THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER XIX

  wowww.. i did nOt realize how much less time i was gonna have, when i'm actually functioning as a regular missionary! it's super cool! buttt it's friday, and i'm just now starting my email.. sooo i think i'm gonna do one of those speed ones with the bullet points.. gettt ready...

*had zone council (ate pizza right before for "zone lunch" and tried not to fall asleep for the hour long council)

*heard a story about a completely flattened road dog, but there's no picture, so idk how true it is (sorry vancott) 

*our 2 gallon tub of icecream was gone at the beginning of the week (sooo it lasted like half a week) (scratch that, the other elders went and bought another one on that same day actually)

*we were invited to our cuban, pastor, neighbors' house, but we "don't have enough time" (meaning we actually don't have time, especially since his families' income depends on him being an adventist pastor, so he probably doesn't wanna listen to our beliefs)

*we've been focusing more on families as a whole (rather than just one person who is there)

*i made fajitas, but i accidentally grabbed bone in (and tendin in, and talon in, and skin in, and cartilage in, and other bothersomely questionable substances) chicken.. basically super gross, and we forgot to buy tortillas 

*i am beginning to become fat, which is interesting, because that has never once before been a possibility (it's because the food here is seriously like 70% soybean oil)

*i'm accidentally learning creole as well as spanish now (because we're teaching a lot more people in our hatian village now)

*after finally getting the food quantities right after the first 2 transfers, we have new people in our house, so we're back to not knowing how much food we need (we're basically out again (friday))

*we've played lots of "unstable unicorns" in our extra time

*the power went out everywhere from saturday night at like 8pm, until like 3pm on sunday (so our icecream all melted, and now it's not as good cuz it's refrozen and stuff, buttt that's fine, cuz it's almost gone, and we can get a new one)

*i got to invite someone to baptism (that was super cool i thought, because our friend is progressing a lot, and she's super cool, buttt she's someone who dEfinitely needs the gospel in her life)  (like we all do)

 ok cool, love you guys, bubuy 

pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eBG3LdEZPyA1oQN96

  mormon 6:22

O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.

      this chapter is honestly super depressing, i was counting the amount of people who die here, and it's around 220,000 people.. at least.. just out of nephites, and not counting lamenites... all they would have had to do, like it says, is repent, and become clean... don't let yourself wait till it's too late

THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER XVIII

 sooo.. we have this buddy.. and he has his own barber shop, he's super cool, and he likes us, because he lived in argententina for 3 years (where my comp is from).. he gave the other elders haircuts a couple of weeks ago, and then he was talking with my comp about argentinian bbq, and my comp was saying how much he misses it, and all that.. sooo anyways suddenly we get invited to a random bbq with this guy at his friends' house.. that was a couple weeks ago, and we some things happened (probably, i never know why things happen or don't happen here) so it didn't happen till this monday... so we played basketball with this guy in the morning, which was pretty fun, and then we went back to the house for a little, and my comp was texting this guy and trying to figure out where it was gonna be and stuff, and he gets directions and a time and everything... so anyways we get all dressed up fancy in our t-shirts and shorts and crocs, and start walking down the road a little, toward where it's supposed to be.. my comp is way ahead, and the rest of us are kinda behind talking, as he's leading us off the main road and down a path that i've been down before.. down this path is a bunch of garbage, and the usual shacks and all that (all super normal here).. sooo anyways i'm really not expecting much, but we just keep walking down the path, and we just see this gate, and a nice car parked outside of it.. and there our friend is, unloading his car of bAgggs of food.. and we're like whAttt theee.. so we walk thru this gate, annnd this the friend of our friend.. and he's just super rich basically.. he's got a nice house, giant landscape stuff in his backyard, a pool, a bbq, and a kinda umbrella/pavillion thingy with a table and stuff.. sooo i'm just super stunned, and idk what to do, cuz we literally just walked into the kinda place where you would rent for a niCe vacation, and this man just starts making a fire in the grill and unloading his bags and bags of meat.. sooo we just sat there for 2 or 3 hours, listening to music, drinking soda, talking to our new rich buddy, and the bbq/barber/dominican/argentinian/guy who apparently has a super rich friend... annnd the bbq was reallly good! there were 2 different kinds of sausage, and ribs, and some kind of steak, and bread, and this sauce that he was using to put on all the meat, that was kind of a green salsa kind of thing, with a ton of salt and stuff... annnd we ate sooo much meat, he bought and cooked a tOn.. it was sooo weird, because we just went out of the garbage and super loud motercycles, and all that, into a vacation house to have a bbq.. sooo that's the best pday i've had, everyone kept saying i looked "concerned" or "like i was going to die" annnd i think that was a mixture of the shock of going from a 2nd or 3rd world country (idk what this technically is here) into just some resort or something, annnd i probably ate like 30 pounds of salt, and idk if i've ever eaten that much meat at one time (my mom is vegetarian, sooo we were kinda deprived as children)... super cool tho, probably the closest i'll get to a vacation here...

