I was able to go to Johannesburg this week with Elder Zondi

Dear Family,

I do not have much time so I will just get to it. Thank you for your letters. I am happy to hear that the man (Grant) is feeling better!

As I told you earlier, I was able to go to Johannesburg this week with Elder Zondi. The trip turned out much different than expected. First of all I was very surprised that we even got permission to go to the temple because temple trips for missionaries are being decreased, AND we are in Botswana (which means we are not allowed to go to the temple). It is about a 6 hour drive for us including crossing a border which usually presents problems for missionaries, but because one of Elder Zondi's recent convert families was being sealed in the temple, we were able to drive down to see that.

We confirmed everything for the trip on Tuesday and then drove down on Friday. It was a long drive, but it was completely worth it once we arrived. One of the Omers daughters got a surprise plan ticket from her husband to go and visit the Omers in Johannesburg and she arrived Friday night as well. What is the significance of this for us missionaries also arriving that night? Not much other than the fact that sister Omer was very excited about her daughter coming and decided to have a thanksgiving dinner that night. Yes, that's right, we got to join the Omers for a thanksgiving dinner! After the dinner, the AP's joined us and we had pumpkin pie and mint Chocolate chip ice cream! Can you even imagine!?!? I could not until I experienced it.

The following morning we excitedly went to the temple, getting lost a few times along the way. Once we got there we looked around for his recent convert family before he decided to give them a call. When he called them, he almost fell down as they told him that they were not being sealed that day. The temple called them on Thursday and re-scheduled for whatever reason, which is fine, but they had no way of contacting us. I felt SICK! I could not imagine what was happening. We took two days with special permission to go down to Johannesburg only to find out that it was not even happening. I could not have felt worse for Elder Zondi then I did at that time. I wrote about this in my Presidents letter this week so I will just copy what happened from here:

"I felt horrible for a number of reasons when we found this out. First of all because we had special permission to drive all the way down from Botswana for that event. But more so because that meant that Elder Zondi would not be able to witness the event that he had been anticipating for such a large portion of his mission. With excitement far from us we slowly walked into the temple to see if there was any possible way for us to go through a session. To our surprise there was room so we waited for that session. While we were sitting there still trying to get over the disappointment of the morning, an older lady walked out of the temple and with great shock, greeted Elder Zondi. The spirit hit me very strongly confirming that Elder Zondi respected this lady a great deal. I did not know who she was or what connection they had to one another, but tears freely flowed from both of them as they greeted. Their time spent talking to one another was brief but very powerful. Once she left it took me some time before I could break the silence and ask him who the lady was. He answered with great reverence in his voice when he said, "that woman is like a mother to me". He later explained how his mom passed away when he was 11 causing him and his siblings to move in with his uncle. At the age of 15 he went against his uncle and decided to join the church. Because of this decision he was kicked out of his house and this lady from his ward took him in for about 6 months.

This is quite personal to him and I am even reluctant to share it, but the reason I do is because it changed the mood that day from disappointment to spirit filled. We entered the temple shortly after this experience and it was by far the best session I have ever attended. After the session I found myself alone in the Celestial Room and I used this time to pray and ask my Heavenly Father if I have been a successful missionary up until this point of my mission. I am grateful for the communication that we are able to have with our Heavenly Father. What a wonderful gift it is to be able to speak and receive answers from our Heavenly Father, our God.

It was a successful day for Elder Zondi and I and I am grateful for the permission we received to go to the temple...."

I literally have like 4 min, so I will quickly run through a couple questions you had:

Weight: Don't worry Momma.
Thanksgiving: yes, see above

Conducting the meeting with Elder Cook: Oh man I was nervous! I think I looked Nervous for about the first 10 seconds, but then I realized that I am not supposed to be nervous, so it all worked out. Elder Cook is the best. Dad, it is the Elder Cook that gave the general conference talk titled "it is better to look up."

Thanks all I have time for today,

Sorry I am so rushed.

