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 :)

Melancholy to Miracles

Wow! 

I could sum up this week by just saying wow I love being a missionary! Haha but I guess I'll explain a little bit more about why. 

My little revelation this week was on Conversion. Too often people say that what they want is not always what God wants, but this week I've realized that if you are truly converted those things will always be the same. Your will and his will, will be aligned. You'll constantly want what he wants for you. A conversion to the gospel is so important right now, the handbook change really shook some people up, but on a mission if a minor is going to be baptized they have to have written permission from both parents ...so I personally think that there isn't a huge waiting list of same sex couples waiting to give permission for their children to baptized. But things like this are going to continue to happen and the worlds views are going to continue to drift. We must be firmly planted in our beliefs.

Our area is doing well, we are striving to talk to at least 5 unknown people a day and always leave them with something. We have also started teaching the lessons to members in their homes and helping them recognize the spirit testify names of people who need this message. We have been able to see our teaching pool begin to grow and with the Christmas parties and fire sides coming up, it give us opportunities to have something to invite people to. So that's super exciting.

Sister Maxwell has been a big blessing, she has a really driven personality and has helped me have a deeper understanding of how to magnify my calling. She gets along with everyone, and we've been able to find more people to teach as we've been really able to teach in unity. Haha long story short.. I love her and she's fantastic.

This week I've learned the importance of first contacts. With both members and non-members, the first time they meet you they need to know your purpose, and feel the spirit. We represent the church and our Savior Jesus Christ. The have to trust us, before they allow us to teach either them or the people they know. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Everything else is going really well, I had a rough patch this week after everyone was canceling their appointments and people weren't coming to church... It was easy to feel like it was my fault that the success kind of hit a halt. But while at church when I was taking the sacrament I recognized the many miracles that we were able to see this past week, and remembered what success on a mission is defined as, giving our all and better yourself every day.

Sister Williams

Sister Eccles famous pumpkin cookies

Flower pots or hats...?

A few of the young women from the Ward after we taught at mutual

Moroni 7:12

This is from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. 
We invite you to get a free copy at http://bitly.com/ZVb27O

Green and Greener

Transfers!

Pre transfer picture

Sister Olsen got transferred to the Independence Visitor center, So my new companion is Sister Maxwell!  She is such a cutie and we pretty much just go around singing all day haha it's great. She's been out for about 4 months and is from Spanish Fork. Agh I love her! We've already been able to see so many miracles.

This past week was a little bit harder to get in with people and a bunch of people canceled their appointments..but what can you expect when the Royals are in the World Series! Haha there has been fireworks going off almost every night this week and even on Halloween people sat in front of their houses passing out candy while the game was projected on their house. So pretty much I'm just a giant bandwagon Royals fan now ;)

But the work is amazing, and this week I've had a huge testimony building experience on the topic of recognizing the spirit. Okay so this is something that I know I'll be working on for the rest of my life. But this week I've realized that we must act upon the promptings that we do receive...otherwise we'll stop receiving them. I sometimes still struggle with the whole “is that the spirit or is that just my own thoughts" thing, but my mind this week continued to go back to something that I heard in the MTC. It talked about how if we are living righteously and living in a way that allows the spirit to be with us...then we don't need to question it. Everything that is good comes from God.

Which leads me to something that happened this week, we had just finished lunch and started to drive out of the parking lot, as we were driving I waved to this guy who was just sitting outside. At that moment both me and Sister Maxwell received a prompting to stop and talk to him, so we stopped the car and talked to him, and as we talked to Wayne you could see the light in his eyes as he was recognizing the truth. It was so cool.

The more we learn to listen and have the courage to act upon promptings the more we will be blessed to have the guidance of the spirit.

Sister Williams

"Learn it, live it, love it"

 Me and Sister Maxwell in our super original Halloween costumes ;)

(They Switched Name Tags)

Catch up email :)

Hey everybody!

Lunch with the Sister Training Leader's

I feel like it's been FOREVER since I wrote a real email soooo

Today will be a little catch up of the main things that have happened in the last few weeks.

A while back I wrote about Leah, and how before she could be baptized her dad wanted to have proof that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

Well.....Last week we got a frantic text from her telling us that we aren't able to come over to her house anymore, and that she is not allowed to get baptized. We called her and she told us about all this Anti- information that her dad has been giving her, and how she still REALLY wants to be baptized. So that was heart breaking, and then Amanda told us that she doesn't feel ready to be baptized either......

BUT there were many miracles that happened too :) one day some Elders in a different area were talking about a women that called them for service and as they were talking we realized that she lived in our area, so we went over and helped Fran clean and organize her house. After that we had a first lesson with her, when we started we she said that she has felt lost for a very long time...and a few minutes into the lesson she said that she felt home,  So at the end of it we put her on date for baptism on November 14th!!

This past week I have gained such a strong testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon, it is one of the things that we talk about all the time on and off the mission, but the past few weeks we've had to testify and defend the Book of Mormon over and over again. So I would quote the promise from Moroni and promise that if they study from it daily they can receive revelation. Then I had to ask myself "do I even do that?"

So this past week I have tried to make every single verse in the scriptures mean something to me, so I can testify with even more convection that this book can change lives.

This coming week I challenge you all to put more effort into your daily reading. That book is what sets us apart, and the fullness of the gospel.

(Okay FUNNY story)

Sooo lately we've had many men try to hit on us haha and I don't think it has anything to do with me...but when you see two girls walking down the street I guess we're easy targets. Haha so we've become masters at turning it into a gospel related situation. A few weeks back this car of guys drove passed us then they turned around an pulled next to us, they yelled " hey my homie thinks you're cute" then they said can we get your number...so I answered with " only if you want to know more about the gospel" they replied with whatever works.

Then two days ago this guy flagged us down then he realized we were "Church Girls" so we ended up getting his number and inviting him to church hahaha so funny.

Sister Williams  

Great Things

This week was full of great things...but it was also full of some really hard experiences. A few emails back I talked about how we had three people on date, which was awesome, but in this past week two of those people fell through. Leah's dads forbid her from getting baptized and Amanda said she just doesn't know.

BUT this week was also a historic one, cause on Sunday we had a multi stake conference because they will be creating a new stake!! That's huge! So everything kinda got switched around, but it was so cool to be a part of that :)

I also went on exchanges this week and it was amazing for me! Because it helps me realize that I have been being a little too hard on myself when I comes to missionary work (haha big surprise) but Sister Quido talked to me about how I remind her a lot of how she was when she first came on her mission...agh! It was amazing!

I'm doing great!

Sister Williams

"Sis Williams trying to get over her fear of birds! Ha"