Week 43 - Merry Christmas

The Skyline

Hi family. :) MERRY CHRISTMAS! Can you even believe it is christmas this week? I can't believe it. Time is flying by, I hit my 10 month mark this week, Christmas is here, and before we know it Landon is going to have the priesthood. It is so exciting. :) 

The weather has been beautiful and we haven't really been experiencing anything too bitterly cold yet.  It was raining today, so we are still going strong on avoiding the crazy, bitter, shocking cold. I'm going to credit it to all of your prayers that we would stay warm, so thank you very much. :) Please. Keep it up. We heard today that it might snow on Christmas, but we aren't sure yet. We have been able to do some fun Christmas things this week that have been a blast. :) We went Caroling with two zones and it was so much fun. President was able to come with us and it's just really powerful. Talked to lots of people and handed out loads of cards (the mish usual) so It was awesome. :) We weren't expecting to have the other zone there, so that was a fun&happy surprise. We are still showing "He is the Gift" to as many people as we can and it has been fun to see how many miracles are coming from that. We have a special experience almost every time we show it. :) We are just loving this time of year, people are so kind and are happy. The Christmas season has presented itself with some fun service opportunities too. We are having a blast, there are some really fun things happening right now.

Part of the temple is in Chicago!

I had one of the most incredible and special experiences of my mission this week. Being there while brother Paulson received his endowment was more amazing than words can express I am so unbelievably grateful for the opportunity I love that sweet family. Some of my happiest and most tender experiences on my mission have been with them. Sister Paulson messaged me on Facebook after we had gone to the temple and she said "I know with out a doubt that God put you in my life so that my family will be there at the gates of Heaven." So incredibly kind of her, I love them so much. They are amazing and I am bursting with excitement  for them. They should be sealed soon, and then they will be together forever. :) I remember when we went with sister Paulson to the temple she kept saying over and over again how much she wanted her family to be there with her, and they will be soon. Her dream of being an eternal family is becoming a reality, and it is incredible. :)  I really am so grateful for all of the opportunities I have been blessed with to teach

Caroling downtone

temple prep on my mission. I love the temple more than I even have words, and it really has been such a tender mercy to be able to teach something that is so special to me. We are having a blast teaching a recent convert temple prep right now. Her name is Rebecca and she was baptized a little over a year ago. She has unbelievable faith and she has such a strong desire to go to the temple. It is being so much fun for us. She is hoping to go through at the end of January. We are also getting to go to the temple with our zone on Tuesday, and we are so excited. We are being so spoiled with being able to go to the temple so much, and I am so happy about it. :)

Companions

As for our sweet investigators everything is going amazing. :) We were able to have two investigators at church on Sunday and it was awesome. T**** was there and so was a man named C****. We found C**** on the train. We showed him "He is the a Gift" and he was so excited about it. :) We gave him a card with our phone number and the address and information about church on it. He called us on Saturday and said "Hi sisters. I think I am at church. I wanted to come today to make sure I knew where it was, and so I wouldn't be late tomorrow." Are you kidding? :) It was so cool. So he was there for all three hours and just loved it. He asked about other things we do during the week because he just wants to come to all of it. We told him about institute and he said "you give me an address and a time and I will be there" :) His excitement about the gospel is incredible. It is so fun to see him just loving everything he is learning. Also, everything is going good with the G**** family. We weren't able to hear from them or see them last week, so we were a little bit worried that something had happened. But Brother G**** called us this week and told us that they had missed us and that their phone was broken so they weren't getting any of our calls. I was so happy, it was such a relief. :) So we went over there and took some Christmas presents to their kids and talked for a minute. They are unbelievably special. It is incredible. But they invited us over on Tuesday and then again for Christmas if we don't have anywhere we can go. 

