Zone Conference Pictures from "The Blue and Yellow"

Pictures courtesy of "The Blue and Yellow"
June Zone Conference...
The Göteborg Zone Leaders... Training on "Daily Study and Exercise"

"We needed the sun and it came"... Göteborg Zone
Aldste Webster and Winegar in the middle ;)

The Göteborg Zone

Press Forward!

HELLO fam-bamily! I would like to start off by answering mother YES I did receive the Cook Book that she made and I love it! It is incredibly useful I just need to use it. A lot of the times as a missionary you just kinda throw things together. But I will and have been using it! And this morning the Joseph Smith pamphlet and things in Serbian came in the MAIL! THANK YOU SO MUCH! We will be getting that to them ASAP!

This week has been a very tiring week but I know that Acting in all diligence will bring blessings! And what an amazing week this has been!

None of our baptismal dates were able to get baptized this weekend because they just weren't ready. But often as missionaries we tend to forget that we HELP THEM recieve the restored gospel. By Faith in Jesus Christ and THEN repentance... THEN comes baptism for the remission of sins. And if they aren't keeping the commitments we give them (which are preparatory to the COVENANT they will make) they won't be ready for Baptism. But I'll go through the investigators...

Surendra agreed to being interviewed for Baptism by Elder Winegar... turns out that he didn't feel like he was ready for Baptism because he needed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. The next time we taught him we asked him if he had been reading in the Book of Mormon and praying. And he said yes. As the teach went along we came to find out that he hadn't been reading... and he didn't want to pray. So we taught him about Faith and how we first need to EXPERIMENT on the words and then we will feel the swelling motions... Where is the power of prayer without the Faith? For him... he just needs the Faith to Pray... and then to read... and pray again... but he has yet to do this. He is an amazing guy and is really searching for truth but isn't taking the necessary steps. Tyvärr

Michelle from China has been working all day everyday... never has time to meet and very occupied with her job. We will hopefully be able to meet her this week and hope and pray for the opportunity to do so.

Zaki didn't show up to a teach so we wouldn't be able to teach him everything in time so we are planning for next week. He is from Afghanistan and has a strong desire to be Christian and has quit smoking... he just needs to understand that he isn't just joining any christian church. But the only true and LIVING church on the Earth. HE is awesome though. Super stud

Li, unfortunately hadn't been reading in the Chinese book because he said it was hard to understand and boring. And he is leaving back for China today so we read 2 Nephi 32:5 with him and promised that he would be able to recieve an answer if he read as much as he could while he was in China. He will be returning at the beginning of August and I will be emailing him scriptures every week and he will be writing me back answers and comments! super stoked! He is an amazing guy.

Because of the mid-summer holiday we weren't able to meet with Benjamin and Nafiseh from Iran... but they are still amazing people.

Alinda has still been doing great with not smoking... and so we just need to remind her to read and pray a lot so she can know the truth! She will be baptised next week because she has really shown so much progress it is AMAZING!

We were able to teach another guy from India... anirudh.. we showed him Finding Faith and Christ. At the end of the film he said... hey... I BELIEVE that! It was super sick. So we read 2 Nephi 31 with him and asked if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and he said he would! Super cool guy! He is set for the sometime in July.

We also taught this woman from Lebanon. Her name is Seta... she has been muslim but has been investigating many Christian churches. She speaks broken-up swedish and so we gave her brochures in Arabic to read along with. And so our Baptismal commitment was pointing to "Things to know" section on the back... and one of the lines say "prepare yourself to be baptized on _____" and she said OK! And so we set up a date for July 17th. Super exciting times.

We have also begun to teach a guy named Rennie. He plays on local soccer team Elfsborg here and we asked him what religious background he had. He said he believed in Christ but hasn't been baptized... so we told him that there was a 14 year old boy who was in the same situation as him... and he loved it. We asked what he felt as he went to Church when he was young. He said I don't know how.. but I everytime I chose to go... I was helped out. It was a super spiritual meeting and we invited him to church and to read and pray because by the Holy Ghost... he could know the truth.. not just a best guess. And he said he WOULD. Unfortunately he had traveled to Göteborg over the weekend and got back too late. :(

This week we had done all that we could to get our investigators to church. And 1 came. Seta! She was great and enjoyed the great spirit that was there! It is actually pretty amazing because even though no one else came... we still felt within ourselves that we did ALL tha we could. And that is what the Lord expects of us.... just a kind reminder to us that people have their Agency.

Well... other than that this week has been amazing WEATHER! It was Mid-summer and me and my compaion were able to celebrate it with out gypsy serbian family and our less-active that translates. It was really cool. I was able to take some pictures so I will be sending those sometime next week! Watch out!

It's good to hear that all is well with the family! I love it when you guys write me and show the love!

This is the best thing in the world. I know that this place is the place where the Lord has sent me and I wouldn't rather be doing anything else but serving and representing the Lord that can literally SAVE and rescue EVERY person we meet on the street IF they are willing to COME unto Him. This is the Lords work. I really have been so blessed as I help others come to Christ.

Go Utes... Let me know whats going on in Mantua... and keep populating the Earth!

Love,

the Wad

WOW

Hello dearest Family!

I cannot believe the miracles and blessings that have come to me this week! Well... right after I had emailed you guys we taught a girl named Nafiseh (Benjamin's friend) and we talked to her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she has really enjoyed to hear our prayers and because she has a Muslim background, she loved the fact that we have no set things we have to say in our prayers, but we just express our feelings to a Father in Heaven who will grant us the righteous things we desire by the prayer of Faith. She loved it, as we talked about baptism and it's cleansing effect she told us... well before I get baptized I need to know all of the commandments! haha AMAZING! So, naturally we set up a baptismal date with her to we are truly excited for that! We are really being blessed!

The next day we had Zone Conference in Göteborg! It was held in the Institute Center which is pretty amazing! President Anderson introduced some new standards of excellence that he had been considering after President Teixeira's conference. 1 Baptism a week... and others... but that one was the one that stuck out the most. It was just interesting to think of changing our mind-set to having investigators progressing in the week... and less focus on transfer or monthly goals... but focus more on the weekly planning and how we can bring all of our investigators to Baptism by the end of the week. I really do think that this is attainable... just needs much prayer.. much Faith... and HARD WORK. The Assistants talked about Internalizing our purpose... which is to BAPTIZE. If we have a goal to teach lessons... we'll teach lessons... if we have a goal to get a lot new investigators we will get it... if we go in to a teach thinking that we will teach a good 2nd lesson we can leave the teach asking ourself... Wow that was an AMAZING 2nd lesson... but did I bring my investigator closer to Christ? or Baptism? Very good. Sister Anderson talked about Faith... and how we can get our investigators to strengthen their Faith in 3 ways.

Prayer Nurtures Faith

Obedience strengthens Faith

Scripture develops Faith

Pretty cool. Just some important principles to teach investigators to Stengthen their Faith. the Zone Leaders talked about John the Baptist. And How he we can be known as Elder___ the baptist... by strengthening our studies. It was pretty amazing... a lot of notes taken... spirit felt and it was amazing.

Our investigators are still doing great. A teach with Michelle a while ago we had prayed for her to get a job. The day after she recieved a job and has been really busy and working everyday... which made it so she wasn't ready for baptism. But she is still doing great and came to church... just needs to be a little more excited for Baptism.

Li has gotten back from Holland... and he went to amsterdam so naturally he broke the Word of Wisdom... so he just needed a friendly reminder and now that baptism is getting closer there is a little more resistance. But he is leaving for china on the 28th so we are contemplating on if we should get him Baptized before or after he comes back at the end of July...

Alinda we have been teaching about the Word of Wisdom and she decided to STOP! turns out her friend got cancer so she decided to stop. Not the best reason to stop but she stopped anyways... She has re-commited to baptism on the 5th of July and just really needs a testimony of Joseph Smith!

Surendra from India understands the concept of Authority and is looking forward to recieving an answer about the Book of Mormon. He says once he recieves an answer he will be baptized this Saturday.

Zaki from Afghanistan wants to be Christian as soon as possible but he doesn't realize that he is commiting to a lot more than just any ordinary Christian church but GOD'S ONLY CHURCH on EARTH. So yeah... he will be baptized when we feel he is ready.

This sunday was MIRACULOUS! We had 10 investigators in church... We were truly blessed. Michelle, Surendra, Zaki, Nafiseh brought a swedish friend, Alinda and the Serbian family... we had forgot about them on Saturday but Anja called us and said that the Serbian family called her and said they were ready to go to church and were waiting for someone to pick them up! They will surely be baptized but I just hope they will learn Swedish to be able to communicate with the members! The members were amazing inviting them to activities... getting their numbers... getting together a donation to get the Serbian family a bus card to get them to church... It is AWESOME! I love it here we are truly blessed. Me and Elder Bush sang I need thee every hour in swedish during sacrament meeting and it went very well acapella. Once we got home to eat lunch we couldn't do anything but get down on our knees and thank Heavenly Father for how much he had blessed us for our efforts!

I really got to go... but I love you all! the Utes in the pac 12?!?!? what in the world? will they still have the yearly rivalry game with the Y?! they cant drop that... Mantua sounds awesome and I can't wait to help build something up there why not?!? But I wish I had more time but HAPPY Fathers Day to Dad.... we all know how much we all love the Whoosie... he is an amazing man... Father... example... Mission president.. .stake president... who KNOWS how many countless lives he has changed! Congrats to Jake as well this Fathers day! HAIGH!

Well family... I love you all! This church couldn't be any more true and I am just enjoying life.

Take care... Pray Always... CTR..

Love,

WAD

The pictures you've been waiting for! FINALLY!!

Elder Adam and the lovely Elder Winegar!

Finally... the computer is accepting the pictures... beware of photo purging,
but I think you'll like it... I know I do! :)

Welcome to Växjö!!

Baptism of Marvin

Castle in Oland (and the tie burning... see post below)

Aldstes Takahashi and Webster

Random spots around Växjö!!

Looks like a GQ pose at the bus stop... so cutes!

Adam and His last companion in Vaxjo.. Elder Barlow.
A Swedish Churrascaria... barbeque ;0
Now he's been transferred to Boros with a new companion... Aldste Bush...
(see post below tie burning post)... Ahhh... love the new area!!!

Well... that's all for now!

6 MONTHS!!

Elders have an awesome tradition of burning a tie on their 6 months/bump day... I'm guessing March 16th was such a day... they were at a beautiful Castle in Oland and decided the time was right for such an ritual! Adam's companion at the time is A. Takahashi... in the grey sweatshirt and red hat. So... here ya go... 6 months down...

Just FYI... as of THIS posting... yeah... we are talking 9 months, thank you very much!

Good thing he doesn't read this blog... he'd be mad at me! ;D

Latest and Greatest pictures...

These pictures are from Barb Winegar and I LOVE THEM!!
The first one is Adam playing Innebandy... we'll have to
ask him what that game is all about another time... Game on!!!

Next, is District Breakfast starring...
Aldstes Gardner, Thunell, Winegar
(yup, Sarah Jane's bro-in-law is now Adam's District Leader :)),
Sister Nelson (provider of said breakfast),
Aldste Bush and Webster (comps), and Francis

Here is the lovely NEWLY appointed Senior companion, Aldste Webster
riding on the train back to Göteborg from Stockholm with
Aldste Francis (not his comp, but a rider on the train)

These are just from last week
and p-day June 14th... looking good Elder, isn't he???

MIRACLE SUNDAY

Hello dearest family! This weeks has been quite the miraculous week! But first let me tell you all that all mail should be send to this address and not that PO Box one. They are just sending it to one place now. So mom if you could change the blog and my facebook or whatever so that people only send to this address:

Äldste Adam Webster

Sweden Stockholm Mission

Enebybergsvägen 38

182 46 Enebyberg

Sverige

Well i'll start off with the best news. So a few days ago we had a little extra time after our teach so we decided to go tracting. The first door we knocked on was a man from India who welcomed us in. We sat down and he and his friend started to listen to our message. After we finished, they said that they were really interested but were going out of town so we would meet them next week. Just as we were about to leave, two more men from India walked in... one of them asked, "hey, is there some type of church that I could visit?" And we said YES! We showed him the place and time and got his number and were on our way. On Sunday he texted us confirming which bus stop to get off and so we were really excited for him (Surendra) to come. The hour before sacrament meeting was sunday school... and through many calls, the ward mission leader was able to pick up the family from Serbia of 5! So they showed up and not only that... but a less-active we have been teaching can speak Serbian and was able to come and translate for them! As I taught them in one classroom the plan of salvation... I told elder Bush to go to another class to teach Surendra the first lesson in English. This man was prepared... after church was over Elder Bush told me that he had recieved a Baptismal date for the 26th of June! On the FIRST lesson! Amazing! That same night we went to his house and wanted to teach him the next lesson, but three of his friends showed up and so we taught them and asked them if they were to recieve an answer about the Book of Mormon, if they would be baptized and one of them said.. yeah that would make sense! AMAZING! So we got his number and went on our way.

Our next teach was with a man named Benjamin from Iran. He didn't really accept his Muslim beliefs and decided that he wanted to pray in his own way. After the opening prayer he told us that the way we pray reminds him A LOT about the way he prays. So he asked us a little bit more about repentance and forgiveness (we were teaching the third lesson) and talked to him about Baptism for the remission of Sins... he said that sounds good... So we challenged him ALSO to be Baptized the first day of July and he says... Yeah... I think that goes alright with my calendar... tht sounds GOOD! Without hesitation. It is really amazing to see once the Holy Ghost witnesses to them of the cleasing effect of the Atonement how much they desire to be cleansed!

A couple of days ago our man from afghanistan Zaki could never meet with us. Until last week. As he was taught he said to us that he had read half of the Book of Mormon and as he was explained the plan of Salvation he accepted Baptism.... When? TODAY.. the only downer is that he didn't make it to church but he is still looking positive and will be baptized next week! The 21st.

This week we have been blessed with Michelle this saturday... Li next saturday... Surendra next saturday... Zaki next monday... and Benjamin on July 1st. At the end of yesterday we couldn't do anything but get down on our knees and thank our Heavenly Father for the Spirit that has been present during our teaches.

Other than that Alinda has been doing good and has quit smoking (because her friend got cancer) It's a good reason to quit but not driven by the Gospel. She still needs a testimony of Joseph Smith and she will be ready! We talked to her about her two kids and told her to start talking about baptism with them because this phrase kept ringing in my head... Family.. isn't it about TIME? That is what this church is all about. We are not here to separate families... but to lift, enrich, and create gospel-based families so that the SPIRIT can be in their houses!

This Gospel.. This Church and everything that is in it IS TRUE. I KNOW it is. I have seen the hand of the Lord in this work WAY TOO MUCH to deny of his Love!

Well family... thats all I got for this week.. Zone Conference is tomorrow so I am super stoked for that! I have been good at taking pictures this transfer so eventually I'll send some off!

P.S. If you could ask Jacob Dedow.. if you ever see some to send me something in Serbian... so that these five can understand the gospel... get a testimony and be baptized?! Thanks!

Love,

the Wad

PS... I GOT THE MEMORY CARD AND USA SHIRT! MOTHER I LOVE YOU! P.S. im pretty sure your temple visit helped... A LOT! I love you mom.. you bless me more than you know!

Love, the WAD

pss..also... don't worry if you sent something to the PO BOX address already... I still can get the mail... but the mission will be not using it from now on.... so yeah.. love ya

How Chur Ma. From Borås‏

Familjen Webster!

I can't believe everyone hit up the yard this past week! Well... knowing our yard... it will probably be a disaster in a couple of months anyways but you GOTTA love it while it lasts! HAIGH! Well thats sad to hear about the Mantua house but I wasn't getting my hopes up because Dad has broke my heart too many times with houses. EN Gång TILL! haha Not really... Gotta love the Whoosie. Well it sounds like you all are doing amazing and living up the good summer times!

The weather here in Borås is probably the nicest I have ever been in... probably because I got here right in the beginning of winter so I'm excited to enjoy this sun going down at 11pm every night and coming up at 5. IT's pretty nice. Kinda lame to wake up an hour early because the sun shining in your face. Jag överlever. Our apartment is a 5 minute walk to a giant lake surronded by trees that we jog to every morning. And in town you have a lake going right through it. This week has been a pretty miraculous week. Love the ward. And investigators are moving forward.

There was this one girl that I contacted on the bus who had a NY hat on so I asked if she had been to new york. The conversation was amazing because I related quickly to why I was here in Sweden and told her of my experience in recieving an answer about the Book of Mormon. I told her that she could do the same thing... she then hit the stop button on the bus... said "I wish" to me and so I asked her if we could talk about it sometime and she said for sure and off the bus she went. I was so disappointed in myself for not getting her number or giving her a pass-a-long card because I could feel that she was interested in finding out for herself. But she was gone. As we walked home I was pretty bummed and prayed to Heavenly Father that if it was his will to meet her again that he would put me in the right place so that I could find her again! What is a prayer of Faith without the works shown afterwards? Nothing. So the next day we had about an hour free so we decided to go into the city and walk along the river.. ya know.. nbd right?! as we walk along I saw girl waving us down to come over. It was HER! She was even with her friend! So we talked for a little bit and then we asked them if they were interested and her and her friend both gave us their numbers to talk more about Prayer and the Book of Mormon. AWESOME! The Lord's hand is really in this work if we exercize the Faith necessary to go and find the prepared!

Michelle from China is still doing great. She said she had stopped drinking tea altogether and She just agreed to pay tithing! We have gone through everything with her and she is looking very positive for the 19th of June. Just needs to come to church one more time! She was able to come during fast sunday and even though she didn't understand much of what they said she said she could see the sincerity in everyone's eyes. She liked that.

Li from China is a super amazing guy. We are almost done teaching him everything and now that schooling is over he promised us that he would be reading in the Book of Mormon every day and praying to know if it is true. He is an amazing guy and should also be ready to be Baptized on the 19th or the 26th of June.

