July 27, 2015 - The Best Year of my Life!

hola familia y amigos!

Well first of all, Happy Birthday to Grandma Jean!!!! I love you a lot and I hope it was a great day and I thought about you and I wish I could be there to give you a big hug and kiss, but next year for sure. 

Second.... wow, I didn't think that so many people would be so worked up about me not chopping wood hahaha. Don't worry, my companion is going to teach me, our goal for this transfer is for me to chop wood like a pro. 

This week the biggest stress has been trying to teach everything to P before her baptism this Saturday. She got sick and she´s not the kind of person you just stop on by her house to say hi, (she lives in a closed apartment complex and she has to give us permission to enter or the guard won't let us in) so it was a little crazy just trying to figure everything out. But as of right now she's on track for Saturday and really excited! 

We had a noche de hogar with the menos activo J, we brought a member with us and talked about the Atonement and he promised that he would come to church on Sunday, and he came! But only stayed for Sacrament Meeting. 

We found another menos activa named P. Her husband and her 20 year old son are members less actives too and she has two little babies to take care of now. She expressed to us that she feels alone and zero support from her family, so we`re going to be working with her more to help her feel better and start coming back to church. 

We taught our converso reciente E who is the sweetest! Her testimony is really strong. more than anything she is a little lonely so she likes it when we come over once a week to teach her. She always makes us food. This week we feasted upon sopaipillas and we also ate lunch with her on Saturday and she made lasagna, bread, salad, and pancakes with manjar. She used to cook in a restaurant so all her food is delicious. 

On friday the Relief Society had a big activity where they watched the movie "Meet the Mormons" and we brought P and she already feels very part of the ward and has lots of friends and we were able to teach her afterwards. 

Saturday we taught another recent convert, V who wants to serve a mission! she`s really awesome! She speaks english really well. 

We also got to know M and E, a couple that the elders before us found but now are our new investigators. They have two new baby boy twins! They`re so cute! I told them that I'm a twin and E asked me if I get along with my twin and I said yes, we are best friends:) but they were really awesome and receptive, but it was a little awkward because M's mom stopped by and was listening and she´s apparently super Catholic and had kind of a bad attitude towards us, but that's okay! We had the Spirit! 

It rained a lot this week again, but we had fun. You can tell I have a good amount of time in the mission because i'm sorry to report that my rain boots have holes in them.... and hna B's boots got holes within 2 weeks haha. 

Hna B and I gave talks in church on Sunday! She did a really good job, I was so proud of her! We tried to animate the ward members to share the gospel. I also sang with hna V S who is going to live here in puerto varas now. We sang "Abide with me tis eventide". I just love singing so much. 

Well I don't have much time to write, my 1 hour is almost over. But this week was great and went by way too fast. Thanks for all the emails, especially all the photos of C he really is the cutest baby alive. 

this week I will complete 1 year as a missionary and I can't believe it, so much has happened and now I can't imagine life without the nametag. I'm so grateful for every single day, the good and the bad, all 365. This really has been the best year of my life.  I'm so grateful to be a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

love, hermana williams

July 20, 2015 - It's Raining, It's Pouring

hola familia y amigos,

This week was really good and went by way too fast. I feel like I don't have enough time in the week to even remember all the things we have to do. But we are working very hard and having a lot of fun. 

Update for our investigator P., She is still on date to get baptized on the 1st of August and she is super excited. We taught her twice this week and she accepts everything very well. We still have a lot to teach her but she`ll be just fine. She really is one of those investigators who was already prepared. but she still needs a lot of prayers because the time before the baptism can be very hard for the investigators. 

We taught a young man named A. He has a ton of questions about everything. the whole lesson was him just asking us questions. We`re working with him on true intention and praying to receive and answer and to feel like baptism is something he should do, and not just for him to be curious about the church. He hasnt come to church yet and he confessed to us that he felt a little pressured from the elders before us that if he goes to church it means he`s committing to baptism which is not true... so we`ll see how it goes with him. 

We taught the menos activa P. that we found last week. We were able to teach her and her husband E. the restoration and the Spirit was very strong but in the end E. doesn't want anything to do with us, he was a little rude... so we`re going to keep trying but in the mean time focus on building the testimony of Pamela. It's a difficult situation. 

