hi and goodbye

So Imma keep this short because I'm too lazy to write one. 

VOICE RECORDER TIME! hope it works! (: if not. sorry!! 

ABILENE YA DIG?

WADDUP!

How is everyone!? Good I hope? (;

Abilene is probably my 2nd favorite place in Kansas next to Hiawatha. So many people here are super sweet that they feel bad enough for us to give us water! What great Samaritans they are- and we don't even ask! lol This week went pretty fast for me-

We were out seeing some less active recent converts- they are die hard softball people and everyone knows how I feel about softball...its the worst! So I dropped my bag and their daughter that is 10 played catch with me for like 10 mins! it was amazing. I was so happy. The cool thing that her mom was telling us was that Takiya has been telling her team about how cool the missionaries are! :D However they weren't able to come to church because they had softball and it turned out the Takiya developed Bronchitis during her games and had to go to the hospital. Her mom told us that she is convinced that she is pitching in their game tonight. haha such a good kid. The Weavers- they are also a part member family who are probably one of my favorite families here in Kansas. Brother Weaver has been less active since he was 18- he reminds me of the prodigal son a little bit. They have only came in contact with the missionaries by pure MIRACLE. His non member wife, never before ever  could point out a missionary, but when it came to serious matters she said that they just stood out and she went to them and they changed their life. Now they are feeding us every Tuesday and Thursday and we are finally getting able to share little messages with them! Brother Weaver has such a strong spirit about him, it was awesome to hear his testimony about the Atonement. A lot of his family are still strong members in the church.

Zone Training was in Hays KANSAS- talk about road trip! I love them though so it was okay. Zone Training was great, learned a lot about this new planner app and area book app that seriously takes forever to update and input information. Ugh, when its all done with it will be super effective- its just that I don't wanna do it.. lol dangit. #lazy

CHURCH was super great! we had 2 people come, Lupe and Dakota! So Dakota is living is awful conditions and his gaurdians wont let him be baptized because they hate Mormons yada yada. Well, from lots of prayers and fasting( Dakota has been fasting for like a week straight- he wants to be baptized soo bad) Their hearts have softened! they said that he could convert. :D! YESSS!!! OMG- so I was running through the halls trying to catch him and he is now on date for the 25th! He was almost in tears- So its not set in stone but it will be. He is sooo solid. We are all soo excited for him. (: After church we went to the Smiths and had waffles for lunch- super yummy! lots of whipped cream yo! (: Funny story- the Zone Leaders and our District leader all have been taking laxatives so they were constantly in the bathroom, then they complain about how dumb they were. haha love them. Funny story right? Well you have to be here. BUT The church is so true- I love this gospel! There are so many opportunities to do Gods work, and when we do them that's when they become MIRACLES!! (:

So yeah, life has been great and Abilene is awesome. I love Sister Palmer she is really great- same with my district! Everyone here in Salina is AWESOME!  Its really hot on the other hand... but its still great! (:

Scripture of the Day: Hebrews 12:1-3 with 2 Nephi 4:17-19: "And I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted"

Have a GREAT week! Stay cool.

<3Sister Williams

-we did lots of service-hence the sweaty looking picture

-city of Abilene- that's from today!

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