Gaining weights a good thing??

Hey Family,                                                                                         Aug 27, 2011

It's good to hear that the renovation stuff is going good. Tell Dad that he might need to go a little bit harder on the bike before I get home and "school" him (I’m still planning on some sort of a triathlon when I get home).  This reminds me, I have this goal to gain as much weight as I can here on the mission, so I’m eating tons of rice, beans, noodles, and meat.  I think it’s coming along nicely.  The problem is that the weight is going straight to my stomach, so I’m building a sweet gut.  I can shovel in about 2 or 3 filled plates for lunch and about the same for dinner.  Anyway, (because of this goal of mine) I ran out of money and have to starve a bit this week to have enough for bus trips.  Last night our investigator made us dinner and spilled some hot sauce on my companion, so he gave him a sweet polo shirt.  Which reminds me, I forgot to tell you, this same guy bought me and my old companion some rugby polo shirts that are about 40 "reais" each (so he's progressing fairly well).  Anyways, he busted out this type of fruit that grows here.  It looks like a giant peanut but smells disgusting inside (like poop).  But it tasted alright.  I don't know what it is in English but in Portuguese its 'jatobá'. 

It's cool to hear about Houston giving a talk last Sunday.  He's a good guy.  I could tell that his testimony was really strong.  It's cool that he's gonna get hitched soon.  It's cool to see how effectively a mission can change someone.  Lately I've been thinking a lot about the Apostleship and the first presidency (current and that in Christ's time).  It's something cool to think that men as powerful as them had problems that they overcame.  I was reading in "Jesus the Christ" about Peter and how before he became an Apostle (and probably during the beginning part of his Apostleship) he was a bit of a "punk".  In that he seemed to have some pride and other qualities that people inherit here on earth and how he overcame these unrighteous qualities.  Anyway, I was thinking about how, even though it seems very difficult to overcome some un-Christ-like attributes such as pride and anger, it isn't impossible and the reward is also great (i.e. the constant companion ship of the Holy Ghost among other powerful spiritual gifts).  However as I’m learning, this can only come through prayer and the savior.  Anyways, food for thought. 

On the next package of missionary food, make sure you include some pictures of the renovation and also of the Medford Temple.

Alright I love you, keep up the good work.  Thanks for the prayers!

Love, Elder Williams

PS. My companion showed me a sweet short video yesterday.  It was a talk from Elder Holland at General Conference with clips from different films about the Savior.  It should be on YouTube, you should check it out.

My Best Week Ever!!!

E aí familia!                                                                                                                        July 20, 2011

This week has been one of the best weeks here on the mission.  My Portuguese is improving a ton and I I’m starting to get the whole talking on the phone thing down.  The week before the Mission President increased the standards of what we need to do and called it the Standard of Excellency.  Being the minimum that we should be doing we should try and exceed but it's been very difficult.  My companion is great, he's teaching me a lot about a mission and how it works.  I also learned that my old companion is what we call here a 'fubeca' or in other words a slacker.  Being new here I’m trying to figure out the best and most efficient way to run things and my old companion didn’t teach me the correct way, which resulted in a lack of efficiency and a lack of progression in all areas.  Anyways, my companion now, Elder Barbosa, knows exactly what to do and how to do it, and teaching me not what he's doing but where he learned it; which is from Preach My Gospel.  To all people preparing for a mission, Preach My Gospel is the most effective thing to do (apart from going to the temple often).  Anyways, I just got done playing soccer for 3 hours again.  My companion played on a professional team before coming here on the mission and is teaching me a bit about soccer as well.  So hopefully I'll be a little bit better at soccer when I return.

Anyways, tell Annie that "kankle's" are disgusting and that she should get better soon (sprains are no fun!).  Actually she wrote me an email so I’ll write her and tell her.  Good luck with the singles ward!  I have a lot of emails to write in this hour so I got to get workin, but I love you and keep up the good work with the renovation.

Love,

Elder Williams

Peter has a New Companion!

