The phone rang about 30 minutes before we were expecting our Christmas Skype session with Sean. I was very excited when I saw the call was from South Carolina, but the minute I heard his voice I knew something was wrong.

"I've been in a bad car accident mom and we are on our way to the emergency room."

Here's Sean's account:

How am I not dead?

Dear Family,

So this week was one of the most insane weeks of my mission.... I don't think anyone could have predicted anything that happened!

This week was pretty normal up until Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had a great time at the Adams' house. They fed us dinner and then we hung out with them for a little while. They were even kind enough to make what we always eat for Christmas Eve. Crab Legs! I was super excited. Brother Adams makes the best shrimp and grits I've ever had too.

Also on Tuesday we had DDM and a fun district Christmas party afterwards. It was really fun and I made my chili for it.

So on Christmas we were supposed to be eating breakfast at Bishop's house at 10 AM. Elder Neves and I were both excited to go through the day because we had a lot of families that wanted to have us over for Christmas. It was really foggy outside that day which has been the usual. The weather has been so up and down that there is always fog in the morning. We were on a small street called Roundtop Road and we were at the stop sign that crosses Highway 34. I looked both ways and when I looked towards my right, Elder Neves was looking that way too. I started to drive across the road and as soon as I pulled out onto the highway, Elder Neves went "WOAH WOAH" and the moment I looked to my left a car slammed right into my door. I literally was only able to see a frame of time before she hit us. It was a white Nissan Maxima and she didn't have her lights on and so I had overlooked her when I looked to cross. The speed limit is 55 and she was probably going a lot faster than that, because most everyone drives way over the speed limit on that highway. She slammed us, my window shattered, my window airbags went off and we went rolling across the entire highway. There was a bank on the side of the highway that had about a one foot dip that we jumped. We barely missed a couple of trees and ran over a metal sign, and then rolled more into a person's yard. I only remember a couple frames of the wreck. Right before we got hit, right when we were hit, when we rolled over the sign, and when we had stopped.
Both of us sat there for a second and just groaned really loud hahahaha. My door was completely smashed inwards. I tried opening it but it wouldn't budge. Elder Neves and I crawled out of his door and then talked to the people who lived there and they asked if we were okay. I went over to the lady that had hit us to make sure she was okay. She just had a cut on her arm from her airbag going off. She was pretty calm for the most part. I called the vehicle coordinator and President Turner and the mission nurse and so we went through that whole ordeal. We did all the paperwork for the wreck and then I got a ticket for not yielding the right of way. Oh well. I'm glad that no one got hurt.

So I've never been slammed so hard in my life before... It hurt. Especially the airbags!!!

We went to the ER with the Blythewood Elders and I had a CT scan and an Xray for my head and my elbow. Turns out that we were both totally fine! I have a minor concussion and my elbow has just been stiff. Elder Neves has some bruising on his legs, but that's it. Elder Snelson gave me a blessing before we went to the ER and that helped a lot too.

I would just like to say that there is absolutely no reason why I wasn't hurt anymore than I was. If you look at the pictures of the wreck you'll understand that I was insanely lucky that I walked out of that wreck. This wreck put a damper on my Christmas but I am so grateful that I was protected somehow in that wreck. In my patriarchal blessing it says that I will be protected in all the things that I do, and I thought that just meant that I'll probably smooth through life without getting into a bad wreck or something like that. But I definitely can tell that was fulfilled in another way in the fact that I came out of that crash.

We recovered so quickly too. Yesterday afternoon I couldn't sit around in the apartment any longer and so I told Elder Neves we were going out to work. WE biked about 4 miles and tracted for about an hour or 2. We were able to teach 2 lessons and get 3 return appointments with people. I've got a minor concussion and both of us are sore all over but I felt like we could try our best to work in our circumstance. I didn't want to be sitting around for much longer, I was going crazy!!! Haha

I am very thankful for the fact that I came out of the wreck okay and that I have recovered quickly. It was a hard day, but I got through it feeling happy and hopeful for the future. Unfortunately, we don't know when we'll be getting a car again, but we will have to work with what we have now.

I'll make sure to send pictures of the wreck!!!!

Love you!

Elder Sean Bills

We are so very grateful that Sean, his companion, and the woman in the other car only had minor injuries. We are also so grateful for the members that have been checking on them and making sure they are ok. We feel very strongly that the Lord protected and watched over them. Knowing how fast the woman was going and from the pictures, it is inexplicable how they, especially Sean, were not more seriously injured or worse.

These kinds of accidents don't always turn out this well, and we will continue to express our gratitude for his safety and protection.

It was so comforting to see his face and hear his voice when we were finally able to Skype with him in the evening. After we had a family prayer together, we asked him to please stay safe for the next 38 days until he comes home!

This week was great! We were able to have a lot of success in our work and we had a lot of fun things happen. I can't believe this transfer is already over! They had to shorten it a week because of Christmas and so that means that this next transfer will be 7 weeks long! I'm glad that my last transfer will be the longest. We got transfer calls on Saturday night and we found out that everyone in our district will be staying! So I'm glad that I can finish out my mission with my friends here.

