Hello Everyone!
Monday has come around the corner once again and we have been running around all week! ha ha. That has been my life for all of January. I cannot believe how fast this year is already going. February and March, I am pretty sure, will be gone before I know it. The beginning part of the week we started with Sister Gass going to Palmyra, so that took a lot of planning. Monday we packed and tried to clean up our apartment and after a lesson, we left early for Ithaca where I jumped out of the car and joined another Sister and watched as our companions went up to Syracuse and then to Utica to spend the night. The next day, they went to Palmyra and saw the sights and went to the temple. That plus driving really wiped out Sister Gass. I am actually excited for the upcoming day when I get to go to the temple and finally see the Sacred Grove and the Hill Cumorah before I come home. All in good time.
While she was doing that... Sister Virgin and I were trying to work in Ithaca. It is a strange place. There is a downtown and rough parts, there is Cornell Univ. and all the intellectual professors and PhD's and college dorm housing, and then around that is rural backwoods area surrounded by cascading waterfalls, but inhabited by people suffering from " I have lived here my whole life" syndrome. We had fun though. We saw a few of their RC/LA's and tried a few potentials and went tracting. We picked up this guy named Jay in a trailer park, and he was slightly buzzed, but he loved the Restoration. He read the Book of Mormon when he was in jail a few years ago and found God.... but currently, he is going elsewhere. Hopefully, he likes the message just as much when he is fully sober. I also got to teach this fun lady named Charlotte, who is 75 years old and grew up Catholic, that the Sisters found 6 months ago. She converted to the gospel and she has this heavy New Jersey accent and a gruff voice. When she reads the Book of Mormon, she says out loud, "You guys, wasn't that the most beautiful thing you ever read!"
I was so glad to be back in Elmira on Wednesday after Sister Gass came back and we drove home.... just in time for District Meeting. It was the first time that I truly missed my area and my people on my mission. I really just wanted to go back and see them and teach the people that we have been seeing the last three months. It was interesting. I have always loved the people I taught... but not to the extent of what has occurred now on my mission. It is funny to see the differences over time. We did this weird "Scavenger hunt" that was supposed to be an analogy for how to plan well... yea, wasn't the most spiritual meeting, but it was fun. Then, we just went to work seeing people. We have been seeing our main people lately. We taught Jon and Crystal again over Facebook and they are slowly progressing. We are even doing a church tour with them this Wednesday and I am excited. Once we get them to Church, I know that they will get baptized in the coming months. We got to see Will... we had a slight scare. He hasn't really been the best at taking care of himself and managing his diabetes and his blood sugar dropped to 26 on Sunday night... just before we were to teach him a lesson. We knew something was wrong because he didn't open his door and his car was home. We prayed hard and decided to leave. The next day, he texted us and told us that he had hurt himself bad and the EMT's/ambulance had to break in to his house to help him. It was scary, so we are scared about the baptism... but he just keeps plunking along.
Williams got baptized on Saturday and it was great. His sister came and also the Elders had a baptism. The poor Elder's investigator had to be baptized 9 times because the man doing it, was inexperienced and had a hard time with a low water level font. So that was slightly embarrassing. They all had a good laugh about it afterwards though. We watched Meet the Mormons during the dressing time, and the Spirit was so strong during the Candy Bomber story. Sister Gass and I were on the verge of tears the whole time. We were so glad that things worked out.
However, the coolest miracle happened on Sunday. Will was going to be confirmed. When we walked into the Church, we saw him and and he was talking to someone we didn't recognize. They looked alike, so I thought that he had invited his adult daughter to see it. I was so proud of him as a missionary, but it actually didn't work out quite that way. A month ago, the Elmira central Elders tracted into a family who let them in and they gave a lesson. Over the last 2 weeks, that family became a super solid progressing family. This family was ready to come to Church and the Elders brought them. They walk in, are looking around and the Mom screams and runs over to someone in a suit on the other side of the building. The Elders ask, "What's going on?" The Father says, "Oh, that's her Dad." William's daughter found the gospel just like he did. William has a golden family. It was a family reunion at Church! They both said that they both had been learning more about God and going to Church, they were excited for each other, but had never discussed what the name of the Church was... LOL. What are the odds, that we find William and the Elders find the daughter and her family and we teach both groups simultaneously. Even more astonishing is that they both come to Church for the first time on the same day, in the same building. Boom! They both have instant fellow shippers and a support system. This is not our work, it is the Lord's work. Will had the best confirmation. He loved it. He said that he felt like something "filled him up' and he was the luckiest guy on the earth. He even stayed for an 8 year old baptism afterwards. He is doing great... unfortunately, we just saw him last night while he had a low blood sugar episode. It is tough to watch one of my favorite people be reduced to the level of a teenager and lose all inhibition due to health problems. Agency is a killer. If only people would take care of themselves. But, the Lord knows what he is doing.
Thursday, we kept teaching people. We tracted into this guy named Norm that loves the Yankees and was willing to listen and read the Book of Mormon. Rachel is doing good! We had a Relief Society activity on Thursday and got to know more of the ladies in the Ward. That was Fun!
Humm, other updates. James, still stubborn James... Sabrina and Brian are finally having spiritual experiences over Facebook, but they won't let go of their work responsibilities to let the Gospel help them. But, we will still get there! Jim is getting the priesthood next week! We went on exchanges with the Corning Sisters and picked up 4 investigators and saw little referral miracles. I tracted in the cold for 4 hours ... that was fun. Even though we didn't spend a ton of time in our area this week, we still got work done!
Church on Sunday was so spiritual. Best Sunday speakers and little miracles with our investigators. The Spirit was so strong, it tired me out... but I had to go see all of our people.
Well, this week is transfer week. Sister Gass is going home and Sister Seeder will be my new companion. She has been out for 15 months. She is from Seattle and is super cute and nice, but very shy. We are complete opposites, but I have learned that God gives me companions to learn how to be best friends with people that I would never think to be friends with.
I am going to miss Sister Gass a ton. She has been my favorite companion so far and we have had a lot of good time. But, I am excited for the future!
The Church is true!
Sister Kylie Williams
New York
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Monday, January 25, 2016
The Day of Blessings
Hey everyone!
This has been quite a crazy awesome and dramatic week. As things get closer and closer to the new transfer in February, the pace is picking up. We had Rachel's baptism, Will passed his interview, we had a worldwide training with the apostles, double dinner with investigators, Facebook lessons and partying with members. There are times when missionary work is tough, like so hard that you just want to sit in a corner and cry and sometimes that happens. But, you just let it out and the Lord strengthens you, gives you a miracle and then your fine for another month or two. But then there are certain days where everything just goes right and everyone is so happy and you just sit back and revel in it! Those days make a mission worth it!
But, I will start from the beginning! Monday started off sweet! We had tons of appointments so we woke up early and tried to get everything done as fast as possible. We did however, make it to the Ward Zumba night. It was so much fun! I didn't know how much I truly love dancing until I haven been able to do it. These hips don't lie :) We got everything done, just to have our appointments fall through, so what did we decide to do, buy Syracuse pajamas and sleep in the living room and eat chips for 2 hours. It was fantastic. We then continued to teach Rachel and Jon/Crystal over Facebook and we saw Jim. We taught Brenton, who managed a Barnes and Noble store, and he read the whole Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price and he loved it. But he does not want to pray about it or become affiliated with organized religion. I am so confused with people like that... Grrr. They like the knowledge, but not the lifestyle change. Judgement day is going to be interesting for many. We dropped him as an investigator afterwards.
Jim-- THE MAN IS COMING BACK! We made a real effort to bring members this week and review the lessons. It was really good and we kept hammering the commitment of coming back to Church since he hasn't been in 3 weeks. Well, he came this week and personally approached the Bishop and said, "So I am done waiting! I want the priesthood... I want to keep walking the path!" ha ha Jim doesn't mince words. He also said the closing prayer Sunday Night and was so happy that he was able to go back and to feel loved by the Ward and by Heavenly Father. FIST PUMP! With him, I learned that people really do need space and experience opposition sometimes. Unlike like helicopter parents... you can't be a helicopter missionary. If you always protect them and try to control every situation, they are not going to truly grow. Prayer and trusting in the Lord, is all we can do, that and be patient. It was so hard, but he is in a much better place now.
Jon/Crystal: They are a sweet new progressing couple. They have jobs and remind me of really geeky Mormons that just aren't baptized yet. We OYM'd/tracted into them 1 month ago and with patience, they are opening up and keeping commitments. She is a very nonactive Baptist, and he was recently Presbyterian. But, everyone there was in their 70's, so he left. They are engaged and want religion in their lives. I actually like them a lot. They have some things to work on, but very good hearts. They took us out to Ruby Tuesdays on Thursday and we just go to know each other better and gave them the materials for future lessons. They live with the Dad to save money and he does not like us... so we talk over Facebook. Jon always has to update me on football scores too. He feels like it is his duty or something. Thankfully football seasons is coming to a close, so we can get them to church.
Tuesday: We saw some not progressing investigators. Yeah, those are always hard. If people aren't in to what we have to say, the Spirit really isn't present for lessons. We have had quite a few of those lately. Our investigator pool is dropping. It's okay, many of them I knew weren't too interested anyways. I may have to do a lot more finding next month. #findingFebruary. We did a tiny bit of tracting this week. Nothing really came of it. We saw Will and Brian and they are so awesome.
William - AKA Bill: The man is going to be a great Mormon. Because of his diabetes, his brain isn't 100%, but his heart is... and because his heart is, the man says really inspired things sometimes. He came to Rachel's baptism to support and aced his interview this week! He is also so giving. He made Sister Gass Gluten free bread, because of her recent allergy and gave me yogurt. He also gave us apples because we are 'his teachers' and always tries to give us things.. ha ha, just like Jim. He did have a recent blood sugar scare and if we could all just keep him in our prayers this week that would be great. Satan's only way to really mess with him is his health... and Satan is a tool... so he doesn't like to play by the rules. Grr... but Heavenly Father is stronger.
Brian: He knows the Relief Society President and is a great step Dad to the family that we are teaching. Unlike the wife, who has no religious background, he has a ton! And he understands everything we teach him. Unfortunately, the family is all workaholics due to crazy medical bills for the son, so they are never available. He is committed to baptism in April. !!! Yayy!
Wednesday was the missionary broadcast.. and that was pretty good. They haven't done one of these for like a decade. They want us to be bold, teach the gospel of Jesus Christ more, be bold with repentance and work with members. Elder Bednar went hard on these missionaries in the Ogden Mission. Makes me feel better, to know that i am not the only missionary with struggles. They messed up a ton, and Elder Bednar brings in the bold hammer of "umm duh! Why aren't you doing this to have the Spirit!" It was actually hilarious. I then got to practice that boldness on a convert of a year, that never really had a testimony, just joined because his wife wanted him too. Well, all he would do is nick pick and whine, and even distort things in the past, and it was probably the boldest I have ever been on my mission. But, he kinda needed it! We will see what happens. I went to a Book of Mormon Class and missionary Coordination. The usual.
