Taking a bit of a beating...

Sister Wieland sent this picture to us...It looks to me, that they are all "patiently" waiting to dig into some yummy looking food.

Sister Marlita invited us and the missionaries to dinner -- she is an excellent Filipino cook.  There are deep-fried 4" prawns drizzled with a mayonnaise honey sauce  three kinds of chicken - fried, baked, and with a sauce, two different fish dishes - one with sweet and sour and one with garlic and onions, and another new vegetable to me that was delicious.  

What a royal smorgasbord!  If you notice, the silverware is always placed either on the plate, or on a separate plate -- the Chinese are particular that their eating utensils are not placed on the table where they could get contaminated with germs.  And, I have never seen napkins served, usually it is just a roll of toilet paper that is offered and you pull off a piece to wipe your hands on.

Hey Everyone, 

Well last week was pretty good and we are still fairly busy just trying to keep up with our people and with the traveling stuff. First off we are going to see Elder Bednar next week on Monday morning at the new PJ2 Chapel so, I will get to see him and the new chapel there ha-ha.

This weekend Rosmini and Kurniawati are getting baptized so they passed their interviews and so they are good to go. Her son Elvin still hates us for some weird reason but, he finally accepted the fact that whether he likes it or not, we are going to teach his mom ha-ha. So he stopped crying but, now he just beats up my companion and me…he tries to punch us and stuff but, well he is 4, he did make Elder Martin bleed a little though ha-ha. We still teach them but, we just take a bit of a beating besides. So things are going pretty sweet with them.

We are still teaching Irene our Pakistani investigator but, as of right now she is not willing to accept the BOM which is really rough and so we are just going to have to keep working with her. She came to church last Sunday again, which was good. She stayed the whole time and hit it off really well with the members there. She told us also she'll continue to learn and to come to church but, for right now she is going to have to take it slowly with the BOM and she hopes that one day her heart will open and receive it. We invited her that if she finds things to be true; would you get baptized? And she said; yes, so we are going to keep it up with her.

Del Rosario is doing a lot better, he is the man that was way sick in the hospital but, now he is doing so much better and will be out soon. He told us stories of how back in the day he was the number one hunter in all of Borneo. He used a shot gun with slugs to take down his prey ha-ha he is nuts… as in cool. He has killed a total of 7 Elephants, 1 Rhino and lots of Deer and Boar and anything else they have got in Sabah. He is a cool guy and reminds me a bit of grandpa.  We took the sacrament to him again last week and he told us that he is going to come back to KK for sure at least for a year and he'll stay with his less active daughter; Dosy and bring them back to church. He told us; “I am going to come to Mormon Church every Sunday when I get out of here.” So he is way cool.

We also went and saw Enol; he is another guy from a part member family who is way awesome and loves his kids a lot. He was going to come to church but, the Saturday before church his father, Maju got a job so he couldn't watch the old Nenek at the house so Enol couldn't make it but, he made sure to send his two sons who hadn't been in a long time. He has already figured out how he can make it for next week.  

We saw Justin and his sister last night and just talked about prayer with them; it was a pretty good lesson and they should be coming to church this coming week. We will just have to do our best at following up with them.

Sister Marlita's husband is doing good as well he goes back in for chemo next week but, we are going to stop by on Friday and see him and teach a bit. He is a way nice guy we just hope we can invite him to have a desire to come to church.

Melvin and his wife are doing great and moving right along for baptism. They are so awesome and he has a true desire to learn… it’s so crazy awesome. The father read the pamphlets and actually understands them; he is cool. We asked him; Melvin did you read the Book of Mormon he said; No, I didn't and we were sad but, he was like but, that is because I read the blue Joseph Smith pamphlet because I wanted to make sure I understood where the Book of Mormon came from before I moved on ha-ha. Because he works in the factory he can only make it every other week but, he will make it next week. His wife still comes even though but, man his wife is dang tall btw she is 5'10" maybe taller and her brother we met very briefly while he was here is a 6 foot man they are tall. But, they are doing great.

Last but, definitely not least is Jennifer and her family. Her Mother-in-law and her daughter and 11 year old son have come to church the last two weeks. Jennifer is a Filipino lady from Manila; she was baptized about 20 years ago in the Philippines and has been inactive for 18 years; basically since she moved to Malaysia. Well the day before I got here she stopped Elder Martin and told him she was a member. We went and talked with her and gave her a BOM again and helped her understand how to get to church. So she came with all of them on Sunday. Even though the aunty and the son only speak Chinese, they loved church to death. We went Monday to teach her and her Mother-in-law with the Lee's, it went way well. The Lee’s speak Chinese so that really helped with the aunty. Hopefully later this week we can invite them for baptism; they are way awesome. Jennifer is way happy because her family likes to come to church and she said she really misses church a lot. Turns out the aunty loves to wake up Jennifer at 7am to make sure they get to church on time. Jennifer’s sister in the Philippines is a member as well and a RM; she told her how awesome the temple is and so now she is really working towards get her family to the temple and being active and learning the things that she has forgotten; so she can make it there. So that’s pretty much everything I can think of.

Mejumpa Vagu ingan Oku Diikau,

Elder Watkins

Ka'amatan is the Harvest Festival here...it doesn't start until the beginning of June.

Check out this Basketball court...