For God so loved the world

Well transfers came and went and I have a new companion AGAIN! But the good news is my old one decided to hang around. So yeah, I'm in another threesome. Pretty sweet. Actually it has been great so far. I waited so long to get an american companion and now I have two! Sister Martinez is from California and she is super adorable. I'm pretty sure the three of us will get along just fine except for the fact that the attention we attract has never been greater or more unwelcome! Ha!  Well we just laugh about it. Sister Martinez has only been in the philippines for about a month (one cycle) so of course she is really struggling with the language.

 

It's weird that I'm not that person anymore. I'm still not fluent and somedays are better than others but I really can get along just fine now as far as the language goes. I'm not really sure when it happened, because it was so hard to detect any sort of consistent progression while I was going through those first months. All I know is that somewhere a long the line I stopped pulling my hair out, crying my eyes red, and making my knees sore because I couldn't speak the language. 

 

Anyway, I'm excited to start having consistent language study again, because I still have a ton to learn. Language study time often gets the shaft because we have so much else we want to do.

Technically, Sister Stewart and I are follow up training Sister Martinez so thats kind of cool! I still feel pretty new in the mission and yet like I have been here forever.

 

Happy Valentines day and happy birthday to Jill! I never liked Valentines day very much, but I figured the mission might be my favorite place to celebrate it. I decided to make my own scripture chain on the topic of love just for fun in my personal study today. I wish I had brought the references... Anyway I was thinking about how I have really never felt love before like I have felt it here on the mission. Since I have this time to dedicate all my time and energies to serving others, I have really been able to develop a special love for people, especially those we teach, for the people I serve with and the leaders who serve me. Its interesting to see how the byproduct of service is always love. Whether you are the recipient or the instigator, love is felt on both parts.  I don't think there is any kind of love that is more real or more pure than the love I feel for those investigators except for the love Jesus demonstrated in His life and atonement.

 

It makes sense that our Lord Jesus Christ has a love that is unmeasurable, because the service and sacrifice that he made for others was greater and deeper than any other person who ever lived or will live. And we have yet to feel the greatest measure of that love. But as we learn of Him and His atonement, and follow in His footsteps, and as we strive to develop His attributes we can feel and understand more and more that love because we will understand who He really is and what He really did for us.

1 Nephi 19:9 " And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him and he suffereth it; and they smite him and he suffereth it, because of his kindness and his long-suffereing towards the children of men"

 

Just like the song, I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.

I only hope I can be more selfless and less selfish as I serve in this calling so that I can be a better mirror of His love.

We watched the testaments at the church for an activity and I realized I haven't seen that movie forever. Probably not since I watched it the first time on temple square. Anyway, it is amazing of course and totally powerful. Jesus is real! Too bad none of our investigators came. We'll have to do it again.

 

Our baptism on saturday went well! Many of our other investigators are progressing and it is so fun to see them realize the blessing in their lives as they learn the gospel and make changes in their lives. Its not easy for them, but as they do it, they know it is true!

Basically I love most everything about the Philippines and don't miss much about home except you all. (just a little bit ;)

More next time.

 

Love you still

Fight Satan!

 

-Sister Webre

 

 

Jenny's Latest

Hello!

We have a baptism this coming Saturday. A mom and her two kids. Jane, Jemari, and Francisco Palma. I always feel way sad when only part of the family gets baptized, but I guess it's better than none. The dad has some addictions and does some things that he doesn't want to give up yet.
We are excited for their baptism and we are teaching a lot of people right now!

We found the cutest family last week and they are super active in their church (seventh day adventist) If you don't know much about that church you should check it out on wikipedia or something, its really interesting. Anyway, even though they are really active in their church, I can totally see them converting because they are super prepared. They are already pretty much living the gospel, they just don't  have the whole truth yet! And that's where we come in!
Seriously, we stopped by their house last night and they had a bunch of questions about the plan of salvation and said they couldn't find the answers they wanted in the bible. The dad said it was like the bible was "kulang" which means like missing something or lacking. We were like YEAH! Yeah, that's because it is kulang! That's why we have the Book of Mormon!

We have 4 others with baptismal dates for March 12. (happy birthday to me!) Two of them are kids in a part member family, one is an older lady who was a referral and she is way awesome. She reads the book of mormon and the assignments we give her (That is rare!) and she has been to church 3 times already. Its fun to teach her because we always see things clicking and lightbulbs going on and she just knows everything is true!

I am reading in Jacob in The Book of Mormon and I just have to say I really like chapter 5. I don't think I ever really gave it a fair chance before, and I never really understood it and I just thought it was boring. But it's totally awesome! v 65 and 66 talk about the good branches overcoming the good, but not all at once. It will happen gradually until the good has completely overcome the bad. I was just thinking about how sometimes I get discouraged because of my fallen/natural state. Sometimes all the changes I want to make seem so overwhelming and it just feels like I'll never be perfect like Heavenly Father. But it's not something that will happen all at once. We can't expect that.
We were listening to a sweet conference talk this morning and Elder Scott said that strong character is built by consistent correct choices or something like that. I was like, yeah, that is so true. We just keep working at it, we just keep trying to be good and do right and eventually the good branches of our tree overcome the bad until the bad are no more. We will become as He is.

