May Update

It's been a while.

Just wanted to do a quick update. I stopped writing emails for awhile because missionary work has slowly become more normal for me as I've adjusted, so things have seemed less exciting. That being said, here's what's happened. I taught Vera a lot about prayer and turning to God for our questions. She once asked us to help her with some yard work, and of course we said yes. Afterwards she fed us genuine Russian food (which is really good).

I got transferred to Hyde Park Utah, and am now teaching an older gentleman from Austria and my new companion is Elder Brown. I've also had the chance to see some pretty amazing sights around the valley including the lunar eclipse/blood moon. I know that all things are done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things and that miracles do happen.

Love you all,
Elder Watts

Lunar Eclipse

Throwing candy off a firetruck in a parade

Check out the animals in the parade!

Pictures

Daniel doesn't seem to be much of an emailer, but I thought I would share some pictures he sent.

Elder Shaw and Elder Watts

Elder Shaw was Daniel's companion from December to March. 

This Indian is famous because the artist usually only does faceless pieces, but the guy buying it requested a face.

The Logan Temple in Winter

Daniel's current companion is Elder Heikell

Panarama taken on an early morning sunrise hike

P-day hike - Daniel's companions and roommates

Christmas Day Email

Sorry about all the short emails, I blocked out more time to write this today. First off: merry Christmas. This is such a wonderful holiday to celebrate families, giving and Christ. These past few weeks have been a little crazy, but I'm starting to adjust to my new area. I went from serving on campus to serving in a family stake not too far from my old area, but now I'm serving with families instead of college kids, so it's a little different. It's been an awesome four months as a missionary (but who's counting?). Just before I left my last area, Cara came to church, which was awesome. It's been amazing to watch as she has progressed and felt the peace of Christ. She once stated, "when I came to your church it felt good and I felt peace, and that's why I want to be a Mormon." This Christmas (and the last few weeks) have been white with snow, which has been wonderful. I love the snow. I've heard many people who don't, who think I've never seen the bad side of snow, but I certainly have had times where my eyeballs freeze and every muscle aches because of all the snow, and still I love it. It's beautiful. It's fun. It brings out a little bit of childlike excitement. It softens sound and can be made into caves and men, balls and angels, and all manner of fun activities require snow. Love y'all- pictures of the snow attached.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas y'all. Last week was transfers so I'm now in a family stake (though still serving near Logan) and I have a new companion- Elder Shaw. He's pretty great- into coins, trains, and Legos. So sorry this is so short, but I don't have much time so I just wanted to say merry Christmas and I love y'all.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

This week we got to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional with all the missionaries here in Logan, so that was fun. I really liked all the stories about the families nativity experiences because they reminded me of home (if you haven't seen it I'm sure you can find it at comeuntochrist.org or with a quick Google search). I may have been the cause if pandemonium nights in my family many times. This week we're going to talk about what works best on and what is different about college campuses, and it will be transfers in a week and a half, so we should see some changes soon.

The institute also had a get to know the missionaries game night which was pretty fun, but most of the people who weren't the ones planning it left early so we didn't really get to know all that many people. It was still fun though. That's all for this week, love y'all!!

Elder Daniel Watts

P. S. I've officially hit 3 months, only 21 to go.

President Holly and I

Happy Holidays

This week we had a great Thanksgiving and we had a couple lessons with Cara, but she still isn't coming to church so we're working on that. We also had a discussion on what makes YSA different from family areas and talked about different changes that might help, including potentially making Saturday P-day, so that might happen, but don't count on it. It's officially Christmas season, so keep a lookout for light the world and other opportunities to do service and remember Jesus.

Happy Holidays!

Love,

Elder Daniel Watts

Exploding Tire

This week I watched as my companion's bike tire exploded. He had a loner bike from the mission because his bike needed to be fixed. The back tire was already stripped and as he hit the brakes, the tire wore all the way through and popped! 

A Thanksgiving quote from an awesome talk- Beware of Pride "the prideful don't like having something so much as they like having more of it than someone else." Let's choose to humble ourselves by being thankful for what we have and not compare this year. 

Here's some pictures of the wildlife here.

Love, 

Elder Watts