Cheerfully Do all Things that Lie in Our Power

Hello beautiful family (and friends)

I'm still laughing over dad's closing line to me-- "you are beautiful,
head lice or not" Haha, love you dad.

Well the big news is that my trainer got transferred on Thursday. It
was quite unexpected and I am totally unprepared. She left me here in
this area and my new companion is sister Vacalares. I'm not sure how
old she is, but she said she is much older than sister Valdoz who is
24. She is super cute and super nice. I'm sure we will get along
nicely. (Another filipina) Her parents are not members and they don't
write her. Way SAD! So I am extremely grateful for such an
overwhelmingly supportive family. I can't imagine. We are so blessed!

I'm not sure why, but I was kinda expecting/hoping for an american
companion. Oh well, Heavenly Father knows best.
So it's been an interesting few days. I don't remember how to find
most of the houses, but luckily we have the fellowshippers who know
the names and addresses of the people we are teaching.
It's been a struggle for me, but it's in our trials that we grow the most right?
All of our baptisms fell through (we had three lined up for the 16th)
even little Angelica. She can't be baptized because her parents are
inactive. So we will try our best to reactivate that family. The
others aren't coming to church.

The good news is that i got to listen to conferencE! WOOHOO! One of my
favorite lines "simplicity is teh ultimate sophistication". I love
Elder Uchtdorfs talk about mastering the fundamentals. The gospel is
so beautifully simple. We often get caught up in little unimportant
things and we just need to go back to the basics--Prayer! Scripture
study! Etc.

How is the language coming? Well, honestly the language is my biggest
struggle. It has been from the beginning. I love you all, but i'm not
homesick, I don't have a problem following mission rules, but the
language is what gets me.  Is it getting easier? Yes and no. I can
understand almost all of the conversation in lessons but still feel
that i can speak little more than I could when I left the MTC. So, I'm
just trying to be patient.  Many of the wonderful teaching skills and
ideas in PMG I want to use, but it is hard when I cannot speak the
language. I often get discouraged when i cannot fully express what is
in my heart and ask the questions and have the conversations I want
to. I often do not feel like a PMG missionary. So that is hard for me.
It is easy to look at all the things I cannot yet do and say because
of the language barrier. But I know that there is so much that I CAN
do. So I will not focus on all that I cannot. But I know as I focus on
and keep doing those things that I am able, eventually this weakness
will become strong.

My scripture for the week is D and C 123:17. "Let us cheerfully do all
things that lie in our power and then we may stand still, with the
utmost assurance to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be
revealed" The key is cheerfully!!

How often do I eat with members? Probably once a week or maybe twice.
It's funny though, usually they don't ask us, we ask them. But its
just the culture here. Its not rude to ask them to feed us. They offer
sometimes too.
I love UBE.

Thanks for EVERYTHING, especially your prayers.
LOve you forever
Sister Webre