October 17, 2011

Love you! How's everything going for you guys?

 

I'm doing good here and things are going very well in the work.

 

I can' believe that half a year has already gone by, that went by way too fast. I was just writing to Elder Spencer and his request to extend was denied so he'll be home in Dec 15th. He's a little bummed about that, he doesn't want to leave yet. But he's excited to work while he can.

 

Nothing much happened this week really, I'll add more details in a letter to all of you, but you should all go and make a profile on mormon.org. Have you seen the commercials yet? Or the billboards? It's really cool! Go and watch all the videos on there, you'll love them. But especially the ones of Rose, Vance, Allan, Paris, and Cassandra. But they're all soooooooo good! Go do it!

 

We went knocking on doors alot this week, but over all it was quiet.

 

Well I've got some pictures for you all! Love you!

October 10, 2011

I'm doing really well, we had a great week! I missed you guys too, I went through my letters from the MTC and loved reading them again :)

 

From what you two say it sounds like things are going really really well for you all at home! Wow! That would be amazing if he could get that! Sounds like things are just as busy for you too though! Are you thinking of stepping up or do you want to stay where you are for now? That's sad but I'm sure you two will have fun get togethers later on as well :)

 

Bones is cute! She's always been so against dying her hair, I definatly want a picture! I think it'll look super cute on her! Yay for getting brave! It's good practice for when she goes on a mission ;) Sometimes you just shovel whatever it is down with a smile. I like what a mission president said, "There's no growing in a comfort zone, and no comfort in a growing zone."

 

That's awesome about connor! Where does he want to go or does he know yet? That would be so good for him and he would love it! He's really growing lately.

 

I'm really really happy to hear that. I just know that this work is going to bless so many people and I'm so happy that we're seeing the blessing for our family coming. By the way do we have missionaries in our ward serving there? If so you should go out with them, it's a blast and we really love it when members come with us. Tell everyone hi for me and thank them all for their support and prayers!

 

I miss you guys too, but I like how Hna Kigueta said it, "Ever since I left my family I've gotten closer to them than ever." I really feel like that. I love getting to talk to him too when he can, it's nice to have a little chat with him :)

 

Thank you for all the love and boxes! I really appriciate it mom!

 

Hna Kigueta has been teaching me how to write poems more often and I'm finding some good ones. Bit of a growing zone for me, but she's teaching me to share them a bit more. I have a poem for you guys. I was thinking about one of the girls we taught. She has had a really hard life and just had another upheavel. She's in Cali right now and we just hope that she stays with the gospel, it's the only thing she can count on with the father she has. 

 

Sobs wracked her frame as she mourned for her pain.

Sitting on her heels she felt the weight of this heartache crush her into the floor.

She couldn't do this alone.

She wasn't strong enough to live through this.

She'd feel lucky if she could just survive.

 

Oh my child, I said softly, why are you trying to do this alone?

Look up and see where you are.

 

You sit on your knees pleading for support,

not realizing that you're resting your head on my knees.

 

You cry for comfort,

but I've had you in my arms all this time.

 

You hope someone will help,

I've already planned for your escape.

 

So why do you suffer so?

Look, take my hands, feel the marks.

Remember that you are mine,

that I've already paid for your pain.

You don't need to suffer so.

 

Daughter be of good cheer.

I am with you and will carry you through your trials.

 

