Coming Home - June 8, 2022

 

Julie Lozada was on the same flight from Dallas

Brother Jason Nash and Joseph

Craig Freeze and Joseph were on the same flight from Sao Paulo

Layla was so excited to see Joseph!

Getting released

With President Dobbs

Joseph, Andrew Lish, Justin Thompson, Larsen, Craig Freeze, Emma Warnick, Amy Jamieson, Drew Woodman, Matt Rice, Tyson Freeze, Tyson's friend, Melanie and Luis Guillen

The Army of Helaman

Hey everyone!

This week has been so great! Yesterday, the branch threw a going away party for me after sacrament meeting. The kids in the branch invited all of their friends to come, and a bunch of them came! We ended up having 8 nonmembers in our small sacrament meeting, 6 of them between the ages of 9 and 14. One of them came up to us after and asked if she could be baptized! All of them had big smiles on their faces and participated in the meeting. Our small meeting house was filled to the brim. Afterwards, the kids all came up and gave me notes.

This week I also participated in my last zone conference, which meant I got the opportunity to bear my testimony. Here are some of my reflections of the past three years:

At the start of my mission, the anxiety and stress of adjusting to completely different culture led me to seriously question about God and religion for the first time in my life. I had felt the spirit before in my life, but, if I was to dedicate 2 years to preaching the gospel, I had to be sure.

I prayed fervently and scoured the scriptures for an answer. After a few weeks, an answer came. It was a cold morning, and with no heating in our house I was wrapped up in every warm thing I could find, trying to focus in my morning scripture study. As I read the account of Jesus Christ praying for the children in 3 Nephi 17, I was suddenly filled with a warmth. It was like a hug from heaven, and I felt strongly that the Book of Mormon was true and that he knew and loved me.

Looking back, that memory seems engraved in my mind; a moment when I received a personal witness from my Heavenly Father that he was there and that this is his true church. Since that time I have come to know my Savior more than ever before. He has taught me and led me, and has been my constant light. He is my friend, he has healed me again and again. I love Him, and I know He lives!

In two weeks, I will be coming home, but my mission is not over. I look forward to a lifetime of service to my Savior :)

Hope you all have a great week, look forward to seeing you all soon!

Love 💙,

Elder Watts

Sunset from Distrito M

Temple!!

Proselyting in the Rain

Me pretending to be a fish

Branch going-away party

Steady in the Storms

Hey!

This week we received a warning that "the worst storm Uruguay has seen in years" was about to hit, with forecasted high winds, hail, and a nationwide tornado warning. The storm arrived Tuesday evening and ended Wednesday in the morning. Thankfully, we passed the storm peacefully indoors, though one of the members we've been working with lost the roof to their house.

The storm reminded me of a recent conference talk given by Elder Henry B. Eyring titled 'Steady in the Storms'. In this talk, Elder Eyring emphasizes that we can be steady in the Storms because of Jesus Christ, who is our foundation. He then talks about how we can achieve this hope in Jesus as we follow the counsel of King Benjamin to become "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him" (Mosiah 3:19).

Being here in Vergara has given me a greater appreciation of becoming as a child. This past Sunday, we had twice as many kids as adults, and three of the kids were nonmembers. One of the kids casually commented "when I thought about coming to church, I felt God hugging me. I believe in God now." Another, in her first time ever at church, had the courage to stand and testify that God loves us.

We can learn a lot from these examples of simple faith and following the Lord's will. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Watts

Storm!

A video of the storm from a nearby town:

District Photo

Exchanges

Temple Tour with Evelia

Awesome pizza with French fries, eggs, nacho cheese, and pineapple

Training Elder Superman

Hi!!

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote! Just as we received the final group of reassigned missionaries and things were finally returning to a sense of normalcy, I got word that I would be leaving the office to train in a new area. I loved my time in Aeroparque, but I'm excited now for a new rhythm:)

My new area is called Vergara. It is a small town in the middle of Uruguay where I estimate the human to horse ratio to be about 1:1. Most of the people here work in rice agriculture in a nearby plant. We are in a small branch with about 20 active members. We are opening the area, and have been received warmly.

The Branch President on our first day had us come over and commented that he had been praying for the missionaries to be able to return. He is one of the best people I have ever met. He was baptized just over 7 years ago, and has been branch President ever since. Twice now he has set aside time to go out with us for multiple hours at a time.

My new companion is Elder Zimmerman (Which is hard for the Uruguayans to say so he gets called Elder Superman). He is positive, dedicated, and an all-around great person. I'm excited to be his companion!

This past week we set our first baptismal date in the Area! We had a lesson with a part member family and one of unbaptized daughters told us she wanted to be baptized. It's incredible to see how the Lord has prepared this town 😃.

Hope you all loved Conference as much as I did! Love you all!

-Elder Watts

Day 1

Jony (a cool member we went out with)

Vergara

Sweater Weather

Sunset

Drawing from one of the kids in the branch

Drawing from another one of the kids in the branch

Group photo from in-between-conference birthday snack

Lightning 😃

Elder Zimmerman

The Last Wave

Hi everyone!

