Eight tries and Immigrations...

President Ling, Mac Duncan, Madam Yapp & Muli

Hey Everyone,

Last week was pretty awesome. Madam Yapp and Mac Duncan got baptized. It was a pretty crazy baptism. They both had never been swimming or anything like that. They had never had their bodies fully immersed in water, besides maybe showering, which is different. Basically they were scared to death to go fully under water. So it took multiple times to get them fully under the water. Mac Duncan went first and got dunked after 8 tries... He was scared but, he finally did it. Oh yeah…President Ling, the District President baptized them. Madam Yapp took multiple times as well but, we finally had Elder Wright dress up and just put his hands behind her back and head after the prayer, just to comfort her as she went under the water and in one shot she went down. They just wanted comfort that they were coming back up. But, what even made it more awesome was Madam Yapp's husband; Muli, who is normally out stationed for work was there for their baptism and got to witness it, He was super happy and we will start to teach him when he comes back again next month. He comes down 1 or 2 times a month for a couple of days from his work. He likes the church a lot we just need to get him to always be here ha-ha.

Clouds from my window of the airplane on the way back from Kuala Lumpur

KL was good. I had the elders get me some Dr. Pepper so that I had some when I got there...it was awesome. Then we flew back Monday night.... But, the crazy part of the story is that immigration gave me so much crap. I had just got off the 2 1/2 hour flight and they lady was arguing with me and I wasn't the happiest camper so I talked back but, I said it with a smile at least. The story went like this.  I say; “Hello, how are you” and she just looks at me and then proceeds to look at everything in my passport and I mean everything from every chop from everywhere to the two giant extension stickers and every chop from KL, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak etc.... Then she looks at me and said; “What are you doing here”? I told her I am a non- paid volunteer for my church. She then said; “you should have gone back to America back in February of 2010”, when my first visa and extension expired which was obvious that it expired so I said; “Well of course that was back in 2010, this is my new visa and I showed her where it was. She then asked me if I have a ticket back to America already? I said…Well, I have money for one but, I haven't purchased it because I still have 2 months left on this visa. So her and the guy next to her take my passport back somewhere, the guy who also happens to have Elder Wright and so we stood there for like 30 minutes waiting..... They finally came back and the guy says to Elder Wright, that you can't come in with a huge smile on his face then expect them to let him through. Then the lady proceeded to tell me, that I have to go back to America and blah, blah, blah and how we are misusing the Social Visit Pass. How I need to go back to America and that I need some local person to sponsor me etc... so I asked her what do I have to do to get all the things, because our boss (Pres Clark) has tried many things to get a visa etc but that your government doesn't give those kind etc such as PVP and they take forever to get. She said, just get a local person to go with you to the immigration office and sponsor you. Anyway…they let me through and I didn't get anything in my passport so, whatever I guess… I am fine ha-ha.

We taught Oliver a member’s cousin whose parents are in Las Vegas already and in 6 years he should also be there. But for now he is here and we are teaching him and man, he is one smart guy. We teach him in English and he thinks a lot and aks questions and even participates…he is cool. Oh yeah…he is from the Philippines.

We also got a new referral from Sister Dorkas a lady by the name of Rose who is a SDA. She is good and told us in the beginning that she is looking for the true church and that she is way confused about them all. We have had two good lessons with her so far and we’ll see what happens.

We taught Fiona too, she is working again which is good and it helps keep her mind off all the craziness that is going on in her life, which is good.

Samuel, Ah Ling and Dammy all came to church; which was awesome. It was so awesome to have Dammy there, he is moving right along for his date on April 6^th with Samuel and his wife. They are super awesome and we will see them again tonight. He doesn't even have a problem with Word of Wisdom, he told us that he only drinks coffee and tea once in a while and he was actually already looking to quite the two of them anyways.

Things are still going really good. Next week we have District Conference and Zone Conference Friday through Sunday and then that next Tuesday on the 22^nd will be Elder Wrights last day so he will be heading off.

But, things are doing great here, just continuing to look for awesome people and work hard. Just busy running around Malaysia getting bothered by immigration and by random people calling…”Hey Mike” as we walk by… just good times with no complaints ha-ha. Just always looking for that person who is ready to receive the gospel. Yafet should be back this week or next week for sure, he just finished up the rice harvest.  And that’s pretty much it. Till next week.

