April 11, 2016

Dear family,

I would say thank you for all of the letters and emails this week but oh wait, I got nothing... Y'all are little punks! Sister Olsen got at least a letter a day in the mail and she got at least one email every night when we would check... Oh and she got 2 packages.. What is this?

It's my birthday and I only got 3 emails this week. One from my pros card telling me how poor I really am and that I only have 100 dollars left for the month, one telling me that my iPad was not in compliance with missionary rules because somehow an app got installed that wasn't suppose to be.. I'm not really sure how that even happened. Finally at least I have a friend who loves me enough to write! I hope this is rebuking enough to make you feel guilty so y'all will write me more!  Now that I have made y'all feel bad for not writing I think I got my point across. I need some letters or emails!!

We had a pretty good week! I can't even really remember what happened but it was good. Monday was the usual, we had p-day and just played sports the whole time. After that we just knocked some doors and visited some random people.

On Tuesday I can't even remember what happened. We had a lesson with George. He is currently our favorite investigator! I like to call him Georgie...but he doesn't know that! Anyways, We taught him the law of chastity and let me tell you how awkward that was.... 2 single  girls teaching a 30 year old man who looks like a Jewish rabbi what the law of chastity in tales. Half way through he was like "um, I'm actually still a virgin..." With out thinking I just smile really big and say "that's good! We are too!!" And then I just continued on with teaching! Who says that?? Yep, basically I'm just really awkward.. Later after George's lesson we got together as a district to practice singing as a district for zone meeting on Wednesday. Let's just say no one in our district sings so there was much to be desired. Sister Olsen and I were soprano. Which really consisted on me singing because Sister Olsen just mouthed the words. And then the other sisters and 1 elder sang alto and then the rest just got divided to sing tenor and bass. It was bad... That about sums up Tuesday.

On Wednesday we had zone meeting. It was really good. They just talked about things we can be doing to help us have the Holy Ghost more in our lives and become better consecrated disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ. I got a lot out if it. We also got to sign our song as a district! I think the best part was when I walked up and Elder Hopkins put down the little step stool for me to stand on front and center and I just climbed right up and sang. Haha after zone meeting all the sisters went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch! Mmmm!!! I forgot how much I love that place! I ate way to much! After that we went on trade offs so we stayed the night up in Gainesville. That was really fun! It's always nice to get a change of scenery and companion. I got to go to the campus and do some proselyting. That was really fun! I start to enjoy it more every time we do it! Maybe my next area will be the YSA!

I loved trade offs the only sad part is that I lost my Preach My Gospel so I currently don't have one... Thank goodness it is on my iPad. Hopefully it will show up here soon.

On Thursday we got to teach Tonnie and JQ. We finished up all of our lessons with them! We taught them the law of chastity and the last few laws and ordinances he needed for baptism. That was a fun lesson!  Tonnie is officially ready for baptism!! He is getting interviewed this Thursday by the district leader and then he just has to come to church one more time. So we have to push his date back by one more week. Sadly, the bishops and stake president have talked and Tonnie must be baptized into the other ward so we will be passing him off this week to them. But they did say that we could still teach him for a little bit after the pass off! Hopefully by the 23 he will be baptized!

So here is a good story for y'all! So we had dinner with a member on Thursday. We had rice, gravy and what I thought was just a hamburger patty.. Sounds like a typical thing I would eat at home so I was so excited! I had a huge plate and the hamburger patty was massive! I was so excited to eat it. Well, I took one bite of the hamburger patty and realized something wasn't right. It had a funny texture and it tasted... I'm not even sure how describe the taste.. Let's just say I was really struggling to eat this mystery meat! I look over and Sister Olsen is almost done with hers which is amazing because usually I'm the first one done eating. So, I'm just trying not to gag and throw it up and am still slowly eating this meat. I have about half my patty left when I realize that Sister Olsen is finished.. Instantly she says, "This is so good! What kind of meat is this?" I wanted to kick her because I still wasn't finished. Instantly the member says, "It's venison..." I wanted to die!! Sister Olsen still not knowing what venison was was just fine! Here I am with half a patty left on my plate and all I can think is I am eating Bambi! Haha it was quite the struggle but I'm proud to say I managed to eat it all! The things you eat as a missionary!

