Midnight Prayers

hola,

so i'm now a mom and my new daughter is so great! her name is hermana renteria and she's from monterrey, mexico and she's 22. so far everything has been so good, except that her accent is really strong and sometimes it's hard to understand her hahaha. 

we have had a work filled week this week. right now we are working on finding new investigators and after a long week of searching we found the sweetest family, and the parents just happen to be inactive members of the church. right now we are working with nayla and gema, the two girls that are 8 and 9. we found them while we were looking for a reference on saturday and taught them that day and then went back to teach them yesterday and gema and nayla had read in the book of mormon and were explaining to us EVERYTHING they had read. it was pretty amazing. 

also last night we had a fireside that hermana rivera and i organized about two weeks ago in the church. the theme was "families can be together forever" and we had quite a turn out. the invitacion to get in was to bring a family member, friend, or neighbor that isn't a member. there are little ways everyday that we can share the gospel with others and help them to know of our message, that families truly can be together forever.

okay well i love you all,

have a great week!

hermana williams

oh also last night at about 1 or so in the morning i woke my companion up to pray, said our companion prayer, then my personal prayer and then my companion told me that it was 1 in the morning and that i needed to go back to bed. she told me this morning and i didn't believe it was true. pretty cool.

Six months!!

hola todos, 

so it looks like i will be giving you all a big hug in ONE YEAR! holy cow. time is flying! i thought that since i hit the six month mark in my mission that i would change my weekly update email to a "bre update" and write the things that i have learned these past six months.

in the past six months i have learned:

to eat chile... with everything (fruit, suckers, rice, soup... you name it)

to eat tortillas with every meal

to speak spanish (well... almost)

to take a freezing cold five minute shower every morning

to pray

to love the Book of Mormon 

to share happiness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone that i meet

that Jesus Christ is my Savior and redeemer

and

that i am a daughter of God.

i couldn´t be more grateful for the past six months that i have had in my mission. i feel so lucky for the opportunity that i have to be here in mexico serving the people of merida. i have learned so much these past months and i know that the things that i have learned are things that i couldnt have learned without the decision to serve a mission. the only thing that i haven´t learned so far in my mission is how to endure the heat here! PRAY FOR CLOUDS.

i love you all,

SEE YOU IN ONE YEAR!

hermana williams

General Conference Weekend

hola todos,

wow. what a weekend.

i hope everyone loved general conference. i sure did. guess what? i got to watch conference in ENGLISH. it was SO wonderful. all of the american missionaries gathered around on the couches in the mission offices to watch it from the tv, and of course the elders brought snacks to share. i felt like i was at home watching conference with my family.

my absolute favorite talk was president uchtorf's talk about being grateful and how we have the choice to be grateful.

after the confernece ended, hermana argueta and i and 14 other missionaries went to dinner at elder and hermana esteves house. they are missionaries in the temple and live right behind the temple in a little gated community. they are so so so so sweet too. it was such a great way to ended conference weekend.

also, hermana argueta and i encountered a miracle this week. hermano jose roberto, who is one of mine and hermana infante's old investigators moved back into his house this week. he is 28, and cousins with the herrera family in our ward. when hermana infante and i first started teaching him he told us that he was getting a divorice and that he would be moving out of his house to live with his parents within the week. well, this week his cousin giselle called us and told us that he moved back in to his house and that he wanted to meet with us the next day. we went to meet with him and he told us that while he was really sad that he remembered from our lessons that he could pray and talk to heavenly father, and he remembered that the steps to saying a prayed were in the back of his book of mormon. well he started praying and started reading the book of mormon little by little every day. he told us that pray slowly started to change his life and give him the help and strength he needed to fix things with his wife. he is now living at home and slowly becoming happier and happier each day. his baptismal date is set for this month, on the 26th! i am so thankful for the book of mormon and the power of prayer and the power that it has to change lives. 

i love you all.

have such a great week!

hermana williams

ps... hermana argueta told me that this week i woke her up at 1:30 in the morning to say our morning prayers. i don't remember a thing hahaha.

