August 18, 2009: Letter

Elder Watts with Mission President and his wife
Transfers are tomorrow. We found out today what is going to happen. My companion (trainer) is moving to Bountiful and I am staying here in Layton. Elder Williams is going to be my new companion and taking over as District leader. He was in our zone so I know him already. He's really funny so I'm sure we'll have a great time. Thanks for the letters and pictures from your primary class. It was fun to get it in the mail. We got our tickets to the Temple dedication and plan on going to that this sunday. Do you have yours already? I hope so! Well I love you and can't wait to hear from you next week. Miss you. Love you forever. The church is true!

August 11, 2009: Letter to Alicia

Elder Watts and Elder Jeffries
Hey Alicia!Things are going good. I got the package you sent. It was great, I loved it, thank you so much! My blog looks great...does everyone know about it? Tell Dallin happy birthday for me. Happy anniversary too! Wow, 15 years!? Hey that reminds me, can you get me a list of everyones birthdays and dates of other events like anniversaries? I don't want to miss anything. It sounds like you had a great trip. I wish I could be there to see all the family that has been there the past few weeks. Take lots of pics and send them to me! :) I'm glad you got the ice cream recipe. Let me know how you like it. Missionary life is good. It has it's moments but other than that it is good. I sent mom a letter in the mail telling all about the people we are teaching, and how a normal day goes for me so have mom show you. The baptism for Carlis Scott that was supposed to be this last Saturday didn't happen. It is postponed 4 weeks. We want to make sure she isn't just doing it for welfare purposes. She seemed like a golden investigator and all the lessons were going well, but then she got caught drinking. We want to make sure it is a solid conversion and not just a welfare dig. Bummer huh? We ran into this lady the other day and we started talking to her about the church and she said that she wasn't interested, and told us the way she got the missionaries to stop coming to her house was by answering the door naked! Hahaha. I'm glad we weren't those missionaries. She wasn't even that good looking anyway lol. ;) Most of our teaching in the apartments, where most of the people there are not very well off, and are pretty poor. I've found that it's the people like that who are more receptive to our message and the Gospel rather than wealthy people. It's humbling. The people are so nice and want more in their lives...the Gospel. When we walk down the street people honk and wave at us all the time, and usually at least once a week someone pulls over and gives us money! The Tidwells bought me a cd that I had mentioned I had liked. I was asking where I could find it to buy, and then the next thing I knew, they had gotten it for me. We are going to their house again for dinner tonight at 4pm. There's more info in the letter to mom about the area and who we are teaching. I'll try to just send some good juicy stories next week, or I'll try to write one if I have time. I love you and hope yall are doing good. The church is true!!! Oh hey I sent you a letter so it should be coming in the mail soon. Talk to ya next week!~Elder Watts

August 4, 2009: Letter

First Day in the Mission Field. Everyone is getting their new companions.
Elder Watts with Elder Jeffries, Bottom Right

Hey!I'm so glad it's Tuesday...I've been looking forward to it all day. We went to a gymnastics gym today which was fun. Then some members took us out to lunch to Sizzlers...it was sooo good. Then we went to the mall and Wal-Mart. After we email we are going to the Tidwell's at 4pm for dinner and to hang out for a while. They are one of my favorite famlies. Later we have some appointments but I'm not sure if they will follow through or not. Here's some good news! We have an investigator getting baptized this Saturday!!!!! Elder Jeffery and I met her at church and we've been teaching her. Her name is Carlis and she recently moved her. It will be my first baptism! Ahh! :) I'm really excited about it. So Elder Hessing is in our ward? That's awesome. Tell him I said hi. I'm so glad to hear that family is coming to visit Grandma & Grandpa. I'm keeping everyone in my prayers, including the apartments that they will get rented. We are riding donated bikes so I haven't had to buy one yet...but I might have to soon...it's kinda falling apart lol. I got your letter. It was very nice mom. Thank you so much. I love you. I'll hand write you one as soon as I can. I recieved Alicia's package too. It was great. The bread was really good and the recipe cards are sooo cool. I'm gonna write her soon. Jenni is supposed to be sending me some pictures and I don't know if anything else. If you are going to send me cd's, they have to be the actual cd...not burnt copies off of the computer, it's a mission rule. I didn't have time to send you or anyone else a letter. We have just been so busy. I know that is horrible and not a good excuse and I am sorry, because nobody should ever be too busy for their family or friends, but I promise I will asap. I hope yall are doing well. I am doing good. Transfers are in 2 weeks so we'll see what happens. I have a feeling there might be a change but I'm not sure. I'm interested to see what happens. Tell everyone in the family, in our ward, and my friends on Facebook to write me! I love you and miss you. I'll write a letter this week and tell you more about what you asked in the letter. I promise. We just have to be at the Tidwells at 4pm...which is like right now. I hope this letter finds you guys doing well. I hope to hear from you soon. Love, Elder Watts,Micheal, Hater.

