ONE great week!

Hello dearest family! This week has gone by so fast! It's amazing how fast transfers go when you train! My greenie Äldste Stoddard is doing awesome... were just really trying to stick with Swedish out of the apartment so him and I can get better at it! But yeah, last week when we ate at the Anderson's house with grandfather we had a LARGE dish of Salmon... some salad and some baked potatoes which was delicious! Anyways.... About the one year thing... (thanks mom for the reminder)... I was talking to the secretaries and they said that my date has been moved up a week. So apparently I had a year left on September 9th. :( Kinda lame but this too is the Lords will so just gotta take it humbly...

This week has been great. One day we went out to a random place to teach another serbian family... we already felt bad for taking so much time out of the day for that and come to find out THEY were being sent back to Sweden and they thought that we could help them out with money... so on the train ride back we were kinda discouraged... As the bus stopped to pick up some people on the way a man from Germany came in the bus with his sketchy English and says.. Does this take me to Boras? As he came on the bus he sat right next to me and we were able to talk about why he was here.. why I was here... and what we were going to do about it! So he told us that he was taking a biking trip around Sweden and his knee was really hurting so he was going to stop in Borås and wait until his knee got better. We told him who we were and he had gotten 2 Books of Mormon in Germany already and Elder Stoddard happened to have another one. As we got off the bus we asked him if he would be interested in meeting with the missionaries in Vienna (where he studies) and he told us that "It is TOO much of a coincidence to ignore!) So he took the 3rd Book of Mormon to read while he was injured and we got his number and referred him to that mission where he lives! Tender Mercies! Also another way random and really small tender mercy... One day I was not too stoked to be going to this one investigators house.. We were on the bus... I was looking outside the bus and I passed this one lady that was walking outside the bus...and she looked at me and SMILED! I have no idea why... but that honestly made me the happiest person ever... Because usually we are faced with so much opposition... Someone to go out of their way and smile... It just felt good... ANYWAYS..

Henrik... one of our Swedish investigators that we were able to teach the Word of Wisdom too... totally understood that the way we can know if a commandment comes by God... is to TRY it! And he commited to it! Awesome! He also came to Joseph's Baptism and it was great... turns out he knows a guy in our ward who was there!

Alinda from Sierra Leone is doing great. We were able to ask her questions involving Baptism... come to find out she didn't know that much on the why behind baptism! As we told her that we are Baptized FOR the remission of Sin she was all for it! We set up a date for her and she said it was too soon... we asked her when she would like.. she said no date... but promised in 2010... After a while of telling her about Faith... we told her to pray about October 23rd... And so the closing prayer we told her to ask Heavenly Father about her date SPECIFICALLY.... and she did! The spirit was felt and so now we have that said.. with prayers and Faith and Fasting we all know that this will be good. She aswell came to the baptism... And our New convert Colette was such a friend to Alinda and amazing!

Joseph Ammed's BAPTISM on September 11, 2010 was AMAZING! He chose our ward mission leader to baptize and me to confirm! It was an amazing experience... not many people from the ward came... but enough to make him still feel comfortable... I kinda like to the confirmations more... You feel that special Power as you say "receive the Holy Ghost" and it puts a big smile on your face! He was so HAPPY and looking forward to the sacrament to MEAN something for him! It is amazing to see really how the Atonement can change EVERYONES countenances to a clean... innocent... and christlike look. It was amazing.. he also asked us where he could pay his tithing... he gave it to bishop kinda sad.. (because he has VERY little) but THEN and there Bishop bore a VERY strong testimony to him and made him feel like a million bucks! I LOVE THIS WARD!

Other investigators are doing great... loving the work... Finding a bunch of new investigators from India... new students coming in. Sharpening is tomorrow and today we are at Göteborg witha combined Zone activity!

Love you all so much!

Love,

Äldste Webster

One lonely little picture!

Us drawing the Plan on the ground. Sorry... no pictures from my camera when grandfather was here.. I was a serious slacker.

But sister and president and grandfather took many!

Weekend in Stockholm!

Kära familj och vänner,

First I want to thank the whoosie for the Atonement Study plans, those will be soo exciting to go through during my mission! And congrats again to swa and Jake to the new little baby! cuteness. A shout out to my lovely friends Connor and Lucas for their birthdays yesterday! Two great men that have really been GREAT POSITIVE influences in my life. I will be writing both of them for a little more personal notes but anyways... Also happy birthday to Grandfather on thursday! I remember his last birthday very well! (weird). He of course has always been an amazing man to look up to and has changed the lives of so many people, I would be the happiest man if I could help at least as half as many as he has! Thank you!

