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
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