August 27, 2013 - Stalker Guy - Dog Threats - Not so secret Admirer, Baptist Preacher's false directions - What a crazy two weeks!

Hallelujah for working internet service!

 

Hey everyone, thanks for all the birthday wishes!! I find it ironic that the one day I really want to read some emails that the internet isn't working but that's just how it goes. Well first of all I had a great birthday, I will send some pictures home of our little celebration. The members took great care of me and gave me some presents too. We played basketball and had a great day, even though Elder Smith beat me 1 on 1 for a talk in church on Sunday. He had some extra motivation because he doesn't like speaking in church and he is a half foot taller than me but still, on my birthday? Tough love I suppose. It was a great day though!

 

As for the last two weeks, they have been eventful! No baptisms unfortunately but last transfer there was some random joe who pulled over Elder Hoopes and I and told us we needed permits to solicit and all this nonsense. Well Elder Smith and I were tracting and this guy found us again! He and Elder Smith got into it and he threatened to call the police on us and we told him to do it! So he did and sounded ridiculous describing missionaries to the police and when they showed up they let us go again. So we thought things were settled but the next day we were taking a get well card to one of our favorite part member families and this guy found us again and started yelling at us again! He is ridiculous, we are going to just ignore him from now on. Oh and we contacted this 30 ish year old lady and she kept going off about how attractive I was, it was a bit creepy... And we had another guy threaten to set dogs on us. And a Baptist preacher who told basically told is we are going to hell. So yeah, we have had a good 2 weeks. Oh and we had the 2013 Texas Dallas Mission Olympics and Elder Smith and I took gold in the free-throw shooting, represent!

 

On a more spiritual note my talk yesterday went well and we made some progress with teaching people. We had an investigator at church on Sunday finally. And I conducted my first baptismal interview last Friday which was a very humbling and spiritual experience. Aaaand there is a lot more to say but I really don't have the time to say it. I love you all, thanks again for all the birthday wishes and I'm glad you are all doing well! Happy Birthday to Cole, and Heather and Jordan! I'm getting behind on all these cards I need to make!

 

Oh and I have now gained 10 pounds in my legs from the biking and I have either grown or my pants have shrunk because they are shorter than they used to be. I could use another pair of slacks and I also need a new pair of black nike gym shorts like dad has, mine are getting a little beat up. I love you all!

 

Elder Williams

August 19, 2013 - Elder Williams Birthday - 19 Today and already served 6 months!

Today is Elder Williams first birthday - EVER - away from the family. (Tough on the Mom for sure.) Here is a chain of emails. NONE FROM HIM. The missionaries in his mission use the public library computers on P-Day to write home. This day, the computers were out. What a day for this to happen. How blessed we are to have a lovely Sister in Texas, Monica Burns, caring for our missionary!

* * * * * * * * * * *

Hi Williams Family!

     My name is Monica Burns.  Your son is serving in our Ward here in Allen Tx.  I spoke with him and his companion Elder Smith just a few minutes ago for your sons birthday.  They told me the internet was down today at the library so I offered to send a note for them to their families to let y'all know.  The Mission President won't let them come to a members home to use  a computer.  They doubt they will be able to email later this week so you probably won't hear from them until next Monday but they don't know for sure.

      So your son told me to tell you that he loves his birthday pkg., he is doing well, and...Happy Anniversary! 

     If there is anything you would like me to convey just let me know and I will be happy to do so!  We love you're son and think he is a great missionary!

p.s.  We are doing our best to take care of the Elders here so don't worry!!   I have a homemade Dutch Apple Pie in the oven for him right now for his birthday.  He told me he didn't really care for cake.  :)   I ask all the missionaries when they get here what they are allergic to and when their birthday's are. We try to do a little something for them if their birthday is while they are in our Ward.   

 Love to your family,

 Sis. Monica Burns

* * * * * * * * * * *_

WOW Monica!

I just jumped onto my computer to see if Elder Williams had written yet. I was so excited to see if he got his birthday package. This is his first birthday ever, away from our family.

How can I even express to you how grateful I am for your email?

How grateful I am that you are making him his MOST FAVORITE PIE!

How grateful I am that you take such good care of all of our missionary sons that are serving near you!!!!!!!!

