Off to Zone Conference

Just a little fyi...tomorrow Nathan has been out 3 months...only 21 months to go...but who's counting!

Hey everyone. So myldsmail sucks way bad and I can barely get it to load compose ha-ha so I’ll try my best and hope it doesn’t get deleted. Ericka didn't get baptized this week she wasn't ready and got cold feet as well as finding lots of anti Mormon stuff on the internet. So we set a new date for 14th of Nov. This week Paul set his baptism date for the 19th of December so that was exciting. But the work is going good here lots of people reject us but we find the good ones eventually. Something funny sometimes Chinese people have slanted doors so there not flat on the wall so that ghosts can't come in ha-ha doesn’t make sense ha-ha. We also found a member from Utah that studied at Utah State got baptized and just moved back so that was way crazy. We go to Kuala Lumpur by bus and we leave today at 3pm get there at 8pm and then the next day is all day p-day and were planning on going to a Hindu temple with lots of monkeys and stuff and then going to KL towers, so pretty exciting. I received grandma letters today and yesterday the one from Singapore came today the one that went straight to our home came Monday here. It’s safer to send to Singapore but I won’t get them as fast. If I transfer they won't send them to my old address because if they go to an old address you generally don’t get it, because the missionaries forget about sending them out etc... Met a whole bunch of Myanmar people which are from Burma their pretty cool. My comp is in Singapore right now and he is buying me a tie :) I haven’t bought any ties yet 1 because I don’t know where they are sold and 2 cause there more expensive here so I’ll have to wait till I go to Singapore. I hope that letter I sent home will get there because I forgot to put USA on it and the mail guy might have done it. I don't remember but it should be coming soon if not I will just have to resend it. I bought some sunglasses the other day because my eyes hurt from riding our bikes in the sun all day and so they should help. Nothing way exciting happened so far except we ate at some delicious Indian food the other day which was soooooo good. If you go to Indian food in Utah get a naan set which is chicken and this bread. You eat it with your hands here but I have no idea there. Our branch had 9 investigators at church last Sunday so it was way cool 8 were Elders Thomas and Barlow 1 was ours.... 3 of ours slept in... :/ usually people on Sunday mornings go eat out and have fun and they usually hang out all night Saturday and drink and do karaoke. They love karaoke here. They'll sing karaoke in front lots of people but won't pray in front of you.... :/ Nothing else really to report this week.
Love Elder Watkins

So I had some more time to email so I’ll just type things that I can remember ha-ha. So yesterday we were in a threesome. Elder Thomas, Barlow, and I. It was funny because people were freaking out because there is three of us ha-ha. We went to get a slurpee at seven 11 but there machine was broken I was so disappointed :/ but we did have some donuts from the bakery next door and they were freaking delicious. The food here is crazy good most of the time. There’s things called Kadia's and they just like booths of food set up around the edges and then they have like outdoor tables in the middle and it has a roof over head. We usually eat economy rice or mixed rice where they give you a plate with white rice and then there’s different things to choose from to eat and get but all the Chinese food here is nothing like Mountain City :/ oh well. We get to go to TGI Fridays today with the ZL's and the members here, I hope they have the Jack Daniels steak mmmmmm :/_____ (drooling) then tomorrow we go to Chili’s because the zone leaders want to go there. Again let me know if you get that first letter I am sorry about it though I hope it will get there... That’s all I can think of, but tell people they can write me. Ummm I don’t know what else to say I’ll send some pictures next week of our adventures.

