The Holy Ghost Is My Best Friend!

First, Elder Gong visited with us for about 2 hours this week.  It was really amazing and I got to lead the music!  We are so blessed to have Latter-Day Apostles!

There is a lot on my mind right now as I’m writing this email, but the one thing that sticks out to me is a General Conference talk I read recently that taught me that the Spirit is “no stranger to rejection.”   As a missionary, we are rejected multiple times a day, especially if we are opening our mouth often and trying to talk to other people. (I think this builds characterJ) What helps me get through this is to try and understand how the Spirit must feel.  I personally felt and understood the Spirit in powerful ways this week.

We had a flash of inspiration to set up our church to look like the Plan of Salvation and invite people on the street to come in and walk through the path to their own salvation.  It was inspired and brought miracles into our missionary work in our area!  I know this was direct revelation from the Spirit and it worked beautifully!  The people that came through our tour were incredible and God picked them up off the street for us!  Three became new investigators and one picked a day to be baptized. Also, two of the people we took in got to the point of earth life.  Then suddenly the Spirit COMPLETELY flipped the lesson and turned it into EXACTLY what that person needed to hear.  There was no denying we were working very closely with the Spirit, and as a result had SO much success.

I really am also learning what it means to "work like it all depends on you, and pray like it all depends on God".   I know I have said that before. But this week we really learned the truth of that. It was in direct contrast to two weeks ago when Sister Sam & I got very distracted, didn't try our hardest,  and as a result had little to no success. This week we worked our tails off organizing this plan of salvation lay out and finding people to tour it.  It was also incredible to see the ward get involved!

Our ward threw the best party this week! They cleverly organized games and had prizes, but in the end it was all for the missionaries to get new investigators AND WE DID!  We received 20 REFERRALS  from it and ALOT of members got excited to start teaching their friends.

This week.. wow.. I can't even put into words the miracles God performed. I know it’s because we worked really hard and we worked with the Spirit on all of it. The Holy Ghost is real. For those of you who are questioning His existence, He feels your rejection and He is often ignored by us, but He is a real person!  He lives and you can have free communication with Him if you desire and believe He's real. I can testify that the three members of the Godhead are real. They are as real as me and you and they can have a relationship with each of us!  They want to help us.

We had an investigator this week look at the picture of Christ knocking on the outside of the door without the door knob.   He looked at the picture and said, “How do I let him in?"   We told him to PRAY!  Pray, pray, and pray harder AND THEN BELIEVE that He is actually on the other side.

I’m so grateful for this week and the help we received as missionaries for the Lord.  This church is true!  God lives and loves us.  The Holy Ghost is full of long suffering and love, and he will NEVER give up on you, so DO NOT give up on Him!

Love you all!

Love,  Sister Webb

Sister Sam and I enjoying a minute looking out at the beautiful coean in HK

Have I mentioned that HK has the BEST FOOD in the world?!!

Preparing for our Plan of Salvation activity:)

A Lesson I Needed To Learn

Do you ever feel bad about something...and then you feel guilty for feeling bad? And then you feel even worse for feeling guilty, which makes you feel even more guilty? That was me and Sister Sam this week!

I hate it when I'm so prideful that God has to force me to be humble and teach me the lessons He needs me to learn hard way. I was certainly taught the hard way this week. Sister Sam & I learned a lot about self control, turning to the Lord, learning not to worry too much, and learning what happens when you slack off.   We didn’t put our all into the work this week and it was a really discouraging week for both of us.  We had one night where we desperately wanted to feel the Spirit, so we went o the church and went into a quiet room to pray and read out of the scriptures. Ironically enough we opened up to the Savior’s Atonement and His crucifixion and resurrection. We read the whole thing and I it’s difficult to describe the peace that came over us in that little room at the church.  Then for the first time in a long time we prayed in English, and the Spirit brought us both to tears. We realized that we did not do our part fully this last week and realized that we let down the Lord as His missionaries and we felt so sorry!

But the chance to partake of the Sacrament on Sunday changed EVERYTHING for us!   There is power in the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  We knew we had been forgiven and we had a fresh start!  I’m so grateful for the mercy and love Heavenly Father pours out on us so generously.

Look forward to my email next week because we are ready for a week of miracles! DAAIH GAA!! Love you!

Love,  Sister Webb

Our Skype with Amanda on Mother's Day was great!

She started trying to call us from the Apple Store in HK, but that was unsuccessful so she had to walk 40 minutes to a gaming store where several other missionaries were gathered calling their mom's.  It was noisy and chaotic, but still so good to see her face and hear her voice!

Amazing food in HK!

Work Like It Depends On You, Pray Like It Depends On God

"Work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on God!" is a principle that I think I finally understand. It took me 15 months!

