18

hola familia y amigos

this week was so crazy because the 18 of september is the independence day of Chile. what does this mean? PAAAAAARRRRTTTAAAAAYYYY for the people here in Chile, for the missionaries its still a little party but a lot of walking. 

bueno the last pday Elder munoz and I explored a park in our sector and a cathedral. (hence the photos of a park and a cathedral). it was interesting in the park because we were walking down a path and saw that people were taking pictures. we noticed that there was a woman who was posing in front of the camera with a tan shirt with a dragon on the back. we could only see the back of the shirt, and we realized that the shirt wasn't a shirt, but it was her skin, and the dragon was a tattoo, so we decided to turn around and walk the other way to avoid the topless model. we are sure that there is an iappropriate photo on the internet somewhere with a topless model with a snake tatoo and two very frightened missionaries turning around in the background.

the rest of the week was walking and eating. because of the 18 of september, a lot of people are out of town, so it was really hard to find people. the people that were in town we all drunk. when I say all were drunk, I mean all were drunk. we spent a lot of time visiting the members and recent converts because there wasn't a lot else we could do. 

we had lunch with the bishop and his family for the 18. everyone eats steak on this day. we started off by eating choripan. it is basically a hotdor but with chilean bread and sausage. I didn't know this before the mission but everyone here loves mayonaise and coca cola. when you are at any meal, there will always be mayonaise and coca cola. the food was so good, and then we got to watch the bishop dance the cueca with his daughters. the cueca is the dance of the region of santiago, and almost everybody knows how to dance it. it involves a handkerchif and stomping and it is danced in pairs. you gotta google it. 

this week is transfers. Elder Munoz y yo are still in the same sector, but we received two more missionaries for our sector. our sector is gigantic, and we are so thankful for these elders that have arrived. they will work in the southern half of our sector. we now have four people living in a tiny apartment. its going to be a lot of fun and a little messy I imagine. one of them is from Argentina and the other is from syracuse, utah. 

Elder Munoz and I are really excited for this week. we are ready to hit our sector super hard. recently we have been thinking a lot about obedience. I have learned that obedience should not be a result of fear for the consequences of disobedience but instead an expression of our love for the savior. that is the great and grand commandment "thou shalt love the lord thy God". I am so thankful to be here in Chile serving the Lord. I have seen lives change here as people have opened their hearts to receive the blessing of God. I am one of those people. I am changing everyday. I am learning every minute I am here. it is my hope that the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings of his gospel will always be your focus throughout your journeys on this earth, as He and his path are becoming mine.

Love,

Elder Williams

Paintin

hola familia y amigos

¿como están? ¿bien? ¡Que Bueno! this week was a ton of fun for reasons that will soon be explained.

primero, I want to talk about something interesting that happened the other day. we were visiting the elders quorum president from our ward on Tuesday. when we left his house we saw man that was about to enter his house which was located next to the house of the elders quorum president. we said hello to him, and he turned around and said "Elderes, I need your help" immediatly we went to him and started to talk. his name was Juan and he began to say that he needed help to stop drinking. he invited us into his house and we talked to him. he told us that he had tried many times and that he needed something that could help him feel good, or in his words "make me feel like Im young and happy again". we shared a scripture with him, and we set up the time for another appointment to meet with him, and we left.

I share this story with you all because I want you to know that the commandments of God are a protection for us. there is a way to have true happiness in this life, to have a hope for a life with our famililes and God for after this life too. this way is the gospel of Jesus Christ. a part important in this gospel is obedience to the commandments of God. we forfeit blessings from god that include, knowledge, peace, joy, and love when we go against the commandments of God. Juan has personally seen that drinking has destroyed his life, and he feels that it has crippled him. We will teach Juan repentance, so he may conquer this weakness as he calls upon the aid of Jesus Christ. it is through Christ that we are saved from sin, death, challenges, confusion-- Everything.

about the hermana Lucy this week. she was nothing but smiles this week. she told us that she felt like a voice had whispered to her during her baptism and that she felt very content with her decision, and that her Padre Celestial felt content with her decision as well. Lucy is amazing because when the missionaries first found her, she could not read hardly at all. now she is reading 3 to 4 pages of the book of mormon everyday and understanding everything. it is amazing to see the miracles that have happened in her life as a result of her actions of faith in Jesus Christ. the other day we witnessed the first steps of her grandson Lian during the lesson. it was cool to feel like part of the family and share that special moment with Lucy and her family.

for those of you who dont know, the 11 of september here in Chile is a day of protests and molestation. we had to enter the house at 6 o clock because it is very dangerous in the streets in the night of september 11. don't worry, my companion and I are safe, but there were a couple of mattresses and buses that were burned in the middle of the street.

we are now getting ready for the 18 de septiembre which is the day of independence for Chile. it lasts the whole week, so we will see what happens there. Im expecting lots of empanadas and completos so Im going to be a happy camper!

