Peter is Home in 24 Hours!!!

Hey Mom and Dad,                2-11-12
Everything’s looking good for my flight home, thank you for your letters, cannot write.  I'll SEE you guys TOMORROW at 9:20. I Love you!

Elder Williams

P.S. From "mom": Peter is returning at 9:20PM (2-12-13) @ Medford Airport...All are invited to see him home! 

Peter: "Well done though good and faithful servant" ...Welcome back into the arms of your family!  We have been blessed from your unselfish service and the Lord is proud of you! 

Peter's Last Letter Before Returning to Oregon?

Hey Mom and Fam,                          2-4-13

Thanks for the email! It was cool to hear about your missionary experiences mom. I totally know how you were feeling, in the self worth and desire to do more of it. I think  that's one thing that I'm going to miss the most. We'll do some practices when I get home to help get you guys prepared for your mission next year. I can see you guys' prayers working here. I bore my testimony in my last fast/testimony meeting yesterday. It was really cool and emotional. I talked about something other than what I was thinking of talking about.  It was about the importance of missionary work and a member's value in the work.

Anyways I can feel like I’m wrapping up the mission just fine. I've seen a lot of people from my old areas and I’m ready to just 'die'. I need to finish up a lot of “stuff” in my own area now. I need to say goodbye to some baptisms and the members. They're all great people here.

Anyways, I'm excited to see my new phone. I've heard a lot about it these past couple of months since it came out.

Yesterday I was talking with some guy on the bus, he was a drunk guy, but was too well dressed to be a hobo, so anyway he started talking with us.  He wasn't too far gone so we were still able to talk to him a little bit. He seemed to be a guy that had fallen a lot. He didn't want to say too much about his life, but I used some kid-psychology on him (which works like a charm on drunk people) and he started spilling the beans. He had read the bible several times and was an ex-missionary from another church and knew a lot about the plan of salvation. It was kind of freaky, he was talking a lot about the 1/3 that had been thrust out of heaven and how he now feels like one of them.  And that he didn’t  have any more chances to repent. It was kind of a creepy conversation, we couldn't finish the conversation because we had to get off the bus, but it was very interesting. It made me think about the 1/3 and if they can come and have conversations with missionaries, the only thing that helped me believe that he was an actually physical body was the smell of the beer that he was drinking. Anyway, I know that this email is short but I'll talk to you guys a week from now face to face. Love you all, see you soon!

Elder Williams

 

Hey Dad,   2-4-13

No problem on the challenge (bearing testimony to 50 people this week), hey I didn't know that Br. Woods was now the Medford Stake Patriarch.  When did he get called? So I’m going to stay in my area until Sunday then I’m going to the office and am going to sleep there (probably).  Then Monday at like 6 AM  I’m going to take a van with the other Americans and get dropped off at São Paulo. As for my plans, I’ll need to say goodbye to a lot of people in my area. And I’m going to have a couple of meetings as well. Friday I’m going to the temple with everyone that are leaving as well. So I’m pretty booked. But yeah, I’m stoked to see you, dad, in just one more week. Thank you for everything. Your example of serving a mission really helped me during my hard times. Whenever it got tough I’d just think of you on your mission and imagine that you probably had it a lot worse. At least here we had cell phones to follow up our investigators if needed!    Love you dad!

YAY! They are Finally Baptized!

 Hey Mom and Fam,       1-28-13

  This week was way good! So Mino and Patrick got baptized no problem. Patrick had marked his baptism himself so there wasn't going to be a single problem at all, and the only problem with Mino was that there was still the language barrier; however he told me afterwards that he was excited to start his new life and to be clean, so he understood what he did very well. It was a cool experience. It was actually kind of funny; we had marked for 12:15PM, right after church. And so when we got done with the meetings we asked him if was ready, and he was completely confused as to what was going on. Apparently he had thought that he was going to baptize at 2:15, so it took him by surprise, it was pretty funny. Anyways, he got baptized when we had marked. But guess what?! They brought one of their friends that had just moved into Brazil, and he's totally from Honduras. It's cool; it feels like I’m just going through a “family” mission too. He only speaks Spanish and English, but I can understand everything he speaks in Spanish, so I just listen in Spanish and speak Portuguese, we both can understand each other. It's super cool!  It'd be cool to put Marc up in Skype and have them both speak Spanish. I was telling him about how Marc had served in Honduras and whatnot, and he was pretty excited!

