One Week Left

From Alayna:  This is Frasier's letter from 9/14/17.
The above picture is how he enjoyed the Utah/BYU game in the MTC! :)

One week left before they ship me off to the other side of the world! I am so excited. I love it here at the MTC and I don't really want to leave, nor do I feel ready but at the same time, I am super ready to leave! I'm ready to meet new people and to talk to them (even though I won't be doing much meaningful talking). I'm ready for the people, the culture, the food, the scenery, and everything else. It'll come soon enough. This little bit or council goes for everything: Just keep a good attitude and enjoy what you're doing. Find the reasons for your situations and enjoy them. It goes by fast!

Thursday: Today marked 4 weeks here at the MTC. I have learned so much about the spirit, gospel, Tagalog, and myself. I still have a long ways to go in all those areas, but I am doing really good! Today we went to the Temple and it was awesome to gain more understanding about the Temple just like every time. It really is an amazing place. I spent almost the whole day emailing, so we will have to see how that changes once I get to the Philippines. One thing I realized today is that I need to keep my mind on the purpose at hand and not worry about stuff at home and just trust it will all be OK when I get home. Things will be different and people will be doing different things, but that always happens and you just have to go with the flow. 

We had an online TRC today and that was cool. It honestly wasn't that much different because the whole point of the online TRC is to talk to real Philipinos, but they didn't have enough volunteers so we just talked to some girl that lives in Logan. 

Friday: I forgot to write in my journal today. So I did it later, but this is what I remember went on. In our class, Brother Hill was talking to us a bit about his mission experience. One story in particular that he shared with us was about his "favorite" companion he had. He said that this Elder was just super bubbly and bouncy all the time. He said that they both learned so much from each other. They both were set to leave to go home on the same day, but this Elder's dad was passing away, so he went home 2 weeks early. Brother Hill said that even when he found out about this Elder's dad, and actually took him to the airport, he was still the happiest guy and just talked about how much he had learned from Brother Hill. We had a discussion about this story as a district. Here are some things I learned from that: I want to learn something from every one of my companions, and I want to have a positive impact on them as well. There is a purpose for every person and situation you come in contact with. Whether they be good or bad, there is always a reason. The biggest thing I got was this though: I want to be the person people remember. I don't always feel like I have been that type of person and I want to change that. I want to be remembered for the good and how much people enjoyed being around me and what they learned from me.

Saturday: Today had a lot of good! It was also the hardest day so far though. It was the Utah vs. BYU game today, and even though we were at the MTC you could still tell the game was going on. It seemed like everyone was a BYU fan here, which just reassured my love for the Utes even more. Starting at the begging of the day. We have an early morning class on Saturdays. I wore my crocks to breakfast, and then forgot I had them on. I also was wearing my Utah tie, and then had a pair of Utah glasses in my pocket. Apparently, that combination called for me to have some dress code counseling even though I've never had a problem with it before. Brother Hill let me know everything, and he was very nice about it. He said that it had nothing to do with the fact that he is a BYU fan and goes to BYU, but I'm pretty sure that still had a little to do with it. He asked me to go back to my room and fix the stuff that was wrong, including my tie. That is what set me off. I could care less about having to change a tie, even though especially given the day, and the fact that we are still at the MTC it shouldn't matter. Anyways, after that, I went into a little bit of a dark place for a little while. Every little mission rule that doesn't make sense started coming to my mind and I started to get really angry. I also got really bummed I couldn't be with my family for little things (like football games) or even at least talk to them. That is one thing that I get the reasoning, but it still doesn't make sense to me why we can't call our families while we are on our missions. I went back to my room after class and just sat there and cried for a little bit. After I got over it the rest of the day was good! We went outside and played spike ball, that was good to get some energy out. When we got back to the residency some Philippines Elders in the rooms right next to us wrote a song called "dear john". They wanted to make a music video for it, so we spent the next little while planning and doing the music video. It was so funny as we were doing that. Hopefully, I can get it in an email so I can send it. Maybe it is just missionaries not having anything else to do, but I thought it was funny. That night we went to the new MTC buildings to see if we could see anything from the game. We could see a little part of the stands, and then the screen, except there is a big tree in the way so we couldn't actually see the screen. After a little while, we just went outside. You could hear and smell the game. You could hear cheering and then muffled game announcing. I kept on getting score updates so we knew what was going on. I was decked out in all the Utah gear I had, and evidently it worked because Utah won again. Maybe someday BYU will win again, but definitely not for another 365 days!

