Out With The Old...

Buenas!

Time does not have meaning anymore.... It just comes and goes without me noticing. This week was good. Monica is changing a ton and might be baptized on Saturday! :D We also have another baptism of a nine year old child of a less active family on Saturday – so this week will be fun working with them to get there! :D This Saturday is going to be a White Saturday because almost every area in our district/zone (for Rio Gallegos it's the same) are baptizing someone. So it should be an awesome experience.

Other than that we are in the stage I think David was in a little while back. Looking. We really don't have many people to teach and are searching for the people who have been prepared from the Lord. We have found a couple of people, and the mission has helped me to not jump ahead of myself but to keep on trucking. One sad thing is that an RM that helps us a ton is moving to Chile this week or next week... I really am going to miss that guy. He helps us out so much and is really awesome!

Well, not a lot to comment on this week. Just working hard to find people to teach and to do the work of the Lord. We are cleaning out our apartment though! Missionaries who leave tend to leave useless things or trash behind and it just gathers and gathers until the Elders who live there want to do something about it... In this case Elder Beck and I. So that’ll be fun! Haha. But yea. There were four of us living in this apartment but now the other two elders have moved back to their own apartment and we actually have a lot of room.... It’s kinda weird. Anyways. That’s all I have for now. Love you lots and be good!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder M. Watson

Rio Gallegos-Crazy Week

Wow! What a crazy week! First off I will start off with that we had baptisms! A couple of kids wanted their grandfather to baptize them (their mother is member and father is not). We were really excited when their grandmother told us this and we went over to their house to the next day to meet Christian and Gustavo. They are 8 and 10 years old which is great but we needed to find authorization to baptize the 8 year old (as that he would be a baptism of the branch). They moved from another district within our mission (further south from us) and were staying here until they moved up to Buenos Aires to a different mission. So we called the branch president and found out that he had already moved the mom´s records to Buenos Aires.. So we had to get in contact with their mission president. It ended up as a three way call from our zone leader to our mission president to their mission president. In the end all was settled and we got authorization to baptize Christian. So Sunday morning at 9 we had their baptism and at 10 they were confirmed. It was a crazy week but way good. We also tried to get the father to commit to baptism but he is rather stubborn and wants a bit more time. So yea. That was awesome.

Other than that we are continuing to teach Monica (I talked about her last week). We have made some leaps and jumps but there is still a bit to go with her. But we are excited at the progress she is making.

Well, that's about it for this week. I forgot to bring my camera to send pictures but I will bring it next week. :D Hope all is well that everyone is good. Love you all!

Elder Watson

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear Family,

Holy Cow... I am in the south... So unreal. This week has been real pleasant as with the climate and the people said it was hot... I don’t want to see what normal is. And it’s summer... Today has been a bit windy and cold...

In reality, my area reminds me a lot of Cambria. We are right next to the ocean (well a river that leads to the ocean) and just the terrain is so similar. And it’s windy all the time. I have heard it gets super, super windy so more on that when it comes.

Next week we will go to see the penguins. They are only here for a short time and we gotta go pretty soon. And it will be an all day thing (Like 8 hours) so we will leave early to get there and get back so we can still do the stuff we need to do. :D I will be in normal clothes but teaching a penguin was definitely on the list.

As well I think Alex was in the South when these Areas belonged to his mission. Can you ask him where he was? Maybe I can look for some of his converts of friends here...

I didn’t get any packages or letters but I will get them in Zone Conference/Interviews or at the end of the transfer.

Other thing! Because it is a lot lighter longer during the day we moved our schedule an hour ahead. So instead of going to bed at 10:30 pm, we go at 11:30 pm and wake up at 7:30 am instead of 6:30 am... That has been interesting. There are some days where I am just dead tired.  But we will go back to normal soon.

This week had been crazy but good. We are on the hunt for people to teach as well as baptize! We passed by a neighbor of a less active who had recently moved and she was venting out to us. We set up an appointment to come back and teach her because she realized that she needed spiritual help. So we came back the next day and taught the restoration. That was such a spiritual lesson! We were able to talk a lot about how to become more like Christ. Anytime we talk about Christ it’s just a wonderful opportunity to bear my testimony... And I can feel the Spirit bear testimony through me to people here. It is sooooooo amazing! Anyways, we set another appointment and came back and she had read what we left and prayed and felt way better. So we took her to a baptism of the sister missionaries. We came back and she was like I can’t be baptized... And we were thinking maybe it was wrong that we took her... She said she wasn’t going to come to church but Elder Beck saved the day and challenged her to pray about it to see if she would come. Usually, they don’t pray. But she did!

The next day I called her in the morning and she said she was ready to go to church. I was surprised... So we went by some members that live close to her to see if they could take her in their car and it turns out that they are friends and knew each other from before and that their kids had been friends. So they took care of everything and church went by great. After church we stopped by and she told us how she couldn’t sleep because of her migraines and decided to pray and ask. When she got up she felt better and had the desire to go to church and started reading in the Book of Mormon. All this in three days! She is really prepared and is an amazing woman.

Well, that’s all I have to say for now. We are working hard to do the work and I am really excited to be here in Seis de Abril and in the South working in the Lord’s vineyard. Amazing!

I know the Church is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that Jesus Christ died for us and the way to get back to heaven is through His restored Gospel in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Michael Watson

I Took an Airplane Ride Today...

Argentina From The Sky

Hello Family,

Surprise!!! I received a very exciting call yesterday! Not just any call, but a call to be transferred.  So why the plane? [He sent home pictures out the window of a plane] That’s because I am not in Buenos Aires anymore… I am in Tierra del Fuego!!!! I received a call to go to the SOUTH! Yea baby! I am in Rio Gallegos in an area called 6 de Abril. :D :D

Wow. This week went really well!  We had Miguel and Celiás baptism on Saturday. That went really well! It was really spiritual and just really, really good. Everything went by really smoothly and it was great! Miguel received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday too so that was exciting!

P-days have been changed for transfers and will always be on Mondays (except for special changes).  I am now senior companion with Elder Beck (who was companions with Elder Godfrey before... my companion from the MTC).  I spent most of the night packing and I couldn’t really sleep. A remis (a taxi kind of thing… you call them and they take you to the location) came by at 3:45 in the morning to take me to the airport. It was supposed to come at 4:15 but hey at least I had woken up a bit early to finish getting ready… And I am pretty sure I forgot at least one thing. Anyways, I got to the Airport at 5 a.m. and took a plane at 6:30 a.m. to Rio Gallegos. I got there at 9:30/10 and got together with my companion and other elders from our district. I then got to the house and started to unpack. Our schedule is different down here, it has been pushed an hour back… we get up at 7:30 a.m. and go to bed at 11:30 p.m.… That’ll be hard to get used to. Anyways, I am way excited to have been called to the South and it looks like Elder Beck and I are going to get along really well. We both have a vision to grow this branch (we are a district, not a stake.... at least until Elder Beck and I change that!) and are just super excited.

For now though, I am just way tired and can’t think of much more to say. I hope all is well at home: Love you all, be safe. Say hi to the missionaries for me and tell them great work! :D See ya!

Love,

Elder Michael Watson