Did Samuel get Baptized after 5 years of Learning?

Hey,

Well…I'll start off by apologizing for the late email. Well, it is because we were in Kuala Lumpur from Monday until late Wednesday night so we didn't get to email from there because we were in meetings all day... Fun stuff, right? Well of course it’s good but, I can't endure so much sitting and listening and sitting and power points from 9am to 6 pm.... ha-ha...

So… the news you have all been waiting for... Did Samuel get baptized after 5 years of learning? Yes! Ha-ha he got dunked ha-ha it was awesome. Samuel and Dammy were baptized on April 6th so it was pretty dang sweet. So they are pretty excited. Pres Fausto was giving us crap like; “Elders are you guys going out to the buffet after the baptism to eat because do you know how many elders have tried and didn't get it him” and stuff like that.  It is true…many have tried but, I think it was the fact that his brother also wanted it too and that helped him pull the trigger. This last Sunday they were interviewed to receive the priesthood. So, next week they'll get the priesthood and then the following week Samuel will baptize his wife, Ah Ling. 

Samuel and Dammy

 If I haven't told you already…Dammy is an amazing artist…words just can't describe how awesome he is at painting, drawings, and pastels. Long story short… he painted a picture of me.

So, I took a picture of it and I will send it today in my email.

Dad asked for a story he could share so I will try to tell you Dammy’s story and how we taught him in a nut shell for you to share but, yeah I’ll do my best ha-ha. It all started out with Samuel dropping something off at the church. Samuel and Dammy went together to drop it off cause whatever it was, it was heavy.  Well, the sisters just happened to be there at the time and met Dammy and got his name card, kind of thing. They told us about it so we met with Samuel at his work and talked to him about the possibility of teaching his brother. Samuel told us that his brother always runs into his room and hides when the elders come over so he told us to just come to his house and knock on his door and then ask for Dammy. Because now we knew his name we could ask for him instead of Samuel ha-ha. We knocked on their door about a week later and Samuel answered the door and we said; “Is Dammy here?” He said, “Yes he is elders one second”.  He goes and gets Dammy out of his room and well he was really shy. We just started to talk to him about life and what he did for work and stuff. The conversation went on for about 30 minutes and then I asked him about the paintings on the wall. He told us he was just doing them as a hobby, we told them they are way too good to just be a hobby. Well…Samuel being a master mind said; “Hey elder show us that picture of the plan of salvation that you draw so well” ha-ha so we busted it out and Dammy was like snap what is this? So we told him it answered 3 questions and briefly explained it and used a bunch of scriptures from the Bible and he loved it so much that we got another return appt. We continued to teach him and it went really.  We put him on baptism date with Samuel and it turns out that he was planning on getting baptized in another church which he canceled when he found out that this was the true church. So we continued to teach him everything until April 6^th…he is way awesome. The Lord truly will prepare people for you to teach and even if the idea is a bit crazy as to how you find the person some how it works out and the Lord will bless you.

It is so crazy how things work but I know the Lord prepares people for you to teach no matter where you are and he knows how you work so he'll help you to meet those people. Many times things are hard and a mission, to be honest isn't the easiest thing but, when you teach someone the gospel and you see the changes in their life everything is worth it. Worth all the doors you knocked, all the many crazy rainstorms that come out of nowhere and drenched the crap out of you and you are just wet and muddy.  Just do what you gotta do and the Lord will help out. Love the people. I guess for those preparing to go a mission if you can love the people with all your heart and just  forget about yourself and get down to business you'll have the time of your life and you'll do some of the coolest things ever. I hope that helps, Dad.

Things are still going good here, just super busy. Rose is doing really good she says she is at about 80% that the church is true and that she still has one more concern that we haven't resolved yet so, I guess we just keep preparing lessons for her and just help her help herself resolve her concerns. She is pretty cool. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she accepted it with no problem and she was already following it; so she was cool with it. Last time we really focused on a prophet that lives today and how she can come and hear the prophet this coming weekend. For all you guys back at home you have already heard it, like what 2 weeks ago while we are just barely getting it here ha-ha. So she is awesome.

We are also teaching Fiona's Cousin; Amy she is pretty good also and really wants to come to church. She just missed it last week because she couldn't find it but, Pres Fausto and Fiona are going to bring her next week. She is looking for the truth. We are just trying to get her to open her heart to the Book of Mormon. She has a strong testimony of prayer so we are using that to our advantage.

