Disclaimer: This post is a novel.

Hey guess what….THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!!!! Yesterday, in particular, was awesome! But you’re going to have the whole email to get to that.

Alright, so after I emailed last Monday, we went into Kirtland because we were having a district activity of tye-dyeing shirts. Except someone…it may or may not have been Sister Wright…decided that we should get colored shirts and try to bleach them. So we did. They didn’t work. Apparently you have to wash them first because they come with a protective coating on them. Who knew? I’ll attach a few pictures of that. While we were in the process, I accidentally splashed bleach on my jeans! BOOOOOO. Oh well, it’s not like I really wear them that often, considering the fact that even on p-day we have to be in proselyting clothes while we’re in public…and that is the majority of the day! That night the Community of Christ invited us to a barbecue. It was fun! I got a couple pictures of me and some sisters in front of the Kirtland temple so I’ll attach those for sure. Oh, probably the most exciting part of Monday was the fact that I got a little birthday present from my love Natalie (Staudte) Maxwell! I hope she reads these emails so she sees that little shout out. She sent me a little box full of index cards. On each index card she wrote one of her favorite quotes and she said there should be enough quotes for me to pull out a new one each week for the rest of my mission! The quotes are so uplifting and inspiring. She wants me to write on the back of each index card when the quote comes true and stick it in my journal. FACT: She’s adorable!

Last week’s quote was by Robert Louis Stevenson: “You cannot run away from weakness. You must sometime fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where do you stand?” I love that quote because there are lots of things that I’m not all that great at out here. But we read in the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:27 that if we humble ourselves before the Lord and have faith in Him that He will make our weaknesses become our strengths! So one    day I’m going to be really good at tracting…don’t even worry.

So Tuesday….we had an awesome training meeting at sites. Sister Wright gave this awesome example of doing a pre-set…meaning introducing the comment card/ asking for referrals of people who might be ready to hear the gospel. She basically said that Joseph Smith gave these prophetic statements here in Ohio: “This church will fill North and South America. It will fill the world.” By leaving a name on the referral card, you are literally fulfilling that prophecy. NEAT! It was really powerful. Maybe you just had to be there. On Tuesday, during the tour we were giving, I was thinking about Emma Smith and Ann Whitney. They were absolutely incredible women. They had so much faith and they endured so much because of it. Still, they were so generous and always giving whatever they could to help. That is the kind of woman I want to be one day. You study their lives if you get the chance. They’re amazing. We had district meeting that afternoon and then when we got home, Sister Park was feeling sick so she slept and I studied for a few hours. (Did I mention she had mono for like 3 months of her mish? I can’t remember…so she’s not lazy. It’s legit that she doesn’t feel well. It’s easy to tell. So don’t think she’s not a good trainer…she is!)

We were at sites all day on Wednesday. I got 2 referrals on the phones! MIRACLE! Kirtland altogether is shooting for 600 for the month of August, so each companionship has to get 50. Meaning Sister Park and I both need to get 25 which averages to 1-2 referrals every day we’re at sites. Oh, and cool story: I got a letter from Aly and she said that Marc Davis, this kid that went to Pearce, got baptized in April! How random/freaking cool is that?!

