This was an awesome week...

Hey family,                                                                                                                       June 8,2011

So I got some good news about the package and some bad news.  The good news is that it arrived.  The bad news is that I don't know when I can receive it.  It's currently stuck in the mission office so it should be safe for now but it's so big that the zone leaders can't bring it with them on the hour long bus ride.  Anyways, I got 3 hours to write so this should be a big enough email.  We had another runner for a baptism last Sunday.  This one at least stayed for the interview but didn’t show up to church and when we tried to pick him up in a car he wasn’t there.  Luckily we were able to talk with him later that day to see what was up.  Apparently he went to a party (probably to celebrate his baptism the next day) and got super wasted there.  Anyways he was throwing up and had a pretty bad hang over in that he couldn’t go to church.  So we talked to him again about the word of wisdom and how he can't do that.  It is obvious though that he is currently repenting and still has a desire to be baptized.  So we'll see what goes down this Sunday, but we're thinking it will happen.

Another cool story here that was actually a personal spiritual grower happened last Monday with an investigator, Vinícios  So several weeks back (before teaching Vinícios) we taught the dad of this investigator, Edson.  All went great.  The first lesson he said that he wants to baptized and already knows that our church is true.  He accepted the Book of Mormon and was excited to read the parts we marked and was going to pray about it.  Anyways, we returned later that week to follow-up, and it turned out that Edson was in the hospital with some disease called Derramie  (I’m not too sure if it’s called the same in English, but basically, from what I understood, it stops the function of certain parts of the body and could be very fatal).  Vinícios that told us this, and one thing led to another and we taught him the first lesson and he accepted to be baptized as well.  The following week we visited Vinícios again and his father was still the same and the whole family is very worried about him.  We talked to him about the book of Mormon and about prayer and about church.  It was towards the end after Elder Almeida bore his testimony of these things and it was my turn to speak that I felt prompted to talk to him about going to church.  During my testimony, I felt the spirit speak through me with force and I started to talk about how sometimes the spirit of the Lord tells us things to comfort, but sometimes He tells us to do things, or to say certain things.  I told him that the spirit told me to tell him something.  The spirit said that: “if you go to church this Sunday, your father will improve and that the Lord loves you and your family very much, and wants to help.”  Then we discussed that the Lord will help Vinícios if he showed faith in Him.  It was a very cool experience because the spirit was there with a ton of strength, and I know that if Vinícios goes to church this Sunday that Edson will be healed.  It’s amazing how the Lord guides us in all things.

Anyways, I was thinking about your last email last week about how some people treat sacred gospel things lightly.  It's seriously the story of my life here in my area.  I don't think anyone knows what reverence is.  Lately sacrament has been fairly good, but when I arrived some people in the branch would get up to go talk with their friends in the middle of sacrament.  Laughing and talking normally during this part of the meeting.  Things like this, but it's a lot better now.  I think that they understand the importance of the spirit in meetings.

My companion's pretty interesting.  He was one of those computer nerds before he left on his mission.  He’s totally into conspiracy theories, strange happenings and such.  He was trying to convince me of how we never actually landed on the moon.  It's pretty funny actually and I just let him believe what he was wants to believe.

This past week was my companion’s birthday, a big 21 years old.  I ate a lot cake and candy that day.  Ice cream here is awesome.  Keep up the good work with your investigator friends!  Have they already had the first lesson with missionaries?  Tell the family that they can write my emails if they want, I can write back, especially Mal and Chris so that they don’t have to wait a long time for letters.  Love you all!

Elder Williams

Anyone want to "pick up" info on the church?

He Walked 40 miles?

Hey familia,

I guess to start off is to mention that the feet in the picture were my companions, he broke them playing soccer.  And if you think they look bad just wait until you smell them.  It smells like something curled up and died in sewage every time he takes his shoes off.  It gets pretty bad too when we're sitting next to each other teaching because the smell manages to creep itself out of the shoes.  But anyways, we had transfers this week.  I’m still with my trainer Almeida, the only one that arrived in my group that's still stuck with their 'pai'(dad on the mission).  He keeps making fun of me saying that I’m going to be a trainer next transfer.  Which would make my step-father (on the mission) my son.  It would be cool and I actually think it could be possible.  Anyways, I’m still with him, so I guess there's something the Lord still wants us both to learn from each other or someone we need to teach.  It's going to be cool this transfer too because we get to go to the temple soon.  It's crazy how much I miss going to the temple after not being able to go for this long.  Make sure you guys go for me.

Last week was pretty tough in that one of our baptism candidates ran from us on his baptism interview.  This is the second person that's done this in my first transfer.  I think it's because my companion pushes them a little too hard that they get scared and run.  So anyways I talked with him and we agreed to only push the investigator if we feel like we should.  Its crazy how quick things move here.  The average time for baptism that my companion expects is two weeks.

