January 26, 2015 Comp

January 26, 2015 Croeso

Ones whom I love,

I apologize that I didn't use my email time so wisely and I don't have a lot of time to write. We only got an hour and a half today for some reason from the library.

Whoa this week is such a blur in my head. I feel like I've lived in Wales forever. I got a new hat this week, the old style ones that like golfers and newsies wear. We both have one and proselyte in them. I think it softens older people's hearts.

It's so bizarre here to proselyte near these huge castles and cathedrals and otherwise. We can't really avoid them haha. This week was a lot of door knocking and one Friday or Saturday it drizzelled literally the entire day. It soaked through my trousers and I changed them at dinner and they were soaked again when we came in for the night.

I attached a picture of Elder DiPeri and I. That's not my current companion, I don't have a picture with him yet but now that I have a camera cord I can send some next week. I really can't think of too many exciting things from this week. We knocked on a door and a man let us in and asked if he could smoke during the lesson. Me, being a sheltered Utah kid and not knowing how to say no just let him. After about five minutes I couldn't breathe and I told him we had a bus to catch hahaha. We did actually have a bus to catch and he didn't seem that legitimately interested.

There is a recent convert here from China called Hong that Elder Lybbert and his last companion baptized. He is so amazing and really committed to the Gospel. The ward is kind of tired of only baptizing students I guess so we have been looking for families as well. The flow of this area is new, but I am getting used to it. Elder Lybbert told me that I seem to work really hard but not always with a lot of heart in it so that is my task of the week.

Love you all,

Elder Webb

January 19, 2015 Cymru! (Wales in Welsh)

Heya!

Well, here's the news! Our mission president prayed about transfers again and I found out last P-day after emailing that I would be going down to Wales with Elder Lybbert!

Here's my new address:

Elder James Webb

Flat 6 Nantlys, 15 High Street

Bangor GWYND LL57 1NP

Wales, United Kingdom

So on Tuesday I packed and said goodbye to some of the investigators in Lancaster and on Wednesday after transfers bused down to Bangor. It was like a five hour journey and I feel a little banished from the rest of the mission. So our flat is in Bangor, but the ward is called Gaerwen after the town the chapel is in. If you google North Wales our area covers the Isle of Anglesey and towns of Bethesda, Caernarfon, Menai Bridge, Llanfair-something, and Mt. Snowdon, the highest peak in the UK.

Wales is seriously the most amazing place I've ever been. It's like a mixture of Utah, England, and Juneau, Alaska. We have white capped mountains behind us, the teal coloured Irish Sea between the mainland and the Isle, and old castles and cathedrals and churches at like every corner shrouded by wispy pines and green pastures. Bangor University is situated in a little valley and it's really clean and nice here. The sun is out more than in England and the sky is usually tinted orange and purple. Most of the roads in the countryside are one lane with like five foot hedges on either side, so it gets pretty intense driving. And the speed limit is like sixty haha. This sounds like I'm making it up but it's actually incredible here.

So there are Chinese students here and they just baptised one. The ward is pretty well split out among the little villages and we don't have a car, so I don't know how to work here properly yet. There are other elders in the ward with a car and we spend some time with them going to tea appointments and all that. I'm excited to be here, even though it's a little like being banished from the rest of the mission. Elder Lybbert went to the MTC with me and is a good, hard worker. I can hopefully help his Chinese and he can guide me on the area.

Welsh people are a little different than the English. They actually do speak Welsh and it sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings. The buses announce the stops in Welsh and all the signs have Welsh and English, so it's kind of surreal haha. But everyone is really, really polite and I think I will get pretty comfortable here. I actually do miss England, even though the two are similar. I didn't know if I'd ever say that haha. It's like Wales is the elves and England is the men. I think Tolkien was spot on. Let me just put what's on the mouse pad, whatever it means haha: "Dilynwch Gwasanaeth Llyfrgell Gwynedd ar Facebook a Twitter i gael gwybod be sy' mlaen!" I only recognize two words :)

But I'm proud to be a little Dan Jones out here. He is known in Preach My Gospel as one of the greatest missionaries of all time and is from either my area or one next to it, I'm not sure yet. It's an adjustment and I'm really grateful for Elder DiPeri teaching me so much in Lancaster. He became a true friend and really changed my mission. Coming out here honestly feels like my final step into manhood and I think I can only do it if I truly learn to come unto Christ. That has been the beckon of everyday of my mission, every trial and every step. I believe in a Balm in Gilead and await His deliverance as I undergo everything that I am called to. I love you all and thank you for your prayers.

