Jan. 7, 2013

This last week was a good one. We didn't have the fall-through issues we had the previous week, and so we had a bit more success. We had a father who has been less active for a while at church on Sunday, so that was very nice to see. On saturday, we had a fun time proselyting in the rain, and then having 3 tag-along member kids with us for the next hour as we struggled, fruitlessly, to find a house of a referral we had contacted. Oh how I miss organized house addresses! But nonetheless it was a fun time =P this is missionary work! walking around in soaking wet shoes, socks, pants with a 4 year old on your shoulders inviting people to church and asking for directions to a nonexistent house!

So, on my birthday, yup, you guessed it! We went to a steak house! It was practically american (the silver spur), and right before we got our food, my comp went up to the counter. When he came back he said "yup, it's american". Elder Hansen was surprised. I was oblivious. What was it that made them american? IDK. They continued talking about it, and then it hit me. "You told them it was my birthday, didn't you?" my comp asked what I meant, but I KNEW! and sure enough, after we order our milkshakes, this loud noise starts in the back. Suddenly, a group of employees comes over with a lit sparkler in a bowl of Ice-cream singing a crazy cool birthday song I had never heard before! I did not, however, record it. On the bright side, Elder Hansen's birthday is feb 9, so we will go back and I will record it then. We started teaching a new family this week, and we are hoping that it will go somewhere. One of the moms there has cancer and is not doing too hot, and we gave her a blessing (at her request), but there was no promise of recovery. It was for peace and comfort. We are going to be baptizing a family this weekend (jan 12) and so we are excited, and so are they.

 

love you all tons! keep on keepin on.

~Elder Williams

Christmas 2012

Fah! lahlala fah lalala Ding Dong Ring Rong Fing Fong Sing Song malalalalalala merry christmas! farararararararara merry christmas. . . DING, RONG FING, SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yup
It is that time of the year
to top it off! the world is over!
oh wait? it isn't? what is this? the mayans apparently didn't predict the end of the world. . . big surprise. . . =(

well, it's ok, because it is CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

This just in! This last week was a good one! we had an investigator we haven't been able to see for a week or so and were ready to drop him if he didn't come to church saturday morning comes around, and we set him as an appointment around 3. We got a call from a random number that didn't respond upon call back at around 8am that morning. Turns out, it was him. We get to his house, and he says "Oh good! you came. Rumbidzai (the other person we found him through) is waiting for us". Now, we are like "what? how did he know we were coming?" so, Rumbidzai apparently still wasn't interested, but we were able to hep him out, and he was at church on sunday!

For those of you who remember my attempted farewell talk (the one that was supposed to be 10 minutes and was like 5) and how I really hate speaking. . . Well, last week I was approached by our bishop and was asked to give a talk. I said sure, and got the topic: The atonement of Christ. I prepared the talk mostly by just thinking about the atonement, and picking about 2-3 scriptures about different sections.

Might I say, when I got there and there were 3 speakers including me, and the other 2 only ysa/youth aged, I was sure my talk would be longer than the 10 min I was told originaly. I was approached by a member of the bishopric and he (a powerful RM, Brother Tadokera) told me sorry, but my talk would need to be about 25 minutes. I felt prepared, however. When the time came, I was ready. My talk started with the allusion between sin and leprosy (using the story from mark 1:40-42 about the leper being cleansed) and moved into how the atonement helps us in our lives, what it entailed, what we need to do etc. I was doing well, when brother tadokera put a note on the pulpit saying I could cut at 10:55 (I started at about 10:40) because they had another speaker show up. So, around that time I wound down, even though I could have kept going with the subject. I really enjoyed it and it showed me what happens when you really rely on the Lord for assistance rather than relying 'on the arm of flesh'.

Good times. Also, we have a family, the dhomingo's, who are preparing for baptism on jan 12, and we are excited for them! they are doing well and are loving the gospel so far.

Anywho, things are well this side, and we are having one of the senior couples in the mission over for FHE tonight! it is going to be great, and we prepared Cajun Chicken, so it will be delish!


love you all, have a merry christmas, and I will talk to you again once I am 21!
~Witchdoctor Williams


-- 
Remember: Pray always, and look to the Lord. Write often, and live life to it's fullest.

Doubt is the seed of failure. ~Taggart Williams

Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. ~God (D+C 6:36)

happy birthday!

Well, hello there everyone. That's right! One year older and much wiser too! 2nd birthday on Mission and can I say, Boy HOWDY! have I changed a lot since then.

This Christmas was fun! I am including a picture here from Christmas eve dinner with the Benich's.
The other picture is at a member's house just yesterday. Her birthday was saturday and mine was today, so she and her husband (both RM's) invited us over for dinner on sunday. That is their son cutting his 7months of age cake. It is cool when I can meet a baby who was born AFTER I got to zim. . . now it will be weird when I meet babies that were conceived after I was in Zim. . . weird thought. ANYWAY!

This week was kinda crazy. On monday, I got to talk to my family. It was great to see them, and apparently I have an accent! I wonder what it sounds like. We also had the benich's over for a nice cajun chicken dinner, which was powerful. We also had some icecream and some brownies, and that was awesome!

