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