I weighed myself the other day.  Apparently I lost 9 lbs in the six weeks of my first transfer.  I’m looking pretty sexy I think.  The crazy thing is that I’m eating 4 plates of food every lunch.  I don't know where it's all going.  Lately I’ve been having a slight pain around my hernia surgery.  I guess all this walking is making it want to pop back out again, but I think it'll hold up no problem.  Last week I must have walked 40+ miles.  It was killer!

It's been ridiculously cold here lately, this morning was 12°C or more or less 53°F and there was a ton of fog.  And every night is even colder.

I saw another dead person the other day.  That's 3 dead people since I’ve arrived here in Campinas.  You'd be surprised how many people here try and cross the street at night when cars don’t ever slow down for you in the first place!  Also, I hear that the city of São Paulo itself has at least one death per week due to motorcycles.

You should talk to Mason about the fruit packets that he was talking about.  I’m not sure what he was talking about because all I’ve seen are Tang fruit packets.  Anyways nothing else is too new.  I’m really close to getting Português down. Keep up the prayers though! 

Love, Elder Williams

Another Baptism!

May 25, 2011

Hey thanks for the email, I only have an hour to email today because we're all going to lunch at a members house for free.  I can't believe that it's already been 6 weeks here in the field; it's going by so quickly. 

This last Sunday I had a baptism again, it was of Vânia and it was awesome!  She was the woman that came up to us looking for the right religion.  It's crazy to see how much Satan works at these people after and before they commit to being baptized.  There was a time in the week where she didn't want to be baptized anymore because some things she heard about the church, but at the same time she knew that these things she heard were from the devil.  On the other hand it was crazy to see how much the Lord helped prepare her for accepting the gospel.  After this last one we had I noticed a huge change in how I look at baptisms.  Since I’ve got here I’ve been trying to work more for the fact that these people are my brothers and sisters and that I need to work because I want to help them in that aspect and not because I want a big number of baptisms when I return.  I've had the knowledge that it was good but it was hard to get the feeling to genuinely help those that need the gospel and after this baptism I could actually feel the desire I was looking for.  It was cool.

It's going to be cool to see the entire 'new house' when I return, what with all the changes and whatnot.  I'll problem get back just in time to re-weed the whole outside anyways.

It's interesting to hear that talk from Grant Russel.  I think that to become godlier that missionary work is the quickest and more efficient way to do it, if it's done correctly.  I see so many missionaries here that are doing just that, going through the motions, because it's so much easier.  But it's a definite necessity to let yourself go and to work on behalf of the Savior if you want to have success on the mission.  It is difficult to do this though, especially for one learning a language, but the key to it is to try to develop christlike attributes and to pray earnestly every night at least.  I’m learning a lot about these attributes here on the mission.  I'm beginning to find out that to develop these attributes you need to have a good relationship with God.  I'd recommend going through this chapter in Preach My Gospel, its cool.

Sorry mom to hear that you got released from seminary.  I know you really enjoyed it, and now that I look back on it, it got you excited to learn about the gospel and I noticed a change for the better.  Just remember that you can always keep preparing lessons and stuff if you want and you can teach me when I get home.

Anyways, I’m running out of time, I’m trying to add some pictures but the internet is being retarded again.  Sorry to hear about James and your dizziness, I’ll add those to my prayers.  K Love you guys!

Elder Williams

Sometimes Elders get sick...

Hey family,

This week has been a little bit crazy for me as well.  One of our referrals that was progressing very quickly straight up disappeared.  So our zone leaders that came to interview him were pretty mad that they had to spend money to interview a guy that ran off on his baptismal interview.  We've been trying to visit him but it's impossible to get a hold of him.  Also we learned that Vânia is a great investigator (the one that ran into us and told us that she wanted to find a church).  The only problem is that I think that she doesn’t want to be baptized this weekend as she planned and so I may be transferred before I can see her baptism.

This Sunday I was super sick.  I woke up after 5 hours of sleep and had something nasty in my stomach.  Every hour or so after I had the runs.  I managed to make it to church which was great because we had many investigators that normally don't go, and it was there that I started throwing up.  After church we went to the house of Madalena (our recent convert) and she gave me some sort of medicine that helped my stomach.  Anyways, after that we went back home.  Everybody from my district was freaking out because they thought I had Dengue Fever because I was showing all the symptoms.  But when I woke up the next morning I was fine, with only a slight headache.  So yeah, it was the weirdest thing.

Tell Ashlee congratulations on her engagement.  That is super cool!  It’s kind of a weird thought that she could have kids by the time I get home!  It’s also cool that you guys are finding many missionary opportunities.  I wish I could have heard dad's talk in the 5^th ward; I've always liked his talks.  (He usually uses big words which make him look smart!).  I remember that talk by Elder Oaks though, it was a good one.  It’s a good indicator to see where you could end up.  If your greatest desire is not a good one, in that it's a selfish desire or a desire from not God, then you'll not progress towards Him!

