March 2, 2015

Hello from Walla Walla!

    I hope everyone had a good week! Mine has been rough and no one ever listens, but hey that's mission life! What else is new? All I gotta do is keep plugging along, keep knocking doors, and keep a positive attitude! (Which is a lot easier said than done!) I feel like once someone finds the secret to being positive all the time, even in difficult times, they have the faith sufficient to make their positive attitude become their reality. Just trying to find the secret and faith (which is one in the same sometimes) to do that!

     On the plus side, we got a new investigator this week! :D Her name is Whitney. She has had Fibromyalgia (however you spell it) like her entire life pretty much. So she is in major pain everywhere 24/7. We were talking to her about the pain she is always in and she's already had a lot of surgeries and she's only 28. There is never a day when she is not in excruciating pain everywhere. She sat in on a lesson once when her friend was investigating. I asked her if she has ever heard of the priesthood, she said no. So I talked about how it is the authority to act in the name of God and the authority to perform miracles. It is the authority that Christ has and gave to his apostles and worthy men in our church hold that authority. Then I asked her if she would like a priesthood blessing. She said she is willing to try anything to lessen the pain so tonight we are bringing 2 priesthood holders over to give her blessing! Fingers crossed all goes well!

    We had exchanges again on Tuesday! I went to Pendleton again. In Pendleton, the sisters there teach both English and Spanish so I got to teach a lesson in Spanish! I stuttered every other word but hey! what else is new? I'm just happy I got to use Spanish! Baptismal invite, referral, lesson, everything! We had lessons, people actually listened to us, there are always miracles on exchanges... then I came back to Walla... then everything went back to normal. Where like 99% of people wont give us the time of day. Oh well, we got Whitney!

     Then there was Thursday... ino me gusta! iFue dificil! We walked over to Dan's house. We were unable to meet with him the week before so we stopped by to set up a return appointment,  then he dropped us! "I'm just not interested in learning more about Mormonism any more" iiimi corazon!!! We were both on the verge of tears! It crushed us! If Baskin Robins wasn't on the other side of town and it wasn't a forever away walk, we would of totally went there! So then we did what we do all day everyday... knock! And of course no one was home or listened to us since it was 1:00 in the afternoon. We were devastated so we texted Sister G, haha. Her texts always make us happy. Her response was "Back at 'cha sisters!"... that didn't help! All of our appointments cancelled (even with an active family!) so ya. Thursday wasn't very fun.

      Hope everyone has a fantabulous week! Love you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

Cover Photo:  Welcome to Walla Walla

Saw this while knocking doors.  I like it....

Feb 23, 2015

Hello from Walla Walla!

    Its official! This is the longest I have stayed in an area! 8 weeks! I even saw and spoke to my mission president this week and he didn't emergency transfer me! Sad, but true. I'm glad though! This is my favorite area! I just love the people so much! Even if it is in English... I would be perfectly fine with finishing my mission here! Probably not going to happen since I still have 11 months left... but I want to stay!!

     This week has been good. On Thursday, we volunteered at the Food Bank! I love volunteering over there. They were having a give away so we helped people bring the food to their cars and such. It's so cool to see how grateful they were! I like the less fortunate because they are usually more humbled and more open. It made me feel so good :). THEN!!!!! we had dinner with me bishop and his family, that's always awesome! It gets even better!!!!! There's a man in our ward for a couple weeks while he's here for work, and he's from El Salvador! So our bishop invited him over for dinner! He was late and he showed up with Hermano M and said "Sister Williams, we invited Brother M just for you!" He speaks English since he went to Roseville, California on his mission, but still :) it made me happy. And dinner with the Gs is ALWAYS amazing :)

      On Friday we had a Zone Conference! It was with my zone, Hermiston, and Kennewick! There were A LOT of people! President and Sister Ware were there giving trainings and such. I just love them so much!!!!! President is so funny and a spiritual giant. Definitely a visionary man. He was talking about life and why it has to be hard, "do smooth seas make good sailors?" and we had taco soup for lunch and pie and ice cream for dessert and it was so awesome! I love President Ware :) I talked to him, and he didn't even emergency transfer me! We got out in just enough time to go to dinner then we tracted from 6-9.

