-14° F AT LAST

Now that the Official Weather of Canada has begun, masochistic parents can relax — and then un-relax and pray that the lad remembers his layers and layers of costly apparel and fine-twined linens (they’d better be pretty danged fine-twined, I’ll tell you what...).

Hello friends!

I’m glad you’re reading this! If you are, it probably means you care a little bit about me, which is nice. I guess you could be an enemy doing some fact-finding in an attempt to find the best way to destroy me, in which case I applaud you for being so thorough.

This week was good! The temperature continues to plummet. So far, the coldest I’ve seen has been -25 degrees Celsius [-14° F]. And it really only gets worse. People say that January is the coldest, and we've still got a while before we hit that.

The work is going well. We’ve been meeting with a former investigator named Andrea, and she’s progressing fabulously. She’s from Jamaica, and she has three kids. We had a fantastic lesson with her this week, and she’s now on date to be baptized! We’re looking forward to it and hoping that she stays committed.

It would appear that my time in Peace River is drawing to a close. Average time in an area is four transfers (roughly six months) and I’m coming to the end of my fourth here. Obviously, I’ll be where the Lord wants me to be, and if that means I stay in Peace River for another transfer, that’s where I’ll gladly stay. That being said, I’ll also gladly go. Really, whatever happens I’ll be happy with. Elder Murray and I get along great, so I’ll be sad to leave him. (We should be finishing up our antler knives today, so you could say I’m pretty excited.)

This week was a blur. We’re still able to do some service, even though it’s negative freezing outside. Elder Murray and I lament daily the fact that A) missionaries can’t grow beards, and B) he and I can’t physically grow beards. It’d be such an effective combatant against the cold. Alas.

Well, thank you all for reading (even if you are an enemy), and go ahead and write if you feel so inclined!

Keep the faith,

Elder Webb

Yep, that’s our boy.

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WEATHER REPORT

It’s November 4 — five months into Livin’ La Vida Canadian — and we’re just now getting into the possibility of a chill in the Albertan air. (Not that we’ve been obsessing over it....)

The lad laments the differences in Hallowe’en celebrations — not the least of which was the overabundance of the pseudo-hilarious greeting “Great costumes! Mormon missionaries, right?” Who knew part of the patience, tolerance and love development would have to come from his comedy-snobbery? (His parents, that’s who.)

Hello loved ones!

This week has been full of change. Not really with missionary work, or my area, or my companion.

No, the change I speak of is in the weather. You'll forgive me for speaking in Celsius, but I'm afraid that's what I know at this point. Last week it was sunny and we were sitting at a balmy 8 degrees [47° F] during the day. That was in the early-mid week. It was actually one of the few years where there wasn't a few inches/feet of snow on Halloween. Huzzah! But, two days later we were looking at temperatures of -10 [14° F] during the day. Zoinks. You'd think that Nature would be a tad more gradual/lenient/merciful. Nope. Mother Nature seems to be a fickle mistress in this neck of the woods, and what she says goes.

At this point, I'm sure my mom is worrying about me taking care to dress warmly and wondering if she sent me with ample long johns. (Mom, don't worry, I've only lost two toes and a small chunk of my left ear to frostbite.)

Aside from the physical happenings, the work has been going well! I've had an increasing fascination with fasting lately, and I'm striving to gain a better understanding through prayer, scripture study, and yes, fasting. So far, what I've gathered is that fasting can be pretty powerful. Sometimes we take it for granted, but if you fast and accompany that with earnest prayer and true faith, you'll see miracles. I guarantee it.

Here are some direct results from fasting found in the scriptures: increased faith and humility, the filling of our souls with joy and consolation, and the sanctification and purifying of our hearts. If that's not worth giving up two meals I don't know what is. As always, don't take my word for it, but try it out for yourself! I can promise good results.

Thanks for reading!

Keep the faith,

Elder Webb

Not everyone dissects these missives in the same way, of course, but we can count Mom and Dad among THOSE WHO WOULD APPRECIATE A MINIMAL REPORT on the FASCINATION, the POWER, and the MIRACLES OF FASTING as alluded to in this week’s letter. Anyone with further information is welcomed to share in the comments....

Love (argh) that (grumble) boy!

