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