Big shout out to my sister Hermana Williams who is officially in Osorno sharing the gospel with the people and evading snow and penguins in the street. MUCHO AMOR A LA HERMANA WILLIAMS

Love,

Elder Williams

Saturday was the worldwide day of service for the church. half of the missionaries from the mission wore their street clothes and went to curacavi to paint the buildings in the main street of the town. it was super fun, and there are photos. there was a ton of paint on my hands after it and it looked like my hands were bleeding the rest of the day. it was soooo fuuunnn

the email

hola familia y amigos

This week was a ton of fun, but I wasn´t able to spend a lot of time in my area because we were in the office a lot preparing a musical number for a conference with elder Viñez from the seventy. 

on tuesday we received a call in the morning that my companion and I were supposed to rehearse a musical number with some of the sister missionaries in our mission, so we headed to the office. Elder Muñoz plays the violin and another hermana plays the piano. the other sister missionary and I sang nearer my god to thee. it was super fun.

we returned to our sector after that and had a lesson with Luis y Carolina. something that we do here in the mission is we reteach the lessons to converts right after they are baptized. we left the lesson and the spirit was really strong. 5 minutes later we were walking along and we heard a shout. it was Luis y Carolina and they were running after us yelling at us to stop. we stopped and when they reached us they handed us a bag of pansitos (little bread). in Chile the people are so loving that they will run to you just to hand you a bag of free bread. sometimes I don´t feel worthy of the love that I have recieved here from the members and from the people I am teaching. Im just a 20 year old gringo that can hardly speak spanish, but to the people here in Chile they see me as a true messenger of god. 

the following day we performed the musical number and the zone conference was awesome!!!! Elder Viñez was super great. we talked about the role of the atonement in our lives as missionaries. I have learned a lot here in the mission how important the atonement of Jesus Christ is. we don´t have to be perfect, we can commit mistakes and still find peace and hope through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I constantly have to repent every day in the mission because it is not possible to be happy and imperfect without Jesus Christ and his atonement to help me out. I am so glad that he loves me enough to take all of my burdens upon himself so that I can look to him in any moment and he will help me. Who does a thing such as that. who has that much love. HE has that much love and he wants us to be joyful in this life, and all we have to do is look to him.

a couple days ago we were walking in the street and Elder Muñoz knocked on a door. an old man answered it and told us immediatly that he felt like he had met us before. we told him that there had been lots of different missionaries that had walked the same streeets that we had, but he told us that he felt like he had known us before this life. we entered his house which was full of artwork and sculptures that he had done. Osvaldo, se llama, is an artist, and it was awesome to teach him about the plan of salvation so that he could know that we existed before we all came to the earth. we all lived with our heavenly father as spirits before we were born. Im excited to teach him again.

Thank you for all of your emails, prayers, and pictures. please keep them coming. 

Love.

Elder Williams

Rain, rain, rain

Hola familia y Amigos,

por favor perdonanme because I left my camera in the house this week, so I don't have any photos, but tons of awesome things happened.

first, I wanted to mention a couple of things from the past week that I forgot to write. number one, my companion is super awesome. before the mission he studied music and he plays the violin. he brought his violin with him to the mission, and 2 sundays ago he played in church while the other missionaries sang. it was super beautiful. it is a huge blessing to have a companion like Elder Munoz who loves to sing and loves music. Iove singing with Chilenos. they love to sing (despite wheter or not they can do it in tune). 

I should explain what our ward is like here in Quinta Normal. the ward is called Simon Bolivar. the chapel is two stories tall. the sacrament hall is in the second floor with the gym and kitchen, and the first floor has all of the classrooms. there are 6 missionaries in our ward. 4 are hermanas and the rest are us. our ward has about 150 in it that assist regularly, and is super awesome. it is also very cold in the chapel in the winter. I never used to wear sweaters underneath my suits or gloves in the church, but now it is necessary.

