Dear Family and Friends,

This was a great week! We will be having Zone Conference this week and I'm giving a short talk during it which I'm very excited about. We also found two new investigators this week and I look forward to teaching them more in the coming weeks.

This week marks 5 months out in the mission field and I honestly can't believe how fast time flies! It seems like only yesterday I was being dropped off at the Missionary Training Center in a flurry of excitement. It has been a great time so far and I'm happy I have many more months to work hard. I love this work.

Sorry this is a short post, but know I love you all and more than anything, I know Christ lives.

Love,

Sister Williams
                                  Sister Aiono and me

                          Teaching the Romo's English

They Know Not Where to Find It

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a great week full of finding, teaching, and inviting to be baptized! We had a lesson with a newer investigator, Heather, and to our surprise she brought a friend with her, Michelle, which we have begun to teach as well. They have both been prepared to receive the gospel and it was great teaching them. They asked such great questions and I could see the hunger in their eyes to learn more. We also began teaching Felix, an older man from Africa. His lesson was amazing. We taught the Restoration and the spirit was there so strongly. He didn't have any questions and he accepted everything we taught saying, "Yes, I know that is true." It is amazing to witness the hand of God in so many peoples lives. To be able to see how they have been prepared and then to find them is nothing short of a miracle.

I love this work. I love meeting people and helping them find what they have been searching for. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bring a fullness of joy into your life that nothing else can because there is nothing else that offers eternal life. We read in 2 Nephi 31:

17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.

 18 And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

 19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

 20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

 21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.

I know this is true. I know living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to be truly happy in this life and in the life to come. Share with someone the happiness you have found in the gospel. In Doctrine and Covenants 123 it says

12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—

They know not where to find it-- you can be the means by which our brothers and sisters find the answer to everlasting happiness. I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Williams

A Personal Record

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, this has been one full week!! We put one of our investigators, Cornell, on date for baptism for Feb 7! It was such a great lesson and he has truly been prepared to receive the gospel. We also got in contact again with Kate and we have a lesson with her this week so we are excited to meet with her!

When I came out on my mission I brought a journal with me so I could record the details of this journey I would be on for the next 18 months. I also brought with me the journal I have been keeping of my life which documents from the age of 13 til right before I left for the mission. I've enjoyed reading from that journal this past week and it has been amazing to witness my own progression captured in its pages. I'm so grateful to have this record. It has really put into perspective who I was, who I am, and who I want to become. I'm excited to be able to look back at the record of this time in my life where I am helping others to progress and grow.

It makes me very grateful for the scriptures. We have a record of God's dealings with his children and its pages contain the answer of how to obtain Eternal Life. This knowledge is invaluable and we have it! What an amazing blessing! As I have feasted upon the words of God and kept a personal record of God's dealings with me I've been able to track my progress and have made a record which is now invaluable to me and my future posterity.

I love you all so much! And I hope all is well!

Love,

Sister Williams

 Sister Park and I reunited once again! She was my MTC companion in Provo!

 Can you believe how cheap gas is here!? It is insane!

Feeling the Warmth of the Spirit in -30 degree Weather!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great New Year's! I know I did as I counted down to 10:30 =D This has been a great week here in Minnesota. We found a bunch more people to teach and look forward to the people we will find this week as well!

One of the people we have started teaching was a former investigator named Carmen. We were looking through the teaching records and her name stood out to us so we gave her a call and set up an appointment. She lives in one of the small towns in our area so we took a mini road trip, through a snowy wind storm, to a town of 100 people. Carmen is amazing. Her testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet of God strengthened my own  testimony. I could feel the spirit so strongly as we visited with her. I'm so excited to continue meeting with her. She gave us a bunch of homemade tamales to take home too. She is super sweet!

It has gotten extremely cold here this past week as well. With the wind chill factor it has been -30. We share the car with another set of sister missionaries and we didn't have the car yesterday, and we wanted to remind one of our investigators (who doesn't have a phone) about our appointment. So we bundled up and set off down the road. We made it about five blocks. Then we turned around and went to the warm safety of our apartment.

I love setting goals and with the new year what better time to set a vision for the person I want to become and things I want to accomplish in 2015. Here are a few of the goals I have set to accomplish in 2015:

• Read the Bible cover to cover (I'm in Exodus so far)

• Gain a deeper understanding of the Character of Christ

• Do everything in my power to help others make covenants with our Heavenly Father

• Develop Christlike attributes (emphasis on humility) 

These are just a few of my goals for 2015. What are some of the goals you have set for the coming year? I would love to hear about them. Come the end of 2015 I will evaluate how I've done and share with you what I've learned. 

I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week full of missionary opportunities! Hey, lets start a new thing. You all can email me missionary experiences you have during the week and we can have a Missionary Moment of the Week highlight in the posts! My email is right there in the right column of my blog! I love you all and have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Williams

This is the Romo Family! Brother Romo bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and it was great!

 The Romo's dog Sophia who I have adopted as my dog! 

 Dad's Annual New Years Eve Dip!! Yummy!

 The Elders (literally) ate all the dip!

 Emptied by the Elders!

 We counted down to 10:30 on New Years Eve....and then went to sleep!

                    I kissed fish lips!

 Eating a fish eyeball! (I didn't actually eat it)

 Trying to keep my face warm in -30 degree weather!

 We froze in -30 degree weather!!

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!