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. 

Christmas is coming - December 15, 2014

if one of you were around hermana smith or i right now you would know that christmas is coming soon because we have been walking around singing christmas hymns all week long. we are so excited for christmas!

this week was so great.

last monday "elder schwab" a return missionary that served in merida came and knocked on our door around 9 and gave us a giant box of chips and salsa (something that isn't very common to eat here in mexico) and a bunch of cookies. he served here about a year ago and came back to visit his mission and all of the houses that he lived in! he's way cool and pretty much spent the week in chichenitza playing video games with the members.

also chichenitza keeps progressing! emmanuel is going to be baptized this saturday, he is so ready and so excited. he wants to be baptized already! also 4 new investigators came to church on sunday. one older guy named henry, a cute married couple named mariela and manuel and landero. henry loved church! he is so receptive to the spirit and got teary eyed after church when he was telling us how much he liked it. hermana smith and i had to do everything that we could to keep manual and mariela's little boy manuel distracted so that mariela could enjoy church. he's 3 years old and after he took the water during the sacrament he screamed "esta riqisima el agua!" hahaha. luckily they really liked us and mariela even invited us to come eat lunch with them tomorrow. landero really liked church and then afterwards dropped us..... he told us that he would like to stick to being catholic and then when we tried to set up another appointment with him he told us no. pretty lame. we are praying that he will open up his heart and give us another chance because he was so golden. pray for him!

also december 12th was a holiday here. virgen mary day. EVERYONE here has a picture of the virgen mary outside their house and it usually has candles and flowers and a few lights around it anyways but for virgen mary day it's like 10 times worse and they put rows and rows of seats in front of her and invite all of their neighbors and they all worship together. it's so scary! 

oh also president garcia told hermana smith and i this morning that the only reason why we should ever be separated is when we get married hahaha. he said that if we keep having success in chichenitza that he won't separate us. i love hermana smith! she has been the best companion. we work so well together and we're working really hard! she is such a great example to me.

well everything is great here. we're preparing for a big long week of christmas activities to keep sharing the gift in chichenitza. it's going to be awesome. 

feliz navidad! los amo!

hermana williams

christmas in chichenitza - December 8, 2014

hermana smith and i are staying together for another transfer in chichenitza, i'm so happy and greatful to still be with her!

this week went by in a flash. it's crazy how quickly time is going by here.

first if all, I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE! we woke up at 3:30 in the morning so that we could go to the 5 o clock session and it turns out that when we got there they told us that our zone wasn't going to go in until 9 o clock and that our district leader forgot to tell us. cool. luckily we got to sleep a little bit before it was our turn., and when it finally was our turn it was so amazing! it was so beautiful and peaceful and filled with light. it's undescribable. 

also i hope everyone has seen he is the gift video by now! hermana smith and i are working really really hard so that everyone has the opportunity to see it. we bring our little tiny dvd player around and the little speakers that grandma gave me and we show it to all the people that we contact and all of the lessons that we teach. this week we showed it to some guy named henry on the street and he cried. then we taught him a little bit about our message and set up an appointment to visit him this week with his entire family. also whenever we take the bus we sing a christmas hymn together at the front of the bus and then one of us preaches while the other one passes out he is the gift cards and takes down addresses so that we can go contact them in their houses. it was a little scary at first to contact an entire bus but i really love it and i love helping people to remember our savior jesus christ at this time of year. 

we are finding a few new really great investigators too! actually one of them found and contacted us on saturday night and then came to church on sunday! his name is charlie. he's 30 and is looking for the true pathway that leads to heaven, we told him we knew where he could find it. at church on sunday we gave him a little tour and we showed him a painting of the first vision and without even knowing what it was he just stops and goes "i think this one is my favorite" he's really great. also one of our old investigators michelle is starting to listen to us again! we showed up at her house on monday and she said that she had been praying for us to come and visit her again. she came to the elders baptism yesterday and really liked it.

