Back at it:

After a little vacation time at home to have ACL surgery, I'm back in NY, back in Dyker Heights, back into the Spanish, back into the daily study time, back into chasing after buses, back into eating chino bake everyday - back into the wonderful life of a missionary(:

It wasn't all easy peasy to get back into though.

The decision alone just about had me.

Flashback:

Tuesday, January 14th, the night I told my parents I wouldn't be going back out on a mission but that I would be staying home, working until school came around, and taking care of one of the sweetest girls you would ever meet who's mom recently had a tragedy and wound up in a comma. I couldn't leave her in such a state. I thought it was a worth while cause, as did my parents, but they also knew that there was something even better I could be doing with my time. The disappointment was obvious, their faces said it all, but they didn't stay quiet for long as they went on to explain that I had agency, it was my choice and I would have their full support BUT they believed that finishing up what I started, that is, serving the Lord in NY for another year, was the appropriate thing to do at this time.
They didn't push, they simply tried to widen my vision.

 I left the conversation with the intent to think things over. After watching Tangled, my eyes, swollen from excessive cries of confusion, were heavy and I gave in. I woke up the next morning with places to go and people to see. As tradition would have it, I was running late to meet up with Andrea and Cassandra for breakfast. Right before I ran out the door I got a call from my Stake President saying that I had just received permission from mission headquarters to return to the mission so long as I followed the guidelines my physical therapist had given me. He told me I would be flying out Monday morning and my itinerary would be sent ASAP. I told the news to my father, gave him a quick hug, then left before the dam could break and release another waterfall of tears.

Who would've ever guessed I was such a cryer?!

Munching on bagels and sipping our fresh squeezed OJ - the perfect setting to break the news. Cass and Andrea, after talking about school and finances for the first 20 mins, decided it was time to ask me what I was up to. Casually I said, "Well, I'm heading back to New York on Monday." The looks on their faces reflected what I was feeling inside, they were quite priceless as they changed from confusion (Did they hear me right?), to shock (That's less than a week!), to excitement (NY!), to sadness (But we'll miss you!), to happiness for me since after 6 months of waiting I was back to doing what I wanted to do - serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Though that was entertaining to watch and answer all of the questions that followed, I'm quite proud of the way I delivered the new to my precious mother. 

After breakie and a bit of shopping at T.J. Maxx for some hidden treasures, it was time to head to the dentist. My mom is a spectacular hygienist. I went to her office to get my teeth cleaned and we jumped right into talking about how breakfast went, how my friends were, what their families are doing, and all of that good jazz. Her boss came in shortly after that to checkup on me and after asking if I have any cool plans for the week I told him, "Well I leave on Monday so I assume my weekend will be consumed in the packing process."

My mother, bless her heart, then asks, "And where exactly are you going to on Monday?"

My happy reply: "New York!"

My mom: "I'm so glad I get to find out that my daughter leaves to New York for a year at the same time the rest of the office does. I thought you might have the decency to tell your mother about those things first." Her boss and I just started laughing, in fact, even as I type this I'm laughing! I can still picture her in her scrubs with a look of both shock and humor.

It was a surprise to her as well as myself.

But the main surprise to me was how much peace I felt after I had FINALLY made the official decision to return to New York to do missionary work.

Before I had so many mixed thoughts and emotions. I couldn't sort it all out. I was having such a wrestle!

Wrestle.

 That reminds me of a familiar story, the one of Joseph Smith when he was trying to pray to know which church was true and he experienced the powers of the devil trying to stop him.

Or when Enos tells of his big repentance story and he tells "of the wrestle which [he] had" (Enos 1:2).

That wrestle is Satan trying to stop us from accomplishing a great work. Why on earth would he want another missionary out on the streets of New York telling people they can be with their family for forever, that when we do wrong we can be forgiven, teaching them that it doesn't just stop at the bible but it includes the Book of Mormon as well since there were prophets in the Americas too. In fact, there still is! We have a living prophet today named Thomas S. Monson! Why would God, who loves us sssoooo much, leave us without any direction? No way folks. He has given us a prophet for just that reason, to lead and guide His church. HIS church! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the good news!

Here is your official invite to learn more! Feel free to ask me about any questions you have - that's what I'm here for!

You can also visit this website: https://www.lds.org.

 

¿Que? I hurt my knee how badly?!

