June 8, 2015 - Singing in the Rain

hola familia y amigos,

once again thank you very much for all the birthday wishes and emails. It was really fun to hear from everyone.

this week we spent a lot of time finding, contacting and  knocking doors. but it all paid off because we found 5 new people to teach. we`re pretty excited and we`re praying really hard that they wont drop us haha.

on monday we ate lunch with all the other hermanas here in valdivia in a super nice restaurant that a member works at and we ate octopus pot stickers... they were surprisingly good.

on monday we taught a pair of fraternal twins, C. and J. that are studying here in validivia. reminded me of Scottie, it was fun to be able to talk about twin stuff haha. it was a super awesome lesson and they had lots of really good questions and understood everything. teaching young people is very refreshing.

its been raining super hard here all week, with thunder and lightening and on tuesday we lost power in our house and had to study by candlelight in the morning haha. it was fun.

my birthday was super fun! we had our district meeting in the morning and they surprised me wit a mini party with cupcakes, rice krispy treats and other goodies. it was sweet, and they took pictures for me because i dont have my camera. we weren't able to teach anyone, but we did do 21 contacts haha to celebrate my 21 years. at night rodrigo and margareth had a family home evening/ party planned for me in the lavanderia. and when we were walking over we played a really mean trick on them haha. we called and said that we couldn't come because we had a lesson with a family that we can never find and this is our only chance to teach them haha. margareth got soooooo mad at me haha, but we walked into the lavanderia 5 minutes later and she wanted to kill me hahahaha.

Rodrigo and margareth made a big video slideshow for my birthday with a whole bunch of photos and mini videos from people from home. it was soooo fun to see, thanks for all the videos mom and dad. i cried so hard. especially with the ukelele song, i miss that.

after wards we ate cake and hung out and they sang to me and then they drove us home. they gave m a tee shirt and a mug that has a picture of the avengers and then my face and it says in very broken english "they save the life, but you save my salvations, i will be always thankfull" so cute haha.

so it was a very good birthday!

this week i locked the keys in the house on accident... so the zone leaders had to come over and break into our house. it worked, and now we have keys thank goodness.

the same day we had a really rough day, we weren't able to teach anyone, everything fell threw and it was raining like crazy. and at 8pm we went to visit a contact that i did with hna conde months ago. we knocked the door and they let us in and we were able to teach the restoration to a beautiful family of mom, dad, and 2 year old daughter. it was the best. we`re coming back to visit them tomorrow. we feel very blessed.

thursday, hna espinoza woke up at 6am and thought it was 7am and turned on all the lights and starting teling me to get out of bed. i looked at the clock and had t tell her to go back to bed hahaha. i learned a lot about patience and love hahahaa.

our investigator marcelo came to church again. he told us he was going to come with his friend who is mormon too, but turns out his friend is adventista oops haha but they both came anyways and stayed for all 3 hours! it was great!

we`ve been working a lot this week, despite the rain and thunderstorms. the other day i saw hail the size of pennies. validivia is crazy. but i love it here.

I know that Heavenly Father loves us and miracles do happen. I know that the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is his church. and i want everyone to be able to enjoy the blessings that come from this gospel. i love being a missionary. I know that He is helping me every step of the way. I know that Jesus Christ is real and his Atonement works. through Him we can do all things.

have a great week!

love, hermana williams

June 1, 2015 - Happy Birthday to Scott....and Me

hola familia y amigos,

wow its almost my birthday, I cant believe it! Im going to be 21... unlike most 21 year olds on their birthday, i will be reading the scriptures and going to bed at 11pm.... you only live once haha. I also completed 10 months in the mission this past week. Hna Espinoza reminds me everyday how old i am in the mission and how i am going to "die" end the mission soon. 

shout out to Scottie Happy Birthday! I love you and i wish we could celebrate together but next year sí o sí  haha. 

we were blessed with a lot of miracles this week. we found some really awesome people to teach and a couple new people who are going to progress and we´re really excited. we taught 21 lessons total this week which for me is a lot. we have an investigator with a baptism date, M., but its not super official, only if she receives an answer. we´ll see how that goes because she still hasn't come to church. yo tengo fe. 

we had a new investigator M. come to church yesterday. and we've only taught him two times. the first time was for 15 minutes on his front porch. he committed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray and that if he receives and answer he would get baptized. 

we´ve been working a lot with less active members. we taught D. two times, helped her make bread in her bakery and everytime we come over to visit she gives us fresh bread. its a pretty sweet deal. we also found 2 new less actives. that's the thing about Chile, you can knock 10 doors and 2 out of 10 are less active members that you didnt even know existed. we set up times to come back and teach and visit them. 