   Anyways, last week was fun. I went with Elder Reidhead to Costa E. Silva where I served a year and 3 months ago. We visited Lourdes and her daughter Karine. Apparently her other son Bruno also got baptized. She's also planning on serving a mission after the kid's move out in like 5 years or so. It's super cool to see how much they've grown. Lourdes is doing a temple class and will get her endowments when she finishes. Karine also said that she was wondering why everybody was congratulating her and everything after her baptism, but that now she understands why and says that it's like the best thing she's ever done. It was a good feeling. I was feeling sad to have to leave the mission after that.

  Anyways, IDK why Pres. Morris hasn’t gotten my return information yet. I'm pretty sure it's our office's fault. They aren't doing their job at all. They've been having so much stuff that they just simply aren’t keeping up. There's a couple of Elders here that just don't have money because of them. And they can't take buses and stuff. So IDK, they're just slacking on their job. But yeah i'm going home on the 12th no problem. I'll call when I get into New York or California, depending on how much time I have in New York.

   As far as dinner goes on that Thursday I’m sort of feeling like a kid in a candy shop, I have no idea because I want everything. So maybe it's best if you choose for now. Anyways, I love you and I can't wait to see you in two weeks! 

Elder Williams

Hey Dad,       1-28-13

Thanks for the email, one of the last. It's cool to hear that you want to read PMG; I’ll read it with you no problem. I'm pretty excited to get back and start all of my projects I was thinking of. I just thought up a cool business idea that I’ll run by you when I get home. I'm pretty tired just by traveling a lot, and little sleep. But my body's getting used to it, and I’m feeling a lot better now. It was also pretty tiring because there’s some stupid drama things that I had to resolve in the zone, to try and cut gossip and a lack of diligence in the zone. I was actually just thinking about what I'm going to say on my second to last week. It's going to be fast and testimony meeting so, it’s not going to be too long, but I was thinking about talking a little bit about unity and how important it is. We'll see. Nobody's asked me to give any talk in church this whole time here in Jacaré (which is good, apparently the members are willing to give talks). Anyways, I’m planning on starting swimming at Superior on my second day there, if you want to come. Anyways, love you dad. Can't wait to see you in two weeks.

Elder Williams

 

3 weeks til peters back!

Yippee!

Peter is Doing Well

Hey Mom and Family,         1-21-13

   Thanks for the email! Thanks for the prayers; I'm completely confident that Mino and Patrick are going to get baptized. They have a great testimony and Mino is learning Portuguese really quickly. It's for certain that God is helping them both get baptized. These past couple of days have been tough. I'm feeling so tired all the time. It's all I can do to keep my eyes open sometimes. But it’s also the funnest times I've had on my mission. Things are just always going right. It's amazing to see some of the blessings promised in my patriarchal blessing already coming to pass.

   Also, In regards to you guys serving a mission in a year or so, I have complete certainty that everything's going to go the way it should when I get back. So you guys don't need to worry about me and just focus on going on your mission.  Remember that the same blessings that you guys have received while I was on my mission will also be over all of us kids. So don't worry mom. In fact I'll do what I can to get you guys all ready to head out. Anyways, it was cool to hear about that Stake devotional that you guys went to. The spirit that you guys felt the night at the Stake Fireside is something rare, but something that we should ALL try and search for DAILY! If we have it as a goal, then it will happen more frequently and we can recognize more spiritual experiences during our day.

   Last week we had a multi-zone. It was just alright; It was pretty dull. After two years it all feels like the same thing. However we had some interesting moments. Me and Elder Boring were asked to give a presentation on "goal establishing and planning" and on “how to help a possible baptism turn into a get baptized” that same week. It was fun! The night before that Tuesday, we called the office to bring some planning sheets that everyone gets at the beginning of each transfer. But the only problem is that they forgot to print them out and bring them, so we were moved to the ending of the whole training session. The other two doctrines that were given took a while so our time got cut from 1 hour to 35 minutes. It was cool though, and more efficient I think. We started out with a simulation, where it showed two missionaries (me and Boring) live two days and two nights as a missionary (one night planning, and the other no planning). I think it was taken pretty well. I think everyone was expecting something boring that would just put them to sleep, but I think it went over pretty well!  Afterwards we explained the necessity of goal setting and planning. It was a good lesson!

   Anyway the president is changing some of the ideas on the mission, from "number crunching" to “converting/baptizing” which was a huge problem in the mission for the past year and a half or so. Missionaries were being forced into completing a set of goals for teaching and finding contacts or else they would be burnt hardcore, but that idea has changed a little bit, and there are more baptisms coming due to it!

    Anyways, I don't remember any kid in our class named Skylar at all.

   I think I’ll plan my talk for Medford 1^st Ward on the huge plane ride home. I'm not too worried about the layovers and whatnot, I’m sure it'll all work out.

   Hey I had a question too, Did you had plan anything on the Thursday, the 14th?  

   Anyways, I'm pretty tired, we had a zone activity that we had to plan for today that everyone was asking us for. It was a hassle trying to get the institute building rented out to us (here they're cool; they have a ton of air hockey tables, ping pong, pool, and whatnot). But we got it and we had to supervise everybody a little bit. It was fun, but I’m pretty tired.   Anyways,   Love you!  Elder Williams

Hey Dad,    1-21-13

Thanks for the email. Yeah these past couple days have been pretty cold here where I’m at. My house collects a lot of rain, maybe more inside than outside, but its fine. I can really feel your guys' prayers, not just for Mino and Patrick but for me as well, I think it's them that are helping me stay so enthusiastic and happy. I'm traveling a lot and I’m really tired all the time, but I’m always feeling happy inside. I don't know if it's just the euphoria of just heading home soon, but I don't think it is. So I was thinking about your guys' mission. If you guys need any help preparing for it let me know. Seeing as you've already served one, maybe getting updated in PMG or in doing divisions or something would help. Anyways, I can't wait to see you in just a couple of weeks, love you dad!

Elder Williams

PS. I’m starting to get sentimental about the mission already; I don't want it to end

 

 

Only 28 More Days Left for Peter...and Counting!!

Hey Mom and Fam!    1-14-13

   Thanks for the email! This week was good. So guess what? We went to Mino's house and started teaching him, 5 other people from Haiti, two guys from India, a guy from Angolia, and a guy from Napal. It was legit! I was talking with one of the guys from India, and he's been to Indonesia and whatnot. It was cool to feel a ghost of dad's mission a little bit. He doesn’t speak Portuguese, nor English really, it was really hard to understand him, but he accepted baptism, (we showed him pictures, to make sure he understood). Anyways, that whole house is great, the people from Haiti are really funny; they all seem to be really positive, even though they're really far from home and their families. It's cool to see your prayers working down here. Mino's Portuguese is getting really good. Fast! The zone's seeing a ton of cool things, but it's starting to lose enthusiasm. One area just didn't want to work. They did 5 contacts...

   Anyways, it was cool to hear about your last temple experience! It's cool to see those things! Just last Thursday something similar happened. We told our zone that we were going to find and baptize a Lucas. So last Thursday we went out early and we offered a prayer telling God that from 11:30 to 12:00 we would stand outside of the church and invite everyone to repentance through baptism, and he would send us a Lucas that was 18-25 years old, that would go into the church and then later accept the invitation to get baptized. And that he would accept to get baptized that same week. So we went out and worked; 10 minutes later guess what happened? We found a Lucas. I saw him from afar getting out of his car with his grandpa, and I knew it was him. I talked with him, asked his name, and when he said it, my mind went blank, and I didn't know what to say! He was parking to go and resolve a problem with his bill close by. The problem is that I didn't do my part, I said I would've invited him on the spot to go inside the church and get baptized, but I waited and said that I’ll talk to him after he pays his bill. So I waited and when he finished his bill I invited him in but he said he was busy, I just barely managed to get his phone number, and he barely had enough time to do that. Anyways, it was pretty bad on my part. Sometimes we need to prepare ourselves better for things we ask for. But it was cool experience!  It reminded me of something the bishop quoted yesterday.  He said that something that makes God feel good and makes Him happy is when He gets to show mercy to someone that doesn’t necessarily feel they deserve anymore mercy. Cool huh?

   It shouldn't be any problem getting to my home coming reception after your temple night; I’m probably going to get a layover anyways.

   As far as the temple pants go I think I’m a 34, I’ve gotten pretty fat these past months. Anyways, I hope things are good. I love you! 

Elder Williams

 

Hey Dad,     1-14-13

Thanks for the email! It was cool to hear your experience with Bill, I found a couple of guys from around there from India which is close by right? Anyways, one of them was from Indonesia and it's hard to understand him. Where are you when I need you? You could probably speak to him better than me. It was cool to see, they have a cool culture. I can't wait to check out your new car. It'll be fun to drive. Climbing a mountain that is 14500 feet, is that a lot? I can't for the life of me remember “feet” at all. Is it more than Mt. McLaughlin? Anyways, I can’t wait to see all you guys! Just 28 days! Not like I’m counting or anything... It's just always in the back of my mind.

Love you dad!

Elder Williams

Pray for Mino and Patrick!

Hey Mom and Fam!       1-9-13

  Thanks for the email! It was way cool to hear about dad's testimony in church last Sunday. I bet that one of the many reasons his life was preserved in Hawaii was because of the blessing of me serving a mission and plus you guys still need to serve your OWN mission.

  Anyways, this week was way good! Elder Boring's a great missionary, and he's helping me stay focused for these last 5 weeks. I've decided that I’m not even going to care about me or my own area, but just work as hard as I can for my whole zone. The first thing I noticed is that everyone here in the "Family Jundiaí", In other words, everyone here is “dying”. Either they will leave with me, or they will be leaving the transfer afterwards. Nine missionaries in all are leaving. But I’m doing what I can with Elder Boring to help them stay focused. We had a meeting with everyone yesterday and it was very effective. We made some goals and promised a lot of blessings (one of the temporal “blessings” was that when they fulfill our goal of 41 baptisms we will take them all to a BBQ place).

  I have never seen a group so excited and unified!  I hope that it stays this way, because if it does, there are going to be a lot of baptisms!! We planned a zone fast for the end of this week. Anyway, since our goal, we've heard of a ton of miracles happening in the zone in each area!!  And because of that, some elders are leaving their apartments earlier and getting home later. They're all excited to fulfill their goals!    

    Just today in our area we we're heading to lunch and a lady pulled her car over and called us over. She said she wanted to put her kids into an English class and that she was excited to get to know the church. We got her address and number and she promised to go to church. A ton of other things in other areas have started to happen as well!!  Last week we were heading to a members house when two guys stopped us in the street. They're from Haiti and they didn’t speak Portuguese. We had to speak English with them, but they didn't speak too well.  Anyway, one of them was a member and the other wasn’t. The member wanted to know where the church was so  he could bring his records over from Venezuela (where he got baptized). Sunday they went and we had an opportunity to teach them in English. It was super weird to talk about the gospel in English!  We taught them the first lesson and invited the friend to get baptized. He gave us the thumbs up and said "no problem". He just wanted to learn Portuguese a little bit more to understand others before he gets baptized. So we gave him a Book of Mormon in Portuguese and promised that he could learn it before the 20th. So the 20th he's going to get baptized!

. Pray for him (Mino, that he can learn Portuguese) and for Patrick as well, so that Patrick's mom will let him get baptized. We've just been waiting on him until he turns 15. His birthday's this month so we hope that it'll all work out. Patrick bore his testimony this Sunday. It was very powerful it was really cool to hear! He's already talking about his mission as well; it was really cool.

   Anyways, dad's new car looks sick! I can't wait to drive it when I get back, and test out the new sound system. I'd like to stay in “Annies” old room. I'm totally down for a Disneyland trip for a week in March. I also talked with the travel office just to see if it would be possible to change my flight plans (30 hours is a long flight home) but from the looks of things it was too complicated, so I’ll just fly for 30 hours. Also, I'm totally down to live “wherever” in Provo, it looks like it'll be cool.

Anyways, pray for the zone and these people, I’m determined to end way good. Love you all. 

Elder Williams

 

Peter Finally Wrote!!

Hey Mom and Fam,            1-3-13

  Hey don't worry, I’m still alive and even after Skyping for 5 hours on Christmas I still want to talk to you guys! We just didn't have an opportunity til today. For the past three days the internet's been closed due to the holidays, and then yesterday when it opened we had transfers and Elder Gustavo got himself transferred. So we had that problem to deal with. But now we're all settled down. Elder Boring came here to Jacaré with me. He's from Hawaii the same island as Cassandra and Sam, but he moved out about 4 years ago to Utah.

  I thought it was interesting that dad had a “sick” fall body surfing. I'm excited to do the same when we go!!

Our New Years was a good “missionary” New Years; I guess it'll be better next year.

  Well, the zone changed a lot as well. It's filled with elders that are all going home either with me or on the next transfer. So it'll be hard to keep them focused, because I already know that ALL they're going to talk about (when we have meetings) is home!

   Anyway, I don't have too much time, I have a ton of stuff to do today. Next week we're going to have a meeting, so I’m not going to write on Monday, it'll probably be on Wednesday.

  Anyways, I love you! 

Elder Williams

 

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