Elder David Watson

Merry Christmas and I will see you @ New Years!

2011-12-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

Hey Family,

It was great to speak with you! Despite all of the phone lines and mess, we managed it. Yeah! That´s awesome to hear about Ruben and the new member in the ward family - Martin, and about the baking adventures. Oh... baked goods. How I love them... ;) haha.

Well... what do I say? This is the last letter. AH!!!!!!!!! Not cool. But I am readyyyyyyyy to go to work! :D. We´ve got lots of plans Monday and Tuesday to go find those people who are waiting to hear the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yeah! Our investigator situation as of right now is basically the same, trying to find those people are who looking to know the truth. Lots of funny stories though... they´ll have to wait ´til home. Sorry! I was thinking about what I was going to say today, and I decided that I would write my testimony. Qué le parece?

The mission has been an absolutely amazing experience. I have learned SO MUCH! I have seen many changes in the lives of those I have been able to serve and in my own life. It really is true the saying, losing yourself in the service of others brings to pass miracles in your own life. The times I most changed were those times I spent of all my energy, focus and time on serving those around me. Be it my companion, the members, investigators or random people in the street. Another saying I grew to appreciate, people don´t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Charity and love is such an important part of life. Really, without it, life is kind of self-centered and dull. Missionary work without charity is just about impossible. Reaching the Celestial Kingdom without it IS impossible. I´ve learned so much about what love can do for other people and their progression towards eternal life. And then, I grew to love these people from the bottom of my heart, being happy with their progression and positive changes in their lives, and more determined to help them when they are going through hard times. I have learned a lot about mercy and justice. Truly, justice does not work without mercy, and mercy without justice does not work. If I were completely just and not merciful, where is the love I have for others? Where is the charity? If I were completely merciful and not just, what does that say about the laws of God and the importance of keeping the commandments and that no unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of Heaven? Thankfully, the answer is Jesus Christ. He suffered the price for all sins. For all pains. For all sickness. And through Him, the only Mediator between us and the Father, all He requires of us is to keep the commandments and to repent of our sins. Heavenly Father is perfectly just, yet perfectly merciful, because our Savior and Redeemer. Repentance really is a merciful gift from the Father, as He allows us to change and become more like His Son every day. Having faith in with the promise of forgiveness allows us to freely repent and to trust in our Lord and Savior. Baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost are also requirements. And enduring to the end, faithfully and joyfully, allows us to become like our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I personally know that our Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us. That He loves us. That He has hope for us. And through His Son, we can live with Him again. The Book of Mormon is a powerful testament of these truths. It truly is the word of God and is another testament of Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ, His church, was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. He was called and ordained of God. Christ is our Savior, and by His stripes, we are healed. Even though our sins be as scarlet, they can as white as snow. By His grace, He gives us mercy. By His justice, He requires our hearts and minds dedicated to live His gospel and keeping His commandments. Of this I know. With surety, without doubt. And all who desire can know the truth. Just seek, and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened. Have faith, trust in the Lord, and let the Lord change your life. It is possible because it happened to me!

Well, that was long. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! And I will be home by NEW YEARS! :D

WITH MUCH LOVE!!!

Elder David Watson

There is no break for the workers in Zion! Carry on! :D

2011-12-21T14:14:00.001-08:00

Dear family,

Cool week! That is so exciting! I am glad that everything is going well for you all! Man... I remember the day Alec left... whoa... time flies by!! Gotta love every minute of it. :) So you are officially in winter break mom? I suppose so. I would imagine with this Sunday being Christmas. I am honestly so confused as to how States life is. I am going to have a culture shock coming back... hahaha... awesome! Baptism in the ward! I am willing to help the missionaries out teaching lessons if they want! It´ll be awesome!!!!!!! :) Especially if they are teaching in Piru. Let´s do it! :) Oh... Dad always knows what he is talking about. Much to my chagrin... ;).

This week... hmm. Well, we have been working with several new investigators trying to help them progress and receive the blessings that the Lord is offering them. A lot of talking in the street and meeting new people, but the Lord has prepared these people to receive the restored Gospel. We have a new ward mission leader, and he is super excited to do the work! He is so pumped up! It´s awesome to see his excitement and his ideas and advice to help bring more people to Christ. This Thursday we had an End of the Year ward party, and the ward asked us to put on a skit thing. It´s hard to explain, but we were ´mini´ missionaries, I being the new missionary and Elder Clement the trainer, which was a lot of fun!! I have to get the video from him... I couldn´t get it on my camera. But it was quite enjoyable. So this week is going to be a building up week so that we can have some strong progressing investigators that can be baptized in January. Kewl!

Well, MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone, enjoy the wonderful time of the year that we have to worship the birth of our Savior, and to spend the time with the family. It is a wonderful time of the year and should be treasured! Talk to you SUNDAY!! Love you!!

Elder Watson

Crazy How Time Flies!

2011-12-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Dear Family

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it´s already December 12th. Crazy... time flies doesn´t it? I think by the time we get home everything in the house will be replaced or different... hahahaha... ;). Just giving you a bad time. Trunky... no time to be trunky. I am still showing my companion around the area, although he has picked up quite a bit for being here a week and a half. I also have another missionary companionship I need to work with and their area, so busy busy busy. Wow... Alec is already back. Ruben and Alex are getting home too. Paul got his call!!!!!!!!! Sweet jacks! Going to Mexico! Yeah! If I had anything to say, the new missionary (Elder Rodriguez?) would be going. 5 months is a long time in your first area. Just my thoughts.

Well... the work is going!! We are working hard trying to find the chosen and elect people who are ready to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We´ve been seeing many ups and downs, but gotta keep pressing on. Gotta keep moving. It´s hard work, but that´s the way the missionary work is. I don´t know what else to say. We are still working with Martirez and his family. The kids are reading and loving the Book of Mormon. Our other family we´ve been working with, are doing good. They all came to church on Sunday ) the dad is an ex missionary). The only problem is that Daniela, the wife, is moving with the kids next week, so the missionaries will have to keep working with her down there. We´ve been trying to find a lot of new investigators, so the work keeps moving on. Y... así es. And that´s the way the cookie crumbles. The mission is focusing on finishing the year strong, so we are going to do our part and work work work. Yesterday the stake had an activity for youth wanting to leave on the mission so we were invited to share a bit with them and our experiences. That was fun.

Well... I don´t have much to say this week. Sorry! I hope everything keeps going well! I love you all! TAKE CARE!!!

Love

Elder Watson

I hear Christmas Music

2011-12-11T20:33:00.001-08:00

Dear Family

WHOA! It is so weird being in the city... everyone is up to date (as much as you can be here). Last year I didn´t really hear or see too much American Christmas influence, but here in Cidade del Este, there is a ton! Super weird... I was with my new comp, Elder Tilleman, in the market and heard a bunch of Christmas music... weird... but anyway. That sounds like everything is going great for you all! Time is flying by pretty quickly huh? Cottage cheese... I forgot that existed. And sour cream... whoa. Way to go super tech mom! You are learning! Yeah!! :D Guacamole... Salsa Mexicana... whoa... you are blowing my mind... hahaha. Cool the Christmas party! Our end of year party for the ward is the 15th... there is going to be a talent show and we´ve been invited to do a skit, we the 4 missionaries. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. What can we do? Hehehe...Well, I guess I will get started.

Well, like I said, I have a new companion! He is from Phoenix, Arizona, and has been in the mission for 6 months. He speaks really well for his time, and is starting to pick up Guaraní. Something I´ve forgotten a lot of, but it´s fun learning it again with him. I am his third companion, and Ciudad del Este is his 2nd area. And I am not a Zone Leader anymore, so I´m NOT IN ASUNCION!!! YEAH!!! That was pretty exciting news... not having to travel last night. Always such a bother. Traveling on the omnibus isn´t so much fun being tall... it´s hard to sleep. Oh, Elder Tilleman is taller than me (6´4´´ ish) super weird. My tallest companion by far. I feel little walking with him. I really miss Elder Eddy, he was a ton of fun to be with. We worked well together and had the same vision, which makes the difference in a companionship. We are working with Martirez and his kids, they are super awesome. We taught them the Sabbath Day last night and I really enjoy seeing their faith and growth. They have a baptismal date for the end of the month, but I would love for them to be baptized the weekend before on Christmas Eve. I can see it happening! We´ve got a lot of new investigators that we are working with, so we will see how they progress. I am just super excited to work with Martirez and with the members so that we can make the change in their family and see that great big smile that comes from a new understanding of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Love it!

Well, life is going good. We are working hard. I am always learning a lot. It´s hot but not too hot yet. The heat should be cranking up in these next few days and weeks. Gotta love the summer!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, questions comments concerns? Jokes? I am all ears! Love you mean it let’s do lunch. Keep working hard! I love being a missionary! That´s the way to be! Take care of yourselves!!!!!!!!! CHAU!!!!

Con cariño

Elder David Watson

Sports analogies

2011-11-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hey family!

How´s it going? It sounds like you had a great thanksgiving week! That is awesome! So I guess the new back door is made out of steel then? I guess I will have to be careful in not getting my hand stuck in there when it slams shuts. That wouldn´t be fun at all. Not a bit. Got to keep working hard at surfing! You can do it! . That`s great you went to go visit Brandon. I am sure he enjoyed the company. We had a good week, so I`ll get started.
Well... on Wednesday we had our zone conference. It was a really good experience. It helped me learn and realize things I need to work, both as a missionary and a as a person. We had many examples that were rather enjoyable (no rules, what do we do, rules, basketball, golf clubs - you can carry 14 with you, who needs 14? Really??, use everything available, situations of being obedient, stuff like that). It broke the routine of what we normally do in zone conferences so it was a really nice change. Elder Eddy also had his final interview with President Callan after the zone conference. Whoa!!! My second companion who has finished his mission with me. It is quite the experience, let me tell you. I have learned a ton in these 4 months with Elder Eddy, and putting them in practice will help me a lot. The beginning of the week was pretty rough with our investigators... everyone just seemed to lose interest and not want to make changes in their lives. But, the end of the week was really good! We had an awesome lesson with Craig and Daniela, the return missionary and his wife from Argentina, where she expressed some of her doubts and was able to resolve some of them by herself on the spot. Pretty cool! It is a process still, but I have faith that she will be baptized! On Saturday, we went to go to talk to a man that´s a friend of a member who is a single father with 6 kids, ages 13 12 10 8 6 3, and works from 12 - 9 every afternoon except for Sundays. He, Martirez, was really receptive and is an awesome guy! His kids are pretty cool too! It was a big find for us, so we will be working hard with him so that he progresses and comes to church next week. Saturday night, the other missionaries from our ward had a baptism of a 24 year old guy, Victor, and he shared his testimony after his baptism. He´s got a strong testimony. It was cool to hear about his progress and where he is at now.

I still don´t know the changes, but I will be staying here. It makes me happy to be here with the members and having yet another opportunity to find those people waiting to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

SI SE PUEDE!

Con cariño!!

Elder David Watson

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T19:11:00.001-08:00

Hey Family

Well, it sounds like you had a great week! That is awesome! I did have Bill Garfield as a sub before. That is sad to hear that he passed away.

Being busy is good... better than having nothing to do!!! :D.

This week was all right. We´ve had to drop a few of our investigators because they weren´t progressing. That´s always a little hard to do, especially when they are very good people. That´s life though. We have to make changes if we hope to become better. We did find a family this week that has been going through some tough times. The mom had some experiences with the church when she was a youth and has desires to change. Her kids are pretty funny... every one of them has a nickname for around the house. The oldest kid, Marcos, is 16 plays the guitar really well and sings. He is in a youth group type of thing where they have a band that plays religious music. He played a song at the end of a lesson that was pretty cool to listen to. They are all super good people so we are going to help them progress!! We also were working with a couple, Craig and Daniela. Craig is a return missionary from the 90´s and his wife is from Argentina who has known the church for a very long time. They have been coming to church, and their little girls participated in the primary presentation the other week. They are progressing little by little, so we will see where that comes out to. Another member from who lived in San Lorenzo brought his girlfriend (who is a lawyer!!) to church and she is interested in the church. Currently she is living in another area but she will be moving this week. Hopefully she will progress too! That´s all that we´ve got for now... but this week should be a good one. And yes, it is raining here. But that´s nothing new... it´s been raining every weekend for the past month, except yesterday. Which was nice. But yeah, we are working, and hopefully everything will come out the way we planned!

Thank you for your love and support. It means a lot for me. Take care of yourselves! I LOVE YOU!!!

Elder David Watson

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2011-11-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

Dear family,

First off... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I didn´t forget, and I have it written in my agenda if you don´t believe me. ;). And for your birthday, like Dad´s last year... BAPTISM! Yeah! ;) What luck, huh?? Good news around the board it sounds like... I do remember you saying something about Elder Sessions a while ago... I think when I trained. Around then. Pig Latin... please no. English is hard enough. Hahaha. The paper letter? It should arrive in time (1 month´s time) and that would be cool to get right before Christmas. Digamos a christmas present. ... Digamos would be.... let´s say? Something like that. Kewl... 14 hours of school. It works.

Alrighty. This week. Hard, but good. BAPTISM!!!! Yeah!! Finally!!!! But we did receive some rather strange news on Wednesday... Blanca, the lady who was going to be baptized, was told by her older son who is 21 that they had been baptized about 12 years ago in Ca´aguazu (Where I started). She didn´t remember anything, but we sent off her information in search of the truth. Lots of calls between the office, the missionaries in Ca´aguazu, and finally an email to Buenos Aires confirmed that she is a member, on Friday morning. CRAZY!!!! That drove us both up the wall because we had to figure out stuff for her interview, the baptism that weekend, but in the end, everything came out really well. Her son, Hugo, got baptized and was SUPER EXCITED! Elder Eddy baptized him and it went really well. Hugo even participated in the Primary program this Sunday, and did a great job! It is so cool to see his energy and excitement, and that his mom has a new growing testimony with which we are going to baptize her other son who isn´t a member and work with the oldest son and his girlfriend. Yeah! Rain threatened to postpone everything, but with the help of members and their cars (WHAT A BLESSING IT IS TO HAVE A CAR!!!!!) everything came out really well. We also had a big scare on Wednesday, the second counselor and the Bishop had a motorcycle accident, the 2nd counselor is a motorcycle taxi driver, and as they were approaching the Bishop´s house and turning the corner, another motorcycle slammed into them at full speed from behind. Luckily, they both were wearing their helmets and nobody was hurt really bad. Even the kid who crashed (and wasn´t wearing a helmet) came out of it all right... it will take a while for him to get back on his feet though. We found out when the 2nd counselor got home with his beat up bike and pretty torn up clothing... so after giving him a blessing, we went to the Bishop´s house the next day and gave him a blessing too. Motorcycles are insane... but everything came out alright. What a blessing. We are still working hard and trying our best. Life is good, and that´s the way the cookie crumbles.

Well... that´s about it. Happy happy birthday, have a great week. I love you. Thank you for EVERYTHING!!! Please please take care of yourselves. LOVE YOU!!!

Elder David Watson

Awesome Week!

2011-11-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Awesome week! I am not going to lie, did not miss Halloween. I can´t imagine trying to proselyte that day. Crazy stuff. Thank you for the pictures! They are great! I will ask President if I can send Jake a quick email every now and then. He did tell us only immediate family members, but who knows. I am going to have to type quickly today, so excuse the errors!

This week was good! We are finally having a baptism this weekend!!! Yeah!! The first one in about five months... give or take. In Paraguay, as we are constantly told... that is a long time to go without baptizing someone. But she is a single mom with a 9-year-old son, and they are great! She went to church in Caaguazú a while back, but she is doing great now. We are pumped for their baptism this weekend. We are teaching the mom of a somewhat recent convert who is from Brazil, and I cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to teach someone who understands completely what we say and read. It´s hard sometimes, well a lot of times, because of the illiteracy level here, to read scriptures and have people understand. We have to simplify many things we teach, leaving out more detailed stuff, and then going back to reteach the same lessons but going into more depth. But Rosane, she immediately can read, understand and apply. She understands Spanish, even though she is from Brazil, which is awesome. The Guarani language barrier here can be really tough at times, but luckily here in Ciudad del Este we don´t have to face that too much. We had some other investigators drop this week due to the father and his decision that we can´t come by anymore, and that was hard. The area they live in is pretty sketchy, but it is always hard to leave those people that are accepting of the restored gospel. The trip to Asuncion was really really tiring, but that´s the way it is. We had breakfast burritos this week!!! Yeah! Elder Eddy and I made them twice, once with the Bishop´s family and today... so good!!!!!! I am really enjoying being a missionary and loving life here in Paraguay!!

Thank you for all of your support and love!! Please keep up the hard work! I love you!!!

Elder David Watson

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

2011-10-31T17:11:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-10-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2011-10-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-10-03T16:38:00.001-07:00

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

The Beginning of Fall

2011-09-29T15:19:00.001-07:00

Dear Family

This week... fun stuff! That is so cool that Dad wants to go surfing again! It´ll be fun to go surfing with him. Pool party!! Fun stuff! Sounds like you all had a blast with that. I remember having done that. It was always a lot of fun. Somehow you always have to find fun stuff for the youth.

You know what? In our meeting today (I am in Asuncion for today and tomorrow) we talked about Sister Vero Martinez going on her mission. It so awesome to see how people progress!!! Got to love it.

Good work getting the morning glory... that´s hard stuff! ;).

It sounds like the ward is progressing!! That is awesome! I can´t wait to go back and speak in ALL Spanish... hehehe... :).

Well, we had divisions with the assistants this week. We found a lot of potential investigators so we will see where that all goes. I am super excited to be here in Ciudad del Este. It is one of the hardest areas I have been in to find people who progress to teach, but one of the most rewarding. I really do enjoy being here and teaching the people the Plan of Salvation.

Yesterday was Elder Eddy´s birthday, so that was fun. He gave a really good talk about the Book of Mormon! What we have is SO valuable to the people. We were talking one day, Elder Eddy and I, about what would it be like to not have the gospel knowledge that we have. I wouldn´t have a purpose in life. I´d be lost! Really, I would! What would I have to look forward to? Work, maybe having a family some day, college parties, not so great hobbies that many young adults find themselves in. There wouldn´t be any path to walk! It´s like Alice in Wonderland... if we have no idea where we want to be, it doesn´t matter what road you take. Something like that. I mean, if I didn´t know that God loved me; I would have no motivation to keep the commandments. If I didn´t know if there was life after death, I would feel pointless working so hard to raise a family. If I didn´t know that there are consequences for sins, I would have no reason not to. But this is what I do know. That Christ is our Savior, that He loves us in his infinite mercy and charity. That God is our Heavenly Father, that He desires our Salvation and wants to bless us. That there is a plan in life, that God is Just yet Merciful at the same time. That there is a purpose to my life. That there are so many blessings, temporal and spiritual of keeping the commandments. I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, and really the fact that I can live with my Heavenly Father again. I love being a missionary, I love being here in Paraguay. It isn´t easy, but what is easy and still worth it? NADA!!

I love you all! I am out of time. Take care of yourselves! A BIG HUG!!

With a lot of love,

Elder David Watson

Great Week!

2011-09-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Family

First off, Mom... I said less than 138... hehehehehe... but I hadn´t taken the time to count exactly... ;). But anyway, it doesn´t look like I will have to count because you are already doing it. I am waiting also to hear the travel plans... as for me and my part, I won´t know until the very last few weeks. You should be receiving as well an email about the official plans. Yo no sé. No idea...

Well, this week was super fun. We had a blast! It was one of our investigator´s birthdays, so we got the members involved and had a little birthday party. It was super `fun and she really liked it. One of our investigators moved to Buenos Aires, but we are still teaching his girlfriend here. She is pretty sincere! We had our part member family come to church again this week, so that was really awesome! She is progressing, and we just need to help her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and look towards the temple. What else happened this week? Not much, we are helping our investigators progress, and we are in the process of finding more investigators. Opening up an area is kind of difficult, but worth the pain. Opening up Acahay was a lot easier to find people to teach, but here we are seeing a lot more progression with the investigators. We are really focusing on the Book of Mormon and sharing it with the investigators. I know it is the word of God, and it is another testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It has helped me to change my life and it will change the life of anyone who reads it with an open heart.

Surfing? Dad went surfing? I want to surf!!! That´s cool... better learn fast and before I get home because that´s on my to do list. ;). Sorry for the short letter, I really do love you all. I am grateful to be here and learning so much and being able to help the people of Paraguay come closer to our loving Heavenly Father. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder David Watson

We Will Never Forget!

2011-09-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Family

I didn´t forget yesterday either. It wasn´t big here at all... no one mentioned anything about it to us. But we won´t forget, and it is another day to reflect on how great being an American really is and how many blessings we are afforded living there, being the government, schooling, work, life style, anything. It really is a big blessing to live there. It sounds like you had a rather nice week without too much going on, if I read it right. That´s great! I am bummed to hear that the other Elder Watson got a change, but at least he is CLOSER! I like that! Being moved from area to area isn´t fun, but that´s what I will probably be doing in a month. Maybe I will stay here, but I don´t know. I would like to, to a point, but really the Lord`s will is what matters, not mine. So whatever happens happens.

This week was pretty awesome! We had 3 investigators in church this week - progression! We are finding lots of great people and the area is starting to move forward! We have a baptism planned for the 1st, so EXCITED! It´s a 20-year-old young woman with her little brother that came to church yesterday. They loved it, and the members did an awesome job helping them feel welcome. It is such a big difference. We also had another family come to church where the wife is not a member yet, and it put the biggest smile on my face. We have been working with them for a month or so, and seeing them there in church made me so happy. Seeing the dad, the mom, and their two little girls sitting there in Sacrament Meeting just made my day. Like my friend Elder Abe Wilson (he´s in the Toronto Canada mission) said, I never really cared before who came to church as in investigators, to a degree, but now the simple fact that a loved brother or sister came to church just completely makes me happy. IT´S awesome. They are so awesome! She works almost all day, and goes to night school to finish high school, but seeing her face brighten with the gospel of Jesus Christ and her understanding of the plan of Salvation is better than anything else. You can literally see a difference in the faces of the people who want to learn and grow closer to our Father in Heaven. It is awesome!! I love it. We have been working a lot with a couple of less active members and it is amazing seeing the testimonies grow and see them share the blessings they have received in their life with everyone around them. It is jaw dropping to feel the love of our Heavenly Father in my life and to see how it really does affect every aspect of the lives of our investigators and those we teach the restored gospel to. There really is nothing better than feeling the Holy Ghost testify of the truth, and feeling life´s burdens and weight being lifted from our shoulders. There is nothing like receiving an answer from our Father in Heaven that this is the path we need to take, and that what we are learning is the truth. It is amazing to share the gospel with others and feel the Holy Ghost testify of the truths that I have known all of my life and see how those truths shape the lives of the people. The Plan of Salvation really is perfect and there is nothing that could replace it. There is no other way someone can more perfectly describe the purpose of our life here, why things happen, what we are supposed to do with our lives while we are here, and all for what end. The Plan of Salvation fits better than putting puzzles pieces together. There is just nothing that can really replace it. We have a purpose, and God loves us, and he allows to progress, learn, and to become better. Everyone falls, but he who doesn´t fall can´t learn to pick himself back up. And if he doesn´t pick himself up, he can´t feel the exhilaration of being able to run. It´s so true, just take a minute to look at life. God exists, and He has given us a Way to walk. Just take it!

Well, I have got to go. I love you all so much. Take care of yourselves. I´ve got to use these last few precious months to the fullest! I love being a missionary!! :D

Elder David Watson

Ciudad del Este

2011-09-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Family!

Well oh well... what a week! I am glad to hear that she (Sister Mink) is resting from her pains and troubles. I have seen too many people suffering from illnesses and pains that I can imagine how nice it will be to finally rest from all of our cares and worries in the Spirit World, well, that is if ya go to Paradise. :)

Ray and Erin? Yeah!!! That is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could have been there to see the smiles on their faces. TOO COOL!

And Sister Vero Martinez!! Muito legal! Eu falou muito poco portugues, quero aprender mais pra falar melhor. Happy day!

News from changes - nothing! I get to stay another change! Woo hoo! I love it here in Ciudad del Este. The ward here is great! There are so many families here that are awesome! The members here have some strong testimonies and it is such a relief to see a ward that functions well here in Paraguay! We are starting to work better with the members and we are finding some great investigators. We are teaching the mom of Javier Melgarejo, who we were able to reactivate and she has made so much progress! It is amazing to see the difference that the gospel is making in her life. She is going through lots of sicknesses and pains, but it is such a joy to see the hope that the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives to people. We are also teaching some nice little families and we are super excited to see their progress. It has been a little hard starting up this area from nothing, but we are starting to see the fruits of our efforts. It is so different working here in Downtown and the areas round about. It is a different lifestyle, but the Gospel is still so important that everyone needs to hear it! There are lots and lots of Middle Easterners, Asians, and Brazilians here, but the diversity makes it fun. Slowly we are finding the less active families and it is so cool to see them start to make changes in their lives. We found a little family here downtown, where the husband is a less active and his wife isn´t a member, but they are awesome! We are going to be working really hard with them to get them to come back to church (she knows a ton about the church and knows the missionaries VERY well) so that she can be baptized. I really enjoy working here with Elder Eddy, we are working in a different manner than I have in my whole mission, but we are seeing better results. He`s helping me a lot to keep progressing and growing. We are super excited to keep working together here in CdE and edify the Church! :)

I am super happy to hear that everything is going great back home. Don`t get into too much trouble... although I believe I would have liked taking apart the laptop too. Hahaha. Tell everyone I say HI and give them a GREAT BIG HUG! I miss you all, but I am so so glad to be a servant of the Lord and preaching the restored Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It saddens me that time is starting to come to an end, but I am going to make to most out of it and bring back some stray sheep to the fold!

Love you tons!!! CHAU!!!!

Elder D. Watson

Another Crazy Week!

2011-08-29T16:23:00.001-07:00

Hey Family!

Well, that was the reason I didn’t get the email last week! Pictures make the email slow. Oh well. I still got to read it! You are absolutely right - I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation! It really gives us a peace and strength to know what we need to do in this life in order to prepare for what happens after death. It helps us to know that families can be forever, and that the death does not separate the family - what a blessing it is to know that.

This week has been awesome and super busy! We were getting things ready for this week and for the conference with President Arnold! It was an amazing conference! I felt the spirit so much!!! We learned a lot about having the spirit always with us, becoming more like Jesus Christ and working with the members. I had the privilege of having an interview with President Arnold - I know personally that he has been called of God and that he does have the authority to be one of Christ`s witnesses as a seventy. It was an amazing and spiritual experience. I learned a ton and I know I have to keep making changes in my life and as a missionary. It was awesome to see that everything Elder Eddy and I have been trying to do in our area is exactly what we learned about in the conference! It helps me to know that I have the authority of our Lord and Savior to be a missionary here and to help the people of Paraguay come closer to our Redeemer and to make the changes in their lives and to become spiritually clean through baptism. I love being a missionary!!! I am growing to love the people and see in them what our Heavenly Father sees in them!

I am sorry for the short letter! I promise to send a much better letter next week! Love you tons!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take care of yourself!!!!

Elder D. Watson

Thanks for the email address! Is there anything I can do for you all? Let me know! LOVE YOU!!!

I Can't Think of Anything Catchy

2011-08-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Family

Well, what´s new? Life here is going fine. I guess the email system is acting up again because I didn´t get the weekly email, but that´s all right. I`ll get over it.

