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| Elder Alkonis, Ashley and David at her baptism! |
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| Zone conference! |
Hey Y'all!
Our week was good, a couple rough
days of rain, but we survived, and the last few days have been rather pleasant.
Monday, after emailing, we got to play
a few intense games of basketball with President Taylor, as well as the bishop
of one of the wards, and a recent convert that played on the Guatemala national
basketball team. We played 4 on 4, viejitos against jovenes, 5 game series, and
the jovenes one! Mostly because of Elder Truman, who is 6 foot 8 and played
basketball at Snow for a year. But we played 5 close games,and President Taylor
has still got it! He is a lights out shooter. One of the games he ended it by
nailing a 3 right in my face! I was honored. But in the end, they couldn't
keep up, and they might be coming back today for series # 2.
Angelica and DeeAna are doing great.
We had dinner with them twice this week. They are true CONVERTS! DeeAna went
to a different church yesterday with a friend, and she told us that she likes
ours better because it just makes more sense. She's 10 years old! Already
figuring it out.
On Thursday we had a zone meeting, and
Elder Alkonis was asked to give a five minute training. I would like to quote
the opening and closing lines of his training: "So when I do things like this,
I tend to teach false doctrine. So if you hear any of that, don't be afraid to
speak up. However, if you see any spelling errors, you can keep those comments
to yourself." Closed off by saying: "So I believe in this. Doesn't mean I
always do it, but yeah. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." That's Elder
Alkonis for ya! The last half of the zone meeting we talked about the Atonement
and the importance of deepening our understanding and strengthening our
testimonies of the Atonement. In the first chapter of Preach my Gospel, it
reads: "As your
understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the
gospel will increase". That is an interesting concept, and I think too many of
us have a very shallow understanding of the Atonement, and we should all spend
more time studying it. What a blessing it is to have a knowledge of the
Atonement!
Saturday we had a baptism! Ashley is 10 years old
and she is the cutest and sweetest little girl ever! She is super funny too,
and lots of fun to teach. On Monday we witnessed a miracle. The zone leaders
were on their way to Ashley's to do the baptismal interview with her. We showed
up first, and she was asleep. . . this was our biggest fear because she is the
heaviest sleeper ever! One time we watched her grandma try to wake her up for a
half hour and make no progress. It is next to impossible to wake her up! And
her mom didn't even want to try to wake her up because she was sick and didn't
get much sleep the night before. So we were just going to call and ask the zone
leaders to try to come back later at the end of the day, but they insisted on
doing it right then as soon as they showed up. So we started praying that all
would work out. The zone leaders showed up, we went to the door, and to our
pleasant surprise, there she was, wide awake and walking around! She was able
to have her baptismal interview, she passed, and she was baptized Saturday by
her uncle. MIRACLE! There was also another little boy baptized at the same
time, someone that Elder Crockett and Elder McBride have been teaching. The
baptismal service was supposed to start at 4:00. Ashley showed up 15 minutes
early. What a relief that was! But then, her uncle didn't show up until right
at 4:00, the speaker that was supposed to speak about the Holy Ghost didn't show
up until 4:20, and the other boy that got baptized didn't show up until 4:35!
Unreal. I wanted to pull my hair out!!! Nothing ever seems to go smoothly for
baptisms. It is terribly frustrating, but in the end, we are just happy that it
happens. : D
So yeah, President Taylor threw everybody a curve ball
Friday night by announcing that transfer calls would not be made until Monday
night, and that we weren't even going to be told who our new companions would
be, or where we are even going. All they are going to tell us is if we are
leaving or staying, and the new companionships will be announced Tuesday morning
at the chapel in front of everybody! I don't know why it is being done this
way, but it is pretty exciting! But at the same time, I have been dying to know
these last three days! A lot of missionaries are quite upset, because these
complicates things with goodbyes, packing, and finding rides. But President
Taylor is an inspired man. I don't have a big problem with it. I just want to
know! Elder Alkonis and I already have two transfers together, so we are
expecting a call. No idea who is going and who is staying, and I don't want to
make predictions. I'll let you know next week!
-President Taylor said a month or two ago that iPads
will be coming at the beginning of the year. No date yet, and I don't think it
is even a for sure thing. Missionaries in this mission have been expecting
iPads pretty since I got here, so many guesses on when they would be here, and
still nothing. So who knows?! I think the iPad hype has kind of died here.
We'll get them when we get them.
-Every apartment I've been in has had a cd
player.
That's about it for this week. Thanks for
everything! Love you all! Until next week!
Elder Williams
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