Patience

"Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry."

This week I've learned a lot about patience and joy. I've been having a hard time with homesickness. crazy right! (; But I also learned this week just how close we can be to God. I feel like I always turn to that “current bush Mormon message” when I feel like I’m struggling. (https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-will-of-god-2 ).

 I love the idea that we have a purpose and a plan, but it’s God that directs us if we let Him.  He knows how to shape us and knows what we can handle and what we can’t.   Sometimes we need to be cut down like the current bush so we can grow in the way God needs us too.  God's plan for each of us is to make it back to him one way or another.   I’m learning that sometimes it hurts to be trimmed and cut back.  Sometimes it tears away pieces of our hope and it requires a lot more faith and effort on our part to just turn to God and endure with patience and joy. I have learned this week through some really miraculous and personal experiences that God is real and as I trust in Him, He will help me grow into exactly what He needs me to be!  In hard times, I testify that If you turn to God for hope, joy and patience, he will be closer to you than at any other time!

On another note, we did have a lot of fun this week!  We had a birthday party for a sister in our district.  For English class we made ice cream and got 2 new investigators out of it haha (:   Also,  two old grandmas in our ward took us out for traditional Chinese food, so that was super cute (:

OH!  We had a SUPER cool experience this week. So for our zone service we serve at a place called Crossroads.  It's really amazing what they do, If you have time check out this link:  https://www.crossroads.org.hk/global-x-perience/

To thank us for our service this week they set up a Poverty Simulation. It was insane! We had three 10 minute sections.  Each section was equal to a week so it was like experiences a life of poverty for three weeks, but we really only spent 30 minutes in the simulation.

We were split us off into families, and for each week we had to make enough money to live and pay for rent ( 280 HK$).  We made the money by making paper grocery bags and selling them to stands. When the first 10 minutes started, the "land owner" came around with a pot and a bong-thingy .  He started hitting them together and got super close in our faces. He yelled at us and told us to  work harder or we would die.   He also took the paper bags we were making and tore them because he said they weren’t  "good enough quality." At one point our family couldn’t afford to live in the slums anymore,  so he kicked us out and we lived under the "bridge" where we still made paper bags but couldn’t sell them for money.  We just gave them to the landlord.  At another point we didn’t have enough paper bags for the landlord, so I was sold to him as a "second wife." It was the most interesting experience of my life. It really felt like we were living in poverty for 30 LONG minutes!   We are so blessed to have what we have. I realized so many things during this experience and I am so grateful for all the many things I have been blessed with.!  My parents, a stable family, and not fearing how I’m going to survive.

Anyway, I love this gospel and I'm grateful for everything I'm learning on my mission. It’s the hardest thing I've ever done, but it’s changing me day by day and I love it!

Thank you for all your letters love and support!

Love you all!

Love, Sister Webb

More pictures of The Peak

Fun facemasks!

MAKING ICE CREAM at English Class.  They LOVED it!!

We made cookie dough for our investigators, but ended up eating a lot of it!

Birthday Celebration!  

We ate TOO MUCH SUGAR!

You Can Keep Going!

I've learned a lot this week about enduring with a smile.  Everything mission related went great this week, but my homesickness hit a little harder than past weeks. The mind set of "you can keep going, you have more in you, don't stop here" is more motivating than you could imagine! 

 As I cried in my companion’s arms the other morning, she said some really comforting words to me . . . endure with patience . . . keep telling yourself that you can keep going. But I also have to be honest - there is joy in everything about missionary work! haha (:  It’s the biggest roller coaster in the WORLD! But this JOY is most easily recognized and remembered during the hard times, just like in really life!  If you look for and find the joy, and that’s what you'll have. It’s that simple (:

Also the food here is WOW. For anyone who has served a mission, you might relate with me regarding how missionaries see food. It’s one of the only things we can have variety in and one of the only things we can control, so a little treat can make your whole day! It’s the best thing ever! I don't think I've ever been more grateful for food in my whole life haha (:

This week we taught a potential investigator names Sister Y. She is a prostitute, so we didn't really know what to teach her. It will be interesting to see where this goes and I’ll keep you updated, but she didn’t seem too interested so far. (:

I experienced the miracle of ‘the gift of tongues’ in my mission this week. TWICE this week I opened my mouth and just talked. And I was talking in a fluent manner, obviously with a limited vocabulary, but I was able to get across exactly what was going on in my head!  Then God was able to communicate whatever I couldn’t through the Spirit. The gift of tongues is so real!  I don't have any idea how I would be able to do this without it!  So those experiences were really strong testimony builders for me this week.  Thank you for all your prayers and words of encouragement!

