The Elect

Hey friends and family!

What a pleasure it has been to be a missionary in this place, at this time. Our task as missionaries is to find the elect, and help them come unto Christ. Doctrine and Covenants defines the elect as those that hear the word of God, and harden not their hearts. I always thought that meant that the elect were those that accept everything we teach, keep all their commitments, and are baptized in 2 weeks. I have since learned that that is not at all a good stereotype of an elect child of God. A better stereotype of an elect would be someone who marches onward despite everything that Satan throws their way. 

Take Margarita for example, she left her to-be husband in order to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. Her daughter, Liseth, has demonstrated the same kind of incredible faith. Her to-be husband comes from a very Catholic family. They showed her every anti-Mormon video they could find on YouTube and urged her to stop talking with us. She told us that she will not worry about the content of those videos because she knows that she feels the spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon and does not feel the spirit when she watches those videos. 

Liseth's brother, Duban was baptized last Saturday. Liseth, after pleading with her to-be husband many times, has finally convinced him to marry her so that she can be baptized, and so that she can present their baby in sacrament meeting. 

Another miracle for your week is that an investigator named Oswald found his way to church on his own last Sunday. I had never before seen the man, but when I saw him wandering outside the church doors, I invited him to come in. He accepted, but later confided in me that that very morning he was contemplating suicide. He told me that he felt like it was a good decision to go to our church instead. I instantly referred him to the bishop, who talked with him for a while in his office, and gave a priesthood blessing. He told me that he would love it if we could come to his house and teach him more about what we believe in our church. We're hoping to see some positive changes in his life these coming weeks, maybe even a baptism.

I love you all, hope you have a great week!

Elder Stephen Watts

Duban's baptism

Margarita

Hey all!

It's been a difficult week due to the need to clean out a long list of investigators that weren't progressing and find new ones, but we're feeling pretty good about a lot of the new investigators we're finding. Elder Pocasangre and I survived changes (transfers), which is definitely a blessing. 

Elder Pocasangre got sick on Saturday, and was still sick on Sunday, so we unfortunately had to stay in those days, with the exception of church and a few super-important appointments. On Sunday we were teaching gospel principles and I was explaining that everyone on earth, brown/white, male/female is made in the image of God. Margarita raised her hand and said, "Aye me disculpe, hermano, pero ¿como es que todos son hecho en la imagen de Dios cuando algunas personas son feas?" (Um, excuse me brother, but how is it that everyone is created in the image of God when some people are ugly?) 

She is doing well though, we are going to baptize her 9 year-old son this Saturday. Her other daughter also wishes to be baptized, but has to marry the guy that she's been living with first. The guy is a little anti-Mormon, but said that as long as they get married in the Catholic church, he's fine with it. We of course explained that it was not a problem if they had a Catholic wedding, and later the Mormon baptism. 

In other news, I finished 6 months here and it has felt like the fastest 6 months of my life. 

President Monson's death has been at the forefront of our minds, but I know he's in a better place now, and that the church is still being watched over and led by God. 

Sending my love!
Elder Stephen Watts

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

One of the new year traditions here is to make a giant doll that looks like an old man, to symbolize the old year. Then load it with all sorts of super-safe (illegal) explosives, pour alcohol, and light him up at midnight. I am really, really sad that I don't have pictures of the dolls, they were way fun. Of course, I didn't get to see them light up, we had to be in the house like usual, but someone showed me a video and it was pretty cool. 

Christmas was also pretty bizarre here, the custom is to go out for Christmas. They had a giant carnival, and various parties. Pretty different from the typical, stay in the house with your family Christmas that I'm used to.

Everyone has been asking about Margarita, so I guess I'll tell... She was baptized last Saturday!!!!! If you do not remember Margarita, refer to last week's blog. I would say that her conversion was the most miraculous that I've seen thus far in my mission. We have begun teaching the gospel to one of her daughters and son-in-law. She has 7 children, the youngest being 5, the oldest being 26. The goal is that all of her children can be baptized :) 

I don't know if I ever told you guys about the farming family that we found that live a good distance from the town. Three weeks ago we baptized the family grandma (Kathia - refer to Dec 20th post). The rest of the family just returned from a trip to the touristy island of Ometepe where they went to sell explosives to the tourists for New Years. They told me that they brought with them a box filled with each of their Book of Mormons and Bibles to "protect them from harm" while they prepared for their baptism later this month. 

Enjoy photos from the baptism and our P-day adventure.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Margarita's Baptism

Christmas Miracle

Christmas as a missionary was a really special experience. What better way to remember the life of Christ than to serve as he would serve? I hope you guys also had wonderful Christmases with your families! Among the blessings I recieved Christmas day was eating Christmas dinner 3 times because the members here make it difficult to say no.