[NOTE: Dawn just found out that she’s coming home to have knee surgery due to a torn ACL and damaged meniscus.  She was hoping that surgery could wait until after her mission BUT doctors in NYC and SLC have evaluated her MRI and they all feel she needs surgery ASAP to avoid further damage.  Once she's recovered from the knee surgery, she plans to get right back out as a missionary again!]

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To be honest I think I'm still in shock over the news. I'm going home? That shouldn't be right. Of course I'm thrilled to see everyone, don't get me wrong there. Buttt, it's going to be heartbreaking to leave NY. You hear people who have been out for 2 years say "I feel like I just started." Well, imagine me! I'm just trying not to think about it though. Elder Jensen who was my first district leader and who went home after my first transfer said "don't think of going home as ending your mission, think of it as being transferred." Well, that's exactly what I plan on doing! And yes, I will finish up strong. In fact we just committed someone to baptism yesterday :)

I love you all and I'm excited to see you all soon - after I do some more work that is!!

-- Hermana Watts

P.S. -- I forgot to share the coolest thing ever about all of this!!

So shortly after I got the initial injury (April 15, 2013) I asked Elder Jensen for a blessing. I needed comfort but I also needed to heal fast. I don't remember everything he said, but one thing he blessed me with is that my injury would not impede my work as a missionary. Well guess what, even though my ACL is barely holding together and I have a torn meniscus, I've been hiking the streets of NY, kneeling to say my prayers, and playing soccer every Saturday with investigators just fine. Yet the doctors said if I step off a curb slightly wrong I'm going to finish the tear. Well guess what, due to that priesthood blessing, some faith, and some good fortune, I've been totally fine up to this point. I know if we put ourselves in the Lord's hands he will strengthen us just like it says in Philippians 4:13  - "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

from your NY girl

Life is great! Nelly (a woman who was less active for a long time and is just starting to get back into the habit of it all at church) just had her baby boy this week! He is so dang precious! It was heartbreaking not to hold him but I learned my lesson last time I held a little one. I'd be okay if I didn't break any more chairs.

We also got to participate in a fiesta on Saturday! After soccer, Hermano Valdetano (the one who just recently got back from serving in D.C. and the one who always gives us ice cream) took us all out to Five Guys, and then after getting ready, we went to the church to help out with wedding prep! We went with the idea that wedding prep meant helping with food and welcoming people but to my pleasant surprise, I actually got to be on camera duty! :D This was a wedding for two members of the ward who I just adore. When Hermana Cano, the bride, walked in, we just wanted to take picture after picture. Her son, who's my age, ending up breaking out his super nice canon camera and said "if you can figure it out you can use it." So that's exactly what I did! The picture quality was wonderful and I loved snapping shot after shot. Of course, once we moved on from bride shots, wedding cakes shots, flowers, and rings, well, I was lost. Groups of people are not my forte. I turned the camera over to Elder Martinez and he was an expert! Dude he's so good with photography. We are now hoping for another wedding soon so we can team up and have picture time again. haha.

But wait, wait, wait, though the wedding was awesome wanna hear about another highlight for the week? Not to put anything else down but probably my favorite part of the week was that I got to drive!!!!! We were at the church when all of a sudden we had an emergency and needed to go home. Because the Zone Leaders were there and they have a car, they let us borrow it so we could actually get home quickly instead of rely on public transportation. Since my comp doesn't have a license that automatically put me on driving duty and I was alright with that! So now I can officially say I've driven in crazy NY traffic. Boo-ya. It felt so nice to actually be behind the wheel again!!! Freedom!!! It was funny though. Hermana Sanchez and I are so used to being on buses, whenever I would drive past a bus stop, it just felt wrong! We were supposed to stop there, not just drive past it.

The work here, well, it's a little slow moving right now. Not that that's anything new. We are starting to pick up the pace, as we are seeing more and more people interested during the different finding activities we are involved with, but nothing is hands down official yet. Gladys has been hard to meet with since her brother and sons just moved in with her family and she has yet to find a new apartment for all of them. We're trying to help her in her search but it's hard! There are a lot of sketchy people just advertising false places in hopes of making some $$ and then the real ones get taken pretty darn fast. Oh well, we'll keep trying, that's all there is to it. We are meeting with a new family tonight to have FHE with them. They have kiddos and yeah, I'm excited. A real FHE!

I hope y'all have a fun Monday night as well and enjoy all that wonderful family time :)

Love you lots!

