November 23, 2015

Well this week was a crazy week. We really had an up and down week. We
had SO many appointments set up, like 4 at least a day, but we had so
many people fall through. Almost all of them! We really tried to
figure out why this was happening, all of our investigators that were
progressing or that we were trying to extend baptismal dates to,
couldn't meet. And it was really frustrating, but we really started to
see why. Because all of these appointments fell through, it gave us a
lot of time to street contact and meet new people. And since this last
Wednesday we have found 15 new potential investigators, 10 new return
appointments, and so far 3 new progressing investigators and hopefully
that number keeps rising but yeah it's been good! Frustrating with all
the other investigators but it's showing progress in an area we didn't
expect haha and one of our investigators read half the Book of Mormon
in 2 days! He is totally soaking it i--it's awesome. His name in
J--.  Other than that there wasn't much. 

I'm excited for Thanksgiving, we are going to a
family's house and they are the freaking best. They are a lot of fun and 
really make us feel at home. I'm excited:)
It will be fun. Sorry that there wasn't a ton to write about,
hopefully lessons will start happening more with all the people we
have now in our teaching pool, so pray that we will be busy. Haha because
it needs to start happening! 

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving! You
will have to tell me how it goes! Once again I don't have any pictures--
sorry! I need to take more! And btw I'm staying in Portland, I don't
think I told you that last week. Sooo ya! I love you all. Remember to
think of things you're thankful for.

My spiritual thought is very simple. Well, it's just a tiny thing I
want you all to think of this week, and then I want your response next
week! First I want you to think of the sacrifices you have made/other
people have made for you, and then I want you to ask yourselves, why
is sacrifice essential? And how has it strengthened you?

I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all the prayers
and all the love I feel from all of you. I truly feel it. Have a good
week!

November 14, 2015

Hello family! So I'm writing today because our p-day changed to today for this week because there have been some complications with a temple trip to Boston. Long story. But yeah! Mom I got the package, and I'm all set now. I have everything so thank you!! And I ran into a lady on the street that teaches at Amherst and I told her to look for Lindsey, so Lindsey, there might be some lady that comes up to you soon haha I don't know if you know her, she taught at Harvard and has been at Amherst for like.......10 years or something? I don't remember. But yeah. 

Well this week was very interesting! We had p-day on Monday so nothing really happened that day and then I went on an exchange until Wednesday which was interesting. It was with Elder Lawrence and he's a new missionary too so we couldn't teach any lessons because our French obviously isn't good enough.  So we street contacted/tracted ALL day on Tuesday. We walked soooo far haha my legs got so tired, and we didn't really have any success but it was interesting to see how we worked as new missionaries! We have a lot to improve on, but we are getting there! After we finished our exchange I finally was able to go back to my area. 

This week we worked a lot with the recent converts because they are going to the temple today and we helped them with family history and getting names and everything. It's so cool to see how much it means to them to get their family member names, A- especially was SO excited to go to the temple! He said he has had some dreams about going and can't wait to see one in real life. 

Another thing that was really cool to see this past Sunday, that I don't think I mentioned in my last letter, was A- got the priesthood. I've been teaching A- for the entire transfer with Elder Johnson and he has shared some tear jerking stories but he still had never cried until this Sunday. Getting the priesthood meant the WORLD to him. He started crying right after and looked up to Elder Johnson and said "I finally have the priesthood, the legit priesthood." It was so cool. It made me realize how much of a privilege the priesthood is, and really made me appreciate it. 

We taught J- a lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ on Thursday too and her lessons always go so well.  She already knew it all basically and it was basically just an open discussion haha but I said the closing prayer and I said it in French! I really surprised myself, and Elder Johnson said it all made sense, too, so yeah! And J- was so stunned. She was so happy but REALLY stunned at first. It made me feel good that I was able to contribute to the lesson in some way, I'll keep practicing so I can contribute more but yeah I wanted to tell you guys that. It's been a good week! 

