Update on Billy

Billy’s mission is quickly approaching its first year, but then who’s keeping track of time, especially when so many exciting things are taking place in Visak, where Elder Nixon is serving as District Leader. Among his growing love for the people, Billy’s messages home reference the lifelong friendships he is making with companions and fellow missionaries in India.

Elder Jenks (They never really do use first names, so it makes it difficult for those of us keeping up the blog.) is one of those. He and Billy met first in the Mission Training Center, and Billy was excited to learn that they would be serving as companions. Both quickly realized that their excitement was not misplaced. Working along with the other missionaries in the coastal city, they quickly built a pool of investigators, spending long days in 110 degree heat.

Billy shared how his testimony grew as they were directed to specific individuals and used novel contacting methods to meet investigators in a nation that has an official ambivalence toward religious freedom and missionary work. They built their investigator pool to eight, despite the fact that all the missionaries battled illnesses, which seem to be ever present for the young men serving there. Billy at one point was hospitalized but knew better than to let his Mom know, at least until he had fully recovered.

Among those novel approaches, Billy and Elder Jenks organized a movie night the local church congregation, showing The Prince of Egypt. Striving for authenticity, Billy even succeeded in tracking down a popcorn machine, another completely novel idea in India cinema. The evening was a success, but not to the level that Billy’s earlier open house had been in Hyderbad, where he showcased the life of Christ in video and the remarkable photographs of Mark Mabry.

Reporting on the success of the movie night, Billy said the members and the visitors loved it. The Elders had arranged to bring in a big movie screen, large speakers, a huge projector, and they borrowed rope lights that were run along the floor in
the aisles. At the end of the movie when the song “Miracles” came on, you could feel the spirit was so strong. “It was priceless,” he said. At the end, he bore his testimony of living prophets and the fact that there is one on the earth today—that they receive revelation from God. He said that is the strongest testimony he has ever shared concerning prophets. While he spoke, there was complete silence. “You could feel the emotion as well as the strong spirit in the room,” he said.

Along with the spiritual work, Billy and Elder Jenks challenged each other physically, working out regularly, despite the heat, and getting together with the other Elders to play football on the beach during their preparation day. For the game, Billy and Elder Jenks had special shirts made up that had their names printed in Telugu with their numbers on them—NFL Indian style. The shirts hit the comedic chord, and Billy admitted that while his competitiveness may have decreased this past year, his love for making others laugh has not.

The walking and exercise has taken weight off of Billy, which is noticeable in the photographs. “When we come home at the end of the day we can actually wring out our shirts and ties,” he wrote. “There is so much perspiration that we have a puddle on the floor.” With it all, he is enthusiastic, reporting that being with Elder Jenks is like working with his best friend. Their personalities are infectious as they work to make people smile and laugh in the streets, and challenge each other to set and keep goals. Billy wants to return to his lacrosse, and Elder Jenks has been inspired to go out for his university’s soccer team when he returns home.

April and May were also good months for Billy and his parents. For Easter he received a CARE package with new ties, his much love licorice, and most importantly insoles for his shoes. In May he was able to call home for Mother’s Day and let Tammy hear his voice and the family feel his enthusiasm and love for the gospel. There is no question that an already disciplined and mature young man is changing into a remarkable leader, even though his brother Joseph thinks his accent is funny. In his voice you can hear a genuine love for the people and an understanding of the importance of the work and the transformational power it has in the lives of those who embrace the gospel.

“I have never been happier,” he told us, expressing his love for his mission president and for all that he is learning. “It is a remarkable journey, and I can feel direct blessings in my life as we love and teach the people.” It was also during the telephone conversation that he admitted to his hospital foray. “I was running a temperature of 104. I went for a couple of days hoping it would go away, trying to work through it.” It did not abate. In fact, it was soon accompanied by abdominal pain and at the insistence of his companion he called the Mission President and checked into the hospital.

“It’s important to be very careful on what you eat,” he said, explaining that the only American food they have is pizza, though it does not taste like anything we’re used to in the United States. Still, his spirits are higher than we have ever seen, with the only let down being when Elder Jenks was transferred from Visak to the Hyderbad 1st Branch on April 29. “I feel like I have lost a great friend,” Billy said, but then quickly rebounded with, “But I know that we will continue our friendship.”

The family excited to talk to Billy on Mother's Day. He had sent his Mother a beautiful traditional India dress with a strand of pearls. He expressed the love he has for his family and he feels like if he had it to live life over again, he would focus more on his family and be less concerned about friends. He has seen the worst living conditions and yet the people seem happy and are very friendly and loving. “The most important possession to have is your family,” he said. “That is what matters most in India. The families are very close and live near one another.” He said that he has come to appreciate that family and the Gospel are the real essentials in life.

