Happy Fourth of July

On the way up the trail to Dog Lake...the last hike before Nathan gets married...

Dog Lake with Gary Call, Jimmy Jacobs, Maryn Call, Lauren, Nathan, Me, Jeff, Landon and puppy Baloo!!! Fun way to spend the morning of the Fourth of July!!!

ASU Graduate!!!

After sixteen long months of graduate school at Arizona State University Nathan graduated from his Masters Program in Marriage and Family Therapy on December 15th! We are so proud of this great accomplishment.

It's Official...they're engaged!!!

He finally proposed...I thought he would never ask :)

We went down to Arizona for Thanksgiving and while we were down there Nathan proposed to Lauren. He gave her a plane ride for her birthday gift a couple of weeks ago hoping to keep it all a surprise. She thought they were going up to see Arizona from the air and see their beautiful sunsets.

While flying over a church parking lot the pilot said; "look down there and see my family waving"...

Lauren said; "what a cute family".

Nathan said; "I think there is something else in the parking lot"

Spelled out BIG letters in the parking lot was...

LAUREN WILL YOU MARRY ME?

We are so happy for the two of them. No date yet, but looking at June 2016!

Welcome Home Elder Watkins

After two years the big day arrived for Elder Watkins to return home...what a happy day for us! It has been an amazing journey we have shared with him while he was on his mission, but it is truly wonderful to be reunited again. We are so happy to have him home. It doesn't get any better than this!!! Welcome Home Son...

Very proud parents...

A very happy Mom!!!

Grandpa & Grandma Watkins and Grandma  Berlin with Elder Watkins

With his first companion and trainer Elder Unsworth

With his good buddies; Connor Durrant and Josh Witzel

After 102 Weeks...He is Coming Home!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

We received just a brief email telling us he had a great last week in Chiang Mai… I am so excited to see you two soon. It's been a long time. Today was good we had 5 baptisms here in Chiang Mai and I was able to baptize Brother Brin, so it was a good ending note. That’s really all I've got time for love you guys and see you Friday at 4 pm  :)

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

  

Elder Watkins will be returning home from his mission on Friday, May 29^th!!! We are super excited to see him again.

He will be speaking in our Sacrament meeting on Sunday, June 14^th @ 9:00 a.m. at the Little Cottonwood 5^th Ward; 6350 South Rodeo Lane and then you are invited to our home afterwards…1459 East Sumac Way.

Thanks for all your support to all of us…it has been an amazing two years.

Love,

Jeff and Joan

Last Email???

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 101

Week Five in Chiang Mai

Monday, May 18, 2015

Hey everyone!

This was a pretty wild last week and didn't go near like I expected ha-ha!

On Monday we went to the Zoo it was pretty awesome but we kind of got there a little late because of waiting for the sisters so we didn't get to see everything, but we did get to see the most important thing which was the “Pandas” they were so cool! 

This week we just were trying to go wild with inviting so that is where we spent most of our time Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. We ended up getting 88 phone numbers which was pretty awesome. We were just trying to get as many new investigators at church as possible! We met with Brother Beam on Wednesday and were trying to get him baptized this past Sunday, but we went out of town and we didn't have enough time to teach him. but we did get come to church with his friend John and we taught them then. They both have accepted dates for the 24th to be baptized so please keep them in your prayers.

Wednesday night we caught a bus up to Chiang Rai and did a switch off. I was with Elder Mitchell and Elder Curtis; it was so awesome. I was so pumped and just had a great time getting to be with Elder Mitchell again, he's so awesome and he is still growing so much. It's cool to see how much progress he has made since I trained him. On Wednesday night we got a call from the AP's saying that Elder Tamang needed to go to Bangkok to renew his visa so in order to keep working in both areas we needed to do another switch off so I'd be going down to Bangkok with Elder Tamang. So our bus to Bangkok left at 8:30 on Thursday night and our bus left Chiang Rai at 5 on Thursday so our bus pulled in right at 8:30 I jumped off the bus and had to run to the bus to Bangkok to make it on time it was wild ha-ha! We got there at around 5:30 in the morning and went to the visa place. We got his visa all renewed and I just felt gross so we went over to the AP's house so I could shower; which felt awesome. We then walked over to the office to get some money from Elder Meeker so we could get back to Chiang Mai.  We walked through the door and President Senior is right there. He says; hey you two come in my office; so we talked with President; President is like whoa you are going home next week what are you planning on doing? Wait a second how about we just have your finishing interview. I was like umm... okay I'm not as ready as I'd like to be, but whatever. So I have had my final interview with President Senior already; it was pretty awesome. He's is such a cool guy and he will be heading home here himself, July 1st. We got some Carl's Jr. for lunch since it was buy one get one free burgers. We got on a bus back to Chiang Mai later that night and got home at 5:30. So you can guess I only had an hour of sleep in my own bed. I was sooooo tired I couldn't believe it. There just hasn't been much rest recently, but this week should be better.

