Peter is New District Leader in "Campo Limpo"!

Hey family,                                                                                          Dec 28, 2011

It was good to Skype Wednesday and Sunday with you all for Christmas!

So I’ve been transferred!  I left my old area and right now I’m in a completely different city in Juníai, in area Campo Limpo.  I also got my first American companion!  Elder Merrick Reynolds.  He's pretty legit, the first companion in the field that gets my jokes and subtle sarcasms.  Also he listened to the same music as me before the mission, metal, rap and all that crap.  So he's cool.  Anyways, this new area is prettier than any other I’ve passed by, with a lot of trees and cool looking stuff.  But the problem is that it's the hilliest area on the mission.  I think the Lord wants me to slim down these next few months.  The hills look like the hills in Switzerland and Austria...  So yeah...lots of walking!  Last Monday I told everyone that I was leaving and they got all sad.  A little girl started crying and got really sad and gave me her favorite picture of Michael Jackson.  I'd send a picture of it, but the internet sucks right now.  Anyways I’m the new District Leader of two sisters and two elders.  Now I have to worry about two more areas.  Anyways, I love you guys!  Keep up the missionary work and remember the prayers!

Elder Periquito Williams

Hey Family

Hey family!                                                                                                            Dec 13-11

So it looks like everything's all certain with Skype, I just need to find a place to Skype.  Anyways, at 1:00 pm next Wednesday the 21st we'll be skyping.  I don't have your guys' name.  So just add me and send me an email telling me what your guys' Skype name is and I’ll add you.  Also if 1:00 rolls around and nothing happens keep updating this email that you guys are using because I’ll be sending an email saying that there's a problem.  I might appear a little bit late because this next Wednesday isn’t a PDay so I’ll be working and all sweaty that day.

Anyways, how’s stuff?  I actually didn’t open the cards yet.  I was waiting on those.  I’m already on my last box of cereal though.  This week the zone leaders have been training me to become district leader and Friday I interviewed three of their investigators for baptism.  It was cool!  One of their baptisms was freaking weak; we spent an hour and half just talking about how he's following the devil for not being baptized.  Anyways, he ended up not being baptized, and he knows that he's not following God's will.  It looks like there's gonna be a lot of changes here on the mission.  We found some kid that wants to be baptized this Sunday also.  You guys should pray for him, Alex Junior.  His situations a little bit complicated.  He lives in a very bad neighborhood, his parents are druggies and his neighbors sell drugs, and drink a ton.  But his grandma is good.  Anyways, Christmas should be good. 

The bishop here is fine now, he's recuperating fast.  Also tell John that he can marry someday, but that he better not leave the area because I want to play “Smash” after the mission.  Tell Cassan that she's in trouble for not being able to Skype,  But that she can write me a Biiiiiig email instead.

Love you!

Elder Williams

Ah-Ha...Annie's been hiding peter's letters....

Hey family,                                                                                                         Nov 30, 2011

Annie didn’t send you guys the letter from last week so I copied it and pasted it.  Then I'll write the letter for this week.

 Thanks for the emails!  We baptized Rosalina!  It's cool; I learned that we actually saved a life to save a soul.  The day we found her she was thinking of committing suicide because of the depression that she has.  That day we found her she accepted baptism, and that Sunday she went to church.  I could tell a new light came into her eyes and she was happy again.  It's always cool to stop by and interrupt her reading the Book of Mormon.  Anyways, we have another baptism coming up this Sunday.  This one was a cool thing also, she was already going to church with her boyfriend in another ward, and we wouldn’t have ever found her if our zone leader didn’t do a contact on the bus. 

Skype should be sweet; I think it'll be me and Elder Lucas Rodrigues again.  He was the Argentinean that you guys saw last time we Skyped.  I doubt that Keenan's gonna Skype though, he's in the states right now right? 

It's cool to read that thought about reverence.  This ward that I’m in has a ton of it, which is going to be good for the people we're bringing to church.  Last Sunday I got the book that we're gonna study next year in Sunday school about the teachings of the prophets.  It's about George Albert Smith.  It's sweet.  It gets me thinking about personal development.  How we all need to get to the point of one of the apostles and prophets in our faith and progress before we can get to the point of Christ.  This is in part as to we have these books of the prophets.  Anyways, our bishop got in a bad accident driving some quad and almost died.  But he should be alright.  You should put his name in the temple because the temple's closed here.  Bishop Álvaro.  Which reminds me, the other day we went to the temple with our baptism to show her around and everything but it was all closed for maintenance and whatnot.  It sucked, but she liked it anyways.

Anyways, love you guys!