The best I can do is to return the love by taking care of the missionaries here in Gilbert Arizona.

As a mother, I sit here with tears running down my face so humbled that you taken your time to assist and serve our son in all these ways.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!  Our family will sing your praises in our family prayer this evening.

Much love and appreciation,

Cindy Williams,

Elder Hunter Williams Mother
Catalina Ward,
Arizona, Gilbert Greenfield Stake

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Oh Cindy,

It is our pleasure!!!   

When one of our daughters was on a mission that was my greatest hope  that she would be taken care of by her Ward families and it would help her not to be homesick.  I, like you, can only repay those who were so kind by taking care of these young men and women here in our area.  

We love the missionaries!!

We have 2 sets of sister missionaries in our area now.  They texted me this morning for a ride to the Stake Ctr. to play basketball with the Elders for P-day.  They had made chocolate chip cookies for Elder Williams birthday  today.  Hopefully he's had a good day!

I contacted the family where he is having dinner to let them know it's his birthday just in case they didn't know so maybe they can sing him Happy Birthday or something.

I hope the pie turns out.  It's been probably 5 years since I've made it.  Yikes!

Please let me know if there is anything else we can do for you!!

Love,

Monica

* * * * * * * * * * *

Again, I thank you, Monica. How wonderful that you let the family where he will dine today know that it's his b-day. Sounds like he had a good one thanks to you!

Isn't the Gospel of Jesus Christ amazing. If you and your family ever get to Phoenix, you have a place to stay at our home.

Much appreciation and love,  Cindy

August 12, 2013 - New Comp, Testimony, Door Slammed in Faces, You Tub - Missionary Ballers

Hi everyone,

 

We had a rough week this week but we planted a ton of seeds. My new companion is Elder Smith, fresh from the MTC. He is about 6' 6" and makes me look like a midget but he is skinnier than me so I've got him there. He is from St. George, Utah. He played basketball and he has a good desire to serve the Lord but has a lot of growing up to do. We get along well enough, he's willing to contact people and he teaches when it's his turn, it's just a little scattered but will come together. So he's basically just getting the hang of being a missionary. We have some work to do.

 

We didn't teach too many lessons this week and our teaching pool is shrinking but we have been planting a lot of seeds and I can see how much I have changed. This past week there were two instances where I found myself explaining our beliefs, correcting misconceptions, testifying, and using scriptures and historical information to defend our faith and to teach some very well versed and religious people who I couldn't have held a candle to a few months ago. The Lord was working through me and giving me the knowledge that I need, especially since I have to take more responsibility for teaching than ever before. It's amazing what the Lord can do and both of those people are now committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true. We also met a man who presumed to tell us that he believed in God and Jesus Christ and when we told him that we believed the same he childishly exclaimed that they our God and his God are different and that he wasn't talking about it further and shut the door in our faces. He showed us! Oh and another man driving by slowed down enough so he could make direct eye contact with us and then flipped us the bird so we just waved and went on our way. It just goes to show that there are great people and very silly people in our diverse world.

 

I'm glad everything is going well back home, I pray for you all everyday that the Lord will bless and keep you. I love being out here and seeing what the Lord can do with my life and I'm so grateful for the support of you all, I love you! And congratulations on starting school Chase, I'm sure you are loving it. And one more thing, there is a video on youtube called missionary ballers or something like that, it's gone viral. Well that video was made by some missionaries in our mission a few months ago. Apparently it's pretty funny, check it out!

 

I love y'all

Elder Williams

August 5, 2013 - 6 Months, Cancelled Baptisms, Goodbye to a Favorite Companion, Dickie's BBQ, Mack's Donut Shop

Happy Monday everyone!