20

hola mi familia,

well this week i turned 20! i feel so lucky to have been in mexico on my birthday and to have celebrated it with my large extended second mexican family here. it is hard to describe all the love that i felt that day, and the next day, and the next. in the past three days i have eaten 4 different cakes with four different families! calories dont count in the mission, right?

on my birthday hermana glendy took hermana argueta and i out for authentic yucateca food. i finally tried cochinita, which is apparently the most popular food in the state of yucatan, and i loved it! then we went to the herrera family's house to have a lesson with their cousin and after the lesson we had cake... but the cake ended up getting all over my face. apparently the tradition here is after everyone sings happy birthday that the person who is having a birthday has to take a small bite of the cake and me, without knowing, took a bite of the cake and got my face pushed into it. ahhhhh got to love the traditions here. then afterwards we went to the stake center to watch general conference. i feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to watch general conference on my birthday. i loved listening to the messages and seeing the conference center. it was such a beautiful experience.

also, i loved your package! i cried the whole time because i have the sweetest, cutest and most creative mom ever. thank you so much mom, and mitchell jake and dad. i loved all the cute things that mom put in my package but i especially loved your birthday cards. i am so thankful to have the best family is the world, and im glad to know you're all exactly the same. mitchell's letter said "hey bre, happy birthday, you're so old. while i'm writing this letter mom is crying and dad is listening to some sad song and crying too so you could say things are pretty cool around here" hahahaha i died. also he told me to celebrate with a coke but i'll have to put that off until next year (and two weeks) wow time is flying by so quickly.

i love you all so much!

i can't wait to chill with you all soon

hasta la vista baby,

hermana williams

oh also, hermana argueta and i and the alonzo amily didn't end up getting to go through the temple because it was closed for conference so hopefully we will get to go on april 12th, their new date.

oh, and we had transfers! i'm staying in centro with sweet hermana argueta. 

ps, happy birthday uncle marty! hope you have a great day. love you!

eternas pueden ser las familias

hola mi familia,

first of all thank you so much for all of the sweet birthday balloons, all 20 of them landed right outside my front door this morning! i loved reading the little notes that everyone sent me but i´m a little sad that jake never sent me one hahaha.

well i hardly have time to write but this week has been so great, and i have some exciting news for next week... i get to go to the temple this saturday, ON MY BIRTHDAY! our ward mission leader and his family have been members of the church for about three years now but they haven´t entered the temple yet. when hermana infante and i first met hermano edgar and his family we started teaching and preparing them to enter in the temple and be sealed as a family. this sunday the alonzo family invited us over for lunch and after lunch they told us that they had a special announcement for us. we all gathered around in their front room and hermano edgar, hermana carol and their 4 kids all sat togther on one small couch and we sang "eternas pueden ser las familias" or in english "families can be together forever" and then told us that this saturday they are going to enter the temple to be sealed as a family. it was the sweetest moment. they asked us if we would be able to attend and i knew we wouldn´t be able to but i called our president anyways to ask and by some miracle... he said YES. i am so happy for the alonzo family and for the oppotunity that they have to enter in the temple and be sealed as a family this saturday. i am also so thankful for the resorted gospel in my life and that through the restored gospel by the power of the preisthood we have the opportunity to be sealed as eternal families.

i love you all so much my sweet eternal family! it will be a little hard to be apart from you all this week but know that i am so so happy here and that i am here in mexico with my second family. 

i love you!

hermana williams

Birthday Celebration!

This week is Breannes birthday.  March 29th!  I can't believe she will be 20!

We decided to still have a party for her even though she is far from home. 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRE!!!   WE LOVE AND MISS YOU SO SO MUCH!

five months!

mi familia!

as of yesterday i have been out in my mission for five months... can you believe it!? TIME IS FLYING. really it has been the fastest five months of my life.

well this week has been so so great. at the start of the week we had zone conferences all day tuesday and wednesday. we listened to talks and had a bunch of practices. i loved the conferences but the best part of the conferences was that two hermanas, hermana nuñez and hermana cardenas, in our zone had to stay with us for those two days because their area is far away so basically we had a big giant two day sleepover. the first night we said our prayers and climbed into our hammocks around 10:30 but didn´t end up going to to sleep until after midnight because we talked and talked and talked... and the next night might have been worse hahaha.

