Elder Watson's Letters - June-Aug

We have been greatly blessed that Hyrum is a faithful writer AND caller. Most every week since his departure, we have had at least an hour to spend on the phone or video with him. And first thing in the morning there is an email to his wide acquaintanceships around the world with some of the most creative and energetic titles and introductions. Among his favorite non-proselyting activities are eating Taco Bell and shopping Goodwill. Here are a few of his experiences and pictures from June-Aug.

A Goodwill success for a former
Stephenville Yellow Jacket

June 20 [TX] - “On Friday, I went proselyting with the local missionaries, and we made a new friend named B____. Now, I must point out that the missionaries I went with are English speaking missionaries. So I was quite confused when they drove into the trailer park where the Spanish missionaries get most of their work done. We went to talk to someone, and sure enough, they only spoke Spanish. So they handed the contact over to me, the missionary who had just began training. I stumbled over some words about prophets and the Book of Mormon ... So my first ever contact was in Spanish I'm never letting Elders Carpenter and Atuaia forget that one.”

In that letter, he also shared his surprise when Elder David A Bednar, an apostle, stopped into his district's classroom at the MTC for an hour of Q&A! His reaction was aspiratonal and inspirational: “As Elder Watson, it my fondest wish to teach with that kind of power and clarity. It is amazing to think that both of us are set apart servants of the Lord, full time witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The next week in the Provo MTC, after he spent a lot of time in the temple he said: “As I travel in Pittsburgh, I'm going to try to see every person for their eternal, glorious, potential. There really are no ordinary people, and I want to help as many as I can to feel how loved they really are.”

His MTC district

He arrived in his mission and his first assignment was to southern NY/northern PA. Very oddly, he lives a full half an hour away from his area and his district leader is an hour away! So they spend a LOT of time driving through the beautiful, lush trees along the I-86 that Joy and I drove when we were dating and living 5 hours apart. I was touched that he noticed the family significance of that road and said as much to his companion the first time they reached that highway.

July 6 - “My first day there, we went to meet some old guy at his house, and we find his wife instead, who notices our car has something hanging from the bottom of it. She goes into her house, grabs some duct tape, and lays down on the hot road to fix our car. She was super nice and already had lots of faith. She had even already read some of the Book of Mormon! We had a great discussion with her, and she is now one of our friends.”

July 27 - Among the many surprises to Joy and me was that he got permission to leave his mission boundaries because the Palmyra NY temple was closer than the Pittsburgh PA temple. “Thursday was the long-awaited p-day, where we got a ride to the Palmyra temple with our faithful ward member Wade. We got to visit the Sacred Grove and then do 2 endowments, which was super awesome. Afterwards, we went to an amazing sandwich shop, Byrne Dairy Deli, which costs about as much as Jersey Mike's, but they put like 7 times the amount of meat on there, it was sooo good.”

Wade, Elder Fraiken (trainer), and Elder Watson in Palmyra

During their planning, his companion and he decided to knock on doors on Washington St. They put Washington into their GPS and it led them to Washington in a completely different town! It was still their area, so they worked that street instead. "Everyone there was willing to talk to us, and we had some great converations. We did eventually find one person to teach, and I knew that was exactly where the Lord wanted us to be.”

Among his trainer's gifts is as a human selfie stick
With friend Casey and recently acquired Amish hat

Aug 3 - "I had an exchange with our [District Leader], who was desperate to get rid of his guitar. I was desperate to get rid of my money because I had way too much consecrated money just sitting around. So Elder Landon sold me his electric guitar with amp for $80, meaning I speedran the collection of my mission guitar Instead of going to an ATM and withdrawing $80 for him, he just went on a shopping spree at Tractor Supply where I bought him $80 of stuff."

Aug 17 - He starts signing off his letters with "love yinz" instead of "love y'all". About this point my dad chuckles that he needs AI to help him translate the missionary and PA slang into English.

"Transfers: Now I’m in Ohiyo"

Aug 24 - "At 8:50[pm] we were driving back [home] when we felt a prompting to go visit J___ right then. We fought it for a little because he has 2 younger siblings and we didn't want to make his parents more frustrated with us than they already were. But we went, and they happened to be awake and available. Since Elder Anderson is our district leader, he was able to perform the baptismal interview with J___ right there, which was a huge miracle ... ."

Aug 31 - “On Thursday and Friday, we had two pretty similar miracles. In both cases, we were driving to a house we were going to knock, and then the Spirit prompted us to turn back and knock a street we had just past. The first time, we found 2 people who were willing to hear the gospel! The second time, we found this guy (Drew) walking his scooter up the hill. He's super chill, and the only reason he hasn't read the Book of Mormon yet is because he hasn't gotten his hands on a copy! He was excited to recieve one, and hopefully we can get in contact with him more in the future. I know the promptings of the Spirit really are the real deal, and they do work miracles.”

Elder Shirley (Sherlock?) the second companion
and Elder Watson in a Navajo area

Elder Watson, fisher of fish

Elder Watson and his former MTC companion, Elder Johnson
follow the mission practice of getting a buzz cut.