we ought to shout for joy!

Wasn't the missionary broadcast wonderful?! I missed the first 1/2 hour since we were running around sorting out business with some members and doing our missionary work but I got there right at the end of Elder L. Tom Perry's talk. Such good stuff! I'll play soccer with you, I'll let you teach me another language, and yes, I'll go with my friend to this church activity of yours. It's all about the approach. Plus it's about how welcoming the ward is when they do make it to, not just an activity, but actual church. Please be aware of newbies at church and be aware of how you can bring newbies to church. Those 2 things by members make the difference!

Also, back at home, is there just one set of elders in your ward? How about the other MH ward, elders or sisters? I'd be curious to find out some of their finding activities, so next time you have a conversation with them, there's something to find out :)

Okay, random rampage. We tend to get a lot of missionaries who are waiting to get their visas, so they can go somewhere else. NY is the place to send them since we have a bit of everything here. In fact, this week my comp and I are getting a third sister. We will be in a trio until the 3rd link gets her visa. Way cool, huh? So though we are staying in the same area, we still get a little change up.

Also, I learned my lesson as to why missionaries are not to hold babies. So, there we were waiting for Gladys to bring us a snack she had made (she always makes us something, she is so sweet!) when I was just playing with little Cesar. Cesar, oh man, I need to send a picture of him. He is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E! He just turned one and he's super smart. Anyway, he was playing with me and I decided to just have him sit on my lap. Well, when he sat on my lap he turned around to give me a hug, which I obviously let happen. The hug turned into him standing on my lap, which turned into him jumping on my lap, which turned into me lifting him up in the air so he could grab the balloons from his birthday. He was going up and down just laughing and then....then we were both on the ground! The chair broke!!! But it wasn't just the chair that broke. Oh no, no, no. When the chair broke it hit the bed and part of the bed broke too! Yes, I'm being serious. I was just sitting on the ground with Cesar still in the air (it happened right when I caught him in the air). Gladys came running in but sadly my companion and I could barely talk we were laughing so hard!! Oh gosh it was funny yet it scared Cesar so bad! He nearly started crying. His mom went to help him but, but Cesar wanted to make sure I was alright. Ain't that the cutest thing? Well, needless to say I felt horrid for coming over and breaking everything. We found out though that my chair didn't have the proper screws, so it was tragedy waiting to happen. Just my luck it would be me to find out the screws were missing :)

As for our investigators, we currently have 5 that are progressing. We have the Caballero family (Brenda, Daniela, Jasmine, and Isaac) which are actually just the kids. They are sweet and awesome but they didn't come to church this week which is super sad. Hopefully we can meet with them and see what's up. It's probably something with the parents. I hope the parents are able to support their kids in this, otherwise it's just going to be super hard for the kids to be members. At least they have each other for support!

And then we have Gladys who is the sweetest thing ever. Her husband and her are discussing matters related to marriage and the next time we meet she said she would have a date for the wedding. Yay! Wedding time :) The husband is a less active member with a horrid drinking habit. We're hoping to get the Elders over there about once a week to help him out with that addiction and we're hoping he can start coming to our Saturday soccer sessions as well for some sober fun.

Yes, we dropped Alexandra. She decided her life was too busy right now (for the most important thing ever), but that's okay, we'll give her some time. We still invite her to activities such as the restoration musical concert we just had, but besides that, no more appointments since we know she'll just cancel at the last minute.

Luis and Rosa, we are trying to respect their space right now. Luis told us that his son doesn't want us anywhere around the house right now. We stopped by to give them an invitation to the restoration concert but that's been it. We called them last week too, but no more visits. It's sad because I always looked forward to just talking with them. They were such a sweet and sincere old couple. Every visit we could count on them telling us how hard is it to be old because all you do is hurt and ache. It was so sad, but they would just laugh at it themselves. In about a month, Luis will move with his son to Staten and Rosa will move to east NY where she is still planning to be baptized.

There are a lot of less-actives we are working with too. It's amazing how some don't even remember what the Book of Mormon was. It's apparent that they haven't gone to church in yearsss. No wonder our mission is focusing so much on less-actives!

Please pray for all of them! They are all just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!

Love you all. And thanks a million for all the letters! I felt so loved this week :) I have quite the stack to catch up on though so sorry if it takes me a little while to respond to your letter. I'll do my best. Just know it made me smile! I've got lots of stuff to tell each and every one of you, that's why it takes me so long. Why, my friends, have you all got to be so cool?

Love you all, take care!!!

- Hermana Watts

P.S. I'm saving the best for the last. Scripture for the week D&C 128:23

"Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!"

