Opposition In All Things

Typical slice of pizza in Utica, NY

When reading 2 Nephi Chapter 2, we learn a lot about the Plan of Salvation and the roles of agency and opposition in our lives.  Ha ha ha ha.  Oh boy, I have learned so much this week about both of those roles. I also learned how to grit my teeth and bare through some difficult times too.

My week started off great and we had a baptism to prepare for.  We also had a bunch of new investigators to teach and everyone was progressing so well.  Last Sunday, we even met together as all of the missionaries in Utica to make cookies and deliver them to the families in the Ward and to our investigators.  We made 14 dozen cookies.. and I ate a ton of dough!  :)

All of the Utica, NY Missionaries - Baking!

 On Monday, things started to get a little tricky.  One of our recent converts kinda had a break down and ran away.  She is dealing with the effects of living for many years in a bad environment and all kinds of abuse.  So, school and life in general isn't going so well for her.  The only problem is, there isn't a good way to get a hold of her besides running into her at her house or on Facebook.  Thankfully, the Young Women's President is the best person in the world.  She stayed up till midnight trying to find her and then took her in for a few days to try and have an intervention.  Thankfully, she is doing better, but it is still a very fragile situation.

CJ got baptized this week.  HECK YES!!  Sadly, he got anti-mormon literature & lectures every day until the baptism.  Talk about opposition!!!  Every day was a new challenge.  We had some crazy born again Christian pop out from no-where during our meeting with him in the Library and made fun of him for thinking of converting.  I realized how feisty and protective I am this week.  I hope no one ever bullies my future children haha.. nobody messes with my babies!!

CJ's Baptism :)

Fortunately, I remained calm, but in the middle of all that, I practically pushed him out of the library saying, "Run, Run!!"  To make matters worse, his step parents, who are against him joining, forced him to meet with the old Catholic Father.  CJ passed that meeting/trial with flying colors.   His parents wouldn't give up and had him read a bunch of anti-mormon literature.  :(  Afterwards, he asked us questions and we cleared up all of the misconceptions quite nicely actually.  :)  We then contacted the Mom and Step-Mom and requested a meeting to address their concerns.  For an entire hour we stood up to the Step Mom and answered the Mom's concerns while at Dunkin Donuts.  The Spirit is amazing!  We answered every one of their questions and accusations.  The Step Mom literally looked us in the eyes and said, "I wanted to hate the two of you... but you have been so nice, I can't."   Ha Ha!!  The Lord's work will progress!

One thing I learned, is that sometimes the best defense is to have a 'proactive offense'.  If we had not set up the meeting and reached out to the two Mom's, Saturday's baptism would not have happened.  CJ was all grins and smiles on Saturday and his family all looked like they were passing kidney stones.   :)  We showed the Restoration film and gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost and all we could do was smile and say, "I know this is true! :)"

So, my blood pressure has gone up and down the last few days.  Thankfully, it is all back to normal now.

Megan has given up smoking and drinking.   Now to just stop the coffee.  But, she read half of the Book of Mormon in a WEEK!  Woop Woop!  She is going strong and wants to be baptized in June. :)  Satan is trying to distract her with some neighbors who are a bad influence, so we are going to try to get her baptized as soon as possible.  She knows the Church is true and is living it, she just needs to make a few major life changes in the next few months.

We had a few people drop us and others had family illnesses etc so we didn't get to follow up with them this week either.   It is amazing to see how people either accept and change  or make excuse after excuse and not do something that can totally change and improve their lives.   But, Tony one of our investigators, came to church and he is truly repenting of everything.  He refuses to commit to baptism until he repents of everything he has ever done wrong.  He is even calling family and old acquaintances and apologizing for things he did years ago.  It is awesome to see some of the Lord's elect change their lives for the better.  It is the best feeling.

Personal Motto while in Utica ""Grow"
It hangs up on our bedroom wall 

Yesterday, I had the feeling to go through our old untouched area book.  We found 2 women who are looking for a Church to attend.  They have some interesting views on some topics, but we can work with it and it is awesome to see the Spirit guide their hearts and desires.  Our relationships with the members are improving and we survived this week with ice cream and green smoothies.  Which are the best things ever!

