"I Love the People Here!" -- Anti-Mormon Literature Drives Away the Truth

Hello family!

So many questions to answer this week! Well things are going well here in Rowlett, we are working hard and doing all that we can to move the work forward. We had a solid investigator drop us this week. At our last lesson he was really interested and loved what we taught about the three kingdoms of glory and then we went back to see him and he did a total 180. He told us that he liked us but he just thought we were a cult and we tried to ask him why so we could defend ourselves and he just avoided the question. Some of his friends must have given him some anti-mormon info because it was a drastic change. So that was fun, we have been running around trying to find new people to teach but we are confident that things will turn around, just a little trial of the faith. 

Elder Berentzen and I are getting along really well, we are a lot alike. Last night I got a call from Elder Smith in Allen and while I was talking Elder Berentzen fell asleep on the couch so I threw a pillow at him and ran upstairs and he came up and told me I scared him to death as I tried to play dumb. Well when I got up he attacked and we had a good wrestle all around the room (not hard to do since we have a little 10 by 10 room) it was evenly matched. So that was fun. We are both zone leaders, we are over 2 districts and have 20 missionaries to take care of, it's a lot of fun. 

Nothing too exciting has happened but I love the people here. We did have two investigators show up to stake conference though, that was awesome! 

Bishop Hawk huh? I always knew he would get there some day, he is a great guy. How is Rand doing by the way? Sounds like things keep changing back home, coming back will be a shock. I'm glad you are staying involved with the missionaries, I feel the blessings from that out here. The Church is really trying to become more missionary minded as a whole and I am truly grateful for it. As it says in Doctrine and Covenants 15:6, the thing that will be of most worth to us is to preach repentance.

I'm doing well out here, my asthma is good, clothes are good, health is good, it's all good! I'm glad things are going well back home, it helps me to focus on the work out here. I love y'all, have a great week!

Elder Williams

General Conference Jeopardy and Paper Towers Able to Withstand the Winds and Rains of the Devil.

Happy Monday everyone!

Week 2 down in the new area, I'm really enjoying it. We did have zone conference this week but the assistants to the president were in charge of it. We practiced teaching the new member lessons and played general conference jeopardy. We also participated in a tower building activity. We were given 50 sheets of paper and a roll of tape and a glue stick and we had to create the tallest tower with an excellent foundation that could withstand the wind and rains of the devil( spray bottles and a hair dryer). The one that we helped build ended up being the only tower still standing after the attacks, no big deal. The conference was centered around building firm foundations on Jesus Christ and we came away spiritually nourished.

Elder Berentzen and I are having a lot of fun and working hard at the same time, it's awesome and the time is flying by. We are teaching a man named Tony Casarez, he is amazing. He has been investigating for three-ish years and is living with his girlfriend and her family (all members) so we had a lesson with him on Saturday and basically just called him out and asked what his plan was for marrying his girlfriend. He is such a good guy, he knows she will say yes, he is just afraid to ask the question. He said it should happen by the end of the month and the weekend after he proposes they will get married and he will get baptized so we are so excited! We have a great teaching pool here, I'm loving it. We also started playing basketball with the Elder's Quorom president and doing P90X for exercise in the mornings, it's awesome!! We had a slower week lesson wise but we made a lot of really good progress with our investigators.

t sounds like everything back home is great! Chase, know that you are in my prayers, I'm rooting for ya! And I'm super jealous that you will get to be in the cultural celebration for the temple, that is so cool! I can't wait to see the temple when I get back. Keep me posted on the new Bishop,  . . .  my thoughts are  . . . Brother Hawk! Anyways, I love y'all, have a blessed week!

Elder Williams

P.S. Also for Christmas I will accept multiple chocolate oranges... and if you could send back my umbrella with the package, that would be most excellent!

The Week is a Blur of Tracting and Teaching

I guess these guys are standing on the wall. They're pretty tricky in Texas you know. 

(Sorry, the computer wouldn't let me rotate this picture.) 

Hey Everyone,

Well this week flew by in a blur, being transferred is always exciting. I ride passenger in the car so basically I never know where we are and fall asleep a lot but hey it is a nice break from the bike. My new companion and I are getting along really well. We both like basketball and sports and we both have some nerd in us so it has been a lot of fun. He is from Logan, Utah and is the youngest of 6 kids and he is a cool guy. Just a smidge taller than me. The new area is great, we have a great teaching pool and some awesome ward missionaries, I'm really enjoying it. There are a bunch a Spanish speaking missionaries really close by that we see a lot and it makes me want to learn Spanish sooo bad. I'm picking up on little things though and maybe by the time I leave I will have a minimal grasp of the Spanish language.