Sunday: Today was good, other than I was sick. I guess it is part of the MTC experience to get sick, so it had to come at some point. My nose was running all day. Then during a 2 hour period where we have to just sit and study or do whatever, I blew my nose and it turned into a bloody nose that wouldn't stop for about an hour and a half. So that sucked. I also got a headache afterward, and that wasn't too much fun either. Elder Bennett and I got assigned to teach our district today. It went good. I just need to get used to teaching with someone else instead of by myself like you usually do at church. We taught about the blessings of the spirit. Go check out MMMMMMM. That is obviously not all of them, but it is a good start. (Added by Alayna:  I have no idea what this means!  Anyone?!?)

Later on, Brother and Sister Hicken (Branch Presidency) taught us about being a consecrated missionary. They were basically just using the talk that Elder Bennett and I watched last Sunday. It was really good though because they went into more detail on some things. For the devotional tonight we got to hear from Chad Lewis. It was cool to hear from him because it wasn't just a normal talk. He was talking about football and real life stuff. One major point he made was  "What are you training your heart, might, mind, and body to do?" If you train yourself right you will just automatically do what is good. Also "If you learn to love and serve people, you will forget about everything else." The last thing I want to point out that he said was: "Keep the fire alive in everything you do. Whether in sports, mission work, or marriage. You need to keep the passion and desire." 

For the Sunday film we watched  "Recognizing the Spirit" by Elder Bednar. Once again, just another amazing talk. He shared 3 experiences where the spirit guided him to do something and he didn't know why until after the fact. One was the time he gave Elder Packer 20 marks when he was on his mission, that turned out to save Elder Packer from getting stuck in Communist Berlin. He didn't find out that happened until 20 years after the fact. Another was when Elder Bednar and another Elder in his Stake Council left to go and see their sons play basketball. 6 months later that other man's son died and the basketball game was one of the last times the dad ever got to see his son play. The last one was him not knowing why he gave a talk on a specific topic in General Conference until he heard the talk after his and knew that they were meant to compliment each other. The main point Elder Bednar makes is: "Quit worrying about it! If you are being a good boy and doing what is right, the spirit will guide you whether you recognize it or not." Contrary to popular belief, apostles often times get just the same spiritual promptings we do. One little side note, I felt the spirit super strong at one point during this video. It was when Elder Bednar said the words "I promise in the name of Jesus Christ". I realized how powerful a statement that is.

Monday: It's crazy how fast time flies by! In less than 2 weeks I will be in Cauayan teaching people. Today we did a Book of Mormon study with Brother Hill. It was awesome. It is great to be around a bunch of kids my age all trying to learn the gospel and honestly have their questions answered. Later on in the day we did a "jeepnee" activity. If you don't know what a jeepnee is I will probably have a picture to send next week. They are kind of like city busses. Anyways, they are perfect places for missionaries to talk to people, so we set up chairs in the same way they would be in a jeepnee and then roll played as a class. It was probably the funniest time I've had in class so far. We were kind of cracking jokes and stuff as we were doing this actvity. I think Sister Giles also realilzed how bad our Tagalog was as we were joking around in this activity, because she was almost crying she was laughing so hard. I don't know how to explain it other than it was just funny! What I realized today is I'm pretty good at Tagalog with using what I know. The problem is I don't know very much at all.

Tuesday: Today was our first day of infield orientation (kindof). They used to do infield orientation all in one day, but now they spread it out over a whole week so that it is just for 2 hours a day. This is the first week they have done it this way, so our schedules are kind of messed up. The MTC was supposed to let our zone leader know that we had infield orrientation, but somehow that message didn't get through, so there were about 50 of us missing from infield orientation yesterday. We made it today though! It was really good. It is getting all of us really excited for the field. Here are a few of the things I got from that: "Never lower your expectations. Hold yourself to all the highest expectations so you can be the best missionary possible (most effective)".  Another one was: "Just find a way to fix any problem that comes your way." That is how you become an effective missionary. Last, "A missionary's attitude has a huge effect on their success." All in all it is just crazy that they are getting us ready to actually go out in the field. 

