Hello everyone!!

I hope you are all doing well! Things are going great right now even though there have been some struggles. I am so grateful to know though that all trials and challenges that I go through are to make me stronger. (Trust me I definitely have needed to remember this this past week). I hope that you too recognize that God makes us stronger by pushing us to be what we are capable of.

The area here is progressing rapidly right now, and I am so Grateful I have this opportunity to be a part of it. We have quite a few investigators with baptismal dates and it is great to see the progress they are making. We taught Keith the Word of Wisdom earlier this week, and the lesson couldn't have gone better. We asked him what he understood the Word of Wisdom to be, and he replied with, "I need to quit smoking." He then made goals in the back of the Word of Wisdom pamphlet of how many cigarettes he would smoke per day until he quits all together on October 3rd. We challenged him to only smoke 10 the day that we saw him, and he himself decreased the number by 2 every day as a goal. What is amazing to me is how willing he is to quit. That is a sign to me that he is the elect, and that he is ready to make the covenant of Baptism. He is totally immersed in the Book of Mormon, and reads chapter after chapter. The day we went over to teach the Word of Wisdom lesson he told us that he wanted to re-read a couple of chapters to understand what was going on. I love his excitement to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and how badly he wants to change his life for the better! With Selena we have hit a bump in the road. Her family has told her that she is not ready for Baptism, which has resulted in her not believing that she has fully repented. This past week has been a roller coaster with her. At first she was getting ready to be baptized last saturday, and then she wanted to wait till October 5, then she again was ready to be Baptized September 28. This all happened within the space of a couple of days. What broke my heart was that she KNEW without a doubt that God was telling her that baptism was the next step for her, and that she would be ready on September 28. She willingly disregarded that witness, and it tore me up. I have such a great love for Selena and it hurt me to know that she denied not only God but Jesus Christ. Ever since she denied that, she also has doubts about the Book of Mormon being the word of God. We have decided to put her and her family on pause since they aren't keeping commitments, and I hope that as we do this she will realize that she wants this gospel in her life.

My companion and I are getting along great. There are times when we don't totally agree, but we are able to compromise and that way the work isn't inhibited in any way. We have been working on teaching in Unity, and although we still aren't the best at it we continue to work on it. We have been coming up with ways that will help us achieve this. As we have put these ideas into practice the lessons we teach are more powerful.

We had a remarkable experience with an investigator by the name of Chelsea this week. We haven't been able to see her in awhile because of her work schedule. But we were finally able to meet with her this past week. We talked with her about the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon to read. When we gave it to her and invited her to read it every night she was ecstatic! She said that she knows that the Book of Mormon will help her in her life, and she was so excited to be able to read it. We invited her to come to church and she told us that she would love to if she wasn't working. So yesterday before church we texted her, and she said she was sick with the flu. However, she mentioned that she really wants to come this week. The amazing thing to me is that she genuinely wants to read the Book of Mormon, and wants to come to church. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes. So this week we are going to follow up on that with the date of October 19th.

This week I have been totally immersed in the Book of Mormon. I am learning so much, and principles are jumping out at me that have never before. Something I have also noticed is how many times the sword of laban is mentioned in the Book of Mormon. I can't help but wonder what the significence of that sword is, because it appears to be passed down through the prophets. This week I also studied Chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel. I learned that I need to make sure I apply the scriptures to my investigators, and help them to understand how the scriptures apply to them in their lives. I also learned that members are the key to missionary work. Without them progress cannot be made. From what I have learned I am going to be better about apply the Book of Mormon stories to my investigators lives, and working more with members along with serving the members.

I challenge each of you to be actively participating in the missionary effort. Try to find those around you who need the gospel in their lives. Don't worry about offending, if you do it out of love there will be no offense. We as missionaries are here to ASSIST members in missionary work. What great joy will you experience when you brought someone into the gospel. You also will help them feel welcome into the ward, and they will remain active members of the church. Remember "EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY!"

Love y'all!!

-Sister W. Williams

Hey y'all!!

I hope you are all doing well, and that life is treating you well. I am loving every second of my mission although there are a lot of ups and downs. There are a lot of things that are out of my control out here but I am slowly learning to not stress about those things. I know everything happens for a reason, and I am so glad I have all your support back home!

