Week Fifty One - Gladys Knight and Kicked Out of the Gas Station!

Hey Fam,

We had a good, busy week here that just flew by!  I'm not sick anymore.  The weather has been on the verge of almost too hot pretty much all week.  I start sweating just thinking about another summer in Texas!  I'm scared, but I will survive.  Elder Packham and I are getting along just fine, and we worked hard competing in the championship for McKinney Madness all week against las Hermanas in the branch.  Monday we got kicked out of a gas station parking lot for contacting so many people.  Elder Packham and I were quite proud to be able to write that in our journals that night.  The winner gets a trip to the temple, and second place gets to go to Top Golf for an afternoon.  It ended yesterday, but we still haven't heard who won yet.... They might make us wait until interviews on Friday to find out.  I would prefer a trip to the temple, but smacking some golf balls doesn't sound half bad either.  I'll let you know on Mother's day!  Not quite sure what the plan is for skype on Sunday yet.  We had a few members offer to have us over, so it will happen.  Don't worry. 

   The highlight of the week would have to be Saturday night.  I'm sure most people are aware that Gladys Knight is a member of the Church.  Some of you have probably heard about her and her SUV choir that have been touring the country for years.  Well, they came to Dallas this weekend!  And we got to go!!  And it was EPIC!!!  She has been set apart by somebody pretty high up there to be a missionary as she performs and shares her experience and testimony of the Church.  All missionaries and members were encouraged to bring nonmembers and investigators to the event.  Unfortunately, we had a hard time getting Hispanics to come to an English event with Gladys Knight.  "WHO?" was the response of every Hispanic we talked to.  So we took a soon-to-be-future-missionary-member with us. The music was incredible, there was good humor, and super spiritual.  But the most impressive part was her testimony.  Gladys Knight is a truly converted woman with a powerful and undeniable testimony.  She's probably the coolest chick in the church.  She's hilarious!  What she said about the Church was perfect for nonmembers to hear.  She even put a good word in for the missionaries!  She said we are cute, so neat with our white shirts and ties, and that it is nice to see some kids that actually wear their pants up where they are supposed to be.  She let everybody know that knocking doors is dangerous these days, which I don't think a lot of people realize or acknowledge or appreciate.  It was an unforgettable night, and I can only imagine the kind of missionary success that she has brought to the Church.  I have no doubt that their performance is inspired.  The Church is brilliant.  I love Gladys Knight!  

On top of the thrilling performance by Gladys and her choir, I got to see a bunch of my mission buddies!  Every single one of my old companions were there.  The mission is great.

   Other than that, we had a typical week full of hard work.  Not too much success as far as getting people close to baptism, but that will come.

-Yes I knew it was Elder Haskell's birthday.  When I saw him Saturday, he asked me if I knew what Sunday was, and I didn't know, and I didn't remember until he acted super upset that I didn't know.  He is a character.  He is constantly telling people that he would beat me up all the time, even though anybody that looks at the two of us would easily know that it was the other way around.  

-I could use some stamps, but other than that, I haven't thought of anything else and I don't really need anything else.  I am set on pens too.  Just call it good with whatever you've got so far! 

-Nope, never hear from Jess.  I called him when I first got to McKinney, and he said he would come take us to breakfast when he got back in town, but I never heard from him again. 

-We have interviews this Friday with President and I am going to invite him to lunch then!  

-Tom:  I don't think there are any recently returned missionaries that are good at dating, especially those guys that serve in some foreign country.  From what I've heard, those guys come back freaks!  So just give it a little time and go on as many dates as you can!  Oh, and have a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I put a special little something in the mail for you today that you should get soon......

-Dad:  I gave David Mondragon your phone number.  He left for LDS BC on Saturday and is looking for work.  He already has job offers, so you are probably just a last resort.  Just wanted to give you a heads up, and I hope that's okay! 

All is well!  Love and miss everybody!  See you Sunday!  

Elder Williams

Week Fifty - Singing Bruno Mars to the Sisters!