I just want to share a quick testimony again about "you can keep going" this week in personal study (as always) God answered all my questions and more. I read in 2 Nephi 4:20, “My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.”

I love this scripture. God truly is our support. Lean on him for EVERYTHING. He's there. A good friend told me once that when we come crawling, God will come running. I can testify He is there and there is so much hope in that knowledge!  You literally have nothing to worry about if you believe this (:

I also loved 2 Nephi 9:41 that talks about how the path is narrow BUT it is straight.

Sometimes the path seems TOO narrow, BUT GOD made it straight! AHH! What a blessing!! I know you we can all make it through whatever we need to with His help!

I love this work and I really enjoy every second I am spending here, even the hard times. I’ve learned that is when you need to feel the most joy because that is when God is breaking you down so he can build you up (;

Love you all!

Love Sister Webb

We had an amazing trip to the HK Temple on Friday!

I really love my companion, Sister Gomez

Success and Peace

I have found a key to success on a mission!! You don't measure for success! If you are hard working and rely on the Holy Ghost as your third companion there is no room for disappointment, only peace.

I had two really touching experiences this week.

1)  I was in a lesson with our recent convert Brother Leung. His testimony is so strong, I swear it’s stronger than mine! He is just incredible! So anyway we were doing the lesson and I was having a really hard time trying to translate everything and understand it. I was only getting bits and pieces. So my companion was doing a really good job and keeping things flowing. Then all the sudden I had this feeling of terror hit and I started thinking I'm never going to learn this language! So I started praying. SO HARD! I was praying that my companion would be able to have the Spirit with her so she could share what needed to be shared. Then I started praying that I would be given more opportunities to speak the language.   The second I started that part of my prayer, there was silence in the room and I looked up and apparently Brother Leung had just asked me a question. THIS WAS MY CHANCE! God had given me an opportunity.  But…the question he asked was not what I expected. He asked, "How are you doing adjusting to the Hong Kong culture and the life of a missionary?" Instead of using this opportunity to talk Canto to him, I just started bawling. (One thing I love about the HK culture is everyone has tissues in their bag or pocket, just a tiny little thing of tissues. EVERYONE)  So he pulled out his tissues for me.

When I told him it’s been pretty hard, but very rewarding, he says, "I didn't serve a mission, but I know you are here for a reason and God loves you and has a plan for you like he did for me." Then he pulled out Facebook and showed me this Facebook page of the Sister missionary who introduced him to the church. She finished her mission a few months ago, and he just wanted to show me that she had hard times to, but she also had a purpose.  He told me that everything will be okay for me. WOW. What do you even say in response to that?!  I just started crying harder… haha (: He is such a good example and influence in my life and I am so proud of him and his testimony!

2) Our main progressing investigators, Sara and Nico, told us they wanted to drop their baptismal date and go back to their Catholic church. This was really, really hard. On Saturday we taught them the Law of Tithing and Fasting.  Sara says, "That makes sense, I understand now. I will keep the law of tithing after baptism! And I believe you that fasting will bring blessings." She was VERY receptive and really really happy about it. Then the next day was Easter Sunday. She texted us and said that this church was bringing her more pain then she had ever felt and was giving her too many rules and she was so confused and sad. So we called her and begged her to let us come visit. She said she had no desire to see anyone right now and hung up on us.  We took a bit of time and wrote out a letter in Chinese characters for her, marked a few scriptures in the Book of Mormon, and brought her cookies. We just placed them outside her door and watched from a ways away.  She ended up calling us a few minutes later and asked if we could come back and see her. We went back and talked with her for about 2 hours. Her views didn't change and her desire to not get baptized didn't change. But we testified and offered a kneeling prayer and kept testifying. We realized her foundation was not as strong as we thought, something we wish we would have caught on to earlier. She said she wants us to visit her next month maybe, but she needs more time. We left feeling drained and sad. However, I can testify that the Holy Ghost was our third companion through all of this. I have never had to rely so much on Him in my whole life. I have never felt so much peace either in my whole life. Our success was not measured in numbers or baptisms or investigators. We had done all we could and that was all the Lord asked of us.  Then,with every piece of Heaven God can give to his missionaries, he gave us peace!

