Thank Goodness for SKYPE!

Hey Mom and Fam,          12-14-12

Thanks for the email. It's cool to hear about your re-activation efforts in your ward mom, it's a big goal of mine to do that after the mission for the small time that I’m in Medford. I have some buddies that I want to work on. There are also some people I want to send out on a mission.  For some of the re-activation efforts that I've done here in Brazil, there's not a better feeling (other than a baptism)!

Since I've been here in Jacaré, there's this kid Patrick that has been growing a ton in the church, he's 14 and is already going to church by himself. His uncle has been the guy that's been integrating him, but now it seems as if Patrick has a bigger testimony than his uncle. Both the uncle and his mom are against his baptism for now. His mom won’t sign the permission slip until he turns 15 (which just so happens to be next month) I'll still be here on my mission when he gets baptized. However with the experience that I have on my mission, I know that when the date arrives, his mom will want to move it to a further date.

I'm really liking this area. Yesterday we had an awesome activity called "Returned Missionary Counsel". Only RM's were invited and they relived their missions and gave out their ideas for other activities. It got them all excited for missionary work and kindled that fire again. It was great, we established some goals to work on and they’re all going to do some good work this week. Your last email helped me see from their point of view and I used 3 Nephi 11, it was cool.

Anyways, I got the other box. Well sort of, It's in the office. We'll see tomorrow if I can get it. There’s going to be a leaving transfer for some elders like Elder Coelho that are going home. And then there are about 5 missionaries that are going to get sent home, two of which are in my zone, both for health issues. One of them is a sister that almost died here. She was in the hospital for two weeks for stomach/eye problems.

I’m totally down to go to Hawaii with you guys sometime!  I was planning on going there some time to visit Cassandra and Sam anyway.

I talked with the President re: BYU Interview and I sent him an email with all the info yesterday.  He's been pushing it off for a while, so I’ll call him again today and get on his case to do it today. Well I'll see you all next week (Skype); it'll be way good, unless you guys get eaten by a shark in Hawaii...until then...Love you! 

Elder Williams

Pray that Peter will get his Missing Christmas Package...

Hey Mom and Fam!        12-10-12

Thanks for the email. I talked with the person that will be giving us their computer to SKYPE and they said that any time is alright. So 4:00pm on the 25th I’ll be hopping on. Which is what 8:00 am your time (Hawaii)?

The box (Package) I got had the lotion the chocolate the SpongeBob sheets and a package that I haven’t opened up yet. You said on the present that it's the biggest one I’m going to get. I'm sort of far away from the office so I don't know yet if they've received the other missing package yet.

I haven’t had the interview yet fror BYU, but I'm going to get it this week and if possible I’ll send the info to you on the same day.

Anyways, if I were in Keenan’s shoes I’d love to be out of the office. You just sit around on a computer the whole day and here at least they get extremely prideful. I have a ton of friends that went in one person and came out another. But it's only been these past 7 months or so that this change has happened, beforehand it was super chill.

Really our only purpose here on the mission is exactly what you said, mom, regarding how it is missionaries jobs to baptize (3 Nephi 11). It's a good thing you have that vision a lot of members just don't understand and get in the way of the work because of it. Two weeks ago it happened with Patrik and this last week it happened again. We found a guy named David and he was sort of a hobo. It must have been 2 weeks since his last shower, so he was a little bit smelly. But we took and brought him home, gave him a shower and some old clothes that we don't use. Then we took him to lunch with a sister in the ward. Then the next Friday we took him to a Christmas party in the ward where there was a ton of food. He ate a lot of food and everyone noticed and started to make stupid comments that made him feel uncomfortable. Ever since that day he's completely disappeared. We really got to be careful what we say, even if it's true.  Even if we don't mean to be rude or mean, sometimes people take it another way. We really want to baptize and we get really close to it every week, but something just comes up and gets in the way. It's interesting to see that a good part of the time it's a member that gets in the way. Not just here but in all the places that I’ve passed through. Satan uses the people in ways that we'd least expect.

Anyways, I hope you guys have a good time in Hawaii, I’ll talk to you guys soon. Love you!

Elder Williams

Peter's Not Dead...

Hey Mom!           12-6-12 (email three days late) 

Don't worry I’m not dead, nor in the hospital. We've been extremely busy this past week. The busiest and most tiring week of my mission I think. Monday we had a meeting with the president, the night before we stayed at the old house in Progresso. The only problem was that there was another companionship was there as well (it happened to be Duffy it was nice to see him again). Anyways there was no room, so I slept on a terrible couch that's terrible to even sit on. My companion couldn't even sleep; the ground here doesn't have carpet. Anyway the meeting was way good; the president showed us a clip that involves the Atonement with missionary work. It was one of the best talks I’ve ever heard.

Anyway Tuesday we worked outside of the church as usual but it was extremely HOT! I've been sweating nonstop; I haven’t been able to cool down. Remember how I would always be drinking water before the mission? I've been drinking about double that amount and I’m still dehydrated. And Wednesday we had interviews with the president in the zone. We didn’t sleep like at all the night before so it was tough to stay awake during the interviews.

One thing that you don't need to worry about is me skating. We aren’t doing anything crazy, plus I had to give back the skateboard. The member that we took it from wanted it back. So now were doing the exercises at home again. The president has said nothing about skateboarding, and in the white manual there isn’t anything against skating. And if we do nothing stupid we're alright.

Anyway, I got your email about BYU; I’ll call the president and see if I can't mark for something next week. He's super busy doing interviews for this week. Oh btw, I got one of your packages that you sent, idk if the other one got lost or if it's just coming late. Thanks for the jelly, its way good. We ate all the chips and chocolate the same night that we got it. It was way good. But don't worry; I’m saving a couple presents till Christmas.