For the devotional tonight we heard from Patrick Kearon who is in the Presiding Bishopric. He was really good. Partially because he has a British accent. He also had a really good talk though. "The best way to be a teacher is to know what you are teaching". That is pretty obvious why that is important. "Do everything with a purpose and ATTACK THE DAY! Your mission is a time to embrace hard and learn how to embrace hard things. Take [these days of] anguish and make them count. It'll all be worth it". "As Mormons we thrive on opposition". "God puts us through the refiners fire with just enough heat to become stronger and more beautiful. He will always put us through just enough that we can handle it." So far these are all different quotes that Brother Kearon said throughout this talk. The refiners fire thing made me think of the video the church made called "The Refiner's Fire".  All those together make for a great little talk, but those are just some of the notes I took. It was really an amazing talk, and something I needed to hear. Another quote I got was "Align your will with Christ's, not the other way around. If you are with God's Will, you can command anything to happen". That is pretty amazing to think that if we are following God's path, we can really do anything.

Wednesday: Today was another good day, as usual. We had service again. I'm getting pretty good at cleaning the bathrooms here at the MTC. 

We had another infield orientation and today it was all about working with members. It was really cool. They basically just showed us how to effectively use members in the conversion process. They did that mostly through a play that they do. Take "The Best 2 Years" or some other corny LDS movie and times it by 10 and that is what this play was. It was really good though and super funny, but still got the point across. Ask any retuned missionary and they will be able to tell you about the infield orientation play. Later on, we did another Book of Mormon read with Brother Hill. My question was how can I get along with my companion and people in general more? I didn't get any crazy big answer like "If you do this, you will get along with everyone" or anything like that, but I did get a few gems: 

Just have faith and things will come in time. 

You have to believe it will happen, or it won't. 

It doesn't always feel like God is with you; sometimes we feel like there is a lack of power, like God isn't there. That is when we need to work the hardest. God doesn't give us blessings unless he can trust us with them.  

How we perform in our struggles is what proves to God that he can trust us. 

For one good thing, there are a lot of bad things that happen, but that is what makes the good so good! 

We also talked to Brother Hill about how to ask meaningful questions to people and how to gain trust with them. Then he let us practice on him because we will actually be teaching him a lesson next week. You could really feel the spirit in that discussion. Even though they were all questions about him, I learned a lot. One thing, it's amazing Brother Hill isn't married yet because he is a stud!

Hopefully everyone is doing well at home! I miss all of you. If anyone who reads this wouldn't mind, send me an email just so I can have your address just in case I get a minute on a Pday to shoot you an email (probably unlikely, but well see). 

(Added by Alayna:  His email address is:  frasier.williamson@myldsmail.net )

Hopefully everyone is enjoying my emails. I wish I could just tell people everything and give you all the feelings I've been having. I try to let you know a little through email, but it might be even less next week because I'll actually be in the Philippines next time I have a P day. Sobrang excited Ako!

Kita Kits!

(Added by Alayna:  Translation is "I'm so excited.  See you!") 

--

Forever and a day, 

Love Elder Williamson!

Umutot kayo!

From Alayna:  This is Frasier's email from 9/7/17.  I'm behind in updating the blog.  Sorry!  Also, this picture is of our cute neighbor Rylee who just entered the MTC last week.  They both look so great!

Umutot kayo!  (Added by Alayna: Translation is Get Up!)

One quick little thing before the rest of my email. Someone told me they wish they could feel like how a missionary feels. (paraphrasing) Honestly, in a lot of ways, you can't because you aren't set apart. But in so many more ways you can. Just focus on doing service for others and being your best person. Also, try to do your own personal scripture/gospel study daily. Use all the tools. (lds.org, preach my gospel, Jesus the Christ, True to the Faith, Scriptures, etc.) Do honest diligent study and try to be a good person and that is as close as I can think to it being like the real thing. Remember you don't have to be on a mission to be a missionary. 

Thursday: Another P day down. Honestly, it was a lot of the same as the past P days. We went to the Temple again today. I realized I am already becoming more patient. We got all the way to the Temple, and then Elder Bennett realized he forgot his recommend, so we had to walk all the way back down to the MTC and get his recommend and then walk all the way back up. The reason I say I was patient is I didn't even say one angry thing to him. I was just like "OK, Lets go and get it". Go me!

I understood just the slightest bit more about the Temple as we did our session today. So that is an answer to prayers because as some of you know, the Temple is really confusing sometimes.

