Thanksgiving and Investigators

Annual Turkey Bowl, wearing the shirt we brought him back from New York.

Wow! We had an awesome week! I don't know if I will have enough time to tell it all!!! We met with a lady and her son about 5 or 6 times this week! They are doing really really well! He loves the Book of Mormon! They are both progressing really well. They came to the Visitors' Center on Saturday! The lights at the temple are awesome! The day before we went to the VC, we invited them to pray and ask God if they should get baptized on December 18th and if the church is true. While we were at the VC, he told us that he prayed and that God told him he should get baptized. Then his mom told us about an amazing spiritual experience she had with her prayer! She said she felt a burning inside her chest that made her cry. She said it was a feeling she had never before felt, but that it felt really good! WOOOOHOOOO! That's what it's all about! We were sooo excited! They are set for baptism on December 18th! They came to church yesterday too! He loved it! She was really bored in the last hour because they talked all about being sealed in the temple, and she didn't understand anything that was going on, but at least she was there! We are really excited for them. Please pray for them so that nothing gets in the way of them being baptized in God's church!
On Thursday, we were walking down the sidewalk and talked to a lady that was walking her dog. She is from Chile, and she used to meet with the missionaries and go to church, but she never got baptized! We will be going back this week to find how interested she is. She seemed really interested.
Thanksgiving! We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner as a ward! We had a couple investigators come and they loved it! Then on Thanksgiving day we ate with a Mexican family who is investigating the church. They didn't make turkey, but that's ok. Chicken is just as good.
No more time! I love you!
Elder WAtkins

Investigator to church

Buildings in L.A. , one is Church of Scientology

Beautiful California sunset

WE GOT AN INVESTIGATOR TO CHURCH THIS WEEK! It was the first investigator we had gotten to church since I came in to the area. Her daughter is a recent convert. We have been working hard with her to help her get a testimony. We had a really intense lesson with a member and her about the Book of Mormon. Her husband tries to pick out everything wrong about our beliefs during the lessons, but she is a little more sincere. At first she told us that she couldn't come to church, but then we pushed a little harder, and she said yes! She came for Sacrament meeting and liked it, but then had to leave. But at least she came!
We will be going to the Visitors' Center tonight with our bishop and his family and a couple of new investigators! We are excited. They tried dropping us yesterday, but then we explained that they couldn't drop us until they did a little more searching. The love the Book of Mormon, but obviously don't understand it well enough. Pray for them!

We were able to provide service to a lady in our ward this past week. We helped move all her furniture around her apartment while the carpet guys re-carpeted the place. If missionaries ever offer to provide service, tell them yes! Missionaries LOVE doing service projects.
People in LA are super busy. That is one of the biggest trials we have with investigators, being too busy.
We have the turkey bowl today in Santa Monica! We are excited to play some non-contact football and get all our manly energy that has built up for the past year out on the field.
We went on exchanges with one of the companionships in our zone. The elder I took to my area didnt' speak any Spanish, so I did all the teaching by myself for one day. It made me really grateful to have a companion to help me out. Missionary work is impossible alone.
Welp, I love you all and pray for you. I hope everything is going well at home. Keep being good, it's worth it! This is God's true church! It has been restored! That is some good news!
Love, Elder Watkins

Clean Apartment, New Zone

Winners of the clean apartment awards! Ross' mom is amazed.
New zone, the Griffeth Zone.

Map of the new zone changes.

Wow! We had an awesome week! We started off with a really good Zone Conference! Elder Jacobberger and I got to do some trainings, and President Baker just blew us all away with his trainings! It was really good and inspiring!

We have been finding some awesome new people to work with! We received a referral from the San Diego Temple for an awesome couple in our area. They have been progressing really well, and we are really excited about them. They come from a different religious background, but are really interested in our religion and especially the Book of Mormon. We dropped by their house yesterday and we caught him reading his Book of Mormon! Woohoo!!! They were out of town yesterday so they couldn't come to church, but they are coming to a class we are teaching at the church tomorrow evening! We have another lady that we found tracting. She is awesome! We went over yesterday for a follow-up lesson, and she had already read the pamphlet that we left with her, and she had tons of questions for us. She has an uncle in central America who is a member of the church, and she called him and asked him tons of questions, and he told her just to go to the church to find out for herself. She will be coming next week! And, we found out that she works in the house of a super famous/rich moviestar during the week. You will have to ask me about that one when I come home, and I'll tell you who it is. Hollywood...who would'a thought?

I got permission to go back to Barrio Sexto to do a confirmation yesterday! J L finally got baptized, and she wanted me to do the confirmation since I couldn't come to the confirmation the week before. It was awesome! She had been investigating the church for some 10 years, and she was finally able to get married and baptized! Her family is doing really well, and it was a privledge for me to do the confirmation. I got to see tons of the people I worked with in Jefferson Park while I was there. It was really fun!

Welp, I love you all and thank you for all the support! Hopefully I'll have some good news about people coming to church next week! I know that this is God's true church. I know that this is His work. Love you!

Elder Watkins

Teaching in Hollywood

Helloooooo!!! We had a good week! We have been working really hard to find new people to build up our teaching pool. We have been doing lots of street contacting and asking for referrals. If any of you know anybody that lives in Hollywood and speaks Spanish, feel free to e-mail me their address, and we will go teach them as soon as we can. Thank you.
We found a neato person the other day while we were tracting. She is from El Salvador. We will be going back next week to talk to her. She seemed pretty interested. We have a new investigator . He has been through a lot of crazy stuff in his life, so pray for him. We taught him last night, and a member came with us. We are teaching him again tonight! yay!
We had a "golden investigator" we taught last week! He had read most of the Book of Mormon while he was in jail in Utah! He loved the book, and kept reading it after he got out. He seemed really interested. But when we went back for the return appointment, his wife answered the door and told us they had been talking about the church, and they decided that he wouldn't be meeting with us anymore. BUMMER! Must have been fools gold. Or maybe right now just isn't his time. Other than that, we are just trying to find people to listen to us haha. it is good. The work is going well. The ward is great, and the church is still true! That's good news! Elder Jacobberger and I are doing a training this week in Zone conference! I'm excited! Zone Conference will be down at the church building I went to when I was in Hawthorne! I'm pretty excited to go back down there!
Hey mom, you were wondering about my release date: it will be on February 29th, 2012. LEAP YEAR! Welp, I love you all and hope you have a super week! I know that this is the Lord's work, and that this is His restored church.
Love,
Elder Watkins