Week 2 in The MTC 7/28/2010

Hello Family and Everyone,

OK, so the Mission is definitely an emotional/spiritual roller coaster. One minute you are on top of the world and the next, the world is on top of you. Well this week started with the world being on top of me. Elder Nielsen that I wrote about last week decided to go home. It was a very sad time, but he expressed his love for the District before he left and then he was on his way home within an hour. He is a great kid. I feel like we in the church are quick to judge people who leave their missions early, but I honestly feel like it was the right thing to do (which goes against everything I have always thought for my entire life).

Before I forget, we got our travel plans. We fly out Sunday morning at 6am and it is 2 days of travel to Africa. I will be in Chicago from 3pm to 8pm Sunday and will call moms cell phone around 4. I have 30 min. (I'm about 90 percent sure I can call home so if you don't get a call, no I did not die, but that is what people are saying.) I arrive in Africa at 7am Tuesday morning. Oh and we have a NINE hour layover in London, we were planning on taking a day tour, BUT naturally they told us that we are not aloud to leave the airport, sooo we will just preach the word for nine hours!

OK so when Elder Nielsen left I had to make a few calls to the Branch Presidency and they told me to do what I felt best in terms of companionship's, so I brought Elder yugawa into our companionship. It was really really rocky at first because we all 3 have way different teaching styles, I like to stick to the lesson, he is the scriptorian, and Elder Crawford likes to just take the lesson wherever.

BUT we had the sweetest teaching day a couple days ago! So in the MTC they have a bunch of rooms set up as living rooms and you go to them to teach people who come in and act as investigators. So we went into one room to teach this older lady and we were going to teach her the first lesson, but after talking with her we found out that she needed the second lesson much more than the first, which was scary because we hadn't really looked at the second lesson yet. But we taught her about the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong and we were all able to teach together so we were feeling on top of the world!

When we got back to class, a teacher came in and said they had 1 more room that they needed someone to take, so our companionship (feeling on top of the world) decided to take it on! When we were walking over there he gave us the low down and said that this investigator is going to be acting as a student who is studying to be a preacher for another religion and that he just wanted to know a bit about our religion, and that his 2 member friends would be there with him. We fully expected a bible bash and when we knocked on the door it was 3 college students. (usually not the best because they are really bad at being investigators) so I didn't know how well we would teach to these jokesters. But we just dove right into the first lesson, and there was one of the guys that was not paying attention at all, one was kinda paying attention, and then this girl was SOOO into the lesson! and she was the one who kept throwing out questions about the trinity, girls holding priesthood, etc! So we taught and the more we got into it the more the spirit was there and she was pretty much crying! especially when I gave the first vision! So at the end of the lesson we gave our commitments: read 3 nephi chapter 11, pray about it, and then I committed them to be baptised (which we are supposed to do). And when I asked her to be baptised she thought about it for like 5 seconds! which is odd because they usually say yes or no like right away! and then she was just like, well.....that's just a really big decision right now. And I was like OK well that is totally fine, just read that chapter and pray to know if the things we told you are true. And then she asked us how we KNEW that the church was true, so we all bore our testimonies about when we knew for ourselves and once again, spirit, SO STRONG! so then we ended it, and instead of walking out we were like OK so for real what are you guys doing in life? and they were like well we all just graduated from BYU (called it) and us guys are members, but she (the girl so into the lesson!) is not, and she actually is in this seminary class to be a preacher.

I was like...come again? WE WERE LEGITIMATELY TEACHING HER! like she wasn't a member so we taught our first non member lesson AND I asked her to be baptised! who does that!? it was so sweet!! So naturally we told everyone in the MTC and our teachers are gonna track her down and see if she can come back so we can teach her one more time before we leave! oh and as a side note, we didn't have a book of Mormon to give to her (they are oddly hard to find here at the MTC) but we had a restoration pamphlet that we gave to her! Oh man! talk about being on top of the world! shoot! being on top of the moon!

In other news, I have had this ear ache this week so I am trying to get that taken care of before I fly out. But its getting better so I think I'm good! I have already lost 3 pounds, and we somehow bought my shoes to big? They fit me at first, but the more I break them in, the looser and looser they get, soooo I will have to deal with that when I get to Africa, but I think they will be fine.


OK well I have 90 seconds left, so Just remember that the church is true! And share the gospel whenever you can!

Oh, Colton left for the field Monday
Love you all!

Elder Williams