Hey,                                                                                                                                                     July 12, 2011

Thanks for the talk! (I sent him a talk by Alvin Dyers called, "To What Purpose")  I don't know if I'll have time to read it all today, I’ve got 9 emails or so to write still.  Transfers happened yesterday.  I’m not gonna lie I’m stoked that I have a new companion.  I had to be careful as to what to say to him if it concerned anything of importance like missionary work, soccer, politics, gospel, girls, or music, so as to avoid degrading correction and contention.  Now I have Elder Kelvin Barbosa.  He seems to be a good guy.  From what I could tell of working with him yesterday he seems to be a good worker and a good teacher.  Being the first transfer here in the field that I swap companions it's cool to compare how different missionaries teach and work.  For example, being new here in the mission still, I don't know all the teaching techniques or missionary rules.  When I got Elder Barbosa, I was shown that my old companion was a bit of a rule breaker.  I think that this transfer is a blessing for me to show me how to teach and to learn and put into practice the rules.  It's intriguing also to see how different zones in the mission teach with different examples.  Anyways, for sure my prayer to learn how to teach better is currently being answered.

The language is coming, I can look back now at certain points and see an improvement of understanding and speaking.  I can read and write almost fluently (not natively yet) so I just need to work on speaking now.

Thanks again for the cereal; I’m forgetting how much I loved cereal before.  Plus those boxes of cereal had toy cars which add to the fun.

Tell Jon, Jared, and Vinny that I sent out letters for them and that they should arrive in about a month or so.

Also don't forget to contact Josh Deuhring on my face book and tell him to write me about his mission call (he's going to Brasil, but I don’t know where yet) and that I want his address.

I bet James looks like a stud with his glasses.  I can't believe Bishop Jorgenson got released already, but I bet dads happy that he's still clerk.  He's just now starting to learn how to use a computer too!  What with his success of putting in the batteries.

I’m learning tons here on the mission, it’s crazy to see how the people I arrived with on the mission here are changing I bet I’m probably doing the same too.  Keep up the good work with the house!

Love you!

Elder Williams

P.S. Tell the siblings that I'll write them next week.  My companion's hungry and waiting for me to finish.

Peter misses the "Fam" and wants you to write!

Hey All!                                                                             July 6, 2011

Tell dad to heal quickly.  I’m sure his eye will, I pray for your guys' health every day.  Today I don't have too much time to write all the things I want to write.  We went to another area to play soccer with our zone because we have transfers this next Tuesday (It is our P-Day).  We played for a good 3 hours or so and are now a little bit cramped for time because we need to catch a bus and get back before 6:30 when we will be going to the temple with an investigator and his wife.  Today I had to do another "Matt Damon move" again.  Someone kicked the soccer ball over this huge wall and into someone's yard.  So I had to climb the wall, climb the giant fence that was on top of the wall, scale the wall for a bit and fall the 15 feet or so to the ground.  All while being sneaky and not disturbing our neighbors.  Then return.  This happened twice, it was awesome.  I think that the whole being on the roof, painting the trim on the house last summer prepared me for these climbing experiences I’m having here. 

Anyways, this week the mission president raised the bar for how much we should be contacting, teaching, and things like that.  It's been a bit of a race, but I like it.  It's helping me focus on the last week of the transfer.  Our zone leaders know everything about where we'll all end up, and they've been hinting that I’m gonna leave and that my companion is going to stay.  He's been there for 4 transfers already so I don't know how happy he'll be if he stays.  But I’m excited at the thought of another transfer. I think being with a new companion and a new area would help me with understanding how a mission works.

The branch President here showed me some church music that I think that dad would really like.  The first is a Mormon band named 'Afterglow' or 'After Glow'.  Anyways, from the small part I heard he sounds a lot like Josh Groban.  The second is more of a musical called 'The Garden' by Michael Mclean.  It uses an analogy of a garden to describe the more or less the plan of salvation.  It's cool.

I completely forgot that last 4th of July was a holiday, so I didn’t celebrate it.  I finished the last box of Reese’s Puffs; I forgot how good they are.   I want more, there are people here asking for more peanut butter as well, but I think I’ll be transferred before any more boxes arrive. 

Tell the family, i.e. Chris, Marc, Cassandra, and Annie to throw me an email when they get the chance (Annie wrote me recently, but she can write me again if she wants).  I miss the "Fam"!

I really like studying the atonement.  The fact that no one can truly understand the atonement is great because it means that there is a lot more to study!  I really like Talmage's "Jesus the Christ" because it helps me to do just that, and learn more about the Atonement and the Savior in general.

Anyways I should get going soon and I have to write Johnny still.  He's having a ton of success there in Cambodia.  It's cool to hear his stories.

Miss you and Love you all!

