He's Home!

I could probably write a novel on the day Lawrence came home, but I think pictures are much more interesting than anything I could say. I'll just leave it by saying it's incredible to have him home again.

I've enjoyed keeping this blog up since before Lawrence left, and I hope anyone who's read it has enjoyed following Lawrence on his journey through sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Argentina. I am going to leave the blog to Lawrence now, and he will decide what to do with it. Thanks so much for reading!

The last e-mail sent from San Juan, Argentina!

Yep, the very last email! The next post in Lawrence's words will be a blog post straight from him! This was received on 2/8.

Dear Family,



Thank you all so much for your love, letters, prayers, pictures, packages, support, care, for everything you've done to make this such a wonderful mission, and for everything you've done to make this missionary feel wonderful!!!!!! I really can't thank you enough for how faithful you've all been in writing me and telling me about how your lives are doing. Every so often I hear from other missionaries how their family hasn't written for a long time and then I think about how wonderful my family has been that I've never really opened an empty e-mail inbox. It's because I have the best family in the world :) !



This is indeed the fateful last e-mail I'll be sending from Argentina so I had better make it a good one. I was thinking about sending pictures but then I realized that ya'll will be able to look through my entire collection of pictures pretty soon. This way I'll have more time to write as well. I hope all of you have been reading each other's e-mails to me as well. It's so great to see everyone's personality as they write. I can see you talking to me as I read your e-mails. I loved especially this week when Dad told me about his spreadsheet that he made to calculate how much time I have left on the mission. I know I would have done something like that if I was waiting for someone else's mission. There's just something about spreadsheets that make numbers so much more vivid. Lisa's pictures have always been wonderful and have helped me to feel so much closer to ya'll. Julie's always had great funny stories and adventures to tell about everything from tons of snow to being a Word Processor. Jennifer has helped me to remember High School and what's going on in California. Mom has been so good that she basically never missed a week writing her e-mails! She's shared her strong testimony of this work and has build such a great connection now that we have this wonderful country, Argentina, to share. I know we'll be talking for hours about all of the funny experiences we share and how Argentina has made such an impact on our lives. There's no place like it anywhere else in the world. I'm going to miss everyone and everything here but God always puts us where He wants us to be. He has wanted me to be in Argentina but soon He will want me to be back with all of you.



Through every experience I've had here I've just gained a stronger testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living church on the face of the Earth. There has been no religion, thought, or organization comparable to the very hand of God which has guided this church. No evil man could have written the Book of Mormon and no good man would have. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restauration and no man can honestly deny the power that he had and has. A single man could not have accomplished what he accomplished without the very help of God, our Heavenly Father. The Holy Ghost testifies of the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon to all who are willing to listen and make the sacrifice it implies. All who are willing to truly search will learn of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon but those who seek to find fault in the book must fight against the very power of God. For trusting in the flesh of their own arm they will not be able to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ but will only destroy themselves against it.



I, as well as many other members of this church, have paid a high price to gain and strengthen a testimony of Jesus Christ and His teachings. Would the price have been any higher, I would have paid it just the same. There has been no more fruitful period of my life than these past two years. No school, no job, no training, and no experience could have produced even a fraction of the change that this mission has caused in me. I can say with all the power of my heart and spirit that I know that Jesus Christ lives. He is the Savior and the Messiah prophesied by the Old Testament. He speaks to His prophets. He speaks to President Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, and all twelve of the Apostles. Jesus Christ formed one church and that church has been restored to the Earth. I would rather lose my life than my testimony of Jesus Christ because I would not truly lose my life but gain life eternal with every one of you in the highest realm of the Celestial Kingdom, in the presense of God Himself. I hope every one of you have a testimony of Jesus Christ but I know you do. I have felt it in your e-mails, letters, and packages. I love every one of you and though I will miss Argentina I look forward to seeing you. Give me these few more days which God has seen prudent to give me and then I'll return.



Have an excellent week!!! See you soon!!! I love you!!! Bye!!!



Love,

Elder Lawrence Williams, Jr.


P.S. I might be able to check-in on a cyber next Monday for a few minutes so send any requests of something you can only buy in Argentina. The scriptures say "Ask and ye shall receive" :) .

