Dear Family,
I will try to answer your direct questions real quick so I do not forget any of them.
1. I am serving in Centurion
2. I have not received the package from Botswana yet, but Elder Alder is doing a Zone Conference up there this week and he will bring down the mail so I should get it then.
3. I lived in Botswana more than 6 months. I served there for a little over 4 months, then lived in south Africa for a little over 4 months, then back to Botswana for a little over 4 months.
4. Happy day for getting into BYU.
I must first start by apologizing to the family if my e-mails this week and lately have not seemed, I don’t know, Spiritual? Or Full of amazing teaching opportunities. We are teaching great people, preparing many for baptism, having spiritual experiences, loving my companion, the area, and the zone (which is also improving and had 5 baptisms yesterday). But especially today, when I sit at the computer I feel that there are many things I need to coordinate from back home, which takes my e-mailing time, but not my time once I leave the e-mail shop.
I have little time but I should share a story from the week. This week we had an area in the zone that was setting up a booth in front of their church and talking to people as they got off the train(because it was close). They asked Elder Byrnes and I for help so we decided to make time for that. We were first with these 2 other elders who were bother quite young on their missions. It was sure funny for Elder Byrnes and I who have both been out for a long time to see these missionaries sheepishly slide a pass along card to someone as they walked by and mumble something under their breath. After watching them for a minute or two I started walking with a few people and talking to them about 1 thing or another for a few minutes. One of these Elders in particular must have wondered how I got people to stop and talk to me because he came over and observed a few of my contacts. It made my week when he walked away from me with a new level of confidence and stopped the first person that walked by and chatted with them for a few minutes! Within the hour that we were together his confidence went from one extreme to where it is supposed to be. It was a neat experience.
I had the area doctor look at my eye this week. I have some kind of growth on it. He said that it is called a pengueculaum? and that it is nothing to worry about. It just looks a little awkward and causes my eye to go blood shot on occasions. But he said I don’t need to do anything about it. He seemed like a very legit doctor so I will believe him.
Well I am far over time.
Love
Elder Blake Williams
PS. Fishing trip sounds fun!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
I feel like this week was an intro into parenting course 101.
Dear Family
Come now, Momma was the only one to write this week. I know that I have been on the other side of the world for a long time, but I still check my e-mail once a week. I guess this is a good week for you to slack though because I don't really have too much to write this week.
Maybe we can start with a funny/sad experience for one of the missionaries in our zone. His name is Elder S and he is one of the most humble guys you will ever meet. Like Elder A level of Humble. Seeing as how Elder B and I are at the mission office quite often, that means that we get to check post quite often as well, which is great because all the young guys in our zone get TONS of mail while Elder B and I.....well, lets just say I am getting more e-mails right now than mail...and I only got one e-mail. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the story. Elder S got one of those large envelopes sent to him from his family. The large envelope had a large slit on the side where everything inside was taken out, and then over the slip was a little sticky note that said "package received WITHOUT anything inside". And then It was put into a plastic bag by the US post service that had a note on it titled "We Care", and then it went on to say sorry about the inconvenience, etc. So pretty much someone from the post office stole all of the stuff in his package and then instead of throwing the envelope away they decided to just send him the envelope with a message saying that the US post service cares. It was a good laugh for everyone accept for Elder S. It was definitely a TIA, accept this time It is "This is America" because it was torn apart before it left the states...
Dad, I have everything you requested. I even got the pictures taken, but even though I gave them the paper you told me to, it looks like the measurements were a little off. I am going to go get new ones taken and then send them off this week.
Well, to be honest this was a tiring week full of companionship problems in the Zone. I feel like this week was an intro into parenting course 101. Mom, back in the day you used to put quotes on my mirror. I used one of those quotes with one of the Elders this week but it was definitely miss quoted so I was wondering if you could get me the full quote. It was something along the lines of "It takes a lifetime to build a reputation but a single act to destroy it". This particular Elder asked me if I am a sociologist ha ha. I took that as a complement of how much I have learned from dealing with countless of these situations. You just need to dig deep into someone and then ask them how they feel about what is going on...its getting SLIGHTLY easier, but not any funner. Oh! I also used the quote, "People should be able to see in us something of Jesus Christ, the way we act, speak, look, and even think should reflect him and his ways." It is important to realize that this quote is not just for missionaries but for all members of the church.
Grant: I have decided that I have a request for you. You need to make sure you stay with your piano lessons! A big regret of mine is not sticking with piano from when I was young. It is actually quite classy for someone to be able to play the piano very well. We are trying to have a Classy Zone Conference this week, but I don't play the Piano so I will have to somehow have to get Elder Hughes to Play something highly classy for us or something. Grant Bo bant fe fi fo fant, you need to stop loosing teeth! What are you going to do when you have no teeth! That would be a little awkward!
alright family.