Oh how grateful I am to be serving. This is the best thing in the world and I have never felt so blessed and close to God in my whole life. He's the center of everything. I've learned this week that if we are doing everything we can, making Christ and the Holy Ghost the center of the work, and rely entirely of the love of God we are successful. God will never make us run more then we have strength.   If we stay faithful he will give us peace and be with us in every breath.  I am so grateful for my testimony.  It’s what keeps me going.

I love you all.   Remember to pray always and trust in Gods outcome (:

Love, Sister Webb

Decorating Easter Eggs for our English Class

Banana pancakes . . . YUM!

Banana bread for our less active members

Our amazing P-day to Ocean Park last week!

So we wantd to try and study outside and teach the Plan of Salvation to people who passed by.  Instead this group of kids from Pakistan came and took over for us!  This little boy stole our poster and we thought, "Maybe this is good!  He's running around with the Plan of Salvation literally in his hands!  Missionary work at its best!"  It was a fun experience (:  hahahaha

Me and Sister Gomez taking selfies inside the Hing Tit

He Really Is The Prince of Peace!

Wow! This week flew by!  I felt like we had no time for anything! And so much happens in one week that you feel like you're squeezing a month’s list of “to-do’s” into 7 days! My ward is amazing! They give us so much to do. We are always busy! I LOVE IT!!

                          

I also LOVE the Book of Mormon. There are no words to describe my love for that book. We have an hour of personal study, so we are advised to use the first 15 minutes to study for our investigator’s lessons that day.  The next 45 minutes is to study for ourselves. Every day I look forward to those 45 minutes. I have a little study journal and every day I ask a question, or just say how I'm feeling or what I'm struggling with at that moment.  Then, without fail, God hears my prayers and answers! He guides my studies and my thoughts and gives me just the perfect amount, or more strength and comfort than I need to get me through the day with a smile of hope! I love what our apostles said about looking to the future with an eye of hope. That’s what God gives me every day without fail through the Book of Mormon.

This week one of our investigators, Sara, kept us after church with a member for about 2 ½ hours. She cried almost the whole time, and I couldn’t understand anything. About 40 minutes in, I prayed to maybe just understand a sentence so I at least could know what she was talking about.  After my prayer I waited and still didn’t understand anything.  Suddenly I started crying and pretty hard. My eyes were sore and my throat felt choked. After that cleared, about 40 minutes later, I prayed again to just have a taste of the gift of tongues so I could understand her! Again I just started crying.  I felt a real pain in my heart and didn’t understand why I felt this way and why I was crying.  Then a small, quiet thought came to me, "You may not understand her words, but that doesn’t mean you can’t understand her pain."

I realized God had been allowing me to understand what she was feeling.  I still didn’t know what she was so grieved about until later when my companion was explaining, but I was so grateful for that ability I had to understand her through a small but powerful feeling. God works in such mysterious ways!

I was able to cut in at one point and share my testimony. I explained in my broken Cantonese that I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but I knew that if she put her faith in Christ and trusted Him, He would ease her burdens and make them light. He is given the name, Prince of Peace, for a reason! And I knew with all my heart that if she would lean on Him and continue to come unto Him in faith, she would see the blessings God has waiting for her. For some reason, everyone was crying at this point.  I really still don’t quite understand everything that happened, but I know God was able to fill my mouth and tell her what she needed to hear because I opened it.

I am so grateful to be serving a mission. I have already learned so much about God and my relationship with Him, how to look at other people through the eyes of the Lord (something the apostles encouraged us to do), and how to find joy in the Lord’s work.

If you are considering a mission and don’t know what to do, listen to Elder Bednar’s talk in the priesthood session. WOW!

If you are struggling to find light in the small things, or see light in people or in yourself, listen to Elder Mark A. Bragg’s talk!

 And if you just want a good laugh, go back and listen to Joaquin E. Costa!  He visited the MTC during my stay and has not lost his sense of humor! (:

 A huge focus this week was also on the youth of the Church. Parents and young adults, YOU are the mentors. Don’t let them down.  Let them lead and let them know they have a purpose. The best thing you can do for a struggling youth is to give them something to do that allows them to be the leader.