In April of 2007 (I think...) there is a talk called "Its true isn't it? Then what else matters?" By Neil L. Anderson, And it really made my week. It's easy to get lost in your thoughts with things, like being away from home, and discouragement when people don't listen to you, but this talk really helped me in a lot of ways. It starts out by talking about Gordon B Hinkley talking to a naval officer from Asia who was baptized while he was in training in the United States. President Hinkley asks him how he will be treated by family and everyone around him because he is now a Christian and he said with tears in his eyes something to the degree of "I'll have a lot of family problems and career problems when I come back." And President Hinkley asks, "Are you willing to sacrifice so much for this church?" And he responds "Well it's true isn't it?" And I'll let you read the rest but it's such a good story and such a good talk. I encourage you all to read it this week. I love you all! I hope you have a good week!! 

Elder Webb 

November 9, 2015

This week was a really good week. We didn't teach very many lessons, J-- got 2 jobs this week so he's been REALLY busy, but we are meeting with him tomorrow which is good! And D--, we couldn't get a hold of him. And we picked up a few more investigators, I don't remember if I talked about them last week but it's a family of Muslims....and they are really interested in what we have to say. It's pretty cool! It's a part of their culture that they have to feed us every time we are there so we are eating a lot of African food. Ugh it's tough but I'm getting used to the funkiness--haha African food is hard to explain but it's getting better and better. Haha and we picked up another African named P-- and he is the nicest guy ever! We taught him for the first time this week and he is really nice, I hope it continues to go well, we are meeting with him in a couple days! 

On Friday we went to a zone conference and Elder Nielsen from the Seventy was there and holy cow, it was incredible. We talked about a lot of things with the atonement, and the spirit was SO strong and it truly is amazing being in the presence of a general authority. And then right after the zone conference we had a baptism with a lady named J--! She's from the Congo, and the other Portland elders taught her but we all got really close with her and her kids. And it was a great ending to the day-- that was easily one of my favorite days I've had on my mission. Another crazy thing with that baptism is that right after she was baptized, the senior sisters here took her back to Utah with them! So they finished their mission on Friday and then yeah.....she's gone too! Haha--with refugees here in Portland it's packed, so she's been living in a shelter with her kids and idk it's just a lot of legal things that are easier to deal with in Utah, and it will be good for her to learn English and to be surrounded by more people in the gospel. It was hard to say goodbye but I'm happy for her! I hope that wasn't confusing. Hahah it's been a good week. This week will be good too, we have a lot of appointments set up and we will have a temple trip with all the recent converts and it will be amazing. 

My spiritual thought this week is on fellowship. Gordon B Hinkley in Preach my Gospel tells a story about a lady and telling him her story about becoming a new member: “My journey into the Church was unique and quite challenging. This past year has been the hardest year that I have ever lived in my life. It has also been the most rewarding. As a new member, I continue to be challenged every day.” She goes on to say that when she joined the Church she did not feel support from the leadership in her ward. Her bishop seemed indifferent to her as a new member. Rebuffed, as she felt, she turned back to her mission president, who opened opportunities for her. She states that “Church members don’t know what it is like to be a new member. … Therefore, it’s almost impossible for them to know how to support us.” I challenge you, my brothers and sisters, that if you do not know what it is like, you try to imagine what it is like. It can be terribly lonely. It can be disappointing. It can be frightening. We of this Church are far more different from the world than we are prone to think we are. This woman goes on: “When we as investigators become members of the Church, we are surprised to discover that we have entered into a completely foreign world, a world that has its own traditions, culture, and language. We discover that there is no one person or no one place of reference that we can turn to for guidance in our trip into this new world. At first the trip is exciting, our mistakes even amusing, then it becomes frustrating and eventually, the frustration turns into anger. And it’s at these stages of frustration and anger that we leave. We go back to the world from which we came, where we knew who we were, where we contributed, and where we could speak the language. 

I love this story and his input with it, because it is SO important to include new members or new people to the ward, because everyone needs a friend and everyone needs to feel loved. It's the easiest 20 seconds of your life to go up to someone new and just say "hi it's good to have you today!" Being out here and seeing recent converts explaining how important it has been for them to feel loved has been great. And I hope that if someone new moves into the ward you will go up to them and say hi. It goes a long way. And it truly is missionary work, because a simple hello can keep them in the church, because it makes them feel accepted. 

