August 27, 2014

Manchester Night Light.

August 27, 2014

Dear Residents Abroad,

So I'm emailing late because we went to the Preston Temple for our P-day, which was so amazing. The inside is beautiful and I was really inspired there. Did you know they have a third new temple video? I'm sure every member in Utah has their opinion about whether they like it or not haha. My mission president loves the temple so hopefully we can go a lot. It was a bank holiday on Monday so it was open to missionaries.

Can't think of much that was too crazy this week. The Mongolian students that came to church are officially investigators and have started praying. We have to teach them very simply and ordered copies of pamphlets and the Book of Mormon in Mongolian. Other than that we don't really have any investigators we are seriously working with. The YSA ward is crazy because there are four companionships, three of which are Mandarin, and we all kind of fight for whom to work with haha. I have realized I have no desire to look back on my mission and remember silly missionary drama, so I just want to find the Asians who will hear the good word and call it a night. The Manchester Zone is supposed to be the really powerful one full of assistants, zone leaders, sister training leaders, and the elite breed haha so you can imagine there's competition and distraction.

Nah but it's all good, there's really intense opposition in the mission right now. My companion said this week was like the hardest of his mission with just random things that get in the way. It kind of excites me because I know there is something good on the way. I know this is such a missionary thing to say but I have never been more grateful for how hard this is because I am coming to know my Savior so much everyday. President Ulrich has basically explained to us that we are setting too many precedents and he wants to see Brigham Youngs and Heber C. Kimballs out here! And it all has to do with family history and retention and things.

So here is my missionary challenge to all of you. I get so frustrated when we have an investigator come to an activity, or we know someone is less-active and hardly wants to be there, and no one reaches out to them. The YSA ward here is helpful, but I think too often we come to church activities to be social with our friends and not really progress Heavenly Father's purpose of the church. I am guilty of this myself when I was home, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying your member friends, but I have a commitment to look for people who need strengthening when I come home at every angle. You feel me? Missionaries sometimes have to shoulder this alone but people can't really become active, happy members unless the ward puts in just as much effort.

So it's a grand time out here in the work. I can't wait till the day when I can send you a picture of the font filled and a little man from Hunan or Hubei or Shanghai next to me, but it takes a lot of work.

Dad, we only walk. I rode buses in Chorley a lot but here we are pedestrians all the time. Only leadership has cars and biking areas are something I hope to avoid haha.

Sorry all if I can't respond to your individual emails, we don't have loads of time this week 'cause we gotta' hit the streets!

Love you all,

Elder James Lynn Heber Weggberts

August 18, 2014

So that North Face jacket I brought out expecting to wear it come December? It's already in my daily wardrobe. This country has no summer and no sunshine hahaha.

Loved ones of my past life before the ministry,

I come to you this week with more tales of the woes of life as an Elder. I know refer to myself in my head as Elder Webb, no longer James. I forget that I'm wearing strange clothing when we enter shopping centres. I don't remember what it's like to plan on driving somewhere. In fact, it's bizarre to me that the people around me don't have accents, and I sometimes forget my companion doesn't understand when I speak Chinese with people.

These are good signs. The past is meshed into an abstract continuum to only draw principles from to assist me in this work. Medieval architecture has ceased to be a phenomenon to my eyes. But the week was great!

I have a Chinese investigator who wants to be baptised. Apparently he just needs his mom's permission hahaha. He is 24 and named Li Xiang. I don't think he understands yet what the church is but we've only taught him a few times. So that will all be exciting. I can't promise much.

I don't think I really ever understood the Restoration until my mission. You have to help people understand it from every background, so you really begin to understand its significance as you teach it. The workings and plans of the Lord are evident on every continent and missionaries get to realize it every day.

Funny story of the week, we went to the park to find Chinese kids playing basketball and stumbled upon all these Indians playing cricket. Elder Sidhu started speaking Punjabi with them. I think Michael Webb and I have Indian facial structures, now that I am honest with the world. So if you ever need to speak your native tongue in the good work, go to your local park. There was a game of Chinese basketballers as well, but we didn't talk to them.

Oh yeah and we got three girls from Mongolia to come to church yesterday! It was so cool. Their names are like impossible for me to remember, but they are so sweet. I love Asians.

Mom, anything is good in the package. Elder Sidhu loved the beef jerkey but it might be illegal to send. Curry Mile is dangerous territory haha.

Love,

Elder Webb

August 11, 2014

My Sweet Ones,

I think by the time I get to P-day I can't take emailing seriously so you'll have to forgive me if I violate the White Handbook by using informal language. I am always excited to read emails from everyone. Life sounds so weird outside of a mission. I think I am more honest than most missionaries about what it feels like to be on a mission, but I am finally to the point that I would rather be out on the streets than emailing right now. No lack of love meant here, but nothing compares to hitting the streets with the swirling emotions of fear, excitement, frustration, peace, anger, sadness, power, and the Spirit that comes from contending in this battle of good and evil. I don't think people are meant to do this for more than two years, though :)

This was a good week with two baptisms. A kid named Felix and a girl named Jess entered the good waters this Saturday. The YSA ward is really a centre of growth for the church. Some apostle I can't remember said that the future of the church in Europe lies in YSA and younger aged people. The whole vision of the YSA building was to attract members from all over Europe as a beacon of light and truth. My area is pretty much expected to be the most successful and powerful in the mission, so there's loads of pressure to perform well here. Good thing we got rid of the head lice.

