It's gettin hot

hola familia y amigos!

this week has been a ton of fun, with a lot of cool stories to share.

first, I want to talk about one of the families that is part of our ward. the familia chandia is so awesome. the mother of this family has a calling in the stake, and her husband was recently released as the president of the young men in our ward. they are both converts to the church. this week we have been working with them to find the people that are ready to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. we left them with the commitment to pray about who, from their neighbors, they could invite to participate in a Family Home Evening. they followed through with their commitment and this friday, they are going to invite him. we are so thankful for the awesome members that we have in our ward.

on Thursday, we saw another demostration of the awesome members that we have in our ward. Angelica, who is the family history specialist, helped us have an activity in the chapel where we taught investigators and recent converts about how to use family search and the importance of family history. it was a great experience, and we are excited to go to the temple with Luis and Carolina this week, or next week.

on wednesday, we were knocking on some doors, and we came across a woman from Peru. because she was alone, she preferred that we passed by the next day. on Thursday we stopped by her house, and she let us in. Nancy (that is her name) told us that about 6 years ago she was baptized in the church, but that now she was living here in Chile, and she didn´t know where it was. she has had some problems getting used to Chile. she has no family here, she has 6 children, and she hasn´t been able to work. she said that she felt completely alone and that she had been prayin for help. she said that after we had knocked on her door, after I had asked her if there was anything we could do to help her, and after we left, she began to cry because she knew that we could help.

on Sunday we saw miracles. the previous Sunday was fast sunday, and I had been fasting for miracles to happen with the missionaries in our ward. the previous Sunday, an investigator that hadn´t come in a lot of time all of a sudden appeared and wanted to be baptized. she lived in the sector of the hermanas. the new elderes in our ward, who arrived with nothing of investigators found a man who´s whole family are members of the church and who will be baptized the following sunday. last week, nobody of our investigators was in the church. what happened is that our blessings just arrived a little bit later. Lucas and his Mother, who we have been encouraging to return to church, both came to sacrament meeting! after that we met a man who recently moved into our ward with his son. when talking with him he saidc "yeah it great that I found you guys because my son is investigating the church and wants to get baptized" its crazy how the lord works. I will never understand how, when, or through whom blessings will come, I just understand that I will always give thanks for them.

Another cool thing happened in the baptism that the hermanas had this Sunday. the hermanas asked us after sacrament meeting if we had started to fill the font. we thought that the hermanas were going to be in charge of it, but we thought wrong, and we had to walk briskly to the apartment to find the keys to the font. we were really worried because the font needs 3 hours to fill, and we only had an hour or so until the baptism. we were freaking out, and when we had opened the font door we saw that the font was already filled. it turned out that the last baptism, the drain had not been working, and the water was still there. it was cool because even though the water was cold, there was still a baptism.

before I finnish, I just want to bear my testimony about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the mission is the hardest thing I have done in my life because it is the most important thing I have done in my life. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I know that the restored gospel is God´s plan for us to truly find happiness and a remission of our sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet who had the power and authority of God to restore his church and gospel to the earth.

Love,

Elder Williams

Gettin Hot

hola familia y amigos!!!!

this week was a ton of fun with intercambios, lessons, new people, and heart break.

on Tuesday we met with Lorena. she is doing really well. She recently found a new job, so she hasn´t come to church in a while, which is a bummer, but I just wanted to share something cool that happened with her. throughout all of my life I have heard of people that call into radio programs and win things, but I always thought it was fake, because who actually wins those things. We stopped by Lorena´s house the other day and she told us that she won a guitar from a Radio station. she was really excited to show us, and we were really suprised because it was really random. I know this story doesn´t have much to do with the work of salvation, but its just something cool that happened.

that same day we met with Mario. Mario, a man who has trouble remembering things, told us that he preferred that we don´t teach him anymore. he feels that what we are doing is pointless because he will not be able to remember it after we leave his house. we were a little bummed about that, and we tried to tell him, that we do not feel like he is wasting our time, but he insisted.