Elder Williams

Hey Whatsup Fam,                                                                                          June 29, 2011

Another week!  It's crazy how quick the mission passes, it feels like I just said goodbye to you guys.  Anyways, I think you guys learned your lesson about going out having fun without me.  It didn't sound like fun throwing up in Disneyland!  I know that if I were there I would have spiced things up a bit.  This past week has been a slight test of patience.  I think that the Lord is currently preparing other people than who we are contracting, so these past two weeks have been pretty slow and without too many lessons. 

You'd be surprised how much drama goes on in the mission.  Our zone leaders are being ridiculous about numbers and how we spend our P-Days.  Sometimes they forget that we're here to represent Christ for ALL people.  Never-the-less, it gives me another reminder that I also need to be developing the attributes of Christ through patience.

I found the name of that talk I was looking for the other day.  The name of the talk is "For What Purpose" by Alvin R. Dyers, If you could send me it that would be great.  The other day we contacted a guy that knew a lot about the church, except for the part about blacks (he was black).  He compared himself to the Lamanites and Nephites and said that if he was baptized his skin would be washed and he would be white…  Pretty interesting stuff.

Anyways, I'm sending a ton of pictures this time.  It's about two weeks worth of stuff.  The picture of my bed is especially good, not because it's made, but because I received my first mission blanket.  It's super comfortable.  When I received it there was a ton of rat poop all over it, so I had to wash it a ton, but it's all good now, with only a slight smell of rat.

I've started writing Kyle Wagner on his mission, it seems he's doing good, it's crazy that it's already been 19 months since I picked him up at the Salt Lake airport. 

I love you guys, keep up the prayers and if you have time every night add some scripture reading.  I read somewhere last week that family reading of the scriptures has blessings that have eternal consequences.  Good luck with the remodeling without me!

Elder Periquito Williams

P.S.  Next time that you send me a package, probably for my birthday, can you send me those white tennis shoes that I didn’t bring?  Thanks for the cereal, it's been a lifesaver.

A note from a member

telling me that my family is like her family and you can come and stay anytime!

The beautiful Brazillian countryside!

The rats loved my new Mission Blanket!

Another Great Day in the Field!

Hey family,                                                                                                                  July 25 2011

Thanks for writing on my pakage 'Alimentos Missionária'... the thing is, you called me a female missionary (missionáriO not missionáriA).  I have a feeling that Jon told you to write that.  But my companion Elder Almeida say's "muito obigado" for sending him the sport shorts.  It's awesome that Malia and Amalie are doing soccer.  Tell them that it's one of the top three best sports to play and that i'll teach them all my Brasilian tricks when i get home.  

Something funny happened the other day.  I was walking down the street and this random guy came up to me wearing an American Marines hat and started speaking to me in english "all Americans must die, all Americans must die".  Then continued saying how he is going to kill every American someday.  Then muttered stuff in Arabaic.  It was a good one.  I’ve seen him before so next time I see him and he starts muttering to me I'll tell him I'm from Germany.  It's strange, people here can't recognize where I’m from and guess that I'm either from the States or Germany, and one lady thought I was from Argentina.  On another note, we hitch-hiked the other day and this guy picked us up just so he could talk to me about how corrupt the American government is, which is in part true, but the stuff he was saying was funny.  He was saying how Bush made up Bin Laden, that he's not even a real person or a terrorist.  How Bush allowed other terrorists to blow up the twin towers so that he could receive money.  It was a good conversation.  Speaking of hitch-hiking though, our second to last hitch hike was great.  He ended being a man that lived in our area so we contacted him the other day and he's totally into being baptized.  He told us that he told his wife this, who is evangelist, and she then asked if he was going to become a Mormon.  And his response was, 'well if God wants me to do it, then I will'.  So yeah he's way good.  It's crazy how the Lord puts people like this in our path and how He prepared the heart of Raphael to accept giving us a hitch-hike.

Monday was awesome!  My companion had a meeting as a district leader so we had a division and I was with this other new guy who started his mission 4 weeks ago.  Being new and not really knowing the ropes yet he forgot to grab the key into his house.  So we were locked out and needed to go in to study and prepare for our day.  So I scaled the house of the second floor about 20 feet high and entered the deck that they have to break in.  I felt like Matt Damon, it was awesome.  It reminded me of England when I broke into a room on the third floor of a hotel.  It's crazy how much I seem to eat here.  I'm eating more than I ever have in my life, including Italy.  I eat about 4 plates of food for lunch and have the equivalent of about a pizza and whatever else I can find during the day.  Yesterday I had another division with the zone leaders and it was great until about 9 at night. One of the kids here borrowed our keys to get inside the church to open it up for soccer that night.  They got too into the game of soccer that the forgot where they placed the keys, so we spent the next hour looking in vain for our keys, we think someone stole them, but we returned at 10 at night.  (Luckily it wasn’t in my area so the keys weren’t my responsibility!)

