Dec. 15, 2009

Hey dad
Ya, we go to an internet cafe to email home and we get on for about an hour.
We hit the cafe only once and don't have time to go back until next week so
i'll just look for the long letter then. No worries about not getting it
sent. Life goes on.

This week has been busy busy. Mr Kong rocks. The other day he brought us
some very strange looking chips. They looked like styrofoam and smelled
like a gutter with fish remains dumped into it. I'm not kidding it was a
horrible stench. Sister Mccurdy was excited and told me they were
delicious, Mr. Kong was watching me closely, so I had to try one. They
weren't good but they didn't taste that bad actually, kind of like a fishy
chip. But after Mr. Kong left Sister Mccurdy told me what they were and I
almost threw up. They are fried fish fat. Sick. I can't believe I ate it.
Right now Mr. Kong is working in JB for a couple weeks and we miss him. But
he is so awesome. He called us to get the number of the missionaries
serving in JB so he could go to church with them. He also took the Elders
out to dinner down there and told them he wanted them to come with him to
teach his cousin about the gospel. I love it when these investigators make
our lives easy.
We are excited also to be teaching Nanda's friends Som, Purna, Kisa, and
Janak. Som and Janak are getting baptized in January and are excited. Som
told us the other day he called his family in Nepal and told them he was
going to be Christian. I wish he would have run by us this idea first
because we could have told him what their reaction was going to be. They
flipped. Som is no longer welcome in his home. These guys sacrifice so
much. Som is so awesome. He loves reading the scriptures. And Som is way
hott, haha ya I said it... he's a cutie.

Nanda helps us teach Som because his English is not very good. Yesterday
our lesson with Nanda and Som was not going well. Nanda was not being very
helpful and was refusing to translate. Finally we figured out that Nanda
was very upset. He broke out and demanded to know who translated the Book
of Mormon into Hindi because whoever it was, did a terrible job - so he
says- and he wanted to speak with him. Nanda told us he has given the Book
of Mormon to 30 other men he lives with and they say it has a lot of things
wrong with it. I guess he has been teaching them from the English version
while they follow along in the Hindi version and the verses don't say the
same things at all. He is so frustrated. Plus it is Hindi, it's not even
in Nepali. If only we still had the Urim and Thummim... Plus, it never
crossed Nanda's mind that some people just wouldn't believe the Book of
Mormon, even when taught plainly to them. People always have a choice.
When we told him that sometimes people read the entire book and still don't
believe, he calmed down a bit. He was so upset that everyone wasn't
believing him. I also explained that we teach some people who can't even
read, at all, but the Spirit still teaches them that the Book of Mormon is
true, and that this is God's church. I think that gave him hope. Even
though the Hindi Book of Mormon may not be perfect, people can still come to
know this church is true. Luckily the Spirit has no language barrier. We
are planning a time to go with Nanda to meet all these people. Hopefully we
can sit down with them and explain some things.
We were teaching with Nanda last week and he kept yelling out "I WAN TO
SHARE SISTERS!" The lesson was on missionary work and bearing testimony.
He got pretty pumped. Kiran, our other Nepali who helps us teach bore his
testimony on Sunday and it was the cutest thing I have ever listened to.
His English makes me laugh and he was so nervous. But he did a beautiful
job. He tells me "Sister! I want to testimony again and again!" We asked
Kiran to help us teach yesterday and it was raining really hard. I felt bad
but he said he wanted to even though we told him it was raining and he
didn't have to come. He showed up in a white shirt and tie with his slacks
rolled up to his knees soaking wet. He likes to dress like an Elder when he
helps us. It is too cute.
Nanda also told us he gets online and teaches five friends of his in
Thailand everday and all his brothers in Nepal everyday. He wants some
copies of the Book of Mormon to mail to them. We will have to get their
names and send the Thailand missionaries over. He rocks. Im nervous about
mailing BOMs to Nepal but Nanda 100% guaranteed me that if he mailed them
under his name no one would bother them.
I'm grateful for our recent converts who are willing to help us teach.
We have quite a few we can call to help us. I want them to be called as
branch missionaries. Right now we are teaching all young single men, and
all our branch missionaries are chinese women in their 50s. They don't
connect well. So we will push for our recent converts to get that calling
also. They need a calling!

Lisa asked some questions. She asked if we here the [Muslim] call to prayer
everyday. Yes we do. It is eerie sounding. When we go to this one
investigator's house to teach it always goes off in the middle of our
lesson. And the speaker it sounds from is right outside their door so it is
so loud. We can't hear ourselves speak. Every night. It is very pretty
sounding though when we aren't teaching. It is hard for me to enjoy hearing
it like Lisa though because every time I do it reminds me how much our work
is being hindered.
The vegetation is very green and tropical looking. There isn't much in
KL though. Every now and then you run into a road where it looks like you
stepped into a rainforest. Those are on the outskirts of town. In KL is
all cement and buildings with a few plants here and there. But when you get
out into the suburbs it is beautiful. I'll have to send pictures.
Yes all the Muslim women wear the traditional Sarongs and hoods. It
makes me so hot just looking at them. I often am the most immodestly
dressed girl on the bus or train. Their dress goes to the floor and to the
wrists and all the way up to the neck. And then they wear the hood on top
of that. And then there is me scantily clad, with my calves and arms
showing, and my hair and neck exposed. I rarely see immodest dress here.
It is so nice. Even if they don't wear the traditional dress, everyone
dresses really modestly. The only people that don't are the European
tourists.
We shop at a regular shopping center. Except to buy fruit. There is a
fruit stand on the street by our apartment and it is awesome. This old
couple run it and we love em. I wish you could try the fruit here, whoa it
is good. Last week Mr Kong gave us some Dragon Fruit. It is beautiful! It
is pink and yellow on the outside and white and black polka dot on the
inside. It's tastes kind of like a Kiwi. It rocks.

I didn't know Bryson was doing wrestling. Awesome.

Macsen! congrats on getting the job!!!!!!!! I MISS SNOW SO BAD.