6 Months!

9/15/2014

Hello my dearest family back at home in good ol Brigham City Utah, 

It is literally insane to think that it has been 6 months since I have left all of you and stepped into the mission field. It is really crazy to look back in my journal and read and see all the miracles that have taken place. All of the amazing stories and experiences that I have been though. All of the trials and hard ships that I have been through. All of the challenges that I have had to work to overcome. 6months and I can speak Hungarian well enough to be alone and not really worry about it. I have seen people come unto Christ. My view on missionary work, on the gospel, on people, on events, on doctrine, have all taken a different look, view. It is hard to see much of a change in yourself from week to week, but when you look back from the beginning it is awesome to see the growth that has taken place. I wouldn’t say I have changed much.. but I would say that I have become better in every aspect of my life. I have gained new attributes. I have gained new skills ( like cooking :) I could always cook.. but cooking good haha ) like... being even more patient with people and when certain events take place. I have gained more of the eternal perspective. I have learned and gained a greater, if not THE, definition of sacrifice. I have realized the true value of family and relationships that we have with each other. I have understood better the attribute of charity, and love, and going about doing good works. my testimony of the savior and his atonement and on the restoration and joseph smith have grown tremendously as I have shared it, even in a different language. I have come to know on a very personal level.. that Christ has suffered for all of our sins and pains and grievances. and that he has provided.. and has planned a perfect plan of happiness for each one of us. I have realized how much I love all of you. I have realized how much you all have sacrificed for me and all the things that you are doing and have done for me. these last 6 months have definitely been the hardest 6 months of my life.. even harder than 2 a days. .or anything babyish like that... but it has been probably the most benefiting thing.. the most rewarding thing.. because especially because I have grown in my relationships with all of you. especially my parents, my brothers, and Hannah. I believe the saying is true... you really don’t realize what you have.. FULLY REALIZE... what you have,.. or how much you are blessed with.. until it is temporarily taken from you. I’m lucky enough to be able to return to my family and loved ones. because truly... family.. and loved ones are what makes people rich. I love you guys!

so a little about my week! sounds like all of you had a busy week! love hearing that! ha glad everyone is healthy and well :) -- I am healthy as well.. I hope that I don’t curse myself.. but I haven’t got sick once. not even with a cold or anything. it’s been crazy. I have been crazy blessed. 

so this week! I have a lot of awesome things that I want to share with you all so I will go through these kind of fast! 

so this week was the first ever.... European woman’s conference. it was held in Germany. and Bednar was there... and a couple other apostles. it was the coolest thing. it was on the sport translation.. which they did pretty good with all the apostolic language all the apostles use. I could understand just about all of it. it is impossible to translate perfectly from Hungarian to English.. so when you get my letters.. and some of it is in Hungarian.. good luck :) ha google even struggles. but it was sooo cool to see. and all of our youth went.. even our girl investigators went! it was insane! I’m so shocked that they stayed! it was 2 hours long. elders Bednar's talk was amazing. even in Hungarian.. becuase that’s what we listened it in, it was great. we are very blessed for the woman that we have in our lives :) ,) 

then.. well. finally the cops called us in for an interrogation on our bikes being stolen. it was a good 30 min. interrogation.. which. the meeting was pointless.. what are they going to do with that info? ha it’s probably already in another country by now. ha but we had that Wednesday morning. was exciting. 

then... we had zone training this week.. president decided to come. it was heled here in győr. it was nice so we didn’t have to travel. it was good... kind of routine I thought. 