Thursday (August 5th) felt like the longest day of my life! When we came into the apartment that night, seriously I like fell into bed. I didn’t even have to rush to be in bed by 10:30 (which is usually the case) because I was so dead that I was in bed at like 10:15. I felt like a legit missionary! So that morning we did weekly planning…basically just figuring out who you’re going to focus on in the coming week and setting goals for that week and all that jazz. Sooooo after that, we went to try and contact Lisa Marik, a referral we got. She wasn’t home soooo we tracted. We talked to 2 people for about 15 minutes each but they weren’t really interested. They were “comfortable” with their religion. Why be comfortable when you could be OVERJOYED and ECSTATIC and wanting to share your religion with everyone? Hmm. Just something to consider. (Don’t worry, I didn’t say that to the people we met). Then we tried to stop by Joyce, a lady that Sister Park and Sister Barker tracted into a little while ago but she wasn’t home either. So guess what we did again….TRACTED! Ah. I’m not sure why it SCARES ME OUT OF MIND but it does. Everyone we talked to was really nice though. No one yelled at us or told us to get off of their porch so I was appreciative of that. We tracted Fay Drive in South Euclid (I think?) and we tracted into Matt Jamieson. He was so nice and cheerful! He had a light in his eyes. He said he wasn’t really interested but we gave him a pass-along card for the Book of Mormon and told him that if he ever were, he could call that number. When we got in the car, Sister Park and I both felt really good about him and I think that he’s going to call for a BoM eventually. Maybe Sister Park will be gone by then and I’ll be in the area with someone else…who knows? But in the next year and a half, I hope I hear his name again. Anyway, we only tracted for an hour but it seemed like eternity, trust me! We found possibly the only 7-11 in northern Ohio (according to Sister Park) and enjoyed Slurpees as a reward for our hard work. Then, we went to the Nepals. This is the first time I’ve ever met them but I’ve heard a lot about them. The Nepals are a Nepalese (surprise! You never would’ve guessed with their last name being Nepal, huh?)family who recently immigrated because Nepal is having a holocaust type thing where they are kicking their people out of the country so Cleveland has 2,000 refugees and the Nepals are a few of those. Bohla (pronounced Boo-la) is the dad, I don’t remember the mom’s name and Guma and Chandra are the daughters. Guma & Chandra had baptismal dates of August 15. So we go over there on Thursday. Sister Park told me it was hard to teach them because they don’t know very much English….but I didn’t realize how little English they knew. It was SO hard to understand them! Guma is the most fluent when it comes to English. So we talked to her about moving their baptismal dates (since there was no way they were going to be ready by Sunday) and she was like “Oh no, my uncle scold me. He say I cannot do that. I am Hindi lady…If I get baptized, he say I will be dead to him.” Apparently the uncle is the head of the family and everyone is scared of him. We were SO sad at that news! But, Guma said she still reads the Book of Mormon everyday and knows that it’s true but she can’t get baptized. BUMMER! It was a bit depressing. So after that, we went to contact another referral that the elders gave us: Darryl Nielson. He lives on Euclid Heights in South Euclid (I think). So we drove down that way….and it’s right on the border of our area…and it is the SUPER GHETTO. We were so scared to get out of the car! We debated if we should contact him or not…but then we decided that we told Heavenly Father the night before in planning that we were going to contact him so we needed to do it. Sister Park just prayed REALLY HARD for us before we got out of the car and we ran into the building. We met Darryl! (He’s white. That is unusual in this area!) He seems way nice but he couldn’t meet with us then. We set up an appointment to see him on Tuesday but we’re going to have to cancel because something else came up. Ah! But he seemed really open and wanted to have us back. Since he’s a single male, we’ll have to take another woman with us. We decided we want to take Sister Pennington because she is from the hood (for real) and I feel like she could take anyone! She’s got a couple teeth missing and like 8 tattoos and she just looks tough. I’m glad she’s on my side.  So then, after we went to see Darryl, we tried to contact Clara, another referral. She lives on Sycamore in Cleveland Heights. There was recently a shooting on that street. Yep. I was not exaggerating when I said this is the GHETTOOOOOO! It’s legit! Our area actually includes some really nice parts too but most of our investigators are in the more run-down part of town so we’re rarely in the nicer parts. Side note: I know it sounds like I’m just like whatever but in all actuality I’m praying my guts out every time we’re in that area but it’s sketchy! But they are God’s children too and everyone needs the gospel. Then we dinner and correlation with the Messegees. I love that family! I know I say it every week but it’s the truth. That night = pure exhaustion! But I felt like I’d truly given my whole heart, might, mind and strength so that was good.

