May 14th
So last night I met
a guy that is just like dad.
Chickens, huge 2
story shed in the back yard, loves to keep a nice clean and trimmed yard, grows
plants in the back yard. Dad would love his house. It has a fire
pit build into his yard and a gazebo with a huge barbeque in it and a shed with
a chicken coup in it. He is a retired ER nurse but still works a few days
a week in insta-care or something. This guy is like dad and Steve put
together though. He has a grease pit in his garage so he can work on his
cars. I want to go ask him to be my "mission dad" or just make
sure I can come visit after my mission and introduce him to you!
I loved talking to
you on the phone and hope you had a great Mother’s day. This week was
slow but we had a baptism. His name was Micheal. I forgot my camera
at home but I will send you pictures next week. I miss you guys. Oh
and I am getting transferred this week. :( My comp just got the call that says
he is training next transfer. :( I don’t want to move again.
Love,
Elder Willis
May 21st
Wow! I had a great
week! :) I am back in Murray..... I am currently in the new mission.
If during the next transfer I stay here I will stay in the Salt Lake
Central Mission the rest of my mission. I live in an actually apartment
complex which is cool and a first. My companion's name is Elder Jackson.
He is from Gig Harbor. Yes, from Washington! The Spanish Elders across the hall are cool
too. One of them is from Kirkland. So 3 Washingtonians in one
building. My companion and I get along so well! It’s like my last transfer! I love him!
We are like cousins, and that’s what we tell people sometimes as a joke
even though we don't look like it.
I live right off State
street. These apartments are retirement apartments. They were a
maternity hospital at one time and turned into one bedroom apartments. I
will take pictures for you next week. Just know that I have a living
room, half a kitchen and a bedroom and bathroom and all handicap accessible.
You could fit a bed into my shower! I now have to go to
a laundry mat though now which I don’t like but it’s not too bad.
We had 2 baptisms
this past weekend. I will send you pictures.
Love,
Elder Willis
Quote: memorizing
scriptures is like filling a cabinet with friends, values and truths
that can be called upon anytime, anywhere in the world.
May 28th
This week has been
really slow. We have been working on finding new people to teach and it
seems to be hard for us right now. We know the Lord will bless us for our
efforts though.
We were going
through a list of people that have a spouse that isn't a member and felt
inspired to go to this one particular house though. We stopped by and the
wife told us she was a member and to come by and see her and her husband the
next day. We thought this was odd because she had a gigantic picture of
the temple on her wall behind her. We come back the next day and we found
out that he wasn't a member and when he was a teenager he had his records
removed because his parents told him too, sadly. He was more than willing
to have us come over and teach him and the family. We are going by this
week and hopefully start teaching him and his son. It will be great to
see them together as a family in the Gospel. We explained to him that our
purpose was to help him and his family to be sealed together forever in the
temple so that they could live together even after this life and we
could tell that he really thought about that.
I love you guys.
Love,
Elder Willis
June 4th
This week seemed to
be so long. We are working on finding new investigators. It is hard
right now and I don't know why it is being such a struggle it has never been
like this for me before. But I keep doing the things I need to and have a
hope that the Lord will bless us this week with some new people to teach,
because he will.
Other than that not
much is new. This week we are bringing our investigator to Temple
Square. It should be a good week. We have a few people we are going
to start teaching and hopefully they are prepared to learn about the gospel.
I don't have much
time to write since we had to switch buildings because the power went off in
the middle of my email. Next weeks will be longer.
I love you.
Love,
Elder Willis
June 11th
This week the weather
has been great. It has been really windy though. I love this sun because
it makes the work seem to go by fast when it isn’t raining or snowing on
you. Especially since we walk.
It has been a good
week, we found 2 new investigators. One of which is ready to receive the
Gospel into her life. She is excited about learning and wants to be
baptized. She kept putting us off and seemed like she didn't care
and was going to be a flake for the past week and a half but we didn't give up.
We stopped by and she told us "I am not avoiding you, I am sorry can you
call me and set up a time?" Finally when we got in the door this
week we had a solid lesson with her. I invited her to pray to know Joseph
Smith was a prophet and her answer was "I already know he is, and that the
Book of Mormon is true also." We thought that was great and asked
"when did you come to know it was true?" and she went on and told us
about her sister and how she converted but no one invited her to learn so she
didn’t get the chance. We now have her on date for the 30th.
I love doing the
Lord's work. It is great that I only have to worry about those I teach
and no one else. It is also the hardest thing ever sometimes but so
amazing to see how I can help others when I do it.
Love,
Elder Willis