This week was a definite highlight of my mission! Before I talk about grandfather's visit I'll go through the week a little bit.

Li from China we were able to talk about his desire to spread the gospel to the people in China. For the past months he has been telling us that he hasn't felt the spirit while reading or praying. But he told us that he had felt really good while we are with him, when he comes to church and he has a strong desire to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked him Why he would have such a desire to spread something he didn't believe in. So we read through Moroni 7 a little bit with him. How him spreading it to his friends is charity... and the hope that he has is that they will believe in the message. So we told him that he may not realize it but he really does believe that there is a God. Where there is Charity and Hope... Faith is there also right? We told him to compare it to his favorite food. If he really liked it and was shring it with his friends... that would mean that he trusts that it will taste good for them. We asked, "would you tell your friend about something that you didn't believe in yourself?" He said no and we likened it to the Gospel... Why would he share it with other people if he didn't believe in it? He agreed. So we told him to read Alma 32 AGAIN with the small belief that he has and to apply it and he said he would. We will be meeting him tonight so we will see how that goes.

Henrik a SWEDISH MAN that we called one time answered and we were able to teach him the 1st lesson because all of his questions came from the 1st lesson. HE, like many swedes are in it for the knowledge, so by asking him questions it made him realize that this could actually apply to HIM and we are here to help HIM and not just inform, but to OFFER salvation! He is a big fan of reading and wanted to know about the Pearl of Great price, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation out of there and he liked it!

One night we had planned to go with our ward mission leader to Kiran, and then home teaching with him but Kiran fell though fell through.... so we ran by some members and no one was home. One of the members had been scheduled but was in Göteborg. So we went by one of our investigators Mohsin. Turns out he was really not interested at all but in it for the information. So we each bore testimony, wasn't receptive, and we left.

Joseph We were able to teach about the Law of Chastity, 10 Commandments and Tithing and he was willing for it all. While we were gone he went to church in Jönköping and Elder Barlow translated for him. He looks really ready for this saturday! We taught Colette (new convert from Ivory Coast) about holding to the Rod and she loved it! While we were gone she came to church and went up and bore her testimony on sunday and a member translated for her! AMAZING how they find the Faith themselves to get up there and bare their testimonies!

On thursday we had district meeting here in Borås with the Zone Leaders. It had to do with Listening and Teaching so that everything leads to the commitment they will get. I liked it a lot.

We met Kiran and was able to teach him about following Jesus Christ and being baptized and he said he would as soon as he has time to! Nothing is holding this man back except school. Which is frustrating sometimes but he said he would!

Michelle, we talked to her about her ability to choose between good and evil before and after baptism... and that it is only through baptism that she can return to her heavenly father. We talked with her about Moroni 7 too as well because she has a great hope to live with god again... and has felt the spirit. But just doesn't believe this is the spirit but believes it's herself.

Ok sorry this is really long. I will get to the point. Friday morning we left for Stockholm. We arrived around 3 o clock and stayed with the Secretaries (Elder BUSH and BLAYLOCK) until 4 o clock where we helped Sister Anderson prepare for dinner that would be me, my companion, the Andersons and Grandfather and Wendy. Grandfather arrived earlier than expected and it was so good to give them hugs and kisses! Pretty much that whole night I was in this half reality where it didn't really feel like grandfather was there... but I kept looking at him... and telling myself HE's really HERE! We took a little time to show him where I am serving, take pictures, had Salmon dinner, played piano, looked at his iPad (really cool by the way.. I approve) And just had a great time together. They asked my companion if I was a good trainer and how he was working hard... just some really intimidating questions but he passed! haha Grandfathers message the next day was amazing! He talked about Immortality and Eternal Life and how Living with Heavenly Father in a conditional gift and we are the instruments / conduets for people to access the Atonement of Jesus Christ. President Teixeira, Kopischke and their wives all got up and bore their testimony. They emphasized a lot about relating simply and QUICKLY to the message of the restoration. Just by doing that... it will give you light and help you find the ones that are prepared to receive the message of the restored GOSPEL. President Rasband talked about how the General Authoirties go out 2 by 2 just like us and how REAL the Preisthood Organization is the SAME as back in the Bible times! Very spiritual meeting. A very spiritual meeting... later that night we went with the secretaries and wrote out the Plan of Salvation on the ground and people walked by and we conversed with many and it was pretty successful. (picture following this). The next day was a combined stake conference with Stockholm and Stockholm South stakes in a concert hall. Most missionaries were told to sit up on the stand so that ius what we did. Amazing talks were given. Wendy did an amazing comparison between the many Rocks in Sweden.. the many waters... the Light.. and many different things that symbolized the Savior in this country. Grandfather told the story about Russia and him getting permission to preach the gospel there. Later in his talk he, of course, called all the missionaries to stand up.. and then sit down.. then he mentioned how one of his grandchildren was serving here and wanted me to go up in front of 1,400 swedes. He asked, is there anything you would like to say? being caught completely offguard I said "tack för allt ni gör" Or thanks for everything you all do!He then told everyone my background, went to brazil, speaks fluent portuguese... born Jan 30th 1991.... It was kinda scary but funny at the same time. He then told me to tell the experience of me opening my mission call. So I did it in English because the translator was already there. But it was an amazing spiritual experience. He then asked me to sit down.. He talked about how bright the future was for me and the people of sweden.... he then said a great line which I will always remember... Its always hard to see the BRIGHT future when the current in gloomy. With the atonement, we can always have the Perfect Brightness of Hope and never be down, even wen difficult circumstances are around us.

