Hello, hello, hello, hello!
Another week has flown by. It’s been super rainy in Ohio for the last little while. I’m hoping that April showers bring May flowers for real and that we’ll be done with it soon. Give me the summer sunshineee!
Last week, we had SUCH a good training meeting at sites. We were talking about the purpose of historic sites and us as missionaries there. The purpose of the sites is to strengthen the members as missionaries. On my mission, I’ve learned a lot about member missionary work which is cool because I’m learning what kind of a missionary I want to be when I’m no longer wearing my nametag.
Okay so I think I forgot to mention all this business. We got a sister from Temple Square who is doing her outbound here in the OCM!! Sister Debenham came back from full-pros in Toledo and is now serving in Willowick with Sister Paravato. They are like us…they proselyte for 6 days and are in the VC for 1. It’s nice to have Sister Debenham back in Kirtland and it’s really neat to have Sister Paravato. She’s a doll.
Anyway, Sister Debenham sang a song called “His Hands” at the training meeting. Oh my gosh, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. It was so powerful. I wrote down one line that I really just loved: “And I’ll not rest ‘til I make of my hands what they could be…’til these hands become like those from Galilee.” Commitment for the week: Go read Elder Uchtdorf’s talk “You Are My Hands” from last April’s General Conference. It’s SO GOOD. This week be like Christ. Do the things that He would do.
A couple of really neat incidences happened this week:
1) I had a really cool experience with the Spirit. There is this lady in the ward named Sister Penix. She is a convert of problem about 8ish years, but her understanding of the doctrine is limited and we see her kind of on a weekly basis. She is currently separated from her husband and is having a really hard time with her teenage kids. They are super disrespectful, they smoke and party, they leave the house whenever they feel like it….it’s bad.
We had been planning on showing her the Preach My Gospel DVDs and talking about missionary work but when we went in and got started talking, she was telling us about her 13 year-old Chris. As she talked, I wondered if she knew how to receive revelation for people under her stewardship. I knew I didn’t have any clue before I came on my mission. So, I told Sister McAlister I think we need to talk about receiving revelation.
So we changed our plans and addressed that….well, turns out that she has been getting answers for a lot of things but not for Chris. It also turns out that she hasn’t given up coffee. Huh. I was like Sister Penix, for real, you’re letting coffee hold you back from going to the Temple again?! (I didn’t say that but I thought it.) And then, I felt like I needed to tell her that if she gave up coffee, she would know what to do to help Chris. That was at the end of the lesson and we had just realized that we were already late to dinner and we had a 10+ minute drive and it was feeling rushed.
But that thought/feeling that I had started to like amplify in my chest….it was like it was getting stronger and stronger until it was about to burst out of me! So I was like, “Okay, Sister Penix, I just have to say this. The Spirit is not letting me not say it before this lesson is over. I can promise you that if you stop drinking coffee, you will receive the revelation to know what to do to help Chris.” She was like, “That’s the only addiction I’ve kept….aw man…”
And I was just like “Sister Penix, I’m just telling you. That’s what it’s going to take. And as someone set apart to represent Jesus Christ, I KNOW that He will come through on that and you will be able to help Chris.” It was really bold but she accepted it and it was so cool to feel the Spirit work through me like that! I’d never had an experience quite like that before.
2) We had dinner on Friday with a part-member family, the Ruocchio’s. Brother Ruocchio is not a member and apparently has never really participated at all when the missionaries have been over before…BUT this time he did (ish)! He didn’t eat dinner with us but he talked to us a little bit before and he talked with us afterwards. When we were leaving, I was like “it was nice to meet you!” and he said, “You too! You girls are welcome here anytime!” Sister McAlister and I were definitely celebrating on that one.
3) On Saturday, our appointment flamed us so we were stopping by someone we found in the potential investigators section of our area book. His name is Carl Fortson…he was taught in Akron by elders a while ago and then he moved out this way. It said he had a baptismal date and everything.
We stopped by and this man who was outside said Carl had gone to get some parts for a car but he should be back in 10 minutes and then the man told us to go inside…so we did. And there were 2 ladies and a man sitting and talking. Turns out they were reading “King James” on the ladies Kindle. They were SUPER standoffish at first. They asked if we were Mormons and we said yes and they asked if we believed in Christ, and we were like MOST DEFINITELY!!!!
We talked with them a bit about Easter since it was the next day. When they realized we weren’t crazies, they invited us to sit down. They were looking for a certain scriptures so I grabbed my quad and started looking for it too. Then they were like “Whoa, can I see that book?” So then I got to explain why it was so big…because it’s the Book of Mormon and the Bible all in one book! Bam! Scriptural feast folks.
Of course, that led to us talking about the BoM and reading through the intro with them. They asked a lot of questions about what we do here….are you sponsored by your church? (no, we pay to come here), do you have a job while you’re here? (no, we do this all day every day), HOW OLD ARE YOU? (um…21 and 22…) and you could just tell that they were highly impressed with what we are doing.
Marie, Carl’s sister-in-law, was so open and is going to read from the Book of Mormon. I’m really excited to see this bless their lives. It was good to be in their home because they already have such a strong faith in Christ and you can FEEL it!
A lot of other homes here in Ravenna, you just feel sadness when you go into because you hear things like “What are you doing? I’ma fight you!” being said to a 2 year old or “GO CHANGE HIS BUTT!” being yelled at a 10 year old… it’s just really sad. So it was good to be in a home where you can feel the Spirit. Also, I really love the Fortson’s because…they’re black!!!!! Seriously, I’m racist for African Americans now. After serving in Cleveland Heights for so long, I’m like deprived here in Ravenna…so I was celebrating that we found some of my people
The other highlight of the week was Easter yesterday! We were invited over to the Snyder’s for dinner. It was like the entire Snyder family that was there so there was a TON of people. I felt so at home though because they’re big and crazy and they all love BYU and it was just great. And then, we got to come to KIRTLAND(!!!!!!) for Easter dinner. I love Kirtland! I love being around all of my sisters. They are such good examples to me of what a missionary should be.
Anyway, that was a lot of writing I know but good things happened this week! I love you so much. I want you to know that I love my mission! I love my purpose- inviting people to Christ. He is the only one who can solve our problems and heal our hearts. Go to Him! (But write to me…seriously. Lacking mail here.)
Love your guts,
Sister Webb!
P.S. No pics this week...no time. We'll have to wait til next week.
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