Christmas in Texas

I had a wonderful Texan Christmas. This time of year has been an excellent time to talk about Jesus Christ and what Heavenly Father's gift to us really meant for us.

We've seen a lot of wonderful miracles in the last couple weeks. One person we found, we started teaching him about God's love for us, expecting to teach him all about the restoration of the gospel, but instead he told us about how stressed he was because his his wife just had twins and he's been out of work for a couple months. He said he feels like God is punishing him for some mistakes he's made and his whole family is paying for it. As we taught him that there was a way out though Jesus Christ, he started to cry. Instead of teaching him about the Book of Mormon, or Prophets, or Revelation, we taught the ordinance of Baptism and what it would mean for him to receive that. He said he'd like that very much.

Today's Youth

I really love working with youth. Two weeks ago I talked about 15 year-old Zach Hunt, and last week the baptism of 12 year-old Carmelita. Both of which are still doing great, by the way, they love learning about the gospel and are doing all they can to follow Christ. We are also teaching another 15 year-old, who is good friends with a member. His name is José Perez. We've met with José a number of times at his friend's house, and he even came to church with his friend last week.

All of these wonderful young Christians have a similar stumbling block, and that is a huge lack of parental support when it comes to the gospel. It even seems like with each of these, their parents have issues with the church. Obviously, we try not to teach these people behind their parent's back, but while they have permission to meet with us, their parents don't seem to want anything to do with it. Yesterday, both Zach and José woke up and got ready to come to church, only to be denied permission by their parents. We wondered what kind of a reaction they would have after having their righteous decisions put down by their parents. To our surprise, their faith was unwavering. They both said they would continue to convince their parents to let them come to church, and asked when we could meet again to discuss the gospel. They both said that they would like to be baptized should their parents allow them to.

Many people have said that they are scared for today's children because of the evil in the world, but I'm not. I know that the elect of today's youth are stronger than ever before.

With love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Here's a picture of Ruthie Goode's baptism in Will's Point. Elder Twitchell and I began teaching her in September, and in September helped her set a goal to be baptized in December. It was a lot of fun teaching her. She was baptized by her husband, an awesome member of the ward.

And here's a couple pictures that were sent to me by a kind member who took the missionaries out for Texas barbeque:

Carmelita

Hey Y'all!

We have had a good week. Carmelita Quintanilla was baptized and confirmed. She is 12 years old, and her mom is a member of the church, but hasn't been in years. Carmelita has a 22 year-old sister named Marlen. Marlen was very active growing up. She went to church and to young women's all the time, but when Marlen was 19, she moved to Mexico with her fiance. She stayed active in the church in Mexico, even though she mostly had to go to church alone. She recently moved back and began going to church with Carmelita.

While she was gone, missionaries had been working with Carmelita, who really wanted to be baptized ever since she was nine. The problem had always been that it was difficult for her mom to get her active. When her sister returned, the game changed for Carmelita, who had the opportunity to prepare for baptism, even though her mom still struggled to become active. Carmelita was so excited to be baptized. Even though she is young. She had been waiting for it for years. It was special to see how happy she was to finally be able to follow Christ through baptism.

Love y'all!
Elder Stephen Watts

P.S. also photographed is Elder Sutton and Elder Anderson, the AP's, who both served in Sherman earlier this year.

Zach

Hey y'all!

So far I've been loving my new area and new companion. We have had a crazy week, but a good week.

I'll share a cool story about one of the people we're teaching. Zach is 15 years old and 6'5". His Dad is from Panama and his mom is African-American. Everyone at school likes him, but he really only has one good friend: a boy in the Van Alstyne ward named Caleb. According to Zach, Caleb is the only real Christian at school, so that's why he likes being friends with him. Because Zach admired Caleb's virtue, he decided to go online and order his free Book of Mormon to learn more. Elder Isaacson received his request a little before I got here and had taught him about the restoration. We had a short Skype lesson with him during the week, then on Sunday we had dinner with Caleb's family and Zach.

Together with Caleb's family, we taught about the plan of Salvation. Zach asked the best questions I've ever heard a 15 year-old ask, including "how can I find strength to be a Christian when everyone around me makes it un-cool?" And, "how can I teach people to be better Christians?" At the end of the lesson, we invited Zach to be baptized if he knew what we were teaching is true. He agreed.

Love y'all!

Elder Stephen Watts

P.S. I don't have any pictures yet with Elder Isaacson, but I'll attach some from my last couple days with Elder Curtis. People pictured are Ashley and the Sproul family, for those who have been following stories.

The Sproul Family was Baptized in December