This week was a little nutty... we finally got moved into our new apartment. It´s not the best apartment in the world, but it works. We are living in downtown right now, which makes things nice because we are close to everything. Logistically speaking. If that´s the right word. Anyway. It´s been pretty cold lately (I know not as cold as down south) with lots and lots and lots of rain. Puts a damper on things. The work`s been picking up little by little. We are trying to focus on working with the members instead of by ourselves. We can teach teach teach all we want, but if the members aren´t in on the teaching and the fellowshipping, it´s not worth it. For the longest time, things have been divided - the members and the missionaries. It`s a big problem because many of the converts fall away when the missionary who baptized them gets a transfer. Rather sad too. But if the members are the main focus in the lessons, and all we do is help them teach their friends and loved ones, the church will watch out for the welfare of one another´s souls. Instead of the missionaries taking care of things. It`s rather daunting trying to start something like this, but the excitement of the members as many of them are learning how to share the gospel helps out a lot. Things would be so much better if the members had their converts instead of every missionary. Sure, the limelight and importance will placed on the members instead of the missionaries, but that is all right. I don`t need anymore pride - I`m trying to get rid of it. I`d much rather that each convert has a strong relationship with the members than with me. Although it is rather important to love those you teach and charity for them, I’d rather slip out of the picture on the back end after everything is said and done after a baptism. I have much more confidence that a new member, with lots of members looking out for him, will stay active rather than trusting in the missionaries to keep him active. Which isn`t the job of the missionaries anyway. It`s rather inspiring to see the members get excited when they see the vision of how the Lord`s work should be run and the many blessings that are waiting them and their loved ones who are ready to accept the gospel in their lives. It`s also pretty cool to see the testimonies of the members themselves grow and develop as we help them learn how to share the gospel. It is a huge process, but a process that is worth it.

We`ve been teaching the mom of a member we activated (who would rather speak English with us while we are with him and Spanish to his mother). It`s been amazing being able to teach the Plan of Salvation and helping people get the whole picture of what this life is about. She`s been rather sick these past few years, but as she grows to understand the purpose of life, why we go through trials and difficulties, and what`s the purpose of bettering our life here rather than eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Life is so much more than living in the moment. There is a goal so much more divine than living to make a fortune. There is a purpose so much more pure than wander around until we find a place to be comfortable in our lives. The purpose of life is to be happy - to prepare ourselves to meet our Divine Maker. The goal is to live with our Father in Heaven after this life - with Him and where no unclean thing can dwell. Life is about becoming more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Great Jehovah. He is the Perfect Example. He is the Divine Role Model. It is Him who we should pattern our lives after. Big whoop how much money we have when we die - how big our house is - how nice a car we have. Have a higher vision, look beyond the moment, see what God wants you to see. We can take nothing with us in this life - only who we are, what we`ve done, the desires of our hearts, and if we have followed the Lord and kept His commandments, and have been sealed in the Holy Temple by the divine power and authority of the Almighty, we can live with our families forever. It`s amazing when you think about it like that. The Gospel of Jesus Christ solves any family problem - solves any personal problem - it just takes the desire and the will to take that first step in the footsteps of Him who blazed the trial. May the Lord bless you all with this desire to follow Him in the straight and narrow path that leads to Eternal Life and Salvation.

I love you all. Time is up. Say hi to everyone.

Elder D. Watson

We helped translate for visitors, in English!

2011-08-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

Dear family!

I am sorry for the loss in the family... I didn´t know Greg but I can imagine that is rather hard for you. I am sad to hear about the loss of Ed as well. Please send my best wishes to everyone.

Wow! It sounds like you had a nice trip home! That is excellent! I am glad you got home safe and everything. I remember taking those car trips and it being a good time. Although, most of the time was spent sleeping or on the gameboy hahaha. Oh the joys of being a child hahaha.

Stake Conference! I love Stake Conference!!! Thanks to the family, ward, and stake for their support and prayers - they mean a lot! :).

Well well well. This week. We had a baptism in the ward! One of the families we are preparing are getting closer to their goals. Their 16 year old son decided to be baptized so Elder King and Elder Henriquez prepared him! It was nice going back to see the family and their progression. I hadn´t seen them for a couple of weeks besides Sundays so it was nice to be able to teach them once again and see how everyone was. The dad is so great - he is helping the missionaries teach his neighbors! Those missionaries are going to be super busy! :). Elder Eddy and I have been working hard getting to know the members and less actives, and teaching their families and friends. We have found some excellent people and we are excited to activate members, strengthen the testimonies of the members (all of them) and finding the prepared people the Lord has put in our path. It´s amazing seeing the testimonies and the faith of the Paraguayan people, even if half the ward isn´t Paraguayan... :). Well, not half but a good portion. This Sunday we had many people from the US, a good chunk being from Utah. What happened? A service medical group (Hope Alliance?) came to Ciudad del Este to visit the hospitals and health centers. They gave us a call to ask to help translate, being as they are all from Utah, members, and very few speak in Spanish. So we have been talking, helping and translating. It´s been a blast, as well as we have been receiving many references to go and teach. It is awesome. But it has helped me to know, that being a DOCTOR or anything of the sort is not for me. Sorry! No can do. ;). But we are excited to keep helping until Thursday and finding more teaching opportunities! They are amazingly awesome people too, so loving and willing to help. They came to the baptism Saturday and Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Such great people! :). We have a zone conference this next week with Pte Arnold who is coming on tour of the mission next week. It will be really intense. I am so excited. I have never met him, but talking with the other Zone Leaders has given an idea. Also, the zone leaders will have an interview with him... AHH! I am so excited and ready to become a better missionary! So cool! :)

That´s about it for now. We are moving into a new apartment, and it isn´t fun moving. But that is life! I love being a missionary. I love you all so much! Take care of yourselves! Say hi to all for me!!! :)

Lots of love

Elder D. Watson

PS Please don´t send too many more packages... they are asking us to reduce the number, for several reasons which you will be reading about in a letter from President Callan, and any packages we do receive we will have to pay extra to receive them. I feel it would be better to save the money and use it towards a better cause after the mission. Thank you so much.

Teaching with Members is Awesome!

2011-08-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Family!

Wow... wow... wow... my cousins are all getting married. Crazy stuff. That´s awesome though! Send them my love and congratulations. Wow! Kyoko! How is she? And all the family??? It sounds like everything is going awesomely great!

This week was rather interesting - we gave up our investigators to the new missionaries and started working in the side of the area where the missionaries have not been in years! A funny side note - we are teaching more people that speak English than in Spanish... hahahaha. Cool jacks. Anyway, it is amazing to see how the Lord works and puts people in our path. It´s amazing to be a missionary! We are having so much success working with the members, teaching in their houses. The Spirit is so STRONG there. It´s such a difference. When we teach the members´ friends and family in their own homes, the missionary work is such much more effective. The Spirit can testify even more through the testimonies and experiences of the members. All of the success we are seeing in our area is because of the members and their inspired help. It is absolutely amazing. I can´t wait to help the missionaries when I get home because that´s where true success is in the missionary work. IT´s helping the members teach their loved ones the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am REALLY sorry for another short letter. I have been having to report more numbers of late and information being a Zone Leader. Not cool, but sacrifice is necessary. I love you all so much! Take care of yourselves! Say hi to all!

Elder D. Watson

P.S. Thanks to all for their letters and support! I love you all so much!!!

Busy Week!

2011-08-01T13:58:00.001-07:00

Hey Family

Sorry this week is going to be a short letter too. We had our Zone Leader Meeting here in Asuncion and the bus leaves soon.

The work is going great. I get to play tour guide for 3 missionaries but this is the Lord´s work, so it is possible. We had 6 investigators come to church in the rain - what a blessing.

Elder Eddy is such a great Elder. I am going to be learning tons from him. Let´s just say I am learning that I can humble myself even more all of the time. There isn´t an end to pride, unfortunately.

We have a baptism this weekend if we prepare them really well! If not, next weekend. I am excited. They are the children of a family we are teaching, and the parents are doing paperwork so that they can prepare to be baptized as well. They are a really good family.

We have an investigator who has SO MUCH faith, but she is moving to the other zone, so we will pass the reference on so she can be baptized over there. She already says she is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. Too cool.

Elder Eddy has had a lot of success working with members and I am excited to be able to work with him. Elder Flint came with his parents this Sunday to church - way weird. But cool.

I have to go now. I love you all. Never forget that.

Elder D. Watson

Pioneer Day

2011-07-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Family

Pioneer day? What´s that? ;) Elder Flint asked me if I knew what yesterday was and I almost didn´t remember. Luckily I guessed and I was right!! Elder RAY!!!!!! Oh man! I remember him!!! Wow... time flies doesn´t it! Other than that, sounds like your week was rather calm. Sweet! And you are teaching a class online mom? Since when? Cool jacks! Sounds like fun! Katey´s wedding? Awwwwww man! I want to see that! Well, I guess I will have to settle for pictures. That´s alright.

Alright! This week! WOO HOO! Well, there are changes (Awesome being a zone leader I know them today!! :) ) and my new companion will be Elder Eddy. He is coming from Coronel Oviedo. I don´t know him too well, just that he has a transfer more than I do and that we are going to work! I also have to play tour guide a little bit because our area is being split in 2 and they are opening Ciudad del Este 1.2 (A second part of the First ward). So we will have 4 missionaries in the ward now! Which is awesome because our area is really big! It´s a relief now that we can focus on a part of the area without worrying about forgetting all of the other people. Pretty sweet! It will be a fun week this week, but I am so excited!! :) More missionary work!

We have been finding tons of new investigators these past two weeks and we are excited to keep working with them and helping them progress! We are working with a Brazilian neighbor of ours who has a thick thick accent on his Portuguese. Kind of hard to understand, but he is really willing to change and leave his addictions behind. So excited! Another neighbor is half Paraguayan, half Brazilian, and we are starting to teach her as well. It is fun teaching Brazilians because they are so different! Plus I can learn Portuguese! :D.

I have such a strong testimony of the word of wisdom and the law of chastity - they might be super ´unpopular´ but they are some of the most important commandments God has given to us. If only the world could live these 2 commandments, families would be so much happier and united. How many single mothers are out there without a husband? And how many times has alcohol, tobacco or drugs destroyed a family? I testify that these are actual commandments from a loving Heavenly Father who gives them to us so that we can be free! Free from addiction, free from physical and spiritual damage, and families that are united and free from hate, suspicion and filled with love and confidence. I don´t care who says they are stupid - know that they come from God. There are heavy heavy consequences from breaking these 2 commandments, as they not only affect the person who breaks the commandment, but also their loved ones, be it friends, spouse, or innocent children. Can you imagine Christ breaking these commandments? I testify that He would NOT, He who is our perfect example. He who has a perfect love, charity, patience, understanding. Live the promise of Christ himself - John 7:17. He who does these things will know if they come from My Father (Christ being the Son of our Holy Father in Heaven) or if I speak by Myself. (Roughly translated). Not only is Christ our divine Savior and Redeemer, but He did nothing that was against the will of our Father in Heaven. Try it, See. Put your faith in God and live the commandments. You might be surprised to see the blessings that will come flowing! I know it to be true - and I will stand by it!

Alrighty... enough of my rant. I love being a representative of Jesus Christ. I love being ordained by His Holy Priesthood to proclaim repentance. I glory not in myself, but the Mercy, Power and Love of Him who has called me to this holy calling. I glory in the fact that He has allowed me to change, and that I am learning how to be molded by His perfect hands. I declare unto all that this is no invented idea. No invented power. No invented authority. I have been called by a LIVING prophet to be a Witness of Jesus Christ for these 2 years. I have seen His hand work in the lives of the people of Paraguay. I have seen lives change. I have seen sadness turn into joy and happiness, and desperation turn into hope. Have faith. Have hope. Search for the truth. And once you find it, calling upon God to know the truthfulness thereof, NEVER let go. NEVER LET GO. I KNOW without a doubt that this is the ONLY true church of Jesus Christ. The only place where we find modern revelation, having the privilege of being guided by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our days. I testify will all of my heart that he who diligently seeks the truth, shall find it. And he will be forever changed by it. I personally have seen my life change and hope that I can continue changing my life to live in harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all so much!!! Take care of yourselves! CHAU!!!!!!!

Lots of love

Elder Watson

Searching for Investigators

2011-07-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

Wow! Sounds like you had a fun week! Nothing rather exciting! That´s always good. Oh man... dentist appointments. I am sure they are going to throw a fit with my teeth since I haven´t seen a dentist in a year and a half... hahaha. But mind you I brush my teeth well - much better than what I did when I was home. I´m sorry for the teeth pains - those are no fun at all. At least you´ll feel better afterwards! Elder Flint tells me that his parents too saw Harry Potter and said it was awesome. Eh. Little boys and girls waving sticks at each other. Fun stuff. ;)

Well... this week! We were searching, searching and more searching for new investigators. I am sorry if my English is bad. Anyways. We had an awesome contact on Monday - there was a young man (20´s) walking back to his home about 9 at night, while we too were heading home. We stopped him and began conversing a bit. He began to ask us what is it that we do, with what purpose, and how. So we explained a little bit about families being united, and he explained to us about an argument he had just had with a pastor right before we talked to him. He basically told us his life story summed up in 5 minutes about going to every church he could find and family problems coming from this. He chose not to follow his mother´s new religion because he knew it wasn´t true, and in faith walked out of his house so that he could find the way to follow Christ truthfully. Since then he had lots of problems, but things were starting to look up in his life. We explained that God listens to our prayers, and that we weren´t here to obligate anyone, only to invite others to come unto Christ. We invited him to pray to know the truth of what we were saying and he told us - hey... No one has ever told me that. They only ever try to obligate me to follow their commandments and rules, but never to pray to know the truth. You know... that seems right. I like this! We fixed a appointment to visit him and we are now working to help his faith in Jesus Christ grow. Awesome! :) I love the fact that we can invite all to ask our Heavenly Father to know the truth of all things. It is a powerful promise that only the true church of Jesus Christ can offer to the people. We had interviews this week also with President Callan, which was an awesome experience as always. We went on divisions later in the week with a trainer, Elder Butler who came with me to Ciudad del Este. He also has a twin who is serving in Neuquen. Fun stuff! There are a lot of twins in my mission. Elders Massey, Harwell, Butler, and some more but they´ve already headed home. It´s kind of funny to tell the truth. Hahaha

Well, my time is up again... where does the time go??? I love you all so very much!! Take care of yourselves!!!!!! LOVE

Elder David Watson

PS. Yay! Please tell the Martinez´s Hi and that I love them! (Hola Familia Martinez!! Gracias por su amor y todo! Les extraño y les quiero!!)

BAPTISM! AND MAWWWWWWWWAIGE!

2011-07-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family!

What a joy to hear from you! I am glad that everything is going well for you all. I am sorry but I have to keep this rather short. So everything necessary!

This week. BAPTISM! AND MAWWWWWWWWAIGE! Yeah! So cool. Basically a miracle happened. A couple we were teaching completely changed their lives. They decided to get married and baptized. So cool. And her brother who is a recent convert baptized them. So cool! The Ciudad del Este First Ward helped out SO MUCH!! It would not have been possible without them! This is my first ward that actually functions like the states! It is amazing to see what happens when a ward does its part so that the missionaries are just missionaries! Miracles happen! SWEET! So excited! I am sending pictures. Some of divisiones, most of the mawaiage and baptism. Don´t laugh I can´t spell anymore.

Anyway. We are working hard to stay focused and find more people to teach. Elder Flint will be ending his mission in a few weeks so we are really focused on the mission work and not time.

I am so glad to hear that all is well at home. That mom is healing and dad swimming. Happy day! Take care of yourselves. Really I mean it. Don´t sweat it. Take care!! I LOVE YOU!!

Elder David Watson

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-07-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Family!

I didn´t forget this year! Last year I did forget... whoops! Things are so much different... one just forgets sometimes. ;) I missed the email this week, but I am sure everything is okay! This week was pretty good, not much happening but that´s the way it is sometimes.

Well, like I said last week, we started it off out in Asuncion for a couple of meetings on Monday and Tuesday. We got back pretty late Tuesday night, but safe and sound. Wednesday was a workday, but we finished it off with a ´movie night´ for Ward Night watching the movie Joseph Smith: Prophet of the restoration. Pretty sweet! Thursday... nothing to special happened. Except that Elder Sorensen, one of the district leaders in the zone, came to my area to do interchanges. He was in my very first district here in Paraguay and has one more change in the mission than I do. We had quite a good time teaching together and catching up on what has gone on in the mission. He said something I really liked - that in these 2 years we have the opportunity to talk with anyone and everyone, because that is what we do! We have an excuse to do it - to change the lives of others so that they can come unto Christ. Gotta love the mission experiences. Friday we had a recent convert came with us to go teaching, and it was an awesome experience. It is so cool to see how the gospel completely changes someone´s life. Saturday was a good experience too! All of our plans fell through in the morning, so we decided to go to a contact´s house that we had done a while ago (before I got here) and he let us in! And it turned out that they were going through a couple of tough experiences and our message was just right for them! They loved it and wanted us to come back the next day. Which we did, and shared a little bit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about the Book of Mormon. They were so excited to be able to read the Book of Mormon. I´m jazzed. :). I had a similar experience in Carapegua (part of my last area) and I am so excited to be a missionary. It’s just so sweet. Sunday was a good day too. We had 6 investigators in church! We are having a baptism this week too (no matter what) of a family that is ready to go! A new family, the Rolim family, in the ward (from Brazil, they moved here about 2 months ago) invited us over to their apartment in downtown, so we went and did an activity about sharing the gospel with people they knew. They are an amazing family, and even though they don´t know anyone, they were really willing to find people to share the gospel with. I am definitely going to try and learn the basics of Portuguese... it will be cool! On Sunday, we found a guy that didn´t really understand Spanish, so I tried to teach a little in Guarani. It worked! A little bit... hahaha. I am not the best, but it is cool being able to teach principles of the Gospel in other languages.

Well, my time is up. Don´t know where it ran off. I love you all so much! Please take care of yourselves!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Elder D. Watson

Schools Out!?!

2011-06-27T18:05:00.001-07:00

Dear Family!

Wow... the week just absolutely flew by. I feel like I was just here typing. We are here again in Asuncion for a meeting with all the zone leaders of the mission (11 zones, 22 zone leaders) and we will be here until Tuesday afternoon. Fun stuff! It sounds like you had a really fun week! Finally school is out... It is almost July! How does that work out? I bet the students weren´t very happy about that! Hahaha. I am really glad that the surgery went well with Mom. I am sure she will be alot happier after it is all said and done. :) Do you have any fun plans for the summer? ;) Or just the same old same old? President Murri is already going? Oh bugger. That would have been fun to have discussed Paraguay a little bit. Oh! Say Hi to the Johnson family for me too!! They are so great! The Jones family... The Watson family... Jalatay´s... Ward members... family... friends... everyone! Man... I just think about everyone back home and how great you all are. It is amazing to see how the Lord gives each person a unique gift and blessing so that we can all uplift and encourage another. So cool! I imagine I will get my package tomorrow seeing as we have a general mission leader´s training (zone leaders and district leaders) so I should end up getting my mail and everything. Usually I get stuff on Monday (mail wise) so I can write letters and stuff, but it seems like this week I will have to wait a little bit. Tranquilo! No worries. It doesn´t bug me at all... sorry if it does you. When you are a missionary... priorities change. But you know that. Tranquildad total (Dicho paraguayo). Total tranquility. My English is so bad... hahaha...

Wow! Way to go Jonathan! Like the other Elder Watson said... he will be taller than either of us. But that´s all right, because I like being in Ciudad del Este and I ain´t coming back. ;)

Anyway. My week. It went by TOO quick. It didn´t seem like we had time to do anything. Due to some circumstances, the baptism got pushed back a week but the family is awesome.

It has finally gotten COLD! Like super cold. I am sure not as cold as Rio Gallegos (Guy yay goes) but still cold enough for me. Leaving at 1 in the morning to get here was so cold............. not cool. But it shouldn´t last too long. By the time August rolls around it will start getting warm again. So I don´t mind it. I´ll be in Ciudad del Este. We have some awesome members here. They just work so hard! Elder Flint and I were searching for some references yesterday and we were in an area with people just stacked upon each other. I imagine something a little like Buenos Aires, but less sophisticated. Then we climbed this huge hill, and we came out to a bunch of mandioca fields (yucca) with a few houses here and there. Here there is just a little bit of everything!!! It is crazy! We are teaching a few good families and are seeing a lot of progress. We are also in the process of finding new families to teach. Life is awesome! We should be having a baptism this weekend of a family (pray please!!!) and are progressing really well with todos! It is a blast to be a missionary. Sorry that I don´t have to say too much this week... I will look for things to say next week! :)

Well, I love you all! Take care of yourselves! Send my love to everyone! Saludos a todos! I will keep you in my prayers for you health and strength! Keep pressing forward in the work of the Lord!

Chaucito!

Elder D. Watson

Happy Father's Day!!

2011-06-21T15:42:00.001-07:00

Hola!!

WELL! News! Sorry for writing today, being Tuesday. The office informed us late Sunday night about our TEMPLE TRIP on Tuesday, so today is our P-Day. I guess that is just how life goes sometimes... life on the move!

Sounds like life is good! I don´t have too much time today, so here goes nothing!

I am now in Ciudad del Este, 1st Ward. It is AWESOME HERE! Love it! My companion is Elder Flint, who is going home this next change. So now I already know I am going to have a new companion... ;/. Elder Flint is awesome and I am learning tons from him. Cuidad del Este is so amazing! I absolutely love it here! The ward is gigantic! Well, compared to Acahay at least... haha. But anyway. We have a bunch of Indian members in our ward. Like, people from India! They are so hard working! Our stake president is the first Indian stake president in the world, from what I have been told. Pretty cool huh? It´s awesome because they are all awesome and are so faithful. The Paraguayan members are pretty cool too! We had a young woman who brought a college classmate to church by herself. Sweet! We are teaching a few families, one of which is a cousin to a recent convert in Encarnacion. What a small world! She is also a member and we are working with her boyfriend who has a baptismal date for the 9th. The other family we are teaching has a date for this weekend, and they have progressed so much in the week I have been here. It is so different being in a place where Spanish is understood perfectly. Our next-door neighbor is Portuguese and is a member. We read out of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese with him sometimes and a recent convert who is his friend. So much to tell!

Today we went to the temple! SO AWESOME! I love the temple! It has such peace and comfort that we can receive from being inside. My English is a mess. Sorry... I hate being in a rush but that´s life. We are working hard and I am learning so much from being here. We will be taking a bus in an hour so that will be fun! So... ya. Got to go.

This is the truth. No doubt about it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church! We have living day prophets who guide us. We have even more of the precious word of God that brings even more blessing in our lives. Jesus Christ is not dead; He lives. He still reveals His gospel and will through modern day prophets. I testify that He is the Son of God, our Savior, Redeemer, and our Good Shepherd. I know this because the Spirit has testified to my spirit of this truth. We can only know of spiritual truths if the Holy Ghost testifies to our spirits. Logic can´t do it. Logic will convince our minds, but the Holy Ghost will testify only of the truth, and nothing but the truth. That´s why it is so important to receive an answer from God to know what is the truth. I love prayer! :)

Anyway. I hope you make sense out of my jumbled mess. Next week will be better... I hope. We will to travel to Asuncion again for a zone leaders council on Monday and Tuesday for a training meeting. Lots of travel. Fun stuff! I love you! Take care of yourselves! I really do love you all! Take care of yourselves!!!!!!

Chau!

Elder David Watson

We had a baptism and I am being transferred...

2011-06-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

Hola! QUE TAL????

Hey! So great to hear from you! I am so glad to hear that your week has been great! I am short on time today (took a little too long replying to the other Elder Watson and a few other things I had to read from President) (AND what do you mean ´David´s time?´ Just because I like getting to places early??? ;) ) so I will just start spewing.

First off! BAPTISM! We had a beautiful day for a baptism in the river 8 de Diciembre. It had been cold all week, a problem for the sister who was getting baptized because of health problems, but with lots of prayers of faith, we had awesomely warm days on Friday and Saturday and it all went off without a hitch. Roberto and Brigida Medina got baptized! In really cold water. Alright, it can´t be as cold as the water in Tierra del Fuego, but pretty cold nonetheless. Elder Griffin has other pictures that he is going to give when we get home, but I sent one. Anyways, answered prayers are awesome. They got confirmed members of the church the next day and it was an awesome day! Gotta love life.

On Saturday, I almost died. I was showering when the cables that bring the power to the showerhead exploded. Twice. A nice good scare, but no damage done. I got out without a scratch. But there was quite a lot of smoke. Interesting story for you. :).

Also, there are changes this week. I don´t know where, but I got the call from President Callan assigning me to be a zone leader. Boy was I nervous answering the phone. But it´s what the Lord wants. Where He wants me to go, what He wants me to be, there I go and there I am. Life is good in the neighborhood. I am quite sad to leave Elder Griffin, as he has been one of my best companions, and this area of Acahay. I have enjoyed immensely preaching the gospel here and calling the people to repentance. For through repentance is the only way to reach true happiness. True peace. True calm. The Atonement is really the central piece in changing our lives. Through Christ our Mediator with the Father, all is possible. Doesn´t matter how stubborn, dumb, stupid, arrogant, prideful we think we are, through repentance we may be healed of all of our spiritual sicknesses and weaknesses. Pride, I have seen is the downfall of all. Really it is. Whether it is rejecting the truth, rejecting the need to change, refusing to understand, refusing to change our lives to be more in harmony with that of our Eternal Savior, pride is the cause. As Alma teaches, those of us who are not free from pride have cause to repent for those who are prideful are not ready to stand before the Great and Eternal Judge at the last day. It is a lesson I am learning repeatedly here in the mission, and I suppose one all of my life. I still feel I have my prideful tendencies, but that doesn´t discourage me. I have faith and hope through Christ our Lord, for through faith in Him and His mercy, all is possible. Be happy, hopeful and don´t be afraid to change! It is a blessing. Truly it is. Repent ye, repent ye, and come unto Him who invites all to come unto Him. He reaches out with arms of love and mercy, willing to forgive us and welcome us into His fold. When we do our part, the Lord does the rest. Try it and see the blessings and miracles in your life.

Work to understand the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. Understand the purpose of the Atonement, The Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we truly understand, we will change our lives to follow our Lord and Savior. We will be able to teach and guide our families to the straight and narrow path that leads unto salvation. Without understanding, it is extremely difficult to be obedient to the commandments and almost always leads us to be tempted by Satan. It is something I see here every day and I know that true comprehension will lead to having more happy, unified families that rejoice in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The amount of money we have means nothing. I work with people who live off of 20 dollars a week. With big families. But when we have faith, true confidence in the Lord, He WILL provide. Be faithful, be diligent, be like Nephi. And I must obey. Amen. (2 Nephi 33).

Alright. Got to go! Love you so much! Say hi to everyone! I cannot wait to be able to share my experiences and what I have learned with everyone, especially in Spanish! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!! Take care of yourself!

Elder David Watson

Such a Blessing To Be In Acahay!

2011-06-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Family!

Wow!! What a week! Sounds like you all had some fun! Nice, calm, but great! I really like what the other Elder Watson wrote about being happy... something that cost me a lot to learn! I actually learned it when I had the opportunity to train Elder Hatch, but it really has made ALL the difference in the mission! It’s just our view on life! I had read a talk from a past General Conference about Happiness: A Conscious Decision. It never really hit me though; even through the tough times I was experiencing, until I got the opportunity to start from scratch. But now... I truly can say that I am much happier! I can say the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings SO MANY blessings! It brings peace, joy, and a satisfaction of knowing that you ARE doing what the Lord desires. So awesome!

Anyway... this week. Today I had a zone counsel (consejo de zona) with the zone leaders and the other district leader in the zone. We spent most of it talking about relying on the Spirit, mostly on the topic of planning. I am so excited to see the changes of what is taking place in my life. Here in Acahay we have the unique opportunity of going to places where there have not been many missionaries. On Wednesday, we went to Carapegua, our second time entering the area. Again we had another amazing day being led by the Lord. Finishing our day we found a family that was so interested in the Gospel! We talked with the 20ish year old daughter who has a few kids and her brother of 17, with the mom taking care of the little ones. We sat at a table, inside the house, on normal chairs... I felt like I was in the states! Haha. Anyway, we had an awesome discussion about the role of prophets in our lives. I felt the Spirit testify as we taught them about Thomas S. Monson, our living prophet in our day (hoy en día). As we were running short on time (She had to go to college), we briefly shared about the Book of Mormon and some of the teachings that help us to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all felt the Spirit strongly, and each wanted their own copy to read so they didn’t have to share. Hehehe. A family that had never heard of the Church of Jesus Christ, let alone the term Mormon, and we were able to talk about the true doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. I really consider it to be a special opportunity to be able to find these people so prepared to receive the restored truth. We are so excited to be able to go back on Wednesday and Friday to teach this special family even more and to find the other families that are waiting to accept the gospel in their lives. We also have 2 families preparing to be baptized this Saturday! We are working on getting the necessary paperwork to marry one of the families (with whom we have had such spiritual lessons that have brought me to tears) and praying for good weather so that the wife of the other family can be baptized due to her health. 4 baptisms!!!!!! So exciting!

