DØKER

December 8, 2014

Perks of living in Trondheim Norway: sometimes you get to see the Northern lights. WE SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS! AHHH! Yes, one of the nights this week, all 4 of us Søstre  (sisters)were standing near the fjord waters in our pj's and coats with our faces towards the night sky marveling at the dancing strip of green light in the sky with the dome kirke (church) in sight. It was truly beautiful and out of this world! And the best part is that I know the science behind how that happens. (props to my BYU astronomy class!)

Okay but that is not even the best part of this week! Notwithstanding all the breakdowns I have had because of stress, the Lord blessed us with 3 new people to teach. Søster Hoggard and I found K on Monday night. He had just bought a ton of food from Sweden and was struggling to carry his grocery bags when we got off the buss. And so we helped him carry the bags to his house. And then bam, we told him we were missionaries, told him about the BOM and got his number. K is from Africa, and so is this guy M that we found the next day while we were contacting. We also found a Skikkelig Norsk guy named J. We teach him in English because when we first contacted him, he said, "I can speak English if you want, I can see that you are struggling with Norwegian." IKKE SANT?!?! We gave him Mormon's Bok on the street right there and when we met again, he had read and marked passages and had questions for us. what the, so prepared! Truly a miracle! 

I would like to share my testimony with Doker (y'all)about peace. God-given feelings of peace come in times when it makes no sense for there to be peace. When the whole world appears to be falling down on you, and you feel inadequate and that you can't take it, the Lord can give us quiet security and feelings of peace. Sometimes the peace comes without your asking for it, and sometimes you have to beg and plead and pry open your heart to receive the peace. The Lord is always willing to give it to us. Christ said in John 14," Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

 I am so grateful that I have the choice to chose to receive the peace Christ has available for me. Christmas season gets crazy sometimes, but it is important to remember that Christ was the very first gift of Christmas. That He is the reason we celebrate. That because God gave his son, we can receive peace in this life and everlasting joy in the life to come. Make Christ the center of your Christmas this year. You will never regret any decision that brings you closer to Christ.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch He is the Gift. I am so grateful for Christ and His life and what that means for me personally. 

Thank you for everything. Alltid koselig når jeg har muligheten å snakke med dere. Ha det kjempe kjempe bra denne uken! Jeg er så glad i døker. 

Med Kjærlighet,

Søster Williams

ps. 

Denne uken er en englesk faste for oss. Vi må snakke KUN NORSK! We are having an English fast this week and will only be able to speak Norwegian! It is going to be hard, especially for Søster Hoggard and I, so prayers would be appreciated! :)

Kjære Døker  (Døker is dialect for dere btw)​,

The trio life this week was so great! We were busy all the time and that is the way I like it. :) We went on splits a couple of times: one time with me and Søster Neilson teaching Norsk lessons with a member from the ward, and another time contacting... It was Søster Neilson's first time contacting! So she and Søster Robbins went on one side of the street, and I contacted by myself on the other side of the street. (sight and sound rule at it's finest!) Some fun things from this week:

-Visiting bestemor (Grandmother) in the hospital with the elders

- Visiting our new convert Ingibrigt and scarfing down this nasty cake thing called blodkaker (It tastes like nothing. and the worst part is the enormous amount of whipped cream on the top that doesn't include any sugar in it...) and chugging hot chocolate then sharing a quick quick message because we had to run out of there to catch a bus for our appointments. 

- having a man from Zimbabwe tell us ,"before, I didn't really know that white  people believed in Jesus, so it's really nice to see you out here.". He said he would meet with us again, but he didn't take our Book of Mormon.

-teaching an investigator from the other søstres area. He has dreadlocks and has to wear sunglasses inside because of brain damage from some bad choices with drugs in the past.

-Going to an African couple's home to teach about the restoration.... she was making traditional euritrain coffee on the floor next to us.... it was interesting.

