Playing Frisbee

Hey everybody,

We had an awesome week! Lots of new people to teach and our best friend Jose came to church and stayed the entire time. He even helped take down chairs after the meetings! He's really awesome and a single dad to 4 kids. We are about to go play ultimate Frisbee with a big group of youth in Leesburg for which I am exceedingly excited.
We had an odd experience with an investigator of ours. He's a little eccentric but at one point he pulled out a bow that he made out of a PVC pipe. He tossed an empty jug of Laundry detergent about 30' away and without even aiming nailed it with an arrow. Fun times. Now that it is later in the day and we played ultimate Frisbee it was pretty intense. Two of the official BYU Frisbee team players were there and it was pretty competitive. I was chosen as a captain the third round and my team had lost 7-1 the previous 2 games. We got to 6-6 and we just barely made the last point and won our game. So much fun!
We have had a really great week and we are looking forward to another. I love you all and hope you enjoyed the presents. (Mom was the hardest to buy for, there isn't any sewing or quilting paraphernalia here that isn't sold out all the time.)

Love you all,
Elder Willard

Getting ready for Christmas

All the family and the home teacher who baptized her.

Here’s our girl Annette that got baptized last week, awesome lady and she has been through some crazy stuff but has really turned herself around!

We found some nun-chucks at our recent convert's house and we could not resist.

We met a member that's only down here for the winters and he told us he was baptized up in Canada when President Monson was the mission president and he was ordained an Elder by President Monson. Apparently they kept in touch and he met with him a few years ago for 30 minutes or so and told stories.

Picture: Me with his bird.

Picture: We found some nice flowers, I really don't know why we took this picture. Elder Langston really wanted to.

Hello everybody,
I'm currently sitting in a barber shop because my hair has become a little shaggy, I hadn't realized how frequently I needed to have a haircut while mom was the one doing the job. What a pain! But when one
of the barbers know a member of the local bishopric and asks you for a Book of Mormon, it's all worth it.
We had a pretty decent week, we found a lot of really great people to teach including a wonderful man named Jose who is a single dad of 4 kids. When we knocked on his door he just invited us right in! He's got two little boys that are very religious and he has read everything we've given him so far. I got the Pentatonix Christmas cd and it is amazing! I love that group and it was only $9. Thanks so much for the pictures and the updates. I'm sure dad can fix his car though, right? If Marnie could stop growing up until I get back that would be great

Love,
Elder Willard

Staying in Belleview

December 15, 2014

Ha-ha! We had a super spiritual night on Saturday. About 50 people were in attendance as well as the families of the two women being baptized. Such a great evening and everything went really smooth. Her confirmation the next day however was a real stressor. she showed up about 5 minutes late and we walked in with her after the opening prayer as she was being called up to the stand! ahh!!

We had a pretty tough week other than that but who cares we ended strong. I'll be staying with my companion for another transfer so that's good. He's a great elder so no worries there. Other than that I hope everything is going well and you guys got the package.

Elder Willard

Got a free chair!

Hello everyone! What a great week it's been! We have a seen a lot of progress with our investigator Annette! She has quit smoking and is now super dedicated to coming to church every week. Her husband hurt his back and could only stay for the first hour so she asked if she could catch a ride home with one of the families that has been fellowshipping her! Ha-ha! Part-member families are the best and she will be getting baptized this Saturday if all goes well.

I feel more anxious about skyping on Christmas than I did before. Probably because this is the first time that I've been away from home for over a year. I’ll be sending the Christmas package today and each of the gift will be individually wrapped so you can open it. Everything is going really well here and we are going to have a packed week!

Love you all!

Elder Willard

Picture: We knocked on a guy's door and he had this computer chair outside, he wasn't interested but when we asked if we could buy his chair he said we could have it. I sat in it and rolled down the hill for a little bit.

Picture: This is our awesome family and their little grandchildren

Picture: We had a little Christmas party at the ward building and we had a couple investigators there! Very successful.

Merry Christmas!

Decorating for Christmas

We found some Christmas lights and a little tree in our apartment and there's a member that hooks us up with sweet candles.

Well, it wasn't really that bad with the 3 thanksgivings. All the food was really good and we even met another part-member family that wants to join the church! Pretty successful holiday.