 

Well transfer calls came Saturday night and Elder Hoopes got the boot! He is going out to east Texas, he has a 6 hour drive ahead of him today! I'm jealous, I want to go out east so bad! But the Lord has other, better plans of course. I'll be staying in Allen for another 6 weeks and I will be training again and taking another crack at being a district leader! So it'll be another interesting transfer. Some more bad news this week though, our baptism was cancelled because the family had a melt down and things just went crazy and now the girl and her two younger brothers are in Oklahoma with their biological father. It was tough to see what happened to the family but the Lord's ways are higher than my ways so I will just trust his judgment and keep on keepin' on. We have another incredibly solid investigator named Ashley Bergstrom  but she can't get baptized because her husband is incredibly anti and she is trying to save up the money to get a divorce and once the divorce is over then she is on board for baptism so I will keep you updated on that. We also taught Jakob Yandell again this week (he is the boy who was supposed to get baptized a few weeks ago) and he told us that he still wants to be baptized whether he has to wait two months or two years to do it, so that is encouraging. So we had a rough week but the Lord also blessed us with many great things so we will continue on! I am sad to see Elder Hoopes go though, we have gotten really close and I love the kid to death. He's going to do well out in east Texas though.

 

This week we had the chance to eat at Dickie's BBQ and it is fantastic. I was so stuffed after dinner. We had ribs, brisket, sausage, potatoes, baked beans, and apple cobbler with ice cream to top it off. I have never felt so fat! It was worth it though. The Johnsons are the ones who took us out and Sister Johnson is a real grammar Nazi and she is also a country girl, what a character. Her husband's name is Chuck and she would end almost every sentence by saying ,"Right Chuck?", it was so funny for some reason. We also ate at Mack's donut shop and they may just be the best donuts ever, no joke. There is too much good food out here, I'm bound to get fat if I ever get off my bike!

 

Well Happy Birthday Ashlee! I love you, hope it's a great one! And it seems like the last 6 months have flown by, I'm running out of time! I'm enjoying it out here and wouldn't want to be anywhere else! I love you all, have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Williams

July 29, 2013 - Pancake Contest Winners, Flooding Toilets and Baptisms!

Subject: Re: 7-29-13

Hey Everyone,

 

So I don't have very much time today but I had a good week. I went on another exchange and got to ride in a car for a day, it was amazing. We went to this place for service and there was this little girl there that was from Iran and she was hilarious and made us wallets out of comic book clippings, they are great. We were also tracting at the end of a night and were invited into this guys house and apparently he works for and advertising company and started giving us all these crazy facts and figures and numbers to give us "more ammunition" for when we try to teach people. He was making the craziest faces, probably one of the weirdest experiences I've had. 

I forwarded some pictures of Elder Hoopes and I participating in a pancake eating contest at our ward's pioneer day breakfast. We competed to see who could eat three pancakes the fastest. Elder Hoopes beat me unfortunately but I took second! It was fun but we both had already eaten 5 pancakes and like 10 sausage links so we were hurting afterwards. 

Oh and this morning Elder Hoopes was in the bathroom and I was just doing some sit-ups and all of a sudden I hear him start saying "stop it you stupid toilet!" so I went in and made him open the door and the toilet was flooding. Luckily I knew how to turn the water off so it wasn't too bad but we spent most of the morning mopping it up. So that was exciting.

 

Well this upcoming weekend we will be having a baptism for Jalisia Martin, she is 15 and has been investigating for awhile but her parents finally decided to let her get baptized so we are super excited!! We are still teaching a small pool of investigators and are searching for more which is always the hard part. This week I gained a stronger testimony of prayer as I really payed attention to the Lord blessing us with answers to our prayers in many different ways. Oh and transfer calls are on Saturday so I'll keep you posted on that!

 

Well I love everyone and I'm glad things are going well, talk to you next week!

 

Elder Williams

 

Oh and mom do you think you could send me some iron on patches? My black pants have a few holes in them that I want to fix.

July 22, 2013 - Packages, Tony Stark, Jokes, BYU vs. Utah State

by Elder Hunter R. Williams

Hello!

Thank you for the package!! I have enough granola for weeks and the cookies are great. Funny story about it though. Elder Hoopes and I were both expecting a package and when it came they just put a slip into your mailbox and say come get your packages from the office so we squealed like little girls and headed for the office! We were about to walk in and conquer our long sought after prizes only to find out that the office had closed 15 minutes before we got there and we had to wait until today to get them. We were depressed and slumped back to our apartment but we survived the weekend and now we are both happy as clams so hooray!

