10-18-14 More Great Mission Stuff!

Subject: 18 October 2014

Hi everyone,

Texas has been nice to us the last few days, the weather has turned for the better, I love it! The fall is here, what a blessing. Makes me wish I was back on a bike! We had another great week. On Monday we carved pumpkins, mine is sporting the angel Moroni. I would send you a picture but I forgot my camera chord, woops! Next week. That night we had a great lesson with Robin, he is making slow and steady process, he will get baptized eventually. After seeing Robin we met Amber Dill at the church. She is in her late twenties, we have been teaching her aunt and Amber wants to know more. We gave her a tour of the church and taught her the Restoration. Our discussion took about two hours because she is not afraid to comment! She knows more about the Bible than Elder Nuckols and I combined, so it is great fun. She seems like she is sincerely searching for truth, good thing we have it!

On Tuesday we visited the temple with the group of missionaries heading home, including Elder Larsen. It was a great session. I love the temple. Sometimes we go seeking guidance and revelation, but this time I simply enjoyed feeling the special peace that only the temple brings. I needed it. That night we had a first lesson with a referral in the YSA and she is from Gilbert! She graduated from Gilbert High School in 2014 and is going to UTD, it was nuts! We don't know any of the same people but it was like a bit of home, small world.

Wednesday and Thursday were two of my favorite days in the mission. Elder Nuckols and I went on a road trip with President Taylor out to east Texas to see the three zones out there, interview them, and do some exchanges, it was amazing! We basically had one on one time with President Taylor for six or seven hours in the car. We planned out a lot of things that the mission needs as well as had discussions about normal life, career paths, and deep doctrine. It was fun. We spent the night in a hotel which was odd but sweet! And we got hit on at a drive thru. It was a fun trip.

Yesterday we were back at the state fair working the family history booth again and had a good time. There was an old lady who volunteered to be there with us but she spent all of the time running around looking at different booths and talking on the phone so we did all of the work! But that's okay, we enjoyed ourselves.

Those are all of the big highlights for the week. Life is good here in Texas, I couldn't ask for much better. Sounds like things keep changing back home, I will be in for a bit of a shock I am sure but I'm okay with that. I love all of you!

Elder Williams

Scripture- Moroni 7:41

Preach My Gospel- Developing Christlike attributes should be our most prominent goal in life. To be with Him, we need to be like Him.

3-9-14 Mission President Order's Elder Williams to Get a Manicure, in Order to Reach Out to Investigator.

Family!!!!!

Oh goodness y'all are wonderful. Just a few housekeeping items. Mom, the walgreens is on Montfort and Beltline, it is the closest one to me now. I went in on Monday to get a few prescriptions filled and apparently they still hadn't gotten the updated ones from Dr. Wong so they contacted Dr. Wong and I suppose they are in now so that is great! 

To answer some of the questions y'all threw at me, I will be emailing Saturday mornings so if you want to make an email on Fridays that is great, just as long as I get one I don't really care! Yes, my companion is Elder Larsen, we have served around each other a lot and he was trained by Elder Merrill two transfers before me. He is a super hard worker and very fiery and passionate, he is an amazing missionary. He is very headstrong but that's okay. I like him, we will get along fine. Both of us are great at talking about the gospel with others but not the best at the day to day small talk so it's been a little quiet but it'll get better with time, I'm excited to serve with him!! 

As for Elder Porter, he stayed in Rowlett. I miss him, he was a great companion and friend, we worked hard and had a lot of fun. He is actually going to Dixie State University to play golf but we have plans to hang out after the mission. He hates BYU haha but no worries, it isn't a thorn in the side of our friendship. 

 And on my year mark I didn't blow up anything, I just ate a big dinner at Raising Canes, the best chicken fingers you will ever get and I have found out that there is one in Tempe by ASU or something so you all should try it! You won't be disappointed!

So on to this past week. We are so busy, I love it. I have never been so tired my whole mission. We have to fit all of our proselyting into about half the time of a normal missionary and the Lord is helping us out big time. We are constantly blessed with referrals and we have a few solid investigators right now so we actually teach a lot. Being so busy has made me cherish the time that I get to knock a few doors and teach lessons. 

Monday we were able to play a little basketball and helped the extra companionship move out of our apartment. We had a missionary go home in a neighboring area so we took the extra set of missionaries out of our ward and made a trio in the other ward.  We spent the night finding and it was great. 

On Wednesday we taught some lessons. We taught David, a YSA investigator who is really solid, he has been reading the Book of Mormon, wants to come to church, and has a baptismal date. We took a member with us that ended out being worrisome because he would interjected some . . . uhh . . . interesting ideas. The member on the car ride to and from was asking us what the Bible says about the judgement passed on dishonest people and told us too many odd stories. He is a great guy, just different. 

Then we had a quick lesson with Steve Punches, a very big and tall man who works at a big and tall store, imagine that. He is lonely and needs friends and as we talked he was very concerned that other churches were putting out false information about ours and wants to come to church when his health allows, good stuff!