We had the most amazing  meeting yesterday in Church. It was phenomenal. It was a broadcast specifically to Hong Kong and Taiwan. They addressed the Hong Kong people specifically and the work being done and listed some names of people throughout Hong Kong who have been pioneers in the work.  They personalized it so much for these people, and it was incredible! They talked about ministering, reading the Book of Mormon and prayer. Elder Anderson had a simple outline to help us . . .  he said, "Pray, Listen, Write it down, and Act". This is where the 'work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on God' quote plays a role. Elder Anderson played these 4 steps out in hope that we would live these 4 steps and grow closer to Christ so we are better able to receive more blessing and revelation. I just want to testify that these 4 steps WORK!  If you’re missing something in your life right now, it’s right there.. "Pray, Listen, Write it down, ACT" which part are you missing. If you’re missing a part, get to work!

This week was so full of miracles! What an incredible week. Tracy was baptized!! I think I would come to Hong Kong and do it all over again just for her! I am so blessed to have her in my life! WOW!  We started off her baptism with a song and then our ward mission leader talked a bit. Then us missionaries and the youth stood up and sang, and it was so beautiful that Tracy started crying.  Then I started crying. So sweet! Then she was baptized.  While she was changing, they let me stand up and give a talk.   This was incredible because we had about 8 people who were either investigators or less active members.  I taught the Restoration and it was SO FUN!!

I’m running out of time, but this week was a highlight of my mission. We met so many amazing new people and started teaching new people!  The work is getting busier and busier, and we finally are getting the ward more involved in family history!  I have found more investigators in these last 3 weeks than I have in my whole mission!

Love you!!

Love, Sister Webb

Getting ready for Tracy's baptism and visiting with so many awesome investigators there

AN INCREDIBLE BAPTISM

Oh how I love these people!

Lunch with Shelly

"I Know In Whom I Have Trusted"

Hello Daaih Gaa!!

We have had so many tender mercies this week and I want to testify that it’s because we are learning to put our trust in the Lord. I had the most incredible experience this week with repentance. I had been thinking and thinking about the sacrament and the significance of it. We have been encouraged over and over to take the sacrament worthily and really focus during that time of our week to repent so we can become a more effective instrument in the hands of the Lord. I finally realized that I had too many things I was not repenting of and to many things that I was getting distracted by during the sacrament, my morning prayers, my evening prayers . . . just over all. I realized I was not fully repenting! Not a good feeling. So I changed a few things and did a few things differently and felt this incredible release of pressure and weight that I didn’t realize was hanging on my shoulders. Repentance is one of the most miraculous gifts and blessing Jesus Christ has given us. You really can feel truly repentant and I know we can be 100% forgiven and clean again.

This week we had some fun lessons. I just love teaching the Restoration to whoever will listen.  WE tried a group of boys playing soccer, went down to a basketball court and grabbed a few playing basketball, took the last 30 minutes of English class to teach them all the restoration, and the best is teaching it with the families of the ward. This is the special message this Church has! It is what binds us together. it is our Core. If this is true- and I testify it is- then we need to do something about it! we need to share it! We need to live it!

We had these two boys come to church this week. God put Kenny in my and Sister Sam’s path the first week Sister Sam was here.  In our broken Cantonese we shared with him this incredible message. We scheduled him again for this last Saturday, and he brought a friend! So Ayan and Kenny came to church yesterday. Cutest little 18 year olds I've ever seen! They loved the Restoration and committed to pray every day this next week just to give God a chance.   I’m so excited to see what happens!

I know Heavenly Father is a God miracles and mercy. I have miracle after miracle, from watching a random girl we found on the street help teach a group of boys the Restoration, to God changing the lives of those we meet. Go on a mission!  If you don’t think you have a reason to go on mission, go for God. This is His work and His glory and it is in Him who we have put our trust!

Love you all!!

Love, Sister Webb

Fun times with our zone

Bowlins with our young adult friends

LOVE Sis. Sam!

The FOOD in HK is so AMAZING!

Lunch with a wonderful group of Phillipino ladies

Visit From The Prophet!!

We had the most incredible opportunity to see the Prophet this week! It was the most sacred feeling to be in his presence. He truly is called from God, and has the most sincere love for all of God’s children. President Nelson and Elder Holland both came and they talked about being able to keep the “temple inside” us. Often times we get too caught up in the world and we forget that we can sanctify ourselves and put the temple in us. If we can put the temple in us and learn how to turn our hard times "prisons" into a blessing "temple" we are promised blessing that will last for eternity.

