It's May!

No news on the visa, but that is totally fine with me. I haven’t taught any investigators yet, lots of member visits. We have 1 or 2 recent convert visits a week, but other than that it’s just trying to get into people’s homes. If you live in Peoria, you work for CAT or you’re a doctor. So we have some pretty fantastically wealthy people here with beautiful communities, grand spacious homes, fancy luxury vehicles and are kind of rude to us. What can you do…

There were two interesting things that happened this week.

1. We got a call from our Zone Leaders and said that a man at St. Francis hospital needed a blessing, so my companion and I drove down to find him. After searching through a humongous hospital, we found him with several bandages on his head and a few family members watching him. He had been in a car accident that morning and had gone through the windshield. Most of his scalp had been torn off his head, but had been stapled back onto his skull. Putting our hands on his head was out of the question. My companion anointed him and I sealed it, but during the blessing the man started to mock me. He jokingly talked to me as I was trying to listen to the spirit to see if he was going to live or die, to see what I should bless him with. Halfway through the blessing he began to snore loudly at me and got louder and louder. I wasn’t bitter or upset; the only feeling that I had for this man was sadness. He had come to know that the church was true and had fallen away. Now he began to mock the sacred ordinance that we were doing to help him. But as we left I felt great joy because I knew at least that he was going to be fine.

2. Before we ever leave to go knocking on doors, we kneel in front of the map and pray where we should go. On one such an experience, we kneeled down and I offered the prayer. I paused in the middle to listen and the words "Willow Lake" randomly popped into my head. I closed the prayer and waited for my companion to stand. I didn’t say anything at first because I was scared that I was wrong. As my companion looked at the map, I pointed at the street and said, "I want to go there." My companion, still looking at the map, just smiled and said, "I feel exactly the same way." When the spirit communicates to his servants, it is all the same.

Anyway, it’s hard work, but its good and I know I'm doing the Lord’s will.

I love you guys and will talk to you next week.

Elder Willard

Pictures from Peoria, Illinois

Howard with three Brazilian Missionaries temporarily reassigned to Des Moines. Elder Wilmore, on the far right, flew out of SeaTac with Howard on Feb 29th.

Howard and the wonderful Mission President and his wife.After his first day in Des Moines, he was assigned to Peoria, Illinois.

Trainer, Elder Brinkerhoff, with Howard on his first day.

Working in Peoria, Illinois

Entao, here I am in Peoria, Illinois, where it is beautiful every single day and we don’t have to wear suits if it’s over 70 degrees. I am on a reassignment to the Iowa Des Moines Mission for a minimum of a month. If my visa arrives tomorrow, I still will not leave until the next transfer. But I’m super excited and happy to serve here. There is a lot of church history in Iowa and Illinois and I don’t know if I will get to see the sights, but my trainer and I will try.

We have been whitewashed into our area. That means that neither of us have been here, so we don’t know the members, recent converts, less-actives, investigators, the area, the bishop or anything else about our district. Most of the time we are just trying to figure out where people live which is more challenging than I thought (with no iPhone 4). We trade a car every other week with our district leader, so starting today we have a car! (My butt is sore from the bikes we use.) It’s a gold Chevy Malibu. It’s also very weird to be carrying a cell phone again. I usually forget that I have one.

My trainer’s name is Elder Brinkerhoff from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He is a really nice guy, although I can’t seem to find his humorous side, but we both really like Chinese food. He is about 6-months-old and as they say here on the mission, He's my daddy. We haven’t taught anyone yet except from members at dinner. But I’m excited to get out there and find some investigators. Oh, if you ever see an Elder Fortuna, let me know, he is serving in the Everett Washington Mission and we are having dinner with the Fortuna family tonight. I spoke with Momma Fortuna and I told her I live in her son's mission, she then quickly got to the missionary meal calendar and signed us up for the very next day. We are excited. Everyone is pretty surprised that I live on an island. "There are islands in Washington?!" they say. Good stuff. I don’t think I want to go to Brazil now.

It’s hard to remember what happened over the week. I should bring my journal when I type out emails.

Well I love you all and I know I’m supposed to be here. There is someone that I need to talk to or something I need to learn. Maybe I won’t go to Brazil and that’s totally fine because the only thing that matters is that I’m serving the Lord.

