“Let the Holy Spirit guide"

Hello world outside of Missouri, This week was a crazy one!

We started the week with exchanges. I stayed here in Liberty and Sister Munoz came. We started the day with a prayer of faith...and the way that works is you ask God what miracle he is willing to provide for you that day. Then pray for that miracle and tell him what you are going to do on your side to make it happen. So we knew that God would help us find 2 new investigators by the end of the day, and we would do our part by talking to 10 unknown people and inviting those people to be baptized. And guess what...miracles happened. We ended up talking to 22 people, finding 3 new investigators and another one that lives in a different area, and we also got in with 2 less actives that never open their door.

Monument to the Eight Witnesses

of the Book of Mormon,

Liberty, Missouri

For some reason we think that we have to go through this life alone, but we can call on the powers of heaven whenever we what...and a lot of power comes from being accountable to the Lord, but even more power comes from humbly holding God accountable to his promises.

Then throughout the rest of the week, the Jail was really busy, which was an answer to prayers; because we had been super slow for awhile. But more and more non-members have been coming through, some with members, some just curious to learn. It's amazing to see how God truly prepares people to receive this gospel. Wow. I'm just so lucky to serve here.

Sister Day and Sister Williams 

On Sunday a really interesting thing happened. We were in church, when I saw someone and the spirit instantly told me that we needed to go to her house after church. So after church we started doing some finding, and knocking on doors, but the spirit again gently reminded me that we really needed to go visit that sister. So we went. As we walked in we just started talking, she told us that she had been having some pretty rough few weeks. We showed her a video, she began to cry and ask us some personal questions about what we would do if we had someone in our life who was mentally suffering as she was, and if it would be easier for everyone if she was gone. I began to cry as the spirit prompted me to say certain things. As we were leaving she looked me in the eye and thanked me repeatedly for the answers I had given her...and told us that while her husband was gone this week she planned to take her life and that the things the spirit had taught her while I spoke had saved her life. I stood there almost numb. What if I hadn't listened to the spirit? She lived on the opposite side of our area and we could have easily justified not going due to time.

BUT our Heavenly Father loves all his children so dearly. I know that we are where we are, in the circumstances we are in, for a very specific reason. He has a plan, he loves us and the Holy Ghost can guide our lives if we allow it.

I love you all! And we hope you have a great week.

Love, Sister Williams

"Learn it, live it, love it"

Classic black and white 

car picture. 

What Missouri looks like. 

White Roads and Near Death Experiences

Hello :)

So transfer calls come tonight, and we both know that Sister Farnsworth was going to leave, she's been here in this area twice on her mission...and although I know that the President is an inspired man, the assistants came by and dropped of a test so I can get my driving card. Haha and Um well if you know me...you know that me and cars do not get along very well, especially in the snow. So we will see how this next transfer plays out, and if my new companion and I make it out alive. J

Sister Williams & Sister Farnsworth 

Anyway just a short little update about what happened this past week. We had a lesson with Mike and he finally told us that he wasn't ready for baptism right now...which sounds bad, but it was good to here where he's actually at. Because for the last little while he's just been telling us that he will get baptized, and that he just doesn't know when. So we've kind of just been at a standstill. But now we know where he is at and where we need to go from here.

And as far as our area goes, it's still pretty slow. But we did service at a nature sanctuary on Saturday and Sister Farnsworth held a little fuzzy bunny while I held a snake. A member had us over to their house this week and had us do a "Man-cake" challenge, where you have to eat a pancake that is the size of the skillet. Let's just say I did not succeed in that endeavor.

Right now I've just been thinking a lot about how to gain spiritual strength, how to get to a point where you can and will do anything that your Father in Heaven asks of you. I've come to the conclusion that it is back to the basics. We need to start with constant direct communication with our Heavenly Father, and start from there.

Sorry this email is short.

I love you all, and hope you have an amazing week!

Sister Williams 

District Meeting - Liberty Jail 

Knockin Doors and Saving Souls

Hello!

This week was full of success and miracles! Last week I wrote about counting all of the no's we have gotten, well, we knocked on more than 45 doors and finally found some new investigators! Our diligence and faith is finally paying off :) One of our new investigators name is Nannette, she has the cutest little family. The night we found her started out as a rough one. We didn't have a car so we were walking, it was freezing. We knocked on about 15 doors with no luck so we
decided to walk to a less active members house but we got lost... We stopped and decided to pray. We told Heavenly Father that we were lost and to help us find someone how would be interested in the Gospel. After the amen Sister Farnsworth and I walked to a door and knocked.


