Did The Fat Lady Sing Already?? Is It Really Over???

I had looked forward to the kids coming for so long that I can hardly believe
that it has come to an end. I am sad that they had to go but SO THANKFUL
that they all came. It was a wonderful and memorable year for us.
The only way that this Christmas will be topped is when Blake comes

home to share it with us! 2012!!
Here are a few pictures of our last days together....

The kids playing one of the MANY scrabble (take two) games.

A puzzle was always in process.

The boys building Lego's

MORE LEGO'S

Kaylee teaching Carly how to knit.  

Some of the masterpieces.

We made this darling family tree.  Now we just have to add pictures.

We had a great week with pretty mild weather and then the SNOW came.

Grant and Dad clearing our driveway.

I love this picture.

My winter wonderland.

Cold but beautiful!

Grant hoping for i-touch time. ;)

Painting their nativity sets.

Tyler took time to read and relax.

Grant playing the game "Would You Rather".

The two puzzles that were completed this Holiday.  Notice they both have a US theme. 

I have to make sure Grant knows where he came from.  I catch him singing Oh Canada often.

 It is actually darling but I hope he can remember the Pledge of Allegiance.  :)

And then it all came down!  The kids were a great help getting everything down and stored. 

Kaylee taking off the ornaments.

I am so thankful for the time we had together.  We created a lot of memories together

in our first Canadian Christmas.  It is now time to print the blog (our journal for 2010)

and see what 2011 has in store for the Williams family! 



South Africa: Hello Again Family 12-27-2010

Hello Again Family!

Well I'm not sure what exactly to say, we talked about everything 2 days ago! It was great to hear from the family. I am grateful that we were able to figure out the technology and it was quite a surprise when the phone rang 51 min before schedule.

Its sounds like Christmas time is quite exciting there. I cant wait for Christmas with the whole family. I can't believe some of the presents the family got! Try not to get spoiled and what is the plan for getting me that book about grandpa? Do I just wait until I get home or are you going to risk going through the mail system?

I have a couple letters I am going to send today. I sent one to the family a couple weeks ago and then I have 2 more for the family coming today, 1 from myself and one from Elder Kelly. Also the zone leaders picked up some mail from the office, so I will see if any of your mail came for me. I hope that all these letters and packages are simply delayed and not stolen. Elder Alder is still waiting in vain for the package and a few letters his special lady friend sent a couple months ago.

Let me know if you are receiving my letters though. If you have written me a letter and you do not get a response by mid January that probably means that I just never got the letter.

Thank you for attaching some photos. I was only able to see about half of them, but I will check them again next week because at the moment I am not exactly in what I would call a nice Internet cafe. To put it in perspective it is less than a dollar for this hour of email, so...yea, I can't expect too much!

So Christmas day was pretty exciting. Mostly because it was just a relax of a day. After we opened our couple gifts, we went fishing and did not even get a bite, although it was still fun and relaxing and I was able to find time to write a letter (which reminds me I should probably send that one some time soon....). Then came the eventful time around 5 when we were cleaning the chapel and the phone rang!

This was pretty exciting because I was the only one left expecting a call from the land line, so I RAN, sliding around corners with my socks on tile in order to get to the phone in time. The phone call was definitely exciting, and it was good to hear from everyone. Congrats on getting into med school Joel.

After the call Elder Kelly and I dropped the other two Elders off at the flat to call their parents on the cell phones while we searched for hours for something we could get to eat. We found a place which looked Mexican only to go inside and find out that it was only chicken and french fries (what we have every day) so we continued searching until we found this nice pizza place, so I bought the district Christmas dinner. And that sums up Christmas day ha ha. How was it having the sister missionaries over?

Sunday was quite a day as well because we had baptisms scheduled, but one of our baptisms needed an interview from president before he could be baptised (talk about last min). So President and Sister Poulsen came to our Ward. While we were waiting for our investigator to show up, to my great surprise, President Poulsen called me aside to meet with him in the Chapel. It was pretty nice, he just wanted to simply talk and get my thoughts on a couple things. I guess I can count it as a second interview in 2 weeks, because this one was longer than the first interview I had with him. President Poulsen is a very smart inspired man. He goes home in about 5 or 6 months and I am very anxious to see who can fill those big shoes of his. From what I hear he has completely transformed this mission.