It really is a blessing to be here in Acahay. The branch is slowly strengthening in its knowledge of the true doctrine of Christ and is growing as the people are truly becoming converted into disciples of Jesus Christ. It is not an easy process, but then again, whoever said it was? The Atonement of Jesus Christ was not in any way, shape, or form easy. Do I think I am better than my Lord and Savior? More perfect? Absolutely not!! I am being humbled daily to see how true faith brings miracles. How the true Gospel brings families together. How the restored doctrine of Jesus Christ changes the lives of everyone who openly receives it and applies it to their lives. I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. That Joseph Smith was called of God to be a modern day prophet. Prayer is the key in our communication with our Heavenly Father. It is key that it comes from our hearts. It is key that we talk with the Almighty, as He is our Father in Heaven. Have faith. Trust in Him who cannot fail. He shall guide each one of us in His path. Ask with faith, and we shall receive blessings because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing unto Him. Who can refute the power and glory of Him who created all things? The word of God shall be fulfilled. It doesn’t matter how many people say the world is going to end. It doesn’t matter what justifications the tempter can create. He who has all power will act according to what He has said and what He is now saying through His modern prophet, Thomas Monson. Pray. Try it. You might be surprised. :D

I really am SO EXCITED to be a missionary. I never want it to end. I don’t want to leave the friendly people of Paraguay. I don’t want to leave this people who really are waiting to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. I just may cry if I have to leave Carapegua and Acahay behind... not to mention where we haven’t explored yet (Ybycui, La Colmena). I absolutely know that even more families are just waiting to meet the Lord’s authorized servants. BIG SMILE!! Apyka Tuicha! Una GRAN SONRISA!! Love it!

I love you all! Really do! I can’t lie! If you knew how much I really am grateful for the experiences I have had, here in the mission and before! I apologize if I can’t name everyone by name... but really I am truly grateful. I love all the letters I get and the thoughts and prayers of all of you! The Lord works miracles according to our faith, so that the prayers of the just and faithful shall be answered (Alma and the Sons of Mosiah with the angel). I will be talking again next Monday (change in schedule, Pdays are ALL Mondays now) and we will see what happens. I may know of the transfers because I am the District Leader, I may not. We will see. Until next time... chau from the valley of Acahay! Really Itá because that is where I am at... hehehe. CHAU!!!

Con cariño.

Elder David Watson

Teaching in Guarani!

2011-05-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

You think the weeks fly by? Man... it is insane!!! Elder Griffin keeps rubbing in that I only have 5 transfers left... about 7 months... not cool. I don’t like it. Which means that time is running short! Time running short does not make a missionary happy! But I guess it does give me even more motivation to do the work! It sounds like you had an awesome week! That makes me happy! It still blows my mind that Bryan is leaving for the mission and Jacob is getting ready. Puts a BIG smile on my face! There is nothing like the mission! YOU JUST GOTTA LOVE IT!!! :) There may be times of frustration, but those are the opportunities that we have to learn patience... patience... patience. Definitely something I am learning here in Acahay as we try to teach in a language the people half understand. But the good thing is that I am learning Guarani... I know how to pray, share my testimony, and I am practicing introducing the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s story. Nde eporanduta Tupape ko’apa ha’e la tupao añetete (anetete)? Will you ask God if this is the true church? Hehehe... ;).

Well... this week. We went exploring!! We went to a city called Carapegua, which is in between the missionaries of Paraguari and our area. What a prime area! The Lord led us to so many people to give them the hope and happiness that they need in their life! It was absolutely amazing! The Plan of Salvation really does give us hope about the future! Even when a loved one dies, we can have the hope of seeing them again after this life. We were walking in the downtown, where my companion realized that he forgot his pen. So we went into a small little store to buy one, and started talking to the lady who owned the store. Her husband had just passed away some months before and really wasn’t happy because she did not know where he was. We testified to her that she could be with him for forever, through the message that we shared. It made me think of the blessings that we have! The Book of Mormon, which teaches the doctrine of Christ so clearly! It helps us to understand really what the plan of our Father is! And the blessings of modern prophets, that help us to overcome the challenges of this life! So AWESOME! What else happened? We have 2 families and the father of a family planning to be baptized the 11th! We are working and finishing the arrangements with one family, working on teaching the other, and the man, Roberto, is ready to go! He is really familiar with the Bible and will be a great aid and priesthood holder here in Acahay. We are really excited to be working here and teaching diligently the doctrine of Christ so that all may progress and receive the blessings of a loving Father in Heaven! :) As the other Elder Watson shared, Christ called His apostles to leave their nets behind and to follow Him. I know that He has called me to be a missionary, to leave behind my ‘nets’ and to follow Him! I testify that in so doing, He can change our lives completely! We can become true disciples and follow Him! I have seen it in my life and I can’t describe how many changes there are in my life! I can’t believe how I have changed, but it is a miracle and I need keep pressing forward with my faith firm in Christ! May I invite all to do so as well! You too, will see the changes in your life as you follow the Lord and leave behind your ‘nets’!

Cool! My letters finally got there! Yay!!!!!! Long enough! We have been having problems with the encomienda (the way we receive letters and information from the office), so we will see what will happen in these few weeks... hahaha. Gotta love life! :) I appreciate the missionary journal entries! They are awesome! I can totally relate to it! :D

Well, time is about up. I absolutely love you all! Saludos (greetings??) to all! Especially the Conaways, Paces, Boons, Freemans, Jalatys... everyone!!!!!!! I can’t list everyone! It’s impossible! If I knew them before... HI!!!!!! :D I think that solves it. I hope... ;).

I know this is the true church of our Lord Jesus Christ! I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of our Lord! I have been called of Him, by someone holding His authority, to serve and represent the Savior and Redeemer of the world, Jesus the Christ. May the Lord keep blessing you! LOVE YOU!!!

CHAU!

Elder David Watson

Faith & Works!

2011-05-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!!

I am really happy today to have heard from home! Way to go Bryan! And Jacob!! Yeah! To Brazil! Sao Paulo even! Now I am going to have to learn Portuguese... hopefully I can make a stop in Cuidad del Este so I can learn a bit! That’s awesome! I am so excited for Bryan and Jacob... they really are entering the mission at an awesome time! I have no doubt they will have the opportunities to be some of the best missionaries! The missionary program is changing so much and I love it! No doubts that they will surely become awesome missionaries! It’s exciting to be learning and putting into practice everything that we are being taught, but I can only imagine that by the time Jacob gets into the MTC that it will be completely different! I am a bit bummed that I won’t get to see Jacob or Bryan for 4 years, or thereabouts, but that’s alright! They’ll be in the service of our Lord and will absolutely love the changes they will see in their lives.

Alrighty. On to my week. Oh, I did forget to tell you, in the confusion of last week, that we did have a baptism! She is the daughter of a less active family who are becoming active again. We are working with the two sons so that they can become active again and receive the priesthood. We are working diligently finding families to baptize, and we have found some really great people. We are trying to help them learn and make commitments so that they can enter into the fold of our Savior and receive the blessings that our Heavenly Father has waiting for them. Elder Griffin and I have seen a lot of progress here in Acahay, and we are excited to keep helping the members progress as well as our investigators. The branch here is still really young and we are helping to teach the doctrines of our Lord and Savior to the people here of Acahay! It is such a blessing to see the faith of people who do not fully understand the doctrine but know the truth thereof and therefore keep the commandments and move forward in the work. I was reading a conference talk the other day and I liked how one of the General Authorities said that even he didn’t understand all of a certain doctrine, but had a testimony of its truth and therefore did not doubt.

We had our Zone Conference this week, which was pretty great. We focused on teaching to the investigators’ needs and why it was so important. We also talked a lot about planning and goals, which even our Heavenly Father does. He planned (the plan of salvation, creating everything spiritually before physically) and had set goals. His goal is the immortality and eternal life of man. We, as His sons and daughters, have the opportunity to make this goal a reality, by following the plan and progressing towards that goal. We must all set goals! A prophet taught; we need to have the goal of looking forward to the time when our bodies will be resurrected and we will stand before the Judgment Bar of Christ. Can we imagine that the Lord will tell us that we have worked righteousness, or have kept his commandments, all of our lives and we shall be saved? Or if we don’t do our part, and do not participate in the plan of salvation, do we think to be able to lie to the Lord and tell him that we were not wicked? Rather, we have the full and complete knowledge of our sins and wickedness, and we will not deny that the judgments of our Savior are just and righteous. That is why we have the plan of salvation, to have faith, and to repent. As the New Testament teaches; shall we continue in our sins? God Forbid! May it not be so! Christ extends his arms of mercy towards each and every person. He is full of mercy and willing to bring us into his fold. He is the Good Shepherd, and we must listen to His voice (FAITH) and follow Him (WORKS). He invites to repent, and to be baptized in His name, by the proper authority and in the proper manner. We may know the truth of all things through prayer and fasting! The Holy Ghost will testify the truth of all things unto us! I testify that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has this authority, which was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith by resurrected apostles, Peter, the head apostle, James and John (the Apostle).

I testify that ALL may come to know of its truth, through our faith and efforts to do our part. God is a God of Miracles, but we must have the faith and works to see them in our lives. Miracles do not create faith, because if we KNOW there is no need to BELIEVE. Rather, we must believe, have faith, exercise it, and our Heavenly Father will manifest it unto us. I plead unto all, that they may have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. Eternal Life is at stake, and it is the greatest gift that God has given unto us. Pray to know... Ask God specifically.

If you have faith, God will answer. God will answer. Trust in Him, and place all of your trust in God! The way to return unto Him has been given, and He is the light, life and hope of the world. Never lose hope. Never lose faith. Keep pressing forward in the faith of our Lord!

I love you all! Greetings to all!

Elder David Watson

Mom Went to Prom?

2011-05-16T15:57:00.001-07:00

Hola Familia!!

Wow... what a week! Sounds like you had some fun! I bet Mom loved the dance... hahaha. That´s so cool that Bryan is going on his mission already... I feel old!! :/. Hahaha, And Katey is getting married?? What in the world? Well, that is good news to hear that she finally found the guy that she´s been looking for! I did get to see most of the pictures, but not all of them. Looks like your ´trip to Big Ben´ was fun! ;) Did a pretty good job I must admit! And I did see the journal entries! Thank you for putting them in! I really do appreciate it! (You don´t necessarily have to find bible bashing stories... I just wanted to hear about any you had written down and not avoid telling them. We are avoiding ANYONE who wants to bible bash, because as you said, it is NOT productive, and it is NOT worth it.) It´s cool to see the thoughts that you had on the mission and how similar some of them are to me. Speaking of second companions, everything I have heard and seen, and from my own experience, being the second companion is tough. I still haven´t been in that position. :).

Anyway... my week. From Monday to Saturday was AWESOME E´TE! Or pretty awesome! We were finding lots of families and all of our investigators were progressing. Sunday was a let down... our Branch President was unable to go to church and did not advise us until the Sacrament meeting (the last hour). Elder Griffin and I held out pretty well teaching the first two hours. But I had to run with a member back to our house to get bread and water (there was none in the chapel) and by the time I got back several people had left. The good thing is that we had investigators who came, but unfortunately had to leave early for family reasons. The rest of the day was quite interesting. The culture here is quite different and at times is disappointing on how they celebrate. We started to explore our area some more and just as we were passing a house, a car stopped us. They happened to be members from Leopardi (Asuncion) and the house we were by were their relatives. Which was awesome because we could fix an appointment really easily to come back another day. Other than that... we just kind of had to call it a day spent working hard. We are looking forward to this week (Zone Conference on Friday!!) and helping the members understand the doctrine and the consistency we need to have following all of God´s commandments. We have investigators who we are excited to work with and help them enter the waters of baptism. This area has a lot of potential, and we are finding the best way to try and take full advantage of every opportunity we have to share the gospel. It really is a testimony to me even though we had to direct the meetings and teach without preparation, the people can still feel the spirit and know that this is the true church.

Well, something just came up. I am sorry... got to go. Love you all!

Elder David Watson

Technology Rocks!

2011-05-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

Wow! We had a pretty good weekend. I am sure the highlight was Sunday with the phone call. We didn´t get around to talking about all that much, but it sure was nice to hear some voices from home. I couldn´t hear the other Elder Watson all that great, but now I know what he felt like back at Christmas. Sounds like you all had a fun week! Tech toys... I am sure Dad is a happy camper with all that fun stuff. Sounds like everything is going great there! :)

We did end up having a better night afterwards than what I would have thought... the rain stopped about 5 minutes after leaving the house. One of our investigators did accept a baptismal date for the 4th of June. So right now we have baptisms for the 14th, 21st, and the 4th. Do work! We are working hard here with the members, strengthening their testimonies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The language is proving to be a tough issue, especially with some of the members that do not understand any Spanish whatsoever. But the other members are willing to help us, so we are moving along... surely and diligently. We also found a member from the United States who is part of the Peace Corp and is working way out in the boonies. We are working so he can come to church with us soon, and enjoy the blessings of taking the sacrament! He´s from the Westwood area in California, and we try to talk with him once in a while. Paraguay is filled with interesting situations. Just about every single situation that could be. Haha. Life is good. I love being a missionary. I love sharing the Gospel. I know this is true. I know the Lord loves each and every one of us. I know that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers. If we are willing to do what the Lord wants, He will guide us according to His sacred plan. We can choose to work with Him! Never think that you are too far away from receiving the blessings of our loving Heavenly Father! If you have too, make small goals and progress each day and week! For example, we are working with some members, making goals with them so they can prepare to go to the temple. We are starting out reading the scriptures 5 minutes every day. Remember by small and simple things the Lord brings great things to come pass. (Alma 37:6, 7 ?, also Alma 32:34 ? ) Making even the smallest of steps towards the light will move us away from the dark. I love what my mission president shared with us last week about Charity. Charity really is a key in life! Without it, we can´t feel the Lord´s love in our lives. With it, we will be obedient; we will be united with our fellow brethren, and we will be guided by the Lord. Without charity we cannot enter into the kingdom of our Father in Heaven (Ether 12:24). Remember the end of the law is that we have love that comes from a pure heart! (1 Timothy 1:5). Christ taught that the first great two commandments are first that we love our Father in Heaven and second that we love our neighbor as ourselves. If we can really have this love, I promise we will see the change in our lives. I promise that you feel closer to the Savior and that He will be able to mold you into an instrument in His hands. I love being a missionary and sharing the love that I feel from the Savior. I feel my Savior´s love in my life, and I know that through the work I am doing, I am helping all those around me to be able to receive the blessings of this in their lives. I am of myself nothing, for I am a creation in the Maker´s hands, but with His help and guidance, I can do all things that He requires of me.

I truly do love you all! Keep working hard! Remember that the Lord provides a way so that we may keep the commandments and walk in His path. There is no other name given other than that of Jesus Christ by which we may be saved. We must follow His teachings if we hope to be healed through His atoning sacrifice. Pray always, and faint not, that the devil may not steal you into his wily paths. Stay alert, avoid the natural man, and come unto Christ and the loving arms He extends to each and every one of us!

LOVE YOU!!

Elder David Watson

Living in the Jungle...

2011-05-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

HOLA!!

Sorry in advance for the short letter. There was a huge mess with the technical stuff here trying to figure out how we were going to be able to handle the call on Mother’s Day... that´s what you get for being in the middle of the jungle... haha. Short
sweet and important stuff.

I did not get transferred, that means I stayed with Elder Griffin and we are still in Acahay!

As far as investigators go, we are finding some pretty good people and I love teaching the Gospel! It is amazing to see the faith of some people and the power it has!

I love my mission! I love being here in Paraguay and in Acahay. I Love being a missionary and I don´t want it to end. I love learning about the Gospel and sharing what I learn and the blessings I receive! I love being changed by the Lord!

Calls! Mother´s Day! Yeah! Talk to you all SUNDAY! :)

SORRY SORRY SORRY for the short letter! I love you!

Elder Watson

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Hey all! How are you? Is everything great! I love you all just so you know! I enjoyed this past weekend as we had our District Conference in Itá. It was quite a ride (almost 2 hours...) but we were able to have about 20 members who came with us. The temple president came and also our mission president. It was quite spiritual. The local leaders gave excellent talks as well as President Udall (temple) and President Callan! I learned so much! It fortified my testimony that blessings really do come when we are obedient! Blessings come when we are obedient to a principle of the gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 130). I have been able to renew my knowledge that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. That Christ is our Savior. That He lives, loves us, and only wants the best for us. He gives us situations to learn, grow, and to come closer unto Him. He is knocking on the door, but who will let him in? Who will say ´I believe it is Him´ but not open the door? Who will pretend to open the door? And who will put their faith to work and open the door and realize the blessings that are waiting to come into their lives? The door is this - baptism. Baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This authority and power of God was restored to the earth. We have prophets. The key to know is the Book of Mormon. It has a power in and of itself that no other book has. Try it and love it!

I am out of time today! SORRY! The cyber wasn´t open this morning. GOTTA GOOO!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!

Chau!

Elder David Watson

Grabbing a Bull by the Horn!

2011-04-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

Dear family!

That´s great to hear how the family is doing!!! That 15-minute thing sounds like it would be really interesting. Yeah! Go Sean! That´s... next week, right? That´s awesome!! There will be 4 from the stake (or more?) here in South America!! Gotta love it!

This week was awesome! It is still REALLY hot here... It is starting to get colder with the storms, but I am still sweating like crazy! We had another baptism this week, of Mirta Ramos, who is a deaf mute! It was fun teaching her with pictures and images, but the best was seeing her smile after the baptism and the confirmation. So cool! We have been working trying to find new people to teach! It´s a little hard in a town so small, but everyday something happens to help us push forward the work. Funny story... last Monday I got my hair cut... but it came it bad!!! It kinda looks like I stuck a bowl on my head and started going at it! But it was only 5000 guarani, or about $1.25. So it´s all right!! José was ordained to the priesthood yesterday, and I got to do it! We were expecting the branch president to do it, but he told me to. I had to read a little bit of the missionary handbook, but I think I got it right! It´s hard in another language!! But it´s all good! We actually held a priesthood meeting in Church on Sunday; that was pretty cool too! There is a lot of progress, just little by little until we reach the perfection! Every day I know more of a surety that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Thomas S. Monson is God´s prophet today! I am out of time for today! I LOVE YOU ALL! PRAY! READ! GO TO CHURCH! LOVE IT! :D

Chau!!

Elder David Watson

We Have Finally Fallen Back...

2011-04-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Family

WOW!! What a week! It was so cool! There were some little problems, like a dead cell phone 1 hour away from everything, trying to find a judge to perform a marriage, having enough witnesses for a baptism, but in the end - BAPTISM! It was so cool because I got to do it in a river! It was so awesome! A little cold too! But besides that, everything was pretty good.

We have finally fallen back an hour, but now that means it gets darker even EARLIER! Like at 6 right now... so in June and July it’ll be around 5. Makes things a little tougher for the mission work but that’s all right! We are starting to find a few families here in Acahay! The work here is a mix of working with the members and building their faith and testimonies and finding new members. It makes the work interesting because we can’t just focus on investigators. But the more we work to strengthen the branch, the easier it will be to bring investigators to church and help them have spiritual experiences that help them grow closer to Christ and receive the revelation that they need to know that this is the only and true Church of Jesus Christ.

We have another baptism this week too! She is a deaf mute that lives with a member family and we taught her using pictures and posters! It was really interesting and hard, but it’s worth it. I am sure it’s still going to be important to keep teaching and reinforcing what we have taught, but she really wants to be baptized. So we are going to keep working with her and the family so that they keep growing spiritually and have an unbreakable testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got. Thanks for all the letters I have been getting - I am working on writing back! I have about 3 letters written but no way to send them yet. So they will be going out pretty soon once I find a way. Love you all! Keep praying! Reading the scriptures! Going to church! How else can we follow Jesus unless we are willing to keep the commandments of the Father?! I know repentance is real and that there is always a way back. It just might be hard sometimes. Pero, SI SE PUEDE! You can do it! I love you all! Take care of yourselves! Keep pressing forward the in the faith!

CHAU!

Elder David Watson

Conference was GREAT!

2011-04-04T16:44:00.001-07:00

Dear Family!

Just like to start off with WOW! What a weekend! Loved it! I truly enjoyed all 5 sessions of conference (Even Priesthood, but man I was tired after! Way past my bedtime!) It was truly inspirational and just solidifies my testimony of the truthfulness of the message I share with everyone! I’ll get back to it later!

That’s great to hear that you had a quiet week. I’m sure running around all the time gets pretty tiring and as a youth we ran you around ragged. Hehe.

I did understand Flat Stanley and that is actually pretty cute! I am sure he is going to love it. Wow!

Brian is already going on the mission? WOW! Way to go Sean! Send my congratulations and support! The mission isn’t easy but it is SO worth it! I’m excited for them! It’s too bad I can’t give them a huge hug!

Why in the world did Dad scan those pictures? Oh speaking of old hairdos, in between conference on Sunday I got the chance to watch a bit and saw some of the old church videos from the 70’s and 80’s. It was fun! Also, I saw people from BYU that I knew! The first was Cecilia M. Peek, my professor of Classics! The next was Justin Su’a, who played baseball for the Y and was one of my baseball camp ‘coaches’ while he played there a few years back. It was fun to see him in his role as institute and religion professor (I think! I could be wrong about his title). I also recognized several of the other professor’s names, like Brothers Ludlow and Brown. It was kinda cool but weird! I was thinking... HEY! I know those people!! Cool! Hahaha...

The past week went by without any huge events other than traveling to Asuncion for interviews with President Callan. We’ve been working hard trying to find the people who the Lord has prepared here in Acahay. It’s just a little tough sometimes to find them, but with the Lord’s help, we will do it!

General conference was just so inspiring! I loved it! I went crazy taking notes! I had the opportunity to listen to all but one the sessions in English, which made it so much more powerful! Every session had powerful messages! I can’t believe I didn’t pay as much attention before! It’s a storehouse of wisdom, knowledge and counsel!!!! It’s so awesome! I really enjoyed the talks of the apostles and first presidency, especially Elder Scott, President Eyring, President Monson, President Uchtdorf. Elder Holland, Elder Dallin H Oaks, Elder Packer, and Elder Perry, and Elder Christofferson. Not in any particular order. I just loved it! They talked about tithing (have faith and do it right away!), Sabbath day observance (all day long), diligence (through trials and difficult times), dignity (not cafeteria choosing!), marriage (it was a popular topic that did catch my attention too...), priesthood power (living below our privileges and abilities), and testimonies (Elder Samuelson Jr). Also, how you CAN’T have it your way in this life if we want to live with our Heavenly Father, the only way is HIS way. Elder Scott’s message was really touching as he talked about his family and past... He just has so much love towards them! This is just off the top of my head so I can’t be too specific. I’d love to but than it would turn into a report... hahaha. I am so excited to be able use all of these to help the people here in Paraguay! Purete! Awesome!

We have a baptism and marriage coming up this week, and it will be in the river! It’s going to be AWESOME. Yeah! I’m pumped! :)

I do hope that everyone enjoyed conference as much as I did! I found it truly inspiring! I pray that everyone does feel the love of the Lord in their lives as He guides us according to His will and how much we let him. I testify that He will guide us in all that we let him and if we have sufficient faith and ask for His help and do EVERYTHING we can. I love you all! Take care of yourselves! CHAU!

LOVE YOU!

Elder David Watson

Getting to know our new area!

2011-03-28T15:19:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-03-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

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

Out With The Old...

2011-02-28T21:09:00.001-08:00

Hola Familia!

You think your week has gone by so fast... Well, so has mine. It’s crazy!

I’m kinda sad to hear that the Malibu is now in the junk yard... but it is a Chevy. What could we want? Hahahaha... just kidding. Anyway, at least life is going good for you all. Life will be crazy as always, but we have to live with it and deal with it. :) Woo hoo!

Well, well, well... this week. We had our zone conference with President Callan, which was pretty COOL. We talked about how to teach better; what prayer is and how using the Book of Mormon will help our investigators understand their role in learning the truth for themselves. We also learned about the Atonement and its role in our life. It was awesome to learn more about the role of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice in our lives. There was a lot of rain in the beginning of the week, but it has finally let up for a few days. We have been focusing on two different parts of our area, but unfortunately each one is about an hour walking distance (some 4 or 5 kilometers) so we have to rotate our days with where we are. Oh! Funny story! We were tracting yesterday and we came up to a house full of guys working, and they invited us in. They asked us if we want to paint, and we said sure! So we taught and painted at the same time... hahaha! The guy who is moving there asked us, Do you know who Joseph Smith is? He is the best! I’ve read his book and everything! Then he told us he liked talking about religion and that his only problem is drinking. He was pretty cool, so we will see where this one goes! :) We had one investigator who came to church this week even though he had an operation on his leg a while back, and it is awesome to see his progress. He said he really liked being at church and that the 3 hours weren’t really that long at all. We are hoping to have a couple of baptisms by the 23rd of March, and if all goes well, we will! :). It is really awesome to see how the Book of Mormon changes people’s lives. Anyone who sincerely reads the book and studies the doctrines and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and prays and asks our Heavenly Father to know that it is true will know that it really is the word of God.

Wow... time really flew by on me today. Sorry for the short letter! I really do appreciate all of your love and support! May the Lord bless you!

Elder David Watson

Finishing up February

2011-02-21T15:57:00.001-08:00

Hola Familia!

Well, well, well... sounds like you all had a good week! Except for the part about someone hitting your rear end, that is. THANK YOU so much for Papa’s story... I really liked it. Traidores! We going to MAC? I should have known the disease would spread when you bought the iPhones... it must be contagious. But that’s alright. I kind of figure it could possibly be something like the Gospel. I just don’t know how good it is until I try it... hehehe.

I don’t know why but I sort of feel like being goofy today. Not as in clumsy mind you. So forgive me. Haha. This past week was soooooooooooo much better than past weeks. We are finding people who seem like they are going to progress! Admittedly most of them are Seventh Day Adventists, among other Evangelical churches. During the visits that we made with them we taught who our Heavenly Father really is, how much He wants to bless our families so that we can be more united with them and happy. Also, we discussed why prophets make such a big impact in the true Church of God. We have taught what Christ did for us while He lived on the Earth, what happened after His death and resurrection. Finally we taught them about the grand importance of knowing for ourselves why Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true through sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father.

Did not Jesus teach in the Gospel of John ‘All that you ask to the Father in My name’ will be done for us? Did He not give us the perfect example of praying to the Father, so that we can learn the form (the steps, not the repetition)? Did not the Apostle Paul teach us that Christ is the only Mediator in between us and the Father? Did not James teach that is through asking God that we can obtain wisdom? These are only examples from the Holy Bible! How many more do we have from the Book of Mormon? Nephi taught that it is of Christ that we preach of, that we rejoice in, that we glorify. Alma taught that it is through prayer and fasting that we obtain a testimony of the truth through the Holy Ghost. Alma also taught what IS faith, just like Paul does to the Hebrews, but also HOW we can grow our faith. Helaman teaches us how we can become pure in heart. Jesus Christ in all of His glory taught the Native Americans after His resurrection. Did not Moroni give us the ultimate promise of being able to read and mediate about the Book of Mormon, and after ask God with all the sincerity of our hearts? How could we not be Christians? How can we not worship the only True and Living God the Father in the name of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus the Christ? Prophets are prophets - to listen to them is to listen to the counsels of God. But I testify that it is to God the Father whom we worship, in no other name than that of Jesus Christ, our perfect Savior and Redeemer who was sent to the Earth to give us the perfect of example of HOW we should live. We CANNOT just say that we believe, and then automatically be saved in the Kingdom of God. As Nephi teaches, we are saved by grace AFTER having done all we can. What can we do? Have faith in Jesus Christ, exercise it in prayer, reading the scriptures, going to Church. We need to repent of our sins and never going back to commit them. We need to be baptized in the form and with the same degree of consciousness as our Savior, by someone holding the Holy Priesthood. We make a promise to God to follow His commandments, a promise that no one else can make for us. Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost to be our companion as long as we are righteously living, striving to be like our Savior until the end of our lives. I testify of this with all of my heart, might, mind and strength, declaring unto all that I KNOW that these concepts are true because the Holy Spirit Himself testified unto my spirit that indeed these things are the truth. What more can I do than declare my testimony, my knowledge of the truth, and then invite all to come unto Christ?

