Transferred to Samut Pakran!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 46

Week One in Samut Prakan

Monday, April 28, 2014

Hey Everyone!

Well it is official, I'm out of Nongkhai as you guys knew I was moving and I am in Samut Prakan which is south of Bangkok. I think it is the farthest area south in the mission that has missionaries since we don't have any in the south of Thailand. It is just as busy and crazy as Bangkok just not "considered the heart" of Bangkok is all, but it is nuts! We don't ever ride bikes here so that is kind of nice since it is the hot season. We ride buses, vans, and trucks everywhere we go; it is pretty cool! My new companion is Elder Wheeler. He is about 5 months ahead of me in the mission. He has been here for just one transfer before me so he is very familiar with the area.

 

Elder Watkins and his companion Elder Wheeler

Transfers were way fun, I got to see Elder Unsworth, Crump, Batey, Vandenberghe and all the friends I've made in the mission so far. I didn't get Elder Unsworth for my companion again; so that was too bad, but what can you do. That is really it for Transfers meeting except that new news is that this will be the last 9 week transfer. So starting next transfer we will be going back to 6 weeks transfers so that is exciting, I've never had one of those. I feel like the 9 week transfers cruise by so I don't even want to know how fast these 6 weeks will go by!

As for this last week nothing really happened! On Tuesday we spent all day really prepping to go down to Bangkok. Then we had English class and got on the bus and got into Bangkok at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. We took our stuff to the church in Pak Kret and showered at Elder Unsworths house which was way awesome! We went to Asoke where the mission office is and did some stuff for my companion to finish up his mission and then we went bowling for 2 hours. I went with all the Thais that were finishing their mission so that was interesting. I was the only white guy with a bunch of Thais ha-ha! But I got a turkey and it was way awesome as you can see from the score card I put up! Wednesday night we just went back to Pak Kret and I actually switched off companions and was in a tri with Elder Unsworth and his companion that was way fun so we slept there.

 

Elder Watkins is Lupe on the bottom

Thursday was transfers then Friday was my first day in the area. We taught a couple of investigators and went to the church and taught the Book of Mormon class. The members here are way awesome and I'm already way good friends with 4 kids; Brother Won and Baa who are both recent converts. And Sister Mai and Sis Min. They are way funny and just cool people! They help us teach and invite all the time it is so sweet. It is funny though because Brother Gang told everyone here to take care of me so all these members are just like saying, Brother Gang said you are awesome and so it has made getting to know the members super easy! 

 

Sister Sooy's Baptism

Saturday we were at the church all day for an end of the year seminary activity that we helped with so that was a long day at the church, but really good. On Sunday we had a baptism that was way cool I only helped to teach her once before she got baptized, but her name is Sister Sooy! She is like 40 years old and I think she is really nice. I honestly don't know much about her, but I'll try and send you some pictures! We did a bunch of inviting yesterday and that was it! 

Today we are going to Asoke to the office to get some supplies from there and go do some shopping so that should be fun! Hope you all have a great week, love you all!

Love,

Landon

Songran, Scorpions, and Transfer News!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 45

Week Eighteen in Nong Khai

Monday, April 21, 2014

Hey Everyone!

Breaking news! We just went and grabbed some Indian food for lunch (which was way good by the way) and the Zone Leaders called. I'm moving from Nong Khai! Exciting news! I am going to have a new companion and a new area! Who knows if I will be the senior companion now as I'm getting a bit older in the mission? I'm excited Elder Unsworth isn't moving, but his companion is so we are trying to see if I can't go be his final companion! That would be the funniest thing ever if that happened, for sure! We will see what goes on! Ha-ha I hate transfers though; I'm so excited and nervous. It is unreal, so just hope for the best! 

