Week 63: American Thanksgiving

So the first and last weeks of the months Zone Leaders spend lots of time on reports. Elder Watkins did not have time to write a letter home, even though he was in the computer shop for 5 hours!!

Elder Watkins and his companion, Elder Monroe, were treated to Pizza Hut on Thanksgiving by an elder in their zone. Actually, by the elder's parents haha! Thank you to the elder's parents who treated our missionaries to pizza on Thanksgiving!! They figured Pizza Hut was as American as they were going to get.

Week 62: How old am I?

Unfortunately, no family letter this week :(

I asked Elder Watkins if he felt different now that he was 20. This is his reply:
"Umm not really... Haha feel pretty much the same. I got asked the other day how old I was and I said 18. Oh, wait 19... Then I looked at Elder Monroe; wait, I'm 20, right?"

Oh, Elder Watkins haha

Week 60: Turning 20 with only 9 months left, Following Promptings of the Holy Ghost, Reality of Satan

Hey Fam! and new homie Tyson!!!

So smooth! I now have a Filipino family member! (Mom and Mariah... ehh. medyo na lang...;) He looks like a stud :) so excited :):) (the bits of Tagalog in the letter are to Tyson so he learns Tagalog)

So there seems to be some confusion with the emailing situation. Haha So I just can't live chat. I can still definitely read and email you guys no probs :) I can and will still be recording so no issues there. I have just been crazyyy busy the last two weeks so I haven't had much time to email...Ask Elder Bitters if you don't believe me haha

Thank you everyone for the great birthday wishes :) you are all the best :) and in return happy birthday to Mariah who is now 17... what the heck  haha... oo nga pa la I received the package!! Thanks so much!!!

Last Monday we had a Family Home Evening with Jes and his family. He's the one who is getting married to get baptized, to get sealed in the temple :) they really enjoyed the Sour Patch Kids :) And I took the ENORMOUS pants to the tailor and got them fixed up haha :) I actually am sportin' a pair as I type this message :) so thank you very much :) I will be sending the pics I am sure to take to you all next week... :) ang sarap ng pagkain d2 xa Pilipinas Tyson...napakasuwerte na man tayong dalasa ;)

As for me I am doing wonderful haha. I love the live of a missionary... It's sad to thin I only have 9 months left... To you that may seem like a long time still, but to me it looks really short. I can't elieve how fast the mission is going and pretty soon I won't be a missionary anymore :(  Don't know why that thought came into my head. Maybe cause I'm listening to Dad's recording about the hotels and stuff hahaha

Cool story for the week. We have been working with Brother Steven Ong, a returned missionary and his non-member wife Abigail. Abigail is a super receptive and INTELLIGENT investigator but is super busy... kaya it is hard to find time to teach her. Last night, after a whole week of not being able to get a hold of them, we randomly felt prompted we should go visit her at  7:30. We had other appointments and were about 15 minutes or so away from her house. It would also be pretty expensive to get there based on where we were currently at. We decided to follow the prompting. We got there and long story shot it was the perfect moment to get there. Any earlier and they would not have been there and any later they would have been gone again heading to Manila. Because we listened to the Spirit and were able to visit her. She shared with us she had finally decided that she WILL BE BAPTIZED!!! The question she said now is "When". Next week is when, is what I told her haha. But I know our Heavenly Father is aware of us and wants us to succeed. I also know he communicates with us through the Holy Ghost. We just gotta listen :)

Maybe an interesting thing to be testifying to you about this week but I see it happening in the lives of the people here. But I know that Satan is real. He works for our destruction and misery. I know that no degree of sin can lead to any true or lasting happiness. I also know that any negative thought about ourselves or others is not coming from our loving Heavenly Father who loves each of us with perfect love. When we feel we are not adequate or feel hopeless, it comes from Satan. God wants us to be happy and all happiness derives from Him. Always remember that God is more interested in where we are willing to go and become, rather than who we are at the moment.

Love you all soooo much:):):):)
Have a great week!
Elder Watkins

This is Harvey

This is myself and elder moral on exchanges. Eating... chicken feet adobo.

