HALOI!

Hello dearest family! well... here we go to start another great transfer in Växjö! My companion's name is Äldste William (Bill) Barlow! He is quite the man. He comes from Los Angeles California! He has written his own book called "Pugachev Kionaltski" so he doesn't mess around (in the mission field he does though... ANYWAYS..). He also was at Duke University for a year (i think) and is glad to hear that they are in the Final Four! HELLO! did anyone mention March Madness? I know Jake is at least watching 2 games a day. Could have filled me in.. how far did Utah or BYU get? ANYWHO... But he really is a good guy and always way positive... which is good... but I just can't find myself being happy and guilt free if I take a nap everyday... anywho....

Växjö the AREA is doing great... Thanks to the lame time change both of our new converts and the investigators we invited weren't able to make it to church... OUCH... that was a heart breaker. But it was good to see some stake representatives from LUND come and speak! Good to hear familiar voices! But we move on. As far as our investigators go...

Sandra who is from Latin America originally, has three kids one of which is over 8! Her sister is a member so we get to teach her with her sister present which is really amazing. She knows she needs to get baptized.... she wants to get baptized... But she has a problem with her Sambo (cohabitator) who doesn't believe in God and doesn't want her to join the church... So we just need to see how much Faith she is filling to excersize to Jump into those waters of baptism and either have her Sambo say yes and get married... or her say BYE to her Sambo! But she knows what she needs to do.. we'll just see what she DOES! Any advice?

Claudette who is a woman from africa who also has 3 kids... all over 8 WAS married to a muslim and believes that Jesus has always helped her in her Prayers and through her trials... So we gave her the Book of Mormon and a couple of days later said that she felt good when she read it! We asked her if we could have the kids in the next lesson and she said that they COULD! wow... super stoked for that!

Princess is a 18 year old girl from Africa and her family has been raised up catholic but has been so confused with all the religions she couldn't come to a conclusion... So she was able to know Joseph Smiths situation pretty well... and she left there with a DESIRE to Read and Pray! It was awesome! It makes it so easier when we don't have to convince them... but they can see the point themselves!

We get to FINALLY meet Baba from Africa on Tuesday and he has been wanting to know about Christs life and is looking really positive to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his Life... REALLY exciting!

Somayeh is a girl from Iraq and isnt MUSLIM! she is out of town right now.. has been reading in the Book of Mormon and coming to church so she has been amazing too!

We were able to teach a swedish family with the 3 kids and they are awesome! They are both religion teachers so they can't get themselves to believe but they are curious and they both agreed that they couldn't recieve a witness from words but throgh our feelings... so we challenged them to read Alma 32 and and Pray together and they said they would do it! WOW awesome. (that's good for scandanavians...) Other than that things have been going great and look forward to a new start and a new Barlow energy into this area!

Not really any exciting stories this week. Just filled with transfers...

This is how they go... Monday is a regular day.. not p-day... tuesday morning we recieve calls to where we were going... wednesday is P-day and clean the apartment day.. thursday is transfer day... so I went down to Lund.. said bye to my companion... waited for my new one.. then left! Crazy stuff!

But I love you all and thanks for your prayers and Lovely Letters! Welcome to Lara Jean WEBSTER to the family.. MAN that sounds good! And happy birthday to Chewie a week ago! I miss his tail.

I don't think I have ever been so excited for conference as I am now on the mission! Man.. I just barely watched that in the MTC! CRAZY how time flies! The snow has melted and the sun is coming out and it's AMAZING to see the NEW side of sweden I have never seen! not dark... not cold... not depressing but HAPPY! Yay for JOY!

Anyways... I got nothing else to say! Good luck to the Brs with little Truman... definitely need pictures and both Russel and Truman! that would be nice! Or even videos... why not?!

I love you all!

See you next week!