We found a menos activo named J who works in a floral shop and he`s the best. He has a very strong  testimony but his wife doesn't like the church and so he doesn't come on Sundays because he doesn't want problems with his family. It breaks my heart, but we`re going to work really hard with him. He has a very special spirit and a lot of potential and there is a lot of hope for him. He reminds me of R :)

On Thursday we had a ward noche de hogar and there was a good number of people that showed up. it was super fun. and we saw the hermana V from Valdivia again, shes following us around haha. 

On Friday we had a lesson planned with a converso reciente and we wanted to have lesson with member, we had someone planned but when we called she said she had to cancel, so we called 10 hermanas in the ward and all of them said no. We were just about to give up when we got a call from an unknown number. We answered and it turns out it was the mom of P who was visiting from Santiago, She's a member and she told us she had the whole afternoon to wait for her daughter to get home from work so she asked P for our number and gave us a call to see if she could go out with us to lessons! It was a miracle, We told her we had a lesson at 4:30pm and she said perfect. It was literally an answer from the heavens, Our jaws dropped to the floor. so we had that lesson and it went really well and we were very happy. 

We had 5 lessons with member that week! We tried to have 8 but  a couple fell through along with our plan b,c,d,e,f, etc.... but I learned that lesson in Valdivia and we still feel very blessed and grateful.

On Sunday hna B and I sang a special musical number in sacrament meeting. We sang Come Thou Font in Spanish (which is very pretty) and it was really well. We sing really good together, she has a very nice voice. 

We visited one of the menos activos here, hno O and it turns out hes the father of one the 33 miners from chile. Years ago there was a big  mining accident and 33 chileanos got trapped under ground and it was a huge deal but all of the survived and now they are like celebrities here, its a very big deal. 

Saturday night it poured down rain. and it caught us by surprise so we weren't prepared. We got completely soaked, everything absolutely drenched, the wettest I have ever been. My shoes filled with water. We couldn't feel our hands or our feet because it was freezing cold too. We came home and it took us an hour and 2 electric heaters just to get warm again. Plus hna B's towel caught on fire from the wood burning stove... that was fun. but only the corner burned off so she can still use it haha. 

Our house is dangerous, the elders waxed the floor a week before they left but they didn't do it right so now everything is very slippery. I fell the other day and hna brown has fallen 3 times on the stairs. its hilarious but we both have bruises haha. 

I feel very blessed to be here and we are really excited to be working. I'm really grateful to be a missionary. to be a representative of Jesus Christ. 

Thanks for the emails, have a great week!

love, hermana williams

June 13, 2015- Auntie Meli

hola familia y amigos,

Well the first piece of business that I want to address is that I'M AN AUNT!!!!!! I have a brand new nephew and he is the cutest thing ever!!!!  I wanted to cry I was so happy. He looks so perfect. I wish I could hold him in my arms but only 6 months more. Please send me photos every week! Evan and Lizzie, you did a very good job :) 

This week was a lot of getting lost, exploring, finding, contacting, studying (lots of studying) and working really really hard. we`re just starting to feel comfortable here in this part of Puerto Varas and I don't feel as stressed as before which is really good. 

We`re starting to work more and more with the investigators the other elders left us, it was hard the first week to find them or earn their confidence. but yesterday hna B. did her first baptism invitation and she rocked it. Our investigator P accepted a baptism date for 1 de agosto and she is really excited!!! We feel very blessed. 

We also have another investigator, A who´s girlfriend is member but it was a secret because there were some problems with her family and him. but this week the problems were fixed and now A feels a lot more welcome to come to church and sit with his girlfriend and we`re really excited because he can really start progressing now. We have a lesson planned with him tonight and we`re going to invite him to be baptized. 

This week we were walking past a street of houses and we both looked in the kitchen window of one of the houses and there was a woman there washing dishes, we waved to her just to be nice and friendly and she got really excited and motioned for us to come inside.... so we were like okay! Her name is P and it turns out shes a less active member of the church. She just moved to Puerto Varas a couple months ago with her non member husband and this whole time she`s been wanting to come back to church but hadn't been able to find missionaries and we just happened to walk past her house! We taught her last night and she´s really excited to come back to church.  She also wants to set an example for her husband to help him stop drinking and smoking. her goal, and our goal is that he can be baptized and they can get sealed in the temple. She told us to come back on Tuesday so we can teach the both of them! We are suuuuper excited. 

