August 24, 2015 - Waiting...

Hola familia y amigos! 

The weeks are going by so fast. it scares me. I think I have said that in every single email I have sent on my mission, but its true. 

Well, the report on my knee: this week we could go out and work! yay, not like normal 6 or 7 hour days but we could still work. We did have a lot of complications though. I think our house is cursed because all 4 of us are dying from some kind of sickness or accident or something. On Monday- Tuesday I was still pretty sick and it was awful and we couldn't go out to work that much, especially because people were like "you`re sick, don't come near my house and my children" haha. 

Then on Thursday I got hit with the worst headache of my entire life. It was worse than the migraine I had a couple weeks ago. I cried because it hurt so bad. but I took plenty of pain meds and slept it off. I still don't know where it came from but it hasn't come back. 

Then on Saturday Hna B fell down the stairs.... I know, so not like her, but she fell pretty bad. It's a serious problem in our house. Right before we moved in the Elders waxed all the wood floors and wood stairs but they didn't finish sealing it or something so everything is really slippery. The stairs are a death trap. Hna Bn has already fallen 2 times. but hna B fell and now has a huge bruise the size of a baseball on her hip, more bruises on her back and shoulders, her elbows were red and swollen and she thinks she bruised a rib..... but she`s basically okay! She`s tough. but yeah, that night her whole body hurt and the next day she suffered a bit, but now it`s better. 

Other than that we`re doing just fine here! Please dont freak out haha. This week we were able to teach a couple menos activos and a member called us on Wednesday and was like "I have a friend who wants the missionary discussions, will you come visit her with me tonight? I can pick you up"It was a miracle! So we had a lesson with member and a new investigator. This woman has gone through a lot of trials in her life and it was a very spiritual lesson, She is prepared to receive the gospel but still very hesitant to open up and trust us. It was one of those lessons were I really felt, yeah, this is why I'm here in Chile, in Puerto Varas, at this time. She`s great, lets just call her M.L. for now. 

Saturday we went to the adult session of our Stake Conference! It was great. I also got to see Hna C!!! She`s serving in Puerto Montt (we`re in Puerto Varas but our Stake is Puerto Montt) it was awesome to see her. She finally was transferred out of Valdivia, she was there for 10 months. 

Sunday we had Stake Conference and it was packed. Presidente Obeso and Hna obeso spoke and gave great talks.  The rest of conference was very uplifting. I came with a lot of questions and I got a lot of answers. 

After stake conference I met with Presidente Obeso and we talked about my knee and about having me see a real doctor to figure out whats happening and then we`ll take it from there. 

I was feeling very much frustrated with my body and disappointed with everything that he gave me a blessing and promised that everything was going to be okay. 

So now its just kind of wait and see what happens, and try not to make my knee worse. I want to just get up and go and work and ignore my knee and just endure the pain but that`s not going to make anything better. But we really are doing better and working and walking more. It's better now than it was three weeks ago. 

Well thats basically all I have to say for this week, not that much happened. I still really like being a missionary! 'Im so grateful to be here and to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. 

love, Hermana Williams

sorry I don't have photos! my computer doesn't have a usb drive!

August 17, 2015 - Back in Action ... sort of ....

Hola familia y amigos!

This week was better, not perfect, but better. We could actually leave the house and work and it felt great! Of course there were some days when we left to work all afternoon and then there were days when my knee was like "haha nevermind" and we had to stay inside so I could rest. but we actually accomplished a lot this week and I felt good. 

We taught a lot of menos activos this week. One is named P and she has two little babies that are the cutest. 

We also taught our investigators C and P, who have been meeting with missionaries for almost an entire year. We put them with a bautismal date! ... for November... but its still a date! and we`re going to help them progress more quickly.  They are great and we`re really excited for them. The Spirit was really strong in the lesson. 

We were able to visit a lot more people this week and set up appointments to visit them this upcoming week. We taught our recent convert E and she`s a sweetheart, She has a great testimony. She even invited her daugher to sit and and listen. 

This whole week our leader misional, R and his wife S were gone in Santiago to visit the temple and they called us almost everyday to check up on us. They are like our parents here, they are so cute. They brought us back the movies 'The Restoration' and  'Testaments' so now we can watch them with investigators! 

Friday night the ward had an awesome activity. Here in Chile the month of August is the month of cats... I have no idea why, but its an excuse to have cat - themed parties. So the ward put on a big dance party and people wore cat costumes and painted their faces and it was crazy haha. There was a dance competition and and the missionaries were the judges haha. In the end R and S won and everyone thought it was fixed, But it wasnt! They really were the best! It was a great activity. 

Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose, but I didn't think much of it. Then Sunday I woke up and it was worse, I felt awful. It was just a cold,  but my head felt like it was about to explode, I couldn't think straight. We made it through church and lunch with R and S. It was S's birthday and we had made her brownies and we celebrated together. But we came home from lunch and I could barely keep my eyes open so I slept for awhile. Today I still feel pretty sick and really congested. It's not very fun. It's rough because right when I'm starting to get back into the swing of the things I get sick.... but by tomorrow I`ll be fine. 

Today we had to wake up super early and travel to Osorno in bus so that I could go to the mission office and renew my visa.... I am old in the mission. but it all went well and we hung out in Osorno a bit. We visited the big Catholic church in el Centro, we ate lunch and did some shopping, Or rather Hna B did some shopping. She bought new rainboots because hers were already dead. I decided to just hold off because winters going to be ending soon. We just got back from Osorno, That's why we`re writing late. 

Hermana Williams and Hermana B in Osorno in front of the Catholic Church.

District photo before transfers.

Thats all I really have to say for this week, It went by really fast. Oh hna R left and hna E came! It was great to see her again. and to have a Latina in the house is awesome! Of course she`s still a bit of a clean freak, but she hasn't broken anything yet. She`s super funny still, I'm already used to her, Hna B and Hna B are still getting to know her but its all good. I'm glad that shes here. 

Thanks for all the letters and support. Love you all alot. I'm really happy to be a missionary and I know that everything in the mission happens for a reason and that Heavenly Father watches over us and I'm so grateful to be a representative of His Son Jesus Christ. 

love, Hermana Williams

August 10, 2015 - Better

Hola familia y amigos!

Well this week was a little uneventful because we spent a lot of time in the house. My knee is doing better, it's still a little swollen now and again and some days are better than others .I just have to rest it. It's like if I think it feels good and we go out to work and I walk too much it gets swollen and hurts again. So there were a couple days when I said "I feel fine!" but everyone else told me no! "You need to rest!" So we spent a lot of time studying, and Hna B reorganized the entire house while I sat on a mattress on the floor. She wouldn't let me stand up, she had to do everything for me. She really is very selfless and patient. I'm so grateful for her!

But yeah, I think that today and tomorrow I'll be able to leave to work like a normal missionary! Maybe not for the whole day, but for a good amount of time. I've been taking medications and putting on cremes and taking Ibuprofen a lot too, and I feel good.I also bought a knee brace today so now I dont feel like my knee is going to buckle out from under me when I walk. 

This week we had intercambios with the hermanas lideres on Tuesday! Hna B's first intercambio! She was a little nervous haha. So she went with the Latina hermana to their sector; her first Latina! and I stayed with Hermana H who is actually from my group. We went out and taught some menos activos, M & M and it was a great lesson! Then we went back to the house for my knee.... but it felt really good to teach again. 

On Wednesday we left to work too in the afternoon, we visited a good amount of people and we visited a part member family and the hermano had Hna B show off her wood chopping skills, and he was pretty impressed. I'm sure he has a little crush on her now because he lent her his guitar so she could play in our house.  Now we have a guitar and that's pretty sweet! 

Thursday my knee hurt so we spent a lot of time inside.  Friday we helped paint a new preschool and we got to paint little cartoons all over the walls it was the cutest. But that involved a lot of crouching and bending of the knee so the next day we didnt leave at all cause it hurt so bad. Sunday we made it all the way through church and we sang in a musical number with some other ward members. I'm pretty sure the ward is tired of me because I've sung like 4 times already.... 

So there`s not much to report... just trying to get better. and reallyI do feel better. oh and this week we have cambios! But of course Hna. B and I are staying together and we are really excited. Hna  R is going to Los Lagos and guess who`s coming here to be Hna. Br's companion and live in the house with us??.... Hermana E!!!!!! my companion in Valdivia!!!! I'm so excited, its going to be awesome, and it will be great to have a Latina in the house to help Hna B, and really all of us with our Spanish. I just hope Hna. Espinoza doesnt destroy the house... I like our house here!! haha.

I'm happy, I'm okay! thanks for all the prayers and advice. I promise I'm trying to be good and not overdoing it. By next week I think I'll be fine. I'm really happy to be here in Puerto Varas with Hna. B and to be a missionary. I know that Heavenly Father is taking care of me, everything happens for a reason and I have faith that everything will be fine. 

