Thursday, April 27, 2017

April 24, 2017

Hey!

Yes I got the package. Thank you! All of the candy is gone already, I
ate it pretty quick.  Also, I talked with president and my release date is August 28th.
Lol-- I'll be in class the next morning. 

Well this week was good. We got a surprise text from A-- at the
beginning saying he went back to Michigan for a week or two because he
needed to get his move started with coming full time here to Vermont
so we weren't able to meet with him but he still is doing really well
and went to church in Michigan and is still reading and praying so
he's doing good!

We met with T-- again and she read into 2 Nephi a little so she's
definitely making her way! She really is so solid. It's awesome haha
but as we followed up with her on her reading, she then pulled out her
bible and said she read the first 11 chapters in Genesis........let's
just say she had a lot of questions--hahaha--her first one was "why
would Noah get drunk and pass out naked and then his grandson tries to
cover him up and Noah curses him?"............yayyyyyy Old Testament.
We told her we would read the Bible with her after the Book of Mormon
but that she should just focus on the Book of Mormon for now. 
But yeah, she's doing well! 

We had our MLC meeting in Manchester and I stayed at my old apartment
with Elder Holt and it was really funny being around him and
reminiscing on the almost 5 months we were together. He goes home in
just a few weeks so it was fun for probably the last time. There is
some craziness coming to our mission here pretty soon so it will be
interesting to see what happens.

We had a lot of time to find and it's been fun because we have used a
new approach with people. We are going around asking for a 5-10 second
video about why they are grateful for their mothers and how we are
planning on compiling all of them and putting them on the internet
connected with a hashtag so that they can go back and watch it. I
think the hashtag will be #thanksmom and then just relating it back to
families and it's worked really well with people! We picked up a few
new people from it and we are going to keep doing that until Mother's
Day. We'll see what happens with it but now it's pretty much happening
all over the mission, so there should be a lot of videos coming in!
Makes for an exciting day.  

Love you! Have a good week!

Thursday, April 20, 2017

April 17, 2017

April 17, 2017


Sounds like a good week! And good to hear about Grandma. 

This week was definitely a good one. My companion was sick for a
little bit of it but besides that it was good. Our new investigator
A-- had us over again for lunch and we set a baptismal date with him
for May 13th and he's really excited. It is really cool because a day
or two after we teach him he calls us and reviews it with us again and
tells us additional things he learned from pondering the lesson we
had. It's always a good thing when investigators remember what we
taught hahaha especially when they ponder it. He's a champ--definitely
one of my favorites that I've taught on my mission.

We went on a mini mission with the Bishop’s son and another priest in
the ward so it was crazy having 4 people going around contacting and
teaching people but it was really fun haha they are cool kids, and
what made it really cool was we went to go contact a guy named B--
and so we knocked on his door and he answered it and was like, "Elders!
come in, come in! I just cooked you eggs! Please come sit down!!" And
so I was like, "Well, it sounds like you know the missionaries pretty
well then!" And he responds "We don't just know you guys, we LOVE you
guys! Our house is your house!" Hahaha it was so funny but he was a
really cool guy even though the first part makes him sound crazy. They
let us sit down and we taught them and also got to show them the new
Easter video and it was really cool! We scheduled a barbecue with him
in May.....Don't ask how our conversation led to that but somehow it
got to BBQ and it's going to happen so I can't complain! So the
priests were able to get a cool taste of the craziness of missionary
life but also picking up someone new to teach. Fun times.

Easter was a pretty good day too, we had dinner at our Bishop's house.
Our Bishop and his family are like my favorite ever--they are so cool
and so solid. They prepared a little Easter egg hunt for us before
dinner and it was comedy, I totally felt 7 years old again running
around with my bag filled with eggs--it was amazing. What made it extra
good too was a video I watched on Mormon.org, it is the "Compassion"
video from the new Easter initiative. It shed light on me about
Christ's Atonement that I don't think of enough which is to turn
outwardly when we experience trials and how much it can help. When
Christ's Atonement is used properly it truly brings a change of mind,
not necessarily a change of situation. Even though people sometimes
expect the situation to change, if we open our hearts we can see as
Christ sees and bless other people as well as receive blessings
ourselves.

Love you guys! Have a good week!!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

April 10, 2017

Hey everybody!