Sorry this is very long... but I hope you will forgive me. I Love you all so much and thanks for your love, prayers, and support for everything you do for me! Thank you mom for the gift! The two CDS and the cards! very useful I LOVE IT!

Well, I hope to get more emails next week... but I am thankful for what I get anyways....

The Church is True,

Äldste Wad

GREETINGS!

Daddy and Wendy are on a European tour after the 
dedication of the Ukraine, Kiev Temple.  They
were assigned to go to Sweden... this is a love note/
email, about their visit with Aldste Adam!

Dearest Sylvia & Dave ,
We had dinner tonight with Adam and his companion.
Pres. Anderson & his wife hosted the dinner at
the mission home. They are fantastic! 
Adam & Elder Stoddard are happy and well.
They are doing well, teaching
and baptizing. We got good photos.
Just quick note now to update you.

Love you!
Daddy & Wendy

Another great week

Hello dearest family! Thanks for keeping me in the loop of whats going on! I love your letters! Congrats to Swakeny (Swa jake and whitney) for another! Super exciting.... I'm pretty sure by the time i'll come home I will have at least 10 new faces that I have never seen before! Keep up the good work! Exciting stuff about the Mantua cabin... Congrats to Lara on her contest the picture is BEAUTIFUL (Mostly Nossa Senhora McKenna!) The Stake Conference notes are well appreciated and will be studying up on those. And about the Atonement Study plan... if you ever have that... I would love to follow along with the stake!

Another great week has FLOWN BY! Joseph from Nigeria has been given a baptismal calendar and has been reading everything which was written on it... We taught him about following the prophet and keeping the word of wisdom! At first we thought he had a problem with coffee and tea... because he went on this long tangent about being addicted to things... and then after we bore our testimonies he Said, "yeah I know... I have no problem with the Word of Wisdom... that was just an example... Of course I will follow whatever comes out of the Servant of the Lord's mouth!" We had a member with us... we had our share of laughs and moved on. He is strong and I KNOW that it's because he is reading the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY! It is amazing to see if they really do feast upon the words of christ... it will show them what to do! Uncle Ringwoods talk really has made a difference in the way I present the commandments to my investigators now... he said " A easiness and willingness to believe comes by keeping the commandments" Something like that.. SOO TRUE! As he came to church with a member he had a great time... members translated for him, welcomed him and wanted to order the Ensign already!

Alinda from Sierra Leone is doing great... still progressing in her own ways... Recently we have been going through the lessons ONE principle at a time... because she has gone throught 3 sets of missionaries... And by the time we got to her.. she didn't know that Jesus Christ visited the Americas... D´oh.. anyways... she is slowly progressing... But seeing the much opposition that comes into her life from reading the Book of Mormon... we know the Lord still wants her to be baptized... she does too... she just doesnt feel ready. Asking Inspired Questions has helped so much with her. Instead of giving her the commitments... we ask her questions so that she teaches herself on why she needs to keep the commitment.

This past week our chinese investigators have been preparing for entrance exams so this week we will be seeing how they have been doing. Michelle has been doing AWESOME. We have now been able to get her to recognize the Holy Ghost... her problem is believing that these feelings come from God and she isn't just doing it to herself. Satan is doing his best with her... but I am certain she will be baptized... just patience.

Colette our recent convert is doing great.. comes to church without us inviting her and just loves it here. Zaki and Zeina have bth recently got jobs in Göteborg (1 hour away) and work every friday saturday and sunday... (except they are working there for an internship... so they get no money). So we are just trying to help them understand the importance of renewing their covenants every week by going to church. You never realize how important Sacrament meeting is (to an extent) until you are a missionary... You are doing everything you can to get them to church.... so they can feel the spirit... feel at home.. and have the feeling of "I need to come here every sunday... what do I need to do?" BE BAPTIZED!

