Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Good bye Villa Maria

Dear Family,

Mom and Alex its so good to hear that you got back safely and that all went well. It is so weird to think we were semi close this past week.  I cant wait to hear a little bit more about all that happened.

This was my last week in Villa Maria.  I've been transferred! It was sad, but good. To be honest I kinda had a feeling that i was getting transferred. So right now I am in Dean Funes. Its about 3 hours north of Capital. Took me about 7 hours to get here. I was so blessed today. I loved seeing some of the greenie greenie missionaries in the Terminal in Cordoba. My companions name is Elder Robles. He is from Santiago Chile. I like him a lot. I can tell he is a good worker and really focused. I hope to learn lots from him.  Downside-- There is only us 2 in Dean Funes or in other words we never see anyone else haha. I'm going to forget English!  I guess that's OK.  Hopefully mom and Alex learned some Spanish in Nicaragua. I like the area. I already met the branch pres. He is a missionary also from Buenos Aries. He is way cool.

My last week in VM was really great. I got to do a intercambio with Elder Anderson for a day. It was Awesome. It was way hard to leave Elder Anderson. He has been right by my side since July 27th. There is no mission without him. I'll miss him so much. I know that we were so supposed to be together though. You wouldn't believe if you knew how much we had in common. Its pretty crazy. I know the Lord kept him with me to help me. I hope that I helped him too.  Positive of leaving VM--our shower has now been broken for 2 weeks and so we have been showering on the roof with bottles. Some of us hint hint haha. It was so funny. Now I have a working shower though. Sunday was definitely the best day of the week. We were getting ready to start Gospel Doctrine and Elder Catala came running in and saying that Berta's daughter was here. I just ran out as fast as I could to see if she really was. And she was!! I couldn't believe it. Its a miracle. And she made the decision to come too. Berta couldn't believe it. She is so happy. So that's the first miracle of the week with Berta, the second is this. When we started teaching her she was fighting a lot with her only living daughter and they hadn't talked in along time. Well I guess Saturday night she called Berta and worked things out. The 3 problems we found Berta with aren't exactly gone you could say, but she can handle them and find joy in her life. The Atonement is so amazing.

I didn't think it would be that hard to leave the ward but it really was. They called me up to share my testimony and I could barely express my feelings. I felt the spirit so strong. I just love that ward so much. I feel like I really did my best to serve them, but I feel like I'm the one that benefited. They showed so much love and did so much for me. Sometimes I felt where have these people been my whole life? After Sacrament since it was 5th Sunday we all ate in the church. It was way nice to be able to talk to people and say goodbye. I really almost lost it when this little boy named Nemias got all teary eyed and kept asking "don't go Elder Watts".  I really couldn't talk the whole walk home. I love the little guy.

Here is a picture of some of the young men in the Villa Maria Ward:


Well guys thanks alot for everything. Hopefully this email gets to you haha :). Don't worry about me I'm doing excellent. I feel like this is the precise place i need to be in the precise moment.  I love you so much. Holy Cow 6 months. Can you believe it? Crazy. Too fast. Have a good week.
Love Riley

Riley's reference to Jana and Alex being close to him this past week was because they were in Nicaragua with Cause For Hope, a charitable organization that helps people in Central America become self reliant.  Riley went on a similar trip three years ago.  They had a great trip.  Here are a few pictures from their adventure: 









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