hermana argueta and i have been teaching two "POTENTE" new investigators this week, hermana odysey and hermano govanni. hermana odysey is the director of the zoo... so we have been teaching her IN THE ZOO in a quiet spot next to the flamingos. hermano govanni is a friend of one of the young women, trini, in our ward so we had a friend home evening thursday night and we have been teaching him almost every day since. he came to church alone yesterday because trini couldnt come but he didnt want to miss it. they are both so so great and progressing so rapidly and... they both have a baptismal date for saturday march 29th. oh what a birthday that would be! please pray for them that they can keep progressing.

oh also yesterday i had to give two talks! TWO. one talk in sacrament and another talk in a conference that our stake had with our ward mission leaders. the bishop called hermana argueta and i saturday afternoon to tell us that we would be giving talks the next day and then on sunday i found out an hour before the conference that i would be giving a talk -___- it was a day full of nerves but luckily both of my talks turned out alright. i am so very thankful for the gift of tongues.

okay i have to go but i love you all so much. have such a great week. the church is true. share the gospel with others. every member a missionary.

los amo,

hermana williams

March 10

¡mi familia!

hola todos, los amo mucho

well this week has been so so great, hermana emilia was baptized on saturday night! before her baptism she called hermana argueta and i and told us how happy she was and how she couldn´t wait any longer to be baptized. she ended up coming to the church an hour early to be with us while we were setting up everything to get ready for her baptism hahaha. the actual program was so beautiful. a few of the hermanas in our ward gave talks and then her son, jorge, bore his testimony. it was so sweet. he talked about how happy he is to have recently become a member of the church and how happy he is to see his mom become a member of the church one month later. i started crying during his testimony. i feel so lucky to have been an instrument in the lord´s hands to help bring the gospel into jorge´s life and now emiia´s life. hermana argueta and i are fasting and praying that soon we can also bring the gospel into the lives of the rest of the viloria familia.

oh also.... we celebrated with hot dogs again after the baptism hahaha. 

i wish i had more time to write but i have to go. i love you all so so much! you are all in my prayers. have such a great week.

i love you!

hermana williams

March 3

hola mi familia

holy cow it has been such a great week here in mexico! nothing new. i´m still dying from the heat but other that that i love it here. i have some great news... hermana emilia, the mom of jorge, is going to be baptized this saturday! i am so so so so happy and excited for her. usually all of our investigators need to attend church 5 times before they can be baptized but she is what president garcia calls an "investigator of gold" so she can be baptized this saturday. after the interview president garcia gave us strict instructions that we need to baptize the rest of their family, the dad and the two other brothers. the dad has a bit of a hard heart (hermana burgos said that he reminds her of cruella deville) but we are going to have a lesson with him and emilia tonight and we are going to invite him to be baptized. pray that his heart can be softened and that he can accept our message and invitation.

hermana argueta is so great. we have become the best of friends this week! i really have no idea how i got to lucky to have such great companions like her, hermana infante and hermana smith. every day we have an hour to study spanish and english but for the most part we use the hour to study and talk in english and she is learning so quickly. she loves the english hymns that i have on my ipod and she always sings them while we´re walking through the streets, it reminds me of when dad sings and doesn´t know the song and makes up his own words hahaha.

i wish i had more time to write and update you all but i have no time today. i love you all so much and hope that utah is nice and cold! 

hermana williams

happy missionary

mi famila!

it has been a great week.

hermana argueta and i have had such a great week together. i love being a trainer! i am learning SO MUCH. spanish included. hermana argueta is a little shy so i have had to do most of the talking and the teaching during the lessons this week which at first was really hard because i didn´t have hermana infante to rely on, but now i feel much more comfortable with talking and teaching. also, i know i joked about how i was going to be a mom in my email last week but i really do feel like a mom. this whole week i have been saying "be careful, be careful" "watch out for cars" "are you hot?" "do you have enough water?" "do you need anything?" hahahaha i am turing into you mom. oh and by the way... the heat is starting. every day i feel like i am going to die around 2 in the afternoon, but all of the people here keep telling me that the heat is only beginning. i have no idea how i am going to survive in may. help me.

