how in this passage Jesus Christ was only tempted once by Satan. he said " Deny who ye are, if thou be the Son of God" Satan wanted Christ to turn inward. another story he shared was how right after Jesus Christ had suffered in the garden and felt all that pain and anguish and bleed from every pore he went from that to go heal a guard's ear... he once again turned outward. he then talked about how testimony is not enough and that we need to be fully converted to the Lord. One thing that i took away from this whole talk is that i need to turn more outward in my prayers, i am pretty good at serving others even when things are hard but in my prayer i am constantly asking for things for myself.. this week i have tried to ask for nothing for myself and only for others. it has been quite the experience. He explained that we need to turn outward in Love, compassion and Service. and that the Character of Christ = Loose yourself in the service of others.. so i challenge all of you to do that!

I watched a good Mormon Message by Elder Holland that i really liked and that i think all of you should look up and watch. it is called "Good Things To Come" it taught me this week that i need to trust God and believe in good things to come... Don't Quit! like i said i had a rough week... 

Ok, so now on to the funnier stuff of my letter. so last Saturday when eating breakfast we decided to eat outside when all of the sudden these two birds flew up and started mating next to us.... haha i thought Sister Favor was going to die and i could not stop laughing about it!

I don't think i have ever been so tired in my life. i was having troubles sleeping all last week and it was getting so frustrating. so i bought some earplugs at the book store and they have seemed to help. but anyways, the other day i was so tired that i put my V-necked shirt on backwards and could not figure out why it felt so funny until i had been wearing it for like 30 minutes and walked in the bathroom and realized that it was on backwards... oops... haha

So people always say that you gain a lot of weight in the MTC... i now believe them... the food is so heavy and its good and all you do is study and eat.. but they never tell you how much gas it will give you!!! oh my, i have never farted so much in my life!!!! and i pooped for the first time like 3 days ago... im sure ya'll wanted to know that as well. haha but my funny story about gas is that everyone has it and tries to hid it but one day we were kneeling down to pray and i couldn't hold it in and yes, i farted in front of every one and it was so loud! haha

next story, so we were planning a lesson with Elder Coy and Elder Fadley and when i went into the room i saw a soft computer chair that i wanted to sit in cause all i get is a hard desk. well when i went to go sit in the chair i am not entirely sure how it happened but the chair fell forward and i ended up on the ground.. i was laughing so hard i could not get up for like 10 minutes. Elder Fadley and Sister Rigby were laughing as well but Elder Coy just had a straight face... it was funny!

So i don't know if i mentioned teaching Yesol she was my investigator that i taught last week. she is from Korea and was attending BYU. well she explained to us the first day how she took an incomplete last semester in her Moral Development class and that she had been working hard this past few weeks to make it up and all of her test were next week. well we taught her a brief lesson on God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he loves her and then we taught her how to pray and ask God for help and the importance of reading scriptures. well then we came back the next day to teach her and we were following up on her commitments and she had done them and it was going so good until she asked us out of no where if we loved her. we assured her that we did and then she was like " last night when i prayed i could feel your guys love but then i realized that Sister Rigby was in my class last semester at school and when i asked for help and no one helped me i took the incomplete.. she then explained how then she could not feel our love anymore and that she felt Offended...." thats right, OFFENDED!! yes by day 6 of being at the MTC i had already offended my first investigator. we taught a lesson to her the next day and it was amazing and the spirit was so strong!! and then after that our teacher told us that she was no longer coming here... so Yeah.. haha that is my story about her! it was kinda funny i have learned to laugh about it now but at first it was hard. that was the day i was having a bad day and mom's letter came! so thanks again mom!

For everyone... dont send any more mail besides Dear Elders because i leave Tuesday morning and mail is closed Sunday and Monday.

I found out that i will be in a Facebook mission and that Jacksonville mission is the leading technology mission in the world! pretty cool!

I love you all and i will send pictures with my next email i am just out of time! 

YOU are all in my prayers and i hope that you keep receiving the blessings from me serving! I miss you all so much but i love this work and am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission! i will call Tuesday and i am so excited for that! i hope this gets to everyone! 

Love, 

Sister Webb

I Survived One Week! Saturday May 16, 2015

Hello Family,

I officially survived week one of the MTC! Well, actually its only been three days and i still have to survive tomorrow which is Sunday.. i have already had to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting as well as a lesson for Relief Society! and on top of that i still need to plan to more lessons for investigators.. i have lots to do and so little time to do it! So i wrote you a few days ago well actually it was on Thurs night and i mailed it yesterday so i dont really need to tell you all about my first day but i guess i can kinda recap it for ya'll. 

The second i got to the mtc i was given my name tag and sent through like five lines within like 2 minutes and given all of the papers and books i needed. i was then showed my  residence hall. my room is on the third floor so getting my bags up there stairs was a struggle. i only fell over once.. haha skirts, stairs and large heavy bags dont go so well together i guess. after getting things to my room i went to class where i met my new companion. Sister Rigby is my new companion. She is also 23 years old which was a relief because i was super worried i would get some 19 year old little girl. She is from New Jersey and is really dedicated to the work! She is such a great companion and a blessing in my life!After we had class we went and taught our first investigators as a group. it was a lot easier then i thought it would be. we then went back to class and studied more. 

