December 5, 2011

Hey Family! I hope all is going well. This past week was awesome! Zone Conference was so edifying. It was honestly such a spiritual week. Everyday all day we were training and learning and getting to know the missionaries. I loved it. President Castro taught about the Doctrine of Christ and our purspose as missionaries and how they are intertwined. I know that the invitation to come unto Christ is for everyone. Including ourselves. Something that President Castro pointed out that I loved is that we cannot invite others to come higher if we ourselves are not on a higher plane. If we are not close to Christ and are not coming unto Him we cannot affectivly invite others to come unto him. I loved it. Elder Cuartas and I led a practice teaching on not just answering the questions or concerns our investigators have but teachiong them the doctrine behind their concern and helping them build their faith in Christ. We focused on identifying whether they needed faith in Christ, repentance, making a covenant or receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and then leading it to the Book of Mormon. It was fun!

Our last Zone Conference was in San Luis Obispo and on our way their we drove past Buellton and the exit to go to Lompoc. It was exciting. I thought of you guiys the whole drive up as we passed Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.

I love you guys a ton. We are preparing for our Christmas deviotiopnal in 2 weeks and i am so excited! Its going to be awesome! Thanks for all you do. Love Elder Bills

November 28, 2011

Hey Fam!

How is everything going? Things here are so good. We have been so busy! I love being assistant because I have been able to interact with the missionaries so much more and learn from them a ton! I am so grateful for this opportunity. Today we started Zone Conference. We will be going up to Bakersfield for 2 days then to Thousand Oaks then to San Luis Obispo on Friday to end the Conferences. Todays meeting was very edifying. I really enjoyed learning about the Doctrine of Christ from President Castro. He is very loving. I had a co experience where I was led by the Spirit today. A missionary asked a question about obedience. He asked if it was sinning if he followed impressions that he had at 9 pm to stop by a house where they would teach and help people but would ultimatley make them stay past 10 pm. he said he felt like he recieved it from the Holy Ghost and he felt like he helped the people a lot. As I listened intently for President Castro's reply, I was suprised to hear him say, "I think I am going to ask Elder Bills to answer this question. I feel like he has had similar experiences and could help you understand it better." It was a great experience. The spirit led me and helped me speak the things that needed to be said. I am so grateful for the Spirit without him we are so inadequate to do the Lords work. We cant do His work without the Spirit. I love the missionaries in this mission.

This past week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Simi Valley Thousand oaks and Camarillo. It was super fun! I learned so much from these Elders. It is such an honor to work with all of these worthy missionaries. Elder Cook is one of my good friends who is in T.O and he and I taught these people from China. They barely speak english and it was really hard to teach them, but something that really is amazing to me is that Gods love knows NO boundaries. We can feel of His love for others regardless of race or color. We can, by emulating Christs example, help people feel God's love. The Gospel enpowers us with this understanding. That through Christ, we can return to live with God. That through His sacrifice we are able to become completely clean from error and sin. His love is endless!

I was able to go to the young mans baptism who Elder Snelson and I were teaching. Freddy is his name. It was a special day! Since the first time we began teaching him until his baptism he made incredible changes. He worked hard through opposition to be baptized. I know that the grace of Christ strengthened him becasue he did his part and the Lord was the difference.

I love you guys so much. I hope you gave an awesome week. You all are so great. I love you!! Love ELder Bills

P.s it has been like 70 degrees here. So nice.

November 21, 2011

Hey Family how are you doing? Thank you so much for the email! I appreciate hearing from you. Things are great here! I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve as assistant. President Castro is an amazing person. As well as my companion Elder Cuartas. He is a true servant of God and I am grateful to work with him. He makes me a better missionary and person. That is so awesome that you were able to talk to President Murri! I love the Murris very much. I always saw them as sort of parental figures. When I came into the mission, I was really homesick and nervous and I felt so much love from them and I always new I could trust tem. I am so grateful the Lord sent me to this mission. He knows my needs and he will continue to guide me as I give my heart and a willing mind to him. I hope the Murris are doing well.