Love you all
have a good week
Elder Blake Williams
Come now, Momma was the only one to write this week. I know that I have been on the other side of the world for a long time, but I still check my e-mail once a week. I guess this is a good week for you to slack though because I don't really have too much to write this week.
Maybe we can start with a funny/sad experience for one of the missionaries in our zone. His name is Elder S and he is one of the most humble guys you will ever meet. Like Elder A level of Humble. Seeing as how Elder B and I are at the mission office quite often, that means that we get to check post quite often as well, which is great because all the young guys in our zone get TONS of mail while Elder B and I.....well, lets just say I am getting more e-mails right now than mail...and I only got one e-mail. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the story. Elder S got one of those large envelopes sent to him from his family. The large envelope had a large slit on the side where everything inside was taken out, and then over the slip was a little sticky note that said "package received WITHOUT anything inside". And then It was put into a plastic bag by the US post service that had a note on it titled "We Care", and then it went on to say sorry about the inconvenience, etc. So pretty much someone from the post office stole all of the stuff in his package and then instead of throwing the envelope away they decided to just send him the envelope with a message saying that the US post service cares. It was a good laugh for everyone accept for Elder S. It was definitely a TIA, accept this time It is "This is America" because it was torn apart before it left the states...
Dad, I have everything you requested. I even got the pictures taken, but even though I gave them the paper you told me to, it looks like the measurements were a little off. I am going to go get new ones taken and then send them off this week.
Well, to be honest this was a tiring week full of companionship problems in the Zone. I feel like this week was an intro into parenting course 101. Mom, back in the day you used to put quotes on my mirror. I used one of those quotes with one of the Elders this week but it was definitely miss quoted so I was wondering if you could get me the full quote. It was something along the lines of "It takes a lifetime to build a reputation but a single act to destroy it". This particular Elder asked me if I am a sociologist ha ha. I took that as a complement of how much I have learned from dealing with countless of these situations. You just need to dig deep into someone and then ask them how they feel about what is going on...its getting SLIGHTLY easier, but not any funner. Oh! I also used the quote, "People should be able to see in us something of Jesus Christ, the way we act, speak, look, and even think should reflect him and his ways." It is important to realize that this quote is not just for missionaries but for all members of the church.
Grant: I have decided that I have a request for you. You need to make sure you stay with your piano lessons! A big regret of mine is not sticking with piano from when I was young. It is actually quite classy for someone to be able to play the piano very well. We are trying to have a Classy Zone Conference this week, but I don't play the Piano so I will have to somehow have to get Elder Hughes to Play something highly classy for us or something. Grant Bo bant fe fi fo fant, you need to stop loosing teeth! What are you going to do when you have no teeth! That would be a little awkward!
alright family.
Love you all
have a good week
Elder Blake Williams
Monday, February 13, 2012
Before my mission I did not like sushi, but after eating cow stomach I realized that eating sushi is nothing and I actually enjoyed it a lot.
Dear Dad,
Mom did not e-mail me for the first week of my mission. (I actually did write to him. I just sent it from my itouch and I sent it to the wrong address) I assume that means she is quite busy in Arizona. Did grandma already get there, and if so how did it all work out? I cannot imagine it was very pleasant to be there during all of that.
Thank you for the residency information. I will get that printed out and see what I can do. I can get the papers signed and sent via a some kind of nice mailing company, but I will have to look around for a bit to find the camera shop. I suspect that I should be able to get everything mailed off by the end of this week if not early next week. Saying that, I must also note that we are VERY busy! This is the first week of my mission where I have had literally almost every hour of the following week (mon-fri) booked before Sunday was even over. Although this area has a reputation of being very difficult and baptizes very little, the ward has gotten very excited about missionary work and everyone is anxious to help with missionary work. Apparently the missionary I replaced was having a few problems and rubbed the wrong way with the members AND investigators, although they do not know me very well yet, they seem to enjoy our new companionship and we are receiving a lot of excitement about the work. Yesterday we had FOUR men from the ward including the bishop come up to US and ask US to come and meet with their families for a meal and to talk about the work and we had to tell all of them but one that we were sorry but we were already booked for the entire week. This is a first for me, but it is exciting to have the work going this well. We are going to request from the mission president to keep our companionship together as long as possible.