I mentioned this in my letter but i will mention it to you guys again, I was called to be the Sister training leader! I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my district as well as the new district that will be here next week. as the sister training leader i will have to meet with all of the new district on Wednesday and go over what to expect and give them a tour of the mtc. i am also in charge of room check off for when the other district leaves our zone next week. i am also expected to teach Relief Society on Sundays. there is a lot expected of me but i know that the Lord would not call me as the Sister District Leader if he knew i couldn't handle it! I also know he will be with me every step of the way!

Yesterday Sister Rigby and I taught our first investigator! it was such a great experience! i was super nervous about it but it went well! we taught a lady named Princess! she just moved here from Detroit. She is a single mom and has a 14 year old son named Andrew. She grew up Baptist and her Father was the preacher. She told us that she stopped going to church when her dad died. She is currently working at wendy's and money is really tight so we had to have our lesson in the dark.. As a companionship and after a lot of prayer we decided to teach princess that we can communicate through prayer to our Heavenly Father and that by doing this we can build a strong relationship with Him and come closer to Christ. we then taught her about prophets and then gave her a brief lesson on the restoration. We then challenged her to be Baptized!! that was really scary but i am so glad we did it. she said that she needed to find out if what we were teaching was true and then if she found out for herself then she would commit to being baptized. We then challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about if it is true as well as if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. she said she would and asked if we could come back tomorrow to teach her. so today we will be teaching her again. Sister Rigby and i have decided to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have already grown a deep love for Princess and I hope that we can teach her what she needs to hear!

I never realized how much i would be praying while on my mission! before my mission i was lucky if i got a prayer in once a day... Yesterday i prayed at least 30 times!! it has been such an amazing experience for me and taught me the importance of turning to my Heavenly Father for anything i need. hopefully today has a little less prayers though because my knees are starting to feel all of the praying... haha But it was such an amazing experience to be able to pray so much yesterday. i pray when i get up, i then have companionship prayer, we then pray at breakfast for our food, then at person study, then to start companionship study, then to start district study, then at lunch, then at class and at the end of class, then at dinner, then when we started class again, then when we taught our investigator, then when we started our lesson with princess, then when we ended it, then when we were in class we talked about the importance of inviting our investigators to pray so we prayed like 10 times while doing our role plays, we also had the time during class to go in a room with our companion and have a personal prayer, and then we prayed again when we ended class and then i went to the residence where we had companion prayer again and then finally i ended with a personal prayer. so yeah, i don't think i have prayed this much in my life! i have never been closer to my Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ in my life either. 

I am so Grateful for this opportunity i have to serve a mission and be a representative of my brother and Savior Jesus Christ! It has been such a blessing already in my life! i have already learned so much more about sharing the gospel and my testimony has been strengthened so much in the few days that i have been here! I just wanted to end by bearing ya'll my testimony, I do know that this church is true and is the only true church here upon the earth. i know that this gospel can bring happiness into our lives and can touch the life of others and bring happiness to them as well. i know that the church was fully restored through Joseph Smith and that he did kneel down in the sacred grove and see God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. i know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of his children and that he wants the best for all of us. i know that he does talk to us by answering our prayers as well as through our prophets. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today and that he was called of God. i know that if we listen to the counsel he is giving us our lives will be bless. i know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. that he did suffer bleed and die for all of our sins. i know that because if this we are able to repent and be able to live with our loving heavenly father again. i know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is in fact another testament of Jesus Christ. i know that God loves me and loves each and everyone of you. i am so truly blessed to be a missionary of this church and to be able to represent Jesus Christ. i know that this is where i am supposed to be and that Heavenly Father is preparing the people in Florida to hear what i have to say and preparing their hearts to accept the gospel. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all and pray for each of you every single day. i hope all is going well at home. i cant wait to hear from you again. make sure people know that they can Dear Elder me here at the mtc. it was so great to get letters already from Manda and Racheal through Dear Elder. so please keep them coming i loved it! also i asked for a few things in my letter... i think the only thing i really need is a rain jacket... so please if you could find a cute one at target and send it to me!! i really need it. other than that don't worry about sending any of the other stuff i asked for. i can manage until i get to Florida... my p-days will be on Saturdays while i am here at the MTC this is when i will be able to go to the temple in the afternoon. i am so excited for that. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Webb

Arriving at the MTC! May 13, 2015

It's official! Call me sister Webb! smile emoticon I'm so excited to go and share the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of the people in Florida!

Packing on Tuesday May 12, 2015

The bags are packed with 45 minutes to spare! Only 5 melt downs happened while trying to pack.. Can it please be tomorrow already!

Farewell - May 11, 2015

Olivia gave her farewell talk in the Park Ward on Sunday May 10th. Her topic was Testimony. Many friends and family members attended. They met at the Webb home afterwards for breakfast and to say good-bye. If you haven't had a chance to say good-bye she will available until Tuesday night.