Silverdale: Winter is here, Mission tour with Elder Snow, and Jolene came to church!

Dear Family,

Came across a Llama farm, of course

Oh sweet agency- it's the best and the worst thing. Sad to say that our "most solid investigator ever" Y___ has had some issues this week with what we call "Anti" as in Anti-Mormon literature, most commonly found today on the internet. It's so sad there are groups who have a goal to destroy someone's faith. We had the best lesson ever Monday night and had her neighbor there and our Bishop and taught the restoration and she was taking notes and loving it, then texted us the next morning saying she thinks she is "too liberal" for our church and has discomfort with plural marriage etc. She dropped us. We were SO SAD! It was right before we left to Bremerton to go to our mission tour with Elder Steven Snow, THE Church Historian, who came to our mission for 3 days to visit and train. So we were down in the dumps and it was all I could think about, how strange that we had met someone so prepared and so perfect, unlike anything before on my mission and then it ended as fast as it started... But as I was thinking "why, why" I realized something personal during our meeting. I think that the reason I had felt so sad was because I really desired good for someone. I knew that in some small way I had been blessed with the gift of charity and that is what had me hope the best for this person. I think Christian disciples feel sorrow for others when they choose to not follow the path, but they maintain vision and diligence of what God expects them to do. It was a dramatic lesson for me this week.

Conference

Lunch

Thankfully, Jolene is still meeting with us, she even came to church yesterday for her first time!! I love it when people come to church! Our ward did a great job helping her feel welcome and embracing her (literally Sister Barrett gave her a hug at the end of Relief Society when we met her to set up an appointment). And the ward gets excited when they see new faces there. The Thursday night prior we had a great lesson with Brother Barrett there (the Barretts are her neighbors down the street). We went over the Book of Mormon again and talked about what to expect at church. She said that church brought back a lot of memories, growing up Catholic, because of how traditional our services are (She currently goes to a non-denominational church with rock band/ come as you are dress code). Jolene is so sweet and open and has a pure desire to follow God no matter what. She has 4 kids ages 12, 9, 8, and 6.

Thanksgiving package from mom - with LEGOS !!

Our ward has been more and more excited about missionary work. With the tremendous help of Brother Green, our ward mission leader, we are visiting all the members giving them a little piece of paper with "Simple Ideas for Sharing the Gospel," and also a little homemade Christmas wreath with a challenge to give it to a non-member friend or neighbor.

Cold outside, while knocking

Oh I almost forgot a huge miracle!!! So a member, Sister Suggs comes up to us before church yesterday and says, "good news elders, remember Faith?" (Faith is a 9 year old girl whose family is less active. They moved here from California this past summer, where they were living near their very active grandparents. Faith was almost baptized before they moved up here. She has been coming to church because the Suggs family is friends with them and brings Faith to church and Activity Days). Anyway, she says, "remember Faith? Well I talked to her and her parents, and Faith really wants to be baptized! We just need to get the lessons in and set the date!" We just smiled and said, "Yeah we think we can do that!" ha, ha that doesn't happen every week! So hopefully this week we can meet their family, start teaching, set a date, and even more hopefully bring the family back to church :)

Package from mom has Hot Chocolate

Sharing with companion Elder Sharp

Reading on a break in the park

Finally found a couple that listened to us at the door

So things are still going well in Silverdale. People come and go but the lessons I'm learning stay for good. I started by fourth journal for my mission with 6 months left! Wow!!

Much love,
Elder Webber

Scriptures: Helaman 15:7-8 (converts are strong)