MUSIC HATH CHARMS

Elder Webb with the Youngs, who facilitated our Christmas-day call.
THANKS, Youngs!

After editing away some references to babies and gastrointestinal distress (sadly, they weren’t the same story: one story was about babies, and the other about...the other), we’re pleased to bring you this week’s News from the North:

Hello family! Happy 2014! It’s strange how time presses on. Actually, it’s kind of flying at this point. I’m seven months out! That’s wild. It’s gone by unbelievably fast (the Canadian winter makes it go by just a tad slower, especially when I’m waiting for a bus).

I’m doing well! This week was pretty good. Ups and downs. Eddie couldn’t make it to church, but he said he’d be there next week, and he wants to meet this week. We’ve still got high hopes for him.

Last Friday, we met with a potential investigator. The sisters passed him over to us, and they said he was a little bit off. We stopped by, and they were totally right. Definitely some issues. I don’t know if it was mental or drugs or both, but it was a but disconcerting. He was nice, though, so we sat down and got into the lesson. We didn’t get two sentences in before the guy breaks down. He just starts sobbing and hyperventilating. Then he started kind of rambling and saying some questionable things about how he hated his life and how he wasn’t a bad person.

He’s a musician, and we had talked a little bit about music before we started the lesson. I mentioned that I had picked up harmonica, and he thought that was cool. As he was sobbing and rambling (we weren’t getting anywhere and we were kind of worried), I asked him if he would like to hear me play a hymn on my harmonica. He said yes, so I pulled it out of my bag and started to play “How Great Thou Art”. I had my eye on him as I played, and it was amazing to see him calm down as I played. He had his eyes closed, he started breathing normally, and then he sat back in the couch and smiled.

He thanked me for playing, then we offered to come back another time. He said yes and we started to head out. He mentioned again that he wasn’t a bad person, and I said I knew he wasn’t. He was very grateful we came over, and he hugged us right as we left. We heard him crying as we were walking down the hall. All in all, a pretty crazy situation. We want to help him, so we’re going to try to meet with him again with a psychologist member in our ward.

That was probably the most exciting part of the week. I’ll write Godwin’s experience next week.

I love you all! Thanks for reading and writing!

Keep the faith,

Elder Webb

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