February 22, 2016

Hello everyone! 

Well this week was a good week. We met with a ton of members to continue the mission vision and it was really good, the members here are so willing to help and it's a good thing because we need them! Haha and I found out one of the ladies in the branch here graduated from Lone Peak so that was kind of funny! And this other lady came up to me and said that she lives right next to Rhonda Bromley (the Principal at Lone Peak) and that they are great friends, and then there is that guy I told you about last week that played golf at BYU Hawaii last year with Zane and how they are like best buds so there have been some weird connections here! But it's really cool! 

So I'll give a little background on our investigators:

B-- super nice guy, works Everyday for some construction company, and has been meeting with the missionaries for a few months and hasn't progressed a ton. His work schedule gets in the way a lot so it's hard to meet with him, so we are trying to kindle some faith in him. We met with him yesterday and talked to him about Alma 32 and it went really well. We challenged him to read the whole chapter, to pray about it and to come to church and to just give it a try. 

P-- is an older guy, probably like 70 but has been very interested in what we believe, he's really good at keeping his commitments and the thing is that he is a very active Catholic. So there are some barriers with that but we had a really good lesson with him about the restoration and about the apostasy especially. He just had surgery so we haven't met with him since Tuesday but he's sincere which is really good!

E-- The lady that grew up Atheist her whole life. Not much to update her on because she's been busy this week but she came to church! Which was a surprise to all of us because she said she didn't think she could make it but she did! And we are meeting with her this week!

We picked up a new investigator this week named G-- just the other day and he had been taught in the past but his wife and daughter were pretty anti, so it held him back a little bit. But we stopped by on Saturday and he let us in and told us that him and his wife had separated and his kid went with the wife, which is really sad and he was really emotional from it, but now he has an opportunity to accept the gospel.  He pretty much forgot the happiness he felt from the gospel when he was being taught before. And we talked a lot about our Heavenly Father and how he gives the strongest soldiers the hardest battles because they can handle it.  By the end of the lesson he committed to a baptismal date in the end of March! He was very excited. And obviously so are we! It was cool! We are meeting with him in a few days and will continue to teach him the lessons again to prepare him for it! He couldn't come to church this week because he had to take care of his sister that lives with him who has a big health problem, but he organized people to come over on Sunday's from now on so he can come to church! 

It was a really warm week this week too! It was like 35 degrees all week! The week before it hit 40 below with wind chill so it was a hugeeee difference and felt amazing to be in some warmth! Well I hope you all have a good week, and will pray for missionary experiences like we have committed all the members out here to do! Because they are truly everywhere, you just have to look and pray and then act! I love you all! 

Oh and my new address is PO Box 15 Wolfeboro Falls,  New Hampshire, 03896

Elder Webb

February 17, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day yesterday! I love you all, too!

Yes, I really do like the new area! It's such different work, as in
we are driving like all the time ha but I enjoy it! And this place is
absolutely beautiful! I can see why Mitt Romney and the Marriotts like
to live here!

Well this week has been very interesting. But we were able to get a
ton done! So there are a few investigators the elders before have been
working with, but there has been absolutely zero progression with any
of them ha they all have a long ways to go but there is potential in
them. We met with one named Elizabeth and she grew up atheist and
knows NOTHING about religion and so she's been looking into church
lately just to see if she can gain something from it and she is very
nice. But she has a long ways to go. And that's perfectly fine! Don't
we all? We have a lot of hopes for her. 

One thing I instantly fell
in love with when I got here was the members. So as I've said before,
we are tying to meet with a lot of the members and to teach them the
lessons and to have them bring a non-member friend over to be taught
by us, so we set a date for them to invite someone by and it's really
gone well. The members care about the missionaries so much here and
it's been so cool to see how motivated they are to help us out! Or I
guess to do their part as well;) because every member is a missionary
too! But anyways, they have all treated me very well for the first
week and I've felt right at home.