...inspired by the hymn "Oh Creaciones del Senor" which is one of my favorites in Spanish. I believe it's called "All Creatures of Our God and King" in English (on page 62). Anyway, we ought to shout for joy!

"All creatures of our God and King,

Lift up your voices and with us sing,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou burning with golden beam,

Thou silver moon with softer gleam,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Oh, praise him! Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,

Ye clouds that sail in heav'n along,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice;

Ye light of evening, find a voice,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Oh, praise him! Alleluia!

Thou flowing water, pure and clear,

Make music for thy Lord to hear,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou fire so masterful and bright,

That gives to man both warmth and light,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Oh, praise him! Alleluia!

Dear Mother Earth, who day by day

Unfoldest blessings on our way,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

The flow'rs and fruit that in thee grow,

Let them his glory also show,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Oh, praise him! Alleluia!"

good results from blessings and hard work!

Lo siento mi amors pero no tengo mucho tiempo!! We went to go get haircuts this morning which took a lot longer than we planned because the member doing it, after trimming our hair just a bit, decided to give us a good blow dry and style it, then after that she curled our hair! And my comp's hair was pretty quick but you all know how curling my hair is! She got half way done and the curls were already nearly straight since she didn't spray them right when she finished up. How sad! Then she brought out this gel stuff which she said held way better than spray, she put the goop in my hair and then curled it. It honestly sounded like we were frying scones or something with all the sizzling the goop and my hair were doing with the hot curling iron. Sadly, even this goop doesn't seem to be totally holding up, sad day, oh well. Lesson learned, once again, my hair does not curl!! And after this we are going to Buffalo Wild Wings with the Elders for a little food eating competition. dun-dun-dun! So we can't be running late. Just to answer a few of your questions

Weather report:
I don't even know what's normal and what's not. I wouldn't be too surprised if it rains year round here the way things have been though. All I know is people have umbrellas on them year round because they don't just use the umbrellas for the rain, nope, everyone walks around with them in the sun for shade too! It's pretty darn common. I feel like it's just a huge hassle though because the nasty-ness comes from the humidity, not the sun. I love the sun!

Any new investigators?
Yes! We meet this wonderful family with 3 daughters and 2 sons. One boy is just 3...or 4? And then the others are all older than 8-years-old so we are teaching them since they all want to be baptized. Aww they are just so sweet! And even more of an up-side, I get to teach in english since the kids prefer english over spanish. yipee! But the thing is (since there is always a catch) the dad is very catholic so he is kind of against the idea of baptism. We can't baptize them if both parents don't give a green light. We're hoping he will soften his heart, realize just how happy the gospel makes his kids, see the difference for good it has on their lives, and support them in this major decision. As for the mom though, she loves that they are picking a religion for themselves, so she is happy! Good mama :)

How did the week go?
Well, as you know, I was in-charge of it all and not to brag or anything, because even though I was in-charge it is still totally a team effort the whole way, buttt, we blew our numbers out of the water! At the beginning of each week we set goals (numbers) for how many lessons we want to teach, how many less actives we are going to visit with members, how many new investigators we want to have, and how many people we are going to invite and help come to church. Stuff like that. Well, we worked super-duper hard this week, we were always busy, and we were blessed with finding this family, teaching them twice, getting 4 new investigators, and then we also visited 2 less active families, taught about the importance of the Sabbath day to an investigator, and yes, tons of people at church! It was great to see them all there and to see how well the members reacted as they tried to meet them all, too. It just got me pumped up to see good results from blessings and hard work. I know you don't always see immediate results, but when you do, such as this week, it just re-motivates you and gets you extra excited! I hope my hermana and I can keep up our part, the hard work, and Heavenly Father will keep up his part, the blessings, so we can find even more people!!

Love you all!! I guess this email wasn't thatttt short after all, my comp is still typing away so I'm just waiting for her. Love you all! Thanks for being so awesome! I have something for you!!

-Hermana Watts

P.S. -- Watch this, it's my favorite! It's perfect for this time of the year -- Hope you like it too :)
http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#earthly-father-heavenly-father

rain rain go away

As I sit here typing it's pouring rain outside! I just figured ya'll would get a kick out of it since I'm sure the weather has been gorgeous at home. Count your blessings! Yes it is either steamy hot due to humidity or pouring buckets of rain here. The last few weeks from Tuesday to mid-Friday it's been grossly hot but then on the weekends and Monday it's been gloomy and rainy. Funny thing is, you dress about the same. I'm still getting used to that fact. I look outside and see rain and automatically I go to grab a jacket before we go out. Nope! That's not how it works. It's still warm when you walk out. Weird, huh.

