June 18^th

This week was stacked.  It was nice we took an investigator to Temple Square.  She was ready to be baptized when we had her baptism last night.  She loved going to Temple Square.  She told us when we walked into the North Visitors Center "Wow I feel weird and I don't know if it’s because I am nervous or scared or calm or what kind of feeling this is." I explained that it was the spirit and she was like “wow” I like this feeling.  I thought it was so cool.  Two Temple Square sisters gave us a tour and we ended at the Christus and Tarah started balling when she looked up at it.  It was a great night.

Another thing that happened this week was that we had a mission conference where Elder M. Russell Ballard came and visited with us.  Some of the things I loved that he told us were:
1) Conversion, activation, or change of heart always comes with the spirit and a feeling.
2) "This is the Church of Jesus Christ, not a club or a society but the Kingdom of God"
3) "There is no need to worry about anything in the church.  Because it's not mine, it’s the Lord's church, he can worry about it.  I just do the best I can."

He is really inspirational.  His son was on his mission in like Japan or something and he was having a hard time with the language and finding people to teach and he asked his dad what he could do better.  He told us his answer to his son "What does he expect?  Just because I am an Apostle I should have some magical answer for him. So I took it to the Lord"  He told us that every night he should go to the Lord and tell him about our day and be able to say that we have done our very best that day and there is nothing better we could do, until then we need to work on improving and improving.

We also had a baptism last night for Tarah.  She is the one we took to Temple Square.  It was a great baptism.  Elder Jackson baptized her and her son watched through the window when he pulled her out of the water Geo (her son) said "Meanie Elder Jackson!!"  He is only 3 but he said it really loud during her baptism because he didn't fully get what was going on.  It was memorable.  Other than that the baptism was really great.  

I love you guys.  Hope you had a great Father’s day.  I miss you!

Love, 
Elder Willis

June 25^th

This week we had a great week!  We had a baptism of Mike.  We had a combined baptism with the sisters in our stake.  Shawn Bradley baptized the two girls the sisters had.  Yes Shawn Bradley lives in our stake!  The one from Space Jam. I love that movie! (Brian is 6'1''if that tell you how tall Shawn Bradley is.)

One of the people I taught in my first area was baptized this weekend too.  Rexton, he was excited to see me when I came back to see his baptism.  

Other than that, I found out that Elder Jackson is going to be training so I will be transferred probably Wednesday.  It will be a fun week I guess.

Love,

Elder Willis

July 2^nd

So this week determined it... If I stayed in the Salt Lake South Mission or if I got transferred to the Salt Lake Central Mission.  The Lord has sent me to the Salt Lake Central Mission.  It’s small but I know there is a reason why I am here.  I have a new companion his name is Elder Conley from Moses Lake WA.!!!!! :) He and I are like brothers, it is great.  I love him already even though we may only be together 3 weeks.  We have a 3 week transfer then go back to 6 week transfers.  So I am in Taylorsville and we are white washing it like Elder Grimley and I did.  Elder Conley has only been out 3 months but he will be a great missionary.

This week has been great though we found 4 new people to teach.  Also they had Taylorsville Dayz which is like Tour De Terrace but a little bigger and its crazy.  We went there a few nights for a little bit and talked with a lot of people.  I love it here already.  The new mission currently doesn’t have any cars though so I will be biking the rest of mission if they don’t get cars.  I bet I will be on a bike though because each stake will have 2 sets of missionaries and a senior couple and some stakes will have a set of Spanish missionaries. 

So my mail now gets sent to the house I am at so the week of transfers don't send me anything and I will make sure I let you know when I transfer so you can send it to my house.  My current address is 5072 S. 2200 W. Taylorsville, UT 84118

I am thinking of getting a new bike.  The one I have is on its last leg and I got it from another missionary.  Since I have to be on it for over another year I might just buy one at Costco. 

Other than that I love you guys.  I miss you.  Pray for rain too it’s been close to 100 the past week each day.

Love,

Elder Willis

May 14th thru June 11th

May 14^th

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 21^st

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 28^th

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 11^th

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

Here are the letters from Brian for the past 5 weeks.  Sorry we got behind in the posts. 

