This week marks 8 months!!! - January 11, 2016

To start off I wanted to say thank you to every one who emailed me this week. I love getting all the encouraging little quotes and messages. They all really helped! I've realized how spoiled and loved I really am. I've started writing quotes in my scriptures and lots of them are ones that y'all send me. I also got a sweet package from Danielle this week! She sent me some chocolates and treats! I have truly felt all of your love this week! Thank you!

My week has been pretty good! I've realized that your week usually depends on what you make of it. So as y'all know last week I was just super bummed and down and basically I was ready to just come home! Well, thankfully, I have a good mother who emailed me the next day with some loving words and good advice. Mom, I took your advice and here is what happened.

So I did as you said and read my patriarchal blessing and then I decided to read Alma 17. I didn't get much out of my patriarchal blessing. I read it like weekly. I'm pretty sure I am going to have it memorized by the time I get home! Haha I guess a few things stood out to me this time but they were nothing that pertained to me feeling better. Haha so after I read my blessing I decided to pray again and as I prayed I asked for help and then also asked to find an answer as to how I can get out of this slump I am in. After praying I decided to do the whole open up to a random page and just start reading. Well I opened to Alma 5. I kinda read over it and nothing really jumped right out at me. Basically, by this point, I am just getting frustrated that I can't find anything. Finally, I'm just so frustrated and I decide that I need to read from Preach My Gospel under how to recognize and understand the spirit because clearly I was struggling with that. So I begin reading and a few things stood out to me. On page 93 it says "you receive the spirit through the prayer of faith.." Well then I started questioning my prayers and my faith. So then I'm trying to figure out how I can strengthen my faith. But I kept on reading in Preach My Gospel. 

On page 94 I read this quote that I love. "Every morning... Missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessing of those thy will be teaching. If they will do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work.  They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in his behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the spirit, their investigators will respond and see the influence of the same spirit."- President Gordon B. Hinckley  

That quote was like a slap back into reality for me. Holy cow, I have read that a million times but just then I realized I needed to act upon that. So once again I prayed and asked for those exact things in the quote and to see that new light come into my life. Alright, after my prayer I decided to read Alma 17. Of course moms always know best!  Just like you said in your email to me I have read this chapter recently and I first started it thinking nothing new is going to stand out to me I just read it a few weeks ago.. And then the thought of faith popped back into my head. So then I tell myself that I have faith that I will find something new that will stand out to me that can help me. Well verse 12 said "they took courage to go forth." So I took the things Mom had told me which were, be patient, show forth a good example and then added take courage to go forth. I realized that I need to just rely more on faith and trust Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ more.

So, remember how I had mentioned I read Alma chapter 5 earlier? Well, we were suppose to go see a member who is in the hospital and we were still unsure what to share with him and his wife. We began talking about faith and the member was trying to share with us a scripture he had just read that he liked. He told us it was Moroni 5:15. Well of course there is no Moroni 5:15. But just then I remembered reading Alma 5:15 this morning and it talked about faith. I was able to share it with him and, of course, that was the exact scripture he had been thinking of!  Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers especially in unseen ways. If I hadn't read that chapter I would never have know what this member was trying to get at.

I have continued every day to pray for that light and enthusiasm to come back into my life and for my tongue to be loose. I have seen so many small tender mercies this week that have shown me Heavenly Father is aware of me and that if I just keep pushing on things will continue to get better. A lot of the people we have been visiting have really been struggling lately. All with different things, some financially, some medically, some with addictions, car problems, family problems.  The list goes on and on... It has been so amazing to me that as I have been seeking for my tongue to be loose and that this light will come, I have felt impressed to say things that I would have never thought to say on my own. It is usually really hard for me to relate to people because I've never really had financial problems, medical problems, family problems. But some how I was able to relate in different ways and share things with all of them to help. After that it just kinda gets you pumped to keep going!

I've also been reading a quote every day that has helped as well. I call it the get pumped quote. It is my goal to fully memorize it. It is called Fellowship of the Unshamed 

"I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The dye has been cast.  I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secured. I'm finished and done with low-living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tainted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk with patience, I am lifted by prayer, and labor with power. My face is fixed, my gait is fast, and my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is tough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear! I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder in the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I've stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go 'til he comes, give 'til I drop. Preach with all I know and work until he comes and stops me; when he returns for his own, he will have no problem recognizing. My banner will be clear!"

