Finally made it to the beach!

Hello Pamilya

This week has been awesome! Last Monday completely drained me; I fell asleep like 15 times during nightly planning. But we ate pizza for lunch, it was super delicious! Nothing too special happened on Tuesday, but it rained FOREVER! It was like when Elder Casilac and I almost go flooded last year. Wednesday we went to the district center for our weekly DDM meeting, it took an hour to get there. This zone is huge! To go from one end to the other takes 2 1/2 hours! Then on the way home the jeepney driver took people to their homes, instead of dropping them off on the highway, like proper public transportation should. It would be like if you took a salt lake shuttle home, and it dropped off everyone at their homes. Totally sucked. Thursday morning we cleaned the chapel and played some ping pong. Then we found a new investigator, but she basically knows everything already, but her parents won’t let her get baptized. We taught the first lesson and she already knew everything, it was like teaching a member.

Man I am flipping tired. Also twice on Saturday i tried to talk to two people, they both turned out to be deaf. Both times, right before it happened, Elder Abuan told me to follow the spirit. After that, I told him it was his turn to choose, my signal was weak.

 I weigh 138 now! sister Lutz is great! its weird that Kenzie and Kelsie think the time is going slow, i cant believe how fast it is going. i sometimes think what it would be like if missions were only one year, would you be ready for me to come home? i definitely am not ready to come home yet.

anyway my time is up, i will talk to you again next week. sorry for being late, next week we should be earlier

I love you!

Elder Williams

Elder Auban and Elder Williams

So sweet!

One Year Mark

It is hard to believe we have hit the year mark for Elder Williams'  mission.  Over the past year we have been through all ranges of emotions. The moment we dropped him off at the MTC I was not sure my heart would ever heal.  The four hour drive was tear filled and it was all I could do to turn around and bring him back home.  A few weeks after we left him at the MTC my sister asked me to go with her to Provo and I knew I could not because I  would have a hard time not going to the MTC to find him. It is amazing how one year will change your perspective on things. The ache in my heart has not gone away but I would not want him doing anything else.   Watching Elder Williams grow has been such a great experience and our family loves to see his weekly progress. Our family has been blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful for that.

All of Elder Williams cousins make him a craft every month from their hands 

wow.. okay first of all did you get my package yet? I sent that a really long time ago i feel like.

Monday was just another P-day. generally speaking I don't really like P-days, I just feel so busy the entire day. in the morning we had a Zone Monthly Goal Setting, it went way longer than it should have, I hate goal setting days, nobody ever shows up on time. monday night we went to a birthday party for Chance Flores (the really rich family) and their mom joined us from Canada via Skype.

Tuesday was a regular day, we taught a lesson in the morning to a lady who got married and then baptized last Saturday.

I don't know how I feel about Wednesday. We had transfer announcements in the morning, and it was... okay. Elder Lozano thought he would transfer, he even packed his bags Tuesday night. he's been here six months and we've been together for three so it was basically guaranteed he would transfer. And I wanted to stay in Cabanatuan so bad, I love everything about it. Anyway, I got transferred to Gobaldon, Nueva Ecija. But here's whats so great about it: I'm companions with Elder Abuan!! I've seriously never heard of two companions being companions again, but its happened to me! We spent the afternoon telling everyone I was leaving, but seriously nobody believed us. Not one person. Then I spent the entire night packing all my crap.

Thursday was great, my new area is everything I thought the Philippines would be. Even San Clemente let me down a little bit, but Gobaldon is the best! I don't want to say I regret coming on a mission, but it makes me so sad that you and dad and everyone else may never see what I have experieced over the last year. Sure, you'll see pictures and videos and read my journal, but it's like reading the ensign or going to general conference.

We also taught one of the best lessons ever today. I always know we taught a great lesson by the Spirit when I learn something new during the discussion. We taught the Garcia Family (the nanay washes our clothes and her two daughters are inactive so she invited us over) and trials and how God will never take them away, no matter how much we ask. But he will make them seem light and help us through them. And this is what I learned, it was like an idea that entered into my head and all at once I completely understood everything: Of course God take just take our trials away, because we wouldn't learn anything. No change would have taken place; we would have remained the same. Our course on Self Mastery and Self Control (which means this life we're living right now) would be a waste. How else would we become like God if we never have experience to know good from bad and hard from easy? We will never fix the hole in the roof if rain never fell from the sky.

