Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you had a Merry Christmas, I know I sure did. I was able to Skype with my family and it was great to see them! I'm so grateful for the love, support, and laughter my family supplies me with. How was your Christmas? Our apartment is currently full of candy, cookies, and chocolate thanks to our loving ward members. We also were able to meet with a few investigators on Christmas, so overall it was an awesome day!

And now for the miracle of the week! We were on exchanges and made plans to contact some less-active members. We made it to the apartment building and knocked on the members door...and no answer. We left a note and then turned around to go back to the car. As we reached the end of the hallway we saw a door all decorated for Christmas with a ton of shoes outside the door. I felt we should knock the door. We did and Keisha answered the door. We watched the "He is the Gift" video with her and she loved it. She has such a sweet spirit and we are meeting with her this week!

For many of us, Christmas is our favorite time of year and it tends to come and go much too quickly. However, we can have the feeling of Christmas with us all year if we heed the words of our prophet Thomas S. Monson, "To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the spirit of Christ." The spirit of Christ is available to us year round 24/7. With the new year coming it is a great time to set goals for ourselves. One of mine is to continually do the things that bring the spirit of Christ into my life. I love you all so much! Have a Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Williams

                    It's Christmas!

 It's Christmas! My eyes look super green! Sister Aiono and I are so Happy!

 More Decorations from Gordon, our landlord!

 This is one of our investigators, Sheila! She is sassy and Fantastic!

 This is a less-active family, the Ghimires. They are fantastic and from Nepal. They are so sweet!

The Power of Ancestors

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a great week full of success! We found two new people to teach through He is the Gift and I'm excited to meet with them this week! We also went on exchanges this week and I went to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. There really are a ton of lakes there and I stood on the frozen lake. We did some service at this cool museum and I saw a three legged wolf and a two-headed calf!

Well, Saturday was my four month mark and I can't believe I've been on the mission that long already! It is going by super fast and I love every minute of it. We went Christmas caroling yesterday at a couple of rest homes and it was really fun. I love elderly people they're adorable and they were so happy to hear Christmas songs.

Mark, our recent convert, came caroling with us and it was great! He is doing really well and progressing in the gospel so quickly. He received the Aaronic Priesthood a couple weeks ago and we have been working on his family history so he can find names and take them to the temple. He is really excited about family history and it is so fun to see that joy in his eyes as his family tree grows larger and larger!

Speaking of family history we were teaching a lesson about it to the Romo Family. They are a couple who have recently come back to activity and we are teaching them English. We went over the familysearch.org website with them and they wanted to know how far back my tree went. To my surprise a branch of my family tree has gone back all the way to the 700's! It is amazing to know that these family members are anxiously waiting for me and my family to help them make covenants and is motivation to get moving on it!

I love you all so much and I hope you are all having a great Christmas season and have a fantastic Christmas this week!

Love,
Sister Williams

 This is our Christmas decorated front door! Our landlord is a super sweet older man named Gordon and he gave us a bunch of Christmas decorations!

 I got your packages!! Yippee! Christmas came early for me!

 Ha, Ha, Ha funny story. So we were walking and I totally slipped on this ice that was covered by snow! So I needed to take a picture and show you all! It was pretty funny and don't worry I didn't fall down. =D

 We were waiting at the church to exchange back and we played a giant game of tic tac toe!

 Me and Sister Lewis on exchanges! She is from Louisiana and she made me red beans and rice yummy! This Sister can cook! I love her!

I'm standing on a frozen lake! Its like I'm Elsa!

p.s. people are ice fishing in the background.

 Sister Aiono and me having a fun photo op!

  We went Christmas Caroling as a set of ward missionaries!

 An even funnier photo op......me in mid sentence!

 We went Christmas Caroling as a set of ward missionaries!

SERVICE: The Cure For All Life's Problems

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a fantastic week and a warm week! It's basically been like spring here with temperatures in the low 40's. Never thought I would think 40 degree weather was warm, but that is what happens when you live in the arctic. It has been fun learning how to drive on a thin sheet of ice, but don't worry I am safe.