Man, when you read those words it's hard not to be pumped!

Now that I am already at a small novel I will quickly tell you all that is going on with our investigators and members we work with. So we are still working with Sammy and his daughter Sammi Kaliey. He has a baptism date for February 27th but we are hoping to be able to move it up. Him and his daughter came to church this week! Yay! We have been having such a struggle getting people to church. They both loved it though!

We are also still working with Isyss and Jenesyss. We are still working on reading in the Book of Mormon with them. Of course I am in first place and I am at 1 Nephi 6. Then every one else is tied and are at 1 Nephi 4. So we are making some progress with them at reading. We all came up with something we want if we win. I told them if I win they will have to make me a chocolate cake! I'm pretty determined to get this cake! We usually see the girls a few times during the week.  We see them on Wednesday nights at Young Women and Activity Days. Then we see them on Thursday nights for volley ball and then end up teaching them during the week some time. They are such sweet girls and I love seeing them get excited about learning and reading the Book of Mormon.

Tonnie is going through some rough times and we still have not been able to meet with him. It's frustrating but hey, we'll get there. We still need to reset his baptism date but he hasn't come back to church and we haven't seen him in a while.

That's about it with our investigators. We had some crazy lessons this week. One was a referral who requested to meet with missionaries. She was an interesting lady. She told is all about how she use to meet with missionaries back when she lived in California. She then started telling us her whole life story and well, it was pretty crazy. Then she starts to tell us all about every single neighbor who lives on her street who does drugs and who deals them.. Ummm... Why do people tell missionaries things like this? Haha it was just a super awkward lesson and we tried to talk about forgiveness but she does not believe in forgiving people. Just as we were about to leave she asks us when we can come back.. Haha I wanted to say never but of course I just smiled and said we would love to come back next week.. Haha so, stay tune for another crazy story!

So nothing to exciting happened this week! We walked a lot in the cold. We got some ice cream a lot. I'm not sure why I do that. It usually makes me sick afterwards but hey, it's so good! Haha So I do have some sad news to tell y'all. I think I cried a little bit when this happened. So last week my blow dryer died... It was the saddest day ever! So mom, you know how you said you put more money in my account and told me to use it wisely... Well I spent a good chunk of it today on a stupid blow dryer. Haha so, anyone who wants to contribute to my I'm poor fund feel free! Haha 

I'm basically too slack to keep writing this novel. So I hope y'all have a good week! I can't wait to get all the packages y'all said you are sending or have sent! Have a good week! Love you all and miss you!

I hope you enjoy all of the Vidoes and photos we took this week!

Love you all!

Sister Webb

P.S.  I've been out 8 months now!!! Almost half way there!!!! :)

Pics - January 11, 2016

Zone meeting - We had zone meeting this week and this is a picture of our zone.

Gainesville zone is where it's at! :)

We tried to take some pictures in the car because we thought we looked good that day. The second picture just describes us the best! Haha

I had my first Tim Tam slam!

 Package from Danielle - The package I got from Danielle! She is the best! I ate half the chocolates in one night! Haha

We thought we looked real good yesterday for church so we had to take some photos. Haha

Selfies!

 

 

 

 

Welcome 2016! - January 4, 2016

Hello family,

Happy New Years!! This is it!! This is my year I come home!!! I'm so excited!! I'll be home before y'all know it! I'm so glad to hear that y'all had a good New Years! This was probably the lamest New Year's Eve I have ever had... But I'm happy to say I did stay up until midnight! I know I'm a rule breaker but hey, it's New Years! So I guess I will just start by telling you about New Year's Eve. So we had to be off the streets by 7. Well problem number one of the night was we didn't have the car. Haha so we bummed a ride to dinner at the bishop's house and then bummed a ride to the Tompkin's house. The Tompkins were having a New Year's Eve party with all the youth in the ward. It was fun. We played some bowling and boxing on the Xbox and then we played some Mexican train. I'm getting pretty good at it! This time I was not in last place! Haha then around 9 o'clock Sister Tompkins took us home. We were super bummed because we just wanted to party. So we came home  and decided to play some games. I'm basically the apostate missionary and had a mini deck of cards so we played Go Fish! Haha that lasted until around 10 when I decided to put my pajamas on and write in my journal. Yes you heard me right... I wrote in my journal! I think I am on page 20 now! It's only taken me 8 months!  Haha! Anyways, by the time I was done with that we sat on the back porch for like 10 minutes watching stupid teenagers light fireworks off in the grass. And then I went to bed.. Well, my plan was to just lay there until midnight and then say "Happy New Year" and go to sleep but that didn't work out as I had planned. First, I fell asleep while saying my prayers and Sister McGregor had to wake me up like 3 times and then I finally laid down in bed when she woke me up again to tell me it was two minutes to midnight. We then went back outside on our screen porch and did the count down! Thank goodness I have a companion who can stay awake till midnight because obviously I can't! But all in all it was a lame night. I think this was the hardest holiday for me so far on the mission. You would think Christmas would have been hard but nope, knowing that everyone was still out partying when I was home in bed was the hardest. But yeah, that was my New Year's Eve. I just kept thinking of all the fun New Year's Eves we would have as kids with the family.

