Coming Home

Small World

Elder Watts was at a member's home on Father's day when their missionary son called from New York. Stephen asked whether he knew Elder Ross, and he said something to the effect of, "Yeah, he's right here." So fun for these cousins to get to see each other!

Rain Miracles

Hey y'all! 

Here is a cool experience from the week.

We were biking in sideways rain in a crazy storm. The storm hit us so suddenly that we had no time to even think about waiting it out, we just biked right through. Our appointment was a few miles away and we arrived at exactly the same time as our appointment was getting home from work. We taught a great restoration lesson to a husband and wife. Later, the wife told us that her husband had been hesitant to visit our church because he perceived it to be a church with a bunch of rich and prideful people. When he saw us biking to his house in a crazy storm, his whole perspective changed, and his heart softened just enough so that the Spirit could teach him that our message was true, and important for him.

Love,

Elder Stephen H Watts

Memorial Day picnic at a member's home

Temple Trip

Hey y'all!

Haven't done a weekly in a while, but things have been pretty great lately. Last Friday, we had a temple trip with the ward. Four recent converts were present, doing baptisms, one of which was Juan Barrientos, who we taught and baptized just last month. Juan was baptized for both of his grandpa's, which was sweet. He loved it. 

We started teaching a young single mother named Jenny. Her mom, Reyna Canisalez was baptized 1 month ago. Jenny moved in to live with her mom after her baptism. She admires her mom making changes in her life and is very curious. She told us that she really wants to go back to church, and that she would like to prepare to be baptized in June.

Love y'all 

Elder Watts

Elder Watts taught his zone how to make pupusas.

La Semana Santa

It has been an incredible week, as we remembered the events in Christ's life leading up to his atonement. Missionaries in our zone prepared 5 people to enter into the waters of baptism. Two of those were people that Elder Davis and I have been teaching. The ordinance of baptism is itself a symbol of death and resurrection. The people that we taught, Juan and Reyna, have both been so prepared to receive the gospel:

Reyna Canisalez has been taught for a few months. The missionaries found her by knocking into her. While she has been taking the lessons, she has also been working on becoming a citizen and the week of her baptism, the immigration found a record of hers that was forged by her ex-husband which says she was born in Guatemala. She has her birth certificate from El Salvador, though she did live in Guatemala for a couple years. She was stressed the whole week about what immigration would do about the false record, and she was very nervous about her baptism. When we went by a few hours after her baptism, she told us with a huge smile on her face how completely peaceful she had felt ever since the baptism took place and how great she feels.

Juan Barrientos first met missionaries in Arkansas 3 years ago. From the time Elder Davis and I met him until now he has been so ready for this long-prolonged ordinance. He didn't have any challenges as we taught him, but just 6 months before we taught him, he had gotten an eye infection that made him completely blind. He was blind for 3 months of his life, but through a miracle, a doctor was able to operate on him and restore his sight. That was a sign for Juan that God had preserved his sight so that he could finally receive the ordinances of the gospel.

I love y'all
Elder Watts

Everyone in the picture is a missionary besides the ones in White and President Larson (stake president) and President Dalton (our mission president) in the suits in the back. From left to right, the people in white are: Edgar, new member in the Casa Linda ward; Reyna, new convert in the Río Trinidad ward; Hermano DeLa Torre who baptized Juan; Juan, new member in the Río Trinidad ward; Hermano Echeverria who baptized Reyna; and the brother who baptized Edgar. 

The other two baptisms were done in separate baptismal services.

Flight Plans

I know it's still a couple of months away, but we received Stephen's travel itinerary today, and I thought I'd share.  He will arrive at the Reno airport at 1:39 pm on Wednesday, June 26th.  He will be speaking in church the following Sunday, June 30th, at 12 pm.  All are invited.  

The District

Brother Klein Often Helped Drive Missionaries Places

Juan

Zone Lunch With President as a Reward for Breaking the Zone Record for Baptisms

Pictures!

At the Dallas Temple with Katrina

She was baptized for her grandmother!  So special!

Zone Breakfast

District Picture

A Miracle

A miracle we saw this week was with a lady in the ward, Sister Rushing. She was admitted into the ER, then spent 3 days in the hospital for a drug overdose that would have killed her. We have a good relationship with this sister because she and her daughters are returning members and she likes to feed us, so we can teach her children and help them build their testimonies. She asked us to come to the hospital to give her a blessing. In the blessing I was prompted to bless her to walk out of the hospital on her own feet. She did on Friday, without any assistance. And on Sunday she walked to church without any assistance. She had felt inspired after God had saved her life to call her niece and her son, neither of which were members. They both came to church with her, and asked us to give them blessings as well, because they knew we had the power of God. We have an appointment to teach them the restoration tonight.

Love y'all!
Elder Watts

Knocking Doors

It has been a great week. We met Tomi and her mom, Geena, knocking doors. They told us we could come back and share a message in a couple days. When we came back, they immediately invited us in. They shared with us that they have been having a hard time trusting in God because of some mistakes they made in the past, and some of the actions taken by a church that they used to attend. We addressed their concerns, and went on to present the Restoration of the Gospel. They loved it. That very night they stayed up late reading the Book of Mormon. They texted us to thank us, and to tell us that they had already learned so much from the book and that they knew what we had taught then was true.

In other news, Katrina got her limited-use temple recommend! We are so excited, and we will probably go to the temple with her next week, since she is working a lot this week.

Love y'all!