His new companion is doing great, and Billy is really enjoying working with him. He is a great Elder to train, hard working and eager to learn.

So Long Hyderabad, Hello Visak.

I’ve been transferred!

After three months and two baptisms, Billy has been transferred from Hyderabad to Visak. He just had the first baptism in Hyderabad in over 8 months and a second investigator was due to be baptized the following week. Upon hearing of his transfer, Billy’s companion was very emotional and took the transfer hard. Billy said that there were many tears and he struggled to say good-bye.
Billy loves the people of Hyderabad and said that you never realize how successful you are or what an influence you have been until you see how many people you have affected. He feels that he did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do and thereby strengthened the members. Between he and his companion, they were able to baptize two young men and he feels like he helped his companion gain the confidence he needed. His companion expressed to Billy that he helped him a lot and he would miss him.

Billy expresses frequently how much he loves his mission and India. He says that if this is the way he feels over being transferred, he doesn’t know how he will feel when he leaves India at the end of mission. It is hard to say good-bye to those you love and respect.

For his transfer, Billy took a flight to his new area of Visak and upon his arrival, he felt like he landed in the Bahamas. It is not as big, and certainly not as western as the Bahamas, but the weather is amazing. He even likes the humidity in the air and loves seeing the ocean. There are cocoanut trees everywhere and the people are very loving. Billy is now a district leader and said that his area is so small that he can easily walk it in a day. In his last area, Hyderabad, there were more people in just his area than there are in the whole city of Visak. They don’t have a church building so they use a small rented office to conduct their meetings.

Billy’s new companion is Elder Jenks. They started their mission together and now they are companions. They are exactly alike and they haven’t decided if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The other night Elder Jenks and Billy were in their beds and they heard a loud banging that woke them up. They were a little scared—OK A LOT SCARED. It sounded like someone was banging something in their apartment. Elder Jenks grabbed Billy’s football and Billy grabbed his belt and they set off to investigate. They were determined to beat whatever had gotten into their apartment, so they ran into the kitchen. Elder Jenks had forgotten that he put about 10 eggs on to boil several hours ago, much to their surprise, the eggs were exploding all over the kitchen. Billy said that he had no idea that eggs exploded. There were eggs everywhere—ceiling, walls and all over the floor. Billy and Elder Jenks couldn’t stop laughing at the situation.

The mission is going great. They have set some high goals for the area. They walk in the hot sun all day long, teach lessons, and love feeling the spirit of Lord beside them.

Thank you for all of you who have written and continue to write. He truly appreciates all your letters and hopes that you will continue writing to him.

Update from Hyderbad

I’m sorry that we haven’t updated Billy’s blog since Valentine’s Day. We had asked friends and family of Billy’s to participate in a Valentine Surprise package. We wanted Billy to receive a package filled with cards and letters from those who love and support him. The box was chalk full of letters from well-wishers, and he was so excited to hear from everyone. He was surprised and grateful for all of you that participated. Thank you.

One of the packages we had sent to Billy was a copy of the book “Reflections of Christ” with its accompanying DVD. He was so taken with the photographs of Christ’s life that he spoke with the Branch President about having an open house where the missionaries would talk about the different organizations in the Church, and end conclude the meeting with the DVD and the pictures of Christ in the chapel. They printed over a 1000 cards to pass out, and ended up with over 200 people in attendance. 50 of them were investigators! Billy was really excited with the turn out, and they feel that it was a great success. A BIG thank you to Mark Mabrey for being inspired to take such beautiful photographs of the life of Christ, so that we all have this as a wonderful missionary tool.

Billy and his companion have been teaching a 14-year-old boy who is scheduled for baptism next week. This will be the first baptism in this area in over eight months!

Billy is enjoying his mission and loves the people of India. There is a young man who travels two hours each way to attend church every week. He takes the bus and has to transfer four times to get to church. Every week he works hard to earn money for his transportation, and the thing that touches Billy’s heart is the fact that this young man has polio and has a manmade wheelchair at home. He uses his crutches to travel, but when the time comes to bear his testimony in church he struggles to the podium without his crutches, and he is always the first to bear his testimony.

Cooking with every type of curry has certainly become a fun thing for Billy to do for investigators as well as the other missionaries and the zone leaders. They are surprised that the food tastes so good and that Billy has mastered the art of cooking Indian cuisine. It is a special event when Billy cooks 20 lbs of rice, chicken, and curry for all, and they look forward to Billy’s tasty meals. He is always telling us about the different types of curry to cook with and he is excited about showing his skills to us when he comes home.