on Wednesday I received an awesome package from my Mom. the best thing about packages is sharing them with Latino companions because most of them have never eaten american food before (mainly beef jerky, peanut butter, and cliff bars). there were some photos in the package that reminded me what my body used to look like before the mission...before the empanadas and completos...

on Thursday we had intercambios. I was with Elder Vasquez de Lima Peru. we had an interesting lesson with the daughter of a recent convert. she asked us questions about conspiracies about the twin towers, and the iluminati for about 30 minutes. there are a lot of people here who believe in stuff like that.

on Friday there was another intercambio with a new missionary from Brazil. I understood almost nothing of his spanish. its funny because when gringos are learning spanish they don´t talk much, but brazilians if they don´t know how to say something in spanish, they just say it in portugese anyway, and no one knows what they are saying.

We are super pumped because Luis and Carolina recently got their temple recommends to go do baptisms. we will be hearing more about that in following weeks. something awesome that happened is that we had a lesson with Lucas the other day about the word of wisdom and how we shouldn´t have piercings, and in the middle of the lesson Lucas took out his earings. it was awesome! Lucas is so awesome!

We recently had a lesson with a new person we found named Laura. she has a lot of faith in god, and after teaching her about the restoration (even though her son peed his pants in the middle) she felt the spirit and said, "I want to know if its tryue, so Im going to read your book and pray about it". music to a missionary´s ears.

thank you for all of the prayers, packages, and letters that are always coming my way. I am trying my hardest to help the people here in Chile come unto Christ, and I know that I am changing for the better because of it. I know Christ is our Savior, and that though the plan of his gospel we can be happy forever!

Love,

Elder Williams

Conference!

hola familia y amigos

how was your conference weekend? I absolutely love the messages of the prophets and apostles. I watched all but two sessions in spanish. I understood most of it but there were moments where the only thing I recognized was the peace that spirit brings as the servants of the lord speak. I was really impacted by the talk by president Ucthdorf about is it I that has betrayed the lord. i hope we always remember the importance of self reflectance and that we do not look to speedily to find fault with others because usually the fault lies within ourselves.

it was so cool that there were talks given in different languages. the chileans were super happy when they announced a talk in Spanish! it was truly a historic moment

Lucas, one of our investigators, came to the conference. he really like it and felt good during the conference. here in chile the priesthood session starts at 9 at night, so Lucas actually fell asleep during that one, but other than that it was great.

Lucy, a recent convert also came. she really enjoyed the conference. when the missionaries first met her she couldn't read. she has now read until Jacob in the book of mormon and has understood everything. it was great for her because she was able to listen to the words of the prophets in a setting that was a little bit easier for her to comprehend what was communicated.

in the beginning of the week we had a lesson with a man named Pedro and his two daughters. we entered the house and his two daughters were watching tom and Jerry, but we turned off the TV and shared a message with them. Pedro was really excited about the blessings that his family could receive. he is raising his two girls solo. it is very difficult to raise Children here in Chile. the things that happen in the street, in school, can be so much worse than what happens in the united states. the assurance that the gospel can unify a family and protect it from the challenges of the world is a promise that I am so glad the lord has promised.

we also had a lesson with Lucas and his mother the other day. Lucas' Mother is a member of the church but has not gone for a very long time. she hasn't gone because there were some people that did not treat her well in the church about 25 years ago. because of this bad experience, she has distanced herself from the church and often said that she doesn't want to come back. in the lesson that we had with her and Lucas, we shared the plan of salvation. something inside of Yvonne, Lucas' mom, clicked and she rememberd how happy she felt to see her daughter, son in law, and Lucas in a church activity the other day; smiling, laughing, and being together as a family in the church. she said that she wanted more of that. we told her that her family can be eternal with the restored gospel of jesus Christ, and she told us that she wants to come back to church.

We also had a lesson with Mario the other day. Mario is very faithful because he is very humble. the accident that he had a couple years ago left him the ability to only remember 50% of what happens to him. the other day we were talking about baptism, and he told us that he wants to be baptized. we set a date to do it, but he told us that he probably would not remember to do it. he then said that we need to share this message with his family so they can help him. We are very excited to help Mario develop his faith in Christ because he is very humble. God gave him his life back to him after his accident, and now he wants to give his life to god.

something crazy happened the other day. we were walking in the street when all of a sudden someone yelled the first name of my companion. we turned around from the door we were knocking and a man jumped out of his car and gave Elder Munoz a huge hug. elder Munoz could travel to his house in less than an hour from our area. Elder Munoz ran into his cousin who was working around here. we got a little taste of trunky because of that.