Well anyway he interviewed our investigator and he passed. We had the baptism after church and President and Sister Poulsen stayed to watch it.

Luckily I did not get called on last min to give a talk, as was written on the board. I think bishop was to afraid to call on me from the pulpit with president there so he decided to just talk for 40 min.

Good! I am out of things to say and I still have time to write so I will take the next section to write to those preparing for missions.

I know I have mentioned a little sentence at the end of a couple emails about what you should do, but I do not fully remember what I said, so I'm sorry if I repeat myself.

First: If you are preparing for a mission YOU MUST STUDY. I have been in the church my whole life, so I obviously know the basic doctrines, but there is so much more I need to know! One thing I must give credit to our African Elders for is that they know their scriptures. Many of them are converts and have had to go against the world and sometimes their families in gaining a testimony for themselves of the truthfulness of the church. When they truly gain this testimony they study the scriptures as intensely as I used to study lawn equipment (that's a lot). And then most of them get called on mini missions before their 2 year full time mission. So if all you know is that Nephi 3:7 is "I will go and do the things the lord commands", then Study! As you prepare for you mission you should be reading your scriptures at least once a day. You will spend 2 years trying to get others to grow closer to Christ, and one of the major ways is reading your scriptures. It will be hard to get others to read every day when you don't do that yourself.

If your a whiz and have time to read the bible as well I would definitely recommend it. Most people have that foundation of the bible, so it only helps if you have read it so you can level with them.

Second: Work! I know I mentioned this, but if you are going to serve an honorable 2 year mission you need to know how to work. I thought a mission was going to be pretty easy, but its not. Some days we are so busy that we don't have time to eat, and will go from 7 in the morning till 9:30 at night without a meal. The only way to learn how to work is to start working. If you wake up at 10:30 on weekends and stay at home most the day, I'm sorry to say, but you don't know how to work.

Sorry for rambling on, but it is too common for missionaries to spend most of their mission learning those two principles and they waste so much time. Just think of how much more productive your mission would be if you learned these things before your call letter comes.

Well Family, it was good to speak with you on Christmas. At the rate mission is going by so far we will be on the phone again in no time!

Do good, and let me know of the missionary experiences you should be having back home.

I love you all,
Love,
Elder Williams

Christmas Day 2010

What a wonderful Christmas we had!  It is amazing that Santa FOUND us again this year even though we are in a different Country.  He always seems to know just what we need or want and he never disappoints us.  Here are some of our highlights...   

 We started the day with the best gift of all!  We were able to call to the other side of the world and talk to our son Blake. (Elder Williams)  Steve actually got up early to test the call to see if it would go through as we were missing a few country code numbers. ( they are 9 hours ahead of us) To our surprise Elder Williams answered the phone.  We were thrilled to hear his voice!  We all gathered around the speaker phone to hear him tell us about this new foreign land he is serving in.  We enjoyed listening to him and asking him all kinds of questions from what his companions are like to what is the strangest foods he has eaten.  He was his typical funny self.  You could hear a voice that had matured and gained experience in his 6 short months as a missionary for the Lord.  We closed the call with a family prayer said by Dad that I of course cried all the way through.  It was hard to hang up but I was thankful to be able to talk to him with all of the kids gathered around.  I can hardly wait for the Mother's Day call.  (Above: Grant talking his turn talking to Blake)

 Tyler and Kaylee taking their turn talking to Blake as we all listened in.

 After the call we had a breakfast of bread pudding, scones, fruit and juice.  Then the opening of gifts started. Tyler and Kaylee are opening the gift that Grant wanted to give them...Tyler got an old football that Grant says is too big for him and Kaylee got a stuffed animal that usually sits on his bed!  They of course loved the thought.
 Joel and his 'OLD MAN" slippers that he wanted Santa to bring him so he could walk Carly out to the car in the mornings.  The Utah snow was getting a bit to cold for flip flops.

