Hello family and friends,

This past week has been AMAZING! It started off kind of sad not receiving answers to my health, but the Lord has a plan for me and I have seen his hand in everything in my life. Earlier this week during companionship study Hermana Wilzbach and I were talking about how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us sooooooo much! The scriptures have every answer we need. At times we may not understand them completely, but we may not be ready to understand them. Jesus taught with parables. Some just enjoyed listening to them, because they were interesting stories. While others really understood the meaning behind them. Parables are understood very differently for each person. There's ALWAYS something to learn. Some of us are not prepared to learn the whole meaning to the parable so were take parts of it that we can APPLY to our lives. If we want to learn more we need to APPLY. For example, those who have their patriarchal blessings can better understand this. For me when I first received my blessing like none of it made sense to me. Parts did but it was still real confusing to me. There are certain times we need some of the things in our blessing. Each time I read it I learn more and understand it better. Especially after I go through a trial. God knows we are not ready to understand everything, but he's givin us ways to. We are loved so much and what a blessing it is to have the scriptures so we can learn more and grow in the Gospel, and truly prepare ourselves to be with God again. I don't know if any of this makes sense through email, but if you pray to understand I'm positive God will help you, because it's such an important lesson we all need to learn about. Don't get frustrated because you don't understand something. You may not be prepared. I'm not prepared to learn Spanish fluently right now. It's a trial I'm willing to work through though. Because I know I will be blessed and others will be to. I need to learn more lessons and other things before I can speak clearly. I love Gods plan!!!!!! He loves us so much!

Any who....... this week we had 30 lessons :) HE has truly blessed us with lessons,especially memeber present lessons. Which are the best :) One really big miracle received this week is Fransico the less active that doesn't beleive in the Bible or Christ dying for us and thinks black people aren't children of God and beleive they were sent here to be our slaves.... Now beleives in the Bible and that Christ died for us!!!!!!!! We shared the Articles of Faith with him and showed him that when he was baptized he said that he beleived in these things and would follow them. We then shared a scripture from the Bible, but didn't tell him it was the Bible and asked if he beleived... he was like well yeah, who wouldn't beleive that. :) Then we told them that it was from the Bible... ha we tricked him, but he liked it. We keeps telling us that we were angels sent for him. I love him soooo much and I love seeing his progression. My companion and I decided that I'm a reactivationist. I love working with those who are less active and those who know the truthfullness of this Gospel, but don't get baptized.. I LOVE them sooo much! Oh and Fransico is a Theologist... so he knows everything about religion, which makes is more fun!!

I have recieved a lot of humbling experiences with speaking Spanish this week. I'm not as advanced as a lot of the missionaries, but it's coming along and I embarrass myself a lot, but it's makes things fun and very humbling... haha Tomorrow I'm giving my first talk in Spanish at District Metting... this should be interesting. :) I'm excited though. It's experiences like this that help me grow and become stronger.

The temple was amazing and beautiful like always. I really miss working at the temple though. I wish missionaries got to work in the temple for one day a week.. it's missionary work still :)

Houston Temple

Hermana and I are having a lot of fun together now that were both pretty healthy. All of investigators think were pretty hilarious :) were kind of crazy/weird! We had a water fight in our bedroom the other night where we both ended up soaked and our beds were drenched... good thing we have a dryer in our apartment. Oh and I found out a way to break into the bathroom while she's in the shower... so I turned of the lights while she was in the shower, and then locked the door again. She thought the power went out and just showered the rest of the time in the dark.... hahahhaha our apartment it now covered with cochroaches (I don't know how to spell or talk anymore) so we have killing parties all the time.. GROSS!! I scream a lot when I kill them. :)

Silly Hermana

Last Friday was packed full of Zone meeting/ service all day long/ Talent show for the WHOLE stake. We had over 700 people come to the talent show.  All the Spanish missionaries were there with investigators. I saw Hermana Johnson. We were planning on getting a picture together, but forgot :( The Talent show was really cool. They performed dances from all different countries and had people playing some funky instruments and my very own Margy Sproule even got up and danced with some other ladies from my ward :) I love her!
Saturday we stopped by our dear friends the Molina Lopez family apartment to help set up for Juana's birthday party. She turned six! We gave her a little blue necklace and earrings that we got from someone in our ward. She loved them. I have a picture with me and her too. :) and we got food. The Lord always provides!!

Juana and Emily

I love you all. I know this church is true! Thank you for everything you do! I'm so blessed to be part of an AMAZING family.

Les Quiero

Hermana Watkins

Heavenly Father Has A Plan For All of Us

Aloha!