And we taught an Indian man named Robin who was very impressed with our church and wants to read the Book of Mormon. He is an amazing man, his wife is mentally handicapped due to a stroke a few years ago and he takes care of her and loves her anyways, excellent man. 

The most interesting part of the week would have to be when I got a manicure... Yes a manicure. Don't worry, it was on President Durrant's orders. He took his daughter to get a manicure for her birthday a few days ago ( and he got a pedicure) and talked to a young Vietnamese woman named Beka who wanted a Book of Mormon. So he sent us to give her the Book of Mormon. We had to go to the mall where she works and while walking in the mall President called us and said that instead of just giving her the book one of us needed to get a manicure to have more time to talk with her. So I got a manicure and talked with her for about 20 minutes and she accepted the book and we got her information so we'll see how it goes!! 

We also had to drive out to east Texas for a meeting yesterday, my first time out there and it is very different from the city! Much greener and things move slower. It was about a 2 hour drive one way. So that was fun, the meeting went well and I ate some of the best BBQ ever at Stanley's BBQ pit, it was amazing! 

We are also teaching some recent converts who antied themselves so went by and helped them understand what our beliefs are and cleared up misconcepetions and misunderstandings and will keep meeting with them and hopefully get them back to church. Lastly we met with Reuben, the husband of a member. He is awesome and so sincere. He is from New York and has a great accent and we always have great discussions, the last one being about faith being a principle of action and the difference between the light of Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost, it was a great lesson. 

There are wonderful things happening here. I love being a missionary and working with the Lord to save His children. It is mentally, spiritually, and physically exhausting but I know I am where the Lord wants me to be. I know that Jesus is the Christ and can't describe His sacrifice for us but it is precious to me. I am grateful for all of my experiences thus far and am especially grateful knowing that we have found the truth and that our family can be together eternally. I love y'all, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Williams

3-2-14 Richardson 2nd Ward is Amazing!

Family!!

The cultural celebration sounded like it was amazing, what a wonderful opportunity for our family to be a part of it! I wish I could have been there but the Lord has other things for me to do here. 

Since I last wrote things have been so busy! Monday I went to the airport and picked up all the new missionaries arriving in the mission, it was weird to be at the airport, first time since I arrived myself. We talked and trained them and had a bunch of meetings. 

Tuesday was transfer day so and transfers were delayed due to some icy weather so that was crazy, President Durrant made 4 or 5 transfer changes the morning of transfers, that was fun. So we had more meetings and got the new missionaries all squared away with their trainers and then spent the day running things around to people and the night with the departing missionaries,  it was crazy to see some of the missionaries go home. 

The rest of the week slowed down and we actually did some knocking and teaching these last few days so things are a little back to normal, we just get a lot of phone calls from missionaries with weird and dumb questions like if they can watch movies and stuff like that. 

The Richardson 2nd ward is a amazing, the ward mission leader created a program in excel that is basically a computerized area book and the Bishop is so missionary minded, we are going to love this ward. There are two other missionaries living in our apartment with us, Elder Transier and my old companion Elder Johnson. Most of the work in the ward comes to Elder Larsen and I and they do more of the less active work. 

It has been a great week so far though, just so busy that I hardly have time to think about much else. I don't have much time today but I will try and write more next week! I love y'all!

Elder Williams

Oh and my new address is just the mission office address if you send me mail.

Texas Dallas Mission

13747 Montfort Dr. #120

Dallas TX 75240

3-1-14 President Durrant Called Me to Be an Assistant

Family!!

Well it's been quite the week. I've been transferred, I will now be serving in Richardson 2 and YSA and will be working with President Durrant more often because he called me to be an Assistant. 

He is double transferring the previous assistants out and called two new ones, me and Elder Larsen. 

That's why I am emailing on Saturday instead of Monday. All I know is that the Lord is about to stretch me in a thousand different ways, I'm excited but nervous. It will be a great opportunity. I'm sad to leave Elder Porter and Rowlett though, odd how things grow on you, especially when you put so much of yourself into them. 

 Yesterday Elder Porter and I got up at 5:30 a.m and were out contacting people at 6 a.m. We started in the Walmart parking lot but a lady stared us down and looked like she was going to raise heck so we left and went to the dart station, a light rail that goes through the metro-plex and tried contacting there. It would have been really successful if the Jehovah's Witnesses weren't there already. . . We contacted as many as we could and then talked to the JWs for a bit and took some of their info which we proceeded to throw away upon leaving the parking lot. It was a long day, we didn't go home until 9 that night, it was awesome! Other than that it was an average week besides the big change. 

There is a lot to do and the ward I am coming into is on fire right now, they have baptized 7 people so far this year and have more to come so we will be busy busy busy, life couldn't be better. Well I love y'all, you're always in my prayers!

Elder Williams

2-24-14 Faith=Power, Obedience=Price, Love=Motive, The Spirit=The Key, Christ=Reason, Joy=Reward

Hey everyone!