 Steve is looking at a gratitude book that Carly made for us on Shutterfly.  She had each of the kids write a note of thankfulness and memories.  She put in all in a book with great family and individual pictures.  I of course cried again.  What a wonderful idea and treasure.  We both loved it! (Notice the Harry Potter reading glasses Steve has.  We make fun of him!)
 Tyler opening his i-touch.  Each of the kids got an i-touch except Grant of course.  He has already started to negotiate for an i-touch for himself.  I told him it would be several years before he got one because what would Santa bring a 6 year old next year if he already had an i-touch at his age!  Kids now days. HA

 Grant trying on this hat that Kaylee made for him.  I swear that Kaylee can make anything she sets her mind to and she does a beautiful job.

Camille showing off her hat and scarf that Carly and Joel got for her.

It was a wonderful day from start to finish.  From the phone call to having the kids all gathered around.  I did not have list of things that I even wanted to receive but I was blessed with such thoughtful and meaningful gifts. The book from Carly and Joel, Two framed pictures that Camille had taken in her photography class that she knew I loved, A handmade ear warmer and hat and two beautiful scarfs made by our resident Martha Stewart from Kaylee and Tyler, a book of memories that my Mom put together of my Dads life.  I know she spent hours on it and even included a letter that she wrote about why she put it together.   It will go down as one of my favorite Christmas ever. How the Lord has blessed me and I am so thankful for his goodness to the Williams family even clear up here in Canada!

More Christmas fun!

What on earth are we thinking?!! Here Grant is up to the challenge of rolling in the snow and then jumping into the hot tub! He is the brave little guy that went first. 

  Joel and Grant going together...

 Crazy Joel showing us how it is done by rolling in the snow.

 Carly's turn.

 Here comes Camille.

 Grant going AGAIN.

 Steve could not be shown up.... I even went.


We are all back to the safety of the hot tub!  Crazy people. 
Tyler and Kaylee are the only sane ones who stayed inside!



 Dad working on the pillowcase we made for Blake's birthday gift.

 MORE...relaxing.  reading and working on the puzzle.

 Grant lost the Challenge and had to pay up by getting his hair cut.  Why I let my older kids do this I am not so sure! :)  Steve watching with his protective eye. 
Happy Camper Grant.

Christmas Eve 2010

We left early Friday, Christmas Eve morning and drove to Johnson Canyon.  It took longer than we had planned to get there so we had to hike pretty fast but we made it in record time.  It was a beautiful little like.  We had never been there in the winter and I was so excited to see it all frozen over. 

The Family.

Camille, Kaylee and Tyler

Carly and Joel

Camille coming from looking at the frozen falls. It is amazing to me that it is actually all frozen up. It is a very powerful waterfall in the Spring and Summer.

We had hoped to see ice climbers but we weren't so lucky.  Maybe next time.  We had to hurry back...we ate lunch in the car and headed to our next adventure....

YEP. DOG SLEDDING...what else

One of our gifts to the kids was to take them DOG SLEDDING!  It sounded like a Canadian Adventure that we needed to try.  I think we all enjoyed it and it was fascinating to see the dogs in action.

Joel, Carly and Grant getting ready to meet their dogs.

Carly and Grant in their sled

.

Camille and Kaylee in their sled.

Joel ,Tyler and Steve hooking the dogs up.

Kaylee and Tyler.

Tyler and Kaylee.

The kids at the half way point.  It was amazing how loud the dogs were when they were getting ready to go.  They say they talk to each other and I believe that they do! We got to spend a lot of time with the dogs.  They were so friendly and sweet. We loved their names....Friday. Gizmo, Happy, Day.....the list goes on.

Camille and her favorite dog OJ.  He has one blue eye and one green eye.

Joel, Carly and Grant.

Camille, Tyler and Kaylee.

All of us on the frozen lake.  We are standing on about 17 inches of frozen ice.

Joel and Carly

Kaylee and Tyler (if you look real close there are dog sleds behind them)

Joel and Carly falling on the frozen ice...well playing around anyway.

Camille driving the sled.

Steve and I in the sled.

We came home had potato soup and corn bread, built this gingerbread house and worked on a family puzzle...then we went hot tubing!  I think the day was a full and successful day! Merry Christmas.

Kayle stayed to the bitter end with Grant putting the finishing touches on the house.

Working on the puzzle. Dad and Tyler were both reading the book about President George Bush. We watched the movie "Elf" (One of the kids favorite) and now It is time to get to bed so that Santa can come!