The president says that we can Skype on Christmas day no problem. We already found a place to Skype and everything. I just need to see if it's ok to do it late. I forgot that you guys are 8 hours behind. It'll probably have to be early in the morning (for you guys). I'm pretty excited just two more weeks. Anyways I should get going. I love you all I'll see you soon!

Elder Williams

 

Mom's Don't Want to Hear About Skateboarding and Hitchhiking!!

Hey Mom and Family,          11-26-12

Thanks for the email! This week was good! I ended up going to an area called Jacaré in Jundiaí with Elder Gustavo, elder Duffy's old companion after me. I'm stoked! Elder Gustavo is hilarious; it's going to be a fun transfer (unless they transfer him early some missionaries are going to go home before Christmas, so there's a big chance). Anyways I got here on the Tuesday, and I was pretty sick due to something I ate (I met up with Elder Duffy and we ate at outback). I was throwing up among other things. It looks like some elders left some skateboards here so we've been waking up early every day at 6:00 to skate at a park close by. We need to do our daily exercises every day anyways, so we might as well as skate. It's actually more of an exercise that I thought. I get back sweaty every day at least (not saying too much).

 Anyways, this area's amazing. We seriously don't walk at all. The most efficient way to work here is to stay outside the church and do contacts. The church is on a huge avenue where everyone walks. When someone stops we invite them into the church, if they enter we invite them to go to a meeting on Sunday and we mark an appointment to get taught inside the church. If they truly are God's elects then they will do all that we ask them to do. Last transfer they did this and they baptized a ton. It's nice because if they get taught in the church than they will never have those distractions like TV or kids or the phone or something.

If we ever need to walk far, we just hitchhike. When we hitchhike usually the first car we ask stops. They are always from our area and we get to teach them and invite them to church. It's the easiest but most efficient way I’ve worked on my whole mission. I really want to stay here for the last 3 months.

The ward is great! A couple years back an old mission president burnt all the wards on the mission saying that they should be like the ward that I’m now in. It's true though, they all care about us, and it’s cool. They give us references every time we see them, they invite us over to eat, they give us rides, and just help. It's great! Anyways, mom,  I hope you like Preach My Gospel. My favorite chapters are 6 and 4. Anyways, I hope things are all going good up in the States! I love you all! 

Elder Williams

 

Hey dad!            11-26-12

I liked the pics. This week was way good, it sounds like it was pretty good for you to in Tucson. Well I had my transfers and I love my new area, it turned out that I wasn’t transferred to Ouro Verde afterall, but instead I went to Jacaré with Elder Gustavo. It's pretty legit; he's one of the funniest companions that I’ve ever had. The ward's great and I like the zone a lot.

What's the trip looking like for after the mission? What are your guys' ideas? I completely forgot that it was turkey day this last week. They started a black Friday here for the first time last Friday and everything was super cheap. It was a hit and I think that Brazil is going to keep doing it from now on. Anyways, Christmas is coming up, I haven’t a clue what I'm going to do to celebrate, and our plan is to baptize someone on Christmas day.

Anways, I just realized that I’m heading home in 11 weeks; it's going by so quickly I can't believe that I'm already almost at the end of the mission. I'm now one of the oldest persons on the mission. Crazy huh? Anyways, Love you dad! 

Elder Williams

 

Brevity is Peter's Middle Name...

Hey Mom and Fam,      11-18-12

 

This week was great! Things are starting to really pick up! Me and my companion have both been transfered, and it's going to all happen tomorrow. He will go to a place called Piracicaba and I'm going to be zone leader with Elder Alex da Silva in Ouro Verde. They're telling us a lot earlier in advance, so now we have some more time to say goodbyes and get ready and everything. 

It's gonna be good though, Ouro Verde is a part of Campinas that I already know, Vida Nova is right next to it. Plus me and my new companion will be opening this place up. Just what I was hoping for to end my mission well. Today we went to Cosmopolis to see old members and recent converts, but the guy that I wanted to see went to go see the new Twilight movie. So i guess next time I should call before I do a surprise visit. 

I can't believe that Thanksgiving's already here, crazy how fast time flies. But anyways, i'm in the wizard where I always used internet before, and there's the other missionaries that need to use the internet so I don't have too much time to write. Anyways, I love you! I'll write you a lot next week.!

Elder Williams

Three Letters Posted...Read From Nov 7th on Up!

Hey Mom and Family,                           11-12-12

This week was pretty good. I'm really enjoying these last couple of months; I’ve made a goal to work as hard and as obediently as I can. I'm developing a huge love for this work, and I do not want it to end. I did a division with and Elder da Rosa this last week and he really opened my eyes to my companion saying that I need to do my best to save my companion. So that he ends his mission well. Transfers are next week, so I don't even know if I’ll make too big of a difference. I really hope I stay, I really like this area. However I heard that it's possible that the President will take us both out. I guess he's still looking it over, I personally feel that I'll leave, but I guess we'll see. I hope that things aren’t too crazy over there in the states, I just got done talking with someone that was happy that he got re-elected, saying that he's going to make a lot of changes to be more socialistic. Exactly what you were talking about. It was an annoying conversation. I tried to use the scriptures and the Israelites as an example of a socialistic environment and how it just doesn’t work it. (They weren’t socialistic, but I used more the principles of work compared to their ideas and why God gave them their Mosaic law) Anyways, not a whole lot happened this week. We found quite a bit of new people in a neighborhood that we opened up, but no one from that group went to church. That's one of the hardest things to do is to bring people others to church. We abandoned a good part of them. It's a good indicator; it shows us who will progress.