I hope all is going well. What have you done to be under the influence of the spirit? What have you done to qualify for his constant companionship? I am grateful for my mission because I feel like this has bcome one of my greatest desires. To have the spirit. Like the disciples of Christ in 3 nephi 19. I was thinking last night and without the Spirit, we are inadequate to do the Lords qwork. With the spirit we can be equal to the challenges that we face in life. I love you ja. Thanks for all you do! hAVE A great week! Love Elder Bills

November 14, 2011

Hey Family! Hope all is going well. This last week has been CRAZY! I got all those goodies from Aunt Carol. She so nice.. So Elder Snelson had a freak accident. We had been talking about what we could do to help some of the missionaries get up and excersize in the morning and we had decided that we could play frisbee so that everyone could be involved and we could at least heklp these missionaries get outside and excersize. So on Friday morning, we went out to play frisbee and as we were playing Elder Snelson and another Elder went to throw the frisbee and as he was running to get the frisbee he tripped on a sandbox. The sandbox was a square so he tripped on one side and his momentum took him to the other side where he smashed his face on the concrete completly shattering his jaw. I sprinted over there and saw tons of blood then sprinted home and got the phone and car. We called the ambulence and he was taken to the emergency. He shattered his jaw. It was an extensive injury. He lost 10 teeth including his front 2. It was so hard to see him in so much pain. He underwent surgery Friday night from 6pm-2am. It was an extensive surgery as well. It has been a crazy weekend. I was with him in the Hospital for about 2 1/2 days. He has been since Friday and he wil be released today at 6. His mom is flying down from Ohio to be with him until he is well eniough to go home. He will have to go home for a couple weeks to recover. But he will definantly be back. I am grateful for the Gospel. Especially in hard times like these. There is so much understanding and hope. The comforting thing is that we were doing it to be obedient and it gives no room to think it is not apart of Heavenly Father's plan. Although we dont understand why this happened, His plan will unfold sooner or later. It will all play out. Although it is hard to see him in pain he is being strong and he is being positive. It has been a new and unforgetable experience. I have learned a lot from this.
As I was with Elder Snelson in the Hospital, it has invited reflection on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I couldnt help but think how Heavenly Father could give His Only Begotten Son to suffer and die for us. I thought if the pain the Savior went through and It literally is uncomprehendable. It has stregthened my testimony of the goodness and power of God and His son JEsus Christ. Although hard to comprehend, I know that the Atonement is real. I know that the Grace of Christ is an enabling power that one can recieve as he excersizes faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I know that it is a sustaining power that comes into our live as we are obedient to the Gospel. Elder Snelson will be so blessed. I know that as he is faithful and keeps his positive Attitude that he will be blessed beyond measure. I know that the Lord is preparing him for something. I truly know that everything happens to us for a reason. We can use the experiences that we have in our lives to bless and lift others. Thanks for all that you do! I love you all so much.
Elder Soza extended his mission so he will be going home with me in February! I was so excited when I heard that. Elder Soza was my follow up trainer and is a ZL in Santa Maria. One of my best friends!

Thanks for everything! I love you all so much. If you need anything PLEASE let me know. I will be in an english ward now ha! Love Elder Bills

November 7, 2011

Family! How are you all doing?? It is so good to hear from you. This past week I will not lie I was looking forward to recieving your emails. My testimony has strengthened for why our Father in Heaven has put us into families. I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have all of your support for this new assignment I will have. I am nervous, however I know that the Lord will bless me and that everything will work according to His time and wisdom. It was definantly a suprise when I had an interview with president Castro last Tuesday. It was after Zone Leadership Council and he asked if he could speak with me. When I went in I was nervous becuase he just kind of paused and looked at me. I didnt know what happened ha. But he extended the assignment to me and said that he had recieved strong promptings that I should be his next assistant. I didnt need to think about it because I trust President Castro. I know he is a man of God and is worthy and sensitive enough to recieve direction for this mission. I definantly have had to rely on the Lord this past week. I was worried at the beginning with what will happen with football and school and if it would affect me at all, but the Lord has comforted me. I do not need to know why the Lord needs me here right now and why he doesnt need me home during January but I do trust the Lord and His will. Wheather it be in a month that I find out why I stayed or in years it doesnt matter, because I know the Lord has a plan for me. I am grateful to be apart of His work.

This past week was awesome! We had 3 exhchanges and it was super fun! I love exchanges and I learn so much each time. On Saturday I went with a district leader Elder Bashien and it was great! It was a very edifying exchange. We were able to focus on the Doctrine of Christ. That it is the ONLY way that anyone can return to our Father in Heaven. Also how our purpose as missionaries is to invite peopl to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel (i.e The Book of Mormon, Temple blessings, Priesthood ordinances) THROUGH faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It is all surrounded around the Lord. Something that I tried to train him on was becoming a successful missionary. We studied from PMG under this section in the first chapter and it was awesome! With these focuses in mind, it helped our attitudes as we worked and we were edified throughout the whole day! I am so grateful to be able to work with different missionaries. We were in Camarillo all saturday and man, I LOVE IT! It is so beautiful.

We are teaching some awesome people right now and we are trying to help them see the importance of church. They have so much potential but they wont come to church. We are trying to figure out what their road blocks are and what doctrine they dont understand. Pray for our investigators that they will at least come to church. I know withiout a doubt if they come once they will feel and see Christs true church and they will be accountable and have a desire to come back.

