2/25/13

Landon’s Letter

Hey everyone :)

This week as you could see was transfers and we are staying here again! I was so excited but I hate when they don't call because then we are pacing back and forth till 10:30 waiting for a call. I wish they would have just called us telling us we were staying. We got a text this morning. We have to pick up a compaionship at 6 a.m. to drive them to Brampton tomorrow morning by 7:00 a.m. So that means that we have to wake up at 4:45. so 2:45 your time. Then after that it's right off to work. We are going to be so tired hahaha. I hope when we talk with people we aren't zombies. That is actually what Hamilton is famous for. People call it the Zombie Apocolypse here. haha. I haven't actually gotten to witness the famous Jackson Square myself but I want to. I think that would be a great story. They are all children of God to. But sadly you won't find anyother place like Hamilton.

This week was really exciting. It went by really slowly from Tuesday to Sunday because we were so excited for Nick's baptism. Which he was! It was such a great service. The spirit was really strong there. The transformation that we have seen in him just over a month was amazing. We met him on January 23 in a resturant that a member invited us to. Then from there on he took off. He already had a strong testimony on the power of prayer. 15 years ago he was having an alcohol problem. He wanted it gone so he prayed to have that compolsion taken away and it was. He has been wanting to be baptized for 10 years but couldn't find the right church or even feel like he could because of his addictions. After he quite his addictions he was such a different person. He was smiling more. You could see the Light of Christ in him glowing. He was also happier. He absolutely loves the change. I got to talk about baptism so I have to send off 2 talks now. It was a really good experience. It just showed me how if we put our trust and exercise our faith in Jesus Christ he will truely help us to overcome our trials.

3 Scriptures. I love trying to be like Nephi and Liken the scriptures.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Alma 7:11-13 "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according the flesh how to succor his people. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he may take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverence; and know behold, this is the testimony which is in me."

Our Heavenlly Father loves us all so much that he sent Jesus Christ into the world to redeem us so that we can return and live with Him once more. He knows how to help us he knows "how to succor his people." He can lead us and guide us in the very way we most need it in any aspect of our lives. But there is some things we have to do first. There are things in our lives that feel like they way us down, like things don't make sense, or that things just don't seem fair. But there is a great promise to all that we go through.

Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weaknesses that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then I will make weak things become strong unto them."

We are given things to help us come closer and become more like Jesus Christ. When we submit ourselves to the Fathers will and exercise faith in Jesus Christ we can become strong. Through Jesus Christ all things are possible. There is nothing we can't overcome. That doesn't mean that we will get things to work out but it means that things will work out to better us to become who we need to become. There is a lesson to be learned from everything we go through to better ourselves. This last month in the Ensign there was an article on grief. The lady who was going through grief learned more about love, compassion, and also long suffering. That is the Character of Christ. That is who we need to strive to become more like everyday in our lives.

I will leave you with one more scripture that John Bytheway gave in a talk.

1 Nephi 11:17 "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

Our Father in Heaven loves us. He truely does. He loves all his children. What a great thing to know. I cannot imagine not having this gospel in my life.

Rachel- I am glad you had fun at the vocal point concert. I wish I could have seen it. That would have been cool. I can't believe you went through the line twice. No excusses we know why. ;)

Natalie- I am excited that you have spring break really soon. It is a nice break to have. I think it is just a way to break up the year from Christmas to the end of the school year. Have fun.

Annie- I am excited to hear how you are enjoying your new area. I will have to read about it next week. Keep up the hard work and being such a great example. I love you!

Megan and Justin- Sounds like things are going good for you guys. I hope things continue to go good as well. I really appreciate all that you do. I really do. Thanks!

Mom- It was nice to talk to you for even just a few seconds. I was really excited to do that today! I was looking forward to see if I could all morning. Thanks for all you do!

Dad- Thanks for all you do. I did activate my card. I will be going to try that out sometime today. Thanks for all that you do as well. I really appreciate all that you have done for me.

I love you all and thanks for everything!

