October 27, 2014

 My favorite meal.

Fried rice. I am officially a Chinese speaking missionary now. It wasn't very good.

October 27, 2014

Fam around the Block,

I have used 1% of my Google Space. Never had I so many emails in my non-missionary email account. It's amazing.

Highlights of the week. We have cleaned our flat like animals. Now it is worthy of my OCD standards except some of the things we don't have the funds to buy cleaner for, but nothing bad. Elder Curtis and I have been buying really good food and made pesto chicken with toast and balsamic vinegar/olive oil the other day. It's definitely not restaurant quality, but boy did it bring me back to summers at the Webb estate. 

It gets dark here around 5:30 which is honestly sort of sad. I think I'll be a creature of the night the rest of my life. When everyone talks about the rain here it's like in Utah when everyone says they hate the snow but never are willing to move or do something about it. I had like this life changing moment the other week when the sun peeked up for a few moments and Elder Curtis and I just stopped and basked in the short lived rays. Haha so maybe I'm making it sound a little intense but I am surprised at the weather here.

There is a new companionship in the YSA and one of them is from Fillmore! He is like six foot eight and learned Farci, the language of like Iran and other places, on his mission. Pretty sweet! They will be fun to have around and hopefully this is a good transfer with some success and things. Did you know that every student in England dresses like a hipster? Doc Martins are the shoes, green jackets or tight polka dot oxford shirts, skinny jeans, everyone! And then the Chinese students wear like their Air Jordans and love the Utah Jazz haha. 

Halloween is this week and I hope I can carve pumpkins or something! Maybe I can roast the seeds in the tin foil too. Oh yeah and food is really expensive here but they have take-outs everywhere with fish and chips and kebabs and things that are not too expensive that I love. Kebabs are sort of scary to eat though if you're not careful. They are illegal in the states because the meat is on open display, but Mountain Dew is illegal here because of the chemicals we put into it.

We taught an English class that was hilarious this week. There was this old Portuguese lady there and a man from somewhere in the Middle East I have never heard of and a Chinese couple. We went around playing a game where one person would say, "I went to the shop and bought ____." I was dying inside. Sometimes I complain to myself about hard work, etc. but then I realize how hilarious people are and get all giddy inside. I honestly can't think of much else this week. Amanda is still reading and praying and things and the ward has fellowshipped her amazingly but I don't know how it will pan out. We are teaching a few Chinese students but commitment is really tough for them. They are receptive but it is hard to explain how important it all is. 

Oh yeah and we visited a university in Salford this week and there was a giant river! It was amazing! I love nature so much. And fish and chips places are called chippies here and there was a place called Chung's Chippy. We've got to try it. There was a hotel there called the Black Horse Hotel with all this graffiti on it. It looked like a mixture of indie culture and Lord of the Rings. Pubs are seriously on every street in England and they all have such classical names, like Greyhound Inn or The Hartwood or whatever. It is one unique culture and I definitely did not understand it before I got here. Haha I think I get frustrated that no one knows what England is really like. 

Love you all and hope your week is proper good,

Elder Webb-under-Lyne

October 20, 2014

October 20, 2014

Wo Qin'ai de Jiaren,

Another week down! Transfer calls were this week and I learned I am staying with Elder Curtis for another transfer. I have a feeling this will be my last in the YSA, but you never really know. It will be good and I'm sure it will be bittersweet to finish out here. I can't believe how fast a transfer goes. I honestly feel like my entire life has been spent as a missionary, but I never have shaken the feeling I got when I stepped off the plane and it feels like 20 minutes ago. It's so hard to explain haha.

So here's my funny story of the week. Have you ever heard that the First Vision gets interrupted everytime a missionary says it? It's not even a joke. Every time we tell Joseph Smith's story a phone rings or a bus whooshes by haha. I thought that was some legend but it's forreaaall. Anyhow, the best interruption and most comical happened this week. We were telling this student it on the street and then an old man with this super long beard walked up leaning on one of those tennis ball walkers and just stopped and looked at us. At first I was like, "Oh man, here we go." Then he just smiled really big and said, "I've got one too, lads. I'm gonna' put it in the boot (that means trunk)." Then he opened his walker basket and had a Book of Mormon in there. Hahaha I don't really know if this transfers over well as a story but it was hilarious. I think every time I think I've seen it all something like that happens. Or other religions pass around their tracts to us and loads of funny things. People are so entertaining!