First Bike Crash...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Hey Everyone! Well things are going good here so far we have a baptism this Saturday for Sister Ericka so its way exciting :) first baptism :) she passed the interview so now she just has to show up ha-ha. This week was interesting. I went to Penang all day yesterday and part of Monday. First was for the baptism interview and the zl’s (Zone Leader's) did an exchange so one could interview and the other could go to appointments with me. Then yesterday was an exchange to see how Elder Buckchuluun and I were doing. I passed ha-ha said I do great at teaching but this is all in English ha-ha so it’s pretty easy. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday was a holiday called Hari Raya which is like the Muslim Christmas or Chinese New Year. It was fun because lots of fireworks every night. Paul came to church but all he did was criticize it so it was disappointing he’s probably going to join the Jehovah Witnesses unless he gets a testimony of the Book of Mormon. But we had some pretty fun adventures this week. We were invited to an investigators mother’s birthday party for her 89th birthday. It was a huge party and they had so much food. The investigators Mr. Chan kept bringing me all this food and I had to eat it all. I was soooooo stuffed it was ridiculous. They had something called Ice Kachang which is like shaved ice on top of a little bit of corn, beans, peanuts, alavera, and coconut and then there is the flavors on top red, green, and brown and all I know is brown is root beer. And then they put a scoop of ice cream on top its pretty good. I ended up getting a watch for 30 American dollars and it’s really nice and I like it a lot except the Friday after I got it rained a ton and I crashed and scratched it and I got moss all over me and then some Muslims laughed at me and I was pretty angry and wet.... I rode through a big puddle that covered the whole road. I got too close to the gutter/middle lane thing with trees in it and crashed because the water was deep. Got some cuts but I’ll recover and I got my watch fixed today already. But I still have some moss on my clothes. It rained a lot Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday there was like a foot of water in the road on it as we headed to an investigators house and there was a fish in the water!!!! Cause the river overflowed ha-ha. We also saw a monitor lizard run into a gutter the other day… there pretty big. Also the zl's hooked me up with a military Book of Mormon and a small Bible they found at their home so, there way small and awesome for proselyting. And my companion has been out for 1 year now maybe a little longer. and btw the English here is terrible so I’ll come back with such bad grammar probably ha-ha. I stayed at the zl's house last night, it’s a two floor condo, its huge and its usually where missionaries go home from so there’s lots of ties and shirts and such that people left so, I got 4 ties that are pretty descent. Also I wore my tie from Hung for the first time yesterday and then we got poured on and now it’s all wrinkly :/ oh well. Had some good food lately and I thought I had good food last night till I woke up this morning :/ had some good old runs.... We haven’t done anything exciting on p-day yet because we have to go with the senior couple because it’s hard on bikes. We are going to KL (Kuala Lumpur) next p-day so that’s exciting for zone conference and we’ll see the KL towers and stuff. And there are sister missionaries in this mission but I don’t know where and it’s about 1/3 Chinese speaking and 2/3 Malay/English speaking missionaries in our mission. And that’s all I have, got to go... Love you all, till next week :) Elder Watkins

Awesome Foursome

Elder Barlow, Elder Thomas, Elder Watkins & Elder Bukchuluun


There are only four elders and a senior couple in the Butterworth, West Malaysia area. The senior couple Elder and Sister Thorne sent us this picture. They have 58 members, 19 of whom have been baptized within the past year and they are hoping to receive Branch Status soon.

Hey Everyone,

Yeah all four of us live in a condo. The place is pretty nice. Things are going good are investigator Paul hasn't had a chance to give us a date yet because he couldn't meet us last week and couldn't find our church on Sunday till it was over :(. My companion is cool although with the language barrier it’s tough. Work here is tough most people speak English enough that we teach in English because they don't know Malay well enough either. Lots of Tamil and Chinese speakers in our area and those who are true Malays are Muslim. Right now its Ramadan like I said last week and its ending soon and everyone is having open houses and we keep getting invited to them. There are a lot of internet cafes everywhere because not a lot of people can afford computers and its 2 ringget for 1 hour so pretty cheap. I also might buy a guitar soon for 30 American dollars (90 ringget) ha-ha so cool. The members here are way awesome and it’s really fun at church and at FHE. We pretty much go finding everyday and find some really cool people or really weird people ha-ha. We do have toilet paper now but it just depends the hose works better for cleaning :). Today I have to buy a new watch one that has a metal band or something because with all the sweating it make my other watch smell really, really, really bad ha-ha. We have lots of fun though riding around everywhere. They have a drink here like Mountain Dew called Kickapoo Joy Juice which is pretty good. We eat out every meal except breakfast and lunch and on Sunday. And we usually don't eat on Sunday or just eat really late because our condo isn't very close to where were always at. My bike is fine for now I got the back tire fixed and we don't have to pay for repairs except for new tubes because we have a petty cash fund. We are the only whites in our area pretty much. There are a lot of white people in Penang which is a big tourist spot were cruises stop and stuff and it has some beautiful areas. We go there on p-day and eat and do some shopping. Penang is an island just out from Butterworth. Oh and I really miss American music so bad. I would kill for some Styx, Boston or anything old school or anything but American rap. Elder Barlow is from Bountiful and he played the intro of Right Now by VanHalen on the keyboard that we have at home it was so great ha-ha and Come Sail Away by Styx so it made it worse but better. That’s great Uncle Brian got a job too. No one really cooks but we have spaghetti on Sunday lunch and that’s about all the cooking we do besides Mi Goreng and toast. Mi Goreng is like super, super good Top Roman. I hope Landon gets a huge elk. Dad send me some baseball stats on the Red Sock we some sports channel at a restaurant we ate at but all they showed were the Yankee with their coach getting thrown out.

