December 15th, 2014 - Christmas Party! (Rocklin)

Hey Everyone! 

It has been a good week this week! There was tons of ran throughout the week and Northern California really needs it. I think some people's prayers have been answered now. I would love to see how Oroville is looking because all the grass was dead. Haha. 

We had tons of service throughout the week, mainly cleaning out gutters because there was a storm last Thursday. They have a totally different definition of a Storm then I do because the "Storm" was kind of Pathetic. Anyways, we had tons of fun helping out the members, 

Friday was the Rocklin 2nd Ward's Christmas Party and we had a lot of fun doing it. The theme was Polar Express, so many members came in wearing their pajamas and the kids wore a lot of Christmas hats. Many children invited many friends to the party. A couple of member girls brought some of their non-members friends and they all ganged up on me and asked me tons of questions about being a missionary and what we do. One of the girls (I even think it was a member, also.) asked me when I was getting married. Ouch. Haha. We had tons of fun. There was a part when the Conductor (the person who announced all the events for the party.) had us, the three Missionaries, come to the front and some primary children came up and gave us gifts! They gave each Elder a bag of clementines, a large bag of hygiene products, some clothing (like socks and ties), and gifts cards, and a large bag of food! We were very grateful and we thank the whole Ward. 

Transfers came in and I'm back to a regular Missionary companionship. My new companion, Elder Masima, will be here tomorrow. He's Tongan like Elder Fa (Elder Acevedo is also Polynesian.). Anyways, it's good timing with Christmas next week and the Rocklin 6th Ward Christmas is on Friday. 

I love you all and thank you so much for all the support you give me. I miss you all and I hope you all have a good week! 

Elder Paul Willis 

December 8th, 2014 - Sorry for the Small Email (Rocklin)

Sorry for the small email but I'm really busy. We had a Nativity
Exhibit and we hosted for a while. That was fun!

Here are some more pictures though!
My old District at Trunk or Treat! From left to right, back to front:
Elder Hanson, Myself, Elder Shapiro, Elder Benedict, Sister Willis,
Sister Jones, and some investigators' daughters.

November 24th, 2014- Hey you guys! (Rocklin)

Hey Everyone! 

How has everyone's week been? It's Thanksgiving Week! Is anyone going anywhere special for the holiday? Are ya'll off work or school for the week? How has work or school been going for ya'll? 

There is something I didn't mention that happened last Monday, during P-Day but everything is okay. My companion, Elder Hjorth (sounds like "Yort" and is from Kentucky.) went home on Monday to take care of a few things. He will be coming back to serve but it'll be months away. Well, anyways, President Marston is trying to find me a new companion, but he's really busy lately and I might have to wait till next Transfer (which is only three weeks away since this Transfer is only five weeks long.). I'm not too worried about, President Marston is working hard and things keep coming up for him. I love that guy. 

Anyways, they put me in a Trio (or a three way companionship.) in a whole different District and our areas are thirty five minutes apart. I have great companions though, Elder Fa (a Tongan who's been on his mission for six months.) and Elder Acevedo (part Samoan who's been on his Mission for three months.) are pretty cool and they have tons of attributes that I like about them. Things are going good and chaotic at the same time. We have cover two Wards now (which are on opposite ends of the zone but, luckily, go to the same church building.)' which means that we spent over six hours at the church yesterday. Their church starts at 8:30 and their Ward Council is at 7:00, and my church starts at 2:30 and my MCM starts at 1:00. Yeah, a lot of church time. 

Things went well this week, though. We spent a lot of time in Elder Fa's and Elder Acevedo's area, but we were able to arrange some lessons in my area. Elder Acevedo likes to eat at a Korean Restaurant called K.T. Noodles and, I have to admit, it's really good. So we've been going there a lot lately. Met some really interesting people and had tons of fun throughout the week.

We had Zone Conference this week also, meaning a handful of Zones meet at one place and it's kinda like General Conference except for Missionaries. I got to see Elder Moseley again and he's doing really good in Auburn. We talked for a while and I gave a bottle of his favorite lemonade brand, Calypso. Elder Moseley and I always had a hard time accepting gifts from each other because, afterwards, we both feel like we need to buy something for the other person. Haha. Anyways, Conference was good and I learned a lot about the importance of Prayer in our lives and why need it so badly. Prayer is a way for us to talk to our Heavenly Father and ask him for help when we are in pain. Sometimes, I feel like I take it for granted.

It's been a good week and an interesting one also. The next few weeks are going to get interesting and we are going to try our best to serve the Lord. I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving ahead of you!

Love, 

Elder Paul Willis 

December 2nd, 2014 - 5th month (Rocklin)

Hey Everybody! 

Well, another week has passed in Rocklin and I've hit my five month mark. I realized that my Quarter Mark is on Christmas Day. Crazy, huh? Either way, the Holidays came in fast, making sure that there is no room for a breather. Even for us, Missionaries. 

The Church is putting out the video, "He is the Gift," major time. They have it advertised on YouTube and on the Giant Screen in New York Town Square. They asked us Missionaries to out in a big hand in getting the word out. They gave us pass along cards advertising the video and the links to watch it, about 250 cards per companionship. Then we have to do some paperwork  every week to keep track on how the cards and "He is the Gift" video. 

It's been a good week. We did a lot of finding in Elder Fa's and Elder Acevedo's home Ward and I met a lot of people doing so. It was tons of fun! People mostly talked about the Football games that were coming up on Thanksgiving then the dinner itself. Haha. Oh well, Rocklin folk are really big on their sports games. 