P.S. Saddest news of the week... We don't get to watch the SUNDAY AFTERNOON SESSION! AH! Tell the church headquaters to change really quick... WHY NOT? just for me? oh well.. in the Liahona I guess

PEACE!

Äldste Wad

sooo mom... when does grandfather usually visit his grandchildren on the mission? Tell sam Elder Teixeira is visiting the mission this transfer! So exciting... will he know who I am? tell him to look out for me!

another question... Recognizing the Spirit... I have read chapter 4 many times... Any advice from my parental units? Love you much!

Wad

What a week! Baptism!

I would like to start off by saying thanks to my lovely mother for reminding me of my 6 month mark! (Not) Oh sheesh. Well Öland was quite the adventure last week and I was able to burn a tie RIGHT BY A CASTLE! It was sick... I'll send you my memory card at the beginning of every transfer I decided... so pictures on their way next week!

For me and my house... this has been a CRAZY WEEK and a half! Marvin our main man from Peru (By the way his parents come from there... he was born in russia... and then they moved to sweden... so pretty much a swede) is doing AWESOME! We had a family home evening with him and a couple his age in the branch and it was just an awesome experience to write out the baptismal program, show him how the baptism was going to be and then just fellowship him with members. The baptism... was AWESOME! It's so funny to see how nervous they are and then when we get in the water it all just goes away! He kept saying afterwards how good and clean he felt! Man this really is the life... To actually see people progress in the gospel from not even knowing that there is a God... to full on testimony of his Savior and how important he IS! He brought his mom, brother, and friend to the service and it was aweosme to see the one hispanic woman come to the service and chat with his family in SPANISH! So there is hope there as well. After that we have been teaching him lessons about the priesthood to get him ready for it! Our mission leader (the old branch president) confirmed him on sunday and had tears in his eyes... im sure because of the great blessing it is to have ONE MORE potential priesthood holder! Amazing things happening here! Of course with all these great blessing comes the opposition! This week we have been finding some amazing potential families to baptize... but I have also taught some of the hardest lessons of my life... whether it be at the door... on the street... or in a lesson... satan has had a great hold of some people. Me and my companion have been faced with the toughest questions we have EVER had to answer during our missions. They all pretty much start with "If God loved them/her/him... why did he Let that happen to them? or... if your church really is true... then why would they approve the war?" Of course these questions don't come with a simple doctrine answer... and certainly not the kind of questions that need to be answered for their salvation... but the only answer I could come up with was a testimony that even though all of these bad things happen in the world, God's plan is already set in motion... his purpose IS to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man... Faith isn't something that we can't always measure... just like eternity... but it comes when we have a Hope for something better.. and a desire to partake of a happiness that can't be found in money... drugs... cars... physical things. But God has given us our familes... and the gospel so that we can find that true happiness that DOES last.

Obviously I can't explain how much I have learned here on the mission... but even though I don't know these answers... I know that my family... and LIVING the Gospel gives me happiness. Thats why im here.

I have so much to say but I'll keep it short for you all... We also got our transfer calls and I am staying in Växjö and my new companions name is Elder Barlow! Apparently he has written a book and has gone to Harvard or something... so he's a brilliant guy I hear! and that is sooo needed for here in Växjö. We have been finding a lot of potentials for the beginning of a new transfer and I'll miss my companion... but oh well. my old companion is going to halmstad to be my district leader! haha

Congrats SAM AND LARA and their wedding.. I hope you liked my video! kinda lame but you can't expect much from the wad. I got my package at sharpening a while ago... but its almost gone now... itwas delicious! hahah that cereal was AMAZING! seriously...

You should definitely send me some official pic of the wedding! but the ones I have gotten are AMAZING! Äldste winegar is going to be with Äldste Jorgensen from my GROUP! AHH super jealous but they will be AWESOME!

I love you guys to BITS! I'll be writing on Monday!

Peace out...

