11-26-2012

Annie’s Letter

Hello dear family! You guys are amazing and I just love you all so much! I am so thankful for each one of you!

Mom and Dad I am so thankful for the wonderful examples you have been my entire life and for all the wonderful things you have taught me and for the support you have always been and for the wonderful advice you always give.

Megan and Justin I am so thankful for how willing you both are to serve in any way you can. You are such great examples. And you are always willing to help us out even though you have your own very busy lives to live as well.

Landon, I am grateful for your wonderful example and your incredible testimony. I have loved watching you grow so much on your mission. I bet you are just an incredible teacher. You have such power and authority.

Natalie I am grateful for how much you have grown since you went to college. I can just see it in all of your emails. You have become a wonderful woman!

Rachel I am grateful for the joy you always have. Your happiness just exudes from you and I can feel it in your emails so I know everyone else can feel it even more strong when they are around you.

I am so blessed to have the most wonderful family ever!

So you're probably wondering about the subject line of this email... Well. Saturday morning we went to the church to fill up the font for Creed's baptism (a boy in the ward) the font here is a pain to unplug. We tell the person getting baptized to go under the water and pull the plug so that it will drain. Well... no one told Dexter or Creed. So Sister Twitchell and I went into the primary and tried to unplug it using this hanger contraption. But that didn't work. So long story short... I had to take a dive in the font to get it to drain. So then I wrapped my blanket around me (I had it because we had studied there while the font was filling and I NEVER study without my blanket. and went outside in the snow. Not a lot. just a tiny bit. It was just like going from the swimming pool to the car haha. It was exciting though. Who said missionaries don't get to go swimming?! HAHA!

Another exciting thing that happened this week: On Thanksgiving we made these cute little turkeys to take to members and investigatros that tell people why we are grateful for them. We took one to Mark and Olivia's apartment and knocked, knocked again and then proceeded to tape the turkey on their door. The door opened a couple of inches so we pulled it closed. Come to find out... Mark and Olivia's apartment got broken into. They called us at like 9:50 because the cop needed our statement on what happened when the door opened. Olivia was so cute. The cop asked for our names and she was like... "uh... Sister Webb and Sister Twitchell" and so I had to tell her it was okay to give him our first names. But she was guarding our names with her life! Anyway...they guy they are pretty sure broke in and stole the stuff is a guy they have had problems with before. He likes to carry a hatchet and make threats and has about 5 felonies for breaking and entering and robbing. He has his face tattooed like a scary clown... ya, he's crazy. So the theory is that he was in the apartment when we were there and when the door opened he probably jumped off the back porch. There was a bunch of stuff in bags and unplugged like he was going to steal it and the back door was wide open... so, ya, exciting! Thank goodness for the Lord protecting His missionaries! Don't be worried or anything, this story was not to scare you (mom) it was just an exciting story :-)

So here is a great story. The night before all this, we had a lesson with Mark and Olivia and a member and it was AMAZING! They really do have strong testimonies. Everything will work out for them I am confident. We had some really really great lessons this week. It was wonderful. Well, I'm about out of time. Have a wonderful week all, I love you!

Annie

Landon’s Letter

Hello :D

So this week I have been trying to think of ways we can have better results. Annie I think you know better then I do about how to do good effective missionary work. Something we are wanting to try and do is work with and through the ward council and members. As of this week all of our key indicators excluding Less-Active and Recent Converts was 0. But we do have 1 investigator who is currently in Alberta working until thursday. So :). Anywho we are trying new finding ideas. Family History and working with the ward.

Anyways for Thanksgiving this week the Etches (a great family) took us out to Swiss Chalet which was great! We didn't have turkey but chicken. but ya we still worked.

Transfers are December 9th just so you know.

Oh man sorry there is just so much going on that I can't keep a straight mind. So this letter will be crazy and way out of order.

I am excited that you all got the tree and lights set up. We have lights here. Only 4 strands that work but still! We have lights! I think I will put them up tonight. Oh and I still need to send you pictures from the full card I have. It's only been 2 months. ok I will try soon! I sent a letter to you guys last week.

Rachel congrats on interschool that is awesome. Keep up the awesome work! how is your job going? how long did it take you to set up the tree? see why I always asked you to come! Love you!

Natalie wow you are just doing great. I hope that you are having fun. Your testimony has grown so much since you have been in college. How much do you do at the institute? Love you!

