WEEK #72 - No Need for an Umbrella when it's Raining Blessings

YES I AM STILL PICKY:

I believe someone can change a lot on the mission. We can change physically, spiritually, emotionally, and many more "ly's". Being picky is still one of my attributes (yes, I meant to say attributes).

I still don't like:
-onions
-anything spicy
-cream cheese
-sour cream
-spaghetti squash (my mom ruined this one forever)
-BUTTER
-FISH: ANY TIME DON'T EVEN TRY TO NAME A TYPE JUST ALL


Iban tiesssssss

These week was different than any other!!

On monday we were treated like kings. Remember that really nice lady who owns a mall, has met missionaries before, and gave us free food? Well, there was a restaurant that just barely opened up and she said we could come and try some stuff for free. At least, that's what we expected would happen. When we sat down and looked at the menu, she said. "Now boys, you can be as GREEDY as you want. Don't be shy." How can one be shy after a command not to? Elder Cox, Elder Teng and I were not greedy. Let me tell you the bill and what she ordered FOR us:
Drinks: RM36. 40
Iceream: RM 10.20
Banana Bread: RM 17.40
Cake: RM 37.96
Garlic bread: RM6.50
Mushroom soup: RM 25.50
Salad: RM 44.7
Shakes: RM26.7
Ribeye Steak: RM166.50

 KINGS

 & King's Food

Yup. Like I said, kings! The total bill was RM371. 86. 1 US dollar is 4 ringgit(RM). So the meal was 92.96$. In Malaysia that is very very very very expensive. She has such a kind heart!

Tuesday was my favorite and less favorite day on my mission. The Chinese elders are moving into our house, and the Chinese sisters are moving into the Chinese elders house. So guess what we were in charge of cleaning? The Chinese elders house. Guess how long it took? Let's look at the schedule ya?
Tuesday: 7pm-12am
Wednesday: 12am-1:41am, 6:00am-10:00am.

Around 11 hours of JUST cleaning! We threw away so so so much stuff. Examples? I'm not sure you want to know. Ok fine I'll tell you a couple:
1. Potatoes (6 months ago)
2. Underwear (9 months ago)
3. Rusted silverware (don't even know)

Gear to clean the Elders house

JUNK

It felt relieving walking out of that house. I hope the Sisters knew the blood, sweat, and tears we shed for that place!

Elder McArthur, one of the Chinese Elders, suddenly had an appendicitis. He has had to stay home. Elder Cox, Elder Hong (the other Chinese elder), and I have to keep rotating each day to stay home. I'm getting a little envious not being able to talk to people but it's good to get some extra studies in :)

We made breakfast for everyone! Home made pancakes and syrup.

Candle lit breakfast! 

The rest of the week was a mix of many things! We found a family (which is something so exciting) and they ended up not being interested anymore that same week.

The youth had an activity at the church. We taught them all of the fun American ball games (wall ball, 500, volleyball circle, and four square). They caught on pretty quick!

On Sunday we received a Christmas present from one of our members. They gave us an Iban Tie! It's a special fabric only made in Sarawak. Way way nice of them!

Love you all, have a great week!

WEEK #71 - Only in Malaysia

HABITS THAT HAVE NOT CHANGED SINCE BEING ON THE MISSION:

1. I still clean. A lot. Every missionary house I go to is a major project. Very nice.
2. I still get scared to turn off the lights downstairs.
3. I still use lotion
4. I still can burp really loud and say things as I am burping.
5. I still give a nice "Yee Hawwww" when I am pumped about something
Nothing has really changed!!


Technically I am CAPTAIN MALASYA

Dis week was goooooood.

For Monday we did a deeeeeeeeeeeeep clean of our house. It looks very very nice. Lots of random things thrown away. It looked like someone moved into the house, everything still out of place, a monkey got in and wrecked everything, and then Elder LaRose cleaned and organized haha. Good or not, I'm not sure. Come check it out!

When cleaning gets intense. 

