Great Week with Pictures

I'm going to keep this short so I can catch you up on some pictures:) It's been too long since I've sent any. 

It's been a great week!

We had a mission conference on Saturday and Elder Kopischke and Elder Parker of the Seventy both were here. It was incredible. Elder Kopischke started by explaining that he had learned two things in his life. That 1. we can only teach things we know and that 2. we can only receive things we are ready to receive. He talked about how he didn't know what we were all ready to receive but that if we were taught by the spirit and if we learned by the spirit that we'd receive what WE needed to receive. It was a Q&A meeting and they both answered questions from the missionaries. It was incredible. They were both really funny too which is the best. 

On Friday we helped a family move in from Hickory. It was a referral from the Zone leaders up there and they've been teaching the mom and son in this family. They are so wonderful. They came to the ward trunk or treat on Saturday and she came to church on Sunday. She's incredible but facing some challenges. She's a dream. 

The Caldwells are on fire. They all came to the ward party on Saturday and all at church yesterday. They're still shooting for the 9th! We're really excited for that!

Elder Parker was sharing his testimony at the end of the meeting on Saturday and said something that I loved... "Brother Joseph will forever be remembered for flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon. President Kimball will forever be remembered for flooding the earth with Priesthood holders. President Hinckley will forever be remembered for flooding the earth with temples and President Thomas Spencer Monson will forever be remembered for flooding the earth with missionaries. And everyone of you got to be apart of it." This is an incredible work we are involved in! And every one of us is a part of it. full time missionary or not, we are the noble and great ones who are here to proclaim the gospel and bring others unto Christ.

I love y'all. I hope you have a wonderful week. You're in my prayers. Keep being the best people I know. 
Love, 
Sister Webber

Incredible Week

Happy Birthday to my Chy Pie on Sunday. Tell her I love her and give her 21 birthday spanks for me. :) 

This week was incredible.
We got to attend Elder Andrew Page's funeral on Saturday. Literally one of the best things I've ever attended. The Spirit there was incredible. Elder Zwick of the Seventy presided and said some incredible things. He had all the full time missionaries (3 zones) who were in attendance stand and he said, "These are the kind of people Andrew surrounded himself by. These are covenant makers and covenant keepers." He talked about how incredible his mom and his sisters were and how they had their own Missionary Training Center that prepared Andrew for his mission and the mission he is now serving. He referred to him constantly in the present tense and talked about how he wasn't doing anything differently than he was before but that he just got a big transfer and a new companion, Elder Page, his father.
His mother is an incredibly strong person. She lost her husband I think 7 years ago. She greeted each of the missionaries and it was just the best. They had us go to the cemetery and all the missionaries sang Called To Serve. It was an emotional day and an experience that I'll never forget.

This weekend we had a break through with one of our families. Thanks to a very clear prompting given to both me and Sister Jameson, we invited a golden fellowshipper to a lesson with the mom. This member offered to bring the mom and her three kids to church. (Biggest struggle around here is finding people rides to church. I understand why all the churches in Charlotte have church vans. 75% of everyone we teach is without a vehicle) but Sunday that morning at quarter to eleven, in rolled the whole family in to the chapel. I was SO happy. They are the best. And they're all getting baptized. Thank you for your prayers. Keep praying for them:)

Crazy story: Last Monday night we were walking through this apartment complex where a former investigator and two less actives live that we were going to see. (sidenote: after Elder Ballard's talk at conference, I can't walk by a single person anymore. I literally cannot without getting so rebuked by the Spirit. which I have been constantly been working on since I got to Charlotte where the people just stand in the streets--they're everywhere.) anyway. We were at this apartment complex that we've gotten kicked out of before... :) and so we weren't knocking on doors, just walking through the parking lot talking with people who were outside. We were walking back to our car and this old little lady comes running after us frantically. After conversation, we learned that about a year ago she had prayed for God to send her an angel and Elders  knocked on her door. She said last week she began to pray again that angels would be sent to her and she saw us through the window from her apartment and chased us down. She's a little lady from Saipan and told us that God was testing her when she saw us and she had to show Him she wanted it enough to chase us down. We had the best lesson with her and she's preparing to be baptized. Pray for her and her daughter. She said she would have to stop meeting with us if her daughter found out so we're praying the Spirit will soften her daughter's heart.