ALSO... manual, jasmin and miguel angel just got church callings! manuel is going to be one of the assistants to our ward mission leader, jasmin is going to be young women's secretary and miguel angel is going to be young men's secretary. they are all so perfect for their callings. i am so happy to still be here with them and watching them progress. chichenitza will soon be zion.

well feliz navidad! hermana smith and i are buying a tree today at walmart to start decorationg.

los amo!

hermana williams

Hi is the gift - December 1, 2014

so it has pretty much been the best week of my whole mission here in chichen, but before i forget, everyone go and watch "he is the gift" onwww.mormon.org/christmas it is the sweetest and most inspiring video and then go share it with everyone! christmas starts with christ. 

well hermano manuel was baptized this week! after months and months of listening to the missionaries and after waiting months before that for something that he didn't even know he wanted but was searching after his wife died, finally came. the gospel has really blessed and changed manuel's life. he already has his family history ready so that he can go to the temple and be baptized for his wife once he gets his recommend. also his two daughters and their children that aren't members came to his baptism and loved it. one of his daughters cried a lot and then after the baptism asked if she could take us home in her car. she took us home and we ended up sitting outside of her car and teaching her a little lesson until we had to go inside. she is really great and excited to find out more about why her dad is so happy now.

also this morning we had a really inspiring leadership conference with president garcia. i love him and hermana garcia so much. they are examples of pure christlike love and i always learn so much from every conference. after the conference ended we had time to pass off our scripture masteries so that we could go to the temple tomorrow. we had to recite all 25 scripture masteries word for word and the references to another hermana while one of the four assistants was observing. i was soooooooo nervous but i passed and so did hermana smith! we have seriously been studying our scriptures so diligently these past weeks. we wake up and recite them and while we're running we say them and then we say them while we're walking around in the street and then we say them before we go to bed. it was crazy but so worth it to go to the 

temple. also we've really felt a difference in this transfer than any of our other transfers in the mission because almost everything we do is centered on christ and the scriptures, especially our thoughts and words. the spirit is much stronger and we can both feel it guiding us.

our new investigator hermano emmanuel came to church on sunday! he is so great and he really liked it and is already starting to make some new friends there. he has been struggling with depression for a little while now but i can see a difference in him and its only been about a week since we met him. i love how the gospel changes lives. 

thanksgiving was great too. hermana smith and i ate picadillo and beans and rice! pretty mexican. i really liked thanksgiving because we went a whole entire day without asking for anything in our prayers, just thanking our heavenly father. there is so much to be grateful for!  

i love you all and i'm so grateful for each and every one of you,

hermana williams

chichenitza - November 24, 2014

hermano miguel angel was baptized this week! 

he seriously is the greatest convert ever. also the elders baptized the cutest family, roger, glendy and their son gabriel. it was such a beautiful baptismal service. all of the converts shared their testimonies after and miguel said "i'm not happy, i'm what comes next after being happy" he is so so awesome and is already preparing to leave on his mission. on sunday all of the recent converts shared their testimonies again is sacrament meeting and it was the best sacrament meeting i have ever experienced! it is such a joy to see how happy they all are and to see how excited the members are for them. the members are so great here and they work so so hard. it's great because there is a lot of work here in chichenitza. 

on tuesday we had a leadership meeting with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders that went from 8 in the morning to 6 at night. it was such a long day but i loved every minute. the asisstants assigned hermana smith and i to give one of the capacitations and one of our topics was using the 10 points to start teaching a lesson. we got REALLY creative and came up with hymns so that everyone in our mission could memorize the 10 points better! we're going to give the same capacitation to our zone tomorrow morning along with the zone leaders and we're really excited. 

also the divisions went great with the other sisters this week. we helped the sisters a lot and set a bunch of goals so that they could improve and keep progressing and remember why they decided to serve the lord. it was a little hard because hermana smith and i were separated for a good 4 days but it was worth it. 

hermano manual is going to be baptized this week! he has been listening to misisonaries for about 6 months now and he now KNOWS that this is the right decision. we taught him last night with one of the members from the ward, hermano pacheco, about enduring to the end. about 2 or so years ago his wife died and it was the first time he had really opened up to us and talked about it and hermano pacheco helped him to realize that he will see his wife again and that while he's here in this life listening to the gospel it's probable that his wife is also listening and accepting it. i know that is true.

i know christ lives and that this church is his true living church upon the earth. i love being a missionary and being reminded of that in every little moment when i am talking to someone about that on the bus or in the streets or even the grocery store on p day. i am so thankful for the gospel in my life.

i love you all, go share the gospel with others!

hermana williams

Scripture mastery -November 17, 2014

jasmin was baptized this tuesday! it was such a great feeling. she is so great and ever since i met her i have been so excited to see her get baptized and continue on being a faithful member of the church. she is already preparing to go to the temple in the next few weeks. the rest of our investigadores are doing great too. miguel angel is going to be baptized this week! his baptism wasn't going to happen until december but this week we randomly saw him walking home from work (we can usually only visit him on saturdays and sundays because he gets home late) and we were doing visits with one of his new friends from the ward, misael, and we were like hey lets talk for a minute. we started teaching him and at the end of the lesson hermana smith was like "hey do you want to get baptized next week?" he said YES and he's so excited. he's now going to institute on sunday and he visited other investigators with us again this week. we are starting to see the fruits of our labor here in chichenitza. 