April 9^th

I got moved to Kearns.  I love my new stake.  We had 2 baptisms and this month we should have 4 or 5 more.  We are in one of the highest baptizing stakes in the valley.  Last year they baptized 48.

My new companion is Elder Grimley.  He is from Oklahoma.  We get along so great.  We have a Subaru Impreza and once again I get to drive.  We have fewer miles than my last area so now we ride bikes half the time.  Which is fine with me it’s sunny here and I get one stake.  We cover the Salt Lake Jordan Stake.  Technically we live in Taylorsville but we are in the Kearns zone.  It will be a good transfer in this zone.

Also I like this stake; it is weird going from 19 wards to 5.  We had 2 baptisms this past weekend. And hopefully we will have 2 more next weekend.  It will be a good week!  I love the sun right now it is making it nice to ride my bike.  I will take pics of my apartment this week and send them to you.

Oh yeah and we are white washing our stake.  That means both old missionaries left and 2 new ones come in.  It was a change in preparation to open our new mission. 

Well I don't have much to tell you other than that and that the church is true.  I love the mission and love sharing the gospel. 

April 16^th

This week has been great, long and kind of stressful.  The Bishops in this stake like to take over missionary responsibilities and it gets tough but I am working on patience with them, until they get it down and don't have to overdo their jobs.  We had 2 baptisms set up for this weekend and one of them got bronchitis and had to move her date back a week and the other hasn't fully quit smoking yet :(

I am excited for the next 2 weekends though; they will be good and have a baptism or 3.  So I have been riding my bike a lot.  I love it when it is sunny but the past 2 or 3 days it has been rain, and not Seattle rain more like Salty rain that leaves white residue on stuff.  So we have been driving.  I was going to email pics of my new apartment but I forgot my camera at home.

Right now we are at the Riverton family history center emailing before we go to Air Born.  Like a trampoline place with basketball hoops in it like slam ball and they also have dodge ball I guess I have never been there.  It is around the corner from Ashley furniture though.  I will steer clear of there.  

My area is doing great.  We have some good investigators, I will write you a letter home about each one this week but if you want to keep them in your prayers theirs names are Jessie, Cheryl, Gilbert, Zoey, Harry, Courtney, Michael S, Michael, Zach, Maylynn and Sorria.

Oh yeah Sorria is Buddhist, just like Lori! I am excited to see her progress in the gospel.

April 23^rd

This week was packed.  Our investigators are doing well; the baptism we had set up for this past weekend got pushed to next weekend.  Next weekend we will have 3 baptisms!  I am so excited. 

So one of our investigators, Cheryl, is such a cool lady.  Satan is doing everything he can to keep pushing her baptism back and discourage her.  She has gotten bronchitis and then also got knee surgery and now finally 3 weeks later she is going to be baptized this weekend.  She is getting evicted though because she has 4 cats instead of the 3 limit.  We never even saw the cats though until after she told us she had them.  She wants to get baptized before she moves though so we are going to do that this weekend.

Another one of our investigators is named Michael.  He is in his 60's and knows the church is true.  He just has to get married before he can be baptized.  He has a hard time believing in commandments other than the 10 commandments though.  He wants to see them in the bible.  The other day during our lesson it was great though.  We were talking about the word of wisdom and he wanted to know why he needed to stop drinking.  I showed him in Leviticus about it and before he read it as soon as he saw it he goes "Awwww" ha-ha he knew he was wrong and that he needs to stop now and that he needs to stop smoking as well.  He is one of my favorite investigators though right now and will be baptized in June hopefully.

I had a good week though we taught 17 lessons with a member.  We should have some good baptisms coming up in the next couple of weeks though. 

April 30^th

This week was great!! We hit almost all of our goals.  And we exceeded the standard of excellence.  We almost jumped for joy yesterday we were so proud of ourselves.  We had 3 baptisms!  They were great and went so smoothly.  It was nice and so exciting to see them be able to receive the blessings that can be brought to them through the Gospel.  I want to see them go through the temple so badly in a year and be sealed together as a family.  That will be my most treasured accomplishment while I am on my mission if I can see that happen.

