Silverdale: A Christmas Skype to home and a Baptism of Faith

Wonderful Family,

It was such a great experience to talk to you on Christmas! I am really out of time this week, but I hope you liked all the pictures! I loved the ones of you guys in Utah with the snow.

Faith's Baptismal Service

Faith's Grandpa

Faith was baptized on Saturday!!! It went amazingly smooth and the spirit was so strong. Her whole family came to the baptism and her grandpa baptized her. She was confirmed in Brownsville ward by Brother Suggs and her mom came to all of sacrament meeting! (a major miracle ha, ha). When I asked Faith how she felt when she was baptized, she told me one word, "warm." I thought that was funny because I only remember one feeling from my baptism when I was 8: "warm" I know she felt the spirit there!

I love you all so much!

Elder Webber

Mission Christmas Party

Old Companion - Elder Hansen

Old Companion - Elder Schaffner

Old Companion - Elder Green

Gifts to the Missionaries

Melting Snowman - Gift from Mom (Christmas Eve)

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve, Hot Chocolate and Reading Luke 2

Christmas Morning - Legos, Chocolate, Socks, Books

Christmas Breakfast

Christmas Day, Skype from the Warren's home

Silverdale: Christmas is Coming!

Family,

Wow, I cannot believe it is already Christmas week! I hope and wish the best Christmas ever to you guys and that you can have a ton of fun and warm memories made. I love you so much and I cannot wait to see you on Thursday. We had a very fun week, getting ready for Christmas. We've gotten a lot of cookies/fudge/cake and written a lot of Christmas thank you cards and given out dozens of "He Is the Gift" pass-along cards.

Tommy's missionary Christmas display

We are super excited for Faith's baptism this weekend. She is SO ready! We also got to meet Faith's family this week, and talk with her mom who is not really active. Her mom grew up in the Church but has had a lot of negative experiences with members, even in her family. So she has no problem with the teachings or principles, just in going to church or anything like that. This makes Faith's story so much more amazing to me. Without the stellar Suggs family, she might not have had this chance. But Faith is so good, so brave and sweet and pure and full of excitement. She is an example to her family, making sure she says her prayers at home and reads her Book of Mormon :) We will have her baptism this Saturday the 27th at 11:00 a.m. and her whole family will get to be there and her grandparents from California. She asked me to give the talk on baptism! You'll get pictures for sure!

We had her last lesson on Sunday, after the Suggs fed us dinner. We taught Faith about the temple and there was this moment I just felt love for Faith and the Suggs family. Almost sad it was the last lesson before her baptism since it has been such a joy and privilege to teach someone so prepared. I repeat my mission scripture: 3 Nephi 9:22!

A family of deer that frequently travel through Tommy's back yard

Close-up of the "Dad"

Yvonne has been back and forth still :( currently she's not on date for baptism, but she did come to our ward Christmas party on Friday which was AMAZING! There were tons of people there, including several less-active families and at least 15 non members, half of which we didn't even invite, the members did. Yvonne, Faith, Ginger and her family, the Creas, and June and her family, Khalil and his mom! And a few more part member families! It was so much fun.

One of Tommy's favorite snacks - Goldfish crackers, Christmas colored

I love you all so much, I'll get to talk to you more on Thursday. I know Christ lives and we have the chance to accept his Christmas gift to us: love, peace, and hope. He is the Light and the Life of the world. I love Him and will serve Him all of my life. By losing our lives in service, in giving, in these little opportunities (especially at Christmas time), we find our life - true happiness. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love Elder Webber

Scripture: 3 Nephi 9:22 (see above)

Silverdale: Yvonne, Faith, Kahlil

Dearest Family,

I am so grateful for you this time of year. It is hard to be away for Christmas, obviously, but I'll get to talk to you via skype and see all your beautiful faces. I am so glad this week you could go to the temple for great grandma Mary's baptism! I loved the picture you took outside. I hope she has a good 100th birthday tomorrow :)

