Getting into the Swing of Things

Dear Everybody,

I can't belive it's already my second P-day here in Argentina! It's really interesting adapting and eating all of the amazing Argentine food. It was really warm in the afternoons lately but today's a little cold so I can't figure out if we're really going into a real winter yet. I also found out this week that I only get my snail mail every six weeks and I have yet to get any mail here. I guess even DearElder only comes every transfer too. E-mail will probably be the only way I can send messages quickly. For me to send a letter costs 4 pesos which is like $1.33 so I don't know how often I'll be able to do that. My companion got a package just a little while before I came and it cost him over 104 pesos to pick up so I'll probably be fine if I don't get any packages. Besides, I have Alfajores :) . Plus, a few people said we could find peanut butter at the Super Vea but we haven't found any yet. We have found Dulce de leche so we're quite happy. I'm still hoping to hear from Mom to see if she knows anyone in San Martín. Tomorrow I'm going on splits with an Elder from a different area and I'll be working in his area. That will be interesting. He also doesn't speak English so I'll have some good Spanish practice tomorrow. Right now we're working with a number of people. One guy works at an ice cream store and he's never home so we teach him in the ice cream store with his girlfriend. He keeps commitments and really wants to learn so we have high hopes for him. Coming up we're having a stake conference with an Area Authority who'll be speaking. It'll be fun to go to that and meet the stake a little bit. Also, with Mother's Day quickly approaching I have an interesting dilemma. Since it's only been a few weeks since I last called home, I was thinking about moving the phone call to August around the time of Jennifer's birthday party so there might be more family home to talk to. Tell me what you think about that or if you want me to just call home. We still haven't received any details about the phone call so I don't know how it's going to work. It sounds like I'll just have to e-mail you the plans as soon as I get them. Zone conference is also coming up this week, Thursday I think. President Avila will come down for that to talk with everybody and I'm excited to talk with him again. Elder Parry keeps telling me how amazing he is. A little while ago, President Avila came down to work with Elder Parry and his companion at the time, Elder Flake, and he helped them learn how to teach better and find people on the streets. It'll be interesting when President Lindahl comes down to see if anything changes. We'll probably have a General Authority come down when our presidency changes so I'm excited for that too. I'm guessing BYU already had graduation right? How did that go? Did anyone go by the MTC to wave even though I wasn't there anymore? Has anyone I know received a mission call yet? I guess I haven't really been gone that long yet and Dillion Brock will probably be the next one to put in mission papers. Has the MTC returned any mail I would have received after I left the MTC? I can't wait to hear from everybody. I'm sorry I forgot to bring my camera this week. The internet's really slow in Argentina or at least at these internet cafes so I might not be able to upload the whole picture. My companion shrinks his pictures whenever he e-mails them so I might have to do the same. I probably won't be able to send too many pictures at once either. I actually haven't had many opportunities to take pictures so I might just spread out the sending of pictures if I don't have time to send them all at once. The members have us over for lunch fairly often so that we don't have to cook too much for ourselves. All the food here is amazing and I wish I could just ship it all home so I won't have to give it up when I get home again. I'll have to see if I can get any recipies for when I get home. We get bread from the panederías all the time which is something else I'll miss, but it's ok because I still have time to enjoy fresh bread all the time. Well I'll let everyone go since I can't think of much else to write about. I love you all and I hope to hear from you soon, bye!!!

