A Car Ride

Hello everyone!
Hope all is well. Thanks for the emails and updates. I'm so excited for Logan to actually get to Boston. Will be exciting!
This was a pretty normal week. I did have an exchange in Brno- a nice little switch-up. I drove with a Brno Zone Leader so that was definitely the highlight of the week. Do you know when the last car ride was for me??
Elder Osterloh and I are doing great! He really is a great companion and I'm grateful to serve with him. I'm trying to be a good companion for him-- but I'm really difficult sometimes ;)
Our investigators have been doing really well actually. We've had some breakthrough lessons where they "get it" now. That is the hardest part. Getting a person to that realization. Until a person realizes how important the gospel is if it's true they have to find the answer themselves. It's hard because I'm convinced there ain't nothing we can do or say that can convince a person, or change a persons mind. We just have to invite the spirit and allow it to work the person's heart. I love the people we're teaching right now. They are all really special to me and I really hope they keep hold to that desire and keep reading the Book of Mormon and keep asking God if it's true. Then everything else will fall into place for them.
Tomorrow we head out to Brno for a Zone Conference. If I wanted to be trunky I would let you know that it will be my last. (But I'm far from "trunky" :) ) It's weird-- because on Saturday I hit my 2 year mark and I still have a month to go. But I'm excited for the next couple weeks. I'm SO glad I decided to stay just a little longer.
Love you all! Hear from you soon!

-Elder A. Williams

13 Augusta 2012
Service

Can I just mention how much I can't wait to be able to write you all without having an hour on the clock??
With the "going home comment" out of the way I can say that we have had a pretty good week. Saturday we had another service project where we picked up trash along the canal. Went pretty well. A TON of trash. I'm sure you'll see some pictures on the internet soon. (By the way-- I apologize for NEVER sending pictures) I just never use my camera... Logan- you can do better at that.

Yesterday Elder Bacon and Nichol had their last talk in church. I secretly cannot wait until they leave. It's been hard focusing with them around. They hop on the train to Prague tomorrow morning and it will be much easier to live in denial that I will be released in a few short weeks. 

We've seen some more cool things with our investigators, one of them is doing extremely well and finally came to church! There was a visitor who asked him how long he had been a member, the visitor was visibly surprised when he heard that it is was his first time at church-- thought he was already a member! He had such a good time. It just feels good as a missionary to have an investigator at church. :)


So Elder Osterloh and I had this really cool investigator who was just excited about everything we were teaching him. We were SO stoked for our meetings. He accepted a date and everything the very first lesson. But then he never responded to our messages/calls. We were so confused and little torn up. Elder Osterloh ran into him on exchanges and set a tentative meeting up for yesterday-- he seemed excited to see Elder O and for meeting with us. Over the weekend we had the same problem with reaching him. Then Sunday evening comes around and we find his name in the phone again under a different contact. The number is exactly the same, only it has the area code in the number-- so we try it and he answers in the first two rings! After we hang up we tried the other name we had for him and we got the same result from before-- a dead line. We COULD have contacted him this entire time under this other contact! We were just thankful for the breakthrough that we had finding his actual number. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

I'm excited for the 2nd half of this transfer. There will be some exciting thing happening soon, I'm sure. :) We are going to start doing "power exchanges" where we go out with a different companionship in the city once a week for an hour for some intense finding. Should be good!

Love you! Miss you, see you soon!


Elder A. Williams    

 August 6, 2012
Baptism Anniversary
Hello everyone
I woke up this morning unable to believe that it was August 6-- again. A year ago today Marek and Ivet were baptized! It was really nice to remember that day during my studies and I couldn't believe that they have been active members of the church for a year already. Time really does fly and in a couple weeks will be Lenka's anniversary too. I have a feeling that these dates will forever be imprinted in my mind. :) I was in a little bit of a slump-- but remembering what this is all about has helped me put things in perspective. And in 2 weeks we'll have another baptism! This work seems a little insane at times. We see so little obvious success that any normal person would feel like quitting. But instead it refines us into better people who are more equipped to serve. Instead of feeling like this is useless I started seeing success in other areas. That is what the Gospel of Christ does to us though, right? It transforms us and, as one that needs a TON of improvement, I am grateful for that. This week my area hit standards for the first time. I have NEVER hit standards before. (Standards are mission-wide goals for our "key indicators" things like # of lessons taught, # of investigators, etc). Our investigators are progressing and coming to church and are loving the gospel. Elder Osterloh and I found one woman last week and he had a lesson with her whilst on exchanges so I wasn't there. But she was really excited to come to church and both her AND her husband came. They had a son who drowned at 19 so she had a lot of concerns about post-mortality. It was fast and testimony meeting and BAM! first testimony was all about the plan of salvation and forever families. She LOVED church and the atmosphere and wanted to bear her own testimony but we ran out of time. (NEVER happens) It was such a good Sunday and I am really excited to start teaching her and her husband this week. Elder Osterloh and I are having some great experiences together and I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks as our people start meeting with us more. Glad to hear Logan made it to the MTC ok. Gooooood luck with the food. It got old for me real fast. You're lucky you're there for only 3 weeks.... It's gotta be weird at home with just Aaron and Mom and dog. (Let's face it, Dad pretty much lives at the airport) What am I going to do??

Love you all!!
Elder A. Williams (<--- the "A" is there so we don't got confused with the other Elder Williams!) :)