- Going to another baptism! Hooshyar is one of the elder's investigators that was baptized on Saturday. Afterwards, his friend Enoch made us all Indian food

-Learned some french from Charles and Joseph: Joyeux Noèl means merry Christmas! 

-Going banking (pronounced bonking) and catching a bunny that had gotten out in the person's front yard

-Learning how to KNIT! That night was skikkelig Norsk (completely Norwegian) and I loved it! We had dinner at the home of a less active young adult. Her parents are not members, but they are so good! After being there, I just wanted to be Norwegian! Also her Dad looked at me and thought I was Norsk, so... there you go! He told me about how Leif Erikson's wife had read hair and she was really good with a sword. random.

Ahh! There were just so many things that happened! and then we had moves call on Sunday.... where everyone finds out who is moving. This is the news. My companion Søster Robbins is moving to Oslo and my new companion is Søster Hoggard from the MTC! I LOVE this girl! It is the strangest situation though, because now we will be training each other... I am going to be required to rely more on the Lord than I ever have in my entire life. 

And that is a blessing. This week it hit me that the Lord wants all of us. He doesn't want half our heart or a little bit of our attentions, just a few of our thoughts, and only a handful of our actions. The Lord wants us to give him EVERYTHING. We are to love Him with ALL our heart might mind  and strength. and here is the thing. This is what he wants and commands of us, so that we may be able to receive all the many blessings he has in store for us. But his love is not limited to our fulfillment of this the first great commandment. He loves us at every stage of our growth.

I was reading in Mark the week, and the story of the rich man hit me hard. Mark tells of a man who was running to get to Christ. running. that means that this guy has got drive! okay then this guy falls on his knees at the feet of the Savior and praises him. He then asks what he needs to do to have eternal life. Christ explains that he needs to be obedient. the scriptures say: "Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come,take up the cross, and follow me."

 I was touched by the phrase "And Jesus beholding him loved him." Jesus had so much love towards this man who had kept his commandments. And then he explains how this man can further progress, and that is to give everything he has to follow Christ. That is what He asks of each of us, and he does not apologize for it. We as missionaries invite people to completely change their lives for Christ, and we do it boldly because we are confident that the Lord has much greater things in store for them. We are able to do so boldly because of love. Because of Christ's love and the Father's love and mercy in the gift of his son.

I testify that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. May we always remember him, and strengthen our resolve to be like Him. This is what unites us. This is what strengthens our personal relationships with God. This is why I am serving a mission. 

I love you all and am so thankful for you- perhaps even just a little more thankful this week than other weeks because it is Thanksgiving. :) I love you more that all the frost here in Norge... which is a heck of a lot! 

Med Kjærlighet (With love),

Søster Stephanie Joy Williams

Kjære venner

November 17, 2014

Another week in Norge..... what the heck? Sometimes in our apartment we talk about we have no concept of time and besides the hour-to-hour activities in everyday, time doesn't matter. That to me is super cool. :)

It was our first 1/2 week as a trio this week! I was a little nervous at first, but it has been really great. I really need Søster Neilson in my life. She has the biggest heart. So because we are combining two areas for these two weeks, we were pretty busy this week, which is just the way I like it! This week: I made a few phone calls in Norwegian (super hard and a little scary for me because there is no body language involved so I can't guess what they are saying from any gestures!), drove a car and accidentally ran a red light... or a few (Hey, in my defense, the stoplights here are different that in America!), had to eat a raw onion, Visited this crazy lady in our ward with the other greenie, played a super strange game at game night called munchkin, got a bruise from playing a hockey-type game on Saturday at our sport activity, listened to stake conference, taught several Africans, and learned a lot about the kind of missionary I want to become. 