the work here has been so great too. this week we had friend home evening with fine and miguel burgos, jorge (who was baptized three weeks ago and his girlfriend daneth. it was a really great friend home evening, and yes i am keeping the tradition of friend home evening alive here in mexico hahaha. after the lesson we all started talking about our families, and when jorge shared a little bit about his family and told us that after his baptism his mom started to become really interested in our church. jorge, daneth, hermana argueta and i visited his mom emilia the next day. emilia is so sweet and has such a strong spirit. at the end of our lesson we invited her to be baptized on march 15th and she accepted. she came to church with us yesterday and during sunday school the teacher asked her if she could give the closing prayer. it was one of the most sweetest prayers i have ever heard. she said that she had been so happy all morning to go to church and that now she knows why she was so happy because she has felt so much kindness and love from her new friends at church. it was such an amazing experience to hear her prayer. i am so lucky i get to be here in mexico and to meet people like emilia. pray for her.

i love you all so much! have such a great week!

hermana williams

two emails this week!

mi familia!

it´s official, i am a mom. i am so so so so happy. i love my new companion! i honestly don´t knwo how i have gotten so lucky with such great companions. her name is hermana argueta, she´s 19, and she´s from guatemala. i met her yesterday afternoon when some of the hermanas had arrived from the airport and immeadiately fell in love with her. we talked for about a half hour and when hermana infante and i left i knew we were going to be companions. so far everything has been so great! after our meeting with president today we found out who would be our companions, and had lunch. afterwards we were supposed to go back to our areas to unpack and prepare for the rest of the afternoon but our stake president called me and had set up an appointment with one of his coworkers and his two sons for a lesson in the chapel so we went straight from lunch to a lesson. my companion was really nervous to talk and teach but she has a really strong spirit and towards the end of the lesson she started to open up a bit more. our lesson was so great and hermano leon and his two sons juan and david are now preparing to be baptized on the 8th of march. bien potente. i am so excited to be a trainer. i can´t wait to work work and work this week.

i wish i had my camera! i´ll send pictures on monday!

i love you all!

hermana williams

ps hermana infante wanted me to tell you how much she loves you and how special you all are to her. we had a really really really hard goodbye today but luckily i will still be seeing her on occasions for the next year. 

another great week in Mexico

hola mi familia!

i have big news.......... I AM GOING TO HAVE A DAUGHTER. well... i am going to be a TRAINER. i am so so so nervous but also SO excited. on thursday hermana infante and i received a call from president and he said that he hadn´t made up his mind yet but that he had a strong feeling that i needed to be a trainer and then asked me how i felt and asked hermana infante if i was ready. well... last night we found out from our district leader that i am going to stay in centro to train and hermana infante is going to another area to train. i am so sad that hermana infante is leaving but i am so so grateful for the time that we have had togther. i am praying my new companion is exactly like hermana infante. there are so so many sisters coming! 9 from guatemala, 5 from mexico, 1 from spain, and 2 from the united states. i am hoping that my companion isnt from the united states. they all arrive sometime tonight or tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon we find out who our companions will be. pray for me!

the rest of my week has been so great! hermana infante and i had a really neat experience tuesday night. the navarro´s family is our ward is going through a difficult time right now and they had to switch houses this week. on sunday we told them we would be happy to help clean and move and asked them to call us when they need help. well tuesday night we were searching for a reference and we walked down a street that we hadn´t taken before and found the navarro´s in the process of moving.... without the help of anyone. hermana navarro invited us inside to look around and their house was so dirty and they needed help so badly. we said goodnight and walked out and hermana infante and i felt like we needed to do something. we went to our house to change and then to the burgos family and the euan family for help. in a half hour we had 10 people to help the navarro´s move and clean. it really is so amazing that everyone that is in our path throughout the day is placed in our pathway by our loving Heavenly Father. 

i love you all so much!

have a great week. 

hermana williams

one happy missionary

my sweet family!

it was a good week to be a missionary. 