Welp, thats all for now. Sure love you all with every fiber of my being ;)
Thanks for your prayers and everything else. (like letters!)

Fight Satan!\
Sister Webre

Pictures:
Thats all of us crammed in a tricycle. There are still two more on that tricycle sitting behind the driver you cant see, and the elder taking the picture stood on the side. We had to get out and walk up some of the hills during the ride because we were so heavy. Ha ha! I know you are so jealous! I am going to miss tricylces SOO much when I get back to the states.

Life is Good

I got sick last wednesday. I had a fever of about 102. It was sweet though, because thursday is the day we usually do splits and I go with sister fort but instead we just stayed at the apartment, I was way behind on my journal and i had the wholeday to catch up. I really think it was actually an answer to prayer. I'm still not really back to normal yet, but when your a missionary you just go to work. So Friday it was back to routine. I'm hoping my weakness of body will leave soon!

 

K, I'll try to say something spiritual and uplifting now...

Actually on wednesday when I was starting to feel sick we hadn't left our apartment yet and I reallly didn't want to work. But we had some really important appointments and so I just said a little prayer that Heavenly Father would help me feel better, help me make it through the day and be happy.  And you know what, He did. My body was doing the hot/cold thing and my head really hurt, but we were still able to teach 5 lessons and they turned out really well.

I was thinking though, you know, often we pray and ask God to take away our problems and sometimes he does, but He often doesn't. Why? Because we would not learn and we would not gain knowledge and experience if He took all our problems and hurt away everytime we asked.

But He does give us strength. He does help us overcome every trial and He always makes us strong enough to beat it when we ask Him.
I know that is true and I'm grateful for a God with perfect wisdom who lets me experience trial and hardship so that I can develop my character and become like Him.

 

Have a good week.

Be good.

FIGHT SATAN!

 

Love, Sister Webre

 

p.s. sorry no pictures again, this computer is being weird.

Happy Birthday Mom!

This week was great. We just got back from Magat Dam about an hour ago. I was expecting it to be pretty lame, but it was actually super pretty over there! Alot of green mountains and hills and rocks. There was also some wild life, two goats and a few dogs! We went on a boat ride to boot! There was also a cool hanging bridge in a pretty little spot we found. I loved it!! I'll send pictures next week!

 

We did splits again this week, this time in my area and it was SUPER fun!! We taught 5 lessons thursday night!

 

One of the things I was thinking a lot about this week was agency and how important it is in the plan of happiness.

And Satan from the beginning has tried to take that agency away.

He tries to take it away by sucking us in to addictive behaviors and substaces, and even attitudes.

Sometimes I feel so helpless and when I start to think about my weaknesses it seems like I can never change and never get better.

But that is Satan! He tries to tell us that we don't have a choice, that we can't change, that we ARE helpless, but we're not! Because of the power of the atonement, and our free agency we CAN change! And we do it little by little, day by day, though the power and help of our Savior and obedience to His commandments!

I know that is true! Jesus Christ fought for our agency. We have a choice and we can change for the better no matter what our weakness is!

So grateful for our Redeemer, for His endless love, mercy and grace!

 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Recognize Satan and tell him "Get thee hence!"

 

Love--Sister Webre

Frogs, Corn and 4 Little Sweetie Heads

Hello everybody!

Well I don't have much time but I'll give you the short version of my week.
We had a baptism! The four cutest kids in the WHOLE WORLD! Yup!
Make sure and look at the picture! The man in the brown shirt is the father of the youngest boy and the older looking girl. (Ceasar and Armie) He's not a member yet, and his wife wasn't able to come to the baptism, but we're gonna start focusing on them. (The other woman is the mother of the other two kids and she is a member)
We have a way cool couple (members) that live close to them and are gonna come to lessons and they invited them to a FHE at their house next week. If you didn't know, members are EVERYTHING in missionary work. Investigators need fellowshippers and thats a fact! So we're excited to see what will happen there.
The baptism was so awesome! Sister Stewart and I did a musical number, piano and flute "I am a Child of God" and the kids all bore their testimony and I cried a little. I love those kids so stinkin much!

Well...we found that little frog in our apartment. It was just sittin there on the floor when we came in. Don't know how it made its entrance but it was a cool little guy, we didn't mind. Its the giant cocroaches, spiders, and mice that aren't so welcome. Even the lizards don't bother me.

We did our first split last week and it was really fun. Even though Sister Fort and I are still terrible at tagalog, we made it through 5 lessons and it was really fun! Then we enjoyed some delicious corn on the cob! Not as good as yours out of the garden mom!

Well gotta go. Love yalls
SisterWebre

Magandang Gabi!

Magandang Gabi!

