Hello Family!!
Well hope everyone is doing pretty good. I'm doing fine. This week was just another week. Nothing too exciting has happened. That's so cool to hear that Trevor got his call here. Yeah me and him were really good friends. We hung out all the time in Thatcher. So I'm pretty pumped now that he's coming here. Now I can't wait for March. Who knows maybe I'll even be his trainer. Haha. So I got your package. It's been so fun to open a little present everyday so far. The other elders also got 12 days of Christmas so we all get around and open our presents each day. Christmas should be fun this year. We have some appointments with some really cool families. So I dont know if I'll be able to email next week because the library will be closed. We might email on Sunday I'm not sure though. So if I don't email next week I'll just call you guys on Christmas and tell you to get online to Skype or what. It will probably be sometime in the early afternoon so just be looking for a phone call from a weird number. I'll probably call mom's cell phone if I can remember the number. If I do get to email I'll probably let you know some more details. But anyways this past weekend we had our ward Christmas party. We had to help the ladies set up and decorate the whole gym the day before. They were like yelling and getting mad at us because things weren't centered or there wasn't enough decorations on things. I'm just thinking to myself ...well did you think the missionaries were good at decorating things? The ward party was pretty good though. The primary kids put on a little Christmas program. I decided little kids from Louisiana are so crazy. Like if you thought the kids back home were crazy you just need to see some little cajun kids. They were just running around and screaming everywhere and while someone would be playing the piano they would just run up to it and start banging on the piano keys. Or go up to the mike and start yelling in it. I had a little headache afterward. So if the world ends on Friday I just want you to know you were a great family. Haha thats what alot of people we see down here ask us. On Sunday we had a little family we are teaching come to church. We have been teaching them the past couple weeks now. This last lesson we had was so good. They are so ready to accept the gospel. I can feel that they are so close. Hopefully things will continue to work out with them and the whole family will join the church. That would be awesome. So I'm sending off the families Christmas package today. You can open when you get it or you can wait till Christmas to open it. It doesn't matter to me whatever you guys want to do. I also sent off a letter to Jaden and Makenzie today. Hopefully they get excited for that. Well I can't think of anything else. I can't wait to talk to you guys next week. Remember you all are in my prayers. I love you.
Elder Tyler Willis

Dec. 10th, 2012

Hey!!
Well another week down--- 5 months gone....time is going by fast. So mom you're getting up there in the numbers now?  Haha happy late birthday!  You are the best. Thanks for everything.  Well I'm doing pretty good. We had another slow week with lessons--- 1 lesson this week.  It was a sweet lesson though.  We met this family at the flea market. They were way excited about coming to church but then they got sick so they didn, t end up coming. Hopefully we will be able to see them this week and teach them more. So I have been sick the past couple days. I guess there is a cold going around. I've had a super bad sore throat. I still have those emergen-c things you sent me a while ago. I've already drank like 5 of those the past couple days. I should be fine though. So in our ward my companion and I are pretty much getting forced into singing in the choir. I never thought I would sing in a choir. It's alright though.  The past couple days here have been pretty warm. It's crazy. I never thought I would have to turn the a/c on in December. Sometimes I wish it could be snowing just so I can feel the cold weather again. Anyways nothing too exciting happened this week. Just a normal week. Let's see I did fix a homeless guys bike though. This guy was a little slow but anyways his pedal fell off and I fixed it for him. Then he kept asking me for an estimate of how long it would last him. I was like it should last for a while. He asked me that like 5 times. Then he started telling me how good of shape he is in. He was like I can do 37 pushups. I was like oh yeah? Then he was like want to have a contest. I said sure. So he only does 20 pushups. Then I just do 21 pushups real quick. He was trying to tell me how I cheated. I'm just like sure....so I tell him to keep on doing those pushups and I'll come back later and we will have another contest. So that was really the only interesting thing that happened to me this week. Let's see we did go visit this one guy and he was just chilling on the couch with just his underwear on the whole time. So that was super awkward. Christmas is coming up fast. I bet you all are super excited for Christmas time. Being a missionary during Christmas is great because it's a great time to share a message about Jesus Christ and some people will actually want to hear it. . I didn't get your package yet but I should be getting it pretty soon. I'm still working on the family package. Hopefully I should get it done this week. Anyways can't wait to hear back from you again.    Love you!
Elder Willis

Hey!
Hows everyone? Sounds like things are going pretty good now that things have slowed down. Wow a ton of people are getting married it sounds like. So you finally got Jaden and Makenzie to write me after last week when I said they don't write me anymore and they forgot about me. I got the letter and I laughed because I just pictured mom back home forcing Jaden and Makenzie to write me. I can picture them just sitting on the couch complaining and moaning about writing me.  (MOM'S NOTE:  I told Jaden & Makenzie to write Tyler before we got his e-mail.  It made them glad that they had a letter in the mail before they got this e-mail!) Haha oh well I liked the letter though and they should be getting a letter back from me this week.  . Anyways this week was transfer week and I'm still with my companion. No one in our apartment is changing.  So my first December in Louisiana has been a surprise. It's been in the high 70's the past few days. It doesn't feel like Winter time at all. It still feels like I've been in Summer weather since I have gotten here. It's weird because somedays it will be super cold and then the next day it will be in the 80's. The weather here is very strange. When it gets cold here it's cold. The humidity just makes it a bone chilling cold. So this morning a member took us to play frisbee golf. First time I have ever played that. It was pretty fun even though I couldn't throw a frisbee to save my life. I guess I'll just stick with basketball. So this past week nothing too crazy happened. Still a slow week with lessons. I think we only taught 1 lesson and that was to a recent convert. For the month of November our whole Baton Rouge Zone only baptized 1 person. That just shows how hard the work is down here. So the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was very good. I don't know if you guys watched it or not but I just get pumped up everytime I get to watch the Prophet speak. So this past weekend we helped the spanish elders with a booth at a flea market. It reminded me of the fish markets in Mexico. It was just all spanish people there. We had a little christmas booth with copies of the Book of Mormon and stuff. So were just sitting there and I decided to use the little spanish I knew to contact someone and give them El Libro De Mormon. So I walk up to this little women and I start having a conversation with her in spanish. It was a little scratchy though but I got the message across. She ended up taking the Book of Mormon. So after that I had a pretty big head. So paying attention in Spanish class actually paid off for me. So that's pretty much it for this week. The Blue Ridge jacket will be fine. Or my old billabong one if someone hasn't stolen it already. I'm still trying to get your christmas package ready. Hopefully it will be ready in time. So I have a question. Does Makenzie want an ipod for christmas. We were at a thirft store the other day and there was an ipod for like 30 dollars so I bought it even though I never have touched it since. There are some songs on it from the last owner but you can just erase them all. It's a 3rd generation ipod nano I think. If anyone wants it just let me know and I can send it home too. Well thanks for everything. I love you.
Elder Willis

