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

Pictures!

Elora, Sister Borrows and a "Nice Sister" at the Phoenix Temple site

A Translation Fail

I found this in my water bottle. Yum.

September 6, 2011

Hi mom!

 

I really do, I'm so lucky to be where I am!

 

Yeah he said he sent me a letter about it all but sounds like it was pretty amazing. It's an amazing place to be :)

 

It is a pretty scary thing, and yeah it doesn't matter how well off or not we are, it's still scary after everything that happened. There's a phrase the people here use that I really like. In english it means, "God squeezes, but he doesn't choke." And that's true, sometimes it's like with Job, he'll squeeze us a little to see if we really trust in the promises he's made to us and no matter how much it seems it's getting worse the blessings are just right around the corner. Everyone quotes it but it's true. 

You know we haven't even heard about this new movie, you'll have to let me know how it was!

 

Haha! Yup, also on that thought got any good plan for ridding an aprtment of roaches? We sprayed and people came in to kill them but they keep coming back. We tried one of those bug barrier things but it didn't do anything. I'm getting pretty good at it now actually :) Sort of like wack a mole. Also I'm glad we don't have the apartment these one sisters have. They have spiders the size of small mice. Compared roaches aren't that bad.

 

Yikes! No fun at all! I hope you're getting better quickly! That's really weird it came on so fast.

 

Love you mom! Thanks for making that blog by the way. I've gotten letters from my friends that said that it's really changed their day to read that. Bri's actually going back to church now because of it. But don't worry about being behind, just when you have time.

 

By the way you're going to be a great supervisor!

 

Things down here are going amazing! I really really got lucky and got sent to the best area in the mission. Every missionary I've talked to have said they wished they were in Montana del Sur. The ward is amazing and the bishop used to be the mission president for Phoenix Arizona mission so he gives us some amazing support. The ward is so kind to us, they're a pretty poor ward and a very poor part of Phoenix, but they always have a hug, or a kiss, or a skirt, or food they want to give us. The sisters are always feeding us, which is good and bad. The food is great, but they always load your plate and then give you seconds and then thirds, and you can't really say no or you offend them. So we roll home. I've only had one bad meal here so far though. It was some sort of horrid mix of american and mexican, a pepper casserol with chicken. It was spicey and cheesy but I kept biting down and hitting hard tendons or ligiments. I tried to chew it but that just wasn't possible so I spit it out when the hermana wasn't looking. Oh, something you need to try is Agua de melon. You take a cantelope and blend it all up and add some water and a bit of suger, it's good!

 

The work is crazy down here, the people are humble and so ready to hear this, we pick up new investigators every day and the bishop has said that our goal is two baptisms each a month, and it's surprisingly doable! We're teaching soem great families right now who just love us. It's just sad though because the dad can't work because he had heart surgery recently and the mom can never come to church or anything because she  is always working. She'd like to quit but she'd never get another job and it's all they have. They're so ready to be baptised, they just want to understand a bit more first.

 

Love you mom!

August 29, 2011

Hi mom!

Yeah it's really hot down here! I'm glad we have a car too, it's just when we go walking that it's bad.

Awesome! You'll get it for sure, they love you there! I'm so happy to hear that, seems this surgery was the one to do for you! :)

Sounds like it's going to be pretty crazy this year for them. Tell connor not to let the stress get to him, he'l get through it! i'll send him a letter, I'll send it to your house since I don't know his address. I've been hearing much the same from everyone else about him too

Okay, love you mom! Thank you for everything you do for me!

So this week we had a baptism, the other one had to wait a week but she's super excited and has been making invitations! Jamie is nine and he had such a good experience at his baptism! He's such a smart kid and his family is the best!

A cool experience this week, we missionaries get protection! We were in a trailer park knocking doors and went to this one where the gate was open which is odd. We knocked on the door and talked to the lady for a bit then she said, "Actually, I'm really surprised that you knocked on my door. Usually my dog scares everyone away." We looked around and went, "What dog?" Not sure what happened but either he ran off right then or just stayed asleep.