David and 'the most G car you ever did see!'

Elder Packham at the library.

Sister Christopherson and Sister Wyss - David's childhood friend!

Hola!

   I had a good week.  It was kind of tough because I was a little sick and super tired, more than normal.  That made the week seem long, but I survived!  I was probably tired because I was sick, but I've got my fingers crossed for a growth spurt!  

   For McKinney Madness this week, there were a few contacting days, where you just count how many people you try to talk to about the gospel.  We found the best gas station to get a lot of contacts at, where tons of Mexicans go to get there beer.  It is always an interesting experience when we go there, talking with so many people.  People are funny, rude, friendly, miserable, scared of missionaries, and some are just pathetic.  Being a missionary is such an adventure!  

   We had a couple of intense lessons with Wally this week.  He really enjoyed Church, and he got emotional a couple of times in our lessons when he talked about how much he respected the family aspect of our church.  Wally is going through some family problems right now and he just needs the gospel!  He, just like the majority of people we talk to, throws up a red flag every time we mention Joseph Smith.  He just doesn't get it and won't accept it.  But if people don't understand the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet  called of God, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is just like any other church out there with a slice or two of the pizza, started by some random chump who thinks he had it right.  Joseph Smith did not start his own church; rather God called him to restore His Church, His authority, and the fullness of Gospel so that His children could once again enjoy the whole pizza!  I am grateful for the knowledge and testimony that I have of Joseph Smith.  I know that he was no chump but a tool in the Lord's hands to get the Restoration rolling.  And because of him, we can all participate in the Restoration and enjoy the fullness of this precious gospel! 

   I saw Sister Wyss on Tuesday!  The English and Spanish districts in the area have district meetings at the same place and same time.  I only got to say hi and shake her hand real quick because we were in the middle of an activity as she was leaving.  But we normally do emails at the same place, but for some reason they haven't come the last two weeks.  I don't know Sister Christopherson too well, but from the little contact I have had with her, I do know she is super happy and funny and dedicated to the work!  Funny story:  in my last week with Elder Malpartida, before Sister Wyss got here, we were in the car driving to an appointment and I was singing a Bruno Mars song at the top of my lungs.  Then we both heard these little, tiny, high pitched voices yelling "ELDERS!  ELDERRSS!  ELLDEERRRRRSSS!", as if they were coming from sister missionaries shrunken down to ant size in our cup holder.  Turns out that the voices were coming from our phone in the cup holder, and Elder Malpartida had accidentally called Sister Christopherson and her companion, and they heard me sing the whole song!  It was a little embarrassing, but what can you do?  By now I'm guessing Sister Wyss knows about that and they probably laugh about it all the time.  Life goes on. 

-I already bought the shoes

-How much does a GPS cost?

-We helped a member stain his fence this week, but we definitely don't do two hours of service a day.  We do four hours a week, tops.  I definitely wouldn't mind doing more though!  

-Weather has been good.  It's getting hot and I am starting to sweat.  We only had one big storm this week that came through yesterday morning, and then it was 90 for the rest of the day.  I'm scared for summer!  

-Yes my watch dried out and is working fine now. 

Emilee:  I would like to participate in your wedding dress selection.  Fill a brother in with some pics!  As a missionary, the spirit is with me intensely, and I could probably be a huge  help with decisions like this. 

 I think that will do it for this week.  Much love.

Elder Williams

Week Forty Nine - Easter and Staying in McKinney!

David getting a little exercise!

Peach out!  Last night with Elder Malpartida.

The three amigos!  David with Elder Adams and Elder Powell!

David with Elder Malpartida at transfers.

A little door knocking on Easter Sunday in the rain!

Buenos dias mi querido familia y amigos!

   I hope that everybody had a great Easter Sunday yesterday and spent some time thinking about our wonderful Savior.  Dad, it sounds like you were treated quite well this weekend, and I pray that you had the best day of your life yesterday.  Easter Sunday and a birthday in the same day?!  That is almost too much to handle!  I am happy to hear that all is well at home.  

