Meanwhile in Laurel

G'day mates! (We have Australian missionaries here, I'm totally

allowed to use this)

Sorry for the late email, I have been in DC the last few hours so

Elder Carroll could play in the missionary Turkey Bowl down at the

mall. In the meantime, Elder Simons (another missionary) and I went

across the street to the American History Museum (which, is now EASILY

my favorite of the Smithsonian museums) and did some touristy things

there. We spent two hours there until we figured the game was almost

done and only got through maybe a third of the museum! I can tell now

that at least one more P-day will be expended in that museum. We went

and saw the Star Spangled Banner and there was a super powerful spirit

of reverence in that room! It was truly awe-inspiring!

As a mission, we've set a goal that every day we will try to get 20

contacts via tracting or talking to people while out and about based

on a promise Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve gave our

mission about a year ago that if we will make an effort to get that

many contacts a day, that we will receive blessings in our missionary

work. Because of this, Elder Carroll and I have done a LOT of tracting

this past week.

While tracting on Saturday, we found this Seventh-day Adventist

preacher and his wife who were nice enough to let us in to their house

and talk with us about the beliefs of our two religions. It was an

interesting conversation, to say the least (rather amusing because the

wife was very obviously trying to convert us, meanwhile the husband

was having a more mutualistic conversation with us. That invited us to

come back and we think that if the Spirit can help them overcome the

whole "Sabbath on Saturday vs Sunday" thing, the gospel could really

bless their lives!

We have also started teaching a fourteen year old member of our ward

at their parent's request to help them feel the Spirit and address

some concerns they have with their testimony. It's been a great

experience thus far actually! Plus, the family feeds us lots of food

every time we go over there so I can't really complain! In all

seriousness though, it makes me grateful for my knowledge of the love

our Heavenly Father has for all of us and the guidance that he gives

us if we will just turn to him in humble prayer!

That's about all from me for this week! I love you all! Have a

fantastic and blessed week!

Sincerely,

Elder Sam Williams

Washington DC North Mission

11700 Falls Road

Potomac, MD, 20854