Äldste Webster

Hello Fam-Bamily

Just for an opening statement... do not write to elderadamwebster@gmail.com or adam.michael.webster.SSM@myldsmail.net anymore! myldsmail has upgraded and so we aren't using gmail anymore!

Family is allowed to write to... adam.webster@myldsmail.net its powered by google so its better now... just email me.. its nice...

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Well what a week it HAS been! With our feelings that we had last week me and my companion have really decided to focus on Less-actives in this branch. The reasons being is because it really is hard to bring investigators and baptize them into the church when it doesn't have a safe and TESTIMONY BUILT foundation. So this week we visited many less-actives and some of them happily welcomed us into their homes! It was really good to see which ones still had that desire to come to church and not so fun to see some of the members that HAD testimonies not feasting upon the words of Christ and ENDURING to the end. I think some people really forget the meaning of the word ENDURE. We were able to teach these members the message of God's UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for everyone of them. And that even though we arent always turned to him. Christ is there at the door with open arms waiting for them to Ask.. Seek... Knock! That has definitely become one of my favorite scriptures. One man called us one day and told us to come to his house. the next day we scheduled him in and took a 45 minute bus ride to his house. We asked him why he called us and if he was a member... he kept talking about how he was a member and that he never came because the Branch President didn't let him. He said the branch president sent some papers to him and said he was pretty mad. But we... not knowing much showed him the Restoration film to invite the spirit into his house and then invite him to church. Much to our surprise he was able to come to church! He came down and sat down and it happened to be fast and testimony meeting. During our branch president's testimony he raised his hand as to suggest that he WANTED to ADD something! After President was concluded he ran up there and started bearing testimony about his life story.. for 20 minutes. After a while... he was escorted off the stage when he talked about how he wants the Branch president to forgive him for what he did. It really was irrelevant. Come to find out after he was ex-communicated! But anyways Church was one of the highlights of the week! We found a girl on the street last monday... taught her twice during the week and then invited her to come to church! And she came! I asked her if she got a testimony of the book of mormon if she would get baptised.. and she replied with a positive "ah" meaning YES! haha we told her to read and pray to find out the truth. So theres a really positive investigator! Marvin.. our main man from PERU came to church so this Saturday is his baptism and its looking like that this will be my FIRST person I baptize! I am super excited! He has so many questions and he is just so accepting of the gospel and really looks forward to the piesthood most of all! He's doing great and looking positive! We were able to celebrate Pan's birthday with her and we are starting to teach her husband.. although he is traitional swedish... Pan really is pressuring him to get baptized! its kind of funny actually! We are finding more and more YOUNG MEN who are really open to religion and Växjö is really being blessed!

but family im running out of time! Congrats to Sam & Lara! I cant wait to hear so much about the wedding and everything that happened! congrats to momma and dad for their wedding anniversary!

Sorry no time today in the library but next week is transfers so I wont be emailing on monday.. probably wednesday!

I will keep you updated... from now on... only adam.webster@myldsmail.net

Im going to öland today so it will be way fun!

I LOVE YOU ALL! Keep me posted!

Wow to fall-throughs and responsibility! hello sunshine though!