Friday might have been the best day ever. In the morning we had weekly planning, and the afternoon is one I will never forget. We took a trike to a super-layo area, and we got off next to a river; I couldn't see houses anywhere, so I thought we were lost. Then we walked closer to the river, and about 4 or 5 guys had huge rafts made from tractor tires and wood, they took people back and forth across the river! The rafts were made of six tractor tires and had big planks of wood across them. Then a guy standing in waist deep water (sometimes deeper if it rains) would pull us across. I saw guys with motorcycles and trikes get pulled across. it was amazing. I took a video of it, I'm sending it to you right now.  The place we taught at was super far away from the church, but people out there almost never miss sacrament meeting. Some of them without a tricycle spend up to 100 pesos every week to go to church. I couldn't get people in San Clemente to spend 8 pesos to take a 10 minute bus to the church. that night we ate at the Rudy Family's home, its and old guy and his wife. The tatay never even went to high school but taught himself to be a carpenter and basically built his house by himself. When we went home it was dark and nobody was there to take us across, so we walked across the river. It was only up to our knees, but E Abuan said a few days ago it was up to his waist, and almost swept him away when he was about halfway. I loved San Clemente, but this is an adventure.

Saturday kind of sucked. Our area is great, I love it. But there is only one flaw: We don't have running water in the apartment... It's not as bad as what Kolt Piquet had in one of his first areas, but it sucks. We have a huge 100 gallon tank that just collects rain water, so if it doesn't rain we don't get water. we buy mineral water to drink and use this huge tank to wash dishes and clothes and take a shower. (I didn't even bother taking pictures of our bathroom here, nobody should ever have to see what I saw before I cleaned it. People should never live the way E Abuan and his former companion lived.)I couldn't take a shower on Saturday because we had no water. It sucked so bad. Worst day ever. But we taught like 8 lessons, that hasn't happened in a long time!

Sunday was amazing. We started on time! 9:00am sharp! the branch president here is so great. in San Clemente our branch president showed up at like 9:05, and in Cabanatunan we never started before 9:10. But the church is just a meeting house above the palengke, only like 57 people went to church yesterday. But the missionaries showed up like in 2007 so the church there is super super new. I cant believe how big of an area we have. It takes an hour by bus just to get to the Zone Leaders house, and 2 hours to get to Cabanatuan.

yeah my weight is pretty much exactly the same, but I'm gaining. I don't know how much I weigh, I probably couldn't even guess if I tried. I guess so I am not fat anymore.i got the package with everyone's hands and feet on pieces of paper taped together into one huge paper.  I did get the letters from Mindy's baby blessing, they were awesome. The last thing dad said was "As you come up on your one year mark realize how fast time is going. Don't waste time or miss opportunities." I've been trying to find something to make me motivated enough to not rest during lunch time, and since I got his letter I've done a lot better about not sitting around, especially in the mornings and at lunch.

 well my time is up

I love you!

Elder Williams

"Day of Justice"

Hello Family,

That is awesome! Man I cannot believe the race was this weekend, it doesn't feel like the race should be this weekend, that’s gone by way too fast.

Monday was the best day ever. Elder Owen (an elder from Alpine, Utah) and I had what we called a "Day of Justice". Sister and Elder Lutz were nice enough to let us come over and bake the cake at their house, and she made us some lunch. So me and Elder Lozano, Elder Owen and Elder Cadizal, and Elder Hernandez and Elder Alpon all went to their house. She fed us bread and beans with cheese, baby corn, and tamales. Super-sarap! She didn't make us rice, and I loved it. All the Filipino missionaries were having a hard time eating, they straight up hated the food, lalo na because they had no rice. Elder Owen and I relished in the experience. We were just happy that all the injustice of our missions was made right in that day: 

When I first got here, it was hard having to eat rice for every meal. And the ulam was just as bad, sometimes we ate some really sketchy stuff, like pig intestines and chicken feet. But all of my companions have basically said "suck it up, you're not in America anymore. Eat like a Filipino." (But I understand them, I was the same way with foreign exchange students in high school.)Since then, I've wanted nothing more than to take a Filipino and leave him by himself in the middle of New York City so he can experience something of what every missionary here experiences. So as we were eating, E Owen and I noticed the expressions on their face go from surprise to discomfort to disgust. E Alpon didn't even finish his tamale, he gave it to me when Sister Lutz wasn't looking. Then we explained to them that this is how we felt for the first few months of our missions, and we didn't feel one bit of sympathy for them, but we understood entirely how they felt.

Tuesday wasn't anything special, but we visited this less active who said his wife is coming home on Monday (she's been working in Dubai for the last two years). She was supposed to come home in January but they kept having problems with her job and in the embassy and everything, but it’s finally figured out and she's coming to manila this afternoon. The less active guy is in his 50's or 60's and his kid is in elementary school. They are as poor as the people in my last area, but I love them so much, they are seriously the best.

Wednesday all the DL's had a meeting with the Zone Leaders because everyone's work has kind of sucked the last few weeks and we needed to fix it. So now we have a weekly meeting to keep each other accountable because people are just getting lazy (us included, but we are fixing that.) Also today, I got the letters about the new house, it looks awesome!

