I think this is week 6. I don't remember. They're running together already!

HELLO! I LOVE YOU!

Hiiii

Things have been pretty good here this past week! Umm let’s see…what have I done since I last emailed you?

Well, preparation day ends at 6:00 pm, so last Monday we tried to see Kia but our appointment fell through. Her aunt, Sister Pennington, is a member and Kia lives with her soo we scheduled with Sis. Pennington but forgot to call Kia and when we got there she was leaving. So, we stopped by the Talley’s for a minute. They are members and Brother Talley wanted to give us food from his garden but they were about to leave for a movie so we were only there for a couple minutes. So then, we had to go to our double back-up, which was TRACTING! Dun dun dun… That was my first time ever! I have to say I was scared. Sister Park talked most of the time. Well, only to like 2 people because everyone else didn’t open the door for us. At one house, a young teenager answered the door. We gave her a pass-along card for the dvd called Finding Faith in Christ. Then the mom came to the door and like shoved it back at us. She’s like “We don’t need this. We’re Catholic.” Sometimes I just want to shake people! It’s like…you like what you have. You have a piece of cake with your religion. Well, here’s the deal…WE HAVE THE WHOLE CAKE! And we want to give it to you!!! Ah. Silly people. I wish they could see. Anyway, then we went to FHE. There are a group of older single adults that have FHE together and we are the ones that teach it because there is a non-member named Alicia J who comes. (I don’t actually know if that’s the way she spells her name, but it’s the way she should so that’s how I’m gonna spell it!) Anyway, Alicia isn’t ready to learn more yet but she enjoys coming so that’s a step. When I thought about it, we probably are a funny sight because there’s like 4 big older black ladies and then little, white me and Sister Park teaching them. They are sweethearts though.

Moving on to Tuesday. Tuesday is a crazy day. We don’t exercise or have our studies in the morning because we have training meeting in Kirtland at 8:00 so we have to leave our apartment at 7:30. So what happens is all the sisters that are assigned to work in Kirtland (either in Kirtland, or at the Johnson farm in Hiram, OH) come into Kirtland and we have a meeting. The training sisters, Sister Shuman and Sister Sanchez, train us. (When we’re not giving tours, we are making calls to family and friends of people who’ve been on tours, inviting them to come closer to Christ. I think I may have said that last time but honestly, I can’t remember.) Then Elder & Sister Butterfield, our VC directors, speak to us and then one of the senior couples makes us breakfast. I like the senior couples! They are really nice. This past week the training was on using time wisely on phones. I was so glad that they talked about that because I’d been feeling like I hadn’t been doing my best and I needed that little extra motivation. I really liked something one of the people said though…they said “If you act the part of a representative of Jesus Christ, He will make up the difference.” I really believe that. They also said to let the spirit do the heavy lifting. God is bound when we do what He says…so if I open my mouth & talk to people like I’ve been called to do, He is not going to let me fail! He is going to put the words in my mouth that I need to say. So, after the training meeting, we were on sites for about 4 hours. Then we had district meeting. I finally met our district leader, Elder Robison, and his companion, Elder Bills. It’s funny…in most missions, sisters are outnumbered by the elders, and in the whole Cleveland mission, we are. But in the Kirtland zone…not so! In my district, the Euclid (yoo-clid..weird, I know) district, we have Elders Robison & Bills, and then Sisters Wright & Andersen, Sisters Barker & Manwaring, and me and Sister Park. That’s what happens when you have a VC in your mish! Anyway, Elder Robison was talking to us and he said, “Get on your knees and then get on your feet.” It reminds me of that saying Pray as if everything depends on God and then work as if everything depends on you. We have to act! It’s then that Heavenly Father can direct our paths. After district meeting, Sister Park & I had an appointment with Kia. The bus she was supposed to take was late so we ended up talking to her cousin (Sister Pennington’s daughter) Vivian for about an hour. It was good. We were able to get to know her and her religious beliefs a little bit more. Apparently we go to young women because Kia goes and there is another non-member, Georgie, that goes. Georgie confuses me. She’s 14. She’s been going to church since she was 5 with her mom, Inez, but neither of them are members. Georgie is friends with the girls in young women but she told them not to push her. I guess she has anxiety and if you even bring up baptism she breaks out in tears. I don’t understand but that’s the story I’ve heard. Interesting. Anyway, we had s’mores and talked to the girls at YW. It was fun, and that was my Tuesday.

