Hello friends and family!
This week was full of fun and faith!
I was informed of being the "Housing Leader" for my District, so I am the mom of the bunch! Having 4 missionaries living in the same house is another world- in both good and bad ways :)
On Tuesday, we had our first dinner appointment with the members, just four weeks since I have been here! Normally as missionaries, the members of the church in the area that you are serving invite you over for dinner. We get to know the members and share a spiritual thought with them. It is very kind for members across the world to feed the missionaries, so thank you to all who do that! You don't even have to be a member to invite the missionaries over for dinner, because we are "selalu lapar" (always hungry). From this visit with the Branch President and his wife, I noticed food in Malaysia is very different than food in America. It doesn't seem real until you try it! They fed us chicken wings (you can take that literally), hot dogs (at least that what it looked like), an onion-chili boiled egg, a weird soggy green Ibon traditional vegetable, with some rice rice and more rice! Yes, I did pray for help :) The Gaadong family had also invited another member over, who happened to be deaf. Now I know why he couldn't hear my silent pleadings for help! In fact, everytime I managed to finish something on my plate, the deaf member would be such a gentleman and scoop up another helping for me. But I did manage to survive, until they passed around a bowl of water. My companion explained that I dip my fingers into the water, and then eat what is ever on the plate with your hands. You would wash your hands in the bowl whenever your fingers got dirty again. The bowl kept being passed around and anxious eyes beckoned me to dip my fingers into the now water + the remains of other's food in the bowl. The chicken was the most fearful part. I could survive picking at the bone for meat with my fingers. I am not a very good germ sharer. Everyone just said, "seperti Elder Chngh," which means "do it like Elder Chngh." I looked over to see the chicken wing in his mouth and gnawing on whatever could be considered meat. Very foreign to me :D But still grateful for that experience!
Afterwards we were able to share a thought from Moroni 7:47, which talks about the pure love of Christ. When the natural man inside us wants to turn inward, Christ's pure love is the reason we turn outward. As we were teaching another family, I couldn't understand a word they were saying. From the Spirit, I received a clear and distinct thought: love them. That was all I needed to do! If you want a happier life, if you want God to forgive you, if you want others to appreciate you, gain the pure love of Christ. My mother is a very special example of that love! Thanks mom :)
Our area is very big, so we wanted to explore it a little! There is an area called SOP, which is government owned land, but very poor people have build shacks and houses out of wood and are living there. So when two people show up in dress attire and name tags, what do you think happened? All the dogs came barking at us and I saw everyone just scrambling to get into their houses and shut the doors and windows. They must've thought we were some FBI or government officials haha. Later that night we were told that Brother Francis, our investigator, does not want to meet with us again. He said his mother didn't want him to learn. Ibon tradition is very into worshiping idols and smoking haha. We are going to try and help them understand how much the Savior can help them!
Brother Henry was having a lot of stress with debt. We helped him find answers through the Book of Mormon. We read with him Alma 7 (which talks about the Savior's Atonement), and Ether 12 (how we can overcome weaknesses with faith and humility). Wonderful chapters, I encourage you all to read them!
Thursday was pretty cool! We were approached by someone on a motorcycle and he said, "what is your names?" Apparently he had been taught by the missionaries before, but moved and somehow lost contact with them. He wants to learn again! What a miracle. He just beamed with light and excitement. To get back to our house, we had to cross a 45ft river on three big tree trunks that had been placed over the river. We had to carry our bikes across the river too. It was so cool! The path was super muddy and we both got knee deep in mud. I love Malaysia!
Saturday was a day full of miracles! In the morning we were able to teach Bert. Bert was a previous investigator, who lost contact with missionaries after moving far away for work. Heavenly Father changed his life. He stopped drinking, doing drugs, being in gangs, and flunking school. The only thing he couldn't do was stop smoking. Now he is back in town and we get to teach him! We committed him that day, to never touch a cigarette again. In some circumstances, when we truly have faith, God will help us with any righteous desire we have! He promised to be baptized on October 28th! Then in the evening, we were able to teach Brother Mattius and his friend Terun, who were referrals from the Miri Sister Missionaries. A referral means that someone was approached by missionaries, and said they want to be taught, but they live in a different area then they were contacted. So Mattius and Terun were contacted in Miri, but lives in our area, so we teach them! In the first lesson, we talked about the Restoration. We talked about baptism, and he said, "Ya, I was already baptized in my church, so I am saved!" We then explained that Jesus Christ and His Apostles had the proper authority and power to perform ordinances such as baptism. This power and authority is called the Priesthood. But we know that Christ and His apostles were rejected, and killed. The Priesthood was lost from the earth and people began to be very wicked. After the Priesthood was lost, the time became known as the Dark Ages. Christ's true church was changed and doctrines were altered. There were many good people on the earth who sought for the truth, but could not find the fullness of the truth. Because of the prophet Joseph Smith, the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored, along with the proper authority to perform ordinances. Baptism needs to be done through God's approval and power. After explaining this, both Mattius and Terun said, "So when can we be baptized?" It was so cool and special! A day of miracles for sure.
On Sunday, we went to church! It is a wonderful time to receive guidance and direction, and to "start over" for the week! As we were biking, I saw a man standing by the side of the road. We went to go talk to him. When I pulled up beside him, I went to put my food down on the road. Turns out, it was a mud puddle. I did my best to jump over it, (my best wasn't good enough), and I landed in the puddle. There was more mud at the bottom of the puddle, so my planting foot slipped under me and I did some variation of the splits. It was so embarrassing haha. The man ended up wanting to learn more. I wasn't sure if he wanted to learn more or just felt bad for the mess I made of myself haha.
This morning, I looked outside to see if it was raining. I saw one of my nice church shoes, but couldn't find the other one. I saw it at the other end of the yard. Here is a photo of the crime scene and the culprit in the background...
Here are some facts about Malaysia:
1. It is Malaysia tradition that shoes are bad luck. Every time we go into a members house, we have to take our shoes off. Even in businesses, we have to take our shoes off. So right now I am emailing in an internet business barefoot :D
2. No one has chairs. Everyone sits on the ground, criss-cross apple sauce. It looked comfy, until you are sitting in that position for 45 minutes! I always feel like an 80 year old man trying to stand up after sitting like that haha.
3. It rains ALL the time here. The people here say if you are wet at all, no one will let you into their house.
4. There are truly ants in our pants! There are a million ants in houses, including ours. And flies too. We looking inside the trash to see maggots everywhere! (You should be glad I didn't take a picture).
5. No one here has a last name! It is always something like: "Michael anak George." Anak just means "the child of." George would be Michael's father!
6. Instead of mice and mice poop, we have lizards and lizard poop.
7. People drink something called "Milo." It is basically water with a couple pinches of hot chocolate mix. It is boiling hot like hot chocolate too! So Coach Vedroni, if you want your wrestlers to excel this year, I'd encourage you to train them in Malaysia (100% humidity and 95 degrees) while drinking Milo!
8. Malaysia doesn't have too good of water. By that I mean they have tapeworms in their water, so everything has to be boiled. When I get cold water from a restaurant or member I have a mini heart attack.
If anyone has any questions or how I can improve my emails, let me know and I will include them in the next email!