So our investigator that is most promising has officially quit smoking! We have met with her and her member husband 4 times this week with the family of the home teacher. It’s all going superb and she will be getting baptized on December 13th.

We had something called linger longer at the church after meetings. There wasn't a whole lot of food but we got to sit with our investigator and have them meet some other people.

We gave a little presentation for 5th Sunday on the He is the Gift initiative. I hope you've heard of it. I posted it on facebook but it's going to be huge! So many ads and they are going to buy youtube on the 7th for this promotion. They’ve got 9 pass along cards in each Ensign. The mission has asked that all the Portuguese elders get together to sing a song for the Christmas mission conference and that is pretty exciting though I'm really out of practice with both singing and Portuguese.

Other than all of that we are a great time here in Belleview. Keep an eye out for a Christmas package and if you guys get anything from me don't open it okay? Just wrap it.

Love you guys!

Elder Willard

Golden Investigator

Hey everybody,

We had a surprisingly cold week! It got down to forty something one of the nights. It was really rough tracting in 49 degree weather. We had an awesome miracle with tracting the other day. We knocked on a trailer and this guy answered and said it was about time he manned up and went to church with his family. He’s disable in his thirties and he's home all the time. He also has a mode of transportation. Golden investigator!

We also had a dinner at a member's home and we were able to invite a part member family that they hometeach. The wife finally set a date after working with missionaries for almost 3 years. We are super excited for her! The humidity is back and it's pretty warm now which was a bummer because we played ultimate Frisbee today and it was pretty toasty.

Hope everyone is doing well, have a nice thanksgiving!

Elder Willard

I had to use my blanket!

Well we have been having some cooler weather down her as well, one night it got down to 61 degrees and I had to use my blanket. But I'm appreciating the cold, it's easier to walk around and talk with people when you aren't covered in sweat.

The work progresses here in Belleview. We had a woman refer herself to the missionaries on Mormon.org and she had already read the Book of Mormon and found a bunch of answers to question she had that weren't found in the Presbyterian Church. We are super excited to meet her!

This next week is going to be packed with stuff to do which is awesome! Elder Langston and I have a bunch of candles that we use because we are weird like that.

I drive this white Chevy Cruze everywhere and there are a lot of dirt roads so I'm getting really good at drifting around corners. Haven’t hit anything yet

I hope you're all doing well and living the gospel, see you in a little bit

Elder Willard

Now in Belleview

Well, it's spelled Belleview here for some reason. This area is huge! We have car full-time here but it's still not really enough for us. We don't have a lot of investigators at the moment but we have so many potentials. This is easily 3 times the size of my last ward and I can see it becoming a bunch of different wards soon. The concentration of old people is a little higher here than elsewhere so I am getting road rage on a regular basis. Just kidding, I am a great driver... the ward is super supportive of us and there are a lot of programs that help focus the ward members. So many of the members, especially the leadership are converts to the church and that makes all the difference. Such a great place!

We’ve already had some interesting experiences with finding. There was a couple that preached to us on their doorstep for probably close to an hour. They are "ministers." One went on a mission trip to Russia to share the gospel and found his wife who is Russian and she talks with a thick accent but we offered to help them paint and they accepted. We came back a few days later and used all their paint and then sat down with them for probably another hour and a half after the painting asking and answering questions. They say they're saved by accepting Jesus in their lives and it was difficult for the husband to accept anything else but the Russian wife was more than happy to read and pray about the book of Mormon. We’ll see.

There is a recent convert in the ward who mentioned in elders quorum about trying to join the police at which point my companion started laughing. Apparently he knows many members of the mob very well and has worked with them intimately. He’s a super funny guy and he takes the missionaries out to eat all the time. He gave an elders quorum lesson that was just a list of questions to foster discussion and personal experiences. It was great.

We had a lot of adventures on Sunday I don't think I can write them all down but we did get to visit a woman who has an 18-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old daughter who both have children of their own. It was a little awkward but the husband was a member and she had studied with the missionaries a lot and almost got baptized. She had had a miniature stoke and a ward missionary invited her to church and she accepted. We gave her a blessing and she said she couldn't help smiling all the way through it. Great lady. 