Mejumpa Vagu,

Elder Watkins

The WHOLE Family came to church on Sunday!!!

Hey Everyone,

Well to start off this last week kind of seems like a blur to me and I can't really remember much. What I can remember right now without thinking too hard is that I had to wake up really early to go to Tawau and then I am really beat after being there all day... But, I do remember is this…Sister Jemimi's sister’s family all came to church on Sunday!!!

I’ll start off with last Thursday and try to remember what happened.... Last Thursday I put an order in for Baju Kadazan (some traditional Malay clothing from one of the races here). Amy way, here is the interesting thing, in order to do so I had to find the shop to make it and I found it through a co-worker of a member (David Chong) well Ann (the co-worker) has a aunt who makes the clothes. So she took us there and the cool part is we talked to her a bit about the church and she was like; cool, okay kinda thing. Well today as I waited for Elder Wright with David I talked with her again and she was totally down for it. It was cool…so now we got a new investigator. She is Dusun but, her grandfather is from England so she is part white and her cousin actually works for the US Government in Virginia...and we are ready to teach her the gospel.  

We went in search of some referrals from members and we got one, so we will have to follow up. We are getting people to teach but, it seems that the people we get just replace the ones that don't want us to teach them anymore, kind of thing.

Friday was pretty cool as well. We went and met with a LA member named Juliah who is Rungus as well. We found her after walking forever in the blazing hot sun... we also got a couple of her friends who are down to learn too…so we were excited. We proceeded to walk for 30+ minutes to Taman Penampang which usually it is not too bad of a walk but, man it was hot…so it was like the longest walk ever... But, we made it there to find Sister Jemimi, she invited us in and it just so happened she had made taco's which was awesome but, it sad; because I taught her how to make them and now she makes the better than me.

From there we went and taught Desy and Maryann one last time before they head of to the Philippines for 2 weeks.... So again the people who want to get baptized are leaving us for a bit. We taught them about making sure they continue to pray and to read while they are gone. After that we went and taught our referral from Sister Fiona….Christina and Rose and it went pretty good but, Jeffery somehow has decided that he is too lazy to change religions. The first thing that came to my mind is what… you’re not changing religions…you would still be a Christian but, now would be joining the true one. But, we won't give up on them; we will just have to wait and see. Jomil still wants us to teach him but, he got called into work at the last minute so we didn't get to see him.

Saturday we had a totally awesome lesson with Madam Yapp and President Ling who basically made sure she was totally ready for baptism… and well she is. She is getting baptized on Saturday at one o’clock with her son, Mac Duncan.

We also taught Alex and Linlin in their new huge 3 story home and wow…it is huge; they went from a tiny one room shack to a huge 3 story house for just the two of them. We had an awesome lesson with them about The Restoration and they were down for church the next day and they figured out how they would get there and everything and then at the last minute they went to get Alex to get teeth pulled L

Sunday came around and we are looking all over for our investigators to show up…Madam Yapp we found out Saturday couldn't come because she was out of town. Dammy fell through last minute because of work and then.... Samuel, well he failed...But! Out of the sadness in my heart...Bam…Yeye Jemimi's sister and her whole family came! So Yeye, her 3 daughters and son came to church. I thought back and remembered that I had invited them to church last Sunday and she had said she would come…well, she did. She only stayed for Sacrament but, man it was better than nothing. It wasn't super easy for her to come either.

Sunday we met a new contact named Jason who we contacted while walking to Sister Fiona's work. He is pretty cool. He is a young guy who just got engaged. We are working with him now…we spent a long time trying to find his home ha-ha but, we gave him a Book of Mormon and he was pretty excited. After that we had interviews for Madam Yapp and her son and they passed!!!

Monday, I sent Elder Wright to the Bus terminal…he was off to Sandakan and then I was with Adrian the rest of the day. We went and tried to teach Paulus, Fiona's husband but, he was asleep so, we went and taught Fiona at her work. We also had her co-workers sit in again so it was good.  After that we went and checked on Maryann since Desy was in Philippines to just see how she was doing making sure she was going to school and stuff.  We went to FHE where we met with another new friend named; Oliver, who is from the Philippines and is the cousin of Pres. Fusto. Oliver’s parents actually live in Vegas and in 3 years or so he will be moving to America too. He is pretty cool…so hopefully we can get him to church on Sunday and not just to FHE.

