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.

Testimony of Being Obedient to the Small Things The Lord Asks of Us - Wait 10 Minutes For Weather to Change

Dearest Family,

It's cold!! They have a saying here in Texas that if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes and it will change and it is true!! Most of this week was fairly nice, probably in the low 70's. On Friday it was humid and warm and gross and then it completely flipped on us and Saturday and Sunday were cold and rainy and cold! Down in the low 50s I think with a very cold rain/mist, good stuff. Besides the weather, we had a great week. 

We taught more lessons and are seeing some progress in our investigators. Two little kids we teach, Rylee and Cade Jankowski, passed their baptismal interviews yesterday and will be getting baptized on the 7th, we are excited! They are awesome, makes the mission worth it. 

Also I drove the car this week, the first time I have driven in 9 months! We went on an exchange with the assistants to the president and I got to stay in our area and drive us everywhere. I was pretty nervous at first but it came back quickly, we are still in one piece, no worries. The exchange was fun, I got to work with Elder Sorensen, he is going home at the end of this trasnfer, he is a stud of a missionary. So we had a fun time there. 

Other than that it has been a fairly normal week, just moving on along. We serve at a food pantry and the lady who runs it, Rhonda, has an eight year old daughter named Abigail who became my little helper and Rhonda asked me if I was planning on getting married before I was thirty because if not, Abigail would like to be in the running. We had a good laugh over that. 

Oh and on our way into the library a man stopped us right in the middle of the walkway and asked us to pray with him, so we did, it was pretty cool. We also had the chance to give a blessing to another nonmember and she said that it made her feel a lot better and we will be seeing her again this week. 

Lastly, I gained a testimony of being obedient to the small and simple things that the Lord asks of us. It's easy for us to do the big things that may get us recognition or a reward, but I think the Lord truly cares more about the little things that we do to show Him we love Him and will serve Him like reading our scriptures and praying.

It was great to hear from everyone, I'm jealous of all the temple happenings that I am missing out on! It sounds awesome!! I'm so excited for you all. Yes mom, I will check on my medicine. To Jordan all I have to say is that it sounds like you will need some serious humbling when I get home but don't worry, I will bite that bullet and do what I can.

Well I love you all and am grateful to have such a wonderful family at home.  

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love, Elder Williams

P.S. If you have any Christmas requests, get them in fast. Also, I made need my umbrella back, I probably jumped the gun on sending that home...