Friday we just had a crazy day of trying to cram in lessons. We had another lesson with George. It was interesting. We talked about family history and the temple and eternal marriage. What an appropriate lesson for him since we taught the law of charity the previous lesson.. Haha he just asked a bunch of questions about the temple and then did the typical George of quoting the Bible to us and asking us what we think of all of the verses. After that lesson we had a lesson with Sister Thompson. She is so sweet! She made us a little goodie bag to take home with us that had some crackers and bananas in it!

Saturday we just visited a bunch of people and then later that night we had stake conference. It was good. It was up in Gainesville so we rode with the Tompkins. They bought us yummy pizza and garlic knots for dinner! We had Elder Munns of the 70 speak at stake conference. It was all on member missionary work and how we can make it easier. I loved it!

Sunday we went to stake conference up in Gainesville again. George came to this! It was great! After conference we went to dinner at the Tompkins house. They were signed up to feed us on the 24th for my birthday dinner but something came up so we moved it to yesterday. It was great! We had spaghetti and garlic bread and then salad and strawberries. For desert we had brownies and ice cream! Mmmm it was good. Mom I'm sure you are shocked to hear that I chose spaghetti for my birthdays dinner. But it was really good!

I guess I will update you on my ankle. So I am going to an orthopedic surgeon up in Gainesville as soon as they can get me in to have my ankle looked at. They said most likely they are going to have to get me in a boot... I'm not to excited about that but hey it might get me a car full time. Of course I would not be the driver any more... Oh well, I just need this painful ankle to get better!

On a happier note, I was so happy to hear that the baptism went good!  Tell grandma to hang in there and to pack some cookies in her purse! I am very angry that I requested some photos of this beautiful baptism that I could not be a part of and I have not received any.... What is this? Anyways, I expect lots of letters, emails and pictures this week because basically in 14 days it is by birthday and that is what I want for my birthday!

Love you all so very much! We have less then a month now and I get to skype y'all!! I can't wait!!! I am getting more and more excited about it! Hope y'all have a good week!

Love and miss y'all!

Sister Webb

Pics - April 11, 2016

So on trade offs for exercise we went to the gator stadium and ran.. I thought I was going to die but I got some pictures for you all. Sorry that the quality sucks.. What do you expect when you take a picture at 6:30 am.. Haha

This is Sister Stowell.  I went on trade offs with her and it was great!

I love conference! - April 4, 2016

Family!

It feel like summer here! It has been so hot this past week.. It was in the 90's all week... And sadly, I have gotten another sunburn but that is part of another story. I hope y'all had a good week! I sure did! I'm starting to realize that time is going by to quickly! I only have about 7 1/2 more months... As much as I am so excited to come home and get back to normal life, I don't want this to end that soon! I guess I will tell you about my week. 

So last Monday we had p-day and I kinda worked on my training but then got so flustered that I gave up and went and played volleyball and soccer with the district. Let me just tell you that was hot!! Playing soccer outside in the 90 degree weather is a killer. I'm pretty sure all the elders just think I'm a sweating machine because I was dripping by the end! After that I played some basketball with Elder Hopkins. We play what we call house.  It's not what it sounds like...haha. We play house instead of horse because Elder Hopkins doesn't know how to spell and he always spells house instead of horse. Anyways, let's just say he was nice enough to let me beat him at that. We then played this game called 4 on the line. Basically you have to make the shots or you loose points and when you loose your 4 points your out. I lost pretty quickly at that because our district is all really good at basketball. Later that night we had a lesson with our investigator named George.

