Miri and Tamparuli

Flooded Bridge in Tamparuli

Hey Everyone,

Well, it was a pretty good week. Midius didn't get baptized because his school pretty much is like a jail and they made him go back to kampong for a month and he was going to try to come down on Sunday but, couldn't get a ride. So, now he won't be back for a month and we will have to wait till then for his baptism.... which isn't super awesome but, what to do, right? We’ll just have to keep in contact with him until then and keep him reading and praying.

Desy and Maryann are still doing awesome. Maryann can pray all by herself now and she is super awesome. Desy is also doing great. We taught Desy the Word of Wisdom and she is like yeah, coffee is crap; when I drank it I went like crazy and felt like people were watching me and she said, I only drank at Christmas and so she totally agreed to follow it with no problem. But, they are pretty awesome and made it to church this last week too.

Yafet is now on date for the 12th of February. He is doing awesome and he is already working on the word of wisdom he stopped tea, coffee, and alcohol so far and now he is working on smoking. He said once that’s done he'll be ready for baptism. He told us all this because we just asked him yet again; another simple but, soul-seeking question. He is way funny. He told us he'll get baptized. He also doesn't care if he gets the melchizedek priesthood or even the aaronic priesthood or if he has a calling, he just wants to change his life and become a better example for his son's. He is way cool I think one day he'll be a strong leader. He was like a pastor of another church here called; SIB and he said it was good but, this one is the best and he’s learning a ton. We also gave him this card called the “Calendar to Baptism” where you fill out the days till their baptism and when they'll meet with the elders and have their interview etc. and he was like; “Wow this is awesome. Now I don't have to always carry my Book of Mormon around, if I forget when I meet you guys because it is all right here in my card and it even has a nice picture of Jesus Christ’s baptism”. He was pretty excited. He also told us how he wants to do a cigarette fast to help him quit. He said he has done it before and that he can do it again. But, we told him he wouldn't have to do it alone he can do it with the help of the lord. We told him about blessings and offered to give him one and he said; “sure” and so we gave him one…so we will see how it goes for him.

Fiona is doing great as well. She didn't make it to church because she had some family problems and ended up moving out. We saw her last night and things seemed to just be really rough for her. The night before we figured we would talk about overcoming trials with her. We talked about how Christ had already overcome the world for us all and how that we have got our friends there to back us up always. She just said; something like…I feel warm and really good right now and then Sister Jemimi was like yeah; that’s the Holy Ghost and she is like yeah, I like this. And after going to our conference in Miri that they talked to us about, how if you want to be happy we must obey god’s commandments and we told her that’s the way to be happy just follow god and all his simple things and he'll bless us. But, of course we will have trials but, at least we know god is there for us always. So we brightened her day and things are going better for her, I hope.

Well, since I talked about Miri I might as well jump into that. We went for a mission tour to Miri to see Elder Pratt. It was pretty excited and we learned a lot of good things. Pres Clark talked about obedience and it was awesome. Elder Pratt also talked about how of course the doctrine of the church is important but, some of the most important things we can teach to our RC (recent converts) and investigators are the commandments because that is how they stay strong and keep receiving blessings. That is how they know god will help them in their life. So he told us to focus on obeying them and how to follow them and not to just teach them but, teach them and make sure they understand that this is for their happiness. So it was a pretty good conference.

Weighing their Chickens...

David Chong eating a little Chicken...I think I will pass on the chicken :)

Peter Wong on the Bridge in Tamparuli

This Friday, I am heading off to Sandakan for exchanges so that should be fun. But, things are still going good here. For p-day we went off to Tamparuli, which has a big handicraft and morning market. We went around that and it was pretty cool. Usually tourists go there for white-water rafting. We just walked around and found some cool things; like a handmade machete! ha-ha so, I got one for cheap; it’s pretty cool. Well I can't think of anything else right now off the top of my head…so, that’s all.

Until Next week...
Elder Watkins