      so we had transfers on wednesday, annnd turns out i got someone who is sUper old in the mission, and knows exactly what he's doing! which is pretty nice, cuzzz i gotta learn from sOmeone, and our area is really needing this kinda person right now, so that's great.. annnd people told me my comp was cool, and i would get along with him.. turns out i got one of the best missionaries in the mission (i think at least) and hopefully i'm not jinxing it or anything, but this is gonna be a good transfer... 

      he also is probably the heaviest eater i've ever seen tho, which is super awesome.. when we bought our groceries, he put like 7 gallons of juice in the kart, annnd he lOves ice cream.. sooo idk who remembers bon, but we have one of those in our area.. annnd we made a house fund and bought a 2 gallon tub of ice cream (for like $30) the other night.. that's not gonna last long, buttt technically it's the cheapest way to buy ice cream here sooo.. i think we're gonna have a lot more fun shopping now tho, cuz elder palmer never let us buy anything fun.. 

     okkk... sooooo... good news.. and bad news.. good news.. with my new comp we're actually dOing stuff now, so i'm no longer bored, annnd our area is pOppppping off now, even tho it's only been like half a week.. bad news.. these are about to get super short and probably more boring, because i no longer have time to write giant emails... sooo i'm just gonna recap things from this week...

      we started visiting our friends that are progressing as much as possible (instead of before when we would go once or twice a week).. we have people who are progressing fAssst.. we had 5 friends at church (before this, my record was 1 or 2).. my comp now listens to my ideas.. he has better ideas, so we're thriving now.. i now no longer want to leave, and it's going to be sad when it happens.. annnnd, i am now having fun in the mission! i also forgot i was scheduled to give a talk on sunday until it was sunday morning, so i wrote a talk in like 30 minutes, buttt i put a ton in there and i didn't use all of it, but it was a good 12 minute talk or so.. annnnnnd i'm out of time but i have a ton of super cool stories just from this half week.. it's interesting how that much of a small change can change things, buttt sUper cool i think...

      we also already had interviews with president (the first in the mission for some reason).. annnd i probably won't respond to every single persons' emails anymore.. unless you ask questions ofc, buttt just know, i read them all, annnd i will keep them forever...

      buttt yah, sounds good.. this could change if i'm ever bored again, buttt we'll just have to see... have a good week, loves yous, bye...

pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eBG3LdEZPyA1oQN96

remember to pray  

THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER XVII

  annnnd here we are again.. we had zone pday, and that was super fun.. the only pday where i get to hang out with anyone who doesn't live in my house, so it was good to see other people.. we played kickball, and some soccer, and some people threw baseballs at each other.. yk, all that kinda stuff... and then went to the church and played some card games, and signs (here's a signs explanation for you... a bunch of people sit in a circle and take  turns pretend to know sign language, but in reality none of them know sign language, and one person stands in the middle trying to intimidate everyone, and choose who they think is currently pretending to know sign language, and they have to sprint as fast and as obnoxiously as possible at that person and tap them before they pass the sign to someone else).. it's more chaotic than it sounds, but it's pretty fun with the right group of people...

      we had some lessons, some contacts, some people who gave us a ton of different foods like, bananas (which most of the time here they eat when they're still super green), avacados, annnd.. something that i haven't ever seen in the US, so i have no idea what it's called in english, but it's a root, and it definitely just looks like something that should never be consumed by living creatures.. its' appearance is like ginger mixed with a potato.. buttt it's taste is and consistency, is that of a potato with all of the juice sucked out of it.. "bUt wAit a potAto doEsn't hAve juiCe!?".. correct, but compared to this thing it does.. sooo it's just super dry and flavorless.. annnd it cAn be good if you put it with other foods that.. you know.. hAve flavor, but usually they just chop it up, boil it, and and then just choke it down how it is.. buttt anyways we now have like a 20 pound chunk of that stuff sitting on our table...

