Being "Senior" Is Hard...But Worth It!

Hey family,                                                                                                         Sept  14, 2011

It's cool to see that Keenan is coming into the field soon.  Pretty soon I can write letters to him in this language (which he won't be able to understand for 7 more months!).  Anyways, “Costa E. Silva” is going good.  I'm learning a lot here, being senior is tough.  I've never been so stressed in my life until now, but I can also see the blessings of the Lord more easily.  Sometimes I wait for my companion to do something or to call a shot, then I realize that it's really actually my responsibility... strange.  I’m still not use to it, but it's cool.  Luckily Elder Madeira's humble enough to patiently wait while I think and figure out plans. 

Yesterday we were walking on the street and we found this 70 year old man chopping down this stump of a tree. He had about 11 blisters on his hands so we offered to help him out.  The guy started at 9 in the morning and was going at it when we found him at 4 in the afternoon.  It was a lot of work and we didn’t finish.  I got like 7 new blisters on my left hand now;  It's awesome!  It reminded me of the church farm where I worked digging holes for 8 hours straight!  Anyway, we got some good compassionate service in.

I completely forgot that it was 9/11 Sunday.  It's stupid almost every Brazilian here thinks that our government paid the terrorists to knock down the towers!  They hear propaganda and believe it to be true.  Anyway, I forgot to mention that last week (7/9) was basically the 4th of July for Brazil here.  So it was really hard to find a place that was open to use the internet.  A lot of Elders here didn’t use the internet that day because they couldn’t find a place open. 

I like the new razor and food!  The backpack is good too.  I finished one box of cereal already and am halfway through another.  I think I’m gaining a lot of weight again.  And the vitamins are giving me lots of gas.  So I’m nice and healthy now.  The rash is still here, though.   I’m using a little bit of cream and I'll try using more.  Lots of times I forget to use it.

The house is looking good!  I can't wait to use the new TV downstairs.  The carpet's looking comfy also.

Anyways, thanks for the prayers, I love you!

Elder Williams

I Got My Birthday Package...Very Early!

Hey Mom and family,                                                                                                     Sept. 7, 2011

Thanks for the email and package!  It arrived already, it was crazy fast.  Last package took about a month, but this about 2 weeks.  So I celebrated my birthday early yesterday.  Thanks for the razor and food.  The backpack and shoes were good also.  I’m sending some pictures also of a desert my companion made and my new hairstyle.  É chique.  Anyways, how’s the renovation coming?  It seems like things get complicated each day, it's too bad I can’t help.  Things here are good.  I’m learning a ton as a Senior.  There are some nights that I’m soo tired that I can't remember some things I’m doing very clearly.  But that’s how I know that we had a good day.  There's not a whole lot of walking here which is also good.  I’m trying out different things and ways to work every week to see what’s effective and what is not.  Last week was one of those weeks that were bad for numbers, but we found a lot of people that were ready to be taught.  This week is proving to be good for numbers and is proving to give a lot more people that are ready to be taught.  It's cool to be doing things in my own rhythm and to do things in the ways that I feel is more appropriate.  The new president here is cool; he's got a lot of experience.  But keep President and Sister Tanner in your prayers also so that they can become better in health and head back here soon.  Every missionary in the mission is fasting yesterday and today. 

It's cool that Sam is doing well in Air Force training; just like I taught him J!

The other day we had a history lesson about music here.  There’s this sport/fight called capoieida here that’s like dance fighting.  The music that is used to do this dance turned into a part of religion called macomba.  Basically it is a form of black magic.  Anyway, we met a guy here that creates black magic music.  It's cool to learn about it, but at the same time we have to be careful to not make him made so that he doesn’t send an evil spirit to come and scare us (ha).  I took a picture of a CD that he gave us that has some of his music in it.  So anyways, we have something to listen to at home…

Thanks for the prayers!  I should be going.  Love you!

Elder Williams 

Hey Dad!                                                                                                                                             Sept  7, 2011

Pois é pãe... teu português é bom.  Está praticando?  Tem que praticar para que você pode me entender quando eu volto para casa. Tá?

