ABILENE

Hola Familia!

How is everyone doing? Hope that yall had a great 4th of July and that you ate lots of BBQ. yumm. 

The 4th here is a lot different from what I'm used to, because no one knows how to do it right. Lots of them were blowing off fireworks during the day? like what the heck? haha that's not how you do it. We had a party in Salina with the Maupin family who are recent converts of about year! We had burgers and hot dogs... salads and lots of flies! they were taking over like crazy then add the humidity. It was great. (: 

We went and saw lots of members and walked around, but the town was seriously empty. So we kept working and we did find people to talk to- #success

While we were out and about we met this family! the dad was outside smoking and his two boys who are twins were blowing up fireworks and so we stopped to talk and we did for about 10 mins! The boys were asking what is a missionary and about church. How they knew that they should go to church every Sunday but they don't. Darold, the dad, said that us showing up at the moment was an answer to a prayer-apparently things have been pretty hard. So we have an appointment with him this Saturday! I'm really excited to get things rolling here in Abilene. There is this boy named Dakota who wants to get baptized but he cant until he's 18 due to guardian issues. But he is awesome, he loves coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon! He's already in Alma. (: 

Sunday was good, lots of awesome testimonies were shared. Salina is a great ward to be serving in. Everyone is awesome. After Relief Society one of our little sisters (she is a inactive who is starting to come back) and she came up to us after class and was like..  " So I was thinking about what I need to do to go on a mission." and we were like WHAT! OMG!- but don't worry I was composed. (: So we are pretty excited for her! They are a convert family and they are gonna be active again! (: 

 My birthday was peachy- the amazing Zone Leaders gave Chocolate Flan. and it was sooo good. they gave me man sizes and i ate the whole thing... #noregrets. 

But Its been a really good week! We have had people text us that they want to meet with us and so things are starting to happen! People are finally getting used to having sisters here in Abilene! "bout time!" :)

Well- thankyou for all the birthday wishes and cards! It really made my day that much better! (: I am grateful for awesome people like you in my life and having so much support constantly. For your spirituality-"To exercise faith is to trust that the Lord knows what Heis doing with you and that He can accomplish it for youreternal good even though you cannot understand howHe can possibly do it. We are like infants in ourunderstanding of eternal matters and their impact onus here in mortality. Yet at times we act as if we knew itall. When you pass through trials for His purposes, asyou trust Him, exercise faith in Him, He will help you.That support will generally come step by step, a portionat a time. While you are passing through each phase,the pain and difficulty that comes from being enlargedwill continue. If all matters were immediately resolvedat your first petition, you could not grow. Your Father inHeaven and His Beloved Son love you perfectly. Theywould not require you to experience a moment more ofdifficulty than is absolutely needed for your personalbenefit or for that of those you love.

The Church is still true and I still love being a missionary!! I love everyone so much and I'm super excited to keep building up God's Kingdom on the Earth!

Have a great  WEEK!!!

<3Sister Williams

pictures!

some 4th of July pictures! 

Abilene

Waking up in Abilene!

Good Morning!

How is everyone? Well transfers happened and I am no longer in Wichita! (finally) It was a bittersweet moment, a lot of people were asking me if I was sad to leave and I really didn't know how to tell them no without making it sound like I hated it. So I just told them it was bittersweet. haha. But I am no companions with the amazing Sister Palmer who is from SLC. She is 23 and is so much fun! We are both opening an area for Sisters called Abilene which is a lot like Hiawatha. But I think Abilene is bigger. Everyone is very friendly and the ward which is in Salina is AMAZING! In the past year they have had 55 baptisms and all of them are still active! I couldn't even tell they were converts because of their testimony of the gospel! We had a lot of people come up to us and introduce themselves, and when we told them that we were living in Abilene they were so excited to have sisters! so that made us feel really good! (:
Its about a 30 minute drive to church and we go to Salina like 4 times a week for meetings and other good stuff!