 

Another beautiful week gone by in the TDM (Texas Dallas Mission). We had a good week, taught a lot of people and are working hard to teach more. The weather is perfect, we couldn't ask for much better. 

We were able to witness the re-baptism of an excommunicated member, Brother Chapman, it was excellent. It's amazing to see what the gospel can do in our lives and seeing someone come back to the gospel after years of being away only strengthens my testimony that this is the truth. 

 On Tuesday night we visited one of our crazier investigators, Richard. He is always drunk when we show up, the evidence being a glass of beer that is half full sitting next to him when we show up. He is a good old guy, in his mid 50's and he talks our ears off. He knows he needs to change his life and loves when we come to talk. We left him a pamphlet on the restoration and he read some of it and kept telling us ," I only have one question about your prophet", and would proceed to go off on a tangent. Needless to say we never found out what his question was but we told him that he would have more control over his life if he would stop drinking and invited him to stop, we'll see if he does. 

We found a couple new investigators this week and a lot of them are very promising. Two of them are a couple from Nigeria, Danny and Roseline Nnaji. They are awesome! We set up an appointment with them and they actually smiled at us when we came to the door. Roseline told us she had heard odd things about the "mammons" and wanted to do some research online about us. Luckily her husband knew that we are the Mormons and she was able to find mormon.org and request missionaries. We set a baptismal date with them and have another lesson this week.

 

On a more contentious note, we knocked into a woman who told us that we didn't worship Jesus Christ so we corrected her and she told us that she knows we don't worship Christ and that we are being deceived by the adversary. Some people. And then we knocked into a man from the church of Christ who couldn't get over the fact that he isn't allowed to go into the temple. We told him that because he hasn't been baptized and wouldn't understand the things that happen within because he doesn't know about the fullness of the gospel or believe it. He just couldn't get over it, apparently he tried to walk into the Salt Lake Temple one time. Crazy guy.

 

We had a visit this week from Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy this week and he was amazing. He strengthened my testimony of the divinity of this work, it was very evident that this was a man called of God. He taught us that we must do things in the Lord's way, I loved it. His wife gave us a great training and it included this little .... thing for success in missionary work and life , I think it is powerful:

 

Faith=Power

Obedience=Price

Love=Motive

The Spirit=The Key

Christ=Reason

Joy=Reward

 

Something I think we should all ponder and remind ourselves of each day.

 

That is about it for the week, it was wonderful. Elder Porter and I are getting along great, we are sad transfers are coming up next week, we will probably get split up but that's how it goes. Yes mom I got the package, thank you! It sounds like everything back home is excellent, the new temple will be amazing. I love you all and pray for you often, have a great week!

 

Elder Williams

2-17-14 "I am grateful for the blessing of spiritual strength and the power that comes to us as we are willingly obedient."

Hello Family,

 

Well another week gone. We had a great week, we were able to teach a lot of our investigators and we have been working really closely with our new ward mission leader, he is a stud. He didn't serve a mission but I've never seen anyone so excited to be involved in missionary work, it's awesome! 

Not sure if I told y'all but we have been working with an older man who was excommunicated a long time ago. His wife is a convert and they have been returning to activity and we have been teaching them for the last while, they are hilarious. They fight with each other and joke and smack each other around, I love them. Well last Sunday he went and met with the high council and he passed the interview or whatever it may be (Dad might know the official term), but he is getting re-baptized on Wednesday! We are looking forward to that. 

We also met with the Elliots, the contentious couple who we go and gently bible bash with each week. We talked about who the great "I AM" is and about prophets and they asked us how we felt knowing that apparently 90% of the people who leave the church go aethiest. It just makes me think of all the Nephite dissenters who, after they had fallen away, were worse than the Lamanites and were the cause of all the wars, so it didn't really surprise us. They are so hard to teach, all they want is for us to either show them facts and proof or admit that we are wrong. They know the scriptures way better than we do but they are missing the fullness of the gospel so they don't understand half of them. Our meetings are kind of pointless but there is a hint of hope so we are trucking on. 

We also set a baptismal date with another part member family. They chose to do it on a Tuesday, kind of odd but it is apparently the day that the husband got baptized when he was a kid so great! 

Tony didn't propose this week, they got in an argument so it wasn't quite the romantic atmosphere he was looking for, this will be the week. We had ward conference and we were eating dinner with the choir pianist on Saturday and she roped me into singing with the choir the next day, it was decent. The Behunins came to church, they are a part member family. The husband is a less-active member and the wife is a nonmember but they came to church and were touched by the talks and now he wants to get active again and we will get to teach his wife! Blessings from the Lord, not always in the way you expect but always amazing. 

I'm grateful to be out here serving a mission. I'm learning first hand the true power of faith and am building a foundation on my Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the knowledge I have gained so far about living life but more importantly I am grateful for the blessing of spiritual strength and the power that comes to  us as we are willingly obedient. I love my mission and I know this is where I need to be. I love you all!

 

Elder Williams

2-9-14 As we knock on doors in the cold, people tell us "It's cold outside. Stay warm!" as they shut their doors on us.