So I've run out of my first bottle of Cholula hot sauce and I have already bought a second tube of toothpaste here in England, so I think it's really hit me that I've left the nest. It's so weird that I'm a nineteen year old kid who lives in England and walks around all day teaching people about the truth. Elder Curtis and I are either really excited or really terrified every time we leave our apartment haha.

The best part of this week was the Chinese Activity! We all went to Liverpool with our investigators and all the Chinese people from the mission. It felt like I was back in Taiwan as we took the bus over. I have to tell you, Liverpool for some reason feels like a second home to my heart. I had this MASSIVE deja vu in the chapel and I feel like I am destined to serve there. And there was this old Chinese man there that I looked at and just hope I find a Chinese family to teach. Several have been baptized in the history of the mission. Anyway, I got excited and Elder Holland served there so I pretty much have to. The activity went well, mostly just awkward Chinese people and food and otherwise Asian things.

So on Sunday I was having one of my weekly inner breakdowns about street contacting and I realized the most amazing thing. I have always learned the most powerful lessons in my life from Heavenly Father through comparisons of random, normal events in my life. So I have always been able to compare missionary work to fishing, but honestly it really hit me this time. Every time out on the Provo River that I wanted to break my rod and never return, every time even after all my Youtubing and dreaming and studying, that I never caught a stupid fish. I was having one of these moments really strongly and the Spirit clearly spoke to me that it is not the fish that make the fishermen, but the river.

Family, I love you all. I know it is not any success here or great stories that will really define what I truly think of this experience. It is my personal relationship with Christ that slowly forms a little more strongly each day. It is the time that I cannot go any further and I realize that I'm right, and then He will carry me to the end of the day. It's those times I wonder why I am willing to do this when nothing amazing ever seems to come of it and I realize the most powerful convert is myself. But yeah, I'm doing well.

Julie, they do have Halloween here but it's sort of a joke. We have to come into our flat early which is a relief with all the college students here. I am learning to love wards outside of Utah as well. It's like a little family and it shows you why the church is so important outside of strong Priesthood families!

Dad, Sister Sun sent me the photos. It sounds like you are just a church man all of the time now haha. Are you still a dentist anymore? Haha just kidding you will have some amazing stories from that ward

Mom, I ate one of those Cliff bars this morning and it was a weird feeling to have one again. That picture of Sam and Laura and you is so cute. I know what you mean about such weird experiences and so much need. It just becomes normal as a missionary. It's interesting how confident now I am to do things that made me feel awkward back home even though I was a theatre kid and goof all the time. Haha I remember when we gave food to some homeless people downtown and I was so scared and now it's nothing.

Love you all,

Elder Webb

PS The picture is my favourite snack for those days that I'm too lazy to make a proper meal. One half is nutella and one half is peanut butter with a banana down the center, then you roll it up. Elder Curtis made a pact that we would never eat it again because it's all we were eating.

October 13, 2014

Fam,

I just need to start this email with the best story that ever happened. So Elder Curtis and I have some similar interests and relationships with our siblings and other little random things. We were testing the ring tones on our phone and this one reminded us both of something... BANJO KAZOOEY! It was the last thing I thought I'd talk about on my mission. I hope that brought some memories back, Laura and Scott. It's like part when you leave the house and the witch cackles or whatever hahaha.

And then my other funny story. So we are still teaching Amanda the Brazilian girl and she was talking about how she doesn't want to interpret things as answers from the Lord if it's just herself imagining it. One day she was walking down the street and someone gave her a flyer that said, "Repent, and be baptized." She said she started laughing really hard and couldn't read the rest of the flyer. Hopefully she starts taking the signs haha I think she will.

I have realized I don't really tell you all very much about who we are teaching. It's because it changes almost every week and there hasn't been a baptism in the YSA ward since like the beginning of August, which is sort of crazy with how many companionships are here. At first in my mission I could never understand how some people go for two years without any baptisms and now I see that it really isn't about that and there are many other things to keep you going. 

This week we had a zone conference where a challenge was issued that Elder Holland gave missionaries in Michigan. Basically you fast for a day and write down all those things you are doing that drive away the Spirit and then "fast" from them for 40 days. Elder Curtis and I started. I mostly just put the big things so I don't go crazy, but it's really good and hard. And then we got a huge packet for a 31 day study of the Atonement from President Ulrich so hopefully this time can really help me as I try to become sanctified and commit everything to the work. Honestly all of the culture and talk about missions are just a mask for a journey to come to understand our Savior on a different level. Manchester has become for me a little spiritual battleground where every day is an uphill battle.