This is how the conversation went:

US- "Hi! We are the local missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint, have you ever heard of that church?
NANNETTE- No...
US- "How about the Mormons"
NANNETTE - "Ohh... yeah, how can I help you?"
US- "As missionaries we share a message about Christ (insert child running to the door) and how through him we can be together with our families forever, is that something that you would be interested in learning more about?"
NANNETTE- "I would love to!"
US- Silence. We were so shocked that someone actually said yes! "Ohh, well we will be back in the area..."

We have a lesson with her later this week! We found 2 other investigators. They have both been taught before.

We have a new investigator on Mormon.org chat. He is from Pakistan. It was so cool! He came onto the Chat because his religious leader in Pakistan was criticizing the Mormons. He spent some time on Mormon.org and was interested in learning more! But he cool part is that he had a really hard time reading and writing in English so we used Google translate and talked to him in Urdu! Pictures will follow. We helped him download a Urdu Book of Mormon because he said that it was dangerous for him to have a paper copy.

We've taken some pretty awesome people through the Jail. One man was here on a business trip and had time to kill so he came to the Jail. I have never taken someone who was so excited to be on a tour. He had so many questions and was so engaged. At the end of the tour he thanked us 5 trillion times and asked if he could bring his kids back, it was fantastic.

I hope that you have a great week!

Love you!

Sister Williams

"The First Day of The Rest of The Year"

We haven't been able to find anyone else to teach yet, and we've started counting our no's every day, because if you focus on the no's that one yes means so much. Haha so in the last two days we've had 36 no's. It's due time for a few people to say yes, right? ;)

Good news! Mike (who’s been investigating for over a year.) is praying about a date for baptism! And our diligence is paying off, because it looks like we will be getting some referrals soon. We just really need to be teaching more.

This week I learned a lot about hope and how Hope and Faith are different. Faith is something that anyone can have....we have faith that when we flip a light switch that the light will turn on. But hope is so much more than that. We have faith in Jesus Christ and what he did...but we have hope that we will do enough to fully accept his sacrifice and use it in our lives. Hope is what the world tries to rip away from us. And when we lose hope, that's when our faith starts to waver. The only way that we can gain sufficient hope is if we have
our focus set on our Savior Jesus Christ.. Just like Peter when he was walking on water, the only way we stay above water is if we keep our sight on the Savior.

Sister Farnsworth is awesome. She has helped me in many aspects of my missionary work. All the members here love her! She is so selfless and
is always thinking of others. She uses hard trials in her past to help others feel understood and to teach with power. Haha oh and the subject of the email is our motto for the year.

Alright well although I LOVE the holidays, I'm excited for people to be a little less busy again. I hope you all have a great week.

Sister Williams 

The happiest of holidays

This will be a really short email, I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and tell you how amazing serving in the jail has been. This past week we've really picked up and we've been able to have some incredible experiences. When people look at you at the end of a presentation with tears in their eyes, thanking you for answering their prayers....it's a feeling you cannot describe. This truly is sacred ground.

Alright, well thank you to those who sent me fun cards and packages they really mean so much! Love you all!

A Christmas Family Home Evening

Turkey Week

Sister Williams - Sister Maxwell

I'm so happy! This Ward and the members we live with....are pretty much the best. And I'm super hoping that I get to stay in this area for Christmas!!

We found 4 new investigators this week! And have return appointments set with all of them; I'm so excited for these people who all seem pretty prepared. We're not really sure where to go with Amanda right now; she's kinda at a halt...but still progressing. I think the main thing that she needs right now is a witness that the Book of Mormon is true.

In sacrament meeting this week, someone talked about recognizing the blessings that come from trials and weaknesses. So I sat down and made a giant list of weaknesses and trails that have happened in my life, then on the other side wrote what specific blessings came from it. It was so eye-opening to see how God shapes and molds us and how we always have SO much to be grateful for. No matter how great things are going or how much good you are doing, you just can't be happy without gratitude. As we notice our blessings not only will our gratitude grow, but our testimony of our Heavenly Fathers love will grow also. I would challenge you all to do it, because it really puts things into perspective.

This week I was focusing a lot on the apostasy and the blessings of the restored gospel. I'm pretty sure we are one of the only religions that practice the things the Savior taught after he was resurrected. He talked about anointing, and baptisms for the dead, and the binding power of the priesthood. Many things that have completely changed our lives and bless us and our families so much, many people simply look over. We can't take these wonderful revelations and blessings for granted. This is the only true and restored church. And I'm extremely humbled to have it in my life.

Hope y'all have a amazing thanksgiving! Thanks for all the love and support :)

Sister Williams

 The Jacksons bought us stockings for Christmas :)

they're honestly like my mission family.