Love you guys so much don’t know what else to say but see ya in like 21 months ha-ha.
Elder Watkins

Waiting and Waiting...and then waiting some more

It has been a long week waiting to hear from Nathan...We finally received his email and are relieved to know he is in his new area and doing good.

September 9, 2009

So I went to send my email and it deleted everything …I hate this so sorry for a crappy email.
My companions name is Elder Bukchuluun he’s from Mongolia. He is way nice. He knows a little bit of Chinese, Tamil (India), and Malay. He can understand all three of them. My companion is a convert of 4 years and his sisters converted as well, one served in Australia. People here are awesome and the food is great. You can get a whole meal for 6 rm (Ringgit) or so. So I’ll just answer your questions sorry I can’t really tell stories since it deleted my email now...I feel so bad… sorry. I only have 20 minutes left to email you and the Mission President.

Answers to some questions you asked in your email:

I am in West Malaysia just below Thailand. P-day is Wednesday and we email from Pinang which is a short ferry ride 10 minutes where all the shopping is. We learn Malay here but it’s the worst area to learn the language because everyone speaks English or another language. We don’t wear name tags and we can proselyte. And we don’t take the malaria pills. Mosquitoes are only bad in East Malaysia. We get 166.98 American dollars a month here its crazy ha-ha. I've got to go sorry but the stupid thing deleted my email so I don’t have time to rewrite it so sorry.
Elder Watkins


Second Email…9-09-09

I have like 10 extra minutes so I’ll try to write some more stuff… My companion speaks a little English but it’s still hard to communicate with him. But he’s way cool. He has ridden a two humped camel. There are lots of Chinese people here and Indian and Malay. But the problem is they all hate each other. I have learned 4 basic words in Chinese to find out if people are in there homes and thank you in Tamil ha-ha. People usually leave there main door open but they have like a big gate that covers the whole door for security and so they can leave it open… so you go up to the gate and say hello and then see if they’re interested. Right now Ramadan is going on so lots of good food everywhere. And you can get fresh soy bean milk for 1 rm . They have a drink here called Milo which is exactly like hot chocolate but you put it in hot over ice and its way good. Our apartment is really nice its only 4 years old but most people’s homes aren’t very nice they live in big tall things called kampongs which are kind of dirty. They have there sewage come right out there front door from a pipe and it falls all the way down to the gutter below. They also all have scooters or motorcycles and they all drive like maniacs, its nuts that more people don't die every day. The bikes weave in and out of the cars and its way intense. I already had to fix a whole back tire on my bike because I have the oldest bike in the mission and the tire hasn't been changed once. So now I have to wait till next month’s bike fund to fix the front ha-ha. The members here are great my fav is Bro. Titus he is like 70 and he’s Chinese and he speaks very good English which he learned while trying to become a doctor. I speak this Sunday on the great apostasy and I taught family home evening Monday ha-ha it went good though. The Indian people will all ride by and be like HELLO FRIEND to us its way funny ha-ha. The kids here love us they are so awesome always jumping around and following us. We don’t have toilet paper right now so we just use the hose next to our toilet at home which isn't bad because your bum gets clean but your legs get a little wet. But that’s how you do it everywhere but your apartment. But I am doing good and healthy. I challenged an investigator to baptism and he’s going to give us a date at church on Sunday so I am way excited. Also baptisms are hard here compared to East Malaysia because people hold on to the culture or the cultures religion regardless of if they like it so older people generally won’t listen. Well I got to go lovvvve you all. Elder Watkins

He has arrived in Singapore

We finally received a brief email from Nathan and I mean brief...But at least we know he is there. We did a Google for Butterworth and it is in West Malaysia which is North of Singapore fairly close to Thailand. Even after reading the email we are not sure if he has left Singapore yet or not. We have no idea when his p-day is or when we will hear from him next, but hopefully we will hear from him soon and with some of his great stories to tell us.