The 13th was my father's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!!! 48 seems like too big of a number :{ He still looks and acts young! I am grateful for his perfect example of what a father, coach, tutor, and house janitor, antler hunter partner, and Priesthood holder looks like ;). Love you Dad!

1. When you meet the owner of a mall who met missionaries before and gave is ice-cream, fries, cookies, breads, drinks, and cake!! A luxury in Malaysia. Very kind of her. Only in Malaysia can you find yam & coconut, and corn flavored ice cream!!

This is a traditional native baby holder. I wish my mom would've made something like this!

Brother Bilong is doing ok. He is struggling with following a couple of the commandments. One question that really left him pondering was, "What are you willing to sacrifice to have an eternal family?"

We tried knocking on this house. Just cause. They weren't interested. Still a really nice house. 

Snipers snipe'd us!!

You do anything to keep the kids under control in a lesson. The fave expressions really help. 

Thursday was pretty fun. We did a "zone blitz," meaning that every companionship in the zone goes to a certain companionship's area and helps them. It was finding the whole day! I went with Elder McArthur from the chinese area. We had some funny contacts. When we stopped this one man in the street, he said, "MY CHURCH IS BETTER THAN YOURS!!" We tried to explain what we believe but he kept walking away and saying "no, no, no, no, no" until he was halfway across the parking lot hahaha. Funny guy! I'm not sure if he knew which church we were from!




Zone blitz here we gooooo! 

Another guy was playing a video game on his phone. He said he was too busy and didn't have time. I told him to give us 5 seconds to say something. I pulled out my stopwatch and timed Elder McArthur saying "I know God loves you and wants you to listen to this message." Then I said my 5 seconds worth of stuff. We then gave him 5 seconds and in his perfect Malaysian English he said, "I have no time, I play game lah." He said it in 5.07 seconds. He's pretty good!

When it's raining, wear this hat. 

Saturday was a special day. It was the day of Andre's and Aveen's baptism. We met them 5 weeks ago. Talk about prepared!! They will be a wonderful addition to the branch and we can't wait till Andre's wife will be baptized as well! I am so blessed to have Heavenly Father give me this opportunity to help some of His children start on the path back home to Him.

The door of Heaven has opened again :)

Love you all!!

WEEK #70 - 100%

Hello Hello!!

Weekly report:
- Pounds of expired goods: 9
- Iban swords held: 1
- Iban swords used: 0
- Hours spent doing missionary work in a day: 27
- Number of people contacted at a stop light and convinced to follow you to the church to teach them about Jesus: 1

Remember how the owner of the Delta mall gave us free expired goods? We got some more last week, and we are gonna get some more this week. Good thing our bodies have filters!!!

Brother Andre's family is really progressing. This week we watched the Restoration Video with their family, and a recent converted named Sister Lisa. Watching the restoration video is like eating food: it never gets old and it is so good everything to watch it! Sister Lisa bore a powerful testimony on how she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. Apparently she was visited, in a dream, by an angel. The angel told her she needed to join this church and none other. After she was baptized, the same angel appeared in a dream and told her Heavenly Father was pleased with her decision to be baptized and commanded her to share the gospel with everyone, especially her husband and kid, We are now teaching Brother Bilong, her husband. Such a cool experience!

Thursday was one of our busiest days: 6 appointments (3 hours), missionary preparation class (1.5 hours), weekly planning (2 hours), English class advertising (1 hour), planning and studies (3 hours), to-do list (1 hour), and however many hours that are left in the day to eat, travel, and find!

And yes, we were waiting at a stop light and we pulled up to this guy on a motorcycle. He was smoking. I asked how long he had been smoking. He said forever. I said stop smoking. He said why. I said cause it's not healthy and you need to follow Jesus. He said ok. The light turned green. I said follow me. He followed me. I rode on my bike as fast as I could to get to the church. I looked back. He still was following. I was happy. He was happy. When we walked into the church, he could only speak Chinese. I tried speaking Chinese. It didn't work. We called the Chinese elders. They came right away and then taught the guy a lesson. Way fun miracle!!