On Friday…We bowled with the old people again at Homewood. They are so cute. But the dumb manager there made me get another TB test because she doesn’t realize that they don’t let you come out on a mission if you have TB! Also, I just got one in March so I’m fine. THANKS BYE. I hate getting poked but I would be poked a billion times for what happened on Sunday…let’s keep the anticipation building.  Um, we contacted Sylvia and taught her a 1st lesson in her driveway. She’s a Hungarian Catholic and thinks our “religion is beautiful but..” she was born a Catholic and wants to die a Catholic. However, we got HER to pray with us right there in the driveway and ask God if she should learn more about the Mormon religion. We’re still praying that she recognizes her answers and calls us back. Then we went and taught January. She’s a recent convert…who is 9 and we taught her 2 cousins who were there too. She’s cute and we did an activity with the Holy Ghost using a candy bar and a scarf as a blindfold. It’s easy to find the candy bar when your friend is giving you directions to it! They had a good time and didn’t want us to leave.  We stopped by Kelli Peterson, a less-active. She has 2 daughters and 1 son. Her oldest daughter is 13 and has been baptized but her 9-year-old has not and she really wants to be. We miraculously were able to set an appointment with them for tonight so hopefully they are there when we go! I guess no one’s really ever gotten in to teach her. As we were standing there talking with her on the porch, I just got this overwhelming feeling of love! Heavenly Father cares about her so much and He wants her back! It was a cool experience. Then we went and taught Kia! We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her and talked a lot about faith and Ether 12. The tears on her face during the movie gave away the fact that she was touched. I LOVE HER! (It’s amazing to me how quickly I can love someone here on the mission. It’s almost instant. Weird.) I told her my story of deciding to come on a mission and how I had to take that initial leap of faith and say I wasn’t coming…before I got my answer that I needed to come. Sister Park shared a similar story of deciding she should go and then feeling at peace with the decision. You have to act first and then you receive the witness! It comes after the trial of your faith. I think that really got to her…so we told her to decide if she wanted to be baptized or not and then pray about that decision instead of praying “what should I do?” Something just came to me as I was typing that last part….there is not a doubt in my mind that this is EXACTLY where I need to be. My life is already changed and I haven’t even been in the field for 3 weeks yet. I have learned so much and I’m stretching myself more than I thought I would be able to. I LOVE MY MISSION!!

On Saturday we were at sites all day. I got 5 referrals that day! BOOYAH. 2 called in requesting things…and the one of them was straight up amazing. I answered the phone…

“Hello, this is Alicia with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How may I help you?”

So the voice on the other end of the line belonged to Travis Sellers, from Roanoke, Texas. He had such a thick hick accent! Ha. He told me that he’d been doing genealogy (I assume on familysearch.org… the church’s website for family history)…and then he said this. And I quote, “then last night God told me that I shouldn’t just do genealogy. He said I needed to join the Mormon church!”

WHAT?! I mean for real, does that happen?! He just told me he wanted to be baptized. Basically. It was incredible! So I told him I’d call him back. I made a few phone calls and found out that Roanoke is in the Ft. Worth mission. Then, I called the number for one of the sets of missionaries serving in the ward that he should be in. It happened to be the sisters who cover the city of Roanoke and they just so happened to be in Roanoke at the very moment. Coincidence? I THINK NOT. So I told them his story and they said they would go over right away. Amazing!

P.S. I found out that Brother Maas is the ward mission leader for one of the old APs who picked me up from the airport, Elder Thornton. Random, huh?

AND NOW FOR THE GRAND FINALE….SUNDAY.

Disclaimer: I feel like Ammon in Alma 26:16 when he says, “Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.” This is the best way I know how to express what I felt yesterday/ am still feeling.

Seriously, yesterday was the best day of my life. I’m not even kidding. I’m not even exaggerating. It was miracle after miracle after miracle! AHHHHH!

Sunday morning we had PEC and church. First miracle of the day- we had 4 investigators at church! Georgie and Inez are eternal investigators…meaning they come to church every week for like the last 9 years but they don’t want to be baptized. Odd. But Kia was there and her cousin (Sister Pennington’s son) Vincent! He’s 16. And the priests went to Kirtland to have their lesson in the School of the Prophets so Vincent went with them. Awesome!