Emailing was kind of weird, because I just wanted to call my family and talk to them, but obviously I can't do that. I saw the results of the Utah game, so that was good! It was another weird thing just because that is the first time I haven't watched an opening game in who knows how long. I was wearing my Utah shirt all day though. Some BYU student that works at the MTC tried to give me crap for it. I was like "just wait till next weekend before you try to give me crap".

During our evening class, another great question was asked. "Am I living up to my priesthood responsibilities?" That is a good one to study because a lot of people, including me, probably don't even know exactly what that question means. 

Friday: Today for personal study I was studying Faith out of the Preach My Gospel. First I would say, even if you are at home and you aren't going on a mission, or already went on one, I would definitely recommend getting a Preach My Gospel and using it in your personal life. It is such a great tool. I wrote down like 2 pages of notes off of one little section in the book, and what I gained from reading the scriptures as well. "Faith is a principle of action. One can command elements, heal the sick, and influence any number of circumstances." This is what I got from that, "True faith makes miracles happen. True faith is like going into a game totally blindfolded, but still trusting the best will happen. The only thing is you aren't truly blindfolded. You have the help of the spirit." -Elder Williamson

Today during class time, we learned about lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel. All of the lessons in this book are amazing. This one would give people that don't know about it so much hope. 1) through Christ we can be cleansed of sin. 2) faith in Jesus Christ 3) repentance 4) baptism 5) enduring to the end. I could feel the spirit so strong as we were learning about this lesson. It also had a strong connection because my morning study was about faith, and a big part of this lesson is that you have to have faith or none of it is going to do any good for you.

"You need to have faith and it will all work out, but you need to work your hardest as well" -Elder Williamson

Saturday: Today we taught Noel again. We went in planning on teaching about the plan of salvation. That didn't end up happening. ha ha

He asked us about the Book of Mormon, so we ended up spending the whole time again talking about why it is important. It was good though. We could feel the spirit in our lesson, and I felt OK about the language. Later on, in class, we reviewed what we have learned about the language so far. It was amazing to realize how much I already know, yet I can still feel stressed about the language.

Today for our "study" time we have at the end of the day we played Phase 10 the whole time. It literally took the whole night to play one game. We ended up playing for over 5 hours, which meant we went to bed at about 12:30. It was really fun until the end of the game. I came from way behind and ended up being the first one to be out. The only problem is 2 other elders went out on that same round, after I did, and they beat me by points. That was one of the most intense card games ever, and I don't really play cards at home that much. I realized why, we all went to bed mad because of how the game ended. Not fuming or anything, but none of us really talked to each other. It was kind of funny. We also designated a corner of the room to go and utot. (Added by Alayna: Translation of utot is “fart”).  After about 11 o'clock that becomes really funny. Tomorrow is fast Sunday so we had a bunch of food and drinks out as we were playing as well. 

Sunday: Today was probably one of the longest days ever! There are a few reasons for that.

1) I stayed up till past midnight and then got up at 6:30.

2) I didn't eat for a good majority of the day.

3) It was Sunday. I spent a lot of time trying to understand fasting and realize the purpose for it. I didn't really get much other than we do it because we are commanded to. I need to work on having a better attitude about fasting, but it kinda stinks to be hungry all day.

Today while my district was waiting to have our mid-MTC interview we started watching a bunch of videos on LDS.org. For some reason, we decided to watch all old cheesy church videos that have been put out. Our playlist was Johnny Lingo (old version), Putting on the Armour of God, and the Phonecall. They were funny because they are just so bad. ha ha

During my interview, I got one word of counsel: "Comparing yourself to others is one of the great poisons of life. It always ends up going bad in one direction or the other." I catch myself comparing myself to some of the other Elders in my district quite a bit. Some of them seem to already be fluent in Tagalog which can be demoralizing. That council applies to real life just as much as it does to missions. If I ever compared myself in running, or anything else, I either get a little full of myself, or I get really down on myself. Simply put, just don't compare yourself.

For the Sunday evening devotional, one of the members of the MTC presidency and his wife spoke to us. Some really good quotes I got from them:

"Enduring to the end isn't simply enduring, it is striving to be better than you were until the end."

"If you give everything unto the Lord, He will give everything unto you."

Both of those were answers to prayers I have said.

For film time, Elder Bennett and I watched a talk called "Consecrated Missionary".  A consecrated missionary is willing to give up everything for the work. 5 things a truly consecrated missionary gives up:

1) Any streak of disobedience. I'm still working on that one.

