Monday, December 10, 2012

November 13, 2012

We’re doing good and doing much better! Someday when we come down
there’s a restaurant where we will NOT go. A member took us there and
we both ended up with food poisoning. Not fun, I haven’t thrown up in
a long time.

We're working really hard so not much to report on, just that we're
teaching lots of people!

We went to the RS activity the other night with a new member and
learned about canning salsa and beans. We tried the ones they’d made
last month and it was so good!

Sister Taylor, the mission presidents wife came out with us this week
to see some people. She’s does really well speaking Spanish,
especially since she never gets time to practice it!

We’re working with a lot of people right now who are really
progressing. Once they can get to church a little more or once we can
see them a little more they’ll be ready to be baptized!

Stake conference this weekend was very interesting. The Saturday
session was all about patriarchs and patriarchal blessings. Our stake
has three stake patriarchs. Then the next morning they had a special
broadcast from salt lake. Did any of you see it? It was really really
awesome! They were talking about the gathering of Israel and other
things like that. Holland and Eyring gave some powerful talks.

Love you all! See you soon!

Birthday Pictures

It was Hermana Pousimas birthday so i made her a cake. It was really good :)

November 5 - Pictures



Hermana Zayas asked for a planner since she goes out with the missionaries a lot so I made her one for her birthday.

I think it turned out pretty good. It kind of turned out looking like a Tiki head.
It's a trap!

November 5, 2012


Well, I can feel it coming so I’ll just apologize now. There’s only a few more weeks left so I’ll save most of my stories for when I get back so my emails are going to be a little shorter. Wow only five more weeks! I’m on the lookout today for milk that expires after I do. We had a really good week with some cool things that happened.

We found so many people this week that want to talk to us. Some families too. One of them is Maria and her aunt and son. Maria is so awesome! We’ve only seen her twice but she’s already planning to be baptized on the 24th! She didn’t show up to church so we went by to see if everything was okay. Turns out that she couldn’t get work off in the morning and was really sad about it. So we started talking and she mentioned that she’d been reading but that she fell asleep. So we decided to read together to get her going and ended up reading a couple of chapters and then teaching her most of the plan of salvation. She understands the scriptures really well and she really wants to learn. Her aunt is so cute, the first time we came by we asked her to pray at the end and she looked down and said she didn’t know how, that she could only do The Lords Prayer. So we taught her how to pray and afterwards she was crying and said she was sad that she hadn’t known how to pray. But she said she would practice and that it would be better next time. We assured her that it was fine.

For Halloween we got lucky and a member could take us to the ward party. It was so fun! Too late we thought of going dressed as Elders (like just putting a tie on), but it would have been a good idea. Then we went home and rested a bit. The next day during the night we carved pumpkins and they came out pretty good, it was fun! I’ll send pictures.

So in our area lives one of the councilors to the mission president, Presidente Zayas. I love the Zayas family, they’re so great! Well One of their grandsons that lives with them, Carlos, has a friend across the street that the whole time we were teaching him to get him ready to be baptized this friend sat in for the lessons. Well we invited him to take the lessons and his mom was okay with it so we started teaching him. He came to church on Sunday and those two punked me! After the last hour Carlitos came up stone faced and I asked where his friend went. He told me, “He didn’t want to come. He didn’t want to come to church.” My heart sank and I asked where he was. He told me he went home. I told him that it was okay, that he didn’t have to come if he didn’t want to. Then he smiled and said, “Nah, he’s right there.” He was hiding behind me! They got me good.

Love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Watson

November 5, 2012 - Halloween Party Pictures

Hermana Greenwood kicked butt at the hula hoop contest!
Add caption
Rosita (Hna Pousimas stuffed animal) got too curious about my pumpkin.
Some of the Rodriguez family from my ward.

October 22, 2012


We had a very very full week but it was very good! Hermana Greenwood and I are getting a long great and she’s really improving in her Spanish and in her confidence. She’s been giving more of the lessons now and now that she knows these people she knows better how to work with them.

This week we went on an exchange that was a little different. Something they decided to do now is to have exchanges with English Sisters. I was so excited to go with a Sister I know pretty well since we lived in the same apartment for a while. She’s got the same amount of time as me in the mission so we’ll be going home together. It was very fun but very interesting because  I could see the symptoms of Trunkyitis. She’s having a very hard time and it makes me very thankful that I’m not going through that. Of course I think about home and have been thinking about what I’m going to do when I get back, but it doesn’t distract me, and I’m not trying to deny that I’m going home like this Sister was, she didn’t even want to talk about it. So it made for a very interesting day, especially since she can’t speak Spanish.

