Enduring to the End

April 13, 2015

Hello family! Thank you for your emails; I'm still waiting on that dating advice from Marnie and that marriage advice from Howard though. We just finished playing a Nerf gun war at the Leesburg chapel and are now starting a volleyball game. I bought a Nerf shotgun but it broke so I'll have to return that and get a refund. We had a part member family come to church yesterday have their own volition. During gospel principles the family went to the flare and asked us to follow them. They invited us over for dinner that night where the father told us that he wanted to get baptized. We set up an interview and several return appointments. He'll be baptized next Saturday!

I refuse to get Trunky. My companion and other missionaries are trying to force it on me though. I will endure to the end. Church was spectacular. There were about 5 or 6 non-members that we didn't have anything to do with coming! This ward is amazing! Everyone is a missionary here because almost everyone is a convert. We also had ward conference and the whole message was about conversion which everyone needs, especially the non-members. I hope everyone is still doing well and the newlyweds are all still happy.

Love you guys
Elder Willard

Marriage Advice

Hello Willard family on the isles of the sea! I am happy to report that Belleview Florida is flourishing. We finally got over this drought of no new investigators and I found some interesting people to talk with. We suddenly have referrals flooding in from many different members. General conference was inspiring as always especially in Portuguese in the priesthood session. I managed to find a brace for my ankle which is working very well. There just seems like there's so much to do and so little time to do it. My companion keeps making fun of me for my lack of time and he's laughing in the background as I dictate this email.

I've been asking a lot of people around here with the key to family success is things like that and they can give some worthwhile advice but I feel like I should probably stick with the church leaders. I feel like there were so many talks about marriage this time around but maybe that's just me. Last general conference in Palm Bay there was a Sister ready to leave the mission and she said that she thought every talk was about having kids and teaching them and I thought that was kind of funny until it happened to me. I'm not getting homesick or anything just yet but maybe I'm thinking a little bit too much about the future. I hope I don't end up like some misguided RM's and marry a sister that I met on the mission but after two years they're starting to look kind of cute. That wouldn't be too bad though right? If I could get some advice from Howard or maybe Marnie that would be great,
thanks.

I meant to ask a couple weeks ago for a copy of Jackson's talk. If Pres. Southworth thought it was the best youth talk he's ever heard than I would like to see it as well. I hope Jack is doing well and that he's not dating too much. I have some big plans for pre-MTC training when I get back. Nobody likes to be green so will try to avoid that. I am so glad that I will have a few weeks with Jackson for some one-on-one missionary role-playing. It's the time of your life so live it well.

I did get the book dad sent so that was good apparently the person that shipped it didn't send it USPS so the Mission office couldn't forward it so I had to wait till Thursday. It's an interesting read though I'm on chapter 7 I think.
I hope everyone is well and safe and sane. See you in a little bit!
Elder Willard

Riding Bikes

Hello Willard family! 

I have been doing really well here in Belleview. I feel like every day is just a little too similar to the last couple days though. The time is really flying by and hitting the two-year mark was kind of strange. The members here are still helping us as much as they can and for the last two weeks we've had more nonmembers brought by the members then we've been able to bring to sacrament meeting which is a good problem to have. We should be participating in a YSA FHE activity tonight at the church which will involve some volleyball and nonmembers/recent converts/less actives which will be awesome! Recently we've been kind of short on miles with the car so we been forced to bike for the last two or three days and I didn't realize how out of the habit I've got. My seat is really starting to hurt me but it shouldn't be too much longer, we'll start driving again. I did manage to pop a bike tire already. I think I'll have to wait until next transfer to decide what to do with my bike. I might end up going to an area where I'll need it so we'll have to play that one by ear.

On Sunday afternoon we went to go help the priests deliver the sacrament to a few people since there was only one priest there and I didn't realize how much I missed blessing the sacrament until I had a chance. One of our investigators went to New York early this morning and we are able to have a lesson with her yesterday over Skype and she was really impressed. She always thought the technology was kind of used lesson you know like old people do but she said that using Skype to talk about religion and reading the Book of Mormon helped her to realize that this is a gift from God. It reminds me of a quote I heard from Philo T Farnsworth who apparently invented television he was a member of the church in Idaho he said television is a gift from God and those who use it will be accountable to him. I thought that was a pretty intimidating statement but I like it a lot. It seems like most of my knowledge is coming from that John by the way CD collection I got at the beginning of my mission. On the gospel library under the Mormon messages section in the videos there's just more iMessage called the refiners fire. It's been out for a while but they didn't put it on the gospel library until a few days ago and I just love it. I've probably watched it 10-15 times. 

I'm really excited for general conference and will be weird because it's my last one but I'm sure there's going to be something to console me and my affliction. When is Mother's Day by the way? I'm looking forward to Skypeing being for that last time but I hope you guys don't just talk about how you're going to see me in a little while cause that's no good. I've been noticing a lack of mail over the past three or four months. I do hope that there's going to be some love shown here in the next couple weeks but hey I don't make the rules. I hope this email is long enough I'm using the speech recognition thing and I'm a little too lazy to put in paragraph breaks I hope you'll be able to determine the changes in thought but if not then that's okay too.
Thanks for the emails everybody. I love you guys!

