I hope all of you had an awesome Christmas, because I know I did!
A good amount of this week was spent getting myself familiar with the
area. Other than the two Singles ward areas, White Plains 2nd is the
largest area in the mission, meaning we spend a lot of time driving.
P-day was spent up in College Park so Elder Sorensen could practice
something with the other ASL missionaries for the mission talent show
(to be mentioned later) and hanging out with other missionaries. We
then drove back down to spend time/dinner with the Chamberlain family
(quick background on them: The mom and her mother are both members of
the church but the husband and kids are not and don't have any
particular interest in the church (he has issues with Joseph Smith)
but likes to have us over because of the spirit we have and the good
influence we have on their kids. They are awesome!).
Basically all of our appointments canceled on us this week, which was
kinda rough... But on the bright side, last Sunday, the Ward Relief
Society President gave us a pretty big list of people to check on so
we were able to spend a lot of time going through the list for her.
Christmas Eve was split between Zone-district meeting (yes, we still
had that on Christmas Eve... The plus side was that it was basically
spent playing games with the other missionaries and we got mail as
well!) and spending time with Ashley (recent convert. Super awesome!)
and her family, which was really fun!
Christmas Day, we drove up to the Visitor's Center for a Mission-wide
Christmas Devotional by the Cooke family followed by a movie. All of
us (the missionaries) were hoping for Star Wars, and the AP's even
pranked us by making us think we were watching Star Wars, but sadly,
it was not Star Wars... Instead we watched Inside Out, which was still
a super good movie and a ton of fun! After that, we had a Christmas
feast for lunch and a mission talent show (my district did a parody
combining Frozen and Star Wars called "Frozen in Carbonite: Do You
Want to Build an Empire" that was a ton of fun!
Following the talent show, we drove back up to Laurel so Elder
Sorensen could visit with one of his friends from when he served in
the singles ward who had just gotten home from being in Utah (and had
spent a bunch of time with Elder Sorensen's family). Then we went back
down to our area to the Bonnie family's house (awesome family in our
Ward that has 14 kids! Needless to say, it is a ton of fun there!
While there, I also got to Skype my family, which was AWESOME!
(Seriously, it was great to see y'all again).
Saturday was spent hanging out with the Chamberlain family playing
Ultimate Frisbee, putting together Legos, playing cards, helping with
various chores, and singing Karaoke. It was a ton of fun, to say the
least!
Yesterday after church, Elder Sorensen went on exchange with the ASL
elders so they could spend P-day together, so I got to go with the
White Plains 1st Elders to eat dinner with their bishop and his
family. While there, I found out that Bishop Martin (their bishop) is
actually from Mesa, Arizona and went to Westwood high school.
On a more spiritual note, as we've gone over to people's houses for
dinner, we have been sharing the "Why We Need A Savior" video that the
church put our for Christmas (in my opinion, it is about a million
times better than the "A Savior is Born" one). If any of you haven't
seen it yet, I would HIGHLY recommend it! It does an amazing job at
illustrating exactly why it is so important that Christ came to earth,
suffered, bled, died, and was resurrected! I know that because Jesus
Christ did all of those things, that we are able to repent of our
sins, be comforted in our times of heartache and grief, and
(ultimately) be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven and
with our families forever and that Christmas is when we celebrate His
birth and what that birth means for the Salvation of us all!
I love being a missionary because I get to spread this marvelous
message of peace and happiness to those around me! I know that our
Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us more than we can
possibly imagine! So much so that he gave His only begotten son to
allow us to return to live with Him again!
I love all of you and hope you all have an amazing week and a great New Year!
Sincerely,
Elder Sam Williams
Washington DC North Mission
11700 Falls Road
Potomac, MD 20854
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| Elder Williams at a random pier at Golden Beach, MD |
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| Other side of the pier |
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| Elder Williams with the ASL Elders French and Smuin |
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