My new companion is Elder Langston and he is amazing! Super obedient and motivated to work. He’s only been out for 3 months but he is a great teacher and probably better than me at contacting people. We have seen miracles together and I love the guy I'll send you a picture of us. He’s just a little short but that's okay right Marnie?

Anyway, I love you guys, have a great week!

Elder Willard

Last week in Palm Bay

Picture: There's the district playing volleyball.

Well I'm finally being transferred. It was nice to stay for a while in Palm Bay and I think I might want to come back and visit for a little while. It's a nice place and the weather is great. Saturday night we had a cold front roll in and everyone was losing theirs mind about 65 degrees. I biked around in a short-sleeve shirt while my companion used a sweater. It was marvelous. We are at a low point in our teaching unfortunately but it will pick
up I'm sure. The sisters in our ward are leaving and are being replaced with elders so there will be four elders and the whole ward will be disappointed.
We went to the beach today and it was so perfect! The weather was amazing and we got our feet just a little wet. We played ultimate Frisbee and won and I am fulfilled. I had my camera in my pocket however and it fell out as we were playing and got all wet and sandy. Oh well I paid for it with mission funds I think while I was in Brazil. I'm excited to see a new area and get to know a new ward.
Have a great week!
Elder Willard

Picture: spur of the moment kind of thing

Picture: These Smith's actually are descendants from Hyrum Smith through Joseph F Smith.

So, I broke my camera today unfortunately so I guess I’ll need a new one of those. That poor Amazonian gerrero. Ties are always nice but please don't send candy. We get tons from the members and everyone else. If you could search for steel bike pedals that would be great.

Snow Birds coming back

Hey everybody,

It’s great to have the "winter weather." My companion is finally realizing why people move to Florida in the first place. All the "snow birds" are coming back into town and they are clogging up the roads, the stores, the tourist attractions. It feels great to bike though so that's all worth it. I'm afraid I saw a crack in my helmet that I think was from my crash in early July so I went out and got another helmet. They say they're only good for one solid hit and that was a pretty solid hit.

We got a senior missionary couple last week and they are super helpful. They’re from fountain green Utah and they are helping organize the little branch that we have formed some 20 miles south of our location. They are great for fellowshipping and rides and that's all we need.

So we've got this investigator of ours who is an older gentleman and a former policeman and mayor. He’s an interesting character but I think we can get him baptized. He is candid in his comments with us and tried to come to church last week but got lost on his way over here even though he's been here before. He has a large collection of knives and model cars that he makes and most of the time he sits at home and watches Bonanza or something. our recent convert Kathy has been taking care of elderly people her whole life so when Willard asked if we knew anyone who could help him do some cleaning we suggested her and she has been on his case about coming to church and even brought him last week.

I recently borrowed the Frozen soundtrack from the library (which I think is okay). I have been listening to it basically non-stop for 4 days and it's driving my companion a little crazy mostly because he likes bluegrass and yodeling which I never really got into. It is a serious addiction. I am interested in the storyline though if you guys have seen it and could give me a summary that would be awesome.

We got to go to the trunk-or-treat our ward had on Saturday and the elders all dressed up with superman shirts underneath our white shirts and safety pinned the white shirts open. it was pretty fun but I only got like 4 pieces of candy so that was a major disappointment though I did get to throw a boomerang that actually came all the way around and I caught it again. Fun times and we saw some cool costumes.

we should be getting a new car here in a week or two which is probably when I will be leaving this area so that kind of sucks but who knows we'll see.

Thanks so much for all the pictures everyone! Jackson should know that I am very disappointed that he got an iPhone but other than that I love you guys!

Elder Willard

Conference

Hey everyone,
This week has been kind of tiring, we don't have a lot of people to teach so we hit the streets most of the time and unfortunately a lot of people haven't opened their doors so our time hasn't been very productive. However, on Saturday, we had a miraculous day of talking with everyone and found a lot of people who were interested and wanted us to come back. 30 very nice people and some excellent weather made up for the whole week of not much progress.
One of our investigators had us over for lunch to which they also invited her landlord who was Ukrainian, born in Brazil, married to a Vietnamese woman and rented his place specifically to Chinese students. He knew a lot (or at least he thinks he does) about the church and other subjects. We had some awesome Chinese food, spicy pork and other stuff that I didn't recognize. My companion ate some kelp so that was weird.
I found that on my companion's iPod he has "I Love the Lord" performed by the BYU men's chorus so I've been listening to that non-stop. I've been on the mission now for almost a year straight so that's good. I can't believe you're doing all this Brazilian grilling without me!
Don't let Jackson die before I get back

Love you all,
Elder Willard

Cool effects on my phone. The cell tower behind me is well-disguised.

