Tuesday, August 20, 2013

LET US ALL PRESS ON

The work marches forward with Elders Webb and Hunsaker, who report particular progress among two investigators.

The missionary effort, however, apparently is not limited to salvation, redemption and other “-tions” we all seek. Eli tells of a young maiden named Annie, age 5, a daughter in a member family who has him in her sights. From Eli’s letter today:

When we were first getting to know the family, we were over at their house for supper for maybe the second or third time (they feed us quite often). I was sitting next to Annie (at her request), and we had an interesting conversation. Annie started with: 
“Elder Webb?” 
“Yes, Annie?” 
“Did you know that I tell people I have a crush on you?” 
 “No, I didn’t know that! Who did you tell?” 
 “Well, I actually didn’t tell anyone.” 
 “Oh, so you just lied to me?” 
 “No I wasn’t lying — I really do have a crush on you!” 
 “Well, thank you, Annie!” 
 “Elder Webb?” 
 “Yes, Annie?” 
 “Did you know that when you have a crush on someone it means you love them?” 
 She invited me to her birthday party today, so I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious between us.

This week has been great. Super busy. We are teaching a lot, prepping Stephen and Godwin for baptism. Got the news this week that Godwin’s entire family wants to be baptized! They aren’t even in our mission! His two sons are attending university in Calgary, and his wife and two daughters are living in Brooks, which is about two hours from Calgary. So awesome. The church is true. They all want to be baptized together, so we’re trying to figure that out. Stephen is looking forward to his baptism on September 8th, and we are teaching him from Skype at least twice a week.

The work is great. Keep praying, keep reading, and keep writing!

Keep the faith,
Elder Webb

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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

2-for-1

Behold the two weeks’ worth of updates from the great, white northerner:
Tue., Aug. 6, 2013 
Hello everyone!

This week was wonderful. We’re teaching a Nigerian man named Godwin, and he’s very eager to be baptized. He was taught by missionaries in Brooks (by Calgary), and he even attended church a few times. He’s currently on vacation, but he says he’ll have a date that he wants to get baptized on when he gets back. 
If you read last week, you'll remember that we were going up to High Level and Rainbow Lake to teach Stephen. It went brilliantly. He’s an awesome guy. It was sort of weird to teach him, because we weren’t trying to get him to see if it was true. The way he put it was that he already knew it was all true, but he just wanted to learn and know more before being baptized. We were happy to oblige. He thought it was all great. His favorite part of the gospel is that families can be together forever, which makes sense because he’s about to be married. So, we set a date for him to be baptized on September 1st. We have to teach more between now and then, so we are actually going to be Skyping and teaching him over these next few weeks. Woohoo! The church is true! Also, on the way to Rainbow Lake we saw a black wolf, so that’s cool. 
Thank you for your prayers and support. Keep it up!

Keep the faith,
Elder Webb
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Tue., Aug. 13, 2013 
Hello everyone!

This week has been excellent. Stephen is moving towards his baptism with alacrity! He’s so excited to learn and build his family around the gospel. 
We got another investigator on date this week! His name is Godwin. He’s from Nigeria, and he has an incredible testimony. He survived throat cancer after being given six weeks to live. He’s been through a lot, and he recognizes God’s hand in everything. 
He has a ton of respect for Mormons, and he says that if there were a crowd of 100 people with 20 Mormons in it, if you gave him an hour, he could pick out each one of them. I don’t doubt it for a second. 
He’s been searching for the right religion since 1989, when he left Nigeria. He said that he prayed and told Heavenly Father that he wanted to be baptized, but that he didn’t know which church to be baptized into. He asked God to lead him to the true church. He said that the Spirit testified to him that ours is the true church, and here we are today. 
God will answer our prayers if we’re sincere and if we intend to act on the answer we’re given. He loves us and wants us to return to him. 
Keep praying, and keep reading.

Keep the faith,
Elder Webb

Woohoo, indeed. Thanks, Elder Eli!



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Thursday, August 1, 2013

LIVE AND (KIND OF) LEARN

Regular readers of these epistles will recall Berta’s “Anti-Letter” from last week. We thought we had pierced the boy’s Kevlar®-coated brain with her alarmingly brief note, but it would not appear so:
Mom,

Bravo with your “anti-letter.” I had no idea it was a jab at my inability to communicate. I honestly thought you didn't have time (d’oh!). I read it again and realized how clear it was. Classic. I feel silly for not getting it right off the bat. I guess my brain is too full of the Spirit (and I guess I should probably repent for saying that).

Maybe our deal in heaven was that I tell you every facet of my life for the first 19 years, then we taper off... Kidding, I’m working on it.

I love you very much. Thanks for giving me a hard time. People do that here too, but it’s not benevolent.
“Classic,” indeed. Love that boy. He definitely picked up on what Berta was throwin’ down, though, as evidenced in his letter to the public:
Hello all!

This past week had plenty of good, and plenty of bad. I won't dwell on the bad because I've forgotten it and the Lord has replaced it with so much good. I will focus on one event in particular.
 
On Sunday, as Elder Hunsaker and I were coming in for supper, we received a call from President Manion (our mission president). I answered, we talked for a second, then he asked to be put on speaker because he had to talk to both of us. We were both gearing up for a rebuking of some kind (though we weren’t sure for what), but then we were very pleasantly surprised. 
He proceeded to tell us that there was a young man in High Level, AB, who was looking to marry a member up there and wanted to take the discussions. (High Level is three hours north of Peace River.) He told us that he wanted us to go up for the weekend to teach him and go to church with him. The young man’s name is Stephen. President Manion then asked us if we were ready for the kicker: Stephen lives in Rainbow Lake, AB, which is actually an hour-and-a-half west of High Level. We immediately agreed, figured out some details, and got off the phone with President. 
When we got inside, we thanked the Lord for such a wonderful opportunity. We had had a bad week, and part of it was self-inflicted. We had been praying constantly for forgiveness and for someone to teach, and we took this as an answer to our prayers. We are going up this Saturday. We’ve got a hotel booked in High Level. 
The Lord loves each of us and is willing to answer our prayers. The church is true. Thank you all for reading.

Keep the faith,
Elder Webb

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