Keeping the Temple in View (literally)

Dear everyone, (not sure if I've used his one or not... Coming up with
unique salutations is hard...)

Well, another transfer has come and gone and I now find myself no
longer in White Plains. "Where am I now?" You ask? Well, using my
email title as a hint, I am now serving in the Kensington Ward Elders
area!

But first: my Monday and  Tuesday!

Monday was spent with the Bayside, Calvert, and ASL elders, followed
by a visit to the Chamberlain and Cottle (the Bishop) families so I
could say goodbye to them. President Cooke also called that night to
tell me where I was going and who my companion would be for the next
transfer.

Tuesday was basically packing and house/car-keeping day. So I went and
got our car's emissions checked and took it in for an oil change, then
spent a lot of time packing. Dinner was with the Hales (one of my
favorite families in the whole Ward) and they took us to Red Robin,
which was awesome! I will definitely miss White Plains, though I plan
to stop by and visit some of the families down there near the end of
my mission!

Wednesday was transfers so lots of moving, unpacking and all that fun stuff!

Some fun facts about my area/Ward: We "split" the Ward with a
companionship of sister missionaries (split is in quotes because the
sisters cover about 3/4 of the Ward and we cover maybe 1/4. The sister
missionaries are Sisters Williams (no relation to me (I think)) and
Larson. They are pretty cool), I am now serving in the smallest
English area in the entire mission (fun fact: White Plains 2nd was
actually the largest), the Washington DC Temple is actually in my
area, which means that there are a LOT of members of the church here!
For the first time in my entire mission, I've had members honk and
wave at me while we were traveling around. The most important fun fact
though: I LOVE IT HERE!!!

My companion is Elder Thorpe. He is awesome! We get along super well!
He's also the district leader of the Rockville district in the
Rockville Zone. Fun fact about the Rockville district: it contains a
Elder Thorpe and I, the AP's, the Traveling Trainers (traveling AP's),
the Zone Leaders, and a TON of sisters, which is fun! We joke that
since the AP's, TT's, and ZL's are almost never there, that Thorpe is
basically the mission relief society president. Zone/District meetings
are interesting to say the least.

Because the area I'm covering is a smaller area, it also means that I
am now on bike! Or I would be on bike at least. Thorpe and I
discovered that my bike actually, for whatever reason, doesn't have
brake pads on the rear brakes. So whenever I try to brake, metal
scrapes against metal, creating a noise similar to the howl of a
banshee. Since that is both annoying and unsafe (also causes my rear
brakes to not work nearly as well as they should. Kensington is SUPER
hilly, so you can guess why that is a problem...), we have been on
foot for the last couple of days. I had been praying for help with
losing weight, it looks like my prayers have definitely been
answered...

At church yesterday, the Bishop found out that I was new in the ward
and had me bear my testimony on Christ and the Atonement, which
happens to be my favorite subject to bear testimony on, so that was
fun! Elder Thorpe and I also sang in the Ward choir for the Easter
program. It was really cool because we sang legit choral music! It was
interesting because it meant that I had to sight-read the Tenor part
(I'm a tenor now, by the way) in the rehearsal right before the
meeting. The songs were amazing though! We sang "Easter Anthem" by
someone who's name I don't remember and a new Rob Gardner piece titled
"My Kindness Shall not Depart from Thee" which combines words from
Isaiah 54 and D&C Section 122 and was absolutely GORGEOUS! I pretty
much started crying every time we sang it... I know that Christ did
suffer for our sins and sorrows and that if we will turn to Him and
rely on the strengthening power of His Atonement that we are able to
overcome any trial that we may face in this life, no matter how hard
or daunting it may seem!

A lot of what we've been doing here so far has been attempting to
contact all of the referrals that have accumulated over the past few
months and hope that at least one of them is interested in hearing
more about the Gospel! As is, our teaching pool is relatively low
(almost non-existent), but with the guidance and direction of our
Heavenly Father, we aim to change that!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Sam Williams
Washington DC North Mission
11700 Falls Road
Potomac, MD, 20854