It is a LOT of Work....

Hey family!                                                                                         2-15-12

Well this week was very tiring.  We happen to be zone leaders of one of the largest zones, so the areas are super far away.  Yesterday I think we took about 13 buses, and traveled for about a total of 9 hours, what with the waiting for buses and waiting on the buses.  This week we went to our closest districts, next week we'll head over to our other district that’s in a completely different state.  But it's cool, we get to travel brazil.  That's legit that Louis Arne being called to João Pessoa, Brazil Mission!  That was one the missions that baptized the most in brazil!  One of the mission presidents there baptized more than 10,000 people in his three years being there.  So yeah, he's probably going to baptize a ton every single week and end his mission with anything from 200-500 baptisms!.  His mission is actually pretty far away though, I’m in the middle and he's up in the north of Brazil.  That’s a pretty cool idea what the bishop's trying to do in the singles ward about helping everyone that needs it through ward employment!   It should work out pretty well.  Anyways, yeah Brazil has a kind of Valentine’s Day here, they have something called Day of the Boyfriend.  It is similar, but it's a little stronger in the states and it's on the 12th of June or something.  Anyways, I completely forgot about it being Valentine’s Day yesterday anyways.  Love you guys!

Elder Williams

Peter is now a Zone Leader!

Hey family!!                                                                                       2-9-12

Hey so something funny happened.  I’m totally Elder Lucas Rodrigues' companion! Remember that Argentinean that talked with Cassandra, the zone leader that I lived with some transfers ago?  Yeah that’s him.  It's funny because when I started the mission he was there as a junior as well as me and then we've just kind of grown up together.  Now we're both zone leaders and companions in the farthest zone in the mission: “Mogi Mirim”!  I'm pretty nervous to be a newbie zone leader though; I had only one transfer worth of practice as a District Leader. Anyways, I miss my last companion; Elder Merrick was awesome! He taught me something huge about life and success on the mission.  The 2nd most important thing (the first being the spirit) in the work is “unity”.  Obedience, diligence, and anything else doesn’t matter.  If you have unity in the companionship, you will have success.  (Contention is the work of Satan).  With the spirit and unity (faith and love too) we baptized a lot of people in an area that was considered the “black hole” of zero baptisms.  After all, Christ told us to be perfect even as He is perfect.  So if we're going to be perfect one day, that means we're all going to be one, or unified.  Cool huh?

Anyways, yes I got the package a long time ago, I just forgot to tell you =]. 

But yeah, congrats on your new belly button piercing Mom (Metal staple in incision from surgery)!  It's a good thing you got better; It was pretty quick right?  Anyways, all is well.  I’m loving the mission!  Love you all!

Elder Williams

Pray For This Area!

Hey family,                                                                                                         12-1-12

Thanks for the email!  This week was very difficult.  All of the baptisms in our area and (in our zone) fell through due to one thing or another.  We just couldn't get them! 

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you're getting better, mom.  Surgery sucks and then afterwards you have nothing to do while you heal!  It is so boring waiting to feel better!  (And in answer to your question: yes I got an apology from being accused of gossiping when I didn’t last week.)

We're getting to the end of transfers.  The next time I write I could very well be in another area.  To tell you the truth I’m kind of looking forward to it, I want a new change. 

It is pretty weird to hear about all of my friends getting married and having babies!  The fact that Cheyenne is having her second child is so…old!  I haven’t even met the first baby, but apparently that's what missions do.  You go in thinking that it's going to be all the same when you go back.  Strange huh?  It doesn't even feel like I’ve been gone that long! 

 Anyway, the Apostles that visited here were great!  I learned a lot!  One thing that they taught, that I thought was interesting, was that we can see everything in another person’s eyes.  We can identify light or darkness and it helps us find out who's ready to hear the gospel.  It is also something we can do in everyday life to see if someone's lying to you or if someone's confused with mistruths.  It's a cool concept, but it's what the Apostles have mastered.  Elder Ballard also called to repentance a lot of the local people in a special stake conference (the night before he spoke to us).  Basically he told everyone to repent because there were many people in front of him that were viewing pornography (NOT the missionaries, the congregation).  He's got to be SUPER close to the spirit to have seen that!!!

Anyway, it was a cool week but a hard one!  This week we are expecting to have two baptisms lined up (Paulo and Geraldo).  We're going to go eat at their mom's house for lunch today.  (EVERYONE PRAY FOR THEM!)  Love you guys!

Elder Williams

General Authorities this Sunday!

Hey family!                                  1-25-12

Thanks for the letter!  I hope you get better mom.  It shouldn’t hurt too badly.  It's cool to hear about you reading Preach my Gospel.  On the mission it's required that we read it every day.  I’m learning a ton from it still.  I’m learning a ton about understanding and following the spirit.  If we don't follow Him we'll be lost all day and not have any success.  That family turned a little bit soft and Lima's even getting mad at us a little bit.  But there are these two girls that should be baptized this Sunday, you should pray for Zuldy and Layana because Satan's tempting them a lot.  It's ridiculous.  Anyways, the Apostles will be here this Saturday.  Our mission's getting blessed a ton.  This is the third Apostle here in two years.  And usually they stop by your mission once every three years.  Anyways, last Monday was tough.  There's been a lot of gossiping here on the mission.  Anyways, the assistants have been getting some false information as to the sources and they thought that one of them was me.  Anyways the President called me and burnt me for 11 minutes for talking bad about someone I don't know.  Anyways, I was talking with some other people about it and they all called the president to tell him that I never talk bad about anyone.  Anyways, it sucked being burnt.  But he taught me something in the burning.  That gossiping is something that could impede our temple recommend.  Because we're supposed to support our local and general church leaders, and if we gossip and speak badly about them we're not supporting them and thence, we're not worthy for our recommends.  Cool huh?  Anyways, I’m exhausted.  Last week was a crazy run all around.  We were traveling a ton to interview other people.  Our zone used to be one of the worst zones but this transfer it's the zone that's baptizing the most.  It's super cool.  Anyways, I hope you all are good and that mom gets better.  Love you guys!

