How family, a mission and mentors helped this new Sunday School leader find confidence and learn to trust in the Lord (2024)

On Feb. 18, 2024, Brother Chad H Webb and his wife, Sister Kristi Webb, had the unique opportunity to join Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Rosana Soares, as speakers at a worldwide devotional for young adults.

The devotional, which originated from Mexico City, Mexico, was historic. It marked the first time an entire event produced for a global audience was broadcast in a non-English language. Elder and Sister Soares and Brother and Sister Webb spoke in Spanish. Prayers and music were also shared in Spanish.

For Brother Webb, once a shy young man unsure about how to share the gospel in English, let alone Spanish, it was a meaningful, full-circle moment. Less than four decades earlier he had a life-changing experience as a missionary in Mexico, where he learned the language and came to love the people.

“To get to share some feelings and testimony in Spanish in Mexico was a wonderful experience and privilege,” he said, adding that he and his wife felt blessed in their ability to speak Spanish that night.

The experience was another example of how Heavenly Father helps His children, Brother Webb told the Church News after he was sustained as first counselor in the Sunday School general presidency in April 2024 general conference. He begins serving on Aug. 1.

“He helps us feel qualified for whatever He has asked us to do,” he said. “I’ve learned to put my trust in Him whenever I’m asked to do something.”

Early faith-building experiences

Brother Webb’s faith began to grow in a home with a teacher/sports coach father and a mother who mostly stayed home to raise and nurture nine children.

“It started with my parents teaching the gospel and watching their example,” he said. “We had a very loving home centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

As a young man, Brother Webb was attending the College of Eastern Utah (now Utah State University Eastern) when he had a foundational spiritual experience that deepened his testimony.

It started with a desire to strengthen his faith. Amid school work and playing basketball, Brother Webb made it a priority over several months to study his scriptures, ponder and pray often as he prepared to serve a mission.

One cold night, he went for a long walk around Price, Utah, reflecting on what he had learned. Heaven’s love came as he entered an empty parking lot.

“I felt like all the answers to my prayers and questions came, and I felt very deeply how true the gospel and the Church are,” he said. “It came with great clarity in my mind, along with the feeling that Heavenly Father was aware of me. I felt His love and His direction. That was one of the early, really impactful experiences I had to deepen my testimony.”

Talking to people was still difficult. Even after receiving his call to the Mexico Veracruz Mission, the thought of being a missionary made him nervous.

Before leaving, Brother Webb spoke at a fireside and, he said, gave “the worst talk ever given in a Church setting.” A family member later said, “I was so embarrassed for you.” Brother Webb went home the night of the fireside convinced that he couldn’t be a missionary in English, let alone Spanish.

He found hope in the story of Enoch, a prophet who also felt inadequate and “slow of speech” (Moses 6:31) when called by the Lord.

“I got to the part where the Lord says, ‘Abide in me’ and ‘walk with me’ (Moses 6:34) and thought, ‘OK, you have given me this call. I trust you will make me able,’” he said. “I went and somehow learning Spanish in a foreign culture and people, I started over. This is what I have been asked to do, and I can do this. I had so many experiences as a missionary that gave me confidence.”

Lives changed in Mexico

During his mission, Brother Webb witnessed many individuals grow in faith and embrace the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which in turn strengthened his own faith.

They taught one young man whose parents initially opposed his baptism but reconsidered months later when they observed how the gospel changed their son’s life for the better. Tragically, the young man’s older brother died in a boating accident, which shifted the focus of their teachings to the plan of salvation. Despite opposition in their family and community, the family joined the Church. The mother became the branch’s Relief Society president and the father the branch president. Several relatives and friends also joined the faith.

“It was touching to see how the gospel blessed them,” said Brother Webb, who remains in contact with the family. “The best day of my mission came after I got home and received the letter saying they had been to the Mexico City temple.”