Love you all
Elder Williams

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the WILLIAMS! 2011

Dog Sledding on Christmas Eve 2010



Greetings from the Great White North!

I know it is cliche to say "Time Flies" but it seems to have taken wings this year. 

 Just a quick update on where we have all ended up in 2011. 
 Tyler and Kaylee are in Houston where Tyler is in his 2nd year of medical school and Kaylee will receive her Masters in Statistics this summer.  She also does some consulting work.  They are a great couple and work well together.  Carly and Joel are on a new adventure in Glendale Arizona where Joel has started his first year of medical school.  Carly just graduated in nursing .  They are living with my sister LaNae in Scottsdale until Carly can find work.  Blake is still in South Africa on his mission.  He is currently serving in Botswana and is happy and doing well.  Blake will be home in July and we are all looking forward to this summer and his home coming!!  Camille is in her senior year of high school and is looking forward to graduating and heading off to University.  We are not sure where she will end up but I hate the thought of her leaving!  Grant is in the 2nd grade and is doing well.  As usual he is the smartest kid in his class. :)  He also loves playing the sport of the season and he just started taking piano lessons.  Steve and I are still in Calgary and doing well. It has been an adjustment for all of us but it has opened our minds and eyes to new perspectives.  We enjoy the BEAUTY of Canada and would love to show you around.    

We are grateful for the goodness and blessings of the Lord in our life. We think of all of you at this holiday season and hope you know how thankful we are to count you among our family and friends.

Merry Christmas!

With Love, The Williams

 


 

This week it dawned on me how the outrageous things of Africa do not even cause me to turn a head anymore.

Hello Family,

Sounds like you were not able to vacation this week, so Carly and Joel took care of that for you.

This has been a good week for emailing. Sister Purine and her little girl Zama some how got my e-mail, which is not allowed, but they sent me an update from Nelspruit. Things are going well for them and she was called to be a teacher in the Relief Society! and the work goes forward....

Thank you for your e-mails. Dad, thank you for all your help with my taxes. You should treat yourself to something nice (paid for by me of course) because of all your troubles ha ha. You will need to teach me how to keep track of Taxes better once I get home.

This week it dawned on me how the outrageous things of Africa do not even cause me to turn a head anymore. I have been here so long that things that previously would have caused me to take precedence in my emails, do not even stand out to me anymore. I paid attention to that this week and I thought I would mention a couple of them, (the following can all be listed under the TIA category):

-We were tracking this week when we ran into an older lady and her husband. Literally within 20 Seconds she was trying her absolute hardest to convince me to marry her daughter. Making sure to throw out all the selling points the lady said, "She is a Nurse!", and "She is even educated!", my first thought was, "well I hope she is educated if she is a nurse..." That happens all the time, but for some reason this time was much funnier than normal.

-On a less funny note I met a 16 year old girl who has two children and of course no Husband or serious boyfriend. It is very ,very common for a girl to have a child by the time she is 17, but to have 2 by the time she is 16 caught even me off guard.

-I will stop there, the other ones will take to long to explain

But I got a call from the AP's the other day. Tomorrow is Mission Tour. All the missionaries from Botswana including the 5 senior couples are coming together to be taught by President Omer and Elder Cook of the 70. Naturally President Omer requested that I conduct this meeting. This would be no problem at all except for the fact that the only meeting I have ever conducted in my life was a small sacrament meeting about 4 weeks ago! I know it I should not be worried, but I do not feel to confident with my skills of conducting a meeting and now I have to conduct a mission tour with a member of the area presidency! I will let you know how that goes next week.

To get to a few of your questions. You asked a few questions about Botswana. To answer your questions, YES, I do feel quite isolated here in Botswana. Being in another country you just feel a little separated from the rest of the mission. I have come to accept the fact that I will most likely finish my mission here, and I have fought hard to make the best of the situation. To be honest, the last transfer was hard for me realizing that I will be here in the heat of Botswana with the challenges of no one having residency accept for me and a few others. Also, I struggle with maintaining weight in Botswana, and I do NOT want to keep losing weight. Despite all of these low points I have taken a step back, prayed really hard, many, many times, counted my many blessings, and now I am very happy with where I am. Your position in life gets a lot easier when you realize how much worse it could be. Really it does not matter where you are, just as long as you learn to make the best of it.

