Día de Independencia

Hola Todos,

Yesterday was the Uruguayan independence day. The celebrations were honestly a little lackluster. There were no fireworks or big parties, there were just a lot of outdoor barbecues and we sang the national anthem in sacrament meeting (Though I mostly just mumbled along).

We had a super spiritual charla with a new interested person named Pablo. He is super humble and has had a hard life. He already has a testimony of prayer as in key moments in his life he has prayed and received the answers he needs. We shared the restoration and then read Mosiah 24 from the Book of Mormon together. As we talked about what we read he said "God is trying to tell me to be patient, and that he will help me." The spirit was super strong. At the end of the lesson, he prayed and cried as he thanked God for sending us to his door. He promised to come to church and is making plans to turn his life around. We are super excited for him.

Anyways, sorry for a short email, not a lot of time to write. Love you all and hope that you guys have an amazing week,

Elder Watts

At the Naval Museum

At the Naval Museum

At the Naval Museum

Uruguayan mjolnmir

 Insights from scripture study 

When it rains it pours

Hola Todos,

This week we had a zone conference where we finally received long rumored smartphones. The applications of this great tool have already become apparent. For instance, texts which used to take 3 minutes now can be typed in mere seconds. This has allowed us to maintain daily contact with all of our investigators, and it's way easier to share scriptures, videos, conference talks, invitations, and support with the people we are teaching. The Lord is certainly hastening his work.

Yesterday we were blessed to be able to ordain Alvaro to the Aaronic priesthood. He is already preparing to enter the temple to do baptisms for the dead, and his Dad came with him to church. He also offered to make us lunch and was talking with the bishop about whether he should pay tithing and fast offerings for this month or wait till next month. We couldn't be happier for him. We also had a long inactive family attend church yesterday, which was a miracle. They have had a lot of struggles recently but they are trying to make changes and we are super excited for them.

This past week I read in Helaman 6 when the Lamanites are more righteous than the Nephites. One scripture that caught my attention was "And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy." The truth is that fellowshiping others brings great joy into our lives. I testify that we can receive great joy through sharing of spiritual experiences.

Anyway, love you all,

Elder Joseph Watts

"arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins"- Acts 22:16

Hola Todos!!

Hey guys! This week we were super blessed to have a baptism for Alvaro. He was super sweet and excited for the service, and bought empanadas, drinks, and an arrangement of orange flowers with a note addressed to Heavenly Father. He also brought his parents and sister to the service, and they came to church the following day for his confirmation. After his baptism, Alvaro bore a heartfelt testimony expressing his gratitude for his opportunity to be baptized and start his new life with Jesus Christ. It was super awesome, and I'm super excited for him.

Another small miracle occurred yesterday when an investigator showed up to church - 50 minutes late. His name is Carlos and he stayed for the last 10 minutes of sacrament meeting and for all of priesthood, and he loved learning and getting to talk to all the members. He's really interested, and even better he's been reading in the Book of Mormon and says he believes it.

Also, I was in a charla recently talking about the Book of Mormon and I got a little too excited and accidentally testified that the book was evidence of the restored Jesus Christ. Oops.

I recently read again the account of the stripling warriors. Two things caught my attention. The first is that the word "stripling" translates to joven in Spanish, which literally just means young. I guess in my mind I've always replaced the word stripling with strapping, but the truth is they were young, likely in the range of 12-14. The second was that even thought the stripling warriors weren't killed, they were all injured. Even though we put our trust in the Lord, it doesn't mean we are going to be protected from every kind of pain.

Anyways, love you guys lots and hope you guys have a fantastic week,

Elder Watts