Goodbye Växjö

Well hello dearest family! This last week was pretty amazing and the Lord has really blessed us with finding these new people in preparation for the new transfer!

I am really glad to hear that the family had a blast in Las Vegas and that the temple visit was amazing. I remember going through with my homies and it really was an amazing temple! Good times there.

Well this morning after intensely waiting for Presidents call, he gave us our assignments on where we are going!

Elder Barlow is going to be staying here in Växjö and training a newbie. I wasn't guessing that... but it must be inspired! He told me that I would be moving to Borås! It's an average sized town an hour train ride out of Göteborg (Gothenburg), he told me that I would be SENIOR to a 1 transfer old elder named Elder Bush. Don't know much about him but I heard he is an amazing missionary and tall. AMAZING! So this is going to be amazing! Pretty crazy that i'm going senior... but we must press forward with Fe right?! yikes... but some amazing news is that Äldste Winegar will be training and MY district leader! AWESOME! So we will have a little weekly family gathering! Amazing!

Elder chester my MTC comp is going to Gotland (the big island to the right of Sweden). PERFECT for him.

Elder Lords... my dad... is dying (going home). Sad things.

Elder Takahashi is going Zone Leader in Stockholm so we are pretty stocked about that!

I feel good about leaving Växjö because you can always count on the greenies to work hard and take care of it! So I will be emailing ya'll more details on Monday about my new Area and companion! FUN STUFF!

This week has been pretty amazing!

Sebastian and Joakim have been out of town and still hanging in there! they have been reading and praying and really trying hard to recieve an answer. Sometimes you wish so bad for your investigators to recieve answers and become converted, but something I really have learned while I have been here is that the Lord really does have a time and a place for EVERYTHING. No matter how obvious something may seem to you. We have been fasting and praying for these two and really wish the best for them in becoming converted to the GOSPEL.

Rikard the swede who has been pretty depressed was taught the gospel and much about the atonement. We challenged him to Baptism and he said he would think about it. Otherwise he is doing great and reading and praying.

Haviera the little girl who wants to come to Jesus' house couldn't come on Sunday but she should be meeting us this week and am really excited to see what happens with that girl.

Efrem the man from Ethiopia we were able to teach and we commited him to baptism and said that he would but just needs to read more of the Book of Mormon. He should be getting a date soon!

Other than that this week we have really been blessed by finding some good investigators so that the work here in Växjö can go forward.

Don't have much more time to write because we get to teach the twins now! But I will be emailing you on Monday from Borås so that will be super exciting!

Love you all and thanks for writing!

Love

wad

((((I got LOTS of pictures last Monday, but can't figure out how to get them off the card... they are coming soon... he looks awesome! :)))))

Yay for CHURCH!

Well this past week has been pretty amazing. Last Monday, after 6 oclock we went to see this part-member ish family. The miracle of it all was that we arrived at the door and discovered that it was port-coded. So we called up to the house and there was no answer. So we were pretty down and just as we were about to leave a Swede walks up to the locked door and walks in... we being the rebels we are grabbed onto the door and entered the apartment building. We took the elevator up and rang their door-bell. The person who opened that door was that Swedish man that unlocked the down-stairs door and we said we were from the church of Jesus Christ and asked if the wife (who we were looking for) was home. She came up to the door and welcomed us in and sat us down. The husband left.. (avoiding all religious matters) and we were able to talk to the wife, her daughter who is 12 and the 3 year old son. We were able to get along well because she is from chile... (speaking fluent spanish) who can also speak English because she was taught that language and is the language her and her husband use to communicate (that being her second language). And she can also speak Swedish pretty well... and since we were american she wanted to practice her english with us. SHE COULDN'T DO IT! I have FINALLY found someone that knows how I feel! I KNOW I knew portuguese so well... and here in sweden it just CAN'T me out! So that was a cool bonding moment. ANYways... we talked to them and the mom's situation is that she has talked to the missionaries before in Chile. Her mom is LDS and her brother had served a mission recently. She never joined the church because she had some problems in joining the church. But her 12 year old daughter had gone to church in Chile with her grandma and that is why she came last week... because SHE LIKES TO BE IN JESUS' HOUSE! i LOVED it. The mom said she had no problem letting her daughter go to the church because she KNOWS it's a good place to be. As we were saying our goodbyes... we were leaving and the little girl uttered, "thanks so much for coming! I will be coming next sonday too!" The awesome thing was that she didn't only come... but she brought her friend Camilla to church and had an amazing time in Primary! We should be meeting the mom and her (chaviera) sometime this week to see if we have permission to BAPTIZE her!