It terms of the Christmas call. Believe me I wish I could give you details as well, but that's another trait of Botswana. NOTHING is planned in advance. I am sorry to say it, but details will almost positively be given last minute. Just a fact of how things work on this side of the mission...

To mention a highlight of the week. We were teaching this great family. It is a widow and her four children ranging from 12-18. They were referred to us by a member and things were going quite well. We care a lot about the family and planned in depth for the lessons we would have with them. This week they used their agency to begin to slip through our fingers. We recognized this and planned a very important lesson with them. They were becoming on of those investigators who simply spends 100% of their time asking the missionaries questions rather than reading and praying about the message. We were trying everything we knew how to get them to simply pray about the message rather than rely on those around them to tell them if it is true or not.

This happens daily, but for some reason this family has been hard for me to let go of. I thought about it a lot and realized how sad it is. There will come a day when they learn that what we were sharing with them is true and at that day they will be eternally sorry that they did not accept it. Will that day be triumphant for me because I can say I was right? No! It will be sad as anything knowing that I tried as hard as I could to show my brothers and sisters how important that message was for them at that point. I prayed, studied, pondered, searched you out, continued praying, and despite all this, despite how much they needed this message they simply chose to reject it. At that day I better be able to look into the eyes of those I taught and honestly say I tried as hard as I could.

sorry, out of time....

Love you all

Elder Blake Williams

I am just forwarding this from a recent convert in Nelspruit. We are not supposed to communicate via e-mail, but occasionally people somehow get my e-mail anyway. I am forwarding this so you can somehow save it for me so I do not lose it. Thank you momma!


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Purine Makhubu Date: Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: FW: HAPPINESS
To: Blake Williams
Hi Elder Williams!

It's been a while since we communicated. Thank you very much for the letter & the photos though Zama cried a river after reading it. To be honest it was emotional for me too. We r still holding on and there's more good news, I've received a calling to teach Relief Society.My lesson will be on the second week of December about the Judgement Day.It so sad that Elder Molai also has to leave us next month.

I'm with Zama she asked me to tell u that she loves & misses u a lot. We r still trying to answer ur letter hope you will get it soon.

We love you very much, may God bless u abundantly always.

Kind Regards,

Sister Purine & Zama

"One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself." Boyd K. Packer

Zone Leader Council

Dear Family,
?? November 2011.  My planner shows that it is the 14th today but I don't feel like that can be right. Time is going tooo fast. I am sure it feels the same for you. Once again you did not disappoint with an exciting trip for the week. Is everyone finally in the swing of Canadian life yet or is it still a bit of a culture shock for some? If anyone is suffering from culture shock just come visit  Africa for about a week or so and then go back. Everyone seems very excited about Grants tooth! Ha ha, what is that kid going to do when he is not supposed to be losing teeth anymore? I feel like he will still pull them out just to get the money from the Tooth Fairy. Cami sent a picture, so I was able to see the cave on the top row of his teeth. That kid is growing up too fast!

Well, I got your package this week. I feel like I have been getting too many packages lately! Everyone has told me that when you start to reach 18 months on your mission the amount of mail you get goes up a ton. That is starting to ring true for me, but I cannot tell if it is because my 18 month mark is in sight or if it is because Christmas is around the corner. Thank you for getting the package together. I honored your wish for the most part and did not open my presents...except for the one with grandpa's book. I could guessed what it was and therefore I could not leave it with wrapping. I also happened to be really sick the day I got the package and had nothing to do so I started to read it between naps. That is the best present! What a treat it is to have that record in the family. I feel like I am getting so much more out of the book during my second time reading it. THANK YOU!!