   I had another good week here in McKinney.  Tuesday morning we went to the chapel for transfers.  That is always a fun yet scary experience.  Unfortunately, I did not see Sister Wyss.  I don't know if she had already left the building or was just hiding in the heard of missionaries there.  But I did get to see all my mission buddies, including Elder Adams, who I haven't seen for the last 8 months!  He has been out East for nearly his whole mission, and out East is practically it's own mission.  Elder Powell and Elder Sheffer are now companions, which is funny.  They are going to make a fierce companionship!  I said goodbye to Elder Malpartida and met Elder Packham for the first time.  

   Elder Packham is from Oregon and he is 20 years old.  He started his mission in Garland and was there for three months before coming to McKinney with me.  In high school he played football, wrestled, ran track, and was the valedictorian of his class.  My second valedictorian companion!  He went to BYU Idaho for a year, worked for a little bit, and then came here.  He is a good kid.  Definitely more diligent and responsible than my last companion, and he has some strengths in areas where I have weaknesses, and the same applies for the other way; so I think we will be able to help each other out a lot to be even better missionaries than we already are.  His Spanish has a long way to go.  It feels good being the one with the better Spanish and correcting the other one, but at the same time, it's rough teaching with someone that struggles so much with their Spanish.  He reminds me of my early days in the mission when Spanish seemed impossible to figure out, and let me just say I am soooo glad I am past that point! 

   Well, Monday we discovered the devastating news that Tatiana has returned back to Mexico.  The best investigator of my whole mission just up and walked out of my life with no warning, no phone call, no goodbye, no nothing.  She told us to come over on Monday to teach her English, and she was already gone.  Heartbroken I was.  I called her from her aunts phone to give her a hard time, and she said she is going to try to come back in early June with her kids, so there is still hope!  Hopefully I will still be here by then and she will have a different job and she will be able to come to church and be baptized and sealed to her children in the temple a year later and find a faithful Priesthood holder to marry in the temple and live happily ever after for eternity.  But you never know.  Pero tengo fe!  

   We have made lots of progress in this past week with another family, the Bastidas.  It is a family of a single mother with four children between the ages of 5 and 13.  They are neighbors with the Franco Family, who are probably the coolest members of the branch.  This week we got the Bastidas to eat dinner at the Franco home and develop a friendship, they came to the Primary Easter party on Saturday and met nearly everybody in the branch, we had a good lesson with them, and I beat Mario, the 13 year old, and all his friends in a game of basketball.  Mario likes us and we are becoming good friends.  We even almost got all the kids to come to church on Sunday!  So close, but next week for sure.  

   Wally works on Sundays, so getting him to come to church has not really been an option in his eyes, until yesterday.  He had Easter Sunday off, and he came to the English ward and we sat through a sacrament meeting with him.  He stands out like a sore thumb in the chapel, and I'm quite sure I could smell alcohol on him, but he came to church!  And he enjoyed it!  The third speaker of the meeting was incredible and exactly what Wally needed.  For the first time he admitted that he feels like he is missing something in life and searching to find something to fill it.  He also said he is working on getting a Monday-Friday schedule rather than the Sunday-Thursday schedule that he has now, and when he does, he said he would be more than willing to come again.  Wally is progressing!  He also let each of us pick out a tie to keep from his collection.  Amo corbatas  : D

   Yesterday we knocked on the door of these two super cool brothers, 15 and 18 years of age.  The 15 year old was super nice and surprisingly let us in immediately.  They have good LDS friends, they were open and understanding our message, and I could easily see these two kids being great missionaries.  The lesson was going super well, until.............. their parents got home....  Once their parents came in, their dad said they already have all the information they need, and pretty much told us to wrap it up and get out.  You could tell the brothers were embarrassed and kind of upset with their dad, and they were very apologetic.  It was a tough and awkward situation, but if you think their anti-Mormon dad is going to stop us from talking to them again, you had better guess again.   

