Bringin' the Heat

The mission: where saying that you are going to "kill" your companion

brings THEM joy!

Anyways, this was another pretty good week. Last P-day, we had our

zone activity, during which we played blacklight games, such as

balloon stomp, dodgeball, and volleyball, which were all a ton of fun

(pictures with and without the blacklight are included). That evening

we had a call party (party hats sadly not included) in an attempt to

set up appointments for the rest of the week.

Unfortunately, that didn't go over super well so most of the week was

spent trying to get in contact with/find people... The notable

exception being Thursday, which was Zone Conference. We talked a lot

about the importance and power of the Book of Mormon in our teaching

and how we can better use it to help those whom we teach come unto

Christ. There were also workshops about how trials help us grow and

the lessons we can learn from the First Vision. Overall, it was an

amazing zone conference! I learned a lot from it! It was also

President and Sister Cooke's last zone conference. They leave at the

end of June/beginning of July, which will be sad but interesting to

see what happens during the transition. On Saturday, the zone leaders

went on exchange with us. Elder Thorpe went with Elder Levi and Elder

Huber went with Harrison and I for the day. It was a very good

exchange and we worked really hard to try and get in touch with

everyone that we could (made a bit harder by the fact that it was

Memorial Day Weekend). The only problem was that Saturday was REALLY

HOT! I definitely am not used to heat anymore, which will make this

upcoming summer "fun" to say the least! We did have a miracle during

this exchange though! In an effort to find SOMEONE to teach during

that day, I went through the list of people that the previous elders

gave us of who they were working with and on that list was a Brother

Swarzak, an elderly less active member who they had been reading the

Book of Mormon with but hadn't seen in a long time so we decided to

stop by and give him a visit! He was indeed home and we were able to

read from Alma 42 (which he said is his favorite chapter in the Book

of Mormon) and talk about it a bit. The only problem was that he is

very hard of hearing at this point in his life so in order to

communicate, we practically had to shout at him so he could hear us.

The other problem was that both Harrison and Huber are very softer and

lower-voiced people so I had to be the in between on any question or

comment to him. It was at this very moment that I was incredibly

grateful for the experience I'd gained by being in musicals and choir

for several years that taught me how to project without murdering my

voice! It's moments like this that made it very clear to me once again

that Heavenly Father truly does prepare us for experiences later in

life! It ended up being an amazing appointment and he was very

grateful that we were able to stop by and read with him! He also is

interested in coming to church after this last Sunday if we can get

him a ride! I'm excited to be able to keep working with Brother

Swarzak!

The last notable thing of the week is that yesterday (Sunday), a young

man named Steven (maybe with a ph, I currently have no idea...) walked

into church by himself and attended the whole meeting. It turns out

that he's not a member but has friends that are and was thus curious

about our church. He apparently liked what he experienced and while he

isn't interested in meeting with us quite yet, he said that he does

plan to return! I'm excited to see what happens with him and hopefully

he will be interested in learning more about the restored gospel!

I know this truly is the Lord's work upon the earth in these, the

latter-days. I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week!

Sincerely,

Elder Sam Williams

11700 Falls Road

Potomac, MD, 20854