Selah

Selah Sproul is the wife of a member that we started working with in August. In September, she left for Las Vegas to care for her dying aunt, who had served as her mother for most of her childhood. Her aunt passed away in the beginning of October, and she spent the next three weeks caring for her, so it had been a minute since we'd seem them. When she got back, she asked us to go over and help her with some projects that she had. Then she invited us to come share a message with them on Friday. We came, and planned on discussing the Plan of Salvation and inviting them to be baptized. 

The beginning of the lesson was a little hectic as she struggled to understand the difference between the Holy Ghost, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Priesthood authority. After struggling to help her understand, it came time to wrap up the lesson, but then she asked us to wait. She said her real question was this: what about her aunt, who had lived an incredible life, but had never been religious, and has never been baptized. We hadn't taught about the Spirit World yet, so with smiles on our faces, we explained that God has a plan for the redemption of the dead. She started crying. Then we said that she would be able to go to the temple and perform the work for her aunt. She was so excited. She asked if that meant she had to be baptized in our church. We showed her the white Christmas video (a video made by our mission with pictures of baptisms that happened last Christmas time) and before the video finished, she said, through tears, "what do I have to do." When we explained that she only had to read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and keep the commandments, she exclaimed, "that's it!" That is it. We invited her and 3 of her kids to be baptized. They all agreed. She has two other kids, and one of them has a fiance, that we should be able to teach in the future as well. 

Then, she said that she might be unable to go to church because she has shingles and doesn't want to spread it to the un-vaccinated children. We asked if she wanted a priesthood blessing. She said that she did. After the blessing, she was still somehow crying, and she said, "it wasn't you speaking was it?" A little confused we explained that the words said were the words of the Lord. She said that everything said in that blessing came as an answer to something she'd been dealing with for the past month. It was a rather long blessing too. It was really powerful. 

I love y'all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Men in Black costumes for the Ward Halloween Party

A bunch of us at the zoo earlier today

Elder Holland

On Tuesday, Elder Holland visited our mission, along with Elders Robbins and Elder Teixera from the Seventy. It was an incredible experience. Have you ever seen a video of Elder Holland yelling into the microphone and pounding on the podium with his fists? It's a lot more intimidating in person. He really wanted us to have a higher vision of the work we were doing. It was really inspiring. At the conference, I saw Elder Moore, my one and only white companion in Nicaragua who was re-assigned to the Fort Worth mission. It was good to see him again.

I love my new companion, Elder Curtis. He's from Brigham City, Utah, and was originally assigned to the Mississippi Jackson Mission, but his mission was dissolved in July and he and about 13 others became part of the Texas Dallas Mission. The rest were picked up by other nearby missions. It's cool that we were both re-assigned to Texas, it's still a little different for both of us.

Love y'all!

Elder Watts

Transfers Again

It's transfers again. Elder Twitchell is going home and my new companion will be Elder Curtis. I've talked to him a couple times before at mission leadership meetings, he was the zone leader out in Shreveport Louisianna.

Jarod, an investigator we've been working with has had a hard time progressing because of word of wisdom issues, but he comes to church almost every week. We've been working with him for a little over a month now. Yesterday he brought his girlfriend and his girlfriend's son with him to church. He had told us that she was very against the church when they started dating. She would ask him all kinds of questions that he had no idea how to answer, but he'd always say, "I don't know about that, but I feel the spirit at church. You gotta just come and check it out." After weeks of this humble, and faithful response, she finally decided to come check it out, and there told us that she would take the first lesson. Jarod taught me that knowledge doesn't really get us anywhere, faith does. You don't have to know everything to do what's right.

Love y'all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Conference

Hey Y'all!

Conference was incredible! I was over-joyed to hear the announcement of 12 new temples. To me, that was the greatest, most exciting moment of the whole conference. I was reminded of my indescribable joy when the the construction of Nicaragua's first temple was announced 6 months ago. We watched conference on Saturday at the church, as they were providing food and an in-between session ward party. Sunday morning we watched with our part-member investigating family, the Thompson's, and Sunday evening session with KC (our convert of 1 week) and her actively investigating family. There's nothing better than watching conference with investigators. They always seem to come away with a testimony of living prophets.