Another memorable experience involved a couple displaced by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. The missionaries met the couple when they came to the Church one day searching for answers. As a former professor, the man struggled with feelings of unworthiness due to his past actions of causing young people not to believe in God. After being taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the man prayed for forgiveness. At his baptism, the man gave a deeply moving testimony of the Savior and likened his spiritual healing to a soothing balm that wiped away all scars.

“To see someone experience forgiveness and the hope that comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ was another life-changing experience for me,” Brother Webb said.

A sister missionary to remember

Following his mission, Brother Webb spent a year at CEU before continuing his education at BYU. He was teaching at the Provo Missionary Training Center when he met Kristi Ann Bronson, a sister missionary going to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“I told some friends, ‘I think I’ve met the sister missionary I want to remember,’” he said.

More than a year later in December of 1989, Brother Webb was visiting his parents in Tremonton, Utah, for Christmas when a missionary just returned from Puerto Rico spoke in sacrament meeting. Brother Webb inquired about Sister Bronson and learned she had just returned home to her family in the area of Ogden, Utah. With a phone book in hand, he began calling every Bronson in the Ogden area. He found her family after the third or fourth call.

Within seven weeks, the couple was engaged. Eight months later they were married in the Logan Utah Temple.

“She is simply the best person I know,” Brother Webb said of his wife. “She is a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and a loving friend to everyone.”

Said Sister Webb: “It was clear that Heavenly Father brought us together. I don’t know how we would have met otherwise. I feel like He has been guiding our steps all along.”

Church education and mentors

The idea of being a seminary teacher first occurred to Brother Webb as a young man as he was influenced by good seminary teachers.

The idea resurfaced when he was asked to substitute teach an institute class in Price, Utah, after his mission. When the teacher returned, Brother Webb was waiting at his office door with a question — “How do you get to do this?”

Soon he was enrolled in preservice at BYU, a course that prepares young men and women to be seminary and institute teachers. An offer of employment soon followed.

“We got married, I graduated from college, we started full-time teaching seminary, and we bought a house — all within three weeks,” he said. “All of life’s big changes happened all at the same time as we started our life together.”

Over the last three decades, Brother Webb taught seminary and institute, coordinated institute programs, supervised training and selection of seminary teachers and worked as an administrator of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion.

While Church education and service has helped the Webbs create a gospel-centered home, Brother Webb’s life and career have been enriched and uplifted by many great mentors and teachers.

“He’s always trying to improve and learn how to do better,” Sister Webb said. “He’s been led to have relationships that have really boosted him.”

One key mentor has been Elder Paul V. Johnson, of the Presidency of the Seventy and the newly sustained Sunday School general president, whom Brother Webb first met at a CES symposium in the mid-1990s. They became better acquainted during a 1997 Church education tour of Italy, Egypt and Israel, where Elder Johnson served as the tour director. His wisdom, balance and dedication to following the Prophet while remaining committed to family has had a powerful impact on the Webbs.

Brother Webb said he will continue to learn from others and trust in the Lord as he prepares for his new calling.

“We love Heavenly Father and the Savior,” he said. “We are so grateful for Their blessings, guidance and the hope They provide in our lives. We have challenges just like anyone, and we trust Them and hold on to Their promises. I know that because of Heavenly Father’s perfect plan, and Jesus’ central role in that plan, that things will work out, and we’re grateful to have any opportunity to serve Them in any way because of our love for Them and our trust in Them.”

Brother Chad H Webb

Family: Born Dec. 18, 1964, in Rexburg, Idaho, to Larry George Webb and Paige Webb. Married Kristi Ann Bronson on Aug. 4, 1990, in the Logan Utah Temple; they are the parents of six children.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a master’s degree in educational leadership and foundations from Brigham Young University.

Employment: Taught released-time seminary in Salt Lake City and institute in Virginia and Utah. Coordinated institute programs in Northern Virginia (Washington, D.C., area) and supervised training and selection of seminary teachers. Administrator of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion since 2008.

Church service: Stake president, high councilor, bishop, elders quorum president and full-time missionary in the Mexico Veracruz Mission.