Thursday, we were running around, teaching lessons and saw the usual's. We did pick up a new investigator named Jennifer. The inactive Baptist with anxiety problems. But, she also has a good heart! We had two dinners, thankfully I had the salad bar to help me from not throwing up... and life went on!
Friday we planned, we set goals to be better listeners, and help the Spirit to be in the teaching environment more. We got to practice on Will and then Brian and his family. Those are some of the best lessons this month, we taught the basics of prayer and the Godhead to the family and they asked questions... we waited and let them testify to each other then we answered with scriptures. It was great. Later that night, we got grilled by this Christian kid named Kylie, who is really struggling with his faith. He is intense, so many questions and I feel like I am be interrogated by the FBI, but he always feels the Spirit and commits to do the little things at the end, when at the beginning he doesn't.
Saturday was the best! We woke up and brought some shoes for Rachel (she doesn't have any because she's never dressed up for Church!) Then we went to the baptism of her and Chip. It was the most packed baptism every. I think we had like 40 people there. Great member support and Will and James came. Everyone was happy and the family that Rachel is marrying into, was just crying and so grateful for us teaching her and bringing her into their family with the gospel and they were just beaming to have this new, intelligent, spiritual daughter in law... when many of their 5 sons have given them a lot of grief due to not living gospel standards. We then got taken out to eat with some members, but then we went to another celebration with the member family and Rachel and had pizza. It was really good though. We planned for Primary and then went to another baptism for an 8 year old in the Ward. They are a prestigious family, so they invited like 100 nonmembers and it was a very big showing. So, we talked to the nonmembers. Some were cool, some avoided us like the plague. But, Saturday was a happy day!
Rachel - Man I just love Rachel. She is the most Dry Mormon ever. She is begging for a calling, and already does her family history... and asks questions about the temple, but when we tell her that we can't tell her everything, because it is sacred and H doesn't want the whole world to know, she just sits back and says, "Wow, that makes so much sense.! So do they have preparation classes?" Ah, yup! We pretty much don't teacher her. She teachers herself and we just found her and answer her questions. She is a cutie and really out of the converts I have been blessed to have, Rachel and Will (who is next week) are kinda my favorite... not that I should have favorites, but it still kinda happens. They are the most humble and spiritually prepared people I have taught on my mission. I am just so grateful for them. Her blessing for the confirmation was beautiful. It promised the future of temple blessings, and many callings and service and helping people in the Church. It promised of being a pioneer and helping her family find the church too. So awesome!
Sunday was super funny! James came just to see and we put Will and Jim together and they got along great! We were so proud, we would watch from behind and it is like sending your kids off to school for the first time. They just do so great, and you feel this whole 'proud parent' thing... yep, that's what it was like. We also taught a sharing time in Primary and the kids behaved really well. I was impressed!
Now, I am off to Ithaca for the next two days while Sister Gass goes to Palmyra for the temple trip for departing missionaries. Poor thing freaks out sometimes. I wonder if that will happen to me.
Love you all! The Church is True!!!
Love Sister Kylie Williams
This has been quite a crazy awesome and dramatic week. As things get closer and closer to the new transfer in February, the pace is picking up. We had Rachel's baptism, Will passed his interview, we had a worldwide training with the apostles, double dinner with investigators, Facebook lessons and partying with members. There are times when missionary work is tough, like so hard that you just want to sit in a corner and cry and sometimes that happens. But, you just let it out and the Lord strengthens you, gives you a miracle and then your fine for another month or two. But then there are certain days where everything just goes right and everyone is so happy and you just sit back and revel in it! Those days make a mission worth it!
But, I will start from the beginning! Monday started off sweet! We had tons of appointments so we woke up early and tried to get everything done as fast as possible. We did however, make it to the Ward Zumba night. It was so much fun! I didn't know how much I truly love dancing until I haven been able to do it. These hips don't lie :) We got everything done, just to have our appointments fall through, so what did we decide to do, buy Syracuse pajamas and sleep in the living room and eat chips for 2 hours. It was fantastic. We then continued to teach Rachel and Jon/Crystal over Facebook and we saw Jim. We taught Brenton, who managed a Barnes and Noble store, and he read the whole Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price and he loved it. But he does not want to pray about it or become affiliated with organized religion. I am so confused with people like that... Grrr. They like the knowledge, but not the lifestyle change. Judgement day is going to be interesting for many. We dropped him as an investigator afterwards.
Jim-- THE MAN IS COMING BACK! We made a real effort to bring members this week and review the lessons. It was really good and we kept hammering the commitment of coming back to Church since he hasn't been in 3 weeks. Well, he came this week and personally approached the Bishop and said, "So I am done waiting! I want the priesthood... I want to keep walking the path!" ha ha Jim doesn't mince words. He also said the closing prayer Sunday Night and was so happy that he was able to go back and to feel loved by the Ward and by Heavenly Father. FIST PUMP! With him, I learned that people really do need space and experience opposition sometimes. Unlike like helicopter parents... you can't be a helicopter missionary. If you always protect them and try to control every situation, they are not going to truly grow. Prayer and trusting in the Lord, is all we can do, that and be patient. It was so hard, but he is in a much better place now.
Jon/Crystal: They are a sweet new progressing couple. They have jobs and remind me of really geeky Mormons that just aren't baptized yet. We OYM'd/tracted into them 1 month ago and with patience, they are opening up and keeping commitments. She is a very nonactive Baptist, and he was recently Presbyterian. But, everyone there was in their 70's, so he left. They are engaged and want religion in their lives. I actually like them a lot. They have some things to work on, but very good hearts. They took us out to Ruby Tuesdays on Thursday and we just go to know each other better and gave them the materials for future lessons. They live with the Dad to save money and he does not like us... so we talk over Facebook. Jon always has to update me on football scores too. He feels like it is his duty or something. Thankfully football seasons is coming to a close, so we can get them to church.
Tuesday: We saw some not progressing investigators. Yeah, those are always hard. If people aren't in to what we have to say, the Spirit really isn't present for lessons. We have had quite a few of those lately. Our investigator pool is dropping. It's okay, many of them I knew weren't too interested anyways. I may have to do a lot more finding next month. #findingFebruary. We did a tiny bit of tracting this week. Nothing really came of it. We saw Will and Brian and they are so awesome.
William - AKA Bill: The man is going to be a great Mormon. Because of his diabetes, his brain isn't 100%, but his heart is... and because his heart is, the man says really inspired things sometimes. He came to Rachel's baptism to support and aced his interview this week! He is also so giving. He made Sister Gass Gluten free bread, because of her recent allergy and gave me yogurt. He also gave us apples because we are 'his teachers' and always tries to give us things.. ha ha, just like Jim. He did have a recent blood sugar scare and if we could all just keep him in our prayers this week that would be great. Satan's only way to really mess with him is his health... and Satan is a tool... so he doesn't like to play by the rules. Grr... but Heavenly Father is stronger.
Brian: He knows the Relief Society President and is a great step Dad to the family that we are teaching. Unlike the wife, who has no religious background, he has a ton! And he understands everything we teach him. Unfortunately, the family is all workaholics due to crazy medical bills for the son, so they are never available. He is committed to baptism in April. !!! Yayy!
Wednesday was the missionary broadcast.. and that was pretty good. They haven't done one of these for like a decade. They want us to be bold, teach the gospel of Jesus Christ more, be bold with repentance and work with members. Elder Bednar went hard on these missionaries in the Ogden Mission. Makes me feel better, to know that i am not the only missionary with struggles. They messed up a ton, and Elder Bednar brings in the bold hammer of "umm duh! Why aren't you doing this to have the Spirit!" It was actually hilarious. I then got to practice that boldness on a convert of a year, that never really had a testimony, just joined because his wife wanted him too. Well, all he would do is nick pick and whine, and even distort things in the past, and it was probably the boldest I have ever been on my mission. But, he kinda needed it! We will see what happens. I went to a Book of Mormon Class and missionary Coordination. The usual.
Thursday, we were running around, teaching lessons and saw the usual's. We did pick up a new investigator named Jennifer. The inactive Baptist with anxiety problems. But, she also has a good heart! We had two dinners, thankfully I had the salad bar to help me from not throwing up... and life went on!
Friday we planned, we set goals to be better listeners, and help the Spirit to be in the teaching environment more. We got to practice on Will and then Brian and his family. Those are some of the best lessons this month, we taught the basics of prayer and the Godhead to the family and they asked questions... we waited and let them testify to each other then we answered with scriptures. It was great. Later that night, we got grilled by this Christian kid named Kylie, who is really struggling with his faith. He is intense, so many questions and I feel like I am be interrogated by the FBI, but he always feels the Spirit and commits to do the little things at the end, when at the beginning he doesn't.
Saturday was the best! We woke up and brought some shoes for Rachel (she doesn't have any because she's never dressed up for Church!) Then we went to the baptism of her and Chip. It was the most packed baptism every. I think we had like 40 people there. Great member support and Will and James came. Everyone was happy and the family that Rachel is marrying into, was just crying and so grateful for us teaching her and bringing her into their family with the gospel and they were just beaming to have this new, intelligent, spiritual daughter in law... when many of their 5 sons have given them a lot of grief due to not living gospel standards. We then got taken out to eat with some members, but then we went to another celebration with the member family and Rachel and had pizza. It was really good though. We planned for Primary and then went to another baptism for an 8 year old in the Ward. They are a prestigious family, so they invited like 100 nonmembers and it was a very big showing. So, we talked to the nonmembers. Some were cool, some avoided us like the plague. But, Saturday was a happy day!
Rachel - Man I just love Rachel. She is the most Dry Mormon ever. She is begging for a calling, and already does her family history... and asks questions about the temple, but when we tell her that we can't tell her everything, because it is sacred and H doesn't want the whole world to know, she just sits back and says, "Wow, that makes so much sense.! So do they have preparation classes?" Ah, yup! We pretty much don't teacher her. She teachers herself and we just found her and answer her questions. She is a cutie and really out of the converts I have been blessed to have, Rachel and Will (who is next week) are kinda my favorite... not that I should have favorites, but it still kinda happens. They are the most humble and spiritually prepared people I have taught on my mission. I am just so grateful for them. Her blessing for the confirmation was beautiful. It promised the future of temple blessings, and many callings and service and helping people in the Church. It promised of being a pioneer and helping her family find the church too. So awesome!
Sunday was super funny! James came just to see and we put Will and Jim together and they got along great! We were so proud, we would watch from behind and it is like sending your kids off to school for the first time. They just do so great, and you feel this whole 'proud parent' thing... yep, that's what it was like. We also taught a sharing time in Primary and the kids behaved really well. I was impressed!
Now, I am off to Ithaca for the next two days while Sister Gass goes to Palmyra for the temple trip for departing missionaries. Poor thing freaks out sometimes. I wonder if that will happen to me.
