Night and Day

Love my "Sister's"

I now totally understand why missionaries don't write back.. we are just busy busy!  This last week we have taught 31 lessons and 15 were with investigators.  That is the most I have taught in one week since being out on my mission.  It was great.  Most of the work takes place in South Utica and North New Hartford, partially because the people are humble and luckily live right next to each other and not out in the boonies.  Hey, it saves on my miles!! :)  But seriously, we have totally had some great experiences this week which include:

1)  Rebecca.  Most of her children are already investigating the Church, but for some reason, she has been hiding in the background and has never really learned anything besides the restoration.  She has terminal colon cancer because she cannot afford the cancer treatments... so some days are harder for her than others.  But, she is the funniest 40 year old Haitian lady I have ever met.  She is full of spunk and she will tell you exactly what she thinks. :)  

Anyway, we had set up an appointment to teach her kids but the kids weren't there. But, everything worked out great (that's when you know that the Lord is behind it all).  She was home alone during our appointment time and we ran an errand for her because she had to go to court today (long story).  She finally told us her and the kid's background stories (everything finally made sense.. because everyone is related, but they live in different places).  She broke down crying.  She wants peace so badly and kept asking "Who is going to help me fix my family and help me pick up the pieces?"  "How can I get rid of all of this guilt?"  "I just want my kids safe and happy, but nobody will listen to me.."  Surprisingly...just before the appointment, I had a strong impression that we had to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and focus on repentance and faith, even though that wasn't the scheduled lesson.  (ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT.... duh!)  So after her talking and sharing, I said that we only had 10 minutes left and could we share something with her.  She said yes, and I gave her a pamphlet.  She read the things on repentance and totally FREAKED OUT.  The Spirit hit her like a ton of bricks.  Instead of us teaching her, she just sat in shock as she read the two pages about the repentance cycle and the need to acknowledge the Savior and how His atonement relieves guilt, changes lives and make the unfair things of life fair and can repair the things that we alone cannot repair.  It was her first time probably feeling the Spirit because she started crying and didn't know what to do.  "Why do I feel so funny?"  "How did you know that I needed this?"  "This is my answer!!!"  

We talked about baptism and how it will help her and her family and she basically agreed to be baptized, but was so scared of everything.  (We will still keep working with her, but by the end of this week, I know we can set her a baptismal date).  She prayed before we left and it was also her first real "out loud" prayer and BOOM.... it was so good. 

2) Marcus.  He is a 16 year old friend of the kids we are teaching.  We teach him over Facebook and he loves the gospel.  I taught a super successful Facebook restoration lesson and he still felt the Spirit and accepted to be baptized.  Now we just have to work with his family and further assess his situation.  He is a great kid and we love working with him.  Teaching over Facebook has brought so many blessings, especially when working with younger people.

3)  Tony.  Tony is "golden" and is the coolest guy around.  He is super humble and loves the Church.  He was born in England, was raised in Jamaica, and has lived all over the world.  He has been busy working two retail jobs, and has had no time to sit still.  But, he found a half day off and we introduced ourselves and taught the Plan of Salvation.  BOOM.  Such a good lesson.  He basically struggles with what his purpose here on earth is.  He said that he should be dead, and should have died a long time ago, and said that he would do anything that the Lord asked of him, but didn't know what that work was.  I could tell that he wanted a specific answer and the Spirit prompted me to share D&C 121: 36-45  (basically the Priesthood Section with "Many are called but few are chosen").  I told him that the Lord needs a strong priesthood holder that would set an example, help serve others and to help build the Lord's Kingdom.  (He is the kind of investigator that in a few years could be serving as an Elders Quorum President).   The words we shared were just what he needed and we could tell that he was more at peace after we talked with him.  Then, after answering his questions on repentance, he liked how our Church was more thorough on resolving sins than just confessing them.  He also agreed to be baptized, and agreed to work on fixing his busy work schedule so he can continue to be taught.

4)  CJ.  CJ is the best!  He is a young adult and suffers with a form of high functioning autism.  He loves the Church and after 4 months of struggling with a lack of support from his parents, he has agreed to be baptized in May/June.  We had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation at a member's house.  The member made probably the best hot cocoa ever!!   

