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.

Goodbye Elder Wright :(

Hey Everyone,

Well, Elder Wright went home and now my new companion is Elder Sorensen. He is from the same group as me. He has served in Johor Baru, Singapore, Kuching, KL for 2 days and Penang for a couple of weeks, and then Tawau for 3 months. He was companions with Elder Clarke from Hawaii before he came to KK. So of course Elder Wright was sad to go home but, he was happy at the same time…which I am sure it is for most of the missionaries here. Things are going good.

District Conference was awesome and things went really well with everything. The Tawau and Sandakan missionaries made it here and back safely. There was a lot of good talks and we had a lot of investigators that came. Rose came to all the sessions of everything…it was super cool. She really liked church and felt the spirit. We taught her yesterday and she accepted the invitation to be baptized on April 17th.  She is way cool and really has a true desire to find the truth and I think that the conference really helped her out.

Dammy was also super awesome. He came to District Conference and not only was he there but, he showed up in a white shirt and tie with all the works. It was awesome. He was a little late so he had to sit on the front row but, he loved it and he got to meet Pres Clark. We tried a couple of times to meet with them but, it didn't happen we saw he multiple times but, wasn't able to teach him very much. But, he is doing awesome and is working towards baptism on April 6th.

Oliver also came to church multiple times with Fausto with all the preparation for the District Conference. He has pretty much seen the interworking of the church and everything. He told us that Pres. Ling said if he ever joins the church he will make him his secretary for sure ha-ha... So I think he doing awesome. We taught him on Friday night after Zone Conference and had an amazing lesson with him. We talked about what he had read in the Book of Mormon and he had a really amazing understanding of 3 Nephi 11. He said he has something he is looking for but, he wasn't quite ready to share it and so we will just continue to teach him and be his friend and eventually he'll share, if that’s what he wants. It was a super awesome and way spiritual. I think he'll be awesome, we just need some more time with him and he'll be ready.

We saw Desy and Maryann now that their back from Philippines. They came to the Sunday Session of District conference and loved it. She said she really felt something special while she was there. She also liked how there was a ton of other Filipino's there from Sandakan and Tawau. She has accepted the baptism date for April 9th.

So we have some awesome people on date. Things are pretty sweet here and it is just not quite the same now that Elder Wright's gone but, I think that is just normal even just when a companion gets transferred. Nothing really crazy to report but, that is all.

Mejumpa Vagu,

Elder Watkins

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks...

When I was a Merrie Miss they taught us how to crochet a Lion Pillow...well some of us.  Lets just say I could never quite get the hang of it and finally gave it to my sister-in-law years later to finish. 

One day on the Internet I found this cute crocheted flower pattern.  With crocheting being so popular I thought it would be fun to teach the Activity Day girls how to make them and also teach them how to crochet at the same time.  

From previous experience I knew that I had to get some expert help because I couldn't crochet even straight rows :)  I found a sweet lady in my ward who taught me how make a flower and then solicited other ladies to come help.  The first week was a disaster.  The girls couldn't even hold the yarn let a lone make the flower.  So...back the the drawing board we went and found a simple purse that they could make and then attach the flower.  Most of the girls caught on real quick and several finished their purses and they turned out so cute.

Even I have finally figured out crocheting with my private tutor...she is an awesome teacher and seems to have high hopes for me...ha ha!  I have made a life long friend learning how.  I just finished my third purse today.  I know I don't have any girls but...I think they turned out pretty cute.  I am on to making a darling crochet hat now and want to learn how to make the cute headbands that all the girls are wearing.  I guess your never too old to learn something new :)

Pepto-Bismol

Hey Everyone,

Well this last week was good and like always in Malaysia, awesome and crazy. This week we have Zone Conference here in KK so NO TRAVELING FOR ME HAHAHA. After that we have District Conference on Saturday and Sunday so it will be good. Their talking about priesthood blessings and home teaching etc., it should really strengthen the members down here.  So Thursday night all the elders will be at our home, so this morning I swept up our house and made sure my bathroom was clean but, it already was just so you don't think I don't clean mom :P

Elder Wright also goes home this coming Tuesday morning so we’ll see what happens there and we still don't know who my new companion will be yet. But yeah things are good.