The area here is really starting to grow. We had 63 people at church yesterday which is the high since I have been here! We have 5 Baptism dates set, and are helping our Investigators work towards that goal. The Vargas Family is doing well, and  they are surely but slowly starting to recognize the importance of coming to our church and reading the Book of Mormon every night. There understanding and desire for knowledge is starting to increase. Selena, the 15 year old daughter is really progressing. It is amazing to hear her testimony, and to hear all the trials she is overcoming as she is getting so close to the truth. She tells us how she feels happy on one side of her body, and the other half feels hate. We told her yesterday that Baptism, especially receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost will help with that because the spirit will fully immerse her, and take away that hate and temptation she has within herself. It is interesting to hear from her how big a battle it is between the two sides of her, and we are helping her to the best of our ability to help her see how God is helping her to develop hapiness on "both sides" of her body. This week we will be helping Selena to prepare for Baptism this weekend, and help her know that she is indeed ready to make this covenant in her life. This past week we were finally able to come into contact with Keith. This was the first time I have met him because he has been gone for 2 months. He mentioned that he still has the desire to change his life, and to come unto Christ. Also, that he wants to continue hearing the gospel. So I invited him to be Baptized, and he said yes! Sister Martell then followed that up with extending the Baptism date of October 10th and he said YES!! We also invited him to church and he accepted that invitation as well. He came to church yesterday, and I could tell he was uplifted and learned a lot.

My companion and I are doing well. We are working on teaching in Unity this week. I am going to be starting out the lessons that we teach this week to hopefully help with me "teaching" a little bit more. We are growing closer, and are really getting along. We work well together and as a result we can see that we are able to accomplish a lot. Together we are working on the Book of Mormon challenge and are helping each other remember to carry the Book of Mormon in our hands at all times. (Both challenges from President Petersen from Specialized training on Wednesday). We are also helping each other to read the Book of Mormon in 30 days. I am so Grateful to be able to be doing these challenges with her so that we can help each other accomplish them. She is helping me to become a better missionary everyday. She is helping me to become a better teacher with role plays, and I am grateful that she challenges me to do hard things.
For my story I would like to share the background of how we were able to come back into contact with Keith. All of our early afternoon plans on  Saturday fell through. So Sister Martell and I knew that God obviously needed us to be somewhere else. So I told Sister Martell that one of our Investigators names; Violet kept coming to mind. She then shared that she was experiencing the same thing. So we then decided to stop by Violets, however, Violet was not in a good mood to talk and told us to not bother her. We then decided to drive by Keiths and his door was opened! He gladly decided to talk to us, and his friend Tommy even became interested with learning more about the message we share. I am so glad we followed this prompting and were able to be where God wanted us to be at that moment in time.
This week for studies I have been really "diving in" to the Book of Mormon. I am staying on pace with reading the Book of Mormon in 30 days and I am learning a lot from the scriptures by doing so. I also read D&C 33 this week. I found verse 6 interesting because God is talking about gathering his elect from the 4 corners of the earth. This is really applicable to our companionship at this time because we are really focused on finding the elect and teaching them. Verse 17 also jumped out to me when it mentions that we need to "(have our) lamps trimmed and burning, and oil with (us)". I cross referenced this with Matthew 25, and found a handout from seminary. The handout talks about the oil being Fasting, family prayer, preaching the gospel, studying the scriptures, and deeds of kindness. ALL of these applying to me as a missionary. It hit me hard that as long as I am doing my purpose as a missionary and are obedient my oil will not run out, and my lamp will indeed be full.
I want to tell you all how much the Book of Mormon challenge is helping the work progress. I have the Book of Mormon in my hand everywhere I go, and as a result, since Wednesday I have giving away 4. Having the Book of Mormon consistently in my hand reminds me that everyone of God's children needs to be fully immersed in the word of God which is only possible by inviting them and giving them the Book of Mormon to read. I invite all of you back home to really study the Book of Mormon daily. I haven't realized until coming out on my mission how important the Book of Mormon really is. Let me remind you that WE WILL be accountable at the judgement bar for reading the words contained in it. (Read 2 Nephi 33 vs. 11-15, it will help you understand this very important principle!)