Elder Tommy Webber conducting the Missionary Choir in Sequim, WA

This week is very hard to explain in words. Lots of up and down, back and forth. I know I've said that before, but it's the only way I can describe missionary work sometimes. ___ is back on date, like I said, for the 27th! She also has been going through crazy hard trials. I probably have never met anyone so prepared as her, but she struggles so much to stay on track. She sends us texts almost every day expressing concerns and we try and respond with love and confidence. She doesn't have a lot of confidence in herself. Our lessons with her are amazing. We visited Saturday with Brother Green, she said that as she read the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 2) she and pondered it later that day as she was driving and just cried thinking how she has another chance in life. She cried as she told us this experience and we were all a bit teary. We testified of how much God loves her and how much potential she has as a daughter of God. On Sunday she came to church, but afterwards had a bad conversation with her parents over the phone. ___ is in her 40's but her parents are not supportive at all of her joining or even studying the Church. They told her she was being ignorant and foolish, and she fears they will not talk to her anymore. We tried to help her have courage and faith to do what is right and that things will work out. She gets stressed very easy too. But again, she is SO prepared! We think she will make it.

Choir group picture

Faith on the other had is cruising right along. She is so solid. We are hoping to meet with her less active mom this week for her last lesson!

Tommy and other WA-Tac Elders

We finally got to talk with Kahlil's mom and she wants us to talk with her about what the Church is about and what baptism means for her son. Kahlil is only 11 years old but is soaking in the gospel. He loves meeting with us and brings his children's picture scriptures to school :) We have another FHE lesson tonight with June and her boys. Sorry out of time!

Love and Merry Christmas thoughts,
Elder Webber

Scripture: 3 Nephi 15:9-10 and 3 Nephi 27:20-21  (hopefully I will finish the Book of Mormon this week! I read in Mormon today)

P.S. thank you grandma for the wonderful Christmas tie. I'm wearing it today, I love it!

"Silverdale, Silverdale, It's Christmas Time in the mission..."

Hello family,

The title of the e-mail should be sung to the tune "Silver Bells." Even back when I was with Elder Mosbrucker we were singing this because we thought it fit perfect and we were excited for Christmas! Christmas is the best time as a missionary. We get to see holiday lights and trees, pass out easy "He Is the Gift" cards and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Plus everyone seems to be filled with an added measure of goodwill, kindness, gift giving, and the Spirit of Christ. We had dinner last night at the Masons again (Brother Green's daughter's family) and their 7 kids. I love that family so much. After dinner we got to stay and watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional which was awesome, and Sister Mason made gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate :)

Found a bird named Ferdinand

The primary in our ward made Elder Sharp and me a ton of Christmas cards!! It was super sweet, they ranged from green and red scribbles to cards with kind notes. I even got one from Faith, the girl we are teaching, since she goes to primary. She wrote, "Dear Elder Webber, I just wanted to thank you for meeting with me so I could learn more about Heavenly Father. Thank you and Merry Christmas. - Faith" Is that not the cutest thing ever? Faith is doing so good. We taught her the 3rd lesson on Saturday, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She gets it so well and asks perfect questions. She said she read 1 Nephi 1 on her own but didn't understand it ha, ha so we told her to keep trying and she will understand. I think she has the picture BoM which would help.

Also - CHRISTMAS MIRACLE - guess who is back on the radar?? Yvonne! We had texted her again since we felt weird about how things ended, and she had been thinking a TON about all that we had said when we left off and what her ideas are. And she said she would let us come by again.We brought Brother Green and let her just talk about her feelings and ideas, which were very interesting and deep, a lot about science and spirituality. Turns out they all fall in line with LDS doctrine, she explained how she believes in a premortal life and freedom of choice and the opportunity to progress eternally. Wow, it was amazing, she is tentatively back on date for Dec 27th, same day as Faith. "A white Christmas." She wasn't at church because she had to finish a final, but we have another appointment on Tuesday.

Found a waffle iron

Jolene is hanging in there, we taught her about modern prophets this week and gave her a talk from President Monson. She believes it all, but is still aught up on her church. Sister Barrett and Sister Mason offered to go by today to invite her to a Relief Society activity on Thursday which is perfect!

We are also teaching a friend of June's son Isaiah. His name is Kahlil and he lives in the same apartments. June is a great missionary to a lot of her friends, including Kahlil's mom. We started teaching him Saturday night. His mom is very supportive of him taking lessons, coming to church, and even baptism, although she is not interested herself. It was a fun lesson, Kahlil is a great kid who knows very little about God. He's excited to learn! We have an FHE with June's family and Kahlil tonight.

