Crazy Foods...Shark Fin Soup and wash it down with Cat's Eye!

Yum...Shark Fin soup!?!

Nama Berita Dek?!? (Apa Khabar in Iban)

Well last week was a pretty sick adventure. Well Penang wasn't all to amazing because the person I was following over there is super trunkey because he leaves in like two weeks... So we didn’t do too much and it sucked and it was super boring. On the plus side of going to Penang. I found an ultra rare Dictionary; Iban to English and English to Iban :) so it’s pretty awesome. Among other sweet treasures I found a boot leg copy of The Work and The Glory #1 it’s not the best copy but it’s worth the 4 RM. It calls the Book of Mormon the Book of Warm ha-ha.

Things here are getting better and we found a great guy named Mohan and he’s way cool always willing to listen and the first thing he said after the first visit is… since you came to my house I must come to your church ha-ha. We also got like 5 referrals from a member over here which is amazing since like 1 in 3 referrals get baptized. They are some really good referrals to. Last Saturday we got to go to a Chinese wedding with Brother Titus and it was freaking cool. you sit at a table with like 8 people and then they bring out all these crazy foods and you just eat a lot and listen to music (which happened to be American music) I had pigs leg, shark fin soup, chicken, duck, cats eye (just a fruit drink the fruit looks like a cat’s eye) and some other really expensive fish.

Well the whole house is out in Singapore except me. at the moment I am staying at the Thorne's place till they get back and doing some missionary work. Umm Jerry and Lidam are off to Frances now and they'll be back in 5 months. We found a Malaysian who was baptized in the United Kingdom 1 year and 1/2 ago and he’s going to start coming back to church, it was pretty much like finding a person baptizing them all in 10 minutes ha-ha. Things here are slowly, slowly getting better but still not where we should be at for teaching people just because we don’t have enough people to teach and not finding a lot of people who will listen.

But speaking of music at weddings, Malaysian and Indonesian music is pretty sweet since every time we get an amazing hamburger called a Ramly they blaze the music and we get to jam to it, but it’s good. So Elder Herbst and I will pick some up, and then I’ll have to send it home so you all can hear it. That’s pretty much my whole week from here in Malaysia. Till next week.

Elder Watkins

Movina Kumari Anak Perempuan Asawathi

So this week was pretty normal but great at the same time. This week Movina Kumari Anak Perempuan Asawathi was baptized by Elder Herbst, which was amazing. The spirit was great and she really enjoyed it. That Sunday I had to confirm her a member of the church etc. but this time it was all in Malay so it was pretty crazy but again I made it through alright. Some cool news this week is our recent convert Ooi Sok Choo has just finished reading the Book of Mormon all the way through for the 1st time which is crazy awesome. She’s making great progress.

This week I am on exchanges with the Zone leaders in Penang again, this time it is from yesterday till Friday. So today we are going with a return missionary to have some Korean Steam Boat which is amazing. And he has got some referrals for us so it’s going to be even better. Things over in Butterworth are going pretty well everyone is still the same in the house but Elder Thomas and Elder Barlow have some kind of bronchitis so they’re not doing super well :/ but they are slowly recovering.

While in Singapore we went that night and had some delicious good old Carls Jr. mmm real nice. And then I got to go meet an Expat family named the Strights from Mt Pleasant, Utah. They are really nice and have 2 kids one named Nathan who’s 15 and a daughter who’s 17. The sad part is at this appointment we found out that the mom and the kids hate Singapore and are moving back to Utah in 4 days... so before we left they gave me some Mac and Cheese and some Pop Tarts whoo-hoo; I won this time, so I have had some Pop Tarts for breakfast these last couple of days which were amazing. We did end up making it to the tie shop in Singapore and I got some sweet ties. Got some skinny ties, some paisley ties, and some stripidy ties, there all great and all only for 2 Sing ha-ha.

I got the picture CD and some other things in an envelope to send out to you guys next week hopefully but I think I will be at the Thorne’s house with them since Elder Thomas, Barlow and Herbst all go on visa runs next week. They only threw out papers that they had on me nothing that I had brought with me to Singapore and it wasn’t anything important. Sorry if my spelling is bad this keyboard is terrible I have to slam the keys to get them to go. I didn’t have any problems getting back into Malaysia besides the flight thing I got my chop (passport stamp) just fine with no questions. I actually had a Tamil lady chop mine and it was fine. Usually if you go to a women your fine unless they are already unhappy because your white and they think you’re so hot and just and in tunnel vision and twitter patted as Elder Shipp put it here; who goes home in 3 weeks and is super Trunkey. I am not sure if you heard but there have been some bombings here in West Malaysia over Non Muslims using the word Allah (god), the government said all can use the word but then 13 bombings happened in KL at Christian churches because of the word. But none of them were our church and the missionaries are just as safe as we were before cause we don’t use that word we use Tuhan (lord) but the Indonesian BOM uses it and some missionaries got detained for it but nothing happened besides they took their BOM. Pres. Clark says all is well and that there is nothing to worry about since we’re not doing anything wrong and that we just go about our business as usual.

Transfers can come when ever and I don’t know when I’ll leave but our area is just doing alright right now we haven’t been able to find a whole lot of new people to teach and it’s kind of discouraging since we just basically find all the time and with not too much success.... So I brainstormed some ideas to do and set some goals I want to see happen in the area so hopefully with my goals in mind I can get our area back up and running. We are teaching Suresh still and he’s doing great and asks all the questions he has… ha-ha about where do animals go etc. Also we get to go to a Chinese wedding on Saturday and its going to be delicious according to our member. Things well hopefully pick up. We also received some referrals from a member so hopefully they will come through. I hopefully I can get this area back up and running before I get transferred or something because I don’t want to leave anyone with an area like this...