I love this Gospel. I know with all my heart that Christ lives. He is the Prince of Peace and through Him we can receive nothing but love and peace. He is the perfect example. As we approach Easter Sunday this week, really focus on the life of Christ . . . how he lead the last week of His life, and how he never lost His kindness, compassion and ability to give us peace.

Love you all!

Love Sister Webb

This is a recent convert in our ward.  She came to the General Women's Broadcast and she LOVES the missionaries.  Yes, snapchat it real in HK too!

Thank you for your prayers!

This week was a really good week!  Every journal entry starts with something like,  "Today was SO good, AGAIN!" And I know the only reason I'm making it is because of all your prayers!  I seriously feel like I deserve none of the credit! I love you all so much!

This week we went to a Light the World art exhibit. It was amazing. We took an investigator named Sarah. I can't even try to describe the love I have for Sarah. I am trying so hard to learn Cantonese so I can communicate with her and her son Nico.  I've only been able to speak to her minimally, but I know it will come!! Suen Sam!! (faith) The art here was INCREDIBLE! I hope you enjoy the pics.

We also ran into a special sister the other day. Her name is Sister Sun. She is a guard for the apartments. About a year ago she was taught the gospel, but because of her job on Sunday, the missionaries had to drop her. She told us she REALLY wants to be baptized! We got permission to teach her and prep her for baptism so she can join the church.  Now we just PRAY, PRAY, AND PRAY some more that her boss will give her Sundays off! (:  She's really sweet though.  We made her banana bread the other day, but couldn't find her anywhere in any of the apartment buildings. So we tried again later that night, and she was out wondering around! She told us she had a feeling to go out and see who was walking around, and THERE WE WERE! (:  God works in mysterious ways!

Also we had the General Women’s Conference!  AHH! What a blessing!

This week I have been struggling to just see my mission one day at a time. Every time I look at  it as “14-more-months”,  I'm a lost soul.  So my question was, how can I focus on the now?  Here’s what God told me:

1) John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." What a joyful message. This is such good advice! My new favorite scripture for the week (:

2) Sister Cordon: ITS NOT ABOUT YOU!

3) Sister McConkie: Serve the Lord to the best of your ability, WILLINGLY!  Your sacrifices will bring you holiness and a peace of mind. This applies to everyone. SERVE willingly, Sacrifice willingly.  You will see so many blessing. I can promise that!

4) Sister Burton: "Hold on. The Lord WILL provide. You need to be willing to sacrifice."   This was so powerful to me. I know that if we hold on with faith and diligence, the Lord WILL provide happiness, comfort, holiness, peace and blessings!

5) Pres. Eyring: Your defense is Unity, Charity, Light and Love and The Holy Ghost. Oh how true!  Also: "From His perspective, you're not that far away." I love this!  This can be interpreted many ways!! To me, this meant the time on my mission is not that long. I really am not that far away. This journey will be beyond worth it.  God will be my constant companion. He's really not that far away.

I love the spirit on a mission! Every time I pray or just talk to God, (often while I can't understand what people are saying), He is there. He is listening and talking back with me. He has laughed with me a lot this week, cried with me, walked with me, and prayed with me. I love this gospel and I love this work and I pray all of you will continue to feel the joy of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Love you all

Love Sister Webb

The Art Festival with our investigator, Sarah

We spent our P-day last week in STANLEY!  We got our American Food Fix!!

Funny note we saw in Stanley

We promised the kids in our English class an "American Treat" this week.  We are teaching words associated with Carnivals, so we thought it would be fun to make cotton candy.  There was a small cotton candy machine BUT Hong Kong is a bit too humid for cotton candy, the machine was cheap and started on fire and we had to throw water on top of it.  We think we ruined it.  With our pathetic cotton candy and English class starting in a few minutes, we ran to the store and bought ice cream for them:)

The Apple Store in Stanley where we emailed from last week

Hilarious signs!  Reminds me of Singapore

Sister Gomez and me. 

Sister Gomez is AMAZING!  She went to Princeton before getting here and she was on the rowing team there!  I really love her!!

My name pronunciation in Canto.  Good luck!