But real quick going back to the onion thing.Every once in a while, our Zone will get together and have a Zone Leader Training- so a little conference that is lead by our Zone leaders. And let me preface this by saying that Elder Shanklin and Childs are... out of the box thinkers. They had us do an activity to demonstrate the importance of updating our area books. We split up into 3 teams and were each assigned a grocery bag. The goal of the activity was to be the team that finished eating all of the contents in the grocery bag. So one team member would run up, grab the first thing out of the bag, unwrap it (everything was wrapped up in tin foil so you couldn't tell what it was), eat the whole thing, and then tag the next person in your team to go and pick and eat something else. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Yeah except for some of the things in each grocery bag included a cold hot dog, half an onion, half a lemon, 3 rice cakes (aka Styrofoam). Some people got lucky and unwrapped things like candy, chocolate, and fruit. I went first and got the rice cakes which just in case you are wondering, are super hard to eat and swallow super fast! and everyone else in our team went. After everyone had gone in our team, there was one item left in the bag. the onion. So I was like, "hey team, lets do this together and all take a little piece!" only half the team came and helped..... but that's alright! 

The funniest thing out of the whole thing is that the debriefing of the activity was simply "area books are like the game we just played. You never know what you are going to get. Sometimes you get to a new area book and everything is updated and awesome, it's like unwrapping chocolate. And other times it's super bad and disorganized, and is like unwrapping something not so pleasant, like an onion or lemon." Was lingering onion breath for the rest of the day required for me to have learned this lesson? Probably not.... but I guess I give those guys props for being creative and entertaining. :)

On a more spiritual note, we went over to teach out investigator J this week about commandments. is friend C that is usually there to help translate for him was out of town, so the language barrier was thick. However, He was still able to know and understand what we were teaching and he bore a beautiful simple testimony of the commandments and God's and in his own life. I am so thankful that in all I do as a missionary, the spirit is the main language that is heard and felt. I am so thankful for this Gospel and for the knowledge that I have and the opportunity I have to be sharing it. 

Jeg er så glad i dere! 

-Søster Williams

ps I am so lucky to have friends serving here with me in Norway! The picture is of me and Elder Witbeck from my home stake. 

My good friend Synne.  She lived with my cousins for a year as a foreign exchange student!

Way, way awesome week!

November 3, 2014

Hei san alle,

Some fun things that happened this week include carving pumpkins with some ward members, actually teaching people who didn't cancel with us, teaching a 1st lesson while on splits, playing volleyball with our district... and Jaroslav..., helping a non-member move from the 3rd floor in one building to the fourth floor in another building (both of which did not have elevators), Zone conference! (which means I got to see my companion from the MTC and Elder Cole Whitbeck from home as well as make lots of new missionary friends!), a Halloween party with the ward, finding less-actives,and having a strictly Norsk meal (which consisted of meat cakes, potates, some weird pea-thingy, veggies, Tyttebær sause and a unique cake... which I can't remember the name of right now. All made by a lady in the ward. so amazing!) to break our fast. And the very very best part: WE HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE! We taught this guy J, a friend of one of our recent coverts (C), for the very first time this week. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes! C and J are both from Africa. J said that he had found the church in his country and had been looking for our church here. wow! His baptism date is for the 22nd. Miracles my friends! I am truly seeing miracles- hver dag.

I could go on and on in detail about each of these events, but nonetheless, not even my own personal journal gets such a treat because this is the Lord's time and not mine. You'll have to ask me for details later... :) 

The most important thing I can do with my emails is share my testimony in hopes that by reading mine, you may strengthen yours. This week I felt sad. A depth of sadness that brought me to tears at times. I felt sad that the Lord's work depends on Someone so imperfect like me. I'm fine with living with my weaknesses- I have them and I accept them, and so the source of my sorrow did not necessarily stem from a feeling of inadequacy, but from feeling sad that the Lord had to trust me to do his work. Yes, I wear the name badge everyday, but I will always fall short of the calling to be a representative of Christ. Taking these feelings with me to Zone conference, I searched for peace. And what I got was not what anyone said, it was a thought that came from the spirit clothed in the ideas presented in that service class at BYU that I took my last semester. "The best kind of service is the service that allows those you are serving to serve." 