How's my beautiful family doing? I miss each and everyone of you sooooo very much, but I don't want to come home yet... Sorry. :) 

So I went to the Doctor this morning and guess what???? All my test came back NEGATIVE. I have four more test that they are waiting for. Bishop/Doctor said he would just call me later this week when they get them. I was really praying to receive answers to my pains, but that's not God's plan for me at this time. Right now the hardest part about my mission is forgetting about myself: my health problems, language, and only thinking about my investigators. But I am trying super, duper hard, because I know God will bless me if I do. I'm still on the Lactose diet. I accidently had something with milk in it on Thursday and I got really sick. So the doctors are almost positive that is one of the problems if not the only, well besides IBS. 

 We had some awesome lessons with members present. Those are the BEST lessons. Lindsey if their are sister missionaries in Vernal you should go on splits with them. You will love it. It's not scary all you have to do is bare testimony, and you will probably make a new friend too. EVEN BETTER!! I challenge all the family to look for opportunities to go out and work with the missionaries. Invite them over for dinner and give them people to teach or to do service for. They will LOVE you FOREVER!! 

On Thursday  we had our interviews with President, and guess what? You know how I was saying how blessed I've been to have a Branch President that's a Doctor and now the Bishop of my ward is? Well President Ashton has all the same problems of me. He is lactose intolerant and has IBS, he also has all the same stomach problems as me. My interview was basically all about our health problems and how we basically have everything in common. I love him! He is an amazing example for me. He had all of these problems and his mission too and he still went out and worked everyday even though he felt miserable. So from now on I'm going out and putting all faith in the Lord. He said it's really frustrating to know that the Doctors may never know what is wrong with him, and that this is something he has to deal with the rest of his life. He said because of this trial he has come to see Heavenly Father's hand in everything and has come closer to Him. I am so grateful for my trials and I know that they are the things that make us stronger and truly bless our lives. I know that I needed to be here not only because of the people I'm going to teach, but because of the members, other missionaries, and a President that can understand me completely. :) God loves me!

Emily and companion emailing from the library.

So a little about our investigators. Cynthia is to be baptized this next Sunday. She is SOOO ready, but is starting to doubt that she is. She feels like she needs to know everything before she's baptized. So we asked her to truly pray about if she is ready, and hopefully she receives an answer. If not then we will move it for two weeks. I love her so much, and I'm really excited for her. She says the cutest prayers and has a really strong testimony already. She's basically my little sister. She's 17 and is a super cute girl with a rough life. Another investigator is the Molina Lopez family. We had an amazing lesson with them on Saturday. I was very bold but loving with them. They all have testimony's in this church and they want to know it's true, but they don't do the commitments we give them. They told us that they would come to church and they actually seemed really excited. Well next day at church they didn't show up. I was devastated :( I love them so much, and it's so hard to see someone have the truth, but push it aside. But I will not give up!

 We went to the Houston Museum last Pday and it was WAY cool! The dinosaur part of the Museum was way better then the one in Vernal. ha And they had an Egypt exhibit, and  a really cool exhibit of just diamonds and different jewels. I forgot to send pictures from last week I will try and send some today. One of the pictures is of my legs with blue circles all over them. I had 62 mosquito bites on my right leg and 82 on the other from one lesson standing outside. WOAH!! My legs were so itchy! 

 Shoe tan line and bug bites.

 President loves me and my companion. He is letting us go to the temple again :) He was REALLY impressed with our numbers from last week and from Wednesday this week. Our first day out this week was Wednesday and we received 7 lessons and 4 of them being member present. He also said we need it for being stuck in our apartment all the time. :) YAY!! I think were going Thursday. 

Well I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful time at the Merrell camp. 

Remember God has a plan for all of us. Pray to him to bettter understand your plan. He will answer!!!

Les Quiero

Hermana Watkins

A Busy Week

So time has been cut short today, because we are all going to a Science Museum today!! YAY!!  So I'm going to make a basic list of all the main things that happened this week and then talk about some a little more in detail. 

- A drunk guy tried kissing me... I pushed him away (nicely) and told him I don't do that and to have a nice day. And throughout the week we have ran into him 3 times now... ahhhhh!! 

- One of the Less Actives that were teaching doesn't believe in the bible or that Christ died for us. I really like him though. Him and my companion don't get a long and argue a lot so I basically teach those lessons. But he came to church yesterday!! YAY!!