I realized I have not mentioned much about my companion yet, but he is the man. He has an interesting past. He is literally a beach bum from Australia. He would live on the beach for months! Definitely a different life style than I had growing up, but he is a humble guy and has a way of connecting with everyone. I thought that was one of my strengths, but I have been put to shame by his talent. His humility is expressed the most when he prays. He is one of those that you look forward to hearing him pray, not because of fancy words, but because you can tell that he knows he is talking to his Father in Heaven. He is 3 months younger on mission than myself.
Do I have frequent interaction with the mission president? Yes. I feel like I see him at least once a week now. I agree with the comments that you made and that is something that I have given a lot of thought. In fact there is a guy in our ward that for work he meets with CEO's and gives them advice about how to make others work better together/how to read others, etc. It is kind of weird, but he is a close friend with us missionaries and I was talking to him just yesterday about what you mentioned. Because he is so good at reading people I told him that he and I will have to sit down and have a discussion about what he sees as my strengths and weaknesses and what type of career he sees me getting into. He is very excited about that because that is where he excels.
I look forward to meeting with many of the men from back home as well and simply talking to them about what they do, how they got into the line of work and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of it.
Wow, I just realized I am behind time quite a bit!
Thank you for the e-mail.
Love
Elder Blake Williams
PS: We are e-mailing a little late today because it is Asian day today. Each of our p-days have been having a theme lately because Elder Clark who I live with only has 3 weeks left on his mission so we are making all of them count. We were planning on going to this Asian place where you put your feet in a tank of fish and they eat the dead skin off of your feet, and then have sushi, but the fish were not ready today so we just had the sushi. Before my mission I did not like sushi, but after eating cow stomach I realized that eating sushi is nothing and I actually enjoyed it a lot.
Mom did not e-mail me for the first week of my mission. (I actually did write to him. I just sent it from my itouch and I sent it to the wrong address) I assume that means she is quite busy in Arizona. Did grandma already get there, and if so how did it all work out? I cannot imagine it was very pleasant to be there during all of that.
Thank you for the residency information. I will get that printed out and see what I can do. I can get the papers signed and sent via a some kind of nice mailing company, but I will have to look around for a bit to find the camera shop. I suspect that I should be able to get everything mailed off by the end of this week if not early next week. Saying that, I must also note that we are VERY busy! This is the first week of my mission where I have had literally almost every hour of the following week (mon-fri) booked before Sunday was even over. Although this area has a reputation of being very difficult and baptizes very little, the ward has gotten very excited about missionary work and everyone is anxious to help with missionary work. Apparently the missionary I replaced was having a few problems and rubbed the wrong way with the members AND investigators, although they do not know me very well yet, they seem to enjoy our new companionship and we are receiving a lot of excitement about the work. Yesterday we had FOUR men from the ward including the bishop come up to US and ask US to come and meet with their families for a meal and to talk about the work and we had to tell all of them but one that we were sorry but we were already booked for the entire week. This is a first for me, but it is exciting to have the work going this well. We are going to request from the mission president to keep our companionship together as long as possible.
I realized I have not mentioned much about my companion yet, but he is the man. He has an interesting past. He is literally a beach bum from Australia. He would live on the beach for months! Definitely a different life style than I had growing up, but he is a humble guy and has a way of connecting with everyone. I thought that was one of my strengths, but I have been put to shame by his talent. His humility is expressed the most when he prays. He is one of those that you look forward to hearing him pray, not because of fancy words, but because you can tell that he knows he is talking to his Father in Heaven. He is 3 months younger on mission than myself.
Do I have frequent interaction with the mission president? Yes. I feel like I see him at least once a week now. I agree with the comments that you made and that is something that I have given a lot of thought. In fact there is a guy in our ward that for work he meets with CEO's and gives them advice about how to make others work better together/how to read others, etc. It is kind of weird, but he is a close friend with us missionaries and I was talking to him just yesterday about what you mentioned. Because he is so good at reading people I told him that he and I will have to sit down and have a discussion about what he sees as my strengths and weaknesses and what type of career he sees me getting into. He is very excited about that because that is where he excels.
I look forward to meeting with many of the men from back home as well and simply talking to them about what they do, how they got into the line of work and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of it.
Wow, I just realized I am behind time quite a bit!
Thank you for the e-mail.
