October 16, 2023 THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER LII

fruit of the loom? mmm.. no.. vegitable of the loom.. OKKKK.. before you continue.. this is your warning.. a good portion of this email mayyyy be a little bit of complaining.. or venting.. soooo sorry.. but you might also find it kinda funny, cuz the problems we've got down here.. i think they're kinda unique.. also this is super long sooooo... *we went to the beach on monday *what can you do at the beach as a missionary? *uhhh.. look at the water?.. get a sunburn?.. sooo.. buttt one of the elders in our house really wanted to go *we went to the church one of the days and repaired all the hymn books.. which apparently are called "hymnals".. but they were all out of their covers, so we taped and glued them all together *they're also installing AC in our sacrament room, so that will be really nice *and then on thursday in the middle of the night i woke up sick.. unfortunately we had lots of important things on friday *i tried to get up to go out and stuff, but i just kept blacking out and getting really dizzy *sooo.. district council got canceled.. and our activity for the young womens got canceled as well.. because the young womens president canceled on us a couple days before.. and for some reason we're in charge of all of that *that reason is because the majority of our recent converts are young women, and their class is super chaotic and unorganized, because they don't have a real presidency (it's supposed to be the young women who are the president and councilors) *but instead it's some other lady as the president, and she has no councilors *so we're working on that too, but for now we were just trying to get the activities up and running again *but basically since i was sick, we couldn't do the activity.. which made a lot of the girls mad, and a couple didn't check their phones, so they showed up at the church and then got upset when no one was there *and then the next day it turns out that whatever i had, i gave to my comp *and then we're both kinda dying.. but also kinda fine? it kept going in between the two *and then on sunday we were already dying and we gave talks in sacrament meeting, and then we got stuck teaching all the youth class *but we didn't know beforehand, so it ended up being pretty boring and all over the place, cuz we didn't plan anything *and then after church we went to one of our best people right now (she's reading the pamphlet thingies, and the book of mormon) but she didn't come to church, so we went to see what happened *and basically she explained her entire living situation right now *sooo.. she's like 14 or 15 (she doesn't know).. she's hatian, and basically her mom had her but didn't take very good care of her *her dad lives in the US, and.. all she's said, is she doesn't like when he visits, which isn't very often *so because of that, her papers are all messed up, and she belongs in haiti tEcHnIcAlLy buttt it's getting pretty bad over there *it's basically run by all gangs now, and if you aren't in one of the gangs you kinda just die *so naturally, our friend comes over here where it's better *and she ends up living with this lady who kinda takes her in and starts "creating her" (that doesn't make any sense in english, but it's basically just raising someone.. but they aren't actually technically your kid.. but you also don't like adopt them or anything) *so she's living with this lady, and this lady's daughter *but basically this lady uses our friend to do all the chores in the house *and doesn't let her go to school *and the which figure has her passport and birth certificate, so she can't leave to go live with her friend (like she wants to do) *and basically if our friend "disobeys" or in other words if she wants to go to school, or go live somewhere else where they treat her better, or doesn't do the chores that good, then the lady she lives with has threatened to destroy her papers and send her back to haiti *so now we have this ghetto little cinderella situation, where this evil step mother figure, is holding her there to do their chores, and our friend doesn't really know how to get out of it.. and we aren't really sure how we can help her *but anyways, that's why she wasn't at church, cuz she was completing her mountain of chores, and her task master lady wouldn't let her leave the house *annnnnd we're having some other various problems with one of the elders over here just causing problems with the members *he almost gave our secretary a panic attack on sunday after church, cuz this elder essentially just went in his office and yelled at him and blamed him for all the problems with the records and everything that's been going on in the branch recently *so me and my comp had to go calm down the secretary, and convince him not to quit his calling and basically this guy has received no trainings or anything from the branch or district, and is honestly doing a really good job with what he's got.. but anyways, i'm not really sure how to fix thatttt *and then after that lesson and trying to help her with a couple of her chores, my comp got really sick again, and we had to travel at high velocities to the church so the he could in his words "recreate shreks swamp" in the toilet.. annnd yah i can confirm.. cuz he wanted a witness, just in case someone accused him of faking it.. or just going mentally insane.. *but i feel really bad, cuz he's been having a lot of health problems for his whole mission, and he's still trying to get over the parasites, and now he's sick again, and we're not really sure why.. annnd idk how to fix that either *ok ok i'm done i promise.. in all it's honestly been a pretty typical week.. it just kinda all piled up on sunday and i was just left feeling pretty useless.. hOweverrr... there is absolutely no other place that i need to be right now.. and that means i'm not going annnywhere.. in one of my sickness moments, i was thinking a lot about why i'm still here, i technically hit a year in the mission in this week, and i was really reflecting on how i've even survived this long.. the mission hasn't been the most fun i've had in my life, i don't get much sleep at night (it's kinda hot), the food is a bit canceros, the noise is mind splitting, the dogs are depressing, the laws are corrupt, i've been cat called more times than i thought was possible for a whole lifetime, the internet is so bad that most weeks i can't even have a steady conversation with my family, i get sick a littttle more than usual, i've seen too much abuse and darkness than i've ever wanted, and they don't even have chocolate milk, but guess what? all of that is exactly whY i'm here.. alma the younger once had a problem.. there was a people called the zoramites, who lived in the land called antionum.. and these people were after the maner of the anticrist korihor, meaning they were doing some pretty bad stuff.. and the nephites were getting kinda worried, that these zoramites were gonna go team up with the lamanites, and they were gonna have some problems.. soooo alma prayed, and fasted, and counciled with his best friends.. the best missionaries of their time, men like ammon and his brothers, amulek, and zeezrom, and two of his sons, and they realized that the preaching of the word, had the most powerful effect upon the minds and hearts of the people.. more than the sword or anything else.. so that's exactly what they did, and they converted so many people.. soooo.. even tho sometimes i might feel like the mission is a little hard.. or like i don't know how i'm supposed to help or fix some of these situations.. i know why i am here.. because sometimes all i can do is try my best to preach the word.. and even tho it might seem small at times, it has thE most powerful effect pRoVeN.. and even tho i don't have all my american amenities, i know that i have a savior and redemer who knows exactly what it's like.. so i can go a little longer.. another day, another week, even another year.. and it won't be perfect.. it might even be excedengly mediocre, but that's chill cuz i'm not gonna stop preaching the word.. thanks for tuning in to my chaos rant.. have a great week.. love you guys! alma 31:4-7 Now the Nephites greatly feared that the Zoramites would enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites, and that it would be the means of great loss on the part of the Nephites. And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God. Therefore he took Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner; and Himni he did leave in the church in Zarahemla; but the former three he took with him, and also Amulek and Zeezrom, who were at Melek; and he also took two of his sons. Now the eldest of his sons he took not with him, and his name was Helaman; but the names of those whom he took with him were Shiblon and Corianton; and these are the names of those who went with him among the Zoramites, to preach unto them the word.