This week was full of good news and some bad news, but all in all it was a GREAT week! Tuesday is when we received the saddest news I have ever received. My dear friend Francisco is unable to get baptized until his probation is over in 4 1/2 years. :( My heart was broken when our district leader called and told us this.  Right before we got the call we had just had a really awesome lesson with him, and he told us how excited he was to be baptized and to become a member. Well we were unable to meet with him on Wednesday because he had probation classes so we finally got to meet with him Thursday night. Hermana Wilzbach and I decided to read in True to the Faith with him about Adversary. We were both really nervous to teach the lesson. On Wednesday I was reading in 1 Nephi 10 in the third to last verse talks about One Eternal Round. When I read this I was really thinking about a track and how we all have our own lane to run and we all start in the beginning with our coaches ( God and Christ) and then we leave their presents and start the race. We all have different hurdles (life obstacles) to work through, but the whole time our coaches can direct us on how to work through these obstacles, and when we do, we become stronger. Sometimes the people next to us on the track seem like they come over on our path and make it harder, but other times people are sent to be next to us, to help us and direct us where we need to go. I could talk all day about this little story that I came up with, but I don't have time, but after reading with Francisco about the adversary I told him this story and he added his ideas to  it and different scriptures to go along. It was really fun! I then told him that he would be unable to be baptized until his probation is over. I of course was crying and could feel the spirit really strongly. Francisco then looked at me and told me he could feel the spirit and he knows that this is just one of those obstacles that he needs to get through. He was sad, but knows it's part of his repentance process and is willing to do all that he can to stay on his path. We then started planning for his baptism in 4 1/2 years and he's going to find himself a wife that is either a member or is going to get baptized with him and Hermana Wilzbach and I are going to show up with our families... haha hopefully I will have one by then.. :) I can't wait for all of you to meet him in this life or the next he's amazing!! I love him!

So that's the sad news/ amazing news to know that he is that strong. The ward said they would give him an assignment with the scouts, and he's super excited to just be a man of service for God. :)

On Friday we had Zone Conference and it was AMAZING!! The spirit taught me so many things that I have already started doing with the work. President announced that God has told him that we need to have 900 baptisms before the year is over. Right now we have 350. I was so excited when he announced this, because God knows the plan and he knows how we can reach that number! Ahhhh it's so exciting! We learned a lot of new things to apply to the work and to become better missionaries so we can reach that number. :) I also loved seeing all my missionary friends and meeting all the newbies. One of the things that we really talked about at conference was Family History and how we need to use it more in teaching. And if you read the verse I was talking about earlier it talks about the "course" and I found out that the course talks about family history and the importance of doing it. Not only can the people in Spirit world not receive their salvation, but we cannot either if we don't do their work. It's all part of the ONE ETERNAL ROUND!!  After Conference I went on my very first/legit exchange. Hermana Carlson who is Hermana Wilzbachs trainer came with me to my area and Hermana Wilzbach went to hers. I became the senior companion for 24 hours and was in charge. I loved it!! I was super nervous and first, but said a prayer and I had angels helping me the whole time. Hermana Carlson and I applied all the things that we learned at conference and noticed a difference in our lessons and it was beautiful. HOLY I love this work! We showed up to our investigator Juana's house and her daughter was having her birthday party, but they invited us in anyway and we played a couple games with the little girls and then sat down and taught about the Gospel. I have NEVER talked so much Spanish in my life!! I taught the whole lesson, only because the spirit was there. :) I also helped Juana's daughter say the prayer... oh my goodness it melted my heart. I can't wait to be a mom!! Juana told me that she could really feel the spirit and wan'ts to be baptized! :)

Yesterday at church we had Alex and Carla come with their cute little baby Mateo and Francisco of course came. Alex and Carla seemed to really like church and Mateo did to. It's killing me that I can't hold babies or kids though... ugh!! Last night we had a Noche de Hogar and the church or FHE with the ward. It was a lot of fun and there was tons of food!! I had like 5 meals yesterday :) and I believe I've lost weight... I have no idea how that works.