I love the fact that once we realize that we can ask God for the truth, it doesn’t really matter what other people say about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Who knows better - our Heavenly Father or someone who is trying to tear down another’s beliefs? What is more Christ-like? Inviting others to know for themselves or arguing the points of why another church is wrong? Pointing out things that are different or declaring what we know to be true from the manifestations of the Holy Ghost? Should we look to man’s understanding of other religions in a book or should we go to the source of all truth and knowledge? There are two paths in this world, one that looks quite tempting and easy, or the path that leads to Eternal Life. How can we know? Trying asking God for yourself!

I love you all! Keeping working hard! Keep growing stronger in the faith of our Lord and Savior! Take care of yourselves! Saludos a TODOS! LES QUIERO!! CHAU!

Elder David E. Watson

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!

How are you? It sounds like life is going pretty good. I hope that Dad is feeling better already... it is never fun to be sick. It is so weird to think that it is starting to warm up there and that summer is slowly coming to an end. I love being here in Paraguay!

The mission work is going good! We are finding many people who want to hear the word of God. I don’t have any amazing stories or anything... just lots of small things everyday that we do to help the people progress and know the truth for themselves.

There is a less active man who came back to church with his wife (who is not a member), by themselves, and she absolutely loved being at church. We didn’t have much time to talk with her, but the members were excited to see her there with her husband and being excited about being at church. We are pretty excited to go visit with them and get her ready to be baptized, hopefully soon! Also, some of the members just told us that they know some friends that were preparing to be baptized, something happened but that they were still interested. So we are excited to see the work progress and hopeful we are going to have a baptism soon!

There is also a Paraguayan thing that is called ‘Carnaval’ where everyone throws water balloons at each other and spray can foam. Even the adults get in on it... I was so surprised to see a older woman chuck a water balloon at a passing motorcycle. Luckily, we haven’t been made targets, except in the houses of members. So it’s not so bad.

Well... that’s my news. We are just chugging along. I hope that life is going pretty well over there! Keep your spirits up and keeping on doing the right thing every day. It is never late to make changes in our lives to keep the commandments like praying, reading the scriptures, or going to church. He just wants us to start now and never look back. He’s willing to help us do that, if we do our part. And it all starts with a little step. By the way, the Book of Mormon is a huge help. Not kidding. :)

Love you all! Take care of yourselves!

Chaucito!!!!

Elder Watson

Still in Encarnacion!

2011-02-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!

That’s great to hear that there was a baptism in the Fillmore ward! I bet the missionaries are super excited! That is so amazing!!! I hope that she feels welcome to the ward and her husband will feel the Spirit in church and in the lessons! :) Woo hoo! That is so cool to hear about all the missionaries that will be serving from the ward too. Too cool!

Changes weren’t very exciting here. We stayed! Our whole district stayed too. We have started to work in another area where we have never been before, and we are finding a lot of people who are listening, so I am excited to see the progress that we have been struggling to have in this part. The branch is starting to focus on home teaching and visiting teaching, which will help us out a ton!

There has been a TON of rain here… which is really weird for the summer. I have a picture of my boots filled with water… it’s kind of funny. There shouldn’t be too much rain during this time of year, but, this year it’s just different. We have come home soaked to the bone like four times in the past two weeks… it’s pretty interesting. At least it’s not really super hot! I also was able to get a picture with my trainer and his current companion that he is training. My trainer goes home in three weeks – wow how time flies!

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for this week. I hope everything is going really, really, really well for everyone! Take care of yourselves! Éxito en todo! Les QUIERO!

CHAU!

Elder David Watson

You Can Pray to Know the Truth!

2011-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!

Wow, like the other Elder Watson said, this week just screamed by! It seems like every day just gets faster and faster… it’s hard to keep track of the weeks now. That’s great to hear that everything is good at home and that I am on the other side of the world while taxes are being done in the States. That makes me feel safe. ;). Just kidding.

Well, so what happened this week? Well, it had been a little hard for us to find new people to teach, but on Wednesday when we thought we were out of places to search, we saw a couple of men outside their house, so we clapped and they invited us in. We began to teach the Restoration, and it was pretty awesome! They participated and everything, asking questions, applying the principles. So we got the book of Mormon, they accepted the challenge to read and pray. They had awesome questions that the Book of Mormon answers perfectly, and we challenged them to be baptized when the Lord answered their prayers and they knew for themselves that it was true. And they said yes. Pretty bomb awesome! It was pretty cool because most 20 year olds are focused on smoking, drinking, parties, and want nothing to do with us. Like the other Elder Watson said, MIRACLE! :) Lots and lots of people have doubts and fears about what we teach, but the reality is that the people just need to know that the Book of Mormon is true. When we know that this book is true, we know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. That Christ is the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God on the Earth today. All doubts and objections rest on that. That is why we talk so much about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The Bible is the word of God, and there are thousands of churches that say the same thing. What the difference between our church and everyone else is that a prophet of God received the authority and power of God to act in His name and establish His church. Every single objection rests on this point. Did the people reject Moses because he gave them the 10 commandments? No. It was something new, different, but they knew he was a prophet of God. Did people reject John the Baptist because he said the Son of God was coming to live on the Earth and redeem His people? Nope! They got baptized! What God says through a prophet is what He wants. It doesn’t matter what past commandments were. In the 10 commandments it says NOT to kill. But God himself commanded Israel through Joshua to destroy and kill nations. Why did they do it? Because a prophet of God told them to do it and they knew he was permitted to receive revelation for the people. It doesn’t matter why someone doesn’t want to believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, if they pray with a sincere heart, with faith in Jesus Christ, and with true intention, then they will know the truth. If God responds to your prayer and helps you to understand that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, then you know it is true. If God responds to your prayer and helps you to understand that Joseph Smith was a prophet, then you know it is true. If God responds to your prayer and helps you to understand that you need to be baptized with someone holding the authority of God, being given to him by someone already having the authority of God, then you know it is true. It’s just that simple. Pray. Ask. Know. Ya está!

I am out of time. Love you! Take care!

Elder Watson

January is almost over?

2011-01-24T17:20:00.001-08:00

Hola Familia!

Wow! Sounds like a busy week you had mom! It’s great to hear that everything is going great! Jacob’s gone? WOW! Time just flew by! I was thinking that he just got his mission call. Something like Elder Watson said… I can’t believe that it’s already the end of January. And that the next changes are coming up. Which makes me think a little because within the next 6 months, 70 odd missionaries go home, or more than a 3rd of the mission, and almost all of them are leaders. I’ve been here in Encarn for 3 changes, which is normal for a change, but I don’t want to go. Really. We just found a family that is really awesome. The members are awesome. The next baptism we will have will be the middle of February, which is another reason why I don’t want to go. But the Lord knows best, so I will put my faith and trust in Him and what’s going to happen. :)

This week was a little hard, to tell the truth. A lot of our investigators we just could not find at home if our lives depended on it. But, it has been a lot of fun helping Elder Hatch learn and progress as a missionary. For example, we were walking by a few houses and he told me that we should… what’s the word in English… knock on the door? In Spanish it is touch the door (tocar puertas). Haha. But anyway, there was a guy who came out, invited us to pass, and we started teaching. And he and his wife, who we talked with later, are preparing to be baptized! He even has a guitar, which he let me play “I Am A Child of God” on… that was pretty cool… I miss my guitar… haha. So we will be working a lot with them. I am excited. :) We don’t have anything new this week new coming up… next week I should be going to Asunción for a training meeting. That’ll be fun.

So ya, that’s boring old me. We’ll try to find a way to make something amazing happen this week. Thank you all for everything. I really am trying my best to get around to writing letters, in my area it is a little hard because we have to travel every P-day to go buy food, do internet, talk with the other missionaries. But I’ll find a way. :). Keep up fighting the good fight. Keep on reading the scriptures, praying every day, and going to church! That really is what builds a testimony. You just don’t notice it. :). Please have the faith in God and the trust in Him to change your life. Nobody likes changes, but God wants something better for you. Of course we can’t see what is going to happen, but God knows. And if He knows everything, and He is letting you know that you need to change something in your life, please do it. I’ve seen too many people who let the fear take control. With God, nothing is impossible. Never believe we don’t have to change something. That’s just a sneaky little lie that stops us from becoming more like Jesus Christ. No one is perfect, but God wants us to make the effort. If you just try your best, that is what counts. Please just trust in our Heavenly Father. Ask Him what is right. Ask Him for guidance. Don’t feel helpless because you don’t want to change or someone says you shouldn’t change. Our Heavenly Father knows the best route for us, and it is in Him we need to listen to and obey. He will never lie to us or lead us astray. I promise. :)

Anyway, that’s time. I love you! CHAU!

Elder David Watson

Miracles Happen!

2011-01-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia

Wow... what a week!!!! It’s great to hear how everything is going at home. I remembered about all of that high school stuff. Boy am I glad it’s over. [We told them about counting the ballots for the Winter King/Queen at Vasquez High] Ward Conference with President Watson! YEAH! A mi me gusta! I like that! :) It sounds like it went really well!

Well, we had a baptism this week! It was such a miracle. The daughter of a less active family that lives out in the middle of nowhere, like an hour and a half walking from the house, got baptized. We had the help of so many members because the mom gets home at 8 or 9 at night, so on Wednesday we got driven out to go get the baptismal form signed and filled out and everything, then on Thursday we went with the District Leader to go do the interview, Friday made the hike out again, and Saturday came around. We went to go fill up the baptismal font, only to find out that it was already filled with water from... a long time ago. So we started emptying it out with the machine, which is really slow, and with random pots we had found to empty it out. And there are random water outages where we live so we started up filling the font until the water stopped with 3 inches... uh oh. Our branch president was working about 4 hours away from the chapel and he has the key to the water tank. So we left to go visit a few families, and then came back early. The President came back about 7, when the baptism was supposed to start, we started filling up the tank. Nobody came until about 8 due to collectivos, and then everything came out alright. All I can say is that prayers work and there are miracles that happen. :) Woo hoo! I will send pictures next week! :)

It’s is REALLY hot here and it’s getting even hotter. At least that’s what they tell me. But that’s alright. I just drink water like a camel. Something that is really funny is that everybody either sleeps or gets in the shade during the summer. It’s like a ghost town really... but the Par a guayans take their siesta seriously... hahhaa.

Like what Elder Watson said last week, I too have been thinking about all of the ‘best’ missionaries that I had met over the years and their influence in my life. I hope that I can get to be to their level. That’d be so cool! Woo ho!!! :)

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. I love you! Take care of yourselves! CHAU!!!!

Con cariño,

Elder David Watson

Finding People in the Bush

2011-01-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

Elder Watson & Elder Hatch

Dear Family

WOW! Good week then, huh? {Cliff is able to wear regular shoes now} That is so great to hear. I bet Dad was so glad to drive the car. That is so awesome to hear about how he is getting better. I bet he is so much happier. It could be that he is starting to talk a little bit more if he is a little happier... ;).. You’re going to have to be prepared when we get back because all we are going to do is talk and talk, cualquier cosa que sea, or whatever it might be because that is what we do all day, every day! Talk, discuss, and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Gotta LOVE IT! :) Woo hoo!

Well, this week was hard but good. We started off the week trying to work around the church and in the area around it, but it’s not their time at the moment. So we headed to where most of the missionaries work and we are finding tons of people to teach. So I now know why missionaries have been working there. It is awesome to find people who want to learn about the Gospel and put the promise of the Book of Mormon to the test. That is all we ask. All we invite to do. Missionary work isn’t forcing someone to do something they don’t want to do. It’s about helping them find the desire to follow the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the desire to find out for themselves. That is all we do as missionaries. We teach the Gospel, how the Lord Jesus Christ taught it, and help the people to put their trust in God and ask Him for an answer.

How do we know, in our hearts, that Jesus Christ is our Savior? Through prayer and by asking God. By feeling His love for us and the peace and comfort that the Holy Ghost brings. How do we know, that the Bible is the word of God, in our hearts? We have to ask God for the knowledge that only comes from Him. Paul the apostle taught that he knew what was true because the Spirit testified to his soul. That the Holy Ghost bears testimony the God the Father is the Father of our spirits. James taught that if we lack wisdom, be it knowledge, counsel, even an answer to a question, ask God. Pidála a Dios. Ask it to God. If we have faith, without any doubt, willing to act on what God tells us what is the truth, not what we want the truth be, that is when we will get an answer. It has and always will be my same invitation. Pray to God. About anything, work on finding that faith and that confidence in Him. Ask Him, if He loves you. Ask Him, if He knows you. Learn to recognize the answer. When we can do that, we will have an undying faith that God answers prayers. If we have that faith and confidence, we can ask Him anything. I invite everyone, Christian, Catholic, and Atheist, whoever it might be, to read the Book of Mormon and to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true. If we know the Book of Mormon to be true, we know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth… I do it because I love you all and I want you to have the same blessings I have received. :)

I am out of time. Love you!

Chau con cariño

Elder David Watson

German Chocolate Cake is the Best!!

2011-01-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

Hola familia

Hey all! Wow! Snow on the mountains! That’s a new sight. I’d wish I’d see some snow around here... hahahaha. Just kidding. Don’t listen to me.

Well, today we are running WAY late... We ate with a bunch of other missionaries, our district, the zone leaders, and two other missionaries, and we like talking... hahaha. But it’s always fun to be with them. The only thing is waiting for a bus to get back to our area... it takes forever! But it is alright. There is a way for everything. :).

This weekend was great! We were cruising around pretty good looking for new investigators and it’s been fun helping Elder Hatch with his Spanish. It’s already gotten tons better! We are really working on finding new investigators and helping Elder Hatch to progress with his Spanish. He is an awesome Elder and loves to work. He just wants to get out there and talk to the people. Sometimes it’s a little funny when I can’t talk in English with him, but I try to help him when he doesn’t understand. I’m getting better! Haha.

There’s not much news to report since Thursday, but this week is going to be amazing. I already know it. We have a ton of people we want to go teach and we are going to find a ton more who want to read the Book of Mormon, pray to know it’s true and then get baptized! I know that this is the true church, that the authority of God was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and that we have a prophet that talks with God today. I know that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and the Savior of the whole world, and we can come to know the truth through prayer.

Well, I am out. Love you! I’ll write more next week!

Chau!

Elder Watson

New Companion - Elder Hatch From Idaho

2010-12-30T15:04:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!

Wow... too many things have happened in the past week and a half. Christmas was NUTS! Everyone celebrates Christmas Eve instead of Christmas, and they stay up until midnight with their barbecues and family, lighting off fireworks like there is no tomorrow. And there are some LOUD fireworks... a family invited us to spend the night to eat and have a place to be, but before the barbecue was fully finished, we had to go. We still ate some pretty good chicken though! :). I am glad to hear that the surgery went well with Michelle. She’ll be up and about in no time! She’s a tough cookie like that. I received a letter from Spencer Brown, who is now in the MTC so I’ll have to get him a letter... along with everybody else! I am so slow! SORRY!!!! And I got one from Annie too... with a cool picture! It was awesome. Hahaha. But I will be working on that. I’ll be sending pictures home soon... my computer isn’t working very well so I will have to use another one on Monday. But that is alright! :).

Christmas Saturday was awesome; I got to talk with the family! And see them. That was pretty cool. This week was changes... I was told on Monday (by our District Leader) that I was going to be training. Elder Lamb, my old companion, didn’t believe him because our District Leader had pulled a little trick a long time ago and said fake changes. I was a little unsure because he told us that I was training. But... nope! They were real! So I headed out to Asunción at midnight, December 29, our bus broke down twice, got there at 7 in the morning, studied a little, talked with the other trainers, got trained by President Callan, and then met the new missionaries. 9 came, 5 Elders and 4 Hermanas. 6 Americans and 3 Latins. I was assigned to train Elder Hatch, from Idaho Falls, who could possibly know a friend of mine from BYU (Chelsie Cook). Now that would be funny! So we rushed over to the terminal, and we missed the bus. So we waited at the terminal until 5 to take another one, got to Encarnación at midnight, and then got home! That was my birthday! Hahaha. But I celebrated it on Monday because I didn’t know if I was going to have a change, and the family LOVED LOVED LOVED the German Chocolate Cake. I told you it was the best. :). They wanted to know if I knew the recipe for the cream or the cake. I showed them the box and the can and said I cheated. Haha. But they really did love it. It was fun see their little girl go crazy with the balloons.

Tuesday we said goodbye to people, Wednesday you already know, and Thursday is today! We helped Elder Curtis pack his stuff and took him to the terminal, went back to the apartment of Elder Rodriguez, the District Leader, and we had fun talking a mix of Spanish and English. Luckily Elder Rodriguez already knows English really well, so it was more of helping the new Elders (Elder Bowns, Utah is also training, he has about 6 more months than I do) use Spanish and telling stories from the mission. That was pretty fun. And now I am here.

I am so excited to be here in Paraguay and to be teaching the people and being a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I can’t believe it has been a year; that I am not a teenager anymore; and that I am finally starting to understand how to become who the Lord wants me to be. It’s pretty darn cool! :) I am still amazed at how real the Book of Mormon is. It really is a true book that brings us closer to Christ. It really is another testament of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and because of him, we have the true Church of Jesus Christ. Like I have said a million times, if you don’t know what I said is true, you can ask God. He won’t lie. I like being able to trust in Him and receive the help and answers I need. It is plain in the scriptures: The Bible and Book of Mormon, that if we have a need, or have a lack of knowledge, or have questions, we can ask God with faith, and He will respond. I can say this because I have done it. I cannot and I will not deny what I have felt to be true. Maybe some people won’t believe, or don’t want to, but I know what I am doing is the Lord’s work. I know that there is one true church that teaches the true doctrine of Jesus Christ. I know there is a prophet of God here on the Earth, who is Thomas Monson. Every single person can know this is true, and all they have to do is… do their part and ask our Heavenly Father. Ya está! :)

Well, that’s time. I love you all! Take care of yourselves! I love you! Have a great New Year and I hope that you had a great Christmas!

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!! CHAU!

Elder David Watson

Remember What Christmas is About

2010-12-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia,

Wow... the time keeps flying by. I can’t believe that it is almost Christmas already. It certainly doesn’t feel like it... hahaha. We have been getting a LOT of rain lately too, which is really unusual for December in Paraguay. It NEVER rains, but we had had 3 weekends of rain, rain, rain, and this past weekend was the first without rain. That is pretty awesome that you are getting rain... it hardly ever rains back home. Haha. But I am sure the plants are loving it at least. Hehe. Really? Was President Murri before President Udall? That would be pretty awesome to chat with him if I got the chance afterward. :) (The Mission President in Ventura used to be the Temple President in Asuncion, Paraguay).

Well, this week. We had a special Christmas Meeting, but it was really like just another Zone Conference. With lots of Christmas touches... haha. I’m not complaining because I love the chance to listen and learn from my mission president. We really focused on setting goals and how our goals help us to achieve what the Lord wants. We talked about ... rendir cuentas... ummm, reporting back?... on our missionary work and how it helps us to grow and do more of what the Lord wants for us and for all of His children. We talked about making inspired goals and plans, all that starts with a prayer. Prayer, really, is so important! It’s a wonderful chance to talk with our Heavenly Father and receive inspiration. We have to make the efforts to make specific plans and then confirm them with our Heavenly Father. He wants us to be agents for ourselves, instead of waiting for an answer and sitting on our heels, He wants us to act, use our thinking, and then ask him if what we are thinking of doing is right. By showing our faith and our willingness to act, we can receive an answer from our Heavenly Father. On another note, I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning in Alma. He was writing a letter to one of his sons and talking about the commandments of God. Many times we think there is a grey area in between what is good and what is a sin. He tells us that the commandments of God are strict, not flexible, and a little later he commands his son to keep the commandments AS they are written. If I translated that in my head right. Alma 37:13 and 20. For example, Jesus taught that before a man who committed adultery was punished, but in reality a man who even looks to lust, or looks at women with the wrong intentions, or the intentions of committing sins, he is sinning all the same. I can’t express that right in English but I hope that comes across alright. That doesn’t mean we can sit there and think about bad things we can do, be it stealing, killing, whatever it is, it’s not just the 10 commandments but what Christ has taught us also. James 4:17 says that if someone knows what is right, but doesn’t do it, it is a sin. The bible really tells us the things that we should do, along with the Book of Mormon. Like a prophet says, the words of Christ will guide us in all things. We just gotta do it! It ain’t that hard! It’s right there in front of us. We don’t have to be perfect right away, but please make a commitment to do something better every day. You’d be surprised how something is a little better every day, for one month, is 30 things better. One year? 365 things better. It could be something simple as a smile to someone in the street, to reading a verse out of the scriptures, to say one more prayer, to say thanks to somebody... there are thousands of things. You’ll know what to do. :)

Well I am out of time. I really love you all! Remember the true meaning of Christmas. We worship our Savior’s birth. Take the time to read a little bit out of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John about our Lord and Savior’s birth and life. Take the time to put yourself in the shoes of a bystander there, one of the Savior’s disciples. Take the time to think, to study and to apply it to your life. The scriptures really come to life. You’ll be surprised. Be happy! This is the time of year to help other people, as it is with every day of our lives. Take care of yourselves! LES AMO!!!

Chaucito!

Elder David Watson

We Had Divisions Last Week

2010-12-13T16:43:00.000-08:00

A Storm

Dear family,

Wow... time flies and then it’s gone. It’s hard to believe that the year is almost gone. I am so excited to hear that life is going great for y’all! Life is great if you are busy! :D

This week was interesting! Monday was Pday... we wandered around the zoological park that we live in... There aren’t any signs and its a little weird following the paths deeper and deeper into the jungle. We did find a few animals; even saw an iguana about 3 feet long before it disappeared in the foliage. The pictures I have are alright, but maybe we will go back so I can take some new pictures. Oh the white headed turkey things are everywhere here... nobody knows their name either. They just call them gallinetas, or a form of gallina, chicken. I don’t know! Haha.

Tuesday was pretty awesome, we had a district meeting with the zone leaders and we talked about our potential as missionaries and what the Lord expects of us. I really like a phrase from it... Desde ahora – or from right now. The Lord doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but he does want us to repent and change. For example, if we aren’t living the law of tithing, He doesn’t expect us to pay everything that we gained in our lives, but from the moment we realize the importance and decide to start living the law. From when were obedient? When did we start going to church? When did we start reading the scriptures? When did we start doing family home evening? From now on. We can have a determination to make a change in our lives and the Lord will help us do it. I promise. :). The rest of the day was divisions, where I was with Elder Rodriguez from Arequipa Peru (He knows Hermano Clarke, my other MTC teacher) and we did WORK! He still doesn’t know his area really well, but that didn’t stop us from finding the family we were looking for and teaching! The cousin of the husband was visiting, and visits a lot, so we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked her, if you knew this was true, when would you be baptized? The soonest I could. PURETE! How awesome! We visited later with another family, only the husband was there, who they teach, and we taught the Word of Wisdom, and taught about Desde Ahora, or from now on, and how he can be the example in his family. Yeah! We also invited him to be baptized the 1 of January. How about this for a baptismal date? 1/1/2011. The start of a brand new year with a brand new life. LOVE IT! :D. Anyway, divisions carried over to Wednesday where I went back to my area and we taught some recent converts.

Thursday we decided to explore a part of our area that we don’t know, Conavi, found a couple of families there to teach. Awesome! A recent convert family left to go teach with us... but nobody was home............................................... MURPHY’S LAW! Ughh. Just my luck. Hahaha. We found some less actives who were baptized about a year and a half ago and invited them to church. Friday we taught a family that is getting ready to be baptized, the husband told us he’d be ready the 2011... Saturday was good, we stumbled over the house of a member that we had no idea who lived there. We always passed his house and never knew it. Oops! Sunday was good, but again hardly anyone was home. But it has been a really weird December here... storms that begin every Friday and last until Monday... it’s happened for the past 3 weeks. Usually it never rains in December and it’s HOT HOT HOT! It’s quite an experience to be in a storm here... :)… We’ll just leave it at that. Haha.

Anyway, I am out of time. I love you all! Take care of yourselves! CHAUCITO!

Elder David Watson

Teaching to Act For Yourself

2010-12-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

Hola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How are you all? Doing great? I hope so!! It’s so great to hear from you! Gospel Doctrine teacher! (Gina is now our Gospel Doctrine Instructor in church) Woo hoo! What an opportunity to learn! I am sure that you will love it and learn a ton!

Well... what’s new? Today we went exploring in the Zoo Park where we live... it wasn’t very well marked and we almost got lost in the back of the park because it’s all woods and dirt tracks that leads off to who knows where. There are a lot of pathways like that here in Paraguay. I’ve no idea where they lead to... we’ve even taken the chance to explore and check them out, but we only found small little fields in the middle of the jungle. What can I say? We tried! Hahaha. Eventually we found the road leading to the area we wanted to go. That’s what counts.

The work is coming along just fine. We have a family that is preparing to be baptized on the 18th, but right now we are helping them to find the answers to their questions and doubts, so that they know what the Lord wants them to do. We were going to have a baptism this week of a couple, but the girlfriend still hasn’t been able to get her birth certificate from the State. Her parents never had her recognized by the State so it’s like she doesn’t exist. We all know how the government works, but we are helping them to know how to find the way to be baptized and how to get the help from the Lord that they need. Something we have really been working hard to do is teach our investigators how to find answers for themselves through prayer and the scriptures. It’s one thing to believe what we say as missionaries, but it’s entirely different when they know they can receive an answer for themselves from our Heavenly Father. It helps them have the confidence that they can get the help they need from their own efforts. It is something that I have learned a lot about here in the mission field and about the purpose of life. We shouldn’t be little blind mice running through the maze trying to find the cheese. We shouldn’t be the donkey that has to be led by the rope. We need to learn how to make choices for ourselves. We need to learn how to get the help we need by the efforts we make. We don’t know everything, we never will, but our Heavenly Father wants to help us. But He also knows what is best for us. Sometimes He lets us struggle until we are humble enough to ask for His help. Sometimes He doesn’t answer a prayer in the way we want because it won’t help us in the long run. Sometimes He waits for us to make a decision and ask if the decision we have made is right. We will never learn if we never try. It’s impossible. It’s like a child. We can give them the answers to all of their homework, but when it comes to the test, what do they know? We might know the answers, but we know that they need to learn for themselves. They need to find the way to have success. Our Heavenly Father won’t rob us of the chance to learn and grow. That is our purpose. To learn, grow, and prepare for the day when we will appear before Him and account for what we have done. If we want to be stress free, tranquil and happy in that day that undoubtedly will come, the answers are there. What we need to do is make the effort. We need to read the scriptures. We need to know if they are true. We need to know if the Church of Jesus Christ was lost after His death and resurrection. We need to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that through him, the Church of Jesus Christ was brought again to the Earth. We need to know if Thomas Monson indeed is a prophet of God. Why do we need to know this? Why are there so many churches? Why are there so many ways of interpreting the Bible? Why are there hard times in our lives? The answers are there. We just need to make the effort to find them. We need to have the faith in a loving Heavenly Father that He will guide us to the truth. That is how we will find the peace and happiness in life. It isn’t money. It isn’t fame. It is living the commandments of God and knowing that He is blessing us because we are doing what He has asked us to do. As missionaries we always invite people to pray and ask God, our Eternal Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that what we teach is true. It isn’t just for people who aren’t Mormon. It is to everyone. Everyone can get an answer for themselves. I promise that if we make the effort, we will learn, grow, and know for ourselves really what God wants us to do.

Well, I am out of time. I love you all! Take care of yourselves! CHAUCITO!!!

Mucho cariño,

Elder David Watson

I love Teaching Families

2010-11-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!

Hey! How’s it going? Sounds like you had an awesome week! I only remembered about thanksgiving because one of the members who served a mission in Uruguay asked me if the day of thanks had gone by. Oops... hahaha. Different culture, what can I say? ;) Wow!?! Bret Tomas got his Eagle Scout? Awesome! I’m sure it was great to catch up with the people back in Burbank… Too cool. That would have been fun to go to. Also it would have been fun to see that family madness of Thanksgiving.