Hello Everyone!

 

Another week of bi-polar weather here in Texas. It snowed on Thursday for about five hours and a little bit on Friday as well, I was a bit out of my element but luckily Elder Porter is a Utah boy so he kept my head on straight. It was a good week, a bit frustrating at times though. Our investigators seemed to think that they should cancel on us because of the bad weather so we could stay home and be warm like them but they failed to understand that if we weren't meeting with them then we would be out tracting in the cold and snow. We had five lessons drop in two days because of it so we spent most of the time when it was the coldest out knocking doors. The people we met knocking had the nerve to tell us it was cold outside and to stay warm as they shut their doors... Sometimes I really question people's intelligence. Oh and one man told us that what we taught was wrong and that we were leading people to hell.. We got ourselves into that one though because we were knocking in some serious Baptist country. 

Besides that it was a great week, Tony is planning on proposing to Maile this week and he wants them to get married March 22 and he wants to be baptized March 29. We just need to make sure he actually pops the question, any prayers would be more than welcome. We and three investigators come to Church, two come regularly and one came for the first time, they all loved it. We had our follow up lesson with Scott and Claudia, we took our new ward mission leader with us (he is very passionate and enthusiastic) and he and Scott went at it. It wasn't a bash but they talked about almost everything, including Heavenly Mother. So Elder Porter, Claudia, and I just kinda watched from the sidelines. We are going back next week, we'll see what happens. Scott is just too ingrained in his own church and you can see there is a bit of tension in their marriage because Claudia is actually interested in trying to find her testimony of the Book of Mormon again but Scott is dead set in his ways, it's a bit unfortunate. 

We met with Willy Carter, again, he is so weird, he thinks about things with such an odd perspective. We were teaching him the plan of salvation which he loved but his way of thinking is just so off the wall. He likes the Book of Mormon and meeting with us, good signs. That was about it for our week as best as I can remember.

 

Dad, on Sundays we usually spend most of the morning tracting and in meetings, then church from 1-4, and the rest of the night is either teaching or finding. Sundays are great though, church is always good even if this ward is odd.

 

Congratulations to Tiffany and Grant, a little baby girl, how exciting!

 

Well one year down, one to go, time is flying by. I'm excited for what the next year has in store, it's going to be excellent and I wouldn't trade this last year for anything because of how much closer it has brought me to the Savior. I was reading in Alma 39 the other day, when Alma is talking to his son Shiblon and giving him some parental advice and I found a verse that I hope mom and dad can say about me, it is verse 2 : And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your ^asteadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that ^bendureth to the end.

 

I love y'all, talk to you next week!

 

Elder Williams

 

2-3-14 I Love the Lord and I Know Joseph Smith Was a Prophet!

Family!!!

 

Well another week has gone by in the TDM (Texas Dallas Mission) and the Texas weather is as bi-polar as ever. It was nice for a few days, then painfully cold, then perfect, then freezing again with rain. It can't make up it's mind. The cold always makes tracting more .... well I wouldn't call it fun bit it adds a nice twist to it. It was a good week for us. Since I got here we have been teaching a part member family. The mom, Maile (Miley, she's Hawaiian) and the three kids are all members. Tony, the boyfriend living with them, is not. He has been investigating for a few years and they consistently come to church. The only problem is that he won't ask Maile to marry him so we went in on Tuesday night and told them that we love them and that they need to stop living in sin, repent, and get married. We didn't know how they would take it but they loved it and appreciated us being open and bold with them. We are meeting with Tony this week to hopefully discuss marriage plans. So that was definitely a highlight this week. 

We also got back in contact with a referral we taught a few weeks ago named Gay. She has been through a rough time these past few weeks because she is behind on rent and may get evicted and her electricity will be shut off soon unless she can pay it. We taught her and set a baptismal date with her, she loves the church and what we share and we promised that as she had faith in the Lord and drew closer to Him that He would take care of her and he has. She hasn't been evicted yet, still has electricity, and will get her disability check soon so she can pay for things. We are really excited for her. 

We also met another part member family this week, Scott and Claudia. Scott is not a member, Claudia is a long time less active and they go to a Bible church. They have met with missionaries in the past but it hasn't gone anywhere because Scott is a really nice guy but will not budge on his beliefs or opinions, basically just a very stiff-necked person. So we will see how our next lesson goes, they wanted to talk about who God is and the great I AM. Oh boy. 

And yesterday we met a guy who knew a lot of bad information about the church like how Joseph Smith called down the angel Moron and that he wrote the Book of Moron and it isn't inspired. We corrected him on just about everything and he agreed that the Book of Mormon and a living prophet could be evidence that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever but he can't believe it because he has read a lot of bad literature about the Mormons. So he wasn't prepared to hear the message, we'll leave it at that and not call him any names. So that was most of our excitement for the week, it was a good one. 

Elder Porter and I are getting along really well still, we are always just laughing and joking around. 