Love you all! The Church is True!!!
Love Sister Kylie Williams
Monday, January 18, 2016
Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts
Hello Everyone!
We had a really cool and funny last couple of days. We are now beginning week 5 out of the 7 for this transfer, so things are starting to pick up the pace. This week flew by! I don't even know where it went, but there was never a dull moment.
It all started off last Monday, typical Monday. just running around and never having enough time to get everything done. We saw Sis E and we showed her the Mormon Channel App on her Roku and had her watch some conference talks. It was like releasing a kid in a candy store, she couldn't get enough of it! Her Mom, who is much older, wants to come back to Church and hopefully they both do soon! The Ward is praying that they do. We had a super crazy meal appointment with this super solid family in the Ward. Their kids are so funny and are flying off the walls and they told around 20-30 riddles during dinner. my head hurt afterwards.. but the chili was great! Especially on a cold winter night. We taught Rachel over Facebook, we try to do that every night and the poor thing wasn't having a good day, but we taught her about the prophets and it changed her night around :)
Let me take a second to talk about Rachel. I love this girl to death! She is the coolest person ever. He faith is equivalent to King Lamoni's wife. In just the last week, she has grown tremendously and just loves everything we teach and it changes her behavior the moment we teach her a new principle. She gave up coffee in 1 day, she immediately started going into withdrawal... so she went to work and just felt gross and even started throwing up... her coworker who hates the Church began to tempt her with coffee and was like, "What are you doing, just take a sip! You will feel better!' To that, she would reply, "And repeat this all over?? NO Thanks!" What a trooper! Even with opposition she got through it and it does not even bother her. She teaches us lessons now before we even teach a principle. We just sit back and watch and smile. I am grateful for Heavenly Father giving me the responsibility over her and being able to watch her grow and now see her in-active boyfriend come to Church and they make such a cute soon to be family. This is the first couple/family that I have taught that has the greatest chance of being sealed in the temple in a year. :)
Tuesday was also very interesting. We had our Owego one training meeting and we learned about planning. Not going to lie, but I haven't been the most "text book Missionary" when it comes to planning. It was good to get called to repentance and learn how I can be more vigilant the next 4 months of my mission. My planning is like Swiss cheese, it has holes". I really have been doing much better with it since being with Sister Gass, but there is always room for improvement.
President Rogers could talk about planning for like 9 hours, but it was only for 3. That took up most of the day and driving and lunch afterwards. It stated to lightly snow. We saw Ilona, and she was in a good mood and also came to church this Sunday! Yayy! Then we went out to this member that actually lives in Pennsylvania. Part of my mission and ward boundary goes across the state border. We were in the middle of no where in the snow, going to this magical winter wonderland where the members have this huge log cabin on a lake that looks like something from a Thomas Kincade painting. We finally found it and had my first dinner appointment in Pennsylvania. That was actually fun and we had homemade cookies right there... mmmm! We saw Will later that night and Rachel again. They are kinda our main focuses since they are getting baptized soon.
We talked about goals and it was hilarious. It just was one of those days where the universe was out of wack. Our plumbing was kinda messed up, we both wanted to eat chocolate all day and sleep, but we couldn't. It was Rachel's baptismal interview day! We got Sis Goette to pick her up (her car is broke) and she passed with flying colors! She is officially to become a member. But, after that, we saw Will again.
William is doing great. We also found out that secretly he goes by Bill, but we have been calling him Will the last 2 months. He is still a William to me! He is getting baptized the 30th! Woop Woop. We keep reviewing the lessons and getting things to sink in and we have had to overcome the obstacle of thing. There was some miscommunication and the poor guy just doesn't have anything and even though he can afford to only eat like one meal a day, he wants to be a full tithe payer. He is another one of those full of faith people. They are the best. The Lord just prepared their hearts. He said that for him to gain a testimony of the gospel, he had to believe it was true first to get the experiences. So deep, I wish most people saw it that way. Our lives would be so much easier. But, I have come to see that missionary work isn't about trying to pry people into accepting the gospel, but rather that I just need to find the Will's and Rachel's. I don't prepare people, God does. I just have to be ready to say something when He throws them at us! More good things to come with Will.
Wednesday was crazy. We taught 9 people. We were running all day! We started off trying to help a crazy less active in the ward by helping her move out of her apartment complex. When we go there, it was a filthy hoarding situation. I had had to deal with that a few times in my life, and I really was not about to just sit there and move one pile from room to room. Plus, when someone had to inspect for bed bugs, I grabbed my companion and ran out of there. Thankfully, we sprayed and checked ourselves. But cleanliness really is next to Godliness!
Then, we went to see Nadine and found her on her bike, in a snowstorm with a giant purple bunny hat on. We were driving in the car and called her over to the parking lot to help her with her bike. She was mad that she was so tired and that it was hard to pedal her bike... but then I told her that the tire was low and she was biking in snow and bikes don't like 20 degree weather. ha ha She rescheduled for an hour later, except we found her again on the road... so we taught her in the parking lot about Adam and Even and the fall. It was actually a very good lesson... but very funny circumstances.
We went tracting and picked up this new guy named Zach and he lets us in the doorway, but we didn't go all the way in since it was just him and there was like 15 different guitars in his house. he is a musician in a band and a elementary music teacher and knows members and is looking for religion because he forsook his Methodist ways to pursue music. He does have some objections to certain commandments, but the Spirit will work on him over time... hopefully! The whole conversation about the law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom was very interesting! Then we were off to drive to Utica for MLC the next day. It was good to see old friends.
We had MLC with Brother Ware and Hemingway. They are directors of Missionary proselyting and referrals for the Church. Very intense. Brother Ware was really nice, Bro Hemingway really intimidated me, he was very business-y! But they basically dropped the bomb on us about planning and things we need to do to baptize those we find. They really know how to get things done.. they taught us about Facebook and taught us everything, so now we have to teach our Sisters! No pressure. ;) Exchanges are changing and a bunch of other missionary things are changing. They taught us about teaching repentance, as in being bold and saying "you are not keeping this commandment. Pray to Heavenly Father for forgiveness and commit to him that you will do it." Because apparently, the Church is suffering with retention. We need to teach people how to change with the Savior's help and teach repentance and baptize converts! That was all day, we only had enough time to teach Will at the end of the day. We were exhausted from everything plus driving back home.
We then saw Megan, taught her the Word of Wisdom and it was okay! She is still working on things and will be investigating for quite a while. Her work schedule is changing and she can't come to church now. :) GRR Satan.!! We prepped Rachel for her baptismal interview and she did great with the questions. We saw Mike, the poor guy is not feeling well. We read scriptures with him. We saw another recent convert family which is struggling with basic doctrine and tithing. For some reason, I am always super bold with them. Apparently, I can be mega bold with older people... but they have been somewhat doing better, so I hope that we can help get them to the Temple! We called James on our way from the Fedenkos. They came to Church!! Yayy. Our Jehovah Witness investigator dropped us. Sad. He just didn't have the real intent to change and was struggling with commitments and loves his church, so he didn't want to study anymore. We had problems getting members to come teaching, so we also had to keep rescheduling. I almost feel like HF did that so we could have more time in our schedule to find others that really do want to change. That was my impression at least! But, I still learned many interesting things with James. Then we had missionary coordination.
Saturday we just worked and did the same things. The only difference was Jim. JIM CALLED US AND WE HAVE HAD LESSONS WITH HIM!!!! He still has a testimony and he just needed space!! Hallelujah!! :) I am so happy. And, he wants to go to Church this Sunday! We also have been doing more online proselyting... just like Bro Hemingway taught us. It really works.
Church was good... the members had a little drama here and there. I always marvel at the miracle of being able to bring people to church and not have them run away sometimes :P ha ha we are all so imperfect! I wonder what Heavenly Father must go through. He must be like "Come on guys, get this together!" We saw some people and went to a missionary farewell. That was weird! We then taught a family that we haven't seen for a month and now we are going to get into the habit of seeing them more frequently! Yayy!
We that is all, the Church is true, and yup... I love it!
Love,
Sister Kylie Williams
We had a really cool and funny last couple of days. We are now beginning week 5 out of the 7 for this transfer, so things are starting to pick up the pace. This week flew by! I don't even know where it went, but there was never a dull moment.
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| The Book of Mormon, the Keystone to our religion |
Let me take a second to talk about Rachel. I love this girl to death! She is the coolest person ever. He faith is equivalent to King Lamoni's wife. In just the last week, she has grown tremendously and just loves everything we teach and it changes her behavior the moment we teach her a new principle. She gave up coffee in 1 day, she immediately started going into withdrawal... so she went to work and just felt gross and even started throwing up... her coworker who hates the Church began to tempt her with coffee and was like, "What are you doing, just take a sip! You will feel better!' To that, she would reply, "And repeat this all over?? NO Thanks!" What a trooper! Even with opposition she got through it and it does not even bother her. She teaches us lessons now before we even teach a principle. We just sit back and watch and smile. I am grateful for Heavenly Father giving me the responsibility over her and being able to watch her grow and now see her in-active boyfriend come to Church and they make such a cute soon to be family. This is the first couple/family that I have taught that has the greatest chance of being sealed in the temple in a year. :)
Tuesday was also very interesting. We had our Owego one training meeting and we learned about planning. Not going to lie, but I haven't been the most "text book Missionary" when it comes to planning. It was good to get called to repentance and learn how I can be more vigilant the next 4 months of my mission. My planning is like Swiss cheese, it has holes". I really have been doing much better with it since being with Sister Gass, but there is always room for improvement.
President Rogers could talk about planning for like 9 hours, but it was only for 3. That took up most of the day and driving and lunch afterwards. It stated to lightly snow. We saw Ilona, and she was in a good mood and also came to church this Sunday! Yayy! Then we went out to this member that actually lives in Pennsylvania. Part of my mission and ward boundary goes across the state border. We were in the middle of no where in the snow, going to this magical winter wonderland where the members have this huge log cabin on a lake that looks like something from a Thomas Kincade painting. We finally found it and had my first dinner appointment in Pennsylvania. That was actually fun and we had homemade cookies right there... mmmm! We saw Will later that night and Rachel again. They are kinda our main focuses since they are getting baptized soon.
We talked about goals and it was hilarious. It just was one of those days where the universe was out of wack. Our plumbing was kinda messed up, we both wanted to eat chocolate all day and sleep, but we couldn't. It was Rachel's baptismal interview day! We got Sis Goette to pick her up (her car is broke) and she passed with flying colors! She is officially to become a member. But, after that, we saw Will again.
Wednesday was crazy. We taught 9 people. We were running all day! We started off trying to help a crazy less active in the ward by helping her move out of her apartment complex. When we go there, it was a filthy hoarding situation. I had had to deal with that a few times in my life, and I really was not about to just sit there and move one pile from room to room. Plus, when someone had to inspect for bed bugs, I grabbed my companion and ran out of there. Thankfully, we sprayed and checked ourselves. But cleanliness really is next to Godliness!
