Burned a Bridge with a Muslim Gentleman 6-10-13

This picture will be on Hunter's missionary plaque on display in the Catalina Ward Building for the next 19 1/2 months. Yup, I said 19 1/2 months. He has been serving for 4 1/2 months--and yes I can tell you exactly how many days--but hey . . . I bet I'm not the only Mom that has a handle on the time our son's and daughters are away.

Here is his most recent letter.

MOOOOOOOMMMMYYY!

Hey mom. So that the CD is titled "Lead thou me on" by vocal point, I'm sure you can find it online! And the other one it the "The Work" by the Nashville Tribute Band. Those are awesome.

This has been a good week for us even if our numbers stink, but that's okay! We were supposed to have a baptism this Saturday but it didn't work out, that was depressing but we did set a date with one of our investigators. His name is Orlando Hill, he's a sassy black Methodist who is just awesome. He didn't come to church on Sunday but he promised he would be there next week.

We experienced a bit of a miracle this week as well. we keep track of how many people we talk to each day and we were having a rough week, there were a few days where we talked to maybe 5 people... But on Saturday I set a personal goal to talk to 50 people and asked Heavenly Father to help and we talked to EVERYONE. And there were times where we would just ride into huge groups of people too. We ended the day with 53 contacts and we met our contacting goal for the week which was great.

Elder Johnson and I did pretty good on the bikes this week, no incidents or anything. We also got more rides from members because it's starting to get a little toasty now, but everyone time we took a member to a planned lesson the investigator always bailed on us or wasn't there! That's frustrating. We also spoke with some Muslims this week and I will never talk to them about the gospel again, they are un-convertable. Plus Elder Johnson pretty much told them that Mohammed was a big fat liar so that bridge is burnt pretty well. Transfers on the 25th so I'll let you know if anything changes. I think I'll still be in Plano though. And the scripture I'm memorizing this week is Helaman 5:12.

I hope dad and Chase have fun on their trip, that will be awesome! I love you all!

Elder Williams

New Record: 1,448 People Spoken With This Week!

Elder Williams says this is a weird beaver thing with a rat tail, called a Nutria?

Happy monday everyone!

Sounds like Arizona is still being its usual hot, sunny self. The weather here hasn't been too bad, I don't think we've broken 90 yet, they say it might be a cooler summer which would be great! The humidity stinks though, I've never been so sweaty in all my life! Elder Johnson keeps making comments about how hot it is and I always tell him he hasn't seen an Arizona summer. Pretty sure he'd shrivel up and die.

This week has been good. We had a goal to find 1400 new investigators for the month of may and it came down to the last night but we ended up finding 1448! It's new mission record, no biggie, and Elder Johnson did contribute a few investigators to that number! On Saturday there was a big stake youth missionary conference thing so they had 22 missionaries come down and each of us missionaries got two or three of the boys and we went out and taught with them and they did really well! I took my two to a new investigator we found and we taught him the restoration and set a baptismal date for July 13! It was a soft commitment though, we'll see how it goes. This week we have had the opportunity of meeting a few different black people and they all had some serious soul power, let me tell you! Talking to them was great. They are so awesome. Oh and we were able to provide some service at a huge Baptist church and the people we were serving with were trying to invite us to their congregations and kept offering us tea which we politely turned down. They were good people, just a little misplaced in their faith!

I do have a question though. What is the definition of a Christian? People I run into our here all the time tell us they are Christian and when we tell them we are too they always say that we aren't really Christian or that we are different but they won't elaborate on why. So I'm just curious to know how the world defines a Christian!

As far as the picture goes I can try to take a different one but those are some staunch guidelines mom. I'm not sure if I'll hit all of those but I'll try! And thank you for the package!! We loved the puzzles, especially Elder Johnson. Those socks are great! Unfortunately I can't really wear them all that much because they are a little loud but I love them anyways! I'll try and send the hand canvas thing back as soon as possible. And as far as my meds go I'm doing just fine, I was going to refill them next week, hopefully that's okay?