I want to talk about a person that we met the other day. his name is Alejandro, and he is a ninja. we were in the neighborhood, knocking doors, and he answered, and told us that he had actually been baptized when he was 8 and then after that didn't go to church again. he told us that we could stop by a couple days later, because he was a little busy, and while we were setting an appointment with him, he told us that he attends a martial arts class. fast forward 1 week later, and we stopped by his house and he answered the door in ninja clothing. he had been training, and he was wearing those cool footsy ninja pants that have a split toe like a turtle. He is super awesome, and wants to learn more about why we are here in this life.

also, the past Sunday we were returning home from a church meeting when Luis, a recent convert to the church, called us and asked us if we could give his wife, Carolina, a blessing. we arrived at his house and saw that Carolina was in a lot of pain because of a headache. we placed our hands upon her head and gave her a priesthood blessing. after the blessing Luis was dissapointed because nothing miraculous happened immediatley. the next day we got a phone call from them saying that Carolina had been able to go to sleep, and when she woke up the next morning she felt really good, and had a lot of energy. she said that she felt that the lord had blessed her for her faith. for those of you who are reading who are not members, a priesthood blessing is What Christ and his apostles did when they were on the earth. those that hold the priesthood of God can place their hands upon the head of someone who is sick and leave them with a blessing of health. this power or priesthood of God was restored through the prophet Jospeh Smith.

on Thursday we did something super fun. there is something here called Ferria, which is basically a farmers market but huge and takes up the whole street. this week we set up a stand with tons of fliers, pamphlets, DVDs, and books, all of it for free. it was super fun. we talked with a ton of people, and got to experience part of the culture here. it smells a lot in the ferria because you have stands with vegetbales, fish, and fruits. you can buy anything in the ferria. I mean anything. I walked by a stand that was selling Billy Joel CDs. that was fun.

on Friday, we helped an hermana pick Oranges off of her tree (because Gringos are taller than chilenos). it was super fun, because her son Kevin was on the roof of the house helping us and throwing oranges and us too. la hermana gave us a huge bag of oranges too, which we shared with the people we met in the streets.

On Friday night we had a family home evening of our ward. my companion and I were in charge of the refreshments. we didn't know what to do, so I decided that I was going to make pancakes with M&Ms in them. it was a last minute idea, and I thought it would fail. I forgot that Chileans have never eaten pancakes. THEY LOVED THEM. we now have a problem because they think that I can cook...Luis y Carolina invited us to their house on Sunday to teach them how to make pancakes.

On Saturday it rained a ton. that made me miss home a little (shout out to all of my Bothell Cougars out there). we had an activity in the church that night where the different age groups in the church had prepared food, presentations, and dances from different south american countries. when we arrived we were in the second floor of the church, in the gym. all of a sudden, the ground started to shake, and I thought that there was a car that was driving beneath or something, but the shaking didn't stop, but kept going for about 15 seconds, and it got more powerful. it turns out that there was a 6.4 earth quake that happened nearby. my first Temblor in Chile. Im officially a missionary here! there was a huge earthquake here in 2010 and the people are still sensative about it, so when the temblor happened, people started to scream. there are some pretty harsh memories from 2010 that are still lingering in the back of peoples minds, but don't worry, everyone is ok from the earthquake here.

Final thing, yesterday we received two free empanadas from some members in our ward, and we left them out on the counter during the night. this was a mistake because I forgot that sometimes we have a visitor at night. there is a cat that loves to squeeze himself through a slit (and I mean a slit) in our sliding glass door to sleep in our "warm" apartment. we woke this morning to empanada crums on the floor. I was angry. I love empanadas.

Thank you so much for your emails, pictures, prayers, and all that you do

Love,

Elder Williams

It's getting hotter

Hola familia y amigos,

I hope you are all doing really awesome! shout out to Evan and Lizzie On Their anneversary! 

This week WAS crazy. Elder Boelter Went home this past monday so I Was in load of the sector Abebooks web have. This has-been the hardest week of my life. my companion elder Munoz has-been Heavily Involved in my survival this week. he is from Chile and Does not speak much English, drank His goofy personality and patience, is just what I needed.   

It Was weird at first to stop by the houses of our investigators sans Elder Boelter, it felt like someone WAS missing becuase Elder Boelter HAS Such an awesome personality and present, people are thankfully goal inside letting us Their homes.

Because elder Munoz is new here in this sector, I Was in burden of getting us from house to house to the chapel to the grocery store to our apartment in one piece. I got lost only 2 times, so I'm going to call That a win.

this week aussi WAS pretty rough with our lessons. ; many of our investigators Were Either sick, out of town, or nowhere to Be Found. We were walking in the street a lot, and I felt like We Were not really helping the kingdom a lot. I want to share a story about how though the Lord works in mysterious ways. We Were in the southern portion of our sector on Tuesday and stopped by We had 4 or 5 houses and HAD beens not reliable to teach a lesson. I felt terrible. We Were stopping by to see if door Reviews another person WAS the home When We Heard someone scream "Elderes!" we turned around and saw one of the miembros from our ward That Was try trying to carry her daughter to her house agatha All which WAS 2 or 3 blocks away. Agatha WAS standing goal unresponsive and having trouble breathing WAS. Quickly we ran over and Agatha Helped carry to the house and Then We left thinking "That Was really wierd." A couple days later we Passed by to see how That House WAS doing the family, and the mom Told us "I am so thankful for you two. praying to god I Was That Would he send me someone to help me carry my daughter to the Then I saw house and you two around the corner. "  

To me it is evidence That There is more to being white a missionary than just numbers. We had-been walking in the street for hours with a lesson, and Because Of Abebooks web Were reliable phrasal preposition the right time in the right place to help this hermana and her daughter.

