[Hi everyone. This is Alayna. The next few weeks are going to be a bit different with the holidays. Frasier's P-days will be a bit different, plus WE GET TO TALK TO HIM for Christmas!!! Today, I'm posting our conversation from 12/3 and his email from 12/10. He sent us a bunch of pictures, which takes a ton of internet time, and we emailed back and forth the past two weeks, so he didn't have as much time to write a long letter. (These first pictures are of the Thanksgiving leftovers from the mission home. He was so excited to get them!)
He seems to be doing well and had a really great Saturday this past week!]
12/3/17
Here is Frasier's reply to my email asking him some questions:
I didn't reply to this last week. It is awesome that people are reading my emails and interested in what I am saying.
Still no Christmas package, but no stress. The office will let me know when they get it.
At least Utah is going to a bowl game! That was a crappy season, but better than nothing.
Those pictures are crazy. Its crazy it is still that warm there. Maybe snow by Christmastime.
On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 7:35 PM, Alayna Williamson wrote:
Ya, Utah is playing West Virginia in the Heart of Texas Bowl in Dallas on Dec. 26th
It is crazy warm. Dad was raking leaves yesterday in shorts! But, it might snow tonight. We are all crossing our fingers!
E is driving all over the place!
That's cool about the bowl game. Hopefully it will be a good game!
How is running going? Are there any races and stuff on the schedule? Anything you're planning on in the future?
Hopefully it snows! I can guarantee you it is not going to snow here. There was a Mormon message about a bishop that skis. My companion was asking me all sorts of questions about skiing and that. I don't know if he has ever even worn a coat before, let alone seen snow.
Dad is doing the Boulder Ironman next June. I’m not signed up for anything right now.
You need to tell your companion to come visit Utah sometime in the winter. I know that may not be something he could ever afford, but who knows…maybe sometime we could help him come visit.
I felt like there was a race that I was missing. I just got the feeling. That's exciting.
The sad thing is that I am probably never going to see any of these Filipinos or any or these missionaries again.
I heard there was some girl from Kaysville that just got her call to my mission. Sister Taylor?
Not necessarily, YOU could always go back. We are very blessed that way. And, you’re going to be fluent in Tagalog…there may be reasons for you to do business in the Philippines, or help bring people from the Philippines to the US in the future. You never know…
[Before I post his letter from 12/10, I should tell you that a couple of weeks ago Troy and I got Facebook friend requests from someone in Cauayan Phillipines. It turned out it was a 17-year-old boy, named Reynante, who Frasier had been teaching. He has messaged Troy several times and sent pictures. He told him that he loves Elder Williamson and can tell he is working really hard to learn Tagalog. He also told Troy last week that "Elder Williamson baptist me next Saturday"! Here are some pictures Reynante sent.]
[Here is Frasier's letter from 12/10/17 and some additional pictures he sent. He's doing great and I cannot wait until Christmas!]
This has been a pretty awesome week! I had my first baptism! His name is Brother Reynante. He is a stud! He is 17 and got referred to us through the assistants who were teaching his girlfriend. She got baptized a little while ago and now he is baptized as well. I have been so blessed because I have been with him throughout his whole conversion process. He started out and he was just kind of testing the waters, but now he is all on track. He has referred his cousin to us, and he has even asked if he could come teaching with us a few times.
He told us a story about how he bore his testimony to a bunch of Saksi's Jehovah's Witnesses) at school. His testimony after his baptism was awesome also. We have this joke as a kabahay where if something good, cool, awesome, etc. happens we give a salute to each other. When Brother Reynante bore his testimony, I looked across the chapel to where Elder Temple was sitting and we gave each other a subtle little salute because his testimony was on point!
He has told us that he knows President Monson is a true prophet, and he has never actually heard him speak before. I am sure Reynante will be a missionary someday, and he has already shown that he will be a great pillar in the church throughout his life. He just needs to not get lost in the crowd. I think a mission will be very good for him.
Reynante's nephew had a birthday yesterday. So they invited us all to the party at his house. When Filipinos have parties they cook lots of food. Usually egg rolls, spaghetti (it kind of has like a bbq flavor here), pancit, and then some sort of random Filipino meat. It was really cool. We went there and met his family. They had a bunch of food for us and wouldn't let us leave "even though we were out past curfew". Elder Temple has a bunch of action figures to give to little kids for Christmas, so we gave Reyanante's nephew a Spiderman and he was so excited!
The Abad family is doing well! They are scheduled to have their baptism on the 30th and they are all on track and ready. Brother Abad has broken down a few times and told us about how he knows our church is true and all this stuff. I don't know exactly what he is saying, but I know he is ready to be baptized. Their family participates in every class on Sundays as well.Thee past 2 weeks they have shown up half an hour early to Sacrament Meeting. All 4 of them in their family have a Book of Mormon and they read it every day. Their two little kids get so excited to see us every time we visit. They are always playing with my hair and trying to play games with me while we are teaching the lesson.
Elder Nolasco and I are having a good time together. We are really getting along. We had a really good talk last week about how we could become friends and enjoy being around each other. The main thing is that we were both afraid to open up to each other because of our different cultures and languages. We promised each other that we would be more open with each other and talk about everything, that way we will enjoy the work more, and get to know each other, and the different cultures better.
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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!
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