Love,
Elder Williams

~~~~~

Dear Lisa,

I'm a missionary! Sorry I ran out of time last week. I have a little more time this week since I finished early. How are you? Things are still going well here in Argentina even though practically no one has a computer, but it's ok since I'm not supposed to use other people's computers while I'm on my mission. It's interesting though. It makes me excited to finally install my Windows Vista when I get home. We'll see how that goes. Thank you again for taking care of my missionary blog. I'm interested to see how it looks when I get home. I wish I could bring pictures of the chapel and everything in San Martín so you could see it. Every building has all hard floors like tile but the chapel's very cozy. No one plays the organ though and I keep wanting to learn how to at least play the melody so the ward could have that. It's weird singing hymns without music in sacrament meeting. The power cord for the organ's locked in the bishop's closet so it's never there to try practicing if we had time inbetween church and lunch. Oh and you might be interested in knowing that the speakers in this internet cafe are playing a Jack Johnson song right now. They play a ton of American songs and it's always surprising to go from that to people speaking Spanish again. It's definitely a different culture here but it's a nice one. Every so often cars go by with huge megaphones on top advertising fruit or more recently the arrival of the Catholic Bishop and the local Catholic church. Last Sunday we finally finished the last confirmation for the Farrando Family. Santiago Jr. missed church the Sunday before so he had to wait for this Sunday to be confirmed. It was really nice and he had fun in Primary too which is excelent. The Primary had an activity the day before that he went to and made friends. There's still a number of family members younger than eight that are waiting for baptism so I think that family has a bright future ahead of them. Oh, also good news, for Abrir La Bocas (basically talking to people on the street) my companion and I had the highest companionship total for the district which made us pretty happy. Now if we could just get our investigators to commit to a bautisimal date things would be even better but we're looking for everybody who's ready to follow Christ into the waters of baptism. It's exciting to be a part of this work. We get to go out and save lives spiritually and sometimes even physically. Well I got to get going for the rest of P-day so have an amazing week! I hope to hear from you soon, bye!

Love,
Elder Williams

Pouch Mail

Do you think that emails, and typed out DearElder.com letters are impersonal? Do you enjoy hand-writing letters? Don't want to spend 90 cents on a foreign stamp? Then the pouch mail system is for you! You can send a handwritten letter to Salt Lake, and they will get it to your missionary at no extra charge (this is also the reason that the DearElder.com letters are free to send). There is a catch though, there are some pretty stringent rules on how to send the letters. Here are some instructions from deseretnews.com:

"Instructions issued in September call on families and friends of missionaries to simplify their correspondence by mailing a single 8 1/2-inch x 11-inch sheet of 20-pound paper, or equivalent to paper used in copiers. Envelopes may not be used. The sheet is to be folded into three parts, as is commonly done to insert into a business envelope. The top edge of the sheet should be fastened with tape on the top edge only, no closer than one inch to either side. The name of the missionary is addressed on the outside of the sheet, with the name of the mission and the pouch address of the Church: P.O. Box 30150, Salt Lake City, Ut., 84130-0150. Apply a stamp to the sheet and mail to Church headquarters."

So, for a letter to Lawrence, you'd write:

Elder Lawrence Williams
Argentina Mendoza Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

For the entire article on the Pouch mail system, click here.

Letter from the Mission President

My parents received this letter in the mail today from Lawrence's mission president. We are happy to know he's safe and secure and already hard at work. If you haven't seen it already, I also posted a letter earlier today that we just got from Lawrence this morning.

He Made It!

We received this wonderful letter from Lawrence this morning. What a trip he had!