July 28, 2009: Letter

Mom & Dad,

I'm missing you too. I bet it's really quiet around there with me gone and with Jenni & her family gone as well. Gavin is getting baptized in Utah? That's exciting that he is getting baptized but it sucks that you won't be able to be a part of it. It sounds like yall had a nice time while the Denver Watts' were there. From the letter is doesn't sound like much has changed with Grandma & Grandpa. Make sure to tell them I love them and that I said hi. Everything is fine with my companion & I. We just had a disagreement about a few things but we worked it out. I mentioned in the last letter that things are good, which they are, but that it is hard. I meant that yeah everything is good, but that being on a mission is a challenge. It's not easy lol. It's hard to adjust and to get used to things, but also to find people to teach, to do the actual teaching, etc. I don't know how to explain it. It's just very different from anything I have ever done before. It's all good though. Thank you for putting my name in the Temple...that means a lot. :) I'm working on the debit card thing. It just hasn't been working at Wal-Mart for some reason. When it comes to dinner for the missionaries, I don't know what to tell you, just make it good. It's nice to go to a members home that is clean, when the members are organized, on time, and when they have a nice meal for you. It makes you feel like they really want you to be there for dinner. Tell the Voss girl congrats for me. I'll keep the apartments in my prayers that they will rent soon. Only you, Alicia, and Jenni have been writing me through email. Jenni didn't write me a letter this week though. :( Uncle Donald donated to my mission? That's so nice of them. I'll have to send them a thank you note....can you get their address for me? Tell the girls at your work and everyone in the ward I said hi. Make sure that the address you give everyone is the mission office address on Washington Blvd. The lessons are going well. I'm getting better at them and learning them more everyday and every time I teach them. We have 5 investigators with baptismal dates coming up. We haven't had a baptism yet though. I'm trying to write in my journal but it's hard cause I don't have a lot of time to write in it...I'm workin' on it though. We had zone conference last week which was nice. A set of missionaries got their car taken away lol...some other missionaries in Idaho wrecked their car and need one so they took one away from our area. We have been doing a lot of service this week. We helped people move 3 different times this week. It was nice to help. The guy we helped yesterday took us all out to lunch afterwards which was nice of him. The Drake family brought us more groceries the other day...they are an amazing family, and love to help out with missionary work. Another member brought us like 20 boxes of cereal lol...I guess she works at a grocery store so she gets a lot or something haha. Idk. We've been doing overnight exchanges lately. They have been fun, it's nice to go to a different area with a different missionary and see how they do things. We went bowling last Tuesday for P-Day but Idk what we are going to do today. Hopefully something fun. Well I miss you guys so much and love you even more. I hope yall are doing well. Keep me updated and let me know what is going on with everything. I hope to hear from you soon. I love getting letters from everyone. Tell all my friends on Facebook to write me!!! Give them my address (the mission office one) and tell them I'll write back if they write me first so that I have their address. I'll write more in a hand written letter today. I gotta go cause we need to go do other things, and my companion is done with his email and wants to go so I'll make sure to write you later today cause there's more I want to tell you. Love you!

-Elder Watts,
Micheal,
Hater