Love your favorite Elder, Brother, and Son,

Landon Webb

Annie’s Letter

So you're probably wondering why I am emailing so late today. Well... today isn't actually our pday. We are still emailing and stuff today because we won't have time on our pday...Thursday. We are going to the temple! I am SO excited! Partly because we get to go to the temple and that's always amazing! And also because we are going to the temple on February 28! Why is this date so significant you might ask? BECAUSE THAT'S THE DAY I WENT THROUGH THE TEMPLE FOR THE FIRST TIME! So that's pretty awesome. I think I'll have to make this a yearly tradition! I am super excited! So vocal point... I'm jealous. I LOVE vocal point. Austin Ellington gave us a vocal point hymn cd so I listen to that a lot. I don't know if you guys knew but I went to a concert a couple years ago. and it was amazing! At that point, there was a guy in it who was from Cody, Wyoming. And another guy who was Sean Pickup's roommate. So that was pretty cool. That's awesome that Bryce is in vocal point! I totally remember him! Although, he may not remember me lol. He was getting ready to go on his mission when I knew him. I'm glad you all enjoyed the concert so much. So many wonderful things come from BYU. :-) In other news... I am loving Cincinnati. It's great! I will be excited for it to warm up a little more... I'm sick of walking around in the cold all the time! But it's totally worth it so no worries. This week is going to be pretty cold. There was an ice storm last week and that was really interesting. It was different than anything I'd seen before. I have been super blessed and haven't been sick at all. People have been getting super sick all winter and they can't get over it. It's been no bueno. But I haven't come down with anything (knock on wood). On guard! It's amazing stuff. So my area includes a couple of little towns or townships or whatever they call them. There is Loveland (where we are a lot) and Sharonville! and Wyoming! So that's super exciting. But when I tell people that I'm from Wyoming I have to clarify that I am from the state of Wyoming. Haha. So that's been super fun. I'm glad everything is going well for you guys. Thanks so much for the emails! And the letters! It's been great! After a week of no mail.. we had a full mailbox! Sister Bergeson got a bunch of letters and I did too! Including one from mom! And then the next day I got one from dad! Yay for mail! Just for future reference... next transfer is on March 28. I think. There have been rumors that this is a 5 week transfer in which case transfers are on the 21 (or something like that) but I haven't heard that officially. So no idea really. I don't know why it would be a 5 week transfer... I'll try to find out this week. It shouldn't be hard since we talk to the zone leaders like every day. That's what happens when you share an area! lol.

Today I was reading a talk from General Conference and it made me think of the song in the subject line. "Because you live and breathe, because you make me believe in myself when nobody else can help...because you live, I live." I just think that describes the Atonement of the Savior so perfectly. Because He DOES live still we can also live. For eternity. I am so thankful for my Savior. This week I have been very grateful to be working along side Him. Sister Bergeson and I have been doing a lot of tracting and trying to figure out how to make it more productive. We are getting referrals from members fairly consistently, but we have a lot A LOT of finding time. It has been awesome to be able to coordinate our efforts with the Elders and see the miracles. We are lucky to be working with some awesome elders. Elder Smuin (from Vernal, UT) and Elder Whiting (from AZ). It is a lot of fun. We have been working hard and just trying to have faith and work as hard as we can and be exactly obedient so that miracles can be poured out. We are really working on not taking "no" as an answer when we knock on doors. Sometimes the answer is still no but we are really trying hard to get past people's concerns so that we can share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We have an investigator, Jerry, and he is amazing. He just let us in immediately and we started talking to him. This week he came to church and loved it. His wife is a little more reluctant. She is a little wary of church it seems but she is open minded and so we are working with her as well. But we extended baptism to both of them. Ericka was a little more hesitant. The first time we asked Jerry said "I've already been baptized" so we talked about the priesthood and asked again. And he said yes! So we were super excited! We are hoping to get him on date this week. He loved church and the members. He is planning on taking his son to play basketball at the church on Thursday! And...so cool! We found out that one of the boys in the ward knows Jerry's son! He plays sports with him! So we were super excited about that! The Lord really does prepare people in advance to be able to accept the gospel in their lives!

Sister Bergeson is amazing. Her birthday is March 23! She is really a great missionary and really just incredible. I hope all the other 19 year old missionaries are as awesome as she is! I am sure they are. She works hard and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the work done. She is bold, which is good for me because that is something that I am working on. I am loving having her as a companion.

I was so excited about the announcement of the 58 new missions! Including the Cincinnati mission! That is HUGE! Everyone here is super excited. The work is progressing! The standard of truth has been erected! No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing! It's true it's true! How lucky we are to be a part of this great and marvelous latter day work. SO LUCKY! So how it will work here, that July transfer people will get transferred into or our out Cincinnati and that will be the determining transfer of who is in the new mission. So I could be or I could not be. Chances are I won't stay in this area for longer than 2 transfers because there are so many new sisters coming in. 16 more in May! But that doesn't mean anything at this point...so yeah, we will just have to wait and see what happens. 3 missions in Ohio! The OCM, OCM, and OCM. The Ohio Columbus Mission, The Ohio Cincinnati Mission, and The Ohio Cleavland Mission. Haha.

Well, dearest familia... I love you guys. I still have a box I need to send home..it's on the back seat of the car. Maybe someday I'll have time to send it. We'll see. It's nothing exciting, just clothes. Wanna know something super awesome!? I have 3 library cards from Ohio. I can go to a lot of libraries. haha. Those are fun to collect I've decided. Although, my library card from the Provo library is still my favorite. It is yellow and has a cute little green frog on it. I love it.

By the way, my bishop is Bishop Proudfoot. When I heard his name I asked if he was native American too. He's not. He's British. He has an awesome accent. He served a mission in England, his wife (also British) served in Haiti! Their kids have mostly grown up in the US, a little in England and they also lived in China for 4 years. But they are settled here now. They have a son on a mission in the Washington DC North (I think) Mandarin speaking mission. SO that's pretty awesome. They are great. The whole ward is just amazing. I love being here with them. It's super fantastic! K, I gotta peace out! Love you guys like frogs love files! :-) Tata for now!

Annie