He's Official!

Well Tuesday we headed off to the DMV to get Landon his license. Luckily we were only there about an hour. We heard the lines the day before were horrible. Why is it so hard to just turn your keys over to you kids??? I know it is all apart of them growing up but...boy it's hard. So he is official to drive alone...what a scary thought. Just one more thing to worry about...

Dymie's Baptism

Elder Thurman, Nathan (guess he wasn't quite ready for the picture), Dymie and Elder Rathnayake

The senior couple The Smith's just before they left last week.

Hey Everyone,

Well this week we have learned about a lot of changes to the mission that will probably start in September. One of those being all the missionaries will be going to Singapore for a special training that they are adding on besides PMG (Preach My Gospel). So, all 80 missionaries will be going in there the end of August. Next is that the mission has been able to get PVP (professional visiting pass) which basically gives us an 11month Visa. I will not be receiving one because I have already been out too long etc. So basically all the new missionaries coming in will get this. I can't remember if I told you this before but, there is a different Visa stamp for Sarawak than there is for West Malaysia and Sabah. So this brings us exciting but, sad news. We are kind of having a mission split. The mission is the same President and same mission (the Singapore mission) but, within the Singapore mission we will have Singapore, West Malaysia Mission and Singapore, Sarawak Mission. In the Singapore, West Malaysia Mission there is West Malaysia, Sabah, and Singapore. And in the Sarawak one well, it’s just Sarawak. This is because if someone had the 11month Visa and then they transferred to Sarawak it would no longer be valid and they would just have wasted all the money and time to get the Visa. Because of this at the beginning of September every missionary who is in Sarawak will only be a Sarawak missionary and everyone who is in the West Malaysia etc will be in West Malaysia mission. So yeah... that’s the exciting news. It’s basically splits the missionaries in half cause there are 40 in Sarawak and 40 in the rest of the spots. So the sad news is basically if I don't get transferred before September I will not get the chance to go to Sarawak. So I guess we will just wait and see. Also, once you’re in an area President says don't expect to be transferred until after 6-8 months, which will be the average for you in an area just for you info.

Next, I’ll just answer your questions really quick. Yes, Elder Thurman is a lot taller than me he is 6'7" so people are always staring at us even more ha-ha. He has been out for 3 months. He just came in from Miri like I said and he is from Heber City, Utah. He plays football and basketball and he likes music.

This week Dymie was baptized by Adrian he was super nervous but, he did a good job and we were so proud of him. Dymie is doing good and progressing well. Not only that but, the members took her in and we didn't do the baptism or the confirmation so, that way the members will feel responsibility in helping her to stay active.

Well we went out and taught with President Clark and it went well even though he didn't understand it because it was in Bahasa. But, man teaching in the language is rough and without Eder there wow so much harder ha-ha. I still am not super fluent so it’s rough but, I am still working on it.

We taught the Iban family we had found the last week and it went well except they didn't show up to church so hopefully we can get them next week. Eder says normally with Ibans you have to go pick them up for church the first time then after that once they’re comfortable at church and have some friends they’re good to go on their own. They are a cool family and hopefully they'll continue to progress.

We also got a couple referrals from Yanti and Dewi. Yanti brought her friend Nia who is from Jawa, Tengah and she used to be Muslim but converted back in Indonesia and now is protestant and is pretty cool. We taught her and she was pretty interested in learning and I am super excited for a new person to teach. We also got a referral from Dewi which was her sister :) which means that we can slowly bring her family to the church. Dewi’s sister Dorti (Dorothy) is pretty cool except she lives in the zone leader’s area ha-ha but, I got to go with Elder Austin for the 1st lesson yesterday because they had a referral for us so we went on exchanges. She is good but, it’s just going to be rough because she is far from church but, we will see what we can do.

We are also teaching a girl from main land china which is rough because her English is minimal and she doesn't believe in God… yet ha-ha. So were teaching her a little and we are bringing a Chinese speaking member this Friday to teach her so, hopefully it will go well.

Robert and Kalpana came to church last week to the KL branch so it’s good their getting fellow shipped over there and hopefully they will stay strong. Lina our baptism date is doing awesome and she is still progressing towards baptism. Maria also told us Monday that she wants to be baptized and that we will work it out next time. But, the key is she has got to come to church and stuff. Hopefully it will work out so, we will see. Hopefully Nia will work out, she is cool and really has a great desire. Well that’s all.