Ok, so I can't remember if I told you much about George last week. So George use to live in New York where he was meeting with missionaries and had a baptism date. He then moved here before he got baptized.  Sounds like the golden investigator right? Wrong... George is very smart and has studied the bible very deep his whole life. He is very fascinated by missionary work and religion and knows he wants to be baptized into our church. The only problem is he studies so much that he wants to know all of this deep stuff that I don't know and he is always quoting the Bible and he studies other religions so that has made it hard. Finally I just told him, "George, it's great to have questions but as you read the Book of Mormon and pray about what we teach you will find your answers." We taught him the restoration on Monday night. He had a bunch of questions on the priesthood and the great apostasy.. He kept asking how I knew there was no priesthood during the great apostasy and where would it say that in the Bible. Oh boy, I am sure learning my Bible out here that's for sure. Basically I told him this is something to pray about. We came back the next day and he had answered his own questions. It was great!

On Tuesday we had district meeting. I basically had to just give my training by the spirit because I gave up on preparing for it. But it went really well! I gave it on how we can be better aligned with the ward and how we can help get them more involved and and up to speed on the work that is going on in the ward. I'm not going to lie my training was pretty good but I'll try to keep myself humble. Haha later that night we had a lesson with our investigator named Tony Smith. Sister Martin was so sweet and let us do it at her house. It was great. We talked all about baptism and basically questioned him on why he never got baptized. Basically he told us he wanted to pray and find a perfect date that is why he never got baptized. Well we instantly invited him to baptism and set the date of April 23 with him. He is currently praying about if this is going to be the right date. So we had a crazy spirit story with Tony. Ok so I told you last email how I kept getting the prompting all last transfer to go down Tony's road. While we finally do and he told us that usually he doesn't answer the door unless the person happened to call and tell him they are coming. Well, the night we met him he felt like he should open the door and then he found us standing on the other side.  Blessings of following the spirit I guess.

Wednesday we had a good day we started our day off by having lunch with Sister Acosta. She is so sweet! On Easter she gave us an Easter egg with some candy in it and then it had 20 dollars in it! We had lunch at 5 Guys and then she bought us Coldstone. It was so good! After that we went and saw  Ron. It was an ok visit but he is just going through lots right now.. After Ron's appointment we had a lesson with George again. This is where my sunburn story comes in. So, like I said it's been around 95 almost every day this week. On Wednesday we did not have the car so we walked to Ron and George. We get to George's lesson and he wants to have it at the pool. I'm dying of heat so we open the umbrella over the table and start the lesson. Somehow George relates the sun to the light of Christ and he likes to soak in it so he then asks us if we can put down the umbrella... I just smile and say sure even though I wanted to tell him he is freakin' crazy and I'm going to fry!! Let's just say I was right, I got so sunburned I'm still a little burnt from it. The lesson went good though, we taught him the word of wisdom. Later that day we had a lesson with our new investigator named Amanda. The Spanish elders found her and she committed herself to live the law of chastity and she said she wanted to be baptized. We taught her the restoration and set a baptism date for May 7th with her. Although that might not happen because we still have to explain that the law of chastity means you can't live with your boyfriend... But maybe a miracle will take place! After that we went to the Kalmar's house and visited with them that was great! I love going and seeing them. Finally we ended our night with Book of Mormon class.

On Thursday we had a lesson with Sister Dowling it was really good. We really didn't do too much that day. It was just a lot of knocking doors. We were suppose to have a lesson with Tonnie and JQ but they canceled last minute. :( Friday we had weekly planning. It's a drag as usual and I hate it.

After that we just crammed out the lessons. We had a lesson with our new investigator Taquoia. That was good. We taught her the restoration and invited her to baptism! She said yes! Next time we plan to set a date with her! Then we had a lesson with our investigator named Tom.  He is pretty cool he only has one leg and he tells us how he lost it every time we go to visit. He also tells us how when he was a little boy he could not drink out of the cold water fountain because he was black. That is basically mentioned every time we go! I love crazy people! After Tom we went to visit Brother Randolph and talked to him about conference. We then saw Mary Morgan. She is a old lady in the ward who lives at a rehab place because she has Alzheimer's. We basically go because her daughter asks us to. This time we read the Book of Mormon to her and then sang "I'm a Child of God" to her. It was the sweetest thing! She even started singing with us. We also had a lesson with Taquoia she is our new investigator. She is great. She wants to be baptized so we plan to set a date with her this week.