Serious dinner appointment

Everyone has been so kind to us. :) Almost all of our investigators have invited us to come with them on Christmas. When they find out we don't get to go home and see our family they all say "well you can join our family then." So amazing of them. :) We really are working with some of the most amazing people. I love them. And I love all of you so much. :) I have thought about you so much this Christmas season and I Just pray that you can feel of the love that I have for you. I totally believe at I have some of the most incredible friends and family in the whole world. I hope you all have an amazing week. :) I am so grateful for my Savior and for the peace, hope, love, and perspective he brought into the world. I love how humble and beautiful the story of his birth is. And I am so blessed to know and love his restored gospel. :) Merry Christmas everyone. :)

I LOVE YOU. 

Love, Sister Watts 

Contacting downtown next to the Atheists

Week 42 - Christmas in Chicago

Hello Family. :) This week has been an absolute blast. :) Chicago at Christmas? Heaven. I adore everything about this place. 

Sister McChesney

I have gained such a powerful testimony that Heavenly Father is willing

Saying goodbye to Sis McChesney

to put forth a lot of effort to place people in our path that we need to learn from. I have been so unbelievably blessed with some of the most amazing companions that this mission has to offer. Time and time again I am so amazed with how perfectly God is aware of us and exactly what we need. He knew I needed sister GI, sister McChesney and now sister Johnson and Sister Prestidge. :) Tuesday we got to spend the whole day with president and sister Woodbury. It was so fun to be able to learn from them in such a fun way. I love them. :) We dropped sister M off at the airport Tuesday night and sent her on her way to Portugal. I am again so grateful that we were able to serve together, it was far to short. But I know that it was exactly what I needed and I am grateful that God made it happen. :) After we went to the airport I got dropped off with Sister Prestidge & Johnson. I

The tripanionship

love these sisters with everything that I am. I have learned SO much over the last week and I will always cherish this time we have had to serve together as companions. We have had so much fun. :) We have laughed a ton, had some incredible conversations, had amazing lessons, found some special people, and became so close. I am really sad to be leaving the tripanionship. But I am forever grateful for their examples and what I learned. I feel like a broken record over the past few transfers, but I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and he knows exactly what to do to be there for us because he loves us. I'm just happy. :)

It was fun to be able to cover their area and my area this week. We saw miracles in both areas! I love their investigators and feel so blessed to have been able to teach them this week. We had a special moment where we were in an apartment building where we had a lesson and we felt prompted that we needed to share the "he is the gift" video with someone in that building before we left. We prayed

Train Station Art

about which floor we needed to be on, then we prayed about which way we should walk after we got off, and then we prayed about which door to knock on. And then we met P*****. Oh my goodness she is darling. :) We showed her the video and she just fell in love with it. She was so appreciative and grateful for us and the sweet spirit she felt when she watched the video. She was very excited about us coming and really wants the sisters to go back. I'm very excited to see how that works out. :) We are fasting and praying as a mission that we will be able to find and baptize someone because of the "He is the gift" initiative and I felt so strongly that she will be an answer to that prayer. So cool. :)

Fun miracle in my area. :) A few weeks ago we got a call from a man in St. Louis who is a member and he told us about how he had been talking about the church with one of his coworkers who lives in Chicago and that she was really interested in the gospel and wanted to learn more. Well, she came to church on Sunday. :) She couldn't have been more darling and just fit in with the ward so well and loved what she learned. She felt the spirit super strong and had a really special experience. I am so excited to see what Gods plan is for her. She is so special. 

Tripanionship

I had the funnest moment in the whole world on Saturday. :) I don't remember if I told you about Jenni? She was the most adorable young woman that I taught while I was in LaPorte. :) She was so excited about the gospel and just loved everything at we were teaching her. Well, when we were teaching her she accepted everything we taught in such a powerful and tender way. She was very receptive to the doctrines we taught her, but she was really scared to be baptized. It was really intimidating for her and always seemed kind of daunting. Well, she GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY. :) I was so happy. She has shown so much faith this whole time and now she showed the faith to be baptized. I am so proud of her.  I got to Skype in and watch it online, it was such a tender mercy to be able to be apart of her special day. I love that girl so much and I am so grateful for her faith that she has shown and for her courageous example. She is so brave and I just love her so much. She is so special. :) It was really fun to get to see her and everyone else from LaPorte. That Ward will always hold such a special place in my heart, I loved them so much. One of the happiest moments of that Skype call was when sister Paulson told me that they had set up an appointment for Wednesday for her husband to revive his endowment. AHHHHH. I was so privileged to teach her and him temple prep while I was serving there and now he is going to make some of the most special covenants in the whole world. I just cried when she told me. The spirit was so strong. I am so proud of that tender family. The gospel has completely changed their lives and they are feeling a profound peace and happiness that is so powerful. I am thrilled beyond belief. :) He is receiving his endowment on Wednesday and they will be sealed in a few weeks. Every time I think about them I feel so overwhelmed with happiness. COVENANTS ARE THE BEST. :) 