Love you all, and hope to hear back from everyone,

Sister W. Williams

I cannot believe it's been a month! Time is flying, and I am so glad I am on God's errand right now. There is nothing I would rather be doing. The Area here is doing quite well. This week was a roller coaster. Everything seemed to be going quite well with Sondra until Tuesday. Monday we taught her the Word of Wisdom, and mentioned that she needed to ask her husband for permission to be baptized. She was totally into obeying the Word of Wisdom, and understood why she needed to quit smoking and was really willing to quit. She was a little hessitant at first about the coffee and tea but we told her the importance of obstaining from them and she understood the importance of that. Then Tuesday she texted us and told us that her husband won't allow her to be baptized, and that she isn't sure she wants this gospel anymore. So we went over to her house and answered all her questions. Now many of the questions arose because she got antied hard. Her husband had her go onto the internet and found a website with false information about the church. If this wasn't bad enough her husband sat in the lesson -glaring at us. Now, this was a problem because he usually doesn't want to hear a word we say, and he made her uncomfortable. She wouldn't even say the closing prayer for the lesson loud for fear of he would hear. At this moment in time we are not allowed to go to her house because her husband forbids it. We have texted her a couple of times, but are waiting it out. I know a miracle will happen, it's just hard because I saw the happiness in her that came from the gospel. Now, the Vargas family on the other hand is really progressing! We have set up baptism dates with 4 members of the family, and are working on 2 more. They are a remarkable family. We seemed to be in a rut with them because they weren't quite understanding where we were coming from. This is all changed when the Hansens felt prompted to stop by their house with the Elders. Dora knows Spanish and they Elders were able to make everything connect. That has made all the difference. They just glow with understanding now, and Dora, Selena, and Emily (Dora is the mom with the two daughters) even came to half an hour of church yesterday before going to see the Jacinto who is in a hospital at Little Rock. The lessons we have with them are remarkable, and the spirit is ever so present with every lesson we teach. Sister Martell and I are working even better now. We are getting to understand each other better, and the work is progressing because of it. She continues to help me grow as a missionary, and teaches me the importance of doing the things we do. She pushes me in order to help me become a better missionary, and helps me along the way. I am so grateful to be her companion, and am learning so much from her. The story I would like to share is one that is simply amazing. The other night Selena told us how when she has previously tried to read the Book of Mormon like we have asked she just couldn't understand it. She proceeded to tell us that she prayed to Heavenly Father for understanding before she read the other night. She then said that as she read he gave understanding to her. She read and read! The stories made sense, and the words were not a problem for her anymore. I am so glad she shared this experience because it reminded me of how I always need to pray before reading the Book of Mormon. So I can have an increased understanding of God's word. I have learned a lot this week in studies. We watched a couple of Mormon Messages this week, and the one that really stood out to me is the story about a Gardener. Now, the Gardener was pruning a tree and the tree asked why the gardener wanted to cut it down. The Gardener replied by saying that he does it out of love. He does it so that the tree can grow stronger, and blossom. This was likened to us as children of God. "God loves us enough to cut us down. He is the Gardener." He knows our strengths and weaknesses and what we can handle. He loves us so much that he cuts us down so we can come back stronger than ever. He makes our weaknesses strengths. This hit me so hard because I realized that with missionary work you get cut down a lot, but the blessings you get from it are tremendous. Now, you may be wondering if I have heard or experienced any crazy things here yet. The answer is YES! Satan has a remarkable hold on this people. That show "Sister Wives" is really causing a problem along with random showings of anti-mormon material. The Vargas family and a family we just met have told us about polygamy and how people are saying we still practice it. It drives me crazy!! Now, yesterday we literally got "swept off a porch". We went spiritual harvesting, and everything we tried to explain to "THIS BASHER" went in one ear and out the other. He took our information such as having a modern day, living prophet and tried to twist it so that we would rethink our beliefs. I wanted to leave as soon as he started acting this way Z(because you could tell the spirit of contention was there) but my companion tried to help him understand. I just kept my mouth shut. Eventually he "swept us off". Love you all, and hope you all are doing well!! Sister Williams

Hello y'all,

I hope everyone is doing well, and everything is going great for you. The work here is really starting to progress! I love it here in Danville, and the members here are so into missionary work it's great! So my challenge to you would be to GET TO WORK! Help the missionaries if you can, it is such a blessing to be able to work with the members, and the work becomes much more effective because of it.