I also witnessed a Christmas miracle in my investigator Margarita. She had a desire to be baptized from the moment we first began teaching her, but she was living with her boyfriend. We explained the law of chastity and told her that she would have to marry him before she is baptized. She said that wouldn't be a problem, and we were workinig with the relief society president to plan a nice wedding for her on January 13th. On Friday, her boyfriend decided that he did not like that idea. He told her: "It's me, or religion." She said, "Fine, I choose Christ. Bye." 

She came to church on Sunday in a very similar situation that Jesus was in when he was born: rejected and homeless. When sacrament meeting was finished, she tracked down the bishop and asked him if she could be baptized if she was living single. He told her of course. It wasn't until that afternoon that we learned about the situation. I asked her if she had a place to spend Christmas eve, and she said no. So we arranged for her and her two children to spend the holiday with the relief society president and her family. She later found housing with one of her older daughters and her husband. Her faith through all of this has been absolutely incredible. We are very excited for her to be baptized shortly.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Since we didn't receive any pictures this week, I'm adding one from our Christmas day Skype call.

Merry Christmas!

Hey all! 

For those that will not be skyping me, Merry Christmas! 

Yesterday, in the midst of the heat, rain, and overabundance of appointments, I forgot that Christmas was only a week away. Not saying I miss the cold, it's just weird celebrating without it. 

 
Miracle this week: Kathia got baptized. I really wanted to baptize her whole family, but this is the way they wanted it. It's a small blessing that she went before her family because now she is telling them how awesome it is. I'm hoping that they can all unite in faith shortly. 

We found Kathia's family by happenstance. We were waiting outside the chapel for the Ward Secretary, to give him the baptism record of Edwin, about a month ago. It began to rain, and, because we don't have keys to the church, we found shelter across the street in the police station. They were there taking care of some legal stuff. We got to talking a little bit, and they invited us to go to their house to teach them. They live in the very most extremity of our area, and it's a twenty minute bus ride to and from their house, but I'm glad we've been making it work because they are a golden family. It just goes to show that you never know when will be your opportunity to make a difference in someone's life. 

I wish I had more cool stories to tell, but this will have to suffice for now.

Love you all,
Elder Stephen Watts

Kathia's Baptism

Coco

Hey all!

It's pretty weird celebrating the Holidays in the heat. Not even kidding, try singing Christmas carols while the suns beating on you. It's just not right. People started freaking out because it hit 19 degrees Celsius here one night (66 degrees F). They started saying it was going to snow because it was the coldest Nicaragua had seen in years. I did not feel cold at all. 

This weekend we baptized a young man named Coco. Well, his name's Danny, but everyone calls him Coco. He received the lessons from the missionaries in September, while the missionaries re-activated one of his friends and baptized another. He just never progressed and the missionaries kinda moved on. One time I caught him playing soccer at the church and just said, hey, why don't you join your friend and be baptized? He said O.K. but in his own time. He came to church, and so I said, well, why not next week? He said naw, but came to church again. So, again I said, why not now? He said no. Then his friend (has 3 months as a member) shared an incredible testimony, and got him excited for baptism. It was awesome!

We also begun teaching this lady named Margarita. Her son, Eliut, was baptized in October, the week before I got here. Eliut, however, lives with his dad, so I don't think the missionaries ever knew his mom. Anyway, Eliut was depressed and gay before he knew the missionaries. He legit talked like a girl the first time I talked to him. Now, he has changed completely. He smiles a lot. He talks like a man. He has good friends in the church. The change is incredible. His mom, my second time talking with her, said she was impressed and very happy with how much joy Eliut has found in the gospel. Before we had the chance to invite her to be baptized, she straight up told us she wants to be baptized because of the blessings she's seen her son receive. It's pretty incredible how the gospel works.

Enjoy photos from the baptism and a P-day trip to Volcán Masaya!

Coco's Baptism

Christmas Devotional

Well, our mission president promised us that if we are obedient and diligent, we will see miracles. He challenged us to always focus on the miracles. One miracle I saw this past week was the miracle of the Christmas devotional. It started Sunday morning with two phone calls. Both from investigators, both saying they would not be able to make it to church that Sunday. When sacrament meeting began, there were zero investigators in church. The last time I showed up to church with zero investigators was in September with a companion that could hardly walk. Miraculously, 1 investigator showed up late, so at least I didn't have to report 0, but it was still a pretty sad church meeting. 

I decided that one thing I could do to help my investigators (and myself) atone for that, was bringing them to the Christmas devotional. I had not previously invited anyone to the Christmas devotional, and had almost forgotten it existed. I began to call every investigator, and pass by their houses to invite them to the Devo. 10 were able to make it, along with only 14 of the members. While I was still sad that they couldn't make it to church, it was just what I needed to see the sacrament room full of the people I had been teaching. 

Sorry, no pictures this week :(
Love you all!
Elder Stephen Watts