Sister Ecchels and the baby blanket she made for 

my first child...haha so cute

The clouds were insane. 

" I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"

.... Don't worry I'm not skipping Thanksgiving,

Picture of my face (so my mom doesn't get mad)

Agh!!

I'm so excited for the holidays :)

Alright, this week we went to the Liberty Jail with Logan and his family and Logan decided with his mom that they needed to push back his date a little bit, which at first was very hard..Because we've had many investigators be on date and then circumstances don't allow it.

But Logan will get baptized :) his mom just wants him to feel a little more prepared, and understand his commitment. The B. family (extremely RLDS family) had a big breakthrough this week. Sister Maxwell and I were having a rough time, because they weren't really progressing, so we went to go and reiterate our purpose..Then while we were there Jim brought out their version of the Doctrine and Covenants, and Sister B. eyes were opened a bit as she questioned the differences and as we read from Section 121 in ours...the spirit was so powerful! It made me SO grateful for the power of the priesthood and the fact that we have a living prophet on the earth today.

This week was while I was reading a talk titled the 4th missionary. There was a section that said “He will make of you, immeasurably more then what you will ever, ever in all eternity make of yourself "Then he goes on to say" He will create a masterpiece..... You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God” that hit me so hard, I think too often in the Church we feel like we have to "work" our way to heaven... Which works are involved but all to often we forget about the grace of God. We need to completely turn ourselves over to God. Only through the grace of Jesus Christ are we able to perform the works necessary.

Our area is doing good, we were able to find 4 new investigators this week! So we're just continuing to pray for opportunities to teach. And get to know everyone that is on the Ward roster. And then talking to everyone we see, of course!

Sister Maxwell is incredible. She is so in tune with the spirit, and gets along with everyone. She has helped me come out of my "mission shell" completely, and as we talk to everyone we've been able to see miracles. :)

This week was a big learning experience for me (haha hopefully I'll say that every week) but as I've been studying the atonement... It has taking on a much deeper meaning in my life. Our savior Jesus Christ suffered through everyone's personal unbearable pain as he suffered in the garden. He did more than just suffer for our sins * which would have been enough, but he suffered for everything else so we could change! *because "no unclean thing can dwell with God, and no unchanged thing will want to."  Then on the cross he suffered through his own, as the father left him momentarily and he was alone. We are forever indebted. Everything he asks of us…is for our benefit.

 Everything else is great... And I'm just so happy!

 Sister Williams

Our gratitude board, and our happy little Christmas tree :)

Baptisms, Fireflies and Visitor Centers

This week was incredible! Okay first off warning, this email will be kinda scattered because I'm super short on time and have a billion things I want to say haha, so bear with me :)

So Monday, something happened that has been on my bucket list for awhile... we were in the middle of a lesson on this guy's porch when I screamed like a child... I got to see fireflies! haha I apologize if you expected something more exciting, but for me it was awesome :)

Moving on, I feel so blessed that there are two Visitor Centers that we have access of using in our missionary work. On both Wednesday and Friday we took investigators to the Independence one. The spirit there is always so strong as we look at the history of this place where they live. Oh I love it! And both of those investigators came to church this Sunday!!

Later that Friday night was Steve's baptism, I've been told stories of golden investigators and through some miracle I was able to see one in my first three weeks. It was incredible! He found the church because his friend was LDS and while he was at a disc-golf course he found a Book of Mormon on a bench and that was that. The only reason he "was kept from the truth, is he knew not where to find it" His testimony at his baptism was one of the most powerful I have ever heard. It was also a miracle that his wife was able to attend. Oh I know that they will be sealed as a family sometime soon, as we were at the baptism you could see her countenance change as she felt the spirit. Agh, I love them so much! Sadly they don't actually live in our area, so now it's up to the Elders in his area to teach the rest of their family, but I'm so excited for them :)

Well on a mission you definitely learn something new every day, one of the things I learned most this week was how knowing the truth causes people to change. I've seen this so many times already! In an email earlier I talked a little bit about the K. family, oh they are seriously the best :) Anyway the dad is very set in his ways and even from the time I've known him, I have seen the gospel change him and his family. Last night when we were teaching them I called him out on some sass he was throwing at me and he said something along the lines of " I like this one she's not afraid to talk" haha well I told him I'm not shy about his salvation. He always says things like "I've been thinking about getting baptized, but I'll probably wait 18 months" haha then I'm like seriously don't mess with me like that. But I truly know that this gospel makes people desire to be better and do better.

So that's my little challenge for this week, is do better! Because it's our actions that often define who we are. Don't just know the gospel, but live it!