Fetch, a gay add just passed on the TV here at the internet place. It was pretty annoying, just justifying their gay attitudes. There are a ton of gays and transvestites down here in Campinas. It's really gay. You have no idea how many times I’ve been checked out by some gay dude walking by. It's becoming more and more acceptable these days and It's really just NOT ok. (I miss the old days…) Anyways, I'm pretty excited to read cassan's book. How is she going to publish it though? How do you go about doing something like that? Anyways, I hope all gets better there; don't get too unexcited with the things that are going on in the world. I learned that one of the definitions of enthusiasm is to be "full of God". We should always try to enthusiastic so that we can have God more fully in our lives. Anyways, I love you! 

Elder Williams

 

Yo Pops!            11-9-12

Thanks for the email, I love the pics. You looked rather sinister with your little cricket gun (Men in Black for Halloween). Just a question, that picture of you and the kids is at our new renovated house or Marc's new house? I think that that family reunion would be way fun, I’m totally down. As far as a trip to plan, just remember I’ll probably want a place to swim, and an old goal of mine to conquer my fears, I’ve been thinking of a shark cage. Here's been extremely hot. When it rains it usually just rains for a couple hours, so it just makes it more humid and a lot hotter. It needs to rain for a couple days to truly get comfortable. I've been reading a lot of books these past couple of days, The Old testament, the new, the Book of Mormon, Jesus the Christ, Teachings of Joseph Smith, there's sooo much stuff, I’ve really grown to love the scriptures. It's amazing. I really want these books called The History of the Church; I think there are 6 volumes or so. Maybe it's the missionary in me saying this, but it'd be a good get home present =). A friend on the mission said that he talked with some guys from back home that are at BYU and they said that there are sooo many girls that are sending in papers and that dating has gotten a lot more difficult. It's going to be some tough pickings when I get back home. Here there hasn’t been too much increased activity at all in people preparing for their mission. It's tougher I think due to required military service and a different schooling system here. There is one kid though that's preparing for his mission. He's a new convert about 8 months in the church from another really, really religious church (bad like JW). In 6 months he learned English, and has opened up his own English school. Recently he is learning guitar and German and already speaks and plays better than me, and he's only 18. It's amazing to see the blessing of entering into the church. Because of his example, his parents have recently been baptized, about 3 weeks. It's cool to see the gospel in the lives of others. Anyways, I should get going I love you!

Elder Williams

 

Hey Mom and Fam,                        11-7-12

Sorry that it took a while to respond, Monday we had a zone leader meeting, and yesterday just didn't work out, but don't worry I’m fine. These past couples of weeks have been really, really hard. But it's really helping me realize that happiness is a choice and in spite of whatever goes on, if I want to be happy, just be happy. My companion's a lot more problematic than I realized, he's a good guy and I can see his side, he just doesn’t have any friends on his mission, so I’m trying my best to be his friend, but it's turning into a love-hit relationship. I say love-hit because he says that I’m his best companion that he's had, but he hits me while he says it. I've got some bruises on my arms and stuff, and he likes to yell and tell me to shut up and whatnot, it's pretty hard to feel the spirit. He doesn't accept correction, so it's tough to ask him to stop, because he just doesn’t. Plus he's leaving the mission soon and doesn’t seem to be able to have the energy to work. Let's just say that I’ve spent a lot of time at home reading the scriptures. But it all goes back to the choice of being happy. I read these days in John. The last verse in John 16 says more or less that in the world we well have afflictions but "to be of good cheer" for He has conquered the world. The way I interpret this is that he's saying that we need to choose to be of good cheer. When we believe in that one saying everything changes, I may not talk a lot anymore (because it's hard to without being burnt), but I am happy. Anyways, I did a division the other day with another American missionary and while we were getting on the bus which was packed, an old guy pulled us off and started yelling at the bus driver. He was saying how all should know, Brazilian, são paulino, or someone from Campinas, that we are Mormons and we're trash and should be treated as such. It was kind of cool. I never had something like that happen before. Anyways, the bus driver let us get on just fine. Anyways, they also just got done with the elections here; it's all so corrupt here. The Brazilians often say here that everyone loves Brazil, but that the only way that Brazil will fall is through its own corruption. It's a lot worse that the states. We're truly in a messed up world, there's so many ways that Satan get's followers, his church is terrible and 2nd Nephi 27 and 28 is really noticeable here. As far as Obama goes, I was really hoping that the hurricane would get him.

For Christmas, I have no idea; I’m bored of those fruity pebbles, if you want to send other cereals feel free though. I don't need any more salsa, there's a sister in our ward here (the missionary's mom of the ward) that's asking for some hand lotion from Victoria Secret, I don’t remember what kind. It's like 15 bucks there in the states but here it's about 140 reais or 70 dollars. I got my call saying that I’m leaving the mission and asking me which airport that I’ll be flying into, it was cool, they sung me "Somewhere over the rainbow" with the lyrics changed to me flying into Oregon. Anyways, I can't remember a whole more that happened during the week, it's all going by so quickly. I love you! 

Elder Williams

 

Who would have thought: TaeKwonDo and Raffles...?

Hey Mom and Family,               10-29-12 

This week was good. I had a lot of opportunities to study and to think about the mission, it was really good. I bought a book at the temple called the teachings of Joseph Smith. I've got a ton of books at home. Anyway before I go to bed I study a little bit of it. It's way good. I'm learning a lot of doctrine about the basic doctrines of faith, repentance, and baptism and whatnot. This week we had a chance to go to the temple. We got there right when the 9:00 session started so we just missed it. But we had a chance to be witnesses to sealings. It was really cool to go through there; it's been a long time since I’ve been there with mom.  I was actually a part of the sealings; I was a witness with the sealer! It was really cool to see the blessings that are promised when we are sealed.  

Here in our ward we have a Tae-Kwon-Do class at the church and this Friday was its 2nd anniversary. We put up a table outside of it and we started a raffle. We ended up with about 30 new investigators and addresses with it, and two families got a free movie and picture of Christ. We're still sorting out the addresses and planning out new visits. The good thing is that a good part of them live in the place where we're working.  

