Week Thirty One - Christmas Caroling and Working Hard!

 
A tree fell down right outside their apartment - trees are weak!


Our helmets were made out of the bottom of plastic milk jugs. clever idea, but I don't think it quite worked.
 
 
 
 

 
Caroling at the Son family's house in Dallas!

Greetings friends and loved ones,

What a wonderful time of year this is!  I always felt I was such a pain going to the mall 
with you this time of year, but I should have known you would miss it!  It's crazy to 
think that Christmas is only 9 days away!  My second big holiday away from home.  
Thanksgiving wasn't too bad, but I have a feeling that Christmas will be a little 
different... I'm still excited though!  I hope you are all enjoying frantically preparing 
for the big day, but remembering the true and spiritual part of Christmas as well.  JOY 
TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME!
I'm terribly sorry to hear about the hospital visits in this past week.  I hope Grandma 
and Blaine are doing better and it will not effect their Christmas spirit!  I will keep 
them both in my prayers, as well as the rest of you so that no one else ends up in the 
hospital any time soon.
This time of year seems like it would be the perfect time to come home from a mission.  
The Book of Mormon, Alma 27 I believe, it talks about the reuniting of the Sons of Mosiah 
and Alma after many years of being on their own separate paths, and how exceedingly 
joyful it was!  I am happy to hear that Tom is catching up with his friends; I can't even 
imagine how great that must be!

My week was mas o menos.  We had some good, and we had some frustrations.  We started 
knocking on Monday an hour before P day officially ended, and we found mucho and taught 
mucho.  It was a great start to the week!  Maybe sacrifice does bring blessings!  So we 
had really good lessons in some categories this week.  We found lots of people that seem 
to have potential.  Elder Haskell and I have been teaching our first lesson differently 
this past week and it seems to be going a lot better.  We taught lots of good, spiritual 
lessons, but it is just too early to tell if these people will progress or not.  It's 
hard to keep hopes high after the million of people I've talked to that have gone 
absolutely no where, but I'm still doing it to the best of my ability!  This week we had 
two different members come out with us on two different nights, we had appointments set 
up, and we didn't teach a single lesson with them!  Nobody was home.  It was embarrassing 
and terribly frustrating.  Luckily, both members had served missions and been in our 
shoes, so they understood.  I guess that is just part of the work.
The ward Christmas party was on Saturday night.  It was exactly like the party our ward 
had last year.  A throw back to Bethlehem.  The Elders were asked to be Roman guards and 
stand at the door and be greeters.  I wasn't as good a Roman as John Farrington, but I 
got the job done.
Sunday night, we went caroling with 8 other missionaries.  We went in the Dallas 1st ward 
area, which is I think one of the richest areas in the country.  It's where Cuban and 
Nowitzki live.  The bishopric of that ward drives a Ferrari, Aston Marton, and the nicest 
Jeep you will ever see.  So that was fun!  A group of Mormon missionaries singing 
Christmas songs is taken a lot better than two Mormon missionaries that want to come in 
to your house and talk about Jesus.  We visited some very wealthy members as well as 
others, and even got some cheesecake and money offered to us!  To say it was a success 
would be an understatement.

-this week I received a package from the Hansgen's and a card from the Watkins, but 
nothing from you.  Elder Haskell's mom sent a package last week too that he has not yet 
received, but hopefully we will get them today.  Thank you Hansgen's and Watkins!
-Jess wants to have us over for dinner on Christmas, so as of right now, the plan is to 
skype there.
-in a closet on our patio there was a box labelled "four foot Christmas tree".  
we took it out the other day, and it is about a foot and a half, and the lights don't 
work.  but it will just have to do I guess!  don't worry about sending us one.
-I don't think this would be a good week for pizza.  maybe hold off on that until 
January!
-Spanish is coming along.  I still run into people that either talk super fast or have a 
funny accent that I can't understand or they just use words I am not familiar with, but 
I'd say I can understand more than I can't.  I'd say I take the lead more in lessons than 
Elder Haskell does, although it is pretty even.  It usually comes pretty easy to me.

So that's my life right now.  Yup.  Love and miss y'all as always.  Talk to you next 
week!

Elder Williams