Saturday we had a good work day and did some inviting and went and taught Elder Khanakhams sister (the member of the 70’s). She's so awesome and one of the funniest old ladies I've met on my mission for sure. She's been a member for a month, but her testimony is so strong and bold; I love it. 

Yesterday was a good day at church we had some new investigators and Brother Brin is back and is going to be baptized this Sunday. Right now we have 3 daters for next Sunday, but 5 more potentials who could be baptized so we are shooting for the best. We need at least 4 to accomplish our goal for this month so wish us luck and pray for us; because we need it! Love you all so much!

This morning we woke up at 3:00 to go to this mountain and see these temples and a waterfall and then rode some elephants it was one of the coolest trips I've done for sure. It was great too, because we went with Brother Keng; what a good guy! Well I'm not sure if we will be emailing much next week or not at all; so this might be it! Have a great week and I will see you all soon!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

Happy Mother's Day...WEEK 100!

Skyping with our boys...What a Happy Mother's Day for me and Jeff!!!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 100

Week Four in Chiang Mai

Monday, May 11, 2015

Hey!

This was a good last week! Sorry this will be a shorter email because of skyping today. First I would like to start off with telling you all Happy Mother's Day! :)

This last week was just full of traveling and switch offs! Tuesday we were able to meet with our new investigators John and Beam who accepted dates for baptism on the 17th because this Sunday they will be headed down to Bangkok. They are 28 and 29 year old friends and ready.  After teaching them we got tickets for the train down to Bangkok which is a long 14 hours, but we made it to the office around 6 p.m.!

We had Missionary Leadership Council which was actually really awesome because Elder Gong the Asia Area President came and it was super awesome. He is such a smart guy and just puts a cool outlook on the gospel. We also had one of the senior couples from Nepal here too, because they have been taken out of the country temporarily because of the earthquake.

That night we headed up to Phitsnalok and got a couple hours of sleep on their floor. We decided to do a double switch off with Kamphaegphet and Phitsnalok so I went to Kamphaengphet for the day. That night took a bus back to Chiang Mai and got home at 5:30 a. m. so I finally got an hour of sleep in my bed.

We had really only two days to work this week; Friday and Saturday. We met with our investigators Run and Gay who have dates to be baptized on the 24th but we are going to try for the 17th this week also so hopefully we can get 4 baptisms this week.

We had Asia Area Conference on Sunday which was pretty cool and Elder Nelson spoke so that was pretty sweet. We had a good turnout… 212 people, but there were a lot more tourists than usual so we should have more than that next week between the two branches! 

Today we might head to the Zoo, but we will see; it was a good week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

A few more pictures from last week

A Tea Farm

Short email...but lots of pictures!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 99

Week Three in Chiang Mai

Monday, May 04, 2015

Hey everyone!

Sorry I literally have no time to email this week so this is definitely going to be the worst email of my mission; I'm really sorry.

Okay, well anyways; last week we headed up to the mountain and had a great time and saw some cool things so I sent pictures of that. We didn't end up going to the zoo, but we did go to a snake farm which was pretty cool!

This past week was awesome because for the most part we were in our area for the whole week. We did do a switch off in Lampang though, but I was able to stay here and work in our area. This last week we saw tons of success and I haven't found this many investigators so quickly in a new area my whole mission. We had 11 new investigators this past week with 8 investigators at church; it was just incredible. Sister Moh the girl I found my second day here in Chiang Mai got baptized on Sunday which was so awesome! I didn't get to teach her a ton because we ended up giving her to the sisters, but I was just as pumped to see her get baptized as if I had taught her every lesson! 

