November 29, 2010 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Hello!

There is sooooo much to tell you. I'll start off first by telling you about my thanksgiving.  We had no set appointments the day of thanksgiving except for dinner which was at the Bishop family's house.  If you don't remember they are the new converts, the first family Elder McMaster and I baptized on My mission.  Actually he did the baptizing but you know what I mean.  So because we had no set appointments Elder Chandia and i decided to do some work!  We went OYMing (OYM stands for open your mouth)  in the parking lot of the Food Lion which is like a foodland for an hour.  No luck there.  Then we went knocking for another hour and boy were the people not happy to have us interrupt their wonderful thanksgiving get togethers!  They weren't mean but they weren't happy. hehe  And then we OYMed again at another Food Lion close to where our dinner appointment was.  Finally it was time for our dinner appointment which took a while to put together, so we spent a lot of time just smelling all the deliciousness and dying of hunger! lol....But then we ate and it was sooooooooo delicious.  What did we eat you ask?  I have no idea but it was good.  I took some pictures and will send you some in the mail.  She had more dishes than I could remember and each was satisfying. We had planned to leave straight after dinner so we could find some people to teach but ended up staying the rest of the night with them.  They were struggling as new converts and we had many great conversations on problems they had come in contact with since being baptized.  It's sad sometime to see small things get in the way of someones growing testimony, but when a testimony in only in its beginning stages it can be easily destroyed.  So all in all our thanksgiving was wonderful.  But even with a wonderful thanksgiving I couldn't help imagine what it was that you all were eating!  I bet you guys had a wonderful thanksgiving feast as well!

These past few days were quite exhausting.  We have been helping people move in and out of the ward and have been doing service for less active members for the past three days.  To top it off we, ourselves, moved today.  We are still not finished moving and cleaning three years of left overs from elders past but we just had to take a break and write to you, our families.  Plus Elder Chandia was pouting all day cuz he hates moving (I think cleaning for that matter ;) ) and all he wanted to do was leave and email.  So finally, after watching him mope for hours I decided to give in!  LoL...I'm only kidding.  We have been working hard on leaving the Lewis' home as clean as possible.  We love them so much.  For the last 6 months they have been so awesome to us.  They have been housing missionaries for three years going on four and were sad to hear that we had to leave.  In fact, we asked sister Lewis to come down and help us figure out which is missionary stuff and which might be her stuff.  She kept saying she would come down and never did.  Finally she came down today and just broke down crying.  She felt like she was losing her son's.  She couldn't go through each thing without telling us the story behind it.  I'm really going to miss living in their house.  I dont think there will be any place better on the mission. And I am going to miss Brother and Sister Lewis.  It won't be the same just seeing them once a week as church.  hmmmmm.....sad.

On another, hopefully lighter note, I found out today that I'm staying in Mt. Airy for one more transfer which is another 6 weeks.  I've been pestering Elder Chandia soooo much he cried when he heard I was staying! LoL....only kidding again.  We work very very well together and I can't wait to baptized more and more people.  This transfer is going to be great!  I'm pretty sure that this will be my last transfer here with I wont mind at all.  Mt. Airy has become my home away from home, and if I can't spend the Holidays at home with my Family and friends then I'd rather spend it here with my ward family!  

Well that is all for now.  If you get a chance send some to me from the holidays or of anything.  I miss you all and love you with all my heart.  May God be with you till we meet again!

A hui hou,

Elder Watson!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

November 15, 2010 - I love My Mission!

Aloha family!!! 

