Ohhhh Texas.

K…so this past week was really great and really, really, frustrating at the same time.  First off, before I share, I just want to reiterate how much I love being a missionary and how much this Gospel and this important work means to me.  Seriously, though, so good and so hard at the same time.  Before I left, I remember asking people what was so difficult about being a missionary and they would tell me that it is physically, emotionally and spiritually draining all at the same time.  I understood what they meant when they said that, but now I REALLY understand.  To start off, I have blisters on my pinky toes.  Both of them!  It's actually pretty funny looking.  I like to think of them as little cushions to make walking... easier. Also, I'm pretty sure I have nerve damage on both of my big toes.  At first I thought it was annoying not to be able to feel anything, but then I realized what a blessing it really is.  The shoes we have to walk in are not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, but because I can't feel anything on my toes, walking in them doesn't hurt me.  Haha, the Lord works in mysterious ways! Also real quick, today I officially upped my running to 4 miles in a half an hour! I'm trying super hard not to be prideful, but considering what a lazy blob I was before I left on the mish, I kind of feel like a boss.  I can't take any credit though. There are seriously some points where I am praying that Heavenly Father will help me keep moving my feet so I won't fall off the treadmill and die, haha.  Anyways, this past week we were able to teach more than we have in the previous weeks and we were able to acquire a couple more investigators and prospective investigators through knocking on doors, and street contacts.  Most of the lessons we were teaching though, were to the members in the two wards that we’re serving in.  When I first found out that tracting in the Woodlands wasn't really allowed, I was kind of bummed because I wanted to go out and teach people about the Gospel.  I wanted to share this wonderful gift with people who had never experienced it before.  But, because tracting isn't really allowed here, we had to work largely through the members.  Turns out this place is ahead of its time.  

I really hope everyone had the opportunity to watch the mission training broadcast called "The Work of Salvation" yesterday.  It was really powerful and, if you didn't get a chance, go to lds.org and give it a watch.  We have been told as a church again and again that there is a better way to do missionary work and it is not through knocking on doors.  It's through the members.  Well the broadcast last night reiterated that same principle, except with more emphasis.  After watching it, I walked away feeling as light as a feather and so inspired and excited to work with the members in our area and go out and find, teach and baptize. We had a lesson with a member family that same night and my comps and I were way excited to relay that message.

Then we were reminded of the state of the Woodlands.  The message that we have been sharing with the members here for the past three weeks is the importance of member missionary work…"The job of a full time missionary is to assist the members in their missionary efforts".   Unfortunately, getting the members here to do missionary work is like pulling teeth.  We walked away from that lesson feeling pretty discouraged. How are we supposed to do God's work in the way he wants us to, if the key element in that plan isn't cooperating?  Well, here's what we decided, we are going to share the message with our family and friends back home and encourage them to do their part.  Please, please, please don't be that family that the missionaries walk away from feeling discouraged because you don't want to do your part. Please invite your friends and neighbors and family over to your home for dinner, at the very least, so they can feel the special spirit that resides there.  Please pray about the people you know that would be ready to meet with the missionaries. You as members are so vitally important to this work.  You are the better way. "Therefore if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work".  In addition to that, we decided to increase our diligence and obedience. We know that when we are exactly obedient and practice faith, the Lord will show forth his miracles.  Like I've said before, I don't think I've ever said so many prayers in my life and cried so often for other people then I have since becoming a missionary.  If I could ask you all a favor, because I truly do believe in the power of prayer, would you all please pray for the members in the Woodlands area that they will be blessed with the courage they need to share the gospel with those they know.  Please pray for them that their hearts will be softened and they will have a desire to do what they need to in order to be part of the Lord's efforts in hastening the work.  I have faith that it will truly make a difference.   Ahhhhhh! I miss you all so much it hurts sometimes, but at the same time I am nowhere near ready to come home.  There is so much work to be done and I feel like my mission is already almost over with how fast it is going by.  I need more time!  I pray for you all and I think about you probably more than I should.  Know that you are loved!  Have a freaking awesome week, and in everything that you do, always remember and strive to become closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.

Peace out girl scout,

-Sister Williams

ps

Our missionary purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end!