- Last Tuesday my tire was flat so we went to Walmart to buy a new tube and came back and it wasn't flat anymore, but since we had to go to Walmart were able to run into one of our investigators that had moved away and had a baptismal date and we were really sad, but we found out that she moved back. The Lord works very mysteriously, and sometimes flattens your tire just so you can run into someone. That same day I got into my wreck on my bike, and I almost got his by a car... haha it was really funny. :)

-We had Zone meeting on Tuesday and everyone said my Spanish is really good... but I have no confidence speaking.... after the meeting Elder Palmer handed out mail and I got a cool post card from Lindsey V. and a letter from Kristen Ewell!! I was soooooo excited! I love mail! 

- One of the things that I just LOVE on my mission is when our investigators say their first prayer... AHHHH... it's like angels are singing all around us. WAY COOL!

- I can't remember what day it was, but it rained  A LOT and at one of the apartment complexes we go to had this HUGE puddle that covered like half the parking lot... so since we were already wet we decided to go through it, and I wish I would of taken a picture. It went all the way to my bottom. I was swimming. 

-The Doctor called and they want me to do more of the tests... that I told you about, but this one is a three day test and I have to do it three different ways. Yesterday at church I was having extreme pain and the Bishop said to go to the ER but then we had to call President and he called the Doctor in Utah that's over our mission and I was on the phone with him for  3 hours and he was calling different specialist all over and they decided not to send me to the ER because they would only do the test that I have already received. So after this morning the Doctor called again and I'm now on a lactose free diet for ten days, and then on the tenth day I have to eat a lot of milk products and see if it makes me sick. And tomorrow I'm getting more blood taken to check and see if I'm allergic to Celiac/Gluton. Hopefully we will receive answers. I feel like a burden for the missionaries that have to give their car to us or drive me everywhere. And all the doctors that are helping.  

- This week we found out a lot about some of our investigators/ Less active members. One of my favorite people to visit told us that he was in a gang when he was younger and killed like 3 people...... he's less active and hasn't come to church in 15 years, but we had probably one of the most spiritual lessons with him this past week. He really wants to be free from this guilt, but Satan is working on him hard! Another one of our investigators is pregnant and single. The one I talked about before doesn't believe in the bible or the atonement. Our newest investigators husband just got sent to jail and she has three little girls at home that one of our members watches for her everyday while she goes to work. And we had the family with abuse, one of our dads doesn't want to get married, because he likes to have fun with other women.. .ughh. We also have A LOT of emotional women. But man oh man. I have never loved people with problems so much!! It just really makes me sad to see them in these situations, but I love to see the changes in their lives when they apply the Gospel! 

-My companion and I almost made Standards of Excellence this week. We had 30 lessons and 10 member present lessons. :) We have seen  a huge improvement in our work and many miracles. I love this work!

-I received my first compliment from an investigator on my Spanish!! Whawhoo.. it was all the spirit though and not me. 

- Friday our whole district went and cleaned the church library... it was disgusting... But we found a lot of cool things. It took 15 missionaries 3 hours to clean it. That's how dirty it was... or how slow we are.. haha I love my district so much. After this transfer Elder Watts, and Hermana Moreno will die :( Hermana Moreno is from Spain so I will probably never see her again. Elder Watts is going to BYU so I'll probably see him.)

- On Saturday we had a Noche de Hogar or FHE and we had two investigators there with two of our ward member families. The Favelas and the Jimenez family. After we taught the lesson they wanted to play a game. I think everyone knows this game, It's called Telephone. Where you sit in a circle and whisper a sentence in someones ear and then pass it around. Well they thought it would be funny to put me in the middle so I would mess it all up... and guess what I did... haha it was a really long sentence in Spanish that I had know Idea so I just made something up . But the last round was my turn and I did it in English... haha suckers!! All I said was," I like food" and it came back around as a monster growl! haha it was really funny. I really like making a fool of myself and joking around. I love these two families. Actually I love everyone, and everything about my mission!!! I LOVE IT!! 

I think that is all... well probably not, but that's all I have time for. If I have time I will send pictures. I love you all with all my heart!! 

Les Quiero

Hermana Watkins

Happy 4th of July!

Hola,
Sadly we don't get to really celebrate the 4th.  We had to be in by 7pm due to all the parties and drunk people.  No fireworks for me.  We can hear them but not see them. However, we do have time to make some really great food.  I ate all the food on the plate, my companion did not think I could do it.