Special Day

Today is February 13, 2010. Exactly two years ago, we dropped off our missionary. A son to some, a brother to others, and an uncle to my little boy, who was barely 1 at the time, we knew we would miss him a great deal, and we thought two years would crawl by. Here we are two years later, and we only have a few more days to go. We are making plans, and can barely contain our excitement that soon our whole family will be together again. I can't believe we've finally made it! Here is the last handwritten letter we got from Lawrence. My mom transcribed it so it'd be easier to read. Look forward in a few days to pictures and a review of the 17th!
Dear Family,
Thank you all so much for your letters, love, e-mails, prayers, packages, pictures, and support!!! This is probably the last time I'll send a hand-written to ya'll so I should make it a good one. There's even a slight chance that I arrive before this letter does. Everyone says that a two year mission flies by and I have to agree with them. I never thought I would be this close to the fateful day of February 17th 2010. In about a week or two I will be giving the infamous "farewell testimony" that the old missionaries have to give in their last Zone Conference. I still remember when I was giving the "welcoming testimony" as a young missionary. I can't imagine what I would give to go back to that moment knowing what I know now. Young missionaries see their missionary call as "24 months, no fewer" but older missionaries see "24 months, no more."
I understand the Lord has plans for my future. If the future wasn't going to be better, I imagine He wouldn't have sent me to Mendoza, Argentina. There are many good things I could have done with 24 months but there is nothing like the best thing I could have done which is serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Here in Rivadavia has been a culmination of what I've learned so far. As any missionary at any time, we must learn to use everything we've learned up until this point in our life, from the day of birth until now, in order to bring souls unto Christ. There may be many missionaries from many faiths all trying to bring people to Christ but we can "open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God. No one else can do this" as Elder Oaks said on page 9 of Preach My Gospel. We work the way we do because this is the true labor of Christ. No one is paying us to be here and no one is forcing us to be here. The blessings, though, for being here, are incredible.
In every area I've seen miracles that seem to be "once in a lifetime." Ricardo and Maria had waited years for a divorce and when they had finally received it and got married they had lost contact with the church. In that time we happened to contact Maria working at some else's house at a time when she would have been inside all day. Right when she had the feeling she should sweep outside, a missionary appraoched her with his broken Spanish and that's how I met her. Sure enough, and after great sacrifice on their part, they were baptized. Ricardo once worked 24 hours driving an ambulance, ending 2 hours before church started, yet still arriving for sacrament meeting and the following two hours of classes. That's an example of sacrifice.
Oscar, in San Ignacio, had been learning about the church for decades but in the first few weeks after the transfer decided to be baptized. He had read "Jesus the Christ" cover-to-cover which very, very few investigators ever do. He knew a great deal about the church but for some reason, in spite of his testimony, he waited many years for his baptism, but he was indeed baptized. I imagine those first missionaries decades ago might have thought their seed had died. I've learned that the Lord has a different time table than man and preserves those seeds for when they are finally ready to grow, whether it be today, tomorrow, or after this life.
Luis Espinosa taught me another example of patience. We found him because he had put a sign on his door that says, "We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." He wasn't a member but while waiting for divorce papers he knew the blessed day of baptism would one day come. Sure enought that day came. Luis had the honor of being baptized by his son who has served a mission and been sealed eternally to his wife in the temple. It was hard not to see how touched Luis was. He wanted so bad the blessings that many members practically receive at birth. We can reach our goals, even when they take years to achieve, and our work is worth it.
Nancy had a life that would emotionally destroy just about anyone. She had to pass through trials o fire that no one deserves but as much as that fire might have burned, it cleansed her. She was ready for a great change in her life. I've never heard again what she told us, "Ill be baptized whenever you want me to be." She could have hardened after all of her trials but instead she had her heart softened to the only Gospel that would heal the damage that had been done. She applied Ether 12:6 before even knowing it existed. Her faith will take her to unknown glory.
Yessica and Marisol lived in such humble conditions that even the poorer members in our ward often told us how sorry they felt for the Villegas family. Even in these circumstances they fought to earn their living and provide for the family. I'll probably never have the experience of fighting the family turkey in order to provide food for the family. While us city folk had little to no success, Yessica artfully went in and grabbed the bugger by the legs. It shows that anyone can survive any economy if they work at it. Walking kilometers to church, Yessica and Marisol made it to church and were baptized, following the example of Yessica's Mom and Marisol's aunt, Luisa. I bet they'd have some good stories to share with the pioneers.
Here in Rivadavia, after making incredible changes, members of the Lopez and Espejo families have been able to enter the waters of baptism. Many of the converts in Rivadavia have had such a change of heart that their old friends barely recognize them. If God can part the Red Sea, rain fire from heaven, raise the dead, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and mobility to the lame, I want you to know He can give humility to the proudest person. Moving a mountain seems easier than moving the will of the proud but God can do it and has done it. Even the deepest addiction can be the weak thing made strong. The Lopez and Espejo families have stepped out of the sorrows of the world and into the light. The next time proud man thinks he's strong, he should shine the brightest light he has at the sun to see what happens and to compare.
I can't imagine what I could possibly have done for 24 months that would even compare to this experience. This is a preparation for life that I wish lasted longer but preparation is worthless if not applied. The time is soon to come when I'll have to use everything I've learned from birth until now to live a better life while helping others to do the same.
This is the only church of Jesus Christ with His prophet and The Truth. I have done His will and I know this doctrine is of God. I love you all and I have you in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Williams