Sunday night was golden. We took Brother Andre's family to Brother Merang's house to teach about Temples. Brother Merang's family is the only family that has been able to go to the Temple. They bore powerful testimony and got Andre's family really excited! They feed us dinner and it was biawak!!!! So so good. It's that lizard I ate in Bintulu and had to wait a year to get it again!!

Crazy and fun week! How you enjoyed yours!

Love you ALL!

WEEK #69 - Say Whaaaaaat?

Yo yo!

Dis week was poppin'.

All dem peeps be runnin'.

How's my gangster talk? ;)

The craziest thing I ate this week wassss.... Rice. Crazy right??

 We were shopping. We were walking. Owner of the shopping center said follow me. We followed her. We got free food. She likes the missionaries

This week was a safe week for food. It felt really long though.

Last pday we watched "The Best Two Years." it's a story about missionaries. It makes SO much more sense now that I'm actually a missionary.

Hey, hey, you wanna taco bout Jesus? 

For Halloween on Wednesday I first had to be reminded it was Halloween. After that I wasn't sure what to dress up as. I finally found my outfit! I dressed up as a missionary and did missionary work😊 a lot sweeter than a bucket of candy!

Potato mustache

I went on exchanges on Halloween with Elder Teng, a native from West Malaysia! He's a great missionary. It was all in Chinese, so I just smiled and waved for most of the day. The best part of the day was when we saw 3 guys smoking cigarettes. In my broken Chinese I told them it wasn't healthy and took each of their cigarettes and stomped on them. I gave them all pictures of Jesus instead. Great exchange right?

Elder Teng!! 

On Thursday we had MLC (missionary leadership council). It was from 10:00am to 3:30pm. We talked about the needs of the Singapore Mission and how to best serve the missionaries and people of Malaysia. Way cool!

Later on in the week we met with Sister Lisa and her husband Brother Bilong. Sister Lisa was recently baptized and Brother Bilong isn't yet because of some challenges with the Word of Wisdom. As someone learning about the Church, he has one of the deepest testimonies of the Church that I've ever seen.  He understands the need for the priesthood (the authority give to man to act on God's behalf), he's seen the changes the Restored Gospel has made in his family's life, he's read up to 4th Nephi, and more! We know Heavenly Father will bless him according to his desire to keep the word of Wisdom!

It's burger time.

On Saturday we had another cool lesson. The ideal setting for a person learning about the Church is to meet the missionaries inside a members home. That is a little more difficult in Malaysia due to the lack of transportation. We were planning to meet Brother Andre's family (learning about the Church) at the Church with Brother Khimmy's family (members). When we called Brother Khimmy he said, "just bring them over to my house!" We taught about tithing and fasting. We weren't sure if Brother Khimmy payed tithing or not because he is a returning member (meaning they just barely started to come back to church regularly). When we asked him to bear his testimony on tithing we held our breath a little bit. He says, "I just have a brief testimony. Whenever I first payed tithing I was a little skeptical. But when I didn't pay it I never had enough to feed my family. Now as a full tithe payer I always have enough and I can't wait to pay tithing every time I get my pay check. Also I know this church is true because... " Then he just goes off and lists 7 other ways the Lord has specifically helped his family. What a perfect testimony! Brother Andre's family accepted to pay tithing full heartedly. :)

Hey guess what? I am in Malaysia! Isn't that cool? One of the things I like doing when we are biking on the rode is to grab hold to the back of a truck at a stoplight. When the light turns green all I have to do is hold on to the truck and bam! It's a free ride! Sister Rowley, the wife to President Rowley, adviced in her letter to not do that anymore. Rats! It was fun while it lasted.

Someone say farmer?

If anyone has a burning desire to come visit me in Malaysia you will have to pay for yourself, but I'll make the trip worth it!

Love you ALL!