Dad I didn't know your book was in the stages of being published! that is so exciting. I can't wait to read it.
MYLDSMAIL had a face-lift and is now running through gmail. haleluja. But that means they changed my account on me. It is now jessica.viehweg@myldsmail.net.
This week I celebrated my six month birthday can you believe it. Happy six months to me. Not that I am counting down or anything... whatever, I think every missionary counts down, it can't be helped.
This week has been ok. The exciting news for the week was Mr Kong's baptism. At church the next day the Elder's quorum Pres approached me and demanded to know why everyone was calling him Mr Kong instead of Brother Kong. I hadn't realized that it was kind of weird that we were calling him Mr. That's just what he has insisted on us calling him for the last four months, it will be hard to change that habit. It is weird to think that I met him after only being in Kuala Lumpur for 6 days. I cannot decide if the time has flown by or if it has inched along slowly, both descriptions seem true. Mr Kong has been so easy to get fellowshipped. I wish all of our recent converts had as many friends in the branch as he does. He will talk to anyone for forever. Sometimes it is draining because he talks and talks and taaaaaalks. But, he will approach anyone and instantly he thinks they are good friends. There have been a couple times where we have seen one of our investigators standing apart from everyone else at church or at a baptism and we send Mr Kong over to talk to them. We say, "Mr Kong, that man over there is new go talk to him" and off he goes, with the ability to make conversation for hours. It's great.
I feel like a lot of things have fell through this week. That gets frustrating. We have been teaching this man named Dambar and he has been great. He is from Nepal and is Hindu. He believes everything we teach him and knows it to be true. The problem is he has a wife in Nepal who says if he joins Christainity she wont let him come back. He wants to explain everything to her and he feels once he does she will understand. But she won't listen to him over the phone. So, his plan is to return to Nepal, explain things to his wife, move his family to Kathmandu (where the LDS branch is in Nepal) and be baptized as one big happy family. This is all great but he isn't going back to Nepal until 10 months from now. So far away! But we can't really ask him to be baptized now and ruin his marriage. There doesn't seem to be anything we can do. Dambar doesn't feel the sense of urgency that we missionaries feel. He is ok with coming to church, continueing to learn, and maybe getting baptized next year. He asked us if we could go to Nepal after we are finished in Malaysia to teach his wife and his entire home town. Oh how I would love to. Maybe I will go someday, around age 50-60, with my husband, as a senior couple. Nepal should be open by then :-)
We are kind of trying to find more local people to teach. It has been really draining this past week trying to answer questions like "What about when I go home? The church is 10 hours from my home" or "nobody in my town accepts Christianity"
We are excited about a man named Purna. Yet again, from Nepal. But he is really excited to be baptized. He has wanted to be baptized for a couple months now but had a job where he worked very far away from the church. He just quit his job and came back to KL, he is now living with Nanda. He wants to return to Nepal soon but we want to help him be batpized before he does. He is actually the pastor of a church he set up in Nepal. He asked us if it would be ok if he returns to nepal and teaches his church about The Book of Mormon and has everyone convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. uh ya that shouldn't be a problem purna...
The church isn't really growing rapidly in KL because we baptize so many foreigners and they return to their home countries. I hope they stay active when they go back, I worry that they don't.
This week I have had a pretty nasty cold, (same like you shannon!) Which is crazy because it is so hot outside. I usually only got colds in the winter time, it feels wierd to feel sick like this in the summer. I think what made it bad was yesterday. It rained like nothing i have ever seen yesterday. And we were outside, downtown, caught in the middle of it. The streets were rivers and we were soaked completely. By skirt felt like it weighed fifty pounds. Right after we got all wet we had an appointment to teach a guy and we met him in a mall. The mall was air conditioned so we froze in our wet clothes. That was the first time I really wanted to jump in a hot tub since being in Malaysia. Even though it was still way hot outside I remained cold until we got home that night. Not fun. Now everymorning when the Elders call they accuse me of sleeping during studies because my voice constantly sounds like I just woke up haha.
Hope everything at home is going super. Today we are going out to Chili's because one of the Elders is being transfered. It should be fun, but soooo expensive. American restaurants are crazy expensive. But, it's how he wanted to spend his last p-day so whatev.
Love you guys.
sis v
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