Weelllll, this week went good. I am really excited that we are teaching a few families. For me it’s a whole lot better to teach a family and see them progress and make changes in their life and see the blessings that come from living the Gospel. For the most part we are really trying to find less actives and help them come back to church. We have had some success and it’s great to see more people come to where they belong. Sometimes all it takes is in invitation, be it from a member or a missionary. Some of the members went to visit people last Sunday and this Sunday some of those people came back. With all of the work that I have done with less actives, many times they still know that the church is true and have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It’s just that something happened, they stopped going to church, and many times are nervous that if they go back someone will ask why they haven’t been coming. We can show our love to them and they will feel the spirit and receive the blessings of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well I have run out of things to say today. I am really thankful for everything that you do for me. I can never thank you enough for your love and support in what I do. I hope that life is going great for you! Take care of yourselves. LOVE YOU! Chau!

Elder David Watson

Thunderstorms!

2010-11-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

Elder Watson & Elder Lamb

Hola!

Wow time flies. It feels like I was just here. It’s always great to hear from y’all and how your week has gone by. That’s awesome to hear about Dad’s progression. I bet he is really excited about being able to walk barefoot and the prospect of walking without pain again. Modern medicine really is such a blessing in our day. But what is more awesome are the blessings we receive from our Heavenly Father. Family, work, friends, inspiration, the scriptures, prayer... there are countless things that He has blessed us with. I love it! :)

Well things are going pretty good here in Encarnacion. It has been getting hotter and hotter, and really a new experience with the humidity. And they tell me it’s just the beginning. Woo hoo! Haha. It rained pretty good this weekend, lots of thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms! They are just amazing. We are going through a little bit of a rough time with the branch, but it is awesome to see the members and how they want to help the others come back and receive the blessings of our loving Heavenly Father. We are working a lot with the less actives because there are so many. It’s great to see the enthusiasm that the people have to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The hour is just about up, so I gotta go. I love you all and thank you so much for all of your love and support. I finally found a Correo Paraguayo so I will be able to send off some letters. Por fin! Haha. Love you!!!!!!!!!!
Con cariño

Elder David Watson

Changes Came and Went, We are Still the Same.

2010-11-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hola!

How are you? Everything good? I hope so! 23 cakes? Mom, I thought that you were 21?!?!? Something’s not right... and I thought I was majoring in math... ;). That is awesome to hear that Brother Freeman got called to the high council and that Brother Conaway is working with the bishopric! Changes are always exciting and the Lord always makes them with many reasons in mind. I always thought that when I was called to be an assistant financial clerk at BYU that somehow I wasn’t as good as some of the others who were called as Elders Quorum President or something “higher”, but I realized that I learned many things that the people here in Paraguay needed. Maybe I thought before that I wasn’t as good, but really the Lord had something different in mind. Not to mention to lower my pride... hahaha. Humility is something hard to have... :).

Anyway, things are going good. I am feeling better... it took me almost the whole week to get better, but better I did get. Whew. Our district was not affected by any changes except for our District Leader, who is my old Zone Leader Elder Rodriguez. He’s is pretty awesome. :) I am still here in Encarnacion, more specifically Curumbaty (I think that is how you spell it), with Elder Lamb as my companion. Life is going pretty great. I love being a missionary and learning what it’s like to learn from the Holy Ghost. Reading the scriptures everyday has been so awesome for me. Then when we are teaching and I get to use the scriptures that I studied that morning with the people we are teaching, it is amazing. The Lord knows what the people need, and as His servants, we are guided to study and prepare for the needs of every person so that they can come even closer to Christ. I don’t have any exciting stories to tell, just the red dust on my shoes from walking and talking with the people of Paraguay. It really is amazing to see how the Lord has prepared everything but still lets us make our choices to see if we will be obedient to His commandments and qualify for the blessing He has for us.

Well, I have run out of time. I love you all! I will try to write more next week! Chaucito! LES AMO!

Elder David Watson

New Companion - Elder Lamb

2010-11-08T16:25:00.001-08:00

Hey all!

This week was rather interesting... we had a special change on Monday and now Elder Lamb is my new companion. He is from Alaska and has been in the mission for a year and 3 months. We have been trying to get to know the area and the members because we are both rather new. But it’s alright! We are teaching a lot of families, which is awesome, and doing the best we can with the little knowledge we have about the area. We have zone conference this week on Thursday with President Foster from the Area Presidency. IT should be really good. I am looking forward to learning how to be a better teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope you all will forgive me for my short letter. I am not feeling really well today. Changes are next week so I won’t have the chance to write again until next Thursday. I will probably be here in Encarnacion with Elder Lamb since we are both pretty new here. Thank you so much for everything! I love you!

Elder David Watson

No Halloween in Paraguay

2010-11-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

Halloween? Doesn’t exist here. It’s was funny to see people’s reactions when I told them that little kids go door to door asking for candy. They were shocked! They asked me if the parents were worried about their kids going out and about at night and asking strangers for candy. I told them, yeah, but that’s the custom in the states. Even I thought it was a little weird looking back... hahaha. :D.

This week went pretty well. We have found some good families to teach. It’s been a lot easier to find people to teach here than in my other areas. I don’t know how that works... Life is just really good as a missionary. I have realized how different life is not being a missionary. Time really is precious and the way I used it before maybe wasn’t the best. I think I have learned more in my time here about how the Lord would have us live our lives and become better people in this short amount of time than all of my life before the mission. When we dedicate ourselves to the scriptures, even for a little bit of time every day, we find countless ways to come closer to our Savior. There really is a peace and happiness that we can find. Everyone is searching for something in their lives, and sometimes it takes a while to find it. But through prayer to our Heavenly Father, the scriptures, and living our lives according to the teachings of Jesus Christ, we will find it. Sometimes we find out what we thought we really wanted wasn’t all that important, and we find something that actually benefits our lives. I sure imagined a lot of things were really important before, but in reality, nothing is as important as our families. Families help us learn and grow, and when we come closer as a family to the teachings of our Savior and one another, there is a firm foundation to withstand every trial that we face, and every hard time that we go through.

Well, I am about out of time. I’m working on those letters! I love you all! Take care of yourselves!! Chaucito!

Con mucho cariño,

Elder David E. Watson

I know, it's been two weeks.

2010-10-25T16:02:00.001-07:00

Asuncion, Paraguay Temple

Hey all!

Sorry about last week. We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off (that is the right phrase in English, I think...) but the temple was awesome. I have noticed that the mission president from Arizona is sending me emails. I already I knew that I had one copy... but two? Ay ay ay!!!

Woo hoo Jacob! He is going to love it! That’s awesome! I am really excited for him! :D

Wow... how to sum up the past two weeks. I have really enjoyed getting to know the people here in Encarnacion. They are pretty awesome. We had two baptisms this past week, two young men Lucas and Victor. It was awesome to see their progress and the changes that have happened in their lives. We are working a ton with the less actives and recent converts here, which is really good because it is awesome to see their excitement and their progression. There is a lot more walking here in Encarnacion, and when it rains, it is a little hard to chug through the mud. It is kind of like cement the way it sticks to your shoes. Haha.

We had a District Conference this past weekend where we learned from Elder Costa from the Presidency of the Seventy, Hermana Jean Stevens (of the General Primary Presidency), and Elders Ballard and Packer from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was amazing to hear how their messages related to the doubts and questions of a family almost exactly to the point. I have really seen how the Spirit works when we teach and I am learning a lot in order to try and follow His promptings in order to teach the needs of every investigator. I love teaching with the Book of Mormon and the Bible... these inspired books have the answers to almost any and every question we have.

Well, I ran out of time. I hope that everything is going well for you all! Thanks for the letters I have received! This is going to be my first real P-Day (sort of) in 3 weeks so I am going to do my best to catch up. I love you all! Take care of yourselves!

Love!!

Elder David Edward Watson

PS. Can you look for Grant Getts address? His letter got returned to me and they put a sticker over his address so I don’t know what it is. Thanks!! :D

I Love My New Area!!

2010-10-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

That Way to Encarnacion!

Hi family!

Heyyyyyyy! How is everyone? I am always excited to hear from home. That’s great that Dad finally got back to work! I am sure he was really tired of sitting around all day long. Homecoming week! Oh boy... am I glad I don’t have to worry about THAT anymore. Yay! :D 25 years?!?!?! (Cliff received his 25 year pin last week) Really has it been that much time! Congratulations! How fast did it go by? I am sure at times a little slow, but at other times really fast. I miss those stories from your 911 days... the only one I can remember at the moment is the crazy cat lady who called at midnight about aliens stealing her cats. Something like that... :).

Well, this weekend was rather exciting! I got to meet many of our investigators and members of the branch. The members are so awesome! They treat us like members of the family, which is something a little new for me. They just let us walk in to knock on the door, which is something that does not happen very often here. Everybody claps at the gate. Everybody. It kinda weirded me out the first time Elder Lopez didn’t clap and just walked up to the door. Élder López and I had a really great experience together. One of our investigators was having a lot of doubts about being baptized. A lot. She kept telling us yes, then no, then I’m not sure. But we went to the Lord and made a little questionnaire thingy with questions that we had prayed for. It was awesome to receive the inspiration we needed to help her come closer to our Heavenly Father. The next appointment we talked, handed her the questionnaire and let her fill it out. Afterwards we discussed her answers and why she filled them out the way she did. We felt the Holy Ghost so strongly during the lesson! We testified of what we knew to be true and invited her to follow her heart and the impressions that she had. We also invited her to put her trust in God with the answers that she had already received to her prayers. It was amazing to be able to follow the Spirit and be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. Yeah! We also worked all of Saturday with a recent convert teaching lessons. It was pretty cool!

It hasn’t even been a week and I already love being in this part of Paraguay. We are so busy it’s not even funny. We even have to cut a little bit of our Pday short to be able to teach the people that we have. I wish I had so much more time to tell you everything that goes on! The mission is a once in a lifetime chance to be able to be a servant of the Lord 24/7. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve these people and learn who the Lord really wants me to be. Thank you so much for all of your love and support! Also to everyone that has helped me to become who I am today. I am so grateful to be a member of the true Church of Jesus Christ and serve with His authority and power. There is no way I could ever convince anyone to be baptized and join the church, but through the power of the Holy Ghost, the people can learn and recognize the answer from God themselves. I have seen it so many times here and I am sure that almost every missionary can tell you the same thing. I love reading the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible, the words of Christ that help us become the type of people our Heavenly Father would have us be. I love you all! Take care!

Elder David Watson

Transfer Week - My New Area is Encarnacion

2010-10-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

Well, this time I do have news! Big time! I got transferred to Encarnación, 5th Branch to be with Elder López, who has a little bit less time than I do in the mission. It’s beautiful here, like almost every part of Paraguay. It never fails to amaze me how green this place can be. I got welcomed my first night with a big thunderstorm, wind, and some hail too. Well, the Branch President’s wife told us there was hail. The work here is really moving along! We have a lot of help from the members and if I thought everyone was friendly before, man the people here are so much more!! The dirt here is like Utah... really red! The parts of the branch I’ve been to so far are actually pretty nice - it’s not too much out in the middle of nowhere. Almost all the roads are either paved (not too common) or roughly laid with rocks, which is common here in Paraguay. It’s located to the southeast of the city of Encarnación itself. I think it is the closest I will ever be to the other Elder Watson while here in the mission. Our pension is located right outside of a local zoo, and Elder Lopez has told me that they let us in sometimes to help feed the crocodiles. Considering that there were some pet monkeys in my past area, I think that Paraguay is a little bit like a zoo itself. The animals wander around anyway... cows, chickens, ducks, geese, monkeys, snakes, ostriches, scorpions, dogs, cats... hahaha! But it is so awesome! :D. Anyway, Encarnación is a pretty good sized city, one of the biggest outside of Asunción, and I think it is a little smaller than Ciudad del Este. The members are extremely friendly and are pretty awesome. It was hard to say goodbye to my old area, especially to some of the families and to those I helped to be baptized. That is probably the toughest part of the mission, getting to love and care about the people only to leave.

Elder Lopez is from El Salvador, and has been out for 5 months. This is his first area and I am his 3rd companion. He played soccer, almost professionally, before coming out for the mission and is thinking about going to the States to play after. He teaches really well and knows how to help the people. He has a great desire to work and be obedient, and to qualify for the Holy Ghost so that he can be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. He’s 19 also, has 3 brothers and a sister, the oldest served his mission in Guatemala, and his brother is preparing to serve a mission too. I am really looking forward to working with him and learning from him, especially here in Encarnación.

Wow! General Conference! It was AMAZING! I missed the first session, but I had to opportunity to see the rest. The part I remember the best is Presidente Uchtdorf’s message about... in English... Beware of Pride and President Monson’s message about gratitude- Also Elder Kearson’s message about listening to the prophet, Elder Scott’s message, and Elder Eyring’s message. I don’t have my notes and am still a little tired from the long bus ride (7 hours!), so I can’t exactly remember what they were about. However, I loved listening and learning from servants of the Lord. They inspire me to do my best to become the missionary who the Lord wants me to be and to become more like my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Like I said before, being here in Paraguay is 100% amazing. Impressing. Awesome. I love learning from the scriptures and by a living prophet. I know with all of my heart that this is the work of the Lord and it is such a blessing to serve here and teach the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ, or His inspired teachings and lessons that help us to return to live with our Father in Heaven. I am running out of time, so I’ll end this. Thank you SO MUCH for all of your love and support! Take care of yourselves! Chaucito!

Con muchismo cariño,

Elder David Edward Watson

Short message: Sept 27

2010-09-27T16:46:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

Well... this week. What can I say? We{ve been really digging down to find old investigators and new investigators to teach. Its been bit of a disaster on our part but these things happen. Not every week can be a great one.. We{ve been starting up a weekly night for recient converts and investigators and that actually has worked well. We{ve had some fun activites with the members. I think it will be a great help for the ward to unify the members and help the recent converts feel more welcomed and involved. Also, we had a service day in the stake. That was a lot of fun. I got to use a machete and everything hacking down weeds. That was before the members were able to find a weed wacker. Boy was I suprised to see one! :). I am pretty sure it was an Regional wide service activity, but unless the other Elder Watson did it, maybe it was just Paraguay. I am not srue there. But I am loving being here in paraguay with every chance that I have to learn.

It wasn{t the letter I promised, but I thought I would have more. Life is great! Hopefully I will have a lot more to talk about the next time I have a chance to write home. Take care of yourselves! I love you! More than I can say!

Con mucho cariño!

Elder David Watson

Joy - Bringing Souls to Christ!

2010-09-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

How’s everyone? Things are just fine here. It sounds like you’re having a ball! Especially with In-n-Out. Woo hoo! That’s exciting that there are some new families in the ward. I’m sure that they are still getting accustomed to life in Fillmore, but that’s how we all are with change. If there is one thing that is constant in life, it’s change. I’ve sure learned that! But, truthfully, there is another constant in our lives too, and that is our Heavenly Father and His love for us. Just thought I throw that in there to mess with the popular saying. :)

Well... what’s new? Oh! Alejandro was able to go to the temple this weekend! That was exciting! It bummed me out that I couldn’t go with him, but he enjoyed the experience with all of the youth in the ward. I’m glad he was able to go and enjoy the peace and joy that the temple brings in our lives. It’s been so awesome to see him grow and progress. I really am beginning to understand the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants how much joy we can have to see one soul come unto Christ, and how much more we can have if we bring even more souls unto Him. It is a testimony to me to see how the Holy Ghost works in our lives and helps us to come closer to our Heavenly Father. I love being able to learn from the scriptures daily and have the assurance that I can ask my Father in Heaven if these things are true. We can have full faith and trust in Him and put our confidence that He will help us to where He wants us to be.

Also we had the temple president who came to visit us in our ward this Sunday. It was great to hear from him and his wife about their experiences with the temple. He gave a challenge for the ward to visit the temple as often as possible, as we are only about an hour away from it. The youth have plans to go every Thursday and as a ward 2 times per month. It was also great to hear the testimonies of the youth about how going to the temple has strengthened their faith in Jesus Christ and has helped them in their everyday lives.

Well... this is a short letter this week. I just don’t have anything to say today. I promise to write a better letter next week. I hope everything is going well for everyone! Have an AMAZING week!

Love you!

Elder David Watson

8 1/2 Months... Man Does Time Fly!!!

2010-09-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Elders Zambrano & Watson

Hola Familia!

It’s great to hear from y’all. School has started again? Already? Wow how the time flies!! I thought that school just ended for you. I’m glad that you got the classes you wanted! That’s always a good thing. I’m sure that it’s not fun to teach a class that you don’t really want. Wow! Flash took long enough! I’m glad that he has finally accepted Papa. Haha.

Everything is going great down here in Paraguay. Nothing really exciting. We had our ward conference the other day. It was great to hear from the leaders of the stake about how important unity is and how we can achieve it… I have really been enjoying working with Alejandro, ‘my’ most recent convert. It’s been so much fun to hear him teach and extend invitations to his friends and family. The only bad part is that he lives on the OTHER side of our area, so it’s pretty hard to be down there all the time. It takes about an hour to walk to his house, so we try to work our way down there with our other appointments so we don’t spend an hour walking. I am really learning a lot from the people we teach. I think sometimes we learn more while we are teaching than those who are listening. I have really been discovering what this Gospel means to me and how it can help me in my life. It has also been a great blessing to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes the lives of those we teach and who accept our invitation to pray to our Heavenly Father to know the truth of it for themselves. If they do that and have the faith and the true intentions of knowing and acting for themselves, the Gospel makes an enormous difference. Black and white. I’m not saying that just because I am a missionary from my church. I am saying this because I have done the same things I’ve asked the people we teach to do. If I can receive an answer, if Alejandro received an answer, if the people we’ve been teaching have received answers from our Heavenly Father, we can have the confidence and faith that Heavenly Father can answer every prayer that is said intently and truly.

It’s always great to hear from home! I’m glad that Spencer has finally got his call, and that he goes in on our birthday! It amazing to know that missionaries receive their calls to the place where our Heavenly Father truly needs them to be. I hope everything is going great with everyone! Take care of yourselves!

Con mucho cariño,

Elder David Watson

Surprise Change! New Companion - Elder Zambrano From Columbia

2010-09-06T08:59:00.000-07:00


Elders Watson & Silva

Hola Familia!

Well, this week has been an interesting one to say the least. We got a call from the mission office Friday morning letting us know the Elder Silva had a couple of hours to pack up and be at the office for a special change. It was a big surprise on our part, but it is alright. I know the area and our investigators, as well as I should, I have been here for 4 months now, so it was a fairly easy change. The biggest difference is the way we teach, because obviously Elder Zambrano, my new companion, isn’t Elder Silva. Haha.

The Box Made It!!

There really hasn’t been anything new this week. It’s been work like always, but a whole lot better because I get to help the people become closer to our Heavenly Father. I am so glad that we can teach the people, and if they have a desire to know if it is true, they can ask our Heavenly Father directly. Like Paul said to the Corinthians, I know this is true because I have learned through the Holy Ghost that it is so. I have not been convinced by any person, only by the influence of the Holy Ghost. I am glad that we can have the confidence in our Heavenly Father to ask Him directly, and follow His guidance. There isn’t a need to believe blindly in the words people say. Like James tells us in the Bible, if we lack wisdom, we can ask God. Our Heavenly Father won’t lie to us. Like any father, He only wants what is best for us, and that we can return to live with him again. I love reading from the scriptures - the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon. They really do support and testify one another.

I am really excited for Josh! Thanks for keeping me updated! I can’t wait to start hearing about his experiences in the mission field. I got a few letters, one from Annie Johnson and the weekly letter de los padres. I will be working on those replies! Promise! :)

Thank you all for your love and support! I really do appreciate it! Take care of yourselves! I hope that everything is going great! Enjoy the week! Chao!

Les amo!

Elder David Watson

August is Gone

2010-08-30T17:42:00.001-07:00

Hey Family!

Wow! It’s exciting to hear about Dad’s progress! I can see that it’s pretty hot out there now! I have no idea what the temperature is, but it’s a little crazy. Hot, cold, Hot Hot Hot, cold... the weather of Paraguay. But it’s alright! :). Just gotta get used to it! Oh, one thing. The 25th of October won’t be my Pday because we are going to the temple on the 26th. If I am still in my zone the next change. Which will probably happen. If not, the day will change to another week because all the zones go on a different day. We were supposed to go this next week, but it got pushed back. Bummer!

This week was a pretty good one! We’ve been working a lot with our investigators, and we have two baptisms the 18th of September. It has been really cool to see their progress over time. Both are men in their 20’s and were contacts in the street. The Lord really does prepare people to be taught and be converted to the Gospel, we just have to find them! :). It’s awesome to see the blessings of the Lord in the lives of the people we teach.

Well, I can’t think of anything else to write. I’m going to be working on sending out a few letters in the coming weeks. I hope all of my letters have arrived - I’ve replied to all of the letters I’ve gotten except for Crystal Yokom and Joanna Brown. I still don’t trust the Paraguayan mail system too much, but mail is mail! I hope that everyone is great! I know that the church is true! I have seen the many blessings in the lives of the people here in Paraguay. We have a prophet who really guides us in the trials and troubles of our days, and if we listen we can overcome whatever obstacles we may have!

I love you all! Take care of yourselves! Chau!

Elder David Watson

Still in Lucerito and with Elder Silva - YEA!

2010-08-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hey y’all!

Wow! Sounds like your week was a little different for once! Woo hoo! My English is officially horrible, so please excuse me if something I say doesn’t make sense. I got a letter from Crystal Yokom the other day! Thanks! It’s great to hear how everyone is doing! That’s exciting that you’ve been able to make some progress with the family history! I’m excited that you got your classes that you wanted to teach Mom! Woo hoo!

This past week was alright! We didn’t have any changes between Elder Silva and I, but one of the missionaries from the ward got transferred to San Ygnacio. Another Peruano came, Elder Vinces, so I’m still with three other Latinos in the house. It’s really great for my Spanish, but not so much for my English. But that’s alright! English isn’t so important. The work has been progressing, slowly, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Elder Silva and I teach well together, so it’s another opportunity to learn and grow. He’s already received his papers to send to the office in preparation to go home (in Feb). It’s weird to think that he’ll be gone in a few months. It’s weird to think that I’ve been here in Paraguay for 6 months and that but the end of this change, I’ll have 9 months completed in the mission. It still seems like yesterday I went into the MTC. From everything I’ve heard and experienced, time only goes faster from here on out, so I’d better make the best out of each opportunity that I’ve got! :)

Well, time is about up for me. I love being here in Paraguay and being a servant of the Lord. I’m learning so much each and every day. There’s not a day that goes by that something happens and I know that this is the Lord’s work. I really do know that Heavenly Father answers prayers and that we can receive guidance in our everyday lives. I hope that everything is going awesome! God be with you! Chau!

Elder David Watson

Receive Your Testimony Through The Spirit, Not The Words of Men

2010-08-16T15:17:00.001-07:00

Hola!

Well... what to say? Things have been going pretty good, nothing amazing or out of the ordinary. I did receive a letter from Sister McKinnon - Thanks! It’s really nice to hear from people back home! :). It sounds like Dad is going nuts with his casts. I can only imagine! I’d go pretty nuts too! I’d hate to be stuck in the house 24/7 with big heavy things plastered to my legs. But the time will come when you can take them off... I hate saying this but patience is something to be learned every day. Something I’ve had to learn... a lot! Also, as a side note, changes are this coming week so I’ll be back on Thursday. Just so y’all know. Neither of us knows what is going to happen - especially since there are 25 new missionaries arriving. But what is sure is that Elder Silva will go or that I will go - two changes is the maximum for a companionship. So... we’ll see!

The mission work has been good! It is work after all. Well, service to the Lord, but we are still laboring in the service of our Lord. I’ve been really enjoying my scripture study lately - I am finding many parallels and applications to our lives as well as the lives of those we are teaching. I am almost finished with Mormón, ready to go into Éter and finish with Moroní. Something that really caught my attention this morning was a few verses in Mormón 8. I can only remember it in Spanish right now, so I hope the translation comes out right. But he tells us that the Lord has shown to Moroní our days, and he is writing to us. He knows that there will be many who will walk in the pride of their hearts, unwilling to change and do the Lord’s will. Unwilling to take the responsibility of keeping the Lord’s commandments, even though we receive blessings. Also, he tells us that there will only be a few who will not harden their hearts, or in other words being willing to accept and seek the Lord’s will through our own efforts as well as through the scriptures, prayer, personal revelation and guidance from living prophets, and they will be persecuted by those who choose not to listen to the Lord’s prophets.

I found a few scriptures that I like about why I am here and how I know it is true, and I’d like to share them with you. The first is in 1 Corinthians... chapter 3 I think. Paul is talking to us that the Holy Ghost has revealed the words of God to him and that he has learned the gospel, not from the wisdom of men, but through revelation from the Holy Ghost. Also, in Moroni 7, 14?-16, we are given counsel to be careful, and to seek the light of Christ, and we will know the good things from the bad like the day from the night. I testify that I have received a answer from God that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes people’s lives - that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God’s one and only true church on the earth, where we can receive the blessings and ordinances necessary to live with our Heavenly Father again. I haven’t been convinced by the words of men - only through the answers I have received to my prayers that have come through the Holy Ghost. I know that everyone can receive an answer to their prayers, and especially an answer as to what is the truth and where we can go to find it.

Well, my time is up. I hope everything is going great! Take care of yourselves! I love you!

Elder David Watson

2010-08-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

Elder Sievers & Elder Watson

Dear familia,

Wow! It sounds like you had a nice and easy week! That makes me happy! This week has been pretty easy going. Nothing amazing or out of this world…

We had our zone conference this week on Friday. We are working together, as a mission, to become better teacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The main way to do that is to learn how to work through the Holy Ghost. We have to know how to ask inspired questions and how to apply the gospel to the lives of the people we teach. I’ve already experienced a change in the way it helps us teach. I explained what faith means and how our faith works in prayers, but the problem is, I don’t remember anything I said. All I remember is that our investigator told us that I resolved his question about faith. Well, yeah! I guess that is what it means to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. I wish I could remember how I explained it, but that’s alright. When I need to explain faith again, and surely I will, it’ll come.

Well, it looks like I don’t have too much to say this week either. Sorry! Paraguay is great! The weather is a little nutty - hot cold hot cold hot cold, it makes things interesting. I love being a missionary. I’m excited to be here serving the people and the Lord. I love reading the Book of Mormon. It really is applicable in every part of our lives. I hope that you all are doing great! Take care of yourselves!

Con mucho amor!

Elder David Watson

Querido USA

2010-08-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

Querido USA,

You´re telling me! I can´t believe I´ve been out here for 7 months already! Time flies when you are having fun, I suppose! :D I sent off my package this past week. It left the 28th of July. I don´t know when you´ll get it, but it is certified it so it should get to you! I am really happy to hear that everything is great in your neck of the woods. Here, it is the same!

So, on Saturday, one of our investigators was baptized. It was awesome. Lots of his cousins came, along with his little brother and sister and his mom. Everything went without a hitch. One of the members in the ward gave a really good talk during his baptism. He talked about the significance of baptism, what we promise to do and be, and how the Holy Ghost will help guide us. I don´t know! It was great! :)

This week has been pretty quiet here too. Nothing huge has happened. Things are going great. Some people lose interest, but then we find others! The baptism was the highlight and focus of the week. My companion Elder Silva had to go sign some papers in the office (he leaves in February), and I finally saw Elder Burley, my companion from the MTC. Now I´ve seen all of the missionaries I came to Paraguay with. This week is Zone Conference, so it´ll be another trip to Barrio Herrera where the Mission Office is at on Friday. We have really been focusing on becoming better teachers and following the Spirit as we teach.

Well, it seems like I am out of time. Sorry for the short letter! I hope all of the students have had a great summer! Good luck in school! I can´t thank my family enough for what they´ve done for me or what they mean to me. Take care of yourselves! Love you!

Elder David Watson

Happy Pioneer Day

2010-07-26T12:48:00.001-07:00

Querido Familia!