But even if the dog is there we get some help. We were going to knock this one door but te dog in the front yard tied to the tree was mean and tried to come for us. The owner waved us on and so we started back to our car to leave to our appointment when I heard the owner yell, "Hey, stop!" I turned and the dog was coming for us. So I got my bag ready to use as a club and hunched my shoulders and yelled really loud, "Hey, back off!" He skidded to a halt and stayed in that spot till his owner ran up and dragged him off. Got my heart pumping a bit! He wasn't a big dog but big enough to do some damage.

We met a very odd man the other day. We knocked his door as it started to get dark and he opened the fiorst door but we still couldn't see him through the metal door. He said, "What's the password?" We loked at each other and Hna Kigueta said, "...I don't know. Buffalo?" "Hmmm, might be!" We grinned and said, "Elephant?" We talked for a bit and he was very crazy but very nice. We ended up sliding a card through the door since he said his wife didn't allow him to open the door.

Things are going great down here, but it's so hot! We've had extreme heat warnings all week and I think it got up to 120 the other day. It's just crazy! But the up side is the fruit here is really cheap since they can get it close by. Plus when I get back home I'll have to find a spanish bakery and get empanadas and pan dulce. It's so good! My companion and I laughed the other day that other than our member meals our diets consist of fruit, fresh spanish cheese, and pan dulce.

I love this one family we're teaching! The father can't work because of heart problems and they recently lost their nice house because of it. But they love us coming over and really love the gospel. They're the ones who went to chruch over 20 years ago but it was in english nad so they didn't know what was going on, they just liked how it felt. The other day we were teaching and they said, "Oh by the way, we made you dinner, do you want to eat now or after the lesson?" It was so good! The father especially is just devouring the book of mormon and is so smart, he always has questions for us.

It's been a good week and a baptism this saturday!

Love you all!

August 22, 2011

Hi mom!

 

Things are going well down here and I'm so happy! We have a car and mostly we use that but we do have bikes. And no I haven't had to buy a bike because a sister left hers when she went home and I inhertited it. It's pretty sweet :) 

 

I'm glad you liked the pictures! It's sooo pretty down here with all the palms and cactus and tons of flowers! We went hiking again today and it was great! Although I had bad allergies about half way up the mountain, but I'm doing good. Yeah I just have as much time now to keep you all updated but boy do I have some stories to tell now!

 

The people here are amazing! I'm in awe over the young women here and what they go through. One girl talked to us (she's 14) about how her and her mom were stuck in Mexico when she was 11 and that they were kicked out of her fathers house (her mom's drunk ex) and had to live on the streets. They worked every day to make money to get home and it took them two months because she got sick just as they had enough and had to be in the hospital for two weeks. She and her older sister are the only members of the church in their family. Sometimes their family doesn't have money to buy food so Luis who rents the small shack behind their house buys some for them. Most of her family is in jail for drugs are sells or other things and they just want to get away from that so badly.

 

So about the nice older woman who let us in my first week. We finally saw her again. She's been sick for the last three weeks and couldn't leave her house and didn't want us over so we wouldn't get sick. She's just amazing though!

 

We had some divine help the other day. We had just left a dinner apointment and were wondering where to go next because we had an hour till 9 still. We thought about it and said, "How about we go visit this family? They live close to here." So we went over and parked and just as we did a woman with a two year old son came walking down the dark street towards us. We went over to talk to her and just started bearing testimoney of how much Christ helps us in our lives. All of the sudden she started to cry and just kept saying, "Yes...I know." We ended up walking her home down the street and just sat and talked with her and shared testimoney. It was a really neat experieince. I don;t know that she'll join the church but she just really needed someone to talk to her that night. God puts people in our way when they need us, we see it al the time.

 

Well, I don't think I really need anything. But whatever you'd like to send down :) The members take very good care of us so we don't lack for much. They especially love that they finally have sisters. Aparently for a long time they pulled the sisters out of this area and only put them back about a year ago. So they treat us like their Princessas. They call us their floracitas (little flowers) and one family the Frietz family just love us. The hermana tells us all the time that she's our mom and if we ever need anything to just give mom a call.

 

Sounds like you guys are having a blast! I bet Primamry is so much fun! I can't wait to see how I do at the ping pong table against al of you. Of course you'll have so much practice at it that you'll kick my butt.

 

Well I love you all so much! Take care!

 

Hermana Watson