This week I have just really begun to have a deeper understanding of the Atonement and what that means for me, our investigators and EVERYONE that we encounter! How grateful I am for the enabling power of such a gift!

Thursday will be district meeting... then my companion and I will be going to STOCKHOLM on Friday ( Dinner with him and president) Saturday (Conference) and Sunday (Combined Stake conference) to see GRANDFATHER give a special address to 2 Zones in our mission! I can't wait...

Well this week has been exciting... This is Sweden's last semester for providing free education for EVERYONE so there have been many chinese and Indians and people from all over the world coming. (I wonder if they knew that God really had another purpose in mind for them?) With the spirit.. we'll just have to go and tell them ourselves! This Gospel is True... Onward!

Dearest family, you are great!

Love, Äldste Wad

Teaching people, Not lessons.

Amazing week! I just wanted to start out by thanking all of you who wrote me this week! Oh wait... It was only my lovely mother! It's a good thing there is such a thing as forgiveness HAIGH! So this past week has been an amazing eye-opener! It started out with Zone Conference where president introduced the 8 new curricula that were to be added to/ emphasized in Preach My Gospel. And most of them had to do with Teaching! Let me just tell you how many times I have fasted and prayed to become a better teacher, read through chapter 10 about 100 times and felt like no improvement was being made. I had known that without the spirit you cannot teach so I was doing my best to be 110% obedient so that the Spirit would be able to testify to the people of the truthfulness of the message that we teach. Long story short... The Zone Conference laid it all out for me... danced around in my soul... and testified that this would work! As mentioned there are about 8 different subjects they would talk about. But they will be only teaching one every month... so that by spring next year the new missionaries will be allowed to be taught it. We talked about Teaching people and not lessons. A lot of it had to do with Asking Inspired questions... Listening... and (my favorite) TRUSTING in the SPIRIT to leave what you had planned that morning and go directly to their needs´. By doing this... the spirit will be able to testify to them because as they answer our questions they teach themselves of truths. We ask them how they feel... and then follow up with a simple WHY? Which allows you perfect time to testify and allow them to recognize the Spirit in their Conversion. The assistants showed us the district 2 video which is day and night compared to the other one... and really showed our the differences that the companionships can have... if taken care of properly... can add to the Spirit and not drive it away! The Zone Leaders talked about different tools that we as missionaries could use while teaching (being many) and encouraged us to use them to spice up our teaching. Amazing.

So Later that night we came back and were able to have dinner with the ward mission leader and 1 investigator Michelle from china, and Zaki and Zeina who were recently baptized. We were able to watch the Special Witnesses of Christ video. As I asked them how they felt... they couldn't sense the reality of an apostle of Jesus Christ here on Earth. My ward mission leader had earlier that day recommended that I bare testimony of grandfather and how real he is. I had never done such a thing, I had never wanted to flaunt such a thing to complete stangers who didn't necessarily NEED to know. (Besides the fact that I don't tell anyone... everyone already knows) But I felt an impression that I should. And I did. I bore testimony of Christ and the atonement... I told them that I know that those men are inspired men of God and that God continues to reveal his secrets to these men. As I said... my grandfather is one of these men... Tears came to the eyes of my ward mission leader... Michelle nodded.. then did a double take... and they were blown away. Amongst the awkwardness of the situation... The spirit was so strong... and perhaps wanted to let me know the reality of his Holy Apostleship. How thankful I am to be born in this loving family where the gospel is so strong... and love constantly Felt. Anyways.... long tangent... but it had to be said! :)

We found a new man from India who had accepted another visit from us. We taught HIM, not a lesson! As we began to know his religious background... what he wanted to know fit perfectly in with the first lesson... As we listened and asked questions... the lesson... had seemed like it was going nowhere! But we closed and he had told us that he was VERY grateful that we listened to HIM, and answered HIS questions and did all we could to get HIM to understand our message. But we were thinking to ourselves.. yeah yeah... he's just being nice. But we told him to give the closing prayer.. and although reluctant... he offered the prayer. He closed we smiled and we walked him back to the bus stop. Then questions like.. what do I need to do once I know the Book of Mormon is true? Do I need to read the whole book? came up... andwe told him about the Authoirty being restored... again.. and then Baptism... and he changed the subject. The bus was coming... and he told us thank you again and said.. "you know.. I actually wanted to say... While I was praying... I felt this warmness in my heart that I haven't felt in a long time. Very surprised we said... YOU DID?! He said yes.. the spirit was very stong as we said thats IT! That is the spirit! He said.. Really? OK! We will definitely talk later!" And we went our separate ways. Just a testimony to me that the Lord shows his spirit in HIS time and in HIS way! Man this gospel is true.