But then, the miracles just kept coming…after lunch, we were supposed to stop by Sister Jankowski (a less-active) to visit her. She was not answering her phone so we went to our back-up which was to stop by Lisa Marik. We did and she was home!! She was very nice. She is “Jewish” but doesn’t really practice. She just believes there is a God. She told us she had a breakdown 2 days ago and wanted to know where we were then! She had stayed out late the night before so she was still in a night gown and was eating lunch (at like 4 in the afternoon) so she didn’t let us in but we did talk to her for a little bit in the hallway. She’s super nice and we both were feeling good vibes with her! We set a return appointment…sadly it’s not until August 19th but we will be seeing her again.

Then, our second back-up to Sis. Jankowski was to see Sister McCornell, another less-active woman in the ward. Well, she moved and no one could get us her new address so it came to me that we should stop by Barb Frankie’s. They had mentioned Barb in PEC that morning as one of the 5 focus families of the ward. They’ve given the missionaries 5 families to focus on and to teach the lessons too. They told us that Barb lived with her sister Becky and that Becky wasn’t too thrilled with the church or something like that. So anywho, we stopped by. THEY WERE SO NICE! They let us in, they were happy for us to “practice” giving the lessons on them.  Becky loooooved my red hair! Haha she just kept going on about it. She said that she used to have elders live upstairs in her old home and she had 11 sets live with her once upon a time. Sister Park and I were both like…“wait, they’re supposed to be mean?” when we left. They would not let us leave without food, even though we were on our way to a dinner appointment, so we left with Pepsi and a cupcake in hand. Holy moly!

Then we had dinner with the Yeates family. They are adorable! They have 3 kids: Ethan (5), Molly (2), and Mitch (3 mos.). They were hyper and adorable and I love them!

Then, we went to teach Kia. We were planning on teaching her about repentance. When we got there and we were about to start the lesson, Kia was like “Can we just talk?” and Sister Park and I were both like…meh okayyy because sometimes that’s just what they need. Especially when your investigator is a 13 year-old girl who Satan is working really, really hard on because he knows when she joins the church, her whole family is going to end up joining the church. So we were like “Talk about what?” and Kia said, “Talk about days.” [insert crickets chirping for about 5 seconds until I realized what she was saying] “You mean talk about days you could GET BAPTIZED?!?!?!” That is what she meant! SHE BROUGHT IT UP HERSELF. We weren’t going to even say anything about it unless we really felt prompted to because we didn’t want her to feel like we were pushing her. But she brought it up! So Kia is going to be baptized on August 27!!!! WOOHOOOO! YAYYYAYYAYYY!

After Kia, we decided to stop by Sampson. All we knew about him was that he was a referral from the elders. So we left Kia’s and we were trying to get to his house…and we turned the wrong way on South Belvoir. So we turned around. S. Belvoir is a busy street. It’s like how Grandma’s house is on Hillcrest but Belvoir doesn’t have the little pull-in thing so you can park in front of the house. So we turned into a street behind his and parked and then walked up. As we were walking up, I saw him sitting on his porch. We knew he had just come outside because when we’d driven by right before we parked he wasn’t out there. Keep that in mind. So, we walk up and we’re like “Hey, are you Sampson?” and he’s like “Wha? How’d yall know my name?” and we told him we were missionaries blah blah blah. He’s like oh yeah…I remember I talked to those boys but they weren’t elderly! (Hahaha. No they’re just called elders.) So we asked about his religious background. He told us he believes in God because he looks around at the sky and stuff and he knows this is no accident. So we asked him some more questions. He told us that he prayed and he knew God heard his prayers but usually it’s just when he’s having a hard time and he knows that’s not the right way to go about it. He wasn’t so sure God answered his prayers. He told us he lost his mom when he was 8 and then he moved to Atlanta to live with his grandma and when he was there they went to church because she made them. But he doesn’t anymore and he feels like why would God be so active in the Bible and not now? DING DING DING PERFECT SEGWAY! So we told him we that God is active now and that there is a prophet on the earth today and he was like “What the heck?! What’s his name?” and you could see in his eyes he was like “no way…this is incredible”. And then we started from the beginning of lesson 1 and we taught him and we talked to him and

HE IS GOLDEN!