This past week former Elder Drake and his MTC companion came back to the mission and visited. He served in my area for a really long time so it was fun talking to him about all the changes and the people.

My health is great... I honestly don't understand it, but I know it's part of Gods plan and I've learned a lot from my problems. Do family history work. Your salvation and your family on the other side depends on it. :) I love you all!

Les Quiero

Hermana Watkins

1ST BAPTISM!

Cinthia is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It finally happened, Cinthia was baptized on Saturday and it was a beautiful baptism.

Saturday started out super good. We went and tried some of our referrals at Cancun and we have a new investigator named Juana. She's a mother of three kids and is originally from Mexico. Juana was really excited to have us teach her and we shared the Restoration and the spirit was beautiful. She was smiling from ear to ear the whole lesson. She didn't except a baptismal date, but really wants to learn more and she said she cool feel the spirit really strong and would like to get baptized once she receives a answer. I can't wait to go back and teach her this week. After trying the referrals we went over to Alex and Carla's to teach them and we received news from her mom that their baby is really sick in the hospital and they don't know if he will live. Which is really really sad, their first baby was a still born and this second one Mateo was a premi :( I pray all goes well. We then went to the Jimenez to see how Cinthia is doing and doing last minute things before the baptism. After getting ready we walked over to our rides house and she had totally forgot she was taking us.... so we ended up being late for the baptism.... I was soooooooo stressed. All in all the baptism went really well. Hermana Wilzbach and I sang a duet and the talks were really good too. Cinthia said she felt so clean and could feel the spirit really strong! She then received the Holy Ghost yesterday in sacrament.

We had a couple really good lessons with Francisco. He lives in the same apartment complex as us, so we go and see him a lot. He's a really awesome guy and guess what????? He's getting baptized this week... well hopefully.... he has to get an interview from President. Were really praying that all goes well. He's honestly the perfect investigator. We have seen the preparation that God has done for him and for us to teach him. 6 months ago he was a big time drunk. He told us there is no way he would of talked to us then. Like I said last week he went to church and this week we were praying with him that his boss would allow him to take off Sundays so he could to go to church and Wednesday we asked him how it went, and he received a miracle. He asked his boss and his boss was like of course, no problem. YAY!!! Miracle! He is so excited to get baptized and is basically already a member.We asked him if he knows this church is true, and he said," Without a doubt, I can't deny the things the Holy Ghost hast told me."He loves answering the questions in Sunday School and talking with all the members. He's also really excited to get a calling. I would say after two hard months of working and being sick, meeting someone like Francisco makes it all worth it.

My Spanish is coming a long really well. I'm thinking about doing a English fast next week.... that means I can't speak English for a whole week!!! Wish me luck!

We were one away from reaching Standards of Excellence. Friday we had a horrible rain storm come and the AP's told us that we had to go into our apartments. So we were unable to get in some of our lessons, but if and when Francisco gets baptized this week we'll beable to reach them this week!!!

What else happened this week???? Well transfers came and gone. I love my mission, and  I love the plan God has for me and I know without a doubt that this church is true. I love you all!! I want to say Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister Alesha and Grandma Merrell!!! Both of your birthdays were last week.

Les Quiero

Hermana Watkins

So this morning we received the call about who's all getting transferred and who's training, and I am not getting transferred. Hermana Wilzbach and I will be together for at least one more transfer!!! :) YAY! Were both really happy about it because we first started in this dead area with zero baptismal dates, and now... drum roll please...... we have 14!!!!!!! Whawhooo.... Hopefully we can get them all baptized within this next transfer.