2) Any of your fears. I'm still working on that one.

3) Put all your romantic passions aside. I guess I'm still working on that one too.

4) Give up your pride. Definitely still working on that one.

5) Give up negativism and sarcasm. I don't know if I will ever be perfect on this one.

Basically, I am nowhere near a consecrated missionary yet. ha ha

"If you have the power of a consecrated missionary, you are basically without limits. You need to collapse at the finish line, finish the marathon, go all 15 rounds and you will be a great missionary." If I can be like this someday I will be so happy. 

Monday: Happy Birthday to me! Honestly, today wasn't all that special. It was the same old schedule, and it was Labor Day so no mail was delivered. I did get a couple emails from people though, so thank you! You know who you are. ;)

I said a prayer this morning asking for the spirit to be with me and God answered my birthday present. For personal study time, I was studying hope. That is the next section after faith. Those are amazing two sections. They have so much to do with each other. As I was studying I felt like I could have written conference talk on what I was studying. Faith has to come first before you have hope. Faith is a principle based on action. Once you act on faith (in Jesus), you hope for a result. Ether 12:4, 32.

(Added by Alayna: Ether 12:4 & 32 read:

“Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared.”)

It was pretty amazing to have the spirit with me during my studies. I thought of the story of the lady touching Jesus' coat and how she had faith and hope, and also the story of the Stripling Warriors.

During exercise time I was running on the track and I started running with this kid who you could just tell was a distance runner. He had the skinny lanky body and was wearing shorts that were borderline acceptable for the MTC. We ended up just running and talking for 10-15 minutes. That was nice to talk to someone who kind of understands where I was coming from in high school for a little bit.

During class time, we had interviews with our teacher. He suggested one thing for issues with getting along with people. Don't just hold things in and bottle them up if they are bothering you. Talk to people in a constructive way and tell them that it is bothering you. Say that you are working on trying to not let it bother you. Often times the people will recognize what they are doing and try to tone it down a little to help you out.

We also taught Jaci today. We could definitely feel the spirit in that lesson with us. She still has a lot to work on, but she agreed to think about baptism before we teach her again. So you could say we are on the right track.

I almost forgot. So there is an Elder in our district who is deathly afraid of worms for some reason. We found a caterpillar today, which is sadly not a worm, but it does the job. We set it on this Elders desk and then put a cup over top of it. When he came into his room he saw a cup on his desk, went to take it off, and then absolutely freaked out. He slammed the door open as he ran out of his room. It shook the whole building. Then we kept on teasing him and one elder actually threw it at him. I have never seen reflexes like that in my life. He smacked the caterpillar out of the air and into the window. It was really funny. 

Tuesday: Today was a pretty awesome day! Today my package from my family got delivered. It was HUGE. It looked like a mini fridge box when I picked it up. It was loaded with stuff also. It had balloons that popped out when I first opened it. Then it was filled with all sorts of treats, food, and candy. My birthday cake was the birthday cake flavored Oreos. It also had Shauna Cox’s cookies, Mountain Dew and Red Solo cups and ping pong balls to do who knows what with, some Utah gear to have for game day this weekend, and then a Weber State shirt, tie, and sticker. I was so happy!

And, everyone that I walked past as I was carrying my box to my room kept on saying “Happy Birthday” so that was cool. Then we went to choir practice. As usual, brother Adget was amazing. He tells really amazing stories and cracks jokes all the time, and somehow he still manages to tie them into the song we happen to be singing. He talked about how he was in a class once and his Institute teacher said that our Heavenly Parents literally birthed us. He said he tried to prove her wrong, but everything he found proved her right. I thought that was pretty amazing to think about. He also shared a story about how when people die they aren't really gone. They have just moved over to the next room in God's doll house. (He was saying how he explained this to a little girl once.)  It was another pretty amazing story.

Afterward, we had our Tuesday evening devotional. It was pretty awesome because Elder Dallin H. Oaks was the speaker. He and his wife gave some amazing talks. Elder Oaks plain and simply laid it out on the table and talked about like 5 different things throughout his talk. He talked about 3 challenges of being a missionary which are:

1) Learning new skills; language skills especially.

2) The challenge to become. To become a missionary or anything else.

3) The challenge to change. You must change who you are to be a missionary.