We got very lucky this weekend, sorry they told us not to tell much about it until now. Elders Andersen, Maynes, and Bishop Causse toured our mission. On Saturday we had a special conference with them in the morning and it was powerful! The Hermanas get spoiled in the mission, no matter what time we show up they always have us sit right up front, and I had the best seat. I was asked to give a prayer so I got the end of the second aisle. During his speech Elder Andersen decided to come down from the podium and speak to us closer and for about 80 percent of his talk I was about a foot away from him. It was so cool. At the end of his talk he stopped and started to cry and bore testimony that he knows that Christ lives. I could feel the spirit so strongly and I know that he really is a special witness of Chirst. It was a very good conference.

Then on Sunday we got lucky again! They were coming down to Phoenix so that they could train the priesthood and speak in our stake and we just happen to go to the stake center so we were actually there with him again while most of the people in the stake just got to watch it from the other buildings. It was really cool because he speaks Spanish pretty well and he stopped part way into his talk and said, “Now Brothers and Sisters, I’m going to give most of my talk in Spanish, so you’re going to get the chance to see how it is for your brothers and sisters all the time.” It was very cool, I’d been really sad up to that point because they’d run out of headphones for the translators and so most of the members there couldn’t understand what they were saying but sat reverently anyways listening. It was a very good experience for the English speaking members.


Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Mark's Baptism

Mark's Baptism
He's a funny guy! It was such a good baptism!

October 15, 2012


Well to update you all I had an interesting week. But it was really long because first of all I got sick. It’s happened a few times and it’s never fun, but this is the first time I’ve actually been sick enough to have to stay in bed all day. I don’t know what hit me but it wasn’t fun, I just suddenly got it and slept all day. It slows down the work so much, and it’s really boring to just stay in all day. I’m glad I haven’t gotten sick more while I’ve been out here.

I didn’t get the chance to tell all of you last week but I asked for an extension last Monday. I’d prayed about it and my answer was that I needed to ask. I didn’t really feel that I’d get it but I felt I should ask. I was right. On Wednesday, the day I was sick, we got a call from our president that he was on his way to talk to us. So I got a little more dressed and we went for a walk. He told me that it would be best if I went home at the appointed time and enjoyed Christmas with my family. He explained why and we had a good chat.

We had a fun experience this week. A few months ago we had the chance to teach this guy named Mark. He wasn’t Spanish speaking but we couldn’t get in touch with his Elders and his best friend was in our ward so we started teaching him because he was ready. As soon as we could get in contact with the right Elders we handed him over. He’s great! He got baptized this week and we got permission to go and see him. He gave the best testimony afterwards and came up from the water with a fist pump. Picture of him coming, the only non Mexican besides us.
 
I had a thought and wanted to tell you before I forgot. As an early Christmas present can you order the Ensign in Spanish for me? I thought it'd be a great way to keep up on my spanish. Gracias!

Even with just seven weeks left I don’t really feel trunky. I feel about the same as I did my whole mission, I always knew it was going to end and I didn’t count down the days, or try to pretend it wasn’t coming. I think that kept me from going crazy like some missionaries do :) I’m really excited to come back home and see you all and I’m really excited to come back here afterwards and see these people again and keep contact with them. Actually I was invited to go to Pueblo Mexico next year, that’d be cool since most of the members I know have family there.
 
Oh and mom thank you for sending the money, I found out the day I was sick that we were out of medicine and had to run out to get some, thank you!!!

Love you all!

Hermana Watson

October 8 - Pictures!

We found that almost in my bag. It was tiny!
Some of the Elders cleaning up after lunch on sunday. They kicked out all the hermanas, they were very happy :)

Hermana Pousima, Elder Castanos, Elder Jones, and me.

October 8, 2012


Well we had somewhat of an exciting week. I have officially seen my first scorpion! I was in the gym watching the Elders play basketball and picked my bag up from the floor. Two seconds later I saw something out of the corner of my eye and looked down to see a scorpion right where my bag had been a moment before! I’ll send a picture. Of course once I told them the Elders started playing with it and letting it sting their shoes. Just to be safe I dumped out my bag. They caught it in a cup and released it outside in the field. Not sure what kind it was, want to check it out?