Elder Williams

Ok, here’s the other letter:

Hey Family!                                                                                                                        Dec 7, 2011

This week we baptized Tatiane, and we've got Francieli for this Sunday.  I was looking today at all the baptisms I’ve had on the mission and it looks like I’ve baptized almost all women.  Not like that’s a bad thing, everyone needs to get baptized, but it's showing the kind of people that I’m attracting.  Yesterday I was able to visit my old area because I went on a division with the zone leaders to help out the missionaries that are there now.  They've been having problems finding people to teach, so we went there and found some for them.  I'm learning a ton here on the mission, it's awesome, and I’m loving this area!

Anyways, for this Christmas we will be able to use Skype the Wednesday before.  So it'll be the 21st of this month, let me know when will be the better time, and we've got to find a place here that has Skype.   You guys are 5 hours behind, so probably 6-ish my time, 1-ish your time.  It's going to be sweet.  Also I learned that I don’t have any self-control. I got your Christmas package two weeks ago, and I’ve already opened everything.  Thanks by the way, now have a lot of cool stuff to go with my suit!  Also I got the bottle right when my old one broke.  The only problem is that Brazilians have a culture that if you eat something in front of them you have to offer some to them.  So I've got to eat all my stuff when they’re not paying attention, because it's us 4 there.  These pics are of me switching soccer teams to Corinthians, of the baptism of Rosalina, Tatiane, and kid that I’m helping get baptized for my zone leaders.  When I got that shirt, I entered the house of an investigator and within 5 minutes of knowing him, he gave me a new shirt so I switched teams.  They don't sell this shirt anymore and it was given on the 40th anniversary of the forming of the team, so it's pretty cool.  Anyways, hope you guys like the pics!  Love you!

Elder Williams

   

Rosalina's Baptism

Tatiana's baptism

  Peter got this soccer shirt from one of his investigators

Peter Wrote Two Letters!

Hey family,                                                                                                                                Nov 16, 2011

Thanks for the email!  I got transferred again.  Me and my new companion are opening a new area here.  We're still figuring out who everyone is.  We got lunch all figured out, and we should have one of the members give us some food tomorrow.  Yesterday in the area was eventful.  We're living in the house of our zone leaders.  They're cool, they were in my zone when I first got here and we played soccer a ton together.  My new area seems to be good.  It looks like the Lord has been preparing many people here.  We found many people that accepted baptisms and are very receptive.  I’m sad to have left my old area though.  The people we baptized there are super strong in the church and it was good to pass by there to say goodbye and whatnot.  Anyways, the mission rocks.  Yesterday in Lunch on of the zone leaders through a plate at me when I was half expecting it, and so we ended up breaking it in the house of the members, leaving a great first impression of the new elders here.  It's ok though, I’m American and he's from Argentina, so they just blamed on the fact that were strangers here.  Also me and my companion got lost yesterday, and we didn’t get back until 10:30.  We were walking around some ghetto and I think someone started following us, but we lost him and found our house.  We called our zone leaders but one's new and the other's got 1 month here so they didn’t help us out too much.

Anyways, 9 or 10 bucks for sunscreen is nothing.  It's 35 Reais so it'd be about 27 bucks here.  It sucks.

When you guys get your mission call, I’ll teach you guys some teaching techniques.  It's cool how truth in general works.  Using truth in relation to psychology and truth about the gospel are interrelated.  Like using techniques of working with the emotions of the investigators, so they are ready to feel the spirit when we talk about the first vision.  (It all starts the moment they see us.  It's legit!)

Anyways, I’m excited to see you guys this Christmas, I’ll let you guys know when I can Skype and whatnot.  I’m thinking of sending a package home also of stuff that’s taking up space in my bags here, so I’ll throw in a present also.  Anyways, thanks for your support and all that you guys are doing to continue the work of the Lord there in the states. 

Love you guys!

Hey family,                                                                                                                           Nov 24, 2011

This week was good, we managed to find a woman that will be baptized this week, and I’m pretty stoked!  The Lord has blessed this area and seems to have prepared many people.  The ward seems to be pretty sweet also.  Our area is huge and we don't live in it, so we have to walk 20 minutes just to get to work, I feel like I’m losing weight, but it's not really showing.  Yesterday we played soccer a good part of the day and I’m super tired.  Anyways there wasn’t enough time to write emails, so the president let us write today.  I learned these past two days that excitement/enthusiasm is an attribute of God.  Unfortunately it's not my strong point, but it's something that everyone needs to develop, it's because of un-enthusiasm that many relationships go downward and many people leave the church.  Anyways, the mission's sweet. 

Love you guys!

Elder Peter Williams