 

To answer some questions, yes mom I have the list of renewed meds, thanks for getting those for me! For Chase, I had (excuse me spelling): Mr Biltmier for science, Mrs. Chowdhurry for math,  Mr. Schley for industial tech, Mrs. Miller for social studies, can't remember my English teacher, Mrs. Larson? for drama, Mrs. Waldera for P.E. and I think that's it...

 

Sounds like the whole family is doing excellent, makes me happy. Best of luck to Cole and Ash with the window business and to Tiff and Grant for picking out a name for the baby.

 

Oh and one more thing, we teach a guy named Willy Carter, he is a weird one, always has off the wall questions but likes reading the book of Mormon. Well in our lesson this week he told us that Elder Porter has a better sense of humor and that I don't have much of one and that since I don't have a girl waiting for me at home that I am a good candidate to be the next Pope! Not exactly the kind of compliment I want but okay haha.

 

Well I love you all and I pray for you all the time and I'm grateful for all the prayers being sent my way as well. 

I'm glad to be hear on a mission, it is the best thing for me right now. I love the Lord and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I wanted to challenge you all to have a family mission plan if you don't already have one. I figure if I ask the members here to be involved with finding people and teaching, then my family at home should be doing the same. I know y'all are doing a great job with the temple, just make sure you keep it up once the open house is over!

 

I love y'all, have a great week!

 

Elder Williams

1-27-14 Wave Our Hands and Work Our Voodoo

Hey family!

 

Thank you for the package, the fudge is delicious, Elder Porter was mad because he couldn't stop eating it. We are doing well together, we both like to work hard and he is a big joker so all we do is laugh. He makes me read my journal entries to him every night because apparently the way I express myself through journal is really funny. We are having a good time working hard so no worries. 

We are still doing a lot of tracting, one of our investigators is real hit and miss on appointments, another is taking his sweet time to ask his girlfriend to marry him, and another is ready to get baptized but her less active husband is slowing her down because he isn't super motivated to stop smoking. So we tract a lot haha but good stuff is happening. 

We finally received a member referral this week and it was amazing! The member invited their neighbors over for dinner and us as well and we ate and then taught a lesson and they were interested and all wanted to read the Book of Mormon, it was a father and his two sons. President Hinckley was right when he said that working with members is a better way to do missionary work, we just have a hard time getting the members here to see that. 

We also ran into a few weirdos while tracting, always interesting. One man in particular had quite an unusual mind or lack of reasoning skills for sure. He opened the door and asked if we were LDS, we said yes, and he said "We have a problem". He then went on to explain how some part of his family history on familysearch.org was wrong and that he couldn't go in and change it because we "waved our hands over it and worked our voodoo" and that the information is a lie so our church is a lie! Then he slammed the door. We had a good laugh about it, not our fault he doesn't understand how to use the website. It is unfortunate that he lumped the misinformation on the website to our entire church being false though... Ah well. 

We also got job offers from a man we tracted into. He wasn't interested in the church so we moved on and when we were coming back down the opposite side of the street he ran out to us and asked what we did for work and if we wanted a job because we are used to walking and have a good presence about us. We told him that we don't work as missionaries but he was a nice guy! That was fun. That's about it for the excitement this week though. 

Sounds like things back home are excellent, I love hearing about all the temple stuff and sounds like Chase is a serious baller, 'atta' kid.Well I love y'all, have a blessed week!

 

Elder Williams

 

P.S. I can no longer get refills on my meds because I have been out for so long now so if you could help me out with that mom it would be great. I only had so many refills up until 1/16/14 and we are passed that now so we need to renew all that. Also if anyone has any good stories about blessings from keeping commandments I'd love to hear about them, they could help enhance my teaching.

1-20-14 Same Door Slammed In Our Faces Three Times

Family!

Y'all are a bunch of trouble makers! Starting fires, ignoring permit laws, inviting people to your Mormon temple thing, heretics!! Just kidding, giving you a taste of the Baptist love we are feeling down here. 

This past week was great. We had our zone meeting which was coupled with interviews with President Durrant which was great, he is an amazing man. The trainings we gave went well but we have a small zone so it was a bit dead. And our zone just got smaller with the transfers. Elder Porter and I are staying together but we had quite a few changes in the zone and we lost a companionship so we only have 7 in our zone, oh well. 

As for excitement this week, we had a Muslim/Indian guy come out and go off on us about how he loves God but doesn't understand why we limit God by thinking God needs missionaries. He got really close to my face and he didn't smell too great either so that was fun. 

Then we were tracting in an apartment complex and this man opened the door and slammed it right in our faces, opened it again and thanked us for waking him up, slammed the door again too hard so it bounced back open, then slammed it shut successfully the third time. He was not a happy camper. We met some rude people this week, just a part of life though. We had our service hours cut down to four a week again so now we get to do a lot more finding, it's a positive. We've been putting most of our efforts into finding lately, hopefully we can find some solid investigators soon. Other than that, not a lot to report, just having a good time doing the Lord's work. I love you all, have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Elder Williams

1-13-14 Missionaries Aren't Weirdos

Hola familia,

 

Tracting! That about sums up the extent of our week, it was pretty slow. We played volleyball on Monday last week which was fun, not much opportuntity to play basketball around here, we don't have the most stellar athletes in our zone... But that is okay! We make due with what we have. 