This week Elder Zondi and I had a zone leader meeting in Johannesburg. It is quite a drive to get there, so we left Thursday around lunch time but got a little lost and then arrived at the mission home late. For some reason the mission home was anti fun that night so we did not have any fun stories or anything...it was kind of a disappointing mission home visit. Usually mission home = fun, American food, and story time. For some reason it was lacking all of that! But the next day was our zone Leader Meeting. Nothing too exciting to report. But then it was pretty fun riding home with Elder Copans and Elder Hill. Both very good missionaries who have become good friends. We made it into Botswana late so we had to sleep over in Gabs and then drive again in the morning to finally get back to the area. For some reason my body was not too excited about all this travel or maybe it was suffering from a lack of America food Thursday night but it shut down and I was pretty sick on Saturday. Saturday was full of a lot of sleep and a sweet package from the family and a nice letter from Tyler so my body decided that it was ready to take on the world Sunday.

Sunday night I had my first Zone Meeting (with us as the Zone Leaders meeting with our zone). Traditionally these are done on a Wednesday or something but there is nothing traditional about Elder Williams so I decided to have it on a Sunday night and make it a fun activity at the same time. Sunday night the zone members came to our house in Kanye and I had to have kind of a difficult meeting with them. Ever since President Poulsen left there has grown an attitude of relaxation among the missionaries. In particular, in obeying all the rules. It's not anything extreme or anything, but mission wide it seems like people are just bending the rules and just relaxing where they want. I feel like our district has not been doing this, but there are definitely many in our zone who have taken on this attitude. So the purpose of this meeting was to correct that, which is a HARD thing to address. Elder Zondi got the easy part of starting the meeting and talking about obedience in general and why it is important. Then it was my turn to step in and address very specific rules that some have chosen to disregard. The reason that it is so hard is because I feel that I am pretty good friends with almost the entire zone, so stepping in and correcting them is not always easy, or fun. It went pretty well though. After this meeting we went to the back yard to have a "classy camp fire", which did not turn out to be so classy because the wind was blowing really hard which is not good considering all the houses around us with grass roofs. The members of the zone stayed the night and then this morning we made everyone breakfast, had a short meeting about companionship studies, and then went on a pretty cool hike. I hope it was a successful meeting, but only time will tell!

On a separate note...each time I get a new planner, I have a theme for the planner. As a missionary you don't have too many opportunities to be creative but you can be in terms of your planners. For my last two planners in a row I have chosen a theme of "thoughts". This came about from one of President Poulsens last Zone conferences with us. He walked us through the following diagram:

Eternal Destiny-Character-Habits-Actions-Thoughts. So it is a pretty easy diagram to follow, but the point is that our thoughts will Eventually lead us to our Eternal Destiny. It is not enough to just DO good things, but you yourself must BE a good thing. This leads very well into a quote I came across in one of Boyd K. Packers talks. He said "One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself". I love that quote. Conquering yourself is really what life is all about. You must control that natural man to do and become something that stands for good. Life isn't simply about doing a few good things here and there to earn a few brownie points come judgment day, but it is about going through trials and challenges which will help build us into a being who can dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father. If our objective every day is not to become someone who is clean enough to dwell with our Heavenly Father, then we are simply missing the mark.

Thank you for all your support! I look forward to speaking with the family on Christmas. We are planning to baptize a family of 5 on Christmas day! That would be so sweet!

Love you all,

Elder Blake Williams

IF certain siblings were planning on making me an Uncle, they will have to wait until after I get home

Pictures that Blake sent home on a CD last month.
We are assuming it is the cow stomach
that he speaks of eating. 

They will get blessings for this. :)

Dear Family,

Once again I cannot believe that it is November. I have made a recent discovery about what this means. The fact that it is November means that I come home in 8 months (not like I'm counting or anything). This means that IF certain siblings were planning on making me an Uncle, they will have to wait until after I get home. I thought that was a significant enough discovery to start one of my e-mails home with.

