Christmas in Roi Et...

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 80

Week Two in Roi Et

Christmas Day 2014

Hi Mom!

Thank you so much! The 12 days of Christmas was way awesome I loved it! I'm feeling good though! It was so awesome to Skype with you today I love you so much! Hope you have a great Christmas and New years!

Love your favorite son :p

Elder Landon J Watkins 

Christmas Presentation teaching about what Christmas is all about...

Elder Hartung dressed up like Santa Claus!

What a Year...Christmas 2014

What a Year 2014 has been for our family…

            Nathan graduated from the University of Utah in Sociology in May and was accepted to graduate school at Arizona State University. He moved to Arizona in August and will be there until December of 2015. He has learned to appreciate Utah for its seasons, where he can pursue the outdoor activities he loves. In July he went back to Malaysia and stopped in Thailand and was able to spend a day with Landon!

            Landon had been out almost 18 months and has served in Ayutthaya; the old capital of Thailand, Nong Khai; near the border of Laos, Samut Prakan; south of Bangkok and now in Sisaket; close to the border of Cambodia, where he is training a missionary fresh from the states. The people of Thailand are really ready to hear the gospel and they are seeing the fruits of their labors in Thailand.

Jeff and I are surviving this taste of being empty nesters. We miss both of the boys at home, but are so proud of what they are doing with their lives.

Norman Vincent Peal said, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” I truly believe this, and I love the spirit of the holidays and the peace that comes to the world as we recognize His birth. Merry Christmas to all!

Love,

Jeff, Joan, Nathan & Elder Watkins

Christmas 2014

Roi Et, Elder Hartung & American Food!

Lighting off my Lantern in Sisaket

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 79

Week One in Roi Et 

Monday, December 15, 2014

What's up?

Well as you already know I moved! I am now serving in an area called Roi Et. It is actually still pretty close to Sisaket only around a 2 hour drive just a bit further to the north. It is closer to Brother Keng for sure. My new companion is Elder Hartung. He is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has been out for around 6 months now in Thailand so 8 months total. He's 19 years old. He's 6 foot 3 and around 210 lbs. He is a big guy. He actually played some college basketball and division 2 college back in Pittsburgh. He's a pretty cool guy and we are getting along just fine. Elder Mitchell stayed in Sisaket and just got a new companion; so that was good. At least I know he will take care of our Recent Converts for us! As far as our area we have 2 sisters’; sister Woodbury and sister Ong. Also the Zone Leaders Elder Calderone and Elder Bannagorn. We also have a senior couple Elder and Sister Stoker which I'm way pumped about! They are way nice. They came to Sisaket a few weeks back and took us to dinner. I was able to get my package at transfers; so that was good! Oh and big news Elder Savage one of my previous companions (when he was in the threesome in Samut Prakan) is moving off to Myanmar now. So now I won't get to see him anymore! Pretty wild, President called him the day of transfers and asked if he would go; no notice at all. He had to go back to his area, pack his bags and go! 

Goodbye to my member friends in Sisaket!

Elder Hartung in the middle, his old companion on the left and me of course on the right.

As far as before transfers on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I just ended up saying good bye to a lot of members and just packing on Wednesday. It was sad to go; I'll miss that place it was pretty awesome and a lot of good memories! But it will be good to be in Roi Et now and experience some new stuff! 

 

My House in Roi Et!

As far as these last 3 days we don't really have many investigators right now so we have been doing a lot of contacting trying to find new people which is good. We have a lot of RC's that we are working with and even quite a few Less Actives; so that is good! Sorry not too much happened, but I'm way pumped to be here with the Stokers though. They make us dinner every Sunday night it sounds like. She made us waffles with eggs and chocolate cake yesterday. It is just amazing to have American food again! Oh and the first day on Friday she made us cinnamon rolls too which were just incredible; man do I miss American food. Thai food is good and all, but nothing hits the spot like good old food from America! When we were in Bangkok I couldn't resist and I got myself a double Big Mac; soooo good ha-ha! Anyways hope you all have a great week! Hopefully I can get over my sickness her soon. I was almost better before we left for Bangkok, but the lack of sleep and travel just made me way worse. So I had to start recovering over again so I'm starting to get a bit better. . Probably just a few more days and I'll be back in good shape again; I hope! Love you all though and Merry Christmas! As we won’t be emailing next Monday; so talk to you on Thursday! J

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

Christmas Zone Conference, Baptisms and a bad Cough!!!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 78

Week Twelve in Sisaket

Monday, December 08, 2014

Hello!

How's everyone doing?

This was quite the week this past week. It was pretty good though! Only two main things really happened this week so not too much! So on Tuesday morning we got an 8:30 bus to go to Khon Kaen because that was the only way to get there from Sisaket ha-ha small town problems. We got there at around 1:30 pm we went and ate at McDonalds and Swenson’s because yes, it was Tuesday! We went and found a hotel which was quite the adventure ha-ha! We went to one place and it had rooms but only with 1 bed so we went to another place and it was 3200 baht ($97.00) for a room ha-ha so we went to another place and it was only 900 baht ($27) a room so we settled for that and it worked very well; it was nice! 