The Lord is perfect. He serves me by letting me serve Him imperfectly. It's like when you are playing a game with a little kid and you play in such a way that allows them to win. The Lord is all powerful. He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. However, he lets us imperfect full-time and member-missionaries serve because he loves us. He desires for us to share in the joy of bringing souls back to Him. 

The part about me never being able to really fulfill my calling gets swallowing up the the glory of Christ's atonement. Life is simply better when you choose to acknowledge the truth that failure is inevitable but with the power of the atonement, failure doesn't have to be permanent. I am so thankful that I get to work not just for the Lord, but with the Lord. He truly transforms us if we let him. I have seen that happen in my life as well as in the lives of people in the scriptures and people around me. The name tag I wear everyday reminds me that I am a living testimony of the power of Christ and His atonement. It is the very best. I am living the dream! 

In our Zone conference we talked a lot about working with the members. And as I was thinking about it, the reason we work with members is because we want members to feel the joy and happiness that comes from doing missionary work! We want to have them have missionary experiences, because they are precious and fill us with joy. If you are a member and you are reading this, Pray with real intent for a missionary experience. The Lord wants to bless you to feel more happiness! If you are a missionary, kudos to you! If you are not apart of this church, I invite you to find out more about The knowledge that has made me and countless others so happy. 

I can never thank you all enough for the prayers and support. You are truly amazing. Have a great week! Jeg er glad i dere! 

Med Kjærlighet,

Søster Williams

Hvordan kan jeg begynne.........................

October 27 2014

The missionary slang here for when an appointment falls through is "kebab". A kebab is a yummy and unhealthy burrito type thing with lamb and corn and cucumber and lettuce and a weird yummy sauce thing all wrapped up in a huge pita bread. I am able to tell you this because this week, we got kebabed over 10 times! and so on one of the days at the end of the day we got kebabs. :) 

Yeah, so every lesson we planned on got cancelled except for one. with T. Oh my gosh it was crazy! He speaks in the Trondersk dialect (I have no idea how to spell that!), which basically means that he sounds like he is speaking Chinese. Okay, but he walks in with a personal pizza and a coke bottle and ate the whole thing while we were talking. The plan was to talk about commandments- specifically the commandments to pray, read the scriptures and come to church. After we had followed up with the commitments given last time and he answered that no he hadn't read, things started to get weird. I didn't understand too much, but my trainer told me afterwards that he was talking about how he had met Jesus and Mary and Joseph. He said that Joseph lives in Tronheim, but he goes by Sven and that Trondheim is the new Jerusalem. Also he talked about a matrix-like situation where he was surrounded by gray creatures with big black eyes and they were closing in on him and he pushed them away..... WHAT? She said he used to be a narkoman (a druggie) so maybe that's what's going on... who knows! That same night another appointment fell through, so we went to go visit I- the grandma of the ward. and of course she showed us her scars on her knees... I have learned something here: strange old ladies are universal creatures. and Norwegian ones are very special. :)

The thing that I love best right now about being on the mission is how much closer I've grown to myFfather in Heaven through my gospel study. It is the best. I love the Book of Mormon! I haven't seen very much success yet with the people here in Trondheim, but I am way excited for when we have found someone who is honestly seeking for the truth and I will get to share it with them. That will be the day! 

Until that day comes, I will be building and exercising my faith in the truth that the Lord is preparing people for Sister Robbins and I to teach. They are out there, and they need what we have to share. 

Thank you all for your unending love and support. Seek for opportunities to share the Lord's message with those that are searching. May the Lord bless us both in our efforts to gather in the lost sheep.

Love,

Søster Williams

My Mission Blog

I am still a very huge advocate of helping girls understand the beauty of womanhood and the divine power that resides in them, however, I have decided to switch my blog over to my mission blog. I have been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I am going to Norway! I'm still very shocked at my call. But, I will go where the Lord wants me to go, and apparently, He wants me to go to Norway. Woohoo!

