Friday, February 14, 2014

IT'S ABOUT HELPING OTHERS COME UNTO CHRIST


Elder Willes with his friend Skyler Farnes' parents, who are also preparing to head out this summer on a mission with their family.  Thank you Lindsey for sending this picture!



Well, 3 weeks down and only 6 to go in the MTC. It feels like I've been in here an eternity. I love it here though. This week has been hard because I've been pretty sick all week. Super sore throat, congestion, cough, etc. The doctor gave me some sinus medicine that didn't help. My companions gave me a priesthood blessing, which was awesome. I still didn't feel better though. Sister Hironaka, from our district, was sick this week too and asked me to give her a blessing. I gave her a blessing and she's been feeling much better. :) She also hasn't been receiving much mail so my companions and I decided to pitch in and make her a package. We told the post office to have the package not be from anyone. She was so excited when she got it. She was jumping around.  It was awesome! She still doesn't know who the package was from.  It felt way cool to serve her!


I went to the doctor again after about 5 days of a horrible sore throat and a cold. He swabbed my throat and I didn't have strep throat. Then he did a blood test to see if I had mono. I was like UH OH. Haha luckily I don't have mono either. Just a way bad cold. He gave me an antibiotic two days ago and that has helped a ton. Today I feel much better so no need to worry. :) My companions were awesome this week. They bought me sodas for my throat and brought me a breakfast in bed. They're the best. They bless me and I hope that I can help people out when they're in need. Glad I'm starting to feel better now!

Weekly schedule is like this: We usually have gym first thing in the morning at like 6:40 a.m. I play basketball everyday and it's been a blast even though I didn't go this week because I've been so sick. Then we all go to breakfast. We eat together as a zone which is cool. Then we have like 3 hours in a row with our districts which includes daily planning, personal study, and companionship study from about 9:00 until 12:00. We have additional study from 12:00 until 12:50 and then lunch. We then have class and also teaching our investigators from 1:30 until 5:45. We do language study, (learn new words, practice teaching, new grammar, scripture stuff, etc.), LOTS of Mandarin, then we teach. About 5:45 we get to go to dinner. After dinner we have class again from 6:30-9:30. Class gets long sometimes but all of our teachers (we have 3) are awesome. All of them served in Taiwan and teach way powerful and spiritual lessons. 

We get the mail twice a day. Once after lunch and once after dinner. After lunch is usually the letters that were sent through the mail. The after dinner pick up is generally Dear Elders, packages, other letters, etc. 

We sang in the choir yesterday Jesus Once of Humble Birth. I'm in the tenor section but am not a tenor really. There's not really a place for me in the choir because my voice can't go high but it can't go low enough for the bass section.  So I just try my best with the tenors.  My throat still hurt pretty bad yesterday (Tuesday) so the doctor told me not to sing, but I still wanted to sing at the devotional. So I just kinda whispered the words. I was on the big screen when we sang and people told me it looked like I was singing so that's good :) The spirit is always so strong at the devotionals. Elder Zwick from the Seventy came and talked to us about Hastening the Work. It was awesome. He went in the audience and asked random questions to missionaries and the missionaries would have to answer them on the spot with the microphone.  Elder Zwick asked a question to the elder LITERALLY right next to me.  I was so nervous. It was cool though. He shared a cool scripture in D&C 112:19. I'm not gonna tell you about it. Just go read it!!! :) It's awesome and a huge comfort for missionaries.

The language has continually improved. I memorized the whole first vision in Chinese and we taught that from memory to our investigator this week. It was sooooo cool! Uncle Dan said he memorized the baptismal challenge when he was in the MTC so I've now made it a goal to do that this coming week! 

To everyone who has sent me dear elders, emails, letters, etc. THANK YOU. I love them so much!  It means so much to me and makes my day reading about how everyone is doing. Even though it is hard in here and it is like a battle to get out of bed in the morning so early, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love it and am loving this work. It's not about baptizing people. It's about helping others (everyone including members) come unto Christ.

Love and miss you family! Have a great week!

Elder Willes

Elder Willes loving some strawberries sent from home


Sad to see these dudes head out.  They are the district right ahead of us.  They all left this week.  The guy in the middle front is going to Los Angeles.  The kid next to me doing hang loose is going to Australia as is Elder Ung who is in the front.  Elder Glatili and Elder McClellan are going to Taiwan, Taipei.  They were great examples and are awesome. All are Mandarin speaking.  They will definitely be missed.




3 comments:

crabigail adams said...

It must be going around -- Rob is really sick, too. He says he's pulling out of it but that he needs REAL Nyquil and Dayquil. (Apparently in Utah you can't get the full-strength stuff?) Go, go, go, Elder Willes! We lveo you!

crabigail adams said...

Why don't I ever proof-read before I hit send? Love.

Marianne Willes said...

Love you too my friend! Shauna, will you add me to your email list with Rob's letters? Bless them all and bless us mommies huh? :)