Elder Pocasangre

Elder Watts & Elder Pocasangre

Well, I guess Elder Henriquez and I were too killer of a combo that they decided one change was enough. The honest truth is, I was not getting along well with him at the beginning, but by the end of the change, he'd become like an old friend to me. We were working incredibly, sometimes literally running from appointment to appointment to fit them all in. I feel a little bad because I am surely about to baptize a bunch of the people that I taught with Elder Henriquez, that he won't be able to see, but I guess that's the mission.

I get the privilege of staying here in the Concha (nickname for La Concepción), but with the assignment of training a brand new missionary! I'm way excited. Today was his first day in Nicaragua. He is also from El Salvador, his name is Elder Pocasangre. He is the first ever missionary in his family, and has been a little timid, maybe because that's his personality, or maybe because he's scared to death to be here. Either way, I'm hoping to help him love the mission as much as I love it. 

Daniela

Last Saturday, Elder Henriquez and I shared one last baptism: Daniela, 10 years old, way excited to be a member. Her mother is a less-active member, and her brother is a recently re-activated member, who has now presented us to some of his friends to teach them. The family has been an awesome fountain of missionary work.

Sunday was stake conference, and I was worried that because it is like a 45 minute trip out there, that we would have trouble bringing investigators, but the Lord provided means whereby 7 of our investigators could be transported in the vehicles of members! It was beautiful to have them all there. 

Much Love,

Elder Stephen Watts

Fantastic Week

​​Hey all!

I attached a butt-load of pictures, hope they get through! It's been a fantastic week :) We baptised again: Brenda, a 15 year-old girl who we had been teaching for three weeks, but she had been consistantly unable to come to church. We decided that one thing that might help is if she didn't have to go alone, so we decided to have a Saturday night FHE with a favorite family in the ward, and arranged for another 15 year old girl to walk Brenda to church the next day. Of course it worked, so families beware: FHE is now a Monday night and whenever the missionaries tell you to event. From there, Brenda and the awsome young woman (named Stefani) began to be best friends. Last Sunday they wanted the count of how many young women were going to youth conference, so of course we got her baptised as fast as we could so she could be part of that count. All it took was asking special permision from our mission president since the norm is that investigators have to have at least two Sundays in church before they are baptised.

Remember Cecilia from my last area? She is the mother of Flavia (the first person I baptised). She received her testimony of continued revelations from watching general conference with us and began to be a regular in church, but for whatever reason insisted on waiting to be baptised. Monday, I got a call from her. She said that she was going to be baptised the next day, on her birthday. She asked if there was any way I could attend, and perform the baptim. Of course I begged for permision, but was denied. Nonetheless, I could harldly contain my joy that she was baptised. She said she was planning a trip to the Concha to visit me :) 

Today, we went on another rain foresting adventure (hence the photos). I freaking love it here, Nicaragua is gorgeous. I'm going to be pretty sad when I have to leave.

That's all for now, love you guys!
Elder Stephen Watts

Brenda

The best district (and their "Mama's" son - the woman who cooks, cleans, and does laundry for them)

Humanitarian Project

It was a hard week as we endured yet another lost baptism. The day was set, the interview passed for Claudia, who is now 4 chapters away from finishing the Book of Mormon, when her parents forbid her baptism. While she is 21 years, and doesn't technically need her parent's permission, it is always good to honor your father and mother. Claudia was in tears, as she told us that it was not going to work to be baptized this week, but informed us that she still planned on being baptized eventually. We had an appointment to speak with her parents and explain that we don't worship Joseph Smith, but her parents decided to take off running, so... that's where we're at.

The worse news was Edwin (15 years old, who went AWOL the day of his baptism three weeks ago) decided he wanted to be baptized, and apologized for running. We scheduled an interview for him, on Tuesday, the District Leader showed, but Edwin did not. We were beginning to give up hope. Then, out of the blue, Edwin came asking when he can have that interview, and apologized for not being around Tuesday. We scheduled another interview for Friday. He interviewed and was baptized Saturday :)

The background information that we did not know, was that while his mother gave him permission (and signed for him) to be baptised, his father was very opposed to the idea. His mother told us after the baptism that his father finally folded because Edwin had changed a ton. He had stopped bullying his younger sister. He had started telling his mom where he was going when he left the house. He had started coming home earlier. It is a beautiful thing how the gospel really does change lives. Edwin was able to be baptised by a good friend of his, Irving, that often accompanied us when we taught him. 

Sunday, church was invaded by nearly 100 Americans that had come to do dental work for future missionaries. It was fun to talk some English and all that, but they were pretty awesome. After the meeting, they surprised the ward with all sorts of gifts: blankets, soap, soccer balls, ties, jewelry, candy, backpacks, school supplies, and who knows what else. The greatest gift by far, was they took each family in front of the church, and took a photo, printed, and framed it. The moms were soooo excited to put their family photos on the walls of their homes. It was great.

I love you all!
Enjoy the photos from the baptism and our stellar district :)

Elder Stephen Watts

Edwin's batism

The district

A couple members of the group who were there for the humanitarian project took pictures of Elder Watts and sent them to us.  What a fun surprise for us!  Here are the pictures we received:

Dragon Fruit in the Rain Forest

Since I ran out of time for the blog last week, I figured I'd go ahead an write it first thing this week. 

We've had the opportunity to work with some pretty incredible investigators recently. First, I want to tell you about Claudia. She met the missionaries for the first time months ago. She was very Catholic at the time, but agreed to begin reading the Book of Mormon. Her book is probably the most beautiful book I've seen. Every page has highlighter and pen markings, along with 2-6 sticky notes with things she liked and questions she had. She is currently in the book of Helaman. She decided to be baptized this Saturday :) I can't wait. We've been meeting with her nearly every day for the past few weeks, and she might be about the coolest investigator of all time here in Nicaragua. 

Last week, we met a man named Oscar and taught him about the Restoration and Book of Mormon and in 1 week, he read up until the book of Ether! Crazy how white the field is :)

We had a Zone meeting last Tuesday and President presented a new plan of action for missionary work here that consists of working almost solely with partial families and member references. When we presented the plan to the ward, we received an over-abundance of references for inactive families that are incomplete (some family members never baptized). I'm pretty excited to get working with them. Reactivating and baptizing at the same time sounds pretty great, huh?

Also, we were told that a good thing to do would be to start playing basketball and soccer with the youth and our investigators, so I get to ball 3 days a week :D

Today, we taxied, hiked, hitchhiked, and hiked some more to do some rain forest adventuring.  Attached are some mountain views from this gorgeous area and some monkeys we found. The fruit we're enjoying (that we found) is Pitaya or Dragon Fruit. Wayy good. The butterfly had about a foot-long wingspan, and its wings were bright blue inside.

Love you all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Halloween

Hey all,

I really don't have time for a blog this week, just know that I love you all. This area's continued to be quite the challenge for me, but it's been a good refinement of my faith. This week went wayy smoother than the last and I'm looking forward to an even better week next week! Here's a photo of my district, I'm hoping somehow Mom can get a hold of the picture taken of the whole zone at our Halloween Party earlier this morning. 

Much Love!
Elder Stephen Watts

Zone Picture