Anyways, it sounds like you guys kind of already know about the whole Water festival-Songkran thing. It is pretty crazy! We first went and ate some lunch before we started playing because it really doesn't start until around 11 because they have to get prepared all morning. So we went and played with some members at one house then moved to another place where we met up with Brother Gang. It was at a members’ breakfast place which we eat at all the time (which was way tasty). We ate it this morning ha-ha. We played there for a bit and got bored so we went and walked through like the whole town just throwing water on everyone!!! It is crazy sometimes because they will put ice in the water and it is just freezing, but it was still pretty fun! Tuesday we tried to do some work, but it was just ridiculous how many people were just still playing water. We tried to do some stuff, but got soaked. We finally gave up and went and ate lunch with some members. Then we went to a members house and played again pretty fun! We had to be home at 6 every night though for curfew so on Monday night we ordered KFC to the house and Pizza Company on Tuesday.

 

As far as everything else goes nothing really happened too much. We have our investigator Buba who is way awesome she just can't come to church until next month, but she has learned nearly everything and just needs to come to church and get baptized. So that will be a nice baptism for the new elders that come! She really is our only super, serious investigator; no one else is doing anything special right now. We did have Sam who was way good, but we sent him off to Udorn because he said it was more convenient for him to learn there!

So as far as those scorpions you see they are real! In the sink where we brush our teeth (which is outside like in the back of our house) so we walked out there and the next thing you know we see these two scorpions and we were way freaked out; we were like are these supposed to be in our house!? Oh yeah and we found a frog in our house Monday night too; that was funny! But, anyways we are like these are probably pretty rare to see so we decided to catch them. After we caught them in Tupperware we stuck alcohol patches inside them to kill them. Then we stuck them in the freezer to freeze them so we could take pictures of them! It was kind of a cool little story!

This week at church we had 65 people which was pretty good since our last few weeks attendance has been way down. So it jumped back up which was awesome! Winay came to church but he bolted right after sacrament meeting. We were going to try and teach him everything so next time he came to church he could be baptized. Since yesterday was Easter the sisters made chocolate chip cookies, funeral potatoes, ham, chicken, and rolls for us it was pretty decent, but not as good as the mashed potatoes I made for the members on Saturday! A member here just loves potatoes and I was like I'll make some cheesy mashed potatoes (I knew I could probably figure it out)! So on Saturday for lunch I made them and we ordered KFC; it was soooooo good! There were some lumps (by the way Mom I mashed them with a pestle and mortar type of deal) ha-ha! But they turned out good and on Sunday that members ate them again because there were some leftovers! So looks like I can make one of my favorite foods, pretty decent on the other side of the world!

That's all I have though for you guys. Love you so much, thanks for your support! I'll let you know what happens with transfers!!

Love,

Landon

Songkran Festival or Water Festival

The Songkran festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day. Here is an interesting fact...it is the year 2557 in Thailand.

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 44

Week Seventeen in Nong Khai

Monday, April 14, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I'm still just postin up in Nongkhai these days, not much has changed really except the weather is way hot right now. We are hitting close to the peak of the hot season now and it is the Songkran Festival or the water festival. Luckily since this is a smaller place it isn't as wild and played as many days. Just yesterday, today, and tomorrow it will be played here. We have a curfew and we have to be inside our houses at 6 p.m. during it. We just switched around out studies. So yesterday we were lucky to get to the church before they all started playing so we had no problems getting wet then. We watched two sessions of conference which were way good and relaxing. Conference just seemed to fly by and was a good rejuvenation for our spirits. I really loved Holland’s talk it was cool. He shared such a powerful testimony at the end. I also liked Uchtdorf's and Eyring's in the Priesthood session. I liked Eyring's because he referenced baseball so much and I was able to relate and stay interested! I also liked Elder Perry’s talk and also the guy with the Brazilian accent in afternoon session of Sunday (I can't remember his name). It was just a way good conference. After conference ended people were just playing water festival like crazy so we were just hiding in the church. I didn't know how to get home because I didn't want to get my suit all wet. Luckily Brother Bang came to church here and his dad came up from Udorn to pick him up so Brother Gang’s dad took us straight to our house so we wouldn't get wet. I changed out of my suit into other church clothes that can get wet, but I didn't want to get them wet though. We were so close to sneaking all the way back to the church without getting wet, but there were just two random little kids hanging out. They were about to soak my companion and my companions says to them; Hey don't do it to me, do it to the white guys and I’m just like…What, I can’t believe you would tell them to get me…so they just soaked me! We just hung out at the church with members and had some activities. On the way home we were almost home again and as were sneaking home I was staying way back so they wouldn't know I was coming and hopefully soak my companion first and he goes through and the guy just completely leave him alone and I try to sneak by a few seconds after and the kid is just camping out like a little noob waiting for me and just dumps a whole huge bucket of water over me. Luckily we were almost home so I just went home and took off all my clothes and dried off like I had just had a shower. After that we were just stuck in the house the rest of the night because of the curfew. 

