Why hello my wonderful family!
Can I just tell you how wonderfully marvelous this week has been? Because it has been fantastic! It started off on a Tuesday-we had our zone meeting like normal. Then they told us that Friday we would be having zone conference...with my old zone La Victoria!! Meaning that I would get to see...Hna Lopez, and Hna Choto, and all of my friends (well, almost) of my old zone! I could hardly contain myself, becuase I have been missing them so much! That helped me get through Wednesday and Thursday. It's been hard, trying to help my companions sometimes. I've really struggled, because things are different, and I feel sometimes like we're just going around in circles...it was really frustrating me. But the knowledge of zone conference helped me work-it was my motivation. That and that I was going to have an interview with Pres Chipman, which also helped me.
Friday came. And it was a glorious day. We got to the institute building at 8 in the morning, the same time as Hna Lopez. It was such a glorious reunion. I started crying a little. And you know how much I don't cry. I was SO happy to see her. She tells me that the best 4 1/2 months of her mission were with me-and I think I have to agree with her. Oh she is so special. Hna Choto and I decided that one day we're gonna bring her to the United States, and then you can meet her. That would make me so happy! She also told me that one of the families that we had been working with is going to get married, and they have baptism dates! Yay!!! That made my day too!
We went into where we were going to have the conference. And here I learned such a huge lesson. And it was through music :) I think you're going to like it.
So I had known that there was a piano in the institute building, and that I would probably end up playing it, so I brought along my Jon Schmidt book to play some prelude. I started playing some of the songs from it. Pres and Hna Chipman came into the room while I was playing, and Hna Chipman told me she liked what I was playing. After I little bit, I decided to take my hymn book and do what I do with the hymns for prelude. I was in the middle of playing Abide with Me (166-I think..99 in Spanish) when Hna Chipman picked up her violin, and in the middle of the song, started playing along with me. Hna Chipman, is AMAZING on the violin! She's like me, only with the violin and not the piano. It was such a wonderfully spiritual experience. We got done playing the Lord is my Shepherd, and we just looked at each other-like wow! Can you believe what we just played? It was amazing. Then the meeting started.
We sang 264, and then listened to 2 talks by Hna Chamorro and Eld Velarde about attributes of Christ. Then Hna Chipman got up to teach us. She talked about how she enjoyed their talks, and then she said she needed to mention someone else to. I was just sitting there, thinking, "oh cool" and then she said "Hna Williams. She was at first playing her written music. But then after a bit, she put it aside, and started to play from her heart. And I, without saying anything to her, started playing along with her (later she told me that she hadn't been able to play with anyone like that since coming on the mission)." She then thanked me for my talents, and then said "this made me think of how we can work together as companionships. Sometimes we need to put away the written music and play from our hearts-listening to the Spirit." And that just hit me so hard. It was a music analogy. I realized that I've been trying to play my "written music" with my companions, which doesn't really allow for other instruments to play along very easily. I know how to accompany, how to follow in music, and that's what I need to do with my companions. It was perfect for me. Just what I needed to hear. It was such a good lesson for me, and I think Hna Chipman was the only person that could have taught me that lesson. It was absolutely amazing. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person too that got such a powerful lesson from that analogy. Really, it was incredible!!!
ANywho, the rest of the conference was really good. Afterwards, I had my interview with Pres. He told me that it was really good to listen to my music. We talked, in Spanglish :) (When Pres talks English, he has an accent like Grandma Williams. It made me smile :) We talked about my companions, how Hna Cruz has had a rough time, and how I can help her and my companions get better. It was so good to just be able to talk to him. It's probably the last time I'll have an interview with him, because at the end of this cambio they're splitting the missions. It sounds like I'll find out on June 21 which mission I'll be in. I'm guessing I'll stay in Chiclayo, since I'm here already, but as we found out last cambio, what Hna Williams thinks is going to happen isn't always what happens. But whatever happens, I know that I'll be where I'm supposed to be. At the end of the interview, Pres told me that I have a beautiful smile too. I just love my mission president!! Seriously, I wish you could know how much I needed Friday, to see Hna Lopez, Hna Choto, to talk with Pres and to play with Hna Chipman. We still have many many things we need to make better as a companionship, but I feel like I can do better at "accompanying them" as it were.
Anywho, I'm gonna call this a letter. Sorry it's not much longer, but it has some really important stuff in it to me. I love you guys so much. I'm glad things are going well-I loved hearing about your park city adventures. Send everyone my love.
Hna Williams
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