Wednesday we have our Zone Conference and we started off by singing some Christmas songs then we went to eat at a buffet. But it really wasn't a buffet because they ran out of food ha-ha and it wasn't even that good of food…to be honest. I was kind of disappointed and so was President Senior as you could imagine. The worst part is I have been sick for the past week! So we went to the church after and were just hanging out in the chapel for 5 hours straight and I have this cough so I'm just dying the whole meeting; it was miserable. So I didn't really enjoy the trip too much because I was sick. When I got back to Sisaket though Sister Su brought me some medicine so I'm finally starting to get better! I was really glad to get home though even if it was at 1:30 in the morning.

After we got back we had 3 days to work so we were just pounding in lessons like crazy, trying to get some work done and help our two investigators get baptized! We spent a lot of time working with Su and Ti and it all worked out! They were able to both get baptized together on Sunday; it was way awesome! I was able to baptize Su and Elder Mitchell baptized Ti. It was a great way to start off the month with 2 baptisms and then sisters baptized Simon; a black guy and the other Elders also had one baptism so it was cool! Everything is going great. 

Transfers are this week so that is always annoying hopefully somehow Elder Mitchell and I can stay together; that'd be so awesome! We will see what happens. I don't feel like I'm moving, nor do I want to, but Elder Mitchell thinks he will be moving. It's been a great time here in Sisaket.

As far as pictures go there are pictures of the baptism last week. A couple of when we were in Khon Kaen and then some pictures with some of my favorite members Sister Su and Sister France. Su is France's Mom; they are so nice and are going to be taking us out for dinner tonight so that should be fun! There are also Pictures of our new RC Su and Ti who were baptized! Oh and me wearing my mask because I was sick and coughing so much I didn’t want to get Elder Mitchell sick ha-ha!

Love,

Elder Landon J Watkins

A 30 kilometer bike ride...

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 77

Week Eleven in Sisaket

Monday, December 01, 2014

Hey!

Well too start off not too much happened this week; honestly! A lot of stuff fell off that we had planned, but it's okay though!

I'll start out with Wednesday that was a fun day ha-ha! Right after lunch we went to go visit Brother Thanachon a RC who lives out in the middle of nowhere ha-ha. The guy we went and helped harvest rice! He's way nice though! So we got to go on a loooong bike ride ha-ha… round trip 30 kilometers which I feel seems like a lot has to be around 20 miles maybe? We were so exhausted and it was so hot we stopped at home just to cool off and rest because we were so tired.

We were trying to work with Sister Nooy and her husband Chanchay this week to get them baptized. We taught Sister Nooy Tuesday and was still on track. We had an appointment with her on Wednesday and she did show. After that we haven’t been able to get in contact with her or her husband. They have just like disappeared we don't know what happened which is kind of sad; they were so good!

Thursday was Thanksgiving! It was an alright day, I guess. The Sisters made spaghetti, chicken, mashed potatoes, and some vanilla cake. The potatoes were pretty good, but it just wasn't like any sort of thanksgiving feast. You can't find turkey here in Sisaket which was too bad! We had scripture class right after that and then ended we cruised over to KFC and ate KFC with Rommell. He is an RM from the Philippines who works here teaching English. He is way cool; he wanted to treat us to some KFC for Thanksgiving so that was way nice.

Not many other highlights from this week besides our baptism that we had on Sunday! Sister Faa got baptized it was way awesome! I was able to baptize her; it was great! It was funny when I baptized her, I saw her hair just shoot up and not go under so I was like no way am I doing this again so I just pushed her way far under and her feet just flew out from under her so I literally just lifted her up out of the water. It was so funny, but she had the biggest smile on her face; it was so great! You can just see the great feelings and you feel how she feels. It is so special to be able to baptize people; I love it!

We got so lucky this last week though on getting balanced! Yesterday we had no new investigators for the week and we needed two so we could get balanced! We had 5 investigators at church. Su and Ti they were former investigators we found about 2 months ago and they couldn't come to church so we dropped them, but now they can come so they came yesterday for the first time. They have dates to get baptized this next week we are so excited! :) We also had Bog and Jub who were former investigators, but went to Bangkok for 2 months and they came to church yesterday; it was way awesome! Then we had Jackson a friend of the Cambodian members here come so we have him as a new investigator. During the 3rd hour a member told us to come with him and invite this lady to church who lives just across the street. So we went and invited her and she came right over; so awesome! We gave her a BoM and everything so we got two new investigators; it was way sweet!

It was an okay week though! Tomorrow we will be heading to Khon Kaen for our Christmas Zone Conference so we will be gone Tuesday and Wednesday. Should be good I'm excited to get to interview with President Senior; I've got some questions for him!

Love you all; have a great week!