Wow. this week has been CRAAAZY! The weird thing about this week is that we still feel good because we know we tried OUR BEST.
the thing about this week is the following:
Every day had at least 2 fall-throughs and the Branch (as we realized it during weekly planning) is a mess.
BUT the work IS progressing here in Växjö and we are finding, teaching, and baptizing all who are interested.
During this week we have had a really humbling experience to see how much work this branch needs done. So many things have happened its hard to write it in one email. But the Växjö Branch is a lovely branch. The President is a great man but can't think all for himself, thus nothing gets done, thus he gets no support from the mission leader, relief society president, and his counselor. People aren't progressing in the branch because they are not given callings, thus no home-teaching & visiting teaching, thus every member feels lonely and not important. With permission from the Stake we get to take on resposibilities of other people's callings! We pretty much are starting from SCRATCH here in Växjö and the responsibility is really HIGH. So with much prayer, my companion and I are really going to focus on Less-actives, and getting members that are men the priesthood, and finding people who can help this branch get back on its feet again. Seeing how it was only us, president, and our 1 new convert who came to Stake Conference on sunday. VERY nice.
Although this seems like a lot I really have been feeling like this is something that I can do to really show Heavenly Father how much I love these people in the branch and how much I need him every day to guide us to do the right things.
Our baptismal date Marvin has been doing great and has so many questions so its really fun to teach him because we tell him what he needs to know and he asks us his questions. He is doing great and well on the way through the gate and on the straight and narrow!
Tony, a christian who believes in about 99% of what we do but Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We finally got the chance to teach him because his schedule is so crazy and we challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and to Pray to see if Joseph Smith was a prophet, because if he recieves an answer about that, that he should be on the right path to baptism too!
Many.. at least 50% of our teaches fell through this week but have been really blessed to see how much the Lord needs us here to preach REPENTANCE to these people. We have been finding Families and potential priesthood holders because of our diligence by working EVEN through the tough fall-through times. We had to drop some of these great investigators because of their constant fall-throughs and not keeping commitments. It really is too bad that we have to do this but we know that the Lord HAS PREPARED SOMEONE for us. In our contacting and tracting we have been getting straight to the point of BELIEVING IN GOD and the Resoration. We know that if we do all we can to INVITE EVERYONE (less-actives, actives, never-changing muslims, atheists, cats, dogs, mentally unstable people, you NAME it.) to come unto CHRIST... God will prepare someone, and put them in our Path so that they can receive the blessings of this ONLY TRUE GOSPEL on the earth. I say this because my compaion and I found someone on the street and we met him a couple of days later to come to his house. This place happened to be a Mental hospital converted into CHEAP housing for students. So we had the chance to sit in a Prayer session with muslims because they kindly invited us to do so. As we watch I stood AMAZED and Grateful that me, and my family and friends have the actual truth in their lives, and we don't have to spend 5x a day in SORROWFUL Prayers to be loved by god. We had the chance to bear testimony to them that God loves them no matter what they do... we do not have to win over his heart because he is waiting for us to do something wrong to chasten us... but that God GAVE his SON... ONLY BEGOTTEN... so that we could recieve forgivness in what we do. God ill ALWAYS love us... and that did nothing but gave me hope that their hearts will be softened and will be able to see the wicked traditions of their fathers and come unto CHRIST and LIVE HAPPY LIVES!
MAN!
That's all I got. THIS church is TRUE. I know for a fact because of the Holy Ghosts promptings in my HEART... of happiness, joy and not just for now on earth, but ETERNITY... this is the ONLY true church... no matter how much satan tempts us... When he bites us in the bum.. we turn around and say HEY... that hurt... and KICK HIM IN THE FACE.
We have been teaching our less-actives the message of Charity and Gods CONSTANT love for us. One of them closed with a prayer by saying "thanks for the priesthood". the shortest and most POWERFUL prayer I have heard.
The church is TRUE. Gods has loved us in the PASt... NOW and WILL forever!
GOOD LUCK to sam and Lara on your wedding! Way to be by taking that next step and on the pathway to achieve THE HIGHEST degree of glory. I love my Family. We are the bomb. Don't change. Just be normal... keep going to church... be grateful for what you have. Just look back.. seriously... we have the coolest family ever! And TRUMAN to ADD to this AMAZING bunch.
Wow... random tangent... but things are going good here. Not many teaches to talk about but my Testimony has grown so much... that is all.
LOVE YOU ALL! Thanks for being who you are. Once again.. the church really is true...
Äldste Webster
P.S. this week was the first days with the weather being over 0 degrees celsius though my whole mission. Sunshine is coming... snow is melting... and trees are becoming GREEN! A HAPPY SIDE to sweden I have yet to see is coming!
peace,
WAD

SALIMA!!!