Going to the Fort Lauderdale Temple Open House

Meet the Mormons

Hello everyone,

We are having an excellent time here in Palm Bay. Turns out we don't have any investigators but that just means we get to go out in this nice weather and knock on doors! We had a really cool experience with a recent convert of ours. She brought one of our investigators to church yesterday and walked around the chapel with him for a while explaining the first vision. She actually called him early in the morning to see if he was up!
We got to see Meet the Mormons and it was really good! We were all laughing so hard at the first few minutes but it's almost like a really long Mormon message about how awesome all these people are and all the good they have done. The one about the missionary mom was everyone's favorite though. A bunch of missionaries cried when they saw the mom's last hug. Great movie, I hope a lot of people see it.
We carved pumpkins, roasted marshmallows in a fire pit at the church today. Everyone doubted my fire building skills but it went really well. One of the sisters in the district is leaving this Saturday mid-transfer and she found out today that her grandfather died. She is an amazing sister that has already lost her mother, very caring and
funny.
I'm excited for our family reunion! Thanks for all the pictures, you all kind of look the same so that's good. Good luck with the bathroom.
Have a great week!
Elder Willard

Bro's and Brats

Hey everyone!

Hope you all enjoyed conference and felt the spirit. We had a big event before priesthood session that they called "bros and brats" which was pretty cool but I felt absolutely disgusting after eating those bratwursts. I was a big fan of Christofferson's and Jörg Klebignat's talks. Very applicable to missionary life. (I didn't look up that name, I think I spelled it right though) Saturday night and all of Sunday was one of the best days of weather I have seen in at least six months. Sooo nice! Low 70's and sunny with no clouds. We turned off the a/c and rolled down the windows in the car, just perfect.
We are going to be watching the movie meet the Mormon this Thursday before it comes out and I am super stoked! If it is showing anywhere nearby, definitely go see it. I didn't have an opportunity to go shopping last week so I have been subsisting on frozen chicken and ramen. This week will be different though! We have probably 20 boxes of hamburger helper we have amassed and I will be eating all of them. I also try to get a bag of Washington apples at least every other week for comfort food. We are looking forward to a slightly cooler week and we will be spending it in the car so I am excited.

Love you guys,
Elder Willard

With Elder Richards

Well, here in Palm Bay I have been joined by Elder Richards who has been out for 3 months and he is very small. We are getting into the swing of things and loving biking now. Our recent convert had a vision one morning when she was lying in bed. She said she saw her late husband in a white room with a white tie and dress shirt and he said I want to be baptized. We were pretty stoked. We've got a youth temple trip November 2nd so we'll bring her to that.

I'm getting pretty tired the more the mission goes on. I'll have to start taking naps a little more often. I can't really think of anything more to say. Sorry. Thanks for all the emails and updates. I hope you guys don't freeze
this winter without me. Does Pam speak English at all?

Elder Willard

Kathy Baptism

Picture: Me with a bunny

Picture: Elder Doman at Kathy’s Baptism

Yep, I'm staying in Palm Bay. My trainee will finally be able to begin his mission for real. I will be sad to see him go but I won't mind staying. I'll go to the beach here in a month or so and I am super excited. We had an okay week, it rained a lot on Saturday and we got almost nothing accomplished. We basically cancelled Saturday. We have been biking a lot and I am pretty thin now, maybe not thin, but less chunky.

This week we found an investigator named Willard. No joke! He’s a really funny old guy that told us yesterday that I seem smarter than my companion and more patient. He really wants my nametag so maybe if he gets baptized I'll give him one.

Here’s so pictures of what we did last p-day with the buffalo family. They are a couple country farmers and they had me skin a rabbit and gut him all by myself. And then we ate them. I got the back. It was a little chewy.

It’s cooling down and I am super excited for that!

