Fun trips ahead!!

Well family, this past week has been a fantastic one! Now that we are almost finished with visiting all of the wards in Sweden, president felt impressed to go to the ysa centers and give speeches there and yes, he wanted us with on that. I think these trips have prepared me so much for the future. How to be a member missionary, being a good home teacher, using the gift of discernment with those you come in contact with and so forth... We first visited the Göteborg ysa center, then took a bus over to the city of jönköping. We then took a train down to Lund and it was a really amazing opportunity to meet those that I have come in contact with from before. So the branch president in växjö wants me to notify him when and if we go there! So that be will fun to see him there. We have been out of town a lot and so there hasn't been any time to find and teach in Stockholm. But when we went down to Lund we found this really cool student who is from south Africa and she was sooo excited to be apart of the ysa center and to learn more from the missionaries there. She was just all over the place and she took the initiative to find out where the church is, when the center is open, what our number was... She was awesome. So at the beginning of this past week we took a trip to norrland. The first visit there was the first visit in 32 that the branch president thought it was canceled. The missionaries didn't communicate with us so when the plane landed I called the missionaries and asked them if everything was in order for translation and songs and prayers and things and they said.... "you're kidding me right?" I told them how serious I was and they didn't believe me so I told them to send me the branch president's phone number... Called him and then they found out we weren't lying. So they got a long talking to by president about communication... Which reminds me of a scripture in Hebrews 12 or 13 where it talks about how doing good and communicating is a sacrifice. Pretty amazing scripture.. Just so you all know a lot of this that I am talking about Is purely the fact that I am typing on sister newell's iPad 2 right now and I love it! I was just making it work for her and it happened to be in the office so here I am! I will most likely be getting one of these when I get back... Just saying...
After our first visit in norrland we took a 3 hour bus to a place called sundsvall and that city was awesome! I got to spend a hole day contacting and grafting with elder rowley! And we had a fantastic time! We found some people to come to church, set up some appointments for later in the week, and just had a good time together before the fireside that night. I love being a missionary and it seems as though I am learning soooooo much from president and sister Newell. They know so much and have so much experience they said they will give me a bunch of advice in the concluding interview. But we don't have to talk about that right now! This upcoming week we will he going to places such as visby, and Luleå. President told us that this upcoming week is transfers and since there will be 2 new assistants we will be staying in the mission home for our last week and be purely proselyting missionaries! Yay!

I love you all, it was so nice to hear from all who wrote me!
Love,
Elder Webster

Fun facebook surprises!

This was put on Jamon Winegars facebook page by this little gal.

Yidi Zhu

Elder Winegar, still remember us?come to jonkoping and meet with us !!!

So fun to see him... it's been a while! But it won't be long now till we see him

IN THE FLESH!!

YSA Press

Hejsan!

