6/30/13

It's so nice to hear from you! you're a pretty good mom :) just kidding, you're the best! but really though, I find myself talking about you and Dad all the time here. MAN! I miss hoopfest!!!! those were crazy days back then but I'm looking forward to watching them again. I'm glad  to hear about everyone having jobs. Here in Latvia it really isn't all that common for people to have jobs and I know it really hurts them personally and with whatever family life they may have. My language is getting better and better everyday and I know that it's ONLY because of my prayers and studies. I'm meeting with a man named Mark Vanderhart who's from Chicago (teaches Hebrew, Greek, and the Bible...no big deal..) and I love him to death. He's about 60 years old and he's probably the smartest scriptorian I've ever known. Our lessons are so awesome 1 because they're in English (Tender mercy for sure) and 2 because he knows EVERYTHING about the bible. It was actually a super cool experience last week ill share with you. This is probably the 5th time meeting with him and meetings normally goes as follows. We meet and say hi of course and go into an open room. I always ask him to pray because he wont pray with us thanks to the fact that he wont pray with any non Christians (EVEN THOUGH WE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but in an incredibly respectful way. he says the prayer exactly like we do and we start with answering all his questions. he has a lot... This last week was super cool though because I was on an exchange with other elders when we were teaching and one asked, "Mark I don't know you very well but I'd just like to know why exactly you're meeting with Elder Webb if that's alright to ask?" he replied by saying, "Well I'm here because I truly do want to learn about your church but I never want to learn about the Mormons through anti material. I want it straight from the teachers. In short I guess I'm here to learn but also to challenge your doctrine a little bit to see if it can be put to the test (PERFECT!)" and then the coolest thing happened. he turned to me and asked my while looking right in my eyes " Elder Webb, Why in the world are you here? you know that I'm a pretty hard nut but why do you keep on wanting to meet?" I paused for a moment and held eye contact with him and said, "Mark I'm here because I feel a genuine love for you and I love meeting because we both learn so much. Granted I don't have 60 years of bible knowledge under my belt but this I do know without a doubt in my mind, Nothing has ever blessed my life more than the Book you're holding in your hands. I'm only 19 years old but I can tell you that I know with the utmost truthfulness that this book is directly from God and that along with the Bible, you can come to a full knowledge of your Savior Jesus Christ. I'm here because I love you mark and because I want this to bless your life like it's blessed mine." what he said next brought the strongest spirit we've ever had in a lesson so far. He looked at me and said after waiting for a moment, "I want you to know that i love you too. Not just as a missionary but I love you as a real person. I want you to know that I want to see you after this life. We may have some differences on doctrine but I want you to know that I love you Elder Webb. When I'm in my hotel room reading your Book of Mormon, I've asked myself many times....What if this book was true.."after he said that he paused holding the book of Mormon just staring at it we waited for a moment and gave the Holy Ghost a chance to flood the room and believe me it did. It was incredible! He flies back to Chicago this Thursday so I'm meeting with him one more time on Tuesday and I talked my mission president into coming with me. it's going to be an incredible lesson. I can already tell. I'm going to get his email and try to keep in touch with him but i think you should send him a message or a letter or something. you know, do what moms do :) anyway he's incredible and I cant wait to see him accept this gospel. Other than Mark, we have Martinš who's progressing in every way except for attending church! come on! people here have the custom that even if they live in the city, the family always owns a small home in the country side where they travel to every Sunday. It's called the Laoukous in Latvian English and I HATE IT. we also just found a new investigator names Arvis who's 17 and totally GOLDEN. We don't even know how we got his number but we've met with him everyday for the last 4 days and he came to church yesterday! he's reading the book of Mormon like crazy and told us yesterday that it brings him a strange feeling of hope that there's something better than just average life...YEAH BABY! ill keep you posted on him too. LIFE HERE ROCKS. it's way hard at times but I'm right in the heart of finding the lost tribes of Israel. We have branches here that have a member from every tribe. We literally are gathering Israel. Also, I started reading Jesus the Christ and it's changing my life. tell dad to give it a look. It's an incredible book all about the life of Christ that opens your mind to so many insights. well, I love you all of course and I love hearing from you. you're the best family in the world and because of the picture that we have together from the morning I left, I've been able to talk to so many people. I've kinda been showin you off :) love you loads!

-Elder Webb