Learning more about Nathan's Mission...

Reading his call..."I will be laboring in the Singapore mission learning the language Indonesian."

Looking at the map to find where Singapore is.

The Petronas Tower from the movie Entrapment with Sean Connery and Katherine Zeta Jones are in in Malaysia where Nathan will be serving.

The big city in Malaysia

Here are a few pictures of Nathan opening his call...We had two just recently returned missionaries from Nathan's mission come over last night, Rob Sargent and his friend Chad. It was so fun to have them tell us what it was like. Even though his mission covers several countries he will probably spend most of his time serving in East and West Malaysia and Singapore. He will also learn to speak Malay besides Indonesian. The Book of Mormon is not printed in Malay so they use the Indonesian Book of Mormon and Bible. The church is really growing over there. They had over 1400 baptisms last year. They live in apartments usually with four elders together. The temperature year round is between 80° and 90° with 90 percent humidity since they are right on the equator. They said they have never sweat so much. It isn't unusual for them to ride their bikes fifty miles a day. These were just a few of the things they share with us.

Nathan has been called to serve in...

Singapore

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Brunei

Malaysia

Maldives

Nathan has been called to serve as a missionary in the Singapore Mission and will prepare to preach the gospel in the Indonesian language. He will report to the MTC in Provo, Utah on Wednesday, July 1st 2009. Here is some history about the Singapore Mission from the church website. The Singapore mission currently covers eight countries Singapore, Bangladesh, Brunei, Diego Garcia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan (only couple missionaries are in Pakistan). In 2004 missionaries came from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Korea and Tawain, as well as the United States and Canada. Missionaries often learn several languages. Presently there are more that 2,200 members in nine units that comprise the Singapore Stake.

We are all still trying to process the whole thing. Nathan is very excited. Of course no one guessed Singapore. After all of the calls last night no one knew anyone who had been on a mission to Singapore. Finally this morning I had to call another baseball mom about a question and she knows a guy from her ward that went to Singapore and got back last August she called him and he said he would love to come over and talk to us. I think that will be helpful to all of us. Nathan definitely got his wish... he wanted to learn a language and go foreign. It will be an adventure for all of us. Hopefully we will have more information soon but, for now here are a few pictures of some of the countries in his mission.

It's on it's way...

Tonight when we got home from Landon's baseball game in Spanish Fork there was 7 messages on the answering machine. So I hit the button to listen to them and the phone rang it was a friend from our old ward, Loralee Wright who works in the mail room at the church office building. When the lady brought down the missionary calls today she asked her if there were any Watkins in the group. She said they would need to look since there were 800 calls going out today. So they looked in the W's and sure enough there was a Nathan B Watkins. So...with a little luck from the Irish(it is St. Patrick's Day ya know) he should get his call tomorrow if not, on Thursday. So...if you haven't made your guess on where he is going you better hurry.

Eagle Court of Honor

Landon with "Liberty" and owner Steve Chindgren

Landon receiving his Eagle Scout pin from Bishop Wonnacott

Landon giving his Dad his pin

Landon had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor last night with two other boys...David Williams and Ben Broadhead. It was a great night with the Live Eagle presentation by Steve Chindgren and his Bald Eagle "Liberty". A tribute was read to each of the boys. Everything was decorated in a red, white and blue theme with Banbury Cross donuts in the shape of the Boy Scout Logo for refreshments. They have worked hard to earn this rank and we are so proud of their accomplishment. Thanks to Uncle Brian for sending me these photos so I could post. Thanks to everyone who came and supported him to make this such a special night for Landon. Landon may you continue to soar to new heights.

The Submit Button...Make your Guess...

The reason I started a blog was so that when Nathan went on his mission we could keep everyone posted on what was happening on his mission. Well last night he met with the Bishop and Stake President and the Stake President will be submitting Nathan's papers today (Wednesday, March 4th). He said that he will probably get his call in a couple of weeks. He is so excited and has been pushing me to keep on making all of his appointments etc. to make it all happen. It's usually the opposite with me bugging him to do something. We are happy for him but...it is definitely a roller coaster of emotions. I keep teasing him that he will go to Tooele because our neighbor down the street went to the tropical islands of Hawaii. We know that he will go to where the Lord wants him to go and that he will be a great missionary...

We thought it would be fun to let you guess where you think Nathan might get his call too. So just make your guess on where you think he will go on the comments on our blog. We'll let you know if there is a winner...there's only like 340 missions.

Way to go Landon...

Last year when Landon was in eight grade he tried out for Cottonwoods Baseball freshman team and then played with Cottonwood all summer and fall. When the school year started he continued to work out with the baseball team. Even though he has been working out with the team and doing fund raising there is no guarantee that he will make the team. On Monday and Tuesday he tried out for the High School Team. This morning at 10:30 a.m. they posted the 2009 Cottonwood Baseball team...Landon made it...for just being a freshman that is a great accomplishment. We are proud of him and his dedication and hard work.