October 26, 2015 - Aperradas

Hola familia y amigos, 

This week went by very fast, but we did a lot. 

Hna. Pinto and Hna. Williams under a new umbrella

We taught our investigator who has dementia. She`s really sweet but she can't remember anything. She told us she would come to church this week, We`ll see if she remembers. 

I titled this email aperradas because that's what the Chileans say when you have lots of dogs following you "andan aperradas" It's funny for them. Yes, Johnnie and Rambo are still following you. 

On Monday Hna Pinto and I bought a dog whistle. It looks like a taser gun actually but it just radiates a high pitched whistle that we can't hear. We tried it out on the dogs Johnnie and Rambo. Turns out the only dog that it bothers is Rambo, the rest could care less. But that's okay because Rambo is the most crazy. He freaked out when he first heard it and wouldn't come near us for a couple hours, haha. I promise the dog whistle doesn't do them any harm. It just stresses them out enough to make them stop doing something. It's like conditioning and training. Rambo still follows us around but has toned down a ton, He doesn't bark or chase cars anymore. 

We helped an hermana in the ward who has been sick chop firewood. That's right, I chopped firewood for the first time. That was actually a couple weeks ago, I just forgot to tell you. but I finally learned how! I'm not very good, I'm still learning but I've lost the fear and it's actually pretty fun. 

We taught an investigator that has been learning about the church for 30 years but never got baptized... I bore the most powerful testimony I've ever given in my entire life. (The Spirit made it powerful not me) we invited her to be baptized and she said she would pray and ask God. 

Piglets in the street in San Pablo.

On Friday we traveled to osorno to the clinic to see Dr. Garcia, He told us to come back to see him so he could check my knee. We waited in the waiting room for almost 2 hours only to find out that Dr. Garcia doesn't work at the clinic anymore so they sent me to see a different doctor there who only looked at my knee for 5 minutes give me some pain meds to take if I feel pain and signed a document that says I don't need to come back. The clinic is the trial of my patience, but I'm in the clear with my knee, that's good! I can work without worrying! 

Yes I still feel pain every now and again but its not serious pain. So don't worry about me. I'm fine. 

We helped a less active member, N clear grass from her back yard. That was fun. 

On Saturday we were walking home at night and outside the church Johnnie and Rambo started attacking another little dog in the middle of the street. We tried to stop them, yell, throw rocks, the dog whistle wasn't working on them. Then suddenly a car came up and drove right through them to stop the fight and the car ran over Johnnie! We just stood in shock.  Johnnie survived and walked away but the tire ripped his left leg open on the inside, you can see bone. It was pretty traumatic. There's not much we can do for him because he`s not ours. He cant walk now, really only hobble. We`re pretty sad. We`re afraid it will get infected. Johnnie is our favorite, He`s sweet, but an hermano in the branch offered to go check on him. 

Our investigator M and her less active husband came to church! Yay! 

San Pablo after the rain.

We were able to find 9 new people to teach this week, and some of them were really special and have a real strong desire to know the truth. We`re excited. 

I don't have very much time left. I'm trying to send photos, but the computer I have is acting weird. So sorry. But I'm doing fine, still really tired but excited. We have cambios in one week. Hna Pinto and I honestly don't know what will happen. I'm good with anything, but I would like to see a baptism here in San Pablo, they haven't had one in a year. 

I know that the church is true, I know that God loves us and Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, He loves us too. I'm so grateful to be His representative and that I get to help so many people everyday. 

love, hermana williams

October 19, 2015 - 100 Days!

Hola familia y amigos, 

Thank you all for reminding me that I only have 100 days left in my mission.I actually had a trunky moment earlier this week and did the math myself. But for me its not that trunky. I don't see it as " wow I only have 100 days until I get to go home" I see it as, I only have 100 days left to be a missionary so I better enjoy it. It motivates me. 

This week was great, we worked really hard and I'm exhausted. 

On monday we taught the familia F. We teach their daughter K English for half and hour and then we teach them for another half an hour. Or rather, I teach English haha. we`re trying to teach them the Restoration. they have a lot of desire but it's hard for them to remember what we taught them or read. 

We also taught M, she is an old investigator who now wants to start taking the lessons again. She`s great and we`re helping her with growing her faith. 

Tuesday we had intercambios (exchanges)I went to the sector of the sister training leaders with hna Call! I was Hna Call's first intercambio in Valdivia 6 months ago. It was fun to work with her again. I got to attend a leader meeting, where all the hermanas leaders, zone leaders and district leaders meet up. It was interesting, I felt a little out of place, haha. 