Hey!!
So sounds like a crazy week for everyone!! Glad to hear that everyone is doing pretty good though. So sounds like the basketball team didn't do too good. Is Jaden wearing number 11?? Hopefully he is so he can keep the tradition alive. The other day during studies I just wore my basketball shoes around during the morning because I miss basketball so much..... Haha tell Jaden to write me a letter about basketball so I can give him some advice. Some advice that I wished I would have used back when I was playing. So tell him to write me. I haven't heard from him in like 3 months. Haven't heard from Makenzie in a while either!! :(     Did all you guys forget about me or something? Haha you can tell Jaden that Reed writes me more than he does. Anyways my week went by pretty fast. Nothing too exciting happened this week. Another week with no lessons. We still don't have any investigators. This is how our whole mission is. All the missionaries I talk to only have like 1 or 2 investigators. I'ts true when people say the south is one of the toughest missions. I have heard that the south and Eastern Europe are the toughest missions in the world. I don't know. I bet there are still alot of really tough missions out there. I try to not let it affect me too much. I try to look for the good in everything even when we can't find anybody to talk to. Sometimes even the members don't want to talk to us.  Oh well.....So thanksgiving was pretty good. We ended up only eating at 2 houses because we were so full. Thanksgiving here is just like it is back home. Regular food like turkey and potatoes and gravy. But here the women sit outside to eat while the men sit inside at the table to eat. I don't know if they always do that but that's what they were trying to tell us they do down here. It's kinda weird. Then after we just stayed and played some board games with them. It was pretty fun. That was like for lunch and then for dinner we went to another family and ate with them. The father served his mission in Dallas and he actually served in Denton for a while so that was pretty neat. And he knows where Parker College is and everything. So my thanksgiving wasn't anything too crazy. Now it's time for Christmas. :)   So my comp is Elder Damron from Idaho. He has been out 10 months now. He is pretty cool.  We get along pretty good. We have a little nerf hoop in our room so right after we plan at night we play a game of 21. It gets pretty intense. We pretty much just try to dunk on each other every single time. I'ts fun. Anyways nothing much else happened this week. So you can tell Matthew I have seperate B of M and Bible but they are both regular size. And for my jacket just a black one that I can wear proselyting. It doesn't matter what kind or anything. Just get me whatever you think is best. If there is anything else just let me know. Next week is transfer week again so I'll email on Tuesday probably. Well anyways take care. Your always in my prayers.
Elder Tyler Willis

Hey!!
How y'all are?? Hahah well sounds like everything has settled down over there. That's nice to hear. Well my week went by fast. Nothing too exciting has happened this week. Just a normal missionary week. We only taught 1 lesson this week. We currently don't have any investigators. It's tough.....we can't find anybody to teach. We don't do any tracting. Tracting is pretty much pointless in the south. The only way we get investigators is from members but the members aren't hooking us up with any referrals right now. So we just visit members and less actives all day. Yeah so our baptism didn't go through either. The Dad had to go to New York for a while. So we didn't get a chance to teach his son at all. Even if he does end up getting baptized it probably won't be for another couple weeks or so. I don't think the dad cares about his son getting baptized anymore. It kinda was just the spur of the moment that he wanted him to get baptized. I don't know we will just have to wait and see hopefully everything will work out. So lately it has been getting pretty cold. We went to this older ladies house one night and she opened the door and she was like "Where is your jacket?" I was like I don't have one...She pretty much freaked out on me because I didn't have a jacket. So she just left us at her house while she went to walmart and she bought me a jacket. So everytime we go to her house I have to wear my jacket even if it is warm enough to not wear a jacket. Just to make her happy. Sounds like you guys aren't too happy about giving talks. I still haven't had to give 1 talk yet. I can't complain about that. I have a feeling I'll have to give one here pretty soon though. I always carry a couple talks with me just in case. Thanksgiving should be pretty fun this year. Both wards here have a turkey bowl on thanksgiving morning. So we'll probably end up going to that and playing some football. We got invited to eat at like everyones house so we will probably just be house hopping around eating food at different places all day. The other day we were driving around and I was outside backing the car up and I was about to get in and this dog comes out from no where and jumps into the car. It wouldn't get out of the car. It jumped in the backseat and just sat down. It took us like 10 minutes to get the dog out of the car. Then it finally ran off. So that was pretty weird. Well I cant really think of anything else that's going on around here. So the other day I saw Michael Bonham here and he told me he just drove through Heber and he told me it hasn't changed at all. I was like it doesn't surprise me haha. Well that's about it for this week. Hopefully I'll have some crazier stories to tell next week. Love you and your in my prayers.
Elder Willis

Hey!!
Sounds like everyone is doing good. That's good to hear. So sounds like some pretty crazy stuff has been happening over there lately in Az. That's cool to hear about Alyssa getting married. It seemed like just yesterday I was choking her and we had to get sent to the office. Haha. Cy is going to Arkansas? That's way sweet. It's actually the Jackson, Mississippi Mission that covers the northern part of Louisiana. Still he is not too far from me. Anyways I'm doing pretty good. Nothing too much has happened this week. I like this area better than my last area. Time is going by faster in this area too. My first 2 transfers in Opelousas went by pretty slow because the work was really slow and there really wasn't much stuff to do either. I talk to people here and they are like "Where did you serve before?" I'm like Opelousas and there like I'm sorry.....haha I'm just like I know right?!  But this transfer has been going by alot faster. I think time is just going to start to fly by now. So it snowed a little bit already? haha that's crazy! It's still like in the 80's here. I think it should start cooling down soon......hopefully. You can tell Makenzie that I'm getting super tan because I'm always in the hot sun :) She probably won't like to hear that though. Anyways so this Saturday we should be having a baptism! It's a 9 year old kid  and his dad wants him to get baptized so we have to teach him all the lessons before this Saturday. This will be my first baptism.   I'll take some pictures at the baptism and send them to you next week. This past week we had dinner at this member who is from like Vietnam or something and she fed us fried bamboo. Yup....I ate bamboo. It's actually pretty good. She told me to tell my mom that I ate wood. So that was interesting. I also had a gator burger this past week. It was pretty good but I much rather prefer a regular burger. I have eaten all kinds of crazy stuff so far. I'm pretty sure when I come home I won't be scared to eat Tostados anymore :) So I have been playing alot of basketball lately. For some reason all I want to do is play basketball. Every morning I wake up at like 5:30 and I try to get the other elders in my apartment to get up and go play basketball with me at the chapel. If they don't want to play with me I try to get the Spanish elders in our area to come play with me. Usually a few of the elders will come with me and play basketball. Anyways I can't really think of anything else I wanted to tell you guys. Oh yeah so Thanksgiving is coming up and we have like 5 dinner appointments. So the few days before I probably won't eat anything at all. Haha yeah so I'll have to see what kind of crazy experiences I get this week. Anyways I love you and miss you all! Your always in my prayers.
Love Elder Willis

