We Had Divisions Last Week

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

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

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!

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.

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

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

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