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