I got mail this week and it was pretty sweet! Well first of all I got letters from: Mama, Katalin, Heather, Sister Wilson, Mama, and then a photo album from Mama (which I have not opened yet because of my instructions to wait until Christmas). But I did open the letter from you that had the wedding announcements in them! I am definitely very excited for the three that I got: Tyler Morrison, Christina Bohn, and Laramee Searle. Funny things happen when you spend 16 months in Africa. You don't realize that time is still moving and that people are still dating and then the next thing you know you are looking at a photo of Tyler Morrison with a girl you have never seen and they are getting MARRIED!

Well this week we got missionaries put back into our zone. That is always a bonus when trying to do missionary work. My companion is Elder Zondi from South Africa, and he is 1 transfer older than me on his mission. It is actually kind of a funny story because the night before he came up we (Elder Finlinson, Elder Copans, Elder Jacobson, and myself) built a fire in our yard (that's what you do when you live in a village) and while we were sitting around the fire we were debating who is the classiest missionary in the mission. We came to the conclusion that it is elder Zondi, and the next day he became my companion. I guess this means I have something to learn.

We got a number of other new missionaries. A new one from Weatherford Texas who just arrived in the mission field last week, a couple from Utah, Elder Whitely who is from all over the United States, and then another one from South Africa. This residency problem with Botswana has really affected the work, but we are trying to make the best of it. All those that have residency (which is not many) have been brought back up from South Africa even though most of them are not to happy about that. Everyone else has a 90 day stint to make things happen. The biggest hit was probably in my former Botswana area of Lobatse. They had 2 of the very best missionaries in the mission serving in Lobatse. Things were going extremely well and they were planning over 20 baptisms. Because of the residency problems and the emergency transfers they ended up with 1. This makes things hard for us as zone leaders since the AP's are constantly checking our goal achievement and it is quickly falling.

1.Mom you asked about the glasses I was wearing in the pictures. Don't worry, I still have good eye sight, I was just trying out the classy glasses look for one p-day. It was a fail...

2. Did I get the package? I got the photo's, but I don't think that is the package you are referring to. I hope I get it soon.
3. Do I need anything? Nope I am doing well!

Elder Zondi and I got some good news this week. When he first got to the mission field he found, taught, and baptized this family in Soweto. They were planning on being sealed in the temple at the end of November, but his hopes of attending were taken from him when he got transferred to Botswana (when you are serving in Botswana they do not allow you to go down to Johannesburg unless you are really needed, which means that you do not go to the temple). He was pretty sad about it, as I am sure anyone would be seeing as how that could be the highlight of someones mission! I talked him into giving President a call and asking him about it (I also thought it would be amazing to go seeing as how I have not been to the temple since I was with my trainer). We even had to role play the phone call to make sure he brought up all the important facts. All of our practice paid off because president cleared the trip. We will be going down on the 26th of November. Elder Finlinson also really wants to go though, so I might let him go in my place.

Well I am sorry this has not been an exciting email but it has actually been a pretty exciting week. Elder G. was not too excited about the area which made work near impossible. Elder Zondi and I have worked really hard this week and our efforts have already started to pay off. We had 11 at church (including a white guy) and have even committed a lady to read the entire Book of Mormon in 3 days! I think she might actually do it, so we will see her tonight and see how that went for her.

Sorry to end the email on bad news, but I also realized yesterday that I am losing weight again! Botswana does that to me. I got fat in Daveyton, then lost it all and more in Botswana, then I got up to my prime weight in Nelspruit, and unfortunately I am losing weight now that I am back in Botswana.

Well that is all I have. Its been a busy week but nothing that would be too exciting for the family.

Stay well!

Love you all

Elder Blake Williams

School Parade and Trick or Treat!

Grant had a fun day at school with Halloween parties and a fun parade.  I went to the school to see all of the darling customs.  Some people are so creative!  Thank heavens for me, Grant wanted to be a "football player" AGAIN! :)  



Grant and his class



The parade

This is not a very good picture but what a darling costume.
A fire with a marshmallow.

Grant coming back from trick or treating!
He said that was his Santa bag.

NO one needs this much cAnDy!!