Lacey! Recent Convert Heather & Another temple trip

Dear family,

Saturday night Elder Bradshaw and I got to got to the Seattle temple with our new member, Heather, for her first time doing baptisms! That means I have gone in February, March, April, and I'll go to Seattle again in May, then much more than once a month :)

Elder Bradshaw and Elder Webber at the Seattle Temple

  It was a wonderful evening. The temple is beautiful at night and it is just such a privilege to go there. Elder Bradshaw and I were so happy. While we were waiting in the lobby I saw two girls come upstairs from the baptism floor with wet hair. It was Lacey and Heather, two youth from the Steilacoom ward! Their family is so awesome and helped us out a lot while I served in Steilacoom. It was so funny to see them. I love temple coincidences.

Seattle Temple at sunset

Then not a minute later another guy walked into the temple and we made eye contact with the same expression of recognition. It was Eric Shenck who was in my ward at BYU and lived on the same floor as me!! There were two groups at the temple that night doing baptisms with new members: the Lacey Stake and his Seattle Young Single Adult (YSA) Ward! Apparently he's from the Seattle area. He just got back 2 months ago from his mission in New York City. It was super fun to catch up with him, and he gave some helpful advice for the last month of my mission. I'm trying to not look at the "going home" process as a negative thing. Yes, it will be very hard to leave this mission and the people and places I've come to love, but it is another stepping stone to rise higher and become better. Meanwhile I'm going to work my heart out and love every day :)

Seattle Temple at night

Heather had a great experience. After, she said it was wonderful and that she really felt connected to the people she helped as proxy in the confirmation room. She said that doing the baptisms was the "most powerful" she had ever felt the Holy Ghost!

The Espinoza family is doing really well. They came to church again and love going. The kids are making friends in the primary and going to activities during the week, and hanging out with their church friends on top of that. The mom is single, like I said, so they spent most of spring break with their dad. Because they don't have a lot of time together, they spend the drive to and from their dad's reading the Book of Mormon. They each take turns with a verse :) and then when we come over they have great questions. We taught them the Plan of Salvation last night and had them each draw it out on paper. The 10 year old boy, Jose, is so funny. He drew a grave over the earth to represent death, and had on it "R.I.P." Then when he drew the spirit world, he drew another tombstone but wrote on it "H.I.P." which he later explained was for "Happy In Peace" ha, ha. They are praying about baptism and hopefully will be on April 25th. The oldest daughter (12) is struggling with it still, but loves church and has made some great friends there. We're thinking about bringing a young woman/ friend with her parents to a lesson or something, to connect with the daughter.

Bike Trail in Lacey

Everything else is going great. Time is flying by too fast, but Lacey is wonderful, biking is fun, I'm trying to gain weight before I go home (ha, ha I've gotten too skinny...) and everyone here is in the army and very nice to us. The members are wonderful, I want to have a family like their's someday.

Breakfast!

Love,
Elder Webber

Scriptures: 2 Nephi 4:20-21
2 Nephi 1:15

P.S. GUESS WHO GOT BAPTIZED LAST WEEKEND???? Yvonne! yes, the same Yvonne from Silverdale! Apparently the sisters taught her again and somehow helped her overcome her challenges. Thank you sister missionaries! Maybe that's what she needed. I hope to learn more about how it all came about, but I am SO HAPPY! I love this mission.