Annie I hope things are going great for you! I love hearing how you are doing! I will have to write more letters to you so I can hear from you more often. Thanks for being a great example. Love you!

Megan & Justin thanks for all that you do and the great examples you are to me. I hope that things have been going good. I still haven't gotten the package you mentioned last week if I remember right. Love you both!

Mom thanks for putting up the Christmas lights. That is awesome. I can't wait to see all that you have done. I bet it looks awesome. Oh man I was hoping to stay in the same building. Oh Well. Love you!

Dad thanks for all your letters of encouragement. You have no Idea what they actually mean to me! It is always inpsiring to read emails from you. I really appreciate them so much. thanks for being a great example. Love you!

Just remember that I do love all of you and am completely greateful for all you do to help the growth and development of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thanks for your example!

Love your favorite Elder, Son, and Brother,

Landon Webb

11-19-12

Annie’s Letter

Hello dearest family of mine! I hope you are all having an incredible week! I we have had a crazy one! You know the stuff that happened the first half of the week because I just sent you an email...so let me tell you about the last half!

We have a goal of 500 baptisms as a mission for the year 2012. We are only 63 shy of that goal with 5 weeks to go! It's totally possible! 63!

exciting! That's all we need! What an incredible goal! I have such faith in the mission, I know we can accomplish this goal! We are working very hard in Marysville to be able to help accomplish that goal! Brooklyn is on date for December 15 and we are hoping for one or two more additional baptisms in December! Sometimes agency is hard. It is such a wonderful gift that our Heavenly Father has given us, and I am so thankful for it. I am grateful for the opportunity I have each day to choose for myself. I am grateful that each of the wonderful people I am teaching has that incredible opportunity too. However, sometimes I wish they would Choose to exercise their agency differently! I don't want to take it away from them... that's Satan's plan. I just want to... help them make the right choice. Man, that's exactly what we do as missionaries! It's still really sad when they make the wrong choice. Thank goodness that we always have another chance. What a testament of how much our Heavenly Father loves us! He always always always gives us another chance! How lucky we are! I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. One of our investigators, Flo, died. We were so sad to hear that. We hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks because we were a little sick and she had cancer so we didn't want to get her sick. She was a breast cancer survivor of 2 years and her husband passed away last year. Her faith was always so incredible, we were astounded by her amazing attitude and such strong faith. When she told us her cancer had come back we were so sad but she wasn't. She knew God had a plan for her and she would be okay, one way or another. The last time we saw her, which ended up being about a week-ish before she died we were walking away from her apartment and were talking about how we weren't sure if she would accept the gospel in this life but that we knew she would in the next. Funny how the spirit works sometimes. We are excited for her to be learning with an increased understanding now! What a wonderful life! We found a new investigator this week, Carol. The elders were actually teaching her and her husband (but mostly her husband) about 2 years ago. Her husband has a cousin who is a member! Well, Charlie had a baptismal date for November 2010. But then they lost contact. Come to find out, Charlie got really sick (he also had cancer) and he passed away in December 2010. We went to check up on them and met Carol. We went back on Saturday with Sister Lundstrom who is SO amazing! She has an incredible story and such amazing faith! She brought so much to the lesson! Carol (and all of us) really felt the spirit. She accepted a soft baptismal date and...man, this lesson was so incredible. The spirit truly was the teacher. We talked about points of the Restoration (she had some questions) and about some parts of the Plan of Salvation. It was just... man. Members.They really do make such a huge difference. I am so grateful to be here and to have met all the incredible people. Members and non members alike. I never understood really how vital members are. I think that is a huge thing I have learned on my mission so far. I am excited to continue to work with the members here in Ohio so that I can assist them in sharing the gospel. That's really how it should be right? We are only the little helpers. They are the ones who really do the work. And someday, I'm excited to be a member missionary and do everything I can to assist the missionaries. To guide them to people to teach, to be willing to do whatever they need done to keep the work progressing no matter where I'm at! It's a wonderful life! It truly is a wonderful life! Sister Twitchell finished her training yesterday, it's kind of sad! I have loved being a trainer and I have learned so much from her. She is an incredible missionary. I am so blessed to have been able to serve with her. Transfer calls should be coming soon... I hope I get to continue serving with her in Marysville, but I know that transfers are inspired so I will go where the Lord wants me to go and serve where he wants me to serve!

