Another transfer coming............

iHola de... Walla Walla?

      So as you've probably guessed... I'm getting transferred... again... to an English area... again... I wish I could have a "normal transfer"... I'm not sure what's that's like. So now this will be my 5th area... in 4 transfers... That's more than the average missionary has their entire mission! I just decided I'm going for a blackout at this point. Just go to every area in the mission (and at this rate... its totally possible). I'm going to be with SISTER B (I'm guessing I'm going English because she's a sister, not an hermana). I heard she's awesome so that's good!

    On Saturday, we were doing companion study, all 4 of us, when we get a text from our district leader saying that President Ware wants to have a special meeting for our district at 9 o'clock that night... long story short: if you heard a bunch of girls screaming at 9:30 Saturday morning... it came from Kennewick... So of course we were all freaking out that entire day. We got there a couple minutes early (wouldn't want to be late to a meeting with the President) and he was in a pre-meeting with the district and zone leaders. They were in a room for like 20 minutes (heard they were there like an hour prior as well)! Eventually, we were able to go in. And of course, he went on for like another 20 minutes about a story in the Book of Mormon, and I'm thinking "Oh my gosh... get on with it!" Eventually, we began. #1.) He wants us to double our keys of conversion ( people we talk to, the amount of lessons we teach, number of baptisms, and so forth) #2) He is making 2 all Spanish zones in Wenatchee (so sad I left!) and in Yakima. #3)He's splitting the area. Originally, there were 4 companionships who covered all the Spanish work in Kennewick. So he's splitting the area now. And Hna J and I are getting transferred and Hna M and O are going to be companions. So now we are back down to 3 companionships. So we all huddled around a table figuring out how to split it, and got home at 11:30 that night. So we have to hand off a bunch of investigators to the elders because they are no longer in our area. We already did weekly planning on Friday... so we had to pretty much redo those 6-7 hours it takes to weekly plan...

      Christmas was hard. Don't get me wrong, I loved talking to my family, but that hour was like 5 minutes, tears were shed, and I was not the most pleasant person after hanging up... Totally snapped at Elder W. In my defense though; he asked me straight up "Did you cry while Skyping?"... he totally deserved it. After the pity party, we made a zillion cookies and went caroling to all of our investigators and my mission president! (maybe that's why he's moving me. He finally got the hint that I cant sing worth crap) and gave them cookies.

     Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Stay safe on New Years! Oh shoot... I just remembered that transfers is on New Years Eve, and I have to be home by 6 because it is New Years Eve... Hello migraine! Any whoosie.. love you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

(cover pic is of Midas, a dog at the local animal shelter where we volunteer.  I want him.

 The STLs that we live with and us

 Hma M's mom sent us matching PJs!

Awesome pic of the Columbia River temple that I took last week.

Feliz Navidad!

iFeliz Navidad de Kennewick!

   So its that time of year again! Where everyone runs around like a chicken with its head cut off at the mall to find the perfect gift for everyone. Where everyone goes bankrupt. The time of year that everyone saves up for then blows it all within a week. Well this Christmas, I'm not going all out on the presents (mainly because missionaries have no money). I will be giving out a present to everyone I come in contact with. A present that was already paid for 2000 years ago. I will be giving the gift of Christ to those who need Him. He is the Gift. (If you have not yet seen it or shared it someone, I highly recommend doing so.) He is the reason for the season, as well as every day of our lives. Without Him, there would be no reason for us to be here. I won't be getting fat off of sweets and desserts on Christmas Eve. On Wednesday, I will be out, spreading the word of God. Giving my brothers and sisters what I have, and they don't. Going out to work for those Christmas Miracles!!!!!!

    This is the time of year where we need to remember Christ the most. I have met several children who do not know why we actually celebrate Christmas, that is sad. In Spanish, m`as (with the accent over the A) means "more". So, Christmas, literally means "More Christ". I invite all of you to make a conscious effort this week to remember the Savior at all times. Serve someone else. Remember why we celebrate Christmas and what the Savior means to you. 

    I wish I could be with you this week, but I can't. There will be other Christmases. I know it will be extremely hard, but I know this is where I need to be. Stoked to talk with my family though! I love you all and I wish you a muy Feliz Navidad!!!!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

Busy week! (and she's sounding more and more like a missionary:)

Hola de Kennewick!

        Crazy week! To help us learn the area, we have been switching and going on exchanges with the other hermanas. Can I just say that I am completely related to my dad? I got laughed at by some Hispanics this week for being white. One day, I was with Hna. O (who of which, is Hispanic) and we went to dinner at the T's. She made sopes, offered if I wanted a fork, I took the fork... ya... you're not suppose eat sopes with a fork... Hna. O laughed at me as well as Hna. T. Lesson learned: Sopes are to eaten with hands! How am I suppose to know? She offered me a fork! Then we went over to Brenda (member) and Azalia (nonmember)'s house. They were making temales for the Christmas party so we offered to help... got laughed at there too. Turns out, you're suppose to put the dough on the fat side of the corn leaf, not the small. White chick problems...