      we did our last exchanges of the transfer, and that was pretty good.. kinda boring tbh, i went to "the other elders' area" except for that we literally just all share the area now, and we just have different investigators.. the other elders have a lot less investigators tho for some reason.. sooo we just visited a lot of members, annnd we got "bon".. bon is the ice cream here, and it's like the oNly place that has ice cream, sooo they have those little freezers (that you can find like ice cream sandwiches in and stuff) in lOttts of the stores here, and they have whole shops for bon, kinda like coldstone or something (iceberg ig, but we all know iceberg isn't good).. annnd then they also have trucks and guys on motorcycles that go around playing this obnoxious song that let's people know that ice cream is coming.. buttt anyways we have a bon store by our church, so we got some of that...

      thursday is temple day!!! every six months the whole mission gets to go to the temple, because the temple falls in our mission.. orrr maybe in the other mission, but wherever it is it's close to the border of the missions, sooo we're just gonna claim it as ours... anywaysss.. it was super cool, we got to see some buddies from our group that we came with, that we haven't seen in like 3 months or something, and that was super fun.. annnd the temple was just super cool, it's a pretty big temple here, and there was a little bit of some mix ups and stuff, but it all ended up good in the end.. i understood a whole lot more this time ofc, which was super cool just being able to kinda understand what was going on.. buttt that took up the whole morning and took the place of studying and everything (which i'm nottt complaining about, i'll take any good reason to not have to study).. we got some lil ceasars in san cristóbal, and that's always nice ofc.. annnd then we came back, planned the day for like 20 minutes, and then went straight out to teach... we had a pretty good day that day, and it went by super fast, annnd we got a lot done actually...

      it's rained super hard a couple of the days here, buttt so far we've gotten lucky, and it's always when we're in lessons, or at home, sooo we haven't gotten wet.. it's super weird when it rains here tho, because if it's super strong, then it's just gigAntic rain drops, and they come down super fast and close together.. sooo if you're out during it, you'll be soaked in seconds.. annnd there's almost no warning either, like it will just be nothing, and then suddenly a random hurricane like storm for like 5 minutes, and then it's over.. annnd when i say it's like a hurricane, i'm not even exaggerating, the only difference, is that a hurricane lasts a lot longer, so it causes some more flooding and stuff.. buttt i'm pretty sure while i'm here i'll see at least oNe real hurricane.. we'll see...

      okkk, so we have this one investigator, who is progressing sUper well.. which was a surprise to us at first, because he didn't seem very interested in the beginning, and after the first lesson, he seemed like the kind of person that we might not be able to find a second time.. buttt fast forward to now, and he's reading the book of mormon (consistently too, which is a first evEeer) and he's all the way in 2nd nephi already!.. annnd today we taught him the word of wisdom, which we thought might be a good idea, because we've seen vapes at his house, and a couple pics on his whatsapp (everyone uses whatsapp here as a way to not have to pay for a text service or whatever) stories, of him puffing out vapor.. and ngl the pics lOok super cool, buttt it's still not good for you... sooo anyways we were teaching him the word of wisdom, and he actually understood it really well, but we weren't sure what the results would actually be (because usually when we teach something like that, the people agree (or claim to) buttt then continue to do the thing we just recommend that they not do)... buttt we were looking on his story, and there was just a picture of his vape with a caption that said "vendo" (i sell).. sooo that was probably the greatest thing i've ever seen.. we're really hoping he continues to progress tho, because he's a super cool guy, and the ward here could really use him...

      transfer news is tonight (sunday) sooo stay tuned.. we're gonna see what happens.. here are my predictions... my comp gets transfered tooo.. somewhere in the capital.. i stay here, and get a new comp who has about a year or so in the mission, to greenie break me.. elder palmer goes to south to be a zone leader.. annnd elder macdonald stays here and becomes district leader, with a new comp who's a little younger than him on the mission... okkk here's what's actually gonna happen.. elder macdonald and i are staying here, we're both getting new comps, and our old comps are both going to ausuwa (no idea how to spell that, but may as well just say infierno, cuz that place is infamous here for being the hottest desert place in the mission) and they're both gonna be district leaders there.. annnd my comp is super old in the mission.. he only has four transfers left, sooo he shOuld be really good, idk.. i'll meet him on wednesday sooo we'll see...

      that's all for this week tho, love you guys, have a good time, listen to an american song for me!...

 helaman 13:5

And he said unto them: Behold, I, Samuel, a Lamanite, do speak the words of the Lord which he doth put into my heart; and behold he hath put it into my heart to say unto this people that the sword of justice hangeth over this people; and four hundred years pass not away save the sword of justice falleth upon this people.

mission pics:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eBG3LdEZPyA1oQN96

Best/worst Winter of 2023!