Saturday night we went to one of our investigators house.. and they had this dog. kind of big. and they decided to take it on a walk. and as we were watching them.. the little girl (7 years old ) was walking it. she rapped the leash around her wrist. and it was all good until the dog saw another dog it didn’t like.. then it took off! and the girl got dragged on the cement for a good 15 feet till I ran after her and the dog and stopped the dog and grabbed the leash to pull it back. it was kind of scary. she was all scrapped up n stuff. luckily I was a little in front of her as she was walking it and then it took off and just went right past me for a little ways till I caught up to it. crazy. 

then Sunday.. we met with the bishop and the councilors. which was great. finally they are starting to do more. always has been one of my goals. we made a ward mission plan with them. which.. dad.. what is ours? it made me think.. and heck! I’ve never made one before! idk what they usually look like!% and obviously they didn’t! so pretty much I made one! ha hopefully it’ll be good. actually I now it will be :) ha kind of have to get creative to get this ward involved. it’s fun though. 

that was about my week! kind of general! transfers are next week! so pday is on Tuesday next week. get my call that morning. probably be leaving. which is sad.. I have mixed feelings. but I’m excited. this transfer has flown. we have 3 people really close to baptism. and sindy and goldi are getting baptized in Oct. 11. which sucks because I will miss it.  other than that.. we have 12 progressing investigators.. tons of programs.. tons of good stuff going on in győr! 

so for my spiritual thought this week I want to talk a little about forgiveness.. and happiness. I hope and pray that you all will be able to pick something out.. and or learn something new as I say these things. 

I have been thinking and reading a lot  and teaching a lot about these two subjects. we have one investigator right now that has a grudge.. from a past bishop.. that she just can’t get over it. so here are my thoughts. 

hatred always fails and bitterness always destroys. what other thing.. what other virtue.. or characteristic.. does this world lack more that the capability to forgive.. to forget.. and to extend mercy? what difference would that make in this world if we could obtain these characteristics.? how many homes.. how many families.. how many relationships could be saved? 

where tiny molehills of misunderstanding grow into mountains of arguments. where people gain and hold onto grudges that they hold on to for years.. maybe even an life time. where people spend a majority of their lives blaming others.. nurturing grudges... and planning for redemption.  

in my opinion there is no genius.. or even peace.. in holding a grudge. or planning a comeback. and when people may say.. " I don’t get mad.. I just get even" yeah.. that might make a laugh or two happen.. but it only promotes retaliation and like.. a one.- man- upship. rather than mercy.. forgiveness... and forgetfulness. 

but there is great wisdom in restraint in turning the other check and in the process trying to overcome the evil with good. --- how many relationships.. how many families.. how many divorces... could be saved if only a small measure of repentance and forgiveness would be exercised? I know that forgiving.. and forgetting.. and extending mercy is not always easy. that it may not come quickly. put I promise all of you that if you will search for it with a sincerity of heart.. it will come. I encourage all of you to read matt. 5: 38- 41. matt 5:43-44. and matt. 6:14-15. 

for this level of compassion and love.. and forgiveness.. to turn the other check.. and to go the extra mile... it requires a self-discipline almost greater than we are capable of giving. it requires the ability to let go of our pride. it is not easy to reach. 

every parent should read the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15. over and over and over and over again. have we not all made mistakes? have we not all lived beneath ourselves from time to time? and have we not all also been in a position to extend a hand of forgiveness and fellowship?

fortunately, for us. we have been given the atonement. and we have been given to the power to rise above all those trials. and wounds. the willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. 

I challenge each one of you, to think of one thing, that you have held... or one thing that has been wrongfully thrown at you. one thing that is un fair. one thing that.. instead of planning to get even.. or holding it for a life time.. instead of hating.. and despising.. to love. to turn the cheek. to go the extra mile. to forgive and forget. for true forgiveness cannot be achieved without forgetting. there is no true forgiveness without forgetting. 

 love all of you and I love my savior. I am grateful for his atonement in my life and the lives of those we teach. and in all of our lives. for we all... will.. at one point or another.. call out in desperate need of mercy. And forgiveness.. and forgetfulness before our savior for our sins. 

love you! 

Elder Watson .