So...back porch huh? That's funny. We NEVER use the back door. Somtimes when it was warmer in the morning....like in July or August we would go outside and play football or something in the back but yeah...we don't use that door. So that's super funny. I'm excited to go check! haha. I'll let you know via Sister Ellington. And I'll let you know about transfers. And the doctor. I'll go see her again in 45 minutes and get some direction and ask a few more questions. It'll be great. I still feel pretty much the same, except determined to stay! I don't want to leave my mission even for a few months! I only have 10 left anyway! I can't lose any of them! It's crazy that it's already Thanksgiving. Time just flies so fast! And there is NO snow here. I can't believe I'm going to have my second Thanksgiving in a row with no snow. But at least people here will eat inside. Unlike the crazy Arizonian's (and Vegas people...Sister Twitchell! haha) I hope you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Tell everyone hello and send my love. We are excited to decorate for Christmas! We even have a Christmas tree in our apartment! yay! Oils... I'm all for it mom! I really want some lemon oil because if you put apple cider vinegar in water with some stevia and lemon oil...it's really good! As it is... apple cider vinegar by itself is pretty nasty. Try some! Apple cider vinegar with the mother (Bragg's brand) but don't take more than a table spoon because you're not used to it. So today I'll buy some Stevia and a glass water bottle (because apparently the vinegar will eat at the plastic or plastic water bottles and then I'll be ingesting plastic and that doesn't sound like any fun at all! So yeah... that'll happen today. Just FYI. Thanks so much for all you guys do for me. I love you all so much! Thanks for your incredible examples! Mom, I hope the Wilson stuff goes well! Natalie, use my sewing maching. It's just sitting there. It might as well get some use. Dad, I was looking at the stars last night and it was so cool! There was one that was really bright that I'm pretty sure was a planet. Venus maybe? Isn't that one you can see at this time of year? Megan and Justin, I hope all is going well for you! Justin...Christmas is a great time to send your favorite sister in law a letter! Rachel-good luck at interschool. I'm sure you're going to do great! and have SO much fun! How did the all state auditions go? Let me know! :-) Landon, thank you for your incredible example. You are just an incredible missionary and I look up to you so much. Everyone in the OCM knows about Elder Webb serving in Canada because crazy Sister Webb talks about him all the time! I love getting your letters. You are such a wonderful example! Keep up the good work. Keep having your amazing attitute!

I love you all so much! Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving! There is a missionary in Ohio who prays for all of you every day! I'm just so blessed to have been put in this family. I can't thank my Heavenly Father enough for sending me to you. I must have done something really really right in the pre mortal existance! :-) Have a wonderful day guys! You're the best! Talk to you soon!

Annie

Landon’s Letter

Hello family :)

This week has been another week. I don't know what else to say. But let me tell you this. Heavenly Father loves us all. Each and everyone of his children. He provides for us and he will never let anything become too difficult for us to over come. I have seen this throughout this week.

First off I am grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord and am very grateful for all of my many little blessings. I have seen many instances where just serving others brings happiness into their lives. Especially when serving and the gospel are combined. This week we stopped by a less-active member who doesn't have the greatest eye sight at all. She has very poor health and is in bad condition. She absolutely loves to read from the scriptures but for the past little while she has not been able to read from the scriptures very well. It strains her eyes to read one word but she tried everyday because she new even that one word would help her to pretty much survive. We dropped by and gave her a large print Book of Mormon and she couldn't believe that there was a book that was so beautiful. We told her that it was for her and she took the book, held it close to her as if she would never let go, and started crying because she could not only see but also read the words. That hit me like a brick wall. I have taken for granite that I have eyes that work very well. The other thing that hit me hard was just her faith of reading from the scriptures bringing her closer to God and also receiving strength from reading. There is not enough gratitude in the world that I can gather just to say thank you to Heavenly Father. It reminds me of the talk from Russell M. Neilson. Thanks be to God!

We have so much to be grateful for even if things seem like there is nothing we can do about it. We know that our Heavenly Father will help us no matter what. He loves each of us the same and he loves when we talk with Him. "When you want to talk to Heavenly Father, Pray. When you want Heavenly Father to talk to you, read the Scriptures." John Bytheway. It is so true. When we read the scriptures (teachings of the prophets current and old) we are literally reading and hearing the words of God. It is something that I have found while out here. I can't memorize any scriptures from the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctirine & Covenants, or Pearl of Great Price. But I can memorize what the latter-day prophets say. Funny huh? I have found great power when I read their teachings. Great truths are revieled when we intently listen to the words from God because the Holy Ghost bears witness of what we need to hear. Thanks be to God!