 

That's filipino for good night but directly translated it means "beautiful night". cool huh?

Well I was really spoiled this week! I got 3 packages and another dinner at the mission home. It was one of the assistants birthday so we got cake and icecream and the leftovers of presidents dinner which just so happened to be pork chops and mashed potatoes with presidents special gravy. did I mention both president and sister carlos are legit chefs? It was sweet!

 

We went to Save More today. It is like a real mall!! It's in a different area about a 25 minute drive from Cauayan when Elder mulliner drives 95 the whole way. President gave us the OK to go check it out.  I'm not a mall lover, but when you haven't been in a nice place for a long while stuff like that is like a world wonder. It had a huge grocery place and i bought REAL cheese! It was kindof expensive but I still haven't spent most of my christmas money so I splurged.

I'm gonna make grilled cheese sandwiches this week booyah!

They also had a cool bookstore and I found a section with a ton of childrens classics: The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book, and also The Prince and |The Pauper, Le MIserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, there were a ton! I'm not sure if they were the exact original text, but they had really awesome illustrations and they were only two dollars a piece. I wanted to buy some but there were so many I just couldn't decide and we were in a time crunch  so I didn't get any.

The next time I go back I'm gonna get some though.

 

We got some referrals this week that seem pretty promising so far and also found a couple I have a good feeling about. I'll tell you more about them next week.

 

Last night when we came home there was a little tiny frog just sitting on our floor in the kitchen. We named him harold. |We don't know how he got in to our house but he was so tiny and cute! I wanted to keep him but ironically enough we had just read the day before the part in the white handbook that says no pets allowed. They say ignorance is bliss, but in this case we couldn't play that card. Sadness.

We let the little guy go.

 

Overall it was a generally a very happy week. I'm always happy, but this week was just extra happy. It might have something to do with the fact that my companion knows how to pronounce my last name. Not sure.  Its probably because a lot of our investigators have actually been reading the Book of Mormon! YEAH! They gotta read it, its the only way they will be converted!

I went on splits with Sister Fort who is from Texas and is 6 weeks behind me in the mission. that's right, BEHIND. So I was just a little bit concerned about how we were going to be able to teach and get along on our own, but it worked out just fine and we actually had a lot of fun. It was good for both of us to get to stretch oursleves with no one to fall back on. We're going to be splitting a lot because her comp and mine are going to different areas of the mission every thursday to do training with the sister missionaries. Fun times! A lot of Journal moments, I'm sure!

 

Take care, love ya

Love Sister Weever (Webre)

Happy New Year

Hello and happy new year.

The rumors about the sleepover party at the mission home WERE true!

Can you believe it? The only unfortunate part is that I've had the runs since thursday so I wasn't feeling like eating all of the delicious food they had for us. But it was still a good time. President let us watch the ultimate gift, which I find to be extremely cheesy, but it has a good moral and its like a real movie so we were all happy.

New years is BIGGER than christmas here. Everythining is closed and there are tons of fireworks and people start in the morning on new years eve. Then they go crazy when the new year turns. We got to watch from the mission home. Karaoke is like the biggest thing here, everyone has it at their house and their not shy about it. They turn it up way loud and just go for it. And most of the songs they sing are in English, popular hits from america.  It makes me laugh so hard!

I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Stewart. She is 5'11". She is from Spanish Fork. She likes sports and was on the track team at BYU. She is American. I like her. We're gonna start running together in the morning. (YES!!) She has been in the mission about one year. Anything else you want to know about her?

We had 7 investigators at church yesterday. They are all very good possibilities for baptism. 4 of them are the cutest kids we have been teaching. Two of them are cousins of the other two. Their names are Zyra(11), Jeyzer(12), Armie(12) and Ceazar(8). They have the greatest names here! Zyra and Jeyzer's mom is a member but she has been inactive for a long time. But she has a sweet testimony. The other two kids are her niece and nephew. Their parents haven't been too interested in listening to the lessons or coming to church but they all live in the same home.  They all pray together every night and they are way smart! They are super fun to teach and right now their baptism date is January 15. Sometimes they have a hard time coming to church but we're gonna talk about that in our next lesson.

The other 3 investigators at church are the Palma family. We were way excited when they came because one Jemarie(16) got offended by one of the other YW when she came to church her first time back in NOvember and hadn't come to church since. But she was there and her brother Fransisco and her mom Jane.  We wish their dad would come to the lessons or church but he has a lot of addictions and stuff and is not really intersted. That is sad. Jane rocks though she is already in 2 nephi (did I already tell you this?) and they also have family prayer every night. Their batismal date is on January 29.

So we're excited for those! We've also got several member referrals last week so hopeful some of them will turn into baptisms as well!

Its time for new years resolutions! (or maybe last week but its not too late!)

Well life is good. We have the true gospel.

No one likes the runs but I figure I've been healthy for four months in the philippines, its my turn.

I have pictures for you but I forgot to bring my card converter. Maybe we can come back later....

Okay love ya bye

Sister Webre