Penang Hill & Bird Aviary - July 29, 2011

Taking the tram up to Penang Hill

 

Looking out over Penang on the way up...it was very misty.

Watching the mist start to clear.

Thirumurugan Temple on top of Penang Hill

The hand painted marble in the temple.

Landon thought this parrot was the coolest bird ever...He would say "Hello", shake your hand, give you five, and mimic you bobbing your head.

Some of the other birds in the Aviary

Our SNAKE boys

Views of Penang after the mist cleared.

You could see this huge Buddhist Temple on the way down. It was very impressive.

Singapore - July 28, 2011

We had Wendy's for breakfast again today. It is the cheapest and the best in Singapore. The menu choices are different than in America. I had a Egg, Turkey Bacon & Tomato Panini for breakfast. After breakfast we headed off to the Singapore Bontanic Gardens. Lunch was at a the mall by our hotel at a place called "You & Mee". I had Lemongrass Noodle Soup. Then we watched them make this cool taffy candy called "Made in Candy". We flew to Penang that night and had dinner at the "White Coffee House". Landon had two pieces of bread with peanut butter in between...there was no jelly.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

This tree with the vines was so cool and they vines were huge.

It is a little hard to see the turtle but, it was so fun to watch.

Ribbit

Elder Watkins behind the waterfall.

If you look real close on the left you can see the twisted root vine.

More awesome turtles

Singapore - July 27, 2011

Seaweed Pringles at the Expat Store in the shopping center we went to this morning

Anyone for a leg of...

Going into Little India

The Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo...no pictures of the animals in the dark. Yes, I look a little Jet Lagged!

Singapore - July 26, 2011

The Marina Bay Sands Skyscraper is as if it is sits on three pillars. It has the worlds most expensive restaurants, bars, casinos and shopping. And the largest outdoor pool 150 meters. It was pretty impressive and to see all over the city from the top was amazing. We were here when we got the call from Elder  Watkins that we could come and pick him up. Needless to say we didn't get to eat there for lunch. It was a cool place to see though.

Durian Ice Cream Sandwich...Nathan tried to get us to try it. I tried a little bite. It was nasty!

He sure enjoyed it though!

 

MerLion Park

The Famous "Merlion"

Look who we found in Singapore!!!

together again...more posts to follow later...

War Wounds...but, NO Broken Bones!

Last night I got a phone call from the Mission President wife, Sister Clark.  She thought she better let me know before I see Elder Watkins next week that he had been hurt. Keep in mind that she is over 1,000 miles away getting this phone call from his companion on the way to the hospital. From what she told me he was playing basketball on his P-day and some how rolled over an investigator (we think it might have been the HUGE Figian Rugby players but, we will have to wait for Nathan's story). When he fell he hyper-extended his right elbow, split open his chin and they thought broke both of his wrists. They took x-rays and it looks like his wrists are just sprained. Since we wouldn't be getting an email before we see him she thought it wouldn't be a good idea after not seeing your son for two years to have him show up with stitches in his chin and his arm in a sling. I guess the big bear hug will have to be a little more gentle...I am just grateful it isn't any worse. I can just imagine Nathan smiling and saying..."I was in the jungle and was attacked"...don't worry Mom, you know how the ladies love war wounds :) He is going to have to come up with a good story...less than a week before he comes home...I can't believe it.

Until Next Week...Last Email

I didn't think this day would ever come and now that it is here...I have very mixed emotions going on. I am going to miss the weekly emails.  But, I am looking forward to being reunited with him next week.

Today we sent off one of Nathan's good friend to the MTC. It is a bittersweet feeling...I am getting my son back and she is sending hers off. She reminded me that when Josh comes home in two year we will be sending our son, Landon off.  I won't thing about until then, though :)

It has been an amazing journey for our family and we are so glad that so many of you have been apart of it with us.

Until next week...

Joan


Well this last week was pretty dang sick as usual... Memang Best Bha....we had some way, sweet appointments go down... We met with Ebie's mom who came to church for the first time and she loved it... We had Pres. Ling and Sebastian down from KK; so, I told Sebastian since you always ditched Gospel Principles and I had to cover for you, will you cover me this time, and he said; Sure... Well he is an amazing teacher and Ebie's mom, Juliah loved it, she said, she already considers herself a member. We had an amazing lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation and Baptism and she is preparing herself to be baptized on Aug 13 :) she is way cool and it was such a strong spirit there it was crazy....

But, the craziest, awesome lesson we had was with Jackon Tabiar a members brother named Jeffrey and then Elder Tabiar who is Miri's older brother...we have taught him a couple times and  he has been receptive. We taught him the Plan of Salvation with Jeffrey and then it went pretty much as normal but, his understanding is amazing... at the end we said; well it is Elder Watkins last time here would you mind offering a pray, he thought for a second and then said; sure and then gave one of the most sincere prayers ever. After that he said; he just wanted to cry he said; he felt something in his ear that makes him want to change and become a better man. He said, he has done a lot of dumb things these last 10 years and he wants to change. We literally saw him accept Jesus Christ again and want to change to become a better man. He was so repentant and the spirit was so strong. Jeffrey was also jumping for joy. It was such a strong spirit. He said, that he has met many elders but, the first time we came and taught him at his work place about a month ago he had never felt this wonderful feeling before. He said, he would take in what they taught him but, never think about. Now he thinks about it and wants it even more than ever. He really wants to change and he asked us if we thought he could change and we said; of course and we are here every step of the way to help you out… it was amazing.

