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