Conference in Australia

Dear Family! How are you all? It has been so good to hear from you! I am glad things are going well and you are having fun with the things in your lives. Olivia! Your poor finger! My baby girl I hope you are ok! That definitely will get you outta piano. There is no way you can play in the recital ;) Booz sick pictures of LAX!! I heard about you gettin knocked down. It got my blood pumpin thinking about football when a 300+ lineman knocked me flat on my back hahaha good times man! Just get back up and go at it again even harder. It will make you stronger. That stick of yours mate, use the damn thing!! Smack some fools in the face and trip them in there legs! I am sure you are doing work.  Keep it up. I love hearing from you both!

Thank you for your emails Mom and Dad. The feeling of Love and peace overcame me as I was able to hear your love and the advice you have to give. I do agree dad, these stories and experiences I will talk about for the rest of my life. I realized how much I really love it. Yes it is hard but I love it! But I will tell you things are getting heaps better. We went to Sydney this last weekend for a follow up training meeting for the new missionaries. Things completely changed. Elder Tavalea and I had a great talk and are working things out. He is amazing. I really have come to see how hard a different language must be and the food and everything. I have learned a lot about the Tongan Culture and how DIFFERENT it is!! I love Elder Tavalea. He is so cool and wants so badly to have the spirit.  So many experiences and things have happened this week. I will start with just a few at the beginning of the week. For some reason I talked myself into finally listening to your talk on the Ipod from Womens Conference Mom. Why? I don't know. I possibly cried for 10 minutes... then I realized the fan was on so it was just making my eyes dry ;) But yes mom I agree, sometimes I wish the Gospel wasn't true. Haha But IT IS!!! The Gospel is True!! Another thing that happened that morning was I was reading the Book of Mormon for studies and just had heaps going through my mind and was super unsettled. I just had a feeling to keep reading and reading. I read for another 25 minutes when instantly I realized I was felt calm and at peace. That is my testimony to each of you this day. The Book of Mormon is true. It brings true happiness and peace into our lives at times of greatest need. It did for me and it was amazing. I love the Book of Mormon. It was such a neat experience. 

This week has been very good. Things are going all right with Investigators but even better with less active members and I continue to love them more and more. But what I would like to focus on is General Conference. It was truly amazing. The feelings that I have for that meeting and the Prophet and Apostles are indescribable. What joy and peace those messages have brought me. The message of the Atonement that was in so many talks was incredible. I was so in tune and have never enjoyed Conference that much. There were a few feelings of missing good Ole SLC. It is such a beautiful place!! It was amazing to see how so many of the talks related directly to me or directly to an Investigator. I have received so much guidance and love from each speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I really enjoyed the talk about trials and our afflictions compared to a tree and how the tree will grow strong and will be able to withstand the winds. The scripture mentioned many times this Conference Was Helaman 5:12. A few speakers didn't say it was Helaman but they used the wording and it is so true. Christ is our foundation and we must build on him so that when the whirlwinds come and the devil sends all his storms we can withstand it all. I have a problem with remembering all the speakers and what talks they gave right now but the other one that I loved was about the new truck that the man bought. He finally filled his truck with the wood and came unstuck. I loved that message. What are we filling our loads with? That is so powerful and so helpful in these days. There is so much corruption and wickedness now a day. We must fill our load with Christ and the gospel principles. Yes it was also good to see Ryan Jacobs on the Organ as usual ;) and Jay Atwater in the choir!  haha I have seen Jay more than I have seen all of you guys in the last 8 months! 

The Gospel is True. I love it with all my heart. I am reassured of our Savior’s love for us each and every day. Heavenly Father lives and loves us as well. These are the last days and we must build our foundation on Christ and we cannot fail. I love you all so much! You are in my prayers. I am doing so well and look forward to this incredible week as a servant of the Lord- Truly the greatest blessing in the world. I love you all!