I want you all to know, like we have heard from the recent general conference, that I know that Joseph smith is the prophet of the restoration. because of what this man did, salvation is now available to all those that ernestly seek it. the power and authority of God that will bring about our salvation, eternal families, happiness, and purpose in this life is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know this church is true

love,

Elder Williams

September 29

hola familia y amigos

this week was an awesome one. I have learned a ton this week, and I also had a lot of fun!

first I want to start off with talking about some of the people we found this week. the first person that I want to mention is Mario. Mario was a person that we found in the ferria about two weeks ago. he said that we could pass by his house anytime, but during that two weeks, we were spending a lot of time in the southern part of our sector, so we weren't able to pass by. anywho, on tuesday we were in the neighborhood, and we decided to stop by. he let us in and we talked. he told us that about 6 years ago he had a terrible accident and it was very difficult for him to remember things, but he did remember us. we were really short on time when we stopped by so we shared a little bit of our message and how it is centered on Jesus Christ. Mario told us after "when can you guys come and teach my family this message" needless to say we set up an appointment with him to teach his family.

another person that we found this week was a woman who watering her plants in the street. I stopped by to complement her on her garden and she told me "its good to see missionaries again. I haven't seen you guys in a while". it turns out that missionaries had taught her and her son in the past, and had stopped coming because they both left at the same time. her name is Yolanda and she has a lot of love for her children.

this week was a ton of fun because we worked hard this week. we knocked a lot of doors, had a lot of lessons, and talked with a lot of people. the more I think about my efforts as a missionary I think about where my talents and ability to work come from. they come from God. they were taught to me by parents, teachers, coaches, challenges, books, music, and much more. i have learned in the mission that my success has nothing to do with me. it all comes from God. without Christ i know that I am nothing. 

now I want to talk a little bit about Lucas. I have talked about Luis y Carolina before but it turns out that Carolina has brother named Lucas. Lucas is awesome and we stopped by to teach him and his mother who is a member of the church but hasn't gone in a while. we taught about baptism and the spirit was so strong. Lucas now wants to be baptized so that his family can be eternal and that he can be closer with God. it was awesome to talk with his mother Yvonne because she never expected that she would see her family in the church, but now that her daughter was baptized and that Lucas has the desire to do so she is really excited to have an eternal family and start going back to church.

on Saturday we had our 18 de septiembre activity. it was seriously so much fun. we were there the whole day. we played soccer and talked with the members. we had to wait a while to eat the chicken that they were barbequing but it was so good, and definitely worth it. it was a really big turn out, and we almost ran out of chicken, but we finished the activity with one pollo left. after we ate there were a ton of dances that members of the ward prepared. one of the investigators that we have, Lorena, brought her group of folk singers and she sang with them for the activity. it was so cool because a lot of people were wearing authentic clothing and dancing. it was great.

on Sunday Elder Mu;oz played the violin for all of the hymns in church. it was really cool, and the ward loved it. most of them haven't heard a violin in church before so they thought it was really cool. I got to lead the music, so that was a lot of fun.

I should also talk about the other missionaries who arrived. Elder Lefalle is from Misiones Argentina and has about 20 months in the mission. he is super funny and really nice. he has never done anything or said anything that would make someone angry. the other elder is elder Birch. he is from Syracuse Utah. he has about 1 year in the mission. recently he was in the hospital because he had a really bad bike crash but now he is ok. he is really funny, and he loves Chilean culture and the people, so naturally, the people love him back.

I am so glad to be serving here in Chile. I learn a ton of things everyday. I am learning how to become more like Christ. I am also learning to have fun in the mission. the message that the missionaries share is a message of happiness. I would like to bare my testimony that I know that christ sufferred for us so we don't have to. we can find true happiness in this life through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Williams