Sad news we didn't have a baptism this week....... here's the thing, our investigator Cynthia was excited and received her interview on Tuesday and passed, and then Friday night we get a text from the Bishopric saying that they need to cancel because none of them can make it........... WHAT!!!! Who cancels a baptism??? Our whole district was furious! Nevertheless, she's supposed to get baptized this Saturday :) We would have hit Standards of Excellence but we didn't have a baptism, so we are going to this week :)

I received all the letters from the family reunion last week after email and I was the happiest person on Earth!! I LOVED it soooo much! Thank you :) I also received the Merrell Connection from Grandma and Grandpa. I love receiving that and hearing how the family is doing, and seeing pictures of everyone. Thank you, thank you!

Hermanas Shill, Baer,Watkins and Wiltzbach

This week was a very busy, but fun week! We received a couple news and three baptismal dates. It's always wonderful to see the spirit work within the first lesson and have them already except a date. I love it! That's one thing that keeps me going for sure! The worst is when you've been teaching someone for months and they still won't except a date but know that this is the true church.... one day :)

I'm not dreaming in Spanish!  The problem is that eveyone else in my dream is speaking Spanish and I can understand, but I can't talk back to them..... One of the dreams was I came home and I was at my homecoming and all the aunts and uncles decided they were going to learn Spanish so they could talk to me, and Aunt Veronica had like a big time Southern accent and was speaking spanish. It was AWESOME!! Haha Ya'll should really do that :)

Wednesday was a really busy day we had tons of lessons and that night we did a service project with three member families for another member family in our ward. Their backyard is/ was covered with a lot of garbage and wood and we had to clean it all up and throw it in this HUGE dumpster. It was a lot of fun being in normal clothes again and getting dirty :) I like it a lot! Except all the nasty cockroaches EVERYWHERE!! They were huge! GROSS!

Ummmm... what else happened this week......... oh yeah we had a slap down with the Molina Lopez family on Thursday about how they're not keeping the comittments we give them, and we will drop them if they don't. Only Edi and his nephew Bryan were home so we sat outside and had the lesson, and then this drunk guy comes up and is talking to Edi is Spanish about how he really wants an American girl and he was talking really nasty about us... information that doesn't needed to be said again, but we then looked over at him and said,"We speak Spanish,"! hahaha I'm so done with being disrespected here!!! I am a daughter of God!!! Not a piece of meat!!! During our lesson Edi asked us if we had boyfriends and I said no and Hermana Wilzbach started talking about her boyfriend. And then Edi proposed to me........ that lesson then ended very quickly. But Sunday came and EDI, ERIKA, BRYAN, alll came to church!YAY! And they really liked it! Also, Fransico, Cynthia, and Antonio came to church too! So many miracles! LOVE IT! Fransico is getting baptized in two weeks. He's 45 and is truly converted!! I love him so much!!! God has truly prepared him for us. He believes everything we say and has a testimony of them. :) 

Last night we had an investigator/ less active devotional at the Bissonnett church and I got to see my best friend Hermana Johnson :) I love her!! We got pictures to prove it too! 

Hermana Johnson from Vernal with Emily

Jesse and Jon both came to the devotional and Jon said a lot of his questions were answered :) We then had a sad night saying goodbye to Elder Watts.

Shooting Elder Watts

Our district is going to be weird without him, but I'm excited for change. Hermana Ricks, and Christenson are being transferred and Elders Whicker and Stansward.

Well I believe that is all I have to say this week. I love you all!!!! Have a wonderful week!!! 

Les Quiero

Hermana Watkins

I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!

 I am learning more and more and more and more from the scriptures EVERYDAY!! I love them! Like Nephi, I know that God will provide a way for the things that he has commanded us to do. Some days it's really hard to see this when I am so exhausted, dying of heat with sweat dripping down my body, no one answering the doors, and yet we do the things were supposed to, and then BAM!!!!! We have six new investigators :) All we have to do is endure through those tough times, and we will see His hand in EVERYTHING!

