Zone Conference, Splits, & Que Pasa

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 16

Week Seven in Ayutthaya

Monday, September 30, 2013

What’s up!?

Another solid week down! Tuesday was crazy we headed down to the zone leaders house Monday night since we had to be at the church by 7:30 AM and we weren't feeling like waking up at 4 AM to cruise down to zone conference even though we got a horrible night’s sleep at the ZL's house because they have these little beds that are just like elevated floors and don't have blankets. All I had was a sheet and they put the AC on freezing and forgot to turn it back up so my companion and me froze all night long it was like 50 degrees in there and I was heating myself up with my breath! My comp even got up at like 2:30 in the middle of the night freezing to use the bathroom and it was so much warmer in there he just slept on the floor for a couple of hours, that is how miserable it was!

Zone Conference we started off with our planner checks, passing off memorizations for teaching points, and giving our talks to Sister Senior. I owned the talk you are supposed to do it in about 3 minutes, so you know how to give a fast message. I totally owned it 2:52 was my time and she was impressed and said she love my talk on Act of Faith Necessary to Produce Miracles! After we had tons of training on what we need to do to help the North Bangkok District to become a stake. It was a good reminder of what to do and good motivation to get us pumped up to get doing some more work! We had Pizza Company for lunch which was way tasty! Gotta love getting some American food since it is always more expensive! My comp did his musical number, “O Lord My Redeemer”, and tore it up and really the spirit for our meeting after lunch! We received more training on conversion rather than just baptizing after 2 weeks we have to make sure they are converted and just won't fall away after.

After that I had my meeting with President Senior and it was super quick! Just wanted to make sure everything was okay and there were no problems. These ones are really quick I guess the ones at transfers are longer, but we will see in two weeks. One thing we learned is that since we are on the 9 week transfers, after the first 4 weeks there will be a mini transfer where people get moved around. So that gave me some hope that my comp may get to finish my training before he gets transferred, since he has been in Ayutthaya since May. We cleaned everything up and then the switch off began! I stay in the Don Mueng branch with Elder Terry and Elder Unsworth and Elder Appleyard went up to Ayutthaya, which is cool for them because Elder Appleyard trained Elder Unsworth and Elder Appleyard finishes his mission this transfer.

The first thing we did was teach English and it was showcase week! The first 15 minutes we did a review and then played games for, it was so crazy ha-ha they were getting way into the games and it became heated because they were losing, but they had so much fun, it was a blast. Their English program is nuts down there they have around 150 people each week, where we barely have 20. They have around 5 different classes and I taught one with about 20 people in it, I believe. Elder Terry had me give the spiritual thought and I just talk about how I received help learning the language and that I have only been here 6 weeks and it is crazy how much I can already speak, there was just a huge gasp from all them they were shocked that I’ve only been here six weeks ha-ha. It was a good little confidence booster of my language, which is always nice. They all were giving major props to me and they are mostly nonmembers, since members do that anyways! 

Wednesday we had to go get Elder Terry’s VISA renewed which took forever and just tons of talking; Elder Terry is a way cool dude and is from Brigham City, Utah. After we had a lesson with one of their new investigators and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went way good, I held my weight in the lesson. We had Brother Gob and Namsaay helping us out so in this branch, you get tons of help with everything! We taught Sister Min and at the end I committed her to be baptized and she accepted for Oct. 26th, I think that would be sweet to here if she gets baptized, because I helped teach here. I wish I got to teach her more, but I don't ha-ha. We also taught this one guy who is LA and he said he was going to come to the Family Awards thing on Saturday and church on Sunday! I just so happened to be at the awards thing on Saturday and he was there, which is awesome. I don't know if he went to church though, but I bet he did! After all that good stuff Elder Terry and I did some contacting and got 2 new investigators, but they both didn't show up, he said; oh well!

We ate at Que Pasa all three times we were there, which is a Mexican restaurant, so freaking tasty and expensive, but I manage to stay in budget somehow. Elder Unsworth and Appleyard came back that night and there was the mini transfer meeting. Some people got moved, but none I really know! I got to see my comp from the MTC though which was cool he got a new trainer because his got moved to ZL somewhere. We got stuck in Pak Kret so we ended up staying at the ZL's house again, but I slept way better because we made sure it wasn't freezing this time! 

