Week 54 - Watch out Kentucky, Elder Williams is coming!!!

Hola mi familia!

Well this week flew by! I don't even know why. A few of the days had a couple unexpected things happened that made our days feel like nothing really happened. 

So first off. We got transfer calls, and I'm heading to Bowling Green, Kentucky! I'm super excited! My companion is elder Hamilton, and as of right now he's the only Spanish elder that I don't know. So I'm excited to tell you all about him next week! 

Then Saturday morning Maria and Daniel got baptized! It was a super awesome service. And Maria went all the way under the first time! Which is great, because we were worried she would flail around because of her fear of water. But it all went well. They were confirmed yesterday at church. Just super cool stuff. 

Alondra and Jose are progressing really well! We had 2 lessons with them this week, and one of them we taught half of the plan of salvation with the bishop but got into a really deep doctrine discussion. Then on Saturday we finished the rest of the lesson and had a really good 2 hour lesson. We tried to leave, but they had more questions and wanted us to stay longer. So we did. Then they came to church yesterday and stayed for the full 3 hours. And today we are having family home evening with them at a members house. So I have a feeling I'll be making a quick trip back here pretty soon to see them get baptized. I'm super excited for them. 

Now for the unexpected things. It was mostly Thursday. So we had a planned service project of handing out 300 flyers per companionship in our zone at every door in East Nashville. It is for a family history fair that one of the wards is putting on. So we had three hours to do it. It was basically just running up and down streets. Then after we ran to the hospital, because we got a call from one of the part member/ less active families that we have been working with. The dad was in the hospital because he has kidney failure. So we spent a long time looking for him. Especially because we went to the wrong Saint Thomas at first. Then for dinner we were heading down to pick up the other elders and we were stopped in traffic. And then a big white Tacoma rear ended us. So we pulled off and dealt with all that. We had to wait 2 hours for the cops to get there, which wasnt good because it let the Hispanics that hit us really worry about getting deported. So we tried to calm their nerves. They got out just fine. But that put us until 7:30. And so we ran home and ate really quick and ran to the lesson with alondra, Jose and bishop. Then the next couple days we had to go around doing stuff for the repairs of the car. Fun stuff. I've been getting a lot of calls from these different therapy places that want me to come in and get a free check up. But I keep telling them I'm going to bowling Green and they just get confused and hang up. Haha

I'm now currently sitting in bed with some stomach bug that hit like half the ward yesterday. So sorry if this email is bad or anything, I'm a little out of it. 

Love yall

🇺🇸Elder Williams🇲🇽

Week 53 - What a Week - Must Read.

Hola mi familia!

So this week was especially special for me. I've had a lot of experiences that have caused a huge change and growth in me. I'm just going to get right into it. 

So it all started with about two weeks ago, how I felt like I should start reading Jesus the Christ. I've been reading it every chance that I can and I finished it yesterday! I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before, but the best part of it happened as I read the last words of the book. The instant that I read the last words of the book, the spirit filed my body and I felt prompted that I needed to pray. So I did, and I felt that I should ask God if it was all true. If Jesus really does live on. Not because I didn't already know before, but because I needed to be a stronger witness of him. As I prayed I was filled with such a sweet peace. I now know with a much stronger conviction than before, that Christ lives and that he is our savior. That was experience uno. 

The second happened during zone conference this. My mission president shared story of a missionary without a testimony of obedience, because the times in his mission when he had the most success was when he was the least obedient. It really struck me. His answer was that of "imagine the greater blessings you could have received had you been obedient during the times of success, and you missed out on the opportunity to have the spirit with you." It made me look at myself and think if I was trying to be obedient just to be obedient or if it is to strive so that I can have the spirit to be with me. Both attitudes are being obedient, but the one of striving to to it to have the spirit is one of a full, consecrated heart. I realized that I had been depending mostly on my own merits most of my mission, and not what the spirit had to say. This day forward that changes. I'm not here just to be here, I'm here to do the will of the father and help his children return to him. And I can only do that by following the Holy Ghost. And I can only follow him if I am obedient. That is my new reason to be obedient. That is my new reason to work hard. That is my new reason to be here. I invite all of you to look inward and ask yourself "why do I follow the commandments?" And then study the sacrament prayers and see if you can see why God wants you to be obedient. Experience dos.

Yesterday I had the wonderful blessing of interviewing Daniel and Maria onofre. They are the parents if one of the recent converts of the ward who got baptized the first week I got here. What a sweet experience that was. As I sat there, listening to their testimonies, I thought of the first time I saw them. It was the first weekend I was here, and it was at their daughters wedding so she and her husband could get baptized the next week. I remember thinking that they had a long way to go, but I felt that they could do it. And over the last 7 1/2 months I have watched them grow. They are new and better people. And it's all because of Christ. During Maria's interview, she brought up her fear of water. So I asked her who she was going to have baptize her, in hopes to reassure her that that person would be there for her to pull her back out. And to my surprise she said "well actually I was wondering if you could?" I was very surprised, because I had never taught them or anything. So I asked why she wanted me to do it. and then she continued with "it's because I trust you" I felt such a love for her, it's hard to describe. Anyways, they both are fully prepared for their baptism this Saturday at 11. I can't wait! Experience tres. 