    But the days when I was with Hna O, I got to drive! Only the senor companion gets to drive (the one who has been out longer or in the area longer) and she is both, but she is from Mexico and doesn't have a license. So I got to drive for the first time in 5 months!

     While we were at Brenda's, her chickens somehow got out of their cage and ran into the neighbor's garage... So, I went chicken chasing... those things are so fast! And their beaks are hard... Another thing to check of the mission bucket list (not really)!

     One of the investigators the other hermanas are handing off to us is on date to be baptized on January 25th and Hna M met a 15 year old girl and put her on date for the 10th, so we have 2 on dates already! Its so exciting that we can actually do work here!

     So you know how I am not musically talented whatsoever? Well, this week, I got volunteered to sing at our mission Christmas devotional, a little kid's baptism and the branch Christmas party. Then my ward mission leader's wife volunteered all the missionaries to play "Joy to the World" with bells during sacrament meeting. The bells were especially awkward because when we were done, all the investigators in the chapel started clapping... 3 musical performances down, 1 more to go! I am not musically talented... at all! You'd think they would get the hint after the first performance...

       The Christmas mission devotional was so awesome (minus my singing)!!! So many wonderful musical talent (minus me) in this mission! So many wonderful things about the Savior and what he did for us!

       Hna J and I were in a lesson with Bernice a days ago. She has depression and is feeling very down and overwhelmed lately because she feels like she can't do anything right, especially around Christmas time. Hna J is the kind of missionary that talks A LOT! Like, I have to fight to say something when I was with her. Eventually, I was able to talk. Not exactly sure what I was saying, but out of no where the words "If you're trying you're best, you are being perfect in God's eyes" No idea where that came from, but its true! God only asks us to do our best and repent. That's all He can ask for! He knows us. He knows our weaknesses and that we are human so we are going to mess up. That's why that's all He can ask for. God doesn't command us to do something that we physically cannot achieve.

     I have not used the Bible Dictionary until my mission. No idea why, it is the best thing ever! I was reading under "prayer" and the last paragraph or two are absolutely amazing! It says it way better than I do, but it talks about how when we pray, we are acting for Jesus. God does not hear our prayers, unless they are how Jesus would and for things that He Himself would be asking for. That is why we close in the name of Christ. Many prayers go unheard because they are not done correctly. Like I said, the Bible Dictionary explains it a lot better than I do so y'all should check it out! Yet again, didn't have a whole lot of time to take pictures this week. I'll take a lot these next two weeks!

Con amor,

Hermana Rebekah Williams

(the cover pic is at the mission Christmas devotional, with a cutout of the mission President)

Moved to Kennewick!

This is her letter from 12/8.  Sorry I'm late:/

iHola de KENNEWICK!!!!

    So I got et-ed (emergency transferred)... otra vez! So I am now in Kennewick! The Lord really does like to move me! So now, this is my 4th area... in 3 transfers! I am still with Hna. M though. Went from the top of the mission, to towards the bottom.

    We got et-ed because our area was practically dead. Hna. M was there her entire mission so far (we came out together) and pretty much knocked all of the Hispanic areas (which was already super small). So we were just referral machines to the English elders. We had no investigators and we had one active family in our group; who is now moving. We sent about 10-15 referrals away a week so we were getting no where. We have both been telling President Ware about this. Last Tuesday, he called us and said that he wanted to move us somewhere where there was work to be done. He said he was going to make some phone calls and to call him back the next night. We did... and he didn't answer or call us back. We also texted him, no reply either.

     So last pday in our emails to President, we both brought up the fact that we called like he said we never heard back (we may or may not of said it that nicely). You can't tell us you might move us and never get back to us! So on Wednesday during studies, he finally called us back. He said he was prompted to call us (more like got called out) and we explained our situation more. He then said "Well then, we need to get you out of there!" he then said that he will make some phone calls then he will call us back. I'm sure no one can blame us for not thinking he was going to actually call us back... but he did! He said "Well, there are some sisters in Kennewick who have too much work to do. They have too many people wanting appointments that they can't fit all of them in, are you two willing to come over to help them out?" We said absolutely and asked when he would like us over there his response was "Can you come over tomorrow morning at 8?" D: Not like we had much of a heads up. So now we are here!

     Its a good thing we got moved though. First of all, we actually have work to do here! The sisters that we are now working with, have 8 people on date for baptism and had one Saturday! What the heck?! There are actually people here... and they're Hispanic! They have a 100 person Spanish branch that is trying to become a ward! They teach like 20 lessons a week! Which is like 3x the amount that we did! There are actually Hispanic investigators here! And they are coming to church! What they heck is this? We saw our mission president and his wife on Thursday. Their welcome to us was "Welcome to the Promise Land!" Ya, that about sums it up!