Yeah,  good luck understanding that one!  You understanding this is about how well I understood what you said in you last email of sportuglish (Portuguese and Spanish).  But yeah the language is good, I’m thinking only in Portuguese now.  I still haven’t had any dreams in Portuguese though.  But maybe it’s because I’m soo tired that I don’t remember any of my dreams.

Thanks for the email.  The pictures you sent of us in Panama were good too.  I’m not too sure what I was doing in some of the pictures; it looks like I was sleeping.  But yeah, I got your other email about the rash.  It's steadily spreading, so I’ll start adding a ton of cream.  I used it once before on something that looking like some sort of a worm that was on my hand and it went away the day afterwards.  The magic cream works wonders.  Anyways, my health is good; I gave the cold I had to my companion so all is well.  I got the package yesterday that mom sent me.  I totally wasn’t expecting the package to arrive so quickly, but I have the vitamins so I should be good now.  As far as energy goes, in this new area I’m totally fine.  In Monte Mor where I was, we walked a lot, but here there is more of a condensed city so things are a lot closer, hence less walking.

It's cool that everyone was there to visit you guys the other day.  It's going to be cool to return home and have everyone living close.

How’s the house coming?  It sounds like you could really use my help.  Too bad... I can't... I’m in Brazil=].

The new area here is great!  I’m learning a ton.  It's crazy how much more I can understand the spirit when I became the Senior.  It's got to be your guys' increase in prayers.  One thing I’m learning is that a lot of what we need to do to have success is to do what feels “right” and what makes logical sense.  Right now I feel like the correct action to take is to do something completely different than what I was trained to do the past 5 months.  But somehow we seem to achieve the numbers needed while helping others come unto Christ in a more efficient way.

I see what you mean about the world going downhill.  I see it every day.  It's a sign to me that every single member needs to not only reinforce their testimonies but they need to fight back as well.  I’m learning about the importance of church callings and how we can use every single calling that we have—whether it’s being a bishop or a part of the church cleaning crew—to have missionary opportunities.

Anyway, all is well here. I got my package of food from mom and luckily nothing was eaten by rats, I just have to hide it all from my companion J!

Alright I love you dad!  Keep up the good work!

Elder Williams

                         Peter reading scriptures

              Peter and his companion

          A Black Magic CD given to Peter and his companion

         Peter's Birthday Cake made by his companion

Being Sick has Hidden Blessings...

FYI to the reader:  Peter's Birthday is October 15.  If you would like to send him something, call me (Kathy) for the information to do so.  It will take 4-6 weeks for him to get a package.

Hey family,                                                                                                                         Aug 31, 2011

(Freak!)  It's strange to think that I probably know by sight the guy that died at the Shell Gas station.       --I wrote Peter and told him that a gas attendee was shot at the Shell gas station across from the old gas station that Peter worked at before his mission.  And that the man with the gun was trying to shoot his girlfriend and missed--        It makes total sense, though, to hear that he was shot by mistake because everyone usually loves the gas pumper.  I never had any fear of working there because of this. 

My Portuguese is coming.  I wouldn't call myself “fluent”, but I’m definitely comfortable to make it through life at this point.  I can now bare testimony with heart and with as much examples as I'd like to use and teach without any problems. 

Being Senior is really difficult, but I like it a lot.  Before I felt like I was constrained to do things that I thought were right because I wasn’t calling the shots.  But now I can do things in my own way, and the way the Lord would have me go through inspiration.  This last week because of the simple principle of organization and planning we had a lot of success.  I learned that being diligent today will prepare a day of success two weeks later.  This is really how the Lord's work, works.  This past week we had a meeting with our new mission president, President Pizzirani.  He's really cool.  He was an area 70, bishop, stake president, and mission president of Brasilia.  So he's got a lot of experience.  He's one of those presidents that has a lot of teaching skills, but also has a lot of christlike attributes.  Anyway, he taught about planning and goal setting.  Goal setting is really the only way to have success in this work, in school, work, and life.  He used a lot of experiences as to how he became a very successful businessman because of goals (he owns 5 planes).  Anyway, pretty cool huh?