Ice Cream after a great lesson!

We had the most unreal experience this week. :) We were walking down the hall of an apartment building to go and visit some of our investigators, when we heard the most beautiful music I have ever heard coming out of this apartment. Because we are missionaries and we can do things like this, we knocked on the door and the cutest little family invited us in. When we turned the corner and there was. Easily 50 or 60 people sitting in this tiny little room having the most beautiful church service. There were families, kids, individuals all coming together under the most humble of circumstances to worship. It was beautiful. They were all from Berma and spoke very little English, but they were so kind to us. They asked us to introduce ourselves and they made us feel so welcome. They sang "Joy to the World" in what I would assume is Bermize? I don't actually know what language it was? But I have never felt the spirit so strong during a song my whole life. It left me completely covered in chills and absolutely speechless. We couldn't stay for long, but I was so touched. I felt so much love for those sweet people and was so inspired by their simple desire to follow and worship their savior. I loved it.  

Well. :) I love my mission, I love this time of year, I love you, I love my savior, and I love my

Christmas picture with the District

Heavenly Father. I am so happy and I couldn't be more grateful for the experiences I am having. Thank you for supporting me and loving me. I hope you are all having an incredible Christmas season and that you are remembering that Christ is the gift. :)

I LOVE YOU. 

-Sister Watts 

Week 41 - Hello from ChiTown :)

Hola Familia. :) We had the most tender and amazing week. I feel like I need to apologize for not giving loads of details about the area, our investigators, and just my life here during the past few weeks. I LOVE IT. man. I am really just so happy to be serving here and to be a missionary right now. Miracles really happen every single day and I feel so blessed to be here. I love the people we are teaching, I love Chicago, and I love my companion. :) It has been really incredible to see how creative Heavenly Father is being with getting me the companions that I need to be serving with and learning from. I have been so blessed to have some of the most incredible companions. Sister McChesney got her visa this week, so she is leaving for Portugal tomorrow. I am so grateful that I have been so blessed to be her companion. She is one of my dearest friends and I really have learned loads from her. We have laughed so much and just have had an absolute ball together.  I am so excited to see all of the good that she will do in Portugal. :) I just love her so much. There is one more week in the transfer so I will be put in a trio with Sister Johnson and Sister Prestidge. I am so super stoked to be their companion for a week. They cover the YSA Ward so, geographically they cover the entire stake (including my area) So hopefully we be able to do some work here because we have so many amazing things happening right now. :) 

Group Contacting

We have been so excited about #HeIsTheGift. It has been absolutely the biggest tender mercy to be involved in such a special movement. We literally get to watch it work miracles in people every single day. It has been the coolest. :) Sister McChesney and I have set a goal to show the video whenever we can. We have been showing it to people on the busses and trains and have gotten an amazing response. From about the 30 times we have shown the video we have only gotten 1 negative response, which is incredible. That is totally a testimony to me of how powerful and touching this video is. Share it. :) I actually wanted to talk a little bit about that 1 moment.  We were coming home from District Meeting we walked past this super darling girl and walked up to this other girl