Elder Stephen Watts

Baptisms

We had an awesome baptism service this week for Julio of the Durrant Ward and Katrina from the Sherman 1st Ward. It was so fun, every missionary in the zone came to support them, many of them brought people they were teaching to watch. It was definitely one of the greatest baptism services I've ever been a part of. I did a side-by-side Spanish translation, which was tough, but fun.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Family History

There are too many incredible stories to share this week. 9 different people that we have been teaching were able to attend church. I'll talk about just one of them.

Katrina Miller first met the missionaries a year ago, and has been working with them off and on this entire year. She has the Spirit of Elijah, and is very familiar with all of the family history online tools. She asked us to teach her why members of the church are so interested in family history work. We taught a very powerful Plan of Salvation lesson and thoroughly explained the redemption of the dead. She said she felt like her dead ancestors were speaking to her from the other side. She said that over the past two weeks she has been thinking a lot on whether or not she wants to be baptized. After we taught the plan of Salvation, she knew it was right. She said she wanted to be baptized when her cousin came into town, which just so happened to be the week of the 16th. Her cousin is a member and has been giving her a ton of support. She came to church yesterday for the first time ever and said that she knew her decision to be baptized was the right one.

I love y'all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Investigators Fellowshipping

One miracle we have seen this week was with two street contacts. One, was a 19 year-old named Samuel who had prayed to know how to handle his homosexual feelings. When he met us, we explained that it wasn't a sin to feel that way, only a sin to act in that path. We explained that Christ's atonement was there, and he offers us the gift of a new heart. He told us we were an answer to his prayer. Later, we talked to Amanda and helped her unload some materials from the bed of her truck and gave her a church invitation. When Amanda met Samuel at church she said: "is this your first time here?" "Yes" "it's my first time, too. Are you going to come back?" "Yeah" "me too, see you next week!" There is nothing cooler than investigators fellowshipping investigators.

Pass Along Card

This week, we gave a pass-along card to a man named Paul. He informed us that he was Catholic and he probably wasn't interested, so we gave him the card and told him to go to the website if he ever wanted to contact us. Not two days later, we received a referral from the online missionaries, it was Paul. It turns out that he had a real need in his life. He had been having nightmares and said he feels surrounded by evil spirits. He also had a fiancee who was Christian, but not too happy with her church and looking for another one. She was also experiencing frequent nightmares. Paul somehow decided that maybe we could help. We went over and taught the restoration. As we were teaching, the thought came to me that we needed to give them a blessing to help them sleep better and help them build their testimony in priesthood power. As I was wondering if the thought came from God, or was my own, Paul's fiancee, Kat, got up off the couch, got a kitchen chair, put it in the middle of the floor, and sat in it. So, we gave the blessing and ever since they have been able to sleep fine, without nightmares, and they have been reading the Book of Mormon, and they should be with us at church this Sunday.

Felisha and Jordan, the people we met last week, were able to come to church yesterday, and they loved it! They said they'd be back, and they are planning to be baptized in February.

It has been an awesome first week with Elder Richards. Attached is a picture of him with our investigator's pet raccoon.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

New Companion

We had a conference last Saturday with Elder Teixeira and Elder Ochoa from the Seventy, and Elder Jones who is an area seventy. It was a really cool meeting, and yesterday Elder Teixeira was present at a special stake conference that we had.

Tomorrow is transfer day. Elder Isaacson is being sent to Quitman TX, and I will stay in my present area with my present assignment. My new companion will be Elder Richards, who I know well. He's an awesome missionary, so I'm excited.

We have received six referrals this week from Salt Lake, which in itself is a tender mercy as we set out this week with a very high goal of finding a lot of new people, which we were able to accomplish with the help of those referrals. One of the referrals was for a family of three that had made a promise that if God would keep them together until 2019, they would go to church. They didn't know what church they wanted to go to, and as they were looking around, God lead them to request a free bible from Mormon.org. When we went by to deliver the bible, we offered to share a message, they accepted and were very interested and excited as we talked about the restoration of Christ's church. At the end, they promised to begin reading the Book of Mormon and come to church, and even be baptized if they felt like that was the right move for them.

I love y'all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Here's a possum we found tracting.

Juan Feeds Every Missionary in the District

Mountain biking today for P-day

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

Sherman, TX

It is a good feeling when your last week in an area is your best one. We set a handful of baptismal dates and had 7 investigators come to church, 6 of those having a tentative December baptism scheduled. What better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ than by following his example and joining his church?

One of the people we began teaching is an 18 year-old young man named Joseph Rollins. He was adopted into the family in which he currently lives. He found out that one of his brothers who lives elsewhere in Texas had joined the church, and he was curious to learn more. Joseph loves history and was very interested when we explained the great apostasy and the formation of religions as we know them today.

As we neared the end of the lesson, the Spirit was very strong and we invited him to be baptized and he said he would. We challenged him to prepare for a baptism on the 22nd of December and he said he would. He came to church and seemed to really love it!

Tomorrow I will be transferred to a town called Sherman; it's about an hour North of the Dallas suburbs, and not far from the Oklahoma-Texas border. I will serve in the Sherman 1st ward and the Van Alstyne ward. I will serve as a zone leader over all the missionaries in the Sherman, Shawnee Trails, and Frisco stakes. My new companion's name will be Elder Isaacson, but I don't know much about him yet. The area is a bilingual area- there's not a Spanish branch yet, but there's a Spanish group, which means they meet together with an English ward, but have their own Sunday School class in Spanish. I was kinda hoping for a real Spanish area, but I guess I'll take what I can get. All things considered I'm very excited for this transfer!

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Our district (before transfers)