   This past week, in preparation for Easter Sunday, I believe all missionaries have been invited to, where possible, share a brief video made by the Church with everybody we possibly can.  It is a video about the Savior called "Because of Him".  I probably watched it over 30 times in 5 days.  It is amazing, and if you haven't seen it yet, WATCH IT!  I can feel the Spirit every time I watch it.  I have seen the Spirit touch those that we have watched it with.  It really inspires me to learn more about the life and Atonement of Jesus Christ, to become more like him, come closer to him, and increase my love and faith in Him.  I am grateful for and have a testimony of my Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and I know that great things are possible "because of Him".  I know that He lives and this is His church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  

-I talked Elder Malpartida into letting me use his GPS until he absolutely needs it back.  His current companion has one, so he doesn't need his right now.  So we can hold off on the GPS for now.  

-I got the Easter package and the Plan of Salvation pieces are PERFECT!  Better than I could have imagined them up myself.  Than you so much, Mom and Em, for the time you put into those.  They will help me out greatly!  I have been enjoying the treats, including the cookies, as well as some delicious english muffins for the last few days.  Thank you Mom and Grandma!  yes, I got the pills, thank you

-Easter Sunday was just like any other day, with the exception of a big lamb dinner with a kind family in the branch. I don't think I like lamb too much.  

In what area is Sister Wyss and who is her companion?  

I think that is it.  That was my week and I am excited for another one to come.  Love and miss you all!

Elder Williams

Week Forty Eight - Transfers, New Companion and Beating the Hermanas!

Dear family and friends,

I had a great week here in McKinney.  We stayed busy, taught a lot of lessons, had investigators at church, and time is flying!   

   Transfer calls were Saturday night.  Elder Malpartida absolutely LOVES McKinney and wants to serve the rest of his mission here.  For weeks, missionaries, members, and I have been giving him a hard time because it only made sense that his time in McKinney would be up at the end of this transfer.  He said he had been praying and fasting for the last three weeks that he would stay in McKinney.  When we received our call, he was devastated to hear that he was being moved to Carrolton.  I am staying in McKinney and my new companion is Elder Packham.  He has about 3 months in the field, and that is all I know about him.  I pick him up tomorrow morning and I am stoked!  I love Elder Malpartida, but he is a real handful.  I am most excited about staying in McKinney.  I figured I would, but it was a relief when we finally got that call.  Many missionaries that serve in McKinney early on in their mission often request to end their mission here because it is so great, and it has happened more than once.  I love McKinney!  My address will stay the same for at least the next 6 weeks.

   We went undefeated in McKinney Madness this week, and we now have the best record in the zone!  When we were against the Hermanas this week, the competition for the day was to see who could teach the most of the 42 concepts in Preach My Gospel.  As missionaries, there is a total of 42 concepts we teach; everything from the Restoration to the Law of Chastity.  I felt confident that we could beat the Hermanas by teaching 30 or so concepts, but Elder Malpartida was determined to teach all 42.  It was 8:45 in the evening when we still had to teach 9 concepts:  All of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Fasting, Tithing, and the dreaded law of Chastity.  With 15 minutes of the day left, we had nobody to teach.  So we found a 14 year old kid sitting on some stairs that was waiting for his friends to pick him up.  We quickly taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then my companion asked him if he had ever heard of Tithing.  He hadn't, so we taught him Tithing.  Then my companion asked him if he had ever heard of Fasting.  He hadn't, so we taught him Fasting.  Then my companion asked him if he had ever heard the word Chastity.  He hadn't, and Elder Malpartida just looked at me like he expected me to teach the whole thing, but instead I made him teach the whole thing.  I felt bad for the kid, he was probably super weirded out, but he offered us a bottle of water, he told us we could come back, and we taught all 42 concepts!  We beat the Hermanas with ease.  It was a fun day!

