Lawrence is in the second row down, third one in from the right.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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.
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!
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!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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
Sunday, January 17, 2010
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!
Monday, January 11, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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
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
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