   Secondly, Ephrata is pretty sketchy... we knocked on doors with a picture of a gun pointed to you that said "If you shoot the problem, it goes away!" or "No trespassing! Violators will be shot, survivors will be shot again!" My companion was knocking on a street one night before I came, she had this feeling to leave so they did. Turns out, there was a murder that night on that exact street. She also got held hostage one time and was forced to watch an anti-Mormon video for 2 hours (you wonder why my emails were so short?). It's also fun talking to a guy who is holding a fat bag of weed in his hand (turns out, pot is legal in WA). So ya, I'm glad to be in Kennewick!

  

    So, I might not have Pday again until next Thursday. In Ephrata, temple Pday is the 18th and they already had theirs here. We are going to try and get permission to go to the temple (now that it is 5 minutes away instead of  and a half hours :D) on the 18th. So don't freak out if you don't hear anything on Monday.

   Love you all! Sorry, no pictures this week. I forgot but I will make up for it next time!

Con amor,

Hermana Rebekah Williams

freezing in Ephrata

iHola de Ephrata!
      

       Such a lllooonnnggg week! To be honest, I don't remember the majority of it, haha. I finally figured out how to get pictures though, haha. I got a card reader at WalMart.

    For Thanksgiving, We got invited to someone's house to have pie for breakfast, "dinner" at 1 at my ward mission leader's house, and dinner-dinner at an investigator's house... long story short: I ended up tossing it all back up. At least I had to be in by 6. The morning was pretty hard. I was pretty out of it and homesick in the morning but it got better later in the day. The stake mission leader told us to go see all of his neighbors practically to share with them the "He is the Gift" video (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it). So that is what we did from 10-12 pretty much. Besides that, people pretty much just shoved the door in our face and told us to get lost because they have family over.

   Are you ready for an awesome story? One day we were tracting in the middle of nowhere, and we saw this guy working with his cows, so we go over there. We taught him the Restoration and he said "Can you come back when my wife is home?" Umm... DUH!!! So we went back on Saturday. Turns outs... he's been a preacher the past 15 years! So he started to bash us, saying we are wrong because we don't recieve the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands (which we do) and how we baptize wrong because we don't do it by immersion (which we also do) and that we are taking away and adding to the Bible (he doesn't believe in the Old Testament so the BoM did not fly wit him). So we shared 2Ne. 29:1-12. He was silent, then said "When are your services?" D: No one ever asks when and where church is! We also helped an old couple with alzheimers and cancer put in a fence so that was fun!

   Sorry or the extremely short letter, but I only have an hour on these computers.  I honestly do not remember much of the week. While I am here, I will probably not email the majority of you but will do snail mail if I have your address. Love you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

(top pic: giant pretzel in Leavenworth.  Leavenworth is a little German town they visited the day before she was transferred)

Good bye to Sister B and hello to Hermana M

More pics from Leavenworth

It's freezing cold!!!!

Ephrata

iHola de Ephrata!

      This week has been busy busy busy busy... BUSY!!!!!!! One story I would like to share about good old Wenatchee:

      On Tuesday, Sister Bledsoe and I were knocking doors. This one super old guy opened the door.

Us "Hi Sir, how are you this evening?"

Him "Fine. Who are you and what do you want?!"

Us "Well, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -Day Saints and we are-"

Him "Who?!"

Me "Mormons"

Him "Oh... well my wife died 3 years ago"

Us "?... Oh no! we are so sorry to hear that. Is there-"

Him "How's your love life?"

Sis. B "Right now it is dormant because as missionaries we take 18 months off to serve the Lord"

Me "...Non-existant"

Him "Well I married my youngest brothers wife"

Sis B "Oh... well that's nice. I'm sorry Sir, what's your name?"

Him "Pretty Boy Floyd! What's yours?"

  Needless to say, it was a very interesting conversation. Especially when his 30 year old wife pulled up. Good old Wenatchee!

     Wednesday was super crazy! Luckily, Ephrata is only an hour away from Wenatchee. So once I got there, unpacked, and got settled in and such it was probably about 1 so my new companion (Hna. Mrozek) took me to meet the only active family in our group (that's right, not a ward. Not a branch... a group... with only one active family). 

     On Friday, we had the amazing privilege of going to Wenatchee (:D) because Elder Mervyn Arnold from the 70's came to Wenatchee on a mission tour. He is quite the intimidating man. Not goin' lie, he kinda scared me. He pretty much rebuked us hard core and called us all to repentance. Pretty much made me feel like a horrible missionary and like I had no idea what I was doing. BUT he gave us some awesome advice and we are stoked to use it to become the best representatives of Jesus Christ we can become. They fed us Cafe Rio and Costco cake for lunch so even better! When it was all over, we went outside to go to the car... and it was SNOWING!!!!!!! Of course, as soon as I leave Wenatchee... it starts to snow. It was the first time it started to snow and it melted when it hit the ground, but still. and Ephrata doesn't snow, like ever. 

