8 December 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your emails! I love the opportunity I have to read your emails every P-day. So the hat in those birthday pictures from last week is actually one of the other elder's hat that his family sent him for his birthday. He let me wear it for that day, and then they made me a bow tie mustache out of it. Yeah, so one of the groups of elders found a place that printed T-shirts, and we decided to get some made. However, sizes here are really different. I got an XXL, but its probably the size of an adult S in America. So that was an interesting surprise. 

That's awesome that you were able to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa! This time around will be a little different than Mother's Day. We are only allotted 40 minutes for Skype. So we won't be able to talk as much as we did before, but at least we'll be able to talk a little bit. Wow, sounds like you'll have a full house for a few days with all of the Grandkids. I know one thing you could do for Christmas Eve! You could try making Salep as a family. Salep is a drink here that is amazing! It literally tastes like Christmas in a cup. I don't really know how to explain it, but it totally tastes like Christmas! I love it a ton. I don't know if you have the right stuff to make it over there, but you could give it a shot.

I don't know if we'll get the chance to watch the First Presidency Devotional. Maybe we might be able to download it and watch it some day during lunch, but I haven't heard anything about it. So for Christmas and New Years, those days have turned into P-days for us. So we'll probably just be hanging out together as a district. We might play some card games, or might go and do something fun, but we haven't decided that quite yet. We'll be having a Christmas party at the Church here in Durrës on Christmas Eve, so that should be a lot of fun! 

This week was an amazing week here in Durrës! We were blessed very much this last week. I know that God was helping us out a ton! All of the missionaries are working super hard during this month to complete a large mission goal. For the year of 2014 the Adriatic South Mission has a goal of 300 convert baptisms. We're super close, but we need to work super hard and we need to work effectively if we want to accomplish this goal. We're thinking that the last Saturday of the year, the 27th of December, will be a huge baptism day! We have two individuals who have committed to that date for their baptism as well! We're really excited to see how all of that turns out. One of them is one of Esmeralda's sisters. She's super prepared and super excited for her baptism! This just goes to show that working through members is one of the best ways to find people to invite to learn about the Gospel. I know that we can all do missionary work by inviting our friends and family members to learn about the Gospel! It has worked out amazingly for us!!

This time of year is an amazing time to be a missionary! There is a special Spirit in the air. More people are willing to listen to us! We also have a wonderful opportunity to talk with people about He is the Gift! It's such a wonderful short film. It's very powerful! Each time I see it, I feel the Spirit very strong! I know that Christ is the Son of God and I know that only through Him we can be saved. I am so very grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father that gave us His Only Begotten Son so that we can know what we need to do in order to return to live with Him one day. We've been talking to many people about "He is the Gift" and it is an amazing experience we have to talk so much about the true meaning of Christmas! I'm very grateful for this time of year that I have to be a missionary, to talk with people about the many great, and wonderful, blessings that our loving Heavenly Father has given us! This Christmas season is a wonderful time to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ! I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that a loving Heavenly Father gave Him to us so that we can gain eternal life!

Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers! Ju dua shumë! Javë të mbarë. U bekofshit në këtë kohë të bukur!

Me dashuri të madhe, 

Elder Watson

This is our whole mission at the Mission Conference we had
with President Dyches in Durrës a few weeks ago.

It has been raining a lot, and this happens quite often.
We have to dry out when we get home!