January 16, 2017

Hello

First off, glad everything is going well with the move! That's crazy
that President Monson set apart Grandpa Webb as a missionary. 
I had no idea! Thanks for telling me that story, that's pretty cool. It will
be weird coming home to a different house but I can't complain too much 
because I'm very familiar with the one we're moving into haha.

Well this week was a crazy week. Elder Holt and I had a really good
feeling about it from the very beginning and were pretty excited and
it turned out to be really good. We were able to find quite a few new
investigators to teach and it was a lot of fun. One guy we found is
named E-- he's from Russia, and he definitely has a
thick accent haha but his English is good and understands us clearly.
He's awesome. We were really surprised to hear how he was pretty
religious back in Russia and even has a daughter. He said the part he
grew up in isn't very religious or even believes in God, so we
definitely were happy to know he had a basic knowledge. We gave him a
church tour and he even came to church. He really enjoyed it and is
excited to continue to learn.

We found this other lady named J-- and she was probably my favorite
this week hah--they are all great, but she was extra cool. She was a
potential investigator and we went over and she was playing with her 3
German Shepherds in the back yard......so we only went to the fence
lol (they were protective) but she was cool with chatting to us. We
talked with her about the plan of salvation a little bit and it then
somehow transitioned into the Book of Mormon. She then went on to tell
us how she has been wanting to read it for a while and now and she was
so grateful. She then told us why she was so grateful and that was
because she found out the other day she has a brain tumor, so she has
definitely been reaching out to God a lot and needs him in her life
more. So then I said, "Hey my mom has a brain tumor! And has
definitely relied on God and the plan of salvation a lot as she has dealt
with the problems of it all".  She was stunned, but it clearly
brought her lots of comfort. It was cool, she's a really nice lady.

So what kind of put a damper on the week was that I found out I'm getting
transferred to Montpelier, Vermont. I'm really excited! But I'm just
not a big fan of a ton of change (even though as a missionary it
happens so often haha). Bedford has been a super good experience for me
in a lot of ways. Being in a place where families are really torn, and
drugs are so common, and where the lifestyles are just so different,
it really opened my eyes even more to how blessed I am to have things
like a family that's close, a safe place to live, food, and especially
the gospel. There are a lot of people though, that have great attitudes
about everything and are just happy to be alive. I need that more for
sure--haha. I've loved going around the streets of Bedford and
Manchester and talking to people it's been so fun haha I'll definitely
miss it, but I'm excited to see what blessings come in Montpelier
Vermont. By the way, the Joseph Smith Memorial is in my new zone so I'm 
really excited about that.

Love you guys!  I'll send my new address next week. And I'll have some
pictures hopefully lol. This is a picture of P-- the 9 year old we
are teaching. When I told her I was leaving she was so sad. It made me
pretty sad, she wouldn't even take a picture with me hahaha--I told her
I would do all that I could to go to her baptism in a month. We'll
see! She's great.

January 9, 2017

Well this week was a good week. We saw some really cool things happen.
It seemed like it was a pretty slow week because a lot of our
investigators were MIA but there were some really good things that
happened. So Elder Holt and I have made it a focus to really hit part-
member families as well as prospective Elders and we found one earlier
in the week and he invited us over for dinner. His name is G--.
 He was wayyy cool. We talked with him about the first vision
and how he gained a testimony of it, and he shared this way cool story
of how he visited the sacred grove and got his answer in the same
place Joseph Smith did. What made it even cooler is that he married a
non-member and she was able to hear him bear testimony and she was
clearly touched. We set up a return appointment with them for this
Wednesday. They want us to come over weekly for dinner, we are really
excited. 

So, on Sunday, we were just sitting down and looked over and
there was G-- walking over to sit by us haha and he sat down and we
chatted for a second. Somehow we got to goals and by the end of the
meeting he said he set a goal for himself to not miss a single week of
church! We told him we will help him out with that and he said "good,
please do." Haha it was really cool.

We met with P-- a few times this week and she's doing great. We
started chatting with her about baptism and why we are baptized and
her answer made me realize how simple the gospel is-ha-kids tend to do
that. All she said was, "We are baptized because it makes us happy
because then we have the Holy Ghost to help us get back to Heavenly
Father"--pretty simple! And completely true! Haha she is a smart kid,
she's just shy sometimes but she definitely knows more than I did at
9.

We were street contacting with our snow shovels during a storm the
other day and ran into this lady and we asked her if we could shovel
her driveway. She said if we were Mormon missionaries we could. So
I started chatting with her while Elder Holt started shoveling and I
came to find out she met with sisters 10+ years ago, and she still keeps
in touch with them. She has even been out to Utah to go to General
Conference! I was completely dumbfounded and asked if we could come
back and she hesitated a little but said yes. After that she then said
"I'll bring my son" and I'm thinking "heck, yeah--the more the merrier!" And
she then said "because I know you need to have a male in the house
over 18" I then was like, what the who are you hahaha she is so
awesome. We are going back this next week.

Love you fam! Have a good week and stay warm!

January 2, 2016

Well this week was a good week, we started with an exchange and I left

to go to Canterbury for it. It had been at least 6 months since I have
done that it was really weird to be in a different area and proselyte.
I loved it, though-it was a fun day. During the exchange Elder Holt and
Elder Ferrell found a couple new investigators so we went to see them
the next day and we found out the only reason why they invited us back
was because they wanted us to meet their mom. It turned out that their
mom was a very dedicated baptist who was determined to convert us. It
went fine, Elder Holt and I didn't say much because she was in our
face for most of it but it just adds to the stories of the mission
haha walking away from situations like that is always really sad,
though--seeing people that are so faithful and have a lot of potential
and they don't fulfill it. Right after that happened we were able to
find 2 new investigators though so it still was a good day and our
moods were switched pretty fast. They are really cool. K- really

wants to turn his life around, and there's no better place to turn than to 

the gospel, obviously, so hopefully it works out.

I loved the holidays and everything about them but I am really happy
we were able to have a full week to proselyte haha it has been a
while, whether it was the booth that we did or Bass Pro Shops gift
wrapping, Christmas events put on by the missionaries in the zone,
etc. We didn't have any of that this week and it was awesome. The
weather made it a crazy week too.  It snowed about 11 or 12 inches on
Thursday just from about noon to 9 pm so it was a lot of shoveling. We
actually walked the streets for a couple hours and shoveled the
neighbors and our investigators and anyone that needed it.

People definitely wanted help-it was a really fun time.

We met with P-- and her family this week too and they are doing
well. They are a really great family, but we think we will have to
postpone P--'s baptism a little just to make sure she and her family
will stay strong. It won't be a very long wait, but we are leaving
commitments with the family and hopefully we will see them all grow
from it.

Love you all