   We taught Tatiana the Plan of Salvation this week and it went really well.  We invited her to be baptized, and she said she had to study more.  She is very intellectual, and she wants to be 100% sure about what she is doing; so she will probably take a little more time than we were hoping for, but I have no doubts that she will one day be baptized.  During the lesson, she started asking us about commandments.  The three main commandments we teach are Tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity; and we have a pamphlet for each of those three.  So  before we left Tatiana's, I pulled out those three pamphlets, leaned over to Elder Malpartida, and asked him which one we should give her as her homework assignment.  She ripped all three out of my hand and told us she would choose which one she would read, and then decided she would read all three!  Plus a chapter in the Book of Mormon!  She just keeps getting better and better.  If only she could come to church!  Tatiana will soon be a faithful daughter in the kingdom.  

   

-I did not receive anything from Tricia during Christmas time.

-I will probably see Rachel tomorrow at transfers!

I think that's about it.  All is well here in McKinney.  I am happy.  The work is going fairly well.  I pray that y'all will have the best week of your life, and enjoy your Easter weekend.  

Dad, HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Sunday!  Love you all!

Elder Williams

Week Forty Seven - "McKinney Madness"!

Buenos dias!

   Tom went on a date?!  Em set a date?!!  Y'all are still making bowls and plates?!!!  Dad's already fixed the fence?!!  Mom watched conference?!  Gosh I've got a great family : ) 

   Everything is just great here in McKinney.  We had a good, productive week topped off with 10 joyous hours of General Conference.  I am very happy to y'all watched and enjoyed as well.  I feel bad for those people that miss out on Conference.  Those men really did reveal to us the secrets of God!  Conference Sunday evening is always a sad time.  You look forward to Conference for so long, and then it finally comes, and it is gone before you know it!  I couldn't get enough of that stuff!  But I do look forward to being able to read and study and apply the words that will soon come in the Church magazines.  Thank you, Mom, for accepting and acting on my invitation and listening to Conference. 

   McKinney did in fact get hit by some crazy weather this week.  The worst of it hit the surrounding cities, but there was tornado warning alarms going off, as well as marble sized hail.  It was insane!  I had never seen anything like it!  It was fun, but my watch got wet and now only works off and on.  Are watches fixable from water damage?

   Tatiana, our golden investigator, amazed us once again this week.  We asked her to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon before we came back again.  When we came back, she had read the chapter three times and marked up nearly the entire chapter with a highlighter.  She came prepared with questions.  When we asked her if it would be too much for her to read two chapters in the Book of Mormon as well as a pamphlet before we came back again, she answered with a "claro que no!" (of course not!)  She is eager to learn and already believes the Book of Mormon is true!  There are only two problems: she works on Sundays, and because she is here with a visa and speaks no English, her options are very limited on where she can work.  She also returns home to Mexico in about a month.  I don't know how we are going to do it, but we are praying for a miracle!

   For the month of April, our zone is competing in what we call "McKinney Madness", where everyday of the month we are competing against someone else in the zone for the most contacts, most lessons, most service hours, or some other aspect of the work.  At the end of the month, we are seeded in a bracket according to our month long season record, and the winner gets a trip to the temple.  That probably doesn't make much sense, but it is lots of fun and gets everybody's competitive juices flowing.  The other day we competed against the Hermanas in our branch for "Line in the Water Time", which is the amount of hours you spend in the day outside, being a real missionary, doing missionary things like teaching, knocking, contacting, and serving.  You do not get line in the water time for studies, eating, time spent with members, or any other activities that take away from the productivity of the work.  Well, as always, the hermanas are good missionaries that always win stuff like this and seem to have better numbers than us.  So we were determined to beat them, and we knew that they were going to do their best to keep there line in the water as much of the day as possible to beat us.  At the end of the day, we had our line in the water for 12 hours.  I think a typical day in our mission is 7 or 8.  The hermanas had 10.5 hours.  However, we did not report our time at the end of the day to the Zone Leaders before they sent out the text message to announce the winners.  So the text message said that they won.  So we immediately called the zone leaders to clear that up, and they said good job, you outworked the hermanas.  So we took that as a win!  This morning, we received a text message from the zone leaders with the standings after week 1, and the hermanas were in first place with an undefeated record!  And we had one more loss than we should have!  "Bologna!" was the first thing that came to my mind.  We called the zone leaders to correct their mistake, and they said they gave the win to the hermanas because we didn't report numbers on time.  So Elder Malpartida and I are quite upset right now.  We play the hermanas twice more this month, and we are determined not only to beat them but CRUSH them!  We are trying to think of ways to sabotage them and keep them from doing missionary work.  Alright, maybe we wouldn't go that far, because that wouldn't be too Christlike.  But!  WE. WILL. BEAT. THE HERMANAS OF THE MCKINNEY 6 SPANISH BRANCH. 