Yesterday the elders (whom we live with) baptized. It was pretty sad, I felt like I had to push them to baptize the convert. I called the convert (Murilo) and asked him why he didn't go to church that day and he said that he got home really late with his friends and couldn't make it. I told him that he's still worthy to be baptized (I interviewed him the day before), and asked him if he still wanted to be baptized and he said yes. So I marked Murilo for baptism later that day. I then told the elder the good news, but they weren’t happy at all and said that they didn’t feel comfortable because their ward would get mad at them for baptizing someone on such short notice. It almost fell through, but they finally marked a set time and Murilo was baptized. I feel like this is a problem on the mission. Many missionaries are scared to act when they should, to help someone get baptized. When someone passes a baptismal interview, that person needs to be baptized as quickly as possible, if not, Satan has that much more time to get in the way, and usually he does!  

 Anyways, they just got done with elections here in the city and in all of Brazil for mayors and stuff.

 

 I had the same plan to take an easier load at BYU in spring. My mind needs to start easy before I get into the harder classes. I was thinking of taking some of the classes that I didn’t do so well in again. I'm not too sure how it works, but I think if I do that it should get my GPA back up.  Anyways, take a look at that and see if it's better to take the old classes that were bad over again, or if it's better to take some new ones and do well on them. 

 Well, I should get going, I'm exhausted. I played soccer today in the really, really, really hot sun. Love you all, thanks for the prayers! 

Elder Williams

 

Peter and his Zebra Comp...

Hey Mom (and family)!                                  10-22-12 

Thanks for one more letter. This week was way good. It was super busy what with our meetings that we had. The multi-zone went well, we ended up bringing a member to help us out and it worked out great. Our part was only 30 minutes, but the multi-zone went from 9-4:30 with lunch. It was a pretty dull meeting to tell you the truth. The president talked about the exact same thing that he talked to us about that Monday in the zone leader meeting.

I'm glad that you guys had a good trip to Hood River. I miss the cold weather. I'm sweating all the time again. Anyways, yesterday I ate at this sister's house (who is basically our mom of the area, she cares for us a ton). Anyways i don't know what I ate but I think I got food poison. Anyways, I’m feeling better already, but I spent my night throwing up and other stuff as well. Anyways, we're going to take it easy today, no soccer or ultimate Frisbee. That's the only bummer though, I’ve been wanting to play Frisbee ever since I got it in my birthday presents.

We've been working a lot with this lady called Alaíde which I mentioned last week. She's progressing well. She went to church and is starting to be a little bit more grateful. I think God's giving her many things to humble her. Her dad (who she hates) got sick and she had to take care of him for a week, so she didn't work at all and because of that she didn't have enough money to pay a bill, but we helped her out with and she talked with a friend that gave her the money(20 bucks). Then the next day we passed by there again and she didn't have any money or food. So we went to a member's house and asked her to help out Alaíde. We got some food for her, and I think that really sealed the deal for her to go to church. Anyways she went to church and she recognized quite a bit of friends that knew her. It's cool to see how God works for every one of his children.  He truly loves every one of us, in spite of our circumstances and attitudes.

I'm reading the New Testament with D&C; my testimony of Christ is growing a lot.  The New Testament is really great.

Anyways, I'm here with Elder Coelho in the same area as before, it was just a companion switch. It's funny last week on Tuesday, Coelho was cutting his own hair with a machine and it was going great until he forgot to put on a higher cutter, he uses a 2 and ended up using a 0. So he had just one line on his head of his hair buzzed. The funny thing is that we can't have shaved heads on our missions, so he had to just leave it. He had a nice stripe on his head for the multi zone. We covered it up a little bit though by putting on shoe polish. It worked out great, but he had a slightly darker shade of "hair" than the rest. It's a good thing he's almost going bald anyways. Anyways, I love you, keep up the prayers, and pray for Alaíde. 

Elder Williams

 

Hey Pops,     10-22-12

Thanks for the email, sorry I couldn't write last week, it was a very busy week and our Pday had to be improvised, but today's a little bit more chill.  Hey dad, you got to read those scriptures!  I always notice my mind open, my understanding and knowledge increase.  I always feel more intelligent after reading, even if I don't look it.  Yeah, so I guess I wasn't too clear, I’m in the same area as before, I'm just with a new companion.  I think I’ll stay here until I die, just 4 months.  Yeah I’m not going to lie, the end's always on my mind and I’m feeling that boredom that you were talking about.  It's weird, because I just feel always distracted, It's harder for me to pay attention to whose talking, my Portuguese is getting a little bit worse and I’m forgetting a lot more stuff than usual.  I'm guessing it's just the prospect of home on the subconscious, because i'm not thinking about it too much at all.  I guess it's the symptoms of someone leaving the mission.  You should recognize them, you've been through the same process.  It doesn’t help that my companion dies before I do, but we've been talking and we've made goals to baptize a lot before we leave.  Anyways, I was talking to mom about a trip to Natal, Brazil.  My companions got a house on the beach, (Natal's known for have the best beaches in brazil) and he said that we can use it, I’m sure you guys would love it.  Anyways, thanks for everything dad!  I love you! 

Elder Williams

Peter's Last Transfer?

Date: October 16, 2012, 8:50:41 AM PDT
Hey mom and Family,

This week was great! Yesterday we had a meeting so today we're having our Pday. It was a good birthday. I asked this sister in my ward to make me a red velvet cake and it was actually really good. They had never seen a cake like this before because they don’t have some of the ingredients, but it turned out just fine. So I have a new companion! His name is Elder Coelho. I really like him. He's nice n chill. I was totally expecting another companion, I guess the president changed the transfers the day before. Anyways, he's 25 and looks like he's 35, he's going bald and getting pretty chunky. He's from Natal, the place that's got the best beaches in Brazil. He was showing me some pics, they're some nice beaches. Anyways, he said that his dad's got an extra house on the beach. If you guys were down he said we could go whenever, maybe if the itinerary doesn’t work out, you guys could plan something for there. Anyways, Elder Coelho's ending his mission in 2 months, so he'll be my companion when he "dies".