Sister Shelby Williams

Independence Visitor Center

Blurry picture, but Steve's baptism!!

How to be a Missionary

Sister Williams & Sister Olsen

Once upon a time me and Sister Olsen were out tracting, and although I talked

every time someone opened the door, I had yet to be the one to knock. So the next door was my turn, and needless to say I was excited… a little too excited, because as I knocked, it was so stinking loud that poor family probably thought the cops were outside trying to knock their door down haha lucky for me no one was home or they ran away out of fear, either way the moral of the story is. Use the doorbell.

The funny thing about that subject line is the fact that I still have no idea how to be a missionary....but If there's one thing I want to share this week it's that God is not a respecter of persons, it does not matter what you've done, where you live or how long you've been a member, His love knows no boundaries, there is nothing that says you have to fit into a certain mold to be loved, and nothing qualifies one more than the other.

As we've been teaching some of our investigators this week that's come up a lot, many feel that they are loved less because of things that they have done. That's why having the pure love of Christ is essential to missionary work, not only on an actual mission but as we are "missionary's" in our daily life's. Many times truly loving someone comes from looking at them in not only terms of who they are, but in who they can become, trying to see them as the Lord does. With that love comes the desire to serve, which is actually a covenant we make when we are baptized, we promise that we will render service to our fellow man.

When it comes to teaching the gospel I've come to realize that no one really cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. As we really strive to follow Christ we will have the overwhelming desire to serve, because no one else is a better example of service. In the same topic be willing to accept service....now that's one I've had a really time with, because the ward out here is so good to us missionaries, and is always trying to give and do stuff for us. For the first week I HATED it...but I've begun to realize that denying other people the opportunity is really denying that person blessings, which sounds extreme but it's true. We must be able to give service, accept service and in times of need be humble enough to ask for

service.

We are all on the same hard trip back to our father, we are here to love and help each other get back home like Elder Uchtdorf said “in the end it's the merciful that will receive mercy."

Sister Williams 

Car selfies with special guest yellow air freshener. 

 ‪#‎pureloveofchrist‬‪ #‎MissouriIndependenceMission‬ ‪#‎sohotandhumid‬

Welcome to Zion!

This week was super eventful!  My last day in the MTC was amazing; at the Tuesday devotional we had the chance to hear from Elder Russell M. Nelson.... It was incredible; the Lord truly does know each of us
individually.

Then that next morning we got up at 3am and got packed up to leave, the airport was a new experience for me to say the least ha ha, due to circumstances I had to get a full pat down and since it was my first time flying I was terrified to say the least. BUT I actually loved it...then as soon as I stepped off the plane I felt like I was soaking wet. Humidity is something else. 

Our first day me and the other 20ish missionaries went to see the temple and also went to liberty jail, oh how I love those places, the spirit there is so strong. That night we all stayed in the mission home and the next morning we went to the visitor center (my new favorite place) then that was it, it was time to get to work. We were assigned our companion and that was that.

My companion Sister Olsen is the cutest; she's from Ogden and has only been serving for two months. We are assigned to the New Mark area in Kansas City....oh man this ward is incredible! They work hand in hand with the missionaries, in fact almost everyone we are teaching are referrals from members and members come to almost every lesson we teach.

Okay so now a little bit about our investigators. Right now we are teaching some amazing people. We actually have our first baptism on the 21st!!! His name is Steve and he is seriously a golden investigator, he is an ex- marine and has two kids. Last lesson we talked to him about the word of wisdom and he said something along the lines of "well I'm already this deep, I'm not backing out now." Agh he's fantastic. 

We are also about six other families or people. Oh man there's a family I meet last night named the K. family, and being at their house felt like being at home. He's an ex marine as well and is pretty intimidating. I love them so much they're so sarcastic and whitty.... needless to say I fit right in ;) 

But in all seriousness it's hard to teach them a "real" lesson because he's pretty  determined that he's never getting baptized...but I let them know that they're not going to get away with that so we'll make one step at a time. We made an agreement that if they go to church they can call me Sister Nikki and that I'll only talk to them in a Jersey accent....sounds like a deal to me. Oh I really do feel a strong spirit in their home and believe they have the desire to come closer to Christ. So we do have quite a few investigators but most of the work we do is with the less active in the ward. A mission pretty much gets rid of all normal social boundaries. You have to be bold and awkward is a feeling you have 1000 times a day. But long story short I LOVE being on a mission.

The spirit you feel in a lesson is comparable to no other. I have already witnessed many miracles and can't explain the numbing responsibility this calling has. I love you all!!

Sorry no pictures this week, we email on our iPads which means no pictures from my camera...but I'll send some next week.

Love, Sister Williams