Holy Houston it's hot!  For those of you who know me, you know that I really really really really hate to sweat.  The good news is I'm over it, mostly because I don't have a choice, and partly because everybody is sweaty and it's just a fact of life, haha.  But really though, even though we have a car we have been trying to walk everywhere so we save miles. By the time it's bedtime I am exhausted but super content.  Also I have developed a love for running.  I don't know what it is about the mission, but I have started liking things I never did before.  Like running.  We get 30 minutes in the morning to exercise, and unlike my usual reaction to physical activity, I am super stoked to go run in the morning. I've been running 3 miles everyday and I feel great.  Hopefully, this new love will keep me from getting as big as a house while I’m out.  I'm not kidding, I ate waaaaayyyyyy more than any one person should ever eat in one sitting yesterday.  I was praying and making promises out the wazoo if only God would take the discomfort (an understatement) away.  Haha it is just way too hard to say no to that second dessert!   

So the second week in the woodlands brought some pretty cool things with it.  Like I said earlier, we are not allowed to tract in the woodlands because most houses have a no soliciting sign in their windows, and therefore we end up walking around knocking on the few doors that don't say anything.  Most of the time people just politely decline our message and that's fine I guess.  Sometimes they let us say it and then decline hearing more, and sometimes we get doors slammed in our faces.  Super cool.  Anyways, one day we were having a particularly unsuccessful day and even though I was trying super hard not to get discouraged, it was getting to me.  I wasn't angry at God or anyone else, I was getting angry at myself because I felt like I wasn't doing enough.  Like I wasn't trying hard enough to show them how wonderful this Gospel is.  At one point I had had just about enough and I stopped walking and had a talk with my companions about the importance of our message and how we needed to somehow convey that to the people in the woodlands. We all ended up crying in the middle of the street and saying a prayer ( haha, girls) and then we started up again.  We knocked on a few more doors with no success and then this idea came to me, "sing to them".  So that's what we did. Instead of knocking on their doors and introducing ourselves as the sister missionaries who wanted to share a message, we instead knocked on their doors and introduced ourselves as the sister missionaries who were going around singing to people in the neighborhood.  The difference was night and day.  Instead of getting irritated with us and asking us to leave, they would get really excited and call their families to come and listen to "songs about Jesus" and then afterwards they would thank us and take a mormon.org card.  We were so excited.  We had found a way to tract in the woodlands.   

The last house we knocked on that day was a woman named Miriam.  When she opened the door she told us that she didn't have a lot of time but that she would let us sing her a song.  After we sang we gave her a mormon.org card and started to walk away when she said "Oh!  You're Mormon?  I didn't realize!  I know a Mormon." It was awesome. We talked to her a little about what she already knew, what she believed and cleared up a few misconceptions.  She told us that she wanted to go to church on Sunday and when we asked if we could come back and teach her she said yes!  We were seriously on cloud nine after that.  We taught her on Friday, gave her a Book of Mormon, and got a return appointment. We got our first investigator!!! Ahhh, so cool.

Later on that week while we were walking around meeting with less active members, we walked past this house that had a car in the driveway with a door that was left open.  We knocked on the house door to let them know and the owner came out and thanked us for our kindness.  As he started walking back inside we asked if we could sing to him.  He immediately got suspicious.  He asked us what we were selling and we said nothing, we were just missionaries and we would like to sing a religious song to him.  He then promptly informed us that he was atheist and that he had never believed in God and that unless he had hard evidence he never would.  We got to talking about his profession and his beliefs and after a bit he became less defensive and more conversational. He told us that he didn't want to take the discussions but continued to talk to us anyways.  His name is Tom Clayton and he is a radiologist, his wife is a paraplegic, he hasn't believed in God since as long as he could remember and despite what he was saying, you could tell he was sad and lonely and was looking for answers.  After we talked a little while longer I felt like I should ask him again if he would please let us come back and talk about our religion with him.  He said he had a very busy schedule but that he would like us to come back. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon to read, which he said he would, exchanged information and we went on our way.  

Can I just say that missionary work is the coolest.  Maybe it's my lack of faith, but there is just something so surprisingly wonderful about someone actually getting interested enough in what you're saying to let you come into their home and teach them. The Lord really has prepared thousands of people to hear the Gospel, and it is up to us to have enough faith to find them.

Anyways, I'm hot, I'm happy and I'm healthy and I love being a missionary!

See ya soon!