     We met a lady named Sandy on Monday and she is super cool! We were originally talking to her boyfriend and he was about to close the door in our faces then she come running behind him and was like "Wait! I have a question!" Then she asked when and where our church was! She said she went to Relief Society in Pasco and really liked it and she wants to get into our church! Her boyfriend is 7th Day Adventist so he doesn't like us. He told her she couldn't meet with us so she had to cancel our appointment. BUT!!! on Saturday, she asked us to put a Book of Mormon in her mail box so she can get while he cooks dinner and she wants to meet us at like the senior center so he wont know! So she is super solid and actually wants to learn! But she's moving!!! In like a week!! What the heck?! We finally found someone who wants to know and she's moving to 2nd ward! Although, that is an elder area so maybe they will still let us teach her :)

        Like 3 weeks ago, we met a lady named JoBeth. She is Christian Scientist but very open to other religions. Her dad was a "Jack Mormon" so she is familiar with what we believe. We talked to her about our church and such and we were about to invite her but then she went inside and said "Well, see you at church!" then closed the door. She hasn't showed up... until yesterday!! Out of nowhere she showed up!!! Miracle!!!! She said she thought it was interesting. She didn't know it was 3 hours so she had to leave after sacrament meeting, but hey! I'm just happy she came!!!

 Hope all is well with y'all down south. Love you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

Feb 16, 2015

Hello from Walla Walla!

   

       What a beautiful day! For the first time since I got here, the sun finally came out this week!!! It came out on Thursday and we were so energetic and it was so nice out! I didn't have to wear a thick jacket and fleece-lined tights for the first time since like October. Then, on Friday... it was all over-cast and yucky out again... :( Members say that people here go into depression when its all foggy during this time of the year then they brighten up when the weather does. Hopefully, people will be more open now! It was nice this weekend too! Still had to wear tights and such but it was sunny! I rather it be sunny and cold then foggy or over-cast and cold so I'm counting my blessings!

      So my bishop lives like 10 miles away from town in the mountains. He has 2 kinds of "neighbors" (and by neighbors, I mean living things that aren't 10 miles away). His neighbors are his "deer and bear" friends that he feeds bread to every morning, and his parents... who live at the bottom of the hill he lives on. And we had dinner at his parents' house! They are so great too! I find it funny that their son makes friends with the deer that roam by his house... and they fed us ribs! His mom went on for about 10 minutes how she wouldn't be able to live if she couldn't eat meat. My favorite was when she was so shocked and was like "Oh my stars! You mean to tell me that there are people who don't like you and just close the door in your face?!" Psh!!! That's the story of my life! No one likes us! We knock on their door, they see us, then they turn off all the lights and pretend like they aren't home!  But any-whoosie! I loved going over there for dinner! They are so awesome! I love their entire family! We were walking the other day and we hear a honk so we turn around and we see my bishop's son (who, of which, we have never met before) and he waves at us! Then yesterday when we were walking, his mom honks and zooms past us in her car haha. I love the fact that, my bishop drives a super old and beat-up truck, his wife has a mullet and drives a red Jeep that has a "Life is good" cover over the back tire, and their 2 sons drive giant trucks! I just love all of them! I love the entire ward!

         On Saturday, we had Zone Meeting. We have 10 companionships in our zone. Our zone goals is to have 10 baptisms in March! That's one a companionship so looks like I'm going to somehow magically find someone who is actually interested in the gospel... do those actually exist? That's why I gotta hunt, scratch, dig, and claw them out like it says in Jeremiah 16:16! Seems like a dry-spell has been following me my entire mission. I'm ready to see the fruits of my labor! We are good at finding new investigators, they all just fall through and fall off the face of the planet! I just want a baptism! I know it's not about that but come on! I'm pretty sure Walla Walla is like the 7th Day Adventist capitol of the world or something like that because it seems like everyone here is 7th Day and they do NOT like the Mormons! Then again... who does? God does! Jesus does! And that's all that matters!

          We went to the temple today! Definitely needed that boost for the week! There is no doubt that the temple is the Lord's house!  There is nothing like the Spirit in the temple! No other feeling!