Joyful Reflection...

     Lately, I keep having flashbacks or daydreams about Jackson, from when he was a baby. I got to spend so much time, just with my little Baby Cakes! We had so many games we played, like Taco Baby, where I would roll him up in a little blanket and roll him around while he laughed and laughed! I would do raspberries on his chubby little belly, or his soft squishy neck and he would laugh and point to his belly asking for more! He loved to go on walks in the stroller, and we would usually go twice a day for up to an hour when the weather was nice in VA. When a plane would fly overhead, Jackson would point and say "plane", or he'd love to point out every cat, dog, and tree we saw! James worked a lot and was in school for his master's degree, so Jackson was really my best buddy, often my only human contact until late in the e

vening. He loved to sit in his bouncy seat and watch me cook, clean, and even take off the tacky wallpaper border in the bedroom of our townhouse. I can remember the quizzical expression he often wore as he gently kicked his leg to bounce himself in his seat. When I think of my brother Paul, I get emotional thinking about the last time we flew home when he was alive. It was Christmas time, and Paul was living at home while his house was being built. He had told me beforehand that he felt bad that he'd signed up to work at the church cannery and wouldn't be able to be at the airport to pick up Jackson and me. But I will always remember walking toward the elevator on the second floor to get to baggage claim and seeing Paul on the escalator riding up toward us. He couldn't stand not being at the airport after all!  His expression was like a kid's on Christmas morning...he couldn't wait to get his hands on Jackson! "Where's my baby" he boomed, and he rushed over to get Jackson out of his stroller! The other day after Jackson told us about all of the people they have been teaching, the thought came that Paul is probably on the other side working with Jackson to find the people that are willing to listen to the gospel! That is such a comforting thought, thinking that Paul is by Jackson's side like a guardian angel, watching after "his baby"!  

    I remember wondering what was going on in that amazing little mind, and I worried about the inadequacies I felt as his mother. How was I going to teach him everything he would need to know in 18 years?! What if I taught him the best that I could and he didn't make good choices? I long to go back and hold that sweet adorable baby boy, to take him to Costco in VA where he would say "Hello" to everyone who passed by. I would not worry about my baby, I would have faith that Heavenly Father would make sure that his child would be taught the things he needed to know to fulfill the plan he is supposed to. As we talk with Elder Williamson #1 over FB Messenger every week and read his emails every Monday, it is one of the most joyful experiences I've had as a mother. What could be better than reading your child's testimony of his Savior, hearing of the compassion and love he has for people he just met, or laughing about the inconveniences of a third-world country and declaring that he is exactly where he is supposed to be and he loves it! This Elder that we talk to every week is not a product of what we,  his earthly parents have taught (or not taught) him. The Elder we talk to once a week has truly been changed through the influence of the Spirit, which has been his choice! 

    I miss seeing him slouched over in "his" chair in the front room where he used to sit every night after work catching up on texts. Now our Jackson doll sits there to mark his place. I miss hearing bits and pieces of Paul and Jackson's conversations, and the sound of ping-pong balls bouncing in the basement. I miss the smell of Jackson's special soap that used to permeate the whole basement after he showered. I can't say that I miss the smell of grease he brought home from Iceberg, but I do miss the stories about the shenanigans that went on there! It is hard to think that some of these things I miss will always be memories of the past, just like those from when he was a baby. But, I feel truly joyful that baby is growing into someone much more than I could have imagined him to be!

THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER XVI...

 sooo we've been talking to these two guys in a cemetery.. which is pretty interesting here, because since it rains so much, there are too many floods to bury people underground.. sooo they just basically have these above ground tombs made from concrete with all the crosses and stuff you see in cemeteries... it's a little creepy at night ig, and it's super weird that there are so many bodies just chillin above ground in cement boxes like that.. buttt it was kinda cool to have a lesson there too.. we diD make sure to shake the two guys hands very firmly tho, because they were saying they spend more time at the cemetery than at their houses.. whichhh sounds like ghosts to me, buttt i shook their hands prettty firmly, so i thinkkk they're still living...

      we also had exchanges with the zone leaders, that was pretty good.. it didn't really affect me too much, because i just stayed with my comp anyways.. buttt since we're in the same house as the DL (since our whole district is literally just the 4 of us) we got to talk to the new ZL a little bit... he's an interesting guy.. his name is elder willliams, annnd he's sUper good at being passive aggressive.. i thought it was really funny, but elder palmer was a tinnnny bit annoyed by the end of the exchange... we had an activity that night tho with some members in the ward, and we were supposed to have dinner there, and then have a little spiritual thought and stuff... we got there, and pablo (the guy who's house it was at (also the first council to the bishop)) wasss peeling bananas (and i mean green bananas that are like weeks from being yellow).. sooo that meant it was gonna be a long time till we were gonna eat.. sooo we spent a ton of time there, annnd the food was.. ummm.. idk what one of the things was, buttt it was like a potato with less flavor, and more of a hairy texture.. (so just imagine eating hairy paste ig? buttt really compact and pretty dry so you gotta chew it a lot and it's a littttle hard to swallow).. and then it was fried bananas and plantains.. which can be good, buttt not in the way they were made... sooo not gonna lie it was pretty bad, definitely the worst meal i've eaten here, buttt at the same time it wasn't aWful, sooo i was determined to finish it.. i mean pablo hAd spent so much time to make it, sooo i ate and ate and continued to eat on the whole walk home, just trying to choke it down... annnd i finally got to the last bite and accidentally dropped it on the floor while fumbling with the lock for the door.. buttt i got most of it down at least... 

      annnd then.. wednesday.. i woke up.. got out of bed.. went to go do my regular work out of lifting cinderblocks at awkwardly painful angles, and (get ready for thiS explanation) ..balancing the ends of a skinny metal bar on the top of the corner of two walls that don't have a roof, so that each end of the bar is resting upon one wall.. and doing pull ups (that's super precarious, buttt it's all i got).. annnd i was pumping out my usual 1,000 pull ups for the day.. 965.. 966.. 967.. (not really, it was more like 7.. 8.. 9..) and then the bar bent too far (cuz it's super flimsy, and doesn't exactly hold me super well) so the bar fell off the corner of the wall thingy.. annnd i landed kinda weird, and ended up fracturing my knee cap.. 

      no i'm just kidding.. instead.. there was a random earthquake... sooo i was kinda just standing there after doing some pull ups.. and then... you know, things started shaking... liKe they do in an earthquake... annnd my first thought was "who is stOmping around at this hour?".. my second thought was "oh.. i guess they dO have earthqua-..." and that thought was interrupted by elder palmer stumbling outside to say, aNd i quote... get ready, it's super profound... 

"tHiS iS aN eArThQuAkE!"... 

and i was like.. "yup"... buttt ig he was kinda scared, which makes sense cuz the infrastructure is here is literally just cinderblocks, rebarb, and wet cement... buttt all i was thinking was "ehhh weak" (the one in utah a couple years ago (that one right at the beginning of covid that made everyone freak out cuz it was the beginning of the end of the world) felt a lot bigger and longer than this one, and that one wasn't even bad (iii thought))... annnd i'm sure the people felt it a little stronger where it was actually at (like 40 something miles from our house) buttt it wasn't bad for us.. just a 5.6, that only lasted like 10 seconds... sooo i might be wrong, buttt i feel like i'll get at least a couple that are stronger than that while i'm here.. we'll see...

      sooo aLso.. remember how i'm not sick anymore.. wellll... apparently i'm not nOt sick anymore.. sooo we didn't end up going out today (wednesday).. we'llll see what happens throughout the week tho.. so far it isn't too bad, buttt it's also the same exact symptoms as when i was sick throughout the CCM... sooo that's not super good.. buttt with luck i'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be gone... and tbh if it's not, if i can walk and stuff i think i'm still gonna try to go out, cuzzz i feel like i'm wasting so much time today, buttt at the same time idk how effective i would be anyways? idkkk... the next day tho i pretty much felt the same, slept a lot and stuff, and when it was time to go out and start our proselytizing i didn't feel great but didn't wanna miss more lessons.. that was one of the days we're supposed to go to pueblocito (tuesdays and thursdays) which is a little farther away, so we take a carrito over there.. we went down to the street to try to hail a carrito, and in the mean time, our lessons felt like falling thru for a little bit, and ig i didn't look too good, so we went back to the house for "an hour" which turned out to be like 3 hours.. buttt we finally went out because we had a family home evening thingy, and that was pretty good... the next day i was better, not cUred, but better.. sooo i thought.. buttt i ended up feeling prettty bad later that day, while we were proselytizing, and i somehow ended up laying on the same floor that i was laying on that time before i went to the hospital.. i was fine this time tho, in like 5 min or so, and drinking some gripe tea and then i was basically cured after that...