I pictured Landon getting soaked like this on his bike!!!

So today we are going to play some Songkran after we finish emailing. As of right now I think we will be going to our buddies little restaurant down the street that is where all the members will be. After that we will just wander around and play I think. Our new investigator said she will give us free sticky rice and mangos today if we go to her house so we will be heading over there for sure.

So onto our new investigator that we got this week. She is actually a friend of one of my recent converts Ice, if you guys remember she is the second person I helped get baptized here in Nongkhai. Her friend is here in Nongkhai visiting her family but lives in Bangkok. I think the new investigator name is Ann, but she will be going back to Bangkok so we will end up handing her off to some other missionaries! Maybe that is where I will move if I get transferred so I can keep teaching her ha-ha, who knows. Oh also Ice and Taew the two friends and recent convert of mine are also planning on moving to Bangkok to find work since they are just bored her in Nongkhai. 

As far as everyone else goes this week it has not been very good because of the Songkran Festival. Everyone seemed not to be free and too busy to meet. No investigators came to conference and no one is free until Wednesday.

As far as our investigators go though, Sam we are going to probably hand over to the Udorn Elders because he is down there more and said it would be easier for him to learn so we will be giving him to the ZL's which will be an easy baptism for them since he just really has to be interviewed for baptized.

Winay and his two kids are okay. We may try and baptize his two kids next week since they want to get baptized way bad. 

Transfers are next week we don't really know anything about it yet, but since my companion is finishing his mission we will probably be going down to Bangkok a day early. Yeah and if you were wondering my companion is way trunky and just wants to go home and won't do anything ha-ha so wish me luck this week, for real! He is good though I still love him, he is a boss! I have learned a ton from him!

Anyways, love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Landon

Four new Investigators and 218 Baptisms in the Mission!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 43

Week Sixteen in Nong Khai

Monday, April 07, 2014

What is up everybody?

This transfer is just flying by, Like to start off with that I mean transfers are in just 2 1/2 weeks already and I feel like last transfer just ended! This week on Saturday I will be into the double digits I will hit my 10 month mark, pretty good! That means about 15 more months…not too bad! I'll start off this week with 2 announcements!

First! The Thailand Bangkok Mission has broken the record for the most baptism in a month for the Asia Area with.......... 218 baptism in what they called March Madness!! WOOOOOOOO Pretty sweet! Lets gooo!

Second, President Kanankam or however you spell his name who is President Seniors first counselor has been call to the Asia Area Quorum of the Seventy. The very first 70’s from Thailand, how sweet is that!? Thailand is just booming these days, it is way cool!

Anyways, I'll start off with all our investigators this week. First with Winay and his two kids Baam and Baahm; Winay didn't come to church again because he had to work, but his two kids did so that was still good, they are ready to get baptized but can't until their dad does. We all went to his house though last night and had Sunday dinner there which was way tasty and fun and to get him to know some members. If he could just quit smoking and come to church we could have him baptized in no time! He lives way far away though it takes us an hour by bike to get there, but we had to do some serious cheesing yesterday and got there in about 20 minutes or so on our bikes which was way awesome and for the way back Winay just threw our bikes in the back of his truck and drove us home so nice! Ha-ha.