Hello!!
How's the family doing? Sounds like the reception went well. That's good to hear. Wish I could have been there with you all but I have to be calling people to repentance down here. Haha   Anyways I'm doing pretty good. My new area is pretty sweet. The people here are more friendly than my last area. Even though this area is a little more slow with missionary work than my last area. We didn't teach any lessons this week. :(  That's just a normal week for Louisiana. We just see a bunch of less actives. It's ok though. Yeah the LSU - Alabama game was huge down here. That's all people talked about this whole week. Saturday night it was hard for us to go see anybody because everyone was watching the game. The town was like a ghost town because nobody was out on the streets. So we just had to go see the super old members that don't watch football. Then LSU lost so everyone was pretty grumpy at church. I think I heard more at church about Les Miles then about gospel stuff.  Haha  People down here sure do love their football. So some crazy stuff that happened this week. We were helping some older members put a tarp on their roof so the rain wouldn't get in the house. This area we were in was a pretty ghetto area. So we were just working and I look over across the street and there are these 2 little  kids fighting over a bike. One of them wouldn't get off so the other one starts punching him and takes the bike. Then the other one starts running after him and tackles him and starts punching him. These kids are probably like 9. Then this girl around like 12 comes and starts beating on both of them and swearing at them. Haha  It was intense. Then this big  women I'm guessing the mother comes out and grabs the girl and just starts beating her. The little girl just starts screaming but the women keeps beating her. And the women is just swearing at her and smacking the girl. I'm just standing there watching the whole thing and I'm just in shock.  How do these people live like this?  I'm glad I was raised in a good home. This other time we were eating at a older couple's house and they are just straight up crazy. They fed us spaghetti with hard boiled eggs in the sauce. It was interesting but I still ate everything. So then she brings out brownies and I'm like okay something normal. She sets them down and she was like oh I forgot the salsa!  At least that's what I thought she said so I'm thinking noooo way am I eating brownies with salsa. Luckily she said something different so it wasn't salsa.  Haha   It's just so hard to understand people down here. I'm still trying to learn the language.  Haha   Anyways that was my week. Oh I did get Aunt Laurie's package. It was awesome!  Make sure to tell her I loved it. That's cool to hear about Tyler and Cy.  Brazil would be an intense mission. Am I going to be the only missionary from Heber to ever go to the Deep South?!   I guess only the best can make it down here.   Haha. Well I love you all and you're in my prayers.
Elder Tyler Drake Willis

Transfer---New Town & New Companion

Hey!!

Well I'm in my new area. I'm in Gonzales... little south of Baton Rouge. It's a nice town. There are 2 wards here and 2 sets of elders. My companion is Elder Damron. He is from Idaho and has only been out about 6 more months than me. He is pretty cool. He likes sports so we got that in common. All 4 of us missionaries live together. We have a 2 story apartment so it's pretty nice. It's fun being with another set of missionaries. I know Matthew said the favorite part of his mission was living with another set of missionaries. I can see why he said that. It's pretty fun. Haha.... I think sometimes we might have a little too much fun together. The first couple days here were tough but I'm getting more comfortable now. The members here are awesome. My area is a pretty wealthy area too. We have our groceries paid for so that's sweet. I guess the members love the missionaries here. The work here is pretty slow though just like it is all over Louisiana. Oh well it's just something I have to deal with. We have dinner appointments here almost every night which is sweet. I really think I'm going to like it in this area. I also found out there is a family in my ward from Snowflake and I knew 2 of their kids. It's the Bonhams. I knew their son Michael and Joe. Joe was in my Efy group and I knew Michael from basketball. So they had us over for dinner last night. Joe wasn't there because he is at college but he will be home for Christmas so hopefully I'll be here for Christmas so I'll be able to see him.  Michael is back in Arizona right now. Yeah small world huh? Haha anyways nothing really happened this week except for transfers. My old companion was pretty ticked he had to stay in Opelousas because it's a super slow area. I think he was a little bummed out that I got transferred  because he really liked me. He would always tell me that his prayers were answered and that he finally got a companion he really liked. That's crazy that football is already over for Jaden. It seemed like the football season just started. I guess it's time for basketball to start. I miss playing sports so much. Just continue to keep me updated with sports and stuff. And if you could sometime send me some jackets or sweaters to wear. Lately it has been getting a little nippy. Ones that I can wear with missionary clothes and ones with normal clothes too. Sorry this letter wasn't too exciting because this week was a crazy week. Hopefully next week I'll have some more cool stories to tell. Anyways you're in my prayers always.
Love Elder Willis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello!!!

Sounds like the wedding went well. Thats awesome! I'm so happy for Matt and Helen. Well last night I got a call that I'm being transferred tomorrow. It was pretty surprising because I have only been in Opleousas 2 transfers. Things were just starting to get going in our area too. Oh well....so it will be exciting to find out what area I'll be in now. I'll let you know my new address and everything next week. So don't be sending me anything this week. I tried packing this morning and it was hard. I just got the suit cases out and I'm like "where do I even start?" Haha anyways this week was a pretty good week. It went by fast. It's still like 90 degrees here. I guess it doesn't start cooling down until like December. I got a couple cool stories this week. The first one is me and my companion were in Target getting some stuff.  This guy comes up and asks us if we are mormon missionaries. We are like yeah..so we start having a little friendly conversation. He talks about Mitt Romney and just what we believe. We had to correct him on what we believed. By the way this guy is a Catholic. So what started as a friendly conversation turned into this guy bashing on the mormon missionaries and trying to tell us we are wrong. Then he asks me if Joseph Smith practiced polygamy. I said "Our church believes...." Then he just interrupted me and was like No I asked you a question! Did he practice polygamy? Now he really ticked me off. So with a little anger in my voice I looked him straight in the eyes and told him Yes he practiced polygamy. It was commanded of God at the time. Then he started going off about something else. So the whole time I was just squeezing the shopping cart as hard as I could praying that I would have the strength to not punch this guy in the face. I felt disgusted the whole time and right then I felt again that our church was the true church. So that was a pretty crazy experience. The other one is like the complete opposite. So my companion had to go to an eye appointment in Baton Rouge. So that morning getting ready to leave I had a strong urge to bring a copy of the Book of Mormon with me. I just thought I didn't need it cause we were just going to an eye appointment but I brought one with me anyways. So while I'm sitting in the waiting room waiting for my companion to get done. I'm just reading the Book of Mormon. This older guy sits across from me and he asks me what I'm reading. I tell him the Book of Mormon and he asks me what it is and everything. So I tell him where it came from and I gave him a run down of the restoration. Then I tell him he can have this copy. He was like I don't want to have your book. I told him to read the intro and if he is interested he can have it. So he starts reading and reading and reading and reading. He just reads for like 45 min. I just look at him and I say it's yours. He looked at me and said Thank you. Thank you so much. It was awesome. I know the spirit prompted me to bring the Book of Mormon. Well that was pretty much my week. I'm still moving along! I love you and you're in my prayers.

