BACK TO JEFFERSON PARK!!!!!

Back to his old stomping grounds, Jefferson Park
Ross and his new companion, Elder Jung pronounced 'Young", it is German.
Ross and Elder Carver and their baptism, Bishop and ward members.
Elder Carver, baptism, Elder Watkins, and fellowshipper.

sooooooo transfer calls came in......you'll never believe it. I couldn't believe it when it came! President Baker called me on tuesday morning and told me that I'M GOING BACK TO JEFFERSON PARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND IT'S THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't focus the whole day because I was so excited that I would be going back to my home stomping grounds. Exact same boundaries and everything! I already know the streets and the people, and even my companion! His name is Elder Jung from Palmyra, New York. This is his last transfer in his mission, then I'm going to "kill" him. He is a district leader. And guess what else??? I HAVE A CAR NOW!!!!!!! It has been the nicest thing in the whole world! Missionary work in a car is really nice! A few people I used to work with have now been baptized, including J and K, P, and C. It is amazing. So that means I'm back in Barrio Sexto! You should have seen the look on P's face when I walked into his home for the first time in 8 months!! It is soooo good to be back! I feel like the Lord still has some other people here that He wants me to find and help out. I guess I didn't finish the job the first time. So I'm on JEFFERSON PARK ROUND #2!!!!!!!

We had two baptisms yesterday. Two kids got baptized. Their father just got baptized last week, and he got the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood and baptized his kids! It was a super spiritual experience! Then, I got permission from president Baker to go back to my old area for A's baptism! We had the bishop baptize him! Bishop told the story about how he met him 25 years ago, and he invited him to church, but he would never come. And now he was baptizing him! It was really awesome! It has been a crazy week, and it ended really nicely with some beautiful baptisms. I feel like the Lord has been blessing me a whole lot lately. It is really exciting and hard work at the same time.

We are working with some really awesome people right now. V and R are the children of a less active member, and their grandma brings them to church. We are working hard to get them baptized and get their mom active in the church again. We are also finding tons of other people to teach.

My companion is really awesome. He speaks Spanish really well, and we do really well teaching together. We are working super hard, and doing our best to be obedient missionaries.

I know this church is true! Thank you so much for your prayers. I will attach some pictures!

Love, Elder R. Watkins

Baptism

Disclosure from MOM- In order to help protect those who are investigating the church, Ross' mission president has asked that no investigator names be used in blogs that may be accessed by the public. From now on when Ross refers to specific people we will use a random letter to indicate an investigator. Thanks for reading his e-mails each week.

Welp, another week has gone by. Lots of hard work! I have some great news about this week! "A" is doing really great! We also started teaching his friend "L", and he is really interested too. "A" is planning on getting baptized next Sunday, the 26th. He tells everybody about it! He has truly been prepared for us to teach. The other day we went over to teach him, and we were planning on teaching the Word of Wisdom. His first week at church they talked about the Word of Wisdom, so he already knew the idea of it. But we found out that when he heard about it in church, he decided on his own to quit coffee! He was a coffee addict, and he quit all on his own! So, two weeks later, we found out that he hadn't drunk coffee since his first time at church! What a miracle! He is really great with everything. He loves reading the scriptures and learning about the commandments. He has a strong spirit.

Other good news! On Thursday I got a phone call from the Elders in Jefferson Park (my second area) and they told me that "P" was getting baptized on Sunday, and I was invited to the baptism!!!! I was really happy to hear that one of the people that I found about 9 months ago was getting baptized! So we got permission from President to go up to the baptism, and we had a member take us and "A" up to see the baptismal service. But, on the way we got a flat tire on the freeway! So we fixed it as fast as we could, and got to the baptism just in time to see the last person get baptized. Saddly I missed "P" getting baptized, but it was in the same service, so I got to see him after he got changed. It was really awesome to go back and see the old people I used to work with and the members who used to help us! There have been a few people who I used to work with that have gotten baptized since I was there! It made me soooooo happpy!!!!! Elder Cruz was also there to see the baptism. It was really good for "A" to see the baptism. He is excited! And we are too!!

Last night we had an awesome lesson with a member referral. The member came with us to the lesson, and the man's name is "E". He has been prepared to make changes in his life! He has gone through some serious stuff lately, and he is really willing to make good changes. Please pray for him! He needs lots of support.