We`ve been working hard with our ward mission leader to plan activities for the ward to help more investigators come and receive references. he`s the best, and his wife is awesome, She`s like our best friend and they treat us like we are their daughters its the best. I feel a lot of love in the ward- I've lost count how many times a member has told us "if you need anything at all, lunch, once, food, wash laundry, whatever, just come on over or give us a call" it's the best. 

This week I saw hna C!! Did I already tell you that? Well she`s here in our zone and its super fun to chat about the mission. 

yesterday hna veronica silva, a member from my ward in valdivia, showed up in our church meetings. she sometimes visits here in puerto varas for her family and she just showed up and it was the best. it was great to see her again and reminded me of valdivia. i miss valdivia but i am still very happy here. 

hna Braithwaite is doing very well. she`s the perfect"daughter". very chill and easy to live and work with. she has a lot of desire to work hard and baptise families. She is honestly one of the most selfless people I've ever met. She is always thinking about how she can help someone else, and usually that someone is me. She saves her own needs for last, and shes a great example for me. I learn more from her. She does get frustrated with the language, which is normal. And she`s learning to be patient with herself, which she`s told me is very hard for her, but we`re working on it. She`s honestly the best though, I'm really glad to have her. 

I feel unbelievably blessed this week. to be in this beautiful area, to be in this ward, to be training and to have a companion so Christ like and now to have a new member of the family. I feel like I dont deserve any of it. I know that God is our Heavenly Father and he loves each and every one of us through our obedience to his commandments. I feel so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to help other people recieve the blessings that come from this restored gospel. 

thanks for all the emails and photos, have a great week!

July 6, 2015- Motherhood Week 1

hola familia y amigos,

This week was absolutely crazy! I can't even put it all into words. First of all, I'm alive, I'm okay, I made it with my new companion to Puerto Varas. 

Monday and Tuesday was all packing, visiting, saying goodbye; very sad but all very exciting. I had to say goodbye to some really great families here. Tuesday was the hardest because I had to say goodbye to R, M and J.... it was like V and B all over again! haha. I never thought that i was going to miss Valdivia that much but when the time came and I had to say goodbye I realized that I love it here, and mainly because I love the people. R, M and J are my family ,I came to Valdivia for them. I know that Heavenly Father loves me because he keeps putting amazing wonderful people in my life. 

There were a lot of tears Tuesday night, even after we all said goodbye. Wednesday morning I was packing up the rest of my stuff when our zone leaders called and said i had to be in the bus terminal NOW instead of at 9am like they told me. There was a a confusion with the other leaders. but I was able to get to the terminal super fast and still say goodbye to hermana C, hna C, hna S and hna E. ahhhh hna E, I miss her so much. She was such a blessing in my life and I feel so grateful to her and for this transfer we had. 

I arrived in osorno at 11 am and guess who I saw at the terminal!? Lizzie Vance!!!! one of my roommates from byu, after 11 months we finally see each other here in the mission! That was a real tender mercy and it was great to see her. 

They took me to the church were all the new missionaries were meeting their trainers, and I got there right as the meeting was ending haha.  I met my new companion and hija! Hermana B.She is from Oregon! Shes super cute, super sweet, a farm girl, loves to work hard and serve others and her Spanish is really good, shes going to progress really fast. We fit really well together and we are having a lot of fun. She has a lot of excitement for the gospel and missionary work and she helps me to get excited too. 

We had to take another bus to Puerto Varas and the other hermanas there helped us get to our new house. We`re living in the small 2 floor house that 4 elders lived in before and they left it a wreck. It was so unbelievably messy, bags of trash, there is an old oven and fridge in our bedroom...... I have no idea. we have a wood burning stove, luckily hna B had one in her house too so she knows how to make fire. 

the first step was to look at the giant map of our giant sector, find our house and then go out to find the investigators. these past couple days have been a little stressful. i honestly didnt know what i was doing. but we called our district leader who was in our sector before a lot and he helped us out. the members here are really loving and helpful and they are really excited that there are hermanas in their ward again, i have never felt so much love from a ward i just met. im super excited. 

This week we've finally got our footing and we can really start digging in and working and finding and training. My companion is honestly the best and very patient with me. We have some great people that we are already working with. 