This past week I've been pretty dang sick, some sort of flu.  I've got a lot of mucus in the throat and so I've been coughing a ton and it's been hurting a bit.  The problem is that I can't keep my mouth shut as a missionary so it's being really, really slow to heal, and there have been many nights when we return home and I physically can't speak.  The past week I sleep about 5-6 hours per night because of it.  But on the other hand I think that this week has been one of the better weeks I've had.  Not because of numbers but because of the many people that we met that are ready to hear the gospel.  I like to think that the Lord gave me this sickness so that I can show Him my determination to work. And because of this I noticed that my testimony has grown a lot, and when I bare testimony, I can feel the power behind my shaky voice.

It's strange to see Ashlee married.  I never really thought that we had the potential to be married now...strange.  It'll be cool if everyone moves back to Oregon before I return.  Then, when I get back, everyone can come visit my return!  It's cool that Annie’s pregnant again.  If the baby's a boy at the time I return he'll look just like James did when I first left for the mission and I'll be really confused!

Anyway, thank you for the 'ever-prayers'; keep them up!  Good luck with the renovation!

Love you!

Elder Williams

I am Now a Senior Companion!!! (Pray for Me!)

Hey Mom and family,                                                                                     8-23-2011

Sooo, I’ve been made senior companion.  It's a little bit scary because I'm only 5 months into the mission field, but we'll see how it goes.  My companion, Elder Madeira, is really humble and ready to work with me.  He's been here on the mission for only 3 months and so this is still his first area.  So now I’m here in area Costa E Silva, from zone Castelo.  Anyways, I just found out that our mission president is heading back for the states for several months for some medical treatment on his legs.  It looks like we will have a substitute mission president for a while.  Make sure you put President Tanner and his wife in your guys' prayers. 

It's pretty crazy how well the house is looking.  You should just leave the deck as it is.  It'd make things more interesting.  It's crazy also how strong I was in that picture you sent of me wearing some makeup.  I've gotten way fat... I was starting to lose it all but this new area has hardly any walking so I have to stop eating so much.  I also love how you guys decide to buy a wall mounted 55' flat screen TV with cable after I left.  I could have used that TV.  But anyways, I know what you mean about video games "lulling kids into a false sense of well being without any true accomplishment.  Here on the mission I’m learning the importance of time and talents.  While here on the earth we only have a small space of time to develop and perfect the talents that we were given and could be given with effort and work, and I wasted a little bit of those talents playing video games.  Right now I'm learning how to draw in my spare time, and practicing piano when I’m at church waiting for people to show up.  But that doesn't mean that you can throw the video games away, and if you do, you can consider yourself dead =].

Anyway, tell Ashlee congrats for me.  Congrats on the house, it's looking good.  Congrats on your Rameumpton, you guys have a great place now to pray for me.  And thanks for the reference to Amalikiah and Satan, I'll have to use that one.  Love you!

Elder Williams                                   

                                     P-Day and my favorite Soccer Team shirt!

                                  My Comp and a brand new member!

The new member gave us all of his "smokes" and started living the Word of Wisdom!

                       

                                  Another Baptism!

Soon a Senior Companion...lots of pictures!

Hey Mom and family,                                                                                                      8-17-11

Sounds like you guys had a great bike trip!  I bet Marc was mad that he got knocked over; It's rediculous that no one even stopped!  I guess it fulfills the prophecy that men’s hearts will harden and be cold in the last days.  Anyways, that was a lot of biking'.  I liked the pictures.  I’m sending you guys a ton of pictures right now too.  It's crazy that Mitch is already an Elder and that he'll probably be on his mission by the time I get home.  Make sure to tell him for me to not date anyone, boys or girls, it'll only cause trouble!!  And that Bryce is going on his mission already; people need to stop growing up without me.