We had a good Thanksgiving. President Marston has asked us to do service in the morning by deep cleaning the churches in our Zone. That was fun, we cleaned the parts of the church that don't normally get cleaned, like the rafters in the chapel. Afterwards, we had our FIRST dinner at 1 with my Ward Mission leader and his family and we had another dinner later on with some members in the other Ward. We were so full afterwards and the last family gave us two whole pies to take home! We ended up stopping by a Less Active, who's living by himself, and gave him a pie. We gave the other one to his neighbor and started having a conversation with her. 

It looks like we are going to be very busy for the month. This week, one of the Ward buildings is hosting a Nativity Exhibit like they do back in Perrysburg, Ohio. We did service this morning, actually, by helping the, set up for a good three hours. Anyways, we are doing greetings on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Nativity a Exhibit. I. Really looking forward to that. Next week is our "Dinner Fast" again, meaning no dinner from members unless they have a nonmember, less active, or recent convert with them. Trying to set that up. 

Everything else is going good and I really hope that y'all doing good! I love you all very much and miss you all the same. Please take care! 

Elder Paul Willis 

November 17th, 2014- First Week of Rocklin (Rocklin)

Hey Everyone! 

How has your week been? Have you all been working hard (either in school, work, or play.)? Anything new or exciting happen? How are you enjoying the cold weather? I'm just freezing here in the this 50 degrees weather here. 

Rocklin is pretty sweet, the members here love the Missionaries and it seems like the Church Meeting really are focused on Less Actives, Recent Converts, Investigators, and finding new ones! The one thing about the Rocklin Zone is that it's either the richest or second richest Zone in our Mission. So extreme poverty to extreme richness. When I tell members that I came Oroville (and that I was train there.), some of them said "Well you must have done something right in order to come down here to Rocklin." I love Oroville, I would like to go back there someday. Anyways, Rocklin is great and I love the members. 

So church starts at 2:30 PM! I'm not happy about that! Plus, we have to go to the Stake Center for church (which is twenty-five minute bike ride (which we are on (in an extremely hilly Zone.).).)! So church doesn't end until 5:30 and I think we have Ward Council afterwards. For some reason, I had really hard time staying awake in Sacrament Meeting. Though it helped that it was the Primary Program and it was really fun to watch the little kids sing and give small talks. I'm so glad that I got to see it!

We had Zone Meeting this week and I got the chance to meet the Zone! They're pretty cool; one of the sisters in my last Zone came down with me and she is also in my District now. After the meeting, we went across the street to a restaurant called Milo's, which sells Greek food, like Gyros (pronounced as "Euros."). It was a fancy sit in restaurant and order large dishes, it laws another local small restaurant. I got a Lamb and Beef Gyro and I liked it a lot (I've been secretly craving Milo's for the whole week. Haha.). 

Nothing much to really tell ya'll, except that I'm doing good and that I'm really working hard. I love my mission and I'm really looking forward to serving it with all my heart. I will sent some pictures from my last area (depending on if anyone has a card reader with a iPad adapter.). I love you all! 

Take care! 

Elder Paul Willis

November 10th,2014 - I'm getting transferred! (Oroville)

Hey Everyone!

Hope y'all been doing good this week? Anything new or exciting happen
this week? Is everyone doing good?

It's been a long, busy week this time. Since this was the last week of
transfers, I tried getting everything set just in case something
change. And it did! So, I'm getting transferred down south of the
mission to the Rocklin 6th Ward as the District Leader. I heard that
my companion, Elder Hjorth, is really great and he just got out of
training. I'm really excited to meet and work with him. I hope
everything goes well down there.

I'm sorry to say but there wasn't much that happened this week. I got
no stories to tell or any experiences that I feel like I need to
share. I'm doing good, though. I'm working hard and always asking
Heavenly Father to help me do my best.

I love you all very much! I miss you a ton. Don't write me letters or
packages until I give you my full address next Monday.

Love,
Elder Willis

November 3rd, 2014- 4th Month (Oroville)

How's it going Everybody,

It's been a pretty busy week. Lots of things happened, especially
towards the end of it. Oh well, I'm still working pretty hard and
doing the best I can to what I need to do. I'm loving Missionary work!

Elder Hanson has been sick for half the week. That added a few
stressful things to the mission life, especially since people started
asking us to do some last minute favors, also. Such as organizing a
last minute move for somebody in a different area (she needed help to
move in right then and there!), prepare a lesson and teach in Aaronic
Priesthood, not to mention getting ready for the Trunk or Treat.
However, everything turned out and I had a lot of fun. Elder Hanson
was able to to pull through his sickness for some of the activities.

Trunk or Treat was a real blast. Oroville 1st and Oroville 3rd decide
to combine for Trunk or Treat (our whole District covers these two
Ward.) and our District decided to combine for one trunk. We had
received so much candy members that we were giving out hand fills at a
time and we still had enough for kids to come back for 2nd, 3rds, and
4ths! We ended up walking around at the end to give away candy! The
Sisters had an investigator family come over and their oldest dressed
up as Crowella Daville, and their baby daughter as a Dalmatian. So the
Sisters convince all the Elders to dress up as Dalmatians by sticking
big circles of cloth on our white shirts. We had tons of fun and some
of the other Elders investigators showed up! Here's a picture of
Elders Benedict (Blonde one), Shapiro (Black haired one.), Sister
Jones (Dark hair.), Sister Willis (blonde hair.), their little
investigators, myself, and Hanson In the back.