To the Temple!

Brother Herzog: the regional representative for public affairs in the Southeast United States for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We went to the temple last week and it was amazing! We have to go super early in the morning but it is totally worth it!

The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is a crazy place full of million dollar cars that we got to go see for free because a member works there. Sick!

I'm sorry to say that on Sunday night January 25th 2015 at about 8:27pm I was pulled over going 60mph in a 45. The cop wrote me a ticket for violating a traffic sign and it's going to cost me $166. My bad.

On the other hand we had the absolute best Sunday ever. The miracle family of 6 came to church and the kids got really involved and they had a great time. Our familia Latina came to church. A friend of ours going to the army came for the first time. A long time investigator on the edge of being dropped came as well! We were running frantic the whole time but everyone showed up on time and it was a really amazing sacrament meeting. This ward really is amazing.

My companion is being transferred on Tuesday. He's been here for 6 months. We said goodbye to everyone he loves. He is a hard-working missionary and he'll do well wherever he goes.

We are going to play volleyball today with the other missionaries and I am super excited about that. I'll see if I can get some pictures to send you guys.

I love you all so much, have a great week!

Elder Willard 

Busy Working

Beloved brothers and sisters of the Willard family, we have had one of the most blessed week of my mission. We have been the busiest I have ever been. There is nothing I could attribute this success to other than the lord's hand in our work. We received a media referral with a bible request. We delivered a bible I had purchased for $5 at "the rainbow bible book store" and also showed a Book of Mormon. We explained the difference as we taught the restoration to him and his two older daughters 14 and 12. We were invited back Saturday to meet the wife and mother. We brought our young men president and his daughter who are part of one of the greatest families I have ever seen. She is about the same age as one of the girls. The lesson was one of the most surreal, spiritual, and powerful lessons i have ever been a part of. He went through the reading assignment that we left him reading verses that he didn't understand and those that he had marked. He had read 3 other chapters in addition to 3rd Nephi 11 we left him.

They had met with his nephew who only a year and a half ago joined the church and who lives in our area. They have similar backgrounds and beliefs and he was able to answer many of the questions he had. After a near-perfect lesson the family of 6 committed to be baptized March 7th. The father of the home said the kneeling prayer at the end to ask if this is the way his family should go. He called us after the lesson to ask what chapter in the Book of Mormon he should read because we had neglected to leave him a chapter. This is the most prepared family I have ever heard of. This has been one of the most exciting and inspirational weeks for me. I am so grateful to be here in Belleview with Elder Langston.

The only problem now is that he the father of the family has a big Patriots tattoo on his arm...

We have been taken care of in every way you could think of. We did some farm style service. Picking up rotten fruit and branches. We have had a member meal every day this week. I still have $70 on my mission card of the original $140 for the month. We are getting so many referrals and exciting teaching opportunities here I can't even stand it.

I love you all so much, stay safe!

Elder Willard

The Best Area

Hey everybody we had another fabulous week, we have a family on date for baptism in February and we were busy as could be every day. That’s the way we like it. We are keeping on our investigators and they are keeping their commitments it is really encouraging. We have had some really cold nights and I think the cold really can compare with back home because for some reason it doesn't dry out as much. The humidity remains and that makes everything a little colder. We are going to the temple here in a few days so we are looking forward to that. There’s this old guy in our ward that's only here for the winter and he drives in a really unsafe manner but he has offered to take us to the temple at 7 in the morning. Personally I would rather drive but hopefully, prayerfully we'll survive.

We are being taken care of in every need here in Belleview. It really is the best area that I have served in so I’m excited about that.

Thanks for the e-mails. I love you guys,

Elder Willard

Lots of Pictures

We had another solid week! Nobody came to church though, due to a heavy case of agency. I can't really remember what happen this whole week but I’ll do my best. Our recent convert that we baptized last month has a daughter that we have been teaching and she is a really wonderful girl. She has a little girl of her own that's 1 and a half and she is adorable. We set a baptismal date with her for the end of February and we were all super excited. She has a lot of challenges to overcome but we know she can do it.

On the last day of the month we got a call from a member in Georgia who said her cousin has cancer and would probably only last another two weeks. We went to the home where they were expecting us and had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. We talked for a little while with the mother's parents who happened to be there. It turns out he was 60 pages from finishing the Book of Mormon for the third time. We explained blessings, the authority, laying on of hands, and the rest. The girl we were sent to see was not conscience but the parents wanted a blessing as well. They sat on the coffee table in the center of the room holding hands while my companion blessed the mother after which I gave a blessing to the father. there were tears flowing from everyone's eyes but mine as the couple both testified that the individual and respective blessings had given them a great measure of peace and assurance that god knew and loved them. The mother managed to hug my companion as we left and we'll see them in a few days to visit the daughter. We made it home with .3 miles left for the month.

Thanks for all the gifts that have been so useful. I love all of you guys, have a great week!

Elder Willard

Pictures:

There’s a park near our place that put up a bunch of lights. There’s a tiny little lake they call Lake Lillian.

My companion was in an interview so we went outside of a complete stranger house on New Year’s Eve at 8 o'clock and played UNO on her garbage can. Like you do.

Matching ties!

I got a package from my companion's girlfriend before he got his so I rubbed it in a little.

Awesome banana spider that we found while cleaning up for a recent convert.

Our humble offering to a 12-year-old on her birthday is clearly not very inspiring.

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