Sincerely, Elder Watkins: Happy New Year 2015! (Week 67)

Okay yesterday something really crazy happened. We had the prompting to go bike to a less-active part-member family around 8:10. We bike there, parked our bikes, and knocked their door. There mom wasn't hope but their 18 year old son was there. He invited us in and we visited with him and his two younger siblings who have not been baptized yet. Their living situation is very complicated, their home is like a foster home. Their mom takes in teenagers who need a place to stay. The oldest daughter was smoking and sitting with her friend D~ on the other side of the room. While we were sharing our message on keeping the sabbath day holy with the three other siblings we all began to notice a strange smell. It was a burning smell but it didn't smell like cigarette smoke. The young kids thought it was the neighbors so D~ got up and went outside to check. We started to teach again when D~ came rushing back through the front door and kicking open the bedroom door on the other end of the room. Bright orange flashed from the room. The back bedroom was in flames! We rushed for water and the fire extinguisher. We threw a few buckets of water and stamped up the flames. Once we stopped the fire we evacuated the house. The fire came from an electric heater. Thankfully we got everything under control. It was all pretty intense because if we had found the fire a minute later the whole room would have been on fire. Crazy stuff. Quite a miracle.

Besides the crazy fire incident we had another great Sunday. Joesph and John both came to church to hear me and Elder Matthews speak in sacrament. Church was a very revelatory experience for Joesph and he told us that every meeting was directed to him. Super cool! We set a baptism date with Joesph for February 19th. He has almost completely quit smoking, he is down to 3-4 cigarettes a day. John is still looking for the answer to his prayers but is reading the Book of Mormon a little each night.

On Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Adamson in Blackwell. We had a good exchange, in fact some random girl proposed to me and I'm getting married next week. This random young woman and her friends pulled up to us in their car while we were walking to our next appointment. She calls out to me, "Hey my husband has run away and left me with two kids will you marry me?" Haha that's a first. Me and Elder Adamson had a good laugh and told her that we were missionaries and for two years we put those things on hold. We gave her a pass along card. She was a little embarassed (probably dared to do it by her friends), but she accepted the card and the car drove off. Crazy Blackwell...

This new year I'm recommitting myself to work a little harder. I'm working on keeping a better daily journal. I want to remember these crazy experiences the rest of my life. This week is going to be good
we are starting to meet with a lot more convicts. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but all of them are ready to change and follow God.

I love you all and hope you have a happy new year!

Sincerely, Elder Watkins