Yesterday was so wild at church we had 118 people in Branch 2 and 100 in Branch 1 which was just headache because the translation equipment broke so I just had to sit next to 10 different tourist and translate and to top it off it was fast Sunday which didn't help. By the end of my second Elders Quorum my brain was starting to shut down. I couldn't even understand Thai anymore; it was quite the experience!

We have 7 daters right now; 2 of them on May 17th and 5 for the 24th so we are going to be working really hard with them. This week we have MLC and switch offs that we need do too, so we will be heading to Bangkok on Tuesday night and we will be doing training and switch offs Thursday and Friday so we won't have much time to work in our area; so pray for us to be able to have miracles happen with our investigators while we are gone! 

Today we woke up really early and went to Chiang Rai. We went to a Tea farm, the White Temple and rode Ostriches it was pretty fun and we had a good time! Hopefully the pictures will upload fast so you will be able to get to see some! If not I'll finish them next week!

So as far as skyping we will be doing that next week and we will be getting on around 11 AM here to Skype. I'm not sure what time it is there so if you guys can be ready that'd be great. Sorry I'm out of time; love you all!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

Long Bus Rides, Training, and the Twins Baptized!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 98

Week Two in Chiang Mai

Monday, April 27, 2015

Hey Everyone!

Sorry this week will be a little bit short of an email because we don't have a ton of time!

Anyways this week was so crazy ha-ha! First of all the Chiang Mai zone is the biggest zone in the mission so going to other areas in the zone takes a lot of time to travel to! The AP's called us on Tuesday and told us they were coming up to Chiang Mai to give us some special training and then do a switch off. So on Wednesday Elder Crump and Elder Tanner came up; the AP's gave us some training and we switched off and I got to be with Elder Crump for a day; it was way awesome! We went to eat at Duke's together; which is an American food restaurant that all the missionaries talk about and say how good it was, so I finally got to experience it for myself; it was way good! I had a BBQ chicken pizza and some hot wings! 

Wednesday morning we had to start traveling around our zone to give the training so we went up to Chiang Rai which was a 3 hour bus ride to get there. It was great because I got to see Elder Mitchell (who Landon trained) again he's awesome. Then right after we headed back to Chiang Mai and did training Chiang Mai and we had Lampang come up and trained them too. 

Friday we woke up at 3:30 a.m. to get on a bus at 5 a.m. to go down to Phitsanulok which is a 6 hour bus ride away. We figured there would be some public transportation to take us to the bus station early in the morning, but we couldn't find a thing so we ended up running 2 or 3 kilos before we finally found one and barely made it on time to our bus. We got there and did training and got right back on a bus back to Chiang Mai. We left at 1 p.m. and figured we would get back by 7 p.m.; nope ha-ha we got back at 9 because it started raining really hard and our bus broke down; so it was a long trip ha-ha.

Saturday we finally got to do some work to get ready for Sunday.

As far as investigators go we don't have too many to be honest; but the good news is that the twins were baptized yesterday! It was way awesome! We were able to meet with them twice and their Dad baptized them; it was really cool! We only have one other dater and good investigator right now because I gave an awesome investigator to the sisters that I found who will be getting baptized this Sunday. But we have Bro. Brin who is 16 years old and he has a date for the 10th of May; he is doing awesome. He just has to come to Sacrament 4 times before he can get baptized because he's under 18; but he's so good!

Today we are heading off to a mountain and the Zoo so I'll let you know how that goes!

Love you all; have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

Songkran and Transferred to Chiang Mai!!!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 97

Week One in Chiang Mai

Monday, April 20, 2015

Hey everyone!

As you guys already know I'm in Chiang Mai now! This last week was actually pretty uneventful for the most part, but it was also pretty good! As you know last Monday we played Songkran or the water festival it was way fun and we had a great time! I think last year was better because there were more people in Nongkhai even though Roi Et is a lot bigger city. It was still super fun though! 

  

Tuesday we spent the majority of the day packing and then that night the Stokers had us over for dinner for the last time; she made us lasagna, garlic bread, and apple crisp; it was soooo good!