9/23/2014

OK! everyone get your google maps out.... and be prepared to look up pictures and info on my next city, next chapter, in my mission! this morning we received our transfer calls and my possibilities were almost limitless. and I was called to go to Széged! it is the farthest city to the south that we can go! it is right on the border. I’ve heard that it is a beautiful city. I will be serving with Elder Extrem. I have met with him one time at a zone conference a while back. he also served with elder carter once. he is going home in November.. so this next transfer. and so I will be his last companion. he is a good guy and I am excited to serve with him. we are actually white washing... into the city. that means that he is coming from Pápa and we are both bran new to the city.. which means that we will have no idea where anything is.. which that’ll make it an adventure!  we will probably get lost once or twice. we will have to start from scratch! which is fun. usually president white washes when there is no work going on in the city.. so he tries to get bran new people with new visions and dreams.. to get the work back and going. so I am super excited. I am sad to leave gyűr though.. luckily we already said all of our goodbyes on Sunday. I have definitely made some lifelong friends here. and I am super blessed and grateful for all the experiences.. and all of the blessings and miracles that I have witnesses. and all the growth that I have gained. it has been a  great journey here! -- when I get there I will be sure to take tons of pictures of everything! don’t worry :) this week will be interesting for sure! so tomorrow morning we will get on the train.. w3it hall my freaking bags.. and head to Buda and meet up.. then take even a longer train ride to szeged. we don’t know where the apartment is.. nothing. investigators are nonexistent. it’ll be fun :) next Mondays email will be interesting :) 

so I am so glad that everyone had a great week and I am sure that the temple dedication was amazing to attend! haha there is temples everywhere you look! for people here that would be a dream. I miss seeing or going to temples. 

so this week was super busy.. and super.. fun. and super.. exhausting. 

this transfer.. with me and elder Nichols has been really successful and we have got a lot of work done. and knowing that this week would probably be the last week together.. during weekly planning we set some pretty crazy goals. so the average.. for the mission.. of giving out book of Mormons is like.. 5 per week. well.. we decided 40. we got 46. ha and they weren’t just thrown out like candy.. they were well placed book of Mormons.. and we had about... 76% of them being new investigators, return dates, and phone numbers. it was super successful. we also wanted to give it our all this week. and just go out with a bang. so we counted up all the total possible working hours that we could possibly get.. that means.. we take off hours for studies. for meal times. for district meetings. church and stuff. there was a total of 51 working ours for the week. that is also including p dy. we only work 3 hours on Pday. so that was that! 51! and we names it.. 51 FOR THE SON. because "super standard" for the mission is 35 working hours and a working hour is either teaching or tracing or streeting. so that is a total of 8 hours of doing that per day. after you have studies.. and meals.. there is 8 hours to possibly work. anyway.. we busted our butts.. we even got sick half way through with a cold and ear aches and stuff.. but we pushed it and we got it!!!!! we had 20 other lessons, 6 people at church. 5 new investigators. 9 member presents. 5 RCLA.s and 21 finding hours. it was super crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was exhausting! I’m grateful that the lord blessed us with the strength to do it. and blessed us with success. each and every day.. as we worked as hard as we could.. we met people who were ready to receive the gospel. people who have been prepared. we witnessed a lot of miracles. it was an amazing week! we got our goal and gave 51 working hours for the SON! it should be a normal.. we are called to be full time missionaries.. it should be like that all the time. of course there is service projects.. but still.. the lords time is all the time! It was a spectacular week! 

here are some random things that I wanted to write about the week! 

some of the programs we had.. seemed, in the moment, going nowhere... but at the end.. when we say a prayer.. we look up and the investigator is crying. just goes to show that prayers can do some powerful things. 

we also went on splits this week.. that is when my comp got sick.. and then got me sick. I went with elder hancey into his companionship. it was fun. I don’t really like splits that much... sometimes they are really in-effective. 

mom.. Hannah, don’t worry! I got over my sickness! it was just a cold.. and a little ear ache and stuff like that! it’s starting to get really cold her really quick and everyone is getting sick. it’s supposed to be in the 30s this week. crazy! 