Giving the pavement the beating of its life

Dear Family,

Thank you all so much for your letters, love, pictures, prayers, and support!!! I love hearing about all that's going on in all of your lives and I hope to keep up the same e-mailing tradition after the mission. I feel like you've all been here every step of the way, sharing the same experiences I've been having and letting me in to your experiences. I was thinking the other day that when I see you all in the airport it's going to feel like we haven't been that far away for very long. When I think it's been about two years I just don't believe it. It's hard to understand how fast two years go by until they're gone. I haven't been thinking of the end of my mission under my own free-will really. When we get together with other missionaries, like today, everyone asks "so how does it feel to be almost home?" or "isn't it crazy that in two weeks you'll be home?" I've also been refered to as the "oldy," the "nearly-dead," and the "already-home." While we were waiting in line at the supermarket a random man was trying to walk by and politely asked to be excused as he passed by, saying "permiso, viejo" which means "Excuse me, old man." Supposedly that's not entirely uncommon in Argentina but it was still kind of funny as everyone looked at me and basically said, "you are an old man." As Monty Python and the Holy Grail would say, "Well I can't just call you 'man.'" It's been funny...but it will be even funnier when I beat the living daylights out of the next person who calls me old...just kidding :) ...but seriously >:) . In better news, we've been finding some good new people lately. We met a lady named Silvana who is the sister of Maira who are both the daughters of Susana. We met Susana in the street and then went to her house and gave her grandson a blessing. Maira ran into the Sister Missionaries in the street and then the Sisters told us to go by and we ran into Silvana who is the mom of the child who received the blessing! All of this was coincidence interestingly enough. We had no idea they were all in the same family, under the same roof, until we arrived and started teaching them. Then it all became apparent and we were convinced that we had to be in that house. The baby we'd given the blessing to about a month ago is now looking happy and healthy which is just another testimony of the power of the priesthood. I'm happy to have known the family. For P-day we played Ultimate Frisbe in the park and had half of our fun getting the frisbe out of the trees. We all had a good time :) . From there we went to the Libertad Hipermercado (instead of a supermarket it's a hypermarket, like really, really big) for lunch and bumper-cars and there we ran into a bunch of Elder from the other zone in San Juan. Elder Rios and Elder Wetzel were there too. It was good to see them and talk to Elder Wetzel who is a big Jeep enthusiast :) . You can probably tell what I talked to him about. Well, I'm already out of time but I'm looking forward to your e-mails next week, the last time I'll be able to check them. Just remember that on February 13th this e-mail might suddenly drop-off from existance so be prepared. I love you all!!! Bye!!!

Love,

Elder Williams

Nice Tan, Bro!

I wasn't going to post this because it looks so much like all the other Zone Conference pictures. But take a look at Lawrence's tan! He's as dark as all the Latin missionaries! He always did have the darkest skin in the family. I hope coming back to Utah doesn't destroy it for him!

Lawrence is in the second row down, third one in from the right.

Giving Rivadavia a Run for its Money

Dear Family,
Thank you all so much for your letters, love, pictures, prayers, and support!!! I'm going to save time and jump right into the questions since I'm a little short on time. I'm trying to compile all of the e-mails I've sent and received from MyLDSMail.net and sent the file to my Hotmail account because as soon as MyLDSMail.net hits two years my account gets deleted. And now for the questions:

Mom: "Have you had the chance to get any pictures alongside a Gaucho?" Not yet but I do have a bunch of pictures of Gauchos from the Vendimia festival last year. "I loved the picture with Elders Wetzel and Fuentes. They look like two very nice and kind young Elders. Where are they both from?" Elder Wetzel is from Idaho Falls and Elder Fuentes is from Chile and now his family even lives in the same stake as Hermana Llancanao who's in my district. "Wouldn't it be great after your missions to get in touch?" I plan on getting in touch with as many Elders as possible but they haven't talked me into a Facebook just yet. (if they haven't, I will! -Lisa :) "Did you hear of too many incidents involving getting water balloons or flour thrown from car windows during Carnival season? Is this still a custom in Argentina?" Maybe in other provinces but since they don't really celebrate Carnival in Cuyo I haven't heard about such incidents. "Oh, I forgot to ask if you ever received our Christmas newsletter?" Not yet but I imagine I'll receive it when I go to the offices for my final interview.

