Door Number 101

On Saturday, as we were leaving the apartment, Elder Bushman looked at me and asked, "how many doors do you think we can knock today?" Counting door knocks was something we'd never done before. I considered that we had about 5 planned lessons to teach, and told him maybe 30 or 40 doors. He said that he wanted to go crazy, so we decided to knock 50 doors (later we learned that 50 doors is about two hours worth of knocking doors). When we got to companionship study, we began with a prayer, and Elder Bushman, being a little sleepy, asked God to help us knock 100 doors. That's when we decided we might just go for it. Anyway, we challenged the zone to go door-knocking crazy with us, with a little deal that whoever knocked the least amount of doors would make everyone breakfast on P-day. 

Anyway, we knocked and knocked and knocked that day. It was sunny, 102°F and humid, but really not too miserable. We had to get to our last lesson at 8:30 and it was about 8:00 when we had 87 doors knocked. So we were literally running from door to door trying to get that 100 number. Through it all we had found just 5 people that were interested, and just 1 maybe 2 that we felt could progress. It was 8:34 when we hit that door number 100 (so we're already a little late to the lesson) and Elder Bushman and I just looked at each other, and in unison, said, "We've got to get one more." So we did. Door number 101 made all the other doors worth it. Inside was a young family: mother, father, and a 3-year-old boy. The mother explained at the door that they don't go to a church because her husband doesn't speak any English, and the Spanish church down the street doesn't have a nursery for kids. We quickly switched to Spanish mode, and impressed her with our skill set. Her husband came running to the door to see if it was really possible that two Americans could speak such good Spanish, and if there really existed a church that was run in both Spanish and English and had a nursery for kids. They invited us to come back and share our message with them.

Thus sayeth the Lord: "for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." (Ether 12:6) Miracles are often times seen after great sacrifice is made. I believe that in God's perfect planning, of course it's always going to be the last door, the end of the night, after we've been tempted to give up and we still push through, that we can see the greatest miracles. I encourage you all to keep on going throughout all of the hard times in your lives, past the point of wanting to quit, until you can rest in the mercies of Him who is always in control.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Rolling down the highway

So, one cool experience we had this week was finding a guy named Kenneth. We found him rolling around in a motorized wheelchair outside his apartment. He was coming home from the store or something like that, and he let us come in and teach him a little. He lives like a quarter mile from the church, but the road he'd have to take to get there is a highway and there's a bend that the cars come flying around. He said he'd go, but was nervous to take his wheelchair down that highway. We offered to walk over along side him so we'd be more visible for the cars and he loved that idea. His exact words were "wow, I'm impressed with you guys." Anyway, he rolled into church and could only stay for the sacrament, but he loved it! He is a genius, but has muscular dystrophy that binds him to the chair. He also read 10 chapters of Nephi in between Thursday when we found him, and Sunday when he came to church.

Sorry for the short weekly, I love y'all,
Elder Stephen Watts

P-day hike with some of the zone

Good Week

It was a really good week this week, and it's hard to believe the transfer is already half-over. My companion is getting a little trunky in the sense that he talks about going home a bunch, but he definitely hasn't been any less diligent in the work. We had a couple neat experiences. First, was teaching a 19 year-old young man named Jonathan. We found him while trying to track down his aunt, who was a former investigator. We still haven't found the aunt, and Jonathan isn't very confident that she's wanting to meet with us at the moment, but in the meantime, we invited Jonathan (who lives at the same house) to take the lessons. At first, Jonathan was hesitant, but when we came back a second time, he had read the beginning of the Book of Mormon and was convinced that it was true. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but he accepted our invitation to be baptized at the end of the month. He told us, that because the Book of Mormon was true, the church he used to go to wasn't, and seemed to be OK with that. I must say, that the most exciting time to be a missionary is when you set a baptismal date with a prospective convert.

Also, we had another Spanish only investigator come to church for the first time yesterday, she is friends with Rubi, who was baptized and confirmed a week ago, and really enjoyed it. Rubi was so happy that Reina came to church, but she expressed her excitement over Facebook, because she was vacationing in Mexico. It'll be fun if we can get all four of the Spanish only community to church one Sunday, but so far we've only been able to get two.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Stephen Watts

Rubi

Elder Bushman and I have had a pretty blessed week this week. I guess the hardest thing to adjust to here in Texas is using this freaking telephone. Every person we find, and every person we teach we have to put them into this system, and it's kinda a pain. We also have to contact our investigators daily by text or Facebook, which is weird. 

We had a baptism this week, and it was one of the sweetest baptisms I've ever had. Rubi Mireles had been investigating the church for a while. She used to go to the Spanish branch in Tyler, but it's about an hour drive away so she quit going. Since Elder Bushman got here, he invited her to come to church here and he would translate for her. I think I mentioned last week that we translate at church for Rubi, as well as another sister in the ward, and another investigator of ours. 