Hope everyone is well,

Love,

Elder Willard

Cooling Down

Well we had a solid week. Our confirmation went well on Sunday and Kathy seems to be getting along very well with the members, especially the old people. She takes care of the elderly even though she is 75.
We're super excited and it seems like she is too. She's already got a copy of the Book of Mormon to give to a friend of hers!
I keep crashing my bike so I bought a bunch of band aids and Neosporin. Obviously prevention would be the best course of action but I keep answering the phone while biking without hands. Maybe I should stop doing that...
We are winding down to the last week of the transfer and me training. I'm pretty pumped that it's cooling down and I wouldn't mind staying here for a little longer. My mission president called me and told me that I will be going home the transfer of June 1st I think that means I'll be home sometime Wednesday afternoon. It's kind of hard to shake that idea. I've got 8 and a half months left now.
Thanks for all the updates. I really liked that pink bathroom though :( sorry about the nexus I'm sure they'll come out with a new one in a little while. Marnie doesn't have to get along with teachers, "there are no bad students, only bad teachers".
Have you been able to communicate at all with Pam? Does she speak English at all?

Love you guys,
Elder Willard

Labor Day

Hello everyone,
The heat is finally dissipating and I am personally really excited about that. It's my first Labor Day on the mission! We're having fun biking around in the sun for sure but the best part is going to our investigator's home and feeling the spirit and the a/c. We will be having a baptism next week and we are really excited about it. I'm getting to know the members really well and like having us over and I think that's a sign that I'm going to be transferred soon. I really wouldn't mind staying for another few months, Palm Bay is great, here are solid members and humble people as well as that excellent sea breeze.
I'm excited for Howard and his new fiancé, that should be fun to have a Brazilian in the family but that's going to be hard. At least I won't have to worry about a language barrier!

Have a good week! I miss you all!
Love,
Elder Willard

Elder Hamula

We found a family! That is probably the rarest thing in the world in missionary work! Since our visit with them last week they have read half of the Book of Mormon and have already told us that they intend on joining the church! They are moving soon so we have to baptize them before they get away. They'll still be in the ward but then the sisters will get them and that cannot happen!

We had a pretty decent week besides them. We met Elder Hamula and his wife on Tuesday. He's in the 1st quorum of the seventy. He encouraged us to ask him questions that involved what we could do as opposed tojust stupid questions about deep doctrine. It went pretty well.
Things are looking up, I think it's finally cooling down but thatmight just be my imagination.

Elder Willard

August Heat

Hey everyone,

We had a decent week. I'm just so tired all the time. The August heat isn't as bad as everyone says it is and biking is nice because you get consistent air flow at least. There are storms just about every day here and we are all praying hard for a hurricane.

One of our investigators finally started to pray on their own and that will only lead to one thing... another investigator read all of Jacob in a day and texted us about it. We are seeing some good stuff here in Palm Bay.

Thanks our new missionary here is an avid volleyball player and things have heated up in the sand pit.

I’m afraid there's not much more to report on but things are working out and we are going to be meeting Elder Hamula from the first quorum of the seventy tomorrow.

Thanks for the pictures and the package!

Lots of love,

Elder Willard

100-degree Days

Hey thanks so much for the emails! I really appreciate it. I love hearing from Marnie, she is too funny! This week has been weird but we worked hard. We talked with more people than ever and taught lots of lessons but I think one of our investigators got involved with some anti-Mormon "info". Oh well we are carrying on and it is pleasant. Someone told me that it was over a hundred degrees this week but I couldn't hardly tell the difference. I did hear it was over a hundred in Washington as well but I don't know if I believe that.

My first district leader from when I got here (who is my current district leader) is going home tomorrow and it's kind of weird to think about it. The time seems to be moving pretty quickly I can't imagine going home just yet but it feels like it's coming soon, I don't know. I've found that I can update my profile picture on lds tools, so I did that.
I'm afraid there's not much to say. If you could send me some pictures of what the family looks like now that would be cool. Hope you all are having a good time with trek and other such things.

Love you all,
Elder Willard

P-Day Beach Frisbee

Aug 4

We went to the beach for our p-day today and played Frisbee. We tried to watch the sunrise but that didn't work out because there was a ton of clouds. We also played volleyball in the pouring rain and that was pretty cool too.