The only thing that kind of stunk all week was a lesson with a former investigator. He was a stubborn prideful guy who only wanted to argue and be contentious (not with our religion) with the idea of religion and God in general.  He demanded proof and wanted us to convince him that God existed, that the Book of Mormon and other holy books are true, and something else that I can't remember now.  Remarkably, we all remained calm, tried to figure out what exactly he wanted from us, we bore our testimonies and I actually just packed up my stuff and left.  He then proceeded to tell us that we were weak, lazy, and ill-prepared and that he felt bad for us, and that we will never find the truth.  I actually felt even worse for him because of the darkness and coldness in his house, his countenance and his life.  We both felt proud that we did what we were supposed to do!!  Bear testimony and leave. 

Good things just keep happening and will continue to happen as we work hard and over come our fears.  I just love the gospel.  :)  And I love the Spirit!  It is like 'Night and Day' when it is present or not.

Also, I like the Utica Stake.  We had a great Women's Conference on Saturday and it went great.  We had lots of fun things to do and had great talks.

Transfers go way to fast, this week will be my half way mark again.

Love,

Sister Kylie Williams

Utica, New Challenges, New Miracles

Hi Everyone,

This week has been exhausting.  It's tough when they put two new missionaries into an area (both who are also on the young side).  haha.   People keep saying "I'm New".   Apparently I need to be on my mission for 8 months before people think I know what I am doing.  I disagree.  You never fully know what to do on a mission....you just keep hanging on for the ride and try and follow the Spirit as best as possible.  But, learning a new area (people, roads, areas, members, logistics of everything) every couple of months is kinda hard.  Thankfully my GPS has worked great and the Lord is blessing me with a good sense of direction and being able to memorize names.  I wasn't this clear headed when I was in Corning.

My companion... bless her heart, is very sweet.  She is also socially awkward and a little on the quirky side.  So, it is a little tough at times because I have to fight my natural man reactions to take charge.  It's still tough interacting and being with a companion all of the time.  It is a GREAT way to learn patience, charity and humility.

Utica is Utica.  There is no other way to describe it.  Part of our area is made up of multi-million dollar homes.  The people who live there are these really cute rich families who are very religious. Then I have several areas that are made up of small towns.  Very cute and quaint.  Finally, I have an area that is on the edge of the ghetto and the projects.  We inherited around 9 investigators who live on the edge of the scary part of town.  We refer to them as our "9 babies" as they range from ages 8 yrs to 17 yrs old and they have very difficult lives.  They could all get baptized tomorrow if they just had different living situations.  We then have an investigator with high functioning autism.  We have the greatest conversations with him and he is able to relate many things to the gospel.  He knows that the Church is true and wants to progress, but his family does not support him.  We have 2 other investigators, both super solid in their convictions, "golden" really, but neither can get baptized right now due to their families.  We can only text them, or we have to jump through hoops to get anything done.  But, we will make progress!  We just have to pick up the pieces and do what we can to support them.

Here in Utica, we are still trying to build up trust with the members, investigators and less actives.  Missions really have toughened me up.  I still experience fear sometimes, but it's cool how there are times when the Spirit tells us to leave a place, or to not go here/there, or to suck it up and go talk to them even if  I am scared.

The little miracles of this past week include:  1) Surviving another week -- yay!! 2) Not getting lost!! Utica is much bigger than Corning. 3) Contacting almost all of the main members, less actives and part of the investigators.  We didn't do a lot of teaching this week, but we had to start with the basics which includes getting our foot into doors and introducing ourselves.  Today we are actually going to make a LOT OF COOKIES to give to investigators, less actives, and members to make a good impression and start working.  We found one less active sister that wasn't on the records and she was so excited that we came and found her.  Lucky for us because she lives on the same street as 5 of our investigators.  Even though she didn't come to church on Sunday, her daughter did :)

The one thing I like about Utica is that street contacting is super easy.  We met a lady waiting for a taxi, gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said she was interested in learning more !!!  WooHoo!

Please, keep praying for me as I am going through a tough transition period right now.  It's weird not being in leadership, but at least now I can focus on the area.  Never done that before!  I just get more learning experiences.  :)  Being on a mission, I've learned about who I want to become after meeting so many wonderful members and interacting with them.  Examples galore!  It's great, you can live anywhere and find strong faithful member of the Church !

