Getting to know our new area!

Hola Familia!

Hey! So Papa went up to Utah? That´s a pretty far transfer... hahaha. Sounds like you all had a fun week! I´m glad we got you out of jury duty! All the better you have sons serving a mission... ;). Haha. So life is going pretty good! That´s always good to hear!

The work here in Acahay is sure going to be interesting! There are only about 100 members here... that the members have told us. We have 28 people in church on Sunday, which is about a third! That´s pretty good! We have a baptism set for the 9th. The couple are going to get married and then he is going to be baptized. We have another girl of a less active family with a baptismal date, so we are working with that family. It´s just a little hard because there are hardly any men who are members here. The only one that I know lives an hour and a half walking from the church building, and he is a recent convert. I´ve only met him at church, so we will try to go find his house! Our Branch President lives in Paraguari, which is an hour in a bus, but he is willing to come out with us to make visits. Almost all of the members I know are from a single family, the Machuca family. The grandma is a member, almost all of her daughters and sons, and then her nieces and nephews are members. I think if all of them who are members went to church we´d have like 50 people at church. It´s a big family. Really big. Elder Griffin and I are starting to get to know the area. It´s always a process getting used to a new companion and a different way of teaching, but it´s all good. Todo tranquilo. There are a ton of fruits here, oranges, limes, and grapefruit, so we are going to do our best to make lots and lots of juice. Hahaha. Acahay is a lot like Piru, I guess. Everyone seems to be related to everyone else or at least know them or have heard of them. It´s bigger than Piru, but other than that... just like it. Now I know what the missionaries feel like going out to Piru to go teach, but at least they´ve got a car. ;). Also... it seems like it is going to be necessary to learn Guarani here... fun!

I know this is the work of the Lord and that there is a purpose in EVERYTHING. We just gotta find out what it is and do our best! Love you all! Mean it! Let´s do lunch! Take care of yourselves! Keep up all the good work and keep going strong! Love ya!

Chau!

Elder David Watson

New Companion, New Area: Elder Griffin, Acahay, Ita, Paraguay

Hey family!

That’s great to hear everything is good in the neighborhood! I’ve got a lot of news, so I will start NOW.

Transfers - yes? no? Maybe so? Well, yes! I am now out of Encarnación, and in an area called Acahay. It was closed for a while (I don’t know how long) but now we are back! My new companion is Elder Griffin from South Jordan Utah. He has 9 months in the mission and we are both completely new to this area. It was a fun first day just trying to find the house. First of all, Acahay is somewhere outside of Itá towards Paraguarí and it’s just a little town by itself in the middle of the jungle. Well, not the jungle, but there are a ton of trees and fields! So we got off the bus when we got to Acahay (we found it!) and we were just there on the highway with our stuff. The directions weren’t so awesome, and no one knew where the Mormons had lived before. So we spent some time wandering around with a frustrated ‘taxi’ driver and about after an hour of going in circles we found it. The house in and of itself needs a little work. We had to ask the missionaries from Paraguari to give us some numbers of the members here and then try to go and explore and find them. That wasn’t TOO hard, but it was fun exploring everywhere! One of the member’s sons took us around meeting members. We met about 5 or 6 families; the hard part is remembering where they all live. Haha. We talked with a part-member family, whose husband (not married technically YET) had gone to church twice. We arrived, chatted for a second, asked if he wanted to be baptized, and married, to all he said yes! So we know have a baptism for the 9th, with their daughter of 8 years. We met another less active family, where the daughter isn’t baptized, and aren’t married, so another marriage and baptism! And the young woman who works with them (20ish) wants to be baptized; the only thing is she doesn’t speak! So we are going to have to learn to teach in signs, because she doesn’t read either. So it will be a fun experience! :) One day in our new area and four people have told us that they want to be baptized! How cool is that!! This area is AWESOME, but it was hard to find a place to do internet, there isn’t a lot of stores and we had to find an “O ring” for our oven so we could cook. I have no idea what an “O ring” is in Spanish, but after about 15 minutes they understood... hahaha. All I can say is that this place is small, out of the way, but we are going to be baptizing! And IN A RIVER!!!! YEAH! That’s going to be SWEET! I am so pumped! Yeah! This place is so ready! We just have to find out where we are... hahahhaa. The church is true! The Book of Mormon is the word of God! LOVE IT!