One fun thing about the rain though, we ate dinner together as a district on Friday night after the talent show was canceled (there was a flash flood warning so for the safety of everyone traveling they canceled the talent show) and as part of that we went dancing in the rain! It was a crazy night of puddle jumping and playing ring-around-the-rosies in the rain :D

Family! Thanks for the package! I got it the day I came home from the exchange I went on, so it was the perfect "welcome home" package. What perfect timing!!

The knee, the doctor should be calling me today. I got a blessing and Elder Jensen said "I bless that it will not slow you down or hinder your work" and so far, so good. It's not a pain, it's simply just an annoyance but, we'll see what the doc has to say. Apparently there was a mix up though and after the second time I called to follow up on my MRI they finally got the results faxed to them. Meaning they didn't get them until Thursday and the doctor is only in Mon-Wed. Lame, huh? Why are they so slow. gahhh. But all is well :)

Let's see...this week we had a sister training meeting which I wasn't looking forward to but ended up being wonderful! I got to catch up with my girls from the MTC and I saw Rachel Sandberg too. She is just the cutest thing ever! It was fun having a super duper familiar face. I definitely felt at home. Also we got to have some wonderful lessons by President and Sister Calderwood (who I just love to death).

I went on exchanges this week and this time I got to spend the day in Rego. Lemme just say, this exchange was a whole lot better than the first one! It definitely matters who your comp is, that's all I'll say. haha. I learned a lot both times though so I would consider both a success.

We had another Chino street sweep so I'm practicing my mandarin and learning just how lucky I am to be speaking spanish where tones really don't matter. Ain't it funny that one sound (don) can mean like 6 different things deepening how you say it? Craziness! what a blessing it is to know the languages I know! (yeah, I'm sure everyone says that...but still)

Oh, just want to say that last Monday I got a game of indoor soccer going for P-day and the Elders thought it would be funny if we played guys vs. girls. I was down with the idea and guess what, girls won. Boo-ya!

Also, Antony, the 12-year-old, did I tell you he gave me present? I have a signed picture of his drawing of the statue of liberty because he calls me Sister Liberty. haha. That kid is so funny.

Oh! Accomplishment! (of some form or another) I bought toothbrushes for the first time in my life today! I'm used to just going to the cupboard and getting them or maybe on an unlucky day having to shoot a text to mom to see when she could bring some home but that was that. Today I actually bought myself some toothbrushes. (it's the little things that count) It gave me a headache because there were so many options but yes, I did it! I'm such a big girl (; haha

Sad story, no one here knows my nickname! imagine that (; haha. Ciara, you know how on your letter you wrote to Rae-Rae? The office didn't know who the heck Rae-Rae was since you didn't put a last name of that. lol. Luckily on the return address it was from a Watts so they figured it out. But you had them confused pretty good. good going. haha. and thanks, it made me smile :)

Thanks for all the "hello's" of this week! Hi to ya'll back :)

The next update should have some adventures included. This next week I'm in-charge of planning everything! My comp gets to act like she's the newbie and doesn't know jack and I get to take us around town, set up appointments, teach lessons, and all that wonderful jazz. I'm not nervous yet, but seeing as I get lost because all the buildings look the same here, I'm sure we'll get ourselves lost a time or two. Who-hooo! Looking forward to wandering the city aimlessly as I try to remember where so-and-so lives :) Also it's my companion's birthday tomorrow so that'll be extra fun!!! I don't really know what we're doing to celebrate yet though so it'll be a surprise to both of us :)

-- Hermana Watts

News from Dyker

Tomorrow we are having a big (large) Sister Training Meeting (a.k.a. sister pamper. lol) so hopefully I will be able to see and talk to Rachel there!

Yes Alexandra (the one who canceled on us three times last week) canceled on us again this week! Imagine that. Lame-sauce. I'm keeping the hope though and maybe she might actually show up next meeting. If not, we might just have to teach her on the street since she is a street vender with her own jewelry stand. If we get to that point, well, that'll be interesting.

We're really trying to push family history work around here and I think it would be awesome if you helped the missionaries back at home make it big too. We don't have a family history center and we aren't allowed to touch church computers anymore because a few too many problems have occurred with boys who "know how to hack systems" and then accidentally take down the whole church system so, we have to stay away from that buttt we can help guide them around. We have family history nights once a month and hopefully we can get those cool new family history pamphlets the church just came out with too. We really ought to push it a lot more than we do.