This is the whole Tarlac zone after the transfer announcement.
 We had a super good meal catered for us at the church for our last zone activity :)

The posterity from right to left

E. Monroe a midst the few, the proud, the brave. 

He begat E. Gomez, who hails from the land of Ilo Ilo, 

and paved the way for E. Watkins who leaves legends in his wake,

gave birth to E. Choresca, who will claim the birthright to the kingdom, 

and begat E. Jacobson, who will (sana) continue the posterity to prosperity.

Elder Gordon and Elder Watkins are backkk!!

Week 59: Missionary Firesides and Training, Baptismal Goal Date, and Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Hey Everyone!

First super sorry that I wasn't able to email or chat with you last week. The last week of every month is super hectic for email. We are in the computer shop for 4 hours doing reports. And it was my first time doing it so I wasn't uber fast haha... But I am also sad to inform you (Mom, Dad, Mindy, and Mariah) that I will no longer be chatting every Monday. I guess it was not allowed. And I guess most of the mission was doing it, and our Mission Leader Council meeting last week, President Clark reminded us that it was not ok. So I was being disobedient in ignorance but now that I know that it is not in harmony with the Missionary Handbook. I will be following :( but this may mean an increase in recordings.

Also no recordings this week because I epicly failed haha. So this morning I was recording then after what felt like 15-20 minutes, I checked the time and realized the recorder was off. So I turned it on again and recorded; this time I checked after about 3-5 minutes of recording and the battery had died...So I was outside talking to myself for about 25 minutes... It was great LOL

But this week was another fantastic week.

Friday: We had the Tarlac side of the mission, (the half I am on) attend a missionary fireside where Bishop Causse of the Presiding Bishopric come and teach us. It was cool. He just walked around and talked with us instead of giving a talk. Also on Sunday was the Philippines wide broadcast. We listened to our Area President Ian S Arden who is a BOSS! and then 2 other general authorities and Elder Oaks. I love being able to listen to so many General Authorities. I am learning a lot from them and their example.

Friday evening /all of Saturday: MLC or Mission Leader Council. This was held at the mission home and it was awesome. Working with Pres. Clark and just discussing the mission and what direction we are going to take was amazing. He named that MLC a "Red Flag" Day where we will be either be making huge gains in our mission or stay the same. This is due to the new changes we are making in the mission. I'll probably talk about those in a recording to give you more details. It changes the way we proselyte and how we teach. Unfortunately, we will not be receiving iPads or iPhones... not yet at least... ;)

Sunday was a great Sabbath full of meetings. We were at the church from  10am-730pm. It was crazy. My companion and I presented the changes of our mission to the stake president and his councilors, the bishops and all their councilors. The majority seem very excited; there, of course, are a few who are skeptical, but the stake president is really backing us up and what is to implemented this week so we will see how it goes.

We had 45 minutes after church before our next meeting and we were blessed with a new investigator. A less active in our ward brought her friend to church, who also happens to be the cousin of our Ward mission leader. So we were able to teach her and she accepted a baptismal goal date of December 13! It was great.

Highlight of the week however was finally returning and teaching Steven and Abigail Ong! They were a golden family a while ago. So Steven is an RM and his wife is a non member. They have the 2 cutest Filipina girls ever!!! They are 3 and 1 years old. They are such a cool family. and the 3 year old speaks English! haha. Anyways Abigail is super receptive and understanding but has not been able to a accept a Baptismal Goal date. Well we assigned her 2 Nephi 31. She read it and said while she was reading she felt like she was with Joseph Smith watching him translate the Book of Mormon. She felt that there was no way he could write/translate this unless God helped him. She told us she now believed the Book of Mormon to be true. We continued teaching a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. When we got to the Atonement I felt prompted to invite her to be baptized. I extended the invitation and she just started smiling and said, "Yes, I'm ready." I'll pray if November 29 is the right day for me. It was so cool! and they came to church again yesterday. and the 2 weeks while they were in Manila, they went to church there too!!! It was awesome :)

Just love you all so much and I know that the Book of Mormon changes lives. Read it.
Have a superb week!
Elder Watkins

Week 54:

Hey Fam!

haha sooooo... you are likely curious as to where I transferred, who is my new companion, kabahays, all that good stuff...soo...Imma make you wait till the end :)

Anyways, so I hope you all enjoyed the stories of the crazy drunk dude and stuff from last week, but it doesn't stop there. So, yes, another crazy story this week... may not as crazy as last week, but good nonetheless...sorry Mom.