I love FOOD, when I feel well enough to eat it.  YesterdayI went to the doctor and they are going to test me for a parasite, and he looked at the blood results from last week and he said that it looks like something might be wrong with my liver so they took more blood for testing.  I'm not worried.  I love my mission so much. Some days are really hard, but I have grown so much because of those days.  I love the people with all my heart, and I can't imagine leaving them one day.  Yesterday we had our last lesson planned with two investigators, they were committed to being baptized, but now their mom won't let them.  She is dealing with depression and dragging her daughters down with her.  We are trying to figure out how to help her.
This past week was transfers and we now have 15 missionaries in 1 ward!!!! What?! That's unheard of. Elder Lewis and his companion opened a new area in our ward, but the rumor is the ward boundaries are changing soon so are district will be a lot smaller. I love my district. Every week after we are all done emailing and shopping we meet up at the church and play volleyball! So much fun! I'm still not allowed to go out in the middle of the day with the medication, but I got really sick of our apartments some days and we went out anyway. I didn't notice a huge difference besides the really bad sunburns I get and I'm exhausted... Whoops! 

The ward has asked us to go through our ward directory and find every member and less active in our area. So we've been running around A LOT! We met with this less active names Jesse and he was baptized last October. He told us he just got baptized because the missionaries wouldn't leave him a lone so he gave in knowing that they would stop bugging him about it. Sad... I don't ever want to do that to an investigator. I really like him though. He's 27 and lives at home and is wondering what he should do with his life. He was really shocked that they have girl missionaries, and like everyone else, asked how do you ride a bike wearing a skirt? ha I love that question, because I honestly have no idea. Jesse said he wants to meet with us and really wants to come to church. Yay! Another cool story while we were out trying to find people on the directory we ran into this guy named Chris. He lives right next door to one of our members and he was really impressed with our Spanish and how we can ride a bike with a skirt too. 

Thank you all who have sent emails, they are great, but missionaries love hand written letters, they are the BEST.  I keep wanting to type in Spanish (that is a good sign).  Today I spoke Spanish for 3 hours straight.  Hermana Wilzbach says I am doing well.  Next is a picture of Juana.  She is an adorable little girl that I love so much.

There are some yucky bugs down here.  One day we came home and saw this bug by our front door.  Both of us screamed for 5 minutes then realized we had to kill it .  Yuck! Hermana and I every night after planning we turn off all the lights and wait  5 minutes and then we take our bike flashlights into the kitchen and we kill all the nasty little cockroaches. I hate them!! We are pretty funny trying to kill them... haha I wish I could send videos home so you could see how funny we are. 

Our investigator "C" is progressing really fast and she can't wait to be baptized. We actually might move her date to be sooner. :) I know I am supposed to be here for her. I love when we got teach her. We have been told a lot the last couple weeks by our investigators and members that they wouldn't know what to do if Elders were here, because we mainly work with women and some are VERY emotional and just need a shoulder to cry on. Having transfers this week really made me sad for the day that I will be transferred. I will most likely be here for one more transfer after this one, but then I will probably be gone... :( I don't want to say goodbye. I really hope I get put back in this area before I go home. I love this ward!! Man I love everything about my mission! Except this week we had to drop some of our investigators............ hardest thing of my life! I did not like it one bit!! 

My dear family and friends! I know this Gospel is true with all my heart, and I know that our Savior lives and he died for us. I have truly come to know how important it is to repent daily and keep pushing forward. I am so grateful for the Atonement and what a huge blessing it is to have in our lives. I love, love, love sharing this Gospel and helping bring my brothers and sisters unto the remembrance of the truthfulness. Remember to read and pray daily. Always have a prayer in your heart. Love you all!!

Oh and if you have been wondering how on earth does she have time to write this long of an email??  It's because our mission President allows us to email for 90 minutes. :) Yeah Buddy!!

Have a great week.  I love you all, the church is TRUE!

Lover, Hermana Watkins

IT REALLY HOT!

Aloha! haha 

I thought I would switch it up a bit, and say aloha instead of Hola! ha So right now I am on FIRE!! It is sooooo hot here. Woah buddy! On Saturday we hit 113 with probably 100 percent humidity!! That's really hot! 

Last Tuesday I got sent to the Doctor because I was having more problems... Mom I will email them to you. I don't really feel like everyone needs to know about the fun details. We got to have a car for almost all week last week. On Tuesday we had district meeting and then I received a blessing from Elder Watts again for comfort, because I don't know if you could tell by my email from last week, but I was having a really hard time. :( But all is well now. My blessing was probably one of the most bold most powerful blessings I have EVER received. Every single one of my questions that was going through my head was answered. It literally felt like God was there giving it to me, which he was, but through a young man. I think my blessing really surprised everyone in my district, because they were probably all expecting to hear a blessing about my health but there was like one tiny part that talked about it. That part was the scary part. In my blessing it talked about how all of these health problems are preparing me for a even bigger trial that I will have later on... I don't know if that means in my mission or later in life, but I guess I should be really glad that the Lord is willing to prepare me. I wish my blessing was recorded so you could hear how powerful it was. :) After district meeting we went to the Colache factory and had lunch as a district and then Hermana and I got a car so I could go to the doctor. The doctor gave me no answers, so then Wednesday the office nurse told me she knew another really good doctor in Houston that is actually Mormon and is a bishop over a Spanish ward.... guess who's ward that is. haha mine!! I love Obispo Cabezas, but I was super nervous to go and see him. They did some tests and I have another check up tomorrow to see how everything is going and to receive the results. He gave me some antibiotics and some medicine for the stomach pain. You should see all the prescriptions I have now from the MTC and now. WOW!! 

Wednesday we had exchanges. Hermana Ricks and Greenwood came to our area and I wasn't allowed to go out yet, because I was still sick. So Hermana Greenwood stayed in the apartment with me while Hermana Ricks and Wilzbach went out and taught some of our investigators we haven't seen in FOREVER!!  One of our investigators Cynthia accepted to be baptized. She's already received all of the lessons and goes to church every week so were now just waiting for when she feels completely ready :) After exchanges we went over to Hermana Sproules house for dinner and she made this really yummy pasta with bread. 

Thursday I went and had a interview with President Ashton. I emailed him last Monday and told him about my health and how everything was going. So he wanted to see me and just talk to me, and he gave me some things to read and I feel really good after talking with him. A lot of the things he said and the things that were said in my blessing all go back to my patriarchal blessing. :) Man oh man I love this Gospel so much!!!!! :) Oh also, when I was at the mission office the news was there meeting with my President about the big news about how missionaries will be able to start using facebook soon, and this September my mission will be receiving Ipads and smartphones :)  Crazy, I don't know how much I will like it though. It's kind of nice being free from those things. 

Friday was the best day on Earth. During my interview with President Ashton I told him how I have to stay in for 5 more days and it's really hard to stay focused on the work... when I can't really do it. So he told us to go to the temple!!! Ahhhhh So Friday morning Hermana Sproule took us to the 8 o'clock session. Oh my goodness the Houston temple is HUGE, and BEAUTIFUL!! I love the temple! The people there were really surprised that I had all the stuff memorized :) I received a lot of answers at the temple and my head has been cleared. Usually you can only go to the temple if you sacrifice a Pday, but we didn't have to!!!  Also, you can only go to the temple once a quarter.

Emily's District

Emily and companion Hermana Wilzbach

In front of the Houston temple

The beautiful Houston, Temple

 Friday night we went over to Lucy Cardoza's house for dinner, and she didn't feel like cooking so she took us out to get wings :) YUMMY!! But she told us some sad news... :( she wont be here for the next three weeks, because they found a big tumor in her body and she's flying to El Slavador so her uncle can remove. :( She's really scared, but excited to go back to her country. She hasn't been back for 35 years! That's crazy! 

Saturday not a whole lot happened it. We weren't allowed to go outside till night time because it hit 113 degrees and I can't be in heat with my medicine. :( So we went out around 5 pm to see if I can still ride a bike. Good news, I can!! Barely... It was still really hot around 5, but I was sick of our apartment and had to get out. We rode to this chinese looking house that has a huge statue of Kung Fu Panda and the Three Chipmunks. We weren't able to take pictures, but we will this week. It's a way cool house. 

Like I said I finished my first transfer :) We have transfers this week and Hermana Ricks is training and she just finished her training... I hope that doesn't happen to me. Hermana Pimentel is transferring, and Elder Truman, Craven, and Hermana Greenwood. We are receiving a lot of Visa waiters this week so we will have 21 trios throughout the mission and one quad, because there will be one trainer with three trainees...  Lots of exciting things are happening here. Lots and lots of baptisms and next Sunday Ximena and Ana are getting baptized :) my first Baptism!!! Ahhh I can't wait. I'm super excited for them! :) :) 

This last week has been a huge trial, but through the Atonement I made it through it. I am so grateful for my Savior and for the help that he gives me all the time. I could not be out here if it wasn't for him, and all of my family and friends. Thank you all for the love and support you have given me. I am truly blessed. :) :) I'm sending pictures of the BEAUTIFUL temple, and my district!! They're beautiful too :)

Les Quiero <3

Hermana Watkins