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!