Then, we went to see Nadine and found her on her bike, in a snowstorm with a giant purple bunny hat on. We were driving in the car and called her over to the parking lot to help her with her bike. She was mad that she was so tired and that it was hard to pedal her bike... but then I told her that the tire was low and she was biking in snow and bikes don't like 20 degree weather. ha ha She rescheduled for an hour later, except we found her again on the road... so we taught her in the parking lot about Adam and Even and the fall. It was actually a very good lesson... but very funny circumstances.
We went tracting and picked up this new guy named Zach and he lets us in the doorway, but we didn't go all the way in since it was just him and there was like 15 different guitars in his house. he is a musician in a band and a elementary music teacher and knows members and is looking for religion because he forsook his Methodist ways to pursue music. He does have some objections to certain commandments, but the Spirit will work on him over time... hopefully! The whole conversation about the law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom was very interesting! Then we were off to drive to Utica for MLC the next day. It was good to see old friends.
We had MLC with Brother Ware and Hemingway. They are directors of Missionary proselyting and referrals for the Church. Very intense. Brother Ware was really nice, Bro Hemingway really intimidated me, he was very business-y! But they basically dropped the bomb on us about planning and things we need to do to baptize those we find. They really know how to get things done.. they taught us about Facebook and taught us everything, so now we have to teach our Sisters! No pressure. ;) Exchanges are changing and a bunch of other missionary things are changing. They taught us about teaching repentance, as in being bold and saying "you are not keeping this commandment. Pray to Heavenly Father for forgiveness and commit to him that you will do it." Because apparently, the Church is suffering with retention. We need to teach people how to change with the Savior's help and teach repentance and baptize converts! That was all day, we only had enough time to teach Will at the end of the day. We were exhausted from everything plus driving back home.
We then saw Megan, taught her the Word of Wisdom and it was okay! She is still working on things and will be investigating for quite a while. Her work schedule is changing and she can't come to church now. :) GRR Satan.!! We prepped Rachel for her baptismal interview and she did great with the questions. We saw Mike, the poor guy is not feeling well. We read scriptures with him. We saw another recent convert family which is struggling with basic doctrine and tithing. For some reason, I am always super bold with them. Apparently, I can be mega bold with older people... but they have been somewhat doing better, so I hope that we can help get them to the Temple! We called James on our way from the Fedenkos. They came to Church!! Yayy. Our Jehovah Witness investigator dropped us. Sad. He just didn't have the real intent to change and was struggling with commitments and loves his church, so he didn't want to study anymore. We had problems getting members to come teaching, so we also had to keep rescheduling. I almost feel like HF did that so we could have more time in our schedule to find others that really do want to change. That was my impression at least! But, I still learned many interesting things with James. Then we had missionary coordination.
Saturday we just worked and did the same things. The only difference was Jim. JIM CALLED US AND WE HAVE HAD LESSONS WITH HIM!!!! He still has a testimony and he just needed space!! Hallelujah!! :) I am so happy. And, he wants to go to Church this Sunday! We also have been doing more online proselyting... just like Bro Hemingway taught us. It really works.
Church was good... the members had a little drama here and there. I always marvel at the miracle of being able to bring people to church and not have them run away sometimes :P ha ha we are all so imperfect! I wonder what Heavenly Father must go through. He must be like "Come on guys, get this together!" We saw some people and went to a missionary farewell. That was weird! We then taught a family that we haven't seen for a month and now we are going to get into the habit of seeing them more frequently! Yayy!
We that is all, the Church is true, and yup... I love it!
Love,
Sister Kylie Williams
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Elmira Days
Hello Everyone!
This was a pretty great week. Lots of little things happened. We are currently experiencing a "calm before the storm". Lots of changes in my companionship, the mission and general missionary work over the next 2 to 3 weeks. We have 3 more weeks before transfers again and things are picking up. Sister Gass is slowly prepping to return home... that's been interesting. But, my companion gets to go to the Palmyra temple trip is in 2 weeks! I have to wait until right before I go home to go see the Sacred Grove and go to the temple, but I can still hear about her experience. I miss the temple so much!
We are also going to be starting up exchanges in a week. Due to ta bedbug problem in the mission, things have been at a stand still. Church headquarters just changed how we have to do exchanges now. The Sisters will come to our area for 24 hours and blitz us. They call it "The Laboratory" and we get to use our area and model/be examples. No pressure or anything.. ha ha. Also, this week, we have a GA who is over all of the online proselyting for the church, coming and giving us Facebook training at MLC. That will be interesting. In 2 weeks, there is also going to be a worldwide missionary broadcast as a training for all of us. I have been told that we missionaries are not teaching enough about repentance and having investigators internalize the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. Also, retention is starting to be a problem in the Northeast, but that makes sense. Lately, we have had a few people bombarded at work with anti and opposition literature. Even in medical facilities where you aren't allowed to talk about religion, but yet bosses are putting pamphlets in our investigators lockers. It is times like these that really makes me want to shake my fist at Satan. He is good at what he does. He is also good at starting to make the world so turbulent that people that people sometimes tell us that they don't want to allow us in their homes, that even because we are church people, we still can't be trusted. O well, you just find the select few of super awesome people! And... we have quite a few.
The weather has gotten quite gross over the last few days....rainy, cold, slick and super windy. It even snowed really bad last Monday and went down to 5 degrees. Thankfully things went back to a warmer trend.
The biggest news of the week is that Rachel is now getting baptized on the 23rd!! Fun fact, Sunday there was just not any opening to have a baptism because our Ward is having 6 to 7 of them in the next two weeks (which is super rare) and we were going to bump it to February, but one of the elders investigators who is coming to Church ran up to her and is like, "Rachel? Is that you??" So they were old childhood friends and didn't know that they were both learning about the Church. He said that she could get baptized with him! Super cool! Her desire is top notch and through the roof! We are on the whole rapid fire technique when teaching her. We have to teach lessons 4 and 5 and get all of the baptismal stuff ready in less than 2 weeks! We are meeting every night and she is loving the Church and everything we teach her.... even when people are mean to her about the Church. Thankfully, she is marrying into one of the ward member families!! Yayy for that. Support is key!
I have very strongly come to learn about member support with investigators and returning less actives. If people do not have a close member friend, then with how strong opposition is here, people have a hard time battling it. We have officially lost poor Jim. He is now openly ignoring us and turning off his tv and sitting in silence when we knock on his door. So sad, he was one of my favorites we taught. Doubt is a funny thing, and he let it overcome his literal lover for the Church and for the missionaries. But we are still praying for him and who knows, maybe in the future he could come back. He also was able to quit all of the substance abuse and even though he said he has a problem with Church, he still wants to keep basic commandments and read the scriptures. I hope that hold true, but without baptism and the Church, it is like wearing Swiss cheese spiritual armor!
William is also getting baptized on the 30th. He will probably be my favorite convert for now. He is so faithful and willing and has a humble heart. he loves Church and says he believes the Church is true and keeps all of the commitments and watches Mormon Messages when he can't sleep at night. he gave me his "Williams" (it is a high school in Pennsylvania) sweatshirt because I said it was cool. He has really progressed in the Gospel. He still struggles remembering what he reads in the Book of Mormon, but his prayers are so heartfelt and he prays to be God's right hand man! haha so I am taking everything that we are learning with Jim and applying it to Will. I really want to retain him. I am not too worried, but preparation never hurt anyone!
We have tried a lot of referrals his week and we have this really sweet soon to be investigator that is bff's with the members in Corning. His name is Ray and he is a retired Marine truck driver. He went to Church once for a homecoming talk, but he didn't quite like it. He was used to being Baptist. So, we tried talking with him and at first he was like..."nah, I am not interested." Well, three days later we get a text, "Sisters, I want a Book of Mormon. I love to read it!" He explained how he's noticed things in the bible now and lots of crazy things going on at his Church. Now he is diving into the Book of Mormon and searching for truth! So sometimes the Spirit works on people after we leave :) We also have some solid new investigators. Mary Lou is the old Irish Catholic lady that reads the Book of Mormon and thinks it is the most beautiful thing ever. and The R's! We met them over Facebook and we talk things over. They have strong potential to be super solid investigators in the future. We are eating dinner with them soon to talk things over, but we can't meet at their apartment. Apparently, the manager hates, hates, hates Mormons (of course).
We also did some tracting this week. Nothing too promising there. We did some service at the local food bank with all of the Elders "on accident" and packaged cake mixes for 2 hours to give to starving families. The older volunteers loved having us. We have also seen James a little this week. We brought a member family with us to Jim and Will's lesson. We had 15 minutes extra to kill, so they bought us Frosty's. I love Frosty's! It was fun having a member lesson with a couple. I haven't had that before. The Rogers cam down for interviews and Sister Rogers came out teaching with us for a bit! That was really fun. Sister Rogers is super cute and a very classy lady. We had to clean up the apartment a little bit :)
We taught Young Women's at Church this Sunday. I love the youth, but I don't miss being a teenager, or dealing with school and stupid young adult peer pressure. Well, I still have it now, but it is very different compared to when I was 14. Well that is my week in review.... filled with teaching lots of people and trying to make a difference in the world!
Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!
This was a pretty great week. Lots of little things happened. We are currently experiencing a "calm before the storm". Lots of changes in my companionship, the mission and general missionary work over the next 2 to 3 weeks. We have 3 more weeks before transfers again and things are picking up. Sister Gass is slowly prepping to return home... that's been interesting. But, my companion gets to go to the Palmyra temple trip is in 2 weeks! I have to wait until right before I go home to go see the Sacred Grove and go to the temple, but I can still hear about her experience. I miss the temple so much!
We are also going to be starting up exchanges in a week. Due to ta bedbug problem in the mission, things have been at a stand still. Church headquarters just changed how we have to do exchanges now. The Sisters will come to our area for 24 hours and blitz us. They call it "The Laboratory" and we get to use our area and model/be examples. No pressure or anything.. ha ha. Also, this week, we have a GA who is over all of the online proselyting for the church, coming and giving us Facebook training at MLC. That will be interesting. In 2 weeks, there is also going to be a worldwide missionary broadcast as a training for all of us. I have been told that we missionaries are not teaching enough about repentance and having investigators internalize the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. Also, retention is starting to be a problem in the Northeast, but that makes sense. Lately, we have had a few people bombarded at work with anti and opposition literature. Even in medical facilities where you aren't allowed to talk about religion, but yet bosses are putting pamphlets in our investigators lockers. It is times like these that really makes me want to shake my fist at Satan. He is good at what he does. He is also good at starting to make the world so turbulent that people that people sometimes tell us that they don't want to allow us in their homes, that even because we are church people, we still can't be trusted. O well, you just find the select few of super awesome people! And... we have quite a few.