    Ephrata hasn't had a baptism in years, yet again, neither has Wenatchee and I had 2 people on date when I left. Entonces... going to go put people on date! Just like Alma. He was turned down day after day with no luck whatsoever, but the Lord made him go back and gave him Amulek! Hna. Mrozek has been here 3 transfers now with no luck and now she has me! Going to go baptize Ephrata!

    Sorry for the short and boring letter. I have to email at a library that only gives me an hour to email instead of an hour and a half. Hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

Another baptism date/New Adventure

Hello from Wenatchee!

       Holy shnikies its cold!!! It dropped from like 50's to like 20's practically over night. When we go running in the morning, it's 15 degrees! This is the coldest temperature I have been in since I was like 4 (which is also the last time I was in snow). So ya, I look like a giant puff ball. It's ok though, now you can't tell how much weight I have gained! (besides in my face :/). I left my water bottle in the car over night and it is frozen solid. Its too cold to snow and the locals say it usually isn't this cold until January so it's only going to get colder!

     On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with some sisters in Malaga since Sis. B is a STL. (note in the pic above, I showed up for exchanges and found that I was twinsies with Sis. T)  We were knocking in some apartments and we knocked on this one guy's door. Apparently, he was expecting someone else... because he swung the door wide open, wearing only some extremely small and tight spandex... He immediately hid behind the door and said that it wasn't a very good time. Who was he expecting at 2 o'clock in the afternoon to wear that? I don't even want to know... Then we went over to talk to this one guy who was getting his mail. Pretty sure he was high. He gave us a hug and it was just over all extremely awkward...

     Are you ready for an awesome miracle? So there is a less active in my ward named Sister A. She has a friend named Anjea who was getting kicked out of her house because her husband died 3 years ago and then her boyfriend died about 3 months ago (both from liver failure) and could no longer afford her house, so we helped her move into her new boyfriend's apartment. Sis. A invited her to come to church last week, and she came! Turns out, he was baptized 8 years ago and stopped going to church after baptism. On Thursday, we got a mormon.org referral from Chad (the new boyfriend)! He went on to mormon.org and requested missionaries to be sent to his house because "some female missionaries helped [his] girlfriend move and now [he] is interested in coming back to church"! So we stopped by that night. He was as high as a kite, but Anjea seemed pretty interested. Within 5 minutes of being there, Sis. B got the prompting to leave, but he didn't want us to (luckily, I am as naive as they come). We made an appointment to come back Saturday night (no idea why we did that). We were running around like a chicken with i'ts head cut off to find a priesthood holder to come with us (because he was pretty creepy when he was high). We couldn't find one who was available because it was ward temple day, so we were just praying for protection all day. It was time for our lesson so we went over there. He was completely sober! We had a super cool lesson with both of them. Anjea completely understands prophets and the need for them. She is super cool. We showed them the 20 minute Restoration DVD and after asked her if she comes to know that these are true, if she will be baptized... she said YES! We put her on date to be baptized on Christmas Day! Chad has not prayed in over 6 months, we asked him to say the closing prayer. He said the most heart-filled prayer I have ever heard! Miracles happen from service! We have another appointment with them tonight.

    On Saturday night, we got transfer calls... I'm getting transferred... :/ to Ephrata. They are sending me back to los hispinos. They seem to like to move me around a lot. Probably because God knows I grow to love people easily. My new companion is going to be Hermana Mrozak from Washington DC. She came out with me so we are going to be greenie-busting each other. Of course, now that I have 2 people on date, I get transferred... again. I signed up to go where the Lord wants me to go so that's in Ephrata apparently.

    On this coming Friday, Elder Arnold from the 70 is coming here! He will be speaking at our Zone Conference so that's super cool! Never heard of him, but he is in the quorum of the 70 so that's awesome!

     This week, I was reading Hebrews 9 for a particular lesson. Its super good so you should all read it!  Hope all is well with everyone! Love you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

1st Baptism date!

Hello from Wenatchee!

      It's crazy that transfers is next week! I find out on Saturday if I get transferred or not. I have a feeling I will and go back to the Spanish area though.

       On Wednesday we put Shawn on date to be baptized! Apparently, this ward has not had a baptism in over a year. He can't come to church until at least December because his work schedule is made out for the entire month and he works all day Sunday (like, he works 36 hours just over the weekend alone). He is working it out with his boss so he doesn't work on Sundays. Since he can't come to church for a while, he is on date for December 20th. Fingers crossed that it works out!

