Hi y'all!
I hope everything is going well. Things are going well here.
The area here is doing really great. Things are really coming along. Things with Linda are going really great. She loves coming to church, and is an active participant. This week we are going to really focus on getting over her main concern with Baptism. She will have to get married in order to be Baptized. But we feel that that is the tip of the iceberg. So we are really going to focus on asking inspired questions. Really trying to resolve what her main concern really is. We came back into contact with quite a few investigators this week. Hallelujah! We had a great lesson with Lesa. She is going through a really hard time right now. But she acknowledges that she really needs Christ more in her life. She had told us on Saturday that she was going to come to church. But she unfortunately didn't come. So this week we are going to focus on getting her to church. Showing the importance of ACTING upon the desire she has to further her Faith in Christ.
We did have quite the heart break this week with Randy & Diane. Diane told us that they are going to stick with being Pentecostal. (Even though they don't believe in how the church is changing...) She said they can't get over the differences they have found in doctrine. Between what they believe and what we believe. The crazy thing is that we ended up talking to Diane twice. The first time we didn't directly ask what they had learned that was contrary to their beliefs. So we went back as directed by the Spirit. (As awkward as we felt doing it). We then asked what she read. Tried to see if we could resolve things but she didn't really allow us to. All I can say is that at least we tried our best with retaining them.
We had an interesting lesson with Brenda, David, and their daughter. Brenda is quite open to talking with us. However, David is quite cynical. He kept trying to "confound" us it seemed like. However, the spirit really helped us out. He asked many questions trying to catch me. But luckily as I opened my mouth God filled it. One question he asked was "Do you think you could read the original Hebrew Bible." I responded by saying that if God intended me to read it. Then he would allow me the gift of being able to read Hebrew. He said, "good answer." I am just glad God really helped me out in this experience.
This week in studies I was really able to learn a lot. I was enlightened upon the subject of the Resurrection. I have always known that the concept of the Resurrection is important. But I could never understand why it was. Until this week when I studied Jesus the Christ and 2 Nephi 9. I learned that the importance of regaining our bodies is that we are able to overcome Satan's grasp. In Jesus the Christ it mentioned that Satan has a brief victory period when our spirits leave our bodies. Since we fought in the beginning to have our bodies. We are able to fully overcome Satan when we receive what he can't have eternally. He can't ever have a body so he desires that for us as well. What a neat concept! That it is only through the Resurrection that we can be freed from the devil's grasp eternally.
My prayer is that we all can learn something new everyday. From studying the scriptures, and other church materials we have readily accessible today. May we all prayerfully study, and really ponder so that we can learn what God intends for us to learn.
Love y'all!
Sister W. Williams
Monday, April 28, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
The Ross family is really going strong in the gospel. They are reading "Jesus the Christ" every night together. They are really "feasting" on the gospel. They will be going to do baptisms for the dead this weekend. We are really excited for them! They have their eyes on the "prize" right now. They are already making plans to come to Salt Lake, April 9 of next year to be sealed as a family. I cannot wait for that!
I had a really neat experience with the "Go Vertical" on Friday. I prayed to know what I could study that would help me become a better missionary. I was lead to study about "Finding" in Preach My Gospel. Over the past few weeks I have felt that one thing I can work on is talking to everyone. This is something that I struggle with. I don't have a problem knocking on doors. I have trouble going up to people on the street, and talking with them. From my study I learned that I just need to get over my fear. Since God puts people in my path for specific reasons. I ended my Go Vertical with a prayer. Telling God that I would work on talking with everyone from now on. That afternoon EVERYONE seemed to be outside. God was testing me. Although I am not perfect at it yet. I am doing significantly better on talking with everyone on the street. I am glad that I was able to have this experience, and to really apply what I learned these past few days.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Hey y'all!
I hope that with Easter this Sunday. You are able to really reflect on all that the Savior has done for each one of you individually. I know that my Love and Knowledge of him grows deeper each and everyday.
The area here is doing quite well. The Branch is focusing a lot on retention, and getting the recent converts to the temple. We had an awesome lesson with Dianne and Randy this week. We had found Randy a couple months ago. But were never able to get back into contact with him. We finally did, and we were able to meet his wife as well. They mentioned how they don't like how the Pentecostal religion is changing doctrine so much. They also mentioned how they have always felt that something has been missing in their life. During our lesson they were able to feel the spirit strongly. Randy mentioned how he just wanted to learn more. He asked the gold question of "Why are there so many religions?" We explained using the Restoration. But I am not sure how much he comprehended of the lesson. So this week we are going to follow up on their understanding of the Restoration. We also met a lady by the name of Brenda this week. We were walking the street and I felt strongly prompted to knock on her door. She let us in, and asked many questions pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. Her son died within the past year, and she is still greatly grieving the loss. We gave her Alma 40 to read in the Book of Mormon. I am looking forward to teaching her how this gospel can greatly bless her with her current challenge.
