Here are some excerpts from President and Sister Watts' first letter home.
Dear Children, Mother and Dad,
You know the show "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"? Well, I am going to tell you a little about "Ed and Lorie's Excellent Adventure"! I just have to think about where to begin.
Perhaps I will start with Monday evening since that is the last time I was able to speak with you.
As you know, Mother and Dad took Ed and me to the Salt Lake airport. Our departure from Salt Lake City was interesting because 7 new mission presidents assigned to serve in our area were there trying to check in at the same time. Two of the families have children with them. Some of our friends got some incorrect information and had brought 3 bags to check in, but there is an embargo in Guatemala and you are only allowed 2 bags - no matter what. One of the mission President's wives also had the incorrect name printed on her plane ticket so she was not allowed to board the plane at all. The church travel service was able to get something squared away for them though and they were at the meetings with us on Monday morning. We were able to see Paul in the Dallas airport during our layover. It was so fun to see him and talk with him and we are grateful for the effort he made to come. Our visit seemed so short - the time flew by.
We made it to the Guatemala Airport just in time that evening. On the plane ride from Dallas to Guatemala City I sat next to a Baptist Minister - a native Guatemalteco - who preaches in North Carolina. He was a very sweet person and because I could not talk very well with him, I just shared some candy with him. We did talk a little bit but Ed was able to speak with him of course. All of us were met at the airport by the area authorities and the mission presidents that live here in Guatemala City. The Torres' met us and then took us to get some dinner. They have been so kind to us in every way. I know that this has been a painful thing for them to be released, but they have been very thoughtful to us. It was fun to meet them in person. For some reason the existing mission presidents spent the night in a hotel and had the three new mission presidents stay in the respective mission homes. I felt kind of badly about that.
Tuesday morning the Sister who has a job helping me around the house came at 6:30 AM to meet us here. Her name is Alicia and she has been in this position for many years. She only speaks Spanish and is very hard for me to understand, so right now Ed is communicating with her the most. At 7:00 all of the new people in the area met with the Area Presidency for training. President Falabella is our new Area President and he and his wife are wonderful. I really look forward to serving with them. We met until about 1:00, had lunch, met the office Elders, Ed stayed with President Torres at the office and I met with Sister Torres until about 7:00 or so and then they left. They flew out of Guatemala Wednesday morning.
Wednesday, bright and early, we met at the Mission Office, had a meeting – in Spanish of course – and then while Ed interviewed the Elders serving in the office, I was able to talk with the companion one by one. It was fun! A little tricky with the Elders who only speak Spanish though but we got through OK. We had 3 assistants, but one of them – Elder Alonso – had extended and left the mission Thursday morning. Before he left, Wednesday afternoon he helped Ed and I drive around the city a little to learn the traffic rules and take us to a grocery store. It was very helpful. That evening Ed, Elder Alonso, Elders Williams and Davis (our other assistants) went out to dinner while I stayed home to make some cinnamon rolls. I have only known Elder Alonso for 24 hours but I am sad to see him leave the mission! I can’t imagine how I will feel when Elders Williams and Davis go home!!!
Thursday and Friday we started meetings with Districts in the Capitol. We began with an opening song: “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel”, prayer, testimony from the Assistants and then Ed turned the time over to me. I have introduced all of the missionaries to each of you. I am taking our calendar that Glory gave us for Christmas so that they can see each of you. I am also introducing them to Mother and Dad with a picture that I have of them while they were serving in Argentina. The black leather bag Mom gave me has her initials on it and then I was able to have my initials put directly below. I am talking with the Elders and Sisters about being the kind of missionary their Mother thinks that they are. I also tell them that if they don’t have a Mother, they need to be the kind of missionary I think that they are. I have been talking in Spanish – Ed, the assistants and all of the missionaries are so willing to help, so it seems to be going OK. Ed has been talking with the missionaries about who they really are, sharing the scripture in D & C 138: 56. After that meeting we have gotten a chance to talk with each Elder and Sister. While Ed is interviewing a missionary I get to talk with the companion. One of the assistance is always by me to help with translation. I am telling you all that we have the BEST assistants in the whole world and the best missionaries. I simply cannot imagine how there could be any better. So far, we have interviewed around 100 missionaries – about half our missionaries. We do have one Elder that is not well and has been in the hospital, so we are trying to help him, and we have one new, discouraged, homesick Elder who we are trying to keep. We are praying hard for them all but especially these two.
Last night, Saturday, July 2, we got to go to our first baptism. A mother with her three children and then another little eight year old girl with a newly re-activated Mother and non-member father were baptized. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! Elders Jimmy Lopez and Allan Chirinos have been working with these good people. They did a great job and I was so proud of them.
Our poor assistants have been going everywhere with us and trying to help us learn the driving stuff here. Driving is CRAZY in Guatemala. A stop sign is just a suggestion, you cannot turn left in many places so you have to go around the block to get on the correct street and there are many one way roads. Many of the street signs have been misplaced somehow. No one is particularly concerned about staying in their lane and no matter what – the busses have the right of way! People are always honking their horns. Yesterday Ed and I decided that we would try to find a Wal-Mart that we heard had just been built. It apparently is not too far from our house…but we have yet to find it! We left at 10:30 yesterday morning and returned about 3:00 with no groceries in hand!!! We did see a lot of scenery; we were so lost neither of us still knows where we were. At one point I was laughing so hard I could not even speak. This did not help Ed’s frustration. However, VICTORY today! We decided that we would go to Church without the help of the Assistants. They live about 30 minutes away from us, so to have them come here and then drive back another 45 minutes to a Church house is asking quite a lot of them. They never complain but we feel like we should learn as quickly as we can so that they do not have to help us so much. Anyway, the victory is that we left at 8:00 this morning to attend a Sacrament meeting in our mission and arrived at one of our buildings at 5 minutes to 9:00. HURRAH FOR US!!! We only got lost a few times. We sat by two of our Elders, Elder Lopez and Elder Eskelsen and 6 investigators – a family of 5 and a single gentleman. It was a wonderful testimony meeting.
I wake up every morning seeing three volcanoes right outside of my windows. There are flowers everywhere, it is very green and right now it rains a lot. Luckily we don’t mind the rain. However, when I say rain I mean it POURS, just like someone dumping out a bucket. I have never seen anything like it. Please tell the kids that I have not seen any monkeys yet but this next week we will be driving to Coban, Peten and the Polochic. We will visit the missionaries and the Priesthood leaders and then have our first District Conference so maybe we will see some them. We will be leaving at 5:00 Wednesday morning and return the following Monday. Tuesday we have Zone Leaders Conference. Both Ed and I have a little stomach trouble while we are adjusting to the water, food, etc.
Our neighbors right across the hall, are the mission president and wife for the South mission. They are Joyce and President Stay. I love Sister Stay. It is fun to have her come over and sit at the kitchen table for a few minutes just to talk. We have all been so busy that we have not gotten to visit much, but when we do, both Ed and I love it. We look forward to serving with them.
We are very busy and trying to “do good”. Ed is wonderful and all of the missionaries love him. We miss you all, but we can feel your prayers and want you to know how much we appreciate you thinking of us. Please know that we pray for each one of you every day and that you are never far from our thoughts. We are grateful for the sealing ordinances of the Temple.
Please remember how much we love you. We will be in touch soon.
Love you, Mom
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