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| David, Joe and Elder Haskell at Joe's baptism - David's first! |
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| David, Elder Haskell, Elder Malpartida, Elder Munday - the best missionaries, ever! |
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| Joe's baptism and his family, David, Elder Haskell. |
Hi Fam!
All is well here in McKinney! We had a decent week. It was cold and
miserable weather all week, but despite that, I'm happy. Saturday I
had the privilege of going back to Lakewood for the baptism of Joe
Flores. He's 10, son of a long long long time less
active. It felt so good to finally have a baptism! I haven't been
happier in all my mission than I was on Saturday! It was also fun to go
back and see Elder Haskell and Elder Munday.
So we have one solid baptismal date for the 22nd of February for
L.L. He is in his 50's and has come to church 4 times.
Monday was our first lesson with him since I've been here, and we tried
to teach him the Plan of Salvation at a members
house. He might be the hardest person to teach ever. He talks
constantly, telling all these random, irrelevant, pointless stories,
he's cracking jokes when we are trying to be serious and spiritual, and
he just doesn't get it. We ended up teaching the
first two points to the Plan, and then got sidetracked onto his
baptism, and we spent 2 hours trying to explain to him what makes this
upcoming baptism different than his first 3. Ugh. It was exhausting
and frustrating, and I still don't think we got it
through to him. Then he got sick and we couldn't talk to him for the
rest of the week, so we are going to try again this week!
This weekend was Stake Conference. It was really neat! Sadly I
can't remember ever going to Stake Conference back home. I always took
Stake Conference a break! Now I wish I would have gone. The stake
president is President Packard, which is Landon's
uncle. He is a boss! Unfortunately I only got to hear one of his
talks, because during his other one, there was a wild goose hunt for one
of the members of the Spanish branch, a 20 year old boy with down
syndrome named Raul. Apparently he causes lots of
trouble, goes missing a lot, and get the police called on him weekly.
He always calls me "burro" and my companion "policia". Why? I have no
idea. So he went missing during the meeting, and the entire Spanish
branch was looking for him for about an hour.
He was finally found just sitting by himself in the congregation. Ha!
Anyway, President Packard gave an incredible talk on Vision. As
members, missionaries, and member missionaries, we need to have a godly
vision, not a natural vision. In reference to
the Good Samaritan, too many people think "what will happen to me if I
help this man?" rather than "what will happen to this man if I don't
help him?" . The same goes for sharing the Gospel! Rather than
thinking "what will happen to me if I invite this
guy to church, or give this guy a pass along card? Will he be rude?
Will I be embarrassed?", we need to think "what will happen to this man
if I don't give him a chance to hear the joyous message of the Restored
Gospel? Will he just carry on with his miserable
life, waiting for someone to come along and offer him help and give him
hope?" You just never know people's circumstances, their reaction, or
whether or not God has prepared them. We really do need to talk to
everyone! Another powerful moment of the meeting
was when one of the speakers asked all those to stand that were
converts due to an invitation from a member. The number of people that
stood up was incredible! So many members are now members, simply
because someone had the courage to invite. "We make no
apologies in sharing the Gospel!" is what one of the counselors to the
stake president said over an over and over again. It's true! We cannot
be afraid or even hesitant to share what we have!
The big news for the week: we met a man from the Dominican
Republic this week, and he is potentially a really solid investigator.
He is successful, well educated, very family oriented with 5 young kids,
and not too satisfied with the Catholic Church
right now. We didn't get the chance to teach him a lesson, but we did
get to meet his family and his two dogs. He has two grand pyrenees, and
one of them is pregnant! He is very willing and almost insistent that
he gives us one of the puppies. So, in about
3 or 4 months I will be sending a grand puppy Pyrenee home for Toby.
Don't worry, they are great dogs, very gentle and protective, and don't
get too big ; )
-I did receive your package on Wednesday. It got hear quick! I
tried the earplugs one night, but they fall out. I had to put 4 or 5
pairs in through out the night, because I could never find them in my
bed! But a member gave us some nasal strips
that stop snoring pretty good. Elder Malpartida doesn't like to wear
them because he claims they make his nose break out in pimples, but I
tell him he doesn't have a choice. But everything else in the package
was great and exactly what I needed! Thank
you Mommy!
-pizza got here just fine and we very much enjoyed it. Thank you Mommy!
-I think I do remember hearing about Elder Powell's family, either from you or him. What part and when?
-my camera had the lens error, and then Elder Haskell played around
with it and did the same thing you did with it, and it worked for a
while again, but then the lens error came back, I tried playing around
with it, pushing the lens in, and I couldn't
get it. So maybe everyone has the touch but me! So it worked, then
lens error, lens error fixed by Elder Haskell, then lens error unable to
be fixed by Elder Williams, then lens error fixed by mom. So idk. If
you think you fixed it, I'll trust ya. You
make the call.
Love you all! Have a great week and a bonita Valentine's Day!
Elder Williams
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