this week i had not only my first baptism, but my first, second and third. jhony, jorge and enrique were baptized this saturday! i still cant believe it. it was honestly the MOST wonderful experience. i am so grateful i could be apart of it. before hermana infante and i opened centro the area had been closed for quite some time which means no missionaries and no baptisms. when the ward found out that there would be three baptisms this week everyone got so excited. on saturday the sisters in the ward made cakes, a bunch of members came early to clean the chapel and to set up the baptismal font, and when the program started there was hardly enough room for everyone to sit. the program was so beautiful too. i loved seeing the look on each of their after they were bauptized. it really was a look of pure joy. well... enrique is a bit of a different story. the water was freezing cold and when he first felt it he announced that he wasnt going to be baptized... hahaha. after a couple minutes his dad finally pulled him of of the bar that he was clinging to and after three tries he was baptized. phew. i really am so grateful to be apart of this experience and to have been an instrument in the hands of the lord in the lives of these three people. i have seen such amazing changes in all of them, including the family of enrique. 

the rest of this week has been so great. we received two references this week, emma and gaspar, and they are both MUY POTENTE. they both have such a desire to learn about the gospel. emma attended church this week and has a baptisal date of the first week of march! it is so amazing to see her progress so rapidly. 

next week we have transers! every day hermana infante tells me that she is going to leave centro and i am going to stay here and be a trainer. i am so nervous BUT if i do need to train i hope that i stay in centro. i never want to leave centro. i love it so much here. PRAY FOR ME.

i love you all so very much. i miss you but you are all in my heart.

hermana williams

another great week in Mexico!

hola!

this week has been full of miracles. well first of all the baptism of enrique hasnt happened yet because his dad wanted to be the one to baptize him so his baptism is this saturday..... along with 3 of our other investigators!!!! maria, jhony, and jorge! it is so amazing. i am so unbelievably happy for all three of them. the biggest miracle of all is jhony. he accepted our invitation to be baptized a couple weeks ago but has work on sundays and hasnt been able to attend church. we taught him a lesson about the sabbath day this week and he told us that he wouldnt be able to live the sabbath day because he cant afford to take away any hours from his job. that night hermana infante and i fasted for him that night and during our lesson the next day he told us that that night he felt so sad and guilty and that knew he needed to find a way to be able to come to church on sundays. he said that he was going to talk to his boss the next morning and switch his hours. on the same day hermana infante taught him about the law of tithing. at first i could see that look of worry in his eyes, not only was he going to lose a few hours at work but also 10% of his income. but the spirit was so strong and by the end of the lesson jhony was so happy and accepted to live the law of tithing. he said that he knows if he makes these sacrifices so that he can be baptized and attend church that god will bless him. i know that is true. he switched his hours at work and paid his tithing last night. i was such an amazing experience to see him so humbled and so willing to sacrifice hours in his job and part of his paycheck to become a member of the church. he has such a great faith. he is such an example to me to put all of my faith in god at all times. i really am so blessed to have the opportunity to know and to help such wonderful. 

one night this week hermana infante was so starving and we had just walked in the door and there was no food in the house. we both thought we were going to die so we called our district leader to see if we could leave our house for 5 minutes to buy food, knowing that he would say no, but surprisingly he said yes. we sprinted out of our house and ran to the end of the street in two minutes to buy hot dogs and drinks from the hot dog stand!

oh also, i am teachign classes for english each week in the chapel now. saturday night was the first class and it went so well! i love teaching english and helping others. we had a bunch of members, less-actives, and investigators at the class. 

i love you all! have such a great week. please pray for maria, jhony and jorge and their baptismal date this week!

hermana williams

hola mi familia!

what a week.

right now the only thing i can think about is the amazing spiritual experience hermana infante and i had in the gardens of the temple last night. im not sure if i have told you about maria or not but we have been working with maria for about 3 weeks now. she is one of the most amazing people i have ever met. about 2 years ago she was deathly ill and could hardly walk for a year and a half. 6 months ago she started recovering from her disease and is now back in full health. the first time we met her she told us her story of her sickness and recovery and the important role god had in her recovery. i really have never seen anyone with such great faith. last night we had a lesson in the gradens of the temple and we started to talk to her about the restoration of the gospel and in the middle of the lesson she started crying. she said that while we were talking she felt something she never has felt before, even during her recovery when she was closest with god. she said she wanted to feel this feeling more. we then invited her to be baptized and she accepted! she has attended church with us two times before so she can be baptized in two weeks. i feel so lucky to know maria and to help bring her to the gospel of jesus christ.

