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.