also this week was a little bit crazy with divisons. hermana smith and i discovered a few problems that are going on in the zone. we are trying really hard to help the other hermanas in our zone so we are going to be in divisions all week next week, starting tomorrow night until friday! ahhhh. i'm going to miss my companion a lot but i am happy to be able to help others.

also stake conference was this week and it was so so so so wonderful. the temple and mission presidents came and a seventy came. the talks were beautiful. what i loved the most is that president garcia did an interview like thing with a few recent converts and recently activated less active members and he talked to them about what did they feel like when they came or came back to church for the first time, how the gospel has changed them, and each one spoke about the blessings they have received. one of the recent converts last year spoke and shared his testimony and practially everyone was in tears because he was so grateful for the missionaries and for everyone that helped him to accept the gospel in his life. he is just about to complete one year of being a member and is going to start his mission papers in a few weeks. 

i am so grateful for the oportunity taht i have to be a missionary, i don't think i say it enough. i love this work and i KNOW without a doubt that this is the lords work and this is his true and living gospel. i know he lives.

also president garcia is the BEST! like two weeks ago he told all of the missionaries that if we memorized the 25 book of mormon scripture masteries that we could go to the temple december 3rd! so far hermana smith and i have memorized 12. we walk around with flash cards all day and recite scriptures in our hammocks at night. it's pretty fun. go spanish scripture mastery!

well i love you all,

hermana williams

chichenitza - November 10, 2014

well chichenitza is pretty great. i feel so lucky and grateful to be here! the weeks just keep getting better and better here. and there is a lot of work! this morning and i hermana smith and i woke up really early to clean the baptismal font and the baptismal room because jasmin is going to be baptized tomorrow! i am so excited for her. it's been incredible seeing her progress these past few weeks. everyone in our ward is working really hard to keep her progressing and to help our other investigators also.

this week all of the leaders of the mission had two different conferences with president garcia in merida, and i was really thankful that i now live in merida instead of having to travel from ticul. the conferences were si inspiring. the theme of the conferences was "the vision". president garcia talked to us about having our vision and the vision of our investigators focused on the celestial kingdom, not in "coming to church this sunday" or "getting baptized" rather focusing on our investigadors to be converted and to be able to enter into the temple after their baptism and endure to the end. hermana smith and i started applying that to our area and to a few new investigators that we found and we are already seeing their ideas start to change. 

also one of our investigators miguel angel came and visited other investigators with us and hermano cesar yesterday. he is the BEST! we met a few new investigators and with one of them miguael angel practically explained the entire message of the restoration AND shared his testimony. hermana smith and i sat there with our mouths wide open. it was awesome. we also thought he was only going to be able to visit with us for an hour or so but nope. all day. in fact when we told him we had to go to the church for a meeting at six he asked if he could come with us. we told him okay so he came and while we were in our stake mission meeting he went to mission prep with cesar and now want to serve a mission. he's only 20 so as soon as he gets baptized he can start preparing right now for the mission. 

i'm still loving being companions with hermana smith. we have so much fun! oh and we already started listening to christmas music last night and praying that we will be together for chirstmas. oh and today we went to walwart to buy ingredients to make cookies to give to all of the members in our area for their help and support with the missionary work here. the cookies turned out really good!

well i love you all, 

hermana williams

Transfers - Chichenitza - October 27, 2014

well this morning at 6 our phone rang and our district leader said "sister williams, the transfer of your dreams just came... you and hermana smith are going to be companions again" i screamed. i am so excited! i'm now in another part of merida in a place called chichenitza, but the real chichenitza isn't anywhere closeby. i am going to miss ticul so much! saying goodbye towell this morning at 6 our phone rang and our district leader said "sister williams, the transfer of your dreams just came... you and hermana smith are going to be companions again" i screamed. i am so excited! i'm now in another part of merida in a place called chichenitza, but the real chichenitza isn't anywhere closeby. i am going to miss ticul so much! saying goodbye to all of my second family in ticul was really hard and they will always be close to my heart but i already love being back in merida. hermana smith and i are also going to be sister training leaders for two different zones so we are going to be traveling a lot and doing divisions two or three times each week with other hermanas here. i am so grateful for another opportunity to learn and to help others. 

