Fire, Ups and Downs

The new mission home up in flames Saturday night.

The new living quarters of the mission president was basically unharmed.
A few of us from the Griffith Zone.
A great family!

Helloooooooooo!!! It is good to hear from yall in form of printed text. It sounds like things are going well. I'm glad to hear there is snow on the ground. Winter in Vernal isn't the same without snow and frozen windshield wipers.

This week has been a really up-down week! By that I mean really good and really hard. We had a couple rough days, but they seemed to end up in miracles! On Saturday all our appointments ended up falling through with our solid investigators, so we were stuck on the streets. So we went to work. We walked and tried talking to people. Knocked some doors. Thought a lot about where to go. Wondered when dinner was going to come around. Then BAM! New investigator!! We had decided to track a certain apartment complex near our apartment and we found a woman crying because her day wasn't going too well. We sat on some chairs by the porch and taught her a little. We found that she had stopped going to church when her mother died, and her family was falling apart. We taught her a little about the Plan of Salvation and she happily accepted a return appointment! It was a success! It showed us that sometimes God waits to see how faithful we are before He pours out the blessings. But when the blessings come, it makes all the hard work worth it! Then Sunday rolled around and we were expecting our investigator to show up for church. We called her before the services and she told us that she wouldn't be coming and that she had some things she needed to talk to us about. YIKES! That is the last thing a missionary wants to hear. She had a baptismal date for this next Sunday, but we will see tonight when we go over to answer her questions. Her husband seems to be questioning the credibility of our teaching. We think he might be playing a part in her doubts. She has a strong testimony though. PRAY FOR HER!! She needs it. Pray for us too. We need it! Then, after church we got to see one of the nicest baptismal services I've seen on my mission! A sister from Mexico was baptized! The elders in the area next to us have been teaching her. Her family from Mexico came up to see the service. Her grandson baptized her, and her son-in-law confirmed her. The second she came out of the water she starting crying "gracias, gracias!" because she was so happy to have finally joined God's fold. She bore her testimony to the group afterward, and she is a truly converted person. Wow! All the women (and some men) were crying. It was great. I think my eye-ducts have gone dry. I haven't worked up a tear in a while. Maybe all the smog has glogged the glands that create the tears. Who knows.

Welp. That's just a sliver of what happened this past week. If you want the exhaustive story you will have to read my journal. My brain can't remember all the good things that happen every day, and it chooses not to remember the bad things that happen. Life is great. The mission is awesome! I'm starting to get nervous for my last transfer. I'll let you know next week what's going to happen. I hope I get to train! I love you all and thank you for your support. Hope you have a good week shoveling snow while I get a farmer's tan!

Elder Watkins