Last week we taught Dammy and Samuel and Ah Ling they are still doing good but, they didn't have a chance to make it to church because they all had diarrhea from eating food that was too spicy the night before... But he'll still make his baptism date in April, I also passed them some Pepto-Bismol pills just in case it is a problem for next week...:)  Dammy is awesome though he has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon the only way you can; by reading it a lot and praying ha-ha. He is pretty excited for District Conference to come so he can see Pres Clark ha-ha.

We are also teaching a new person named, Rose she is Rungus from Kudat a referral from sister Dorkas. She is doing well and came to church this last Sunday and stayed even until choir practice finished. She is shy but, is willing to read and pray about this stuff and we committed her to baptism. She said, she wants too but, she isn't quite ready yet. She is  still reading and praying to know for sure. She was a Seven Day Adventist before so. she is still trying to figure out if this is for her or not. She told us the first visit that she is very confused about all the different churches and is actually looking and trying to figure out which one is correct. She is really nice and she is very receptive to listen.

We are also teaching Oliver, he is Pres Fausto of the District Presidency, cousins. He is doing well and we gave him his first copy of the Book of Mormon. He is pretty cool and way smart and maybe now is his chance to accept the gospel. He has known about the church for a long time because it is all over his town in Philippines and he had some friends who were members but, they were members that didn't follow the commandments. Luckily, his cousin is way cool and follows commandment and is a good example for him.

We also are teaching sister Fiona's, Aunt Rose who we have taught a couple times already. She is ok and likes to learn but, she wants to read the whole Book of Mormon before she comes to church... but, we figured… well if you don't want it at this moment do you know anyone who does? Well her granddaughter took us down below their home and we contacted two new investigators. We contacted Yulite, who is actually Jomel's wife if you remember who that is. l Jomel is good but, he has too many contracts set up with his job for this month so he is crazy busy but, we ran into him just after we talked to his wife and he was like yeah, next week come back at this time and I should be able to meet for a bit and then you can also teach my wife. Well Jomel and his wife lived in Singapore for awhile. So when we contacted his wife we did it all in Malay and then at the end she started speaking English with me and I was like… “adoi”, I forgot you both spoke English and she said; I didn't want to stop you cause it weird to hear a white guy speak Malay ha-ha.

After that we meet Ajuliros and her older sister who are both Dusun. She is 20 and her sister is like 26 … I honestly thought she was like 12 because she was very short and well…yeah. We are going to meet both of them again this next week.

Yafet is still just coming back…should be any time now kind of thing so we are just waiting. But, Desy and Maryann came back from the Philippines and they are doing great and still want to be  baptized.  We met her daughter- in-law and she'll be bringing them all to the District Conference this Sunday.

But, things are going good here…just keeping our eyes out for those who are ready to receive the gospel and asking everyone about their friends. Kesian and Jacob opened up a Ramly Burger stand last week, so it’s pretty cool we are going to try to use it as a way to get some contacts ha-ha because Kesian and Jacob aren't shy to share the gospel with anyone. 

Randy and Peter

Last Saturday there was a child of record baptism; Randy, Sister Jemimi's son. It was a good service because the whole family got to come. Basically, we taught him a bit about prayer and stuff before he was interviewed in the branch and he was good to go. He was super happy. Peter Wong preformed the baptism. Speaking of Peter he is get his mission interview with Pres Clark this Friday so he is going on a mission not too long from now. Adrian should be receiving his call any time now.

Fanilla came back from kampong and she is doing good with no problems, still doing awesome. She has 2 brothers and 1 sister; the brothers aren't really ready for the gospel yet but, her other Sister Izing is down for church and had come many times with her parents. The other members sisters said that when she comes down from kampong again she wants to be baptized; she just needs to come down for longer than just a week.  

Alex and Linlin; I almost forgot about them. Well Linlin came to church this Sunday!!! She came and then everyone was way kind to her and it was awesome. Alex didn't make it, he was pretty dang sick... We saw him the night before and he was sick, no doubt but, next week they are coming again. She came at like 9:30 a.m. and was dressed up in her Sunday best and ready to go;  it was cool.

Oh yeah…we also found this bakery place the other day. It has pizza like, Robintino's for 10rm and they are good.

Mejumpa Vagu,

Elder Watkins

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...