    On Thursday, Sister B had to go to a meeting in Tri Cities since she is an STL so I was in Cashmere for the day with Hermanas H and G. Hna. H is a greenie too, but this is still her first transfer. Hna. G has been out a transfer longer than me so we were all pretty new and didn't really know what we were doing. Hna. G is from Mexico originally but moved to Utah a couple years ago. We were deciding what to do for lunch and she goes:

"Hermana Williams, quiere los tacos de lengua?" 

Me: "Do I want a what?" 

Hna. G: "taco de lengua?" 

Me: "... Do I want tongue tacos?" 

Hna. G: "Si" 

Me: "...no... not really." 

Hna. H: "It actually isn't that bad!" 

Me: "that sounds disgusting..." 

somehow, they talked me into having 2 tongue tacos. No idea what animal it was from but it surprisingly wasn't that bad. I probably wouldn't do it again over my free will, but it wasn't horrible. We also went to Leavenworth since they are spanish sisters and spanish areas usually cover about 4 cities. Leavenworth is pretty much mini Germany so it was hard finding hispanics... they were all German.

      I still feel like I'm going to hurl every time I eat something (the tongue tacos probably didn't help). So its good that I didn't go out much these past couple days. Friday, we had weekly planning so we didn't really leave. On Saturday is when I felt the worse. We did service like all day. My mission is starting this new thing called the "JustServe" program. Its where missionaries do up to 10 hours of service a week. There is a JustServe website, but we aren't allowed on it. So we have to find our own service opportunities. We helped Brother L's neighbor again with her yard (...and I may of broke his broom...), and our church needed to have seed put down for the winter so we did that, we volunteered at a senor center after their Winter raffle so we put down tables and such, AND we helped this one lady in my ward's friend move. BUT she ended up coming to church yesterday! We are hoping to start teaching her since she moved into our ward boundaries. Her husband died a month ago and her boyfriend died about 2 weeks ago both from liver failure.

 

   That about sums up my week. Hope all is well with you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

our bedroom....

 Leavenworth (little German town)

this week's trio

Fruits of our labors

Hello from Wenatchee!

   Fruits of our labors are finally showing through! Last week, we knocked doors at least 5 hours a day. We were not teaching anyone and were only getting bashed with no new investigators. This week, we got 2 super cool and solid investigators! Last Sunday after church, we got a text from a man named Shawn. We had not met him before but some previous Sisters helped him move a couple months ago. He kept the phone number and asked us to come over to teach him! So on Wednesday, we went over there and had the bishop's wife with us. He is super cool! He is an honest seeker of truth and wants to raise his 5 year old son Levi in a Christ-centered household. He is very receptive and understanding. We asked him if he comes to know if these things are true, if he will be baptized... and he said YES!!! So he is super cool. We were suppose to have another lesson with him on Saturday but he had to leave for Cashmere last minute and felt bad he didn't finish reading 3 Nephi 11 so he asked to reschedule. Just the fact that he dug out our number to ask us for a lesson is huge! 999 out of 1000 times, we have to keep bugging them to let us in so the fact that he invited us is EXTREMELY rare!

   

   On Monday we met our other super cool new investigator. We were knocking (as usual) down King street and met a lady named Adriane. She is about 30 and has 3 sons. Her oldest is 18 and 2 of his friends were kicked out of their houses so she just told them to live with her! She has a giant heart but here is the coolest thing: she understands just about everything... without us teaching them to her! She was talking about how important it would be if we had a living prophet before we told her we do. We had a lesson with her on Tuesday and she completely understands the priesthood and Joseph Smith and she gave a super profound definition of the Book of Mormon and she is just so cool! We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and asked her to read it. Not only did she read it, she did the extra questions in the back! No one EVER does them! We came over again on Saturday and she read way more of the BoM than we assigned and absolutely believes that it is true. All of her kids are teenagers so they are gone all the time and she's like "I just want one day a week where it is just us as a family!" Umm... there is this thing called "Family Home Evening". She wants Christ to be more in their lives as a family. She understands she needs to and wants to be baptized... but she is not a "church go-er" and she is "more spiritual than religious"... there always has to be a "but" doesn't there? Well we will fix that!

      So sometimes new missionaries get sick around week 9... and I was in week 10. On Monday, the headaches started and starting on Tuesday, I kept feeling like I was going to hurl; especially after eating. I didn't talk much during the lesson with Shawn because I thought I was going to hurl. So that has been what's happening with me this week. At least I'm not alone. There are a lot of new missionaries get sick. It's because our bodies are not use to working this much. So I was working so hard these past couple weeks that I got sick. I'm still out tracting 5 hours a day though!