Mom and Dad, congratulations on your mission call! That is so amazing. I can't believe it's the same church we visited all those years ago, Dad. The Lord works in truly mysterious way. Just remember that deacon seven years ago now would find those experiences pretty mild compared to where I am now haha. I love you both so much and I really hope it becomes an amazing experience. 

As for the rest of the week, mostly just talking to people and working on goals and Chinese, etc. The time goes so quickly now I can't believe it. Halloween is in just a few weeks and it feels like only a few months ago that I was celebrating it back home. Elder Curtis and I have lots of good laughs and there's some good days out here. I honestly have no idea what to tell you all about because nothing sounds interesting if I put it into your perspective haha. You get the most entertainment out of the littlest things as a missionary. 

I think the best part of being a missionary is the unique power and cleansing feeling that comes when you share the Gospel full time. I make so many mistakes everyday and there are definitely some long prayers in our flat throughout the week but nothing is more important than the Gospel. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know He truly died upon the cross for each of us. These truths that are so passing for most of the world become everything to you as a missionary. You cannot teach a Gospel that you do not powerfully live. Thank you for all your prayers and I really feel of your love.

I remember back home when I would read missionary emails that are all just full of scriptures and testimonies and I was like, "Oh, classic. They're at it again, all spiritual and boring." But honestly if I'm supposed to report my weeks to you that's all I have haha because it is what dominates your thoughts and it's really all that becomes important to you. But again you should tell me what is interesting so I can share it better.

Love you all,

Elder Webb

October 13, 2014

So maybe it's not always that effective. Basically I've explained to my trainee that missionary work is sort of like being a Jedi that rides a velociraptor and I'm teaching him how to saddle up and everything. He finds post-it notes with pictures of dinosaur Jedi combos in his journal sometimes.

October 6, 2014

 I feel like this is picturesque.

October 6, 2014

Family,

Wow. I love you all so much. I love being a missionary! I am never coming home (well, one day)! This is the best work that ever existed. It is so hard but all I want to do is do better because of the doctrine of Christ. If you didn't watch conference I can summarize it for you with the apostolic plea and warning to come unto Christ. Truly He is the way and I think I am finally starting to understand that a little bit. There is nowhere our path can go that He cannot safely guide us back each step of the way. No burden is too heavy for Him to lift. I love Him with all of my heart and that is why I am a happy missionary. I no longer care about what is ahead or what is behind, only what is within me and that is a burning testimony of Him and His patience to all people.

General Conference was so great. It is weird here in England. We watched the first session on Saturday at like 1 pm and then the other four were on Sunday at like 10 am, 1 pm, 5 pm, and 9 pm. We will watch the 9 pm one later in the week. And guess what! Amanda came to every session except Priesthood! I seriously don't know why she isn't baptized yet. She is the Brazilian girl we teach. The ward never put up the Chinese translation so we didn't really have any Chinese investigators come. 

And here are miracles. Between sessions on Sunday we went out to talk to people on the streets. I wasn't really feeling it but we did anyway and we saw all these good things. We met a man who spoke Portuguese from Angola and a family from Portugal was at the YSA building for conference so they took him under their wing. And we met a girl from Taiwan who had met missionaries and it seemed like the Lord has been knocking at her door for a while. And then we took two students from China on a tour of the building and said a prayer with them in the baptismal font. All in two hours, and that is basically what comprises my life! Those types of experiences are common here. It's so amazing! AHHHHHHH!

Elder Curtis is doing well. He might be one of the few from my mission I will stay friends with afterward. It's funny and I'm sympathetic to see him get used to what England and missionary life is like. He also has a beagle and we figured out we even have the same type of compound bow for archery. But our personalities are pretty different as well. He reminds me of Ian Webb sort of. I don't know what happened in the few months I have been here longer than him but I don't even remember a lot of stuff about America until he brings it up. 

Mom and Dad, I am excited to hear about your mission call. All the missionaries were crazy about my Halloween candy and one of the YSA saw the package secretly and came up to me later and was like "James, can you open the door for me?" He was laughing so hard at my confusion when he used my first name haha. Oh yeah and could you ever mail me some pretty landscape pictures of the different parts of Utah? I miss how pretty it is there. Tell Uncle Greg that he is right that the USA really is a choice land even though I am beginning to love England.

Oh yeah and just so you all know we don't just eat garbage all the time I included a picture of our weekly fajita sautee.

Love you all, happy happy, 

Elder Webb