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