Elder Watkins

P.S. Happy belated Birthday Mom and Landon.

Happy 16th Birthday Landon!!!

He has such a great smile :) Our trip to Yellowstone last year.

Landon doing some serious pitching...He Loves the game of Baseball!

Happy Birthday Landon...We love you and are proud of all you do!

I can't believe how tall he has gotten in just the last year. The top two pictures were a year ago in August and the bottom one was just a couple of months ago. Why do they have to grow up so fast :( Next week we are off to get his Driver's License, he was disappointed he couldn't get it on his birthday because they were closed for the 24th holiday. Phew...I have a few more days to breathe easy! He has a baseball game tonight and then we will be off to watch the Bee's game...never enough baseball!

Another new companion...

Hey Everyone,

Well I would answer those questions for you but, they won’t do you any good cause they took away my trainee already... who knows maybe I wasn't ready? Ha-ha just kidding. Well last night they called us and said that he was leaving on an emergency transfer to Miri in Sarawak.... so yet again my companion is off to the east side without me.... He was from Utah/Arizona and he like cross country his name was Elder Lewis. Now my new companion is Elder Thurman who apparently is like 6 foot 7 inch or something. He is also still new he has been out for about 2months or so. So after 6 days he is gone and I sent him off this morning. Elder Rathnayake is in Singapore so hopefully he will bring my package back. So I am with Eder Wong right now just chilling out at his place ha-ha. So yet again my p-day is ruined.... well not ruined just boring.

I can't quite remember why I never mentioned Dymie but she has been an investigator since I got here in KL Elder Ngwoon and I taught her and dropped her and then Elder Thomas picked her up and put her on baptism date and then they left so now she is prepared and ready for baptism. Adrian will be baptizing her since he is the one who has been helping the missionaries teach her forever. So that’s pretty exciting.

This last week was pretty exciting. We had another 8 people come to church but, sadly most of them weren't the same as last week. And most of them again just randomly showed up. But one was a referral from Sister Christine who we baptized back when I first came here. Her name is Lina who btw is also Indonesian :O so she came to church on Sunday and loved it and we gave her a Book of Mormon and so forth and taught her the first lesson. We gave her the pamphlet and told her to read that and 3 Nephi 11. So then the next morning I am doing my studies and she calls us and said she woke up this morning at 4 a.m. like usual and started to read and then prayed and she said, she felt like this awesome spirit was in her and she knew it was true and wanted to be baptized on Sunday. :0 I said, well we would be happy to baptize you but, we need to teach you some things first. So we set her on date for august 15th. Then we went and taught her yesterday and taught L2 with WoW and she was drinking tea... but she immediately got rid of the tea and said she will stop. She bore testimony how she felt like she was on the wrong path and that now she found the right path. She said after church on Sunday she felt so happy and great, like she never felt before in the other churches. So she is pretty awesome. She also stays with her brother and sister who are also interested in learning so we will also teach them

Dymie also had her interview and it went long so I was nervous but she passed so, this Saturday she will get baptized. She is really excited and what’s more exciting is its Adrians first baptism and then he will be going off to this mission in September.

This last week we also taught Diwan the Indonesian guy we meet a long time ago and it went really well and he said he would be to church but, no show... same with Maria. We had a great lesson with Maria last week and she promised really strong that she would be at church and lo and behold.... nothing.... I was so disappointed. Later she called and asked if I was mad at her and I said, no but, I was sad. She then says why, I said, this is because this church will bring you true happiness forever. She said, well when you teach me I feel happy, then I said, well that is because we are teaching you true things and you’re happy but, that is only temporary. We come here for 2 years to teach people about this message so that they can be happy with God forever. So we will see what happens.

Last week also as I was heading out to the airport we met an Indonesian maid who works at a home at our flat and she said she seen us before teaching someone about the bible. Her name is Veronica and she is Christian and she had been praying that she could meet us and talk to us about church. We talked a bit and I gave her a pamphlet and then I went to the airport. We have been trying to find her for the last 7 days and then this morning as I sent off Elder Lewis she was there and I talked to her and got her a Book of Mormon and the rest of the pamphlets. So we will see.