The big deal this week was that Chile won the Copa America, a big soccer tournament for Latin America. they won and it was a huge event, there were people partying all night so it felt just like the 4th of July haha. grown men cried they were so happy. Haha

Our sector here is beautiful! We can see the volcano everyday and the big red and white Catholic church that you see in all the photos, yeah thats in our sector!  I like it here a lot. 

Sometimes hna B is more of the mom than I am. she's very protective of me when there are mean dogs or we`re crossing the street or i might trip and fall ( I always trip and fall) it's  funny. 

i dont have much more time to write. but you should all know that I'm safe and happy. i miss everyone in valdivia but i really do like it here. ;) I know that the Lord is really helping us out because i cant do this on my own. but as of right now, we`re doing just fine. 

love, hermana williams

June 29, 2015 - Motherhood

hola familia y amigos,

This week went by real fast because it was the last of the transfer. 

I know you all want to know what the changes are so.... drum roll.....

I am being transferred to Puerto Varas and I'm going to be training a new missionary there and opening a new sector at the same time!!!!! Im super excited, I have always wanted to train. I'm nervous because opening a sector means starting from zero. I cant believe it. All I know is that my companion is from the United States.

Hna E is going to stay here with hermana C. and they re going to form a trio with another missionary here in Valdivia in the same sector. Theyre going to combine our sectors together. 

and hna S. goes home :) 

Crazy right!? I titled this email Motherhood because here in the mission the trainers are moms and their new missionaries are their daughters. 

I cant even think about what happened this week....I'm too excited. 

We were able to have more lessons with members, not tons but enough that I felt like we were back on our game. 

We had some really good lessons and found some really great people. 

We`re still teaching M, He`s progressing but not progressing at the same time because he still doesn't have a desire to get baptized. but we're going to see what happens. 

On friday our stake had a huge activity where we watched "Meet the Mormons". we invited tons of people and it was an awesome event. Lots of members came and brought their friends. the movie was the best. 

On Saturday the other hermanas, hna C and hna S had a baptism. Our first week of the cambio hna E and I found guy on the street who was a little drunk and he asked to come to church with us. He ended up living in the sector of the other hermanas and they`ve been teaching him this whole transfer and he got baptized on Saturday, it was awesome! And a great way for hna S. to end her mission. 

Sunday M. came to church and our converso D. came too! We had a lesson planned with him on Wednesday but it fell through, and it wasn't his fault.  He really has a lot of desire to come back to church. He`s the best and I'm so happy. 

It was a pretty normal week. We worked real hard. 

hna Espinoza wanted to clean again.... and she broke our full length mirror.... we took photos. 

Thank you for all the support and emails and i love you all so much. 

until next week!

love, hermana williams

June 22, 2015 - Tender Mercies of the Lord

hola familia y amigos!

This week went by way too fast. 

This week was also a little hard... we weren't able to have any lessons with members. we tried going out with members many times but it was the investigators who were never home or who canceled on us. It was rough going from having 5 lessons to 0 in one week. plus we weren't even really able to teach much and we had two menos activos who dropped us, told us they didn't want us to pass by to visit them anymore. so I will be honest and say that I was at least a little discouraged during this week, because I didn't understand what we were doing wrong. 

But the Lord taught me this week that I wasnt doing anything wrong, rather he had other miracles and blessings waiting for us. sometimes success isn't measured by the numbers because this week I really felt like we worked hard and did our best. 

This week the big fuss in the ward was that the daughter of a member returned home from her mission in Peru and we`re really excited because she lives in our sector and that means a new member to come with us to lessons and who`s excited to work with us, She's already thinking of references to give us. Thats a big blessing.

We finally found N, the convert of hermana B who has not come to church for a long time. but she dropped us, like I mentioned above. it was rough but there is always hope. 

There was a baptism in a different ward on Saturday and we brought our investigator P. with us. P. is Catholic and didn't have much interest to change, but wanted to see a baptism. I think she really felt the Spirit and she even said that she will come to church this next week which is a big step because before she said that she didn't want to come. 

The mission is going to combine our sectors this next transfer so the ward is only going to have one set of missionaries. and there going to close one of our houses, but we don't know which, and which missionaries are leaving.... 