He also talked about Temples. He said without the resurrection or the afterlife Temples would not matter. They would just be pretty buildings. That is very true if you think about it. It put a whole new perspective on temples for me. He also talked a lot out of Preach my Gospel. One reason for that is he helped write it, so it is basically his teachings anyway. He really did brush over a lot of gospel topics, but the way he speaks, he taught you something about them. Overall today was just awesome in so many ways!

Wednesday: We had service again this morning. It was kind of funny. They want all the missionaries to do service, but they don't really have enough jobs for everyone to do something, so by the end of our service time, the janitor guy just started taking us around showing us secret tunnels in the MTC. After that, we had exercise time. I went on a split and ran with this kid from another district. It was nice because we both could run the same pace, so we just ran around the whole campus a bunch for half an hour. It was nice to get some new scenery on my run today.

Today during class time, one of the Elders was asking us where Las Vegas was, so we ended up drawing a really funny map across the whole whiteboard in our classroom. Hopefully, I get a picture of it to show you. It is just another one of those things we do when we are left alone for too long.

Later on, we had another class. Elder Bennett and I taught Noel. We also did another Book of Mormon study. Those are truly amazing. I would highly recommend doing one if you ever have time. What you do is you sit down with a Book of Mormon, a pen, and some paper. You start out with any question you want. Say a prayer about it, and then go to any part in the Book of Mormon you want and you just read and write down any thoughts that come to your head. It can go as long or as short as you want. After you are done, close with a prayer and that's it. It is pretty simple, but it does wonders. If you are really trying and studying right, you will always get some sort of an answer to your prayer, even if it doesn't come directly from the Book of Mormon itself. What I was studying was kind of personal, but I can tell you I definitely got answers to my question. 

All in all, this week was pretty great! I miss everyone so much, but I know everyday what I'm doing is what I should be doing at this point in my life. Hopefully, everyone is doing well!  Send me emails if you want. I won't always reply, but I love getting them. I am very excited to leave for the Philippines. Some of the Elders that left last week have sent out emails and they have said it is already just so amazing. I can't wait to tell you what it is like. 

Alam ko po na ang simbahan ni Jesucristo totoo!

(Added by Alayna: The translation is “I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is true!”)

Sadly, we get English name tags because the church was established in English, so they want our name tags to match the signs on the churches and temples. This is what it would say though: "Ang simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga banal sa mga huling araw".

(Added by Alayna: The translation is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”)

There's your weekly dose of Tagalog. Sorry I don't have many pictures, after a month at the MTC there isn't much else to take pictures of.

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

100 weeks to go!

Kumusta po kayo mga pamilia?

(Added by Alayna: Translation is “How are you?”)

I am having a blast here. Thank you to anyone who has sent me letters or emails! Keep them coming, they really mean a lot to me! Here are a few things I have realized in this past week. I am going to be wet for the next 2 years. Pictures that I have seen from the Philippines look amazing, yet very hot! Also, I only have 100 more weeks to go! As of scheduling, right now my mission is only 103 weeks long. That's just a joke though, I'm loving it, and I've only been in Provo. The last thing is, if I haven't ever gotten in a fight with you or anything like that, you are a lucky/very special person because I don't get along with too many people too easily. 

Thursday: Second P day in the books. Today we went to the temple and had breakfast there. I don't know if it was just because the food was made in the temple or what, but that was some really good food. If you haven't tried it, you definitely should. At the temple, we did initiatory work and that was cool just because it was the first time I had ever done initiatory work for the dead. The rest of the day went something like this; did laundry, emailed, ate some food, emailed some more, ate some more food, went to class, then emailed again. I take a really long time to write my emails, but I just have so much to tell everybody, so I guess it is ok. In our class we had in the evening, Elder Bennett and I had 20 minutes to plan for a lesson we had to teach to our new "investigator" named Jaci. It is kind of funny because when I feel like a lesson goes well, Elder Bennett doesn't, and vice versa. I felt like it went really well mainly for the fact that I actually understood what was going on most of the time. I guess that is the good part about having a companion is having 2 different views of a lesson. At the end of class today our teacher Sister Giles asked us 2 questions that we were supposed to think about, "What do I want to be feeling the last day of my mission?" and "What are the differences that I want people to notice in me when I get home?" I wrote those down on a paper and pinned them on my wall because those 2 questions hit me pretty hard. We are supposed to start working on those questions now rather than in 2 years right before we get home. We also had a lesson on how to make prayers more meaningful. Here are some tips I picked up: Write down your thoughts throughout the day, have faith in your relationship with God, and say your prayers as if you were talking to your earthly father face to face. 