One of them is E. and she was super receptive. she actually told us that right before we found her she was just about to go take a shower where she wouldn't be able to hear the doorbell but something told her to wait a couple minutes more, like a voice in the back of her head... and five minutes later we knocked on her door! miracle!

we had interviews with president Obeso on thursday and they went super well. he helped me a lot and gave me more advice, he also interviewed me for a new temple recommend because i lost mine in my backpack. the APs, assistants to the president, gave a training on lesson plans. we´re supposed to have outlines of all the lessons and mine were in my scriptures which were stolen. so i only had 1 lesson plan that i did in the morning haha. and of course the Elder chose my 1 lesson plan to show in front of everyone. it was a little embarrassing haha. but it was a really good training. 

we also had intercambios with the sister training leaders this week. i was with hna Oross from california in my sector. we had a lot of fun together... and to be honest we spoke a little in english. our companions are latinas and we missed speaking english haha. 

on saturday we sang in a funeral in a catholic church. a member died and her whole family is catholic so they had a catholic service but invited all the missionaries to come and sing. it was my first time in a catholic church and it was interesting. a couple elders said some words and then we sang abide with me tis eventide. it was nice. 

it has rained so much this week! i have never seen so much rain in my whole life. last night i woke up like 5 times because the rain was beating so hard on our roof. but im okay, a member gave me her old, but still very nice umbrella and that saved me this week. 

hna espinoza is great, she really likes to clean haha. she has a couple quirks that im still getting used to. but we work really well together. we teach well, i don't have to worry about her backing me up and its nice. she is very responsible for a missionary that only has 6 months. we have a lot of fun and laugh a lot. she is super funny. 

we worked really hard this week. and im starting to feel again that 8 months isnt long enough to do everything i need to do here, or change myself in all the ways that i need to change. i feel like there's so much more i can give. this sector has so much potential. 

thank you for all the birthday wishes! it means a lot. im excited to have a birthday as a missionary. it will be a once in a life time experience. 

God is real, he loves us, miracles still happen and Jesus Christ is the savior of the world. I know that with him i can do all things. im so grateful to be a missionary. 

love, hermana williams

May 25, 2015- New Chapter

hola familia y amigos,

this week was crazy with all the problems of my backpack and hna conde saying goodbye and packing and still trying to work and receiving a new companion. im glad that its finally all over. 

I think monday and tuesday were some of my most stressful days in the mission. we had to go around to the police, the registro civil to take care of all the paper work of my stolen backpack and to start the process of a new carnet. we also had to go around and say goodbye to soooo many people and hna conde has a lot of stuff so packing was crazy. saying goodbye to M. and R. was rough, hna alonso is leaving too so it was the end of a very long chapter of our lives the 6 of us. Im probably never going to see hna alonso again... but i will see hna conde next week when we have a zone meeting haha. 

wednesday i said goodbye to hna conde which wasn't too hard, but i was still sad to lose her as a companion. we've grown a lot together. i received my new companion Hermana Espinoza! shes from Paraguay. she was in villa rica before coming here and hna Coombs was her companion! she has 6 months in the mission. shes really fun, very clean, very funny and really hard working. 

im senior companion now which is new and scary. she follows just a little bit behind me when we walk and shes already started teasing me about how im ¨dying¨or finishing my mission really soon. for her she feels like her mission will still last an eternity. 

we worked really hard for the past 5 days we've been together. and we come home so tired but its a good kind of tired. we dont really have anyone who`s progressing so we spent  lot of this week contacting, visiting and trying to find new people to teach. 

its been really cold and rainy here this week. the most rain i've seen in my entire life and the cold reminds me of punta arenas haha. 

sorry i don't have any photos to send of my new companion.... i dont have a camera anymore. 

thanks for all the encouragement and emails and support. 

i know that this is the work of the lord and im really grateful for my mission. im really grateful for the time ive had here with hna conde. im going to miss it but im excited for the next chapter. 

have  great week!

love, hermana williams

May 18, 2015 - Changes

hola familia y amigos,

this week was good.