Sunday was the best because our investigator M. came, M. with her husband L. and they all stayed for all 3 meetings. but the best was that D. came to church!!!!! D. is who hna C. and I taught and baptized back in february and he hasnt come to church in almost 3 months. But surprise he came to church! and he shared his testimony in class. He said that this week he almost died because he fell asleep in a closed room with a heater that emitted carbon monoxide. he woke up in the middle of the night and he couldn't breath and it took all his strength just to open a window. He said he believes that God saved him and now he needs to make things right and come back to church and be better. 

I almost cried I was so happy. It made the whole week worth it just to see the change in him and his desire to come back. It was a miracle that i never even thought to ask for.

On Sunday I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting about the Sacrament and how we need to be more reverent and understand the meaning of the ordinance. It went well. 

We still only have two outlets that work and la she was saved because it still worked in the morning haha. 

I'm not really sure what else to say, only that we`re working hard and yes we make lots of mistakes everyday but the Lord is helping us. 

I know that miracles are real, that God is our Heavenly Father and He loves us. I am so grateful for my time here and to be a missionary. I feel very weak, but i know that He helps me everyday and I'm grateful for every trial. I wish I could be a missionary for forever, a year and a half isn't long enough :)

thanks for the emails and support! have a great week!

love, hermana williams 

June 15, 2015 - Singing in the Rain

hola familia y amigos!

This week went by very fast. I cant even remember what we did. 

Hna Espinoza and I are doing really well. We are awesome companions together. We still have a lot of weaknesses but we are a good team and we have a lot of fun together while we still work hard. 

It still rains almost everyday here. 

I guess more than anything we walked, knocked doors, talked to people, and taught lessons. Everyday we make plans but there is always something unexpected that happens. 

For example on friday we spent the first half of the day with zero success. It felt like every door we knocked or every person we visited said no. There was a lot of rejection and we felt a little discouraged. but then we knocked a door and a woman let us in and we taught her and we found a new person to teach. and then later on we visited a contact we did with a member from the ward and we taught him and the lesson was awesome and the spirit was really strong. So it started out as a terrible day but ended with 2 new people to teach and a lesson with member and it was the best. 

The Lord is really helping us out here with miracles like that. miracles that we don't even see coming. We feel really blessed in this sector. Its still hard, we still don't have tons of people to teach, but we`re in the part of the transfer where the Lord is testing to see how dedicated we really are. First some really hard rejection and then the blessings come. 

We had an awesome ward family home evening and lots of people showed up.  M. showed up with her whole family! She hasn't come to church in over a month, and then on sunday she came for all three hours of church. We were really excited!

We found and taught lots of menos activos this week. When hna espinoza arrived we only had two menos activos that we knew of in our sector, now we have 10. You knock 10 doors and 5 are menos activos that you didn't know existed haha. So we're having a lot of success with reactivating. 

We had 5 lessons with members this week! and maybe that doesnt sound like a lot but for this sector it is .I cant remember the last time we had 5 lessons with members. We're working hard to win the confidence and help of the members here. We've been visiting some families to teach them the restoration and then ask for references. It works really well and we already are seeing the results. 

On monday hna Espinoza went on a cleaning and reorganization spree and we moved our furniture around. while she was meddling she pulled out some cords and tried to plug a lamp in and she blew all the electricity for the outlets in the house,so we had no way to plug anything in. We were able to switch the breaker box and it all worked for a while but then the next day she tried plugging something in again and we lost it again.  We had to have someone come to see the damage and they could only fix two outlets. So we`re living with that right now. plus it turns out the internet router for all three cabañas on the same property is in our cabaña.... a cabaña full of missionaries.... so when she pulled cords out she disconnected the internet and the other people in the two cabañas freaked out. so now we have to always have the internet plugged into one  of our two outlets that work.....we feel like we are encouraging sins hahaha

I have come to realize that missionary work is the best. and that i really do love being a missionary. I love helping other people feel the love of their Heavenly Father. and I know that He is helping me every step of the way. Because it is impossible for me to do this work without Him. the prayer that I always carry in my heart is that through His help and His Spirit my words, my work, my studying, my prayers will be enough to help the people here. 

I know that God and His son Jesus Christ live. and I am so grateful I have the opportunity to serve them for a year and a half. 

have a great week! 

love, hermana williams