Thursday morning we studied it up and went and ate at Que Pasa again ha-ha it was so tasty, then headed back to Ayutthaya! We got back and prepped for Preach My Gospel class, but then it got canceled and we ended up just going to dinner with Bro. Nong, Sis. Gade, Maasaaw, Bro Now, and Sister Duuy. It was a pretty good buffet, but I wasn't even hungry that much after having my burrito and super shake from Que Pasa ha-ha! It was fun though! 

Friday was wild we studied it up and then ate lunch did some contacting, nothing there; but we went to the church for the piano tuner to come and he doesn't show up. So while we were waiting we just played the piano and I practiced up on my skills. He finally calls and says his car is broken down. We headed back to the house to do weekly planning and somehow got a little distracted with rearranging our room ha-ha and we took down the bunk bed moved everything around, just had a blast. Somehow we have more room without the bunk bed and two beds on the ground, but it is so awesome. I've been sleeping way better now, which is good! Our set up is just awesome! 

No more bunk beds

Saturday was a crazy day we headed to Pak Kret for choir practice for the awards things that afternoon. We got there and Bro. Bird from another branch brought an investigator next thing you know we are teaching him ha-ha. It is great that we've been doing work, but we wish we could see it through to the end, but it is a way good experience, that is for sure! We had the awards banquet and it was way cool. There were some really high up people in Thailand there recognized! We sang and the spirit was way strong. It was good to get the church's name out there for sure. After we finished and cleaned up everything, Elder Appleyard invited us to stay for one of their investigators baptisms; Bro. Egg who we actually know. We played volleyball while waiting for that to happen and just talked to tons of members, it was pretty fun and wild at the same time.  While we were getting ready for the baptism, President Taawit came and talked to us, saying thank you for helping my members have a good time and strengthening them.

Sunday was crazy I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting, lets goooooo! I talked for like 5-10 minutes I don't know how long, but I did pretty good for it being in Thai! I talked about helping the LA's come back, paying your tithing, and preparing for a mission since it was Sister Gades farewell, she is going to Australia. President Wiisaan from the district presidency gave me major props over the pulpit on my talk, what a boss he is great. He also taught out combined meeting for Relief Society and Priesthood which went way good! We had our investigator, Sister Nub come to sacrament and the other elders had 7 investigators, it was way crazy! So a total of 8 at church and the Sowards have been gone all week they are in America for their kids wedding. We had 44 people at sacrament total which is the most since I've been here. Brother Arm came who is one of our LA's we have been working with and he is ready to come back! So we just have to get him filling out the paper work with Elder Sowards when he comes back! That is all for this week a pretty fun week, not much else we will do today just relax, do some shopping and probably get some goods! Love you all!

Love,

Landon

Mortal Kombat, Thai Mountain Dew ดอยน้ำค้าง and a Crab

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 15

Week Six in Ayutthaya

Monday, September 23, 2013

Hey Everyone!!

Well another week finished up, time is just flying! It isn't just me either my companion is saying the same thing! It must be because we have so much fun together and we just get along so well, which is great!

 

Mortal Kombat with blue skies

Last week for p-day we went to the Mortal Kombat Temple/Wat that was in the Mortal Kombat movie! Man that was way awesome! The pictures don't give it justice and from what I've heard from missionaries it is one of the coolest ones in all of Thailand. The only downside was they wouldn't let me walk to the top of the temple or stairs which would have been awesome! The stairs are really steep and pretty intense, but pictures up there would have been so cool oh well!

Mortal Kombat with grey skies

Let’s see for Tuesday not to much happened except for English class really we had 19 people come which is way awesome we only had 5 people coming when I got here, so we've like x4 the amount of people which is great. Winner came again and brought a friend named, Punch who is a girl and way good at English also! It is crazy, they both are rich we've decided, their parents pick them up in Mercedes. You are loaded if you have a car like that, plus Punch is an only child which means rich here and Winner only has a sister. Elder Unsworth is like if you are still here around Christmas you are going to want to keep them around because they will load you up with gifts ha-ha. Thailand does celebrate Christmas, but just only the gift giving part! 

Wednesday we got cheesed by the other Elder's, they were like oh, someone needs to get into the church who is a member from another area. We showed up and the carpet cleaners came -_- and so we had to sit there for like 2 hours while they cleaned everything, but at least I got to practice some piano which was nice. Not too much great happened after that except for we stopped at 7-11 and we looked in the drink thing and we were like no way that is Mountain Dew so we both bought two bottles and they are in Thai, we were like, yes!!!!! Later we found out they have started making Mountain Dew in Thailand which is brand new and it is way popular so we are way happy about that getting to have that for the rest of our missions! 