Joakin & Sebastian - Tuesday we talked to them about obedience and receiving a witness after the trial of their Faith.. and so we challenged them to Baptism... No luck... but they are still willing to read, pray and come to church. They just feel like it is taking a big step and they feel like they need to feel something from praying before they commit to baptism. The next visit we talked about Fasting, following the prophet and the Word of Wisdom... they said it made sense... but that they drink black tea... It's ALL about this answer they get. They are doing great.. they read and pray sincere prayers during the lessons... SLOWLY but SURELY!

Princess - we are unpleased to say that she hasn't been answering texts, calls go straight to answering machine... and have tried going to her house.. no Answer. Not the Lord's time I guess.

We were able to go to the campus and look up a few religious teachers and ask them some questions if there was any religious groups available to talk to. They said that there was.. but that the year is ending and everyone is studying for tests... and then moving away... wrong timing of the year... but a good thing to do... get as many people to teach as you can!

We were able to teach Marvin a little lesson and then taught his younger brother Benjamin who is 16 years old! We taught him the whole first lesson and said he didn't have any questions and that him and Marvin talk a lot about it together.. Teens are tough! But we had a chance to watch a CES fireside yesterday at the church and he came with and he enjoyed the talk elder Rasband gave. Surrounding yourself with good friends to influence you to make correct choices. Amazing.

Pan our other recent convert has been a little slack in coming to church so we decided to show our support by going to a Sushi night where she made sushi and she was really thankful.

District Meeting was combined with another district because of visa renewals... come to find out it was a holiday.. so the immigrations office was closed. District Meeting was amazing where we talked about MIRACLES coming by Faith. Elder Takahashi showed us an equation which was AMAZING!

MIRACLES=FAITH^p

Faith^p= (Hard WorkxObediencexprayer)^p

What does ^p mean? PASSION... our DESIRES... make sure our desires are in hard work... obedience... and prayer... and if they arent... try your hardest and pray so that these things can become your desires. And When this happens... so do the MIRACLES! awesome!

After that we knocked on a potential investigators door and he answered and let us in... it also just so happens that another Potential Investigator was in the same house. So we taught them both the message of the restoration! The only difficult thing about it was that ne was Muslim and the other was Christian... hmmm... it went really well and we commited them to come to church and one of them.. Efrem from Ethiopia did! He stayed the first two hours and enjoyed my chopped up translating skills!

Somayeh - after we had told her that we can't keep teaching her if she doesn't take steps we stopped calling her. But without fail she calls us up and asks to meet and we ask her if she read and prayed and she says YES.. then we ask her how it felt and she says.. good. And then we ask how her reading went and she said it was nothing new.. Haha We asked her if she wants to get baptised and she says yes but she can't do a date because she doesn't really know if she will be in Sweden and is too busy with tests right now. Confusing I know... but slowly but surely.

Other than that the week has been amazing. Marvin and his brother went to a musical in Malmö about how the church started in Sweden and they said they liked it! Marvin blessed the sacrament and he was way nervous but I told him I would do the bread first and then he could do the water... he did it perfectly the first time through and it really has been such a blessing to see how far someone can come because of the small and simple things that they do... but really make a difference... Read.. pray... come to church...

We were blessed to have 5 investigators in church today! 1 woman and her child from germany... the 12 year old girl and her friend.... Efrem... and Sandra (the Sambo problem woman)'s daughter who came to church. We were really blessed this sunday.

So it really is amazing how fast this transfer has gone... 2 general authority visits.. general conference.. mothers day call... AMAZING things!

