Fwd: Howdy from Hiawatha!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Savannah Williams <savannah.williams@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 10:33 AM
Subject: Howdy from Hiawatha!
To: Mom <bryceshauna70@msn.com>, Dad <bryce22will@yahoo.com>, Jennie Moore <Jennie.moore.07@gmail.com>, Mallory Goulding <coloradomal31@gmail.com>, Michaela Ronstadt <michaela_ronstadt@aol.com>, willchar1106@gmail.com

Family!!!!!!! Holy cow its been the coolest experience so far! So I arrived in Wichita late on Wednesday, met our mission president and wife and the AP's. They.are.so.cool!! I was starving when I got there because I forgot to eat and didn't want to throw up on the plane to Dallas and Kansas. But I survived and here I am in a little village called Hiawatha Kansas. Its 15 mins from the Nebraska border, about 3000 people live here..so its tiny. Our ward consists of people from all over like Seneca to Everest even Sabetha which is about 30 mins away. So our ward is REAL small, its a branch- so we're trying to reactivate and invite investigators to church. quite interesting, first day here My comp and I stopped in Whiting, to visit a progressing investigator who is NOW as of yesterday on date to be baptized on Nov.15th! Holla! He struggles with Word of Wisdom also but I have faith. (: While we were in Whiting we did some tracting and met a woman named Michelle. She invited us in right away and we talked for over an hour and a half...oops! haha

But she is incredible- she was raised as a Greek Orthodox, she was a Marine and now she teaches at the Baptist church. She believes in the will of God so much and forgiveness. She told us story after story about her life. ALL AMAZING. One story was of how she was in Iraq and was a sniper- unfortunately she was shot in the head. yea. But by the grace of God and his will he saved her. She could of been paralyzed, have many heath issues but she's active and smart and sassy! We love her, so we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and asked her to pray to know if its true. AND if it was, we asked her to be baptized. She said, "if it's Gods will, then yes" SO! I called her on Saturday to check up on her and asked how her reading was going. She's already read close to half of it.. In 2 days. AWESOME!!!! We meet with her tomorrow, I'm super excited. Then Yesterday was also amazing, Church was great, the members are super nice and we also had a few investigators and Less actives there. BOMB. Then that night we went to Topeka for a Missionary Devo- we brought a new convert to it and she bore her testimony about the gospel and how its totally changed her life. It was incredible, another man got up who was a Southern Baptist bore his and I wanted to jump up and give him the biggest hug ever. The spirit was soooooo strong last night I can't even describe it. But a missionary said, "the Spirit of God can't be expressed, but felt" The many times we do have spiritual experiences are so personal to us and should be kept that way. For they are either for our progression, edification or correction. But if prompted- DO SHARE! like last night, my mind was blown. Best moment of my mission thus far.

My companion sings.... you guys. Do you know what this means!!!!!! :) :) :)

We've sang ever since I've been here. She plays the ukulele and so when we go contacting or proselyting we sing! 

We are writing a song about missionary work and its pretty cute. LOVE IT. Tonight we have dinner at our senior sisters and can I just say that they are the most unique companionship I've ever seen. It seems like they wanna kill eachother but then they love each other. I don't understand it at all! Their names are Sisters Chapman and Murphy. Sister Chapman is like our Fairy God mother off of Cinderella with a crazy, funny, view on life. She's soooo sweet and kind. slightly sarcastic at times....I thought I was bad but then with her you just don't know till she tells you "im just kidding." HAAA... yeahhh okay.

Sister Murphy is from Cali and is like grandma missionary version of Barbie. HAHA.

Seriously no joke there. She's soo funny, she's also a psychologist- so we have to be careful of what we say around her.. she analyzes EVERYTHING. So I've heard. haha

Our district leader is awesome, he also sings and plays the guitar.

But, over all its been a good almost week- I love it here and i'm growing. I just wanna baptize everyone and be everyone best friend. But its not like that.. bummer. Its really depressing when you are told not to come back anymore from investigators. BUT we still go back haha. They'll never get rid of us-- till they threaten to kill us then we're like "WE GONE!"

Quite a few people are missing teeth and have funny accents- I never thought people had teeth like the fake teeth you buy for Halloween.. but actually they do. ha real neat.

Apparrently Halloween is a HUGE celebration here in Hiawatha and its a 2 day party. So we cant be here those nights- DARN. Still excited though!

I was also asked to be the pianist in our little Primary program, and then I talk this Sunday. I love being the new missionary. (that's sarcasm)

BUT I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! My testimony has grown, my relationship with God has never been this close ever and I'm so blessed to be where I am right now. I know that God does watch over His children and send angels to protect us. I really miss seeing my old district though, they were my other family and something we did after prayer as a district we had a cheer! "FAMILIES FOREVER". They all loved it- probably not as much as me.

 I just want to thank you all for being such amazing examples to me and supporting me. I'm being so serious- after seeing what the gospel has done for the many converts lastnight at Devo made me realize how awesome I've had it in my life. Thankyou MOM AND DAD! For loving me when I didn't think I could be loved. This gospel is so true, praying to our Father in Heaven everyday, all the time has blessed me in ways I didn't see possible. I didn't know I would see miracles everyday, BUT I DO. When things don't go as planned and when people are rude, that gives me more of a reason to try harder. I've been working on having more charity and love. Its not easy- but I am a better person everyday. "Missionary work has never been easy because, SALVATION IS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE!" -Elder Holland. Why would we expect it to be easy for us, when it was definitely not easy for Him!?

Family and Friends, I love you so much, I think about you all and talk about you all the time. You are my greatest examples and have given me so much to look up to. I would challenge you all to come closer to our Father in Heaven, to build our patience with one another and to have the same faith that Christ has in us. Elder Bednar said that we are our first convert and that if all we have is our testimony, THATS NOT ENOUGH! Act on it, be truly converted. I didn't realize that till the MTC, and let me tell you I felt embarrassed. Yeah I said I knew what I believed, but I never acted. Faith is an action word- to build it we must work on it.

I know that because of him there are second chances, because of the Atonement.

Everyone be safe and be good examples. LOVE one another. Its possible.

Hope you all have a great week, and I want to hear about how your building your Charity. (:

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

 

Sister Vannah Williams