Friday: Today during exercise time I ran and then after I was done running some Elders and Sisters asked if I wanted to play volleyball with them. It was one of the funniest volleyball games of my life. I was the only American person playing in that game. Everyone else was from Mexico and China. None of them knew how to play volleyball at all. They were hitting the ball any which way it could go. They would also start yelling at each other (jokingly) in different languages because they hit someone in the back of the head or something. One of the Mexican Elders said this to another Elder:

"Show them that you go to the gym!"

"I don't know what that even means!"

"It means you are really strong and you should show the other team!"

"WHAT?"

"Just hit the ball!"

I really enjoyed exercise time just because of that game.

We had another lesson today with Noel. It went good, other than Elder Bennett just kept on talking and turned what was supposed to be a 20-minute lesson into a 40-minute lesson. I "mentioned" to him that we went too long afterwards and immediately felt bad about that. One thing I am working on throughout these next two years is being more kind, loving, and patient with people.

Later in the day during our evening class, we were supposed to summarize lesson 2 in preach my gospel. Some of you might know this, but lesson 2 in preach my gospel is about every topic in the gospel that you can't just simply summarize. It kind of blows me away how amazing that lesson is. 

Saturday: Today in class we learned how to use a lot of different kind of question words in Tagalog, which is very useful. Later on in the class, Elder Bennett and I taught Jaci again. It went really good. We asked her if she had any questions for us at the beginning of class and we ended up just answering her questions for the whole lesson. It was really good because we could understand what she was saying, and we could kind of answer those questions. I probably told her something really bad or funny, but at least we thought we were answering the questions. We also had another companionship inventory as part of class. It was still just as weird as the first time we did it. The main thing we did was set personal goals for each other about language study and what not.

For exercise time we went and played 4 square in the gym. It is really kind of funny because for the most part, the Elders that play 4 square are the ones that aren't very fit or athletic, but they still get super competitive nonetheless. You would be surprised how fired up about 4 square some people can get. I enjoyed it just watching all the other Elders.

One of the best/ worst parts about that exercise time was something else though. As we were playing a group of sisters came and joined. In that group was one of the nicest (and most attractive) sisters at the MTC, or at least that is what the other elders told me because I'm a missionary and would definitely not be paying attention to worldly things such as girls. haha

She was always winning in 4 square, and the reason for that was even the overly competitive Elders didn't want to get her out of the game.

On Saturday nights my district has a 3-hour block where we are supposed to study before bed. I studied for about 20 minutes. I did find something pretty amazing.  Read D&C 131:7-8

(Added by Alayna:  D&C 131:7-8 reads “There is no such thing as immaterial matter.  All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;  We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.”)

There is no such thing as immaterial matter. Our spirits are matter, which means that they are tangible things, they are just too fine for us to be able to see them. Only pure spirits can see spirits in this life. That is why in the General Conference when President Monson was slowly falling, that little kids said they could see people holding him up even though there wasn't anyone holding him. There were spirits holding him up and little kids were pure enough to see them for a time. That was pretty amazing, so I just decided to stop there.

The rest of that night my district had a DHE. We all sat around together and ate snacks, while we showed pictures and talked about each other's families. It was really relaxing, fun, and a good way to get to know each other. We decided we are going to do something like that the rest of the Saturdays we are here. 

Sunday: Today in sacrament they made new zone/branch assignments because the older missionaries are leaving on Wednesday. Apparently, you don't get a choice if you want to accept your assignment or not because you accepted your mission call and that means you accept everything else. Elder Bennett and I got assigned to be sacrament coordinators. Basically, all we have to do is call on people to bless and pass the sacrament. Pretty easy job I guess.

Today the theme for all the lessons was agency and repentance. They go pretty hand in hand with each other because if you think about it, we all use our agency and then, needless to say, we have to repent because of the choices we make. Luckily through the atonement and repentance, we can overcome our sins. For our Sunday devotional, we had Gary Crittenden who is the director of the missionary department. The biggest thing that I got from his talk, even though all of it was really good, was these 3 choices a missionary has.

1) The choice to take care of your body. Your body and spirit are directly linked.

2) Serve God with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. Whosoever loses themselves in the service, shall find themselves.

3) Live to be worthy of the spirit. No matter how far you have gone; it is not too far for the Lord to help you back.

