New Companion

Elder Watts y Elder Cardona

 So, update on the emergency changes I had last Wednesday: my first dad (trainer) Elder Cardona is not going home to Guatemala, he is hanging at the AP's house with an elder who had his appendix removed recently as they both recover. My new Dad's name is Elder Solis. He is from El Salvador, and like Elder Cardona, doesn't speak any English. He goes home the first week of January, and is pretty sure I'm going to kill him. That would be pretty sweet, because he is a hardworking missionary and, though I liked Cardona, the area's seen a nice increase in success since Solis got here.

Elder Solis y Elder Watts

With Elder Solis, we found and began teaching the coolest family I've taught thus far in my mission. There are six of them (4 kids, 2 parents) and with the exception of their youngest son who is just 3 years old, everyone listened intently, asked questions, and responded well to the questions we asked them. When we returned, we were delighted to find that the dad and the oldest daughter had read the Book of Mormon, making them the first investigators I've had that actually read the first time I've invited them to do so. I was way excited!

Love you all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Answers to some of the questions we asked:

At McDonald's in Managua

Last week he thought he was getting a Nicaraguan companion who was visa waiting.  Here's his response as to what happened:

President called an audible and sent me Elder Solis, instead of the other Elder, which would have made sense because he was loosing his companion at the same time. So, instead of a 2 companionship switch, we had a complicated 4 companionship switch.  But I'm not complaining, I like Elder Solis, and the fact that I don't have to be senior companion in my training.  

I didn't know what an "audible" was, so I asked.

Audible is a football term for when you switch plays at the last minute, ie, after the huddle, before the snap, you yell out new instructions based on the defense.

Tell us about Elder Solis:

My new companion is a convert, but neither of his parents converted, only him, along with his older brother who also served a mission in the D.R. and his younger sister. He was only 3 years a member when he left for his mission.

After telling me how he'd been stomach sick yesterday, he added this comment:

I have begun to realize that every drink anyone gives me here (with the exception of coca cola) is made with the city water. Literally no one here drinks purified water, so I'm beginning to embrace it, as it is my only option. Also, I realized that I'm crazy blessed to be in a house that has water all the time because about 75 percent of the houses here don't. Typically, a house will have a number of giant drums filled with water outside their house that they use for everything. Luckily, most of them are careful to get their drinking water when they have water so we're not drinking out of those gnarly drums. In some cases, the water comes on so rarely that they just leave a faucet over the drums open all the time and the drum never overflows.