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

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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.) 

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April 8, 2013 - Hunky Doory!

Hey ya family!

wow it sounds like everything at home is just all hunky-doory( totally butchered that but i don't care!) mom is about to bust it out big time, chase is getting those grades and the ladies too i'm sure, and dad is doing a bit of missionary work and keep the house all ship-shape since i'm gone!! and ash and cole are awesome as usual and grant and tiff are doing their thaaaang, sounds awesome!! Keep the updates coming, i love all you guys!

So this week was pretty interesting, i have to pull out a map everytime we go somewhere because i'm still getting the area down but no worries, i'm going to know it better than home soon!!

So Errasmo, one of our investigators, set a baptismal date!! we are so excited and are going to keep on him to make sure he sticks to it. he is a really great guy, i know he'll get there. our other solid investigator is Elise, she is pretty much a golden investigator so we'll be baptizing her as sooon as possible. 

we talk to basically every person that we ride by and so far we met 191 people this last week who weren't ready but that just means we are getting closer to the one who is! we had a potential investigator call us and tell us he wants to meet with us, so we are pumped about that!! the work here is slowly building, we just have to be patient. i get the feeling that i'm going to be in plano for a couple more transfers but who knows what the Lord will do!

So Elder Johnson and I are getting along well, it's definitely a different style than when Elder Merrill was here, but it's going to be great! he has a strong trestimony and he is really bold which is good and he likes to talk. I'll send a picture of us.

This week we had a few funny things happen to us. one lady we talked to really didn't like us. she was from palmyra so she though she knew everything about the church and thought that we are very unfair to women and that we think of them as second class and that a women can't go to heaven without a man (which is technically right if you want to go to the top and a man can't get there either without his wife but besides the point) and kept telling us we needed to go see the pageant that is put on there before we do any more missinary work so that was fun. we think we met some drunk people too, they were nice. we do service at elderly homes on wednesday and this week we played bingo and it was snooseville but still good to be able to serve. 

we went to a pancake breakfast before conference sunday morning with a less active and they ended up kicking us out for conference which we didn't know would happen, then we went to the normal church building and i had to ride awkwardly in the back of his van and conference wasn't showing there either so we were lied to!!! but we made it to the stake center and it was good so no worries.

so conference was probably the best thing ever. all of the talks were amazing, but i think my favorites were Elder Bednar, Elder Packard, President Uchtdorf in priesthood, President Monson (all of his) and i don't know who else but I enjoyed them all!!!! and utah is getting another temple, shocker, but it was a really good conference and it flew by! i missed being at home in my pj's but i still loved it. and they talked a ton about missionary work so get on it!! i want to hear about some baptisms!!

and yes mom, they won't be letting us call home this year, they think it makes us too homesick.....

just kidding, i'll let you know about all that stuff when it comes time.

well that's about it for me this week, i love y'all!!

Elder Williams

April 1, 2013 Best Missionary Week Ever!

 Mi familia!

So this was the best week yet i think! We didn't teach as many lessons as last week but we had some really cool things happen! during personal study on thursday we got a call from a girl in the 8th ward and she had a friend who has gone on vacation with them a ton and prays with them all the time and has even gone to seminary a few times and now she wanted to meet with the missionaries that night!! we taught her the restoration and she just accepted everything and committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and to be baptized when she was ready!!! that night on our way home we got a call from brother kendrick, the dad of the family, and he said that after we left Elise(the friend) said she felt really good and peaceful and loved what we shared!! it was a miracle for sure! then on friday we were tracting an apartment building and met a lady from nigeria. she basically believes everything we do and loves the mormon religion's values! she believes in reincarnation though, but we can work with that. she read the second to last paragraph in the introduction and the last verse of Moroni and loved it and committed to read it, so we will see where that goes! then on sunday we had another miracle. a guy we have been seeing for about 5 weeks came to church and brought his 3 kids! he loved the service and we are making a lot of progress with him. i was able to give him a priesthood blessing earlier in the week and he is really coming along great! easter here was really good, both sacrament meetings were wonderful and the lessons in class were great too! the 8th ward choir is really good, i wish i knew what some of the songs they sang were. elder merrill and i visited a member on thursday and they convinced elder merrill to try to catch an apple in his mouth and he did! i'll send a picture if i can.