the rest of the week has been so great too. hermana infante and i have talked with EVERYONE that we have come in contact with. we have found 16 new investigators this week and 10 of them are living with their entire family. they are all bien potente too. i am so excited to start teaching families because most of our investigators right now live alone or live with one other person. 

well this week truly has been so great. i am so lucky to live here and to be preaching the gospel here. oh and i am also lucky to be alive because hermana infante and i were contacting a family in the street and they offered us a few of their tacos and i was deathly ill for 2 days -___-

oh also! my first baptism is this thursday. hermana infante and i have been visiting an inactive family and they have a son who is 8 and a half years old. we invited them to have their son be baptized and they accepted. they have been preparing enrique and have come to church every week since our first visit. i am so excited for cute enrique and for their family to once again feel the blessings of the gospel in their livies.

i love you all so much!

hermana williams

hola familia!

this week has been SO great. it also has gone so quickly.

well first of all grandma and syd, i finally received your package this week! it was well worth the wait! i wanted to die when i saw Candy cane joe joes. the necklace is so beautiful too! muchísimo gracias. i am so grateful to have such a sweet family. i am also so grateful that you included hermana infante in your package. she started to tear up when she saw that one of the packages was for her. she has never received a package or a letter since she left home and she has been out in the field for more than 6 months.

the work has been so great. we have has so much of it too! a couple times this week we have had to split up with members from the ward so that we could make it to all of our appointments. at first i was so nervous to teach lessons without hermana infante. so so nervous. luckily all of the lessons that i taught with members this week went so great. i am very grateful for the gift of tongues.

our investigators are doing so great too. im not sure if i have told you about jhony or not but jhony is 74 and he accepted our invitation to be baptized a few weeks ago. at first he wasnt progressing very rapidly because he hadnt been praying to know the truth of our lessons. well, we taught him a powerful lesson about the impotance of prayer and at the end invited him to give the closing prayer. he accepted and finally prayed in front of us. we visited him the next day and asked him if he had prayed that night. he told us he had forgotten to pray and we were devastated. but then, he said that he woke up at 3 in the morning and was so bothered by something that he couldnt fall back asleep. he finally remembered that he needed to say his prayers. he said he said during his prayer he felt something he never has felt before and knew that he needed to be baptized. it was such an amazing experience to listen to. i wanted to cry.

the rest of our investigators are so great. i wish i had hours to tell all of the stories that happened this week. i promise im writing in my journal every night so that i wont forget to tell you all of these amazing experiences that i am having.

i love you all so much! have such a great week. ugh especially you jake.

hermana williams

oh i forgot to mention.. hermana infante and i killed a scorpion in the house of our neighbor this week. she is from france and lives alone. she knocked on our door at 11:30 at night and could hardly speak enough spanish for her to tell us that she had a scorpion in her house. it was so scary and i thought i was going to die but we went over to her house and hermana infante was so calm and casually killed the scorpion with one of those broom things that you use to clean the shower. 

i am lucky i am alive hahaha.

January 13, 2014

mi familia!

hola!

this week was a bit of a hard one, but i realized last night during my prayers how thankful i am for the difficult times because i am learning how to be more thankful and grateful. 

the baptism didn´t end up happening this week. adrian had a problem with a more serious sin that we didnt know about until his interview for baptism. he had an interview with our president after we found out and our president decided that it was best to wait. he is now going through the process of true repentance. i am grateful that we helped adrian to get to this point so that one day in the future he can be baptized. it is also a good reminder that the baptisms of my investigators aren´t my baptisms but the baptisms of the lord. 

also, all of my pictures got deleted off of my camera yesterday. i left my camera out during lunch and one of the valencia boys accidentally deleted all of my pictures. after we left their house i think i cried more than when i left you all hahaha. hermana infante and i said a prayer of comfort in the street and when we got to the house of our investigator trini i was so comforted. she was hit by a car in the street three weeks ago and has to stay bed for the next eight months. while we were talking to her she said that she is so thankful to have her life and that her little trials in life before her accident don´t even compare. it was EXACTLY what i needed to hear. it made me realize how small of a trial it is to lose a few pictures. plus i have 15 more months to take pictures. i am actually very lucky it happened now and not later. 