Anyway, time is up. Hope you love the pictures. LOVE YOU! CHAU!

Elder David Watson

More Than a Year Out in the Field... Wow!

Hey family!

Well, I missed hearing from you guys this week. I’ll just get to read 2 letters next week I guess. ;). I am sure everything is going great! :)

This week was pretty good! We had a baptism on Saturday! At the same time one of the member’s daughters turned 8 that same day so we had a double baptism. Everything turned out really well! I was surprised that something DIDN’T go wrong. Elder Hatch baptized her (his first!!) and did a great job. Count your many blessings, huh? I just might beat Murphy’s Law... just maybe... hahaha. We had another cool experience that happened too! Well, more than one. The first is that we were tracting and after contacting a house, a little boy came up to us and said that his dad was home. So we went, and we found out that the man had been investigating the church almost a year ago, but he had moved to our area and lost contact with the missionaries. He’s really intelligent, and he learned to read by reading the Bible. Just a cool fact. Another contact we made in the street was really similar. He was walking with his little daughter, and he asked us, do you speak Spanish? We talked for a second and he told us that he had gone to church once, about 3 years ago, but had to move from the Chaco (Northern Paraguay) to our area where we found him. We are pretty excited to go back and teach him. Life is just great as a missionary! I am learning so much everyday! I am really beginning to understand the kind of love that the Savior has towards us. Something I really have learned is the power and responsibility we have been given with our right to choose. It is so hard to see someone make a wrong decision, but you know that you can’t make the decision for them. In many cases they won’t let you either. But to see someone make the right decision? WOW! How happy you are!! It’s just incredible! There is no way to describe it! It’s so amazing to see the changes someone makes in their life in accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Sunday School they talked about the parable of the Sower and HOW TRUE IT IS!!! Personally, as someone working for the Lord, I have seen every type of seed. It doesn’t make you angry to see a seed that hasn’t grown, rather just sad and disappointed. I have no control in making the seed grow, but I can help create the environment necessary to help it grow. But even with the perfect environment, some seeds still don’t grow. It’s a lesson I am still learning in helping all of God’s children feel His love that He has towards them and showing them the way to receive the fullness of that love. It’s called BAPTISM! Yeah! :)

Anyway, I love you all! I hope life is treating you well. Take care of yourselves. You are in my prayers. Saludos a todos! LES QUIERO! LOVE YA!!!

Chau!

Elder David Watson

Happy Anniversary

Brownies & OJ - YUM!

Hola!!!

Wow... has time really gone by that fast? (He has been in Paraguay 1 year now). That is really, really fast. I am glad that you had a great week! Our week was interesting so I am going to start out...

Baptism! That’s right! We are going to have another baptism! We are really excited because she is the wife of a member who coming back into church activity. She is awesome! We have taught her for three weeks now and she is very knowledgeable! Her husband is awesome and talks to her about the Gospel every day. She told us… I don’t think I am ready, but after we had a bomb awesome lesson with a returned local missionary (She served for 3 months as a companion with the full time missionaries here in my mission) and said a kneeling prayer, she was more convinced. The next day in church we asked her if we could announce her baptism for this Saturday, and she said sure! YEAH! And afterward, we dropped by their house to talk with them and she said she has a question. At this point I was like... ummm uh oh. But then she asked what clothing she needed for the baptism. YEAH! So cool! We are really pumped for this Saturday. And we have found a few young families so it is going to be pretty sweet! Needless to say we are pretty excited. It has still been hard to find families and people that progress, but there are miracles! All of the time and I am loving it! :) This week is going to be pretty sweet! I already know it! :)

Well time has run out once again. I don’t know how... but it’s gone. I love you all! Take care of yourselves! I know that the Lord loves each and every one of us and helps us when we do our part.

Love ya!!

Elder David Watson