Elder Willis


 

Helloooo!!!!

Sounds like everything is going good so far with the wedding. Sounds pretty crazy though too. Well I'm doing pretty good. Honestly the weeks are just going by so fast. It seems like everyday is P-Day. Haha. So the regular season is over? What seed is the team going in as? Jaden got an interception!!!! Wow....I remember when I got lots of those :) Maybe by the time he is a senior he can break my record. I guess I'll have to teach him some stuff. Well my week was pretty good. Last P-Day it was my comp's birthday so we got a few other elders and we all went ice skating. Yes there is an ice skating rink in Louisiana. It was fun but I ate it pretty hard a couple times. I'll have to send a video of all the times I fell. It was fun though. After a while I got the hang of it. This week was pretty slow with our lessons. We only taught 2 lessons this week. That's pretty much a normal week for us. But those 2 lessons were way good. The family that has a baptisimal date for Nov. 10 is doing pretty good. We taught them this past week and it went so good. They know the church is true. The wife was like the sooner I get baptized the better and the the husband was like I don't have to get baptized in the Bayou do I?   haha it was funny. So hopefully everything continues to go well with them. Then they told us to go see their moms. So we go visit their moms and they are so interested in the church. They want to come to church and want us to teach them. They told us they see the change in their kids so they want to see what's different about our church. So it will be cool to teach them also. Other than that it was pretty much just a normal week. We had dinner with a member a couple nights ago and had some gumbo with duck so that was a little different. Today I get to go play some basketball. Yayy...I love playing basketball. Every chance I get I'm trying to play basketball. I can't think of anything else to write... Transfers are next week. I'm pretty sure I'm staying where I'm at again. My companion might get transfered. I don't know we will have to see what happens. Our church cards don't get money on them until the first of the month. But I should be good for the next couple weeks. Thanks for putting money on my card. If you want anything from over here just let me know and I'll send you guys something. Just continue to keep me updated on the family and sports and everything. I love hearing about everyone :) well I cant wait to hear from you guys again.   I love you!

Elder Willis

Hey Family!!

How is everyone? Hope everyone is doing fine! I'm doing pretty good. Another week has gone by. I've already been out 3 months!! What?!! It's going by so fast. Haha well anyways conference was awesome. We just watched it in our branch building. It was pretty much us and the Sisters and 2 other people. The missionary announcement was pretty crazy. Alot more missionaries will be serving now. It just shows how much the Lord needs his missionaries and how important this work is. That whole Saturday morning session was kinda alot about missionary work. Yeah Nelson's talk was pretty cool. Ask the missionaries....haha whenever he was saying that I was just thinking to myself would I be able to answer those kinds of questions? I think my favorite talk was Holland's. He always gives such good talks. So I'm sending our family a letter today. I wrote one for each person in our family. Except Matthew because he doesn't live at home. :) But this week was pretty good. We had some pretty good lessons this week. We had 4 lessons this week!!!!!!! That's like a record for us!! :) One of the lessons was to a family of 3. They are so sweet. They just love us so much. They have a baptisimal date for Nov. 10. So hopefully in this next month or so we will be having a baptism for this family. They have been coming to church and they came to conference with us and they loved it so much. It's like the best feeling in the world when you help someone into this gospel. Even though I have had some pretty hard times out here so far I have also had some of the best times when I help someone gain their own testimony. It just builds my own testimony seeing someone elses testimony grow. That's crazy that Mitchell is going to Hawaii. That would be so sweet.  We write each other every week so he told me and I have been trying to help him through this. We are just open with each other about our problems and try to help each other through it. I'm so grateful that he is out here with me because  it helps me to know that he is out here doing the same thing I am doing.  Don't get me wrong...  it's still really hard at times but not too extreme. I'm doing fine. Anyways if you dont mind can you put some money on my ATM card :) I really don't have any money. My church card is almost out cause I have spent most of it on just the little things I need. Like I need some money for food.  We don't have any food in our apartment. I haven't had breakfast at all this week. For lunch and dinner I have just been having crackers. I really don't even know how I'm still alive right now. So if you could help me out with some money I would appreciate it and maybe I can buy you guys some cool stuff from here and send it home. Oh and a few days ago I got a package from  a Heber/Overgaard Community Thank You box. That's who it said it was from. It had a bunch of different snacks and stuff in it. So I dont know who it's from but I'm thankful for them because those are the snacks I ate to survive through this week with food. Anyways you guys take care. I'm thankful for all your prayers. I love you.

Elder Tyler Drake Willis

E-mail from Oct 1, 2012

Hello!!

Wow...another week down huh?! Thats crazy...time just seems to fly by sometimes.  I hope you all are doing fine. Anyways just a normal missionary week. Nothing really happened this past week. We are done with the hurricane clean up...thank goodness. I finallly got to go back to church this Sunday. I love going to my branch it's so cool. It's way different than going to a ward.  Since I have been here we have never started on time. We usually don't get started until like 10 after the hour. So branches are just so laid back. General Conference is this weekend!! Boo-Yah! Im so pumped for general conference. Back home I didn't really get that excited for general conference but now as a missionary it just pumps me up. It should be awesome. So a few days ago something crazy happened to me. So my companion finally gets his bike fixed up so he wants to ride it that night. So we decide to ride our bikes for the night. So we are riding around going to a couple peoples houses. It's like 8 at night now. So we decide to go see one more person. My companion can't remember where he lives but I'm like I remember where he lives so just follow me. I'm just cruising along on my bike leading the way and I reach the person's house. I get off my bike and look back and my companion is just gone. So I'm like okay I'll just wait a little bit and maybe he will show up. I'm just standing outside for like 15 minutes by myself and he never shows up. I'm like okay well maybe I should go look for him. I start riding around and I can't find him. Then  I'm just like okay I can't find him so I'll just go get a milkshake at burger king right down the road. So I just ride my bike to burger king by myself. While I'm riding he just shows up out of nowhere and he's like I thought I knew a faster way and I got lost. I was pretty upset at him for not just following me. Anyways that was pretty much my week. I'm still doing pretty good. Sometimes I have those struggles that most missionaries have but I don't let it tear me down too bad. Can't wait to hear from you again.   I love you all and miss you.

Elder Willis :)

Hello!!!