Let's see next we got Buubae! She is the girl who makes glasses. Who have almost taught her everything now after being able to  meet with her 3 times this past week. She says she feels good about getting baptized, but the only problem is getting her to church. She only gets 4 days off from work a month so it is way hard for her to get to church on Sunday because the other worker takes off Sundays to be with her boyfriend so she has to run the shop by herself. She thinks she will be able to come to church on the 20th though since she gave her boss more notice. We were trying to get her to church this week so she could get baptized on the 20^th, but that didn't happen. We got a text from the APs these week saying that if investigators come to General Conference this coming weekend it doesn't count for them coming to church to get baptized so that pretty much messed that up for all the new investigators we have to get baptized before transfers. It is all good though. 

As for the other investigators we have King and Sam who we both got from inviting on Friday. As for King we met with him Friday and taught him. He is good except for he didn't show up to his next appointment on Saturday even though he came to our Book of Mormon class Friday night! He said his parents were coming to visit him so maybe that was why. Sam is good though we met and taught him on Saturday and he came to church yesterday. He stayed at the church until 4 pm with all the members, just having a good time, so that was cool. 

The other two investigators we got are a girl named Ging and her little sister, Girl. Ha-ha. She is 24 and just finished school in Bangkok. I met her at English classed and she was really friendly and nice we taught her once on Wednesday, but she has been busy after so we aren't really sure how much she is interested in the gospel or just in English. We haven't figured it out yet, but they are way nice. 

I taught English class on Tuesday all by myself, I forgot about that! It should be the last time I have to do that by myself unless I get another Thai companion, but that probably won't happen. Brother Gang even came to English class and helped me out since my companion can't do much. Brother Gang was way good in helping me out and explained some fun games. Brother Gang is way good he will be going back to California in 9 more days I think, after Songran which is the water festival which starts next Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. This is just a big festival where people throw water everywhere, really. I don't quite understand it all yet, but that is what we will be doing next p-day since we are allowed to play on p-day! That should be fun. Brother Gang also said he'd be going to Utah again probably towards the end of May nears Mother’s Day he thinks, so he told me I could get him a present for my mother :) So I'll need to put something together for you this week Mom! :) After coming to church yesterday Brother Gang went to Bangkok he is just going there for p-day and coming back tomorrow and he said he'd be coming to English class her again. If you were wondering Brother Gang and I must be pretty good friends since he visits me 2 or 3 times a week and he lives in Udorn! Anyways I can't think of anything else to write about this week. It was a good week though with 4 new investigators! Hope you all have a great week, love you all!

Love,

Landon

I bet he wishes he would have practiced more :)

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 42

Week Fifteen in Nong Khai

Monday, March 31, 2014

Hey What's up!

Nothing to crazy really happened this week, but at least the days went by fast so it wasn't bad. Where to even start…

I guess I'll talk about the investigators that we have, I guess. We still have Winay and his two kids Bam and Bom. They were all supposed to come to church yesterday, but at the last minute Winay ended up having to go work so it was just his kids that came, which was good. We were trying to get him baptized this week but it just wasn't possible he was out on business all week until Saturday night when he finally got back. The Zone Leaders were on our backs like crazy saying like; teach him everything during the second hour of church tomorrow we will interview him during the 3rd and then he can get baptized after church. We called Sister Muay who is his member girlfriend because we didn't think he was ready yet and asked her what she thought about him getting baptized tomorrow. She said it wasn’t possible he still hasn't stopped smoking completely and other things. He is busy with work and has a big problem with the word of wisdom so we just need to help him with that. It is hard though because he is never free and we only been able to meet with him one time and we taught him about half of what he needed to learn, which is a lot. So we have been planning on teaching him the rest of everything since we never know when he will be able to meet with us again because of his crazy schedule. As for other investigators we found a new one this week. Her name is Bubae! She is 22 years old and works at place that makes glasses. She seems interested and we have been able to meet with her once, but she wants to get baptized. She really wants to learn so we can help her with that for sure. We have an appointment with her tonight and so we will be teaching her and giving her a baptismal date for the 13^th of April. It should go good!