Wednesday we spent all day on a bus to Bangkok. It took nearly 10 hours (it usually only takes 7 hours) to get there, but there was tons of traffic because Songkran was still going on. It was alright though we got there and ordered some McDonalds to the house and slept in Samut Prakarn and I got to visit that house again; it was cool ha-ha!

Thursday was transfers it was way crazy and I was super surprised! I thought I'd be moving to Bangkok for sure which I was supposed to actually. Then right before the meeting started President Senior switched me at the last minute. I was supposed to be serving in Don Meung with Elder Sukhan, but he switched me to Chiang Mai!  Not sure why, but I'm happy here; it’s way awesome! We got on a train that night which was supposed to leave at 8 pm, but it was broken so it came way late at 10:30 pm. It's around a 13 hour train ride, so we made it here around Noon on Friday. We got to the house and it was filthy so the first thing I did was clean the bathroom so I could shower and then I got our room all cleaned up and organized; so now it's good!

We've just been trying to find our way around town and find people.  It's kind of weird. There has been very few baptisms here which is weird because usually the Zone leader areas just have a ton. Literally we have hardly any so we have to just find investigators like crazy. And if you have no RC's we've got to baptize them right?

So there are two branches here in Chiang Mai and we go to both of them. There is a bunch of tourist and white people that also come to the branches.  So we just translate for 6 hours ha-ha and it is way hard, but it's okay; it's a good time. I can't believe how many members here can speak English though! We were able to get two new investigators at church yesterday who are pretty awesome. We have two other investigators that will be baptized next week they are the daughters of a Less active member that was just rescued and guess what; they are twins!!! I'm going to be able to help twins get baptized I've always kind of wanted to do that! :) It's sweet though our district had 4 baptisms yesterday. One of them was Elder Wiset Khanakam (who is the first Thai 70) 77 year old sister; it was so awesome. President and Sister Senior came so it was a very special day!

The members here are awesome and it is great to be around the Saedan family (Elder Saedan was Landon’s companion in Nong Khai) since this is where they live, I'm way happy and excited to serve here; it's going to be great! :)

That's about it though for this week; love you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Landon J Watkins

"Stay By the Tree"

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 96

Week Eighteen in Roi Et

Monday, April 13, 2015

Hey everyone!

Well this was a pretty wild last week and we didn't have too much time in our area, but it was pretty good!

So on Monday after we emailed we went back to the office and I got my Temple Recommend renewed which was good, so now it's in Thai for the next two years which is cool! Elder Keller and I had a little special meeting with the Assistants and President Senior about our Zone which was pretty cool. That night we headed off to Korat so that we could train that District and do a switch off. We got there and had to sleep on the floor which was pretty miserable. The switch of was pretty pointless and short because of English Class that night we only really switched off for 3 hours, but it was good. We ended up taking a taxi all the way back to Roi Et so it only took 3 hours instead of 5 hours by bus which was nice! We were able to get home and in bed by 11:00 p.m. which was really nice considering we hadn't slept for a couple nights!

As far as investigators are going though things are going pretty good! There is an autistic kid who is 9 years old and a son of a member who hasn't been baptized. His autism isn't too bad so that he doesn't need to be baptized and he has finally opened up now that he is 9 and has a desire to be baptized! He is way shy, but once we talked with him for an hour or so he really warmed up! His name is, Bank he is so awesome though you ask him if Jesus Christ can help him and he gets the biggest smile on his face and just raises his eyebrows up and down! He can pretty much be baptized whenever, it is kind of just up to Bank on when he wants to get baptized. He is so awesome though! He probably will be baptized this coming Sunday. He wants to be able to pass the sacrament. His Mom told him that in two years you can do that as long as you get baptized first, so he is really excited!

We have Sister Mint and her Mom; Tom who are doing okay. Mint is way awesome she meets with us often and came to General Conference both days! Her Mom is just really busy so she hasn't been able to meet with us for a while. They have dates for April 26^th, but if her Mom doesn't come to church next week Mint will have to be pushed back to the first week in May; she is way awesome though.