The Church is true!!  I love it!!  We can survive the hard times and when the good times come, we can enjoy them even more!

Love Sister Kylie W.

Utica Days

So, this week has been slightly crazy.  There is never a dull moment here in Utica.  Seriously though, while we tracted this week, we met a fully trained 90 lb house potbelly pig named George who acts like a guard dog.

We have had some great things happen this past week.  CJ is getting baptized this week and it is going to be great.  :) We have visited and taught him 3-4 times this week.  We are just solidifying what else we want/need to teach him.  But, he loves the Church and it will be great to see him get dunked!!    He is one of my favorite investigators.

We also have an investigator named Megan who is progressing very well.  This past week, she just up and stopped drinking and she went from smoking 8 cigarettes a day to only 1!  Such progress and commitment!  It is awesome and the Ward just loves her and her daughters.  She is looking forward to being  baptized in a month if everything goes well.  :)  Whoop Whoop!

Our 'busy family of 8' who is investigating is on hold at the moment.  The Dad has kidney problems and had to go to the hospital this week.  Grr... Satan!  But, we also got the sweetest referral from Headquarters.  It is a middle aged couple who live on the south side of our area and are looking for a Church.  They love Mormon.org and love the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  Golden Contacts!!  We will teach them this week with a former military member from the Ward.

We have done a lot of tracting and OYM this week (open your mouth).  We have handed out close to 30-40 Books of Mormon this transfer!!  Tracting can actually work!  It is really cool.  We met this guy while tracting that was not interested when we first knocked on his door.   But not wanting to give up, I had him to read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon.  He looked up at us and asked, "Who is Joseph Smith???"   BOOM!  The Spirit hit him and now he is going to investigate the Church after his college finals.  Sadly, he is moving to the Rochester area in a week!  BUT IT IS A SEED PLANTED!!!

Upstate New York is probably the prettiest place ever.  It is so gorgeous.  I love how pretty it is... and yet despite that, I have never met so many people with social/emotional/mental health challenges. It is almost scary.

Good things to come this week.  I can't believe I have been in Utica for 6 weeks already.  Seems more like just 3 days :)

The Scriptures, some gold, and a Skype call

New Hartford/ Utica  New York area... big open spaces and rolling green hills

Downtown Utica, New York

This week has flown by way to fast!  Here are the highlights.

C.J., our investigator, passed his baptismal interview and will be baptized in 2 weeks!  Whoop Whoop!  He is awesome and we got him to dress up for church and it was the best!!  I love to see people embrace the gospel.  We have seen him throughout the week and have been focusing a lot on the temple.  He loves the idea of family history because his Italian grandfather actually went to the Church about 50 years ago and started working on his family's genealogy, but had to stop.  So, now he can pick it back up and keep working on his family.

Our recent converts are still going good, even though they're super busy, they always set aside time to come to Church and the activities.

It has been MEGA HOT here.  Where did spring go??  First it is 20 degrees and then it went to 95 degrees with 75% humidity.  #sweating4days  But..upstate New York is gorgeous!!  Everything is green :)  Amazingly, I don't have allergies.  :)  My poor companion however has been suffering from hives her allergies are so bad.

Driving with my Companion, Sister Howard!

We have been walking a lot this week, and I have developed those awkward tan lines all missionaries get.  Check that off my bucket list!  :)

We found a less-active a few weeks ago who's records had been completely lost by the Church.  So, now she is actively investigating and wants to be baptized sometime in the next few months.  We just need to help support her efforts to stop smoking.