i'll send a bunch of pictures from all of the people i said goodbye to in ticul in another email! 

i love you all.

hermana williams

 all of my second family in ticul was really hard and they will always be close to my heart but i already love being back in merida. hermana smith and i are also going to be sister training leaders for two different zones so we are going to be traveling a lot and doing divisions two or three times each week with other hermanas here. i am so grateful for another opportunity to learn and to help others. 

i'll send a bunch of pictures from all of the people i said goodbye to in ticul in another email! 

i love you all.

hermana williams

T COOL - October 20, 2014

hola todos, 

this week has been great! i am loving the time i have here in ticul. i'm a little sad because it might be my last week here. i have grown so close to all of our investigators and the members here, and i consider most of them my second family, but like the hymn says "i'll go where you want me to go dear lord".

this week was stake conference! all of the little towns in the district came and so did president and hermana garcia and the merida temple presidents. it was an amazing conference and i learned so much from each talk, especially from the temple presidents. right now we are working with a lot of less active members so that they can start going to the temple and sunday night after the conference when we visited an older couple that still haven't been sealed in the temple we could feel the spirit of the conference softening their hearts to make the decision to go. also our second dad here, hermano roger tun was called to be the new stake president! 

below is a picture of the sima family with angel and also hermana delia and her store, she always gives us fruit or little candies when we pass by. i love her so much!

i hope you all have a great week!

hermana williams

oh and also last week we talked to the owner of the internet cafe while we were leaving and showed him www.lds.org and he seemed really interested and when we walked in this week to write he started blasting music of another religion and hardly talked to us. ahhhhhh. gotta love being a missionary sometimes hahaha.

One year! October 13, 2014

angel was baptized this week!

the program was so sweet. his older cousin isai baptized him, and many members of his family that aren't members of ther church came. i know that everyone felt the spirit. our district leader sang the primary song "mi padre celestial me ama" and right now i can't remember what it's called in english hahaha but it was really sweet. angel is so great and i know he will continue to be a great example for others for the rest of his life. he was so happy all saturday night and sunday after church.

also there is a tiny tiny little town about 15 minutes outside of ticul that belongs to our branch and last night we had a family home evening with all of the members there and a few others that they invited. hermana renteria and i were standing up teaching to about 20 people last night. it was crazy! there is a lot of work in dzan and we are going to start working there at least once a week now.

also, this week we had interviews with president garcia. i am so thankfuk for president garcia and all that i have learned from him. him and hermana garcia are so inspiring! he also told us that he was really happy with all of the progress hermana renteria has made in her training that we don't need to have an hour of training each day. we are now leaving the house at 10 after we finish companionship study in english so that we can have another extra hour to work. it has been a little tiring but we have been able to see the blessings! we found two new families to teach.

everything is great here in ticul. i love it. and i'm not ready to leave, i'm also not ready to come home! luckily i still have six months left in the mission!

love you all,

hermana williams

conference weekend -October 6, 2014

this week was wonderful and conference weekend topped it all off. i hope you all loved it! i loved all the talks and i can't wait for the liahona to come so that i can read them all again. i loved the talk about the sacrament by sister cheryl a. esplin, it really opened my eyes about the importance of the sacrament and how i can better apply the atoning sacrifice of jesus christ in my life. i got to watch two sessions in spanish and the other two in english with sister hoggan. we happened to watch both of the sessions where there was a spanish speaker in english hahaha.

hermano angel, the cousin of the sima family is getting baptized this week. he started coming to church with the sima family when they started rectivating a couple weeks ago and now his uncle juan, the dad of the sima family, has a baptismal date for the end of this month! we are working really hard with hermano juan because he likes to drink, and always drinks on the weekends with his friends but recently he has been coming to church with his family and he is starting to change his life. it is amazing to see. 

it's super super hot here and everyone says they've never seen a hotter october so my companion and i are dying a little. i keep praying that in two weeks i'll get sent to the beaches of campeche or progreso or somewhere cooler, but i will miss my sweet little ticul family so much.

i love you all, have a great week! enjoy fall weather!

hermana williams

Orange Season September 29, 2014

it has been another great week here in ticul.