this Sunday.. there was this guy from Davis Utah in our ward that showed up. I guess he was on a business trip or something. we got to translate for him! -- speaking of Sunday.. it was a crazy day! we were asked to teach Sunday school to the youth. that was super fun. we talked about Christ like attributes and did some activities.. and talked about hit remedy and josivuseg! it was a super good lesson. then.. for some reason for priesthood meeting.. we were waiting in opening exercises... and none of the leaders showed up.. I guess they were in the meeting with the stake presidency, becuase they were there.. and they forgot to tell someone to start the meeting or something. anyway.. a half hour goes by.. and I just get up and said alright! let’s start! we sang and prayed.. announcements.. and all that jaz! ha it was crazy. so I got to lead that meeting.. under my own authority.. haha anyway! then after.. we got a big pic with everyone there since I was going to leave! idk if you have seen it yet or not.. I will send it in a minute! 

we played some basketball this week. I got some good pics. I kind of ended up dunking it one too many times..  I’ll send ya  a pic of my wrists. it was super fun! on the way there I ran into this old drunk guy at a stop light.. and he came up to me and said.. "fogunk harcoling?" meaning.. are we going to fight? ha and he was shaking his fists at me.. and I was like.. haha " nem, kosárlabdázzunk :) " haha it was way funny. 

lately.. with those four that are going on missions.. we have been calling some of our ligetitest.. investigators in.. the ones who are getting baptized.. and we had the boys role play. and we also brought those little kids in. it was great practice for them. it’s so cool and fun working with them :) 

tracing.. like I said.. we did tons of it. we walked sooo much. ha but as we asked for success. and gave it our all... we got that success. and get this. haha okay.. we found.. probably the biggest house in Hungary. it was on its own property.. it was a huge.. mansion.. and everyone said that some Hungarian ambassador.. or someone way HIGH lived there. haha my comp looked at me.. and I was like.. with a smile.. " LETS DO IT :) " ha we walk all the way up there.. enter their gate.. and knock on the door. this 28 year old girl comes out and is super nice. her husband.. is like 47 or something.. kind of weird.. but they were big hunters.. and we got into a good convo about that.. and they wanted to invite us to go hunting! and then they invited us in and gave up drinks and stuff! and we had a great talk about the book of Mormon.. and we exchanged contact info.. gave them a book of Mormon.. they loved us. we are planning on going back! super crazy! haha I have a good pic of me after that visit that I will send you guys :) it was a napoleon dynamite " YES.." look :) ha 

Saturday.. we got haircuts again and taught goldy and sindy because they are getting baptized in a week or so. then after.. we walk outside.. and there is a HUGE.. lightning storm! vagy.. electric storm! ever seen one of those!??? the cloud are crazy! and there is no noise.. just tons... of flashes of electricity! and it lights up the whole sky! it is soooo cool! I’ve never seen anything like it! and it doesn’t make boom noises or anything! crazy! 

anyway.. that was a quick update on my week this week! :) I am out of time but I can’t wait for next week’s email! :) and ps.. I will probably be in széged to skype :) coming around the corner! 

for my spiritual thought... I wanted dot talk about faith and optimism.. and the power of faith! 

I pray that hopefully someone reading this will get something out of this.. and we will learn something new! 

President Gordon B Hinckley said " my plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life, we accentuate the positive. I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, and that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort."  what said.. is that negativism sells. people love it more than positivism. look at the news for an example. we all look for the gossip.. saying " OH HE DID WHAT??'" -- a sustained. and steady diet of negative point of view has serious repercussions. it influences our attitudes, outlooks, and our standards and values. along with negativism.. is criticism. criticism.. to me. seems to be the prelude.. to divorce, to rebellion. and the catalyst to failure! why not.. instead of talking about the bad things.. talk about the good things. and talk about potentials? what difference would that make in the world? what difference would that make in America? in our families? in our relationships? to stop seeking out the storms of life.. but to look through the clouds and find the sunlight. optimism brings that enduring feeling of hope. I found this one talk, through a member..  it was by this leader of England.. at the time the German attacks. and it was a desperate time for England. England wanted to give up. but this was their leaders response. " we shall not flag or fail.. we shall fight in France, we hall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the street, we shall fight in the hillside. 