I love you all so much . Thanks for all you do! Thanks for your examples to me. Please let me know if you need anything from me. I love you all. Love Elder Bills

October 31, 2011

Hey Family, hope all is well. Things are going great here. I love this place. I love the members so much. It is good to hear that everything is going well with you all. We had a great day at church yesterday. Elder Snelson and I spoke in sacrement and then all of the missionaries in the ward taught the 3rd hour. It was awesome. Member missionary work is so important. We HAVE to share the gospel. My talk focused on understanding and studying the Atonement to have a desire to share the Gospel. When we understand better the Atonement, we will have an increased desire to share the gospel. 2 nephi 2:8. We have to let people know about the Atonement. It is not just something that we will recieve blessings for when we pass away and are resurrected, it is a Power that we can use every day of our lives! PResident Howar W. Hunter said that when we recieve any blessing from the Atonement, our desire for the welfare of others will increasingly grow. He said that a great indicator of our pesonal conversion is in our desire to share the gospel with others. I have been so gratefl for this past week and the opportunity that I had to study and focus on this. I am so grateful for the Atonement. We had a lot of awesome things happen this past week! We went to visit an investigator and she had read the first 4 chaoters of the BOM and has a huge desire to learn more pray and go to church. The BOM is key to conversion. I love you all so much. Study the Atonement and pray for opportunities to share the gospel. Reach out to the less actives. I know this is our duty! Love Elder Bills

October 24, 2011

Hey Family! Thanks for all the emails and support. I am so grateful for you all. Grandparents and Aunt Janet! Thank you so much. I wish I had more time to write you all back but please know that I deeply appreciate your love and support and I love you all so much.

This past week was BUSY! We have been super busy with our respnsibilites this week. It has been a change from East Bakersfield for sure. But I love it very much. An Elder we live with was had a migraine for about a week and he was in a ton of pain so we called the mission Presidents wife and she told us to find a urgent care to take him to. We spent about 3 hours looking for a place that would accept our insurance. We finally found a place and he was able to be checked out and got medicine. The Elder is from Mosembiq in Africa and he is doing a lot better. The reason I tell you this is because Elder Snelson and I were talking about how we spent those hours trying to help him and we had to cancel some appointments, but because we were helping an Elder and fulifilling our responsiblity as leaders the Lord made up for the time that we missed. We have recieved 4 referells since that time. It is incredible. The Lord is very aware of the things that we do and He will bless us if we do our part. It led me to think about magnifying any calling we have in the church. If we sacrifice other things to fulfill our respnsibilty and do all we can to magnify our callings, the Lord will make up the difference and bless us in the areas where we need His help and blessings. When we put our trust in the Lord and our faith in Him, i know that we can do things that we, on our own, wouldnt be able to do. We can show that trust and that faith by the good righteous things that we do. It was a good lesson that I learned!

We had an amazing lesson with some investigators this past week! It is a family who we taught. We taught them about the Book of Mormon because we left the daughter and mom to read 3 Nephi 11 1-17. When we got there the daughter told us that she had read the whole chapter! We were so excited. She then told us that she has a bad memory and probably couldnt tell us what she learned. We invited her to try and as she started telling us about the chapter, she was explaining perfect! She explained the whiole chapter so well and at the end of explaining she was like wow! I cannot beleive how much I understood! This was awesome because we were able to see how the Holy Ghost was working with her at that point and how he was bringing things to her rememberence. She had a lot of good questions and we answered them all with the BOM. The lesson went well and the spirit was so strong! There were times when they couldve gotten distracted with things that were around, but they were completely focused on what we were talking about. The Mom at the end seemed doubtful. We asked her what was wrong and she told us she wants to follow the Church That Christ started when he wa on the earth. So we gave her a restoration pamphlet and testified that it would answer her questions. She then looked at us and told us that she had talked to other people from other churches before but she said there is something about you. She looked at us and said you bring such a peace and a comfort when you come and the way that you actually answer our questions is so special to us. She said everything about you boys is glowing, your eyes and everything you say brings a peace. (It reminded me of Stephen in the book of acts 7) She was recognizing the spirit. We then paused and let her words settle and testified that what she was feeling and describing was the Spirit of God. We invited them to be baptized and they said when they receive an answer they will.We invited them to remenber how they felt because that is how they will recieve their answer. We have another appointment with thenm this week.

I love you all so much. Miracles happen! God lives and loves us! Pray for spiritual experiences, look for them , and that is what will happen! Thanks for all you do! Have a great week

Love Elder Bills