Something that really stuck out to me this week is that we are often closer to God when we are experiencing adversity. Sister Sam and I were talking about how sometimes on the mission you worry that you are not doing your best to be close to God. Sometimes we pray and pray that we can know what we need to do to be closer to God and we feel like we don't get an answer. But something I have learned over and over on the mission is how real God is in every minute of every day in a missionary’s life.  It seems as though our every movement matters so much to him, to the point that sometimes we don't think He's there because He's closer than He's ever been before and perhaps we are just used to it. I don't know if any of this is making sense, but what I'm trying to get at is that in any struggle, in any hard time, whenever you think God has abandoned you, or you don't feel close to him, and you just feel hopeless, that’s when he is there the most. He has felt the way you feel. He has been below that pain and suffering that is causing you to question His existence. During your difficult times He is closer than he's ever been before. So when you struggle, or question him, turn to Him, and you will realize He is standing shoulder to shoulder with you, if not carrying you.

I just want to testify of a few things real quick. One . . . the gift of tongues. I was on the bus coming home from seeing President Nelson and got talking to the girl across from me about how incredible it is was that we just had a living prophet come to visit Hong Kong. I expressed the love that God has for her, then realized that the whole section of the bus was listening.  I pulled them all in and asked one by one if they knew that Christ loved them.  Suddenly this overwhelming feeling of love just flooded me for these people. With that, I just poured out that love by teaching them parts of the restoration. I was saying words with grammar structures I had had never used before, and saying things in ways that I would not have thought of on my own. There was a power that was undeniable and the people felt it. As President Nelson says, "Missionaries are the hope of this troubled world, listen to them!" He says it because we do NOT speak out of our own knowledge.  Instead we speak the word of God, we speak for Him, and the Holy Ghost will carry it unto the hearts of the people. We speak with power, we speak with the authority that we have been given, and we speak of love. We all need to step up our game and spread God’s gospel fearlessly. "God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of POWER and of a sound mind.” We are the trumpet in this fallen world, we are the hope! We can all be a missionary! Friends and family, minister fearlessly, and God will be on your right and on your left, and his angles will bear you up!

I love this Gospel, I love being a missionary!  It is a powerful calling and it is full of priesthood authority, hope, power and love.

Love you all!

Love, Sister Webb

With Pres. Nelson's visit, there has been wonderful press coverage.  Here is the link to his visit and a clip of an article written about missionary work in HK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC8q1Pb7q7k&app=desktop

Since the creation of the Hong Kong Mission in 1949, “missionaries have been actively teaching the gospel to the people of Hong Kong for 69 years,” said Elder Zeno Chow, an Area Seventy in Hong Kong. “We now have six stakes and two districts in the Hong Kong/Macau region with over 26,000 members.”

Temple Day!

Sister Sam & Me

Keep His Name On Your Lips

One of the greatest things about being a missionary is that our presence alone, testifies of our Lord Jesus Christ. Someone recently told me that just by being around us and realizing the commission we carry, causes them to feel of Christ’s reality and have a desire to change their lives. But how much better if we open our mouth and testify of Christ right then and there!? We are encouraged as members of this church to keep Christ on our lips. If you are at a loss of things to say, testify of Christ! (haha, I can just see myself on a date after the mission, running out of things to say, and I just start rattling off the restoration or testifying of Christ... chaahm.. its gonna happen just watch. #cries.)

Christ on your lips miracle: We did a Zone find this week in Po Lam and had some incredible miracles! We made it our goal to try and contact boys ages 14-20. I literally felt like I had a radar for teenage boys!  I would see one from so far away and find a way to cross paths and it was just amazing the miracles we saw!  So many of them were ready for direction in their lives! But thats not even the end! We got on the bus to go home and I still had that divine radar... So we go to the top of the bus and these teenage boys get on at the next stop.  They came up to the top floor of the bus and with my crazy teenage boy radar I freaked out and started to follow them to the back of the bus.  One of the Elders I was with stopped me and said this was a little creepy! Like what?! So then the Elders went off on this rant about how it was so much harder for Elders to find people because everyone is scared of how formal they look. NOT TRUE!! So I was getting fired up and told him to go to the back of the bus or else I would!  He did and ended up giving the kid a Book of Mormon and teaching him about the Restoration!  Then me and Sister Sam went down to the bottom of the bus because we didn't want to sit with the Elders anymore. We walked down and went to the back by a teenage boy. I sat down and asked him if he knew where Ko Saan Kek Cheung was because I needed to find my way home.  I told him I lived by a soccer court.  He turns and says, "Just get off with me, I know where you live."  He started laughing and I’ll admit, we were a little creeped out.  I asked him how he knew where we lived and he told us he lives right across the street from us and has seen us every day for years!  He has never talked to any of the missionaries though!  He is 23 and one of the most humble boys I have ever met. The next day was a Saturday, and we had invited him to church on Sunday, but apparently when I invited him I told him "see you tomorrow".  I didn’t mean to say that but I had implied that church was on Saturday . . . So he showed up to the church Saturday morning at 9am!  When we found this out, we just asked if he had time to meet and he said yes.  We met and he told us his whole life story and we taught him the Restoration. It was incredible! He then came again to church the next day!! SO this week Chris was our big miracle.