Well that’s all and I am out of time.
Elder Watkins

Visa Run to Singapore!

After looking at the picture of the Sentosa Golf Club where he had lunch...I think he went on Vacation not a Visa Run :)

So right now I am emailing you from the far off and exotic land of Singapore! Yes I did have to come by myself and it was intense, but when I got here come to find out that Elder Herbst was suppose to come too and they bought him a ticket, but we never got it up in Butterworth :/ oooppss...

So right now we just got back from Sentosa Island and it’s a manmade island that’s pretty cool. We went and played some beach volleyball and then I went with Elder Pulver, Chua, Klemm, and the AP’s to lunch with Elder Chua’s parents at the Golf Club on the Island and it was really good. We are getting ready to head out to the tie shop in a bit before it closes. Oh yeah and only thing that got thrown away were some papers and I still have the rest of my stuff. At least I think I do.

This week we have a baptism up and coming for Movina on Saturday. So it’s pretty exciting. Butterworth is going pretty well right now but we have to start finding some new people since the people we had before are now members ha-ha. We are going to start pushing to get referrals from people since the statistics for referrals is 1 in every 3 is baptized and it’s like 1 in every 20 knocking is baptized so that’s what were pushing for.

KL was pretty sweet. Elder Watson talked about ways to remember scriptures with us which was completely different from what he taught at all the other areas he went to. He was a way cool guy and it was a great mission tour. While down there I picked up a Jawiv Script plaque that’s pretty cool and dropped it off in storage here in Singapore along with my DVD collection and some other stuff. Oh before I forget I need Andy Birds address to send something to him in Hungary. Also down in Singapore I finally got Mom a Sarong and I’ll probably send it home with the CD in the envelope. KL was pretty good again and we got to meet Elder Herbst recent convert down there from Sri Lanka and he’s pretty cool.

Funny story for the week is after an appointment with Suresh who has 2 puppies and 1 dog Elder Herbst puts on his shoe and goes… Oh man..... And I said… what, then he just says, tell you later. So on our way home he said a dog had peed in his shoe ha-ha so funny... it was funny for everyone else but not so much for him.

I also had my first Mountain Dew down here in Singapore and hopefully it’s not my last one down here. We might go to Carl’s Jr. or Seoul Gardens or both, so it’s pretty exciting. While were down here we have all day P-day so it’s pretty sweet.

The last story I have is about Sister Myra and her kids we had to watch her kids just for a bit while she went with the Thorne’s off to the grocery store and we were playing cars outside on some chairs and I grabbed Elder Herbst chair and broke it :/ I felt so bad so, after we went and got our hammer and then bought some nails and epoxy? And we fixed it up good as new. Well that’s all I can think of. Thanks Josh for the package I got yours in KL and I just got the letter you guys sent from home.

Elder Watkins

Teaching about Strengthening the Family

Nathan and Elder Hebst with Jerry and Lidam and their families

The Butterworth Branch

So this week was a pretty exciting week. We weren't having too much success in finding some new people to teach so then we decided let’s tell people we teach about family and about how we can strengthen our families. After that, in one day we found 7 new people we could teach. We taught them about FHE but just called it family night and the two families we taught it to, loved it and want to try it out. We leave them with the Family Proclamation to the World pamphlet and so far it’s worked really well.

One of the most exciting things this week was that Jerry came to church! He came and received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood. It was pretty sweet, then Pres. Thorne asked if I’d give him the Priesthood which was intense because this was the first time that I would have done it and it might have to be in Malay :/ but it worked out all for the best, and I did it no sweat, but it still was intense and things are all good there. Then since it was testimony meeting Jerry thought he would like to start his first one off as a new member and bear his testimony and it was sweet. He talked about how he’s already noticed a great difference and how he knows this church is true without a doubt and how Lidam and Adriana helped him to know it was true. (They are the members he lives with). Having a member fellowship is the key in keeping the people here coming back to church after the missionaries are gone. This week they assigned our members Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching and it pretty exciting so this week we had a couple of lessons on how to do Home Teaching.

This week we saw Sam, Erica's friend and he finally quit smoking! So he’s now one step closer to baptism. We just need to get his busy works schedule to fit in some church ha-ha. Suresh our other investigator quit his hard drinking and it’s been about 2 weeks and now it’s just slowly getting him to quit smoking. He is now down from 30 sticks a day to 6 stick so he’s getting there. He such a funny guy it’s hard to describe him. He always says, ya I ate some great Indian food yesterday and when he says, eat he always makes the motions that he’s eating with his hands.

So just thought I’d let you all know at home I am now a pro at eating with chop sticks ha-ha it finally came. I can also eat with my hands and I don’t get any food on my palm. I don’t know if I talked about this but Malay people (Islam) eat with their hands but only use their thumb, pointer finger, and bird finger. If you’re Tamil you eat with all your fingers but in both cultures you don't want to get it on your palm. So I have finally mastered that ha-ha.

This week we head off to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and it’s just the elders and the couple missionaries that go. We come back on Saturday. Also I finally got all my pictures on a CD and I will send it off soon. Keep an eye out for my slow boat package ha-ha. Also next week is my first visa run to Singapore and of course it’s by myself. :/ Because when the other Elder Watkins left they threw away his stuff they didn't need and then they also threw away my stuff and it wasn't until Sister Clark asked about my toe again and they thought I had been illegal for a month ha-ha, but I had my extension. So I head off next Tuesday come back Thursday and I’ll get to go to the sweet Tie shop.

Well that’s all for this week. Stay classy.

Elder Watkins

PS…Thanks for the package of Reese cups from the Thomas’s and thanks for the tie clip and taffy from the Nielsons it all made it to Malaysia fine and it was all there. Thanks for the letters from the Greenberg’s, Mecham's, and Herald Weight. Thanks for the support.