I told him about Joseph Smith and how it came about and I got to testify to him that I knew with all of my heart that what we were telling him was true. We told him a tiny bit about the plan of salvation and how he would see his mother again and live with her again. He was like “that would be so awesome”. His mind was completely blown! He’s like… “I feel like God’s trying to tell me something. I mean, when I was younger I grew up in a really rough area in Cleveland…shootings, people dying all the time, and I was never the aggressor but sometimes you got to stand up for yourself. So one time, I got into a bit of a fight and this guy went and grabbed a gun and he aimed it at me and pulled the trigger but it was like ch-ch-ch and it didn’t work! And then, one time, I was in a car accident on New Years’ Eve and this person hit our car and we spun around a few times and then hit a pole and everyone else was knocked out and I was just fine. And then I’d been having some weird health problems when I’d been healthy all my life…and I started praying then…and then I met those boys who told you my name….and I JUST got off the phone with my friend and we were talking about religion….and I was hungry so I told her I’d call her back because I wanted to order a pizza from Papa John’s and I came out here and you show up on my doorstep. WHAT THE HECK?! I’m feeling a little scared…a little creeped out!” We were like “SAMPSON! Don’t be freaked out! God loves you. And you’re right…it’s not random that we’re here. He’s trying to tell you something.”

It was just incredible that he recognized that his life had been saved on multiple occasions, that the Elders met him when he was having a hard time and at the very moment after he stepped outside to order pizza,we showed up. So it was necessary that we turned the wrong way down South Belvoir because had we shown up any earlier, he wouldn’t have been on his porch, he would’ve been on the phone and he wouldn’t have talked to us. IS THAT A MIRACLE FOR YOU OR WHAT!??!?!?!?!?!?!

No worries though, it gets even better. So, we ran back to the car to get him a Restoration pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and then we read the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction with him. And we set up an appointment with him to see him on Tuesday at like 2:45. So Sister Park was warning him that Satan didn’t want him to know the truth so people are probably going to say stuff to you but just be prepared and just pray about it. As she was telling him that, he couldn’t put down the Book of Mormon, he kept reading the intro. IT GETS EVEN BETTER.

Then we were still talking to him and Sister Park just BAM extends a soft baptismal commitment to him “Sampson, as you come to know that these things are true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper Priesthood authority of God?” And he was like “Yeah, I would do that. Yeah.”

Yes, you just read that. YES, SAMPSON IS COMMITTED TO BAPTISM!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH! And then, before we left, we had him pray with us, and he kneeled down on his porch in front of his house on that busy street and prayed with us and HE SAID IT!

Miracles!!!!!!!

We walked away and both Sister Park and I were in shock. Seriously. IT WAS UNREAL. Sister Park was like “I have been out for 10 months and I have never had anything like that happen!” and I was just like “This is the best day of my mission. THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!” And then we celebrated by eating delicious Haagen Dazs bars when we got home. It was such an incredible experience. I wish you could’ve been inside my head at the moment. It was sooooooo awesome! He stepped outside to order a pizza and instead he got the word of God….he got his life changed. I still can’t believe it actually happened. Seriously, it was like I was practicing on those MTC volunteers who are already members and are like “yes, I’d be baptized” because they’re nice old people and they’re trying to be nice to us. I didn’t even think things like that happened!!

Apparently they do though because yesterday, I experienced a zillion miracles. It was really one of the best days of my life!

God is a micro-manager. Do not ever doubt that. He is SO involved in the details of our lives. I love it! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the original church that Christ himself set up when He was on the earth. This is it. I know that it’s true. If I didn’t, I would never have given up 18 months of my life and came here to Cleveland. But I KNOW IT IS. It has changed my life and I’m sharing it with others so that it can change theirs. We do have a prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and without Him, we would never be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I love the gospel! I love the truth. I can’t even say how full of joy I am at this moment.

I can’t wait to keep you caught up with what happens in the next week with Sampson! Pray for him please! Pray that he will rely on God and not listen to the anti stuff that people are surely going to throw at him because he’s so prepared. Thank you!!

I love you all so much and I do miss you but I’m losing myself in the work. It’s an incredible thing to be a part of. LOVE YOU!!

- Sister Webb