After that we went to McDonalds for ice cream. I got a Coke with ice cream in it and well... I said; “Peter would you get me a spoon” he said;  No need... lah and then he put a straw in my float very quickly and  a giant wave of Coke came out of the straw attacking me and went all over the floor ha-ha…it was crazy and you probably had to have seen it.

I was in Tawau Tuesday and it was fun. We saw some cool members and they put someone on a baptism date and now I am back in KK and ready to get to work.

Things are good…talk to you next week. 

Elder Watkins

Some of the only Graffiti  I have seen in KK...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!

My usual proselytizing attire...ha-ha!

The Beast

Anti Spider Gear :)

Hey Everyone,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!!!!!

Well the news is true that we will be having 100 missionaries by August in the mission. Which means all these areas that have some super awesome possibilities will be opening up.  There will be 84 missionaries that are foreigners...meaning anyone who is not from Malaysia and Singapore. So that means the mission will have to supply 16 natives to serve in the mission and that doesn't mean just 16 people from here it means more natives because there are probably 16 native missionaries already from the mission here but, half of them are in other countries.  So right now we have a lot of missionaries in the mission. So from when I was in Kuala Lumpur it has gone from being just my companionship over 3 branches well it is now 3 branches each having its own companionship! Elder Lewis my Trainee is now with Elder Kumar in PJ2 and that branch is actually moving to where the members are and it is a great new location so it’s going to start booming! Well, KL is finally getting some help and some love after I am gone.... ha-ha. Elder Hunt and his Trainee are in the Klang branch and Elder Thurman and Noland are in PJ1 still. So things there are going great in their part of the mission. Elder Kampenhout made it back into Malaysia, just last Saturday they shipped him back to Singapore and got him a new passport pretty dang fast and now he is back and doing great. 

Well things are going well here in KK. I guess I’ll just start out with Thursday of last week. Thursday we just did our planning as usual and well it went well and got a good plan set up for the week ahead and then we headed off to see Norina and Hendria I am not sure if you remember who they are but, they are Elder Wrights recent converts that like…got lost when I got here. And well the Sisters found them again and so we went to go visit them and Arne. Since Arne was only visiting from KL. So it was pretty sweet to see them and the best part is Sister Hite and Howard will continue to teach them and hopefully get them back to church and fully active again. After that we met with Sister Hite and Howard and took them to a member’s house and then we headed to visit with Sister Hellen and try to get some referrals. Well she wasn't there so we went next door and contacted her relative…his name is Sibin and he learned a long time ago but, we will be seeing him tomorrow night, he seems to be pretty good but, we are glad something came out of it.  Thursday was also the last day of Chinese New Year so there were fireworks everywhere and they were going of constantly. All the streets were filled with smoke from them and it was crazy, everyone was just like; Yeah, this year was the best in a long time for fireworks in KK ha-ha…it was cool. 

Friday was pretty awesome and crazy we set up a sweet day to go see some good people.  Everyone we went to see wasn't there for some reason. So. I called Fiona and she is like come teach my neighbor from my old house and I was like oh yeah so we walked 20 minutes to her old house only to find out that she wasn't home after Fiona said she would be. so well we called her again and Fiona was like no Elders she is at my home here right now..... So we went back and taught her the gospel ha-ha. After that Fiona took us to her new neighbors home and we talked with him about church well he told us that his heart was not open right now so we just explained the Book of Mormon and well someone had anti'd him pretty hard core even before we had got there so we just invited him to read the pamphlet since he wouldn't take the book of Mormon and then he is like do you play guitar? and I said a bit and so we jammed for 10 minutes before heading off to grab a buss back home.  So it was good but, just planted a seed. 

Saturday was also a pretty good day. We Taught Desy and Mary Ann again and it went well and they said they were coming to church and THEY DID!!!! It was awesome. Last night they told us they are going back to the Filipinas for a visit for 1-2 weeks........ So pretty much every baptism that is about to come, takes a vacation. But, at least they are coming back. After that we headed off with David Chong to brother Gary's house where he made us some delicious food and we jammed to some church music while eating and then taught his referral and it was pretty sweet.