Oh and funny story, we were knocking this street and we rang the doorbell at this house and it didn't seem like anyone was coming so Elder Hoopes cracked a joke but someone ended up coming to the door so he went straight into a door approach and I still had the joke on my mind so I'm afraid I just started laughing in the middle of his contact, I felt so bad but he just makes me laugh. So yes, we are enjoying ourselves.

I know you all were excited about the baptism but unfortunately it has been postponed because Jakob's dad wouldn't give permission for him to get baptized but he does look like Tony Stark so that takes the sting off a bit. Jakob was almost crying when we met with him again but we'll keep him going on the lessons and  coming to church and eventually his dad will understand that he is really committed. This week was also our first week without investigators at church, it was sad but we're taking it like men.

On a happier note, we have been teaching the Martin family for a bit and they have finally decided to let their 15 year old daughter get baptized! We think the family will follow close behind. Her baptism should be on August 3rd, we are praying that nothing will get in the way of this baptism. So that was a great pick me up after Jakob's baptism was cancelled. The weather has also been amazing here, it hardly feels like summer but I have a feeling that August is going to come with a vengeance.

We had an exchange this week with the zone leaders and they it was great. I was able to learn a lot and have some fun too. We went on a jog for our morning work out and let me tell you, jogging is quite different from riding a bike. I was a little sore to say the least. That night we went to our ward's youth activity, glow in the dark volleyball. It was cool, they brought a bunch of black lights and glow in the dark paint that and a glow in the dark volleyball that didn't end up working so well but the concept is really cool and would be amazing if it was done right. Some of the kids invited nonmembers, hence why we were there. It was very unorganized but still fun, we played for a bit and then ended the night by sitting on the stage as the crowd sat on the floor and taught them the Restoration. None of the nonmembers were really interested but it is great to have a more missionary minded ward that is at least willing to try!

We had a really great week, I love Elder Hoopes, he is hilarious and he is now trying to convince me to go to Utah State instead of BYU so we can hang out, he's a goofball. Well happy birthday to Chase and it sounds like the rest of the family is doing just fine, still as crazy as ever though. So for my birthday all I want are those cds I've been asking for and there is another artist named Kalai who has some really great stuff. Also maybe a book with lots of motivating missionary/church stories or a book that has lots of quotes from or about church leaders would be awesome. And a few ties. Aaaand the Joseph Smith movie, the full length one that is the dramatization of his life, NOT Praise to the Man which is a documentary type thing that shows scenes of the movie but has people talking over it.

I love you all, until next week!

Elder Williams

June 15, 2013 - Baptisms and Basketball

Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 1:21:22 PM

Hi everyone,

Well another week has gone by and our work slowed down a bit but that's how it goes at times. We had an exchange this week and Elder Hoopes switched areas for the day with another missionary and we had a pretty good time. His name is Elder Beverley, he's a great kid but he does not talk at all and since I just love to talk you can understand that it was a very quiet day but we had some interesting experiences. I think I've mentioned Jakob Yandell before, he's 16 and wants to be baptized so bad. Well his baptism is scheduled for the 20th and we found out that he needed to be interviewed a week in advance so that night we met him at the church and taught him the Law of Chastity, Law of Tithing, and keeping the Sabbath day holy all in about 25 minutes and then sent him over to the zone leaders for his baptismal interview which he passed. Then on Saturday Elder Hoopes and I went over to get the written permission from his parents and had to address a plethora of concerns and answer many questions but we should get their permission soon. Things are looking good for him, we can't wait for the baptism this weekend. He also brought his nonmember girlfriend to church, he's a missionary already!

Last week we had dinner with the Empey family and Brother Empey is a walking vault of spiritually uplifting stories and he can do a perfect impersonation of Donald Duck, impressive. We also play basketball on Saturday mornings with investigators and they are hilarious to watch. They remind me of the kids who come down to basketball tryouts and everyone knows that they don't have a chance of making the team except them. They are a lot of fun and their family should get baptized eventually.

Other than that, not much happened this week that I can think of but it was still a fun week. It's good to hear that things are going well at home and that y'all are surviving without me, I know it must be hard without my dry humor and dashing good looks but you'll manage. And for Chase, read 10 minutes of the Book of Mormon and 10 in preach my gospel. And Happy belated birthday to Tiff and Happy early birthday to Chase! I love y'all!

Until next week,

Elder Williams