the longer I'm out, the more my body is DYING

The bugs in Ohio are seriously on steroids. It’s not just like a normal little mosquito bite! It’s like….crazy bite the heck out of your ankles and feet and your ELBOW even and then let them all swell up and be gross & disgusting. Yeah.

So on Monday night I got sick! Sister Pusey thought it was because I ate ranch from DQ that was the non-refrigerated kind. She said the last time she ate that, she got sick too. Booooooo. It was lame but oh well. Missionaries are mortals too.

Tuesday was Kirtland day. J It was an interesting morning. This is mostly because the end of the evening before was no bueno. My comp was obviously upset and was being quite rude to me but wouldn’t talk about why and so I was highly irritated and immediately after training meeting/breakfast went to talk with the Edmans. I LOVE ELDER AND SISTER EDMAN.

Have I mentioned that before? They are fantastic. Seriously. I feel like they are my 3^rd or 4^th set of grandparents. For real. I can’t wait until I see them when I’m not a missionary because I’m going to give Elder Edman a huge hug! They just let me talk about things and explain that I was going through a hard time and how things are just like a roller coaster and they were super understanding and gave me encouragement and advice. I left feeling a lot better than I did when I entered their office. Oh, and then later that day Sister Doerk and Jamie and Lindsay and her kids came to Kirtland and we took them on tour there!! It was so great!

Me and the Maas girls!

On Wednesday we had a really good district meeting and one good lesson. We taught the Bowlands about the purpose of the Book of Mormon! They are progressing and moving along. We brought a new lady in the ward, Sister Hunt. She’s AWESOME! She moved here from Utah but she served a mission in Nebraska in the Winter Quarters’ Mormon Trail Center. So…she understands what it is like to be a half and half sister! :) So cool! The lesson went well…they are reading and praying. We will be setting a baptismal date the next time we see them so that should be fabulous.

On Thursday, we met with Brother Derby to get the low-down on everyone in the ward. Brother Derby is very knowledgeable, see because he has been Bishop twice and been the 1^st counselor in the bishopric 7 times. He KNOWS who’s who in the Rootstown ward. That was a highly productive meeting. Then Sister Scott didn’t feel well so she took a nap while I made a bunch of phone calls and added people to our area map who’ve just moved into the ward/area.

Then, we taught Sister Manning and Grams AT THE VAN DYNE’S HOUSE! That was probably the most brilliant idea we’ve ever had! Grams was a lot less disruptive in someone else’s home and we were able to have a great lesson on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. From the sound of it, Sister Manning is about to kick out her live-in boyfriend who is quite lame. All he does is smoke and be drunk, basically. So that is a VERY good thing!! 

Then, we had a lesson with Bethany Kainrad and her kids, Corbin & Breena, and we brought Sister Marler and her 4-year-old Ashlyn with us….SO GOOD!!! Sister Kainrad and Sister Marler hit it off and set up a play-date combined with FHE. !!!! Awesome! I know we are going to see progression there soon. :)

Friday was really long and I don’t really want to remember it. The only thing worth remembering was that Brother Fortson made the comment that he’s finally found what he was missing all those years. :) It’s like he’s from a cheesy church movie or something. I love him so much!

On Saturday, we took a tour at the Johnson Home with Elder & Sister Edman and Sisters Schwanke, Downard, and Wheeler. They had never been there before so the Edmans were having a field trip basically. How cool! Just seeing those sisters and my other set of grandparents made my heart feel happy. I love Ravenna, and I love serving at the Johnson Home, and it’s been a good experience to be in the Youngstown zone but I miss Kirtland! I love it there so much and I just love to be around my sisters. Soon, I shall be back…hopefully! We’ll see what Heavenly Father has in store for my last 2 transfers.

My sisters & the Edmans at the Johnson!

Yesterday was pretty good. We taught gospel doctrine at church because Sister Ebie was going to be gone. People pretty much shut off when missionaries get up in front of them. Please don’t do that. It’s really annoying. We were able to see Sister Alexander. She is coming back from less activity but is having health issues that are making it hard. She is SUCH a sweetheart. I just love her!  We also saw the Reddicks…they are less active as well. They don’t want to be rescued, at least right now so sadly we won’t be going back to see them any time soon.

Then we had dinner with the Barnes family, and Brother Hensley and it was GREAT! They invited their non-member friend Allie, who we’ve met once before this but we didn’t get to talk to Allie much that time. Well, yesterday Sister Barnes didn’t have dinner started when we got there so we jumped in and got to work, helping her. That gave us a really good opportunity to get to know Allie a bit so that when we started teaching the lesson, we were able to tailor it to her needs. Sister Barnes read from the Book of Mormon to her kids while Allie was there earlier that morning and Allie really enjoyed it! We got her a copy of the Book of Mormon and set up an appointment for Thursday when we’re going back to see her! I’m really, really excited! I foresee really great things happening there.

That’s pretty much the week…..it was SLOW. It was one of the most dragging weeks of my mission I think. But that’s okay. This next week is going to fly and be crazy because….we’re having an ultimate exchange with the training sisters. So tomorrow, Sister Scott will stay in Kirtland and be companions with Sister Hansen until Friday morning. I will come home tomorrow with Sister Spring and she will be here in Ravenna. Then Wednesday night, we will exchange with Hiram. So Sister Spring will go on exchanges with Sister Gamble in Hiram, and Sister Houston will come here to Ravenna! So….I won’t see my companion for like 3 days so that’ll be weird but fun. I’m sure that time will fly because of that though.

Then at the end of the month we have mission conference!!! Elder Marcus B. Nash of the 70 is apparently going to be here and teach us. I’m excited! The Youngstown, Kirtland, and Akron zones will be meeting all together so that means I won’t get to see Sister McAlister…but I WILL get to see Sister Andersen!!! :) I haven’t even seen her face since May…so that will be nice.

Elder Rasmussen from my zone just sent this pic!
It's from a zone service project a while back
 when my little McNugget & I were still compy comps.
It's not the best photo ever taken of me but enjoyyyyyyy :)

I’m trying to think of some profound thought to wrap up with...I found one! It’s from Mosiah 3 in the Book of Mormon.

“For the natural Sister Webb is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless she yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural Sister Webb and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon her, even as a child doth submit to her father.”

Heavenly Father knows who he wants us to be. We just have to temper ourselves to be able to become that person. It’s hard but pray for the ability to be FULL OF LOVE and those other qualities will come! I promise it’s true!

Full of love FOR YOU,

Sister Webb

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