Another teach with a man from Nigeria, Joseph has a strong desire to serve God. So we based our whole teach on that. And at the End we commited him to Baptism on the 11th of September... and he said WHAT TIME? haha Amazing! So the next teach we brought the ward mission leader.. made up a Baptismal Calender... And he came to church the next day with it all filled out with appointments... scriptures and lessons to be taught before his baptism! He is ON TRACK!

Many of our other investigators are preparing for the beginning Exams... but the Work is going forward... Michelle and Li are well on their way towards baptism... this is just very new to them... but with patience I know they will be baptized! Alinda came to church after a long time... and she loved it so she is also well on her way!

This is the lords work! Hope to hear from you all next week!

Love, your little brother... Äldste Wad

By the way... it is back to school sales going on here... and so... my camera is kinda lame... maybe you can tell from the pictures... but I am thinking about getting a new one for the rest of the mission? Let me know next week if you support my decision. But I will be getting a European collar shirt and a new suit for when grandfather comes so I will look good and because the suits and shirts are like half off right now soo.. yeah... So exciting! Thanks for writing me! Love ya mamma!

TACK

Wow. today was definitely a record high for e-mails in my inbox... but hey... what do you do? granted.. 3 of them were from Brynn... NBD!

Dearest family! thanks for your amazing emails! Truly inspiring and totally what I needed!

This week has been great. We were able to see one of our investigators from India Anirudh after a while and he is coming ba´ck into the school schedule so he will be less busy (weird right?). Unfortunately one of our great investigators Surendra, we had given him the Gospel Principles book because he was so positive... he read a little bit about what Joseph Smith said about Heavenly Father... as well as our potential to become like him... therefore... quit investigating the church. But I too... like Paul.. am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and will continue to search the elect who have been prepared by the Lord. Li from China has come back from vacation there and has been doing great! We were able to get a baptismal date with him. So we called president and he told us to change it because SOMEONE would be coming by for a visit on September 4th. Grandfather! So we went back and talked to Li about the date and he said he had been talking with his father that previous night and he told him that he shouldn't because his dad had just enrolled him in the communist party. Therefore... he has a great decision on his plate... Stay communist and have "benefits" when he retuns back home. OR be baptized and return home with different beliefs and recieve the eternal benefits that the Lord has waiting for him. He told us that his main concern was his belief in God. He said he just wants to make 100% sure that God exists... then he will do EVERYTHING for him! haha so he says... but that is a man with great hope! He just needs to put that hope into Action! Any advice?

One day we were able to go contacting and we were able to find a guy who didn't understand that much of what we said. He comes from Turkey and his name is Daniel. We told him about our message and he said "yes I will come to your church!" Funny thing is is that we didn't even commit him to... he just wanted to! We were able to teach the 1st lesson to him. It made sense to him, but his problem is that he works friday, saturday and sundays.... also is illiterate. So with much Faith and Prayers... his desire to come to church will bring us some results.

Our 3 new converts are doing great. Zaki from Afghanistan got ordained a Priest on Sunday, moved in with our ward mission leader... and is doing great. Zeina from Lebanon has been out of town the past couple of weeks... but just got back yesterday and was able to take the sacrament! It brought peace to my soul seeing the new converts coming to church and Enduring it WELL to the End. Colette from Ivory Coast is doing super great we were able to show her the restoration film and she loved it. Our two swedish investigators are doing great... they are slow with commitments... but progressing in their own ways! Michelle our awesome investigator from China is DONE working everyday all summer so we were able to meet with her again. She has forgotten a lot so I kinda think of it as a good way to get on the right foot with her again. Build up her Faith a lot... and then commit to live the Word of Wisdom.. and be BAPTIZED! Kiran from India is an amazing investigator... he is busy with school right now but is really searching for truth and has a desire to come to church and read the Book of Mormon... when he has time... so just patience with him. Alinda from Sierra Leone we actually found out has left there because of the Diamond conflict there (Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone... ANYONE?) anyways... we were able to give her a really powerful lesson about holding to the rod... a member was there to bear testimony and the spirit was really strong there telling that she needed to commit doing a lot more than what she is doing right now. Slowly but surely she will be baptized.

Well tomorrow we have Zone Conference which I am super excited for! Well... this gospel is true! I am blessed to be born and raised in it!

Dearest family you are the best! Keep up the writing and talk to you next week!

Love, Wad