This week was yet another AMAZING week. Heavenly Father is truly blessing us for all the times we had to stay in and be sick. We had 30 lessons again this week and reached all standards of excellence except having a baptism. This week we have Cynthia getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!! So we want to work super duper hard to reach all standards. 

The week started out kind of rough for Hermana Wilzbach. She received not one, but two flat tires all within 24 hours. We luckily had a leftover patch in our apartment from the Elders and patched it up and went out to work, but the second time we had nothing. All day Wednesday we walked. :) I actually really liked it. It was blazing hot, but I got to get a better look at our area and how ghetto it really is. We also met a lot of interesting people.... haha Our zone leaders doubted us and told us that we probably wouldn't get a lot of lessons in, because we were walking but we had 5 lessons :) Thursday Hermana Baer and Shill had Pday so they could go to the temple so they bought Hermana Wilzbach a new tire. We weren't having and success with lessons in the beginning of the day, so we decided to OYM everyone. We had a goal this week to get 4 new investigators, and the only way we were getting them was by OYMING. First couple doors weren't a success, but we then met Anjelica and her 3 kids. She's catholic and is excited for us to come back again. She gave us 2 referrals too. :) We then went to Cancun and met with one of our former investigators brothers. His name is Saul and he's 19 and he leaves in three weeks for school. He is also really good at soccer. We taught him the Restoration and excepted a baptismal date in 3 weeks right before he leaves!!!! He's really excited and is already SOLID! We then OYM around Cancun and taught Isabel and her family, and they are super excited for us to come back too. We then walked over to the Spanish Walmart.... or our bathroom when were down town and this guy started yelling at us saying, "Why don't you ever teach me about your church and God"!! We were really scared for our lives, but then we talked to him and turns out he's seen us around a lot and prayed that morning that he could run in to us so he could hear our message. He's been looking for a church to go to and always had a feeling that he needed to talk to us. :) :) His name is Alfredo and is having a lot of hard things happening in his life right now, but we shared a message with him and he's really excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's true. :) :) I love God's plan for us. If we weren't doing what we needed to be doing we wouldn't of been blessed with 6 new investigators, and solid ones!!! 

This week we went to a papusa buffet that was only five dollars. We also had  two meals a day from members. :) Hermana Sproule made us choclate Flan and I got the recipe!!!! It is seriously Heaven on Earth!!! 

My talk in District meeting went really well. Everyone said my grammar was perfect and my Spanish is improving. YAY!! Herman Moreno is a member of our ward and comes with us to lessons all the time and is now preparing to go to the temple!!! Cynthia is getting baptized this Saturday and I am STOKED!!!!!!! I'm really excited for her and she is one of the investigators that Hermana and I found on our own. :) We found out that she is for sure baptized and she didn't think someone that was pregnant could be baptized, and that is why she kept pushing it off. Ahhhhhhh I'm so excited!! I love her!! 

A lot happened this week, but I'm pretty sure I covered all the things I wanted to. Oh we went to one of the referrals we got from Hermana Sproule and the guy opened the door completely naked!!! What, who does that??? Luckily I didn't see him, but poor Hermana Wilzbach saw it all...... We hope he was drunk and that he won't remember us. He's around our age and lives in the same complex as us. 

Oh man I love my mission!!! Elder Watts goes home next week and he's not trunky at all. That's how I am going to be. I'm excited to see ya'll again, but I can't imagine leaving my mission. :( It breaks my heart to think about. Transfers are next week, and Hermana and I really hope we stay one more transfer together, because we are having so much progression right now. Miracles after miracles. Milagros despues milagros... haha 

Les Quiero

Hermana  Watkins

P.s Ross I don't have enough time to email you this week, but do you know the Hymn Si la Via Espenosa??? We call it the Nacho Libre song, because it honestly sounds like one. The Hispanics don't care what they sound like, but they sing with all their heart! ha I love it. But you should listen to this hand just imagine Nacho singing it :)