Utica "Gang Lines" 

We've had some great member meal appointments/lessons this last week.  With one, we actually played baseball outside for an hour afterwards because it was so beautiful outside.   We have found so many people this week it is just great.  Partially it is because of obedience.  The other part has been because the Lord just loves us and with the warm weather, everyone was outside.  Sister Mason, my prior companion, was with us on exchanges for 3 days and we had a blast.  Love that girl!  For some reason, more people were letting us in as a trio than as a regular duo companionship.  I have no idea why, but we officially picked up 8 new investigators this week and have another 6 potentials this week.  It is so good! :)

The best group we found was this one family,  But, before we found them, I had had this spiritual impression to knock on the door of this one specific house.  The Spirit was literally screaming at me to go knock on this one house.  I explained the prompting to my companions, and we obeyed.  When we knocked, a swarm of kids came and immediately hugged us.  2 of the kids were members and they said "Oh, it is the Sisters!!"  The parents were not home, but they told us to come back the next day.  We returned the next day and met the Dad.  He is probably one of the coolest men ever.  He invited us in and we taught the Restoration Lesson to the family.  THEY ALL LOVED IT!  They were the most well behaved, intelligent and nice family I have met yet.  So 'Golden'.  They were actually looking for a church to attend and immediately accepted baptismal dates.  I have 5 baptismal dates and another 3 to do this week!  It's a family that we missionaries dream of.. and now we have one :)

We also had some interesting experiences.  At one, I got mad (not a good thing) with a less-active member who is bipolar and loves to smoke synthetic marijuana. Yikes.  I flat out told her to not meet with her drug dealer again.  I must say that sometimes you just have to know when to leave things up to the Lord and let people make their own choices.

Happy Mother's Day - pansy's in Styrofoam

There are many good things to come this week.  After talking with my family on Skype yesterday for Mother's Day, I can't believe how different I feel compared to my Christmas phone call.  I know how to be a missionary now, and I am no longer scared,  I just go out and do the Lord's work.  It is a great feeling.  I guess I have also gained more patience and I love working hard!  I love the gospel, it just makes sense and I love meeting people who are prepared and open to the gospel to teach!!  Ha ha, they aren't easy to find these days though. :)

Love ya!
Sister Kylie Williams

Here's My Week!

Hi Everyone,

This week happened so fast, I can't quite remember everything.  We always have a miracle a day... big or small.. but it's great!  It keeps us focused and when things don't go the way we thought they should, the Lord just has something else planned!

I have improved so much in my street contacting abilities.  There are some great parks in the New Hartford/Utica area, so sometimes I will purposefully walk through a park, talk to random people and give away either a Book of Mormon or a pamphlet.  Street contacting is so much easier than tracting... there are no any pesky doors in the way and people have enough courteousness (for the most part) to not run away.    I also enjoy bus stops.  I have had two great short lessons with people waiting for the bus.  We aren't currently teaching any of them, but hey, we planted seeds for future blessings and gave them something to read and our number.  All we can do is to invite!  :)

This week was a little tougher due to people's personal agency.  Our investigator CJ is currently preparing to be baptized this month and we are super excited.   He is doing great and his parents (one of which is a former New York Congressman) have requested for us to meet with them before he gets baptized.  After bringing this up to the Ward Council, we will instead give CJ's parents a tour of the Church soon with President Wirthlin.  That will be way super cool!

Unfortunately, we are at the point that we have to start finding new investigators that want to progress in the Gospel and not just meet with the missionaries for the wrong reasons. We are struggling with how best to proceed with the pool of investigators that we now have:  ie., decide whether or not to drop them, teach them more or find new ones.  For example, we have met this super sweet family and the daughters love us and want to come to Church.  But, we are struggling to try and find a time to teach the whole family (not just the girls) because the parents work crazy hours and are super tired all of the time.  Ugh.

We have been doing really good at calling people from the area book that are interested in learning, but don't live in our area.  So, we have been assisting other missionaries and hey, it's all the Lord's work!  We have also been continuing to meet and get to know the members and the less actives in the Ward.  We have some SUPER duper members in the Utica Ward and some super fun less-actives.  :)  We will just continue to work with the Lord and try and get people more excited to share the gospel, to come to Church, or learn more about the Gospel/Church.  We have an 'exchange' with the Sisters in Hamilton this week.  It will be fun not to be the Sister Training Leader for once!!!  Less paperwork :)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week.
Sister Kylie Williams

Night and Day

Love my "Sister's"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Sister Kylie Williams

Utica, New Challenges, New Miracles

Hi Everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Sister Kylie Williams

Life in a new city - Utica/New Hartford

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Katelyn's Baptism - Corning

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

The Gospel... It just makes sense.

Love you all!!
Sister Kylie Williams