Sweden... in Cupertino

So, Remember that one day that Adam came home from his mission?? Yeah... that was awesome, and 6 months ago! A lot is going on with that little fella... he's going off to Cupertino!

Seems that Apple (where he is currently employed) is in need of someone that speaks fluent SWEDISH to help translate english software jargon into Swedish computer talk...

and they want ADAM!

He will leave for Cupertino California,

Silicone Valley, home of the Apple Corporate offices,

leaving on April 12 and return on May 18th... working 40 hour weeks...

IN CALIFORNIA!! SOOO AWESOME!

That will look really great on his resume!

THEN... he told the folks that offered him the job that this was right in the middle of his finals... they said hey, no problemo! We can have you proctor your final tests here at the university close by work, or go into Standford University, OR we will fly you home on a Wednesday night,

you can take the tests at the U, and then return on Sunday night...

Adam of course said... YES... I'll fly home and take the tests and then fly back!

Thank you very much! :D

Lucky Stiff!

Bring Him Home... Sept 24, 2011

We were able to go to Sweden to pick up Aldste Adam Webster

September 9, 2011 from the Sweden Stockholm Mission Home!

(Check out my blog for the details in-between at... curitibawebsters@blogspot.com )

We arrived in the states 7:00 pm, September 24, 2011! What a great reunion!!

Welcome Home Aldste Webster! Our last missionary! Kind of a bitter sweet!

WELL DONE ADAM!! WE LOVE YOU!

Äldste Adam Michael Webster's Bittersweet Symphony‏

To All within the sound of my voice... (or, whoever might read this message.)

Yesterday, we were able to see the new missionaries and their trainers. In reaction to the high caliber missionaries (10 elders 2 sisters), one of the trainers came up to me and said... "It's too bad that your going home, you're missing out". With the four of us going home, there are 12 new missionaries which means 4 new areas opening in the mission! It is an exciting time! President has now taken away the 9-week mentality of transfers. Our planners are now 5 weeks long, which means we will be more focused to baptize in 5 week cycles rather than 9 weeks. We have now visited 37 of the 40 wards or branches in Sweden and I know that it will be well worth it! The members have appreciated the time that the president has taken to be among them and show his love and interest for them. The theme of these visits has been "strengthening the church". Each of the missionaries have gotten together with their bishops and ward councils to home teach less active and part member families! The missions approach isn't necessarily to get high numbers, but to strengthen the church, and by doing so we gain the trust of members and obtain referrals that way. I can't wait to see how the missionaries interact with the members (especially in high-popluated mormon towns). The last 3 firesides will be in Luleå (The farthest area north in Sweden on Saturday), and in a chapel in stockholm ( Sunday, where two wards meet.). And so we will be finishing those off just to say we did, and to help the members there. Other than that, President has now given all assignments to the new assistants Elders Olsen and Bracken. They will do fantastic! This occurred officially when we trained the new missionaries and the trainers about the 12 week program that has now started since August 1st. Missionaries are to be together with their trainers for 12 weeks and they have a pretty well-detailed schedule on what they are to do and what they are to become by the end of those 12 weeks. It is inspired and as that Elder said... I am missing out! Looking back, Training was the greatest experience for me on how I decided what kind of missionary I wanted to be. And as the new missionaries were bearing testimony to us (along with the Newells, and the new assistants) President walked up to us and asked us to bare testimony in conclusion of the meeting. That was one of the most spiritual testimonies I have ever given! I told them that I would miss testifying of the savior with the name tag on my chest. It's not the testifying that ends, but the call to represent the savior and to witness of him that does, which I would change any one of their positions for! Even though the calling to be a full-time missionary will end, I hope that I can be a Faithful, Full-time Member!

President was kind enough to allow us this last week to be out proselyting and Finding, Teaching and Baptizing non-members!

This last week we were able to visit the branch of Visby. The island to the east of Sweden. It was amazing because they had, in a branch of 18, 19 investigators who showed up to hear president. That was amazing. That island was so touristic and beautiful. We came back and Syster Rönndahl, who taught us in the MTC, was over for dinner. On Sunday, we traveled to the center of sweden, Örebro. They had tried for a month to get this brazilian investigator to church, and it just so happened that the woman that they were teaching's parents were also in town from Sao Paulo and they all showed up to church when I happened to be there! Hello! The lord definitely had a purpose with that! I was able to translate from Swedish to Portuguese during sacrament meeting and they were very grateful. So after that I got their names and e-mails (for further proselyting in the future). The Lord is SO aware and really does LOVE all of us. He is mindful of our desires, weaknesses, and potential to become as him. Being on a mission has taught me endless things, but the most important is my Love for my savior, the people and myself. He has taught me how to recognize the sweet promptings of the spirit and has blessed me with Joy as I do so. I am thankful for the Atonement, and through it, it enables us to serve the lord with no regrets. I have learned that the Lords thoughts aren't our thoughts. But that doesn't mean that we can't know what they are! How joyful it has been to be out here and do the will of him who called me. I'm grateful that I was counted worthy to represent him. It was the best two years. It wasn't easy, but as Bishop Ralph Murray (Borås) says, "If it was easy, anybody could do it, but your're not just anybody!"

I love this work, and I know who's it is!

Love,

Äldste Adam Michael Webster

MTC (2 months) - Elder Chester

Lund (2 months) - Elder Lords

Växjö (4 months) - Elders Takahashi and Barlow

Borås (6 months) - Elder Bush, Stoddard, Nelson

Malmö (3 months) - Elder Winegar

Täby / Stockholm (6 months) - Elder Jorgensen

P.S. If this letter is all over the place... sorry... mixed emotions!

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!