Love Alex

Jana asked Alex in her letter if he is still obsessed with tattoos or if he had matured.  This is what his reply was:

 Know I am doing so well and am the happiest I could be. I still unfortunately am obsessed with Tats. They are beautiful. Yes I want to get one but No I will not. I love the Lord too much to do that to my body and that is Honest. I will have to stick to the Fruit Roll up Tattoos for the rest of my life ;)

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Elder Watts

Taree, Australia

Ether 12:27

Here are a few pictures Alex sent to us before Elder Imeson went home:

Miracle Week

Hello Family!!

It has been so good to hear from you and read your emails!  Dad I am jealous you are in Nicaragua! That sounds like so much fun! I remember the good times we had there serving others and working with CFH. I loved it. Thank you for your emails and words of advice.  They truly helped so much!  They really did strengthen my testimony. What would I do without all of you!;)  The Frosted Flakes have been fantastic!!  I haven't had an upset stomach since I have been on them!!  I do agree mom, President Howes and Sister Howes think you are crazy sending $100 worth of Frosted Flakes hahhaa!  Sister Howes said, "It seems like your Mother really loves you".. I teared up of course and said yes, She really does. It is true. Thank you Mom. I love you. 

 (Jana got a little crazy with her latest care package.  Alex Loves Frosted Flakes)

This week has been full of miracles!!  Our lesson with Justin went really well. We had a great lesson with him but mainly just answered a lot of questions that he had.  He is Golden!  Except he is gone so much! He works all the time and is really hard to catch and he apologized for that.. He really is awesome. But what I wanted to talk to you about today was some actually pretty sad, crushing news we got Sunday.  So we have an Investigator named Joe.  Our first Investigator we got since we have been here. He came to church yesterday and told us that he wasn't coming back and he couldn't meet with us. He said that his family was really frustrated with him because they all go to a Christian Outreach church and wanted him to come with the rest of the Family. We were crushed. It was really bad news, but!!  Right at that moment I felt so strongly Heavenly Fathers love for him and I had a reassurance that everything would be ok.  He told us he knows this is the true church and the Book of Mormon is true, he just needs to work out the family problems. We had a really good role play or practice teaching "Joe" this morning.  We are planning on seeing him at the end of the week and talking to him. We both received revelation on what to say and what to help him understand.  I have such peace in my heart and such a sure knowledge that Heavenly Father will provide a way for him to come back WITH his family.  One of the things that I have thought about as this has happened is in 2 Nephi when it talks about opposition in all things. No matter what there is opposition in everything. If there weren't, life would not be possible. I think we need to help Joe realize Heavenly Father will prepare a way and that there will be opposition because he wants to be baptized and wants to progress. Opposition will occur because he is trying to do the right thing. 

After all that had happened on Sunday at Church we were talking with our Ward Mission Leader and he told us of a less active girl that had recently moved back to her home here in Taree with her family.  We went over and visited them. We drove down this long dirt road to find 6 massive dogs, barking and growling at us. All Chained up.. so we thought haha. We got out of the car and started walking toward the door when this massive Mastiff and Rottweiler mix broke the chain and was dragging this massive tractor tire it was supposed to be connected too. We started walking faster and faster towards the door scared out of our minds that this dog would eat us!!! I turned around and gave it a good "Bah"!!!!!! hahahaha It stopped barking and just stood there haha. Thank you Bark Busters Home Training! They did one thing right!  We knocked on the door and the mother answered and let us in. We met the whole family and the girl that had moved back from Sydney.  3 New awesome Investigators we added and this girl said she needs to change her life around. She is back in Taree doing community service and unfortunately taking care of her 18 month old baby.. They are an awesome family!  They are super Aussie Bush people. They have some 80 thousand acre's out in the bush where they go pig hunting every couple weeks! These pigs weigh over 250 pounds!! We saw a few of the ones they had caught and the tusks on those things are nasty!!  That really was a blessing following our trial with Joe. I really see it as two blessings happening in one day. Everything with Joe will work out.

I hope you all have an amazing week and know how much I love you. The Gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ and suffered for each of our sins. I love the talk I studied this morning. Tad Callister says that Heavenly Father isn't going to just let us be complacent where we are and not be stretched. He will keep throwing trials in our lives and give us things we don't like to do so we can get better. Ether 12:27!  If we let heavenly Father into our lives and accept the trials then those weaknesses will become our Strengths. That is so true. 

