Upcoming baptism

The weeks are moving by super fast now. Next thing I know I'm on my way to bed. The missionary routine is beginning to take effect on my memory.

We had a pretty good week; one of our investigators is the only non-member in his family and his son is on a mission in California. Last Sunday he told us he would like his son to baptize him but we gave him a date to work towards. He said he would pray about. Lo and behold the following Sunday he agreed! May tenth is the plan now!

He is going on our ward's bus to the open house and so are we! The mission let us know about a month before the open house that we could go if our ward provided a bus. We're pretty sure they didn't really want us to go because they gave us such short notice and told us we have to have at least 6 non-members but hey, we have 10 going!

Me and Elder Hemsley are super excited!

Hope everyone is well and treating the missionaries nice over there.

Elder Willard

Conference Weekend

I'm sticking around. I'll be here with Elder Hemsley for another transfer. I'm a little concerned that I've been here too long, but at least we have a car for when it gets really hot. It has been a cool week. I was able to crack a bull whip yesterday at an investigators house and I didn't make a complete fool of myself.

We have a baptismal date coming up in April and we found a lot of people to teach. I am becoming more concerned with the climbing heat and what people are telling me about the summers. I really hope I don't have to bike in the summer.

I particularly liked Elder Zwick's talk in Conference. He actually came to Orlando with L. Tom Perry about 2 months ago for a ward leadership training so I recognized him. I thought Elder Anderson did an excellent job as well. I feel like the whole ordain women movement was put to rest by Elder Oaks in his talk. Thank goodness for that.

It's getting a little toasty here in Clermont, but it's okay. Make sure to throw in an emerald tie for that Easter package you mentioned. Green ties are especially rare and are very fitting for Easter, I think.

Thanks so much,

Elder Willard

Spring arrives this week

Time is moving by pretty quickly here it seems, I've been here for two months but it seems like just a few days. Me and Elder Hemsley just get along super well.

It is starting to get warmer here and the rain is coming down more often and a lot stronger. Apparently there was some sort of mix up and I was supposed to be senior companion but we didn't find out until this week and now we are equal companions, nobody makes the decisions and we switch off driving.

We're using Facebook more effectively but I haven't gotten around to posting anything recently. I'll work on that.

I am glad to be out here, the church knows how to take care of its people and The Lord does too.

Elder Willard

Sent from my iPad

Community Event

This week moved by pretty quickly. We’re working hard and seeing success. I don't know how it works but it seems we always find someone to teach no matter how many times missionaries have knocked on a door. There was a big community event here over the weekend that involved a lot of barbecue near a lake. There must have been 10,000 people there for the event and there were all sorts of games and booths and rides. We met some people from Elder Hemsley's last area which was a YSA ward and they paid for our admission and they bought us some ribs! The best part was we gave them like 30 pass-along cards and they handed them all out for us! Super cool people and one of them was a Disney princess who worked at one of the parks!

I snapped the wrist band for my old watch so I bought a new one today and took an awesome nap. Thanks so much for the Seahawks shirt by the way! I’ve been wearing it at every available opportunity. Sometimes I think about some of the missionaries that go home for medical or some other reason and don't come back and I just think that's crazy, that thought just never occurred to me and I am grateful that I had all of my family's support to get back out here. Thanks so much guys!

Elder Willard

Sent from my iPad

Getting cold

Salutations from the sunshine state! It was relatively cold this last week with a low of 45. The tracting goes on and iPads are just annoying. Not to sound ungrateful but it is slow as a herd of turtles here.

My new companion is an elder with whom I have had some experience. Elder Hemsley is from Idaho Falls and he is a professional ballroom dancer, very good actually, and he is only a little bit shorter than me. He's a middle child like me so we get along pretty well.

We are having fun and getting the work done here. We're teaching an 11-year-old kid and he has already come to church twice so it should be great.

I still don't get to drive but I know the area pretty well and we are moving right along.

Elder Willard

Sent from my iPad

Fort Lauderdale temple opening soon

Glad to hear everyone is doing well, those poor kids all alone with only their common sense to guide them...

Things are interesting here to say the least. We have had some awesome progress with one of our investigators who is the only member of his family not a member. He had never been to church but we have been visiting his family with the elder's quorum president, who is a stud by the way, and we were able to do some good old manual labor in tree trimming. We had him come on a temple tour with us that Afternoon and he came with us to church the following day.