I think I’m going to be here in Progresso for the rest of my mission. I really want to stay at least. I really like it here. It's kind of tough, but I like the members and the location. It's right next to the city so I don't have to take too many buses.

Anyways, I opened up all the rest of my presents yesterday. Thanks a lot! This Friday we're going to have a multi-zone and the leaders have asked that we give the training. Pray that it will all work out. Anyways, we started teaching this lady Alaíde. She's a nice lady and she's been through a lot. We're trying to help her open her eyes to more than just the negative.

It's interesting to see how blind we become when our hearts are filled with ingratitude. It's very difficult to feel the spirit when we just focus on the negative all the time. Anyways, i found a book the helps study Doctrine and Covenants, I’m excited to finally study it. I've been holding off on it for the mission because I wanted to focus more on the 5 gospel points to help the investigators, but now that I’m towards the end I want to study it a little bit more and have it in my mind for when I get back home. Anyways, I got to go I'll write a lot next week, but I love you! 

Elder Williams

Another Baptism

Hey mom and family,        10-7-12

This week was way good.  Though it sounds like it may have been rather tough for you all.  I hope that you all get better.  It sounds like everyones getting hurt.  Well, if you guys need to you could always re-dedicate your house that you're in.  We did that recently some time ago and it really helped things calm down.  Just remember that it's through trials that we can really grow in love.  That's one thing i've learned this transfer, is how much power love has.  Unfortunately it just took me a year and 8 months to truly understand what that meant.  Conference helped me understand it as well, but friday night I was talking with Elder da Rosa who lives with us about it and we understood that all it really takes is love to be a good missionary.  Elder Holland drove it home with his rhetorical question that he said God would ask of "out of all the commandments that I have given you, did you at least keep this one law"?  Yeah it was a good talk, i'd say it was my favorite out of all of them, then followed by President Uchtdorf's in the saturday session.  Anyways, while we were watching the office boys showed up.  An Elder Miller said that he talked with Keenan through email or something.  It was cool to hear that he's doing good.  Anyways, last sunday we finally baptised Luana!  She's going to be the first of her 4 family members to be baptised.  It was a really good one.  Elder Duffy baptised her.  It was pretty funny, the plug got stuck in the pipe, so elder duffy had to go swimming to go and unplug it, but Luana's younger brother heard something and opened up the doors and everyone saw Duffy swimming.  The reverence together with the spirit just completely disappeared.. it was pretty funny actually, because Duffy doesnt apparently know how to swim too well, so he was making a ton of noise fishing for the plug.  Anyways, after the baptism we watched conference and then went to a members house to eat a brazilian bbq.  It was a really good sunday.  Anyways, tomorrow we're going to have a transfer, Elder Duffy's leaving together with Elder Monteiro.  We're thinking that one of my old companion's Elder Souza is going to be my companion again.  Which will be cool.  We were only companions for 3 weeks anyways.  I hope some peace enters into our house again.  There's quite a lot of girl arguments that happen in our house, you'd laugh at some of the things that they'd be arguing about.  But the main guy, Elder Monteiro, that starts the arguments is leaving so it should be alright.  Anyways I love you and I hope all gets better and that no one gets any more cuts.

ELder Williams

Peter the Mom...

Hey Mom and family!                         10-1-12

   Thanks for the email and the two packages! The cereal's amazing! It sounds like you're getting rather adventurous (climbing 6-7 miles at Castle Crags!). It's a cool change!  In regards to your colonoscopy: It'd be kind of fun to clean out the bowels completely, except I’m not sure I would want to drink “crap” to clean out crap.

   Anyways, I’m already on my last week of the transfer. I'll be honest I’m kind of excited to have a possible change. This will be my 14th transfer and I’ll just have another 4 months left, I think it's crazy. It feels like I'm just now starting to learn about how to be a missionary and I’m already toward the end. I think it's cool that Mitch is back and going to the singles ward. Kind of like me before I left; tell him that I said he needs to get everything chill so that he can go on his mission. I hope Chris DeBeikes has everything go OK on his back surgery and that he starts to feel better.

   This past week has been tiring. My two companion's got sick Saturday and I needed to take care of them. I gave them their medicine, fed them, and I cleaned their dishes (for like an hour). It was fun to play mom for a couple hours. Anyways I guess it worked because they felt better the day afterwards.

   I'm stoked for general conference. I think it's just what I need; to get that refreshed feeling back again. Today I played basketball. I really like it, I’m just terrible at it. I'm going to need to practice a ton when I get back. It's ridiculous how hard it was to find a basketball. I'm feeling more comfortable with soccer even though I still play bad, but I can at least hold my own.

    I was talking about the trip that we're going to do to my comps and they got all jealous. I'm pretty excited to have a trip and just relax and whatnot. Then again I know how hardcore you guys are and how you guys like to hike until the very tip of death so maybe it'll be more of an opportunity to get myself into shape.

   Anyways, I still have to go get something to eat, so this email won’t be too long, but then again, nothing too big happened this week. We found a new family to teach, they seem pretty good so keep them in your prayers: Fernando, Nice, and Carlos. Nice (neesey) needs to stop smoking. Anyways, I love you!