Thanks for all the emails!

love, Hermana Williams

August 3, 2015- Long Suffering

Hola familia y amigos!

Well first, thank you very much for all the one year congratulations. it was a pretty good ¨birthday". 

But this week was a little interesting.... 

On monday we had a lesson with our investigator P who had a baptismal date for this past Saturday, August 1. We came to her house with a member to help finish up teaching the rest of the lessons, but before we even started P told us that she didn't want to get baptized this Saturday .She wants to wait a long time. I was honestly shocked. It came out of nowhere, Just 24 hours before she was super excited for her baptism. She explained to us a little why she wanted to wait, and we tried to help her see why she can still get baptized on Saturday but she put her foot down, she was actually a little defensive with us.... which isn't like her at all. 

So we left that lesson a little discouraged, she still said she would meet with us, and we put her on date for 29 de august but she didn't seem very excited or determined.... so we were a little sad that everything fell through. 

 Before we left for that lesson I had a bad headache, but when we walked out it started hurting more. and it turned into a migraine and light and sound hurt and i couldn't keep my eyes open or walk in a straight line....  Hna  B took me home so I could lie down in a very dark room. It was very painful. 

so I was out on Monday, and still on Tuesday we left to work but my head still hurt and my body was so tired, like shaking, that towards the end of the day we went home to sleep. 

 Wednesday we left to work like normal! And it was great! But then my right knee started hurting....  I couldn't even stand or put weight on it.  We came home and I rested and we called the mission nurse. She assigned me some medication to take, and 2 days of rest where I would have to stay inside all day. 

Hope your knee feels better soon Hermana Williams!

The next day, Thursday we had zone conference! and I wasn't going to miss that! Zone conference was awesome! President always knows exactly what to say. Plus it was my 1 year mark in the Mission! And there was actually a big group of us with one year so we took a big photo together. And then right when we finished taking the picture our zone leader Elder G pulled out all of our CARTA MORONIS!!!! I died. The Carta Moroni is a letter the Mission gives you when you only have 6 months left on your mission and it has all your travel information for when you go home. It means that I am dying (ending the mission soon) . I was shocked, they usually don't send the letter so fast, like a couple weeks after your 1 year mark. I wasn't expecting to get it so soon .I almost cried.

Hermana Williams holding her Carta Moroni.

We came home from the conference and I died on the couch because my knee hurt so bad. So we didn't really do anything special for my 1 year mark, Getting my Carta Moroni was enough of a celebration. (not really, I felt sad)

Friday,I stayed in the house and we studied a lot. my knee was pretty bad on Friday,  Hna B has been helping to take care of it. She did a lot of sports training in high school and so knows really well how to deal with stuff like this. She makes sure I ice it a lot. and she keeps me from trying to walk or do things I shouldn't be doing. She brought an extra mattress downstairs for me so I can hang out there instead of our tiny sofa.  Friday an hermano from the ward came over and gave me a blessing, First blessing in Spanish, it was pretty cool. 

Saturday an hermana took me to a chiropractor that she works for to take a look at my knee and back and everything. First time to a chiropractor! it was interesting, he cracked my neck and that was it.... so my knee is the same. 

Sunday we went to church! and I made it to the end of Sacrament Meeting but then we went home because my knee was killing me and super swollen. it hurts even to just sit for a long time. the members have been really nice to us, bringing us food, driving us places, etc. so I'm being taken care of. 

My knee is a lot better today, and the nurse said that I might be able to leave to work tomorrow. I just need to pray really hard. its been a long week. I've had to learn to be patient with everything. in my head its like "its not that bad, don't be a baby, you can still walk on it, go out and work!" But everyone else is like, no! So I've had to let Hna B help me a lot, do a lot of things for me. I've realized this week that I am very stubborn. I dont like being a burden for other people. I want to help other people! but Hna  B is very wise and told me that " sometimes the best way to serve others is to let them serve you... sometimes letting them serve you is how they can come closer to Jesus Christ" she is very smart, she only needs me for my Spanish :)

So this week was all about patience with myself, with my body, with the situation. but everything is okay. It's just a bump in the road. I feel bad that we are not working but its not a matter of obedience or desire so I know that Heavenly Father understands and I have faith that everything will turn out okay. So dont worry :) 

thanks for all the emails! 

love, hermana williams

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!