We did an exchange this week with our district leader, Elder Carey, and his companion. Elder Carey came to Rowlett with me and Elder Porter went to Rockwall with Elder Osborn who is in his first transfer and worked him hard. Elder Carey and I tracted all day in the the cold mist, it was nice but we jsut got out and worked and I tried to give Elder Carey some ideas to shape up his district meetings which have been lacking a bit in... well everything. So that was fun, Elder Porter almost lost it with Elder Osborn, he's an odd one. 

We met with a man named James this week, he is a Catholic but very open to discussion. We had a great chat about the origins of the Book of Mormon and also some of the commandments like chastity and the word of wisdom. He said that he was pleasantly surprised while talking to us because he was expecting us to be weirdos but we turned out to be normal people with good Christian values, what a surprise. 

And I got to contact a few people in Spanish this week. I know enough Spanish now to get a referral for the Spanish missionaries, woooo! That's about it for the excitement this week though, just plugging along. Just got a haircut, yaaaay!

 

To answer mom's questions:

 

1. I need a new small storage container to carry my oil around in.

 

2. Elder Porter and I hate each other. (only kidding, he is great!)

 

3. No I haven't had any other singing opportunities besides in the shower or in the car.

 

4. Basketball, at least good basketball, is not really an option at this point.

 

5. See my description above about the week.

 

Sounds like things are going well at home. All the temple news is exciting, keep up the good work! I miss y'all and you're always in my prayers, have a good week!

 

Love,

Elder Williams

1-6-14 Happy New Year! The Work Goes On!

Hi everyone,

 

Happy New Year to you all as well! I hope it's a great one. This is the one year where I get to spend the whole year as a missionary, it's exciting! I'm glad y'all made it through skiing in one piece and that things are so exciting back home. I can't wait to hear how the temple tours go and the about the cultural celebration. Maybe it is a good thing I'm not there to be in it and Chase is because he definitely got the dancing ability between the two of us.

 

This last week picked up a bit since the holidays are coming to an end. This weekend has been freezing though. The humidity makes the cold go right through you down to your bones and then the wind starts blowing, it makes knocking doors and adventure. We had Missionary Leadership Council this past week and they changed up all of our zones. Now each stake is it's own zone so the zones now have a mixture of Spanish and English missionaries. We lost six companionships and gained three so we our zone is small now, only 8 companionships. Should be fun though. 

Elder Porter says that he doesn't know the people you mentioned mom, I guess the world isn't that small. 

We had a follow up lesson with Destiny and got her back on track, she recommitted to reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and coming to church and she did on Sunday so things are looking up. We are now also teaching this young Hispanic guy, probably our age, who seems like he is totally ready to change. It is funny how the Lord provides you with teaching opportunities. They always seem to come from other sources, not directly from the work we do (which is mainly tracting). Most of our solid investigators right now are referrals. The Lord is blessing us though, that's for sure.

 

One funny story for the week. We live with the Hoyts, an older couple in the ward who are quite unique. Anyways, Brother Hoyt is starting to lose his marbles a little and he says some weird stuff that Elder Porter and I end up laughing at for hours. He is also hard of hearing and he mumbles whenever he speaks. With that as a backdrop, we were sitting in sacrament and all of a sudden we see him going up to the pulpit to bear his testimony and he mumbles through a strange story that some how includes having the Lord with you which we have heard before and is just a strange thing, then instead of closing with "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." He just mumbles "thank you" at the end of his story and walks down. Elder Porter and I almost lost it. We were sitting there shaking for about ten minutes trying not to laugh. He is just the epitome of an old grouchy guy who is a colorful character.

 

So that's my story for the week. Transfers are in two weeks. I don't think anything will change for us but you never know. I hope we stay another transfer together, we are working hard and having a great time.

 

I love y'all, hope you have a great week and I hope you set some goal for the new year!

 

Love,

Elder Williams

12-29-13 Strange Encounters and False Doctrine

FAMILY!!

So my family is up in Utah having a great time skiing . . . life is good.

Well life is good here in Texas too. We had a bit of a rough week teaching wise, most of our investigators were tied up with Christmas stuff all week so we did quite a bit of tracting. 

