Elder Tommy Webber Washington Tacoma 2013-2015: Soundview Strong: Zone conferences, painting a house, and investigator updates

Dear family,

I am going to start this letter with my scripture, instead of end with it. It is well known by every seminary student and continues to be a theme for my mission:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall" (Helaman 5:12).
In my Book of Mormon reading, I came to this chapter and studied it, then went to church the next day and heard a whole sacrament talk based off this scripture. He quoted it three times! The whole sacrament meeting had a theme of faith. And the more I serve and the more I study the more I learn that faith is the basis of it all. It is faith that moves us into and over our trials and "lands [our] souls ... at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven ... to go no more out" (Helaman 3:30).

Baptismal Service for Yao

I feel I am learning very important lessons by experience and trials, and Heavenly Father never ceases to amaze me at how He can always give such personal and clear answers when we ask Him questions and seek His answers. Those answers most often come: during or after a quiet, kneeling prayer, in sacrament meeting, and in our searching of the scriptures. I have also found they come through family and priesthood leaders, as we seek their guidance.

Speaking of zone conferences, they were great! President Blatter did them a little different, by having 3 "breakout sessions" or workshops, you could call them, that we rotated through with our zone. We learned about "opening our mouth" (talking with everyone), different ideas for finding investigators, and working with members. Some of President Blatter's words at the end seemed a direct answer to a question I had, which I wrote down before the meeting started. That's pretty cool.

Brother Taylor, chief paint volunteer organizer in the congregation

Elder Webber, volunteer

Elder Webber's companions, one is cool enough to wear a calculator watch

We helped with the ongoing "Paint Tacoma Beautiful" project this week. It is really fun and Brother Taylor always brings us delicious donuts for everyone. We did most of the painting of the house Friday and Saturday and just have the trim work to finish up, probably on Tuesday.

Elder Webber contemplating the names of those he is teaching

Still working with our other investigators, I don't have a lot of time to go into each one. Cleo came to church again, but D____ slept in... T____ missed church again, we have an appointment tomorrow morning, so we're hoping to see that everything's ok. Syreeta went to church at 9:00 with Sister Gehring, since she had work in the afternoon. I'm glad she is becoming spiritually self-reliant that way. R____ hasn't found her answer yet, and is still stuck on a few of her ideas. She is so very sweet, but not as open to change. We had a good church tour on Saturday with an investigator named Tom (yes, a great name for a man!) and he is open to baptism! His son is a member in the Puyallop area. Tom is older, a Vietnam veteran, and has a few conspiracy ideas, but loves meeting with us.