I LOVE this new idea of ministering! THIS IS EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY in ONE word! We are all ministers! Keep Christ on your lips! Testify of him at all times, in all things, in all places! Keep him at the front of your mind and let Him guide you and direct you as you minister to his lost and found sheep!

Love you all!  Sister Webb

Sis. Sam & I are having such a GREAT time serving together!! 

Some of our roomate missionaries:)

11 WEEKS!!!

This  is the only title I remember from any of Jessica’s emails she sent home . . . 11 WEEKS! Tribute to Jess! I remember when she sent that, I had ONE WEEK until I entered the MTC and I was thinking, "Heck, that day is never going to come! That’s ages away!!" and HERE WE ARE! What even happened!?

Anyway, I HAD A BABY!! She is older than me by one month, but she's still my baby! In the mission field when we train a new missionary, we call them our baby.  Then there is this family tree that happens and we become grandmas and even great grandma’s as we receive a companion from the previous “generation”.  It’s pretty cool how family works in the mission field!  Anyway . . . we have already had the best 4 days in the world! She is so diligent and full of so much enthusiasm for the work!  Her name is Sister Sam (Mariah Sam). She is a piano major at BYU, also pays violin, and she's just musically SOOO talented! I'm so blessed! ***Cool fact . . . Sister Sam knows my amazing piano teacher, Janae Williams, well!  I’m guessing she may be studying piano at BYU with her someday!!***

This week we had a cool experience. So I, personally, hate studying inside the house in the morning.  I always go outside with my companions to study. So I took Sister Sam out to study. My favorite place is Starbucks, but kids are very busy with testing right now, and they like to study there too, so if we find a seat we are very fortunate and it means that God has someone for us to meet. Unfortunately we didn't find a seat, so we went over to the McDonald’s across the street and sat down to study. We got to know some of the people around us as we studied but they all left.  Then this beautiful African woman came and sat down next to us. She was the sweetest thing in the world, and just thought it was amazing that we had more knowledge about the Savior, Jesus Christ. So the miracle about this one…First off its Sister Sam’s first day, so the fact that she got to teach a lesson in English is phenomenal!  Second, while we were doing personal and comp study, we were both studying about MIRACLES and how willing God is to pour them out on us. We just needed to have the attitude to expected miracles right and left, and God would provide miracle right and left!  Anyway, that was how her first day went, and you can only imagine it just got better from there on out! This week has just been so good and exactly what God needed for this area (:

Also general conference! WOW! Tracy couldn't stop laughing at how much I cried my way through general conference. I think every talk was for me! I cried through almost the whole 8 hours. I also made the Elders chocolate banana pancakes.  Then I went to go get Leo’s baptismal certificate signed by the Bishop.  He lives just around the corner.  I came back less than a minute later and all 30+ pancakes were GONE! AND only one companionship of the 16 of them said thank you! Like what!!? But it’s okay, I love the zone and me and Sister Sam are so blessed to be working with so many valiant young men who came ready to serve and ready to change. We had a zone find on Sister Sam’s first day.  I started them off with a pump up scripture and a joke and we went out finding for 2 hours. The power that surges through you when 20+ missionaries are out finding at the same time is so cool.  Miracles are bound to happen left and right! So good (:  This really is the Lords work.

In conference we were challenged by many church leaders and our beloved Prophet to develop a stronger relationship with the Holy Ghost. In my life He is a very special person. He fills me with energy and fills me with courage to do some crazy things, "What’s bold today, won't be bold tomorrow!" So take time for the next 6 months to learn about Him and come to know Him!  It’s through Him that we come to know our Savior.  Also, don't forget the important message to minister. Minister in the home, minister to your friends, minister to the people you run into at Walmart, Target, the gas station, minister to EVERYONE God puts in your path. We are all ministers the second we walk out that door. This is the Prophet’s call to us, MINISTER! And if this is the Prophet’s call, we may as well say it comes from the mouth of the Lord Himself.

Love you!!

Love Sister Webb

Sister Sam has arrived!

Jetlag . . . 

We got up at 4am and hiked Lion's Peak for P-day . . . IT WAS AWESOME!

I'm really going to misst his beautiful place!!