I love you all so much and thank you so much for all of your prayers! I hope you all have a fantabulous week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Rebekah Williams

Feb 9, 2015

Hello from...?

     So... transfer calls came... and guess who is getting transferred... not me!!!! Haha! Tricked ya!!! It's a record! A sad record... nevertheless, it is still a record! If I can last 2 more weeks here, that will be the longest I have stayed in an area! Which is really sad haha. I love it here though! It makes Carlsbad look like New York. 

      On Monday we went over to Melissa's (our eterna-gator who is on medical pot) house. She didn't go to church because she wouldn't miss the Super Bowl for a second (even though church is at 8:30...). She said that she wanted to drink a beer after watching the Super Bowl, but she restrained herself against it. We asked why she had beer in her fridge. She said in case she wants a beer... but she sad she doesn't drink them...? So we poured her beer down her kitchen sink! So I have officially opened my first beer... on my mission... she wasn't too happy but hey! now the temptation is gone!

       On Tuesday we had dinner at our bishop's house! :D I love Bishop G!!!! He came home from work in his normal clothes... he dresses like he's a cowboy! He dresses really funny haha. He comes in and sees that we were already over and runs to his room and says "I need to change into my Batman suit!" Oh my gosh I love him so much! I drew him a picture of the temple and gave it to him and he goes "Are these doors? Or eyes staring into my soul?" Then he asked what temple it was... it was the one here! Then he goes "Wow! Maybe this is a a talent that you didn't know you had!"... thanks for calling it amateur Bishop... Its ok though! I forgive him! I saw it hanging in his office yesterday during ward council :). Then he left to go to a meeting then his wife goes off for like 20 minutes giving us marital advice!

     Well that's all the time I have today but I love you all and have a good week! Sorry for the short letter!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

A new investigator!

Hello from Walla Walla!

        Another crazy week! On Tuesday we saw Dan! Yay Dan!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's the one who said he would be baptized but wouldn't accept a date yet from last week. His wife died a little over a year ago and he misses her dearly still. We started to talk about the Plan of Salvation. When we started talking about families being together after this life, he started crying!!! His family means everything to him so being able to live with his wife para siempre, overwhelmed him! I love Dan :D! He had difficulty believing Christ created the Earth and not God though... but if that is the biggest concern he has, I'll take it! He couldn't read the BoM because the print is too small so we ordered him a big print so we are still waiting for that. We tried to pull it up on his computer, but his monitor is super old (its one of the big fat ones) and it wouldn't pop up.

      On Wednesday, our bishop was going to come with us to see this less active lady who is manic depressive, but something else popped up that was more important for him to deal with so he couldn't come. He is honestly the busiest man I know! He said he also hit a mental wall himself and didn't think he had it in him to go with us. So we told him it was perfectly ok for him not to come. We had to go to the church because the less active asked us to bring her a tithing slip. We had the idea to put a bunch of sticky notes on his door! :) So we did. We got a text a couple hours later from him saying how much he appreciated it :). His wife told us yesterday that it made his whole week and it gave him the strength to push through :) I love Bishop G so much! We are going to his house for dinner tomorrow so I'm excited!

     Thursday was awesome!!!!!! We were knocking a street and had the impression to knock a door that was facing the opposite direction, but we did anyway. This big hispanic guy comes outside with a shaved head and tattoos; tattoo of a tear drop and all. His name is Jose! He speaks English so we can continue to teach him. He is super cool though! He is new to the area and is looking for a church to go to. Missionaries always bump into him all the time and give him a pass along card and he doesn't know why he always bumps into them. Its a sign! He ASKED us to come back! So we met him again on Saturday. He use to play basketball at our church with some other guys in the stake and asked if they still did that. AND apparently, when he was little, he went to our church with his friend and that family is still in our ward! He remembers going to primary a little! When we pulled out a Book of Mormon, he said he already had one! He said he was having a bad day and was walking down the street when a guy, dressed up as Jesus, and told him he needs Christ and gave him a triple! We read some of the intro with him and committed him to baptism! February 28th!!!! He was super excited to go to church and the Elders Quorum President came to his house and personally invited him to come play basketball with them and offered a ride! He was really looking forward to church, but then that night, he had a stroke-type episode! And he's only 35-ish! So he was in the hospitial :( we are going to see how he's doing and possibly have someone give him a blessing. 