So it's like 2:30 AM and the phone rings. I think it's an alarm and am like who has a meeting at this time? I think I don't have anything going on. The ringing stops and I cease thought and start falling asleep, when suddenly again the phone rings! I realize it is my phone! I look at it ans see a member named Roselle is calling. I thin in my head, "Roselle, why the blazes are you calling at this hour???..." I answer groggily, "This is Elder Watkinssssss...zzz..." All I hear back is a frantic voice and bawling. I can barely understand anything she is saying. So Roselle is 17, was baptized in July, works at a burger machine right next to our apartment. The burger machine is similar to the Waffle Love truck in Utah, except it is open 24 hours. All I understood from her gibberish was "You need to come down... gun... money... man..." I'm like, "What the heck?!!" So I wake my companion up, we go down and she is just bawling out of control... So I guess since 8:00 PM two guys had been spying on her, and that at about 2:00ish they came up and put a gun to her and said don't scream or we'll shoot you. She gave them all the money and then drove off. We just tried calming her down. We gave her a priesthood blessing of comfort, then called her manager. And the dude was like, "How much money did they take?" LOL really??!! So we ended up staying there until 5:30. She cooked us some hamburgers and then was ok :) there is always exciting stuff going on in Arayat...  :)

Anyways, so now on to the news about transfers.... I packed my bags, and I'm.......(drum rolll.....)....staying in Arayat! hahahaha ya I even have my same companion! The only change is that Elder Drake was transferred :( which I was super sad about :( but I was way happy to stay with Elder Ofiana in this area!! Most people here say I'm going to be here until Christmas... haha so I actually don't have any changes to report to you guys about! :/ Our new kabahay is Elder Dejino from Visayas. He is in my batch, which means we arrived in the mission at the same time. So 3/4 of the missionaries in our house are batch haha. Also 3.5 Filipinos living in the same house...We'll see how this goes haha  :)

Well maybe some of you are online right now! so we can chat :)
Love you all :)
Elder Watkins
Have a great Conference weekend!

Elder Watkins 

A member of the ward drew this 

Week 53: In the Hollow of His Hands, Holy Ghost, and Tatay Nestor's Gratitude

The story that Elder Watkins refers to happened on the way home from celebrating Daniella's birthday (the little girl in the first picture) with a spaghetti dinner and Family Home Evening. Elder Watkins, Elder Ofiana, their room mates, and others traveling with them stopped to aid a blood-covered man they thought was injured in an accident. It turns out, the blood wasn't his, he was drunk and carrying a gun, and threatened to shoot Elder Watkins. Fortunately, none in their group was hurt, and the man was escorted home. He did not remember their encounter the next day. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who hold His missionaries in the hollow of his hands. 

Hey Family :)

So this week was a superrr exciting week! I'm sure Mom and Dad have shared the story with you about the crazy dude already, so I'll just skip that  :) but it was a way good experience for the memories and journal entry haha. How many people can say they have been asked, "if they've wanted to be shot?"  probably not very many :)

Anyways this week is transfers... So this Wednesday I will find out where I am going and then Thursday I will either be staying the same or traveling somewhere new in the Philippines! I am really sad to leave if I do.. I really am close to the people here, and especially a lot of the investigators and people we've baptized... I'm going to miss them a ton regardless of leaving this week or in 6 more...

One story that was a cool experience for me:
So we have been teaching Robin for like 3 months now! and the first 1 1/2 months his wife Jeraldine would always leave and go hide in a different room when we came over...she is crazy shy. I could never even get to the point of shaking her hand. One day randomly she started listening and letting us teach her, and now we are like best friends and she came to church yesterday! She even let us know of her desire to be married and baptized... Well, yesterday at church in class, the lesson was the Holy Ghost. She was asked by another Elder who was teaching the class is she has ever felt the Holy Ghost in her life. She responded yes, and shared her experience. She was say how she was super shy and whenever Elder Ofiana and I would come over, she would always listen in the next room over. She said, "every time they came over, something told me to listen to them. I was scared to join them in the room, but I would just listen. I knew what they were teaching wasn't bad, because when they taught I felt good about what they were teaching. I finally got the courage to talk to them and now it has changed me. And now here I am at your church."

