Arriving in Texas

Adjusting to life in the Dallas Texas Mission has been more smooth and manageable than I had ever imagined. I have come to know that the Lord's angels have rallied around me in this critical time that may be the most difficult I have had to face thus far in my mission. I spent my first week here with the AP's: Elder Morgan from Montana, and Elder Summers from Utah. They were the best companions and teachers I could've asked for, however, as it was the last week of the transfer, so they spent hours in transfer meetings with President Dalton, while I got to be a bike missionary with Elder Tornow and Elder Hogg. It was a blast, even though the bike they let me borrow was an old child-size from Wal-Mart. It was all English, which was really difficult at first and, well, it's still difficult at times, but we found a family from Colombia and taught them and it was a ton of fun, especially since both of the AP's were former Spanish speakers.

Now I am serving in the Wills Point Ward, which covers the small towns of Wills Point, Grand Saline, Vann, Canton and the surrounding areas. It is an English area, but my companion is a former Spanish speaker and we are working toward making it a bilingual area. We have a great start with a Spanish baptism planned for Saturday, and 2 more familias where not everyone speaks English. There is a ton of Spanish work to be done here. I got to translate sacrament meeting yesterday with the fancy headsets and everything. It was pretty rough, but everyone claimed to have understood me.

My companion's name is Elder Bushman and he's from Logan Utah. He is on his last transfer. We are serving as Zone Leaders over every missionary in the Longview and the Tyler stakes. We are also district leaders in a district that includes us and two companionships of sister missionaries. There are 15 companionships in our zone. President Dalton called me last Sunday night to explain that I would be a zone leader and ask how I felt about it. I was pretty stunned, but I told him that I felt I could handle it if that's the revelation he received. It's a pretty special learning opportunity to be thrown in the deep end. I hope I can trust in the whispering of the Holy Ghost to help me fulfill this assignment.

With love,

Elder Stephen Watts

Elder Watts with Elder Morgan and Elder Summers

President and Sister Dalton

Eleven missionaries from the Nicaragua Managua North Mission arrived with Elder Watts (he was the only one from the South) and then 15 new missionaries arrived the following week.  This picture includes both groups.

Elder Bushman and Elder Watts

This picture and the next were texted to me by members in Texas 

First week in Texas