We have 3 people on date for July 18th, and then yesterday after church the Bishop, who is SO COOL, came up to us and told us that this kid wants to get baptized! WHAAA? Miracle!? His name is Dakota and we met him on Thursday at the Browns house for dinner. He's had a rough past, both his parents passed away due to cancer and now he lives with his "guardians" who are devout, ignorant Catholics. He's like the after thought, which is really sad but he has awesome support from the Browns who are also another cool family. So were gonna start teaching him and go from there. But he's what you would call "Golden". (:

We also met this little lady named Kayla, who let us right in and we were able to invite her to be baptized and she said yes! She is coming to church this sunday and is going to bring her 2 granddaughters! She was telling us that she has watched "Sister Wives" and other shows about Mormons- but we cleared that misconception real fast. But she's really nice! As we were sitting there a cockroach crawled past my foot... and I didn't freak out! but it was gross.. haha

We taught 3 guys in the Library and read from the Book of Mormon, they were so funny, Mike Ernie and Justin. Ernie is probably the one of the more interesting people I've met, he's just OUT THERE. But Mike is cool and keeps them in line. (:

Other than that, the week turned out really good! Its been HOT and humid- but we have seen lots of tender mercies and miracles this week! We even hit standard in 4 days.. SO that was cool! for me anyway. haha

Well I hope you all are enjoying your summer! Can't believe June is almost over! But I'm super stoked for the 4th of July! WOOH! I'm so blessed to be in Abilene and serve here for the next few months or even the year! crazy to think that right? But I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of us and knows what is best! His plan for all of us is perfect. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I've received from being on a mission and from other companions who have taught me so much. I love you all so much! I think you're awesome!  Keep on keeping on! (:

 

<3Sister Williams

heyy!

Hey everyone! sorry I didn't get to email last week- we had a super awesome p-day in Newton with our zone which was kinda messy. We had a chalk war! really crazy and I had sooo much chalk in my hair, my mouth and everywhere else that I didn't know what to do with myself!

I really hate how I can't remember anything really exciting-

I went on exchanges with Sister Seigfried and it was AMAZING! We were walking to their investigators house and there was this guy sitting outside on his porch- so we were walking up to him and he was like "I know you who ya'll are, you're mormons." ha "yeah!"  But he kept asking up questions about the Book of Mormon and he was excited to have one- then his granddaughter was like, "can I come to church?" and we told her "no, sorry" HA just kidding we were like YEA!! and she was really excited too. We met tons of people who took BOMs and invites to church. It was a really neat experience. Its cool, when you expect good things from people, that's usually what you get! and we did get good things! 

Sunday was a nerve racking time because we were asked to give talks in sacrament meeting and I was like.. I can't write a talk.. my grandma, mom and aunt all helped me write my farewell talk.. this is going to be really interesting.. haha so with lots of prayer and slight anxiety of getting informed that Sister Blood and I were the only speakers.. and that our mission president and his wife were attending I was about to pass out or throw up. I don't think I've ever been that nervous since Jr.Miss. But it all turned out great! I had many members come up to me after and give compliments. Its was a nice relief.. 

We also found Mallory and Daren! They are sooo cool, and are now investigating! we had met them a week earlier and so we went back to see them. (they told us to try and catch them because they are usually really busy) And when we went back they let us right in and we were able to testify and the spirit was so strong that Mallory was in tears. It was awesome. 

Other than that, its all been a really good week. We are having Zone Conference tomorrow and are geting Ipads! CRAZY. Also, I have been asked to give a musical number- so I'm pretty excited and really nervous. Anyway! Thanks for all the love, it really means so much to me! Hope you all are having a great day as well! Hope to hear from ya'll soon! "In the service of the Lord it's not where you serve, but HOW"- Elder Dube

LOVE YA~

-Sister WIlliams

monday in WICHITA.

Okay so this week went by seriously too fast. So I made a list of things I would write about because I knew I would forget. ha. I'm so smart. 

So I went on EXCHANGES with Sister Delos Santos and it was the best! So many miracles that went on. We were contacting potentials and as we were walking to the door a guy was already outside smoking and we said hi and the next thing you know we are in their house talking about the Book of Mormon. They are catholic but willing to learn more- it was pretty sweet. Then we met Charles! We had the uke on us and his niece and nephews were out - it was so sweet because out of no where one of his nieces gave me a hug and told me I was pretty. I was like "oh! thankyou!" We sang "I am a child of God"- came back the next day and Charles took a Book of Mormon and is coming to a church tour. As well as a lot of his nieces and nephews. They were soo excited, that they pinky promised to read it. 

We had interviews with PRESIDENT BELL! I love that man. he is the best. 

Had a long training on having visions for our mission and to be passionate! I thought it was very helpful and inspiring- It was all encompassed by the Atonement. #goodstuff

I made a promise- for the rest of my mission that I wouldn't wear makeup. and its been a really neat experience, so far no mirrors have shattered and people still talk to us! I don't have a real reason as to what made me do it, but that I felt like I needed to. 