I love you and have a great week!! 

Love, Alex

A couple more Pictures from Australia:

Happy New Year

G'Day Family and Happy New Year!!

It was so good to hear from all of you and to hear you are all doing well.  I am doing so well and loving every minute I have with Elder Imeson. This New Years was pretty different for me haha.  We just had a normal day of visiting people and teaching a few Investigators and then we had to be in by 8:00 because of all the crazy people in Australia.  They had fireworks for families at 9:00 in the park which is fairly close to our flat so we climbed up on our Roof and watched the fireworks then went to bed haha.  It was a very different New Years but it was good.  I am so jealous you get to spend all that time with the little guys! (Leo and Thomas)  They are so cute. 

This week has been soo Hot!!  It is crazy how hot it gets here.  But things are going pretty good.  The work is very hard in Taree and finding people that are humble is a struggle so we are just doing everything we can to find people to teach.  We actually added 4 New Investigators the other day.  They are a family from India, Kerala.  They are the most loving humble people I have ever met.  They said they had to move from India 3 years ago because of religion and they believed in Christ and were going to be killed!  They are a young couple with two kids, ages 1 and 3 Their parents live with them as well who speak 0 english! haha  We love trying to talk to the older man (Yosup) because he is the happiest person alive and loves that we talk about Jesus.  He always invites us in and slaps the couch really hard, meaning for us to sit down and then gets us a drink of what is supposed to be water... I'm not sure what it is :/ hahaa  They have some really good questions and are open to everything we share with them.  The struggle will be language and just reading the Book of Mormon.  They haven't published a book in their language (Malayalam).  They are awesome and we are just working with them.  Another Investigator that is coming along pretty well is Tanya!  We have been on and off with her because of her bi-polar and many other mental illnesses but the past two weeks we have been able to have a lesson almost every other day and she has done fairly well.  It has changed her life being able to just relax and listen to our message. We are working toward baptism with her but it stresses her out to set a date.  We are hope it will be this month but it might be next with what she has going on in her life.  We counted 16 Investigators that we have but only about 6 or 7 of them do we regularly teach and work with.  The others are always gone or just flaky.  If Riles or Dad have any suggestions I am open to them.  We are just trying to be a bit more bold with them but more loving at the same time and really trying to understand where they are coming from. 

SOME VERY GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!    

I have officially overcome my fear of nursing/mental homes!  We have a member who is 97 and she is not doing well.  She has been in the Hospital for several weeks and finally got moved to a mental nursing home.  We have visited her a couple times and we always stop and talk to the other people there.  They are all such nice people and so OLD!!!  I have overcome that fear though!  Some of those people have the most interesting stories haha But it has been good :)

This Morning we had a really good study on the Godhead and how they work and things like that in the Old Testament.  It is just insane how it all works and how Christ is the Lord in the Old Testament.  We discussed Kolob and exaltation.  It is incredible how much we cannot comprehend.  We can talk about things like that but truly can't even fathom it.  It made me think of Mosiah 4:9 in a different way with much more knowledge and respect and some understanding.  

I love you all so much. The Church is true. Have an amazing week and be safe!

Love, Alex 

Hot Taree!!

How I love coming to the Taree Library for emailing each Monday and opening up such loving and excited emails!  I am so jealous of all the snow!!  It is just getting hotter and hotter here!  I am not sure what percent humidity it is here but the past couples days have been around 30-38 degree's Celsius.  That is blazing hot but I hear that it gets up to 45+!!  So it is very hot but so nice because it doesn't make me miss Christmas or anything so that is a bonus.  I have been waiting for a few weeks for Elder Freitag to stop by and drop off the stuff!  I am so happy he did!  He was the missionary that picked me up from the airport when I got in Sydney.  He was the Assistant to the President.  I love him and can't wait to be able to meet up in two years with him.  Olivia and Joseph! I hope you like the small gifts.  It costs heaps here to send anything but a letter so I figured this would be one of the only chances to send something home.  I hope you aren't too upset getting such an early Birthday Present ;) haha.  I hope that the IPod wasn't too much to ask!  I really appreciate it.  Elder Imeson and I get along so well and love talking but we drive to Port and Coffs at least 2-3 times a month and that is a 3 and a half hour drive and then to Sydney is 4 and a half!  But it is very fun ha we think of good games and things like that to do haha.  I can’t believe Brett is stuck in the Philippines.  That would be so hard!  I swear I would start swimming or something!  

