Hi Everyone!!
What a crazy and wild week it has been! Thankfully I did make it safely to New York after 13 hours of travel time from Salt Lake City, Utah to Utica, New York. On the way to the Mission Home, we stopped for dinner and got the famous Utica pizza and chicken wings. Apparently, the food of choice for Upstate New York is pizza and chicken wings. When a slice of pizza is the size of a full dinner plate, things get serious! :) The food here is great.
Once I arrived at the Mission Home, I got to meet the Mission President and his wife. They are truly the Lord's angels, the sweetest people ever! That first night I slept at the Mission Home I was in a bunk bed where the mattress was like sleeping on a heavenly cloud. Either that, or I think I was just tired from traveling.
The next day was crazy. We (the newbies/greenie missionaries) had office training and got an orientation. Then the moment of truth... transfers !!! I am serving in the Corning Area in the Owego Zone as a Sister Training Leader !!! Me, a 1 week green missionary. I am over 4 other Sister Companionship's in the Owego Zone and I have a few exchanges coming up in Ithaca, Binghamton, and Elmira soon! It will be fun to help the sisters I am over and get to learn their areas and their investigators.
Thankfully, I already LOVE THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK! They are so humble and so willing to work! I love the members here in the Corning Branch. They are examples to me of excellent member missionary work! Thankfully, I have already memorized most of the members in my Branch. I also had to speak in church this Sunday!
Obviously, the Lord is giving me a lot of opportunities to grow and to learn... and to stretch and to overcome fear. No time to wait, just time to open my mouth and teach. Thankfully I have an amazing companion and trainer named Sister Yancey. She is from Idaho and we get along so well. We are like twins! We both love sports, food and the gospel, so it works out great :) We both help each other with being better teachers!
The days here are cold and the snow is thankfully not to high down here in the southern tier, but it is gorgeous country here in New York. I just love it. My companion and I have done a lot of service here this week. I got to be the bell ringer for Salvation Army, and I got to help several members decorate their homes for Christmas.
I have also learned of the "Restored Teaching Method" used here in the Utica New York Mission. It is an approved way to teach the lessons from Preach My Gospel. It works sooo well!! I have learned more in 5 days here in New York than I did in 3 weeks in the MTC... and I thought I learned a lot there too. I have a testimony that everything happens for a reason and that I am here in Corning for a reason.
We have great members and great investigators. I gave away my first Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. I also taught the Restoration and the woman we taught committed to be baptized after our lesson! Miracles!!! It was awesome and I know that the gospel can help the people of Upstate New York, because the people throughout the State have a lot of struggles. Thankfully, the hope and healing power that comes from Christ can fix all of those if we turn to Him.
So much to do...so little time. Hopefully we are going to go to the famous Corning Glass Museum and have a blast today and do some other fun P-day activities as well.
Love you all!
Sister Williams