Love,
Elder Webb

January 12, 2015 Miracles!

Whoa,

This week was suuuper good. It was full of miracles. I think Elder DiPeri and I finally kind of clicked on how to work everything so it's gonna' explode!

I'm kind of to the point where the only thing that is exciting in my brain is the actual course of the missionary work, not like the little quirks of missionary life, so I think that might be all I start to remember and talk about. Usually I don't like to talk about investigators because our teaching pool fluctuates too much for it to be worthwhile to document. But my soul is becoming more missionary.

So on Tuesday we prayed to know what street to knock and the first door to answer was this Vietnamese lady who was friends with all these Chinese Christians. She told us about them meeting at a chippy (fish and chips takeaway restaurant) once a week and it so happened that it was the exact time of the week they met that we met the lady. So we drove over to "China Chef," but I guess they actually only meet every fortnight (yes, we use that term here) so we just talked to the owner. He was like, "I no English." I be like, "Meiyou wenti, wode pengyou, jiu keyi gen jiang Putonghua." Know what I'm saying? 

Then on Thursday we drove up to a little village called Silverdale in the top part of our area. There is one member who lives there that never sees missionaries so we worked in his area and then visited him. He lives in this little cabin like home and paints Warhammer minifigures so we got on well. It was a good feeling to be a blessing in his life and I think for some reason that day my heart took the final leap after all these months whereby missionary work feels like normal life, like that's all I have ever done.

Friday was where the big miracle came! Wooohooo! So there is a member from Hong Kong named Ken who was baptized a year ago that is preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. We taught him on campus a little bit to help the ward as they are preparing him, and he's super solid and super intelligent. He's thinking of a mission and then on our way out we saw this Chinese kid with a suitcase looking really confused. As elders we're not really supposed to proselyte on the university, usually only the sisters do. But I felt prompted that we needed to talk to him so we were walking over and he actually came up to us and asked for directions. His name was Ming and he just got off the plane practically from Guangzhou to start a four year course here.

Basically he had to sort out his room and get his key and all this crazy stuff, and was super stressed. So our friend Ken was able to help him and Elder DiPeri and I were feeling like Ammon when King Lamoni asked him if he was the Great Spirit. We helped him do all this stuff around campus for like two hours and got to know him and he instantly loved us. So we invited him to a baptism on Saturday and he was super excited and was like, "I hope to have the opportunity to join your church. But I don't know too much about it." Well, no problem, Ming.

Then Saturday was where it all culminated! There was a baptism of a man called Paul that the other elders in our ward were teaching. Feeling the Spirit completely changed his life and he went from a pretty low point in his life to keeping all the commandments and happier than he's ever been in like a month. But Ming came to the baptism and also two ladies called Becky and Louise (they say "called" instead of "named" here so that's why that sounds weird) who started crying during the whole thing. When Paul came up out of the water you could just see this huge feeling of relief, like a spirit finally united with his Father in Heaven. It was amazing and we took him to fellowship Louise and Rebecca later. 

Ming came to church on Sunday and said he has never met kinder people. One of the members will be one of his course teachers and took him under his arm. This ward is on fire! Elder DiPeri and I have been so blessed and I think this new transfer will be a lot of good teaching and maybe even some baptisms! I talked to hundreds of Chinese students in Manchester, a few of which have learned and progressed a lot, but it literally took one here and he's so golden. It really is a lesson that nothing is in my hands, it really is all up to the Lord. 

