Happy Easter!! - March 28, 2016

Family!!

First off, thank you for the Easter package mom! It was really good! I checked the mail all week for it and finally got it on Saturday. We had such a good and exciting/eventful week this week! Best way to start a new transfer!

Last Monday was the last pday we had as a district. It was fun but sad. I already miss the missionaries who got transferred out. Elder Hopkins and I are the only two missionaries who have been here for 6 months now. Sadly we both know we will be transferred next time. But hey that's still 6 weeks away. So for p-day we had pizza and ice cream and then played volleyball, basketball and soccer. Oh and Sister Olsen and I brought Bean Boozled and made everyone play. It was funny!

Tuesday was our last district meeting together. It was really good. We discussed an analogy in Preach My Gospel on pg 152 about how long we have our fishing lines in the water as missionaries. Mine has been slacking a bit so that training really inspired me! It was really good. It really got me thinking of things I wanted to change this transfer. I came up with 3 transfer goals that I want to accomplish this transfer. The first is to work hard so I can baptize one soul. I set a goal last transfer to baptize 7 people the remainder of my mission. so in order to accomplish this I have to baptize one a transfer! The second goal I set was to memorize The Living Christ. I decided I wanted to study more on Christ this transfer to strengthen my relationship with him and as missionaries we memorize 2 scriptures a week. Well, I've been slacking at that so I decided to repent but I decided I would memorize this instead of scriptures. And finally I am going to work so so so hard at following all the rules.. This is going to be the hardest one for me. I'm not a total apostate missionary but I do bend a few rules.. I decided with this one I am going to have to take baby steps. Instead of laying with my eyes shut during exercise I now have to have my eyes open the whole time and to constantly be moving. So far I am doing good at this one. Also, I've been working on being completely ready before studies so that I am right ready to go out for the day after our studies. I've also made sure we have been doing our golden hours every day. It's killing me but hey, when you do what your suppose to you get blessings. Anyways, those are the few goals that I plan to work on this whole transfer. I will keep you updated on all of them.

We had a huge miracle happen to us on Tuesday night!! So, basically I've been in my pretend depression all week because we can't teach Tonnie and JQ anymore. It's been so sad and I was really stressing as to how we were going to find someone new to teach! On Tuesday night our plans fell through and we only had a few miles left on the car for the day so we decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father where we needed to go. We then opened up the area book and looked at the map to see who lived close to us. Well we found the name Tony Smith and he lived super close to us and I just felt like we needed to go see him.  He was a former investigator who had been taught every single lesson, he had been to church about 8 times and he had been invited to baptism before. The missionaries dropped him about a year ago and he had not been taught since. Anyways, we start driving to his place and we finally get to the street he lives on and guess what?! Ok, so all last transfer I kept telling Sister Olsen I felt like we needed to go knock doors down this street. She thought I was complete bonkers because the street was very dark and just looks really scary in the dark. It never failed though, every week I would tell her the same thing. We needed to knock this street. Well, it turns out that Tony lives down this street! Crazy!!! So we go and start talking to him and we share the Easter video with him and set up another time that we can meet and have a lesson. He is so golden!! Right after we get in the car to drive home Sister Olsen say to me, "did you see his end table in his house?" Of course I was standing in a spot on the porch that I couldn't see it but she told me that he had a Bible, a Book of Mormon, all the pamphlet lessons and a Gospel Principles book on it! Who is this man!?? He needs to be baptized! That was miracle number one this week!

On Wednesday it was transfers so we spent the day in the Second Ward area with Sister Tui until her new companion could get here. It was really fun but such an exhausting day. So Sister Tui is still a pretty new missionary and just got out of training and then I have my companion who is still in training and lets just say both of them are terrified to talk to people. This wouldn't be that bad but all Sister Tui had planed was golden hours.. So basically I knocked doors all afternoon and talked to strangers while my two companions just stood there watching me. Talk about tiring. 

On Wednesday night we had class and Tonnie and JQ came. It was really good. We met with them a few times this week. I am just having a hard time parting with them.  They fed us dinner on Thursday night. It was really good! That night we told them that we couldn't meet with them anymore and that the Second Ward sisters would take over. That didn't go as planned. They were both sad and said they want to keep coming to 1st ward and is there anyway they could come. So now we are still working on transitioning them to the second ward.