Elder Williams

 

Hey Dad,                 10-1-12

Thanks for the email. This week was good. It went by pretty quickly, just one more week of finding people to be baptized. I must admit, the mission has changed in the past year and 8 months. Where it was once relatively easy to baptize it's now getting harder and harder. Not that the faith is falling, if anything it's getting stronger, but I feel like people's hearts are starting to close and they're getting more and more prideful. I believe that when that happens, that whole “waiting for the people to learn” gets a little bit more relative to the work here. Of course we will not lose the hope or the faith that God is preparing His children to be baptized two weeks from now (which is our missionary motto). But with investigators that want to get baptized down the road, we then just determine if they're doing everything else that they need to do, try to discover their problem, and resolve it, If they're continuing to do everything we ask them, then we'll hold on to them, because one day soon, they'll baptize. Usually what holds them back is for them to recognize that God has already answered them and their prayers.

   I'm pretty excited for General Conference!   We’re probably going to watch it in English. I know that last time here they had some technical difficulties, but it should be alright. It's going to be at church. You guys going watch it at home again? I can't believe that mom is doing so much outdoor stuff, you must be pretty proud of her. Today we played basketball; the first time in 10 months. I played terrible, but no Brazilian knew how to play, so in their eyes I was actually pretty good I bet. I like the Tanzanian shirts. You should make a couple lists of things you want from Brazil. I already have some things, but anything else just let me know. Love you dad! 

Elder Williams

 

(Another Letter Sent to Dad...)

Hey Dad!                  9-24-12 

This past week was great. Super tiring but gratifying. We had a ton of divisions and a lot of spiritual moments. These past couple of weeks I have really noticed my limits and weaknesses. It's been some of the happier moments though. A lot of laughs and good times mixed in with the difficult times.  

I'm not too sure if it's the prospect of the end of the mission coming or it's because I’ve just always been like this, but I’ve noticed I have a hard time living in the moment. I'm focusing more on what will happen in the far future than in the near future or the present. I think I’ve always been like this and because of that it's been hard to truly take advantage of the “now”. Oh well, I'm getting over it. I'm getting to the point where I don't want the mission to end. I watched The Other Side of Heaven the other day ago, and when the guy finished his mission he was so sad to finish. These past couple of days I've been working soo hard so that I can have a really good ending to my mission, the only problem is that the harder I work the faster the day goes. It was probably the same thing with you towards the end of your mission as well. I guess there's always the couple mission later.

Anyway, lately I’ve been reading a lot in the New Testament, I want to finish the Bible in general before I get back home. So there's a lot of reading to do. I can see now why my patriarchal blessing talks about the necessity of reading the scriptures seriously every day. The gospel changes behavior better than any study of behavior itself. I know just what God is saying here in the blessing. I need to change myself so that I can develop Christ's attributes, daily.  

Anyways, the trip sounds legit, I’m totally down! I've never been to the Amazons. It's going to be really really, really hot though, so prepare yourself. Which reminds me: while it’s getting colder and colder there (Oregon), it’s getting hotter and hotter here! Last weekend it rained for the first time in 3 months, it was getting soooo hot these past couple of days. Anyway, I love you dad!

Elder Williams

 

Thank You for Your Prayers...

                     

Hey Mom and Family! 9-24-12

Well, I’m now fine. Apparently your guys' prayers totally worked, I’m OK, I just have a little bit of a cough and a runny nose, but the blood stopped a day or two later, and I haven’t had anything close to a headache. I completely forgot about the meds until the very end of the cold, and by that time it was too late. I guess I’ll save it for later if I get sick before I go home. They have this sinus Tylenol medicine that really helped though, so that was alright. I guess it clears out the sinus and relieves pain so it was a good combo. I gave a cough to my two companions though, but nothing too bad.

So about Elder Monteiro, we're totally fine, apparently I’m the only one in the house that likes and interacts with him. I feel kind of bad. I think all he needs is a friend. So I’m trying to play that role. It's not that I still don't think he's a little bit annoying, but I feel like I can understand him a lot better, now that my fever's gone at least. I think he's gotten a lot better now as well. We're all humbling ourselves now and he wants to change and is asking us to help him change, by having us tell him if he does anything that annoys us. It's cool to see how the gospel changes us in our lives.

Anyways, this week was tiring. We did a lot of divisions to see the needs of our zone. I did a division with the elders that live with us that also happen to be district leaders. They're working hard, but they're just not seeing results and for that they're feeling a little bit down. Anyways, while they were doing a division, Elder Duffy did another division with one of his old companions. This other kid, elder Benício has a cool story, he was an atheist like 3 years ago, but just out of nowhere felt like he should try going to church to prove if there was a God or not. He went to a Mormon church, felt something, and decided to believe and get baptized. Now he's on the mission, but is having problems with the mission in itself. He thinks that the mission is corrupted with slackers. It's tough because he's got a point of view on the work just completely different. He's more with a mind state of a missionary that's NOT Brazilian or of a South American way of thinking. The people here make decisions a lot faster and quicker than in the States. We usually find a ton of people that have interest and teach them and if they don't go to church or fulfill the things that they said that they would do and that we have invited them to do, then we move on. Sometimes we find, teach and move on all in the same day or two, depending on their "moliness” level or on how un-prepared or prepared they are. The mission idea here is to find, teach and baptize in two or three weeks if they're married and don't have an addiction. He's stuck in another idea of staying with someone and helping their faith grow by the baby steps, so that in 4-5 months the missionary finally gets to point of inviting them to get baptized, and finding out that they usually DON’T even WANT to get baptized or maybe want to get baptized further in the distant future. (Most of the time they drag their feet for a reason. They ALL want to be compliant here in Brazil.) But anyway, by this time you're already out of the area! I say to leave these investigators and let God prepare them for another missionary in the future to find them and finish the process. I suppose it all depends on faith. On believing that God is preparing someone that will be baptized two weeks from now (which is what we are all told to pray for here).