This week has-been the hardest of my life, I have never seen aim So Many miracles. I have Learned what it means clustering to pray this week. I remember walking in the street one day praying to God That Would he bless my companion and I with the Opportunity to share the Gospel. We Were tired and thirsty and HAD Walked a tone already, and when to door we knocked on Reviews another After about 5 HAD That We Were Rejected us ble to teach a lesson.

I will never take lightly the Opportunity to Teach After agian this week. I have Learned this week what my purpose as a missionary is. Focused as we are missionaries in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and perservering Until The End. we teach lessons to people so They Can Understand more about this doctrine of Christ, so That They Can develope the faith to follow this pathway to god, the only pathway That Ensures happiness in this life and hope in life after death.

Realization this really hit me when we HAD meeting for all of the new missionaries. this meeting WAS annoncé to us Wednesday night and it WAS to take up all day Friday . We had tons of appointments HAD Planned for That Day and I remember thinking "what the president is doing. going to teach We Were a tone today." I Know That now our president Videla s'intitule of God. the meeting was exactly what I needed. I Learned a tone, and I got to see my friends from the CCM. I Was Edified so much from His inspiration to Have That meeting at That Time.   

Thank you all so much for your prayers, your emails and your faith in our Savior Jesus Christ

Love,

Elder Williams

Gone Gone Gone

hola familia y amigos

this week has been absolutely crazy. this is the week of cambios where companions change to different parts of the mission. I am staying here in Quinta Normal. Elder Boelter left (Ill talk about that in a little bit), and I received a new companion. His name is Elder Munoz. he is chileno which is awesome. this will give me a ton of practice with my spanish. he is from a city that lies in the mission santiago west so he is actually serving pretty close to home. he is very funny. every missionary that knows him loves him. 

Im going to start at the beginning of the week. in order to train me better Elder Boleter put me in charge of the cell phone this week. Im not going to lie. it is so hard to talk to Chileans. it is even harder to talk to them by telephone when you are walking briskly by a busy highway. There are some telephone calls where I answer talk for 2 minutes and then I hang up and elder boelter asks me "what did they want". usually I respond "I have no idea but they said ok todo esta bien when they finished so I think the problem was resolved".

A mission is a lot of fun, but it is also really hard. I keep on thinking about how a sword is made. the blacksmith has a giant hammer and anvil and he sticks the steel in really hot fire and hits the sword a ton. i Think it has something to do with getting rid of impurities or something like that. I feel like I am sword in the making. Im in hot fire, and Im getting hit a lot by big hammer. but hey, one day Ill be able to pierce people with the spirit of the Lord!

Wednesday we had lunch with la hermana feli. she works at a restaurant so she is a really good cook. we stopped by her house to get the lunch, and we ate a ton. we were stuffed. we then got a phone call from la hermana Abarca. she said that we were scheduled to eat lunch at her house that day. she said that the food was getting cold and that she had prepared it especially for us. she also sounded a little angry with us. if there is one thing missionaries do not want, it is members that are angry with them. we told her that we would come and eat. We had to eat two lunches and Elder Boelter didn't have room in his stomach to do it. I had finished all of my Lentejas and he still had half of his giant plate to go. Aqui in Chile if you don't eat all of the food they give you its rude. I was so full, but Elder Boelter was worse off. that was when I got the idea to ask the hermana to please bring us more tomatos. she did it, and when she left the kitchen Elder Boelter scooped his food on my plate so I could eat it. It was so funny. we were laughing and trying not to throw up, it was hilarious.

Friday, Elder Boelter went to the temple so I was in an intercambio con Elder Nelson. Elder Nelson is from Provo Utah and he is going to be the next assistent to the president. we visited some of his converts when he was here in my sector. we also taught Lorena. Lorena is suffering from a lot of back problems recently and it has been hard to meet with her, but we were able to do it the other day. We found out that her son Camilo who lives in the south of Chile is also going to be living there. Lorena is awesome. She really wants to follow Jesus Christ, and she knows that Baptism is the way to do it.