Love
Elder Blake Williams
PS: We are e-mailing a little late today because it is Asian day today. Each of our p-days have been having a theme lately because Elder Clark who I live with only has 3 weeks left on his mission so we are making all of them count. We were planning on going to this Asian place where you put your feet in a tank of fish and they eat the dead skin off of your feet, and then have sushi, but the fish were not ready today so we just had the sushi. Before my mission I did not like sushi, but after eating cow stomach I realized that eating sushi is nothing and I actually enjoyed it a lot.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
From Blake to Grant :)
Grant bo bant fe fi fo fant,
It is pretty ironic that you asked about cobra's today. I saw dozens of cobras about an hour ago. One of the members from our ward offered to take us to a snake park that another member owns. Elder Burns, Elder Clark, Elder Hughes, and myself went this morning and they had over 500 snakes there! They had all kinds of Cobras there, even an albino one which is apparently really rare. We saw green and black mamba's, Asian snakes, American snakes, all kinds of snakes! Then we got outside where the REALLY big snakes were and they got out a couple of them just so the missionaries could hold them. I have a few pictures where we are holding a 5 meter anaconda! It was pretty intense. I was afraid that he would want to bite me!
Then they had a crocodile and since we were somehow friends with the man who owned the place he let Elder Clark feed it a rat. It was very cool. They had meerkats that we also fed. And they was a HUGE snake, probably 9 meters long, but they would not let us hold that one because they said it could easily kill us...It was fun though I will try to get you pictures!
Love you
Elder Blake Williams
It is pretty ironic that you asked about cobra's today. I saw dozens of cobras about an hour ago. One of the members from our ward offered to take us to a snake park that another member owns. Elder Burns, Elder Clark, Elder Hughes, and myself went this morning and they had over 500 snakes there! They had all kinds of Cobras there, even an albino one which is apparently really rare. We saw green and black mamba's, Asian snakes, American snakes, all kinds of snakes! Then we got outside where the REALLY big snakes were and they got out a couple of them just so the missionaries could hold them. I have a few pictures where we are holding a 5 meter anaconda! It was pretty intense. I was afraid that he would want to bite me!
Then they had a crocodile and since we were somehow friends with the man who owned the place he let Elder Clark feed it a rat. It was very cool. They had meerkats that we also fed. And they was a HUGE snake, probably 9 meters long, but they would not let us hold that one because they said it could easily kill us...It was fun though I will try to get you pictures!
Love you
Elder Blake Williams
Sunday, February 5, 2012
From Grant to Blake :)
Dear Blakey bo bakey fee fi fo fakey:
Is your companion okay? I hope one of your companions doesn’t kick the soccer ball in your head so you lose your memory.
Uhm, we are going to do the sledding races again next year. Do you want to try it with us?
Let’s see. How are you doing? What’s your favorite animal that you have seen so far? My favorite animal that I have not see so far is a cobra.
This week at school we painted a polar bear out of water paint. Yesterday me and dad went on a bike ride. The weather is really sunny and warm here now.
Tonight we are having some families over. We are having desert – ice cream and cookies, and for dinner we are having tacos.
My friend Bruin came over and we built my Hero Factory (a lego project). It is a scorpion and it is really cool. I will see if Cam can send a picture. It took 30 pages to build.
Love,
Grant
P.S. The ground hog saw his shadow. That means there is 6 more weeks of winter, but it doesn’t feel like winter.
Is your companion okay? I hope one of your companions doesn’t kick the soccer ball in your head so you lose your memory.
Uhm, we are going to do the sledding races again next year. Do you want to try it with us?
Let’s see. How are you doing? What’s your favorite animal that you have seen so far? My favorite animal that I have not see so far is a cobra.
This week at school we painted a polar bear out of water paint. Yesterday me and dad went on a bike ride. The weather is really sunny and warm here now.
Tonight we are having some families over. We are having desert – ice cream and cookies, and for dinner we are having tacos.
My friend Bruin came over and we built my Hero Factory (a lego project). It is a scorpion and it is really cool. I will see if Cam can send a picture. It took 30 pages to build.
Love,
Grant
P.S. The ground hog saw his shadow. That means there is 6 more weeks of winter, but it doesn’t feel like winter.
It's Great To Be Eight!
Grant is in class with a whole classroom full of boys! How delighted we were to see his primary class when we moved to Calgary. Last week they had a wonderful program for the boys who are getting ready to be baptized this year. Can you imagine these boys at 16?!
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| I love this picture of these darling boys. They are full of energy and good to the bone! |
Friday, February 3, 2012
Blue Star
Norque Ski Resort near Banff holds a cardboard sled race every year for fun. The YM in our ward entered the race last year and we went to watch. Grant loved it and wanted to participate in the race this year. Camille and one of her friends Jordan and Grant all worked to build this sled. Grant named it and we just prayed that it would even move at all down the hill. He recruited his buddy Jordan to ride down with him.