The area is really starting to grow right now. We had 64 members at church with 3 investigators. One of the largest groups that has been at church in awhile. We have two investigators now that have baptismal dates. We have Sondra September 14- this Saturday! We also have Carolyn September 28! Sondra is an amazing person, and she just loves the gospel. She constantly tells us how the Book of Mormon has helped her to understand the Bible. When we walk into her home the Spirit is ever so present, and she knows when it's the devil and when it's the
Holy Ghost telling her to do something. She loves to learn, and is so excited for her baptism this Saturday. Her husbands heart is softening, and she already acts like a member of the church. Carolyn is also one who loves to learn. With every word we say the Spirit manifests the truth of it unto her, and she wants to learn more about the Plan of Salvation, and all of the other lessons we have to teach
her. She has an open heart and mind which I am grateful for, and is really receptive to the spirit.

My companion, Sister Martell and I are really getting along. We work well together, and I am constantly learning from her. She pushes me so I can be a better missionary. We do role-plays almost everyday, and she helps me to be well prepared for the lessons we plan to teach that certain day. She is teaching me how to teach simply, and is really enforcing the idea of having the investigator teach themselves (which is something I struggle with). But with her help, I am getting better at it everyday. When something needs to be improved she does it kindly and lovingly and I know that she is here to help me. It seems as though we have been companions for months, and we truly feel that we are sisters. We are alike in a lot of ways, and others not so much. But we are both learning from each other, and are helping each other improve ourselves.

The story that I want to share was truly incredible. Sunday morning Sondra texted us, and said that she would be unable to come to church because her daughter; Libby and cousin; Mandy were sick. Her son Aries would be attending another church with a friend, and her husband would not be home. So Sister Martell and I prayed and prayed that God would heal her cousin and daughter, and she would have a change of heart to come to church. We sent Elder and Sister Hansen to go pray with Sondra and her family. We then got a text about an hour later saying that
Mandy, Aries, and her would all be attending church. Sister Martell and I felt like crying, we were so grateful that God helped us, and that he answered our prayers. Sondra glowed all through church because the members were so inviting, and showed their excitement for her baptism this week! Before Relief Society Mandy stated that, "every time she closed her eyes she saw angels in , and that Heavenly Father was telling her that this is the correct and true church." I was
ecstatic! This family is truly the elect of God. I know that God has prepared them to receive the gospel, and I am so grateful I have this opportunity to be a part of it. After church Sondra, Mandy, and Aries all shared with us how much they loved church. I believe it's only a matter of time before her whole family comes unto Christ. Now, Sondra's husband has never been too keen on missionaries coming to their house. But as God has allowed his heart to be softened he is really coming around. He is actually talking to us, and is really friendly. Yesterday, Sondra told us that her husband mentioned that he loves the sisters (us!)  This is so exciting because I know that this experience with her husband will help Sondra as she makes the changes in her life by being fully converted to the gospel.

So once upon a time I spoke in church yesterday...it was one of the most stressful things of my life preparing for it. It takes me a long time to prepare for talks, and because of being constantly on the move it took a lot of time management to get it done. I did a lot of studying for my talk, and you will probably never guess what it was on. It was on the Articles of Faith. I had such an amazing experience studying for this. I have never really understood the importance of the Articles of Faith; being that they tell us what we need to believe in. I also don't think that a lot of us understand the principles and
doctrine mentioned in all 13 of them. I did a general overview of the Articles of Faith, and then I was able to go into detail with the first 4 Articles of Faith. I felt like it ended up being a pretty good talk. My testimony has grown tremendously because of it, and I challenge each of you to memorize or re-memorize them along with me, because I know that as we do we will come closer to Christ because of it! Now, you know how I talk 90 miles an hour....well that didn't happen! Want to know why? It's because Elder Keyes was translating right in front of me for Sister Chavelez, and I wanted to make sure he was able to do it. So it really slowed me down haha....However, it was also distracting because as I talked their was a background voice in spanish...haha

Love you all, and I hope you are all doing great! This is going to be one crazy week for me, but I know that it is going to be a good busy because it's for Sondra's baptism!!! :)