But now has come the time that next week is transfer week so I will surely let you know if I stay or if I go! I will be mailing you guys on Wednesday instead but I am looking forward to transfers who knows if I will get to see more than the South of Sweden?! Haigh! But any news on the house in Mantua yet? you guys could email me a picture of the iPad & the whoosie... maybe even the house in Mantua... why not?! Well I love you all and thanks for your love and prayers! The church couldn't BE any more true! Everyone in the fam has a whoole week AND A HALF to write me so get er done!

Peace,

Äldste Wad

P.s. I think this letter is long... ma bad

Happy Mother's Day!

Well family I honestly don't know what to tell you. I just talked to you yesterday but....

I am so thankful for all of those who were able to make it to the Call and it was AMAZING to hear you voices! Good to hear that Dad is STILL going crazy in the head about the House in Mantua but there is no opposition to the idea on this end of the world! Let me know about that!

Well... this week was amazing because I was able to visit with Elder and Sister Teixeira and they left everyone in the room with their Jaws DROPPING! It was amazing. He does a really good job opening missionary's eyes to see that missionary work is a lot more than just Contacting and Tracting but that the LORD has prepared the people here in Sweden just as much in Brasil! which was an amazing reminder to me on how I felt at the beginning of my mission!

Highlights were that we were able to get a baptismal Date with Princess for the 22nd of May but she texted us a few days later and Satan did what he does best and tried her MUCH! So we will be keeping in touch with her and trying to get her baptized! We then had the Twins we found come to church and they came in suit and white shirt and tie and EVERYTHING! it was awesome! The members were there and really took them in well! They couldn't stay after but asked us to give them more to read because they finished their reading already! They also asked when the next time was that we would meet so we will be meeting them tomorrow and we will see if they have the desire to be Baptized! It is looking really positive!

Anyways... that stinks that Jake and Ailin and the BRS and Laurie and Laura and baby Mac I couldnät talk to... but meh... it's alright... we'll talk in SEVEN months! HAIGH! Well.. I forgive you all... that just means that you have the chance to WRITE me more... RIGHT?! Oh...

Well family I love you all... the Gospel is true and it is the ONLY WAY back to our Heavenly Father. I'm glad I have the family that I have... Don't change... just multiply and replenish the earth!

Love your one and only,

Äldste Wad

(See letter and picture below! Fun things!)

Happy Mother's Day

I just got this email today... The Teixeira's were able to visit Sweden last week and had an "ADAM SIGHTING"!!! Sister Teixeira was so sweet to email this to me!
A little tender mercy, I'd say! I LOVE IT

Dear Sylvia,

I have the best present ever...a special photo of

Elder Webster in Sweden!

We just return from a wonderful mission tour there.

He is doing great. We loved being with him.

Happy Mothers Day!

Love,

Sister Teixeira

Hey there good lookin...

This has been a really good week and am so thankful for the Lord's hand in this work. Highlights of the week was that Marvin our recent convert received the priesthood on Sunday and after we ordained him he just took a deep breath and just said WOW! He shook our hands and gave us hugs and talked to me after and said that he was really filled with this sudden urge to Love everyone and really felt so good! It has really been a humbling experience to see the Converting POWER of the Atonement and how much the Gospel can change a person's life for the better. Pan... after a few rough weeks with the government issue she decided to come to church and that was an amazing chance to finally see her taking the sacrament after trial upon trial had been coming upon her. Our two new converts are doing great and staying strong! I think what really helped is calling members to come with on the visits so that they have someone there for them when they come to church.

Wednesday we had the amazing opportunity to be with the assisstants for a day and exchange words of advice at the end. Elder Bennion was my companion and really showed me how exciting and happy you really need to be to not only TELL... but SHOW people that the Gospel brings Happiness! We were able to contact into a man who was a previous investigator but hadn't been in contact because he was in the hospital. We taught him that night and he is reading and praying and starting out fresh. Should have potential for a Baptismal date sometime.

Another one of our highlights. After a day filled with finding work we were tracting our last building. As we rang this persons doorbell, this swedish... in his 20's male came to the door and was interested to hear what we had to say... he took us in and after we took off our shoes I looked up and this guy decided to greet me again... it was weird but I shook his hand anyways and then walked in their living room. Come to find out that that man was not weird... but that they were TWINS! Long story short.. we taught them the first lesson, taught them how to pray and they said they would do it. We came back a few days later and they both had read and prayed and had questions on the exact thing we had planned to teach them the second time! It was amazing to teach them and really be blessed to find these 2 agnostic swedish brothers that are accepting our message and applying it! It was amazing!