I don't know how much of that made sense, but I explained it as best I could.         

-Don't worry about the toys.  I think we will be able to find enough at dollar stores when we need them.  Thanks for checking though.

-No packages or mail yet.  Elder Haskell told me I got a package back in Lakewood a while back from the Hintons I believe?  It was in the post office in Dallas, he asked them to forward it, and I never got it.  He went back to the post office to see if it was still their, and it wasn't it.  Just thought I would let ya know.  I don't know what can be done about that though. 

-We watched conference at the stake center.  Usually it's just missionaries in the church buildings for Conference, so I am guessing most members have the BYU channel or just watch it online.

-We did hear about President Durrant's new assignment.  He sent a text to everyone right before the Saturday afternoon session, telling us to pay special attention to the releasings and callings.  Nobody knew why, but we figured something important was going to happen!  So that is very exciting, and now I definitely have to go to lunch with him!  We have interviews coming up soon, so I was already planning on inviting him to lunch then. 

-All of my attire is holding up just fine.  I am determined to go my whole mission with only what I have now.  Members have been kind enough to sew shirts and pants for me when necessary, but that hasn't been too often.  All is well! 

That's all for this week.  Thank you for your help with the plan of salvation project.  I am excited to see how it turns out! 

Love and miss y'all.  Have a great week! 

Elder Williams

  

  

Week Forty Six - A New Car and a Homecoming!

The new Corolla!

My dear and precious family and friends,

I miss you!  I am so grateful for the love and support and prayers I receive from you all.  I could not do this without you!  A picture of Toby was exactly what I needed this morning.  Did you take a picture of the fallen tree?  That is loco!  Must have been a vicious storm. 

I had a very good week.  I got my first sunburn of the year!  We had a really cool storm the other night.  The lightning was lighting up the sky almost constantly with all of its flashes!  I had never seen anything quite like it.  I had wild hog for dinner one night.  We got a new car!  The Malibu reached it's mile limit, so the Church is going to sell it and they gave us a brand spankin' new 2014 Toyata Corolla.  I love the smell of a new car.  It's probably the nicest vehicle I have ever driven.  Maybe.  I mean, it's just a Corolla, but it is so new and runs so smoothly and even has a  back up camera!  I am too spoiled. 

   We went to the homecoming party for David Mondragon on Tuesday.  It was lots of fun!  It didn't make me trunky one bit!  He is a super nice kid, served a diligent mission, and is converted to the restored gospel.  It is neat to see the difference between him and his brother.  His brother is a year or two younger than him.  I don't know him too well, but he seems to be quite the punk, has a trashy girlfriend, he's a grouch, and wastes his time catching and torturing squirrels and rabbits.  Because I had never met David, I just imagined him to be like his brother, not a very focused missionary, and serving for the wrong reasons.  Boy was I wrong!  David is mature beyond his age, happy, kind and genuine, focused on the important things in life, and just has his purpose figured out.  Missions really can turn boys to MEN.  Many of his family members said they would consider joining the Church more seriously once he got home, so we are hoping he can help get them to the waters.  We are excited to work with him!