Sister Mackliet and I are doing really great. I learn everyday from her example. She is a great listener, and I appreciate her willingness to help me with my concerns and challenges. She is a great example of Jesus Christ.
We spent Friday night this week in Walnut Ridge. Both Sister Mackliet, and I felt that we needed to blitz the area to try to find the Elders some investigators. Since they have been struggling with building a teaching pool. It was "no, after no" just within 30 min. of Spiritual Harvesting. But we didn't give up. We knew without a doubt that we needed to be there. So I knew we would find someone. Eventually we knocked a door, and found Haley. She is 15 and is a missionary in her own way. She says that she has brought many of her friends to a knowledge of Christ. Her golden question is along the lines of; "Can my preacher answer if families can be together forever?" Right then I knew Haley was the one that we needed to find Friday. It was just a witness to me that with diligence God will bless us. It also was a witness to me that this is God's work, and as we heed promptings miracles will occur.
As I prepared to teach the gospel principles lesson on Prophets yesterday. I was particularly hit when I read about SUSTAINING the prophet. I pondered about what it means to sustain. To sustain means to support. I don't think as church members we understand what it truly means to sustain. To me it means that we don't murmur with the new revelation he receives on how we can better ourselves. It means that we follow his counsel exactly. It also means that we know exactly what he has taught recently. Many of us know the teachings of the biblical prophets. But do we know what President Monson said just last week? It helped me to understand that I need to really study and know the words of modern day prophets. My prayer is that each one of us gets to the point that if asked. We could "on demand" state exactly what our prophet has counseled us to do today. Have a great Easter!
Love y'all!! -Sister W. Williams
I hope that with Easter this Sunday. You are able to really reflect on all that the Savior has done for each one of you individually. I know that my Love and Knowledge of him grows deeper each and everyday.
The area here is doing quite well. The Branch is focusing a lot on retention, and getting the recent converts to the temple. We had an awesome lesson with Dianne and Randy this week. We had found Randy a couple months ago. But were never able to get back into contact with him. We finally did, and we were able to meet his wife as well. They mentioned how they don't like how the Pentecostal religion is changing doctrine so much. They also mentioned how they have always felt that something has been missing in their life. During our lesson they were able to feel the spirit strongly. Randy mentioned how he just wanted to learn more. He asked the gold question of "Why are there so many religions?" We explained using the Restoration. But I am not sure how much he comprehended of the lesson. So this week we are going to follow up on their understanding of the Restoration. We also met a lady by the name of Brenda this week. We were walking the street and I felt strongly prompted to knock on her door. She let us in, and asked many questions pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. Her son died within the past year, and she is still greatly grieving the loss. We gave her Alma 40 to read in the Book of Mormon. I am looking forward to teaching her how this gospel can greatly bless her with her current challenge.
Sister Mackliet and I are doing really great. I learn everyday from her example. She is a great listener, and I appreciate her willingness to help me with my concerns and challenges. She is a great example of Jesus Christ.
We spent Friday night this week in Walnut Ridge. Both Sister Mackliet, and I felt that we needed to blitz the area to try to find the Elders some investigators. Since they have been struggling with building a teaching pool. It was "no, after no" just within 30 min. of Spiritual Harvesting. But we didn't give up. We knew without a doubt that we needed to be there. So I knew we would find someone. Eventually we knocked a door, and found Haley. She is 15 and is a missionary in her own way. She says that she has brought many of her friends to a knowledge of Christ. Her golden question is along the lines of; "Can my preacher answer if families can be together forever?" Right then I knew Haley was the one that we needed to find Friday. It was just a witness to me that with diligence God will bless us. It also was a witness to me that this is God's work, and as we heed promptings miracles will occur.