Saturday night we were just getting into bed at 10:30 when all of the sudden the group of kids that always play outside our door came running up pounding on the door and crying. We opened it to see them all sobbing and crying, “Someone’s dying!” Hermana Pousima and I ran outside fully expecting to see that someone got stabbed or something. They took us upstairs to their apartment. They live with their three grandmas and one of them was on the couch grabbing her head and crying. I called 911 and Hermana Pousima went over to find out what happened. Our wonderful neighbor took all of the kids to her apartment and got them calmed down and something to eat. We went and got a little more dressed and called the elders, then flagged down the fire truck. They got their before the Elders so they couldn’t give her a blessing, but it was okay. Turned out she has a tumor in her brain and something happened with it. The shipped her out and most of their family went with. Her two sisters stayed behind to care for the kids and we went over and gave her a hug and asked if she’d like us to come pray with her. They accepted and we spoke with them for a bit then prayed together. We haven’t heard yet how she’s doing. But it was so good to see all the people in our apartments just come together to help them out.

The next day in conference we were both so tired, I feel asleep during Elder Bednars talk. I’m going to see if I can watch it now that I’m a little more awake.

Speaking of conference I love watching it with missionaries, it’s like our superbowl. And this time was especially exciting. When they announced the age change we were all in shock. One brother jumped out of his seat the moment he finished speaking and ran into the hall to call his daughter, she’s now able to go. This is going to change so many things. Elder Holland, in the news conference on the missionary changes, on why the changes are being made: "God is hastening his work and he needs more and more willing and more worthy missionaries to spread the light and the truth and the hope and the salvation of gospel truth to a darkened world." It’s true, we can all feel the pace picking up and feel how things are moving forward. This is going to make the missionary force explode. It’ll make it possible for so many more young men and women to go. I was thinking about it and without that year wait I’ll bet so many more young men will go because nothing will keep them from it. They won’t have time to make mistakes that will keep them from it.

This is an exciting time. Jeremiah 16:16  Love you all!

Hermana Watson

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Pictures from the Mission Blog - October 2012

October 1, 2012

The woman in green is Adriana.
Me and Hermana Greenwood on our first day!

October 1, 2012

We had a wonderful week! It’s been a struggle just because we’re still
working on getting to know each other and getting down a rhythm for
teaching. But we’re improving and she’s getting more confident in her
Spanish and in speaking in general. It’s fun to see her progress and
to remember back to the time when I was at that point still. It still
amazes me that I can speak Spanish now and couldn’t a little over a
year ago. It’s odd, it’s hard to remember what it felt like to not
understand what they said.

I’ve been taking her out on the street a lot and as I have I remember
my trainer doing to exact same thing I’m doing to her know. I see a
person, hand her a card and say, “Alright, this one’s all yours!” She
looks at me with fear filled eyes but I just keep staring at her until
she does it. Slowly she’s getting more comfortable. I remember now
having a slight hatred and anger for my trainer the first month, I’m
sure she and the other new Hermana do as well, but that’s normal. You
get over it eventually.

We’re had some cool things happen this week in our efforts to find
people. We’re going out a lot but haven’t found many people ourselves
but I’ve seen, and we’re seeing now, that if we just put in the effort
to find people who are ready come. Like we may get lots of referrals
for the English Elders, but then we’ll get sent some as well. We
picked up two new families that way this week, and they’re so great!
We were five minutes late and all the kids were outside waiting for
us. They’re such good kids and their grandma, who’s raising them,
really are ready for this.

Poor Hermana Pousima has had the flu all week, last night I sat up
with her and let the trainee Hermanas sleep. But on the upside she’s
starting to get better now.

The Relief Society broadcast was so good the other night! Plus it was
fun because all the wards came to the same building and I get to see
some of my recent converts. Adriana is almost ready to go to the
temple! If she keeps going strong I’ll get to go with her before I
come home! I’m so excited for her, she’s so happy now!

Love you all! Have a great week!

September 24, 2012

Hi!

The night before we went to get our trainees my comp had a nervous breakdown and
finally opened up to me about everything she’d been hinting at. We
talked until 3 in the morning then we couldn’t sleep so we stayed up
another hour cleaning everything in the house. I was so tired the next
day. She was really sick the next morning, but honestly training was
the best thing for her. She really needed a chance to worry about
someone else. We’re still having long talks, but she’s doing much
better an dwe can see why she got the one she did. I think by the end
of my mission I’ll have gotten in all my clinical hours for my degree.

