Hey y'all!

We had a lot of exciting things happen this week. We set 3 Baptismal Dates!!!! We set the date of October 18th with Rosie and Kee. We also set a date of October 25th with Tammie. Unfortunately, none of them were able to come to church yesterday. So we are going to work hard this week. So that we can get them to attend at least one session of General Conference this weekend. Tammie was a tender mercy of the Lord this week. Sister Hughes; one of the members in the ward referred us to Tammie as recent move ins. Sister Hughes is already doing a great job of fellowshipping Tammie and her daughters Aaliyah (age 6) and Kanijha (age 9). In that she offered to bring them to church yesterday. I was disappointed when they didn't show up yesterday. Since they committed solidly to attending during our lesson with them Saturday afternoon. The hard thing about this week was that we weren't able to see Kassandra or Sister Holley. Both of whom are some of our top investigators right now. I just don't understand why we are having trouble getting in with our top investigators...

Sister Tu'ifua and I are doing great. We both are continuing to work on EXACT obedience. We are working on getting rid of ANYTHING that keeps us from being 100% obedient. I know that as we continue to do so power will come into our teaching.

We were finally able to get back in with Joan Rose this week. After Sister Tu'ifua read Alma 34:32 with her she asked about the Book of Mormon. We then introduced and explained the Book of Mormon. Her next question was how we respond to Revelations 22:18 "do not add to or take away". So I explained that it makes the same reference in Deuteronomy. It seemed to make sense to her. After explaining that she asked where one can get a copy of the Book of Mormon. So I handed a copy to her, and explained that it is free. In her prayer before we left she asked Heavenly Father to keep her mind opened. I am excited for her to read the Book of Mormon, and to come to know the truth of it for herself! :)

I absolutely loved President Uchtdorf's talk from the General Women's Meeting. I especially loved the analogy of the Umbrella. How God is showering us with blessings constantly. But because of our disbelief, sins, and disobedience we shield them from us. Just as an Umbrella shields us from the rain. How profound that was to me! We literally keep ourselves from being blessed consistently. I also loved his talk because it really put the atonement into perspective for me. It reaffirmed to me that Heavenly Father loves us no matter what. He loves us when we do good and when we sin. He has an all perfect, consistent love.
This week Elder Zwick of the Seventy came. Here are some highlights I took away. He shared how missionary work is ACTIVE not passive. He stated that it's not enough to be a good example. We need to invite, Invite, INVITE!! He invited all ward and stake council members to  have someone take the discussions in their home by the end of the transfer (3.5 weeks). Bishop Chisolm has taken on the challenge, and yesterday in PEC invited the ward council members to do the same. I am excited to see what the outcome is!!!
My invitation to y'all is to do the same. Prayerfully ask Heavenly Father to put someone in your path that needs the gospel in their lives. I know that as you do he will provide the way. I also pray that everyone pays attention to General Conference and goes in with questions. The Lord will answer, and we will grow spiritually!

Have a great week!

I love y'all!

Sister W. Williams

Hey y'all!
 
Hope everything is going well. This week was full of up's and down's but overall it was a pretty good week. We were able to see Sister Hodges, and as always we arrived at the perfect time. Every Friday during weekly planning the Spirit guides us to perfect date, and time that we need to go see her. It's always a testimony to me of how diligent, spirit led planning pays off. Unfortunately, she had to go back out of town this weekend so she couldn't attend Stake Conference. But we ended up getting a solid commitment of bringing her grandkids to scouts this Wednesday. Along with getting a pretty solid commitment for church next Sunday. During our visit she said, "You just need to live here with me. I will build another wing." I am glad to know that our visits always uplift her.

We had a really great lesson with Sister Holley this week. During our District Meeting earlier that morning we asked for suggestions on how we might be able to help Sister Holley. Since we have been struggling with knowing exactly what she is in need of. Elder Despain suggested to just simply read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with her. I am glad that we followed that counsel because it seemed to help her out. She has had a lot of confusion with starting to read the Book of Mormon. Just because of all the different names of the prophets. We still can't seem to help her to understand the background of the B.O.M. which is pretty frustrating. Anyways, we ended up reading 3 Nephi 11 with her, stopping to discuss every 2 verses. We decided to use this chapter since it is something a little more familiar with her Bible background. The spirit was very strong during our lesson. I pray that when we go back this week her understanding has increased from the B.O.M.