We are also working with some new people and we got a whole bunch of new referrals to contact... so just in the process. Next week I go to Tawau again for a baptism interview so our weeks have been really cut down ha-ha but, we are just going to have to work hard with the time we got to follow up with people and rely on the Lord.  

That’s all I can think of…so talk to ya next week.

Mejumpa Vagu, 

Elder Watkins

The Crocodile Farm in Tuaran

Bridger gets a Cousin...

Jeff's parents got a new puppy...their dog of 13 years passed away last Tuesday and Jeff didn't waste any time in finding them a new dog.  He is so cute...Bridger is gong to love playing with his new cousin.

Dammy and Samuel are getting Baptized Tonight!

Hey Everyone, 

I guess I’ll start out with that… DAMMY AND SAMUEL ARE GETTING BAPTIZED!!! They were interviewed last Friday and passed so tonight they are having their baptismal service. Pres. Ling is going to be baptizing them. What is totally awesome about the whole thing is that they are both potential priesthood holders.

Rose is still doing good as well. She reads and prays but, she doesn't feel ready to be baptized at the moment. But, she is doing a lot better; she actually prays at the end of every lesson. Right now the only problem is that she is a bit quiet and we have to strain to hear here ha-ha. She comes to church and says she likes it a lot. Sister Dorkas does a good job at fellowshipping her.

Desy and Maryann are still doing good but, Desy was having to watch a sick guy at the hospital so she couldn't make it to church this Sunday so sadly she won't make her baptismal date. I felt really bad for her because she wants to be baptized so bad but, sometimes things happen… I guess. She prayed for us again, yesterday but, it was in Cebuano like usual. We couldn't really understand what she was saying but, man could I feel the spirit so strong. She finished her prayer with tears in her eyes; it was a great lesson. The lesson had been on prayer and she shared an experience that she had while praying. It was cool.

I spent Monday in Tawau it was a good exchange. We went and taught a members girlfriend and it went really well. After that we traveled and had a baptismal interview for Vincent; he is Chinese from Melaka in West Malaysia. He is pretty dang cool. His wife and his mother-in-law are members and he is also…Ah Yong brother in law who we baptized here, back in November. He is a pretty cool guy and fed us a lot of food; including a lot of pork. So he'll be getting baptized this Friday. Elder Peterson and Clarke are over in Tawau… they are pretty cool.

Sunday I sent Elder Sorensen to the bus terminal after church and Peter Wong followed me around or I mean was my companion and we did a lot of chasing people. We went to go meet Jason, a guy we contacted a while back. We go to his house and he is like I am at CKS (grocery store) and so we tried to find the one and then Peter was like no man it’s over here. So we get on a bus and go there and it turns out it was the wrong one.... So we didn't get to see him.

So we head over to go see Sister Fiona well…since her boss is in China for 2 weeks she can't make it to church and is super busy at night time at her work... So we didn't get to see her but, Pres Fausto stays with her and so we talked with him a bit.

A cool thing that happened on Sunday was Ah Yong passed the sacrament for the first time, it was awesome. Amy, Fiona's cousin is doing good and so far likes the Book of Mormon quite a bit. Last time we watched the Restoration DVD with her and read some from the Book of Mormon. She is pretty cool.  Only problem now is that she took a job working like 7pm to 5 am.

Sister Jemimi was way sick yesterday and on the way to the hospital when her car broke down. Talk about a run of crappy luck. We stopped by and gave her a blessing and she was really happy. Her car already got fixed… got there all prepared to go and push her car back to the house which was about 2 miles away.  Luckily, her car is tiny just like the small car Mr. Incredible drives in the movie The Incredible ha-ha.

Saturday a member who was baptized just over a year ago baptized his 8 yr old son, it was so cool. He was super nervous. The son bore his testimony too. He was super scared to do it but, he whispered it in a members ear and he said it for him…it was so cool.  His testimony was strong because he comes to church and primary.

Things are going good…just looking for some new solid referrals that are out there, they just need to be found ha-ha. 

 Today we go to the Crocodile Farm in Tuaran which should be cool. We are going with Money Curdy, Leslie, and Peter so should be pretty cool. Adrian also got his call last week.  He is going to Salt Lake City, South Mission. He is pretty excited. He goes to the MTC on August 16th. So that is pretty exciting. 