So here in North Bay our investigator Alex dropped us this week so back to square one. :) Pray for guidance and go out finding! It is something that I am very bad at so I have been studying from the Ward Mission Process, Preach My Gospel, and from the Bishops hand book (he left it out and I copied pages from the Missionary section). It is just amazing how these things are related. It really does come from God on how we need to run these wards. Member Missionary Work here we come! Not too far behind you Annie and I agree I can't wait until I am a member missionary. Not because I will be home but because I can have a greater affect and influence for someone to receive the gospel into their lives. It is proven tha member missionary work is 660% better when they have a person in a members home to work with then missionaries who find on their own and 80% more effective when they just have a name to work with. If you think about that 1 out of 1000 people are baptized and recieve ordinances from missionaries personal finding, 80 out of 1000 people when they are given a name, and 660 out of 1000 when they have a person and member to work with. Crazy right! We have a sacred responsibility as members. Something to look forward to in over a year and a half.

Rachel- Let me and Annie know how Inter-School goes. I know you will be great and I hope you have fun while you do it. Just remember high school is short and you are on the tail end. Make the best of it! Also I hope you are having fun in school.

Natalie- School is fun at college huh! I bet you are excited to be off for he semester really soon. When does the semester end? Are you going to do anything over the christmas break with any of your friends from college?

Annie- You are such a great example keep up the hard work. Please keep me updated on how you are doing. I will keep you in my prayers. Sorry not to many people here now about you except the members do! I have only been in NOrth Bay :)

Megan & Justin thanks for all you do I am excited to see what you have sent me. Thanks

Mom- alright the lights are up! congradulations! sorry I am running out of time. I hope you have a great thanksgiving

Dad- Thanks for the messages even through the members. I agree canadians have the thanksgiving date wrong. It makes sense but it needs to be in November!

I love you all and thanks for all you do!

Love your favorite Elder, Brother, and Son

Landon Webb

11-12-12

Landon’s Letter

Hey mi familia,

I am so glad to hear how things are going. It sounds like things back home are going pretty good. I am so grateful for all of you and I am very grateful for all the support you give to Annie and me. It is wonderful to hear from such a great family! Whenever things are difficult or hard I am always reminded of just how great I have things here because I have a wonderful family. Thank you!

This week was one of those weeks where we just wanted to go home, sit down, and scream. It is definately one of the hardest things I have ever done. It isn't just physically exhausting but it is mentally and spiritually exhausting as well. It was so hard to just get through some of these days. It was then I had to make that decision to try and make it the best that I could. So on saturday morning we got up alittle earlier and made breakfast. Pancakes! (we usually have cereal) but it was just nice. Then through out the day I would think about a blessing in my life when I was feeling down. Man I have things sooooo good! How grateful I am for all the my Father in Heaven has given and blessed me with. It has made all the difference in the world.

This week has been also very interesting with our teaching. We didn't have too many lessons and the ones we did a few canceled. We weren't able to meet with our only investigator, Alex. He also wasn't able to come to church. So we need to really meet with him because he has a baptismal date on Novermber 24th. We still have alot to help him with and we need to really help him see what he has to do. But before we can do that we need to help him see that he has gotten an answer and that he knows that this church is true. He helped another nonmember last week in church by talking to him a little bit about baptisms for the dead....We haven't taught him about baptisms for the dead unless the elders before talked to him about that. Anyways the wording he used pretty much told us where he stands, "We believe that baptisms for the dead are preformed......". Now unless I am taking this a different way then I should or me, Elder Badillo (before he left), and Elder Kozak have gotten a completely different read that he does know this. So this week, acutually tomorrow at 6, we will be watching Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with some members here. (Tom, Nathan & Emilyr, and hopefully we can invite 1 more person who is a potential investigator) We usually just use the movie The Restoration which is 20 minutes of just the restoration but we felt that this would be a little more powerful to him since he has seen The Restoration before. We are hoping to let him see that he does now it. I have been praying for him but I need to pray harder.

Rachel: I am glad you had a blast at the football game and acutually ya I was wondering about Holmstrum. Haha thanks. How is work going? Have you made someone vomit yet? haha Thanks for the letting me see how the game went. Ya I agree it was good for Dalton to get the interception.