I felt strongly impressed to do a whole Book of Mormon lesson with Kassandra this week. What was neat is that it was exactly what she needed. We started the lesson off by following up on her B.O.M. reading. She mentioned that she was only able to read through the Introduction. We asked what stood out, and if she had any questions. The questions she asked led perfectly into what we were going to teach her. We had role-played for her lesson that morning which I was glad for. As a result of effective planning and preparation we were able to have a really effective, spirit filled lesson with her! :)

I absolutely loved Stake Conference this weekend. I especially loved what was shared by President Griffin; the Memphis, Tennessee Temple President. President Griffin gave an analogy in regards to the Temple, and a Bishop's office in a church building. He stated that, "The Temple is Heavenly Father's office. Just like a Bishops office is for the Bishop. It is where God can come, and communicate with us personally." No one else hears our conversation, and we feel safe and comfortable.   Some questions to ask ourselves is. How often to I attend the temple? Do I attend prepared to be taught by the Spirit? I know that as we become a regular temple attending people. The Lord will bless us, and that we will have greater spiritual power against the enemy. Also, as we go prepared to receive guidance from the Spirit we will become spiritually nourished as we attend the Lord's house.

In my scripture reading I have reflected on the saying, "be slow to anger". I don't know about y'all. But I feel that I have a slight problem with that. So this week I am going to be praying, and working hard to make this weakness a strength! :)
 
Love y'all!
 
Sister W. Williams

Hey y'all!
 
This week was a really great week! We have 3 Progressing Investigators which is the most I have ever had. So that was a big blessing and miracle this week. Two of them are Rosie and Kee Johnson. We took Sister Hathaway with us to our lesson, and she was a huge benefit for us. When we invited them to church this Sunday. Rosie said that they would have to wait till October. Since she is going out of town this week, and is a Sunday school teacher at her church. By the end of the lesson she prayed that she would be able to find someone to substitute teach for her. On Saturday we got a text from Sister Hathaway saying that Rosie texted, and asked her to save her and Kee seats at church. What was neat is that Sister Hathaway said that in the Temple she prayed for them, and after attending the temple she saw this text!

Sister Holley is progressing pretty good. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she seemed to really understand all the principles we talked about. I invited her to Baptism during our lesson, and she said Yes. I then invited her with the date of September 27th. Her response was that she would try. When I invited her at the end of the lesson to offer a prayer asking if this date is right for her. She said that she wasn't ready to pray about it. I came out of the lesson saddened since the date made her feel overwhelmed. But I also came out knowing that I did what the spirit directed me to do. I also knew that I did the best that I could to help her feel the spirit as I extend the Baptismal invitation to her.

This past week I felt strongly prompted to knock on a certain door. I wasn't quite sure about it because it looked pretty dark. But I knew that the Spirit had led us there so we knocked. Kristen came to the door, and allowed us to talk to her for a few minutes. Even though her and her family are moving to Indiana it wasn't a wasted visit. I left her with a Temple pass-along card which got her talking about Utah. She mentioned that her husband would really like to move there. But he wasn't sure if he could get a job not being "Mormon". We clarified that, and said that lots of non-members have really good jobs out in Utah. She was glad to hear that, and said that she would definitely tell her husband that. She also mentioned that she grew up in Illinois pretty near Nauvoo. All I can say is that the Lord really wants her and her family in his fold.

This morning in studies I was touched again by Pahoran's response to Moroni in Alma 61:9. It reminded me of Elder Zwick's talk "What Are You Thinking?" from last General Conference. From reading both of these we come to understand the importance of "putting ourselves in the other person's shoes." I love how Pahoran doesn't get mad at Moroni's false accusation of him. Instead, he forgives him and explains what is really going on. He explains why he hasn't been able to help. I love this because it reminds me that before I respond. I need to strive to understand why people respond in the way they do. So this week I am going to be working on looking at things from other's perspectives.
I hope that each and everyone of us can look at every situation with others points of view. I know that as we strive to do this each, and everyday it will only get easier to do so. I know that as we do this a lot of confusion and contention will be eliminated from our lives. Love y'all and hope everyone has an AMAZING week!!! :)

Love,

Sister W. Williams

Hey y'all!
 
