Busy working

I finally got caught in a storm! We knocked on a lady's house, she didn't answer and then BAM! I could barely see or breathe! Lightning was striking all around us and we made it to an overhang at a Walgreens but the wind was still blowing ferociously and the rain kept pounding us. We had to call a member to come rescue us. It was awesome!

The past week involved a lot of biking so we were late almost everywhere. The wind is killer, me and my companion struggle to go faster than 3 or 4 mph. it seems that whenever we stop at stoplights there is someone turning right who is supposed to yield to pedestrian traffic but they don't always look. I always just walk into the crosswalk anyway though and just think of the Joker, "C’mon, hit me. Hit me! HIT ME! Most of them, veer into the other lane or hit the brakes.

We did manage to find a lot of interested people. I practiced teaching in Spanish on the doorstep of one woman who kept saying "tan lindo". Another woman flagged us down as we were biking past and asked if we could come over soon to share our message, a friend of hers just died and she is going through some hard times. There are some prepared people out there.

we had a lesson with one of our most promising investigators but we were unable to find a male member to get us there and there was no other way to do it (she lives so far away it would take a couple hours to bike down there) we had to cancel and she was very upset. I felt super guilty so I bought her a card and wrote her a note. She called us the next day and told me it was the sweetest note she had ever gotten and she was looking forward to meeting with us next week. Suffice to say we called a member and set up the ride immediately. I know what the ladies like. Don’t worry, she's 65.

I have recently been reading the book of Mormon again and some of the prophecies of Isaiah have new meaning to me. There is a prophecy about how men and women will enter the "mountain" of the lord and by "shaking hands" enter the kingdom of god. It's pretty exciting. I also noticed a while ago that in 2 Nephi when the lord is rebuking those that say "a Bible, a Bible!" there is a prophecy that the Nephites will have the bible and the Jews, the Book of Mormon and that there will be another record held by the lost tribes that will come forth and we will have our fifth standard work! Neal a Maxwell talks about it in the institute manual. Woot!

Thanks so much for your e-mails and I know that I need to do a better job of writing more interesting things and more of them. Thanks so much for the birthday package as well all the cars have auxiliary capabilities so I can plug in an mp3 player that way.

Love you guys,

Elder Willard

Getting ready to train

I got a call from the mission president who told me that I will be getting a greenie in a week's time. if you have any good pranks I could play on him let me know. Nothing too crazy though, I don't want to send him home :)

We had some pretty extreme rain storms this week, there was lightning all around us but we were in the car so it was no worry.

We had a good week. Our investigator came to a lesson with her member friends and she had been reading from the book of Mormon and identified a major difference, continuing revelation! She had been catholic for a long time but she is progressing rapidly! She came to church and stayed all three hours. We have high hopes :)

I've crashed my bike a couple times but I can ride without handle bars now and I managed to pop one of my tires and patch it up okay. I can go pretty fast now but it never has been a problem for me, keeping up. I'm grateful that I am here on the coast and that I am here in Florida serving.

Hope all is well,

Elder Willard

Escaping Storms

The storms are here! I've managed to avoid the rainy season up to this point but no more.

The weather in Palm Bay is fairly unpredictable. With the ocean so nearby the clouds and thunder just roll right at us all the time, I saw a perfect clear blue sky somehow develop a brilliant crack of thunder so I'm just a little scared. We went to a less-active member's home Thursday and we just barely made it inside before it started dumping buckets. At the same member's home we saw a tree struck by lightning and a power cable was cut and it landed on the property we were on. The fire department arrived 3 or 4 minutes later and killed the power to the block. It didn't stop raining for 4 hours.

I'm getting used to the constant sweating, I'm in the church right now sweating as I type this up, but it will be nice not to have to do that all the time.

We have some excellent members here and they come and teach with us often, It's great!

Thanks so much for the letters and info from back home.

Share the gospel and have FHE!

Elder Willard

Biking in Palm Bay

Salutations from Palm Bay,

The weather is cool and clear here in Palm Bay and the breeze feels great. We're right on the coast. Biking is a lot of fun here except when you're going against the wind which is half the time.

The people here are pretty chill but the Jehovah's witnesses sure go to town here. Most people get us confused but they are generally good people.

Our car doesn't have any a/c and pep boys tried to fix it and charged us $1,009 for a new compressor and more Freon and it still doesn't work. Now they want $500 more to change a switch behind to dashboard. Crooks!

I wish I could stop sweating all the time but oh well, it doesn't bother me so much anymore. I am looking forward to going somewhere where the phrase "Didn't break a sweat" is actually feasible.

I haven't been rained on since I've been here which is kind of surprising. It's pretty hot here though, it hit 95 the other day with 90% humidity.

If I can make through the amazon I can make through anything, right?

Hope all is well,

Elder Willard

The One Year Mark

Well, the day I hit my year mark was also my very first day of having a bike as my only form of transportation. Guess how far we biked…50 miles. It was ROUGH. Oh well, it made for a good story and now my legs are super powerful. Biking doesn't seem to bother me so much, just doing it against the substantial sea breeze and getting super sweaty in the process is hard.

That was Tuesday and on Wednesday we had a huge all day meeting where I wore a suit that was left behind by another missionary. It is beautiful. Thursday I went on exchange with an elder I knew from my start in Florida and we had an awesome time. We ran two miles in the morning. That was pretty rough too. Good times though and I shower three times a day just like in Manaus.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I feel like I'm changing. Seeing my old district leader and talking with him for a while was strange. He was telling me how much I've changed from being here in Florida. Good times.

Hopefully there won't be a hurricane this year!

Love,

Elder Willard