After we had our correlation meeting on thursday the mission leader and relief society leader didn't think we would be able to celebrate Valborg (the kings birthday where people make huge bon fires and set off fireworks) in time. But that night the branch president called us and said he was willing to do it if we could find investigators to come. So we called people that night and the next day had an amazing time where members came, the recent converts each brought a friend, and two investigators showed up! It was out of nowhere but we made it happen!

Somayeh is getting closer to a date but has decided that she has to get a testimony of Christ being the Son of God before she goes any further. So we will be showing her the Restoration and emphasizing the importance on praying about the Book of Mormon to know if Christ is the Son of God and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Our investigators have been busy with their last minute school things but they are progressing none the less!

Äldste Barlow is doing great and is doing more and more finding work every day. Things are going well here in Växjö and trying to get these investigators in the WATER!

There is really not much else to say about this week but thats awesome to hear about my Jazz homies and of course the Lakers probably beat them... what else is new? That stake conference sounded AMAZING! That must have been an amazing experience to hear all of them! Well I'm not going to say that much because I have decided to call all of you at 7:30 am YOUR TIME which is actually 3:30 pm here. (8 hour difference) sooo next week.. sorry it's a little inconvenient for you all but if you really want to talk to me you will make it! :) the 16th would have been too late at night for me... so I hope you guys can all make it then and expect a call next sunday at 7:30 am. But you all should think of questions so we dont waste time huh?! I probably should too. Oh well. Well I will be seeing Elder Teixeira on Wednesday so I am looking forward to that and I'll let you know how it goes!

Well family I love you a bunch and I hope I get to hear the little one's voices!

Love always,

Äldste Wad

Zone conference and Special Visitors

Where's Aldste Webster??? ;)
Malmö Zone Conference... March 2010

The Göteborg and Malmö Zones enjoy a visit
from President Snow and Elder Caussé
at the Malmö Chapel... April 2010
Can you find Aldste Webster AND Aldste Winegar???

HOORAY!! Alive and well! :)

Vägledning‏

This week was a pretty average week with a lot of ups and downs but I am really thankful that we were able to go to the conference in Malmö and feel the spirit and receive answers to my questions!

But we will talk about our investigators first!