Whats up family?! Hopefully everyone is still doing pretty good. Sounds like you got some pretty busy weekends ahead of you. That's great to hear about Matt and Helen. It's about time they get married. I was thinking I would probably be home before they got married. Haha just kidding. So I'm guessing they are getting married in the Gila Valley Temple? I wish I could go to the temple. I miss going to the temple it's an awesome place. Hopefully I can go to the Baton Rouge Temple soon that would be sweet. So my foot is fine now. It's like back to normal. But right when it didn't hurt anymore I got sick. I have been a little sick for these last couple days. Just a pretty bad cough and stuff. It reminded me of when I was sick when I went into the MTC and then I was sick for like a week straight. That was horrible. But nothing much really happened this week just normal missionary work. Friday and Saturday we helped one of our members neighbor build a fence. I'm pretty sure I can do any kind of construction work now. We did go back down to Laplace yesterday to do service again. I think we should be done doing service down there. We have done over 700 houses now so I'm pretty sure there isn't anymore houses left for us to do. It's been a great experience doing service down there for the 3 weeks. Well it wasn't too great while I was down there working but now that it's over and I look back on it I know I will never forget that experience. So that makes it 3 weeks I haven't been to church yet. We went and saw a member the other day cause she said she misses us so we went over there and she was like you better be at church really soon because our branch is going crazy without having normal people there. I just thought it was funny it's true though. We only have a couple people in our branch that our normal. And then us and the sister missionaries are the only normal ones in our branch. I like our branch though because everyone is so crazy. So right now I'm in Abbeville again. We our like best friends with the Abbeville elders. We are hanging out with each other every chance we get. So we spent the night with them the past couple nights. It's been fun. They are pretty cool. So I'll be hanging out with them again today. So this might be a little shocking to you but guess how much I'm weighing now?!!! 175!! Haha don't worry it's not fat. I work out every morning and then I drink a big protein shake. So I have put on alot of muscle since I have been out here. I just wish I could put muscle on this easy when I was playing sports in high school. It's whatever though. Anyways nothing else happening around here with me. I'm still making it through each day which is a good thing. I love you and miss you all.

 

 

Elder Tyler Drake Willis

 

 

Hello Family!!

Sounds like everyone is doing fine. That's good to hear. I'm doing pretty good. This week was a little different. I really can't even remember what happened this week. Like while I'm sitting here typing I'm trying to figure out what has happened this week. I'm trying to go over each day and see what happened each day and see if I can tell you guys anything interesting that has happened this week. Yeah so this week was a weird week I guess cause I can't remember anything. I guess the weeks are just flying by that I can't remember anything anymore. Lets see just a normal week I guess. Thursday nights we teach a bible class for anyone in our branch that wants to come. We have been doing that since I have gotten to Opelousas. It's so fun teaching people from our branch because they are just so crazy and funny. Just stuff they say is super funny. Friday night we had to go down to Laplace so we could help with the hurricane again.We stayed down there Friday till Sunday night. Another weekend of hard working. I think we have done over 600 houses now. It's nuts.  I feel like a construction man instead of a missionary now. I'm pretty sure I'm a pro at it now. Maybe I'll become a carpenter when I come home.  It's just engraved in my brain now. When I lay down to go to bed after working in my mind I see myself tearing down sheet rock and ripping up floors. So we were there again on Sunday doing service. I can say I went 2 Sundays without going to church on my mission. Haha and I can say I worked on Sunday too but it was for something good. So about my broken toe. I just broke the last 2 toes on my left foot. It's really not even that bad. I mean I have to limp sometimes but I don't tape it or anything. I just toughen up and go about my day like I normally would. It still hurts but there's really nothing I can do about it so I just don't let it bother me. I'm just so used to broken bones that it doesn't even phase me. I hear from Mitchell alot. We write letters to each other about every week. It sounds like he is doing good but learning the language is pretty tough. I'm glad I'm not learning a language. So right now I'm in Abbeville. I was good friends with Elder Peterson and his comp and they were from Abbeville.  Elder Peterson got transfered but me and his other comp are still cool with each other. So we went and spent the night over at their apartment. And we are just gonna hangout with them for the day. So yeah nothing crazy really going on right now. For the past 2 weeks it has been kinda slow just cause we do service all the time. Well can't wait to hear from you guys again. You will be in my prayers.

Love Elder Willis

Hey!!

Sorry this letter was late I've just been so busy with everything lately. Hope everyone is doing fine. I'm doing pretty good. What a crazy week holy cow. This has been a pretty long week. We have been in Laplace still everyday. We have been going down there everyday since Tuesday and have been working. It's hard work I'm not going to lie. We start working at like 8 in the morning and don't get done till about 6 or 7 at night. Just non stop work all day. But today and tomorrow they gave us a break because it's transfer week. I'm not getting transfered. My companion are I are still staying together for at least another transfer. We get along pretty well I think.  He is pretty cool. So yeah we have to go back down to Laplace on Thursday and start working again. Probably be down there until like Sunday night I think. We have all the missionaries from our mission down there working. I see Elder Petersen all the time. He is in my zone so that's cool. We talk to each other all the time too when we see each other. So far we have already finished out over 300 houses. There is still a ton more houses to work on. Some of the houses we work on our so bad. There was this one house we were doing and it still had water in the house. We had to pull up the carpet and the carpet was still soaked. It smelled so rotten in there. And the crazy thing is that the guy who lives there has been sleeping in his house. He sleeps on his wet and molded bed. It is so disgusting. Like just standing in the house makes me gag. It's pretty intense. And it's Louisiana so it's like 90 degrees working indoors so it's so hot.  I thought I sweat pretty bad in basketball games and stuff but compared to working down here it's not even close to how much I sweat down here working. Yeah and we were cleaning out this lady's cupboard and I was pulling stuff out and I pull out this cup and its just full of cockroaches...it was pretty nasty. So on Sunday we had to do service again in Laplace so we all met in the chapel and had a short little sacrament meeting. It was a little different because the Laplace chapel got flooded so it was all gutted out and everyone was in their working clothes but the spirit was still there so that was a neat experience. So I had a little incident this week. But it probably won't be a surprise to you at all. haha. So on Friday we actually stayed in our area because we told a family we would help them move. So we did service for them all day. So we were helping them move and everything. We were moving a freezer for them and carrying it into their house. It was such a heavy freezer and there was only 3 of us carrying it. So we decide to set it down for a second and they just drop it and it drops straight on my foot. It hurt so bad. So the freezer just smashes straight on my foot. I thought I would just walk it off so we keep on working. It continues to hurt for the rest of the day and my companion tells me we need to call Sis Wall and have it checked out. I was like no I'll be fine. But he calls Sis Wall anyways. So we go get it checked out down in Laplace where the doctor is and the whole time I was just thinking crap my foot is going to be broken and they are going to send me home. I was like no they can't send me home. So I was freaking out. It ends up that I only broke one of my toes :) so it's not that bad. I have just been taking pain pills and taking it easy for the last couple days. So yeah tally up another broken bone for me :) (note from Mom:   Tyler has broken more bones than anyone else in our family.  It seems like when he gets hurt it's something broken-never strained or bruised :))   I'll be fine though. haha well nothing else really going on. I love you and miss you!