Found Yoda

I have learned so much this week about myself and about the Atonement, which is very difficult to explain in a short amount of time and with words. The most important lessons are experienced, not taught. I learned about the enabling power of the Atonement which allows us to act instead of being acted upon. It enables us to chose to be obedient, to chose to be happy and free. The fact that we can be happy amidst difficult time or situations is evidence of God's love and the Atonement at work. I love my Savior Jesus Christ for what He has done for me. I love this time of year we can celebrate His miraculous birth and matchless life. And I love all of you!

Found a cat

Love from the wonderful WaTac,
Elder Webber

Scirpture: 3 Nephi 9:13-22 (my mission scripture at the end)

Silverdale: Thanksgiving Dinners

Hello family,

I'm glad you all had a great Thanksgiving with all those missionaries. I'm sure they had a blast being all together. I thought about you guys quite a bit on Thursday and missed you. We had a really fun day though. We went to our ward Turkey Bowl with 6 of us there for a game of 3 on 3 football ha, ha. Then, later we went to TWO Thanksgiving dinners; one with the Warner family and one with the Recinos family. We had the Spanish missionaries with us at the Recinos home. Lots of good food. We then went to Ginger and her family for pie and dessert and played some games.

With transfer meeting this week it was weird to see all those sister go home that I had come out into the mission with. They all spoke with such power as they gave their final testimonies. I think I learned this week why sisters serve for 18 months and elders for 2 years. It just takes us 6 months longer to learn all that we need to on our missions. I am extremely grateful for these next 6 months ahead of me. I need it because I can be really stubborn with some things. A lot of my studies have been on the Atonement (see Elder Bednar's talk from April of this year titled, "Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease") I feel that there is some part of Atonement that I still do not understand but I really want to. I'm sure my trials are meant for that lesson to be learned.

During the sacrament on Sunday I cam across a hymn I had never read before and it meant a lot to me. It's called "The Time is Far Spent" #266:

1. The time is far spent; there is little remaining
To publish glad tidings by sea and by land.
Then hasten, ye heralds; go forward proclaiming:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven's at hand,
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven's at hand.

2. Shrink not from your duty, however unpleasant,
But follow the Savior, your pattern and friend.
Our little afflictions, tho painful at present,
Ere long, with the righteous, in glory will end,
Ere long, with the righteous, in glory will end.

3. What, tho, if the favor of Ahman possessing,
This world's bitter hate you are called to endure?
The angels are waiting to crown you with blessings!
Go forward, be faithful, the promise is sure.
Go forward, be faithful, the promise is sure.

4. Be fixed in your purpose, for Satan will try you;
The weight of your calling he perfectly knows.
Your path may be thorny, but Jesus is nigh you;
His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose.
His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose.

Especially that last verse. It is true that Satan knows perfectly the callings we have and the potential for good, so he does all he can to try us and make us fail. But we know that the power of Jesus Christ is sufficient to carry us through. We just need to rely on His enabling, strengthening power.

As far as the work goes, Faith came to church again! We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Saturday at Bishop Byron (the Brownsville ward Bishop where she lives). And the Suggs came of course since they are her fellowship and bring her to church every week. And - MIRACLE - her grandparents heard about the goal of December 27th for her baptism and immediately bought plane tickets to come up for it. Faith's mom asked to make sure the date was solid so their whole family can be there :) So we are happily moving along.

Snow in November

We had a good lesson with Jolene and the Barretts came, they are awesome fellowship. Jolene knows it is true, she even had another dream and told us she wants her family to be sealed in the temple! But she doesn't want to stop going to her church. We're hoping she'll come to testimony meeting this Sunday.

Lastly, our recent convert June came to church again! She had been starting to slip away but the Relief Society brought her back. She came last week and again yesterday. She even got a calling to teach in the Primary which she is really excited about. She introduced us to a new family in her apartment complex we'll hopefully start teaching.

It has become cold in Washington, but Christmas is nearing. Everyone check out the video "He Is the Gift" on Christmas.mormon.org it is amazing we are sharing it with everyone!

Love you all
Elder Webber

Scripture: Helaman 14:8, 13-19