Monday, September 26, 2016

Week of the Gas Light Festival- September 19, 2016

Hey friends and family!

This week was awesome! We were able to teach Evelyn a few more times.
She is so wonderful, but the closer we get to her baptism date the harder Satan is working. Literally every time we go over there it's something new. Also, she finally opened up about her addiction problem. She announced that she hasn't even cut back on smoking and drinking and all she thinks about when we leave is drinking that next beer, and getting her nicotine fix. It's so sad because she wants it when we're there at her house, but after we leave its like those feelings she had when we were there, and that desire to change, goes out the window. We keep getting the impression that we need to drop her. The problem we are running into is how do we keep her grandkids progressing if we do drop her. We are now figuring out that she likes the gospel, she loves us, but she hates church because of how quiet it is, and she hates that women can't get the priesthood. It's bad, but we still love her.

We are starting to make some headway with Emanuel. He is learning and praying and we can tell he is feeling the spirit! We asked him to read the BOM and pray about it, asking if the church was true or not. He did that and then went to bed. He said that he had a dream that night of a bright white light. It woke him up at 2 in the morning. He then went back to sleep. But my companion and I freaked out; we were so stinking excited!!! So he is coming along nicely!

There was a fair literally right out our front door for three days straight this week. We didn't even need to really try this week and we hit our ‘Talk With Everyone’ goal. We set our goal as 140, but we ended up getting 164 for the week!!! The problem is that we might have talked with 164 people, but none of them were even willing to stop and talk like they usually do. The second the Gas Light Festival hit, southern hospitality went out the door. But it was funny because we found that the only people willing to talk were the drunk ones. J We always tried to leave as fast as possible, but sometimes they would ramble on and on, and we had a hard time not laughing! Another fun thing with the festival was the music. Most of the time classic rock would be playing outside and we would jam in our apartment, but one day there was a Mexican concert across the street, and it was just awful. It played from 3 in the afternoon until 12 at night. We tried to sleep but this awful band just kept on playing. It was like a mix between easy listening jazz, and a mariachi band. Anyway, we were glad when the Gas Light Festival was over and we could drive to our apartment again.

We still have a car, because we have the super rural part of Jefferson town as well as the urban part, but this week we were able to head out to Fisherville and visit some less-actives. The area we see as we drive is what I thought all of Kentucky looked like. BEAUTIFUL!!! The trees here are so crazy cool! I seriously don't know how people could think that there isn't a God, when it's so obvious. It's too beautiful here to be happenstance.

We got out to our destination and the guy we were trying to see was gone, but Sister Acker was telling me how this guy was super into Halloween, and he leaves decorations up year round because he is in charge of the yearly Halloween party in the neighborhood. She also showed me the family cemetery he has in his yard. It was so cool, the headstones date back before the civil war! It was such a pretty area that, of course, we did a photo shoot!!!

We also had zone conference this week. It was awesome and so motivating that we just wanted to get out there and preach!!!! My testimony has grown exponentially more than I ever thought possible, and I love the gospel more than life. I think defending it everyday has made me appreciate it so much more. So zone conference came, and getting new ideas and different tactics on how to teach got me so excited! I seriously love my zone! My zone leaders rock and everyone in our zone is just so cool!! And I know that probably everyone says that they have a rockin’ president, but I really have the best one ever!!

We also now have Facebook on the mission as a new proselyting tactic.
It allows us to reach people not just in Kentucky, but back home and worldwide as well. I am trying to be excited, but I was so ready to get away from the world on my mission, and now it's here as well. So don't be alarmed if you see me posting!

The ward here is great and they are willing to do anything but feed us, so Sister Acker and I decided to bake cookies to say thanks to those who helped drive our investigators to church. We followed the recipe perfectly, but the cookies were nasty. The first ones were super doughy and when we baked them; they had the consistency of a sponge. So we added more flour, and then they felt and looked like hockey pucks. Plus, they were gross. So then we had to by store bought cookies. That's what we get for trying to be nice!!


Today we went to the zoo!!!!!! It's awesome!!!!!!! We had soooooo much fun!!!!! I think the pictures can speak for themselves:


Side note I freaking love The Nashville Tribute Band, it's all we listen to!!!! I need the Joseph Smith album more than life!!! Seriously we jam in the car and it is so amazing!! Their album Savior, has me looking at the atonement in a whole new light, and I am ever more grateful for him.

I want you all to know how much I love this gospel. I know the savior lives. He loves us, and he paved the way for us to return to live with our
Heavenly Father again. I pray for you each night and I hope you know how much I love all of you!


Love, Sister Williams







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