Dad: "So what interesting has happened since the last letter?" We've met a lady named Yanina who has four kids and has been really receptive to our lessons. It's really amazing to see how quickly she learns everything we teach. She's a very humble person which just goes to show how important it is to be humble in life. It's been said that the Gospel is specifically made so that the truly humble will be able to find it more easily. Yanina even made it to church but she'll be in La Rioja for 10 days and will be moving to Rawson, San Juan soon after. She'll probably be baptized with the missionaries in Rawson.

Jennifer: "How is it going elder? How has your week been? Done anything unusually fun?" Well, this P-day is kind of the end-of-month P-day which means that most people have run out of money already (don't worry, I have yet to run out of money because I tend to be practical with expenditures). We all got together and ate rice in the chapel and watched the DVD that the mission gave out to all of the missionaries for Christmas. I'll have to show you the DVD later. "Has she told you how well Jake is able to navigate the internet?" Yep. I'm already preparing the ad campaign to prove that WilliamsWare is better than JakeWare even though neither one exists yet.

I hope that answers all of your questions and that you have the mostisimo excellentisimo week ever...isimo. I love you all!!! Bye!!!
Love,
Elder Williams

Can I just add that Lawrence is coming home in fewer than three weeks???? I can't believe it!

Zone Conference and Elder Dinosaur

We had Zone Conference yesterday, ya big yupi (as Dad always says).

Here are pictures of my good friends Elder Wetzel, Elder Fuentes, and Elder Dinosaur.

(When I first read this, I thought Lawrence was talking about himself because he's an old missionary. I didn't know he was actually talking about a dinosaur! :)

Dear Family,

Thank you all so much for your letters, love, prayers, pictures, and support!!! We had Zone Conference yesterday which is why you’re receiving this letter a day later. It’s always amazing having conferences with all of the other missionaries in San Juan, seeing friends, and hearing one another’s testimonies. Elder Rios and Elder Wetzel were there with Elder Fuentes my “brother” who was also trained by Elder Parry and who also worked with me in the Offices. President Lindahl and his wife gave wonderful trainings about the Atonement and the Sacrament. They mentioned that if someone really understands why we take the Sacrament they will never go inactive. It would be like trying not to eat or drink for week after week. Just like the body dies without food the spirit dies without spiritual food.

I also had a good time helping with the various technical difficulties that always seem to occur around the time of conferences. We had problems with the microphone which were solved by a little bit of “fancy wiring.” Unlike chapels in the United States, chapels here have keys to turn on the sound system. A funny thing happens when the key doesn’t work or if the key hole doesn’t work either: you have to manually connect the two cables that activate the sound in the chapel. It all worked out in the end which was good. This morning the Offices called me about a wireless microphone that wasn’t working. It’s always good to be useful.

This is also the famous conference in which I had to give my farewell testimony. I can’t believe that was my last Zone Conference. It seems like just a few days ago was another conference and just a little bit before that was when I was arriving to Argentina for the first time. Time just keeps accelerating. President didn’t even interview me yesterday, saying, “I’m just going to see you again anyways in just a few weeks.” That’s when I’ll have the long farewell interview. It’s going to be interesting.

Today we visited the house where Domingo F. Sarmiento was born, one of Argentina’s early presidents who was really big on Education. It’s really interesting to see Argentina’s history and the words of her leaders. I’m probably going to buy a lot of Argentine books someday, all in Spanish (it hit me the other day that I’m listening to people in Spanish and I don’t have to translate anything, it’s crazy). In front was the San Juan government’s Tourism building which had some interesting photos inside and in front was my friend, Elder Dinosaur. I’ll Photoshop a plaque on him later. Afterwards we ate hot dogs that were three hot dogs long. It was called the Hiper Pancho.

Well, I hope you are all having a wonderful week and I thank you again for being so good about writing every week. I love you all!!! Bye!!!

Love,

Elder Williams

I can't believe it!

Only one month to go!! I'm sure Lawrence is a little melancholy and anxious about ending life as he's known it for the last two years. But back here at home, we are nothing but thrilled to death. My sisters and I are already making plans for welcome home signs, and a cake, and the fun things we'll do when we're all together again. Just 30 days to go, I can't wait!