Love,
Sister Kylie Williams

Life in a new city - Utica/New Hartford

So.... I have come to realize that the Lord..... He just has big plans for me and expects a lot from me.  Partially, because I can't believe how many blessing and responsibilities I have been given.  Every transfer is a new responsibility, and this week is transfers!!

Now, I will be "whitewashing" New Hartford (also known as the southern part of Utica). Whitewashing is when they bring two new missionaries into an area, which is very rare.  Of the two Sisters previously assigned to New Hartford, one is going home due to medical problems, and the other is finished with her mission and is going home.  On the fortunate side, the Sister going home is A BOSS and I will now inherit 15-20 investigators..  What! ? ! ? ! ?  In the Corning area, I had maybe 4 investigators on a good week.  Now I have to ramp up to 15+.  hahaha.  :) I told the Mission President that I wanted to go into a new area running, well... he took me seriously!

This new area in the past has been teaching 45+ lessons a week-- which is unheard of for the east coast.  You would think I was serving in South America with those kind of numbers.   After getting some info from a Sister who served there 6 weeks ago, the people have had many struggles:  economically, emotionally and spiritually.  People there have been humbled and are super prepared to hear the gospel.

I will leave the Corning NY "Rural Bubble" and enter into the Utica "Urban Jungle".    Woop, woop!  I am excited to finally be able to talk to people and not trees.

I was counseled by the Sisters that me and Sister Howard (my new companion as of tomorrow, Tuesday) are to be 100% obedient, 100% humble and 100% confident and show no fear.  If we do, the area will flourish and the people will join the church... if not.. then things will be much harder.

The other funny thing is that I will now live next to the Mission Home, the Mission President, and the Assistants.  No more disobedience (wink, wink-- hehe), However, I am excited for the opportunity to get closer to President Wirthlin, and the Office couple missionaries before they all return home in July.  It is a blessing, and if I stay in Utica longer than July, I will get to know President Rogers (he will be the new Mission President).

I also know Sister Howard, my new companion, quiet well.  She has been in my District the whole time I served in Corning.  She was in the Elmira area.  After an exchange back in January, I actually had a spiritual impression that one day, we were going to be companions.  The only problem is that my "natural-man" side did not want to be her companion.  We are polar opposites in personalities.  She struggles with confidence and struggles with teaching.  But, when we were on exchanges, she was so humble and did everything I tried to teach her that even the Elders noticed improvements in her right after the exchange.  However, she fell quickly back into old habits.

However, the 'spiritual-man" side knew that this was going to happen, because I need to learn to get over myself and help her out.  I need to learn from her humility and the humility of the people that I am about to serve.  She needs to be with me and gain confidence.  Together I know that we will be the 100% obedient, 100% humble, and 100% confident companionship and do a lot of the Lord's work in Utica!

So much hard work is ahead of me, and it is going to be a different kind of work.  Instead of the administrative/leadership side and serving other Sisters, I now get to do the 24/7 missionary side of serving investigators and less actives.!!  Hooray!  That is something that deep down, I have been yearning for. :)

My biggest desire for what I wanted to personally gain while being on my mission was to further develop my testimony of the Atonement and of Jesus Christ.  Just before transfer calls, I had the prompting to take a new copy of the Book of Mormon, write 3 questions and read the entire book from beginning to end.  My three questions are: "What is the Atonement?  and "Who is Jesus Christ," and "Why do I need Him?"   I then had another impression after my transfer call that during my time in Utica, that these questions were going to be answered.  Not just during my personal study, but during my experiences in Utica.