Yes, soccer is still every Saturday and though the turnout is like a roller coaster and it's unpredictable how many folks we'll be getting, it's been nice and of course it's always fun :) It makes the mission life just that much better. Also, Elder Hernandez is an amazing soccer player so it's been fun to play with him and learn a trick or two. Besides that we advertise english class and this week we are getting more into different service opportunities where we get to sport the yellow helping hands jersey! I'm excited for that. I love service!

Oh man oh man, the weather here is absolutely craaaazy! I tried to prepare for the winter by buying warm dresses and shoes and what not but I don't think I prepared for the summer as much as I should've. The humidity is killer. It got so hot in our apt this week that my Vaseline melted. Also, I had a bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard and, well, now it's just one huge candy bar because those all melted together too. gahl. It's disgusting!

Good news! We have a new investigator named Gladys and while we were teaching her the first lesson she asked about baptism and when she could be baptized! Her husband is a less active so for a few years she has been coming to church just every now and then. Well, something clicked, I think she realized she wanted her son (who is so adorable!) to be raised in the church. I'm excited to keep teaching her and I hope her husband decides to follow her great example and get back to church!

As for Luis and Rosa...man oh man. Luis' son got inside of his head too much (his son is abusive and was the one holding him back from marrying Rosa in the first place) and Luis said we can't meet with him anymore. It was so sad because when he told us that he almost started crying. Poor guy. As for Rosa, she is moving to east New York soon to get away from Luis' son and she will be baptized there. It's sad to see them separating but I would hate to see Rosa stay in a house that she isn't welcome in. I just don't understand why Luis is staying with his son! He is blind to his son's problems. It's so sad. I hope the best for them all though!!

One more story. Last night we went to go visit a 12-year-old boy who got baptized almost a year ago. His name is Antony and that kid is such a crack up! I love him. Last night his younger brother (who is usually with his dad) was visiting Antony and his mom so I got to meet him. He is 4 years old and earlier that day Antony taught him who Jesus Christ was. Well, when we were leaving I pulled out a pass along card and I said "Dariel, who is this?" and he said "Jesus Christ!!" I wrote a note on it about how Jesus Christ loves him and then gave him the card. It was amazing to see how happy such a simple little card could make a 4-year-old but he absolutely loved it! He gave Jesus a big hug and starting chanting "Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ!" then he ran to show his mom his new picture. Aww it was just so precious!! It was a good reminder to be appreciative of the little things. For example, we know Jesus Christ and we also know that everyone has the opportunity to know him on a personal level if they want to as well. We know He loves us more than we can comprehend and because of that love He came to the earth to perform a miracle none of us were able to do for ourselves. We were helpless but He has made it possible to do the impossible.

I love you all and so does Jesus Christ!! Never forget that!!

Take care!!

--Hermana Watts

Congratulations Sister Watts!!

AHHHHH!!!! Yay Ciara!! Ha, ya'll were teasing me about going down south but look out Georgia, here Sister Watts comes!!

Guess what else?! That is the same mission Brittany went too. How awesome is that! Maybe you two can be comps? Oh my that girl is such a sweetheart, you'd get along great I'm sure.

LOVE YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS!!

Oh and how was Memorial Day weekend? I smelt so many bbq's going on and we got to hang out with the members at the park for a few hours but it was different. No camping for me this year! What did you all do?

This week there really aren't any updates. Sad. We got canceled on 3 times in a row by one investigator. 3 times! That was sad but hopefully this week will be better.

We've also been just trying to do a lot of finding. Not really door-to-door stuff like you imagine the typical missionary doing since NY is built a lot differently, but more like we go walk the streets advertising English class and ward parties and then go to the park and offer to show them different church videos.

This week for english class we've been working on pronunciation. With words like "beach" and "sheet" well, english class is pretty comical. I'm doing my duty as a missionary and trying to get them to not cuss so much. hahaha.

Oh, cool thing: Rachel Sandberg didn't get her visa in time (not cool part) but now she is serving her in New York with me! (way cool part) How crazy is that?! We are about as far as you can get from each other while staying in the mission so I have yet to see her, but later this month all the sisters are getting together for a huge meeting so I'll be able to talk to her then :) Rachel and I are tearin it up in NY together! Whoo!

-Hemana Watts

PS --There is an awesome General Conference talk by President Monson from October 2010 about being grateful.

[here's the link to his talk titled "The Divine Gift of Gratitude": http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude?lang=eng#d ]

Oh, and you ought to review the stripling warriors story too. Way good!

[here's the a link to the scripture story found in The Book of Mormon - Alma 56: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/56.47-48?lang=eng#46 ]

Key points from that story: 1- exact obedience is KEY. That's what brings REAL blessings. and 2- who taught them? Their mother's did! Listen to that woman, she knows what she's talking about!