Mom: I love your message about ministering to the one. This last month we've been focusing a lot on that same topic in relation to our investigators and on exchanges with the other sisters in the mission. In MLC we talked about the difference between ministering and administering. The story in Alma 15. After all Almulek had been through, Alma (in verse 18) took him to his home and strengthened him in the Lord. Perfect example of ministering to the one. I love it.

We had a special/last minute mission conference this morning because Elder Zwick was still in town and wanted to speak with all the missionaries. It was WONDERFUL. Seriously, the best. He and his wife are incredible. I'll have to somehow copy all my notes from my notebook because I don't have time to type them all up...but it was the best. It kills me that I can't share with you everything that I learn here. There aren't enough hours in a preparation day. But when I return, I'll give you a 18 month recap of every incredible experience. I love being a missionary. After the funeral on Saturday, I cried the whole way home thinking about how much I love being here. It is the most difficult thing I've ever gotten to endure but at the same time I love it and it's the hardest thing I've ever loved to do. I love President and Sister Craven. I can't explain to you how much I've learned and how much my spirit and my testimony have been expanded the last nine months. It is the best. This is an extraordinary work. And I love being a part of it. 

The gospel is true. 

I love you. 

Love, Sister Webber

Happy Fall Break!

Happy fall break my family:) I hope the changing leaves and the cold weather aren't getting the best of y'all. 

I apologize in advance for the lame email:) Forgive me. 

It's been a good week though. There's a family who have been friends with members in our ward forever and Sister Jameson and I have been thinking about them a lot the last few weeks so we asked the member of the ward who is their neighbor about them a couple weeks ago. They had us over for dinner this week and invited their neighbors (who we've eaten with before a few months ago) and we all had family home evening together. A few days later Sister Jameson and I felt like we should go over and talk to this member about teaching them. We went to her home and prayed with her about it and she had the idea to give them a children's Book of Mormon for their girls and for each of her kids write their favorite Book of Mormon story in it. We all went over to give it to them and talked with their mom more about the Book of Mormon and the church. She told us all about how she had toured temple square before and how she had been to the genealogy library to find information on her family. 

It's all in the beginning stages but we're really excited about them. Pray for the Brown family:) They're real growth and they need the church as much as the church needs them. 

Laketah came to church this week and it was so great. She's the elect and such a great person. She's excited to get baptized and she knows its what she needs to do. She's praying about a specific date right now so pray for her! 

Rachel came to the Mission Home Fireside last night with us. It was so great. President Craven came and talked to her after and gave her some really good counsel. It was wonderful! We had a really good lesson with her earlier this week with a member of the ward and she's moving slowly, but she's moving in the right direction. 

Keep the Page family in your prayers! They're in the Matthews ward which just borders the Pineville ward. President Craven asked all the missionaries in our zone and the Charlotte Central zone to go to the funeral this Saturday. An Elder that just got transferred into our ward last week came from their ward and was really close to their family. I hear he was an incredible person. I've only met his older sister but my heart breaks for their family. I've already shed my fair share of tears over the matter. They are quite a family though. 

The time is flying! It's been a year, today that I decided that serving a mission was what a needed to do. What a year it has been. I never would have guessed I'd be here and be this far into my mission at this point but I'm so thankful it has all worked out the way it has. The gospel is true! God loves each of you and so do I! Never forget that! 

I love y'all so much! 

Love, Sister Webber

A Mission Superbowl Weekend

General Conference is the best time of year. Hands down. I think I'll watch conference at the church building even when I come home. #convertedforlife :) (I'm convinced based on the pattern of the last three conferences that Elder Holland and Peter spend time together in the upper rooms of the Salt Lake temple.)

It's been a week of spiritual boosts. There have been so many little tender mercies that have lifted my spirit and solidified my testimony.