We`ve been teaching a lady named I but its been hard because she has dementia. We just found out. So she can barely remember anything. We've invited her to be baptized twice and she said I`ll think about it both times. We`re going to teach her today and see what happens. We might have to stop teaching her, if she cant remember what we teach her, She can't progress. 

On Wednesday we had correlacion meeting with our ward mission leader and he and his wife made us dinner. It was delicious. They are newlyweds and are about 25 years old, so they are our friends. They showed us their wedding photos. It was only a little trunky haha. 

We went to teach a menos activa less active member this week and we caught her right in the middle of cleaning and organizing her house. We offered to help. I love washing other people's dishes, so I told her I would take care of it. I`ve never seen so many dirty dishes in my entire life. It was a real deep cleaning. but we made it through and felt pretty proud of myself and the menos activa was very grateful.

Our dog sidekicks Johnnie and rambo are still following us around. We tried to trap them in the church parking lot and close the gate but they found a way out. We tried to trap them inside our patio but they escaped again. They are very loyal, but it's hard to work with them when they're fighting with other dogs and barking and jumping all over us. On Friday they killed another cat right in front of us. We feel traumatized. 

On Saturday we got to watch the palada inicial ( first stone laying?) of the temple they're going to build in Concepcion Chile. It was awesome to hear from all the speakers. Everyone is really excited. The temple should be finished in 3 years. 

I'm back to playing the piano again in Sacrament meeting here in San Pablo. Actually its a keyboard. 

This week we were able to find 11 new people to teach and teach a total of 26 lessons. There's still a lot to do here though and we have to work on making sure those new people progress. 

like I said before I don;t really feel trunky to know that I only have 100 days left. It makes me want to work harder and not waste anytime. I still feel tired and my knee still hurts but I feel motivated enough to push that all away and work really hard. I'm so grateful to be a missionary, a servant of the Lord. I know that this is His church. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I feel honored to be carry His name. I feel grateful for every experience, every day, He`s already given me. and He reminds me everyday "Forget yourself and go to work"

love, hermana williams

October 12, 2015 - Miracle!!

Hola familia y amigos!

Wow this week was very crazy but wonderful all at the same time. 

I was finally able to get the results of the ct scan on my knee and the doctor told me that there is nothing seriously wrong with my knee. I have a ligament that's probably messed up a bit and swells and hurts when I walk a lot. but there is nothing broken or anything that can get worse or keep me from walking. Basically, if I walk like normal, I'm not going to mess my knee up anymore than it already is. 

Actually, the doctor told me that I need to walk, I need to exercise it and strengthen it to get over the pain. 

He told me I can continue working as a missionary,I can take off my knee brace and walk all day long without worrying. 

I don't think I`ve ever been so grateful in my entire life. It's a real miracle, honestly.I thought I was going to get sent home for surgery or something, but I get to finish my mission! Return 2016 !! The doctor told me I do need intensive therapy, but I can help my knee just the same with doing my own exercises in the house in the morning. 

The pain hasn't disappeared or anything. There was still pain this week. I had to stop and take rests. but now I don't need to worry about making my knee worse, so I can deal with the pain. 

On Wednesday we had zone conference! It was wonderful. Guess what, I saw 2 of my past companions, Hna Jenkins and Hna Espinoza and they are companions now! Crazy. Sometimes our Mission president's wife, Hna Obeso lets us call past companions on her cell phone, and I called hna Braithwaite! I told her all about my knee and it was so nice to talk to her. 

We worked really hard this week, especially because President Obeso changed our work schedule. Before, we would return back to the house to study after lunch and leave to work at 3pm.  Now we just study in the morning and we leave to work right from lunch, so we have 1 1/2 hours more to work, and we worked  a lot. We found 9 new investigators to teach this week.The zone goal was 8. that`s the most I`ve ever had. we feel pretty pumped to be working here in San Pablo. 

There are two stray dogs here named Johnnie and Rambo that follow us everywhere and bark and get into trouble with other dogs. They are really loyal to us and we love them a lot, but it's hard for us to work sometimes because they're always barking when we try to contact or knock doors. This week they attacked and killed a cat.... that was horrifying to watch. We`re afraid that people are going to think they belong to us. We`re trying to get them to leave us alone but they are too loyal. They are the biggest trial of our sector right now haha. 

On Friday we were supposed to have 6 appointments and teach 6 lessons but all of them fell through. That was hard, but we bounced back. I have to readjust myself to mission life and remember that i'ts not always rainbows and butterflies. 

I missed working a lot though. 2 months is a long time. I was still able to work in the 2 months, but not full out, full day, with all my energy. Now I'm  back to working and it's wonderful. It's still hard.I feel pain, I get real tired, my body got used to sitting in a house all day. and I forgot how hard it can all be sometimes. but this week we were able to have some really power, spiritual moments and lessons. It was great to be able to feel like an instrument in the Lords hands again. to feel the Spirit working through me. 