Well the Fijians are also doing great they are up in KK for a banquet... But, I got a picture with them. Normally I am the big guy but, not this time; heck no, I am tiny ha-ha....

Well That’s it... See you all on the flip side...

Mengin Aku Seikaw

Elder Watkins 

Overflowing with new People to teach!

Hey Everyone,

Well, I’ll just start off by apologizing in advance if this letter is short... ha-ha... you'll only hear from me one more time.

This last week was crazy...We have been finding a whole lot of new people and it is awesome. We recently have tracted into a crew of Fijians... and not just regular Fijians they are playing rugby for Malaysia and they are huge! We see them today so we are pretty excited about that. They are sweet and they are the ones who invited us, they said; we must come to their place. The first one we met is named; Apo he is 6 foot 5 inches and is a big guy, he is way cool. There is about five of them over there so we are excited and they all have sibling and friends who are members of the church too.

We also found a new KG (Kampong) with Ednel that is full of Indonesians and it is wicked, awesome because they are all Christian... We taught a couple of them a couple of times and they are good but, the problem is not all of them are legal in Malaysia so we are trying to work more with the ones that are legal... But, two of them that are amazing and have been studying the Book of Mormon and have gotten strong answers that it is true and they want to come to church really bad, The only problem is one is legal and the other isn’t (husband and wife) they also got a car. The second problem is they have a ton of cops out and about doing checking so they are even more nervous to leave but, they are super cool.

Another family we contacted in the same KG is a huge family of 10+ they are from Indonesia and have been here for 12 years. They come from a Catholic background and have never met missionaries before so it was sweet to find a spot that has not yet been contacted in...  

We got a new referral from the Nings, she is from their kg and  is around 40’s and has 9 kids and twins coming in a month ha-ha she is way sweet and way nice. We have some great hopes with her also....  

We are also teaching a new guy named; Shanti who is from the Philippines he has been here for 9 months, he is an artist. He is painting a picture that I am going to buy off him... He has got true talent and we are way excited to teach him. He is going to meet us today and play basketball so we are pretty pumped for that also...

We have got a bunch of new referrals and it is pretty excited and way cool... Things are going good and just working hard to finding those who are ready... That’s all I can think of till next week...

Mengin aku Seikaw,

Elder Watkins

Celebrating the Fourth of July in Sandakan

Hey Everyone,

These last couple days we have been contacting referrals like crazy and trying our best to get a bunch of solid people in our pool... Right now our pool shrunk.... Mainly because Ecal, Ebie's sister is forced to go back to her Kampong, just like Baby had to last week... Ecal had to go back because she has to go to school in KG because of some test she has to take, she said, she can't get baptized this July but, she is going to get baptized first thing when she gets back from KG later this year.... So that put our week down a bit.

On a bright note, Aunty and Son are now on baptism date for the 6th of August!!!! Which is way exciting we are very happy to have them on the road to baptism she is way great and she now understands that only through the church can she truly help her ancestors so, she is way pumped up and excited....? We are just really working on the praying part... She reads, she comes to church but, it is very hard to get her to pray.... But, she is doing great and we are working with her.

Roger and his wife are doing great; we are still working on getting them to church again. They came once and liked it but, last week they had to go a wedding and then the week before that they had to go get his wound cleaned at the hospital... They are super amazing and truly love the gospel but, with his arm still in the recovery process and still working on his less active daughters does make it a bit more difficult.  All and all it is worth it because we can get a bunch of people back to church and get 2 more super strong people.

We also got a new Referral from sister Wennalyn and she is doing well we haven't been able to teach her... She has come to church twice already. She is 17 and from the Philippines and has been here for a month and should be here for a couple more months, she is really nice and wants to learn but, the inactivity of the member doesn't help a whole lot. She was recently baptized in the Baptist church in the Philippines so we are hoping and praying we can share with her for sure, before she heads off.

For the 4th of July we bought some charcoal and a bunch of burgers and had a BBQ at some members home. It was way good; we cooked probably 20 burgers, we had onion, lettuce, and the works. They were amazing because they were grilled.... and I cooked them…by the way so, they were of course amazing ha-ha, just kidding. I thought they were good for not having a whole lot of things. 

Rosamini and her sister, Tingak were down from mile 32 this last week because she was sick and so we were asked to give her a blessing. It turns out she has the same case of Rosamini's son; which is she is scared to death of people so we had to do some BRT first. It went well it turns out after the blessing she felt better and was good for a couple of days but, it came back again. Her name is Rohani, and she is way cool; we hope she comes back and can learn. 

Saturday we also contacted a bunch of referrals from Ednel and we got a whole new family that we are hoping will pan out as well, a mother, father, 2 kids, and the grandmother.... They are way sweet... We also saw a members brother, named Jackson, he speaks a bit of English; his brother is Elder Tabiar in serving in Miri right now. He has another brother here who is helping us teach Jackson. His name is Jeffrey; he is way tight and can play the guitar amazingly.

Saturday for a Youth Activity we headed off to a members fish pond and had a BBQ on the beach for lunch. We had a couple of investigators follow us and even a couple of the less active we are working with. Even Ebie went and then she went to seminar. She loves church even more now because she has more friends at church than she thought. She is doing great and planning on going on the temple trip in August with the rest of the YW.

 That’s all I can really think of but, things are great over here and just working hard and getting ready for everything to get things done...

Mengin Oku Seikaw,

Elder Watkins