This week has been fantastic! I am now sitting at the institute center in Göteborg because we are having a YSA fireside tonight with the Young Single Adults.But first, investigators. For the little time we have had to be in our areas the Lord has continued to bless us with people to teach. Steffany wasn't able to come to church, but the week before she brought her sister, but she just needs to meet with us and we are hoping to see her baptized soon. Johan was interesting, he was very set for baptism and we acutally had an amazing lesson with him. He expressed that his deepest desire was to have a family settled down and a joyful life together with them. We were able to bare strong testimony of the temple and how the temple could help him reach his greatest desire. We outlined what else we needed to and teach before he could be baptized and he was good with it all except Tithing, he tells us that he is very spiritual and he didn't understand the need to belong to a single church. And so after that teach he told us that he was going to think it over, talk to his friend, and then talk with us this saturday (because we will be back in town on saturday). So hopes and prayers are with him! The other day we went to a new area of stockholm where we hadn't contacted in before. And we found this man from Congo. His name was Albert. We only had a few hours to proselyte so we were hoping to get somweone into the center to teach. And he was the man! Albert, as we talked on the way to the Center we realized that it was FHE and that other YSAs would be there. He told me that he liked singing and he enjoyed singing in the Gospel choir. On the way there, he actually sang me a song. It was quite uplifting actually. As we walked into the FHE at the center we were there half way through the lesson. Played a name game and then after, for treats he played the guitar and sang for all of us! I loved it because he was so into it and comfortable with the environment! We set up to meet him on saturday and he could very much be baptized! Last saturday we went to Gävle for a fireside and there happened to be a baptism on that day as well! And so that was an amazing experience, a son baptized his father! Also, my son (Elder Stoddard) is in one of my old areas (Växjö) and he called me up one day and told me that the 3 kids of a part member family I had worked with were being the taught the lessons and decided to be baptized! That was so good to hear! On sunday, we were mainly in Göteborg. We started out with a combined Priesthood/relief society meeting in Kungsbacka. And then we went to Västra Frölunda (the biggest ward in the Göteborg stake) and that was amazing. That ward is on FIRE! Then we went up to Trollhättan for a fireside there. It was over-all amazing. My companion got permission to attend an old investigator's wedding and he took with him another elder in the Zone who also taught these investigators. And so I went on a few hour contacting time with another elder in the Zone. We found some great people. We found this swedish woman who was a part of a church and wasn't so sure about the Book of Mormon... had some assumptions about it so basically I told her to READ THE BOOK before she "shuts the door". She agreed to meet.. also this saturday! When elder Jorgensen got back we found this man from Peru... after agreeing to come to the center, and a five minute conversation, he told us that he had actually ben baptized into the church, his wife and children were all catholic and wanted to meet with us! It was a miracle to not only to be guided to those who will hear the gospel but to those who have HEARD and felt of it's converting power already and that they have family to join along with them! This is the greatest work!

I love you all and I am grateful for all those who wrote!

Love,

Äldste Webster

(you can delete this out) Noticing my convenient time of returning home the first real saturday that I'm back will be General Conference weekend! (crazy)... my companion and I noticed that it would be a good time to meet up and be focused... so I expect to go on a date with someone there... along with my companion and one of his dates... So we were wondering if we had to reserve tickets for that special session where grandfather speaks. And Elder Jorgensen is also wondering if I could hook him up with tickets for his family of 7 to whichever session and then 3 for the priesthood session WHEREVER in the center.

I hope you know that I am very focused when I have things to focus on! I am working hard. It's just when there is a lot of travel time and time away from investigators, thought tend to prepare for the future. But I am loving the mission and the time I have to be with the Newell's and learn so much from them!