Elder Willard

P-Day, Service, and Studying

I'm so sorry I didn't get my email to you! I kind of rolled my ankle last Monday so I got distracted even though I had most of it written. I tried to send it the next day but the wifi was down at the building we were at and that was the day we got new iPads so my draft wasn't sent. I know that's kind of a long excuse but please forgive me.
So there I was playing 21 with some other missionaries. Totally crushing with a score of eighteen and coming down with a rebound when my zone leader fell on me and I twisted my ankle like I sometime do. I took ibuprofen and iced it right away. I can move pretty easily now but it's all yellow and blue and there is some pooled blood at the bottom of my foot. I'll send you pictures soon. We did get new devices last Tuesday and they are pretty similar to the old only that they are a little faster and they have a lot of storage space. We also get an app called duolingo which is a language learning program.

I've been brushing up on my Portuguese just a little bit. I sent off a small package today for Dad's birthday. I hope the rest of the family doesn't mind that I got him something for his birthday because it really is a special occasion. You don't turn old (50) everyday. There is something in there for jack that I have been meaning to send for a while now. It feels like a long time since I've been to the temple. I've only been able to go three times I think and there will probably only be one more chance for me just before I depart. When I first got here we did temple service since we were so close to the temple. We'd just pick weeds and plant flowers and things that mom would love. Also Rototilling, which nobody likes. I really don't know what to do with my bike. I think it's a piece of junk but that's probably because I've had to deal with it for such a long time. I could probably send it home and make good use of it or if Jackson gets his call stateside and he wants a free bike I could just send it there!

We've been asked to study Preach My Gospel over again and I have been amazed at the amount of information that I have missed in past readings. It really is inspired. I love the quotes at the end of chapter one, Harold B Lee's especially. So if you remember that my companion out in Palm Bay threw my Frisbee
that you guys sent me while I was in Brazil into the ocean you'll be pleased to know that he replaced it finally last week and I have been carrying it around with me for about the whole week. Luck favors the prepared.

Spring break next week! I hope that you guys have something awesome planned to keep the kids working. Remember that Gordon B Hinckley said "too much undisciplined leisure time gradually wastes a life.” I am so grateful for the mission it has taught me so much. It has made me regret the time that I wasted in front of the TV when I could have learned to play the piano or get better at a sport or SOMETHING useful. I also regret not being nice to my awesome parents all the time. For being lazy and not learning as much as I could have. Learn from my laziness, young ones. Honor your parents. I wish I could go back and be a good boy at home. It would make life so much better if I had behaved myself half the time. Anyway no sense in lamenting. I'll just go read the psalm of Nephi again. Thanks so much for your patience and for the emails! You all are great! I love you!

Elder Willard

Last 12 Weeks

March 9, 2015

Hey everyone we had a pretty great week here in Belleview. Me and my companion are going to be staying for another transfer together. The weather for the last couple days has been sublime. We have a lot of investigators to work with and we're feeling pretty blessed. I feel like I have things to write about but I just can't remember them. Maybe if you ask questions I would be able to respond but I just don't have the memory capacity for all this missionary work stuff. Glad to see that I will have another relative to look forward to when
I get back. I don't plan to count down the weeks too much. I want to make it as painless as possible.
Things are winding down. Got to make this last 12 weeks count.
Hopefully I can end in Belleview.
Thanks for the emails everybody,
Elder Willard

Visiting the ER

March 2, 2015

Oh hey family, you guys rock. I just wanted to let you know. The tulip festival picture was really funny. Marnie is still really cute but even more so then. Try to keep her away from the boys. We've had a tough week. Nobody came to church so we ended the week poorly. We did have a family that had been taught by sister missionaries in New York move here and make a media referral of themselves and then they came to a baptism of a child in the ward. Last week when we were playing volleyball my companion Elder Jurges dislocated his shoulder by swinging at the ball kind of weird. We sat in the ER waiting room for 3 hours for him to be seen and x-rayed. He then took off his shirt at the request of the doctor and as he did so popped his own shoulder back into place. We then waited another 2 hours for him to be re-x-rayed. A lovely time was had by all. We found out my last companion is being made a zone leader on his sixth transfer, but we all saw that coming.
The time is winding down. Love you guys!

Elder 

Conference with Elder Zwick

We had a great week! I think I forgot to tell you that yesterday we had a special mission conference with Elder Zwick and Mike Hemingway, director of proselyting worldwide... It was intense. All about iPads and using them properly. We have been working with our family of six pretty closely this last week. They came to our stake conference but all they talked about was ward councils. I felt confident though at the time that if the spirit

was there they would be able to feel it and they could get a completely different message. I hope that worked. We have organized for the family to come to the temple for a tour tomorrow and they are really excited. They're recent convert nephew will be helping them get there and we are stoked! The dad called us the other night and said he was reading in the Book of Mormon and as he finished a chapter he got the impression to call one of his nieces and invite her to meet with the missionaries. 

She responded that she would be open to learning so he called us at 9:50 to set something up. The niece's boyfriend then called our investigator and asked what the church's name was and where the church could be found and if they could go on Wednesday nights. As you can imagine, we were pretty excited about that too and we made it clear that he was acting under the inspiration of the spirit. They'll be baptized a week from Saturday! Other than that there's not much worth mentioning. We knocked on an old man's door the other day and as we were talking he fell backward for no apparent reason. We helped him up and went on our way. We are going to have 10 companionships together for a giant p-day activity today so there is going to be some intense volleyball! We received instruction that we can read emails from home any day of the week so feel free to send on.

Love you guys!

Elder Willard