Wednesday I’m at sites all day long. Sometimes it’s hard to be there all day. It’s really easy to get distracted because there are like 10 other sisters around and it’s hard to sit for a long time calling people that you don’t know on the phone. But, I was able to call Emily, a girl that this girl Melissa referred when she came in the Saturday before. Emily seemed pretty opened and accepted a Book of Mormon! I got to bear my testimony of the BoM and promised her that if she read it with real intent, with an open heart, she would know that it is the word of God. I made a note to call back in a month and see if she got it and if she’s been reading. That was my miracle of the day. Also, Sister Park & I were able to take this awesome group on tour! They were so reverent and the spirit was soo strong, especially in the school of the prophets! IT WAS AWESOME.

Now lemme tell you about Thursday. Actually first let me tell you a little bit about Sister Park. Sister Park had mono that she had evidently gotten before the mission flare up while she was out here and so for about 3 transfers all she did was sleep. And she thinks the stress of training and of being the one having to navigate the area and just all the change has been triggering little relapses of mono because she hasn’t been feeling the best and on Thursday, she really didn’t feel well so we didn’t leave the apartment until 5:15 at night. It was hard for me. That’s one of our few area days and we didn’t do anything! I was trying not to waste the Lord’s time so I tried to study and read my scriptures and write in my journal but it’s hard to do that for 8 hours. Just sayin’. Anyway, we were able to see Kia Thursday night and it was so good! We taught her about prayer…like we were supposed to on Monday. And actually, Sister Pennington and Kia were there, as well as Kayla (Kia’s little sister), Vivian (Sister Pennington’s daughter/Kia’s cousin) and Kia’s friend Jasmine. They all sat in on the lesson! It was a miracle. The only problem was Vivian has a daughter, Camaria, who is 2 and she was really distracting. Regardless, the lesson went pretty well. Then, we had dinner with the Messegees, our ward mission leader, like we do every Thursday. It was so good because they gone blueberry picking at some blueberry farm somewhere here in OH and so we had wonderfully delicious blueberry pancakes for dinner! YUM. I love the Messegees! They are so good to the missionaries here.

Friday was really good too. We did our service at Homewood, and bowled with old folks. It is enjoyable. It really makes their day I can tell. Then we had lunch with Sister Stacey. She is in the RS presidency. She lives in the country part of our area…seriously, her back and front yards are like a forest. It’s so cool! It kind of reminded me of Twilight. She was really sweet. We shared a message with her about the Spirit and she gave us some names of less actives that she thought might need some love that we could stop by and try to see. Then, we got to take Kia on tour at Kirtland! She’d never been so we thought it might help to strengthen her testimony to be there. So the Gervasi family brought her up and we got to take her on tour. She enjoyed it and we asked her to pray about another date to be baptized. We have August 20th in mind so I’ll let you know what she comes up with once we see her again. The Gervasis are SOO awesome! They are the best member missionaries I have ever encountered. Alexis and Sierra are 15 and 13 and they totally get it! They are so far ahead of where I was at that point in my life. They also have the strongest Ohio accent I have ever heard in my life. They are GREAT! That night we just weekly planned because we were supposed to do it on Thursday but then Sister Park was sick. So…yeah.