We had a pretty good week this week. We taught 24 lessons! That's huge for us! Last week I think we taught less then 10.. So this is a big deal! Haha we found some new investigators this week as well which is good because we need them! We met a man named Sammy. He is really humble and willing to listen to us and he was way excited about the Book of Mormon. To top it all off we set a baptism date with him! So funny story about Sammy, so we went and taught him on Saturday night and after his lesson we went back to the car and we were just sitting there trying to think of someone who could give him a ride the next day to church. Anyways, we had probably been sitting there across the street from him for about 10 minutes when all the sudden he came outside to take a smoke and talk on the phone. Us being stupid decided instead of driving away we would just duck in our seats. So then we got stuck sitting outside his house hoping he wouldn't notice us still sitting in the car.. Haha I made a video of it so y'all can see how stupid we are! Haha 

Another investigator we found is named Lucy. She is super sweet. We went and saw her yesterday. Are are pretty excited that we have found some new investigators!

We are still working with Tonnie. We haven't seen him since before Christmas. It's been tough with the holidays and his work schedule. We are hoping to see him this Thursday and reset a baptism date with him.  But he is still reading the Book of Mormon so that's good!

Isyss and Jenesyss are still doing good. We met with them on Saturday.  Isyss told us she doesn't want to get baptized until she can read the Book of Mormon and know it is true. So now their baptism dates are off. We have started a competition with them of who can read the Book of Mormon first. So far I am in the lead because I have made it to 1 nephi 2. Haha I guess this will help we achieve my goal of reading the Book of Mormon 4 times before I go home because now I am reading it from the beginning as well as from Alma. So I'm pretty sure I will dominate at this challenge but we are hoping it will give them motivation to read.

That's basically all the investigators that we are really working with. We are hoping that we will be able to get a bigger teaching pool soon! Oh, I had one other funny story. So we were going to see an investigator named Darion just to see if he was still interested and set up an appointment to come back or to just drop him. Well, he kinda lives in a really scary part of town. He lives right off of Martin Luther King street which is basically scary. Anyways, we start driving to his house and instantly you just feel so out of place because we are the only white peoples on the street not to mention we are two young white girls who drive a nice car. Well, we get to his place and we park and there are a bunch of people outside so we are just scared to get out so we sit there. Then this man comes out of his house and starts smoking and walks to the edge of the street and is just staring us down. We are panicking and decide it is best just not to make eye contact. Haha Sister McGregor decides to pretend to talk on the phone.  I decide it is a good idea to make a video of this awkward moment. Haha basically I hit record and then he walks up to the car. By this time I am in such a panic. Kinda like that time the cop asked me and Linsey if we had a dollar and I threw one at him! Haha so anyways, he walks up and I unroll my window. And he has no teeth and in his thick southern accent he asks if we are giving out Bibles. Well we had one in our car so I give it to him and tell him we would love to come by and share about Jesus Christ with him. Haha it was pretty scary! I made a video of it after it happened so you can see just how scared I was! Haha 

I gave my training in district meeting on last Tuesday. It went really well. I talked about the importance of the sacrament and how we can get our investigators to attend sacrament. We also had a training by Elder Hopkins on learning Spanish. Haha I am slowly learning Spanish.

He has been teaching me on P-days. Pretty soon I will be pro! Haha I think that is basically all that has been going on here. 

