Texas Williams Family

Monday, September 6, 2010

South Africa: Hello Family! 9/6/2010

Hello!

How is everyone doing? Sounds like Canada is starting to get cold! We are just now getting out of winter and spring started a few days ago.

Grant is SO funny ...ha ha even now we still have Grant quotes going on! "7 hours is too long for him to be away from his mom" ha ha..oh Grant!

Mother, I am glad you got connected with Elder Robinson's mom. He is the best! We were in the MTC together if I have not mentioned that like 10 times already, we are definitely going to hang out after the mission!

To be honest I am not sure what he was talking about when he said a few missionaries had a melt down. It was not me or anyone in my district. We are doing well, I will have to ask him about that. We play soccer together a few times a week. Also, we just got transfer news, and no surprise I did not get transferred. Everyone in my district is staying put. I am told that I could be in Daveyton for close to nine months. NINE MONTHS!!! That seems SOO long! President usually keeps you in an area for around 6 months and it has been said that he is starting to do transfers even less than that.

In other news Elder HOLLAND is coming to South Africa next month and I will hopefully be able to go and hear him speak. SO SO exciting! Also, I have not gotten your package yet. I will be able to check mail (physical mail. Letters and packages, not emails) today, but then the next mail check is not even in sight. Could be another 4 to 6 weeks after today (hopefully not).

Well I will finish dads questions from last time. I think the first one was what is the average day like: The days are pretty similar here. 5:45 we wake up, get our shoes on and go play soccer every other morning with a couple other companionship's. There are usually about 8 of us. At 7:15 we get home, get ready, iron my non iron...wrinkle free shirts (yea, they don't work), cook 4 eggs, ham, and 3 pieces of toast. 8 we start personal study (best part of the day!), 9 is companionship study, 10:30 we head out for the area and we usually find service to do until around 1. We then start going to appointments, and or tracking. We have had less appointments lately. When I say less I mean that we actually have an hour or two during the day without appointments. We spend a lot of the day just following up with people and seeing why it is that they didn't do any of the things we asked them to, (reading, go to church, pray, etc). At 8..8:30ish we meet up with the other Elders and head back to the flat. Get there about 9, do a review of the day, plan for the next day etc. At 9:30 Elder Onsongo starts cooking dinner, we get dressed, relax, try to write in our journals, listen to Mormon tabernacle choir. Eat dinner at around 10 and then go to bed. Then the alarm goes off at 5:45 or 6:30 depending on if we have soccer that day, and it all starts again.

The next question was about a few of our investigators: Well honestly, my best progressing investigators are the ones that I tracked into OUTSIDE of my area while on exchanges. Whenever I leave my area, everyone I talk to becomes interested. But In my area we have a few really good ones. We are teaching this family: brother Sidney, his wife sister Agnes, and their son Tomelo. Brother Sidney is a member, but inactive, and sister Sidney is going to be baptised this month. They are a great family, but brother Sidney is killing me! He knows what he needs to do, he understands the importance, but.....he simply doesn't do it? So we taught them recently about the temple and set a goal for the family to be sealed in the temple. This really got Brother Sidney excited and the entire family was on board, but naturally, he didn't show up to church yesterday. We are working on that. But the branch that we are working on creating is currently being held at their house. This week we had our second meeting and it was still not amazing, but we are getting there. We had the same people as last time, plus 3 ladies and their children. There are so many families here without fathers! Its crazy!

In the same area we just started teaching a man named Freddie. The first time we met with him he started off the conversation with saying "if I join your church, do I need to stop smoking?" We spent the time telling him, whether he joined the church or not he needed to stop smoking. We taught him the word of wisdom, had a really good lesson and talked to him about how he should take small steps at a time to limit how many he smokes a day. We were able to follow up with him a week and a half later, Which was last night and he has taken his smoking from 6 a day to TWO! I was super excited about that. Its always exciting to see people act upon what they know they need to do.