Elder Williams

General Authorities Coming to Peter's Area!

Hey mom and family!                                             1-18-2012
Thanks for the email!  I'm glad you guys enjoyed your guys' trip!  Last week was crazy, I'm super tired. I did some interviews on a "miracle" baptism for our sisters.  We found a family monday that's going to be baptized next week.  You guys should pray for them, we're gonna do whatever it takes to get them baptized (Lima, Delores, Vitoria, Pryscilla, Ana Carolina[thats one name[).  Anyway, our ward mission leader's awesome; he does a lot for us.  The only problem is that he's worried for the people that we're gonna baptize because he doesnt know if our ward's going to be able to retain them.  To be honest it might be a little bit difficult, but they'll stay firm and help the ward out a lot.  I can't believe mom got sick.  (Hope you get better.)  So next week two apostles are coming here with a seventy! Elder Ballard and Elder Nielson with Elder J. Jensen.  It should be pretty cool.  We took a survey today so that they can know how to help out the mission.  To tell you guys the truth I'm a bit nervous.  I don't know why; I guess it's cuz i've never talked to a general authority before!  Anyways, love you guys!

Elder Williams

Hey Dad!                                                           1-18-2012

Thanks for the email.  Being a DL is fun but tough.  I'm  liking the opportunity every Tuesday to teach in our district meetings.  I’m jealous of your guys'trip to the coast.  I miss the ocean; I think I’m always going to live near the ocean.  Anyways the mission's great; I’m learning a lot and having a good time while doing it.  Lately though, it has been a rather tough area, but the Lord's blessing us a ton.  We're finding much "wheat amongst the tares" here, and hopefully we'll have some more success.  The problem is that the ward is not ready for the people that we're baptizing, so we'll have to care of them and slowly prepare our ward for their baptism.  

I Hope mom gets better...surgery sucks!  Now that the subruban is gone, I guess you'll just have to buy yourself a new car, too bad... (haha!)

Love you dad!

Elder Williams

Pray for Peter...

Hey family!                                                           Jan 10-2012

This week was great!  We baptized the family!  The baptism was great.  It's pretty funny while you guys were all sick I also got pretty bad also.  For the past 2 weeks I've had a lot of the “runs” and whatnot.  It's been pretty hard to leave far away from home to work.  Anyways things have been good here.  Pray for me here that my testimony can be strengthened.  It's harder here than I thought; we don't have anyone to teach because everyone doesn’t want to hear us.  Also we don't have presidencies like EQP, RP, and YM YW.  Our bishop doesn’t even have counselors.  I’m hoping for a change in the ward soon from the stake.  Anyways, our Ward Mission Leader is way good.  He helps us out a ton plan and whatnot.  But yeah, negativity is something that's not allowed on the mission.  Excitement or as translated "being of good cheer" is as my buddy said the third commandment that the savior has given us.  It's said a lot of times in the scriptures.  We need to always be happy, excited, and of good cheer in the gospel.  Being DL is pretty sweet, I love giving the doctrine lessons every meeting we have, the elders and sisters in my district are great!  The mission's awesome!  Love you guys!

Elder Williams

Happy New Year 2012...by burning ties?

Hey family!                                                                  1-3-2012

This week was great.  The new area's tough, the zone in general is widely known as the "black hole".  There are barely any baptisms.  But then I got here and saw that the missionaries just pass by here with this in their mind and get discouraged and lazy so they don't work.  So I think the president put some good missionaries in to get the zone alive again.  For example the week I got here we found a family that's going to be baptized this Sunday (pray for them by the way, Marcelo, Alessandra, and Gabriella).  It's a good faith tester, to see if the missionary’s faith is good enough to work through these difficulties.  At the end of this second week our zone should have about 10 baptisms in total.  So in two weeks we should have 3 more baptisms than the 6 weeks of work last transfer.  The Lord is blessing us a lot here in the zone.  My new district's cool; its two sisters and two elders and us.  The elder's seem to be a little bit unexcited to work though, but it’s cool.  I’m jealous that I couldn’t have been there with the whole family to pass the New Year.  But it's pretty weak that you guys didn’t even wait til midnight.  We didn't want to but we didn’t have a big choice.  About 5 til midnight everyone let off their fireworks, like their big dog fireworks that are outlawed in the states.  Anyways, the fireworks went on for about 15 minutes straight, it was cool to see all the pretty lights and the stars and moon go away what with all the smoke.  In celebration me and Elder Merrick burnt a 2011 calendar and a tie.  I got some videos to show later when we get home also.  It's cool; we just speak English to each other, so I get to practice my English a little bit.  It's cool, he's just like me, except that he played semi-pro soccer and has a lot of money.             Love,  Elder Peter Williams

  Peter and his companion celebrating New Years by burning their old ties!

Peter's OTHER new Companion???