For our Sunday film, Elder Bennett and I watched a talk by Elder Uchtdorf about his wife's conversion story. Basically, if a missionary is doing what is right, miracles will happen. That film was awesome because he and his wife gave great talks, but they were also teasing each other as they were doing it. I hope to someday have a relationship like that with my wife. 

Monday: Today for personal study I was prompted to make a list of qualities I would want in my wife when I get married. It was really a good experience because I knew exactly what I wanted to write down. A little bit later I was talking to one of our branch presidents and it led into what I did for personal study. He told me that the one thing he would say is to get those qualities in myself before I try to find them in others. I definitely took note of that.

Today during exercise time, I ran and then played horse shoes. I was definitely the best one at horse shoes. I can only thank cross country camp and Brad Anderson for that skill.

We had more TRC lessons today. They actually went really well! We taught 2 lessons about the importance of the Book of Mormon. The best part was we didn't know what we wanted to talk about until right before we went into the lessons. We basically were winging it, but we knew exactly what to say, so I would say that was the spirit who was helping us out with that.

I also got a package in the mail today. That was definitely the best part of the day! I got a bunch of candy and food, a few more pairs of pants which are always nice to have, some pictures of family and friends (which almost made me cry, but then I remembered I'm a man so I decided not to cry), a really cute letter from Sloane where I was supposed to circle my response and send it back to her, and a Rubic's cube for those few moments where I have some down time. Mark my words, by the time I get home I will be able to solve it in 30 seconds. 

Tuesday: Today was probably one of the roughest days so far, but a lot of good came from it was well. First off, Elder Bennett likes to hold the door open for people, which isn't usually a problem. It is a problem though when we are leaving breakfast and he won't leave the door until there isn't anyone in sight. We seriously waited there for like 5 minutes. I mentioned that he doesn't need to hold the door open for every single person. I wasn't trying to be rude, but apparently he took it the wrong way. We got our bags and were going to study time. I was sitting there waiting for him, he came out and said "lets go". I asked him if we should wait for the rest of our district. He said "NOPE" and walked away. We didn't really talk until we had to do companionship study. That is the first time we have ever really not gotten along. Most of the time we get along just fine. The only bit of Karma was where the rest of our district decided to go and study, was the same place we were at, so it kind of backfired on Elder Bennett just a little bit.

Later on, Elder Bennett and I taught Noel again. It went good. We asked him if he had any questions, and he started asking us about the Book of Mormon and why it is so important. That part went really well. At the end, we asked Noel (Brother Hill) if he would pray before we left. The only problem is Elder Bennett and I didn't know how to say "right now" in Tagalog, so we seriously spent 10 minutes trying to get him to pray because he just thought we asked him if he would pray at some point in his life I guess.

For the Tuesday evening devotional the speaker was the second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric. I forgot his name, so if you really want to know who he is you will have to look it up.

(Added by Alayna:  The 2^nd Counselor is W. Christopher Waddell)

His whole talk was on the importance of the Book of Mormon. His whole talk was really an answer to my prayers because everything he mentioned had to do with something I had had a question about, or prayed about. He also said that there was no way Joseph Smith could have made the book up. That is one of the realizations I had come to these past few weeks is that there is no way an uneducated 14-year-old could have made it up.

Tonight was kind of a sad night because we had to say goodbye to all the older elders because they leave for the Philippines tomorrow. Even though we are all the same age, they have kind of been like my older brothers. I told you about Elder Muller a few weeks ago. One correction, he is actually like 350 pounds rather than 250 like I told you. Either way, he gives really good hugs every time you see him.

I talked to President Johnson today because I told him I feel like I have kind of passed the honeymoon stage of being at the MTC. Don't get me wrong, I still love it here, the initial excitement has just worn off after 3 weeks. The only advice he had was to use personal study as my personal time. I will definitely use his advice.

Wednesday: Today for service we had to clean the bathrooms again. The janitor guy was just too lazy to teach someone else how to do it, so I had to do it again.

Brother Hill taught us the importance of having people pray during lessons and teaching them about prayer. Needless to say, it is really important. Then we taught Jaci again. It went ok. My struggle was Elder Bennett just started going off with the lesson, and I was sitting there having no idea what he was saying. I guess I just need to humble myself more to have the gift of tongues with me more. That was it for today. Not very exciting.  

Forever and a day,

Love Elder Williamson!