-- Hermana Watts, your NY girl
(never thought I'd say that. wow. the mish really does change things up.)

that's right, I'm the new ward pianist

You know I sometimes wonder when I will finally start acting like a "grown-up". The other day we found this humungous cockroach in our house, meaning I totally used it to play a little prank on the Elders! (yes, it was dead) And then I hear you saying how you were going to go out and have a prank night yourselvs and I just laugh and say "well that's where I get from!" You're awesome mom, keep it up! Love ya :)

Dyker is wonderful. Yesterday morning we had a meeting with the bishopric because they just decided that they wanted to start getting more involved on the missionary front. They hardly work with them. I've pretty much only ever talked to the bishop to say hi and then we had a 2-sentence-each conversation this week because he asked if I could play the piano for sacrament meeting. (That's right, I'm the new ward pianist. It's scary!) But they want to get the whole ward involved and working together. Some of the things we are doing include: a ward fast next month for missionary work, we are going to try to get our mission president to come speak to our ward, and each week from now on we are going to have either a missionary speak or a member speak (just like 5 mins at the very end) to share an experience and bear their testimony on missionary work. I'm so excited that everyone is started to get involved! I know it's going to make a huge difference so I'm excited :)

One of the best things about this change is we had a member tell us this week that she has a lot of friends she wants us to go visit. When we asked her why she hasn't told us before she said she's waiting for the ward to shape up before she gives them to us as referrals. Yeah. Isn't that just sad? So hopefully we can do just that and fix up the ward a tad bit. I think it's awesome, but apparently there is drama and gossip (mainly via Facebook) that happens all the time. Sad, right?

Q: How was it this Sunday?
A: This Sunday we had 4 investigators to church! We were oh so totally not expecting that (the Caballeros are iffy church goers but the 2 oldest girls came yesterday. woo-whoo!). Best news of the week, Griselda, the lady who knows gospel stuff oh so well since she grew up in the FLDS church, just left her husband.  We will meet with her later this week to see how we can help her now. Pray for her!!!

This week, the funny/gross story is that my comp and I nearly got peed on. We had our lemonade stand all set up (I feel like a little girl when I say that but it's true. We go out once a week to the park to pass out free lemonade and advertise for english class) when all of a sudden my comp felt something, looked around, and this kid who was like 6-years-old just had his pants down and was peeing right in front of us. Luckily she caught my attention before he could get me too. Oh NY. The weird things that happen…

Oooh! Another fun thing that happened this week was I got to be part of a surprise baby shower for a less active we've been working with! It was so cool and she was definitely surprised. And this upcoming Saturday guess what? It's wedding time! As Anna says "Mexicans sure know how to party" so I'm excited. First wedding in the mish so far and more to come I hope.

Q: So how are you spending your days currently?
A: We have a "finding" activity at least once a day meaning we go to the park and talk to people, inviting them to a bunch of different events, or we go to 5th Ave. where all the Hispanic stores are located, meaning Hispanic people are in that area, and we do the same thing. We visit with quite a few less active people and besides that, well, just trying to look up people in our ward we don't know, and stuff.

Q: How are dinner appointments going?
A: They rarely happen, but when they do they are often with a less active family we don't know so it's the perfect time to get to know them and share a message. It has its ups and downs. I'll sacrifice some food to get to know those in need though. It's so worth it.

Q: Have they made any changes in your mission since the fireside?  Do you have a mission FB now?  Are you doing tours of the meetinghouses?
A: No big changes yet due to that conference but you just wait and see...big things are bound to happen soon! I hear we will get FB soon since we are one of the missions with the most media referrals but we will just have to wait and see.

Q: Anything we can send from home?  Any needs??
A: I don't need anything except keep up the prayers for my investigators.  But luckily the Jews and all their modest stores are close. I might try their sale stores soon. I don't know why I wear-through clothing so fast. What’s wrong with me?? :(

Well, my district decided to have a nice district breakfast this morning. We made baleadas and since Elder Martinez used to work at Jamba Juice we had Jamba as well. Man, it was ssoooooo gooood! We have zone activity today so I better get going.

I hope all is well! I love you lots!

-- Hermana Watts

P.S. --  I think the doc is being silly.  I don't know why I would have to have surgery if I can walk but I'm sending the CD of my MRI to Utah so they can take a look at it and then we will go from there.