I love the Lord's timing, everything just fits together, and the Mission President is inspired, and the Spirit... is so powerful!  I have been feeling for the last 3 weeks, a sense of urgency about Corning and this new place that I was going to have to go.  So I have been trying to do some last minute things to benefit the Branch, the investigators and the new Sister coming in.  It is just awesome.  Now... I just have to pack and clean and finish seeing everyone.  So, I will probably be going to bed very late tonight!! haha

Katelyn's Baptism - Corning

This week has been crazy.  I went to "Return and Report" for Sister Brooks, so I have been in Utica at least once a week for the last 3 weeks.  I also had Katelyn's baptism.  It was even better.  Both of the baptisms I have had so far on the mission have been golden contacts-- and Katelyn is pure gold.  I have never seen anyone want the gospel so much in their life and go out of their comfort zone with such motivation.  She walked away from her family in order to join the Church. !! I have pretty much decided to adopt her... and most of the Corning Branch... man my family is getting a whole lot bigger. :)  But, it is all worth it!  I love them so much and the coolest thing about love is that there isn't a limit or cap on how much you can experience.  It just keeps on growing.  Corning has been the preparatory area for me to learn a lot, and help me be the missionary I need to be in the other areas of my mission.

The Gospel... It just makes sense.

Love you all!!
Sister Kylie Williams

Onward and Upward

Hi there everyone!!

This week has been busy...just like normal...but also really rather weird.  Missions  REALLY DO prepare you for adult life,  I am finding that my mission is a roller coaster of excitement.

This past week started off easy with P-day and we went to get the oil changed in our car.  To our surprise, someone had sneaked pizza in between our hood and the engine block.   That wasn't good.   Gives new meaning to the phrase a 'hot mess.'  People sometimes just like to play pranks on the missionaries. :(   Another weird incident this week was that I got asked out on a date by an unknown man that I had never met.  Yup, better change my 'approach' techniques a bit.

Since it was getting close to Easter, we decided to call all of the potential contacts in our phone and try and set up a time to visit with them and share the new Easter Video.  Well, one of them decided that he already knew the gospel, but wanted to get to know the Sisters...Wink, Wink.  We politely said no, then quickly deleted his contact info.  Thankfully, the Lord does protect His missionaries and we are blessed to be guided by His Spirit.

We have done a lot of tracting this week.  I no longer have a fear of tracting. partially because I just had to suck it up and do it.  For the most part, people have been nice in their rejections.  Except for the man who said "I know what your Church really believes... I believe Christ to be the Son of God.  Don't lie to me!"  Then he slammed the door.  You can't fill a cup that thinks it is filled.

We do however, have a baptism coming up this Saturday!!  Woop Woop!  For a totally prepared 18 year old girl who accepted the gospel and was taught in just 4 short weeks.  She is strong and is determined to be active for the rest of her life.  The Spirit is so strong in her lessons.  It will be a great experience.

This past week, we also had Mission Leadership Conference again and discussed the needs of the mission and how to improve it.  President Wirthlin will be going home soon and that makes me a little sad.  But, I can't wait for President Rodgers to come.  He and his wife sound great!  The best part of  MLC was coming home... because we went to Costco in Syracuse.  I am pretty sure that our experience was close to what it will be like in the next life when we get accepted into the Celestial Kingdom.  After only having an old Walmart to shop at down in Corning, Costco brought tears of joy to our faces.  Finally after 30 minutes of shopping and a 4 berry sundae, I felt like I could take on the world.

To continue on the spiritual high that I was already having... we had one of the best general conferences ever!! If you haven't watched the Saturday afternoon session, go back and watch it as soon as possible!  I loved every minute of it.  The 70's, apostles, and other leaders brought the spiritual hammer.  Obviously, people are struggling in families, relationships and their faith with doubts and keeping the commandments.  We should never doubt.  Because of the Savior, He is our Brother who will lift us up and not let us fall.  He has provided us His grace so that the windows of heaven and the gate leading to eternal life is open.  He is the light and hope and if we are truly converted to Him, we can dance to the music of the gospel.  We can endure in our discipleship for the rest of our lives and for eternity.  All we really need to do is pray, read the scriptures, serve, attend the temple, protect our homes, and keep the Sabbath day holy.

Conference was great... even though there were so many marriage talks... I'll cross that bridge when I have to.  But now, I have another check mark of what I want in a husband.  All kisses, must be accompanied by a cookie!! :)

Easter was great!! This upcoming week will be busy and eventful again.  We have people to find and to teach, a baptism to prepare, sisters to lift and to travel again to Utica for Sister Brooks to return and report her first month of being a full proselyting missionary in the field... and not just on Temple Square !!!

It keeps snowing here.... and it's really weird!  But... I LOVE YOU ALL, AND THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!

Love, Sis. Kylie Williams