Dear Everybody,

I’m in Argentina!!! I made it safe and sound and now my only problem is learning how to use this Spanish Keyboard. Oh, and I have to learn Spanish but it’s coming along. I’m very safe and sound and I’ll send some pictures if I can figure out how on this computer. Hmm, this computer won’t let me so you might have to wait a week or more if I have to send pictures in the mail. Well, here’s what happened: at 10:00AM on April 14th, my travel group reported to the Travel office to get our tickets and everything for the trip. After we loaded our bags in the truck, we got on the bus and headed off for Salt Lake City. I took some pictures along the way to show how close I was to Wyview and to show a little of the route. At Salt Lake we hurried through security and everything and figured out how to use the self-check-in. Once past security, I called Mom first but she couldn’t hear me because the phone was broken without me knowing. I called Dad too but it didn’t work either. Finally I figured out to go to the next phone over but then Mom called back on the broken phone and still couldn’t hear me. Finally I got a hold of her but I only had a few minutes before my plane left. I ran off to get on the plane and off we went to Texas for about a 2ish hour flight, I can’t remember. In the Texas airport I called everybody and you probably heard that story. A few Elders went to get food but I thought, the heck with food, I’m calling home. They fed us on the plane anyways so it was alright. The flight from Texas was a little over 8 hours. They had TV screens all over the place which was a little distracting. All the Elders were packed together so there wasn’t much of a chance to talk to people on the plane. Eventually we landed at night in Argentina, Buenos Aires and met up with a couple of the other travel groups which were going to other missions. I saw Elder Frost and Elder Widdison which was weird. After leaving the security area we met up with some church representatives who helped us get to the Buenos Aires Temple! We even got to do a session in Buenos Aires which was awesome. We then met up with three missionaries from the Argentina MTC and after a little lunch from the cafeteria there we got on a bus and off we were to the airport again. From Buenos Aires we had a few hour flight to Mendoza where they gave us Argentine goodies like Alfajores. I missed Alfajores very much. When we landed in Mendoza and made it past security at night, we were picked up by the Mission President, President Avila, and his two Assistants. They took us to the Office Elders´ apartment where we dropped off our stuff. We had dinner with the mission president and his family that night and learned a little about the mission. We spent the night at the office elder’s apartment and in the morning they brought us ¨doughnuts¨ from Wal-mart. We then went to Civil Registry office to get Argentine IDs and stuff really early in the morning, it was a little cold but alright. After a couple hours at the Argentine DMV (they might actually be worse than the normal DMV) we went to the mission office and had a little bit of training and interviews to learn about the mission. Then we met all the trainers and one by one we found out who our trainers were going to be. Mine’s name is Elder Parry. He’s been here 9 weeks and a number of the people we’ve talked to think he looks like Leonardo Di Caprio. That might have to do for a picture until I can figure out how to e-mail pictures. Oh, and by the way, Microsoft Word is telling me that pretty much every word here is misspelled. Well after we met and had lunch, we grabbed all of our stuff and went by van to the bus station in Mendoza. At the bus station we got a ride to our apartment and finally got to drop off all my huge suitcases and stuff. After a little bit of unpacking we got ready, cleaned up a little, and went out to meet people. They don’t speak English too much here in Argentina as I was reminded very quickly. I’m getting better at understanding everybody but it’s not the same Spanish they taught us in the MTC. That and the fact that no one taught me the vos form, which was also a bit of a surprise. It’s ok though, I’m learning, but obviously not learning the vos form. So we’ve been talking to investigators, less active members, active members, and just about everybody we run into. I’m actually able to communicate a little with people but the moment they ask a question my mind blanks out. Anywho, I’m in San Martin a little east of the main city of Mendoza. I’ve got pictures of my apartment that I’ll send. The chapel we went to yesterday is actually fairly new and it looks really nice. I’d like to send a picture but we can only bring our camera on P-days and certain meetings since we’re not supposed to look like tourists. Maybe Mom would know someone here, but she hasn’t told me of anyone to look out for yet. Yesterday I participated in the confirmation of a family who was recently baptized and then I came in to replace the old elder, Elder Flake. He was Elder Parry’s Senior companion right before he left so Elder Parry was surprised to go from Junior Companion to Trainer. He’s doing really well though and he speaks Spanish well (it’s weird how everyone calls it Castellano as if it was a different language). We’re meeting all kinds of people and preaching the gospel. The mission president told us we need to have one baptism a week! We’ll be working overtime and preaching the gospel and eating the amazing Argentine food that I love so very, very much (Alfajores are amazing). I need to run but I hope to hear from you soon! I love you all, bye!

Love,

Elder Williams

For those of you who didn't know, we have a grandmother from Uruguay, which is a country that borders Argentina. All of us got to go there with her at some point in our childhoods, so we are very familiar with the food and the culture, which is very similar to Argentina. This is how he knows about things like Alfajores (which we are all demanding that Lawrence bring back cases of when he comes home).

San Martín, Mendoza, Argentina

I tried to find some interesting facts about Lawrence's first area, but there really isn't a lot of information. I'll leave links to a few of the sites I found in case you want to do a little of your own research.



