In less than 100 days Sister Watson will be coming home from her mission! We (her family) are already looking forward to it… I think she has mixed feelings about it because she is so happy doing what she is doing!
Carlene was able to go to the temple recently (pictures below). She is really excited to be serving in a new area near Antelope CA. , and she has new companion– Sister Mackay.
She still is by farms and has the “small town” feel, but closer to big cities.
Here are some of Carlene’s words from the last couple of weeks:
Howdy Y’all! This was the best week ever! I love Dry Creek (the area she is serving in) so much and I love General Conference and I love Sister Mackay and I love being a missionary! It’s the best thing ever!
We met a less active this week who hasn’t come to church since 2000. She stopped coming because she didn’t like how strict the rules were and felt like she would be judged – she has tattoos, smokes, and drinks a beer every so often. We told her she had her Agency and even God Himself couldn’t control her choices. While we don’t agree with her life choices in our church, we believe we all have the ability to choose for ourselves and respect that. She appreciated that and told us that honestly, she wanted to change and kind if turn her life around and at least get back into some sort of church. And of course, we told her that we definitely believe in change! We believe people can always change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We shared Alma 36 and talked about Alma the younger and how he went from destroying the church of God to becoming one of the greatest prophets and missionaries in the Book of Mormon. I love the story of Alma the Younger. It truly shows that without fail, no matter who you are or how far you’ve gone, you can always change. You can always start over. You can always come back. And I love watching people come to realize just how powerful the Atonement is and how it can help them. Alma felt awful for the things he had done – he had worked to destroy the church of God and committed all sorts of crimes. He says that he, “was racked with eternal torment, for [his] soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree … [he] did remember all [his] sins and iniquities … [and he] was harrowed up by the memory of [his] my many sins.” But as he was caught in this awful pain, he remembered the things his father had taught him about Jesus Christ. He called out unto Christ for help. And it completely changed his heart! As soon as he turned to Christ, he says, “I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.” We bore our testimonies that that is what the Atonement does. It frees us from all of our sins, sorrows, and burdens – no matter how great they are. She was very touched by his words and teared up a little. We left her with a Book of Mormon and invited her to church and to watch General Conference. Best lesson EVER!!
General Conference this weekend was amazing! I LOVE Conference! I am so grateful to have a living prophet and apostles to lead and guide us. I know those men are called of God, and if you don’t know that … watch Conference! There is a special and powerful spirit in their words and you can feel it for yourself and know for yourself that their words are true. One of my favorite talks was by Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita. He spoke about missionary work. He said in his talk, “Serving Jesus really is the best thing EVER” and I totally agree! I have the opportunity to serve my Savior every day as a missionary, serving and teaching His children. Inviting them to repent and change and come closer to them. And there is nothing in my entire life that has brought me greater joy than this work. It’s the best thing EVER!
Sister Watson
Oh my goodness, this was just the best week EVER! Sister Mackay and I have seen so many miracles here! I love being a missionary, it really is my favorite thing ever!
We went to see one of the investigators (in our area) We met him briefly once before, but hadn’t gotten to know him super well. When we got there, his mom answered the door. She is a strong Christian, but she isn’t a member of our church. Her husband was raised in the church, but has been less active for many years. She was so excited to see us! Initially, she was happy we were there because she wanted us to teach her son and help him turn his life around. We said we would love to do that and before we left, we asked if we could share a scripture with her. We read a little bit of Enos and talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. After we finished, she said, “I thought you came here to help my son, but now I feel like God sent you here tonight to answer my prayers.” She explained how she has been searching for truth. She doesn’t know which church to join or which church is right for her. She had been to many and is basically trying to find out the truth about God and who He really is. She feels like she’s had a lot of little answers in the past few days. We bore our testimonies that Heavenly Father loves her and is aware of her. He knows who she is and He wants to help her and answer her questions and her prayers. It was such a powerful lesson and the Spirit was so strong!