Well I did not get Hermana Holmes. We all laughed about that but
honestly I could tell which one would be with me the minute I saw her.
Hermana Greenwood is a very sweet girl from Japan. Her father works
there in the military and she grew up on the base there for most of
her life. We might have given them a wrong impression because at the
start of the meeting (before we met our trainees) we had to run out
because my companion was sick. We missed the first of it but made it
back just in time for the announcements.

I’m really glad to be training, more than just because it’s fun. I
feel like I’m going to be learning a lot. Plus right now it’s perfect
for me because it’s giving me something to focus on. I don’t feel even
a little bit trunky, but I think it’ll help keep tha from happening
because i need to be 100% in this because I’m the only one who knows
what they’re saying :) It’s kind of cool to know that I’m training my
replacement in this ward. It’s good that we know because now I can
help her to focus on what will get her the farthest as the one in
charge of the area. Also one of the reasons I’m here is to help crack
her and make her more Mexicana. By the end of these weeks I’ll have
gotten her to be more bold. If she doesn’t the Mexican men will just
walk right over her.

Like I said, I’m not trunky, but I am very excited to come back home.
It’s perfect, I’ll come home right in time for Christmas and I’ll have
time to just be with everyone for a little while before I start work
and school.

Well, not much to say. We’re working hard and we’re doing a lot of
looking right now. After we split the areas we weren’t left with much
so we’re working on finding more new people right now. But we’re
finally starting to have some success.

Love you all!
Hermana Watson

September 18, 2012


Hello!
Sorry for not writing last week, we had lost our phone and so we didn’t have much time since we tried to go find it again. We didn’t but at least now we get an excuse to stop by peoples house to get their number. It’s a great excuse to stop by!
We’re doing great, busy as ever. Although that’s going to stop tomorrow. We got the call on Saturday that my companion Hermana Pousima and I will both be training. We’re so excited! We’re still going to be living in the same apartment and will get to work together to teach them which is nice. They flew in today and tomorrow at 11 we’ll go pick them up! It’s going to be hard though, we’re going to have to make up for all the people we could never see when we were covering the two areas, and we haven’t had time to go knock on doors so we don’t have a very large teaching pool. But it’ll be a great chance to have her dive right into missionary work. About a week ago we were talking to our president and asking him about the new sisters. He told us their names but that was it. BUT! After thinking about it I realized that one of the sisters coming in is a Sister Holmes. That would be an inspired companionship. When I we talked to the zone leaders they told us they told president that we would get at least one more baptism per month if he put us together. They said he told them that they shouldn’t have told him about the Holmes-Watson thing. Haha! We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Speaking of me training, I’m going to apologize now. I’m not going to be able to write to as much as I have until now. Something I want to do that Hermana Kigueta did for me was to write my trainees parents every week too. I’ll do my best but my letters might be a little shorter.
We had a funny experience the other day. The areas we work in are fairly poor and some of the people literally live off the chickens and goats they own, which is funny to see all over since we’re right in the middle of the city. The other night we were visiting a woman and her house was a little more than a shack, with chickens and dogs running around inside and out because they have to leave the doors open to get some air, no AC. Well we were teaching her and trying to help her out because she was feeling very down and like God wasn’t listening to her. As we bore our testimonies I heard something and turned to see a mouse running along the wall next to my chair! I didn’t want to offend her so I just took my Book of Mormon and hit the wall next to it, didn’t even faze it. She looked at me and I accidently said in Spanish, “Oh, it’s a fly.” Fly and mouse are similar. So she didn’t react. Then the chiuhauha walked by and didn’t do anything. So I decided to ignore it and scoot away from the wall a little so it wouldn’t run up my leg. All of the sudden the dog goes for it and takes it down right in the middle of us! All we could do was just stare, and then tried to play it off and ignore it. So my comp goes back to telling her about how she knows Christ can help carry her burdens and it went something like this, “And I know-” CRUNCH CRUNCH, “….I know that-” CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH, “I know-” CRUNCH. Then it gave it to it’s puppy and the puppy dragged it under my chair to eat it on top of one of the kids toys. Experiences that you’d only get on the mission field.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!

September 4, 2012

September 4, 2012

Day at the Zoo with my comp!
This was what we thought happened the other day on their side when the
Elders called to ask us for TP.
Pictures of our Hula.

August 27, 2012

Hermana Winchells going away party. Hermana Cirne, Ted(her convert),
and Enrique(our convert)

August 27, 2012


We are still running all the time! It’ funny most of the ward thinks
we’re just working in the one area now since our one companion went
home. Nope, but it’s really nice in a way. We’re teaching so many
amazing people and out week is filled up by Monday.