I wanted to answer a few of the questions you have asked me.  Hopefully this will help you kno what my life as a missionary is like.  Each day we leave the flat at about 10:00.  Sometimes 11:00 because I am doing a "new" missionary training program.  We do service quite often and try to do it in the mornings because it is literally too hot to do anything during the day.  For breakfast I am still trying to find something I enjoy haha.  Heavenly Father has blessed me with no problems with my acid reflex because we eat some pretty awful things at times haha.  For lunch if we don't have time to go to the flat we eat at Hungry Jacks or Maccas.  Dinners here traditionally are these interesting types of Sausages with mashed potatoes, corn, peas and some fizzi!!  Fizzi is Australian soda and it’s carbonated x 100!!  It knocks you out it is so carbonated haha  They do have sprite but it is too expensive so everyone drinks what they call lemonade, which is carbonated water and is awful! haha  We stay out doing missionary work until 9:00. If we have an appointment we are allowed to be out til 9:30.  They don't have any cinnamon here. No cinnamon gum:(  No caramel apple suckers.  The caramel they make here is NOT good at all so E. Imeson got his mom to send a few Caramel Suckers and we gave them out and people were drooling haha!  But they have really good chocolate - Cadbury and another brand.  We are hooked on this Cadbury bar that is pretty cheap so we get it every once in a while.  It has jelly beans and pop rocks in it :) It is so good!  People love soda and really any candy.  The candy is very different.  Cheap branded and some of it isn't good but every once in a while when we go to Coffs Harbour, they have a candy shop that imports American candy so we stop by there:)   I think that is all the questions... I hope I answered them alright I love questions tho so keep them coming:)

A follow up on the lady we gave the Book of Mormon to with the Postie.  Her name is Kelly and she has two little boys that both have ADHD and are hilarious!  They have so much energy and we love spending time with them.  She is a typical Aussie, a bit stubborn and doesn't know exactly what she wants, but she is accepting and every time we meet with her she agrees to what we want her to do and what we teach her.  She said she will be baptized when she feels it is right.  We are just working with her and teaching her so that is going well!  We actually mowed her lawn the first day we met her because she was stressing about it and worrying.  It was about 34 C. !!!  TOO HOT!! haha but it was good, her yard is huge! 

            This week was full of excitement and Miracles. President and Sister Howes came to church on Sunday and spoke to the Taree Branch.  It was awesome!  We had dinner the night before with them at the Sicilian, a pretty nice restaurant that is very popular.  They are amazing.  I really want you to know how loving and amazing they are.  President Howes is a GENIUS.  He is so smart and knows so much. You should see when he speaks and his trainings he gives.  It is unbelievable.  He spoke to the Branch and totally rebuked them! haha it was awesome.  He was like, "Look at all these empty seats! Why is that?" He went on in a very loving way but talking about missionary work and how we need to open our mouths and have the courage to spread the Gospel. It was very good. 

