Saturday, October 6, 2012
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!
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
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
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| Day at the Zoo with my comp! |
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| This was what we thought happened the other day on their side when the Elders called to ask us for TP. |
 |
 |
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!
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
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
July 31, 2012
We made peach strawberry cobbler a while ago. We didn't have a pan
small enough so we got creative.
We also had a party and burned some love letters from a certain guy I
know and one my comp knows. It was pretty fun :)
Our trip to the temple with our investigators! The younger couple is
the daughter and her boyfriend and then her parents. That little boy
is a handful! But very smart. When we pray he kneels down with us and
stays quiet.
small enough so we got creative.
We also had a party and burned some love letters from a certain guy I
know and one my comp knows. It was pretty fun :)
Our trip to the temple with our investigators! The younger couple is
the daughter and her boyfriend and then her parents. That little boy
is a handful! But very smart. When we pray he kneels down with us and
stays quiet.
July 23, 2012
Wow what a week!
We are so busy. We leave early most days and get home late. We're trying to plan better so that we can get home early enough to plan and get ready for bed. Both areas we're working in are going well and especially sundays we're busy! One ward starts at 9 the other at 10. So we go to the first for half an hour then to the other for a few hours, then back to #1 for a meeting, then to #2 for our other meeting. They're not too far apart thankfully so it's not to bad, just a lot of running around.
On friday we stopped by a birthday party for some members. This is the family that made me a cake for my birthday :) The theme was japan because the girl loves japan! She had a kimono and everything. It was really fun and it's so great having things like that happen because we get all our investigators to go. They had a blast and the mom said later, "I didn't know you could dance and listen to regular music!"
There was a robbery in our apartments. Poor Elders! But it really was their fault. I've always said that it would be too easy to steal things from the second story balconies there, since it'd be easy to climb up. They always leave their bikes out there and one morning we came back from jogging and they asked us if we'd seen bike. They came back from running and saw a ladder against the apartment and their nice 700 dollar bike gone. They still haven't found it but the police went and scared this poor 8 year old to death because he was bragging to his friends that he stole it, and they Elders didn't know he was just a kid.
I'm finding that I like Mexican candy more and more. It always has salt, lime juice, and chile, and at first I couldn't do it, it made me sick. But now i'm used to it. I'll bring some home for you all to try.
Man it's been a mess lately! The church just updated the browsers for the system we use to email our president and it failed. Well it works but the libraries here don't update ever so we can't do it. We've all been scrambling to try and fix it and find computers that will work with it.
I love seeing how people change. There's one Hermana that when I first met her she was so angry all the time and was just grumpy. We didn't do much, we just invite her to come back to church. It changed her completely. She's a different persona nd so happy, now I love being with her. Today she's going to come out with us for the first time. :) She's getting ready to go the the temple to do baptisms for the first time.
I really love this work, I know i'm going to miss it when I come back home, I hope we have some missionaries in our ward when we come back so I can go out with them. What a missionary needs more than anything from the members is for us to just be their friends, and help them to feel comfortable. There's a really good talk you all should listen to, it's called The Missionary Next Door. I agree with everything she says. Just invite people, that's all you have to do. Then let the missionaries be the weird ones to ask them if they'd like to learn more. Because the missionaries don't care if they hate them, because we're getting transferred and we'll likely never see them again.
Love you all!
Hermana Watson
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