Wow some of the miracles that we’ve seen this week! There’s a man
named Elias that we’re teaching. They met him 6 months ago and saw him
twice before he found out he had leukemia. After that he was in the
hospital constantly. The one time we caught him at home he was just
lying on his bed and we really thought he was going to die. He’d lost
so much weight and could only just whisper, “I believe in God, I know
He’ll take care of me. I have faith He will.” After we left we thought
he was gone. Since he was sent back to the hospital we didn’t go by
for a month. Then one day we were in the area and thought, ”Let’s go
see his family.” We were surprised when his wife invited us in and
said, “He’s in the back.” I fully expected to see him in the same
condition. But when we went back he looked just fine! I was shocked!
He was sitting up and joking with us! Some Elders had gone by the
hospital and blessed him and in the blessing told him that the mother
cells they were going to give him would work and that he would heal. A
week later he was out of the hospital and home just fine! He’s still
weak and can’t go to church or stores or anywhere he could catch a
sickness, but he’s alive! He asked us, “So, I know I can’t go to
church right now, but how soon can I get baptized?” God truly works
miracles by our faith.

We miss counted the weeks this month and ran out of money for food
last week. We won’t starve no worries :) But we just have to be a
little more creative with what we have. I learned how to make white
sauce! We’re doing a lot more baking with the flour we have.

The ward talent show this Friday went great! It was so fun, but so
loud! The gym echo’s a lot. By luck we were able to find some costumes
and skirts so our Hula was pretty cool :) We’ll send the video when we
get it. After, all the hermanas asked us to teach them how. I really
like doing it it’s really fun!

Love you all! Have a great week!

August 13, 2012

What a week!

We were given a rare opportunity this week. We Got to go to the temple
site in north Phoenix and give the steel workers a tour through the
visitors center. Most of the workers only speak spanish so President
asked us to go and do it. It was really neat! Most of them knew it was
some sort of church but didn't really understand what it is for or
what it means to us. None of them were members. So We got them all
over after work and started with a prayer outside then took them
through teaching about ancient temples and modern ones, then we taught
about how families can be together forever through the ordinances of
the temple. It was really great, the spirit was so strong and some of
the men had tears in their eyes. We finished by teaching them how the
power to do these ordinances was restored and invited them to pray and
find out for themselves if these things are true. We'd put out ten
Book of Mormons at the end and when they'd left six of the ten men
took them and we found out that of the four that didn't, two already
had them! It was a huge success. Then after we got to go take some
pictures of the temple and they pointed out to us where all the rooms
would be. It was so cool! We hope we'll get to do it again with the
other work crews that come in. Hermana winchell's mom is so cute. She
made lemonade and cookies for them. :)

We're still running around like crazy people here and working hard.
It's been an odd week however. Two of the families we're teaching are
going through hards times. With both of them the father just left. The
one couple split and the other mom just came home and he and all his
things were gone. It was unteresting that thecouple the broke up said
that they'd been liking the lessons and things were going well...when
we were there. She said that afterwards they never talked and they
weren't doing the things we'd invited them to do with each other.  But
we'll see what happens. I feel like as a missionary we end up doing
mariage counciling with some people. Sometimes we just have to call
them out right in the lesson to bring the spirit back because they're
not listening, like, "Hermano, see that right there? See how you're
talking to your wife? Do you think Christ would say that about her?"
We do our best to bring them back to the lesson and hope they apply
the things.

Hermana Winchell is almost done with her mission. That came up way too
fast! But I'm happy to say that she did not go trunky and is doing
great! Of course she's a little freaked out about the future, but
she's not letting it hold her back. We expect to get a wedding invite
from her in a few months. Her boyfriend waited for her :) They're
really cute together and the fact that they've been apart for his
mission and hers and they are still doing well looks promising.

We've got a crazy week planned ahead of us! Wed. we have one exchange
(where we go to another area for the day), then Thursday we have a
conference that'll go all day, then friday we have another exchange.
That never happens. We usually only have one every six weeks. But they
asked us to do it so we will. If I write again next monday that means
we survived. :) Then Hermana goes to the mission home this sunday.
Crazy! But we're all sane and happy so it's okay!

How was the wedding? Did everything go smooth? The pictures I've seen
so far are amazing! It looks like it really came together well in the
little time you all had to plan it.

Well love you all, have a great week and enjoy relaxing after the wedding!
Hermana Watson

August 6, 2012