Hna pinto and I are having fun. She`s a really good missionary. She`s very responsible and takes a lot of initiative. She is the youngest of 4 brothers and sisters. She's really young in her family, She has nieces and nephews that are older than her haha. She`s really funny and sassy and she`s trying to learn English so sometimes we have short conversations in English. 

I'm really grateful to still be here in the mission haha. The Lord really does work miracles. Thank you for all of your prayers. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers, maybe not right when we want them, but He does answer. We just have to be patient. I know God is our loving Father and Jesus Christ is His son and our Savior. 

love, Hermana Williams

October 5, 2015 - Paciencia

Hola familia y amigos, 

This week was interesting. 

Monday and Tuesday we were able to go out to work and teach lessons and it was awesome! We still had to sit and rest or take a break and go back to the house for a bit, but we spent almost the whole day out working.

My bronchitis is better; I don't feel nearly as sick. I still have had to take tons of pills everyday but I finished them all today! I still have a cough and sometimes it's still hard to breathe, but I'm good. 

My knee has been weird. Monday and Tuesday it was fine. Then wednesday we went to the doctor and he finally gave the order to get the CT scan! But then he told me I might have to wait till next week to go and get it. Chile is weird and you cant get a ct scan asap, you have to schedule an appointment. I was worried, but then the nurse came back and said they had an opening that same day! So we hung out in Osorno for a couple hours. 

In Osorno we went to the mall to eat lunch and I ran into hno y Hna Troncoso from Puerto Varas! Hna Troncoso always came with us to appointments and drove us around places. It was so good to see them! I sent my love to Hna B and filled Hna Troncoso in on everything with me knee so she could let Hna B know I'm okay. 

We had the ct scan at 2pm but we got stuck in a long waiting room line and I was freaking out to miss my slot but we made it in. The scan only took 10 minutes, they slid me into the big round machine and then slid me out and that was it. 

We came home and left to work. then later that night my knee started to hurt like crazy... like more than it ever has... like a 8 or 9 out of 10. so of course we went home and I iced it. I think all the stress and walking in Osorno did me in. 

That same day I completed 14 months in the mission and Hna Pinto completed 9! She`s halfway through! We celebrated with homemade brownies and balloons and we bought donuts in the mall. 

Saturday was General Conference! General Conference for missionaries is better than Christmas. It's a glorious gift of modern day and personal revelation direct from the heavens!

We were able to watch conference in our branch building. We were the first people there... the Branch President arrived 5 minutes before to set up the tv and cables.... and the tv wasn't working. other people arrived and 5, 10, 15 minutes passed as we waited for the tv, internet and video to work. in the end we missed about the first half hour of Conference. The same thing happened in the second session on Saturday and we missed about 15 minutes. 

Sunday we arrived for the morning session and they once again had problems and were late setting everything up, so we missed 10 minutes of the Prophet speaking. In the afternoon the internet was really slow and it kept pausing and loading every 15 minutes. We had an investigator there and we were a little embarrassed, especially when the internet froze right in the middle of the closing prayer. It froze for like 5 minutes and we just sat there in silence haha. It finally started up again but then froze one more time. It took us 20 minutes to make it through that prayer! We couldn't help but all laugh. 

I think Heavenly Father still wants me to learn pacience, haha. 

But overall, Conference was a wonderful experience, I especially loved the talks by Sister Marriott, Elder Christofferson and Elder Kiochi Aoyagi. 

Later Sunday night we left the Conference to go work, but I guess I ate something bad that day because I got hit with serious stomach pain and the runs... it was not fun. Theres my bad luck again haha. We weren't able to work the rest of the night.

Today we finally went to see Dr. Garcia to see the results of my ct scan. I have to be honest I was kind of an emotional wreck this week. I was so nervous to know what the results would be. But the conference helped me find answers and calm my fears. But that didn't keep me from being at least a little anxious. We arrived in his office and he told us that that results hadn't arrived yet! I will have to come back tomorrow in the afternoon! Talk about trial of my pacience haha. 

It's been an emotional rollercoaster this week, but the Lord has spoken peace to my mind and given me tons of tender mercies. I think I'm going to be okay. I know that He takes care of his missionaries. This week I think I finally learned to be able to say "que sea tu voluntad Padre" thy will done father. I know that God lives, He is our loving Heavenly Father, He speaks to us through prophets, apostles and the quiet whisperings of the Holy Ghost. I know that He, and His son Jesus Christ are the fountain of my hope for a better future. 

Thank you for all your love and support!

love, Hermana Williams