Sunday we taught Madam Yapp and Mac Duncan before church and they are still getting baptized on March 6th! So that was a great lesson to have before church and well her husband came back from Sipatan for Chinese New Year and he read the Book of Mormon and the Gospel Principles book and loved it so, when he gets back from work again he wants to learn!  So that was a great. Michael, the Chinese man back from December also just showed up again and is down for baptism and is ready to make a commitment. He also came to the Young Single Adults FHE at the church the next day which was good. After that we did some knocking and found actually quite a few new people. But, the thing that made Sunday so awesome was Sister Fiona took us to her aunt’s house. Wow, we got some awesome new people to teach. We started teaching her Auntie Rose, her daughter who we call Mrs. Wong and her husband Jeffery. We are also teaching their niece who stays with them named, Christine and they are super awesome. They are Pentecostal but, they were open with what we taught them Sunday night; it was an awesome lesson. About half way through the lesson a guy walked by their home who is related in some way.  Well we thought he was just going to bother us but, man he is awesome. His name is Jomil he used to live in Singapore and he had actually met the missionaries there a couple of times. Well he joined the lesson and man it was one heck of a lesson and the spirit was so strong. We went back last night and had another awesome lesson; the only problem was Jeffery family wasn't there but, they came towards the end and he was still interested in learning. We taught Christine, Rose, and Jomil and they were all concerned…they thought that they had to wait until next Sunday for us to come back because they said they had felt something so awesome they wanted it again. So we read the Book of Mormon with them and it went very well. Rose said she feels so good and would like to come to church. Jomil was really pumped to read and get his own answer about the book. They both said after the first time we met them that they wanted to be baptized if, they found it was true. They are right on their way towards it. Next time Jomil is bringing some of his friends and actually has a brother he wants us to teach. So it was a great day. 

Monday was also super awesome as we were going to teach Mia we were walking by some guys just hanging out in front of a shop and Elder Wright walked passed and thought they just wanted to bother us. I stopped and started to talk to a guy name…Jason. Well Jason is SIB and is Christian and had seen us around a couple times. We I taught him a quick rundown of the restoration as Elder Wright distracted his Muslim friend next to him ha-ha. He was super excited and the first thing he asked was; if when we could meet him again. We set up an appt for tonight and I called him last night to confirm the appt and  he was upset that I didn't call him earlier to confirm the appt sooner because he thought we forgot about him. I apologized and said we will meet you tomorrow night. He is awesome and we are pumped for him.

Tuesday I already talked about a bit, but, well it was good we met Mary Ann and Desy and Jeffery's crew. Then we headed off in search of Alex and Linlin. We found them finally and got a new return appt since they moved last week. Well here is the crazy thing. They used to live in a one room house with shared bathrooms. It was just big enough for the four of us to sit on the floor. Their boss was like you… you guys can live in my second home since I am moving to this new place. This house they stay in now is a HUGE 3 STORY HOME!!! It is so big. It’s like the biggest home I have been inside in Malaysia. I guess Alex’s 20 years of hard work and dedication at his work finally paid off. Now they have it even easier to get to church now so, we’ll push to get them to church this week. And that’s pretty much our week.

Till next week

Elder Watkins

A Crazy, Busy Week...

Hiking the trails of Mount Kinabalu

Hey Everyone,

Well it is now entering the dry season from the hot season which basically it rains a little less so it is hotter more often such as yesterday.... soooooo hot..... But, this last week was pretty crazy and we weren't able to see as many people as we would have liked... Last week on Monday I got some good old diarrhea and it lasted for the day and so that is the first time I have really been sick on my mission. We still went out but, a lot of our plans fell through due to Chinese New Year but, we found out a member has a sister who might be interested in learning.

Tuesday we also got some things done, like the baptism you saw in the pictures and it was awesome. We also taught Lia and Reaty they are doing pretty well but, Lia who we taught for about a week or so isn't so willing to come to church right now because she is getting a free ride to this other church. But, we got like 4 referrals from her so maybe she isn't the one but, her friends could be so, we will have to just wait and see.

 

We also saw a less active member named, Sokupit and we got him to come back to church which was some success and it was nice for him to come; he is so awesome. It is sad though cause his whole family has been coming except him. But, now he’s doing better.