The branch president asked my companion and I to give talks yesterday
in church so we could talk a little bit more about our mission vision,
and then I talked about obedience as well. All I do is talk to people
every day and I swear I still will never be comfortable giving a talk. I
think it went ok, but it's funny how that hasn't changed at all
hahahaha.  I just get so nervous and I have no idea why! But it was
still fun. And a few of the members here know people from Alpine which
is really funny haha and oh also something pretty crazy is one of the
members found out I played golf because HE played at BYU Hawaii with
Zane this last year! And he's good friends with Berkeley Stulce's
brother too so yeah that was a really funny connection! He said if I'm
here for a little while he will take me golfing at a course around
here on P day so I'm excited for that:) hopefully that day will come!
Hopefully I'll be here for a while! But yeah I've enjoyed it a lot
here so far.

One thing that really caught my attention this week was how strong the
church is everywhere and NOT just in Utah as some of us think (which
included me, kind of) but even though there aren't as many members out
here as other areas or even states, the members never slow down. They
are always trying to increase the membership almost like they are
trying to catch up to Utah haha--they work so hard! It's such a
testimony to me about how all members should be, and how grateful I am
to have grown up around members like that. Not just in my home ward,
but my family, friends, other members in my friends' wards, etc. they
are everywhere! And we should always stay that way as members. We are
all missionaries! So be one! And I want to challenge you all to pray
for those missionary opportunities in the future and to prepare for
them. And if you need a little more motivation then go read Enos 1:15
(the last half of it) and D&C 6: 22-23. I love you all! I hope you
will take this seriously and do it!

Also my companion is named Elder Bundy (the first thing I asked him
was if he was related to Ted Bundy and he said he doesn't know lol)
He's a good elder and we have fun. It's always new adjusting to a new
companion but I think it will go very well! I'll send some pics. A
member took us out to pizza so that's where we are in the pic I love you all!
 I hope everything is going well! And mom, I'll let you know with updates 
on my rib thing:) love you!!

Elder Webb

February 8, 2016

Well, this week was a crazy week. It started out with a lesson we had with a Methodist pastor.  I think I explained a little about him last week but we met with him this Wednesday and oh man he is awesome. I think I mentioned how he met with missionaries about a year ago and almost was baptized and even committed to quit his pastor job. He explained this week that he has found that the Methodist church isn't the true church, and he's known it for quite a while but it has just become how he has paid the bills so he hasn't quit. He was a little hesitant to jump in to our church and lose his work. He said h'es been so lost since and was so happy to see us again. It was a lesson where we pretty much just got to know him and his situation and, yeah, he's really cool! The crazier part was that he came to church yesterday and that is the first time he has ever come to church even when he was investigating very seriously for a few months last year. He was fellow-shipped very well by a lot of the ward and it was really cool. And he said he was coming next week too--he seems very serious about it! 

Earlier that day we were looking for some less-active members and we knocked on their door and they weren't home, so we decided to box out which is just going to the few houses around it and trying them too.  So, we finished that and Elder Hales stopped me and said "Hey we need to go knock on that door" and just randomly went for it and I was like, "kayyyy its pouring rain and we already boxed out and we have to go to the other houses we planned for." Well, that's what I was thinking. So we go and this middle aged guy answers the door and we tell him who we are and that we were here to share a message about Christ, and he hesitated but he was like "yeah sure come on in" and we had a good chat with him and he was telling us how he has never let missionaries in before but just had a feeling he needed to. He explained how he has been very religiously lost his whole life and his wife takes care of little kids with terminal illnesses so she has a hard life as well because of how often she sees these kids die and he was really excited to talk to us more and for us to present the plan of salvation to him and his wife. He committed to come to church, too! He didn't make it this week but he said he would come this next week.  

And we have a new investigator, too, named J and he/s from Angola and he is very cool. He really has a desire to know too and we taught him the restoration. With Africans, talking about baptism is touchy because they pretty much ALL believe that you can't be baptized twice, so he asked about that and we talked about how you could and how it's that proper authority that is what matters and he said "well hey if God tells me that i need to be baptized again then who am I to say no? I can't go against god and this sounds pretty good, but yeah I'll pray about it."  And he's been to church the past 2 weeks now so he's doing great as well! 

Well, the sad part about all of this is that we got transfer calls this week and I'm leaving to New Hampshire. I have had the funnest time serving here in Portland, Maine--it is incredible! And the people I've been serving around have blessed my life so much. I'm excited to go to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire! its actually where the Romneys live and I heard they feed the missionaries sometimes so it would be pretty cool to have that happen! I leave tomorrow and I'll give you my new address next week, so don't send any packaged or letters yet just in case! 