Next to his house is preacher Vincent. Yep! I am teaching 2 preachers! Vincent just started a church in the same area we are starting a branch and he currently has like 30 members. The first day we went to meet with him it was a disaster. You know how everyone is about "the Mormons", so we were there for a while while he told us why our church is wrong, and then he pulled out some DEEP DEEP doctrine that I have NO idea where he got it from. Most of what he said was not even true, but long story short it was a train wreck, because he was asking questions, that first of all had nothing to do with anything, and second was apostle level questions and he did not even know the foundation of the gospel, so...yea. That was not a good situation. We met with him one more time after that (I'm not sure why) but It got better from there. We tried our best not to bible bash, because honestly we just continued to win the bashing and then he would get really angry when he counselors started to agree with us instead of him. Fast forward to last night, we were coming out of Freddie's house and this preacher and his counselors were outside and called us over. We just struck up a conversation about the day and I started asking his counselor about their service for the day. We got into a really really good religious discussion where we let him talk about what it is that he believes very firmly. It was awesome because 99 percent of what he said was complete truth, so when he would mention something he truly believed in, we would agree with him and then give him situations that prove his point, throwing in some "Mormon" views that he already believes. EX: he was talking about how people need to establish a relationship with God so that they can have the gift to discern right from wrong. He went on to describe this feeling that people get in their hearts when they are following God that is able to tell them what is write vs what is wrong. He thought we would dis agree with this, but I went on about how this feeling is the holy spirit, and how when we live Gods teachings it can be with us, etc. Long story short we were like best friends by the end of this. He talked about how in his church they want to help the poor, and we said we would help, and he was SO excited and mentioned that we need to come around some day when we don't have our suits on. "Come around when you just have shorts and a tee shirt on and we will just hang out for a while and get to know each other as individuals and discuss religion!" Sorry my friend, this tie is stuck on me for 24 months... So long story short this guy was able to look at our religion as the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and judge us on our beliefs rather than 99 percent of the world who say oh..the Mormon's, you believe this that and the other, most of which are not even true.

I will keep you filled in on updates with these people!

So my thought of the week is not a scripture, but a quote. "No man can be a true latter-day saint who is un-neighborly, who does not reach out to assist and help others. The more we forget ourselves in the service of others, the closer we draw to the Lord"- President Gordon B. Hinckley

So look for opportunities to serve others. Service can be big or small, sometimes the best service can simply be including someone who is left out. Getting to know that person at school, work, church, that no one seams to even know exists.

And my song of the month is "My God, My Portion, and My Love" by Mormon Tabernacle Choir, SO good! you should you tube it!

Well family my time is up! Dad get better, and everyone have fun in school! Do good! read your scriptures ha ha

Love you!

Elder Williams

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Banff Gondola 9/4/2010 (and with this post I am up to date on the blog!)

We had planned to take this long Labor Day weekend and travel to Utah for

a recruiting trip for Steve at BYU and to see Carly and Joel and the BUY
football game BUT Steve got a touch of the flu so we decided to stay
put. We were all so bummed we decided to go have some fun on

Saturday. We took the kids to the Banff Gondola. You should have

seen Grant's face when he realized he got to ride up the mountain in

that Gondola car!

These little guys were everywhere! They were a bit

too friendly as they kept jumping on Camille's lap!

Don't they carry germs??!!

Mom and Grant on the ride up.

They had this BIG bus advertising the Ice Fields...

This is on our list of things to do! The kids thought
this was a pretty cool bus.

The Wheels on the bus....

We stopped for a picnic at this beautiful little spot.

Grant and Dad crossed the river on this log. Grant was so thrilled to try his

balancing skills.

This was at the top of the lookout. Looking down to where we got

off the Gondola.

Climbing to the top of the lookout.

The clouds were rolling in. We were lucky not to get any rain on us.

Looking down on to the city of Banff. we never get tired of seeing new

things and we have a long list of new things we want to see!

School is in Session! 8/31/2010

Camille and Grant on the first day of school. Notice the jackets..it is August 31st!