      Later that night, we were walking home. We see a giant cloud of smoke. We thought it was too far to be from our apartments, but as we came closer, we realized it very well could be! We booked it home to find out, it was the house behind us! Smoke everywhere! We asked our District leader if we can spend the night at the other sisters' since we can smell smoke and it was right behind us, but he said no. She that was a fun adventure! 

     We dressed up in Sea Hawk colors at church to hopefully get the members to like us, but hardly anyone noticed... since the Super Bowl started at 3:30, we were in by 3! And we have to wait for the other sisters to get out of church since they are our ride home, so our church started at 8:30 since there are 4 wards in our building and their church gets out at 1:30, so we get home at 2, lunch until 3 and then we have to stay home after that for safety reasons! Crazy! That is just sad how much people worship worldly things these days!

   

   Had my first experience with black ice this morning... We ran out of quarters for our laundry so this morning, we ran to 7-11 to get some change as our work out. The street was all black ice! That was fun to run on... NOT!!!! Well I love you all! Thank you so much for all your love and support! Have a good week and remember Christ always! 

Con amor,

Hermana Rebekah Williams

my district

Another busy week!

Hello from Walla Walla!

       Boy, do I have some stories for you!!! This has been quite the week!

  We share the car with another ward's sister missionaries. We get the car after P-day, Last P-day when we got the car, both of our CD cases were missing! We have no idea what happened to them! The other sisters said they were in the car when they got in the car that morning to pick us up, but when we got it, they were gone! So all of our CDs could be anywhere between our 2 areas. We still have no idea where they are and we are now music-less... :'( 

BUT! we were told by our bishop to go visit the F family. They are a part-member family. They are Polynesian :) it made me feel at home :). It was also super awkward though... The 19 year-old son opened the door, we asked if his mom was home, he said yes so we went in... the mom never came out... So it felt like we were in a house of a bunch of men and super uncomfortable (we have to have at least another woman with us to go in a home of men). But his brother/cousin was there visiting from California. He had A LOT of questions! He seemed pretty interested too! But sadly, he leaves to go back to CA today :( He wouldn't give us his address either so we cant send missionaries over to his house :(

        Friday was a rather interesting day... first off, we had interviews with our mission president at 9 am.  We had a nice little chat about faith... and then he looked at my planner... First of all, it is completely water damaged from when we had to walk in the rain. Then he looked at my plans and numbers and said "Wow! You need to act in faith more!"... We're working on it President... 

 But then! we had a lesson with Dan! He is 57 and is on oxygen and crutches for some reason that we are unsure of. We met him while knocking a week ago and he is so solid! The first lesson we had, he was very difficult and the "show me a sign" type of investigator. This time, his heart was way softened! He was more interested and participating more! He has a hard time reading the print in the Book of Mormon, but he said he would still read it everyday! We read some of the introduction with him then I asked him what it would mean to him if it was true, he said it would mean a lot and he wants to know. Then I said "When you know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds his priesthood authority?"  then he said yes! But then we tried to put him on date but then he was like "No, I will tell you when I want to be baptized" so he's not on date yet :/ Working on it though! And then we had weekly planning... :/ I mean yay...

       We had the most intense dinner on the face of the planet on Saturday! They are in the mountains(aka the middle of nowhere!) we were having a normal conversation and then it somehow comes out that he use to be a stake president and now he teaches seminary. Sister B asked if he likes deep doctrine because we love it. Him and his wife both start laughing, we wondered why, then we had the most mind blowing, 2 hour conversation about the Light of Christ!  It was so intense! He said he learned all about it in DC 88. So I tried to read it.... it was so confusing I understood so little of it! They signed up to have us over for dinner next month, and I am so excited! I told him to write a book :)

       Sunday... Sunday was... fun... we walked for about 2 hours in fog so thick I could barely see past my face just to go to dinner... It was ridiculous! As we were leaving dinner they were like "Where did you park your car?" us: "We walked" them: "From where?" us: "...7-11..."  7-11 is like 4 miles away! them: "oh my gosh I'll give you a ride!" so we had them give us a ride to about half way because we felt bad for making them take us. It was actually pretty fun though! It was an adventure! 