One thing on food we ate this week was.... CAMEL!!  We went to the butcher thinking we were going to get some Roo (Kangaroo) for cheap and try it cause every loves it here.  We ended up walking out with some camel!  It was on sale for 4.50!  We pulled off the stickers and the original price was 28 dollars!  Let me tell you, that was the most disgusting thing I have ever had in my life!!  I was sick all night and finally in the morning got over it! hahaha it was a bad deal, but very fun:) haha

We have been having many encounters with the Jehovah's Witness. They are lovely people but just so lost and don't understand the scriptures. That is one thing that I really studied the other day after having a conversation with one of the JW's. They tried to convince us that we would call our parents by their first names and that is how God is.  We all know Gods name is not Jehovah, that is Jesus Christ, and we know it is respectful to call him Heavenly Father.  I thought that was interesting looking into that.  I have my testimony strengthened each day.  But one thing that is fact, everything that any other religion argues or tries to tell us we are wrong, you can look it up in the scriptures and prove it!  I know that Heavenly Father has allowed other religions because not everyone in the world is going to join our church.  People need other Religions to keep the world going and to have some moral standards.  I wish that everyone in the world would convert to our Gospel but that is one thing that I have learned is that we have our agency and that is how it is.

Christmas here is amazing!!  Not very many people put up lights but those that do go FAR OUT!! I have some really cool pictures of houses decked out with lights and everything.  It doesn't feel like Christmas at all but I know it is there.  It is a weird concept to try and grasp.  If you want to look on google maps my address is 176 High Street, Taree, Australia.  We are flat 5, the light blue one:)  

This week we have training in Newcastle that we are driving down to in a few hours and then next week we have the Christmas training/celebration in Sydney!  We will be out of our area for a while but things are going so good.  I am loving it so much!  Each day I wake up and feel so lucky and thankful for this opportunity to serve a mission.  I have truly felt that I am on a mission and It scares me thinking about coming home, mainly getting back into the real world.  It is so wicked and corrupt.  It is so sad how Satan is ruining people’s lives and taking hold of kids at such young ages.

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week mates:) 

Love, Alex

Spiders, Crocs and Kangaroos!

Family!

How are you all!  I am so excited to come to good Ole Taree Library and read your emails with about 50 80+ Year olds around me:)  They truly help me so much and bring such happiness to my soul.  This week has been INCREDIBLE!!!  Joseph, there are massive spiders everywhere!  We did some service for a Less Active member the other day.  He won 1600 bricks off ebay for 100 dollars.  Yes we moved every single brick to his backyard.  But at the bottom of the bricks this massive Huntsman spider came out of the stack and we smashed it with a brick.  The spider was no smaller than a large mouse.  We have also run over a few 2 meter long Brown Snakes which are the most poisonous in our area and in the top 3 in Australia.  We went to this Koala park the other week and they have a Croc that is 4 meters long and weighs over 600 kilos!!!!  We got to see them feed him. It was awesome!!

My companion is AWESOME!  He loves dirtbikes, and just being outside.  We really do get along so well! He reminds me of Riley.  Sometimes I feel like I am out here with Riles preaching the Gospel.  My Flat is amazing.  It is probably the nicest Flat in the mission.  The last missionaries that were here several years ago had the worst Flat and so they really tried to get us a nice one.  But it is incredible and I love being able to go back to it each night and have such a great place.  Each day we eat really anything for lunch and tea or (Dinner).  People have tried to make American Hamburgers for us and it just doesn't work out hahaha  I for sure miss a good Hamburger!  But we have heaps of fruit and everyone always feeds us Sausages.  In Salt Lake we put Ranch on everything but in Australia it is BBQ sauce.  If you go to anyone's home they will always have the same bottle of BBQ sauce so that is funny and pretty good.  The food really isn't that different.  Just different brands and tastes a bit different.  It is good though!!  We actually have a car. We have been trying to get bikes to save k's but fleet never comes this far up cause we are in Taree, about 4.5 hours from Sydney. But it’s all good, things are great!