I developed a new nickname during the transfer as periquito (parakeet).  Because I told them my full name and Peter Keith Williams and the beginning of this part 'Peter Keith W' sounds like it.  I feel pretty cool. Anyways congrats on getting the address of Graham! I hope all goes well with him.  Anyways I've got to go.  Tell dad Happy Late Father's Day!! I wish I could've been there to smash cake in his face.  Also that he's the best dad ever!  Aright I’m out of time

Love you guys!!

Elder Williams

I Got My Package and would love More Cookies!

Hey family,                                                                              June 15, 2011

Thanks for still praying for me, it's good to know.  This week has been a little bit crazy this side of the mission.  It sounds like things are sort of a race there as well.  Anyways, I think I’m learning a little bit more each day about the mission life.  I’m truly learning the importance of members.  I've always known that members are the best way to have success but I’ve never actually experienced it.  Here in my area of Guanabara I’m experiencing the negative effects of lazy members.  Our branch is fairly receptive and accepting of all the investigators that come but the young men and woman in the ward are quite the opposite, due to a lack of discipline.  We had an investigator come to church with us this last Sunday and he had to sit with us throughout all the classes because none of the young men in the ward wanted to meet him or talk to him.  So now we have an investigator that's questioning his testimony a bit.  But I suppose that this is all in the Lord's plan otherwise he wouldn’t have placed us in his path.  But it really showed me how members are necessary to help during church itself and splits and references and the like.  I feel definitely determined to help out more than I did before the mission when I get back home. 

As far as the language goes, I feel like I’m at another stand-still.  This, I’ve come to realize, is normal for me.  I struggle with Portuguese for a week and then the next I feel very comfortable.  Sometimes I struggle with with it for longer, which is the case of right now, but I’m not too worried about it.  I feel like I can teach which is really all that's important.  It's still almost impossible to socialize though, which makes it difficult in a social sense, plus the fact that the humor here is different, But on a lighter note, I’m getting along better with my companion than ever before due to the fact that I can understand him better, I just can't speak very well, but this will come with practice, and it's my goal to be able to be somewhat more comfortable at speaking by the end of this transfer.

So the other day was really cold, there was a ton of fog and it felt like it was an Oregon November.  Anyways, I busted out one of those vests I have... It's the most hairy thing I've ever worn.  It got my shirt all hairy.  So I decided to wash it to try and get the hair washed off.  The only problem was that I washed it with all my other white shirts, so all my shirts are hairy now.  Which makes me think that there’s another way that I should wash cashmere?

An elder picked up the package for me.  So I got a ton of good stuff!  Thanks by the way!  It's a good thing you sent chips as well because they don't sell tortilla chips here, and I would have had to use Lays potato chips.  While I’ve been here, I’ve really wanting cookies.  Can you send some recipes of chocolate chip, sugar, and any other “easy to make” cookies?

One thing I don't have that I want is a list of birthdays, mainly just family.  Also can you send me the address of the Wagners?

My companion was sick last Sunday (I swear that it's Satan that does it, because every Sunday one of us gets really sick for just that day, almost as though he wants us to feel too sick to go to pick up our investigators for church--of course we're never that sick though).  Anyways, I started reading 'Jesus the Christ' thoroughly.  It's an awesome book.  If anyone hasn't read it, they should.  It's hard for me to read because the apostle uses all the big words that I had to forget trying to learn Portuguese, but he gives a great account of the life of the savior and everything in-between.

I found my electrical razor the other day, the problem is I don't have my charger for it, so I’m going to keep it until I head home and maybe I can find another charger and save me 60 bucks.  Also I found my old journal, shampoo and my broken alarm clock!  It was all stuffed in one of the pockets that didn't get torn off from the plane ride.  It was definitely a tender mercy because that day was pretty tough.

Anyways, the church is true.  I love you all!  Good luck with the remodeling.

Love Elder Williams