A Sunday On LaGrande Jatte

next to her and showed her the video. When we got on the train I realized that the first girl that we walked past was sitting next to us. I felt super strongly that Heavenly Father really wanted us to talk to her and that he had given us a second shot. For some reason I was so scared to show it to her though? It was so weird. We talk to people and show this video countless times in a day and I knew that I needed to talk to her but I was so nervous. Earlier this month President invited us to "do something everyday that scares you." So I swallowed my fear and offered her to watch the video. She was totally for it. :) After the video though I asked her what she thought and she just wasn't super happy about it, but that's ok. That's not the important part. :)

But I left wondering why I would feel such a strong feeling to talk to her when she didn't end up being very receptive? But I totally believe that Heavenly Father was just testing my faith to see if I would be willing to do something that was relatively hard and scary. After we got off the train and started showing the video to more people Sister McChesney and I found 3 extremely prepared people who responded beautifully to the video and who all accepted the invitation to meet with missionaries. It was the coolest. :) Such a tender testimony to me that Sacrifice really does bring forth the power of heaven. Joseph Smith  said once "when the Lord commands. Do it." I love that. :) It's ok to be scared and intimidated sometimes, but I have learned over and over again that we are blessed for being diligent, obedient and for being courageous. Sometimes it's hard, but the blessings ALWAYS come. 

We had the super fun opportunity to go on exchanges this week. I really love exchanges, I learn so

The Nigerians

much on every exchange. While we were on exchanges we were so blessed to be able to teach some really fun investigators that the YSA sisters are teaching. They are both from Nigeria and are so receptive and excited about the gospel. They are actually on date to be baptized on Christmas Eve. They are the coolest. :) But they really have a hard time being able to come to church every week because they all work at a car wash that is just impossible for them to get work off. We had an amazing lesson with them that was completely spirit driven. It was just the coolest because nothing that we said was from us and none of the blessings that we promised were from us. It was completely from Heavenly Father. It was too cool. :) I just wanted to tell you that that happened because it amazes me every time. This is my Saviors work and it is so special that we get to be a small part in that work. It's incredible to me. I am so excited to get to work with those sweet boys for the next week because they were so amazing. I'll keep you all posted on how everything plays out.

We have the most incredible and amazing miracle that I am still in absolute awe about. :) WE FOUND A FAMILY TO TEACH. What? We found a family to teach. :) It is incredible. I always thought that this was one of those crazy amazing miracles that only happens to other missionaries, but no. :) It happens and it's happening here and we are so excited. So last week we were standing on the train platform and Sister McChesney saw the G****'s down the platform and she said "we need to get on the train with that family." So we worked our way over there and met the sweetest family in the whole world. It is a Mom and Dad and what was then 3 little adorable boys, T***** was pregnant with a little baby girl who was due in a matter of days. They are beyond darling. :) We had a really sweet conversation with them on the train and then asked if we could maybe come by later to share a message about Jesus Christ and to help in anyway that we could after she delivered. They were totally kind and gave us all of their information and told us when we could come back. We found out later, that right after we walked away Jamel turned to his wife and said "I think we met them for a reason." So cool. Because we absolutely did meet them for a powerful and profound reason. This family is so incredibly prepared. They have been through some very scary things and have had a lot of hard times in their lives. But they have decided to trust God in a very loyal way. They have so much "real intent" it's amazing. They are eager and excited to learn. :) We have been over twice now and both times we have had incredibly special experiences. We have taught about half of the restoration and they are just loving every single thing we say. I don't even have words for how excited we are to continue to teach this adorable family. :) 

This work is amazing. I love seeing time and time again how many prepared people there are who are just waiting for us to talk to them. We meet incredible people every single day. I'm so grateful for this time that I have to serve as a missionary here. I'm happy. 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful or the love and support you are all sending me. I am beyond grateful for all of the fun Christmas mail I have gotten from so many of you, thank you so much. I LOVE YOU. 

Love, Sister Watts

P.s. Discover&Embrace&Share 

Elder Randall - Lancer Pride

Sam Yager

Cute painting

Week 40 - Thanksgiving

Sister Watts sent a great letter but I've been slow to get to it so here are some pics from the week. She is doing great!

Thanksgiving contacting - Chicago

Public transportation - Lugging a table around

Sick and studying

Tammy

Thanksgiving parade