This week has been crazy busy and so much fun!  We had a really good lesson with the Turra family and committed them to be baptized. Joe had something happen in his life and he said that he had to be baptized in April.  We aren't exactly sure what it is but we do have them on date to be baptized in April! haha yes pretty far away but it will be good to really prepare them!  We also are going to baptized Samson this Saturday!!!  I am so excited and can't wait for it.  Something that happened this week that was a blessing for us was we found a new Investigator we are now teaching.  Her name is Tanya.  We were going to visit this Inactive member and we got to her door and she didn't answer but this lady across the street yelled to us and said she wasn't home and what not.  We said thanks and got back in the car.  I had the strongest feeling to go knock on this ladies door!  Unfortunately I felt like we needed to get to another appt so we didn't..  The next day it just kept hitting me to go to this ladies home.  We finally did. She has had a VERY rough life and especially the last little bit has been going through some hard things. She just broke down and started telling us all this stuff.  It was heart breaking to see someone so devastated about her kids and all these other things.  At the end of our conversation she said, "I know that God sent you two angels to come help me, Even though I feel like God doesn't think of me I feel like He has told me I am of some worth and that I need Help."  The spirit hit me so hard and I had tears running down my face.  I knew that this lady needed the Gospel and we are meant to help her in her life right now.  It was such an amazing experience.  We are now just working with her and she actually has 3 kids that we think will be good to start teaching too!  We are just trying to catch her on a good day because she has anxiety and bipolar attacks that are really bad and she loses it. We just pray every day that she will be alright and be able to pray and strengthen that relationship with heavenly father.

I know that Heavenly Father is Hastening his work right now, here in Taree.  It is incredible to be a part of it!  I see miracles every day that normally wouldn't be happening in this area!  We are slowly building the branch up and Less Active members are coming back!  It has been so dry here but the last two days it has poured rain!  It has been soo BEAUTIFUL!!  I am so grateful to have all your love and support and the wards as well. The members really are catching our vision and we are becoming united.  We will baptize each month.  Heavenly Father will provide a way.  Words can't describe how happy I am out here.  One thing that I have learned and I keep thinking about is how important families are. The love and the learning and growth a family can have is Incredible. These people out here are all having all sorts of problems and I am so happy to introduce them to the Gospel.

I know without a doubt that this church is true. I am so honored to be a Missionary at this amazing time. Thank you all for your love and prayers. I DO feel them every day and in times when I need them.

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week and be safe!! 

Love, Elder Watts


Here's a few pictures Sister Howe's sent to us after a Zone Conference in Coffs Harbour:

Taree, Australia!!!

Dear Family,

           

Australia is amazing!  It is so warm here!  It is spring time, almost summer and it is beautiful.  Every morning we wake up to hundreds of tropical birds flying around.  Kookaburra - Joseph that licorice you love, is the bird on the package and is the loudest most beautiful bird you’ve ever seen!. Cockatoo's also are so pretty and are everywhere!  The food is pretty normal to America.  They have Macca (McDonalds) Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and a few other places.  But we eat heaps of fruit!  It is so amazing here!  A traditional meal for tea (Dinner) is sausages, fruit, bread and hopefully nutella.  They also eat vegemite :( and then fruit drinks.  It really isn't too different from the U.S.  But really it is beautiful here and we are in the REAL Australia.  The City has heaps of ethnicity.  It is the Melting pot of the world.  Taree is a really nice town with about 20,000 people. Really nice shopping area's and places to go. It is also kind of in the  country.  We have Koala's and Kangaroo's haha they are so cool!  The people out here are real Aussie's. As real as they get so the accent is VERY strong.  I am starting to not even think about it anymore though it’s great!  One interesting thing here is that Australia closes down from 4-6pm.  Literally nothing is open during those hours.  Everyone goes home or something!  So at 6 o’clock when we are going to get dinner, all the shops and most gas stations are closed!  I thought that was pretty strange.

My companion and I are serving in a branch.  We have about 6 pages of members but on average about 20-35 people come.  The area we are covering has heaps of old people.  Everyone is old!!!! hahaha  We have some great friends that are these old Grannies and always call us and give us drinks and just chat with us. I love it haha