Thursday was quite the day. We went and got some lunch then headed to district meeting at 1 and then the other Elder's didn't show up until 3 so we waited for 2 hours and then district meeting was like 1 1/2 hours so we ate dinner and then had Preach My Gospel class at 6:30 p.m. Sister Gade usually it the only one who comes because we only do it for her, but Brother Now and Brother Arm came which are the only two young men in our ward which was great because Brother Arm is inactive right now and Brother Now has dropped out of school so he has nothing to do ever ha-ha.

As for weather; literally it has been raining every week and lots of places are all flooding. Brother Nong said he has water up to his knees that he has to walk through in order to get into his house, but they all just say at least it isn't as bad as two years ago when it was in there houses and over their heads! We only came home on our bikes soaked 4/7 days this week, so not bad, right ha-ha! 

Elders in the house...Smith, Ohmer, Watkins & Unsworth

Friday was a pretty fun day! We were studying when the other Elders text us, we found a crab, come take pictures so we go outside and there is this big old crab sitting in a bucket so we take pictures, let its pincers grab, stick, and stuff pretty cool! Then we got weekly planned, did some contacting, ate dinner and came home.

Saturday we got a call at like 8 from Elder Sowards saying there is an emergency at Sister Saaws house she has water and it is flooding so we cruise over on our bikes. When we get there she is like why are you here, there was no water, she just had a little leak in the ceiling and two members were fixing it so we just went back home ha-ha and got ready for the mutual activity. We played Battleship and they had fun so it went well. Also, Brother Arm came again which was great, once he finishes his school and testing on Sundays he said he will start coming to church again which is good! After Sister Ganjanii took us to a buffet for lunch and we just ate like crazy. One of the ladies there was friends with Sister Ganjanii and is like this one is on me. so we ate for free! We had to go to the hospital for Elder Unsworth because he had to get his blood tested for his new work permit and we were there for like 2 hours.

Sunday our investigator Buun came to church which is Brother Nows little brother he is an awesome little guy and said he had a blast a church which is great! After we just talked with members and then we went down to Pak Kret again for Choir Practice ha-ha practicing up on my vocal skills! We practiced then just talked with members down there, met a ton of new people, like Sister Wii who graduated from BYU Hawaii who is 22 and speaks fluent English. Bro. Golf/Atlas who is known in the mission for the guy who can make your ties skinnier which seems cool ha-ha but he is like a legend everyone knows about him! We found out that we are doing a switch off this week with the Zone Leaders and also Zone Conference is tomorrow. So we are going to Pak Kret tonight sleeping at the Zone Leaders house and then having Zone Conference then switching off. I will stay in Pak Kret with Elder Terry until Thursday morning while Elder Appleyard will go up to Ayutthaya with my comp. Elder Appleyard actually trained my companion so that is cool for them. That is all for this week. Nothing too much for p-day today just hanging out, we may go do some shopping we have already toured everything here ha-ha. Love you all have a good week!

Love,

Landon

Who is taking our Fruit???

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 14

Week Five in Ayutthaya

Monday, September 16, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Well another pretty fun week! I really haven't had any hard days yet that I haven't had fun on. It was a pretty crazy week, but still fun! So starting with last Monday, something that happened after our email we talked with our neighbor next door, who is a woman, a man came out, which turned out to be her brother who is visiting her. So we talked to her brother who is fluent in English, German, Thai, and Dutch which is pretty impressive, but it is because he has lived in Germany for the last 26 years. We talked to him for 15-30 minutes, he worked for Porsche in Germany which is pretty cool, while talking with him and his sister we found out that it is his sister who has been stealing the fruit off of our trees because apparently a missionary from a while back in the house said she could just take our fruit, so she will probably continue to take it, oh well! 

Who took our mango???