Elder Willis

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

 

Hello Everyone!! How is everyone doing? Still sounds like everyone is doing pretty good. I'm doing fine. I can't write very much cause we just got back from a town called LaPlace down over by New Orleans. All the missionaries are down there helping out with the hurricane victims. It's pretty crazy down there. The hurricane really tore it up down there. It flooded pretty bad too. So the rest of this week we have to go down there everyday and help out the people. We pretty much just tear down all the molded and wet sheet rock off their walls and tear up the carpet and tile and stuff. It's hard labor but it's really rewarding with all the blessings. The people have to throw away everything they had cause it all got destroyed in the flood. So along the street there is just all kinds of furniture and trash that people had to throw out. And then there are other people that go along the street and try to find stuff for themselves from the trash piles. So yeah it's pretty messed up down there. I'll take pics and then send them in the next email. So yeah my week was pretty boring. On Tuesday we had to be in a member's home and we had to stay in the home until Thursday. So it was super boring. 3 days without doing anything. It went by super slow.   So this week I went to a chinese restaurant and it was interesting. I ate some frog legs...those are pretty good. And I tried some sushi....that wasn't good at all. So yeah I'm just trying everything down here. Well I don't have really anything else to say. I got to wake up early and get back to work. haha. I love you all and miss you but I'm doing fine.

Elder Willis

Hey!

Another week down. What the heck? It seems like I was just emailing yesterday! Hopefully everyone is doing good. I'm doing fine right now but I had a pretty crazy week. Holy Cow. It rains here all the time. I'm pretty sure there was 1 day that it didn't rain. When it rains it kinda makes everything go slower. I'm not going to lie... there were a couple things that happened this week that really tore me apart. But I found a way to get through them. So the first one that happened it was kinda later in the day the sun was going down. Me and my companion were getting really tired. It was raining so we were just getting soaked. It was just bad. We really didn't know what to do. We ended up just going to this one house to knock so we can be doing something. So we knock on the door and a muslim lady answers it. Right when I saw her I knew this wasn't going to be good. She sees us and just starts yelling at us. Telling us NO!! Go away! Don't come back again. So we start walking away and she yells at us again. She yells at us and tells us to get off her property before she calls the cops. So we just get out of there as fast as we can. It wasn't too good. It was pretty rough. People here are either super nice or super rude. So that was pretty crazy. Yeah ...I'll save my other story for later. So the hurricane or whatever looks like it's coming this way. I think we are probably gonna have to go stay at a members house for a couple days . I'm not sure. I think it would be crazy to be in a hurricane. Yeah so you got a call from pops...Bro. White? haha he is way cool. When he told me he talked to you I was like oh so you finally called my parents? He was like no I talked with them telepathically? or whatever...haha he is so crazy. So we went to a members wedding this week and guess what they had for food? Yep fried chicken and jumbalaya. I've had jumbalaya a few times already and its pretty good. It depends on who makes it. People here sure do love there food. So the other day I finally weighed myself....and I was surprised when I saw how much I weighed. 165!!!! Hahah  I'm getting big. I don't think its all fat cause I work out every morning. Maybe a little fat...I hope I don't get super fat! Yeah so I'll tell you my other story. This experience has been the worst experience I've had on my mission so far but I'm also glad that it happened. It tore me to pieces...so we get a call from a guy and he tells us to come over cause they are having a bbq. So we're like sweet lets go over there. We get there and there is no bbq. We sit down and these 2 other guys come in. So there are 3 black guys sitting down in front of us. They all bring in their bibles. By the way they are Penticostals. They are like okay lets start with a prayer so they say a prayer and they ask us what we believe about Jesus and Heavenly Father. We tell them how they are seperate beings. So 1 guy is like ok I want to go to a scripture. He opens up a notepad and has all these notes taken down just for us. They start telling us all these scriptures and trying to prove our religion wrong. They prepared for us to come cause they had all kinds of notes taken. 1 of them was like a pastor so he was using all these flattering words like bible pastors do. They knew their bible for sure. He looked us in the eyes and he said I can see the confusion in your eyes. Your searching for the truth. You have so much potential but you haven't found the truth yet. He was trying to convert us.They were bashing on us hard. It was horrible. This went on for like 2 hours. That experience really shook me up pretty bad. My faith was really tested. For the rest of the day I was just super quiet. My companion was asking what's wrong. I asked him if what they were telling us were true. So we had to discuss some stuff for a little bit. The devil is real. He was trying to tear us down through those guys. But now I'm fine. I've learned alot of things from that experience. So that was my week. I love you all and I'm praying for you!

Elder Willis <3

Hey!!

Hows it going? Hope y'all are doing fine. Yeah everyone says y'all here. I kinda have gotten hooked to it too. Well this week went by fast. Hopefully every week goes by this fast.  That would be sweet. Well this past week wasn't as crazy as the others. Still some pretty interesting things have happened. We had zone conference this past week. To answer your question we are in the Lafayette zone. It was  pretty cool. We don't knock doors at all. It's pretty much pointless to knock doors here. Nobody wants to hear what we have to say. I think we have knocked doors like only 2 days for a couple hours so far. I think every door I have knocked I get the door slammed in my face. It's tough here. We can't find anyone to teach. And the people we do teach don't really take in what we teach them. It's like they just like talking to people and they don't care what we say. Its hard.....I get discouraged sometimes and think why can't we get at least just 1 person that wants to hear what we have to say and really be interested. Yeah it's kinda hard sometimes. I've also found out that God doesn't bless you with worldy things like money and clothes and all that....sometimes he does but I have found out that even the strong members of the church don't have alot. I would think like they are strong in the church why doesn't the lord bless them with more money and better living conditions. I have realized he does bless them because of their faith. I can see how happy they are with the gospel and how loving they are and joyful. They don't care that they don't have much as long as they are happy in life and have joy that's really all you need in this life. We had stake conference this weekend. We are in the Alexandria stake. It was alright. There were some good talks. At the end of the adult session saturday night when it was the prayer the lady that was supposed to say it just stood up where she was sitting in the stands and started her prayer. The stake president told her she needed to go up to mike and say it. It was kinda funny. So the other night when we got back to the apartment there were these 2 black guys playing on the courts outside. They were about 20. So we walk over there and say hi and stuff. They ask us if we want to shoot so I'm like yeah I'll take a shot. So I get the ball and I drain like 6 shots in a row. Those guys were like amazed with me. They were like how did you get so good? Asking me if I played in college and stuff....so we shot around with them for a little bit and talked and we set up a appointment where we can go teach them. So when we go teach them we walk in their appartment and it smells like smoke so bad. They were so high....haha so we start teaching them and they are so out of it. Like they can't think at all and they aren't even paying attention to what we are saying. Randomly they would just start laughing...it was crazy. So we just stopped halfway through the lesson and told them we'll come back at another time...yeah so it's pretty hard to teach people the gospel when they are high. So yeah that was pretty much my week. I wonder what this next week has in store for me....love you guys and your in my prayers.