 I don’t know if I have told you before that Dammy is an artist and he can paint pictures that are really amazing, he usually does portraits. He is doing one of me so when it is finished I’ll take a picture of it and send it to you guys. He is about half way done and well it is amazing. That pretty much it. Talk to yak next week. 

Mejumpa Vagu,

Elder Watkins

Lots of New People...

Hey Everyone,

Well this last week was good. We saw a lot of new people. I guess I’ll start off with Sister Fiona and her new referral. Sister Fiona move; her husband kicked her out which is better and they are getting a divorce. But, things will be better for her now. We helped her move and now she has her cousin staying with her; who is actually…way awesome. Her name is Amy and she has been living in Sarawak for a while and now is back in KK and doesn't really have a specific church but, is down to learn about this one and trying to find the truth. So we started teaching her…so far so good.

Oliver Fausto's cousin went back to the Philippines until Friday so, we won't be able to teach him for awhile but, hopefully when he comes back he'll still be good.

Last week we also got to teach Jomel and his wife Yulite. We went to teach them and now we have two new investigators out of it….Nexrin and Ubi. So we got a family and some friends over there we are teaching and well they are pretty sweet. We taught them again last night with Leslie and it went pretty well; they feel good when they read the Book of Mormon and Nexrin was really paying attention to what was going on and really enjoyed learning about the Book of Mormon. We will probably have to help him to get to church because he is new in KK and not too sure how to get around yet. But, they are pretty sweet and looking good.

Rose, Sister Dorkas's friend is doing awesome. She came to church again and really enjoys church and what we have to teach her. Right now she reads and prays and she should be ready for April 17. She is really shy and quiet but, when she has a question she isn't shy to ask and she had a lot of great questions when we taught her the plan of salvation. She is pretty awesome.

Dammy and Samuel should be getting baptized next Wednesday. But, we will have to work a bit with Dammy again because last Sunday in priesthood the District President scared the crap out of Dammy. He was talking about how the branch is getting ready to split and how we need everyone to do their part and he started naming of names and he said Samuel, Dammy etc... You will one day have the M priesthood and have callings. For Samuel, he had been to church for a while and he knew that would happen so, it wasn't too big of a problem. With Dammy he kind of freaked out and thought; woe, that’s way too fast. I haven't even gotten baptized yet. Samuel told us that he was worried a bit about that and so when we see him tonight we will have to work it out. The next problem comes out that he misunderstood the Articles of Faith about how we believe the Bible to be true as long as its translated correctly. He thought that we belittled the Bible kind of thing so we will have to explain that it is just as important.  Hopefully it will go over well and we can help him resolve his own concerns. Also it turns out that before he was suppose to get baptized in the SIB church on March 20th well he had canceled that one for this one but, now he is scared a little so we will have to talk to him tonight and he can work towards what he knows is true. We hope and pray it will be ok for him.

Desy and Maryann are still doing awesome. Desy was able to make it to church but, Maryann was at her sister’s house and couldn't make it. The cool thing is the sisters were passing us some old records of people from their area book that were in our area and I found a Desy; turns out it is the same Desy that we were teaching. Some Elders like 2-3 years ago contacted and taught her once or twice. Sometimes all it takes is for their friend to bring the Elders over to help them be interested. So they should be getting baptized on April 9th. Desy is way cool and we were really happy to see her at church last Sunday.

Some members also brought their sister to church she likes it a lot and now we just got to meet her and help her to pick her off day's again for Sunday :) She is Chinese and so hopefully we can help her out and help her have faith in Christ.

We are also teaching Peter's Dad now which is kind of cool. We just went and met him on Sunday and we just talked with him about things and kind of threw in some things about Peter going on a mission and introduced the plan of salvation to his dad. So hopefully we can help him out and get his dad coming to church.

Next week we head off for exchanges in Tawau and Sandakan. We have a baptism interview to do in Tawau, so it is pretty exciting cause its a potential priesthood holder.

That is pretty much it…can't really think of anything else. Talk to ya next week.

Mejumpa Vagu

Elder Watkins

Landon's Flight

The boys had a great season in Church Ball this year.  They went undefeated in our stake and also in the South Cottonwood Stake.  They went as the number one seed team for the stake.  Even though it came to an end after their second game in region they had a good run. Just wait until next year when most of our guys will be Seniors. 

Ian one of the leaders took this cool picture of Landon in their first region game and named in Landon's Flight. 

The rest of the pictures were some I took...obviously I am not a professional like Ian...just his mother.