Wikipedia article
Official Site (in Spanish)
Tourism and Services (in Spanish)

New News and Old News

After our phone call from Lawrence, we never heard a confirmation that he'd made it to Mendoza. My dad took the initiative and called the mission offices to make sure everything worked out as planned. Lawrence arrived in Mendoza safely and has been sent out to his first area in San Martín. Hopefully we will get an email next week on his P-Day to find out more about his trip. It's good to know that he's safe and sound, that he's got a companion, and that he's fully immersed in the work! Or at least, we're pretty sure he's fully immersed :)

Here is the last letter we received from him. It's more than a week old, but it's all we have for now!



Dear Family,

Thank you so much for everything you've sent me! Your letters have really helped me feel closer to all of you and have helped me feel your support. I can't believe either that in less than a week I'll be in Argentina! Technically at the time when I'm writing this letter, in exactly a week I may still be between Buenos Aires and Mendoza. I'll definitely find out pretty soon! I'm glad you're enjoying your Disneyland passes. When I tell people where I'm from, they may not understand until I tell them about Ratón Mickey. I'm sorry to hear about Abuelo and Grandma. I hope they're doing better and I'll pray for them. General Conference really was amazing. There really was a message for everybody and yet everyone could get something out of each talk. I took a book-load of notes. I really think even those who aren't members of the Church should read the conference talks as soon as they're posted on lds.org. There's just such a simple way to have happiness from listening to or reading those talks, and what's more amazing than getting to hear our wonderful prophet Thomas S. Monson? Afterwards Elder Barnes said to me, "The Prophet just wiggled his ears!" It was pretty great. Hopefully we can get all that video pretty soon but it should already be on byu.tv. So this is my last P-day in the MTC and I'm in the middle of laundry again (maybe for the last time in the MTC). Then laundry ended and now it's Wednesday night and I'm sorry it's taken a while to get this letter sent. So here are my flight plans if you haven't already received them: I leave the MTC at 10:00 AM on Monday the 14th for my 1:15 PM flight out of Salt Lake City (SLC) on flight #2312 American Airlines if you can watch progress online. My next flight will leave at 7:35 PM on flight #997 American Airlines and I'll arrive in Buenos Aires (EZE) at 8:05 AM the next day. Supposedly I'll have a flight from Buenos Aires to Mendoza but no one's told me yet. Also supposedly I'll be able to call home while I'm in the airport but I haven't heard yet. If you want me to call a cell phone while I'm in Salt Lake or Texas, leave a message on the answering machine recording and leave the number. I got to say hi to my new mission president again and he's excited to leave in July I think. I love you! I hope to hear from you soon, Bye!

Love,

Elder Williams

P.S. Make sure to send all mail to Argentina through pouch, DearElder especially, and through e-mail. MTC won't forward mail either.

For those interested in reading/listening to/watching the conference talks, they can be accessed here.

Off to Argentina!

Our own Elder Williams is currently on his way to the mission field. He had a great 9 weeks of training in the MTC, and now he is off to take what he's learned and teach the people of Argentina.

He left the MTC at 10:00 this morning, and headed to Salt Lake City. From there he boarded a 1:15PM American Airlines flight to the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. If you've been following the news lately, you will know what a blessing it is that he even got to board his American Airlines flight.

We know for sure that he made it to Texas because he got to call us from there! It took a little bit of work to get all six of us connected, but we finally got my mom and Jennifer in Chino Hills, California, my Dad in Los Angeles, my sister Julie in Provo, Utah, me in Orem, Utah, and Lawrence in Texas all on one phone call. As long as one person talked at a time, it worked out great. For me, the clearest connection was actually Lawrence, so that was a big plus. It was wonderful to hear his voice, and we got to talk to him for a good hour. He told us how much he enjoyed being at the MTC, and how much he was looking forward to getting to Argentina. He bore his testimony to us in Spanish, and he did such a great job! He sounded curiously like a returned missionary. I guess two months of intense training, along with the added help of the spirit, will really help you make some progress. Lawrence did most of the talking during the conversation, and we all very much enjoyed listening to his voice. To end the call, he told us that as a missionary, he was supposed to leave us with a spiritual thought. He started with, "Go to Windows Media Player....", and proceeded to tell us about an LDS radio station that one of his teachers showed him how to get on the internet. We all laughed. Still the same Lawrence.

His flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires, Argentina left at 7:35 PM (Dallas Time), and should be arriving at 8:05 AM tomorrow morning. From there, he's still got a long way to go to get to Mendoza. So Lawrence has quite a bit of travel time ahead of him. We wish him the best of luck and hope and pray he makes it safely. Hopefully when he makes it to the mission home, he'll be able to send us an email to let us know he's there. Keep an eye out for that post!

Last Email from the MTC

4-8-08

Dear Everybody,

Thank you so much for your love, support, letters, e-mails, packages, and really everything that has really made me feel like you're participating in my mission right along side me. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I haven't really seen [most of] you for almost two months. This time is really going by fast and you've all helped me so much to enjoy my MTC experience and I know the rest of my mission will be amazing as well. Conference was amazing this weekend and I was so glad I got to catch that before I left for Argentina so I could listen to conference in English. I really got more out of conference this time than any other time I've watched conference. I loved Elder Holland's talk* and I really think he left no doubt. Everyone needs to see, hear, or read that talk to really learn more about our church. I also got to watch the press conference between sessions when the church announced to everyone else our new Apostle, Elder Christofferson. Listening to him really helped me know for myself that he was called by God and that he's the one who's supposed to be our new Apostle. There was no politcal grab for power, nor even confusion about how to choose the next Apostle. He was called by President Monson, and it was done. We sustained him and I know we will learn great things from him. I also loved Elder Cook's talk and I really feel I got to know Elder Cook a little bit better. I read his biography on the LDS website and really felt his wonderful spirit. We won't think of him as the "new" Apostle any more than Elder Holland is a "new" Apostle. This church is great! Well, those who have been seeing the pictures can now rest assured that I have a haircut appointment in about 8 minutes and I'll send a picture of that in a little while. I'm in the middle of laundry so I should probably get that thrown into the dryer before I run off for my haircut. I love you all and I thank you again for your love and support. I know you've helped me so much and I thank you! Bye!

Love,

Elder Williams

P.S. I got my flight plans!!! Ok, I leave the MTC on Monday at 10:00AM and my flight gets to Argentina about mid-day the next day. It'll be fun. I sent Lisa the full flight plans in a letter and I'll probably send them also to Mom and Dad but be ready for a phone call (that's the rumor) from me (while I'm in the airports supposedly)!

This email came a few minutes later...

Hi everybody!!! Ok, this is me right after my haircut. I have less hair now :) . My hair's a little messed up right now, probably because my head was just vacuumed as in with a vacuum. It was a new and interesting experience. Anywho, I got my haircut and now I, again, have less hair. I love you all! Bye!

Love,

Elder Williams

* You can listen to this talk and others by accessing this page. Lawrence was referring to the talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (Sunday Afternoon Session).

Just One More Week in the MTC!

We are still working on the problem with the scanner cutting off the tops of some of the pages. What are we going to do these next two years without Lawrence's exceptional technology skills? I typed in anything that was missing. This letter was dated April 1st.

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your letters, love, and encouragement. The mission is still indeed going very well. I'm definitely coming along in Spanish because my English is starting to get messed up. We may have to write these letters in Spanish pretty soon. I just got back from the temple and I just felt so happy the moment I walked in, I suddenly forgot anything I could worry about and get excited for the experience I have in the temple. The temple really is the House of the Lord. I hope you have the opportunity to go to the temple often but if you don't have the oppportunity you might need to make an opportunity. I am incredibly blessed to have a temple so close though. I'm so grateful for that. Just as I can do missionary work for the living while I'm on my mission you can do temple work for the dead and help them to share in the wonderful blessings of this the Church of Jesus Christ.