I really don't have much else to tell you we only had 38 people at church last Sunday which was horrible, but it was because everyone had to "vote" yesterday I guess they had another voting day. So everyone just decided they didn't need to come to church because they had to go vote which takes only 5 minutes! It is all good though. We got a new branch president yesterday here in Nong Khai. Our old one got married to a member in another providence so he moved down to Roi et with her so now we have a new one named, Brother Paybun. Pretty crazy stuff though. Oh and I never told you that I am the Branch Pianist ha-ha!  I have been doing for a while now and I mess up all the time, but I'm the best we have. I just don't like playing the piano when I know I can't play the song very well, I always get nervous.

We did go ice skating in Udorn last p-day with Brother Gang which was fun. We also went inviting one day at the mall for about five hours which was crazy. We didn't get any new investigators but it was just was fun for some reason even though we didn't have a lot of success. That is all I have for you guys, sorry the letter is kind of short, have a good week! :)

He still has Hops!!!

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 41

Week 14 in Nong Khai

Monday, March 24, 2014

Hey Everyone!

Well this week just seemed to fly by! I have to be honest though I don't know why because literally nothing special happened except Zone Conference!

So that is where I will start because that really was the biggest highlight of my week. So we had that on Thursday down in Udorn. We got there and just talked with the other missionaries passed off our memorizations then gave our talks and did planner checks. We have to do that every zone conference. I passed off on everything so that is way nice. We started up zone conference and my companion was assigned to say D & C 4 and he had to do it in English since he is Thai so the last two days I've been helping him memorize it like crazy. He had it down really good, but he got up there and got too nervous and ended up reading the whole thing. After that we all said it together and my companion did it just fine. President Senior was just why didn't you do that the first time ha-ha... It was good though.

We had a little activity that was way cool. It was on higher expectations. President and Sister Senior did training on how we can raise our expectations. They didn't know how they could have us raise ours anymore because we work so hard so they did an activity to show us how. They had us all write down a goal on a sticky note and then said, okay jump as high as you can and stick it on the wall. So we all did and of course I was the highest. No one saw me do it, but there was just one sticky note way higher than everyone else’s and everyone is just like who's is that, but believe it or not President saw me do it. After that he said ok now raise your expectations and beat that last sticky note. Believe or not everyone in the whole zone was able to beat their previous stick note. That was fun! Then a couple of the other Elders who thought they had hops tried to start beating mine ha-ha but when I did mine a second time I moved mine up a good 6 inches so that wasn't happening; apparently mine was the highest in the whole mission. President Senior was even talked to me and was way impressed.

After that we had lunch which was decent we had Vietnamese food and ice cream cake since it was Sister Seniors birthday. I got my ice cream cake and everyone else had finished eating theirs and I was just hanging out at my table and both President and Sister Senior just came out of nowhere and sat by me. This is where I learned President Senior is a greater man that I already knew he was. We started talking sports because of the whole jumping thing. Turns out the President Senior is Red Sox fan must I say more? Ha-ha then we had to talk about March Madness of course. Plus a few weeks ago I sent President an emailing saying I heard if the Mission gets 200 baptisms in March we get to watch the National Championship game ha-ha but he wasn't having any of that, but he got a good laugh. It was just way good to talk to him and he just thanked me again so much for helping Elder Saedan. Sister Senior also said I heard your Thai is Phenomenal. Which surprised me ha-ha, but apparently Elder Brown who is the new senior couple in Udorn told her that I guess. I don’t know why, but apparently Elder Brown never compliments anyone like that so she said that was a real high compliment and I should feel proud. So that made me feel good.

After lunch we had a scripture chase and it was all in English so I had to translate for my companion because he is way better in the scriptures than I am. But it was a jeopardy type of format and I was able to get one for our squad. My companion did so good though. One of the sections was church hymns so they gave you a name of a hymn and you had to know the scripture that referenced it in the BoM, it was crazy. My companion answered 3 of them in a row within like 5 seconds and no one else in the whole zone knew what they were, everyone just thought he was cheating because it was so good!  Guess who's district came out of top and won that also! That’s right the Nongkhai District!!! It was great we were in contention with one other district and we were behind them just a little bit with one question left. We came back and won it with the last question…way sweet because we got a Snickers bar.  