Saddly, nobody came to church except for "A". But we will work hard to make sure people make it this week. But guess what? This week is transfers, so I will find out what happens on Tuesday night. I kind of feel like I might leave. I've been here for four transfers (6 months), and the are disolving a lot of the Spanish areas because we've been getting lots of English Elders lately, and we won't be getting any Spanish Elders until August, so there could be some big changes coming up lately with areas expanding and things like that. But, wherever we serve, it's all the same work right? So the Lord's work will move on, and people will continue learning about the greatest news on earth!

Welp, that's all for this week. A lot of other stuff happened, but I can't remember it all. The days are all smashing together, and I tend to forget things before the "today". But, all is well in Babylon. We'll keep working hard and doing our best. I love you all, and thank you for your prayers. You are always in mine. Prayer is powerful, and God answers. There's no doubt about that. Keep being good, it's worth it!

Love, Elder Ross Watkins

p.s. I don't have my camera cord on me, so you won't be able to see my hermosa cara for another week. Sorry mom :) I'll send pictures soon. Love you!

A Zillion Appointments

This is Ross doing two different mission service projects. In the top pic he is third from the right and in the pic below he is on the far right.

Dearly beloved brethren,(I assume that when they say that in the scriptures they are talking to the women too), my greetings unto thee in the land of my first inheritance! I'm really grateful that I can push buttons on an electrical machine and send my words to you rather than doing it "Paul Style" by sending epsitles. I've been reading the New Testament lately, and I think it's getting to my brain. I'm almost done!

SOOOOO, this past week was a rough but blessed one. We had a zillion appointments fall through. It has been hard. We had some great appointments with a sister this past week! We went over and read the Book of Mormon with her because she hasn't been reading lately, then she invited us to have lunch with her family on Saturday, then we had another appointment with her and her family that night. We talked about how important it was for her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and that she NEEDS to go to church if she wants to gain a testimony of the church. To make a long story short....she didn't come to church!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I don't know what to do!!!!!!! I just wish people would come to church! But, we did have some succes at church! A came to church again!!! He is great! We have been meeting with him real often because he is making some serious progress. We gave him a card of the commandments and related scriptures, and he has been studying the scriptures and learning about things like Tithing and the Word of Wisdom all on his own! He is an awesome guy! He always talks about his baptism. He is making tons of friends at church, and it will be a nice easy pass-off from us to the ward after his baptism. He even wants the bishop to baptize him!!!! That is awesome news! Being baptized by the Bishop will be more special than one of us baptizing him, especially because they are long lost friends. We went to the Visitors' Center with him. A member of our ward drove us all up, and it was a really nice experience. We also took him to the Book of Mormon class on tuesday night! He has been inviting his friends to listen to the missionaries! He is so passionate about the gospel and he wants everybody to hear the word! We talked to one of his roommates yesterday, and taught him a little bit, and we are going to go back and teach him this week. AWESOME! Other than that, the work has been a little rough. But a blessing like that erases all the other hardships of the work. Please keep praying for all our investigators. Thanks!!!

Hey mom, I ate Chile Relleno yesterday. It was super satisfying.

Thanks for the updates on my friends and their missions! It pumps me up to hear what they are doing. Cory's mission sounds crazy! When he gets transferred he goes to different countries! When I get transferred I go on a 15 min. car drive haha! You can drive from the top to the bottom of our mission probably in less than 30 minutes. It is also great to hear from David and Tyler! They sound like Super-missionaries!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support. Keep up the faith and never forget to be good, because it's worth it! I know that Christ is our Saviour and he takes our burden if we are humble.