yesterday made me realize how grateful i am to be a missionary. yesterday the church was filled with members. when hermana rivera and i first got to ticul there weren't many active members attending church. at times there were 40 or 50 members for sacrament meeting and yesterday we had over 90 members at church. it was such a blessing to see that the work that we have been doing here with less active members is strengthing our branch so that one day it can be a ward. also, the general women's conference was so inspirational. i love elder uchtdorf and his talk that he gave on saturday about the importance to keep ALL of god's commandments. about a week ago we had an investigator that told us "god is like rain, he pours his blessings out on everyone and it doesn't matter what we do" well like elder uchtdorf said, when we break our heavenly father's commandents we put up our own personal umbrella which doesn't let us experience all the blessings that we could have. i know that he lives and i know that he loves every one of us and wants to to keep his commandments so that we can live with him again. my companion and i also started to memorize "the living christ" and i can already feel my testimony growing.

also it's orange season here! which makes hermana renteria and i very happy. it's almost better than mango and avocado season. in almost every lesson that we have taught this week someone gives us an orange or a clementine. 

i love you all! have a great week and watch conference. i can't wait to watch it, and i get to watch it in english again! hermana hoggan just arrived from utah and doesn't quite know english so we are going to watch it together in the family search center in the church. 

have a great week,

hermana williams

11 months - September 15, 2014

what a week!

on thursday elder benjamin de hoyos, the area president of mexico came to visit our mission so on thrusday morning the whole zone traveled to merida. it was such an amazing conference, it lasted for about five hours but only felt like one or two. i loved it all!

last night we had another activity in the center of ticul and watched the testament like we did last week in muna. it was such a success! i wish i had more time to write about it. also we had transfers and luckily i am staying here in ticul with hermana renteria!

i love you all, 

hermana williams

September 8, 2014

it has been a great week here in ticul and muna...

yesterday we had an activity in muna, another little town about a half hour away from ticul and about half of our zone went to help out. the activity was just like "fill ticul with the book of mormon" but instead of watching the video of the restoration we watched the testament, where christ comes to visit the people in america. when we all got to muna we all split up in pairs and starting contacting and inviting people to watch the movie and when the movie started every seat was filled! by the time the movie ended and everyone had left we had over 50 new references for the elders in muna. it was a great night and a wonderful oportunity to share with others that our heavenly father loves us and loves all of his children and that we can come to know this through the book of mormon. i don't think i share my testimony enough about the book of mormon. i know that it is true and i know that it contains the fullness of the gospel of jesus christ. the more that i learn from the book of mormon here the closer i feel to my heavenly father because i am learning about the special plan he has for me.

i love you all, 

hermana williams

also grandma... please don't be mad that i rode a half an hour in the back of a truck!

September 1, 2014

hi everyone,

after a few weeks of trials it has been such a great week. my companion and a set a lot of goals and by the end of the week we found 11 new investigators! i am so happy and grateful. one of the families is a mom and her four kids and within 15 minutes expressed to us how grateful she was that we came to her house to teach her and accepted a baptismal date for october. 

also we are starting to plan a bunch of activities to activate the less active members of our branch and this week we played "100 mormons said" in the chapel.it was so much fun and SO many members and less active members, and even a few investigators came. our next activity is a talent show on september 15th for mexico's indepence day.

also i finally have a camera again! thank you mom and dad. below is wendy and her little cousin camilla, and another picture of what half of our area here in ticul looks like. gotta love the green!

Samari Swords - August 18, 2014

well this week has been a week of much learning. it has been a week with more downs than the usual ups and downs of the mission. 

on wednesday night after a long day and a few disappointments with our investigators, hermana renteria and i went to visit hermano hermano juan and his family to find out that currently him mon is in the hospital dying.

this week i learned that we have trials in life because our heavenly father knows that we can grow. after a long week of praying for hermano juan and many other investigators my companion shared a story with me about samari swords. she told me that samari swords are so strong and fine because while they're in the process of being made they're put in the burning hot fire and then are pounded many many times and each time they come out of the fire and the beatings are a little bit stronger until the process is finished and a strong sword has been made. i know with a surety that through our trials we can be made strong and that heavenly father is always listening to our prayers.

also hermana renteria and i have also been working so much with inactive families here in our branch and yesterday two inactive familes came to church! one family in particular, the moo family (yes, moo is mayan) has a special place in my heart. right now we are helping prepare omar, blanca and their two 15 and 14 year old sons to enter into the temple for the first time at the end of this month!

i love being a missionary and i'm so thnakful i still have 8 months ahead full of much more to learn. 

i love you all,

hermana williams