Feb 22, 2011

Feb 22, 2011

My goodness! This past week has been a crazy week for me.  We've had so many blessings.
Here's what happened! First, we were going through the former investigators again two weeks ago and Helen Hendricks popped into our head again.  She was met and not really taught anything and then could never be contacted again. We too have tried a few times and wasn't successful.  Well, as we were planning two weeks ago we decided to put her as a back up if our appointment with a member fell through. Our appointment didn't fall through but we decided to try by her anyway and if she was home and let us in we would have the member already. She was home! But she was busy so we made an appointment with her for this  last week.  She kept her appointment and has soooo many questions.  We focused on two principles: God is our Loving Heavenly Father and The Holy Ghost.  Testimony was given as we taught and the spirit was soooo strong.  After bearing testimony of the spirit she immediately asked where our church was and the time.  She commited to come and was very excited about it!  She didn't come to church though. We are seeing her again tomorrow.
The second blessing that was given to us was this 40 year old man named Coleman.  We were knocking on doors and was finished with the block and on our way back to the car we passed Coleman. We stopped him and briefly shared our message of the restoration.  We gave him a book of mormon and asked for his number and a time when we could meet again.  He took the Book of Mormon and gave us his number and asked us to call him.  We called and met with him. In the beginning our our lesson we used the 10 teaching points, specifically, "We will be guides..." one of course saying in our own words as the spirit directed.  He told us after how he had been praying for some guidance in his life and now we were here telling him that we would be his guides.  It was pretty amazing even though we aren't going to be teaching him.
But all that is not as amazing as our last blessing for the week!  Corrine, older woman, Elder Hale and I knocked on her door while we were on exchanges.  She kindly let us in and we told her we were in her neighborhood sharing a message centered on Jesus Christ.  She asked us to share that message for she loved hearing the word.  We started to talk about Christ church when he was on the earth and how it's on the earth today and she responded very negatively to it.  She didn't believe in the need to go to a church. She felt that all she needed was to read the word and live it.  We decided to leave her with a Restoration pamphlet and see if we could set up another appointment to talk more about the pamphlet.  She took the pamphlet and agreed to meet with us again.  When we went back at the time we set she wasn't home, nor was she home the next few times we tried to visit.  I decided to try one more time and we were in luck!  She rushed down the stairs invited us in and began to tell us of her remarkable experience.  She said she read the pamphlet after we left the first time we met.  While reading she felt a warm feeling just overwhelm her whole body.  She said she felt the spirit so strongly that she decided to read it a few more times and each time felt the same feeling.  She decided to say a prayer and asked God that if we indeed came back at the time appointed she would take that as a sign that we  were "angels sent from God".  Of course she wasn't able to be there at that time but her cousin was there to answer the door when we came and tell her that we came.  She was sooo excited it even scared her.  She said she needed to learn more so she went on the internet (not our website, scary) and looked up Joseph Smith. After reading all about him she testified how she knew he was a true prophet of God.  She was sooo excited she began to tell everyone.  She was met with negative remarks from family, friends, and strangers.  But she said she knew it was true and God told it was true.  She said she wanted to join our church and come to a service as soon as she can!  That was indeed crazy! I told Elder Hale of the crazy experience and he had the Loch Raven Elders take over her teaching. Currently they haven't been able to get in and teach her again but I really feel she is Solid! 
That has been our wonderful week. Now we need to have experiences like that with young single adults!
The past few days has been very warm and I have been sooooo grateful for it. And then last night, when the weather man predicted it was to only rain, it snowed like crazy!  The next few days is supposed to get colder and colder. I thought spring had finally arrived. Syke!  Oh well....  Back to layers again. hehe  Anyway.....
Thank you for all your love, letters, thoughts, and prayers.  The Lord is blessing us and keeping us safe and its partly due to you. Thank you!  I miss all of you and hope you are doing well.  I'll talk to you all again next week!  Bye Bye for now.


--
Elder Jesse-James K. F. Watson

Feb 14, 2011

Let Us Labor Diligently - Feb 14, 2011

Alright so this week was great for us!  We found two new investigators and they are so ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  They are excited to read the book of mormon so that they can find out if the things we have taught them are true.  I'm so excited because I know that as they sincerely read the book of mormon and pray about the truth of our message they will receive answer to their prayers!  As blessed as we have been this week I know that I must work harder.  I think I have lowered my bar and want to raise it higher than ever before.  We are seeing throughout our mission that miracles are happening and I do believe that the Lord has prepared many at this time to receive his gospel.  I want to be able to really work hard and find them.  A scripture I recently memorized that I love is Moroni 9: 3-6.  Verse six explains the way I feel very well.  "Now behold, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor we shall be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."  I love and miss you all.  Sorry I don't have time to right more but this will have to suffice! 
 


--
Elder Jesse-James K. F. Watson


Feb 7, 2011

Fruit Of Our Labors - Feb 7, 2011

Aloooooooooha ku'u ohana!!!
 
How is everyone doing?  We'll I'm doing great.  We have finally received some fruit from our labors!  We found our first investigator this week and he is totally awesome.  He is 25y ears old, black man, very religous and has even been to our church before in Utah but no one talked with him or referred him to the missionaries to teach!  Crazy.  But the Lord put him back in the path of the missionaries...us....and we are teaching him now.  We've only met with him once and are meeting with him again at Family Home Evening tonight.  We are very excited.  That's pretty much the highlite of the week.  We've been working very hard and it's been quite warm lately which makes it easier.  Almost all the snow has melted and then I'm sure we are going to have another snow storm.  There have been many changes going on out here to constantly keep me on my toes but I welcome it.  Other than that I'm doing fine.  I do miss all of you and can't wait to hear more about how things are going where you are at.  Please take care and I'll talk to you soon!
 
 
--
Elder Jesse-James K. F. Watson