i love being a missionary because i have the opportunity to learn from each person i talk with. last night after our lessons i came home and started a gratitude journal and i am writing down one thing i am grateful for each day. 

ahhhh i promise this week wasnt as bad as i am making it sound. it was really great too! hermana infante´s birthday was on tuesday! we had such a great day. in the morning i gave hermana infante her present and we made pancakes and after our lesson with glendy later in the day she took us out to lunch. then we went and took pictures at the temple before our next lesson. i am so lucky to have such a great companion. we are more like best friends than companions. 

oh also there was a holiday this week. rosca de reyes. its this tradition where you buy this bread and get togther with your family and everyone cuts their piece and inside is a baby jesus and if the baby jesus is in your piece of bread you have to buy tamales for the whole family on february 2nd.. we celebrated rosca de reyes with the burgos family and other young couples from the ward.... and i got the baby jesus -___- hahaha.

also the work here is unbelievably great. we have four investigators right now with baptismal dates and all of them are progressing so rapidly. also we had so many investigators and less active members at church yesterday. again hermana infante and i were practically running around the chapel to make sure everyone was taken care of. i love being a missionary.

i love you all so much. hopefully my email wasn´t too big of a downer hahaha.

hermana williams

hi all!

well i have some major news.. 

MAJOR NEWS.

i am leaving centro for the pueblos and learning mayan! i am so nervous i hardly know spanish. i leave cento tonight.

chiste.

i am staying in cento!!!!!!! and the best part is i am staying with hermana infante. gracias a dios. i am so so so so grateful. hermana infante and i found out we were staying last night at 8 with a phone call. we both screamed and ran danced in the middle of the street. its also her birthday tomorrow so i am so glad i get to be with her. i bought her the cutest case for her hymnal. and we bought food to make pancakes in the morning. 

well this week can basically be summed up in one word. WATER. the first reason is because i have NEVER experienced rain in my entire life like i have this week. the first of many rainstorms this week started on the 31st. hermana infante and i walked out of a lesson and into a downpour. we had a 30 minute walk home and in 2 minutes i was completely soaked but we made it so fun. we sang hymns, jumped in the huge puddles in the street, oh and got splashed by cars... exactly like the movies -__- after the first storm i started bringing my rain jacket with me and honestly i have never loved an article of clothing more. which says a lot.

the second reason is because my first baptism is this FRIDAY. our investigators name is adrian and we met him last TUESDAY. adrian works in the gardens of the temple and has for about a year now. he works with 8 other men and 7 of them are members of the church. he has learned so much about our faith through his coworkers and has even attened church with them. the first day we met him he took a quick break to talk with us and expressed that he has a hunger to learn more about our faith. he then took another break so we could start teaching him the lessons. our first lesson was IN the waiting room of the TEMPLE. i cant even describe how strong the spirit was. while we were teaching one of the little pictures of christ on our pamphlet was hanging on the wall right behind him. it was so amazing to watch him turn around and look at the picture and lit up. we then invited him to baptism and he accepted and asked how soon he could be baptized. heavenly father has prepared him so much for baptism! i am so grateful for the opportunity i have to be an instrument in the hands of the lord for the baptism of adrian. so soon he will be able to feel all of the happiness and blessings of becoming a member of our church. he also wants to be baptized in the sea and hermana infante and i can go because its not too far. i am so excited!

there have also been a few small disappointments this weeks. the baptism of ana fell through because she has been out of town for so long and..... the baptism of jesus. we found out that he hasnt been staying as strong as he was telling us. we are still working with him and helping him but it will be a long process for him to truly change but hermana infante and i have so much faith that one day he will change. however we have been working much more with javier, his friend. javier is so great! he came to sacrament this week and then asked if he could stay longer. so great. we are inviting him to baptism tonight. 

the work here is so great. as always! this sunday we were practically running around the chapel helping our investigators, less active members, and meeting references from members. we met 8 new investigators this week! so so so so great.

i have to go. i wish i had more time!

i love you so much family! te amo muchisimo. 

hermana williams