Well, I am gonna give this a shot in English. Forgive me if I spell something wrong or use the wrong phrase. It gets harder and harder every day to speak in English - more on that later! - but that’s alright. I don’t need English so much here. It’s going to be great fun to try and get used to hearing and speaking it after the mission, but I’m not worrying about that so much right now. If only Google could translate better! Oh well. It’s was great to hear about this week for y’all! It sounds like things went really well! It was great to get a couple of emails from Nana and Papa, Grandma Lynn and Ken, and a letter from Sister Dunst. THANKS!!!!!! I really love each and every letter I get! It’s amazing to hear how life is going for everyone. Speaking of life in the outside world, I saw my friend Chase Murphy from BYU in the Liahona issue of General Conference. Page 63 or something like that. It was a great surprise! Also, I met Elder Severs (spelling?) from Orem Utah, who is Jake Watson’s buddy. It was fun to talk with him a little bit today. Another good surprise from our zone meeting today is that I got to talk with Elder Sorensen, one of the missionaries from my old district. That was definitely fun too!

Alrighty. This week. Well, I am going to talk about my English experience for the week. We were doing our daily contacts, and we started talking with a guy... who responded to me in English. I don’t know if I didn’t realize it or what, but I kept talking in Spanish. He told in perfect English, ‘You’re still not talking to me in English.’ It was a little bit of a shocker and I had to talk to him in English. Nothing came out of it, but that was my fun with English for the week.

What’s next... oh! We are going to have another baptism this week! He’s the brother of someone we found tracting and he is amazing! He’s one of the smartest kids I’ve met here! He’s really intelligent and the best student in his class at his high school. I love teaching at his house because all of his cousins and family members (the kids) come to listen and learn. I’ve found that I’ve had some of my best experiences teaching when there are kids present. For some reason, it’s just always better! :)

Well, I think I’ll end this here. I know that it has been such a blessing to be serving here in Paraguay. I learn so much every day. I love reading the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Preach My Gospel every day. There is so much to learn! It doesn’t really matter where I read, whether it’s something I’ve read 100 times or never before, something always calls the attention. I know that this is the Lord’s work. I can feel the Spirit testify every time we teach. It’s amazing when I get to see how the gospel blesses someone’s life! There is no doubt that this is the Lord’s work! It’s amazing to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father, and that he has placed a prophet to guide us! Thomas Monson is the man called to lead us in our days, and he has the power and authority of God to do so. He receives guidance for us! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church! I also love that we have the opportunity to talk with our Heavenly Father through prayer. It’s not just a one way street! He does listen and answer. We just have to be ready to accept His answer. It may not be right away, but He will answer. Of this I testify as a representative of Jesus Christ.

Well, I love you all! I wish I had more time to talk about everything that happens. I appreciate all of your love and prayers! Everyone I know has made an impact on my life! There are just too many people to name them all! But first and foremost I am so grateful for my family. Immediate and extended. There’s so much I learned from them! I’d never be who I am today if it weren’t for them. I love y’all more than I can express! Take care of yourselves! TE QUIERO!

Con mucho amor,

Elder David Watson

Cold and Rainy

2010-07-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

M´baechapá familiakuera?

Espero que todo bien! Ésta semana no fue tan purete (bueno) que los otros porque tuvimos muchismo lluvía. Cuando hay lluvía y hacía aquello tipo de frio, nadie quiere estar fuera. Pero, todavía enseñamos mucho y tuvimos un bautismo! Le encontramos tocando puertas y él escuchó, y aunque su padre fue un antiguo investigador a quien no querría escuchar, él aceptó y quiere ayudarnos con la obra! Qué purete!

Sábado fue un día muy díficil porque casí ninguno de nuestros investigadores estuvieron en casa. Pero, cómo el otro Elder Watson, vimos ´La Restauración´ con un investigador y la experiencía fue muy bueno. Estoy muy animado para trabajar con él y su familia.

No tengo mucho para decir este Pday. Les dije la mayoría el otro día. Tambien había cambios en mi horario de las conferencías de zona y de entrevistas, el mismo en verdad. Tenemos los dos cada tres meses. No significa mucho, solamente que voy a ver los otros misioneros con menos regularidad. No tenemos un reunión de distrito esta semana, entonces, voy a enviar mi paquete la otra semana.

Creo que la cosa quiero que sepan el más es que les amo mucho! No hay una cosa mas importante a mí que a mí familia. Estoy aprendiendo cada día cuan importancía tiene la familia y como el evangelio puede ayudarla. En actualidad, el evangelio puede bendecir a las familias muchismo. Podemos tener mas felicidad, unidad, y éxito con el evangelio de Jesucristo. Los miembros de la familia pueden tener mejores relaciónes uno al otro. Todos van a ayudarse a mejorar y progresar hacía perfección. No significa que las familias van a ser perfecto, pero van a mejorar cada día. Van a saber el plan de Díos para nosotros y que necesitan hacer para vivir con Él después ésta vida. Y éste plan es que enseño cada día - que Díos tiene un profeta en el mundo hoy, y que por medio de Él, podemos saber que La Iglesía de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días es la iglesía que tiene la autoridad de Díos en la tierra. Testifico que esto es verdadero.

Whoops! No más tiempo. Les AMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHAU!

Elder David Watson!

M'baechapá familiakuera?

I hope all well! This week was not as good as others because we had a ton of rain. When there was cold type of rain, nobody wants to be out. But still we taught a lot and we had a baptism! We found him when he heard knocking on doors, and although his father was a former investigator who would not listen, he approved and wants to help with the work! Sweet!

Saturday was a very difficult day because almost none of our investigators were at home. But just how the other Elder Watson, watched 'The Restoration' with an investigator and had a very good experience, I'm very excited to work with our investigator and his family.

I don’t have much to add this PDAY. I said most the other day. There were also changes in the frequency of my zone conferences and interviews, the same as the other Elder Watson. We have two every three months. It doesn’t mean much, but I'm going to see the other missionaries with less regularity. We have a district meeting this week and then I will send my package home next week.

I think the thing I want you to know the most is that I love you very much! There is nothing more important to me than my family. I'm learning every day how important family is and how the gospel can help. In actuality, the gospel can bless families a lot. We can have more happiness, unity, and success with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The family members may have better relationships to each other. Everyone will help each other improve and progress unto perfection. It does not mean that families are going to be perfect, but getting better every day. They can know God's plan for them and what they need to do to live with him after this life. And this plan is what I teach every day - that God has a prophet in the world today, and through him, we know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church that has God's authority land. I testify that this is true.

Whoops! Out of Time. I LOVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHAU!

Elder David Watson!

A letter in Spanish, Translated, Again

2010-07-15T19:06:00.001-07:00

Hola todos!

Las primeras cosas primeras - me quedé! Todavía estoy aquí en Lucerito con Elder Silva. Estamos animado por nuestro oportunidad para trabagar juntos uno cambio mas con los investigadores que tenemos. Tambien tenemos un bautismo mañana. Estamos muy animado!! Tambien recibí la paquete ayer! Muchas muchas gracias. Tengo que escribir un monton de cartas para incluir con mi paquete. Ahorra, necisito escribir a Wendy Bentley, Aunt Wendy, Elder Jalaty, Elder Spencer Brown y Elder Grant Getts, Michelle, Amy McGreevey, y Joanna. Creo que sí estoy extranando, pero, por favor, perdonanme. Estoy intentando!

Ésta semana pasada fue muy bueno! Tenemos muchos investigadores quienes estan progresando y encantando el Evangelio de Jesucristo. Creo que vamos a tener muchos bautismos éste mes y vamos a trabajar a full! Estoy muy animado para ser un siervo del Señor. Puedo ver Su guía en mi vida cada día en las personas que encontramos y las lecciones que enseñamos. Tengo un testimonio aun mas fuerte que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Últimos Días es la iglesia de Dios en la tierra. Tenemos un profeta a quien recibe revelación cada día para nosotros. El Libro de Mormón hace un cambio en las vidas de la gente quien quiere cambiar para seguir el camino de Jesucristo. Todo esto es verdadero! Hay que preguntarle a Dios si quiere saber por sí mismo tambien! :)

Ahorra mismo, hace frio aquí en Paraguay! Especialmente con el viento y humedad. Hace una semana hacía tanto calor, pero, ahorra... brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Hay que amar el clima aquí! :). Pero, en actualidad, la vida es el mejor como un siervo del Señor! No puedo creer que 6 meses ya pasó y solamente tengo un año y medio para el resto de mi misión. Quiero hacer el mejor con que tengo! Les amo todito! Espero que Dios esta con todo! Chau!

Con muchismo amor!

Elder David Watson

Hello everyone!

First things first – I’m staying! I'm still here in Lucerito with Elder Silva. We are encouraged by our opportunity to work together through one more change with the people we are teaching. We also have a baptism tomorrow. We are very excited! I also received the package yesterday! Thank you very much. I have to write lots of letters to include with my package. Right now I have letters to write to Wendy Bentley, Aunt Wendy, Elder Jalaty, Elder Brown,Elder Spencer, Grant Getts, Michelle, Amy McGreevey and Joanna. I think that I'm doing well, but please forgive me, I'm trying!

This last week was good! We have many investigators who are progressing and delighted to learn the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think we will have many baptisms this month and will work hard! I'm very excited to be a servant of the Lord. I can see His guidance in my life every day, in the people we meet and the lessons we teach. I have an even stronger testimony that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church of God on earth. We have a prophet who receives revelation every day for us. The Book of Mormon makes a difference in the lives of people who want to change to follow the path of Jesus Christ. This is real! We must ask God if you want to know for yourself too! :)

Right now it's cold here in Paraguay! Especially with the wind and humidity. A week ago it was so hot, but, now… brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! We have to love the weather here! :). But, in actuality, life is better as a servant of the Lord! I cannot believe that six months had passed and I have only one and a half years for the rest of my mission. I want to do the best of my ability! I love absolutely everything! I hope God is with everyone! Chau!

With a ton of love!

Elder David Watson

Happy Independence Day

2010-07-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

This letter will be a little shorter than normal. I was writing to the Argentina Elder Watson. I was glad to hear that all things are good with Dad. Also I was glad to hear about Elder Jalaty’s mission call! I know he's going to have the best time of his life because his mission is the best - for him. Paraguay is still the best - for me. I love my experiences here and I'm learning a lot every day. I got letters from Joanna, Michelle, and Elder Jalaty. I will wait a bit and send all my letters with my package. This will give me time to write to everyone, because I do not yet know which cards have arrived. Now, I have to write to Wendy Bentley, Aunt Wendy, Michelle, Joanna, and Elder Jalaty. I hope I do not miss anyone. If I have, please let me know. I do not want to forget anyone this whole Paraguay mail has made me really confused. Thanks!

Well - I will tell you about one of my very good experience. We were knocking on doors, giving short lessons to all those who were willing to listen. A young man would not listen, but one sister (25 years old) came to the door. We shared with her a pamphlet on how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help our families to have more joy and happiness. She liked it very much and wanted to spend the next Saturday (long for an appointment!). Well, we and his father told us “that's another day.” Very common to hear that, but we talked a little about the game (Paraguay who lost ). He left us and called his daughter. We had a very special lesson! She told us that “we were the answer to my (her) prayers.” We talked about how the gospel can give us faith and hope. She has many problems with his family (her father is a chronic alcoholic) and needed God's help. By the end of our lesson, she told us that she didn’t need to pray about the truthfulness of our message “I know it is true.” She wants to be baptized without delay. We didn’t say anything about baptism until she told us she wanted to be baptized. What Purity! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that this work is the work of the Lord. We had the guidance of the Holy Spirit to find and teach. I wanted to dance and sing with her after the lesson. Indeed, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, called to serve the people of Paraguay.

I’ve run out of time. I love you!

Elder David Watson

July is Upon Us Now...

2010-06-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

Querido Familia,

Quiero empezar con decirles que tu carta me ENCANTA.. Estoy sonriendo muchisimo. Me gusta las cuentas acerca de la vida de ustedes. Me puse un poco ‘trunky’, pero, hoy es Pday, todo bien. :). La parte sobre me puse trunky es en broma, no mas. :). Hay que reirse. :). Tambien la traduccion de Google me encanta. Quería decir: If someone has sent me a letter, and I haven’t responded yet, please tell me parents so that I can know. Pssh... ‘that I might taste good.’ HAHAHAHA. Paul ya está poniendo sus papeles para la mision? Qué loco! No puedo creer! El tiempo esta volando! (The time is flying!!). Estoy muy animado para él! Quiero que venga a mision! Estamos teniendo mucho éxito! Un companerismo justo ha tenido 78 lecciones esta semana pasada - 33 con miembros (a investigadores)! Nuestro misión va a tener muchos bautismos y mejores miembros! Lecciones con miembro van a ayudar los miembros a tener un testimonio más fuerte y los nuevos miembros van a tener muchos amigos y una sistema de apoyo ya en un mundo que está un poco diferente. Estoy muy animado! :) :). Just in case Google doesn’t do its job right, or more likely if my Spanish is bad, I wanted to say that lessons with members to investigators will help the members have a stronger testimony and the new members to have lots of friends and a system of support in a world that is a little different.

Si! Yo puedo recordarme perfectamente la experiencía de mamá con sus libros. Qué loco ésta día. Demaisado libros. Pero, igual, no más.

Well, where do I start? I was going to write an all Spanish letter again, but I started thinking in English. Or I started typing in English. One of the two. Anyway, it threw me off a little, so I might as well just keep writing. This week was pretty good! Hot, but good. So much for being winter here. Well, right now it’s a little chilly, but phew - I was sweating pretty good during the week. I was actually running around trying to keep on top of everything - literally! The other missionaries in my ward had a baptism, and we brought some of our investigators to it. But our other investigator lives on the other side of the church, so we jetted over to his house. But he had left 2 MINUTES before we got there. MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But he came to church on Sunday. I had to remember the word Sunday. Haha. Anyway, things are great here. We’ve been treking all over our area to find the people who are waiting to hear the gospel. And the truth is, they are out there! We found a couple yesterday while roaming around (well, I shouldn’t say roaming but to me it seemed like it! En realidad we were being led by the Spirit! :) ) and we hope to work really well with them. If this wasn’t the Lord’s work, there is no way we could have found the people we have found and started teaching. They are out there, ya just gotta find them. It seems difficult in the moment, but when you are trying to do the right thing, and you are worthy, the Lord will guide you with what He would have you do. It’s not like I’m having an experience with ‘Oh, we gotta talk with these people.’ It’s more like, ‘Hey, let’s try contacting by the houses instead of the main road so that we can teach some lessons.’ And we find people! It works! It really is the Lord’s work. There’s no doubt about it.

I’d like to end with telling you how much I love reading the Book of Mormon. I was reading this morning in 2nd Nephi - and man, how inspired are his words! Lehi with his sons! He tells them to be men and have the courage to follow the Lord and His prophets. Rise out of the dust, I think exactly. It made me think of a two year old wailing and crying, rolling around in the dirt cause he doesn’t get what he wants. The most important thing is that we follow the guidance of those who know the way - and that’s what we should do. I love 2 Nephi 4. But I can’t go into detail - out of time.

Well, I love you all! I can hardly believe I’ve been on the mission for 6 months. Almost 6 months, I should say. I love hearing from ya! I encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon every day, at least a few verses, and try to imagine the situation in your mind. It really brings the scriptures to life and helps us make ourselves better. Love you!

Con mucho amor!

Elder David Watson

A letter in Spanish, Translated

2010-06-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

David's letter this week was in all Spanish. We have translated it to the best of our ability. We have included both the English translation along with his original Spanish email.

Hi Family!

I only have a small amount of time today – I had to go to the office for an interview with President Callan. As always, appointments are not always on time, but I have to take advantage of the opportunities given me.

This last week was very good. We had six investigators in the church yesterday, one that already has a baptismal date. We will work with others who are interested this week. They are very good, and I am encouraged to work with these families. They are very interested in how they can improve their lives and the status of their families. I have seen the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives already. They are more happy, united, and have a reason to strive to live with our Heavenly Father after this life. We have five things we need to accomplish during our lives. These things are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of our sins, baptism for the remission of our sins by someone who has the authority and power of God, receiving the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands and endurance, or being faithful to the end of our lives. I know these things make a difference. This can help us become closer to our Savior and our Heavenly Father also. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. These can be performed only in the true church of Jesus Christ. You just have to prove the Lord’s promises. A promise that we read in the Book of Mormon (I like both 2 Nephi 31 and Moroni 10) and pray for an answer on whether the Book of Mormon is true. Another is that we attended the Church of Jesus Christ where we can feel the Holy Spirit. And then, we must pray about the truthfulness of these things with sincerity and true intention. I know this Church is true. Everyone may know this for yourself too.

I’m learning a little Portuguese. It’s a bit more useful than Guarani. Unless they send me back to the country, Guarani sentences are sufficient. I don’t have much news, but every day I can make a difference in my life. Every day I learn a little more about the Lord. I’m still getting accustomed to life in the city. But this has been a good change for me. I love being a missionary of the Lord. There are many blessings in missionary work. Can I give you a suggestion? If you help in missionary work, you, yes, you, will receive more blessings. I promise. I also pledge that your ward, branch, stake, district, community will improve and everyone will be happier and have more joy. It may be a bit difficult in the beginning, but you have to persevere. You can experience the happiness and love that we have in this work. I’m experiencing this every day. I wish you may experience these feelings too.

Your week sounds like a good week. I was glad that all is well with you. Thank you very much for all the cards. Please forgive me if I cannot answer quickly. I’m trying to answer everything. But with the missing letter and the time it takes to write and send is difficult for me. But I will try and do my best to answer. Please, if you sent me a letter and I haven’t answered, tell my parents that I can be better informed. Thanks for all your love and faith in me. All of you make a big difference in my life. I love your letters and news. Have a great week! Much love !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

With hope of Paraguay,

Elder David Watson

Now... for the Spanish...

Hola Familia!

No tengo mucho tiempo hoy - tuve que ir a la oficina por una entrevista con Presidente Callan. Como siempre, horarios no estvieron en horario, pero, tengo que aprovechar del tiempo que tengo.

Ésta semana pasada hubo estado muy bien. Tuvimos seis investigadores en la Iglesia ayer, uno que ya tiene un fecha bautismal. Vamos a trabajar con los otros investigadores que tenemos. Ellos son muy buenos, y estoy animado para trabajar con estas familias. Son muy intersados en como ellos pueden mejorar sus vidas y el estado de sus familias. He visto las bendiciones del Evangelio de Jesucrito en sus vidas ya. Ellos estan mas feliz, unidas, y tienen una razon para esforzarse a vivir con nuestro Padre Celestíal déspues esta vida. Ésta razon es que tenemos cinco cosas que necesitamos cumplir durante nuestras vidas. Estas cosas son: fe en el Señor Jesucristo, el arrepentimiento de nuestros pecados, el bautismo para la remision de nuestros pecado por alguien que tenga la autoridad y poder de Dios, la recepción del Espíritu Santo por la imposición de las manos arriba de la cabeza, y perservar, o ser fieles, hasta el fin de nuestras vidas. Sé que estas cosas hacen una diferencía. Esta diferencía puede ayudarnos a acercarnos más a nuestro Salvador y tambien a nuestro Padre Celestíal. Sé que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de los Últimos Días es la iglesia de Jesucristo. En verdad, hay un Señor, una fe, un bautismo. Estos puedan ser realizados solamente en la iglesia verdedera de Jesucristo. Solamente hay que probar las promesas del Señor. Una promesa es que podemos leer el Libro de Mormon (una parte, no más. Mi parte preferidos son 2 Nefi 31 or Moroni 7) y orar para recibir una respuesta sobre si el Libro de Mórmon es verdadero. Un otro es que asistimos a la Iglesia de Jesucristo, podemos sentir el Espíritu Santo. Y déspues, hay que orar sobre la veracidad de estas cosas con senceridad y verdedera intención. Sé que esta Iglesia es verdadera. Todos pueden saber por si mismo tambien.

Estoy aprendiendo un poco de Portugues. Es un poco mas útil que Guarani. A menos que me envie otra vez al campo, frases de Guaraní son suficientes. No tengo muchas noticias acá, pero cada día yo puedo distinguir una diferencía en mi vida. Cada día estoy un poco más acerca del Señor. Todovía estoy acostombrándome a la vida de la ciudad. Pero, este cambio ha estado mi cambio preferido hasta ahorra. Me encanta ser un misionero del Señor. Hay muchas bendiciones en la obra misional. Puedo dar una sugerencía? Si ustedes ayudan en la obra misional, ustedes, si o si, van a recibir más bendeciones. Les prometo. Tambien les prometo que su barrio, rama, estaca, distrito, comunidad va a mejorar y todos van a estar mas feliz y tener mas gozo. Quizas va a estar un poco díficil en el principio, pero, hay que perservar. Hay mucho feliz y amor que podemos tener en esta obra. Yo estoy experimentando esto cada día. Me gustaría que ustedes pueden experimentar estos sentimientos tambien.

Su semana suena como una buena semana. Me alegré que todo está bien con ustedes. Muchas gracias por todas las cartas. Perdóname, por favor, si no puedo contestar rapido. Estoy intentando a contestar todo. Pero, con la carta perdida y el tiempo que toma para escribir y enviar es un gran dificultdad para mí. Pero, voy a procurar y hacer mi mejor para contestar. Por favor, si alguien me envió una carta y todovia no le contesté, diga a mis padres para que yo pueda saber bien. Gracias por todo de su amor y fe que tienen en mí. Todos de ustedes hacen una gran diferencía en mi vida. Me encanta sus cartas y noticias. ¡Que tengan una semana excelente! Mucho amor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Con esperanza de Paraguay,

Elder David Watson

I love it here in Lucerito!

2010-06-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

Quierdo Familia,

Gracias por la información! Me gustó mucho la carta. Siempre me encanta leer las noticias de la familia. Por invierno, hace mucho calor ahorra. Aun la gente tiene un poca de sopresa. Usualmente, hace mucho mas frio durante estos meses. Pero, creo que tengo un poco de suerte (por una vez!) que no hace tan frio. Sin embargo, probablamente va a hacer muy calor este verano. Ay! Vamos a ver.

Hoy, paraguay va a jugar contra italia. La gente tiene mucho animado para este partido. Todos quieren hablar sobre el partido y la copa mundial.. Pero, es un asunto que la gente en le gusta tomar. Entonces, para hablar con la gente, especialmente después durante la noche, es muy intersante. MUY intersante... :).

Well, update. I love it here in Lucerito. True, it is much harder to work in the city than out in the campo, but all the same, it’s great! Elder Silva is a great companion! It seems I have made more progress with Spanish, teaching, and learning in the past two weeks than in the past three months! It really is a blessing to be here in the mission. I have learned so much about who I am and who I can become. That is the beauty of the message that I share every day. How amazing it is to have prophets in the world today! Imagine following a Moses, Noah, Abraham in our day! How easy it would be to listen to the word of the Lord! Prophets are God’s spokespeople - these men have God’s authority and power. They speak with God face to face. And we have a prophet today with the same authority and power of God. I know that this is true - and his name is Thomas S. Monson. As always, with everything I teach, we can know the truth through earnest prayer to our Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Well, I am really excited to be here. Really excited to help the people of Paraguay come closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am truly grateful for everyone that I have known. Everybody has had an influence in my life that has helped me become a better person. There is no way I can thank all of you, but please realize that I am truly grateful. I hope that life is great for each and every one of you. Enjoy the summer! Love ya! God Bless!

Con mucho amor!

Elder David Watson

Bordering Asuncion North Mission - Elder Felix... Where are you?

2010-06-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

Wow! Not much has happened in the past four days besides the fact that I have been getting to know the investigators and members of Lucerito. Lucerito is split into two halves along the ruta. We have the north side of the ruta while the District Leader and his companion have the southern part. Funnily enough, part of my area está justo al lado de Misión Norte. So if Elder Felix happens to be next to Lucerito (I have no idea what the area is called :( ), we are practically next to each other! Hahaha. Anyway. We have been working hard! It’s starting to get pretty cold at night here, but with all the walking, it’s not too bad. :). We found 3 new families to teach - 2 of them are related to each other! So we are going to keep on working hard, finding people to teach, and helping them come unto Christ through His restored gospel.

You did what, Mom??? WOW! I wish I could have been there to see that! It’s good to know that the Young Women are learning to take care of themselves just in case they are stuck on the side of the road with no one to help. Knowing car mechanics is always a good thing :). School’s over? Already? No way! Time is going by so fast! It seems like yesterday I was in the snow! But that was 3 months ago... g whiz! It seems to be getting faster and faster with every day. I was thinking the other day that time IS faster than the speed of light... but I just can’t prove it... hahaha.

I hope Josh comes here! Maybe I can be his entrenador! That would be wickedly sweet! Wherever he goes, I know that is where the Lord has called him to serve. Estoy tan anímado para él. SWEET! :D. That probably means any paper letter I send won’t get there in time. Chiste. Snail mail in Paraguay really is snail mail. Hahaha.

Bryan’s already having his Eagle Court?? Wow wee! That’s so great! I’m really excited for him! Go Bryan!!

I am glad to hear that Flash is alright. Dogs and health issues can be confusing. For me at least. I’m just happy to know Flash is good! :).

This Sunday was a really good fast and testimony meeting. First of all, it was nice to sing along to a piano! Second, almost all of the congregation (50 or so) bore their testimonies! I was invited to introduce myself and bear my testimony. It’s a little easier to be in front of a bunch of people, but I’m pretty sure some of the things I said didn’t make sense. But that’s alright! Still working on it. I’m really working on speaking better Spanish than my first area. There people would say ‘Yo conoce, yo tiene, vines (en vez de ven), Tu tengo,’ algo así. Claramente, Guarani es el primer idoma allí. Probablamente eso es como le perezco a la gente de Paraguay. Pero, está bien! Todavía estoy aprendiendo! Ahora, hablo casí todo in Castellano, aun en la casa con Elder Freeman. Creo que esto va a ayudarme a aprender más rapido y mejor. Cuando hablo en ingles, mi Castellano falta mucho. Entonces, el más castellano yo hablo, el mejor mi castellano puede ser. Tambien, me ayuda mucho que no tengo que hablar en Guanarí. Más tiempo para mejorar mi Castellano. Me gusta mucho Lucerito y el trabajo acá. Muy diferente que Ca’aguazú, pero, tambien, muy bueno. No necesitamos preocuparnos sobre la hora, y podemos enfocarnos más en el trabajo. Parece que Elder Silva y yo vamos a estar por 3 meses juntos porqué él tiene solamente un cambio acá en Lucerito. Espero que sí porqué estamos trabajando muy bien juntos.

I know that this is the Lord’s work! There is no other way I could possibly be here and learning Spanish and teaching in it so well. Well, as good as I have gotten. There is no way I could have received so much help from the Lord if this wasn’t His work. The Book of Mormon really is another testament of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith was a prophet, called of God to restore His authority and power on the Earth once again - the priesthood. Through the priesthood, or God’s power and authority, we can be together, as families, for all time and eternity. We can receive divine help from the Lord. But it only comes through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This church is the same church Jesus established in His days, only that it is now in our day, or the latter days. The time to come unto our Savior and God isn’t later. You start thinking about a bunch of tomorrows and find that you have a bunch of empty yesterdays. The time to act is now. I promise that we can receive many blessings from the Lord through our obedience. And we can know it is true through prayer. Prayer is communication with our Father in Heaven. Through it, we can know the truth. It’s that simple. All we have to do is be sincere and willing to act on that answer. As a messenger of Jesus Christ, I testify of these things. I know they are true, and you can too. Put our Father in Heaven to the test. As we are told by Malachi in his last chapter, the Lord challenges us to put Him to the test. But we have to be sincere and willing to obey His messengers.

I love you all! I hope all is going well! I have heard that some of my letters haven’t been going through - I sent one to Aunt Wendy, Wendy Bentley, Amy McGreevy, Abe Wilson, and to you. I hope it arrives! Those letters were really good! I am praying for all of you! Take care!