We had dinner with an investigator Christmas night and she told us that she didn't really think the church was the right answer for her but she may still meet with us. That was Destiny, the one I told you about on Skype. So that was a bit disappointing. Our week just kept moving downhill from there, we did so much tracting. That's all we did on Saturday actually and I about lost it. We knocked into this weirdo Pentecostal guy who got in my face and told me I can't work my way to Heaven and then we had this lady open the door and invite us right in. We went and sat down with her fiancee who was the epitome of Southern Baptist. He started off by stating that he probably knew more about the Mormon Church than we did. He proceeded to tell us how he has been to Salt Lake City multiple times and went off on how there are five versions of the 1st vision and quoted different scriptures that he completely took out of context and a whole bunch of other nonsense. He was absolutely ridiculous. We were trying to just keep calm and answer his questions and that lasted about ten minutes and then we just bore our testimonies and left. This guy was.... something else. So that was fun. It was just ridiculous. But we saw a miracle on Sunday. A woman just walked into church. Stuff at home had been hectic so she went for a walk and was prompted to come inside and we got to meet her and share the Restoration with her and she said it was the first thing that has really made sense to her in a long time. It was amazing, nothing short of a miracle. So it was a great way to end our week. Not much else besides that, we're just working hard and moving forward.

Elder Porter is from the Riverton-Draper area and he was curious to know if mom knows anyone by the name of Linn Pierce and if there are any Garsides in our stake back home? And yes I got the Kalai CD, thanks! That is awesome that he signed it himself!

That is about it. Well I hope y'all have a great week and enjoy the snow, be safe and don't break any bones!

Love,

Elder Williams

12-23-13 Twas The Day Before The Night Before Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

This past week has been quite the event, let me tell ya. It has been full of spiritually uplifting experiences, crazy people, and goofing around of course. We have been doing a lot of tracting whenever we don't have lessons and we have found a bunch of new investigators in the last few weeks, what a blessing. 

As we were out tracting one day we knocked on the door of a lady who probably had the worst attitude I have ever seen. She came out to tell us that God and Jesus have fallen off their pedestals because the country is going to pot, her dog just died, and the apparently she just got out of the hospital because something her house did to her which was sold to her by a scam artist and that there is no hope for the world and especially no hope for herself. We were both just in pure shock at her poor outlook. Then we were tracting at night and this creepy black cat kept following us around and crossing our path, it was odd. Tracting brings lots of interesting stories.

 

I also got to go on an exchange with my trainer, Elder Merrill and that was fun, it was just like old times except I wasn't a new little missionary anymore, we had a bunch of fun. We also had a big Christmas meeting with all of the English speaking missionaries in the Dallas area which was excellent. We played sports and had some great trainings and goofed around and all that good stuff. Then this weekend we set a baptismal date with one our favorite investigators, Destiny Villapa, and she came to church as well. We also had a baptism on Sunday and got to drive down to Plano to teach an old friend of Elder Porter's, I'll explain more when I see you. Speaking of which, I will get to Skype you all on Christmas. We are going to get on around 2 p.m. Texas time, so translate that to Arizona time please! I will set up a Skype account that day and call you with the info to make sure we get it all worked out. We get to talk for about 40 minutes again, like Mother's Day. Can't wait to see y'all!!

 

And last thing, could you make a copy of my mission call and send it to me. I'd just like to have it to read every once in a while.I love you all, see you Wednesday!

 

Love,

Elder Williams

12-16-13 Play Chicken With a Duck

Subject: Re: 12-16-13

FAMILY!!

 

Well we had another great week. We did a lot of finding and found 6 new investigators and taught a lot of lessons, it makes the time go by quickly. Elder Porter and I are getting along well, he played basketball in high school and is into sports and all that good stuff, right up my alley. We have been working hard, doing a lot of tracting and meeting a lot of interesting people. 

 Rowlett is such an odd place. It is country, it's not country, it's old and new, it is just weird. The people are unusual too, our ward is rather interesting for us, especially since both of us missionaries are fairly new. It is going to be a good transfer though. Our baptisms will happen this upcoming weekend, finally. It has been cold consistently, it usually sits around 40-50 most of the days. We are enjoying the Christmas time around here, but there aren't nearly as many good Christmas lights as there are back home, kind of disappointing, but that is Rowlett. This morning we were driving and played chicken with a stubborn duck who wouldn't get out of the road so Elder Porter went and chased it away.

 

As for the Christmas call, we still aren't sure where we will be for Christmas to make the calls so I will let you know when I know more but I'm looking forward to it. I got the three packages and it is looking more festive in our little 10 by 10 bedroom. Christmas just doesn't feel quite the same out here but no worries, it'll be a great one.

 

I'm glad everyone at home is doing well. Sounds like the temple open house will be quite the experience, I wish I could see it. Take some pictures and send them if you can.

 

I miss you all, enjoy the Christmas season, talk to you next week!

 

Love,

Elder Williams

12-8-13 Cold and Colder!

Family!!!

 

Well I love y'all, it is great to here from you as always. This has been quite an eventful week. We taught a lot an had an exchange and found some new investigators and almost had a baptism until the weather went wacko on us! To answer your question mom, it was about 70 most of the week until Thursday it dropped to about 50 and then we woke up Friday morning to ice on everything and sleet coming down, what in the world? It was a shock for me, we bundled up and went tracting In it, it was awesome! People told us to stay warm as they slammed the door in our face, so kind. The cold spell is still here but the ice has cleared up and it is around 40ish now, it was crazy! The umbrella can wait until Christmas though. 