   We helped a random family move the other night.  It was late and dark, and they seemed to be in a rush.  They said they were moving to start over.  There plan was to just head South, not knowing where they are going to live yet, or how they are going to find work.  Gutsy!  They were obviously stressed and greatly appreciated our help.  We offered to say a prayer with them before we left.  The parents started crying during the prayer.  They expressed extreme gratitude.  We gave them our number and let them know how the Church can help them.  I will never see them again, but who knows where that can go.  Serving feels good. 

   One of our investigators right now is Tatiana Fierro.  She is in her late 20's, and living with her aunt, who is a member of the Church.  She is probably my most favorite investigator ever.  After coming to Church once, she told her aunt she would have to be an idiot to not be a Mormon.  She is always happy and laughing, very straight forward, enjoyable to be around, and best of all, she is smart.  She gets it.  We ask her the same questions we ask everybody that nobody ever gets, and she answers them with ease in a way as if she was telling us "pfff...that was a stupid question".  She reads and understands the Book of Mormon.  We never find people like that!  We have only had two lessons with her so far, because she works a lot, but she is getting great member support and progressing well.  I love it!

   Another one of our investigators right now is Elizabeth Gallegos, as well as her husband.  They are coming along well too.  They do their homework assignments that we leave them, and they enjoy having us over.  Elizabeth and her seven year-old son came to church yesterday for the first time, and they liked it!  The third hour lesson was about pornography, which isn't necessarily the best first time church lesson, and that worried me a little bit.  But she has young kids, so hopefully she found it helpful!  When she introduced herself to everyone, she expressed desires to come back, be accepted, and receive help in growing her faith.  BooYa! 

   We explained to Wally what General Conference was this week, and his response was:  "okay, so it's pretty much like the Super Bowl for Mormons?"  Exactly!  But Conference is even better than the super bowl!  And we get it not once but TWICE a year!  We then watched one of President Uchtdorf's talks from last conference with him.  Wally thought he looked like an ESPN sports broadcaster, but he enjoyed it and agreed with everything he said.  We haven't handed Wally over to the English elders yet, but we are hoping to introduce them to each other sometime this week, and we can all watch a session of Conference together. 

   I have never been more excited for General Conference in all my life.  For me, it has gone from 8 hours of sleeping on the couch to the highlight of the month!  I hope everyone will take advantage of the Mormon Super Bowl this coming weekend, and we can all have an uplifting, inspiring, edifying experience.  That we can be sensitive to the Spirit, hear what we need to hear, and have our testimonies strengthened by the words of prophets and apostles of God! 

Mother, I would like to lovingly invite you to watch at least one session of conference with your husband, and pray before that you will be able to hear something that you need to hear.  I promise that if you do so, you will gain something from it and not regret it.  Emilee, you are not off the hook.  I extend the same invitation to you.  Love you both!

-David only went to Houston I am guessing because of citizenship issues, or he is not yet legal.  It is common.  We have lots of Hispanic missionaries in our mission that lived in Houston or another part of Texas before coming here.

-Lately I have just been eating cereal.  Every once in a while, Elder Malpartida will cook up enough eggs and hot dog to share, but it's mostly cereal. 

-The stinky oils seem to be doing something.  It is not gone yet, but it is looking better.

Adios! 

Elder Williams       
  

Week Forty Five - "You Got Twenty Minutes, Tell Me Something Uplifting."

 

Jackie and David fighting over a scooter!

The fence....before they built it.

 

Hey Fam,

   I had a very good week.  The weather was nice, we worked hard, no problems, and being a missionary is just starting to become rather pleasant.  It gets easier and easier all the time.  I feel like I am almost 100% adjusted, and this is just life now.  Time is going by crazy fast, and I spend less and less time thinking about time and home; and more and more time thinking about investigators and the work.  While I am still hungry for baptisms and success, I feel content with the missionary lifestyle.  It's amazing what time and persistence can do.  