After Zone Conference went over to Central and met up with Brother Gang. It was so good to see him again and plus he had a package for me! I finally got the fuel band back and a jacket! So sweet so thanks Mom and Dad for that. We went and ate at Pizza Company together and just talked. It was way nice. He also came to church here yesterday which was much needed.

Winay didn't come to church either though he was busy with work this last week. We need to meet with him one time this week and just teach him everything. So we can baptize him next week since he has been to church twice already he just needs to learn everything and be keeping the commandments.

That is really all I have for this week.Thanks everyone for your support back at home love you all have a good week! :)

Love,

Landon

It was kind of like going Uphill both ways to school :)

Elder Landon J Watkins Week 40

Week 13 in Nong Khai

Monday, March 17, 2014

Hey Everyone!

How are you all doing? Hopefully you guys know by now that I'm always doing good ha-ha! Life is good though! I'm in Thailand ha-ha! Anyways I honestly don't even know what to tell you about this week except for about our new investigators.

So I guess that is what I will tell you about. Our new investigators are a guy named, Winay. (I have no idea how to spell his name in English) and the other two are his two kids! So a little family we are working with which is kind of cool. He is a referral from Sister Muay the YW's president. He actually happens to be her boyfriend and she just told him that if he wants to get married he has to get baptized ha-ha! That is way awesome for her, but I'm not sure if the investigators desires are in the right place, to be honest. He is a good guy though. He lives sooooo far away though. When we went to teach him at his house on Thursday it took us an hour to get to his house and get back home. Somehow that wind was in our face both ways…you know, kind of like going uphill both ways to school, I guess. Anyways, when we finally got there we just started teaching him everything ha-ha. We taught him how to pray then we just went right into teaching him the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were also searching for any possible problems in keeping commandments and any concerns he may have. We taught him about the 10 commandments, Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. After getting through all those he was pretty good for all the commandments except the word of wisdom!  So we are just trying to help him a ton with that! We committed him to quitting mostly the biggest problem which is smoking he said he is going to try and quit. So we need all your prayer from back home to help him out! We are going to continue working with him and plan for him and his two kids to get baptized on the 30^th of March. Maybe just him on the 30^th and then he could baptize his two kids the week after, that'd be way cool because he could get the Priesthood. So that could all work out!

Besides that not much else happened this week we've just been trying to find new investigators by inviting. So most of the time when we aren't working with LA's, RC, or teaching lesson we are just inviting like crazy! We got a ton of potentials so I'm just hoping a few come through though. Usually we can get 20 phone numbers and get maybe 1 new investigator ha-ha, but that is alright we just have to keep finding those people that are ready!

There was mini transfers this week I had a feeling I may get moved because I have been with my companion so long, but nope sure enough I got to stay, which I'm happy about. I need to take advantage of my Thai companion and get all the good language study out of him I can! Plus he is a way good guy so I won't be having any problems being with him for another 4-5 weeks! Even if he is trunky, I can handle it. 

That is really it for this week! We have Zone Conference this Thursday in Udorn so that should be fun! Hopefully we get some good food! It was a pretty good week though. Please pray for our investigator Winay and his word of wisdom problems though. He is going to need all the help he can get! Have a great week everyone, love you all!

Love,

Lan

Getting my package from home that Brother Gang brought me!!! He is the best!

Elder Sae Dan showing the CTR on his finger that my family sent him! 

Baptism in the Mekong River

Hey Everyone!