This week was crazy. We did a lot of planning for this Easter event
Elder Braley and I put on this last weekend. It was a tour of the life
of Christ. The event was on Friday and it went really well.  We had the
different rooms set up for each phase of his life, and people went
through them chronologically starting with Christ’s birth, to his
ministry, to his death, and then to his resurrection. There were
roughly 80 people that came. It was really cool because yesterday in
sacrament meeting a lot of people got up and bore their testimonies on
the life of Christ and tied it into missionary work. And one high
councilman in our ward came up to us and said he felt like he had a
prompting to come out and work with us more. So we did right after,
and visited prospective elders and less actives.  We visited this
family and it was a really spiritual experience. We are now meeting
with them weekly! He wants to come out with us as often as he can now.


It's funny because after the event we felt like it went only ok,
because a lot of the less actives we invited and committed to come as
well as investigators,  didn't end up coming. But to hear the members
say how it impacted them helped us see that this non denominational
event wasn't only for non members and our less actives, but helped
strengthen the members in ways we definitely didn't expect! It really
was a lot of fun though, and really a cool experience to study the
life of Christ in depth at this Easter season.

We met with T-- a couple times this week and she's doing just great. A
cool thing happened on Sunday.  So she signed up to feed us which is so
cool because her boyfriend will be there so hopefully we can talk with
him and soften his heart a little towards us. He doesn't hate us--he
just isn't a fan of religion, so maybe we can just start by being his
friend!

We had another really cool experience yesterday at church, too. A
member here has been telling us for about a month that one of his
young friends was going to come and we could teach him, and he finally
showed up yesterday and we talked with him and he is so prepared to
hear the gospel. No joke--he is probably the most prepared person I've
met on my mission. We sat with him during sacrament meeting and he
nudged me to go bear my testimony kind of joking with me. So I went
up, and afterwards he leaned to me and said "Well, I dug myself in a
hole because now it's my turn to go up isn't it." I said "Well yeah!"
and he got up and bore his testimony and it was so amazing. He talked
about how he has learned just a little about the church but yet he
knows it's true without a doubt because of how we as LDS members act.
He said it's so Christlike that people would have to be blind to
not see it. He then went up to the Bishop after the meeting and
thanked him for carrying on such a difficult calling and said he
really appreciated him. He then introduced himself and said he is
planning on getting baptized within the next month or two. So, usually
in a story like this, there is a hicup with the person, maybe like a
mental setback or something fishy but no he is literally that
prepared!! Haha his name is A--. He is cooking dinner for us
tomorrow and having a lesson as well, and we are planning on setting a
baptismal date with him. He met with the missionaries for a couple
weeks in Michigan so he knows a little, but now he has moved out here.
It was such a refreshing miracle that we were just blessed to be a
part of.  I'm sure there will be quite a bit to update on next week
with him!

Love you guys!

Elder Webb

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

April 3, 2017

Hey, Fam!

Wow--weird to think Jessica is home, send a picture--I want to see! 

This week was a really good week. General Conference was amazing.
Before my mission I was never much of a fan of General Conference--I
did all that I could to avoid watching it haha, but I just never gave
it a real chance. Now it's like my favorite thing. It's like a
missionary's Super Bowl--haha! We had one of our investigators named
B-- (he's new) come to Conference and he was there during the 2nd
session on Saturday and so he was there for all the sustaining votes
and everything. Definitely had to clarify a few things for him. And
when President Uchtdorf would ask if there were any opposed I would
fake cough really loud so he didn't hear the people yell "opposed!" It
was probably annoying and he probably thought I had a serious problem
with my throat but it was worth it.

We met with T-- a few times this week and she's moving on through the
Book of Mormon! She's doing really well. She didn't come to General
Conference for some reason though, we need to ask her what happened
but it's ok she could rewatch it. E-- is preparing to teach us the
discussions, now that we gave him a Preach My Gospel, and he's really
excited, He is going home teaching with the patriarch in our ward
so he's doing really well too.

We had quite a bit of time to find this week, too, and in Barre it's
always an adventure haha--the people here are so interesting and funny.
But we were able to find 2 really awesome people, and the one that's
the coolest is named A--. He's from Belize and is really looking for a
solid church community, and he loves families. We are meeting with him
this week so hopefully there will be more to update.

Life is good here in Vermont! Today was pretty warm so definitely
praying it will stay. Love you guys!!