Traveling from coast to coast! Of the country that is...

Dear Family!

Cool beans! Thanks so much for all of your hard work! The schedule looks good. I´m not going to worry about it too much and focus on the mission. It sounds like your week was pretty awesome! 5-5-5? It is a plan that works with Ward Council. I guess we will have to share with you all about that later!

Well, news. I am in Asunción today, and will be traveling back. We had our monthly meeting... so 12 hours of travel. Fun stuff! It gives you a LOT of time to think about investigators and how to help them out. And also to catch up on some lost sleep, leaving at midnight and getting back at midnight. But all is good that ends good. Or however it goes. The meeting we had today was pretty good. We talked a lot about the doctrine of Christ and how applying it to our personal lives will bring about a change in the lives of our investigators. We basically analyzed 2 Nephi 31 and it is amazing how clear the scriptures teach us. To sum it up in a phrase, I believe that the Doctrine of Christ is to completely submit our will to the Father´s will, being obedient to His commandments. The scriptures teach us to be humble, following the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the importance of repentance and persevering until the end. Elder Eddy and I were talking and we figured out that attending church is part of the repentance process and unless one does, he cannot repent. Also, repentance is incomplete with the baptism of water and of fire, or in other words, being baptized by immersion and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is pretty cool! President Callan explained to us that faith is basically our feelings towards God, and our willingness to do what He asks of us. Hope is how we feel about our personal salvation and our outlook towards life. With faith and hope, we can have charity which will allow us to have the pure love of Christ.

This week was pretty good! We have a mom and her son preparing for the 12th! They went to church this weekend! It was great! She is preparing a family home evening this week to teach us. Cool! We are starting to have success, and I need to keep having the faith and hope that the Lord will guide us to the people prepared to receive the Restored Gospel. I am so grateful for the atonement and the chance to repent and come unto our Savior.

Love you all! Sorry for the short email... Take care of yourselves!!!!

Elder David Watson

P.S. DearElder takes about 2 weeks. Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Letter Last Week... Power Ran Out!

Dear Family,

Thanks for everything! I truly do love you for everything you do! It sounds like you are all having lots of fun! That´s great! I am sure that life is a lot different without two munchkins to take care of, but after a couple of years it seems like you´ve got the hang of it. :) Cool!

Sorry about not sending the letter last week... the power ran out on me. ARGH! So I will finish and keep adding on for this week.

Sweet! Dad’s a pie eating contest winner! I will HAVE to see that!! REALLY DO!!! Working hard at keeping the faith and Helping others to do the same. LOVE YOU!!

Well... changes are this week, but I am staying! Elder Eddy is staying too, so I will be here for the next few months... unless something weird happens. Elder Eddy will be finishing up this change. HOW WEIRD!!! Time flies by so fast. Don´t like it. This week was pretty good! We found a lady who went to church in Ca´aguazu about 10 years ago but has a renewed interest in the church. She has a baptismal date for the 12th of November! Yeah! She is really great and understands everything that we are teaching her. Did I tell  you that some Elders in my zone found the very first person I baptized here in Paraguay? The missionaries out there in Presidente Franco are working with her and her son to become active again in the church. We went to go see Saltos de Monday last Monday, and it was great! But I don´t have any pictures because I forgot my camera and Elder Eddy accidentally erased many of his pictures. He was pretty unhappy about it, but he´s making up for it by taking a lot of pictures......

This week, we´ve been working pretty hard! The heat is starting to kick up, but that is expected. We are continuing to work with that family and helping them get ready to receive the ordinances of baptism on the 12th. We also were able to start meeting with a less active convert and her family, who are her mother and some other family members. The mom is Brazilian but is super smart! She has taken a liking to the lessons and the church, and we are seeing a lot of progress. She has a lot of faith and has decided that she needs a big change in her life. Which is amazing because that is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers! We are also working with a mother and her two kids (the dad is pretty standoffish at this point) and they should be able to go to church this week. The son had some mandatory classes that he had to take every Sunday and his mother had to accompany him, but that ends this Thursday and they should be ready to hit the ground running! We have been visiting them for about a month, month and half now, they love the Book of Mormon and are excited to go to church! We finally had the chance to chat a little with the dad, but he´ll soften up. He´s a good guy! We also were talking with a few families down in a part called San Rafael, and managed to find a pretty good family! The father had a stroke 7 years ago and is bed ridden, hardly conscious, but his wife and kids are listening and have taken a great interest in the Plan of Salvation. Ciudad del Este is different than the rest of Paraguay, as is every part, but we are finally get the hang of teaching the people here and learning how to satisfy their needs with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love being a missionary! It is amazing! I enjoy every minute of being able to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and helping people to understand the Plan of Salvation and how it can benefit their lives. It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord in His work and being able to be a part of it.

