Christmas in Nong Khai

Christmas Eve was great Skyping with Landon. He looked good and was so happy. He said it was hard to leave Ayutthaya, but that he loves his new area and his new companion Elder Sae Dan from Chiang Mai. One of the members bought them some Santa hats and they were going to an Aquarium which is closed on their p-day so they were going to hit that up and then go to the Pizza Company for Christmas dinner. There is no senior couple in Nong Khai like in Ayutthaya. I will miss the Soward's watching over him. His letter is short probably because we talked to him on Christmas.

Elder Batey, Brother Kenny, Sister June, Elder Watkins, Elder Vandenberghe, Elder Sae Dan & Brother Ice spending Christmas at the Sirindhorn Aquarium

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 28 & 29
Week One and Two in Nong Khai

Monday, December 30, 2013

Hey,

Well it has been a great week with Christmas. I really don't have much to write about this week so sorry this letter is going to be short. So with transfers and Christmas I didn't get to write a letter last week so I will review a little bit.

I was transferred to the Province, Nong Khai which is in the Eesaan; way up next to the border of Laos. We can walk out of our house and see Laos so it is really cool and beautiful. There is just a huge river separating us called the Mekong River. My new companion is Elder Sae Dan who is from Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is Thai so I couldn't have been happier to get a native companion. I am learning so much from him, it is great! He is way awesome at teaching because he just knows the Thai people better because he is Thai. I'm learning good strategies on how to teach the people. He is just helping my language a ton, which is great! I don't get to speak English as much, but it is good because I feel like my Thai is just going to take off! We have tons of fun while we are doing the work. He is just way funny and his English is okay and when he speaks English it is just funny, I don't know why because he doesn't laugh when I speak Thai.

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, also known as the Summer Palace, is a palace complex formerly used by the Thai kings. The palace is located on the Chao Phraya River bank in Bang Pa-In district, Ayutthaya Province.

Anyways things are good…we are teaching a few people right now. We are kind of white washing our area so we are just getting familiar with everything and meeting members and all the recent converts and less actives in the area. We have an investigator named, Em and he is going to be baptized this coming Saturday he is so awesome! I love teaching him and he is just so accepting of our message for only being 19 years old. He just does everything we teach him and commit him to do.

We also have two more investigators named Gaw and Mik and they are pretty good too they are going to be baptized on January 19th. We also have one named Ice. I just talked to her at English and swiped her phone number and set up an appointment and she is so ready to be baptized, it is unreal. I told her we would just talk to her about baptism and when we got there, she sits down and she is like I want to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ and your commandments; we are like, ok. We sat down and taught her 5 commandments and the whole gospel lesson and she is just progressing really fast and probably will be baptized the 12th of January, so we are getting excited for our baptisms.

Christmas was great and fun to talk you on Skype. Can you believe in two more transfers we will be talking again on Mother’s Day, just a few short months away. That isn't long at all! Time is just flying way fast! Be sure to let Cindy know that we had our Swenson’s last week and are planning on getting it tomorrow just like every Tuesday and it will be New Years Eve too. They celebrate New Year’s here just like we do back in America, but they just party and drink which is sad, but oh well. They really don't celebrate Christmas at all though. They play Christmas music in stores and sell some Christmas stuff and then they call it good, I don't though. Christmas definitely was not the same it didn't even feel like Christmas except the fact it is freezing up here because I don't have a jacket and I can't find one that fits me, so that is one of my goals is to find a jacket today!

That is all I got for this week thanks for all the letters everyone. The Christmas package was great! I even made pudding last night for us all! I even made cookies I'm becoming a chef out here. I just need my comp to start teaching me how to make some Thai dishes so that is my next goal. I can handle the desserts from America and the noodles called Mama which is just like Top Ramen, but better ha-ha! Love you all. Have a great week.

Love,

Landon