     Sister B is so sweet! She is the missionary I want to become. She is so sweet and always asking for my opinion. She is so patient with me and always wants to help me improve. She loves hard work and the Lord. You wouldn't like her though... she doesn't like chocolate... or peanut butter... or the color purple, or floresent lighting, and she has never had a soda. She is the only person I know who hates chocolate cake! She likes organization, yard work, doing dishes, cleaning, and vacuuming.  Everyone has their quirks I guess but not liking chocolate?! There has got to be something wrong with her. Can't quite wrap my head around that one. Besides that, she is absolutely amazing and I love her so much!

   Hope all is well over there! Love you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

Raking leaves for the first time.  Pictured with Brother L

 Maggie is showing how we all feel after planning for a few hours on Fridays.

This is what a missionary Halloween looks like.  Since Halloween was on a Friday, it was our planning day anyway, and we had to be in by 6:00.  Not a lot of fun!

Slammed

Hello from Wenatchee!

   This week has been... weird. Just flat out weird!

Sister B and I are both new to the area and the sisters before us pretty much only left us with a recent convert to teach, we knock a lot... like all day everyday. And barely anyone is home. When they are, they either bash us or they just slam the door in our faces. For example, we were knocking this one street and we met this one lady named Claudia. She opened the door, super cheerful and friendly. I introduced us and asked if she has met with missionaries before, and she started laughing. She said she had and pretty much told us that we were going straight to Hell. She started bashing us hard core and pretty much told us the Book of Mormon is the word of the Devil. You can tell that she was getting frustrated. Sis B asked her why and she said our belief and lack of knowledge makes her frustrated. She was practically yelling at us about how different our beliefs are! I don't care if you're a different religion, you should not be yelling when you talk about Christ! You have your own beliefs and we respect that but you should not be yelling when talking about Him. All of the questions she was asking could be answered by reading the BoM. We offered to give her one and she said flat out "I will not read that book because its not true!" Even if it is per say, there is no harm in reading and praying! But she was so closed off that she would have nothing to do with it. Another example: Katie. The previous sisters left us an appointment with her (the only one). Ya she just invited us over to bash us. She said she wanted to prepare to bring stuff up if she ever encounters Mormons again. She also went to a temple open house so she had a lot of sacred questions about the temple that we can't really talk about outside the temple. She had such a hard time with temples, prophets, and the priesthood. I pointed out scriptures the Bible that prove our need for them and you tell that she understood, but she did everything she could to prove us wrong. She made herself believe it was false. Ron: just pretty much telling us that we go to the church of the devil. Mike: his grandson was a referral from a little girl in the ward. He was such a hater over the BoM it was ridiculous. He originally thought that we were Jehovah Witnesses and was telling us that we don't keep the 10 commandments then we corrected him and told him that we were LDS and he said that we don't either because we don't keep the Sabbath Day holy (they think its Saturday). He said he couldn't find a church that obeyed the 10 commandments so he made his own church. He talked to missionaries before and said the BoM was a flat out lie and that its sad that we believe a lie. He told us to throw it in fire and watch it burn! I'm sorry but that's too far! You have your beliefs and I respect that but you don't need to tell people to throw their BoM in the fire! I will never throw my Book of Mormon ,the word of God, in the fire! Every Thursday nights, our bishopric and us go visit people on our ward list that no one really knows who they are. They one guy opened the door and said "Oh you guys are Mormons. Well you excommunicated my grandma for being poor so go get off my porch ok bye!" then slammed the door. To top it off, our water got shut off. So we have to shower every night at the Lewis' (an elderly couple in our ward) and drive to the church every morning to get ready. Every time we walked away from getting bashed though, we had a smile on our faces. We bore strong testimony and felt the Spirit so strong! We could feel the Spirit working through us to them and they used their agency to reject it. We did our best and that's all we can, and we left them all something to think about!

       God knows us! He really does! Every time we started to get discouraged, God put someone in our path to make us laugh! For example, on night we were trying to contact a former investigator and knocked on the door. This old man opened the door... without pants on. Apparently, the person who we were trying to contact moved and now is an old man who does not believe in pants. Luckily, his shirt was long enough to cover everything. Normally, we try to get the person talking as long as possible, but we just let this conversation die. Another night, we were trying to contact a referral named Kyle. It was about8:30 at night so Sis. Bledsoe knocked pretty quietly. I told her that they probably didn't hear it. A lady opened the door and screamed super loud on the top of her lungs... she didn't hear the knock. She was going to spray paint something outside and just sees 2 people in front of her door and screamed. We also knocked into another preacher (or pastor... I don't really know the difference) and he had his black robe-type thing on. The demeanor that he spoke with was just so weird. He asked us what God's name in Greek was and asked us what our first names were. It was just really weird. I don't really know how to describe it.He invited us in but there wasn't a woman there so we couldn't even if we wanted to. Plus if we did, he was probably bash us. On a good note though: Saturday was Make a Difference Day so we did service all day and it was so great! It feels so good to serve people! And to top it off: Sister Linda K. Burton from the General Relief Society Presidency came to Wenatchee!!!!!!!!!! She spoke in the stake center about the Atonement and it was SSSOOO great! She is such a funny woman and she is so human! She definitely knew what I needed to hear and said it word from word! This week has been really hard/funny/ flat out weird and it ended great by being about to be in the same room as Sister Burton and being able to listen to her inspiring words. 

