March 24

Greetings Elder Williams,

We've been praying for your families. I hope that you can teach them the gospel and they will respond. Are you liking your new area? It sounds like you have a fantastic ward. I'm glad you have so much support.

I applied for a job as a liaison between the Waterford Institute and the school district. I am now an employee! It's a computer based program to help prepare preschool children with the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy. I'll be running the program and helping to get it into homes. I'm really excited about it and go to SLC for training on Thursday and Friday. I still want to teach some of my online classes with LEA, but will have to cut back to one day a week.

Have you read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics? I just finished the portion titled "On Happiness". I agree with him on so many points, like how many people mistake means for ends and pursue pleasure, honor, or wealth only to find it is a mirage. What we really need to pursue for happiness-sake is virtue. Living a life of purpose is the highest good. I love this quote: "We should try to become immortal...and do our utmost to live in accordance with what is highest in us."
We are mortal, but in dealing with truth, we touch the heavens and earn a larger portion of that divinity that lights our mind.

I also read Plato's "Apology". Socrates had such courage and heart in spite of his detractors. If in the eternities I get a chance, I'd sure like to meet him and have a Socratic discussion. How fun would that be?

We hiked in Kolob Canyon and it was gloriously beautiful. Leo Tolstoy captures my thought when he says in Anna Karenina: "What doubt can you have of the Creator when you behold His creation?... Who has decked the heavenly firmament with its stars? Who has clothed the earth in its beauty?" I love to create whether it's a quilt, a garden, a dinner, or most importantly a home. I want to create for my Creator. I love Him.

I love you Elder Williams. I'm proud of you.

God be with you 'til we meet again.

Mom


Dear Mom,

Thank you for keeping my people in your prayers. I have a couple of more people for you to pray for. Bella is our new baptismal date. She wants to be baptized at the end of April, but she needs to quit smoking. That'll be a challenge because her husband smokes. If you could pray that they could work something out that'd be wonderful.

We are also teaching a girl named Sophia and her brother Jacob. Their mom was investigating the church, but she stopped because she moved in with her boyfriend and he doesn't like religion, but she is letting her kids take the lessons and wants them to be baptized. The only thing holding them back is that we need written permission from their father, who lives in Chilli. I'd appreciate if you could pray for them too.

I love the new area so much. I'm grateful that I get to be here in Vacaville.

One thing that really touched me this week was something President Alba said. We had interviews with him last Wednesday, and he told me that he ran into the bishop in Cloverdale. He said that the bishop really misses me and got teary eyed. President Alba said that I have made a great impact on my areas. That made me feel good. I guess people still talk about me.

I'm so happy that you got your new job. That sounds like it is a perfect job for you. You'll have to tell me more about how it goes.

I've read bits and peices of Aristotle's Ethics, but I'll have to dig into them more thoroughly with you. I love that quote. It puts words to my drive to continually improve. We are immortal, eternal beings. It is now that we determine what state we want to exist in for the rest of eternity.

I talked to some atheists the other night, and that is ultimately the piece that they are missing. They don't understand that the don't just exist now. For me it makes total sense that if I exist now, that I will exist in the future, and I existed before this life. The Gospel truly gives us a perspective that is not bound solely to this world.

I had a question. Is the family still planning on coming to tour the mission with me this summer? I'd like more details.

Thank you for your example and support.

Love,

Elder Williams