Remember the Richardson's, the couple that got married a couple weeks ago? Anyway, the wife, Rachel, is a returning member and the husband, Chris is a former Methodist minister. The following story is about them:
Last Sunday we went by the house of a part-member family that we've been working with. As we approached their door we heard all sorts of foul language coming from the non-member husband toward the member wife. We decided it might not be a good time for a visit, so we returned to the car and began to drive away. Before even making it a block, Elder Twitchell had a thought that we might need to go back. We prayed about it, and both felt strongly that we needed to knock on their door; so we did. The wife came out she thanked us for coming by. She said everything was OK. She apologized that she couldn't let us in at that time. We told her that we'd keep her and her family in our thoughts and prayers, then drove off. Later in the week, she texted us and invited us over for dinner and a lesson on Friday. We went and enjoyed pizza and talked a little. The husband informed us that the moment we knocked on the door he had a change of heart and was embarrassed by the way he'd been acting. He proceeded to tell us that that was the third time we visited them, un-planned, when they were having a hard time. He told us he felt God was trying to tell him something through us. We invited him to be baptized. He agreed. We set the date.

Love,
Elder Stephen Watts

KC's Baptism

It's been a great week! Here's a picture from KC's baptism! She is amazing.

Helping on a Farm

Just over a week ago, our investigator, Kenneth, requested to speak with the Bishop. We were unsure why, but we set up an appointment to meet up with him and Bishop yesterday. Kenneth had been coming to church most every week, but was convinced that he did not need baptism. At last, the Spirit took over. He said that some of the speakers had said things that he hadn't heard in any other church and that he loved, especially in regards to the family. Even though we had invited him to be baptized like a hundred times, he finally decided it was time. The first thing he asked bishop was, "How do I join your church?" When bishop invited him to be baptized he agreed. He went on to explain that even though he's been baptized before, he hasn't felt like his sins have been all the way washed. We promised him that if he was willing to leave his sins behind, that his baptism would give him a feeling of cleanliness. It was pretty awesome!

KC is getting baptized on Saturday. We're so excited for her! She had us over to her house last Saturday and offered to let us help out on the farm and fed us an incredible brisket. The farm chores, of course, included turning a bull calf into a steer. It was a pretty ball wrenching experience.

Love, 

Elder Stephen Watts

A wedding

A couple stories from the week:

We met Andre only one time. We never shared a full lesson with him, but he was present as we were reading through and discussing the seed parable in Alma 32 with his fiancee's family. This family is one that we have discussed could be ready for a white Christmas baptism if we begin working now. Anyway, Sunday afternoon a member was giving us a ride home from their house where we had just eaten dinner. He asked us if there's anyone we'd like to visit with him at that moment, and we thought of Andre's family. While we were talking to Andre, our member invited him to an adult fireside that night. We were not going to invite him because the fireside was for adults only and the subject was the law of chastity and every time the event was announced, people started to act all awkward. Also, we know that Andre is living with his fiancee, but they are not yet married. But, Andre came. Miraculously, Elder Twitchell and I were there, we were not planning on going, but we were there doing our companionship study in one of the classrooms. All of a sudden, Elder Twitchell gets a prompting to go out into the lobby. Not 2 minutes after, he walks in, so we walk in. The miracle is, he actually really liked it and we have an appointment to meet with him and the family on Thursday.

We have been teaching for a while Rachel and Chris. A couple weeks ago they asked if they could speak with the Bishop. Rachel is a member and Chris is not. Well, they hadn't told us, but they confided to the bishop that they'd been living together for 3 years and hadn't been married. Bishop challenged them to be married. They said the reason they hadn't been married yet is because they don't have any friends or family really that are close by and supportive. They wanted to have a nice wedding, but didn't have money or guests to make it happen. Last Friday, they were married. A lot of the ward came out to support them. The Relief Society came up with decorations, a cake, and the Bishop married them and it was really sweet.

When we met with them this week leading up to the wedding, Chris told us through tears how much it has meant to him for us to visit them. He said that the moment we first showed up was one of their all time lows as a couple. Every time we've taught them (and we haven't taught them much) they've felt at peace. Every time we've visited, something good has happened in their life. We invited Chris to be baptized and he said he would like to, though we still don't have a date for him.

Love y'all!

Elder Stephen Watts

Rachel and Chris

They knocked doors until they found someone with a jeep to pull them out!