    Hope all is well with all of you guys! Love you all so much! Thank for all that you guys do for me and I always have all of you in my prayers!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

The people I live with like trolls A LOT

First Transfer!

Hello from Wenatchee! (I'll explain later)

     As usual, this week has been an adventure. And also as usual, I do not remember a thing that happened earlier this week. 

     On Wednesday, we had a Zone Meeting. President and Sister Ware as well as the assistants to the president drove up to East Wenatchee for training and interviews. Elders H and A (the assistants to the pres.)  Gave an awesome training on using the Book of Mormon more effectively in our teaching and using it in every lesson. So good!!! "The Book of Mormon is sacrifices made sacred" The Lord started preparing the BoM more than 2600 years ago just so we can have it today and learn from it. 2600 YEARS AGO!!!!!!!!!!! That is saying in and of itself how important it is! My favorite chapter this week is Mosiah chapter 2. Absolutely amazing! It talks about how we cant do anything by ourselves and praising the Lord for everything in our lives. Super good! After the training, we had interviews with President Ware. Apparently, he and Sister Ware have been thinking about for quite some time now about separating the STL's (sister training leaders). Having 2 STL's still but they will not be companions. But he didn't know who, when, or where. After interviewing both me and Hma. K, he decided to separate us. So I am now in Wenatchee  with Sister B, Englsih speaking. And since Hma. D is a Spanish speaking sister, she is now in East Wenatchee with Hma. K. So we just traded places. We are the guinea pigs for his little experiment of  separating the STL's so we will see how this works out. Of course now that I am finally getting a hold of Spanish, I get moved to be in an English area. Oh well! If it God's will then it will all work out for the better! Sis. Bledsoe has only been in the area for a week longer than me so we are pretty much doubled in again. Since she is a STL, she has been on exchanges like all week and pretty much has only been in the area for a day longer. So we don't know anyone or where anything is. We are ready to work hard and get those miracles!

      Since they had one more exchange, we switched on Friday before weekly planning. So after the training, we had a lesson with Salvador and Carmen. Cant remember if I already told y'all about them but if I haven't, long story short: we met them knocking. They take care of their grandkids and his mom who has cancer and Alzheimers. We had an awesome lesson with them and they said we can come back... so we did. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they were very engaged in our message about the Resurrection. She stopped cooking to listen to us and he was telling the kids to shut up so he can hear better (which are both really big for hispanics). At the end, we asked them if they come to know for themselves if this is true, if they will "follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God"... and they said YES!!!!! So of course, once I get a hang of things and have 3 people on date to be baptized... I get ET'ed (emergency transferred) to an English area.

     We are pretty much doubled in and know absolutely nothing, we do a lot of knocking. We got 24 OYM's yesterday. English work is a lot different from Spanish work. White people just slam the door in your face. Hispanics are nice and listen to you, feed you carne asadas, then slam the door in your face. It's nice not being in sketchy trailer parks though. For the first time in 3 months... I was actually able to understand everything being said in church! It was pretty awesome!

     Sorry for the boring letter, but I'm a pretty boring person and not a whole lot has happened. Love y'all tons! and keep on truckin'!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

(about Cover Photo:  I was wearing red and the name of the street was Red Delicious so I had to....)

Goodbye to Hma K

 Hello to Sister B

 The people I live with have a cockapoo!  Her name is Maggie and she reminds me so much of Fritz!

Good Week!

i Hola de East Wenatchee!

  

     This week has been AMAZING!!! For the first time like ever, I can remember things that happened earlier in the week!!! We had transfers this week (I'm staying) so the people who went home left on Monday to stay in the Mission Home over night and to go to the temple one last time. Hermana R was going home and was freaking out. She ended up forgetting her wallet here!!! I was emailing then I hear Hma. D (her old companion) scream and goes "SHE LEFT HER WALLET!!!!!!" and it had her temple recommend so it's not like someone could bring it up later because they went to the temple that day and her license was in there and all of her cards so she couldn't get on the plane. So a member  drove 2 hours to give her the wallet back (what a saint!) Turns out, she didn't even realized she forgot her wallet. Apparently, she's like addicted to Diet Coke too and forgot her massive Coke.

