Snow Worries

Greetings friends, family, and the rest!

Well, I was going to send home all of my winter stuff this week, but
then Monday night and Tuesday morning happened... "What happened
Monday night and Tuesday morning" you ask? Well, you know all of the
snow that I didn't get in January and February? It turns out that the
weather waited until mid-March to unload its yearly cold-front and
reserves of snow upon Maryland and DC. But unlike last year's deluge
where we were told to stay inside during the downpour and next day
until things were melted and unfrozen (because Maryland roads and
drivers plus snow equals very bad times), we were expected to go out
and work, just without the use of our cars. Elder Talbot and I also
had the distinct "pleasure" of having one of the Traveling Trainers
(go on week long exchanges with companionships that President assigns
them to go with) with us during this week. As such, much of the week
was spent tracting in the snow (which turned out to be pretty
effective because most people stayed home the first day), contacting
more referrals, and, in general, building up "wife points" (because
missionaries are silly).

We did have a couple of really cool experiences though (no pun
intended). One of which was that on Thursday, after we were once again
allowed to drive, we had the opportunity attending a really good (but
long) zone conference then afterwards had the privilege of teaching
Sister Tayo and her two youngest children, Aminat and Sheyu (both
teenagers in highschool). Sister Tayo is a woman that several weeks
back showed up at church one Sunday because she had just moved into
the area and wanted to go to a church that was near her home but as
she was driving around and searching, none of the churches that she
passed by felt right until she found our building and she felt like
she needed to attend our services. While there, she really felt the
Spirit and decided that this was the first church she'd been to where
she felt like she was supposed to be there and started bringing her
children (truth be told, the first time she came to church, everyone
thought she was a member already). After a couple weeks of trying to
schedule a time where she and her kids would be available, we were
able to meet with her Thursday afternoon and teach her an absolutely

amazing first discussion! In short, her and her kids are now on date
to be baptized on May 13th (because she will be out of town all of
April), in excited to keep teaching her family and hopefully see the
Gospel bless their lives!

Another awesome experience we had was on the day previous, we had been
traveling about attempting to contact referrals (finally got the count
below 20 until we received three more that same day... though having
lots of referrals to contact is a pretty good problem to have when we
are actually able to contact them) and we saw a woman trying to get
the snow off of the roof of her car (which had frozen to the roof and
become pretty cumbersome to dislodge) after helping her out, she
introduced herself as Renee and was so grateful that she agreed to
have us come over Saturday morning and share our message with her.
Therefore on Saturday morning (after having been freed from being with
the traveling trainer) we had the opportunity of visiting with her. It
turns out that she is a really cool person who has lived in various
places around the US (including, as it turns out, Mesa and Phoenix)
and had therefore heard about the church but never really learned too
much about it. We were able to teach her a pretty good first
discussion and she really liked he message and agreed to let us come
back and promised to read the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, at the
beginning of the lesson, she was smoking a cigarette (we'll work on
that) and the second-hand smoke fumes left Talbot and (especially)
myself with really bad migraines (I basically turned into a vampire in
the sun unless I was wearing sunglasses, it was pretty great...) and,
as a result (combined with me tearing my Achilles' tendon and Talbot
messing up his back a bit on account of trudging through the snow
nonstop) after checking on a few more people, we had to head back home
and rest for a while.

In short though, this was a very educational week with a lot of great
experiences and even more learning/growing experiences. I know for a
fact that all of those great moments, especially the teaching of Tayo
and family, were not from my own efforts but rather from the blessings
of a loving Heavenly Father in our lives who cares for us and wants us
to succeed and come unto Him so he can bless us in our endeavors! I
love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Sincerely,

Elder Sam Williams

Myself, Elder Talbot, and Elder Sherrat (Traveling trainer dude)

with Sister Mabel (a sister in our Ward that loves having the

missionaries over).