Elder Willis

Hello Family!!!

How is everyone doing? Hope everyone is doing fine. I'm doing pretty good. This week went by pretty fast. Maybe cause we are always pretty busy. Alot of cool things and interesting things happened to me this week I guess. But I'm starting to get really comfortable here. The people here are pretty awesome. I'm not totally comfortable yet but still way better than last week. So I'll tell you a little about my week. We really don't teach very many lessons. We just visit alot of members and less actives. We are trying to find more people to teach. I think we taught like 2 or 3 lessons to an investigator this week. And I still haven't even bought any groceries yet haha. We got fed almost every night this week. I love getting fed by people. Let's see one night a family fed us rice and macaroni and cheese. That was a little different but it was fine with me. I pretty much just eat anything now. I'm not very picky anymore. Another night we went to this couple that lived in a 2 room house. 1 room was the bedroom and the other room was the kitchen and living room. It was sad to see. They didn't even have a table for us to eat at. We had to sit on the couch and eat our dinner. It was hard to see their living conditions. They are probably the strongest family in the church too. They are awesome. They have 1 kid and he is mentally handicapped but they still go to church and try to help people out as much as they can. I'ts really hard for me to see how some people suffer here. Another cool thing that happened. Saturday night me and Elder Ageda were just walking around in the ghetto in Opelousas. We came across this one black lady. We talked to her for a little bit and gave her a Book of Mormon. She told us that Sunday afternoon they were having a neighborhood BBQ and she wanted us to come to it. So Sunday after church we went over to her house. When we were walking up there were like 3 black guys outside smokin and drinkin. They looked like thugs. They saw us and got all excited and told us to go inside and get some of their food. So we go inside and there were like 50 black people in the house. Everyone was so excited to see us. They didn't know who we were but they knew we were church people so they loved us. They got us food and drinks. They were way friendly. Everyone was trying to talk to us. There were probably like 50 people there and I was the only white person haha. I didn't feel out of place at all.  There were some mean looking people there though. haha  Last night we went and talked to a less active family in our ward. the Longorias.....yes they are related to Evan Longoria. I'ts Evan Longoria's uncle. He is way cool. He used to play in the MLB  for a little while too He has a whole room filled with Evan Longoria stuff. So me and him pretty much talked about baseball the whole time. So that was my week. Everyday it seems like something interesting happens. Every p day our whole zone goes and plays basketball at the chapel. So later on I'm going to play bball which is always fun. I'm still moving along and doing good. I love you all and miss you!

This picture is for Matthew!

Elder Willis

Aug. 6, 2012 1st Week in Louisiana

Well hello family! Hope everyone is doing fine. Im finally in Louisiana. Yeah so pdays are on Monday so that is when I email. It was nice talking to you guys it sounds like everyone is doing good. Well Ill tell you a little bit about my experience in Louisiana so far...when I first got off the plane I seriously thoughtIi was in the jungle. There are so many big trees here and everything is so green. Yeah it is so humid here. When we got outside I was already sweating pretty bad within like 2 minutes. My companion is Elder Ageda. He is black and he's from South America. He has been out about 10 months. He is pretty cool. We are starting to get along pretty good. Our area is the Opelousas area. Our apartment is in Lafayette. Our whole area is huge. We cover like 6 different towns. The chapel is in Opelousas which is about 30 min from our apartment. So yeah we cover a big area. I have only been in like 3 different towns so far. I think from one of the areas to the other is about 50 miles. Our area is pretty big. We have a car too. I am the driver cause my comp is from a different country. So the first day I got to my area I was already driving. Driving in Louisiana is pretty fun but there are some pretty wild drivers. Im kinda glad I dont have to ride my bike haha. Opelousas is pretty ghetto. All the neighborhoods are pretty much black dominated. As well with most of the areas. I'ts kinda scary sometimes. I think Louisiana is a different country cause I have been to Mexico before and I think Louisiana is more ghetto and scarier than Mexico is. The people here dont have alot. Most people live in beat down trailors. I havent been in one semi ok house yet. The people really struggle here but they are really humble. Im still trying to get used to it. Everything is an eye opener for me and I still really havent gotten comfortable here yet. It really makes me appreciate the way I grew up and how I was blessed. Im not going to lie this past week has been pretty hard. I have to adjust my whole lifestyle for these people and its really hard. Hopefully I can get more comfortable over time. The people I have met so far are really cool. The people arent afraid to say whats on their mind or what people think about them. Most people talk so fast here. I cant really understand most of the people so I just nod my head and laugh. Yeah I havent even had to buy any food yet. Most of the time the people just buy us food. Ive already had Boudin prounounced as boo-dan. Which is pig intestine stuffed with seasoned rice and meat. It was actually really good. and I also have had cracklin-- which is pork skins with the fat and meat still on it. It was really good too. The branch here is pretty small. There are about 40 members covering like 6 towns. Church here is a little different. Its funny to hear people from Lousiana sing church hymns cause they cant sing at all haha. But its hard to explain everything. You just have to experience the south for yourself to really know. Oh and a funny thing that has happened so after church on sunday our ward mission leader took us to give someone a blessing. Our ward mission leader is like 60 years old but act young like us!   After the blessing he took us to the gas station and bought us drinks .   Its weird. But thats pretty much all. Hopefully this week goes better and I can start to get comfortable. I love you guys and miss you.

Elder Willis

NEW ADDRESS

Talked to Tyler on his way to Baton Rouge.....He was ready to get to Louisiana and start serving.  He sounded a little tired because he had said that he went to bed at 11:00 and had to get up at 2:00 to get ready to leave by 3:00.  Not a lot of sleep.  He did sleep a little on the plane.  It was very nice to talk to him.  We had a list of questions that we had written down that we asked him.  We talked for about an hour.   We miss and love that guy:)  We are proud of him and his willingness to serve.  We are excited for his new adventure.
Today I got an e-mail from his mission home that gave us his address for the next few months.  He will be serving in the Lafayette area.  His address is
Elder Tyler Willis
1300 E. Pont Des Mouton
Apt D-107
Lafayette, LA  70507

Doesn't the street name sound foreign:)  Good luck Elder Willis and we are proud of you!   We know the people in Lafayette will love you too!