Con mucho amor,

Elder David Watson

New Area, New Companion

2010-06-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

Querida Familia,

Wow! This has been a crazy two weeks! Last week we had Zone Conference and interviews, so that threw our schedules off a little bit, and I transferred to a new area. I have mixed feelings about the transfer, because I loved the area and the members, but I know the Lord has called me to a new area to accomplish his work. I am now officially out of the campo and now in the city. Well, suburbs of the city. In Lucerito, Asuncion. It’s much MUCH smaller than my last area, but plenty big all the same. We have 4 missionaries in our Barrio, and we live together. My new companion is Elder Silva from Costa Rica. Let me just say I love his accent. It’s the bomb! I also live with the district leader, Elder Freeman (From Missouri) and a local missionary from Ciudad Del Este, Elder Esquivel. The local is 18-years old and is planning on putting his papers in this December. The cool thing here is that priests can serve as local missionaries for a period of 3 weeks to however long they can stay. Elder Esquivel has served before, and he is great! He plays rugby, and is buff! He knows the lessons and is going to be a great missionary wherever he goes. My companion Elder Silva has been here for one change, so we will probably be together for 2 changes. I hope so. We work really well together. We should have a lot of success this change! The city and the campo are so different, but all the same, I love them both. :)

In our zone conference Elder Shayne Bowen of the Area Seventy visited with us. He talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how important it is to have a testimony. Without the Book of Mormon, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is just another church. But with it, we know and understand so much more of the Holy Bible and the ordinances of the gospel. It is like our eyes - the Holy Bible being one, and the Book of Mormon the other. The Bible helps us to ‘see’, but the Book of Mormon helps us to ‘see’ more clearly. The Book of Mormon helps us to live closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and helps us to grow closer to our Father in Heaven.

With everything that has happened, I don’t quite know what to say. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning were insane - I brought everything - except for my filtered water bottle. D’oh! I am pretty sure they can send it through the encomienda, so I’m not too worried about that. I still have that purifier that we bought, and it’s worked great so far. I woke up at 2 Wednesday morning to make it to the terminal to catch the collectivo. Demiasado temprano! We, being Elder Stringham (going home! :( ), Elder Warner (My District Leader) and I, arrived at the terminal around 6:30ish. Stood around for a while waiting for everyone else to arrive. I finally saw some of the Elders from my MTC district - actually all of them except for my companion, Elder Burley. Elder Alexander was there to pick up his new companion; Elder Nielsen was heading out to Ciudad del Este to be with my trainer, Elder Beramendi. Elder Clyde was heading to Ca’aguazú to be with his trainer again, Elder Villegas. That’s kinda cool that E’ Clyde is heading out to my area. He’ll love it! :) And Elder Bills was there to pick up his new companion. So I know where all of them are at except for E’ Burley - I am assuming he is still in his same area unless he got a transfer after our first change. That was kinda cool! I ended up talking with Elder Esquivel for a while until our companions arrived, and then we headed out. Lucerito is about 20 minutes away from the terminal by taxi. Which direction, I’m not sure. It sure is different to be back in the city though. Everybody knows Spanish, and not too many people use Guarani. Al reves! But I am ready to serve here and do my best to help the people of Lucerito to come unto Christ. Woo hoo!

A ver... hoy jugamos futbol con el distrito. Tenemos los l’deres de Zona y 4 hermanas, entonces, hay 12 misioneros. 8 Élderes y 4 Hermanas. El entrenador de mi entrenador, Elder Guitarra, tambien es en nuestro distrito. Haupei (y después), fuimos a comprar comida y regresar a la casa. Ahorra, estoy escribiendo a ustedes. No hay muchas noticias para hoy, pero, vamos a ver en Lunes.

Well, I think I will end there. I’ll use the rest of my time sending photos home. Thank you so much for your love and support! My package was great! The ties were awesome! The American sugar tambien! :). I totally forgot that Monday was Memorial Day (of course nothing happened here!). I’ll probably forget about other holidays too. Not all, but USA specific ones yes… Maybe not the 4th of July breakfast of the Fillmore Ward though. ;). I love you all! Like you don’t even know! I remember so many people and the things they have done for me. I’m out of time! Mucho amor!

Elder David Watson

Feeling More Comfortable with Spanish and Guarani

2010-05-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

M’baechaipa Familia?

Cómo le va? Espero que todo bien! Tuvimos muchismo lluvia en el principio de esta semana, pero, tuve la oportunidad a ver un poco de sol en viernes, sábado, y domingo. Hoy, esta lloviendo otra vez. Es la vida. Especialmente mi vida.

Wow! It sounds like you had a super busy week! Sounds like the Watson luck!
Or Murphy’s Law, which we live and breathe. Haha. It appears like things are going well though. I hope things continue to go well!

Well, my news for this week. This Thursday is our zone conference, where we get to hear from Elder (Stephen A?) Bowen of the Area Seventy. I have to be at the chapel in Ciudad del Este by 7, so that means an early morning Thursday. But I am excited to be able to attend and learn from him! That also means next week is transfers, so my P-Day is on Thursday. A week and a half without email... but that’s alright! The work here has been a little slow, but at least we are making progress with people who actually are converting to the Gospel. It is really common to be invited in to talk about religion, especially religion, but to find people are willing to accept our message instead of saying ‘Everything from God is good’ is a little tougher.
But this is the Lord’s work, and I am here for a reason. There are people waiting - we just need to find them! :)

M’bae che pehengue, fe es muy importante. Fe en Jesucristo es el fundamento de nuestros creencías. Fe lleva a la acción. Qué acción? Arrepentamiento.
Arrepentamiento no es sólo dejar de las cosas malas. Lo incluye pedir por perdon de Diós, empezar a hacer las cosas buenas, y nunca jámas volver a este pecado. Muy difícil, pero, la Expiación de Jesucristo, o Su sufrimiento, no fue facil támpoco. El nos pide a seguirle, por lo cual incluye progresción. (Spanglish, anyone?) Esta puede ayudarnos a vencer de nuestros debilidades. Tambien, por cada acción, hay un consecuencía. No podemos evitar las consecuencías de nuestros acciones, buenas o malas. Pero, cada experencía puede ayudarnos, si elejimos a aprender. Y aprendizaje es la manera para progresar en esta vida. Espero que este mensaje tiene sentido.
Haha.

Ñandejára o respondetañandeve ñande oración. Yaguereko Jeroia Ñandejárare.
Jose Smith ha’e petei profeta Ñandejára rehegua. El Espíritu Santo ñande ajudata jaikuaavehegua añetegua.

Basically, God will answer our prayers. We have to have faith in him. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The Holy Ghost helps us to know the truth. Basic simple truths, in Jopara (Guarani and Spanish mix).

I love y’all! I hope everything is going well! I hope to have good news next week!

Con much amor

Elder David Watson

Strait and Narrow Path...

2010-05-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

This week has been good! I’m glad to hear that yours has gone well. There actually isn’t too much to report. In the upcoming zone conference (not sure when), we are going to have a meeting with Elder Bowen, one of the Seventies over this area. That should be really cool! I am excited and looking forward to it. Also, I should be getting your package! :)

Oh - I do have a question. What happened with Flash when we called? Or did he not notice?

I’ve included some pictures - two of the sky and one of the road I walk every day to get to my area. I wish I had photographic memory! That way I could always remember the beautiful sights here in Paraguay. [We have posted these on his missionsite.net blog]

I guess the main thing I can report is that I have really learned how to humble myself and rely on the Lord for help. I can testify that He really does answer prayers. Maybe not the way we would like, but answer them He does! He is our loving Heavenly Father who is always there for us! We just need to reach out! We can reach out through faith - belief coupled with actions - and a willingness to do the Lord’s will. When we are focused on what we want to do, it is awfully hard to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost. When we are really open and willing to act on the answer we receive is when we can recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Galatians 5:20 (I think...) gives us some of the fruits of the Spirit, or ways we can recognize His promptings.

I wish I had more to say this week. But I can’t really think of anything. I hope all is going well with y’all. I promise to write more next week. Thank you for all of your love and support!

Con mucho amor

Elder David Watson

Happy Belated Mother's Day

2010-05-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

M´baecheipa!

Cómo están? Anoche fue muy buenisimo! Me gusto la opportunidad que tuve para hablar con ustedes. Intenté a explicar bien Paraguay, pero, creo que no hice un buen hecho. Lo siento!

Como che pehengue, Aipota rocompartise mijimindedive (Yo quiero compartir un poco mensaje). Being here in Paraguay has helped me to see the true points of what life is about. Happiness isn´t about money - or popularity - it´s about family. The people here have so much less that we do in the United States of America, but I promise you they are much happier. Almost every single person I have talked to deeply loves their family members. They want to help them to the best of their ability. Even if their best ability is finding a way to put bread on the table every day. But like this love, we can experience the same! I know that families are so important. They help us learn and grow. They help us to know right from wrong. They help us to feel loved. And what´s more, we have a Heavenly Father who feels the same. He loves us more than any of us can imagine. As God the Father, He has the ability to bless our lives. He wants to! But He can only do so through our obedience to His principles, like the 10 commandments, Jesus the Christ´s teachings, and teachings of living prophets and apostles in our day. I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father, who is our Savior and Redeemer. He can save us through His grace and mercy, but only AFTER all we can do. But Jesus Christ is always waiting with open arms to receive us. We can go to him through faith, repentance, and baptism by immersion by someone who has the proper authority, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the same, and persevering until the end. Faith and repentance is a life process - not a onetime occurrence. It becomes part of us! We change, and through this process, we become more like our Savior. Little by little. One more amazing thing about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is that families have the opportunity to be sealed together forever. Not just this life, because there is more after death, but for forever. Our families can spend eternity in the presence of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, 2 different loving people, our Father and Brother, who want this for us. This is done though God´s authority and power, which was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from ancient records of the Americas. The Book of Mormon helps us see the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With the Holy Bible, we have 2 eyes, one being the Bible and the other the Book of Mormon, which allows us to see clearly the truth. And we can know the truth through prayer. It is simply a conversation with our Heavenly Father. He will answer - if we have faith and are diligent. Faith is belief combined with actions. The Apostle James tells us the relation between faith and works. Furthermore, we must be willing to act on the answer. If we only want to know, but will not do anything about the answer we receive, God won´t answer your prayer. That is why we need to be sincere, believing, and asking with real intention. I know the promise of James to be true. I know the promise of the American prophet Moroni to be true. Try it for yourself. Be willing to change, and through this faith to follow God, you will receive an answer. I promise, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that this will happen. The answer won´t be huge - but it will be direct to our hearts. Everyone receives an answer differently. But it can be peace, love, acceptance, and a desire to change for the better.

Like my hermano gemelo, I want to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point in my life. Everyone I know has been an influence in who I am today. I want to thank everyone for their examples of faith and action. True Christianity is Love in Action. I testify of this to be true. I know it with all of my heart and soul. I love you and hope the very best for each and every one of the amazing people who has helped me. Che rohayhu!! Les quiero mucho!!

With sincerity and love,

Elder David E. Watson

Peanut Butter Saved His Life!

2010-05-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Quierdo Familia,

Esta semana ha pasado bien. La obra ha parado un poco, pero, mi compañero y yo vamos a trabajar de vuelta esta semana que viene para que podamos encontrar nuevos y trabejemos con nuestro nuevos investigadores que tenemos. Tambien, tenemos una asignación a dar un discurso este domingo. Qué divirtido! Quizás divirtido. No sé. Algunos de los miembros no entiendan español, entonces, quizas voy a incluyir ´Ñandejára ñanderaihu´ y otras frases de Guaraní. Esta frase significa ´Dios nos ama´. Entonces, ´Che aikuaha Ñandejára ñanderaihu.´ Sé qué Dios nos ama. :). Hube podido aprendido algunas chistes en Guaraní tambien, pero, chistes en español son difíciles... hahaha. :) Todavía estoy aprendiendo! :)

It's good to know we are 3 hours difference. I got the single servings of peanut butter. THANKS!!! They saved my life... hahaha. Also, I will be ready to be called at 7 my time, 4 yours. I know it doesn´t fit with Mike, but it´s the best I can do. :/ Sorry! :( I also haven´t called the office to see if the first package has arrived. This week has been a little crazy... I’m sure you understand. I will call later... these first few days are going to be busy in the office because it is the start of the month and missionaries are going to be calling about Sunday. A cat??? And Flash hasn´t eaten her yet? Man, I need to develop self restraint like that ;) hahaha. Are things going well?

Ya... vamos a ver acerca este paquete. Oops. We will see about this package. I hope it will work. That past one was small enough and light enough to go through the encomienda that I get every week. And that tape job was hard to undo. Just so ya know. Ojála que la oficina reciba el otro paquete. I hope that the office received the package. Too much Spanish... hahaha. [He has received his second package but not his first one... we used the smallest flat rate box, so that is good to keep in mind].

Well, there isn´t too much to report from my end. There was a partido classico yesterday - Olympia contra Cerro Porteño. There were a lot of fiestas... let´s just say that.

Thankfully, it didn´t rain at ALL last week - much to my suprise. But my luck can´t last THAT long... and so it has run out, as it is raining today. C´est la vie. Or whatever that

French phrase is. Such as it is. We were supposed to have a baptism for the wife of a family we baptized in parts last month, but at every date, she hasn´t come. I don´t know que pasó, but I hope things are fine. We are going to start a new with finding new families to teach here. We´ve hit a block with the investigators we have and their certain circumstances that can´t change right now. It´s hard to switch, because these investigators are good, but because of other factors they can´t progress. It´ll be hard to keep a balance in visiting them to still strengthen their testimonies and finding families who can progress. But, this is the Lord´s work, and He will guide us in what He would have us do.

Yay!!! You got the letter from the president! Two months in waiting! My other letters should be coming soon... my one to Abe will be too late, as he is in the MTC now. I don´t about the others who are prepping for their missions, but I hope they are doing great. This 2 month waiting for a letter makes it difficult with changes in addresses... verdad? Oh, I have been getting your Dear Elder (It´s really nice to be able to read them leisurely en vez de rushing through them) and a letter from Wendykins. I will be working a reply soon!

I´m excited to be able to talk to you in person soon! Please confirm tonight that Sunday, May 9th, 7:00 PM Paraguay time (I believe 4 PM Cali time) is good. We will be checking our email as a district tomorrow to confirm. Thank you thank you thank you!

Well, That about sums up my news. Nothing exciting. It´s an amazing experience to work as a servant of the Lord. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restored, original church of Jesus Christ when he was on the Earth. El Libro de Mormón es verdadero, y contiene las palabras y enseñanzas de Jesucristo. Hay una promesa - y esta promesa es verdadera. Ore a Dios, en el nombre de Jesucristo, para que usted pueda preguntar si este libro es verdadero. Busque sus sentimientos y pensamientos. Oración es
solamente una conversación con Dios. Diga las palabras de su corazon. Che aikuaha Ñandejára ñanderaihu y quiere demostrar su amor para usted. I know that God loves us and wants to show his love for you. I really do. I love you all!

Les quiero!!

Elder Watson

Short Note To Say HI !

2010-04-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Quierdo familia

¿Cómo están? Todo tranquilo? Espero que sí. Vida aca en Paraguay es siempre bueno. Hay un gran bendición para servir el Señor como un misonero. Todavía estoy aprendiendo español, o castellaño aca... es el mismo, pero empece a aprender un poco más de guaraní. Por ejemplo, Ñandejara nderaihu significa que Dios te ama. Es muy difícil para pronunciar guaraní, entonces, yo necesito enfocarme en mí pronunción de español primero. Haha.

Like I said, life here is great. I’m always learning and progressing. It’s necessary... haha. There isn’t much to report differently since Thursday. It’s just been work! Which being a missionary is. There isn’t too much to be excited about this week. No big events. But I need to show my new comp still to a few more areas and families, and investigators. If we can catch them at home. That’s been the hard part lately. But we’ll do it! :)

May 9th... woo that’s coming up quick. I hope we can all talk together. That would be really nice. I still have to find a place to call from. That’s the hard part. I’ll have to talk to my branch president about that.. Speaking about branches, I always forget to tell you. All of the ramas in Ca’aguazú have their own building. Rama 2 is more towards Asuncion in the little outside divisions around Caáguazú, which is in the area called Ciudad Nueva. It’s a small building, but it works! Anything is better than nothing! :)

Thanks for the email! I loved reading your notes from the meeting. I hope to get them soon in the mail. That’s great that you are having more success with your students, Mom!! Different experiences every week in Mutual sure do make a difference!

Sorry about the short email - Thursday stole all of my information. Ha. I hope all is going well back in the States. Stay cool while I try to stay dry! Haha. Everything is great. I love y’all and wish the very best. Les amo muchisimo!!!

Elder David Watson

New Companion, Same Area

2010-04-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

¡Hola!

Tanto Tiempo!!! Sorry about not letting you know about cambios - it completely slipped my mind! I’m still in Ca’aguazú, but Elder Beramendi se fue al Ciudad del Este para ser un líder de distrito. Needless to say I was a little nervous to show my new companion, Elder Villegas, quien es de Santiago, Chile. He’s been out for 9 months, and was the trainer of Elder Clyde, another missionary who came with me. E’ Villegas arrived yesterday around noonish, and then we took a taxi to our pensión, where we could drop off his stuff. Then we ate lunch at a small restuarant called Bamboo. They make some great empañadas de Jamón y Queso, y tambien de ‘Mexicano’. Our district eats there after every district meeting. Anyways, about 3 we headed out after a quick planning session. We contacted a little bit, and talked with a conversa reciente y nuestro nuevo líder misional. Right when we got there, it started pouring like NO OTHER. By the way, I love idioms now. They are so great! So we spent about an hour, hour and a half, sharing scriptures, sang a song, and our investigator that lives with them came out. So we taught a quick lesson and checked up on him. Also, we talked about Guaraní and English. Fun stuff! Pala is shovel, and aguata he’ta is caminando muchismo. And Haku terere’y is demaisado calor. It was funny because one of the younger sons was trying to teach me the pronunciation... good stuff. We left when we thought the rain had stopped for a while, enough to make it home. NOT! We got soaked! Plus I made a turn way too early so we got ‘lost’ a little bit. Not completely, but enough to not know the area too well. But we made it back, soaked to the bone. How about that for a welcome to your new area?? It’s all good though. We’ll probably be getting a lot more rain, now that it is full-on fall and going into winter. Changing the seasons in your head es tan díficil. Haha.

As for me, things are going great. I am getting accustomed, a little bit, to the weather and lifestyle here. My Castellaño (Spanish is from Spain, not spoken in Sudamerica... so they tell me... :) ) is getting better. I can understand the majority of the Spanish now. E’ Villegas speaks much more quickly than E’ Beramendi, so that will help my understanding a lot. We had a bautismo with the family Cuyari. Five of the kids were baptized. The father was baptized during conference and the mother, hopefully soon. She is re-timida, so we need to figure out how to help her, with the help of the members, because she only speaks Guaraní. But our other investigators are great! We had 8 baptisms last change, all in the month of Abril, and we should be have some more pretty quickly! E’ Beramendi really did work with his old campanions, during the past change, we’ve been able to prepare more people. If all goes well, we just might have up to 5 or 6 more this change! Yeah! I’m re-animado sobre esto!

Oh! Funny story. Because E’ Sorensen’s, a missionary in my district from Folsom, CA whose been out one change more than I have, his companion changed to be a Zone Leader in Encarnación, we were on divisions yesterday. As we were walking to his area, we were stopped by a jovencita, cerca 16 años, who said ‘Excuse me, but do you know English’ with a States accent. Qué sopresa! She had lived in CA for 5 años but had moved back to Paraguay. E’ Sorensen couldn’t talk in straight English - he had to use Spanglish. But we invited her to our English Class every Thursday, and she said she’s going to bring her classmates (when we talked to her, there were about 5 or 6 guys who were her classmates), so they could learn English. We were so surprised! How often does someone stop you in Paraguay, especially in Ca’aguazu where not everyone even speaks Spanish, and talks to you in perfect English??? So that was pretty cool! That’s my English for another month.... hahaha.

Yes... times. I’m 3 hours ahead of you right now, because of the time change this past month. Elder Watson and I SHOULD be on the same time, but I’m not sure. I haven’t caught him online yet so I can’t verify. But that sounds like a plan. I need to ask around to see if someone has telephones we can use... I think our Branch President does but I am not sure... but definitely. Probably around 4ish your time. That’s 7 here and should give me a good hour to talk and half hour to make the trek back to our pensión.

Woo hoo! Pictures! I still have yet to receive my first package, which I will probably get later this month. I will ask the adminstrador if he has received one tomorrow or the day after. That way I will know for sure if I get it at the next zone conference.

Woo hoo! Great to hear from Josh!!! I’m so excited for him! I can’t wait to hear where he is going! I’m sure he is really excited to be getting ready! I got his Dear Elder last week at zone conference, so I will work on a response that will hopefully get there before he leaves. :) I know that he is preparing his best to be an excellent servant of the Lord. Suerte amigo!

Oh, because my letters probably haven’t arrived, I want to wish Abe Wilson, Jon Cannon, Ryan Gillis and James Meiling the best of luck! That is amazing where you are going! I know the Lord has called each of you to the place where you will work the best in the Lord’s hands. Thanks for always being friends! If you can, let my parents know your mission addresses so I can write you! If anyone else from my BYU ward has received calls, I’d love to hear where to! I wrote a letter to Abe about a month ago, actually a little bit more, but if it takes 3 months, there’s no way he’ll get it before he hits the MTC. But I’m so excited for them!! Yeah!

Oh man! I bet the fruit trees are going to town!! The fruit should be pretty good by the time I get back! Sorry mom! I wish I could do that [mow the lawn], but I’m a little far to help out. We’ll be back before you know it.

Elder Bednar!! Sweet! Take advantage of it and take some good notes! :) I’m excited for y’all!

That’s too bad about BYU. I’m sure they will turn it around [They lost pretty bad to TCU in baseball].

The work here in Paraguay is going great! I’m having the time of my life! I’m learning so much! It is such a blessing to be able to serve the Lord and learn by the Spirit. It’s amazing to see the changes of Gospel of Jesucristo puede hacer in people. One of our investigators gave a prayer this past week where I could feel the Spirit so strongly. This really is the work of the Lord! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same church established by Jesus Christ when He came to the Earth. I know that the Book of Mormon contains the teachings of true prophets y las enseñanzas de Jesucristo. It truly testifies of Him. Through its teachings, along with the Holy Bible, we can come unto Him and prepare ourselves through Faith, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by proper authority (Baptism too!) and enduring to the end that we can enter the straight and narrow path that Jesus marked for us. Through ordinances like Baptism and the receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost we take steps towards returning to live with our Heavenly Father. I know that we can know the truth of all things through the power of the Holy Ghost. All we need to do is seek, and we shall find. Knock, and He will answer. I invite all to pray to our Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks and asking to know the truth and answers to our questions. I know that the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul, like ¿What purpose do we have in this Earth? and ¿ How can I avoid sins and live a better life? The answers are in this book. Sincerely pray, and you can know the truth for yourself.

Anyway, I am out of time. I love you! Take care of yourselves! Sigan adelante siempre! Les quiero mucho!!!

Con amor

Elder David Watson

Green Oranges and Lemons?

2010-04-12T18:51:00.001-07:00

Hola Familia Watson

My exclamation mark isn’t working again. Can’t show my excitement. Lame... but that is alright. I’m sure you can imagine it. My SD card converter thingy isn’t working right now, so I can't download any pictures today. I’ll try again later.

This week has been great. We’ve made a lot of progress with our investigators. This Sunday, if things go as planned, we should have another baptismal service. I have Zone Conference this Wednesday in Ciudad Del Este, so that will be a fun trip out of town. The Zone Conference should last pretty much the whole day, but it will be worth listening to my Mission President. I’m excited. Sometimes being here seems like a dream... everything flows together. But it’s great learning, growing, and being able to serve the people of Paraguay. It’s a completely different lifestyle, and it’s kind of growing on me. If that’s the right phrase. I can’t remember idioms anymore. They all seem weird. I can understand why others who are learning English are totally confused. I’m finally able to start adding my two cents to conversations here, as long as it’s not in Guarani. Not much, but the more I work with it, the better I will get. Oh... funny thing... sometimes the little kids, who only know Guarani por la mayoría, call me ja’raha or something like that. I am still learning the pronunciation of Guarani. But it means amigo grande, or big friend. Kinda cool. I can’t wait to be able to learn more Guarani - but Spanish first, and I’ll be able to learn plenty of Guarani.

This week I’ve been finding a lot of scriptures about peace, faith, and prayer. James 1 and 2 are chalk full of them, along with various chapters in Moroni, Alma, Mosiah, and 2nd Nephi. I should have written down the references so I could share them with y’all. Oh, and I realized I didn’t give credit to King Benjamin in Mosiah about believing in Christ but all prophets testify of Christ and His divinity, so I probably could give credit to all of the other prophets too. I love being able to study the scriptures here. I wish I had more time - an hour just isn’t enough. I am finding so many scriptures that are really really helpful with sharing the gospel, raising good families, building faith, the importance of living the commandments... the list could go on and on. But both the Book of Mormon and the Bible fit together so perfectly, we just need to become more familiar with them. Or least I need to.

Elder Ray. Yeah. I remember him. I wish I had my exclamation point right now. He was great. Or is great, I should say. Man... I wish I had spent much more time with the missionaries. At least I can help out with the missionaries when I get back. It’s going to be a blast. I love the prospect of it.

Info about Paraguay. The government has decided to eliminate the thousands part of their currency. So 1 dollar will be about 4.5 to 5 Guaranies en vez de 4500 to 5000 Guaranies. Much easier to convert in my head. That should take place next year. Oh... we fell back an hour this week. I still don’t know the time difference between here and Cali. I need to figure that out for next month when I call home for Mother’s Day. Don’t worry about me being homesick. I love seeing pictures of home. Maybe even a yellow lemon. Oranges and lemons here are green. SO different. Oh - One question. How do you make orchata? I want to see if I can make it here. Thanks.

Anyway, I love being here. I am learning so much. I wish I could have the time to share it all with you. I hope all is going well at home. Take care of yourselves.

Con amor,

Elder David Watson

The Weather is Getting Cooler... Whew!

2010-04-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom and Dad

Wow! Time flies in the field. To answer your questions: I only saw (live) Sunday morning in Spanish and the Afternoon in English. I enjoyed it much more in English, much more powerful and meaningful. One missionary has found Peanut Butter in the market, but I think that was a fluke. I think I have to look under a different name. But I will ask around. I heard that Elder Holland’s talk Saturday night was really good! But I didn’t get the chance to watch any Saturday sessions. The sessions were on at 1 and 5 in Paraguay. So… that’s 5 hours difference, right? I actually saw Cody Stephens my last week [at the MTC] - yes, I do know him. Good guy. Is Byron already gone? Whew! Time flies. Has Josh put in his papers yet???

Whew! Spring Break! That sounds nice! Sometimes I would like to sleep in, but that time lost isn’t worth it. So that helps waking up on time every day. HAHAHA!!! Flash! I love him. So funny. I miss you guys a ton, but the work keeps me busy. Work is good!

We had a baptismal service yesterday! We baptized a mother and son, and a father of another family. I got to baptize the mom, Rosalba, and confirm the son, Pablo. It was really a great experience! :)

I am so out of ideas today. The weather is actually been nice the past few days. Overcast and windy, which means cool! Overcast and not windy… humid as all get out!! It is started to get cooler and cooler… much better than hotter and hotter. It’s so weird to have the seasons flipped! June and July is dead winter, December and January is dead summer.

This past week has been Semana Santa, which is a huge tradition among Paraguayos. Something that goes along with the tradition is food called Chipas. Chipas is bread that is cooked in an outside brick oven called a Tata Kwa. It certainly is interesting! My tongue is still too Americanized to truly appreciate Chipas.

I have been reading past Ensigns and Liahonas lately, in the morning after breakfast but before Personal Study and at night before 10:30, and I’ve really enjoyed reading the words of prophets and apostles. I’ve also taken to cutting out some of the pictures that I really like… the pile is starting to get big! I am going to make a cover for my daily planner, where I can put some of these pictures, and I’ll find places to put the others. . Maybe my next email I will send the names of the paintings home so you guys can see them too. One of the painters I really like is Del Parsons. I can’t remember any of the names right now.

One thing that I can really remember from General Conference is Elder James B Martino’s talk from the Sunday afternoon session. He talked about going through our trials and experiences with an eternal perspective. He remarked that when we look at the long run, we can better learn from our lives and apply those lessons to become better Disciples of Christ.

Well, I will keep you in my prayers! I hope everything continues to go well. I really appreciate the love and support from all of you! This is an awfully short e-mail, and I hope you will forgive me. I will write more next week - I promise! Take care of yourselves! ¿Les quiero muchisimo!

Con Amor,

Elder David Watson

It's almost April!

2010-03-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

¡Hola!

Woo hoo! I am excited! Today´s e-mail won´t be so long. I took too much time reading!! Haha. But it was really really nice to read both of your emails combined. Makes it easier for me to read and reply.