Anyway, ever since I got here she's been really excited to get baptized, and she was really happy to find that I can speak Spanish well, though Elder Bushman and her make fun of me when I use a Nicaraguan word. The baptism we were able to do in English and Spanish, always having translation. One of the talks was in English, and I stood beside translating into Spanish, and the other talk was done in Spanish and Elder Bushman helped out by translating into English sentence by sentence. One of the members commented that the baptism was one of the most spiritual they'd attended, and I felt the same way. She was really excited after her baptism, and I got the privilege of confirming her on Sunday.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Rubi's Baptism 

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

Leaving Nicaragua

Saturday, June 2nd, began like any normal day, I remember that Elder Gomez and I were having a really hard time finding people to teach that day. It was particularly hot, and no one seemed to want to hear us out. We went to lunch a little bit early, because we had some appointments to fill in the early afternoon. I remember that I could sense that something was not right. I told my companion that I thought they were probably going to pull us out of the country. It was the first time I admitted it, though he'd been mentioning it to me about every day. The call came about 20 minutes later. Our President informed us that we were to go home, pack up, and be at the airport before 5:00. He said that we couldn't say anything to anyone. He said that every missionary had been reassigned to a mission in their home country, and that there was no knowing if we would see the return to Nicaragua.

I did not want to pack. I remember Elder Gomez and I went home with intentions of packing, but we were unable to make ourselves start. Subsequently, we decided to go out and visit with our beloved investigators and converts. We couldn't tell them what was happening, but it was good to hang out with them and grab some pictures. Finally, it had to happen. Elder Gomez and I were the last companionship to arrive at the airport, about 2 hours late. It didn't matter though, all of the flights were for the following morning.

I didn't know to where I had been reassigned to until I arrived at the airport. I think knowing that calmed me down a little bit, but I still wept for my people and the horrors that I knew they would still have to face. My mission President explained to us that God was preparing His people to receive their temple that had been announced just 1 month prior. He also explained that nothing can thwart God's plans. God knew from the beginning that I'd be serving in the Dallas Texas Mission, and He has uniquely prepared me to preach His gospel to these people. I will not cease to dedicate all of my might and strength to this most important work.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

Texas Dallas Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the following statement about the transfer of all of its missionaries out of Nicaragua:

In light of continued violence and deteriorating conditions in Nicaragua, the Church has decided to transfer the remaining 158 missionaries out of that country. Those missionaries are being moved to temporary assignments in North America, South America, the Caribbean and New Zealand. Most of these missionaries have already left the country. All others awaiting travel are in a safe location and will arrive in their new assignments in the next several days.

As part of this move, the Nicaragua Managua South Mission president and his young family have left the country and returned home. The Nicaragua Managua North Mission president and his companion will remain in Nicaragua for the time being to take care of some ecclesiastical responsibilities over local Church members.

The Church will continue to monitor developments in Nicaragua and make a decision in the future regarding the eventual return of missionaries. In the meantime, we pray for peace and stability for all who live there during this uncertain time.

Elder Watts has been reassigned to the Texas Dallas Mission.  He was able to call us on Sunday after arriving in Texas.  He sounded good.  He is kind of in limbo right now while the mission awaits the arrival of 11 missionaries from the Nicaragua Managua North mission.  They will temporarily be placed in threesomes until the mission has their scheduled transfers next week.  Here are a few of his comments from today:

One of the victims of the Mother's day Massacre was a member of our ward. We would've gone to his funeral if we didn't have to pack and get to the airport. (A little background if you haven't already read about this: Wednesday, May 30th, was Mother's Day in Nicaragua. There was a peaceful march to honor the mothers of the victims who have died in the recent violence. The police (or other government supporters) open-fired on the marchers, killing 16 and injuring 88 others). 

I'm super excited to be in Dallas. It should be great! The mission culture here seems to be just as different from my last mission culture, as the general cultures are different. It's like starting all over at zero, but it should be alright. This mission will soon loose 2 stakes on the Fort Worth side, and pick up a massive stake that was once part of the Jacksonville Mississippi mission, and will receive over 20 new missionaries and send off only 12. With the 12 Nicaraguans, the mission will be receiving close to 40 new missionaries. It's great.

For now, I'm hanging out with the AP's in a town called Frisco. They just had to put me in the wealthiest area in the mission, which has just shocked me with the difference from Nicaragua. Today and tomorrow should be when the North missionaries should be arriving. I have to speak English which is killing me, but I might be moved again before changes next week, but no one really knows.

A kind member in Texas texted this picture to me :)