In Texas it would be a very different story.

This is a picture of Grant's grade school. (terrible picture...sorry) It has grade 1-4

and about 500 students. He seems to like school and his teacher but says 7 hours

is way too long for a boy his age to be away from his Mom! I agree with him. The

nice thing here is that the students get out an hour early on Friday's.

This is a picture of Camille's school. It is one of the top rated HS and very coveted

to be able to attend. It is very different from where she attended last year. It houses

grade 9-12 and has only about 750 students. It is a very small HS. Camille thinks
that it is too small but I think it will be great! It also has the community recreational
center attached to the school. The kids get to use the physicality often for their
sports classes and activities. They all have lap tops this year. So far so good...

No tears yet! Cross your fingers!!

Do You Paint Cows? 8/2010

Several months before we left Texas we were invited to our dear friends Steve

and MBB's. (as I affectionately call her). MBB had brushed off her painting

tools and Steve began to show interest in painting so they were both creating
some beautiful pieces of art. MBB had just done some pictures of some oranges
that were very nice. My Steve said I really like them but Steve asked ...Do you
paint cows? The farm boy was coming out in him. :) Our dear sweet friend MBB
remembered that and when we left for Canada she painted us this beautiful
picture in titled ..."Do You Paint Cows". She had it packages and sent to us.
What a fun surprise to have the FedEx guy knock at our door! We both LOVE it!!
It not only is a fantastic job but what a treat to have her art in our home. We
were both so touch that she would do this for us. It hangs proudly in Steve's
office right as you walk into our home. We had a visitor recently ask us where
we got that picture as he also loved it. MBB is now an "internationally placed
artist". This is not only a gift from the heart...it is a gift we will always treasure.
Thank You MBB..we absolutely love it and YOU!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

South Africa: Hey! 8/30/2010

Hey Family!

Guess what, I got mail!!! It was so exciting, but I have realized that I don't need you to write your emails on dear elder. Dear elder is amazing for letters, but it is confusing for emails and I usually print the emails off anyway. But other than that, thanks for the letters! I have not received the package yet, but we will also get mail next week, we have to drive to the office. (that's what usually happens, we go forever without mail and then get to check it twice back to back)

Well sounds like everyone is doing good! Canada sounds pretty fun and Grant continues to make me laugh ha ha and you haven't started school yet!? Have I really only been in South Africa for a month!? HA Let me know how school is going.

Dad I was finally able to track down those questions you sent me, so I will go through those. I may have already answered some, if not all, but Just in case I will answer them.

1. Am I happy?

Well judging from some of the letters I read, I must of made it sound like I was miserable the first week or two. Not the case. I was definitely home sick, but I got over it. Yes I am happy. I really starting to get attached to the people I serve with and for. I had my first confirmation yesterday in church. I was pretty nervous because I could not say this ladies last name. Her name starts with a sound I did not know my mouth was capable of making, so I spent all my time before hand concentrating of the name, and then when I stood up in front of the ward I was like oh man...I have no idea what to say! So I said her name and it flowed SO well! and then I let the spirit guide for the rest of the blessing. It was a really neat experience.

2. Tell us about Elder Onsongo (my companion), his family, and their history in the Church.

Well Elder Onsongo is from Kenya. The lord has a sense of humor and he put me with someone I have almost nothing in common with, but It has been a good experience. We have our differences, but We also have a testimony of the gospel, and a willingness to share it in common. We are getting along well. He is a recent convert. He grew up very religious in the Catholic, and Roman Catholic, and he knows the bible inside and out. Very smart guy, but about 3 years ago he met the missionaries and joined the church. That is something I have really noticed lately. The people that know the bible for themselves and do not rely on a preacher to teach them seem to accept the gospel pretty well seeing as how the bible talks about the falling away, the restoration, etc. I do not however know too much about his family other than that all accept for one of them joined the church at different times after he did.