Cheryl got baptized this past weekend and it was so exciting to see her enter the waters of baptism.  She was so excited and wasn’t letting anything stop her.  Then we had Jesse get baptized and he was so happy also he is one who has gone through many sets of missionaries and wants to be sealed together as a family one day.  We also had Courtney’s baptism and she was great too.  She is 9 and it was a challenge teaching her but we put our minds together and taught her with the spirit every day for like 2.5 weeks and we finally got her to learn everything and some extra.  It was a great day.

Saturday night we counted numbers and we were so happy that we had had 19 lessons.  We knew we needed at least 3 more on Sunday to meet our goal.  We did everything we could.  We found a priest to drive us around for an hour and a half and we stopped by a few potentials and some investigators and found 3 lessons and we even got a phone call with a referral and we got to go stop by and teach.  We had 21 lessons this week. 

Also this week I found out how much I love the lifesavers gummies and skittles riddles. hint hint :)

This is something I heard this week that I loved.  "Church is like a health club.  Where skinny people go to stay skinny and fat people go once.  If you don't keep going it doesn't do you any good."  I thought that was funny but really true. 

I love you guys.

May 7^th

This week was great! :)  It wasn’t as productive as last week but it
was good.  No one was baptized.  But we found a few new people who
will be baptized this month hopefully! :)

Nothing exciting really happened this week.

I am doing great! It’s nice weather all week! In the 70's.  It’s perfect
except dry heat no moisture in the air. It’s alright though.

I get to call you this week! Happy Mother’s Day soon!

Love Elder Willis

Conference and a Christian Pastor

This week was great!  So conference weekend was so uplifting!

Saturday we went to a member’s home and watched both sessions.  Elder Mariner went downtown for the Priesthood session.  So I went with Elder Sehestedt to one of his stake centers to watch it with him and his investigator Hunter who is getting baptized on the 14th.  Then Sunday we went to a member’s house who fed us waffles with ice cream on top for breakfast and another member’s house for lunch and the afternoon session.  We got to watch it with our investigator Brian.  He is my favorite investigator.  Now I know what you’re thinking, either "that’s not nice to have a favorite" or "You like him because of his name..." Which I do but that’s not why.  He asks such good questions.  He is logical and wants to know why things are the way they are which is exciting because we use scriptures and he knows that it makes sense.  He doesn't ask questions just to get us confused.  

This week we are starting discussions with two couples.  I am nervous and excited.  One is an evangelical pastor and his wife.  They seemed really cool.  Another is a Christian pastor and his wife.  I should have a good week, if not some good stories for you.

Tomorrow is transfer calls and I find out if I am getting transferred or what is happening.  No one knows what will happen.  The Presidents Assistants told us that this transfer is going to be like none other.  I can see Elder Mariner and I getting split and one of us taking 1 of our 3 stakes and the other one taking the other 2 and both of us getting new companions.  But I really have no clue.

Easter Sunday is coming up and I am excited!  Oh yeah, our mission had 194 baptisms this month.... We were 6 away from our goal of 200!

Well I love you,

Love,

Elder Willis

This week in SLC

This week in Salt Lake.... It has been such nice weather! Yesterday it was 73! Today.. It is 33 and snowing.  Love it.

This week has been so busy.  We had 5 baptisms this weekend!  They went great! I was so happy to see them enjoy the blessings of baptism.  It was so cool to be that busy in one weekend.  We are up to 165 as a mission this month.  Other than that all is good here.  I am nervous next week is transfer week and I have been here 6 months.  We will find out next Tuesday what will happen.  We are no longer in a threesome, sadly.  I liked it.  We were last week and it was so fun working in 6 stakes with 3 people.  We were busy all week.  

I love you guys and miss you.

Love,

Elder Willis

2 weeks worth of emails

March 12^th email

I can't believe it is already Monday again.  This week has flown by.  We had a filling week though.

