Jan. 12, 2010

Subject: don't worry. I'm safe.

Don't worry dad. We are safe. You are right though. There has been a lot
of talk and anger about the new "law", I guess that is what it is, about
the Malay word for God ("Allah"). Christians are no longer allowed to use
it. It makes me so sad. There is another word "Tuhan" we can use, but it
really doesn't have the correct translation, it works though. Like I have
mentioned in letters previous, things are sensitive over here. Five
churches have been bombed in Malaysia this past week; three in Kuala Lumpur.
Luckily our church looks like a Spanish Bungalow, so we are ok. It is just
sad to me how close minded people can be. But we are being smart, we don't
talk about anything that has to do with religion when there are a lot
Muslims around. We are currently only teaching one family from East
Malaysia in Malay and it is sad to me when we read with them from the Book
of Mormon and we read the word God but can't say it. Such is life in these
parts. The silly thing is, Allah is not their word. Countries all over use
it. It is part of the Malay and Indonesian language, among many others.
But that is just the way the government works over here so... we'll just
pray for change I guess.

Other than all that the work has been going really great. This week has
been fun.

Last week I ate at a place I vowed I would never eat at. It is called
Suzi's Corner, we walk past it ever day and the gutters around it smell
absolutely horrible and I see rats scurrying everywhere all the time. But,
we were with the Elders and some recent converts and they wanted to eat
there, and they basically made fun of me when I complained about their
sanitation problem. So I caved. The food was really good; and I didn't get
sick, amazingly. My stomach was blessed that night.
I also tasted Durian for the first time this week. Mr. Kong brought me some
just so he could watch me taste it. Durian is the really stinky fruit. Man
o man it smells so bad. It's loved by most of the people here. I'm not
sure why. The smell is horrible as you are eating it. The texture is slimy
and horrible as well. And after you eat it you have "durian burps" that
last a couple hours, and you get all hot like a fever inside. It's
horrible. The taste I guess wasn't that bad, but when the smell and texture
are so bad, why would you want to eat it??? Everyone was telling me not to
go drink alcohol afterwards because apparently if you drink after you eat
durian, you die. Why do people eat this stuff?

Want to know something really cute. The word for "sister" in Nepali is
"didi". I have been called "didi vi" on occasion. It cracks me up.

There was a wonderful baptism this weekend! Som didn't end up getting
baptized, his work just wouldn't budge; we are still working on it. But a
boy named Zohib from Pakistan was baptized. The Elders have been teaching
him, his story is amazing. His family has been in the Branch for quite some
time. I am good friends with his sister Zobia. Zobia got her mission call
to the Singapore Mission too and left for the MTC in the Phillapines last
Friday. Her brother Zohib was baptized Thursday, the night before she left.
He has been in prison in Pakistan for the last seven years because people
there found out he was Christian. He just came to Malaysia at the end of
last year, and Zobia was able to see her brother baptized the night before
she left on her mission. It was awesome. Can you imagine being in prison
for 7 years just because you are Christian? What a world we live in. I'm
excited for Zobia too. It is pretty certain we will be serving together at
least once since there are only ten sisters, and I'm looking forward to it.
Nanda skipped work to come to his baptism. Nanda comes to every baptism we
have, whether he knows them or not, whether he works or not. When Nanda
showed up I asked him "Nanda, don't you have work tonight?" He just smiled
at me and said, "Yes sister, but God will provide". I don't know how he
still has a job. I think he just and sits on his royal little butt and does
what he wants. Nanda has been begging us to make him a Branch Missionary.
We are trying, the Branch Presidency is a little slow at giving callings.

Naveen is getting baptized this weekend! You remember him? I love this
Punjabi man, he is so cool. We were talking with the Elders the other day
about how we wanted to get Naveen baptized and I called him right then and
asked, "Naveen, you want to be baptized Saturday? you are totally ready".
His reply: "alright". haha so simple.

This is awesome: Yesterday we were knocking. Knocking is not very
efficient I don't think, but we were sick of trains and buses. We went to
these flats and started on Building A. This building's elevator was broken.
We climbed up eleven stories. Why? not sure. We should have gone to a
building that had a dang elevator. But, on the eleventh floor we knocked a
door where a bunch of people from Myanmar lived. There were tons of them
crammed into that little house! They invited us in. Only one of them spoke
English, very poorly. So he translated for everyone. There were about 15
people there with a bunch of little kids running around. We sat on the
floor and they asked us how we knew they lived there. We of course didn't
and told them we were just knocking doors in the area. They told us to
teach them something. Naturally, we were obliged to. They said we had to
come back Sunday night to study the Bible with them. In fact they told us
we had to come, "with out fail". Awesome. We don't get that everyday.
Usually we are the ones begging people to show up for return appointments.
We will see how it all works out.

I hope everything is wonderful at home.

Macsen I think that's awesome you got yourself a minor. And your job sounds
sweet. I can't imagine working 30 hours. I'm not that smart.

Lisa: M for W? really?

Bryson: HAVE FUN ON YOUR DATE YA HOTTIE

I love you guys so much

sister v