Oh my child, if you would only let me.

`````

  

Any snow yet? It's 75 right now outside. We had a sudden switch and the heat is gone, now it's a little chilly in the morning but nothing bad, and wonderful during the day! Although the sudden change got my comp sick. She's slowly getting her voice back. Made it hard when she couldn't talk at all so I ended up teaching most of the lessons. It was good Spanish practice.

 

A boy got baptised this weekend! He's a really cool 11 year old and was so excited all this month to get baptised. I like the way he put it he said, "I feel like I'm in a big warm quilt!" Awesome kid and he really has a hunger to learn. He told us how he reads his BoM under his covers with a flashlight. Cute!

 

It's been an odd week. Sometimes you go out fishing all day and don't catch anything. Sometimes that goes on for a week. But we somehow managed to make our goal of 5 new investigators for the week. But even when no one wanted to talk we had a good time! One woman answer the door after we knocked on her window (the door was painted and didn't make any noise) and yelled, "IS THAT HOW YOU KNOCK ON DOORS?!" Us, ".....no? The door didn't make any noise." She yelled a bit then slammed the door. We left and Hna turned to me, "Is that how you knock on doors? Didn't your father ever teach you?" Me, "I never had a father!" I love tracking with her, we have so much fun! Also chiuahuas hate me. Hna can walk right by them but the minute I try they freak out. However any stray cat near by runs over to me for some love.

 

This was a great week over all! I love you all so much!

 

Hermana Watson

October 3, 2011

Hi mom!

 

Yup, it got nice for about a week, in the 90's during the day, then jumped back up to the 110's again. But we've got a nice breeze lately so that helps. Lucky! We keep hearing about snow in other places and get jealous. Fun! Haha! I wish I could have seen that, I'll bet they both really freaked out about it. I went on exchanges this last monday and they house I stayed at had this huge fat old cat named Mr. Pip. It was cute, he jumped up on my bed and didn't want to leave.

 

Conference was amazing! Honestly it's like Christmas for missionaries, we were so excited for it! We drove to the stake center with a Sister in our ward to see it in English and it was fun watching it in a group. Everyone exclaimed and Ooooo'd when Pres. Monson spoke about the temples. By the way isn't he just the cutest! "Hello!" We all cracked up so hard! All the talks were amazing and we've been talking about them all this morning. I really liked the poem about the crows. Because the young crows have the speed, and the old crows can tell them where to go. Oh! I forgot that he was his mission president! I loved that talk!

 

Ummm, ew. And yikes. Makes me really happy that we live on the top floor of our apartment complex. A sister was teling us how their house is infested with scorpions and they get it all the time. Scary! Actually though I haven't see either tarantula's or scorpions yet, just spiders and cockroaches and the random giant centaped.

 

Us too! He's now got the priesthood and this coming saturday he's going to baptise his nephew! How cool is that? Also we had a miracle and one of the girls we've been teaching got baptised yesterday! She's been waiting for more than a year and her husband finally consented to let her do it! And yes that guy I yelled at is better. He's reading his scriptures now and coming to church. He knows it's true, he just needs a bit more time before he's ready so we're not pushing him.

 

Such a cute little boy! We're teaching him mom and older sister and he lied to us that he was eight because he wanted to get baptised. Well we were reading with them and he came and sat by me because he wanted to read too and needed help. So I whispered in his ear what to say for a bit then he got up and got his own Libro de Mormon and came back saying, "I can do it on my own now!" I still ended up doing the same thing but he did pretty good on his own, he just needed help with the big words. But after we finished the chapter he looked at me and asked, "My turn again?" "No, we finished it now for tonight." Then he closed the book saying , Oh, then smiled and let out a happy sigh and said, "Que bonita a leer!" (How beautiful to read!) Awwwww!

 

Sounds like work is going great! That course will be a blast but make sure and have fun with all that work too, not that I'm worried you won't. Office pranks are the best. We do it whenever we see the Elders bikes out somewhere. You're going to be awesome!

 

Thhhaaaannnnkkkkk yyyyoooouuuuuu! I loved the package and we both cracked up at the can dad put in. Thank you so much for doing all this for me! You're the best mom! And thank you for all the handsanitizers, they smell great and help alot! Although tell Larissa that I was squeezing one to smell it and it blew up in my face. Yup. Oh! And tell her too that if she could put the song, "Esta son las mananitas" on the cd I would love her for it forever! It's what they sing down here for every birthday/holiday/everything.

 

Love you too mom, I really appriciate the support you give me out here :) Tell everyone in the ward thank you for me!

 

Love you mom!

September 26, 2011

Hi mom!

 

Haha! Thanks, it was pretty fun actually, and it seems to ahve done some good.

 

The kermes was so much fun! We met some fun people and lots of people came! It's was crazy! I'll send a few more pictures of it. Also the man in the yello shirt was the MC and he's 80 years old. Wow! He and his wife danced later as well.

 

Yuck, sounds like no fun. Hopefully things will heal up better now. Just take it easy till then :)
Haha, dad's funny. I haven't gotten the package yet, but I finally figured out what dad put in it. That's so cute that he did that! But poor guy, hope he feels better soon.

 

