La Ultima Carta

Leadership of the Los Angeles Mission, Assistants, Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Sister Trainers. Ross is third row from the front, 2nd missionary over in yellow tie.

Ross, Julio, Lilia, after the farewell fireside.
Hiking to the Hollywood sign as a zone today, Monday, February 27.
Ross and his companion Elder Hernandez.

Welp, it's all coming to an end. I feel really weird. I'm really excited, and really nervous, and really sad at the same time. It is weird to wrap up a mission.

This past week was pretty normal. We have been out working and teaching and knocking doors. We got to teach a really nice part member family on Monday. On Tuesday I got to do a baptismal interview for an investigator in Elder Maddox's area. He was baptized yesterday. On Thursday we taught two investigators who should be baptized next month. We taught them the Word of Wisdom, and she just about fainted when we told her she couldn't drink green tea hahahaha! It was hilarious! She was pretty bummed when we told her coffee wasn't part of the diet either. As of yesterday she is still doing well! Then on Thursday we got to do some good old fashioned tracting. It felt really nice to tract again. We have been spending most of our down time on the streets, doing contacts. Doors are a little more fun than that. Then on Friday I went on splits over in the West Hollywood area! It was crazy! We went to contact a referral up in the hills (meaning with the rich people), and the first door we knocked on we had to explain about our stand on gay marriage because it was one of the first things they asked us. Typical Hollywood. Then we went up to contact a potential investigator on the top of Mt. Olympus, which is the richest part of all Hollywood. The houses were HUGE! Then we went back down off the hills and traffic was really bad because of the Acadamy Awards, or something like that.

Funny story: The other night I woke up at 12:30 am to the sound of my companion stomping on the ground. He turned on the lights and I looked over and saw a huge cockroach on the ground! Elder Hernandez told me that he woke up because the cockroach was crawling on his FACE! NASTY! I'll show you pictures of the cockroach later because I don't want to defile my last e-mail.

Now for the news on our last investigator. Sadly things didn't work out this week for him. He had an eye surgery, so we were only able to meet with him once. He has quite a bit to learn still. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because of his eye. But the good news is that he still really wants to get baptized! He also wanted to go to the Visitors' Center once more, so we will be going to the VC with him tomorrow, then after that I will go downstairs to the mission office and have my final interview with President Baker. So I'm pretty excited for that!

Today we hiked up to the Hollywood sign as a zone activity. It was nice to look over the city one more time.

Yesterday was the Departing Missionary Fireside!!! It was awesome! I got to participate in a few of the musical numbers for it, and then I got to share my testimony, along with the other missionaries that are leaving on Wednesday. Afterward, I got to talk with some people that I invited. Guess what?! Lilia and Julio Agustin will be getting sealed next month! They invited me to come to it! They aren't sure about a date, but they said they would let me know. Hopefully I will be able to come back! That would be an amazing experience.

I'm not sure what else to say. I'll tell you everything later this week! These two years have been amazing. I've learned a lot about people, churches, cultures, city life, Spanish, leadership, church organization, teaching, bikes, scriptures, companions, patience, and hard work. But I think the most valuable thing I've learned is how to follow the spirit and how to have the spirit. I'm so grateful for the spirit. I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. I know that He died for all of us. I know that the fulness of the gospel has been restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that God loves each one of us. I know that this is God's work. I will always be grateful for this opportunity He has given me to serve in his vinyard for a couple years. The good thing is that I'll be back one of these days when I'm older to work in the vinyard. There's lots of work to be done, and somebody has to do it! God's children are waiting for the message, and they don't even know it yet. I know that I was called of God by one of His prophets. I know that this is where I was meant to serve. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I love you all, and I'm really excited to see you in a couple days. Mom told me she gets the first hug, so I'll aim for her first.

Love you!

Elder Watkins