Here's a little about my mission: 

This is President Evans and his wife, Sister Evans. Aren't they so cute? I think so. President Evans actually served his mission in Norway. Actually, my Grandpa Brown also served there. And Elder Cole Whitbeck from the Las Vegas Lakes Stake and Elder Jake Rolfson from my BYU ward this last year are both serving there already. Apparently it is going to be a party! 

Norway is really long and skinny and is way close to the North Pole. 

That means it is going to be very cold for this little vegas girl! It's a good thing the gospel brings warm fuzzies- otherwise I might have been in big trouble. I have big winter boots and a down parka that cost me more than a whole paycheck, and so I say, "bring on the winter, Scandinavia!" except for don't bring it on too much because the coldest I have lived in is Provo's last winter which I am told was weak-sauce. If I am serving Inland during the Winter, it could get colder than -40 degrees Fahrenheit. I may have to get myself one of these in addition to my Parka…

Although it is chilly, it sure is beautiful.

oh look! my first investigator! 

I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord as His official representative. Norway, here I come! 

The Power of Womanhood

Take a look at this girl. Yes, I know. She is adorable! And yes, I know, she is precious! And Yes, Lucky LUCKY me that I get to be her big sister. This is Sadie. She is 8 years old and quite the character! Because Sadie is a girl, she will grow up (way too fast I might add! Gosh this girl is going to pass me up with her long legs any day now!) to be a beautiful woman. I want Sadie to have no doubts about who she is and what she has been specially designed for. Heaven knows we need powerful woman who know exactly what they are doing here and are willing to invest all they have to accomplish their specific purposes. I believe Sadie will be one of these powerful woman, if she follows the pattern of righteousness. 

My main motivation for starting this blog was to help any girl who is struggling to see the joy and divinity of the calling to be a righteous woman in these last days. In my first semester of college, I was very confused about what I, as a woman, was to be working toward. The world's ideas of what a woman should be and demand of herself in this age are very bold and look enticing. Power, influence, and prestige in the biggest careers of the world is the advertisement that fights for woman's attention and energy. However, this didn't settle any qualms I had about my future. In fact, the more I read about women's roles in newspaper articles, the more conflicted I felt about what the ideal "modern woman" should look like and if I really wanted to emulate her.  It wasn't until I picked up the book Daughters in My Kingdom that I learned to hope in my own future and learn about my divine potential as a woman and disciple of Christ. 

On my path of continuation in the ways of discipleship, I am finding a couple of things that I struggle with (as we all do if we walk the path with open eyes. None of us remains unscathed by weakness… but I believe this is what connects us and makes us human.) I am particularly learning how much I have to learn to become a woman who: 

1) finds nobility in motherhood

2) finds joy in womanhood

3) understands my divine destiny

Women are powerful! I would like to quote Elder D. Todd Christofferson's last general conference address, because general authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have a way of putting words together that is far more eloquent than anything I can articulate. He said, "From age immemorial, societies have relied on the moral force of women. While certainly not the only positive influence at work in society, the moral foundation provided by women has proved uniquely beneficial to the common good. Perhaps, because it is pervasive, this contribution of women is often underappreciated. I wish to express gratitude for the influence of good women, identify some of the philosophies and trends that threaten women’s strength and standing, and voice a plea to women to cultivate the innate moral power within them." (you can read the rest of his talk here.) SO. With that being said, let's work on cultivating the power that already exists in us! 

I have been so richly blessed to have several examples of righteous woman in my life! To me, these woman are valiant heroes. They are masters of the three listed things that I struggle with. As such, I hope to learn from them and their personal journeys through life to strengthen my testimony and consequently, the testimony of my dear sisters Lindsay and Sadie and my future daughters, and perhaps even you. So much good surrounds us in this life, and I am determined to find the joy in all of it.