love, Elder Watkins

Summertime

What a great week! Summer is here, and that means the work is getting hotter! We had a really great week. Lots of ups and downs, but the ups ended up outweighing the downs. We had a lot of appointments fall through and a lot of people canceled on us. But we kept going. We found this man the other night at 8:30 before going back to the apartment, and he seemed really interested. So we went over to teach him, and we had a rough lesson. But afterward he asked if we were hungry, and he made us dinner! Latino people are great. When we finished eating I invited him to come to church and wrote down the adress and a little map. I didn't really expect to see him there though. Then, after that lesson we went and taught another man. He is doing really well! He is really excited about progressing and going to church, and he is set on being baptized this month!!!! He took the bus to church yesterday! So we showed up at church, and we were looking for him, and guess who we saw sitting in the chapel??? OUR OTHER INVESTIGATOR! He came! I couldn't believe it! But wait, it get's better. I was talking to him, and looking for the other investigator at the same time, and then he stood up from a few rows in front of us, and Luis said, "hey that's my friend", and I said "how do you know him?", and it turned out they had worked together about 5 years before, and they were friends! So they already had a friend at their first time at church. But wait, it gets better. We decided to introduce both of them to the Bishop. When one saw the bishop, he went up to him and gave him a hug because they had worked together about 15 years ago!!!!! HE old us that bishop used to invite him to go to church, but that he never accepted because he was a Catholic. But he is here now!!!!!!! So we are planning on taking the Bishop with us. Hopefully he can get baptized by him too! So both investigators stayed for all three hours, and then at the end one gave the other a ride home because they actually live on the same street and they didn't even know it!!!!!!!

So, in all, this past Sunday was a miracle Sunday.Our sister investigator wasn't able to make it, but guess what??? She wants to pay her tithing, and she's not even baptized yet! She will hopefully be able to make it to church next week. Tonight we are going to have a giant FHE with about 15 or 20 people because Sister Munoz invited a bunch of people to come over for dinner. She even found us a new investigator to start teaching! WOOOO!

Welp, I don't have much time left, and I still have to write President Baker. I love you all. Thank you a ton for all your support and prayers. I feel them daily. I know that this is the Lord's work, and we are the instruments in His hands. I love you all. Cuidense.

Atentemente,

Elder Ross Watkins

NEWS

Things went really well this past week. We have been riding our bikes all over Lynwood and South Gate to teach lessons, visit/make contact with people, and find new investigators. Lots of exercise. I still haven't gained weight. But I feel pretty tough.
I feel like changing up the e-mail today to make it a little more interesting.
BAD NEWS: none
GOOD NEWS: We have been finding tons of new investigators, and I gave away one of the Spanish Book of Mormons to somebody! I was on splits with our district leader, and we were walking down the street and I stopped to talk to a woman eating a mango on her front porch. She seemed pretty interested, so we taught her a little and gave her the Book of Mormon. We went back for a return appointment and she is awesome! We committed her to be baptized and she said yes! We didn't set a date yet. She will be praying and reading the Book of Mormon before our next return appt.
NEW NEWS: My facial hair is getting thicker.
GREAT NEWS: We were teaching a lesson to a less active member of the church and when we read 2 Nephi 31:20, she started crying and she felt the Spirit really strong! It was amazing to see somebody gain a testimony. She was baptized when she was 9, but had since fallen away from the church. She found us a few months ago on a p-day while we were shopping, and we have been meeting with her ever since. She is fairly active in the church now! We had to start teaching her all the basic doctrine again because she had forgotten it all. It is great!
FUNNY NEWS: On Saturday Elder Carver and I were riding our bikes down the road, and a little pack of Latino kids were riding their bikes in the opposite direction. One of the kids raised his arm in the air and said "WHITE POWER!" hahaha! I think that us two missionaries were the biggest group of white people those kids had ever seen in Lynwood!
SUPER NEWS!: Yesterday we went to contact a referral. It was in a big apartment complex. The referral wasn't home. As we were walking away from the apartement, the Spirit prompted me to turn around and knock the last three doors of the complex. We went to the last door and a man answered. We contacted him, and asked if we could come in and share a message with him. He accepted! We sat down and had a really nice lesson. He was a smart man. 53 years old. He knew a lot about the Bible. He understood the Restoration and the Priesthood authority and everything, and he asked us what he needed to do. So we committed him to be baptized on June 26th! HE ACCEPTED!! We left him a Book of Mormon, and asked him to read 2 Nephi 31. We called last night and he had already read the chapter! It was a miracle! We are going back on Wednesday!
TO FINISH: I love you all very much and I thank you for all your prayers and support. I know that this is the Lord's work. He is our Savior. We can only be saved in His name. Keep being good, it's worth it!
Love,
Elder Watkins