Ok, miracle number two!! This one is kinda strange but it's a miracle!  So on Thursday night we decide that we had about 40 minutes left for the night and that we would try to contact this referral from the elders. They told us he is hard to catch but basically he met with missionaries in the past and had a baptism date before he moved here.  Well, we tried him a few times earlier in the week but he was never home so we decided to try again. We knock the door and this man answers. We ask if he is George and of course the guy says no... He tells us we must have the wrong house because no one named George lived there... Awkward! So by this point we just look dumb because we have left pass along cards on this man's door everyday for the last week almost.. Haha anyways, we walk off and I look at the address one more time and of course we are both blondes and had been knocking on the wrong door the whole time. We were knocking #1003 and he lived in 1103.. Our bad! We walk to the building next to where we were standing and knock the right door and of course George answers. The first thing I notice is he looks like a Jewish rabbi and he has some scary long finger nails.. His house is a complete mess and there are books all over the floor. My favorite one I noticed on the floor had a giant cat picture on it and it was called The Cat's Mind... Sounds strange right?  It doesn't end there. So we tell him we are the missionaries and he leans in to look at our names and then says, "this is so not a coincidence that you are knocking on my door, I've been attending the Church of Christ these past few weeks and the assistant pastors name was Brother Webb." He then goes on to tell us why it is no coincidence that Sister Olsen is here as well because he had a friend from college named Olsen that he had a dream he was suppose to do missionary work with.. Haha anyways, we talk for a bit and he keeps telling us that he knows it is no coincidence that we knocked on his door tonight because he knows he needs to be baptized. Well, instantly I tell him we are here to help and invited him to baptism for the 23rd of April! And again this was no coincidence that we invited him that day. Haha he started explaining that that is his name day, I'm not even sure what that is but he explained it to us I just wasn't paying that close attention. Anyways, let's just say we found someone who wants to be baptized!

Nothing to exciting happened on Friday besides we had no car and it was super hot and we had to walk.. I did get my first sunburn of the year. It really wasn't that sunny of a day so I didn't think to put sunscreen on, bad idea! I got burnt! Lets just say I made sure to pull it out so I can wear it every day now!

Saturday was a very eventful day. So first off we met up with this man from our area book named Nate. He runs a car wash business and we stopped by to talk to him and share an Easter message. He was really interested in the Book of Mormon so we are planning to meet with him again this Friday! We also are going to do service for him sometime and help with his car wash! After that we had a call from the elders telling us that the district had decided to do a competition on who could get the most baptism invites that day. Whoever won would get a trophy! We were determined to win so we just started knocking doors and inviting everyone we spoke with to baptism! We had to stop for a little bit while we did service for Airis! Now that was the most disgusting thing I did all week! So she just moved into this trailer and the people living in it before did not take anything out. Last week Airis went in and sprayed to kill most of the bugs but it was still nasty! Remember how I have this fear of the DI? This was like a million times worst! So there was no electricity on in the trailer yet so it was like 100 degrees.  I wore sweat pants because I was scared of getting a disease or bug bites! I was dripping sweat and picking up dirty underwear left on the floor.. Just thinking about it now still gets me! I was itchy the whole time! Haha while doing service we saw a man sitting out on his porch so we ran over and started teaching him and had to invite him to baptism! We ended up inviting 7 people to baptism that day and we won the competition!! Yeah, we are basically the best missionaries in Ocala! 

Saturday night we went to women's conference! It was amazing!!! I loved it! I've actually been studying lots about service and charity this past week so it just topped it all of! Mom, I'm glad to hear that it touched you and your going to do some service! I am getting really slack so I will have to write y'all a letter to share with you the things I liked! I'm going to end this now!

We really had such an amazing week! I forgot to tell you, we taught 28 lessons this week, invited 8 people to baptism and set one baptism date! Our Easter was so good! We went to church, had dinner with a member and then we went to visit the Dowlings. They are recent converts in our ward. We made some Easter baskets for their little boys! It was great! Well I hope y'all had a good Easter! Next holiday i will be skyping y'all!! I'm getting pretty excited for that! 

Oh, I forgot to mention, my ankle is doing a lot better! That brace has really helped! Love you all and miss you!! Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Webb

PS.. This week I came to the realization that I am a stress eater! So I have to give a training tomorrow in district meeting and I decided to procrastinate it until this morning to plan it. Let's just say I ate almost all of my Easter candy while trying to prepare it! Pray for me that I do good!! I'm still stressing about it!!