The only people that really stop on the street for us are Chinese or Nigerian or Muslim. We teach a recent convert that was Muslim. All of these crazy cultural experiences show me how white Utah really is! There are loads of Chinese students here because they are doing pre-requisites in English. I met like seven teenagers from Taiwan; it was so fun!!! I love Taiwanese people. I felt at home with them. Mainland Chinese people have very sweet spirits at the core, but they are so different. They don't really care if God exists or not. I have no mold to fit or example to follow with working with them, so I have a lot of learning to do to head out Chinese work in this mission. Only Elder Jin and I will remain that actually can carry on a conversation in Chinese by September, and he's in a totally different part of the mission.

Wow President Ulrich is a powerful man. I'll be saying how I knew him when he speaks in Conference in a few years, heavens! He doesn't mess around and he expects to double baptisms by the end of his time here. He is full of love and the Spirit and power and vision. He holds so little back from us on what the Lord is expecting of the mission.

I think during this week it really hit me that I am in the forefront of the spiritual battle of eternity out here. In Utah missions are characterized by crazy or funny stories or where your call is or all of these tangential points. The truth is as a missionary you see everyone around you in such a different way. It is so frustrating how much the devil has hold on people. And it takes so much to access God's power to help them see the light. It is draining and it makes you simply forget the little things that don't matter.

Elder Sidhu and I are getting along well. He is so INDIAN! He plays Indian music in the morning and we went out for some curry and naan bread the other day. It was on this stretch of Manchester called the Curry Mile that we can't proselyte on because of the deep-rooted Muslim and Indian aspect of it. I think that's the first time I felt scared of other people on my mission, just some white Christian missionary among a very different culture and belief. But we was safe and the food was good!

Marc and Chel, I got your package!!! Thank you so much. And Asher is seriously so cute in that picture on his birthday invite. And what was the deal with the Pie Pizzeria receipt in there for a "Marcus West?" Haha I'm glad to see things haven't changed. Thank you for the birthday wishes and thoughtfulness.

Scott and Julie, I need to hear more from you. That's my only call out :) I'm sure you're busy with moving though.

I can't think of anything else too exciting about the week I want to tell you all. I just know one thing and that's all that keeps me going out here. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. People will contend with it and have contended with it from the beginning. The search for truth is laced with scars, but we cannot wait in this time of Restoration. Jesus Christ is the only way to peace in this life and the belief you have in Him is a gift without comparison. The world needs Him, but just as the Jews we so often blindly reject Him. Let Him into your life and nothing will ever be the same. You will stand on the high ground you need to in order to overcome this fallen world.

I love you all!

Elder Webb

August 4, 2014

 Elder Sidhu and I. 

The fair English countryside of Chorley. Romantic, eh?

August 4, 2014

Dearest Friends of the Americas,

Well here's for my first crazy mission stories. My new flat has mice and giant spiders and disgusting mold in the rubbish bin. My companion got sick this Sunday and there was a head lice epidemic in the mission so our zone leaders had to shave their heads. I avoided it luckily. We have some cleaning and catching to do.

I think all of this is happening because our mission president said the work here is about to explode. So I think we're being tried to gain strength for the work ahead. The YSA ward is supposed to be the most successful area in the mission and I'M READY! Well actually I need to learn a foreign language first, but then I'll be ready.

So here's how things function down here in my new shack. We live in a nice little flat about 15 minutes away from the church's new YSA building on Oxford Road, Manchester. It's the busiest bus route in Europe and full of Nigerians, Middle Eastern people, Chinese students, and everything in between. There are three companionships that work on the road, with a new companionship coming soon. Our goal is to get people to tour the building. We teach all of our lessons here, church is here, email here, breathe here, and everything. One road, one building, one purpose. So it's pretty simple and a perfect opportunity to learn Chinese in a nice environment. Sister Mangelson's niece is serving here with me as well, so I can learn lots of Chinese from her.

The building is basically designed for missionary work. The first floor is a chapel and each progressing floor has a painting relating to the first lesson. We take people to the baptismal font in the basement at the end, hoping they are filled with the Spirit, and invite them to read the Book of Mormon or prayer or be baptised. You know, the usual. :) I'm excited to work here, I'll probably be here for a while.

We have a few investigators, but only one that is Chinese. I hope to find more! They're everywhere and it's loads of fun talking to them all. I think I have really been prepared to be here and will have some great experiences. The other companionship here is Elder Hotchkiss from Utah and Elder O'Brien from New Zealand. He's a big, friendly lad. 

Elder Sidhu is great. He is very kind, a little old for a missionary. His culture is like half British and half Indian. He isn't too far out either so we are learning together. We are working with a few people with baptismal dates. There's some great shopping in Manchester so hopefully I can get some British wear for the ages. It's nice stuff, everything is already slim fit. Debenham's, Ted Baker, River Island, Burton's, Primark, Next, Marks and Spencer. All pretty cool. But that's not all I think about here!

I'm pretty tired today. Transferring around took a lot out of me and I'll miss my old area and companions. Elder Sidhu was out all yesterday with a cold so I had some slow time in the flat. It felt weird not having anything to do haha. 

Lately I've been learning why missionaries become so powerful on their missions. It's because the only way to do this is rely completely upon the Lord. You really just break down if you don't have His strength, it's too much to handle. Sometimes I just can't believe the crazy things you feel as a missionary but it only makes sense that such an important work will have such intense opposition. It means more than ever to me now that Christ knows all my feelings and worries and weaknesses just as well as I do and that He suffered that to be able to lift me up. May we all rely upon this sacrifice, let Him truly take away our burdens because He has already felt them.

Dad, I can't believe Morgan's call. That will truly be crazy. That's so funny about Matt's eye, I remember that happened to Scott on the ATV.

Love you all family and I love pictures!

Elder Webb