Anyways, I love you all, have a fantastic week!

Love

Elder Williams

5-27-2013 - The Oklahoma hurricane became a big rain storm by the time it hit Dallas, Texas

This is where Elder Williams and Elder Johnson live right now. 

Nothing like what big brother Jordan lived in on his mission to Brazil. USA is amazing!

Hey everyone, sorry this email is a day late, the library was closed due to the holiday, I hope I didn't keep you up too late worrying last night mom!

I got your little email and the one from Ash and Cole as well, it sounds like y'all are still doing just fine! How did Chase do in the tournament? He probably played like a stud, he is a Williams. Well let me tell you, this week was a little slower missionary work wise because we had a few medical emergencies, none of them were for me though so stay calm. First of all, last Monday Elder Johnson was cutting some cheese to add to his bean dip and set the knife down on the counter too close to the edge so when he went to pick it back up he tipped it off the counter and tried catching it and cut off three of his fingers!!!! There was blood gushing everywhere and we rushed him to the hospital but they couldn't save them!! Just kidding, but he did give himself a good gash and did squirt some blood around the kitchen and got 4 stitches from the Care Now facility (Texas Urgent Care) and I got to watch them stitch up his hand, it was pretty cool! Then the next morning he had another appointment to get his hands x-rayed because they've been hurting him while riding and we found out that one of his hands has a tiny fracture in it but it will just heal over time. So  not his best week. We passed off our golden investigator to the Assistants to the President because she is supposed to be in the Singles Ward and they cover that ward so they basically stole our baptism but that's okay, as long as she gets baptized, that's all that matters. We found a new investigator on Sunday who committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon so that is exciting! Other than that we just talked to a lot of Texans who are all happy with what they have up to this point!

The weather has been crazy, we got caught in two rainstorms and got drenched from head to toe and I literally dumped water out of my shoes we were so wet. All my stuff now has partial water damage but it all dried out well enough so no worries! Oh another funny Elder Johnson moment: we were leaving a home and all the people in Texas have glass security doors along with their front doors and Elder Johnson opened the front door and proceeded to walk right into their glass security door and was utterly shocked, his face was priceless and he left a nose smudge on their door, it was hilarious. So once again, not his best week.

Other than that we are doing really well out here! I love you all and miss you daily! Keep being wonderful and keep trusting the Lord!

Love

Elder Williams

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Cindy <cindywilliams@q.com> wrote:

Hi Elder Williams,

It is 11:40 PM on Monday, May 27, 2013. We just got back in town from Chase's basketball tourney in Las Vegas. The hotel charged $15 a day for internet so we didn't buy it and thus no internet. We did write you a short email on Dad's phone, but I don't know if you received it. I just checked this email address and you didn't send us an email today. We figure you must be super busy teaching and helping others today since it's Labor Day.  I wrote you a nice letter and will send it this week. Also another package is coming this week. I love you and yes, am a little bit worried that we didn't hear from you today.

Love, Mom

May 13, 2013 The Case of the Blow Gun Hunting Missionary

Happy Monday!

Well yesterday was just great, it was awesome to see you all and get to talk for a bit! I pretty much filled you in on everything as well but after the call we went and talked with that Muslim guy I told you about for about an hour and it was very interesting again. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and next week we are going to his house before church to watch the Restoration video and then he said he'll come to church with us. We also found out that he has been taught by missionaries in the past so we went home and found him in our area book! The Spirit has to be at work there. Other than that, I'm just moving along. Same stuff, different day.

Oh but I do have one funny story. I think I told you about Elder Campbell last week, the crazy elder I went on exchange with, and he just keeps making life interesting. He is big into hunting and he made a home made blow gun out of PVC pipe and nails as darts and puts his head lamp on and goes hunting at night in the backyard of the members he stays with. Well he was out one night and he said he shot a possum twice and then it got away from him but he saw another set of eyes running around so he shot at those as well and then went inside for the night. His companion went outside the next morning to throw something away and saw the member's cat and it had a dart in it, so he made Elder Campbell try and get the dart out of it and he couldn't catch the cat so he had to tell the members and it was just hilarious.