 I hope you all have a good week! The book is blue and the church is true! 

Here are some pictures of me and Elder Nielsen, and some elders from Lone Peak as well. And yes, that's Robby Ferrell, Mom and Dad haha it was cool seeing them! Maybe comps one day! That would be cool! And picture from the baptism, and of J's 2 little boys. I speak with them in French, they are like 2 and 4 and their French is way better than mine will ever be hahaha I got pretty close with the 2 boys we had a lot of fun. 

November 2, 2015

Well this week was a good week!! And Happy Halloween! 

We had a really good week this week, it was a lot of fun having success with people. A
lot of our time is taken up by the recent converts, because they need
the recent convert lessons so we taught a lot of those this week to
Jeanne and Anaclet. They are so awesome--haha teaching them is so fun
because they just love hearing about the gospel and they already have
such strong testimonies and, they are like my children I swear.
Especially Anaclet. He's like 50 but he's still like my child. So that
always is a mood booster when we get to teach them--but other people we
are teaching.....well we are teaching a guy from Idaho.
He has been taking the discussions for about 4 years and is a
really honest person and that's why he hasn't been baptized because he
really wants to be 100% ready and he is so close. He was addicted to
pain pills after a knee surgery and it took over his life for a while
and that's why he's out here in Maine because his wife divorced him
(she's a member) and told him to change his life and turn fully to the
gospel because that's what will help him. So he really has had a
desire to learn more and like I said he's really honest so he is
REALLY asking a lot of questions and learning as much as he can so he
can truly gain a testimony of the gospel. His wife said if/when he
turns his life around they can get married in the temple and live
together again, so if he keeps going in the direction he's going then
his life will be great again but as of right now it's pretty sad. It's
it's fun to see the gospel change his life and boost his mood. 

We met an African family the other day and they are from the Congo. They
we're so nice and really enjoyed meeting with us, and of course they
fed us an African lunch and it was really good until they brought out
this green stuff called sombe (sombey) and it is really nasty but I
was able to fight through it and eat it. I'll eat anything if they
join the church. We are teaching a less active guy and he has
had a rough past with drugs and stuff but he's in Maine for some
program. He called us to meet with him because he wants to come
back to church. He's really busy so we don't meet with him a lot, but
hopefully we can meet with him more because he's a really good guy.
There are a lot of people with potential but yeah you all know how
that goes......patience is key. 

On Halloween we have "deep clean Halloween" and we have to be in our apartments 
by 5 and we just clean. Definitely not the funnest, and Mom, you know how much 
I love cleaning, but it wasn't too bad. Yesterday we were walking to Anaclet's apartment
and some guy stopped me and said "Hey I want to come to your church
and become a member, I've heard a lot of good things about your
church!"........that never happens. So he's going to call us today or
tomorrow and I'm excited for that haha really cool experience! This
week went by so fast, and it was a great week. 

One thing this week that I noticed was how grateful I am for is the power of the Spirit.
During a lesson I didn't know what to say to Anaclet, I got really
nervous because the lesson was going so good and the Spirit was so
strong and I didn't want to take away from it, but the Spirit seriously
put words in my mouth and I talked for a few minutes and it really
went well. The Spirit truly has our backs and helps us. It's so cool
to see how the Spirit works on people, it's obviously the true teacher
but it was really cool to see how it works sometimes and truly in
unique ways. 

Thanks for everything, I love you all. And I'm glad to
hear you all had a good week! Chase Murphy around for me, I bet he
doesn't miss me trying to scare him all the time but do it anyways.
Btw, Mom and Dad, you would love to move out to Maine, especially on
that island. It is insanely beautiful. Sorry I didn't take any
pictures either, I'll make sure I take more this week! Love you all!

Elder Webb

Cam would love to hear from you!  Copy and paste the email address that's to the right if you would like to send him a message! :)