Thank you so much! I love you for everything and am so grateful! Take care of yourselves!

con mucho cariño

Elder David Watson

I Am Still Learning New Things!!!!

Elder Eddy & Elder Watson

Dear Family

Sounds like a fun week! Wow... Sadie would be about 10 by now... right? Essh... how time flies. Way to go Dad! That makes me really excited!!! I am really happy to hear about your progress! I know that has been something that had been bugging you for a long time, and it makes me happy to know that your health is getting better! Gotta love it!!! What do you mean Mom... not too shabby? You are probably doing pretty good! :)

Well... life here on the east end of town is going great! We are finding some really good people to teach. We are working hard to find families that are ready to receive the restored Gospel. We did divisions this week and I went out to Presidente Franco with Elder Beatty, a missionary that is in his 2nd transfer here in Paraguay. Wow... he speaks super well and teaches pretty well! We had a really good time together and I learned a lot. We had some good discussions about gospel principles and doctrine, motivations and the blessings of keeping the commandments. It really surprises me still all the stuff I learn from the new Elders getting here... they are so prepared! It really is true that every coming generation of youth is getting better and better. It was fun to talk to him because he also knows Jake Watson, he ran track with him at UVU. We had an investigator, Ismael, come to church these past two weeks, and we are working pretty hard with him. He is a father of two kids and is a mechanic. He really thinks a lot about everything we have taught and contemplates it. We are happy to see his progress. All in all, I love being a missionary! Even in the hard times, the blessings of the Lord are amazing. :)

Sorry for the short letter this week... we are running out to Monday Falls (Saltos de Monday) later today and have to get everything ready. I love you all so much! Say hi to everyone for me!

LOVE YOU!!!

Elder Watson

Livin´ on the East Side of Town... I Mean the Country...

Dear Family

HEY! What a weekend! Just so you know, I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!! It was super inspiring. I loved it. It sounds like you had a fun filled week. That is super cool. Sounds like Dad has a new hobby... uh oh. Should be interesting!!! ;)

Well... this week was really good. We found a really great family! They were members of another church, but due to some circumstance their church sort of fell apart. They are in the process of looking for another church, so we came in at a great time. They are attending another church at the moment, but don´t quite like it. The wife just had an operation so she has lots of time to read... she has read a couple of the pamphlets that we have left and parts of the Book of Mormon. They both really like what they are learning, but I feel the Guaraní language barrier might slow things down with the father. He speaks all right in Spanish and understands most of what we say, but this is a case where we really need the members to come in with their special Guarani skills. I can only get so far with ´How are you?´ and ´How old are you?´ and ´Where do you live?´ hahaha. It´s a fun language but HARD, but I am learning a bit. I have been learning a bit of Portuguese too while I have been here in Ciudad del Este. I am still trying to focus mainly on Spanish though, as it is the language of the mission and will do me the most good here. We are also working with a small family out by a family we recently found and are working with them to progress. It is awesome seeing the people learn about the Gospel and start to change their lives.

I loved conference!! Especially the talks of Elder Packer, Elder Holland, Elder Christofferson and Presidente Uchtdorf´s in the Saturday Afternoon session. I took some good notes, so now it is time to apply what we have learned. Pres. Uchtdorf said in a past conference, "Let us change our ´Do it ´switch to the ´Now´ position" so no time to waste!! I felt that there was a specific urgency when the prophet and the apostles spoke to move forward, look up, wait upòn the Lord and to always have the Spirit to be with us. Doing these things can give us the peace and hope that we need in an ever changing world. I love how our Heavenly Father is constant in an evolving world and so that we can always rely upon Him to protect and to bless us with the inspiration and revelation we need to press forward. These men are really inspired of God and have His authority to be apostles and prophets in these days. It is amazing to see the love of God expressed in the consejos (umm counsels?) that they have given us to apply to our lives to live within the boundaries that God has set up for us. Let us never take ourselves out of these boundaries and expose our weak selves to the temptations and evils of the devil. For I know that man is nothing, but through Him, Jesus Christ, who saved us and died for us, all things are possible. We have the divine ability to exercise our agency to become perfect through repentance and keeping the commandments of God. It is a perfect plan that has no flaws, and if we keep to it, I know that we shall always have the peace and happiness of knowing that God is on our side, and there is no need to fear.

I am so grateful for you guys and everything you do for me! Thank you thank you thank you, and may God bless you!

Love con cariño

Elder David Watson