One of our investigators whose name is Sebastian is a really interesting man. He comes from Ireland but was raised in Japan and then moved to sweden half way through his life. He was most comfortable with English so we were able to teach him that way! We had met him twice before and he had been really curious to know which religion is true and he had told us that he had gone around to every single one and tried what they said and had never been able to get an answer if they were true. So many of his questions involved If God exists then why does this happen? and had his mind really set on that he has tried so many ways so there is no way the Mormons could have the way. After we went through the 1st and 2nd lessons what really hit him was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We read through Alma 32 with him and his friend that he brought with him... and by the end of this lesson we were blessed with the spirit to be able to answer all of their questions. He was finally able to see that Faith is a lot more than belief... that Faith is a principle of Action. Which is something that we talked about when Elder Snow spoke. In life we go through this process of having a desire, acting upon our desires, and then receiving some type of confirmation/assurance to know if it is a "good seed". He was then able to realize that it was nothing that we could show him that would get him to believe in what we say... but its in the doing that we recieve our answers. HE (just like many teen-agers) was not able to commit to reading and praying and making the necessary changes to receive the True happiness the gospel brings. So we sent them on their way with Books of Mormon in their hands and with a commitment to when they have time and desire happiness, to read pray and call our number when they were ready. It was AMAZING! We felt really good that we had tried all we could to INVITE them to COME unto Christ. He's a good man.
Somayeh from Iran we have visited a couple of times during the week and has gone from listening.. to reading.. to reading and praying... and accepted the commitment to be baptized. But she did not want to put a date on it because she doesnt know where she is going to be during the summer.... so we asked her if she would get baptized before the summer and she said she would but she is finishing up school right now and is really busy and wants to get done with school before she commits with a date. I guess it's just a matter of time but she has a desire to be baptized.
Tony from Iraq had us over for a lesson and we showed him Ezekiel 37 and then a scripture from the Book of Mormon and connected the two. He was really impressed by the message but it turns out that he has now been having us over for the benefit it has been to his financial life to have us over. And just wants us over for that and does not desire to change his beliefs, it's too bad but we have to move on to progressing investigators.
Princess came to church last week and then came to a soccer activity on Saturday and said she would come to church... but she got a last minute call from work and she had to work. So we will probably be teaching her this week and see how her praying is going and explain the Faith process to her. She is looking positive too!
Claudette is a referral machine. We have been going by her house to teach her but she is never home. But 2 different people have answered the door and they both have said that she wasn't there so we asked them if they would be interested and they gave us their numbers and said they were! AMAZING! We went by her another time and she was there with her romanian friend who she has been reading the Book of Mormon with and we just so happened to have a Romanian Book of Mormon with us and we gave it to her and said we could meet sometime.
We were able to go on exchanges with Halmstad and me and Elder Olsen really enjoyed our time together, and were really able to contact and teach by the spirit. It seems to be a lot easier to do things by the spirit with someone you get along with really well. I think that is relevant to every companionship that you are in. It really is important to be in Unity first, be obedient, worthy, work hard and then we are enabled to teach by the spirit to commit people to come unto Christ through BAPTISM. And Elder Takahashi (my previous companion) and elder barlow were in Växjö and he got to see both Pan and Marvin when he was here so that was nice for him!
Soumitro is doing really well but he isn't keeping his commitments and really busy with school so we have to hold off from him for a while.
Other than that I was really able to enjoy Elders Snow and Causse (and wives)'s visit. One of my favorite things from that was how central our purpose to Baptize really is and how we need to do everything within our power to HELP the people "take up their bed and Walk" and to make sure that we do everything to receive referrals, and take every opportunity to commit someone to Baptism so that the answer will "be upon their heads", and sharpening our sickle by being obedient to reap the rewards of our Faith.

^^^^^^^

Well it was amazing to receive such great emails from you guys and little Truman sounds like he's doing amazing! I received my Easter package yesterday and those little SLara chocolates are so FESTIVE! haha I will make sure to chomp their heads off. Hopefully I will be able to get my other package next week when Elder Teixeira visits!!!! Because it not only has to be under 4lbs but has to fit through this little slot in our door so I hope to be getting that soon! Thank you so much for that! That is so CRAZY that Riley Dean is out on the mission now! man how time flies! And it's pretty sweet to hear that david escorted him! I remember a russian elder escorted me so that is neat. Thanks for sending those AMAZING pictures of the homies at the reception and Ri's farewell! As far as Mother's day goes... its a tough situation.... because I really want to talk to you on THE day... but ya know Dad is seeking first the kingom of God so I can't complain. I guess I can just ask President this week about that but I would say since dad gets out of church on the 16th at 10... I would say 18.00 my time on the 16th? We'll just call that the plan for now... but if not I'll let you know next week. I can't remember when President Teixeira is going to come on monday or tuesday or wednesday of next week... But just don't worry... the latest I'll write you is on tuesday next week. So we'll figure it out then! And YES I was able to see Elder Winegar yesterday and he is looking GOOD as ever! I was able to see Elder Chester and Jorgensen my MTC homies so it was really a good time! They came down to Malmö for Elder Snow and this time Malmö Zone is going up to Göteborg for Elder Teixeira! So we'll be seeing each other AGAIN! its AWESOME! So hopefully I will be sending pictures home this week. Sorry I have been slacking you just never really find time to MAKE a package on the mission. Maybe today... hmmm we'll see! HAIGH! Well... as fun as it is to keep babbling on... I have nothing else to say! but I love my Family and really thankful for the opportunity that I have to be on a mission right now and I have been learning WAY too much! haha it's just been amazing!

Keep populating the earth, family! Be smart... Be yourselves... Be the BOMB like you always are!

Love you all!

Äldste WAD