this guy saw the victory thought he dark clouds. when no one else did. we must look. we are creatures of our thinking,. we CAN talk ourselves into defeat, or we CAN talk ourselves into victory. ours is the choice. we must look and have faith. honestly. let’s think about it. could not any of us say that if we had greater faith.. in god.. who with him we have such a  strong faith that he gives us power to accomplish anything... if we had greater faith in HIM... we could do better than we are now doing? there is no obstacle to great, no challenge too difficult. if we have that kind of faith. faith is a power! it’s not some kind of philosophical thing! it’s a power! Christ has said.. he who has faith in me.. shall have power to do all things whatsoever is expedient in me. 

if there is any one thing that you or I need, to help us find success and fulfillment in this world.. it is faith. the kind of faith that moves us to get on our knees to plead with the lord for guidance, and then, having a measure of divine confidence... to get on our feet and go to work to help bring to pass those desired results that we all want! that’s the kind of faith that I am talking about. 

let us all strive this week to gain that kind of faith. let us practice it. 

I love you all! 

Watson Elder. 

9/29/2014

my csodalatos family!!!!!

wow! what a busy week is was this week!  I loved all of your guys emails that I got! it sounds like it has been starting to rain a lot and it’s starting to look like fall! can you believe it’s already October almost? that Christmas is almost right around the corner again? 

For me this week kind of felt super long.. but at the same time it felt super short!  and I found out that I hate.. packing. ha and carrying your stuff on those trains and all he transportation that they have here is a nightmare. but I made it safely somehow in szeged!

so this was my day on Wednesday. I woke up at 6 o clock. I got ready and stuff and finished packing and made the train at 7:30 to Budapest. we all got to kelleti train station and we waited for everyone else to show up. I went out to eat in the mall that they have close by and then I had to run to the mission home, on the other side of Buda pest, to get my new phone and to get the apartment keys! because apparently we actually opened up a new companionship. which will get to that in a minute. anyway. I went with another elder that needed to get to the mission home too to get his driver’s license and my comp hadn’t shown up yet. so we went through the underground trams under the river, and then we walked to the mission home. Budapest is a mess. it is so busy and so crowded. kind of like new York or something like that.  then I ended up having to wait at the mission home for like 3 hours waiting for the senior couple, who were in the new greenie missionary meeting, to get my stuff from them. soon as I got that.. and the other people picked up their license and their new car.. I had them take me back to kelleti. well.. I made the mistake of ridding with elders who never served in Budapest. so well... long story short, we got lost and it took us about an hour to get back. ha as I got back, I met with my comp. we had to go to a completely different train station on the other side of the city to get a train that was going south to szeged. we made the trip over there and got on the train for a 3 and a half hour train ride from buda to szeged. super long. by the time we got to szeged it was super dark and we had no idea where to go. ha the zone leaders picked us up and took us to the apartment and as we entered.... it was a big junk. it was so messy.. so dirty.. spider webs everywhere... no one has cleaned this place in like 10 years... that kind of look. anyway, we went out to eat again that night because it was like 8 o clock and we had no food.. no nothing so we had no other choice. then we just came back and got our bedding out.. choose 1 out of the 5 beds that we have, which is not too big of a difference because they all are kind of terrible, and went to bed. the next morning we went shopping and unpacked and started cleaning. oh yeah! and half of the lights in our apartment didn’t work either.. so that’s where my head lamp came in handy. ha so we couldn’t see anything! it was a long day! lots of traveling.