Yesterday, as well, we went to Tatay Nestor's house after he attended church. We had a lesson on daily scripture study. At the end of the lesson I asked if he had any questions, and he said no, just something to say. He went off and cried about how grateful he is that we teach him. He said I see your efforts coming to my house even when it is flooded or rainy. You came even when I couldn't come to church. He then talked about how he is praying for his health to get better so he can go to church and be baptized...

I think the Lord may be revealing stories like these to me because I may be leaving the area this week...The more I think about it, the more I want to stay...The more I think about missing the people, it just makes me more sad, but I will go where He wants me to go.

I am so grateful to be a missionary and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of the Philippines. I am a first had witness that it changes lives. I love being a missionary.

Love you all,
Elder Watkins

Celebrating Daniella's birthday with a spaghetti dinner and
Family Home Evening. 

This is me and a grandma that we taught.

This is what part of our area looked like after the storm. The area flooded and those
are trees submerged in water...It's like 10- 15 feet deep.

This is Robin and his family after going to church. In a letter to me, he wrote
that he wants his whole family to be baptized and go to the temple.
Super cool family! Love them to bits :)

This is Tatay Nestor and some of his grandkids. He is prolly one of the cooler people
I have met in the mission. In this little city, I'm like the barkada leader of all the little kids.
Barkada is like a gang haha. All the kids here know me :)

Week 52: Little Acts of Service, Acting on Promptings, and Preparing to Receive Blessings

Hello Everyone!

I am now officially over my year mark and it was great :) I received the package and than you very much :) My kabahay (roommates) and I have already plowed through the M&Ms, Sour Patch, 2 bags of jerky, 1 mixed berry jam, and a jar of Biscoff :) You could say life is sweet :) On my year mark we made some bomb french toast, and topped it with the jam, Biscoff, and of course syrup. Everyone was a big fan :) Thanks Mom and fam! You're the best! Speaking of food, I learned how cook chicken curry this week. It was the bomb. This week I'm learning how to cook sweet and sour chicken and tinola. I'm pretty pumped! Elder Drake and I are into cooking and learning new dishes now :)

I just want to tell you how much little acts of service mean to people. Specifically me. Sometimes you wake up and it is not under ideal circumstances. Sometimes you feel like poop and are not in the best mood haha. Well, I had one of those days this morning. I went to work out and when I came back, my companion made my bed and cleaned the kitchen! I came back in and just could not continue my mood! I was instantly happy! I'm not sure if he know that I woke up not happy or what, but he served me and now it totally changed my whole day. He probably to this second doesn't even know he changed my mood for the entire day :) He's a great companion.

The Lord always has blessings for us. Most of the time he tries us before they come. As a missionary, your blessings are way different. Blessings are new people to teach, when others read the Book of Mormon or go to church. It is really cool as a missionary that much of your happiness is derived from others living the Gospel. Anyways, one day this week we had been walking for who seriously know how long without even talking to a single person or teaching anyone. It was absolutely pouring rain and since my umbrella broke, we were sharing my companion's...We were SOAKED. It's very difficult here to find people to talk to in the rain because, of course, everyone is inside. It would have been really easy to say, "Oh let's just take a break and wait out he storm under that pavilion" or some kind of excuse, but we just kept walking. Not really knowing where to go, we decided we would go to a less active family that is never home...  Turns out they were home and actually let us in to teach them! We taught a lesson on love, then at the end I felt prompted to apply what I read earlier in my personal study "Ask everyone for referrals" So I asked. Turns out they said they would look and get back to us on Thursday. Well, we returned and boom! They had two super prepared investigators who were ready to receive the Gospel. Even yesterday they came to church, and then invited us over to teach them at their house after church again. Way cool.

I just think what if we took a break, and didn't continue? or we didn't ask for a referral? The Lord always has countless blessing for us, but we need to ready ourselves to receive them.

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!
Elder Watkins

This is Barangay Santiago!! haha family!

Elder Ofiana and me after a rainy day

Elder Ofiana and Elder Watkins enjoying some Hump Day french toast.
Elder Watkins is holding an adorable camel that makes a hilarious noise.

Elder Drake and Elder Watkins 

Jhan Jhan and Elder Watkins doing work