We finally have functioning a/c in the car and now we have to give it up. It's probably going to be a pretty hot week but someone told me that there will be a tropical storm Tuesday if it doesn't change course which it probably will. Biking in the heat and rain is kind of tough but adding lightning makes it pretty much a no.

so because my companion is from Utah he gets letters from his family almost on a daily basis, I don't mind but I guess it's been a while since I've felt kind of jealous.

The members her are very perceptive and they know that we are working. They also know that the missionaries that have been here in the last few months have not worked hard. It's really great that they even tell us about it and I'm excited to gain their trust.

We are working hard and in hot environments, we are sharing the gospel and teaching with power.

Hope all is well,

Elder Willard

PS. If you could send me my Teva sandals that would be great, I don't know why I didn't bring them along in the first place. No rush.

Friendship Connection

Hello everyone, hope you guys had as good a week as I just did! This has probably been the most stressful time on the mission. We had 7 lessons with member's present and we were calling, texting, and confirming with everyone all the time. Great week and we now have a baptism set up for our friend Pam. It was really amazing how everything came together and allowed us to teach throughout our entire Saturday. Again, great week!

The best part about it though I think was meeting Jennifer. She was driving along and she saw me and my companion biking and noticed that I wasn't using my handlebars at all. She immediately assumed we were Mormon and stopped the car in front of us in the bike lane. She waved us over to her window and asked if we could meet with her and her son, that she was a new move in, and had been struggling in the area. The
next day we brought a member of the stake presidency and listened to her problems and shared a brief message. We met her next with a woman that lives down the street and a priest age young man and she had all the right questions. She came to church the following day and stayed with her 6 year old (Paul) in primary. She enjoyed it and we are meeting her again tomorrow. She asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon
specifically! We are very excited :)

We have seen a lot of success with bringing members to lessons and making the friendship connection. Again this has been the busiest, most stressful time on the mission, but I am also be happiest.
I hope you have a good week say hi to my other sibling for me.

Elder Willard

Temple Visit

Great week! We got to go to the temple again and it was amazing! I misjudged on the pant size so I wasn't able to button them but it was okay.

We had a decent week. Our investigator pam is coming along well, we just got her a great friend a really inspired fellowship I thought. We have been told to read the Book of Mormon again and I am just now getting to the Isaiah chapters again so it's a little tough but we are carrying on. I had to buy a new wheel for my bike since the crash threw it way out of alignment and I ended up buying groceries with my card instead of using the money I actually already had on my card out of my only stupidity hopefully that wasn't too much money.

It’s hot here but we go out and bike anyway and as a result we talk with lots of people. My trainee had no doubts or problems with talking with everyone he sees. He’s helping me to learn and do the same.

Sorry I kind of waited til the last minute to send this email so I have to go but I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Elder Willard

Caught a bug

Well Monday I was coming down with some sort of virus and it beat me so bad I was basically out of commission for four solid days. That didn't stop us from setting a baptismal date with our best investigator Pam! I picked up a rusty nail with my back tire and had to have a member gives us a ride home. Now I know a lot about bike maintenance which is comforting.

I got all the birthday stuff and I even made my cake while I was sick one those days. We didn't have a 13/9 pan only a 15/10 and then I also used the whole can of condensed milk instead of a third of it but it turned out amazing!! I lowered the heat a little and it turned out great. Grandma and grandpa sent a short sleeve shirt with a Donald trump tie and I was so amazed that they sent such a fitting gift it was awesome and I sent them a thank you note.

We didn't accomplish much this week but the work is progressing.
Hope everyone is well
Elder Willard

Bike Accident

So this might be a little awkward, especially considering my last e-mail. Last Monday was pretty normal but as we were biking home I got a bug in my eye and continued straight across the road to the next sidewalk while my companion turned left and stayed on the sidewalk. A woman was trying to turn right and she assumed that I would stay on the sidewalk like my companion so she accelerated and hit me right between her headlights. My helmet made a dent in her car hood. I stood up after a minute on the ground and we biked home. My arm was in pain so we went to the ER where they scanned my right arm and leg and found no breaks. They gave me a brace and some prescriptions to fill and sent me home. The next day I was paired up with my trainee elder Doman who is a football player from St. George Utah. We have been having a pretty good week.

Sorry about the scare but I'm fine now and I am very tired.

Elder Willard

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