Hello family! Sorry this letter isn't going to be so long. We had some technical dificulties in the library so were back at the church and P-day is almost over.

Well this week the Branch and us as missionaries have really been blessed.
Me and Äldste Takahashi have really been focusing on Finding potential priesthood holders to make this Växjö Branch really start functioning by themselves. We have found this man from Africa named Baba and has accepts anything that is GOOD and uplifting. So we definitely fit into that category so our first visit with him was the Restoration and he commited to read in the Book of Mormon. The second visit was even better. He wanted to know "what was the fastest way to get back to God." So we taught him the Plan of Salvation. We made sure that this teach was focused on the Gospel and Jesus Christ. Because once he accepts those and has a desire to follow both... he will be on "that path". Baptism seemed like something that wasn't too foreign but he really wanted to know more about Jesus Christ and what he did, then he would be able to accept his message. PERFECT LEAD IN to the 3rd lesson. It really is great when their needs match Preach My Gospel so theres not much we need to adapt to! We also found another man from Canada and he is Catholic but has a family and they are pretty believing so BELIEVING is always a positive thing here in Sweden! We are also blessed by having a young man from Utah who moved here to study and he already IS LDS! So we just have to show him where the church is and get him passing the sacrament! One of the miracle families we found is doing great. the dad is who we teach because he is the only one that speaks Swedish but they are moved here for good and not sure which Christian church seems right. Man i'm glad we followed the prompting to go to his house! Our main man Marvin from Peru decided to go with the experiment and be BAPTIZED on Mar. 20th! So exciting! So we are working with him a lot to get him converted to the Gospel and not US and OUR teaching. He's been keeping his commitments which has been a HUGE blessing! Our other investigator Eliza from Pakistan is still doing great and our prayers are still with her that her country might humble themselves and Open up to chirstianity... still doing great there. Two of our members... as we helped them with things around their house asked us for blessings so I gave my first one in SWEDISH! YIKES! It would be nice to have their home teachers do it but if they ask... what can you say? District Meeting was really amazing and uplifting where we talked about Planting Seeds and how that is one of the most important things we can do... because even though through all of the rejection... it's important to leave that GREAT last impression and to get them feeling the spirit even if they say NO. Speaking of which we taught the 3 guys from college again and they were really interested to HEAR about the Plan of Salvation. As we taught we could really feel the spirit bear witness THROUGH us to get them to understand and Believe. After their very sophisticated questions having NOt to deal with their salvation.. they were answered and they said, "if we could get ourselves to believe in God and christ then this would be the first thing they would believe in" We bore testimony to them but they could not get themselves to believe in this busy stage in their life. But one of the greatest things that happened was we both still felt confident that what we said really did PLANT SEEDS.
Sunday was great and the chairs were FILLED! Even though most of the chairs were members we were blessed to see the less-actives that we visited come to church and remember the covenants that they have made. Only Marvin came out of the many that we invited but still felt positive about it all. the high-councilman was there and gave us some really good advice on what to look for and who to teach to make the branch succeed. We also were able to teach a man who teaches religion and his wife and kids. There is MUCH potential here in Växjö and we just need to excercize the Faith to provide the MIRACLE!

Today we planned on going biking to a castle but after all the snow had melted... it was a BLIZZARD TODAY. So we stayed in and cleaned and wrote letters!

Congrats to the BRS in they're little BABY BOY! for some reason I wasn't so surprised that it would be one. WHATS ITS NAME! CMON! ANYways... good luck Sama and Lara with your wedding.
Sorry this letter was probably poorly written but I love you all anyways and I'll keep Pres. Farnes in my prayers!

I love you all!

Äldste Webster

PS theres Sharpening and Stake Conference this weekend! SO STOKED! LOVE YOU ALL! the baby looks like a PIMP! (in a cool way of course)

Love you momma!