So here is his "whole" email:

Hey just shooting you an email that I made it to Singapore fine. I will be serving in the Butterworth area with my companion Elder Bokhculuut(SP) he is from Mongolia he's so cool. And there is 1 other companionship there and we only have one group. I'll talk to ya later. Elder Watkins

Last Email from the MTC

This is us "Saving the President" ..."It wasn't planned just happened".

With his class and teacher Brother Bindrup

This is Nathan's last email before he leaves. He sent home a few pictures and so I thought I would post a couple of them. He flies out on Monday. We are looking forward to talking to him on the phone. I hope you enjoy reading his email and I hope we have one to post next week.

Hey everyone what’s up? So this week was better. We got our first apostle as a speaker on the last Devotional we had here. FINALLY!!! Waahoo! It was Elder Richard G. Scott. He did a great job it was a fantastic talk. This week my companion’s ankle got really swollen so yesterday we went to the health clinic here at the MTC and had them check it out. They didn't know what was wrong so they sent us off to the some kind of foot doctor. So we went out into the real world… I know intense. They don't know what’s wrong with his foot so they x-rayed it to see if he had a stress fracture but he didn't so they gave him some stuff and if it’s not improving by Friday he can't leave with us on Monday. But the really intense part is… as were standing outside this place waiting for the shuttle back to the MTC. We have two ladies probably 23ish come up and talk to us and we were like thinking is this allowed?!!? I mean were not even use to talking to the sisters in the MTC, it was intense. Then some guy drives by and says hey. Then he steps on his breaks and goes into reverse and comes back, and then he asks us if we needed help. And were thinking do we look like we need help. But we said no, he says, let me give you something. And then were like OK buddy were not 3 were not falling for the I have candy get in the van trick. Turns outs he wanted to give us some money to buy dinner. But we told him we were still in the MTC and we were waiting for the shuttle back. We told him that we were leaving on Monday and we were off to Singapore. Pretty intense I know. That’s my real world experience. We have a five hour and 30 min. layover in LAX and we are planning on giving out pass-along cards and some Books of Mormon it’s going to be pretty sweet. We’ve learned quite a bit and we can speak the language pretty well now it’s just understanding what people say over there ha-ha. So we have 4 days left really only like 3 since we don’t count Sunday’s because it’s just packing and meetings no real hard core learning going on ha-ha. I can't remember what the really long word means, something to do with judgment in the Muslim court. And I am pretty much out of time so sampai minggu.

Saya Mengasihi Kamu Elder Watkins

Itching to leave...

Apa Kabar Setiap Orang! (Hello everyone)

This week was alright not too much to report. We should be getting our actual flight plans today since we leave in like 11 days, so were all excited. The language goes good for lessons and such not so much for everyday vocabulary ha-ha but I’ll pick that up somehow over there. We got a new teacher who served in Malaysia-Singapore mission named Brother Maynes from Oakley Utah. So now he is telling us all the words we learned in Indonesian aren’t used in Malay so we are learning basic words all over again sadly :( oh well. So story time I suppose.... So this goes down on Monday (Senin) and I am flossing my teeth being a good missionary who wants healthy teeth and guess what happens as I floss my bottom teeth? My stupid permanent retainer breaks off on one side!!?! I mean what the crap is this! Isn’t it suppose to be permanent and floss goes and breaks it off? So good thing I have the pull in and out one for my bottom teeth or I’d be screwed.... So 1 more p-day I have left after this one we have 1 more day of everything right now except 2 Sundays and 2 Mondays but the one Monday is when we leave and it’s just straight up fun stuff with what they call culture day. We were the host missionaries yesterday, which was fun stuff. It had been over for about 20 minutes and we were walking to lunch and had our host stickers on still when 3 cars roll out with 6 new missionaries who showed up late so the MTC police was like, Hey you two go and help these guys so we did. It was hectic since everything was all closed for the original planning.... wadu.... so for another hour we helped 6 new missionaries find out what they are doing ha-ha the lady said we could just leave them and let them figure it out but I remember how sucky the first day was in the MTC ha-ha. Oh and its SYL speak your language all day every day till we leave the MTC and then it will be like that in Malaysia ha-ha. We found out that there isn’t a middle class really it’s just really poor or rich so it’s got some extremes that way. Our new teacher was telling us how there are head hunters still around and stuff and that there is a religion that’s called Ibon traditional and all they do is one time a year they get together sacrifice a chicken and get drunk. So this will be some intense culture but I am planning on not being ethnocentric(SP). Mempertanggunjawabkanyalahnya that is the longest word in the language it’s pretty intense. Elder Porter from Delta is having his parents make us some Malaysia shirts there pretty tight they sent us a demo one. They are sending us one cause the stupid MTC doesn’t have one for Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore so we all felt super robbed it’s pretty cool. I don’t have anything else, so if you guys have more question feel free to email me them so I have something to write in this.

