Behold Your Little Ones

January 30, 2023

Good Morning!

It has been a week! This is one of those weeks where everything feels a bit off. We began the week with our Zone Conference, it was fantastic as usual. The theme was "Believe", and there are a few things I really enjoyed! For example, I've now realized that I can invite my friends to believe in the message we carry as missionaries. That was something I hadn't understood before. I'll be using that this week for sure.

Now although trials come in our lives, God is a God of miracles. After the Zone Conference we began an exchange in Panguitch, with Elder Payne. It's a beautiful area, but by the end of it I wasn't feeling too well. I ended up sick through the next couple days, mostly recovering by Friday (when I began another exchange, this time with Elder Dickey!) The miracle was that, despite being sick, it happened just after and just before some pretty important events during the week.

Because I was sick, and unable to do much work, and then leaving my area on two exchanges, I felt a little disconnected from the people here. I'm getting back into that swing of things, but it's been an interesting week for sure.

This leads us into Saturday, where two of our friends were baptized! Lynndin and Harlow Hilsman are both wonderful people, I'm grateful to have been a (very) small part of their teaching process. They are also the most active family I've worked with. Being in the St. George Young Single Adult Stake, the people we baptized there are for sure active. They aren't dealing with their parents not bringing them to church, they can just walk to the building! However, of all the children I've worked with, the Hilsman family has turned from inactivity to being active again and is pursuing a temple sealing. I'm proud to be a part of their journey, and to see the love that has infused their lives. Plus they're just wonderful people.

Being sick made me feel less diligent this week, but it highlights the opportunity to consistently improve. I may have been more relaxed, or less disciplined this week, but that doesn't mean this week has to be the same. I'll be back in the rhythm of things by Wednesday, easy.

Now, you meet a lot of people on a mission, and many are interesting in their own unique ways. I've loved most of them, here's an example of another wonderful friend of ours. His name is Joe. He's not a part of the church, but was willing to have us in his home for dinner! Elder Jorgensen and I took him up on that and enjoyed not one, but two lovely dinners at his place this past week. He's really quite a good cook.

Now Joe has been here a while and loves the culture in Utah, and the members here. In fact, he loves them so much that he has a high opinion of many of the youth here. So much so that it took him maybe a half hour to try and marry us off with half the single girls in town! That was an interesting conversation to say the least! Joe is a wonderful person, we hope we can teach him the gospel, because his heart has been softening for some time now, but we shall see.

There's a video the church put out, that focuses on Christ's ministry to the Nephites in the Americas. Elder Jorgensen and I have used this in a few lessons to really aid the individuals learning, and it's helped a lot. It's called "Behold Your Little Ones". It's probably one of my top favorite videos from the church right now, I'd recommend you watch it. It'll bring the Spirit into your life and help you focus on the gospel, when maybe it's more difficult. And if you're a missionary, consider using it as a powerful tool in lessons!

The gospel is true. There's just nothing else to it. If you aren't sure, do the work necessary to find out. I have, I know it's true, and I only have more to learn.

Catch you next week!

- Elder Williams

Mailing Address:

1265 North 100 West

PO Box 2259

Beaver, UT 84713

Pictures:

1. A taste of Panguitch.

2. Elder Dickey and I on exchanges!

3. A replica of an old schoolhouse inside the Snow College library. The rock types are various rocks across Utah!

4. Ephraim sunset pt. 1

5. Ephraim sunset pt. 2