Firday night we received a third companion. Elder Call was serving in the Robinson Cruso island but he goes home with Elder Boelter, and he needed somewhere to sleep, so he spent time with us. he actually spent two weeks here 6 moths ago in the same sector. he is awesome and really nice. it was fun to be in a trio like back in the old days in the CCM. 

This weekend there were a lot of trunky thoughts. having two missionaries that are finishing their missions at the same time is not easy. it was hard to keep my thoughts focused when we stopped by families from the ward last night to say goodbye. they all said something like "that is so great that you get to see your family again and hug your mom, and hang out with your old friends". I was sitting there thinking "Hey, there are still some of us here that have 1 year and 9 months left!"

I am so glad to be serving a mission here in Chile. I am learning a ton about my Savior Jesus Christ and about his Gospel for all of us.

Love,

Elder Williams

almuerzo con la familia estica con Elder Boelter y Elder Call

​clase de distrito!

The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning

Hola Familia y Amigos

I have good news. I am typing at a computer that actually works this week so I can actually tell you what happened this week

This week has been rough in the morning because our water heater broke. its amazing the things that you take for granted in the United states like hot water. we also had the light in the bathroom go out, so I was showering in the cold by candle light.

That happened tuesday, and we had to go the doctor to do a check up with elder Boelter before he goes home in one week. the doctors office is right next to the CCM in Chile. I got to see the CCM president again and also some of my teachers. also, while we were walking to the CCM, we saw some hermanas on the other side of the street. we didn't say hi to them because they were kind of far away. while I was in a church store buying some hymn books, I ran into some sister missionaries from Santiago Oeste mission. I had heard that Seattle Farner (from Woodinville WA) was in that mission, and I asked them if they new her. they said she was just here 5 minutes ago. it turns out that she was in that group of sister missionaries that we saw! that was crazy! Im going to email her today to verify

Something that we have really been working on as a companionship is teaching lessons in less than 45 minutes. this is a point in preach my gospel that here in Chile is really hard to follow because people love to talk. its hard to ballance preaching the gospel, and developing relationships with the people you teach. to anyone who has served in Chile, you know what Im talking about when I say that the people love to talk, and they talk so fast that they begin to sound like a turkey gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble :)

on Wednesday we were walking back from an appointment with Lorena when we saw 4 kids running in the street. they had some things in their hands as they ran. we thought they were playing a game, and then we saw 3 older (and fatter) guys chasing aftter them and yelling. apparently we had just seen a robbery. it was kind of funny to see one of the larger men hop on his bicycle to try and chase them down.

That same day we were in a lesson with an older man and his wife, se llaman benito y Maria. we talked with them about the restoration, and we were just finishing up and were about to invite him to be baptized when he told us that he had been baptized 50 years ago. you think that he would have mentioned that at the beginning. this has happened to us probably 5 times. we ask people in the beginning of the lessons if they know the church, or if theyve visited it, or things like that. they told us in the beginning that they had heard of the church, but that they hadn't gone to it. I dont understand, its kind of like "oh by the way, Im already a member of your church". but I always think its funny when that happens.

on Friday we were walking in the street, and I saw a woman that was just standing in her door enjoying some solsito (sun rays). we talked to her for a bit, and we asked her if we could share our message with her. she said ok, and we entered. when we entered we saw that there were no men in the house. as missionaries, we have the rule that we can teach if we sit near the front door, and if the door is open. in addition to this we saw that this woman had 5 daughters, 3 of whom were around our age. we taught the family about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but Im not going to lie I dont know if those 3 daughters were completely focused in the lesson, but more in my companion's eyes

sorry to you guys if the baptism of Luis y Carolina was a little surprising. there is a tradition in this companionship that we do not email about our baptisms before they happen, because it is guaranteed that if I talk about it before it happens, it doesn't happen. pero, eso. Luis y Carolina received the gift of the holy Ghost this Sunday. Luis also received the aaronic priesthood. We met with them earlier this week to see how they were doing. they recently downloaded the gospel library app on their phones and Luis told us that usually he plays mario when he is in the bathroom, but now he is reading his scriptures. that is a win in this missionary's book.

This week was a ton of fun, and I am really excited for this next week. it is the last week of Elder Boelter. because of the change of mission presidents in the beginning of my mission, this cambio or transfer period is 8 weeks. I will be getting a new companion next week, so that should be fun, but I am going to miss Elder Boelter a ton.

Last but definitly not least I need to give a shout out to the two most important women in my life. Hermana Williams, Congratulations on entering the CCM! Mama Williams: Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Williams