LACEY 6th ward IS THE BEST!!

Family,

HAPPY EASTER (yesterday)!!!! And Happy 185th Anniversary of the Church today! I have so much to say and only a small amount of time. This library has those wicked "timed" computers that shut off at an hour so I'll need to type fast.

This has been one of the happiest weeks of my mission. I'll start with Tuesday, and transfer meeting. As hard and sad as it was to see good friends go home, it was small compared to the joy of seeing them and the joy of the missionary spirit in reunion. It was another great and powerful meeting, and I even got to conduct the music again! (might be my last time). To my surprise, they did a twist on "Amazing Grace" and added in the organ during the 3rd verse! It was SO COOL. I might have thought for a moment that the angels had joined in singing ha, ha. Elder Green bore a powerful testimony of the greatness of our call and the amazing Wa-Tac mission. I love that guy! Also, I was surprised by the appearance of Sister Barrett and Jolene from Silverdale 1st!!! They both came to transfer meeting to see Elder Sharp off. Jolene is happy and good as ever. The elders still come over about once a week to teach.

Tommy and Elder Bradshaw meet at transfer meeting

Tommy gets to conduct Amazing Grace

Then, off to Lacey! I LOVE Lacey! The ward is so good and there are all these wonderful, helpful, engaged members. The area is not that big and very flat which makes for nice bike riding. It's really not that bad. I am actually way happy when I bike around and you feel better at the end of the day. And the weather has been agreeable for the most part. I'm even wearing a short sleeve today (FREEDOM!!) Lacey 6th is a nice area, very quiet and peaceful. Our Bishop is very helpful and kind as is our Ward Mission Leader.

Selfie on a bike and "I didn't crash"

Elder Bradshaw is incredible. I think this is secretly his second mission he's been on because he is so well prepared. He comes from Lyman, Wyoming from a family of 10 (8 children). He is 2nd oldest and has two younger twin sisters :) He reminds me of Elder Mosbrucker - very kind, compassionate, hard working, full of love, and he played football. He is bright with missionary passion and eager to do the Lord's work. We get along really well which is honestly a huge relief. I love all my companions but some have been a struggle, ha, ha. I learn different things from each of them, but it's nice to have someone you can relate to, talk to, and work hard with. We are very excited about this transfer.

Our district is great too! We have Elder Oliphant and Sister Diener and others I have served around. This week as a mission we got to share the Easter message by giving out #BecauseHeLives pass along cards and show the video on easter.Mormon.org. It's a great video showing that Jesus Christ died and lives today and because He lives we will too, and it can make a difference in every day of our life.

I really enjoyed Easter yesterday and our entire general conference weekend. We got to watch the Saturday morning session with a recent convert named Heather at the stake center. She was baptized last week! She's very strong in the gospel already and loved conference. The Lacey stake has a recent convert temple trip this Saturday and so we are working on getting her there! If she can go and bring family names, we might even get to go with her! I'll let you know next week. We watched the afternoon session at our Bishop's house. He also drove us to the priesthood session and to get Dairy Queen after :)

Easter bunny still delivered a basket to Elder Webber, 21 years in a row

On Sunday we watched the morning session at the Kirkwood's house (like a perfect family - all their small kids were well behaved and watched conference with everyone). They fed us breakfast before the session too. Cinnamon rolls and bacon, yum. We got to go to the Flinks' house for the last session, and even paint a few Easter eggs while we were there. Their family is great, and they invited another recent convert to their home to watch.

Again, general conference fed my spirit and answered my questions. I loved the Wa-Tac shout out from our formerly President Pearson (presided over Wa-Tac 2005-2008). He once gave a famous sermon in this mission titled "Stay by the Tree" and seemed to use a lot of that in his talk yesterday. Plus it seemed to be a personal address to Wa-Tac RMS (or soon to be RMS...) "Read the Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day." I also loved of course Elder Holland's powerful testimony of the Savior's outreached hands and Elder Ballard's charge to all prospective, current, and returned missionaries in the priesthood session. My favorite might have been President Monson's words on the temple. I will always make that a priority in my life. There also seemed to me to be a theme of marriage and family.

Lastly, we are teaching this great family, the Espinoza's. The mom is single and less active and has 3 kids living with her (ages 12, 10, 8) and she is coming back to church super strong! We taught them on Tuesday and Sunday nights and they are reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church! They watched the Sunday afternoon conference together. Last night we committed 2/3 kids (oldest girl is still unsure) to baptism on April 25th!!! I love that family they are awesome! More to come later.

All my Love,
Elder Webber

Scriptures: Matthew 28:6 (He is Risen!)
D&C 76:22-23 ("He Lives" - testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith of the Resurrected Christ. I'm grateful for modern prophets)

P.S. Mosbrucker e-mailed and said he's engaged!