Pride week

I saw that you all were at Mantua yesterday from Nelson News so I assume the reason ya'll didn't write is because of that. No problem! So this past week has been pretty cool. The first highlight would definitely be the baptism of Marcus Joakim Isaksson. A while back Elder Jorgensen and I were contacting in downtown Stockholm and we were impressed to talk to this man. He was swedish, he was passing out scientology brochures, and so in exchange with his brochures we gave him a book of mormon and he wanted to meet with the missionaries. This last saturday we attended that mans baptism and confirmation. After his baptism, he bore testimony of the reality of the spirit in his conversion process and the power of the book of mormon. I was so thankful to see but a part of what that man is going to become! It actually brought tears to my eyes the power of his testimony. Because this overwhelming feeling came upon me on how quick the Lord can change someones heart and give them a tesimony! The Gospel is real. Steffany, our Peruvian investigator, got to attend the baptism along with her sister. So she was able to feel of the special spirit there. During the week we were able to teach her with the Elders that we will be giving her to, which I am excited for because the ward she is going to has a bunch of peruvians and chileans. I am so thankful to be a part of this work. Proselyting in stockholm is the ultimate referring work. a couple of baptisms are on way by people that we have found. And it still makes me happy even though they don't join the ward i'm in, they still are brought into the fold and have the blessing of the gospel in their lives! Johan, luckily, is in Stockholm ward's boundaries and he wants to be baptized on September 3rd. He was able to come to church, loved sacrament meeting, and could very likely be moved up to August 20th or something as long as he keeps commitments! Emma and Adam in Täby are doing fantastic. We were able to go by them and give them a Book of Mormon and FHE guide book to them and they appreciated it so much! I love that family, and am so excited for Mom and Dad to meet them! Sunday night was also a cool experience where we were able to do a fireside in the Södertälje ward COMBINED with a baptism. This father was being baptized by his son and they both came from a city north of Londrina, Brazil! So I spoke portuguese with them and caught up on good memories of brazil so it was a great experience! This week has been a pretty crazy week because we happened to have a lot of time to contact and proselyte WHICH IS A BLESSING! but when it is also Gay Pride Festival the same week, it makes things a little complicated. I would compare it to Carnaval in brazil, but gay... but it strengthened my testimony that you can find the prepared NO MATTER the environment. As we were contacting people on the street, the parade was coming. And so it seemed to me as if the (straight) people were walking away and the other were walking towards. So we walked on the side streets where people were walking away and we found this 22 yr old swede from congo who said he was in the direction of where we would be going. So we took him to the Institute center, away from all those abominations. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he told us a very personal experience about how he knows there would be life after death. He told us that after his father had passed away he had a dream and in the dream his dad was wearing a white suit, tie and shirt (coincidence?) He said he was in a cafeteria with his dad and his dad headed into another room and said "jag kommer snart" which means i'm coming soon. Interesting because the way he described it was exactly how the stockholm temple is arranged! Hmm... And so we taught right then and there about the Temple and it just clicked for him. So we look forward to seeing how he progresses in the gospel. We contacted this man last night from Dominican Republic. As we approached him he said he was hungry and tired and didn't have time. As the conversation carried on he told us that He has a strong belief in Christ but will never join ANY church. He said he was sick of being so easily tempted and wished that he would have more strength. He said "last time I helped the mormons they build me up a lot" It happened to be FHE in the Institute that night so we brought him there and there was a couple of people who spoke spanish there, played guitar with him and just welcomed him as one among the rest. It was AMAZING!

I know that the lord has his eye on all of us! He knows his sheep and it is ours to be worthy to be guided to the ones we can help! I love you all! Thanks for your prayers and support!

Love,

Äldste Webster (Wad)

P.S. I got my flight itinerary today... gross!

traveling the world in 7 days!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last e-mailed. Either that or how much i've been doing the past weeks. WOW. Brace yourselves for the length of this letter.

We can start off by Malmö's Zone Conference. It was amazing, it was about Strengthening the church through the missionaries home teaching. It was awesome because the bishop from Malmö cqame in after we had taught it all to give a little spiritual thought and at the end he was so enthused he said "As a matter of fact, I would like to ask permission from your mission president to get the full-time missionaries out teaching with the part-member families.. would that be alright? After a couple of laughs in the audience President said "permission granted!" It is amazing to see the spirit move the leadership of the full-time missionaries and membership for the same cause. And that is to strengthen the church! The following day we did our ward visit with the VÄXJÖ branch! ( that was my second area with Elders Takahashi and Barlow as my companions) And it was amazing to see the members there. Too bad Marvin wasn't there but he was with his family in another town! But he is very active and doing great otherwise. But the biggest highlight of going to Växjö was to see a woman that we had taught. Her problem was that she was co-habitating with this man and so her decision is if she had the faith to leave her partner (he didn't want to get married) and join the church... or not. During my time I remember praying so hard that a path would be provided. As soon as I left Växjö, her problem was solved and she was baptized. Coming back to visit I found out that she married a member of the church, he moved to Växjö and and they are both working on the kids to get baptized! The climax was to walk in and to look at her and see hoe much her countenance had changed! The gift of the Holy Ghost is real and changes lives if they just have the faith to follow the influence of it. What stunk the most is that we were in a hurry to get to the next fireside and we were in some Elders car. And I left my backback with my quad, camera, preach my gospel and study journal in there. So the past week and a half (a lot has happened) Elder Jorgensen has taken pictures for me. Luckily we will be headed down to Malmö later in the month so I'll get it back. So that sunday morning we saw thast we would be very busy and wouldn't have time to eat. And luckily we were staying in a hotel the night before and my companion had a brilliant idea to make some sandwiches in the morning. So we used napkins and new (un-used) trash bags to pack up our sandwiches for later use.