July 25, 2102

Hello Family!!
 Well I have 20 min. to write and Im not a fast typer so hopefully I can get in a lot of stuff.           Well Im still surviving the MTC. Im still doing fine dont worry about me..I still havent even got homesick yet!!! Which is pretty amazing I think.   I am ready to get out of here though. Its always so crowded and there are so many people.   I cant wait until it can just be me and my companion in Louisiana. It should be fun.   Im excited. I think Im getting tired of the people in my district too! haha! I mean they are still fun to hang around and stuff but some of them are really annoying and immature. I think Im the most mature out of the whole group and Im not even that mature either haha! Well I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday! That means I read the whole thing in 12 days!! And some days I didnt even get to read it cause we have class like 6 hours of the day! I think my favorite thing to do here is teach the fake investigators. I think I told you guys about it before but they get people to come to the MTC and act as investigators. We dont know if they are actually nonmembers or real members. I think its so cool to teach people the gospel! At first when I started teaching I couldnt teach at all! Me and my comp were horrible at teaching., but I committed my self to start studying the lessons hard and now I can teach them so good and I can help the investigators needs through the lesson. Its really cool when you teach by the spirit. After every lesson I just feel so good and Im always like man I cant wait to get to Louisiana and teach real people... but yeah there are somedays when I get a little discouraged cause Ill think of home or something but its not too bad.Iit only happens sometimes. most of the time Im perfectly fine and having a good time. Yeah I havent really gotten any letters yet.. I got one from Maryssa like the first day and I got one from Reed! Mostly just all the dear elders from you guys which I look forward to and enjoy. Now I know why missionaries always look forward to letters. Tell Jaden to tell everyone to start writing me! I like getting letters and stuff! ok so heres the important part. im leaving tuesday morning!!! i have to leave here at like 3 in the morning. we have a layover in Dallas. which is pretty cool. We have a layover from 9:35 to 12:00 which will be like 7:35 to 10 in Heber time! So I can call you guys anywhere between like 8 and 10! Just send me a dear elder in the next couple days and tell me when a good time to call you guys will be! And whose phone number to call! Yeah and then we get to Baton Rouge at 1:30! Its going to be hot!! Im looking forward to it though! I think Im going to buy an extra phone card at the bookstore just in case! They are like 3 dollars. so just let me know when to call you! and be thinking of things to ask me cause I got lots of stories so far!! Well thats about it. My time is almost up. I cant wait to hear from you guys! Hope everyone is doing well. I miss all you guys but Im doing fine. Im learning so much here. Its great! Well talk to you later! Love you!

Love Elder Willis

July 18, 2012

We finally got a letter & email from Tyler.  We have been anxiously waiting to hear from him.  Here are some of the things he wrote in his e-mail and letter:
In his letter he wrote that everyone at the MTC was so friendly.  He is enjoying the food and especially the Fresca.  He probably is excited that his mom is not there to tell him to control himself with the sodas:)  His MTC companion and his roomates are all going to Louisiana.


This is the e-mail:

Hello familia!!

Hope all is well. im doing very good. i actually think i might be in love with the mtc!!! its so fun! (well most of the time) i honestly like this place. its super busy though. this is pretty much my schedule: eat, class, study, eat, class, study, eat, class, study, sleep. haha im getting in the groove of it though. the first couple days here were super slow. but now the days just zoom by. i cant believe i have already been out a week. its crazy. yeah my companion is elder ackerman from idaho. he is pretty cool. he is alot like me too so that pretty neat. so on friday i decided to start the book of mormon over again and i really want to study it and sincerely read it the best i can. and right now im already in alma!!! yeah i think the book is amazing. i cant put it down. im always reading it. every chance i get im opening it up and reading it. i made a goal to try and finish it by the time i leave the mtc. hopefully i can do it. ive already learned so much from it. and learned so much from all the classes here. one thing that i like the most here is that the mtc pays people to come in and act as fake investigators. they are actors and we dont know if they are actually members or not. so me and ackerman get to teach investigators alot. we usually teach like twice a day to people almost everyday. i love teaching people. you can feel the spirit so strong when you teach and the spirit helps you teach too. its awesome. this one time we were teaching and i didnt know what to say but the holy ghost put words in my mouth and i just started teaching about what i needed to say. it was an awesome experience. i cant wait until i can get to louisiana and teach people for realz... well nothing really that exciting here. just learning alot and working out. just trying to get super big :)haha jk. but yeah you guys dont have to worry about me cause im doing fine. today is pretty boring cause we dont do anything. the temple is closed for like 2 weeks so we just sit around doing nothing. and the gym is closed for 2 weeks too so im pretty bummed about that. i did get to play like 2 times already though. not to sound cocky or anything but during my gym time im definetly the best basketball player thats here. well nothing really else. im having fun with all the guys too.  well hope to hear from you guys soon.

 

Love Elder Willis

Mission Call & Leaving for the MTC

July 11th 2012

I forgot to put a memory card in my camera and Jaden had to take this picture at the airport right before Tyler left.  I know it is not the best picture but he still looks good to us!

I have started this blog to keep everyone informed about what Tyler is doing on his mission. It is not quite set up like I want it to yet so keep checking back.  I hope to include pictures with his letters each week.  I told him to send me at least 1 picture each week with his e-mail.  He said he would try.....:)   For the 1st posting I wanted to show the video of when he opened up his call.  I haven't figured out how to do it....Oh well.... We had a big map on the wall and before he could open his call everyone had to make a guess as to where he was going.   Makenzie guessed Hawaii,  Jaden guessed British Columbia, Tyler picked Ireland, Mom picked Brazil....that is a story in itself...I had a dream that it was Jaden opening his call and it said Brazil....Dad picked Equador,  Matthew picked Thailand. Tyler's  friends guessed all over the world.   We were surprised when he said Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission.  I know that is where he is supposed to be.  In his patriarachal blessing it describes his mission and when people tell us about his mission and that area they use the same words.   He reported July 11th.   Funny....11 was his number in Basketball....he wore that number for the last 4 years!!   His "farewell" was the 4th of July weekend  here in Heber...There was a breakfast, parade & fireworks....what a way to spend your last weekend in Heber for awhile.  Tyler did a very good job with his talk and the special number was awesome....it was the song "One Voice".   He got set apart Tues. night....that was a special night.....you could really feel the spirit....then we got in the car and headed for Phoenix.  We picked a hotel close to the airport as his flight left at 7:40.    Got up and headed to the airport and was hoping to find some missionaries that were leaving with him  We saw 2 other missionaries.  They both had someone flying with them...I wished Tyler had someone flying with him....but we thought there would be more missionaries flying up there by themselves.  Oh well.......I told him the hardest part of his mission just might be saying goodbye.  I thought it was pretty hard.   I was proud of him...He walked a little slow down to the security gates & Makenzie & I kind of followed him and watched him go through the security.....he never looked back.    We wanted to stay until his plane said departed....we had hoped to get a glimpse of the plane leaving but never could.  It was a long ride home......We will miss him but we are so proud of him and his willingness to serve.  We are excited to hear of his adventures and to share them.   One other thing.....Matthew sent home a tie while on his mission.  It was the tie he wore to the MTC on his first day.  He said he never wanted to wear that tie again and so sent it home.  Tyler decided to wear the tie on his first day.... Maybe Jaden will wear that tie also:)