This week was really good down here in Brazil.  We had one more baptism of a lady (Sebastiana) that took forever, like 8 months, to finally decide to be baptized.  It was a really good baptism with some investigators watching and a lot of members to support her.  It's cool to see how the much my Branch here has improved since I arrived, not due to anything I’ve done, but because it's just changing.  My companion is teaching me a ton about missionary work, this past transfer he's been training me to become a senior companion and I should be made senior this next transfer which is this Tuesday. 

It's cool to hear about the renovation, I think it looks really good, good work.  It's cool to hear also about the prayers for the construction dudes.  That could have been pretty bad to have the carpenter make something to realize that he made it wrong.  Also I could tell that you guys returned home Sunday and that you guys made a really detailed prayer that night.  Monday, I didn’t do anything different but I felt way better, it was a lot easier to love, to speak the language, and to be excited, because the spirit was with me.  Keep it up!

The temple trip was awesome, I started watching it in English but then I realized that I could understand in Portuguese so I took of the headphone and started watching in Portuguese.

I’m excited for the package; I can't wait for more peanut butter and cereal!

Alright, Love you!

Elder Williams

P.S. Here is a letter to Dad:

Happy Brazilian Father's Day!! (it was last Sunday)
Hey dad!
   Thanks for being so conscientious and writing me.  I had to laugh at your mission story, although I bet you didn't think it so funny at the time.  We havent had too big of rainstorms here so I haven't had to practice my swimming skills yet.  I liked your ideas that you guys came up with, next time I get an american companion I'll talk with him about having an American cooking night.  We used to have an English class every week, but no one would show up so we stopped it for a while.  We started it back up last PDay and no one showed up again, so we're shooting for another day this Saturday.
    It was cool to see the pictures of you guys' bike trip.  I have plans to get something like that started when I get home.  Riding bikes is prohibited in areas of this mission, so I'll get a ton of walking, and running in here on the mission.  I think it's prohibited because everyone here walks, it's much easier to contact people on foot, and also because there are a lot of people that like to steal things here.  It is a lot easier to just walk in the long run.
    This area is pretty difficult to get the members to do anything.  We invite tons of members (because they feed us lunch everyday) to share FHE with us, but it always falls through.  And it's hard if not impossible to find investigators here that are free on the same night.
    These past two transfers Ive started giving an increased amount of blessings, it's a really cool experience. 
  Good work on finding the lost teenager on Mt. Mclaughlin.  And in general saving the sick, afflicted, dead, etc.
  It's crazy to think that I'm already 7 months into the mission.  It goes by really quickly.  Im hearing word from the higher ups in the mission that I'm going to be made a Senior Companion next transfer.  We'llsee how it goes, but definately you guys will need to pray for me even harder, cuz im not gonna lie, I'm nervous to be given that much more responsibility.  But it should be good.
Love you dad,
Elder Williams                                                    

                                              View from our stomping grounds!                        

                                              Me and my companion teaching Sebastiana

                                               Sebastiana: the new convert!

                                          
The black dog that broke Sebastiana's shoulder...the neighbors said it was because she joined the church.                                                    

                                             
                                                   Campinas Temple and Companion

                                                     Sebastiana's Baptism

Another Day in Missionary Paradise...

Hey Family,                                                                                                                         8-10-11

Thanks for the recipe!  The pictures are great!  The fireplace looks awesome and Annie’s bathroom looks like it belongs in another house.  Looks like things are going great with the renovations.  Here in Brazil there's a gap between the poor and the rich, it's crazy how obvious it is to.  You can go to a town here and look at one side that has a nice houses and the other that has something less than a shack.  But it's all well.  The food here is good but I’m noticing it's hard to get all the necessary vitamins I need to have the energy needed.  It's kind of hard to get all needed from beans, rice, and beef, hence the gut I was gaining. 