3. Do the two of us lif\ve in the flat alone?

No, we have a 4 man district and we all live together. I have really enjoyed this. Elder Kelly and Littlefield are the other Elders in our flat. Elder Kelly is the man. He is from Australia and also a recent convert. He actually joined the church the same day that Elder Onsongo did 3 years ago. He however has a much different background. He is big into motor cross (however you spell that) and he is in the Australian army. He is very down to earth and good with people. He is the one that loves my pens....so much that I am left without my pens..ha ha.

Elder Littlefield is from California. Honestly, I don't even know how to describe him. But he is the one that wants the balloons so that he can make balloon animals? so...yea, he is a really nice guy. Like the rest of the district, he is very strong in the gospel. Everyone in the flat has a strong testimony and we get along pretty well.
I need to move faster I am running out of time!

4. Mission President and his wife.

My mission President is the man. I do not know if I talked about my first interview with him or not, but we spent a lot of time talking about how he was the CEO of American express. He is also close friends with the president of the LDS business college. We had a lot to talk about in our interview, he is a great guy. I do not know much about the mission before I came here, but apparently he turned this mission around. I do not however know much, if anything about this wife. I have only seen her once or twice and that was for a very short time. Ill just assume that she is just as awesome?

5. Do I feel safe?

ha ha funny question...Yes, yes I do. It is not as dangerous as people were making it sound before I left, but then again it is not Keller, Texas. It is important to recognize the danger could be there, but it can be avoided. I have areas within my area that we stay clear of, we have a couple on their mission here that are over security, and most important, I am set apart as a servant of the Lord, so I am protected by that, and the people know who the missionaries are and they are usually pretty friendly. But to sum it up, yes, It is safe. I will not even get robbed in this area let alone physically harmed, so you have no need to worry. (oh I posted a couple pictures of my biggest danger, the dogs ha ha, but this area has very little dog bites, so once again, no worries)

6. The ward and Branch?
Well we have 1 ward and 1 branch in our area. Daveyton ward and a singles ward branch (which has a couple white people in it ha ha). The ward is good. It could use a lot of work though. They are very divided and no one knows who the members are. They are not unified, so That is something I am trying to work on even though I don't have any control over the ward. It is also lacking with the priesthood, so our main focus is to find and teach father led families.

We also are trying to open up a branch on the other side of my area, we had our first meeting yesterday ( a mini church) and we only had 7 people there, but it went well. We are going to do a little tracking there to find people, but for the most part they are very accepting there.)
7. What is a typical day like?
8. Tell about an investigator?
for the sake of time I will answer these next week. I am almost out of time.

9. What on earth did I mean by the comment about hearing from me every month or every other month?

Well I should be able to email in every area I am in, every week or two, but I was referring to receiving mail. In a large portion of the mission they live many many many hours away from the mission so they only get mail during transfers IF someone near them is getting transferred. So that would mean I get mail about every 6 weeks. In this area I get mail about...once every two and a half to 3 weeks. give or take a week.

Oh random facts:

I posted a picture of my first chicken foot.

and I came across these "prophetic insights" that sister Boyer gave to me before I left and it was like Christmas day! they were so cool! I only have the ones for the new test. but they were awesome, the whole flat was in on reading some of those! So thank you sister Boyer!

If you want specific questions answered please bullet point them like dad did, that was really helpful. I usually get kicked off the computer and THEN realize the questions I forgot to answer ha ha

Oh man, I only have a min or two for my thought of the week!

My thought for this week was overcoming the desires of the body and yielding to the desires of the spirit. I was going to get way into it, but i have no time. but as we read in Mosiah 3 19, the natural man is an enemy to God. This is a very true statement. The natural man desires things of this world. The natural man is the one who says eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. In 2 Nephi 2:27-29 and 2 Nephi 10:23 and 24 it talks about this and how we need to act upon the desires of the spirit. Well I really cant get into it more. I am getting kicked off.

Love you family! Thanks for your letters and your support!

Elder Williams