The Next Chapter

Good Morning!

This has been an eventful week. I went on 4 exchanges, and we blitzed another area for a couple hours. Essentially, lots of work in other areas on my end, but it was good! The week vanished on me, and so did the transfer!

I'll be staying in the St. George YSA 1st Stake with Elder Koyle, both of which are miracles in themselves. Elder Koyle will be my longest companion, and first companion to last longer than a transfer with! I'm impressed and excited for this coming transfer.

We ended last transfer on a good note! Our friend Aaliyah was baptized last Saturday, and I confirmed her at church the following day! She sought us out, it's amazing to see her faith blossom as she's learned about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She's already trying to make her Catholic friends meet with us! She's the best. 

I rode bikes again. Enjoyable as always! One note about the exchanges: I've come to enjoy visiting other areas and helping them work at their problems. It's become an opportunity to guide and assist the other missionaries I serve with as they work to become better in their efforts towards the work and in their personal discipleship. 

We had one fantastic miracle this Sunday! I'll attach the text we sent to Sister Staples so you can read how awesome it was!

"Hi Sister Staples! We wanted to text you a huge miracle that we saw today! Earlier this week we were home to home contacting, and we met this guy named Claudel who had met missionaries before. The previous missionaries had gotten his phone number, but not his address, so it was a miracle that we knocked on his door. He was busy cooking and didn't have much time, but we were able to give him a Book of Mormon, share our testimonies, and get his number. A couple of days later he texted us and told us that he would like to attend church with us! Today he came and halfway through the meeting he leaned over to one of us and asked: "Are those all visitors going up there?" (to bear their testimony) we explained that yes, anybody who wants to can go up and then we asked him if he'd like to. He kind of shrugged and then we told him that if he went, we would go too. He did go and he bore a beautiful testimony. After sacrament meeting he stayed for Sunday School too. Then after Sunday School we ran into Elder Wilstead of the seventy and he shared a quick testimony with Claudel too! Claudel asked us if our church does baptisms and we said yes and then asked him if that's something he'd be interested in to which he replied, "maybe some time, yeah." His ward welcomed him so warmly too, he left church with many new friends. He's excited to continue coming to church and learning more."

Claudel has so much potential! He was overwhelmed, but in the best way possible. The Spirit definitely worked on him and brought him into our hands. This is proof how we are all in God's hands!

For Preparation Day we visited a few locations. The Pine Valley Chapel is the oldest LDS chapel that is still functioning! It was pretty cool. Then we visited the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. There was a very somber feeling present, it's proof that we are to learn from our own mistakes in the past and move forward. On a brighter note, we visited Snow Canyon and it was fantastic! There were a couple lava tubes that we explored, it was a fantastic opportunity to see some local nature, the cliffs are spectacular, and the lava tubes were fun. 

It's been a fantastic week, and transfer #6 is in the books! Transfer #7 is about to be better than the rest. These transfers are starting to blend too much, but miracles abound. I'm doing my best to record everything I can, including taking more pictures. I had a ton from this week! I pray I remember the lessons learned on the mission forever. Time to see what the next chapter holds!

Have a fantastic start to the Christmas season!

- Elder Williams

Mailing Address:
881 South River Road
St. George, Utah 84790

Pictures:
1. Elder Bryce and I on exchanges.
2. The St. George Temple Visitors Center is beautiful during Christmas!
3. Sunset. 
4. The Pine Valley Chapel (oldest functioning LDS chapel worldwide!)
5. Snow Canyon scenery!
6. More of Snow Canyon. 
7. Elder Koyle headed down a lava tube.
8. Lava tube spelunking!
9. Elder Fiame and I at Snow Canyon.
10. Aaliyah's baptism!
11-22. Various Preparation Day activities.
23. Exchanges with Elder Rodriguez.


























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