Our other two daters are Fay and Ooy. Ooy is like 26 years old and her little sister is 15. They are doing really well and both have dates for the 26th. We have the same situations with them though; they both need to come to church in order to be baptized on that date. Fay is way awesome she has   come to our Easter activity, sports night, scripture class, English, and she came to General Conference yesterday which was awesome!

Sister Na is finally back from being out of town, but we haven't been able to teach her again yet. She should be baptized this coming Sunday or the week after. The work is really progressing, greatly here in Roi Et.

As far as other things go watching General Conference was way awesome I really enjoyed it! Many very cool and powerful talks; I really enjoyed, “Stay by the tree”; by Elder Kevin W. Pearson; it was just such a powerful talk! I liked how he said; “When trials and challenges come our way, we are often told to simply “hang in there.” Let me be clear: to “hang in there” is not a principle of the gospel.”… I know that we can't be casual about this, it is a serious things; it was a way awesome talk!

Well transfers are in. The Water festival starts today so we will be playing that today, but it is just wild this week because they play until Wednesday and there are no buses to on travel so only a select few people will be going to Bangkok.  Only those moving will go and the companions that are not moving will just be staying in their areas. So Elder Sukhan and I from Roi Et will be the only ones going.  Yes, I am moving for my last transfer. So the two of us we will be heading down! I think I am going to finish in Bangkok though because most of the people that are moving aren't evem going down to Bangkok they will just go to their new area.  So we don't need to go; so either I’m going to step down and train or I will just move and be a Zone Leader down there. So we will see what happens!

Have a great day!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

Announcement of the Bangkok Thailand Temple!!!

President Thomas S. Monson Announced 3 new temples...
one of them in Bangkok Thailand!!!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 95

Week Seventeen in Roi Et

Monday, April 06, 2015

Hey everyone!

Sorry, this week’s letter is going to be short! We actually had to sacrifice our p-day today so we could have Missionary Leadership Council in Bangkok! So we had to leave last night. Around midnight our phone rang while we were on the bus and we were like; “who is calling us?”  it was the AP's! They proceeded to tell us that the Thailand, Bangkok Temple was announced! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO… LET’S GOOOOO! :) I couldn't have been more happy in my life! It's so awesome and it is going to be such a blessing to so many countries. And the work of the Lord here in Southeast Asia is really going to begin to progress! We then knelt down in prayer and gave thanks to our Father in Heaven! I received such a great spiritual witness that what I have been doing these last 2 years is true and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true! It was just another amazing testimony builder for me. It has kind of given me the surge and boost that I need, which is so awesome! 

We proceeded to have MLC today which was so awesome! President Senior showed us the announcement of the Temple and again it was just such a special spirit. It has so much more meaning because I have been serving here. President Senior said; “If I was serving in North Carolina where I was originally called my reaction would have probably been like;” “Oh, that's great, but since I am here it is incredible what has happened.” He also showed us the portion of Elder Anderson talk about President Satit; the Stake President here and that was so cool because I've had the privilege to work and meet his whole family! President Seniors parents skyped him while we were meeting and he brought them in and we got to see them and listen to what they said; it was just so funny! His Mom is like Honey; "are you happy"? (Talking about the temple announcement) And his father is like; “Son you did it, you’re a success!” Ha-ha it was just so funny!

So I am emailing now from Bangkok. We will head back to Roi Et tonight.

As far as this past week went, it was so wild. We were only able to have 1 baptism, but it was way awesome! Sister Mali was baptized; who is a recent convert Brother Dones, Mom and he was the one who baptized her; it was so cool! Completing families is the goal and now we are going to begin working with his Dad!

Sister Na is going to be baptized this coming Sunday. She is coming back today as she had to stay an extra week for work in another province. 

Somjay is still doing good, but the problem is he just started working and we haven't been able to meet with him anymore because he's been so busy! So we are praying for Sister Na this week!

We also found a new family this week a mother and daughter! They both originally accepted a baptismal date for the 19^th, but the Mom; Tom wasn't able to come to church, but her daughter; Mint was. She is only 16 so we had to push her date back to the 26^th; so they will be baptized on that date! They seem pretty awesome.

Anyways, love you all so much! We had an Easter activity we did an egg toss, Easter egg hunt, and all that good stuff! I did send you some pictures of the Elephant Village from last week!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins