It's almost April!

(We sent the boys an email letting them know that I would be home on Monday because of it being a City holiday.  Mike took the opportunity to exchange some ideas and get a few things off his chest.  It was great being able to communicate in real time... makes a real difference!  I have combined some of the small conversations with his main email... it is funny the first thing he wanted to know was how to microwave a baked potato... I almost said, wash it, fork it and stick it in the microwave and push "Potato" but then I came to my senses and figured if it was that easy, he wouldn't be asking - LOL).

Buen Día!

If you are on, could you let me know how to microwave a baked potato? I will send a longer email shortly… Thanks!

I can´t wait for zone conference in 3 weeks! I get all my mail then so I hope I have a lot.  The only bad thing is I have to carry it a LONG way back to my apartment.  Like two buses and a long walk.  I am thinking of bringing my small suitcase to carry everything.  Last zone conference I had to carry a box of Book of Mormons and that wasn't any fun…Mom, I miss your "evil cackle"… It´s kind of funny… And those kids shouldn't be complaining about a lot of things.  I´m not going to write anything bad about here but at least they have clean water coming from the tap… It´s kind of annoying to have to purify your water all the time.  I didn't realize how many comforts we have in the States that we take for granted.  I am never going to be looking at our style of life the same way as before my mission.  It´s really startling how different lifestyles are here.  But I am getting used to it; it’s a good lifestyle, just different. 

Stores… We have a supermarket here where we buy groceries… Which reminds me… THEY DON´T HAVE PEANUT BUTTER! And if they do its really expensive… It makes me sad… Oh well.  There are a lot of little shops, like at a mall, all along the street.  There is a Wal-Mart in my district I think, but I can´t go because it’s really far away and we don´t have that much time on pday.  I bought another towel so I could have one while the other is being washed.  It was like a little over 4 us dollars.  Oh, which reminds me… I only packed flat sheets, not any fitted sheets… so in the next package you send, could you include one or two for me?   Right now it’s way too hot to use my sleeping bag… I will try to soon, but I was sweating like a pig last night… The place to get first aid supplies would be the supermarket.  I haven´t really entered the other shops… Just a watch shop and a towel shop.  There are also a lot of other stores like the liquor stores in Piru.  Well, not a lot, but a fair few. 

My companion is from Biablanca, a region 10 hours southwest of here.  It´s like from home to Provo.  Kind of weird it’s so close.  He is the first in his family to go on a mission.  He is excellent and already has helped me a ton! From what we know, he is the youngest trainer (being out only a year).  I like him a lot and am working hard to try to learn Spanish so I can communicate better and help him with his English.  Right now, I think he knows best how to argue in English.  It’s actually quite funny.  We were joking around yesterday and I was talking to him in Spanish and he to me in English.  We had a good time. 

PLUMS! I bought some plums.  They were pretty good.  But they were kind of expensive so those will only be sparingly.  The oranges here aren´t very good, or maybe I am just spoiled from the ranch and in Piru.  But yea, those will be the first fruit I will have when I get back. 

We can learn a lot from Joseph.  I certainly need to.  I don´t have much time to read from the Old Testament, but I am certainly learning a lot from the Book of Mormon and Isaiah.  There are so many applications from Isaiah.  It is so COOL!!!! :D Preach My Gospel is amazing as well.  I am kind of sad I am not in the MTC anymore because I don´t have as much time to study.  But I am certainly enjoying being out here. 

We have an investigator that we are hoping will be baptized next month… She said at the end of the lesson if God answers her prayers she will do what He says.  Also, she asked us to pray for her to know the truth.  How amazing is that! We were sooooooooo excited as we left that appointment.  We are doing well, we just need to find more people to teach.  It´s kind of hard but I hope we can find more soon! :)

Anyways, I am doing well.  One of the Elders in my apartment had his birthday yesterday so we had some Torta (Cake).  He made it himself so it was nice and sweet and American.  It was good and I can´t wait to have some more! Lol. 

I haven´t used most of the money I withdrew, only 4 dollars (17 pesos) on that towel and some on mailing letters.  Not much.  I still have about 160 pesos left.  I think I took out 200.  I am looking for a jersey to buy.  I don’t know whether to get a Boca jersey or not.  It’s like rooting for the Yankees… Lol.  I think I am going to get one that has the best colors.  I don’t know.  We´ll see.  I am also looking for some Argentine stuff to bring home.  I will let you know as I spend it. 

I can´t wait to hear back from you guys! I love you and hope all is well!