I had another interesting experience in the Referral Center (RC) yesterday. I called someone to make sure they had received the video they requested and he had, but he was only interested in seeing how the video portrayed Christ and not in learning about our church. He finally admitted he'd seen some Anti-Mormon YouTube videos and he wanted to know if it was really doctrine from our church. I'd never been so bold in my life in answering his questions and testifying of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I used scriptures and with the help from my teacher Hermano Allard asked questions and taught him about the Book of Mormon. Hermano Allard had me commit him to read from the Book of Mormon, particularly starting in 3 Nephi 11, and committed him to pray to know if it is truly the Word of God. The man said he would and I pray that he really does. Please pray for him as well, that he will really read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and receive that testimony promised in Moroni 10. I know if he takes Moroni at his word then he truly will come to know that the Book of Mormon is true. Thank you for your help and support.

I'm so glad to hear that the man you talked about, Dad, has started reading the Book of Mormon. It will be hard for him getting used to the older language and the Isaiah chapters won't be much easier but if he prays about the Book of Mormon his work will be blessed and he will have a greater understanding and a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Tell him to keep up the good work and think about how he feels as he reads the Book of Mormon. Could this book have been written by Joseph Smith? It is God's book. So much sacrifice has gone into getting the Book of Mormon into our hands. Satan has thrown everything he could at it from the Book of Mormon times to what Joseph Smith went through today. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the powerful tool it is.

That's great that you were all able to see one of Mom's old mission companions. It will be awesome when I get to say hi to Elder Earl again and I know I'll have some other great companions while I'm on my mission. I'm not allowed to go on the family website since it's not on the approved list but if one of you speak in General Conference I'll be able to look that up :). Just be sure to write President Monson now. Well I'm off to do laundry and all that good stuff. Thank you so much for the addresses so I can finish my thank you cards (I only have 4 left to write), Have an amazing, spectacular, stupendous week and I'll talk to you again soon.

Love,

Elder Williams

P.S. Supposedly I'll get to call home when I get my flight plans and while I'm in the airport.

P.P.S. (because I just got Jennifer's letter) I haven't received a letter you wrote at mutual yet, but sometimes the mail's a little slow. It's indeed good to have a clean closet and I'm sure DI is appreciative of your donation. I'm glad to hear my room's being put to good use. I'm just surprised it was the less dusty one. Congratulations on your new glasses and your new ability to drive! I think you're supposed to wait until you've done all three behind-the wheels before you can drive with Mom and Dad but...um...yeah. Keys are indeed fun to have. I miss my keys. That's awesome that Belinda and Jazlyn are going to youth conference. They will have an awesome time. I think I'd be pretty excited if George Lucas said hi to my camera. President Monson's cooler though :). You'll have to ask me Star Wars trivia questions to keep me ready for Mr. Sammy Knapp. Church for me isn't terribly different. We have Sacrament Meetings, Priesthood a little later, and as District Leader I'm basically also the Sunday School teacher. My teacher wasn't actually there when Lisa said hi so I don't think he minded. Thank you for your Dear Elder, Jennifer!

I just wanted to add that I got a letter from Lawrence this weekend that mentioned how he'll be leaving in a week. If nothing changes, he will fly out on Monday, the 14th. He said that they don't forward letters from the MTC to Argentina (probably because of the difference in postage), so if you want to get him one last letter, send it soon! I believe that if you send him a DearElder.com letter, it will get to him that day or the next, depending on when you send it. Please be reminded that once he gets to Argentina, you can still send him DearElder letters, just remember to send them to his mission, instead of to the Provo MTC. The letters will still be free, because of the wonderful Pouch mail system. And anyone who knows Lawrence knows that he will be glad you didn't have to part with any cash to get him a letter :)

One last time...here is Lawrence's MTC address:

Elder Lawrence Williams

MTC Mailbox #91

ARG-MEN 0414

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

Seven Pounds!

I included Lawrence's weekly email and handwritten letter in the same post today. In his email on Tuesday, he said that he had some problems when typing out a letter. So he could only get us two pictures. This kid is from his ward at BYU.

When his letter was scanned, the first line was cut off of each page. When I typed the letter up, I made sure to include what was missing. Enjoy!