So we were tracting this week and we met this man who was definitely drunk and kept telling us how wonderful he thought we were and that we were just great, it was pretty funny. Church was good but the sacrament was a little rough. They picked an opening hymn that no one knew so it sounded like a bunch of dead people moaning and mumbling trying to sing this song, my companion and I almost busted out laughing. Besides that though, it was a great Sunday. 

We are teaching a man who has a hole in his throat, like the ones that smokers have, and when he talks he has to cover it up and it sounds robotic, it is a bit unnerving and the sad part is that there was no need for the doctors to cut that hole in his throat, poor guy.

I wish I could remember more but like I said, this week has been a blur. To answer some of your questions mom, that girl we baptized is happy as can be and her step dad and two younger brothers are all heavily considering getting baptized now as well. They are doing wonderful as far as I know! 

As for what I want for Christmas, there is an artist named Kahli (not sure about the spelling, pronounced kuh-lie), he is a Polynesian singer who has some great church music, I think the album is called "A Pauper's Carol". I would enjoy that. Besides that not too much. A few pictures of the family would be great, maybe a tie or two, but other than that it doesn't matter too much. I'll let you know if I have any better ideas.

I hope Chase feels better! I miss that little guy!

Happy Birthday to Mom this week!! I will try and get her present sent off today.

That is about it this week, I love y'all, until next week!

Elder Williams

We had ourselves a baptism!

This has probably been the craziest, fastest, and most enjoyable week of my mission. We had ourselves a baptism! Jalisia was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday in Sacrament meeting and she asked me to baptize her! It was amazing, the whole baptism was a miracle. We found out that it was going through on Thursday so Friday we were scrambling to get an interview in, sign permission slips, make a program, not to mention other planned activities. One of her young women's leaders ended up being able to help out a ton because her plans somehow were cancelled which was a miracle.

Then Saturday morning we had to get up early so we could go to the church and fill up the font and when we got there we didn't have a key to get to the water valve that fills up the font or a key to the library to get a tv but luckily there was someone down there cleaning the building that had a key to both and then tons of people showed up!! The whole day was a miracle. The Lord truly had His hand in this one.

Friday night we carved pumpkin with ____ family for the trunk or treat which was fun and then we figured out why they are at "spiritual warfare". Every time ____ tries to read the Book of Mormon or come to church, she starts to get very sick, Satan is really working on her. She knows that there is something to the church, she just has a lot of fears and apprehension about seriously investigating because she has grown up hearing that the Bible is the only book we need and that Mormons are a crazy cult so it is understandable that she is freaking out. I think they will get baptized eventually.

Elder Smith and I both had the prompting to have them watch President Uchtdorf's talk "Come Join With Us" I hope they read it.

We had the trunk or treat on Saturday night and it was fun. We had 11 nonmembers there, two less active families and two part member families there, it was sweet! We had some good chili and my pumpkin won the best carved pumpkin contest (I carved the superman logo). Right after the event ended it started dumping rain and we were trapped at the church until the zone leaders picked us up and took us around the rest of the night. Elder Smith dropped his camera in the parking lot and didn't notice. Luckily Sister Barber went to look for it and found it soaking wet at like 11, Elder Smith was going to have a cow. We put it in a bag of rice and it still works! So that was most of my excitement this week, it was awesome.

So I am being transferred to Rowlett, it is about 20 miles southeastish of Allen and I will be in a car! Not too sure how I feel about it yet but it I think I will enjoy it. I'm going to be a zone leader with Elder Berentzen, he has been out for 15ish months, should be fun! My new address:

2106 Randi Road

Rowlett, TX 75088

Elder Smith is staying here and his new companion will be the new district leader. I'm pretty excited, packing stinks though. Well that's about it for me. It's good to hear that things are going well at home, I hope Myra is okay and that things continue to move forward with the company. You are in my prayers, I love you!

Elder Williams

Some Mission Pictures in September and October 2013

Elder Smith & Elder Williams

Must  be hat day in Texas.

Elder Smith's Birthday. Veggie cake? Uhh yum?

Elder Williams looks like he thinks it's pretty cool.

10-14-13 Ate Gator & knocked on 250 doors this week! It's been tougher than a fight between two pigs wrastlin' in a gunny sack for the last smidge o' slop!

Well howdy y'all!

