bye bye hermana cruz, hello hermana carrasco!

so last night at about 9 the assistants called us and told us that hermana cruz was leaving to go train in a little town called baca! we were all sad when we got the call because this week has been really great being in a trio, we've had a lot of success and we've been able to do divisions almost every day! we took her to the offices at 11 this morning so that she could meet her new companion and go to her new area. then today about 15 minutes ago we got another call from the assistants saying that we are going to be in another trio with hermana carrasco! we are going to pick her up right now. i am so excited! this is the 7th time that hermana smith will be in a trio hahaha. so great.

we went to the temple at 4:30 tuesday morning with our recent converts and a few recently activated members so that they could do baptisms for the dead! i think that was one of the greatest moments i have had so far. it was so amazing to walk in the temple and see manuel. emmanuel and miguel dressed in white waiting to be baptized. i am so happy that they have gotten to this point and i know that they will keep progressing! i am so grateful for the opportunity that i have had to be here in chichen. i love every minute here. i am also really grateful that our converts sacrificed so much sleep so that they could go to temple because they realized hwo important it was. manuel and emmanuel also found a bunch of names of their ancestors to take to the temple with them, go family history! 

well hermana smith and i have to go pick up our new companion right now! i'll send pictures of her next week. she's really great and we've done two divisions before so i am really excited to be with her again! 

love you all,

hermana williams

Chichenitza - January 26, 2015

it has been so much fun to be in a trio! 

i love being with hermana cruz, she is such a great addition. we have been able to do a lot more work too because whenever a sister from the ward comes with us we divide so i've been working with a bunch of members this week. i am greatful for such a supportive ward! yesterday, thanks to the help of the members there were a total of 18 investigators in chichenitza. it was so awesome to see so many people coming closer to the savior and getting to know his true church. also during sacrament meeting the bishop randomly annouced that hermana smith, elder relitz (a new missionary in the ward that is a professional singer) and i were going to sing how great thou art. we all shared a look because we had no idea that was going to happen but it turned out really great. 

also this morning hermana smith and i had a meeting with the other 3 companionships of sister training leaders and we found out that we will only be visiting the hermanas that need help in the mission and we as a group are going to decide who would best be able to help who. it turns out hermana smith and i are going to travel to campeche next week so that i can help hermana argueta! i am excited to go work with her again for a day! and also to see another state in mexcio, campeche is like 3 hours away from where i am now and it's right by the beach. 

tomorrow the whole mission is going to the temple! at 5 in the morning. everyone can go as long as they bring their recent converts who can do baptisms for their ancestors. emmanuel, manuel, and miguel are going! also jose manuel, a recent convert from april last year that just recently activated again! the bishop is going to take everyone in his big surburban tomrrow at 4:30 in the morning. i am so excited! i love seeing the progress of all of the recent converts here. emmanuel has come with us on visits almost every day this week. he is startng to think more and more about serving a mission! i hope he does, he would be so great. at first he was really nervous to share his testimony with others and now he shares his testimony and even teaches with us. 

well i love chichenitza! i feel so blessed to be here and to be a missionary.

have a great week,

hermana williams

also the camera wasn't working so i will send pictures next week!

Welcome Hermana Cruz! - January 19, 2015

so transfers happened ad hermana smith and i are staying together and we have a new companion! hermana cruz she's from mexico city and has about 9 months in the mission she's really cute ad i am so excited to have another companion. also she was in our zone about 6 weeks ago and then she eft to another area ad came back so hermana smith and i already know her really well from doing divisions! it is going to be so fun being in a trio. our goal is to divide once a day with the members so that we can do more visits, we are going to be working working working oh and today hermana smith and i set up our hammock bunk beds so that is going to be pretty fun. 

also the assisstants called hermana smith ad i last night and told us that we were going to be the senor sister training leaders for the whole mission! i am excited to find out what the means. now there are only 8 sister training leaders for the mission so it's going to be a little crazy but great.

also michelles baptism didn't end up going through pray for her so that she can get baptized soon!

i wish i had more time to write there is so much to say and so little time! i love you all and i will write ore next week.

hermana williams

ps sorry the l m and n aren't workig too well :)

Family History - January 12, 2015

well this week was really great! it started with leadership conference with president on tuesday! on monday night the assistants called us and told us that president wanted us to share a success story during the conference. hermana smith and i decided to take a short video of manuel and have him talk a little bit about his conversion to us.it is a really sweet video! manuel's family went from just saying hi and hiding inside the house when we taught manuel to slowly listening and now coming to church every week. it has been such an amazing change. fatima and luis still need to get married before they can get baptized but we are working on it. also in the conference president talked about the importance of family history and how it helps everyone, not just members, to widen their vision and focus on the temple! hermana smith and i have been teaching family history in almost every lesson we have taught this week and we have seen the difference.

on thursday we had family home evening with manual and his family. they are all so great! oh and i don't remember if i have already said this or not but they are our neighbors. anyways we taught them the restoration and the spirit was so strong. while we were explaining the first vision to them hermana smith and i had everyone close their eyes and we sang joseph smith's first prayer while they imagined what was happening. one of the perks of being hermana smith's companion is that she has the prettiest voice! afterwards we asked them what they imagined and fatima described the vision perfectly and when we showed her a picture she gasped. it was an amazing experience. 

also on saturday night we ran into michelle, she's 15 and we've been teaching her off and on since i've gotten here and hermana smith before that had been teaching her too. we had decided to leave her becaused she stopping progressing but she asked us if we could come get her for church the next day. we picked her up and on the way to go pick up other investigators hermana katia asked her when she was going to get baptized and she goes "i don't know i keep waiting for the hermanas to come tell me when but i'm ready now!" so while we were driving to church we told her that she could get baptized next week if she wanted and she accepted. it was really casual but if all goes well we're going to have another baptism this week! sadly rosi couldn't come to church this week because she wasn't feeling good. the adversary has been working really really hard on her this past week but rosi is staying really strong and i know that she will be able to make through it.

everything else is really great here! emmanuel got the priesthood on sunday and then he came on visits with us for a good four or five hours. he is also working on his fmaily history so that he can go to the temple soon! the mission is having another temple day on the 27th and one of the requirements to go is to bring a recent convert with names and memorize 25 scriptures from the new testament. i am so excited to go again! 

well i love you all, 

have a great week and do your family history!

hermana williams

Feliz Nuevo Ano - January 5, 2015

happy 2015!

this week was really great! it was so fun being here for new years, although we didn't get any sleep because our neighbors are big party animals and the tradition here when it turns midnight is to burn a piñata that's shaped like an old man that is filled with a bunch of fireworks. we took a few pictures from our house of the burning old man and then we ended up chilling in our hammocks with hymns turned up really loud until we could go to sleep hahaha. we also ate so much food again! two families came to our house that night to bring us dinner and everyone else invited us over to their houses. 

also there was so much work this week! we have been finding a lot of really great new investigators through the members here. this week we had 10 of our investigators come to church. hermana rosi came with her family. she is doing so great and is going to be baptized in two weeks! also hermano manuel brought his daughter and son in law and grandkids to church for the first time and they all really liked it and his daughter said that they are now going to come every week. and then on saturday night we ran into the older sister of one of our investigators while she was with her husband and we casually invited them to come to church and they came! also the husband gave his testimony during sacrament meeting and told everyone that we wants to change his life. with the new year starting we are helping our investigators to realize that they CAN change through the atonement and the gospel of jesus christ. 

also hermana rosi signed up last week so that we could eat at her house and she made pozole (i'm not sure if that's how you spell it) because it's my favorite food and we had lunch with her and her whole family. she's so cute! i love seeing her progress. 

also hermana smith and i made a few new years resolutions. one was to speak only spanish and so far so good! we'll see how long that goes. 

well i love you all! 

hermana williams

Christmas - December 29, 2014

merry late christmas everyone! 

it was a great christmas here in chichen. i loved being with hermana smith! we had a nice american christmas with a gingerbread house, stockings, tiny christmas trees, fake snow, and yummy treats. 

i loved skyping! i felt like i was on the couch catching up with the whole family. it all felt so normal and casual and it was really fun skyping in emmanuel's house because we had the oppotunity to get to know his family a little bit better and we taught the restoration while the other one was skpying. effective time usage hahaha.

on christmas eve we helped make the food for the 7 missionaries in our ward with hermana katia, the bishops wife. she taught us how to make fruit cocktail so we peeled a bunch of fruit and made some cream topping while she made all the rest. we ended up eating in the church with everyone and it was really fun to be together with our district on christmas eve! also on christmas day hermana smith and i had planned to do service activities all day long (cleaning, painting, laundry, dishes, ect) in houses of members and less active members and when it finally came time to serve the members that had signed up they all told us that they didn't have anything for us to do and kept trying to give us food ahhhhh. WE WERE SO FULL. 

it was also a bit of rough week trying to teach lessons because so many people were partying or drinkingbut by the end of the week we still managed to teach a few great lessons and on sunday hermana rosi came to church and brought her grandkids! hermana rosi has been so affected by her son's conversion because he and his wife and kids got baptized a month or so ago and now are so happy that she too now wants to experience this happiness. during church one of the membes of the stake presidency came and spoke on tithing. right after church ended i asked rosi how she liked it and she immediately asked me for a tithing envelope so that she could pay her tithing this week. she is so amazing. it is amazing what the conversion of one person can do for others. 

well i love you all,

have a happy new year!

hermana williams

Feliz Navidad - December 23, 2014

holy cow. it's almost christmas! 

i am so excited to spend another christmas here in the mission. yesterday the entire mission got together to celebrate and we heard two people from every zone talk about an experience that they had sharing the gift and then a special choir came and sang and then we all had lunch and had a talent show afterwards. hermana smith and i sang love is spoken here with our zone leaders and a few other sang in mayan and i few did funny christmas skits. it was so much fun! then when the program ended the entire mission split up and went out to sing in different parts of centro to bring the christmas spirit to everyone and to share the gift. 

also this week has been FILLED with activities! there are three different areas in our ward where there missionaries and we've gone to each farmers market and set up a booth with a tv and speakers playing he is the gift and because of him, we even got a chorus together of members is our ward to come sing. it was such a success! we received a bunch of references and a few of them are so ready to receive the gospel.

also saturday was the best day is mission history! our stake ward misison leader rented a bus so that all of the missionaries and the ward missionaries could go to tixcocob, a tiny little branch that belongs to our stake where there are only 15 or so members that go to church. well anyways we all got onto the buss and when we got there we went to the "house of prayer" because there aren't enough people yet for it to be a church and we wrapped up books of mormon and pamphlets with wrapping paper and went to the middle of tixcocob to sing christmas carols and give out presents to all those that came to hear us. then when the activity ended the bus went to the church just in time for emmanuel's baptism! it was such a great night. no one in emmanuel's family came to support him but all of the members were there to support him and he gave his testimony afterwards and just thanked his friend gabilu and hermana smith and i for helping him change his life. HE IS SO GREAT. we are going to have a family home evening with his family soon so hopefully they'll turn around and get excited and get baptized too. 

the work is great here in chichenitza and it keeps growing every day. i hope i stay here forever, or well at least 4 more months. 

well i love you all so much! have a merry christmas and remember to keep sharing the gift with others.