Tuesday was a pretty funny day we had the usual studies, ate lunch then had to go to the hospital for the last time where I had my checkup for them to say, it was all good and stuff and he said, just to get some more pills to ensure the bacteria was gone. So I'm all good now for sure, even though I've felt fine for forever after the surgery ha-ha. Then we had English class which was way fun, we had 19 people which is huge because when I got here the average amount of people coming was 3-4 so we have increased the numbers like crazy, so we actually split the class up this week. Elder Unsworth and I taught the advanced people and the other Elders taught the beginner class, but really was we taught they cool class mostly ha-ha. It was way fun and we just did a good job teaching. I felt like they were all having fun and learning English! We stayed after with Brother Nong while the other elders taught the principal of a school here. Bro. Nong had to wait for Sister Gade so we kept him company and talked with the principal’s daughter. So we were kind of talking to her a little while, but for some reason she can't understand anything I say or a lot of what my comp says either, but because she is pretty good looking all the members are getting jealous, saying that we are flirting even though we are not, because I can't talk to her because she doesn't understand me ha-ha. We talk to all the sisters in the branch the exact same way so that was pretty annoying, but the whole time I'm talking to Bro. Nong trying to hook him up with a girl, because he doesn't have a girlfriend. He is 25, so I've convinced him once she turns 18 next month he needs to ask her out ha-ha so that is pretty funny! There is an age difference of 7 years, but that is completely normal here in Thailand, 30 years is okay here, that just seems weird to us ha-ha. 

Brother Nong

Wednesday was a good day first we met Bro. Nong at the church and he cut our hair for us, which was good, he is way good at cutting hair, so it is a nice free hook up! Then we went to try and teach some LA's and one of our investigators. Bro. Aneg wasn't home and then we went to try and visit brother Montri and he has moved and we have no phone number or way to find him. Which it too bad, because we really need him since he is a melchizedek priesthood holder. After we went and taught Sister Boo one of our recent converts and we wanted to teach her daughter, Baah. She was our only dater and now she isn't because she couldn't meet. Her mom says that she want her to learn everything about the gospel so she can stick up for her religion, but she won't let her daughter go to church to learn more, which makes no sense. So we don't know what to do there and she said she won't get baptized either. So there goes our dater.

Thursday we did tons of training and while we were in the internet place we had the most insane monsoon come through. It lasted for like an hour and a half and just flood the streets pretty good. We were just trapped inside and couldn't leave. I've never seen rain fall so hard, it was nuts! It rains everyday which is crazy, we get soaked a ton riding home, but it is alright, it is worse right now, because it is the rainy season, but I love it, it’s fun! We had zone training with Elder Appleyard and Terry who are our ZL's and the Lopori Elders came down and joined us, it was pretty basic meeting, but good!

As for Friday we watched The District for like 2 hours which was pretty funny. My comp got a flat tire on his bike so we had to get that fixed and by the end of the night it was flat again so had to get it fixed again the next day. The guy at the bike shop was way old, but spoke fluent English. He told us about these weird things and how he was part of the religion here in Thailand and that all religions teach people to be good which goes way back to when the king made some speech about it. The history here is way cool but pretty crazy because Bangkok has been the capitol for so long. The king is just so old and has been king forever. So once he dies the capitol will move to somewhere in the Eessan, I believe. Then that night we had the mutual activity and we did some commercial skit thing which was pretty fun and then the Sowards brought popcorn for the treat!! Oh man it tasted so gooooooood I forgot how much I love that stuff, but it is so expensive here. So I'll be needing some of that in my Christmas package along with a bunch of cracked pepper sunflowers seeds and maybe some dill ha-ha. Oh and I got my 200 stamps for seven-eleven so I got my mat. I can lay on the floor which is pretty funny, comfy though, it has like a built in pillow! 

Saturday was awesome Sister Ganjani who is an older lady in our branch had a work party and since she doesn't have family she invites the Elders and the people from the branch to go as her family so we went and it was way fun. It was like a pre p-day thing. We rode a bus and just toured a bunch of places and talked with a bunch of different people. I got some good souvenirs, which you can't go wrong with that. That night we had this huge dinner dance thing, so we learned a bunch of traditional Thai dancing, but it was soooo hard to do because of course the dancers pick people to come up. My comp and I were the only white people there so who do you think they go for first, us of course. But luckily you don't like actually dance with someone you just follow what they do and walk in a circle, pretty crazy I'll need Sister Gade to send me the pics of it when I see her next, she probably has a ton. But yeah, I'm white so I had to pull out my “hitch dance moves” you know from the movie “Hitch” because the Thai ones I couldn't handle! Overall way fun, my comp won the best male dancer because he is just hilarious and so funny he kills me and everyone there just loved us after that. It was such a good member strengthening experience. Especially for Sister Ganjani because she is like in her 60's with no family so we were her family. She even won an award, the mayor from Ayutthaya presented it to her and because me and my comp were her family and we got to meet him and have our pic with him.