      buttt that morning i went to make a sandwich, and i pulled out my two pieces of bread.. there seemed to be a lot of flies (like tiny ones, basically the size of fleas or something) trying to land on my bread, so i was trying to avoid them with that kind of wave thing that we do when we're trying to keep flies off of our food.. annnd then at closer examination i realized that the flies were coming frOm the bread.. sooo i threw away those peices of bread, and pulled out the bag that i had gotten it from.. there were only like 2 or 3 pieces left, buttt sure enough.. more flies.. that was a little annoying, but it was fine i thought, because it was the end of that loaf anyways, just a couple pieces.. annnd someone must have just accidentally let a fly in there or something... sooo i pulled out a new loaf of bread (we buy like 6 at this point for 2 weeks, cuz we go thru them super fast)..and thennn i make a sandwich.. i eat the sandwich.. i'm on my last 2 or so bites.. a fly flies out of my sandwich.. sooo i'm convinced all of our bread is infested with tiny flies now.. which isn't even very surprising, it iS the DR.. buttt at the same time, i've been eating a lot of bread here, and that's not the first time i've thOught i've seen a fly in the bread bag... buttt ig it's fine, cuz we also had our transferly "fumigation" that day.. if you are like me and don't know what a fumigation is, basssically some guy comes with a reverse vacuum? that sprays poison everywhere in our house? annnd we all have to leave or we will die.. last time we went to the church during it, buttt this time we didn't want to, so we're just sitting outside on our patio thing, trying not to breathe.. annnd it's supposed to be study time, but i'm having a little trouble focusing with the poisoned air, mixed with the usual 74,848 motorcycles going by, random people shouting, someone using a jackhammer for some reason, a cement truck, annnd i'm still a little sick.. sooo i'm writing my email instead of studying...

      also, apparently they have a holiday here that's kinda like halloween? in the way that people dress up? buttt that's pretty much where the similarities end.. bAsically instead of little kids, it's teenage boys, and young adult men (like the age of people that are wAy too old to be trick or treating), and instead of going house to house to ask for candy, they go from girl to girl and smack them with homemade weapons.. they're usually made with soft materials, buttt.. i seriously don't understand the point of it, it's just super weird.. ig it's like flirting or something over here? like if you are a girl and you get attacked by a sweaty guy in a costume, then you're obligated to go on a date with them?.. i have seriously nO idea...

      we haven't really had an extEnsive amount of success this week, because we didn't go out too much, and we had a lot of time taken from meetings at members houses and stuff.. i slept a lot, and didn't have a lot of energy, buttt i'm just finding little things to focus on, like the lessons that dO go well, the spanish is still getting a little better, it's slow ofc, but it's moving.. our transfer is almost over tho.. there's like a week and a half from the time this email sends until i'll be done with my training, and i'll get a new comp.. it's almost certain that i'll stay here to train my new comp in the area, buttt at the same time anything can really happen.. our president is known for kinda just doing super unexpected things, sooo we'll see what happens...

      thaAaAat's all folks.. be sure to tune in next time for the hopefully not so boring adventures of elder williamson, the story with wAay too many chapters, that just keeps on getting dryyyyer!!! will anything interesting happen? itttt's doubtfulllll! hahaha i'm just kidddding, i'm pretty sure i'm gonna start running out of stuff to say here pretty soon tho, sooo don't be surprised if these emails just start having like 3 words and a picture of a domino! have an amazing week tho! annnd don't let anyone stop you, including yoursElf!  

 moroni 10:7

And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.     

      don't deny god.. it will never bring you any more joy to have the things of the world.. you aren't going to find joy anywhere that the spirit can't come with you.. maybe worldly happiness, but that will leave.. the way to jOy might not be the easiest way.. but it is the most fulfilling.. and that's the point of all this.. thAt is our purpose...