Fun! Wish I could have seen it. We had our this last sunday too and the kids were so cute! Plus it really helped our one investigator. She's got a house full of kids and wants this for them to grow up in and to keep them out of the gangs here.

 

Lucky! Ah snow, won't be seeing that for a while. So funny story, Hna Kigueta got this bag of chocolates ant in the wrappers are sayins and over half of them were things like, "Catch a snowflake on your tounge" or "Enjoy the simple winter games of childhood" It mocks us down in the, once again, 107 degree heat.

 

Have fun with the party!

 

And I was happy I could send you something :) Love you so much mom!

 

So this week has gone by fast. We've had straight lessons with people, only about four hours of tracting total for the week. We've just got a lot of work right now! But we still work to our goals and let me tell you, if you do all you can and can't meet them, God helps make them happen. The mission goal is to have five new people a week who are interested to learn, it was saturday night and we had two and were sad about it, but made time to go knocking doors the next day and asked for some help. There's a saying that goes, "Dios pone los medios." Or God makes it possible. We went to church and by the end of church we had our other three! These people just showed up or their friends brought them and they all lived in our area! Wow! And we were able to focus on the lessons for that day too! It was a miracle for us!

 

One of our investigators got baptised this week! He's an amazing man and so firm in the gospel. It was sad though, all his family either couldn't go or didn't come. He showed up alone without them and wanted to be baptised still. He gets this, he knows what this is and why he needs it. He's ready to do everything he needs to get these blessing for him and his family. We're so proud of him!

 

The man I yelled at is doing much better. He's doing those basic things that he knows he should and has been coming to church again. Hopefully this is the turn around for him, but we're not holding our breathe, we'll just see how he does.

 

So today I made empanadas! Yum!It's been an adventure! A few days ago I made the filling from a pumpkin we bought. We let it all cook while we studied in the morning and at the end of it all we tried it out. I was pretty happy with it and I loved what my companion said. She had some them looked at me and said, "Who are you?! This is good!" I've discovered that I'm pretty good at baking and at mexican food in general. Awesome! I'll make them for you guys when I get home.

 

This was a great week and in six more days is conference! Woohoo!

 

As for the package, not really anything, but more recipies would be awesome! And tell Darren to give me his borstch recipie or I'll mail him a scorpion. (Actually some Elders joke about doing that to their siblings. You catch it or a tarantula and freeze it, them ship it out so it crawls out when they open it.) And ask Ribs if she's made me any CD's :)

 

Sweet! Check out the mountains and stuff near it, that's my area :)

 

Love you all!

 

Hermana Watson

September 19, 2011

Dress from the State of Guadlajara

I can't believe I forgot about this! The Kermes!

The church had a huge party last saturday for the Independance day for Mexico! It was crazy fun and we got some new investigators there! We also had Mexican dresses, I hope you all got the text from that brother! He took a picture and said, "Okay, what are your parents emails?" He's had kids out before and wanted to send that to you guys :) But anyways it was so cool! Plus all the money they donated to missionary work! Which ment we ate free, and they all wanted us to try their food so we ate a lot. The rice pudding was really good and so were the enchiladas. All of it was amazing though and we had a bit of everything! They had so many dances and music and Hermano Felix was the MC for it. He's actually pretty famous in Mexico as Pablo Felix. He was a big actor and singer there and people still recognize him and geek out over him. It's really funny! He's also 80 years old. When we found out we were more than shocked! He looks like maybe 50's if that!

Over all we had a great time! It's was crazy! I loved my dress! One of the Hermana's got it for me for the Kermes. I'll send some pictures of it, it was so cool!

September 19, 2011

The weather is finally starting to cool down a bit nad it's sooooooooo nice! It's still hot, but at least now it's not 120 anymore. More like upper 90's, but still soooo much better! We've had a great week! We're planning another baptism for this weekend for this man who is just amazing. We can easily see him being a bishop someday. His faith grew fast and strong, and now when we go over he's teaching us from the Boom of Mormon! Also this week I yelled at one of our investigators. He's been investigating for a year now and recently had fallen into this midset of, "Well, I'm not feeling anything. Plus I haven't seen any miracles yet. No blind people who can see or lame that can walk. I won't be baptised until I see a sign." But he's not reading anymore or praying, and he hadn't been to church for two months. So I got mad at him and told him, a little harsh really, that he wasn't going to see a sign or a miracle. That he needs to shape up and do those things he KNOWS he needs to do. That if he doesn't he's sinning and denying the answers that he's gotten so far. He didn't say much after a bit and just nodded. Then promised that he'd repent and said he knows he hasn't been doing the things he should be to be ready. So we told him again to do those things and said goodnight and headed home. After my companion just looked at me and laughed saying, "I was right, you're so Belle. I love it when you get, well not mad, but frustrated with our investigators and tell them off." We think that the Mexican culture is rubbing off on me. They say what they think and they are a very passionate people. But it did what we wanted it to do. He came to church the next day and is going to come to the FHE tonight. He called us this morning too and thanked us for bringing this knowledge to him. It was a pretty cool experience. Another cool thing we did this week was dump a persons coffee out when we taught her the word of wisdom. She's a great person :)