First off, I want to thank Aunt Wendy Gifford, Wendy Bentley, Amy McGreevey, and Michelle Olson (yes, I got your DE and your letter!) for sending me letters. They were fun to read! I will work on writing back... letters take a long time to write and send! Probably I will finish by next Monday, and send them off with a letter to you to forward. Much easier. And I like the pouch service idea, but I need to ask my Mission President how to use it… Or one of the assistants. But it sounds much better.

I´d also like to share a part of my testimony. Lately, I´ve really been developing charity, especially for everyone who has helped me! I tried giving a prayer of thanks for everyone, but after half an hour, I don´t think I covered half of the people I could think of, and as the week moved on I realized more people I could be grateful for. It really is amazing how people can influence your life, even in the smallest of ways. So, I want you to know that I truly do love you all, and I really wish I could tell each one of you personally. At BYU, Piru, Fillmore, Illinois, Washington, Utah, Cali, Hawaii... Even back in the good ol´ days of Burbank! That would be a good life goal to make. :). But as to my testimony... I know that Jesus is the Christ. That as we share the Gospel as restored through Joseph Smith and his translation of The Book of Mormon: ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST, we really can become more Christ like in love, charity, patience, hope, diligence. In everything we do. The Book of Mormon really can answer questions of the soul. I have watched our investigators either listen to parts of the Book of Mormon, if they couldn´t read, or read it themselves, come to know how much the Book of Mormon can help them. We have living prophets on the Earth who testify of Jesus Christ - just like the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New. Through the Book of Mormon, we can gain a fuller understanding of the Bible! The Bible and the Book of Mormon both are words and teachings of Jesus Christ - just written in different parts of the world. Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ - as two distinct and separate beings. I would add my testimony to Nephi´s of the Book of Mormon, believe that we need to repent. Believe in Jesus Christ. Have faith in Christ. Act on that faith. Show that faith through a change of your heart. Show that faith through your daily actions. Show that faith through repentance. Repentance gives us the chance to become more like our Savior. Repentance is possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through that, we can be cleansed from sin. Through Baptism, by the proper authority and power, we can be cleansed of our sins. Follow the example of Jesus. He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He was perfect, we are not. How much more do we need to be baptized, being unholy!! He fulfilled all of the commandments of His Father, just like we need to. When we are baptized, we qualify for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Through His influence, we can avoid wrong and choose right - we can know the truth of all things. I know that prayer is a two way communication with God. He wants to listen - and He does! He will answer! Through the power of the Holy Ghost, we can feel His love for us. We can feel ´peace as a river´, comfort, love, just to name a few. With the gift of the Holy Ghost, we can have that all of time!! We can have guidance in our life, in everything we do. And that is not all - we must persevere until the end!! Read 1 Nephi 31:19-20. After that gate of baptism, we must press forward with a steadfastness of Christ. I know this to be true. I testify that God loves us. He is there. He is happy when we are righteous, and disappointed when we make mistakes, just like any father in this life would be with his children, only with a more perfect love and knowledge of what and how our actions affect our life. Affect the lives of others. I testify that Jesus is His Son, the Only Begotten of God the Father. That is how Jesus could be perfect and perform the Atonement in order to take upon Himself our sins, pains, sicknesses. That is why repentance helps! Jesus knows our every pain! He knows perfectly how, what, and why to help us. We just need to faith! We just need to act on that faith. James, the apostle, tells us that faith without works is dead. Believe that. Believe that we have hope to become better in this life. Hope for a better tomorrow - and then do whatever you can to have a better tomorrow! He will make up the rest of what we cannot accomplish on our own. Man in himself is nothing, with Christ he is everything. That is why this is important. Families are ordained of God. Through families, we learn. We grow. We understand right and wrong. We have a support system. Develop the love of your family. Family is everything. What´s the saying? Family, God, Country? No... Duty, God, Country. Something like that. But part of duty is to have a loving family. Through families, children can grow with love and happiness in their life. I know these things to be true. You can too. Pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. Pray with a sincere heart. Be willing to act on an answer. He may not answer right away, but He will. Through a small feeling or thought - one that we must search for. I promise you that this is true.

Whew! That was a lot. But I really do mean each and every word! Seriously.

Now – to answer some questions: Any store I would buy something from would be the Supermarket. And it probably has everything. I just need to find it. Except Peanut Butter. They don´t have that in Paraguay. Only on the black market in Ciudad del Este. I miss it already! Oh!!! Please send photos with the next item from the states. The people here LOVE pictures. Any pictures - family, landscape, friends! I miss having pictures, so that´ll help me too! :) Thanks!

My companion, Elder Beramendi is from Jujuy, Argentina. It´s by Chile and Bolivia.

Two more minutes. I love you guys. Please share my love and appreciation! I may miss my family, and my really good friends from home and the Y, but I have been blessed in so many ways! I hope to be able to share my blessings with them when I come home and through these letters! I hope everything is going great! Take care of yourself! I can´t wait for the treats!!

Con amor!

Elder David Watson

Three Pirus and One Santa Paula

2010-03-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia,

People live their life here so differently - even the poor people have TV´s… It seems like it´s one of their first priorities so they can watch futbol. But it´s really common for them to be sitting in conversation, relaxing with some yerba mate or tereré. Almost anyone will let you in to talk about the gospel, but aren´t always willing to do anything about what we teach. Understandable, and that´s why we have our agency. My literal area is almost completely rural. Some parts are like Piru, except the roads are cobblestone like, but with just random rocks. There aren´t any sidewalks... so you just have to watch out for the Motos, horse and ox carts. Hahaha...

I am in Branch 2 in Caáguazú. There are, technically, about 800 members, but at church on Sunday, we had 50. So... ya... lots of work to do. We had 8 investigators at church, so that was a really good thing. Really good. If Google Earth has the local names, I have Ciudad Nueva out past Primero Mayo, and way far off to the north. Ours is the second biggest area, just slightly smaller than Branch 3. Just slightly. Mostly we work with Constitution and Ciudad Nueva. Sometimes we head out to Triunfo. All the rest of the areas are difficult to get the investigators to come to church, or to even teach, so we use our time as best we can in Constitución or Ciudad Nueva. And yeah... these red dirt roads become a mess when it rains. Really bad. One of the reasons our work is really hampered when it rains. And whoever told me to keep a white shirt in a bag my whole mission was so right.... I don´t know if I´ll be coming home with too many white shirts... they´ll probably be red.

My feet are doing great. Surprisingly, your shoes [Dave took a pair of Cliff’s old uniform shoes that had thick rubber soles on them] are doing much better than the Rockport’s, as in handling the work load. Not as comfortable, but they are some pretty good shoes. The boots are doing the best so far though. Imagine that. You should be getting an official picture from President Callan. He might be sending it snail mail, but I´m not sure.

My Church Building is tiny. It could almost fit in our Chapel... I´m pretty sure. We do have a baptismal font though, so that is nice. The whole floor is tiled... makes it easier to clean. My area itself is rural, small townish. Not rural to the point of fields in between. Think 3 Piru´s. One for Ciudad Nueva, one for Constitution, one for Triunfo. Triunfo is the smallest. Another area that we work in is Familia Unidas, which is the poorest part, and that is more rural. But it´s great working with the people. Lots and lots and lots of trees, as hopefully you´ll be able to see in the pictures. Not too many hills, but there are a few mountains, if you can see through all of the trees. I´m sleeping alright. Lately I´ve been waking up about 5ish for some reason, but I don´t know why. It´s alright though. The food is good. The best has been Sopa Paraguayo, and the weirdest, hot dogs made of horse and donkey meat. There is this stuff called manioca, which is a type of plant, and that is interesting too. Breakfast is cereal, and lunch is usually pasta with some meat. It´s good. My apartment is alright. It´s small, and kind of hard to keep clean. Our landlady is an inactive member, and two other elders live across from us. We don´t do any proselyting anywhere near our house, mostly because it´s not our area and we are walking quickly to one of our appointments. I´ve never seen any neighbors, but pretty much anyone will say ´adios´ if you say it to them. Pretty friendly. The mission office is a 3 hour bus ride from our apt. There are 8 in our district, 3 from Cali (Diamond Bar, Sacramento, y yo), 3 from Argentina, 1 from Peru, 1 from the US, not sure where though. Zone conference is every 6 weeks, I think, and the next is in April. We have that in Ciudad del Este. P day is personal, companion and language study, grocery shopping, emails. This morning we cleaned, which was good too. Other than that, we write letters or try to relax and stop sweating. We haven´t done any service yet... so I don´t know. Still trying to learn.

Thank you for all the information. I love you guys so much. Thanks for all of your hard work, love, and support. I could never have gotten here if it wasn’t for my parents. I want to make sure I can sneak a reply back to Mike´s e-mail. Love you tons. Take care of yourself.

Con amor,

Elder David Watson

Update 3/15/2010 - Soaked to the Bone! (hint - read Mike's first)

2010-03-15T19:34:00.001-07:00

Hey Mom!

Yeah - me too! I´m glad to be out here. The language isn´t daunting - it´s just learning to understand how the Paraguayos speak Spanish. All of the Latino missionaries keep telling me not to worry about it. They mix in Guarani here and there. They can understand because they´ve been listening to Spanish their whole lives, so all they have to do is figure out the Guarani parts. ¡Qué suerte! I´m starting to be able to understand more and more... just real slowly. I´ve been told it´ll probably take another week or 2 to start understanding more... and a few months to understand everything. It´s good that I can catch the theme of what´s going on, but my companion is really good at leading me on so I know what to talk about when it´s my turn. He had an American newbie for his last companion, so he´s done this before. I keep writing Guarani phrases in my little blue notebook. One of our investigator families asked me what Guarani I knew, so I rattled of a few phrases out of the notebook and they just started laughing and laughing. My companion says that´s a good thing because it builds a little bit of trust. I´m excited to just be here and going!

Good luck finding a Paraguayan restaurant... I don´t think you´ll be able to find too many. Almost all of the Paraguayans are poor... and it doesn´t help that the economy is all out of whack. I bought food for a week and it was only like 9 American dollars. Pretty insane. Oh man... when it rains here, it pours. We got caught walking to one of our areas called Constitution, which is about a 45/60 minute walk depending on what part. Elder Beramundi and I got soaked to the bone. I think I still might have water in me... haha. We got lucky yesterday, when it started to rain we were near a recent convert´s house and she let us in. When it rains, almost no one will let you in - even if they are members. That´s just how they are. Anyway, when it rains, it kinda messes everything up for us. We can´t teach any of our investigators, and if it rains Saturday night or Sunday morning, nobody comes to church. Nobody. Normally we have about 60 or 70 members come, but only like 25 or so showed up. All the roads in our official area are dirt, so it makes sense to not come to church when your road is a river. We actually live outside our area, about a half an hour walk to actually get there. It makes things interesting... and a lot of walking. I already have a few blisters, but they don´t hurt much so it´s easy to ignore. The heat actually isn´t really hard to work in, it´s just that I have to have my water bottle with me and always be drinking. December and February are the worst months here, so it´ll be hard then. But I´ll have been here for almost a year, so I´ll be ready to handle it. I hope. But it looks like I will be here in Ca´aguazu for at least 4.5 months, 3 as a newbie, and 1.5 to get another missionary known to the area. Lots of walking!! :).

We kind of have to restart our work that we did last week, so we need to work hard in order to catch up. The rain really put us back. But we´ll get to work and start having fun!

Hope things are going great! Take care!!

Con amor

Elder David Watson

David's First Area & Companion - Ca´aguazu / Elder Beramendi

2010-03-11T15:54:00.001-08:00

Hey,

I am trying to get used to using a Spanish Keyboard... it´s not working out so well. Ha. But anyways, I love it here in Paraguay. I am learning a lot. I got to my area around fourish yesterday, Wednesday. Elder Beramundi is my trainer, and he is from Northern Argentina. He only speaks Spanish, but he is learning English. It makes me have to use Spanish, which is REALLY good. I need to. I am still trying to get used to the Paraguayan´s Spanish down here. It is very different than the Spanish back home. I´m not used to listening to Spanish all day long. My area is Ca´aguazu, which is mostly made up of Guarani speakers who know Spanish and is a 3 hour bus ride from Asunción. We taught 5 or 6 lessons yesterday, 3 were with progressing investigators, who Elder Beramundi committed to baptismal dates and the rest were members, but Elder Beramundi taught for most of the time and handed it to me to testify or to teach a small part of the lesson. Very understandable since I am the local Gringo, and probably the tallest for miles. It´s hard to believe. We had a lunch appointment with one of the members today, the food was good. Paraguayans hardly ever talk while eating and the women don´t normally eat with the men, unless it is Saturday or Sunday; at least that´s what I picked up so far. I´ll have to make more sense of it later.

Today we only have one lesson to teach since it´s an off p day and really odd schedule, but I am excited to go. We are going to see if she is ready to set up a baptismal date. I can´t wait to start understanding more so I can help out my companion and get to know the people better. There´s definitely a language block, but I am working really hard on understanding and practicing. Sunday should be fun too, since their meetings will be in Guarani. I´m excited for that. Oh. I handed out my Guarani Book of Mormon on the flight to Asunción. It was so cool to give it to him. I´m excited. I love the people down here. They are so nice and awesome. I can´t wait to be able to get to know the people better.

So, like I said, I love it here. It´s so cool. Hot, really, and humid, but so cool. There are so many trees and jungle areas. It´s actually kinda fun to walk on the cobblestone streets and red dirt roads. It´s definitely the other side of the world, I can guarantee that. I can only send emails to family, so if I get any letters, it might take a while to get them back.

Traffic here is pretty crazy. Think LA traffic with no rules, except for stop lights. It´s a pretty wild ride. There are a lot of motorcycles here... lots. Out here in the country, it´s the main way people get around. To school, work, everything. Asunción reminded me of parts of Downtown LA, except brighter and a lot more green. Trees are everywhere. Pretty much anything you stick in the ground will grow. And the orange juice here is AMAZING. I´d have to do a side by side test to see if Cali OJ or Paraguay OJ is better. All of the other fruits are amazing that I´ve tried so far. Can´t wait to try more.

Well, I don´t know what else to say but that I love you guys. My exclamation point isn´t working, so it might seem like I am a little unanimated. I love you guys and I want the best for y´all. I hope everything is going great. Take care of yourselves.

Con mucho amor,

Elder David Watson

Elder David Watson is in Paraguay!

2010-03-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

We were able to speak with Elder Watson yesterday while he had his layover at the Miami, FL airport. It was wonderful to hear his voice and how excited he is to enter the mission field and start teaching. In addition, I was able to speak with him for a short while (5 mins or so) from the Salt Lake City airport so we could discuss his plans for calling home while his mother was home.

As part of his trip, a couple of things we noticed were, that he left the Salt Lake City airport about 4 hours before Mike and left Dallas about 15 minutes before Mike arrived in Miami. They both called us at the same time, so we had to shuffle the calls around so we had one on each phone (I called back the payphone in the Miami airport). In addition, they both left about the same time for Argentina but Dave arrived about an hour earlier than Mike. We don't know if they were able to greet each other in Buenos Aires because Dave said he had to get to another terminal right away or he would miss his flight (even though his layover was about two hours).

This afternoon we received an email from Elder Watson that he arrived safely and that he was on his way out to start contacting and teaching. We are very excited for him. We will post his first letter home when he writes us on his P-Day.

6.5 Weeks In!

2010-02-22T21:21:00.001-08:00

¡Hola!

¿Como estáis? Bien, yo espero. Esta semana he estada mucha ocupada. Quizá lo estaba ocupada porque de la nieve. Chiste.

¡Estoy mucho animado por esta próxima semana! Deberemos recibir nuestros los plans de viajes. Si yo recibiré, enviaré una corta carta a ustedes.

He estado much bien a oir de ustedes Disfruto sus cartas muchas.

Well, I'm out of Spanish for today. I'd write more, but at the moment it would take more time than I have, so I'll continue in English.

Thanks to Josh, Jared, Sister Freeman, and all of the Cub Scouts for their letters to us. We really enjoyed them! It was great to hear from them and hear about what was going on in their lives.

Tuesday's devotional was really good. Elder Spencer V. Jones talked about how we can become more effective missionaries. A main part he emphasized was having love for the people. Try to become like one of the people through finding their best traits and acquiring them. Not so that we can seem more at home, but to show the people that we want to make an effort to show our love and hopes for them through our hard work. He also talked about how we need to be sincere as we offer to serve. Also, we need to be able to have the Holy Ghost in our lives as we teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our words won't convince people to come unto Him, but the feeling in their hearts will. "Men are weak in and of themselves, but when they let the Holy Spirit guide their lives, that's when they become effective representatives of Jesus Christ." It's not his exact wording, but close enough. ;)

So how is everyone doing back home? Great, I hope! I heard that the baseball team sounds like that they are off to a good start. I'm really glad to hear that!

During my walk on the Temple Grounds yesterday, I met the old mission president of Asuncion, Paraguay. He kindly stopped and talked to us for a few moments about what we can expect. It made me much more excited to finally leave! We took a picture with him, but I didn't have my camera with me. It was still a good experience to talk with him though.

By next Monday, I will probably have a lot more to say. I should have my travel plans, and I'll be getting ready to leave Utah. I can't say that I'm not excited. I really didn't get a chance to plan this letter out, so sorry if it's all a jumbled mess.

I can't believe I'm getting ready to leave already. It seems like I've only been here for a little bit, yet sometimes it seems like I have been here forever. All I know is I'm excited to get out and start working! :)

Well, sorry for the short letter. It's hard to think of what to say when you have a big red timer in the top right hand corner counting down to zero. It's kind of unnerving... hahaha. But I hope everything is going well! Thanks always for all of your love and support! Take care of yourselves!

Love,

Elder David Watson

5.5 Weeks In!

2010-02-15T16:08:00.001-08:00

Hey Mom + Dad! (And Everybody!)

M'bae cha pa? (How are you?) It's been really great to hear that pretty much everything is going well! :) I ran out of time last week to write more (I had 8 seconds left on my time...), but I managed to get most of it out!

I am feeling much better. It was just a one day, weird flu thing where nothing really happened except that I was feeling really bad, but I'm glad I'm okay now. I wasn't actually "quarantined," but that's how it got passed on. My Zone Leader right now actually is in quarantine because he got a really bad flu... so he won't be back in action for another week or so. I feel bad for him... stuck in the same room for a week. Yuck.

OH! I hope your crown treatment went really well, Mom! I know it sucks to do it, but I know that you know that you'll be happier with it done.

There really hasn't been too much going on this week. I still love learning Spanish and how to teach in Spanish! Our devotional on Tuesday was given by Elder C. Scott Grow (Such a cool name!!) about our dual purpose as missionaries to convert and to re-active less active members. I really enjoyed it!

I don't quite know what else to say this week, so I'll just finish off with some Spanish.

¿Cómo están ustedes? ¡Estoy muy excelente! Me encanta mi tiempo aqui en al CCM porque estoy estudiando y aprendiendo mucho! He progresado mucho en las seis semanas aqui. El Evangelio de Jesucristo es mas importante en mi vida. Yo sé que Él es mi Salvador y Redentor. Jesucristo y nuestro Padre Celestial aman a todas las personas. Dios quiere que nos tengamos feliz, pas, y exitóso en esta vida. Yo sé que por medio de la Expiación de Jesucristo, podemos acercarnos más a Cristo y podemos llegar a ser más como Cristo. Tengo mucho feliz para estar un misionario de Jesucristo y aprendé como enseñar Su Evangelio.

Well, I hope everything continues to go well with you! Take care of yourselves! God Bless!

Love

Elder David Watson

4.5 Weeks In!

2010-02-08T15:39:00.001-08:00

Dear Mom and Dad!

Staying out of trouble is always a good thing! It's not something hard to do here when you are focused so much on learning! :) I hope that things go well with your quest to do taxes and that everything comes out well!

First off, I've been talking with my teacher who went to Paraguay. He's told me a bunch of cool stuff, including that some families hand make guitars, and that those guitars are really great! It's something I'm really willing to look into on my p-days, if I have the time!

I've been continuing to do a verse by verse "analysis" of the Book of Mormon, which I'm pretty sure I mentioned last week. I really enjoyed going through 1 Nephi 8 yesterday. It reminded me of my Book of Mormon class, and I've gotten a lot out of my studies so far! :D

This past Tuesday's devotional was given by Elder Richard G. Hinckley and his wife. Sister Hinckley's remarks were focused on the importance of keeping journals and recording out thoughts and feelings while studying. (See 3 Nephi 23:13). Elder Hinckley talked to us about avoiding the "Groundhog Day Syndrome," referring to the movie. He gave us six steps. First, understand your purpose. While he was talking about MTC life and a missionary's day-to-day life, understanding our purpose helps us to know why we are here and what we need to do to get there. (See John 3:16, 2 Nephi 31:19-20, Alma 34:32 and Alma 37:44-45.) The second step is to be obedient. Obedience is the first law of heaven, and in obeying the commandments of the Lord, we will find greater happiness and a love of all men. The third step was "be clean." He meant that we need to be worthy, and that through our clean thoughts and good actions, the Holy Ghost is able to guide our lives. The fourth step is to work hard. Working hard helps us to realize the benefits and blessings of this life, which includes our families. I'm kind of adding my own thoughts to this step, because Elder Hinckley only talked about being an effective and productive missionary, which everyone should be anyway. The fifth step is to love the people. Without love, we don't care what happens to them, which is completely and utterly hypocritical of missionary work.. I know I am here to invite all to come unto Christ, that through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring (persevering) to the end, everyone can live with our Heavenly Father in eternal life. The last step is to exercise faith. Without works and our good deeds, which are because of our love for our fellow men, and our willingness to follow the Savior's example, faith means absolutely nothing. Likewise, without faith, our works don't mean much.

I've learned so much here at the MTC, and I can't quite explain it all in a letter. Most of it would be in Spanish! ;) What I can say is this: I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith, because of his faith and efforts, sought to know which church was true in 1820. God, our Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ, appeared to him as two completely distinct and separate beings. An angel of the Lord revealed the location of records of God's dealings with the Ancient Americans. They too, like the Bible, had prophets, comparable to Moses, Noah, and Adam. Through the power of God, Joseph Smith was able to translate those records into what we have today - The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. And it is just that - another testament of our Lord and Savior. Though the power of the Holy Ghost, we can pray to Heavenly Father to know its truth. All we have to do is have faith in Jesus Christ that He will answer us, and sincerely and intently ask in prayer. Prayer is a two-way communication with Heavenly Father… I know that He listens to our prayers and wants to answer. All we have to do is ask. When we do as the apostle James and the prophet Moroni directs: "Ask of God... and it shall be given you." "Ask with a sincere heart, having faith in Jesus Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost." (See James 1:5-6 and Moroni 10:3-5). Our answers won't be huge - they will be silent promptings in our hearts and minds. I can't tell you how the Holy Ghost will touch you, because every person is different. What I can tell you is that when I've prayed with faith about a decision I've made, my body is filled with a feeling of knowing my decision is right. If the decision is wrong, I feel an emptiness. I promise to all that if you read the Book of Mormon, even just parts of it, and ask with faith and a real desire to know, and a willingness to act on an answer you receive, that God will answer you. I've done it. You can do it too. I know that the Book of Mormon can answer the questions of our souls.

I hope everything is going well with everyone! Take care of yourselves! God bless!

Love

Elder Watson

Delayed Mail... The Email was Stuck in the Server...

2010-02-03T15:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Mom and Dad (and everybody),

Well, this week has been really quick! It seems like I was just writing my letter home yesterday! Just for kicks and giggle, I decided not to have any sweets this week (cookies, chocolate milk, etc.), and what do I get? COOKIES! 3 packages of them! And Mike is sitting by me right now doing TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning, it's a computer program that helps teach languages...) The irony of things... hahaha. But the cookies are great! :)

We've been transitioning more into Spanish this week, which I am REALLY grateful for. I've found that using Spanish is MUCH more beneficial than just learning bits and pieces of it.

This week's devotional was given by Elder Stephen E. Snow. I participated in the MTC Choir too - and we sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer." That was actually quite fun!! And I sat by Mike during the devotional, so that was a definite plus too. Elder Snow talked about incorporating hymns into our lessons and the power of music to invite the Holy Ghost. He also taught us that obedience and hard work solve all of our concern and doubts. How true that is!!

Wow... for some reason I don't have a lot to say this week. We got a new district in our zone, and they are all heading off to Argentina, Buenos Aires South. It was kinda fun to help them get used to the MTC.

I guess the only really fun thing this week that my teacher, Hermano Hanson, taught us a few Guarani phrases. The Bookstore has Guarani copies of the Book of Mormon, but they were out of stock. So I'm going to have to see if I can get my hands on one if I can!

I'm sorry this letter is so short! I promise I'll have a lot more to say next week! Take care of yourselves!!

Love,

Elder David Watson

Elder Watson Expounds on MTC Devotionals

2010-01-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Mom and Dad! (And Everybody!)

It's really good to hear from you guys. It means you aren't drowning! 'Cause that'd be REALLY bad! Thanks for the package! Packages are always great! As well as mail! :)

Just so you know, there are a few people you might run into that are connected to people in my zone here. Elder Hastings is in the Ventura Mission, and he is a cousin of Hermana Stout, who is in my zone. She and her companion, Hermana Dansie (sounds like Densie) are going to the LA mission where it is half proselytizing and half visitor’s center. Also, I think there might be an Elder Davis whose cousin is in my district. Or something like that. It's kinda funny to see how everyone is virtually connected to everyone else. The "six degrees of separation" is cut down to two or three! Hahaha. :D

So how much has it rained? Comparable to '04? I actually miss the rain, which is better than snow and ice, but once I get to Paraguay, I DEFINITELY won't miss the rain!

I'm glad to know that stake conference went really well! I'm sure you were happy to sit together in church! :)

Since I don't know what to say next, I guess I'll talk about the devotionals we've been having.

Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles spoke to us on the 12th about being diligent, faithful, and having a strong testimony of the restored Gospel.

Last Tuesday's was given by Elder David F Evans of the Quorum of the 70. He spoke about using the Book of Mormon more in proselytizing and about Christ like attributes found in the Book of Mormon. He used a quote about Christ like attributes from President Ezra Taft Benson, but I wasn't able to get all of it. In addition to the ones found in "Preach My Gospel," I was able to write down 12 out of the 33 he mentioned. "Alive, Constant, Creator, Exemplar, Generous, Good, Gracious, Healer, Holy, Humble... Liberator... Mighty, Miraculous...." Hopefully I can find the quote while I am here.

Last night's devotional was given by Stephen B Allen, who is the Managing Director of the Missionary Department. He talked about how each mission call is extended by revelation, that each missionary has been called as a personal representative of Jesus Christ, and asked us a poignant question. "What price are we willing to pay to become Saviors on Mount Zion?" What he meant by "Saviors on Mount Zion" is that the Lord can act through us, and our actions, in order to help bring people unto Him. As a missionary, it is a very important question to consider, but I thought of a way it could be rephrased. "What price are we willing to pay to be able to return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? Also, what price would we be willing to pay to help others to do the same?" In other words, what are we willing to give up in order to have the opportunity to accept the Gospel and live the commandments of God faithfully, and worthily complete each ordinance that is necessary for salvation? In 2 Nephi chapter 31, verse 19 & 20, Nephi the prophet tells us of 5 things we need to do in order to gain Eternal, or God's, Life. I don't have my scriptures with me, so the wording might be a little off. The first thing he talks about is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (and his Atonement.) Second, we need to repent and change our hearts to be more like Jesus Christ. Third, we need to be baptized, by immersion and by one who has the proper authority and power, for the remission of our sins. Fourth, we need to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost so that we can be guided, given that we are trying to live righteously and to the best of our ability, throughout our lives in choosing right from wrong. Lastly, we need to endure to the end in righteousness. I just realized that sounds a lot like the fourth Article of Faith. An interesting thing - in Spanish, 'Endure to the end' is translated as 'presevarar hasta el fin' (Spanish 'Preach my Gospel', p. 1). Translated directly, it means persevere to, or unto, the end. So it's not just enduring, but persevering in doing what's right. Just an interesting translation, I thought.

Well, I am really out of time. I hope everything continues to go well with everyone! God bless and take care of yourselves!!

Sincerely,

Elder David Watson