-Sister Williams

 Sister Williams and her district at the MTC

Let me just start by saying I LOVE TEXAS.  K, but really though, I love it…I love it so stinking much.     I stepped off of the plane in Dallas for our 3 hour layover and not only was I enveloped in a warm embrace from the humidity,  but I was also filled with this overwhelming love for Texas and the people there... and that was only in Dallas!  I wasn't even in Houston yet!  So yay, there's that.  Saying goodbye to my district was super sad because I love those girls with all my heart, but getting to meet my new companion and be sent off to my new area was sooo exciting.  My companion's name is Sister Zamacona, and she is awesome.   She's been out for 14 months and is so cute and small and way fun to be around.  She is from St. George, Utah, and we get along so well. Our apartment is way cool as well.  So nice.  I thought as a missionary I would get put in little dinky apartments, and I will, but in my first area that is not the case.

So a sad thing that happened was that my MTC companion had a cut on her foot that got infected so badly that she had to stay at the MTC while the rest of us flew off to good  ol’ Tejas.  She was so sad and I was so sad and everyone was sad, but we knew that God had a plan and that everything would turn out all right. So the good news is, she was able to fly in today and guess what?  You’re right!  She is my companion again and we are now a trio as of today.  Crazy, huh?  The Lord works in mysterious ways.  

Anyways, my first few days were  great. The exhaustion was worse, but my excitement kept me energized. The area I'm in is called The Woodlands and it's awesome.  Trees everywhere.  Very wealthy people live in The Woodlands and apparently rich people like to hide their things.  Seriously, though. Because my companion and I are opening up a new sister area, meaning no sisters have been here before, or at least for the past 6 years, we had no idea where anything was.  All of the stores, houses, gas stations, and restaurants (including fast food) are all hidden by trees.  How do you hide an entire Wal-Mart?  Apparently you do it with a bunch of trees.  So it's pretty cool, I guess.  This area is a bit different than any other area.  We are not allowed to tract... at all.   Sister Z and I weren't really sure what to do with that, so we prayed... a lot.  Btdubs, you pray a ton on your mission.  I think I've prayed more times in the past 3 weeks than I have in my entire life.  We pray over EVERYTHING.  I can bear my testimony to you right now that the power of prayer is real.  God not only hears prayers, but he answers them as well.  I promise you.  So anyways the answer we kept receiving is that there is a better way, and I'm here to tell you that the better way is through the members.  Tracting is not the most effective way to bring people to the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and the truthfulness of his Gospel, the members are.  So right now we are working on teaching the members about something called social conversion.  All the members have to do is fellowship nonmembers and exercise charity and share just enough about the Gospel to get people interested about it, then let the missionaries do what they've been called and set apart to do.  As members, knowing what we know, knowing how precious this Gospel is, we have an obligation to our family and friends to share.  Like I said last time, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.  If you love them and view them not as they are but as then can be, you will do all that you can to make sure they make it back to live with their Father in Heaven again.  Perfect love casteth out all fear!

There was this talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland at General Conference this past year,  "The First Great Commandment".   Many of you heard it.  It was the one about the apostle Peter.  If you haven't heard it, I suggest you visit lds.org and look it up.  Good stuff!  Anyways, he gave a similar talk at the MTC a few years ago that one of my teachers showed our class.  The talk is basically the same, but something he added to this one really struck me. When he describes the scene on the beach of Jesus asking Peter if he loved him he added a few powerful words.  After asking, for the third time, "Peter, do you love me?", to which Peter replied , "Thou knowest I love thee",  Elder Holland described Jesus saying, "Than what are you still doing here?  What are doing returning to the same old shore, with the same old nets, on the same old boat?  When I told you to leave your nets it was forever... when I asked you to follow me it was forever, when I called you to be a missionary, it was forever."   Friends and family who have received the gift that is this Gospel, especially those who have had the blessing of serving a mission, now is the time to put away childish things (1Corinthians 13:11).  When God asked you to follow him it was forever.  When he said "feed my sheep" it was forever.  We don't get to be dumb kids anymore without a care in the world, because there is work to be done. Now is the time to prepare to meet God, and because some can't do it on their own, it is our job, knowing what we know, to bring them closer to Christ.

Anyways, I apologize if that was a little intense, but I feel very strongly about it. I love you all and miss you like crazy, and I'll see you soon!

-Sister Williams