first of all, we found out transfers today. hna conde is leaving and going to a different ward here .We will no longer be companions but i will still see her at district meetings and zone and stake stuff which im really happy about. I am going to stay here in valdivia in the same sector and my new companion is Hermana Espinoza. i dont really know anything about her. i heard shes from Colombia and she has less time in the mission than me. another Latina! im excited. Hna Alonso is leaving and going to Pulcon and hna Chura is staying in her sector and going to have a gringa companion, hna Spencer. so everything is changing and its crazy. im just happy i dont have to worry about packing all my stuff haha.

hna conde got really sick this week. she was in bed a lot. so i studied the scriptures and wrote letters and organized and made a new cover for my agenda and kept myself busy. even today hna conde still doesn't feel well, she has a pretty bad cough and sore throat. i haven't caught it yet.

today we ate lunch in MacDonald's and we sat in the table close to the door and when we got up to leave my backpack was gone...

so this week someone stole my backpack.

i am very sad. i lost money, credit cards, drivers license, camera, all of my photos, my book of Mormon.

so i dont really feel like writing. plus i dont really know what else to tell you because we werent able to work a lot this week.

im excited for the new transfer. i will miss hna conde a lot. she is my best friend.

i know that the church is true and that Heavenly Father loves me and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Im really grateful to be a missionary.

love you all, thanks for all the emails and support.

love, hermana williams

May 11, 2015 - Long Time No See

Wow Sunday was so much fun to see everyone, i loved it. it was hard to hang up. Im so glad that we were all able to see or at least hear each other.

Well i dont really have that much to write because I just saw my family yesterday and this week went by so fast that i cant remember what happened.

this week we were finally able to teach the familia V. we weren't able to meet with them or almost a whole month because they were both working so much. but X., the mom, is pregnant and shes going to have her baby is less than 2 weeks! and shes gigantic! we invited them to be baptized and they said yes but when we invited them to be baptized on a specific date they said it was too early, they want to know more. their son, V. just turned 12 and he wants to get baptized but he wants to get baptized on the Jesus´birthday, Christmas... thats a long time away. so we`ll see about that haha.

we had family history orientation for all the missionaries in valdivia. an hermano from Utah came to speak to us about how we can use family history, specifically the pamphlet, my family, to do mission work. well now i need to fill out my own pamphlet, so mom, can you send me all the information that you sent scott, thanks!

with the other hermanas we made little paper flowers for mothers day and gave them out to all the women in our ward. we made extra so we could give them to investigators too. they turned out super cute.

today for pday hno R. (with Marg, of course) took us all to his house to make and eat pizza. he lives in a huge house thats over 100 years old. its way out in the campo/country. he lives around a whole bunch of woods and we went out and explored and it was so beautiful. it was super fun and now we all want to take naps haha.

thanks for all your love and support.

yesterday i felt so happy to be able to talk to my family. I know that we will be together forever. when i think about i, 9 months isnt that long. I know that being a missionary is the best choice ive ever made. Its hard, but i dont regret it. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me so many great experiences and so many wonderful people to love. I know that through the savior Jesus Christ i can do all things. i know that families can be together forever.

love, hermana williams

May 4, 2015 - Halfway There

Hola familia y amigos!

the time keeps going by faster.

first of all... HAPPY 1 YEAR TO SCOTTIE!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you. i cant believe we`re already half way through the best 2 (1 1/2) years of our lives!

The big news i have is that i completed 9 months in the mission on Thursday... and we did absolutely nothing to celebrate! we treated it like a normal day, only a couple members that congratulated me. I forgot for most of the day. but its weird to think that my mission is already more than halfway over.

I also finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish all the way through. I also finished Jesus The Christ by James E. Talmage (but in English) and I finished reading Doctrine and Covenants (half in English, half in Spanish) now its time to start the Bible!

hna conde and i have recently been dying from bug bites... we dont know where or how or when but they are attacking my feet, hands and chest. i have more than 30 total. they itch so bad. i feel like a leper.

well i know that everyone was super excited about the exploding volcano in Chile. the only affect it had on Valida is that they canceled school on Tuesday because of all the ash in the air. and our leaders told us to only leave our house if we have set appointments. they didn't want us to get respiratory problems. so we had a lazy day haha.

we`re teaching  a new investigator. her name is P. we`ve taught her 3 times and she`s progressing. she cant read because her eye sight is so bad so she cant really complete commitments to read the book of Mormon so we read a loud to her. we invited her to be baptized and she said not yet, she needs to know and feel more. but i have faith that she will change.