Africans will always hold a special place in my heart. They are the most humble and happy people I have ever met and they have every right to not be happy, that's for sure. Some of the things they have been through is unbelievable. Well, life moves on and I'm excited to see the other parts of the mission! 

i love you all, and thanks for everything you do. It means so much to me. Have a good week! i love you!

                                     Showing a picture of Brinley! :)

Feb. 1, 2016

This week was an interesting week. We had some really cool things happen! We have been praying a lot to find people that are prepared to hear the gospel and to get in contact with certain people and....it happened! We have been looking for this lady, O--, for a while. She's from Burundi and is just the sweetest lady ever and we met with her once and we haven't been able to see her since, so we tried to just stop by her apartment building and see if someone would be there to open the door so we could go up to her door and knock. We walked in to the building door, and it has a room where you need a key to get into the next door, and right when we walked in she all of a sudden was walking out. And we set up an appointment for the next day! And then right after that, we walked over to another guy's apartment building with pretty much the same problem, and right when we walk up to the door he's walking out! And we met with him the next day and the lesson went super well! 

The next day we went and visited less-actives and potential investigators and we weren't finding much success with any of themt but we get to one of the last people on our list and we ring the doorbell and he was so excited to see us! He was an investigator a year ago and he is a pastor for a Methodist church and is way cool. But what made it cool was he said, all surprised: "So I have no idea how you knew to come here but just earlier today I was thinking about you Elders and wondering if you were ever going to come back!" And we were like "kayyyyyyyyyyy".  But yeah we are meeting with him tonight! And when we were setting up the appointment he had our number memorized and said he'd call us. It was interesting! And very cool to see. 

We met with J-- again this week and once again he's slowly progressing, he is very smart but is still struggling with the Word of Wisdom. But he is trying! It was a good week. And very fun! That's about all I have but it was a great week! And it's been so warm this week, too, which was a huge blessing! Also, thanks for the package I loved it!! Thanks for all the prayers, I really appreciate them. And they are a blessing my life. So keep it up! Hahaha--they help a lot!

I love you all! Have a good week! 

January 25, 2016

Hey fam! 

Thanks for the package! I'm excited to get it. And yes there is a ton of snow here! Probably like 8 inches, and everyone says it's been a very mild winter so far--but I heard February gets crazy with snow sooooo I'll be excited for the spring. It gets insanely cold because of the humidity. It pierces through all layers no matter what. But Elder Hales and I have competitions to see who slips the most throughout the day on the ice. I'll be honest he usually loses. It's way funny. 

This week was once again not filled with a lot of investigator teaching but there was quite a bit of member lessons this week! It was good. But disappointing that we haven't had a lot of success with investigators lately. J-- though is doing great. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ this week to him and he understands it perfectly, it's kind of scary how good he accepts everything but hey I'm not complaining! He's very fun to teach. He speaks decent English too. I love talking with him. We met with Sister Y-- again this week and she's doing great too! She said she's been praying for an answer to who she needs to invite over to be taught by us. She has social anxiety pretty bad so it was surprising to us, but it made us really happy! Also she came to church this week too! 

We are still living with the other elders so we are still having trouble with getting everything figured out with the apartment! We don't know if we are moving in for sure or if it's just temporary. They still have to spray a couple more times but we are tired of waiting to get the answer if it's permanent! Haha it's ok though, we have a lot of fun living as a foursome. The other elders are very similar to me, so we get along well. It's been fun! I'm sorry this week's email was so short, I'll do better next week! Hopefully I'll have more to write about! I went on exchange in a city called Saco and we were right by the beach so we pulled over to take some pictures so I hope you enjoy them! It's very pretty! Snowy beach too. Kinda weird. it is SO cold. Hope you have a good week! 

January 19, 2016

Hi! Bed bugs got sprayed this week, but we are still living with
the other elders. They still will need to spray another time or two so
we are still out of it but yeah! It's been interesting haha 

This week was very very interesting, not a ton happened. But we had a
lesson with J-- FINALLY and it went SO well. We taught the last
half of the plan of salvation and he explained to us after that it was
really new to him, but he said that it makes perfect sense so he didn't
have any problems with understanding it! It was so awesome. He also
read all of First Nephi in between visits and it is honestly
unreal how well he understands it. He understands it on a member level,
I'm serious, and understands it in a spiritual way as well that is
incredible. It was a very fun lesson. He was sick and couldn't come to
church though, but that's ok.