to make long stories short... each day since then.. for comp study.. we have been cleaning our apartment. we have thrown so many things away... we have got new cleaning supplies because there was none here... ( luckily they are all re-embersable ) and we cleaned the spider webs.. probably killed like 100 of them. we called our land lord and they came and fixed the lights.. the fuse was just out. small fix. then we cleaned the kitchen.. mopped.. re washed a lot of things. cleaned out the fridge. JUST TONS OF CLEANING. and Organizing. ha it is looking really good now :) it went from one of the crappiest things I’ve seen.. to one of a pretty dang good looking place :) ha for an apartment in Hungary on a mission.

anyway. so we have done tons of cleaning. we have an AC and we actually turned it on the first night. ha its getting super cold here.. like.. down in the 30s. someday. and we are starting to wear warmer clothes. people see us sometimes and they think we are crazy. -- the apartment is super nice though.. its super big and open. I like that. my bed isn’t tooooo bad. could be tons better.. but its livable. I got all my books.. pictures.. out on my table.. as you could see in the pictures. I’m all situated. and it actually I thought it would take longer to adjust.. but it was super quick. the first night I couldn’t sleep at all! but everything is super good now!

we had our first English class... which was cool. we are teaching the intermediate class. there are some cool people here. we are getting a  new building that was just built. so we are moving into that church building next week. super excited for that. its super nice.

we came in, and as opening up a new companionship... we have 0 investigators.. 0.. everything really. ha so this last eek.. and this upcoming week.. we have been tracing all day every day. we have walked more in these last three days.. than I have my whole life combined. ha although we have been exhausted.. we have seen miracles take place. we ended up this week with 3 really new and really sweet legit new investigators. I will tell you a story about one of them for my spiritual thought in a minute. :)

our elders that are with us in our district are cool! they definitely. my comp is elder ekstrom. he is from Alaska. he is super cool and totally down to work hard  and to have a great last 2 months of his mission. I was happy to hear that :) one of the elders in our district reminds me of randon. ha its hilarious.

on Friday. As we went finding.. we ran into this college library.. they have a huge college here in szeged. tons of people speak English. I’ve even met more Americans going to school here than I did in gyur. szeged is a beautiful, super clean city. its bigger than gyur. and mom.. my address is futalmadas 30 :) ha --- anyway. we ran into this library. and we went in to check out the emailing.. and computers.. and they are letting us email for free.. for however long we want! its supper nice and it saves me a ton.. of money. ( and yes, transfers are expensive.. especially at the end of the month! have to buy all’ll new food.. all new crap. it sucks. but we got money today, so I’m good :)  -- also in szeged there are a ton of awesome.. buildings. you could see some in the pictures that I sent you. I will take more because there is tons more. this city really is super cool. it’s definitely one to go to when I come back.

Saturday, we had our first sport nap and they take it super seriously here.. ha there are even 40 year old guys out here going super hard playing soccer. it is so funny. I just stand out of the way so I don’t get hurt. they are super good at soccer though. that’s for sure.

anyway! I made it to szeged! I’m all adjusted in our apartment. on Sunday we got to meet the ward and I got to introduce myself in sacrament meeting.. it was awesome :) haha I decided to throw in " so I love to fish... and so if anyone wants to take me fishing one time... call me!" ha and right after sacrament meeting 3 people came up to me and was like I love fishing! and we talked about fishing for a while. ha soooooooo my mission goal of going fishing once might come true this transfer. ha -- ward is super nice, super cool! everything is well here in szeged! :) there is nothing to complain about! :)

so for my spiritual thought this week I wanted to share an experience that me and my companion had this week, and the convo and the feelings that we had after the experience.