Love,
Sister Williams

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you are all doing well, and that school is going GREAT for those of you in school right now. The area that I am serving in right now is Danville which is on the border of the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission needless to say....I am kinda in the middle of nowhere....;) But I LOVE it here!! God has blessed me with a Love for this people that is indescribable. I have always struggled with the Christ-like attribute of love so I know that he is blessing me with that because of my service. I have not run into any Bible bashing yet...and for that I am Grateful for. The area is 900 square miles long (which is HUGE coverage) and I have a bike but luckily we have a jeep so we can drive everywhere!! :) HUGE BLESSING right there- but eventually we will have a bike week so that will be real interesting.... Anyways...back to the area. The branch we have here is approximately 50 members (including children) so it's really small. Since we have a small branch we are in charge of doing ward activities once a week. BUT the really amazing thing is that the members here are so into missionary work! They really want to help us so I invite all of you at home to help the missionaries!! Members are such a blessing to the work, and it helps out the missionaries a lot! What's also cool about this area is that we have 6 missionaries here! Along with Sister Martell and I we have a missionary couple; Elder and Sister Hansen. We also have Spanish speaking Elders (because there is a huge population of Spanish speaking individuals here in Danville) the Elders names are Elder Keyes (who has 6 weeks left in the mission field) and Elder Henderson (fresh from the Mexico MTC).

I LOVE being a missionary! I am learning so much, and I am a super happy person! (Crazy right?!?) The work is a little hard here because NO ONE wants to answer their door it seems like... But I have had some amazing experiences already here with not even a whole week in!! So  I will share some of them. 

1. The first afternoon in the field I did the door approach myself! My trainer was a little shocked and I was a little too. But I know that God is giving me the Courage to speak up, and I am not afraid of getting told "no, I am not interested.'

2. We are having great success here! Our two top investigators are Sandra and the Vargis Family. Sandra is incredible, she told us how she "hungers" to learn more. I shared with her how she is living "feasting upon the words of Christ" and how she is a great example of "likening the scriptures" to ourselves. She wants to be baptized and we posed a date for her but she wasn't sure about it because she feels like she needs to learn more. But we told her that if she prays God will help her and we will be here to help her too in order for her to feel better prepared for baptism. We asked the Vargis Family if they were praying and reading the Book of Mormon and they didn't seem to quite get the importance of doing these things. So we watched a few mormon messages with them, and shared with them the importance of praying and reading. We invited them to continue reading and praying and I really feel like they understood those principles better.

3. I was worried about meeting the Bishop here because they tell you in the MTC to make a good impression, and to make sure he knows that you are here to work with and for him. So we had dinner at his house the other day and I shared D&C 84:88, and explained how I love the part about "angels' and how I want to be an angel here and help others come unto Christ into this area. He had me share this again in PEC yesterday so I am glad I was able to make a good impression, and let him know that I am here for him and the Lord.

4. On Saturday we went Spiritual Harvesting for a couple of hours. We weren't really getting into doors because no one was home, or just didn't want to answer. After knocking for an hour I explained to Sister Martell of how badly I wanted an experience of us knocking and the person saying they were waiting for us and that we were the answer to their prayers. So we kept on knocking on houses, and we ended up driving straight up to one house, and the lady explained she was Baptist but she let us say a prayer with her and her husband. She then explained that most of her neighbors were Baptist but wasn't sure about the lady who just moved in. So we drove down the street trying to look for that house but instead were prompted to knock on another house. So we knocked and a lady by the name of Carolyn answered and let us in. We told her who we were and that God sent us to her, she cried and said she knew it. We listened and talked with her for a good 30 minutes or more and left her with the Plan of Salvation pamphlet because she doesn't think she has a purpose. We are going back there today and she really seems to want to hear what we have to say. I really believe she has been prepared for our message.

Now for what I am learning: During personal study this week I read all of "Lock Your Hearts", and "The Fourth Missionary". From "Lock Your Hearts" I learned that I am responsible to protect my companion no matter what. I also learned that the mission belongs to all missionaries in that area and that we all have the responsibility to protect it, and to make sure Christ's name doesn't go to shame in an area. (So an area doesn't get closed because of what a missionary did). I learned A LOT from the Fourth Missionary as well. I finished reading it this morning and I learned that by developing Charity I can become a true disciple of Christ. I also learned that I shouldn't compare myself to other missionaries which is something I struggle with. God really wanted me to know that, and he wanted to also let me know that as long as I do MY BEST that's all he asks of me. My best isn't going to be anyone else's best. As long as I am obedient and serve God with everything I have INCLUDING MYSELF. I will have no regrets and will become the missionary HE WANTS me to become! 

Well I have to go now...sorry I can't tell you more. But these are all the important things that have been happening. Love and miss you all! Again, I hope that everything is going well for y'all!!

Love,

Sister Williams