Sister Ganjani

Sister Gade

As for Sunday we just did the usual church thing I passed the sacrament and then after we taught our investigator Nub for a bit, but our member had to go so we didn't get to teach everything we wanted to, but she is our best investigator right now. Mod didn’t come to church. We called her at 7:00 AM Sunday morning and she said she’d be at church and then we get there and her son is like she didn't come. We are trying to figure her out, because she has learned everything twice, she just has to go to church and she can get baptized. After we had to go down to Pak Kret because my comp is singing solo for zone conference so he went to go practice with Bro. Art a member there who is amazing at the piano and he is just a boss at sight reading. The song played was perfect the first time. That was pretty fun my comp is a really good singer and while we were there, he is like; hey you want to be in our choir for this Saturday we could use some help. So now I am in the choir, look at me singing again ha-ha I'm not even a singer, but hey, free trips down to Pak Kret right ha-ha? It was pretty fun though all and all.

Today we went to lunch with the other Elders investigators mother for her birthday. She bought us all McDonalds and Swenson’s which was nuts because it is way expensive! Thai culture is like when it is your birthday you buy everyone else food and presents, it is crazy! Ha-ha. She is way nice but they are pretty well off. Her Dad is American and they have tons of money ha-ha. It was way fun though and after we finish emailing we are going to go to the Wad that was in the Mortal Kombat movie so that should be fun. Brother Nong has his family truck which is way lucky. If people have a car here they are pretty well off because cars are insanely expensive here, so they think we are all loaded because we have cars back home. It was a way fun week though!! Have a good week!

Love,

Landon

Along came a Duk Duk in the Rainstorm

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 13

Week Four in Ayutthaya

Monday, September 9, 2013

Hey!

Well another good week down! We didn't do much last p-day because I had to rest but it was way nice and relaxing no complaints and my comp got his seven-eleven backpack, so he was happy about that. They have this seven-eleven stamp thing here in Thailand once a year from like August to November, I believe and you collect stamps and there are certain prizes for stamps. So you pretty much can buy certain things in seven-eleven and you get so many stamps or for every 50 baht you spend you get 1 stamp. So yeah, we save up tons of those, my comp needed 300 for his bag and now we are saving for me to get a mat for our floor which is 200 stamps and I already have 200, I just need to go to seven-eleven and turn in my stamps so I can get it! 

Tuesday was a pretty interesting day I went and got checked up at the hospital again and everything was good, so now I just put some cream to help it heal two times a day and I have to go get it checked again tomorrow which should be our last visit. It was so nice we went straight home after that so I could shower since it had been 3 days ha-ha pretty gross. This check-up was 305 baht for the appointment and cream so a whole 10 dollars back in America ha-ha. Then we went over for our English meeting and taught Brother Now before everyone got there and then had English class. We had another really good turn out and a principal of a school here came and his daughter because the other two Elders started teaching at his school once a week so I guess they just came to check out the class. Also, Winner came again and I talked with him for a while he is planning on going to America for a year, in a year, so he'd be there when I got home which would be wild and he wants to go to Utah, which would be cool and this kid has never even learned about the gospel or nothing which is weird. He knows a lot about America though and the news and the stuff between like Syria and the US. I guess something is going on there but we really don't know anything here ha-ha. After that the Elders taught the principal of the school a lesson and Elder Unsworth and I had to entertain Brother Sutaabs kids, so it was quiet, which was funny and then the principals daughter came and talked with us for the whole time because she wasn't feeling included in the lesson and she was literally impossible to understand her Thai, she spoke way too fast ha-ha but Elder Unsworth is good at filling me in about what is going on. After the principal and his daughter gave us a ride home which was sweet saved us calling a Duk Duk and was faster. Especially since I still couldn't ride my bike.

Wednesday we didn't do much at all besides we had tons of online training on the computers we needed to do, which was way annoying because the internet was so bad it made it take forever! 