So Heavenly Father is greatly blessing us in Mt Airy Maryland and I hope he is blessing you wherever you may be!!! Last night we had a simple but great experience.  We have been teaching Ryan Bubakar for a while now and really have been wanting to get his single mom involved as well.  We asked him to share what we have taught him to his mom and when he would attend church to share what he felt and learned at church.  Everytime we'd meet he would say that he didn't get a chance to talk to her.   Then we put him on date and told him he really really needed to talk to her about getting baptized because she has to give her permission in order for him to be baptized.  (note: She is a hard woman to get a hold of because she works two jobs as a nurse and whenever we catch her at home she's always asleep!)  So a week after setting a date he still hadn't told her, we were admonished by our Zone leaders to talk to her or else he can't be counted as "on date".  So we set an appointment with Ryan to meet with him and his mom on Sunday, last night, at his house.  We were running a bit late so we called to let them know and Ryan tried to reschedule.  We ask to talk to his mom and found out that he forgot to tell her and she was getting ready for bed.  But she's so sweet and nice that she told us to hold on for a few minutes, she would get changed and we could come in.  Long story short, we asked if she had questions; she wanted to know what exactly was being taught; we taught the first lesson; she thought it to make sense and wanted to learn more.  We told her that we set a date for Ryan to be baptized the 27th of this month and asked for her permission.  She looked at him and said, "Is that what you want?"  He said yep.  She said "Okay! If he wants to then that's fine."  She told us she'd seen missionaries before and noticed how young we were.  She saw the great work we did and how it kept young boys out of trouble.  She expressed how what she sees in us is what she wants for her son so she is totally fine with us teaching him and him getting baptized.  It was a wonderful, spirit filled lesson with the Bubakar family and I fully believe that as we continue to meet with them they will want to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God and then work toward being a forever family!

I'm doing very well here and I can't wait to go back out and bring more of our brothers and sisters to the knowledge of the blessing the restored gospel can bring to each person's life!  This is a wonderful work and I encourage you to take part.  But in order to do so you have to know what it is you are taking part in so continue, if you haven't already, to search the scriptures and build your knowledge and testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Visit and invite other to visit mormon.org.  I miss you all and hope you are doing well.  I'll talke to you all soon.  Aloha nui loa!

Elder Watson

November 8, 2010

Hello Everybody!

I am doing just fine.  Nothing too exciting from last week but the work is going very well.   We have been working really really hard and seeing things pick up which I'm excited about.  We are constantly finding new ways to keep the work progressing.  We currently have two people on date, on for the 24th of November, Ryan Bubaker, and another for the 4th of December, Danielle Cohen.  We are very excited and are hoping we can keep them going strong.  Already the adversary is working hard to keep them from keeping their commitments but our faith is strong and we will not let him win.  I hope all is well with you all. I miss you all and talk to you again soon!!!!

Elder Watson

November 1, 2010

Hey !!!

 How are you!! Just to let you know, I have been doing very well.  Extremely busy and just a bit stressed.  You know how I do.  But you know, I think I'm doing alot better at handling the stressful things. It doesn't get me down or discouraged.  Just makes me try to figure out how I can make things a lot easier and definitely helps me to rely more on the Lord!  I feel like I never have time to rest anymore.  Im constantly thinking on how I can help, improve, better, myself, my trainee, and my district.  But it's fun.  I love the opportunities I have been given and am learning alot.  I do have time to miss you all.   I love you all.  Talk to you laters!

Elder Watson

Meeting Elder Chandia

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hi everybody!!

I'm doing well and so is Elder Chandia. He is a great missionary and I feel I have to do little training with him. He's good with teaching and following the spirit and has a very likable personality so he gets along well with the members of the church and our investigators that we currently are teaching. It makes it a whole lot easier as a district leader as well. We just now need to make our area the example for the rest of our district to follow. Currently we are a pretty bad example. But I feel good things coming up in the future for us.

We are working really hard with this investigator, Jose Deleon, and feel that he will progress quickly towards baptism. We meet with him more than once a week and he keeps all the commitments we give him. He's such a wonderful kid, I just hope his parents allow him to get baptized. They don't have too much of a like for us. They aren't mean but they've had bad experiences with Mormon missionaries in the past. We are also working with another young boy who is very interested in religion. Only 14 and very good at recognizing the spirit. He and his sister, who's only 7, have been meeting with us. Their mother is a single parent and works all day but is fine and comfortable with us teaching them. We hope to get the mom involved soon. That would help so much in their conversion.