Selamat Minggu Elder Watkins

The rest of the Salami Story...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Hey what’s up? So this week was alright. We were host missionaries yesterday so I saw Jared he looked a little scared but who wasn't on the first day. We saw tons of new elders there was like 354 new missionaries coming in yesterday. The MTC was a little empty there were actually extra seats in the main fireside area. Our teacher Brother Bindrup left yesterday for his CIA job in D.C. where he will use his Indonesian as well. It was a sad day but a good day. He showed us pictures from his mission and told some stories it was awesome. Then to top it all off his wife came in and we got to meet her and then she had 11 JBC!!! Wadu!! So it was an awesome day. What even made it more awesome was the bread from Grandma Berlin thanks so much you rock! So... about the salami that afternoon my companion had to mail a package so I started to talk to the mailroom lady about the rule on sending salami and she explained and so forth. The main mail lady there turned around when I said salami she looked at me funny and she sent another mail lady off to the back. This other lady is explaining the rules on packages and says if it’s cooled or they can smell it they open your package. And then I hear in the back ground we still have it. The lady is still explaining and I hear in the back ground it’s vacuum sealed and still cooled. Then this other lady comes out of the back with the salami!! Then the head mail lady was like what were you planning on doing with this salami? And I was thinking well duh I was going to hit people with it and not eat it at all... but I explained how we were planning on eating it with another district all in one night. And she’s like well do you still want it and I said oh yeah! And I got it waah-hoo. So that night we had a feast and it was awesome. So I ended up getting it in the end. BUT DONT SEND MORE I MIGHT NOT BE THAT LUCKY AGAIN ha-ha. So there’s that stories and it’s pretty awesome. We taught a man in the TRC last week (training resource center) whose name is Jackson from Orem and he just came back from Indonesia 5 months ago and joined the army reserve and is an interpreter for the military in Indonesian… way cool. He said that there are a high number of jobs in the CIA and in the military for Indonesian speaking people, which is way awesome. Last week we got a new group of missionaries heading off to Hawaii so that’s to President Peterson, right the mission president that you guys know? Yeah well they are pretty cool and we played them in basketball and had to whoop up on them :) Their pretty cool I told them to look for Elder Hatch over there when they get there. Another story there’s a place called the RC which is the call center for missionaries to call back the people who order there free BOM or Bibles etc. I called a man named Jeffrey Smith in like North Carolina and he was way cool. He just talked to me about how he lived in Utah and how much he loved LDS people. He lives on a plantation now that has been passed through his family. He said that he loved us and he knew what we believed in was true because it was based on Christ and how we need to be more like him. He was way cool. He said he wants the missionaries to come over every week and he'll feed them dinner and then listen to their message! Which was way awesome. He then proceeds to tell a story about how he got out of jail in Mesa Arizona or something like that and he has a problem with alcoholism and says he still does but he just had been released from the jail (his overnight stay for something) and he was contacted by two sister missionaries. He said he was rude to them but wanted to hear their message but didn’t so he’s always felt bad and then proceeds to tell me that I need to have a fantastic night and have a BBQ ha-ha but he was a great man. I bore my testimony and told him I would send a thing out to get the missionaries to him. It was a great experience even though I hate the RC so much. You generally get very angry people.... umm I can’t really think of anything else so Selamat Minggu! (See you next week) Elder Watkins oh yeah we should get our flight plans like next week some time or early the week after. And sadly we still haven’t had an apostle come to speak to us :(