I'm right here in Rivadavia!

Dear Family,

Thank you all so much for your love, letters, pictures, prayers, and support!!! Well, transfers came and went but I'm still here in Rivadavia with Elder Torres. The districts have been changed though with us now in Elder Frishnecht's district (yes that's a hard name) which makes us a district of three now. My old companion Elder Rios is back in San Juan again actually but now he's in the other stake with his brother. He's even companions with Elder Wetzel, mi hijito. He called Cristian Funes from our ward to do divisions because they don't have as many members in his new ward. Hermana Rojas left for San Luis, leaving Hermana Llancanao here, who's training Hermana Roman from Rosario, Argentina. The weirdest thing is that with the group of missionaries that went home last Wednesday that only leaves my group as the oldest group of missionaries. We're glad to be working here in Rivadavia. We had a lady who has been investigating the church for months who finally came to church for the first time yesterday. She's working to quit smoking but has gone from 2 packs of cigarettes a day to just two cigarettes. She had always said she wanted to go to church but she's just never been able to make it since she's had a business that she runs from her home, a carnicería (she sells meat). She told us a few days ago that she has felt this strong impression that she needs to go to church. She said she felt that if she went to church she would receive great blessings and maybe even the strength to quit smoking. Sure enough she made it to church and said she liked the meetings. She wants to be baptized someday but she knows she has to quit smoking first. We're going to work with her to fight because she's stronger than a cigarette. Ok, questions: Mom: "dinnered out? Is that even a word?" I think it should be. Elder Pedersen always said he wondered why any word in English can be used as a verb. Would you like a cookie? I'll cookie you! Well, that was the only question I could find but I'm sure you have more questions that I hope I've answered. I'm about out of time but I thank you all again for your letters. It was pretty funny because when I first signed on, Dad hadn't written yet but I had faith and sure enough just a few minutes later, his e-mail showed up :) . I love you all so much!!! Bye!!!

Love,
Elder Williams

Still waiting for transfers

Dear Family,
Thank you all so much for your letters, love, pictures, prayers, and support!!! We're all waiting excitedly for news about transfers but it might take a little while before it gets here. We know that Hermana Llancanano is going to train and her companion, Hermana Rojas is going to Sucre, San Luis. Elder Torres and I don't know anything about what's going to happen to us but we did have an interesting experience last Saturday.
While we were working close to the chapel here in Rivadavia I got a phone call from President Lindahl. It turns out that he was in San Juan for a few meetings with the Stake Presidents here and he had a question about his Wi-Fi Internet which wasn't working. I was having a hard time figuring out the problem over the phone so we decided that since I was in the area next door I should go over to fix it personally (igual nuestra cita nos falló (after spending too long trying to translate that phrase I just decided to say it in Spanish)). We were with a member who had come with us to go to our appointments and he ended up coming with us. While we were at President Lindahl's hotel and while I was working on his laptop, he had a nice conversation with Cristian Funes, the member who had come with us. Cristian has been thinking about whether or not he wants to go on a mission. He was baptized just about six months ago and is 23 years old. President just needed his e-mail so in the end we went downstairs to download all of his e-mails and then brought them back upstairs (the Internet wasn't working on his floor). While Elder Torres and I were downstairs working with the laptop (and "borrowing" the Internet from the Gym in front :) ) President and Cristian had a heart to heart and President later told me that he thinks the reason his computer wasn't working was so that we could bring Cristian to talk to him. It was a really amazing experience and I even was successful in fixing the computer problem :) . However, I totally forgot to ask about transfers and President said anyways that he wasn't completely done with transfers yet. It'll be interesting at the very least.
New Years was pretty interesting in that we had a little district Taco-fest. Since we had to be in the apartment at 12:00 midnight we weren't able to go to any member parties so instead we just had a missionary party. We basically just ate tacos, watched the new DVD of the life of President Thomas S. Monson, and then drank the Argentine version of Martinelli's at 11:13 PM which was no really important time but we needed to celebrate the New Year at some point before 12:00 midnight. In the end we got home on time and were able to watch a few fireworks before heading off to bed. We had prepared way too many tacos so I think the Sisters had their lunch all ready for them the next day.
I'm just about out of time. I've been the technical specialist lately, fixing Elder Figueroa's camera, fixing the Hermana's cell phone, and I still have to fix Eduardo Quiroga's computer so I've got my work cut out for me. I love you all!!! Bye!!!
Love,
Elder Williams