We were supposed to have a baptism this weekend but the weather ruined that. On Friday we had to spend most of the day indoors and I about went nuts, it was awful! We spent the day with some other missionaries but  it was pretty lame, let me tell you that. So Elder Berentzen just got transferred today, he is going out to east Texas that lucky guy. I loved serving with him. My new companion will be great though, his name is Elder Porter, a zone leader from a different area. Not sure but I think I get to drive now... Crazy! So that was most of my excitement this week.

 

Sounds like all is well on the home front, good to hear. I would write more but I don't have too much time, I love you all, have a blessed week!

 

Elder Williams

12-2-13 Email Exchanges from a Lovely Ward Member, Lynne Barber

Hi Cindy,

I wanted to let you know that I saw your son last week … he had called to see about me making some T-shirts for his whole team.  They turned out really cool … and I need to ask him to send me a group picture! J

He looked GREAT and seems to be doing really well … I knew he’s make a great zone leader! 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday,

Lynne

From: Cindy 

Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 12:08 AM
To: Barber Lynne
Subject: Re: Pictures of your son and Elder Smith

Hi Lynn,

Jeff had you send these pics to his office email and he just forwarded them to my email today.
THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!! 
How kind of you to do this!!!

Elder Williams looks WONDERFUL! It warmed my heart to see him in the different situations.

Thank you again!

Cindy

Cindy Williams
Elder Hunter Williams Mother

---

From: Barber Lynne

Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2013 6:21 PM
To: Cindy and Jeff Williams 

Subject: Pictures of your son and Elder Smith

Hi Cindy and Jeff,

It was great talking to you this evening.  I’m sorry to have interrupted music lessons. 

The first pictures are of your son’s birthday dinner and the last one was “breakfast for dinner” as requested on this past Saturday evening! J   The two across the table are the two youngest of my four grand kids.    

Your son is such a fine young man.  We’re so lucky to have him in our Ward and hope that he gets to stay around awhile longer.  He’s such a great companion to Elder Smith and the other new Elders that he helps. 

Take care and have a wonderful evening,

Lynne Barber

PS … I don’t want to forget to tell you that your son says to tell you that he loves you VERY much! J

12-2-13 Email message from James Tabor, a Great Investigator

(James Tabor is a very nice investigator who loves the Elders. Elder Williams served in his area and Mr. Tabor took him and his companion to dinner often.  He has been extremely kind to our missionary! ~Thus saith the Mom of Elder Hunter Williams)

Elder Williams seems to be enjoying his new assignment. As we say in Texas "he is now in high cotton". Rockwall is much more affluent than the area in Allen where was serving. He did seem to enjoy his stay here. This area of Allen is the older part of town as opposed to the newer area. Just between their apartment and my home is a very low income area, but he seemed to enjoy it here and I know he now is in a nicer area. But we all need ministering to.

I hope you guys had a nice Thanksgiving. My grandsons really enjoyed the football game they had with Elders Payne and Smith. We probably will be losing Elder Smith after this weekend.

I really have enjoyed taking the guys out to dine. One thing we Texan pride ourselves on is our hospitality.

Hope you are looking forward to a great Christmas Season.

Regards,

James Tabor

12-1-13 Deep Fried Turkey!

Family!

 

I almost exploded on Thursday because we ate so much. We had lunch with one family and dinner with another and I almost died. Not really but I was stuffed for basically the rest of the week. All the food was great and they do something awesome here in Texas. They deep fry their turkeys and it is the way to go! It takes less than an hour and the turkey stays all juicy and moist. Definitely the way to go! We knocked doors for about 2 hours during the day and didn't meet with much success but that was expected. We did have a great weekend though because we got to teach an investigator and help her move which allowed her to  meet a lot of ward members, it was great and she is hilarious and has made it her goal to "break" me because I am shy and in a shell apparently. So it's fun, her name is Veronique. While we were helping her move we noticed that the drivers side door of our car and trunk was open and that there was a police officer over by it so we went to check it out and apparently the owners of the house we parked it in front of complained that it was blocking their driveway (it was maybe an inch in the driveway, maybe, they were old geezers of course) and the officer came to check it out and said the door was open when he got there and that he popped the trunk and he was running our backgrounds and had called a truck to come tow our car! So we got everything cleared up, nothing was missing but it was weird! That was my excitement for the week.

 

It sounds like thanksgiving at home was great, I missed it, didn't quite feel like a holiday out here but that's okay. I'm glad you all are doing well and that life is good. Congratulations to mom for becoming national presidente of her writing group and tell Chase to quit growing, and Jordan too. I love you all, have a great week!!

 

Love,

Elder Williams

 

P.S. So apparently we have to get messenger bags (side bags) instead of backpacks. All the missions are changing, getting ready for computers, I think. So that would be a great Christmas present. I think CTR may have some and I know of another brand called Timbuk2 that makes a good one. Black would be a good color. If Jordan wants to do some looking around, I would appreciate that.