It's beginning to look a lot like...

Hello all:

Hope all is going well. Good news-- our members had a tree ready for us to put up (see pic attached).

We also had an interesting dinner last night:

We're teaching a part-member family here that reminds me a lot of my family. The Mom got married right out of high school, is going to school full-time (stressing over finals), has four wild, crazy little boys ages almost 2 through 8, she enjoys scrapbooking, and hates that her house gets trashed every 30 minutes or less. Gee-- is this my family?

Last night. watching the kids fight, quarrel, and play with uncontrollable energy was a HUGE trip down memory lane. The youngest dumped sprinkles all over the floor, and the gingerbread houses they were making ended up all over the walls. After the mom cleaned up the youngest one (almost 2, named Joseph), Zachary (age 6) came in with her expensive lotion all over his hands. Zachary tried to blame the older child, Christian (age 8, who was at the time jumping on Elder Mooney and trying to feed their puppy to their blind monitor lizard).

After cleaning off Jacob, little Jacob (age 4) came in with an unwrapped (*cough cough*-- "female hygiene item) in his hand and was playing doctor-- pretending to give us all shots with said item. Then, Zachary pushed little Joseph off the chair so that he could get into the raw meat and piroulines (we were having fondue). After being expelled from the chair, young Joseph screamed, and came up to receive consolation by wiping the frosting off his hands and onto my slacks.

This was all a big trip for me, and it felt very nostalgic to see/ hear/ clean up so many of my childhood memories. I got a big kick out of it, and definitely enjoyed the visit.

Well, gotta go. We have a baptism Saturday-- yay!
--
-- Elder Watkins

Colorado Denver South Mission

999 E. Tufts Av.
Cherry Hills Village, CO 80113

Mission rule changes

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Hello all:

I decided to get a little festive with my text above-- forgive the 80s style, but without access to any other website, I'm relatively limited in my decorative abilities. =)

I can't believe I'll be calling home in a few weeks-- has it really been 7 months since Mother's Day already? And to think I only have one call home left after this one! Gah! This whole mission time vortex is starting to annoy me.

The transition of the mission under direction from the Lord continues on. Almost all mission rules that aren't specifically in the White Handbook are gone. Pres. Monson said:

When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates (See Ch. 8 in PMG).

But at the same time, Pres. Packer and other general authorities tell us that (can't quote it exactly):

To the degree that your mission is regimented, to that same degree will the Spirit be absent from your mission.

I guess it's all about finding that happy medium of responsibility and accountability.

I've found that having that much freedom and opportunity is both liberating (we can be more personable and happy with everyone when we're not stressing over numbers), but it's also more difficult, because we have to get more creative with our work-- we can't just "do as told." It takes revelation and the Spirit, both of which are extremely hard for me to obtain and recognize. Well, we'll see how it all goes.

Also, we've been really pushing our "Give the Gift" member missionary program. And we've been seeing some success! It's interesting-- I've found that the Lord's ways truly aren't our ways. it's not a "Keep a commandment in category A and get a blessing in category A" sort of thing-- often it's "Keep a commandment in category A and get many blessings in category N." As the members have been praying for missionary opportunities for themselves, the Lord has been giving more to us. We've been finding more results from inspired tracting.

A member also referred his son's fianceé for us to teach. She quit smoking and coffee before she came to the US. We had a fantastic 1st lesson (The Restoration). We issued the baptismal and prayer invitation, and she prayed out loud at the end, asking if the Book of Mormon is true. After that question in the prayer, there was a long pause, and then, "and now that I know it is, please tell me Lord if I can get baptized next Sunday." She opened her eyes crying, and described the warmth she felt.

It was pretty cool. We explained that she still had 3 lessons, a time or two more at Church, and an interview to accomplish first, but that the Lord certainly must admire her enthusiasm... as do we =). Anyways, she has committed to be baptized on December 18th. The Spirit was palpable-- definitely one of the more powerful experiences of my mission.

Anyways, there's my rant. Hope you all have happy holidays.


-- Elder Watkins

Colorado Denver South Mission

999 E. Tufts Av.
Cherry Hills Village, CO 80113

Give the Gift

Hello all:

Hope all is going well in the civilian world. Here's a quick update...

Not a whole lot going on in our area-- we're still working on building a reliable teaching pool.

It seems we get new investigators all the time, but none of them are very solid. We have one man that we're working with that seemed at first to have so much potential. H'e's somewhat of an archeologist. While doing work in Ecuador, he and his teams found metallic plates in some caves over there that talk of the city Babylon. He wants to prove the Book of Mormon is true by digging up some more plates and donating them to the Church.

We've been trying tell him that that's nice and all, but that faith and revelation are still crucial. It's hard because he has so many different theories he's toying with to explain religion and theology that the Spirit can't work very much with him. He just doesn't seem to understand that he needs to read the Book of Mormon and pray with faith and an answer will come. It can come no other way.

We've also got some great work going with members. We and our WML have put together a great activity for the ward families. It's called "Give the Gift." Basically, the best gift we've ever received is that of our Savior Jesus Christ. Hence, the best gift we can give to our friends and family this holiday season is the message that He lives, and that He speaks today. Members put together a family mission plan, read a missionary/prayer- related scripture each day, can pray each day and as families for the opportunity to share the Gospel. We have the full endorsement of the Bishopric (and their own note on the flier), so we expect some great success.

Already we've seen a few member referrals, a new member-referred investigator, and even some investigators from tracting(!) now that we've made a goal as a ward to involve the Lord and really focus on our member missionary duties.

I know that we receive great blessings of joy and our own spiritual growth when we share with our spiritual brothers and sisters our greatest treasure-- the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, of which I bear witness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

-- Elder Watkins
Colorado Denver South Mission

Transferred to Peru?

Hello all:

Boy was this week interesting! Here's the pictured events:

• Llamas: That's right-- llamas. While checking up on a media referral in an apartment complex, we stumbled onto a guy who was walking his pet... llamas. Couldn't resist a photo opp. (Wanted to tell y'all I got mission transferred to Peru and these are our mission cars, but the snow in the background ruins that idea.)

• The Kemptons: Our wonderful senior couple who've been controlling our "frat house" are leaving. They are absolute angels, and we will all miss them..

Not photographed:

• Prison visits: This week, we have visited a media referral and a less-active member-- both incarcerated. After an application and interview with the chaplain, we are now official clergy as recognized by the Jefferson County Sherriff's Dept. We visited these people (one in minimum security; one in medium) this past Sunday. What an experience that was! There is a definite spirit in that building into which I never want to immerse myself. To tell the truth, a lot of it looked like a high school inside minus the lockers.

• Food poisoning: For this first time in my mission, I have missed a full day of work. =( It was definitely the most miserable day of my mission. Thank Heavens it's over!

• P-Day: It's changing. Pres. Maynes decided we'd go ahead and conform to the rest of the Church and take Monay P-Days starting next week. I guess God is Lord of the Sabbath and preparation days, too.

We've also got some great progress on the way with some investigators, but that will have to wait until next week.