Well, this week we had a lot of success finding people to teach using "He is the Gift." We do some service at a local food pantry and we gave a He is the Gift pass along card to one of the people we volunteer with. She watched the video and the next week when we saw her she was curious how our beliefs differ and wanted to meet with us to talk about it! We have an appointment with her this week.

As a missionary along with the proselyting work we do, we also participate in various service activities. This week we had the opportunity to help a woman, Jamie, pack up her friends apartment. We had planned to be there for about an hour and a half thinking it would be plenty of time, but we were very surprised when we got there. Come to find out this poor woman has been working on cleaning/packing this apartment for the past 6 months. The woman living there was in an accident where she lost her short-term memory and other brain functions, which resulted in her becoming a hoarder. We ended up staying for most of the day and helping Jamie pack up the living room. We got to talking and learned all about her story. Her example of charity and service is amazing to me. We are going back this week to continue helping her. She is an amazing woman full of hope.

As we serve others with charity in our hearts the problems we may be facing work out and we are able to gain a more eternal perspective. I know the scripture in Mosiah 2:17 is true:
"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Let us all gain a bit more wisdom this holiday season as we serve our Heavenly Father by serving his children. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Williams

Sister Aiono and me together on Thanksgiving! We are cute!

Thanksgiving table set for the feast.

Our Thanksgiving feast at the Metallo's home, a senior couple in the mission.

 The whole district at the senior couple's House, the Metallos, for Thanksgiving =)

 Me and Sister Aiono, my new companion.  We are best friends already!

He is the Gift

Dear Friends and Family,

I would like to start off by apologizing for not writing the past couple weeks. These past couple preparation days have been hectic, but I am writing a long one today! Well Since my last post a lot has changed. I finished my training and said goodbye to my trainer Sister Rodriguez. My new companion is Sister Aiono (I-O-NO). She is from Southern California and has been out for a year. She is fantastic and I've loved getting to  know her better. She is the Sister Training Leader for our zone, so we get to go on exchanges with the other sisters in our zone. It's great to serve with so many amazing woman and to have the opportunity to serve with them all.

There is a video and website the Church has put out for the holiday season called He is the Gift. It is an amazing video. Every time I watch it I feel the Spirit so strongly and I have confirmed to me over and over again the Christ lives. He is my Savior. My loving Heavenly Father sent his son for me, that I might have the chance to gain eternal life. This knowledge has brought me an everlasting happiness and it is something I want to share with all of you.

                                           Click on this link to view : He is the Gift

Will you discover Christ by learning more about His Atonement and Gospel?

Will you embrace Christ by living His teachings and allowing the Atonement to work in your life?

Will you share Christ with those you love and care about so they too will know of the amazing gift?

This Christmas season is a fantastic opportunity to get back to the real meaning of CHRISTmas. I invite all of you to discover,embrace, and share the gift we have all been given. I want to hear about your experiences please email or write me a letter.

I love you all so much and I leave you with my testimony that Christ lives.

Love,

Sister Williams


 This was from a couple weeks ago. It was Sister Alston's Birthday and her family sent her mustaches so we took missionary mustache mugshots =)

 This is the beautiful nowhere!

 Me and Sister Nielson trying to exchange back and stuck in the middle of the beautiful nowhere.

Photo Blog For This Week

Happy December to all!!

Transfers were the week of Thanksgiving for Makaela so she did not get a blog post off that week. This past week her companion was transferred and she received a new companion, Sister Aiono from Long Beach, California.  Makaela says they instantly hit it off and are best friends already.  Makaela will post a nice long post this coming week.  She did send some photos though, so I will post them for this week.
    She sends her love to all and wishes everyone a happy week.  Here are her most recent photos.
Keep on writing those letters to her and all missionaries in the field so they know we are thinking of them always.
              Mistletoe for all,  Troy

Our last photo together. Sister Rodriguez was transferred to Rapid City. I will miss my trainer for my first 2 months of my mission.  I learned so much from her!  Good luck!

 Sardines from Grandma and Grandpa =D yummy yummy.

 This is the view of the Red River from the bridge! The bridge connects North Dakota and
Minnesota. The river is the border between North Dakota and Minnesota.  Yes, that is snow that
I am standing in!  Not much yet, but more to come soon.

 I'm in two places at once! On the bridge that connects Fargo and Moorhead!