As I prepared to teach the gospel principles lesson on Prophets yesterday. I was particularly hit when I read about SUSTAINING the prophet. I pondered about what it means to sustain. To sustain means to support. I don't think as church members we understand what it truly means to sustain. To me it means that we don't murmur with the new revelation he receives on how we can better ourselves. It means that we follow his counsel exactly. It also means that we know exactly what he has taught recently. Many of us know the teachings of the biblical prophets. But do we know what President Monson said just last week? It helped me to understand that I need to really study and know the words of modern day prophets. My prayer is that each one of us gets to the point that if asked. We could "on demand" state exactly what our prophet has counseled us to do today. Have a great Easter!
Love y'all!! -Sister W. Williams
Monday, April 7, 2014
I hope you had a great weekend. Conference was AMAZING!! I really enjoyed the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference. I always think of how neat it is that we all get things out of the conference that we need to. I really enjoyed the talk by Bishop Stevenson, and how this is our "4 minute race". Too often we see our trials as FOREVER long. (I have a BIG problem with this) However, this life of trials and learning is only a speck of time. This talk reminded me to look on the bigger scale, and realize I will be "pain free" for a lot longer that in pain.. This is truly the time to prepare to meet God, and become like him. We are merely just experiencing "growing pains." I hope a talk really touched y'all in the heart as well.
The area here has really started to pick back up. We found a lot of people this past week. Things with Linda are going really well. We are just praying that her heart softens toward marriage. We taught her the Word of Wisdom this past week. During the lesson she asked us for our help. She asked that we might pray that she will be able to stop drinking Dr. Pepper. I thought," I can do that!!" This was her only issue with the commandment. Thank goodness. The Word of Wisdom always seems to be a tough one for investigators.
Saturday morning; Park Leathers came to the church and watched General Conference with us. I couldn't believe it. He has been saying for weeks, and weeks that he would come to church but hasn't. So we put him on pause for a couple of weeks. We felt on Friday that we needed to invite him to watch Conference. He was really interested it, and said that we would probably attend. I wasn't 100% sure that he would though. So we prayed and prayed that he would come. I am glad that he was able to come, and feel of the spirit that is always felt during Conference.
I learned a valuable lesson on "90% of results come in the last 10% of our efforts." Not once, but twice this week we found investigators between the 8:30-9:00 p.m. hours this week. One of which is a young woman by the name of Ashley. She is currently looking for a church to attend. Since she doesn't feel a sense of belonging in any she has been to so far. She told us that she doesn't understand the Bible. So we introduced the Book of Mormon, and she said that she really wants to give it a read. She thanked us for coming over, and is excited to learn more about the gospel. The lord truly does bless and guide us as we are diligent at all times.
I learned a lot this week in studies. I focused on the Atonement and received a lot of new insight into it. I read in the Bible Dictionary about the atonement meaning "at one". I thought of how we become "at one" with Christ in various capacities. We become "at one" because he knows in what physical, emotional, and spiritual state we are in at all times. We also become "at one" because we become more like him as we Repent and change. I also learned that we become close to God through the Atonement because God doesn't dwell where there is sin. So as we use the Atonement to repent we are coming closer and closer to being "free of stain". We become closer because we have less sins on us.
Saturday morning; Park Leathers came to the church and watched General Conference with us. I couldn't believe it. He has been saying for weeks, and weeks that he would come to church but hasn't. So we put him on pause for a couple of weeks. We felt on Friday that we needed to invite him to watch Conference. He was really interested it, and said that we would probably attend. I wasn't 100% sure that he would though. So we prayed and prayed that he would come. I am glad that he was able to come, and feel of the spirit that is always felt during Conference.
I learned a valuable lesson on "90% of results come in the last 10% of our efforts." Not once, but twice this week we found investigators between the 8:30-9:00 p.m. hours this week. One of which is a young woman by the name of Ashley. She is currently looking for a church to attend. Since she doesn't feel a sense of belonging in any she has been to so far. She told us that she doesn't understand the Bible. So we introduced the Book of Mormon, and she said that she really wants to give it a read. She thanked us for coming over, and is excited to learn more about the gospel. The lord truly does bless and guide us as we are diligent at all times.
I learned a lot this week in studies. I focused on the Atonement and received a lot of new insight into it. I read in the Bible Dictionary about the atonement meaning "at one". I thought of how we become "at one" with Christ in various capacities. We become "at one" because he knows in what physical, emotional, and spiritual state we are in at all times. We also become "at one" because we become more like him as we Repent and change. I also learned that we become close to God through the Atonement because God doesn't dwell where there is sin. So as we use the Atonement to repent we are coming closer and closer to being "free of stain". We become closer because we have less sins on us.
Hope y'all have a great week!! Keep Strong & Stand Firm!
Love,
Sister W. Williams