Oct. 8, 2009

Hey guys how's life?

Just to start, thank you so much for the emails every week dad, i love them.
To answer your questions, yes everything is going great with my companions.
I really love em and we get along well. They call me Mom every now and then
in a grudging way when I make them wake up but, which I hate; but I guess I
can handle that.

And yes, we did get to see conference. In fact they canceled everything on
Saturday, they canceled classes, TRC appointments, etc. so we could watch
conference. It was like a holiday. For TWO DAYS all we had to do was watch
conference and eat, such freedom. They packed all the Missionaries into the
gym and we watched it on the big screens. I loved it. I'm pretty sure I
cried through every session haha. I'm such a baby now. But it really was
so good. Elder Holland definitely did not let down. All the missionaries
had been taking notes rapidly during conference but when Elder Holland got
up to speak everything fell silent to listen. So good. If there was a
missionary here questioning the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon I don't
think they are anymore, at least not as much. I also loved Elder Nielson's
(of the Seventy) talk. Cried through that one too, probably because it was
all about missionary work. His story about Finland was awesome. I kinda
feel that way about Malaysia. The church is pretty new there. They have
nothing printed in their language and they just recently started teaching
the gospel in their language, it used to be all English. Right now the
church is working on translating the Book of Mormon into Malay. It will be
neet to see how it all takes off. I definitely miss being able to get out
between sessions. My companions and I just walked around and around and
around the MTC between the two sessions. Luckiy it wasn't too cold. It
felt nice to walk but the view of fences, dumpsters and buildings isn't all
that exciting. At least we got to get out though.

Dad! Your mission will have a temple! All the missionaries going there gave
out a cheer when that news came up. Pretty exciting. We were all hoping
for Singapore but alas, I guess one stake in Singapura isn't enough to
warrant a temple. Man this church is so exciting. It's true guys, that's
one thing I know for certain. I may not know this language but I know this
gospel so hopefully that's good enough.

I had a panick attack of sorts in the cafeteria yesterday. I was talking to
a new Elder about where I'm from, where I'm going etc. and he asked how long
I had been here. I answered him "about four weeks" but then Elder Bench,
from my district, said we were starting our SIXTH WEEK! Where did they all
go? I don't know anything! haha. I may be able to tell someone the
restoration of the gospel but now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even
know how to say "I need to go to the bathroom". Oh well... Time seriously
flies here. It's true what all the missionaries say: the days feel like
weeks and the weeks feel like days.

So when our Indonesia bound missionaries got word of the earthquake over
there they were all pretty worried. We're praying for them. Luckily I
think Malaysia is a little more secluded than Indonesia but it's all pretty
close. The Phillapine bound missionaries were pretty bummed last week.
They were supposed to fly out last week but got delayed because the country
was underwater. I hope they don't get delayed too long. They just want to
be over there helping.

With the weather getting colder the dress code for the Elders and changed
from being able to wear slacks and a white shirt to having to wear a full
suit. This has been an pretty funny issue for our Elders. Those going to
Singapore only have one suit. They wear it on the flight over to Singapore,
leave it at the mission home for their entire mission, and then wear it on
the flight back. They're lucky, except for right now when they have to wear
it every day. Elder Bench and Elder Christensen had to get their's dry
cleaned which ended up taking a week because of some tears they had to fix.
They have suit jackets Elders can borrow here at the MTC but Elder Bench and
Christensen are very tall Elders. The jackets look hilarious on them. They
are 3/4 length sleeves. They barley come past their elbows. They look
rediculous. It's pretty funny.

Oh guess what family Macsen got me the coolest gift in the entire world.
It's a wooden puzzle of the plan of Salvation in Indonesian! A few of the
words are different in Malay but for the most part it works. We have been
using it to practice teaching lesson two and it has been awesome. I love
it.

On tuesday's we always go to the Referral Center and it's pretty fun. I
really enjoy talking to people on the phone. The RC also has the capability
to chat. People can get on mormon.org and start up a chat with any
missionary working in the RC that day. I got a really good chat the other
day. They can be not so good because as you can imagine some people get
online and are obnoxious and crude. But the chat I got the other day was
awesome. They had some really good questions about the church that I was
able to answer for them. I could really feel the spirit with me. Often I
would expound on one of their questions and before I was done typing, they
would post their next question and it would be asking about exactly what I
was expounding on. It's like I knew their questions before they asked. The
MTC is pretty cool like that. Heaven is so close here.

I believe Shannon Small came in yesterday so I'll be on the look out for
her. And isn't Dacia coming next week? Pretty exciting.

Dad I've been debating this for awhile and I still don't know what to do.
It's getting cold, but I only have a couple more weeks left. I don't know
how much colder it's going to get but I think I want you to send me my black
coat. It's the zip up black coat with fur around the hood. It would be in
the blue bin probably on the bottom with all my other coats. I'm not
outside very much so I feel bad but... don't wanna freeze.

Love you guys
sister viehweg