Saturday was an all sites day as well. In order to be able to measure myself and how I’m using my time, I made a goal of calling at least 20 people a day and trying to get 2 referrals a day. A referral is someone who accepts missionaries to deliver whatever you’re offering them, be it a Book of Mormon or a Finding Faith in Christ or Lamb of God dvd or movie. If the missionaries deliver there, it gets there in a couple of days. If they refuse to have missionaries but they want it in the mail, that doesn’t count, but it is possible, it just takes like 2-3 weeks to get there. Anyway, on Saturday, I didn’t get any referrals but I did call 16 people! I took a tour too so that takes about 2 hours. I knew that I gave my heart, might, mind, and strength to Heavenly Father that day and I felt really good about it. I’m trying really hard to be diligent about that. Mom, p.s. when I had Sister Maughan call you to get that information for my friend, she was like “Sister Webb is right here, trying not to cry” but I was not! I am fine so you don’t need to freak out or anything. I haven’t had a breakdown since the MTC. And I only had 1 there so no worries. I’m sure it will come eventually but now is not that time. P.S. The BYU 111th ward is the BEST WARD EVER! They sent me a card saying they were thinking about me and good luck and like 20 people that were in the ward when I was there signed it. How nice is that?! I LOVE THEM!

Yesterday was Sunday. YAY CHURCH! It was fast & testimony meeting so I got up and bore my testimony, hoping to introduce myself to the people in the ward. Also, because my heart was doing that pounding out of your chest thing and I knew I needed to get up. Yepppp. I’m in the Mayfield ward. I like it. I met a few more people yesterday so surely but slowly I’m getting to know the members! We tried to stop by 3 different people yesterday but no one was home. So then we had lunch with the Wilsons. They just moved here a couple of months ago from Virginia. The husband is doing his residency here. They were really nice and made us Navajo tacos. It was nice to have fresh food (minus the fried part of the tortilla thing)! I really liked them. Also, if Laura Johansen reads this email, the guy was from Blanding, Utah! And he knew your dad. The end. Then, we were at sites for ½ the day. It was hard to focus yesterday! I only got 5 calls made but I did get one referral. The lady’s name was Quezetter. Crazy huh? Also, Sister Park & I got to take a tour. I like giving tours! It is fun and it’s cool to get to testify of so many different things…you can weave pretty much any gospel principle into Kirtland. LOVE IT.

I can’t believe it’s August though! The MTC stole my summer! It’s so weird. Last week went by so fast! I really like being at sites some days and being in our area some days because it makes the days easier to distinguish. At the MTC, I could never tell what day it was because you wear church clothes every day and you had the same schedule pretty much everyday so it was so easy to forget the days.

I do like being able to serve in Kirtland but sometimes it is hard because it feels like a fashion show and because it is SO easy to distracted. I didn’t come on my mission to waste Heavenly Father’s time though and I know that the next 16 ½ months are going to fly by so quickly that I can’t waste a SECOND.

This week Sister Park & I are going to do the “Contact Challenge”. Basically, we are going to talk to everyone that Heavenly Father places in our path. Obviously, I’m not even trying to harass everyone I see in the grocery store… I think that’s illegal anyways…but people in the parking lot, people on the streets when we’re tracting…we are going to talk to them. In my personal study earlier this week, I studied about opening your mouth. I love this verse:

“And at all times, and in all places, [she] shall open [her] mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto [her] strength such as is not known among men.” – D&C 24:12

This is what I’m going to do for the next week…and for the rest of my mission. I’ve been a little bit chicken, I’m not going to lie. And I’m embarrassed by that. But I didn’t come to Ohio to look nice and not say anything. I came here to invite people to come unto Christ. I came here to teach people about Christ’s original church from New Testament times being restored on the earth today! I came here to share with people the ONE thing that has brought me more joy and happiness than anything else in my life. So that’s EXACTLY what I’m going to do!

NO REGRETS! Only 16 ½ months left…I’m not going to waste a second.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Love,

Sister Alicia Webb

P.S. I only took 1 picture this week. I'm lame, I know. But here's me & Sister Park. We got to sites early so decided to snap a shot.

Also, tonight we have a barbecue with the Community of Christ that we get to go to. I'll try to take pics of that. And we're making district tye-dyed shirts so I'll document that too. :)

P.P.S. Mom somehow tell Sonhee-- SONHEE MARILEE CHO! I WANT A LETTER FROM MY ASIAN OKAY HONAYYYYYYY?! It's betta fo me!