Another investigator has been praying about a baptismal date and April 19th kept popping into his head. He didn't know at the time that that's the scheduled date for the ward to go to the Fort Lauderdale temple open house. So now we'll be baptizing him at 6 in the morning and then driving him down to the temple on that same day. Should be sweet.

I wasn't transferred so both of my companions are leaving and I am staying here in Clermont. Honestly, I'm a little scared of having to carry an area but this ward is so solid and all the members are missionary minded that I think It will all work out. Thanks for the news about the home ward, that bishopric is going to be awesome, I hope they stick around until I get back.

Best wishes,

Elder Willard

Sent from my iPad

Valentine's Day

Hey! I was caught in a torrential rainstorm on a bike! My Spanish is getting better and we learned that my Coloradoan companion is being sent to the São Paulo MTC for a refresher on the language before he heads to his mission. I'm getting really into tie trading here and I think I will probably have quite the collection when I return. It has been frigidly cold here and I always wake up cold. There is something wrong with the heating that is making it sap much more energy so we can't use it.

We were able to visit the temple on valentine's day and that was amazing but the Florida temple isn't quite as cool as the Seattle I think. I went home teaching for the first time yesterday to some really cool families in the ward. I went with their home teacher and left my companions for about a little while which was weird. Things are going well down here and I hope the snow in Hawaii melts before you get there.

Rather shocking, but it has been cold for the last couple of days here. Of course, cold means the lowest it gets is 55 and you make sure to turn the heat on but that's about it. We had a ward campout and everyone got really close to the fire. As it turns out missionaries in the states care a lot more about ties than normal people or other missionaries so my collection has expanded greatly.

Because I have an ipad now I was debating sending certain study materials home such as preach my gospel and my quad to save room.

Elder Willard

A picture from Christmas

New iPad Minis

Hey, so earlier in the week we got ipad minis. They are pretty sweet and I just bought a little keyboard for mine that is made of rubber and rolls up for storage. $20 is not bad, right? I think I need to buy a new watch, the band is breaking on this one I’ve had for 2 years. It's been a kind of weird week, lots of new tools that aren't really effective yet and it is a struggle to plan.

I am finding lots of ways that the ipads can be used for evil and that the gospel library is pretty sweet. We saw Elder L Tom Perry on Saturday as he was talking to all the ward councils in the area. He is super enthusiastic and he is 92! He ran up the stairs, pounded his fist on the pulpit, and was cracking jokes the whole meeting. We just got to watch the broadcast though and we didn't get to ask questions.

We met some great people and had some excellent food and all is well here in florida. I hope Howard is doing okay at home and he isn't worrying too much about everyone's salvation. You guys better do family home evening tonight! Every little bit counts!

Hope everyone is well,

Eder Willard

Sent from my iPad

8 Months

A third of the way there. Doesn’t feel like it's been very long but it's only going to get longer.

We’ve had some troubles this last week. Eva, the little girl we were going to baptize was prohibited from doing so by her mother's boyfriend. The mom is solid but the boyfriend is super controlling. Who knows what is going to happen there. We will probably baptize her anyway in a little while.

I don't know if I mentioned it but we met an Apostle on Saturday. Elder Russel M. Nelson came to do a regional stake conference in Florida and our mission president asked if he could meet with the missionaries. We all shook his hand and had a good time but man! The missionaries ask stupid questions! What should I give my homecoming talk on? Why is 3 such an important number? Why is the creation story told is 4 different ways? Nonsense.

Next week I'll be able to send you guys some sweet pictures, but I would appreciate some in return.

Hope everything is well on the home front.

Elder Willard

Trio or Tripanionship?

Here I am in the only area where there are hills in the mission. It’s pretty great though, lots of investigators compared to Portuguese work and I am in a tripanionship! Let me tell you, it is so much fun! It is so easy to get along with three so it is such a blessing to go from the worst companionship to the best I’ll probably have.

The area is great as I said, we have people to teach and we are being invited in to teach just after door contacting. The members here are super involved with missionary work and they help us out a lot.

My companions are Elder Forrest from Utah who is very spiritual and he loves dirt bikes and Elder McBride who is from Colorado--kind of a nerdy guy and likes a lot of the things I like and is very well-versed in gospel topics. McBride is waiting for his visa to go to Brazil in Rio Grande do Norte.

We caught a rat last night after we saw him scurrying around in our house. I set a trap we had with peanut butter and I have a picture of me holding it by the tail. I'll make sure to send it on.

The work is good and the members are awesome, this should be an excellent transfer.

Hope you all are well!

Elder Willard