We got a sweet email from the daughter of the Mission President who had the opportunity to visit Hyderbad and to attend the Zone Conference with her 10-year-old son Ethan. After the Zone Conference Billy was assigned to be Ethan’s companion for the day and had the opportunity to show him around. According to Ethan’s mother he really enjoyed being with the missionaries and his time with Elder Nixon. Ethan sat next to Elder Nixon during Zone conference, and Billy said that because they were mission companions he would have to go home with Ethan in ten days. Ethan thought that was pretty funny so he ran up and shared that with President Nichols. Billy got really embarrassed because he thought that President Nichols would think that he wanted to go home. President Nichols laughed more because Billy was so embarrassed. According to his mother, Ethan loved serving with Elder Nixon and he thought he was really fun to be with.


President Nichols told the Elders that they would be getting fewer Elders this year, so they are going to have to work harder. They talked in depth about baptism goals and how they still wanted to meet those goals with fewer missionaries in the field. He also said that the Lord has sent very dedicated, spiritual, and hard working Elders to India. Sister Gee mentioned that she could feel the spirit in Zone Conference and that it was so strong. We are so grateful to Sister Gee for sharing this wonderful experience with us.

Picture Time!

Cruisin' Around India Style

Hyderbad Happenings

Things are going very well in his new area. Billy said that Heavenly Father didn’t drop him in a goldmine. He really has his work cut out for him. There has not been a baptism in this area for five months and the Elders that were there before him didn’t have any investigators. Billy said that he remembered a mission experience that his dad had in Spain. Billy’s dad was sent to a city that the Mission President was going to close because they had not had a baptism in over a year. The Lord provides a way for the message and the work to get through. With the success story that Billy remembers fondly, he is up for the challenge and knows that the Lord will be with him every step the way.

His new companion is from Idaho and they get along great. They had a little excitement last week when, at ten o’clock in the evening a pipe burst in the bathroom. Bill heard the running water but just assumed his companion was in there. After ten minutes went by his companion walked in and asked Billy what he was doing in the bathroom. You can imagine the mess, and the worst part is they had no way of shutting off the water unless it was shut off in the whole building. There would have been a riot on their hands for sure. Billy said that it is amazing what you can do with a shoelace, a stick, and a hammer.

Billy loves his new area and he has met some very loving families. He said that there was another Hindi holiday and they were flying kites everywhere. He said that he has finally found success flying kites after flying them with some of the families that he has met. Billy said that it reminded him of the movie The Kite Runner.

We have heard Billy’s testimony grow and there is no greater joy than serving our Heavenly Father. In Billy’s last letter he writes “The Lord will always bless us, but he will not make the trail easy. I am on the Lord’s journey and I am pushing on with faith. This is the hardest thing that I have ever done and I’m sure it will get harder and harder, but the reward will be greater and greater. I know that the Lord is perfecting me through this trial of faith and service. Every day I am grateful to be here serving, it is not easy, but it is by this journey, that we grow.”

Merry Christmas from India!

We had the wonderful opportunity to talk with Elder Nixon on Christmas morning around 8am. Although we were given an hour, the time seemed to go much to fast. It was so wonderful to hear his voice and to hear first hand about his experiences in India as well as hearing a little bit of an Indian accent. He is currently teaching a family of eight, all interested in being baptized within the next couple of weeks. However, Billy has just been told that he will be transferred to another area of Hyderbad about 45 minutes away from where he is serving currently. Billy mentioned how difficult it was on Sunday to say goodbye to all the members of the Branch. He has been apart of their Branch for 4 months and he has really developed a love for all of them.


Before Christmas, Billy thought it might be fun to introduce some of our traditions with the members of his branch in India. He thought it would be fun to dress up like Santa for all the children. In order for him to do this he took to the streets of India looking for a Santa costume. Finding a Santa costume proved to be a challenge and Billy and his companion searched high and low in many stores for a Santa costume. He finally found success in a small store that was tucked away down an alley. He sent us a picture of him dressed up as Santa (see below).

Bill shared with us some of the Christmas traditions that they have in India. One of the things he mentioned was that they all buy themselves a new outfit to wear in celebration and prepare a feast with chicken and rice using a great assortment of different flavors of curry. They do not share gift giving. Most families are very poor, but at the same time they are eager invite the missionaries in for a meal and feed them very well. Bill said that it is sometimes difficult because families will offer them so much food that they begin to feel ill but they would not want to offend them by refusing to eat.

Billy sent us all gifts from India. He sent everyone pajamas (a family Christmas tradition) and few popular Bollywood and Tollywood movies. The most precious gift was when he sang a very meaningful Christmas song to his mom. This particular song has a special meaning to Billy and his mom and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Our home was filled with the Christmas spirit. We are very blessed to have a missionary like Bill who loves the gospel and is serving the Lord.


I would like to thank those of you who have taken the time to write to Billy and let him know that you are thinking of him. It has meant a great deal to Billy and us as well.