What a way sweet week! I'll first talk about all the fun places we visited this week. My companion’s sister and brother ended up coming here yesterday to come to church and just hang out with their brother for the last time before they both leave for their missions this month. His sister leaves next Sunday to head to the MTC; she is going to California. His brother leaves like the 30th of March. We went to the Thai Laos Bridge again with them, which was cool. We also went to this mountain place it is kind of like a cave that you go down in some water for a bit water and then crawl on the ground through narrow crevices and all sorts of fun stuff, then you just pop out at this other spot and climb out on a ladder, it was pretty cool. We also went to this sort of mini Oasis thing in the middle of nowhere which was kind of cool. It had a big tree with roots and reminds you of Harry Potter a little bit if you could walk down in and under the tree to the shack or whatever, but you can't go there. They also had this old ancient game thing my companion was saying. There is a picture of us standing on and jumping off, kind of cool. That’s it for all that.

  

Now for the highlight of my week! Guess who got baptized!!! Our investigator Naan, of course! You probably already know though, if you read the subject line of my email. But yeah, we just focused on her and worked way hard to get her baptized and it worked out. We met with her and watched; “Finding faith in Christ” and just had a good lesson. At the end of the lesson we asked her; “are you going to interview to be baptized tomorrow”. She was way quiet and we just sat there and then bam! She is like ready! It was awesome!  Her only concern was her Mom saying, no to it so we committed her to talk to her Mom. Anyways little did she know we were cheesing, because we had already fasted that day for Naan to get baptized this week. Sure enough.... she calls us later that night and her Mom said no... So we are like; alright, well guess what Naan you are 20 years old so it really is up to you if you want to get baptized or not, not your Mom's. She said that she will have the interview, but doesn't say that she will get baptized for sure. The next day my companion is on the phone when we were supposed to be prepping her for her interview and teaching her a few more last minute things. So I just took charge and reviewed everything with her in like 15 minutes and sent her into the interview! After about 10 minutes she pops out and we were just like, whoa that was fast. She passed! The Zone Leaders said she was way money and ready to go. So we are like are you going to get baptized then and she said; yeah I want to do this, I feel good about it. So that was Friday. We already were trying to get her motivated to get baptized and said we'd do it in a special way for her and try to get permission to baptize her in the Mekong River. We tried calling President Senior that night and Saturday morning. After he didn’t answer either time we just gave up and told her we were sorry and that we would just have do it at the church with the other two people getting baptized. Naan wasn't hearing of that though, being who she is. So Saturday night when we were finding her a baptismal gown we called up President one last time and he answered. We were like; Hey President how are you and he said; so what’s up? We said we were just wanting permission and he said; for what? We said we were wondering if we could do a baptism in the Mekong River and he is like, “why are you asking for permission”. We thought that we needed permission for sure because last transfer Elder Vandenberghe asked the ZL's and APs if they could baptize an investigator in the river and they said; No! Now President Senior himself asked us why we were asking for permission. We had no idea what to say, so we were just silent for a bit and said; soooo, that means we can do it right? He is like yep, sure can. We were way pumped. So after all that, she got baptized in the river at 4 by my companion The Mekong River is just by our house, super cool! Sunday morning my comp and I had to go to the river and find a good spot to do it, so it all worked out. I think it is probably going to be the coolest baptism I have on my mission. I have to be honest it was way, more fun this way!

Anyway sorry for that super long story that is really the greatest thing that happened this week and was the biggest miracles. I really saw all the blessings we received from all of you back at home praying for her and us to help her. Fasting works too, by the way, even if you are hungry for a bit, it is way worth the blessings! That is really all I have for you this week. I'm cruising through the New Testament. I got past all the real big books and am I in Galatians almost done with that too. I can't remember where I was last week but I know I read all of 1 and 2 Corinthians this week. Really the hardest books to read are Mark and Luke because they are so similar to Matthew, but once you get into all of John and Paul writings you get recharged again. I'm loving it! I think I only have 100 pages left now. Then it is off to check off the Pearl of Great Price. I'm trying to read everything by the time I finish my mission. I've only have the Doctrine and Covenants and the Old Testament left really, since I can probably finish Pearl of Great Price in two more days! Love you all though and have a good week!

Love,

Landon