We also had another miracle lesson this week! We were going to see a potential, so we walked up to the gate. It was unlocked… but then a big dog came running up to us and started barking furiously. So we just kept walking and knocked on the first door that didn’t have huge gates and no trespassing signs. A young father answered the door and said we could share a short message about Jesus Christ. We shared the“Because of Him” video and he loved it! He teared up and really appreciated the message. He has a belief in Jesus Christ and knows there is a God, but he is confused because there are so many religions. He isn’t sure what is true and who is right. He has a lot of questions and is searching to find what he believes for himself. We gave him a Book of Mormon and talked a little bit about what it is and where it came from. He read Moroni 10:4-5 and we talked about how God promises that if we read with an open heart, we can find out for ourselves whether or not it was true. He thought that was amazing! It is amazing to see people who are searching for truth, but just don’t know where to find it. It was the best lesson ever!
It’s been the best week ever! I love being a missionary and I love dry creek so much!
Love y’all, have the best week ever!
Sister Watson
We had a kind of crazy miracle this week! It was a Tuesday afternoon, about 4:30, and we weren’t sure what to do. So we decided to visit this part member family. The wife (the non member) is a super cute German lady who basically either loves you or she doesn’t … and you always know exactly where you stand with her. We started walking up the front walkway and the front door bursts open! She says in her cute little German accent, “Sisters! You’re here, I knew it! Come in!” (If you don’t know what a German accent sounds like, think President Uchtdorf. It’s adorable). We were a little confused and she proceeded to explain her excitement, “I have made you dinner, come on, sit down. Everything is ready, It’s time to eat!” Apparently, she had signed up to feed us dinner next week, but had thought it was this week. So she made a bunch of food and then called the dinner coordinator to ask what time she had requested we come … and found out she had the wrong date! She was so disappointed and had no idea what to do with all the food (she’d made quite the feast, haha)! We hadn’t had any idea about this when we decided to go … but it did just so happen that our dinner that night had cancelled! So we were just going to eat by ourselves anyway! It was such a perfectly timed miracle where everything worked out so spectacularly that there obviously had to be divine intervention (which is no surprise; that happens every day in missionary work)! It was the best day ever! She is sooo funny! She told us stories of her childhood in Germany and we had the best dinner (and of course, lesson afterwards) ever!
One skill I found out I had this week was the ability to give an impromptu talk in Sacrament meeting! We were in Ward council an hour before church started and one of the speakers got the stomach flu. They were in a little bit of a conundrum, so naturally, they asked the missionaries if they might bear their testimonies or something. Oh no, we can do better than that; I volunteered to give a talk on missionary work! Giving Talks as a missionary is the best because for one, you always have the same topic (and can use that topic to help members get excited about missionary work and supporting the missionaries), and also, you move around so much, you can give basically the same talk in every Ward. Granted, it’s good to follow the Spirit and tweak details, but the outline of the talk is generally the same. But I’ve found the longer my mission goes on, the talk does change a little, because I change. I’ve experienced more and my testimony of different principles is stronger depending on what trials I a, currently going through. I’ve found there’s always been an emphasis on my missionary work talk – I’ve given it with an emphasis on the joy of missionary work, I’ve given it with the emphasis of fathers (specifically my father because it was Father’s Day) on missionary work, or the emphasis of the Book of Mormon. On Sunday the emphasis was probably my favorite one ever; the emphasis that we are children of God. Why do we do missionary work? Because God loves us. And He loves all of His children. And they all need the Gospel. We knew and loved them before this life and we should love them enough now to share the joy we get from the Gospel. Despite all the trials of missionary work, we receive great joy because we get to help our giant, extended eternal family to come back home. We get to bear our testimonies of the Savior and help others to realize that He can help them. Because of Him, our mistakes don’t follow us. We have the Atonement; that’s the solution to every single problem the world has ever known.
I love y’all! Hope you have the best week ever!
Sister Watson
Life through Sister Watson's Eyes 