On New Years we had dinner with Sister Pulsipher in our ward. She is a sweet older lady. She cooks really good. We ate at her house on Thanksgiving. She made us potatoes, broccoli, salad, buttered beans, and then a prime rib roast. Oh and then we had homemade New York style cheesecake dessert! I was in heaven!! She basically cooks for an army and there is only 4 of us eating so she makes you eat a ton of food! I though I was going to throw up several times because of how full I was. So my piece of meat... Remember that time I told you I had a ham the size of my dinner plate? Well this is one of those times! My slice of meat was about 1 1/2 inches thick and it covered my entire plate! The only bad part was I got a middle piece and so it was still raw. Now don't get me wrong, I love a medium rare steak but this was seriously mooing at me still! It was bright red in the middle still and I just had to eat it. It was really good I just thought I might die eating it. Haha 

This has, once again, turned into a small novel so I will wrap it up. I hope y'all have a wonderful week. I appreciate all the prayers, emails and letters I get. They truly do help give you that boost of strength you need to keep pushing along. It has finally started to cool down here. Instead of being 85 every day it has cooled down to the 60. It's cold and miserable when you have to walk everywhere but I am surviving. 

Not going to lie, this week has been quite a struggle and I think I have hit a brick wall.. It has been super had for me to find motivation. But I've been praying and fasting for it and slowing I am feeling better. Hopefully now with the holidays out of the way I will be better. Sister Tompkins took us out to lunch at Olive Garden today and then spent the rest of the day taking us to all the malls and stores just to shop. It was really nice. I think I really just needed a day of non missionary stuff! Haha she is seriously the sweetest lady. She also invited us over for dinner tonight because no one else signed up to feed us. Best family ever!

Ok mom, so here's the deal. If you keep letting the ward put up my sucky emails on the ward newsletter I'm going to have to stop writing!  Haha stop letting them put my crazy stories up there! I send home testimonies occasionally... Post those! Haha ok enough ranting about that.

Anyways, have a wonderful week family! I love all of you! I'm so excited to hear how the baby shower goes! I wanted to send a gift but I never found something good to buy. But I still have six weeks to get something to you! I can't believe little Ivy will be here in six weeks! I better get lots of videos and pictures when that happens!

Love and miss you all!

Until next week.. Love,

Sister Webb :)

Christmas time is the best!! - December 28, 2015

Hello family,

First off it was soooooo freakin good to talk to y'all on Christmas!  I'm glad someone hung up for me because I don't think I would have been able to! It was just so good to see all of you and it just got me so pumped to go out and work hard to make all of you proud! I'm so glad to hear all is well at home. It sounds like y'all had the typical Christmas. Lots of food and games! My Christmas was really good as well. After I talked to y'all it was basically time to eat so we sat down and ate dinner. The Tompkins made us ham and homemade mac and cheese. It was good! After dinner we just hung out with Tompkins and we played Mexican train. Which is dominos. It was lots of fun then we may have played some dance central on the Xbox.. After that we had a Nerf gun war with the boys and then we left and went caroling down town with the district! It was lots of fun. Like I said we did that on Christmas Eve as well! I have some videos that I will send home of that. Although I cant promise that they sound good. It was such a good experience it was really neat to see the Christmas spirit touch the hearts of many as we sang. We just started singing and instantly everyone stopped and turned and walked towards us to listen. And then lots of people took pictures and videos of us. I'm sure I am all over the Internet by now! Haha 

Well not much has really happened. I basically told you everything on Christmas. We are still working with our investigators and hoping they can all get baptized. We need to work with Isyss and Jenesyss's mom so that there will be some support at home. And then we need to work with Trista's parents as well. Then we need to reset a baptism date with Tonnie. So we have a lot to do this week!

I'm excited for New Years! We are not allowed to be out on New Year's Eve so we are going to have to find a members home to go to. We will probably end up at the Tompkins home. Because that is basically my second home right now.

So yesterday we had a fun day. We had a dinner appointment at the McGrath's house. It's always fun there because brother McGrath has all of his kids and grandkids come over for a huge Sunday dinner. We had smoked chicken and smoked pork chops and then some potatoes. It was sooo good! Before dinner we jumped on the tramp with the kids. I forgot how much of a work out that is. And I now understand why mom would never jump on the tramp with me as a kid. After dinner we played a quick game with them called Pie Face.. Basically it is this little thing where you put whipped cream on it and you spin a spinner and you put your face up and turn this dial thing and if your lucky you don't get cream in your face but if your not you get a nice surprise. Of course I got creamed! It was fun! Y'all will have to buy it because I am sure the kids would love it. After our dinner appointment we went out and taught some lessons and then went to the Tompkins house to have family night with them and their grandma who is not a member. We watched "Meet the Mormons" and talked with their grandma for a bit. It was good! Well that about sums up my week.

Oh, I guess I can tell you what I got for Christmas even though you already know. So like I told all of you on skype, we decided to open one of our Christmas presents on the 23rd. And that was a bad idea! We may have opened more then one! And then we woke up on Christmas Eve and opened the rest of our presents! Haha it just makes up for last year I guess. (Making me wait until 10!) I did get to open one present on Christmas though! David's present got to my house on Christmas Eve so I opened it on Christmas!  So I got some skirts, and some shirts, a sweater that I can wear in this beautiful 85 degree weather, I got some toothpaste, and bleach trays, and bleach to whiten my teeth up, I got some lotion, and body wash, and then sister McGregor's family got me a bracelet and a Australia key chain and then a few small toys for my desk, and then I got a breakfast sandwich maker, and then one of the elders got me a present. Elder Hopkins took all of the pamphlet lessons and had them bound into a small book for me! It was really sweet of him! But that's basically what I got! Well besides the money people gave me and the gift cards! Haha Thanks for all of the presents!

I loved them all!

I thought I would send you something spiritual because I sadly found out that my emails get posted for the ward to see. So for anyone in the ward who reads this I hope you know that most of the other missionaries wards sent them packages for Christmas.. What is this??  Our ward must be slacking in that department. Haha 

Ok so this week I was trying to think of some goals I could work on for the new year. Basically an add on to some that I told you last week.  Well, I was reading alma 17 when I came across something that I want to try. So I was thinking of who some of the greatest missionaries were in the Book of Mormon and of course I was reading about them.  Then I thought of how they became such great teachers. In Alma 17 it talks about how they studied the scriptures, prayed much and they had much fasting. Well, I already read my scriptures, and I pray lots, and well I fast. But this said much fasting. I asked myself what is much fasting? Once a month? Once a week? A few times a week? So what I'm deciding to do to become a better teacher is I plan to fast more. I want to become just like the sons of Mosiah and Alma. I'm going to try fasting a few times a week. I don't know how well I will last at it but I am determined to try! Hopefully this well help with my skirts fitting better! Haha 

I won't make this a 12 page letter this time. Only because I am giving another training tomorrow in district meeting and still need to prepare a bit for it. So pray for me that I will do good on it! I am training on the importance of Sabbath Day. It should be pretty easy! I've learned a lot on the sacrament just preparing for it so far.

Mom, I was so glad to hear that you liked your Christmas present! And it was nice to see that you are still the same mum and cry just as much! I'm surprised that I didn't bawl like a baby when we talked! It just got me so excited for Mother's Day!!! Only like 5 more months and we can talk again and then like 5 more and I will be home!!! Also, Mom... I went to send home my skirt today but the dang post office next to my house was closed and we don't have miles on the car to go to the other one so I will try to send home that skirt as soon as I can!

Anyways, I hope y'all have a wonderful week! Have lots of fun on New Year's Eve! Happy Birthday Nate! Make sure to do something real fun on Friday for your birthday!! Love you all and miss you!

Love

Sister Webb

Pics - Dec 28, 2015

Us opening presents on December 23. The Eve of Christmas Eve. Haha

Here is what my Magic tree looked like once it was full grown! Haha

Look at how much better my watch is! I was so happy to get a new one!

This is the present we got the Tompkins! We are so cute! Haha they loved it and hung it up in their house because we are their favorite!  :)

Mom, this picture is of that skirt you sent that I really liked and I want in black folks they have it. I will send home the other skirt asap!

Christmas Night fun!

Here is a picture of my whole district caroling at the lights.

We are just a crazy bunch who like to have fun!

We had weekly planning and we went to Ihop! It was so good! :)

Merry Christmas y'all! - December 21, 2015

Hello family!

I'm probably going to make this a pretty short email today because I have a ton to get done today and I'm talking to y'all on Friday! I'm am so excited for that!! Seriously, it's going to be so great to see y'all again! Mom, you better get your box of tissues ready because I already know your going to cry! Haha don't worry I already bought my box of tissues! Mom, I'm still not sure what time you wanted me to call because you never set a specific time. I am planning to skype from the Tompkins home and they said 10:30 or 11 should work for them. So what if I call y'all around 10:30? That would be 12:30 my time. And if that time doesn't work well with the Tompkins I will have Brother Tompkins email you to tell you otherwise. It really all depends on when their son is skyping them. But we will plan that I will call y'all at 10:30. Also you need to accept my request on skype, otherwise, I will not be able to call... And I'm not sure how skyping everyone works so.. I'll just let y'all do that part. Haha oh and one last thing, I only get like 40 minutes so... No rambling and wasting time! Haha 

So my week was pretty good! We had a few miracles this week! On Monday night we were able to teach our investigators Isyss, Jenesyss, and Trista, they are all just young girls. Isyss and Jenesyss are sisters who happen to be living at the home of a less active member and then Trista is their friend who lives down the street. Well anyways, we set baptism dates with them!! Yay!!! They are planning to get baptized on January 23rd!!

Another miracle that happened this week was on Wednesday we were able to have 3 unexpected lessons and also gave out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon! It was a miracle! That rarely happens!

Saturday we got to go up to Gainesville with the Tompkins to see Savior of the World. It was really good! Our stake was putting it on this year and the Tompkins got us tickets to go with them! It was a lot of fun! They sent you an email with a picture of us there, I don't know if you got it or not because you never said but you should have!

So you now have their email so email them back! They have become my second family here! They have basically taken us in for the Christmas week! We did Savior of the World with them Saturday and then today they are taking us out on a glass bottom boat ride at the springs and then invited us to go caroling with their family later tonight. They invited us over on Christmas Eve so that Sister McGregor can skype home and then again on Christmas so I can skype home! They are honestly the best!!! So make sure to email them!! They also want to meet you when we Skype! Haha I got my packages from you mom! Luckily Sister McGregor got hers y'all forgot to put the apartment number.. Haha it is taking all I can do to not rip them open or to touch them! Haha I already know I got the watch and some clothes! I'm hoping you didn't just get me underwear and individually wrap them! Haha I also got a nice package from my friend Alisha that I use to work with! It was great! She just loaded it with a bunch of food!! I loved it! Y'all got my packages I sent! I was going to send some Christmas cards but never got around to sending them... My bad! I'm such a lazy person! Haha maybe y'all will just get them late and I'll just try to send them this week!

So yesterday I had a neat experience at church. So lately I've just felt like numb to the spirit and it was really stressing me like I wasn't feeling it or something. So yesterday I prayed and asked to feel Heavenly Father's love for me and to be able to feel the spirit more. While during sacrament we had the Christmas program and dang, I should be careful for what I pray for... The spirit was so strong! They had the missionaries who were serving from our ward write to their parents their testimonies and then the parents got up and read them! That was so good! It really invited the spirit into the meeting!

Then Brother Read who is the high priest leader gave a talk and shared a story of the best Christmas he had experienced as a child. He shared how he was about 4 or 5 years old and his dad had died and his mom was living in a different state working on planes during the war so she could have money to support them. Brother Read shared how he was living with his grandma and this particular Christmas all of his aunts and cousins had come and his mom had sent a present for him and he was just so excited to open it and all of his cousins were placing bets on who could wake up the earliest and then he shared how he woke up and everyone was still asleep and he was just so excited to open that present his mom got him. His only problem was he couldn't read. So he ended up opening all of the presents. Well, when everyone woke up they were not happy and he got yelled at and sent to his room for the rest of the day to spend Christmas alone. He said how he spent most of the day crying and finally his grandma came in and shared with him the greatest Christmas present he got. Love! She explained how love is such an important part of Christmas. Heavenly Father loved us so much he sent Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ loved us so much that he came and suffered and died for all of us! His grandmas also explained that his mom loved him so much as well because she had save what little extra money she had just to buy him a present. It was a really good story! I was tearing up like crazy and the sweet old man behind me had to lean forward and say, "It's ok Webb, don't cry.." Haha but I was a neat experience. I truly felt Heavenly Father's love for me and the spirit!  Prayers are always answered!!

