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):