3-25-08

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your letters and packages. It's good to hear that everyone's doing well and that you're keeping busy. I'm still being well fed at the MTC. Evidence of that comes from the scale in the gymnasium which told me I've gained at least 7 pounds since I got to the MTC. Not bad considering I haven't gained weight since 7th grade.

I heard an interesting story from a teacher here who was subbing for my teacher. I think it was in Mexico, but the little kids there learn bad words in English and use them as their "hut, hut, hike!" when they play American football. One day he and his companion went over to a group of them playing football and they got scared and some ran away. He asked the kids still there "Do you know what those words mean?" and they say "No" and he asks "do you know those are bad words?" and they say "Yeah" so he tells them "You shouldn't use those words anymore...but do you want to learn another one? The kids got very excited and say "Yeah!" So he tells them "Don't tell these words to anyone." "Ok." "The word is 'Baptize Me!'" and sure enough the next time he saw them playing football the kids would yell "Baptize me, Baptize me, Baptize me!"

I'm glad to hear you're working hard. I know that as we all work hard we will accomplish great things. I read an interesting thing that mentioned whenever we do something good, we are immediately blessed and therefore forever indebted to Christ. Not only did Christ pay for our sins but we have no way of paying him back. I'm truly grateful for all he has done for me, especially thinking about this Easter holiday we just had.

You know, Dad, I ran the numbers and did all the necessary calculations and $95,000 is indeed far short of the $20,000,000 the Mayor's looking for. I wonder if the media will be able to calculate the difference as well. Definitely don't worry about packages while I'm in Argentina. It'd probably just be cheaper to DearElder a cookie recipe. Speaking of which, don't ever hesitate to replace a normal letter with a Dear Elder. It's cheaper for you and it's faster for me. Besides the money would work just fine if you wanted to buy a candy bar :). Yep, I'm getting a new mission president in July. His name is President Lindahl and he works here at the MTC as a Branch President. He came and found me and said "Hi" and I got to know him a little. He gave me a hug and said he's excited to get out to the field. His nephew is actually a teacher here in this Spanish section so I've met him too. He was actually the first one to tell me about there being a new mission president from Mendoza. Also I met the first other person in my zone who's serving in Mendoza as well, a Sister Hansen. Other than at the visa meeting I haven't remembered running into anyone else.

Well, it sounds like the Thursday Night activity for youth conference will be fun, Mom. That was the committee I was on when I was helping the year before, I think. All the juices are definitely good at the MTC but I haven't been downing as much orange juice as Brother Moran. I have, though, been mixing all kinds of juices and come out with some very good combinations. Sometimes it's ironic how a bunch of random juices really does taste like fruit punch. I guess that's where the idea came from. Tell Jennifer even Ayala needs to be humbled sometimes but as long as she's doing her best I know her hard work will pay off. I'm definitely glad for the work of Elder Francom and Smaley, Mom, for teaching you the gospel. The labors of even just a pair of missionaries really does bring amazing fruits. Such a huge percentage of this church is greatly indebted to missionaries and I'm so grateful to be a part of this great work. It reminds me of a scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 18:15-16. I hope to bring many people to this wonderful good news, the Gospel.

Thank you also for your Easter Goodies. It felt like I had the opportunity to participate in the family celebration and I was excited to open the eggs. I hope you had the chance to look through the special March Ensign and learn more about the Savior. It really is a special issue and I'm grateful for the smaller issue about the life if President Hinckley. It's good to learn about such a wonderful man and an amazing Redeemer. Both set good examples and both want us to return to our Father in Heaven. That should always be our first priority and I'm excited to teach about that path back to Heavenly Father to all those who will listen. I'm working to get ready because God will not entrust His prepared children in the hands of an unprepared missionary. I love this church and I know that it is true. Would I spend two years in some far-off foreign country if it wasn't? I'm grateful for our living prophet President Thomas S. Monson and I'm excited to hear more of the word of God during the upcoming conference. Their talks have become so much more meaningful now that I'm a missionary. I love you all and I hope to hear from you again soon. Have an amazing week! Bye!

Love, Elder Williams