This week has been tougher than a fight between two pigs wrastlin' in a gunny sack for the last smidge o' slop!

Not really, just wanted to use my Texas vocabulary because I know you all despise it! Anyways, this was actually a great week. We have been working with a less-active mother and her three nonmember children and we set baptismal dates with the two younger kids for December 7! Success!!! In one aspect at least. 

We have been tracting a lot more lately and on Tuesday some of the Sisters challenged us to a tracting contest to see who could knock the most doors and get the most return appointments. They did well, knocked 70 doors and got 4 return appointments. The Lord decided they needed a little humbling though because He helped us knock 200 doors and set up 7 return appointments in 1 day. They were supposed to buy us lunch for our victory but some members ended up swooping in as we were buying our meal and paid for everyone, those lucky Sisters. We ended up knocking about 250 doors this week total and we picked up a new investigator, a good week! 

It has been overcast these last few days so people have been pretty grumpy. Yesterday we got more dirty looks than I have ever had before, people are a bit ridiculous at times. The 40 day fast is going really well, the work is picking up in the area and it is getting our ward more involved in the work. I love serving in Allen. The people are usually nice, our ward is good, the missionaries here are great, and the blessings are abundant. 

 James Tabor, our 74 year-old substitute teacher investigator took us out to dinner on Saturday to a place called Razzoo's Cajun Café and we had ourselves some 'gator!! It came out on this huge platter of fried everything: catfish (okay), shrimp (I'm allergic), pickle chips (ew, honestly?), fries (yumm), hush puppies (corn bread balls), and of course, deep fried 'gator! It was quite the experience but probably only a one time thing. It was great. 

Other than that it has been the same old stuff. Elder Smith and I are really starting to get  along well, he's just a big goofball. Obedience level must be high and I help others with that. We are having a good time.

Maddie's wedding sounds like it will be quite the event, I wish I could be there. Could I get their address so I can send them a congratulations letter? I hope things work out for them!

So I'm doing well, we are just chugging along out here. The weather is getting cooler, I love it. And mom, I'm good on the white shirts, they just needed a little tender love and care, don't worry about sending any! 

Sorry I am bad at sending my scripture each week but this week it is part of Enos 1:15- "...Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it."

I love you all!!

Elder Williams

10-7-13 General Conference Rocks! There is Power in the Simplicity of the Gospel!

Subject: Re: 10-7-13

Happy Monday!

 

Well conference simply rocked my socks. I enjoyed all of the talks that were given. A few highlights for me: 

• Don't let something good distract you from what is best.  
• Men and women are equal in importance but different in their roles, responsibilities, and attributes and it is meant to be that way. 
• Sometimes we simply have to drink the bitter cup and be strong.
• Meekness is not weakness.

I loved hearing from our inspired leaders. WE watched most of conference with some of our favorite members, the Sterrett family and Sister Barber who you probably hear a lot from.

 

This week was a bit slower in our area. We had quite a few investigators push away from us which was unfortunate. They just don't seem to understand what we are offering. It is frustrating at times but I know that the Lord's ways are higher than my own. We did make progress with James Tabor. He is a 74 year-old substitute teacher we have been working with for a while. We have had many deep gospel discussions lately but we finally just got to the root of the problem: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We challenged him to read and pray about it and he accepted. We went to watch a session of conference at his house and found out that he had either been listening or watching the other sessions as well, a very good sign. There is power in the simplicity of the gospel.

 

I spent a day in a car on exchange with an elder in my district and it actually made me more appreciative of my bike. Being in a car is a bit boring, especially when the one driving listens to some weird music. Not bad music but weird instrumental stuff. He is a good missionary though and we had a fun day. Most of our appointments dropped but we had the chance to go into a million dollar home, it was gorgeous. Elder Smith held down the fort in our area except he let the other missionary get a flat on my bike so I had a fun time fixing that when I got back. Punk. We also went on exchange with our zone leaders and Elder White came with me for the day. He is going home just before Christmas and he is trunky trunky trunky, it made me trunky too! He is an awesome missionary though, he converted at 19 and came on a mission, he is great.

 

The most spiritual thing that happened this week was conference but we still had a good week. Thank you for the package, it was amazing and the pants fit perfectly, I love them! The shorts are great too!

 

Everything sounds great back home! Congratulations to Chase for being a stud on the football team! Is he going to try out for the basketball team this year? How tall is he now? I'm proud to say that I may have grown a centimeter! But I now weigh 178, my legs are thick! Thank you Mr. Bike. 

Well I love you all, have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Williams