Alinda from Sierra Leone has two kids. We were able to review with her some of the commandments. She told us that she would come to church but she never showed up. It's too bad. But this week we will be focusing on getting her and her kids ready for BAptism by the end of the Month. She told us she threw away her cigarettes so that is one step closer!

Another cool experience was that we were contacting in the city park. And we came up to this man with his kid. He had no idea what we were saying. We understood that he came from Serbia and he pointed to our name tags and said KYRKA! (which means church) and he gave us a thumbs up. We gave him a pass-a-long card and we said Kyrka... Söndag... klockan 13! Church... sunday... 1 oclock. And he said OK! We then left him pretty hopeful that he would remember. And then we continued. half an hour later. He came up to us with his wife and three kids and explained to us that he couldn't come to church because he has one bus card and 5 in his family. He gave us his adress and we are going to be teaching him tomorrow! super cool family. I would say pretty prepared!

This week's district meeting was amazing! We talked about Faith. And then I was able to go on splits with Äldste Winegar. He is an amazing missionary. Gave me some good tips. It's amazing how many people are believing in Jönköping. We had an amazing time.

Other than that things have been amazing. Were getting along. Good stuff.

WELL fam. I am in Jönköping today playing some innebandy with us, jönköping and Alingsås. Super sick!

Love ya,

talk to ya next week,

Wad

Mission Tour... President and Sister Teixeira

Mission Tour May 2010
Elder and Sister José A. Teixeira
Göteborg and Malmö Zones

Äldste Webster in BORÅS!‏

Hey dearest family of mine! Sorry I didn't send in an email yesterday... we came to the library and the internet wasn't working so we had to cut our p-day short and think of something to do. But HEY now im here!

Transfers were crazy crazy but I am super excited for this transfer! On Thursday I took an amazingly long train ride to stockholm. There I was able to see my WHOLE group together again! It was good times. I was hoping to see my trainer Elder Lords but he decided to go to the temple one last time... pff.. PRIORITIES RIGHT?! He's a good man, he called me up after and we chatted so I was a happy man. In Stockholm I was able to meet with Elder Jamon Winegar (aka my new district leader) and his greenie. We then took a train ride out from Stockholm to Göteborg. There I met my new companion Elder Bush! He has been on his mission for 2 months (1 transfer). He is really an amazing missionary and a hard-worker! He is pretty much an answer to my prayers! He comes from Highland, Utah and on the Bus ride to Borås we discovered that he went to Lone Peak (i think) and we sang at the Lex de Azevedo's "Gloria" thing together last Christmas! CRAZY stuff! We've got a Bass II and a Tenor II in Borås so we are really excited for that!

This week I have just been able to come to know some members, investigators, and getting to know the AREA! The Ward here is AMAZING! On Sunday the bishop (Bishop Murray from Murray, Utah) asked me to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. I have honestly never seen a more unified ward regarding missionary work in my life! During Sunday school we were talking about Sacrifice and somehow they started talking about different ways they have helped the missionaries and ways they can improve and how much missionaries have helped them in the past! My chin dropped... I asked Elder Bush if Sunday School was usually like this and he says that every week they seem to relate the lesson to sharing the message of the gospel to their friends. This place is AMAZING! You really forget how blessed you are until it is gone. Växjö really helped me learn so much and I look forward to using the members as much as I can!

Our most positive investigators right now (the ones that I have met) are

Alinda - a woman from Sierra Leone who was supposed to be baptized a couple of weeks ago but had a problem. We were able to teach her with our Bishop and resolve most of her concerns. Generally, it comes down to recieving a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and if you do that the desire to quit smoking and commit to the commandments will be a lot easier! She has two kids who we met yesterday and had a family home evening together with the stake presidents family. We watched the restoration and Alinda wanted to hear our testimonies of the Restoration. The movie, the game and the spirit that was there made her a very happy mother! We will be trying to start teaching her 2 kids Henke and Paulina so that they can all be baptized together! EXCITING!

Michelle is a girl from China who has been studying here in Swedish and plans to stay here for a while. They just barely met her, she has been reading out of the Book and pamphlets that we give her and says that she is Happy when she reads them. She started to realize that that was the Holy Ghost telling her that this message was true. We taught her the 2nd lesson (with Swa's chinese pictures) and commited her to Baptism. She said YES! June 19th is what we are shooting for and she and we are EXCITED!

There are some other chinese investigators who we have and many others on their way! This transfer is going to be super exciting! But right now I have to go because my companion is preaching repentance to some Muslims playing chess! So I will talk to you all later!

Congrats to Brynn on the 4th and MOMMA on the 6th! I'll try and send you guys something sometime! Awesome stuff!

I love you all!

More news next week!

Äldste Webster