Our first day in the area we didn't have that much to do so we just started visiting less active members and got to know the area.  The second day we decided to fast because we needed investigators and people to teach.  That morning we fasted and prayed to find someone to teach and baptize.  We stopped by the Lewis family, a less active family with about 6 kids.  We got talking to the dad who is 6 foot 3, 330 pounds, massive beard, long hair to his back, and hadn't showered in weeks.  His BO was beyond belief.  He was the nicest/ strangest man I have ever met but he is great.  We sat outside and to our disadvantage the wind was coming right at us the whole time.  His BO for one hour was plowing into our noses!!!  But it was worth it because at the end he told us he has a son that is getting ready to be baptized.  He is 10 years old and "they hadn't gotten around to it" Crazy!!  How do you not get around to Baptizing your son!? haha  We met with the son (Samson) and are going to baptize him in the next month!  What a miracle!  The following day we met a family of three – Dad, Mom and daughter that are not members.  The Dad has read the Book Of Mormon 3 times and has been "waiting" for missionaries! So we have a Tea Appt with them tonight!  Heavenly Father has this area planned out for us and we just need to exercise our faith and he will deliver people for us to teach!

Last night we had Tea with the Smith Family.  The Smit’s are a husband and a wife around mom and dad’s age.  They have 4 kids that have served missions and gotten married and moved out. The dad has Huntington’s disease.  They are literally the nicest, most loving, hard working, dedicated couple in this Branch.  The Husband with this disease is so amazing.  He built his home which is beautiful.  It is on a 10 acre lot with the most amazing view.  The entire time we were eating I was just crying inside for him.  To go through life like that, not able to talk at all, shaking and making weird sounds, is awful.  My love for him was so strong and I told him we would rebuild his deck for him because he was looking for help. That night I prayed and cried for him. (Something I get from MOM!!)  But just knowing people go through these trials in life and can't express themselves or anything. My love for mentally challenged people has always been so strong and I can't wait for the Resurrection and when I can hug him and have a real conversation with him.  It just made me really think of how blessed I am.  My life is amazing and I have such amazing support.  He really inspired me and I really felt like our spirits connected.  I will always remember him and how I felt in their home.

Alright, one last fun thing we did this week.  To get away from sad but amazing experiences like the one I just told you about, we went to a hub market!  It was at this place kinda like the fairground in Farmington, just heaps and heaps of shops and stores of everything in the world.  Down about 50 shops was a table, with two white missionaries talking about the Gospel!  Hahahah yes that was us!  We set up an information booth with all this stuff!  It was pretty fun and we have some ideas for next month’s market.  It was a great way to just get out and have people see us and for us to talk to people. 

Everything here is going so well and we are working very hard!  The members love missionaries and especially the less actives!  

I just want you to know how much I love all of you and I think about you every day. I think of the things you are doing and pray for you daily!  Keep asking questions and things you want to know!  My Companion is the best.  He has 6 months left on his mission and is just like Riley.  It keeps me working hard and happy.  I love you guys so much!  Enjoy every minute you all have to be together and say hello to my Indy Girl and Sugar Bea!!

Have a great week and God be with you!!

Love, Elder Watts

Australia!

We received the following letter from Alex's mission president:

Brother and Sister Watts


Elder Watts arrived in the Australia Sydney North Mission safely.  Thank you for entrusting him into our care for the time of his mission.  Sister Howes and I are mindful of the great trust you have placed in us by sharing your son with us.  When he arrived, we met him at the airport and took him to the mission office, where he was introduced to the office staff and some of the other missionaries.  This was then followed by lunch and orientation.  We will email a picture of your wonderful missionary with us.


Elder Watts' companion is Elder Imeson from the United States.  They will be serving in the Coffs Harbour Zone.


Please note that all mail is to be sent to the Australia Sydney North Mission Office:

Elder Watts  
PO Box 2723
Calingford Court 
NSW 2118, Australia


We are sending a map of the mission which you may want to keep so you can see where your missionary is serving at any time.  Our mission is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world.  I am aware that the Lord blesses the families of missionaries in many special ways.  As your son serves, you will find that to be very true.  Your support is greatly appreciated.  You may contact the mission president, should the need arise, at 2010151@ldschurch.org at any time.  Missionaries are allowed to send and receive email.  They check it at the local library on preparation day, which is usually Monday but can change depending on weekly circumstances.


Warmest Regards,


President Philip F. Howes
AUSTRALIA SYDNEY NORTH MISSION


Here are a few pictures the mission secretary sent us: