Our Mormon Greeting

Hello!

This week was pretty good! We had zone conference, it rained a lot and our recent convert had a change of heart and recommitted himself to all the covenants he made at baptism! (: So it was a pretty good week.

The language is coming along I think, but this week was pretty hard.  My companion and I came to the realization once again that we really don’t know a lot of Cantonese!  If anyone has language study plan tips I'm open to ANYTHING at this point.  We hit a low point and decided to drown our frustrations in ice cream.  It seemed to help!  The gift of tongues is interesting.  I can’t really explain it.  It is real but it comes and goes.   I’m so grateful when it comes!!

So this week in zone conference, a senior missionary made up a Mormon Greeting! haha (: In America we great people with "Hey, how are you”.  In some places of the world they say, "Have you had a bath today?" In Hong Kong we greet people with, " Leih sihk jo fahhn meih a?" meaning,  "Have you eaten yet?" In different cultures there are really polite ways to greet people, and Elder James brought up a good point. In the Mormon culture we don’t have a greeting, so he introduced this:   “Hello.  Have you had any revelations today?”  This is now how we greet each other (in Cantonese of course).   Isn’t that the best thing EVER!!!   It was a good reminder that we all need to be more sensitive to the Spirit. We are receiving revelation all day, and if we don’t acknowledge the Holy Ghost’s hand in the revelation we receive, His voice will become further and further away and harder and harder to hear. So help people remember the voice of the Spirit, "Have you had any revelations today?" (:

Funny language mistakes we made this week (translated):

Our Elder: So where is your son now?

Member: In heaven. (tin gwok)

Our Elder: Oh is that in mainland China? (daai lok)

Member: Mh.. sei jo la ( no, he's dead..)

This was a really unfortunate misunderstanding, but we can’t stop laughing about it.  Poor Elder!  Here is another one:

Sister Flynn: Leih hou, (hello)

Member: Nice to meet you (hou hoisam ying sik leih)

Sister Flynn: Bye Bye (hou)

 Sister Flynn meant to say, “You too”.  The member just started laughing.

 Overall It’s been a good week!!   You are all in my prayers!! Love you!

Sister Webb

One of our last district meetings before Sister Gomez left

Great markets in HK . . . no we didn't buy these

My new comp, Sister Flynn, is awesome!

Lunch with a member family

Face masks with the gals

Crossroads . . . the awesome organization we volunteer at!

This is Amanda's stink eye . . . I never know what she's thinking but it makes me laugh!

The Elder in the red striped shirt is teaching the ward the Haka!  They LOVED it!!

My Mission Testimony

These next 2 months I have many friends heading out on missions, which makes me super excited! SO I wanted to share my testimony on missionary work.

This week we had transfers and I got my second companion in the field. She is just amazing!   Her name is Sister Flynn and she is from Manchester, England.  She has been in Macau for the past 5 months.  I have been so blessed with companions. Before my mission if you asked me what I was most excited for, I would say a companion, and I still hold true to that. Having a companion out here makes everything 100 times better. They become your best friend, they become a sister, and they become the one person you know you can trust, confide in and be yourself with. It’s such a blessing!

Anyway as this new transfer has started I have been humbled by how little I know. My Cantonese is coming along and my companion has only a slightly wider vocabulary than me (she’s been out one transfers longer than me).  We are both still very new to the field and very new to the work. But I have to testify that the gift of tongues is real!  We've had 2 lessons,  we’ve been to 3 members houses, church, and called tons of people since she got here with me and we have been so blessed to have the ability to figure out what they’re saying and be able to communicate with them!  It’s something else! God is so real.

So I just hit my 5 month mark, and I know that’s not too far in, but I do feel like I've been out way longer. As I’ve talked about before, I often go back to the parable of the current bush.  The gardener cuts it way back, almost to a little stump!  This allows it to grow the way the gardener needs it too.  My second day in the MTC, God cut off a big portion of my own current bush.  I cried for a really long time and I struggled through the many weeks that passed. The 'wind' blew fiercely and it was almost too much to bare. I prayed and prayed, not to go home or anything like that, but I prayed that He would make it easier. Over these past 5 months I have been beaten down by Satan, but then through the grace of God I’ve gotten stronger. I feel like now my roots are stronger than they've ever been and I’m growing into what the Lord needs me to be!  I can feel my ability to hold my ground through the winds of Satan and the rigors of missionary life strengthening me and it’s miraculous!

This has been the hardest 5 months of my life but also the best.   I wouldn’t trade this time for the world! I love missionary work and I love being a missionary. I know God is real. I know that He has a plan for each one of us and he loves us all. 

Gordon B. Hinckley says:  “Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong.  My great plea is that we all try a little harder to live up to the stature of divinity that is within us. We can do better than we are doing. We can be better than we are. If we would hold before us that image constantly of divine inheritance, of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as realities, we would be a little more tolerant, a little more kindly, a little more outreaching to lift and help and sustain those among us. We would be less prone to stoop to those things which clearly are unbecoming [of] us."

I hope these wise words from Pres. Hinckley motivate all of us to work harder and be better than ever before!

I love you all!

Happy Fathers day!!

Love Sister Webb

Sister Gomez getting ready to leave

My new companion, Sister Flynn

My package arrived from Mom!!

She sent me all EL FUDGE!!  And lots of other surprises!!

We had a fishing game in English class this week

We are still trying to figure out what was going on in the sky this evening??

One of our investigators and a beautiful script she has written

One of the member families brought us dinner . . . McDonald's . . . AND IT WAS SUNDAY!  hahahaha

Still laughing about this!

Antoher awesome investigator

Yet, They Were Diligent

This week has been so busy and our schedule is already booked for next week!  BUT this week has been so good! We are really busy right now trying to meet with all the ward members to present to them personally the ward mission plan. It’s been really cool to see them each get more and more excited to find ways to share the gospel and do missionary work. I hope all of you at home are doing your best to be missionaries too.

I read a quote this week from Joseph Smith that says, "Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons and daughters of God. A man or woman filled with the love of God is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race. This has been your feeling, and caused you to forego the pleasures of home, that you might be a blessing to others, who are candidates for immortality, but strangers to truth; and for so doing, I pray that heaven's choicest blessings may rest upon you".   This was super touching to me because missionaries really do forego the pleasures of home to bless other people with the light of the gospel.

This week I also realized that you really can make your mission your home. Everyone told me that at first but I kept thinking, “There’s no way!”   I have been feeling like I couldn't connect with the people here . . . they wouldn't even hug me! J   I didn't think I would ever be able to call it home. But last night I walked into a member’s home and their kids just loved us!  The parents talked to us like they really cared how we were doing and I just felt so much love. It proved to me that even though I did leave the 'pleasures of home' I can still make these people my home.

My prayer is that all of you reading this are really trying to fellowship and help out your missionaries. A mission is hard and the members are our “FAMILIES” for those 18 months to 2 years. So please make them feel at home and really love them!

Love you all!

Sister Webb

This has been by daily planner cover since I arrived in HK!  It's fun to have people ask me all about these two people that I love!

These weather captions/warnings CRACK ME UP!  YES!  I's VERY HOT!!

Do they make these in the US?  They are our newest find and they are delicious!

Another weather warning - Tropical cyclone signal 1 equals a big rainstorm:)

peanut noodle soup! SOOO GOOD! in Kwai Fung

Dinner at the Bishop's house.  We love their family!

I was TRYING to schedule investigators and members for the week.. haha (: Gonna miss this girl! We have to much fun during weekly planning. 

Making sushi at a members home

Waiting for the Elders to arrive . . . we seem to be waiting for them a lot!

Faith

With this transfer coming to an end, I have to say goodbye to my best friend out here, Sister Gomez.  She has been the most amazing companion. She is full of optimism, hope, love, courage, happiness and hard work. She has set some AMAZING footsteps for me to follow in, and has taught me more than I thought I could learn in a lifetime. I have cried with her, laughed with her, had some amazing times with her, and some not so amazing times . . . but most of all, together we have come closer to Christ than I ever thought possible. I'm super nervous for my next companion but I am full of hope (:

I have been trying to find ways to strengthen my faith and I read something that said, "faith will come one layer, one experience, one challenge, one setback, and one success at a time." This is so true!  I think it’s true on a mission too.  Your mission will go by, one layer, one challenge, one setback, and one success at a time.

This week one of our recent converts started smoking again.  We challenged him to recommit to stop smoking and then to fast with us this Sunday for strength to overcome this weakness. That Sunday at church he was full of hope and joy. Fasting is an amazing way to build faith.  Fasting is so amazing to me because I just feel so weak, and humble. I love it! I hope you all take fasting seriously. It is a privilege to be able to fast.  I have received blessings, peace, and a greater perspective on the Lord’s hand in my life as I’ve fasted.

I also have fallen in love with primary songs! I don’t know how many times I've said that, but they are my saving grace. They change everything. So I can testify that when you just 'hum your favorite hymn' and 'sing out with vigor and vim, then you will find it clears your mind' so just 'hum your favorite hymn'!

Also right now I am having the opportunity to watch one of our investigator’s faith grow. We read the Book of Mormon with her every week and she is understanding so much! Each times she understand even more and I hope it is only a matter of time before she realizes that she wants to be baptized! The Book of Mormon is SO powerful!   I have found it’s a powerful tool in sharpening my testimony and I love reading it!

Love you all, praying for your all!

Love Sister Webb

Dragon Boat Racing is a  BIG deal in Hong Kong.  Everyone takes the day off to watch the races!  So fun!

This is Romain, an investigator we taught this week.  He just moved to Lousiana for 4 years though . . . DANGET!

This is another investigator we are teaching.  She is really sweet.

HK is SO HOT!  We get to turn on the AC when we get home in the evening and we are always dripping wet!!

Elder & Sister Cook's visit to the HK Mission!

AMAZING FOOD continues here in HK!

Me teaching English class:)