Elder and Sister Williams NY NY South Mission: Never Say It's Going to Be a Quiet Week

It’s hard to believe we only have 2 months left! Time will go quickly especially if it is anything like this past week.

Marc finally got his last license plate from Toyota of Manhattan and hopes to never have to darken their doorstep again. It only took 7 months to get all our cars and registrations!

On Monday and Tuesday Elder and Sister Sitati were here for Mission Tours. We had two separate meetings in place of our mega-zone conferences. I only had to feed people on Monday and then helped on Tuesday. Monday we fed 120 people and many of us senior missionaries are feeling like we could easily get jobs as caterers after our missions. On Tuesday, we drove the Flushing missionaries to Plainview for that meeting. Marc drove the big mission van and I got to drive the brand new red minivan. The missionaries in my van may have gotten an impromptu tour of the Bronx (outside our mission boundaries). The thing about the bridges here is that once you miss your turn and are on the ramp to the bridge there is no turning back!

Mega-Zone Cooks. Sister & Elder Ho, Elder Carlin, Sister Adams
Sister Carlin & Sister Postma

I was looking forward to a nice quiet Wednesday but it was not to be. In the morning Marc went to court with a couple of elders to try to get their $588 traffic ticket reduced (illegal turn and failure to yield to pedestrians). We think the judge was impressed with the elders’ dress and demeanor because they only ended up paying $200.

Elder Williams had his "day in court".

The President called and asked us to go to court that same afternoon with one of our Sisters who had witnessed a major crime. It was the grand jury hearing to determine if the case would be prosecuted. I can’t say much about it but it was a very interesting experience. We went in with her to talk with the Assistant District Attorney who just raved about what a hero she was. The ADA was very nice to both the Sister and to Marc & me. She treated us like we were the Sister’s parents and said that our missionary was the best witness they had ever seen and that we must be very proud of her. (We were.) The ADA said “you people are just amazing”.

Everything was top secret. President asked us not to wear our nametags so that the Church would not be connected and missionaries would not become targets. The Sister’s name will not be known to anyone else other than the grand jury and ADA unless the case goes to trial in about a year and a half. In that case they will fly her back here from Utah. We hope it doesn’t come to that. She will be transferred in a couple of weeks just to be on the safe side.

It just makes us feel so good that our young missionaries represent the Church so well.

Last night (Saturday) was our Branch Cultural Night. There was food from all the different countries represented in our Branch—Mexico, Puerto Rico (technically US), Guatemala, El Salvador, Philippines, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. A group from each country did a dance complete with authentic costumes. The missionaries (minus Elder Williams) even did the Chicken Dance—representing the US.