Thursday was a good day though we headed out to Seyna where Brother Nong lives about a 45 minute ride in a van and we went out to see Sister Muk who is 18 and married to Brother Moo who is Brother Sutaabs son, but they haven't been coming to church and are having marriage problems and currently are living together and now she is living back at home, so we went to talk with her. Brother Nong came with us and we had a good lesson with her and she got a job to earn some money at KFC, but she is scheduled Sundays, so we committed her to ask for Sundays off. After we went back to Ayutthaya and the Rooduu driver was literally insane going like 160 kilos the whole way back and it was just funny and the fastest ride since I've been here, even for my comp too. We thought we were going to die, but that's the way it is here ha-ha, just kidding its safe. We then went and taught Mod and figured out why she wouldn't come to church and it was because of her son, so we think she will come now.  After we went to Boo and Baah and taught her and Sister Dooy joined also. We taught them as recent converts we have to faith and then I gave the baptismal commitment to Baah Boo's daughter, who is 12 and she said; yes, for October 13, so we had to teach her even more, which is good. I nailed the commitment the hard part will be her Mom we can't quite figure her out, yet. Then we got stuck in a rainstorm and we still weren't riding bikes and we didn't know how to get home and we waited out the storm for like an hour and a half and it still didn't go away. We tried getting like 7 different Duk Duk's and couldn't get one, then all of a sudden some random one was coming home and we snagged him which was way lucky! God blessed us with one, no fooling because no Duk Duk would come down there ever ha-ha. 

Friday was pretty chill we watched the District a bunch for training which gets boring, but Elder Unsworth makes it fun with his commentary. I love Elder Unsworth though he is a great first companion, I was blessed with a good companion and I get along with great. We then did our long planning for the next week and got all that done and then we had District Meeting and it was Elder Sowards b-day, so Sister Sowards made a cake which was way good, you just don't find good treats over here except ice cream really. Then while we were planning Sister Gade called and said she was in Asok which is where the mission office is and also where you get Change ties (elephant ties) and she bought me 6 of them and I got nicer ones than usual. Elder Unsworth said they are usually smaller and wider, I was so excited and they were 60 baht each so 360 baht only 2 dollars each, what a steal I love them!  Literally made my day and then we were supposed to teach PMG for Sister Gade but she showed up way late, so we just taught Brother Nong a lesson on faith because we only do the PMG class for Sister Gade because she is leaving on her mission in October to Australia, English speaking but she is 31, so it is pretty weird she is going, but she is way awesome and nice. Then we got home that night and literally had the most insane lightning thunder storm I've ever seen for about an hour and a half straight it was lightning, like 6 flashes and strikes in seconds, just constantly, I've never seen so much in my life over 100's of strikes. We just finally fell asleep and it was still going, so who knows how much longer that was.  

Saturday we had the YM/YW activity and did some treasure hunt thing that The Sowards planned.

Sunday was cool we all met at the church and rented a bus to go to District Conference down in Pak Kret! It was way cool, it was all in Thai and I was really familiar with tons of the words the speakers were saying. It was just hard for me to translate it in my head very fast, but it was still cool. We had a member of the 70’s there named, Elder Wong who has been in the 70’s for 6 years now and will most likely be getting released soon, he said. He then did training for 2 hours after that for Branch leaders and missionaries. That was way fun and cool and we did tons of focus and trying to make the North District a stake and we are so close we just need a couple members here and there. It is hard because Ayutthaya is like the armpit of the district we have the least in like every category we currently have 133 total members, so we need 17 more for 150 for a stake and 15 active melchizedek priesthood holders paying tithing and we have 6 of those, not good. We have a bunch of inactives because our branch has had some bad history, like the two former branch presidents are inactive and our current branch president is Elder Sowards, who is a senior missionary. So we have some work to do, so that is why we focus mostly on teaching RC/LA's. The district conference was way good though and I was with Brother Nong most of the time and practicing my Thai he is such a great member and friend, I love the guy.

For p-day today we went down to Pak Kret for Zone sports day which was pretty wild. We played ultimate Frisbee and capture the flag the whole time, because our ZL's keys wouldn't open up the sports closet. We couldn't figure any way to get in there, so we couldn't play dodge ball, basketball badminton volleyball or nothing, so we just had to make what we had work. It was still way fun. I talked with Elder Berbert who is serving in Rangsit right now, he is one transfer ahead of my comp and he is from Centerville, Utah and he is way cool. We had a ton of fun and went to Pizza Company for lunch after and had Cold Stone too, which was way amazing way similar to back home. Overall a fun great week! Hope everything is going great for you all!

Love,

Landon

Focusing on the Inactive

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 12

Week Three in Ayutthaya

Hey Everyone!