So, this week I have been thinking lots about all our Christmas traditions and I've realized I'm so sad I will not be there Christmas Eve to have Dad read from that old white bible Luke chapter 2 and I won't get to play Mary in the nativity.. Haha but then I remembered I needed to think of my gift I was going to give to Christ this year. I think this is one of my favorite traditions and I plan to do it with my family someday. So, I thought of my typical answer of be kind to my brothers and sisters but then I realized.. Crap, I'm a missionary and I won't see them this whole year.. So, then I had to switch it up a little bit. Instead of the usual I've decided that this year while being a missionary I want to try to share the gospel more with my family and friends. I'm out here sharing it with random strangers but then I realized that I have plenty of family and friends who are struggling and I plan to choose one person each month and write and bear my testimony to them! I also set a goal early this year with my mission president that I wanted to read the Book of Mormon 5 times while on my mission and since I will not be coming home until the end of the year I would like to accomplish that as well. I plan to read the Book of Mormon 4 more times before I come home! So that is my gift to Christ this year. Mom, if you could type that up and put it in the box for me I would appreciate it!

So, one last thing that I remembered.. They are extending the time that missionaries will be staying in the MTC to 3 weeks. This means that all missionaries who are currently serving will have an extended week to their missions. Well, at first, I was like, oh no big deal it's only a week. But then I realized, I was going to make it home before Thanksgiving but now with the extended week and then don't send missionaries home the week of a holiday I will be staying here til December!! What is this!!?? I don't think I signed up for that when putting in my papers.. Haha but yeah, I am now coming home in December instead of November!

I just wanted to end this by bearing you all my testimony that I do know this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore Jesus Christ's gospel to the earth. And that through him the priesthood was restored. I know that we have a living prophet on earth today, Thomas S Monson. I know that he does lead and guide us in these last days, and that if we will follow and be obedient to what he says our lives will truly be blessed. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have come to grow such a great love for this book. I know that it is holy scriptures just as the Bible is and that together they do contain the fullness of the gospel. I know that this book can answer all our questions in life and that we can find so much peace and comfort, and happiness as we read it. I know that these feelings are the spirit testifying to us that this book is true. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior that he was so willing to obey Heavenly Father and he came down to earth for a purpose just as all of us did. I know that he suffered, bled, died, and was resurrected for us. So that we would be able to live with Heavenly Father again! I'm so grateful to be a missionary at this time. I couldn't imagine doing anything else right now! My knowledge and testimony of this wonderful gospel has grown so much these past 7 months and I know they will continue to grow through out my life. Missionary work isn't easy. In fact it is really hard. No one ever told me how hard this was going to be. Probably because they knew if I really knew I wouldn't have made it out here. But I know even though it is hard. It is so worth it! It's worth it when you see miracles every day. It's worth it when some one you are teaching accepts baptism. It's worth it when that less active you have been working with for months finally comes to church. It's worth it when you go to church each week and you feel love from the ward members you are serving. It is worth it when you see your investigators feel the spirit. It is worth it when you are just about ready to say "I quit" and then you get an encouraging email or letter from home telling you how much you are loved and how proud your family is of you! It is worth it when you help others receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! It is worth it because I am out here serving my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ! My mission has been the best decision of my life!!

Thank you for all of the love support and encouragement you have given me throughout the years to get me to this point in my life.

I love you all and hope you all have a Merry Christmas! I can't wait to talk to you on Friday! Accept my skype request and I will call at 10:30 your time! :)

Love you!

Sister Webb

Pics - Dec 21, 2015

So we went to Silver Springs State Park and went on a glass bottom boat ride today with the Tompkins. Mom and Dad, I know they sent some of these pictures to you all ready but here are some more! :)

On the boat!

Next to the Osceola Indian statue

This was called the lucky palm tree and if you stand in the loop you are suppose to have good luck for 5 years

This was the view of the springs. It is where they filmed part of Creature from the Black lagoon.. Haha

Gator

Turtles

This is a picture of a really old tree and a really old row boat under it!

This is a picture of statues that were used in a movie or something like that that are still down there.

Awww, look a baby gator! I just wanted to jump out of the boat and hold him!

Fish!! Look how blue the water is!!

 We like to take selfies while driving

Look at the Christmas cookies I made!! :) thanks for the cookie stuff family! :) Love you all! I can't wait to talk on Christmas! Sister Tompkins said they would be skyping their son at 11 so we can plan to still do it at 10:30 your time :)