Hastening the Work

Dearest loved ones,

It's been a while since I've last written an update, but LOADS of important things have happened! I was transferred to a new area! Right now I am serving in Cambridge, Massachusetts! Our church building is right across the street from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home and is right next to Harvard campus. We ride the "T" to get to church, which is the underground train. The public transportation here is so much fun! 

So, a quick update on the work I am currently doing... I have been called to serve in "The Fishbowl." Let me tell you a little about this place... There is a room on the top floor of our chapel that's walls are completely made up of windows, which is where the name "Fishbowl" comes from. Everyone can see what we're doing in here and it's pretty funny. 

Let me tell you a little about what we do here, in The Fishbowl... So, my companion and I work with a trio of elders, Elder Vecchi, Elder Halling, and Elder Gonzalez. Together, we have been called to serve as full-time digital missionaries. We are basically the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders of the digital mission here in the MBM (Massachusetts Boston Mission). There are more than forty companionships throughout our mission who have been called to serve as "extenders." Sister Caceres and I used to be extenders, and that was when we would do proselyting online through skype and various other websites (some of which were created by missionaries in our mission!). As the leaders of the digital mission, we have the really unique opportunity to travel throughout the mission and meet with all the extenders. We help them with any issues they have in the digital mission and answer any questions they have. It's so much fun! By the end of this transfer, Sister Caceres and I will have traveled all over New England and to every zone in our mission. 

No one else in the world is doing what we do here in the digital mission. 

There are other missions that use facebook, or other social media, to post pictures/links that take people to lds.org and such... But in our mission, we get online and we FIND people to teach. We then teach them through skype, and then send the local missionaries in their area to teach them (if they want to continue learning about the church). We set baptismal dates, teach them all the same lessons, and often teach with members, EXACTLY as we do in a physical area. It's really remarkable and President Packard has done so much work in this little project! 

Elder Halling and Elder Vecchi have been serving in The Fishbowl for several months and they have seriously done some INCREDIBLE things here. They are two of the most brilliant and creative people I have ever met. Elder Gonzalez, Sister Caceres (my new companion), and I are all new to the fishbowl, but Elder Gonzalez is INSANELY smart and gifted, and Sister Caceres is a very talented missionary with so much passion. I am so excited to work with missionaries like them! 

In The Fishbowl, we do a lot of work on computers and trying to make things easier for the extenders. We don't actually spend all our time teaching or finding people online. A lot of what we do is brainstorming and thinking of new ideas that will further the work here in the digital mission. It's crazy to me to think that President Packard has trusted me with this calling, but even more sacred to think that God has trusted me with it. I know He's sent us all here for a very special purpose at this time and I KNOW we are changing the world by the work being done in the digital mission. We are the pioneers of something BIG and one day it will change missionary work forever. I am so excited to be a part of it! 

My new companion's name is Sister Caceres. She is from Chile and she goes home in just 5 weeks. She is charismatic, passionate, feisty and just all-around AMAZING! I love her so much and she has done so much work in the digital mission. She actually had the opportunity to teach the gospel to her family, who are not members, and her sister will be baptized on May 2! The digital mission is the coolest thing in the world! 

The other day, we were riding the subway home, and I looked around me and saw literally EVERY PERSON riding the train with their faces buried in their phones/iPads/laptops... I sat there and contemplated that technology is truly advancing so rapidly... And sometimes it's even a little scary, but I know that there is so much good in it too. I know God has prepared people to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ online. It's our job to find it and to use the incredible technology we have in the sacred way God would have us do - MISSIONARY WORK! 

I testify that God is hastening the work. It's such a life-changing experience to be a part of this mission. I love it here. I love the my new companion. I love working with some of the smartest missionaries here (and probably in the world). I love living in Cambridge. I love being a representative of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I will never, ever be the same. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! I hope you have a great week. Look for ways to use technology in a spiritual sense. 

Love, 

Hermana Webber