Oh yeah and then our teaching appointment with the Chinese family. We just talked to the husband, GaoYang, and taught him the Restoration with Ken, our Hong Kong member. My Mandarin is a little rusty and it was a good wake up call, but he said he would read the Book of Mormon. It's hard to see them often though, so we'll see.

And then the last miracle! So since Elder DiPeri is a former assistant he kind of gets the downlow on all the transfers and mission happenings. We learned about our transfer before the usual calls and I was supposed to go down to Wales with another Chinese missionary. I was super bummed with everything that happened, and we thought it was weird because the area really seemed to need us both. But we submitted because, you know, we're super humble, but prayed and talked and thought about it a lot. Then came the actual call this morning and we're staying together another transfer! So I'll kill off Elder DiPeri and send him back come February. I guess the assistants said they thought and prayed about it more and knew that it was actually right for us to stay. Weird little story, kind of relieving though although Wales sounded like fun haha.

But anyway, sorry this was super long but it was a great week. The Lord really brings blessings after much tribulation and I'm excited to keep growing. I finally feel like I'm in control of the destiny of my mission and have overcome the initial challenges, so it's all great :)

Love you all,

Elder Webb

January 4, 2015 Bits and That

Oh yeah and I forgot to say, a seagull pooped on my head last week. Isn't that amazing? I couldn't even be mad because it's such a good story. Elder DiPeri wiped it out with a leaf and then we went back for lunch hahaha and I showered my head again.

-Elder Webb

January 5, 2015 Happy New Years!

Beloveds Abroad,

Welcome to 2015! This may be the only year of my life spent completely in another country or as a missionary. It was a really good week, pretty normal overall. We are getting more ingrained with the ward and I can see a lot of progress in myself from what I've learned from Elder DiPeri.

We had part of New Year's Eve off and all of New Year's Day. A member fed us and then on New Year's Day our mission president didn't want us going back up hiking so we just watched films and played games at the chapel with some other missionaries. We watched 17 Miracles and I was so proud to call out my ancestors in England and brag to the other missionaries of my sacred progenitors. 

And guess what? We found a Chinese family! I met the dad on the street one day going to pick up his kid from school and he didn't really know what was going on, but he gave me his address. So we tried by one day and he is like a visiting scholar from HeNan and lives with his wife and daughter who is about Kindergarten age. He had studied the Bible before and actually visited Jerusalem, but didn't really know too much. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back and teach him about it because he was about to eat a meal. Wooohooo! We're seeing him on Saturday, hopefully we can bring the power. Elder DiPeri always uses the phrase that people stand no chance if we teach correctly hahaha.

Then the other really great part of the week was actually this morning. We went with a member called Brother Holden with some other missionaries to the Lancaster castle. It is really old, maybe 1090, and was built originally to keep the Scottish from invading. Brother Holden is a postman and listens to podcasts and such all the time so we just picked his brain with questions of British history. We got a tour guide for the castle and learned loads. It's been used largely as a prison and courtroom for the last 200 years and had all these old cells and shackles and shields on the walls and everything just like you'd imagine. Really interesting, I just kept thinking of the Apostasy.

Oh yeah and we saw another amazing place this week! There is a little town south of Morecambe called Heysham and we were tracting there and took a walk kind of near the seashore where there is a really old chapel. I can't remember exactly, but I think someone said it might be the oldest in England. It's called after St. Patrick and looks over the ocean and has all these little ruins and tombs and gardens. This week was amazing for some of these sites!

But I love you all and that's about it. Aside from the external beauties of this area and my mission I am really growing in learning how to handle the stresses of a mission. The adversary is always working against us and I'm afraid he does more damage than we sometimes realize if we're not always careful. But I truly have learned of a God here who loves us and delivers in miracles. He is watchful and never forgets us, and there is greater power in this Gospel than anything our silly world can throw at us. I am learning of the mission of Jesus Christ to all people and how He really does require everything of us, but nothing has ever been so worth it. I hope included in your goals for this New Year is something to help you better know Him.

Sincerely,

Elder Webb