When God Prevails

Good Morning!

This has been a powerful end to the transfer. We taught 25 lessons with our friends. That's super impressive, and I'm very humbled to have participated in their conversion process. The college work has absolutely exploded this past week as well, which leaves us with another 4 solid friends we are working with. 

Last night my companion received a call from Elder Dearing, a missionary I trained over a year ago. Elder Cammack will now be training another missionary in the Cedar City / Cedar YSA2 area. Which means I'm being relocated again! However, I also got a call. I will be training a new missionary in the Kanab/Kaibab area. So I now cover Colorado City, where the FLDS people live! Who said missionary work was predictable?

Due to the nature of both my companion and I training, we will stay together until Thursday afternoon. Then we part ways and I will be all alone in the desert. Luckily it's winter so it's not too bad. I'm honestly kind of excited. I always knew the St. George Mission covered Colorado City, but I never was sure if I could work there or not. Now I get to experience it firsthand. I almost feel sorry for my new missionary!

One thing I've never successfully done as a missionary was take my friends who are recently baptized to do baptisms in the Temple. This is because I always leave too quickly. Last Wednesday we took Morgan and some of her friends to the Cedar City Temple to do baptisms for our ancestors! That was a powerful experience, one I won't forget. If I never have the opportunity to do that again, I'm grateful for the experience and for Morgan's faithfulness in the gospel. 

As part of my responsibility as a missionary, I can perform interviews for individuals preparing to be baptized. Over the past 2 1/2 weeks I've done probably 10 of these interviews. Each one is different, but each one is such a personal and spiritual experience. I have been humbled as I've seen each of these souls come closer to their Savior through the covenant of baptism. Our friend Violet was one of these individuals! There were some interesting circumstances surrounding her baptism, but I was privileged to participate and I'm grateful for her desire to follow Jesus Christ's example. 

We taught a devotional on Sunday night with the college students. It was geared towards the doctrine of Christ, God's plan for us, and how Christ's church is on the Earth today. I thoroughly enjoyed the time to share my testimony on what I know to be true. I've experienced times where many will tell me that what we teach or know isn't true, and doesn't have any stock to it. But I know that what we teach our friends, and what I've learned from the scriptures, has changed my life, is true, and will shape each of yours. My heart has been changed through my Redeemer

One such example is the Benkert family. We've been working with them for a few weeks now, but it's been slow going on our end. However, we met with them on Sunday night and learned that everything in their life has been on an upward trend since they chose to begin learning about the gospel again. They've taken huge steps forward from where they used to be, and want to be sealed in the temple in the future. I love them so much, and I'm privileged to have helped them this far on their journey. I share this brief snippet of their story as an example of what comes when we let God prevail. The Benkert's are striving to do this, and are witnessing many miracles on their journey forward. 

I absolutely love being a missionary! It's been the best experience of my life. All the Elders who came out with me will be home come Thursday this week. I have six more months remaining, and I'm honored for every day left I get to serve. It's a gift from God I will forever be grateful for. 

- Elder Williams

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

Pictures:
1. Selfie!
2. District Council on Thursday.
3. Sunsets outside the institute.
4. Institute sunsets part 2.
5. District Council on Monday.
6. Sunrise outside our front door.
7. Violet's baptism!
8. Cedar City Temple Trip!










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