This week we didn't have any baptisms but I feel like we did a lot of work.  One day we went to Seminary into one of the classes.  Here they have it in a building next to the school and we got to just go in during the day to a class.  It was cool.  We tried to get the kids excited about missionary work and get them to invite a friend to learn more from us.  We have found that the key to our success is the high school age kids.  They aren’t as afraid to share the gospel as the younger ones and they aren't worried about ruining a friendship over an invite to learn more when they know they won't ruin that friendship like the adults.  It was good.  We also have been trying to teach this kid who is on the church basketball team and not a member.  This week we found out all these kids are on the church teams and nonmembers but no one has told us about them.  It was a little frustrating.

The other day we went to a building for lunch because a member said they were having their child’s birthday party there and we could come and eat.  A kid there was so funny, he was like 10, and came up to me and said "Hey, can missionaries have girls on the side?" and I told him no and kind of laughed.  He asked me "So you can't kiss them or flirt at all?" and I told him no again. He told me "Man, that’s a joke!"  I don't think he gets why you go on a mission.  He is a member too.

We have 2 baptisms this coming weekend hopefully along with 4 the following weekend.  I love helping these people with their problems and trials.  I spoke in church yesterday and asked for help to find investigators, I hope you would find a friend to invite to learn more about the Gospel! :) Missionary work is so exciting if you let it be.

I love you so much! And miss you guys a lot.

Love,

Elder Willis

March 19^th email

This week was a good week! :) I baptized a boy named is Dawson!  I bet Dawson will like to hear that.  He is 12 and autistic.  It was a cool experience to do and I felt so special that he asked me to do it for him.  I think I might have set a record for number of times I had to baptize him... I had to do it 7 times until he was completely covered.  He kept either putting a foot up (even though I was stepping on them so he couldn't as easily) or not putting his whole head under the water.

Other than that I was able to see how the Lord prepares people and if you’re obedient and diligent you can find them.  We found this girl this week, or she found us.  She has been going to church with grandpa every other weekend in another stake but lives with mom the other weeks in our stake.  They want to keep her records in our stake so they want to baptize her in our stake.  She is getting baptized next weekend.

Another instance of this is that we had a lady walk into church last week and said she wanted to get active again.  The relief society president found her and said she would love it and they talked a little bit and they lady said to her "I hope it isn't a problem that I am not a member..." The RSP told us that her jaw almost dropped because I had asked her like 2 days before for people to go teach.  She and her councilors almost did jumping high fives she said because they found someone for us.  I love the way the Lord guides people to what they need in their lives if they are having an open heart and a contrite spirit.

We have 5 baptisms this coming weekend! :) And one of them has parents and a sister who aren't members yet and I know that when they feel that spirit at the baptism they will want to learn more.  I am so excited to see these brothers and sisters of mine make covenants with their Heavenly Father.

Oh yeah, I have 2 companions for time being! :) I love it.  Our 3rd is Elder Sehestedt.  His companion was waiting for his Visa and he got it this week.

New Missions

Wow this week has been great!  So I can now tell you that there are 2 new missions opening up.  We are loosing 3 zones to create the central mission from ours.  We also are parenting it.  It opens in July and then should be fully functioning on its own by December.  Its so exciting that this is happening.  That means there is so much work in the valley here that we need a few hundred more missionaries.  When this happens we are told that each companionship will have 1 stake here and if they have more they will only have 2.  :)  No one knows for sure yet who will be staying or who is going, when it opens we will loose like 80 missionaries to go there and to train, but by December we will be recouperated back to normal.

 

So this week we also had a stake conference and Elder Dan Clark came we got the front row reserved for us and our investigators.  It was so sweet.

 

We should have a baptism or 2 this coming weekend, :) and also we are planning on about 5 this month! :) Our investigators are doing well, they love the Gospel and see how it effecting their lives and they love it. 

 

Nothing too exciting happened this past week.  On Wednesday we are going to the temple, and instead of it being just our district we are going as a mission.  We get to spend like half the day there with a chapel session and then everything and get to be united as a mission, we are excited for that to happen!

 

I love you guys.

 

Love,

Elder Willis