Thursday, October 17, 2013

CHOPPING WOOD, NOT SPEAKING JAPANESE, AND BEYOND

A letter or two ago Eli talked about wood-chopping season, and this week we have the photographic evidence of ... well, he does wield an axe, and there is wood on the premises, and some of it appears to have been chopped. There’s even another, more convincing shot on Facebook in support of the premise. This, in addition to great mission stories (further below), brings his family joy.



Friends and Family,

Hullo all! This week was great. Elder Murray and I realized that for the past few weeks it’s like we’ve been collecting people to teach, but now we feel like we can move on from the collecting phase and move into the teaching phase.



We had a companionship fast last Thursday for a number of things, and it’s interesting to see the sort of blessings that came directly from that. It definitely strengthened my testimony of fasting. It reminds me of Alma, Chapter 32. In it, Alma talks about faith and basically says that if you want to believe in something, try it out and see if it works. For instance, if I want to have a testimony of fasting, or even know if it works, then I should probably fast. It seems crazy obvious, but I think a lot of times as Latter-day Saints we want a confirmation of something without really putting in the effort.

So that’s the challenge to you for this week: if there’s something you’ve had questions about pertaining to the Church, try it out! Experiment and test it! Heavenly Father wants to give you the answer, but he needs a little bit of effort on your part.

We’re teaching a Japanese couple and we have to go very slow because of the language barrier. They speak broken English and we don’t speak a lick of Japanese. We try to teach them and testify to them, but, interestingly enough, the Spirit sometimes isn’t there unless they experiment on what we say, which is often the case with any investigator. We invited the husband to pray after we taught the first lesson, and they had been pretty confused throughout, but when he prayed he say he felt comfortable and that it was a good experience. It was especially cool because we told him that God spoke Japanese as well, and that if he wanted he could pray in Japanese. He did, and the Spirit testified of that experience. That was what made him want to learn more, and he’s been praying ever since.

Thanks so much for reading and for your prayers! Remember, if you want to know if something is true or right or good, test it out. That’s all Heavenly Father asks. Have faith that you’ll receive an answer after you do what you can, and I can guarantee you’ll get one. Thanks again!

Keep the faith,
Elder Webb

Gotta love that boy! (We’ve tried not loving him, and it’s just not worth it.)

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