Post Navidad

Hello Again Fam,

It was so nice to talk to you all yesterday! What a great Christmas gift. You all sound so good. I missed being there on Christmas, but I had such an amazing Christmas here. It really came and went so fast. Its kinda funny that we both had hot Christmas´s.  I guess I didnt miss too much.. Mom- Last night I read the email you sent me to read Chrismas Eve. Thanks so much. Thats such a great story. I really felt the Spirit testify to me that that is what the Savior did for us. He took our licks. Every single one of them. As much as we learn about what He did for us we will never know exactly how extreme it was. Its unfathomable. But we can know why. Its because he loves us. Its because he loves His Father. How loving Heavenly Father was to let his only Begotten Son do something like that for the rest of us, knowing that all of us wont even be able to return. Its truely amazing. 

Believe it or not I feel like alot has happened since we talked last! I didnt tell you that Elder Anderson and I have been planning a big Christmas breakfast for about 2 weeks now. But what happened is we were so full from Saturday night we decided not to make it on Sunday morning. So we made some of it later that night. We made a breakfast caserole. It had eggs, milk, hashbrowns, tons of cheese and the closest thing we could find to sausage. Me mixed it all together and then cooked it this morning. It was way good! Also I made a fruit salad with bananas oranges apples pinaples peaches and yogurt. It was delicious. We kinda just hung out the rest the day until 8 when Elder Catala called his family. He did Skype and they wanted to meet me so I talked with them for like 45 minutes. It was way fun. Kinda confusing when 9 people are all talking spanish at the same time. It was cool though. We both bore our testimonies at the end. 

Today was great! So we found this name in the area book. Her name is Berta. I dont know if i have talked to you about her. She has been to church like 10 times. She was way close to baptism about a year ago and was offended by a missionary. But she likes alot so thats good. She just had her 3 daughter die 5 months ago. I dont think I have ever met someone so distraught in my life. She keeps saying that she just want to know why. Oh and the reason we went to her house this morning is because we can only visit with her monday wednesday and friday in the morning, because her adopted daughter hates the missionaries. So, it kinda complicates things. But we had areally good lesson with her this morning. I shared Alma 7:11. Talks about how the Savior didnt JUST suffer for our sins. For everything. What ever we are going through he knows. We talked about how the spirit is a gift of comfort for us. On Friday we are going to her house to meet again. And we are bringing our secret weapon. Aka..... The sister missionaries. I dont know what it is they just kill it every single time. They are awesome! Plus they are both Widows and so they will really be able to relate to her situation. Im way excited. 

Oh and get this. So we took a Taxi to her house because we were late. We got there and it was 12 pesos. Elder Catala handed the guy a 50 peso bill. This always makes the drivers mad because they have to deal with all the change. Sometiems they wont even take it. This time he just said no I dont have change. So Elder Catalla had 7 and I had 2. The guy was so bugged ha ha. But he said oh well its Christmas. So I got out of the car and thinking that Elder Catala was gettting out on the other side. I slammed the door just as Elder Catala said bye to the driver and the door smashed him right in the face ha ha. It was so funny! I really cant even describe how funny it was. I think I was laughing for 10 minutes. For the whole lesson he had a big red mark on his face. Too funny. 

Well I love you guys tons.  I love you guys a ton. Thanks for everthing that you do for me. Ill talk to you next week.

Elder RIley Watts

 

 

Letters and The Quest for 100

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the letters sent to Riley (20!).  He finally received them after being in Argentina for 5 weeks.  As you can see he was very happy and loves his family:

WE GOT MAIL!  It was so awesome.  They only brought letters so we could get packages at the Christmas conference which is this Thursday ( I'll talk about that later ) I got about 20 letters though.  Our family is so awesome!  All your brothers and sisters sent me letters. They are really so cool.  I loved reading Uncle Ron's letters because tons of stuff he talked about I do every day.  I will write back everyone, eventually.  It's pretty expensive to send letters though.  I'll have to do it little by little.