We were knocking at very Muslim flats the other day and there were some Hindus and we didn't see any Christians but we continued on and knocked on a door. Then a Muslim lady comes out and we asked her if she knew of any Christians nearby and she said go to the 10th floor there are some. so as we went up to the next floor she yells he come back these people are Christian and it was a Iban family from Kapit in Sarawak and they said we can come back and teach them so we will see them tonight and the best part is President Clark is coming with us to teach them... well its good but, intense ha-ha so the three of us will go there. And they actually live pretty close to church so hopefully they will come. So I am pretty excited for them to come and to let us teach them it should be good. That’s pretty much all in a nutshell. Also Elder and Sister Smith go home on this Saturday.

Till next week...

Elder Watkins

Off to pick up a greenie in Singapore

Dewi's Baptism

Elder Rathnayake, Dewi, and Elder Watkins

With Robert and Kalpana before they moved...Don't you just love how happy and their baby is. I would be happy too if I was sitting on Nathan's knee.

Hey Everyone,

Well I got the news last Thursday that we aren't getting a new companionship in KL..... So I am not super happy cause covering these 3 branches really stresses me out especially since we can be really busy with just the Klang Branch. PJ1 Branch is also another busy branch with lots of cool people so between the two branches thePJ2 gets a little neglected since most of the member are not super willing to help us out.

I am training a new guy named Elder Louise, I don't even know if I spelled his name right ha-ha. But, that’s all I know is his name and that I go and pick him up today and come back on Friday. So we will be in a threesome.... which I am not super excited cause its like were ganging up on our investigator, if it’s just one of them and then if there is a member with us too it is 4 of us ha-ha.... It will make covering the 3 branches a little easier so we can always have one of us at every branch each Sunday.

I will be training this guy for who knows how long of the three months, I guess will see. But I am excited I guess but, way nervous because I have to go to Singapore and pick him up and then he is learning how to be a missionary from me and how to speak the language from me for a while so, that’s a scary thought cause who knows maybe I have been doing missionary work the wrong way ha-ha.... I am just kidding there is no wrong way to do missionary work as long as you works hard and are obedient. So I head off in a couple of hours that is way I am emailing so early.

My companion has been out for 9 months and served in Singapore, Sandakan, Johor Bahru and here. So one funny thing which is ok, I am not sad but now everyone is always giving me crap about it, that I am now the oldest missionary in the mission to have not gone to the east side. Elder Austin lets me know every week for reporting ha-ha. But, it’s ok I will get over there eventually I hope and for now I will just keep working hard here and finding the people prepared here.

Suyen Dewi Siahaan baptism went very well it was exciting and it was only one dunk not multiple dunks and it is true it is harder cause I am taller and the font isn't super deep even for the short Indonesians here ha-ha. But it went down and she was pretty happy, as was I. One super awesome highlight was not only did she get baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost but we had 10 people at church! wooohoooo one cool guy named Jojo a Filipino man that was referred to us by the two young Filipino girls here and he is pretty cool, he works doing IT for a virus software firm. So he is one of our new guys we are teaching. We are also teaching 3 Africans, 2 from Nigeria, and 1 from South Africa. They are way funny. We told them that 3 of the original twelve apostles appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him the priesthood and the one named Ike was like, I have a question. How can this happen if they are already dead ha-ha. Then there like well is there some sort of book that Joseph Smith received and we are like actually yes and they said, wow man now this is really intense and getting super serious ha-ha. They were funny and came to church so, we will see how but, they were pretty good and actually enjoyed church quite a bit.

We also did some less active work and met with some less active Nepalese brothers and got them back to church the last two weeks and they even brought us two friends who also want to learn.

Sister Christine the Indonesian we baptized when I first got here met her friend last Sunday from Indonesia who went to the same church as her over there and is bringing her to church next week and is apparently she is really interested in learning.

We also just found out that Sister Nofri the indonesian sister that went to the Batu Caves with us a long time ago that her sister is really interested in learning and that she just lives 2 streets up from Yanti and Dewi which is crazy awesome. So her sister wants to come to church but is scared to go by herself so well send her with Yanti and Dewi :)

Dymie is going to be getting baptized next week if everything goes to plan but, we will see how. Things are good with lots of people to teach but, now we got to set them on date and keep them coming to church so that they too can get baptized ha-ha. Just working the referrals as usual and hoping that it all goes well.

