Feb 16, 2010

wow california sounds wonderful dad. It always sounds like you are have
such a great time when you go to california. Someday I expect you will
never return. For me, a good vacation would be finding some really really
cold weather. That sounds nice.
Judging from some of the sibs' letters, they went crazy while the rents were
away... Just kidding not true.
Today we went to the Zoo! It was fun. My feet are killing me.
I have come to notice something about malaysians when they speak English.
They don't quite understand that when greeting someone, there is an exchange
that must occur. Often, when I pass someone on the street or anywhere, they
will say, or rather yell at me, "HELLO-HOW-ARE-YOU-FINE!" Like word vomit
in my face. They leave me with nothing to say back. I usually just smile
and wave because they have already said everything, they left me with
nothing. Ya, they don't understand there has to be an exchange of
greetings. It makes me laugh every time.
Family I am so jealous of the winter olympics. If I had remembered they
were going on right now I would have delayed by mission. :-) I am very sad.

On Sunday Muskan and Aite gave the opening and closing prayers for sacrament
meeting. They were excellent. Muskan went up to the pulpit (he speaks
hardly any English) and starts by saying, "Hello, I am Muskan, I don't speak
English..." This made many people in the audience (missionaries, kiran, and
branch pres) a little nervous, we thought he was going to continue and give
a talk; we thought maybe he didn't understand that he was supposed to say a
prayer. BUT, he continued "...I don't speak English, so I pray in Nepali"
And off he went. It was a long, long, loooooooong prayer. By the end
nobody was closing their eyes and people were even talking to each other. I
look up while he is "praying" and he is staring at the ceiling, hands at his
sides, just talking. Who knows what he said. I had to cover my mouth and
hunch over in my seat to hide my shaking laughter. It was so funny, to open
my eyes and see him up there staring at the ceiling praying, for about three
minutes.
Other news: Farooq was interviewed for baptism yesterday, he passed. I
knew he would. So unless something drastic happens he will be baptized on
Saturday. After his baptism he wants to change his name to Frank. I
personally like Farooq better but it is pretty common to change your name,
symbolizing the start of a new life. Farooq's son moved here last week and
Farooq wants us to teach him. He also called his daughters in Pakistan
while we were teaching him and had me talk to them on his phone. They were
cute, they didn't really understand anything I said, and I felt like I was
talking really slow. After I gave the phone back to Farooq he wanted me to
tell him how good their English was. He always proudly talks about how well
his kids speak English. I tole him they spoke very very well - even though
they couldn't understand me, he is such a proud father. I am happy his son
is here to see him get baptized.

Mr. Kong is also making wonderful progress. Last week we taught him about
the Word of Wisdom and at first he was doubtful he could follow it. But, we
called him a few days after to see how he was doing and he hasn't touched
the stuff since we taught the lesson. It's been almost two weeks and he is
still going strong. He is amazing. He will be baptized next week and he is
so excited. He tells everyone at church when it is and has even asked
people to give talks - he has been to a few baptisms, he knows how it works.
Remember the fat fish chips he gave us a while ago? He brought us some
again. This time, with Sister Lim, there was slightly a different reaction.
He brought them out of his bag and she screamed ,"I love these!!" Must be
an asian thing.

Prem and Maya are also doing wonderfully! Have I mentioned that they are a
beautiful couple. Prem is so so handsom and Maya is gorgeous. I love them.
In my last letter I mentioned how they weren't quite ready for baptism.
Well this has changed, I knew it would. We taught them on Friday again, and
while we were teaching I was thinking to myself, "how am I going to bring up
baptism again?" Before I thought of a good way to bring it up Prem pipes
up, "so still can baptism end of month yes?" I thought, "awesome". He
wants to be baptized with Maya so we explained that Maya had to committ to
come to church on Sundays before she could be baptized - she had not been
coming. Prem replied, "I hate her job anyway, she will come". It is
wonderful when we have the spouse on our side. So on Sunday sure enough,
Prem and Maya both came. I was so so happy. Prem's English is pretty good
but Maya can't really speak it at all. It is fun to see Prem explain the
concepts we teach to his wife, they eat it right up.

Today on the train to the zoo I met a wonderful lady. We were talking with
some members who came with us and I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned
around and a women asked me, "are you from a church group?" I answered yes.
She asked which one. I told her. She asked if we were missionaries, I said
yes. She told me she wanted to learn more about our church and she wanted
to come to church on Sunday. Whoa. That doesn't happen everyday. How
simple. I gave her our card and pamphlet about the restoration, got her
phone number, and we will be meeting with her later in the week. I talked
to her for the rest of the train ride and then parted ways as we went to the
zoo. I am excited. We'll see how it goes...

Love you fam!
sis v