Besides that I don't have much for ya, but I love you all and I'm so grateful to be apart of this family, we are truly blessed for the amazing family we have. Talk to you next week!

Love

Elder Williams

May 6, 2013

Hello my lovely family,

Well it sounds like y'all are falling apart without me! Stop getting sick, it's not healthy. Anyways, this week has been pretty awesome. I tried sushi today and I would not recommend it! We now have another investigator named Carli who we have met with three times in the last week and she has a baptismal date set for June 8! So that's pretty cool, we are very excited. Other than that we haven't had too much luck with our other investigators but we'll get them! We did contact a referral that was really interesting though. His name is Siag, a Muslim guy but he was the coolest and most open Muslim I've ever talked to! We talked with him for a while and he was just funny. He was talking about the judgement day and said that the Lord would pull him into the room and say, "It's just you and me now baby, let's see how you did down there." or something along those lines. Whenever he addressed us he would end the sentence with "my man" like, "God loves everyone and wants everyone to find the truth my man." He was pretty cool, we will go back and talk with him and see how things go.

Something that was really cool this week was that Elder Christofferson of the quorum of the twelve came with some other general authorities and talked to the missionaries on Saturday (where I was able to shake his hand, now I've met two Apostles!) and then he addressed the Plano stake in a special stake conference on Sunday. It was broadcasted from the stake center to out building and it was not the best. The sound was about five seconds behind the video so it was better to just listen than watch, but both meetings were amazing. He is now one of my favorite Apostles for sure.

The funny story of the week is probably when I went on a companion exchange with my district leader's companion. His name is Elder Campbell, no resemblance to Josh Campbell though he is CRAZY, but very cool and he has a great testimony. He taught me how to play bike ball (catch with a tennis ball on the bikes) and it is a lot harder than you would expect! You get two points if you made it into an open mailbox. 

We helped an older lady put groceries into her trunk and distracted her so much that she locked her keys, cell phone, and purse with her spare key in it, in the trunk of her car! She had to go inside to call a locksmith because she was a little frustrated with us and didn't want to use our phone, not our best contact. . . It was a fun day though!

  

So for Mother's Day I'll be able to skype home on Sunday around 6 o'clock, give or take twenty minutes, Texas time so that's probably 4 o'clock there? I'm not really sure how we will link up or anything but I'm sure I'll be able to give y'all a quick call so we can figure it out. I may have a Skype account but if not then the name may have something to do with the McArthur's (the last name of the members that are letting us use their computers) so we'll see! 

And yes I got your package mom, thank you so much the socks are amazing! I'll send a picture so you can see all of my Batman paraphernalia! (did I spell that alright?) And the other picture can be used on my missionary plaque if you haven't picked one yet!

Anyways, that's about it for this week, I love y'all and can't wait to see ya! Three months down, twenty-one to go!

Love Elder Williams

(Mom's note: Elder Williams' cape is a Batman sheet and . . . look closely at the Batman socks. They have little black capes sewn onto the back of them.)

April 22, 2013

Hello family!

What the heck Hayden and Caleb?! (Mission calls: Hayden Fowles is going to Hawaii, and Caleb Brough is going to Australia.) That's awesome! Wish them luck for me! And yes I got the package, thank you, you're the best!!!

So anyways it's been a slower week here, our investigator with a baptismal date dropped us last night so that was frustrating but that's just how life goes. On the other hand, Elise is progressing like crazy and is talking with her parents about baptism this week, so that's awesome!! Other than that we really don't have much. We do less active work a lot which is always good to try and get people back to church but they are frustrating because they don't come to church like they said they would! Ah well. We are doing a lot of finding right now so hopefully we rustle up a few investigators here soon.