Aide is so amazing, here is why. So yesterday she came to church. We sang in sacrament meeting by the way. ha. She went to class by herself and did'n't want us to be there. (so grown up!) haha Then she went to YW and guess what she did! She volunteered to say the CLOSING PRAYER! I was in shock as well as all the YW. I seriously couldn't get over it. haha but then we had dinner at our Senior Sisters apartment and she ran off to the "bathroom" #noshedidn't comes back out after she makes us close our eyes and she gives us both GIFTS! I was like what is going on... She opened up so much.. well I heard about it after. because while all the amazing things were going on I was sick in the bathroom forever. So that was cool. Anyway. haha 

Sister Calder was like, "So what you're saying is that I poisoned you with my food?" haha uhmmm no. 

Other fun things!

-I am singing in the missionary choir this Saturday for a mission wide conference

-Sister Blood and I had a little concert for all the black children in the neighborhood- they seriously aren't afraid of anyone.. well I guess we are white girls.. and missionaries. haha I guess it makes sense. They were so funny, they all had a turn to play the ukulele and sang what ever rap song they wanted. Then we had to leave and they were  like NOO!! You're never coming back?? and we were like watch for us next time okay? and they were better after that.. till they chased us down and begged us to take them with us. Man it was interesting. 

However, through it all- I am loving my mission. Its definitely been one I'll remember forever. I have felt the love of God so much these past few weeks than ever before. Courage is something that I am constantly holding on to, "Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but also as the determination to live decently." There is opposition all the time, I see alot of if here but that's okay because I know what is right and TRUE. . So! May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are NEVER alone when we stand with our father in Heaven. (:

I love you all!! Talk to all soon..

<3 Sister Savannah Williams

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DERBY ZONE!

hola mi familia! 

so like this week was probably the best week I've had since February and being in andover.. like we hit standard? ha WHAT! yeah, sister brown has never hit standard since being on her mission. She thought missionaries didn't hit standard- I might have been really confused when she said that. BUT the STL's were about in tears and we got calls from the Zone Leaders congratulating us. We're kind of a big deal apparently.. haha jk. We were/are a dysfunctional companionship and everyone just knew about it. However, its been a very long, humbling journey. 

I think it was Thursday that it was nice.. anyway. we were early to our dinner and so we went out walking around talking to people. There was this guy out shining his car, and so we went over and started talking to him. The church has come out with a new Easter video which is super bomb, and we asked him if we could show it to him. He said tomorrow come by after 12 and my family will be here and they would be interested in our message too. We're like SWEET! We came back the next day, showed him the video, liked it and said that he had met missionaries over 20 years ago and loved studying with them. Then he had to move abruptly and lost contact with them, he also said that he would love to be our guest at church this Sunday! He has been wanting to find a church to call home and then the next day we showed up. (: He was curious as to HOW we found him... #spirit  It was probably the best thing that happened that whole day. Other than our dinner appointment was quite interesting.. We went out to a Thai restaurant and it took 2 hours long.. ohh mann... talk about not missing being a waitress. I felt the waiters pain since he was the only one there and having 5 different tables.. #struggleisreal 

The food was good though! haha

Our cars now have TIWI's.. it monitors how we drive and talks to you when you're being "crazy" or "speeding" Its only talked to me like 3 times.. haha it was amusing. 

Wichita is great, we met this black family who was outside grilling, and so we went and showed them the "Because He Lives" video on our cute little DVD player. They really liked it, Wilma called me baby whenever we talked to her. haha LOVE IT. and then she referred us to her daughter! SWEET. Went back the next day because the first time we went over she was taking a nap.. but we went back and showed the video- she also liked it. Became curious about the Book of Mormon, asked us questions about the church. Said she would be interested in reading and coming to church! HOLLA! They are an awesome bunch! #mypeople 

Anyway! I have to make this short...er.. but I love you all like CRAZY! My new favorite scripture is in Helaman 10:4-5. It talks about Nephi and his unwearyingness to declare the gospel and the Lord promises him "I will bless thee forever, I will make thee mighty in word, deed, faith, and works." I'm continually striving for those blessing and making a difference in Wichita by sharing the gospel! I'm grateful to be a member of Christ's church and to be a missionary at this time! Its been the best almost 6 months ever! wouldn't change anything!

Awesome! well I love ya! talk to you later! 

<3Sisterwilliams! 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.