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| Grant and Jordan before the race. |
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| The local newspaper taking pictures of the boys... Yep, they were in the Banff Paper. |
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| The YM and Grant and Jordan |
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| Steve with the boys. I am sure that if Steve could have fit in the sled he would have gone down with them. |
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| Getting their award |
Once In A Lifetime! 1/2012
We have all been so excited to be getting a temple in Calgary! It has been fun to watch the temple progressing. On Jan 12th they were scheduled to put Angel Moroni in his place of honor. We got up early on a COLD Thursday morning and took the kids to see this big event. Grant was thrilled to know that he was seeing something at the age of 7 that no one in the family had ever witnessed before in their life time.
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| The colors were just this beautiful! |
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| The temple is right next to a LDS church high on a hill! It will truly be a beacon. The nice part for me is that I can see the temple out my kitchen window. |
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| Dad and Grant turing to ice cubes... |
Merry Christmas 2011
Christmas was very different for us this year. The married kids were on schedule to go to their in-laws for Christmas and Blake is still in South Africa so it was just going to be the 4 of us. It would be the first Christmas not to have everyone home (other than missions) I almost dreaded the thought of it. Steve was feeling the same way so we decided we just take off and travel. It was too much driving for a week but we did a ton and saw some beautiful things. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning, ate breakfast and loaded the car. We were off! We traveled to Kalona, BC that night and then headed to Vancouver Island Christmas day. We stayed at a little beach front cabin. It was cold but beautiful. We ate at a Japanese restaurant Christmas night as that was truly the ONLY place open. It is a fun memory. We woke up the next day and went skiing at Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island. It was Grant's first time and he was a natural! Then we took a ferry back to Vancouver and drove down the coast to Cannon Beach Oregon. It was a beautiful little community right on the beach. It was however cold and RAINY!
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| Camille and Grant Christmas Eve in their Christmas PJ's |
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| Crossing into Washington. I don't think you know how much this sign means to you when you are living outside the US. Every time I cross the boarder I feel liberated. Weird, I know but it is truly liberating for me! It makes me want to break out singing the National Anthem. :) |
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| On the ferry. It is like a mini cruise ship. Ha |
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| Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach. Camille took this picture of us. |
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| Camille and her friend Austin in wet suits heading to the water. |
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| The wind was so stomg on the coast that these trees show it. Camiile took and edited this picture. |
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Drop In Center 12/2011
Our Ward Christmas party was centered around service. On a Saturday morning the ward split up to divided and conquer. We were scattered all around the city and at the church doing service of all kinds. Our group was assigned to the Drop In Center which is a organization that feeds and houses the homeless. Our family usually goes to serve at the DIC once a month on a Friday night. It is a great experience for all of us. This day was fun because we had so many ward members with us. We prepared 600 cheese sandwiches, sliced pounds and pounds of roast beef mixed up drinks and anything else they asked us to do. After a few hours we all met back at the church for a simple lunch and watched a video of all the of service that was preformed by ward members that day. It was great activity and one that I hope we can do again.
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Grant was in his element. He loves to go to the DIC. |
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Camille being festive before the work begins..... |
Readers Theater "The Night Before Christmas" 12/2011
Grant Preformed a Readers Theater at school right before Chrsitmas. All of the Grade 2ers (as Grant calls them) preformed for their parents. The music teacher always does a fablous job. Grant loves to sing and we love to watch him!
Micheal Yeck Our Favorite BYU Football Player!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has been SO much fun for us to watch Micheal Yeck play football for BYU this year. I don't think we could be any prouder if he was our own child! To quote Blake "That's my boy." We have been lucky enough to be able to go to a few games this year but we have also been glued to the TV. The funny thing is that we spend so much time saying "there he is...did you see him....number 77... that we can hardly watch the game. If the Yeck's didn't think he would play a game...I would tell them to have him stand by Bronco so we can at least see him on TV. Ha These are the picture that Grant would take so we could email them to Blake.
Andre' Rieu 9/2011
Steve got free tickets to see Andre' Rieu from one of his co workers. I know what you are thinking...WHO is Andre' Rieu!? We didn't didn't have a clue but we decided to take the kids and expand our minds to something new. Just for the record, he is a world traveled Dutch Violinist. I have even seen his CD's now that I know who he is.
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| During one of the songs a TON of fake snow was dumped on us. It kept Grant busy the whole evening! |
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| Half way through they had people get up and Waltz in the isles. Yep, that is Camille and Steve if you can believe that! |
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| All of us. |
Playing Catch Up From 2011
I have been struggling with my camera....well more like my computer. For some reason it will not let me download my pictures most of the time. I have fallen far behind because of this. I thought I would give it another try and yaaaaaaala (is that how you spell it?) It worked! So now I am playing catch up......
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