The weather has gotten quite gross over the last few days....rainy, cold, slick and super windy. It even snowed really bad last Monday and went down to 5 degrees. Thankfully things went back to a warmer trend.
The biggest news of the week is that Rachel is now getting baptized on the 23rd!! Fun fact, Sunday there was just not any opening to have a baptism because our Ward is having 6 to 7 of them in the next two weeks (which is super rare) and we were going to bump it to February, but one of the elders investigators who is coming to Church ran up to her and is like, "Rachel? Is that you??" So they were old childhood friends and didn't know that they were both learning about the Church. He said that she could get baptized with him! Super cool! Her desire is top notch and through the roof! We are on the whole rapid fire technique when teaching her. We have to teach lessons 4 and 5 and get all of the baptismal stuff ready in less than 2 weeks! We are meeting every night and she is loving the Church and everything we teach her.... even when people are mean to her about the Church. Thankfully, she is marrying into one of the ward member families!! Yayy for that. Support is key!
I have very strongly come to learn about member support with investigators and returning less actives. If people do not have a close member friend, then with how strong opposition is here, people have a hard time battling it. We have officially lost poor Jim. He is now openly ignoring us and turning off his tv and sitting in silence when we knock on his door. So sad, he was one of my favorites we taught. Doubt is a funny thing, and he let it overcome his literal lover for the Church and for the missionaries. But we are still praying for him and who knows, maybe in the future he could come back. He also was able to quit all of the substance abuse and even though he said he has a problem with Church, he still wants to keep basic commandments and read the scriptures. I hope that hold true, but without baptism and the Church, it is like wearing Swiss cheese spiritual armor!
William is also getting baptized on the 30th. He will probably be my favorite convert for now. He is so faithful and willing and has a humble heart. he loves Church and says he believes the Church is true and keeps all of the commitments and watches Mormon Messages when he can't sleep at night. he gave me his "Williams" (it is a high school in Pennsylvania) sweatshirt because I said it was cool. He has really progressed in the Gospel. He still struggles remembering what he reads in the Book of Mormon, but his prayers are so heartfelt and he prays to be God's right hand man! haha so I am taking everything that we are learning with Jim and applying it to Will. I really want to retain him. I am not too worried, but preparation never hurt anyone!
We have tried a lot of referrals his week and we have this really sweet soon to be investigator that is bff's with the members in Corning. His name is Ray and he is a retired Marine truck driver. He went to Church once for a homecoming talk, but he didn't quite like it. He was used to being Baptist. So, we tried talking with him and at first he was like..."nah, I am not interested." Well, three days later we get a text, "Sisters, I want a Book of Mormon. I love to read it!" He explained how he's noticed things in the bible now and lots of crazy things going on at his Church. Now he is diving into the Book of Mormon and searching for truth! So sometimes the Spirit works on people after we leave :) We also have some solid new investigators. Mary Lou is the old Irish Catholic lady that reads the Book of Mormon and thinks it is the most beautiful thing ever. and The R's! We met them over Facebook and we talk things over. They have strong potential to be super solid investigators in the future. We are eating dinner with them soon to talk things over, but we can't meet at their apartment. Apparently, the manager hates, hates, hates Mormons (of course).
We also did some tracting this week. Nothing too promising there. We did some service at the local food bank with all of the Elders "on accident" and packaged cake mixes for 2 hours to give to starving families. The older volunteers loved having us. We have also seen James a little this week. We brought a member family with us to Jim and Will's lesson. We had 15 minutes extra to kill, so they bought us Frosty's. I love Frosty's! It was fun having a member lesson with a couple. I haven't had that before. The Rogers cam down for interviews and Sister Rogers came out teaching with us for a bit! That was really fun. Sister Rogers is super cute and a very classy lady. We had to clean up the apartment a little bit :)
We taught Young Women's at Church this Sunday. I love the youth, but I don't miss being a teenager, or dealing with school and stupid young adult peer pressure. Well, I still have it now, but it is very different compared to when I was 14. Well that is my week in review.... filled with teaching lots of people and trying to make a difference in the world!
Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
A New Perspective
Hello everyone!
I hope everyone had a great New Years. This week has been another adventure... as my weeks always are :) It did start off really great.
Monday we started off with a youth combined with missionaries game of dodge ball/scatterball. Best thing ever. We played for an hour and all of us missionaries were out of breath. ( I am so done with being out of shape). We were all merciless playing. The dodge balls were perfect shape so we had quite a few times of getting welts and also give a few welts in return. Most of the time, it was just us missionaries wacking other missionaries. We went a tad easier on the youth. Little did we know that we would all be so super sore the next few days. Sister Gass could barely walk and I could barely raise my arms. Thankfully, right after we saw a member who was a Chiropractor and I got an adjustment. Best thing ever! I haven't been to the chiropractor in a year and I missed it so much. We did the usual P-day things and took a 10 minute nap later because that's all the time we had. We had dinner with a member family and they had to show us their new Christmas presents--- mini go karts! They kinda forced all of us to go and ride with them before eating dinner. Slightly against the white handbook, and it's super awkward when members don't take no for an answer. Right after, we got invited to a dinner with an investigator. So much food! Megan is amazing though, she got engaged to her LA boyfriend in Utah this Christmas and we are just so excited! Now she can get baptized after they are married. She is progressing so well. She already looks and acts like a Mormon and asks the deepest doctrine questions during lessons. We had a lesson on foundations of testimonies after we slid more food down and talked about her plans for the wedding.
The weather here has started to get colder. The next day started off slow as we tried to call everyone we knew to get an appointment. Many people were busy and sick, so we had to go walking outside. We OYM'd a few neighbors outside... and got the usual results. Then, we got changed and did some service at the local food bank. It was very fun and we were checking imported food and other products to see if it was safe to use. We got to talk to others working at our station. The one we talked to the most was a girl named Onyx and she was really cool. We didn't get to go too gospel'y on her, but we shared a pass along card afterwards and she said she enjoyed working and talking with us. Seed are planted! We are going back and working tomorrow! We saw Nadine and also Jim. Poor Jim is doing worse. More opposition at work and he doesn't have the support system or good enough knowledge to confront people when they bring temple or priesthood misconceptions. So as of now, he is avoiding us. :( All we can do is wait and pray and try to find the right opportunity to help him. Satan is a really smart and cunning fellow. He is pretty good at doing what he does.. :( We later saw Will that night and also Brian. Will is progressing so well. No doubt he will get baptized within the next 4 weeks. Brian has read up to Mosiah in the BofM. He is coming to Church on the 17th !Whoo hoo!
Wednesday came along and we started having car problems. We had a District Meeting too, which is always good. We learned about commitments and how to make them better. We then went to go buy some oil for our engine because it was low, and then we noticed a leak by one of the filters. Lights started coming on too. So, we were told to wait and to take it in immediately. We drove to Elmira and got the card looked at. We talked to a few people waiting in the lobby. One guy was totally trying to avoid us the whole time, but one was a really nice army kid from Ft. Bragg and the other was a roofer that ended up taking a pamphlet and actually read it! He also invited us to go to the local casino to gamble and get the free buffet. We will see if he calls us back. :P Ha Ha, you can always still be doing missionary work, even in a car auto shop. I had a few lessons and then we to coordination withe WML.
Thursday was New Years Eve and I actually started to feel a little funny. My stomach was not doing so well. I ended up getting the stomach flu and yea, it was not super great. Before I realized what was going to happen, we still saw a few LA and saw Will again and actually taught Tom F (a new investigator) over Facebook. He is a solid smart guy and is now reading the Book of Mormon. But yeah, it was New Years Eve and I couldn't even eat dinner. We didn't do a whole lot. Great way to spend the holiday :) Luckily we weren't that busy.
Friday I was recovering, but I was very tired. We weekly planned in the morning and saw Rachel later. She is doing so well, she understands everything she reads in the BofM. Unfortunately, her coworkers are being ruthless with her about studying to be a Mormon. Thankfully, she has member support since she is dating a member family. I am done with all of this anti-Mormon and opposition we get all the time out here. People just need to be nice. We can't even teach people without someone else running in and throwing anti pamphlets at them! We tracted in the cold, found some potentials, and after dinner I passed out and slept. I woke up later and went to see Megan and Will.
Saturday I felt better. We were still struggling to set up appointments. We met with a LA that finally wanted to see us but is going through a ton of health problems right now and is so tender hearted that it totally shuts her down. Sister Gass got this amazing general conference story book that we took and we read a few stories. They are super fun to read and some are also pretty intense. For example: apparently Elder Oaks gave a talk in conference a while ago about an experience he had in Chicago where he almost died when a teenage gang member tried to steal his car. Elder Oaks was protected and got away by giving the gang member a lecture. Ha Ha! Only he could do that! We then continued tracting and trying to find more people. The potentials we had found the day before actually said that they were not interested, so we had to try to talk to some more people. We got in with the Fedenko's and they came to Church this week. 3/4! So good! Their kids bore their testimonies. They are probably my favorite LA family because they have great hearts and want to be good. They just have a few struggles that can easily be worked on if they allow us to continue to help them. They also make great cookies.
Sunday was Church and we got the Houston's, the Fedenko's and Will and Nadine to come. Great showing. But it could be better! Testimony meeting was awesome! The members were just bearing testimony on the truthfulness of the BoM and everyone was pumped about the New Year and trying to be better and read their scriptures more. There is literally such a thing as scripture power! We tracted more and contacted a bunch of referrals. It got even colder. I finally pulled out my biggest blue coat. It is so warm -- I just love it. I wish I could wear it all of the time. I enjoy being warm now. I've come to learn that my favorite temperature range is 50-75 degrees. ha ha :)
2015 is in the past. My one year of full missionary service is over. I now have 5 months left, and a new year ahead. Many people have asked me what is my New Years Resolution. Really, all I want for this year is to end my mission strong in a few months and then make a smooth transition to college. Easy enough. I want to remain motivated and truly learn the doctrine of Enduring to the End and relating to my missionary service. To help with that.. a wise man in my ward said yesterday, "It is the effort that brings the Spirit, and not the Spirit that brings the effort." I hope everyone can take that principle and apply it into their goals for the New Year.. and so will I.
The gospel is True!
Love Sister Kylie Williams
I hope everyone had a great New Years. This week has been another adventure... as my weeks always are :) It did start off really great.