Anyways, after that division on the Thursday we had a conference with an Elder Matsagarde from the 70. It was cool. I was exhausted and it was hard to stay awake, but he talked about reverence along with many other things. He talked about a ton of deep doctrine. I don't have my notes with me so I can't really remember all that he talked about. As weird as it may sound, but he talked about chastity as well, (weird to talk about chastity with missionaries) but he said how Exaltation and Chastity mean the same thing. About how we need to live the law of chastity to the letter so that we can receive exaltation.

Anyway, yesterday for church we had a stake conference. Our mission president was there. He talked about how we as members of the church need to be a blessing for others and talked about how to do that, by talking about the gospel with others. It was an interesting talk. It's crazy to see how many church leaders have Ipads here. I don’t know about in the states, but here if you're in the stake or the 70 you have to have an Ipad. Which is crazy because they cost about 2000 Reais here! Anyway, Elder Matsagarde and a good part of the stake leaders had one yesterday and Thursday.

Anyways, these past couple of days have been great, we're still teaching Lucas and Luana. They' went to church yesterday and they seem to be progressing well. There’s this girl (Yasmin), she’s about 11 years old, and we're just waiting for her parents’ approval. Her mom (who’s less active for 16 years) said it's ok, but her dad who cheats on his wife all the time is against it. So they're having this constant fight. And then there's Lenilza and her family. Lenilza just needs to stop smoking, and her niece needs to get married. Other than that we're always on the search.

Something cool happened Saturday as well! About 2-3 weeks ago we put up these signs all across the city that are basically ads like: "Want to be baptized like Jesus Christ?" and then our number and whatnot. Anyways, this girl Maria called us Saturday and said that she wanted to get baptized. We still need to go and teach and get to know her but I hope it all goes through. Anyways, things are going great, I saw some letters from Keenan, it sounds like he's in the office now? Anyways, thanks for the prayers! I love you!

Elder Williams

                            

                                    Peter being Peter...

                        Elder Duffy holding a bird

 

 

Peter's Sick; Keep him in your Prayers...(Pictures in email!)

 

Hey Mom and Family!                      9-17-12 

               Thanks for the email!  This week was very difficult.  Our new companion's annoying.  It got to the point where I even lost my temper.  It's only been a week too.  But we had a good talk after I lost patience with him and so things are a lot better.  I couldn't really help it though, this last week since Monday I've had this cold; nothing too bad just a lot of “drainage”.  But then it started to get worse, Wednesday and Friday I had to stay at home because I had developed a fever.  And now when I blow my nose a great amount of blood comes out.  I think I cut something inside of my head for how much I've blown it.  The bloods been going on for 2 days now, I think I'm going to go to the doctors tomorrow.  Anyways on Saturday we were walking and my 3rd companion Elder Monteiro hit me in the “unmentionables” (he was trying the whole day…You go figure why…?).  It hurt but I didn't say anything, and elder Duffy told him to stop because it's not funny and next time I could get angry. Anyways, we entered into a lesson which was way good, but during the lesson my fever hit hard again.  I was pretty bad, but we had one more house to stop by before the day was over, so we started heading over, when out of nowhere he hit me again in the same place!!!  This time I lost patience and sucker punched him and called him some bad names.  I suppose I could've reacted better than I did, but I just completely lost control.  Oh well.  Now we're both better...we had a long talk.

               Anyways, on a happier note, me being sick has helped me lose some weight and I've developed a little cough that's helping my abs develop... We managed to get a lot of work done this week as well.  We managed to find a lot of new investigators and teach a lot of lessons as too.  We're starting to teach this new family.  The old ones we were teaching—Ricardo, Martinha, Carlos, and Elaine—are all weak sauce and so we've abandoned them.  We've still held on to their kids Lucas and Luana though. 

               Anyways, I'm going to probably want to start BYU in Summer Term, what day does the Spring Term start?  The http://saas.byu.edu/class schedule link doesn’t work for me. 

               Anyways, I hope you guys had a great Africa trip, I love Chris' beard.  He looked like “the man”.  Anyways, I hope all is going alright over there, thanks for the packages I can't wait!   Love you! 

Elder Williams

 

Peter and some of his Zone

Peter painted this by himself during a work project for a pre-school! (It's pretty darn good!)

Peter thinks it's funny that athey have these soccer warning signs everywhere.

How do you say "G'Day Mates" in Portuguese?

Hey Mom and Family!           9-10-12

Congrats on completing your hardcore gorilla trip Mom!  You've really grown a lot since I've left (huh?)!!      This past couples of days have been fun but really tiring.  There was an emergency "transfer".  Really it was just an emergency trade.  Our companion Elder Freitas got transfered to Varzea Paulista, and is now companions with my old companion Elder Vale, and his companion is now ours, Elder Monteiro.  I don't know him yet, the trade happened today.  It seems like we straightened out Elder Freitas, and he's just waiting to finish the transfer to become senior, and this Elder Monteiro has some huge problems with disobedience.  So the President is putting him with us because of the success we're having of straightening out companions.  It's going to be tough, because to change things like disobedience is harder than Elder Freitas' old problem.  Anyways, it's a cool feeling to be trusted by the president like this.         Tell Cheyenne that she’ll always be my great friend and is a part of our “Williams” family; I’m sure everything will work out for the best in the end.  It just goes to show the necessity of living ALL of the Gospel in our lives.  Without living ALL of it, we will never be able to make it through the difficulties in our lives.          We didn't baptize last week.  Lucimar got in the way of her sons baptism.  She has a huge lack of faith that her son will endure to the end, and for that she doesn’t want him to get baptized just yet.  Which doesn’t make sense at all, you'd think it'd be better that he get baptized and then she's help him endure than help him endure first and then help him get baptized.  Of course some waiting is needed if the baptismal candidate needs to go through some hardcore repentance, but Artur isn't having any problems at all.  So it's better that he get baptized now than later, because nobody knows what's going to happen later.  Anyways, it's frustrating.  Pray for them both.          So yeah Friday and Saturday we had a service project at a day care center.  WE basically just reformed it.  It was actually pretty fun.  We painted a lot!  As much on the outside as on the inside, I didn’t take too much pictures.  Just the cooler thing that I did which was painting a sick wall size picture of SpongeBob and Patrick.  I'll have to send you the pictures next week.  Other than that nothing really happened that was too interesting.         We went to Outback Steakhouse for lunch today.  It wasn’t as expensive as we had expected, it was nice to go out to a fancy restaurant and feel like a big deal.  Anyways, I love you!