We got attacked a lot by dogs this week... and dont worry, we we`re really attacked. we have some investigators that never open the door for us but their crazy dog Luna always escapes and we found her twice this week roaming around the streets. we had to chase her down and carry her back to her house. she`s still a puppy so she always tries to bite our hands, legs, faces. shes crazy. there was also another dog, a lot bigger than followed home and kept biting our legs and i hurt! thy were only nips and there was no blood but we were scared haha. then today a stray dog kept chasing me specifically and biting my legs, he almost ripped my skirt. i had to run away from him and in the end we trapped him behind a gate and i sprinted far enough away that he couldnt find me.

it was an adventure.

sunday afternoon we did divisions or splits with two YSA girls Coni and Gisele and it was so much fun. It was like having a new companion. I was with Coni and shes the sweetest girl ever, she wants to serve a mission so it was fun to talk about what its like to be a missionary. we had three lessons with members in one day which is a big deal for our sector!

im really excited to skype on mothers day! i hope everything works out. hna conde and i are having a lot of fun here in valdivia. i dont want to leave :)

I feel so blessed to be here serving the Lord. Im not perfect and there is a lot of room to improve. but im thankful for every moment ive had here in Chile. i know that the church is true. that the book of Mormon changes lives and that this really is the work of the Lord.

thank you all so much for your love and support. happy mothers day!

love, hermana williams

April 27, 2015 - Nine Months and I'm Still Alive

I think every person that emailed me this week heard about the volcano and asked if i was still alive. Just so you all know... I am alive. and I am very safe. we're not close enough to be affected. only that there is a little haze of ash in the sky but its not that bad. there are other places close by where ash is falling like snow. as far as i know all the missionaries around the volcano are okay and they are staying put so they can help out. but life here in valdivia is continuing like normal.

I am going to complete nine months in the mission this week! so crazy, im halfway done. time is flying by very fast. 

On Monday we had a family home evening with an hermana in the ward and we thought it was just going to be her but she ended up inviting her 4 pensionistas (teenagers that live in her house and are going to college) and two members so it was a big party haha and we got to teach 4 new people. we were pretty excited. 

we found a menos activa member in our sector that we didnt know existed. thats the thing about chile, you can knock a door and they turn out to be a member less active. her name is D. and she owns a panaderia, bakery and so we did service and helped her bake bread and we're starting the process of inviting her to church and teaching the lessons. she hasnt shown a lot of desire to come back to church but she has potential!

we had a couple lessons with members which is really hard to have in our sector and they went really well. especially with I. I. has a baptism date set but still is hesitante. we brought S, a RM and he explained things really well, it was great. I. needs a lot of prayers because she still feels a lot of fear and embarrassment about getting baptized and making a mistake. she still hasnt received an answer and she has a bit of flojera to come to church. we have faith and we're hoping she can do her part and get an answer to her prayers. 

This weekend was stake conference and it was the best! on saturday was the adult session and they talked about how to improve ward council and also our mission president presidente Obeso and his wife spoke and the temple president from santiago spoke. and they're from vancouver washington! it was awesome and super spiritual. sunday the stake center was packed and we had our investigators, the familia valdivia and a menos activa hna X come. hna X hasnt come to church in the whole time that ive been here so its a big deal. i sang in the stake choir and it went great. only that in the last song when i sang a solo and a duet with another hermana that microphone stopped working so i had to belt it and still barely anyone heard us... but its okay. in the evening the temple president gave a devotional on temple covenants. i miss the temple a lot, i want to go back! 

today we went with Hno Rodrigo and margareth and the other hermanas to the beach! we had a picnic and took pictures and skipped rocks and it was super fun. i think it has been my favorite pday so far. i love them all so much. they are my best friends. 

I cant believe Im halfway through my mission either. it has gone by sooooo fast. i remember back in september when i first got here to chile and i thought april 30 was forever away. nope! Looking back, i am so grateful for everything. i am so happy i am here. a complete happiness that is greater than i ever felt before. I am beginning to see why they call it "the best two (one and half) years of my life" because these past 9 months have been the hardest, but they have been the best. my mission is the best choice i have ever made. and i am grateful. 

I am grateful to be a missionary for our Savior Jesus Christ. I love this gospel so much. I know that the church is true. I know that Heavenly Father loves me, because he sent me to the Chile Osorno Mission :) 

thanks for the emails. have a great week!

love, Hermana Williams