Monday we started off with a youth combined with missionaries game of dodge ball/scatterball. Best thing ever. We played for an hour and all of us missionaries were out of breath. ( I am so done with being out of shape). We were all merciless playing. The dodge balls were perfect shape so we had quite a few times of getting welts and also give a few welts in return. Most of the time, it was just us missionaries wacking other missionaries. We went a tad easier on the youth. Little did we know that we would all be so super sore the next few days. Sister Gass could barely walk and I could barely raise my arms. Thankfully, right after we saw a member who was a Chiropractor and I got an adjustment. Best thing ever! I haven't been to the chiropractor in a year and I missed it so much. We did the usual P-day things and took a 10 minute nap later because that's all the time we had. We had dinner with a member family and they had to show us their new Christmas presents--- mini go karts! They kinda forced all of us to go and ride with them before eating dinner. Slightly against the white handbook, and it's super awkward when members don't take no for an answer. Right after, we got invited to a dinner with an investigator. So much food! Megan is amazing though, she got engaged to her LA boyfriend in Utah this Christmas and we are just so excited! Now she can get baptized after they are married. She is progressing so well. She already looks and acts like a Mormon and asks the deepest doctrine questions during lessons. We had a lesson on foundations of testimonies after we slid more food down and talked about her plans for the wedding.
The weather here has started to get colder. The next day started off slow as we tried to call everyone we knew to get an appointment. Many people were busy and sick, so we had to go walking outside. We OYM'd a few neighbors outside... and got the usual results. Then, we got changed and did some service at the local food bank. It was very fun and we were checking imported food and other products to see if it was safe to use. We got to talk to others working at our station. The one we talked to the most was a girl named Onyx and she was really cool. We didn't get to go too gospel'y on her, but we shared a pass along card afterwards and she said she enjoyed working and talking with us. Seed are planted! We are going back and working tomorrow! We saw Nadine and also Jim. Poor Jim is doing worse. More opposition at work and he doesn't have the support system or good enough knowledge to confront people when they bring temple or priesthood misconceptions. So as of now, he is avoiding us. :( All we can do is wait and pray and try to find the right opportunity to help him. Satan is a really smart and cunning fellow. He is pretty good at doing what he does.. :( We later saw Will that night and also Brian. Will is progressing so well. No doubt he will get baptized within the next 4 weeks. Brian has read up to Mosiah in the BofM. He is coming to Church on the 17th !Whoo hoo!
Wednesday came along and we started having car problems. We had a District Meeting too, which is always good. We learned about commitments and how to make them better. We then went to go buy some oil for our engine because it was low, and then we noticed a leak by one of the filters. Lights started coming on too. So, we were told to wait and to take it in immediately. We drove to Elmira and got the card looked at. We talked to a few people waiting in the lobby. One guy was totally trying to avoid us the whole time, but one was a really nice army kid from Ft. Bragg and the other was a roofer that ended up taking a pamphlet and actually read it! He also invited us to go to the local casino to gamble and get the free buffet. We will see if he calls us back. :P Ha Ha, you can always still be doing missionary work, even in a car auto shop. I had a few lessons and then we to coordination withe WML.
Thursday was New Years Eve and I actually started to feel a little funny. My stomach was not doing so well. I ended up getting the stomach flu and yea, it was not super great. Before I realized what was going to happen, we still saw a few LA and saw Will again and actually taught Tom F (a new investigator) over Facebook. He is a solid smart guy and is now reading the Book of Mormon. But yeah, it was New Years Eve and I couldn't even eat dinner. We didn't do a whole lot. Great way to spend the holiday :) Luckily we weren't that busy.
Friday I was recovering, but I was very tired. We weekly planned in the morning and saw Rachel later. She is doing so well, she understands everything she reads in the BofM. Unfortunately, her coworkers are being ruthless with her about studying to be a Mormon. Thankfully, she has member support since she is dating a member family. I am done with all of this anti-Mormon and opposition we get all the time out here. People just need to be nice. We can't even teach people without someone else running in and throwing anti pamphlets at them! We tracted in the cold, found some potentials, and after dinner I passed out and slept. I woke up later and went to see Megan and Will.
Saturday I felt better. We were still struggling to set up appointments. We met with a LA that finally wanted to see us but is going through a ton of health problems right now and is so tender hearted that it totally shuts her down. Sister Gass got this amazing general conference story book that we took and we read a few stories. They are super fun to read and some are also pretty intense. For example: apparently Elder Oaks gave a talk in conference a while ago about an experience he had in Chicago where he almost died when a teenage gang member tried to steal his car. Elder Oaks was protected and got away by giving the gang member a lecture. Ha Ha! Only he could do that! We then continued tracting and trying to find more people. The potentials we had found the day before actually said that they were not interested, so we had to try to talk to some more people. We got in with the Fedenko's and they came to Church this week. 3/4! So good! Their kids bore their testimonies. They are probably my favorite LA family because they have great hearts and want to be good. They just have a few struggles that can easily be worked on if they allow us to continue to help them. They also make great cookies.
Sunday was Church and we got the Houston's, the Fedenko's and Will and Nadine to come. Great showing. But it could be better! Testimony meeting was awesome! The members were just bearing testimony on the truthfulness of the BoM and everyone was pumped about the New Year and trying to be better and read their scriptures more. There is literally such a thing as scripture power! We tracted more and contacted a bunch of referrals. It got even colder. I finally pulled out my biggest blue coat. It is so warm -- I just love it. I wish I could wear it all of the time. I enjoy being warm now. I've come to learn that my favorite temperature range is 50-75 degrees. ha ha :)
2015 is in the past. My one year of full missionary service is over. I now have 5 months left, and a new year ahead. Many people have asked me what is my New Years Resolution. Really, all I want for this year is to end my mission strong in a few months and then make a smooth transition to college. Easy enough. I want to remain motivated and truly learn the doctrine of Enduring to the End and relating to my missionary service. To help with that.. a wise man in my ward said yesterday, "It is the effort that brings the Spirit, and not the Spirit that brings the effort." I hope everyone can take that principle and apply it into their goals for the New Year.. and so will I.
The gospel is True!
Love Sister Kylie Williams
Monday, December 28, 2015
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Hello Everyone!!
I hope that you had a Merry Christmas and a good New Years this week. Life as a missionary will hopefully get back to normal after the holidays. Haha. Many people are not receptive to hearing the gospel during the holidays... which is actually the best gift you can get :)
This week was good. We were spoiled by the Ward Members here in Elmira and they were so good to us. I don't want to even hear the word cookie or pie for at least 2 weeks. Lots of presents and lots of games were played this week.
We were much more subdued with teaching investigators and less actives this week. Most were busy, not at home or sick. We didn't get to do as much as we wanted, but that is just typical during the first winter months on a mission. Tuesday, we had a fun district meeting about Christmas and also companionship unity. The best part was the white elephant gift exchange.
I got a lot of old candy and a basketball photo frame. It was great. We then tried to find some ugly Christmas sweaters to go tracting in, but they were all sold out.. even at the Salvation Army! Oh well, maybe the Lord was just telling us that he didn't want us to make Him look bad.
We did however get in touch was Nadine and help her with her concerns with committing her time and talents to the Church. I was actually proud of her this Sunday. She participated many times during the 2nd and 3rd hour, and gave normal responses and wrote down all that she learned. Hopefully, Feb & March we can help her get baptized. We also got this great "Book of Mormon Christmas" picture book from the RS President to borrow and we used it all week. It is the birth of Christ, but from the Nephites perspective using mainly Helamen and 3 Nephi to tell the story. It was super good. Everyone loved it! We used that to teach William and a few others also. We didn't use it on James since he doesn't celebrate Christmas, but we've worked hard on him this week, to receive revelation and answers to prayers about the Church being true. He is still holding on to a few things, so it's apparent that HF is trying to teach him patience and humility and obedience by not answering right away, even when the question is of eternal importance.
Wednesday, Oh my, we had to make cookies and treats because we were going caroling that evening with the Elders and the Ward Mission Leader. With us being broke missionaries, we bought the cheapest brownie mixes and with our lack of kitchen supplies, our poor afternoon was a mess of trying to fix this steaming pile of mess/gross brownies and other treats to give out. It was super weird. We prayed that the Spirit of Christmas would touch their hearts and they would overlook our fail at Christmas Cookies. But, we still had fun!
We had quite a few cancellations and had dinner then we went caroling. We sang in Elmira mostly and it went well. It made the Ward Mission Leader's day because he was having a really bad day.
We also saw James again and taught Will the Law of Chastity. It all went well, but I am still the most awkward person ever talking about the Law of Chastity to anyone... let alone a single older gentleman. Thankfully, things got more serious when he talked about his family and we could easily transition to blessings of being pure. Kinda a basic day.. cookies, presents and caroling. We did however, give Will and Jim new ties for Church. They both loved them.
Christmas Eve... I fixed all of the computers in the Elmira Ward family history library so we could Skype and we saw some members/LA in nursing homes. I have never been to so many nursing homes in my life till I came to New York. It was good to uplift people that don't really have anybody. I read more of the Christmas book to our recent converts and then we went to the Christensen's for dinner and games. We had Mexican food and played Uno and Phase 10. We spent the whole evening there and got to have good family time fun. They gave us Christmas cookies and gave us a present or two also. It was really sweet of them. We then finished our 12 days of Christmas Scripture Ding Dong Ditch. That was fun.
Christmas Day, we opened presents. Some were very practical, others weren't so practical... then we went to Denny's with Jim and got breakfast.
We saw Nadine, we had lunch and then we Skyped our families at Church. It was so good to see my family!
Then, we partied at the Gabrishe's. More board games and Christmas music and pie for days. So exhausted by the end of the day because of the craziness of being with 4 elders and 4 young crazy cute energetic kids...
Me and Sister Gass were wiped out and went to bed after having a movie night of watching Mr. Kruger's Christmas at 10:30 in bed. The life of a missionary is super wild right?
Saturday was a baptism of a daughter in the Ward. We invited Will to come see it and he did. He loved it and learned more about baptism. That was super great. The Ward is doing well with being friendly to Will. It helps that he already looks and acts like a member. Hopefully he will get baptized b the end of January. We are planning for the New Year. We got new planners! We then tried tracting to find people because we had nothing to do. That wasn't all too productive. People were not too happy. We had dinner with the Scott's and had our typical follow up lessons with James and Will.
Church was great. I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting about goal setting and receiving exaltation. It was the first time in my whole life, that when I prepared my talk, I didn't write it out word for word . I used references from General Conference talks, scriptures, and personal experiences and analogies and looked up at the congregation like 95% of the time and wasn't nervous. In fact, I was told to speak for 5 to 7 minutes.... but I may have purposely spoken 10 to 12 minutes. Another Elder also had to speak as well as our 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric and he loves deep doctrine. He was giving his talk on exaltation too. I knew many investigators would be in the audience and I wanted to make sure they understood the things that he was going to speak. I spent lots of time talking about Grace, the Atonement, Salvation, our pre-mortal identity and destiny and a brief overview of commandments and ordinances to get to the celestial kingdom. I am so glad I did. It was the first time I have ever heard someone in a Sacrament talk quote from the School of the Prophets, the Lectures on Faith, Bruce R McConkie and the King Follet Sermon, CS Lewis and the Idea of Theosis, and the Pearl of Great Price. Talk about Deep Doctrine. I have a testimony since my mission about the plain and simple truths of the gospel. So important and so much fun too. Everything was great though. We taught this new LA man who will be here for the next month or two and saw a few others.