How's it going! This week was a pretty wild week! I'll start with last Tuesday. So after all our studies we went to eat lunch and after we were leaving lunch these two white guys stopped us ha-ha. They were so hilarious, one was named Bob, from Liverpool, England and the other John from Scotland, pretty old not sure how old though. We talked to them about Thailand for about an hour while they drank there beer, it was so funny. They were fun and hilarious to talk too and it was nice to speak some English, you know? Also, we had English class which was cool. We got a new student named, Winner in our class and he is way cool. He's 18 and wants to learn English really bad because he wants to go to America. He loves the Utah Jazz, which is funny. He wants to play basketball with us so we will have to sometime. He didn't seem to up for learning about religion, but he definitely wasn't opposed to it so that was good. 

Wednesday I started out finishing first Nephi in my BoM reading which was good, wild how much I can't remember from reading it the times before and going through it again. Then we finally got to teach Mohd for the first time! It was a good lesson we taught about praying often, read BoM, Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, Law of Chastity, fasting, and word of wisdom. She also said the prayer on her own for the first time, which was great. Also, she had a Pug so we saw a real dog here, ha-ha which is rare so that was cool. After we went and taught Boo and Baah. While that was happening our other investigator Montri showed up and we taught him also, so that was fun. Also, Sister Boo's cat had kittens the day before and so we got to hold one day old kittens, which was way cool they were pretty cute ha-ha. 

Thursday we went up to go visit our investigator, Nub which takes like 2 hours to get there. We ride a huge songthaew (a truck made into a taxi) for like 1 1/2 hours and then Brother Jamnong in our branch picks us up in his 3 wheeler basket bike and drives us for a bit ha-ha, it is so funny. We taught her and her husband Toowii and her friend Doom. It was an insane lesson because they got off topic about random stuff for an hour with our members then we finally got control and taught about the restoration which went well finally. Then we went back home and had to teach Preach My Gospel class. We were setting up for that and all of the sudden a random guy shows up and walks in the church and Brother Nong is like, he is a member, we were like what, who is he. His name was Yuutina. He hasn't been to church in 5 years he said and got baptized 10 years ago and remembers an Elder Johnson. I just sat there thinking hmm... that is weird, oh no way Mike Johnson at VBFA served in Thailand 10 years ago. I said to the guy did he have red hair and he said yes! SO I was like wow, it has to be him. So Dad ask Mike Johnson if he remembers this guy, because that would be so crazy. It was just so random that he showed up, the chances of us being there was so low. He wants to relearn about the Gospel because he can't remember anything so we are trying to get a hold of him and was a way cool experience. 

Friday was pretty uneventful we just did our studies, weekly planning and then district meeting. While district meeting was going a huge rainstorm came in and it rained for like 7 hours straight and we just waited it out as long as we could until we had to go home in the rain, which is always intense. Cars here are mean, they don't slow down and just splash us, but a guy walking on the road they will slow down for, we don't get it, just mean.

Saturday was boring too. Just woke up, went to the hospital and was there all morning then I just went home and rested all day because I wasn't supposed to do anything after the little minor surgery. We did get Pizza Company for food and started our fast. Pizza Company is good, but nothing like American pizza of course. My minor surgery was 1980 baht, which is way cheap in America only like 70 dollars I bet something like they did in America would be way more expensive. Also, a frog got in our house because there was another insane thunder-lightning storm so, all the frogs come out and one got into our house and was an easy catch. Also, caught a jing-jok, which are the little lizards they are tougher because they are just so fast and their feet can stick to anything. 

Sunday was pretty good. I got called to be the assistant ward clerk, oh my first calling ha-ha. All I have to do is get prayers, arrange for sacrament meeting each week, which is easy. Brother Nong is the ward clerk and he is awesome so I'm just helping him out. Only had one investigator come to church Nub and that is 3 weeks in a row, so once we can teach her everything and know she can pass the baptismal interview she can get baptized, which is cool. Boo came to church to which was good she had missed the last 3 weeks. Other than that I had a good fast then we had branch council meeting and we are trying to focus on getting the less active male priesthood holders back because we have tons that went inactive and only 6 active right now and in order to help the north district become a stake which is the closest in Thailand right now we need 15 active. Then we just talked with the members came back to the house and had dinner it was a good week though. I'm excited for this one! Love you all!

Landon