Bike news for this week: First Elder Johnson crashed and put a double loop in his chain which we had to take to the bike shop to get repaired but they did it for free and everything was great. Then two days later Elder Johnson put on a long sleeve shirt which I thought was crazy because it is getting warmer here (like 75-80, not too bad yet, but still) but it turned out to be inspiration because he crashed again hard. His bike was fine but he destroyed a sleeve on the shirt and a tie and got some decent scrapes, nothing too special but he didn't mind complaining about them and updating me about them every 5 minutes, I loved that. So we went home get him cleaned up and as we went out again I stopped so I wouldn't get hit and he didn't and so he smashed into my rear derailleur on my bike and jacked it up so I had to buy a new one, but it wasn't too expensive so no worries. I am completely fine, no cuts or scratches so please don't stress too much mom haha but that was about the extent of our excitement this week. 

Something really cool though, Elder Christofferson is coming to our mission May 4th and we get to have a meeting with him!! So that is exciting news, but that is about the extent from Texas this week.

Aaaand that about wraps it up, I love you all and good luck with your braces Chase! Hopefully you don't brake off as many brackets as I did!

Elder Williams

(751 views)

April 15, 2013 Texasism - word for the week "tiffed"

Sounds like everything is going really well back home, the finances are in order and everyone is happy and healthy! 

So this week was quite the week. We had some big zone interview/training which went really well and gave Elder Johnson and I a lot of really good ideas to find new investigators! We talk to everyone we ride by but that isn't very effective so we are going to start giving tours of the church and heading up a scripture study class with the sisters that cover the other ward in our building. We are going to make fliers and signs and hand them out and do all sorts of good stuff, but I need to study up a lot to get prepared! 

Elder Johnson, he's a great kid! He's got a good heart. Last night we were able to go to the baptism of one of Elder Johnson's investigators from his last area which was wonderful, hopefully we have one of our own soon!

So regarding Elise and Errasmo, Elise came to church yesterday and is still really excited about everything! She has told the Kendrick's (the family that is friends with her) that she wants to be baptized, she is just nervous of what her parents will say so we haven't been able to set a date yet but she will definitely be getting baptized, we just hope the Lord's timing will allow that to be sooner than later. As for Errasmo, he didn't make it to church this week, he had family in town and he cancelled our lesson but we are going to keep at it and make sure he stays on track for his date which is May 11. So that's the rub on those two. As far as other investigators we really don't have many but we'll see what this next week brings!

So today we got a call in companion study we got a call from a member in our ward saying that there was a man down at the church who was looking for people to talk to so we went on over and talked to the guy! He is a Blackfoot native American and he is living out of his car at the moment and is very humble. We taught him the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he said he would read it and be baptized on May 25th, but we'll see if he is really serious about it or just wants a hand out so he can get some gas and get out of town because he said he is traveling back to Montana where he is originally from. We're meeting with him again tomorrow so we'll see where that goes!

So the weather out here is pretty crazy, all the Texans say that if you don't like the weather in Texas just wait 10 minutes and it will change. It's kinda true, April is their rainy month so we have had a few storms which are fun to ride in but most of the time it is about 75 degrees with some humidity, but it is getting hotter. It was 88 today so the warm is starting to come! Texas is a pretty great place to live money wise though! There are some homes here that cost about 600,000 that would be over a million easy back home, maybe y'all should move here! But since the ground is full of clay they have some weird foundation problems, I'm sure dad would understand more about that.

As far as any funny stories this week we haven't had too many, we've just been really busy running around trying to teach people! I think I crashed again on my bike, it is becoming a weekly experience. I've played ball a few times out here last transfer but there hasn't been much time for that lately so I'm getting rusty, I can feel it. Other than that I'm doing really well and just trying to enjoy being a missionary! 

I would say the Texas word for this week is "tiffed", a synonym for ticked off. 

Anyway, I love you all and pray for you every night!

Elder Williams

Oh and yes I saw the pictures, they are great, Chase should let his hair grow out, the look suits him! (Picture was of Chase at Disneyland with a Star Wars Wookie hat on.) 

(681 views)