We got quite the punch in the gut from Jim though. He skipped Church and wouldn't call us back. We finally got a hold of him and he was at Dunkin Donuts. He was about to be interviewed to receive the priesthood, and it scared him... so he ran. He doesn't wan the responsibility and he basically told us that he just like going to Church for an hour and keeping the commandments. It was super sad. he regressed so much in 2 days because of fear of getting a calling. He doesn't want one and he doesn't want the priesthood. Then he felt bad and guilty, so then he wouldn't even look us in the eyes. That is the hardest part about being a missionary, loving people so much and wanting them to progress, but having to let them make mistakes and fall so that they can learn and feel the power of the atonement. GRRRR ....but this is life. We all move on.
Today we played dodge ball with the youth. They are so awesome and we went to the chiropractic.
The Church is True and I just Love the Gospel So Much! Have a Safe New Year.
I hope that you had a Merry Christmas and a good New Years this week. Life as a missionary will hopefully get back to normal after the holidays. Haha. Many people are not receptive to hearing the gospel during the holidays... which is actually the best gift you can get :)
This week was good. We were spoiled by the Ward Members here in Elmira and they were so good to us. I don't want to even hear the word cookie or pie for at least 2 weeks. Lots of presents and lots of games were played this week.
We were much more subdued with teaching investigators and less actives this week. Most were busy, not at home or sick. We didn't get to do as much as we wanted, but that is just typical during the first winter months on a mission. Tuesday, we had a fun district meeting about Christmas and also companionship unity. The best part was the white elephant gift exchange.
We did however get in touch was Nadine and help her with her concerns with committing her time and talents to the Church. I was actually proud of her this Sunday. She participated many times during the 2nd and 3rd hour, and gave normal responses and wrote down all that she learned. Hopefully, Feb & March we can help her get baptized. We also got this great "Book of Mormon Christmas" picture book from the RS President to borrow and we used it all week. It is the birth of Christ, but from the Nephites perspective using mainly Helamen and 3 Nephi to tell the story. It was super good. Everyone loved it! We used that to teach William and a few others also. We didn't use it on James since he doesn't celebrate Christmas, but we've worked hard on him this week, to receive revelation and answers to prayers about the Church being true. He is still holding on to a few things, so it's apparent that HF is trying to teach him patience and humility and obedience by not answering right away, even when the question is of eternal importance.
Wednesday, Oh my, we had to make cookies and treats because we were going caroling that evening with the Elders and the Ward Mission Leader. With us being broke missionaries, we bought the cheapest brownie mixes and with our lack of kitchen supplies, our poor afternoon was a mess of trying to fix this steaming pile of mess/gross brownies and other treats to give out. It was super weird. We prayed that the Spirit of Christmas would touch their hearts and they would overlook our fail at Christmas Cookies. But, we still had fun!
We had quite a few cancellations and had dinner then we went caroling. We sang in Elmira mostly and it went well. It made the Ward Mission Leader's day because he was having a really bad day.
We also saw James again and taught Will the Law of Chastity. It all went well, but I am still the most awkward person ever talking about the Law of Chastity to anyone... let alone a single older gentleman. Thankfully, things got more serious when he talked about his family and we could easily transition to blessings of being pure. Kinda a basic day.. cookies, presents and caroling. We did however, give Will and Jim new ties for Church. They both loved them.
Christmas Eve... I fixed all of the computers in the Elmira Ward family history library so we could Skype and we saw some members/LA in nursing homes. I have never been to so many nursing homes in my life till I came to New York. It was good to uplift people that don't really have anybody. I read more of the Christmas book to our recent converts and then we went to the Christensen's for dinner and games. We had Mexican food and played Uno and Phase 10. We spent the whole evening there and got to have good family time fun. They gave us Christmas cookies and gave us a present or two also. It was really sweet of them. We then finished our 12 days of Christmas Scripture Ding Dong Ditch. That was fun.
Christmas Day, we opened presents. Some were very practical, others weren't so practical... then we went to Denny's with Jim and got breakfast.
We saw Nadine, we had lunch and then we Skyped our families at Church. It was so good to see my family!
Then, we partied at the Gabrishe's. More board games and Christmas music and pie for days. So exhausted by the end of the day because of the craziness of being with 4 elders and 4 young crazy cute energetic kids...
Saturday was a baptism of a daughter in the Ward. We invited Will to come see it and he did. He loved it and learned more about baptism. That was super great. The Ward is doing well with being friendly to Will. It helps that he already looks and acts like a member. Hopefully he will get baptized b the end of January. We are planning for the New Year. We got new planners! We then tried tracting to find people because we had nothing to do. That wasn't all too productive. People were not too happy. We had dinner with the Scott's and had our typical follow up lessons with James and Will.
Church was great. I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting about goal setting and receiving exaltation. It was the first time in my whole life, that when I prepared my talk, I didn't write it out word for word . I used references from General Conference talks, scriptures, and personal experiences and analogies and looked up at the congregation like 95% of the time and wasn't nervous. In fact, I was told to speak for 5 to 7 minutes.... but I may have purposely spoken 10 to 12 minutes. Another Elder also had to speak as well as our 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric and he loves deep doctrine. He was giving his talk on exaltation too. I knew many investigators would be in the audience and I wanted to make sure they understood the things that he was going to speak. I spent lots of time talking about Grace, the Atonement, Salvation, our pre-mortal identity and destiny and a brief overview of commandments and ordinances to get to the celestial kingdom. I am so glad I did. It was the first time I have ever heard someone in a Sacrament talk quote from the School of the Prophets, the Lectures on Faith, Bruce R McConkie and the King Follet Sermon, CS Lewis and the Idea of Theosis, and the Pearl of Great Price. Talk about Deep Doctrine. I have a testimony since my mission about the plain and simple truths of the gospel. So important and so much fun too. Everything was great though. We taught this new LA man who will be here for the next month or two and saw a few others.
We got quite the punch in the gut from Jim though. He skipped Church and wouldn't call us back. We finally got a hold of him and he was at Dunkin Donuts. He was about to be interviewed to receive the priesthood, and it scared him... so he ran. He doesn't wan the responsibility and he basically told us that he just like going to Church for an hour and keeping the commandments. It was super sad. he regressed so much in 2 days because of fear of getting a calling. He doesn't want one and he doesn't want the priesthood. Then he felt bad and guilty, so then he wouldn't even look us in the eyes. That is the hardest part about being a missionary, loving people so much and wanting them to progress, but having to let them make mistakes and fall so that they can learn and feel the power of the atonement. GRRRR ....but this is life. We all move on.
Today we played dodge ball with the youth. They are so awesome and we went to the chiropractic.
The Church is True and I just Love the Gospel So Much! Have a Safe New Year.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Put Christ in Christmas
Hey everyone!
I hope you have all had a good week and have been preparing for Christmas. I am excited for Christmas. A lot has changed since the last time I called home. I was a brand new missionary in Corning, I Skyped my family from the basement of the Stake Presidents Home and the night before I had caroled the night away and ate plenty of traditional Swedish delicacies that sometimes weren't all that delicious. Now I am a little older and hopefully a little wiser and I find myself only 20 minutes south of my original area! I am not complaining, the southern tier of my mission has been very good to me. There's great people and I have only gotten 1 inch of snow and it's forecast to be 50 to 60 degrees on Christmas Day. I love a good cold and snowy Christmas, but when you have to be outside finding people all day, I would rather be in 60 degree weather. It is still super green here also. It is going to be weird when I got back out west and all I see is brown!
We are being spoiled by the Ward with presents and lots of dinner appointments. Best of all, we even got a few referrals! This Christmas, we will be spending most of the day playing with a Ward family and Skyping and playing games when we are done proselyting. Most of our investigators will be out of town or they are sick. Except for our single Men's Club. (Jim, James and Will) All three of them try to see us as much as possible... so thankfully, we can still do some teaching this week.
It is actually kind of weird, most people think that around Christmas time that people are kinder and happier and more joyful. In our case, we have actually seen the opposite. Signs of the times I guess. We talk to so many people and have been trying to use the "Christmas A Savior is Born' approach and build off the foundation of Christ to get people to let us in. Unfortunately, people have been ruder and sadder this month. We hear people saying that they actually hate Christmas and what it has become and yet they wait in line and buy hundreds of dollars of junk. Satan is so clever in the snare of commercialism. It is so ironic to see this happening. With the change in weather, people have also been getting sick of have family over, so with the craziness and business that people create, they don't make time for the tings that matter most. When they tell us how stressed they are and how they don't have time to meet or hear a message, it really does make me sad. People! Let's just take 5 minutes and pay attention to the real spirit of Christmas. What have you given to the Lord this holiday as a sign of your love and devotion for him? The true meaning of Christmas can be found most often in things that are not visibly tangible. Time, love a smile, service, devotion, gratitude, traditions... those things cannot be packaged and put under the tree. I am grateful that I get yet another Christmas to serve Him and do better. It is really a neat opportunity. Rant over...
This week has been quite exciting and it always is about finding people and conferences, colds and baptismal dates, crazy people and awesome members.
Last Monday we got another opportunity to relax and take a nap. So good! We saw Jim and James that night. Him is just eating up the gospel. Hopefully, he gets the priesthood this next Sunday or the next because he took off work to go to the temple trip with the youth. So fun! We have been helping with his family history and getting that all prepared. Everything we meet he always mentions how much he has to pay in tithing this month and how he is going to get baptized for his Dad. We get along quite well, because we both say off the wall comments to each other during lessons. This week he called me a lion because my hair was extra frizzy due to the weather. Sister Gass could not stop laughing. We also saw James, and he is so good at pulling out jokes too during our lessons.
Tuesday we saw a lot of rejection. Nobody was home or wanted to talk to us. One lady turned us into her apartment complex and we got called and were told not to tract anymore because it is a 'non solicitation' complex. We didn't see a sign and technically we aren't soliciting... but whatever! We also had this crazy cat lady yell at us for knocking on her door and demanded that we show her our 1 day pass from the village which gives us the permission to tract. We told her we didn't have certificates and that we didn't need to do that, but she slammed the door anyway. We also had a bunch of harsh No! and people kept saying, "No, Bye, have a Merry Christmas". Wait, you don't celebrate that." What?? Mormon's don't celebrate Christmas? We are not the JW's. So, this week Sister G and I are going to buy ugly Christmas sweaters and try to go tracting in those. Maybe making people laugh and they will let us in!