We met with sister Y-- as well, and it started off very interesting.
She was very closed off and really seemed like she didn't want us
there. It was totally opposite of last time! But we taught her the
plan of salvation, and she said the reason why she was baptized 10
years ago was because of the plan of salvation because when she was a
newlywed she lost her husband in a car accident, so it meant a lot to
her knowing that she will be able to see him again. The lesson went
well, she opened up by he end of the lesson and was back to her old
self. She has some social anxiety, that's why I think she was so
closed off at the beginning but it did go well. We met with J-- as well 
and talked with him about missionary work and that was
good too. We have had to make some tough decisions this week with
investigators. We had to drop a few because there was no progression.
I tell you what, that's NO fun, but it was necessary.

We just had district P day and a sister that has served around me in
Portland this whole time is ending her mission, so we took a weird
picture to make her the center of it. That's how I roll, always
awkward and weird but hey I rep it. We have a fun district. Also, the
one on the very right is my companion. Elder Hales:)

I love you all! Keep up the good work and remember to read the Book of Mormon!

January 11, 2016

Hi!

Well. This was one of the craziest weeks yet haha we found bed bugs in
our apartment. Yeah bed bugs. That saying as a kid "sleep tight don't
let the bed bugs bite" is SOOO real. We thought we only had a couple
but then we found out it was like an infestation and now we are living
with the other Portland elders and we have done like 30 dollars worth
of laundry and have been moving all our stuff over. I'm not sure if it
will be a permanent move yet but yeah it's been crazy haha and not fun
at all. So, Mom, if you could put some more money on my debit card I'd
really appreciate it <3<3 because I'm not sure what I will need. It
might be just in case, so I'll let you know what happens but yeah if
you could that would be awesome. Also, for anyone trying to send me
something send it to the new apartment for now. It's 106 Cumberland
avenue Portland Maine!

We didn't do a lot of teaching this week. But the few lessons we had
went really well. Since 2016 started we have a new mission vision for
this year and it's involving members more in our work. It's the center
of our focus actually. So we set up appointments with members to teach
them the lessons so they can get confidence in us as missionaries and
themselves, as well, so that they can invite their friends over to be
taught. We commit the members to set a specific date for when they can
invite a friend over by, and they work towards that date to find
someone. We are teaching a less active right now and she is so
awesome. Her name is Sister Y-- and she is the first one that we have
started this new vision with. And it's a win-win. Because she's less
active, so hopefully us teaching her the lessons, and reminding her
why she gained a testimony in the first place will help her come back
to activity. But also she is willing to participate in our new goal as
missionaries and we are meeting with her tomorrow to teach the second
lesson which is the plan of salvation. We are really excited! 

We did a lot of lighting visits this week to members (like a 10 minute stop by
and say hi and share a short message) and we tried to get with our
investigators, too, but man it just seemed like they all fell off the
face of the earth. We have really struggled to get a hold of them but
one of our weekly goals this week was to have 3 investigators come to
church and somehow 3 of them came haha it was a miracle! F--,
P-- (he's been an investigator forever, but he's been sick and
really busy lately), and J-- who we haven't been able to see for
like 3 weeks now! It was so awesome. We've been praying really hard
for our investigators, because in all honesty none of them are really
progressing. But it was so awesome to see them come to church and
all 3 said they loved it so we still are keeping our heads up. It was
a crazy week. I hateeee bed bugs. So glad Utah doesn't have bed bugs.

My itty bitty message is very short but it was a very cool experience
for me this week. I was driving with Elder Hales and I just had a
random moment where I was like "Wow-- I'm in Maine" and I thought a
lot about what I've experienced so far and what I've gained and the
first thing I thought about was that I've never felt so close to the
Savior in my life. Being able to read the scriptures every day and
representing Him everyday and teaching about Him everyday--it's pretty
easy to feel so close to Him. But I really evaluated my relationship
with Him and I'm glad I did because it really made me appreciate and
recognize the Savior more in my life. So evaluate your relationship
with the Savior. If it's not very good, improve it! And if you think
it's great, improve it! You can always be closer. So do it! I love you
all! Have a good week!

Elder Webb