this happened on Saturday. on Friday night we sat down in our kitchen table and I pulled out the map and we started our nightly planning. as we started we started with a prayer and we specifically asked for guidance on where to go and where we could find those people who have been prepared. because heck! this city is huge and we know here nothing is at.. and there has to be prepared people everywhere! you just have to find them! so we prayed for that and I had a feeling come to me shortly after that that we should go down in this specific area across the bride on the left side. it was still a big area to tract but we took that as our answer and we planned it. that next day, we went out and started. it took us like 25 min to walk there. and for some reason that day we were already super tired, sore, and it was already getting hard. ha but we kept going. we knocked on about 10 doors and every one of them was either not home.. or they just shut the door on us. we then, had the feeling to go down this one street and ring one of the bells at this apartment complex. we rung the first one and we waited for about 5 minutes. the next thing we know there is this pretty jacked (muscle) guy walking out the door with some dry cleaning and some other things in his hands. he comes to the fence and he was like (hey, how can I help you? are you searching for anyone? ) and then I started to talk to him and tell him how we wanted to talk to everyone today and blah blah blah.. (in Hungarian) then he said ( well you speak really good Hungarian, and I don’t think these bells work. I just came out because I had to go run some errands.) then as I started to tell him that we wanted to talk to everyone about this special message that we have and about this book called the book of Mormon he stopped and he was like.. ( well I’m budest. and I don’t want to change religions.) and he was really turned off. but then I decided I would start talking to him about working out. because he was big I assumed he did. and he did. he taught kettle ball. we talked about that for a minute.. and then he started to ask questions about us. and why we are here and etc. as soon as he found out we were American he started speaking his English to us. ha he spoke pretty good actually. then.. this is when it started to hit. this is when he finally trusted us a little bit and he opened up. he said that when he was in 11th grade he went to America as a foreign exchange student and he stayed with a Mormon family in Arizona. and he said that he had a really good experience with them. then he came back.. got married. and him and his wife wanted to go back to America. so they did.. and that family, the Mormon family, was nice enough to host them for a little bit. after a while.. it was too hard to find work and his wife was having problems.. and they decided to come back. well.. I guess his wife ( Hungarians will tell you crazy stuff like this in your first meeting.. some of the stuff I’ve been told is crazy ridiculous.)  she has had this problem before they were married... but he thought he could handle it. but now he couldn’t and well.. 3 days before we talked to him, they divorced. he has 2 kids. one 6 year old and one 3 year old. he went then, into talking about how his life is super hard and he is trying to rearrange it and re organize it. and as soon as he said that.. it hit me really hard that this is the man that I was supposed to find today. his name is Tomas. long story short, we talked to him for a little longer. And we turned him into being not interested.. to meeting with us again. as soon as he left, because he had to go run errands, my comp and I looked at each other in awe. we couldn’t believe it. we started talking to each other about this: IF WE didn’t show up.. on this exact day, in this exact moment, in this exact place.. when he was walking out of the door to go do dry cleaning, and if we hadn’t have done what we did the night before.. and if we would have given up or went another route.. or anything different than what we did.. we would not have found this man. as you can see.. from a young age this man has been being prepared.. and has been introduced to the gospel. and now, in his curtail changing moment in his life.. we show up on his front porch. ---- it was a big testimony builder and faith builder for me and my comp. we talked about it for the rest of the day. the rest of the day we tried and we had absolutely 0 success. we were sent that day.. to find Tomas. --- the lord has a plan for each one of us. he loves us. he is looking out for us. he is putting things in our path for one reason or another. he is making sure that we have the happiest brightest future we could possibly have. I was foreordained to come here, at this specific time, to meet and to talk to and to find specific people. The lord is mindful of all of us. as you can see this man has been introduced 3 times to this gospel. he has been prepared. as we go out every day.. and work. and find. and tract.. even if we feel like we have no success.. we get doors slammed in our face every day. we are at least giving people an opportunity to hear this gospel. and because of that.. we are doing what we have been sent here to do whither it is to plant more seeds.. or whither it is to harvest. whither they accept to be baptized.. or it’s just not their time yet... we are doing the lords work, in his own time table , with his standards. we are truly servants of the lord entitled to his revelation. He loves his children!

have a great week this week! be safe!

Watson Elder