Landon's Sister ok I felt bad, Natalie ;): haha I like it. That's funny. Who were all those people? Is Cameron coming to institute? Tell him hi for me. I am glad you have found something that you really like to do. So does that mean you are going to sew me a birthday present in April? haha don't worry you will have another chance to take Calc II. Maybe with Sarah she is an awesome teacher.

Annie: I hope to hear from you next week! I am excited to hear how things are going. How are your investigators? When are your transfers? Do you think you will be moved? How are you enjoying Ohio? By the way Jamie Fox (Back to the Future) grew up in North Bay. How cool is that!

Megan & Justin: Thanks for all you do! How is work going? Justin I hope you are practicing up on Mario Kart I would hate to still beat you when I get home ;) How is work going? How are the boys? Are they pupsicles yet? It sounds like you are all having fun. That is awesome you deserve it!

Mom: Thank you so much for the package. I absolutely love it! It is already hanging up but don't worry I haven't peaked. Ok on a couple of things but thats just because some fell out and so when I unpacked it I just quickly put them in an empty pouch. Thank you for everything!

Dad: Thanks for always being there at the games. You too Mom :) It was always great to have you there to support me. Thank you! I was able to play basketball today! I am so out of shape. I am glad to hear that you made it back to Lyman safe. I know how those roads are over South Pass. Please stay safe!

Thank you all for all that you do! I am excited to hear more from you and I hope that you will continue to serve Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ the best you can! That is the first and great commandment. "Though shalt love the Lord your God." Just remember any act of kindness, service, uplifting people, or even just doing your job is becoming more Christlike. Keep up all that you do! :)

Love your favorite Elder, Brother, and Son (favorite missionary to but don't tell Annie) hehe

Landon Webb

11-15-12

Annie’s Letter

Hello! I don't really have too much to say today... not much at all actually. I hope you all have had a great week! It sounds like you've been busy and having fun! You are all such wonderful examples. I am so grateful for all of you. So here is some of what has been going on this week...

We have had some great lessons with our investigators this week. We had a fantastic lesson on the Priesthood with McKenzie and helped her mom understand it better too! Simon says is a great priesthood game! We taught Jared about prophets by using a paper cup telephone. Without the string connecting the two cups, it just doesn't work. We need that middle man! We taught Brooklyn a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. She is just wonderful. She hasn't completely gained a testimony yet, but it's growing. I am excited to see her continue to progress. We also had a lesson with Barb about the spirit. It was a hard lesson because people keep interrupting! But it was great. Her sister went with us to the Temple today and she said that Barb is finally starting to understand a little bit about how she feels about the gospel and how much it can bless her life. I am so excited for her! I love these two incredible ladies. Their testimonies and faith are just incredible.

On Sunday we went to Richwood (a little town in our area about 20 miles away) We had dinner with a family up there. We drove to Richwood, got to their house...and it was empty. So we called them and they didn't answer. So we called Sister Glover's mom (who is also in the ward) and she told us they moved...to marysville. In the end we found out they live...IN THE SAME APARTMENT COMPLEX AS US!! So that was exciting. Goodbye 40 miles! :-( Also, on Tuesday we had an Incredible zone conference! It was all about member missionary work. It was super awesome, I learned a lot. I am excited to be a member missionary some day. I want to be Sister Ellington, Sister Madsen, Brother Hatch, Brother Vandiford... they are all such incredible examples of member missionaries! Keep up the good work on being member missionaries yourselves! it is a lifelong calling to all of us! Then we had exchanges on Tuesday/Wednesday. It was fun because Sister O'Brien came to Marysville. She was the very first person I ever went on exchanges with...in Marysville! It was super awesome! Then today we got to go to the Temple. I love going to the Temple. I wish we got to go more, but that is not the focus for us. We need to help other people get there! Then they can invite us and we can just go with them! :-) I am so grateful for the Temple and the peace it brings into our lives. If you're endowed...GO! Sister Rappleye said "We are supposed to make the Temple our priority. If we don't have the next session scheduled then it's not a priority." If you're not endowed... prepare yourself. Go do baptisms. Go to the Temple grounds... do what you need to do to get there someday! Nothing is worth passing up the blessings of the Temple. Nothing at all. Well, I don't really have time left. Sorry this is a super short email...but I love you all tonz! I hope you have a great week!

Tata!

Annie