This morning was nuts! We have to pay to do our laundry, but we didn't had enough quarters so now all of our clothes are all over our apartment to dry, we accidentally locked ourselves out of our apartment, and we ran out of soap... Crazy stuff! It's all good though! I have just learned to laugh about it haha. I hope all is well down south and I love you all!

Con amor,

Hermana Rebekah Williams  

Walla Walla is a little weird

Hello from Walla Walla!!

        This week has been... weird! I think Walla Walla is my favorite area though! Even though pretty much everyone here is weird but that makes it enjoyable! Everyone here dresses like they are in the 70's still with turtle necks, perms, and such but oh well! I love my bishop so much! He is so funny! He works at a retirement home and he was telling us about how he dresses up as an old lady and tries to see how long it takes his employees to notice haha. Oh Bishop G... We had dinner with the G's on Tuesday. We made them cupcakes :) We got a text a couple hours later from him that said: "Yum the cupcakes was sssooo good! I ate the whole thing! It tickled my taste buds and tummy because it was filled with so much love!! Also, Sister Williams, will you give a talk on Sunday?"... That sneaky man! Then we got another one the next morning that was like 5 pages long! I love that man!

       On Thursday we had exchanges! So I went to Oregon! AND!!!! I got to use some Spanish!!!!! Gas here is like the cheapest I have ever seen! In WA, it's like $2.30 and in OR its like $2.20... what the heck? Gas was like $4 when I left! But I was in Pendleton and it was like I was in the middle of nowhere! But hey! I'm happy I got to use some espanol! 

       Friday... Friday was an interesting day! It rained all day. So we walked in the rain... all day... Its ok though! We had an older couple come with us to a lesson (who, of course, was not home...) but they felt bad for how dripping wet we were so they took us to their house for some hot chocolate :) and then we had to go back out and walk forever... Brother S signed up to feed us that day, but we couldn't come over because he is a single man and his daughter is only 15. So he met us at 7-11 to give us our dinner. He felt so bad! He was like "I'm going to call your mission president right now to ask permission to give you a ride home!" He didn't have his number or I totally believe he would! He bought us Panda Express so it was all good! It was actually kinda fun!

      Nothing like after you give a talk in church your less active comes up to you and says "Were you nervous? You seemed nervous!" and then at the very last second, the Gospel Principles teacher leaves so you have to teach the lesson and then afterwards he comes up to you again and says "You know we are all brothers and sisters right? So stop being nervous!" and then like 3 other people approach you! This is why I don't like giving talks in church... that and my talks always suck...

       Sunday was just weird! After church, we had a lesson with our returning less active... instead... he told us all his marital problems and how he cheated on his wife and blah blah blah blah... Nothing like counseling a 31 year old man on marriage advice... then in the middle of it,  K-Mart announced over the intercom that the Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl and then everyone started blasting off fire works and then everyone came outside blasting air horns, running around with no shirts on and their chest and faces painted, zipping down the streets and flags, and such. And NO ONE would talk to us! The couple who did... turns out, they are already members! Not even the homeless man would talk! But then after dinner... everyone left... It gets dark at like 4:30 so it was like pitch black and no one was home or on the streets. We both had a creepy feeling all night like we were being watched. We knew we were going to be ok and nothing bad would happen, but it just felt weird. Neither one of us was able to sleep last night so we are both exhausted/delusional. Its all good though! We know the Lord protects his missionaries! 

       I have been thinking a lot about the pre-earth life lately! So I read the Bible Dictionary about it (War in Heaven is SSSOOO cool!) and then I remembered something. Since we are all here on Earth, we all accepted God's plan for us. Even all those who are not making good choices still agreed. Yes, they still have their agency, but my job is to help them remember that they accepted it! They are all my brothers and sisters and it's my job to help them! Hope you all had a great week and your week is great! MAKE IT GREAT!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Rebekah Williams

This is the area map for the Walla Walla wards.  I am in the 1st Ward and our area is gigantic!