Well, another transfer has come and gone and I'm sitting here with Sister Tau and we are just blown away... Did you catch that? SISTER TAU AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER IN MELBOURNE!!!! Best news of my life. I love my sweet Sister Tau. We are hoping to see some miracles in the form of investigators gaining testimonies and acting on them this transfer. I really can't explain how blessed I have felt since coming to Melbourne. I really have gained such a love for the people here and I'm happy when they make good choices and they are happy, and you better believe I cry when they don't. I love them, and I know that that is a gift from Heavenly Father. Every now and then I get a glimpse of how he feels about one of his children and it is overwhelming.

It's positive in that you want to do everything you can to serve them, but at the same time, it hurts that much more when they don't choose to follow Him. A perfect example of this is the Fields family. We have been teaching the Fields since like my third or fourth day in Melbourne. It wasn't until recently that they actually agreed to actively investigate and find out for themselves if the things we teach them are true. We taught them a few Sundays in a row after that and things were going well, and then we didn't see them for about 2 weeks. Yesterday though, Carlos called and said we could come over at 5 and visit them. We were excited because we were going to teach them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its different components. That lesson is always great, because that's when you get to the part where you are inviting people to repent, or change, and when they actually do it, you can visibly see a light in there countenance. It is so wonderful. So yea, we were stoked. But when we got there, Carlos was acting a little weird. We made small talk and talked about our week and whatnot, and then out of nowhere he just starts in about how he knows that this isn't the true church and he goes on and explains about all of this anti Mormon stuff he found on the internet and how this is why the Mormon church isn't true.

Can I just say how much I hate being told what I believe? If you want to tell me about the things you learned and then ask if these are things we practice, or give us a chance to explain, then that is fine. In fact it is encouraged. But when I tell someone that what they read is not true or something they think we practice is false and they then proceed to tell me that I'm wrong and I should learn more about my religion and ask my "Elders" for the truth like it's some sort of conspiracy, that's when my patience wears thin. Luckily, I have learned enough self-control in these past 10 months to keep me from telling people just what I think of them at moments like that. It was heartbreaking. We have really come to love Carlos and Norma and love visiting them and getting to know their family, and it hurt to hear him say that the only reason we got farther in the lessons than the other elders they knew was because we were more persistent than the Elders... I would just like to say, when you spend hours and days and months of your life studying and praying and pleading with the Lord for someone and their happiness and their trials and their well-being, persistence is a natural result. But that persistence does not stem from wanting to get more members in our church, but it really truly comes from a deep love for these people.

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ has been the single most important blessing in my life and has brought me more joy than anything else in life. I share it because I know that it can do the same for anyone else who is willing enough not to harden their heart and to experiment upon the word (Alma 32). You had better believe that there is no way in Heaven or Earth that I would be out here in Texas of all places in either the burning heat or freezing rain getting door after door slammed in my face, getting ridiculed and yelled at and having creepy people whistle at me as I bike by in a skirt just to add numbers to the church.

On the other hand, all of that would be worth it, and is worth it, because I have come to understand the worth of souls and that even if through all of this, one person comes to the knowledge of the great plan of happiness our Father in Heaven has for us through the gospel of His son Jesus Christ, and takes the challenge to see if it could bless their lives and they do come to a knowledge that this is in fact the honest to goodness truth, then it was totally worth it. Going even further, even if not one person accepted the message in a year and a half that we are trying to share, it would still be worth it, because I can honestly say that I loved my brothers and sisters enough to give them an opportunity to learn more and I invited them to do so. It really just comes down to love. I love these people. I really do, and I know that what I feel for them is a very small portion of what our Heavenly Father feels for them, seeing as he gave his son to perform an incredible saving act that is incomprehensible to me. I also know that the hurt and disappointment I feel when this glad message is so flippantly rejected is also a small portion of what Heavenly Father feels, and yet he endures, and so will I. 

Anyways after that we rode up to a conference with some of our investigators, put on by a Young Single Adult ward, called "Why I believe", and there were awesome musical numbers and converts who shared their stories, and President Pingree spoke, and it was exactly what I needed. I love this work. It's hard and you cry more for others and yourself than you ever have, but at the same time I have felt more joy than I have ever felt as well. I KNOW this church is true. I know the Savior lives and that he is working right beside us with angels to bring about the salvation of his brothers and sisters. I know the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel and that what one has to do to come to that knowledge is to open it, read it and pray about it, and the Holy Ghost will do the rest. I know that Joseph Smith was an imperfect man who was called as a prophet of god to bring about the restoration of Christ's church here on the Earth. I know that because of Him and His sacrifice I know my Savior and Father in Heaven better than I ever could. I bear witness that these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

-Sister Williams