So as far as transfers go, elder merrill got the boot and i'm staying, so my address is the same still. elder merrill is going to be a zone leader of our zone so he isn't going too far. he's only been out 7 and a half months, he's a stud. i'm going to take over the area as senior companion and my new companion is elder johnson. i'll meet him tomorrow when we make the transfers. he has been out a transfer longer than me so we are still both fairly new. so that's the exciting news about that!

so chase i was wondering if you wouldn't mind letting me have your old ipod shuffle? if you guys could load it up with church music and send it to me with a charger, that would be awesome! if not could you send me a few cds? there is one titled Lead Thou Me On by Vocal Point which is amazing, as well as some motab and apparently there is a really good band called the National Tribute Band? if you could find a way to do any of that, it would be amazing, but no worries if that is too much work!! I was also wondering if you could send me super hero stickers and some batman dress socks if there is such a thing! i'm trying to embrace my inner kid a bit.

well that's about it! i'm glad you are all doing so well, I love y'all and miss you a ton!!

Elder Williams

P.S. i have doctrine and covenants 4 memorized mom, i actually did that the week before you sent that to me! funny stuff.

Elder Williams, Elder Merrill and the Ellis Family

Elder Merrill Tossing an apple into his mouth.( He actually caught it !)

Great bumper sticker!

ONLY IN TEXAS!

March 25, 2013 - No bike crashes this week!

Howdy! (no one here says that if you were wondering, just the real hicks)

So it sounds like things are going really well at home. mom is writing, dad is training and beating people up, chase is stepping it up at basketball and still as cocky as ever, not sure about the deacon's secretary thingy . . .  kidding. anyways, it's great to hear that everything is going well back home! thanks for the cookies mom, you successfully ruined my healthy streak, but don't worry, i finished the cookies and am back on it now.

so this last week was pretty good, we taught more lessons this week. out investigator pool is still low but our less active work is going up and we are getting people back to church! i didn't crash on my bike this week as far as i can remember so that's an improvement.

we finally taught a lesson to this guy we found on my second day, his name is huge buff tan baller steve. he played basketball for a junior college and in europe for a bit so that's pretty cool! we taught him the restoration and we'll see where that goes. there is a nine year old boy we have been teaching since i got here but he isn't going anywhere because he doesn't have the support from his parents he needs. we went over there this week to teach and knocked on their door and their little 4 year old girl peaked out at us so we thought they knew we were there but they kept us waiting for a few minutes and then we heard the dad talking by the door and he opened it to come out and apparently didn't know we were there because he said "oh shoot!"( only the other word) and his eyes bugged out and got all huge and it was just really funny.

we have also been teaching a less active family who has an 8 year old son and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! not exactly a convert baptism but still awesome for him! there is this one guy we met on the street and we've talked to him a few times now and he is a really strong catholic but likes to learn about other religions and we gave him the book of mormon and doctrine and covenants and he had questions for us and knew specific sections and probably knows it better than we do now, we have to study up!

we were also visiting another less active family and didn't have anything planned really but the message we ended up sharing about general conference and prophets was exactly what they needed to hear and they want to watch conference now, it was amazing to see the Spirit direct us to say exactly what they needed.

oh and the coolest thing that happened to me this week was probably that I had the opportunity to ride in a boss 302 mustang. go look this car up, it's amazing. it was built for racing and it was just flat out awesome.

not much else to say here, we are just going to keep on working our butts off and we know that we'll see success!

Love you all! oh and transfers are coming up soon so i will keep you updated if i get a new address.

Love

Elder Williams

March 17, 2013 - Elder Williams best quote this week, "The days feel like they take weeks but the weeks feel like days. Of course I still haven't been gone long so maybe I’m just making stuff up."

Hey there family of mine!!

So it has been a great week and i'm doing well. that's pretty crazy about loren! i'm glad he is okay though and it's amazing the little things that we do differently each day that make all the difference in the world. they are right when they say that the Lord works by small and simple means. i'm glad you got the pool fence up, that'll help. it sounds like everyone is doing great back home!

Another week has flown by. the days feel like they take weeks but the weeks feel like days. of course i still haven't been gone long so maybe i'm just making stuff up. This week we had a big follow up training for all of us new missionaries and that was fun because i got to see all my buddies from the mtc. president durrant is hilarious. he loves squirrels and has a whole presentation about them that links back to obedience, i'll have to tell you the whole thing sometime. we had two exchanges this week. the first one was on wednesday and i stayed in our area and tried to lead the way. we got everywhere successfully, but we did quite a lot of tracting because i don't know tons of people in the area still. my companion for the day was a good kid. the second one, i went to plano 5th and 7th ward and that area is HUGE. and the bike i got to ride was a bit too small for me, but i made it work. i'll send a picture.we met a guy named kevin that they have been teaching and he was quite the character. he was chewing tobacco and spitting the whole time and i just about threw up. we ended up having a really great time. on friday elder merrill and i visited a  less active mother and daughter who are a bit older. i told them that mom really loves castles and knights and all that fun stuff and she assumed that mom and her are exactly alike. she is really nice. yesterday we had dinner with some nonmembers and it went really well. the food was delicious first of all, and then we taught them the restoration and they asked tons of questions to clarify and also asked about temples and then explained about their church as well. they were really nice, wonderful people who truly believe in Christ and it was refreshing just to have people listen to us instead of telling us to take a hike. we don't think they will go anywhere but they want to have dinner again sometime to learn more so we'll see.