I hope everyone has had a great week! We had a pretty good week here. Things picked up quite a bit from last week! :)


Things seem to be coming along here slowly but surely. Our lesson with Sister Holley this week went both good, and bad. We did the cup-demo with her since she had a lot of confusion regarding the Restoration. Especially, fully understanding the Apostasy. When I asked her what the significance was of Joseph receiving the priesthood. She answered with, "otherwise it would be like any other church." I was thrilled with this answer since it helped us to know that she understands the priesthood. The lesson went poorly in that she was quite confused with the doctrine regarding Pre-Earth Life, and Gospel taught to the Dead. We tried sharing Bible verses with her. But none really seemed to help. So this week we are going to clear up any confusion she has.

We seem to be making some real progress with Sister Hodges. We took Sister Shields to see the Hodges this week, and our visit went really well. We shared "Come Join with Us" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and Sister Hodges really enjoyed the talk. Towards the end of our visit she said that "we have renewed her Faith in the church." Unfortunately, she had to go back up to South Haven yesterday to babysit grandkids so she didn't attend church. We are praying that she is able to come this week though!

Sister Tu'ifua and I have been working on talking WITH everyone this week. It seems to be going pretty well. Of course we aren't perfect at it. But we are striving to do our best. As a result, we were able to find 8 New Investigators this week. I know that as we continue to do this we will find people to teach.

We had an interesting experience with Brother Hodges this week. He told us that if we could solve his "unsolvable riddle" that he would come to church. Now, as he explained the riddle to us I didn't follow it....so all hope was lost with me solving it. But then during our visit with Sister Hodges. The answer dawned on Sister Shields. (Later, in the car Sister Shields told us that the Spirit brought the answer to her mind.) She told Brother Hodges the answer, and explained it. He did all he could to say that she was wrong. Sister Shields just walked away saying that she would see him in church! :)

This morning in studies I had a "light bulb" moment concerning 2 Corinthians 13:1. In this verse God is telling us that the Book of Mormon is his THIRD witness. The Old Testament was his first. The New Testament was his second, and now the Book of Mormon is his third. Along with this I read 2 Nephi 29:12, and couldn't help but wonder-Where the other records are? I love how the scriptures demonstrate to us the love that God has for us. They testify that God and Christ love ALL the children of God. Christ didn't just show himself to some of God's children. He showed himself to ALL of God's children, and had them record it.
My prayer is that we all continue to feast upon ALL of God's words. We will be accountable for knowing the gospel in it's fullness as contained in the scriptures. I know that as y'all study prayerfully and with real intent God will reveal things to you.
 
Love,
 
Sister W. Williams

Hey y'all,
 
We had a pretty interesting week this past week. Yesterday we knocked on a door, and the woman who answered immediately asked Mormons? I responded Yes! She responded with "I am Baptist, Christian, I believe in the Trinity, and Jesus Christ IS God." She then closed the door. Sister Tu'ifua and I walked away not really knowing how to respond....

The area here seems to be at a stand still. Either we aren't able to find any one interested in our message. Or when we do find a lot of new investigators they seem to drop within a couple of days. It's very puzzling to me how this works... However, things are going really well with Sister Holley. We taught her about the Restoration this week, and she said that she has been reading the Book of Mormon. I felt that the lesson we had with her was the best one we have taught thus far. When Sister Tu'ifua invited her to Baptism she said yeah but then began to cry. She doesn't understand fully why she needs to be Baptized again. So when we see her this week we are going to focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Especially on RECEIVING the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

We had a great lesson with Tiffany Newson this week. She actually prayed! She actually wasn't going to end us with the prayer. But Sister Tu'ifua mentioned that she promised us last time that she would. She said, "oh", and then prayed. I was really ecstatic that she actually prayed this time. Since we have been trying to get her to do this several times.

Yesterday was an interesting day.  We found out that two of our ward members passed away. We have been working with one of them; Brother Holliman. What was heart breaking to me is that we weren't able to see him this past week like we had hoped. We tried and tried for rides to get out there. But it just didn't workout. The good news is that the family was very grateful for the visits we have been able to make out there.

This morning I studied D&C 4. I really focused on dissecting it, and reading additional scripture to help me really understand the doctrine behind this section. What stood out to me as I studied was "layeth up in store." As I studied what this sentence means it occurred to me that as we put the armor on God on, live the gospel, and keep Christ as our foundation. We will be prepared and ready for when the "bridegroom comes". We will have oil in our lamps, and will be prepared to meet God.
 
My prayer is that we continue to fill our lamps with oil. That we continue to pray, and study the scriptures along with attending church. So that we will learn what we must do in order to be prepared to meet God. May we not procrastinate becoming better and more Christ-like.

Love y'all!

Sister W. Williams