Christmas morning, we all got to open up 3 presents. We had gotten each other gifts prior to this and so we all had christmas presents! I also had a package from grandma, and elder hansen had a package which had the P90x workout videos. We got them approved and now our daily excercise has taken a step up to the extreme! And it is powerful! I am really loving it. For sure going to get P90x when I get home. . . cool stuff yo.

On tuesday, my comp talked to his family (our ingenious plan didn't work out so we still came to town on tuesday). Prior to that, we went and spent some time at President Cooks house. His wife had prepared some nice snacks and we went and relaxed for a few hours. So, overall it was a nice relaxing and fun day!

We followed up on the week by having about 300 fallthroughs, and by mostly making up for it on saturday and sunday.

Questions
Grandma
Did you go to the mission home for Christmas dinner?
Ish. Well, more of snacks

Do they feed you American food?
No, just desserts
So your mission will be extended a bit. Will you still be home for Thanksgiving 2013?
It will only be extended 2 weeks. I will probably be done in october still.
MomTell me what your favorite time of day is there and why. For instance I like the sunsets on a winter night as it just goes so quickly and before you even register the moment, it is dark.
Well, the only thing I heard about africa before mission that is true (at least that comes to mind) is how FETCHING POWERFUL the african sunset is. Oh My Gosh! I have tried to capture it on my camera but it just can't do it justice. It is beautiful. My favorite time is probably dusk, though, just because I like the clouds in the sky. Especially when there is thunder and Lightning!
Do you eat with members often and when people make appointments with you do they try for after dinners or mornings etc.?
Here in Kuwadzana, yes. Due to the way our areas are, we usually eat after we get home (around 9:00) if we didn't get dinner in the area. However, here we usually do. In such cases we just have the Dinner as our last appointment of the day, when it is difficult to get other appointments anyway. Here, we also get some lunch appointments most days as well. It is kinda really nice. 
Do any of the missionary couples have a blog or website?  If so can you get it so that I might be able to see more of what the mission is like?

I have no idea. I will look for it for you.


Love you all so much!
Keep on staying away from Zombies and having lots of winter fun!
~Elder Williams
-- 

Ideas for gifts...

dream book ( a good one)
essential oils
herbal tea
reses peanut butter cups
peppermint patties
pass out cards for investigators.
gently uses ties to give to new members

Another family friends and family send or bring their missionary ties. They wrote a small message inside their tie at the widest part. A hug around a missionaries neck from someone who loves him.

Don't talk about when he comes home
batteries
music of Enya, Mo. Tab.
photos
shoe inserts for padding while walking long distances
homemade letters and cards

Dec. 3 2012 always listen...

Well, if it isn't little jimmy! oh wait! it isn't little jimmy! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, well, the first news of the week is this: I WAS ROBBED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha jk. . . well kinda. I was pick-pocketed on monday though. . . he got my wallet. So, here is the story! 

I have no money in my wallet. We are on our way to town via combi to head home, and so I pull my last allotment 20 out of my WHB to break it. Upon doing so, I get my change back ($18). 5 of this is allotment, the other 13 was borrowed from personal. My first thought is that I should put the 13 back in my WHB with the rest of my personal funds. Upon receiving the 5, I promptly offer it to my companion. I didn't know why, it just seemed right. He asked me why, and I said i didn't know. He said "you can just hold onto it in case you want a drink, not that it matters though, cuz we are always next to each other!". I laugh and put the 5 in my wallet. I then look at the 13, and decide to put it in my wallet as well.  
fast forward about 30 minutes. We are all trying to get a combi, and Elder Hansen, standing next to me, puts his hand to his pocket, and his wallet dropped back into his pocket. He looks behind him and sees a guy, and looks at me, and my hand is in my pocket just near him. He thinks it was me. Later, we get off the combi, I feel for my wallet, and Apana. gone nothing. We check in the combi, and elder hansen relates his experience and how he thought it was me. So, yea. my wallet is gone, but if I had listened a bit closer to the spirit, the guy woulda got no cash =P well, no harm done. Life moves on!

paraphrasing Hugh nibley quoting brigham young, "If God has allowed our enemies to triumph over us for a time, then we should accept that defeat with glad hearts and a happy countenance." 

So, to folllow that up, we had a cool week. Christmas party, as well as a reactivation activity; we had fun this week and had lots of dinner appointments. Good week! 

Other than that, we had what was possibly an evil spirit in the house, so the next we talked about it, and dedicated the house. Fun stuff! 
Then, we got locked in a room and the key wouldn't work (being that it wasn't the correct key, but worked sometimes) 
so, we were stuck! we tried kicking the lock area to loosen the bolt. . . but to no avail
We tried prying apart half of the door to pull out the bolt. . . to no avail
SOO. we kicked down the door, broke it off the hinges, and to show we were civilized men, burned the door. . . and our old toilet (ceramic) so. . . that was fun! the best part? I have videos of the whole thing! so When I am home, we will be able to watch them!

yup. and can I say, burning ceramic toilets is KEWL!