It's really cool to hear about the people that are cleaning up their lives, or changing them.  It's certainly a change of pace from the stuff I’m seeing here.  A lot of people here are falling into old habits of drugs or inactivity.  I see a ton of junk that I'd rather not see, such as accepting the gospel as true but being too prideful to make a change (you'd be surprised how many people say that 'I know your church is true' but I don't want to change religion, life, or follow the commandments).  Then again only as a missionary can I see God's hand in things, for example, me and my companion had a good experience last night.  We visited this member’s house and she was wondering whether her son was at his girlfriend’s house or somewhere else.  It wasn’t that big of a deal, so I didn't think i needed to say anything, but I felt like I should tell her that if he was at his girlfriend's house we would stop by her house and tell her (because we were heading there anyways).  So we went visited the girlfriend and he was there.  On our return we had the opportunity to take a short cut back home or go the long way and tell the member where her son was.  My companion wanted to go home the quick way but I wanted to go tell the member and show off our new dog (we have a dog that follows us everywhere almost every day now, pretty sweet huh?).  So we went to the member and told her and went back on our way.  On that same street there was this 20 year old girl (about the size of Annie) that was walking carrying some bags.  She looked like she needed some help with her bags so we offered to help her out.  She was carrying about 5 bags that were freaking heavy.  Even I had a hard time carrying a couple of bags!!  We found out that she was married but that her man ditched her and her daughter and that she has no family, because some died and others ditched her also.  I don't know how interested she is in hearing about our messages, but it was cool to see how the Lord directs us into helping others out, even if they're not too inclined to hear about his gospel.

Anyways, I went to the temple today with my companion.  The first time in 4 months! It was awesome!! It certainly filled that gap in my heart.  Anyways as a result we're both extremely hungry and still haven’t eaten anything at 4 pm.  So I gotta go. I love you!

Elder Williams

The Lord Can Out-do Satan Anyday!

Hey family,                                                                                                         Aug 3, 2011

So despite how hard I try gaining weight, I can't seem to get it.  My gut is going away, which is fine, I never really liked a big gut.  It's gotta be the 20 minutes of exercise in the morning and all the walking I’m doing during the day.  So no need to worry. 

Anyways, a lot has happened this past week.  Or rather the past 3 weeks that I forgot to mention.  The first Sunday being here me and my companion were being accompanied by this little man that really likes to talk and make fun of me being American, so we decided to ditch him by going down this little street here.  While there on the street I saw a house that I felt we should knock on.  To make a long story short, a really old lady answered and we taught her and she turned out to be extremely prepared by the Lord (she's gonna be baptized this Saturday).  It's cool to see how strong of a testimony she already has about the gospel.  And how she is super firm only through prayer and going to church (because she doesn't know how to read).  Anyways, it was cool to see how the Lord placed that little man in our path to make us annoyed enough to go down another street.  Anyways, it's also cool to see the two forces of God and Satan here.  She really likes church and has a determination to be baptized and tells us every day that she will be baptized.  But on the other hand, her family is going crazy on her.  Her daughter doesn't agree with the church and says that we make everyone pay lots of money to go to church (I don't know where she's getting this, she doesn't attend any churches).  So she denied her own mom to go to another city to pick up a food supply of 2 months (it's like food stamps for old people).  Anyways she had 2 days to get the food, and if she doesn’t pick it up she will lose her spot and never have an opportunity to pick up food ever again.  Anyways, being the heroic missionaries that we are (and through lots of prayer), we found a way to get her there and keep from starving to death.  But yeah, Satan definitely works hard to keep people from doing the right thing.  The good thing is that she is still firm and ready to be baptized, even though she almost went without food and the likely prospect of rejection from her family.

Anyways, how’s the renovation going?  We cleaned our house the other day; it was a pretty big accomplishment. 

In that package you’re gonna send me, can you find me another backpack?  I’m looking for something extremely light, nothing more than a giant pocket with back straps.  I think that the end of August should be enough time to get the package to me.  Also can you email me the recipe for coconut rice?  My companion thinks I’m crazy that I like it, so I gotta make some for him. 

Today is pretty cold, its overcast as well so I think I’m gonna have a great nap for PDay today.

It's good that you started reading PMG, chapter 6 is one of my favorites as well, and I think it was written by Elder Holland if I remember right.  It's key to success as a missionary, and will help any member that wants to be somewhat active in missionary work.

Also tell Austin that I’m not planning on marrying anytime soon but that I’m open to advice when I get home.   

Love you, 

Elder Williams