Con MUCHISIMO Amor,

Elder Michael Watson

Boulogne, Not Villa Adelina

Hola!

It´s good to hear from you and see you! [We sent them a picture by email] I don´t think pictures are against the rules because my trainer receives them from his family. I don´t have a picture of just me and my companion but I do have one of us with a couple we baptized. Next week I will get one for you guys.

The modern things are very hard to deal with. I just have to focus on what is being said and trying to understand. Sometimes I have a hard time when I have no clue what is going on.... But it´s getting better! :D

So to answer your questions:

I am getting the chance to play the piano more than I thought I would. I play every once and a while when we are at the building and I played for the baptismal service we had. One-handed, but hey, I was able to do it. :D

Honestly, I don´t know how many members are in our branch. Yesterday was stake conference and the week before we had about 70 people I would guess.

The church building has an all tile floor. It´s shaped kind of like D--! with rooms off of the exclamation mark. The d is the chapel and we set up metal chairs for church. The stake center looked more like a ward building.

My area is kinda like Santa Paula I would guess, just a bit bigger.  There are a lot of businesses.  There are lots of trees. FLAT! I can´t tell north from south from east to west when the sun is high in the sky. It´s crazy, but I´ll figure it out. :)

I am sleeping pretty well. If there weren´t so many mosquito bites on me it would be better but that is only a slight problem… Nothing more. The best food...Hmmm... Well, mostly I have had a lot of fried carne asada or steak... But I did have some spaghetti that was good… Not AMAZING like yours [moms], but it was good. My companion didn´t like it. OH! He looked at me so weird when I had some peaches after the spaghetti and then had some more spaghetti.

I was laughing. It´s normal for me but so weird for him. For breakfast I usually have cereal or oatmeal with an apple or banana and lunch I have some kinda steak or pasta. More steak than pasta.  I haven´t had any weird food yet.

My apartment is one of the nicer ones from what I´ve gathered. It´s in a smaller building kinda like the building the missionaries used to live in across from the High School. All the houses here have gates in front of them. Well, almost all. So instead of one key to get to our apt, we need two. We also have 4 elders in our apt, the district leader and his companion. I haven´t really seen the neighbors... They aren´t around when we are.  Oh yeah, I live on the outskirts of Boulgne (I am not sure how to spell it), Not Villa Adelina... We have a part of Boulgne in our area.

The office is a half hour bus ride and a 10 min train ride away. There are 8 in my district. They are from Chile, Peru, Utah and Washington, I think, not sure. I haven´t been able to talk to them much.

On P-Day we go to the bank, send letters, e-mail, shop for food, go back to the apartment and cook a good meal, and clean. The service we do is clean the church once a month and whatever we can find. The only other service I have had was we helped move a family.

We have about 7 investigators that we visit. We are trying to see more people so we need to make our visits shorter.

Well I still have to write my letter to the president so I have to go. Love you and I hope all is well!

Con Amor,

Elder [Michael] Watson

Update 3/15/2010 - Cyber Cafes, Queen and Counterstrike?????

 Hi Mom and Dad!!

I am writing in a cyber cafe and just heard Queen playing.... And the kids next to me are playing counterstrike.  Just thought that was funny.

The language isn't too daunting; it's trying to understand the people that is the hard part.  I can only catch the themes to conversations. But, I am learning so much and am so happy to be here!  The humidity isn't so bad. I am adjusting and everything is great!

So there is a lot more English here than what I thought. I’ve already heard 3 songs from the US and there are a lot of English T-Shirts down here. It's really crazy!

We are teaching a lot here in Villa Adelina. We are in San Isidro (or close to) if you want to find it. Oh, by the way we are supposed to triple the baptisms from 1000 to 3000... I misinterpreted the figures... It's really hard to be the one left out on conversations. I kinda know what's going on but not really. I really just have to rely on the Spirit on what to say and when I do, I make sense and am a great contribution to the lesson. (Or so my companion tells me.) Every day I am speaking more and giving more of the lesson.

My companion is the district leader so we have to travel around a lot. It´s alright though, I get to see more of Argentina. We are still teaching a lot and having a lot of success.  I love being a missionary! It's great when you can see people's faces light up because of the gospel!

We are going to the Capital for zone conference tomorrow and that is where I will receive all of my mail. We get our mail every six weeks so I will probably have a handful (Hopefully LOL).  I will be getting mail again in 6 weeks so that´s probably when you want me to get my packages. Just letting you know. On Wednesday morning I am going to the Capital again to fill out some papers so I can be legal here.

Well, that's all I can think of right now.  I love you and thank you for all you do!

Con Amor,

Elder Michael Watson

First Area and Companion - Villa Adelina / Elder Garay

We were able to speak with Elder Watson yesterday while he had his layover at the Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX airport. It was wonderful to hear his voice and how excited he is to enter the mission field and start teaching.

As part of his trip, a couple of things we noticed were, that he left the Salt Lake City airport about 4 hours after David and arrived in Dallas about 15 minutes after Dave left for Miami. They both called us at the same time, so we had to shuffle the calls around so we had one on each phone (I called back the payphone in the Miami airport). In addition, they both left about the same time for Argentina but Dave arrived about an hour earlier than Mike. We don't know if they were able to greet each other in Buenos Aires because Dave said he had to get to another terminal right away or he would miss his flight (even though his layover was about two hours).

This afternoon we received an email from President and Sister Argyle (Mike's mission president) that he arrived safely and that he was assigned to work in Villa Adelina with Elder Garay. We are very excited for him. We will post his first letter home when he writes us on his P-Day.

¿Cómo estáis? :D

Buenos Dias!

Well, this week has been really good. I have been learning loads! Last night we talked about the plan of salvation with my teacher and learned some pretty neat things. I want to make a copy of my notes and send it to y'all. Most of it is in Spanish, but it's pretty easy to figure out. The most important stuff is in English. We did talk about some great stuff. One of the most important things I learned was that as members and missionaries when people look at us, they should be able to look at us and see Christ. It's really hard to get to that point but with all of your heart and help from God, you can do it. My teacher was talking about how more people focus on becoming perfect in this life than learning and doing the will of God, making our eyes single to the glory and will of God.

D&C 45:3-5 [Doctrine & Covenants] is a really good scripture of learning what the Judgment will be like. We need to focus on living the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Having faith in Christ, repenting, being baptized by one holding authority of God, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We repeat this process daily as we try to become perfect through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and be like Him. We trusted Him before this life, we need to trust Him during this life, and we will need to trust him after this life. Like it says in the scriptures, we must rely on the arm of the Lord rather than the arm of flesh. Only through Christ can we be saved and be able to dwell in the presence of God with our Families for all of eternity.

As we practice contacts here, I like to say, "Mediante la Expiación de Jesucristo, podemos ser juntos con nuestros familias para siempre." [Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be together with our families forever.] The Atonement of Jesus Christ is central, and has been, to God's plan. The only way we can have access to it is through obedience to the commandments of God, faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, and Enduring to the End. We must always strive to keep the commandments of God with exactness. I know it’s hard and that we make mistakes all along the way. But little by little we can achieve this perfection by becoming like Christ. He can and will show us the way to do it, if we are willing to listen and obey what he tells us. I have a sure testimony of that. When I am righteous and am striving to be exactly obedient, I have so much more help in my life from the Spirit and from Jesus Christ.

I don't remember which Apostle or General authority told this story, but Jesus Christ will walk with us always. In the story, Christ and a man were walking along a sea shore. As the man looked back he saw the two different trails in the sand. After going through a very difficult time, he looked back and only saw one set of footprints. He turned to the Lord and asked him where he was during the time he needed him. The Lord meekly replied that He had carried the man through that difficult time. I know that the Lord loves us enough that He is willing to do that for each of us. As we put our trust in him, we can look back and see how the Lord has carried us through difficult times and when He has walked beside us.

I am so grateful to be here at the MTC. I am learning so much! I wish I could have time to study like this for the rest of my life. I wish I had learned in my heart the true joy that comes from studying the scriptures. I love you all very much and hope my e-mails strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel by having faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement through repentance, baptism by one holding the priesthood and authority from God, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I find complete joy when others choose to walk in His footsteps and try to become better men and women through Christ. I love you all and hope everything is well with everyone!

Always,

Elder Michael C. Watson

Buenos Dias!

(We received two separate emails from Mike today, so I edited the two together)

Buenos Dias,

Alright, so this week gone by so fast! And a lot has happened. So let me get to it.

So Tuesday was another hectic day. I am no longer companions with Elder Gillette. I have actually switched rooms and I now have two companions, Elder Dewitt and Elder Godfrey. The reason for the switch is that their companion, Elder Amasio, and Elder Gillette are the new Zone Leaders. Pretty crazy. I am the District Leader. Which means I still have the privilege of checking mail, but I have a lot more responsibilities now.

So on Friday we went to the Referral Center. We make outbound/confirmation calls to make sure people receive the movies and Bibles/Book of Mormons. Well, as you know, I am not one to talk on the phone. As I made the calls I got a lot of answering machines, people hanging up on me and wrong numbers. There was even a man who said he didn't want any stuff under his roof of ours and that he never ordered anything. I had no idea what to say and my mind froze and stuttered a good-bye. (This happened on both the wrong number and the man who didn't order anything.) A pretty bad first time. Since then I have gone back a couple times, but I really haven't had any opportunities to talk. I am trying though.

We had a Zone Conference on Saturday. It was so awesome!!! It was very spiritual and I learned a lot! I cannot wait to get in the field! :D

Thank you for the package! I am going to ENJOY it! :D

I have met Elder Banks here. I was only able to speak to him for a little bit, but I was able to nonetheless.

I am wearing a jacket now so you don't have to worry about me getting cold. I am tired of the cold. The snow has almost melted all away so I am wondering if they are going to go let us play some futbol! :D Yesterday I got an awesome spike in Volleyball. I was so happy! More so because it was my first, but hey, it was pretty! :D

So I was told today that David was put in Quarantine. I do not know what he has or why he was put there... I hope everything is alright. Anyways, I thought I should let you know. Don't get too freaked out. I don't think it’s really bad.

Thanks for the tie! Oh, and I don't know if I have told you about this, but Tie Trading is some serious stuff around here. I haven't done it because I am satisfied with my ties, pero people keep telling me to get some polyester ties because silk ones will curl up in humidity. I am not too worried. Anyways, now I hit my time limit. Thanks for everything!!!! :D

Well, I don't know what else to say. It feels like I repeat myself when I e-mail you because we do a lot of the same things. I hope all is well at home!!

LOVE,

Elder Michael C. Watson

¿Que tal?

Dear Mom and Dad,

So first off, I saw a sister that looks almost EXACTLY like Aunt Carol. She even does some of the same things. Kinda weird and cool.

This week has been great but has been kind of a roller coaster. Especially Tuesday. Tuesday morning was slow and I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I ended the morning with companionship study whit Elder Gillette to fix some kinks and questions in our "Plan of Salvation" lesson which ended the morning very well. After lunch we went to the TRC as a class for a 15 minute Spanish situation and a 35-45 minute lesson. (We do this every week. Next week is our first Spanish lesson! Ay!) The Spanish went alright because the investigators didn't play the part exactly which threw us for a bit of a loop, but we ended it well. The lesson, however, was AMAZING! It was the best lesson we have taught yet. The Spirit guided our words and questions and everything just flowed. I didn't even have to think/stutter of what I was going to do next. It is such an awesome feeling to have the Holy Ghost with you that strongly. And the Spirit brought some experiences and memories to my remembrance which was great and took the lesson to the next level! :D Like I said, it was absolutely amazing. I couldn't stop smiling during the lesson and after. It was great.

After we came back to class we discussed the TRC with nuestro maestro Hermano Williams and then went to go drop our stuff off at choir practice. As we were heading back to the room, one of the Elders in our district pulled Elder Gillette and I back into the empty classroom and told us he was being sent home on medical leave. I was so struck. I had hardly known this elder for a month, but I was so devastated. So we helped him pack up and saw him off. That was really hard. His companion, Elder Gillette and I didn't sing in the choir that night and just listened. Then Elder Richard G. Hinckley and his wife gave talks that were really incredible and uplifting. After the Devotional we, the district, gathered for a review and obviously being one elder short we had to break it to them. The district was really torn up. The good thing is that the Elder will be back in two months though. There's just something as you study the gospel with someone or a group of people you build a deep relationship. It's really neat. We are working hard and keeping him in our prayers, but that was quite a shock. Shows you that as people gain significant spiritual experiences, Satan works his hardest to make us lose that testimony and deny what we have learned.

Well, we finally hit the point where our district is the second oldest district in the zone. Kinda scary. It doesn't seem we have been here that long yet as each new district comes in, they seem younger and younger even though some of them are older than I am. Kinda weird. Our district has set a goal to only speak Spanish. It's going to be tough, but we are going to give it our best effort. It will really help out in the long run.

The MTC is still great and I am really learning to delve into the scriptures with the help of teachers and the Spirit. It's great now that I have some friends from BYU here now and Elders Banks and Whipple from the Stake are here also. It's becoming a lot of fun. :D

I hope everything is well at home! Stay Strong! :D

Love,
Elder Michael C. Watson