Ok, now on to some questions. I never received the Nielsons letters or Sandra’s I don't know what happened to them maybe they got lost or given to the wrong missionaries. I will look at the office when I get there but, they should have been here by now.

The sidewalks here have lots of holes with like sewer grates, usually they are covered but, this one wasn’t covered and sometimes sidewalks are just concrete slabs over the gutters. Sometimes they are also broken.

About Maria, this Friday we are going to talk to her about stuff and get her baptized, one problem why she won't come to church is because her workers permit expired and she still in the process of getting a new one so, until then she doesn’t do anything except work and go home and she said by next month the work will get it to her. So until then it will be hard to get her to church.

Well that’s pretty much all till next week…

Elder Watkins

Sister Wendy Ching

This is Sister Wendy Ching from Butterworth, Malaysia from Nathan's first area. We got to visit with before she entered the MTC yesterday. Her mission is the Temple Square Mission. Boy did she have some fun stories to tell about Elder Watkins :)

Yanti's Baptism

Elder Watkins, Yanti & Eder Wong

P-day last week with Dewi, Elder Watkins & Yanti
(If you look real close you can see that he has his name tag on his backpack strap...about three weeks ago President Clark told all the missionaries it was time to wear their name tags.)

Hey Everyone,

Well this last week we had some pretty fun adventures. To start off yet again my companion is in Singapore for his visa run. We have transfers coming up with new people coming in and 3 people going home. So hopefully it means that they will put another companionship in KL. Yesterday I had a member from Kenya following me who is preparing to go on his mission and will hopefully fill out his papers before the end of this year. He is way cool and just finished his degree. Basically, his degree is to make video games ha-ha. So after reading Landon's email last week I was able to talk to him about the new games that have come out or that are coming out. He also filled me in on how Call of Duty is doing as well cause of the new Medal of Honor. So I am assuming Landon will be playing that new game. I talked to him about the controller that Landon bought and he said it’s a way cool controller and that it was probably worth the money.

This last week we have also been doing a lot of finding and finding through the members. After reading Bryce’s email about having to meet with members cause they are very needy. I thought he can try to hit them up for referrals I know he was looking for some other ideas and that is what works best here. In Preach My Gospel it says that everyone thinks of missionary work as door knocking but, everyone who served a mission knows there is a better way and it is through the members.

This Sunday we will be having Dewi's baptism and its way exciting. She is a lot more ready now than she was before. Yanti has been a great help in getting her ready. We recently taught Yanti or actually we had her teach us the Joseph Smith story so now she is very good at it and can teach it to her friends that she should be bringing to church and with her sister who just got here last week from Indonesia.

So this week will be another awesome week with a baptism. We asked her if it was ok if Eder baptized her but, she insisted that I baptized her which is okay I guess but, now I am nervous again cause the only other times I baptized someone they had to be baptized again ha-ha… I wonder if it is because I was also baptized twice ha-ha :) So maybe I am just spreading the joy around to everyone else ha-ha. So I accepted the opportunity to baptize her. Eder says it’s my turn since he baptized Yanti. Also the Smiths are going home here in the next 3 weeks back home to Provo. So it’s sad to have them leave 1 big reason is because we don't know when the new senior couple will come.

Funny story this week is that I was walking on what they call sidewalks here and I fell through the sidewalk. I was ok and everything just a bruise on my knee... hmm well I guess it really wasn't funny but, it was a story. Right after that we meet two Indonesian girls who one was named Agnes and the other was named Monica which is funny cause there is a famous singer out of Indonesia named Agnes Monica and so we joked about it and then they just stared at us cause they had no idea who she was ha-ha....

It’s great to hear you got to meet up with Sister Wendy. Her family is awesome and she will be the best missionary. I am excited that I will be home when she is still serving so I can come bother her just as she bothered me in Butterworth :) payback is sweet.... the only problem is she doesn’t wear a tie like I do to slap into her face like she did to me.

Thanks for all your emails and support I have to go for now so I will send the pictures from last week. Thanks Landon for the email and keeping me informed about the games so I don't look so dumb when I talk to the members about them ha-ha.

Elder Watkins