Some good things did happen later that day. We taught this family with 3 girls and they are somewhat interested and the girls love God. We taught them the restoration and later found a man named Cory that grew up with Mormon friends and he listened to us and said we could come back! We also went to the RS Christmas Dinner and I met Rachel. Rachel is dating a recently activated member of the ward and he is one of the sons of one of the more prominent families of the ward. I knew she was checking out the Church, so I kinda did my whole missionary /predator pounce thingy. She is just so cute. We talked the whole time and I got to know her quite well. She then asked questions and said that she did want to know more about the Church and I had eased her fear with missionaries. We texted and actually saw her today and taught her lesson #1 which went super duper. She is so prepared. I have no doubt she will be baptized here shortly. So probably the most successful finding I have ever done though a ward activity. We also saw Will again and taught him about temples which went good. We also have this other family and they are already acting just Mormons. So, we have been ding dong ditching their house and leaving scriptures and little cards. We also delivered dinner to Sabrina because she works 12 hrs a day with no break and she needed food. Okay, dinner was from Wendy's, but it was still food. She was so grateful and we talked for quite a while. We have totally earned their trust. They just have crazy busy lives.
Wednesday, one of the sister missionaries from the ward came home. She wasn't reporting/getting released until the end of the day, so she spent time with us. We made a cute trio. It was so much fun. We saw some RC/LA families and Will and James. We taught Will about tithing and used potato chips to teach the principle. At the end, Sister Gilmore asked about how he felt as we taught him. He said, "After my wife died, I was really sad and felt empty. Since meeting the Sisters, that emptiness is gone and the gospel is making me whole." :) Me and Sister Gass might has shed a tear, such an awesome experience. Just funny to think that 3 to 4 weeks ago we knocked on his door at 8:30 at night after being thrown out of another house. Looking back, we needed to have been thrown out of the house. If we had not, we would have stayed too long in a potentials home and we would not have tried just a few more doors. God closes doors so better ones can open. We just had to have the humility and obedience to keep knocking after rejection. We had missionary coordination and went home for the night.
Thursday, we had conference in Liverpool. Woop! We borrowed a 12 passenger van and drove 5 sets of missionaries up to Syracuse. 6 hours of round trip driving... ugh. We talked with some of our sister and they are awesome. it was weird with the elders,,, they are kinda obnoxious, but that is okay... they are learning. Conference was the best! 5 hours of the Spirit and singing Christmas Carols and there was a talent show. I saw a few friends that I might never see again and now I am getting to this point that all my mission buds are my age or order and going home soon. Time is limited with transfers! There's always the next life. HAHA President talked and shared stories. He knows a lot of GA's, Holland, Bednar, Packer, Perry, Hinckley, Monson, Benson etc and more. Just be a Stake President in St. George and apparently you meet all of the big guns! he has the best stories, our Christmas present is the coolest. It is a NYUM temple recommend holder. I love it so much. Once we were back from Conference, we saw our 'usuals' and after we continued to do '12 days of Christmas' ding dong ditch with a few people. Oh, it also rained all day.
Friday, we had the coolest thing. We OYM'd this coupe outside of our apartment complex a week ago and we taught them over Facebook. The husband is like 25 and is so prepared and is so open. He is awesome, and I hope we can convert them from Wesleyan to Mormon :) Tom was fun to teach. We did some other Facebook stuff and put together all the new computers in the family history center. They are so new! Thank the Lord. It was so slow before. We also saw James and Will again, and watched a JW movie about how it started. :P That was interesting. Apparently JW's think that in 1914 WWI , their restoration happened and there was something about this tree as mentioned in Daniel 4 or 5 and a slightly skewed interpretation about the apostasy. Super interesting but kinda weird at the same time. I can't even remember the bulk of what the movie was about.. it's probably a good thing.
Saturday we tracted. A lot of people were not home, but we found 1 person and we taught them. They are a good christian family. Open but not too open. They gladly took a Book of Mormon and said they would read it. We will try and see them again after Christmas.
Sunday was great. Church had two homecoming talks and lots of visitors. Very powerful and Will came again all dressed up in a suit. We just need Megan and James to come after New Years and we are going to have the coolest row of investigators ever. We saw a few less actives afterward and tried to encourage them to come to Church. We both kinda felt gross after that and everyone at Church was sick, so we took a quick nap and warmed up and took cough drops with vitamin C. We did have the best dinner appointment with the D Family. I just love them so much. They are a convert family and they make me laugh so much. They had one of the returning missionaries and then she drove us around to her friends homes and gave us 7 referrals for the next 2 weeks!! So cool.
The Church is true and I love my time out here in New York, no matter how crazy it may be.
Love you all.
Sister Kylie Williams.
I hope you have all had a good week and have been preparing for Christmas. I am excited for Christmas. A lot has changed since the last time I called home. I was a brand new missionary in Corning, I Skyped my family from the basement of the Stake Presidents Home and the night before I had caroled the night away and ate plenty of traditional Swedish delicacies that sometimes weren't all that delicious. Now I am a little older and hopefully a little wiser and I find myself only 20 minutes south of my original area! I am not complaining, the southern tier of my mission has been very good to me. There's great people and I have only gotten 1 inch of snow and it's forecast to be 50 to 60 degrees on Christmas Day. I love a good cold and snowy Christmas, but when you have to be outside finding people all day, I would rather be in 60 degree weather. It is still super green here also. It is going to be weird when I got back out west and all I see is brown!
We are being spoiled by the Ward with presents and lots of dinner appointments. Best of all, we even got a few referrals! This Christmas, we will be spending most of the day playing with a Ward family and Skyping and playing games when we are done proselyting. Most of our investigators will be out of town or they are sick. Except for our single Men's Club. (Jim, James and Will) All three of them try to see us as much as possible... so thankfully, we can still do some teaching this week.
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| James, Sister Gass and I |
It is actually kind of weird, most people think that around Christmas time that people are kinder and happier and more joyful. In our case, we have actually seen the opposite. Signs of the times I guess. We talk to so many people and have been trying to use the "Christmas A Savior is Born' approach and build off the foundation of Christ to get people to let us in. Unfortunately, people have been ruder and sadder this month. We hear people saying that they actually hate Christmas and what it has become and yet they wait in line and buy hundreds of dollars of junk. Satan is so clever in the snare of commercialism. It is so ironic to see this happening. With the change in weather, people have also been getting sick of have family over, so with the craziness and business that people create, they don't make time for the tings that matter most. When they tell us how stressed they are and how they don't have time to meet or hear a message, it really does make me sad. People! Let's just take 5 minutes and pay attention to the real spirit of Christmas. What have you given to the Lord this holiday as a sign of your love and devotion for him? The true meaning of Christmas can be found most often in things that are not visibly tangible. Time, love a smile, service, devotion, gratitude, traditions... those things cannot be packaged and put under the tree. I am grateful that I get yet another Christmas to serve Him and do better. It is really a neat opportunity. Rant over...
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| Derek with Sis Gas and I |
Last Monday we got another opportunity to relax and take a nap. So good! We saw Jim and James that night. Him is just eating up the gospel. Hopefully, he gets the priesthood this next Sunday or the next because he took off work to go to the temple trip with the youth. So fun! We have been helping with his family history and getting that all prepared. Everything we meet he always mentions how much he has to pay in tithing this month and how he is going to get baptized for his Dad. We get along quite well, because we both say off the wall comments to each other during lessons. This week he called me a lion because my hair was extra frizzy due to the weather. Sister Gass could not stop laughing. We also saw James, and he is so good at pulling out jokes too during our lessons.
Tuesday we saw a lot of rejection. Nobody was home or wanted to talk to us. One lady turned us into her apartment complex and we got called and were told not to tract anymore because it is a 'non solicitation' complex. We didn't see a sign and technically we aren't soliciting... but whatever! We also had this crazy cat lady yell at us for knocking on her door and demanded that we show her our 1 day pass from the village which gives us the permission to tract. We told her we didn't have certificates and that we didn't need to do that, but she slammed the door anyway. We also had a bunch of harsh No! and people kept saying, "No, Bye, have a Merry Christmas". Wait, you don't celebrate that." What?? Mormon's don't celebrate Christmas? We are not the JW's. So, this week Sister G and I are going to buy ugly Christmas sweaters and try to go tracting in those. Maybe making people laugh and they will let us in!
Some good things did happen later that day. We taught this family with 3 girls and they are somewhat interested and the girls love God. We taught them the restoration and later found a man named Cory that grew up with Mormon friends and he listened to us and said we could come back! We also went to the RS Christmas Dinner and I met Rachel. Rachel is dating a recently activated member of the ward and he is one of the sons of one of the more prominent families of the ward. I knew she was checking out the Church, so I kinda did my whole missionary /predator pounce thingy. She is just so cute. We talked the whole time and I got to know her quite well. She then asked questions and said that she did want to know more about the Church and I had eased her fear with missionaries. We texted and actually saw her today and taught her lesson #1 which went super duper. She is so prepared. I have no doubt she will be baptized here shortly. So probably the most successful finding I have ever done though a ward activity. We also saw Will again and taught him about temples which went good. We also have this other family and they are already acting just Mormons. So, we have been ding dong ditching their house and leaving scriptures and little cards. We also delivered dinner to Sabrina because she works 12 hrs a day with no break and she needed food. Okay, dinner was from Wendy's, but it was still food. She was so grateful and we talked for quite a while. We have totally earned their trust. They just have crazy busy lives.
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| Nadine with my Comp and I |
Wednesday, one of the sister missionaries from the ward came home. She wasn't reporting/getting released until the end of the day, so she spent time with us. We made a cute trio. It was so much fun. We saw some RC/LA families and Will and James. We taught Will about tithing and used potato chips to teach the principle. At the end, Sister Gilmore asked about how he felt as we taught him. He said, "After my wife died, I was really sad and felt empty. Since meeting the Sisters, that emptiness is gone and the gospel is making me whole." :) Me and Sister Gass might has shed a tear, such an awesome experience. Just funny to think that 3 to 4 weeks ago we knocked on his door at 8:30 at night after being thrown out of another house. Looking back, we needed to have been thrown out of the house. If we had not, we would have stayed too long in a potentials home and we would not have tried just a few more doors. God closes doors so better ones can open. We just had to have the humility and obedience to keep knocking after rejection. We had missionary coordination and went home for the night.
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| Driving up to Conference |
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| Us with a 12 Days of Christmas Card |
Saturday we tracted. A lot of people were not home, but we found 1 person and we taught them. They are a good christian family. Open but not too open. They gladly took a Book of Mormon and said they would read it. We will try and see them again after Christmas.
Sunday was great. Church had two homecoming talks and lots of visitors. Very powerful and Will came again all dressed up in a suit. We just need Megan and James to come after New Years and we are going to have the coolest row of investigators ever. We saw a few less actives afterward and tried to encourage them to come to Church. We both kinda felt gross after that and everyone at Church was sick, so we took a quick nap and warmed up and took cough drops with vitamin C. We did have the best dinner appointment with the D Family. I just love them so much. They are a convert family and they make me laugh so much. They had one of the returning missionaries and then she drove us around to her friends homes and gave us 7 referrals for the next 2 weeks!! So cool.
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| Crazy Elders at Conference |
The Church is true and I love my time out here in New York, no matter how crazy it may be.
Love you all.
Sister Kylie Williams.
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