We were able to find some more people to teach this week. We went tracting more than we usually do because I wanted to help Elder Neves get used to doing it more often. We were able to find 3 new investigators through all of the knocking we did. It was great. We did a really great job of setting specific goals for what we wanted to do in certain areas before knocking, and then we prayed to ask if those goals could be met in the time that we had. It's something I've done on my mission for a long time, and I always love to see when it works and the Lord helps us hit our goals. We set a goal that we would teach a lesson, place a Book of Mormon or a pamphlet, and get a return appointment from someone. The first door we knocked on we met a lady that was sick, but she gave us a time to come back. Then as we were walking down the road we saw a man sitting on a park bench. We went over to talk with him and he was visiting from Connecticut because his uncle had died and he had attended the funeral. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read. We gave him a copy and then we got all of his information so that the missionaries in his area could stop by and teach him. He was open for us to do that and so we were able to hit all of our goals in the most interesting way possible haha! We have been blessed for our focused goals. When you set specific goals and do your best to hit them, you most likely will.

Other than that we all had a great week. We had our Christmas Zone Conference and I really enjoyed that. I always enjoy hearing from President and Sister Turner. It was a good meeting. We were also able to get together as a district to go caroling around neighborhoods in Blythewood. We handed out the church's Christmas initiative cards tied to candy canes and people really enjoyed it. We are going to go to every companionship's area and Carol around to see if we can find more people to teach through it. So far it has been a productive thing for everyone!

I can't believe this will be my last transfer! It has all gone by so fast. I'm looking forward to making every day just a normal missionary day right up until I go home. I would want the end of my mission to be just like any other day I've experienced these past two years. They all have been full of hard work, fun, and great learning experiences. I wouldn't have it any other way haha.

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Thanks for the package momma! I loved it. Also everyone loved the key chains you sent out. They were all really appreciative of them. 

Love y'all! 

Elder Sean Bills

I'm so glad you got to see everyone from home! I bet it was super fun. I'm jealous y'all went to Max's donuts. I talk about that place with people all the time hahahah.

This week was really fun. We were able to do a lot of stuff for Christmas. We went to an interfaith market and had a booth there for the church's Christmas initiative. It wasn't as big as the flea market last year but it was still pretty fun! I'll include some pictures of it. I talked to some really good people too. There was a booth next to
us about Islam and I talked to the guy there for a good while. He even gave me a free copy of the Quran so that was way cool. There were a lot of church members there too. It was a good experience. Sister Adams helped us out a ton and gave us some stuff to decorate the table with. She's pretty awesome.

We also has our Ward Christmas party on Friday night which was way fun. I really enjoyed talking to everyone and it was a good activity to have for some people to be fellowshipped. This transfer is actually going to be a week short because of the holiday. So transfer calls will be this Saturday. I'm obviously staying with Elder Neves, but some people in our district might be transferred. We'll have to see. We were also able to get a bunch of referrals from members and also from a few investigators and so we are contacting those and trying to
find some more people to teach. So this week ended up being productive
and fun!

Love y'all!

​Elder Sean Bills

My Thanksgiving was good. We ate at the Luke's and then at the Hunter's. Brother Hunter is the ward mission leader in Blythewood and he invited us to come along with the Blythewood missionaries. It was pretty fun. I ate a lot of turkey haha. 

We both got the boxes thank you so much momma!!! Elder Neves really appreciated it too. He noticed the shirt you sent him was long sleeved and went "how did your mom know I only wear long sleeves?" And I was like "I don't know she just does that sometimes" hahaha

Elder Neves' training is going really good! For training we go through the 12 week program that the church has for new missionaries. Last week we focused on the topic in PMG called "Teach People, not Lessons" and this week we are focusing on teaching the Plan of Salvation and also watching a bunch of missionary training videos that they have. Other than that we just practice teaching, read stuff out of PMG, and stuff like that. There are specific things that the training program asks the trainee to do every week and so this week I think he's supposed to take the lead in teaching the Plan of Salvation. Which will be good because I can think of 2 appointments that we will have this week where we will most likely teach it! 

This week the biggest principle that I've been able to teach about would be the Atonement. We were able to find a couple more people to teach, and also a few less actives that want to come back to church. We met this one less active who has been in the dumps for awhile and he has lost mostly everything that he cares about in life. He talked about how he knows that the gospel would be the only thing that would help him out. I gave him Alma 34 to read and I felt really strongly that we will be working with him for a good while and that things would get better for him. We are going there this week to help him clean up his yard and house and also for a lesson.

I would say I've been studying the Atonement a lot lately. I've been reading a little bit of the "Infinite Atonement" and the scriptures and insights have been really good for me. My favorite scripture that's stuck with me lately would be 2 Nephi 2:8 which says:

"Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise."

Love y'all

​Elder Sean Bills