Elder Williams

Letters From Peter While we Were in Africa...

Hey Dad and family!              9-4-12             

Thanks for the report Pahorah.  This week was sick, I told mom a good part about how it was.  My companion's not as bad as everyone was saying.  And if we play it right everything will work towards him having a great mission.  We have some plans to really get him excited.  We're planning on sending him on 'missions' to see how the other elders are doing in our zone.  We told him that because he's not their leader we can send him out and the elders will work and be and act just as they normally would be without trying to impress their leader.  Then after the division he would report to us on their difficulties so that we would know on how to further help our zone be more efficient.  And because he's got enough experience up his belt he could even give some tips on how to work more efficiently.  He got super excited at this idea.  That's the point.  He's ready to become senior, he just needs some more fire in him, some more excitement.  Plus we can take advantage of this division and train the other junior companions.  This will really help the junior get ready to become a senior.  If you have any other ideas on how to ignite the fire again in him just let me know.  Anyways, I can't wait til the boat trip.  It should be great!  We printed off some random papers to put up around the city.  Like "Do you want to get baptized just as Jesus Christ was?" or "Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where will I go after this “life?"  together with our number.  We'll see if it works.  I bet we'll get a lot of prank phone calls, but we should also get some people that really have an interest to learn or get baptized.  Anyways, I love you dad!  Have fun with the gorillas.  

 Love,   Elder Williams

Hey Mom and family!      9-4-12

So this week was good, Nothing too eventful.  Our zone had 5 baptisms last week, which is actually pretty good for the zone.  We just need to do it every week.  I think it's legit that you guys had a sick gorilla experience.  I had a cool one the other day too.  I was walking home last PDay when we saw like 5 lemurs they got really close and there was some fruit on the ground so we started feeding them.  They starting eating right out of our hand, and while they were doing that we would touch them on the back with our other.  One almost bit me.  It was cool.  We really like our 3rd companion.  He's not as bad as everyone was saying, and really he's ready to become a senior.  He just stopped doing the qualifications that he needs to complete to become one.  So we got him going on it again.  The only problem is that he's got this music box filled with this church music.  The thing is that the Brazilian woman that sings it has a terrible voice.  He loves it.  He won’t stop playing it.  We've been planning at home of how we're either going to drown it or burn it.  Anyways, remember Lucimar?  She gave us about 20 references.  So we've had quite a bit to work with.  One of them was a family and last Sunday the parents went to church.  We have an appointment with them tonight.  Their names are Ricardo and Martinha.  Also that last family from last week went again.  Except for Elaine.  She's got depression, so it's hard for her to get out of the house.  Anyways, Carlos (the dad) said that they are going every single week now.  It's cool to see.  Pray that they'll get baptized soon, and that their marriage will be quick.  This week we're planned on baptizing Artur,  Lucimar's 17 year old son.  It's cool to see how little we really play a part in this work.  Really it's all just God that does this work.  It's so true that it really just requires our desire.  Cuz even the best missionary isn't able to convert someone.  If we just desire and act, God will do His part.  Yesterday we had a meeting with president Perrotti.  He talked about the difference between us and Alma.  He used chapter 18 as an example.  He said that we use the same techniques and the same pattern as him, everything is the same, even in that time period, it was difficult just as now.  The only difference is Alma's faith.  And in the end of his 2 year mission that he made in this chapter he baptized 450 people.  Cool huh?  Anyways, P-Day moved.  They changed it to Mondays.  We're writing today because we had a meeting yesterday.  I personally think that this is way better.  Now we can just work without being interrupted during the week.  I hope you guys keep up this great missionary work that you're doing.  This work is too important to just waste time.  Plus, the quicker that this world knows about the restoration, the quicker Christ can make His second coming.  I love you!

Elder Williams

 

Hey Mom and Family,             8-29-12

Thanks for the Email, I think It's cool that you guys are in Africa right now.  Is it still on the northern hemisphere where you guys are at, or have you guys made the jump yet?  I think it's funny that Chris ran in the Serengeti...(hello…there are hyenas there!!) I’m proud of you, mom; I can't believe you're doing this, it’s really legit. Yeah so yesterday we had transfers.  It was fun.  Not a lot changed. Our zone only really had like 4 changes, and now we're in a trio. Our new companion's Elder Freitas.  He's good.  The president put him with us cuz he's passing through some problems on his mission getting along with people, I guess we're just so easy to get along with that we can maybe smooth out his rough edges.  Our internet here is ridiculously slow though, so I can't send you pictures.  It took 20 minutes just load our emails.  This last week was pretty fun.  We found a family that has a lot of potential to get baptized. It's Carlos, Elaine, Lucas, and Luana.  They went to church Sunday and they're progressing well.  A good part of the members are heading over to their houses doing random visits as well, which is great.  Anyways, they still need to marry so it might be a while to get them wet.  But pray that they can continue to progress and that they can get married and baptised quickly.  Other than that we haven’t had to much of an eventful week.  Anyways, I hope you guys have a good time playing with the gorillas.  Love you!

Elder Williams