Well, I love you all, and will see y'all next week! cool beans eh?
oh yea!

Questions
Grandma
What kind of preparations do people make there for Christmas?  Do they do the Santa Claus thing?
Not a whole lot outside of town. In Harare town, there are some stores with lights and stuff, but other than that, most places people just ask you for a christmas box.Do they do Christmas music and is some the same as ours?
Not really, just a lot of Gospel.

Well, now it is goodbye for realz! love Yinz! (haha take that elder reese)
-- 
Remember: Pray always, and look to the Lord. Write often, and live life to it's fullest.

Doubt is the seed of failure. ~Taggart Williams

Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. ~God (D+C 6:36)

week before Thanksgiving...

Hello everybody and good morning USA! and everyone else as well!

In my new house, here in Kuwadzana, Harare, we have Myself (Elder Witchdoctor Williams), My companion (Elder Wyler), Elder Hansen, and Elder Tuai (pronounced Duwai). We have been having lots of fun, and this week, for 2 days in a row there was a power problem and so we had no power for those days (luckily my comp and I get DA's and LA's like almost everyday) but we got home on Wednesday, nice and full, for the first night without power. So, what did we do? We did what was natural. We played hide and seek in the pitch black! It was powerful. I was it first, and I grabbed a cushion and used it as my hand and felt around the entire house, every inch, poking for people. My plan backfired because I poked Elder tuai in the face with the cushion like 5 times and didn't realize it wasn't a wall. At one point, I reached towards him and he lifted himself up so that I felt under him, but couldn't see him due to literally no light. It was crazy. I checked the whole house and had only found my comp, and was really confused, because I had checked every inch. Turned out I had also jabbed elder Hansen in a nearly not so nice place but I found them eventually. We continued to play for another hour and then went to bed, but MAN! It was fun!

We also have been playing a lot of chess this week! All 4 of us like to play, so we have too much fun at the end of the day. 

In the area, we have some really cool people that we are teaching. I will just talk about one of them right now: Sister Katsande. Her husband and older son were just recently baptized, and she and her younger son are both investigating the church. We taught her a very powerful restoration lesson on tuesday (she has been mostly not serious before) but she really showed that she wanted to know that our message is true. She is now reading from the book of mormon and praying each day. She is looking towards being baptized on december 8th so we'll see how that goes down.

This weekend we also had stake conference, which consisted mostly of an are broadcast for the Africa south-east area. It was really cool, but my companion and I didn't hear about half of it. We were in charge of ushering for the primary room. The primary room consisted of about 100ish children of age 2-12, all of whom don't want to sit still, stay quiet, and also want to go to the bathroom or go get a drink every 2 minutes. We had to make sure that there was some semblance of order, and let me tell you, it was not easy. But, all is said and done! so, uhh yea. 

love you all tons! don't forget to sleep longer than an elf, and to eat more than a moth, as well as churning enough butter for a braii. 
~Elder Williams

thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving was great this time around! We had a nice semi feast that was pretty good. Mashed potatoes and chicken, and it tasted nice. Well, this week FLEW by! oh my gosh! we had a baptism this weekend, and Mildret was quite ready for it. She was ready before I came, so I don't know her very well, but she is going to be a powerful new convert to the church.

 

In other news, the coolest thing that happened this week was at the end of our sunday night. The last appointment before dinner (last appointment of the night) fell through, and so we decided to drop those investigators, (they hadn't been to church now for 2 weeks and have missed the last few appointments) and now we needed a new father-led family. I said a quick prayer in my heart, and we decided to go to a street accross from some members to teach a lesson. We got to the start of the street, and I looked out at it and said to my comp and the Ward missionary, "guys, somewhere on this street is a father-led family that we are going to baptize by the end of January. Let's go find 'em!". So we set out and I felt pulled to one of the first houses. We knocked on the gate, and went and found the father (who, against odds, was there), and introduced ourselves. We went to his home (next door) and  taught about the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, extended a date, and set a return appointment. They seemed pretty interested, and we are seeing them again on Wednesday, so we'll see if they are the family we will beptize in January. =P Other than that, the week was pretty good. The baptism went well, and we had a lot of dinners in the area this week, and this coming week we will be doing a lot of service!!! happy day, it is going to be good.

 

well, onto. . .

Questions

 

G-ma Twila

 How is your health doing? 

Good

Have you had a problem with allergies there?

It doesn't get that bad, I just get a runny nose during season transitions.

Do people there have a lot of health issues?

Not too many. More than back home, but not as much as the media makes it out to be.

overall, people eat pretty healthy here. Health issues come from breaking the LoC and WoW here. . .

Mom

Are you in the city right now? 

Yup, well, kinda. I live close to Harare, the Capitol city in Zim, so it is city like in my area, but not in the city. (kinda like the place we live as far as how suburban it is)

How are the members in this new area?

They are powerful. They love feeding us, and working with us so it is a nice time!

 Do you ever feel that there is true animosity towards the church there?
Not really. Nothing in Zim is like it was in Mutare. Nowhere else will you be called a satanist on a regular basis.

 

I love you all so much! keep on keepin on, and having fun!

~Elder Williams