Yellowstone Vacation

Yellowstone in all its Beauty

The Wildlife we saw in Yellowstone

It was hard to think about doing a vacation this year with out Nathan but we knew we needed to do it for Landon. He was six years old the last time we went to Yellowstone and it was his idea to go since he doesn't remember very much of it. You usually have to book rooms in the park a year in advance so I took a chance and called and asked what dates they had available in August and we worked it out with Jeff's work schedule and headed out. It was perfect weather. We love to get up early in the morning and hike down to the falls when everyone else is sleeping and you can enjoy it all to yourselves. We saw lots of wildlife including grizzly bears, black bears, a fox, big horn sheep, wolves, antelope, deer, elk, eagles, osprey, a badger and of course tons bison. We saw a mom and her two cubs three nights in a row which were really fun to watch. We had a great time but the back seat was a little too quiet without Nathan reminding us when it was time for food.

Scott Lake Fishing Trip

The Lake Trout Jeff caught on Dunvegan Lake

The 42 inch Trophy Lake Trout

The 39 inch Trophy Northern Pike out of Scott Lake

Jeff went with the CES Group to some remote lakes in Canada last week on a fishing trip. No cell phone service after he left Saskatoon, Canada! Great for him but not so great for me so I was surprised to get the email below on Saturday. He had a great time...I felt like I had two missionaries out. Landon ended up with Strep throat. So it was a quiet weekend for us. The pictures above are of some of the Lake trout he caught.

They have the internet available in the recreation room so I thought I would send a quick update. The time here is the same as SLC. We had a great day of fishing. We flew out to a lake called Dunvegan. I caught at least 21 lake trout. I caught 5 trophy class fish. The biggest was 42 inches. I missed out on the biggest fish of the day by 1". I did catch the most trophy class fish out of anyone. Jeff Thompsen caught 3 and he was the next closest.Tomorrow we are going to fish for Northern Pike on Scott Lake. Hopefully it will be as good as today. The weather was 68° and partly cloudy. Not too bad.

Apparently they search your packages...

I thought I would post this picture he sent home. I am sure glad to see they let them out once in a while. Here is his letter from this week...

Apa Kabar setiap orang! (Hey what’s the news everyone), everything here is going alright.... it’s really boring and I glad I am on week 5 and that’s what makes it awesome. So we found out kind of when the Indo group generally leaves... we go to the airport around 5:00 a.m. from the MTC usually, then fly to San Diego or LA then to Hong Kong or Japan either way if we stop in Japan or Hong Kong and if you have somewhat of a fever in Hong Kong they will put you in to quarantine at their airport so if you have any signs you have to chill there an extra week. So apparently they search your packages or something cause the salami you sent they took it and left a wonderful note instead.... saya benchi mail room.... (I hate the mail room) it says it was either thrown away or it was given back to the delivery service.... so either way, it sounds like it was wasted. Bryce did see my nose (hidung) he said it was pretty nasty I never really saw it but I heard it was bad. It was a lot better the next day. It still hurts if you brush it with your hand hard or something. We also got new beds in yesterday there nice new cast iron beds, same mattresses though just new bed frames. And our AC hasn't been working in our building for the last week or something it’s terribly hot all the time. We got to do Indonesian names at the temple last week so it was awesome and hilarious to watch the temple workers try to pronounce the names. The language is coming better, we really only have religious vocabulary, so we will teach the 3rd lesson on Saturday and its pretty simple because its only like 15 new vocabulary words to learn. We had Malaria education last week, we now have to take a pill every day starting the week before we head over there to help prevent Malaria and then 4 weeks after we get back we have to continue to take it. The guy just told us horror stories about it so I’ll take it and use bug spray. Our teacher said at one point they would go to an investigators house and they couldn’t see the investigator they taught who was just five feet away, because of the amount of mosquitoes. So I will use my bug spray ha-ha. We also have to use sunscreen all the time because the medication you have to take makes you more sensitive to the sun too... totally awesome I know. Well that’s all the time I have Pisau! (knife) ha-ha sounds like peace out but it means knife. Sampai Nanti Elder Watkins