February 23, 2010

Hi everyone,

We had zone conference this week in Logan. It was my first time there, and on the way we drove past the Logan Temple...it is really pretty. I can't wait to do a session there. I'll have to start going there once they start remodeling the Ogden Temple. Did you hear about that? Look it up on the church website. I didn't expect the church to completly change the Ogden Temple but I'm sure it will look great. The site where the Brigham City Temple will be is right down the street from where we live. It's right accross the street from the Tabernacle. The church has bought some additional land and will be tearing down structures to make more room for the Temple grounds. Construction probably won't start until later this year. At each zone conference, vehicles are inspected. I knew that this was going to happen, so I made sure that our car was cleaned up. The members that we live with, the Barkers, work at a car dealership, so we took our car there and Bro.Barker had them clean the engine and wash the car for us. We cleaned the inside and then did a few touch ups. Our car was the overall winner out of all the other cars. Holla! Haha. :)
Okay so about my headaches. The mission doctor, Dr.Nellis, hasn't been very proactive about helping me, so I decided to ask around and talk to doctors myself about what is going on. I've talked to many different people and from that I decided that maybe the cause of my headaches is coming from my neck or back. Dr.Hoopes is a Chiropractor here in Brigham City and his services are free to missionaries. I've heard good things about him from members, and so I decided to go see him...Sister Olson also encouraged it. He took a look at me and massaged my neck area and is pretty sure that the problem is coming from my neck, etc. My muscles are tense and he says that it causes muscles to contract and cause headaches. He wrote down a bunch of stuff but I don't understand any of it lol. Pretty much my neck area is jacked up and so he is helping me with it. He's been massaging my neck and doing some other things to try and help me, and so far it's working. I've seen him twice and I've hardly had any headaches since. A few here and there but I'm getting better. I haven't gotten a blessing yet, but I will try and get one soon. Thanks for your prayers and for the drugs you sent me mom. Haha.
I had a great p-day last tuesday. We went to the Temple early in the morning which was nice since I hadn't been in 2 weeks. After that we came back to Brigham City to do emails and shopping, and then we went back to Ogden to a place called Fat Cats. There we were able to go bowling and do bumper cars for free. It was a lot of fun. We even went indoor skydiving, but we had to pay a little bit for that. We got it half off and they gave us a dvd of it for free too. It was a fun p-day...I'm not sure what we are going to do today, but hopefully we will be able to get together and do something.
Haha okay so I learned a new song this week. It's called "The Chastity Song." It's kind of like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," but it's a little different. It goes like this. -Head shoulders no no no's, knees and toes knees and toes, head shoulders no no no's, eyes ears mouth and nose.- It's pretty much a song that says what is okay and what isn't okay to touch lol. While you sing the no no no's part you go over your abdomen with your hands, which means that those parts of your body...private parts, aren't okay to touch. It's kind of like the Bathing Suit Rule. You don't think about, look at, talk about, or touch anything covered by a bathing suit. We use these rules and songs to teach little kids the Law of Chastity. Haha I think the song was pretty funny, hopefully it made sense.
Alright so having a companion that you are with 24/7, you definetly find out their favorite things and the things that they do the most. Some things that I've noticed that are Elder Onon's favorite things are: He loves soda...he drinks it allll the time. When he chews gum, he chews with him mouth open and smacks it around. He really likes Michael Jackson and his song 'Thriller.' He says the word 'dang' a lot, and he loves the Hacka. It's some Tongan song and dance. Haha anyway it's just funny the things that you notice about someone when you are with them allll the time. He is a great missionary though and I am really thankful for him. I think it's so cool that he is a convert, and that he joined the church only 3 years ago. His english is improving, and we are having success.
Funny story. I was looking at my District Leader, Elder Marion's pictures, and there was this girl that looked really familiar. Well come to find out, the girl in the photo album is Sister Black. Kelsey Black is one of my good friends from college, and her sister went on a mission. Elder Marion was with Sister Black (Kelsey's sister) in the MTC and took a picture with her. It's such a small world.
So pretty much the Donovan family is one of my favorite families here in this area. Bro.Donovan is an artist and has a studio that he works at. Sis.Donovan doesn't work I don't think, but one of their daughters just came home from a mission, and their boys are approaching mission age. They are a way cool family, and are very missionary minded. We are going to their home for lunch on sunday and will probably be teaching a lesson. The Donovans said that they are trying to find someone for us to teach for sunday after lunch. It's music to my ears to hear that members want to help in the work.
We are having some great success in our area. We've picked up 3 new investigators this week and 5 new baptismal dates for March. 4 of those baptismal dates we picked up yesterday! It was amazing. I'm excited about the work and we are definetly seeing miracles. Heavenly Father is blessing us fo sho!
We didn't make it to the Temple this morning...we didn't have a ride. It's all good though. We were still able to do our studies and prepare lessons for later tonight. I found a couple cool quotes this week that I thought you might like:
-"Enjoy the little things in life because one day you may realize they were the big things."
-"Don't ask God to make your life easier. Ask Him to make you a stronger person."
I'm going to send you my zip drive with more pictures on it so keep an eye out for it in the mail.
I hope that all of you are doing well. I love you and miss you. Your in my thoughts and prayers daily. Keep me updated on the missionary work that is going on there at home. Keep those missionaries busy! I hope to hear from you soon.

~Elder Micheal Watts