P.S. I would tell you each of the wards and branches we visited but I figured I can just print out a calendar later as we look back at it all! Crazy.

On Monday the 25th of July we had Joseph (Congo) invite his family over for dinner and it went amazingly well. We found out he wasn't in Stockholm's area. So we invited the mission leader in his new ward to the Newell's house for dinner. So it was Joseph, and his sister and mother with us there. They can only speak french for the main part. So the Newell's taught them the most because they can speak the language! Joseph told us that they had been reading in the Book of Mormon together for the past couple of days so that's super nice! He is super willing to be baptized and the mom doesn't seem to mind so we will be trying to get the whole family into the water.

We then had Stockholm Zone Conference and the following day was Stockholm South's Zone Conference. This weeks special hymn that Elder Jorgensen and I have been singing has been "where can I turn for peace?" It's got a great tenor line. The following day we went to Norrland Zone Conference and it was very special. The following day we spent in Skellefteå (second highest area in sweden) and we had an amazing contacting time together. We found a bunch of people from Ethiopia. For lunch, the Elders there surprised my companion and I with a Swedish delicacy. The fermented baltic herring (syrströmming). It was served with Potatoes and Meatballs with dill sauce. Let's just say it tastes like sewage. Anyways... I got a really good video about it all and ya'll will love it.

We then took a quick flight back down to Stockholm because we found out that Emma's husband was in town and so we met with him and the Newell's and had an awesome dinner with them. He is willing to be baptized but is under pressure with his career and government so he is just going to wait until the opportunity presents itself for him! Once that family gets sealed in the temple I am going to China to witness of it!

The next day President Newell gave a speech at Fest i nord (which is a YSA's around Europe gathering). He was crazy enough to invite my companion and I along and it was pretty fun! I got to see a bunch of YSA's that I had gotten to know in Lund and Växjö (including MARVIN!) and Borås and Malmö. Very happy time for me. We then were able to visit Vingåker which is this factory outlet place where they sell Tiger of Sweden suits for cheap so we went there for Thomas to go mission shopping because this is his last week here in Sweden before he leaves for his mission! The following day we took a flight to Gothenburg and went to Borås that sunday! There I was able to see Joseph and Elvis there at church and others that I had baptized were out of town (unfortunately) but I told them I would be back with my parents on September 11th! The ward is very excited. I got to bare my testimony there and after the Ward mission leader there (my hero) volunteered to giving us a ride to the next ward we would visit and gave us food for lunch! He is fantastic. I gave him your e-mails so he will be contacting ya'll soon. That night we went to a fireside in Jönköping and stayed at Sture Nilsson's house and he told me to tell grandfather hello because he had had him at dinner with his family there in Jönköping before when he visited!

The following day we had FHE with an investigator we found whose name is Johan. He is a swede with a wife and 3 kids. I would not be surprised if he was baptized in the next month either. He is a very good listener, honest and a warm peronality. We had a strong lesson about Christ and the Book of Mormon and he committed to read in it and pray to know if it's true!

A while back Elder Jorgensen and I had contacted this man right in the middle of downtown Stockholm as he was passing out Scientology pamphlets. After talking to him he told us of his interest to find out more about the Book of Mormon and he was very interested to hear about that.

Just two weeks later (just yesterday) the elders who we referred him to call us and tell us that he knows the book is true and is getting baptized this saturday! Wowee that is fantastic!

I am so thankful to being a missionary! I am loving life, staying busy, and feeling the spirit stronger and stronger every day guiding me to do HIS will. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Äldste Webster (Wad)