On Thursday we finally came in contact with a person who had requested a book of Mormon from Mormon.org. She told us how she had been reading it online because a coworker back in New York who is a member invited her to read it. So we set a return appointment for the next day. When we came back, we taught the first part of the lesson with just Alondra outside, because José was working late. We had gotten to the restoration of the priesthood and Jose came, and so we asked her to give a summary of what we had taught. she gave him a really good summary of what we had talked about. So we hit some of the points she missed and continued on. At the end José said a great prayer and We invited them to church and they said they'd come, and we showed them the worship with us page and walked them through it. Then yesterday Alondra was able to come with her 7 month old son. José got special called into work, normally he doesn't work on Sundays. So sadly he couldn't come. But she stayed all three hours and really felt good about it. We have really high hopes for them. We have a return appointment with them today! Experience cuatro. 

There were so many other miracles and great experiences this week but these are the most important and impact full to me. I'm so grateful for these blessings that the lord has blessed us with this week. I love being a missionary. 

Love y'all!

🇺🇸Elder Williams🇲🇽

Less important things but still cool

• yesterday we had English classes and 20 people showed up, it was crazy. Last week we had 5!
• Today I'm probably in one of the best places to be for the eclipse, because the best place in the world is Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Which is an hour from here. So I'm super excited for it, and our president provided the whole mission with glasses!

🇺🇸Elder Williams🇲🇽

Week 52 - That's right 1 year!!!! Nashville Providence D

Hola mi familia!

Wow, I can't believe I've been out for a year already. This year has been crazy, but it has been a growing experience I will never forget. I also can't believe that I'm still in my second area, haha. But that's going to change here soon. We had interviews with president and he said that I'll for sure be moving from here in a couple weeks. I'm really excited for the new adventures. 

Well this week was just great. It really flew by for some reason. 

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I got to work with elder Waldo. It went pretty well. We did a lot of knocking doors and I learned a few new ways to do door approaches. Especially using the scriptures as a way to spark interest. 

Then Wednesday night we had our ward rescue night. We didn't have as much success all around as the first time, but it was still a success. We visited the henriquez family with our first counselor in the bishopric. He is a very straightforward man, and I think he pretty clearly related to them about how this is the only church with the priesthood to get into the celestial kingdom. Then on Friday elder Jones and I passed by again and taught them the plan of salvation. One of the only questions the dad had was why the third heaven was called telestial. We felt like it went really well. They still don't want to come to church because they are worried that their children will annoy others. So we are bringing a member with us who has pretty rowdy kids to invite them.  But they are reading in the Book of Mormon, so we hope with a member inviting instead of us they will come. 

We've also been continuing to work with Maria Reyes, this week we read chapter three of the book of Mormon with her because she read the second one on her own. She even gave a summary of it without us asking for it. We are going back this Tuesday with a member that's her same age that we have felt would be a good fellowshiper for her. She also said that she was reading the 4th chapter as well!

On Saturday we went to west Nashville and went former investigator finding. It was fun, but I'm not sure how much success came out of it. We did take the opportunity to go to Hattie b's. They are always packed and we found out why. It was super good. 

And then on Sunday we went to our Maria Reyes' son's first birthday party and It was a lot bigger than I expected. But I found out just how long I've been here, because 70% of the people there were former investigators haha. We also saw a few inactive members there. I'd say it was a success. And we kinda got parked in because we parked on the driveway and like 20 other cars parked there. It was interesting getting out. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

🇺🇸Elder Williams🇲🇽

Week 51 - Nashville Providence D

Hola mi familia!

This week was great. We've been working with an investigator named Maria Reyes. She's a single mom with a 1 year old son. She's been reading in the book of Mormon and she had really good questions about the restoration. One sign that u thought was really good was Saturday we had an appointment. And she called us to reschedule. That's like the first time that's happened, it was a nice change, haha.

We also had a really awesome experience Monday! We decided to go try knocking at a  new apartment complex that I have been wanting to try for a long time. As we were walking into the complex, I had this weird feeling that we should go towards the back. Which was odd, because I thought there were a lot of Hispanics near the front. But we kept going  and the first door we knocked was an inactive member. He is from Nicaragua and he was going to go on a mission to Bolivia, but he ended up coming to work here in the states. His wife is not a member and they just had a kid. We aren't sure how many other kids they have, but we have a really good feeling about this family. He said he was heading to new Orleans for the weekend so we haven't been able to see him again, but as soon as we can we hope to teach his whole family. And the best part of the story, is that door was the only Hispanic in the whole complex. So the spirit helped us save a lot of unnecessary time knocking. 

Elder Jones is awesome. He reminds me a lot of Adam Martin a lot of the time. So that's been fun haha. 

I can't believe I hit a year next week, that still blows my mind!

Love y'all!

🇺🇸Elder Williams🇲🇽