Aright, good luck with the renovation.  Love you guys! PS. Thanks for the prayers; my Portuguese is ten times better this past week!

Elder Williams

         Peter and his companion reviewing "Preach My Gospel"

Cooking in Brazil?

Family,

Hey thanks for the recipes!  Too bad we don’t use cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons here, but I think I can figure it out.  Thanks for sending those off though, I'm really craving peanut butter.  I don't know if we'll get it in time for my companion to enjoy it though cut we're thinking that there will be a transfer soon.  But oh well.
Thanks for using the money from the bank.  I kept forgetting to double check that you guys are using it. 
This week was a very good one.  The day after our skype-ing was one of my most successful days personally.  We went on splits and I was hooked up with this very talkative guy Anderson.  I had no idea what to do but I felt like we should go to this neighborhood and see if we can contact anyone.  The contacts were all positive but all the houses had their doors shut and the windows closed and so we moved on to another neighborhood that neither I nor Elder Almeida worked at before.  And it was there that we found a goldmine of people that are interested in hearing our message.  Towards the end of our day, me and Anderson started walking back to our meeting area and there was this lady that came up to us saying that she's looking for religion in her life and was wondering what we had to offer.  It was super cool to see not only how the Lord blesses us for hard work, but also how He has directed us during our whole day that lead us to her. 
Good luck with the renovation, it'll be cool to come home and see a different home. 
Thanks for the prayers; I can actually tell now when you guys forget, so I’ll know when you guys forget to pray.  Which reminds me of 3 Nephi 18:21(I think its 21) about praying in families.  Anyways, I love you guys!
Sempre frente!
Elder Williams

The Work Here is Awesome!

Hey All,

The weather here has been a little bit cruddy.  Only 80 degrees and we've had some showers.  I guess that what happens when we come during the winter.

I’m jealous that your guys are going to the temple soon, I miss our small house of the Lord and going in regularly, but the work on this side is just as important if not more so, so I’m content.  I can totally see why Brazil needs more missionaries.  A lot of people here are ready to hear the gospel.  It’s crazy, though,  to hear about my buddy Johnny in Cambodia.  Apparently the work there is even better than here!  It seems on average about 4 or 5 baptisms every couple of weeks and he has 18 or so with a baptism date, which is ridiculously good!!

My feet are fine now, nice and calloused.  They even smell normal.  (My companion's feet on the other hand are just straight up disgusting.  It smells like something curled up died then got all moldy every time he takes his shoes off.)

I love the mission already, its super fun.  It certainly is hard, but I don’t mind it.  I don’t even mind all the walking we have to do.  And I’m sure it will become so much better and more rewarding once I can speak comfortably and be able to contribute towards the progression of these Brazilian brothers and sisters. 

Aright, love you all. Thanks for the prayers.  I can definitely tell a difference in spirituality and my ability to speak Portuguese.

-Elder Williams

   

Peter Gets to SKYPE Home for Mothers Day!

Hey family,

It’s awesome to hear about the success of dad's eye.  Not so awesome to hear about the cost, that’s ridiculous!  This week has been pretty decent on my end.  Sunday was bad in that only one of the 10 investigators that said would be there showed up.  I’m still adjusting to the mission.  I’m actually having a ton of fun, but it feels like we're not doing our fullest in our area.  I’m thinking it's because of my lack of Portuguese skills.  I think my companion has to make up for the lack of speaking that I do.  But imp sure it will get better the more comfortable I become with the language.  For example imp starting to explain more about certain points and I can understand most of what people are saying until they start using big words to explain their point.  I’m learning about hard work though, I can feel the slacker getting dragged from me.  We walk on average about 5 miles per day, and we do nothing but street contacting.  Something I never noticed about me until I came here is how much contacting actually terrifies me, especially in another language.  I don’t know why, but I have some sort of fear to do it, but it’s getting easier the more and more I do it.  And I feel better every time I complete one.  But as far as the work goes in general I think it’s good. It could definitely be improved, just like everything in life, but I think most missionaries here are doing their best.  As far as the work in my zone goes, I think it’s good, we're one of the best in the whole mission as far as numbers goes.  Our district thinks our sister missionaries are slackers a little bit, but the work is good nonetheless.  Anyways, anyone family or friends can write me (anyone of my friends can write I just can't write back [I can write other missionaries though]), I have all of PDay to write and however much internet I paid for.  Also, on Sunday, don’t just keep the computer on, but be logged onto Skype as well all day.

K love you guys,

-Elder Williams

                                  

                                                              Baptism Picture!