We got to go to transfers this week to take Sister Shumway. I cannot explain to you how wonderful it is to be at those meetings and not worry about going anywhere. It's the best. We saw Steve and Shauna there. They were at the Hilliard Building for something else and he said he heard missionaries singing so he came and found us. It was good to see him again. We had MLC this week too. which was another great experience. We talked about how we are agents of change not only for our investigators but for ourselves. I thought about where I was spiritually, emotionally, and physically a year ago and reflected on all the change that has occurred in the last year.  I reflected a lot on all that has happened the last year of my life and I am tremendously grateful to my Father in Heaven for the many blessings that have come into my life from serving this mission. I am forever changed because of the things I've learned from the Spirit, other missionaries, and President and Sister Craven. I am grateful the Lord loves me and knew I needed to be here even if I didn't know it. He knows the beginning to the end and is aware of what we can become. Each day the Doctrine of Christ pierces my soul. The love and mercy that our Father in Heaven has for us is provided through the Doctrine of Christ, through the ability we have to change and set aside the things of this world to become new creatures in Christ. My understanding of this deepens each day while I study the Book of Mormon. I love it.

I love the Book of Mormon more everyday! Last week while out finding, we had a run in with some folks that had opinions that were very opposed to our beliefs. It didn't take long to realize that it wasn't going to go anywhere and that we needed to leave. We testified of truth and thanked the couple for their time. It was an experience I'll surprisingly cherish. It was one that helped me realize how far I've come. This same experience would have shaken me months ago. My heart was filled with the Spirit as a realized what a precious gift I have to have the gospel in my life and a knowledge that the Book of Mormon is true. When this man was trying to convince us that what we knew to be true was wrong, the Spirit testified to me that it was true and that through abiding its precepts, we can grow closer to our Father in Heaven and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

The work is going good! We had a good talk with Rachel on Friday night and she came to conference on Sunday. Tawanya has turned right into a member missionary. She drags her brother with her everywhere. She and Dequon came to the church to watch conference and she brought a friend from school with her too. It was great. Pray for the people of Charlotte to soften their hearts and be open to the gospel!

I love y'all! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Webber

P.S. all eyes viewing this..write me a letter:) Love you!

Fallin for Fall in the South

It was good week! We had back to back exchanges at the beginning of the week so it was pretty loco busy. The second exchange, I left the area to go to "Mountain Island" with another sister. *miracle* We went to contact a referral in the morning who wasn't home so we decided to "marinate" in the area and knock on some doors. We knocked on like three or four doors and didn't get any answers. Door number four, Judy answered. We introduced ourselves and her eyes got big and she said, "I've been waiting for y'all to knock on my door! I've lived here for 7 months and kept thinking 'why haven't the Mormons knocked on my door yet?" I don't know about other missionaries, but this is not the typical response when people see us on their porch! I was not expecting it so I kinda just sat there and stared at her like she was an endangered species. I started laughing and I said, well we're glad God led us here now! It was incredible. Judy's going to get baptized.

We went on exchange with sisters in a place called Salisbury. Sister Lindsey drove us there and on the way back she took us to the National Cemetery. I'll send some pictures. it was neat!

Pray for the Caldwell families. There's these two families that live together in an apartment that we're teaching. We've been teaching this part member family all along and then the other family that lives there hopped on board this week. Also, pray for Dequon. He came to church yesterday and he wants to get baptized but he doesn't want to be a "member" of the church. He's worried if he stops coming to church someday after he gets baptized, that the missionaries are going to come after him for the rest of his life.. I just said, yeah Dequon. You're right. We will come after you. :) Pray for Rachel too. She needs to recognize that she's feeling the Spirit. 

We lived in fear most of the week for the dreaded transfer calls on Saturday. Friday night we got a call from the assistants telling us they would be calling Friday night for transfers instead of Saturday. My heart was beating fast all day Friday and then 10:30 came...no call. Saturday mornings we have a conference call with President and Sister Craven and the Assistants and they told us they'd make the calls after the conf. call. I don't know anyone in this mission that isn't a Spanish Elder that has been together for more than 3 transfers. Ladies and gentlemen, Sister Jameson and I are together for transfer #4. 3 cheers for us! I seriously was so happy about it. We're breaking records here in the NCCM. Sadly, we're losing Sister Shumway. She's going to open a new area called Stuart. It's in Virginia!

God lives! Jesus is the Christ! I love this great work! I love being a missionary! I know our Father in Heaven is aware of each of us and loves us all so much. And I love you! Hope y'all have a wonderful week! 

Love, 

Sister Webber