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!