Dammy who is Samuels’s brother is doing good but, he has a lot questions about prophets and how do we know that the prophet isn't a false prophet. Him and Samuel didn't make it to church out of laziness but, Samuels’s wife, Ah Ling came without them, which was good. We will see him tonight again and hopefully we can help him to feel the spirit and get him to church.

Our visa run was ok, basically it was meetings so, we got there and we had Carls Jr... Mmmmm..... and bought some ties really quick before going off to a zone leader council. But our day started way early we had to wake up at 4 to catch our flight at 6 and so this whole week I have just been beat from lack of sleep. Then the next day we had a big training with zone leaders and district leaders and I got sick again from what I don't know but, I was sick for the 2nd half of the conference with diarrhea again but, now I am doing good and it actually went away after that day. We flew back and got in really late Friday night like at 1:30 a.m. or something like that.

So that Saturday we were excited to get back into our area and get things moving and hopefully get some people to church the next day. We taught Mia Sister Fiona's co-worker and it went really well; she says she loves the Book of Mormon and knows it’s true, it is just new to her and she doesn’t fully understand everything. Her boss Monica apparently hates the Book of Mormon and keeps saying she doesn't believe it but, lo and behold she hasn't tried reading it or anything yet but, we hopefully can meet with her this week and work things out about it. Well Mia was going to follow Fiona to church until the taxi to pick them up that they called failed.... And we were pretty excited because Mia right away had asked Fiona to bring her to church.

To make the day even crazier right after we taught her I got a call from Elder Kampenhout in Sandakan saying he is being detained at the KK Airport Immigration.... So after that we called Sister Jemimi, who works with passports etc... And got her to take us over there to try and get him out at least for the day. Well after talking with many people and walking around to many places and talking and waiting and waiting they won't let him out and they are going to send him back to Singapore on Sunday at noon. Well they really had no reason to detain him they were just trying to cause problems etc. So, now Kampenhout is in Singapore waiting for his new passport because they Red X him... So that day was crazy.

To top it all off we went and had a great lesson with Linlin and Alex; two Filipino's that have been here for a long, long time and they are good and we were super happy to have received them from Fiona. Well they didn't make to church because we had just meet them and committed them for the first time Saturday night and they already had plans for Sunday but, they are coming this Sunday. They also told us that they are moving and we got sad but, then they are only moving to another part of town that is super easy to get to church! So there is a blessing in that. We meet them on like Friday or Saturday and they are sweet.  

Sunday came around and with our efforts we did only get one investigator to come to church and then another did come late but, it was Leonard who came late.... Well Sunday night we had a dinner appt with the Ng's and it was actually a Chinese New Year party with delicious food and fireworks! Before that we saw some new contacts that will hopefully bring forth something.

Chinese New Year Party

Monday night was a FHE Valentines thing at the church for the young single adults.  We had good food and for the young adults dancing and games and we got some referrals. Jacob’s girlfriend came and she told us she had a blast. Sister's Howard and Hite had two good referrals that we taught the first lesson to before the party started and man they seem cool, two outstanding young guys; one who want to be a catholic priest but, we think he'll be a better priest here ha-ha and the other one wants to be a business man and speak great English.

Tuesday we taught some cool people. We finished Jacob the last recent convert lesson and got some potential referrals. His, Uncle Yafet will hopefully be back and baptized in the next 2 weeks, hopefully next week. I really wish he was back cause he'd be baptized already…dang rice harvest....

We taught Fiona and  she is doing awesome and  her husband finally apologized and said he is ready to change and  he is going to start learning so, that the gospel of Christ can change him and make him an awesome priesthood holding man ha-ha…we'll have to see first. 

At the bottom of Mount Kinabalu

Some Crazy Bug

Leaf Bug

But, things are going good today we went to Mount Kinabalu but, just the part below and walked some trails and went to a Kampung and good some sweet souvenirs.  And that is our week ha-ha.

Till next week. 

Elder Watkins

Simply a Fabulous Tea Party!

Front Row:  Becca, Rachael & Isabelle  Back Row:  Cindy, Annie, Miss Scarlet, Miss Peacock, Rachael and Baby to be...to the right...Miss Scarlet

Tea Party Group 2010...and Miss Snow at the right