Saturday we watched conference all day, along with Sunday. I loved conference!  Some of my favorite talks were the ones that talked about fathers. I loved that. I just thought about my sweet papa the whole time and it even brought me to tears. I guess you never realize how special someone is and how much you actually love them until you can't see them anytime you want! I'm grateful to have such an amazing dad in my life who has supported me in everything I do. I'm grateful that he has raised me with standards and he works so hard to support our family.  Dad is such a huge blessing in my life and I don't know what I would do without him. That talk also made reality hit that I am coming home in 7 months and I will then have to start looking for that handsome son of God to make my eternal companion and that I want him to have lots of the qualities my dad has! I also really liked the talk on the resurrection. It was so beautiful and really put the resurrection into perspective. I got a little teary eyed at that one as well. It reminded me of my friend Chase and how excited I am to be able to see him again! I basically loved a lot of talks but those were two that I really liked. I loved that they talked a lot about the temple and that we need to grow closer to our Savior.

Thank you for all the emails this week! I love getting them! I'm glad to hear y'all had fun at the aquarium. I've been there before and remember how fun it was. I'm glad to hear Lillian faced her fear of heights! I was just a little jealous when I heard all about conference breakfast! I miss that so much! Basically this week we ran out of food by Thursday because it was the last of the month last week and we didn't have money to buy food. So by the time Sunday hit we had no food and we fasted/ starved ourselves for conference. Thankfully the Spanish branch was nice enough to share some food with us in between conference on Sunday! Oh before I forget, I said last week that my ankle was getting better but I may have lied... The mission nurse called to check up on me and well, it hasn't gotten better so now I will need to go to a doctor. So, I will keep you updated on how that goes. But don't worry, I'll be fine!

Hope y'all have a good week! Love you and miss you all so so so much!!

I'm so excited to hear all about Lillian's baptism! I better get an overload of pictures for that one! I am so sad that I am going to miss it!

Love y'all lots!

Sister Webb

Pictures - April 4, 2016

So I would just like y'all to take a good look at my eyebrows! Look how nice they are! Sister Olsen and I decided to grow out our eyebrows so we could wax them. Well, I got the good idea to try the eyebrow threading.. Let me just say that was the most painful thing ever! But it was so worth it! My eyebrows have not looked this nice since before my mission! Oh and check out the nice dye job on my hair! No more blonde roots! Yay!!

Sister Olsen's armpit

My armpit

My armpit one day after shaving.

We are so weird!!

This is my new district!

We did night service for Sister Nohns in our ward. We dug some holes and transplanted two trees for her! Look at my shovel skills! Haha

This is the trophy we won for having the most baptism invites in our district in one day! We got 7!! We are basically a power house!

Me and the trophy!  I'm basically just so cute that's why I sent so many!

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!!

Pictures - March 28, 2016

Sister Clemens and I before she transferred.

 Our final sister picture.. (Don't judge my grandma skirt... It's super comfy and I wasn't expecting to have to take a photo that day so I dressed ugly because I had no clean clothes..

Airis made us some Easter baskets this week! She is the best!!

 

We made these Easter baskets for the Dowling's little boys! They were so excited when we gave them the baskets! They are the cutest!

So I got some toothpaste and a toothbrush from Sister Olsen for Easter! Haha best companion ever!!