Elder Willard

P.S. Oh, and the temple for our mission is Nauvoo.

Going to Des Moines!

Well, I have a temporary reassignment to Des Moines, Iowa until my visa arrives. I’m super excited to get to work; my district is going to Mesa, Arizona on reassignment. I leave on Wednesday at 4 in the morning, so if you’re planning on sending me something, wait till I can give you an address in the field. I hear they just had a lot of tornados there which could mean I’ll be doing service, maybe don a Mormon helping hands shirt. 

Elder Ballard came last night to the fireside, this last three weeks has been nuts with general authorities. He talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. Recently I had an impression to get a Book of Mormon in English and the articles of faith on a card for the plane. I wonder what will happen.

I’m not supposed to trap anyone on the plane, if they don’t want to hear they can’t just walk away. I can engage if they ask me questions. The first and this last week have gone by really slowly; I just want to leave and get to work. I wish I had more time to write.

Eu vou comunicar com voces de novo, tarde. Eu amo voces!!

Elder Willard

Happy Easter!

My training here at the MTC is complete but...still no visa. I will just hangout here until I get it or get a reassignment.

I barely understand anything being said in portugues and I can only talk about gospel related things in portugues. If you asked me my favorite color or if I saw a certain movie I would have no idea what to say. But if you asked me what a profeta (prophet) is, you would be in good luck.

Pres. Packer came to the MTC yesterday for Easter and talked about the importance of the resurrection and how we could not have the Expiação (Atonement) without a punishment. Also the BYU Men’s Chorus sang for us at our weekly Sunday night fireside. Both were fantastic.

I met Elder Taylor, Sister Huff’s nephew, he looks a lot like her. He was a little upset when I told him about where Alex is going on his mission. He was expecting to hear from the family. But he is totally dope!!

There is a new infield training coisa (thing). In the past the greeny wouldn’t do anything; he would just follow the senior companion like a monkey. Typically you have an hour of personal study, companionship study and language study. Now, for the first 12 weeks of your mission, you have an extra hour of companionship study that focuses on getting the new missionary doing the normal responsibilities sooner. It’s apparently super effective. Super excited for that.

I didn’t get anything from Sister Willard. (She’ll write on Thursday due to transfers.)

Anyway, I love you guys and hope you had a Happy Easter!!

Elder Willard

Conference Edition

Well, I still do not have a visa; I feel like the emails are getting repetitive. This is officially my last week here at the MTC (and yes, I still don’t feel ready).  The language is coming along, but my one weakness is understanding when people are talking. We have about 4 fluent Spanish speakers that totally understand the language, which is a little discouraging.

After hearing Elder Holland’s talk about jealousy and "drinking a quart of pickle juice," I should be happy for their talents and abilities and be happy for my trials and challenges. I've been moved to a new district that is a week younger than me so I reviewed a lot of the same stuff last week. Good for me. My new companion looks like (not to be mean) Sloth from the Goonies...he has a very deep voice and an engineer’s mind. He understands what is being said in the lesson and I just talk.

If I don’t receive my visa this week, I will probably be here ‘til it shows up. There are some missionaries here that have been here for 14 weeks on a 9 week Spanish learning track just waiting for their visa to Argentina or Chile. I don’t want to be that guy. BUT I would be a boss at speaking the language.

Thanks Sister Huff for the DearElder letters, there were great. And could I get Alex's email?

I never can remember what happened over the last week until after the 30-minute time limit is up on the computer. Uhhhh...Sister Willard seems to be killing it in England. I was hoping she would be jumping up and down when she saw me and hope she picked up the line, "Good Scottish grit" from Saturday afternoon session.

I think my favorite talk was Elder Holland’s because it applies to me that most. This MTC experience, learning the language has been the hardest thing I have ever done so when I see people not struggling and bragging about how great they are, I go just a little livid. So for a few weeks now, I’ve been asking for charity and Christ-like love for everyone. So far so good. If I can’t learn to do that, how can I love my investigators?

Terrific conference weekend, I can’t wait till they make some of those into Mormon Messages. We have big Easter Sunday with 3 General Authorities coming, but they won’t say who.....but I have some ideas.

Anyway the Church is true, the Book of Mormon is the truest book on the face of the earth and will bring you closer to God than any other book.

I love you all and look forward to hearing from you.

Elder Willard