The Quest for 100:

This week was my most successful week so far as a missionary.  I think the most fun week also.  So one week ago I decided that because we had literally nobody to teach and have not had an investigador in church for a month I would do whatever it took to get an investigador in church this week.  My plan was to just contact like crazy.  The average missionary in our mission does about 30 contacts a week.  That's the goal at least.  I decided we would do 100.  The week started our rough.  Just lots of people that didn't have time or "wanted you to come back".  On Wednesday we knocked this house and this mom answered.  I really felt like this was it.  I introduced myself and told her who we were and about our message.  I really just put everything into it.  I was trying so hard to somehow let this lady know that we have something that she and her family so desperately needed.  After I got done talking I felt good, I felt really confident actually. She just looked at me with a frown and said No, Gracia's.  And closed the door.  I didn't understand because I really felt at that moment that we would truly get in.  But anyways, I was driven to get 100.  Later that day we  knocked a house in General Roca. We had knocked this street many times.  But never this house for some reason.  We just passed over it always.  I knocked it and this guy about my age, maybe a little older opened the door.  Two other guys were there with him.  They had their shirts off, lots of tattoos, even more earring's, were smoking and drinking to top it all off.  The first thing I thought was great, can't wait to be made fun of for my Spanish.  I quickly told him we were missionaries and what we do.  He said do you talk about Jesus? I said yes.  He told us to come in.  I was pretty shocked, not going to lie.  We had a really good lesson!  Two of the three mentioned they would like to come to church but they had a party Saturday night and assumed it would go for awhile and didn't want to wake up that early.  We told them that we would pass by Sunday morning just in case.  So I had a small hope, but honestly I didn't know what would come of it. The quest continued. Thursday we found a guy named Tobias.  He said he would come to church also. However, in a return appointment we found out that he is crazy.  He just straight up told us that he is crazy.  It was kinda funny.  But one crazy guy is better than nobody I guess.  Saturday we worked harder than ever. We worked in an area way far away we hadn't been to yet.  It took 1 hour and a half to walk to.  No success unfortunately.  At this point we were at 92 contacts.  When we got home Saturday night Elder Maude and I immediately started feeling really sick.  I think its heat exhaustion. Chills really bad, a headache that turned into a really bad migraine, every joint in my body just hurt. Saturday night I really didn't plan on going to church in the morning. I felt so sick. I only slept about 3 hours that night. Also to make it worse, our crazy investigador Tobias texted us and said he couldn't come.  So we were back to where we started.  When we woke up Sunday morning, both Elder Maude and I felt pretty good. It was truly an answer to our prayers.  So we got dressed and walked to General Roca to see if the guys we met early in the week wanted to come.  When we got to his house we knocked on the door and that very second he opened the door.  He was completely ready to go. He had a shirt on, and even had his hair combed! I was so happy. We were going to have an investigador in church. Then from across the street his friend came. He was ready also! 2! He asked me if it would be OK if his younger brother came. 3!  This could not be happening. The first guy came out of his house and asked if his older brother and his cousin could come. I think I answered in English I was so happy. 5!  We called two taxis and brought 5 investigadors to church. They told us that they didn't get back from their party until 7:30 but really felt like they needed to go to church with us. They had less sleep then me ha ha.  We had a great sacrament meeting.  Our members bore such great testimonies and the spirit was so strong.  Everyone was so inviting to "the boys".  What a sight it was to see those 5 and us 2 with our hymn books singing Joy to the World.  We sent them home in Taxis and then went back to the pension to study.  Almost immediately we started feeling sick.  Within an hour my migraine returned and we laid in bed the rest the day.  I was really mad that I was 8 short of 100 and prayed that I would get better so I could go get 8 more.  Immediately I received my answer.  Heavenly Father truly allowed us to go get our investigadors that day.  It was like the sickness was put off for a few hours so we could do what he needed. Although I was sad we didn't get my goal, 92 isn't half bad.  We led the mission in contacts and it really paid off.  At times it really felt so useless.  But we were truly blessed with success.  I really believe that as hard as we work, success is a gift.  We cant do it alone. Such an awesome week. One of the boys I'm really looking forward to teaching.  His name is Maxi.  He doesn't smoke or drink. And he loves talking about God and the Savior. Great Great week. We were truly blessed. I'm feeling pretty good today. Still really sensitive to light, thank goodness I got the "ante ojos". :)   ( Sunglasses)

This week should be lots of fun. Tomorrow we go to Cordoba for the day to renew my visa for next year. We leave at 4:00 in the morning! We are going to visit some of Elder Maudes old investigadors and family's. Also we are going to the NBA store. It should be way sweet! Then we have the Christmas Conference on Thursday. They make Asado and everyone gets their Christmas stuff. I'm really excited!

Mom- I have started memorizing the living Christ. I am half way done right now. I will finish by Christmas. It really is so good. Before I go to bed I always say it and think over the words in my mind. They really sink in and have lots of meaning.

Well you guys are truly the greatest family in the whole world. I hope that you survive the hurricane winds. Thank you so much for all of your prayers on my behalf. We are all involved in such an amazing work. Have a great week! I love you all so much. Besos :)  ( look that up )
Love Riley