   So our week was pretty typical, with the exception of food.  I told you last Monday that we were going to eat buffalo for lunch.  The members that cooked it talked it up a lot, but really it was far from anything special.  We were also fed cow tongue one night for the first time in my mission.  It was cut up into bite size pieces, and you could see the taste buds on it, and I'm quite sure I got the very tip of the tongue!  It wasn't bad, if you put lots of salsa on it; but the salsa they had was super spicy, so I couldn't handle much.  I think they were going to try to feed it to us without telling us what it was, but somebody asked, and the cat was out of the bag!  It would have been easier to eat if I didn't what it was, but I survived.  I was also fed some of the best homemade cheesecake ever.  TWICE!  We made it so obvious that we liked it so much, that they made another one later in the week and invited us over to come eat it.  They call it "WOAH" because that is what people usually say after their first bite.  Sometimes I feel like food takes up a bigger portion of my mission than it should, but missionaries love food!  And the members in this particular area love feeding us!  It is rare if we don't eat at members houses five times a week; and they would feed us seven times a week if they could!

   I believe I already told you that the same nonmember feeds us every Tuesday night, and she has a son named David that has been serving in the Houston mission.  Well he comes home tomorrow, so last Tuesday she asked us to help her make some "WELCOME HOME DAVID!" signs.  It kind of brought on a mixture of feelings, and she wants us to be at his welcome home party on Wednesday.  That's going to be weird!  

   We had a specialized training on Wednesday, where all the Spanish missionaries in the mission got together.  It was fun to see all my amigos, it was very insightful, learned a bunches, and I love President Durrant!  He is a very inspired man.  

   We met a guy this week named Wally.  Biggest hippie I've met in all my days in Texas.  He has pictures around his apartment with him and his friends shirtless, long hair, gnarly staches, and shotguns.  He told us that he was the biggest pot dealer at A&M back in his day and got rich off of it.  When he opened the door, he had some old hippie music blasting, and he looked like somebody that was about to slam the door right on our noses.  To our surprise, he invited us in and said "I love my God!  You got 20 minutes, tell me something uplifting."  We stayed for an hour and a half and had an awesome conversation.  He is very open and super funny.  One of those guys where Elder so and so is too difficult, and insists we tell him our first names.  He is a lot smarter than he looks, and asks a lot of really good questions.  It was nice to have a conversation like we did.  I'm sorry, but no Hispanic has ever made me think as hard as he made me think.  We have had two good chats with him so far.  They aren't really lessons, they just go wherever he takes them.  It is lots of fun to talk with him, and I am hesitant to pass him on to the English Elders, just because he is so stinking cool!  He is a very interesting man to say the least.  I love meeting wacky people!  

   We had an investigator show up at church yesterday for her first time, in the middle of sacrament meeting.  She walked in and practically yelled "buenos dias!" in the middle of someones talk.  Haha!  Her name is Marta, and she is pretty wacky herself.  It was incredible to see the members take her under their wing and make her first Sunday at the Mormon church an enjoyable experience.  Thanks to them, I am confident that she will be back and baptized soon!  

   There is a member here that was a nurse, and is super into natural oils.  She made some sort of concoction to put on a wart I have on my finger, and it is the most fowl smelling stuff that could ever go through your nostrils!  It smells like vinegar, lemon juice, armpit sweat and moldy gym socks!  I've only been using it for three days, so it is too early to tell if it is working or not.  I'm just praying that I'm not rubbing this stuff on my finger for nothing!  

-We can put on p-day clothes to do service if necessary, but with unplanned service opportunities, the only thing we can do is tuck our ties into our shirts, roll up our sleeves, and do our best to keep clean!  

-I am sleeping much better now.  The snoring definitely hasn't slowed down, but recently I actually read the instructions on the side of the ear plugs box, and they work great when you use them correctly!  Lesson learned.

-I haven't seen Sister Packard much lately, but I did meet Kurt Heldt's brother yesterday in the church library!  

It is crazy to think that Rachel will get to Texas at the end of this transfer!  When you gave me the news it seemed so far away!  Missions are crazy.  I love it.  That's all I can think of for this week, so until next time!  Love and miss you all!  Have the best week of your life!  

Elder Williams