St. Patrick's Day, hard week & I stay in Ocala! - Mar 21, 2016

Dear family,

I'm pretty sure this has been one of the hardest weeks ever. It seems when you get thrown one curve ball ten more follow. But before I tell you about my week I will just tell you my happy news! I'm staying in Ocala!!! Yay!!! I couldn't be more happy about that! After this transfer it will put me at 7 1/2 months here in Ocala and I get to be here for my birthday!! This is seriously the greatest place ever! Oh and I'm still companions with Sister Olsen. I'm pretty sure the only reason I am here is because I am training her.. But I'm going to pretend like there is someone here in Ocala who needs me!

So where to start with my week... Well, like I told you it has been the hardest week ever! It was seriously one thing after another. I already told you that I have that painful lump on the back of my ankle and it just keeps getting more painful and bigger. Well it has been pretty bad. 

On Tuesday we had interviews with the mission president And that is when I broke down and told the mission nurse about my knobby ankle. She looked at it and said that she would check with the doctor assigned to look over our mission. Lucky for me he is an orthopedic surgeon. Well after discussing my lumpy ankle with him we came to the conclusion that I have akelies tendonitis and have most likely torn some tendons in my ankle. Don't worry though, I'm fine and I'm hoping I caught it early enough that it's not as bad as it sounds.  Even though I did not go to the doctor we have come up with a way to help it. I am now currently living off of 1600mg of ibuprofen a day and I bought an ankle brace I have to wear constantly except to bed. I also am not allowed to stretch my ankle which means no exercise for me... Darn! and I'm suppose to walk as little as possible on it. Of course that is a joke because we are in a car share and most days we walk around 7 miles... But I'm trying my best to not walk on it. I am going to be doing this for a few weeks and if it does not get better I will have to go from wearing an ankle brace to a boot! So pray that it gets better because the ankle brace is bad enough! Haha I'm pretty sure I have experienced an answer to my prayers in a odd way. I remember not to long ago asking for help to get rid of my pride so I can be a better missionary. This must be Heavenly Father's way of stripping me of pride. Not only do I now have to awkwardly bike down the streets of Ocala in a skirt in the 90 degree weather with a stupid helmet on, I now have to wear a very unattractive ankle brace. Yes, this has been a very humbling experience for me. Haha so yeah that was problem number one for the week. I've basically been in lots of pain and it's been hard to do much. I feel so bad for Sister Olsen so I have been pushing it to the limits with pain because I don't want her to have a bad training because of me. But she has also been very understanding and patient.

So interviews went really well. It is always nice to be able to just sit down with President Craig and talk one-on-one with him. He always just makes you feel like a million bucks! So I have to have a bragging moment about interviews. So at interviews our role play was on doing a pamphlet lesson in 7 minutes. This sounds really easy but it is a lot harder then you would think. Well luckily I had a heads up on this because I am a trainer so Sister Olsen and I had been practicing them all week. So for this role play you had to give a 7 minute lesson to another companionship while the rest of the district watches and critiques you. At the end of the lesson they then tell you what y'all did well at and what you need to improve. Well I honestly was dreading this because every time Sister Olsen and I would practice we could not transition smoothly, she doesn't ask questions and most times she forgets to testify and often times just says dumb things. I'm proud to say some how we managed to teach the restoration in 7 minutes. We transitioned off of each other very smoothly, she didn't ask questions but I asked enough for the both of us. We invited our investigators to be baptized after we taught about Christ's earthly ministry and we even shared scriptures and testimony in our role play. Not to mention we double testified of each other and promised blessings! It was awesome!

I wish we could have recorded it so y'all could see! Everyone in the room agreed that it was the most powerful 7 minute lesson they had ever seen and when I invited to baptism they all wanted to be baptized as well! Ok, bragging done! Basically I'm just the best trainer and my little companion is getting better each and every day. Although none of our lessons ever go like that. She is still working on talking during our lessons but by the end of this new transfer we will be there!

So on Wednesday we had a interesting day. First we had service for a investigator that we always do service for. I've told you about doing service for her before. Well this time was just as bad. We get there and she tells us that she needs help cleaning up her yard again.. It was seriously in the 90's on Wednesday and I wore sweat pants! So here I am in this lady's back yard already sweating and she asks me to scoop her dog poop up.. Who does she think I am?? Haha sadly, I'm pretty sure that is the first time in my life I've ever scooped dog poop.. My companion just told me I grew up too pampered.. Haha after scooping dog poop she wanted me to clean out her dog pool.. Basically it was just a small kiddy pool with water that was so green.  I'm sure something was growing in it. So now I'm trying to not cry while trying to scoop out slimy green water and praying some how I don't get a fungus from it. Haha finally she had us build a bench! I'm happy to say I accomplished this and did it in like 20 minutes! Yeah, I'm basically pro! Haha 

After service we went to see a investigator named Brenda. Let's just say that was a scary experience. So I never like to see her cause she kinda lives in the ghetto. We get there and she starts to tell us how she is looking to move because she don't feel safe anymore. She then tells us how during the night she heard gun shots and then shortly after cop lights were everywhere outside. It turns out that someone got shot outside her house during the night...Um, why must people tell us these things when we are sitting in their home. Not to mention we are just two little white girls driving around in our nice car.. We totally stand out and everyone just stares us down! Haha so yeah, Wednesday was an interesting day. 

Later that night I found a really nice neighborhood for us to knock doors in because Sister Olsen had complained that all we do is knock in the ghetto or in trailer parks. Well she quickly came to realize that the rich people are not very nice. Let's just say we had a humbling experience again.  We got lots of doors slammed in our face and multiple people told us they were going to call the cops because it was a no soliciting neighborhood. Yeah, that doesn't stop missionaries! Haha I think I quickly cured Sister Olsen from wanting to find all the nice houses to knock. In fact I'm pretty sure that scared her because she hasn't wanted to knock a single door since. Of course being the best trainer ever I just force her to do it and tell her that I'm not going to say anything when the person answers the door. She usually thinks I'm joking until they open the door and I just stand there silent and make her start talking. Then I join in but I'm teaching her how to take the lead in things. I'm probably killing her!

My final exciting story/ worst part of the week happened on Thursday.  So it's been kinda rough lately because we basically have no investigators to teach and we are trying to find some but it's not going so well and I was just getting super frustrated and I had basically given up all hopes on Tonnie because we have been teaching him since October and he doesn't ever seem that interested in lessons so Wednesday night I prayed and asked what we should do about Tonnie.  Thursday morning we got a text from Tonnie which is huge because he never texts us! It said how he has been reading and praying and he has received an answer as to what he needs to do and he knows he needs to come to church every week and he is so excited to be baptized and then the last part said how he was so excited to meet with us that night.  Oh and he got a job! What?! Miracle right? So we have this awesome lesson and I felt like we needed to reteach him the restoration so we did, which was perfect because he said he felt as if he was restoring his life and the lesson was exactly what he needed to hear. Anyways, we are all just so pumped because Tonnie is finally making progress!

Ok jump to yesterday, so Tonnie and JQ came to church! It was awesome!! He is right on tract for being baptized in April 16! Ok here is the saddest news, so Tonnie and JQ moved and live in the other ward and now we have to pass them off to the other missionaries... So basically there goes our only investigator.. We still haven't broke the news to Tonnie and JQ.. It was a huge bummer!

So here we are at the start of a new transfer with no investigators what so ever and not even any good potentials.. But sacrifice always brings forth blessings right? The elders felt so bad for us they gave us a referral they could not contact who has basically already had all the lessons and wants to be baptized so all we have to do is plan a baptism for him but it's not the same as finding that golden person on your own.

That about sums up my week. It was a very long and stressful week! I'm so glad that it is p-day and I can just let all my stresses out by playing some volleyball! We've already had a good day! We got pizza and ate lunch as a district today. Most of our district is getting transferred out. It's going to be sad.

Tell Lilly thank you for her email and letter this week! I miss that girl so much! I'm so excited that she is getting baptized soon!

Love and miss you all!!

Love,

Sister Webb