Thursday was a pretty regular day, nothing happened except E Lozano overslept and i got annoyed at him, he blamed me for not waking him up and I said "our cell phone has an alarm" and then he said "the cell phone alarm doesn’t wake me up"

Friday I worked with Elder Palmer, he's from Canada. It was seriously the best day I’ve had in a long time.

Saturday we had a baptismal service. We were supposed to start at 5, but another branch had a baptismal service scheduled for 3 that started at 4, so that put us an hour behind. Then both of the kids getting baptized were super late. Then the people who were going to baptize them didn't show up, so I got volunteered to do it, so we had to go home and get my baptismal clothes. Then some people from the 5th ward showed up and were going to have a baptism for an 8 year old, and the person to baptize him didn’t show up either, so I baptized three people that day. I have never met that kid before Saturday.

it’s been a good week.

I'm getting super fat. I can’t send pictures, the camera wont attach to the computer, I don’t know what’s going on. I feel good though, transfers are this week so Elder Lozano will almost for sure be leaving. I really like him a lot, I wouldn’t mind being together with him for another 6 weeks but I doubt that will happen.

well my time is up, i will talk to you again next week. 

I love you!

Elder Williams

I have pictures!!

Dear Family,

I have pictures!!  I have a camera and you will never guess what kind.  A samsung. It’s blue and has a rechargeable camera.  I bought the same kind. It was the cheapest one at the first store we went to. It was 5,200 pesos and came with a much better case than the one before and a 2g memory card. 

Did you get my package yet? I got yours on Sunday, thank you so much! I was super happy when the zone leaders brought it to us. Those pants are awesome! I have not had a chance to wear them yet but it is nice to have another pair of pants to wear.

I am starting to gain weight again, everyone in our ward has noticed how much weight I lost and insists that I eat, so sometimes we eat like 5 times a day. Its great but a few days ago we left a house and could not walk because of how much we were fed that day. I lost a ton of weight, I probably weigh now what I weighed my junior year of high school. (Which was 115, he was 140 in May) But I’ve already noticed I’m gaining weight, so it’s okay now.  I am uploading some, are you getting them? Let me know which ones don’t work so I can send them again, I’m going to delete the ones I send to you

I have to tell you a funny story. So the other day we visited the Flores Family. They have four girls and the mother works in Canada. The dad teaches English in college, they are all members but the father is less active. He served a mission years and years ago in Cebu. So we visited them last week and they offered us food, it was super good. We had chicken and some Filipino style mini burrito things. Then he brought out a bowl of these browns chunks of some kind of meet, and E Lozano said "Liver. Kain ka." Which wasn’t too bad, I’ve had liver before so it was whatever. So I grab a piece with my hands, and it's cold! I thought, "Why do they eat cold liver, that’s stupid! Meat should be eaten warm." Any way I ate some rice to cover the taste of the cold liver and I put a piece in my mouth, and it was... sweet! Then i thought, "why does this liver taste so sugary?" After I swallowed it and the rice, i had another plain piece. I think one of his daughters saw the expression on my face because she said "Chocolate, Elder." Then I realized what had happened and so did Elder Lozano, he couldn’t stop laughing. Man I felt like an idiot!

The party was pretty fun, we just had FHE in front of our apartment with a bunch of people from ward 2 and ward 5. We had tons of spaghetti (it’s a party food here, like our version of pizza) and then we bought some donuts and pandesal. After most of them left, a few of the ward missionaries from ward 5 surprised me with a birthday cake, it was super delicious. At first I was mad because I didn’t want to have a part or anything, I mean you know I don’t really care about my birthday. But after we started we had tons of fun. The birthday party we went to was fun, it was like if you had one of our parties and doubled the amount of children.

Sunday we had an area conference, it was like that one we had right before I got ordained an elder and an apostle spoke to us by satellite, L Tom Perry spoke to us, it was pretty cool, but pretty much nobody from our ward showed up. Imagine if stake conference was in the church by the temple and nobody in our ward had cars. Nobody would go, right?

Also we gave a blessing to this lady this week, we're teaching her husband (who is actually a member but he didn’t know that for like the last 3 weeks we've been teaching him) and she was super pregnant and feeling terrible. So we gave her a blessing and two days later she had her baby with no complications. She’s been listening to the Jehovah's Witnesses but after she had the baby she said she wanted to listen to us instead. Coolest thing ever!

 we visit them every Sunday.. Anyway my time is up, I’ll talk to you again next week, hopefully you get the package this week

I love you!

Elder Williams

Birthday Hike

We had a great hike for Elder Williams Birthday.  The conditions were so much nicer this year compared to last year.  We did not have to walk through thigh deep water to get to the lakes.

Before the hike

Lower lake

upper lake

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