Some things about my area. There are churches EVERYWHERE. So when we tell people there's a lot of churches they just laugh and go, "Yeah there are." I mean there's one on every corner, and they're all different faiths. Also on every corner is a small drive up beer store. You meet some very interesting people at bus stops. The people down here are so ready to hear this! They are 80 percent of the time willing to listen to us. Our ward is 70% converts and so very awesome and strong! I love it here!

 

I love you all so much and can't wait to hear more from you and how everything is going! Take care and keep doing awesome!

September 12, 2011

What an awesome week! We're just on cloud nine down here! We had so many good things happen and the temperature has dropped so it's sooo much nicer outside! We're not sweatign to death as bad anymore.

 

Hope everythings going good for you guys and hold off on any packages please! I'll be sending a postcard with a new address soon!

 

The area here is amazing! The people are so humble and ready to listen to what we have to say. And when they know it's true they act o it, with a very few exceptions. We just had another baptism too! It was sort of an emergency and a miracle. This girl was suddenly carted back to Cali by her dad a week before she was going to be baptised. It was a shock to everyone, one day things were fine, the next he made them pull her out of school in the middle of the day to get on a plane to go back. She didn't want to go and was really upset at what he was doing. We told her it'd be okay and we'd figure something out. But honestly we didn't expect to ever see her again. Saturday when she was to be baptised we'd just got off the phone with a church leader telling them it was officaily cancelled. Then guess who calls? Destiny! She said, "Guess where I am right now?" "...Where?" "Arizona!!!" We yelled and jumped around and then said, "Awesome! Tomorrow you can get baptised!" Then she said, "...Actually can it be today? It's the only day my dad will be in the state and he really wants to be there." So we made some emergency phone calls and got things set up and we had a baptism!! It was crazy but it was so beautiful and after we hugged her and Hermana Kigueta laughed and said, "Look at you, trying not to smile!" She smiled at us then and said, "Actually, i'm trying not to cry." She's incredible and she's one of those that's going to change the course of her family.

 

This was a week of miracles! So the Rojas family we've been teaching. They recently told us something interesting. Apparently the day we knocked on their door they'd been waiting for two teachers from their sons school to come and talk to them. So when we came by and said, "Hola! Somos-" they said, "Come on in!" But they figured out who we were once we started talking, but they didn't mind at all. They'd been to church 20 years ago in Idaho but there weren't any Spanish wards so they had no idea what was going on, it just felt good to them. We've been teaching them for about two months now and this week we had a break through. They've all wanted to be baptised all along but they just didn't feel like they had a testimoney yet. Then that changed the other day. We were just teaching the dad because the rest of the family was busy or sick. And this man in incredible. He recently had heart surgery and can't work at all so their family had to move into a poor neighborhood and his wife makes all their money working every day as a waitress. We had a member over with us and we all talked a bit about his reading, and he's already to Alma. He loves the BoM a lot! Then we put on Finding Faith in Christ to watch together. He was so quiet during it, which is strange. He's very smart and loves to discuss things as we go in a lesson. After he just nodded and sat there quietly. After a bit he said, "Que bonita." (How beautiful.) Then we asked our member friend to share his testmoney and he did. We talked a little more then all knelt down to pray and asked him to say it. He was going along when he suddenly stopped talking. He tried to speak but he'd gotten all chocked up and couldn't. The Spirit flooded the room as soon as he'd stopped talking so we just waited and let the Holy Ghost do his work. When he spoke again he said that he's feels good about all of this, he just wants to be sure that this is what God wants him to do. He thanked God for sending us and for this gospel. Then he prayed that all over the world missionaries would be able to bring this message to everyone who's ready to listen. After he just laughed and wiped tears away and said, "Excuse me, I don't know why I'm crying." We thanked him for his time and then all left with an appointment set up for the next day. He knows everything, he's ready, and my comp and I always talk about how strong he's going to be in the church. We can see him as aBishop some day. We biked away just singing and laughing and so happy! The next day we had two Brothers give his wife a blessing of strength. He and his wife bore their testimonies that they know Joseph was a prophet and that this church is true. They are an amazing family and hopefully will be baptised this coming week! We just love them!

 

The work is booming here!

 

Love you all!

 

Hermana Watson