Things in the mission have been busy as ever, but super great! Last week we received a group of 18 resigned missionaries from the states, the last wave 😁. All of us in the office breathed a collective sigh of relief from finally ending 3 months of nonstop missionary arrivals and constant change and adaption.

As we transition from mission "survival mode" to a more normal mission cycle, we've shifted our focus to exchanges and training the new missionaries in the Uruguay Montevideo Mission. This last week Elder Merrill and I did 3 exchanges in Melo (Woo!) and this next week Elder Molina and I will do 5 more exchanges here in Montevideo. Our companions will be doing the same, for a total of 10 exchanges and 20 missionaries just this next week. Pretty soon, we will have done exchanges with every missionary that has recently arrived in the mission. I'm so excited, and I'm looking forward to working all week in the field doing missionary work 💪.

Recently in my personal study I've been reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover marking every single reference to Jesus Christ and his attributes. Reading from this perspective, the following verse took on a new meaning:

Mosiah 7:33

But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

President Nelson has taught that the Lord loves effort. When we put our trust in God and turn to him with full purpose of heart, he recognizes our effort and delivers us from the trials we find ourselves in. I invite you all to give your all to the Lord with full purpose of heart. I promise that he will lift you up and heal you!

Hope you all feel of God's love this week 💛.

-Elder Joseph Watts

Missionaries of the Montevideo East Stake

Assistants with President and Sister Escobar

Picture with Julio (A friend we've been teaching with a baptismal date for next week)

Exchange in Gianola with Elder Permann

Exchange in Rio Branco with Elder Noorda

Exchange in Camino Carrasco with Elder Morrill

Seeing Elder Garcen leave for his mission at the airport
(He was in my second area, now he's going to Chile)

Back in Melo

 Hi everyone! 😃

Happy president's day!  Hope everything is going well!

This week I had the wonderful opportunity to leave the office for a week and head out to the  farthest reaches of the mission in interchanges (exchanges?).  Elder Peterson and I spent two days in Rio Branco, a little town on the border of Uruguay and Brazil and two days in Gianola, the first ward I served in after coming back to Uruguay almost three months ago.  It was so great being back in my old area!  The best part was seeing the progress of some of the people I had the privilege of teaching earlier.  

We stopped by to see Alfredo, the 'gaucho' recent convert we had found in my first week.  He greeted us with a warm smile and told me how he almost drowned at his baptism, but other than that he's been doing great!  

One of the less active members we had worked with just returned from a trip to the temple!  

We went to a couple of lessons with one of the youths in the ward who just finished his mission papers and we were able to teach a powerful lesson on faith to his nonmember aunt using the classic excuse "I'm going on a mission soon and I need to practice".  

We found a part-member family, and though the Dad seemed uninterested at first, at the end of the lesson he thanked us and told us that it was very well said.  I don't think it was the words we said, there was a wonderful spirit as we bore testimony of gospel blessings :)

Serving in the office has a lot of ups and downs, so it was really nice this week to take a step back and be out in the field all week.  I relate a little bit more to Alma stepping down from the judgement seat to go and preach the gospel :)

Also, fantastic scripture:

Ether 12:4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

I love the description of faith as an anchor!  It grounds us and holds us steady in deep waters.

Have a great week!

-Elder Watts

Exchange with Elder Cardozo 

Street contacting with one of our ward missionaries Ever Gutierrez 

Secret shortcut through our area 

Visiting Alfredo with Elder DeLaMare 

Day 5 of Quarantine - I haven't showered in weeks 😄

Hi everyone!

These past few weeks have been wild. A couple weeks ago, half the office contracted COVID during a week of the arrival of over 20 missionaries, including my companions Elder Molina and Elder Peterson. With the rest of us working double time, we managed to help the arrivals get to their areas with trainings and full stomachs. It was a long week, but thankfully this is the Lord's work and everything worked out. 😄💪

Last week, things started to slow down and we thought we were in the clear, but just as we were gearing up for another wave of missionaries, I tested positive for COVID earlier this week. 😬😅  I've been in quarantine since, along with my poor companion Elder Molina who is quarantining for the second time.😅

We have a saying in this mission, "Somos flexibles, nos adaptamos" (We're flexible, we adapt). Between flight cancelations, positive covid tests, and a million other surprises our plans are constantly in flux. It's been great though to see the hand of the Lord come through to help mission work progress!

On a more spiritual side, we got the awesome opportunity to meet Belén and Ezequiel. They have been taught in the past, and at the beginning of our first lesson with then they told us they had a testimony of the Book of Mormon! Even though we were in quarantine, we had a member visit them while we participated by Zoom. We had an awesome lesson, and our member friend invited to take them to church this Sunday! The work continues even when we're stuck inside!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

Love 💗 ,

Elder Watts

P.S. We have a new Facebook page titled La Luz de Cristo en Uruguay and we're really excited for the new content we'll be uploading! Check it out!

Me with Elder Peterson

Unfortunate road trip encounter

Virtual Temple Tour with some members

Fried Chicken 😋

Also, a video of a crazy thunderstorm that caused flooding (taken from our balcony):