     Since Hma R left and transfers weren't until Wednesday so Hma. D didn't have a companion, she was with us on Monday evening-Wednesday morning. Tuesday was... interesting... We talked to this 22 year old kid, he was totally hitting on Hma. D! It was the most awkward OYM we have ever had! (Open Your Mouth which is whenever you randomly start talking to someone about the gospel) While we were talking to him, this super fat guy without a shirt on gets out of his car like 200 feet away and yells to us "No thank you! I dont believe in miracles!!"... but we weren't even talking to him. Then like 5 minutes later he yells again, holding a pack of water bottles "I got my holy water!!!" from like 200ft away. So ya, the other guy was totally hitting on her so we said we would send some Elders over (because the Elders were for the YSA ward... and he was creepy) and the first thing he says; "I don't want to talk to guys!" and he was asking us what we do if we see a cute guy and what her type was (super awk) so eventually, we left and walking past the fat guy. So we started to talk to him. He has a giant beer belly that hangs over his super short shorts with no shirt on and has tattoos of naked women on his arms and chest. His shorts say "Mexico" all around the waist band... even though he is super white... so that was fun. After we left him, we walked past this other guy. We didn't really talk to him so we creepily turned around and came up to him when he met us with his wife. Hma. D saw their dog and was like "I'm sorry but I HAVE to pet your dog because he is SSSOOO cute!" So we started talking to them and they are like the coolest people ever!!! They don't go to a certain church because they don't know which one was right (sound familiar?) and he was saying that his daughter had cancer when she was 3 but is now 5 and good as new. He prayed to God everyday, not to ask for her to get better but to thank him on her improvement. One day he prayed and said "Thank you for my daughter and her improvement. Thank you for the doctors and all they do for her. You may take her if you must but if you please let her stay here until she has finished her purpose here on Earth and let us enjoy her a little more, we would greatly appreciate it" then the next day she was cured!!! And one day he prayed while putting his hands on her head. He has no idea why he was but when he did he felt this warmth and power leaving his hands. He removed his hands and put them back on and felt the same warmth! We had a lesson with them on Wednesday and they are super cool! We got there but his wife wasn't home from work yet so he let us in (his mom was home) and gave us sopas and red velvet cake! They were counselling us on college and such after our missions. When we finally got to the lesson, the Spirit was so strong! They pretty much believe in what we do (minus JS, BoM, prophets, stuff like that). We taught the Book the Mormon and he said he would read it. I think that he really wants to know if its true. They speak fluent English so even better! We ended up being there for 2 and a half hours!! Their names are Lenny and Jessie C.

         On Wednesday, the new greenies came! So I'm not the newest one! Ok, I'm still a greenie, but I'm not as green as the others. Hma. G got a new greenie and she looked absolutely lost on Sunday. On Thursday, I had a fat migraine (one of those ones where you feel like you're gonna hurl because it hurts so bad) so I didn't really do a whole lot. I woke up in the middle of the night with a throbbing headache and couldn't sleep very well. Then there's Friday. I went to Quincy to go to Doctrine of Christ class. Totally makes me want to be better! When I get home, I want God to be saying: "My servant [Rebekah], it is no more required at your hand to leave your family as in times past, for your offering is acceptable to me"(D&C 126:1) and I want to "bring honor to [you] all" (Mulan) (you didn't think I would change completely would you?) It was such a good class! Then we planned forever...

    On Friday around noon-ish, we got a call from the District Leader asking if I would give another training... but this is was for a Zone Meeting... on SATURDAY!!!!!!!!! I think I'm going to stop praying to help me love my companion. The first time I did, my companion woke up in the middle of the night hurling violently. This time, I give a training on loving your companion. What the heck? Anywhoo... I gave a crappy training but everyone was being super nice and saying it was so good and blah blah blah. But then we had a lesson and not being afraid to be bold or asking people to be baptized. We did a role play on asking people to be baptized during an OYM. It was super awkward... So later that day, we were knocking doors and ran into a man named Alejandro. He came outside and we taught him the Book of Mormon. We asked him if we can come by again later in the week... he said yes. We asked him to come to church... he said yes. We asked him to be baptized... he said yes! He also thinks our music is super pretty so he listens to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir every morning... who does that?! Alejandro Meta does!!

     Sunday was way cool too! Hma. K has been having a feeling about going by this one house for quite some time but she has just been brushing it off. Finally, at 8:30 last night, we went to the house. The lady is named Elba and is super cool! We starting talking about the Book of Mormon and asked her read 3 Ne. 11 and she was just like "lets do it now" so we went in and started to read it. She was super interested and wants to know more!

    We are going on exchanges again tomorrow (we do once a transfer) but this time, I am staying here and getting Sister B. I say Sister instead of Hermana because she is an english sister... and knows no spanish at all... So I'm on my own pretty much tomorrow! One lesson is with Hector but he speaks some English but we also have one with Alejandro who speaks no English! So I'm screwed...

     Hope all is well with y'all! Love you tons and keep being awesome!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

about the cover photo: so, some trees ACTUALLY change color! Imagine that!

 Anyone want an apple?

 What is this liquidy stuff falling from the sky?