[2] In 1876 or 1877, after his ordination, he was sent to the United States, where he performed various pastoral duties in Morrilton, Arkansas and Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, a community near Pittsburgh.

He had planned to take the steamer La Bourgogne to Paris to attend a meeting of the Holy Childhood Association, but when he arrived at the dock it was discovered that his second-class seat had been erroneously given to another passenger.

Willms was offered a first-class cabin, but he considered that level of luxury incompatible with his vow of poverty, and he decided to wait for another ship.

A locomotive, however, arrived on the tracks outside the church and began to shift its cars back and forward, completely drowning out the speaker's words.

Willms left the church immediately and stood on the tracks, refusing to let the engineer pass with the noisy train until the sermon was finished.