WEEK #23 - Where's the Snow?

Hai to the World!

This week has been super.

Has anyone ever tried durian? It is one of the most popular fruits in Malaysia and Singapore, known as the "King of the Fruits." EVERYONE loves it, but it is super duper expensive. We have a member that works at a shop that sells durian. Usually, durian is around 50 RM, or about 12 dollars for a single piece of fruit. Our member, Sister Eba, gave it to us for 10RM, or about 3 dollars. She was so kind! Here are some pictures: Everyone says that the first couple of times you try durian, it tastes so disgusting. But my companion Elder Haslam reassured me that once I eat it 5 or 6 times, I would get used to it (meaning that my taste-buds would be gone). No one can really describe the taste of durian. Here is my description: mushy, spicy, tastes like the smell of skunk, mixed in with pepper, along with a hint of pineapple and sugar. Sounds tasty, right? 5 more times to go!

We did some more high class advertising for English class near the stop light. This time we had the TJK Elders help us, so we had 4 missionaries on the job! Everything was going good until we saw a cop (I have never ever ever ever seen a cop in Malaysia before) with flashing lights. He saw the TJK elders and starting honking and pointing at them. He was wanting to turn around but it was a divided highway. Apparently seeing four white boys advertising free English class was the only exciting thing that had happened for them in the past year. It was fun riding our bikes out of there as fast as we could! :)

We had some cool experiences this week!

On Thursday night, we looked at our plans for Friday and there was NOTHING written down. It was going to be a long day if we didn't find someone to teach! We continued on our way and taught our last lesson for the night. After the lesson as we were walking down the stairs, we saw Petrus! He has been our investigator that we haven't seen for about a month and a half. He was down to meet Friday night. When we were walking in the street, we saw another one of our investigators! He has cancelled the last two meetings and we couldn't get a hold of him. He said he could meet Friday evening! We ended up stopping by Ranggau, one of our other investigators and set up an appointment for Friday as well. The Lord was easing up on me and Elder Haslam! It was a testimony builder to me on how important faith is! Faith must be a constant in our life. If life is going good, faith can be easily shown. But in the depths of our sorrows and pains, in the midst of trials and tribulations, our faith must be stronger than ever. It is then that Heavenly Father knows that we truly trust Him, "whether in days of sunshine or rain."

Here is a quick thought from personal study: I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah. This is the time where King Benjamin is the King of the Land. He has counseled his sons to be "men of understanding." Why didn't he ask them to be men of knowledge? Knowledge is compatible to the world's standards, whereas understanding is a concept of eternal value. It is one thing to know God's commandments, and keep them in the back of our minds. It is other thing to understand His commandments, and to keep them "always before our eyes" (Mosiah 1:5). When we understand what Heavenly Father wants us to do, it is then that we can live the gospel.

One of our investigators lives on a mountain, so Elder Haslam and I get our weekly exercise in by scaling this mountain! (This is only 1/4th of it).

We were at the church calling PIs. PI stands for potential investigators. Those are the people that have shown an interest in learning more about Jesus Christ and His Church, and have given us their number or address. There was this really interested person. I tried calling him like 8 times! With an ounce of silly frustration, I kicked an imaginary ball on the ground as hard as I could. Remember the day when the dog ate half my shoe? Yeah, I still wear those :) It is a slip on dress shoe, but the dog ate part of the elastic fabric that kept my foot inside the shoe. When I did a fake kick, my shoe went flying across the room. Here is the result: It was so hilarious!

On Sunday night we were able to meet with one of the youth's inactive parents. She was really friendly! She shared with us her testimony and about her family history! We gave her a friendly invitation to come back to church, and she started crying. We waited for a while until she explained why. Her husband had left her, and took 4 of their children with him. They have never come back to visit her, and have never called her either. She has one child with her, which is one of the youth of the church. She hasn't been to church in 6 years. As we sat in silence, we all felt comforted by the Spirit. We bore testimony that the only person that could relate and understand her situation was her Savior Jesus Christ. As much as I or Elder Haslam wanted to understand what she was going through, we couldn't. When all else fails, we must truly rely and depend on Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the World. It was a special moment for everyone there that Heavenly Father is a Loving Father. I encourage you all, to please understand that God is perfect, and people are not.

I hope everyone has had a super fun week!!! See y'all next time :) We have a banana tree in our backyard!! The branch weight about 50 pounds. Who would've thought I could start a banana selling business on my mission? :)

Love, Elder McKayd LaRose