We are desperately trying to get the members involved once again but because of the holidays coming up things are so hectic. Surprisingly I haven't been too stressed as I anticipated I would be. I feel strongly that the Lord is preparing ways for us to accomplish the goals we have set for ourselves and as a mission. I so very much love being a missionary and feel that I have grown so much in the past 5 months. I can't wait to see what else is in store for me and the people of Maryland. I hope you are all doing great! I love you all and miss you but I know that the Lord is watching over each of you. Please be alert to his promptings and guidance. I know that God loves each of us and wants us to be happy but we can't achieve that happiness if we aren't listening what he's trying to tell us. Once again I love you all. Take great care and God bless.

Elder Watson

A New Companion & New Responsibility!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hey everybody!!! So for the news you have all been waiting for.....I did not get transferred but my companion, Elder Paine, did. It was a bit dissapointing. Elder Paine and I did not get along very well in the beginning. We had to work really hard to understand each other and gain respect for one another. After much hard work we became really good friends. We found a way to work and teach extremely well. And just after we finally figured all these things out he gets transferred. But that's okay the Lord needed him to step it up a little and lead a district in the Eldersburg area in Maryland. He is a great guy with lots of leadership qualities. He will definitely go far. So I'm still here in Mt. Airy....but this time with more responsibilities or stress I should say...or blessings, depending on how you look at it! LoL....I've been called to serve as district leader as well and I am also training a wonderful Elder from Las Vegas. He already seems like a great guy, with a wonderful testimony, and very easy to get along with. His name is Elder Chandia, 19 yrs old, and ready to serve serve serve! I'm excited about this transfer but I will need all the support I can get from heavenly father. Elder McMaster, my trainer is training again and our lineage just got bigger. So this is how it goes:

Elder Hurst (Currently home) trained Elder Forbush

Elder Forbush trained Elder Wong and Elder McMaster

Elder Wong is training Elder Nickels

Elder McMaster trained Me and is training Elder Barlow

And I'm training Elder Chandia

Great grandfather Hurst

Grandfather Forbush

Uncle Wong

Daddy McMaster

Cousin Nickels

Brother Barlow

Son Chandia

that is my lineage!!!! So much fun!

Keeping the Faith

Monday, October 18, 2010

I am doing just fine and healthy as can be. I've had a bad headache the past few days but contribute it to the changing of the seasons and weather! It's getting really cold out here but I've been staying pretty warm. I do need to obtain a weather coat soon. I believe I have enough money in my personal account. I'm not too sure. The ward is feeding me well. I'm still skinny but slowing gaining pounds. We've been riding bike a lot as well so I'm gaining leg muscles for sure.

So I had a pretty cool experience last night. A family in our ward, the Pallays, called us last night because Laura had a bad migraine and felt she needed a blessing. Whenever we have the opportunity to give blessings I am willing to assist but always so nervous that I would be asked to give the blessing. Most times I feel that I won't be able to say the right things and stuff like that. Well, sure enough I was asked to seal the anointing and give the blessing. I started the prayer then went totally blank. I was upset for a little while and told myself to get over it and pay attention to the thoughts that will come into my mind. I relaxed and listened and then i started to talk. To my suprise I began to know what to say, what to bless her with, and when i stopped receiving thoughts I ended the prayer. After I ended I just thought, oh boy, what did I just do. I hoped everything I said would come true. I realized that the blessing would work if they had enough faith which I'm sure they did. But I wanted a guarantee that it would work so I decided to add my faith as well. A few minutes after the prayer her migrains started to get worse. She grabbed her head and started to moan but I knew that she would be fine. A few minutes after that, she looked up and said, "It's gone!" We turned the lights back on and you could see that she was no longer bothered by her migraine. I was so happy that the Lord allowed her to be healed right then and there. She said, she knew that it would go away because it always works. I know that it was because of her and her mother's faith. I had to really try hard to keep up my faith but this experience has strengthen my faith and testimony in priesthood blessings.

Thats pretty much all for the week. I'll write to you again soon with more stories and experieces. I love you all and hope you continue to be blessed. Take care and tell everyone I love them. Talk to you again soon!

Aloha, Elder Watson