•  •  •

2-FOR-1 WEEK

The “2-FOR-1” reference is, in fact, due to a glaring fault in the missionary’s father: Somehow one week slipped into a second, and he (I) blew it and didn’t post last week’s on its own. Since last week’s post is tardy, it shares space with this week’s post:

21 OCT 2013 

Friends and family,

This week has been fantastic. It's interesting, sometimes a mission can feel monotonous, especially in the day-to-day schedule, but when you look back you realize that you do different things all of the time. Pretty much the only consistency is when you wake up and when you go to bed.

Our teaching is going well. Just last week we got a woman on date for baptism! Her name is Julie Goulet, and she is 80-something years old. She never stops. She's constantly busy with something, whether it's yard work, cooking, playing cards, volunteering at the senior center or doing things around the house. I think it keeps her young, because I honestly wouldn't put her past 70. She's a delight. She's been taught by missionaries for over five years, so it's pretty big that she's committing to baptism. No credit to us, though. People get ready in their own time, and the Spirit has really been operating in her over these last few months.

We're meeting with our Japanese couple tonight (the Andos), and we're hopefully going to get them on date as well! Fingers crossed. While we still have trials and struggles out here, when something good happens it tends to sort of blur the memory of bad things, which I appreciate.

The Church is true. I have no doubt. If any of you have doubts, ask your Heavenly Father, because I can promise that he's dying to give you an answer.

Thanks so much for reading!

Keep the faith,

Elder Webb

•  •  • 

28 OCT 2013 Greetings to all!

This week has been excellent for me, and I hope it's been excellent for all of you as well! I pray for most of you just as much as I hope you pray for me!

We've found a lot of good potentials out in Grimshaw, and we're also seeing some good things happen with some recently-found less-actives. Somehow, even though it's just ordinary Elder Webb and Elder Murray (and even maybe a less-than ordinary Elder Webb), the Lord still sees fit to bless us with so many miracles!

It felt like it took a while to get the ball rolling, but now that it is we've got to make sure we can keep up! We're still looking forward to Julie's baptism, and hopefully she is too! Kidding, of course she is.

In regards to the temporal aspect of the work, I would just like to clue my audience in to what our latest project has been: deer antler knives. They'll probably end up being twice as cool as they sound. We've spent the last few weeks getting materials together (on P-Days), and we're finally putting them together today. I'm expecting good things. Pictures to come. I think I'll have to put a sheath on my next project: mukluks.

Thank you all for reading and praying. Keep it up! If you do, I promise to keep missionary-ing. Sound like a plan? Aces.

Keep the faith,

Elder Webb

•  •  •

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.)

•  •  •

THE PEACE RIVER BUTCHER

Love the spirit in this boy. We’re still trying to determine whether he’s a missionary who loves adventure, or an adventurer who loves his mission. Either way: He’s happy, so we’re happy!

Hello friends!

This week was wonderful for a number of reasons. Obviously, conference was great. Those men and women are so inspired. Study their words! They are the words of salvation and happiness.

We’ve been able to do some sweet service in the past while. The highlight of recent service was going out to a part-member family’s farm to help them butcher a deer and prepare some sausage. Yes I did wear the white butcher coat, yes it was very bloody, yes the meat we prepared was delicious, yes it was a deer they killed the week prior, yes we did grind up the deer with some pork, yes I did wear gloves (mostly), and no I did not gag. It was a blast!

They also have a Mastiff on the farm named Brutus, who may be the most wonderful dog on earth. I’ll try to get a video of him running.

For this last P-Day we drove up to the Northwest Territories border, which was about 5 1/2 hours north of Peace River. We had a member from Fairview take us, and the Fairview elders came too! So fun. So long. Worth it? Yes. Pictures to come.

The work is going great, and we’re making good progress. Thank you for your prayers and love, and thank you for reading. Keep it up!

Keep the faith,

Elder Webb

How fun.

Of course, it wasn’t until later that we learned one of the elders on the NWT sojourn was one of Elder Eli’s cousins (son of Berta’s first cousin), so there’s still room for growth on the “Sharing Information” path.

Again . . . Love the spirit in this boy. <imagine here the sound of a tiny, muffled scream>

•  •  •