Some funny stuff that happened: we were riding along yesterday and the big power line poles are right in the middle of the sidewalk or barely off to the side, it's ridiculous, but at one point there was a pole on one side and a support cable on the other side and it made a gap that looked like it was big enough to ride through. elder merrill made it. i wasn't so lucky. i was so focused on the pole that my handlebars caught the cable and it dumped me into the grass next to the sidewalk so chalk up another crash for me. then later in the day we were talking to this man who was walking( who was a stubborn punk) and the conversation was nice but you could tell he wanted us to get lost. elder merrill was contemplating it and another support cable snuck up on him and he tried dodging it but ended up going over the handlebars. he rolled and popped back up though, took it like a champ, so i had a good laugh about that. aaaand we were knocking a street and tons of people have "no soliciting" signs up and this man looked out the window and knocked on his sign and we just waved back but didn't leave. he walked away so we eventually left and as we were walking to the next house he came back out and started yelling at us and telling us that there was no soliciting in the neighborhood. we told him that we were simply sharing our testimonies of Christ and he said " bull $#%^" (censored for content) and told us that we were disturbing the peace and that we needed to get out of here and went back inside. and we kept on knocking doors so it was great! my lungs are doing just fine and i'm getting into better shape now so no worries, i'm doing fine. still no baptisms though, sorry chase.

I love you all and miss you tons!

Love Elder Williams

Hey everyone!

So we had another good week. Sorry for scaring you mom, just trying to keep it real, i'm perfectly fine though, don't worry. I'm pretty much over being sick, Aunt Vicky sent me a little package full of antioxidant stuff which are actually working well so tell her thanks for me and that she's awesome for sharing the gospel with one of her students. now I just have to get in better shape. I got Cole's letters and i sent some as well, tell him not to write back yet because I'm going to send another today. That's no good about baby Myra but i'm glad she is doing better. sounds like dad and chase are really turning it up a notch with their exercise, that's awesome, keep up the good work. i decided i'm not eating candy or dessert anymore(at least this week) so we'll see how that goes so if you send me anything make sure its healthy snacks, gotta keep my figure in check.

As far as my schedule out here it's pretty busy. We get up at 6 each morning and exercise for about 45 minutes. half the days are push-ups pull-ups and sit-ups and the other half are sprints jump rope and plyometric stuff so i'm trying to stay in pretty good shape, i'm still working on getting my breath on the bike though. After we work out we get ready for the day and eat breakfast and its usually just a bowl of cereal and some toast. We have personal study at 8, companionship study at 9, and some days an additional hour of study as well. Then we eat lunch and get to work. We don't have many investigators, one or two to be exact, so we do a lot of tracting and contacting. At least an hour or more a day. We usually have dinner with members and then we are back at it until about 9. Then we get home, plan, write in our journals and get to bed by about 10:30 each night so that's my schedule almost everyday.

Some eventful things that happened this week: my bike slid out from under me while turning on a rainy day and a took a shot to an unpleasant place from my seat. There was a big storm that blew in right as we were headed home one night and we got soaked on the ride home.

Elder Merrill and I sang in sacrament yesterday for some missionary's homecoming talk.

We had a few doors slammed in our faces. That's about all I can really think of.

Some cooler spiritual experiences: we are teaching a two less active girls and we taught an amazing lesson on repentance this week. the spirit was incredibly strong and testified through us, it was really cool. the most amazing part was seeing the change that came over the girls during the lesson though. At the beginning they were just kind of listening but by the end they were giving us their full attention and volunteering answers and it was great. We also have picked up a new investigator named Errasmo. we met him in a parking lot and have met with him once since then. he is incredibly humble and is looking for change and strength in his life and we know that what we have to offer him is what he needs.

Oh I also got to participate somewhat in a bible bash and that was interesting. A member came with us. We were teaching a husband and wife and the husband seemed to be somewhat receptive to out teachings but the wife was getting seriously bent out of shape and was asking for all this scriptural proof and would hold up her hand in our faces to tell us to stop talking while she looked stuff up. It was not a very spiritually uplifting experience but it helped me see how some people are much more prepared to receive the gospel than others.

Aaaaand we broke a few of Elder Merrill's records this week. We contacted 80 people in one day (the average is between 20 and 30) and contacted a total of 267 people this week (usually about 140 a week) so that was cool.

A few things that i need. The conference Ensigns from the last two conferences and my copy of Jesus the Christ which should be in my room in one of the drawers in my black side table.

Well that's about all i've got, I love you all and miss you a ton!

Love
Elder Williams